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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cromptons, by Mary J. Holmes
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Cromptons
+
+Author: Mary J. Holmes
+
+Release Date: June 27, 2005 [EBook #16138]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CROMPTONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Ed
+Casulli and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+POPULAR NOVELS
+
+BY
+
+MRS. MARY J. HOLMES.
+
+
+TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE.
+DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHTS.
+ENGLISH ORPHANS.
+HUGH
+WORTHINGTON.
+HOMESTEAD ON HILLSIDE.
+CAMERON PRIDE.
+'LENA RIVERS.
+ROSE MATHER.
+MEADOW BROOK.
+ETHELYN'S MISTAKE.
+DORA DEANE.
+MILBANK.
+COUSIN MAUDE.
+EDNA BROWNING.
+MARIAN GREY.
+WEST LAWN.
+EDITH LYLE.
+MILDRED.
+DAISY THORNTON.
+FOREST HOUSE.
+CHATEAU D'OR.
+MADELINE.
+QUEENIE HETHERTON.
+CHRISTMAS STORIES.
+BESSIE'S FORTUNE.
+GRETCHEN.
+MARGUERITE.
+DR. HATHERN'S DAUGHTERS.
+MRS. HALLAM'S COMPANION.
+PAUL RALSTON.
+THE TRACY DIAMONDS.
+THE CROMPTONS. (_NEW_)
+
+
+
+"Mrs. Holmes is a peculiarly pleasant and fascinating writer. Her books
+are always entertaining, and she has the rare faculty of enlisting the
+sympathy and affections of her readers, and of holding their attention
+to her pages with deep and absorbing interest."
+
+
+Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, $1.00 each, and sent _free_ by mail on
+receipt of price.
+
+G.W. Dillingham Co., Publishers, NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Here by this grave I promise all you ask."--Page 39.]
+
+
+
+The Cromptons
+
+
+BY
+
+MARY J. HOLMES
+
+
+G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY
+PUBLISHERS   NEW YORK
+
+COPYRIGHT 1899, 1901,
+
+By MRS. MARY J. HOLMES.
+
+_All rights reserved._
+
+_The Cromptons. Issued August, 1902._
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+PART I
+
+CHAPTER                                      PAGE
+
+   I. THE STRANGER AT THE BROCK HOUSE           9
+
+  II. THE PALMETTO CLEARING                    20
+
+ III. THE INTERVIEW                            32
+
+  IV. HOPING AND WAITING                       44
+
+   V. MISS DORY                                48
+
+  VI. THE SERVICES                             58
+
+ VII. COL. CROMPTON                            66
+
+VIII. THE CHILD OF THE CLEARING                80
+
+  IX. THE COLONEL AND JAKE                     88
+
+   X. EUDORA                                  102
+
+
+PART II
+
+   I. HOWARD CROMPTON TO JACK HARCOURT        115
+
+  II. JACK HARCOURT TO HOWARD CROMPTON        122
+
+ III. ELOISE                                  127
+
+  IV. THE ACCIDENT                            139
+
+   V. AMY                                     149
+
+  VI. AT MRS. BIGGS'S                         160
+
+ VII. RUBY ANN PATRICK                        178
+
+VIII. MRS. BIGGS'S REMINISCENCES              189
+
+  IX. LETTER FROM REV. CHARLES MASON          199
+
+   X. PART SECOND OF REV. MR. MASON'S LETTER  211
+
+  XI. SUNDAY CALLS                            218
+
+ XII. THE MARCH OF EVENTS                     227
+
+XIII. GETTING READY FOR THE RUMMAGE SALE      242
+
+ XIV. THE FIRST SALE                          256
+
+  XV. AT THE RUMMAGE                          261
+
+ XVI. THE AUCTION                             271
+
+
+PART III
+
+   I. THE BEGINNING OF THE END                285
+
+  II. THE LITTLE RED CLOAK                    294
+
+ III. ELOISE AT THE CROMPTON HOUSE            304
+
+  IV. THE SHADOW OF DEATH                     315
+
+   V. LOOKING FOR A WILL                      323
+
+  VI. IN FLORIDA                              336
+
+ VII. IN THE PALMETTO CLEARING                342
+
+VIII. THE LITTLE HAIR TRUNK                   350
+
+  IX. WHAT HOWARD FOUND                       362
+
+   X. HOWARD'S TEMPTATION                     371
+
+  XI. CONCLUSION                              379
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations:
+
+"Here by this grave I promise all you ask."
+
+
+
+
+THE CROMPTONS
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE STRANGER AT THE BROCK HOUSE
+
+
+The steamer "Hatty" which plied between Jacksonville and Enterprise was
+late, and the people who had come down from the Brock House to the
+landing had waited half an hour before a puff of smoke in the distance
+told that she was coming. There had been many conjectures as to the
+cause of the delay, for she was usually on time, and those who had
+friends on the boat were growing nervous, fearing an accident, and all
+were getting tired, when she appeared in the distance, the puffs of
+smoke increasing in volume as she drew nearer, and the sound of her
+whistle echoing across the water, which at Enterprise spreads out into a
+lake. She had not met with an accident, but had been detained at Palatka
+waiting for a passenger of whom the captain had been apprised.
+
+"He may be a trifle late, but if he is, wait. He must take your boat,"
+Tom Hardy had said to the captain when engaging passage for his friend,
+and Tom Hardy was not one whose wishes were often disregarded. "Them
+Hardys does more business with me in one year than ten other families
+and I can't go agin Tom, and if he says wait for his friend, why,
+there's nothing to do but wait," the captain said, as he walked up and
+down in front of his boat, growing more and more impatient, until at
+last as he was beginning to swear he'd wait no longer for all the Hardys
+in Christendom, two men came slowly towards the landing, talking
+earnestly and not seeming to be in the least hurry, although the "Hatty"
+began to scream herself hoarse as if frantic to be gone.
+
+"How d'ye, Cap," Tom said, in his easy, off-hand way. "Hope we haven't
+kept you long. This is my friend I told you about. I suppose his berth
+is ready?"
+
+He did not tell the name of his friend, who, as if loath to cross the
+plank, held back for a few more words. Tom gave him a little push at
+last, and said, "Good-bye, you really must go. Success to you, but don't
+for a moment think of carrying out that quixotic plan you first
+mentioned. Better jump into the river. Good-bye!"
+
+The plank was crossed and pulled in, and a mulatto boy came forward to
+take the stranger's bag and pilot him to his stateroom, which opened
+from what was called the ladies' parlor. Coiled up in a corner on the
+deck was a bundle of something which stirred as they came near to it,
+and began to turn over, making the stranger start with a slight
+exclamation.
+
+"Doan you be skeert, sar," the boy said, "dat's nottin' but Mandy Ann,
+an onery nigger what b'longs to ole Miss Harris in de clarin' up ter
+Ent'prise. She's been hired out a spell in Jacksonville,--nuss to a
+little gal, and now she's gwine home. Miss Dory done sent for her,
+'case Jake is gone and ole Miss is wus,--never was very peart," and
+turning to the girl the boy Ted continued: "You Mandy Ann, doan you know
+more manners not to skeer a gemman, rollin' round like a punkin? Get
+back wid yer."
+
+He spurned the bundle with his foot, while the stranger stopped
+suddenly, as if a blow had been struck him.
+
+"Who did you say she was? To whom does she belong, I mean?" he asked,
+and the boy replied, "Mandy Ann, a no count nigger, b'longs to Miss
+Harris. Poor white trash! Crackers! Dis your stateroom, sar. Kin I do
+somethin' for you?"
+
+The boy's head was held high, indicative of his opinion of poor white
+trash and Crackers in general, and Mandy Ann in particular.
+
+"No, thanks," the stranger said, taking his bag and shutting himself
+into his stuffy little stateroom.
+
+"'Specs he's from de Norf; looks like it, an' dey allus askin' who we
+'longs to. In course we 'longs to somebody. We has ter," Ted thought, as
+he made his way back to Mandy Ann, who was wide-awake and ready for any
+war of words which might come up between herself and Ted, "who felt
+mighty smart 'case he was cabin boy on de 'Hatty.'"
+
+As Ted suspected, the stranger was of Northern birth, which showed
+itself in his accent and cold, proud bearing. He might have been thirty,
+and he might have been more. His face did not show his age. His features
+were regular, and his complexion pale as a woman's. His eyes were a
+cross between blue and gray, with a look in them which made you feel
+that they were reading your inmost secrets, and you involuntarily turned
+away when they were fixed upon you. On this occasion he seemed colder
+and prouder than usual, as he seated himself upon the stool in his
+stateroom and looked about him,--not at any thing that was there, for he
+did not see it, or think how small and uncomfortable his quarters were,
+although recommended as one of the staterooms _de luxe_ on the boat. His
+thoughts were outside, first on Mandy Ann,--not because of anything
+about her personally. He had seen nothing except a woolly head, a dark
+blue dress, and two black, bare feet and ankles, but because she was
+Mandy Ann, bound slave of "ole Miss Harris, who lived in de clarin',"
+and for that reason she connected him with something from which he
+shrank with an indescribable loathing. At last he concluded to try the
+narrow berth, but finding it too hard and too short went out upon the
+rear deck, and taking a chair where he would be most out of the way and
+screened from observation, he sat until the moon went down behind a
+clump of palms, and the stars paled in the light of the sun which shone
+down upon the beautiful river and the tangled mass of shrubbery and
+undergrowth on either side of it.
+
+At last the passengers began to appear one by one, with their cheery how
+dye's and good mornings, and curious glances at this stranger in their
+midst, who, although with them, did not seem to be one of them. They
+were all Southerners and inclined to be friendly, but nothing in the
+stranger's attitude invited sociability. He was looking off upon the
+water in the direction from which they had come, and never turned his
+head in response to the loud shouts, when an alligator was seen lying
+upon the shore, or a big turtle was sunning itself on a log. He was a
+Northerner, they knew from his general make-up, and a friend of Tom
+Hardy, the captain said, when questioned with regard to him. This last
+was sufficient to atone for any proclivities he might have antagonistic
+to the South. Tom Hardy, although living in Georgia, was well known in
+Florida. To be his friend was to be somebody; and two or three attempts
+at conversation were made in the course of the morning. One man, bolder
+than the rest, told him it was a fine day and a fine trip, but that the
+"Hatty" was getting a little too _passée_ for real comfort. At the word
+_passée_ the stranger looked up with something like interest, and
+admitted that the boat was _passée_, and the day fine, and the trip,
+too. A cigar was next offered, but politely declined, and then the
+attempt at an acquaintance ceased on the part of the first to make it.
+Later on an old Georgian planter, garrulous and good-humored, swore he'd
+find out what stuff the Yankee was made of, and why he was down there
+where few of his kind ever came. His first move was the offer of
+tobacco, with the words: "How d'ye, sir? Have a chew?"
+
+The stranger's head went up a little higher than its wont, and the proud
+look on the pale face deepened as he declined the tobacco civilly, as he
+had the cigar.
+
+"Wall, now, don't chew tobacky? You lose a good deal. I couldn't live
+without it. Sorter soothin', an' keeps my jaws goin', and when I'm so
+full of vim,--mad, you know,--that I'm fit to bust, why, I spit and
+spit,--backy juice in course,--till I spit it all out," the Georgian
+said, taking an immense chew, and sitting down by the stranger, who gave
+no sign that he knew of his proximity, but still kept his eyes on the
+river as if absorbed in the scenery.
+
+The Georgian was not to be easily rebuffed. Crossing his legs and
+planting his big hat on his knees, he went on:
+
+"You are from the North, I calculate?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I thought so. We can mostly tell 'em. From Boston, I reckon?"
+
+"No."
+
+"New York, mabby? No? Chicago? No? Wall, where in--" the Georgian
+stopped, checked by a look in the bluish-gray eyes which seldom failed
+in its effect.
+
+Evidently the stranger didn't choose to tell where he lived, but the
+Georgian, though somewhat subdued, was not wholly silenced, and he
+continued: "Ever in Florida before?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Wall, I s'pose you're takin' a little pleasure trip like the rest of
+us?"
+
+To this there was no response, the stranger thinking with bitterness
+that his trip was anything but one of pleasure. There was still one
+chord left to pull and that was Tom Hardy, who in a way was voucher for
+this interloper, and the Georgian's next question was: "Do you know Tom
+well?"
+
+"Do you mean, Mr. Hardy?" the stranger asked, and the Georgian replied.
+"In course, but I allus calls him Tom. Have known him since he wore
+gowns. My plantation jines old man Hardy's."
+
+There was no doubt, now, that the stranger was interested, and had his
+companion been a close observer he would have seen the kindling light in
+his eyes, and the spots of red beginning to show on his face. Whether to
+talk or not was a question in his mind. Cowardice prompted him to remain
+silent, and something which defied silence prompted him at last to
+talk.
+
+"I was with Mr. Thomas Hardy in college," he said, "and I have visited
+him in his home. He is my best friend."
+
+"To-be-sure!" the Georgian said, hitching nearer to the stranger, as if
+there was a bond of relationship between them.
+
+The man had given no inkling of the date of his visit, and as it was
+some years since Tom was graduated the Georgian did not dream of
+associating the visit with a few weeks before, when he had heard that a
+high buck was at old man Hardy's and with Tom was painting the
+neighborhood red and scandalizing some of the more sober citizens with
+his excesses. This quiet stranger with the proud face and hard eyes
+never helped paint anything. It was somebody else, whose name he had
+forgotten, but of whom he went on to speak in not very complimentary
+terms.
+
+"A high buck, I never happened to see squar in the face," he said. "Had
+glimpses of him in the distance ridin' ole man Hardy's sorrel, like he
+was crazy, and oncet reelin' in the saddle. Yes, sar, _reelin'_, as if
+he'd took too much. I b'lieve in a drink when you are dry, but Lord
+land, whar's the sense of _reelin'_? I don't see it, do you?"
+
+The stranger said he didn't and the Georgian went on, now in a lower,
+confidential voice.
+
+"I actually hearn that this chap,--what the deuce was his name? Have you
+an idee? He was from the North?"
+
+If the stranger had an _idee_ he didn't give it, and the Georgian
+continued: "These two young chaps--Tom ain't right young though, same
+age as you, I reckon--called on some Cracker girls back in the woods and
+the Northern feller staid thar two or three days. Think of it--Cracker
+girls! Now, if'ted been niggers, instead of Crackers!"
+
+"Ugh!" the stranger exclaimed, wakened into something like life. "Don't
+talk any more about that man! He must have been a sneak and villain and
+a low-lived dog, and if there is any meaner name you can give him, do
+so. It will fit him well, and please me."
+
+"Call him a Cracker, but a Florida one. Georgy is mostly better--not up
+to so much snuff, you know," the Georgian suggested, while the
+Northerner drew a quick breath and thought of Mandy Ann, and wondered
+where she was and if he should see her again.
+
+He felt as if there was not a dry thread in one of his garments when his
+companion left him, and returning to his friends reported that he hadn't
+made much out of the chap. He wasn't from New York, nor Boston, nor
+Chicago, and "I don't know where in thunder he is from, nor his name
+nuther. I forgot to ask it, he was so stiff and offish. He was in
+college with Tom Hardy and visited him years ago; that's all I know,"
+the planter said, and after that the stranger was left mostly to
+himself, while the passengers busied themselves with gossip, and the
+scenery, and trying to keep cool.
+
+The day was hot and grew hotter as the sun rose higher in the heavens,
+and the stranger felt very uncomfortable, but it was not the heat which
+affected him as much as the terrible network of circumstances which he
+had woven for himself. It was the harvest he was reaping as the result
+of one false step, when his brain was blurred and he was somebody
+besides the elegant gentleman whom people felt it an honor to know. He
+was himself now, crushed inwardly, but carrying himself just as proudly
+as if no mental fire were consuming him, making him think seriously more
+than once of jumping into the river and ending it all. He was very
+luxurious and fastidious in his tastes, and would have nothing unseemly
+in his home at the North, where he had only to say to his servants come
+and they came, and where, if he died on his rosewood bedstead with
+silken hangings, they would make him a grand funeral--smother him with
+flowers, and perhaps photograph him as he lay in state. Here, if he
+ended his life, in the river, with alligators and turtles, he would be
+fished up a sorry spectacle, and laid upon the deck with weeds and ferns
+clinging to him, and no one knowing who he was till they sent for Tom
+Hardy at that moment hurrying back to his home in Georgia, from which he
+had come at the earnest request of his friend. He did not like the looks
+of himself bedraggled and wet, and dead, on the deck of the "Hatty,"
+with that curious crowd looking at him, Mandy Ann with the rest. Strange
+that thoughts of Mandy Ann should flit through his mind as he decided
+against the cold bath in the St. John's and _to face_ it, whatever it
+was. Occasionally some one spoke to him, and he always answered
+politely, and once offered his chair to a lady who seemed to be looking
+for one. But she declined it, and he was again left alone. Once he went
+to the other end of the boat for a little exercise and change, he said
+to himself, but really for a chance of seeing Mandy Ann, who of all the
+passengers interested him the most. But Mandy Ann was not in sight, nor
+did he see her again till the boat was moving slowly up to the wharf at
+Enterprise, and with her braided tags of hair standing up like little
+horns, and her worldly goods tied up in a cotton handkerchief, she stood
+respectfully behind the waiting crowd, each eager to be the first to
+land.
+
+The Brock House was full--"not so much as a cot or a shelf for one
+more," the clerk said to the stranger, who was last at the desk. He had
+lingered behind the others to watch Mandy Ann, with a half-formed
+resolution to ask her to direct him to "ole Miss Harrises" if, as Ted
+had said, she was going there. Mandy Ann did not seem to be in any hurry
+and sauntered leisurely up the lane a little beyond the Brock House,
+where she sat down and stretching out her bare feet began to suck an
+orange Ted had given her at parting, telling her that though she was "an
+onery nigger who belonged to a Cracker, she had rather far eyes and a
+mouth that couldn't be beat for sass, adding that he reckoned that thar
+tall man who didn't speak to nobody might be wantin' to buy her, as he
+had done ast him oncet how far it was to the clarin', an' he couldn't
+want nobody thar but her." Mandy Ann had taken the orange, but had
+spurned what Ted had said of the tall man's intentions. She had been
+told too many times, during her brief stay in Jacksonville as a nurse
+girl, that she was of no manner of account to believe any one wished to
+buy her, and she paid no attention to the tall man, except to see that
+he was the last to enter the hotel, where he was told there was no room
+for him.
+
+"But I must have a place to sleep," he said. "It is only for the night.
+I return on the 'Hatty.'"
+
+"Why not stay on her then? Some do who only come up for the trip," was
+the clerk's reply.
+
+This was not a bad idea, although the stranger shuddered as he thought
+of his ill-smelling stateroom and short berth. Still it was better than
+camping out doors, or--the clearing--where he might be accommodated. He
+shuddered again when he thought of that possibility--thanked the clerk
+for his suggestion--and declined the book which had been pushed towards
+him for his name. No use to register if he was not to be a guest; no use
+to tell his name anyway, if he could avoid it, as he had successfully on
+the boat, and with a polite good-evening he stepped outside just as
+Mandy Ann, having finished her orange, peel and all, gathered herself up
+with a view to starting for home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE PALMETTO CLEARING
+
+
+The stranger had asked Ted on the boat, when he came with some lemonade
+he had ordered, how far it was from the Brock House to the palmetto
+clearing, and if there was any conveyance to take him there. Ted had
+stared at him with wonder--first, as to what such as he could want at
+the clearing, and second, if he was crazy enough to think there was a
+conveyance. From being a petted cabin boy, Ted had grown to be something
+of a spoiled one, and was what the passengers thought rather too "peart"
+in his ways, while some of the crew insisted that he needed "takin' down
+a button hole lower," whatever that might mean.
+
+"Bless yer soul, Mas'r," he said, in reply to the question. "Thar ain't
+no conveyance to the clarin'. It's off in de woods a piece, right smart.
+You sticks to de road a spell, till you comes to a grave--what used to
+be--but it's done sunk in now till nuffin's thar but de stun an' some
+blackb'ry bushes clamberin' over it. Then you turns inter de wust piece
+of road in Floridy, and turns agin whar some yaller jasmine is growin',
+an fore long you're dar."
+
+The direction was not very lucid, and the stranger thought of asking the
+clerk for something more minute, but the surprise in Ted's eyes when he
+inquired the way to the clearing had put him on his guard against a
+greater surprise in the clerk. He would find his way somehow, and he
+went out into the yard and looked in the direction of the sandy road
+which led into the woods and which Mandy Ann was taking, presumably on
+her way home. A second time the thought came to him that she might
+direct him, and he started rather rapidly after her, calling as he went:
+"I say girl, I want you. Do you hear?"
+
+Mandy Ann heard, gave one glance over her shoulder, saw who was
+following her, and began at once to run, her bare feet and ankles
+throwing up the sand, and her sunbonnet falling from her head down her
+back, where it flapped from side to side as she ran. She remembered what
+Ted had said of the stranger, who might be thinking of buying her; this
+was possible after all, as he had said he wanted her, and though her
+home in the clearing was not one of luxury, it was one of ease and
+indolence, and she had no desire for a new one--certainly not with this
+man whose face did not attract her. Just why she ran, she did not know.
+It was of no use to appeal to _ole missus_, who would not know whether
+she belonged to her or some one else. Miss Dory was her only hope. With
+promises of future good behavior and abstinence from pilfering and
+lying, and badness generally, she might enlist her sympathy and
+protection till Jake came home, when all would be right. So she sped on
+like a deer, glancing back occasionally to see the stranger following
+her with rapid strides which, however, did not avail to overtake her.
+The afternoon was very warm--the road sandy and uneven--and he soon gave
+up the chase, wondering why the girl ran so fast, as if afraid of him.
+The last sight he had of her was of her woolly head, turning off from
+the road to the right, where it disappeared behind some thick
+undergrowth. Ted had said, "Turn at the grave," and he walked on till he
+reached the spot, and stood by the low railing enclosing a sunken grave,
+whether of man or woman he could not tell, the lettering on the
+discolored stone was so obscure. Studying it very carefully, he thought
+he made out "Mrs." before the moss-blurred name.
+
+"A woman," he said, with a feeling how terrible it must be to be buried
+and left alone in that dreary, sandy waste, with no human habitation
+nearer than the Brock House, and no sound of life passing by, except
+from the same place, unless--and he started, as he noticed for the first
+time what Ted had said was the worst road in Florida, and what was
+scarcely more than a footpath leading off to the right, and to the
+clearing, of course--and he must follow it past tangled weeds and
+shrubs, and briers, and dwarf palmettoes, stumps of which impeded his
+progress.
+
+Mandy Ann had entirely disappeared, but here and there in the sand he
+saw her footprints, the toes spread wide apart, and knew he was right.
+Suddenly there came a diversion, and he leaned against a tree and
+breathed hard and fast, as one does when a shock comes unexpectedly. His
+ear had caught the sound of voices at no great distance from him. A
+negro's voice--Mandy Ann's, he was sure--eager, excited, and pleading;
+and another, soft and low, and reassuring, but wringing the sweat from
+him in great drops, and making his heart beat rapidly. He knew who was
+with Mandy Ann, and that she, too, was hurrying on to the clearing,
+still in the distance. Had there been any doubt of her identity, it
+would have been swept away when, through an opening in the trees, he
+caught sight of a slender girlish figure, clad in the homely garments of
+what Ted called poorwhite trash, and of which he had some knowledge.
+There was, however, a certain grace in the movements of the girl which
+moved him a little, for he was not blind to any point of beauty in a
+woman, and the beauty of this girl, hurrying on so fast, had been his
+ruin, as he in one sense had been hers.
+
+"Eudora!" he said, with a groan, and with a half resolve to turn back
+rather than go on.
+
+Tom Hardy in their talk while the boat waited for them at Palatka, had
+told him what _not_ to do, and he was there to follow Tom's
+advice--though, to do him justice, there was a thought in his heart that
+possibly he might do what he knew he ought to do, in spite of Tom.
+
+"I'll wait and see, and if--" he said at last, as he began to pick his
+way over the palmetto stumps and ridges of sand till he came upon the
+clearing.
+
+It was an open space of two or three acres, cleared from tanglewood and
+dwarf palmettoes. In the centre was a log-house, larger and more
+pretentious than many log-houses which he had seen in the South. A
+Marshal Niel had climbed up one corner to the roof, and twined itself
+around the chimney, giving a rather picturesque effect to the house, and
+reminding the stranger of some of the cabins he had seen in Ireland,
+with ivy growing over them. There was an attempt at a flower garden
+where many roses were blooming. Some one was fond of flowers, and the
+thought gave the stranger a grain of comfort, for a love of flowers was
+associated in his mind with an innate refinement in the lover, and there
+was for a moment a tinge of brightness in the darkness settling upon
+his future. Around the house there was no sign of life or stir, except a
+brood of well-grown chickens, which, with their mother, were huddled on
+the door step, evidently contemplating an entrance into the house, the
+door of which was open, as were the shutters to the windows, which were
+minus glass, as was the fashion of many old Florida houses in the days
+before the Civil War. With a shoo to the chickens, which sent some into
+the house and others flying into the yard, the stranger stepped to the
+door and knocked, once very gently, then more decidedly--then, as there
+came no response, he ventured in, and driving out the chickens, one of
+which had mounted upon a table and was pecking at a few crumbs of bread
+left there, he sat down and looked about him. In the loft which could
+hardly be dignified with the name chamber, he heard a low murmur of
+voices, and the sound of footsteps moving rapidly, as if some one were
+in a hurry. The room in which he sat was evidently living and
+dining-room both, and was destitute of everything which he deemed
+necessary to comfort. He had been in a Cracker's house before, and it
+seemed to him now that his heart turned over when he recalled his visits
+there, and his utter disregard of his surroundings.
+
+"I was a fool, and blind, then; but I can see now," he said to himself,
+as he looked around at the marks of poverty, or shiftlessness, or both,
+and contrasted them with his home in the North.
+
+The floor was bare, with the exception of a mat laid before the door
+leading into another and larger room, before one of the windows of which
+a white curtain was gently blowing in the wind. A rough, uncovered table
+pushed against the wall, three or four chairs, and a hair-cloth settee
+completed the furniture, with the exception of a low rocking-chair, in
+which sat huddled and wrapped in a shawl a little old woman whose
+yellow, wrinkled face told of the snuff habit, and bore a strong
+resemblance to a mummy, except that the woman wore a cap with a fluted
+frill, and moved her head up and down like Christmas toys of old men and
+women. She was evidently asleep, as she gave no sign of consciousness
+that any one was there.
+
+"Old Miss," the stranger said, and his breath again came gaspingly, and
+Tom Hardy's advice looked more and more reasonable, while he cursed
+himself for the fool he had been, and would have given all he was worth,
+and even half his life, to be rid of this thing weighing him down like a
+nightmare from which he could not awaken.
+
+He was roused at last by the sound of bare feet on the stairs in a
+corner of the room. Some one was coming, and in a moment Mandy Ann stood
+before him, her eyes shining, and her teeth showing white against the
+ebony of her skin. In her rush through the woods Mandy Ann had come upon
+her young mistress looking for the few berries which grew upon the
+tangled bushes.
+
+"Miss Dory, Miss Dory!" she exclaimed, clutching the girl's arm with
+such force that the pail fell to the ground and the berries were
+spilled, "you ain't gwine for ter sell me to nobody? Say you ain't, an'
+fo' de Lawd I'll never touch nothin', nor lie, nor sass ole Miss, nor
+make faces and mumble like she does. I'll be a fust cut nigger, an' say
+my prars ebery night. I'se done got a new one down ter Jacksonville. Say
+you ain't."
+
+In her surprise Miss Dory did not at first speak; then, shaking Mandy
+Ann's hand from her arm and pushing back her sunbonnet she said: "What
+do you mean, and where did you come from? The 'Hatty,' I s'pose, but she
+must be late. I'd given you up. Who's gwine ter buy yer?"
+
+"Ted done tole me mabby de man on de boat from de Norf, what got on ter
+Palatka, an' done as't the way hyar, might be after me--an'--"
+
+She got no further, for her own arm was now clutched as her mistress's
+had been, while Miss Dory asked, "What man? How did he look? Whar is
+he?" and her eyes, shining with expectancy, looked eagerly around.
+
+Very rapidly Mandy Ann told all she knew of the stranger, while the
+girl's face grew radiant as she listened. "An' he done holler and say
+how he want me an' follered me, an' when I turn off at the grave he was
+still follerin' me. He's comin' hyar. You won't sell me, shoo'," Mandy
+Ann said, and her mistress replied, "Sell you? No. It was one of Ted's
+lies. He is my friend. He's comin' to see me. Hurry!"
+
+Eudora was racing now through the briers, and weeds, and palmetto
+stumps, and dragging Mandy Ann with her.
+
+"Never mind granny," she said, when they reached the house and Mandy
+stopped to say how d'ye to the old woman in the chair. "Come upstairs
+with me and help me change my gown."
+
+"Faw de Lawd's sake, is he yer beau?" Mandy Ann asked, as she saw the
+excitement of her mistress, who was tearing around the room, now
+laughing, now dashing the tears away and giving the most contradicting
+orders as to what she was to wear and Mandy Ann was to get for her.
+
+They heard the two knocks and knew that some one had entered the house,
+but Mandy Ann was too busy blacking a pair of boots to go at once, as
+she had her hands to wash, and yet, although it seemed to him an age, it
+was scarcely two minutes before she came down the stairs, nimble as a
+cat, and bobbed before him with a courtesy nearly to the floor. Her
+mistress had said to her. "Mind your manners. You say you have learned a
+heap in Jacksonville."
+
+"To be shoo'. I've seen de quality thar in Miss Perkins's house," Mandy
+Ann replied, and hence the courtesy she thought rather fetching,
+although she shook a little as she confronted the stranger, whose
+features never relaxed in the least, and who did not answer her. "How
+d'ye, Mas'r," which she felt it incumbent to say, as there was no one
+else to receive him.
+
+Mandy Ann was very bright, and as she knew no restraint in her Florida
+home, when alone with her old Miss and young Miss, she was apt to be
+rather familiar for a negro slave, and a little inclined to humor. She
+knew whom the gentleman had come to see, but when he said. "Is your
+mistress at home?" she turned at once to the piece of parchment in the
+rocking-chair and replied. "To be shoo. Dar she is in de char over dar.
+Dat's ole Miss Lucy."
+
+Going up to the chair, she screamed in the woman's ear, "Wake up, Miss
+Lucy. I'se done comed home an' thar's a gemman to see you? Wake up!"
+
+She shook the bundle of shawls vigorously, until the old lady was
+thoroughly roused and glared at her with her dark, beady eyes, while she
+mumbled, "You hyar, shakin' me so, you limb. You, Mandy Ann! Whar did
+you come from?"
+
+"Jacksonville, in course. Whar'd you think? An' hyar's a gemman come to
+see you, I tell you. Wake up an' say how d'ye."
+
+"Whar is he?" the old woman asked, beginning to show some interest,
+while the stranger arose and coming forward said, "Excuse me, madam. It
+is the young lady I wish to see--your daughter."
+
+"She hain't her mother. She's her granny," Mandy Ann chimed in with a
+good deal of contempt in her voice, as she nodded to the figure in the
+chair, who, with some semblance of what she once was, put out a skinny
+hand and said, "I'm very pleased to see you. Call Dory. She'll know what
+to do."
+
+This last to Mandy Ann, who flirted away from her and said to the
+stranger, "She hain't no sense mostly--some days more, some days
+littler, an' to-day she's littler. You wants to see Miss Dory? She's
+upstars changin' her gown, 'case she knows you're hyar. I done tole her,
+an' her face lit right up like de sun shinin' in de mawnin'. Will you
+gim me your caird?"
+
+This was Mandy Ann's master-stroke at good manners. She had seen such
+things at "Miss Perkins's" in Jacksonville, and had once or twice taken
+a card on a silver tray to that lady, and why not bring the fashion to
+her own home, if it were only a log-cabin, and she a bare-foot,
+bare-legged waitress, instead of Mrs. Perkins's maid Rachel, smart in
+slippers and cap, and white apron. For a moment the stranger's face
+relaxed into a broad smile at the ludicrousness of the situation. Mandy
+Ann, who was quick of comprehension, understood the smile and hastened
+to explain.
+
+"I done larn't a heap of things at Miss Perkins's, which we can't do
+hyar, 'case of ole Miss bein' so quar. Miss Dory'd like 'em right well."
+
+"Certainly," the stranger said, beginning to have a good deal of respect
+for the poor slave girl trying to keep up the dignity of her family.
+
+Taking a card from his case he handed it to Mandy Ann, who looked at it
+carefully as if reading the name, although she held it wrong side up.
+There was no silver tray to take it on--there was no tray at all--but
+there was a china plate kept as an ornament on a shelf, and on this
+Mandy Ann placed the card, and then darted up the stairs, finding her
+mistress nearly dressed, and waiting for her.
+
+"Oh, his card? He gave it to you?" Eudora said, flushing with pleasure
+that he had paid her this compliment, and pressing her lips to the name
+when Mandy Ann did not see her.
+
+"In course he done gin it to me. Dat's de way wid de quality both Souf
+and Norf. We livin' hyar in de clarin' doan know noffin'." Mandy Ann
+replied.
+
+On the strength of her three months sojourn with Mrs. Perkins, who was
+undeniably quality, she felt herself capable of teaching many things to
+her young mistress, who had seldom repressed her, and who now made no
+answer except to ask, "How do I look?"
+
+She had hesitated a moment as to the dress she would wear in place of
+the one discarded. She had very few to select from, and finally took
+down a white gown sacred to her, because of the one occasion on which
+she had worn it. It was a coarse muslin, but made rather prettily with
+satin bows on the sleeves, and shoulders, and neck. Several times,
+since she had hung it on a peg under a sheet to keep it from getting
+soiled, she had looked at it and stroked it, wondering if she would ever
+wear it again. Now she took it down and smoothed the bows of ribbon, and
+brushed a speck from the skirt, while there came to her eyes a rush of
+glad tears as she put it on, with a thought that he would like her in
+it, and then tried to see its effect in the little eight by twelve
+cracked glass upon the wall. All she could see was her head and
+shoulders, and so she asked the opinion of Mandy Ann, who answered
+quickly, "You done look beautiful--some like de young ladies in
+Jacksonville, and some like you was gwine to be married."
+
+"Perhaps I am," Eudora replied, with a joyous ring in her voice. "Would
+you like to have me get married?"
+
+Mandy Ann hesitated a moment and then said, "I'se promised never to tole
+you no mo' lies, so dis is de truffe, ef I was to drap dead. I'd like
+you to marry some de gemmans in Jacksonville, or some dem who comes to
+de Brock House, but not him downstars!"
+
+"Why not?" Eudora asked, and there was a little sharpness in her voice.
+
+"'Case," Mandy Ann began, "you as't me, an' fo' de Lawd I mus' tell de
+truffe. He's very tall an' gran', an' w'ars fine close, an' han's is
+white as a cotton bat, but his eyes doan set right in his head. They
+look hard, an' not a bit smilin', an' he looks proud as ef he thought we
+was dirt, an' dem white han's--I do' know, but pears like they'd squeeze
+body an' soul till you done cry wid pain. Doan you go for to marry him,
+Miss Dory, will you?"
+
+At first Mandy Ann had opened and shut her black fingers, as she showed
+how the stranger's white hands would squeeze one's body and soul; then
+they closed round her mistress's arm as she said, "Doan you marry him,
+Miss Dory, will you?"
+
+"No," Eudora answered, "don't be a silly, but go down and bring me a
+rose, if you can find one two-thirds open. I wore one with this dress
+before and he liked it, and as't me to give it to him. Mebby he will
+now," she thought, while waiting for Mandy Ann, who soon came back with
+a beautiful rose hidden under her apron.
+
+"Strues I'm bawn, I b'lieve he's done gone to sleep like ole Miss--he's
+settin' thar so still," she said.
+
+But he was far from being asleep. He had gone over again and again with
+everything within his range of vision, from the old woman nodding in her
+chair, to the bucket of water standing outside the door, with a gourd
+swimming on the top, and he was wondering at the delay, and feeling more
+and more that he should take Tom Hardy's advice, when he heard steps on
+the stairs, which he knew were not Mandy Ann's, and he rose to meet
+Eudora.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE INTERVIEW
+
+
+She was a short, slender little girl, not more than sixteen or
+seventeen, with a sweet face and soft brown eyes which drooped as she
+came forward, and then looked at him shyly through a mist of tears which
+she bravely kept back.
+
+"How d'ye. I'm so glad to see you," she said, looking up at him with
+quivering lips which were so unquestionably asking for a kiss that he
+gave it, while her face beamed with delight at the caress, and she did
+not mind how cold, and stiff, and reserved he grew the next moment.
+
+He did not like her "How d'ye," although he knew how common a salutation
+it was at the South. It savored of Mandy Ann, and her accent was like
+Mandy Ann's, and her white dress instead of pleasing him filled him with
+disgust for himself, as he remembered when he first saw it and thought
+it fine. She had worn a rose then, and he had asked her for it, and put
+it in his pocket, like an insane idiot, Tom had said. She wore a rose
+now, but he didn't ask her for it, and he dropped her hand almost as
+soon as he took it, and called himself a brute when he saw the color
+come and go in her face, and how she trembled as she sat beside him. He
+knew she was pretty, and graceful, and modest, and that she loved him
+as no other woman ever would, but she was untrained, and uneducated, and
+unused to the world--his world, which would scan her with cold,
+wondering eyes. He couldn't do it, and he wouldn't--certainly, not yet.
+He would wait and see what came of his plan which he must unfold, and
+tell her why he had come. But not there where the old woman might hear
+and understand, and where he felt sure Mandy Ann was listening. She had
+stolen down the stairs and gone ostensibly to meet a woman whom Eudora
+called Sonsie, and who, she said, came every day to do the work now Jake
+was away.
+
+"Who is Jake?" the man asked, and Eudora replied, "The negro who has
+taken care of us since I can remember. He is free, but does for us, and
+is in Richmond now, valleying for a gentleman who pays him big wage, and
+he spends it all for us."
+
+The stranger flushed at her words indicative of her station, and then
+suggested that they go outside where they could be sure of being alone,
+as he had much to say to her.
+
+"Perhaps you will walk part way with me on my return to the 'Hatty,'" he
+said, glancing at his watch and feeling surprised to find how late it
+was.
+
+Instantly Eudora, who had seemed so listless, woke up with all the
+hospitality of her Southern nature roused to action. "Surely you'll have
+supper with me," she said. "Sonsie is here to get it and will have it
+directly."
+
+There was no good reason for refusing, although he revolted against
+taking supper in that humble cabin, with possibly that old woman at the
+table; but he swallowed his pride and, signifying his assent, went
+outside, where they came upon Mandy Ann in a crouching attitude under
+the open casement. She was listening, of course, but sprang to her feet
+as the two appeared, and said in response to her mistress's "What are
+you doing here?" "Nothin', Miss Dory, fo' de Lawd, nothing, but huntin'
+on de groun' for somethin' what done drap out de windy upstars."
+
+The stranger knew she was lying, and Eudora knew it, but said nothing
+except to bid the girl get up and assist Sonsie with the supper. Mandy
+Ann had once said of her mistress to Jake, "She hain't no sperrit to
+spar," and Jake had replied, "Lucky for you, Mandy Ann, that she hain't
+no sperrit, for ef she had she'd of done pulled every har out of your
+head afore now."
+
+Mandy Ann knew that neither her hair, nor any part of her person, was in
+danger from her young mistress, and after a few more scratches in the
+dirt after an imaginary lost article, she arose and joined Sonsie, to
+whom Eudora gave a few instructions, and then with her guest walked
+across the clearing to a bench which Jake had made for her, and which
+was partially sheltered by a tall palm. Here they sat down while he
+unfolded his plan, plainly and concisely, and leaving no chance for
+opposition, had the crushed, quivering creature at his side felt
+inclined to make it. As Mandy Ann had said she hadn't much spirit, and
+what little she had was slain as she listened, while her face grew white
+as her dress, and her hands were linked together on her lap. The sun had
+just gone down, and the full moon was rising and throwing its light upon
+the clearing and the girl, whose face and attitude touched her
+companion, cold and hard as he was, but he must carry his point.
+
+"You see it is for the best and you promise; you will remember," he
+said, taking one of her hands and wondering to find it so cold.
+
+"Yes, oh, yes," she replied, every word a gasp. "I thought--I hoped--you
+had done come to take,--or to stay--not here, but somewhar--but I see
+you can't. You know best. I ain't fittin' to go yet, but I'll try, and I
+promise all you ask; but don't let it be long. The days are so lonesome
+since I come home, and things seem different since I knew you; but I
+promise, and will remember and do my best."
+
+Half his burden rolled away. He could be very kind now, for he knew he
+could trust her to the death, and putting his arm around her, he drew
+her close to him and said, "You are a good girl, Eudora. I shall not
+forget it; but why do you tremble so? Are you cold?"
+
+"Yes--no," she answered, nestling so close to him that the rose in her
+dress was loosened and fell to the ground.
+
+He picked it up, but did not put it in his pocket as a keepsake. He gave
+it back to her, and she fastened it again to her dress, saying, "I do'
+know why I shake, only it seems's if somethin' had died that I hoped
+for. But it is all right, becase you care for me. You love me."
+
+She lifted up her face on which the moonlight fell, making a picture the
+man never forgot to the last day of his life. He did not tell her he
+loved her, he could not; but for answer he stooped and kissed her, and
+she--poor, simple girl--was satisfied.
+
+"If I could tell Jake, it would be some comfort," she said at last,
+timidly, and her companion answered quickly. "Tell Jake! Never! You must
+not be too familiar with your servants."
+
+"Jake is more than a servant. He is everything to me," the girl
+answered, with rising spirit. "He would die for me, and if anything
+happened to me and you did not come, I think he would kill you."
+
+There was something of Southern fire in her eyes as she said this, which
+made the stranger laugh as he replied, "Nothing will happen, and I'm not
+afraid of Jake."
+
+In his heart he was glad the negro was not there, for something warned
+him that in the poor black man he might find a formidable obstacle to
+his plan. Meanwhile in the house Mandy Ann had been busy with the
+supper-table. They ought to have a good deal of light, she thought,
+remembering the lamps at Mrs. Perkins's, and as there were only two
+candlesticks in the house her fertile brain had contrived two more from
+some large round potatoes, cutting a flat piece from one end, making a
+hole in the centre to hold the candle, and wrapping some white paper
+around the standard. She had taken great pains with the table, trying to
+imitate Mrs. Perkins's, and the imitation was rather satisfactory to
+herself. The best cloth had been brought out, and though it was yellow
+with disuse it showed what it had been. A few roses in a pitcher were in
+the centre of the table, and ranged around them were the four candles,
+spluttering and running down as tallow candles are apt to do. The dishes
+troubled her, they were so thick and nicked in so many places, that it
+was difficult to find one which was whole. The stranger had the china
+plate, which had done duty as a tray for his card, and he had the only
+plated fork in the house: a Christmas gift from Jake to the ole Miss,
+who scarcely appreciated it, but insisted that it be wrapped in several
+folds of tissue paper and kept in her bureau drawer. Mandy Ann did not
+ask if she could have it. She took it and rubbed it with soft sand to
+remove some discolorations and laid it, with a horn-handled knife, by
+the china plate.
+
+"Ef we only had napkins," she said, while Sonsie, who had lived all her
+life near the clearing, and knew nothing of the fashions of the world,
+asked what napkins were. With a toss of her head indicative of her
+superior knowledge, Mandy Ann replied, "You'd know if you'd lived wid de
+quality in Jacksonville. Miss Perkins's allus had 'em. Dey's squar
+little towels what you holds in yer lap to wipe yer fingers on when
+you've done eatin'. Dat's what they is, an' de gemman or to hev one."
+
+"Can't he wipe his hands on de table cloth, for oncet?" Sonsie asked,
+with a sudden inspiration which was received with great scorn by Mandy
+Ann, to whom there had also come an inspiration on which she at once
+acted.
+
+In one of ole Miss's bureau drawers was a large plain linen handkerchief
+which was never used. It would serve the purpose nicely, and Mandy Ann
+brought it out, holding it behind her lest it should be seen by the old
+lady, who sometimes saw more than Mandy Ann cared to have her see. It
+was rather yellow like the table cloth, and the creases where it was
+folded were a little dark, but Mandy Ann turned it, and refolded and
+pressed it, and laid it on the china plate, while Sonsie looked on and
+admired. Everything was in readiness, and Mandy Ann called across the
+clearing. "Hallo, Miss Dory. Supper's done served."
+
+She had caught on to a good many things at Miss Perkins's, and "served"
+was one of them. "I don't s'pose Miss Dory will understan'," she
+thought, "but he will, and see dat dis nigger know sumptin'."
+
+It was a novel situation in which the stranger found himself, seated at
+that table with Eudora presiding and Mandy Ann waiting upon them, her
+tray a dinner-plate which she flourished rather conspicuously. He was
+quick to observe and nothing escaped him, from the improvised
+candlesticks to the napkin by his china plate. He knew it was a
+handkerchief, and smiled inwardly as he wondered what Tom Hardy would
+say if he could see him now. The old lady was not at the table. Mandy
+Ann had managed that and attended to her in her chair, but as if eating
+brightened her faculties, she began to look about her and talk, and ask
+why she couldn't sit at her own table.
+
+"'Case thar's a gemman hyar an' you draps yer vittles so," Mandy Ann
+said in a whisper, with her lips close to the old woman's ear.
+
+"Gentleman? Who's he? Whar's he from?" the old woman asked--forgetting
+that she had spoken to him.
+
+"I told you oncet he's Miss Dory's frien' an' from de Norf. Do be
+quiet," Mandy Ann blew into the deaf ears.
+
+"From the Nawth. I don't like the Nawth, 'case I--" the old lady began,
+but Mandy Ann choked her with a muffin, and she did not finish her
+sentence and tell why she disliked the North.
+
+Eudora's face was scarlet, but she did not interfere. Her grandmother
+was in better hands than hers, and more forceful.
+
+"Granny is queer sometimes," she said by way of apology, while her
+guest bowed in token that he understood, and the meal proceeded in quiet
+with one exception. Granny was choked with eating too fast, and Mandy
+Ann struck her on her back and shook her up, and dropped her
+dinner-plate and broke it in her excitement.
+
+"For de Lawd's sake, 'tan't no use," she said, gathering up the pieces
+and taking them to the kitchen, where Sonsie laughed till the tears ran
+at Mandy Ann's attempt "to be gran'," and its result.
+
+Meanwhile the stranger ate Sonsie's corn cakes and muffins, and said
+they were good, and drank muddy coffee, sweetened with brown sugar out
+of a big thick cup, and thought of his dainty service at home, and
+glanced at the girl opposite him with a great pity, which, however, did
+not move him one whit from his purpose. He had told her his plan and she
+had accepted it, and he told it again when, after supper, she walked
+with him through the clearing and the woods to the main road which led
+to the river. He did the talking, while she answered yes or no, with a
+sound of tears in her voice. When they reached the highway they stopped
+by the sunken grave, and leaning against the fence which inclosed it,
+Eudora removed her sunbonnet, letting the moon shine upon her face, as
+it had done when she sat in the clearing. It was very white but there
+were no tears now in her eyes. She was forcing them back and she tried
+to smile as she said, "You are very kind, and I think I understand what
+you want, and here by this grave I promise all you ask, and will do my
+best--my very best."
+
+Her lips began to quiver and her voice to break, for the visit from
+which she had expected so much had proved a blank, and her high hopes
+were dead as the woman by whose grave she stood. She had folded her
+hands one over the other upon the top rail of the fence, and her
+companion looked at them and thought how small they were and shapely,
+too, although brown with the work she had to do when Jake and Mandy Ann
+were both gone and Sonsie came only at meal times. He was not a brute.
+He was simply a proud, cold, selfish man, whose will had seldom been
+crossed, and who found himself in a tight place from which he could not
+wholly extricate himself. He was sorry for Eudora, for he guessed how
+desolate she would be when he was gone, and there was nothing left but
+that home in the clearing, with old granny and Mandy Ann. He had not
+seen Jake, of whom Eudora now spoke, saying, "Our house never seemed so
+poor to me till I seen you in it. It will be better when Jake comes, for
+he is to fix it up--he knows how."
+
+It was the only excuse she had made, and she did it falteringly, while
+her companion's heart rose up in his throat and made him very
+uncomfortable, as he thought of Jake and Mandy Ann caring for this girl,
+while his income was larger than he could spend. It had not occurred to
+him to offer her money till that moment, and he did not know now that
+she would take it. Turning his back to her as if looking at something
+across the road, he counted a roll of bills, and turning back took one
+of the little brown hands resting on the rail in his and pressed the
+roll into it. Just for an instant the slim fingers held fast to his
+hand--then, as she felt the bills and saw what they were, she drew back
+and dropped them upon the sand.
+
+"I can't; no, I can't," she said, when he urged them upon her, telling
+her it was his right to give and hers to take.
+
+As usual his will prevailed, and when at last he said good-by and walked
+rapidly towards the river, while she went slowly through the woods and
+across the clearing to the log-house, where Mandy Ann was having a
+frightful time getting ole Miss to bed, she had in her possession more
+money than Jake would earn in months.
+
+"I would send it all back," she thought, "if we didn't need it badly,
+and he said it was right for me to take it, but some of it _must_ go.
+I'll send it just before the 'Hatty' sails."
+
+There was no one to send but Mandy Ann, who, after many misgivings on
+the part of her mistress, was entrusted with a part of the money, with
+injunctions neither to look at nor lose it, but to hold it tight in her
+hand until she gave it to the gentleman. Eudora had thought of writing a
+note, but the effort was too great. Mandy Ann could say all she wanted
+to have said, and in due time the negress started for the boat, nothing
+loth to visit it again and bandy words with Ted. The "Hatty" was blowing
+off steam preparatory to starting, when a pair of bare legs and feet
+were seen racing down the lane to the landing, and Mandy Ann, waving her
+hand, was calling out, "Hol' on dar, you cap'n. I'se sometin' berry
+'portant for de gemman. Hol' on, I say," and she dashed across the
+plank, nearly knocking Ted down in her headlong haste. "Whar is 'ee?"
+she gasped, and continued, "Leg-go, I tell ye. Le' me be," as Ted seized
+her arm, asking what she wanted, and if she was going back to
+Jacksonville.
+
+"No; leg-go, I tell you. I wants the man from de Norf, what comed to
+see Miss Dory. I've sometin' for him very partic'lar."
+
+She found him in his seat at the rear of the boat, where he had sat on
+his way up, and had again appropriated to himself, with no one
+protesting or noticing him beyond a civil bow. They called him Boston,
+knowing no other name, and wondered why he had visited the Harrises as
+they knew he had. Ted, who was allowed nearly as much freedom of speech
+on the boat as Mandy Ann had at the clearing, had aired his opinion that
+the gentleman wanted to buy Mandy Ann, but this idea was scouted. Boston
+was not one to buy negroes. Probably he was some kin to old Granny
+Harris, who had distant connections in the North, some one suggested.
+This seemed reasonable, and the people settled upon it, and gave him a
+wide berth as one who wished to be let alone. When Mandy Ann rushed in
+and made her way to him curiosity was again roused, but no one was near
+enough to hear her as she put into his hands a paper, saying
+breathlessly, "Miss Dory done send some of it back with thanks, 'case
+she can't keep it all, and she wants to know how d'ye, an' I mus' hurry,
+or dey carries me off."
+
+The stranger took the paper, opened it, and glanced at the bills; then
+at the girl who stood as if she expected something. Taking a dollar from
+his pocket he gave it to her saying, "Take this and be a good girl to
+your young mistress, and now go."
+
+Mandy Ann did not move, but stood with her lips twitching and her eyes
+filling with tears. No one had ever given her a dollar before, and her
+better nature cried out against what she had done.
+
+"Fo' de Lawd, I can't help 'fessin," she said, thrusting her hand into
+her bosom and bringing out a crumpled bill which she gave to the
+gentleman, who saw that it was a ten and looked at her sternly as she
+went on: "I done promised Miss Dory I'never tache a thing, if she
+wouldn't sell me to you, but dar was sich a pile, an' I wanted some
+beads, an' a red han'kercher, an' a ring, an' I done took one. I don'no
+how much, 'case I can't read, an' dat's why I was late an' had to run so
+fass. You're good, you is, an' I muss 'fess--may de Lawd forgive me."
+
+At this point Ted, who had been on some of the large boats between
+Jacksonville and Charleston, and had heard the cry warning the
+passengers to leave, screamed close to her. "All asho', dat's gwine
+asho'!" and seizing her arm he led her to the plank and pushed her on to
+it, but not until she had shaken her bill in his face and said,
+"Licke-e-dar, a dollar! All mine--he done gin it to me, an' I'se gwine
+to buy a gown, an' a han'kercher, an' some shoes, an' some candy, an'
+some--" the rest of her intended purchases were cut short by a jerk of
+the plank, which sent her sprawling on her hands and knees, with a jeer
+from Ted sounding in her ears. The "Hatty" was off, and with a feeling
+of relief the stranger kept his seat on the rear deck, or staid in his
+stateroom until Palatka was reached, where he went on shore, lifting his
+hat politely to the passengers, shaking hands with the captain, and
+giving a quarter to Ted, who nearly stood on his head for joy, and could
+scarcely wait for the next trip to Enterprise, where he would find Mandy
+Ann and tell her of his good fortune, doubling or trebling the amount as
+he might feel inclined at the time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HOPING AND WAITING
+
+
+The curiosity concerning the stranger at Enterprise had nearly died out
+when it was roused again to fever heat by the arrival at the clearing of
+a little girl, whom the young mother baptized with bitter tears, but
+refused to talk of the father except to say, "It was all right and
+people would know it was when he came, as he was sure to do."
+
+He didn't come, and the girl's face grew sadder and whiter, and her eyes
+had in them always an expectant, wistful look, as if waiting for some
+one or something, which would lift from her the dark cloud under which
+she was laboring. Jake, who had returned from Richmond, suffered nearly
+as much as she did. His pride in his family--such as the family was--was
+great, and his affection for his young mistress unbounded.
+
+"Only tell me whar he is an' I'll done fetch him, or kill him," he said,
+when in an agony of tears she laid her baby in his lap and said,
+"Another for you to care for till he comes, as I know he will."
+
+Eudora had said to the stranger that Jake would kill him if anything
+happened to her, but now at the mention of killing him she shuddered and
+replied, "No, Jake, not that. You'll know sometime. I can't explain. I
+done promised more than once. The last time was by that grave yonder,
+when he was sayin' good-by. It was same as an oath. I was to go to
+school and learn to be a lady, but baby has come, and I can't go now. It
+will make some differ with him perhaps, an' he'll come for baby's sake.
+You b'lieve me, Jake?"
+
+"Yes, honey--same as ef 'twas de Lawd himself talkin' to me, an' I'll
+take keer of de little one till he comes, an' if I sees somebody winkin'
+or hunchin' de shoulder, I'll--I'll--"
+
+Jake clenched his fist to show what he would do, and hugging the baby to
+him, continued, "Dis my 'ittle chile till its fader comes; doan' you
+worry. I'se strong an' kin work, an' Mandy Ann's done got to stir de
+stumps more'n she has."
+
+He cast a threatening look at Mandy Ann, who had at first been appalled
+at the advent of the baby, and for a while kept aloof even from Ted,
+when the "Hatty" was in. Then she rallied and, like Jake, was ready to
+do battle with any one who hunched their shoulders at Miss Dory. She had
+two good square fights with Ted on the subject, and two or three more
+with some of her own class near the clearing, and as she came off victor
+each time it was thought wise not to provoke her, except as Ted from the
+safety of the "Hatty's" deck sometimes called to her, when he saw her on
+the shore with the baby in her arms and asked how little Boston was
+getting along. Mandy Ann felt that she could kill him, and every one
+else who spoke slightingly of her charge. She had told Jake over and
+over again all she could remember of the stranger's visit, and more than
+she could remember when she saw how eager he was for every detail. She
+told him of the card taken to her mistress on a china plate, of the
+table with its four candles, and ole Miss's handkerchief for a napkin,
+and of her waiting just as she had seen it done at Miss Perkins's.
+
+"The gemman was gran' an' tall, an' mighty fine spoken, like all dem
+quality from de Norf," she said, although in fact he was the first
+person she had ever seen from the North; but that made no difference
+with Mandy Ann. "He was a gemman--he had given her a dollar, and he was
+shoo to come back."
+
+This she said many times to her young mistress, keeping her spirits up,
+helping her to hope against hope, while the seasons came and went, and
+letters were sometimes received or sent, first to Tom Hardy and
+forwarded by him either to the North or to Eudora. There was no lack of
+money, but this was not what the young girl wanted. Mandy Ann had said
+she had not much _sperrit_, and she certainly had not enough to claim
+her rights, but clung to a morbid fancy of what was her duty, bearing up
+bravely for a long time, trying to learn, trying to read the books
+recommended to her in her Northern letters, and sent for by Jake to
+Palatka, trying to understand what she read, and, most pitiful of all,
+trying to be a lady, fashioned after her own ideas, and those of Jake
+and Mandy Ann. Jake told her what he had seen the quality do in
+Richmond, while Mandy Ann boasted her superior knowledge, because of her
+three months with Miss Perkins's in Jacksonville, and rehearsed many
+times the way she had seen young ladies "come into de house, shake han's
+an' say how d'ye, an' hole' thar kyard cases so" (illustrating with a
+bit of block), "an' thar parasols so" (taking up granny's cane), "an'
+set on the aidge of thar char straight up, an' Miss Perkins bowin' an'
+smilin' an' sayin' how glad she was to see 'em, an' den when dey's gone
+sayin' sometimes, 'I wonder what sent 'em hyar to-day, when it's so
+powerful hot, an' I wants to take my sester'--dat's her nap, you know,
+after dinner, what plenty ladies take--an' den you mus' sometimes speak
+sharp like to Jake an' to me, an' not be so soff spoken, as if we wasn't
+yer niggers, 'case we are, or I is, an' does a heap o' badness; an' you
+orto pull my har f'or it."
+
+Confused and bewildered Eudora listened, first to Jake and then to Mandy
+Ann, but as she had no card case, no parasol, and no ladies called upon
+her, she could only try to remember the proper thing to do when the time
+came, if it ever did. But she lost heart at last. She was deserted.
+There was no need for her to try to be a lady. Her life was slipping
+away, but for baby there was hope, and many times in her chamber loft,
+when Mandy Ann thought she was taking her _sester_, and so far imitating
+"de quality," she was praying that when she was dead, as she felt she
+soon would be, her little child might be recognized and taken where she
+rightfully belonged.
+
+And so the years went on till more than three were gone since the
+stranger came on the "Hatty," and one morning when she lay again at the
+wharf, and Mandy Ann came down for something ordered from Palatka, her
+eyes were swollen with crying, and when Ted began his chaff she
+answered, "Doan't, Teddy, doan't. I can't fought you now, nor sass you
+back, 'case Miss Dory is dead, an' Jake's done gone for de minister."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MISS DORY
+
+
+That day was one of the hottest of the season, and the sun was beating
+down upon the piazza of the Brock House where the Rev. Charles Mason sat
+fanning himself with a huge palm leaf, and trying to put together in his
+mind some points for the sermon he was to preach the next Sunday in the
+parlor of the hotel to the few guests who came there occasionally during
+the summer. But it was of no use. With the thermometer at ninety degrees
+in the shade, and not a breath of air moving, except that made by his
+fan, points did not come readily, and all he could think of was Dives'
+thirsting for a drop of water from the finger of Lazarus to cool his
+parched tongue. "If it was hotter there than it is here I am sorry for
+him," he thought, wiping his wet face and looking off across the broad
+lake in the direction of Sanford, from which a rowboat was coming very
+rapidly, the oarsman bending to his work with a will, which soon brought
+him to the landing place, near the hotel. Securing his boat, he came up
+the walk and approaching Mr. Mason accosted him with, "How d'ye, Mas'r
+Mason. I knows you by sight, and I'se right glad to find you hyar. You
+see, I'se that tuckered out I'm fit to drap."
+
+The perspiration was standing in great drops on his face as he sank
+panting upon a step of the piazza.
+
+"'Scuse me," he said, "but 'pears like I can't stan' another minit, what
+with bein' up all night with Miss Dory, an' gwine 'crost the lake twiste
+for nothin', 'case I didn't find him."
+
+By this time Mr. Mason had recognized the negro as one he had seen
+occasionally around the hotel selling vegetables and eggs, and who he
+had heard the people say was worth his weight in gold.
+
+"How d'ye, Jake," he said, pleasantly. "I didn't know you at first. Why
+have you been across the lake twice this morning?"
+
+Jake's face clouded as he drew his big black hand across his eyes.
+
+"Miss Dory done died at sun up," he replied. "You know Miss Dory, in
+course."
+
+Mr. Mason was obliged to confess his ignorance with regard to Miss Dory,
+and asked who she was.
+
+Jake looked disgusted. Not to know Miss Dory was something inexcusable.
+
+"Why, she's Miss Dory," he said, "an' ole Miss is her granny. We live up
+in the palmetto clearing, back in de woods, an' I take keer of 'em."
+
+"You mean you belong to Miss Dora's grandmother?" Mr. Mason asked, while
+Jake looked more disgusted than ever.
+
+Not to know Miss Dory was bad enough, but not to know who he was was
+much worse.
+
+"Lor' bless your soul, Mas'r Mason, I don't belong to nobody but myself.
+I'se done bawn free, I was. But father belonged to ole Miss Lucy, an'
+when my mother died she took keer of me, an' I've lived with her ever
+sense, all but two or three times I hired out to some swells in
+Virginny, whar I seen high life. They's mighty kine to me, dem folks
+was, an' let me learn to read an' write, an' do some figgerin'. I'se
+most as good a scholar as Miss Dory, an' I tole her some de big words,
+an' what the quality in Virginny does, when she was tryin' so hard to
+learn to be a lady. She's dead now, the lam', an' my cuss be on him as
+killed her."
+
+"Killed! Didn't she die a natural death?" Mr. Mason asked.
+
+"No, sar. She jest pined an' pined for him, an' got de shakes bad, an'
+died this mornin'," Jake replied, "an' ole Miss done gone clar out of
+her head. She never was over-bright, an' 'pears like she don't know
+nothin' now. 'I leave it to you to do,' she said, an I'm doin' on't the
+best I kin. I seen her laid out decent in her best gownd--that's Miss
+Dory--an' sent to Palatka for a coffin--a good one, too--an' have been
+across the lake for Elder Covil to 'tend the burial, 'case she done
+said, 'Send for him; he knows.' But he ain't thar, an' I'se come for
+you. It'll be day after to-morrer at one o'clock."
+
+Mr. Mason felt the water rolling down his back in streams as he thought
+of a hot drive through the Florida sand and woods, but he could not say
+no, Jake's honest face was so anxious and pleading.
+
+"Yes, I'll come, but how?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, I'll be hyar wid de mule an' de shay. Noon, sharp," Jake replied.
+"Thankee, Mas'r Mason, thankee. We couldn't bury Miss Dory without a
+word of pra'r. I kin say de Lawd's, but I want somethin' about de
+resurrection an' de life what I hearn in Virginny. An' now I mus' go
+'long home. Ole Miss'll be wantin' me an' de chile."
+
+"What child?" Mr. Mason asked, in some surprise.
+
+Jake's face was a study as he hesitated a minute, winking to keep his
+tears back before he said, "Sartin', thar's a chile. Why shouldn't thar
+be, but fo' God it's all right. Miss Dory said so, an' Elder Covil
+knows, only he's done gone Norf or somewhar. It's all right, an' you'll
+know 'tis the minit you see Miss Dory's face--innocent as a baby's. Good
+day to you."
+
+He doffed his hat with a kind of grace one would hardly have expected,
+and walked rapidly away, leaving the Rev. Mr. Mason to think over what
+he had heard, and wonder that he didn't ask the name of the family he
+was to visit. "Miss Dory, ole Miss, and Jake," were all he had to guide
+him, but the last name was sufficient.
+
+"Oh, yes," the landlord said, when questioned. "It's old Mrs. Harris and
+her grand-daughter out in the palmetto clearing; they're Crackers. The
+old woman is half demented, the whole family was queer, and the girl the
+queerest of all--won't talk and keeps her mouth shut as to her marriage,
+if there was one."
+
+"Who was the man?" Mr. Mason asked, and the landlord replied, "Some
+Northern cuss she met in Georgia where she was staying a spell with her
+kin. A high blood, they say. Attracted by her pretty face, I suppose,
+and then got tired of her, or was too proud to own up. I wasn't landlord
+then, but I've heard about it. I think he was here once three or four
+years ago. He came on the 'Hatty' and staid on her--the house was so
+full. Didn't register, nor anything--nor tell his name to a livin' soul.
+One or two ast him square, I b'lieve, but he either pretended not to
+hear 'em, or got out of it somehow. Acted prouder than Lucifer. Walked
+along the shore and in the woods, and went to the clearin'--some said
+to buy that limb of a Mandy Ann, but more to see Miss Dory. All the time
+he was on the boat he was so stiff and starched that nobody wanted to
+tackle him, and that girl--I mean Miss Dory--has kept a close mouth
+about him, and when her baby was born, and some of the old cats talked
+she only said, 'It is all right, I'm a good girl,' and I b'lieve she
+was. But that Northern cuss needs killin'. He sends her money, they say,
+through some friend in Palatka, who keeps his mouth shut tight, but
+neither she nor Jake will use a cent of it. They are savin' it to
+educate the little girl and make a lady of her, if nobody claims her. A
+lady out of a Cracker! I'd laugh! That Jake is a dandy. He's free, but
+has stuck to the Harrises because his father belonged to old Mrs.
+Harris. He is smarter than chain lightnin', if he is a nigger, and knows
+more than a dozen of some white men. He drives a white mule, and has
+managed to put a top of sail cloth on an old ramshackle buggy, which he
+calls a 'shay.' You'll go to the funeral in style."
+
+Mr. Mason made no reply. He was thinking of Dory, and beginning to feel
+a good deal of interest in her and her story, and anxious to see her,
+even if she were dead. At precisely twelve o'clock on the day appointed
+for the funeral Jake drove his white mule and shay to the door of the
+Brock House. He had on his Sunday clothes, and around his tall hat was a
+band of black alpaca, the nearest approach to mourning he could get, for
+crape was out of the question. If possible, it was hotter than on the
+previous day, and the sail cloth top was not much protection from the
+sun as they drove along the sandy road, over bogs and stumps, palmetto
+roots and low bridges, and across brooks nearly dried up by the heat.
+The way seemed interminable to Mr. Mason, for the mule was not very
+swift-footed, and Jake was too fond of him to touch him with a whip. A
+pull at the lines, which were bits of rope, and a "Go 'long dar, you
+lazy ole t'ing, 'fore I takes the hide off'n you" was the most he did to
+urge the animal forward, and Mr. Mason was beginning to think he might
+get on faster by walking, when a turn in the road brought the clearing
+in view.
+
+It had improved some since we first saw it, and was under what the
+natives called right smart cultivation for such a place. Jake had worked
+early and late to make it attractive for his young mistress. He had
+given the log-house a coat of whitewash, and planted more climbing roses
+than had been there when the man from the North visited it. A rude fence
+of twisted poles had been built around it, and standing before this
+fence were three or four ox-carts and a democrat wagon with two mules
+attached to it. The people who had come in these vehicles were waiting
+expectantly for Jake and the minister, and the moment they appeared in
+sight the white portion hurried into the house and seated
+themselves--some in the few chairs the room contained, some on the
+table, and some on the long bench Jake had improvised with a board and
+two boxes, and which threatened every moment to topple over. There were
+a number of old women with sunbonnets on their heads--two or three
+higher-toned ones with straw bonnets--a few younger ones with hats,
+while the men and boys were all in their shirt sleeves. Some of them had
+come miles that hot day to pay their last respects to Miss Dory, who,
+in the room adjoining where they sat, lay in her coffin, clad, as Jake
+had said, in her best gown, the white one she had worn with so much
+pride the day the stranger came. She had never worn it since, but had
+said to Mandy Ann a few days before she died, "I should like to be
+buried in it, if you can smarten it up." And Mandy Ann who understood,
+had done her best at smartening, and when Sonsie and others said it was
+"yaller as saffern, an' not fittin' for a buryin'," she had washed and
+ironed it, roughly, it is true, but it was white and clean, and Sonsie
+was satisfied. Mandy Ann had tried to freshen the satin bows, but gave
+it up, and put in their place bunches of wild flowers she had gathered
+herself. With a part of the dollar given her by "the man from the Norf,"
+she had commissioned Ted to buy her a ring in Jacksonville. It had
+proved too small for any finger, except her little one, and she had
+seldom worn it. Now, as she dressed her mistress for the last time an
+idea came to her; she was a well-grown girl of sixteen, and understood
+many things better than when she was younger. Going to Jake, she said,
+"Ain't thar somethin' 'bout a ring in that pra'r book you got in
+Richmon' an' reads on Sundays?"
+
+"Yes, in de weddin' service," Jake replied, and Mandy continued: "Doan'
+it show dey's married for shoo'!"
+
+"For shoo? Yes. I wish Miss Dory had one," Jake answered.
+
+Mandy Ann nodded. She had learned what she wanted to know, and going to
+the little paper box where she kept her ring she took it up, looked at
+it lovingly, and tried it on. She had paid fifty cents for it, and Ted
+had told her the real price was a dollar, but he had got it for less,
+because the jeweler was selling out. It tarnished rather easily, but she
+could rub it up. It was her only ornament, and she prized it as much as
+some ladies prize their diamonds, but she loved her young mistress more
+than she loved the ring, and her mistress, though dead, should have it.
+It needed polishing, and she rubbed it until it looked nearly as well as
+when Ted brought it to her from Jacksonville.
+
+"I wish to de Lawd I knew ef dar was any partic'lar finger," she
+thought, as she stood by the coffin looking at the calm face of her
+mistress.
+
+By good luck she selected the right finger, on which the ring slipped
+easily, then folding the hands one over the other, and putting in them
+some flowers, which, while they did not hide the ring, covered it
+partially, so that only a very close observer would be apt to think it
+was not real, she said, "If you wasn't married with a ring you shall be
+buried with one, an' it looks right nice on you, it do, an' I hope ole
+granny Thomas'll be hyar an' see it wid her snaky eyes speerin' 'round.
+Axed me oncet who I s'posed de baby's fader was, an' I tole her de
+gemman from de Norf, in course, an' den made up de lie an' tole her dey
+had a weddin' on de sly in Georgy--kinder runaway, an' his kin was mad
+an' kep' him to home 'cept oncet when he comed hyar to see her, an' I
+'clar for't I doan think she b'lieve a word 'cept that he was hyar.
+Everybody knowd that. I reckon she will gin in when she see de ring."
+
+Pleased with what she had done, Mandy Ann left the room just as the
+first instalment of people arrived, and with them old granny Thomas. In
+the little community of Crackers scattered through the neighborhood
+there were two factions, the larger believing in Eudora, and the smaller
+not willing to commit themselves until their leader Mrs. Thomas had done
+so. On the strength of living in a frame house, owning two or three
+negroes and a democrat wagon, she was a power among them. What she
+thought some of those less favored than herself thought. When she "gave
+in" they would, and not before. Up to the present time there had been no
+signs of "giving in" on the part of the lady, whose shoulders still
+hunched and whose head shook when Eudora was mentioned. She should go to
+the funeral, in course, she said. She owed it to ole Miss Harris, and
+she really had a good deal of respect for the nigger Jake. So she came
+in her democrat wagon and straw bonnet, and because she was Mrs. Thomas,
+walked uninvited into the room where the coffin stood, and looked at
+Eudora.
+
+"I'd forgot she was so purty. It's a good while sense I seen her," she
+thought, a feeling of pity rising in her heart for the young girl whose
+face had never looked fairer than it did now with the seal of death upon
+it. "And s'true's I live she's got a ring on her weddin' finger! Why
+didn't she never war it afore an' let it be known?" she said to herself,
+stooping down to inspect the ring, which to her dim old eyes seemed like
+the real coin. "She wouldn't _lie_ in her coffin, an' I b'lieve she was
+good after all, an' I've been too hard on her," she continued, waddling
+to a seat outside, and communicating her change of sentiment to the
+woman next to her, who told it to the next, until it was pretty
+generally known that "ole Miss Thomas had _gin in_, 'case Miss Dory had
+on her weddin' ring."
+
+Nearly every one else present had "gin in" long before, and now that
+Mrs. Thomas had declared herself, the few doubtful ones followed her
+lead, and there were only kind, pitying words said of poor Dory, as they
+waited for the minister to come, and the services to begin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SERVICES
+
+
+The blacks were outside the house, and the whites inside, when Jake
+drove his shay to the door, and the Rev. Mr. Mason alighted, wiping the
+sweat from his face and looking around with a good deal of curiosity. A
+mulatto boy came forward to take charge of the mule, and Jake ushered
+the minister into the room where the coffin stood, and where were the
+four men he had asked to be bearers.
+
+"I s'pose I'd or'ter of had six," he said in a whisper; "but she's so
+light, four can tote her easy, an' they's all very 'spectable. No
+low-downs. I means everything shall be fust-class."
+
+Wrapped in shawls, with her head nodding up and down, old Mrs. Harris
+sat, more deaf and more like a dried mummy than she had been on the
+occasion of the stranger's visit. Jake had bought her an ear trumpet,
+but she seldom used it, unless compelled by Mandy Ann, who now sat near
+her with the little girl who, at sight of Jake, started to meet him.
+But, Mandy Ann held her back and whispered, "Can't you done 'have
+yerself at yer mammy's funeral an' we the only mourners?"
+
+The child only understood that she was to keep quiet, and sat down in
+her little chair, while Jake motioned to Mr. Mason that he was to see
+Miss Dory.
+
+During her illness her hair had fallen out so fast that it had been cut
+off, and now lay in soft rings around her forehead, giving her more the
+look of a child than of a girl of twenty, as the plate on her coffin
+indicated. "Eudora, aged twenty," was all there was on it, and glancing
+at it Mr. Mason wondered there was no other name. Jake saw the look and
+whispered. "I wan't gwine to lie an' put on 'Eudora Harris,' for she
+ain't Eudora Harris, an' I didn't know t'other name for shoo. Ain't she
+lovely!"
+
+"She is, indeed," Mr. Mason said, feeling the moisture in his eyes, as
+he looked at the young, innocent face on which there was no trace of
+guilt.
+
+He was sure of that without Jake's repeated assertion, "Fo' God, it's
+all right, for she tole me so. Mostly, she'd say nothin'. She'd promised
+she wouldn't, but jess fo' she died she said agen to me, 'I tole him I'd
+keep dark till he come for me, but it's all right. Send for Elder Covil
+'crost the river. He knows.' I've tole you this afore, I reckon, but my
+mind is so full I git rattled."
+
+By this time the bent figure sitting in the rocking-chair, near the
+coffin began to show signs of life and whimper a little.
+
+"'Scuse me," Jake said, pulling a shawl more squarely around her
+shoulders and straightening her up. "Mas'r Mason, this is ole Miss Lucy.
+Miss Lucy, this is Mas'r Mason, come to 'tend Miss Dory's funeral. Peart
+up a little, can't you, and speak to him."
+
+There didn't seem to be much "peart up" in the woman, who began at once
+to cry. Instantly Mandy Ann started up and wiped her face, and settled
+her cap, and taking the trumpet screamed into it that she was to behave
+herself and speak to the gemman.
+
+"Dory's dead," she moaned, and subsided into her shawl and cap, with a
+faint kind of cry.
+
+"Dory's dead," was repeated, in a voice very different from that of the
+old woman--a child's clear, sweet voice--and turning, Mr. Mason saw a
+little dark-haired, dark-eyed girl standing by Mandy Ann.
+
+Mr. Mason was fond of children, and stooping down he kissed the child,
+who drew back and hid behind Jake.
+
+"Me 'fraid," she said, covering her face with her hands, and looking
+with her bright eyes through her fingers at the stranger.
+
+Something in her eyes attracted and fascinated, and at the same time
+troubled Mr. Mason, he scarcely knew why. The old grandmother was
+certainly demented. The landlord had said Eudora and the whole family
+were queer. Was the child going to be queer, too, and did she show it in
+her eyes? They were very large and beautiful, and the long, curling
+lashes, when she closed them, fell on her cheeks like those of her dead
+mother, whom she resembled. She seemed out of place in her surroundings,
+but he could not talk to her then. The people in the next room were
+beginning to get restless, and to talk in low tones of their crops and
+the weather, and the big alligator caught near the hotel. It was time to
+begin, and taking the little girl in his arms, Jake motioned to Mr.
+Mason. In the door between the two rooms was a stand covered with a
+clean white towel. On it was a Bible, a hymn-book, a cup of water, and
+two or three flowers in another cup. Mr. Mason did not need the Bible.
+Jake had asked for the Resurrection and the Life, and he had brought
+his prayer-book, and began the beautiful burial service of the Church,
+to which the people listened attentively for a while; then they began to
+get tired, and by the time the long reading was through there were
+unmistakable signs of discontent among them. They had expected something
+more than reading a chapter. They wanted remarks, with laudations of the
+deceased. Miss Dory was worthy of them, and because there were none they
+fancied the minister did not believe it was all right with her, and they
+resented it. Even old Miss Thomas had "gin in," and thar was the weddin'
+ring, an' no sermon,--no remarks, and they didn't like it. Another
+grievance was that no hymn was given out, and there was the hymn-book at
+hand. They had at least expected "Hark from the tombs," if nothing else,
+but there was nothing. Singing constituted a large part of their
+religious worship, and they did not mean to have Miss Dory buried
+without this attention.
+
+As Mr. Mason finished the services and sat down, he was startled with an
+outburst of "Shall we meet beyond the river." Everybody joined in the
+song, negroes and all, their rich, full voices dominating the others,
+and making Mr. Mason thrill in every nerve as the quaint music filled
+the house, and went echoing out upon the summer air. When the "Beautiful
+River" was finished some one outside the door took up the refrain:
+
+  "Oh, that will be joyful, joyful, joyful;
+   Oh, that will be joyful,
+   When we meet to part no more."
+
+This appealed to the blacks, who entered into the singing heart and
+soul, some of the older ones keeping time with a swinging motion of
+their bodies, and one old lady in her enthusiasm bringing down her fist
+upon the doorstep, on which she was sitting, and shouting in a way which
+warned Jake of danger. He knew the signs, and putting down the little
+girl, who had fallen asleep in his lap, he went to the old negress, who
+was beginning to get under full headway, and holding her uplifted arm,
+said to her:
+
+"Hush, Aunt Judy, hush; this ain't no place to have the pow'. This ain't
+a pra'r meetin'; tis a 'Piscopal funeral, this is, such as they have in
+Virginny."
+
+What Judy might have said is uncertain, for there came a diversion in
+the scene. The child had followed Jake to the door, where she stood
+wide-eyed and attentive, and when the last words of the hymn ended, she
+sang in a clear, shrill voice, "Be joyful when we meet to part no more."
+Her voice was singularly sweet and full, and Mr. Mason said to himself,
+"She'll be a singer some day, if she is not crazy first." Nothing now
+could keep old Judy from one more burst, and her "Yes, thank de Lawd,
+we'll meet to part no mo'," rang out like a clarion, and the religious
+services were over.
+
+There still remained what was the most interesting part to the
+audience--taking leave of the corpse--and for a few minutes the sobs,
+and cries, and ejaculations were bewildering to Mr. Mason, who had never
+had an experience of this kind. Jake quieted the tumult as soon as
+possible, reminding the people again that this was a first-class
+'Piscopal funeral, such as the quality had in Virginny. The old
+grandmother was led to the coffin by Mandy Ann, who shook her up and
+told her to look at Miss Dory, but not cry much, if she could help it.
+She didn't cry at all, but nearly every one did in the adjoining room,
+where they said to each other, "Ole Miss is takin' leave and don't sense
+it an atom." The little girl was held up by Jake, who made her kiss her
+mother.
+
+"Mamma's s'eep," the child said, as she kissed the pale lips which would
+never smile on her again.
+
+There was a fresh outburst of sobs and tears from the spectators, and
+then the coffin was closed, and the procession took its way across the
+hot sands to the little enclosure in the clearing, where other members
+of the Harris family were buried. Remembering the impatience of the
+people in the house, Mr. Mason wished to shorten the service at the
+grave, but Jake said: "No. We'll have the whole figger for Miss Dory."
+Mr. Mason went the whole figure with uncovered head under the broiling
+sun, and when he was through he felt as if his brains were baked. The
+Crackers did not seem to mind the heat at all. They were accustomed to
+it, and after their return from the grave, stayed round until the white
+mule and sail-topped shay were brought up for Mr. Mason's return to the
+hotel.
+
+As Jake was very busy, a young negro boy was sent in his place.
+Naturally loquacious, he kept up a constant stream of talk, but as he
+stammered frightfully the most Mr. Mason could understand was that Miss
+Dory was a dandy, ole Miss 'onery, whatever that might mean, and Jake a
+big head, who thought he knew everything because he was free and could
+read.
+
+The next day was Sunday, and Mr. Mason took for the subject of his
+remarks in the parlor of the hotel the story of Lazarus and Dives, and
+every time he spoke of Dives receiving his good things in life, he
+thought of the man whom the landlord had designated a "Northern cuss";
+and every time he spoke of Lazarus, he thought of poor little Dory and
+that humble grave in the sands of the palmetto clearing.
+
+It was covered before night with young dwarf palmettoes, which Mandy Ann
+laid upon it with a thought that they would keep her young mistress
+cool. All through the day she had restrained her feelings, because Jake
+told her that was the way to do.
+
+"Seems ef I should bust," she said to herself more than once, and when
+at last the day was over, and both ole Miss and the little girl were
+asleep, she stole out to the newly made grave, and lying down upon it
+among the palmettoes she cried bitterly, "Oh, Miss Dory, Miss Dory, kin
+you har me? It's Mandy Ann, an' I'm so sorry you're dead, an' sorry I
+was so bad sometimes. I have tried to be better lately, sense I got
+growed. Now, hain't I, an' I hain't tole many lies, nor tached a thing
+sense I took that bill from him. _Cuss_ him, wharever he is! Cuss him
+to-night, ef he's alive; an' ef his bed is soff' as wool, doan let him
+sleep for thinkin' of Miss Dory. Doan let him ever know peace of min'
+till he owns the 'ittle girl; though, dear Lawd, what should we do
+without her--me an' Jake?"
+
+Mandy Ann was on her knees now, with her hands uplifted, as she prayed
+for _cusses_ on the man who had wrought such harm to her mistress. When
+the prayer was finished she fell on her face again and sobbed, "Miss
+Dory, Miss Dory, I must go in now an' see to 'ittle chile, but I hates
+to leave you hyar alone in de san'. Does you know you's got on my ring?
+I gin it to you, an' ole granny Thomas 'gin in' when she seed it, an'
+said you mus' be good. I'se mighty glad I gin it to you. 'Twas all I had
+to give, an' it will tell 'em whar you've gone that you was good."
+
+There was a dampness in the air that night, and Mandy Ann felt it as she
+rose from the grave, and brushed bits of palmetto from her dress and
+hair. But she did not mind it, and as she walked to the house she felt
+greatly comforted with the thought that she had _cussed_ him, and that
+Miss Dory was wearing her ring as a sign that she was good, and that
+"ole granny Thomas had gin in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+COL. CROMPTON
+
+
+He was young to be a colonel, but the title was merely nominal and
+complimentary, and not given for any service to his country. When only
+twenty-one he had joined a company of militia--young bloods like
+himself--who drilled for exercise and pleasure rather than from any idea
+that they would ever be called into service. He was at first captain,
+then he rose to the rank of colonel, and when the company disbanded he
+kept the title, and was rather proud of it, as he was of everything
+pertaining to himself and the Cromptons generally. It was an old English
+family, tracing its ancestry back to the days of William the Conqueror,
+and boasting of two or three titles and a coat-of-arms. The American
+branch was not very prolific, and so far as he knew, the Colonel was the
+only remaining Crompton of that line in this country, except the son of
+a half-brother. This brother, who was now dead, had married against his
+father's wishes, and been cut off from the Crompton property, which, at
+the old man's death, all came to the Colonel. It was a fine estate, with
+a very grand house for the New England town by the sea in which it was
+situated. It was built by the elder Crompton, who was born in England,
+and had carried out his foreign ideas of architecture, and with its
+turrets and square towers it bore some resemblance to the handsome
+places he had seen at home. It was of stone, and stood upon a rise of
+ground, commanding a view of the sea two miles away, and the pretty
+village on the shore with a background of wooded hills stretching to the
+west. It was full of pictures and bric-à-brac, and statuary from all
+parts of the world, for the Colonel's father had travelled extensively,
+and brought home souvenirs from every country visited. Florida had
+furnished her quota, and stuffed parokeets and red birds, and a huge
+alligator skin adorned the walls of the wide hall, together with antlers
+and pieces of old armor, and other curios. A small fortune was yearly
+expended upon the grounds which were very large, and people wondered
+that the Colonel lavished so much upon what he seemed to care so little
+for, except to see that it was in perfect order, without a dried leaf,
+or twig, or weed to mar its beauty.
+
+It had not always been thus with him. When he first came into possession
+of the place he was just through college, and had seemed very proud and
+fond of his fine estate, and had extended his hospitality freely to his
+acquaintances, keeping them, however, at a certain distance, for the
+Crompton pride was always in the ascendant, and he tolerated no
+familiarities, except such as he chose to allow. This genial social life
+lasted a few years, and then there came a change, following a part of a
+winter spent in South Carolina and Georgia with his intimate friend and
+college chum, Tom Hardy. Communication between the North and South was
+not as frequent and direct then as it is now, and but little was known
+of his doings. At first he wrote occasionally to Peter, his head
+servant, to whom he entrusted the care of the house; then his letters
+ceased and nothing was heard from him until suddenly, without warning,
+he came home, looking much older than when he went away, and with a look
+upon his face which did not leave it as the days went on.
+
+"'Spect he had a high old time with that Tom Hardy, and is all tuckered
+out," Peter said, while the Colonel, thinking he must give some reason
+for his changed demeanor, said he had malaria, taken in some Southern
+swamp.
+
+If there was any disease for which Peter had a special aversion it was
+malaria, which he fancied he knew how to treat, having had it once
+himself. Quinine, cholagogue, and whiskey were prescribed in large
+quantities, and Peter wondered why they failed to cure. He did not
+suspect that the quinine went into the fire, and the cholagogue down the
+drain-pipe from the washstand. The Colonel's malaria was not the kind to
+be cured by drugs, and there came a day when, after the receipt of a
+letter from Tom Hardy, he collapsed entirely, and Peter found him
+shivering in his room, his teeth chattering, and his fingers purple with
+cold.
+
+"You have got it bad this time," Peter said, suggesting the doctor, and
+more quinine and cholagogue, and a dose of Warburg's Tincture.
+
+The Colonel declined them all. What he needed was another blanket, and
+to be let alone. Peter brought the blanket and left him alone, while he
+faced this new trouble which bore no resemblance to malaria. He was just
+beginning to be more hopeful of the future, and had his plans all laid,
+and knew what he should do and say, and now this new complication had
+arisen and brushed his scheme aside. He had sown the wind and was
+reaping a cyclone, and he swore to himself, and hardened his heart
+against the innocent cause of his trouble, and thought once of suicide
+as he had on the St. John's the year before. He spent money, just the
+same, upon his handsome grounds; but it was only for the pride he had in
+keeping them up, and not for any pleasure he had in them. He never
+picked a flower, or sat on any of the seats under the trees, and, unless
+the day was very hot, was seldom seen upon his broad piazza, where every
+day Peter spread rugs and placed chairs because his master liked to see
+them there, if they were not used. His library was his favorite place,
+where he sat for hours reading, smoking, and thinking, no one knew of
+what, or tried to know, for he was not a man to be easily approached, or
+questioned as to his business. If he had malaria it clung to him year
+after year, while he grew more reserved and silent, and saw less and
+less of the people. Proud as Lucifer they called him, and yet, because
+he was a Crompton, and because of the money he gave so freely when it
+was asked for, he was not unpopular; and when the town began to grow in
+importance on account of its fine beach and safe bathing, and a movement
+was made to change its name from Troutburg to something less plebeian,
+Crompton was suggested, and met with general approval. No one was better
+pleased with the arrangement than the Colonel himself, although he did
+not smile when the news was brought to him. He seldom smiled at
+anything, but there was a kindling light in his eyes, and his voice
+shook a little as he thanked the committee who waited upon him. To be
+known as "Col. Crompton of Crompton" was exceedingly gratifying to his
+vanity, and seemed in a way to lift the malarious cloud from him for a
+time at least.
+
+It was more than three years since Tom Hardy's letter had thrown him
+into a chill, and everything as yet was quiet. Nothing had come from the
+South derogatory to him, and he had almost made himself believe that
+this state of things might go on for years, perhaps forever, though that
+was scarcely possible. At all events he'd wait till the storm burst, and
+then meet it somehow. He was a Crompton and had faith in himself, and
+the faith was increased by the compliment paid by his townspeople; and
+as he was not one to receive a favor without returning it, he conceived
+the idea of giving an immense lawn-party, to which nearly everybody
+should be invited. He had shut himself up too much, he thought--he must
+mingle more with the people, and build around himself a wall so strong
+that nothing in the future could quite break it down.
+
+Peter and the rest of his servants were consulted and entered heartily
+into his plan. Cards of invitation were issued bearing the Crompton
+monogram, and a notice inserted in the daily paper to the effect that
+any who failed to receive a card were to know it was a mistake, and come
+just the same. There was a great deal of excitement among the people,
+for it had been a long time since any hospitality had been extended to
+them, and they were eager to go, knowing that something fine was to be
+expected, as the Colonel never did anything by halves. The day of the
+lawn-party was perfect--neither too hot nor too cold--and the sun which
+shone upon that humble funeral in the palmetto clearing shone upon a
+very different scene in the Crompton grounds, where the people began to
+assemble as early as one o'clock. The grass on the lawn was like velvet,
+without a stick or stone to be seen, for two gardeners had been at work
+upon it since sunrise, cutting and raking, and sprinkling, until it was
+as fresh as after a soft summer shower. The late roses and white lilies
+were in full bloom, the latter filling the air with a sweet odor and
+making a lovely background. There were tables and chairs under the
+maples and elms, and rugs and pieces of carpet wherever there was a
+suspicion of dampness in the ground. There was a brass band in one part
+of the grounds, and a string band in another, where the young people
+danced under the trees. Refreshments were served at five o'clock, and
+the festivities were kept up till the sun went down, and half the
+children were sick from overeating--the mothers were tired, and some of
+the men a little shaky in their legs, and thick in their speech, from a
+too frequent acquaintance with the claret punch which stood here and
+there in great bowls, free as water, and more popular. The crowning
+event of the day came when the hundreds of lanterns were lighted on the
+piazzas and in the trees, and every window in the house blazed with
+candles placed in so close proximity to each other, that objects could
+be plainly seen at some distance.
+
+The Colonel was going to make a speech, and he came out upon an upper
+balcony, where the light from ten tall lamps fell full upon him,
+bringing out every feature of his face distinctly. He was rather pale
+and haggard, but the people were accustomed to that, and charged it to
+the malaria. He was very distinguished looking, they thought, as they
+stood waiting for him to commence his speech. All the afternoon he had
+been the most courteous of hosts--a little too patronizing, perhaps, for
+that was his way, but very polite, with a pleasant word for every one.
+He knew he was making an impression, and felt proud in a way as Crompton
+of Crompton, when he stepped out upon the balcony and saw the eager,
+upturned faces, and heard the shout which greeted him. And still there
+was with him a feeling of unrest--a presentiment that on his horizon,
+seemingly so bright, a dark cloud was lowering, which might at any
+moment burst upon the head he held so high. He was always dreading it,
+but for the last few days the feeling had been stronger until now it was
+like a nightmare, and his knees shook as he bowed to the people
+confronting him and filling the air with cheers.
+
+No contrast could have been greater than that between the scene on which
+he looked down--the park, the flowers, the fountains, and the
+people--and the palmetto clearing in far away Florida. He did not know
+of the funeral and the group assembled around the log-cabin. But he knew
+of the clearing. He had been there, and always felt his blood tingle
+when he thought of it, and it was the picture of it which had haunted
+him all day, and which came and stood beside him, shutting out
+everything else, as he began to thank the people for the honor conferred
+upon him by calling the town by his name.
+
+He didn't deserve it, he said. He didn't deserve anything from anybody.
+
+"Yes, you do," went up from a hundred throats, for under the influence
+of the good cheer and the attention paid them the man was for the time
+being a hero.
+
+"No, I don't," he continued. "I am a morally weak man--weaker than
+water where my pride is concerned--and if you knew me as I know myself
+you would say I was more deserving of tar and feathers than the honor
+you have conferred upon me."
+
+This was not at all what he intended to say, but the words seemed forced
+from him by that picture of the palmetto clearing standing so close to
+him. His audience did not know what he meant. So far as they knew he had
+been perfectly upright, with no fault but his pride and coldness by
+which he came rightfully as a Crompton. He must have visited the punch
+bowls too often, they thought, and didn't know what he was talking
+about. After a pause, during which he was trying to thrust aside the
+clearing, and the log-house, and the old woman in her chair, and Mandy
+Ann, and to pull himself together, he went on to say:
+
+"You have been for a long time discussing the site of a new
+school-house, in place of the old one which stands so near the marshes,
+that it is a wonder your children have not all died with fever and ague.
+Some of you want it on the hill--some under the hill--some in one place,
+and some in another. Nobody wants it near his own premises. A
+school-house with a lot of howling children is not a desirable neighbor
+to most people. For my part I don't object to it. I like children."
+
+Here he stopped suddenly as the image of a child he had never seen came
+before him and choked his utterance, while the people looked at each
+other, and wondered how long he had been so fond of children. It was
+generally conceded that he did not care for them--disliked them in
+fact--and he had never been known to notice one in any way. Surely he
+had been too near the claret bowls. He detected the thought of those
+nearest to him, and continued:
+
+"I am not one to show all I feel. It is not my nature. I am interested
+in children, and as proof of it I will tell you my plan. There are two
+acres of land on the south side of the park. I fenced it off for an
+artificial pond, but gave it up. There is a spring of good water there,
+with plenty of shade trees for the children to play under. I will give
+this land for the new school-house."
+
+Here he was obliged to stop, the cheers were so deafening. When they
+subsided he went on rapidly:
+
+"I will build the house, too. Such an one as will not shame District No.
+5 in Crompton. It shall be a model house, well lighted and ventilated,
+with broad, comfortable seats, especially for the little ones, whose
+feet shall touch the floor. It shall be commenced at once, and finished
+before the winter term."
+
+He bowed and sat down, white and perspiring at every pore, and hardly
+knowing to what he had committed himself. The cheers were now a roar
+which went echoing out into the night, and were heard nearly as far as
+the village on the beach, the people wondering more and more at his
+generosity, and sudden interest in their little ones. And no one
+wondered more than himself. He did not care a picayune for children, nor
+whether their feet touched the floor or not, and he had not intended
+pledging himself to build the house when he began. But as he talked, the
+palmetto clearing stared him in the face, shutting out everything from
+his vision, except a long seat directly in front of him, on which
+several little girls whose feet could not touch the ground were fast
+asleep, their heads falling over upon each other, and the last one
+resting upon the arm of the settee. It was a pretty picture, and stirred
+in him feelings he had never experienced before. He would do something
+for the children, expiatory, he said to himself, as he sat down,
+thinking he ought to be the proudest and happiest of men to have the
+town called for him, and to stand so high in the esteem of his fellow
+citizens. What would they say if they knew what he did, and how cowardly
+he was because of his pride. Sometime they must know. It could not be
+otherwise, but he would put off the evil day as long as he could, and
+when, at last, his guests began to leave, and he went down to bid them
+good-night, his head was high with that air of patronage and superiority
+natural to him, and which the people tolerated because he was Col.
+Crompton.
+
+That night he had a chill--the result of so much excitement to which he
+was not accustomed, he said to Peter, who brought him a hot-water bag
+and an extra blanket, and would like to have suggested his favorite
+remedies, quinine and cholagogue, but experience had taught him wisdom,
+and putting down the hot-water bag and blanket, he left the room with a
+casual remark about the fine day, and how well everything had passed
+off, "only a few men a little boozy," he said, "and three or four
+children with bruised heads caused by a fall from a swing."
+
+The lawn-party had been a great success, and the Colonel knew he ought
+to be the happiest man in town, whereas he was the most miserable. He
+could not hear Mandy Ann's curses as she knelt on her mistress's grave,
+nor see her dusky arms swaying in the darkness to emphasize her
+maledictions. He didn't know there was a grave, but something weighed
+him down with unspeakable remorse. Every incident of his first visit
+South came back to him with startling vividness, making him wonder why
+God had allowed him to do what he had done. Then he remembered his trip
+on the "Hatty," when he kept himself aloof from everybody, with a morbid
+fear lest he should see some one who knew him, or had heard of him, or
+would meet him again. He remembered the log-house and his supper, when
+Mandy Ann served from a dinner-plate, and his napkin was a pocket
+handkerchief. He remembered the mumbling old woman in her chair; but
+most of all he remembered the girl who sat opposite him. Her face was
+always with him, and it came before him now, just as it was in the
+moonlight, when she said: "You can trust me. I will do the best I can."
+
+She had stood with her hands upon the fence and he saw them as they
+looked then, and holding up his own he said, "They were little brown
+hands, but they should have been white like mine. Poor Dory!"
+
+There was a throb of pity in his heart as his remorse increased, and the
+hot night seemed to quiver with the echo of Mandy Ann's "cuss him, cuss
+him wherever he may be, and if his bed is soff as wool doan' let him
+sleep a wink." His bed was soft as wool, but it had no attraction for
+him, and he sat with his hot-water bag and blanket until his chill
+passed, and was succeeded by a heat which made him put blanket and bag
+aside, and open both the windows of his room. The late moon had risen
+and was flooding the grounds with its light, bringing out distinctly the
+objects nearest to him. Some tables and chairs were left standing, a few
+lanterns were hanging in the trees, and in front of him was the long
+bench on which the little girls had been sleeping, with their feet from
+the ground, when he made his speech. The sight of this brought to his
+mind the day three years before when, just as his plans were perfected,
+there had come a letter which made him stagger as from a heavy blow,
+while all around him was chaos, dark and impenetrable. In most men the
+letter would have awakened a feeling of tenderness, but he was not like
+most men. He was utterly selfish, and prouder than any Crompton in the
+long line of that proud race, and, instead of tenderness or pity, he
+felt an intense anger against the fate which had thus dealt with him
+when he was trying to do right.
+
+What to do next was the question, which Tom Hardy, as cold and unfeeling
+as himself, answered for him.
+
+"You are in an awful mess," he wrote, "and the only course I see is to
+keep them supplied with money, and let things run until they come to a
+focus, as I suppose they must, though they may not. Florida is a long
+ways from Massachusetts. Few Northerners ever go to Enterprise, and if
+they do they may not hear of the clearing and its inmates. The girl is
+not over-bright. I beg your pardon, but she isn't, and will be apt to be
+quiet when she makes up her mind that she is deserted. The only one you
+have to fear is that nigger, Jake; but I reckon we can manage him; so
+cheer up and never make such an infernal fool of yourself again."
+
+Something in this letter had grated on the Colonel's feelings--the
+reference to the girl, perhaps--but he had decided to follow Tom's
+advice, and let things run until they came to a focus. They had run
+pretty smoothly for three years, and only a few letters, forwarded by
+his friend who now lived in Palatka, and kept a kind of oversight of the
+clearing, came to trouble him. These he always burned, but he could not
+forget, and the past was always with him, not exactly as it was on the
+night after his lawn-party, when it seemed to him that all the powers of
+the bottomless pit had united against him, and if ever a man expiated
+his wrong-doing in remorse and mental pain he was doing it. The
+laudations of the crowd which had cheered him so lustily were of no
+account, nor the honor conferred by giving the town his name. Nothing
+helped him as he stood with the sweat rolling down his face, and looked
+out upon his handsome grounds, which he did not see because of the
+palmetto clearing, and the little child, and the young mother on whose
+grave the moon was shining. Mandy Ann's curse was surely taking effect,
+for no sleep came to him that night, and the next day found him worn and
+pale, and when Peter, sure of a malarious attack worse than usual,
+ventured to offer his cholagogue and quinine, he was sworn at, and told
+to take himself off with his infernal drugs.
+
+"I am tired with yesterday's mob. I shall be better when I am rested,
+and get the taste out of my mouth of Tom, Dick, and Harry tramping over
+the premises," he thought.
+
+This was not very complimentary to the Tom's, and Dick's, and Harry's
+who had tramped through his grounds, but they did not know his thoughts,
+and were full of the lawn-party, and the new school-house, the work on
+which was commenced early in August, when a large number of men
+appeared, and were superintended and urged on by the Colonel himself.
+He did not work, but he was there every day, issuing orders and making
+suggestions, and in this way managing to dissipate in part the cloud
+always hanging over him, and which before long was to assume a form
+which he could not escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE CHILD OF THE CLEARING
+
+
+The school-house was finished, and was a model of comfort and
+convenience. It was well lighted and ventilated, and every child of
+whatever age could touch its feet to the floor. If it were in any sense
+expiatory, it had proven a success, for the palmetto clearing did not
+haunt the Colonel as it had done on the day of the lawn-party. It was a
+long time since he had heard from there, and he was beginning to wonder
+if anything had happened, when Peter brought him an odd-looking letter,
+directed wrong side up, written with a pencil, and having about it a
+faint perfume of very bad tobacco. It was addressed to "Mr. Kurnal
+Krompton, Troutberg, Mass." The writer evidently did not know of the
+recent change of name, and the letter had been long on the way, but had
+reached its destination at last, and was soiled and worn, and very
+second-class in its appearance, Peter decided, as he took it from the
+office and studied it carefully. No such missive had, to his knowledge,
+ever before found its way into the aristocratic precincts of Crompton
+Place. If it had he had not seen it, and he wondered who could have sent
+this one. He found his master taking his breakfast, and, holding the
+letter between his thumb and fingers, as if there were contamination in
+its touch, he handed it to him.
+
+"Fairly turned speckled when he looked at it," Peter thought, as he left
+the room. "Wish I had seen where it was mailed."
+
+An hour later, Jane, the housemaid, came to him and said, "The Colonel
+wants you."
+
+Peter found him in his bedroom, packing a satchel with a shaking hand
+and a face more speckled than it had been when he read the letter.
+
+"Peter," he said, "fold up these shirts for me, and put in some collars
+and socks. I am going on a little trip, and may be gone two weeks, maybe
+more. Hold your tongue."
+
+When he wished Peter to be particularly reticent, he told him to hold
+his tongue. Peter understood, and held it, and finished packing the
+satchel, ordered the carriage for the eleven o'clock train, and saw his
+master off, without knowing where he was going, except that his ticket
+was for New York.
+
+"That smelly letter has something to do with it, of course," he said. "I
+wish I knew where it was from."
+
+He was arranging the papers on the library table, when he stopped
+suddenly with an exclamation of surprise, for there, under his hand, lay
+the smelly letter, which the Colonel had forgotten to put away.
+
+"Phew! I thought I got a whiff of something bad," he said, and read
+again the superscription, with a growing contempt for the writer.
+"Nobody will know if I read it, and I shall hold my tongue, as usual,"
+he thought, his curiosity at last overcoming his sense of honor.
+
+Opening the envelope, he took out the piece of foolscap, on which was
+neither date nor name of place.
+
+"Kurnal Krompton," it began. "Yer fren' in Palatky done gone to Europe.
+He tole me yer name 'fore he went, an' so I rite meself to tell you Miss
+Dory's ded, an' ole Miss, too. She done dide a week ago, an' Miss Dory
+las' July. What shal I do wid de chile? I shood of rit when Miss Dory
+dide, but Mandy Ann an' me--you 'members Mandy Ann--sed how you'd be
+comin' to fotch her rite away, an' we cuddent bar to part wid her whilst
+ole Miss lived. But now she's done ded de chile doan or'to be brung up
+wid Crackers an' niggers, an' den dar's de place belonged to ole Miss,
+an' dar's Mandy Ann. She doan' or'ter be sole to nobody. I'd buy her an'
+set her free ef I had de money, but I hain't. She's a rale purty
+chile--de little girl. You mite buy Mandy Ann an' take her for lil
+chile's nuss. Jake Harris."
+
+"Jerusalem!" Peter exclaimed. "Here's a go. Who is Miss Dory? Some
+trollop, of course--and she is dead, and old Miss, too. Who is old Miss?
+and who is Mandy Ann the Colonel is to buy? I'd laugh, rank Abolitionist
+as he is! And what will he do with a child? Crackers and niggers? What
+is a Cracker?"
+
+Peter had no opinion on that head. He knew what a nigger was, and at
+once detected another odor besides bad tobacco, and opened the window to
+air the room. Then he began to study the postmark to see where the
+letter came from. It was not very clear, and it took him some time to
+make out "Palatka, Fla." The latter baffled him, it was so illegible,
+but he was sure of "Palatka," and wondered where it was. Hunting up an
+atlas, he went patiently through State after State, till he found
+Palatka, on the St. John's River, Florida.
+
+"Florida! That's where he's gone. There are niggers enough there, but
+who the Crackers are is beyond me," Peter said. "I believe I'll copy
+this, letter."
+
+He did copy it, and then waited for developments.
+
+Meanwhile the Colonel was hurrying South as fast as steam could take
+him. Arrived in New York, he found himself in time to take a boat bound
+for Savannah, and shutting himself up in his stateroom sat down to
+analyze his feelings, and solve the problem which had for so long been
+confronting him. A part of it was solved for him. Eudora was dead; but
+there was the child. Something must be done with her, and Jake's words
+kept repeating themselves in his mind:
+
+"She doan or'ter be brung up wid Crackers an' niggers."
+
+"No, she don't or'ter," the Colonel thought, involuntarily adopting
+Jake's dialect; but what to do with her was the question.
+
+If Tom Hardy had been home he would have consulted him, but Tom was
+away, and he must face the difficulty alone, knowing perfectly well what
+his duty was, and finally making up his mind to do it. If he chose to
+adopt a child it was no one's business. As a Crompton he was above
+caring for gossip or public opinion. To be sure the child would be a
+nuisance, and a constant reminder of what he would like to forget; but
+it was right, and he owed it to the mother to care for her little girl.
+He began to think a good deal of himself for this kind of reasoning, and
+by the time he reached Jacksonville he had made up his mind that he was
+a pretty nice man after all, and felt happier than he had in years.
+Death had closed one page of his life, and the distance between Florida
+and Massachusetts would close the other, and he was much like himself
+when he at last stepped on board the "Hatty," and started up the river.
+
+There was room for him at the Brock House this time, and he registered
+his name. "Col. James Crompton, Crompton, Mass.," and said he had come
+to look after a family in the palmetto clearing, Harris was the name,
+and through a friend he was interested in them. The landlord was not the
+same who had been there on the occasion of the Colonel's first visit,
+but he knew something about the clearing, and volunteered whatever
+information he had concerning the family, speaking of the recent death
+of the demented old woman, and of the little child left to the care of
+two negroes, and saying, he hoped the gentleman had come to take it to
+its friends, if it had any.
+
+The Colonel bowed and said that was his business, and early the next
+morning started on foot along the road he had trodden twice before, and
+which brought Eudora before him so vividly that it seemed as if she were
+walking at his side, and once, as some animal ran through the bushes
+near the grave at the turn of the road, he started at the sound as if it
+had been the rustle of Eudora's white dress as he heard it that day. He
+was beginning to get nervous, and by the time the clearing was reached
+he was as cold as he had been at home, when Peter brought him the
+hot-water bag and blanket. He noticed the improvements which had been
+made in the place since he was there last, and knew it was Jake's
+handiwork. He had never seen the man, and shrank a little from meeting
+him, knowing how infinitely superior to himself in a moral way the poor
+African was. He remembered Mandy Ann perfectly, and recognized her as
+she came to the door, shading her eyes with her hand to look at him;
+then she disappeared suddenly, and Jake, who was at the rear of the
+house, fixing a barrel to catch rain-water, was clutched by the arm, and
+nearly thrown backwards, as the girl exclaimed: "For the Lawd's sake,
+Jake, it's comin'--it's comin'--it's hyar!"
+
+"What's comin'? The las' day, that you look so skeered?" Jake said,
+while Mandy Ann continued: "De man from de Norf, Cunnel Crompton, you
+call him--done come for lill chile!"
+
+She put her apron over her face and began to cry, while Jake wiped his
+hands, and hurrying round the house, met the Colonel just as he reached
+the door. There was not the least servility in Jake's manner, although
+it was respectful, as he said, "How d'ye, Mas'r Crompton. I'm shoo it's
+you, an' I'se right glad to see you, though I 'spects you done come for
+the lill chile, an' I feel fit to bust when I think of partin' wid her.
+Walk in, walk in; take a cheer, an' I'll sen' Mandy Ann for de lill
+chile. She's in de play-house I made her, jess dis side de graves, whar
+she sits an' plays. Thar's a tree thar an' she calls it de shady."
+
+"Thanks!" the Colonel said, taking a chair, while Jake went for Mandy
+Ann, and found her struggling with the child, not far from the door.
+
+The _chile_ had seen the stranger as soon as Mandy Ann; and as visitors
+were rare at the cabin, and she was fond of society, she left her sand
+pies, and her slice of bread and molasses, and started for the house,
+meeting Mandy Ann, who seized her, saying, "Come an' have on a clean
+frock and be _wassed_. Your face is all sticky, an' han's, too--an' de
+gemman from de Norf, de Cunnel, is hyar."
+
+As it happened, the _chile_ didn't approve of changing her dress and
+having her face washed. She was in a hurry to see the gentleman, and she
+pulled back, and fought, and called Mandy Ann an "ole nigger," and told
+her to "leg-go," and finally wrenched herself free, and ran like a
+little spider to the house, and into the room where the Colonel was
+sitting. Starting to his feet he stood looking down at the mite staring
+at him with her great dark eyes, in which was a look which had puzzled
+the Rev. Mr. Mason when he saw her at her mother's funeral. She was a
+very pretty child, with a round, chubby face just now smeared with
+molasses, as were her fat little hands, while her dress, open at the
+back, showed signs of the sand and water with which it had come in
+contact. And she stood, holding the Colonel with her eyes, until he
+began to feel cold again, and to think of his hot-water bag. He did not
+care for children, and this one--
+
+"Heavens!" he thought to himself. "Can I do it? Yes, I must!"
+
+Then, putting out his hand, he said, "Little girl, will you shake hands
+with me."
+
+Nothing abashed she was going forward, when Mandy Ann rushed in and
+pulled her back, exclaiming: "Oh, sar, not wid dem han's; dey mus' be
+wassed."
+
+"You ole Mandy Ann nigger, you lemme be. I won't be wassed," was the
+sharp reply, and the dark eyes flashed with a fire which made the
+Colonel think of himself when roused, and he began to feel a good deal
+of respect for the spoiled tyrant.
+
+"Little girl," he said, very gently, but firmly, "Go with Mandy and be
+washed, and then come and see--" he came very near saying "see what I
+have brought you," without at all knowing why it should have come into
+his mind.
+
+It had never occurred to him to bring her anything, but he wished now
+that he had, and began to wonder what he had that would please a child.
+He was fond of jewelry, and wore on his watch-chain several ornaments,
+and among them a very small, delicately carved book in ivory. He could
+detach it easily, and he began to do so, while the child eyed him
+curiously. She had seen very few gentlemen, and this one attracted her,
+he was so tall and imposing; and when he said again, "Go and be washed,"
+she obeyed him, and the Colonel was a second time alone, for Jake was
+making his ablutions, and changing his working clothes for his best, in
+which he looked very respectable, when he at last rejoined his guest,
+and began at once in a trembling voice to speak of the business which
+had brought the Colonel there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE COLONEL AND JAKE
+
+
+"I 'lowed you had the best right to her because 'twas you that sent the
+money," he said.
+
+The Colonel neither assented nor dissented, and Jake went on: "Thar is
+nobody else. Miss Dory never tole nothin'; she was silent as de grave
+about--him--de fader of de lill chile, I mean. 'It's all right,' she'd
+say. 'I tole him I wouldn't tell till he came--an' I won't--but, it's
+all right. Elder Covil knows--send for him.' That's just afore she
+died."
+
+"And did you send for him?" the Colonel asked with some alarm, and Jake
+replied: "I went for him an' he wasn't thar--had moved off--an' another
+gemman, the Rev. Mr. Charles Mason, what I foun' at the hotel, 'tended
+de buryin' with his pra'r book, 'case I wanted somethin' 'bout de
+Resurrection an' de Life. 'Twas as fust class a funeral as we could have
+out hyer. She wore her white gown--the one Mandy Ann says she wore when
+you war hyer. You members it?"
+
+The Colonel nodded, and Jake, thinking he could do nothing better than
+repeat all the particulars, went on: "She had a nice coffin from
+Palatka, an' Mandy Ann done fixed her rale nice, wid flowers in her
+han's, an' on her bosom, an', does you 'member givin' Mandy Ann a dollar
+when you's here afore?"
+
+Again the Colonel nodded and Jake went on: "Well, she done bought a
+ring wid some of it--not rale gold, you know, but looked most like
+it--an' what do you think Mandy Ann did, as the last thing she could do
+for Miss Dory?"
+
+Jake was growing excited, and the Colonel nervous, as the negro
+continued: "It was too small for her, to be shue, but she thought a
+sight on't, but more of Miss Dory's good name."
+
+There was a great ridge in the Colonel's forehead, between his eyes, as
+he repeated, "Her good name?"
+
+"Yes, sar," Jake answered. "What could you 'spec when dar's a lill
+chile, and no fader for shoo, as anybody knows, but me an' Mandy Ann,
+an' Mas'r Hardy. Naterally they'd talk. But I 'shured 'em 'twas all
+right, an' knocked down one or two Crackers what grinned when I tole
+'em, an' Mandy Ann did a power of fitin'. She's great at it--jess like a
+cat, an' we got 'em pretty much all under, except a few ole women, who
+never quite gin in till de last. Ole granny Thomas was de worst, an' de
+rest follered her; but she gin in when she seen de ring Mandy Ann
+slipped on Miss Dory's weddin' finger, an' dar wasn't a s'picion on de
+lam' as she lay in her coffin."
+
+The Colonel's lips moved spasmodically, while Jake continued: "Thar was
+a right smart of 'em hyar, an' the minister read from de pra'r book jest
+as I seen 'em in Virginny 'mongst de quality, an' when de blacks set up
+a singin' so loud that ole Aunt Judy nighly had de pow'--dat's a kind of
+fit, you know, when dey gits to feelin' like kingdom come--I stopped
+her. I was boun' to have de funeral fust class. When ole Miss died, I
+let 'em have dar way, an' ole Aunt Judy had de pow' till her missus, who
+was hyar, shook her out on't. That was ole Miss Thomas, who stood out
+agin Miss Dory till she seen de ring. She says to me, says she, 'Does
+you know whar de chile's fader is?' an' says I, 'S'posin' I do?' 'Then
+sen' for him,' says she. 'Tain't fittin' de chile to stay on hyar.' 'I'm
+gwine to sen',' says I, an' I did, an' you've done come. Is you gwine to
+take her?"
+
+Jake's broad chest heaved as he asked this question, to which the
+Colonel replied, "That is what I came for."
+
+Jake had assumed that he was the child's father, and he did not
+contradict him, but said, "You call her the child. Has she no name?"
+
+"Yes, Dory; dat's what her mother called her, but to me dar's only one
+Dory, an' she's dead, an' 'twas handy to say de _lill chile_ or _honey_.
+Is you gwine to take her right away?"
+
+"Yes, when the 'Hatty' goes back," the Colonel replied, with a feeling
+of pity for the negro, whose face was quivering, and whose voice shook
+as he said, "It's best, I s'pose, but 'twill be mighty lonesome hyar,
+with the chile gone from de 'shady' whar she plays, an' from de cradle
+whar I rocks her, an' from dese arms what totes her many a time, when
+she goes through de clarin' in de woods. You wouldn't be wantin' me an
+Mandy Ann to go wid you? De chile is wonderfully 'tached to us, an' has
+some spells only we can manage."
+
+The Colonel shook his head. Jake and Mandy Ann knew too much for him to
+take them North. The child would soon forget its surroundings. People
+would stop wondering after a while, and the past would be bridged over,
+as far as was possible. On the whole the future looked brighter than it
+had done for years, and on this account the Colonel could afford to be
+very suave and gentle with this poor negro.
+
+"No, Jake," he said, very kindly. "You would not be happy at the North,
+it is so different from the South. I cannot take you, nor Mandy Ann, but
+I shall reward you for all you have done for the child, and for her
+mother."
+
+The last words came slowly, and there was a kind of tremor in the
+Colonel's voice.
+
+"I 'specs you are right," Jake said meekly; "but it'll be mighty hard,
+an' what's gwine to become of Mandy Ann? Who does she 'long to, now Miss
+Dory an' ole Miss is both dead? I 'longs to myself, but what of Mandy
+Ann?"
+
+Here was a problem the Colonel had not thought of. But his mind worked
+rapidly and clearly, and he soon reached a decision, but before he could
+speak of it the child appeared. It had taken a long time to wash and
+dress her, for the little hands were grimy, and the face very sticky,
+and a good deal of scrubbing had been necessary, with a good deal of
+squabbling, too--and the Colonel had heard some of the altercations--the
+child's voice the louder, as she protested against the soap and water
+used so freely. Jake had closed one of the doors to shut out the noise,
+saying as he did so, "She's got a heap of sperrit, but not from de
+Harrises, dey hadn't an atom."
+
+It did not puzzle the Colonel at all to know where the _sperrit_ came
+from, and he did not like the child the less because of it. She was in
+the room now, scrubbed till her face shone, and her hair, which was
+curly, lay in rings upon her forehead. Mandy Ann had put on her best
+frock, a white one, stiff with starch, and standing out like a small
+balloon. The Colonel liked her better in the limp, soiled gown, as he
+had seen her first, but she was clean, and she came to him and put up
+her hand as Mandy Ann had told her to do. It was a little soft, fat,
+baby hand, such as the Colonel had never touched in his life, and he
+took it and held it a moment, while the old malarious feeling crept over
+him, and he could have sworn that the thermometer, which, when he left
+the "Hatty" had stood at seventy-five, had fallen to forty degrees. As a
+quietus during the washing, Mandy Ann had suggested that "mabby de
+gemman done brung somethin'," and remembering this the little girl at
+once asked, "Has you done brung me sumptin'? Mandy Ann tole me so."
+
+The Colonel's thermometer dropped lower still at the speech, so
+decidedly African, and his pride rose up in rebellion, and his heart
+sank, as in fancy he heard this dialect in his Northern home. But he
+must bear it, and when, as he did not at once respond to her question,
+she said, "Has you done brung me sumptin'?" he was glad he had removed
+the little ivory book from his watch-chain. It was something, and he
+gave it to her, saying, "This is for you--a little book. Do you know
+what a book is?"
+
+She was examining the ornament on the back of which was carved a
+miniature bar of music, with three or four notes. The child had seen
+written music in a hymn-book, which belonged to her mother, and from
+which she had often pretended to sing, when she played at a _funeral_,
+or prayer meeting, as she sometimes did under the _shady_. Jake had not
+spoken of this habit to the Colonel. He was waiting to take him to the
+graves, and the play-house near them, and he was watching the child as
+she examined the carving. Lifting up her bright eyes to the Colonel,
+she said, "Moosich--me sing," and a burst of childish song rang through
+the room--part of a negro melody, and "Me wants to be an angel"
+alternating in a kind of melody, to which the Colonel listened in
+wonder.
+
+"Me done sing dood," she said, and her eyes shone and flashed, and her
+bosom rose and fell, as if she were standing before an audience, sure of
+success and applause.
+
+Jake did clap his hands when she finished, and said to the Colonel, "She
+done goes on dat way very often. She's wonderful wid her voice an' eyes.
+'Specs she'll make a singer. She's a little quar--dem Harrises--"
+
+Here he stopped suddenly, and asked, "Is you cole?" as he saw the
+Colonel shiver. He knew the Harrises were _quar_, and this dark-haired,
+dark-eyed child singing in a shrill, high-pitched, but very sweet voice,
+seemed to him uncanny, and he shrank from her as she said. "Me sing some
+mo'."
+
+Jake now interfered, saying, "No, honey; we're gwine to yer mother's
+grave."
+
+"Me go, too," the child answered, slipping her hand into the Colonel's
+and leading the way to a little enclosure where the Harrises were
+buried.
+
+The Colonel felt _quar_ with that hand holding his so tight, and the
+child hippy-ty-hopping by his side over the boards Jake had put down for
+a walk to the graveyard.
+
+"Dis mine. Me play here," the child said, more intent upon her
+play-house than upon her mother's grave.
+
+The play-house was a simple affair, which Jake had constructed. There
+were two pieces of board for a floor, and a small bench for a table, on
+which were bits of broken cups and saucers, the slice of bread and
+molasses the child had left when she went to see the stranger, a rag
+doll, fashioned from a cob, with a cloth head stuffed with bran, and a
+book, soiled and worn as from frequent usage. The child made the Colonel
+look at the doll which she called Judy, "after ole mammy Judy, who came
+nigh havin' de pow' at de funeral, an' who done made it for her," Jake
+explained. The book--a child's reader--was next taken up, the little
+girl saying, "Mamma's book--me read," and opening it she made a pretense
+of reading something which sounded like "Now I lay me." The Colonel, who
+had freed his hand from the fingers which had held it so fast, looked
+inquiringly at Jake, who said, "Miss Dory's book; she done read it a
+sight, 'case 'twas easier readin' dan dem books from Palatka; an' she
+could larn somethin' from it, but de long words floored her an' me, too,
+who tried to help her."
+
+For a moment the Colonel seemed agitated, and taking the book from the
+child he said, "Can I have it?"
+
+"No, sar!" Jake answered emphatically. "I wouldn't part wid it for de
+world. It's a part of Miss Dory, an' she tried so hard to read good an'
+be a lady. Mandy Ann lived a spell wid de quality, an' got some o' dar
+ways, an' I got some in Virginny, an' we tole 'em to her, an' she done
+tried till towards de las' she gin it up. ''Taint no use,' she said to
+me. 'I'm 'scouraged. I can never be a lady. Ef he comes after I'm dead,
+tell him I tried an' couldn't.' She meant the chile's fader, her
+husband. Ain't you her husband?"
+
+It was a direct question, and Jake's honest eyes were looking steadily
+at the Colonel, whose lips were white, and opened and shut two or three
+times before he answered, "I am nobody's husband, and never shall be. I
+knew your young mistress, and was interested in her, and shall care for
+the child. Don't ask me any more questions."
+
+Up to this moment Jake had felt quite softened towards the man he had
+once thought to kill. But now he wanted to knock him down, but
+restrained himself with a great effort, and answered, "I axes yer
+pardon, but I'se allus thought so--an'--an'--I thinks so still."
+
+To this there was no reply, and Jake, who had sent home his shaft, which
+he knew was making the proud man quiver, spoke next of a monument for
+Miss Dory, and asked where he'd better get it.
+
+"Where you think best," the Colonel answered. "Only get a good one, and
+send the bill to me."
+
+"Yes, sar; thank'ee, Mas'r," Jake said, beginning to feel somewhat less
+like knocking the Colonel down. "What shall I put on it?" he asked, and
+the Colonel replied, "What was on her coffin?"
+
+"Jess 'Eudora, aged twenty.' I didn' know no odder name--las' name, I
+mean. I was shue 'twan't Harris."
+
+"Put the same on the monument," the Colonel said; "and, Jake, keep the
+grave up. She was a good girl."
+
+"Fo' de Lawd, I knows dat, an' I thank'ee, Mas'r, for sayin' dem words
+by de grave whar mabby she done har'em; thank'ee."
+
+The tears were in Jake's eyes, as he grasped the Colonel's hand and
+looked into the face which had relaxed from its sternness, and was
+quivering in every muscle. The proud man was moved, and felt that if he
+were alone he would have knelt in the hot sand by Eudora's grave, and
+asked pardon for the wrong he had done her. But Jake was there, and the
+child looking on with wide-open eyes, and though she did not understand
+what was said she knew that Jake was crying, and charged it to the
+stranger--"the bad man, to make Shaky cry--I hates 'oo," she said,
+beginning to strike at him.
+
+"Hush! honey, hush!" Jake said, while the Colonel began to feel the need
+of several hot-water bags as he went back to the house where Mandy Ann,
+remembering the hospitable ways at Miss Perkins's when people called,
+had set out for him the best the house afforded, including the china
+plate he remembered so well.
+
+He felt that to eat would choke him, but forced himself to take a sip of
+coffee and a bit of corn bread. The little girl had remained behind in
+her play-house, and he was glad of that. She was a restraint upon him.
+He wanted to talk business, and he did not know how much she would
+understand. When her great bright eyes were on him he felt nervous as if
+she were reading his thoughts, and was more himself with her away. He
+must talk about her and her going with him on the "Hatty," and Jake
+listened with a swelling heart, and Mandy Ann with her apron over her
+head to hide her tears. They knew it must be, and tried to suppress
+their feelings.
+
+"It's like takin' my life," Jake said, "but it's for de best. Miss Dory
+would say so, but, Mas'r Crompton, you'll fotch her back sometime to de
+ole place. You'll tell her of her mudder, an' me, an' Mandy Ann. You
+won't let her done forget."
+
+Nothing could be further from the Colonel's intentions than to let the
+child come back, and everything he could do to make her forget was to be
+done, but he could not say so to Jake, and with some evasive answer he
+hurried on to business, and spoke of the house and clearing, which now
+by right of inheritance belonged to the child. As he assumed her
+guardianship he should also assume an oversight of her property, and it
+was his wish that Jake should stay on the place, receiving a certain sum
+yearly for his services, and having all he could make besides. For
+anything of his own which he had spent on the clearing he was to be
+repaid, and all the money Eudora had put by was to be his. Jake felt
+like a millionaire, and expressed his thanks with choking sobs. Then,
+glancing at Mandy Ann, he asked as he had asked before, "An' what 'bout
+Mandy Ann? I 'longs to myself, but who's she 'long to, now ole Miss an'
+young Miss is dead?"
+
+"Yes, who's nigger be I? Whar am I gwine?" Mandy Ann cried, jerking her
+apron from her head.
+
+"In the natural sequence of things you belong to the little girl," the
+Colonel replied, adding, "I might buy you--"
+
+But he got no further. All of Mandy Ann's animosity, when Ted suggested
+that the man from the North had come to buy her, and she had begged her
+mistress to save her from such a fate, had returned, and she exclaimed
+vehemently, "Fo' de Lawd, not dat ar. Lemme stay hyar. You 'members Ted,
+de colored boy on de 'Hatty.' We's kep' company, off an' on, a year,
+sometimes quarrelin', and den makin' up. I can't leave Ted."
+
+Her soul was in her eyes, as she begged for herself and Ted, and the
+Colonel hastened to say, "You did not let me finish. I couldn't buy you,
+if I would, and if I did I'd set you free. I will see that this is done
+some time."
+
+"Bress you, Mas'r, for dat ar," Mandy Ann began, but the Colonel stopped
+her by saying, "You are young to be keeping company."
+
+"I'se 'most as ole as Miss Dory when lill chile was born," was the
+reply, which silenced the Colonel with regard to her age.
+
+He had quite a liking for Mandy Ann, and meant to do all he could for
+her and Jake, and after some further conversation it was arranged that
+she should stay with the latter, the Colonel promising to see that her
+wages were paid, and saying that she could keep the money for herself.
+He was certainly acting generously towards the two blacks, who would
+have been happy but for the parting with the child, which weighed so
+heavily upon them. There was not much time left, for the "Hatty" sailed
+early the next morning, and the Colonel must be on board that night.
+
+Great as was their grief it was nothing compared to the antagonism of
+the child, when she heard she was to go with the Colonel, and leave Jake
+and Mandy Ann behind. She would _not_ go, she said, and fought like a
+little tiger when that evening the Colonel came for her, and Mandy Ann
+tried to dress her for the journey. Under the table, and lounge, and
+chairs she crawled in her efforts to hide, and finally springing into
+Jake's lap begged him to keep her, promising to be good and never call
+him nor Mandy Ann niggers again, and nearly breaking Jake's heart with
+her tears and pretty coaxings. At last worn out with excitement, and
+feeling that the battle was against her, she sobbed, "Go wid me, Shaky,
+if I goes."
+
+"I 'spects I'll hev to go part way--say to Savannah--ef you gets her off
+quiet. Thar's that in her will make her jump inter de river ef we pushes
+her too far," Jake said, and the Colonel, who was sweating like rain,
+and did not care for a scene on the "Hatty," finally consented for Jake
+to accompany them to Savannah, trusting Providence for what might
+follow.
+
+Thus quieted the child made no resistance when Mandy Ann changed her
+soiled white dress for one more suitable for the trip, and then began to
+pack her few belongings. Here the Colonel stopped her. He did not know
+much about children's clothes, but he felt intuitively that nothing of
+the child's present wardrobe would ever be worn at Crompton Place. He
+did not say this in so many words, but Mandy Ann understood him and
+asked, "Ain't she to carry nothin'?"
+
+"Nothing but what is necessary on the road," the Colonel replied, and an
+old satchel was filled with a night-dress, a clean apron, a pair of
+stockings, and Mandy Ann's tears, which fell like rain as she performed
+her last office for the little girl, who, now that Jaky was going, began
+to look forward to the trip with childish delight.
+
+Judy was wrapped carefully in paper and put into the satchel, and then
+she was ready. Mandy Ann went with her to the boat, where, as it was
+late, scarcely any one was visible except Ted, to whom Mandy Ann
+intrusted her charge, bidding him _'muse_ her when he could, and
+whispering to him the good luck which had come to her and Jake through
+the Colonel's generosity. Then with a terrible wrench in her heart, she
+took the child in her arms and said, "Doan' you forget me, honey, an'
+some time you'll be comin' agen. Oh, I can't bar it!" and with a wail
+which was scarcely like a human cry she dropped the child, and hurrying
+from the boat ran swiftly up the lane, and was soon out of sight. There
+were two or three bursts of tears for Mandy Ann, but for the most part
+the little girl was quiet until Savannah was reached, and she heard Jake
+was to leave her. Then she showed of what she was capable, and the
+Colonel looked on aghast, wondering what he should do when Jake was
+gone. She had played on the way with Judy, whose appearance had provoked
+a smile from some of the passengers, making the Colonel wonder if there
+were not something more reputable in looks than Judy, with her features
+of ink and the sewed-up gash in the side of her neck from which a little
+bran was still oozing. He didn't know much about dolls, but was sure
+there must be some in Savannah, and he went on a tour of inspection, and
+found a gold ring with a small stone in it for Mandy Ann in place of the
+one buried with poor Dory. This he would give to Jake to take home to
+the negro girl, he thought, and then continued his search for dolls,
+finding one which could stand up, and sit down, and was gorgeous in a
+satin dress, with earrings in its ears. This was more in keeping with
+his ideas, and he took it to the hotel, hoping he had seen the last of
+Judy, who, he suggested, should be thrown away. He didn't know children.
+The little girl was delighted with her new doll, which she handled
+gingerly, as if afraid to touch it, and which she called Mandy Ann. But
+she clung to Judy just the same, quite to the disgust of the Colonel.
+
+Poor Jake grew thin during the few days they spent in Savannah, and he
+knew he was nearing the end.
+
+"I must buy her somfin'," he thought, and one morning when he was
+walking with her past a dry goods store he saw in the window a little
+scarlet merino cloak, lined with white satin, and looking so pretty that
+he stopped to look at it, while the little girl jumped up and down,
+exclaiming, "Oh, the buffitel cloak. Me wants it, Shaky; me wants it."
+
+Going into the store Jake inquired the price, which was so large that
+his heart sank. It would take nearly all the money he had with him to
+buy it, but reflecting that the Colonel was paying his bills, and that
+on his return home he could eat two meals a day, and light ones at that,
+until he had saved the required sum, he bought the cloak; and, when the
+final parting came, wrapped it round the little girl, and carrying her
+to the steamer put her down, and left hurriedly, while she rolled on the
+floor screaming for Shaky, and bumping her head against a settee. As the
+boat moved off, Jake stood on the wharf watching it for a long distance,
+with a feeling that all the brightness of his life had vanished with the
+little girl, whom the harassed and half-crazed Colonel would have given
+much to have left with him had it been practicable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+EUDORA
+
+
+The Colonel had been gone nearly three weeks and no one knew where he
+was, or thought it strange that they didn't. It was his habit to go
+suddenly and return just as suddenly. Peter had his opinion, and felt
+curious to know if the Colonel would bring back Jake and Mandy Ann
+besides the child, and had many a hearty laugh by himself as he imagined
+the consternation of the household when this menagerie was turned in
+upon them. Naturally his master would let him know when to expect him,
+he thought, and was greatly surprised one morning when a station hack
+drove into the yard, and the Colonel entered the house looking years
+older than when he went away.
+
+With him was a little girl, three years old or more, clinging to his
+hand as if in fear. Her garments were all coarse and old-fashioned,
+except the scarlet merino cloak. The hood was drawn over her head, and
+from it there looked out a pair of eyes, which, had Peter ever heard of
+the word, he would have said were uncanny, they were so large, and
+bright, and moved so rapidly from one object to another. She dropped the
+hood from her head, and began tugging at the ribbons of her cloak, while
+her lip quivered as if she were about to cry. It came at last, not like
+anything Peter had ever heard, and was more like a howl than a cry, for
+"Shaky; me wants Shaky."
+
+It was loud, and shrill, and penetrated to all parts of the house,
+bringing Sally, the cook, Jane, the chambermaid, and Sam, the coachman,
+all into the hall, where they stood appalled at what they saw.
+
+"Shaky, Shaky," the child wailed on, frightened by the strange faces
+around her, and as he did not come she threw herself upon the floor, and
+began to bump her head up and down, her last resort when her paroxysms
+were at their height.
+
+The Colonel had borne a good deal since leaving Savannah, and had more
+than once been tempted to turn back and either bring Shaky, or leave the
+child with him. She had cried for him till she was purple in the face,
+and the stewardess had struck her on her back to make her catch her
+breath, and then taken her in her arms, and tried to comfort her.
+Perhaps it was owing to her color that the child took to her so readily
+that the Colonel said to her, "Keep her quiet, if you can, and I do not
+care what I pay you."
+
+After that the little girl staid mostly with the stewardess, and was
+comparatively happy. Judy was a great comfort to her, and she kept it
+hugged to her bosom through the day, and slept with it at night, and
+when she reached the Crompton House it was in the inside pocket of her
+cloak. Becoming detached from the pocket as she rolled on the floor it
+fell at Peter's feet, making him start, it was so unlike anything he had
+seen in years.
+
+"Great guns!" he exclaimed, spurning it with his foot, and sending it
+near the child, who snatched it up with a cry of "Judy, Judy, my Judy."
+
+"Who is she, and where did she come from?" the cook asked, while Jane
+tried to soothe the excited child.
+
+"Her name is Eudora Harris," the Colonel said. "Her father is a sneaking
+scoundrel; her mother was a good woman, and my friend. She is dead, and
+there is no one to care for her child but myself. I have brought her
+home to bring up as my own. Jaky is the colored man who took care of her
+with Mandy Ann, a colored girl. She will cry for her by and by."
+
+As if to prove his words true the child set up a howl for Mandy Ann; "me
+wants Mandy Ann," while the Colonel continued, "She is to be treated in
+all respects as a daughter of the house. Get her some decent clothes at
+once, you women who understand such things. Don't mind expense. Give her
+a pretty room, and I think you'd better hunt up some young person to
+look after her. Until the girl comes Jane must sleep in the room with
+her, and don't bother me unless it is necessary; I feel quite used up,
+and as if I had been through a thrashing-machine. I am not used to
+children, and this one is--well, to say the least, very extraordinary."
+
+This was a good deal for the Colonel to say at one time to his servants,
+who listened in wonder, none of them knowing anything except Peter, who
+kept his knowledge to himself. And this was all the explanation the
+Colonel gave, either to his servants, or to the people outside who knew
+better than to question him, and who never mentioned the child in his
+presence. Gossip, however, was rife in the neighborhood, and many were
+the surmises as to the parentage of the little girl who for a time
+turned the Crompton House upside down, and made it a kind of bedlam when
+her fits were on, and she was rolling on the floor, and bumping her
+head, with cries for Shaky and Mandy Ann. She was homesick, and cared
+nothing for the beautiful things they brought her. Against the pretty
+dresses she fought at first, and then submitted to them, but kept her
+old one in a corner of her room, and Susie, the girl hired to attend
+her, sometimes found her there asleep with her head upon it, and Judy
+held closely in her arms. They bought her a doll-house which was fitted
+up with everything calculated to please a child, but after inspecting it
+a while she turned from it with a cry for her "shady" under the palm
+tree in the clearing. The doll, Mandy Ann, which the Colonel had bought
+in Savannah, never took the place of Judy, who was her favorite,
+together with the scarlet cloak, which she would seldom let out of her
+sight. During the day she kept it round her, saying, "Me's cold," and at
+night she had it near her bed where she could see it the first thing in
+the morning.
+
+The Colonel knew the town was full of speculation and surmises, but he
+did not care. Surmises which went wide of the mark were better than the
+real truth would have been, and that he could not tell. He had left a
+large part of his past in Florida, and trusted it would not follow him.
+He could not leave the little girl, and he meant to do his duty by her,
+outwardly at least. He had no love for her, and could not manufacture
+one. He would rather she had never been born; but inasmuch as she was
+born, and was very much alive, she must be cared for.
+
+There was a private baptism in his library one Sunday afternoon, and she
+was christened Amy Eudora. Amy was for his mother; Eudora for no one
+knew whom, except Peter, who thought of the smelly letter, and knew
+that Eudora was for the young mother, dead somewhere in Florida. But he
+held his tongue, and tried to make up to the little girl her loss of
+Shaky, for whom she cried for days. Then, as she grew accustomed to her
+surroundings, she became contented, and her merry chatter filled the
+house from morning till night. Every one was devoted to her, except the
+Colonel. He was kind, but never encouraged her advances; never kissed
+her, never took her in his lap, or allowed her in his library. She
+called him father, and he answered to the name, while she was Eudora
+Harris to others. He tried at first to call her Amy, but she stoutly
+resisted.
+
+"Me's Dory. Shaky and Mandy Ann calls me Dory," she would say, with a
+stamp of her foot, refusing to answer to any name but Dory, which came
+at last to be Dora as she grew older.
+
+She learned to read in the new school-house by the south gate of the
+park, and when she heard that the Colonel built it, she called it hers,
+and queened it over her companions with an imperiousness worthy of the
+Colonel himself. When questioned of her old home her answers were vague.
+There was a river somewhere, and her mother was sick, and she reckoned
+she had no father but Shaky.
+
+As she grew older, she became very reticent of her past, and, if she
+remembered it at all, she held her tongue, like Peter. Once, when she
+was more than usually aggressive, claiming not only the school-house but
+everything in and around it, she was told by the children that she lived
+with niggers till she came to Crompton Place, and they guessed her
+mother was one, and nobody knew anything about her anyway. There was a
+fierce fight in which Dora came off victorious, with a scratch or two
+on her face and a torn dress. That afternoon the Colonel was confronted
+by what seemed a little maniac, demanding to know if her mother was
+black, and if she had lived only with negroes until she came to
+Crompton.
+
+"No, to both questions, and never let me hear another word on the
+subject as long as you live," was the Colonel's answer, given with a
+sternness before which the girl always quailed.
+
+She was afraid of the Colonel, and kept aloof from him as much as
+possible, rarely seeing him except at meal times, and then saying very
+little to him and never dreaming how closely he watched her, attributing
+every pecularity, and she had many, to the Harris taint, of which he had
+a mortal terror. But however much or little there might have been of the
+Harris blood in her, the few who knew her found her charming, as she
+grew from childhood into a beautiful girl of eighteen, apparently
+forgetful of everything pertaining to her Florida home. The doll-house,
+with all the expensive toys bought for her, had been banished to a room
+in the attic, and with them finally went Judy and Mandy Ann. The red
+cloak she seemed to prize more than all her possessions. It was more in
+keeping with her surroundings than Judy, and she often wrapped it around
+her as she sat upon the piazza, when the day was cool, and sometimes
+wore it on her shoulders to breakfast in the morning. Once she asked the
+Colonel where it came from, and he answered "Savannah," and went on
+reading his paper with a scowl on his forehead which warned her she was
+on dangerous ground. He was not fond of questions, and she did not often
+trouble him with them, but lived her silent life, increasing in beauty
+with every year, and guarded so closely from contact with the outer
+world that she scarcely had an intimate acquaintance.
+
+It was not the Colonel's wish that she should have any. Indeed, he
+hardly knew what he did want. He was aristocratic, and exclusive, and
+wished to make her so, and keep her from contact with the common herd,
+as he secretly designated the people around him. He knew she was
+beautiful, with an imperiousness of manner she took from him, and a
+sweet yielding graciousness she took from her mother. Sometimes a smile,
+or turn of her head, or kindling in her eyes, would bring the dead woman
+so vividly to his mind that he would rise suddenly and leave the room,
+as if a ghost were haunting him. On these occasions he was sterner than
+usual with Eudora, who chafed under the firm rein held upon her, and
+longed to be free.
+
+The Colonel had it in his mind to take her to Europe, hoping to secure a
+desirable marriage for her. He should tell her husband, of course, who
+she was, knowing that money and position would atone for the Harris
+blood, and feeling that in this way he would be entirely freed from the
+page of life which did not now trouble him much. He was still Crompton
+of Crompton, with his head as high as ever. The Civil War had swept over
+the land like a whirlwind. Tom Hardy had been among the first to enlist
+in the Southern army, and been killed in a battle. The Colonel had heard
+of his death with a pang, and also with a certain feeling of relief,
+knowing that he was about the only one who possessed a knowledge of his
+folly, or his whereabouts. There was still Jake, who wrote occasionally,
+asking for his _lill Miss_ and telling of Mandy Ann, whom the war had
+made free, and who had married Ted, and was living in her own house
+outside the clearing. Everything was out of the way except Eudora, who,
+before he had proposed his trip to Europe, took herself from him in a
+most summary manner. The restraint laid upon her was becoming more than
+she could bear, and she rebelled against it.
+
+"I shall elope some day--see if I don't," she said to Peter, who still
+remained in the family, and was her confidant in most things. "I shall
+say 'yes' to the first man who proposes, and leave this prison for the
+world, and the grand sights which Adolph says are everywhere. Here I am,
+cooped up with no young society, and seldom allowed to attend a picnic,
+or party, or concert, and I do so enjoy the latter, only I often feel as
+if I could do better than the professionals. Adolph says I can, and he
+knows."
+
+Adolph Candida was her music teacher, who, alone of the young men in
+Crompton, had free access to the house. He was a fine fellow as well as
+teacher, and had done much to develop Dora's taste and love for music,
+which had strengthened with her years, until her voice was wonderful for
+its scope and sweetness. Naturally there sprang up between the young
+people an affection which ripened into love, and Candida was told by
+Eudora to ask her father's sanction to their marriage. That she could
+stoop to care for her music teacher the Colonel never dreamed, and was
+speechless with surprise and anger when asked by the young Italian for
+her hand. To show him the door was the work of a moment, and then Dora
+was sent for. She came at once, with a look in her eyes which made the
+Colonel hesitate a little before he told her what he had done, and what
+he expected her to do.
+
+"If you disobey me in the slightest, you are no longer a daughter of my
+house," he said, in the cold, hard tone which Dora knew so well, and had
+feared so much.
+
+But the fear was over now. Something had transformed the timid girl into
+a woman, with a courage equal to the Colonel's. For a time she stood
+perfectly still, with her eyes fixed upon the angry man, listening to
+him until he spoke of her as the daughter of the house; then, with a
+gesture of her hands, which bade him stop, she exclaimed, "I did not
+know I was daughter of anything. For fifteen years I have lived here,
+and though you have been kind to me in your way, you have surrounded
+yourself with an air of reserve so cold and impregnable that I have
+never dared ask you who I am, since I was a child, and asked you about
+my mother. You told me then never to mention that subject again, and I
+never have. But do you think I have forgotten that I had a mother? I
+have not. I do forget some things in a strange way. They come in a
+moment and go, and I cannot bring them back, but the face I think was
+mother's is not one of them. Of my father I remember nothing. I have
+been told that when you brought me here you said he was a scoundrel! Are
+you he? Are you my father?"
+
+The Colonel was white as a sheet, and his lips twitched nervously, as if
+it were hard for them to frame the word No, which came at last
+decidedly. Over Dora's face a look of disappointment passed, and her
+hands grasped the back of a chair in front of her, as if she needed
+support.
+
+"If you are not my father, who and what was my mother?" was her next
+question, and the Colonel replied, "She was an honest woman. Be
+satisfied with that."
+
+"I never for a moment thought her dishonest," the girl exclaimed,
+vehemently. "I remember her as some one seen in a dream--a frail little
+body, with a sweet face which seldom smiled. There were other faces
+round us--dusky ones--negroes, weren't they?"
+
+Her eyes compelled the Colonel to bow assent, and she continued, "I
+thought so, and our home was South; not a grand home like this, but a
+cabin, I think. Wasn't it a cabin?"
+
+Again the Colonel bowed, and Dora went on, "There came a day when it was
+full of people, and somebody was in a box, and I sat in Shaky's lap. I
+have never forgotten him. He was all the father I knew."
+
+The Colonel drew a long breath, and she went on, "He held me up, and
+bade me kiss the white face in the box. That was my mother?"
+
+Again her eyes made the Colonel bow assent, and she continued, "After
+that there is a blank, with misty recollections of another box on the
+table, and a walk across hot sands with Shaky, and then I came here,
+where you have tried hard to blot all the past from my memory, as if it
+were something of which to be ashamed. But I shall find my mother's
+family some day, and Shaky, if he is living, and shall know all about
+it. There was a girl, too--Mandy Ann. I called the doll you gave me for
+her. She took care of me when Shaky didn't. He is more distinct. He took
+you to the graves the day you came for me, and I went with you and
+showed you my play-house under the palm tree--the poor little thing,
+but dearer to me than the best you have ever given me, because it was
+hedged round with love, even if it were the love of negroes. Things are
+coming back to me now so vividly, pressing on my brain which feels as if
+it would burst, and I remember the blacks, and their prayer meetings,
+and the songs they sang, and their hallelujahs and amens sound in my
+ears, and I think they always have, and helped me on and up when I have
+been practising difficult music. When a child at school I was often
+taunted and mocked for what the children called my negro brogue and
+talk. We had several battles in which I generally beat, although I was
+one against a dozen. There is a good deal of fight in me which I must
+have inherited from my father, who, I suppose, was a Southerner, if you
+are not he."
+
+The Colonel only glared at her, and she continued, "I have been told,
+too, that there is a negro twang in my voice, and I am glad of it, and
+try to imitate the sounds which come to me from a past I so dimly
+remember, and which I think are echoes from some negro _prar_ meeting.
+You see I have not forgotten the dialect of my early surroundings, and
+some day--I tell you again, I shall find the place and the graves of my
+people, and know what you have kept from me so carefully."
+
+"Better not. You'll be sorry if you do. Your mother's family were
+Crackers," the Colonel said. "You would not be proud of the connection,
+although they were respectable people."
+
+If Dora had ever heard of Crackers she knew very little about them, and
+cared less. She was greatly excited, and her eyes flashed and glowed
+with that light which Mr. Mason and Peter had noticed years before, and
+from which the Colonel turned away as from something dangerous.
+
+"My mother was a Cracker? My father was a Mr. Harris--a Cracker, too. I
+am not your daughter, as I have been weak enough at times to believe,
+and--yes, I will confess it--I was weak enough to be proud that I was a
+Crompton; but that is over now; my father and mother were Crackers. I am
+a Cracker, and Eudora Harris. I am eighteen, and my own
+mistress--amenable to the authority of no one. I am glad for that, as it
+makes me free to do as I please. Good evening."
+
+She bowed and left the room, leaving him stunned that she dared defy
+him, and half resolved to call her back and tell her the truth. But he
+didn't, and it was years before he saw her again.
+
+The next morning she was missing. She had gone with Candida--where, he
+took no pains to inquire. She sent him a New York paper, with a notice
+of her marriage, and the names of herself and husband in the list of
+passengers sailing on the Celtic. He put the paper in the fire with the
+tongs, and after that a great silence fell upon the house, and the
+Colonel grew more reserved than ever, and more peculiar. He forbade the
+servants to mention Dora's name, or tell him where she was, if they
+knew. They didn't know, and many years went by, and to all intents and
+purposes she was dead to those who had known her as a bright, beautiful
+girl. Jake, who wrote to inquire for her, was told that she had run away
+and married, and the Colonel neither knew nor cared where she was, and
+was not to be troubled with any more letters, which he should not
+answer. Jake was silenced, and there was no link connecting the Colonel
+with the past, except his memory which lashed him like the stings of
+scorpions. His hair turned white as snow; there was a stoop between his
+shoulders, and his fifty-five years might have been sixty-five, he aged
+so fast, as time went on, and his great house became so intolerable to
+him that he at last hailed with delight an event which, sad as it was in
+some respects, brought him something of life and an interest in it.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HOWARD CROMPTON TO JACK HARCOURT
+
+
+"Crompton House, June --, 18--.
+
+"Dear Jack:
+
+"I have bearded the lion in his den and found him a harmless old cove,
+after all, with many of his fangs extracted. You know, I am the son of
+his half-brother, who was many years his junior. I fancy the two never
+agreed very well, and when I wrote, proposing that I should visit
+Crompton House, I was surprised at the cordial reply, bidding me pack up
+my traps and come at once. I packed up and came, and, if I know myself,
+I shall stay. I am the only near relative he has in the world. He has a
+large estate to dispose of, was never married, and, of course, has no
+children, unless--
+
+"There must everlastingly be an _unless_, or a _but_ somewhere, and here
+it is--a big one in the shape of a woman--a lovely woman, too, if she is
+nearer forty than twenty. Don't you remember I once told you of a girl
+whom my uncle brought home from the South, and who ran off with her
+music teacher, an Italian. Well, she is here--a wreck physically and
+mentally in one sense; not exactly insane, but with memory so impaired
+that she can tell nothing of her past, or perhaps she does not wish to.
+She always says, when questioned about it, 'I don't remember, and it
+makes my head ache to try.'
+
+"It seems her first husband, Candida, took her abroad and gave her every
+advantage in music, both in Paris and Italy. When he died she married
+Homer Smith, an American, who was associated with him in some way. After
+his return to America he got up what was known as the 'Homer Troupe.' He
+dropped his last name, thinking the _Smith_ Troupe would not sound as
+well as Homer. His wife was the drawing card. She had a wonderful voice
+as a girl, they say, with a peculiarly pathetic tone in it, like what
+you hear in negro concerts, and it was this and her beauty which took
+with the people. She hated the business, but was compelled to sing by
+her husband, who, I fancy, was a tyrant and a brute. They starred it in
+the far West mostly, until her health and mind gave way, and she went
+raving mad on the stage, I believe. He put her in a private asylum in
+San Francisco. How long she was there I don't know, and she don't know.
+She was always a little queer, they say, and people predicted she would
+be crazy some time. Her husband died suddenly in Santa Barbara. Just
+before he died he tried to say something, but could only manage to give
+his physician the Colonel's address, and say, 'Tell him where my wife
+is.'
+
+"Off started the Colonel, lame, and gouty, and rheumatic as he is, and
+brought her home, and has set her up as a kind of queen whose slightest
+wish is to be obeyed. To do her justice she has not many wishes. She is
+very quiet, talks but little, and seems in a kind of brown study most of
+the time. Occasionally she rouses up and asks if we are sure he is
+dead--the he being her husband--the last one, presumably. When we tell
+her he is she smiles and says, 'I think I'm glad, for now I shall never
+have to sing again in public.' Then she says in a very different tone,
+'Baby is dead, too; and my head has ached so hard ever since that I
+cannot think or remember, only it was sudden and took my life away.'
+
+"She has an old red cloak which at times she wraps around a shawl, and
+cuddles it as if it were a baby, crooning some negro melody she heard
+South. There must have been a little child who died, but she is not
+clear on the subject. Sometimes it is a baby; sometimes a grown girl;
+sometimes it died in one place; sometimes in another; but always just
+before she was going to sing, and the room was full of coffins until she
+sank down, and knew no more. Whether my uncle has taken pains to inquire
+about the child, I don't know. He does not like children, and is
+satisfied to have Amy back, and is trying to atone for his former
+harshness. He calls her Amy, instead of Eudora, because the latter was
+the name by which she was known in the Homer Troupe, and he saw it
+flaunted on a handbill advertising the last concert in which she took
+part.
+
+"Don't think I have heard all this from him. He is tighter than the bark
+of a tree with regard to his affairs, and I do not think any one in the
+town knows anything definite about her singing in public, or the asylum;
+but there is a servant, Peter, who has grown old in the family. He knows
+everything, and has told me about my uncle bringing the child home, and
+how she cried for days for Shaky, a colored man, and slept in the red
+cloak, and kept it around her in the day-time because he gave it to
+her. I have learned that she was never lawfully adopted, and that my
+uncle has made no will. Still she must be something to him, but
+certainly not his lawful child, or why his reticence with regard to her.
+I am the only near relative bearing the Crompton name. I have made
+myself very necessary to him--am in fact, in a way, a son of the house.
+He is very much broken, and if he dies without a will--
+
+"Well, all things come to him who waits, and I can afford to wait in
+such comfortable quarters. Do you catch on, and call me a scamp with
+your Puritanical notions? Not so fast, old fellow. You have chosen to
+earn your living delving at the law. I earn mine by being so useful to
+my uncle that he will not part with me. He has already made me a kind of
+agent to attend to his business, so that I look upon myself as
+permanently fixed at Crompton House for as long as I choose to stay. It
+is a grand old place, with an income of I do not know how many
+thousands, and if I should ever be fortunate enough to be master, I
+shall say that for once in his life Howard Crompton was in luck. I want
+you to come here, Jack, when you have finished visiting your sister. I
+asked my uncle if I could invite you, and he said, 'Certainly; I like to
+have young people in the house. It pleases Amy.'
+
+"This is wonderful, as they say he used to keep young people away,
+almost with lock and key, when she was young. But now anything which
+pleases Amy pleases him.
+
+"And now for another matter which involves a girl, Eloise Smith. Who is
+she, you ask? Well, she is neither high born, I fancy, nor city bred;
+nor much like the girls from Wellesley and Lasell, with whom we used to
+flirt. She is a country school-ma'am, and is to be graduated this month
+in the Normal School in Mayville, where you are visiting. What is she to
+me? Nothing, except this: She has haunted me ever since I heard of her,
+and I can't get rid of an idea that in some way she is to influence my
+life. You know I was always given to presentiments and vagaries, and she
+is the last one. I might not have thought much of her if my uncle were
+not in a great way on her account. Long ago when they changed the name
+of the town from Troutburg to Crompton in his honor, he built a
+school-house on his premises, and gave it to the town. Since then he has
+felt that he had a right to control it, and say who should teach, and
+who shouldn't. For a long time the people humored him, and made him
+school inspector, whose business it was to examine the teachers with
+regard to their qualifications. With his old time notions, he had some
+very old-time questions, which with others, he always propounded. As a
+test of scholarship they were ridiculous; but he was Col. Crompton, and
+the people shrugged their shoulders and laughed at what they called the
+Crompton formula. Here are a few of the questions: First, What is logic?
+Second, Why does the wind usually stop blowing when the sun goes down? I
+don't know; do you? and we are both Harvarders. The third introduces a
+man in old Colburn's Arithmetic, driving his sheep or geese to market.
+The fourth is a scorcher, and has to do with the diameter of a
+grindstone, after a certain number of inches have been ground from it.
+Then comes what I call the _pièce de résistance_, but which my uncle
+called 'killing two birds with one stone.' He has a fad on writing and
+spelling, and required his victims to put on paper the following:
+
+"'Mr. Wright has a right To write the rites of the church.'
+
+"Blamed if I didn't get stuck on that last _rite_ when he gave it to me!
+If the teachers got safely through with the sheep, or geese, and the
+grindstone, and Mr. Wright, and the rest of them, he gave them a
+certificate declaring them qualified to teach a district school. In
+these days of methods, and analysis, and different ways of looking at
+things, all that is exploded, and the Crompton people have dropped my
+uncle, who is furious, and charges it to young blood, and the normal
+schools which have sprung up, and in which he does not believe. 'No
+matter how many diplomas a girl may have,' he says, 'proving that she
+has stood up in a white gown, and read an esay nobody within four feet
+of the rostrum could hear, or care to hear, if they could, she ought to
+pass a good solid examination to see if she were rooted and grounded in
+the fundamentals,' and when he heard that a normal graduate was engaged
+for District No. 5, he swore a blue streak at the girl, the trustee who
+hired her, and the attack of gout which keeps him a prisoner in the
+house, and will prevent his interviewing Miss Smith, as he certainly
+would if he were able. I tried to quiet him by offering to interview her
+myself. Think of me in a district school-house, talking to the teacher
+about the diameter of a grindstone! The absurdity must have struck my
+uncle. You should have seen the look he gave me over his spectacles, as
+he said, 'You, who know nothing, except ball games, and boat races, and
+raising the devil generally, interview a girl with a diploma! You would
+probably end by making love to her, but I won't have it; mind, I won't
+have it! Remember, you are a Crompton, and no Crompton ever married
+beneath him!' Here he stopped suddenly, and turned so white that I was
+alarmed, and asked what ailed him.
+
+"'Nothing,' he said, 'nothing but a twinge. I had an awful one.'
+
+"I suppose he referred to his foot, which was pretty bad that day. After
+a little, quite to my surprise, he said, 'If you knew anything yourself,
+you might manage to see if this Smith girl knows anything. Amy can coach
+you. She is rooted and grounded. She was taught in the old school-house,
+which I would never have given the town but for her.'
+
+"What he meant I don't know. What I do know is that Amy has told me why
+the wind stops blowing when the sun goes down, but I'll be hanged if I
+understand much about the rarefaction of the air. Do you? She was very
+glib with the sheep and the geese, but the grindstone made her head
+ache, and she gave it up. I think, however, I have all the knowledge
+necessary to judge whether a girl is rooted and grounded, and now I want
+to know something about the girl. Manage to see her while you are in
+Mayville. Attend the commencement exercises. She is sure to read an
+essay in a white gown. Write me what she is like, and if I am likely to
+fall in love with her. Come as soon as you can.
+
+"Always your friend,
+
+"HOWARD CROMPTON."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+JACK HARCOURT TO HOWARD CROMPTON
+
+
+Mayville, July --, 18--.
+
+"Dear Howard:
+
+"That you are a scamp of the first water goes without saying,
+insinuating yourself into an eccentric old man's confidence in hopes to
+be his heir! I dare say, Amy is his daughter, and you will have to work
+for a living after all, and serve you right, too. But have a good time
+while you can, and I'll help you after a little, as I accept your
+invitation with pleasure.
+
+"Now for the girl! I have seen her, and if there was ever a case of love
+at first sight, I'm that case. It was this way. Mayville is not a very
+lively place, and when my sister, Mrs. Lovell, who you know has a summer
+home here, suggested one morning that we attend the commencement
+exercises of the Normal School, saying, that twenty-five or thirty young
+girls were to be graduated, I concluded that it was better than nothing.
+I hate such places, as a rule, they are so close and stuffy, and the
+essays so long and dull, and the girls all look pretty much alike, and I
+begged Bell to get a seat as near the door as possible, so I could go
+out when it became unendurable. Just then your letter was brought to me,
+and after reading it, nothing could have kept me from Eloise Smith. I
+asked Bell if she knew her.
+
+"'I don't know many of the girls by name,' she said, 'but I have heard
+of Eloise Smith. She sings in the choir, and is a basket-boarder of Mrs.
+Brown's.'
+
+"'What the mischief is a basket-boarder?' I asked, and Bell explained
+that girls sometimes hire a room, and bring their food from home, and
+have the family with whom they lodge cook it for them, or cook it
+themselves on the family stove. A kind of picnic to get an education,
+you see, and just think of all we spent uselessly in college. Why, it
+would keep a lot of basket-boarders. Well, we started for the chapel,
+which was literally crammed, and the thermometer at ninety. You know,
+Mr. Lovell is wealthy, and from New York, and that makes Bell a kind of
+swell woman in the place, while I fancy your humble servant had
+something to do with the attention we received. Instead of a seat by the
+door, we were pushed to the front, within ten feet of the rostrum, and I
+was wedged in with Bell on one side of me, afraid I'd jam her sleeves,
+and on the other side was a woman, who weighed at least two hundred, and
+was equally afraid of her sleeves. In front of me was a hat so big that
+I couldn't begin to see all the stage, and but for Eloise I'd have got
+out some way, I was so uncomfortable with Bell fanning on one side till
+that rheumatic spot on my shoulder, which troubled me some at Harvard,
+began to ache, and the fat woman the other side mopping her face with a
+handkerchief saturated with cheap perfumery, and the big hat in front
+flopping and nodding this way and that, and no place to stretch my long
+legs.
+
+"There was a prayer, a song circle, and _et ceteras_, and a great
+flutter in a row of white dresses, and many colored ribbons to my left.
+'The Graduates,' Bell whispered, and the business of the day began.
+There were eight in all to read essays--nice looking girls, and much
+like the Lasells and Wellesleys we used to know. As for the
+essays--well, there was either a good deal of bosh in them, or a
+profundity of learning and thought to which Jack Harcourt never
+attained. But the people cheered like mad whenever one was ended, and
+sent up flowers, while I grew hotter and hotter, and when the seventh
+went up, and unfolded the 'Age of Progress and Reason,' which looked as
+if it might last an age, I made up my mind to bolt, and said so to Bell.
+
+"'Keep still; there's only one more after this one, and that is Eloise
+Smith,' she said.
+
+"I thought of you, and settled myself for another fifteen minutes, while
+a red-haired girl in glasses went through the 'Age of Progress and
+Reason' with great applause, and a basket of flowers, and bowed herself
+off the stage. There was a little delay. Somebody had fainted. I wonder
+they didn't all faint, the air was so hot and thick; and to crown all,
+the window near us had to be shut, because that fat woman didn't want a
+draught on her back! When they got the fainting person out, and the
+window shut, I saw the flutter of a white dress, and knew the eighth and
+last essay was coming.
+
+"'That's Eloise,' Bell said, as a slender little girl walked on to the
+rostrum, looking as fresh, and cool, and sweet as a--well, as the white
+lilies of which I am so fond.
+
+"'By George!' I said, so loud that those nearest me must have heard me,
+and wondered what ailed me.
+
+"Perhaps she heard me, for she looked at me with her beautiful eyes,
+which steadied me, and kept me quiet all through her essay. Don't ask
+me what it was about. I don't know. I was so absorbed in the girl
+herself, she was so graceful, and pretty, and self-possessed, and her
+voice was so musical that I could think of nothing but her; and when she
+finished I cheered louder than anybody else, and kept on cheering as
+they do in plays when they want them to come back, till Bell nudged my
+side, and whispered, 'Are you crazy? Everybody is looking at you.'
+
+"I was a little ashamed to be spatting away alone, but it pleased the
+fat woman, who proved to be Mrs. Brown, the keeper of the
+basket-boarders.
+
+"'That's Miss Smith. She done nice, didn't she, and she or'to of had
+some flowers,' she said to me; and then I remembered with a pang that
+not a flower had been sent up to her--the flower of them all--and wished
+I had a whole green-house to give her.
+
+"Did she think of it? I wondered, as I watched her after she sat down.
+The big hat had moved a little, and I could see the top of Eloise's
+head, with its crown of reddish-brown hair, on which a gleam of sunshine
+from a window fell, bringing out tints of gold, as well as red. That
+sounds rather poetical, don't it? for a prosy chap who professes never
+to have been moved by any piece of femininity, however dainty. I'll
+confess I was moved by this little girl. She is very slight and very
+young, I judge. I like Mrs. Brown, and do not think her perfumery bad,
+or herself very fat, and am glad they had the window shut for her. I
+wouldn't have her in a draught for anything, because she told me Eloise
+was the nicest girl she ever had in her house, and the best scholar in
+her class. Of course she is; I'd swear to that. She may not be rooted
+and grounded in the fundamentals your queer old uncle thinks necessary,
+and I doubt if she knows about the grindstone, and the rest of it. I'd
+laugh to see a great hulking fellow like you questioning her on such
+subjects. I've a great mind to write out the lingo, and send it to her
+anonymously, so she will be prepared to satisfy your uncle, who, I
+fancy, is the Great Mogul of Crompton.
+
+"I got quite chummy with Mrs. Brown before the exercises were over, and
+she told me Eloise lived in North Mayville with her grandmother, and
+that she was real glad she had a place to teach in Crompton, for she
+needed it.
+
+"'Poor?' I asked, feeling ashamed of myself for the question.
+
+"But Mrs. Brown saw nothing wrong in it, and answered, 'Very.'
+
+"Just then Bell nudged me again, and said, 'Let's go. We can get out
+now. You don't care to see them receive their diplomas?'
+
+"But I did, and sat it out till Eloise had hers, and I saw her face
+again, and saw, too, what I had not noticed before, that her dress
+looked poor and plain beside the others. Of course she's poor; but what
+do I care for that? I am a good deal struck, you see, and if there were
+nothing else to bring me to Crompton, Eloise would do it. So expect me
+in September about the time her school commences. When will that be?
+
+"Very truly,
+
+"JACK HARCOURT."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ELOISE
+
+
+It was a brown, old-fashioned house such as is common in New England,
+with low ceilings, high windows, and small panes of glass, and in the
+centre a great chimney of a fashion a hundred years ago. In the grass
+plot at the side, where clothes were bleached and dried, there should
+have been a well-sweep and curb to complete the picture, but instead
+there was a modern pump where an elderly woman was getting water, and
+throwing away three or four pails full, so that the last might be fresh
+and sparkling for the coffee she was to make for the early breakfast.
+Above the eastern hills the sun was rising, coloring everything with a
+rosy tinge, and the air was full of the song which summer sings, of
+flowers and happy insect life, when she is at her best. But the woman
+neither heard the song nor saw the sunshine, her heart was so heavy with
+thoughts of the parting which was so near.
+
+"I can't let her know how bad I feel," she said, fighting back her
+tears, as she prepared the dainty breakfast which she could scarcely
+touch, but which her grand-daughter, Eloise, ate with the healthy
+appetite of youth, and then turned her attention to strapping her trunk,
+while her grandmother began to fill a paper box with slices of bread and
+butter, and whatever else she could find, and thought Eloise would like
+on the road.
+
+"There, I've got it done at last, and hope it will hold till I get
+there, the old lock is so shaky," Eloise said, rising to her feet, and
+shedding back from her face a mass of soft, fluffy hair.
+
+"Please don't put up any more lunch. I can never eat it all," she
+continued, turning to her grandmother; then, as she saw the tears
+dropping from the dim, old eyes, she sprang forward, and exclaimed,
+"Don't cry. You know we promised we would both be brave, and it is not
+so very long to Christmas. I shall certainly be home then, and Crompton
+is not so very far away."
+
+With a catching kind of sob, the elder woman smiled upon the bright face
+uplifted to hers, and said: "I didn't mean to cry, and I am going to be
+brave. I am glad you have the chance."
+
+"So am I," the girl replied, her spirits rising as her grandmother's
+tears were dried. "Ever since I was engaged to go to Crompton I have
+felt an elation of spirits, as if something were going to come of it. If
+it were not for leaving you, and I had heard from California, I should
+be very happy. When a letter comes, forward it at once, and if necessary
+I shall go there during the holidays, and bring her home. I am glad we
+have her room all ready for her. I must see it once more."
+
+Running upstairs she opened the door of a large chamber, and stood for a
+moment inspecting it. Everything was plain and cheap, from the pine
+washstand to the rag carpet on the floor; but it was cosey and
+home-like, and the girl who had worked in it so much, papering and
+painting it herself, with her grandmother's help, and then arranging
+and rearranging the furniture until it suited her, thought it fine, and
+said to herself, "She'll like it better than any room she ever had at
+the grandest hotel. I wish she were here. Mother's room, good-by."
+
+She kissed her hand to it and ran downstairs, for it was time to go. The
+train was drawing up at the station, a short distance from her
+grandmother's door, and in a few minutes she was speeding away towards
+Crompton. At nearly the same hour Jack Harcourt was starting from New
+York for his promised visit to Crompton. His letter has given some
+insight into his character, but a look at his face will give a better.
+It was not a very handsome face, but it was one which every man, and
+woman, and child would trust, and never be deceived. For a young man of
+twenty-six he had seen a good deal of life, both at home and abroad, but
+the bad side had made but little impression upon him.
+
+"It slips from Jack like water from a duck's back, while we poor
+wretches get smirched all over," Howard Crompton was wont to say of him,
+when smarting from some temptation to which he had yielded, and which
+Jack had resisted.
+
+They had been friends since they were boys of eighteen in Europe, and
+Howard had nursed him through a fever contracted in Rome. They had also
+been chums in Harvard, where both had pulled through rather creditably,
+and where Jack had acted as a restraint upon Howard, who was fonder of
+larks than of study.
+
+"Are you sure he is the right kind of friend for you?" Jack's
+sister--who was many years his senior, and who stood to him in the place
+of a mother--sometimes said to him; and he always answered, "He isn't a
+bad sort, as fellows go. Too lazy, perhaps, for a chap who has nothing
+but expectations from a crabbed, half-cracked old uncle, and not always
+quite on the square. But he is jolly good company, and I like him."
+
+Something of this sort he said to his sister, who was in her New York
+home on the day when he was starting for Crompton, and had expressed her
+doubts of Howard's perfect rectitude in everything.
+
+"He isn't a saint," he said to her, "but I don't forget how he stuck to
+me in that beastly place on the Riviera, while every soul of the party
+but him hurried off, afraid of the fever. He is having a grand time at
+Crompton, and I'm going to help him a while, and then buckle down to
+hard work in the office. So good-by, and don't worry."
+
+He kissed her and hurried off to the station, bought the "Century," put
+several expensive cigars in the pocket of his overcoat, took a chair in
+a parlor car, and felt, as the train sped away out of the city, that it
+was good to live, and that Crompton held some new pleasure and
+excitement for him, who found sunshine everywhere.
+
+Moving in the same direction and for the same point was another train,
+in which Eloise sat, dusty and tired, and homesick for the old
+grandmother and the house under the big poplar tree. Added to this was a
+harrowing anxiety for news from California.
+
+"If I do not hear by Christmas, I shall certainly take an extra week in
+my vacation, and go there," she thought; and then she began to wonder
+about Crompton, and District No. 5, and if she would have any trouble
+with the big boys and girls, and how she would like Mrs. Biggs, who had
+boarded the school teachers for twenty years, and was to board her; and
+if by any chance she would ever see the inside of the Crompton House, of
+which she had heard from a friend who had visited in the town and had
+given glowing descriptions of it.
+
+At last, as the air in the car grew cooler, she fell asleep, and did not
+waken till the sun was down, and a great bank of black clouds was
+looming up in the west, with mutterings of thunder, and an occasional
+flash of lightning showing against the dark sky. She might not have
+wakened then if the car had not given a lurch, with a jar which brought
+every one to his feet. The train was off the track, and it would be two
+or three hours before it was on again, the conductor said to the crowd
+eagerly questioning him. There was nothing to do but wait, and Eloise
+did it philosophically. She had dined from her lunch box in the middle
+of the day, and was now glad that her grandmother had put so much in it,
+as it not only served her for supper, but also a tired mother and two
+hungry children. As the car began to grow close again, she left it for a
+breath of the fresh air, which blew over the hills as the storm came
+nearer. She heard some one say it was time for the New York Express,
+which was to pass them at Crompton, and it soon came thundering on, but
+stopped suddenly when it found its progress impeded. She saw the
+passengers alight to ascertain the cause of the hindrance, and heard
+their impatient exclamations at the delay, which would seriously
+inconvenience some of them.
+
+"It may be midnight before we reach Crompton. I wonder if Howard will
+meet me at that late hour," she heard a young man say, the smoke from
+his cigar blowing in her face as he passed where she was sitting on a
+stump.
+
+"He is sure to be there. I saw him day before yesterday, and he is wild
+to have you come. I fancy he finds it rather dull with only a cranky old
+man and a half-crazy woman for associates. Howard wants life and fun,"
+was the reply of his companion, and then the two young men were out of
+hearing.
+
+Who Howard was, or the cranky old man and half-crazy woman, Eloise had
+no idea, nor did she give them a thought. One thing alone impressed
+her,--the late hour when she would probably arrive at Crompton. Would
+any one be there to meet her, or any conveyance, and if not, how was she
+to find her way to Mrs. Biggs?
+
+"Grandma says never cross a river till you reach it, when you will
+probably find a plank, if nothing more," she thought, and settled
+herself to wait through the long hours which elapsed before the welcome
+"All aboard!" was sounded, and the two trains were under way,--the
+accommodation in front, and the express in the rear.
+
+The storm had broken before the trains started, and it increased in such
+violence that when Crompton was reached it was raining in torrents. The
+wind was like a hurricane, with alternate flashes of lightning which lit
+up the darkness, and peals of thunder which seemed to shake the trains
+as they stopped to let off their passengers. There were but two, the
+young man from the parlor car, and the girl from the accommodation. The
+girl was almost drenched to the skin in the downpour before she could
+open her cotton umbrella, which was at once turned inside out. Holding
+her satchel with one hand and struggling to keep her hat on her head
+with the other, she was trying to reach the shelter of the station,
+where a faint light was shining, when the violence of the wind and rain
+drove her backwards, almost into the arms of a young man hurrying past
+her, in a slouched hat and water-proof coat. Thinking him an official,
+she seized his arm and said, "Oh, please, sir, tell me is there any one
+here from Mrs. Biggs's, or any way to get there?"
+
+Her question was inopportune, for at that moment the stranger's umbrella
+met a like fate with her own, and was turned inside out, while hers,
+loosened by the opening of her hand, went sailing off into the darkness
+and rain. She thought she heard an oath before the stranger replied that
+he knew nothing of Mrs. Biggs, and did not think any conveyance was
+there at that hour.
+
+"Hallo, Jack! Is that you? and did you ever know such an infernal storm?
+Nearly takes one off his feet. My umbrella has gone up; so will yours if
+you open it. Didn't see you till I was right on you," was his next
+exclamation, as a vivid flash of lightning lit up the platform, and
+showed Eloise two young men clasping hands within three feet of her.
+
+Howard Crompton had been to the station at the appointed time, and
+learned of the delay of the train in which he expected his friend. Later
+a telephone had told him when the belated train would arrive, and the
+carriage was again ordered, the coachman grumbling, and the Colonel
+swearing to himself at having the horses go out in such a storm. To
+Howard he said nothing. That young man had so ingratiated himself into
+his uncle's good opinion, as to be nearly master of the situation. He
+wrote and answered most of the Colonel's letters, collected his rents,
+and looked after his business generally, and did it so well that the
+Colonel was beginning to feel that he could not get on without him, and
+to have serious thoughts of making it worth his while to stay
+indefinitely.
+
+Nothing could have been further from Howard's wishes than going out so
+late at night, and in such a storm, but the one unselfish passion of his
+life was his attachment to Jack Harcourt. He was not very well pleased
+with the wetting he got, as his umbrella was turned inside out; nor at
+all interested in the girl asking so timidly for Mrs. Biggs, and in his
+pleasure at meeting Jack he forgot her entirely, until the same flash of
+lightning which showed her the two men showed them her white face, with
+an appealing expression on it which Jack never passed by, whether it
+were matron or maid who needed his help. Who the drooping little figure
+was, with the water running down her jacket and off her hat in streams,
+he had no idea from the glimpse he had of her features as the lightning
+played over them for a moment. That she was in trouble was evident, and
+in return to Howard's greeting, he said, "This is a corker of a storm,
+and no mistake, and I do believe I am wet through, but,--" and he spoke
+a little lower,--"there's a girl here near us,--alone, too, I do
+believe."
+
+"Yes, I know," Howard replied. "The station master will see to her. Come
+on to the carriage. The horses are plunging like mad. Sam can't hold
+them much longer."
+
+He moved away, but Jack stood still, for a second flash of lightning had
+shown him Eloise's face again. It was very pale, and tears, as well as
+rain, were on her cheeks.
+
+"Can I do anything for you?" he said, opening his umbrella, and holding
+it over her.
+
+His voice was that of a friend, and Eloise recognized it as such, and
+answered, "I don't know. I am a stranger. I want to go to Mrs. Biggs's.
+Do you know where she lives?"
+
+"I am a stranger, too, and have never heard of Mrs. Biggs," Jack
+replied; "but the station agent will know. He ought to be here. Hallo!
+you, sir! Why are you not attending to your business? Here is a young
+lady," he called out, as the agent at last appeared coming slowly toward
+them, holding a lantern with one hand, and his cap on with the other.
+
+"I didn't s'pose there was anybody here but Mr. Crompton's friend. Who
+is she? Where does she want to go? There ain't no conveyance here for
+nowhere at this hour," he said, throwing the light of his lantern fully
+on Eloise, whose face grew, if possible, a shade paler, and whose voice
+shook as she replied, "I want to go to Mrs. Biggs's. I am to board with
+her. I am the new school teacher, Miss Smith. Can I walk there when the
+storm is over? How far is it?"
+
+"Great guns!" Jack said under his breath, holding the whole of his
+umbrella now over the girl instead of half, while the agent replied,
+"Walk to Widder Biggs's! I'd say not. It's two good miles from here.
+You'll have to sit in the depot till it stops rainin' a little, and I'll
+find you a place till mornin'. Tim Biggs was here when the train or'to
+of come, and said he was expectin' a schoolmarm. Be you her?"
+
+"Yes, oh, yes; thank you. Let me get into the station as soon as I can.
+My umbrella is gone, and I am so cold and wet," Eloise said, with
+catches in her breath between the words.
+
+"Hold on a minit," the agent continued. "The Crompton carriage goes
+within quarter of a mile of the Widder Biggs's. I guess the young man
+will take you. I will ask him."
+
+"No, let me. I'm sure he will," Jack interrupted him, and thrusting his
+umbrella into Eloise's hand, he stumbled through the darkness to the
+corner where he heard Howard calling to him, "Jack, Jack, where in
+thunder are you?"
+
+"Here," Jack replied, making for the voice, and saying to Howard when he
+reached him, "Howard, that's Eloise Smith, the girl I wrote you
+about,--the school teacher. She hasn't a dry rag on her. Her umbrella is
+lost. She wants to go to Widow Biggs's. The agent says it is not far
+from the Crompton Place. Can't we take her? Of course we can. I'll go
+for her."
+
+He hurried off as well as he could, leaving Howard in no very amiable
+frame of mind. He had laughed at Jack's rhapsodies over Eloise Smith,
+and said to himself, "His interest in her will never be very lasting, no
+matter how pretty she is. Jack Harcourt and a basket-boarder! Ha, ha!
+Rich. Still, I'd like to see her."
+
+After that he had nearly forgotten her in his absorbing efforts to keep
+the right side of his uncle, and entertain Amy. And now she was here,
+and Jack was proposing to have him take her to Widow Biggs's, which was
+a quarter of a mile beyond the park gates, Sam said, when consulted as
+to the widow's whereabouts. There was no help for it, but he didn't like
+it, and there was a scowl on his face as he waited for Jack, who came
+at last with Eloise and the agent, whose lantern shed a dim light on the
+handsomely-cushioned carriage when the door was open.
+
+"I'm not fit to get in there, I am so wet," Eloise said, drawing back a
+little.
+
+"As fit as we are," Jack replied, almost lifting her in, and tilting his
+umbrella till one of the sticks struck Howard in the eye, increasing his
+discomposure, and making him wish both Eloise and Mrs. Biggs in a much
+dryer place than he was.
+
+"Now, Howard, in with you. There's a little lull in the rain. We'll take
+advantage of it," Jack continued, as he followed Howard into the
+carriage, where both sat down opposite Eloise, who crouched in her
+corner, afraid she did not know of what. Certainly not of the man who
+had been so kind to her, and who she wished was sitting in front of her,
+instead of the one who did not speak at all, except to ask Sam how the
+deuce they were to know when they reached the Widow Biggs's.
+
+"Easy enough. It is a squat-roofed house with lalock and piney bushes in
+the yard."
+
+"Yes, but how are we to see a squat roof with lalocks and pineys on this
+beastly night?" Howard rejoined, in a tone which told that he was not
+anticipating his trip to the widder Biggs's. "Drive on, for heaven's
+sake," he continued, "and don't upset us. It is darker than a pocket."
+
+"No, sir, not if I can help it. I never knew the horses so 'fraid. Easy,
+Cass--easy Brute," Sam answered, as in response to a flash of lightning
+Brutus and Cassius both stood on their hind feet and pawed the air with
+terror. "Easy, easy, boys. Lightnin' can't strike you but once," Sam
+continued soothingly to the restless, nervous horses, who were at last
+gotten safely from the station, and started down the road which lead
+through the village to Crompton Place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE ACCIDENT
+
+
+For a short time the carriage went on smoothly and swiftly through the
+town, where the street lamps of kerosene gave a little light to the
+darkness. Once out of town in the country Sam became less sure of his
+way, and as he could not see his hand before him, he finally left the
+matter to the horses, trusting their instinct to keep in the road.
+
+"I shall know when I reach the gate, and so will Brute and Cass; but
+we've got to go farther to the Widder Biggs's, and darned if I b'lieve
+they'll know the place," he thought, with a growing conviction of his
+inability to recognize Mrs. Biggs's squat roof and lilacs and peonies.
+
+The storm which had abated for a short time was increasing again. The
+peals of thunder were more frequent, and with each flash of lightning
+the horses grew more unmanageable, until at last they flew along the
+highway at a speed which rocked the carriage from side to side, and
+began at last to alarm its occupants. Eloise in her corner was holding
+fast to the strap, when a lurid flame filled the carriage for an instant
+with a blaze of light. She had removed her hat, and her face,
+silhouetted against the dark cushions, startled both the young men with
+its beauty. It was very white, except the cheeks which were flushed with
+excitement. Her lips were apart, but her chief beauty was in her eyes,
+which were full of terror, and which shone like stars as they looked
+from one young man to the other.
+
+"Oh, I am afraid. Let me out. I'd rather walk," she cried, starting to
+her feet and grasping the handle of the door.
+
+"Please be quiet. There is no danger. You must not get out," Howard
+said, laying both his hands on hers, which he held for a moment, and
+pressed by way of reassuring her as he pushed her gently back into her
+seat.
+
+She felt the pressure and resented it, and releasing her hands put them
+behind her, lest in the darkness they should be touched again. The same
+lightning which had showed her face to Howard had also given her a
+glimpse of his black eyes kindling with surprise and admiration at a
+beauty he had not expected. A lurch of the carriage sent Jack from his
+seat, and Eloise felt him close beside her. Was he going to squeeze her
+hands, too? She didn't know, and was holding them closely pressed behind
+her, when there was another flash, a deafening peal of thunder, a crash,
+and the next she knew the rain was falling upon her face, her head was
+lying against some one's arm, and two pairs of hands were tugging at her
+collar and jacket.
+
+"Do you think she is dead?" was asked, in the voice which had told her
+not to be afraid.
+
+"Dead!" a second voice replied. "She cannot be dead. She must not be.
+Miss Smith, Miss Smith! Where are you hurt?"
+
+It was on the arm of this speaker she was lying, and she felt his breath
+on her face as he bent over her. With a great effort she moved her head
+and answered, "I'm not dead, nor hurt either, except my foot, which is
+twisted under me."
+
+"Thank God!" Jack said, and instantly the two pairs of hands groped in
+the dark for the twisted foot.
+
+"Oh!" Eloise cried, sitting upright, as a sharp pain shot from her ankle
+to her head. "Don't touch me. I can't bear it. I am afraid it is broken.
+What has happened, and where is the carriage?"
+
+"Home by this time, if Brutus and Cassius have not demolished it in
+their mad fright," Howard said, explaining that at the last heavy peal
+of thunder the horses had swerved from the road and upset the carriage
+at the entrance to the park; that Sam had been thrown to some distance
+from the box, but had gathered himself up, and gone after the horses
+tearing up the avenue. "I shouted to him to come back with a lantern as
+quickly as possible. He'll be here soon, I think. Are you in great
+pain?"
+
+"When I move, yes," Eloise replied, and then, as the full extent of the
+catastrophe burst upon her, she began to cry,--not softly to herself,
+but hysterically, with sobs which smote both Howard and Jack like blows.
+
+It was a novel predicament in which they found themselves,--near
+midnight, in a thunderstorm, with a young girl on the ground unable to
+walk, and neither of them knowing what to do. Howard said it was a
+deuced shame, and Jack told her not to cry. Sam was sure to come with a
+lantern soon, and they'd see what was the matter. As he talked he put
+her head back upon his shoulder, and she let it lie there without
+protest.
+
+After what seemed a long time, Sam came up with a lantern. The carriage
+was badly injured, he said, having been dragged through the avenue on
+its side. Brutus had a gouge on his shoulder from running into a tall
+shrub; he had hurt his arm when he fell from the box, and the Colonel
+was not in a very pious state of mind on account of his damaged
+property.
+
+Eloise heard it all, but did not realize its import, her foot was
+paining her so badly. Jack had helped her up when Sam came, but she
+could not walk, and her face looked so white when the lantern light fell
+upon it, that both men feared she was going to faint.
+
+"What shall we do?" Howard asked, standing first on one foot and then on
+the other, and feeling the water ooze over the tops of his shoes.
+
+"Take her to the Crompton house, of course. It must be nearer than Mrs.
+Biggs's," Jack suggested.
+
+Before Howard could reply, Eloise exclaimed, "Oh, no, I can hop on one
+foot to Mrs. Biggs's if some one helps me. Is it far?"
+
+The two men looked inquiringly at each other and then at Sam, who was
+the first to speak. In the Colonel's state of mind, with regard to his
+carriage and his horses, he did not think it advisable to introduce a
+helpless stranger into the house, and he said, "I'll tell you what; did
+you ever make a chair with your hands crossed--so?"
+
+He indicated what he meant, and the chair was soon made, and Eloise
+lifted into it.
+
+"That's just the thing; but you'll have to put an arm around each of our
+necks to steady yourself," Jack said. "So! That's right! hold tight!" he
+continued, as Eloise put an arm around each neck.
+
+Sam was directing matters, and taking up the lantern and Jack's
+umbrella, which he had found lying in the mud, he said, "I'll light the
+way and hold the umbrella over you. It don't rain much now."
+
+"My hat and satchel, please," Eloise said, but neither could be found,
+and the strange cortége started.
+
+For an instant the ludicrousness of the affair struck both young men,
+convulsing them with laughter to such an extent that the chair came near
+being pulled apart and Eloise dropped to the ground. She felt it giving
+way, and, taking her arm from Howard, clung desperately to Jack.
+
+"Don't let me fall, please," she said.
+
+"No danger; hold fast as you are," Jack answered cheerily, rather
+enjoying the feeling of the two arms clasping his neck so tightly.
+
+What Howard felt was streams of water trickling down his back from the
+umbrella, which Sam held at exactly the right angle for him to get the
+full benefit of a bath between his collar and his neck. He did not like
+it, and was in a bad frame of mind mentally, when, after what seemed an
+eternity to Eloise, they came to three or four squat-roofed houses in a
+row, at one of which Sam stopped, confidently affirming it was the
+Widder Biggs's, although he could not see the "lalock and pineys."
+
+"Knock louder! Kick, if necessary," Howard said, applying his own foot
+to the door as there came no answer to Sam's first appeal.
+
+There was a louder knock and call, and at last a glimmer of light
+inside. Somebody was lighting a candle, which was at once extinguished
+when the door was open, and a gust of wind and rain swept in.
+
+"Are you Mrs. Biggs?" Sam asked, as a tall figure in a very short
+night-robe was for a moment visible.
+
+"Mrs. Biggs! Thunder, no! Don't you know a man from a woman? She lives
+second house from here," was the masculine response.
+
+The door was shut with a bang, and the cortége moved on to the third
+house, which, by investigating the lilac bushes and peonies, Sam made
+out belonged to the Widder Biggs. It was harder to rouse her than it had
+been to rouse her neighbor. She was a little deaf, and the noise of the
+wind and rain added to the difficulty. When she did awaken her first
+thought was of burglars, and there was a loud cry to her son Tim to come
+quick and bring his gun, for somebody was breaking into the house.
+
+"Robbers don't make such a noise as that! Open your window and see who's
+there," was Tim's sleepy answer, as Sam's blows fell heavily upon the
+door, accompanied with thuds from Howard's foot.
+
+Mrs. Biggs opened her window cautiously, and thrust out her head, minus
+her false hair, and enveloped in a cotton nightcap.
+
+"Who is it? What has happened? Anybody sick or dead?" she asked; and Sam
+replied, "Miss Smith is here with a broken laig, for't I know!"
+
+"Miss Smith! A broken leg! For the land's sake, Tim, get up quick!" the
+widow gasped.
+
+Closing the window and putting on a skirt, she descended to the kitchen,
+lighted an oil lamp, and, throwing open the door, looked at the group
+outside. She was prepared for Sam and Miss Smith, and did not mind her
+deshabille for them. But at the sight of two gentlemen, and one of them
+young Mr. Crompton, she came near dropping her lamp.
+
+"Gracious goodness!" she exclaimed. "Mr. Crompton! And I half-dressed!
+Wait till I get on some clothes, and my hair, and my teeth. I am a
+sight to behold."
+
+"Never mind your teeth, nor your hair, nor your best gown," Sam said,
+pushing open the door Mrs. Biggs had partially closed, and entering the
+house, followed by Howard and Jack, with Eloise still clinging to Jack's
+neck, and half fainting with the pain in her ankle which had increased
+from hanging down so long.
+
+Tim had come by this time, fastening his suspenders as he came, and
+caring less for his appearance than his mother. She had disappeared, but
+soon returned with teeth, and hair, and clothes in place, and herself
+ready for the emergency. Following Tim's directions they had put Eloise
+on a couch, where she lay with her eyes closed, and so still that they
+thought she had fainted.
+
+"Bring the camphire, Timothy, and the hartshorn, and start up the oil
+stove for hot water, and move lively." Mrs. Biggs said to her son. "I
+don't believe she's broke her laig, poor thing. How white she is," she
+continued, laying her hand on Eloise's forehead.
+
+This brought the tears in a copious shower, as Eloise sat up and said,
+"It is my ankle. I think it is sprained. If you could get off my boot."
+
+She tried to lift it, but let it drop with a cry of pain.
+
+"I'll bet it's sprained, and a sprain is wus than a break. I had one
+twenty years ago come Christmas, and went with my knee on a chair two
+weeks, and on crutches three," was Mrs. Biggs's consoling remark, as she
+held the lamp close to the fast-swelling foot, to which the wet boot
+clung with great tenacity.
+
+"Oh, I can't bear it," Eloise said, as the process of removing her boot
+commenced; then, closing her eyes, she lay back upon the cushions,
+while one after another, Mrs. Biggs, Howard, Jack, and Tim worked at the
+refractory boot.
+
+It was such a small foot, Jack thought, pitying the young girl, as he
+saw spasms of pain upon her face, where drops of sweat were standing. He
+wiped these away with Mrs. Biggs's apron, lying in a chair, and smoothed
+her hair, and took one of her clenched hands in his, and held it while
+the three tried to remove the boot.
+
+"'Tain't no use,--it's got to be cut off,--mine did. Tim, bring me the
+butcher knife,--the sharpest one," Mrs. Biggs said.
+
+Eloise shuddered, and thought of the only other pair of boots she
+had,--her best ones, which were to have lasted a year. But there was no
+alternative. The boot must be cut off, and Jack continued to hold her
+hands while, piece by piece, the wet leather dropped upon the floor.
+
+"Now for the stockin'; that'll come easier," Mrs. Biggs said.
+
+"Must you take that off now?" Eloise asked, her maidenly modesty
+prevailing over every other feeling.
+
+Howard and Jack understood, and went to the window, while the stocking
+followed the fate of the boot; and when they came back to the couch
+Eloise's foot was in a basin of hot water, and Mrs. Biggs was gently
+manipulating it, and declaring it the worst sprain she ever knew, except
+her own, which, after twenty years troubled her at times, and told her
+when a storm was coming.
+
+"Ought she to have a doctor?" Jack asked, and Mrs. Biggs replied, "A
+doctor? What for, except to run up a bill. I know what to do. She'll
+have to keep quiet a spell; wormwood and vinegar and hot water will do
+the rest. Tim, go up garret and get a handful of wormwood. It's the
+bundle of 'arbs to your right. There's catnip, and horehound, and
+spearmint, and sage, and wormwood. Be lively, and put it to steep in
+some vinegar, and bring me that old sheet in the under bureau drawer for
+bandages."
+
+She seemed to know what she was about. Eloise was in good hands, and the
+two water-soaked young men were about to leave when she said, "I guess
+one of you will have to carry her to her chamber. I can't trust Tim,
+he's such a blunderhead."
+
+"No, no! Oh, no! I can walk somehow," Eloise said, starting to her feet,
+and sinking back as quickly.
+
+"Let me. I'll carry her!" Howard and Jack both exclaimed; but something
+in Eloise's eyes gave the preference to Jack, who lifted her as easily
+as if she had been a child, and carried her up the narrow stairs to the
+room which at intervals had been occupied by one teacher after another
+for nearly twenty years, for it was understood that Mrs. Biggs was to
+board the teachers who had no home of their own in the district.
+
+But never had so forlorn or wretched an one been there as poor Eloise.
+The world certainly looked very dreary to her, and her lip quivered as
+she said good-by to Jack, and tried to smile in reply to his assurance
+that she would be better soon, and that he would call and see her on the
+morrow. Then he was gone, and Eloise heard the footsteps and voices of
+the three men as they left the house and hurried away. She was soon in
+bed, and as comfortable as Mrs. Biggs could make her. That good lady was
+a born nurse as well as a gossip, and as she arranged Eloise for what
+there was left of the night, her tongue ran incessantly, first on her
+own sprain,--every harrowing detail of which was gone over,--then on the
+two young men, Howard Crompton and t'other one, who was he? She knew Mr.
+Howard,--everybody did. He was Col. Crompton's nephew, and he ruled the
+roost at the Crompton House, folks said, and would most likely be the
+Colonel's heir, with Miss Amy, as folks called her now. Had Miss Smith
+ever heard of her?
+
+Eloise never had, and the pain in her ankle was so sharp that she gave
+little heed to what Mrs. Biggs was saying. She did not know either of
+the young men, she said. Both had been kind to her, and one, she
+thought, was a stranger, who came in the train with her.
+
+"Oh, yes," Mrs. Biggs answered briskly. "I remember now. Cindy,--that's
+Miss Stiles, the housekeeper at Crompton Place,--told me Mr. Howard was
+to have company,--another high buck, I s'pose, though Howard don't do
+nothin' worse than drive horses pretty fast, and smoke most all the
+time. Drinks wine at dinner, they say, which I disbelieve in on account
+of Tim, who never took nothin' stronger'n sweet cider through a straw."
+
+At last, to Eloise's relief, Mrs. Biggs said good-night, and left her
+with the remark, "I don't s'pose you'll sleep a wink. I didn't the first
+night after my sprain, nor for a good many nights neither."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AMY
+
+
+"If this isn't a lark I never had one," Howard said to Jack, when they
+were safely housed and had changed their clothes, not a thread of which
+was dry.
+
+Jack, whose luggage had not come, and who was obliged to borrow from
+Howard's wardrobe, looked like an overgrown boy in garments too small
+for him. But he did not mind it, and with Howard discussed the events of
+the evening, as they sat over the fire the latter had lighted in his
+room. Naturally Eloise was the subject of their conversation.
+
+"I wrote you I had a presentiment that she was to come into my life in
+some way, but I had no idea it was to be this way," Howard said, as he
+puffed at his cigar and talked of their adventure and Eloise.
+
+That she was very handsome and had pretty little feet went without
+saying, and that both were sorry for her was equally, of course. Jack
+was the more so, as his was the more unselfish and sympathetic nature.
+
+"By Jove, didn't she bear the cutting of that boot like a hero, and how
+is she ever to get to school with that ankle?" he said; "and I think she
+ought to have a doctor to see if any bones are broken. Suppose you get
+one in the morning, and tell him not to send his bill to her but to me."
+
+Howard looked up quickly, and Jack went on, "I wrote you that Mrs.
+Brown said she was poor, and I should know it by her boots."
+
+"Her boots!" Howard repeated, and Jack continued, "Yes, wet as they were
+I noticed they were half-worn, and had been blacked many times. She
+can't afford to pay many doctor's bills, and I ask you again, how is she
+to get to school?"
+
+Howard did not know, unless they made another chair and carried her.
+
+"I wouldn't mind it much for the sake of her arm around my neck. I can
+feel it yet. Can't you?" he said.
+
+Jack could feel it and the little wet hand which once or twice had
+touched his face, but something in his nature forbade his talking about
+it. It might have been fun for them, but he knew it was like death to
+the girl, and that she had shrank from it all, and only submitted
+because she could not help it. He was very sorry for her, and thought of
+her the last moment before he fell asleep, and the first moment he awoke
+with Howard in the room telling him it was after breakfast time, and his
+uncle, who did not like to be kept waiting, was already in a temper and
+blowing like a northeaster.
+
+The Colonel, who was suffering from an attack of rheumatic gout, was
+more irritable than usual. He had not liked having his horses and
+carriage go out in the rain, and had sat up waiting for the return of
+his nephew, and when Sam came in, telling what had happened to the
+carriage and horses, and that he must go back with a lantern to the park
+gates and see if the new school mistress was alive, he went into a
+terrible passion, swearing at the weather, and the late train, and the
+school mistress who he seemed to think was the cause of the accident.
+
+"What business had she in the carriage? Why did she come in such a
+storm? Why didn't she take the 'bus, and if the 'bus wasn't there, why
+didn't she--?" He didn't know what, and it took all the tact of Peter,
+who was still in the family and old like his master, to quiet him.
+
+Then next morning his gout was so bad that he was wheeled into the
+dining-room, where he was fast growing angry at the delay of breakfast,
+and beginning to swear again when Peter, who knew how to manage him,
+went for Amy. Nothing quieted the Colonel like a sight of Amy, with her
+sweet face and gentle ways.
+
+"Please come. It's beginning to sizzle," Peter frequently said to her
+when a storm was brewing, and Amy always went, and was like oil on the
+troubled waters.
+
+"What is it?" she now asked, and the Colonel replied, "What is it! I
+should say, what is it! There's the very old Harry to pay. Brutus has a
+big hole in his breast, the carriage is smashed, silk cushions all
+stained with a girl's blue gown, and that girl the school-teacher I
+didn't want; and she's broken her leg or something when they tipped
+over, and Howard and his friend carried her to Widow Biggs's, and the
+Lord knows what didn't happen!"
+
+Amy had a way of seeming to listen very attentively when the Colonel
+talked to her, and always smiled her appreciation and approbation of
+what he said. Just how much she really heard or understood was doubtful.
+Her mind seemed to run in two channels,--one the present, the other the
+past,--and both were blurred and indistinct,--especially the past. She
+understood about the young girl, however, and at once expressed her
+sympathy, and said, "We must do something for her."
+
+To do something for any one in sickness or trouble was her first
+thought, and many a home had been made glad because of her since she
+came to Crompton.
+
+"Certainly; do what you like, only don't bring her here," the Colonel
+replied, his voice and manner softening, as they always did with Amy.
+
+She was a very handsome woman and looked younger than her years. The
+storm which had swept over her had not impaired her physical beauty, but
+had touched her mentally in a way very puzzling to those about her, and
+rather annoying to the Colonel, who was trying to make amends for the
+harshness which had driven her from his home. Sometimes her quiet,
+passive manner irritated him, and he felt that he would gladly welcome
+the old imperiousness with which she had defied him. But it was gone.
+Something had broken her on the wheel, killing her spirit completely, or
+smothering it and leaving her a timid, silent woman, who sat for hours
+with a sad, far-off expression, as if looking into the past and trying
+to gather up the tangled threads which had in a measure obscured her
+intellect.
+
+"The Harrises are queer," kept sounding in the Colonel's ears, with a
+thought that the taint in the Harris blood was working in Amy's veins,
+intensified by some great shock, or series of shocks.
+
+Once, after he brought her home, he questioned her of her life as a
+singer, and of the baby, which she occasionally mentioned, but he never
+repeated the experiment. There was a fit of nervous trembling,--a look
+of terror in her eyes, and a drawn expression on her face, and for a
+moment she was like the girl Eudora when roused. Then, putting her hand
+before her eyes as if to shut out something hateful to her, she said,
+"Oh, don't ask me to bring up a past I can't remember without such a
+pain in my head and everywhere, as if I were choking. It was very
+dreadful,--with _him_,--not with Adolf,--he was so kind."
+
+"Did he ever beat you?--or what did the wretch do? _Smith_, I mean," the
+Colonel asked, and Amy replied, "Oh, no; it wasn't that. It was a
+constant grind, grind,--swear, swear,--a breaking of my will, till I had
+none left. He never struck me but once, and then it was throwing
+something instead of a blow. It hit me here, and it has ached ever
+since."
+
+She put her hand to one side of her temple, and went on, "It was the
+night I heard baby was dead, and I said I could not sing,--but he made
+me, and I broke down, and I don't know much what happened after till you
+came. I can't remember."
+
+"Yes, but the baby,--where did it die, and when?" the Colonel asked.
+
+Amy had been getting quiet as she talked, but at the mention of the
+baby, she began to tremble again, and beat the air with her hands.
+
+"I don't know, I don't know," she said. "He took her away, and she died.
+It is so black when I try to think how it was, and it goes from me. Wait
+a bit!" She sat very still a moment, and then in a more natural voice
+said, "It may come back sometime, and then I will tell you. It makes me
+worse to talk about it now. It's this way: The inside of my head shakes
+all over. The doctor said it was like a bottle full of something which
+must settle. I _am_ settling here where everybody speaks so low and
+kind, but when I am a little clear, with the sediment going down, if you
+shake up the bottle, it is thick and muddy again, and I can't remember."
+
+"By Jove!" the Colonel said to himself, "that bottle business isn't a
+bad comparison. She is all shaken up, and I'll let her settle."
+
+He did not question her again of her life with Homer Smith, or of the
+baby. Both were dead, and he felt that it was just as well that they
+were. Homer Smith ought to be dead, and as to the baby it would have
+been very upsetting in the house, and might have been queer, like the
+Harrises, or worse yet, like its _cuss_ of a father. On the whole, it
+was better as it was, although he was sorry for Amy, and would do all he
+could to make her happy, and some time, perhaps, she would remember, and
+tell him where the baby was buried, and he'd have it brought to
+Crompton, and put in the Crompton vault. As for Homer Smith, his carcase
+might rot in the desert of Arizona, or anywhere, for aught he cared. He
+was very gentle and patient with Amy, and watched the settling of the
+bottle with a great deal of interest. Sometimes he wondered how much she
+remembered of her Florida life, if anything, and what effect the mention
+of Jaky and Mandy Ann would have upon her, and what effect it would have
+upon her if he took her to the palmetto clearing, and found the negroes,
+if living. But pride still stood in the way. More than thirty-five years
+of silence were between him and the past, which to all intents was as
+dead as poor Dory; and why should he pull aside the dark curtain, and
+let in the public gaze and gossip. He couldn't and he wouldn't. All he
+could do for Amy in other ways he would, and for her sake he controlled
+himself, mightily, becoming, as Peter said, like a turtle dove compared
+to what he once was, when the slightest crossing of his will roused him
+into fury.
+
+Harsh, loud tones made Amy shiver, and brought a look into her eyes
+which the Colonel did not like to see, and with her he was usually very
+docile, or if roused, the touch of her hand and the expression of her
+eyes subdued him, as they did now when he told her of his broken
+carriage and ruined cushions and the young girl for whom Amy at once
+wished to do something.
+
+"Certainly," he had said; "only don't bring her here," and he was
+beginning to wonder where Howard was, and to feel irritated at the
+delay, when the latter came in with Jack, and found a tolerably urbane
+and courteous host.
+
+Naturally the conversation turned upon the storm and accident, the
+particulars of which were briefly gone over, while Amy stirred her
+coffee listlessly and did not seem to listen. She was very lovely, Jack
+thought, with no sign of her mental disorder, except the peculiar
+expression of her eyes at times. Her dress was faultless, her manner
+perfect, her language good, and her smile the sweetest and saddest he
+had ever seen, and Jack watched her curiously, while the conversation
+drifted away from Eloise, in whom the Colonel felt no interest. She was
+a graduate, and probably knew nothing of what he thought essential for a
+teacher to know. She was not rooted and grounded in the fundamentals.
+Probably she had never heard of the grindstone, or the sheep, and could
+not work out the problems if she had. She was superficial. She belonged
+to a new generation which had put him and his theories on the shelf. Her
+blue dress had stained the cushions of his carriage, and there was a
+puddle of water in the hall where Sam had put down her satchel and hat,
+which had been found in the driveway near the stable. They had been
+thrown from the carriage, and lain in the rain all night. The hat was
+soaked through and through, and the ribbons were limp and faded; but he
+did not care a rap what became of them, he said to himself, when Howard
+spoke of them and their condition, saying that bad as they were he
+presumed she wanted them.
+
+Amy on the contrary was instantly on the alert, and as they passed
+through the hall from the dining-room, and she saw the poor crushed hat,
+she said to Jack, "Is it hers?"
+
+"Yes, and I'm afraid it is ruined," Jack answered, taking it in his hand
+and examining it critically.
+
+"I will fix it," Amy replied, and, carrying it to her room, she tried to
+bend it into shape and renovate the bows of ribbon.
+
+But it was beyond her skill.
+
+"She can never wear it. I must send her one of mine," she said,
+selecting a hat which she wore when walking in the park. "You must take
+it to the young lady at Mrs. Biggs's. What is her name? I don't think I
+understood; they were all talking together and confused me so," she said
+to her maid, who had heard of the adventure from Sam, but had not caught
+the right name.
+
+"It is Louise something. I don't remember what," she replied.
+
+"Louise! That sounds like baby's name, and it makes my head ache to
+think of it," Amy said sadly, going to the window, and looking out at
+the rain and fog, for the weather had not cleared.
+
+It was a wet morning, and Howard, who liked his ease, shrugged his
+shoulders when Jack suggested that they should call upon Miss Smith.
+
+"She ought to have her satchel and her hat," Jack said, and Howard
+replied, "Oh, Amy sent Sarah off with a hat half an hour ago. She would
+send all her wardrobe if she thought the girl wanted it, and, by George!
+why didn't she send a pair of boots? She has dozens of them, I dare
+say," he continued, as he recalled the bits of leather they had cut from
+Eloise's foot, and left on Mrs. Biggs's floor.
+
+Jack had spoken of her boots, and he readily acceded to Howard's
+proposition to ask Amy if she had any cast-offs she thought would fit
+Miss Smith. "They must wear about the same size, the girl is so slight,"
+Howard said as he went to Amy's room, where he found her still standing
+by the window drumming upon the pane as if fingering a piano and humming
+softly to herself. She never touched the grand instrument in the
+drawing-room, and when asked to do so and sing, she answered, "I can't;
+I can't. It would bring it all back and shake up the bottle. I hate the
+memory of it when I sang to the crowd and they applauded. I hear them
+now; it is baby's death knell. I can never sing again as I did then."
+
+And yet she did sing often to herself, but so low that one could
+scarcely understand her words, except to know they were some negro
+melody sung evidently as a lullaby to a child. As Howard came up to her
+he caught the words, "Mother's lil baby," and knew it was what she
+sometimes sang with the red cloak hugged to her bosom.
+
+"Miss Amy," he said, "I wonder if you haven't a pair of half-worn boots
+for the young lady at Mrs. Biggs's? We had to cut one of hers off, her
+foot was so swollen."
+
+Amy was interested at once, and ordered Sarah, who had returned from
+Mrs. Biggs's, to bring out all her boots and slippers, insisting that
+several pairs be sent for the girl to choose from. Sarah suggested that
+slippers would be better than boots, as the young lady could not wear
+the latter in her present condition.
+
+"Yes," Amy said, selecting a pair of white satin slippers, with high
+French heels and fanciful rosettes. "I wore them the night he told me
+baby was dead. I've never had them on since. I don't want them. Give
+them to her. They are hateful to me."
+
+Amy was in a peculiar mood this morning, such as sometimes came upon her
+and made Peter say she was a chip of the old block, meaning the Colonel,
+who he never for a moment doubted was her father. Sarah's suggestion
+that white satin slippers would be out of place made no difference. They
+must go. She was more stubborn than usual, and Sarah accounted for it by
+saying in a low tone to Howard, "Certain spells of weather always affect
+her and send her back to a night when something dreadful must have
+happened. Probably the baby she talks about died. She's thinking about
+it now. Better take the slippers. I've heard her talk of them before and
+threaten to burn them."
+
+"All right," Howard said. "Miss Smith can send them back if she does not
+want them."
+
+The slippers were made into a parcel so small that Howard put them in
+his pocket and said he was ready. It had stopped raining, and as the
+young men preferred to walk they set off through the park, laughing over
+their errand and the phase of excitement in which they found themselves.
+Jack liked it, and Howard, too, began to like it, or said he should if
+the girl proved as good-looking by daylight as she had been in the
+night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AT MRS. BIGGS'S
+
+
+Notwithstanding Mrs. Biggs's prediction that she would not sleep a wink,
+Eloise did sleep fairly well. She was young and tired. Her ankle did not
+pain her much when she kept it still, and after she fell asleep she did
+not waken till Mrs. Biggs stood by her bed armed with hot coffee and
+bandages and fresh wormwood and vinegar.
+
+"Do you feel like a daisy?" was Mrs. Biggs's cheery greeting, as she put
+down the coffee and bowl of vinegar in a chair and brought some water
+for Eloise's face and hands.
+
+"Not much like a daisy," Eloise answered, with a smile, "but better than
+I expected. I am going to get up."
+
+"Better stay where you be. I did, and had 'em wait on me," Mrs. Biggs
+said; but Eloise insisted, thinking she must exercise.
+
+She soon found, however, that exercising was a difficult matter. Her
+ankle was badly swollen, and began to ache when she moved it, nor did
+Mrs. Biggs's assurance that "it would ache more until it didn't ache so
+bad" comfort her much. She managed, however, to get into a chair, and
+took the coffee, and submitted to have her ankle bathed and bandaged and
+her foot slipped into an old felt shoe of Mrs. Biggs's, which was out
+at the toe and out at the side, but did not pinch at all.
+
+"Your dress ain't dry. You'll catch your death of cold to have it on.
+You must wear one of mine," Mrs. Biggs said, producing a spotted calico
+wrapper, brown and white,--colors which Eloise detested.
+
+It was much too large every way, but Mrs. Biggs lapped it in front and
+lapped it behind, and said the length would not matter, as Eloise could
+only walk with her knee in a chair and could hold up one side. Eloise
+knew she was a fright, but felt that she did not care, until Mrs. Biggs
+told her of the hat which the lady from Crompton Place had sent her, and
+that Sarah had said the young gentlemen would probably call.
+
+"I've been thinking after all," she continued, "that it is better to be
+up. The committee man, Mr. Bills, who hired you, will call, and you
+can't see him and the young men here. I'm a respectable woman, and have
+boarded the teachers off and on for twenty years,--all, in fact, except
+Ruby Ann, who has a home of her own,--and I can't have my character
+compromised now by inviting men folks into a bedroom. You must come down
+to the parlor. There's a bed-lounge there which I can make up at night,
+and it'll save me a pile of steps coming upstairs."
+
+"How am I to get there?" Eloise asked in dismay, and Mrs. Biggs replied,
+"It'll be a chore, I guess, but you can do it. I did when my ankle was
+bad. I took some strong coffee, same as I brought you, had my foot done
+up, and slid downstairs, one at a time, with my lame laig straight out.
+I can't say it didn't hurt, for it did, but I had to grin and bear it.
+Christian Science nor mind cure wasn't invented then, or I should of
+used 'em, and said my ankle wasn't sprained. There's plenty of nice
+people believes 'em now. You can try 'em on, and we'll manage somehow."
+
+Eloise was appalled at the thought of going downstairs to meet people,
+and especially the young men from Crompton, clad in that spotted brown
+and white gown, with nothing to relieve its ugliness, not even a collar,
+for the one she had worn the previous day was past being worn again
+until it had been laundered. She looked at her handkerchief. That, too,
+was impossible.
+
+"Mrs. Biggs," she said at last, "have you a handkerchief you can loan
+me?"
+
+"To be sure! To be sure! Half a dozen, if you like," Mrs. Biggs
+answered, hurrying from the room, and soon returning with a handkerchief
+large enough for a dinner napkin.
+
+It was coarse and half-cotton, but it was clean, and Eloise tied it
+around her neck, greatly to Mrs. Biggs's surprise.
+
+"Oh," she said, "you wanted it for that? Why not have a lace ruffle?
+I'll get one in a jiffy."
+
+Eloise declined the ruffle. The handkerchief was bad enough, but a lace
+ruffle with that gown would have been worse.
+
+"Now, I'll call Tim to go in front and keep you from falling. He is kind
+of awkward, but I'll go behind and stiddy you, and you grit your teeth
+and put on the mind cure, and down we go," Mrs. Biggs said, calling Tim,
+who came shambling up the stairs, and laughed aloud when he saw Eloise
+wrapped in his mother's gown.
+
+"Excuse me, I couldn't help it; mother has made you into such a
+bundle," he said good-humoredly, as he saw the pained look in Eloise's
+face. "I'll get your trunk the next train, and you can have your own
+fixin's. What am I to do?"
+
+This last was to his mother, who explained the way she had gone
+downstairs when she sprained her ankle twenty years ago come Christmas.
+
+"She must sit down somehow on the top stair and slide down with one
+before her,--that's you,--and one behind,--that's me,--and she's to put
+on the mind cure. Miss Jenks says it does a sight of good."
+
+Tim looked at his mother and then at Eloise, whose pitiful face appealed
+to him strongly.
+
+"Oh, go to grass," he said, "with your mind cure! It's all rot! I'll
+carry her, if she will let me. I could of done it last night as well as
+them fine fellows."
+
+He was a rough young boy of sixteen, with uncouth ways; but there was
+something in his face which drew Eloise to him, and when he said, "Shall
+I carry you?" she answered gladly, "Oh, yes, please. I don't think I
+have any mind to put on."
+
+Lifting her very gently in his strong arms, while his mother kept saying
+she knew he'd let her fall, Tim carried her down and into the best room,
+where he set her in a rocking-chair, and brought a stool for her lame
+foot to rest upon, and then said he would go for her trunk, if she would
+give him her check. There was something magnetic about Tim, and Eloise
+felt it, and was sorry when he was gone. The world looked very dreary
+with the fog and rain outside, and the best room inside, with its stiff
+hair-cloth furniture, glaring paper and cheap prints on the wall--one of
+them of Beatrice Cenci, worse than anything she had ever seen. She was
+very fastidious in her tastes, and everything rude and incongruous
+offended it, and she was chafing against her surroundings, when Mrs.
+Biggs came bustling in, very much excited, and exclaiming, "For the
+land's sake, they are comin'! They are right here. They hain't let much
+grass grow. Let me poke your hair back a little from your forehead,--so!
+That's right, and more becomin'."
+
+"Who are coming?" Eloise asked.
+
+"Why, Mr. Crompton and his friend. I don't know his name," Mrs. Biggs
+replied, and Eloise felt a sudden chill as she thought of the figure she
+must present to them.
+
+If she could only look in the glass and adjust herself a little, or if
+Mrs. Biggs would throw something over the unsightly slipper and the
+ankle smothered in so many bandages. The mirror was out of the question.
+She had combed her hair with a side comb which had come safely through
+the storm, but she felt that it was standing on end, and that she was a
+very crumpled, sorry spectacle in Mrs. Biggs's spotted gown, with the
+handkerchief round her neck. Hastily covering her foot with a fold of
+the wide gown, she clasped her hands tightly together, and leaning her
+head against the back of her chair, drew a long breath and waited.
+
+She heard the steps outside, and Mrs. Biggs's "Good-mornin'; glad to see
+you. She is expectin' you, or I am. Yes, her laig is pretty bad. Swelled
+as big as two laigs, just as mine was twenty years ago come Christmas,
+when I sprained it. Tim brought her downstairs where she can see folks.
+She's in the parlor. Walk in."
+
+Eloise's cheeks were blazing, but the rest of her face was very pale,
+and her eyes had in them a hunted look as the young men entered the
+room, preceded by Mrs. Biggs in her working apron, with her sleeves
+rolled up.
+
+"Miss Smith, this is Mr. Crompton," she said, indicating Howard; "and
+the t'other one is--his name has slipped my mind."
+
+"Harcourt," Jack said, feeling an intense sympathy for the helpless
+girl, whose feelings he guessed and whose hand he held a moment with a
+clasp in which she felt the pity, and had hard work to keep the tears
+back.
+
+Howard also took her hand and felt sorry for her, but he did not affect
+her like Jack, and she did not like his eyes, which she guessed saw
+everything. He had a keen sense of the ridiculous, and the contrast
+between Eloise and the gown which he knew must belong to Mrs. Biggs
+struck him so forcibly that he could scarcely repress a smile, as he
+asked how she had passed the night. Mrs. Biggs answered for her. Indeed,
+she did most of the talking.
+
+"She slep' pretty well, I guess; better'n I did when I sprained my ankle
+twenty years ago come Christmas. I never closed my eyes, even in a cat
+nap, and she did. I crep' to her door twice to see how she was gettin'
+on, and she was--not exactly snorin'--I don't s'pose she ever does
+snore,--but breathin' reg'lar like, jess like a baby, which I didn't do
+in a week when I sprained my ankle."
+
+She would have added "twenty years ago come Christmas," if Jack had not
+forestalled her by asking Eloise if her ankle pained her much.
+
+"Yes," she said, while Mrs. Biggs chimed in, "Can't help painin' her,
+swelled as 'tis,--big as two ankles; look."
+
+She whisked off the bottom of her dress which Eloise had put over her
+foot, and disclosed the shapeless bundle encased in the old felt
+slipper.
+
+"Look for yourselves; see if you think it aches," she said.
+
+This was too much for Eloise, who, regardless of pain, drew her foot up
+under the skirt of her dress, while her face grew scarlet. Both Howard
+and Jack were sorry for her, and at last got the conversation into
+another channel by saying they had brought her satchel and hat, which
+they feared were ruined, and asking if she had seen the hat Miss Amy had
+sent her.
+
+"Land sakes, no! I told her about it, but I hain't had time to show it
+to her," Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, starting from the room, while Howard
+explained that his cousin had tried in vain to renovate the drenched
+hat, and, finding it impossible, had sent one of her own which she
+wished Miss Smith to accept with her compliments.
+
+"How do you like it?" Mrs. Biggs asked, as she came in with it.
+
+It was a fine leghorn, with a wreath of lilacs round the crown, and
+Eloise knew that it was far more expensive than anything she had ever
+worn.
+
+"It is very pretty," she said, "and very kind in the lady to send it.
+Tell her I thank her. What is her name?"
+
+Jack looked at Howard, who replied, "She has had a good many, none of
+which pleased my uncle, the last one least of all; so he calls her Miss
+Amy, and wishes others to do so."
+
+Eloise was puzzled, but the sight of Mrs. Biggs tugging at her wet
+satchel to open it diverted her mind.
+
+"Your things is sp'ilt, most likely, but you'd better have 'em out. For
+the mercy's sake, look!" she said, passing the satchel to Eloise, who
+was beyond caring: for what was spoiled and what was not. "There's
+somebody knockin'. It's Mr. Bills, most likely, the committee man, come
+to see you; I told Tim to notify him," Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, hurrying
+out, and saying to Howard as she passed him, "You can visit a spell
+before I fetch him in. She needs perkin' up, poor thing."
+
+It proved to be a grocer's boy instead of Mr. Bills, and Mrs. Biggs came
+back just as Howard was presenting the slippers.
+
+"I did not think they were just what you wanted," Howard explained, as
+he saw the look of surprise on Eloise's face. "Miss Amy is not always
+quite clear in her mind, but rather resolute when it is made up; and
+when we told her we had to cut off your boot, she insisted upon sending
+these."
+
+At this point Mrs. Biggs appeared, throwing up both hands at what she
+saw, and exclaiming, "Wall, if I won't give up! Satin slips for a
+spraint laig. Yes, I'll give up!"
+
+She looked at Howard, who did not reply, but turned his head to hide his
+laugh from Eloise, while Mrs. Biggs went on, "I don't see how she can
+ever get her feet into 'em. I can't mine, and I don't b'lieve she can.
+Better send 'em back;" and she looked at Eloise, who, if she was proud
+of any part of her person, was proud of her feet.
+
+Flushing hotly she said, "They are not suitable for me, of course, but I
+think I _could_ get one on my well foot."
+
+"I know you could; try it," Jack said.
+
+Stooping forward Eloise removed her boot, although the effort brought a
+horrible twinge to her lame ankle and made her feel faint for a moment.
+
+"Put it on for me, please," she said to Mrs. Biggs, who, mistaking the
+right-hand slipper for the left, began tugging at it.
+
+"I told you so," she said. "Your foot is twice as big."
+
+"Try this one," Jack suggested, "or let me;" and he fitted the slipper
+at once to the little foot, while Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, "Wall, I vum, it
+does fit to a T! If anything, it's too big."
+
+In spite of her pain and embarrassment there was a look of exultation in
+Eloise's eyes, as they met those of Jack, who was nearly as pleased as
+herself.
+
+"You will keep them and wear them some time," he said; and when Eloise
+declined, saying they would be of no use to her, Howard, who had been
+watching this Cinderella play with a good deal of interest, and wishing
+he had been the prince to fit the slipper instead of Jack, said to
+Eloise, "I think it better for you to keep them. Miss Amy will not like
+to have them returned, and if they were, she'd give them to some one
+else, or very likely send them to the Rummage Sale we are to have in
+town."
+
+"That's so," Mrs. Biggs chimed in. "There is to be a rummage sale, and
+Ruby Ann has spoke for Tim's old clothes and mine, especially our shoes.
+Keep 'em by all means."
+
+Eloise was beginning to feel faint again, and tired with all this talk
+and excitement, and painfully conscious that Howard's eyes were dancing
+with laughter at the sight of her feet,--one swollen to three times its
+natural size and pushed into Mrs. Biggs's old felt shoe, and the other
+in Miss Amy's white satin slipper.
+
+"Oh, I wish you would take it off!" she gasped, feeling unequal to
+leaning forward again, and closing her eyes wearily.
+
+She meant Mrs. Biggs, but Jack forestalled that good woman, and in an
+instant had the slipper off and the boot on, doing both so gently that
+she was not hurt at all.
+
+"Thanks!" Eloise said, drawing her well foot under the spotted calico,
+and wishing the young men would go.
+
+How long they would have staid is uncertain if there had not come a
+second knock at the kitchen door. This time it was really Mr. Bills, and
+Mrs. Biggs went out to meet him, while Eloise felt every nerve quiver
+with dread. She must see him and tell him how impossible it would be for
+her to commence her duties on Monday. Perhaps he would dismiss her
+altogether, and take another in her place, and then--"What shall I do?"
+she thought, and, scarcely knowing what she said, she cried, "Oh, I
+can't bear it!" while the tears rolled down her cheeks, and Howard and
+Jack gathered close to her,--the laugh all gone from Howard's eyes, and
+a great pity shining in Jack's.
+
+"Excuse me," she continued, "I don't mean to be childish, but everything
+is so dreadful! I don't mind the pain so much; but to be here away from
+home, and to lose the school, as I may, and--and,--I want a handkerchief
+to wipe my face,--and this is ruined."
+
+She said this last as she took from her satchel the handkerchief which
+had been so white and clean when she left home, and which now was wet
+and stained from a bottle of shoe blacking which had come uncorked and
+saturated everything. She had borne a great deal, and, as is often the
+case, a small matter upset her entirely. The spoiled handkerchief was
+the straw too many, and her tears came faster as she held it in one
+hand, and with the other tried to wipe them away.
+
+"Take mine, please; I've not used it," Jack said, offering her one of
+fine linen, and as daintily perfumed as a woman's.
+
+She took it unhesitatingly. She was in a frame of mind to take anything,
+and smiled her thanks through her tears.
+
+"I know I must seem very weak to you to be crying like a baby; but you
+don't know how I dread meeting Mr. Bills, or how much is depending upon
+my having this school, or what it would be to me to lose it, if he can't
+wait. Do you think he will?"
+
+She looked at Jack, who knew nothing whatever of the matter, or of Mr.
+Bills, but who answered promptly, "Of course he will wait; he must wait.
+We shall see to that. Don't cry. I'm awfully sorry for you; we both
+are."
+
+He was standing close to her, and involuntarily laid his hand on her
+hair, smoothing it a little as he would have smoothed his sister's. She
+seemed so young and looked so small, wrapped up in Mrs. Biggs's gown,
+that he thought of her for a moment as a child to be soothed and
+comforted. She did not repel the touch of his hand, but cried the harder
+and wiped her face with his handkerchief until it was wet with her
+tears.
+
+"Mr. Bills wants to know if he can come in now," came as an interruption
+to the scene, which was getting rather affecting.
+
+"In just a minute," Jack said. Then to Eloise, "Brace up! We'll attend
+to Mr. Bills if he proves formidable."
+
+She braced up as he bade her, and gave his handkerchief back to him.
+
+"I shan't need it again. I am not going to be foolish any longer, and I
+thank you so much," she said, with a look which made Jack's pulse beat
+rapidly.
+
+"We'd better go now and give Mr. Bills a chance," he said to Howard, who
+had been comparatively silent and let him do the talking and suggesting.
+
+Howard could not define his feeling with regard to Eloise. Her beauty
+impressed him greatly, and he was very sorry for her, but he could not
+rid himself of the conviction which had a second time taken possession
+of him that in some way she was to influence his life or cross his path.
+
+He bade her good-by, and told her to keep up good courage, and felt a
+little piqued that she withdrew her hand more quickly from him than she
+did from Jack, who left her rather reluctantly. They found Mr. Bills
+outside talking to Mrs. Biggs, who was volubly narrating the particulars
+of the accident, so far as she knew them, and referring constantly to
+her own sprained ankle of twenty years ago, and the impossibility of
+Miss Smith's being able to walk for some time.
+
+With his usual impetuousness Jack took the initiative, and said to Mr.
+Bills: "Your school can certainly wait; it must wait. A week or two can
+make no difference. At the end of that time, if she cannot walk, she can
+be taken to and from the school-house every day. To lose the school will
+go hard with her, and she's so young."
+
+Jack was quite eloquent, and Mr. Bills looked at him curiously,
+wondering who this smart young fellow was, pleading for the new
+school-teacher. He knew Howard, who, after Jack was through, said he
+hoped Mr. Bills would wait; it would be a pity to disappoint the girl
+when she had come so far.
+
+"Perhaps a week or two will make no difference," Mr. Bills said, "though
+the young ones are getting pretty wild, and their mothers anxious to
+have them out of the way, but I guess we'll manage it somehow."
+
+He knew he should manage it when he saw Eloise. She could not tell him
+of the need there was of money in her grandmother's home, or the still
+greater need if she took the trip to California which she feared she
+must take. She only looked her anxiety, and Mr. Bills, whose heart Mrs.
+Biggs said was "big as a barn," warmed toward her, while mentally he
+began to doubt her ability to "fill the bill," as he put it, she looked
+so young and so small.
+
+"I'll let her off easy, if I have to," he thought, and he said,
+"Folks'll want school to begin as advertised. You can't go, but there's
+Ruby Ann Patrick. She'll be glad to supply. She's kep' the school five
+years runnin'. She wanted it when we hired you. She's out of a job, and
+will be glad to take it till you can walk. I'll see her to-day. You look
+young to manage unruly boys, and there's a pile of 'em in Deestrick No.
+5 want lickin' half the time. Ruby Ann can lick 'em. She's five feet
+nine. You ain't more'n five."
+
+Eloise did not tell him how tall she was. In fact, she didn't know. She
+must look very diminutive in Mr. Bills's eyes, she thought, and hastened
+to say, "I taught boys and young men older than I am in the normal at
+Mayville, and never had any trouble. I had only to speak to or look at
+them."
+
+"I b'lieve you, I b'lieve you," Mr. Bills said. "I should mind you
+myself every time if you looked at me, but boys ain't alike. There's Tom
+Walker, ringleader in every kind of mischief, the wust feller you ever
+see. Ruby Ann had one tussle with him, and came off Number One. He'd
+most likely raise Cain with a schoolmarm who couldn't walk and went on
+crutches."
+
+"Oh-h!" Eloise said despairingly. "I shall not have to do that!"
+
+"Mebby not; mebby not. Sprained ankles mostly does, though. I had to
+when I sprained mine. I used to hobble to the well and pump cold water
+on it; that's tiptop for a sprain. Well, I must go now and see Ruby Ann.
+Good-day. Keep a stiff upper lip, and you'll pull through. Widder Biggs
+is a fust rate nurse, and woman, too. Little too much tongue, mebby.
+Hung in the middle and plays both ways. Knows everybody's history and
+age from the Flood down. She'll get at yours from A to izzard.
+Good-day!"
+
+He was gone, and Eloise was alone with her pain and homesickness and
+discouragement. Turn which way she would, there was not much brightness
+in her sky, except when she thought of Jack Harcourt, whose hand on her
+hair she could feel just as he had felt her wet hand on his neck hours
+after the spot was dried, ft seemed perfectly natural and proper that he
+should care for her, just as it did that the lady at the Crompton House
+should send her a hat. It was lying on a chair near her with the
+slippers, and she took it up and examined it again very carefully,
+admiring the fineness of the leghorn, the beauty of the lilac wreath,
+and the texture of the ribbons.
+
+"I shall never wear it," she thought. "It is too handsome for me; but I
+shall always keep it, and be glad for the thoughtfulness which prompted
+the lady to send it."
+
+Then she wondered if she would ever see the lady and thank her in
+person, or go to the Crompton House; and if her trunk would ever come
+from the station, so that she could divest herself of the detestable
+cotton gown and put on something more becoming, which would show him she
+was not quite so much a guy as she looked in Mrs. Biggs's wardrobe. The
+him was Jack, not Howard. He was not in the running. She cared as little
+for him as she imagined he cared for her. And here she did him
+injustice. She interested him greatly, though not in the way she
+interested Jack, whom he chaffed on their way home, telling him he ought
+to offer his services as nurse.
+
+"I wonder you did not wipe her eyes as well as give her your
+handkerchief," he said. "I dare say you will never have it laundered,
+lest her tears should be washed out of it."
+
+"Never!" Jack replied, and, taking the handkerchief from his pocket and
+folding it carefully, he put it back again, saying, "No, sir; I shall
+keep it intact. No laundryman's hands will ever touch it."
+
+"Pretty far gone, that's a fact," Howard rejoined, and then continued:
+"I say, Jack, we'd better not talk of Miss Smith before the Colonel. It
+will only rouse him up, and make him swear at normal graduates in
+general, and this one in particular. You know I wrote you that he gave
+the lot and built the school-house, and for years was inspector of
+Crompton schools,--boss and all hands,--till a new generation came up
+and shelved him. He fought hard, but had to give in to young blood and
+modern ideas. He had no voice in hiring Miss Smith,--was not consulted.
+His choice was a Ruby Ann Patrick, a perfect Amazon of an old maid;
+weighs two hundred, I believe, and rides a wheel. You ought to see her.
+But then she is rooted and grounded, and uncle does not think Miss Smith
+is, though she was pretty well grounded last night when she sat on that
+sand heap with her foot twisted under her. I'm not a soft head like you,
+to fall in love with her at first sight; but I'm awfully sorry for her,
+and I don't wish to hear the Colonel swear about her."
+
+Jack had never seen Howard more in earnest, and his mental comment was,
+"Cares more for her than I supposed. He'll bear watching. Poor little
+girl! How white she was at times, and how tired her eyes looked; and
+bright, too, as stars. I wonder if she really ought not to have a
+doctor."
+
+He put this question to Howard, who replied: "No, that Biggs woman is a
+full team on sprained ankles. She'll get her up without a doctor, and I
+don't suppose the girl has much to spend on the craft."
+
+"Yes, but what is a little money to you or me, if she really needs a
+doctor?" Jack said thoughtfully, while Howard laughed and answered,
+"Don't be an idiot, and lose your heart to a schoolma'am because she
+happened to have had her arm around your neck when we carried her in
+that chair. I can feel it yet, and sometimes put up my hand when half
+awake to see if it isn't there, but I am not going to make a fool of
+myself."
+
+As they were near home Jack did not reply, but he could have told of
+times when half awake and wide awake he felt the arms and the hands and
+the hot breath of the girl clinging to him in the darkness and rain, and
+saw the eyes full of pain and dumb entreaty not to hurt her more than
+they could help, as they cut the soaked boot from the swollen foot. But
+he said nothing, and, when the house was reached, went at once to his
+own room, wondering what he could do to make her more comfortable.
+
+Acting upon Howard's advice, Eloise was not mentioned, either at lunch
+or at dinner. Amy had evidently forgotten her, for she made no inquiry
+for her. Neither did the Colonel. She was, however, much in the minds of
+the young men, and each was wondering how he could best serve her.
+Howard thought of a sea chair, in which his uncle had crossed the ocean.
+He had found it covered with dust in the attic, and brought it to his
+room to lounge in. It would be far more comfortable for Eloise than that
+stiff, straight-backed, hair-cloth rocker in which she had to sit so
+upright. He would send it to her with Amy's compliments, if he could
+manage it without the knowledge of Jack, who he would rather should not
+know how much he was really interested in Eloise. Jack was also planning
+what he could do, and thought of a wheel chair, in which she could be
+taken to and from school. He might possibly find one in the village by
+the shore. He would inquire without consulting Howard, whose joking
+grated a little, as it presupposed the impossibility of his really
+caring for one so far removed from his station in life as Eloise seemed
+to be.
+
+Could she have known how much she was in the minds of the young men at
+Crompton Place, she would not have felt quite as forlorn and
+disconsolate as she did during the long hours of the day, when she sat
+helpless and alone, except as Mrs. Biggs tried to entertain her with a
+flow of talk and gossip which did not interest her. A few of the
+neighbors called in the evening, and it seemed to Eloise that every one
+had had a sprained ankle or two, of which they talked continually,
+dwelling mostly upon the length of time it took before they were able to
+walk across the floor, to say nothing of the distance from Mrs. Biggs's
+to the school-house. That would be impossible for two or three weeks at
+least, and even then Miss Smith would have to go on crutches most
+likely, was their comforting assurance.
+
+"I've got some up garret that I used twenty years ago. Too long for her,
+but Tim can cut them off. They are just the thing. Lucky I kept them,"
+Mrs. Biggs said, while Eloise listened with a feeling like death in her
+heart, and dreamed that night of hobbling to school on Mrs. Biggs's
+crutches, while Jack Harcourt helped and encouraged her, and Howard
+Crompton stood at a distance laughing at her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+RUBY ANN PATRICK
+
+
+She had taught the school in District No. 5 summer and winter for five
+years. She had been a teacher for fifteen years, her first experience
+dating back to the days when the Colonel was school inspector, and his
+formula in full swing. She had met all his requirements promptly, knew
+all about the geese and the grindstone, and the wind, and Mr. Wright,
+and had a certificate in the Colonel's handwriting, declaring her to be
+rooted and grounded in the fundamentals, and qualified to teach a
+district school anywhere. As Mr. Bills had said to Eloise, she was five
+feet nine inches high and large in proportion, with so much strength and
+vital force and determination, that the most unruly boy in District No.
+5 would hesitate before openly defying her authority. She had conquered
+Tom Walker, the bully of the school, and after the day when he was made
+to feel the force there was in her large hand, he had done nothing worse
+than make faces behind her back and draw caricatures of her on his
+slate.
+
+As a rule, Ruby Ann was popular with the majority of the people, and
+there had been some opposition to a change. It was hardly fair, they
+said to the Colonel, who took so much interest in the school, and who
+was sure to feel angry and hurt if deprived of the privilege of
+catechising the teachers in the office he had erected for that purpose
+on his grounds. He had not only built the school-house, but had kept it
+in repair, and had added a classroom for the older scholars because
+somebody said it was needed, and had not objected when it was only used
+for wraps and dinner pails, and balls and clubs in the summer, and in
+the winter for coal and wood and sleds and skates and other things
+pertaining to a school of wide-awake girls and boys.
+
+This was the conservative party, but there was another which wanted a
+change. They had been in a rut long enough, and they laughed at the
+Colonel's formula, which nearly every child knew by heart. The Colonel
+was too old to run things,--they must have something up to date, and
+when the president of Mayville Normal School applied for a situation for
+Eloise she was accepted, and Ruby Ann went to the wall. She was greatly
+chagrined and disappointed when she found herself supplanted by a normal
+graduate, of whom she had not a much higher opinion than the Colonel
+himself. When she heard of the accident and that her rival was disabled,
+she was conscious just for a moment of a feeling of exultation, as if
+Eloise had received her just deserts. She was, however, a kind-hearted,
+well-principled woman, and soon cast the feeling aside as unworthy of
+her, and tried to believe she was sorry for the girl, who, she heard,
+was very young, and had been carried in the darkness and rain to Mrs.
+Biggs's house in Howard Crompton's arms.
+
+"I would almost be willing to sprain my ankle for the sake of being
+carried in that way," Ruby thought, and then laughed as she tried to
+fancy the young man bending beneath the weight of her hundred and
+ninety pounds.
+
+It was at this juncture that Mr. Bills came in asking if she would take
+Miss Smith's place until she was able to walk. It might be two weeks,
+and it might be three, and it might be less, he said. Any way, they
+didn't want a cripple in the school-house for Tom Walker to raise Hail
+Columby with. Would Ruby Ann swaller her pride and be a substitute?
+
+"It is a good deal to ask me to do after I have been turned out of
+office," she said, "but I am not one to harbor resentment. Yes, I'll
+take the school till Miss Smith is able. How does she look? I hear she
+is very young."
+
+"Well, she's some younger than you, I guess, and looks like a child as
+she sits down," Mr. Bills replied. "Why, you are big as two of
+her,--yes, three,--and could throw her over the house."
+
+Ruby's face clouded, and Mr. Bills went on: "She is handsome as blazes,
+with a mouth which keeps kind of quivering, as if she wanted to cry, or
+something, and eyes--well, you've got to see 'em to know what they are
+like. They are just eyes which make an old man like me feel,--I don't
+know how."
+
+Ruby laughed, but felt a little hurt as she thought of her own small,
+light-blue eyes and lighter eyebrows, which had never yet made any man,
+young or old, feel "he didn't know how." She knew she was neither young
+nor handsome nor attractive, but she had good common sense, and after
+Mr. Bills was gone she sat down to review the situation, and resolved to
+accept it gracefully and to call upon Eloise. It would be certainly _en
+regle_ and Christian-like to do so, she thought, and the next afternoon
+she presented herself at Mrs. Biggs's door and asked if Miss Smith were
+able to see any one.
+
+Mrs. Biggs belonged to the radical party which favored a change of
+teachers. Five years was long enough for one person to teach in the same
+place, she said, and they wanted somebody modern and younger. She laid a
+great deal of stress upon that, and on one occasion, when giving her
+opinion over her gate to a neighbor, had added "smaller and
+better-looking." Ruby was not a favorite with Mrs. Biggs, whom she had
+called an inveterate gossip, hunting up everbody's history and age, and
+making them out two or three years older than they were. She had lived
+at home and kept Mrs. Biggs out of a boarder five years. She had called
+Tim a lout, and kept him after school several times when his mother
+needed him. Consequently Mrs. Biggs's sympathies were all with Eloise,
+who was young and small and good-looking, and she flouted the idea of
+having Ruby hired even for a few days.
+
+"It's just a wedge to git her in again," she had said to Tim, with whom
+she had discussed the matter. "I know Ruby Ann, and she'll jump at the
+chance, and keep it, too. She can wind Mr. Bills round her fingers. I'd
+rather have Miss Smith with one laig than Ruby Ann with three. Tom
+Walker ain't goin' to raise Ned with such a slip of a girl."
+
+"I ruther guess not, when I'm there," Tim said, squaring himself up as
+if ready to fight a dozen Tom Walkers, when, in fact, he was afraid of
+one, and usually kept out of his way.
+
+Mrs. Biggs had not expected Ruby Ann to call, and her face wore a
+vinegary expression when she opened the door to her.
+
+"Yes, I s'pose you can see her, but too much company ain't good for
+sprained ankles," she replied in response to Ruby's inquiry if she could
+see Miss Smith. "You'll find her in the parlor, but don't stay long.
+Talkin' 'll create a fever in her laig."
+
+Ruby was accustomed to Mrs. Biggs's vagaries, and did not mind them.
+
+"I'll be very discreet," she said, as she passed on to the parlor,
+curious to see the girl who had been preferred to herself.
+
+She had heard from Mr. Bills that Eloise "was handsome as blazes," but
+she was not prepared for the face which looked up at her as she entered
+the room. Something in the eyes appealed to her as it had to Mr. Bills,
+and any prejudice she might have had melted away at once, and she began
+talking to Eloise as familiarly as if she had known her all her life. At
+first Eloise drew back from the powerfully built woman, who stood up so
+tall before her, and whose voice was so strong and masculine, and whose
+eyes travelled over her so rapidly, taking in every detail of her dress
+and every feature of her face. Mrs. Biggs's disfiguring cotton gown had
+been discarded for a loose white jacket, which, with its knots of pink
+ribbon, was very becoming, and Ruby found herself studying it closely,
+and wondering if she could make one like it, and how she would look in
+it. Then she noticed the hands, so small and so white, and felt an
+irresistible desire to take one of them in her broad palm.
+
+"I do believe I could hold three like them in one of mine," she thought,
+and sitting down by Eloise's side, she laid her hand on the one resting
+on the arm of the chair.
+
+There was something so friendly and warm and so sympathetic in the
+touch that Eloise wanted to cry. With a great effort she kept her tears
+back, but could not prevent one or two from standing on her long lashes,
+and making her eyes very bright as she answered Ruby's rapid questions
+with regard to the accident.
+
+"And I hear Mr. Howard Crompton brought you here himself. That was
+something of an honor, as he seldom goes out of his way for any one,"
+she said, with a keen look of curiosity in her eyes.
+
+"I never thought of the honor," Eloise replied. "I could think of
+nothing but the pain, which was terrible, and now everything is so
+dreary and so different from what I hoped. Do you think it will be long
+before I can walk?"
+
+"No; oh no," Ruby answered cheerily. "Let me see your foot. It is
+swollen badly," she said, as she replaced the old shawl Mrs. Biggs had
+thrown across it. "What have you on it? Wormwood and vinegar, I know by
+the odor. You should have a rubber band, and nothing else. It is cleaner
+and saves trouble. That's what I used, and was well in no time."
+
+"Have you had a sprained ankle, too?" Eloise asked, and Ruby Ann
+replied, "Certainly. Nearly every one has at some time in his life. It
+is as common as the measles."
+
+"I believe it," Eloise rejoined with a laugh. "So many have called to
+see me, and almost every one had had a sprain,--some as many as three;
+and each one proposed a different remedy."
+
+"Naturally; but you try the rubber band. I'll bring you one, and
+massage your ankle, and have you well very soon."
+
+These were the first hopeful words Eloise had heard, and her heart
+warmed towards this great blond woman, who was proving herself a friend,
+and who began to tell her of the school and her own experience as
+teacher in District No. 5, which, she said, was the largest and most
+important district in town, with the oldest scholars both summer and
+winter. "There are some unruly boys, especially Tom Walker, but I am so
+big and strong that I conquered him by brute force, and had no trouble
+after one battle. You will conquer some other way. Tom is very
+susceptible to good looks,--calls me a hayseed, and a chestnut, and a
+muff. It will be different with you," and Ruby pressed the hand she was
+holding. Then she spoke of Col. Crompton, who used to examine the
+teachers, and before whom she had been five times; usually answering the
+same questions, especially those contained in the "Formula," and to
+which Eloise would not be subjected.
+
+"What is the Formula?" Eloise asked, and Ruby told her, while Eloise
+listened bewildered, and glad that she was to escape an ordeal she could
+never pass with credit.
+
+It was easy to be confiding with Ruby, and Eloise soon found herself
+talking freely of her life and school days in Mayville, and the
+necessity there was for her to teach, and the bitter disappointment it
+would be to lose the school on which so much depended.
+
+"My father is dead," she said, "and my mother is--" she hesitated, while
+a deep flush came to her cheeks, "she is an invalid, and there is no one
+to care for her now but me. She is in California, and I may have to go
+for her, and must have the money."
+
+Just for a moment, when Mr. Bills asked her to take Eloise's place,
+there had been in Ruby's mind a half-formed hope that she might be
+wholly reinstated in her old place as a teacher. But it was gone now,
+and Jack Harcourt himself was not more kindly disposed to the helpless
+girl than she was.
+
+"You shall not lose the school, nor the time either," she said
+impulsively. "I am to take it till you are able, and then I shall step
+out. In the mean time, I shall do all I can for you,--shall enlist Tom
+Walker on your side, and you will have no trouble."
+
+She arose to go, then sat down again and said, "I hope you will be able
+to attend our Rummage Sale."
+
+"Rummage Sale!" Eloise repeated, remembering to have heard the word in
+connection with the slippers Miss Amy had sent her. "I don't think I
+quite understand."
+
+"Don't you know what a Rummage Sale is?" Ruby Ann asked, explaining what
+it was, and saying they were to have one in a vacant house not far from
+Mrs. Biggs's, the proceeds to go for a free library for District No. 5.
+"I am one of the solicitors," she continued, "but as you are a stranger
+you may not have anything to contribute."
+
+As Rummage Sales were just beginning to dawn on the public horizon
+Eloise had never heard of them, but she became interested at once,
+because Ruby Ann was so enthusiastic, and said, "I have two or three
+white aprons I made myself. You can have one of them if you think
+anybody will buy it."
+
+"Buy it!" Ruby repeated, rubbing her hands in ecstasy. "It will bring a
+big price when they know it was yours and you made it. I'll see that it
+has a conspicuous place. And now I must go and see Mrs. Biggs again
+about the sale. Good-by, and keep up your courage."
+
+She stooped and kissed Eloise, who heard her next in the kitchen talking
+to Mrs. Biggs, first of rubber bands and massage, and then of the
+Rummage Sale. When she was gone Mrs. Biggs came in and sat down and
+began to give her opinion of the Rummage Sale, and massage and rubber
+bands, and first the Rummage. A good way to get rid of truck, and Ruby
+Ann said they took everything. She had a lot of old chairs and a warming
+pan and foot-stove, and she s'posed she might give the spotted brown and
+white calico wrapper which Eloise had worn. It was faded and out of
+style. Yes, on the whole, she'd give the wrapper. She never liked it
+very well, she said; and then she spoke of the rubber band Ruby Ann had
+recommended instead of wormwood and vinegar, and of which she did not
+approve. What did Ruby Ann know? though, to be sure, she was old enough.
+How old did Eloise think she was? Eloise had not given her age a
+thought, but, pressed for an answer, ventured the reply that she might
+be verging on to thirty.
+
+"Verging on to thirty! More likely verging on to forty," Mrs. Biggs
+said, with a savage click of the needles with which she was knitting Tim
+a sock. "I know her age, if she does try to look young and wear a sailor
+hat, and ride a wheel in a short gown! I'd laugh to see me ridin' a
+wheel, and there ain't so much difference between us neither. I know,
+for we went to school together. She was a little girl, to be sure, and
+sat on the low seat and learnt her a-b-c's. I was four or five years
+older, and sat on a higher seat with Amy Crompton, till the Colonel took
+her from the district school and kep' her at home with a governess."
+
+Mrs. Biggs was very proud of the acquaintance she had had with Amy
+Crompton, when the two played together under the trees which shaded the
+school-house the Colonel had built as _expiatory_ years before, and she
+continued: "Amy, you know, is the half-cracked lady at the Crompton
+House who sent the hat and slippers. She's been married twice,--run away
+the first time. My land! what a stir there was about it, and what a high
+hoss the Colonel rode. Who her second was nobody knows,--some scamp by
+the name of Smith,--that's your name, and a good one, too, but about the
+commonest in the world, I reckon. There's four John Smiths in town, and
+Joel Smith, who brings my milk, and George Smith I buy aigs of, and
+forty odd more. They say the Colonel hates the name like pisen. Won't
+have anybody work for him by that name. Dismissed his milkman because he
+was a Smith, and between you and I, I b'lieve half his opposition to you
+was your name. Why, it's like a red rag to a bull."
+
+"I didn't know he was opposed to me personally," Eloise said, and Mrs.
+Biggs replied, "Of course not; how could he be? He never seen you. It's
+the normal, and bein' put out of office--he and Ruby Ann. They've run
+things long enough. They say he did swear offel at the last school
+meetin' about normals and ingrates and all that,--meanin' they'd forgot
+all he'd done for 'em; but, my land, you can't b'lieve half you hear. I
+don't b'lieve nothin', and try to keep a close mouth 'bout what I do
+b'lieve. I ain't none o' your gossips, and won't have folks sayin' the
+Widder Biggs said so and so."
+
+Here Mrs. Biggs stopped to take breath and answer a rap at the kitchen
+door, where George Smith was standing with a basket of eggs. Eloise
+could hear her badgering him because he charged too much and because his
+hens did not lay larger eggs, and threatening to withdraw her patronage
+if there was not a change. Then items of the latest news were exchanged,
+Mrs. Biggs doing her part well for one who never repeated anything and
+never believed anything. When George Smith was gone she returned to her
+seat by Eloise and resumed her conversation, which had been interrupted,
+and which was mostly reminiscent of people and incidents in Crompton,
+and especially of the Crompton House and its occupants, with a second
+fling at Ruby Ann.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MRS. BIGGS'S REMINISCENCES
+
+
+"Maybe I was too hard on Ruby Ann," she said, measuring the heel of
+Tim's sock to see if it were time to begin to narrow. "She's a pretty
+clever woman, take her by and large, but I do hate to see a dog frisk
+like a puppy, and she's thirty-five if she's a day. You see, I know,
+'cause, as I was tellin' you, there was her and me and Amy Crompton
+girls together. I am forty, Amy is thirty-eight or thirty-nine, and Ruby
+Ann is thirty-five."
+
+Having settled Ruby's age and asked Eloise hers, and told her she looked
+young for nineteen, the good woman branched off upon the grandeur of the
+Crompton House, with its pictures and statuary and bric-à-brac, its
+flowers and fountains, and rustic arbors and seats scattered over the
+lawn. Eloise had heard something of the place from a school friend, but
+never had it been so graphically described as by Mrs. Biggs, and she
+listened with a feeling that in the chamber of her childhood's memory a
+picture of this place had been hung by somebody.
+
+"Was it my father?" she asked herself, and answered decidedly, "No," as
+she recalled the little intercourse she had ever had with him. "Was it
+my mother?" she next asked herself, and involuntarily her tears started
+as she thought of her mother, and how unlikely it was that she had ever
+been in Crompton.
+
+Turning her head aside to hide her tears from Mrs. Biggs, she said,
+"Tell me more of the place. It almost seems as if I had been there."
+
+Thus encouraged, Mrs. Biggs began a description of the lawn party which
+she was too young to remember, although she was there with her mother,
+and had a faint recollection of music and candy and lights in the trees,
+and an attack of colic the night after as a result of overeating.
+
+"But, my land!" she said, "that was nothin' to the blow-out on Amy's
+sixteenth birthday. The Colonel had kep' her pretty close after he took
+her from school. She had a governess and she had a maid, but I must say
+she didn't seem an atom set up, and was just as nice when she met us
+girls. 'Hello, Betsey,' she'd say to me. That's my name, Betsey, but I
+call myself 'Lisbeth. 'Hello, Betsey,' I can hear her now, as she
+cantered past on her pony, in her long blue ridin' habit. Sometimes
+she'd come to the school-house and set on the grass under the apple
+trees and chew gum with us girls. That was before her party, which beat
+anything that was ever seen in Crompton, or will be again. The avenue
+and yard and stables were full of carriages, and there were eighteen
+waiters besides the _canterer_ from Boston."
+
+"The what?" Eloise asked, and Mrs. Biggs replied, "The _canterer_, don't
+you know, the man who sees to things and brings the vittles and his
+waiters. They say he alone cost the Colonel five hundred dollars; but,
+my land! that's no more for him than five dollars is for me. He fairly
+swims in money. Such dresses you never seen as there was there that
+night, and such bare necks and arms, with a man at the door, a man at
+the head of the stairs to tell 'em where to go, and one in the
+gentlemen's room, and two girls in the ladies' rooms to button their
+gloves and put on their dancing pumps. The carousin' lasted till
+daylight, and a tireder, more worn-out lot of folks than we was you
+never seen. I was nearly dead."
+
+"Were you there?' Eloise asked, with a feeling that there was some
+incongruity between the Crompton party and Mrs. Biggs, who did not care
+to say that she was one of the waitresses who buttoned gloves and put on
+the dancing pumps in the dressing-room.
+
+"Why, yes, I was there," she said at last, "though I wasn't exactly in
+the doin's. I've never danced since I was dipped and jined the church.
+Do you dance, or be you a perfessor?"
+
+Eloise had to admit that she did dance and was not a professor, although
+she hoped to be soon.
+
+"What persuasion?" was Mrs. Biggs's next question, and Eloise replied,
+"I was baptized in the Episcopal Church in Rome."
+
+"The one in York State, I s'pose, and not t'other one across the seas?"
+Mrs. Biggs suggested, and Eloise answered, "Yes, the one across the seas
+in Italy."
+
+"For goodness' sake! How you talk! You don't mean you was born there?"
+Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, with a feeling of added respect for one who was
+actually born across the seas. "Do you remember it, and did you know the
+Pope and the King?"
+
+Eloise said she did not remember being born, nor did she know the Pope
+or the King.
+
+"I was a little girl when I left Italy, and do not remember much,
+except that I was happier there than I have ever been since."
+
+"I want to know! I s'pose you've had trouble in your family?" was Mrs.
+Biggs's quick rejoinder, as she scented some private history which she
+meant to find out.
+
+But beyond the fact that her father was dead and her mother in
+California, she could learn nothing from Eloise, and returned to the
+point from which they had drifted to the Episcopal Church in Rome.
+
+"I kinder mistrusted you was a 'Piscopal. I do' know why, but I can most
+always tell 'em," she said. "The Cromptons is all that way of thinkin'.
+Old Colonel is a vestedman, I b'lieve they call 'em, but he swears
+offul. I don't call that religion; do you? But folks ain't alike. I
+don't s'pose the Church is to blame. There's now and then as good a
+'Piscopal as you'll find anywhere. Ruby Ann has jined 'em, and goes it
+strong. B'lieves in candles and vestures; got Tim into the choir one
+Sunday, and now you can't keep him out of it. Wears a--a--I don't know
+what you call it,--something that looks like a short night-gown, and I
+have to wash it every other week. I don't mind that, and I do b'lieve
+Tim is more of a man than he was, and he sings beautiful. And hain't
+learnt nothin' bad there yet, but the minister does some things I don't
+approve; no, don't approve. What do you think he does right before
+folks, in plain sight, sittin' on the piazza?"
+
+Eloise could not hazard a guess as to the terrible sin of which Mr.
+Mason, the rector of St. John's, was guilty, and said so.
+
+"Well," and Mrs. Biggs's voice sank to a whisper as she leaned forward,
+"_he smokes a cigar in broad daylight_! What do you think of that for a
+minister of the gospel?"
+
+She was so much in earnest, and her manner so dramatic, that Eloise
+laughed the first real, hearty laugh she had indulged in since she came
+to Crompton. Smoking might be objectionable, but it did not seem to her
+the most heinous crime in the world, and she had a very vivid
+remembrance of a coat in which there lurked the odor of many Havanas,
+and to which she had clung desperately in the darkness and rain on the
+night which seemed to her years ago. She did not, however, express any
+opinion with regard to the Rev. Arthur Mason's habits, or feel
+especially interested in him. But Mrs. Biggs was, and once launched on
+the subject, she told Eloise that he was from the South, and had not
+been long in the place; that he was unmarried, and all the girls were
+after him, Ruby Ann with the rest, and she at least half a dozen years
+older.
+
+"But, land's sake! What does that count with an old maid when a young
+minister is in the market," she said, adding that, with the exception of
+smoking, she believed the new minister was a good man, though for some
+reason Col. Crompton did not like him, and had only been to church once
+since he came, and wouldn't let Miss Amy go either.
+
+This brought her back to the Cromptons generally, and during the next
+half hour Eloise had a pretty graphic description of the Colonel and his
+eccentricities, of Amy, when she was a young girl, of the way she came
+to the Crompton House, and the mystery which still surrounded her birth.
+
+"My Uncle Peter lived there when she came, and lives there now,--a kind
+of vally to the old Colonel," she said, "and he's told me of the
+mornin' the Colonel brung her home, a queer-looking little thing,--in
+her clothes, I mean,--and offul peppery, I judge, fightin' everybody who
+came near her, and rollin' on the floor, bumpin' and cryin' for a nigger
+who had took care of her somewhere, nobody knows where, for the Colonel
+never told, and if Uncle Peter knows, he holds his tongue. She was a
+terrible fighter at school, if things didn't suit her, but she's quiet
+enough now; seems 's if she'd been through the fire, poor thing, and
+they say she don't remember nothin', and begins to shake if she tries to
+remember. The Colonel is very kind to her; lets her have all the money
+she wants, and she gives away a sight. Sent you a hat and slips, almost
+new, and had never seen you. That's like Amy, and, my soul, there she is
+now, comin' down the road with the Colonel in the b'rouch. Hurry, and
+you can see her; I'll move you."
+
+Utterly regardless of the lame foot, which dragged on the floor and hurt
+cruelly, Mrs. Biggs drew Eloise to the window in time to see a handsome
+open carriage drawn by two splendid bays passing the house. The Colonel
+was muffled up as closely as if it were midwinter, and only a part of
+his face and his long, white hair were visible, but he was sitting
+upright, with his head held high, and looked the embodiment of
+aristocratic pride and arrogance. The lady beside him was very slight,
+and sat in a drooping kind of posture, as if she were tired, or
+restless, or both. To see her face was impossible, for she was closely
+veiled, and neither she nor the Colonel glanced toward the house as they
+passed.
+
+"I am so disappointed. I wanted to see her face," Eloise said, watching
+the carriage until it was hidden from view by a turn in the road. "You
+say she is lovely?" and she turned to Mrs. Biggs.
+
+"Lovely don't express it. Seraphic comes nearer. Looks as if she had
+some great sorrow she was constantly thinking of, and trying to smile as
+she thought of it," Mrs. Biggs replied. Then, as Eloise looked quickly
+up, she exclaimed, "Well, if I ain't beat! It's come to me what I've
+been tryin' to think of ever sense I seen you. They ain't the same
+color; hers is darker, but there is a look in your eyes for all the
+world as hers used to be when she was a girl, and wan't wearin' her
+high-heeled shoes and ridin' over our heads. Them times she was as like
+the Colonel as one pea is like another, and her eyes fairly snapped.
+Other times they was soft and tender-like, and bright as stars, with a
+look in 'em which I know now was kinder,--well, kinder crazy-like, you
+know."
+
+Eloise had heard many things said of her own eyes, but never before that
+they were crazy-like, and did not feel greatly complimented. She
+laughed, however, and said she would like to see the lady whose eyes
+hers were like.
+
+Before Mrs. Biggs could reply there was a step outside, and, tiptoeing
+to the window, she exclaimed, in a whisper, "If I won't give it up,
+there's the 'Piscopal minister, Mr. Mason, come to call on you! Ruby Ann
+must of told him you belonged to 'em."
+
+She dropped her knitting, and, hurrying to the door, admitted the Rev.
+Arthur Mason, and ushered him at once into the room where Eloise was
+sitting, saying as she introduced him, "I s'pose you have come to see
+her."
+
+It was an awkward situation for the young man, whose call was not
+prompted by any thought of Eloise. His business was with Mrs. Biggs,
+who had the reputation of being the parish register and town
+encyclopædia, from which information regarding everybody could be
+gleaned, and he had come to her for information which he had been told
+she could probably give him. He had been in Crompton but three months,
+and had come there from a small parish in Virginia. On the first Sunday
+when he officiated in St. John's he had noticed in the audience a tall,
+aristocratic-looking man, with long white hair and beard, who made the
+responses loud and in a tone which told the valuation he put upon
+himself. In the same pew was a lady whose face attracted his attention,
+it was so sweet and yet so sad, while the beautiful eyes, he was sure,
+were sometimes full of tears as she listened with rapt attention to what
+he was saying of our heavenly home, where those we have loved and lost
+will be restored to us. It scarcely seemed possible, and yet he thought
+there was a nod of assent, and was sure that a smile broke over her face
+when he spoke of the first meeting of friends in the next world, the
+mother looking for her child, and the child coming to the gates of
+Paradise to meet its mother. Who was she, he wondered, and who was the
+old man beside her, who held himself so proudly? He soon learned who
+they were, and hearing that the Colonel was very lame, and the lady an
+invalid, he took the initiative and called at the Crompton House. The
+Colonel received him very cordially, and made excuses for Amy's
+non-appearance, saying she was not quite herself and shy with strangers.
+He was very affable, and evidently charmed with his visitor, until, as
+the conversation flowed on, it came out that the rector was a
+Southerner by birth, although educated for the ministry at the North,
+and that his father, the Rev. Charles Mason, was at present filling a
+vacancy in a little country church in Enterprise, Florida, where he had
+been before the war. The Rev. Arthur Mason could not tell what it was
+that warned him of an instantaneous change in the Colonel's manner, it
+was so subtle and still so perceptible. There was a settling himself
+back in his chair, a tighter clasping of his gold-headed cane with which
+he walked, and which he always kept in his hand. He was less talkative,
+and finally was silent altogether, and when at last the rector arose to
+go, he was not asked to stay or call again. Peter was summoned to show
+him the door, the Colonel bowing very stiffly as he went out. How he had
+offended, if he had done so, the rector could not guess, and, hearing
+within a week or two that the Colonel was indisposed, he called again,
+but was not admitted. Col. Crompton was too nervous to see any one, he
+was told, and there the acquaintance had ended. The Crompton pew was not
+occupied until Howard came and was occasionally seen in it. Evidently
+the new rector was a _persona non grata_, and he puzzled his brain for a
+reason in vain, until a letter from his father threw some light upon the
+subject and induced him to call upon Mrs. Biggs.
+
+As usual she was very loquacious, scarcely allowing him a word, and
+ringing changes on her own and Eloise's sprained ankle, until he began
+to fear he should have no chance to broach the object of his visit
+without seeming to drag it in. The chance came on the return of the
+Crompton carriage, with the Colonel sitting stiff and straight and Amy
+drooping under her veil beside him. Here was his opportunity, and the
+rector seized it, and soon learned nearly all Mrs. Biggs knew of Amy's
+arrival at Crompton House and the surmises concerning her antecedents.
+
+"She's a Crompton if there ever was one, and why the Colonel should keep
+so close a mouth all these years beats me," was Mrs. Biggs's closing
+remark, as she bowed the rector out and went back to Eloise, who felt
+that she was getting very familiar with the Crompton history, so far as
+Mrs. Biggs knew it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LETTER FROM REV. CHARLES MASON
+
+
+"Enterprise, Fla., Sept. --, 18--.
+
+"My dear Arthur:
+
+"I was glad to hear that you were so pleasantly situated and liked your
+parish work. I trust it is cooler there than here in Florida, where the
+thermometer has registered higher day after day than it has before in
+years. I rather like it, however, as I am something of a salamander, and
+this, you know, is not my first experience in Florida. I was here
+between thirty and forty years ago, before I was married. In fact, I met
+your mother here at the Brock House, which before the war was frequented
+by many Southerners, some of whom came in the summer as well as in the
+winter.
+
+"It was while I was here that an incident occurred which made a strong
+impression upon my mind, and was recalled to it by your mention of
+_Crompton_ as the town where you are living. On one of the hottest days
+of the season I attended a funeral, the saddest, and, in some respects,
+the most peculiar I ever attended. It was in a log-house some miles from
+the river, and was that of a young girl, who lay in her coffin with a
+pathetic look on her face, as if in death she were pleading for some
+wrong to be righted. I could scarcely keep back my tears when I looked
+at her, and after all these years my eyes grow moist when I recall that
+funeral in the palmetto clearing, with only Crackers and negroes in
+attendance, a demented old woman, a dark-eyed little girl, the only
+relatives, and a free negro, Jake, and Mandy Ann, a slave, belonging to
+Mrs. Harris, the only real mourners. Mandy Ann attended to the child and
+old woman, while Jake was master of ceremonies, and more intelligent
+than many white people I have met. Such a funeral as that was, with the
+cries and groans and singing of both whites and blacks! One old woman,
+called Judy, came near having the _power_, as they call a kind of fit of
+spiritual exaltation. But Jake shook her up, and told her to behave, as
+it was a 'Piscopal funeral and not a pra'r meetin'. Mandy Ann also shook
+up the old lady, Mrs. Harris, and screamed in her ear through a trumpet,
+while the little dark-eyed child joined in the refrain of the negroes'
+song,
+
+    "'Oh, it will be joyful
+      When we meet to part no more.'
+
+"It was ludicrous, but very sad, and Jake's efforts to keep order were
+pitiful. He called his young mistress Miss Dory, and was most anxious to
+screen her from the least suspicion of wrong. When I questioned him with
+regard to the parentage of the little girl, he wrung his hands and
+answered, 'I do' know for shu', but fo' God it's all right. She tole me
+so, fo' she died, an' Miss Dory never tole a lie. She said to find Elder
+Covil, who knew, but he's done gone off Norf, or somewhar.'
+
+"I felt sure it was all right when I saw the girl's face. It must have
+been beautiful in life, and no taint of guilt had ever marred its
+innocence. There could have been no fault at her door, except
+concealment, and the reason for that was buried in her grave. I heard of
+a stranger who visited the clearing three or four years before the
+funeral. Jake was away, but Mandy Ann was there and full of the
+'gemman,' who, I have no doubt, was the girl's husband and a great
+scamp. I left Florida within a week after that funeral, and have never
+been here since, until I came to take charge for a time of the church
+which has been erected here. I should never have known the place, it has
+changed so since the close of the war and the influx of visitors from
+the North. The hotel, which has been greatly improved and enlarged, is
+always full in the season, and it is one of the most popular winter
+resorts on the river.
+
+"One of my first inquiries was for the negroes Jake and Mandy Ann. The
+latter is married and lives near the hotel, with as many children, I
+thought, as the old woman who lived in a shoe, the way they swarmed out
+when I called to see their mother. She had gone to Jacksonville to see
+'ole Miss Perkinses, who was dyin', and had sent for her 'case she done
+live with her when she was a girl,' one of the pickaninnies said. When I
+asked for Jake I was told he was still in the palmetto clearing. No one
+could tell me anything about the little girl who must now, if living, be
+a woman of nearly forty. Indeed, no one seemed to remember her, so
+changed are the people since the war. Jake, I was sure, had not
+forgotten, and a few days ago I went to see him. He is an old man now,
+and if there is such a thing as an aristocratic negro, he is one; with
+his face black as ebony, his hair white as snow, and his eyes full of
+intelligence and fire, especially when he talks of Miss Dory and 'de
+good ole times fo' she went to Georgy and met de Northern cuss.' That is
+what he calls the man who came for the little girl after the old
+grandmother died.
+
+"I will tell you the story of his coming as Jake told it to me in the
+little enclosure where Miss Dory is buried, and where there is a very
+pretty monument to her memory, with 'Eudora, aged 20,' upon it. He was
+working in the yard, which was a garden of bloom, and over the grave and
+around the monument a Marshal Niel had twined itself, its clusters of
+roses filling the air with perfume. Pushing them a little aside, so that
+I could see the lettering more distinctly, he said, 'That's what he tole
+me to put thar, jess "Eudora, aged 20." I've left room for another name
+when I'm perfectly shu'. I don't want to put no lie on a grave stun, if
+her name wan't Crompton.'
+
+"'Crompton!' I repeated, thinking of your parish.
+
+"'Yes, Mas'r Mason, fo' God I b'lieve it's Crompton shu'. He comed an'
+fetched lil chile Dory, the lil girl you seen at the funeral, what seems
+only yestiddy, one way and in another a big lifetime sense we buried her
+mother here.'
+
+"'Who is Mr. Crompton, and how did he know about the child?' I asked,
+and Jake replied, 'He is somebody from the Norf, and he'd sent money to
+Mas'r Hardy in Palatka for Miss Dory, who put it away for de chile.
+After she died Mas'r Hardy was gwine to Europe, an' tole me 'twas Col.
+Crompton, Troutburg, Massachusetts, who sent the money, but he wouldn't
+say nothin' else, 'cept that Col. Crompton had gin him his confidence
+and he should keep it. I'm shoo that Miss Dory sent letters through
+Mas'r Hardy to de Colonel, an' he writ to her. Not very offen, though.
+She'd sen' one to Mas'r Hardy, an' he'd sen' it Norf, an' then she'd
+wait and wait for de answer, an' when it came you or'to seen her face
+light up like sun-up on de river in a May mornin'. An' her eyes,--she
+had wonnerful eyes,--would shine like de stars frosty nights in
+Virginny. Maybe 'twas mean, but sometimes I watched her readin' de
+letter, her han's flutterin' as she opened it like a little bird's wings
+when it's cotched. I think she was allus 'spectin' sumptin' what never
+comed. The letters was short, but it took her a mighty time to read 'em,
+'case you see she wasn't good at readin' writin', an' I 'specs de
+Colonel's handwrite wasn't very plain. She used to spell out de long
+words, whisperin' 'em out sometimes, her face changin' till all de
+brightness was gone, an' it was more like a storm on de river than
+sun-up. Den she'd fold de letter, an' take up de lil chile an' kiss it,
+an' say, "I've got _you_. We'll never part." Den she'd burn de letter. I
+specs he tole her to, an' she was shoo to mind. Den she'd go at her
+readin' book agin, or writin', tryin' to larn, but 'twixt you an' I
+'twan't in her, an', no direspec' nuther, de Harrises couldn't larn from
+books. Dey's quick to 'dapt theirselves to what they seen, an' she
+didn't see nothin'.
+
+"'Once she said to me when de big words troubled her an' floor'd me, "I
+can never be a lady dis way. Ef he'd take me whar he is, an' 'mongst his
+people, I should larn thar ways, but what can I do here wid--" She
+didn't say "wid Jake an' Mandy Ann an' ole granny, an' de rest of 'em,"
+but she meant it. If it hadn't been for the lil chile she could of gone
+to school. I tole her oncet I'd sen' her an' take care of de lil chile
+an' ole Miss,--me an' Mandy Ann. The tears come in her eyes as she ast
+whar I'd git de money, seein' we was layin' up what come from de Norf
+for de chile. I'd done thought that out lyin' awake nights an' plannin'
+how to make her a lady. I'se bawn free, you know, an' freedom was sweet
+to me an' slavery sour, but for Miss Dory I'd do it, an' I said, "I'll
+sell myself to Mas'r Hardy, or some gemman like him." Thar's plenty
+wants me, an' would give a big price, an' she should have it all for her
+schoolin'.
+
+"'You orter have seen her face then. Every part of it movin' to oncet,
+an' her eyes so bright I could not look at 'em for the quarness thar was
+in 'em, an' I'll never forget her voice as she said, "That can't be;
+but, Jakey, you are de noblest man, black or white, I ever seen, an' my
+best frien', an' I loves you as if you was my brodder."
+
+"'Dem's her very words, an' I would of sole myself for her if I could.
+But de lam gin up after a while. All de hope an' life went out of her,
+an' she died' an' you done 'tended her funeral,--you 'members it,--as
+fust class as I could make it. I tole you sumptin' den, but not all
+this. It wasn't a fittin' time, but seein' you brings it all back. Mandy
+Ann an' me said we'd keep lil chile a while, bein' ole Miss was alive,
+though she was no better than a broomstick dressed in her clothes. She
+didn't know nothin', not even that Miss Dory was dead, an' kep' askin'
+whose chile it was,--ef it was Mandy Ann's, an' why it was hyar. It
+kinder troubled her, I think, it was so active an' noisy, an' sung so
+much. Used to play at pra'r meetin' an' have de pow' powerful, as she
+had seen de blacks have it when Mandy Ann took her to thar meetin's.
+Seems ef she liked thar ways better than what I tried to teach her from
+de Pra'r Book, an' they is rather more livelier for a chile. All de
+neighbors was interested in her, an' ole Miss Thomas most of all. She's
+de one what stood out de longest agin Miss Dory, 'case she didn't tell
+squar what she'd promised not to. But she gin in at de funeral, an' was
+mighty nice to the lil chile. When ole Miss Lucy died she comed in her
+democrat wagon, as she did for Miss Dory, an' coaxed lil chile inter her
+lap, an' said she showed she had good blood, an' or'to be brung up a
+lady, an' it wasn't fittin' for her to stay whar she was, an' if I knew
+de fader I mus' write to him.
+
+"'I knew dat as well as she did, an' after consultin' wid Mandy Ann an'
+prayin' for light, it come dat I must sen' on, an' I did, hopin' he
+wouldn' come, for to part wid de lil chile was like tearin' my vitals
+out, an' Mandy Ann's, too. He did come,--a big, gran' man, wid a look
+which made me glad Miss Dory was in heaven 'stead of livin' wid him.
+He'd been hyar oncet before. Mebby I tole you, at de funeral. My mind
+gets leaky, an' I can't 'member exactly, an' so repeats.'
+
+"'I think not,' I said, 'and if you did, I have forgotten, and am
+willing to hear it again.'
+
+"We were sitting now on a bench close by what Jake said had been the
+little girl's play-house, which she called her _Shady_, because it was
+under a palm tree.
+
+"'Yes, he comed,' Jake said, 'two or three weeks after Miss Dory comed
+home from Georgy, whar she was visitin' her kin. Mandy Ann tole me 'bout
+him,--how he walked an' talked to Miss Dory, till when he went away her
+face was white as the gown she put on when she hearn he was comin'. You
+see, Mandy Ann was on de boat wid him, an' tole her. She was all of a
+twitter, like you've seen de little hungry birds in de nest when dar
+mudder is comin' wid a worm,--an' she was jess as cold an' slimpsy an'
+starved when he went away as dem little birds is when de mudder is shot
+on de wing an' never comes wid de worm. You know what I mean. She
+s'pected somethin' an' didn't get it.'
+
+"Jake was very eloquent in his illustrations, and I looked admiringly at
+him as he went on: 'I was in Virginny vallyin' for Mas'r Kane, a fine
+gemman who gin me big wage, an' I was savin' it up to buy some things
+for de house, 'case I reckoned how Miss Dory seen somethin' different in
+Georgy. Her kin was very 'spectable folks, an' she might want some
+fixin's. Thar was nobody hyar but ole Miss Lucy, who'd had some kind of
+a spell an' lost most of her sense, an' didn't know more'n a chile.
+Mandy Ann got somebody to write me that Miss Dory had a beau,--a gran'
+man, an' I was that pleased that I ast the price of a second-han'
+pianny, thinkin' mebby she'd want to larn, 'case she sung so nice. Den I
+never hearn anoder word, 'cept from Miss Dory, till Mas'r Hardy writ
+Mas'r Kane to sen' me home, 'case I was needed. I s'posed ole Miss Lucy
+had had another fit, an' started thinkin' all de way up de river how I'd
+see Miss Dory standin' in de do' wid de smile on her face, an' de light
+in her eyes, an' her pleasant voice sayin' to me, "How d'ye, Jake, I'se
+mighty glad to see you." 'Stid o' that she wasn't thar, an' Mandy Ann
+come clatterin' down de stars, an' I hearn a baby cry. In my s'prise I
+said, "What's dat ar? Has ole Miss got a baby?"
+
+"'Mandy Ann laughed till she cried, den cried without laughin', an' tole
+me wid her face to de wall, an' I was so shamed I could of hid in de
+san', an' Mandy Ann, they tole me, did run inter de woods at fust to
+hide herself. Den she smarted up an' fit for Miss Dory, who said nothin'
+'cept, "Wait, it will all be right. I tole him I would wait. I'm a good
+girl," an' fo' Heaven, I b'lieved her, though some o' de white trash
+didn't at fust, but they all did at the last. Maybe I'm tirin' you?'
+
+"'No,' I said, 'go on,' and he continued: 'I'se tole you most all dat
+happened after dat till she died an' you comed to de funeral.
+
+"'When ole miss died, I writ to de Colonel, as I tole you, an' he comed,
+gran', an' proud, an' stiff, an' I tole him all 'bout Miss Dory same as
+I have you,--p'raps not quite so much,--p'raps mo'. I don't remember,
+'case as I said my memory is ole an' leaky, and mebby I ain't tellin' it
+right in course as I tole him. Some was in de house, an' some out hyar,
+whar I said, "Dis is her grave. She's lyin' under de san', but I'll fix
+her up in time an' she shall sleep under de roses."
+
+"'I tole him everything was done in order, an' how you preached about de
+Resurrection an' de Life, an' how sweet she look in her coffin, an'
+Mandy Ann's puttin' her ring on de weddin' finger, an' his mouf trembled
+like, up and down, an' I b'lieve ef thar had been a tear in his dried-up
+heart he'd of shed it.
+
+"'Oncet, when he seemed kinder softened, I ast him squar," Ain't you her
+husband?"
+
+"'Thar was such a quar look in his eyes,--a starin' at me a minit,--an'
+then he said, "I am nobody's husband, an' never shall be."
+
+"'I b'lieve he lied, an' wanted to knock him down, but wouldn't right
+thar by her grave. He tole me I was to have all the money Miss Dory had
+been layin' up, an' he would send me mo' for the stun. I ast what I
+should put on it, an' he said, "What was on her coffin plate?"
+
+"Eudora, aged 20," I tole him. "Put the same on the stun," he said. He
+tole me I was to stay on de place, an' have all I made. Then thar was
+Mandy Ann, who 'longed to de lil chile. She was to stay hyar, he said,
+an' he'd pay her wage which she could keep herself. He'd settle wid de
+lil chile when de time come, an' set Mandy Ann free. I think he meant
+it, but he was spar'd de trouble, for de wah corned like a big broom an'
+swep' slavery away, an' mos' everyting souf wid it, an' Mandy Ann was
+free any way widout de Colonel.
+
+"'After de chile went away I got to broodin' over Miss Dory's wrongs,
+till I'se so worked up agin de Colonel, dat when de wah broke out I was
+minded to 'list, hopin' I'd meet him somewhar in battle an' shoot him.
+Den I cooled down an' staid home an' raised things an' worked for de
+poor folks hyar,--de women, whose husban's an' brudders had gone to de
+wah. Ted,--dat's de boy on de "Hatty" long ago,--went to de wah wid a
+great flourish, promisin' Mandy Ann he'd shoot the Colonel shu' ef he
+got a chance. An' what do you think? At de fust crack of de cannon in de
+fust battle he seen, he cut an' run, an' kep' on runnin' till he got
+hyar, beggin' me an' Mandy Ann to hide him, 'case he was a deserter. I
+held my tongue, an' let Mandy Ann do as she pleased, an' she hid him
+till de Federals come, when he jined them, an' did get hit, but 'twas on
+de back or shoulder, showin' which way he was runnin'.
+
+"'Den Mandy Ann married him, an' has ten chillenses, an' washes an'
+scrubs for de Brock House an' everybody, while Ted struts roun' wid a
+cigar in his mouf, an' says he has neber seen a well day sense de
+wah,--dat his shoulder pains him powerful at times,--an' he is tryin' to
+get a pension, an' Mandy Ann is helpin' him. Beats all what women won't
+do for a man if they love him, no matter how big a skunk he is. Miss
+Dory died for one, an' Mandy Ann is slavin' herself to deff for one.
+I'se mighty glad I'se not a woman.'
+
+"Here Jake stopped a moment, presumably to reflect on the waywardness of
+Miss Dory and Mandy Ann caring for two skunks,--one the Colonel and one
+Ted, whose last name I did not know till I asked Jake, who replied,
+'Hamilton--a right smart name, I'm told, an' 'long'd to de quality. Ole
+man Hamilton come from de norf somewhar, an' bought Ted's mother, a
+likely mulatto. Who his fader was I doan know. He's more white dan
+black, an' is mighty proud of his name,--Hamilton,--'case somebody tole
+him thar was once a big man, Hamilton, an' when Mandy Ann had twin boys,
+she was tole to call 'em Alexander an' Aaron,--sumptin',--I doan justly
+remember what. It makes me think of a chestnut.'
+
+"'Burr,' I suggested, and he replied, 'Yes, sar, dat's it,--Aaron
+Burr,--anoder big man,--an' dey calls de twins Alex and Aaron. Fine
+boys, too, wid Mandy Ann's get-up in 'em. Dar's two mo' twins,--little
+gals; beats all what a woman Mandy Ann is for twins,--an' she calls 'em
+Judy and Dory,--one for young Miss, an' t'other for de rag doll lil
+chile took norf wid her and called Judy, for an ole woman who has gone
+to de Canaan she used to sing about--"Oh, I'se boun' for de lan' of
+Canaan." She was powerful in pra'r, an' at de fust meetin' after de wah,
+an' she knew she was free, I b'lieve you could of hearn her across de
+lake to Sanford, she shout "Glory, bress de Lawd!" so loud. But for all
+she was free, she wouldn't leave ole Miss Thomas. "I likes my mistis,
+an' I ain't gwine to leave her wid somebody else to comb her har, an'
+make her corn bread," she said, when dey tried to persuade her to go to
+Palatky. She staid wid ole Miss, who buried her decent, an' has gone
+herself to jine her an' Miss Dory in de better land, which seems to me
+is not far away; an' offen, when I sees de sun go down in a glory of red
+an' purple an' yaller,--I'se mighty fond of yaller,--I says to myself,
+"It's dat way dey goes to de udder world, whar, please God, I'll go some
+day fore berry long,--for I tries to be good."
+
+"There was a rapt look in Jake's face as he turned it to the west, and I
+would have given much to know that my future was as assured as his."
+
+Here the first part of Mr. Mason's letter closed abruptly, as a friend
+came to call, but he added hastily, "To-morrow I'll finish, and tell you
+about the child who now occupies all Jake's thoughts, praying every day
+that he may see her again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PART SECOND OF REV. MR. MASON'S LETTER
+
+
+"I was interrupted yesterday, and hardly know where to begin again, or
+what I have written, as Jake was a little mixed and went forward and
+back at times, showing that his memory was, as he said, leaky, but when
+he struck the child he was bright as a guinea. 'Lil Chile' and 'Honey
+Bee' he calls her. He told me of her running into the house to meet the
+Colonel, with her soiled frock, and her face and hands besmeared with
+molasses; of her tussle with Mandy Ann, who wanted to wash her face and
+change her clothes, and of her fine appearance at the last in a white
+gown, her best, which he had bought and Mandy Ann made not long before,
+and which the Colonel would not take with him. So they kept it, and
+Mandy Ann washed and ironed it, and put it away with some sweet herbs,
+and aired it every year till she was married, when Jake cared for it
+till Mandy Ann's twins were born,--Alex and Aaron. Then Mandy Ann
+borrowed it for them to be christened in, one of them one Sunday and one
+the next, so that both had the honor of wearing it, while Jake was
+sponsor, 'For,' said he, 'Mandy Ann has gin up them hollerin' meetin's
+whar white folks done come to see de ole darkies have a kind of powow,
+as dey use to have befo' de wah. Clar for't if de folks from de Norf
+don't gin de blacks money to sing de ole-time songs an' rock an' weave
+back an' forth till dey have de pow'. I don't think much of dat ar, jess
+'musin' theyselves wid our religion;' and Jake looked his disgust, and
+continued:
+
+"'Mandy Ann like mighty well to jine 'em, but I hole her back, an' now
+she's 'Piscopal, ef she's anything,--an' when de girl twins come,--Dory
+an' Judy,--she borrowed lil chile's gown agin. Dat make fo' times, an'
+then I shet de gates, an' said, "No mo' gown, an' no mo' twins," an'
+thar hain't been no mo'.
+
+"'But I'se got a good ways from lil chile, who wan't an atom shy of de
+Colonel, though he was of her, an' when he took her han' I could almost
+see him squirm like. I think he tried to be kind, an' he gin her a lil
+ivory book he had on his watch-chain, but you see he didn't feel it. He
+didn't care for children, and it seemed as if he wanted to get away from
+this one. But he couldn't. She was his'n; I'd bet my soul on dat. He had
+to come after her an' took her, though 'twas 'bout the wust job he ever
+did, I reckon. She fit like a tiger cat about gwine wid him, an' 's
+true's you bawn, I don't b'lieve she'd gone ef he hadn't took me wid him
+to Savannah. I can't tell you, Mas'r Mason, 'bout de partin' thar. 'Twas
+drefful, an' I kin see her now rollin' on de flo', wid her heels an'
+han's in de air, an' she a-sayin' she mus' stay wid Shaky. I bought her
+such a pretty red cloak, all lined wid white silk, an' wrapped her in
+it, an' took her on to de boat, an' left her thar, she thinkin' I was
+comin' back, an' the last I seen of her, as the boat moved off, she was
+jumpin' up an' down, an' stretchin' her arms to me, an' the Cunnel
+holdin' her tight, or I b'lieve she'd sprung overboard. He'd a good
+time gettin' her home, I reckon. She was the very old Harry when her
+dander was up,' and the old negro laughed as he thought of what the
+Colonel must have borne on that journey with his troublesome charge.
+
+"There came a few lines to him, he said, telling of Col. Crompton's safe
+arrival home, and that the child was well. After a while the war broke
+out, and communication with the North was cut off. The friend in
+Palatka, who had returned from Europe and joined the Confederate Army,
+was killed, and the letter which Jake sent to Col. Crompton when peace
+was restored was not answered for a long time. At last the Colonel wrote
+that Eudora had married against his wishes and gone to Europe, and Jake
+was not to trouble him with any more letters concerning her.
+
+"An' that's all I knows of her,' he said, 'whether she's dead or alive,
+or whar she is; but if I did know I b'lieve I'd walk afoot to de Norf to
+see her. She ain't my lil chile Dory no mo', but I allus thinks of her
+like dat, an' I keeps de cradle she was rocked in by my bed, an'
+sometimes, when I'se lonesome nights, an' can't sleep for thinkin' of
+her, I puts my han' out an' jogs it with a feelin' the lil one is thar,
+an' every day I prays she may come back to me, an' I b'lieve she will.
+Yes, sar, it comes to me that she will.'
+
+"The tears were running down the old man's face when, on our going to
+the house, he showed me the cradle close to his bed, a rude,
+old-fashioned, high-topped thing, such as the poorest families used
+years ago. There was a pillow, or cushion, in it, and a little patchwork
+quilt, which, he said, Mandy Ann pieced and made. He showed me, too, a
+second or third school reader, soiled and worn and pencil marked, and
+showing that it had been much used.
+
+"'This was Miss Dory's,' he said; 'the one she studied de most, tryin'
+to learn, an' gettin' terribly flustered wid de big words. I can see her
+now, bendin' over it airly an' late; sometimes wid de chile in her lap
+till she done tuckered out, an' laid it away with a sithe as if glad to
+be shet of it. She couldn't larn, an' de Lord took her whar dey don't
+ask what you knows,--only dis: does you lub de Lord? an' she did, de
+lamb.'
+
+"Jake was still crying, and I was not far from it as I saw in fancy that
+poor young girl trying to learn, trying to master the big words and
+their meaning, in the vain hope of fitting herself for companionship
+with a man who had deserted her, and who probably never had for her more
+than a passing fancy, of which he was ashamed and would gladly ignore.
+
+"'I showed him de book,' Jake said, 'an' tole him how she tried to larn,
+an' I tried to help her all I could, an' then he did have some feelin'
+an' his eyes got red, but he didn't drap a tear; no, sar, not a drap! He
+ast me could he have de book, an' I said, "No, sar, not for nothin'.
+It's mine," an' he said, proud-like, "As you please." He was mighty good
+to me an' Mandy Ann 'bout money, an' when I writ him she was married, he
+sent her two hundred dollars, which she 'vested in a house, or Ted would
+of spent it for fine close an' cigarettes. He must be gettin' ole, as I
+be, an' they call de town Crompton, after him, 'stid of Troutburg.'
+
+"Remembering your parish, I told him I had a son settled in Crompton,
+Massachusetts. I hardly thought there were two towns of the same name
+in one State, and I'd inquire if Col. Crompton lived there. His face
+brightened at once, and when I left him, he grasped my hand and said,
+'Bress de Lawd for de grain of comfort you done give me. If she is thar
+I'd walk all de road from Floridy to see her, if I couldn't git thar no
+other way. Thankee, Mas'r Mason, for comin' to see me. I'se pretty
+reg'lar at church, an' sets by de do', an' allus gives a nickel for
+myself an' one for Miss Dory dead an' for Miss Dory livin', an' I makes
+Mandy Ann 'tend all I can, though she'd rather go whar she says it's
+livelier. She is mighty good to me,--comes ebery week an' clars up an'
+scoles me for gittin' so dirty. She's great on a scrub, Mandy Ann is.
+Muss you go? Well, I'm glad you comed, an' I s'pec's I've tole you some
+things twiste, 'case of my memory. Good-by.'
+
+"He accompanied me to the door, and shook hands with all the grace of a
+born gentleman. Then I left him, but have been haunted ever since by a
+picture of that old negro in his lonely cabin, jogging that empty cradle
+nights when he cannot sleep, and contrasting him with Col. Crompton,
+whoever and wherever he may be. Perhaps you can throw some light on the
+subject. The world is not so very wide that our sins are not pretty sure
+to find us out, and that some Col. Crompton has been guilty of a great
+wrong seems certain. Possibly he is one of your parishioners, and you
+may know something of the second Dory. I shall await your answer with
+some anxiety.
+
+"Your father,
+
+"CHARLES MASON."
+
+This was the letter which had sent the Rev. Arthur to call on Mrs.
+Biggs, with no thought of Eloise in his mind. She was not yet an active
+factor in the drama which was to be played out so rapidly. Returning to
+his boarding place, the rector read his father's letter a second time,
+and then answered it. A part of what he wrote we give:
+
+"I have just come from an interview with a woman who is credited with
+knowing the history of the place forty years back, and I have no doubt
+that Shaky's Col. Crompton is living here in Crompton Place, the richest
+man in town and largest contributor to the church. There is a lady
+living with him who people believe is his daughter, although he has
+never acknowledged her as such. Mrs. Biggs, the woman I interviewed,
+gave me a most graphic account of the manner of her arrival at Crompton
+Place, when she was a little girl like the one you describe. She has a
+lovely face, but is a little twisted in her brain. She did run away with
+her music teacher, and her name is Amy Eudora. There was no mention made
+of Harris. They call her Miss Amy. There can't be much doubt of her
+identity with Jaky's lil chile. Send him on, and Mandy Ann, too,--and
+the four twins, Alex and Aaron, Judy and Dory. I'll pay half their fare!
+There's enough of the old Adam in me to make me want to see them
+confront the proud Colonel, who ignores me for reasons I could not
+fathom, until I received your letter. Then I suspected that because I am
+your son he feared that some pages of his life, which he hoped were
+blotted out by time and the ravages of war, might be revealed. He is an
+old man, of course, but distinguished-looking still, though much broken
+with rheumatic gout, which keeps him mostly at home. My respects to
+Shaky, whom I hope before long to hear ringing the bell at Crompton
+Place. Is that wicked? I suppose so, but I cannot help it.
+
+"ARTHUR."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+SUNDAY CALLS
+
+
+The day following the rector's call on Mrs. Biggs was Sunday, and the
+morning was wet and misty, with a thick, white fog which crept up from
+the sea and hid from view objects at any distance away.
+
+"This is nearly as bad as London," Howard said to Jack when, after
+breakfast, they stood looking out upon the sodden grass and drooping
+flowers in the park. "Have you a mind to go to church?"
+
+Jack shrugged his shoulders, and replied, "Not I; it's too damp. Are you
+going?"
+
+Howard had not thought of doing so until that moment, when an idea came
+suddenly into his mind, and he answered, "I think so,--yes. Some one
+ought to represent the Crompton pew. It is out of the question for my
+uncle to go, and he would not if he could. He has taken a violent
+prejudice against the new rector, for no reason I can think of. He is a
+good fellow,--the rector, I mean,--and not too straight-laced to smoke a
+cigar, and he knows a fine horse when he sees one, and preaches splendid
+sermons. I think I shall go and encourage him."
+
+He did not urge Jack to accompany him, nor would Jack have done so if he
+had. There was an idea in his mind, as well as in Howard's, which he
+intended to carry out, and half an hour after Howard started for
+church, he, too, left the house and walked slowly through the park in
+the direction of Mrs. Biggs's.
+
+"I don't know as it is just the thing to call on Sunday," he thought,
+hesitating a little as he came in sight of the house, "but it seems an
+age since I saw her. I'll just step to the door and inquire how she is."
+
+His knock was not answered at first, but when he repeated it he heard
+from the parlor what sounded like--"The key is under the mat," in a
+voice he knew did not belong to Mrs. Biggs. That good woman was in
+church. Tim had gone to the choir in St. John's, and Eloise was alone.
+Ruby Ann had been to see her the night before with her massage and
+rubber band, both of which had proved so successful that Eloise was
+feeling greatly encouraged, and the outlook was not quite so forlorn as
+when she first landed at Mrs. Biggs's, helpless and homesick and half
+crazed with pain. Her ankle was improving fast, although she could not
+walk; but she had hopes of taking her place in school within a week or
+ten days. Mrs. Biggs had wondered why the young men from Crompton Place
+did not call on Saturday, and Eloise had felt a little disappointed when
+the day had passed and she did not see them.
+
+"'Tain't noways likely they'll come to-day. Folks know my principles,
+and that I don't b'lieve in Sunday visiting," she said as she tidied up
+the room before starting for church. "Nobody'll come, unless it is Ruby
+Ann with her massage, that's no more good than a cat's foot; so I'll
+just give the parlor a lick and a promise till to-morrow, and 'fise you
+I'd be comfortable in that wrapper."
+
+But Eloise insisted upon the white dressing jacket with pink ribbons,
+in which Mrs. Biggs said she looked "like a picter," regretting that the
+young men could not see her.
+
+"If it wasn't for desiccating the Sabbath I wish them high bucks would
+call," she added, as she gave a final whisk to the duster and went to
+prepare for church. "I'm goin' to lock the door and put the key under
+the mat, so nobody can get in if they want to. I might lose it if I
+carried it to meetin'. I did once, and had to clamber inter the butry
+winder," was her last remark as she left the house; and Eloise heard the
+click of the key and knew she was locked in and alone.
+
+She was not afraid, but began to imagine what she could do in case of a
+fire, or if any one were to come knocking at the door. "Sit still and
+not answer," she was thinking when Jack came rapidly up the walk. She
+saw his shadow as he passed the window, and her heart gave a great
+bound, for she knew who was "desiccating" the Sabbath by calling upon
+her. The first knock she did not answer, but when the second came,
+louder and more imperative than the first, she called out, "The key is
+under the mat," regretting her temerity in an instant, and trembling as
+she thought, "What if I am doing something improper to admit him, and
+Mrs. Biggs should disapprove!"
+
+The thought sent the blood to her cheeks, which were scarlet as Jack
+came in, eager and delighted to find her alone.
+
+"Locked up like a prisoner," he said, as he took her hand, which he held
+longer than was at all necessary, while he looked into her eyes, where
+the gladness at seeing him again was showing so plainly.
+
+When he last saw her she was arrayed in Mrs. Biggs's spotted calico, and
+he was quick to note the change. He had thought her lovely before; she
+was beautiful now, with the brightness in her eyes and the color coming
+and going so rapidly on her cheeks. Drawing a chair close to her, he sat
+down just where he could look at her as he talked, and could watch the
+varying expression on her face. Once he laid his hand on the arm of her
+chair, but withdrew it when he saw her troubled look, as if she feared
+he was getting too familiar. He asked her about her sprain, and was
+greatly interested, or seemed to be, in the massage and rubber band
+which were helping her so much. Then he spoke of Ruby Ann, the biggest
+woman he ever saw, he believed, and just the one for a school-teacher.
+He was past the school-house the day before, he said. It seemed they had
+half a day on Saturday and half a day on Wednesday. It was the boys'
+recess, and he never heard such a hullaballoo as they were making. A
+tall, lanky boy seemed to be the leader, whom the others followed.
+
+"That must be Tom Walker, the one who makes all the trouble, and whom
+Mr. Bills and Mrs. Biggs think I can't manage," Eloise said, with a
+little gasp, such as she always felt when she thought of Tom, who, Tim
+had reported, was boasting of what he meant to do with the lame
+schoolmarm when she came.
+
+Jack detected the trouble in her voice, and asked who Tom Walker was. It
+did not take long for Eloise to tell all she knew, while Jack listened
+thoughtfully, resolving to seek out Tom, and by thrashing, or
+threatening, or hiring, turn him from any plan he might have against
+this little girl, who seemed to him far too young and dainty to be
+thrown upon the mercy of the rabble he had seen by the school-house with
+Tom Walker at their head.
+
+"Don't worry about Tom. Big bullies like him are always cowards. You'll
+get along all right," he said encouragingly, with a growing desire to
+take the helpless girl in his arms and carry her away from Tom Walker
+and Mr. Bills and Mrs. Biggs, and the whole of her surroundings, which
+she did not seem at all to fit.
+
+He wanted to entertain her, and told her of an excursion on the water he
+had taken the previous day with Howard Crompton,--the last of the
+season, he said, and very enjoyable. He wished she had been there. Then
+he spoke of the Colonel, laughing at his peculiarities, and asking if
+she had ever heard of the Crompton "Formula." She said she had from Ruby
+Ann, and was glad she was not to be subjected to questioning on it, as
+she knew she should fail in everything except the four _rights_. She
+might manage them, but it was not necessary for her to be examined by
+anybody, since her normal school diploma was a license to teach anywhere
+in the State.
+
+"Hanged if I think I could manage the _rights_!" Jack said. "Spelling is
+not my forte, and Howard, who is great at it, missed the last one."
+
+"How is Mr. Howard?" Eloise asked, and Jack replied, "All right. Has
+gone to church like a good Christian. I ought to have gone, but I
+thought I'd come here, as you might be lonely here alone."
+
+It flashed through Eloise's mind to wonder how he knew she was alone,
+but she made no comment, except to say that the rector, Mr. Arthur
+Mason, called upon her the day before.
+
+"Did he?" Jack said. "I believe he is a fine fellow. Howard likes him,
+but for some reason the Colonel does not, and when Howard said he was
+going to church, and suggested bringing Mr. Mason home to lunch, he
+growled out something about not liking company on Sunday. He is a queer
+old cove, and does not seem to care for anybody but Miss Amy. He is
+devoted to her, and she is a lovely woman, and must once have been
+brilliant, but she puzzles me greatly. She seems to be rational on every
+subject except her life in California. If any allusion is made to that
+she looks dazed at once, and says, 'I can't talk about it. I don't
+remember.'"
+
+"My father died in California, and my mother is there now," Eloise said
+sadly.
+
+Jack had not supposed she had a mother. Mrs. Brown, who sat beside him
+at the commencement exercises in Mayville, had spoken of her as an
+orphan, and he replied, "I had somehow thought your mother dead."
+
+"No; oh, no!" Eloise answered quickly. "She is not dead; she is--"
+
+She stopped suddenly, and Jack knew by her voice that her mother was a
+painful subject, and he began at once to speak of something else. He was
+a good talker, and Eloise a good listener, and neither took any heed to
+the lapse of time, until there was the sound of wheels before the house.
+A carriage had stopped to let some one out; then it went on, and Howard
+Crompton came up the walk and knocked at the door just as Jack had done
+an hour before.
+
+"Pull the bobbin and come in," Jack called out, and, a good deal
+astonished, Howard walked in, looking unutterable things when he saw
+Jack there before him, seemingly perfectly at home and perfectly happy,
+and in very close proximity to Eloise, who wondered what Mrs. Biggs
+would say if she came and found both the "high bucks" there.
+
+"Hallo!" Jack said, while Howard responded, "Hallo! What brought you
+here?"
+
+"A wish to see Miss Smith. What brought you?" was Jack's reply, and
+Howard responded, "A wish to see Miss Smith, of course. You didn't
+suppose I came to see Mrs. Biggs, did you? Where is the old lady?"
+
+Eloise explained that she had gone to church, and Jack told of the key
+under the mat, and the talk flowed on; and Eloise could not forbear
+telling them of Mrs. Biggs's wish not to have the Sabbath "desiccated"
+by visitors.
+
+"A regular Mrs. Malaprop," Jack said, while Howard suggested that they
+leave before she came home. "We can put the key under the mat, and
+she'll never know of the 'desiccation,'" he said.
+
+Jack looked doubtfully at Eloise, who shook her head.
+
+"No," she said, "I shall tell her you have been here. It would be a
+deception not to."
+
+"As you like. And it's too late now, for here she comes!" Howard said,
+as Mrs. Biggs passed the window and stooped to find the key.
+
+It was not there. Turning the mat upside down, she failed to discover
+it. The key was gone!
+
+"For goodness' sake, what can have happened?" they heard her say, as she
+pushed the door open and entered the room, where the two young men
+stood, one on either side of Eloise, as if to protect her. "Well, if I
+ain't beat!" the widow exclaimed, dropping into a chair and beginning to
+untie her bonnet strings as if they choked her. "Yes, I am beat. Hain't
+you been to meetin'?" she asked rather severely, her eyes falling on
+Howard, who answered quickly, "Yes, I have, and on my way home called to
+inquire for Miss Smith, and found this rascal here before me. He had
+unlocked the door and taken possession. You ought to have him arrested
+as a burglar, breaking into your house on Sunday."
+
+"I s'pose I or'ter," Mrs. Biggs said, "and I hope none of the neighbors
+seen you come in. Miss Brown acrost the way is a great gossip, and there
+hain't a speck of scandal ever been on my house in my life, and I
+a-boardin' schoolma'ams for fifteen years!"
+
+Mrs. Biggs was inclined to be a little severe on the two young men
+invading her premises, but Jack was equal to the emergency. She was
+tugging at her bonnet strings, which were entangled in a knot, into
+which the cord of her eyeglasses had become twisted.
+
+"I can swear that neither Mrs. Brown, nor any one else was looking from
+the window when I came in. She was probably at church," Jack said,
+offering to help her, and finally undoing the knot which had proved too
+much for her. "There you are," he said, removing the bonnet, and setting
+her false piece, which had become a little askew, more squarely on her
+head. "You are all right now, and can blow me up as much as you please.
+I deserve it," he added, beaming upon her a smile which would have
+disarmed her of a dozen prejudices.
+
+Jack's ways were wonderful with women, both young and old, and Mrs.
+Biggs felt their influence and laughed, as she said, "I ain't goin' to
+blow, though I was took aback to see two men here, and I'd like to know
+how you knew where to find the key."
+
+"I told him," Eloise answered rather shamefacedly.
+
+Mrs. Biggs shot a quick glance at her, and then said, with a meaning
+nod, "I s'pose I'd of done the same thing when John and me was courtin',
+and young folks is all alike."
+
+Eloise's face was scarlet, while Jack pretended suddenly to remember the
+lateness of the hour, and started to leave the room. As he did so his
+eyes fell upon a table on which a few books were lying.
+
+"You must find these lively," he said, turning them over and reading
+their titles aloud. "'Pilgrim's Progress,' 'Foxe's Martyrs,'
+'Doddridge's Rise and Fall,' 'Memoir of Payson,' all solid and good, but
+a little heavy, 'United States History,' improving, but
+tedious,--and,--upon my word, 'The Frozen Pirate'! That is jolly! Have
+you read it?"
+
+Before Eloise could reply Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, "Of course she hasn't,
+and I don't know how under the sun it got in here, unless Tim put it
+here unbeknownst to me. I never read novels, and that is the wust I ever
+got hold of, and the biggest lie. I told Tim so."
+
+She took it from the table and carried it from the room, followed by the
+young men, who laughed as they thought how the widow, who never read
+novels, betrayed the fact that she had read "The Frozen Pirate."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE MARCH OF EVENTS
+
+
+"I say, Howard," Jack began, when they were out upon the road, "that
+girl ought to have something besides 'The Frozen Pirate' and 'Foxe's
+Martyrs' to brighten her up,--books and flowers, and other things. Do
+you think she'd take them?"
+
+Howard's head was cooler than Jack's, and he replied, "She would resent
+gifts from us, but would take them from Amy. Anyhow, we can try that
+dodge."
+
+"By Jove, you are right! We can send her a lot of things with Mrs. Amy's
+compliments," Jack exclaimed. "Flowers and books and candy, and--"
+
+He did not finish what was in his mind, but the next morning,
+immediately after breakfast, he pretended that he had an errand in the
+village, and started off alone, preferring to walk, he said, when Howard
+suggested the carriage, and also declining Howard's company, which was
+rather faintly offered. Howard never cared to walk when he could drive,
+and then he had a plan which he could better carry out with Jack away
+than with him present. He was more interested in Eloise than he would
+like to confess to Jack or any one, and he found himself thinking of her
+constantly and wishing he could do something to make her more
+comfortable than he was sure she could be even in Mrs. Biggs's parlor.
+He was very fastidious in his tastes, and Mrs. Biggs's parlor was a
+horror to him, with its black hair-cloth furniture, and especially the
+rocker in which Eloise sat, and out of which she seemed in danger of
+slipping every time she bent forward. He had thought of his uncle's sea
+chair on the occasion of his first call, and now he resolved to send it
+in Amy's name. Something had warned him that in Eloise's make-up there
+was a pride equal to his own. She might receive favors from Amy, as she
+had the hat, and although a chair would seem a good deal perhaps, he
+would explain it on the ground of Amy's great desire to help some one
+when he saw her. He'd send it at once, he thought, and he wrote a note,
+saying, "Miss Smith: Please accept this sea chair with the compliments
+of Mrs. Amy, who thinks you will find it more comfortable than the
+hair-cloth rocker, of which I told her. As she seldom writes to any one,
+she has made me her amanuensis, and hopes you will excuse her. Yours,
+very truly, Howard Crompton, for Mrs. Amy."
+
+It was a lie, Howard knew, but that did not trouble him, and calling
+Sam, he bade him take it with the chair and a bunch of hothouse roses to
+Miss Smith. Sam took the chair and the note and the roses, and started
+for Mrs. Biggs's, stopping in the avenue to look at the shrub where
+Brutus had received the gouge in his shoulder, and stopping again at a
+point where some bits of glass from the broken window of the carriage
+were lying. All this took time, so that it was after eleven when he at
+last reached Mrs. Biggs's gate, and met a drayman coming in an opposite
+direction with Jack Harcourt on the cart, seated in a very handsome
+wheel chair, and looking supremely happy.
+
+Jack had been very busy all the morning visiting furniture stores and
+inquiring for wheel chairs, which he found were not very common. Indeed,
+there were only three in the town, and one of these had been sent from
+Boston for the approval of Col. Crompton when his rheumatic gout
+prevented him from walking. Something about it had not suited him, and
+it had remained with the furniture dealer, who, glad of a purchaser, had
+offered it to Jack for nearly half the original price. Jack did not care
+for the cost if the chair was what he wanted. It was upholstered with
+leather, both the seat and the back, and could be easily propelled from
+room to room by Eloise herself, while Jack thought it quite likely that
+he should himself some day take her out for an airing, possibly to the
+school-house, which he had passed on his way to the village. There was a
+shorter road through the meadows and woods than the one past the
+school-house, but Jack took the latter, hoping he might see Tom Walker
+again, in which case he meant to interview him. Nor was he disappointed,
+for sauntering in the same direction and chewing gum, with his cap on
+the back of his head and his hands in his pockets, was a tall, wiry
+fellow, whom Jack instantly spotted as Tom Walker, the bully, who was to
+terrorize Eloise.
+
+"Now is my time," Jack thought, hastening his steps and soon overtaking
+the boy, who, never caring whether he was late or early at school, was
+taking his time, and stopping occasionally to throw a stone at some bird
+on the fence or a tree. "Hallo, Tom!" Jack said in his cheery way as he
+came up with the boy, whose ungracious answer was, "How do you know my
+name is Tom?"
+
+At heart Tom was something of an anarchist, jealous of and disliking
+people higher in the social scale than he was, and this dislike extended
+particularly to the young gentlemen from the Crompton House, who had
+nothing to do but to enjoy themselves. He did not like to be patronized,
+but there was something in Jack's voice which made him accompany his
+speech with a laugh, which robbed it of some of its rudeness.
+
+"Oh, I know you, just as, I dare say, you know me, Jack Harcourt, from
+New York, visiting at present at the Crompton House," was Jack's reply,
+which mollified Tom at once.
+
+If Jack had called himself Mr. Harcourt Tom would have resented it as
+airs. But he didn't; he said _Jack_, putting himself on a par with the
+boy, who took the gum from his mouth for a moment, looked at it,
+replaced it, and began to answer Jack's questions, which at first were
+very far from Eloise. But they struck her at last as they drew near the
+school-house.
+
+"I'm late, as usual," Tom said, rolling his gum from side to side in his
+mouth. "I presume I'll catch thunder, but I don't care. I'm not afraid
+of any schoolmarm I've ever seen, and I mean to carry the new one out on
+a couple of chips if she tries to boss me."
+
+There was a look on Tom's face which Jack did not like, but he said
+pleasantly, "No, you won't, when you see how helpless she is, and how
+she needs a young gentleman like you to stand by her."
+
+"I ain't a gentleman," Tom answered, but his voice was a good deal
+softened. "I'm just Tom Walker, who they lay everything to, and who the
+boys expect to do all their dirty work for them."
+
+"I see," Jack answered; "you pick off the hot chestnuts. _I_ used to do
+that when a little shaver, till I got my fingers blistered so badly I
+decided to let some one else get burned in my place."
+
+"Did you ever cut up at school?" Tom asked, with a growing interest in
+and respect for Jack, who replied, "Oh, yes, I was pretty bad sometimes,
+and am ashamed of it when I remember how I annoyed some of my teachers.
+I have asked pardon of one or two of the ladies when I have chanced to
+meet them, but I never could have annoyed Miss Smith, nor will you when
+you know her. You haven't seen her yet?"
+
+"Nope!" Tom answered. "I hear she ain't bigger than my thumb, and awful
+pretty, Tim Biggs says, and he is threatening to thrash anybody who is
+mean to her. I'd laugh to see him tackle me!"
+
+"He'll have no occasion to, for I predict you will be the warmest
+champion Miss Smith has. See if you are not," Jack said, offering his
+hand to Tom, as they had now reached the school-house.
+
+"He is certainly a good deal of a ruffian," Jack said to himself as he
+went on his way, while Tom was not quite so sure of the two chips on
+which he was to carry Eloise out if she tried to boss him. He'd wait and
+see. That city chap from Crompton Place had certainly been very
+friendly, and had not treated him as if he was scum; and after taking
+his seat and telling Ruby Ann, with quite an air when she asked why he
+was so late, that he had been detained by Mr. Harcourt, who wanted to
+talk with him, he took from his desk his slate and rubbed out the
+caricature he had drawn the day before of a young girl on crutches
+trying to get up the steps of the school-house. He was intending to show
+it to Tim Biggs and make him angry, and to the other scholars and make
+them laugh, and thus ferment a prejudice against Eloise, for no reason
+at all except the natural depravity of his nature.
+
+The word "champion" kept sounding in his ears, and he wrote it two or
+three times on his slate, where the girl on crutches had been. "I always
+supposed champion belonged to prize-fighters, but Mr. Harcourt didn't
+mean that kind. He meant I was to stand up for her and behave myself.
+Well, I'll see what kind of craft she is," he thought.
+
+With this decision Tom took up his lessons, and had never been more
+studious and well behaved than he was that day.
+
+Meanwhile Jack had gone on his way to the village and bought his chair,
+with some misgivings as to how Eloise would receive it, even from Mrs.
+Amy. "I guess I'd better go with it, and make it right somehow," he
+thought, getting into the chair and riding along in state, while the
+people he met looked curiously at him. It was recess again when they
+reached the school-house, where, as usual, Tom Walker was leading the
+play. At sight of the dray he stopped suddenly, and then went swiftly
+forward to the cart, and said to Jack, "Goin' to take her out in that?"
+
+Jack reddened a little, but answered pleasantly, "Perhaps."
+
+"Well, I guess she'll like it better than the chips I told you about.
+I've thrown 'em away."
+
+A ring from Ruby Ann's bell told the boys their recess was over, and
+with a bow Tom hurried off, while Jack and his chair went on till they
+reached Mrs. Biggs's door, just as Sam came up with the sea chair. That
+good woman was washing in her back kitchen, but in response to the
+drayman's knock she came hurriedly, wiping the soap-suds from her arms
+as she came, and holding up both hands as she saw the two chairs
+deposited at the door, while Sam held the note and roses, and Jack stood
+looking a little shamefaced, as if he hardly knew what to say.
+
+"For the pity sakes and the old Harry, are you moving a furniture store,
+or what?" she asked.
+
+Jack began to explain that Mrs. Amy thought, or he thought--He could not
+quite bring himself to lie as glibly as Howard would have done, had he
+been there, and he stammered on, that he thought Miss Smith would soon
+be able to get round in a wheel chair, which he hoped she would accept
+with the compliments of--He didn't say Mrs. Amy, but Mrs. Biggs
+understood, and nodded that she did, helping him out by saying it was
+just like Mrs. Amy, and adding that it looked a good deal like the chair
+the Colonel had for a spell and then returned to Lowell & Brothers,
+where she saw it a few days ago in the window.
+
+Jack made no reply, and Mrs. Biggs continued, "I s'pose t'other chair is
+Mrs. Amy's compliments, too. I'm sure I'm greatly obliged to her, and
+Miss Smith will be. She is quite peart this morning. Come in and see
+her."
+
+Jack did not think he would. He'd rather have Mrs. Biggs present his
+chair, feeling sure that her conscience was of the elastic kind, which
+would not stop at means if a good end was attained.
+
+"Thanks," he replied. "Later in the day I may come in. Good-morning."
+
+He walked away, leaving Mrs. Biggs alone with Sam, who was told to take
+the chairs into Eloise's room.
+
+"Something from the Crompton House. From Mrs. Amy, they say. It is like
+her to be sending things where she takes a notion as she has to you,"
+Mrs. Biggs said, while Eloise looked on in astonishment.
+
+She read Howard's note, and her surprise increased as she said, "I ought
+not to keep them. Col. Crompton would not like it if he knew."
+
+"Yes, you ought. Mrs. Amy does what she likes without consulting the
+Colonel," Mrs. Biggs rejoined. "It would not do to send them back and
+upset her, and isn't there a verse somewhere in the Bible about taking
+what the gods give ye?"
+
+Eloise knew what she meant, and replied, "'Take the good the gods
+provide,' and they are certainly providing for me bountifully, but I
+must at least write a note of thanks to Mrs. Amy for her thoughtfulness
+and kindness."
+
+To this Mrs. Biggs, who felt that she was in league with the young men,
+also objected.
+
+"Better not," she said. "Better wait till you can go and thank her in
+person. I'll have Tim wheel you up some day. He'd like nothing better."
+
+To this Eloise finally assented, and at once exchanged the hair-cloth
+rocker for the sea chair, which she found a great improvement. When Tim
+came from school he was told of the addition to the furniture in the
+parlor by his mother, who added, "I smelt a rat at once, and thought it
+a pity to spoil the young men's fun. Mrs. Amy don't know nothin' about
+them chairs, no more than the man in the moon, and if Miss Smith had
+much worldly sense she'd know they never came from Mrs. Amy. But she
+hain't. She's nothin' but a child, and don't dream that both them young
+men is jest bewitched over her. I don't b'lieve Mr. Howard means
+earnest, but t'other one does. He's got the best face. I'd trust myself
+with him anywhere."
+
+Tim laughed at the idea that his mother could not trust herself with
+anybody, but said nothing. He was Eloise's devoted slave, and offered to
+wheel her miles if she cared to go; but she was satisfied with a few
+turns up and down the road, which gave her fresh air and showed her
+something of the country. The wheel chair was a great success, as well
+as the sea chair, in which she was sitting when the young men came in
+the afternoon to call, bringing some books which Mrs. Amy thought would
+interest her, and a box of candy, which Jack presented in his own
+person. He could not face her with Mrs. Amy as Howard could, and he felt
+himself a great impostor as he received her thanks for Mrs. Amy, who, he
+was sure, had entirely forgotten the girl.
+
+No mention was ever made of her in Amy's presence or the Colonel's. He
+was not yet over his wrath at the accident to his carriage and horse,
+which, with strange perversity, he charged to the Normal. Brutus was
+getting well, but there would always be a scar on his shoulder, where
+the sharp-pointed shrub had entered the flesh. The carriage had been
+repaired, the stained cushions had been re-covered, and the Colonel had
+sworn at the amount of the bill, and said it never would have happened
+if the trustees had hired Ruby Ann in the first place, as they should
+have done. He knew she now had the school, and felt a kind of grim
+satisfaction that it was so. She was rooted and grounded, while the
+other one, as far as he could learn, was a little pink and white doll,
+with no fundamentals whatever. He had forgotten that Howard was to sound
+her, and did not dream how often that young man and his friend were at
+Mrs. Biggs's, not sounding Eloise as to her knowledge, but growing more
+and more intoxicated with her beauty and sweetness and entire absence of
+the self-consciousness and airs they were accustomed to find in most
+young ladies.
+
+But for the non-arrival of the letter she was so anxious to get Eloise
+would have been comparatively happy, or at least content. Her ankle was
+gaining rapidly, and she hoped soon to take her place in school, Tim
+having offered to wheel her there every day and back, and assuring her
+that, mean as he was, Tom Walker was not mean enough to annoy her in her
+helpless condition. For some reason Eloise had not now much dread of Tom
+Walker, and expressed a desire to see him.
+
+"Tell him to call," she said to Tim, who delivered her message rather
+awkwardly, as if expecting a rebuff.
+
+"Oh, get out," was Tom's reply, "I ain't one of your callin' kind, with
+cards and things, and she'll see enough of me bimeby."
+
+The words sounded more ungracious than Tom intended. He said he was not
+the calling kind, but the fact that he had been asked to do so pleased
+him, and two or three times he walked past Mrs. Biggs's in hopes to see
+the little lady in whom he was beginning to feel a good deal of
+interest. He met Jack occasionally, and always received a bow of
+recognition and a cheery "How are you, Tom?" until he began to believe
+himself something more than a loafer and a bully whom every hand was
+against. He was rather anxious for the little Normal to begin her
+duties, and she was anxious, too, for funds were low and growing less
+all the time.
+
+"Wait till the Rummage is over. That is coming next week. You will want
+to go to that and see the people you have not seen, and your scholars,
+too. They are sure to be there," Ruby Ann said to her.
+
+Ruby Ann was greatly interested in the Rummage Sale, as she was in
+anything with which she had to do, and all her spare time from her
+school duties was given to soliciting articles for it, and arranging for
+their disposition in the building where the sale was to be held. Eloise
+was interested because those around her were, and she offered her white
+apron a second time as the only thing she had to give.
+
+"I guess I'll do it up and flute the ruffles," Mrs. Biggs said. "'Tain't
+mussy, but a little rinse and starch won't harm it."
+
+She had given it a rinse and starch, and was ironing it when Jack came
+in, rather unceremoniously, as was his habit now that he came so often.
+This time he went to the kitchen door, as the other was locked, and
+found Mrs. Biggs giving the final touches to the apron, which she held
+up for his inspection.
+
+"Rummage," she said. "Miss Smith's contribution. Ain't it a beauty?"
+
+Jack was not much of a judge of aprons, but something in this dainty
+little affair interested him, and he wished at once that he knew of some
+one for whom he could buy it. His sister Bell never wore aprons to his
+knowledge, neither did Mrs. Amy. It was too small for Ruby Ann, and it
+would never do to give it back to Eloise. But he did not want any money
+but his own spent for it, and he believed he'd speak to Ruby Ann and
+have it put aside for him. He could tell her he had a sister, and she
+could draw her own inference.
+
+"I swan, if I was a little younger, I'd buy it myself," Mrs. Biggs said,
+holding it up and slipping the straps over her shoulders and her hands
+into its pockets.
+
+Jack felt relieved when she took it off, gave it another smooth with her
+iron, and folded it ready for the sale.
+
+"I am going to put it in a box," she said, "with a card on it saying it
+is Miss Smith's contribution, and that she made every stitch herself."
+
+Jack was now resolved that it should be his at any cost. As to its real
+value he had no idea, and when Mrs. Biggs said it "or'to bring a good
+price, and probably will seein' whose 'tis," he replied, "I should say
+so,--four or five dollars at least."
+
+"For the Lord's sake," Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, dropping her flatiron in
+her surprise. "Four or five dollars! Are you crazy?"
+
+"Do you think it ought to bring more?" Jack asked, and Mrs. Biggs
+replied, "Was you born yesterday, or when? If it brings a dollar it'll
+do well. Rummages ain't high priced. Four or five dollars! Well, if I
+won't give up!"
+
+Jack did not reply, but he was beginning to feel a good deal of interest
+in the Rummage Sale, and his interest increased when he went in to see
+Eloise, and heard from her that she was going down in the evening, as
+Ruby Ann said it would be more lively then, with more people present and
+possibly an auction.
+
+"Tim is to wheel me," she said, "and has promised not to run into any
+one, or tip me over. I feel half afraid of him, as he does stumble
+some."
+
+Jack looked at her a moment as she leaned back in her chair, her blue
+dressing sacque open at the throat showing her white neck.
+
+"Miss Smith," he said, "_I_ shan't stumble. I'll take you. I'd like to.
+I'll make it right with Tim."
+
+Eloise could not mistake the eagerness in his voice, and her cheeks
+flushed as she replied, "It is very kind in you and kind in Tim, who
+perhaps will be glad to be rid of the trouble."
+
+"Of course he will," Jack said quickly. "Day after to-morrow, isn't it?
+I'll see you again and arrange just when to call for you, and now I must
+go. I'd forgotten that I was to drive with Howard this morning.
+Good-by."
+
+He went whistling down the walk, thinking that a Rummage Sale was more
+interesting than anything which could possibly happen in the country,
+and that he'd telegraph to his sister to send something for it. As he
+started on his drive with Howard, he said, "Let's go first to the
+telegraph office, I want to wire to Bell."
+
+They drove to the office, and in a few minutes there flashed across the
+wires to New York, "We are going to have a Rummage Sale for the poor.
+Send a lot of things, old and new, it does not matter which;--only send
+at once."
+
+"I believe I made a mistake about the object of the sale. I said 'For
+the poor,' and it's for a public library, isn't it?" he said to Howard,
+who replied, "Seems to me you are getting daft on the Rummage. I don't
+care for it much. It will be like a Jews' or pawnbroker's bazaar, with
+mostly old clothes to sell."
+
+"No, sir," Jack answered quickly. "It will not be at all like a
+pawnbroker's shop. Bell will send a pile of things. I know her, and Miss
+Smith is to be there in the evening, and it's going to be a great
+success."
+
+"I see," and Howard laughed immoderately. "It is going to be a great
+success because Miss Smith is to be there. Is she for sale, and how is
+she going? Are we to take her in a hand chair, as we carried her that
+night in the rain?"
+
+"No, sir!" Jack answered, "I am to wheel her and have heaps of fun,
+while you mope at home."
+
+Howard thought it very doubtful whether he should mope at home. It would
+be worth something to see Jack wheeling Eloise, and worth a good deal
+more to see her, as he knew she would look flushed and timid and
+beautiful, with all the strangers around her. He had not felt much
+interest in the Rummage. Old clothes were not to his fancy, but he had
+promised a pair of half-worn boots to Ruby Ann, who had cornered him on
+the street, and wrung from him not only his boots, but half a dozen or
+more of the fifty neckties she heard he had strung on a wire around his
+room, so as to have them handy when he wanted to choose one to wear.
+Neckties were his weakness, and he never saw one which pleased him
+without buying it, and his tailor had orders to notify him of the last
+fashion as it came out. It was quite a wrench to part with any of them,
+but as some were _passée_ he promised them to Ruby, but told her he
+hardly thought he should attend the sale. Now, however, he changed his
+mind. Eloise's presence would make a vast difference, and he should go;
+and he thought of a second pair of boots, and possibly a vest and a few
+more neckties he might add to the pile which he had heard from Peter was
+to be sent the next day from the Crompton House to the Rummage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+GETTING READY FOR THE RUMMAGE SALE
+
+
+Never had District No. 5 been so stirred on the subject of any public
+entertainment as on the Rummage Sale. It was something entirely new and
+unique, and the whole neighborhood entered into it with great
+enthusiasm. Between the little village by the sea, which numbered about
+two thousand, and the radius known as District No. 5, which could not
+boast half that number, there was a kind of rivalry, the district
+claiming that it excelled the village in the quality of its inhabitants,
+if not in quantity. Its people were mostly well educated and
+intelligent, and they had Col. Crompton, with his fine house and
+grounds. He was gouty and rheumatic and past his prime it was true, but
+he was still a power among them, and they were proud of him and proud of
+themselves, and delighted that they had been the first to carry out the
+idea of a Rummage Sale, which had been brought to them by a visitor from
+western New York, who explained its workings, and gave almost fabulous
+accounts of the money made by such sales. The village had intended to
+have one, but District No. 5 was ahead, with the result that many of the
+villagers joined in, glad to be rid of articles which had been stowed
+away as useless.
+
+At first it seemed incredible that any one would buy clothing which for
+years had hung in closets, or been packed in trunks away from moths and
+carpet bugs. But what had been done in other places could be done in
+District No. 5, and never was a more heterogeneous mass of goods of
+every description gathered together than was sent to the Rummage rooms
+the day before the sale, and dumped upon tables and chairs and boxes,
+until they nearly reached the rather low ceiling. There were old bonnets
+and hats, and boots and shoes and dresses, and coats and trousers and
+vests, and draperies and dishes, and stoves and chairs and tables and
+bedsteads, with books and old magazines and toys.
+
+There was Mrs. Biggs's foot-stove and warming-pan, which had been her
+mother's, and a brass kettle, which had belonged to her grandmother, and
+which Mrs. Parker, the lady from western New York, said was the most
+valuable of all the articles sent. Antiques were sure to sell to relic
+hunters, and a big price must be put upon them, she told the committee
+who looked in dismay at the piles of goods as they came pouring in,
+wondering how they were ever to bring anything like order out of the
+confusion. They could not have done it without Mrs. Parker and Ruby Ann,
+the latter of whom had obtained permission to dismiss school for two
+days, and worked early and late. She had laid siege to the Crompton
+House, from which most of the others shrank. The Colonel was a rather
+formidable old fellow to meet, if he was in a mood with twinges in his
+foot, while Mrs. Amy was scarcely well enough known to the people
+generally to make them care to interview her.
+
+On the strength of having been to school with her and known her since
+"she was knee high," Mrs. Biggs offered to call upon her, but declined
+seeing the Colonel, who, she heard, didn't believe in the Rummage. Ruby
+Ann, however, was selected as the fittest person to see both, and had
+undertaken the task with her usual assurance and energy. She found Amy a
+fine subject. The idea of giving always appealed to her, and she began
+at once to think of what she would send. The dresses she had worn as a
+concert singer were hateful to her, and she brought them from a closet
+and spread them upon chairs and tables, while Ruby looked on admiringly
+and wonderingly, too, as fans and gloves and sashes and ribbons were
+laid with the dresses, and Amy grew more excited and eager every moment.
+
+"We'll go to the attic now," she said; "my doll house is there."
+
+They climbed the stairs and found the house packed away as it had been
+for years.
+
+"It may as well be sold and make some child happy," Amy said as she took
+off its wrappings.
+
+In it was Mandy Ann, the doll the Colonel had bought in Savannah, and
+Judy, lying on her face in a pile of dust. Amy took her up tenderly,
+saying, "Do you think anybody will buy her?"
+
+There was a little choke in her voice as she asked the question, for the
+sight of Judy had stirred memories which often flitted through her weak
+brain and puzzled her, they were so misty and yet so sweet, like the
+negro melodies she hummed to herself or sang to an imaginary baby.
+
+"Buy her? I guess they would," Ruby Ann replied, all her blood astir at
+the thought of the doll house, with Judy and Mandy Ann.
+
+She knew nothing of their antecedents, or how they were connected with
+Amy's childhood, but she felt intuitively that almost any price put upon
+them would be paid because they belonged to Mrs. Amy, and particularly
+because of the dilapidated appearance of Judy, which was sure to rouse
+the mirth of the spectators. She was very doubtful as to whether she
+ought to take the dresses without consulting some one besides Amy, to
+whom she said, "Are you sure you want to give these away? They are
+different from anything we shall have, and will seem out of place."
+
+For a moment Amy looked at her with a strange glitter in her eyes, as
+she said, "I hate them! I have been going to burn them more than once.
+You don't know what they represent to me. I shall burn them, or tear
+them, if you don't take them."
+
+She made a motion as if she were going to tear one of the lace flounces,
+when Ruby Ann stopped her by saying, "Don't, Mrs. Amy,--please don't.
+I'll take the dresses, of course. I only feared you might be giving too
+much, with the doll house and Mandy Ann and Judy. I want _them_, sure."
+
+"Yes," Amy said, her mood changing. "Take them all; but don't try to
+improve them,--Mandy Ann and Judy, I mean."
+
+There was another choke in her voice as she smoothed Judy's old brown
+dress, and brushed a bit of bran from her face. There was no danger that
+Ruby would try to change either Mandy Ann or Judy. They were perfect as
+they were, and telling Amy when the articles would be sent for, she left
+her and went to interview the Colonel, anticipating a different
+reception from what she had received from Mrs. Amy.
+
+"Better not handle him to-day; he had some awful twinges this morning,"
+Peter said, after she had "picked him clean," as he expressed it, "and
+scarcely left him a shoe to his foot or a coat to his back."
+
+Ruby knew she could not come again, and in spite of Peter's advice,
+resolved to beard the lion at once. She found him, with his lame foot on
+a cushion, and a not very encouraging look on his face. He had liked
+Ruby ever since she first came to be examined as to her qualifications
+for a teacher, and he had found her rooted and grounded in the
+fundamentals, and he had taken sides stoutly for her when the question
+of normal graduates came up and Eloise had won the day. Ruby Ann's head
+was level, he always said, and when she was ushered into his room, he
+greeted her with as much of a smile as he could command, with his foot
+aching as it did. But the smile faded when she told him her errand, and
+said she was sure he would be glad to contribute either in money or
+clothing to so good a cause as the public library. The Colonel had not
+been consulted with regard to the library, except to be asked if he
+didn't think it would be a fine thing for the school and neighborhood
+generally. He was not very often consulted about anything now. Plans
+were made without him, and he was only asked to contribute, which he
+generally did.
+
+Now, however, his back was up, Peter said to Ruby Ann, warning her of
+what she was to expect. He didn't believe in turning attics and cellars
+and barns inside out and scattering microbes by the millions. How did
+any one know what germs were lurking in old clothes? He knew a man who
+died of smallpox, and twenty-five years after his death a coat, which
+had hung in his closet, was given away, taking the disease with it to
+three or four people. No, he didn't believe in a Rummage. It was just a
+fad, got up by those who were always seeking for something new, and he
+wouldn't give a thing, not even an old stock such as he used to wear,
+and of which Ruby Ann knew he must have several.
+
+"Who under heavens would buy an old stock, and why?" he asked, and Ruby
+Ann replied, "Just because it is an old stock and belonged to you."
+
+The "belonged to you" mollified him a little, as it flattered his
+vanity, but the idea struck him as ridiculous, and he would not give in,
+and as Ruby Ann grew more and more persistent, telling of the antiques
+gathered up, and among them Mrs. Biggs's warming-pan and foot-stove and
+brass kettle,--old Mrs. Baker's quill wheel, and some other old lady's
+wedding bonnet, he grew furious and swore about the Rummage Sale, and
+might have sworn at Ruby Ann if she had not discreetly withdrawn and
+left him to himself and his twinges.
+
+She was rather chagrined over her failure with the Colonel, from whom
+she had expected so much, but her success with Amy and the other members
+of the household made amends, and she left tolerably well satisfied with
+her work. She had not been gone long when Peter was summoned by a sharp
+ring to his master's room, and found him sitting very erect in his
+chair, listening intently to sounds overhead, where there was the
+scurrying of feet mingled with Amy's voice and that of her maid, as box
+after box was dragged across the floor.
+
+"Peter!" the Colonel began, "shut the door!"
+
+Peter had shut it and stood with his back against it, as the Colonel
+went on, "What in thunder is all that racket in the attic? Has the
+Rummage come up there? It commenced some time ago. Sounded as if they
+were pulling out trunks, then it stopped, and now they are at it again."
+
+"That's just it. Mrs. Amy and Sarah were looking for something for the
+sale, and now, I suppose, they are pushing the boxes back. Mrs. Amy is
+greatly interested. I've never seen her so much like herself since she
+was a girl," was Peter's reply, whereupon the Colonel consigned the
+Rummage to perdition, with its old pots and kettles, and Mrs. Biggs's
+warming-pan and foot-stove and brass kettle, and Granny Baker's quill
+wheel and Mrs. Allen's wedding bonnet. Who was going to buy such truck?
+"And Peter," he said, in a lower tone of voice, "what do you think? Ruby
+Ann actually asked for my trousers! Yes, my trousers! And when I told
+her I hadn't any but what were shiny at the knees, she said it didn't
+matter; in fact, the shine would be all the better, showing they had
+been worn. They'd label 'em 'Col. Crompton's,' and hang them up with the
+valuables,--meaning Widow Biggs's warming-pan and foot-stove, and Widow
+Allen's bonnet, and that other old woman's quill wheel, I dare say.
+Think of it, Peter. My coat and trousers! She asked for a coat,
+too,--strung on a line with warming-pans and quill wheels and bonnets a
+hundred years old, and the Lord only knows what else, and labelled 'Col.
+Crompton.' If it had been anybody but Ruby Ann, I'd turned her from the
+room. I thought she had more sense,--upon my soul, I did! What did she
+get out of you?"
+
+"Nothing much but some old clothes and shoes and a boot-jack; she
+thought a good deal of that," Peter said, and with a sniff of contempt
+the Colonel replied, "Old clothes and a boot-jack; and what is Mrs. Amy
+sending? Half the attic, I should think from the noise they make up
+there."
+
+Hesitating a moment Peter said, "She is giving the fancy gowns she used
+to wear, with the tops of the waists and bottoms of the sleeves cut off.
+She says they are hateful to her."
+
+The Colonel guessed what she meant, and replied, "Quite right; Rummage
+and rag-bags good places for them; but I say, Peter, I won't have them
+strung up with warming-pans and quill wheels and my trousers. You must
+stop it. Do you hear?"
+
+"I didn't know your trousers were going," Peter suggested, and the
+Colonel answered curtly, "Who said they were, you blockhead? They are
+not going unless Ruby gets them in the night. Upon my soul, she is equal
+to it. I think I shall put them under my pillow. It is Mrs. Amy's
+dresses I mean. What else is she going to send?"
+
+"You remember the doll house you bought her when she was a little girl?"
+Peter said.
+
+"Good thunder, yes! Will she give that away?" the Colonel asked, with
+something in his tone which was more than surprise.
+
+It hurt him that Amy should be willing to part with the doll house. She
+must be queerer than usual, and he thought of the Harris blood. Suddenly
+he remembered Mandy Ann and Judy, and asked if she was going to give
+them to the Rummage.
+
+"She means to. Yes, sir. They go with the doll house, one as mistress,
+the other as maid. I heard her say so. They are downstairs now," was
+Peter's reply.
+
+The Colonel's countenance fell, and there was an awful twinge in his
+foot, but he didn't mind it. His thoughts flew back to the palmetto
+clearing, where he first saw the little girl and Judy. Then they
+travelled on to Savannah and the store where he bought Mandy Ann, and so
+on through the different phases of Amy's childhood, and he was surprised
+to find how unwilling he was to part with what had been so intimately
+associated with years which, on the whole, had been happy, although at
+times a little stormy. And Amy was going to send them to a Rummage Sale!
+
+"I may be a weak old fool, but I won't have them sold down there with
+quill wheels and warming-pans!" he thought.
+
+But what could he do? They were Amy's, and if she had made up her mind
+to send them, it would take more than his opposition to prevent it. She
+was very gentle and yielding as a whole, but behind the gentleness and
+sweetness he knew there was a spirit he did not like to rouse. He must
+manage some other way. He had told Ruby he would neither give his
+clothes nor money to the farce, and he prided himself on never going
+back on his word. But he didn't tell her he wouldn't buy anything, and
+his face brightened as he said, very briskly, "Peter!"
+
+"Yes, sir," was the prompt reply.
+
+"Hold your tongue!"
+
+"Yes, sir," was Peter's still more prompt reply, and his master
+continued, "I don't care a rap about those dresses, but I won't have
+Mandy Ann and the nigger baby and the doll house sold. I may be a hard
+old cur. I s'pose I am, but I have now and then a streak of,--I don't
+know what,--clinging to the years of Mrs. Amy's childhood. She turned
+the house upside down. She raised the very old Harry sometimes, but she
+got into our hearts somehow, didn't she?"
+
+"Yes, a long ways," was Peter's reply, as he waited for what was next to
+come, and looked curiously at the Colonel, who sat with his eyes closed,
+clutching the arms of his chair tightly, as if suffering from a fearful
+twinge.
+
+But if he were, he did not think of it. His mind was again in the
+palmetto clearing, and he was standing by Dory's grave in the sand, and
+a little child was holding his hand, and looking at him with eyes which
+had in them something of the same expression which had once quickened
+his pulse, and made his heart beat with a thrill he fancied was love,
+but which had died almost as soon as it was born. As a result of that
+episode he had Amy, whom he did love, and because he loved her so much,
+he clung to the mementoes of her babyhood, when she had been a torment
+and a terror, and still a diversion in his monotonous life.
+
+"Peter!" he said again. "Hold your tongue, but get them somehow. Who is
+head of this tomfoolery?"
+
+"Ruby Ann is about as big a head as there is, I guess. She and a woman
+from York State," Peter replied, and the Colonel continued, "Well, I
+s'pose those things will have to go to the sale, if Mrs. Amy says so,
+but I won't have them mixed with the quill wheels and boot-jacks and
+Widow Biggs's foot-stove and brass kettle, and I won't have a pack of
+idiots looking them over and buying them and saying they belonged to the
+Cromptons. Mandy Ann Crompton and Judy Crompton would sound fine,--both
+niggers! No, sir! You are to go quietly to Ruby Ann and buy 'em! Do you
+hear? Buy 'em! You knew Mrs. Amy when she played with 'em. You want 'em,
+and you'll pay the price, no matter what it is. Lord Harry! I'll bet
+they'll put a big one on 'em, but no matter. I paid thirty dollars for
+the doll house and five for Mandy Ann. I don't s'pose Judy cost
+anything, but the child liked it best, and I believe I'd rather have it
+than both the others, because--"
+
+He did not say why, but he gripped the arms of his chair tightly, while
+drops of sweat stood upon his forehead. He was in the clearing again
+with Dora living, instead of dead, and the moon was shining on her face
+as she stood in the turn of the road and gave him the promise she had
+kept so faithfully. Judy belonged to that far-off time, and he'd keep
+her at any cost. He called himself a sentimental old fool after Peter
+left him, and wondered why his eyes grew misty and there was a lump in
+his throat as his thoughts kept going back to the South he wished he had
+never seen.
+
+"Poor little Dora!" he said to himself; "but for me she might have been
+alive and married to some respectable--No, by George!" he added
+suddenly, with a start which made his foot jump as he recalled the class
+into which Dora would probably have married if he had not crossed her
+path. "No, by George, I believe I'd rather she died in her youthful
+beauty, and was buried by Jake in the sand, than to see her the wife of
+some lout, and rubbing her gums with snuff."
+
+He was roused from his reverie by wheels crunching on the gravel walk up
+to a side door, and he heard Sarah's voice and Cindy's, the cook's, and
+finally Amy's giving directions, and felt sure some one had come for
+whatever was to go from the Crompton Place to the sale. Ruby had not
+intended sending so soon when she left the house, but chancing to meet a
+drayman who had just deposited a load in the salesrooms, she bade him go
+for whatever was ready, thinking, "I'll strike while the iron is hot,
+and before Mrs. Amy has time to change her mind."
+
+There was no danger of that, at least as far as the dresses were
+concerned. Like everything connected with her stage life, they had been
+to her a kind of nightmare whenever she thought of them, and she was
+glad to be rid of them. Mandy Ann and Judy did give her a few pangs, and
+especially the latter, and as she wrapped it in tissue paper she held it
+for a moment pressed close to her, and began a song she had heard from
+the negroes as they sat around their light-wood fire after their day's
+work was done. It was a weird melody which Homer Smith had caught up and
+revised and modernized, with a change of words in some places, and made
+her sing, knowing it would bring thunders of applause. She heard the
+roar now, and saw the audience and the flowers falling around her, and
+with an expression of disgust she put Judy into Sarah's hands, and said,
+"Take her away, and quick, too. She, or something, brings it back."
+
+Sarah took poor, discarded Judy, tied her in her chair in the old doll
+house, which was placed on top of the two trunks containing Amy's
+concert dresses, and then the drayman started up his horse, and the
+Colonel heard the wheels a second time coming past his window. With a
+great effort he succeeded in getting upon his well foot, and, dragging
+the other after him, hobbled on his crutches to the window in time to
+see the cart as it turned into the avenue. As far as he could see it he
+watched it as the doll house swung from side to side, and the drayman
+held it to keep it from falling off.
+
+"I don't see how Amy could have done it," the Colonel said to himself
+when the dray disappeared from view, and then becoming conscious of the
+pain in his foot, he dragged himself back to his chair, and ringing for
+Peter, said to him: "I think I'll lie down a spell,--and, bring me a
+hot-water bag, I'm pretty cold, and my foot just jumps; and, Peter, go
+to-day and buy those things as if they were for yourself. You mustn't
+lie, of course,--but get 'em somehow, and bring them here to this big
+closet. The chances are when Mrs. Amy comes to her senses she'll want
+'em, and raise Ned, as she used to. I'd give a good deal to see her in a
+tantrum. I'd rather have her that way than passive, as she is now. Will
+nothing ever rouse her out of her apathy? Curse that Homer Smith!"
+
+He was talking to himself rather than to Peter, who got him on to the
+lounge, adjusted the cushions, brought a hot-water bag, covered him up,
+and then left him, saying, "Don't fret, I'll go this afternoon and get
+Judy and Mandy Ann by fair means or foul."
+
+"All right," the Colonel said drowsily. "Fair means or foul, but don't
+lie, and don't let them think they are for me. _You_ want them, and must
+get them, fair means or foul. You know where my purse is. Hold your
+tongue, and go!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE FIRST SALE
+
+
+Order was being brought out of chaos in the Rummage rooms, where twenty
+ladies were working industriously, sorting, pricing, and marking the
+multitudinous articles heaped upon the counters. Not only District No.
+5, but the village had emptied itself, glad to be rid of the
+accumulations of years. Nearly every room was occupied, and the
+committees were showing great skill in assigning things to the different
+departments. The antiques had a niche by themselves; the quill wheel,
+the warming-pan, the foot-stove, the brass kettle with Peter's
+boot-jack, and many more articles of a similar character were placed
+together. Jack's sister had responded quickly, and a large box had
+arrived with articles curious and new, which elicited cries of delight
+from the ladies in charge, who marked them at a ridiculously low price,
+less even, in some instances, than had been paid for them, and labelled
+their corner "The New York Store."
+
+Scarcely was this completed when the drayman arrived from Crompton Place
+with the doll house and the two trunks, the last of which were pounced
+upon first, as Ruby Ann had reported what was in them. Her description,
+however, had fallen far short of the reality, and the ladies held their
+breath, as one after another of the beautiful gowns was taken out for
+exhibition. Few had ever seen anything just like them. Homer Smith had
+prided himself upon being a connoisseur in ladies' costumes and had
+directed all of Amy's, taking care that there was no sham about them.
+Everything was real, from the fabric itself to the lace which trimmed
+it, and which alone had cost him hundreds of dollars. And now they were
+at a Rummage Sale, and the managers did not know what to do with them.
+It was scarcely possible that any one would buy them, and it would be
+greatly out of place to exhibit them in the dry-goods department with
+Mrs. Biggs's brown and white spotted gown which she had contributed
+rather unwillingly, insisting that it should not be sold for less than a
+dollar. Ruby Ann suggested that they be carefully folded in boxes and
+laid away by themselves for inspection by any one who had a thought of
+buying them. If they did not sell, and probably they would not, they
+were to be returned either to Amy or to the Colonel,--the latter most
+likely, as Amy had expressed so strong a desire to be rid of them. Her
+suggestion was acted upon, and the dresses laid aside, and the attention
+of the managers turned to the doll house and its occupants, Mandy Ann
+and Judy, the latter of whom was greeted with shrieks of laughter.
+
+Here was something that would sell, but what price to put upon it was a
+puzzle. No one had any idea of the original cost. Mrs. Biggs, who had
+joined the working force and whose voice was loudest everywhere,
+suggested ten dollars, with the privilege of falling, but was at once
+talked down, as low prices were to be the rule for everything, and five
+was quite enough. There were few who would pay that for a mere
+plaything for their children, so the card upon it was marked five
+dollars, with the addition that it had once belonged to Mrs. Amy
+Crompton Smith. It was then placed conspicuously in a window before
+which a group of eager, excited children gathered, and to which early in
+the afternoon Peter came leisurely.
+
+The Colonel had asked him several times why he didn't go, and had
+finally grown so petulant that Peter had started, wondering how much
+he'd have to pay and what excuse he was to make for wanting it himself.
+His instructions were not to lie, but get it somehow without using the
+Colonel's name. Finding Ruby Ann alone, he began, "I say, do you make
+any sales before the thing opens?"
+
+"Why, yes, we can," Ruby answered. "Several antiques are promised, if
+not actually sold, your boot-jack with the rest. Could sell another if
+we had it. Any particular thing you want?"
+
+"Yes, I want that house in the window and the two women in it,--Mandy
+Ann and Judy. It's marked five dollars. Here's your money," and he laid
+a crisp five-dollar bill in her hand.
+
+"Why, Peter,--why, Peter," Ruby exclaimed in surprise, with a sense of
+regret that more had not been asked, and a feeling of wonder as to why
+Peter wanted it. "Are you buying it for yourself?" she asked, and Peter
+replied, "Who should I buy it for? I knew Mrs. Amy when she was a little
+girl and played with it and slept with that nigger baby Judy. I've
+bought it. It's mine, and I'll take it right away. There's a drayman
+now, bringing a worn-out cook-stove and an old lounge."
+
+"Oh, but, Peter,--please leave it till the sale is over. It draws
+people to look at it, and then they'll come in," Ruby said, while others
+of the ladies joined their entreaties with hers.
+
+But Peter was firm. He had bought the doll house and paid for it. It was
+his, and in spite of the protests of the entire committee which gathered
+round him like a swarm of bees he took it away, and an hour later it was
+safely deposited in the Colonel's room without Amy's knowledge. The
+Colonel was delighted.
+
+"Bring it close up," he said, "but first take off that infernal card
+that it belonged to 'Mrs. Amy Crompton Smith.' That's the way they'd
+marked my trousers! Give me Mandy Ann and Judy. I haven't seen them in
+more than twenty years,--yes, nearer thirty. Upon my soul they wear
+well, especially the old lady. She was never very handsome, but Amy
+liked her best," he said, laughing a little as Peter put Judy in his
+lap.
+
+He did not know that he had ever touched her before, and he held her
+between his thumb and finger, with something which felt like a swelling
+in his throat,--not for Judy, nor for Amy, but for poor Dory, thoughts
+of whom were haunting him these days with a persistency he could not
+shake off.
+
+"What did you give?" he asked, and Peter replied. "Five dollars,--just
+what it was marked."
+
+"Five dollars! Heavens and earth!" and Judy fell to the floor, while the
+Colonel grasped his knees with his hands and sat staring at Peter. "Five
+dollars! Are you an idiot, and have none of them common sense?" he
+asked, and Peter replied, "That was the price, and I didn't like to beat
+them down."
+
+Ruby Ann isn't easy to tackle, and Mrs. Biggs was there with her gab,
+if she is my niece, and said I got it dirt cheap."
+
+"Go to thunder with your Ruby Ann and Mrs. Biggs and dirt cheap!" the
+Colonel roared. "Who said I wanted you to beat 'em down? Why, man, I
+told you I gave thirty for the house and five for Mandy Ann, and here
+they have sold the whole caboodle, Judy and all, for five dollars! Five
+dollars! Do you hear? Five dollars, for what cost thirty-five! I
+consider they've insulted Mandy Ann and Judy both. Five dollars! I'll
+be--"
+
+He didn't finish his sentence, for he heard Amy's voice in the hall. She
+might be coming, and he said hastily to Peter, "Put them in the closet.
+Don't let her see them, or there'll be the old Harry to pay."
+
+Peter obeyed, but Amy did not come in, and after a moment the Colonel
+continued, "We will keep them here a while. I dare say she'll never
+think of them again. She doesn't think much. Do you believe she will
+ever be any better?"
+
+The Colonel's voice shook as he asked the question, and Peter's shook a
+little as he replied, "Please God she may. A great shock of some kind
+might do it."
+
+"Yes, but where is the shock to come from, hedged round as she is from
+every rough wind or care?" the Colonel said, little thinking with what
+strides the shock was hastening on, or through what channel it was to
+come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+AT THE RUMMAGE
+
+
+The rooms were ready at last, and twenty tired ladies went through them
+to see that every thing was in its proper place, and then went home with
+high anticipations of the morrow and what it would bring. It opened most
+propitiously and was one of those soft, balmy September days, more like
+early June than autumn. There were brisk sales and crowds of people all
+day, with the probability of greater crowds and brisker sales in the
+evening. Jack Harcourt was in and out, watching the sale of what his
+sister had sent, drinking cups of chocolate every time a pretty girl
+asked him to do so, and buying toys and picture books and candy, and
+distributing them among the children gathered around the door and
+windows. He thought he had looked at everything on sale, but had failed
+to find the white apron. Where was it? he wondered. He would not ask
+Ruby Ann or Mrs. Biggs, as that would be giving himself away. It would
+certainly be there in the evening when he was to bring Eloise in her
+chair. He had settled that with Tim, who gave up rather unwillingly, but
+was consoled by being hired as errand boy,--an office he could not have
+filled had he been hampered with a wheel chair.
+
+The night was glorious, with a moon near its full, and a little before
+seven Jack presented himself at Mrs. Biggs's, finding Eloise ready and
+alone. Tim was at the rooms, running hither and thither at everybody's
+beck and call, and his mother was there, running the whole
+thing,--judging from her manner as she moved among the crowd filling the
+rooms nearly to suffocation. Eloise had more than once changed her mind
+about going, as she sat waiting for Jack. She was shy with strangers,
+and there would be so many there, and she would be so conspicuous in her
+chair, with Mr. Harcourt in attendance, that she began to doubt the
+propriety of going.
+
+"If it were Tim who was to take me, I believe I should feel
+differently," she was thinking, when Jack came in, breezy and
+excited,--full of the Rummage and anxious to be off.
+
+"You are ready, I see," he said. "That's right. We have no time to lose.
+And there's no end of fun. I've been there half the day, and drank
+chocolate, and eaten cake and candy till I never want to see any more.
+But you will."
+
+He was adjusting her dress and getting the chair in motion as he talked,
+and Eloise had no time to suggest that she ought not to go, before she
+found herself out upon the piazza, and Jack, who had locked the door,
+was putting the key under the mat.
+
+"You see I remember where I found it that time Howard and I desiccated
+the Sabbath by calling upon you," he said, with a laugh in which Eloise
+joined.
+
+"Is Mr. Howard going?" she asked, and Jack replied, "He is a kind of
+lazy fellow, but he'll be there all right;" and the first one they saw
+distinctly as they drew near the house was Howard, struggling with the
+crowd.
+
+Howard had gone down on purpose to see Eloise, and was wondering how
+with her chair she could ever be gotten through that mass of people,
+when she appeared at the door, and, with Howard, wondered how she was to
+get in. She might not have accomplished it if he had not come to the
+rescue with two boys,--one Tim Biggs, the other a tall, freckled-faced,
+light-haired fellow whom Jack greeted as Tom, saying, "Can you manage to
+find a good position for Miss Smith?"
+
+"You bet," came simultaneously from both boys, and immediately four
+sharp elbows were being thrust into the sides of the people, who moved
+all they could and made a passage for Eloise and her chair near the
+middle of the room, and in a comparatively sheltered place where she
+could see everything without being jostled.
+
+If she could see everything and everybody, so everybody could see her,
+and for a moment there was a hush in the large room where every eye was
+turned upon Eloise, who began to feel very uncomfortable, and wish she
+had not come. She had wondered what she ought to wear, and had decided
+upon black as always suitable. When she left California her mother had
+urged her to take a small velvet cape lined with ermine. It was the only
+expensive article of dress she had, and she was very choice of it, but
+to-night she wore it about her shoulders, as later the air was inclined
+to blow up cool and damp from the sea. Just as they reached the house
+Jack stooped to arrange it, throwing it back on either side so that more
+of the ermine would show.
+
+"There! You look just like a queen! Ermine is very becoming to you," he
+said, and the people staring at her thought so, too.
+
+Her head was uncovered, and her hair, which waved softly around her
+forehead, was wound in a flat knot low in her neck, making her look very
+young, as she sat shrinking from the fire of eyes directed towards her
+and saw, if she did not hear, the low whispers of the people, many of
+whom had never seen her before, and were surprised at her extreme youth
+and beauty. Ruby Ann was at a distance, trying to sell Mrs. Biggs's
+spotted brown and white wrapper to a scrub woman who was haggling over
+the price which Mrs. Biggs had insisted should be put upon it. That good
+woman was busy in the supper-room, or she would have made her way at
+once to Eloise, who, as she looked over the sea of faces confronting
+her, saw no one she knew except Howard Crompton, who had been very
+uncomfortable in the heat and air of the place until she came, and with
+her fresh, fair young face seemed at once to change the whole
+atmosphere. Jack, who was not used to much exertion and had found even
+Eloise's light weight a trifle heavy, especially up the hill near the
+Rummage house, was sweating at every pore, and fanning himself with a
+palm leaf he had bought at the entrance.
+
+"By George!" he said to Howard, who was standing by them. "It's hotter
+than a furnace in here. I believe I'll have to go outside and cool off a
+minute, if you'll stay and keep guard over Miss Smith."
+
+"Certainly;--with pleasure," Howard said, putting his hand on Eloise's
+chair and asking if there was anything he could do for her.
+
+She was watching the brown and white spotted gown, and to Howard's
+question she shook her head, while he continued, "Jack says the
+chocolate is pretty fair. He ought to know--he has drank six cups. I am
+going to bring you some."
+
+Before she could protest that she did not care for chocolate, he left
+her and his place was at once taken by the tall, lank, light-haired boy,
+whose elbows had done so good execution in forcing a passage for the
+chair. Tom had been watching her ever since she came in, and making up
+his mind. He had heard she was pretty, but that did not begin to express
+his opinion of her, as she sat with the ermine over her shoulders, the
+soft sheen on her hair, the bright color on her cheeks, and a look in
+her eyes which fascinated him, boy though he was, as it did many an
+older man, from Mr. Bills to Jack, and Howard Crompton. If his two chips
+had not been thrown away he would have thrown them now, and still the
+feeling in him which people called _cussedness_ was so strong that he
+could not repress a desire "to see what stuff she was made off."
+
+Taking Howard's vacant place he pushed himself forward until he was
+nearly in front of her, where he could look into her face. She
+recognized him as the boy Jack had called Tom, and guessed who he
+was,--her eyes drooping under his rather bold gaze, and her color coming
+and going. Tom was not sure what he was going to say to her, and could
+never understand why he said what he did. He had been told so often by
+Mr. Bills and others that he needed _licking_, and so many teachers had
+_licked_ him, to say nothing of his drunken father, that the idea was in
+his mind, but as something wholly at variance with this dainty little
+girl, who at last looked at him fearlessly. She knew he was going to
+speak to her, but was not prepared for his question.
+
+"You are the new schoolmarm, ain't you? Do you think you could _lick_
+me?"
+
+Just for an instant Eloise was too much surprised to answer, while the
+hot blood surged into her face, then left it spotted here and there,
+making Tom think of pink rose petals with white flecks in them. But she
+didn't take her eyes from the boy, who was ashamed of himself before she
+said with a pleasant laugh, "I know I couldn't; and I don't believe I
+shall ever wish to try. I am the new school-teacher, and you are Mr.
+Thomas Walker!"
+
+She did not know why she put on the Mr. It came inadvertently, but was
+the most fortunate thing she could have done. To be called Thomas was
+gratifying, but the Mr. was quite overpowering and made Tom her ally at
+once.
+
+"I'm Thomas Walker,--yes," he said. "Miss Patrick has told you about me,
+I dare say,--and Mr. Bills, and Widder Biggs, and Tim. Oh, I know he's
+told you a lot what I was goin' to do,--but it's a lie. I have plagued
+Miss Patrick some, I guess, and she whaled me awful once, but I've
+reformed. I didn't s'pose you was so little. I could throw you over the
+house, but I shan't. Say, when are you going to begin? I'm tired of Miss
+Patrick's everlasting same ways of doing things, and want something
+new,--something modern, you know."
+
+He was getting very familiar, and Eloise was chatting with him on the
+most friendly terms, when Howard came back with a cup of chocolate, a
+part of which was spilled before he reached her. Howard knew who the
+young blackguard was, and glowered at him disapprovingly, but Eloise
+said, "Mr. Crompton, this is Thomas Walker, one of my biggest scholars
+that is to be. Some difference in our height, isn't there? but we shall
+get on famously. I like big boys and taught a lot of them in Mayville."
+
+She smiled up at Tom and gave him her empty cup to take away. He would
+have stood on his head if she had asked him to, and he hurried off with
+the cup, meeting Jack, who had cooled himself, bought a pound of candy
+at one table and some flowers at another, and was making his way back to
+Eloise. He had also looked round a little for the apron he was going to
+buy, but could not find it. He'd make another tour of inspection later,
+he thought, for he meant to have it, if it were still there. Taking his
+stand on one side of Eloise's chair while Howard stood on the other, the
+three made a striking tableau at which many looked admiringly,
+commenting upon the beauty of the young girl,--the kind, good-humored
+face of Jack, and the haughty bearing of Howard, who, an aristocrat to
+his finger tips, watched the proceedings with an undisguised look of
+contempt showing itself in his sarcastic smile and the expression of his
+eyes.
+
+Eloise was greatly interested and so expressed herself. She had seen the
+scrub woman haggling with Ruby Ann over the brown and white spotted
+wrapper, and had seen it laid aside until another customer came, when
+the same haggling took place with the same result, for Mrs. Biggs, who
+darted in and out, still clung to the price put upon it and so retarded
+the sale. The last time Ruby Ann brought it out Howard and Jack both
+recognized it.
+
+"By Jove! I've half a mind to buy it myself as a kind of souvenir,"
+Jack said, but a look of disgust in Eloise's face and a frown on
+Howard's deterred him, and he kept very quiet for a while, wondering
+where that apron was and if by any possibility it could have been sold.
+
+The box of articles which Jack's sister had sent from New York had been
+sold early in the day, and Amy's dresses had not been opened. Nearly
+everything of any value was gone. Two of Howard's neckties still
+remained conspicuously near the young men, who watched Tom Walker as he
+examined them very critically, and they heard the saleswoman say, "They
+belonged to Mr. Howard Crompton. They say he has dozens of them and all
+first-class. This suits you admirably,"--and she held up a white satin
+one with a faint tinge of blue.
+
+Tom took it, disappeared for a few minutes, and when he came back to the
+chair he was resplendent in his new necktie which he had adjusted in the
+dressing-room, adding to it a Rhine-stone pin bought at the jewelry
+counter. Howard's vanity told him he was complimented, and that
+restrained the laugh which sprang to his lips at the incongruity between
+Tom's dress and the satin necktie bought for a grand occasion in Boston,
+which Howard had attended a few months before. On his way back to the
+group to which he felt he belonged Tom had stopped at the candy table
+and inquired the price of the fanciful boxes, his spirits sinking when
+told the pounds were fifty cents and the half-pounds twenty-five. Money
+was not very plenty with Tom, and what he had he earned himself. The
+necktie had made a heavy draft on him, and twenty cents was all he could
+find in either pocket.
+
+"I say, Tim, lend me a nickel. I'll pay it back. I hope to die if I
+don't," he said to Tim, who was hurrying past him on some errand for his
+mother.
+
+"I hain't no nickels to lend," was Tim's answer, as he disappeared in
+the crowd, leaving Tom hovering near the candy table and looking
+longingly at the only half-pound box left.
+
+"I say," he began, edging up to the girl in charge, "can't you take out
+a piece or two and let me have it for twenty cents? All the money I have
+in the world! 'Strue's I live, and I want it awfully for the new
+schoolmarm over there in the chair with them swells standin' by her."
+
+It was the last half-pound box and the girl was tired.
+
+"Yes, take it," she said, and Tom departed, happier if possible with his
+candy than with his necktie.
+
+"I bought it for you. It's chocolate. I hope you like it," he said,
+depositing his gift in Eloise's lap, where Jack's box was lying open and
+half empty, for Eloise's weakness was candy.
+
+"Oh, thank you, Thomas," she said, beaming upon him a smile which more
+than repaid him for having spent all his money for her.
+
+She was really very happy and thought a good deal of Rummage Sales. She
+had the best place in the hall;--a good many people had spoken to her.
+She had won Tom Walker, body and soul, and she knew that her escorts,
+Howard and Jack, added _éclat_ to her position. She had scarcely thought
+of her foot, which at last began to ache a little. She was getting tired
+and wondered how much longer the sale would last. Jack wondered so, too;
+not that he was tired. He could have stood all night looking at Eloise
+and seeing the people admire her; but he was rather stout and apt to
+get very warm in a room where the atmosphere was close as it was here,
+and he wanted to be out in the fresh air again. He could take his time
+wheeling Eloise home, and if Mrs. Biggs staid at the rooms, as he heard
+her say she was going to do "till the last dog was hung," he could stay
+out in the porch and enjoy the moonlight with Eloise's eyes shining upon
+him. But where was that apron? Perhaps it hadn't come after all. He'd
+inquire. But of whom? Mrs. Biggs was in the supper-room. He did not care
+to go there again, for every time he appeared somebody was sure to get
+off on him a cup of chocolate or coffee, and he could not drink any
+more.
+
+Ruby Ann was busy,--her face very red and her eyes very tired, as she
+tried to sell the most unsalable articles to old women who wanted
+something for nothing, and quarrelled with the quality and quarrelled
+with the price. His only recourse was Eloise, and he planned a long time
+how to approach the subject without mentioning her apron. At last a
+happy inspiration came to him, and when Howard's attention was diverted
+another way he bent over her and began.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE AUCTION
+
+
+"Astonishing, isn't it, where all the stuff comes from? Somebody must
+have given very freely. I never gave a thing except money. Bell sent a
+lot to be sure, and it's all sold. They had a pile from the Crompton
+House. They were good at begging. They didn't expect anything of you, a
+stranger, of course?"
+
+"Oh, yes," Eloise replied. "I had an apron which Miss Patrick seemed to
+think might sell for something. It was rather pretty, and I made it
+myself. I haven't seen it, and think it may have been sold, or perhaps
+Mrs. Biggs, who had it in charge, forgot it. She has had a great deal on
+her mind."
+
+Jack did not hear more than half Eloise was saying. One fact alone was
+clear. She had expected the apron to be there and he would look it up.
+
+"Excuse me," he said, and going into the room where Mrs. Biggs was
+trying to make half a loaf of bread do duty as a whole loaf to a party
+just arrived, he said to her, "Pardon me, Mrs. Biggs, but did you send
+or bring Miss Smith's contribution to the sale? I believe it was an
+apron. She has not seen it."
+
+The bread fell from Mrs. Biggs's hand to the table, and the knife
+followed it to the floor as she exclaimed, "Lord of heavens! I forgot
+it till this minute. Where's Tim?"
+
+She darted from the room and found Tim bringing two pails of water, "the
+last gol darned thing he was going to do that night," he said, as he put
+them down. Seizing him by the collar his mother almost shrieked, "Run
+home for your life, Tim!"
+
+"Why-er,--what-er! Is our house afire?" Tim asked, and his mother
+replied, "No, but Miss Smith's apron is there. I clean forgot it. You'll
+find it in a paper box on my bed, or in my bureau, or on the closet
+shelf, pushed away back, or somewhere. Now clip it."
+
+Tim started without his hat, and the last thing he heard was his
+mother's voice shrill as a clarion, "If you don't find the key under the
+mat, climb inter the but'ry winder, but don't upset the mornin's milk!"
+
+Business was beginning to slacken and sales were few. Some of the people
+had gone home and others were going, and still there were quantities of
+goods unsold. An auction was the only alternative and Mr. Bills, who, to
+his office of school commissioner, added that of auctioneer, was sent
+for. There was no one like him in Crompton for disposing of whatever was
+to be disposed of, from a tin can to a stove-pipe hat. He could judge
+accurately the nature and disposition of his audience,--knew just what
+to say and when to say it, and had the faculty of making people bid
+whether they wanted to or not. To hear him was as good as a circus, his
+friends said, and when it became known that he was to auction off the
+goods remaining from the sale, many who had left came back, filling the
+rooms again nearly as full as they were early in the evening.
+
+Eloise's chair was moved a little more to the front,--a long counter
+was cleared, and on it Mr. Bills took his stand, smiling blandly upon
+the crowd around him and then bowing to Eloise and her escorts, Jack and
+Howard. He was bound to do his best before them and took up his work
+eagerly. He was happiest when selling clothes which he could try on, or
+pretend to, and after disposing of several bonnets amid roars of
+laughter he took up Mrs. Biggs's gown, which Ruby Ann had not been able
+to sell. Here was something to his mind and he held it out and up, and
+tried its length on himself and expatiated upon its beauty and its style
+and durability until he got a bid of twenty-five cents, and this from
+Howard, who said to Eloise, "It seems a pity not to start the old thing
+at something, and I suppose the Charitable Society will take it. I
+believe there is one in town."
+
+Eloise did not answer. The spotted gown was an offence to her, and she
+shut her eyes while Mr. Bills, delighted that he had a bid at last and
+from such a source, began, "Thank you, sir. You know a good thing when
+you see it, but only twenty-five cents! A mere nothing. Somebody will
+give more, of course, for this fine tea gown to put on hot afternoons.
+Just the thing. Twenty-five cents! Twenty-five cents! Do I hear more?
+Twenty-five! Did you say thirty?" and he looked at Jack, who half
+nodded, and the bids, raised five cents at a time, rolled on between
+Jack and Howard and another young man, who cared nothing for the gown,
+but liked the fun. Fifty cents was reached at last, and there the
+bidding ceased and Mr. Bills was ringing the changes on half a dollar,
+half a dollar, for a _robe de chambre_;--he called it that sometimes,
+and sometimes a tea gown, and once a _robe de nu-it_, which brought
+peals of laughter from those who understood the term, as he certainly
+did not. In the dining-room Mrs. Biggs was busy washing dishes, but kept
+her ears open to the sounds in the next room, knowing Mr. Bills was
+there and anxious to get in and see the fun. When the last shouts
+reached her she dropped her dish towel, saying to her companion, "I
+can't stand it any longer. I've got to go and see what Bills is up to!"
+
+Elbowing her way in she caught sight of her gown held aloft by Mr.
+Bills, and heard his voluble "Going, going, at fifty cents."
+
+She had thought it low at a dollar, and here it was as good as gone for
+fifty cents,--to whom she did not know or care,--probably the scrub
+woman who had looked at it earlier in the evening and offered sixty. Her
+blood was up, and making her way to Mr. Bills she snatched at her gown,
+exclaiming, "It's mine, and shall never go for fifty cents, I tell you!"
+
+Here was a diversion, and Mr. Bills met it beautifully.
+
+"Jess so, Miss Biggs," he said, bowing low to her. "I admire your taste
+and judgment. I've told 'em time and time over it was worth more than
+fifty. The fact is they don't know what is what, but you and I do. Shall
+we double right up and shame 'em by sayin' a dollar? A dollar! A dollar!
+and going!"
+
+Mrs. Biggs did not know that she assented, she was so excited, and
+afterwards declared she didn't: but the final Going was said, with
+"Gone! to Mrs. Biggs, for one dollar. Cheap at that!"
+
+At this juncture, when the hilarity was at its height and Mrs. Biggs was
+marching off with her property, which she said she should never pay
+for, Tim appeared, hatless and coatless, but with the box in his hand.
+When Jack locked the door he pushed the key further under the mat than
+was usual, and failing to find it at once, and being in a hurry, Tim
+made his entrance into the house through the pantry window, upsetting
+the pan of milk and a bowl of something, he did not stop to see what, in
+his haste to find the box. It was not on the bed, nor on the bureau, nor
+pushed back on a shelf in the closet. It was on a chair near the door
+where his mother had put it and then forgotten it. As the key was
+outside Tim made his exit the way he came in, stopping a moment to look
+at the milk the cat was lapping with a great deal of satisfaction.
+
+"Bobbs, you'll have a good supper, and I shall catch old hundred for
+giving it to you," he said, picking up the pan and springing through the
+window.
+
+He was very warm, and taking off his coat he threw it across his arm and
+started rapidly for the sale, knowing before he reached it that Mr.
+Bills was there by the sounds he heard. He had no thought that the apron
+was not to be sold at auction. Probably that was why it was wanted, and
+pushing through the crowd to Mr. Bills he handed him the box, saying,
+"Here 'tis. I 'bout run my legs off to get it. Make 'em pay smart."
+
+"Mr. Bills! Mr. Bills!" came excitedly from Ruby Ann, but Mr. Bills did
+not hear, the buzz of voices was so great.
+
+He had opened the box and taken out the apron, which he handled far more
+carefully than he had the spotted gown.
+
+"Now this is something like first-class business," he said, holding it
+up. "The prettiest thing you ever saw,--a girl's apron, all ruffled and
+prinked, and,--yes,--made by--"
+
+He had glanced at the card, which said it was made by Miss Smith, and
+was about to announce that fact, feeling sure it would bring bidders,
+when he chanced to look at Eloise, whose face was nearly as white as the
+apron, and in whose eyes he saw an expression which checked the words.
+But he had no idea of relinquishing the article, and misunderstood the
+motion of Jack's hand to stop him.
+
+"Now, give me an offer," he began,--"a first-rate one, too; none of your
+quarters, nor halves. Bid high and show you know something. 'Tain't
+every day you have a chance to buy as fine a thing as this. You who have
+wives, or daughters, or sisters, or sweethearts, or want it for
+yourselves, speak up! Walk up! Roll up! Tumble up! Any way to get up,
+only come up and bid!"
+
+He was looking at Jack, whose face was as red as Eloise's was pale.
+
+"If the thing must be sold at auction it shall bring a good price, and
+I'll get it, too," he thought.
+
+Standing close to him was Tom Walker, who all the evening had hovered
+near Eloise.
+
+"Tom," Jack said. "I have a sister, you know."
+
+Tom didn't know, but he nodded, and Jack went on: "That apron is the
+only thing I've seen that I really want for her. I am not worth a cent
+to bid. Will you do it for me?"
+
+Tom nodded again, and Jack continued, "Well, start pretty high. Keep
+your eyes on me, and when I look at you raise the bid if there is any
+against you. Understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir," Tom answered, understanding more than Jack thought he did.
+
+He guessed whose apron it was and did not believe much in the sister,
+but he had his instructions and waited for the signal. Howard had
+watched the sale of the spotted gown with a great deal of amusement, but
+was beginning to feel tired with standing so long, and was wondering
+when Jack proposed taking Eloise home. That he would go with them was a
+matter of course, and he was about to speak to Jack when Tim came in and
+the apron sale began. He had no idea whose it was until he saw the halt
+in Mr. Bills's manner, and looked at Eloise. Then he knew, and knew,
+too, that nothing could get Jack away till the apron was disposed of.
+That Jack would buy it he did not for a moment dream, for what could he
+do with it? "But yes, he is going to buy it," he thought, as he heard
+Jack's instructions to Tom, "and I mean to have some fun with him, and
+run that apron up."
+
+Close to him was Tim, and the sight of him put an idea into Howard's
+mind. It would be jolly for Tom and Tim to bid against each other, while
+he and Jack backed them.
+
+"Tim," he said, laying his hand on the boy's arm, "I am going to buy
+that apron for Mrs. Amy, and I want you to bid for me against Tom Walker
+and everybody. I have no idea what it is worth, but when I squeeze your
+arm _so_, bid higher!"
+
+He gave Tim's arm a clutch so tight that the boy started away from him,
+saying, "Great Peter, don't pinch like that! You hurt! 'cause I'm in my
+shirt sleeves."
+
+"All right. I'll be more careful," Howard said. "Now begin, before Tom
+has time to open the ball."
+
+"Yes, but-er, what-er shall I bid?" Tim stammered.
+
+"How do I know? It's Miss Smith's, and on that account valuable. Go in
+with a dollar."
+
+All this time Mr. Bills had been talking himself hoarse over the merits
+of the apron, while his audience were watching Howard and Jack, with a
+feeling of certainty that they were intending to bid, but they were not
+prepared for Tim's one dollar, which startled every one and none more so
+than his mother, who, having rolled up her spotted gown "in a _wopse_,"
+as she said, and put it with her dish pan and towels, had come back in
+time to hear Tim's astonishing bid. She could not see him for the crowd
+in front of her, but she could make him hear, and her voice was shrill
+and decided as she called out, "Timothy Biggs! Be you crazy? and where
+are you to get your dollar, I'd like to know!"
+
+"Tell mother to mind her business! I know what I'm about!" Tim said to
+some one near him, while Mr. Bills rang the changes on that dollar with
+astonishing volubility, and Tom kept his eyes on Jack for a signal to
+raise.
+
+Jack was taken by surprise, but readily understood that it was Howard
+against whom he had to contend and not Tim.
+
+"All right, old chap," he whispered, then looked full at Tom, who, eager
+as a young race horse, shouted a dollar and a half!
+
+"All right," Jack said again, and turned to Eloise on whose face there
+was now some color, as she began to share in the general excitement
+pervading the room and finding vent in laughter and cheers when Tom's
+bid was raised to two dollars by Tim, and two and a quarter was as
+quickly shrieked by Tom. Everybody now understood the contest and
+watched it breathlessly, a great roar going up when Tim lost his head
+and mistaking a slight movement of Howard's hand on his arm, raised his
+own bid from three dollars to three and a half!
+
+"That's right," Mr. Bills said; "you know a thing or two. We are getting
+well under way. Never enjoyed myself so well in my life. Three and a
+half! three and a half! Who says four?"
+
+"I do," Tom yelled, his yell nearly drowned by the cheers of the
+spectators, some of whom climbed on chairs and tables to look at Tom and
+Tim standing, one next to Howard and the other next to Jack, with Eloise
+the central figure, her ermine cape thrown back, and drops of sweat upon
+her forehead and around her mouth.
+
+She almost felt as if it were herself Howard and Jack were contending
+for instead of her apron, which Mr. Bills was waving in the air like a
+flag, with a feeling that he had nearly exhausted his vocabulary and
+didn't know what next to say. Four dollars was a great deal for an
+apron, he knew, but he kept on ringing the changes on the four
+dollars,--a measly price for so fine an article, and for so good a cause
+as a Public Library. And while he talked and repeated his _going,
+going_, faster and faster, Tim stood like a hound on a leash fretting
+for a sign to raise.
+
+"You ain't goin' to be beat by Tom Walker, be you?" he said, in a
+whisper to Howard, who gave him a little squeeze, with the words "Go
+easy," spoken so low that Tim did not hear them, and at once raised the
+four dollars to four and a half, while quick as lightning Tom responded
+with five dollars.
+
+Jack hadn't really looked at him, but it did not matter. He was going
+to have the apron, and turning to Howard he said, "I don't know how long
+you mean to keep this thing up. I am prepared to go on all night."
+
+Howard felt sure he was and decided to stop, and his hand dropped from
+Tim's shoulder quite to the disgust of that young man, who said, "You
+goin' to let 'em lick us?"
+
+"I think I'll have to," Howard replied, while "Five dollars, and going!"
+filled the room until the final "Gone!" was spoken, and the people gave
+gasps of relief that it was over.
+
+"Sold for five dollars to Thomas Walker, who will please walk up to the
+captain's office and pay," Mr. Bills said, handing the apron to Tom, who
+held it awkwardly, as if afraid of harming it.
+
+"I guess it's yourn," he said, giving it to Jack, who knew as little
+what to do with it as Tom.
+
+Ruby came to his aid and took it from him. She had watched the
+performance with a great deal of interest, comprehending it perfectly
+and feeling in a way sorry for Eloise, whose lips quivered a little when
+she went up to her, and bending over her said, "You should feel
+complimented, but I'm afraid you are very tired."
+
+"Yes, very tired and warm. I want to get into the fresh air," Eloise
+said, shivering as if she were cold instead of warm.
+
+Jack had gone to the cashier's desk to pay for the apron, and Tom
+undertook the task of getting the wheel chair through the crowd, running
+against the people promiscuously, if they impeded his progress, and
+caring little whom he hit if he got Eloise safely outside the door. The
+night was at its best, almost as light as day, as they emerged from the
+hot, close room, and Eloise drew long breaths of the cool air which blew
+up fom the sea, the sound of whose waves beating upon the shore could be
+heard even above the din of voices inside the building. The auction was
+still going on, and Mr. Bills was doing his best, but the interest
+flagged with the sale of the apron and the breaking up of the group
+which had attracted so much attention. Even Mrs. Biggs's grandmother's
+brass kettle, on which so many hopes were built, failed to create more
+than a ripple, as Mr. Bills rang changes upon it both with tongue and
+knuckles, and when his most eloquent appeals could not raise a higher
+bid than ten cents, it was withdrawn by the disgusted widow, who put it
+aside with her dish pan and towels and gown, and then went to find Tim
+to take them home.
+
+Howard had been called by Ruby into the room where Amy's dresses were
+lying in the boxes just as they came, and asked what they were to do
+with them.
+
+"We could not offer them for sale, and she does not want them back," she
+said.
+
+"Send them to the Colonel. She'll never know it, and the chance is will
+never think of them again," Howard said, and then hurried outside to
+where Eloise was still waiting and talking to Tom.
+
+"That apron went first rate," he said. "You must have felt glad they
+thought so much of you, 'cause 'twas you and not the apron, though that
+was pretty enough."
+
+"Oh!" Eloise replied, drawing her ermine cape around her shoulders, "I
+don't know whether I was glad or not. I felt as if I were being sold to
+the highest bidder."
+
+"That's so," Tom said. "It was something like it. Ain't you glad 'twas
+Mr. Harcourt bought you instead of t'other?"
+
+Eloise laughed as she replied, "Why, Thomas, it was _you_ who bought me!
+Have you forgotten?"
+
+She seemed so much in earnest that for a moment Tom thought she was, and
+said, "You ain't so green as not to know that 'twas Mr. Harcourt eggin'
+me on,--winkin' to me when to raise, and tellin' me to go high! You are
+his'n, and I'm glad on't! I like him better than t'other; ain't so big
+feelin'. Here they come, both on 'em."
+
+Howard had finished his business with Ruby Ann, and Jack had paid his
+five dollars and received the apron, slightly mussed, but looking fairly
+well in the box in which they put it. A good many people were leaving
+the rooms again, and among them Tim, laden with his mother's dish pan
+and towels, and dress and brass kettle, and one or two articles which
+she had bought.
+
+"Hallo, Tim! You look some like a pack horse," Tom said, but Tim did not
+answer.
+
+He was very tired, for with so many calling upon him through the day and
+evening; he had run miles and received only seventy cents for it. He was
+chagrined that he had raised his own bid, and wondered Tom did not chaff
+him. It would come in time, he knew, and he felt angry at Tom, and angry
+with the brass kettle and dish pan and dress which kept him from
+wheeling Eloise instead of Tom, who, when they finally started, took his
+place behind the chair as a matter of course, while Howard and Jack
+walked on either side. It was a splendid night, and when Mrs. Biggs's
+house was reached Howard and Jack would gladly have lingered outside
+talking to Eloise, if they could have disposed of the boys. But the boys
+were not inclined to be disposed of. Tom had become somebody in his own
+estimation, and intended to stay as long as the young men did, while
+Tim, having found the key, this time instead of entering by the pantry
+window, unlocked the door, deposited his goods, and then came back,
+saying to Eloise with a good deal of dignity for him, "Shall I take you
+in?"
+
+"Yes, please. I think it's time," she said, and Howard and Jack knew
+they were dismissed. "Thank you all so much for everything," she
+continued, giving her hand to each of them in turn, and pressing Tom's a
+little in token of the good feeling she felt sure was established
+between them.
+
+It was not long before Mrs. Biggs came home, rather crestfallen that her
+spotted gown and brass kettle had not been more popular, but jubilant
+over the sale, the proceeds of which, so far as known when she left,
+were over two hundred and fifty dollars.
+
+"Never was anything like it before in Crompton," she said, as she helped
+Eloise to her bed lounge. "That apron sale beat all. Them young men
+didn't care for the apron, of course, except that it was yours, and what
+Mr. Harcourt will do with it I don't know. Said he was goin' to send it
+to his sister. Maybe he is. He paid enough for it. Five dollars! I was
+in hopes they'd run it up to ten! and I was sorry when 'twas over. Mr.
+Bills kinder wilted after you all went out, and the whole thing flatted.
+Well, good-night! You was the star! the synacure,--is that the word?--of
+all eyes, and looked awful pretty in that white cape. I see you've got
+Tom Walker, body and soul, but my land! you'd get anybody! Good-night,
+again."
+
+She was gone at last, and Eloise was glad to lay her tired head upon her
+pillow, falling asleep nearly as soon as she touched it, but dreaming of
+the Rummage Sale and that she was being auctioned off instead of her
+apron. It was a kind of nightmare, and her heart beat fast as the bids
+came rapidly,--sometimes on Howard's side and sometimes on Jack's. She
+called him _Jack_ in her dreams, and finally awoke with a start, saying
+aloud, "I am glad it was Jack who bought me!"
+
+
+
+
+PART III
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE BEGINNING OF THE END
+
+
+The Rummage Sale was a great success and netted fully two hundred and
+fifty dollars, besides quantities of goods of different kinds which were
+left and given either to the poor or to the Charitable Society in
+Crompton. The trunks containing Amy's dresses had been sent home without
+Amy's knowledge, and deposited in the closet with Mandy Ann and Judy,
+the Colonel swearing at first that he would have nothing pertaining to
+Homer Smith so near him. The apron sale had been an absorbing topic of
+conversation, the people wondering what Mr. Harcourt was going to do
+with his purchase, and if he wouldn't give it back to Eloise. Nothing
+was further from his thought. He had bought it to keep, and he laid it
+away in the bottom of his trunk with the handkerchief Eloise had used
+when he first called upon her.
+
+He was growing more and more in love with her and more unwilling to
+leave Crompton. He had already staid longer than he had at first
+intended, but it did not need Howard's urgent invitation for him to
+prolong his visit. Every day he went to Mrs. Biggs's, and sometimes
+twice a day, and took Eloise out in her arm-chair for an airing,--once
+as far as to the school-house where Ruby Ann still presided, and where
+Eloise hoped soon to take up her duties. She was very happy, or would
+have been if she could have heard from California. Every day she hoped
+for news, and every day was disappointed, until at last nearly a week
+after the Rummage a letter came forwarded by her grandmother from
+Mayville. It was from a physician to whom Eloise had twice written with
+regard to her mother, and this was his reply:
+
+"Portland, Oregon, September --, 18--.
+
+"My Dear Miss Smith:
+
+"I left San Francisco several months ago and have been stopping in
+several places, and that is why your letters were so long in reaching
+me. They both came in the same mail, and I wrote to San Francisco to see
+what I could learn with regard to your mother. It seems that the private
+asylum of Dr. Haynes was broken up, as there were only three patients
+when Mrs. Smith left, and it did not pay. Soon after your father died in
+Santa Barbara, your mother was removed from the asylum by a gentleman
+whose name I have thus far been unable to learn. I thought it must have
+been some relative, but if you know nothing of it my theory is wrong.
+Dr. Haynes went at once with his family to Europe, and is travelling on
+the continent. His address is, Care of Munroe & Co., Bankers, 7 Rue
+Scribe. Paris. Write him again, as he must know who took your mother
+from his care. He may not be in Paris now, but your letter will reach
+him in time. If there is anything I can do to help you, I will gladly do
+it. If you were in San Francisco you might find some of the attendants
+in the asylum, who could give you the information you desire.
+
+"Yours, very truly,
+
+"J.P. ALLING, M.D."
+
+It was Ruby who brought the letter one evening two or three days before
+Eloise expected to make her first appearance in school. Mrs. Biggs and
+Tim were out and Eloise was alone. Tearing open the envelope, she read
+it quickly, and then with the bitterest cry Ruby had ever heard, covered
+her face with her hands and sobbed: "My mother! Oh, my mother!"
+
+"Is she dead?" Ruby asked, and Eloise replied, "Worse than that,
+perhaps. I don't know where she is. Read what it says."
+
+She gave the letter to Ruby, who read it twice; then, sitting down by
+Eloise and passing her arm around her, she said, "I don't understand
+what it means. Was your mother in a lunatic asylum?"
+
+"Oh, don't call it that!" Eloise answered. "It was a private asylum in
+San Francisco,--very private and select, father said, but I never quite
+believed her crazy. She was always quiet and sad and peculiar, and hated
+the business, and so did I."
+
+"What was the business?" Ruby asked, and Eloise answered hesitatingly,
+as if it were something of which to be ashamed, "She sang in public with
+a troupe,--his troupe. He made her. She was the star and drew big
+houses, she was so beautiful and sang so sweetly, without any apparent
+effort. It was just like a bird, and when she sang the Southern melodies
+she seemed to be in a trance, seeing things we could not see. It made me
+cry to hear her. I know many good women are public singers, but mother
+shrank from it, and when they cheered like mad there used to be a
+frightened look in her eyes, as if she wondered why they were doing it
+and wanted to hide, and when she got to our rooms she'd tremble and be
+so cold and cry, while father sometimes scolded and sometimes laughed at
+her. He tried to make me sing once. I have a fair voice, but I rebelled
+and said I'd run away before I'd do it. He was very angry, and sent me
+North to my grandmother, saying I was too great an expense to keep with
+him unless I would help, and was a hindrance to my mother, who was
+always so anxious about me. It nearly killed her to part with me. I was
+all the comfort she had, she said, and she always called me Baby. Father
+was not kind to her, and it seemed as if he hated me, and was jealous of
+mother's love for me. When I heard he was dead, I could not feel badly,
+as I ought, and did not cry. He was a very handsome man, and very nice
+with people, who thought my mother a most fortunate woman to have so
+polished and courteous a husband. They should have seen him as I saw him
+at times, and heard him swear, as I have heard him, and call her names
+till she was white as a corpse and fainted. I never saw her turn upon
+him but once. I had asked her why she didn't leave him and go home, if
+she had any to go to. That was when I was a little girl.
+
+"'I have no home or friends in all the wide world to go to' she said,
+and then, with a sneer which was maddening, it meant so much, my father
+said, 'Ask her who her father was and see if she can tell you.'
+
+"I didn't know then what he meant to insinuate, but mother did, and
+there came a look into her eyes which frightened me, and her voice was
+not mother's at all, as she walked straight up to him and said, 'How
+dare you insult my mother!'
+
+"She looked like an enraged animal, and my father must have been afraid
+she would attack him, for he tried to soothe her and succeeded at last
+in doing so. I think there was some mystery about her father and mother,
+as she would never talk of them. Once I asked her about them, and she
+said she hadn't any; and she looked so strange that I never asked her
+again. I knew she was born South, that her people were poor, and her
+name Harris, and that is all I know, except that no better or lovelier
+woman ever lived, and if she is really crazy father made her so, and I
+cannot feel any love for him, or respect. If I ever had any, and I
+suppose I must have had, he killed it long ago. The first thing I
+remember of him in Rome, where I was born, he was practising some music
+with mother,--playing for her while she sang, and I was standing by him,
+putting my hands on his arm and trying to hum the tune. With a jerk he
+said to my nurse, 'Take her away and keep her away.'
+
+"I am wicked, I know, to talk as I am doing, but it seems as if there
+was a spell over me urging me to say things I never thought of saying.
+It's a comfort to talk to some one who I know is my friend, and you are
+so strong every way and have been so good to me."
+
+She laid her head on Ruby's arm like a tired child, and continued, "I
+wrote to mother very often after I came to Mayville, and she replied,
+telling me how she missed me, and how she always fixed her eyes on some
+part of the house, fancying she saw me, and was singing to me, and I
+used to listen nights and think I heard her grand voice as it rose and
+fell, and the people cheering, and she so beautiful standing there for
+the crowd to gaze at, and wishing she could get away from it all.
+
+"At last her letters ceased and father wrote that her mind had given way
+suddenly;--that she was a raving maniac,--dangerous, I think he
+said,--and I thought of the way she looked at him once when I was a
+child, and he told me to ask her about her father. He said she was in
+Dr. Haynes's private asylum, where she had the kindest of care. I think
+I died many deaths in one when I heard that. I wrote her again and
+again, and wanted to go to her, but my father forbade it. No one saw
+her, he said, except her attendant and the physician,--not even himself,
+as the sight of him threw her into paroxysms. I didn't wonder at that.
+He sent my letters back, telling me she would not sense them, and they
+would excite her if she did. Her only chance of recovery was in her
+being kept perfectly quiet, with nothing to remind her of the past.
+
+"A few months ago he died suddenly in Santa Barbara. One of the troupe
+wrote to grandma, and, as I told you, I did not cry; I couldn't. I was
+too anxious about mother, and wrote at once to Dr. Haynes, but received
+no answer. I waited a while and wrote again, with the same result. Then
+I remembered Dr. Alling, who had attended me for some slight ailment,
+and wrote to him, with the result you know. Some one has taken my mother
+away. Who was it, and where is she? I feel as if I were going mad when I
+think of the possibilities."
+
+She pressed her hands to her head and rocked to and fro, while Ruby
+tried to quiet and comfort her.
+
+"I must go to San Francisco and find my mother. I would start
+to-morrow, lame as I am, only I haven't the money, and grandma hasn't
+it, either," she said. "Father made a great deal of money at times, but
+he spent it as freely. Always stopped at the best hotels; had a suite of
+rooms, with our meals served in them; drank the costliest wines, and
+smoked the most expensive cigars, and bought mother such beautiful
+dresses. I did not fare so well. Anything was good enough for me after I
+refused to sing in public, and that was an added source of trouble to my
+mother. I was always a bone of contention and it was, perhaps, as well
+in some respects that I was sent away, only mother missed me so. I was
+so glad to get this school, because it would give me something for my
+mother, whom I hoped to bring home before long. And now, I don't know
+where she is, but I must find her. Oh, what shall I do?"
+
+It was not often that Eloise talked of herself and her affairs. At
+school in Mayville she had been very reticent with regard to her past,
+and had seldom mentioned either her father or her mother. With Mrs.
+Biggs she had been equally silent, and, try as she would, the good woman
+had never been able to learn anything beyond what Eloise had first told
+her,--that her father was dead and her mother in California;--in a
+sanitarium, Mrs. Biggs had finally decided, and let the matter drop,
+thinking she should some time know "if there was anything to know." Ruby
+Ann had from the first seemed to Eloise like one to be trusted, and she
+felt a relief in talking to her, and said more than she had at first
+intended to say.
+
+For a moment Ruby was silent, while Eloise's head lay on her arm and
+Eloise's hand was holding hers. She was thinking of the piano she
+wanted to buy, the money for which was in the Crompton bank. There was a
+struggle in her mind, and then she said, "I can loan you the money. I
+know you will pay it back if you live, and if you don't, no matter. I
+will not call it a loss if it does you any good."
+
+At first Eloise demurred, longing to accept the generous offer, and
+fearing that she ought not. But Ruby overcame her scruples.
+
+"Naturally I shall keep your place in school, so I owe you something for
+the business, don't you see?" she said.
+
+Eloise did not quite see, but she yielded at last, for her need was
+great.
+
+"I don't think I'd tell Mrs. Biggs all the sad story, unless you want
+the whole town to know it. Tell her you have had bad news from your
+mother, and are going to her," Ruby suggested, when at last she said
+good-night and went out, just as Mrs. Biggs came in.
+
+"Goin' away! Goin' to Californy! Your mother sick! What's the matter,
+and how under the sun are you goin' alone, limpin' as you do? I knew
+Ruby Ann would manage to keep the school if she once got it!" were some
+of Mrs. Biggs's exclamations when told Eloise was to leave her.
+
+Eloise parried her questions very skilfully, saying nothing except that
+her mother needed her and she was going to her, and Mrs. Biggs left her
+more mystified than she had ever been in her life, but resolved "to get
+at the bottom if she lived."
+
+That night Eloise, who was now sleeping in the chamber to which she had
+first been taken, sat a long time by her window, looking out upon the
+towers and chimneys of Crompton Place, which were visible above the
+trees in the park, and wondering at the feeling of unrest which
+possessed her, and her unwillingness to leave.
+
+"If I could only see him once more before I go," she thought, the "him"
+being Jack, who, with Howard Crompton, was in Worcester, attending a
+musical festival.
+
+Not to see him was the saddest part of leaving Crompton, and for a
+moment hot tears rolled down her cheeks,--tears which, if Jack could
+have seen and known their cause, would have brought him back from
+Worcester and the prima donna who that night was entrancing a crowded
+house with her song. Dashing her tears away, Eloise's thoughts reverted
+to Amy, who had been so kind to her.
+
+"I hoped to thank her in person," she said, "but as that is impossible,
+I must write her a note for Tim to take in the morning, together with
+the chairs."
+
+The note was written, and in it a regret expressed that Eloise could not
+have seen her.
+
+"Maybe when she reads it she will call upon me to-morrow," she thought,
+as she directed the note, and that night she dreamed that Amy came to
+her, with a face and voice so like her mother's that she woke with a
+start and a feeling that she had really seen her mother, as she used to
+stand before the footlights, while the house rang with thunders of
+applause.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE LITTLE RED CLOAK
+
+
+Col. Crompton was in a bad way, both mentally and bodily. The pain in
+his gouty foot had extended to his knee, and was excruciating in the
+extreme; but he almost forgot it in the greater trouble in his mind. In
+the same mail which had brought Eloise's letter from California there
+had been one for him, which in the morning Peter had taken from the
+postman and examined carefully, until he made out its direction.
+
+"Mister Kurnel Krompton, of Krompton Plais, Krompton, Massachusetts."
+
+So much room had been taken up on one side of the envelope with the
+address, that half of "Massachusetts" was on the other side, and Peter's
+memory instantly went back to years before, when a letter looking like
+this and odorous with bad tobacco had come to the Colonel. He had a copy
+of the letter still, and could repeat it by heart, and knew that it was
+from Jake Harris,--presumably the "Shaky" for whom the little girl
+Eudora had cried so pitifully. This was undoubtedly from the same
+source. "What can he want now? and what will the Colonel say?" he
+thought, as he took the letter to his master's room.
+
+"A letter for you, sir," he said, putting it down upon the table by the
+Colonel's chair, and then lingering on the pretence of adjusting a
+curtain and brushing up the hearth, but really waiting to see what
+effect the letter would have.
+
+It was different from what he expected. With one glance at the
+superscription, the Colonel grew deathly pale, and his hands shook so
+that the letter dropped upon the floor. Peter picked it up and handed it
+to him, saying, "Can I help you, sir?"
+
+"Yes, by leaving me, and holding your tongue! There's the devil to pay!"
+was the answer.
+
+Peter was accustomed to hearing of his master's debts in that direction,
+and to being told to hold his tongue, and he answered, "All right, sir,"
+and left the room. For some moments the Colonel sat perfectly still, his
+heart beating so fast that he could scarcely breathe. Then he opened
+Jake's letter, and read as follows:
+
+"Palmetto Clarin', Oct. --, 18--.
+
+"Mister Kurnel Krompton,
+
+"Deer Sir:
+
+"Glory to God. I'se done sung all day for his mussy in lettin' me heer
+from lil Miss Dory onc't mo' an' 'noin' she ain't ded as I feared she
+was. Mas'r Minister Mason, who done 'tended the funeral of t'other Miss
+Dory done tole me how she's livin' with you, an' a lil off in her mind.
+The lam'! What happened her, I wonder? Her granny, ole Miss Lucy, was
+quar. All the Harrises was quar. Mebby she got it from them. A site of
+me will cure her sho'. Tell her I'se comin' to see her as soon as I hear
+from you that it is her, sho'. Thar might be some mistake, an' I doan'
+want to take the long journey for nothin', 'case I'm ole, tho' I feels
+mighty peart now wid de news. Rite me wen you git this. I shall wait
+till I har, an' then start to onc't.
+
+"Yours to command,
+
+"JAKE HARRIS."
+
+"P.S.--Mandy Ann, you 'members her, what took care of lil chile. She's a
+grown woman now in course, an' has ten chillen, 'sides Ted. You 'members
+Ted, on de 'Hatty.' No 'count at all; but Mandy Ann, wall, she's a
+whopper, an' when she hears de nuse, she 'most had de pow'. She sen's
+her regrets, an' would come, too, if she hadn't so many moufs to feed,
+an' Ted doin' nothin' but playin' gemman.
+
+"Onc't mo', yours,
+
+"JAKE."
+
+To describe the Colonel's state of mind as he read this letter is
+impossible. He forgot the pain in his leg and knee in the greater
+sensation of the cold, prickly feeling which ran through his veins,
+making his fingers feel like sticks, and powerless to hold the letter,
+which dropped to the floor. With every year he had hugged closer and
+closer the secret of his life, becoming more and more morbid and more
+fearful, lest in some way his connection with the palmetto clearing
+should be known and he fall from the high pedestal on which he had stood
+so long, and from which his fall would be greater because he had been
+there so long. It would all be right after he was dead. He had seen to
+that, and didn't care what the world would say when he was not alive to
+hear it. But he was very much alive now, and his sin bade fair to find
+him out.
+
+"Just as I feared when that rector told me who his father was," he
+thought, cursing the chance which had sent the Rev. Arthur Mason to
+Crompton,--cursing the Rev. Charles for giving information to Jake,--and
+cursing Jake for the letter, which he spurned with his well foot, as it
+lay on the floor. He had hoped the negro might be dead, as he had heard
+nothing from him in a long time; and here he was, alive and waiting for
+a word to come. "If he waits for that he will wait to all eternity," he
+said to himself. "I shall write and make it worth his while to stay
+where he is. He knows too much of Amy's birth and her mother's death to
+be trusted here. Uncertainty is better than the truth. I have made
+matters right for Amy, and confessed everything. They'll find it when
+I'm gone, and can wag their tongues all they please. It won't hurt me
+then, but while I live I'll keep up the farce. It might have been better
+to have told the truth at first, but I didn't, and it's too late now.
+Who in thunder is that knocking at the door? Not Amy, I hope,--and I
+can't reach that letter," he continued, as there came a low rap at the
+door.
+
+"Come in!" he called, when it was repeated, and Cora, the housemaid,
+entered.
+
+She had been in the family but a few days and did not yet understand her
+duties with regard to the Colonel, and know that she was not to trouble
+him. Tim Biggs had been commissioned by Eloise to take her note to Mrs.
+Amy, together with the chairs.
+
+"You can't carry both at one time, so take the sea this morning, and the
+wheel this afternoon," Mrs. Biggs said, just as Tom Walker appeared.
+
+He had been to the house two or three times since the Rummage,
+ostensibly to ask when Eloise was going to commence her duties as
+teacher, but really to see her and hear her pleasant "Good-morning,
+Thomas, I am glad to see you."
+
+Whatever Mrs. Biggs knew was soon known to half of District No. 5, and
+the news that Eloise was going to California had reached Tom, and
+brought him to inquire if it were true.
+
+"And won't you come back?" he asked, with real concern on his homely
+face.
+
+"Perhaps so. I hope so," Eloise replied, and he continued, "I'm
+all-fired sorry you are goin', because,--well, because I am; and I wish
+I could do something for you."
+
+"You can," Eloise said. "You can take the wheel chair back to the
+Crompton House and save Tim one journey."
+
+Tom cared very little about saving Tim, but he would do anything to
+serve Eloise, and the two boys were soon on their way, quarrelling some
+as they went, for each was jealous of the other's attention to the
+"little schoolmarm," as they called her. Tom reached the house first,
+but Tim was not far behind, and both encountered Cora, who bade them
+leave the chairs in the hall, while she inquired as to their
+disposition. Had Peter been in sight she might have consulted him, but
+he was in the grounds, and, entering the Colonel's room she said, "If
+you please, sir, what shall I do with the chairs?"
+
+"What chairs?" the Colonel asked, and Cora replied, "A sea chair, I
+think, and a wheel chair, which Tom Walker and Tim Biggs have just
+brought home."
+
+"My sea chair, and my wheel chair! How in thunder can that be, when I'm
+sitting in the wheel, and how came Tom Walker, the biggest rascal in
+town, by my chairs, or Tim Biggs either?" the Colonel exclaimed; and
+Cora replied, "I think they said the schoolma'am had them. Here's a note
+from her to Mrs. Amy."
+
+Since his last attack of the gout the Colonel had in a measure forgotten
+Eloise, and ceased to care whether she were rooted and grounded in the
+fundamentals or not. That Howard and Jack had been in the habit of
+calling upon her he did not suspect, and much less that for the last two
+weeks or more she had been enjoying his sea chair, and the fruit and
+flowers sent her with Mrs. Amy's compliments. At the mention of her he
+roused at once.
+
+"That girl had my chair! How the devil came she by it? A note for Mrs.
+Amy! Give it to me, and pick up that paper on the floor and go!"
+
+Cora was not long in obeying, and the irascible old man was again alone.
+First tearing Jake's letter in strips, he turned Eloise's note over in
+his hand, and read, "Mrs. Amy Smith, Crompton Place." The name "Smith"
+always made him angry, and he repeated it with a quick shutting together
+of his teeth.
+
+"Smith!" he said, "I can't abide it! And what has she to say to Mrs.
+Smith?"
+
+The note was not sealed, and without the least hesitancy he opened it
+and read, commenting as he did so.
+
+"My dear Mrs. Smith." (Her dear Mrs. Smith! I like that.) "I am going
+away (Glad to hear it) and I wish to thank you for the many things you
+have sent me. (The deuce she has! I didn't know it.) The pretty hat I
+want to keep, with the slippers, which remind me of my mother.
+(Slippers,--remind her of her mother, who, I dare say, never wore
+anything but big shoes, and coarse at that," the Colonel growled, and
+read on.) The chairs I return, with my thanks for them, and the fruit
+and flowers and books. I would like so much to see you, and thank you
+personally, but as this cannot be I must do it on paper. Be assured I
+shall never forget your kindness to me, a stranger.
+
+"Your very truly,
+
+"E.A. SMITH."
+
+"Smith again! E.A. Smith!" the Colonel said. "Why couldn't she write her
+whole name? E.A., ELIZA ANN, of course! That's who she is, ELIZA ANN
+SMITH!"
+
+If there was one name he disliked as much as he did Smith, it was Eliza
+Ann, and he repeated it again: "ELIZA ANN SMITH! Fruit and flowers and
+books, and shoes and my sea chair and a wheel chair sent to her by Amy!
+Where did she get the wheel, I'd like to know? I don't believe it!" he
+added, as a sudden light broke upon him. "It's that dog Howard's work,
+and that other chap."
+
+Ringing the bell which stood on the table beside him, he bade Cora, who
+appeared, to send Mrs. Amy to him. Amy had not slept well, and was more
+easily confused than usual, but she came and asked what he wanted. It
+did not occur to him to give her the note, which he kept in his hand
+while he said, in a much softer tone than that in which he had been
+talking to himself, "Have you sent things to Eliza Ann Smith,--fruit and
+flowers and books, and my sea chair and a wheel chair, and a bonnet and
+shoes, and the Lord knows what else?"
+
+Amy was bewildered at once.
+
+"Eliza Ann Smith!" she repeated. "I don't know her. Who is she?"
+
+"Why, the girl that jammed a hole in Brutus's neck and stained the
+cushions of my carriage, and broke her leg at Mrs. Biggs's," the Colonel
+replied.
+
+At the mention of Mrs. Biggs, Amy's face brightened. Since the day after
+the accident, when she sent the hat and slippers, Eloise had not been
+mentioned in her presence, and she had entirely forgotten her. Now she
+was all interest again, and said, "Oh, yes; I remember now, Poor girl! I
+did send her a hat and some slippers, which I hated because I wore them
+when I sang. Did they fit her?"
+
+"Lord Harry! How do I know? It isn't likely your shoes would fit her.
+They would be a mile too small!" the Colonel said, and Amy asked, "Does
+she want anything?"
+
+"No," the Colonel replied. "Somebody has sent her flowers and chairs and
+books and things. She thought it was you and wished to thank you."
+
+"It was not I, and I am sorry I forgot her," Amy rejoined, as she turned
+to leave him, with a confused feeling in her brain, and a pang of regret
+that she had perhaps neglected the little girl at Mrs. Biggs's.
+
+Once the Colonel thought to call her back and give her the note. Then,
+thinking it did not matter, he let her go without it. Just what
+influence was at work in Amy's mind that morning it were difficult to
+tell. Whatever it was, it prompted her on her return to her room to take
+the little red cloak from the closet where it was kept and examine it
+carefully. It had been the best of its kind when it was bought, and,
+though somewhat faded and worn, had withstood the ravages of time
+wonderfully. It had encircled her like a friend, both when she was sad
+and when she was gay. It had been wrapped around the Baby, of whom she
+never thought without a pang and a blur before her eyes. It was the
+dearest article she had in her wardrobe, and because of that and because
+she had been so forgetful, she would send it to Eliza Ann Smith!
+
+"But not for good," she said to Sarah, who was commissioned to take it
+to Eloise the next morning. "She can keep it till she is well. Somebody
+told me she had a sprained ankle. I had one once, and I put it across my
+lap and foot, it was so soft and warm. Tell her I am sorry I forgot
+about her. I am not always quite myself."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Sent that old red cloak she's had ever since she was knee high! I
+shouldn't s'pose there'd be a rag of it left! She must be crazy as a
+loon to-day," was Mrs. Biggs's comment, when Sarah told her errand.
+"What possessed her?"
+
+Sarah only knew that her mistress was more dazed than usual that
+morning, and had insisted upon her bringing the cloak.
+
+"I think it rattled her when the chairs came back. She didn't know
+anything about 'em, nor the Colonel either," Sarah said.
+
+Mrs. Biggs laughed, and replied, "I didn't s'pose they did. Them young
+men, I b'lieve, was at the bottom of it, and I or'to have told Miss
+Smith to send her thanks to them, but I wasn't quite sure about the sea
+chair. So I let it slide, thinkin' it was a good joke on 'em to thank
+Amy. They pretended the things was from her."
+
+Taking the cloak from the girl, she carried it into the room where
+Eloise had fallen asleep, with her foot resting upon a hassock, and a
+shawl thrown over it. Removing the shawl and putting the red cloak in
+its place, Mrs. Biggs stole noiselessly out, saying to herself, "I guess
+she'll wonder where that came from when she wakes up."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ELOISE AT THE CROMPTON HOUSE
+
+
+For an hour or more Eloise slept on, and then awoke suddenly and saw the
+scarlet cloak across her foot. At first it was the color which attracted
+her. Then taking it in her hands she began to examine it, while drops of
+sweat came out upon her forehead and under her hair. She knew that
+cloak! She had worn it many and many a time when she was a child. She
+had seen her mother fold and pack it far more carefully, when they were
+starting on a starring tour, than she did the fine dresses she wore on
+the stage.
+
+"It is my mother's, but how came it here?" she thought, as she took it
+into the kitchen where she heard Mrs. Biggs at her work. "Where did you
+get my mother's cloak?" she asked.
+
+Mrs. Biggs, who always washed on Saturdays, had just put Tim's shirt
+through the wringer. Holding it at arm's length with one hand and
+steadying herself on the side of the tub with the other, she stared
+blankly at Eloise for a moment, and then said, "Your mother's cloak!
+Child alive, that's Mrs. Amy's. I've seen her wear it a hundred times
+when she was a little girl. She has got on a spell of givin' this
+mornin', and sent it to you by Sarah. She's kep' it well all these
+years. What ails you?" she continued, as Eloise's face grew as white as
+the clothes in Mrs. Biggs's basket.
+
+Ray after ray of light was penetrating her mind, making her wonder she
+had not seen it before, and bringing a possibility which made her brain
+reel for a moment.
+
+"Sit down," Mrs. Biggs continued, "and tell me why you think this is
+your mother's cloak."
+
+"I know it is," Eloise answered. "I have worn it so many times, and once
+I tore a long rent in the lining and mother darned it. It is
+here,--see!"
+
+She showed the place in the silk lining where a tear had been and was
+mended.
+
+"For the Lord's sake, who be you?" Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, still
+flourishing Tim's shirt, which she finally dropped back into the tub,
+and in her excitement came near sitting down in a pail of bluing water
+instead of a chair.
+
+"I am Eloise Albertina Smith, and my father was Homer Smith, and my
+mother was Eudora Harris from Florida, and sang in concerts, and lost
+her mind, and was in a private asylum in San Francisco, and my father
+died, and a strange man took her out a few months ago. I did not know
+where she was, and was going to California to find her. I believe your
+Mrs. Amy is she, and I am going to the Crompton House to inquire!"
+
+"For Heaven's sake!" was Mrs. Biggs's next ejaculation. "Harris was
+Amy's name before she was called Crompton, and her name is Amy Eudora,
+too; but I never heard she had a girl."
+
+"Yes, she had, and I am that girl," Eloise said, "and I am going up
+there now, right off!"
+
+"You can't walk," Mrs. Biggs suggested. "That ankle would turn before
+you got half way there. If you must go,--and I believe I would,--Tim
+will git a rig from the livery. Here, Tim," she called, as she heard him
+whistling in the woodshed, "run to Miller's and git a carriage and a
+span, quick as you can,--a good one, too," she added, as the possibility
+grew upon her that Eloise might belong to the Cromptons, and if so,
+ought to go up in style.
+
+It did not take long for Tim to execute his mother's order, and the best
+turn-out from Miller's stable soon stood before the door.
+
+"I b'lieve I'll go, too. The washin' will keep, and this won't," the
+widow said, beginning to change her work-dress for a better one.
+
+Eloise was too much excited to care who went with her, and with Mrs.
+Biggs she was soon driving up the broad avenue under the stately maples
+to the door of the Crompton House. Peter saw the carriage, and thinking
+it came from town with callers on Amy, went out to say she could not see
+them, as she was not feeling well and was lying down.
+
+"But I must see her," Eloise said, alighting first and brushing past
+him, while he stood open-mouthed with surprise.
+
+"She thinks she is Amy's girl, and, I swan, I begin to think so, too,"
+Mrs. Biggs said, trying to explain and getting things a good deal mixed,
+and so bewildering the old man that he paid no attention to Eloise, who,
+with the cloak on her arm, was in the hall and saying to a maid who met
+her, "Take me to Mrs. Amy."
+
+All her timidity was gone, as she gave the order like one who felt
+perfectly at home.
+
+"Mrs. Amy is asleep, and I don't like to disturb her. She is unusually
+nervous this morning. Will you see the Colonel instead?" the girl said,
+awed by Eloise's air of authority.
+
+"My business is with Mrs. Amy, but perhaps I'd better see Col. Crompton
+first," she replied.
+
+Mrs. Biggs and Peter were in the house by this time, and heard what
+Eloise was saying.
+
+"Better not," Peter began. "I don't know as you can see him. You stay
+here. I'll inquire."
+
+He started up the stairs, followed by Eloise, who had no idea of staying
+behind.
+
+"Wait," he said, motioning her back as he reached the Colonel's door,
+and saw her close beside him. "Let me go in first."
+
+He left the door ajar and walked into the room where the Colonel was
+sitting just as he had sat the morning before, when Jake's letter and
+Eloise's note were brought to him. He had not slept at all during the
+night, and was in a trembling condition, with a feeling of numbness in
+his limbs which he did not like.
+
+"Well?" he said sharply, as Peter came in, and he saw by his face that
+something had happened. "What's up now?"
+
+"Nothing, but Miss Smith, the teacher," Peter replied. "She wants to see
+you."
+
+"Miss Smith, the normal? Do you mean Eliza Ann? Tell her to go away. I
+can't see anybody," the Colonel said.
+
+"I'll tell her, but I'm afraid she won't go," Peter replied, starting
+for the door, through which a little figure came so swiftly as nearly to
+knock him down, and Eloise, who had forgotten her lameness, stood before
+the astonished Colonel, her face glowing with excitement, and her eyes
+shining like stars as she confronted him.
+
+Old as he was, the Colonel was not insensible to female beauty, and the
+rare loveliness of this young girl moved him with something like
+admiration, and made his voice a little softer as he said, "Are you
+Eliza Ann Smith? What do you want?"
+
+"I am not Eliza Ann," Eloise answered quickly. "I am Eloise Albertina
+Smith. My father was Homer Smith; my mother was Eudora Harris, from
+Florida, a concert singer, till she lost her mind and was put in a
+private asylum in San Francisco. You took her out, and she is here. You
+call her Mrs. Amy. She never told me of you. I don't know why. She never
+talked much of her girlhood. I don't think she was very happy. She sent
+me this cloak, and that's how I knew she was here. I have worn it many
+times when a child. I knew it in a moment, and I have come to see her.
+Where is she?"
+
+This was worse than Jake's letter, and every nerve in the Colonel's body
+was quivering with excitement, and he felt as if a hundred prickly
+sensations were chasing each other up and down his arms and legs, and
+making his tongue thick as he tried to call for Peter. Succeeding at
+last, he said faintly, "Take this girl away before she kills me."
+
+"I shall not go," Eloise rejoined, "until I see my mother. I tell you
+she is my mother. Has she never spoken of me?"
+
+"Never," the Colonel answered. "She has talked of a baby who died, and
+you are not dead."
+
+"No, but I am Baby,--her pet name for me always. Why she should think me
+dead, I don't know. Send for her, and see if she does not know me."
+
+She had come close to the trembling old man, and put one of her hands
+on his cold, clammy one. He didn't shake it off, but looked at her with
+an expression in his eyes which roused her sympathy.
+
+"I don't mean any harm," she said. "I only want my mother. Send for her,
+please."
+
+There was a motion of assent toward Peter, who left the room,
+encountering Mrs. Biggs outside the door. There was too much going on
+for her not to have a hand in it, and she stood listening and waiting
+till Amy came down the hall, her white cashmere wrapper trailing softly
+behind her, and her hair coiled under a pretty invalid cap. She had been
+roused from a sound sleep, which had cleared her brain somewhat, and
+when told the Colonel wished to see her, she rose at once and started to
+go to him, fearing he was worse. He heard her coming, and braced himself
+up. Eloise heard her, and, with her head thrown back and her hands
+clasped together, stood waiting for her. For a moment Amy did not see
+her, so absorbed was she in the expression of the Colonel, who was
+watching her intently. When at last she did see her, she started
+suddenly, while a strange light leaped into her eyes. Then a wild, glad
+cry of "Baby! Baby!" rang through the room, and was answered by one of
+"Mother! Mother!" as the two women sprang to each other's arms.
+
+Amy was the first to recover herself. Turning Eloise around and
+examining her minutely, she said, "I thought you dead. He told me so,
+and everything has been a blank to me since."
+
+"You see she is my mother!" Eloise said to the Colonel; "and if she is
+your daughter, you must be my grandfather!"
+
+If the Colonel had been carved in stone he could not have sat more
+motionless than he did, giving no sign that he heard.
+
+"No matter! I shall find it all out for myself," Eloise continued, as
+she turned again to her mother, who was examining the red cloak as if
+she wondered how it came there.
+
+The mention of "finding it out" affected the Colonel more than anything
+else had done. Amy had said the same thing to him once. She had not
+found it out, but this slip of a girl would, he was sure, and with
+something like a groan he sank back in his chair with a call for Peter.
+
+"Take them away," he said huskily. "I can't bear any more,
+and,--and,--the girl must stay, if Amy wants her, and bring me a
+hot-water bag,--two of them,--I was never so cold in my life."
+
+Peter nodded that he understood, and, ringing the bell for Amy's maid,
+bade her take her mistress to her room, and the young lady, too. "She is
+Mrs. Amy's daughter," he added.
+
+There was no need to tell this, for Mrs. Biggs had done her duty, and
+every servant in the house had heard the news and was anxious to see the
+stranger. Amy was always at her best in her own room, where Sarah left
+her alone with Eloise, and hastened away to gossip with Mrs. Biggs and
+Peter. The shock, instead of making Amy worse, had for the time being
+cleared her brain to some extent, so that she was able to talk quite
+rationally to Eloise, whose first question was why she had thought her
+dead. "I was so homesick for you, and cried so much after you went away
+that he was angry and hard with me,--very hard,--and I said at last if
+he didn't send for you I'd never sing again, and meant it, too," Amy
+replied. "It was at Los Angeles on a concert night. I must have been
+pretty bad, and he seemed half afraid of me, and finally told me you
+were dead, and had been for three weeks, and that he had meant to keep
+it from me till the season was over. I believed him, and something
+snapped in my head and let in a pain and noise which have never left it;
+but they will now I have found you. I went before the footlights once
+that night, and the stage was full of coffins in which you lay, and I
+saw the little grave in the New England cemetery where he said you were
+buried. At last I fainted, and have never sung again. They were very
+kind to me at Dr. Haynes's, where he came often to see me till I heard
+he was dead. I was not sorry; he had been so,--so--I can't explain."
+
+"I know," Eloise said, remembering her father's manner toward this weak,
+timid woman, who went on: "Then Col. Crompton came and brought me home.
+I used to live here years ago and called him father, till he said he was
+not my father. I never told you of him, or that this was once my home,
+although I described the place to you as something I had seen. If he
+were not my father I did not want to know who was, and did not want to
+talk about it, and after I married Mr. Smith it was very dreadful. He
+hated the Colonel when he found he could not get money from him, and
+sometimes taunted me with my birth, saying I was a Harris and a Cracker;
+but the cruelest of all was telling me you were dead. Why did he do it?"
+
+"I think your fretting for me irritated him, and he feared you might
+never sing again unless he sent for me, and he did not want me," Eloise
+said. "He never wanted me. He was a bad man, and I could not feel sorry
+when he died."
+
+"You needn't," Amy exclaimed excitedly, and, getting up she began to
+walk the floor as she continued, "It is time things were cleared up. I
+am not afraid of him now, although I was when he was living. He broke
+all the spirit I had, till the sound of his voice when he was angry made
+me shake. Thank God he was not your father! there has been a lie all the
+time, and that wore upon me. Your father,--Adolph Candida,--is lying in
+the Protestant burying-ground in Rome."
+
+Grasping her mother's arm Eloise cried, "Oh, mother, what is this you
+are saying, and why have I never heard it before?"
+
+Amy had been tolerably clear in her conversation up to this point, but
+she was getting tired, and it was a long, rambling story she told, with
+many digressions and much irrelevant matter, but Eloise managed to
+follow her and get a fairly correct version of the truth. Candida, whom
+Amy loved devotedly, and with whom she had been very happy, had died
+after a brief illness when Eloise was an infant. Homer Smith, the
+handsome American, who had attached himself to the Candidas, was very
+kind to the young widow, whom he induced to marry him, and to let her
+little girl take his name.
+
+"I don't know why I did that," Amy said; "only he always made me do what
+he pleased, and he pretended to love you so much, and he didn't want his
+friends to know he was my second husband when he came to America. I
+couldn't understand that, but I yielded, as I did in everything. He
+seemed to hate the name of Candida, and was jealous of him in his
+grave, and would never let me speak of him. I think he was crazy, and
+he said I was, and shut me up. He once wrote to Col. Crompton for money
+and got a dreadful letter, telling him to go to that place where I am
+afraid he has gone, and saying I was welcome to come home any time, if I
+would leave the singing master. There was a bad word before the
+'singing,' which I can't speak. I meant to go home some time and take
+you with me. I hated the stage, and the pain got in my head, and I
+forgot so many things after he said you were dead, but never forgot you,
+although I didn't talk about you much. I couldn't, for a bunch came in
+my throat and choked me, and my head seemed to open and shut on the top
+when I thought of you. Col. Crompton has been very kind to me since I
+came. I think now he is my father. I asked him once, and he said, No. I
+believed him then, and accepted in my mind some Mr. Harris, for I knew
+my mother was a true woman. We will find it all out, you and I."
+
+"Yes," Eloise replied, "and the pain will go away, and you will tell me
+more of my own father. I know now why I never could feel a daughter's
+love for the other one. Does grandmother know? She was always kind to
+me, and I love her."
+
+Amy shook her head, and said, "I think not, but am not sure. It will be
+clearer by and by. I must sleep now."
+
+When she was tired she always slept, and, adjusting the cushions on the
+sofa, Eloise made her lie down, and spread over her the little red cloak
+which had been the means of bringing them together.
+
+"Yes, that's right. Cover me with the dear old cloak Jakey gave me,"
+Amy said sleepily. "You'll help me find him."
+
+Eloise didn't know who Jakey was, or what connection he had with the
+cloak; but she answered promptly, "Yes, I'll help you find him and
+everything."
+
+Thus reassured, Amy fell asleep, while Eloise sat by her until startled
+by the entrance of Mrs. Biggs. That worthy woman had been busy telling
+the servants everything she knew about Eloise since she came to
+Crompton, and that she had always mistrusted she was somebody out of the
+common. Then, as Eloise did not appear, and the carriage from Miller's
+was still waiting at a dollar and a half an hour, it occurred to her
+that if Eloise should not prove to be somebody out of the common she
+would have to pay the bill, as she had ordered the turn-out. Going to
+Amy's room, she walked in unannounced, and asked, "Be you goin' home
+with me, or goin' to stay?"
+
+"I don't know what I am to do," Eloise said, starting to her feet.
+
+Amy decided for her. Mrs. Biggs had roused her, and, hearing what was
+wanted, she protested so vehemently against Eloise's leaving her even
+for an hour, that Mrs. Biggs departed without her, thinking to herself
+as she rode in state behind the fleet horses, "It beats the Dutch what
+luck some folks have. I've lost my boarder, and Ruby Ann has got the
+school, just as I knew she would, and mebby I'll have to pay for the
+rig. I wonder how long I've had it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SHADOW OF DEATH
+
+
+This was on Saturday, and by Monday the whole town of Crompton, from
+District No. 5 to the village on the seashore, was buzzing with the news
+told eagerly from one to another. The young girl who had sprained her
+ankle while coming to take charge of the school in District No. 5 had,
+it was told, turned out to be the daughter of Mrs. Amy, and was at the
+Crompton House with her mother, who had thought her dead. This some
+believed and some did not, until assured by Mrs. Biggs, who, having done
+her washing on Saturday, was free on Monday to call upon her neighbors
+and repeat the story over and over, ending always with, "I mistrusted
+from the first that she was somebody."
+
+The second piece of news was scarcely less exciting, but sad. After his
+interview with Eloise, the Colonel had complained of nausea and
+faintness, and had gone early to bed. Before going, however, he had
+asked if Eliza Ann were still in the house. An idea once lodged in his
+brain was apt to stay, and Eliza Ann had taken too strong a hold upon
+his senses to be easily removed.
+
+"Bring her here," he said.
+
+She came at once and asked what she could do for him.
+
+"Sit down," he said. "You seem to be lame."
+
+He had evidently forgotten about the accident, and Eloise did not remind
+him of it, but sat down while he catechised her with regard to what she
+had told him of herself. Some of his comments on Homer Smith were not
+very complimentary, and this emboldened Eloise to tell him who her real
+father was.
+
+"Thank God!" he said emphatically. "I'm glad you are not that rascal's,
+and because you are not you can stay with Amy and fare as she fares. But
+why did she think you dead?"
+
+Eloise told him all she thought necessary to tell him, while his face
+grew purple with anger, and his clenched fists beat the air as if
+attacking an imaginary Homer Smith.
+
+"It's a comfort to know, if there is a God--and I know there is--he is
+getting his deserts," he said. Then, as his mood changed, he continued,
+"And you are the little normal I didn't want, and you board with Mrs.
+Biggs?"
+
+"Yes," Eloise replied. "I am the normal you did not want, and I board
+with Mrs. Biggs, where I heard a great deal of Mrs. Amy, as they call
+her. I must have a slow, stupid mind, or I should have suspected who she
+was. I never heard the name Harris connected with her. If I had I should
+have known. It is so clear to me now."
+
+The Colonel looked at her a moment, and then said, "If you are Amy's
+daughter you are a Harris, and they are queer, with slow minds,--and now
+go. I am infernally tired, and cannot keep up much longer."
+
+He moved his hand toward her, and Eloise took it and pressed it to her
+lips.
+
+"D-don't," the Colonel said, but held fast to the soft, warm hand
+clasping his. "If one's life could roll back," he added, more to himself
+than to Eloise, as his head dropped wearily upon his breast, and he
+whispered, "I am sorry for a great deal. God knows I am sorry. Call
+Peter."
+
+The old servant came and got him to bed, and sat by him most of the
+night. Toward morning, finding that he was sleeping quietly, he, too,
+lay down and slept until the early sun was shining into the room. Waking
+with a start, he hurried to his master's side, to find him with
+wide-open eyes full of terror as he tried to ask what had happened to
+him. All power to move except his head was gone, and when he tried to
+talk his lips gave only inarticulate sounds which no one could
+understand.
+
+"Paralysis," the doctor said when summoned. "I have expected it a long
+time," he continued, and would give no hope to Amy and Eloise, who
+hastened to the sick-room.
+
+The moment they came in the Colonel's eyes brightened, and when Amy
+stooped and kissed him he tried to kiss her back. Then he fixed his eyes
+on Eloise with a questioning glance, which made her say to him, "Do you
+know me?"
+
+He struggled hard for a moment, and then replied, "Yesh, 'Lisha Ann!
+Stay!" and those were the only really intelligible words he ever spoke.
+
+They telegraphed to Worcester for Howard, and learning that he was in
+Boston, telegraphed there, and found him at the Vendome. "Come at once.
+Your uncle is dying," the telegram said, and Howard read it with a
+sensation for which he hated himself, and which he could not entirely
+shake off. He tried to believe he did not want his uncle to die, but if
+he did die, what might it not do for him, the only direct heir, if Amy
+were not a lawful daughter? And he did not believe she was. She had not
+been adopted, and he had never heard of a will, and before he was aware
+of it a feeling that he was master of Crompton Place crept over him. Amy
+would live there, of course, just as she did now, even if he should
+marry, as he might, and there came up before him the memory of a rainy
+night and a helpless little girl sitting on a mound of stones and dirt
+and crying with fear and pain. He had seen Jack's interest in Eloise
+with outward indifference, but with a growing jealousy he was too proud
+to show. He admired her greatly, and thought that under some
+circumstances he might love her. As a Crompton he ought to look higher,
+and if he proved to be the heir it would never do to think of her even
+if Jack were not in his way. All this passed like lightning through his
+mind as he read the telegram and handed it to Jack, who, he insisted,
+should return with him to Crompton.
+
+"I feel awfully shaky, and I want you there if anything happens," he
+said, while Jack, whose first thought had been that he would be in the
+way, was not loath to go.
+
+Eloise was in Crompton, and ever since he left it, a thought of her had
+been in his mind.
+
+"If I find her as sweet and lovely as I left her, I'll ask her to be my
+wife, and take her away from Mrs. Biggs," he was thinking as the train
+sped on over the New England hills toward Crompton, which it reached
+about two P.M.
+
+Peter was at the station with Sam, and to Howard's eager questions
+answered, "Pretty bad. No change since morning. Don't seem to know
+anybody except Mrs. Amy and Miss Eloise. She's with him all the time,
+and he tries to smile when she speaks to him."
+
+"Who?" both the young men asked in the same breath, and Peter told them
+all he knew of the matter during the rapid drive to the house.
+
+Howard was incredulous, and made Peter repeat the story twice, while his
+brain worked rapidly with a presentiment that this new complication
+might prove adverse to him.
+
+"What do you think of it?" he asked Jack, who replied, "I see no reason
+to doubt it," and he was conscious of a pang of regret that he had not
+asked Eloise to be his wife before her changed circumstances.
+
+"She would then know that I loved her for herself, and not for any
+family relations," he thought.
+
+He had no doubt that Amy was Col. Crompton's daughter, and if so,
+Eloise's position would be very different from what it had been.
+
+"I'll wait the course of events, as this is no time for love-making," he
+decided, as they drove up to the door, from which the doctor was just
+emerging.
+
+"Matter of a few hours," he said to Howard. "I am glad you have come.
+Evidently he wants to see you, or wants something, nobody can make out
+what. You have heard the news?"
+
+Howard bowed, and entering the house, ran up to his uncle's room. The
+Colonel was propped on pillows, laboring for breath, and trying to
+articulate words impossible to speak, while, if ever eyes talked, his
+were talking, first to Amy and then to Eloise, both of whom were beside
+him, Amy smoothing his hair and Eloise rubbing his cold hands.
+
+They had been with him for hours, trying to understand him as he
+struggled to speak.
+
+"There is something he wants to tell us," Eloise said, and in his eyes
+there was a look of affirmation, while the lips tried in vain to frame
+the words, which were only gurgling sounds.
+
+What did the dying man want to say? Was he trying to reveal a secret
+kept so many years, and which was planting his pillow with thorns? Was
+he back in the palmetto clearing, standing in the moonlight with Dora,
+and exacting a promise from her which broke her heart? No one could
+guess, and least of all the two women ministering to him so
+tenderly,--Amy, because she loved him, and Eloise, because she felt that
+he was more to her than a mere stranger. She was very quiet and
+self-contained. The events of the last two days had transformed her from
+a timid girl into a fearless woman, ready to fight for her own rights
+and those of her mother. Once when Amy was from the room a moment she
+bent close to the Colonel and said, "You are my mother's father?"
+
+There was a choking sound and an attempt to move the head which Eloise
+took for assent.
+
+"Then you are my grandfather?" she added.
+
+This time she was sure he nodded, and she said, "It will all be right.
+You can rest now," but he didn't rest.
+
+There was more on his mind which he could not tell.
+
+"I believe it is Mr. Howard," Eloise thought, and said to him, "He is
+coming on the next train. I hear it now. He will soon be here. Is that
+what you want?"
+
+The dying man turned his head wearily. There was more besides Howard he
+wanted, but when at last the young man came into the room, his eyes
+shone with a look of pleased recognition, and he tried to speak a
+welcome. In the hall outside Jack was waiting, and as Eloise passed out
+he gave her his hand, and leading her to a settee, sat down beside her,
+and told her how glad he was for the news he had heard of her, but
+feeling the while that he did not know whether he were glad or not. She
+had never looked fairer or sweeter to him than she did now, and yet
+there was a difference which he detected, and which troubled him. It
+would have been easy to say "I love you," to the helpless little
+school-teacher at Mrs. Biggs's, and he wished now he had done so, and
+not waited till she became a daughter of the Crompton House, as he
+believed she was. Now he could only look his love into the eyes which
+fell beneath his gaze, as he held her hand and questioned her of the
+Colonel's sudden attack, and the means by which she had discovered her
+relationship to Amy.
+
+Again he repeated, "I am so glad for you," and might have said more if
+Howard had not stepped into the hall, his face clouded and anxious.
+
+"He wants you, I think," he said to Eloise. "At least he wants
+something,--I don't know what."
+
+Eloise went to him at once, and again there was a painful effort to
+speak. But whatever he would say was never said, and after a little the
+palsied tongue ceased trying to articulate, and only his eyes showed
+how clear his reason was to the last. If there was sorrow for the past,
+he could not express it. If thoughts of the palmetto clearing were in
+his mind, no one knew it. All that could be guessed at was that he
+wanted Amy and Eloise with him.
+
+"Call him father. I think he will like it," Eloise said to her mother,
+while Howard looked up quickly, and to Peter, who was present, it seemed
+as if a frown settled on his face as a smile flickered around the
+Colonel's mouth at the sound of the name Amy had not given him since she
+came from California.
+
+All the afternoon and evening they watched him, as his breathing grew
+shorter and the heavy lids fell over the eyes, which, until they closed,
+rested upon Amy, who held his hand and spoke to him occasionally,
+calling him father, and asking if he knew her. To the very last he
+responded to the question with a quivering of the lids when he could no
+longer lift them, and when the clock on the stairs struck twelve, the
+physician who was present said to Eloise, "Take your mother away; he is
+dead."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+LOOKING FOR A WILL
+
+
+For three days the Colonel lay in the great drawing-room of the Crompton
+House, the blinds of which were closed, while knots of crape streamed
+from every door, and the servants talked together in low tones,
+sometimes of the dead man and sometimes of the future, wondering who
+would be master now of Crompton Place. Speculation on this point was
+rife everywhere, and on no one had it a stronger hold than on Howard
+himself. He would not like to have had it known that within twenty-four
+hours after his uncle's death he had gone through every pigeon-hole and
+nook in the Colonel's safe and private drawers, and turned over every
+paper searching for a will, and when he found none, had congratulated
+himself that in all human probability he was the sole heir. He was very
+properly sad, with an unmistakable air of ownership as he went about the
+place, giving orders to the servants. To Amy he paid great deference,
+telling the undertaker to ask what she liked and abide by her decisions.
+And here he was perfectly safe. With the shock of the Colonel's death
+Amy had relapsed into a dazed, silent mood, saying always, "I don't
+know; ask Eloise," and when Eloise was asked, she replied, "I have been
+here too short a time to give any orders. Mr. Howard will tell you."
+
+Thus everything was left to him, as he meant it should be, stipulating
+that Eloise meet the people who came, some to offer their sympathy, and
+more from a morbid curiosity to see whatever there was to be seen. This
+Eloise did with a dignity which surprised herself, and if Howard were
+the master, she was the mistress, and apparently as much at home as if
+she had lived there all her life. Ruby was the first to call. She had
+not seen Eloise since the astounding news that she was Amy's daughter.
+
+"I am so glad for you," she said, and the first tears Eloise had shed
+sprang to her eyes as she laid her head on Ruby's arm, just as she had
+done in the days of her trouble and pain.
+
+Mrs. Biggs came, too,--very loud in her protestations of delight and
+assertions that she had always known Eloise was above the common.
+
+Never since the memorable lawn party many years ago had there been so
+great a crowd in the house and grounds as on the day of the funeral. In
+honor of his memory, and because he had given the school-house to the
+town, the school was closed, and the pupils, with Ruby Ann at their
+head, marched up the avenue with wreaths of autumn leaves and bouquets
+of flowers intended for the grave. The Rev. Arthur Mason read the burial
+service, and as he glanced at the costly casket, nearly smothered in
+flowers, and at the crowd inside and out, he could not keep his thoughts
+from his father's description of another funeral, where the dead woman
+lay in her cheap coffin, with Crackers and negroes as spectators; and
+only a demented woman, a little child, and black Jake and Mandy Ann as
+mourners. The mourners here were Amy and Howard, Eloise and Jack, and
+next to him a plain-looking, elderly woman, who, Mrs. Biggs told every
+one near her, was old Mrs. Smith, Eloise's supposed grandmother from
+Mayville.
+
+Eloise had sent for her, and while telling the story of deception and
+wrong which had been practised so long, and to which the mother listened
+with streaming eyes, she had said, "But it makes no difference with us.
+You are mine just the same, and wherever I live in the future, you are
+to live, too, if you will."
+
+Mrs. Smith had smiled upon the young girl, and felt bewildered and
+strange in this grand house and at this grand funeral, unlike anything
+she had ever seen. It seemed like an endless line of carriages and foot
+passengers which followed the Colonel to the grave, and when the
+services were over, a few friends of the Colonel, who had come from a
+distance, returned to the house, and among them Mr. Ferris, the lawyer,
+who had been the Colonel's counsel and adviser for years, and managed
+his affairs. This was Howard's idea. He could not rest until he knew
+whether there was in the lawyer's possession any will or papers bearing
+upon Amy. When lunch was over he took the old man into his uncle's
+library, and said, hesitatingly, "I do not want to be too hasty, but it
+is better to have such matters settled, and if I have no interest in the
+Crompton estate I must leave, of course. Did my uncle leave a will?"
+
+Lawyer Ferris looked at him keenly through his glasses, took a huge
+pinch of snuff, and blew a good deal of it from him and some in Howard's
+face, making him sneeze before he replied, "Not that I know of; more's
+the pity. I tried my best to have him make one. The last time I urged it
+he said, 'There's no need. I've fixed it. Amy will be all right.' I was
+thinking of her. If there is no will, and she wasn't adopted and wasn't
+his daughter, it's hard lines for her."
+
+"But she was his daughter," came in a clear, decided voice, and both the
+lawyer and Howard turned to see Eloise standing in the door.
+
+Rain was beginning to fall, and she had come to close a window, with no
+thought that any one was in the library, until she heard the lawyer's
+last words, which stopped her suddenly. Where her mother was concerned
+she could be very brave, and, stepping into the room, she startled the
+two men with her assertion, "She was his daughter."
+
+"He told me so," she continued.
+
+"He did? When?" Howard asked, and Eloise replied, "I asked him, and his
+eyes looked yes, and when I said, 'You are my grandfather?' I was very
+sure he nodded. I know he meant it."
+
+The lawyer smiled and answered her, "That is something, but not enough.
+We must have a will or some document. He might have been your mother's
+father. I think he was; and still, she may not be--be--"
+
+He hesitated, for Eloise's eyes were fixed upon him, and the hot blood
+of shame was crimsoning her face. After a moment he continued, "A will
+can set things right; or, if we can prove a marriage, all will be fair
+sailing for your mother and you."
+
+"I was not thinking of myself," Eloise returned. "I am thinking of
+mother. I know all the dreadful gossip and everything. Mrs. Biggs has
+told me, and I am going to find out. Somebody knows, and I shall find
+them."
+
+She looked very fearless as she left the room, and Howard felt that she
+would be no weak antagonist if he wanted to contest his right to the
+estate. But he didn't, he told himself, and Mr. Ferris, too. He was
+willing to abide by the law. If there was a will he'd like to find it;
+and, in any case, should be generous to Amy and--Eloise!
+
+"No doubt of it," the lawyer said, looking at him now over his
+spectacles, and taking a second pinch of snuff preparatory to the search
+among the dead man's papers, which Howard suggested that he make.
+
+Every place Howard had gone through was gone through again,--every paper
+unfolded and every envelope looked into. There was no will or scrap of
+writing bearing upon Amy. There were some receipts from Tom Hardy, of
+Palatka, for money received from the Colonel and paid over to Eudora
+Harris, and at these the lawyer looked curiously.
+
+"Harris was the name Amy sometimes went by before her marriage, I
+believe," he said. "Eudora was probably her mother. Now, if we can find
+Tom Hardy we may learn something. Shall I write to Palatka and inquire?"
+
+"Certainly," Howard replied, with a choke in his throat which he managed
+to hide from the lawyer.
+
+He didn't mean to be a scoundrel. He only wanted his own, and he meant
+to do right if chance made him master of Crompton, he said to himself,
+as he went to the drawing-room, where Jack and Eloise were sitting with
+a few friends who seemed to be waiting for something. Ruby and Mrs.
+Biggs, who, on the strength of their intimacy with Eloise, had remained
+in the house while the family was at the grave, were there, evidently
+expectant. It was not Howard's idea to broach the subject at once. He
+wanted to talk it over with Jack and Eloise, and make himself right with
+them. The lawyer had no such scruples. He had read wills after many
+funerals, and now that there was none to read, he spoke up:
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry I can't oblige you, but there ain't any
+will as we can find, and nothing to show who Mrs. Amy is, and matters
+must rest for a spell as they are. Meanwhile, Mr. Howard Crompton, as
+the Colonel's nephew and only known heir, must take charge of things."
+
+Eloise's face flushed, and Jack, who stole a look at her, saw that her
+hands trembled a little. No one spoke until Mrs. Biggs rose and said,
+"'Squire Ferris, if no will ain't found, and nothin' is proved for Mrs.
+Amy,--adoption nor nothin',--you know what I mean,--can't she inherit?"
+
+"Not a cent!" was the reply.
+
+"You mean she'll have nothin'?"
+
+"Legally nothing!"
+
+"And Mr. Howard will have everything?"
+
+"Yes, everything, as he is sole heir and next of kin."
+
+"Get out with your 'sole heir and next of kin' and law!" Mrs. Biggs
+exclaimed vehemently. "There ain't no justice in law. Look a-here,
+Squire; when women vote we'll have things different. Here is Amy, been
+used to them elegancies all her life." She swept her arm around the
+room, and, still keeping it poised, continued: "And now she's to be
+turned out because there ain't no will and you can't prove nothin'! And
+that's law! It makes me so mad! Who is goin' to take care of her, I'd
+like to know?"
+
+"I am!" and Eloise sprang to her feet, the central figure now in the
+room. "I shall take care of my mother! I don't care for the will, nor
+anything, except to prove that she is Col. Crompton's legitimate
+daughter, and that I will do. I am going where she was born, if I can
+find the place, and take her with me. I am not very lame now, and I
+would start to-morrow if--"
+
+She stopped, remembering that in her purse were only two and one half
+dollars, and this she owed to Mrs. Biggs for board; then her eyes fell
+upon Ruby, the friend who had stood by her in her need, and who had been
+the first to congratulate her on finding her mother. Ruby had offered
+her money for the journey to California, and something in Ruby's face
+told her it was still ready for her, and she went on: "I was foolish
+enough to think Crompton Place was her rightful home, and be glad for
+her, but if it is not, I shall take her away at once. No one need worry
+about mother! I shall care for her."
+
+"Bravo!" Mrs. Biggs rejoined, as Eloise sank back in her chair. "That's
+what I call pluck! Law, indeed! It makes me so mad! You can fetch her to
+my house any minit. Your old room is ready for you, and I won't charge a
+cent till you find something to do and can pay. Maybe Ruby'll give up
+the school. Won't you, Ruby Ann?"
+
+"Certainly, if she wishes it," Ruby answered, and going over to Eloise,
+she said, "You are a brave little girl, and the money is still waiting
+for you if you want it."
+
+As for Jack, he was ready to lay himself at her feet, but all he could
+do then was to say to Ruby, "Perhaps Miss Smith had better go to her
+room; she seems tired," and taking her arm, he went with her to the
+door, which Howard opened for her. That young man did not feel very
+comfortable, and as soon as Eloise was gone he said to the inmates of
+the room, "If any of you think me such a cad as to turn Mrs. Amy and her
+daughter from the house, or to allow them to go, you are mistaken. If it
+should prove that I am master here, they will share with me. I can do no
+more."
+
+"Good for you!" Jack said, wringing Howard's hand, while the party began
+to break up, as it was time for those who lived at a distance to take
+the train.
+
+Among those who arose to go was the Rev. Arthur Mason, whom Howard had
+asked to lunch after the burial. As he left the house he said to Jack,
+who stood for a moment with him on the piazza, "Please say to Miss Smith
+that I can direct her to her mother's birthplace in Florida. My father
+is preaching there."
+
+"Thanks! I will tell her," Jack replied, in some surprise, and then went
+in to where Howard was standing, with an expression on his face not
+quite such as one ought to have when he has just come into possession of
+a fortune.
+
+"I congratulate you, old boy," Jack said cheerily, as he went up to him.
+
+"Don't!" Howard answered impetuously. "Nothing is sure. A will may be
+found, or my uncle's marriage proved; in either case, I sink back into
+the cipher I was before. I cannot say I'm not glad to have money, but I
+don't want people blaming me. I can't help it if my uncle made no will
+and did not marry Amy's mother, and I don't believe he did, or why was
+he silent so many years?"
+
+Jack could not answer him and left the room, taking his way, he hardly
+knew why, to the village, where he fell in again with the rector. To
+talk of the recent events at the Crompton House was natural, and before
+they parted Jack knew the contents of the Rev. Charles's letter to his
+son, and in his mind there was no doubt of a secret marriage and Amy's
+legitimacy.
+
+"It will be hard on Howard," he thought, "but Amy ought to have her
+rights,--and,--Eloise! And she shall!" he added, as he retraced his
+steps to the Crompton House.
+
+Chancing to be alone with her, he told her in part what he had heard
+from the rector, keeping back everything pertaining to the poverty of
+the surroundings, and speaking mostly of Jakey and Mandy Ann, whom Amy
+might remember.
+
+"She does," Eloise replied, "and at every mention of them her brain
+seems to get clearer. Peter has brought me a copy of a letter which Col.
+Crompton received from Jake just before he went for my mother, and which
+he has kept all these years. It may help me to find whatever there is to
+be found, good or bad." She handed him the copy, and continued, "The
+letter was mailed in Palatka, but from what you tell me, Jakey is
+farther up the river. Shall I have any trouble in finding him, do you
+think?"
+
+"None whatever," Jack replied, a plan rapidly maturing in his mind as
+to what he would do if Eloise persisted in going to Florida. "Better
+leave your mother here," he said, when she told him of her determination
+to unravel the mystery.
+
+"No," she answered. "Mother must go. I expect much from a sight of her
+old home and Jakey."
+
+Jack shivered as he recalled the Rev. Charles Mason's picture of that
+home, but he would not enlighten her. She must guess something from
+Jakey's note to the Colonel, he thought. Evidently she did, for she
+asked him what a Cracker was.
+
+"I ought to know, of course, and have some idea," she said. "I asked
+mother, and she said she was one. What did she mean?"
+
+"If you go to Florida you will probably learn what a Cracker is," Jack
+replied, as he bade her good-night, pitying her for what he knew was in
+store for her.
+
+The next day a telegram from New York called him to the city. But before
+he went he had an interview with Ruby with regard to the journey which
+Eloise was designing to take as soon as her mother should have recovered
+from the shock of the Colonel's death.
+
+For a few days after his departure matters moved on quietly at the
+Crompton House, where Howard assumed the head unostentatiously, and
+without giving offence to any of the servants. The Crompton estate, as
+reported to him by Lawyer Ferris, was larger than he had supposed, and
+if it were his he would be a richer man than he had ever hoped to be. He
+liked money, and what it would bring him, and if he had been sure of his
+foothold he would have been very happy. And he was nearly sure. There
+was no will in the house, he was certain, for he had gone a second and
+third time through every place where one could possibly have been put,
+and found nothing. He was safe there, and as he did not know all which
+Mr. Mason had written to his son, he did not greatly fear the result of
+Eloise's trip to the South, which he thought a foolish undertaking. But
+she was bent upon going and the day was fixed. Grandmother Smith had
+returned home to await developments. Amy was ready. Eloise's lameness
+was nearly gone, "And to-morrow we start," she said to him one evening,
+when, after dinner, she joined him in the library, where he spent most
+of his time.
+
+Every day since his uncle's death, and he had seen so much of Eloise,
+Howard's interest in her had increased, until it amounted to a passion,
+if not positive love. Jack was a formidable rival, he knew, but now that
+he was probably master of Crompton Place, where her mother would be
+happier than elsewhere, she might think favorably of him. At all events
+he'd take the chance, and now was his time. Looking up quickly as she
+came in, and drawing a chair close to him for her, he said, "Sit down a
+moment while I talk to you." She sat down, and he continued, "I wish you
+would give up this journey, which can only end in disappointment. I have
+no idea there was a marriage, or that you could prove it if there was.
+My uncle was not a brute. He loved Amy, and would not have kept silent
+till he died if she had been his legitimate daughter. Give up the
+project. I will gladly share the fortune with you, and be a son to your
+mother. Will you, Eloise? I must call you that, and I ask you to be my
+wife. It is not so sudden as you may think," he continued, as he saw her
+look of surprise. "I do not show all I feel. I admired you from the
+first, but Jack seemed to be ahead, and I gave way to him, not
+understanding until within the last few days how much you were to me. I
+love you, and ask you again to be my wife."
+
+He had one of her hands in his, but it was cold and pulseless, and it
+seemed to him it told her answer before she said, very kindly, as if
+sorry to give him pain:
+
+"I believe you are my cousin, or, rather, my mother's, and I can esteem
+you as such, but I cannot be your wife."
+
+"Because you love Jack Harcourt, I suppose," Howard said, a little
+bitterly, and Eloise replied, "I do not think we should bring Mr.
+Harcourt into the discussion. When he asks me to be his wife it will be
+time to know whether I love him or not. I cannot marry you."
+
+She arose to go, while Howard tried to detain her, feeling every moment
+how his love was growing for this girl who had so recently come into his
+life, and was crossing his path, as he had felt she would when he first
+heard of her from his uncle, and had promised to sound her as to her
+fitness for a teacher. There had been no need for that; his uncle was
+dead, and she was going from him, perhaps to return as a usurper.
+
+"Eloise," he said again, with more feeling in his voice than when he
+first spoke, "you must listen to me. I cannot give you up. I would
+rather lose Crompton, if it is mine, than to lose you."
+
+Rising to his feet, he took her face between his hands and kissed it
+passionately.
+
+"How dare you!" she said, wresting herself from him.
+
+"Because I dare! Jack may have the second kiss, but I have had the
+first," he replied. Then his manner changed, and he said, entreatingly,
+"Forgive me, Eloise, I was beside myself for a moment. Don't give me an
+answer now. Think of what I have said while you are gone, if you will
+go; and if you fail, remember this is your home and your mother's, just
+as much as it will be if you succeed. Promise me you will come back here
+whatever happens. You will come?"
+
+"For a time, yes; till I know what to do if I fail," she replied.
+
+Then she went out and left him alone, to go again through the
+pigeon-holes and drawers and shelves he had been through so often and
+found nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+IN FLORIDA
+
+
+The Boston train was steaming into the Central Station in New York, and
+Eloise was gathering up her satchels and wraps, and looking anxiously
+out into the deepening twilight, wondering if the cars would be gone
+from the Jersey side, and what she should do if they were. She had
+intended taking a train which reached New York earlier, but there was
+some mistake in her reading of the time-table, and now it was growing
+dark, and for a moment her courage began to fail her, and she half
+wished herself back in Crompton, where every one had been so kind to
+her, and where every one had looked upon the journey as useless, except
+the rector and Ruby. These had encouraged her to go, and Ruby had
+furnished the money and had been very hopeful, and told her there was
+nothing to fear even in New York, which Eloise dreaded the most. Howard
+had seen her to the train and got her seats in the parlor car, and said
+to her, as he had once before:
+
+"I'd like to offer you money, but you say you have enough."
+
+"Oh, yes," Eloise answered; "more than enough. Ruby has been so kind."
+
+Then he said good-by, and went back to the house, which seemed empty and
+desolate.
+
+"I ought at least to have gone to New York with them, but that little
+girl is so proud and independent, I dare say she would not have let me,"
+he said to himself, and all day his thoughts followed them, until by
+some clairvoyant process he seemed to see them at the station alone and
+afraid, just as for a short time Eloise was afraid and wished she had
+not come.
+
+Then, rallying, she said to herself, "This won't do. I must keep up,"
+and she helped her mother from the car, and began to walk through the
+long station toward the street. Only half the distance had been gone
+over when a hand was laid upon her shoulder, and a voice which made her
+heart bound with delight, said to her, "Here you are! I was afraid I had
+missed you in the crowd."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Harcourt, I am so glad! How did you know we were coming?"
+Eloise exclaimed, her gladness showing in her eyes and sounding in her
+voice.
+
+"Oh, I knew," Jack answered, taking her satchel and wraps and umbrella
+from her, and giving his disengaged arm to her mother. "I have a friend
+at court who lets me know what is going to happen. It is Ruby. She
+telegraphed."
+
+Calling a carriage, which was evidently waiting for him, Jack put the
+ladies into it, attended to the baggage, and then sprang in himself.
+With him opposite her, Eloise felt no further responsibility. Everything
+would be right, she was sure, and it was. They were in time for the
+south-bound train, and after a word with the porter, were ushered into a
+drawing-room compartment, which Jack said was to be theirs during the
+long journey.
+
+"Yes, I know," Eloise said. "It is large and comfortable, and away from
+the people, but I'm afraid it costs too much."
+
+"It's all right," Jack answered, beginning to remove Amy's jacket, with
+an air of being at home.
+
+Just then Eloise glanced from the window and saw they were moving.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Harcourt!" she screamed. "We have started! You will be carried
+off! Do hurry!"
+
+She put both hands on his arm to force him from the room, while he
+laughed and said, "Did you think I would let you go to Florida alone? I
+am going with you. I have a section all to myself outside, where you can
+sit when you are tired in here. Are you sorry?"
+
+"Sorry!" she repeated. "I was never so glad in my life. But are you sure
+you ought to go? Is it right?"
+
+"You mean proper? Perfectly!" he answered. "Your mother is with us. Your
+friend Ruby knows I am going, and Mr. Mason, and Mrs. Biggs, and
+everybody else by this time. It's all right. Mrs. Grundy will approve."
+
+Eloise was too happy to care for Mrs. Grundy, and her happiness
+increased with every hour which brought her nearer to Florida, and she
+saw more and more how thoroughly kind and thoughtful Jack was. Sometimes
+he sat with her and her mother in the compartment he had engaged for
+them, but oftener when Amy was resting she sat with him in his section,
+planning what she was to do first when Florida was reached, and how she
+was to find Jakey. Jack knew exactly what to do, but he liked to listen
+to her and watch the expression of her face, which seemed to him to
+grow more beautiful every hour. On the last evening they were to be upon
+the road, she was sitting with him just before the car lamps were
+lighted, and he said to her, "Suppose you don't succeed? What will you
+do?"
+
+For a moment Eloise was silent; then she replied, "I shall take mother
+home to my grandmother's. I call her that still, although you know she
+is not really mine, but I love her just the same, and shall take care of
+her and mother. I can do it. Ruby will let me have the school, I am
+sure, if I ask her, but I couldn't take it from her now. I can get
+another somewhere, or if not a school, I can find something to do. I am
+not afraid of work."
+
+She was trying to be very brave, but there was a pathetic look in her
+face which moved Jack strangely. Her hands were lying in her lap, and
+taking the one nearest to him, he said, "Eloise, I'll tell you what you
+are going to do, whether you succeed or not. You are going to be my
+wife! Yes, my wife!"
+
+"Mr. Harcourt!" Eloise exclaimed, trying to withdraw her hand from him.
+
+But he only held it closer, while he said, "Don't Mr. Harcourt me! Call
+me Jack, and I shall know you assent. I think I have loved you ever
+since I saw you on the rostrum in Mayville,--at any rate, ever since
+that stormy night when you came near being killed. I did not mean to
+speak here in the car, but I am glad I have settled it."
+
+He was taking her consent for granted, and was squeezing her hand until
+she said involuntarily, "Oh, Jack, you hurt me!"
+
+Then he dropped it and, stooping, kissed her, saying, "I am answered.
+You have called me Jack. You are mine,--my little wife,--the dearest a
+man ever had."
+
+He kissed her again, while she whispered, "Oh, Jack, how can you, with
+all the people looking on? and it isn't very dark yet."
+
+"There are not many to look on, and they are in front of us, and I don't
+care if the whole world sees me," Jack replied, passing his arm around
+her and drawing her close to him.
+
+"You must not, right here in the car; besides that, I haven't told you I
+would," she said, making an effort to free herself from him, as the
+porter began to light the lamps.
+
+He was satisfied with her answer, and kept his arm around her in the
+face of the porter, who was too much accustomed to such scenes to pay
+any attention to this particular one. He had spotted them as lovers from
+the first and was not surprised, but when eleven o'clock came and every
+berth was made up except that of Jack, who still sat with Eloise beside
+him, loath to let her go, the negro grew uneasy and anxious to finish
+his night's work.
+
+"Sir," he said at last to Jack, "'scuse me, but you might move into the
+gentlemen's wash-room whiles I make up the berth; it's gwine on toward
+mornin'."
+
+In a flash Eloise sprang up, and without a word went to her mother, who
+was sleeping quietly, just as she had left her three hours before. A
+lurch of the train awoke her, and, kneeling beside her, Eloise said to
+her, "Mr. Harcourt has asked me to be his wife. Are you glad?"
+
+"Yes, daughter, very glad. Are we in Florida?" Amy replied.
+
+"Yes, mother, and before long we shall reach your old home and Jakey,"
+was Eloise's answer, as she kissed her mother good-night and sought her
+own pillow to think of the great happiness which had come to her in Jack
+Harcourt's love, and which would compensate for any disappointment there
+might be in store for her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+IN THE PALMETTO CLEARING
+
+
+There were not many guests at the Brock House as the season had not
+fully opened, and Jack had no trouble to find rooms for the ladies and
+himself. Amy's was in front, looking upon the St. John's, which here
+spreads out into Lake Monroe. She had had glimpses of the river from the
+railway car, but had not seen it as distinctly as now, when she stood by
+the window with an expression on her face as if she were thinking of the
+past, before her reason was clouded.
+
+"Oh, the river!--the beautiful river!" she said. "It brings things
+back,--the boat I went in; not like that," and she pointed to a large,
+handsome steamboat lying at the wharf. "Not like that. What was its
+name?"
+
+Jack, who was in the room, and who had read Mr. Mason's letter to his
+son, suggested, "The 'Hatty'?"
+
+"Yes, the 'Hatty'!" Amy said. "Strange, I remember it when I have
+forgotten so much. And he was with me,--my father. Wasn't he my father?"
+
+She looked at Eloise, who answered promptly, "Yes, he was your father."
+
+"I thought so. He said I was to call him so," Amy went on, more to
+herself than to Eloise. "I didn't always, he was so cold and proud and
+hard with me, but he was kind at the last, and he is dead, and this is
+Florida, where the oranges and palm trees grow. They are there,--see!"
+and she pointed to the right, where a tall palm tree raised its head
+above an orange grove below.
+
+She was beginning to remember, and Eloise and Jack kept silent while she
+went on: "And we are here to find my mother and Jakey."
+
+She looked again at Eloise, who answered her: "To find Jakey,--yes; and
+to-morrow we shall see him. To-night you must rest."
+
+"Yes, rest to-night, and to-morrow go to Jakey," Amy replied, submissive
+as a little child to whatever Eloise bade her do.
+
+She was very tired, and slept soundly without once waking, and her first
+question in the morning was, "Is it to-morrow, and are we in Florida?"
+
+"Yes, dearest, we are in Florida, and going to find Jakey," was Eloise's
+reply, as she kissed her mother's face, and thought how young and fair
+it was still, with scarcely a line upon it.
+
+Only the eyes and the droop of the mouth showed signs of past suffering,
+and these were passing away with a renewal of old scenes and memories.
+Jack had found the Rev. Mr. Mason, who received him cordially.
+
+"I was expecting you," he said. "A telegram from my son told me you were
+on the way. I have not seen Jake, as it was only yesterday I had the
+despatch. I have one piece of news, however, for which I am sorry. Elder
+Covil died in Virginia soon after the war, and nothing can be learned
+from him."
+
+Jack was greatly disappointed. His hope had been to find Elder Covil,
+if living, or some trace of him, and that was swept away; but he would
+not tell Eloise. She was all eagerness and excitement, and was ready
+soon after breakfast for the drive to the palmetto clearing, and Amy
+seemed almost as excited and eager. Born amid palms and orange trees,
+and magnolias and negroes, the sight of them brought back the past in a
+misty kind of way, which was constantly clearing as Eloise helped her to
+remember. Of Mr. Mason she of course had no recollection, and shrank
+from him when presented to him. He did not tell her he had buried her
+mother. He only said he knew Jakey, and was going to take her to him,
+and they were soon on their way. The road was very different from the
+one over which he had been driven behind the white mule, and there were
+marks of improvement everywhere,--gardens and fields and cabins with
+little negroes swarming around the doors, and these, with the palm trees
+and the orange trees, helped to revive Amy's memories of the time when
+she played with the little darkys among the dwarf palmettos and ate
+oranges in the groves.
+
+In the doorway of one of the small houses a colored woman was standing,
+looking at the carriage as it passed. Recognizing Mr. Mason, she gave
+him a hearty "How d'ye, Mas'r Mason?" to which he responded without
+telling his companions that it was Mandy Ann. He wished Amy to see Jake
+first.
+
+"Here we are," he said at last. "This is the clearing; this is the
+house, and there is Jake himself."
+
+He pointed to a negro in the distance, and to a small house,--half log
+and half frame, for Jake had added to and improved it within a few
+years.
+
+"I'se gwine to make it 'spectable, so she won't be 'shamed if she ever
+comes back to see whar she was bawn," he had thought, and to him it
+seemed almost palatial, with its addition, which he called a "linter,"
+and which consisted of a large room furnished with a most heterogeneous
+mass of articles gathered here and there as he could afford them.
+
+Conspicuous in one corner was "lil Dory's cradle," which had been
+painted red, with a lettering in white on one side of it, "In memory of
+lil chile Dory." This he had placed in what he called the parlor that
+morning, after dusting it carefully and putting a fresh pillow case on
+the scanty pillow where Amy's head had lain. He was thinking of her and
+wondering he did not hear from the Colonel, when the sound of carriage
+wheels made him look up and start for his house. Mr. Mason was the first
+to alight; then Jack; then Eloise; and then Amy, whose senses for a
+moment left her entirely.
+
+"What is it? Where are we?" she said, pressing her hands to her
+forehead.
+
+Evidently the place did not impress her, except as something strange.
+
+"Let's go!" she whispered to Eloise. "We've nothing to do here; let's go
+back to the oranges and palmettos."
+
+"But, mother, Jakey is here!" Eloise replied, her eyes fixed upon the
+old man to whom Mr. Mason had been explaining, and whose "Bress de Lawd.
+I feels like havin' de pow', ef I b'lieved in it," she heard distinctly.
+
+Then he came rapidly toward them, and she could see the tears on his
+black face, which was working nervously.
+
+"Miss Dory! Miss Dory! 'Tain't you! Oh, de Lawd,--so growed,--so
+changed! Is it you for shu'?" he said, stretching his hands toward Amy,
+who drew closer to Eloise.
+
+"Go gently, Jake; gently! Remember her mind is weak," Mr. Mason said.
+
+"Yes, sar. I 'members de Harris's mind mostly was weak. Ole Miss didn't
+know nuffin', an' Miss Dory was a little quar, an' dis po' chile is like
+'em," was Jake's reply, which brought a deep flush to Eloise's face.
+
+She had felt her cheeks burning all the time she had been looking round
+on her mother's home, wondering what Jack would think of it. At Jake's
+mention of the Harrises she glanced at him so appealingly, that for
+answer he put his arm around her and whispered, "Keep up, darling, I see
+your mother is waking up."
+
+Jake had taken one of her hands, and was looking in her face as if he
+would find some trace of the "lil chile Dory" who left him years ago.
+And she was scanning him, not quite as if she knew him, but with a
+puzzled, uncertain manner, in which there was now no fear.
+
+"Doan' you know me, Miss Dory? I'm Shaky,--ole Shaky,--what use' to play
+b'ar wid you, an' tote you on his back," he said to her.
+
+"I think I do. Yes. Where's Mandy Ann?" Amy asked.
+
+"She 'members,--she does!" Jake cried, excitedly. "Mandy Ann was de nuss
+girl what looked after her an' ole Miss." Then to Amy he said, "Mandy
+Ann's done grow'd like you, an' got chillen as big as you. Twins, four
+on 'em, as was christened in your gown. Come into de house. You'll
+member then. Come inter de gret room, but fust wait a minit. I seen a
+boy out dar,--Aaron,--one of Mandy Ann's twins, an' I'se gwine to sen'
+for Mandy Ann.
+
+"Hello, you flat-footed chap!" he called. "Make tracks home the fastest
+you ever did, an' tell yer mother to come quick, 'case lil Miss Dory's
+hyar. Run, I say."
+
+The boy Aaron started, and Jake led the way to the door of the "gret
+room," which he threw open with an air of pride.
+
+"Walk in, gemmen an' ladies, walk in," he said, holding Amy's hand.
+
+They walked in, and he led Amy to a lounge and sat down beside her,
+close to the red cradle, to which he called her attention.
+
+"Doan' you 'member it, Miss Dory?" he said, giving it a jog. "I use' ter
+rock yer to sleep wid you kickin' yer heels an' doublin' yer fists, an'
+callin' me ole fool, an' I singin':
+
+    "'Lil chile Dory, Shaky's lil lam',
+      Mudder's gone to heaven,
+      Shaky leff behime
+      To care for lil chile Dory, Shaky's lil lam'.'
+
+Doan' you 'member it, honey,--an' doan' you member me? I'm Shaky,--I
+is."
+
+There was a touching pathos in Jakey's voice as he sang, and it was
+intensified when he asked, "Doan' you 'member me, honey?"
+
+Both Mr. Mason and Jack turned their heads aside to hide the moisture in
+their eyes, while Eloise's tears fell fast as she watched the strange
+pair,--the wrinkled old negro and the white-faced woman, in whom a
+wonderful transformation seemed to be taking place. With the first sound
+of the weird melody and the words "Lil chile Dory, Shaky's lil lam',"
+she leaned forward and seemed to be either listening intently or trying
+to recall something which came and went, and which she threw out her
+hands to retain. As the singing went on the expression of her face
+changed from one of painful thought to one of perfect peace and quiet,
+and when it ceased and Jakey appealed lo her memory, she answered him,
+"Yes, Shaky, I remember." Then to Eloise she said, "The lullaby of my
+childhood, which has rung in my ears for years. He used to want me to
+sing a negro melody to the people, and said it made them cry. That's
+because I wanted to cry, as I do now, and can't. I believe I must have
+sung it that last night in Los Angeles before everything grew dark."
+
+Moving closer to Jakey she laid her head upon his arm and whispered to
+him, "Sing it again, Shaky. The tightness across the top of my head is
+giving way. It has ached so long."
+
+Jake began the song again, his voice more tremulous than before, while
+Amy's hands tightened on his arm, and her head sank lower on his breast.
+As he sang he jogged the cradle with one foot, and kept time with the
+other and a swaying motion of his body, which brought Amy almost across
+his lap. When she lifted up her head there were tears in her eyes, and
+they ran at last like rivers down her cheeks, while a storm of
+hysterical sobs shook her frame and brought Eloise to her.
+
+"Don't cry so," she said. "You frighten me."
+
+Amy put her aside, and answered, "I must cry; it cools my brain. There
+are oceans yet to come,--all the pent-up tears of the years--since he
+told me you were dead. I am so glad to cry."
+
+For some moments she wept on, until Jakey began to soothe her with his
+"Doan' cry no mo', honey. Summat has done happened you bad, but it's
+done gone now, an' we're all here,--me an' I do' know her name, but
+she's you uns, an' Mas'r Mason an' de oder gemman. We're all here, an'
+de light is breakin'. Doan' you feel it, honey?"
+
+"Yes, I feel it," she said, lifting up her head and wiping away her
+tears. "The light is breaking; my head is better. This is the old home.
+How did we get here?"
+
+Her mind was misty still, but Eloise felt a crisis was past, and that in
+time the films which had clouded her mother's brain would clear away,
+not wholly, perhaps, for she was a Harris, and "all the Harrises," Jake
+said, "were quar." She was very quiet now, and listened as they talked,
+but could recall nothing of her mother or the funeral, which Mr. Mason
+had attended. She seemed very tired, and at Eloise's suggestion lay
+clown upon the lounge and soon fell asleep, while Jack put question
+after question to Jake, hoping some light would be thrown upon the
+mystery they had come to unravel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE LITTLE HAIR TRUNK
+
+
+Jake could tell them but little more than he had told Mr. Mason on a
+former visit. This he repeated with some additions, while Eloise
+listened, sometimes with indignation at Col. Crompton, and sometimes
+with shame and a thought as to what Jack would think of it. Her mother's
+family history was being unrolled before her, and she did not like it.
+There was proud blood in her veins, and she felt it coming to the
+surface and rebelling against the family tree of which she was a
+branch,--the Harrises, the Crackers, and, more than all, the uncertainty
+as to her mother's legitimacy, which she began to fear must remain an
+uncertainty. It was not a very desirable ancestry, and she glanced
+timidly at Jack to see how he was taking it. His face was very placid
+and unmoved as he questioned Jake of the relatives in Georgia, whom
+Amy's mother had visited.
+
+"We must find them," he said. "Do you know anything of them? Were they
+Harrises, or what?"
+
+Jake said they were "Browns an' Crackers; not the real no 'counts.
+Thar's a difference, an' I'm shu' ole Miss Lucy was fust class, 'case
+Miss Dory was a lady bawn."
+
+"Are there no papers anywhere to tell us who they were?" Jack asked, and
+Jake replied, "Thar's papers in de little har trunk whar I keeps de
+writin' book Miss Dory used, an' de book she read in to learn, but dem's
+no 'count. Some receipts an' bills an' some letters ole Mas'r Harris
+writ to Miss Lucy 'fo' they was married,--love letters, in course, which
+I seen Miss Dory tie up wid a white ribbon. I've never opened dem, 'case
+it didn't seem fittin' like to read what a boy writ to a gal."
+
+"Why, Jake," Jack exclaimed, "don't you see those letters may tell us
+where Miss Lucy lived in Georgia? and that is probably where Miss Dory
+visited. Bring us the trunk."
+
+"'Clar for't. I never thought of that," Jake said, rising with alacrity
+and going into the room where he slept.
+
+Mr. Mason, too, stepped out for a few moments, leaving Eloise alone with
+Jack. Now was her time, and, going up to him, she said, "Jack, I want to
+tell you now, you mustn't marry me!"
+
+"Mustn't marry you!" Jack repeated. "Are you crazy?"
+
+"Not yet," Eloise answered with a sob, "but I may be in time, or queer,
+like all the Harrises,--mother and her mother and 'old Miss.' We are all
+Harrises, and,--and,--oh, Jack, I know what a Cracker is now; mother is
+one; I am one, and it is all so dreadful; and mother nobody, perhaps. I
+can't bear it, and you must not marry me."
+
+"I shall marry you," Jack said, folding her in his arms. "Do you think I
+care who your family are, or how queer they are? You'll never be queer.
+I'll shield you so carefully from every care that you can't even spell
+the word."
+
+He took her hands and made her look at him, while he kissed her lips
+and said, "It is you I want, with all the Harrises and Crackers in
+Christendom thrown in, if necessary. Are you satisfied?"
+
+He knew she was, and was kissing her again when Jake appeared with the
+trunk, which he said had held Miss Dory's clothes when she went to
+Georgia. There was a musty odor about it when he opened it, and the few
+papers inside were yellow with age.
+
+"Dis yer is de reader Miss Dory use' to go over so much," Jake said,
+handing the book to Eloise, who turned its worn pages reverently, as if
+touching the hands of the dead girl, who, Jake said, "had rassled with
+the big words an' de no 'count pieces. She liked de po'try, an' got by
+heart 'bout de boy on de burnin' deck, but de breakin' waves floo'd her,
+'case 'twan't no story like Cassy-by-anker."
+
+He pointed the latter poem out to Eloise, who said, "Will you give me
+this book?"
+
+Jake hesitated before he replied, "He wanted it, the Colonel, an' I tole
+him no, but you're different. I'll think about it."
+
+Mr. Mason had returned by this time, and with Jack was looking at the
+bundle of letters tied with a satin ribbon which Jake said Miss Dory had
+taken from her white dress, the one he believed she was married in, as
+it was her bestest. There were four letters and a paper which did not
+seem to be a letter, and which slipped to the floor at Eloise's feet as
+Jack untied the ribbon. There was also a small envelope containing a
+card with "James Crompton" upon it, the one Mandy Ann had carried her
+mistress on a china plate, and which poor Dora had kept as a souvenir of
+that visit. With the card were the remains of what must have been a
+beautiful rose. The petals were brown and crumbling to dust, but still
+gave out a faint perfume, which Eloise detected. While she was looking
+at these mementos of a past, Jack was running his eyes over the almost
+illegible directions on the letters, making out "Miss Lucy Brown,
+Atlanta, Ga."
+
+"That doesn't help us much," he said to Mr. Mason. "Brown is a common
+name, and the Atlanta before the war was not like the Atlanta of
+to-day."
+
+"Perhaps something inside will give a cue," Mr. Mason suggested, and
+Jack opened one of the letters carefully, for it was nearly torn apart.
+
+The spelling was bad and the writing was bad, but it rang true with a
+young man's love for the girl of his choice, and it seemed to Jack like
+sacrilege to read it. Very hurriedly he went through the four letters,
+finding nothing to guide him but "Atlanta," and a few names of people
+who must have been living in the vicinity.
+
+"Here's another," Eloise said, passing him the paper which she had
+picked from the floor.
+
+Jack took it, and opening it, glanced at the contents. Then, with a cry
+of "Eureka!" he began a sort of pirouette, while Eloise and Mr. Mason
+wondered if he, too, had gone quar, like the Harrises.
+
+"It's the marriage certificate," he said, sobering down at last, and
+reading aloud that at the Hardy Plantation, Fulton County, Georgia, on
+December--, 18--, the Rev. John Covil united in marriage James Crompton,
+of Troutburg, Massachusetts, and Miss Eudora Harris, of Volucia County,
+Florida.
+
+Upon no one did the finding of this certificate produce so miraculous an
+effect as upon Jake.
+
+"Fo' de Lawd!" he exclaimed, "I feels as if I mus' have de pow',--what
+I hain't had since I jined de 'Piscopals. To think dat ar was lyin' in
+thar all dis time, an' I not know it. I 'members now dat Elder Covil
+comed hyar oncet after the lil chile was bawn, to see Miss Dory, an' I
+seen him write a paper an' give it to her, an' she put it in her bosom.
+I axed no questions, but I know now 'twas this. The Cunnel tole her not
+to tell, an' if she said she wouldn't, she wouldn't. Dat's like de
+Harrises,--dey's mighty quar, stickin' to dar word till they die like
+that Cassy-by-anker on de burnin' ship. Glory to God, glory! I mus'
+shout, I mus' hurrah. Glory!"
+
+He went careering round the room like one mad, knocking over a chair,
+waking up Amy, and bringing her to the scene of action.
+
+"Bress de Lawd!" he said, taking her by the arm and giving her a whirl,
+"we've done foun' your mudder's stifficut in de letters whar she put it
+an' tied 'em wid her weddin' ribbon. Glory hollerluyer!"
+
+Amy looked frightened, and when Eloise explained to her she did not seem
+as much impressed as the others. Her mind had grasped Jake and the old
+home, and could not then take in much more. Still, in a way she
+understood, and when Eloise said to her, "Col. Crompton was really your
+father,--married to your mother,--and you were Amy Crompton, and not
+Harris," she said, "I am glad, and wish he knew. He used to taunt me
+with my low birth and call me a Cracker. When are we going home?"
+
+Her mind had reverted at once to Crompton Place, now hers in reality,
+although she probably did not think of that.
+
+"I am very glad, and congratulate you that Crompton Place is your home
+without a doubt," Jack said to her. Then, turning to Eloise, he
+continued, in a low tone, "I can't tell you how glad I am for you,
+provided you don't feel so high and mighty that you want to cast me
+off."
+
+"Oh, Jack," Eloise replied, "don't talk such nonsense. I am still of the
+Harris blood and part Cracker, and maybe quar. If you can stand that I
+think I can stand you."
+
+At this point there was the sound of hurrying feet outside, and a
+woman's voice was heard saying, "Now, mind your manners, or you'll cotch
+it." Then four woolly heads were thrust in at the door and with them was
+Mandy Ann.
+
+"Hyar she comes wid de fo' twins," Jake said, going forward to meet her.
+"Mandy Ann," he began, "hyar's de lil chile Dory. Miss Amy they done
+call her. Would you know'd her?"
+
+"Know'd her? I reckon so,--anywhar in de dark. Praise de Lawd, an' now
+let His servant 'part in peace, 'case my eyes has seen de lil chile
+oncet mo'," Mandy Ann exclaimed, going up to Amy and putting her hands
+on her shoulders.
+
+"She's 'peatin' some o' de chant in de Pra'r Book. Mandy Ann is mighty
+pious, she is," Jake said in a low tone, while Amy drew back a little,
+and looked timidly at the tall negress calling her lil chile Dory.
+
+"Mandy Ann wasn't so big," she said, turning to the twins, Alex and
+Aaron, Judy and Dory, who brought the past back more vividly when Mandy
+Ann was about their size.
+
+A look of inquiry passed from Mandy Ann to Jake, who touched his
+forehead, while Mandy whispered, "Quar, like ole Miss an' all of 'em.
+Oh, de pity of it! What happened her?" Then to Amy she said, with all
+the motherhood of her ten children in her voice, "Doan' you 'member me,
+Mandy Ann, what use' to dress you in de mornin', an' comb yer har, an'
+wass yer face?"
+
+"Up, instead of down," Amy said quickly, while everybody laughed instead
+of herself.
+
+"To be shu'," Mandy Ann rejoined. "I reckon I did sometimes wass up
+'sted of down. I couldn't help it, 'case you's gen'rally pullin' an'
+haulin' an' kickin' me to git away, but you 'members me, an' Judy, wid
+dis kind of face?"
+
+She touched her eyes and nose and mouth to show where Judy's features
+were marked with ink, and then Amy laughed, and as if the mention of
+Judy took her back to the vernacular of her childhood, she said, "Oh,
+yes, I done 'members Judy. Whar is she?"
+
+This lapse of her mother into negro dialect was more dreadful to Eloise
+than anything which had gone before, but Mr. Mason, who read her concern
+in her face, said to her, "It's all right, and shows she is taking up
+the tangled threads."
+
+No one present knew of Judy's sale at the Rummage, and no one could
+reply to the question, "Whar is she?" Amy forgot it in a moment in her
+interest in the twins, whom Mandy presented one after another, saying,
+"I've six mo' grow'd up, some on 'em, an' one is married, 'case I'se
+old,--I'se fifty-three, an' you's about forty."
+
+To this Amy paid no attention. She was still absorbed with the twins,
+who, Mandy Ann told her, had worn her white frock at their christening.
+Mandy Ann had not yet heard of the finding of the marriage certificate,
+and when Jake told her she did not seem greatly surprised.
+
+"I allus knew she was married, without a stifficut," she said. "I
+b'lieved it the fust time he come befo' lil Miss Dory was bawn."
+
+"Tell me about his coming," Eloise said, and Mandy Ann, who liked
+nothing better than to talk, began at the beginning, and told every
+particular of the first visit, when Miss Dora wore the white gown she
+was married in and buried in, and the rose on her bosom. "And you think
+this is it?" Eloise asked, holding carefully in a bit of paper the ashes
+of what had once been a rose.
+
+"I 'clar for't, yes," Mandy said, "I seen her put it somewhar with the
+card he done gin me. You'se found it?"
+
+Eloise nodded and held fast to the relics of a past which in this way
+was linking itself to the present. "Tell us of the second time, when he
+took mother," Eloise suggested, and here Mandy Ann was very eloquent,
+describing everything in detail, repeating much which Jake had told,
+telling of the ring,--a real stone, sent her from Savannah, and which
+she had given her daughter as it was too small for her now. From a
+drawer in the chamber above she brought a little white dress, stiff with
+starch and yellow and tender with time, which she said "lil Miss Dory
+wore when she first saw her father."
+
+This Eloise seized at once, saying, "You will let me have it as
+something which belonged to mother far back."
+
+Mandy Ann looked doubtful. There would probably be grandchildren, and
+Jake's scruples might be overcome and the white gown do duty again as a
+christening robe. But Jake spoke up promptly.
+
+"In course it's your'n, an' de book, too, if you wants it, though it's
+like takin' a piece of de ole times. Strange Miss Dora don't pay no
+'tention, but is so wropp'd up in dem twins. 'Specs it seems like when
+de little darkys use' to play wid her," he continued, looking at Amy,
+who, if she heard what Mandy Ann was saying, gave no sign, but seemed,
+as Jake said, "wropp'd up" in the twins.
+
+There was not much more for Mandy Ann to tell of the Colonel, except to
+speak of the money he had sent to her and Jake, proving that he was not
+"the wustest man in the world, if she did cuss him kneeling on Miss
+Dory's grave the night after the burial." She spoke of that and of "ole
+Miss Thomas, who was the last to _gin in_," and wouldn't have done it
+then but for the ring on her finger. At this point Jake, who thought she
+had told enough, said to her, "Hole on a spell. Your tongue is like a
+mill wheel when it starts. Thar's some things you or'to keep to your
+self. Ole man Crompton is dead, an' God is takin' keer of him. He knows
+all the good thar was at the last, an' I 'specs thar was a heap."
+
+By this time Amy had tired of the twins, who had fingered her rings and
+buttons, and stroked her dress and hair, and called her a pretty lady,
+and asked her on the sly for a nickel. She was getting restless, when
+Jakey said, "If you'd like to see your mudder's grave, come wid me."
+
+From the house to the enclosure where the Harrises were buried he had
+made a narrow road, beside which eucalyptus trees and oleanders were
+growing, and along this walk the party followed him to Eudora's grave.
+
+"I can have 'Crompton' put hyar now that I am shu'," Jake said, pointing
+to the vacant space after Eudora. "I wish dar was room for 'belobed wife
+of Cunnel Crompton.' I reckons, though, she wasn't 'belobed,' or why was
+he so dogon mean to her?" he added, kneeling by the grave and picking a
+dead leaf and bud which his quick eye had detected amid the bloom.
+"Couldn't you done drap a tear 'case your mother is lyin' here?" he said
+to Amy, who shook her head.
+
+The dead mother was not as real to her as the living Jake, to whom she
+said, "As you talk to me I remember something of her, and people making
+a noise. But it is long ago, and much has happened since. I can't cry.
+Is it wrong?"
+
+She looked at Eloise, who replied, "No, darling; you have cried enough
+for one day. Some time we will come here again, and you'll remember
+more. Let us go."
+
+"What is your plan now?" Mr. Mason asked Jack when, after a half hour
+spent with Jake, they were driving back to the Brock House.
+
+"I have been thinking," Jack replied, "that I will leave the ladies for
+a few days at the hotel, while I go to Palatka and Atlanta, and see if
+anything can be learned of the Browns, or Harrises, or the Hardy
+plantation, where the marriage took place. I wish to get all the facts I
+can, although the certificate should be sufficient to establish Mrs.
+Amy's right to the estate. I don't think she realizes her position, as
+heir to the finest property in Crompton."
+
+She didn't realize it at all, but was very willing to stay at the Brock
+House with Eloise, while Jack went to Palatka and Atlanta to see what he
+could find. It was not much. Tom Hardy had been killed in the war, and
+had left no family. This he was told in Palatka. In Atlanta he learned
+that before the war there had been a plantation near the city owned by a
+Hardy family, all of whom were dead or had disappeared. There were
+Browns in plenty in the Directory, and Jack saw them all, but none had
+any connection with the Harrises. At last he struck an old negress, who
+had belonged to the Hardys, and who remembered a double wedding at the
+plantation years before, and who said that an Andrew Jackson Brown, who
+must have been present, as he was a son of the house, was living in
+Boston, and was a conductor of a street car. With this information as
+the result of his search Jack went back to Enterprise, where he found
+Amy greatly improved in mind and body. Every day Jake and Mandy Ann had
+been to see her, or with Eloise she had driven to the clearing, where
+her dormant faculties continued to awaken with the familiar objects of
+her childhood. Many people and much talking still bewildered her, and
+her memory was treacherous on many points, but to a stranger who knew
+nothing of her history she seemed a quiet, sane woman, "not a bit quar,"
+Eloise said to Jack as she welcomed him back. "And I believe she will
+continue to improve when we get her home, away from the people who talk
+to her so much and confuse her. When can we go?"
+
+"To-morrow, if you like," Jack said, and the next day they left
+Enterprise, after bidding an affectionate good-by to Mandy Ann, with
+whom they left a substantial remembrance of their visit.
+
+Amy would have liked to take the twins with her, but Eloise said, "Not
+yet, mother; wait and see, and perhaps they will all come later."
+
+It was sure that Jakey was to follow them soon and spend as much time
+with them as he pleased.
+
+"Stay always, if you will. We owe you everything," Eloise said to him,
+when at parting he stood on the platform with his "God bress you, Mas'r
+Harcourt an' Miss Amy, an' Miss t'other one," until the train was out of
+sight.
+
+They made the journey by easy stages, for Amy was worn with excitement,
+and it was a week after leaving Florida when a telegram was received at
+the Crompton House saying they would arrive that evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WHAT HOWARD FOUND
+
+
+Jack had sent Howard a postal on the road to Florida, and a few lines
+from Enterprise on the day of their arrival. Since that time he had been
+so busy that he had failed to write, thinking he could tell the news so
+much better, and Howard argued from his silence that the errand had been
+unsuccessful. Crompton Place was undoubtedly his, and still he had not
+been altogether happy in his rôle as heir. The servants had been very
+respectful; people had treated him with deference; trades-people had
+sought his patronage; subscription papers had poured in upon him from
+all quarters, and in many ways he was made to feel that he was really
+Crompton of Crompton, with a prospective income of many thousands. He
+had gone over his uncle's papers, and knew exactly what he was worth,
+and when his dividends and rents were due. He was a rich man, unless
+they found something unexpected in Florida, and he did not believe they
+would. It seemed impossible that if there were a marriage it should have
+been kept secret so long. "My uncle would certainly have told it at the
+last and not left a stain on Amy," he said to himself again and again,
+and nearly succeeded in making himself believe that he had a right to be
+where he was,--his uncle's heir and head of the house. Why no provision
+was made for Amy he could not imagine. "But it will make no difference,"
+he said; "I shall provide for her and Eloise."
+
+At the thought of her his heart gave a great throb, for she was dearer
+to him than he had supposed. "I believe I'd give up Crompton if I could
+win her," he thought, "but that cannot be; Jack is the lucky fellow,"
+and then he began to calculate how much he would give Amy out and out.
+"She can live here, of course, if she will, but she must have something
+of her own. Will twenty thousand be enough, or too much?" he said, and
+from the sum total of the estate he subtracted twenty thousand dollars,
+with so large a remainder that he decided to give her that amount in
+bonds and mortgages, which would cause her as little trouble as
+possible. There were some government bonds in a private drawer, through
+which he had searched for a will. He would have a look at them and see
+which were the more desirable for Amy. He had been through that drawer
+three or four times, and there was no thought of the will now as he
+opened it, wondering that it came so hard, as if something were binding
+on the top or side. It shut harder, or, rather, it didn't shut at all,
+and with a jerk he pulled it out to see what was the matter. As he did
+so a folded sheet of foolscap, which had been lodged between the drawer
+and the side of the desk, fell to the floor. With a presentiment of the
+truth Howard took it up and read, "THE LAST WILL AND CONFESSION OF JAMES
+CROMPTON!"
+
+It had come at last, and, unfolding the sheet, Howard began to read,
+glancing first at the date, which was a few weeks after Amy came from
+California.
+
+"KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS," it began, "that I, JAMES CROMPTON, am
+a coward and a sneak and a villain, and have lived a lie for forty
+years, hiding a secret I was too proud to divulge at first, and which
+grew harder and harder to tell as time went on and people held me so
+high as the soul of honor and rectitude. Honor! There isn't a hair of it
+on my head! I broke the heart of an innocent girl, and left her to die
+alone. AMY EUDORA SMITH is my own daughter, the lawful child of my
+marriage with EUDORA HARRIS, which took place December--, 18--, on the
+Hardy Plantation, Fulton County, in Georgia, several miles from
+Atlanta."
+
+Up to this point Howard had been standing, but now the floor seemed to
+rise up and strike him in the face. Sitting down in the nearest chair,
+he breathed hard for a moment, and then went on with what the Colonel
+called his CONFESSION, which he had not had courage to make verbally
+while living.
+
+When in college he had for his room-mate Tom Hardy from Atlanta. The two
+were fast friends, and when the Colonel was invited to visit Georgia he
+did so gladly. Some miles from the town was the plantation owned by the
+Hardys. This the Colonel visited in company with his friend. A small
+log-house on a part of the farm was rented to a Mr. Brown, a perfectly
+respectable man, but ignorant and coarse. His family consisted of
+himself and wife and son, and daughter Mary, a pretty girl of twenty,
+and a cousin from Florida, Eudora Harris, a beautiful girl of sixteen,
+wholly uneducated and shy as a bird. There was about her a wonderful
+fascination for the Colonel, who went with his friend several times to
+the Brown's, and mixed with them familiarly for the sake of the girl
+whose eyes welcomed him so gladly, and in which he at last read
+unmistakable signs of love for himself, while the broad jokes of her
+friends warned him of his danger. Then his calls ceased, for nothing was
+further from his thought than marriage with Eudora. At last there came
+to him and Tom a badly written and spelled invitation to Mary's wedding,
+which was to take place on the afternoon of the nineteenth day of
+December, 18--.
+
+"Let's go; there'll be no end of fun," Tom said, but when the day came
+he was ill in bed with influenza, and the Colonel went without him,
+reaching the house just as the family were taking a hasty lunch,
+preparatory to the feast which was to follow the wedding.
+
+"I sat down with them," the Colonel wrote, "and made myself one of them,
+and drank vile whiskey and home-made wine until my head began to feel as
+big as two heads, and I do not think I knew what I was about. As bad
+luck would have it, the man who was to stand with Eudora as groomsman
+failed to come, and I was asked to take his place.
+
+"'Certainly, I am ready for anything,' I said, and my voice sounded
+husky and unnatural, and I wondered what ailed me.
+
+"'Then, s'posin' you and Dory get spliced, and we'll have a double
+weddin'. You have sparked it long enough, and we don't stand foolin'
+here,' Mr. Brown said to me, in a half-laughing, half-threatening tone.
+
+"I looked at Eudora, and her beautiful eyes were shining upon me with a
+look which made my pulses quicken as they never had before. I don't know
+what demon possessed me, unless it were the demon of the whiskey punch,
+of which I had drank far too much, and which prompted me to say, 'All
+right, if Eudora is willing.'
+
+"To do her justice, she hesitated a moment, but when I kissed her she
+yielded, and with the touch of her lips there came over me a feeling I
+mistook for love, and everything was forgotten except the girl. Elder
+Covil performed the double ceremony, and looked questioningly at me, as
+if doubtful whether I were in my right mind or not. I thought I was, and
+felt extremely happy, until I woke to what I had done, and from which
+there was no escape. I was bound to a girl whose sweet disposition and
+great beauty were her only attractions, and whose environments made me
+shudder. I could not bring her to Crompton Place and introduce her to my
+friends, and I did not know what to do.
+
+"Tom was furious when he heard of it, and suggested suicide and divorce,
+and everything else that was bad. But Dora's eyes held me for two weeks,
+and then I became so disillusionized and so sick of my surroundings,
+that I was nearly ready to follow Tom's advice and blow out my brains.
+
+"'If you won't kill yourself,' he said, 'send the girl home to Florida,
+and leave her there till you make up your mind what to do. There must be
+some way to untie that knot. If not, you are in for it.'
+
+"I sent her home, and after two or three weeks, during which Tom and I
+revolved a hundred plans, I decided on one, and went to see her in her
+home--and such a home! A log-house in a palmetto clearing, with a
+foolish old grandmother who did not know enough to ask or care what I
+was to Eudora. I could not endure it, and I told Eudora how impossible
+it was for me to take her North until she had some education and
+knowledge of the world. I would leave her, I said, until I could decide
+upon a school to which I would send her, and, as it would be absurd for
+a married woman to be attending school, she was to retain her maiden
+name of Harris, and tell no one of our marriage until I gave her
+permission to do so. I think she would have jumped into the river at my
+bidding, and she promised all that I required.
+
+"'I shall never tell I am your wife until you say I may,' she said to me
+when I left her, but there was a look in her eyes like that I once saw
+in a pet dog I had shot, and which in dying licked my hands.
+
+"Through Tom Hardy, who left Atlanta for Palatka, I sent her money
+regularly and wrote occasionally, while she replied through the same
+medium. Loving, pitiful letters they were, and would have moved the
+heart of any man who was not a brute and steeped to the dregs in pride
+and cowardice. I burned them as soon as I read them, for fear they might
+be found. I told her to do the same with mine, and have no doubt she
+did. I did mean fair about the school, and was making inquiries, slowly,
+it is true, as my heart was not in it, and I had nearly decided upon
+Lexington, Kentucky, when the birth of a little girl changed everything,
+but did not reconcile me to the situation. I never cared for
+children,--disliked them rather than otherwise,--and the fact that I was
+a father did not move me a whit.
+
+"There was a letter imploring me to come and see our baby, and I
+promised to go, with a vague idea that I might some time keep my word.
+But I didn't. I had no love for Eudora, none for the child; and still a
+thought of it haunted me continually, and was the cause of my giving the
+grounds and the school-house to the town. I wanted to expiate my sin,
+and at the same time increase my popularity, for at that time I was
+trying to make up my mind to acknowledge my marriage and bring Eudora
+home. The poor girl never knew it, for on the day of the lawn party she
+was buried. Tom Hardy wrote me she was dead, and that he was about
+starting for Europe, and had given Jake, a faithful servant of the
+family, my address. God knows my remorse when I heard it, and still I
+put off going for the child until Jake wrote me that the grandmother,
+too, had died, and added that it was not fitting for the little girl to
+be brought up with Crackers and negroes. He did not know that I had
+heard of Eudora's death from Tom, and was waiting for--I did not know
+what, unless it was to hear from him personally. There was more
+manliness in that negro's nature than in mine, and I knew it, and was
+ashamed of myself, and went for my daughter and stood by my wife's
+grave, and heard from Jake the story of her life, and knew she had kept
+her promise and never opened her lips, except to say that 'it was all
+right.'
+
+"The people believed her for the most part, and anathematized the
+unknown man who had deserted her, but they could not heap upon me all
+the odium I deserved. Why the story has never reached here I hardly
+know, except that intercourse between the North and the extreme South
+was not as easy as it is now, and then the war swept off Tom Hardy and
+most likely all who knew of the marriage.
+
+"When I brought Amy home I was too proud to acknowledge her as my
+daughter. The Harrises and the palmetto clearing stood in the way, and I
+let people think what they chose, hating myself with an added hatred for
+allowing a stain to rest on her birth. I was fond of her in a way, and
+angry when she married Candida, who died in Rome. Then she married a
+Smith, who took her round the country to sing in concerts, until her
+mind gave way, when he put her in a private asylum in San Francisco. I
+was very proud of her, and loved her more than she ever knew, but could
+not confess my relationship to her. When she married Candida I cast her
+off. She must have some of my spirit, for she never came begging for
+favors. Her rascally second husband wrote once for money, but I shut him
+up so that he never wrote again, and the next I heard was a message from
+Santa Barbara, where he died, and where, before he died, he had bidden
+his physician to write to me that his wife was in an asylum in San
+Francisco. I found her and brought her home, shattered in health and in
+mind, but I think she will recover. If she does before I die, I have
+sworn to tell her the truth, and will do it, so help me God!
+
+"She has at times spoken of a baby who died,--Smith's probably, and I
+hated him and did not care for his child. I have thought to make my
+will, but would rather write this confession, which will explain things
+and put Amy right as my heir. I have, however, one request to make to
+her, or those who attend to her affairs. I want my nephew, Howard, to
+have twenty thousand dollars,--enough for any young man to start on if
+there is any get-up in him, and Howard has considerable.
+
+"Written by me and signed this -- day of July, 18--, the anniversary of
+Eudora's funeral and the big picnic on my grounds.
+
+"JAMES M. CROMPTON."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HOWARD'S TEMPTATION
+
+
+Howard did not know how long it took him to read this paper. It seemed
+to him an age, and when it was read he felt as if turning into stone.
+There was a fire in the grate before which he sat, and something said to
+him, "Burn it," so distinctly, that he looked over his shoulder to see
+who was there. "It's the devil," he thought, and his hand went toward
+the flame, then drew back quickly. He knew now what his uncle had tried
+so hard to tell them, and remembered how often his eyes had turned in
+the direction of the private drawer. He had put his confession there,
+and it had become wedged in and was out of sight, until frequent opening
+and shutting the drawer had brought it into view. He read the document
+again, and felt the perspiration oozing out of every pore. The twenty
+thousand recommended for him made him laugh, as he thought that was the
+sum he had intended for Amy, and which looked very small for his own
+needs. "Six times two are twelve," he said, calculating the interest at
+six per cent. "Twelve hundred a year is not much when one expected as
+many thousands. I believe I'll burn it!" and again the paper was held so
+near the fire that a corner of it was scorched.
+
+"I can't do it," he said, drawing it back a second time. "It would do
+no good, either, if they find out in Florida. I don't see, though, how
+they can, and if they have, Jack would have written, but I can't burn it
+yet. I must think a while."
+
+He put the paper aside, and, without his overcoat, went out into the
+cold, sleety rain, which was falling heavily. It chilled him at once,
+but he did not think of it as he went through the grounds and gardens
+and fields of the Crompton Place, where everything was in perfect order
+and bespoke the wealth of the owner. It was a fair heritage, and he
+could not give it up without a pang. He never knew how many miles he
+walked back and forth across the fields and through the woods. Nor did
+he know that he was cold, until he returned to the house with drenched
+garments and a chill which he felt to his bones. He had taken a heavy
+cold, and staid in-doors the next morning, shivering before the grate,
+which he told Peter to heap with coal until it was hot as--. He didn't
+finish the sentence, but added, "I'm infernally cold,--influenza, I
+reckon, but I won't have any nostrums brought to me. All I want is a
+good fire."
+
+Peter heaped up the fire until the room seemed to him like a furnace,
+and then left the young man alone with his thoughts and his temptation,
+which was assailing him a second time, stronger than before. He firmly
+believed the devil was there, urging him to burn the paper, and held
+several spirited conversations with him, pro and con, the cons finally
+gaining the victory.
+
+Late in the afternoon Jack's telegram was brought to him. "We'll be home
+this evening."
+
+"That means seven o'clock, and dinner at halfpast seven," he said to
+Peter. "Send Sam with the carriage, and see that there are fires in
+their rooms."
+
+He had given his orders and then sat down to decide what he would do.
+
+"I know the Old Harry is here with me, but his company is better than
+none," he said, wishing he had a shawl, he was so cold, with the room at
+90 degrees.
+
+The short day drew to a close. Peter came in and lighted the gas, and
+put more coal on the grate, and said Sam had gone to the station. Half
+an hour later Howard heard the whistle of the train, and then the sound
+of wheels coming up the avenue.
+
+"Now or never!" was whispered in his ear, and his hand, with the paper
+in it, went toward the fire.
+
+There was a fierce struggle, and Howard felt that he was really fighting
+with an unseen foe; then his hand came back with the paper in it, safe
+except for a second scorch on one side.
+
+"By the great eternal, it is never! I swear it!" he said, as his arm
+dropped beside him and the paper fell to the floor.
+
+There was a sound below of people entering the house. They had come, and
+he heard Eloise's voice as she passed his door on her way to her room
+with Amy. Was Jack there too? he was wondering--when Jack came in, gay
+and breezy, but startled when he met the woe-begone face turned toward
+him.
+
+"By George! old man," he said, "Peter told me you were shut up with a
+cold, but I didn't expect this. Why, you look like a ghost, and are
+sweating like a butcher, and no wonder. The thermometer must be a
+hundred. What's the matter?"
+
+"Jack," Howard said, "for forty-eight hours I have had a hand-to-hand
+tussle with the devil. He was here bodily, as much as you are, but I
+beat him, and swore I wouldn't burn the paper. Read it!"
+
+He pointed to it upon the floor at his feet.
+
+"I had it pretty near the fire twice, and singed it some," he continued,
+as Jack took it up, and, glancing at the first words, exclaimed, "A
+will! You found one, then?"
+
+"Not a regularly attested will, but answers every purpose," Howard
+replied, while Jack read on with lightning rapidity, understanding much
+that was dark before, and guessing in part what it was to Howard to have
+all his hopes swept away.
+
+"By Jove!" he said, as he finished reading, "there was good in the old
+man after all. I didn't think so when I heard Jakey's story, and saw
+where his wife lived and died. We found the marriage certificate."
+
+"You did!" Howard exclaimed, a great gladness that he had not destroyed
+the paper taking possession of him. "Why didn't you write and tell me?
+It would have saved me that fight with the devil."
+
+"I don't know why I didn't," Jack replied. "I was awfully busy, and went
+at once to Palatka to see if Tom Hardy left any family there, and found
+he was never married. Then I went to Atlanta to find some trace of the
+Browns and the Hardy plantation. The latter had been sold, the Hardys
+were all gone, and the Browns, too,--killed in the war, most likely,
+except one who is a street-car conductor in Boston, and I am going to
+hunt him up, as I believe he was at the wedding, although he must have
+been quite young. Yes, I ought to have written, and I'm sorry for you,
+upon my soul. You look as if you'd had a taste of the infernal regions.
+I'm glad you didn't burn it."
+
+He took Howard's hand and held it, while he told him, very briefly, the
+circumstances of their finding the certificate, of whose existence Col.
+Crompton could not have known. "And, Howard," he added, "I've something
+else to tell you. Eloise is to be my wife. We settled it in the train
+before I knew she was a great heiress. Can't you congratulate me?" he
+asked, as Howard did not speak.
+
+"I expected it. You've got everything,--money and girl, too," Howard
+said at last. "You are a lucky dog, and, whether you believe me or not,
+I'd rather have the girl than the money. I asked her to marry me. Did
+she tell you?"
+
+"Of course not," Jack replied, and Howard went on, "Well, I did, and
+kissed her, too!"
+
+"Did she kiss you?" Jack asked a little sharply, and Howard replied,
+"No, sir; she was madder than a hatter; you've no cause to be jealous."
+
+"All right," Jack answered, his brow clearing. "All right. I'm more
+sorry for you now than I was before. I didn't know you really cared for
+her that way; but, I say, aren't you coming to dinner? The bell has rung
+twice, and I still in my travelling clothes and you in your
+dressing-gown."
+
+Howard shook his head. "Don't you see, I am sick with an infernal cold,"
+he said. "Got it tramping in the rain without my overcoat, and that
+fight I told you of has unstrung me. It was a regular battle. But you go
+yourself, and perhaps Eloise will come to see me. I shall show her the
+Colonel's confession, and she can do as she pleases about telling her
+mother."
+
+Jack left him and went to the dinner, which had been kept waiting some
+time, and at which Amy did not appear. She had gone at once to bed,
+Eloise explained, when she took her seat at the table with Jack. When
+told of Howard's message, she said, "Of course I'll go to him," and half
+an hour later she was in his room, and greatly shocked at his white,
+haggard face, which indicated more than the cold of which he complained.
+He did not tell her of his temptation. It was not necessary. He
+congratulated her upon her success, and upon her engagement, of which
+Jack had told him. Then he gave her the paper he had found, and watched
+her as she read it, sometimes with flashes of indignation upon her face,
+and again with tears of pity in her eyes.
+
+"He was a bad man," she said, with great energy, and then added, "A good
+one, too, in some respects, although I cannot understand the pride which
+made him such a coward."
+
+"I can," Howard rejoined. "It's the Crompton pride, stronger than life
+itself. I know, for I am a Crompton. You, probably, are more Harris than
+Crompton, and do not feel so deeply."
+
+He did not mean to reflect upon her mother's family, but Eloise's face
+was very red as she said, "The Harrises and Browns are not people to be
+proud of, I know, but they were as honest, perhaps, as the Cromptons,
+and they are mine, and if they all came here to-night I would not disown
+them."
+
+She looked every inch a Crompton as she spoke, and Howard laughed and
+said, "Good for you, little cousin; I believe you would, and if Jack
+finds the conductor in Boston, I dare say you will have him at your
+wedding. When is it to be?"
+
+"Just as soon as arrangements can be made," Jack replied, coming in in
+time to hear the last of Howard's remark, "and, of course, we'll have
+the street conductor if he will come. I start to-morrow to find him."
+
+He took an early train the next morning for Boston, and two days after
+he wrote to Eloise: "I believe there are a million street cars in the
+city and fifty conductors by the name of Brown. Fortunately, however,
+there is only one Andrew Jackson, or Andy, as they call him, and I found
+him on one of the suburban trains, rather old to be a conductor, but
+seemed young for his years. He is your grandmother's cousin, and was
+present at the double wedding, when Eudora Harris was married by Elder
+Covil to James Crompton, 'a mighty proud-lookin' chap,' he said, 'who
+deserted her in less than a month. I remember him well. Pop threatened
+to shoot him if he ever cotched him, but the wah broke out and pop was
+killed, and all of us but me, who married a little Yankee girl what
+brought things to us prisoners in Washington. She's right smart younger
+than I am, and I've got eight children and five grandchildren, peart and
+lively as rabbits. And you want me to swear that I seen Eudory married?
+Wall, I will, for I did, and I'd like to see her girl--Amy you call her.
+Mabby Mary Jane an' me will come to visit her when I have a spell off.'
+
+"All this he said in a breath, and when I told him I was to marry Amy's
+daughter, he called me his cousin, and asked when the wedding was to be.
+If it had not been for those eight children and five grandchildren,
+thirteen Browns in all, which I felt sure he would bring with him, I
+should have promised him and Mary Jane an invitation. As it was, I did
+nothing rash. I got his affidavit, and we parted the best of friends, he
+urging me to call at his shanty and see Mary Jane and the kids. I had to
+decline, but told him perhaps I'd bring my wife to see them. What do you
+say? Expect me to-morrow.
+
+"Lovingly,
+
+"JACK."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+It did not take long for all Crompton to know that Amy was Col.
+Crompton's daughter, and that the Colonel had left a paper to that
+effect, which Mr. Howard had found, and that Eloise had also found the
+marriage certificate, proving her mother's legitimacy beyond a doubt,
+and making her sole heir to the Crompton estate. It was Friday night
+when the travellers returned from the South, and on Saturday morning,
+Mrs. Biggs's washing day, she heard the news. Leaving her clothes in the
+suds, and her tubs of rinsing and bluing water upon the floor, she
+started for the Crompton House, which she reached breathless with haste
+and excitement, and eager to congratulate Amy and Eloise.
+
+"I swan, it 'most seem's if I was your relation," she said, shaking
+Eloise's hand, and telling her she always mistrusted she was somebody
+more than common, "and I hope we shall be neighborly. I s'pose you'll
+live here?"
+
+Eloise received her graciously, and said she should never forget her
+kindness, and told her some incidents of her journey, and, as Mrs. Biggs
+reported to Tim, "treated me as if I was just as good as she, if she is
+a Crompton."
+
+Ruby Ann came later in the day, genuinely glad for Eloise, and sure
+that nothing would ever change the young girl's friendship for herself,
+no matter what her position might be. Many others called that day and
+the following Monday, and Eloise received them with a dignity of which
+she was herself unconscious, and which they charged to the Crompton
+blood. Howard, who was still suffering from a severe cold, kept his room
+until Jack returned. Then he came out with a feeling of humiliation, not
+so much that he had lost the estate, as that he had thought to burn the
+paper which took it from him. This feeling, however, gradually wore off
+under Jack's geniality and Eloise's friendliness, and Amy's sweetness of
+manner as she called him Cousin Howard, and said she hoped he would look
+upon Crompton as his home. Then he was to have twenty thousand dollars
+when matters were adjusted, and that was something to one who, when he
+came to Crompton, had scarcely a dollar. His visit had paid, and, though
+he was not the master, he was the favored guest and cousin, who, at
+Eloise's request, took charge of affairs after Jack went home to New
+York.
+
+Early in December Jake came from the South, and was welcomed warmly by
+Amy and Eloise. To the servants he was a great curiosity, with his negro
+dialect and quaint ways, but no one could look at the old man's honest
+face without respecting him. Even Peter, who detected about him an order
+of the bad tobacco which had so offended his nostrils in the letters to
+his master, and who on general principles disliked negroes, was disarmed
+of his prejudices by Jake's confiding simplicity and thorough goodness.
+Taking him one day for a drive around the country and through the
+village, he bought him some first-class cigars with the thought "Maybe
+they'll take that smell out of his clothes."
+
+"Thankee, Mas'r Peter, thankee," Jake said, smacking his lips with his
+enjoyment of the flavor of the Havanas. "Dis yer am mighty fine, but I
+s'pecks I or'to stick to my backy. I done brought a lot wid me."
+
+He smoked the Havanas as long as they lasted, with no special diminution
+of odor as Peter could discover, and then returned to his backy and his
+clay pipe.
+
+In the love and tender care with which she was surrounded, Amy's mind
+recovered its balance to a great extent, with an occasional lapse when
+anything reminded her of her life in California as a public singer, or
+when she was very tired. She was greatly interested in Eloise's wedding,
+which was fixed for the 10th of January, her twentieth birthday. Jack,
+who came from New York every week, would have liked what he called a
+blow-out, but the recent death of the Colonel and Amy's mourning
+precluded that, and only a very few were bidden to the ceremony, which
+took place in the drawing-room of the Crompton House, instead of the
+church. Amy gave the bride away, and a stranger would never have
+suspected that she was what Jakey called quar. After Eloise left for her
+bridal trip she began to assume some responsibility as mistress of the
+house and to understand Mr. Ferris a little when he talked to her on
+business. Jake was a kind of ballast to her during Eloise's absence, but
+a Northern winter did not agree with the old man, who wore nearly as
+much clothing to keep him warm as Harry Gill, and then complained of
+the cold.
+
+"Florida suits me best, and I've a kind of hankerin' for de ole place
+whar deys all buried," he said, and in the spring he returned to his
+Lares and Penates, leaving Amy a little unsettled with his loss, but she
+soon recovered her spirits in the excitement of going abroad.
+
+It was Jack who suggested this trip, which he thought would benefit them
+all, and early in May they sailed for Europe, taking Ruby with them, not
+in any sense as a waiting maid, as some ill-natured ones suggested, but
+as a companion to Amy, and as the friend who had been so kind to Eloise
+in her need.
+
+That summer Howard was a conspicuous figure at a fashionable watering
+place with his fast horse and stylish buggy, and every other appearance
+of wealth and luxury. He had received his twenty thousand dollars and
+more, too, for Eloise was disposed to be very generous toward him, and
+Amy assented to whatever she suggested.
+
+"I'll have one good time and spend a whole year's interest if I choose,"
+he said, and he had a good time and made love to a little Western
+heiress, whose eyes were like those of Eloise, and first attracted him
+to her, and who before the season was over promised to be his wife.
+
+Just before she left for Europe Eloise brought her grandmother, Mrs.
+Smith, from Mayville, and established her in Crompton Place as its
+mistress, but that good woman had little to say, and allowed the
+servants to have their way in everything. The change from her quiet home
+to all the grandeur and ceremony of the Crompton House did not suit her,
+and she returned, like Jakey, to her household gods when the family
+came back in the spring.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Several years have passed since then, and Crompton Place is just as
+lovely as it was when we first saw it on the day of the lawn party.
+Three children are there now; two girls, Dora and Lucy, and a sturdy
+boy, who was christened James Harris Crompton, but is called Harry. The
+doll-house has been brought to light, with Mandy Ann and Judy, to the
+great delight of the little girls, and Amy is never brighter than when
+playing with the children, and telling them of the palms and oranges,
+alligators and negroes in Florida, which she speaks of as home.
+
+Eloise is very happy, and if a fear of the Harris taint ever creeps into
+her mind, it is dissipated at once in the perfect sunshine which crowns
+her life. Nearly every year Jakey comes to visit "chile Dory an' her lil
+ones," and once Mandy Ann spent a summer in Crompton as cook in place of
+Cindy, who was taking a vacation. But Northern ways of regularity and
+promptness did not suit her.
+
+"'Clar for't," she said, "I jess can't git use't to de Yankee Doodle
+quickstep nohow. At Miss Perkinses dey wasn't partic'lar ef things was
+half an hour behime."
+
+Her mind dwelt a good deal on what she had seen at Miss Perkins's, more
+than forty years before, and on her children and Ted, and when Cindy
+returned in the autumn she went back to him and the twins, laden with
+gifts from Amy and Eloise, the latter of whom saw that her mother gave
+more judiciously than she would otherwise have done. Both Amy and Eloise
+are fond of driving, and nearly every day the carriage goes out, but
+the coachman is no longer Sam. He is married and lives in the village,
+and his place is filled by Tom Walker, who wears a brown livery, and
+fills the position with a dignity one would scarcely expect in the tall,
+lank boy, once the bully in school and the blackguard of the town.
+
+There have been three or four different teachers in District No. 5,--all
+normal graduates, and all during their term of office boarding with Mrs.
+Biggs, who is never tired of boasting of her intimacy with the
+Cromptons, and Eloise in particular. Every detail of the accident is
+repeated again and again, with many incidents of Amy's girlhood. Then
+she takes up the Colonel and his private marriage, and with his
+introduction we end our story and leave her to tell hers in her own way.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cromptons, by Mary J. Holmes
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CROMPTONS ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cromptons, by Mary J. Holmes
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Cromptons
+
+Author: Mary J. Holmes
+
+Release Date: June 27, 2005 [EBook #16138]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CROMPTONS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Kentuckiana Digital Library, David Garcia, Ed
+Casulli and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+POPULAR NOVELS
+
+BY
+
+MRS. MARY J. HOLMES.
+
+
+TEMPEST AND SUNSHINE.
+DARKNESS AND DAYLIGHTS.
+ENGLISH ORPHANS.
+HUGH
+WORTHINGTON.
+HOMESTEAD ON HILLSIDE.
+CAMERON PRIDE.
+'LENA RIVERS.
+ROSE MATHER.
+MEADOW BROOK.
+ETHELYN'S MISTAKE.
+DORA DEANE.
+MILBANK.
+COUSIN MAUDE.
+EDNA BROWNING.
+MARIAN GREY.
+WEST LAWN.
+EDITH LYLE.
+MILDRED.
+DAISY THORNTON.
+FOREST HOUSE.
+CHATEAU D'OR.
+MADELINE.
+QUEENIE HETHERTON.
+CHRISTMAS STORIES.
+BESSIE'S FORTUNE.
+GRETCHEN.
+MARGUERITE.
+DR. HATHERN'S DAUGHTERS.
+MRS. HALLAM'S COMPANION.
+PAUL RALSTON.
+THE TRACY DIAMONDS.
+THE CROMPTONS. (_NEW_)
+
+
+
+"Mrs. Holmes is a peculiarly pleasant and fascinating writer. Her books
+are always entertaining, and she has the rare faculty of enlisting the
+sympathy and affections of her readers, and of holding their attention
+to her pages with deep and absorbing interest."
+
+
+Handsomely bound in cloth. Price, $1.00 each, and sent _free_ by mail on
+receipt of price.
+
+G.W. Dillingham Co., Publishers, NEW YORK.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "Here by this grave I promise all you ask."--Page 39.]
+
+
+
+The Cromptons
+
+
+BY
+
+MARY J. HOLMES
+
+
+G.W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY
+PUBLISHERS   NEW YORK
+
+COPYRIGHT 1899, 1901,
+
+By MRS. MARY J. HOLMES.
+
+_All rights reserved._
+
+_The Cromptons. Issued August, 1902._
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+PART I
+
+CHAPTER                                      PAGE
+
+   I. THE STRANGER AT THE BROCK HOUSE           9
+
+  II. THE PALMETTO CLEARING                    20
+
+ III. THE INTERVIEW                            32
+
+  IV. HOPING AND WAITING                       44
+
+   V. MISS DORY                                48
+
+  VI. THE SERVICES                             58
+
+ VII. COL. CROMPTON                            66
+
+VIII. THE CHILD OF THE CLEARING                80
+
+  IX. THE COLONEL AND JAKE                     88
+
+   X. EUDORA                                  102
+
+
+PART II
+
+   I. HOWARD CROMPTON TO JACK HARCOURT        115
+
+  II. JACK HARCOURT TO HOWARD CROMPTON        122
+
+ III. ELOISE                                  127
+
+  IV. THE ACCIDENT                            139
+
+   V. AMY                                     149
+
+  VI. AT MRS. BIGGS'S                         160
+
+ VII. RUBY ANN PATRICK                        178
+
+VIII. MRS. BIGGS'S REMINISCENCES              189
+
+  IX. LETTER FROM REV. CHARLES MASON          199
+
+   X. PART SECOND OF REV. MR. MASON'S LETTER  211
+
+  XI. SUNDAY CALLS                            218
+
+ XII. THE MARCH OF EVENTS                     227
+
+XIII. GETTING READY FOR THE RUMMAGE SALE      242
+
+ XIV. THE FIRST SALE                          256
+
+  XV. AT THE RUMMAGE                          261
+
+ XVI. THE AUCTION                             271
+
+
+PART III
+
+   I. THE BEGINNING OF THE END                285
+
+  II. THE LITTLE RED CLOAK                    294
+
+ III. ELOISE AT THE CROMPTON HOUSE            304
+
+  IV. THE SHADOW OF DEATH                     315
+
+   V. LOOKING FOR A WILL                      323
+
+  VI. IN FLORIDA                              336
+
+ VII. IN THE PALMETTO CLEARING                342
+
+VIII. THE LITTLE HAIR TRUNK                   350
+
+  IX. WHAT HOWARD FOUND                       362
+
+   X. HOWARD'S TEMPTATION                     371
+
+  XI. CONCLUSION                              379
+
+
+
+
+Illustrations:
+
+"Here by this grave I promise all you ask."
+
+
+
+
+THE CROMPTONS
+
+
+
+
+PART I
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE STRANGER AT THE BROCK HOUSE
+
+
+The steamer "Hatty" which plied between Jacksonville and Enterprise was
+late, and the people who had come down from the Brock House to the
+landing had waited half an hour before a puff of smoke in the distance
+told that she was coming. There had been many conjectures as to the
+cause of the delay, for she was usually on time, and those who had
+friends on the boat were growing nervous, fearing an accident, and all
+were getting tired, when she appeared in the distance, the puffs of
+smoke increasing in volume as she drew nearer, and the sound of her
+whistle echoing across the water, which at Enterprise spreads out into a
+lake. She had not met with an accident, but had been detained at Palatka
+waiting for a passenger of whom the captain had been apprised.
+
+"He may be a trifle late, but if he is, wait. He must take your boat,"
+Tom Hardy had said to the captain when engaging passage for his friend,
+and Tom Hardy was not one whose wishes were often disregarded. "Them
+Hardys does more business with me in one year than ten other families
+and I can't go agin Tom, and if he says wait for his friend, why,
+there's nothing to do but wait," the captain said, as he walked up and
+down in front of his boat, growing more and more impatient, until at
+last as he was beginning to swear he'd wait no longer for all the Hardys
+in Christendom, two men came slowly towards the landing, talking
+earnestly and not seeming to be in the least hurry, although the "Hatty"
+began to scream herself hoarse as if frantic to be gone.
+
+"How d'ye, Cap," Tom said, in his easy, off-hand way. "Hope we haven't
+kept you long. This is my friend I told you about. I suppose his berth
+is ready?"
+
+He did not tell the name of his friend, who, as if loath to cross the
+plank, held back for a few more words. Tom gave him a little push at
+last, and said, "Good-bye, you really must go. Success to you, but don't
+for a moment think of carrying out that quixotic plan you first
+mentioned. Better jump into the river. Good-bye!"
+
+The plank was crossed and pulled in, and a mulatto boy came forward to
+take the stranger's bag and pilot him to his stateroom, which opened
+from what was called the ladies' parlor. Coiled up in a corner on the
+deck was a bundle of something which stirred as they came near to it,
+and began to turn over, making the stranger start with a slight
+exclamation.
+
+"Doan you be skeert, sar," the boy said, "dat's nottin' but Mandy Ann,
+an onery nigger what b'longs to ole Miss Harris in de clarin' up ter
+Ent'prise. She's been hired out a spell in Jacksonville,--nuss to a
+little gal, and now she's gwine home. Miss Dory done sent for her,
+'case Jake is gone and ole Miss is wus,--never was very peart," and
+turning to the girl the boy Ted continued: "You Mandy Ann, doan you know
+more manners not to skeer a gemman, rollin' round like a punkin? Get
+back wid yer."
+
+He spurned the bundle with his foot, while the stranger stopped
+suddenly, as if a blow had been struck him.
+
+"Who did you say she was? To whom does she belong, I mean?" he asked,
+and the boy replied, "Mandy Ann, a no count nigger, b'longs to Miss
+Harris. Poor white trash! Crackers! Dis your stateroom, sar. Kin I do
+somethin' for you?"
+
+The boy's head was held high, indicative of his opinion of poor white
+trash and Crackers in general, and Mandy Ann in particular.
+
+"No, thanks," the stranger said, taking his bag and shutting himself
+into his stuffy little stateroom.
+
+"'Specs he's from de Norf; looks like it, an' dey allus askin' who we
+'longs to. In course we 'longs to somebody. We has ter," Ted thought, as
+he made his way back to Mandy Ann, who was wide-awake and ready for any
+war of words which might come up between herself and Ted, "who felt
+mighty smart 'case he was cabin boy on de 'Hatty.'"
+
+As Ted suspected, the stranger was of Northern birth, which showed
+itself in his accent and cold, proud bearing. He might have been thirty,
+and he might have been more. His face did not show his age. His features
+were regular, and his complexion pale as a woman's. His eyes were a
+cross between blue and gray, with a look in them which made you feel
+that they were reading your inmost secrets, and you involuntarily turned
+away when they were fixed upon you. On this occasion he seemed colder
+and prouder than usual, as he seated himself upon the stool in his
+stateroom and looked about him,--not at any thing that was there, for he
+did not see it, or think how small and uncomfortable his quarters were,
+although recommended as one of the staterooms _de luxe_ on the boat. His
+thoughts were outside, first on Mandy Ann,--not because of anything
+about her personally. He had seen nothing except a woolly head, a dark
+blue dress, and two black, bare feet and ankles, but because she was
+Mandy Ann, bound slave of "ole Miss Harris, who lived in de clarin',"
+and for that reason she connected him with something from which he
+shrank with an indescribable loathing. At last he concluded to try the
+narrow berth, but finding it too hard and too short went out upon the
+rear deck, and taking a chair where he would be most out of the way and
+screened from observation, he sat until the moon went down behind a
+clump of palms, and the stars paled in the light of the sun which shone
+down upon the beautiful river and the tangled mass of shrubbery and
+undergrowth on either side of it.
+
+At last the passengers began to appear one by one, with their cheery how
+dye's and good mornings, and curious glances at this stranger in their
+midst, who, although with them, did not seem to be one of them. They
+were all Southerners and inclined to be friendly, but nothing in the
+stranger's attitude invited sociability. He was looking off upon the
+water in the direction from which they had come, and never turned his
+head in response to the loud shouts, when an alligator was seen lying
+upon the shore, or a big turtle was sunning itself on a log. He was a
+Northerner, they knew from his general make-up, and a friend of Tom
+Hardy, the captain said, when questioned with regard to him. This last
+was sufficient to atone for any proclivities he might have antagonistic
+to the South. Tom Hardy, although living in Georgia, was well known in
+Florida. To be his friend was to be somebody; and two or three attempts
+at conversation were made in the course of the morning. One man, bolder
+than the rest, told him it was a fine day and a fine trip, but that the
+"Hatty" was getting a little too _passee_ for real comfort. At the word
+_passee_ the stranger looked up with something like interest, and
+admitted that the boat was _passee_, and the day fine, and the trip,
+too. A cigar was next offered, but politely declined, and then the
+attempt at an acquaintance ceased on the part of the first to make it.
+Later on an old Georgian planter, garrulous and good-humored, swore he'd
+find out what stuff the Yankee was made of, and why he was down there
+where few of his kind ever came. His first move was the offer of
+tobacco, with the words: "How d'ye, sir? Have a chew?"
+
+The stranger's head went up a little higher than its wont, and the proud
+look on the pale face deepened as he declined the tobacco civilly, as he
+had the cigar.
+
+"Wall, now, don't chew tobacky? You lose a good deal. I couldn't live
+without it. Sorter soothin', an' keeps my jaws goin', and when I'm so
+full of vim,--mad, you know,--that I'm fit to bust, why, I spit and
+spit,--backy juice in course,--till I spit it all out," the Georgian
+said, taking an immense chew, and sitting down by the stranger, who gave
+no sign that he knew of his proximity, but still kept his eyes on the
+river as if absorbed in the scenery.
+
+The Georgian was not to be easily rebuffed. Crossing his legs and
+planting his big hat on his knees, he went on:
+
+"You are from the North, I calculate?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I thought so. We can mostly tell 'em. From Boston, I reckon?"
+
+"No."
+
+"New York, mabby? No? Chicago? No? Wall, where in--" the Georgian
+stopped, checked by a look in the bluish-gray eyes which seldom failed
+in its effect.
+
+Evidently the stranger didn't choose to tell where he lived, but the
+Georgian, though somewhat subdued, was not wholly silenced, and he
+continued: "Ever in Florida before?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Wall, I s'pose you're takin' a little pleasure trip like the rest of
+us?"
+
+To this there was no response, the stranger thinking with bitterness
+that his trip was anything but one of pleasure. There was still one
+chord left to pull and that was Tom Hardy, who in a way was voucher for
+this interloper, and the Georgian's next question was: "Do you know Tom
+well?"
+
+"Do you mean, Mr. Hardy?" the stranger asked, and the Georgian replied.
+"In course, but I allus calls him Tom. Have known him since he wore
+gowns. My plantation jines old man Hardy's."
+
+There was no doubt, now, that the stranger was interested, and had his
+companion been a close observer he would have seen the kindling light in
+his eyes, and the spots of red beginning to show on his face. Whether to
+talk or not was a question in his mind. Cowardice prompted him to remain
+silent, and something which defied silence prompted him at last to
+talk.
+
+"I was with Mr. Thomas Hardy in college," he said, "and I have visited
+him in his home. He is my best friend."
+
+"To-be-sure!" the Georgian said, hitching nearer to the stranger, as if
+there was a bond of relationship between them.
+
+The man had given no inkling of the date of his visit, and as it was
+some years since Tom was graduated the Georgian did not dream of
+associating the visit with a few weeks before, when he had heard that a
+high buck was at old man Hardy's and with Tom was painting the
+neighborhood red and scandalizing some of the more sober citizens with
+his excesses. This quiet stranger with the proud face and hard eyes
+never helped paint anything. It was somebody else, whose name he had
+forgotten, but of whom he went on to speak in not very complimentary
+terms.
+
+"A high buck, I never happened to see squar in the face," he said. "Had
+glimpses of him in the distance ridin' ole man Hardy's sorrel, like he
+was crazy, and oncet reelin' in the saddle. Yes, sar, _reelin'_, as if
+he'd took too much. I b'lieve in a drink when you are dry, but Lord
+land, whar's the sense of _reelin'_? I don't see it, do you?"
+
+The stranger said he didn't and the Georgian went on, now in a lower,
+confidential voice.
+
+"I actually hearn that this chap,--what the deuce was his name? Have you
+an idee? He was from the North?"
+
+If the stranger had an _idee_ he didn't give it, and the Georgian
+continued: "These two young chaps--Tom ain't right young though, same
+age as you, I reckon--called on some Cracker girls back in the woods and
+the Northern feller staid thar two or three days. Think of it--Cracker
+girls! Now, if'ted been niggers, instead of Crackers!"
+
+"Ugh!" the stranger exclaimed, wakened into something like life. "Don't
+talk any more about that man! He must have been a sneak and villain and
+a low-lived dog, and if there is any meaner name you can give him, do
+so. It will fit him well, and please me."
+
+"Call him a Cracker, but a Florida one. Georgy is mostly better--not up
+to so much snuff, you know," the Georgian suggested, while the
+Northerner drew a quick breath and thought of Mandy Ann, and wondered
+where she was and if he should see her again.
+
+He felt as if there was not a dry thread in one of his garments when his
+companion left him, and returning to his friends reported that he hadn't
+made much out of the chap. He wasn't from New York, nor Boston, nor
+Chicago, and "I don't know where in thunder he is from, nor his name
+nuther. I forgot to ask it, he was so stiff and offish. He was in
+college with Tom Hardy and visited him years ago; that's all I know,"
+the planter said, and after that the stranger was left mostly to
+himself, while the passengers busied themselves with gossip, and the
+scenery, and trying to keep cool.
+
+The day was hot and grew hotter as the sun rose higher in the heavens,
+and the stranger felt very uncomfortable, but it was not the heat which
+affected him as much as the terrible network of circumstances which he
+had woven for himself. It was the harvest he was reaping as the result
+of one false step, when his brain was blurred and he was somebody
+besides the elegant gentleman whom people felt it an honor to know. He
+was himself now, crushed inwardly, but carrying himself just as proudly
+as if no mental fire were consuming him, making him think seriously more
+than once of jumping into the river and ending it all. He was very
+luxurious and fastidious in his tastes, and would have nothing unseemly
+in his home at the North, where he had only to say to his servants come
+and they came, and where, if he died on his rosewood bedstead with
+silken hangings, they would make him a grand funeral--smother him with
+flowers, and perhaps photograph him as he lay in state. Here, if he
+ended his life, in the river, with alligators and turtles, he would be
+fished up a sorry spectacle, and laid upon the deck with weeds and ferns
+clinging to him, and no one knowing who he was till they sent for Tom
+Hardy at that moment hurrying back to his home in Georgia, from which he
+had come at the earnest request of his friend. He did not like the looks
+of himself bedraggled and wet, and dead, on the deck of the "Hatty,"
+with that curious crowd looking at him, Mandy Ann with the rest. Strange
+that thoughts of Mandy Ann should flit through his mind as he decided
+against the cold bath in the St. John's and _to face_ it, whatever it
+was. Occasionally some one spoke to him, and he always answered
+politely, and once offered his chair to a lady who seemed to be looking
+for one. But she declined it, and he was again left alone. Once he went
+to the other end of the boat for a little exercise and change, he said
+to himself, but really for a chance of seeing Mandy Ann, who of all the
+passengers interested him the most. But Mandy Ann was not in sight, nor
+did he see her again till the boat was moving slowly up to the wharf at
+Enterprise, and with her braided tags of hair standing up like little
+horns, and her worldly goods tied up in a cotton handkerchief, she stood
+respectfully behind the waiting crowd, each eager to be the first to
+land.
+
+The Brock House was full--"not so much as a cot or a shelf for one
+more," the clerk said to the stranger, who was last at the desk. He had
+lingered behind the others to watch Mandy Ann, with a half-formed
+resolution to ask her to direct him to "ole Miss Harrises" if, as Ted
+had said, she was going there. Mandy Ann did not seem to be in any hurry
+and sauntered leisurely up the lane a little beyond the Brock House,
+where she sat down and stretching out her bare feet began to suck an
+orange Ted had given her at parting, telling her that though she was "an
+onery nigger who belonged to a Cracker, she had rather far eyes and a
+mouth that couldn't be beat for sass, adding that he reckoned that thar
+tall man who didn't speak to nobody might be wantin' to buy her, as he
+had done ast him oncet how far it was to the clarin', an' he couldn't
+want nobody thar but her." Mandy Ann had taken the orange, but had
+spurned what Ted had said of the tall man's intentions. She had been
+told too many times, during her brief stay in Jacksonville as a nurse
+girl, that she was of no manner of account to believe any one wished to
+buy her, and she paid no attention to the tall man, except to see that
+he was the last to enter the hotel, where he was told there was no room
+for him.
+
+"But I must have a place to sleep," he said. "It is only for the night.
+I return on the 'Hatty.'"
+
+"Why not stay on her then? Some do who only come up for the trip," was
+the clerk's reply.
+
+This was not a bad idea, although the stranger shuddered as he thought
+of his ill-smelling stateroom and short berth. Still it was better than
+camping out doors, or--the clearing--where he might be accommodated. He
+shuddered again when he thought of that possibility--thanked the clerk
+for his suggestion--and declined the book which had been pushed towards
+him for his name. No use to register if he was not to be a guest; no use
+to tell his name anyway, if he could avoid it, as he had successfully on
+the boat, and with a polite good-evening he stepped outside just as
+Mandy Ann, having finished her orange, peel and all, gathered herself up
+with a view to starting for home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE PALMETTO CLEARING
+
+
+The stranger had asked Ted on the boat, when he came with some lemonade
+he had ordered, how far it was from the Brock House to the palmetto
+clearing, and if there was any conveyance to take him there. Ted had
+stared at him with wonder--first, as to what such as he could want at
+the clearing, and second, if he was crazy enough to think there was a
+conveyance. From being a petted cabin boy, Ted had grown to be something
+of a spoiled one, and was what the passengers thought rather too "peart"
+in his ways, while some of the crew insisted that he needed "takin' down
+a button hole lower," whatever that might mean.
+
+"Bless yer soul, Mas'r," he said, in reply to the question. "Thar ain't
+no conveyance to the clarin'. It's off in de woods a piece, right smart.
+You sticks to de road a spell, till you comes to a grave--what used to
+be--but it's done sunk in now till nuffin's thar but de stun an' some
+blackb'ry bushes clamberin' over it. Then you turns inter de wust piece
+of road in Floridy, and turns agin whar some yaller jasmine is growin',
+an fore long you're dar."
+
+The direction was not very lucid, and the stranger thought of asking the
+clerk for something more minute, but the surprise in Ted's eyes when he
+inquired the way to the clearing had put him on his guard against a
+greater surprise in the clerk. He would find his way somehow, and he
+went out into the yard and looked in the direction of the sandy road
+which led into the woods and which Mandy Ann was taking, presumably on
+her way home. A second time the thought came to him that she might
+direct him, and he started rather rapidly after her, calling as he went:
+"I say girl, I want you. Do you hear?"
+
+Mandy Ann heard, gave one glance over her shoulder, saw who was
+following her, and began at once to run, her bare feet and ankles
+throwing up the sand, and her sunbonnet falling from her head down her
+back, where it flapped from side to side as she ran. She remembered what
+Ted had said of the stranger, who might be thinking of buying her; this
+was possible after all, as he had said he wanted her, and though her
+home in the clearing was not one of luxury, it was one of ease and
+indolence, and she had no desire for a new one--certainly not with this
+man whose face did not attract her. Just why she ran, she did not know.
+It was of no use to appeal to _ole missus_, who would not know whether
+she belonged to her or some one else. Miss Dory was her only hope. With
+promises of future good behavior and abstinence from pilfering and
+lying, and badness generally, she might enlist her sympathy and
+protection till Jake came home, when all would be right. So she sped on
+like a deer, glancing back occasionally to see the stranger following
+her with rapid strides which, however, did not avail to overtake her.
+The afternoon was very warm--the road sandy and uneven--and he soon gave
+up the chase, wondering why the girl ran so fast, as if afraid of him.
+The last sight he had of her was of her woolly head, turning off from
+the road to the right, where it disappeared behind some thick
+undergrowth. Ted had said, "Turn at the grave," and he walked on till he
+reached the spot, and stood by the low railing enclosing a sunken grave,
+whether of man or woman he could not tell, the lettering on the
+discolored stone was so obscure. Studying it very carefully, he thought
+he made out "Mrs." before the moss-blurred name.
+
+"A woman," he said, with a feeling how terrible it must be to be buried
+and left alone in that dreary, sandy waste, with no human habitation
+nearer than the Brock House, and no sound of life passing by, except
+from the same place, unless--and he started, as he noticed for the first
+time what Ted had said was the worst road in Florida, and what was
+scarcely more than a footpath leading off to the right, and to the
+clearing, of course--and he must follow it past tangled weeds and
+shrubs, and briers, and dwarf palmettoes, stumps of which impeded his
+progress.
+
+Mandy Ann had entirely disappeared, but here and there in the sand he
+saw her footprints, the toes spread wide apart, and knew he was right.
+Suddenly there came a diversion, and he leaned against a tree and
+breathed hard and fast, as one does when a shock comes unexpectedly. His
+ear had caught the sound of voices at no great distance from him. A
+negro's voice--Mandy Ann's, he was sure--eager, excited, and pleading;
+and another, soft and low, and reassuring, but wringing the sweat from
+him in great drops, and making his heart beat rapidly. He knew who was
+with Mandy Ann, and that she, too, was hurrying on to the clearing,
+still in the distance. Had there been any doubt of her identity, it
+would have been swept away when, through an opening in the trees, he
+caught sight of a slender girlish figure, clad in the homely garments of
+what Ted called poorwhite trash, and of which he had some knowledge.
+There was, however, a certain grace in the movements of the girl which
+moved him a little, for he was not blind to any point of beauty in a
+woman, and the beauty of this girl, hurrying on so fast, had been his
+ruin, as he in one sense had been hers.
+
+"Eudora!" he said, with a groan, and with a half resolve to turn back
+rather than go on.
+
+Tom Hardy in their talk while the boat waited for them at Palatka, had
+told him what _not_ to do, and he was there to follow Tom's
+advice--though, to do him justice, there was a thought in his heart that
+possibly he might do what he knew he ought to do, in spite of Tom.
+
+"I'll wait and see, and if--" he said at last, as he began to pick his
+way over the palmetto stumps and ridges of sand till he came upon the
+clearing.
+
+It was an open space of two or three acres, cleared from tanglewood and
+dwarf palmettoes. In the centre was a log-house, larger and more
+pretentious than many log-houses which he had seen in the South. A
+Marshal Niel had climbed up one corner to the roof, and twined itself
+around the chimney, giving a rather picturesque effect to the house, and
+reminding the stranger of some of the cabins he had seen in Ireland,
+with ivy growing over them. There was an attempt at a flower garden
+where many roses were blooming. Some one was fond of flowers, and the
+thought gave the stranger a grain of comfort, for a love of flowers was
+associated in his mind with an innate refinement in the lover, and there
+was for a moment a tinge of brightness in the darkness settling upon
+his future. Around the house there was no sign of life or stir, except a
+brood of well-grown chickens, which, with their mother, were huddled on
+the door step, evidently contemplating an entrance into the house, the
+door of which was open, as were the shutters to the windows, which were
+minus glass, as was the fashion of many old Florida houses in the days
+before the Civil War. With a shoo to the chickens, which sent some into
+the house and others flying into the yard, the stranger stepped to the
+door and knocked, once very gently, then more decidedly--then, as there
+came no response, he ventured in, and driving out the chickens, one of
+which had mounted upon a table and was pecking at a few crumbs of bread
+left there, he sat down and looked about him. In the loft which could
+hardly be dignified with the name chamber, he heard a low murmur of
+voices, and the sound of footsteps moving rapidly, as if some one were
+in a hurry. The room in which he sat was evidently living and
+dining-room both, and was destitute of everything which he deemed
+necessary to comfort. He had been in a Cracker's house before, and it
+seemed to him now that his heart turned over when he recalled his visits
+there, and his utter disregard of his surroundings.
+
+"I was a fool, and blind, then; but I can see now," he said to himself,
+as he looked around at the marks of poverty, or shiftlessness, or both,
+and contrasted them with his home in the North.
+
+The floor was bare, with the exception of a mat laid before the door
+leading into another and larger room, before one of the windows of which
+a white curtain was gently blowing in the wind. A rough, uncovered table
+pushed against the wall, three or four chairs, and a hair-cloth settee
+completed the furniture, with the exception of a low rocking-chair, in
+which sat huddled and wrapped in a shawl a little old woman whose
+yellow, wrinkled face told of the snuff habit, and bore a strong
+resemblance to a mummy, except that the woman wore a cap with a fluted
+frill, and moved her head up and down like Christmas toys of old men and
+women. She was evidently asleep, as she gave no sign of consciousness
+that any one was there.
+
+"Old Miss," the stranger said, and his breath again came gaspingly, and
+Tom Hardy's advice looked more and more reasonable, while he cursed
+himself for the fool he had been, and would have given all he was worth,
+and even half his life, to be rid of this thing weighing him down like a
+nightmare from which he could not awaken.
+
+He was roused at last by the sound of bare feet on the stairs in a
+corner of the room. Some one was coming, and in a moment Mandy Ann stood
+before him, her eyes shining, and her teeth showing white against the
+ebony of her skin. In her rush through the woods Mandy Ann had come upon
+her young mistress looking for the few berries which grew upon the
+tangled bushes.
+
+"Miss Dory, Miss Dory!" she exclaimed, clutching the girl's arm with
+such force that the pail fell to the ground and the berries were
+spilled, "you ain't gwine for ter sell me to nobody? Say you ain't, an'
+fo' de Lawd I'll never touch nothin', nor lie, nor sass ole Miss, nor
+make faces and mumble like she does. I'll be a fust cut nigger, an' say
+my prars ebery night. I'se done got a new one down ter Jacksonville. Say
+you ain't."
+
+In her surprise Miss Dory did not at first speak; then, shaking Mandy
+Ann's hand from her arm and pushing back her sunbonnet she said: "What
+do you mean, and where did you come from? The 'Hatty,' I s'pose, but she
+must be late. I'd given you up. Who's gwine ter buy yer?"
+
+"Ted done tole me mabby de man on de boat from de Norf, what got on ter
+Palatka, an' done as't the way hyar, might be after me--an'--"
+
+She got no further, for her own arm was now clutched as her mistress's
+had been, while Miss Dory asked, "What man? How did he look? Whar is
+he?" and her eyes, shining with expectancy, looked eagerly around.
+
+Very rapidly Mandy Ann told all she knew of the stranger, while the
+girl's face grew radiant as she listened. "An' he done holler and say
+how he want me an' follered me, an' when I turn off at the grave he was
+still follerin' me. He's comin' hyar. You won't sell me, shoo'," Mandy
+Ann said, and her mistress replied, "Sell you? No. It was one of Ted's
+lies. He is my friend. He's comin' to see me. Hurry!"
+
+Eudora was racing now through the briers, and weeds, and palmetto
+stumps, and dragging Mandy Ann with her.
+
+"Never mind granny," she said, when they reached the house and Mandy
+stopped to say how d'ye to the old woman in the chair. "Come upstairs
+with me and help me change my gown."
+
+"Faw de Lawd's sake, is he yer beau?" Mandy Ann asked, as she saw the
+excitement of her mistress, who was tearing around the room, now
+laughing, now dashing the tears away and giving the most contradicting
+orders as to what she was to wear and Mandy Ann was to get for her.
+
+They heard the two knocks and knew that some one had entered the house,
+but Mandy Ann was too busy blacking a pair of boots to go at once, as
+she had her hands to wash, and yet, although it seemed to him an age, it
+was scarcely two minutes before she came down the stairs, nimble as a
+cat, and bobbed before him with a courtesy nearly to the floor. Her
+mistress had said to her. "Mind your manners. You say you have learned a
+heap in Jacksonville."
+
+"To be shoo'. I've seen de quality thar in Miss Perkins's house," Mandy
+Ann replied, and hence the courtesy she thought rather fetching,
+although she shook a little as she confronted the stranger, whose
+features never relaxed in the least, and who did not answer her. "How
+d'ye, Mas'r," which she felt it incumbent to say, as there was no one
+else to receive him.
+
+Mandy Ann was very bright, and as she knew no restraint in her Florida
+home, when alone with her old Miss and young Miss, she was apt to be
+rather familiar for a negro slave, and a little inclined to humor. She
+knew whom the gentleman had come to see, but when he said. "Is your
+mistress at home?" she turned at once to the piece of parchment in the
+rocking-chair and replied. "To be shoo. Dar she is in de char over dar.
+Dat's ole Miss Lucy."
+
+Going up to the chair, she screamed in the woman's ear, "Wake up, Miss
+Lucy. I'se done comed home an' thar's a gemman to see you? Wake up!"
+
+She shook the bundle of shawls vigorously, until the old lady was
+thoroughly roused and glared at her with her dark, beady eyes, while she
+mumbled, "You hyar, shakin' me so, you limb. You, Mandy Ann! Whar did
+you come from?"
+
+"Jacksonville, in course. Whar'd you think? An' hyar's a gemman come to
+see you, I tell you. Wake up an' say how d'ye."
+
+"Whar is he?" the old woman asked, beginning to show some interest,
+while the stranger arose and coming forward said, "Excuse me, madam. It
+is the young lady I wish to see--your daughter."
+
+"She hain't her mother. She's her granny," Mandy Ann chimed in with a
+good deal of contempt in her voice, as she nodded to the figure in the
+chair, who, with some semblance of what she once was, put out a skinny
+hand and said, "I'm very pleased to see you. Call Dory. She'll know what
+to do."
+
+This last to Mandy Ann, who flirted away from her and said to the
+stranger, "She hain't no sense mostly--some days more, some days
+littler, an' to-day she's littler. You wants to see Miss Dory? She's
+upstars changin' her gown, 'case she knows you're hyar. I done tole her,
+an' her face lit right up like de sun shinin' in de mawnin'. Will you
+gim me your caird?"
+
+This was Mandy Ann's master-stroke at good manners. She had seen such
+things at "Miss Perkins's" in Jacksonville, and had once or twice taken
+a card on a silver tray to that lady, and why not bring the fashion to
+her own home, if it were only a log-cabin, and she a bare-foot,
+bare-legged waitress, instead of Mrs. Perkins's maid Rachel, smart in
+slippers and cap, and white apron. For a moment the stranger's face
+relaxed into a broad smile at the ludicrousness of the situation. Mandy
+Ann, who was quick of comprehension, understood the smile and hastened
+to explain.
+
+"I done larn't a heap of things at Miss Perkins's, which we can't do
+hyar, 'case of ole Miss bein' so quar. Miss Dory'd like 'em right well."
+
+"Certainly," the stranger said, beginning to have a good deal of respect
+for the poor slave girl trying to keep up the dignity of her family.
+
+Taking a card from his case he handed it to Mandy Ann, who looked at it
+carefully as if reading the name, although she held it wrong side up.
+There was no silver tray to take it on--there was no tray at all--but
+there was a china plate kept as an ornament on a shelf, and on this
+Mandy Ann placed the card, and then darted up the stairs, finding her
+mistress nearly dressed, and waiting for her.
+
+"Oh, his card? He gave it to you?" Eudora said, flushing with pleasure
+that he had paid her this compliment, and pressing her lips to the name
+when Mandy Ann did not see her.
+
+"In course he done gin it to me. Dat's de way wid de quality both Souf
+and Norf. We livin' hyar in de clarin' doan know noffin'." Mandy Ann
+replied.
+
+On the strength of her three months sojourn with Mrs. Perkins, who was
+undeniably quality, she felt herself capable of teaching many things to
+her young mistress, who had seldom repressed her, and who now made no
+answer except to ask, "How do I look?"
+
+She had hesitated a moment as to the dress she would wear in place of
+the one discarded. She had very few to select from, and finally took
+down a white gown sacred to her, because of the one occasion on which
+she had worn it. It was a coarse muslin, but made rather prettily with
+satin bows on the sleeves, and shoulders, and neck. Several times,
+since she had hung it on a peg under a sheet to keep it from getting
+soiled, she had looked at it and stroked it, wondering if she would ever
+wear it again. Now she took it down and smoothed the bows of ribbon, and
+brushed a speck from the skirt, while there came to her eyes a rush of
+glad tears as she put it on, with a thought that he would like her in
+it, and then tried to see its effect in the little eight by twelve
+cracked glass upon the wall. All she could see was her head and
+shoulders, and so she asked the opinion of Mandy Ann, who answered
+quickly, "You done look beautiful--some like de young ladies in
+Jacksonville, and some like you was gwine to be married."
+
+"Perhaps I am," Eudora replied, with a joyous ring in her voice. "Would
+you like to have me get married?"
+
+Mandy Ann hesitated a moment and then said, "I'se promised never to tole
+you no mo' lies, so dis is de truffe, ef I was to drap dead. I'd like
+you to marry some de gemmans in Jacksonville, or some dem who comes to
+de Brock House, but not him downstars!"
+
+"Why not?" Eudora asked, and there was a little sharpness in her voice.
+
+"'Case," Mandy Ann began, "you as't me, an' fo' de Lawd I mus' tell de
+truffe. He's very tall an' gran', an' w'ars fine close, an' han's is
+white as a cotton bat, but his eyes doan set right in his head. They
+look hard, an' not a bit smilin', an' he looks proud as ef he thought we
+was dirt, an' dem white han's--I do' know, but pears like they'd squeeze
+body an' soul till you done cry wid pain. Doan you go for to marry him,
+Miss Dory, will you?"
+
+At first Mandy Ann had opened and shut her black fingers, as she showed
+how the stranger's white hands would squeeze one's body and soul; then
+they closed round her mistress's arm as she said, "Doan you marry him,
+Miss Dory, will you?"
+
+"No," Eudora answered, "don't be a silly, but go down and bring me a
+rose, if you can find one two-thirds open. I wore one with this dress
+before and he liked it, and as't me to give it to him. Mebby he will
+now," she thought, while waiting for Mandy Ann, who soon came back with
+a beautiful rose hidden under her apron.
+
+"Strues I'm bawn, I b'lieve he's done gone to sleep like ole Miss--he's
+settin' thar so still," she said.
+
+But he was far from being asleep. He had gone over again and again with
+everything within his range of vision, from the old woman nodding in her
+chair, to the bucket of water standing outside the door, with a gourd
+swimming on the top, and he was wondering at the delay, and feeling more
+and more that he should take Tom Hardy's advice, when he heard steps on
+the stairs, which he knew were not Mandy Ann's, and he rose to meet
+Eudora.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE INTERVIEW
+
+
+She was a short, slender little girl, not more than sixteen or
+seventeen, with a sweet face and soft brown eyes which drooped as she
+came forward, and then looked at him shyly through a mist of tears which
+she bravely kept back.
+
+"How d'ye. I'm so glad to see you," she said, looking up at him with
+quivering lips which were so unquestionably asking for a kiss that he
+gave it, while her face beamed with delight at the caress, and she did
+not mind how cold, and stiff, and reserved he grew the next moment.
+
+He did not like her "How d'ye," although he knew how common a salutation
+it was at the South. It savored of Mandy Ann, and her accent was like
+Mandy Ann's, and her white dress instead of pleasing him filled him with
+disgust for himself, as he remembered when he first saw it and thought
+it fine. She had worn a rose then, and he had asked her for it, and put
+it in his pocket, like an insane idiot, Tom had said. She wore a rose
+now, but he didn't ask her for it, and he dropped her hand almost as
+soon as he took it, and called himself a brute when he saw the color
+come and go in her face, and how she trembled as she sat beside him. He
+knew she was pretty, and graceful, and modest, and that she loved him
+as no other woman ever would, but she was untrained, and uneducated, and
+unused to the world--his world, which would scan her with cold,
+wondering eyes. He couldn't do it, and he wouldn't--certainly, not yet.
+He would wait and see what came of his plan which he must unfold, and
+tell her why he had come. But not there where the old woman might hear
+and understand, and where he felt sure Mandy Ann was listening. She had
+stolen down the stairs and gone ostensibly to meet a woman whom Eudora
+called Sonsie, and who, she said, came every day to do the work now Jake
+was away.
+
+"Who is Jake?" the man asked, and Eudora replied, "The negro who has
+taken care of us since I can remember. He is free, but does for us, and
+is in Richmond now, valleying for a gentleman who pays him big wage, and
+he spends it all for us."
+
+The stranger flushed at her words indicative of her station, and then
+suggested that they go outside where they could be sure of being alone,
+as he had much to say to her.
+
+"Perhaps you will walk part way with me on my return to the 'Hatty,'" he
+said, glancing at his watch and feeling surprised to find how late it
+was.
+
+Instantly Eudora, who had seemed so listless, woke up with all the
+hospitality of her Southern nature roused to action. "Surely you'll have
+supper with me," she said. "Sonsie is here to get it and will have it
+directly."
+
+There was no good reason for refusing, although he revolted against
+taking supper in that humble cabin, with possibly that old woman at the
+table; but he swallowed his pride and, signifying his assent, went
+outside, where they came upon Mandy Ann in a crouching attitude under
+the open casement. She was listening, of course, but sprang to her feet
+as the two appeared, and said in response to her mistress's "What are
+you doing here?" "Nothin', Miss Dory, fo' de Lawd, nothing, but huntin'
+on de groun' for somethin' what done drap out de windy upstars."
+
+The stranger knew she was lying, and Eudora knew it, but said nothing
+except to bid the girl get up and assist Sonsie with the supper. Mandy
+Ann had once said of her mistress to Jake, "She hain't no sperrit to
+spar," and Jake had replied, "Lucky for you, Mandy Ann, that she hain't
+no sperrit, for ef she had she'd of done pulled every har out of your
+head afore now."
+
+Mandy Ann knew that neither her hair, nor any part of her person, was in
+danger from her young mistress, and after a few more scratches in the
+dirt after an imaginary lost article, she arose and joined Sonsie, to
+whom Eudora gave a few instructions, and then with her guest walked
+across the clearing to a bench which Jake had made for her, and which
+was partially sheltered by a tall palm. Here they sat down while he
+unfolded his plan, plainly and concisely, and leaving no chance for
+opposition, had the crushed, quivering creature at his side felt
+inclined to make it. As Mandy Ann had said she hadn't much spirit, and
+what little she had was slain as she listened, while her face grew white
+as her dress, and her hands were linked together on her lap. The sun had
+just gone down, and the full moon was rising and throwing its light upon
+the clearing and the girl, whose face and attitude touched her
+companion, cold and hard as he was, but he must carry his point.
+
+"You see it is for the best and you promise; you will remember," he
+said, taking one of her hands and wondering to find it so cold.
+
+"Yes, oh, yes," she replied, every word a gasp. "I thought--I hoped--you
+had done come to take,--or to stay--not here, but somewhar--but I see
+you can't. You know best. I ain't fittin' to go yet, but I'll try, and I
+promise all you ask; but don't let it be long. The days are so lonesome
+since I come home, and things seem different since I knew you; but I
+promise, and will remember and do my best."
+
+Half his burden rolled away. He could be very kind now, for he knew he
+could trust her to the death, and putting his arm around her, he drew
+her close to him and said, "You are a good girl, Eudora. I shall not
+forget it; but why do you tremble so? Are you cold?"
+
+"Yes--no," she answered, nestling so close to him that the rose in her
+dress was loosened and fell to the ground.
+
+He picked it up, but did not put it in his pocket as a keepsake. He gave
+it back to her, and she fastened it again to her dress, saying, "I do'
+know why I shake, only it seems's if somethin' had died that I hoped
+for. But it is all right, becase you care for me. You love me."
+
+She lifted up her face on which the moonlight fell, making a picture the
+man never forgot to the last day of his life. He did not tell her he
+loved her, he could not; but for answer he stooped and kissed her, and
+she--poor, simple girl--was satisfied.
+
+"If I could tell Jake, it would be some comfort," she said at last,
+timidly, and her companion answered quickly. "Tell Jake! Never! You must
+not be too familiar with your servants."
+
+"Jake is more than a servant. He is everything to me," the girl
+answered, with rising spirit. "He would die for me, and if anything
+happened to me and you did not come, I think he would kill you."
+
+There was something of Southern fire in her eyes as she said this, which
+made the stranger laugh as he replied, "Nothing will happen, and I'm not
+afraid of Jake."
+
+In his heart he was glad the negro was not there, for something warned
+him that in the poor black man he might find a formidable obstacle to
+his plan. Meanwhile in the house Mandy Ann had been busy with the
+supper-table. They ought to have a good deal of light, she thought,
+remembering the lamps at Mrs. Perkins's, and as there were only two
+candlesticks in the house her fertile brain had contrived two more from
+some large round potatoes, cutting a flat piece from one end, making a
+hole in the centre to hold the candle, and wrapping some white paper
+around the standard. She had taken great pains with the table, trying to
+imitate Mrs. Perkins's, and the imitation was rather satisfactory to
+herself. The best cloth had been brought out, and though it was yellow
+with disuse it showed what it had been. A few roses in a pitcher were in
+the centre of the table, and ranged around them were the four candles,
+spluttering and running down as tallow candles are apt to do. The dishes
+troubled her, they were so thick and nicked in so many places, that it
+was difficult to find one which was whole. The stranger had the china
+plate, which had done duty as a tray for his card, and he had the only
+plated fork in the house: a Christmas gift from Jake to the ole Miss,
+who scarcely appreciated it, but insisted that it be wrapped in several
+folds of tissue paper and kept in her bureau drawer. Mandy Ann did not
+ask if she could have it. She took it and rubbed it with soft sand to
+remove some discolorations and laid it, with a horn-handled knife, by
+the china plate.
+
+"Ef we only had napkins," she said, while Sonsie, who had lived all her
+life near the clearing, and knew nothing of the fashions of the world,
+asked what napkins were. With a toss of her head indicative of her
+superior knowledge, Mandy Ann replied, "You'd know if you'd lived wid de
+quality in Jacksonville. Miss Perkins's allus had 'em. Dey's squar
+little towels what you holds in yer lap to wipe yer fingers on when
+you've done eatin'. Dat's what they is, an' de gemman or to hev one."
+
+"Can't he wipe his hands on de table cloth, for oncet?" Sonsie asked,
+with a sudden inspiration which was received with great scorn by Mandy
+Ann, to whom there had also come an inspiration on which she at once
+acted.
+
+In one of ole Miss's bureau drawers was a large plain linen handkerchief
+which was never used. It would serve the purpose nicely, and Mandy Ann
+brought it out, holding it behind her lest it should be seen by the old
+lady, who sometimes saw more than Mandy Ann cared to have her see. It
+was rather yellow like the table cloth, and the creases where it was
+folded were a little dark, but Mandy Ann turned it, and refolded and
+pressed it, and laid it on the china plate, while Sonsie looked on and
+admired. Everything was in readiness, and Mandy Ann called across the
+clearing. "Hallo, Miss Dory. Supper's done served."
+
+She had caught on to a good many things at Miss Perkins's, and "served"
+was one of them. "I don't s'pose Miss Dory will understan'," she
+thought, "but he will, and see dat dis nigger know sumptin'."
+
+It was a novel situation in which the stranger found himself, seated at
+that table with Eudora presiding and Mandy Ann waiting upon them, her
+tray a dinner-plate which she flourished rather conspicuously. He was
+quick to observe and nothing escaped him, from the improvised
+candlesticks to the napkin by his china plate. He knew it was a
+handkerchief, and smiled inwardly as he wondered what Tom Hardy would
+say if he could see him now. The old lady was not at the table. Mandy
+Ann had managed that and attended to her in her chair, but as if eating
+brightened her faculties, she began to look about her and talk, and ask
+why she couldn't sit at her own table.
+
+"'Case thar's a gemman hyar an' you draps yer vittles so," Mandy Ann
+said in a whisper, with her lips close to the old woman's ear.
+
+"Gentleman? Who's he? Whar's he from?" the old woman asked--forgetting
+that she had spoken to him.
+
+"I told you oncet he's Miss Dory's frien' an' from de Norf. Do be
+quiet," Mandy Ann blew into the deaf ears.
+
+"From the Nawth. I don't like the Nawth, 'case I--" the old lady began,
+but Mandy Ann choked her with a muffin, and she did not finish her
+sentence and tell why she disliked the North.
+
+Eudora's face was scarlet, but she did not interfere. Her grandmother
+was in better hands than hers, and more forceful.
+
+"Granny is queer sometimes," she said by way of apology, while her
+guest bowed in token that he understood, and the meal proceeded in quiet
+with one exception. Granny was choked with eating too fast, and Mandy
+Ann struck her on her back and shook her up, and dropped her
+dinner-plate and broke it in her excitement.
+
+"For de Lawd's sake, 'tan't no use," she said, gathering up the pieces
+and taking them to the kitchen, where Sonsie laughed till the tears ran
+at Mandy Ann's attempt "to be gran'," and its result.
+
+Meanwhile the stranger ate Sonsie's corn cakes and muffins, and said
+they were good, and drank muddy coffee, sweetened with brown sugar out
+of a big thick cup, and thought of his dainty service at home, and
+glanced at the girl opposite him with a great pity, which, however, did
+not move him one whit from his purpose. He had told her his plan and she
+had accepted it, and he told it again when, after supper, she walked
+with him through the clearing and the woods to the main road which led
+to the river. He did the talking, while she answered yes or no, with a
+sound of tears in her voice. When they reached the highway they stopped
+by the sunken grave, and leaning against the fence which inclosed it,
+Eudora removed her sunbonnet, letting the moon shine upon her face, as
+it had done when she sat in the clearing. It was very white but there
+were no tears now in her eyes. She was forcing them back and she tried
+to smile as she said, "You are very kind, and I think I understand what
+you want, and here by this grave I promise all you ask, and will do my
+best--my very best."
+
+Her lips began to quiver and her voice to break, for the visit from
+which she had expected so much had proved a blank, and her high hopes
+were dead as the woman by whose grave she stood. She had folded her
+hands one over the other upon the top rail of the fence, and her
+companion looked at them and thought how small they were and shapely,
+too, although brown with the work she had to do when Jake and Mandy Ann
+were both gone and Sonsie came only at meal times. He was not a brute.
+He was simply a proud, cold, selfish man, whose will had seldom been
+crossed, and who found himself in a tight place from which he could not
+wholly extricate himself. He was sorry for Eudora, for he guessed how
+desolate she would be when he was gone, and there was nothing left but
+that home in the clearing, with old granny and Mandy Ann. He had not
+seen Jake, of whom Eudora now spoke, saying, "Our house never seemed so
+poor to me till I seen you in it. It will be better when Jake comes, for
+he is to fix it up--he knows how."
+
+It was the only excuse she had made, and she did it falteringly, while
+her companion's heart rose up in his throat and made him very
+uncomfortable, as he thought of Jake and Mandy Ann caring for this girl,
+while his income was larger than he could spend. It had not occurred to
+him to offer her money till that moment, and he did not know now that
+she would take it. Turning his back to her as if looking at something
+across the road, he counted a roll of bills, and turning back took one
+of the little brown hands resting on the rail in his and pressed the
+roll into it. Just for an instant the slim fingers held fast to his
+hand--then, as she felt the bills and saw what they were, she drew back
+and dropped them upon the sand.
+
+"I can't; no, I can't," she said, when he urged them upon her, telling
+her it was his right to give and hers to take.
+
+As usual his will prevailed, and when at last he said good-by and walked
+rapidly towards the river, while she went slowly through the woods and
+across the clearing to the log-house, where Mandy Ann was having a
+frightful time getting ole Miss to bed, she had in her possession more
+money than Jake would earn in months.
+
+"I would send it all back," she thought, "if we didn't need it badly,
+and he said it was right for me to take it, but some of it _must_ go.
+I'll send it just before the 'Hatty' sails."
+
+There was no one to send but Mandy Ann, who, after many misgivings on
+the part of her mistress, was entrusted with a part of the money, with
+injunctions neither to look at nor lose it, but to hold it tight in her
+hand until she gave it to the gentleman. Eudora had thought of writing a
+note, but the effort was too great. Mandy Ann could say all she wanted
+to have said, and in due time the negress started for the boat, nothing
+loth to visit it again and bandy words with Ted. The "Hatty" was blowing
+off steam preparatory to starting, when a pair of bare legs and feet
+were seen racing down the lane to the landing, and Mandy Ann, waving her
+hand, was calling out, "Hol' on dar, you cap'n. I'se sometin' berry
+'portant for de gemman. Hol' on, I say," and she dashed across the
+plank, nearly knocking Ted down in her headlong haste. "Whar is 'ee?"
+she gasped, and continued, "Leg-go, I tell ye. Le' me be," as Ted seized
+her arm, asking what she wanted, and if she was going back to
+Jacksonville.
+
+"No; leg-go, I tell you. I wants the man from de Norf, what comed to
+see Miss Dory. I've sometin' for him very partic'lar."
+
+She found him in his seat at the rear of the boat, where he had sat on
+his way up, and had again appropriated to himself, with no one
+protesting or noticing him beyond a civil bow. They called him Boston,
+knowing no other name, and wondered why he had visited the Harrises as
+they knew he had. Ted, who was allowed nearly as much freedom of speech
+on the boat as Mandy Ann had at the clearing, had aired his opinion that
+the gentleman wanted to buy Mandy Ann, but this idea was scouted. Boston
+was not one to buy negroes. Probably he was some kin to old Granny
+Harris, who had distant connections in the North, some one suggested.
+This seemed reasonable, and the people settled upon it, and gave him a
+wide berth as one who wished to be let alone. When Mandy Ann rushed in
+and made her way to him curiosity was again roused, but no one was near
+enough to hear her as she put into his hands a paper, saying
+breathlessly, "Miss Dory done send some of it back with thanks, 'case
+she can't keep it all, and she wants to know how d'ye, an' I mus' hurry,
+or dey carries me off."
+
+The stranger took the paper, opened it, and glanced at the bills; then
+at the girl who stood as if she expected something. Taking a dollar from
+his pocket he gave it to her saying, "Take this and be a good girl to
+your young mistress, and now go."
+
+Mandy Ann did not move, but stood with her lips twitching and her eyes
+filling with tears. No one had ever given her a dollar before, and her
+better nature cried out against what she had done.
+
+"Fo' de Lawd, I can't help 'fessin," she said, thrusting her hand into
+her bosom and bringing out a crumpled bill which she gave to the
+gentleman, who saw that it was a ten and looked at her sternly as she
+went on: "I done promised Miss Dory I'never tache a thing, if she
+wouldn't sell me to you, but dar was sich a pile, an' I wanted some
+beads, an' a red han'kercher, an' a ring, an' I done took one. I don'no
+how much, 'case I can't read, an' dat's why I was late an' had to run so
+fass. You're good, you is, an' I muss 'fess--may de Lawd forgive me."
+
+At this point Ted, who had been on some of the large boats between
+Jacksonville and Charleston, and had heard the cry warning the
+passengers to leave, screamed close to her. "All asho', dat's gwine
+asho'!" and seizing her arm he led her to the plank and pushed her on to
+it, but not until she had shaken her bill in his face and said,
+"Licke-e-dar, a dollar! All mine--he done gin it to me, an' I'se gwine
+to buy a gown, an' a han'kercher, an' some shoes, an' some candy, an'
+some--" the rest of her intended purchases were cut short by a jerk of
+the plank, which sent her sprawling on her hands and knees, with a jeer
+from Ted sounding in her ears. The "Hatty" was off, and with a feeling
+of relief the stranger kept his seat on the rear deck, or staid in his
+stateroom until Palatka was reached, where he went on shore, lifting his
+hat politely to the passengers, shaking hands with the captain, and
+giving a quarter to Ted, who nearly stood on his head for joy, and could
+scarcely wait for the next trip to Enterprise, where he would find Mandy
+Ann and tell her of his good fortune, doubling or trebling the amount as
+he might feel inclined at the time.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HOPING AND WAITING
+
+
+The curiosity concerning the stranger at Enterprise had nearly died out
+when it was roused again to fever heat by the arrival at the clearing of
+a little girl, whom the young mother baptized with bitter tears, but
+refused to talk of the father except to say, "It was all right and
+people would know it was when he came, as he was sure to do."
+
+He didn't come, and the girl's face grew sadder and whiter, and her eyes
+had in them always an expectant, wistful look, as if waiting for some
+one or something, which would lift from her the dark cloud under which
+she was laboring. Jake, who had returned from Richmond, suffered nearly
+as much as she did. His pride in his family--such as the family was--was
+great, and his affection for his young mistress unbounded.
+
+"Only tell me whar he is an' I'll done fetch him, or kill him," he said,
+when in an agony of tears she laid her baby in his lap and said,
+"Another for you to care for till he comes, as I know he will."
+
+Eudora had said to the stranger that Jake would kill him if anything
+happened to her, but now at the mention of killing him she shuddered and
+replied, "No, Jake, not that. You'll know sometime. I can't explain. I
+done promised more than once. The last time was by that grave yonder,
+when he was sayin' good-by. It was same as an oath. I was to go to
+school and learn to be a lady, but baby has come, and I can't go now. It
+will make some differ with him perhaps, an' he'll come for baby's sake.
+You b'lieve me, Jake?"
+
+"Yes, honey--same as ef 'twas de Lawd himself talkin' to me, an' I'll
+take keer of de little one till he comes, an' if I sees somebody winkin'
+or hunchin' de shoulder, I'll--I'll--"
+
+Jake clenched his fist to show what he would do, and hugging the baby to
+him, continued, "Dis my 'ittle chile till its fader comes; doan' you
+worry. I'se strong an' kin work, an' Mandy Ann's done got to stir de
+stumps more'n she has."
+
+He cast a threatening look at Mandy Ann, who had at first been appalled
+at the advent of the baby, and for a while kept aloof even from Ted,
+when the "Hatty" was in. Then she rallied and, like Jake, was ready to
+do battle with any one who hunched their shoulders at Miss Dory. She had
+two good square fights with Ted on the subject, and two or three more
+with some of her own class near the clearing, and as she came off victor
+each time it was thought wise not to provoke her, except as Ted from the
+safety of the "Hatty's" deck sometimes called to her, when he saw her on
+the shore with the baby in her arms and asked how little Boston was
+getting along. Mandy Ann felt that she could kill him, and every one
+else who spoke slightingly of her charge. She had told Jake over and
+over again all she could remember of the stranger's visit, and more than
+she could remember when she saw how eager he was for every detail. She
+told him of the card taken to her mistress on a china plate, of the
+table with its four candles, and ole Miss's handkerchief for a napkin,
+and of her waiting just as she had seen it done at Miss Perkins's.
+
+"The gemman was gran' an' tall, an' mighty fine spoken, like all dem
+quality from de Norf," she said, although in fact he was the first
+person she had ever seen from the North; but that made no difference
+with Mandy Ann. "He was a gemman--he had given her a dollar, and he was
+shoo to come back."
+
+This she said many times to her young mistress, keeping her spirits up,
+helping her to hope against hope, while the seasons came and went, and
+letters were sometimes received or sent, first to Tom Hardy and
+forwarded by him either to the North or to Eudora. There was no lack of
+money, but this was not what the young girl wanted. Mandy Ann had said
+she had not much _sperrit_, and she certainly had not enough to claim
+her rights, but clung to a morbid fancy of what was her duty, bearing up
+bravely for a long time, trying to learn, trying to read the books
+recommended to her in her Northern letters, and sent for by Jake to
+Palatka, trying to understand what she read, and, most pitiful of all,
+trying to be a lady, fashioned after her own ideas, and those of Jake
+and Mandy Ann. Jake told her what he had seen the quality do in
+Richmond, while Mandy Ann boasted her superior knowledge, because of her
+three months with Miss Perkins's in Jacksonville, and rehearsed many
+times the way she had seen young ladies "come into de house, shake han's
+an' say how d'ye, an' hole' thar kyard cases so" (illustrating with a
+bit of block), "an' thar parasols so" (taking up granny's cane), "an'
+set on the aidge of thar char straight up, an' Miss Perkins bowin' an'
+smilin' an' sayin' how glad she was to see 'em, an' den when dey's gone
+sayin' sometimes, 'I wonder what sent 'em hyar to-day, when it's so
+powerful hot, an' I wants to take my sester'--dat's her nap, you know,
+after dinner, what plenty ladies take--an' den you mus' sometimes speak
+sharp like to Jake an' to me, an' not be so soff spoken, as if we wasn't
+yer niggers, 'case we are, or I is, an' does a heap o' badness; an' you
+orto pull my har f'or it."
+
+Confused and bewildered Eudora listened, first to Jake and then to Mandy
+Ann, but as she had no card case, no parasol, and no ladies called upon
+her, she could only try to remember the proper thing to do when the time
+came, if it ever did. But she lost heart at last. She was deserted.
+There was no need for her to try to be a lady. Her life was slipping
+away, but for baby there was hope, and many times in her chamber loft,
+when Mandy Ann thought she was taking her _sester_, and so far imitating
+"de quality," she was praying that when she was dead, as she felt she
+soon would be, her little child might be recognized and taken where she
+rightfully belonged.
+
+And so the years went on till more than three were gone since the
+stranger came on the "Hatty," and one morning when she lay again at the
+wharf, and Mandy Ann came down for something ordered from Palatka, her
+eyes were swollen with crying, and when Ted began his chaff she
+answered, "Doan't, Teddy, doan't. I can't fought you now, nor sass you
+back, 'case Miss Dory is dead, an' Jake's done gone for de minister."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+MISS DORY
+
+
+That day was one of the hottest of the season, and the sun was beating
+down upon the piazza of the Brock House where the Rev. Charles Mason sat
+fanning himself with a huge palm leaf, and trying to put together in his
+mind some points for the sermon he was to preach the next Sunday in the
+parlor of the hotel to the few guests who came there occasionally during
+the summer. But it was of no use. With the thermometer at ninety degrees
+in the shade, and not a breath of air moving, except that made by his
+fan, points did not come readily, and all he could think of was Dives'
+thirsting for a drop of water from the finger of Lazarus to cool his
+parched tongue. "If it was hotter there than it is here I am sorry for
+him," he thought, wiping his wet face and looking off across the broad
+lake in the direction of Sanford, from which a rowboat was coming very
+rapidly, the oarsman bending to his work with a will, which soon brought
+him to the landing place, near the hotel. Securing his boat, he came up
+the walk and approaching Mr. Mason accosted him with, "How d'ye, Mas'r
+Mason. I knows you by sight, and I'se right glad to find you hyar. You
+see, I'se that tuckered out I'm fit to drap."
+
+The perspiration was standing in great drops on his face as he sank
+panting upon a step of the piazza.
+
+"'Scuse me," he said, "but 'pears like I can't stan' another minit, what
+with bein' up all night with Miss Dory, an' gwine 'crost the lake twiste
+for nothin', 'case I didn't find him."
+
+By this time Mr. Mason had recognized the negro as one he had seen
+occasionally around the hotel selling vegetables and eggs, and who he
+had heard the people say was worth his weight in gold.
+
+"How d'ye, Jake," he said, pleasantly. "I didn't know you at first. Why
+have you been across the lake twice this morning?"
+
+Jake's face clouded as he drew his big black hand across his eyes.
+
+"Miss Dory done died at sun up," he replied. "You know Miss Dory, in
+course."
+
+Mr. Mason was obliged to confess his ignorance with regard to Miss Dory,
+and asked who she was.
+
+Jake looked disgusted. Not to know Miss Dory was something inexcusable.
+
+"Why, she's Miss Dory," he said, "an' ole Miss is her granny. We live up
+in the palmetto clearing, back in de woods, an' I take keer of 'em."
+
+"You mean you belong to Miss Dora's grandmother?" Mr. Mason asked, while
+Jake looked more disgusted than ever.
+
+Not to know Miss Dory was bad enough, but not to know who he was was
+much worse.
+
+"Lor' bless your soul, Mas'r Mason, I don't belong to nobody but myself.
+I'se done bawn free, I was. But father belonged to ole Miss Lucy, an'
+when my mother died she took keer of me, an' I've lived with her ever
+sense, all but two or three times I hired out to some swells in
+Virginny, whar I seen high life. They's mighty kine to me, dem folks
+was, an' let me learn to read an' write, an' do some figgerin'. I'se
+most as good a scholar as Miss Dory, an' I tole her some de big words,
+an' what the quality in Virginny does, when she was tryin' so hard to
+learn to be a lady. She's dead now, the lam', an' my cuss be on him as
+killed her."
+
+"Killed! Didn't she die a natural death?" Mr. Mason asked.
+
+"No, sar. She jest pined an' pined for him, an' got de shakes bad, an'
+died this mornin'," Jake replied, "an' ole Miss done gone clar out of
+her head. She never was over-bright, an' 'pears like she don't know
+nothin' now. 'I leave it to you to do,' she said, an I'm doin' on't the
+best I kin. I seen her laid out decent in her best gownd--that's Miss
+Dory--an' sent to Palatka for a coffin--a good one, too--an' have been
+across the lake for Elder Covil to 'tend the burial, 'case she done
+said, 'Send for him; he knows.' But he ain't thar, an' I'se come for
+you. It'll be day after to-morrer at one o'clock."
+
+Mr. Mason felt the water rolling down his back in streams as he thought
+of a hot drive through the Florida sand and woods, but he could not say
+no, Jake's honest face was so anxious and pleading.
+
+"Yes, I'll come, but how?" he asked.
+
+"Oh, I'll be hyar wid de mule an' de shay. Noon, sharp," Jake replied.
+"Thankee, Mas'r Mason, thankee. We couldn't bury Miss Dory without a
+word of pra'r. I kin say de Lawd's, but I want somethin' about de
+resurrection an' de life what I hearn in Virginny. An' now I mus' go
+'long home. Ole Miss'll be wantin' me an' de chile."
+
+"What child?" Mr. Mason asked, in some surprise.
+
+Jake's face was a study as he hesitated a minute, winking to keep his
+tears back before he said, "Sartin', thar's a chile. Why shouldn't thar
+be, but fo' God it's all right. Miss Dory said so, an' Elder Covil
+knows, only he's done gone Norf or somewhar. It's all right, an' you'll
+know 'tis the minit you see Miss Dory's face--innocent as a baby's. Good
+day to you."
+
+He doffed his hat with a kind of grace one would hardly have expected,
+and walked rapidly away, leaving the Rev. Mr. Mason to think over what
+he had heard, and wonder that he didn't ask the name of the family he
+was to visit. "Miss Dory, ole Miss, and Jake," were all he had to guide
+him, but the last name was sufficient.
+
+"Oh, yes," the landlord said, when questioned. "It's old Mrs. Harris and
+her grand-daughter out in the palmetto clearing; they're Crackers. The
+old woman is half demented, the whole family was queer, and the girl the
+queerest of all--won't talk and keeps her mouth shut as to her marriage,
+if there was one."
+
+"Who was the man?" Mr. Mason asked, and the landlord replied, "Some
+Northern cuss she met in Georgia where she was staying a spell with her
+kin. A high blood, they say. Attracted by her pretty face, I suppose,
+and then got tired of her, or was too proud to own up. I wasn't landlord
+then, but I've heard about it. I think he was here once three or four
+years ago. He came on the 'Hatty' and staid on her--the house was so
+full. Didn't register, nor anything--nor tell his name to a livin' soul.
+One or two ast him square, I b'lieve, but he either pretended not to
+hear 'em, or got out of it somehow. Acted prouder than Lucifer. Walked
+along the shore and in the woods, and went to the clearin'--some said
+to buy that limb of a Mandy Ann, but more to see Miss Dory. All the time
+he was on the boat he was so stiff and starched that nobody wanted to
+tackle him, and that girl--I mean Miss Dory--has kept a close mouth
+about him, and when her baby was born, and some of the old cats talked
+she only said, 'It is all right, I'm a good girl,' and I b'lieve she
+was. But that Northern cuss needs killin'. He sends her money, they say,
+through some friend in Palatka, who keeps his mouth shut tight, but
+neither she nor Jake will use a cent of it. They are savin' it to
+educate the little girl and make a lady of her, if nobody claims her. A
+lady out of a Cracker! I'd laugh! That Jake is a dandy. He's free, but
+has stuck to the Harrises because his father belonged to old Mrs.
+Harris. He is smarter than chain lightnin', if he is a nigger, and knows
+more than a dozen of some white men. He drives a white mule, and has
+managed to put a top of sail cloth on an old ramshackle buggy, which he
+calls a 'shay.' You'll go to the funeral in style."
+
+Mr. Mason made no reply. He was thinking of Dory, and beginning to feel
+a good deal of interest in her and her story, and anxious to see her,
+even if she were dead. At precisely twelve o'clock on the day appointed
+for the funeral Jake drove his white mule and shay to the door of the
+Brock House. He had on his Sunday clothes, and around his tall hat was a
+band of black alpaca, the nearest approach to mourning he could get, for
+crape was out of the question. If possible, it was hotter than on the
+previous day, and the sail cloth top was not much protection from the
+sun as they drove along the sandy road, over bogs and stumps, palmetto
+roots and low bridges, and across brooks nearly dried up by the heat.
+The way seemed interminable to Mr. Mason, for the mule was not very
+swift-footed, and Jake was too fond of him to touch him with a whip. A
+pull at the lines, which were bits of rope, and a "Go 'long dar, you
+lazy ole t'ing, 'fore I takes the hide off'n you" was the most he did to
+urge the animal forward, and Mr. Mason was beginning to think he might
+get on faster by walking, when a turn in the road brought the clearing
+in view.
+
+It had improved some since we first saw it, and was under what the
+natives called right smart cultivation for such a place. Jake had worked
+early and late to make it attractive for his young mistress. He had
+given the log-house a coat of whitewash, and planted more climbing roses
+than had been there when the man from the North visited it. A rude fence
+of twisted poles had been built around it, and standing before this
+fence were three or four ox-carts and a democrat wagon with two mules
+attached to it. The people who had come in these vehicles were waiting
+expectantly for Jake and the minister, and the moment they appeared in
+sight the white portion hurried into the house and seated
+themselves--some in the few chairs the room contained, some on the
+table, and some on the long bench Jake had improvised with a board and
+two boxes, and which threatened every moment to topple over. There were
+a number of old women with sunbonnets on their heads--two or three
+higher-toned ones with straw bonnets--a few younger ones with hats,
+while the men and boys were all in their shirt sleeves. Some of them had
+come miles that hot day to pay their last respects to Miss Dory, who,
+in the room adjoining where they sat, lay in her coffin, clad, as Jake
+had said, in her best gown, the white one she had worn with so much
+pride the day the stranger came. She had never worn it since, but had
+said to Mandy Ann a few days before she died, "I should like to be
+buried in it, if you can smarten it up." And Mandy Ann who understood,
+had done her best at smartening, and when Sonsie and others said it was
+"yaller as saffern, an' not fittin' for a buryin'," she had washed and
+ironed it, roughly, it is true, but it was white and clean, and Sonsie
+was satisfied. Mandy Ann had tried to freshen the satin bows, but gave
+it up, and put in their place bunches of wild flowers she had gathered
+herself. With a part of the dollar given her by "the man from the Norf,"
+she had commissioned Ted to buy her a ring in Jacksonville. It had
+proved too small for any finger, except her little one, and she had
+seldom worn it. Now, as she dressed her mistress for the last time an
+idea came to her; she was a well-grown girl of sixteen, and understood
+many things better than when she was younger. Going to Jake, she said,
+"Ain't thar somethin' 'bout a ring in that pra'r book you got in
+Richmon' an' reads on Sundays?"
+
+"Yes, in de weddin' service," Jake replied, and Mandy continued: "Doan'
+it show dey's married for shoo'!"
+
+"For shoo? Yes. I wish Miss Dory had one," Jake answered.
+
+Mandy Ann nodded. She had learned what she wanted to know, and going to
+the little paper box where she kept her ring she took it up, looked at
+it lovingly, and tried it on. She had paid fifty cents for it, and Ted
+had told her the real price was a dollar, but he had got it for less,
+because the jeweler was selling out. It tarnished rather easily, but she
+could rub it up. It was her only ornament, and she prized it as much as
+some ladies prize their diamonds, but she loved her young mistress more
+than she loved the ring, and her mistress, though dead, should have it.
+It needed polishing, and she rubbed it until it looked nearly as well as
+when Ted brought it to her from Jacksonville.
+
+"I wish to de Lawd I knew ef dar was any partic'lar finger," she
+thought, as she stood by the coffin looking at the calm face of her
+mistress.
+
+By good luck she selected the right finger, on which the ring slipped
+easily, then folding the hands one over the other, and putting in them
+some flowers, which, while they did not hide the ring, covered it
+partially, so that only a very close observer would be apt to think it
+was not real, she said, "If you wasn't married with a ring you shall be
+buried with one, an' it looks right nice on you, it do, an' I hope ole
+granny Thomas'll be hyar an' see it wid her snaky eyes speerin' 'round.
+Axed me oncet who I s'posed de baby's fader was, an' I tole her de
+gemman from de Norf, in course, an' den made up de lie an' tole her dey
+had a weddin' on de sly in Georgy--kinder runaway, an' his kin was mad
+an' kep' him to home 'cept oncet when he comed hyar to see her, an' I
+'clar for't I doan think she b'lieve a word 'cept that he was hyar.
+Everybody knowd that. I reckon she will gin in when she see de ring."
+
+Pleased with what she had done, Mandy Ann left the room just as the
+first instalment of people arrived, and with them old granny Thomas. In
+the little community of Crackers scattered through the neighborhood
+there were two factions, the larger believing in Eudora, and the smaller
+not willing to commit themselves until their leader Mrs. Thomas had done
+so. On the strength of living in a frame house, owning two or three
+negroes and a democrat wagon, she was a power among them. What she
+thought some of those less favored than herself thought. When she "gave
+in" they would, and not before. Up to the present time there had been no
+signs of "giving in" on the part of the lady, whose shoulders still
+hunched and whose head shook when Eudora was mentioned. She should go to
+the funeral, in course, she said. She owed it to ole Miss Harris, and
+she really had a good deal of respect for the nigger Jake. So she came
+in her democrat wagon and straw bonnet, and because she was Mrs. Thomas,
+walked uninvited into the room where the coffin stood, and looked at
+Eudora.
+
+"I'd forgot she was so purty. It's a good while sense I seen her," she
+thought, a feeling of pity rising in her heart for the young girl whose
+face had never looked fairer than it did now with the seal of death upon
+it. "And s'true's I live she's got a ring on her weddin' finger! Why
+didn't she never war it afore an' let it be known?" she said to herself,
+stooping down to inspect the ring, which to her dim old eyes seemed like
+the real coin. "She wouldn't _lie_ in her coffin, an' I b'lieve she was
+good after all, an' I've been too hard on her," she continued, waddling
+to a seat outside, and communicating her change of sentiment to the
+woman next to her, who told it to the next, until it was pretty
+generally known that "ole Miss Thomas had _gin in_, 'case Miss Dory had
+on her weddin' ring."
+
+Nearly every one else present had "gin in" long before, and now that
+Mrs. Thomas had declared herself, the few doubtful ones followed her
+lead, and there were only kind, pitying words said of poor Dory, as they
+waited for the minister to come, and the services to begin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE SERVICES
+
+
+The blacks were outside the house, and the whites inside, when Jake
+drove his shay to the door, and the Rev. Mr. Mason alighted, wiping the
+sweat from his face and looking around with a good deal of curiosity. A
+mulatto boy came forward to take charge of the mule, and Jake ushered
+the minister into the room where the coffin stood, and where were the
+four men he had asked to be bearers.
+
+"I s'pose I'd or'ter of had six," he said in a whisper; "but she's so
+light, four can tote her easy, an' they's all very 'spectable. No
+low-downs. I means everything shall be fust-class."
+
+Wrapped in shawls, with her head nodding up and down, old Mrs. Harris
+sat, more deaf and more like a dried mummy than she had been on the
+occasion of the stranger's visit. Jake had bought her an ear trumpet,
+but she seldom used it, unless compelled by Mandy Ann, who now sat near
+her with the little girl who, at sight of Jake, started to meet him.
+But, Mandy Ann held her back and whispered, "Can't you done 'have
+yerself at yer mammy's funeral an' we the only mourners?"
+
+The child only understood that she was to keep quiet, and sat down in
+her little chair, while Jake motioned to Mr. Mason that he was to see
+Miss Dory.
+
+During her illness her hair had fallen out so fast that it had been cut
+off, and now lay in soft rings around her forehead, giving her more the
+look of a child than of a girl of twenty, as the plate on her coffin
+indicated. "Eudora, aged twenty," was all there was on it, and glancing
+at it Mr. Mason wondered there was no other name. Jake saw the look and
+whispered. "I wan't gwine to lie an' put on 'Eudora Harris,' for she
+ain't Eudora Harris, an' I didn't know t'other name for shoo. Ain't she
+lovely!"
+
+"She is, indeed," Mr. Mason said, feeling the moisture in his eyes, as
+he looked at the young, innocent face on which there was no trace of
+guilt.
+
+He was sure of that without Jake's repeated assertion, "Fo' God, it's
+all right, for she tole me so. Mostly, she'd say nothin'. She'd promised
+she wouldn't, but jess fo' she died she said agen to me, 'I tole him I'd
+keep dark till he come for me, but it's all right. Send for Elder Covil
+'crost the river. He knows.' I've tole you this afore, I reckon, but my
+mind is so full I git rattled."
+
+By this time the bent figure sitting in the rocking-chair, near the
+coffin began to show signs of life and whimper a little.
+
+"'Scuse me," Jake said, pulling a shawl more squarely around her
+shoulders and straightening her up. "Mas'r Mason, this is ole Miss Lucy.
+Miss Lucy, this is Mas'r Mason, come to 'tend Miss Dory's funeral. Peart
+up a little, can't you, and speak to him."
+
+There didn't seem to be much "peart up" in the woman, who began at once
+to cry. Instantly Mandy Ann started up and wiped her face, and settled
+her cap, and taking the trumpet screamed into it that she was to behave
+herself and speak to the gemman.
+
+"Dory's dead," she moaned, and subsided into her shawl and cap, with a
+faint kind of cry.
+
+"Dory's dead," was repeated, in a voice very different from that of the
+old woman--a child's clear, sweet voice--and turning, Mr. Mason saw a
+little dark-haired, dark-eyed girl standing by Mandy Ann.
+
+Mr. Mason was fond of children, and stooping down he kissed the child,
+who drew back and hid behind Jake.
+
+"Me 'fraid," she said, covering her face with her hands, and looking
+with her bright eyes through her fingers at the stranger.
+
+Something in her eyes attracted and fascinated, and at the same time
+troubled Mr. Mason, he scarcely knew why. The old grandmother was
+certainly demented. The landlord had said Eudora and the whole family
+were queer. Was the child going to be queer, too, and did she show it in
+her eyes? They were very large and beautiful, and the long, curling
+lashes, when she closed them, fell on her cheeks like those of her dead
+mother, whom she resembled. She seemed out of place in her surroundings,
+but he could not talk to her then. The people in the next room were
+beginning to get restless, and to talk in low tones of their crops and
+the weather, and the big alligator caught near the hotel. It was time to
+begin, and taking the little girl in his arms, Jake motioned to Mr.
+Mason. In the door between the two rooms was a stand covered with a
+clean white towel. On it was a Bible, a hymn-book, a cup of water, and
+two or three flowers in another cup. Mr. Mason did not need the Bible.
+Jake had asked for the Resurrection and the Life, and he had brought
+his prayer-book, and began the beautiful burial service of the Church,
+to which the people listened attentively for a while; then they began to
+get tired, and by the time the long reading was through there were
+unmistakable signs of discontent among them. They had expected something
+more than reading a chapter. They wanted remarks, with laudations of the
+deceased. Miss Dory was worthy of them, and because there were none they
+fancied the minister did not believe it was all right with her, and they
+resented it. Even old Miss Thomas had "gin in," and thar was the weddin'
+ring, an' no sermon,--no remarks, and they didn't like it. Another
+grievance was that no hymn was given out, and there was the hymn-book at
+hand. They had at least expected "Hark from the tombs," if nothing else,
+but there was nothing. Singing constituted a large part of their
+religious worship, and they did not mean to have Miss Dory buried
+without this attention.
+
+As Mr. Mason finished the services and sat down, he was startled with an
+outburst of "Shall we meet beyond the river." Everybody joined in the
+song, negroes and all, their rich, full voices dominating the others,
+and making Mr. Mason thrill in every nerve as the quaint music filled
+the house, and went echoing out upon the summer air. When the "Beautiful
+River" was finished some one outside the door took up the refrain:
+
+  "Oh, that will be joyful, joyful, joyful;
+   Oh, that will be joyful,
+   When we meet to part no more."
+
+This appealed to the blacks, who entered into the singing heart and
+soul, some of the older ones keeping time with a swinging motion of
+their bodies, and one old lady in her enthusiasm bringing down her fist
+upon the doorstep, on which she was sitting, and shouting in a way which
+warned Jake of danger. He knew the signs, and putting down the little
+girl, who had fallen asleep in his lap, he went to the old negress, who
+was beginning to get under full headway, and holding her uplifted arm,
+said to her:
+
+"Hush, Aunt Judy, hush; this ain't no place to have the pow'. This ain't
+a pra'r meetin'; tis a 'Piscopal funeral, this is, such as they have in
+Virginny."
+
+What Judy might have said is uncertain, for there came a diversion in
+the scene. The child had followed Jake to the door, where she stood
+wide-eyed and attentive, and when the last words of the hymn ended, she
+sang in a clear, shrill voice, "Be joyful when we meet to part no more."
+Her voice was singularly sweet and full, and Mr. Mason said to himself,
+"She'll be a singer some day, if she is not crazy first." Nothing now
+could keep old Judy from one more burst, and her "Yes, thank de Lawd,
+we'll meet to part no mo'," rang out like a clarion, and the religious
+services were over.
+
+There still remained what was the most interesting part to the
+audience--taking leave of the corpse--and for a few minutes the sobs,
+and cries, and ejaculations were bewildering to Mr. Mason, who had never
+had an experience of this kind. Jake quieted the tumult as soon as
+possible, reminding the people again that this was a first-class
+'Piscopal funeral, such as the quality had in Virginny. The old
+grandmother was led to the coffin by Mandy Ann, who shook her up and
+told her to look at Miss Dory, but not cry much, if she could help it.
+She didn't cry at all, but nearly every one did in the adjoining room,
+where they said to each other, "Ole Miss is takin' leave and don't sense
+it an atom." The little girl was held up by Jake, who made her kiss her
+mother.
+
+"Mamma's s'eep," the child said, as she kissed the pale lips which would
+never smile on her again.
+
+There was a fresh outburst of sobs and tears from the spectators, and
+then the coffin was closed, and the procession took its way across the
+hot sands to the little enclosure in the clearing, where other members
+of the Harris family were buried. Remembering the impatience of the
+people in the house, Mr. Mason wished to shorten the service at the
+grave, but Jake said: "No. We'll have the whole figger for Miss Dory."
+Mr. Mason went the whole figure with uncovered head under the broiling
+sun, and when he was through he felt as if his brains were baked. The
+Crackers did not seem to mind the heat at all. They were accustomed to
+it, and after their return from the grave, stayed round until the white
+mule and sail-topped shay were brought up for Mr. Mason's return to the
+hotel.
+
+As Jake was very busy, a young negro boy was sent in his place.
+Naturally loquacious, he kept up a constant stream of talk, but as he
+stammered frightfully the most Mr. Mason could understand was that Miss
+Dory was a dandy, ole Miss 'onery, whatever that might mean, and Jake a
+big head, who thought he knew everything because he was free and could
+read.
+
+The next day was Sunday, and Mr. Mason took for the subject of his
+remarks in the parlor of the hotel the story of Lazarus and Dives, and
+every time he spoke of Dives receiving his good things in life, he
+thought of the man whom the landlord had designated a "Northern cuss";
+and every time he spoke of Lazarus, he thought of poor little Dory and
+that humble grave in the sands of the palmetto clearing.
+
+It was covered before night with young dwarf palmettoes, which Mandy Ann
+laid upon it with a thought that they would keep her young mistress
+cool. All through the day she had restrained her feelings, because Jake
+told her that was the way to do.
+
+"Seems ef I should bust," she said to herself more than once, and when
+at last the day was over, and both ole Miss and the little girl were
+asleep, she stole out to the newly made grave, and lying down upon it
+among the palmettoes she cried bitterly, "Oh, Miss Dory, Miss Dory, kin
+you har me? It's Mandy Ann, an' I'm so sorry you're dead, an' sorry I
+was so bad sometimes. I have tried to be better lately, sense I got
+growed. Now, hain't I, an' I hain't tole many lies, nor tached a thing
+sense I took that bill from him. _Cuss_ him, wharever he is! Cuss him
+to-night, ef he's alive; an' ef his bed is soff' as wool, doan let him
+sleep for thinkin' of Miss Dory. Doan let him ever know peace of min'
+till he owns the 'ittle girl; though, dear Lawd, what should we do
+without her--me an' Jake?"
+
+Mandy Ann was on her knees now, with her hands uplifted, as she prayed
+for _cusses_ on the man who had wrought such harm to her mistress. When
+the prayer was finished she fell on her face again and sobbed, "Miss
+Dory, Miss Dory, I must go in now an' see to 'ittle chile, but I hates
+to leave you hyar alone in de san'. Does you know you's got on my ring?
+I gin it to you, an' ole granny Thomas 'gin in' when she seed it, an'
+said you mus' be good. I'se mighty glad I gin it to you. 'Twas all I had
+to give, an' it will tell 'em whar you've gone that you was good."
+
+There was a dampness in the air that night, and Mandy Ann felt it as she
+rose from the grave, and brushed bits of palmetto from her dress and
+hair. But she did not mind it, and as she walked to the house she felt
+greatly comforted with the thought that she had _cussed_ him, and that
+Miss Dory was wearing her ring as a sign that she was good, and that
+"ole granny Thomas had gin in."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+COL. CROMPTON
+
+
+He was young to be a colonel, but the title was merely nominal and
+complimentary, and not given for any service to his country. When only
+twenty-one he had joined a company of militia--young bloods like
+himself--who drilled for exercise and pleasure rather than from any idea
+that they would ever be called into service. He was at first captain,
+then he rose to the rank of colonel, and when the company disbanded he
+kept the title, and was rather proud of it, as he was of everything
+pertaining to himself and the Cromptons generally. It was an old English
+family, tracing its ancestry back to the days of William the Conqueror,
+and boasting of two or three titles and a coat-of-arms. The American
+branch was not very prolific, and so far as he knew, the Colonel was the
+only remaining Crompton of that line in this country, except the son of
+a half-brother. This brother, who was now dead, had married against his
+father's wishes, and been cut off from the Crompton property, which, at
+the old man's death, all came to the Colonel. It was a fine estate, with
+a very grand house for the New England town by the sea in which it was
+situated. It was built by the elder Crompton, who was born in England,
+and had carried out his foreign ideas of architecture, and with its
+turrets and square towers it bore some resemblance to the handsome
+places he had seen at home. It was of stone, and stood upon a rise of
+ground, commanding a view of the sea two miles away, and the pretty
+village on the shore with a background of wooded hills stretching to the
+west. It was full of pictures and bric-a-brac, and statuary from all
+parts of the world, for the Colonel's father had travelled extensively,
+and brought home souvenirs from every country visited. Florida had
+furnished her quota, and stuffed parokeets and red birds, and a huge
+alligator skin adorned the walls of the wide hall, together with antlers
+and pieces of old armor, and other curios. A small fortune was yearly
+expended upon the grounds which were very large, and people wondered
+that the Colonel lavished so much upon what he seemed to care so little
+for, except to see that it was in perfect order, without a dried leaf,
+or twig, or weed to mar its beauty.
+
+It had not always been thus with him. When he first came into possession
+of the place he was just through college, and had seemed very proud and
+fond of his fine estate, and had extended his hospitality freely to his
+acquaintances, keeping them, however, at a certain distance, for the
+Crompton pride was always in the ascendant, and he tolerated no
+familiarities, except such as he chose to allow. This genial social life
+lasted a few years, and then there came a change, following a part of a
+winter spent in South Carolina and Georgia with his intimate friend and
+college chum, Tom Hardy. Communication between the North and South was
+not as frequent and direct then as it is now, and but little was known
+of his doings. At first he wrote occasionally to Peter, his head
+servant, to whom he entrusted the care of the house; then his letters
+ceased and nothing was heard from him until suddenly, without warning,
+he came home, looking much older than when he went away, and with a look
+upon his face which did not leave it as the days went on.
+
+"'Spect he had a high old time with that Tom Hardy, and is all tuckered
+out," Peter said, while the Colonel, thinking he must give some reason
+for his changed demeanor, said he had malaria, taken in some Southern
+swamp.
+
+If there was any disease for which Peter had a special aversion it was
+malaria, which he fancied he knew how to treat, having had it once
+himself. Quinine, cholagogue, and whiskey were prescribed in large
+quantities, and Peter wondered why they failed to cure. He did not
+suspect that the quinine went into the fire, and the cholagogue down the
+drain-pipe from the washstand. The Colonel's malaria was not the kind to
+be cured by drugs, and there came a day when, after the receipt of a
+letter from Tom Hardy, he collapsed entirely, and Peter found him
+shivering in his room, his teeth chattering, and his fingers purple with
+cold.
+
+"You have got it bad this time," Peter said, suggesting the doctor, and
+more quinine and cholagogue, and a dose of Warburg's Tincture.
+
+The Colonel declined them all. What he needed was another blanket, and
+to be let alone. Peter brought the blanket and left him alone, while he
+faced this new trouble which bore no resemblance to malaria. He was just
+beginning to be more hopeful of the future, and had his plans all laid,
+and knew what he should do and say, and now this new complication had
+arisen and brushed his scheme aside. He had sown the wind and was
+reaping a cyclone, and he swore to himself, and hardened his heart
+against the innocent cause of his trouble, and thought once of suicide
+as he had on the St. John's the year before. He spent money, just the
+same, upon his handsome grounds; but it was only for the pride he had in
+keeping them up, and not for any pleasure he had in them. He never
+picked a flower, or sat on any of the seats under the trees, and, unless
+the day was very hot, was seldom seen upon his broad piazza, where every
+day Peter spread rugs and placed chairs because his master liked to see
+them there, if they were not used. His library was his favorite place,
+where he sat for hours reading, smoking, and thinking, no one knew of
+what, or tried to know, for he was not a man to be easily approached, or
+questioned as to his business. If he had malaria it clung to him year
+after year, while he grew more reserved and silent, and saw less and
+less of the people. Proud as Lucifer they called him, and yet, because
+he was a Crompton, and because of the money he gave so freely when it
+was asked for, he was not unpopular; and when the town began to grow in
+importance on account of its fine beach and safe bathing, and a movement
+was made to change its name from Troutburg to something less plebeian,
+Crompton was suggested, and met with general approval. No one was better
+pleased with the arrangement than the Colonel himself, although he did
+not smile when the news was brought to him. He seldom smiled at
+anything, but there was a kindling light in his eyes, and his voice
+shook a little as he thanked the committee who waited upon him. To be
+known as "Col. Crompton of Crompton" was exceedingly gratifying to his
+vanity, and seemed in a way to lift the malarious cloud from him for a
+time at least.
+
+It was more than three years since Tom Hardy's letter had thrown him
+into a chill, and everything as yet was quiet. Nothing had come from the
+South derogatory to him, and he had almost made himself believe that
+this state of things might go on for years, perhaps forever, though that
+was scarcely possible. At all events he'd wait till the storm burst, and
+then meet it somehow. He was a Crompton and had faith in himself, and
+the faith was increased by the compliment paid by his townspeople; and
+as he was not one to receive a favor without returning it, he conceived
+the idea of giving an immense lawn-party, to which nearly everybody
+should be invited. He had shut himself up too much, he thought--he must
+mingle more with the people, and build around himself a wall so strong
+that nothing in the future could quite break it down.
+
+Peter and the rest of his servants were consulted and entered heartily
+into his plan. Cards of invitation were issued bearing the Crompton
+monogram, and a notice inserted in the daily paper to the effect that
+any who failed to receive a card were to know it was a mistake, and come
+just the same. There was a great deal of excitement among the people,
+for it had been a long time since any hospitality had been extended to
+them, and they were eager to go, knowing that something fine was to be
+expected, as the Colonel never did anything by halves. The day of the
+lawn-party was perfect--neither too hot nor too cold--and the sun which
+shone upon that humble funeral in the palmetto clearing shone upon a
+very different scene in the Crompton grounds, where the people began to
+assemble as early as one o'clock. The grass on the lawn was like velvet,
+without a stick or stone to be seen, for two gardeners had been at work
+upon it since sunrise, cutting and raking, and sprinkling, until it was
+as fresh as after a soft summer shower. The late roses and white lilies
+were in full bloom, the latter filling the air with a sweet odor and
+making a lovely background. There were tables and chairs under the
+maples and elms, and rugs and pieces of carpet wherever there was a
+suspicion of dampness in the ground. There was a brass band in one part
+of the grounds, and a string band in another, where the young people
+danced under the trees. Refreshments were served at five o'clock, and
+the festivities were kept up till the sun went down, and half the
+children were sick from overeating--the mothers were tired, and some of
+the men a little shaky in their legs, and thick in their speech, from a
+too frequent acquaintance with the claret punch which stood here and
+there in great bowls, free as water, and more popular. The crowning
+event of the day came when the hundreds of lanterns were lighted on the
+piazzas and in the trees, and every window in the house blazed with
+candles placed in so close proximity to each other, that objects could
+be plainly seen at some distance.
+
+The Colonel was going to make a speech, and he came out upon an upper
+balcony, where the light from ten tall lamps fell full upon him,
+bringing out every feature of his face distinctly. He was rather pale
+and haggard, but the people were accustomed to that, and charged it to
+the malaria. He was very distinguished looking, they thought, as they
+stood waiting for him to commence his speech. All the afternoon he had
+been the most courteous of hosts--a little too patronizing, perhaps, for
+that was his way, but very polite, with a pleasant word for every one.
+He knew he was making an impression, and felt proud in a way as Crompton
+of Crompton, when he stepped out upon the balcony and saw the eager,
+upturned faces, and heard the shout which greeted him. And still there
+was with him a feeling of unrest--a presentiment that on his horizon,
+seemingly so bright, a dark cloud was lowering, which might at any
+moment burst upon the head he held so high. He was always dreading it,
+but for the last few days the feeling had been stronger until now it was
+like a nightmare, and his knees shook as he bowed to the people
+confronting him and filling the air with cheers.
+
+No contrast could have been greater than that between the scene on which
+he looked down--the park, the flowers, the fountains, and the
+people--and the palmetto clearing in far away Florida. He did not know
+of the funeral and the group assembled around the log-cabin. But he knew
+of the clearing. He had been there, and always felt his blood tingle
+when he thought of it, and it was the picture of it which had haunted
+him all day, and which came and stood beside him, shutting out
+everything else, as he began to thank the people for the honor conferred
+upon him by calling the town by his name.
+
+He didn't deserve it, he said. He didn't deserve anything from anybody.
+
+"Yes, you do," went up from a hundred throats, for under the influence
+of the good cheer and the attention paid them the man was for the time
+being a hero.
+
+"No, I don't," he continued. "I am a morally weak man--weaker than
+water where my pride is concerned--and if you knew me as I know myself
+you would say I was more deserving of tar and feathers than the honor
+you have conferred upon me."
+
+This was not at all what he intended to say, but the words seemed forced
+from him by that picture of the palmetto clearing standing so close to
+him. His audience did not know what he meant. So far as they knew he had
+been perfectly upright, with no fault but his pride and coldness by
+which he came rightfully as a Crompton. He must have visited the punch
+bowls too often, they thought, and didn't know what he was talking
+about. After a pause, during which he was trying to thrust aside the
+clearing, and the log-house, and the old woman in her chair, and Mandy
+Ann, and to pull himself together, he went on to say:
+
+"You have been for a long time discussing the site of a new
+school-house, in place of the old one which stands so near the marshes,
+that it is a wonder your children have not all died with fever and ague.
+Some of you want it on the hill--some under the hill--some in one place,
+and some in another. Nobody wants it near his own premises. A
+school-house with a lot of howling children is not a desirable neighbor
+to most people. For my part I don't object to it. I like children."
+
+Here he stopped suddenly as the image of a child he had never seen came
+before him and choked his utterance, while the people looked at each
+other, and wondered how long he had been so fond of children. It was
+generally conceded that he did not care for them--disliked them in
+fact--and he had never been known to notice one in any way. Surely he
+had been too near the claret bowls. He detected the thought of those
+nearest to him, and continued:
+
+"I am not one to show all I feel. It is not my nature. I am interested
+in children, and as proof of it I will tell you my plan. There are two
+acres of land on the south side of the park. I fenced it off for an
+artificial pond, but gave it up. There is a spring of good water there,
+with plenty of shade trees for the children to play under. I will give
+this land for the new school-house."
+
+Here he was obliged to stop, the cheers were so deafening. When they
+subsided he went on rapidly:
+
+"I will build the house, too. Such an one as will not shame District No.
+5 in Crompton. It shall be a model house, well lighted and ventilated,
+with broad, comfortable seats, especially for the little ones, whose
+feet shall touch the floor. It shall be commenced at once, and finished
+before the winter term."
+
+He bowed and sat down, white and perspiring at every pore, and hardly
+knowing to what he had committed himself. The cheers were now a roar
+which went echoing out into the night, and were heard nearly as far as
+the village on the beach, the people wondering more and more at his
+generosity, and sudden interest in their little ones. And no one
+wondered more than himself. He did not care a picayune for children, nor
+whether their feet touched the floor or not, and he had not intended
+pledging himself to build the house when he began. But as he talked, the
+palmetto clearing stared him in the face, shutting out everything from
+his vision, except a long seat directly in front of him, on which
+several little girls whose feet could not touch the ground were fast
+asleep, their heads falling over upon each other, and the last one
+resting upon the arm of the settee. It was a pretty picture, and stirred
+in him feelings he had never experienced before. He would do something
+for the children, expiatory, he said to himself, as he sat down,
+thinking he ought to be the proudest and happiest of men to have the
+town called for him, and to stand so high in the esteem of his fellow
+citizens. What would they say if they knew what he did, and how cowardly
+he was because of his pride. Sometime they must know. It could not be
+otherwise, but he would put off the evil day as long as he could, and
+when, at last, his guests began to leave, and he went down to bid them
+good-night, his head was high with that air of patronage and superiority
+natural to him, and which the people tolerated because he was Col.
+Crompton.
+
+That night he had a chill--the result of so much excitement to which he
+was not accustomed, he said to Peter, who brought him a hot-water bag
+and an extra blanket, and would like to have suggested his favorite
+remedies, quinine and cholagogue, but experience had taught him wisdom,
+and putting down the hot-water bag and blanket, he left the room with a
+casual remark about the fine day, and how well everything had passed
+off, "only a few men a little boozy," he said, "and three or four
+children with bruised heads caused by a fall from a swing."
+
+The lawn-party had been a great success, and the Colonel knew he ought
+to be the happiest man in town, whereas he was the most miserable. He
+could not hear Mandy Ann's curses as she knelt on her mistress's grave,
+nor see her dusky arms swaying in the darkness to emphasize her
+maledictions. He didn't know there was a grave, but something weighed
+him down with unspeakable remorse. Every incident of his first visit
+South came back to him with startling vividness, making him wonder why
+God had allowed him to do what he had done. Then he remembered his trip
+on the "Hatty," when he kept himself aloof from everybody, with a morbid
+fear lest he should see some one who knew him, or had heard of him, or
+would meet him again. He remembered the log-house and his supper, when
+Mandy Ann served from a dinner-plate, and his napkin was a pocket
+handkerchief. He remembered the mumbling old woman in her chair; but
+most of all he remembered the girl who sat opposite him. Her face was
+always with him, and it came before him now, just as it was in the
+moonlight, when she said: "You can trust me. I will do the best I can."
+
+She had stood with her hands upon the fence and he saw them as they
+looked then, and holding up his own he said, "They were little brown
+hands, but they should have been white like mine. Poor Dory!"
+
+There was a throb of pity in his heart as his remorse increased, and the
+hot night seemed to quiver with the echo of Mandy Ann's "cuss him, cuss
+him wherever he may be, and if his bed is soff as wool doan' let him
+sleep a wink." His bed was soft as wool, but it had no attraction for
+him, and he sat with his hot-water bag and blanket until his chill
+passed, and was succeeded by a heat which made him put blanket and bag
+aside, and open both the windows of his room. The late moon had risen
+and was flooding the grounds with its light, bringing out distinctly the
+objects nearest to him. Some tables and chairs were left standing, a few
+lanterns were hanging in the trees, and in front of him was the long
+bench on which the little girls had been sleeping, with their feet from
+the ground, when he made his speech. The sight of this brought to his
+mind the day three years before when, just as his plans were perfected,
+there had come a letter which made him stagger as from a heavy blow,
+while all around him was chaos, dark and impenetrable. In most men the
+letter would have awakened a feeling of tenderness, but he was not like
+most men. He was utterly selfish, and prouder than any Crompton in the
+long line of that proud race, and, instead of tenderness or pity, he
+felt an intense anger against the fate which had thus dealt with him
+when he was trying to do right.
+
+What to do next was the question, which Tom Hardy, as cold and unfeeling
+as himself, answered for him.
+
+"You are in an awful mess," he wrote, "and the only course I see is to
+keep them supplied with money, and let things run until they come to a
+focus, as I suppose they must, though they may not. Florida is a long
+ways from Massachusetts. Few Northerners ever go to Enterprise, and if
+they do they may not hear of the clearing and its inmates. The girl is
+not over-bright. I beg your pardon, but she isn't, and will be apt to be
+quiet when she makes up her mind that she is deserted. The only one you
+have to fear is that nigger, Jake; but I reckon we can manage him; so
+cheer up and never make such an infernal fool of yourself again."
+
+Something in this letter had grated on the Colonel's feelings--the
+reference to the girl, perhaps--but he had decided to follow Tom's
+advice, and let things run until they came to a focus. They had run
+pretty smoothly for three years, and only a few letters, forwarded by
+his friend who now lived in Palatka, and kept a kind of oversight of the
+clearing, came to trouble him. These he always burned, but he could not
+forget, and the past was always with him, not exactly as it was on the
+night after his lawn-party, when it seemed to him that all the powers of
+the bottomless pit had united against him, and if ever a man expiated
+his wrong-doing in remorse and mental pain he was doing it. The
+laudations of the crowd which had cheered him so lustily were of no
+account, nor the honor conferred by giving the town his name. Nothing
+helped him as he stood with the sweat rolling down his face, and looked
+out upon his handsome grounds, which he did not see because of the
+palmetto clearing, and the little child, and the young mother on whose
+grave the moon was shining. Mandy Ann's curse was surely taking effect,
+for no sleep came to him that night, and the next day found him worn and
+pale, and when Peter, sure of a malarious attack worse than usual,
+ventured to offer his cholagogue and quinine, he was sworn at, and told
+to take himself off with his infernal drugs.
+
+"I am tired with yesterday's mob. I shall be better when I am rested,
+and get the taste out of my mouth of Tom, Dick, and Harry tramping over
+the premises," he thought.
+
+This was not very complimentary to the Tom's, and Dick's, and Harry's
+who had tramped through his grounds, but they did not know his thoughts,
+and were full of the lawn-party, and the new school-house, the work on
+which was commenced early in August, when a large number of men
+appeared, and were superintended and urged on by the Colonel himself.
+He did not work, but he was there every day, issuing orders and making
+suggestions, and in this way managing to dissipate in part the cloud
+always hanging over him, and which before long was to assume a form
+which he could not escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE CHILD OF THE CLEARING
+
+
+The school-house was finished, and was a model of comfort and
+convenience. It was well lighted and ventilated, and every child of
+whatever age could touch its feet to the floor. If it were in any sense
+expiatory, it had proven a success, for the palmetto clearing did not
+haunt the Colonel as it had done on the day of the lawn-party. It was a
+long time since he had heard from there, and he was beginning to wonder
+if anything had happened, when Peter brought him an odd-looking letter,
+directed wrong side up, written with a pencil, and having about it a
+faint perfume of very bad tobacco. It was addressed to "Mr. Kurnal
+Krompton, Troutberg, Mass." The writer evidently did not know of the
+recent change of name, and the letter had been long on the way, but had
+reached its destination at last, and was soiled and worn, and very
+second-class in its appearance, Peter decided, as he took it from the
+office and studied it carefully. No such missive had, to his knowledge,
+ever before found its way into the aristocratic precincts of Crompton
+Place. If it had he had not seen it, and he wondered who could have sent
+this one. He found his master taking his breakfast, and, holding the
+letter between his thumb and fingers, as if there were contamination in
+its touch, he handed it to him.
+
+"Fairly turned speckled when he looked at it," Peter thought, as he left
+the room. "Wish I had seen where it was mailed."
+
+An hour later, Jane, the housemaid, came to him and said, "The Colonel
+wants you."
+
+Peter found him in his bedroom, packing a satchel with a shaking hand
+and a face more speckled than it had been when he read the letter.
+
+"Peter," he said, "fold up these shirts for me, and put in some collars
+and socks. I am going on a little trip, and may be gone two weeks, maybe
+more. Hold your tongue."
+
+When he wished Peter to be particularly reticent, he told him to hold
+his tongue. Peter understood, and held it, and finished packing the
+satchel, ordered the carriage for the eleven o'clock train, and saw his
+master off, without knowing where he was going, except that his ticket
+was for New York.
+
+"That smelly letter has something to do with it, of course," he said. "I
+wish I knew where it was from."
+
+He was arranging the papers on the library table, when he stopped
+suddenly with an exclamation of surprise, for there, under his hand, lay
+the smelly letter, which the Colonel had forgotten to put away.
+
+"Phew! I thought I got a whiff of something bad," he said, and read
+again the superscription, with a growing contempt for the writer.
+"Nobody will know if I read it, and I shall hold my tongue, as usual,"
+he thought, his curiosity at last overcoming his sense of honor.
+
+Opening the envelope, he took out the piece of foolscap, on which was
+neither date nor name of place.
+
+"Kurnal Krompton," it began. "Yer fren' in Palatky done gone to Europe.
+He tole me yer name 'fore he went, an' so I rite meself to tell you Miss
+Dory's ded, an' ole Miss, too. She done dide a week ago, an' Miss Dory
+las' July. What shal I do wid de chile? I shood of rit when Miss Dory
+dide, but Mandy Ann an' me--you 'members Mandy Ann--sed how you'd be
+comin' to fotch her rite away, an' we cuddent bar to part wid her whilst
+ole Miss lived. But now she's done ded de chile doan or'to be brung up
+wid Crackers an' niggers, an' den dar's de place belonged to ole Miss,
+an' dar's Mandy Ann. She doan' or'ter be sole to nobody. I'd buy her an'
+set her free ef I had de money, but I hain't. She's a rale purty
+chile--de little girl. You mite buy Mandy Ann an' take her for lil
+chile's nuss. Jake Harris."
+
+"Jerusalem!" Peter exclaimed. "Here's a go. Who is Miss Dory? Some
+trollop, of course--and she is dead, and old Miss, too. Who is old Miss?
+and who is Mandy Ann the Colonel is to buy? I'd laugh, rank Abolitionist
+as he is! And what will he do with a child? Crackers and niggers? What
+is a Cracker?"
+
+Peter had no opinion on that head. He knew what a nigger was, and at
+once detected another odor besides bad tobacco, and opened the window to
+air the room. Then he began to study the postmark to see where the
+letter came from. It was not very clear, and it took him some time to
+make out "Palatka, Fla." The latter baffled him, it was so illegible,
+but he was sure of "Palatka," and wondered where it was. Hunting up an
+atlas, he went patiently through State after State, till he found
+Palatka, on the St. John's River, Florida.
+
+"Florida! That's where he's gone. There are niggers enough there, but
+who the Crackers are is beyond me," Peter said. "I believe I'll copy
+this, letter."
+
+He did copy it, and then waited for developments.
+
+Meanwhile the Colonel was hurrying South as fast as steam could take
+him. Arrived in New York, he found himself in time to take a boat bound
+for Savannah, and shutting himself up in his stateroom sat down to
+analyze his feelings, and solve the problem which had for so long been
+confronting him. A part of it was solved for him. Eudora was dead; but
+there was the child. Something must be done with her, and Jake's words
+kept repeating themselves in his mind:
+
+"She doan or'ter be brung up wid Crackers an' niggers."
+
+"No, she don't or'ter," the Colonel thought, involuntarily adopting
+Jake's dialect; but what to do with her was the question.
+
+If Tom Hardy had been home he would have consulted him, but Tom was
+away, and he must face the difficulty alone, knowing perfectly well what
+his duty was, and finally making up his mind to do it. If he chose to
+adopt a child it was no one's business. As a Crompton he was above
+caring for gossip or public opinion. To be sure the child would be a
+nuisance, and a constant reminder of what he would like to forget; but
+it was right, and he owed it to the mother to care for her little girl.
+He began to think a good deal of himself for this kind of reasoning, and
+by the time he reached Jacksonville he had made up his mind that he was
+a pretty nice man after all, and felt happier than he had in years.
+Death had closed one page of his life, and the distance between Florida
+and Massachusetts would close the other, and he was much like himself
+when he at last stepped on board the "Hatty," and started up the river.
+
+There was room for him at the Brock House this time, and he registered
+his name. "Col. James Crompton, Crompton, Mass.," and said he had come
+to look after a family in the palmetto clearing, Harris was the name,
+and through a friend he was interested in them. The landlord was not the
+same who had been there on the occasion of the Colonel's first visit,
+but he knew something about the clearing, and volunteered whatever
+information he had concerning the family, speaking of the recent death
+of the demented old woman, and of the little child left to the care of
+two negroes, and saying, he hoped the gentleman had come to take it to
+its friends, if it had any.
+
+The Colonel bowed and said that was his business, and early the next
+morning started on foot along the road he had trodden twice before, and
+which brought Eudora before him so vividly that it seemed as if she were
+walking at his side, and once, as some animal ran through the bushes
+near the grave at the turn of the road, he started at the sound as if it
+had been the rustle of Eudora's white dress as he heard it that day. He
+was beginning to get nervous, and by the time the clearing was reached
+he was as cold as he had been at home, when Peter brought him the
+hot-water bag and blanket. He noticed the improvements which had been
+made in the place since he was there last, and knew it was Jake's
+handiwork. He had never seen the man, and shrank a little from meeting
+him, knowing how infinitely superior to himself in a moral way the poor
+African was. He remembered Mandy Ann perfectly, and recognized her as
+she came to the door, shading her eyes with her hand to look at him;
+then she disappeared suddenly, and Jake, who was at the rear of the
+house, fixing a barrel to catch rain-water, was clutched by the arm, and
+nearly thrown backwards, as the girl exclaimed: "For the Lawd's sake,
+Jake, it's comin'--it's comin'--it's hyar!"
+
+"What's comin'? The las' day, that you look so skeered?" Jake said,
+while Mandy Ann continued: "De man from de Norf, Cunnel Crompton, you
+call him--done come for lill chile!"
+
+She put her apron over her face and began to cry, while Jake wiped his
+hands, and hurrying round the house, met the Colonel just as he reached
+the door. There was not the least servility in Jake's manner, although
+it was respectful, as he said, "How d'ye, Mas'r Crompton. I'm shoo it's
+you, an' I'se right glad to see you, though I 'spects you done come for
+the lill chile, an' I feel fit to bust when I think of partin' wid her.
+Walk in, walk in; take a cheer, an' I'll sen' Mandy Ann for de lill
+chile. She's in de play-house I made her, jess dis side de graves, whar
+she sits an' plays. Thar's a tree thar an' she calls it de shady."
+
+"Thanks!" the Colonel said, taking a chair, while Jake went for Mandy
+Ann, and found her struggling with the child, not far from the door.
+
+The _chile_ had seen the stranger as soon as Mandy Ann; and as visitors
+were rare at the cabin, and she was fond of society, she left her sand
+pies, and her slice of bread and molasses, and started for the house,
+meeting Mandy Ann, who seized her, saying, "Come an' have on a clean
+frock and be _wassed_. Your face is all sticky, an' han's, too--an' de
+gemman from de Norf, de Cunnel, is hyar."
+
+As it happened, the _chile_ didn't approve of changing her dress and
+having her face washed. She was in a hurry to see the gentleman, and she
+pulled back, and fought, and called Mandy Ann an "ole nigger," and told
+her to "leg-go," and finally wrenched herself free, and ran like a
+little spider to the house, and into the room where the Colonel was
+sitting. Starting to his feet he stood looking down at the mite staring
+at him with her great dark eyes, in which was a look which had puzzled
+the Rev. Mr. Mason when he saw her at her mother's funeral. She was a
+very pretty child, with a round, chubby face just now smeared with
+molasses, as were her fat little hands, while her dress, open at the
+back, showed signs of the sand and water with which it had come in
+contact. And she stood, holding the Colonel with her eyes, until he
+began to feel cold again, and to think of his hot-water bag. He did not
+care for children, and this one--
+
+"Heavens!" he thought to himself. "Can I do it? Yes, I must!"
+
+Then, putting out his hand, he said, "Little girl, will you shake hands
+with me."
+
+Nothing abashed she was going forward, when Mandy Ann rushed in and
+pulled her back, exclaiming: "Oh, sar, not wid dem han's; dey mus' be
+wassed."
+
+"You ole Mandy Ann nigger, you lemme be. I won't be wassed," was the
+sharp reply, and the dark eyes flashed with a fire which made the
+Colonel think of himself when roused, and he began to feel a good deal
+of respect for the spoiled tyrant.
+
+"Little girl," he said, very gently, but firmly, "Go with Mandy and be
+washed, and then come and see--" he came very near saying "see what I
+have brought you," without at all knowing why it should have come into
+his mind.
+
+It had never occurred to him to bring her anything, but he wished now
+that he had, and began to wonder what he had that would please a child.
+He was fond of jewelry, and wore on his watch-chain several ornaments,
+and among them a very small, delicately carved book in ivory. He could
+detach it easily, and he began to do so, while the child eyed him
+curiously. She had seen very few gentlemen, and this one attracted her,
+he was so tall and imposing; and when he said again, "Go and be washed,"
+she obeyed him, and the Colonel was a second time alone, for Jake was
+making his ablutions, and changing his working clothes for his best, in
+which he looked very respectable, when he at last rejoined his guest,
+and began at once in a trembling voice to speak of the business which
+had brought the Colonel there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE COLONEL AND JAKE
+
+
+"I 'lowed you had the best right to her because 'twas you that sent the
+money," he said.
+
+The Colonel neither assented nor dissented, and Jake went on: "Thar is
+nobody else. Miss Dory never tole nothin'; she was silent as de grave
+about--him--de fader of de lill chile, I mean. 'It's all right,' she'd
+say. 'I tole him I wouldn't tell till he came--an' I won't--but, it's
+all right. Elder Covil knows--send for him.' That's just afore she
+died."
+
+"And did you send for him?" the Colonel asked with some alarm, and Jake
+replied: "I went for him an' he wasn't thar--had moved off--an' another
+gemman, the Rev. Mr. Charles Mason, what I foun' at the hotel, 'tended
+de buryin' with his pra'r book, 'case I wanted somethin' 'bout de
+Resurrection an' de Life. 'Twas as fust class a funeral as we could have
+out hyer. She wore her white gown--the one Mandy Ann says she wore when
+you war hyer. You members it?"
+
+The Colonel nodded, and Jake, thinking he could do nothing better than
+repeat all the particulars, went on: "She had a nice coffin from
+Palatka, an' Mandy Ann done fixed her rale nice, wid flowers in her
+han's, an' on her bosom, an', does you 'member givin' Mandy Ann a dollar
+when you's here afore?"
+
+Again the Colonel nodded and Jake went on: "Well, she done bought a
+ring wid some of it--not rale gold, you know, but looked most like
+it--an' what do you think Mandy Ann did, as the last thing she could do
+for Miss Dory?"
+
+Jake was growing excited, and the Colonel nervous, as the negro
+continued: "It was too small for her, to be shue, but she thought a
+sight on't, but more of Miss Dory's good name."
+
+There was a great ridge in the Colonel's forehead, between his eyes, as
+he repeated, "Her good name?"
+
+"Yes, sar," Jake answered. "What could you 'spec when dar's a lill
+chile, and no fader for shoo, as anybody knows, but me an' Mandy Ann,
+an' Mas'r Hardy. Naterally they'd talk. But I 'shured 'em 'twas all
+right, an' knocked down one or two Crackers what grinned when I tole
+'em, an' Mandy Ann did a power of fitin'. She's great at it--jess like a
+cat, an' we got 'em pretty much all under, except a few ole women, who
+never quite gin in till de last. Ole granny Thomas was de worst, an' de
+rest follered her; but she gin in when she seen de ring Mandy Ann
+slipped on Miss Dory's weddin' finger, an' dar wasn't a s'picion on de
+lam' as she lay in her coffin."
+
+The Colonel's lips moved spasmodically, while Jake continued: "Thar was
+a right smart of 'em hyar, an' the minister read from de pra'r book jest
+as I seen 'em in Virginny 'mongst de quality, an' when de blacks set up
+a singin' so loud that ole Aunt Judy nighly had de pow'--dat's a kind of
+fit, you know, when dey gits to feelin' like kingdom come--I stopped
+her. I was boun' to have de funeral fust class. When ole Miss died, I
+let 'em have dar way, an' ole Aunt Judy had de pow' till her missus, who
+was hyar, shook her out on't. That was ole Miss Thomas, who stood out
+agin Miss Dory till she seen de ring. She says to me, says she, 'Does
+you know whar de chile's fader is?' an' says I, 'S'posin' I do?' 'Then
+sen' for him,' says she. 'Tain't fittin' de chile to stay on hyar.' 'I'm
+gwine to sen',' says I, an' I did, an' you've done come. Is you gwine to
+take her?"
+
+Jake's broad chest heaved as he asked this question, to which the
+Colonel replied, "That is what I came for."
+
+Jake had assumed that he was the child's father, and he did not
+contradict him, but said, "You call her the child. Has she no name?"
+
+"Yes, Dory; dat's what her mother called her, but to me dar's only one
+Dory, an' she's dead, an' 'twas handy to say de _lill chile_ or _honey_.
+Is you gwine to take her right away?"
+
+"Yes, when the 'Hatty' goes back," the Colonel replied, with a feeling
+of pity for the negro, whose face was quivering, and whose voice shook
+as he said, "It's best, I s'pose, but 'twill be mighty lonesome hyar,
+with the chile gone from de 'shady' whar she plays, an' from de cradle
+whar I rocks her, an' from dese arms what totes her many a time, when
+she goes through de clarin' in de woods. You wouldn't be wantin' me an
+Mandy Ann to go wid you? De chile is wonderfully 'tached to us, an' has
+some spells only we can manage."
+
+The Colonel shook his head. Jake and Mandy Ann knew too much for him to
+take them North. The child would soon forget its surroundings. People
+would stop wondering after a while, and the past would be bridged over,
+as far as was possible. On the whole the future looked brighter than it
+had done for years, and on this account the Colonel could afford to be
+very suave and gentle with this poor negro.
+
+"No, Jake," he said, very kindly. "You would not be happy at the North,
+it is so different from the South. I cannot take you, nor Mandy Ann, but
+I shall reward you for all you have done for the child, and for her
+mother."
+
+The last words came slowly, and there was a kind of tremor in the
+Colonel's voice.
+
+"I 'specs you are right," Jake said meekly; "but it'll be mighty hard,
+an' what's gwine to become of Mandy Ann? Who does she 'long to, now Miss
+Dory an' ole Miss is both dead? I 'longs to myself, but what of Mandy
+Ann?"
+
+Here was a problem the Colonel had not thought of. But his mind worked
+rapidly and clearly, and he soon reached a decision, but before he could
+speak of it the child appeared. It had taken a long time to wash and
+dress her, for the little hands were grimy, and the face very sticky,
+and a good deal of scrubbing had been necessary, with a good deal of
+squabbling, too--and the Colonel had heard some of the altercations--the
+child's voice the louder, as she protested against the soap and water
+used so freely. Jake had closed one of the doors to shut out the noise,
+saying as he did so, "She's got a heap of sperrit, but not from de
+Harrises, dey hadn't an atom."
+
+It did not puzzle the Colonel at all to know where the _sperrit_ came
+from, and he did not like the child the less because of it. She was in
+the room now, scrubbed till her face shone, and her hair, which was
+curly, lay in rings upon her forehead. Mandy Ann had put on her best
+frock, a white one, stiff with starch, and standing out like a small
+balloon. The Colonel liked her better in the limp, soiled gown, as he
+had seen her first, but she was clean, and she came to him and put up
+her hand as Mandy Ann had told her to do. It was a little soft, fat,
+baby hand, such as the Colonel had never touched in his life, and he
+took it and held it a moment, while the old malarious feeling crept over
+him, and he could have sworn that the thermometer, which, when he left
+the "Hatty" had stood at seventy-five, had fallen to forty degrees. As a
+quietus during the washing, Mandy Ann had suggested that "mabby de
+gemman done brung somethin'," and remembering this the little girl at
+once asked, "Has you done brung me sumptin'? Mandy Ann tole me so."
+
+The Colonel's thermometer dropped lower still at the speech, so
+decidedly African, and his pride rose up in rebellion, and his heart
+sank, as in fancy he heard this dialect in his Northern home. But he
+must bear it, and when, as he did not at once respond to her question,
+she said, "Has you done brung me sumptin'?" he was glad he had removed
+the little ivory book from his watch-chain. It was something, and he
+gave it to her, saying, "This is for you--a little book. Do you know
+what a book is?"
+
+She was examining the ornament on the back of which was carved a
+miniature bar of music, with three or four notes. The child had seen
+written music in a hymn-book, which belonged to her mother, and from
+which she had often pretended to sing, when she played at a _funeral_,
+or prayer meeting, as she sometimes did under the _shady_. Jake had not
+spoken of this habit to the Colonel. He was waiting to take him to the
+graves, and the play-house near them, and he was watching the child as
+she examined the carving. Lifting up her bright eyes to the Colonel,
+she said, "Moosich--me sing," and a burst of childish song rang through
+the room--part of a negro melody, and "Me wants to be an angel"
+alternating in a kind of melody, to which the Colonel listened in
+wonder.
+
+"Me done sing dood," she said, and her eyes shone and flashed, and her
+bosom rose and fell, as if she were standing before an audience, sure of
+success and applause.
+
+Jake did clap his hands when she finished, and said to the Colonel, "She
+done goes on dat way very often. She's wonderful wid her voice an' eyes.
+'Specs she'll make a singer. She's a little quar--dem Harrises--"
+
+Here he stopped suddenly, and asked, "Is you cole?" as he saw the
+Colonel shiver. He knew the Harrises were _quar_, and this dark-haired,
+dark-eyed child singing in a shrill, high-pitched, but very sweet voice,
+seemed to him uncanny, and he shrank from her as she said. "Me sing some
+mo'."
+
+Jake now interfered, saying, "No, honey; we're gwine to yer mother's
+grave."
+
+"Me go, too," the child answered, slipping her hand into the Colonel's
+and leading the way to a little enclosure where the Harrises were
+buried.
+
+The Colonel felt _quar_ with that hand holding his so tight, and the
+child hippy-ty-hopping by his side over the boards Jake had put down for
+a walk to the graveyard.
+
+"Dis mine. Me play here," the child said, more intent upon her
+play-house than upon her mother's grave.
+
+The play-house was a simple affair, which Jake had constructed. There
+were two pieces of board for a floor, and a small bench for a table, on
+which were bits of broken cups and saucers, the slice of bread and
+molasses the child had left when she went to see the stranger, a rag
+doll, fashioned from a cob, with a cloth head stuffed with bran, and a
+book, soiled and worn as from frequent usage. The child made the Colonel
+look at the doll which she called Judy, "after ole mammy Judy, who came
+nigh havin' de pow' at de funeral, an' who done made it for her," Jake
+explained. The book--a child's reader--was next taken up, the little
+girl saying, "Mamma's book--me read," and opening it she made a pretense
+of reading something which sounded like "Now I lay me." The Colonel, who
+had freed his hand from the fingers which had held it so fast, looked
+inquiringly at Jake, who said, "Miss Dory's book; she done read it a
+sight, 'case 'twas easier readin' dan dem books from Palatka; an' she
+could larn somethin' from it, but de long words floored her an' me, too,
+who tried to help her."
+
+For a moment the Colonel seemed agitated, and taking the book from the
+child he said, "Can I have it?"
+
+"No, sar!" Jake answered emphatically. "I wouldn't part wid it for de
+world. It's a part of Miss Dory, an' she tried so hard to read good an'
+be a lady. Mandy Ann lived a spell wid de quality, an' got some o' dar
+ways, an' I got some in Virginny, an' we tole 'em to her, an' she done
+tried till towards de las' she gin it up. ''Taint no use,' she said to
+me. 'I'm 'scouraged. I can never be a lady. Ef he comes after I'm dead,
+tell him I tried an' couldn't.' She meant the chile's fader, her
+husband. Ain't you her husband?"
+
+It was a direct question, and Jake's honest eyes were looking steadily
+at the Colonel, whose lips were white, and opened and shut two or three
+times before he answered, "I am nobody's husband, and never shall be. I
+knew your young mistress, and was interested in her, and shall care for
+the child. Don't ask me any more questions."
+
+Up to this moment Jake had felt quite softened towards the man he had
+once thought to kill. But now he wanted to knock him down, but
+restrained himself with a great effort, and answered, "I axes yer
+pardon, but I'se allus thought so--an'--an'--I thinks so still."
+
+To this there was no reply, and Jake, who had sent home his shaft, which
+he knew was making the proud man quiver, spoke next of a monument for
+Miss Dory, and asked where he'd better get it.
+
+"Where you think best," the Colonel answered. "Only get a good one, and
+send the bill to me."
+
+"Yes, sar; thank'ee, Mas'r," Jake said, beginning to feel somewhat less
+like knocking the Colonel down. "What shall I put on it?" he asked, and
+the Colonel replied, "What was on her coffin?"
+
+"Jess 'Eudora, aged twenty.' I didn' know no odder name--las' name, I
+mean. I was shue 'twan't Harris."
+
+"Put the same on the monument," the Colonel said; "and, Jake, keep the
+grave up. She was a good girl."
+
+"Fo' de Lawd, I knows dat, an' I thank'ee, Mas'r, for sayin' dem words
+by de grave whar mabby she done har'em; thank'ee."
+
+The tears were in Jake's eyes, as he grasped the Colonel's hand and
+looked into the face which had relaxed from its sternness, and was
+quivering in every muscle. The proud man was moved, and felt that if he
+were alone he would have knelt in the hot sand by Eudora's grave, and
+asked pardon for the wrong he had done her. But Jake was there, and the
+child looking on with wide-open eyes, and though she did not understand
+what was said she knew that Jake was crying, and charged it to the
+stranger--"the bad man, to make Shaky cry--I hates 'oo," she said,
+beginning to strike at him.
+
+"Hush! honey, hush!" Jake said, while the Colonel began to feel the need
+of several hot-water bags as he went back to the house where Mandy Ann,
+remembering the hospitable ways at Miss Perkins's when people called,
+had set out for him the best the house afforded, including the china
+plate he remembered so well.
+
+He felt that to eat would choke him, but forced himself to take a sip of
+coffee and a bit of corn bread. The little girl had remained behind in
+her play-house, and he was glad of that. She was a restraint upon him.
+He wanted to talk business, and he did not know how much she would
+understand. When her great bright eyes were on him he felt nervous as if
+she were reading his thoughts, and was more himself with her away. He
+must talk about her and her going with him on the "Hatty," and Jake
+listened with a swelling heart, and Mandy Ann with her apron over her
+head to hide her tears. They knew it must be, and tried to suppress
+their feelings.
+
+"It's like takin' my life," Jake said, "but it's for de best. Miss Dory
+would say so, but, Mas'r Crompton, you'll fotch her back sometime to de
+ole place. You'll tell her of her mudder, an' me, an' Mandy Ann. You
+won't let her done forget."
+
+Nothing could be further from the Colonel's intentions than to let the
+child come back, and everything he could do to make her forget was to be
+done, but he could not say so to Jake, and with some evasive answer he
+hurried on to business, and spoke of the house and clearing, which now
+by right of inheritance belonged to the child. As he assumed her
+guardianship he should also assume an oversight of her property, and it
+was his wish that Jake should stay on the place, receiving a certain sum
+yearly for his services, and having all he could make besides. For
+anything of his own which he had spent on the clearing he was to be
+repaid, and all the money Eudora had put by was to be his. Jake felt
+like a millionaire, and expressed his thanks with choking sobs. Then,
+glancing at Mandy Ann, he asked as he had asked before, "An' what 'bout
+Mandy Ann? I 'longs to myself, but who's she 'long to, now ole Miss an'
+young Miss is dead?"
+
+"Yes, who's nigger be I? Whar am I gwine?" Mandy Ann cried, jerking her
+apron from her head.
+
+"In the natural sequence of things you belong to the little girl," the
+Colonel replied, adding, "I might buy you--"
+
+But he got no further. All of Mandy Ann's animosity, when Ted suggested
+that the man from the North had come to buy her, and she had begged her
+mistress to save her from such a fate, had returned, and she exclaimed
+vehemently, "Fo' de Lawd, not dat ar. Lemme stay hyar. You 'members Ted,
+de colored boy on de 'Hatty.' We's kep' company, off an' on, a year,
+sometimes quarrelin', and den makin' up. I can't leave Ted."
+
+Her soul was in her eyes, as she begged for herself and Ted, and the
+Colonel hastened to say, "You did not let me finish. I couldn't buy you,
+if I would, and if I did I'd set you free. I will see that this is done
+some time."
+
+"Bress you, Mas'r, for dat ar," Mandy Ann began, but the Colonel stopped
+her by saying, "You are young to be keeping company."
+
+"I'se 'most as ole as Miss Dory when lill chile was born," was the
+reply, which silenced the Colonel with regard to her age.
+
+He had quite a liking for Mandy Ann, and meant to do all he could for
+her and Jake, and after some further conversation it was arranged that
+she should stay with the latter, the Colonel promising to see that her
+wages were paid, and saying that she could keep the money for herself.
+He was certainly acting generously towards the two blacks, who would
+have been happy but for the parting with the child, which weighed so
+heavily upon them. There was not much time left, for the "Hatty" sailed
+early the next morning, and the Colonel must be on board that night.
+
+Great as was their grief it was nothing compared to the antagonism of
+the child, when she heard she was to go with the Colonel, and leave Jake
+and Mandy Ann behind. She would _not_ go, she said, and fought like a
+little tiger when that evening the Colonel came for her, and Mandy Ann
+tried to dress her for the journey. Under the table, and lounge, and
+chairs she crawled in her efforts to hide, and finally springing into
+Jake's lap begged him to keep her, promising to be good and never call
+him nor Mandy Ann niggers again, and nearly breaking Jake's heart with
+her tears and pretty coaxings. At last worn out with excitement, and
+feeling that the battle was against her, she sobbed, "Go wid me, Shaky,
+if I goes."
+
+"I 'spects I'll hev to go part way--say to Savannah--ef you gets her off
+quiet. Thar's that in her will make her jump inter de river ef we pushes
+her too far," Jake said, and the Colonel, who was sweating like rain,
+and did not care for a scene on the "Hatty," finally consented for Jake
+to accompany them to Savannah, trusting Providence for what might
+follow.
+
+Thus quieted the child made no resistance when Mandy Ann changed her
+soiled white dress for one more suitable for the trip, and then began to
+pack her few belongings. Here the Colonel stopped her. He did not know
+much about children's clothes, but he felt intuitively that nothing of
+the child's present wardrobe would ever be worn at Crompton Place. He
+did not say this in so many words, but Mandy Ann understood him and
+asked, "Ain't she to carry nothin'?"
+
+"Nothing but what is necessary on the road," the Colonel replied, and an
+old satchel was filled with a night-dress, a clean apron, a pair of
+stockings, and Mandy Ann's tears, which fell like rain as she performed
+her last office for the little girl, who, now that Jaky was going, began
+to look forward to the trip with childish delight.
+
+Judy was wrapped carefully in paper and put into the satchel, and then
+she was ready. Mandy Ann went with her to the boat, where, as it was
+late, scarcely any one was visible except Ted, to whom Mandy Ann
+intrusted her charge, bidding him _'muse_ her when he could, and
+whispering to him the good luck which had come to her and Jake through
+the Colonel's generosity. Then with a terrible wrench in her heart, she
+took the child in her arms and said, "Doan' you forget me, honey, an'
+some time you'll be comin' agen. Oh, I can't bar it!" and with a wail
+which was scarcely like a human cry she dropped the child, and hurrying
+from the boat ran swiftly up the lane, and was soon out of sight. There
+were two or three bursts of tears for Mandy Ann, but for the most part
+the little girl was quiet until Savannah was reached, and she heard Jake
+was to leave her. Then she showed of what she was capable, and the
+Colonel looked on aghast, wondering what he should do when Jake was
+gone. She had played on the way with Judy, whose appearance had provoked
+a smile from some of the passengers, making the Colonel wonder if there
+were not something more reputable in looks than Judy, with her features
+of ink and the sewed-up gash in the side of her neck from which a little
+bran was still oozing. He didn't know much about dolls, but was sure
+there must be some in Savannah, and he went on a tour of inspection, and
+found a gold ring with a small stone in it for Mandy Ann in place of the
+one buried with poor Dory. This he would give to Jake to take home to
+the negro girl, he thought, and then continued his search for dolls,
+finding one which could stand up, and sit down, and was gorgeous in a
+satin dress, with earrings in its ears. This was more in keeping with
+his ideas, and he took it to the hotel, hoping he had seen the last of
+Judy, who, he suggested, should be thrown away. He didn't know children.
+The little girl was delighted with her new doll, which she handled
+gingerly, as if afraid to touch it, and which she called Mandy Ann. But
+she clung to Judy just the same, quite to the disgust of the Colonel.
+
+Poor Jake grew thin during the few days they spent in Savannah, and he
+knew he was nearing the end.
+
+"I must buy her somfin'," he thought, and one morning when he was
+walking with her past a dry goods store he saw in the window a little
+scarlet merino cloak, lined with white satin, and looking so pretty that
+he stopped to look at it, while the little girl jumped up and down,
+exclaiming, "Oh, the buffitel cloak. Me wants it, Shaky; me wants it."
+
+Going into the store Jake inquired the price, which was so large that
+his heart sank. It would take nearly all the money he had with him to
+buy it, but reflecting that the Colonel was paying his bills, and that
+on his return home he could eat two meals a day, and light ones at that,
+until he had saved the required sum, he bought the cloak; and, when the
+final parting came, wrapped it round the little girl, and carrying her
+to the steamer put her down, and left hurriedly, while she rolled on the
+floor screaming for Shaky, and bumping her head against a settee. As the
+boat moved off, Jake stood on the wharf watching it for a long distance,
+with a feeling that all the brightness of his life had vanished with the
+little girl, whom the harassed and half-crazed Colonel would have given
+much to have left with him had it been practicable.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+EUDORA
+
+
+The Colonel had been gone nearly three weeks and no one knew where he
+was, or thought it strange that they didn't. It was his habit to go
+suddenly and return just as suddenly. Peter had his opinion, and felt
+curious to know if the Colonel would bring back Jake and Mandy Ann
+besides the child, and had many a hearty laugh by himself as he imagined
+the consternation of the household when this menagerie was turned in
+upon them. Naturally his master would let him know when to expect him,
+he thought, and was greatly surprised one morning when a station hack
+drove into the yard, and the Colonel entered the house looking years
+older than when he went away.
+
+With him was a little girl, three years old or more, clinging to his
+hand as if in fear. Her garments were all coarse and old-fashioned,
+except the scarlet merino cloak. The hood was drawn over her head, and
+from it there looked out a pair of eyes, which, had Peter ever heard of
+the word, he would have said were uncanny, they were so large, and
+bright, and moved so rapidly from one object to another. She dropped the
+hood from her head, and began tugging at the ribbons of her cloak, while
+her lip quivered as if she were about to cry. It came at last, not like
+anything Peter had ever heard, and was more like a howl than a cry, for
+"Shaky; me wants Shaky."
+
+It was loud, and shrill, and penetrated to all parts of the house,
+bringing Sally, the cook, Jane, the chambermaid, and Sam, the coachman,
+all into the hall, where they stood appalled at what they saw.
+
+"Shaky, Shaky," the child wailed on, frightened by the strange faces
+around her, and as he did not come she threw herself upon the floor, and
+began to bump her head up and down, her last resort when her paroxysms
+were at their height.
+
+The Colonel had borne a good deal since leaving Savannah, and had more
+than once been tempted to turn back and either bring Shaky, or leave the
+child with him. She had cried for him till she was purple in the face,
+and the stewardess had struck her on her back to make her catch her
+breath, and then taken her in her arms, and tried to comfort her.
+Perhaps it was owing to her color that the child took to her so readily
+that the Colonel said to her, "Keep her quiet, if you can, and I do not
+care what I pay you."
+
+After that the little girl staid mostly with the stewardess, and was
+comparatively happy. Judy was a great comfort to her, and she kept it
+hugged to her bosom through the day, and slept with it at night, and
+when she reached the Crompton House it was in the inside pocket of her
+cloak. Becoming detached from the pocket as she rolled on the floor it
+fell at Peter's feet, making him start, it was so unlike anything he had
+seen in years.
+
+"Great guns!" he exclaimed, spurning it with his foot, and sending it
+near the child, who snatched it up with a cry of "Judy, Judy, my Judy."
+
+"Who is she, and where did she come from?" the cook asked, while Jane
+tried to soothe the excited child.
+
+"Her name is Eudora Harris," the Colonel said. "Her father is a sneaking
+scoundrel; her mother was a good woman, and my friend. She is dead, and
+there is no one to care for her child but myself. I have brought her
+home to bring up as my own. Jaky is the colored man who took care of her
+with Mandy Ann, a colored girl. She will cry for her by and by."
+
+As if to prove his words true the child set up a howl for Mandy Ann; "me
+wants Mandy Ann," while the Colonel continued, "She is to be treated in
+all respects as a daughter of the house. Get her some decent clothes at
+once, you women who understand such things. Don't mind expense. Give her
+a pretty room, and I think you'd better hunt up some young person to
+look after her. Until the girl comes Jane must sleep in the room with
+her, and don't bother me unless it is necessary; I feel quite used up,
+and as if I had been through a thrashing-machine. I am not used to
+children, and this one is--well, to say the least, very extraordinary."
+
+This was a good deal for the Colonel to say at one time to his servants,
+who listened in wonder, none of them knowing anything except Peter, who
+kept his knowledge to himself. And this was all the explanation the
+Colonel gave, either to his servants, or to the people outside who knew
+better than to question him, and who never mentioned the child in his
+presence. Gossip, however, was rife in the neighborhood, and many were
+the surmises as to the parentage of the little girl who for a time
+turned the Crompton House upside down, and made it a kind of bedlam when
+her fits were on, and she was rolling on the floor, and bumping her
+head, with cries for Shaky and Mandy Ann. She was homesick, and cared
+nothing for the beautiful things they brought her. Against the pretty
+dresses she fought at first, and then submitted to them, but kept her
+old one in a corner of her room, and Susie, the girl hired to attend
+her, sometimes found her there asleep with her head upon it, and Judy
+held closely in her arms. They bought her a doll-house which was fitted
+up with everything calculated to please a child, but after inspecting it
+a while she turned from it with a cry for her "shady" under the palm
+tree in the clearing. The doll, Mandy Ann, which the Colonel had bought
+in Savannah, never took the place of Judy, who was her favorite,
+together with the scarlet cloak, which she would seldom let out of her
+sight. During the day she kept it round her, saying, "Me's cold," and at
+night she had it near her bed where she could see it the first thing in
+the morning.
+
+The Colonel knew the town was full of speculation and surmises, but he
+did not care. Surmises which went wide of the mark were better than the
+real truth would have been, and that he could not tell. He had left a
+large part of his past in Florida, and trusted it would not follow him.
+He could not leave the little girl, and he meant to do his duty by her,
+outwardly at least. He had no love for her, and could not manufacture
+one. He would rather she had never been born; but inasmuch as she was
+born, and was very much alive, she must be cared for.
+
+There was a private baptism in his library one Sunday afternoon, and she
+was christened Amy Eudora. Amy was for his mother; Eudora for no one
+knew whom, except Peter, who thought of the smelly letter, and knew
+that Eudora was for the young mother, dead somewhere in Florida. But he
+held his tongue, and tried to make up to the little girl her loss of
+Shaky, for whom she cried for days. Then, as she grew accustomed to her
+surroundings, she became contented, and her merry chatter filled the
+house from morning till night. Every one was devoted to her, except the
+Colonel. He was kind, but never encouraged her advances; never kissed
+her, never took her in his lap, or allowed her in his library. She
+called him father, and he answered to the name, while she was Eudora
+Harris to others. He tried at first to call her Amy, but she stoutly
+resisted.
+
+"Me's Dory. Shaky and Mandy Ann calls me Dory," she would say, with a
+stamp of her foot, refusing to answer to any name but Dory, which came
+at last to be Dora as she grew older.
+
+She learned to read in the new school-house by the south gate of the
+park, and when she heard that the Colonel built it, she called it hers,
+and queened it over her companions with an imperiousness worthy of the
+Colonel himself. When questioned of her old home her answers were vague.
+There was a river somewhere, and her mother was sick, and she reckoned
+she had no father but Shaky.
+
+As she grew older, she became very reticent of her past, and, if she
+remembered it at all, she held her tongue, like Peter. Once, when she
+was more than usually aggressive, claiming not only the school-house but
+everything in and around it, she was told by the children that she lived
+with niggers till she came to Crompton Place, and they guessed her
+mother was one, and nobody knew anything about her anyway. There was a
+fierce fight in which Dora came off victorious, with a scratch or two
+on her face and a torn dress. That afternoon the Colonel was confronted
+by what seemed a little maniac, demanding to know if her mother was
+black, and if she had lived only with negroes until she came to
+Crompton.
+
+"No, to both questions, and never let me hear another word on the
+subject as long as you live," was the Colonel's answer, given with a
+sternness before which the girl always quailed.
+
+She was afraid of the Colonel, and kept aloof from him as much as
+possible, rarely seeing him except at meal times, and then saying very
+little to him and never dreaming how closely he watched her, attributing
+every pecularity, and she had many, to the Harris taint, of which he had
+a mortal terror. But however much or little there might have been of the
+Harris blood in her, the few who knew her found her charming, as she
+grew from childhood into a beautiful girl of eighteen, apparently
+forgetful of everything pertaining to her Florida home. The doll-house,
+with all the expensive toys bought for her, had been banished to a room
+in the attic, and with them finally went Judy and Mandy Ann. The red
+cloak she seemed to prize more than all her possessions. It was more in
+keeping with her surroundings than Judy, and she often wrapped it around
+her as she sat upon the piazza, when the day was cool, and sometimes
+wore it on her shoulders to breakfast in the morning. Once she asked the
+Colonel where it came from, and he answered "Savannah," and went on
+reading his paper with a scowl on his forehead which warned her she was
+on dangerous ground. He was not fond of questions, and she did not often
+trouble him with them, but lived her silent life, increasing in beauty
+with every year, and guarded so closely from contact with the outer
+world that she scarcely had an intimate acquaintance.
+
+It was not the Colonel's wish that she should have any. Indeed, he
+hardly knew what he did want. He was aristocratic, and exclusive, and
+wished to make her so, and keep her from contact with the common herd,
+as he secretly designated the people around him. He knew she was
+beautiful, with an imperiousness of manner she took from him, and a
+sweet yielding graciousness she took from her mother. Sometimes a smile,
+or turn of her head, or kindling in her eyes, would bring the dead woman
+so vividly to his mind that he would rise suddenly and leave the room,
+as if a ghost were haunting him. On these occasions he was sterner than
+usual with Eudora, who chafed under the firm rein held upon her, and
+longed to be free.
+
+The Colonel had it in his mind to take her to Europe, hoping to secure a
+desirable marriage for her. He should tell her husband, of course, who
+she was, knowing that money and position would atone for the Harris
+blood, and feeling that in this way he would be entirely freed from the
+page of life which did not now trouble him much. He was still Crompton
+of Crompton, with his head as high as ever. The Civil War had swept over
+the land like a whirlwind. Tom Hardy had been among the first to enlist
+in the Southern army, and been killed in a battle. The Colonel had heard
+of his death with a pang, and also with a certain feeling of relief,
+knowing that he was about the only one who possessed a knowledge of his
+folly, or his whereabouts. There was still Jake, who wrote occasionally,
+asking for his _lill Miss_ and telling of Mandy Ann, whom the war had
+made free, and who had married Ted, and was living in her own house
+outside the clearing. Everything was out of the way except Eudora, who,
+before he had proposed his trip to Europe, took herself from him in a
+most summary manner. The restraint laid upon her was becoming more than
+she could bear, and she rebelled against it.
+
+"I shall elope some day--see if I don't," she said to Peter, who still
+remained in the family, and was her confidant in most things. "I shall
+say 'yes' to the first man who proposes, and leave this prison for the
+world, and the grand sights which Adolph says are everywhere. Here I am,
+cooped up with no young society, and seldom allowed to attend a picnic,
+or party, or concert, and I do so enjoy the latter, only I often feel as
+if I could do better than the professionals. Adolph says I can, and he
+knows."
+
+Adolph Candida was her music teacher, who, alone of the young men in
+Crompton, had free access to the house. He was a fine fellow as well as
+teacher, and had done much to develop Dora's taste and love for music,
+which had strengthened with her years, until her voice was wonderful for
+its scope and sweetness. Naturally there sprang up between the young
+people an affection which ripened into love, and Candida was told by
+Eudora to ask her father's sanction to their marriage. That she could
+stoop to care for her music teacher the Colonel never dreamed, and was
+speechless with surprise and anger when asked by the young Italian for
+her hand. To show him the door was the work of a moment, and then Dora
+was sent for. She came at once, with a look in her eyes which made the
+Colonel hesitate a little before he told her what he had done, and what
+he expected her to do.
+
+"If you disobey me in the slightest, you are no longer a daughter of my
+house," he said, in the cold, hard tone which Dora knew so well, and had
+feared so much.
+
+But the fear was over now. Something had transformed the timid girl into
+a woman, with a courage equal to the Colonel's. For a time she stood
+perfectly still, with her eyes fixed upon the angry man, listening to
+him until he spoke of her as the daughter of the house; then, with a
+gesture of her hands, which bade him stop, she exclaimed, "I did not
+know I was daughter of anything. For fifteen years I have lived here,
+and though you have been kind to me in your way, you have surrounded
+yourself with an air of reserve so cold and impregnable that I have
+never dared ask you who I am, since I was a child, and asked you about
+my mother. You told me then never to mention that subject again, and I
+never have. But do you think I have forgotten that I had a mother? I
+have not. I do forget some things in a strange way. They come in a
+moment and go, and I cannot bring them back, but the face I think was
+mother's is not one of them. Of my father I remember nothing. I have
+been told that when you brought me here you said he was a scoundrel! Are
+you he? Are you my father?"
+
+The Colonel was white as a sheet, and his lips twitched nervously, as if
+it were hard for them to frame the word No, which came at last
+decidedly. Over Dora's face a look of disappointment passed, and her
+hands grasped the back of a chair in front of her, as if she needed
+support.
+
+"If you are not my father, who and what was my mother?" was her next
+question, and the Colonel replied, "She was an honest woman. Be
+satisfied with that."
+
+"I never for a moment thought her dishonest," the girl exclaimed,
+vehemently. "I remember her as some one seen in a dream--a frail little
+body, with a sweet face which seldom smiled. There were other faces
+round us--dusky ones--negroes, weren't they?"
+
+Her eyes compelled the Colonel to bow assent, and she continued, "I
+thought so, and our home was South; not a grand home like this, but a
+cabin, I think. Wasn't it a cabin?"
+
+Again the Colonel bowed, and Dora went on, "There came a day when it was
+full of people, and somebody was in a box, and I sat in Shaky's lap. I
+have never forgotten him. He was all the father I knew."
+
+The Colonel drew a long breath, and she went on, "He held me up, and
+bade me kiss the white face in the box. That was my mother?"
+
+Again her eyes made the Colonel bow assent, and she continued, "After
+that there is a blank, with misty recollections of another box on the
+table, and a walk across hot sands with Shaky, and then I came here,
+where you have tried hard to blot all the past from my memory, as if it
+were something of which to be ashamed. But I shall find my mother's
+family some day, and Shaky, if he is living, and shall know all about
+it. There was a girl, too--Mandy Ann. I called the doll you gave me for
+her. She took care of me when Shaky didn't. He is more distinct. He took
+you to the graves the day you came for me, and I went with you and
+showed you my play-house under the palm tree--the poor little thing,
+but dearer to me than the best you have ever given me, because it was
+hedged round with love, even if it were the love of negroes. Things are
+coming back to me now so vividly, pressing on my brain which feels as if
+it would burst, and I remember the blacks, and their prayer meetings,
+and the songs they sang, and their hallelujahs and amens sound in my
+ears, and I think they always have, and helped me on and up when I have
+been practising difficult music. When a child at school I was often
+taunted and mocked for what the children called my negro brogue and
+talk. We had several battles in which I generally beat, although I was
+one against a dozen. There is a good deal of fight in me which I must
+have inherited from my father, who, I suppose, was a Southerner, if you
+are not he."
+
+The Colonel only glared at her, and she continued, "I have been told,
+too, that there is a negro twang in my voice, and I am glad of it, and
+try to imitate the sounds which come to me from a past I so dimly
+remember, and which I think are echoes from some negro _prar_ meeting.
+You see I have not forgotten the dialect of my early surroundings, and
+some day--I tell you again, I shall find the place and the graves of my
+people, and know what you have kept from me so carefully."
+
+"Better not. You'll be sorry if you do. Your mother's family were
+Crackers," the Colonel said. "You would not be proud of the connection,
+although they were respectable people."
+
+If Dora had ever heard of Crackers she knew very little about them, and
+cared less. She was greatly excited, and her eyes flashed and glowed
+with that light which Mr. Mason and Peter had noticed years before, and
+from which the Colonel turned away as from something dangerous.
+
+"My mother was a Cracker? My father was a Mr. Harris--a Cracker, too. I
+am not your daughter, as I have been weak enough at times to believe,
+and--yes, I will confess it--I was weak enough to be proud that I was a
+Crompton; but that is over now; my father and mother were Crackers. I am
+a Cracker, and Eudora Harris. I am eighteen, and my own
+mistress--amenable to the authority of no one. I am glad for that, as it
+makes me free to do as I please. Good evening."
+
+She bowed and left the room, leaving him stunned that she dared defy
+him, and half resolved to call her back and tell her the truth. But he
+didn't, and it was years before he saw her again.
+
+The next morning she was missing. She had gone with Candida--where, he
+took no pains to inquire. She sent him a New York paper, with a notice
+of her marriage, and the names of herself and husband in the list of
+passengers sailing on the Celtic. He put the paper in the fire with the
+tongs, and after that a great silence fell upon the house, and the
+Colonel grew more reserved than ever, and more peculiar. He forbade the
+servants to mention Dora's name, or tell him where she was, if they
+knew. They didn't know, and many years went by, and to all intents and
+purposes she was dead to those who had known her as a bright, beautiful
+girl. Jake, who wrote to inquire for her, was told that she had run away
+and married, and the Colonel neither knew nor cared where she was, and
+was not to be troubled with any more letters, which he should not
+answer. Jake was silenced, and there was no link connecting the Colonel
+with the past, except his memory which lashed him like the stings of
+scorpions. His hair turned white as snow; there was a stoop between his
+shoulders, and his fifty-five years might have been sixty-five, he aged
+so fast, as time went on, and his great house became so intolerable to
+him that he at last hailed with delight an event which, sad as it was in
+some respects, brought him something of life and an interest in it.
+
+
+
+
+PART II
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+HOWARD CROMPTON TO JACK HARCOURT
+
+
+"Crompton House, June --, 18--.
+
+"Dear Jack:
+
+"I have bearded the lion in his den and found him a harmless old cove,
+after all, with many of his fangs extracted. You know, I am the son of
+his half-brother, who was many years his junior. I fancy the two never
+agreed very well, and when I wrote, proposing that I should visit
+Crompton House, I was surprised at the cordial reply, bidding me pack up
+my traps and come at once. I packed up and came, and, if I know myself,
+I shall stay. I am the only near relative he has in the world. He has a
+large estate to dispose of, was never married, and, of course, has no
+children, unless--
+
+"There must everlastingly be an _unless_, or a _but_ somewhere, and here
+it is--a big one in the shape of a woman--a lovely woman, too, if she is
+nearer forty than twenty. Don't you remember I once told you of a girl
+whom my uncle brought home from the South, and who ran off with her
+music teacher, an Italian. Well, she is here--a wreck physically and
+mentally in one sense; not exactly insane, but with memory so impaired
+that she can tell nothing of her past, or perhaps she does not wish to.
+She always says, when questioned about it, 'I don't remember, and it
+makes my head ache to try.'
+
+"It seems her first husband, Candida, took her abroad and gave her every
+advantage in music, both in Paris and Italy. When he died she married
+Homer Smith, an American, who was associated with him in some way. After
+his return to America he got up what was known as the 'Homer Troupe.' He
+dropped his last name, thinking the _Smith_ Troupe would not sound as
+well as Homer. His wife was the drawing card. She had a wonderful voice
+as a girl, they say, with a peculiarly pathetic tone in it, like what
+you hear in negro concerts, and it was this and her beauty which took
+with the people. She hated the business, but was compelled to sing by
+her husband, who, I fancy, was a tyrant and a brute. They starred it in
+the far West mostly, until her health and mind gave way, and she went
+raving mad on the stage, I believe. He put her in a private asylum in
+San Francisco. How long she was there I don't know, and she don't know.
+She was always a little queer, they say, and people predicted she would
+be crazy some time. Her husband died suddenly in Santa Barbara. Just
+before he died he tried to say something, but could only manage to give
+his physician the Colonel's address, and say, 'Tell him where my wife
+is.'
+
+"Off started the Colonel, lame, and gouty, and rheumatic as he is, and
+brought her home, and has set her up as a kind of queen whose slightest
+wish is to be obeyed. To do her justice she has not many wishes. She is
+very quiet, talks but little, and seems in a kind of brown study most of
+the time. Occasionally she rouses up and asks if we are sure he is
+dead--the he being her husband--the last one, presumably. When we tell
+her he is she smiles and says, 'I think I'm glad, for now I shall never
+have to sing again in public.' Then she says in a very different tone,
+'Baby is dead, too; and my head has ached so hard ever since that I
+cannot think or remember, only it was sudden and took my life away.'
+
+"She has an old red cloak which at times she wraps around a shawl, and
+cuddles it as if it were a baby, crooning some negro melody she heard
+South. There must have been a little child who died, but she is not
+clear on the subject. Sometimes it is a baby; sometimes a grown girl;
+sometimes it died in one place; sometimes in another; but always just
+before she was going to sing, and the room was full of coffins until she
+sank down, and knew no more. Whether my uncle has taken pains to inquire
+about the child, I don't know. He does not like children, and is
+satisfied to have Amy back, and is trying to atone for his former
+harshness. He calls her Amy, instead of Eudora, because the latter was
+the name by which she was known in the Homer Troupe, and he saw it
+flaunted on a handbill advertising the last concert in which she took
+part.
+
+"Don't think I have heard all this from him. He is tighter than the bark
+of a tree with regard to his affairs, and I do not think any one in the
+town knows anything definite about her singing in public, or the asylum;
+but there is a servant, Peter, who has grown old in the family. He knows
+everything, and has told me about my uncle bringing the child home, and
+how she cried for days for Shaky, a colored man, and slept in the red
+cloak, and kept it around her in the day-time because he gave it to
+her. I have learned that she was never lawfully adopted, and that my
+uncle has made no will. Still she must be something to him, but
+certainly not his lawful child, or why his reticence with regard to her.
+I am the only near relative bearing the Crompton name. I have made
+myself very necessary to him--am in fact, in a way, a son of the house.
+He is very much broken, and if he dies without a will--
+
+"Well, all things come to him who waits, and I can afford to wait in
+such comfortable quarters. Do you catch on, and call me a scamp with
+your Puritanical notions? Not so fast, old fellow. You have chosen to
+earn your living delving at the law. I earn mine by being so useful to
+my uncle that he will not part with me. He has already made me a kind of
+agent to attend to his business, so that I look upon myself as
+permanently fixed at Crompton House for as long as I choose to stay. It
+is a grand old place, with an income of I do not know how many
+thousands, and if I should ever be fortunate enough to be master, I
+shall say that for once in his life Howard Crompton was in luck. I want
+you to come here, Jack, when you have finished visiting your sister. I
+asked my uncle if I could invite you, and he said, 'Certainly; I like to
+have young people in the house. It pleases Amy.'
+
+"This is wonderful, as they say he used to keep young people away,
+almost with lock and key, when she was young. But now anything which
+pleases Amy pleases him.
+
+"And now for another matter which involves a girl, Eloise Smith. Who is
+she, you ask? Well, she is neither high born, I fancy, nor city bred;
+nor much like the girls from Wellesley and Lasell, with whom we used to
+flirt. She is a country school-ma'am, and is to be graduated this month
+in the Normal School in Mayville, where you are visiting. What is she to
+me? Nothing, except this: She has haunted me ever since I heard of her,
+and I can't get rid of an idea that in some way she is to influence my
+life. You know I was always given to presentiments and vagaries, and she
+is the last one. I might not have thought much of her if my uncle were
+not in a great way on her account. Long ago when they changed the name
+of the town from Troutburg to Crompton in his honor, he built a
+school-house on his premises, and gave it to the town. Since then he has
+felt that he had a right to control it, and say who should teach, and
+who shouldn't. For a long time the people humored him, and made him
+school inspector, whose business it was to examine the teachers with
+regard to their qualifications. With his old time notions, he had some
+very old-time questions, which with others, he always propounded. As a
+test of scholarship they were ridiculous; but he was Col. Crompton, and
+the people shrugged their shoulders and laughed at what they called the
+Crompton formula. Here are a few of the questions: First, What is logic?
+Second, Why does the wind usually stop blowing when the sun goes down? I
+don't know; do you? and we are both Harvarders. The third introduces a
+man in old Colburn's Arithmetic, driving his sheep or geese to market.
+The fourth is a scorcher, and has to do with the diameter of a
+grindstone, after a certain number of inches have been ground from it.
+Then comes what I call the _piece de resistance_, but which my uncle
+called 'killing two birds with one stone.' He has a fad on writing and
+spelling, and required his victims to put on paper the following:
+
+"'Mr. Wright has a right To write the rites of the church.'
+
+"Blamed if I didn't get stuck on that last _rite_ when he gave it to me!
+If the teachers got safely through with the sheep, or geese, and the
+grindstone, and Mr. Wright, and the rest of them, he gave them a
+certificate declaring them qualified to teach a district school. In
+these days of methods, and analysis, and different ways of looking at
+things, all that is exploded, and the Crompton people have dropped my
+uncle, who is furious, and charges it to young blood, and the normal
+schools which have sprung up, and in which he does not believe. 'No
+matter how many diplomas a girl may have,' he says, 'proving that she
+has stood up in a white gown, and read an esay nobody within four feet
+of the rostrum could hear, or care to hear, if they could, she ought to
+pass a good solid examination to see if she were rooted and grounded in
+the fundamentals,' and when he heard that a normal graduate was engaged
+for District No. 5, he swore a blue streak at the girl, the trustee who
+hired her, and the attack of gout which keeps him a prisoner in the
+house, and will prevent his interviewing Miss Smith, as he certainly
+would if he were able. I tried to quiet him by offering to interview her
+myself. Think of me in a district school-house, talking to the teacher
+about the diameter of a grindstone! The absurdity must have struck my
+uncle. You should have seen the look he gave me over his spectacles, as
+he said, 'You, who know nothing, except ball games, and boat races, and
+raising the devil generally, interview a girl with a diploma! You would
+probably end by making love to her, but I won't have it; mind, I won't
+have it! Remember, you are a Crompton, and no Crompton ever married
+beneath him!' Here he stopped suddenly, and turned so white that I was
+alarmed, and asked what ailed him.
+
+"'Nothing,' he said, 'nothing but a twinge. I had an awful one.'
+
+"I suppose he referred to his foot, which was pretty bad that day. After
+a little, quite to my surprise, he said, 'If you knew anything yourself,
+you might manage to see if this Smith girl knows anything. Amy can coach
+you. She is rooted and grounded. She was taught in the old school-house,
+which I would never have given the town but for her.'
+
+"What he meant I don't know. What I do know is that Amy has told me why
+the wind stops blowing when the sun goes down, but I'll be hanged if I
+understand much about the rarefaction of the air. Do you? She was very
+glib with the sheep and the geese, but the grindstone made her head
+ache, and she gave it up. I think, however, I have all the knowledge
+necessary to judge whether a girl is rooted and grounded, and now I want
+to know something about the girl. Manage to see her while you are in
+Mayville. Attend the commencement exercises. She is sure to read an
+essay in a white gown. Write me what she is like, and if I am likely to
+fall in love with her. Come as soon as you can.
+
+"Always your friend,
+
+"HOWARD CROMPTON."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+JACK HARCOURT TO HOWARD CROMPTON
+
+
+Mayville, July --, 18--.
+
+"Dear Howard:
+
+"That you are a scamp of the first water goes without saying,
+insinuating yourself into an eccentric old man's confidence in hopes to
+be his heir! I dare say, Amy is his daughter, and you will have to work
+for a living after all, and serve you right, too. But have a good time
+while you can, and I'll help you after a little, as I accept your
+invitation with pleasure.
+
+"Now for the girl! I have seen her, and if there was ever a case of love
+at first sight, I'm that case. It was this way. Mayville is not a very
+lively place, and when my sister, Mrs. Lovell, who you know has a summer
+home here, suggested one morning that we attend the commencement
+exercises of the Normal School, saying, that twenty-five or thirty young
+girls were to be graduated, I concluded that it was better than nothing.
+I hate such places, as a rule, they are so close and stuffy, and the
+essays so long and dull, and the girls all look pretty much alike, and I
+begged Bell to get a seat as near the door as possible, so I could go
+out when it became unendurable. Just then your letter was brought to me,
+and after reading it, nothing could have kept me from Eloise Smith. I
+asked Bell if she knew her.
+
+"'I don't know many of the girls by name,' she said, 'but I have heard
+of Eloise Smith. She sings in the choir, and is a basket-boarder of Mrs.
+Brown's.'
+
+"'What the mischief is a basket-boarder?' I asked, and Bell explained
+that girls sometimes hire a room, and bring their food from home, and
+have the family with whom they lodge cook it for them, or cook it
+themselves on the family stove. A kind of picnic to get an education,
+you see, and just think of all we spent uselessly in college. Why, it
+would keep a lot of basket-boarders. Well, we started for the chapel,
+which was literally crammed, and the thermometer at ninety. You know,
+Mr. Lovell is wealthy, and from New York, and that makes Bell a kind of
+swell woman in the place, while I fancy your humble servant had
+something to do with the attention we received. Instead of a seat by the
+door, we were pushed to the front, within ten feet of the rostrum, and I
+was wedged in with Bell on one side of me, afraid I'd jam her sleeves,
+and on the other side was a woman, who weighed at least two hundred, and
+was equally afraid of her sleeves. In front of me was a hat so big that
+I couldn't begin to see all the stage, and but for Eloise I'd have got
+out some way, I was so uncomfortable with Bell fanning on one side till
+that rheumatic spot on my shoulder, which troubled me some at Harvard,
+began to ache, and the fat woman the other side mopping her face with a
+handkerchief saturated with cheap perfumery, and the big hat in front
+flopping and nodding this way and that, and no place to stretch my long
+legs.
+
+"There was a prayer, a song circle, and _et ceteras_, and a great
+flutter in a row of white dresses, and many colored ribbons to my left.
+'The Graduates,' Bell whispered, and the business of the day began.
+There were eight in all to read essays--nice looking girls, and much
+like the Lasells and Wellesleys we used to know. As for the
+essays--well, there was either a good deal of bosh in them, or a
+profundity of learning and thought to which Jack Harcourt never
+attained. But the people cheered like mad whenever one was ended, and
+sent up flowers, while I grew hotter and hotter, and when the seventh
+went up, and unfolded the 'Age of Progress and Reason,' which looked as
+if it might last an age, I made up my mind to bolt, and said so to Bell.
+
+"'Keep still; there's only one more after this one, and that is Eloise
+Smith,' she said.
+
+"I thought of you, and settled myself for another fifteen minutes, while
+a red-haired girl in glasses went through the 'Age of Progress and
+Reason' with great applause, and a basket of flowers, and bowed herself
+off the stage. There was a little delay. Somebody had fainted. I wonder
+they didn't all faint, the air was so hot and thick; and to crown all,
+the window near us had to be shut, because that fat woman didn't want a
+draught on her back! When they got the fainting person out, and the
+window shut, I saw the flutter of a white dress, and knew the eighth and
+last essay was coming.
+
+"'That's Eloise,' Bell said, as a slender little girl walked on to the
+rostrum, looking as fresh, and cool, and sweet as a--well, as the white
+lilies of which I am so fond.
+
+"'By George!' I said, so loud that those nearest me must have heard me,
+and wondered what ailed me.
+
+"Perhaps she heard me, for she looked at me with her beautiful eyes,
+which steadied me, and kept me quiet all through her essay. Don't ask
+me what it was about. I don't know. I was so absorbed in the girl
+herself, she was so graceful, and pretty, and self-possessed, and her
+voice was so musical that I could think of nothing but her; and when she
+finished I cheered louder than anybody else, and kept on cheering as
+they do in plays when they want them to come back, till Bell nudged my
+side, and whispered, 'Are you crazy? Everybody is looking at you.'
+
+"I was a little ashamed to be spatting away alone, but it pleased the
+fat woman, who proved to be Mrs. Brown, the keeper of the
+basket-boarders.
+
+"'That's Miss Smith. She done nice, didn't she, and she or'to of had
+some flowers,' she said to me; and then I remembered with a pang that
+not a flower had been sent up to her--the flower of them all--and wished
+I had a whole green-house to give her.
+
+"Did she think of it? I wondered, as I watched her after she sat down.
+The big hat had moved a little, and I could see the top of Eloise's
+head, with its crown of reddish-brown hair, on which a gleam of sunshine
+from a window fell, bringing out tints of gold, as well as red. That
+sounds rather poetical, don't it? for a prosy chap who professes never
+to have been moved by any piece of femininity, however dainty. I'll
+confess I was moved by this little girl. She is very slight and very
+young, I judge. I like Mrs. Brown, and do not think her perfumery bad,
+or herself very fat, and am glad they had the window shut for her. I
+wouldn't have her in a draught for anything, because she told me Eloise
+was the nicest girl she ever had in her house, and the best scholar in
+her class. Of course she is; I'd swear to that. She may not be rooted
+and grounded in the fundamentals your queer old uncle thinks necessary,
+and I doubt if she knows about the grindstone, and the rest of it. I'd
+laugh to see a great hulking fellow like you questioning her on such
+subjects. I've a great mind to write out the lingo, and send it to her
+anonymously, so she will be prepared to satisfy your uncle, who, I
+fancy, is the Great Mogul of Crompton.
+
+"I got quite chummy with Mrs. Brown before the exercises were over, and
+she told me Eloise lived in North Mayville with her grandmother, and
+that she was real glad she had a place to teach in Crompton, for she
+needed it.
+
+"'Poor?' I asked, feeling ashamed of myself for the question.
+
+"But Mrs. Brown saw nothing wrong in it, and answered, 'Very.'
+
+"Just then Bell nudged me again, and said, 'Let's go. We can get out
+now. You don't care to see them receive their diplomas?'
+
+"But I did, and sat it out till Eloise had hers, and I saw her face
+again, and saw, too, what I had not noticed before, that her dress
+looked poor and plain beside the others. Of course she's poor; but what
+do I care for that? I am a good deal struck, you see, and if there were
+nothing else to bring me to Crompton, Eloise would do it. So expect me
+in September about the time her school commences. When will that be?
+
+"Very truly,
+
+"JACK HARCOURT."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ELOISE
+
+
+It was a brown, old-fashioned house such as is common in New England,
+with low ceilings, high windows, and small panes of glass, and in the
+centre a great chimney of a fashion a hundred years ago. In the grass
+plot at the side, where clothes were bleached and dried, there should
+have been a well-sweep and curb to complete the picture, but instead
+there was a modern pump where an elderly woman was getting water, and
+throwing away three or four pails full, so that the last might be fresh
+and sparkling for the coffee she was to make for the early breakfast.
+Above the eastern hills the sun was rising, coloring everything with a
+rosy tinge, and the air was full of the song which summer sings, of
+flowers and happy insect life, when she is at her best. But the woman
+neither heard the song nor saw the sunshine, her heart was so heavy with
+thoughts of the parting which was so near.
+
+"I can't let her know how bad I feel," she said, fighting back her
+tears, as she prepared the dainty breakfast which she could scarcely
+touch, but which her grand-daughter, Eloise, ate with the healthy
+appetite of youth, and then turned her attention to strapping her trunk,
+while her grandmother began to fill a paper box with slices of bread and
+butter, and whatever else she could find, and thought Eloise would like
+on the road.
+
+"There, I've got it done at last, and hope it will hold till I get
+there, the old lock is so shaky," Eloise said, rising to her feet, and
+shedding back from her face a mass of soft, fluffy hair.
+
+"Please don't put up any more lunch. I can never eat it all," she
+continued, turning to her grandmother; then, as she saw the tears
+dropping from the dim, old eyes, she sprang forward, and exclaimed,
+"Don't cry. You know we promised we would both be brave, and it is not
+so very long to Christmas. I shall certainly be home then, and Crompton
+is not so very far away."
+
+With a catching kind of sob, the elder woman smiled upon the bright face
+uplifted to hers, and said: "I didn't mean to cry, and I am going to be
+brave. I am glad you have the chance."
+
+"So am I," the girl replied, her spirits rising as her grandmother's
+tears were dried. "Ever since I was engaged to go to Crompton I have
+felt an elation of spirits, as if something were going to come of it. If
+it were not for leaving you, and I had heard from California, I should
+be very happy. When a letter comes, forward it at once, and if necessary
+I shall go there during the holidays, and bring her home. I am glad we
+have her room all ready for her. I must see it once more."
+
+Running upstairs she opened the door of a large chamber, and stood for a
+moment inspecting it. Everything was plain and cheap, from the pine
+washstand to the rag carpet on the floor; but it was cosey and
+home-like, and the girl who had worked in it so much, papering and
+painting it herself, with her grandmother's help, and then arranging
+and rearranging the furniture until it suited her, thought it fine, and
+said to herself, "She'll like it better than any room she ever had at
+the grandest hotel. I wish she were here. Mother's room, good-by."
+
+She kissed her hand to it and ran downstairs, for it was time to go. The
+train was drawing up at the station, a short distance from her
+grandmother's door, and in a few minutes she was speeding away towards
+Crompton. At nearly the same hour Jack Harcourt was starting from New
+York for his promised visit to Crompton. His letter has given some
+insight into his character, but a look at his face will give a better.
+It was not a very handsome face, but it was one which every man, and
+woman, and child would trust, and never be deceived. For a young man of
+twenty-six he had seen a good deal of life, both at home and abroad, but
+the bad side had made but little impression upon him.
+
+"It slips from Jack like water from a duck's back, while we poor
+wretches get smirched all over," Howard Crompton was wont to say of him,
+when smarting from some temptation to which he had yielded, and which
+Jack had resisted.
+
+They had been friends since they were boys of eighteen in Europe, and
+Howard had nursed him through a fever contracted in Rome. They had also
+been chums in Harvard, where both had pulled through rather creditably,
+and where Jack had acted as a restraint upon Howard, who was fonder of
+larks than of study.
+
+"Are you sure he is the right kind of friend for you?" Jack's
+sister--who was many years his senior, and who stood to him in the place
+of a mother--sometimes said to him; and he always answered, "He isn't a
+bad sort, as fellows go. Too lazy, perhaps, for a chap who has nothing
+but expectations from a crabbed, half-cracked old uncle, and not always
+quite on the square. But he is jolly good company, and I like him."
+
+Something of this sort he said to his sister, who was in her New York
+home on the day when he was starting for Crompton, and had expressed her
+doubts of Howard's perfect rectitude in everything.
+
+"He isn't a saint," he said to her, "but I don't forget how he stuck to
+me in that beastly place on the Riviera, while every soul of the party
+but him hurried off, afraid of the fever. He is having a grand time at
+Crompton, and I'm going to help him a while, and then buckle down to
+hard work in the office. So good-by, and don't worry."
+
+He kissed her and hurried off to the station, bought the "Century," put
+several expensive cigars in the pocket of his overcoat, took a chair in
+a parlor car, and felt, as the train sped away out of the city, that it
+was good to live, and that Crompton held some new pleasure and
+excitement for him, who found sunshine everywhere.
+
+Moving in the same direction and for the same point was another train,
+in which Eloise sat, dusty and tired, and homesick for the old
+grandmother and the house under the big poplar tree. Added to this was a
+harrowing anxiety for news from California.
+
+"If I do not hear by Christmas, I shall certainly take an extra week in
+my vacation, and go there," she thought; and then she began to wonder
+about Crompton, and District No. 5, and if she would have any trouble
+with the big boys and girls, and how she would like Mrs. Biggs, who had
+boarded the school teachers for twenty years, and was to board her; and
+if by any chance she would ever see the inside of the Crompton House, of
+which she had heard from a friend who had visited in the town and had
+given glowing descriptions of it.
+
+At last, as the air in the car grew cooler, she fell asleep, and did not
+waken till the sun was down, and a great bank of black clouds was
+looming up in the west, with mutterings of thunder, and an occasional
+flash of lightning showing against the dark sky. She might not have
+wakened then if the car had not given a lurch, with a jar which brought
+every one to his feet. The train was off the track, and it would be two
+or three hours before it was on again, the conductor said to the crowd
+eagerly questioning him. There was nothing to do but wait, and Eloise
+did it philosophically. She had dined from her lunch box in the middle
+of the day, and was now glad that her grandmother had put so much in it,
+as it not only served her for supper, but also a tired mother and two
+hungry children. As the car began to grow close again, she left it for a
+breath of the fresh air, which blew over the hills as the storm came
+nearer. She heard some one say it was time for the New York Express,
+which was to pass them at Crompton, and it soon came thundering on, but
+stopped suddenly when it found its progress impeded. She saw the
+passengers alight to ascertain the cause of the hindrance, and heard
+their impatient exclamations at the delay, which would seriously
+inconvenience some of them.
+
+"It may be midnight before we reach Crompton. I wonder if Howard will
+meet me at that late hour," she heard a young man say, the smoke from
+his cigar blowing in her face as he passed where she was sitting on a
+stump.
+
+"He is sure to be there. I saw him day before yesterday, and he is wild
+to have you come. I fancy he finds it rather dull with only a cranky old
+man and a half-crazy woman for associates. Howard wants life and fun,"
+was the reply of his companion, and then the two young men were out of
+hearing.
+
+Who Howard was, or the cranky old man and half-crazy woman, Eloise had
+no idea, nor did she give them a thought. One thing alone impressed
+her,--the late hour when she would probably arrive at Crompton. Would
+any one be there to meet her, or any conveyance, and if not, how was she
+to find her way to Mrs. Biggs?
+
+"Grandma says never cross a river till you reach it, when you will
+probably find a plank, if nothing more," she thought, and settled
+herself to wait through the long hours which elapsed before the welcome
+"All aboard!" was sounded, and the two trains were under way,--the
+accommodation in front, and the express in the rear.
+
+The storm had broken before the trains started, and it increased in such
+violence that when Crompton was reached it was raining in torrents. The
+wind was like a hurricane, with alternate flashes of lightning which lit
+up the darkness, and peals of thunder which seemed to shake the trains
+as they stopped to let off their passengers. There were but two, the
+young man from the parlor car, and the girl from the accommodation. The
+girl was almost drenched to the skin in the downpour before she could
+open her cotton umbrella, which was at once turned inside out. Holding
+her satchel with one hand and struggling to keep her hat on her head
+with the other, she was trying to reach the shelter of the station,
+where a faint light was shining, when the violence of the wind and rain
+drove her backwards, almost into the arms of a young man hurrying past
+her, in a slouched hat and water-proof coat. Thinking him an official,
+she seized his arm and said, "Oh, please, sir, tell me is there any one
+here from Mrs. Biggs's, or any way to get there?"
+
+Her question was inopportune, for at that moment the stranger's umbrella
+met a like fate with her own, and was turned inside out, while hers,
+loosened by the opening of her hand, went sailing off into the darkness
+and rain. She thought she heard an oath before the stranger replied that
+he knew nothing of Mrs. Biggs, and did not think any conveyance was
+there at that hour.
+
+"Hallo, Jack! Is that you? and did you ever know such an infernal storm?
+Nearly takes one off his feet. My umbrella has gone up; so will yours if
+you open it. Didn't see you till I was right on you," was his next
+exclamation, as a vivid flash of lightning lit up the platform, and
+showed Eloise two young men clasping hands within three feet of her.
+
+Howard Crompton had been to the station at the appointed time, and
+learned of the delay of the train in which he expected his friend. Later
+a telephone had told him when the belated train would arrive, and the
+carriage was again ordered, the coachman grumbling, and the Colonel
+swearing to himself at having the horses go out in such a storm. To
+Howard he said nothing. That young man had so ingratiated himself into
+his uncle's good opinion, as to be nearly master of the situation. He
+wrote and answered most of the Colonel's letters, collected his rents,
+and looked after his business generally, and did it so well that the
+Colonel was beginning to feel that he could not get on without him, and
+to have serious thoughts of making it worth his while to stay
+indefinitely.
+
+Nothing could have been further from Howard's wishes than going out so
+late at night, and in such a storm, but the one unselfish passion of his
+life was his attachment to Jack Harcourt. He was not very well pleased
+with the wetting he got, as his umbrella was turned inside out; nor at
+all interested in the girl asking so timidly for Mrs. Biggs, and in his
+pleasure at meeting Jack he forgot her entirely, until the same flash of
+lightning which showed her the two men showed them her white face, with
+an appealing expression on it which Jack never passed by, whether it
+were matron or maid who needed his help. Who the drooping little figure
+was, with the water running down her jacket and off her hat in streams,
+he had no idea from the glimpse he had of her features as the lightning
+played over them for a moment. That she was in trouble was evident, and
+in return to Howard's greeting, he said, "This is a corker of a storm,
+and no mistake, and I do believe I am wet through, but,--" and he spoke
+a little lower,--"there's a girl here near us,--alone, too, I do
+believe."
+
+"Yes, I know," Howard replied. "The station master will see to her. Come
+on to the carriage. The horses are plunging like mad. Sam can't hold
+them much longer."
+
+He moved away, but Jack stood still, for a second flash of lightning had
+shown him Eloise's face again. It was very pale, and tears, as well as
+rain, were on her cheeks.
+
+"Can I do anything for you?" he said, opening his umbrella, and holding
+it over her.
+
+His voice was that of a friend, and Eloise recognized it as such, and
+answered, "I don't know. I am a stranger. I want to go to Mrs. Biggs's.
+Do you know where she lives?"
+
+"I am a stranger, too, and have never heard of Mrs. Biggs," Jack
+replied; "but the station agent will know. He ought to be here. Hallo!
+you, sir! Why are you not attending to your business? Here is a young
+lady," he called out, as the agent at last appeared coming slowly toward
+them, holding a lantern with one hand, and his cap on with the other.
+
+"I didn't s'pose there was anybody here but Mr. Crompton's friend. Who
+is she? Where does she want to go? There ain't no conveyance here for
+nowhere at this hour," he said, throwing the light of his lantern fully
+on Eloise, whose face grew, if possible, a shade paler, and whose voice
+shook as she replied, "I want to go to Mrs. Biggs's. I am to board with
+her. I am the new school teacher, Miss Smith. Can I walk there when the
+storm is over? How far is it?"
+
+"Great guns!" Jack said under his breath, holding the whole of his
+umbrella now over the girl instead of half, while the agent replied,
+"Walk to Widder Biggs's! I'd say not. It's two good miles from here.
+You'll have to sit in the depot till it stops rainin' a little, and I'll
+find you a place till mornin'. Tim Biggs was here when the train or'to
+of come, and said he was expectin' a schoolmarm. Be you her?"
+
+"Yes, oh, yes; thank you. Let me get into the station as soon as I can.
+My umbrella is gone, and I am so cold and wet," Eloise said, with
+catches in her breath between the words.
+
+"Hold on a minit," the agent continued. "The Crompton carriage goes
+within quarter of a mile of the Widder Biggs's. I guess the young man
+will take you. I will ask him."
+
+"No, let me. I'm sure he will," Jack interrupted him, and thrusting his
+umbrella into Eloise's hand, he stumbled through the darkness to the
+corner where he heard Howard calling to him, "Jack, Jack, where in
+thunder are you?"
+
+"Here," Jack replied, making for the voice, and saying to Howard when he
+reached him, "Howard, that's Eloise Smith, the girl I wrote you
+about,--the school teacher. She hasn't a dry rag on her. Her umbrella is
+lost. She wants to go to Widow Biggs's. The agent says it is not far
+from the Crompton Place. Can't we take her? Of course we can. I'll go
+for her."
+
+He hurried off as well as he could, leaving Howard in no very amiable
+frame of mind. He had laughed at Jack's rhapsodies over Eloise Smith,
+and said to himself, "His interest in her will never be very lasting, no
+matter how pretty she is. Jack Harcourt and a basket-boarder! Ha, ha!
+Rich. Still, I'd like to see her."
+
+After that he had nearly forgotten her in his absorbing efforts to keep
+the right side of his uncle, and entertain Amy. And now she was here,
+and Jack was proposing to have him take her to Widow Biggs's, which was
+a quarter of a mile beyond the park gates, Sam said, when consulted as
+to the widow's whereabouts. There was no help for it, but he didn't like
+it, and there was a scowl on his face as he waited for Jack, who came
+at last with Eloise and the agent, whose lantern shed a dim light on the
+handsomely-cushioned carriage when the door was open.
+
+"I'm not fit to get in there, I am so wet," Eloise said, drawing back a
+little.
+
+"As fit as we are," Jack replied, almost lifting her in, and tilting his
+umbrella till one of the sticks struck Howard in the eye, increasing his
+discomposure, and making him wish both Eloise and Mrs. Biggs in a much
+dryer place than he was.
+
+"Now, Howard, in with you. There's a little lull in the rain. We'll take
+advantage of it," Jack continued, as he followed Howard into the
+carriage, where both sat down opposite Eloise, who crouched in her
+corner, afraid she did not know of what. Certainly not of the man who
+had been so kind to her, and who she wished was sitting in front of her,
+instead of the one who did not speak at all, except to ask Sam how the
+deuce they were to know when they reached the Widow Biggs's.
+
+"Easy enough. It is a squat-roofed house with lalock and piney bushes in
+the yard."
+
+"Yes, but how are we to see a squat roof with lalocks and pineys on this
+beastly night?" Howard rejoined, in a tone which told that he was not
+anticipating his trip to the widder Biggs's. "Drive on, for heaven's
+sake," he continued, "and don't upset us. It is darker than a pocket."
+
+"No, sir, not if I can help it. I never knew the horses so 'fraid. Easy,
+Cass--easy Brute," Sam answered, as in response to a flash of lightning
+Brutus and Cassius both stood on their hind feet and pawed the air with
+terror. "Easy, easy, boys. Lightnin' can't strike you but once," Sam
+continued soothingly to the restless, nervous horses, who were at last
+gotten safely from the station, and started down the road which lead
+through the village to Crompton Place.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE ACCIDENT
+
+
+For a short time the carriage went on smoothly and swiftly through the
+town, where the street lamps of kerosene gave a little light to the
+darkness. Once out of town in the country Sam became less sure of his
+way, and as he could not see his hand before him, he finally left the
+matter to the horses, trusting their instinct to keep in the road.
+
+"I shall know when I reach the gate, and so will Brute and Cass; but
+we've got to go farther to the Widder Biggs's, and darned if I b'lieve
+they'll know the place," he thought, with a growing conviction of his
+inability to recognize Mrs. Biggs's squat roof and lilacs and peonies.
+
+The storm which had abated for a short time was increasing again. The
+peals of thunder were more frequent, and with each flash of lightning
+the horses grew more unmanageable, until at last they flew along the
+highway at a speed which rocked the carriage from side to side, and
+began at last to alarm its occupants. Eloise in her corner was holding
+fast to the strap, when a lurid flame filled the carriage for an instant
+with a blaze of light. She had removed her hat, and her face,
+silhouetted against the dark cushions, startled both the young men with
+its beauty. It was very white, except the cheeks which were flushed with
+excitement. Her lips were apart, but her chief beauty was in her eyes,
+which were full of terror, and which shone like stars as they looked
+from one young man to the other.
+
+"Oh, I am afraid. Let me out. I'd rather walk," she cried, starting to
+her feet and grasping the handle of the door.
+
+"Please be quiet. There is no danger. You must not get out," Howard
+said, laying both his hands on hers, which he held for a moment, and
+pressed by way of reassuring her as he pushed her gently back into her
+seat.
+
+She felt the pressure and resented it, and releasing her hands put them
+behind her, lest in the darkness they should be touched again. The same
+lightning which had showed her face to Howard had also given her a
+glimpse of his black eyes kindling with surprise and admiration at a
+beauty he had not expected. A lurch of the carriage sent Jack from his
+seat, and Eloise felt him close beside her. Was he going to squeeze her
+hands, too? She didn't know, and was holding them closely pressed behind
+her, when there was another flash, a deafening peal of thunder, a crash,
+and the next she knew the rain was falling upon her face, her head was
+lying against some one's arm, and two pairs of hands were tugging at her
+collar and jacket.
+
+"Do you think she is dead?" was asked, in the voice which had told her
+not to be afraid.
+
+"Dead!" a second voice replied. "She cannot be dead. She must not be.
+Miss Smith, Miss Smith! Where are you hurt?"
+
+It was on the arm of this speaker she was lying, and she felt his breath
+on her face as he bent over her. With a great effort she moved her head
+and answered, "I'm not dead, nor hurt either, except my foot, which is
+twisted under me."
+
+"Thank God!" Jack said, and instantly the two pairs of hands groped in
+the dark for the twisted foot.
+
+"Oh!" Eloise cried, sitting upright, as a sharp pain shot from her ankle
+to her head. "Don't touch me. I can't bear it. I am afraid it is broken.
+What has happened, and where is the carriage?"
+
+"Home by this time, if Brutus and Cassius have not demolished it in
+their mad fright," Howard said, explaining that at the last heavy peal
+of thunder the horses had swerved from the road and upset the carriage
+at the entrance to the park; that Sam had been thrown to some distance
+from the box, but had gathered himself up, and gone after the horses
+tearing up the avenue. "I shouted to him to come back with a lantern as
+quickly as possible. He'll be here soon, I think. Are you in great
+pain?"
+
+"When I move, yes," Eloise replied, and then, as the full extent of the
+catastrophe burst upon her, she began to cry,--not softly to herself,
+but hysterically, with sobs which smote both Howard and Jack like blows.
+
+It was a novel predicament in which they found themselves,--near
+midnight, in a thunderstorm, with a young girl on the ground unable to
+walk, and neither of them knowing what to do. Howard said it was a
+deuced shame, and Jack told her not to cry. Sam was sure to come with a
+lantern soon, and they'd see what was the matter. As he talked he put
+her head back upon his shoulder, and she let it lie there without
+protest.
+
+After what seemed a long time, Sam came up with a lantern. The carriage
+was badly injured, he said, having been dragged through the avenue on
+its side. Brutus had a gouge on his shoulder from running into a tall
+shrub; he had hurt his arm when he fell from the box, and the Colonel
+was not in a very pious state of mind on account of his damaged
+property.
+
+Eloise heard it all, but did not realize its import, her foot was
+paining her so badly. Jack had helped her up when Sam came, but she
+could not walk, and her face looked so white when the lantern light fell
+upon it, that both men feared she was going to faint.
+
+"What shall we do?" Howard asked, standing first on one foot and then on
+the other, and feeling the water ooze over the tops of his shoes.
+
+"Take her to the Crompton house, of course. It must be nearer than Mrs.
+Biggs's," Jack suggested.
+
+Before Howard could reply, Eloise exclaimed, "Oh, no, I can hop on one
+foot to Mrs. Biggs's if some one helps me. Is it far?"
+
+The two men looked inquiringly at each other and then at Sam, who was
+the first to speak. In the Colonel's state of mind, with regard to his
+carriage and his horses, he did not think it advisable to introduce a
+helpless stranger into the house, and he said, "I'll tell you what; did
+you ever make a chair with your hands crossed--so?"
+
+He indicated what he meant, and the chair was soon made, and Eloise
+lifted into it.
+
+"That's just the thing; but you'll have to put an arm around each of our
+necks to steady yourself," Jack said. "So! That's right! hold tight!" he
+continued, as Eloise put an arm around each neck.
+
+Sam was directing matters, and taking up the lantern and Jack's
+umbrella, which he had found lying in the mud, he said, "I'll light the
+way and hold the umbrella over you. It don't rain much now."
+
+"My hat and satchel, please," Eloise said, but neither could be found,
+and the strange cortege started.
+
+For an instant the ludicrousness of the affair struck both young men,
+convulsing them with laughter to such an extent that the chair came near
+being pulled apart and Eloise dropped to the ground. She felt it giving
+way, and, taking her arm from Howard, clung desperately to Jack.
+
+"Don't let me fall, please," she said.
+
+"No danger; hold fast as you are," Jack answered cheerily, rather
+enjoying the feeling of the two arms clasping his neck so tightly.
+
+What Howard felt was streams of water trickling down his back from the
+umbrella, which Sam held at exactly the right angle for him to get the
+full benefit of a bath between his collar and his neck. He did not like
+it, and was in a bad frame of mind mentally, when, after what seemed an
+eternity to Eloise, they came to three or four squat-roofed houses in a
+row, at one of which Sam stopped, confidently affirming it was the
+Widder Biggs's, although he could not see the "lalock and pineys."
+
+"Knock louder! Kick, if necessary," Howard said, applying his own foot
+to the door as there came no answer to Sam's first appeal.
+
+There was a louder knock and call, and at last a glimmer of light
+inside. Somebody was lighting a candle, which was at once extinguished
+when the door was open, and a gust of wind and rain swept in.
+
+"Are you Mrs. Biggs?" Sam asked, as a tall figure in a very short
+night-robe was for a moment visible.
+
+"Mrs. Biggs! Thunder, no! Don't you know a man from a woman? She lives
+second house from here," was the masculine response.
+
+The door was shut with a bang, and the cortege moved on to the third
+house, which, by investigating the lilac bushes and peonies, Sam made
+out belonged to the Widder Biggs. It was harder to rouse her than it had
+been to rouse her neighbor. She was a little deaf, and the noise of the
+wind and rain added to the difficulty. When she did awaken her first
+thought was of burglars, and there was a loud cry to her son Tim to come
+quick and bring his gun, for somebody was breaking into the house.
+
+"Robbers don't make such a noise as that! Open your window and see who's
+there," was Tim's sleepy answer, as Sam's blows fell heavily upon the
+door, accompanied with thuds from Howard's foot.
+
+Mrs. Biggs opened her window cautiously, and thrust out her head, minus
+her false hair, and enveloped in a cotton nightcap.
+
+"Who is it? What has happened? Anybody sick or dead?" she asked; and Sam
+replied, "Miss Smith is here with a broken laig, for't I know!"
+
+"Miss Smith! A broken leg! For the land's sake, Tim, get up quick!" the
+widow gasped.
+
+Closing the window and putting on a skirt, she descended to the kitchen,
+lighted an oil lamp, and, throwing open the door, looked at the group
+outside. She was prepared for Sam and Miss Smith, and did not mind her
+deshabille for them. But at the sight of two gentlemen, and one of them
+young Mr. Crompton, she came near dropping her lamp.
+
+"Gracious goodness!" she exclaimed. "Mr. Crompton! And I half-dressed!
+Wait till I get on some clothes, and my hair, and my teeth. I am a
+sight to behold."
+
+"Never mind your teeth, nor your hair, nor your best gown," Sam said,
+pushing open the door Mrs. Biggs had partially closed, and entering the
+house, followed by Howard and Jack, with Eloise still clinging to Jack's
+neck, and half fainting with the pain in her ankle which had increased
+from hanging down so long.
+
+Tim had come by this time, fastening his suspenders as he came, and
+caring less for his appearance than his mother. She had disappeared, but
+soon returned with teeth, and hair, and clothes in place, and herself
+ready for the emergency. Following Tim's directions they had put Eloise
+on a couch, where she lay with her eyes closed, and so still that they
+thought she had fainted.
+
+"Bring the camphire, Timothy, and the hartshorn, and start up the oil
+stove for hot water, and move lively." Mrs. Biggs said to her son. "I
+don't believe she's broke her laig, poor thing. How white she is," she
+continued, laying her hand on Eloise's forehead.
+
+This brought the tears in a copious shower, as Eloise sat up and said,
+"It is my ankle. I think it is sprained. If you could get off my boot."
+
+She tried to lift it, but let it drop with a cry of pain.
+
+"I'll bet it's sprained, and a sprain is wus than a break. I had one
+twenty years ago come Christmas, and went with my knee on a chair two
+weeks, and on crutches three," was Mrs. Biggs's consoling remark, as she
+held the lamp close to the fast-swelling foot, to which the wet boot
+clung with great tenacity.
+
+"Oh, I can't bear it," Eloise said, as the process of removing her boot
+commenced; then, closing her eyes, she lay back upon the cushions,
+while one after another, Mrs. Biggs, Howard, Jack, and Tim worked at the
+refractory boot.
+
+It was such a small foot, Jack thought, pitying the young girl, as he
+saw spasms of pain upon her face, where drops of sweat were standing. He
+wiped these away with Mrs. Biggs's apron, lying in a chair, and smoothed
+her hair, and took one of her clenched hands in his, and held it while
+the three tried to remove the boot.
+
+"'Tain't no use,--it's got to be cut off,--mine did. Tim, bring me the
+butcher knife,--the sharpest one," Mrs. Biggs said.
+
+Eloise shuddered, and thought of the only other pair of boots she
+had,--her best ones, which were to have lasted a year. But there was no
+alternative. The boot must be cut off, and Jack continued to hold her
+hands while, piece by piece, the wet leather dropped upon the floor.
+
+"Now for the stockin'; that'll come easier," Mrs. Biggs said.
+
+"Must you take that off now?" Eloise asked, her maidenly modesty
+prevailing over every other feeling.
+
+Howard and Jack understood, and went to the window, while the stocking
+followed the fate of the boot; and when they came back to the couch
+Eloise's foot was in a basin of hot water, and Mrs. Biggs was gently
+manipulating it, and declaring it the worst sprain she ever knew, except
+her own, which, after twenty years troubled her at times, and told her
+when a storm was coming.
+
+"Ought she to have a doctor?" Jack asked, and Mrs. Biggs replied, "A
+doctor? What for, except to run up a bill. I know what to do. She'll
+have to keep quiet a spell; wormwood and vinegar and hot water will do
+the rest. Tim, go up garret and get a handful of wormwood. It's the
+bundle of 'arbs to your right. There's catnip, and horehound, and
+spearmint, and sage, and wormwood. Be lively, and put it to steep in
+some vinegar, and bring me that old sheet in the under bureau drawer for
+bandages."
+
+She seemed to know what she was about. Eloise was in good hands, and the
+two water-soaked young men were about to leave when she said, "I guess
+one of you will have to carry her to her chamber. I can't trust Tim,
+he's such a blunderhead."
+
+"No, no! Oh, no! I can walk somehow," Eloise said, starting to her feet,
+and sinking back as quickly.
+
+"Let me. I'll carry her!" Howard and Jack both exclaimed; but something
+in Eloise's eyes gave the preference to Jack, who lifted her as easily
+as if she had been a child, and carried her up the narrow stairs to the
+room which at intervals had been occupied by one teacher after another
+for nearly twenty years, for it was understood that Mrs. Biggs was to
+board the teachers who had no home of their own in the district.
+
+But never had so forlorn or wretched an one been there as poor Eloise.
+The world certainly looked very dreary to her, and her lip quivered as
+she said good-by to Jack, and tried to smile in reply to his assurance
+that she would be better soon, and that he would call and see her on the
+morrow. Then he was gone, and Eloise heard the footsteps and voices of
+the three men as they left the house and hurried away. She was soon in
+bed, and as comfortable as Mrs. Biggs could make her. That good lady was
+a born nurse as well as a gossip, and as she arranged Eloise for what
+there was left of the night, her tongue ran incessantly, first on her
+own sprain,--every harrowing detail of which was gone over,--then on the
+two young men, Howard Crompton and t'other one, who was he? She knew Mr.
+Howard,--everybody did. He was Col. Crompton's nephew, and he ruled the
+roost at the Crompton House, folks said, and would most likely be the
+Colonel's heir, with Miss Amy, as folks called her now. Had Miss Smith
+ever heard of her?
+
+Eloise never had, and the pain in her ankle was so sharp that she gave
+little heed to what Mrs. Biggs was saying. She did not know either of
+the young men, she said. Both had been kind to her, and one, she
+thought, was a stranger, who came in the train with her.
+
+"Oh, yes," Mrs. Biggs answered briskly. "I remember now. Cindy,--that's
+Miss Stiles, the housekeeper at Crompton Place,--told me Mr. Howard was
+to have company,--another high buck, I s'pose, though Howard don't do
+nothin' worse than drive horses pretty fast, and smoke most all the
+time. Drinks wine at dinner, they say, which I disbelieve in on account
+of Tim, who never took nothin' stronger'n sweet cider through a straw."
+
+At last, to Eloise's relief, Mrs. Biggs said good-night, and left her
+with the remark, "I don't s'pose you'll sleep a wink. I didn't the first
+night after my sprain, nor for a good many nights neither."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AMY
+
+
+"If this isn't a lark I never had one," Howard said to Jack, when they
+were safely housed and had changed their clothes, not a thread of which
+was dry.
+
+Jack, whose luggage had not come, and who was obliged to borrow from
+Howard's wardrobe, looked like an overgrown boy in garments too small
+for him. But he did not mind it, and with Howard discussed the events of
+the evening, as they sat over the fire the latter had lighted in his
+room. Naturally Eloise was the subject of their conversation.
+
+"I wrote you I had a presentiment that she was to come into my life in
+some way, but I had no idea it was to be this way," Howard said, as he
+puffed at his cigar and talked of their adventure and Eloise.
+
+That she was very handsome and had pretty little feet went without
+saying, and that both were sorry for her was equally, of course. Jack
+was the more so, as his was the more unselfish and sympathetic nature.
+
+"By Jove, didn't she bear the cutting of that boot like a hero, and how
+is she ever to get to school with that ankle?" he said; "and I think she
+ought to have a doctor to see if any bones are broken. Suppose you get
+one in the morning, and tell him not to send his bill to her but to me."
+
+Howard looked up quickly, and Jack went on, "I wrote you that Mrs.
+Brown said she was poor, and I should know it by her boots."
+
+"Her boots!" Howard repeated, and Jack continued, "Yes, wet as they were
+I noticed they were half-worn, and had been blacked many times. She
+can't afford to pay many doctor's bills, and I ask you again, how is she
+to get to school?"
+
+Howard did not know, unless they made another chair and carried her.
+
+"I wouldn't mind it much for the sake of her arm around my neck. I can
+feel it yet. Can't you?" he said.
+
+Jack could feel it and the little wet hand which once or twice had
+touched his face, but something in his nature forbade his talking about
+it. It might have been fun for them, but he knew it was like death to
+the girl, and that she had shrank from it all, and only submitted
+because she could not help it. He was very sorry for her, and thought of
+her the last moment before he fell asleep, and the first moment he awoke
+with Howard in the room telling him it was after breakfast time, and his
+uncle, who did not like to be kept waiting, was already in a temper and
+blowing like a northeaster.
+
+The Colonel, who was suffering from an attack of rheumatic gout, was
+more irritable than usual. He had not liked having his horses and
+carriage go out in the rain, and had sat up waiting for the return of
+his nephew, and when Sam came in, telling what had happened to the
+carriage and horses, and that he must go back with a lantern to the park
+gates and see if the new school mistress was alive, he went into a
+terrible passion, swearing at the weather, and the late train, and the
+school mistress who he seemed to think was the cause of the accident.
+
+"What business had she in the carriage? Why did she come in such a
+storm? Why didn't she take the 'bus, and if the 'bus wasn't there, why
+didn't she--?" He didn't know what, and it took all the tact of Peter,
+who was still in the family and old like his master, to quiet him.
+
+Then next morning his gout was so bad that he was wheeled into the
+dining-room, where he was fast growing angry at the delay of breakfast,
+and beginning to swear again when Peter, who knew how to manage him,
+went for Amy. Nothing quieted the Colonel like a sight of Amy, with her
+sweet face and gentle ways.
+
+"Please come. It's beginning to sizzle," Peter frequently said to her
+when a storm was brewing, and Amy always went, and was like oil on the
+troubled waters.
+
+"What is it?" she now asked, and the Colonel replied, "What is it! I
+should say, what is it! There's the very old Harry to pay. Brutus has a
+big hole in his breast, the carriage is smashed, silk cushions all
+stained with a girl's blue gown, and that girl the school-teacher I
+didn't want; and she's broken her leg or something when they tipped
+over, and Howard and his friend carried her to Widow Biggs's, and the
+Lord knows what didn't happen!"
+
+Amy had a way of seeming to listen very attentively when the Colonel
+talked to her, and always smiled her appreciation and approbation of
+what he said. Just how much she really heard or understood was doubtful.
+Her mind seemed to run in two channels,--one the present, the other the
+past,--and both were blurred and indistinct,--especially the past. She
+understood about the young girl, however, and at once expressed her
+sympathy, and said, "We must do something for her."
+
+To do something for any one in sickness or trouble was her first
+thought, and many a home had been made glad because of her since she
+came to Crompton.
+
+"Certainly; do what you like, only don't bring her here," the Colonel
+replied, his voice and manner softening, as they always did with Amy.
+
+She was a very handsome woman and looked younger than her years. The
+storm which had swept over her had not impaired her physical beauty, but
+had touched her mentally in a way very puzzling to those about her, and
+rather annoying to the Colonel, who was trying to make amends for the
+harshness which had driven her from his home. Sometimes her quiet,
+passive manner irritated him, and he felt that he would gladly welcome
+the old imperiousness with which she had defied him. But it was gone.
+Something had broken her on the wheel, killing her spirit completely, or
+smothering it and leaving her a timid, silent woman, who sat for hours
+with a sad, far-off expression, as if looking into the past and trying
+to gather up the tangled threads which had in a measure obscured her
+intellect.
+
+"The Harrises are queer," kept sounding in the Colonel's ears, with a
+thought that the taint in the Harris blood was working in Amy's veins,
+intensified by some great shock, or series of shocks.
+
+Once, after he brought her home, he questioned her of her life as a
+singer, and of the baby, which she occasionally mentioned, but he never
+repeated the experiment. There was a fit of nervous trembling,--a look
+of terror in her eyes, and a drawn expression on her face, and for a
+moment she was like the girl Eudora when roused. Then, putting her hand
+before her eyes as if to shut out something hateful to her, she said,
+"Oh, don't ask me to bring up a past I can't remember without such a
+pain in my head and everywhere, as if I were choking. It was very
+dreadful,--with _him_,--not with Adolf,--he was so kind."
+
+"Did he ever beat you?--or what did the wretch do? _Smith_, I mean," the
+Colonel asked, and Amy replied, "Oh, no; it wasn't that. It was a
+constant grind, grind,--swear, swear,--a breaking of my will, till I had
+none left. He never struck me but once, and then it was throwing
+something instead of a blow. It hit me here, and it has ached ever
+since."
+
+She put her hand to one side of her temple, and went on, "It was the
+night I heard baby was dead, and I said I could not sing,--but he made
+me, and I broke down, and I don't know much what happened after till you
+came. I can't remember."
+
+"Yes, but the baby,--where did it die, and when?" the Colonel asked.
+
+Amy had been getting quiet as she talked, but at the mention of the
+baby, she began to tremble again, and beat the air with her hands.
+
+"I don't know, I don't know," she said. "He took her away, and she died.
+It is so black when I try to think how it was, and it goes from me. Wait
+a bit!" She sat very still a moment, and then in a more natural voice
+said, "It may come back sometime, and then I will tell you. It makes me
+worse to talk about it now. It's this way: The inside of my head shakes
+all over. The doctor said it was like a bottle full of something which
+must settle. I _am_ settling here where everybody speaks so low and
+kind, but when I am a little clear, with the sediment going down, if you
+shake up the bottle, it is thick and muddy again, and I can't remember."
+
+"By Jove!" the Colonel said to himself, "that bottle business isn't a
+bad comparison. She is all shaken up, and I'll let her settle."
+
+He did not question her again of her life with Homer Smith, or of the
+baby. Both were dead, and he felt that it was just as well that they
+were. Homer Smith ought to be dead, and as to the baby it would have
+been very upsetting in the house, and might have been queer, like the
+Harrises, or worse yet, like its _cuss_ of a father. On the whole, it
+was better as it was, although he was sorry for Amy, and would do all he
+could to make her happy, and some time, perhaps, she would remember, and
+tell him where the baby was buried, and he'd have it brought to
+Crompton, and put in the Crompton vault. As for Homer Smith, his carcase
+might rot in the desert of Arizona, or anywhere, for aught he cared. He
+was very gentle and patient with Amy, and watched the settling of the
+bottle with a great deal of interest. Sometimes he wondered how much she
+remembered of her Florida life, if anything, and what effect the mention
+of Jaky and Mandy Ann would have upon her, and what effect it would have
+upon her if he took her to the palmetto clearing, and found the negroes,
+if living. But pride still stood in the way. More than thirty-five years
+of silence were between him and the past, which to all intents was as
+dead as poor Dory; and why should he pull aside the dark curtain, and
+let in the public gaze and gossip. He couldn't and he wouldn't. All he
+could do for Amy in other ways he would, and for her sake he controlled
+himself, mightily, becoming, as Peter said, like a turtle dove compared
+to what he once was, when the slightest crossing of his will roused him
+into fury.
+
+Harsh, loud tones made Amy shiver, and brought a look into her eyes
+which the Colonel did not like to see, and with her he was usually very
+docile, or if roused, the touch of her hand and the expression of her
+eyes subdued him, as they did now when he told her of his broken
+carriage and ruined cushions and the young girl for whom Amy at once
+wished to do something.
+
+"Certainly," he had said; "only don't bring her here," and he was
+beginning to wonder where Howard was, and to feel irritated at the
+delay, when the latter came in with Jack, and found a tolerably urbane
+and courteous host.
+
+Naturally the conversation turned upon the storm and accident, the
+particulars of which were briefly gone over, while Amy stirred her
+coffee listlessly and did not seem to listen. She was very lovely, Jack
+thought, with no sign of her mental disorder, except the peculiar
+expression of her eyes at times. Her dress was faultless, her manner
+perfect, her language good, and her smile the sweetest and saddest he
+had ever seen, and Jack watched her curiously, while the conversation
+drifted away from Eloise, in whom the Colonel felt no interest. She was
+a graduate, and probably knew nothing of what he thought essential for a
+teacher to know. She was not rooted and grounded in the fundamentals.
+Probably she had never heard of the grindstone, or the sheep, and could
+not work out the problems if she had. She was superficial. She belonged
+to a new generation which had put him and his theories on the shelf. Her
+blue dress had stained the cushions of his carriage, and there was a
+puddle of water in the hall where Sam had put down her satchel and hat,
+which had been found in the driveway near the stable. They had been
+thrown from the carriage, and lain in the rain all night. The hat was
+soaked through and through, and the ribbons were limp and faded; but he
+did not care a rap what became of them, he said to himself, when Howard
+spoke of them and their condition, saying that bad as they were he
+presumed she wanted them.
+
+Amy on the contrary was instantly on the alert, and as they passed
+through the hall from the dining-room, and she saw the poor crushed hat,
+she said to Jack, "Is it hers?"
+
+"Yes, and I'm afraid it is ruined," Jack answered, taking it in his hand
+and examining it critically.
+
+"I will fix it," Amy replied, and, carrying it to her room, she tried to
+bend it into shape and renovate the bows of ribbon.
+
+But it was beyond her skill.
+
+"She can never wear it. I must send her one of mine," she said,
+selecting a hat which she wore when walking in the park. "You must take
+it to the young lady at Mrs. Biggs's. What is her name? I don't think I
+understood; they were all talking together and confused me so," she said
+to her maid, who had heard of the adventure from Sam, but had not caught
+the right name.
+
+"It is Louise something. I don't remember what," she replied.
+
+"Louise! That sounds like baby's name, and it makes my head ache to
+think of it," Amy said sadly, going to the window, and looking out at
+the rain and fog, for the weather had not cleared.
+
+It was a wet morning, and Howard, who liked his ease, shrugged his
+shoulders when Jack suggested that they should call upon Miss Smith.
+
+"She ought to have her satchel and her hat," Jack said, and Howard
+replied, "Oh, Amy sent Sarah off with a hat half an hour ago. She would
+send all her wardrobe if she thought the girl wanted it, and, by George!
+why didn't she send a pair of boots? She has dozens of them, I dare
+say," he continued, as he recalled the bits of leather they had cut from
+Eloise's foot, and left on Mrs. Biggs's floor.
+
+Jack had spoken of her boots, and he readily acceded to Howard's
+proposition to ask Amy if she had any cast-offs she thought would fit
+Miss Smith. "They must wear about the same size, the girl is so slight,"
+Howard said as he went to Amy's room, where he found her still standing
+by the window drumming upon the pane as if fingering a piano and humming
+softly to herself. She never touched the grand instrument in the
+drawing-room, and when asked to do so and sing, she answered, "I can't;
+I can't. It would bring it all back and shake up the bottle. I hate the
+memory of it when I sang to the crowd and they applauded. I hear them
+now; it is baby's death knell. I can never sing again as I did then."
+
+And yet she did sing often to herself, but so low that one could
+scarcely understand her words, except to know they were some negro
+melody sung evidently as a lullaby to a child. As Howard came up to her
+he caught the words, "Mother's lil baby," and knew it was what she
+sometimes sang with the red cloak hugged to her bosom.
+
+"Miss Amy," he said, "I wonder if you haven't a pair of half-worn boots
+for the young lady at Mrs. Biggs's? We had to cut one of hers off, her
+foot was so swollen."
+
+Amy was interested at once, and ordered Sarah, who had returned from
+Mrs. Biggs's, to bring out all her boots and slippers, insisting that
+several pairs be sent for the girl to choose from. Sarah suggested that
+slippers would be better than boots, as the young lady could not wear
+the latter in her present condition.
+
+"Yes," Amy said, selecting a pair of white satin slippers, with high
+French heels and fanciful rosettes. "I wore them the night he told me
+baby was dead. I've never had them on since. I don't want them. Give
+them to her. They are hateful to me."
+
+Amy was in a peculiar mood this morning, such as sometimes came upon her
+and made Peter say she was a chip of the old block, meaning the Colonel,
+who he never for a moment doubted was her father. Sarah's suggestion
+that white satin slippers would be out of place made no difference. They
+must go. She was more stubborn than usual, and Sarah accounted for it by
+saying in a low tone to Howard, "Certain spells of weather always affect
+her and send her back to a night when something dreadful must have
+happened. Probably the baby she talks about died. She's thinking about
+it now. Better take the slippers. I've heard her talk of them before and
+threaten to burn them."
+
+"All right," Howard said. "Miss Smith can send them back if she does not
+want them."
+
+The slippers were made into a parcel so small that Howard put them in
+his pocket and said he was ready. It had stopped raining, and as the
+young men preferred to walk they set off through the park, laughing over
+their errand and the phase of excitement in which they found themselves.
+Jack liked it, and Howard, too, began to like it, or said he should if
+the girl proved as good-looking by daylight as she had been in the
+night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+AT MRS. BIGGS'S
+
+
+Notwithstanding Mrs. Biggs's prediction that she would not sleep a wink,
+Eloise did sleep fairly well. She was young and tired. Her ankle did not
+pain her much when she kept it still, and after she fell asleep she did
+not waken till Mrs. Biggs stood by her bed armed with hot coffee and
+bandages and fresh wormwood and vinegar.
+
+"Do you feel like a daisy?" was Mrs. Biggs's cheery greeting, as she put
+down the coffee and bowl of vinegar in a chair and brought some water
+for Eloise's face and hands.
+
+"Not much like a daisy," Eloise answered, with a smile, "but better than
+I expected. I am going to get up."
+
+"Better stay where you be. I did, and had 'em wait on me," Mrs. Biggs
+said; but Eloise insisted, thinking she must exercise.
+
+She soon found, however, that exercising was a difficult matter. Her
+ankle was badly swollen, and began to ache when she moved it, nor did
+Mrs. Biggs's assurance that "it would ache more until it didn't ache so
+bad" comfort her much. She managed, however, to get into a chair, and
+took the coffee, and submitted to have her ankle bathed and bandaged and
+her foot slipped into an old felt shoe of Mrs. Biggs's, which was out
+at the toe and out at the side, but did not pinch at all.
+
+"Your dress ain't dry. You'll catch your death of cold to have it on.
+You must wear one of mine," Mrs. Biggs said, producing a spotted calico
+wrapper, brown and white,--colors which Eloise detested.
+
+It was much too large every way, but Mrs. Biggs lapped it in front and
+lapped it behind, and said the length would not matter, as Eloise could
+only walk with her knee in a chair and could hold up one side. Eloise
+knew she was a fright, but felt that she did not care, until Mrs. Biggs
+told her of the hat which the lady from Crompton Place had sent her, and
+that Sarah had said the young gentlemen would probably call.
+
+"I've been thinking after all," she continued, "that it is better to be
+up. The committee man, Mr. Bills, who hired you, will call, and you
+can't see him and the young men here. I'm a respectable woman, and have
+boarded the teachers off and on for twenty years,--all, in fact, except
+Ruby Ann, who has a home of her own,--and I can't have my character
+compromised now by inviting men folks into a bedroom. You must come down
+to the parlor. There's a bed-lounge there which I can make up at night,
+and it'll save me a pile of steps coming upstairs."
+
+"How am I to get there?" Eloise asked in dismay, and Mrs. Biggs replied,
+"It'll be a chore, I guess, but you can do it. I did when my ankle was
+bad. I took some strong coffee, same as I brought you, had my foot done
+up, and slid downstairs, one at a time, with my lame laig straight out.
+I can't say it didn't hurt, for it did, but I had to grin and bear it.
+Christian Science nor mind cure wasn't invented then, or I should of
+used 'em, and said my ankle wasn't sprained. There's plenty of nice
+people believes 'em now. You can try 'em on, and we'll manage somehow."
+
+Eloise was appalled at the thought of going downstairs to meet people,
+and especially the young men from Crompton, clad in that spotted brown
+and white gown, with nothing to relieve its ugliness, not even a collar,
+for the one she had worn the previous day was past being worn again
+until it had been laundered. She looked at her handkerchief. That, too,
+was impossible.
+
+"Mrs. Biggs," she said at last, "have you a handkerchief you can loan
+me?"
+
+"To be sure! To be sure! Half a dozen, if you like," Mrs. Biggs
+answered, hurrying from the room, and soon returning with a handkerchief
+large enough for a dinner napkin.
+
+It was coarse and half-cotton, but it was clean, and Eloise tied it
+around her neck, greatly to Mrs. Biggs's surprise.
+
+"Oh," she said, "you wanted it for that? Why not have a lace ruffle?
+I'll get one in a jiffy."
+
+Eloise declined the ruffle. The handkerchief was bad enough, but a lace
+ruffle with that gown would have been worse.
+
+"Now, I'll call Tim to go in front and keep you from falling. He is kind
+of awkward, but I'll go behind and stiddy you, and you grit your teeth
+and put on the mind cure, and down we go," Mrs. Biggs said, calling Tim,
+who came shambling up the stairs, and laughed aloud when he saw Eloise
+wrapped in his mother's gown.
+
+"Excuse me, I couldn't help it; mother has made you into such a
+bundle," he said good-humoredly, as he saw the pained look in Eloise's
+face. "I'll get your trunk the next train, and you can have your own
+fixin's. What am I to do?"
+
+This last was to his mother, who explained the way she had gone
+downstairs when she sprained her ankle twenty years ago come Christmas.
+
+"She must sit down somehow on the top stair and slide down with one
+before her,--that's you,--and one behind,--that's me,--and she's to put
+on the mind cure. Miss Jenks says it does a sight of good."
+
+Tim looked at his mother and then at Eloise, whose pitiful face appealed
+to him strongly.
+
+"Oh, go to grass," he said, "with your mind cure! It's all rot! I'll
+carry her, if she will let me. I could of done it last night as well as
+them fine fellows."
+
+He was a rough young boy of sixteen, with uncouth ways; but there was
+something in his face which drew Eloise to him, and when he said, "Shall
+I carry you?" she answered gladly, "Oh, yes, please. I don't think I
+have any mind to put on."
+
+Lifting her very gently in his strong arms, while his mother kept saying
+she knew he'd let her fall, Tim carried her down and into the best room,
+where he set her in a rocking-chair, and brought a stool for her lame
+foot to rest upon, and then said he would go for her trunk, if she would
+give him her check. There was something magnetic about Tim, and Eloise
+felt it, and was sorry when he was gone. The world looked very dreary
+with the fog and rain outside, and the best room inside, with its stiff
+hair-cloth furniture, glaring paper and cheap prints on the wall--one of
+them of Beatrice Cenci, worse than anything she had ever seen. She was
+very fastidious in her tastes, and everything rude and incongruous
+offended it, and she was chafing against her surroundings, when Mrs.
+Biggs came bustling in, very much excited, and exclaiming, "For the
+land's sake, they are comin'! They are right here. They hain't let much
+grass grow. Let me poke your hair back a little from your forehead,--so!
+That's right, and more becomin'."
+
+"Who are coming?" Eloise asked.
+
+"Why, Mr. Crompton and his friend. I don't know his name," Mrs. Biggs
+replied, and Eloise felt a sudden chill as she thought of the figure she
+must present to them.
+
+If she could only look in the glass and adjust herself a little, or if
+Mrs. Biggs would throw something over the unsightly slipper and the
+ankle smothered in so many bandages. The mirror was out of the question.
+She had combed her hair with a side comb which had come safely through
+the storm, but she felt that it was standing on end, and that she was a
+very crumpled, sorry spectacle in Mrs. Biggs's spotted gown, with the
+handkerchief round her neck. Hastily covering her foot with a fold of
+the wide gown, she clasped her hands tightly together, and leaning her
+head against the back of her chair, drew a long breath and waited.
+
+She heard the steps outside, and Mrs. Biggs's "Good-mornin'; glad to see
+you. She is expectin' you, or I am. Yes, her laig is pretty bad. Swelled
+as big as two laigs, just as mine was twenty years ago come Christmas,
+when I sprained it. Tim brought her downstairs where she can see folks.
+She's in the parlor. Walk in."
+
+Eloise's cheeks were blazing, but the rest of her face was very pale,
+and her eyes had in them a hunted look as the young men entered the
+room, preceded by Mrs. Biggs in her working apron, with her sleeves
+rolled up.
+
+"Miss Smith, this is Mr. Crompton," she said, indicating Howard; "and
+the t'other one is--his name has slipped my mind."
+
+"Harcourt," Jack said, feeling an intense sympathy for the helpless
+girl, whose feelings he guessed and whose hand he held a moment with a
+clasp in which she felt the pity, and had hard work to keep the tears
+back.
+
+Howard also took her hand and felt sorry for her, but he did not affect
+her like Jack, and she did not like his eyes, which she guessed saw
+everything. He had a keen sense of the ridiculous, and the contrast
+between Eloise and the gown which he knew must belong to Mrs. Biggs
+struck him so forcibly that he could scarcely repress a smile, as he
+asked how she had passed the night. Mrs. Biggs answered for her. Indeed,
+she did most of the talking.
+
+"She slep' pretty well, I guess; better'n I did when I sprained my ankle
+twenty years ago come Christmas. I never closed my eyes, even in a cat
+nap, and she did. I crep' to her door twice to see how she was gettin'
+on, and she was--not exactly snorin'--I don't s'pose she ever does
+snore,--but breathin' reg'lar like, jess like a baby, which I didn't do
+in a week when I sprained my ankle."
+
+She would have added "twenty years ago come Christmas," if Jack had not
+forestalled her by asking Eloise if her ankle pained her much.
+
+"Yes," she said, while Mrs. Biggs chimed in, "Can't help painin' her,
+swelled as 'tis,--big as two ankles; look."
+
+She whisked off the bottom of her dress which Eloise had put over her
+foot, and disclosed the shapeless bundle encased in the old felt
+slipper.
+
+"Look for yourselves; see if you think it aches," she said.
+
+This was too much for Eloise, who, regardless of pain, drew her foot up
+under the skirt of her dress, while her face grew scarlet. Both Howard
+and Jack were sorry for her, and at last got the conversation into
+another channel by saying they had brought her satchel and hat, which
+they feared were ruined, and asking if she had seen the hat Miss Amy had
+sent her.
+
+"Land sakes, no! I told her about it, but I hain't had time to show it
+to her," Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, starting from the room, while Howard
+explained that his cousin had tried in vain to renovate the drenched
+hat, and, finding it impossible, had sent one of her own which she
+wished Miss Smith to accept with her compliments.
+
+"How do you like it?" Mrs. Biggs asked, as she came in with it.
+
+It was a fine leghorn, with a wreath of lilacs round the crown, and
+Eloise knew that it was far more expensive than anything she had ever
+worn.
+
+"It is very pretty," she said, "and very kind in the lady to send it.
+Tell her I thank her. What is her name?"
+
+Jack looked at Howard, who replied, "She has had a good many, none of
+which pleased my uncle, the last one least of all; so he calls her Miss
+Amy, and wishes others to do so."
+
+Eloise was puzzled, but the sight of Mrs. Biggs tugging at her wet
+satchel to open it diverted her mind.
+
+"Your things is sp'ilt, most likely, but you'd better have 'em out. For
+the mercy's sake, look!" she said, passing the satchel to Eloise, who
+was beyond caring: for what was spoiled and what was not. "There's
+somebody knockin'. It's Mr. Bills, most likely, the committee man, come
+to see you; I told Tim to notify him," Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, hurrying
+out, and saying to Howard as she passed him, "You can visit a spell
+before I fetch him in. She needs perkin' up, poor thing."
+
+It proved to be a grocer's boy instead of Mr. Bills, and Mrs. Biggs came
+back just as Howard was presenting the slippers.
+
+"I did not think they were just what you wanted," Howard explained, as
+he saw the look of surprise on Eloise's face. "Miss Amy is not always
+quite clear in her mind, but rather resolute when it is made up; and
+when we told her we had to cut off your boot, she insisted upon sending
+these."
+
+At this point Mrs. Biggs appeared, throwing up both hands at what she
+saw, and exclaiming, "Wall, if I won't give up! Satin slips for a
+spraint laig. Yes, I'll give up!"
+
+She looked at Howard, who did not reply, but turned his head to hide his
+laugh from Eloise, while Mrs. Biggs went on, "I don't see how she can
+ever get her feet into 'em. I can't mine, and I don't b'lieve she can.
+Better send 'em back;" and she looked at Eloise, who, if she was proud
+of any part of her person, was proud of her feet.
+
+Flushing hotly she said, "They are not suitable for me, of course, but I
+think I _could_ get one on my well foot."
+
+"I know you could; try it," Jack said.
+
+Stooping forward Eloise removed her boot, although the effort brought a
+horrible twinge to her lame ankle and made her feel faint for a moment.
+
+"Put it on for me, please," she said to Mrs. Biggs, who, mistaking the
+right-hand slipper for the left, began tugging at it.
+
+"I told you so," she said. "Your foot is twice as big."
+
+"Try this one," Jack suggested, "or let me;" and he fitted the slipper
+at once to the little foot, while Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, "Wall, I vum, it
+does fit to a T! If anything, it's too big."
+
+In spite of her pain and embarrassment there was a look of exultation in
+Eloise's eyes, as they met those of Jack, who was nearly as pleased as
+herself.
+
+"You will keep them and wear them some time," he said; and when Eloise
+declined, saying they would be of no use to her, Howard, who had been
+watching this Cinderella play with a good deal of interest, and wishing
+he had been the prince to fit the slipper instead of Jack, said to
+Eloise, "I think it better for you to keep them. Miss Amy will not like
+to have them returned, and if they were, she'd give them to some one
+else, or very likely send them to the Rummage Sale we are to have in
+town."
+
+"That's so," Mrs. Biggs chimed in. "There is to be a rummage sale, and
+Ruby Ann has spoke for Tim's old clothes and mine, especially our shoes.
+Keep 'em by all means."
+
+Eloise was beginning to feel faint again, and tired with all this talk
+and excitement, and painfully conscious that Howard's eyes were dancing
+with laughter at the sight of her feet,--one swollen to three times its
+natural size and pushed into Mrs. Biggs's old felt shoe, and the other
+in Miss Amy's white satin slipper.
+
+"Oh, I wish you would take it off!" she gasped, feeling unequal to
+leaning forward again, and closing her eyes wearily.
+
+She meant Mrs. Biggs, but Jack forestalled that good woman, and in an
+instant had the slipper off and the boot on, doing both so gently that
+she was not hurt at all.
+
+"Thanks!" Eloise said, drawing her well foot under the spotted calico,
+and wishing the young men would go.
+
+How long they would have staid is uncertain if there had not come a
+second knock at the kitchen door. This time it was really Mr. Bills, and
+Mrs. Biggs went out to meet him, while Eloise felt every nerve quiver
+with dread. She must see him and tell him how impossible it would be for
+her to commence her duties on Monday. Perhaps he would dismiss her
+altogether, and take another in her place, and then--"What shall I do?"
+she thought, and, scarcely knowing what she said, she cried, "Oh, I
+can't bear it!" while the tears rolled down her cheeks, and Howard and
+Jack gathered close to her,--the laugh all gone from Howard's eyes, and
+a great pity shining in Jack's.
+
+"Excuse me," she continued, "I don't mean to be childish, but everything
+is so dreadful! I don't mind the pain so much; but to be here away from
+home, and to lose the school, as I may, and--and,--I want a handkerchief
+to wipe my face,--and this is ruined."
+
+She said this last as she took from her satchel the handkerchief which
+had been so white and clean when she left home, and which now was wet
+and stained from a bottle of shoe blacking which had come uncorked and
+saturated everything. She had borne a great deal, and, as is often the
+case, a small matter upset her entirely. The spoiled handkerchief was
+the straw too many, and her tears came faster as she held it in one
+hand, and with the other tried to wipe them away.
+
+"Take mine, please; I've not used it," Jack said, offering her one of
+fine linen, and as daintily perfumed as a woman's.
+
+She took it unhesitatingly. She was in a frame of mind to take anything,
+and smiled her thanks through her tears.
+
+"I know I must seem very weak to you to be crying like a baby; but you
+don't know how I dread meeting Mr. Bills, or how much is depending upon
+my having this school, or what it would be to me to lose it, if he can't
+wait. Do you think he will?"
+
+She looked at Jack, who knew nothing whatever of the matter, or of Mr.
+Bills, but who answered promptly, "Of course he will wait; he must wait.
+We shall see to that. Don't cry. I'm awfully sorry for you; we both
+are."
+
+He was standing close to her, and involuntarily laid his hand on her
+hair, smoothing it a little as he would have smoothed his sister's. She
+seemed so young and looked so small, wrapped up in Mrs. Biggs's gown,
+that he thought of her for a moment as a child to be soothed and
+comforted. She did not repel the touch of his hand, but cried the harder
+and wiped her face with his handkerchief until it was wet with her
+tears.
+
+"Mr. Bills wants to know if he can come in now," came as an interruption
+to the scene, which was getting rather affecting.
+
+"In just a minute," Jack said. Then to Eloise, "Brace up! We'll attend
+to Mr. Bills if he proves formidable."
+
+She braced up as he bade her, and gave his handkerchief back to him.
+
+"I shan't need it again. I am not going to be foolish any longer, and I
+thank you so much," she said, with a look which made Jack's pulse beat
+rapidly.
+
+"We'd better go now and give Mr. Bills a chance," he said to Howard, who
+had been comparatively silent and let him do the talking and suggesting.
+
+Howard could not define his feeling with regard to Eloise. Her beauty
+impressed him greatly, and he was very sorry for her, but he could not
+rid himself of the conviction which had a second time taken possession
+of him that in some way she was to influence his life or cross his path.
+
+He bade her good-by, and told her to keep up good courage, and felt a
+little piqued that she withdrew her hand more quickly from him than she
+did from Jack, who left her rather reluctantly. They found Mr. Bills
+outside talking to Mrs. Biggs, who was volubly narrating the particulars
+of the accident, so far as she knew them, and referring constantly to
+her own sprained ankle of twenty years ago, and the impossibility of
+Miss Smith's being able to walk for some time.
+
+With his usual impetuousness Jack took the initiative, and said to Mr.
+Bills: "Your school can certainly wait; it must wait. A week or two can
+make no difference. At the end of that time, if she cannot walk, she can
+be taken to and from the school-house every day. To lose the school will
+go hard with her, and she's so young."
+
+Jack was quite eloquent, and Mr. Bills looked at him curiously,
+wondering who this smart young fellow was, pleading for the new
+school-teacher. He knew Howard, who, after Jack was through, said he
+hoped Mr. Bills would wait; it would be a pity to disappoint the girl
+when she had come so far.
+
+"Perhaps a week or two will make no difference," Mr. Bills said, "though
+the young ones are getting pretty wild, and their mothers anxious to
+have them out of the way, but I guess we'll manage it somehow."
+
+He knew he should manage it when he saw Eloise. She could not tell him
+of the need there was of money in her grandmother's home, or the still
+greater need if she took the trip to California which she feared she
+must take. She only looked her anxiety, and Mr. Bills, whose heart Mrs.
+Biggs said was "big as a barn," warmed toward her, while mentally he
+began to doubt her ability to "fill the bill," as he put it, she looked
+so young and so small.
+
+"I'll let her off easy, if I have to," he thought, and he said,
+"Folks'll want school to begin as advertised. You can't go, but there's
+Ruby Ann Patrick. She'll be glad to supply. She's kep' the school five
+years runnin'. She wanted it when we hired you. She's out of a job, and
+will be glad to take it till you can walk. I'll see her to-day. You look
+young to manage unruly boys, and there's a pile of 'em in Deestrick No.
+5 want lickin' half the time. Ruby Ann can lick 'em. She's five feet
+nine. You ain't more'n five."
+
+Eloise did not tell him how tall she was. In fact, she didn't know. She
+must look very diminutive in Mr. Bills's eyes, she thought, and hastened
+to say, "I taught boys and young men older than I am in the normal at
+Mayville, and never had any trouble. I had only to speak to or look at
+them."
+
+"I b'lieve you, I b'lieve you," Mr. Bills said. "I should mind you
+myself every time if you looked at me, but boys ain't alike. There's Tom
+Walker, ringleader in every kind of mischief, the wust feller you ever
+see. Ruby Ann had one tussle with him, and came off Number One. He'd
+most likely raise Cain with a schoolmarm who couldn't walk and went on
+crutches."
+
+"Oh-h!" Eloise said despairingly. "I shall not have to do that!"
+
+"Mebby not; mebby not. Sprained ankles mostly does, though. I had to
+when I sprained mine. I used to hobble to the well and pump cold water
+on it; that's tiptop for a sprain. Well, I must go now and see Ruby Ann.
+Good-day. Keep a stiff upper lip, and you'll pull through. Widder Biggs
+is a fust rate nurse, and woman, too. Little too much tongue, mebby.
+Hung in the middle and plays both ways. Knows everybody's history and
+age from the Flood down. She'll get at yours from A to izzard.
+Good-day!"
+
+He was gone, and Eloise was alone with her pain and homesickness and
+discouragement. Turn which way she would, there was not much brightness
+in her sky, except when she thought of Jack Harcourt, whose hand on her
+hair she could feel just as he had felt her wet hand on his neck hours
+after the spot was dried, ft seemed perfectly natural and proper that he
+should care for her, just as it did that the lady at the Crompton House
+should send her a hat. It was lying on a chair near her with the
+slippers, and she took it up and examined it again very carefully,
+admiring the fineness of the leghorn, the beauty of the lilac wreath,
+and the texture of the ribbons.
+
+"I shall never wear it," she thought. "It is too handsome for me; but I
+shall always keep it, and be glad for the thoughtfulness which prompted
+the lady to send it."
+
+Then she wondered if she would ever see the lady and thank her in
+person, or go to the Crompton House; and if her trunk would ever come
+from the station, so that she could divest herself of the detestable
+cotton gown and put on something more becoming, which would show him she
+was not quite so much a guy as she looked in Mrs. Biggs's wardrobe. The
+him was Jack, not Howard. He was not in the running. She cared as little
+for him as she imagined he cared for her. And here she did him
+injustice. She interested him greatly, though not in the way she
+interested Jack, whom he chaffed on their way home, telling him he ought
+to offer his services as nurse.
+
+"I wonder you did not wipe her eyes as well as give her your
+handkerchief," he said. "I dare say you will never have it laundered,
+lest her tears should be washed out of it."
+
+"Never!" Jack replied, and, taking the handkerchief from his pocket and
+folding it carefully, he put it back again, saying, "No, sir; I shall
+keep it intact. No laundryman's hands will ever touch it."
+
+"Pretty far gone, that's a fact," Howard rejoined, and then continued:
+"I say, Jack, we'd better not talk of Miss Smith before the Colonel. It
+will only rouse him up, and make him swear at normal graduates in
+general, and this one in particular. You know I wrote you that he gave
+the lot and built the school-house, and for years was inspector of
+Crompton schools,--boss and all hands,--till a new generation came up
+and shelved him. He fought hard, but had to give in to young blood and
+modern ideas. He had no voice in hiring Miss Smith,--was not consulted.
+His choice was a Ruby Ann Patrick, a perfect Amazon of an old maid;
+weighs two hundred, I believe, and rides a wheel. You ought to see her.
+But then she is rooted and grounded, and uncle does not think Miss Smith
+is, though she was pretty well grounded last night when she sat on that
+sand heap with her foot twisted under her. I'm not a soft head like you,
+to fall in love with her at first sight; but I'm awfully sorry for her,
+and I don't wish to hear the Colonel swear about her."
+
+Jack had never seen Howard more in earnest, and his mental comment was,
+"Cares more for her than I supposed. He'll bear watching. Poor little
+girl! How white she was at times, and how tired her eyes looked; and
+bright, too, as stars. I wonder if she really ought not to have a
+doctor."
+
+He put this question to Howard, who replied: "No, that Biggs woman is a
+full team on sprained ankles. She'll get her up without a doctor, and I
+don't suppose the girl has much to spend on the craft."
+
+"Yes, but what is a little money to you or me, if she really needs a
+doctor?" Jack said thoughtfully, while Howard laughed and answered,
+"Don't be an idiot, and lose your heart to a schoolma'am because she
+happened to have had her arm around your neck when we carried her in
+that chair. I can feel it yet, and sometimes put up my hand when half
+awake to see if it isn't there, but I am not going to make a fool of
+myself."
+
+As they were near home Jack did not reply, but he could have told of
+times when half awake and wide awake he felt the arms and the hands and
+the hot breath of the girl clinging to him in the darkness and rain, and
+saw the eyes full of pain and dumb entreaty not to hurt her more than
+they could help, as they cut the soaked boot from the swollen foot. But
+he said nothing, and, when the house was reached, went at once to his
+own room, wondering what he could do to make her more comfortable.
+
+Acting upon Howard's advice, Eloise was not mentioned, either at lunch
+or at dinner. Amy had evidently forgotten her, for she made no inquiry
+for her. Neither did the Colonel. She was, however, much in the minds of
+the young men, and each was wondering how he could best serve her.
+Howard thought of a sea chair, in which his uncle had crossed the ocean.
+He had found it covered with dust in the attic, and brought it to his
+room to lounge in. It would be far more comfortable for Eloise than that
+stiff, straight-backed, hair-cloth rocker in which she had to sit so
+upright. He would send it to her with Amy's compliments, if he could
+manage it without the knowledge of Jack, who he would rather should not
+know how much he was really interested in Eloise. Jack was also planning
+what he could do, and thought of a wheel chair, in which she could be
+taken to and from school. He might possibly find one in the village by
+the shore. He would inquire without consulting Howard, whose joking
+grated a little, as it presupposed the impossibility of his really
+caring for one so far removed from his station in life as Eloise seemed
+to be.
+
+Could she have known how much she was in the minds of the young men at
+Crompton Place, she would not have felt quite as forlorn and
+disconsolate as she did during the long hours of the day, when she sat
+helpless and alone, except as Mrs. Biggs tried to entertain her with a
+flow of talk and gossip which did not interest her. A few of the
+neighbors called in the evening, and it seemed to Eloise that every one
+had had a sprained ankle or two, of which they talked continually,
+dwelling mostly upon the length of time it took before they were able to
+walk across the floor, to say nothing of the distance from Mrs. Biggs's
+to the school-house. That would be impossible for two or three weeks at
+least, and even then Miss Smith would have to go on crutches most
+likely, was their comforting assurance.
+
+"I've got some up garret that I used twenty years ago. Too long for her,
+but Tim can cut them off. They are just the thing. Lucky I kept them,"
+Mrs. Biggs said, while Eloise listened with a feeling like death in her
+heart, and dreamed that night of hobbling to school on Mrs. Biggs's
+crutches, while Jack Harcourt helped and encouraged her, and Howard
+Crompton stood at a distance laughing at her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+RUBY ANN PATRICK
+
+
+She had taught the school in District No. 5 summer and winter for five
+years. She had been a teacher for fifteen years, her first experience
+dating back to the days when the Colonel was school inspector, and his
+formula in full swing. She had met all his requirements promptly, knew
+all about the geese and the grindstone, and the wind, and Mr. Wright,
+and had a certificate in the Colonel's handwriting, declaring her to be
+rooted and grounded in the fundamentals, and qualified to teach a
+district school anywhere. As Mr. Bills had said to Eloise, she was five
+feet nine inches high and large in proportion, with so much strength and
+vital force and determination, that the most unruly boy in District No.
+5 would hesitate before openly defying her authority. She had conquered
+Tom Walker, the bully of the school, and after the day when he was made
+to feel the force there was in her large hand, he had done nothing worse
+than make faces behind her back and draw caricatures of her on his
+slate.
+
+As a rule, Ruby Ann was popular with the majority of the people, and
+there had been some opposition to a change. It was hardly fair, they
+said to the Colonel, who took so much interest in the school, and who
+was sure to feel angry and hurt if deprived of the privilege of
+catechising the teachers in the office he had erected for that purpose
+on his grounds. He had not only built the school-house, but had kept it
+in repair, and had added a classroom for the older scholars because
+somebody said it was needed, and had not objected when it was only used
+for wraps and dinner pails, and balls and clubs in the summer, and in
+the winter for coal and wood and sleds and skates and other things
+pertaining to a school of wide-awake girls and boys.
+
+This was the conservative party, but there was another which wanted a
+change. They had been in a rut long enough, and they laughed at the
+Colonel's formula, which nearly every child knew by heart. The Colonel
+was too old to run things,--they must have something up to date, and
+when the president of Mayville Normal School applied for a situation for
+Eloise she was accepted, and Ruby Ann went to the wall. She was greatly
+chagrined and disappointed when she found herself supplanted by a normal
+graduate, of whom she had not a much higher opinion than the Colonel
+himself. When she heard of the accident and that her rival was disabled,
+she was conscious just for a moment of a feeling of exultation, as if
+Eloise had received her just deserts. She was, however, a kind-hearted,
+well-principled woman, and soon cast the feeling aside as unworthy of
+her, and tried to believe she was sorry for the girl, who, she heard,
+was very young, and had been carried in the darkness and rain to Mrs.
+Biggs's house in Howard Crompton's arms.
+
+"I would almost be willing to sprain my ankle for the sake of being
+carried in that way," Ruby thought, and then laughed as she tried to
+fancy the young man bending beneath the weight of her hundred and
+ninety pounds.
+
+It was at this juncture that Mr. Bills came in asking if she would take
+Miss Smith's place until she was able to walk. It might be two weeks,
+and it might be three, and it might be less, he said. Any way, they
+didn't want a cripple in the school-house for Tom Walker to raise Hail
+Columby with. Would Ruby Ann swaller her pride and be a substitute?
+
+"It is a good deal to ask me to do after I have been turned out of
+office," she said, "but I am not one to harbor resentment. Yes, I'll
+take the school till Miss Smith is able. How does she look? I hear she
+is very young."
+
+"Well, she's some younger than you, I guess, and looks like a child as
+she sits down," Mr. Bills replied. "Why, you are big as two of
+her,--yes, three,--and could throw her over the house."
+
+Ruby's face clouded, and Mr. Bills went on: "She is handsome as blazes,
+with a mouth which keeps kind of quivering, as if she wanted to cry, or
+something, and eyes--well, you've got to see 'em to know what they are
+like. They are just eyes which make an old man like me feel,--I don't
+know how."
+
+Ruby laughed, but felt a little hurt as she thought of her own small,
+light-blue eyes and lighter eyebrows, which had never yet made any man,
+young or old, feel "he didn't know how." She knew she was neither young
+nor handsome nor attractive, but she had good common sense, and after
+Mr. Bills was gone she sat down to review the situation, and resolved to
+accept it gracefully and to call upon Eloise. It would be certainly _en
+regle_ and Christian-like to do so, she thought, and the next afternoon
+she presented herself at Mrs. Biggs's door and asked if Miss Smith were
+able to see any one.
+
+Mrs. Biggs belonged to the radical party which favored a change of
+teachers. Five years was long enough for one person to teach in the same
+place, she said, and they wanted somebody modern and younger. She laid a
+great deal of stress upon that, and on one occasion, when giving her
+opinion over her gate to a neighbor, had added "smaller and
+better-looking." Ruby was not a favorite with Mrs. Biggs, whom she had
+called an inveterate gossip, hunting up everbody's history and age, and
+making them out two or three years older than they were. She had lived
+at home and kept Mrs. Biggs out of a boarder five years. She had called
+Tim a lout, and kept him after school several times when his mother
+needed him. Consequently Mrs. Biggs's sympathies were all with Eloise,
+who was young and small and good-looking, and she flouted the idea of
+having Ruby hired even for a few days.
+
+"It's just a wedge to git her in again," she had said to Tim, with whom
+she had discussed the matter. "I know Ruby Ann, and she'll jump at the
+chance, and keep it, too. She can wind Mr. Bills round her fingers. I'd
+rather have Miss Smith with one laig than Ruby Ann with three. Tom
+Walker ain't goin' to raise Ned with such a slip of a girl."
+
+"I ruther guess not, when I'm there," Tim said, squaring himself up as
+if ready to fight a dozen Tom Walkers, when, in fact, he was afraid of
+one, and usually kept out of his way.
+
+Mrs. Biggs had not expected Ruby Ann to call, and her face wore a
+vinegary expression when she opened the door to her.
+
+"Yes, I s'pose you can see her, but too much company ain't good for
+sprained ankles," she replied in response to Ruby's inquiry if she could
+see Miss Smith. "You'll find her in the parlor, but don't stay long.
+Talkin' 'll create a fever in her laig."
+
+Ruby was accustomed to Mrs. Biggs's vagaries, and did not mind them.
+
+"I'll be very discreet," she said, as she passed on to the parlor,
+curious to see the girl who had been preferred to herself.
+
+She had heard from Mr. Bills that Eloise "was handsome as blazes," but
+she was not prepared for the face which looked up at her as she entered
+the room. Something in the eyes appealed to her as it had to Mr. Bills,
+and any prejudice she might have had melted away at once, and she began
+talking to Eloise as familiarly as if she had known her all her life. At
+first Eloise drew back from the powerfully built woman, who stood up so
+tall before her, and whose voice was so strong and masculine, and whose
+eyes travelled over her so rapidly, taking in every detail of her dress
+and every feature of her face. Mrs. Biggs's disfiguring cotton gown had
+been discarded for a loose white jacket, which, with its knots of pink
+ribbon, was very becoming, and Ruby found herself studying it closely,
+and wondering if she could make one like it, and how she would look in
+it. Then she noticed the hands, so small and so white, and felt an
+irresistible desire to take one of them in her broad palm.
+
+"I do believe I could hold three like them in one of mine," she thought,
+and sitting down by Eloise's side, she laid her hand on the one resting
+on the arm of the chair.
+
+There was something so friendly and warm and so sympathetic in the
+touch that Eloise wanted to cry. With a great effort she kept her tears
+back, but could not prevent one or two from standing on her long lashes,
+and making her eyes very bright as she answered Ruby's rapid questions
+with regard to the accident.
+
+"And I hear Mr. Howard Crompton brought you here himself. That was
+something of an honor, as he seldom goes out of his way for any one,"
+she said, with a keen look of curiosity in her eyes.
+
+"I never thought of the honor," Eloise replied. "I could think of
+nothing but the pain, which was terrible, and now everything is so
+dreary and so different from what I hoped. Do you think it will be long
+before I can walk?"
+
+"No; oh no," Ruby answered cheerily. "Let me see your foot. It is
+swollen badly," she said, as she replaced the old shawl Mrs. Biggs had
+thrown across it. "What have you on it? Wormwood and vinegar, I know by
+the odor. You should have a rubber band, and nothing else. It is cleaner
+and saves trouble. That's what I used, and was well in no time."
+
+"Have you had a sprained ankle, too?" Eloise asked, and Ruby Ann
+replied, "Certainly. Nearly every one has at some time in his life. It
+is as common as the measles."
+
+"I believe it," Eloise rejoined with a laugh. "So many have called to
+see me, and almost every one had had a sprain,--some as many as three;
+and each one proposed a different remedy."
+
+"Naturally; but you try the rubber band. I'll bring you one, and
+massage your ankle, and have you well very soon."
+
+These were the first hopeful words Eloise had heard, and her heart
+warmed towards this great blond woman, who was proving herself a friend,
+and who began to tell her of the school and her own experience as
+teacher in District No. 5, which, she said, was the largest and most
+important district in town, with the oldest scholars both summer and
+winter. "There are some unruly boys, especially Tom Walker, but I am so
+big and strong that I conquered him by brute force, and had no trouble
+after one battle. You will conquer some other way. Tom is very
+susceptible to good looks,--calls me a hayseed, and a chestnut, and a
+muff. It will be different with you," and Ruby pressed the hand she was
+holding. Then she spoke of Col. Crompton, who used to examine the
+teachers, and before whom she had been five times; usually answering the
+same questions, especially those contained in the "Formula," and to
+which Eloise would not be subjected.
+
+"What is the Formula?" Eloise asked, and Ruby told her, while Eloise
+listened bewildered, and glad that she was to escape an ordeal she could
+never pass with credit.
+
+It was easy to be confiding with Ruby, and Eloise soon found herself
+talking freely of her life and school days in Mayville, and the
+necessity there was for her to teach, and the bitter disappointment it
+would be to lose the school on which so much depended.
+
+"My father is dead," she said, "and my mother is--" she hesitated, while
+a deep flush came to her cheeks, "she is an invalid, and there is no one
+to care for her now but me. She is in California, and I may have to go
+for her, and must have the money."
+
+Just for a moment, when Mr. Bills asked her to take Eloise's place,
+there had been in Ruby's mind a half-formed hope that she might be
+wholly reinstated in her old place as a teacher. But it was gone now,
+and Jack Harcourt himself was not more kindly disposed to the helpless
+girl than she was.
+
+"You shall not lose the school, nor the time either," she said
+impulsively. "I am to take it till you are able, and then I shall step
+out. In the mean time, I shall do all I can for you,--shall enlist Tom
+Walker on your side, and you will have no trouble."
+
+She arose to go, then sat down again and said, "I hope you will be able
+to attend our Rummage Sale."
+
+"Rummage Sale!" Eloise repeated, remembering to have heard the word in
+connection with the slippers Miss Amy had sent her. "I don't think I
+quite understand."
+
+"Don't you know what a Rummage Sale is?" Ruby Ann asked, explaining what
+it was, and saying they were to have one in a vacant house not far from
+Mrs. Biggs's, the proceeds to go for a free library for District No. 5.
+"I am one of the solicitors," she continued, "but as you are a stranger
+you may not have anything to contribute."
+
+As Rummage Sales were just beginning to dawn on the public horizon
+Eloise had never heard of them, but she became interested at once,
+because Ruby Ann was so enthusiastic, and said, "I have two or three
+white aprons I made myself. You can have one of them if you think
+anybody will buy it."
+
+"Buy it!" Ruby repeated, rubbing her hands in ecstasy. "It will bring a
+big price when they know it was yours and you made it. I'll see that it
+has a conspicuous place. And now I must go and see Mrs. Biggs again
+about the sale. Good-by, and keep up your courage."
+
+She stooped and kissed Eloise, who heard her next in the kitchen talking
+to Mrs. Biggs, first of rubber bands and massage, and then of the
+Rummage Sale. When she was gone Mrs. Biggs came in and sat down and
+began to give her opinion of the Rummage Sale, and massage and rubber
+bands, and first the Rummage. A good way to get rid of truck, and Ruby
+Ann said they took everything. She had a lot of old chairs and a warming
+pan and foot-stove, and she s'posed she might give the spotted brown and
+white calico wrapper which Eloise had worn. It was faded and out of
+style. Yes, on the whole, she'd give the wrapper. She never liked it
+very well, she said; and then she spoke of the rubber band Ruby Ann had
+recommended instead of wormwood and vinegar, and of which she did not
+approve. What did Ruby Ann know? though, to be sure, she was old enough.
+How old did Eloise think she was? Eloise had not given her age a
+thought, but, pressed for an answer, ventured the reply that she might
+be verging on to thirty.
+
+"Verging on to thirty! More likely verging on to forty," Mrs. Biggs
+said, with a savage click of the needles with which she was knitting Tim
+a sock. "I know her age, if she does try to look young and wear a sailor
+hat, and ride a wheel in a short gown! I'd laugh to see me ridin' a
+wheel, and there ain't so much difference between us neither. I know,
+for we went to school together. She was a little girl, to be sure, and
+sat on the low seat and learnt her a-b-c's. I was four or five years
+older, and sat on a higher seat with Amy Crompton, till the Colonel took
+her from the district school and kep' her at home with a governess."
+
+Mrs. Biggs was very proud of the acquaintance she had had with Amy
+Crompton, when the two played together under the trees which shaded the
+school-house the Colonel had built as _expiatory_ years before, and she
+continued: "Amy, you know, is the half-cracked lady at the Crompton
+House who sent the hat and slippers. She's been married twice,--run away
+the first time. My land! what a stir there was about it, and what a high
+hoss the Colonel rode. Who her second was nobody knows,--some scamp by
+the name of Smith,--that's your name, and a good one, too, but about the
+commonest in the world, I reckon. There's four John Smiths in town, and
+Joel Smith, who brings my milk, and George Smith I buy aigs of, and
+forty odd more. They say the Colonel hates the name like pisen. Won't
+have anybody work for him by that name. Dismissed his milkman because he
+was a Smith, and between you and I, I b'lieve half his opposition to you
+was your name. Why, it's like a red rag to a bull."
+
+"I didn't know he was opposed to me personally," Eloise said, and Mrs.
+Biggs replied, "Of course not; how could he be? He never seen you. It's
+the normal, and bein' put out of office--he and Ruby Ann. They've run
+things long enough. They say he did swear offel at the last school
+meetin' about normals and ingrates and all that,--meanin' they'd forgot
+all he'd done for 'em; but, my land, you can't b'lieve half you hear. I
+don't b'lieve nothin', and try to keep a close mouth 'bout what I do
+b'lieve. I ain't none o' your gossips, and won't have folks sayin' the
+Widder Biggs said so and so."
+
+Here Mrs. Biggs stopped to take breath and answer a rap at the kitchen
+door, where George Smith was standing with a basket of eggs. Eloise
+could hear her badgering him because he charged too much and because his
+hens did not lay larger eggs, and threatening to withdraw her patronage
+if there was not a change. Then items of the latest news were exchanged,
+Mrs. Biggs doing her part well for one who never repeated anything and
+never believed anything. When George Smith was gone she returned to her
+seat by Eloise and resumed her conversation, which had been interrupted,
+and which was mostly reminiscent of people and incidents in Crompton,
+and especially of the Crompton House and its occupants, with a second
+fling at Ruby Ann.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+MRS. BIGGS'S REMINISCENCES
+
+
+"Maybe I was too hard on Ruby Ann," she said, measuring the heel of
+Tim's sock to see if it were time to begin to narrow. "She's a pretty
+clever woman, take her by and large, but I do hate to see a dog frisk
+like a puppy, and she's thirty-five if she's a day. You see, I know,
+'cause, as I was tellin' you, there was her and me and Amy Crompton
+girls together. I am forty, Amy is thirty-eight or thirty-nine, and Ruby
+Ann is thirty-five."
+
+Having settled Ruby's age and asked Eloise hers, and told her she looked
+young for nineteen, the good woman branched off upon the grandeur of the
+Crompton House, with its pictures and statuary and bric-a-brac, its
+flowers and fountains, and rustic arbors and seats scattered over the
+lawn. Eloise had heard something of the place from a school friend, but
+never had it been so graphically described as by Mrs. Biggs, and she
+listened with a feeling that in the chamber of her childhood's memory a
+picture of this place had been hung by somebody.
+
+"Was it my father?" she asked herself, and answered decidedly, "No," as
+she recalled the little intercourse she had ever had with him. "Was it
+my mother?" she next asked herself, and involuntarily her tears started
+as she thought of her mother, and how unlikely it was that she had ever
+been in Crompton.
+
+Turning her head aside to hide her tears from Mrs. Biggs, she said,
+"Tell me more of the place. It almost seems as if I had been there."
+
+Thus encouraged, Mrs. Biggs began a description of the lawn party which
+she was too young to remember, although she was there with her mother,
+and had a faint recollection of music and candy and lights in the trees,
+and an attack of colic the night after as a result of overeating.
+
+"But, my land!" she said, "that was nothin' to the blow-out on Amy's
+sixteenth birthday. The Colonel had kep' her pretty close after he took
+her from school. She had a governess and she had a maid, but I must say
+she didn't seem an atom set up, and was just as nice when she met us
+girls. 'Hello, Betsey,' she'd say to me. That's my name, Betsey, but I
+call myself 'Lisbeth. 'Hello, Betsey,' I can hear her now, as she
+cantered past on her pony, in her long blue ridin' habit. Sometimes
+she'd come to the school-house and set on the grass under the apple
+trees and chew gum with us girls. That was before her party, which beat
+anything that was ever seen in Crompton, or will be again. The avenue
+and yard and stables were full of carriages, and there were eighteen
+waiters besides the _canterer_ from Boston."
+
+"The what?" Eloise asked, and Mrs. Biggs replied, "The _canterer_, don't
+you know, the man who sees to things and brings the vittles and his
+waiters. They say he alone cost the Colonel five hundred dollars; but,
+my land! that's no more for him than five dollars is for me. He fairly
+swims in money. Such dresses you never seen as there was there that
+night, and such bare necks and arms, with a man at the door, a man at
+the head of the stairs to tell 'em where to go, and one in the
+gentlemen's room, and two girls in the ladies' rooms to button their
+gloves and put on their dancing pumps. The carousin' lasted till
+daylight, and a tireder, more worn-out lot of folks than we was you
+never seen. I was nearly dead."
+
+"Were you there?' Eloise asked, with a feeling that there was some
+incongruity between the Crompton party and Mrs. Biggs, who did not care
+to say that she was one of the waitresses who buttoned gloves and put on
+the dancing pumps in the dressing-room.
+
+"Why, yes, I was there," she said at last, "though I wasn't exactly in
+the doin's. I've never danced since I was dipped and jined the church.
+Do you dance, or be you a perfessor?"
+
+Eloise had to admit that she did dance and was not a professor, although
+she hoped to be soon.
+
+"What persuasion?" was Mrs. Biggs's next question, and Eloise replied,
+"I was baptized in the Episcopal Church in Rome."
+
+"The one in York State, I s'pose, and not t'other one across the seas?"
+Mrs. Biggs suggested, and Eloise answered, "Yes, the one across the seas
+in Italy."
+
+"For goodness' sake! How you talk! You don't mean you was born there?"
+Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, with a feeling of added respect for one who was
+actually born across the seas. "Do you remember it, and did you know the
+Pope and the King?"
+
+Eloise said she did not remember being born, nor did she know the Pope
+or the King.
+
+"I was a little girl when I left Italy, and do not remember much,
+except that I was happier there than I have ever been since."
+
+"I want to know! I s'pose you've had trouble in your family?" was Mrs.
+Biggs's quick rejoinder, as she scented some private history which she
+meant to find out.
+
+But beyond the fact that her father was dead and her mother in
+California, she could learn nothing from Eloise, and returned to the
+point from which they had drifted to the Episcopal Church in Rome.
+
+"I kinder mistrusted you was a 'Piscopal. I do' know why, but I can most
+always tell 'em," she said. "The Cromptons is all that way of thinkin'.
+Old Colonel is a vestedman, I b'lieve they call 'em, but he swears
+offul. I don't call that religion; do you? But folks ain't alike. I
+don't s'pose the Church is to blame. There's now and then as good a
+'Piscopal as you'll find anywhere. Ruby Ann has jined 'em, and goes it
+strong. B'lieves in candles and vestures; got Tim into the choir one
+Sunday, and now you can't keep him out of it. Wears a--a--I don't know
+what you call it,--something that looks like a short night-gown, and I
+have to wash it every other week. I don't mind that, and I do b'lieve
+Tim is more of a man than he was, and he sings beautiful. And hain't
+learnt nothin' bad there yet, but the minister does some things I don't
+approve; no, don't approve. What do you think he does right before
+folks, in plain sight, sittin' on the piazza?"
+
+Eloise could not hazard a guess as to the terrible sin of which Mr.
+Mason, the rector of St. John's, was guilty, and said so.
+
+"Well," and Mrs. Biggs's voice sank to a whisper as she leaned forward,
+"_he smokes a cigar in broad daylight_! What do you think of that for a
+minister of the gospel?"
+
+She was so much in earnest, and her manner so dramatic, that Eloise
+laughed the first real, hearty laugh she had indulged in since she came
+to Crompton. Smoking might be objectionable, but it did not seem to her
+the most heinous crime in the world, and she had a very vivid
+remembrance of a coat in which there lurked the odor of many Havanas,
+and to which she had clung desperately in the darkness and rain on the
+night which seemed to her years ago. She did not, however, express any
+opinion with regard to the Rev. Arthur Mason's habits, or feel
+especially interested in him. But Mrs. Biggs was, and once launched on
+the subject, she told Eloise that he was from the South, and had not
+been long in the place; that he was unmarried, and all the girls were
+after him, Ruby Ann with the rest, and she at least half a dozen years
+older.
+
+"But, land's sake! What does that count with an old maid when a young
+minister is in the market," she said, adding that, with the exception of
+smoking, she believed the new minister was a good man, though for some
+reason Col. Crompton did not like him, and had only been to church once
+since he came, and wouldn't let Miss Amy go either.
+
+This brought her back to the Cromptons generally, and during the next
+half hour Eloise had a pretty graphic description of the Colonel and his
+eccentricities, of Amy, when she was a young girl, of the way she came
+to the Crompton House, and the mystery which still surrounded her birth.
+
+"My Uncle Peter lived there when she came, and lives there now,--a kind
+of vally to the old Colonel," she said, "and he's told me of the
+mornin' the Colonel brung her home, a queer-looking little thing,--in
+her clothes, I mean,--and offul peppery, I judge, fightin' everybody who
+came near her, and rollin' on the floor, bumpin' and cryin' for a nigger
+who had took care of her somewhere, nobody knows where, for the Colonel
+never told, and if Uncle Peter knows, he holds his tongue. She was a
+terrible fighter at school, if things didn't suit her, but she's quiet
+enough now; seems 's if she'd been through the fire, poor thing, and
+they say she don't remember nothin', and begins to shake if she tries to
+remember. The Colonel is very kind to her; lets her have all the money
+she wants, and she gives away a sight. Sent you a hat and slips, almost
+new, and had never seen you. That's like Amy, and, my soul, there she is
+now, comin' down the road with the Colonel in the b'rouch. Hurry, and
+you can see her; I'll move you."
+
+Utterly regardless of the lame foot, which dragged on the floor and hurt
+cruelly, Mrs. Biggs drew Eloise to the window in time to see a handsome
+open carriage drawn by two splendid bays passing the house. The Colonel
+was muffled up as closely as if it were midwinter, and only a part of
+his face and his long, white hair were visible, but he was sitting
+upright, with his head held high, and looked the embodiment of
+aristocratic pride and arrogance. The lady beside him was very slight,
+and sat in a drooping kind of posture, as if she were tired, or
+restless, or both. To see her face was impossible, for she was closely
+veiled, and neither she nor the Colonel glanced toward the house as they
+passed.
+
+"I am so disappointed. I wanted to see her face," Eloise said, watching
+the carriage until it was hidden from view by a turn in the road. "You
+say she is lovely?" and she turned to Mrs. Biggs.
+
+"Lovely don't express it. Seraphic comes nearer. Looks as if she had
+some great sorrow she was constantly thinking of, and trying to smile as
+she thought of it," Mrs. Biggs replied. Then, as Eloise looked quickly
+up, she exclaimed, "Well, if I ain't beat! It's come to me what I've
+been tryin' to think of ever sense I seen you. They ain't the same
+color; hers is darker, but there is a look in your eyes for all the
+world as hers used to be when she was a girl, and wan't wearin' her
+high-heeled shoes and ridin' over our heads. Them times she was as like
+the Colonel as one pea is like another, and her eyes fairly snapped.
+Other times they was soft and tender-like, and bright as stars, with a
+look in 'em which I know now was kinder,--well, kinder crazy-like, you
+know."
+
+Eloise had heard many things said of her own eyes, but never before that
+they were crazy-like, and did not feel greatly complimented. She
+laughed, however, and said she would like to see the lady whose eyes
+hers were like.
+
+Before Mrs. Biggs could reply there was a step outside, and, tiptoeing
+to the window, she exclaimed, in a whisper, "If I won't give it up,
+there's the 'Piscopal minister, Mr. Mason, come to call on you! Ruby Ann
+must of told him you belonged to 'em."
+
+She dropped her knitting, and, hurrying to the door, admitted the Rev.
+Arthur Mason, and ushered him at once into the room where Eloise was
+sitting, saying as she introduced him, "I s'pose you have come to see
+her."
+
+It was an awkward situation for the young man, whose call was not
+prompted by any thought of Eloise. His business was with Mrs. Biggs,
+who had the reputation of being the parish register and town
+encyclopaedia, from which information regarding everybody could be
+gleaned, and he had come to her for information which he had been told
+she could probably give him. He had been in Crompton but three months,
+and had come there from a small parish in Virginia. On the first Sunday
+when he officiated in St. John's he had noticed in the audience a tall,
+aristocratic-looking man, with long white hair and beard, who made the
+responses loud and in a tone which told the valuation he put upon
+himself. In the same pew was a lady whose face attracted his attention,
+it was so sweet and yet so sad, while the beautiful eyes, he was sure,
+were sometimes full of tears as she listened with rapt attention to what
+he was saying of our heavenly home, where those we have loved and lost
+will be restored to us. It scarcely seemed possible, and yet he thought
+there was a nod of assent, and was sure that a smile broke over her face
+when he spoke of the first meeting of friends in the next world, the
+mother looking for her child, and the child coming to the gates of
+Paradise to meet its mother. Who was she, he wondered, and who was the
+old man beside her, who held himself so proudly? He soon learned who
+they were, and hearing that the Colonel was very lame, and the lady an
+invalid, he took the initiative and called at the Crompton House. The
+Colonel received him very cordially, and made excuses for Amy's
+non-appearance, saying she was not quite herself and shy with strangers.
+He was very affable, and evidently charmed with his visitor, until, as
+the conversation flowed on, it came out that the rector was a
+Southerner by birth, although educated for the ministry at the North,
+and that his father, the Rev. Charles Mason, was at present filling a
+vacancy in a little country church in Enterprise, Florida, where he had
+been before the war. The Rev. Arthur Mason could not tell what it was
+that warned him of an instantaneous change in the Colonel's manner, it
+was so subtle and still so perceptible. There was a settling himself
+back in his chair, a tighter clasping of his gold-headed cane with which
+he walked, and which he always kept in his hand. He was less talkative,
+and finally was silent altogether, and when at last the rector arose to
+go, he was not asked to stay or call again. Peter was summoned to show
+him the door, the Colonel bowing very stiffly as he went out. How he had
+offended, if he had done so, the rector could not guess, and, hearing
+within a week or two that the Colonel was indisposed, he called again,
+but was not admitted. Col. Crompton was too nervous to see any one, he
+was told, and there the acquaintance had ended. The Crompton pew was not
+occupied until Howard came and was occasionally seen in it. Evidently
+the new rector was a _persona non grata_, and he puzzled his brain for a
+reason in vain, until a letter from his father threw some light upon the
+subject and induced him to call upon Mrs. Biggs.
+
+As usual she was very loquacious, scarcely allowing him a word, and
+ringing changes on her own and Eloise's sprained ankle, until he began
+to fear he should have no chance to broach the object of his visit
+without seeming to drag it in. The chance came on the return of the
+Crompton carriage, with the Colonel sitting stiff and straight and Amy
+drooping under her veil beside him. Here was his opportunity, and the
+rector seized it, and soon learned nearly all Mrs. Biggs knew of Amy's
+arrival at Crompton House and the surmises concerning her antecedents.
+
+"She's a Crompton if there ever was one, and why the Colonel should keep
+so close a mouth all these years beats me," was Mrs. Biggs's closing
+remark, as she bowed the rector out and went back to Eloise, who felt
+that she was getting very familiar with the Crompton history, so far as
+Mrs. Biggs knew it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+LETTER FROM REV. CHARLES MASON
+
+
+"Enterprise, Fla., Sept. --, 18--.
+
+"My dear Arthur:
+
+"I was glad to hear that you were so pleasantly situated and liked your
+parish work. I trust it is cooler there than here in Florida, where the
+thermometer has registered higher day after day than it has before in
+years. I rather like it, however, as I am something of a salamander, and
+this, you know, is not my first experience in Florida. I was here
+between thirty and forty years ago, before I was married. In fact, I met
+your mother here at the Brock House, which before the war was frequented
+by many Southerners, some of whom came in the summer as well as in the
+winter.
+
+"It was while I was here that an incident occurred which made a strong
+impression upon my mind, and was recalled to it by your mention of
+_Crompton_ as the town where you are living. On one of the hottest days
+of the season I attended a funeral, the saddest, and, in some respects,
+the most peculiar I ever attended. It was in a log-house some miles from
+the river, and was that of a young girl, who lay in her coffin with a
+pathetic look on her face, as if in death she were pleading for some
+wrong to be righted. I could scarcely keep back my tears when I looked
+at her, and after all these years my eyes grow moist when I recall that
+funeral in the palmetto clearing, with only Crackers and negroes in
+attendance, a demented old woman, a dark-eyed little girl, the only
+relatives, and a free negro, Jake, and Mandy Ann, a slave, belonging to
+Mrs. Harris, the only real mourners. Mandy Ann attended to the child and
+old woman, while Jake was master of ceremonies, and more intelligent
+than many white people I have met. Such a funeral as that was, with the
+cries and groans and singing of both whites and blacks! One old woman,
+called Judy, came near having the _power_, as they call a kind of fit of
+spiritual exaltation. But Jake shook her up, and told her to behave, as
+it was a 'Piscopal funeral and not a pra'r meetin'. Mandy Ann also shook
+up the old lady, Mrs. Harris, and screamed in her ear through a trumpet,
+while the little dark-eyed child joined in the refrain of the negroes'
+song,
+
+    "'Oh, it will be joyful
+      When we meet to part no more.'
+
+"It was ludicrous, but very sad, and Jake's efforts to keep order were
+pitiful. He called his young mistress Miss Dory, and was most anxious to
+screen her from the least suspicion of wrong. When I questioned him with
+regard to the parentage of the little girl, he wrung his hands and
+answered, 'I do' know for shu', but fo' God it's all right. She tole me
+so, fo' she died, an' Miss Dory never tole a lie. She said to find Elder
+Covil, who knew, but he's done gone off Norf, or somewhar.'
+
+"I felt sure it was all right when I saw the girl's face. It must have
+been beautiful in life, and no taint of guilt had ever marred its
+innocence. There could have been no fault at her door, except
+concealment, and the reason for that was buried in her grave. I heard of
+a stranger who visited the clearing three or four years before the
+funeral. Jake was away, but Mandy Ann was there and full of the
+'gemman,' who, I have no doubt, was the girl's husband and a great
+scamp. I left Florida within a week after that funeral, and have never
+been here since, until I came to take charge for a time of the church
+which has been erected here. I should never have known the place, it has
+changed so since the close of the war and the influx of visitors from
+the North. The hotel, which has been greatly improved and enlarged, is
+always full in the season, and it is one of the most popular winter
+resorts on the river.
+
+"One of my first inquiries was for the negroes Jake and Mandy Ann. The
+latter is married and lives near the hotel, with as many children, I
+thought, as the old woman who lived in a shoe, the way they swarmed out
+when I called to see their mother. She had gone to Jacksonville to see
+'ole Miss Perkinses, who was dyin', and had sent for her 'case she done
+live with her when she was a girl,' one of the pickaninnies said. When I
+asked for Jake I was told he was still in the palmetto clearing. No one
+could tell me anything about the little girl who must now, if living, be
+a woman of nearly forty. Indeed, no one seemed to remember her, so
+changed are the people since the war. Jake, I was sure, had not
+forgotten, and a few days ago I went to see him. He is an old man now,
+and if there is such a thing as an aristocratic negro, he is one; with
+his face black as ebony, his hair white as snow, and his eyes full of
+intelligence and fire, especially when he talks of Miss Dory and 'de
+good ole times fo' she went to Georgy and met de Northern cuss.' That is
+what he calls the man who came for the little girl after the old
+grandmother died.
+
+"I will tell you the story of his coming as Jake told it to me in the
+little enclosure where Miss Dory is buried, and where there is a very
+pretty monument to her memory, with 'Eudora, aged 20,' upon it. He was
+working in the yard, which was a garden of bloom, and over the grave and
+around the monument a Marshal Niel had twined itself, its clusters of
+roses filling the air with perfume. Pushing them a little aside, so that
+I could see the lettering more distinctly, he said, 'That's what he tole
+me to put thar, jess "Eudora, aged 20." I've left room for another name
+when I'm perfectly shu'. I don't want to put no lie on a grave stun, if
+her name wan't Crompton.'
+
+"'Crompton!' I repeated, thinking of your parish.
+
+"'Yes, Mas'r Mason, fo' God I b'lieve it's Crompton shu'. He comed an'
+fetched lil chile Dory, the lil girl you seen at the funeral, what seems
+only yestiddy, one way and in another a big lifetime sense we buried her
+mother here.'
+
+"'Who is Mr. Crompton, and how did he know about the child?' I asked,
+and Jake replied, 'He is somebody from the Norf, and he'd sent money to
+Mas'r Hardy in Palatka for Miss Dory, who put it away for de chile.
+After she died Mas'r Hardy was gwine to Europe, an' tole me 'twas Col.
+Crompton, Troutburg, Massachusetts, who sent the money, but he wouldn't
+say nothin' else, 'cept that Col. Crompton had gin him his confidence
+and he should keep it. I'm shoo that Miss Dory sent letters through
+Mas'r Hardy to de Colonel, an' he writ to her. Not very offen, though.
+She'd sen' one to Mas'r Hardy, an' he'd sen' it Norf, an' then she'd
+wait and wait for de answer, an' when it came you or'to seen her face
+light up like sun-up on de river in a May mornin'. An' her eyes,--she
+had wonnerful eyes,--would shine like de stars frosty nights in
+Virginny. Maybe 'twas mean, but sometimes I watched her readin' de
+letter, her han's flutterin' as she opened it like a little bird's wings
+when it's cotched. I think she was allus 'spectin' sumptin' what never
+comed. The letters was short, but it took her a mighty time to read 'em,
+'case you see she wasn't good at readin' writin', an' I 'specs de
+Colonel's handwrite wasn't very plain. She used to spell out de long
+words, whisperin' 'em out sometimes, her face changin' till all de
+brightness was gone, an' it was more like a storm on de river than
+sun-up. Den she'd fold de letter, an' take up de lil chile an' kiss it,
+an' say, "I've got _you_. We'll never part." Den she'd burn de letter. I
+specs he tole her to, an' she was shoo to mind. Den she'd go at her
+readin' book agin, or writin', tryin' to larn, but 'twixt you an' I
+'twan't in her, an', no direspec' nuther, de Harrises couldn't larn from
+books. Dey's quick to 'dapt theirselves to what they seen, an' she
+didn't see nothin'.
+
+"'Once she said to me when de big words troubled her an' floor'd me, "I
+can never be a lady dis way. Ef he'd take me whar he is, an' 'mongst his
+people, I should larn thar ways, but what can I do here wid--" She
+didn't say "wid Jake an' Mandy Ann an' ole granny, an' de rest of 'em,"
+but she meant it. If it hadn't been for the lil chile she could of gone
+to school. I tole her oncet I'd sen' her an' take care of de lil chile
+an' ole Miss,--me an' Mandy Ann. The tears come in her eyes as she ast
+whar I'd git de money, seein' we was layin' up what come from de Norf
+for de chile. I'd done thought that out lyin' awake nights an' plannin'
+how to make her a lady. I'se bawn free, you know, an' freedom was sweet
+to me an' slavery sour, but for Miss Dory I'd do it, an' I said, "I'll
+sell myself to Mas'r Hardy, or some gemman like him." Thar's plenty
+wants me, an' would give a big price, an' she should have it all for her
+schoolin'.
+
+"'You orter have seen her face then. Every part of it movin' to oncet,
+an' her eyes so bright I could not look at 'em for the quarness thar was
+in 'em, an' I'll never forget her voice as she said, "That can't be;
+but, Jakey, you are de noblest man, black or white, I ever seen, an' my
+best frien', an' I loves you as if you was my brodder."
+
+"'Dem's her very words, an' I would of sole myself for her if I could.
+But de lam gin up after a while. All de hope an' life went out of her,
+an' she died' an' you done 'tended her funeral,--you 'members it,--as
+fust class as I could make it. I tole you sumptin' den, but not all
+this. It wasn't a fittin' time, but seein' you brings it all back. Mandy
+Ann an' me said we'd keep lil chile a while, bein' ole Miss was alive,
+though she was no better than a broomstick dressed in her clothes. She
+didn't know nothin', not even that Miss Dory was dead, an' kep' askin'
+whose chile it was,--ef it was Mandy Ann's, an' why it was hyar. It
+kinder troubled her, I think, it was so active an' noisy, an' sung so
+much. Used to play at pra'r meetin' an' have de pow' powerful, as she
+had seen de blacks have it when Mandy Ann took her to thar meetin's.
+Seems ef she liked thar ways better than what I tried to teach her from
+de Pra'r Book, an' they is rather more livelier for a chile. All de
+neighbors was interested in her, an' ole Miss Thomas most of all. She's
+de one what stood out de longest agin Miss Dory, 'case she didn't tell
+squar what she'd promised not to. But she gin in at de funeral, an' was
+mighty nice to the lil chile. When ole Miss Lucy died she comed in her
+democrat wagon, as she did for Miss Dory, an' coaxed lil chile inter her
+lap, an' said she showed she had good blood, an' or'to be brung up a
+lady, an' it wasn't fittin' for her to stay whar she was, an' if I knew
+de fader I mus' write to him.
+
+"'I knew dat as well as she did, an' after consultin' wid Mandy Ann an'
+prayin' for light, it come dat I must sen' on, an' I did, hopin' he
+wouldn' come, for to part wid de lil chile was like tearin' my vitals
+out, an' Mandy Ann's, too. He did come,--a big, gran' man, wid a look
+which made me glad Miss Dory was in heaven 'stead of livin' wid him.
+He'd been hyar oncet before. Mebby I tole you, at de funeral. My mind
+gets leaky, an' I can't 'member exactly, an' so repeats.'
+
+"'I think not,' I said, 'and if you did, I have forgotten, and am
+willing to hear it again.'
+
+"We were sitting now on a bench close by what Jake said had been the
+little girl's play-house, which she called her _Shady_, because it was
+under a palm tree.
+
+"'Yes, he comed,' Jake said, 'two or three weeks after Miss Dory comed
+home from Georgy, whar she was visitin' her kin. Mandy Ann tole me 'bout
+him,--how he walked an' talked to Miss Dory, till when he went away her
+face was white as the gown she put on when she hearn he was comin'. You
+see, Mandy Ann was on de boat wid him, an' tole her. She was all of a
+twitter, like you've seen de little hungry birds in de nest when dar
+mudder is comin' wid a worm,--an' she was jess as cold an' slimpsy an'
+starved when he went away as dem little birds is when de mudder is shot
+on de wing an' never comes wid de worm. You know what I mean. She
+s'pected somethin' an' didn't get it.'
+
+"Jake was very eloquent in his illustrations, and I looked admiringly at
+him as he went on: 'I was in Virginny vallyin' for Mas'r Kane, a fine
+gemman who gin me big wage, an' I was savin' it up to buy some things
+for de house, 'case I reckoned how Miss Dory seen somethin' different in
+Georgy. Her kin was very 'spectable folks, an' she might want some
+fixin's. Thar was nobody hyar but ole Miss Lucy, who'd had some kind of
+a spell an' lost most of her sense, an' didn't know more'n a chile.
+Mandy Ann got somebody to write me that Miss Dory had a beau,--a gran'
+man, an' I was that pleased that I ast the price of a second-han'
+pianny, thinkin' mebby she'd want to larn, 'case she sung so nice. Den I
+never hearn anoder word, 'cept from Miss Dory, till Mas'r Hardy writ
+Mas'r Kane to sen' me home, 'case I was needed. I s'posed ole Miss Lucy
+had had another fit, an' started thinkin' all de way up de river how I'd
+see Miss Dory standin' in de do' wid de smile on her face, an' de light
+in her eyes, an' her pleasant voice sayin' to me, "How d'ye, Jake, I'se
+mighty glad to see you." 'Stid o' that she wasn't thar, an' Mandy Ann
+come clatterin' down de stars, an' I hearn a baby cry. In my s'prise I
+said, "What's dat ar? Has ole Miss got a baby?"
+
+"'Mandy Ann laughed till she cried, den cried without laughin', an' tole
+me wid her face to de wall, an' I was so shamed I could of hid in de
+san', an' Mandy Ann, they tole me, did run inter de woods at fust to
+hide herself. Den she smarted up an' fit for Miss Dory, who said nothin'
+'cept, "Wait, it will all be right. I tole him I would wait. I'm a good
+girl," an' fo' Heaven, I b'lieved her, though some o' de white trash
+didn't at fust, but they all did at the last. Maybe I'm tirin' you?'
+
+"'No,' I said, 'go on,' and he continued: 'I'se tole you most all dat
+happened after dat till she died an' you comed to de funeral.
+
+"'When ole miss died, I writ to de Colonel, as I tole you, an' he comed,
+gran', an' proud, an' stiff, an' I tole him all 'bout Miss Dory same as
+I have you,--p'raps not quite so much,--p'raps mo'. I don't remember,
+'case as I said my memory is ole an' leaky, and mebby I ain't tellin' it
+right in course as I tole him. Some was in de house, an' some out hyar,
+whar I said, "Dis is her grave. She's lyin' under de san', but I'll fix
+her up in time an' she shall sleep under de roses."
+
+"'I tole him everything was done in order, an' how you preached about de
+Resurrection an' de Life, an' how sweet she look in her coffin, an'
+Mandy Ann's puttin' her ring on de weddin' finger, an' his mouf trembled
+like, up and down, an' I b'lieve ef thar had been a tear in his dried-up
+heart he'd of shed it.
+
+"'Oncet, when he seemed kinder softened, I ast him squar," Ain't you her
+husband?"
+
+"'Thar was such a quar look in his eyes,--a starin' at me a minit,--an'
+then he said, "I am nobody's husband, an' never shall be."
+
+"'I b'lieve he lied, an' wanted to knock him down, but wouldn't right
+thar by her grave. He tole me I was to have all the money Miss Dory had
+been layin' up, an' he would send me mo' for the stun. I ast what I
+should put on it, an' he said, "What was on her coffin plate?"
+
+"Eudora, aged 20," I tole him. "Put the same on the stun," he said. He
+tole me I was to stay on de place, an' have all I made. Then thar was
+Mandy Ann, who 'longed to de lil chile. She was to stay hyar, he said,
+an' he'd pay her wage which she could keep herself. He'd settle wid de
+lil chile when de time come, an' set Mandy Ann free. I think he meant
+it, but he was spar'd de trouble, for de wah corned like a big broom an'
+swep' slavery away, an' mos' everyting souf wid it, an' Mandy Ann was
+free any way widout de Colonel.
+
+"'After de chile went away I got to broodin' over Miss Dory's wrongs,
+till I'se so worked up agin de Colonel, dat when de wah broke out I was
+minded to 'list, hopin' I'd meet him somewhar in battle an' shoot him.
+Den I cooled down an' staid home an' raised things an' worked for de
+poor folks hyar,--de women, whose husban's an' brudders had gone to de
+wah. Ted,--dat's de boy on de "Hatty" long ago,--went to de wah wid a
+great flourish, promisin' Mandy Ann he'd shoot the Colonel shu' ef he
+got a chance. An' what do you think? At de fust crack of de cannon in de
+fust battle he seen, he cut an' run, an' kep' on runnin' till he got
+hyar, beggin' me an' Mandy Ann to hide him, 'case he was a deserter. I
+held my tongue, an' let Mandy Ann do as she pleased, an' she hid him
+till de Federals come, when he jined them, an' did get hit, but 'twas on
+de back or shoulder, showin' which way he was runnin'.
+
+"'Den Mandy Ann married him, an' has ten chillenses, an' washes an'
+scrubs for de Brock House an' everybody, while Ted struts roun' wid a
+cigar in his mouf, an' says he has neber seen a well day sense de
+wah,--dat his shoulder pains him powerful at times,--an' he is tryin' to
+get a pension, an' Mandy Ann is helpin' him. Beats all what women won't
+do for a man if they love him, no matter how big a skunk he is. Miss
+Dory died for one, an' Mandy Ann is slavin' herself to deff for one.
+I'se mighty glad I'se not a woman.'
+
+"Here Jake stopped a moment, presumably to reflect on the waywardness of
+Miss Dory and Mandy Ann caring for two skunks,--one the Colonel and one
+Ted, whose last name I did not know till I asked Jake, who replied,
+'Hamilton--a right smart name, I'm told, an' 'long'd to de quality. Ole
+man Hamilton come from de norf somewhar, an' bought Ted's mother, a
+likely mulatto. Who his fader was I doan know. He's more white dan
+black, an' is mighty proud of his name,--Hamilton,--'case somebody tole
+him thar was once a big man, Hamilton, an' when Mandy Ann had twin boys,
+she was tole to call 'em Alexander an' Aaron,--sumptin',--I doan justly
+remember what. It makes me think of a chestnut.'
+
+"'Burr,' I suggested, and he replied, 'Yes, sar, dat's it,--Aaron
+Burr,--anoder big man,--an' dey calls de twins Alex and Aaron. Fine
+boys, too, wid Mandy Ann's get-up in 'em. Dar's two mo' twins,--little
+gals; beats all what a woman Mandy Ann is for twins,--an' she calls 'em
+Judy and Dory,--one for young Miss, an' t'other for de rag doll lil
+chile took norf wid her and called Judy, for an ole woman who has gone
+to de Canaan she used to sing about--"Oh, I'se boun' for de lan' of
+Canaan." She was powerful in pra'r, an' at de fust meetin' after de wah,
+an' she knew she was free, I b'lieve you could of hearn her across de
+lake to Sanford, she shout "Glory, bress de Lawd!" so loud. But for all
+she was free, she wouldn't leave ole Miss Thomas. "I likes my mistis,
+an' I ain't gwine to leave her wid somebody else to comb her har, an'
+make her corn bread," she said, when dey tried to persuade her to go to
+Palatky. She staid wid ole Miss, who buried her decent, an' has gone
+herself to jine her an' Miss Dory in de better land, which seems to me
+is not far away; an' offen, when I sees de sun go down in a glory of red
+an' purple an' yaller,--I'se mighty fond of yaller,--I says to myself,
+"It's dat way dey goes to de udder world, whar, please God, I'll go some
+day fore berry long,--for I tries to be good."
+
+"There was a rapt look in Jake's face as he turned it to the west, and I
+would have given much to know that my future was as assured as his."
+
+Here the first part of Mr. Mason's letter closed abruptly, as a friend
+came to call, but he added hastily, "To-morrow I'll finish, and tell you
+about the child who now occupies all Jake's thoughts, praying every day
+that he may see her again."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+PART SECOND OF REV. MR. MASON'S LETTER
+
+
+"I was interrupted yesterday, and hardly know where to begin again, or
+what I have written, as Jake was a little mixed and went forward and
+back at times, showing that his memory was, as he said, leaky, but when
+he struck the child he was bright as a guinea. 'Lil Chile' and 'Honey
+Bee' he calls her. He told me of her running into the house to meet the
+Colonel, with her soiled frock, and her face and hands besmeared with
+molasses; of her tussle with Mandy Ann, who wanted to wash her face and
+change her clothes, and of her fine appearance at the last in a white
+gown, her best, which he had bought and Mandy Ann made not long before,
+and which the Colonel would not take with him. So they kept it, and
+Mandy Ann washed and ironed it, and put it away with some sweet herbs,
+and aired it every year till she was married, when Jake cared for it
+till Mandy Ann's twins were born,--Alex and Aaron. Then Mandy Ann
+borrowed it for them to be christened in, one of them one Sunday and one
+the next, so that both had the honor of wearing it, while Jake was
+sponsor, 'For,' said he, 'Mandy Ann has gin up them hollerin' meetin's
+whar white folks done come to see de ole darkies have a kind of powow,
+as dey use to have befo' de wah. Clar for't if de folks from de Norf
+don't gin de blacks money to sing de ole-time songs an' rock an' weave
+back an' forth till dey have de pow'. I don't think much of dat ar, jess
+'musin' theyselves wid our religion;' and Jake looked his disgust, and
+continued:
+
+"'Mandy Ann like mighty well to jine 'em, but I hole her back, an' now
+she's 'Piscopal, ef she's anything,--an' when de girl twins come,--Dory
+an' Judy,--she borrowed lil chile's gown agin. Dat make fo' times, an'
+then I shet de gates, an' said, "No mo' gown, an' no mo' twins," an'
+thar hain't been no mo'.
+
+"'But I'se got a good ways from lil chile, who wan't an atom shy of de
+Colonel, though he was of her, an' when he took her han' I could almost
+see him squirm like. I think he tried to be kind, an' he gin her a lil
+ivory book he had on his watch-chain, but you see he didn't feel it. He
+didn't care for children, and it seemed as if he wanted to get away from
+this one. But he couldn't. She was his'n; I'd bet my soul on dat. He had
+to come after her an' took her, though 'twas 'bout the wust job he ever
+did, I reckon. She fit like a tiger cat about gwine wid him, an' 's
+true's you bawn, I don't b'lieve she'd gone ef he hadn't took me wid him
+to Savannah. I can't tell you, Mas'r Mason, 'bout de partin' thar. 'Twas
+drefful, an' I kin see her now rollin' on de flo', wid her heels an'
+han's in de air, an' she a-sayin' she mus' stay wid Shaky. I bought her
+such a pretty red cloak, all lined wid white silk, an' wrapped her in
+it, an' took her on to de boat, an' left her thar, she thinkin' I was
+comin' back, an' the last I seen of her, as the boat moved off, she was
+jumpin' up an' down, an' stretchin' her arms to me, an' the Cunnel
+holdin' her tight, or I b'lieve she'd sprung overboard. He'd a good
+time gettin' her home, I reckon. She was the very old Harry when her
+dander was up,' and the old negro laughed as he thought of what the
+Colonel must have borne on that journey with his troublesome charge.
+
+"There came a few lines to him, he said, telling of Col. Crompton's safe
+arrival home, and that the child was well. After a while the war broke
+out, and communication with the North was cut off. The friend in
+Palatka, who had returned from Europe and joined the Confederate Army,
+was killed, and the letter which Jake sent to Col. Crompton when peace
+was restored was not answered for a long time. At last the Colonel wrote
+that Eudora had married against his wishes and gone to Europe, and Jake
+was not to trouble him with any more letters concerning her.
+
+"An' that's all I knows of her,' he said, 'whether she's dead or alive,
+or whar she is; but if I did know I b'lieve I'd walk afoot to de Norf to
+see her. She ain't my lil chile Dory no mo', but I allus thinks of her
+like dat, an' I keeps de cradle she was rocked in by my bed, an'
+sometimes, when I'se lonesome nights, an' can't sleep for thinkin' of
+her, I puts my han' out an' jogs it with a feelin' the lil one is thar,
+an' every day I prays she may come back to me, an' I b'lieve she will.
+Yes, sar, it comes to me that she will.'
+
+"The tears were running down the old man's face when, on our going to
+the house, he showed me the cradle close to his bed, a rude,
+old-fashioned, high-topped thing, such as the poorest families used
+years ago. There was a pillow, or cushion, in it, and a little patchwork
+quilt, which, he said, Mandy Ann pieced and made. He showed me, too, a
+second or third school reader, soiled and worn and pencil marked, and
+showing that it had been much used.
+
+"'This was Miss Dory's,' he said; 'the one she studied de most, tryin'
+to learn, an' gettin' terribly flustered wid de big words. I can see her
+now, bendin' over it airly an' late; sometimes wid de chile in her lap
+till she done tuckered out, an' laid it away with a sithe as if glad to
+be shet of it. She couldn't larn, an' de Lord took her whar dey don't
+ask what you knows,--only dis: does you lub de Lord? an' she did, de
+lamb.'
+
+"Jake was still crying, and I was not far from it as I saw in fancy that
+poor young girl trying to learn, trying to master the big words and
+their meaning, in the vain hope of fitting herself for companionship
+with a man who had deserted her, and who probably never had for her more
+than a passing fancy, of which he was ashamed and would gladly ignore.
+
+"'I showed him de book,' Jake said, 'an' tole him how she tried to larn,
+an' I tried to help her all I could, an' then he did have some feelin'
+an' his eyes got red, but he didn't drap a tear; no, sar, not a drap! He
+ast me could he have de book, an' I said, "No, sar, not for nothin'.
+It's mine," an' he said, proud-like, "As you please." He was mighty good
+to me an' Mandy Ann 'bout money, an' when I writ him she was married, he
+sent her two hundred dollars, which she 'vested in a house, or Ted would
+of spent it for fine close an' cigarettes. He must be gettin' ole, as I
+be, an' they call de town Crompton, after him, 'stid of Troutburg.'
+
+"Remembering your parish, I told him I had a son settled in Crompton,
+Massachusetts. I hardly thought there were two towns of the same name
+in one State, and I'd inquire if Col. Crompton lived there. His face
+brightened at once, and when I left him, he grasped my hand and said,
+'Bress de Lawd for de grain of comfort you done give me. If she is thar
+I'd walk all de road from Floridy to see her, if I couldn't git thar no
+other way. Thankee, Mas'r Mason, for comin' to see me. I'se pretty
+reg'lar at church, an' sets by de do', an' allus gives a nickel for
+myself an' one for Miss Dory dead an' for Miss Dory livin', an' I makes
+Mandy Ann 'tend all I can, though she'd rather go whar she says it's
+livelier. She is mighty good to me,--comes ebery week an' clars up an'
+scoles me for gittin' so dirty. She's great on a scrub, Mandy Ann is.
+Muss you go? Well, I'm glad you comed, an' I s'pec's I've tole you some
+things twiste, 'case of my memory. Good-by.'
+
+"He accompanied me to the door, and shook hands with all the grace of a
+born gentleman. Then I left him, but have been haunted ever since by a
+picture of that old negro in his lonely cabin, jogging that empty cradle
+nights when he cannot sleep, and contrasting him with Col. Crompton,
+whoever and wherever he may be. Perhaps you can throw some light on the
+subject. The world is not so very wide that our sins are not pretty sure
+to find us out, and that some Col. Crompton has been guilty of a great
+wrong seems certain. Possibly he is one of your parishioners, and you
+may know something of the second Dory. I shall await your answer with
+some anxiety.
+
+"Your father,
+
+"CHARLES MASON."
+
+This was the letter which had sent the Rev. Arthur to call on Mrs.
+Biggs, with no thought of Eloise in his mind. She was not yet an active
+factor in the drama which was to be played out so rapidly. Returning to
+his boarding place, the rector read his father's letter a second time,
+and then answered it. A part of what he wrote we give:
+
+"I have just come from an interview with a woman who is credited with
+knowing the history of the place forty years back, and I have no doubt
+that Shaky's Col. Crompton is living here in Crompton Place, the richest
+man in town and largest contributor to the church. There is a lady
+living with him who people believe is his daughter, although he has
+never acknowledged her as such. Mrs. Biggs, the woman I interviewed,
+gave me a most graphic account of the manner of her arrival at Crompton
+Place, when she was a little girl like the one you describe. She has a
+lovely face, but is a little twisted in her brain. She did run away with
+her music teacher, and her name is Amy Eudora. There was no mention made
+of Harris. They call her Miss Amy. There can't be much doubt of her
+identity with Jaky's lil chile. Send him on, and Mandy Ann, too,--and
+the four twins, Alex and Aaron, Judy and Dory. I'll pay half their fare!
+There's enough of the old Adam in me to make me want to see them
+confront the proud Colonel, who ignores me for reasons I could not
+fathom, until I received your letter. Then I suspected that because I am
+your son he feared that some pages of his life, which he hoped were
+blotted out by time and the ravages of war, might be revealed. He is an
+old man, of course, but distinguished-looking still, though much broken
+with rheumatic gout, which keeps him mostly at home. My respects to
+Shaky, whom I hope before long to hear ringing the bell at Crompton
+Place. Is that wicked? I suppose so, but I cannot help it.
+
+"ARTHUR."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+SUNDAY CALLS
+
+
+The day following the rector's call on Mrs. Biggs was Sunday, and the
+morning was wet and misty, with a thick, white fog which crept up from
+the sea and hid from view objects at any distance away.
+
+"This is nearly as bad as London," Howard said to Jack when, after
+breakfast, they stood looking out upon the sodden grass and drooping
+flowers in the park. "Have you a mind to go to church?"
+
+Jack shrugged his shoulders, and replied, "Not I; it's too damp. Are you
+going?"
+
+Howard had not thought of doing so until that moment, when an idea came
+suddenly into his mind, and he answered, "I think so,--yes. Some one
+ought to represent the Crompton pew. It is out of the question for my
+uncle to go, and he would not if he could. He has taken a violent
+prejudice against the new rector, for no reason I can think of. He is a
+good fellow,--the rector, I mean,--and not too straight-laced to smoke a
+cigar, and he knows a fine horse when he sees one, and preaches splendid
+sermons. I think I shall go and encourage him."
+
+He did not urge Jack to accompany him, nor would Jack have done so if he
+had. There was an idea in his mind, as well as in Howard's, which he
+intended to carry out, and half an hour after Howard started for
+church, he, too, left the house and walked slowly through the park in
+the direction of Mrs. Biggs's.
+
+"I don't know as it is just the thing to call on Sunday," he thought,
+hesitating a little as he came in sight of the house, "but it seems an
+age since I saw her. I'll just step to the door and inquire how she is."
+
+His knock was not answered at first, but when he repeated it he heard
+from the parlor what sounded like--"The key is under the mat," in a
+voice he knew did not belong to Mrs. Biggs. That good woman was in
+church. Tim had gone to the choir in St. John's, and Eloise was alone.
+Ruby Ann had been to see her the night before with her massage and
+rubber band, both of which had proved so successful that Eloise was
+feeling greatly encouraged, and the outlook was not quite so forlorn as
+when she first landed at Mrs. Biggs's, helpless and homesick and half
+crazed with pain. Her ankle was improving fast, although she could not
+walk; but she had hopes of taking her place in school within a week or
+ten days. Mrs. Biggs had wondered why the young men from Crompton Place
+did not call on Saturday, and Eloise had felt a little disappointed when
+the day had passed and she did not see them.
+
+"'Tain't noways likely they'll come to-day. Folks know my principles,
+and that I don't b'lieve in Sunday visiting," she said as she tidied up
+the room before starting for church. "Nobody'll come, unless it is Ruby
+Ann with her massage, that's no more good than a cat's foot; so I'll
+just give the parlor a lick and a promise till to-morrow, and 'fise you
+I'd be comfortable in that wrapper."
+
+But Eloise insisted upon the white dressing jacket with pink ribbons,
+in which Mrs. Biggs said she looked "like a picter," regretting that the
+young men could not see her.
+
+"If it wasn't for desiccating the Sabbath I wish them high bucks would
+call," she added, as she gave a final whisk to the duster and went to
+prepare for church. "I'm goin' to lock the door and put the key under
+the mat, so nobody can get in if they want to. I might lose it if I
+carried it to meetin'. I did once, and had to clamber inter the butry
+winder," was her last remark as she left the house; and Eloise heard the
+click of the key and knew she was locked in and alone.
+
+She was not afraid, but began to imagine what she could do in case of a
+fire, or if any one were to come knocking at the door. "Sit still and
+not answer," she was thinking when Jack came rapidly up the walk. She
+saw his shadow as he passed the window, and her heart gave a great
+bound, for she knew who was "desiccating" the Sabbath by calling upon
+her. The first knock she did not answer, but when the second came,
+louder and more imperative than the first, she called out, "The key is
+under the mat," regretting her temerity in an instant, and trembling as
+she thought, "What if I am doing something improper to admit him, and
+Mrs. Biggs should disapprove!"
+
+The thought sent the blood to her cheeks, which were scarlet as Jack
+came in, eager and delighted to find her alone.
+
+"Locked up like a prisoner," he said, as he took her hand, which he held
+longer than was at all necessary, while he looked into her eyes, where
+the gladness at seeing him again was showing so plainly.
+
+When he last saw her she was arrayed in Mrs. Biggs's spotted calico, and
+he was quick to note the change. He had thought her lovely before; she
+was beautiful now, with the brightness in her eyes and the color coming
+and going so rapidly on her cheeks. Drawing a chair close to her, he sat
+down just where he could look at her as he talked, and could watch the
+varying expression on her face. Once he laid his hand on the arm of her
+chair, but withdrew it when he saw her troubled look, as if she feared
+he was getting too familiar. He asked her about her sprain, and was
+greatly interested, or seemed to be, in the massage and rubber band
+which were helping her so much. Then he spoke of Ruby Ann, the biggest
+woman he ever saw, he believed, and just the one for a school-teacher.
+He was past the school-house the day before, he said. It seemed they had
+half a day on Saturday and half a day on Wednesday. It was the boys'
+recess, and he never heard such a hullaballoo as they were making. A
+tall, lanky boy seemed to be the leader, whom the others followed.
+
+"That must be Tom Walker, the one who makes all the trouble, and whom
+Mr. Bills and Mrs. Biggs think I can't manage," Eloise said, with a
+little gasp, such as she always felt when she thought of Tom, who, Tim
+had reported, was boasting of what he meant to do with the lame
+schoolmarm when she came.
+
+Jack detected the trouble in her voice, and asked who Tom Walker was. It
+did not take long for Eloise to tell all she knew, while Jack listened
+thoughtfully, resolving to seek out Tom, and by thrashing, or
+threatening, or hiring, turn him from any plan he might have against
+this little girl, who seemed to him far too young and dainty to be
+thrown upon the mercy of the rabble he had seen by the school-house with
+Tom Walker at their head.
+
+"Don't worry about Tom. Big bullies like him are always cowards. You'll
+get along all right," he said encouragingly, with a growing desire to
+take the helpless girl in his arms and carry her away from Tom Walker
+and Mr. Bills and Mrs. Biggs, and the whole of her surroundings, which
+she did not seem at all to fit.
+
+He wanted to entertain her, and told her of an excursion on the water he
+had taken the previous day with Howard Crompton,--the last of the
+season, he said, and very enjoyable. He wished she had been there. Then
+he spoke of the Colonel, laughing at his peculiarities, and asking if
+she had ever heard of the Crompton "Formula." She said she had from Ruby
+Ann, and was glad she was not to be subjected to questioning on it, as
+she knew she should fail in everything except the four _rights_. She
+might manage them, but it was not necessary for her to be examined by
+anybody, since her normal school diploma was a license to teach anywhere
+in the State.
+
+"Hanged if I think I could manage the _rights_!" Jack said. "Spelling is
+not my forte, and Howard, who is great at it, missed the last one."
+
+"How is Mr. Howard?" Eloise asked, and Jack replied, "All right. Has
+gone to church like a good Christian. I ought to have gone, but I
+thought I'd come here, as you might be lonely here alone."
+
+It flashed through Eloise's mind to wonder how he knew she was alone,
+but she made no comment, except to say that the rector, Mr. Arthur
+Mason, called upon her the day before.
+
+"Did he?" Jack said. "I believe he is a fine fellow. Howard likes him,
+but for some reason the Colonel does not, and when Howard said he was
+going to church, and suggested bringing Mr. Mason home to lunch, he
+growled out something about not liking company on Sunday. He is a queer
+old cove, and does not seem to care for anybody but Miss Amy. He is
+devoted to her, and she is a lovely woman, and must once have been
+brilliant, but she puzzles me greatly. She seems to be rational on every
+subject except her life in California. If any allusion is made to that
+she looks dazed at once, and says, 'I can't talk about it. I don't
+remember.'"
+
+"My father died in California, and my mother is there now," Eloise said
+sadly.
+
+Jack had not supposed she had a mother. Mrs. Brown, who sat beside him
+at the commencement exercises in Mayville, had spoken of her as an
+orphan, and he replied, "I had somehow thought your mother dead."
+
+"No; oh, no!" Eloise answered quickly. "She is not dead; she is--"
+
+She stopped suddenly, and Jack knew by her voice that her mother was a
+painful subject, and he began at once to speak of something else. He was
+a good talker, and Eloise a good listener, and neither took any heed to
+the lapse of time, until there was the sound of wheels before the house.
+A carriage had stopped to let some one out; then it went on, and Howard
+Crompton came up the walk and knocked at the door just as Jack had done
+an hour before.
+
+"Pull the bobbin and come in," Jack called out, and, a good deal
+astonished, Howard walked in, looking unutterable things when he saw
+Jack there before him, seemingly perfectly at home and perfectly happy,
+and in very close proximity to Eloise, who wondered what Mrs. Biggs
+would say if she came and found both the "high bucks" there.
+
+"Hallo!" Jack said, while Howard responded, "Hallo! What brought you
+here?"
+
+"A wish to see Miss Smith. What brought you?" was Jack's reply, and
+Howard responded, "A wish to see Miss Smith, of course. You didn't
+suppose I came to see Mrs. Biggs, did you? Where is the old lady?"
+
+Eloise explained that she had gone to church, and Jack told of the key
+under the mat, and the talk flowed on; and Eloise could not forbear
+telling them of Mrs. Biggs's wish not to have the Sabbath "desiccated"
+by visitors.
+
+"A regular Mrs. Malaprop," Jack said, while Howard suggested that they
+leave before she came home. "We can put the key under the mat, and
+she'll never know of the 'desiccation,'" he said.
+
+Jack looked doubtfully at Eloise, who shook her head.
+
+"No," she said, "I shall tell her you have been here. It would be a
+deception not to."
+
+"As you like. And it's too late now, for here she comes!" Howard said,
+as Mrs. Biggs passed the window and stooped to find the key.
+
+It was not there. Turning the mat upside down, she failed to discover
+it. The key was gone!
+
+"For goodness' sake, what can have happened?" they heard her say, as she
+pushed the door open and entered the room, where the two young men
+stood, one on either side of Eloise, as if to protect her. "Well, if I
+ain't beat!" the widow exclaimed, dropping into a chair and beginning to
+untie her bonnet strings as if they choked her. "Yes, I am beat. Hain't
+you been to meetin'?" she asked rather severely, her eyes falling on
+Howard, who answered quickly, "Yes, I have, and on my way home called to
+inquire for Miss Smith, and found this rascal here before me. He had
+unlocked the door and taken possession. You ought to have him arrested
+as a burglar, breaking into your house on Sunday."
+
+"I s'pose I or'ter," Mrs. Biggs said, "and I hope none of the neighbors
+seen you come in. Miss Brown acrost the way is a great gossip, and there
+hain't a speck of scandal ever been on my house in my life, and I
+a-boardin' schoolma'ams for fifteen years!"
+
+Mrs. Biggs was inclined to be a little severe on the two young men
+invading her premises, but Jack was equal to the emergency. She was
+tugging at her bonnet strings, which were entangled in a knot, into
+which the cord of her eyeglasses had become twisted.
+
+"I can swear that neither Mrs. Brown, nor any one else was looking from
+the window when I came in. She was probably at church," Jack said,
+offering to help her, and finally undoing the knot which had proved too
+much for her. "There you are," he said, removing the bonnet, and setting
+her false piece, which had become a little askew, more squarely on her
+head. "You are all right now, and can blow me up as much as you please.
+I deserve it," he added, beaming upon her a smile which would have
+disarmed her of a dozen prejudices.
+
+Jack's ways were wonderful with women, both young and old, and Mrs.
+Biggs felt their influence and laughed, as she said, "I ain't goin' to
+blow, though I was took aback to see two men here, and I'd like to know
+how you knew where to find the key."
+
+"I told him," Eloise answered rather shamefacedly.
+
+Mrs. Biggs shot a quick glance at her, and then said, with a meaning
+nod, "I s'pose I'd of done the same thing when John and me was courtin',
+and young folks is all alike."
+
+Eloise's face was scarlet, while Jack pretended suddenly to remember the
+lateness of the hour, and started to leave the room. As he did so his
+eyes fell upon a table on which a few books were lying.
+
+"You must find these lively," he said, turning them over and reading
+their titles aloud. "'Pilgrim's Progress,' 'Foxe's Martyrs,'
+'Doddridge's Rise and Fall,' 'Memoir of Payson,' all solid and good, but
+a little heavy, 'United States History,' improving, but
+tedious,--and,--upon my word, 'The Frozen Pirate'! That is jolly! Have
+you read it?"
+
+Before Eloise could reply Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, "Of course she hasn't,
+and I don't know how under the sun it got in here, unless Tim put it
+here unbeknownst to me. I never read novels, and that is the wust I ever
+got hold of, and the biggest lie. I told Tim so."
+
+She took it from the table and carried it from the room, followed by the
+young men, who laughed as they thought how the widow, who never read
+novels, betrayed the fact that she had read "The Frozen Pirate."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE MARCH OF EVENTS
+
+
+"I say, Howard," Jack began, when they were out upon the road, "that
+girl ought to have something besides 'The Frozen Pirate' and 'Foxe's
+Martyrs' to brighten her up,--books and flowers, and other things. Do
+you think she'd take them?"
+
+Howard's head was cooler than Jack's, and he replied, "She would resent
+gifts from us, but would take them from Amy. Anyhow, we can try that
+dodge."
+
+"By Jove, you are right! We can send her a lot of things with Mrs. Amy's
+compliments," Jack exclaimed. "Flowers and books and candy, and--"
+
+He did not finish what was in his mind, but the next morning,
+immediately after breakfast, he pretended that he had an errand in the
+village, and started off alone, preferring to walk, he said, when Howard
+suggested the carriage, and also declining Howard's company, which was
+rather faintly offered. Howard never cared to walk when he could drive,
+and then he had a plan which he could better carry out with Jack away
+than with him present. He was more interested in Eloise than he would
+like to confess to Jack or any one, and he found himself thinking of her
+constantly and wishing he could do something to make her more
+comfortable than he was sure she could be even in Mrs. Biggs's parlor.
+He was very fastidious in his tastes, and Mrs. Biggs's parlor was a
+horror to him, with its black hair-cloth furniture, and especially the
+rocker in which Eloise sat, and out of which she seemed in danger of
+slipping every time she bent forward. He had thought of his uncle's sea
+chair on the occasion of his first call, and now he resolved to send it
+in Amy's name. Something had warned him that in Eloise's make-up there
+was a pride equal to his own. She might receive favors from Amy, as she
+had the hat, and although a chair would seem a good deal perhaps, he
+would explain it on the ground of Amy's great desire to help some one
+when he saw her. He'd send it at once, he thought, and he wrote a note,
+saying, "Miss Smith: Please accept this sea chair with the compliments
+of Mrs. Amy, who thinks you will find it more comfortable than the
+hair-cloth rocker, of which I told her. As she seldom writes to any one,
+she has made me her amanuensis, and hopes you will excuse her. Yours,
+very truly, Howard Crompton, for Mrs. Amy."
+
+It was a lie, Howard knew, but that did not trouble him, and calling
+Sam, he bade him take it with the chair and a bunch of hothouse roses to
+Miss Smith. Sam took the chair and the note and the roses, and started
+for Mrs. Biggs's, stopping in the avenue to look at the shrub where
+Brutus had received the gouge in his shoulder, and stopping again at a
+point where some bits of glass from the broken window of the carriage
+were lying. All this took time, so that it was after eleven when he at
+last reached Mrs. Biggs's gate, and met a drayman coming in an opposite
+direction with Jack Harcourt on the cart, seated in a very handsome
+wheel chair, and looking supremely happy.
+
+Jack had been very busy all the morning visiting furniture stores and
+inquiring for wheel chairs, which he found were not very common. Indeed,
+there were only three in the town, and one of these had been sent from
+Boston for the approval of Col. Crompton when his rheumatic gout
+prevented him from walking. Something about it had not suited him, and
+it had remained with the furniture dealer, who, glad of a purchaser, had
+offered it to Jack for nearly half the original price. Jack did not care
+for the cost if the chair was what he wanted. It was upholstered with
+leather, both the seat and the back, and could be easily propelled from
+room to room by Eloise herself, while Jack thought it quite likely that
+he should himself some day take her out for an airing, possibly to the
+school-house, which he had passed on his way to the village. There was a
+shorter road through the meadows and woods than the one past the
+school-house, but Jack took the latter, hoping he might see Tom Walker
+again, in which case he meant to interview him. Nor was he disappointed,
+for sauntering in the same direction and chewing gum, with his cap on
+the back of his head and his hands in his pockets, was a tall, wiry
+fellow, whom Jack instantly spotted as Tom Walker, the bully, who was to
+terrorize Eloise.
+
+"Now is my time," Jack thought, hastening his steps and soon overtaking
+the boy, who, never caring whether he was late or early at school, was
+taking his time, and stopping occasionally to throw a stone at some bird
+on the fence or a tree. "Hallo, Tom!" Jack said in his cheery way as he
+came up with the boy, whose ungracious answer was, "How do you know my
+name is Tom?"
+
+At heart Tom was something of an anarchist, jealous of and disliking
+people higher in the social scale than he was, and this dislike extended
+particularly to the young gentlemen from the Crompton House, who had
+nothing to do but to enjoy themselves. He did not like to be patronized,
+but there was something in Jack's voice which made him accompany his
+speech with a laugh, which robbed it of some of its rudeness.
+
+"Oh, I know you, just as, I dare say, you know me, Jack Harcourt, from
+New York, visiting at present at the Crompton House," was Jack's reply,
+which mollified Tom at once.
+
+If Jack had called himself Mr. Harcourt Tom would have resented it as
+airs. But he didn't; he said _Jack_, putting himself on a par with the
+boy, who took the gum from his mouth for a moment, looked at it,
+replaced it, and began to answer Jack's questions, which at first were
+very far from Eloise. But they struck her at last as they drew near the
+school-house.
+
+"I'm late, as usual," Tom said, rolling his gum from side to side in his
+mouth. "I presume I'll catch thunder, but I don't care. I'm not afraid
+of any schoolmarm I've ever seen, and I mean to carry the new one out on
+a couple of chips if she tries to boss me."
+
+There was a look on Tom's face which Jack did not like, but he said
+pleasantly, "No, you won't, when you see how helpless she is, and how
+she needs a young gentleman like you to stand by her."
+
+"I ain't a gentleman," Tom answered, but his voice was a good deal
+softened. "I'm just Tom Walker, who they lay everything to, and who the
+boys expect to do all their dirty work for them."
+
+"I see," Jack answered; "you pick off the hot chestnuts. _I_ used to do
+that when a little shaver, till I got my fingers blistered so badly I
+decided to let some one else get burned in my place."
+
+"Did you ever cut up at school?" Tom asked, with a growing interest in
+and respect for Jack, who replied, "Oh, yes, I was pretty bad sometimes,
+and am ashamed of it when I remember how I annoyed some of my teachers.
+I have asked pardon of one or two of the ladies when I have chanced to
+meet them, but I never could have annoyed Miss Smith, nor will you when
+you know her. You haven't seen her yet?"
+
+"Nope!" Tom answered. "I hear she ain't bigger than my thumb, and awful
+pretty, Tim Biggs says, and he is threatening to thrash anybody who is
+mean to her. I'd laugh to see him tackle me!"
+
+"He'll have no occasion to, for I predict you will be the warmest
+champion Miss Smith has. See if you are not," Jack said, offering his
+hand to Tom, as they had now reached the school-house.
+
+"He is certainly a good deal of a ruffian," Jack said to himself as he
+went on his way, while Tom was not quite so sure of the two chips on
+which he was to carry Eloise out if she tried to boss him. He'd wait and
+see. That city chap from Crompton Place had certainly been very
+friendly, and had not treated him as if he was scum; and after taking
+his seat and telling Ruby Ann, with quite an air when she asked why he
+was so late, that he had been detained by Mr. Harcourt, who wanted to
+talk with him, he took from his desk his slate and rubbed out the
+caricature he had drawn the day before of a young girl on crutches
+trying to get up the steps of the school-house. He was intending to show
+it to Tim Biggs and make him angry, and to the other scholars and make
+them laugh, and thus ferment a prejudice against Eloise, for no reason
+at all except the natural depravity of his nature.
+
+The word "champion" kept sounding in his ears, and he wrote it two or
+three times on his slate, where the girl on crutches had been. "I always
+supposed champion belonged to prize-fighters, but Mr. Harcourt didn't
+mean that kind. He meant I was to stand up for her and behave myself.
+Well, I'll see what kind of craft she is," he thought.
+
+With this decision Tom took up his lessons, and had never been more
+studious and well behaved than he was that day.
+
+Meanwhile Jack had gone on his way to the village and bought his chair,
+with some misgivings as to how Eloise would receive it, even from Mrs.
+Amy. "I guess I'd better go with it, and make it right somehow," he
+thought, getting into the chair and riding along in state, while the
+people he met looked curiously at him. It was recess again when they
+reached the school-house, where, as usual, Tom Walker was leading the
+play. At sight of the dray he stopped suddenly, and then went swiftly
+forward to the cart, and said to Jack, "Goin' to take her out in that?"
+
+Jack reddened a little, but answered pleasantly, "Perhaps."
+
+"Well, I guess she'll like it better than the chips I told you about.
+I've thrown 'em away."
+
+A ring from Ruby Ann's bell told the boys their recess was over, and
+with a bow Tom hurried off, while Jack and his chair went on till they
+reached Mrs. Biggs's door, just as Sam came up with the sea chair. That
+good woman was washing in her back kitchen, but in response to the
+drayman's knock she came hurriedly, wiping the soap-suds from her arms
+as she came, and holding up both hands as she saw the two chairs
+deposited at the door, while Sam held the note and roses, and Jack stood
+looking a little shamefaced, as if he hardly knew what to say.
+
+"For the pity sakes and the old Harry, are you moving a furniture store,
+or what?" she asked.
+
+Jack began to explain that Mrs. Amy thought, or he thought--He could not
+quite bring himself to lie as glibly as Howard would have done, had he
+been there, and he stammered on, that he thought Miss Smith would soon
+be able to get round in a wheel chair, which he hoped she would accept
+with the compliments of--He didn't say Mrs. Amy, but Mrs. Biggs
+understood, and nodded that she did, helping him out by saying it was
+just like Mrs. Amy, and adding that it looked a good deal like the chair
+the Colonel had for a spell and then returned to Lowell & Brothers,
+where she saw it a few days ago in the window.
+
+Jack made no reply, and Mrs. Biggs continued, "I s'pose t'other chair is
+Mrs. Amy's compliments, too. I'm sure I'm greatly obliged to her, and
+Miss Smith will be. She is quite peart this morning. Come in and see
+her."
+
+Jack did not think he would. He'd rather have Mrs. Biggs present his
+chair, feeling sure that her conscience was of the elastic kind, which
+would not stop at means if a good end was attained.
+
+"Thanks," he replied. "Later in the day I may come in. Good-morning."
+
+He walked away, leaving Mrs. Biggs alone with Sam, who was told to take
+the chairs into Eloise's room.
+
+"Something from the Crompton House. From Mrs. Amy, they say. It is like
+her to be sending things where she takes a notion as she has to you,"
+Mrs. Biggs said, while Eloise looked on in astonishment.
+
+She read Howard's note, and her surprise increased as she said, "I ought
+not to keep them. Col. Crompton would not like it if he knew."
+
+"Yes, you ought. Mrs. Amy does what she likes without consulting the
+Colonel," Mrs. Biggs rejoined. "It would not do to send them back and
+upset her, and isn't there a verse somewhere in the Bible about taking
+what the gods give ye?"
+
+Eloise knew what she meant, and replied, "'Take the good the gods
+provide,' and they are certainly providing for me bountifully, but I
+must at least write a note of thanks to Mrs. Amy for her thoughtfulness
+and kindness."
+
+To this Mrs. Biggs, who felt that she was in league with the young men,
+also objected.
+
+"Better not," she said. "Better wait till you can go and thank her in
+person. I'll have Tim wheel you up some day. He'd like nothing better."
+
+To this Eloise finally assented, and at once exchanged the hair-cloth
+rocker for the sea chair, which she found a great improvement. When Tim
+came from school he was told of the addition to the furniture in the
+parlor by his mother, who added, "I smelt a rat at once, and thought it
+a pity to spoil the young men's fun. Mrs. Amy don't know nothin' about
+them chairs, no more than the man in the moon, and if Miss Smith had
+much worldly sense she'd know they never came from Mrs. Amy. But she
+hain't. She's nothin' but a child, and don't dream that both them young
+men is jest bewitched over her. I don't b'lieve Mr. Howard means
+earnest, but t'other one does. He's got the best face. I'd trust myself
+with him anywhere."
+
+Tim laughed at the idea that his mother could not trust herself with
+anybody, but said nothing. He was Eloise's devoted slave, and offered to
+wheel her miles if she cared to go; but she was satisfied with a few
+turns up and down the road, which gave her fresh air and showed her
+something of the country. The wheel chair was a great success, as well
+as the sea chair, in which she was sitting when the young men came in
+the afternoon to call, bringing some books which Mrs. Amy thought would
+interest her, and a box of candy, which Jack presented in his own
+person. He could not face her with Mrs. Amy as Howard could, and he felt
+himself a great impostor as he received her thanks for Mrs. Amy, who, he
+was sure, had entirely forgotten the girl.
+
+No mention was ever made of her in Amy's presence or the Colonel's. He
+was not yet over his wrath at the accident to his carriage and horse,
+which, with strange perversity, he charged to the Normal. Brutus was
+getting well, but there would always be a scar on his shoulder, where
+the sharp-pointed shrub had entered the flesh. The carriage had been
+repaired, the stained cushions had been re-covered, and the Colonel had
+sworn at the amount of the bill, and said it never would have happened
+if the trustees had hired Ruby Ann in the first place, as they should
+have done. He knew she now had the school, and felt a kind of grim
+satisfaction that it was so. She was rooted and grounded, while the
+other one, as far as he could learn, was a little pink and white doll,
+with no fundamentals whatever. He had forgotten that Howard was to sound
+her, and did not dream how often that young man and his friend were at
+Mrs. Biggs's, not sounding Eloise as to her knowledge, but growing more
+and more intoxicated with her beauty and sweetness and entire absence of
+the self-consciousness and airs they were accustomed to find in most
+young ladies.
+
+But for the non-arrival of the letter she was so anxious to get Eloise
+would have been comparatively happy, or at least content. Her ankle was
+gaining rapidly, and she hoped soon to take her place in school, Tim
+having offered to wheel her there every day and back, and assuring her
+that, mean as he was, Tom Walker was not mean enough to annoy her in her
+helpless condition. For some reason Eloise had not now much dread of Tom
+Walker, and expressed a desire to see him.
+
+"Tell him to call," she said to Tim, who delivered her message rather
+awkwardly, as if expecting a rebuff.
+
+"Oh, get out," was Tom's reply, "I ain't one of your callin' kind, with
+cards and things, and she'll see enough of me bimeby."
+
+The words sounded more ungracious than Tom intended. He said he was not
+the calling kind, but the fact that he had been asked to do so pleased
+him, and two or three times he walked past Mrs. Biggs's in hopes to see
+the little lady in whom he was beginning to feel a good deal of
+interest. He met Jack occasionally, and always received a bow of
+recognition and a cheery "How are you, Tom?" until he began to believe
+himself something more than a loafer and a bully whom every hand was
+against. He was rather anxious for the little Normal to begin her
+duties, and she was anxious, too, for funds were low and growing less
+all the time.
+
+"Wait till the Rummage is over. That is coming next week. You will want
+to go to that and see the people you have not seen, and your scholars,
+too. They are sure to be there," Ruby Ann said to her.
+
+Ruby Ann was greatly interested in the Rummage Sale, as she was in
+anything with which she had to do, and all her spare time from her
+school duties was given to soliciting articles for it, and arranging for
+their disposition in the building where the sale was to be held. Eloise
+was interested because those around her were, and she offered her white
+apron a second time as the only thing she had to give.
+
+"I guess I'll do it up and flute the ruffles," Mrs. Biggs said. "'Tain't
+mussy, but a little rinse and starch won't harm it."
+
+She had given it a rinse and starch, and was ironing it when Jack came
+in, rather unceremoniously, as was his habit now that he came so often.
+This time he went to the kitchen door, as the other was locked, and
+found Mrs. Biggs giving the final touches to the apron, which she held
+up for his inspection.
+
+"Rummage," she said. "Miss Smith's contribution. Ain't it a beauty?"
+
+Jack was not much of a judge of aprons, but something in this dainty
+little affair interested him, and he wished at once that he knew of some
+one for whom he could buy it. His sister Bell never wore aprons to his
+knowledge, neither did Mrs. Amy. It was too small for Ruby Ann, and it
+would never do to give it back to Eloise. But he did not want any money
+but his own spent for it, and he believed he'd speak to Ruby Ann and
+have it put aside for him. He could tell her he had a sister, and she
+could draw her own inference.
+
+"I swan, if I was a little younger, I'd buy it myself," Mrs. Biggs said,
+holding it up and slipping the straps over her shoulders and her hands
+into its pockets.
+
+Jack felt relieved when she took it off, gave it another smooth with her
+iron, and folded it ready for the sale.
+
+"I am going to put it in a box," she said, "with a card on it saying it
+is Miss Smith's contribution, and that she made every stitch herself."
+
+Jack was now resolved that it should be his at any cost. As to its real
+value he had no idea, and when Mrs. Biggs said it "or'to bring a good
+price, and probably will seein' whose 'tis," he replied, "I should say
+so,--four or five dollars at least."
+
+"For the Lord's sake," Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, dropping her flatiron in
+her surprise. "Four or five dollars! Are you crazy?"
+
+"Do you think it ought to bring more?" Jack asked, and Mrs. Biggs
+replied, "Was you born yesterday, or when? If it brings a dollar it'll
+do well. Rummages ain't high priced. Four or five dollars! Well, if I
+won't give up!"
+
+Jack did not reply, but he was beginning to feel a good deal of interest
+in the Rummage Sale, and his interest increased when he went in to see
+Eloise, and heard from her that she was going down in the evening, as
+Ruby Ann said it would be more lively then, with more people present and
+possibly an auction.
+
+"Tim is to wheel me," she said, "and has promised not to run into any
+one, or tip me over. I feel half afraid of him, as he does stumble
+some."
+
+Jack looked at her a moment as she leaned back in her chair, her blue
+dressing sacque open at the throat showing her white neck.
+
+"Miss Smith," he said, "_I_ shan't stumble. I'll take you. I'd like to.
+I'll make it right with Tim."
+
+Eloise could not mistake the eagerness in his voice, and her cheeks
+flushed as she replied, "It is very kind in you and kind in Tim, who
+perhaps will be glad to be rid of the trouble."
+
+"Of course he will," Jack said quickly. "Day after to-morrow, isn't it?
+I'll see you again and arrange just when to call for you, and now I must
+go. I'd forgotten that I was to drive with Howard this morning.
+Good-by."
+
+He went whistling down the walk, thinking that a Rummage Sale was more
+interesting than anything which could possibly happen in the country,
+and that he'd telegraph to his sister to send something for it. As he
+started on his drive with Howard, he said, "Let's go first to the
+telegraph office, I want to wire to Bell."
+
+They drove to the office, and in a few minutes there flashed across the
+wires to New York, "We are going to have a Rummage Sale for the poor.
+Send a lot of things, old and new, it does not matter which;--only send
+at once."
+
+"I believe I made a mistake about the object of the sale. I said 'For
+the poor,' and it's for a public library, isn't it?" he said to Howard,
+who replied, "Seems to me you are getting daft on the Rummage. I don't
+care for it much. It will be like a Jews' or pawnbroker's bazaar, with
+mostly old clothes to sell."
+
+"No, sir," Jack answered quickly. "It will not be at all like a
+pawnbroker's shop. Bell will send a pile of things. I know her, and Miss
+Smith is to be there in the evening, and it's going to be a great
+success."
+
+"I see," and Howard laughed immoderately. "It is going to be a great
+success because Miss Smith is to be there. Is she for sale, and how is
+she going? Are we to take her in a hand chair, as we carried her that
+night in the rain?"
+
+"No, sir!" Jack answered, "I am to wheel her and have heaps of fun,
+while you mope at home."
+
+Howard thought it very doubtful whether he should mope at home. It would
+be worth something to see Jack wheeling Eloise, and worth a good deal
+more to see her, as he knew she would look flushed and timid and
+beautiful, with all the strangers around her. He had not felt much
+interest in the Rummage. Old clothes were not to his fancy, but he had
+promised a pair of half-worn boots to Ruby Ann, who had cornered him on
+the street, and wrung from him not only his boots, but half a dozen or
+more of the fifty neckties she heard he had strung on a wire around his
+room, so as to have them handy when he wanted to choose one to wear.
+Neckties were his weakness, and he never saw one which pleased him
+without buying it, and his tailor had orders to notify him of the last
+fashion as it came out. It was quite a wrench to part with any of them,
+but as some were _passee_ he promised them to Ruby, but told her he
+hardly thought he should attend the sale. Now, however, he changed his
+mind. Eloise's presence would make a vast difference, and he should go;
+and he thought of a second pair of boots, and possibly a vest and a few
+more neckties he might add to the pile which he had heard from Peter was
+to be sent the next day from the Crompton House to the Rummage.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+GETTING READY FOR THE RUMMAGE SALE
+
+
+Never had District No. 5 been so stirred on the subject of any public
+entertainment as on the Rummage Sale. It was something entirely new and
+unique, and the whole neighborhood entered into it with great
+enthusiasm. Between the little village by the sea, which numbered about
+two thousand, and the radius known as District No. 5, which could not
+boast half that number, there was a kind of rivalry, the district
+claiming that it excelled the village in the quality of its inhabitants,
+if not in quantity. Its people were mostly well educated and
+intelligent, and they had Col. Crompton, with his fine house and
+grounds. He was gouty and rheumatic and past his prime it was true, but
+he was still a power among them, and they were proud of him and proud of
+themselves, and delighted that they had been the first to carry out the
+idea of a Rummage Sale, which had been brought to them by a visitor from
+western New York, who explained its workings, and gave almost fabulous
+accounts of the money made by such sales. The village had intended to
+have one, but District No. 5 was ahead, with the result that many of the
+villagers joined in, glad to be rid of articles which had been stowed
+away as useless.
+
+At first it seemed incredible that any one would buy clothing which for
+years had hung in closets, or been packed in trunks away from moths and
+carpet bugs. But what had been done in other places could be done in
+District No. 5, and never was a more heterogeneous mass of goods of
+every description gathered together than was sent to the Rummage rooms
+the day before the sale, and dumped upon tables and chairs and boxes,
+until they nearly reached the rather low ceiling. There were old bonnets
+and hats, and boots and shoes and dresses, and coats and trousers and
+vests, and draperies and dishes, and stoves and chairs and tables and
+bedsteads, with books and old magazines and toys.
+
+There was Mrs. Biggs's foot-stove and warming-pan, which had been her
+mother's, and a brass kettle, which had belonged to her grandmother, and
+which Mrs. Parker, the lady from western New York, said was the most
+valuable of all the articles sent. Antiques were sure to sell to relic
+hunters, and a big price must be put upon them, she told the committee
+who looked in dismay at the piles of goods as they came pouring in,
+wondering how they were ever to bring anything like order out of the
+confusion. They could not have done it without Mrs. Parker and Ruby Ann,
+the latter of whom had obtained permission to dismiss school for two
+days, and worked early and late. She had laid siege to the Crompton
+House, from which most of the others shrank. The Colonel was a rather
+formidable old fellow to meet, if he was in a mood with twinges in his
+foot, while Mrs. Amy was scarcely well enough known to the people
+generally to make them care to interview her.
+
+On the strength of having been to school with her and known her since
+"she was knee high," Mrs. Biggs offered to call upon her, but declined
+seeing the Colonel, who, she heard, didn't believe in the Rummage. Ruby
+Ann, however, was selected as the fittest person to see both, and had
+undertaken the task with her usual assurance and energy. She found Amy a
+fine subject. The idea of giving always appealed to her, and she began
+at once to think of what she would send. The dresses she had worn as a
+concert singer were hateful to her, and she brought them from a closet
+and spread them upon chairs and tables, while Ruby looked on admiringly
+and wonderingly, too, as fans and gloves and sashes and ribbons were
+laid with the dresses, and Amy grew more excited and eager every moment.
+
+"We'll go to the attic now," she said; "my doll house is there."
+
+They climbed the stairs and found the house packed away as it had been
+for years.
+
+"It may as well be sold and make some child happy," Amy said as she took
+off its wrappings.
+
+In it was Mandy Ann, the doll the Colonel had bought in Savannah, and
+Judy, lying on her face in a pile of dust. Amy took her up tenderly,
+saying, "Do you think anybody will buy her?"
+
+There was a little choke in her voice as she asked the question, for the
+sight of Judy had stirred memories which often flitted through her weak
+brain and puzzled her, they were so misty and yet so sweet, like the
+negro melodies she hummed to herself or sang to an imaginary baby.
+
+"Buy her? I guess they would," Ruby Ann replied, all her blood astir at
+the thought of the doll house, with Judy and Mandy Ann.
+
+She knew nothing of their antecedents, or how they were connected with
+Amy's childhood, but she felt intuitively that almost any price put upon
+them would be paid because they belonged to Mrs. Amy, and particularly
+because of the dilapidated appearance of Judy, which was sure to rouse
+the mirth of the spectators. She was very doubtful as to whether she
+ought to take the dresses without consulting some one besides Amy, to
+whom she said, "Are you sure you want to give these away? They are
+different from anything we shall have, and will seem out of place."
+
+For a moment Amy looked at her with a strange glitter in her eyes, as
+she said, "I hate them! I have been going to burn them more than once.
+You don't know what they represent to me. I shall burn them, or tear
+them, if you don't take them."
+
+She made a motion as if she were going to tear one of the lace flounces,
+when Ruby Ann stopped her by saying, "Don't, Mrs. Amy,--please don't.
+I'll take the dresses, of course. I only feared you might be giving too
+much, with the doll house and Mandy Ann and Judy. I want _them_, sure."
+
+"Yes," Amy said, her mood changing. "Take them all; but don't try to
+improve them,--Mandy Ann and Judy, I mean."
+
+There was another choke in her voice as she smoothed Judy's old brown
+dress, and brushed a bit of bran from her face. There was no danger that
+Ruby would try to change either Mandy Ann or Judy. They were perfect as
+they were, and telling Amy when the articles would be sent for, she left
+her and went to interview the Colonel, anticipating a different
+reception from what she had received from Mrs. Amy.
+
+"Better not handle him to-day; he had some awful twinges this morning,"
+Peter said, after she had "picked him clean," as he expressed it, "and
+scarcely left him a shoe to his foot or a coat to his back."
+
+Ruby knew she could not come again, and in spite of Peter's advice,
+resolved to beard the lion at once. She found him, with his lame foot on
+a cushion, and a not very encouraging look on his face. He had liked
+Ruby ever since she first came to be examined as to her qualifications
+for a teacher, and he had found her rooted and grounded in the
+fundamentals, and he had taken sides stoutly for her when the question
+of normal graduates came up and Eloise had won the day. Ruby Ann's head
+was level, he always said, and when she was ushered into his room, he
+greeted her with as much of a smile as he could command, with his foot
+aching as it did. But the smile faded when she told him her errand, and
+said she was sure he would be glad to contribute either in money or
+clothing to so good a cause as the public library. The Colonel had not
+been consulted with regard to the library, except to be asked if he
+didn't think it would be a fine thing for the school and neighborhood
+generally. He was not very often consulted about anything now. Plans
+were made without him, and he was only asked to contribute, which he
+generally did.
+
+Now, however, his back was up, Peter said to Ruby Ann, warning her of
+what she was to expect. He didn't believe in turning attics and cellars
+and barns inside out and scattering microbes by the millions. How did
+any one know what germs were lurking in old clothes? He knew a man who
+died of smallpox, and twenty-five years after his death a coat, which
+had hung in his closet, was given away, taking the disease with it to
+three or four people. No, he didn't believe in a Rummage. It was just a
+fad, got up by those who were always seeking for something new, and he
+wouldn't give a thing, not even an old stock such as he used to wear,
+and of which Ruby Ann knew he must have several.
+
+"Who under heavens would buy an old stock, and why?" he asked, and Ruby
+Ann replied, "Just because it is an old stock and belonged to you."
+
+The "belonged to you" mollified him a little, as it flattered his
+vanity, but the idea struck him as ridiculous, and he would not give in,
+and as Ruby Ann grew more and more persistent, telling of the antiques
+gathered up, and among them Mrs. Biggs's warming-pan and foot-stove and
+brass kettle,--old Mrs. Baker's quill wheel, and some other old lady's
+wedding bonnet, he grew furious and swore about the Rummage Sale, and
+might have sworn at Ruby Ann if she had not discreetly withdrawn and
+left him to himself and his twinges.
+
+She was rather chagrined over her failure with the Colonel, from whom
+she had expected so much, but her success with Amy and the other members
+of the household made amends, and she left tolerably well satisfied with
+her work. She had not been gone long when Peter was summoned by a sharp
+ring to his master's room, and found him sitting very erect in his
+chair, listening intently to sounds overhead, where there was the
+scurrying of feet mingled with Amy's voice and that of her maid, as box
+after box was dragged across the floor.
+
+"Peter!" the Colonel began, "shut the door!"
+
+Peter had shut it and stood with his back against it, as the Colonel
+went on, "What in thunder is all that racket in the attic? Has the
+Rummage come up there? It commenced some time ago. Sounded as if they
+were pulling out trunks, then it stopped, and now they are at it again."
+
+"That's just it. Mrs. Amy and Sarah were looking for something for the
+sale, and now, I suppose, they are pushing the boxes back. Mrs. Amy is
+greatly interested. I've never seen her so much like herself since she
+was a girl," was Peter's reply, whereupon the Colonel consigned the
+Rummage to perdition, with its old pots and kettles, and Mrs. Biggs's
+warming-pan and foot-stove and brass kettle, and Granny Baker's quill
+wheel and Mrs. Allen's wedding bonnet. Who was going to buy such truck?
+"And Peter," he said, in a lower tone of voice, "what do you think? Ruby
+Ann actually asked for my trousers! Yes, my trousers! And when I told
+her I hadn't any but what were shiny at the knees, she said it didn't
+matter; in fact, the shine would be all the better, showing they had
+been worn. They'd label 'em 'Col. Crompton's,' and hang them up with the
+valuables,--meaning Widow Biggs's warming-pan and foot-stove, and Widow
+Allen's bonnet, and that other old woman's quill wheel, I dare say.
+Think of it, Peter. My coat and trousers! She asked for a coat,
+too,--strung on a line with warming-pans and quill wheels and bonnets a
+hundred years old, and the Lord only knows what else, and labelled 'Col.
+Crompton.' If it had been anybody but Ruby Ann, I'd turned her from the
+room. I thought she had more sense,--upon my soul, I did! What did she
+get out of you?"
+
+"Nothing much but some old clothes and shoes and a boot-jack; she
+thought a good deal of that," Peter said, and with a sniff of contempt
+the Colonel replied, "Old clothes and a boot-jack; and what is Mrs. Amy
+sending? Half the attic, I should think from the noise they make up
+there."
+
+Hesitating a moment Peter said, "She is giving the fancy gowns she used
+to wear, with the tops of the waists and bottoms of the sleeves cut off.
+She says they are hateful to her."
+
+The Colonel guessed what she meant, and replied, "Quite right; Rummage
+and rag-bags good places for them; but I say, Peter, I won't have them
+strung up with warming-pans and quill wheels and my trousers. You must
+stop it. Do you hear?"
+
+"I didn't know your trousers were going," Peter suggested, and the
+Colonel answered curtly, "Who said they were, you blockhead? They are
+not going unless Ruby gets them in the night. Upon my soul, she is equal
+to it. I think I shall put them under my pillow. It is Mrs. Amy's
+dresses I mean. What else is she going to send?"
+
+"You remember the doll house you bought her when she was a little girl?"
+Peter said.
+
+"Good thunder, yes! Will she give that away?" the Colonel asked, with
+something in his tone which was more than surprise.
+
+It hurt him that Amy should be willing to part with the doll house. She
+must be queerer than usual, and he thought of the Harris blood. Suddenly
+he remembered Mandy Ann and Judy, and asked if she was going to give
+them to the Rummage.
+
+"She means to. Yes, sir. They go with the doll house, one as mistress,
+the other as maid. I heard her say so. They are downstairs now," was
+Peter's reply.
+
+The Colonel's countenance fell, and there was an awful twinge in his
+foot, but he didn't mind it. His thoughts flew back to the palmetto
+clearing, where he first saw the little girl and Judy. Then they
+travelled on to Savannah and the store where he bought Mandy Ann, and so
+on through the different phases of Amy's childhood, and he was surprised
+to find how unwilling he was to part with what had been so intimately
+associated with years which, on the whole, had been happy, although at
+times a little stormy. And Amy was going to send them to a Rummage Sale!
+
+"I may be a weak old fool, but I won't have them sold down there with
+quill wheels and warming-pans!" he thought.
+
+But what could he do? They were Amy's, and if she had made up her mind
+to send them, it would take more than his opposition to prevent it. She
+was very gentle and yielding as a whole, but behind the gentleness and
+sweetness he knew there was a spirit he did not like to rouse. He must
+manage some other way. He had told Ruby he would neither give his
+clothes nor money to the farce, and he prided himself on never going
+back on his word. But he didn't tell her he wouldn't buy anything, and
+his face brightened as he said, very briskly, "Peter!"
+
+"Yes, sir," was the prompt reply.
+
+"Hold your tongue!"
+
+"Yes, sir," was Peter's still more prompt reply, and his master
+continued, "I don't care a rap about those dresses, but I won't have
+Mandy Ann and the nigger baby and the doll house sold. I may be a hard
+old cur. I s'pose I am, but I have now and then a streak of,--I don't
+know what,--clinging to the years of Mrs. Amy's childhood. She turned
+the house upside down. She raised the very old Harry sometimes, but she
+got into our hearts somehow, didn't she?"
+
+"Yes, a long ways," was Peter's reply, as he waited for what was next to
+come, and looked curiously at the Colonel, who sat with his eyes closed,
+clutching the arms of his chair tightly, as if suffering from a fearful
+twinge.
+
+But if he were, he did not think of it. His mind was again in the
+palmetto clearing, and he was standing by Dory's grave in the sand, and
+a little child was holding his hand, and looking at him with eyes which
+had in them something of the same expression which had once quickened
+his pulse, and made his heart beat with a thrill he fancied was love,
+but which had died almost as soon as it was born. As a result of that
+episode he had Amy, whom he did love, and because he loved her so much,
+he clung to the mementoes of her babyhood, when she had been a torment
+and a terror, and still a diversion in his monotonous life.
+
+"Peter!" he said again. "Hold your tongue, but get them somehow. Who is
+head of this tomfoolery?"
+
+"Ruby Ann is about as big a head as there is, I guess. She and a woman
+from York State," Peter replied, and the Colonel continued, "Well, I
+s'pose those things will have to go to the sale, if Mrs. Amy says so,
+but I won't have them mixed with the quill wheels and boot-jacks and
+Widow Biggs's foot-stove and brass kettle, and I won't have a pack of
+idiots looking them over and buying them and saying they belonged to the
+Cromptons. Mandy Ann Crompton and Judy Crompton would sound fine,--both
+niggers! No, sir! You are to go quietly to Ruby Ann and buy 'em! Do you
+hear? Buy 'em! You knew Mrs. Amy when she played with 'em. You want 'em,
+and you'll pay the price, no matter what it is. Lord Harry! I'll bet
+they'll put a big one on 'em, but no matter. I paid thirty dollars for
+the doll house and five for Mandy Ann. I don't s'pose Judy cost
+anything, but the child liked it best, and I believe I'd rather have it
+than both the others, because--"
+
+He did not say why, but he gripped the arms of his chair tightly, while
+drops of sweat stood upon his forehead. He was in the clearing again
+with Dora living, instead of dead, and the moon was shining on her face
+as she stood in the turn of the road and gave him the promise she had
+kept so faithfully. Judy belonged to that far-off time, and he'd keep
+her at any cost. He called himself a sentimental old fool after Peter
+left him, and wondered why his eyes grew misty and there was a lump in
+his throat as his thoughts kept going back to the South he wished he had
+never seen.
+
+"Poor little Dora!" he said to himself; "but for me she might have been
+alive and married to some respectable--No, by George!" he added
+suddenly, with a start which made his foot jump as he recalled the class
+into which Dora would probably have married if he had not crossed her
+path. "No, by George, I believe I'd rather she died in her youthful
+beauty, and was buried by Jake in the sand, than to see her the wife of
+some lout, and rubbing her gums with snuff."
+
+He was roused from his reverie by wheels crunching on the gravel walk up
+to a side door, and he heard Sarah's voice and Cindy's, the cook's, and
+finally Amy's giving directions, and felt sure some one had come for
+whatever was to go from the Crompton Place to the sale. Ruby had not
+intended sending so soon when she left the house, but chancing to meet a
+drayman who had just deposited a load in the salesrooms, she bade him go
+for whatever was ready, thinking, "I'll strike while the iron is hot,
+and before Mrs. Amy has time to change her mind."
+
+There was no danger of that, at least as far as the dresses were
+concerned. Like everything connected with her stage life, they had been
+to her a kind of nightmare whenever she thought of them, and she was
+glad to be rid of them. Mandy Ann and Judy did give her a few pangs, and
+especially the latter, and as she wrapped it in tissue paper she held it
+for a moment pressed close to her, and began a song she had heard from
+the negroes as they sat around their light-wood fire after their day's
+work was done. It was a weird melody which Homer Smith had caught up and
+revised and modernized, with a change of words in some places, and made
+her sing, knowing it would bring thunders of applause. She heard the
+roar now, and saw the audience and the flowers falling around her, and
+with an expression of disgust she put Judy into Sarah's hands, and said,
+"Take her away, and quick, too. She, or something, brings it back."
+
+Sarah took poor, discarded Judy, tied her in her chair in the old doll
+house, which was placed on top of the two trunks containing Amy's
+concert dresses, and then the drayman started up his horse, and the
+Colonel heard the wheels a second time coming past his window. With a
+great effort he succeeded in getting upon his well foot, and, dragging
+the other after him, hobbled on his crutches to the window in time to
+see the cart as it turned into the avenue. As far as he could see it he
+watched it as the doll house swung from side to side, and the drayman
+held it to keep it from falling off.
+
+"I don't see how Amy could have done it," the Colonel said to himself
+when the dray disappeared from view, and then becoming conscious of the
+pain in his foot, he dragged himself back to his chair, and ringing for
+Peter, said to him: "I think I'll lie down a spell,--and, bring me a
+hot-water bag, I'm pretty cold, and my foot just jumps; and, Peter, go
+to-day and buy those things as if they were for yourself. You mustn't
+lie, of course,--but get 'em somehow, and bring them here to this big
+closet. The chances are when Mrs. Amy comes to her senses she'll want
+'em, and raise Ned, as she used to. I'd give a good deal to see her in a
+tantrum. I'd rather have her that way than passive, as she is now. Will
+nothing ever rouse her out of her apathy? Curse that Homer Smith!"
+
+He was talking to himself rather than to Peter, who got him on to the
+lounge, adjusted the cushions, brought a hot-water bag, covered him up,
+and then left him, saying, "Don't fret, I'll go this afternoon and get
+Judy and Mandy Ann by fair means or foul."
+
+"All right," the Colonel said drowsily. "Fair means or foul, but don't
+lie, and don't let them think they are for me. _You_ want them, and must
+get them, fair means or foul. You know where my purse is. Hold your
+tongue, and go!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THE FIRST SALE
+
+
+Order was being brought out of chaos in the Rummage rooms, where twenty
+ladies were working industriously, sorting, pricing, and marking the
+multitudinous articles heaped upon the counters. Not only District No.
+5, but the village had emptied itself, glad to be rid of the
+accumulations of years. Nearly every room was occupied, and the
+committees were showing great skill in assigning things to the different
+departments. The antiques had a niche by themselves; the quill wheel,
+the warming-pan, the foot-stove, the brass kettle with Peter's
+boot-jack, and many more articles of a similar character were placed
+together. Jack's sister had responded quickly, and a large box had
+arrived with articles curious and new, which elicited cries of delight
+from the ladies in charge, who marked them at a ridiculously low price,
+less even, in some instances, than had been paid for them, and labelled
+their corner "The New York Store."
+
+Scarcely was this completed when the drayman arrived from Crompton Place
+with the doll house and the two trunks, the last of which were pounced
+upon first, as Ruby Ann had reported what was in them. Her description,
+however, had fallen far short of the reality, and the ladies held their
+breath, as one after another of the beautiful gowns was taken out for
+exhibition. Few had ever seen anything just like them. Homer Smith had
+prided himself upon being a connoisseur in ladies' costumes and had
+directed all of Amy's, taking care that there was no sham about them.
+Everything was real, from the fabric itself to the lace which trimmed
+it, and which alone had cost him hundreds of dollars. And now they were
+at a Rummage Sale, and the managers did not know what to do with them.
+It was scarcely possible that any one would buy them, and it would be
+greatly out of place to exhibit them in the dry-goods department with
+Mrs. Biggs's brown and white spotted gown which she had contributed
+rather unwillingly, insisting that it should not be sold for less than a
+dollar. Ruby Ann suggested that they be carefully folded in boxes and
+laid away by themselves for inspection by any one who had a thought of
+buying them. If they did not sell, and probably they would not, they
+were to be returned either to Amy or to the Colonel,--the latter most
+likely, as Amy had expressed so strong a desire to be rid of them. Her
+suggestion was acted upon, and the dresses laid aside, and the attention
+of the managers turned to the doll house and its occupants, Mandy Ann
+and Judy, the latter of whom was greeted with shrieks of laughter.
+
+Here was something that would sell, but what price to put upon it was a
+puzzle. No one had any idea of the original cost. Mrs. Biggs, who had
+joined the working force and whose voice was loudest everywhere,
+suggested ten dollars, with the privilege of falling, but was at once
+talked down, as low prices were to be the rule for everything, and five
+was quite enough. There were few who would pay that for a mere
+plaything for their children, so the card upon it was marked five
+dollars, with the addition that it had once belonged to Mrs. Amy
+Crompton Smith. It was then placed conspicuously in a window before
+which a group of eager, excited children gathered, and to which early in
+the afternoon Peter came leisurely.
+
+The Colonel had asked him several times why he didn't go, and had
+finally grown so petulant that Peter had started, wondering how much
+he'd have to pay and what excuse he was to make for wanting it himself.
+His instructions were not to lie, but get it somehow without using the
+Colonel's name. Finding Ruby Ann alone, he began, "I say, do you make
+any sales before the thing opens?"
+
+"Why, yes, we can," Ruby answered. "Several antiques are promised, if
+not actually sold, your boot-jack with the rest. Could sell another if
+we had it. Any particular thing you want?"
+
+"Yes, I want that house in the window and the two women in it,--Mandy
+Ann and Judy. It's marked five dollars. Here's your money," and he laid
+a crisp five-dollar bill in her hand.
+
+"Why, Peter,--why, Peter," Ruby exclaimed in surprise, with a sense of
+regret that more had not been asked, and a feeling of wonder as to why
+Peter wanted it. "Are you buying it for yourself?" she asked, and Peter
+replied, "Who should I buy it for? I knew Mrs. Amy when she was a little
+girl and played with it and slept with that nigger baby Judy. I've
+bought it. It's mine, and I'll take it right away. There's a drayman
+now, bringing a worn-out cook-stove and an old lounge."
+
+"Oh, but, Peter,--please leave it till the sale is over. It draws
+people to look at it, and then they'll come in," Ruby said, while others
+of the ladies joined their entreaties with hers.
+
+But Peter was firm. He had bought the doll house and paid for it. It was
+his, and in spite of the protests of the entire committee which gathered
+round him like a swarm of bees he took it away, and an hour later it was
+safely deposited in the Colonel's room without Amy's knowledge. The
+Colonel was delighted.
+
+"Bring it close up," he said, "but first take off that infernal card
+that it belonged to 'Mrs. Amy Crompton Smith.' That's the way they'd
+marked my trousers! Give me Mandy Ann and Judy. I haven't seen them in
+more than twenty years,--yes, nearer thirty. Upon my soul they wear
+well, especially the old lady. She was never very handsome, but Amy
+liked her best," he said, laughing a little as Peter put Judy in his
+lap.
+
+He did not know that he had ever touched her before, and he held her
+between his thumb and finger, with something which felt like a swelling
+in his throat,--not for Judy, nor for Amy, but for poor Dory, thoughts
+of whom were haunting him these days with a persistency he could not
+shake off.
+
+"What did you give?" he asked, and Peter replied. "Five dollars,--just
+what it was marked."
+
+"Five dollars! Heavens and earth!" and Judy fell to the floor, while the
+Colonel grasped his knees with his hands and sat staring at Peter. "Five
+dollars! Are you an idiot, and have none of them common sense?" he
+asked, and Peter replied, "That was the price, and I didn't like to beat
+them down."
+
+Ruby Ann isn't easy to tackle, and Mrs. Biggs was there with her gab,
+if she is my niece, and said I got it dirt cheap."
+
+"Go to thunder with your Ruby Ann and Mrs. Biggs and dirt cheap!" the
+Colonel roared. "Who said I wanted you to beat 'em down? Why, man, I
+told you I gave thirty for the house and five for Mandy Ann, and here
+they have sold the whole caboodle, Judy and all, for five dollars! Five
+dollars! Do you hear? Five dollars, for what cost thirty-five! I
+consider they've insulted Mandy Ann and Judy both. Five dollars! I'll
+be--"
+
+He didn't finish his sentence, for he heard Amy's voice in the hall. She
+might be coming, and he said hastily to Peter, "Put them in the closet.
+Don't let her see them, or there'll be the old Harry to pay."
+
+Peter obeyed, but Amy did not come in, and after a moment the Colonel
+continued, "We will keep them here a while. I dare say she'll never
+think of them again. She doesn't think much. Do you believe she will
+ever be any better?"
+
+The Colonel's voice shook as he asked the question, and Peter's shook a
+little as he replied, "Please God she may. A great shock of some kind
+might do it."
+
+"Yes, but where is the shock to come from, hedged round as she is from
+every rough wind or care?" the Colonel said, little thinking with what
+strides the shock was hastening on, or through what channel it was to
+come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+AT THE RUMMAGE
+
+
+The rooms were ready at last, and twenty tired ladies went through them
+to see that every thing was in its proper place, and then went home with
+high anticipations of the morrow and what it would bring. It opened most
+propitiously and was one of those soft, balmy September days, more like
+early June than autumn. There were brisk sales and crowds of people all
+day, with the probability of greater crowds and brisker sales in the
+evening. Jack Harcourt was in and out, watching the sale of what his
+sister had sent, drinking cups of chocolate every time a pretty girl
+asked him to do so, and buying toys and picture books and candy, and
+distributing them among the children gathered around the door and
+windows. He thought he had looked at everything on sale, but had failed
+to find the white apron. Where was it? he wondered. He would not ask
+Ruby Ann or Mrs. Biggs, as that would be giving himself away. It would
+certainly be there in the evening when he was to bring Eloise in her
+chair. He had settled that with Tim, who gave up rather unwillingly, but
+was consoled by being hired as errand boy,--an office he could not have
+filled had he been hampered with a wheel chair.
+
+The night was glorious, with a moon near its full, and a little before
+seven Jack presented himself at Mrs. Biggs's, finding Eloise ready and
+alone. Tim was at the rooms, running hither and thither at everybody's
+beck and call, and his mother was there, running the whole
+thing,--judging from her manner as she moved among the crowd filling the
+rooms nearly to suffocation. Eloise had more than once changed her mind
+about going, as she sat waiting for Jack. She was shy with strangers,
+and there would be so many there, and she would be so conspicuous in her
+chair, with Mr. Harcourt in attendance, that she began to doubt the
+propriety of going.
+
+"If it were Tim who was to take me, I believe I should feel
+differently," she was thinking, when Jack came in, breezy and
+excited,--full of the Rummage and anxious to be off.
+
+"You are ready, I see," he said. "That's right. We have no time to lose.
+And there's no end of fun. I've been there half the day, and drank
+chocolate, and eaten cake and candy till I never want to see any more.
+But you will."
+
+He was adjusting her dress and getting the chair in motion as he talked,
+and Eloise had no time to suggest that she ought not to go, before she
+found herself out upon the piazza, and Jack, who had locked the door,
+was putting the key under the mat.
+
+"You see I remember where I found it that time Howard and I desiccated
+the Sabbath by calling upon you," he said, with a laugh in which Eloise
+joined.
+
+"Is Mr. Howard going?" she asked, and Jack replied, "He is a kind of
+lazy fellow, but he'll be there all right;" and the first one they saw
+distinctly as they drew near the house was Howard, struggling with the
+crowd.
+
+Howard had gone down on purpose to see Eloise, and was wondering how
+with her chair she could ever be gotten through that mass of people,
+when she appeared at the door, and, with Howard, wondered how she was to
+get in. She might not have accomplished it if he had not come to the
+rescue with two boys,--one Tim Biggs, the other a tall, freckled-faced,
+light-haired fellow whom Jack greeted as Tom, saying, "Can you manage to
+find a good position for Miss Smith?"
+
+"You bet," came simultaneously from both boys, and immediately four
+sharp elbows were being thrust into the sides of the people, who moved
+all they could and made a passage for Eloise and her chair near the
+middle of the room, and in a comparatively sheltered place where she
+could see everything without being jostled.
+
+If she could see everything and everybody, so everybody could see her,
+and for a moment there was a hush in the large room where every eye was
+turned upon Eloise, who began to feel very uncomfortable, and wish she
+had not come. She had wondered what she ought to wear, and had decided
+upon black as always suitable. When she left California her mother had
+urged her to take a small velvet cape lined with ermine. It was the only
+expensive article of dress she had, and she was very choice of it, but
+to-night she wore it about her shoulders, as later the air was inclined
+to blow up cool and damp from the sea. Just as they reached the house
+Jack stooped to arrange it, throwing it back on either side so that more
+of the ermine would show.
+
+"There! You look just like a queen! Ermine is very becoming to you," he
+said, and the people staring at her thought so, too.
+
+Her head was uncovered, and her hair, which waved softly around her
+forehead, was wound in a flat knot low in her neck, making her look very
+young, as she sat shrinking from the fire of eyes directed towards her
+and saw, if she did not hear, the low whispers of the people, many of
+whom had never seen her before, and were surprised at her extreme youth
+and beauty. Ruby Ann was at a distance, trying to sell Mrs. Biggs's
+spotted brown and white wrapper to a scrub woman who was haggling over
+the price which Mrs. Biggs had insisted should be put upon it. That good
+woman was busy in the supper-room, or she would have made her way at
+once to Eloise, who, as she looked over the sea of faces confronting
+her, saw no one she knew except Howard Crompton, who had been very
+uncomfortable in the heat and air of the place until she came, and with
+her fresh, fair young face seemed at once to change the whole
+atmosphere. Jack, who was not used to much exertion and had found even
+Eloise's light weight a trifle heavy, especially up the hill near the
+Rummage house, was sweating at every pore, and fanning himself with a
+palm leaf he had bought at the entrance.
+
+"By George!" he said to Howard, who was standing by them. "It's hotter
+than a furnace in here. I believe I'll have to go outside and cool off a
+minute, if you'll stay and keep guard over Miss Smith."
+
+"Certainly;--with pleasure," Howard said, putting his hand on Eloise's
+chair and asking if there was anything he could do for her.
+
+She was watching the brown and white spotted gown, and to Howard's
+question she shook her head, while he continued, "Jack says the
+chocolate is pretty fair. He ought to know--he has drank six cups. I am
+going to bring you some."
+
+Before she could protest that she did not care for chocolate, he left
+her and his place was at once taken by the tall, lank, light-haired boy,
+whose elbows had done so good execution in forcing a passage for the
+chair. Tom had been watching her ever since she came in, and making up
+his mind. He had heard she was pretty, but that did not begin to express
+his opinion of her, as she sat with the ermine over her shoulders, the
+soft sheen on her hair, the bright color on her cheeks, and a look in
+her eyes which fascinated him, boy though he was, as it did many an
+older man, from Mr. Bills to Jack, and Howard Crompton. If his two chips
+had not been thrown away he would have thrown them now, and still the
+feeling in him which people called _cussedness_ was so strong that he
+could not repress a desire "to see what stuff she was made off."
+
+Taking Howard's vacant place he pushed himself forward until he was
+nearly in front of her, where he could look into her face. She
+recognized him as the boy Jack had called Tom, and guessed who he
+was,--her eyes drooping under his rather bold gaze, and her color coming
+and going. Tom was not sure what he was going to say to her, and could
+never understand why he said what he did. He had been told so often by
+Mr. Bills and others that he needed _licking_, and so many teachers had
+_licked_ him, to say nothing of his drunken father, that the idea was in
+his mind, but as something wholly at variance with this dainty little
+girl, who at last looked at him fearlessly. She knew he was going to
+speak to her, but was not prepared for his question.
+
+"You are the new schoolmarm, ain't you? Do you think you could _lick_
+me?"
+
+Just for an instant Eloise was too much surprised to answer, while the
+hot blood surged into her face, then left it spotted here and there,
+making Tom think of pink rose petals with white flecks in them. But she
+didn't take her eyes from the boy, who was ashamed of himself before she
+said with a pleasant laugh, "I know I couldn't; and I don't believe I
+shall ever wish to try. I am the new school-teacher, and you are Mr.
+Thomas Walker!"
+
+She did not know why she put on the Mr. It came inadvertently, but was
+the most fortunate thing she could have done. To be called Thomas was
+gratifying, but the Mr. was quite overpowering and made Tom her ally at
+once.
+
+"I'm Thomas Walker,--yes," he said. "Miss Patrick has told you about me,
+I dare say,--and Mr. Bills, and Widder Biggs, and Tim. Oh, I know he's
+told you a lot what I was goin' to do,--but it's a lie. I have plagued
+Miss Patrick some, I guess, and she whaled me awful once, but I've
+reformed. I didn't s'pose you was so little. I could throw you over the
+house, but I shan't. Say, when are you going to begin? I'm tired of Miss
+Patrick's everlasting same ways of doing things, and want something
+new,--something modern, you know."
+
+He was getting very familiar, and Eloise was chatting with him on the
+most friendly terms, when Howard came back with a cup of chocolate, a
+part of which was spilled before he reached her. Howard knew who the
+young blackguard was, and glowered at him disapprovingly, but Eloise
+said, "Mr. Crompton, this is Thomas Walker, one of my biggest scholars
+that is to be. Some difference in our height, isn't there? but we shall
+get on famously. I like big boys and taught a lot of them in Mayville."
+
+She smiled up at Tom and gave him her empty cup to take away. He would
+have stood on his head if she had asked him to, and he hurried off with
+the cup, meeting Jack, who had cooled himself, bought a pound of candy
+at one table and some flowers at another, and was making his way back to
+Eloise. He had also looked round a little for the apron he was going to
+buy, but could not find it. He'd make another tour of inspection later,
+he thought, for he meant to have it, if it were still there. Taking his
+stand on one side of Eloise's chair while Howard stood on the other, the
+three made a striking tableau at which many looked admiringly,
+commenting upon the beauty of the young girl,--the kind, good-humored
+face of Jack, and the haughty bearing of Howard, who, an aristocrat to
+his finger tips, watched the proceedings with an undisguised look of
+contempt showing itself in his sarcastic smile and the expression of his
+eyes.
+
+Eloise was greatly interested and so expressed herself. She had seen the
+scrub woman haggling with Ruby Ann over the brown and white spotted
+wrapper, and had seen it laid aside until another customer came, when
+the same haggling took place with the same result, for Mrs. Biggs, who
+darted in and out, still clung to the price put upon it and so retarded
+the sale. The last time Ruby Ann brought it out Howard and Jack both
+recognized it.
+
+"By Jove! I've half a mind to buy it myself as a kind of souvenir,"
+Jack said, but a look of disgust in Eloise's face and a frown on
+Howard's deterred him, and he kept very quiet for a while, wondering
+where that apron was and if by any possibility it could have been sold.
+
+The box of articles which Jack's sister had sent from New York had been
+sold early in the day, and Amy's dresses had not been opened. Nearly
+everything of any value was gone. Two of Howard's neckties still
+remained conspicuously near the young men, who watched Tom Walker as he
+examined them very critically, and they heard the saleswoman say, "They
+belonged to Mr. Howard Crompton. They say he has dozens of them and all
+first-class. This suits you admirably,"--and she held up a white satin
+one with a faint tinge of blue.
+
+Tom took it, disappeared for a few minutes, and when he came back to the
+chair he was resplendent in his new necktie which he had adjusted in the
+dressing-room, adding to it a Rhine-stone pin bought at the jewelry
+counter. Howard's vanity told him he was complimented, and that
+restrained the laugh which sprang to his lips at the incongruity between
+Tom's dress and the satin necktie bought for a grand occasion in Boston,
+which Howard had attended a few months before. On his way back to the
+group to which he felt he belonged Tom had stopped at the candy table
+and inquired the price of the fanciful boxes, his spirits sinking when
+told the pounds were fifty cents and the half-pounds twenty-five. Money
+was not very plenty with Tom, and what he had he earned himself. The
+necktie had made a heavy draft on him, and twenty cents was all he could
+find in either pocket.
+
+"I say, Tim, lend me a nickel. I'll pay it back. I hope to die if I
+don't," he said to Tim, who was hurrying past him on some errand for his
+mother.
+
+"I hain't no nickels to lend," was Tim's answer, as he disappeared in
+the crowd, leaving Tom hovering near the candy table and looking
+longingly at the only half-pound box left.
+
+"I say," he began, edging up to the girl in charge, "can't you take out
+a piece or two and let me have it for twenty cents? All the money I have
+in the world! 'Strue's I live, and I want it awfully for the new
+schoolmarm over there in the chair with them swells standin' by her."
+
+It was the last half-pound box and the girl was tired.
+
+"Yes, take it," she said, and Tom departed, happier if possible with his
+candy than with his necktie.
+
+"I bought it for you. It's chocolate. I hope you like it," he said,
+depositing his gift in Eloise's lap, where Jack's box was lying open and
+half empty, for Eloise's weakness was candy.
+
+"Oh, thank you, Thomas," she said, beaming upon him a smile which more
+than repaid him for having spent all his money for her.
+
+She was really very happy and thought a good deal of Rummage Sales. She
+had the best place in the hall;--a good many people had spoken to her.
+She had won Tom Walker, body and soul, and she knew that her escorts,
+Howard and Jack, added _eclat_ to her position. She had scarcely thought
+of her foot, which at last began to ache a little. She was getting tired
+and wondered how much longer the sale would last. Jack wondered so, too;
+not that he was tired. He could have stood all night looking at Eloise
+and seeing the people admire her; but he was rather stout and apt to
+get very warm in a room where the atmosphere was close as it was here,
+and he wanted to be out in the fresh air again. He could take his time
+wheeling Eloise home, and if Mrs. Biggs staid at the rooms, as he heard
+her say she was going to do "till the last dog was hung," he could stay
+out in the porch and enjoy the moonlight with Eloise's eyes shining upon
+him. But where was that apron? Perhaps it hadn't come after all. He'd
+inquire. But of whom? Mrs. Biggs was in the supper-room. He did not care
+to go there again, for every time he appeared somebody was sure to get
+off on him a cup of chocolate or coffee, and he could not drink any
+more.
+
+Ruby Ann was busy,--her face very red and her eyes very tired, as she
+tried to sell the most unsalable articles to old women who wanted
+something for nothing, and quarrelled with the quality and quarrelled
+with the price. His only recourse was Eloise, and he planned a long time
+how to approach the subject without mentioning her apron. At last a
+happy inspiration came to him, and when Howard's attention was diverted
+another way he bent over her and began.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE AUCTION
+
+
+"Astonishing, isn't it, where all the stuff comes from? Somebody must
+have given very freely. I never gave a thing except money. Bell sent a
+lot to be sure, and it's all sold. They had a pile from the Crompton
+House. They were good at begging. They didn't expect anything of you, a
+stranger, of course?"
+
+"Oh, yes," Eloise replied. "I had an apron which Miss Patrick seemed to
+think might sell for something. It was rather pretty, and I made it
+myself. I haven't seen it, and think it may have been sold, or perhaps
+Mrs. Biggs, who had it in charge, forgot it. She has had a great deal on
+her mind."
+
+Jack did not hear more than half Eloise was saying. One fact alone was
+clear. She had expected the apron to be there and he would look it up.
+
+"Excuse me," he said, and going into the room where Mrs. Biggs was
+trying to make half a loaf of bread do duty as a whole loaf to a party
+just arrived, he said to her, "Pardon me, Mrs. Biggs, but did you send
+or bring Miss Smith's contribution to the sale? I believe it was an
+apron. She has not seen it."
+
+The bread fell from Mrs. Biggs's hand to the table, and the knife
+followed it to the floor as she exclaimed, "Lord of heavens! I forgot
+it till this minute. Where's Tim?"
+
+She darted from the room and found Tim bringing two pails of water, "the
+last gol darned thing he was going to do that night," he said, as he put
+them down. Seizing him by the collar his mother almost shrieked, "Run
+home for your life, Tim!"
+
+"Why-er,--what-er! Is our house afire?" Tim asked, and his mother
+replied, "No, but Miss Smith's apron is there. I clean forgot it. You'll
+find it in a paper box on my bed, or in my bureau, or on the closet
+shelf, pushed away back, or somewhere. Now clip it."
+
+Tim started without his hat, and the last thing he heard was his
+mother's voice shrill as a clarion, "If you don't find the key under the
+mat, climb inter the but'ry winder, but don't upset the mornin's milk!"
+
+Business was beginning to slacken and sales were few. Some of the people
+had gone home and others were going, and still there were quantities of
+goods unsold. An auction was the only alternative and Mr. Bills, who, to
+his office of school commissioner, added that of auctioneer, was sent
+for. There was no one like him in Crompton for disposing of whatever was
+to be disposed of, from a tin can to a stove-pipe hat. He could judge
+accurately the nature and disposition of his audience,--knew just what
+to say and when to say it, and had the faculty of making people bid
+whether they wanted to or not. To hear him was as good as a circus, his
+friends said, and when it became known that he was to auction off the
+goods remaining from the sale, many who had left came back, filling the
+rooms again nearly as full as they were early in the evening.
+
+Eloise's chair was moved a little more to the front,--a long counter
+was cleared, and on it Mr. Bills took his stand, smiling blandly upon
+the crowd around him and then bowing to Eloise and her escorts, Jack and
+Howard. He was bound to do his best before them and took up his work
+eagerly. He was happiest when selling clothes which he could try on, or
+pretend to, and after disposing of several bonnets amid roars of
+laughter he took up Mrs. Biggs's gown, which Ruby Ann had not been able
+to sell. Here was something to his mind and he held it out and up, and
+tried its length on himself and expatiated upon its beauty and its style
+and durability until he got a bid of twenty-five cents, and this from
+Howard, who said to Eloise, "It seems a pity not to start the old thing
+at something, and I suppose the Charitable Society will take it. I
+believe there is one in town."
+
+Eloise did not answer. The spotted gown was an offence to her, and she
+shut her eyes while Mr. Bills, delighted that he had a bid at last and
+from such a source, began, "Thank you, sir. You know a good thing when
+you see it, but only twenty-five cents! A mere nothing. Somebody will
+give more, of course, for this fine tea gown to put on hot afternoons.
+Just the thing. Twenty-five cents! Twenty-five cents! Do I hear more?
+Twenty-five! Did you say thirty?" and he looked at Jack, who half
+nodded, and the bids, raised five cents at a time, rolled on between
+Jack and Howard and another young man, who cared nothing for the gown,
+but liked the fun. Fifty cents was reached at last, and there the
+bidding ceased and Mr. Bills was ringing the changes on half a dollar,
+half a dollar, for a _robe de chambre_;--he called it that sometimes,
+and sometimes a tea gown, and once a _robe de nu-it_, which brought
+peals of laughter from those who understood the term, as he certainly
+did not. In the dining-room Mrs. Biggs was busy washing dishes, but kept
+her ears open to the sounds in the next room, knowing Mr. Bills was
+there and anxious to get in and see the fun. When the last shouts
+reached her she dropped her dish towel, saying to her companion, "I
+can't stand it any longer. I've got to go and see what Bills is up to!"
+
+Elbowing her way in she caught sight of her gown held aloft by Mr.
+Bills, and heard his voluble "Going, going, at fifty cents."
+
+She had thought it low at a dollar, and here it was as good as gone for
+fifty cents,--to whom she did not know or care,--probably the scrub
+woman who had looked at it earlier in the evening and offered sixty. Her
+blood was up, and making her way to Mr. Bills she snatched at her gown,
+exclaiming, "It's mine, and shall never go for fifty cents, I tell you!"
+
+Here was a diversion, and Mr. Bills met it beautifully.
+
+"Jess so, Miss Biggs," he said, bowing low to her. "I admire your taste
+and judgment. I've told 'em time and time over it was worth more than
+fifty. The fact is they don't know what is what, but you and I do. Shall
+we double right up and shame 'em by sayin' a dollar? A dollar! A dollar!
+and going!"
+
+Mrs. Biggs did not know that she assented, she was so excited, and
+afterwards declared she didn't: but the final Going was said, with
+"Gone! to Mrs. Biggs, for one dollar. Cheap at that!"
+
+At this juncture, when the hilarity was at its height and Mrs. Biggs was
+marching off with her property, which she said she should never pay
+for, Tim appeared, hatless and coatless, but with the box in his hand.
+When Jack locked the door he pushed the key further under the mat than
+was usual, and failing to find it at once, and being in a hurry, Tim
+made his entrance into the house through the pantry window, upsetting
+the pan of milk and a bowl of something, he did not stop to see what, in
+his haste to find the box. It was not on the bed, nor on the bureau, nor
+pushed back on a shelf in the closet. It was on a chair near the door
+where his mother had put it and then forgotten it. As the key was
+outside Tim made his exit the way he came in, stopping a moment to look
+at the milk the cat was lapping with a great deal of satisfaction.
+
+"Bobbs, you'll have a good supper, and I shall catch old hundred for
+giving it to you," he said, picking up the pan and springing through the
+window.
+
+He was very warm, and taking off his coat he threw it across his arm and
+started rapidly for the sale, knowing before he reached it that Mr.
+Bills was there by the sounds he heard. He had no thought that the apron
+was not to be sold at auction. Probably that was why it was wanted, and
+pushing through the crowd to Mr. Bills he handed him the box, saying,
+"Here 'tis. I 'bout run my legs off to get it. Make 'em pay smart."
+
+"Mr. Bills! Mr. Bills!" came excitedly from Ruby Ann, but Mr. Bills did
+not hear, the buzz of voices was so great.
+
+He had opened the box and taken out the apron, which he handled far more
+carefully than he had the spotted gown.
+
+"Now this is something like first-class business," he said, holding it
+up. "The prettiest thing you ever saw,--a girl's apron, all ruffled and
+prinked, and,--yes,--made by--"
+
+He had glanced at the card, which said it was made by Miss Smith, and
+was about to announce that fact, feeling sure it would bring bidders,
+when he chanced to look at Eloise, whose face was nearly as white as the
+apron, and in whose eyes he saw an expression which checked the words.
+But he had no idea of relinquishing the article, and misunderstood the
+motion of Jack's hand to stop him.
+
+"Now, give me an offer," he began,--"a first-rate one, too; none of your
+quarters, nor halves. Bid high and show you know something. 'Tain't
+every day you have a chance to buy as fine a thing as this. You who have
+wives, or daughters, or sisters, or sweethearts, or want it for
+yourselves, speak up! Walk up! Roll up! Tumble up! Any way to get up,
+only come up and bid!"
+
+He was looking at Jack, whose face was as red as Eloise's was pale.
+
+"If the thing must be sold at auction it shall bring a good price, and
+I'll get it, too," he thought.
+
+Standing close to him was Tom Walker, who all the evening had hovered
+near Eloise.
+
+"Tom," Jack said. "I have a sister, you know."
+
+Tom didn't know, but he nodded, and Jack went on: "That apron is the
+only thing I've seen that I really want for her. I am not worth a cent
+to bid. Will you do it for me?"
+
+Tom nodded again, and Jack continued, "Well, start pretty high. Keep
+your eyes on me, and when I look at you raise the bid if there is any
+against you. Understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir," Tom answered, understanding more than Jack thought he did.
+
+He guessed whose apron it was and did not believe much in the sister,
+but he had his instructions and waited for the signal. Howard had
+watched the sale of the spotted gown with a great deal of amusement, but
+was beginning to feel tired with standing so long, and was wondering
+when Jack proposed taking Eloise home. That he would go with them was a
+matter of course, and he was about to speak to Jack when Tim came in and
+the apron sale began. He had no idea whose it was until he saw the halt
+in Mr. Bills's manner, and looked at Eloise. Then he knew, and knew,
+too, that nothing could get Jack away till the apron was disposed of.
+That Jack would buy it he did not for a moment dream, for what could he
+do with it? "But yes, he is going to buy it," he thought, as he heard
+Jack's instructions to Tom, "and I mean to have some fun with him, and
+run that apron up."
+
+Close to him was Tim, and the sight of him put an idea into Howard's
+mind. It would be jolly for Tom and Tim to bid against each other, while
+he and Jack backed them.
+
+"Tim," he said, laying his hand on the boy's arm, "I am going to buy
+that apron for Mrs. Amy, and I want you to bid for me against Tom Walker
+and everybody. I have no idea what it is worth, but when I squeeze your
+arm _so_, bid higher!"
+
+He gave Tim's arm a clutch so tight that the boy started away from him,
+saying, "Great Peter, don't pinch like that! You hurt! 'cause I'm in my
+shirt sleeves."
+
+"All right. I'll be more careful," Howard said. "Now begin, before Tom
+has time to open the ball."
+
+"Yes, but-er, what-er shall I bid?" Tim stammered.
+
+"How do I know? It's Miss Smith's, and on that account valuable. Go in
+with a dollar."
+
+All this time Mr. Bills had been talking himself hoarse over the merits
+of the apron, while his audience were watching Howard and Jack, with a
+feeling of certainty that they were intending to bid, but they were not
+prepared for Tim's one dollar, which startled every one and none more so
+than his mother, who, having rolled up her spotted gown "in a _wopse_,"
+as she said, and put it with her dish pan and towels, had come back in
+time to hear Tim's astonishing bid. She could not see him for the crowd
+in front of her, but she could make him hear, and her voice was shrill
+and decided as she called out, "Timothy Biggs! Be you crazy? and where
+are you to get your dollar, I'd like to know!"
+
+"Tell mother to mind her business! I know what I'm about!" Tim said to
+some one near him, while Mr. Bills rang the changes on that dollar with
+astonishing volubility, and Tom kept his eyes on Jack for a signal to
+raise.
+
+Jack was taken by surprise, but readily understood that it was Howard
+against whom he had to contend and not Tim.
+
+"All right, old chap," he whispered, then looked full at Tom, who, eager
+as a young race horse, shouted a dollar and a half!
+
+"All right," Jack said again, and turned to Eloise on whose face there
+was now some color, as she began to share in the general excitement
+pervading the room and finding vent in laughter and cheers when Tom's
+bid was raised to two dollars by Tim, and two and a quarter was as
+quickly shrieked by Tom. Everybody now understood the contest and
+watched it breathlessly, a great roar going up when Tim lost his head
+and mistaking a slight movement of Howard's hand on his arm, raised his
+own bid from three dollars to three and a half!
+
+"That's right," Mr. Bills said; "you know a thing or two. We are getting
+well under way. Never enjoyed myself so well in my life. Three and a
+half! three and a half! Who says four?"
+
+"I do," Tom yelled, his yell nearly drowned by the cheers of the
+spectators, some of whom climbed on chairs and tables to look at Tom and
+Tim standing, one next to Howard and the other next to Jack, with Eloise
+the central figure, her ermine cape thrown back, and drops of sweat upon
+her forehead and around her mouth.
+
+She almost felt as if it were herself Howard and Jack were contending
+for instead of her apron, which Mr. Bills was waving in the air like a
+flag, with a feeling that he had nearly exhausted his vocabulary and
+didn't know what next to say. Four dollars was a great deal for an
+apron, he knew, but he kept on ringing the changes on the four
+dollars,--a measly price for so fine an article, and for so good a cause
+as a Public Library. And while he talked and repeated his _going,
+going_, faster and faster, Tim stood like a hound on a leash fretting
+for a sign to raise.
+
+"You ain't goin' to be beat by Tom Walker, be you?" he said, in a
+whisper to Howard, who gave him a little squeeze, with the words "Go
+easy," spoken so low that Tim did not hear them, and at once raised the
+four dollars to four and a half, while quick as lightning Tom responded
+with five dollars.
+
+Jack hadn't really looked at him, but it did not matter. He was going
+to have the apron, and turning to Howard he said, "I don't know how long
+you mean to keep this thing up. I am prepared to go on all night."
+
+Howard felt sure he was and decided to stop, and his hand dropped from
+Tim's shoulder quite to the disgust of that young man, who said, "You
+goin' to let 'em lick us?"
+
+"I think I'll have to," Howard replied, while "Five dollars, and going!"
+filled the room until the final "Gone!" was spoken, and the people gave
+gasps of relief that it was over.
+
+"Sold for five dollars to Thomas Walker, who will please walk up to the
+captain's office and pay," Mr. Bills said, handing the apron to Tom, who
+held it awkwardly, as if afraid of harming it.
+
+"I guess it's yourn," he said, giving it to Jack, who knew as little
+what to do with it as Tom.
+
+Ruby came to his aid and took it from him. She had watched the
+performance with a great deal of interest, comprehending it perfectly
+and feeling in a way sorry for Eloise, whose lips quivered a little when
+she went up to her, and bending over her said, "You should feel
+complimented, but I'm afraid you are very tired."
+
+"Yes, very tired and warm. I want to get into the fresh air," Eloise
+said, shivering as if she were cold instead of warm.
+
+Jack had gone to the cashier's desk to pay for the apron, and Tom
+undertook the task of getting the wheel chair through the crowd, running
+against the people promiscuously, if they impeded his progress, and
+caring little whom he hit if he got Eloise safely outside the door. The
+night was at its best, almost as light as day, as they emerged from the
+hot, close room, and Eloise drew long breaths of the cool air which blew
+up fom the sea, the sound of whose waves beating upon the shore could be
+heard even above the din of voices inside the building. The auction was
+still going on, and Mr. Bills was doing his best, but the interest
+flagged with the sale of the apron and the breaking up of the group
+which had attracted so much attention. Even Mrs. Biggs's grandmother's
+brass kettle, on which so many hopes were built, failed to create more
+than a ripple, as Mr. Bills rang changes upon it both with tongue and
+knuckles, and when his most eloquent appeals could not raise a higher
+bid than ten cents, it was withdrawn by the disgusted widow, who put it
+aside with her dish pan and towels and gown, and then went to find Tim
+to take them home.
+
+Howard had been called by Ruby into the room where Amy's dresses were
+lying in the boxes just as they came, and asked what they were to do
+with them.
+
+"We could not offer them for sale, and she does not want them back," she
+said.
+
+"Send them to the Colonel. She'll never know it, and the chance is will
+never think of them again," Howard said, and then hurried outside to
+where Eloise was still waiting and talking to Tom.
+
+"That apron went first rate," he said. "You must have felt glad they
+thought so much of you, 'cause 'twas you and not the apron, though that
+was pretty enough."
+
+"Oh!" Eloise replied, drawing her ermine cape around her shoulders, "I
+don't know whether I was glad or not. I felt as if I were being sold to
+the highest bidder."
+
+"That's so," Tom said. "It was something like it. Ain't you glad 'twas
+Mr. Harcourt bought you instead of t'other?"
+
+Eloise laughed as she replied, "Why, Thomas, it was _you_ who bought me!
+Have you forgotten?"
+
+She seemed so much in earnest that for a moment Tom thought she was, and
+said, "You ain't so green as not to know that 'twas Mr. Harcourt eggin'
+me on,--winkin' to me when to raise, and tellin' me to go high! You are
+his'n, and I'm glad on't! I like him better than t'other; ain't so big
+feelin'. Here they come, both on 'em."
+
+Howard had finished his business with Ruby Ann, and Jack had paid his
+five dollars and received the apron, slightly mussed, but looking fairly
+well in the box in which they put it. A good many people were leaving
+the rooms again, and among them Tim, laden with his mother's dish pan
+and towels, and dress and brass kettle, and one or two articles which
+she had bought.
+
+"Hallo, Tim! You look some like a pack horse," Tom said, but Tim did not
+answer.
+
+He was very tired, for with so many calling upon him through the day and
+evening; he had run miles and received only seventy cents for it. He was
+chagrined that he had raised his own bid, and wondered Tom did not chaff
+him. It would come in time, he knew, and he felt angry at Tom, and angry
+with the brass kettle and dish pan and dress which kept him from
+wheeling Eloise instead of Tom, who, when they finally started, took his
+place behind the chair as a matter of course, while Howard and Jack
+walked on either side. It was a splendid night, and when Mrs. Biggs's
+house was reached Howard and Jack would gladly have lingered outside
+talking to Eloise, if they could have disposed of the boys. But the boys
+were not inclined to be disposed of. Tom had become somebody in his own
+estimation, and intended to stay as long as the young men did, while
+Tim, having found the key, this time instead of entering by the pantry
+window, unlocked the door, deposited his goods, and then came back,
+saying to Eloise with a good deal of dignity for him, "Shall I take you
+in?"
+
+"Yes, please. I think it's time," she said, and Howard and Jack knew
+they were dismissed. "Thank you all so much for everything," she
+continued, giving her hand to each of them in turn, and pressing Tom's a
+little in token of the good feeling she felt sure was established
+between them.
+
+It was not long before Mrs. Biggs came home, rather crestfallen that her
+spotted gown and brass kettle had not been more popular, but jubilant
+over the sale, the proceeds of which, so far as known when she left,
+were over two hundred and fifty dollars.
+
+"Never was anything like it before in Crompton," she said, as she helped
+Eloise to her bed lounge. "That apron sale beat all. Them young men
+didn't care for the apron, of course, except that it was yours, and what
+Mr. Harcourt will do with it I don't know. Said he was goin' to send it
+to his sister. Maybe he is. He paid enough for it. Five dollars! I was
+in hopes they'd run it up to ten! and I was sorry when 'twas over. Mr.
+Bills kinder wilted after you all went out, and the whole thing flatted.
+Well, good-night! You was the star! the synacure,--is that the word?--of
+all eyes, and looked awful pretty in that white cape. I see you've got
+Tom Walker, body and soul, but my land! you'd get anybody! Good-night,
+again."
+
+She was gone at last, and Eloise was glad to lay her tired head upon her
+pillow, falling asleep nearly as soon as she touched it, but dreaming of
+the Rummage Sale and that she was being auctioned off instead of her
+apron. It was a kind of nightmare, and her heart beat fast as the bids
+came rapidly,--sometimes on Howard's side and sometimes on Jack's. She
+called him _Jack_ in her dreams, and finally awoke with a start, saying
+aloud, "I am glad it was Jack who bought me!"
+
+
+
+
+PART III
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE BEGINNING OF THE END
+
+
+The Rummage Sale was a great success and netted fully two hundred and
+fifty dollars, besides quantities of goods of different kinds which were
+left and given either to the poor or to the Charitable Society in
+Crompton. The trunks containing Amy's dresses had been sent home without
+Amy's knowledge, and deposited in the closet with Mandy Ann and Judy,
+the Colonel swearing at first that he would have nothing pertaining to
+Homer Smith so near him. The apron sale had been an absorbing topic of
+conversation, the people wondering what Mr. Harcourt was going to do
+with his purchase, and if he wouldn't give it back to Eloise. Nothing
+was further from his thought. He had bought it to keep, and he laid it
+away in the bottom of his trunk with the handkerchief Eloise had used
+when he first called upon her.
+
+He was growing more and more in love with her and more unwilling to
+leave Crompton. He had already staid longer than he had at first
+intended, but it did not need Howard's urgent invitation for him to
+prolong his visit. Every day he went to Mrs. Biggs's, and sometimes
+twice a day, and took Eloise out in her arm-chair for an airing,--once
+as far as to the school-house where Ruby Ann still presided, and where
+Eloise hoped soon to take up her duties. She was very happy, or would
+have been if she could have heard from California. Every day she hoped
+for news, and every day was disappointed, until at last nearly a week
+after the Rummage a letter came forwarded by her grandmother from
+Mayville. It was from a physician to whom Eloise had twice written with
+regard to her mother, and this was his reply:
+
+"Portland, Oregon, September --, 18--.
+
+"My Dear Miss Smith:
+
+"I left San Francisco several months ago and have been stopping in
+several places, and that is why your letters were so long in reaching
+me. They both came in the same mail, and I wrote to San Francisco to see
+what I could learn with regard to your mother. It seems that the private
+asylum of Dr. Haynes was broken up, as there were only three patients
+when Mrs. Smith left, and it did not pay. Soon after your father died in
+Santa Barbara, your mother was removed from the asylum by a gentleman
+whose name I have thus far been unable to learn. I thought it must have
+been some relative, but if you know nothing of it my theory is wrong.
+Dr. Haynes went at once with his family to Europe, and is travelling on
+the continent. His address is, Care of Munroe & Co., Bankers, 7 Rue
+Scribe. Paris. Write him again, as he must know who took your mother
+from his care. He may not be in Paris now, but your letter will reach
+him in time. If there is anything I can do to help you, I will gladly do
+it. If you were in San Francisco you might find some of the attendants
+in the asylum, who could give you the information you desire.
+
+"Yours, very truly,
+
+"J.P. ALLING, M.D."
+
+It was Ruby who brought the letter one evening two or three days before
+Eloise expected to make her first appearance in school. Mrs. Biggs and
+Tim were out and Eloise was alone. Tearing open the envelope, she read
+it quickly, and then with the bitterest cry Ruby had ever heard, covered
+her face with her hands and sobbed: "My mother! Oh, my mother!"
+
+"Is she dead?" Ruby asked, and Eloise replied, "Worse than that,
+perhaps. I don't know where she is. Read what it says."
+
+She gave the letter to Ruby, who read it twice; then, sitting down by
+Eloise and passing her arm around her, she said, "I don't understand
+what it means. Was your mother in a lunatic asylum?"
+
+"Oh, don't call it that!" Eloise answered. "It was a private asylum in
+San Francisco,--very private and select, father said, but I never quite
+believed her crazy. She was always quiet and sad and peculiar, and hated
+the business, and so did I."
+
+"What was the business?" Ruby asked, and Eloise answered hesitatingly,
+as if it were something of which to be ashamed, "She sang in public with
+a troupe,--his troupe. He made her. She was the star and drew big
+houses, she was so beautiful and sang so sweetly, without any apparent
+effort. It was just like a bird, and when she sang the Southern melodies
+she seemed to be in a trance, seeing things we could not see. It made me
+cry to hear her. I know many good women are public singers, but mother
+shrank from it, and when they cheered like mad there used to be a
+frightened look in her eyes, as if she wondered why they were doing it
+and wanted to hide, and when she got to our rooms she'd tremble and be
+so cold and cry, while father sometimes scolded and sometimes laughed at
+her. He tried to make me sing once. I have a fair voice, but I rebelled
+and said I'd run away before I'd do it. He was very angry, and sent me
+North to my grandmother, saying I was too great an expense to keep with
+him unless I would help, and was a hindrance to my mother, who was
+always so anxious about me. It nearly killed her to part with me. I was
+all the comfort she had, she said, and she always called me Baby. Father
+was not kind to her, and it seemed as if he hated me, and was jealous of
+mother's love for me. When I heard he was dead, I could not feel badly,
+as I ought, and did not cry. He was a very handsome man, and very nice
+with people, who thought my mother a most fortunate woman to have so
+polished and courteous a husband. They should have seen him as I saw him
+at times, and heard him swear, as I have heard him, and call her names
+till she was white as a corpse and fainted. I never saw her turn upon
+him but once. I had asked her why she didn't leave him and go home, if
+she had any to go to. That was when I was a little girl.
+
+"'I have no home or friends in all the wide world to go to' she said,
+and then, with a sneer which was maddening, it meant so much, my father
+said, 'Ask her who her father was and see if she can tell you.'
+
+"I didn't know then what he meant to insinuate, but mother did, and
+there came a look into her eyes which frightened me, and her voice was
+not mother's at all, as she walked straight up to him and said, 'How
+dare you insult my mother!'
+
+"She looked like an enraged animal, and my father must have been afraid
+she would attack him, for he tried to soothe her and succeeded at last
+in doing so. I think there was some mystery about her father and mother,
+as she would never talk of them. Once I asked her about them, and she
+said she hadn't any; and she looked so strange that I never asked her
+again. I knew she was born South, that her people were poor, and her
+name Harris, and that is all I know, except that no better or lovelier
+woman ever lived, and if she is really crazy father made her so, and I
+cannot feel any love for him, or respect. If I ever had any, and I
+suppose I must have had, he killed it long ago. The first thing I
+remember of him in Rome, where I was born, he was practising some music
+with mother,--playing for her while she sang, and I was standing by him,
+putting my hands on his arm and trying to hum the tune. With a jerk he
+said to my nurse, 'Take her away and keep her away.'
+
+"I am wicked, I know, to talk as I am doing, but it seems as if there
+was a spell over me urging me to say things I never thought of saying.
+It's a comfort to talk to some one who I know is my friend, and you are
+so strong every way and have been so good to me."
+
+She laid her head on Ruby's arm like a tired child, and continued, "I
+wrote to mother very often after I came to Mayville, and she replied,
+telling me how she missed me, and how she always fixed her eyes on some
+part of the house, fancying she saw me, and was singing to me, and I
+used to listen nights and think I heard her grand voice as it rose and
+fell, and the people cheering, and she so beautiful standing there for
+the crowd to gaze at, and wishing she could get away from it all.
+
+"At last her letters ceased and father wrote that her mind had given way
+suddenly;--that she was a raving maniac,--dangerous, I think he
+said,--and I thought of the way she looked at him once when I was a
+child, and he told me to ask her about her father. He said she was in
+Dr. Haynes's private asylum, where she had the kindest of care. I think
+I died many deaths in one when I heard that. I wrote her again and
+again, and wanted to go to her, but my father forbade it. No one saw
+her, he said, except her attendant and the physician,--not even himself,
+as the sight of him threw her into paroxysms. I didn't wonder at that.
+He sent my letters back, telling me she would not sense them, and they
+would excite her if she did. Her only chance of recovery was in her
+being kept perfectly quiet, with nothing to remind her of the past.
+
+"A few months ago he died suddenly in Santa Barbara. One of the troupe
+wrote to grandma, and, as I told you, I did not cry; I couldn't. I was
+too anxious about mother, and wrote at once to Dr. Haynes, but received
+no answer. I waited a while and wrote again, with the same result. Then
+I remembered Dr. Alling, who had attended me for some slight ailment,
+and wrote to him, with the result you know. Some one has taken my mother
+away. Who was it, and where is she? I feel as if I were going mad when I
+think of the possibilities."
+
+She pressed her hands to her head and rocked to and fro, while Ruby
+tried to quiet and comfort her.
+
+"I must go to San Francisco and find my mother. I would start
+to-morrow, lame as I am, only I haven't the money, and grandma hasn't
+it, either," she said. "Father made a great deal of money at times, but
+he spent it as freely. Always stopped at the best hotels; had a suite of
+rooms, with our meals served in them; drank the costliest wines, and
+smoked the most expensive cigars, and bought mother such beautiful
+dresses. I did not fare so well. Anything was good enough for me after I
+refused to sing in public, and that was an added source of trouble to my
+mother. I was always a bone of contention and it was, perhaps, as well
+in some respects that I was sent away, only mother missed me so. I was
+so glad to get this school, because it would give me something for my
+mother, whom I hoped to bring home before long. And now, I don't know
+where she is, but I must find her. Oh, what shall I do?"
+
+It was not often that Eloise talked of herself and her affairs. At
+school in Mayville she had been very reticent with regard to her past,
+and had seldom mentioned either her father or her mother. With Mrs.
+Biggs she had been equally silent, and, try as she would, the good woman
+had never been able to learn anything beyond what Eloise had first told
+her,--that her father was dead and her mother in California;--in a
+sanitarium, Mrs. Biggs had finally decided, and let the matter drop,
+thinking she should some time know "if there was anything to know." Ruby
+Ann had from the first seemed to Eloise like one to be trusted, and she
+felt a relief in talking to her, and said more than she had at first
+intended to say.
+
+For a moment Ruby was silent, while Eloise's head lay on her arm and
+Eloise's hand was holding hers. She was thinking of the piano she
+wanted to buy, the money for which was in the Crompton bank. There was a
+struggle in her mind, and then she said, "I can loan you the money. I
+know you will pay it back if you live, and if you don't, no matter. I
+will not call it a loss if it does you any good."
+
+At first Eloise demurred, longing to accept the generous offer, and
+fearing that she ought not. But Ruby overcame her scruples.
+
+"Naturally I shall keep your place in school, so I owe you something for
+the business, don't you see?" she said.
+
+Eloise did not quite see, but she yielded at last, for her need was
+great.
+
+"I don't think I'd tell Mrs. Biggs all the sad story, unless you want
+the whole town to know it. Tell her you have had bad news from your
+mother, and are going to her," Ruby suggested, when at last she said
+good-night and went out, just as Mrs. Biggs came in.
+
+"Goin' away! Goin' to Californy! Your mother sick! What's the matter,
+and how under the sun are you goin' alone, limpin' as you do? I knew
+Ruby Ann would manage to keep the school if she once got it!" were some
+of Mrs. Biggs's exclamations when told Eloise was to leave her.
+
+Eloise parried her questions very skilfully, saying nothing except that
+her mother needed her and she was going to her, and Mrs. Biggs left her
+more mystified than she had ever been in her life, but resolved "to get
+at the bottom if she lived."
+
+That night Eloise, who was now sleeping in the chamber to which she had
+first been taken, sat a long time by her window, looking out upon the
+towers and chimneys of Crompton Place, which were visible above the
+trees in the park, and wondering at the feeling of unrest which
+possessed her, and her unwillingness to leave.
+
+"If I could only see him once more before I go," she thought, the "him"
+being Jack, who, with Howard Crompton, was in Worcester, attending a
+musical festival.
+
+Not to see him was the saddest part of leaving Crompton, and for a
+moment hot tears rolled down her cheeks,--tears which, if Jack could
+have seen and known their cause, would have brought him back from
+Worcester and the prima donna who that night was entrancing a crowded
+house with her song. Dashing her tears away, Eloise's thoughts reverted
+to Amy, who had been so kind to her.
+
+"I hoped to thank her in person," she said, "but as that is impossible,
+I must write her a note for Tim to take in the morning, together with
+the chairs."
+
+The note was written, and in it a regret expressed that Eloise could not
+have seen her.
+
+"Maybe when she reads it she will call upon me to-morrow," she thought,
+as she directed the note, and that night she dreamed that Amy came to
+her, with a face and voice so like her mother's that she woke with a
+start and a feeling that she had really seen her mother, as she used to
+stand before the footlights, while the house rang with thunders of
+applause.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE LITTLE RED CLOAK
+
+
+Col. Crompton was in a bad way, both mentally and bodily. The pain in
+his gouty foot had extended to his knee, and was excruciating in the
+extreme; but he almost forgot it in the greater trouble in his mind. In
+the same mail which had brought Eloise's letter from California there
+had been one for him, which in the morning Peter had taken from the
+postman and examined carefully, until he made out its direction.
+
+"Mister Kurnel Krompton, of Krompton Plais, Krompton, Massachusetts."
+
+So much room had been taken up on one side of the envelope with the
+address, that half of "Massachusetts" was on the other side, and Peter's
+memory instantly went back to years before, when a letter looking like
+this and odorous with bad tobacco had come to the Colonel. He had a copy
+of the letter still, and could repeat it by heart, and knew that it was
+from Jake Harris,--presumably the "Shaky" for whom the little girl
+Eudora had cried so pitifully. This was undoubtedly from the same
+source. "What can he want now? and what will the Colonel say?" he
+thought, as he took the letter to his master's room.
+
+"A letter for you, sir," he said, putting it down upon the table by the
+Colonel's chair, and then lingering on the pretence of adjusting a
+curtain and brushing up the hearth, but really waiting to see what
+effect the letter would have.
+
+It was different from what he expected. With one glance at the
+superscription, the Colonel grew deathly pale, and his hands shook so
+that the letter dropped upon the floor. Peter picked it up and handed it
+to him, saying, "Can I help you, sir?"
+
+"Yes, by leaving me, and holding your tongue! There's the devil to pay!"
+was the answer.
+
+Peter was accustomed to hearing of his master's debts in that direction,
+and to being told to hold his tongue, and he answered, "All right, sir,"
+and left the room. For some moments the Colonel sat perfectly still, his
+heart beating so fast that he could scarcely breathe. Then he opened
+Jake's letter, and read as follows:
+
+"Palmetto Clarin', Oct. --, 18--.
+
+"Mister Kurnel Krompton,
+
+"Deer Sir:
+
+"Glory to God. I'se done sung all day for his mussy in lettin' me heer
+from lil Miss Dory onc't mo' an' 'noin' she ain't ded as I feared she
+was. Mas'r Minister Mason, who done 'tended the funeral of t'other Miss
+Dory done tole me how she's livin' with you, an' a lil off in her mind.
+The lam'! What happened her, I wonder? Her granny, ole Miss Lucy, was
+quar. All the Harrises was quar. Mebby she got it from them. A site of
+me will cure her sho'. Tell her I'se comin' to see her as soon as I hear
+from you that it is her, sho'. Thar might be some mistake, an' I doan'
+want to take the long journey for nothin', 'case I'm ole, tho' I feels
+mighty peart now wid de news. Rite me wen you git this. I shall wait
+till I har, an' then start to onc't.
+
+"Yours to command,
+
+"JAKE HARRIS."
+
+"P.S.--Mandy Ann, you 'members her, what took care of lil chile. She's a
+grown woman now in course, an' has ten chillen, 'sides Ted. You 'members
+Ted, on de 'Hatty.' No 'count at all; but Mandy Ann, wall, she's a
+whopper, an' when she hears de nuse, she 'most had de pow'. She sen's
+her regrets, an' would come, too, if she hadn't so many moufs to feed,
+an' Ted doin' nothin' but playin' gemman.
+
+"Onc't mo', yours,
+
+"JAKE."
+
+To describe the Colonel's state of mind as he read this letter is
+impossible. He forgot the pain in his leg and knee in the greater
+sensation of the cold, prickly feeling which ran through his veins,
+making his fingers feel like sticks, and powerless to hold the letter,
+which dropped to the floor. With every year he had hugged closer and
+closer the secret of his life, becoming more and more morbid and more
+fearful, lest in some way his connection with the palmetto clearing
+should be known and he fall from the high pedestal on which he had stood
+so long, and from which his fall would be greater because he had been
+there so long. It would all be right after he was dead. He had seen to
+that, and didn't care what the world would say when he was not alive to
+hear it. But he was very much alive now, and his sin bade fair to find
+him out.
+
+"Just as I feared when that rector told me who his father was," he
+thought, cursing the chance which had sent the Rev. Arthur Mason to
+Crompton,--cursing the Rev. Charles for giving information to Jake,--and
+cursing Jake for the letter, which he spurned with his well foot, as it
+lay on the floor. He had hoped the negro might be dead, as he had heard
+nothing from him in a long time; and here he was, alive and waiting for
+a word to come. "If he waits for that he will wait to all eternity," he
+said to himself. "I shall write and make it worth his while to stay
+where he is. He knows too much of Amy's birth and her mother's death to
+be trusted here. Uncertainty is better than the truth. I have made
+matters right for Amy, and confessed everything. They'll find it when
+I'm gone, and can wag their tongues all they please. It won't hurt me
+then, but while I live I'll keep up the farce. It might have been better
+to have told the truth at first, but I didn't, and it's too late now.
+Who in thunder is that knocking at the door? Not Amy, I hope,--and I
+can't reach that letter," he continued, as there came a low rap at the
+door.
+
+"Come in!" he called, when it was repeated, and Cora, the housemaid,
+entered.
+
+She had been in the family but a few days and did not yet understand her
+duties with regard to the Colonel, and know that she was not to trouble
+him. Tim Biggs had been commissioned by Eloise to take her note to Mrs.
+Amy, together with the chairs.
+
+"You can't carry both at one time, so take the sea this morning, and the
+wheel this afternoon," Mrs. Biggs said, just as Tom Walker appeared.
+
+He had been to the house two or three times since the Rummage,
+ostensibly to ask when Eloise was going to commence her duties as
+teacher, but really to see her and hear her pleasant "Good-morning,
+Thomas, I am glad to see you."
+
+Whatever Mrs. Biggs knew was soon known to half of District No. 5, and
+the news that Eloise was going to California had reached Tom, and
+brought him to inquire if it were true.
+
+"And won't you come back?" he asked, with real concern on his homely
+face.
+
+"Perhaps so. I hope so," Eloise replied, and he continued, "I'm
+all-fired sorry you are goin', because,--well, because I am; and I wish
+I could do something for you."
+
+"You can," Eloise said. "You can take the wheel chair back to the
+Crompton House and save Tim one journey."
+
+Tom cared very little about saving Tim, but he would do anything to
+serve Eloise, and the two boys were soon on their way, quarrelling some
+as they went, for each was jealous of the other's attention to the
+"little schoolmarm," as they called her. Tom reached the house first,
+but Tim was not far behind, and both encountered Cora, who bade them
+leave the chairs in the hall, while she inquired as to their
+disposition. Had Peter been in sight she might have consulted him, but
+he was in the grounds, and, entering the Colonel's room she said, "If
+you please, sir, what shall I do with the chairs?"
+
+"What chairs?" the Colonel asked, and Cora replied, "A sea chair, I
+think, and a wheel chair, which Tom Walker and Tim Biggs have just
+brought home."
+
+"My sea chair, and my wheel chair! How in thunder can that be, when I'm
+sitting in the wheel, and how came Tom Walker, the biggest rascal in
+town, by my chairs, or Tim Biggs either?" the Colonel exclaimed; and
+Cora replied, "I think they said the schoolma'am had them. Here's a note
+from her to Mrs. Amy."
+
+Since his last attack of the gout the Colonel had in a measure forgotten
+Eloise, and ceased to care whether she were rooted and grounded in the
+fundamentals or not. That Howard and Jack had been in the habit of
+calling upon her he did not suspect, and much less that for the last two
+weeks or more she had been enjoying his sea chair, and the fruit and
+flowers sent her with Mrs. Amy's compliments. At the mention of her he
+roused at once.
+
+"That girl had my chair! How the devil came she by it? A note for Mrs.
+Amy! Give it to me, and pick up that paper on the floor and go!"
+
+Cora was not long in obeying, and the irascible old man was again alone.
+First tearing Jake's letter in strips, he turned Eloise's note over in
+his hand, and read, "Mrs. Amy Smith, Crompton Place." The name "Smith"
+always made him angry, and he repeated it with a quick shutting together
+of his teeth.
+
+"Smith!" he said, "I can't abide it! And what has she to say to Mrs.
+Smith?"
+
+The note was not sealed, and without the least hesitancy he opened it
+and read, commenting as he did so.
+
+"My dear Mrs. Smith." (Her dear Mrs. Smith! I like that.) "I am going
+away (Glad to hear it) and I wish to thank you for the many things you
+have sent me. (The deuce she has! I didn't know it.) The pretty hat I
+want to keep, with the slippers, which remind me of my mother.
+(Slippers,--remind her of her mother, who, I dare say, never wore
+anything but big shoes, and coarse at that," the Colonel growled, and
+read on.) The chairs I return, with my thanks for them, and the fruit
+and flowers and books. I would like so much to see you, and thank you
+personally, but as this cannot be I must do it on paper. Be assured I
+shall never forget your kindness to me, a stranger.
+
+"Your very truly,
+
+"E.A. SMITH."
+
+"Smith again! E.A. Smith!" the Colonel said. "Why couldn't she write her
+whole name? E.A., ELIZA ANN, of course! That's who she is, ELIZA ANN
+SMITH!"
+
+If there was one name he disliked as much as he did Smith, it was Eliza
+Ann, and he repeated it again: "ELIZA ANN SMITH! Fruit and flowers and
+books, and shoes and my sea chair and a wheel chair sent to her by Amy!
+Where did she get the wheel, I'd like to know? I don't believe it!" he
+added, as a sudden light broke upon him. "It's that dog Howard's work,
+and that other chap."
+
+Ringing the bell which stood on the table beside him, he bade Cora, who
+appeared, to send Mrs. Amy to him. Amy had not slept well, and was more
+easily confused than usual, but she came and asked what he wanted. It
+did not occur to him to give her the note, which he kept in his hand
+while he said, in a much softer tone than that in which he had been
+talking to himself, "Have you sent things to Eliza Ann Smith,--fruit and
+flowers and books, and my sea chair and a wheel chair, and a bonnet and
+shoes, and the Lord knows what else?"
+
+Amy was bewildered at once.
+
+"Eliza Ann Smith!" she repeated. "I don't know her. Who is she?"
+
+"Why, the girl that jammed a hole in Brutus's neck and stained the
+cushions of my carriage, and broke her leg at Mrs. Biggs's," the Colonel
+replied.
+
+At the mention of Mrs. Biggs, Amy's face brightened. Since the day after
+the accident, when she sent the hat and slippers, Eloise had not been
+mentioned in her presence, and she had entirely forgotten her. Now she
+was all interest again, and said, "Oh, yes; I remember now, Poor girl! I
+did send her a hat and some slippers, which I hated because I wore them
+when I sang. Did they fit her?"
+
+"Lord Harry! How do I know? It isn't likely your shoes would fit her.
+They would be a mile too small!" the Colonel said, and Amy asked, "Does
+she want anything?"
+
+"No," the Colonel replied. "Somebody has sent her flowers and chairs and
+books and things. She thought it was you and wished to thank you."
+
+"It was not I, and I am sorry I forgot her," Amy rejoined, as she turned
+to leave him, with a confused feeling in her brain, and a pang of regret
+that she had perhaps neglected the little girl at Mrs. Biggs's.
+
+Once the Colonel thought to call her back and give her the note. Then,
+thinking it did not matter, he let her go without it. Just what
+influence was at work in Amy's mind that morning it were difficult to
+tell. Whatever it was, it prompted her on her return to her room to take
+the little red cloak from the closet where it was kept and examine it
+carefully. It had been the best of its kind when it was bought, and,
+though somewhat faded and worn, had withstood the ravages of time
+wonderfully. It had encircled her like a friend, both when she was sad
+and when she was gay. It had been wrapped around the Baby, of whom she
+never thought without a pang and a blur before her eyes. It was the
+dearest article she had in her wardrobe, and because of that and because
+she had been so forgetful, she would send it to Eliza Ann Smith!
+
+"But not for good," she said to Sarah, who was commissioned to take it
+to Eloise the next morning. "She can keep it till she is well. Somebody
+told me she had a sprained ankle. I had one once, and I put it across my
+lap and foot, it was so soft and warm. Tell her I am sorry I forgot
+about her. I am not always quite myself."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Sent that old red cloak she's had ever since she was knee high! I
+shouldn't s'pose there'd be a rag of it left! She must be crazy as a
+loon to-day," was Mrs. Biggs's comment, when Sarah told her errand.
+"What possessed her?"
+
+Sarah only knew that her mistress was more dazed than usual that
+morning, and had insisted upon her bringing the cloak.
+
+"I think it rattled her when the chairs came back. She didn't know
+anything about 'em, nor the Colonel either," Sarah said.
+
+Mrs. Biggs laughed, and replied, "I didn't s'pose they did. Them young
+men, I b'lieve, was at the bottom of it, and I or'to have told Miss
+Smith to send her thanks to them, but I wasn't quite sure about the sea
+chair. So I let it slide, thinkin' it was a good joke on 'em to thank
+Amy. They pretended the things was from her."
+
+Taking the cloak from the girl, she carried it into the room where
+Eloise had fallen asleep, with her foot resting upon a hassock, and a
+shawl thrown over it. Removing the shawl and putting the red cloak in
+its place, Mrs. Biggs stole noiselessly out, saying to herself, "I guess
+she'll wonder where that came from when she wakes up."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ELOISE AT THE CROMPTON HOUSE
+
+
+For an hour or more Eloise slept on, and then awoke suddenly and saw the
+scarlet cloak across her foot. At first it was the color which attracted
+her. Then taking it in her hands she began to examine it, while drops of
+sweat came out upon her forehead and under her hair. She knew that
+cloak! She had worn it many and many a time when she was a child. She
+had seen her mother fold and pack it far more carefully, when they were
+starting on a starring tour, than she did the fine dresses she wore on
+the stage.
+
+"It is my mother's, but how came it here?" she thought, as she took it
+into the kitchen where she heard Mrs. Biggs at her work. "Where did you
+get my mother's cloak?" she asked.
+
+Mrs. Biggs, who always washed on Saturdays, had just put Tim's shirt
+through the wringer. Holding it at arm's length with one hand and
+steadying herself on the side of the tub with the other, she stared
+blankly at Eloise for a moment, and then said, "Your mother's cloak!
+Child alive, that's Mrs. Amy's. I've seen her wear it a hundred times
+when she was a little girl. She has got on a spell of givin' this
+mornin', and sent it to you by Sarah. She's kep' it well all these
+years. What ails you?" she continued, as Eloise's face grew as white as
+the clothes in Mrs. Biggs's basket.
+
+Ray after ray of light was penetrating her mind, making her wonder she
+had not seen it before, and bringing a possibility which made her brain
+reel for a moment.
+
+"Sit down," Mrs. Biggs continued, "and tell me why you think this is
+your mother's cloak."
+
+"I know it is," Eloise answered. "I have worn it so many times, and once
+I tore a long rent in the lining and mother darned it. It is
+here,--see!"
+
+She showed the place in the silk lining where a tear had been and was
+mended.
+
+"For the Lord's sake, who be you?" Mrs. Biggs exclaimed, still
+flourishing Tim's shirt, which she finally dropped back into the tub,
+and in her excitement came near sitting down in a pail of bluing water
+instead of a chair.
+
+"I am Eloise Albertina Smith, and my father was Homer Smith, and my
+mother was Eudora Harris from Florida, and sang in concerts, and lost
+her mind, and was in a private asylum in San Francisco, and my father
+died, and a strange man took her out a few months ago. I did not know
+where she was, and was going to California to find her. I believe your
+Mrs. Amy is she, and I am going to the Crompton House to inquire!"
+
+"For Heaven's sake!" was Mrs. Biggs's next ejaculation. "Harris was
+Amy's name before she was called Crompton, and her name is Amy Eudora,
+too; but I never heard she had a girl."
+
+"Yes, she had, and I am that girl," Eloise said, "and I am going up
+there now, right off!"
+
+"You can't walk," Mrs. Biggs suggested. "That ankle would turn before
+you got half way there. If you must go,--and I believe I would,--Tim
+will git a rig from the livery. Here, Tim," she called, as she heard him
+whistling in the woodshed, "run to Miller's and git a carriage and a
+span, quick as you can,--a good one, too," she added, as the possibility
+grew upon her that Eloise might belong to the Cromptons, and if so,
+ought to go up in style.
+
+It did not take long for Tim to execute his mother's order, and the best
+turn-out from Miller's stable soon stood before the door.
+
+"I b'lieve I'll go, too. The washin' will keep, and this won't," the
+widow said, beginning to change her work-dress for a better one.
+
+Eloise was too much excited to care who went with her, and with Mrs.
+Biggs she was soon driving up the broad avenue under the stately maples
+to the door of the Crompton House. Peter saw the carriage, and thinking
+it came from town with callers on Amy, went out to say she could not see
+them, as she was not feeling well and was lying down.
+
+"But I must see her," Eloise said, alighting first and brushing past
+him, while he stood open-mouthed with surprise.
+
+"She thinks she is Amy's girl, and, I swan, I begin to think so, too,"
+Mrs. Biggs said, trying to explain and getting things a good deal mixed,
+and so bewildering the old man that he paid no attention to Eloise, who,
+with the cloak on her arm, was in the hall and saying to a maid who met
+her, "Take me to Mrs. Amy."
+
+All her timidity was gone, as she gave the order like one who felt
+perfectly at home.
+
+"Mrs. Amy is asleep, and I don't like to disturb her. She is unusually
+nervous this morning. Will you see the Colonel instead?" the girl said,
+awed by Eloise's air of authority.
+
+"My business is with Mrs. Amy, but perhaps I'd better see Col. Crompton
+first," she replied.
+
+Mrs. Biggs and Peter were in the house by this time, and heard what
+Eloise was saying.
+
+"Better not," Peter began. "I don't know as you can see him. You stay
+here. I'll inquire."
+
+He started up the stairs, followed by Eloise, who had no idea of staying
+behind.
+
+"Wait," he said, motioning her back as he reached the Colonel's door,
+and saw her close beside him. "Let me go in first."
+
+He left the door ajar and walked into the room where the Colonel was
+sitting just as he had sat the morning before, when Jake's letter and
+Eloise's note were brought to him. He had not slept at all during the
+night, and was in a trembling condition, with a feeling of numbness in
+his limbs which he did not like.
+
+"Well?" he said sharply, as Peter came in, and he saw by his face that
+something had happened. "What's up now?"
+
+"Nothing, but Miss Smith, the teacher," Peter replied. "She wants to see
+you."
+
+"Miss Smith, the normal? Do you mean Eliza Ann? Tell her to go away. I
+can't see anybody," the Colonel said.
+
+"I'll tell her, but I'm afraid she won't go," Peter replied, starting
+for the door, through which a little figure came so swiftly as nearly to
+knock him down, and Eloise, who had forgotten her lameness, stood before
+the astonished Colonel, her face glowing with excitement, and her eyes
+shining like stars as she confronted him.
+
+Old as he was, the Colonel was not insensible to female beauty, and the
+rare loveliness of this young girl moved him with something like
+admiration, and made his voice a little softer as he said, "Are you
+Eliza Ann Smith? What do you want?"
+
+"I am not Eliza Ann," Eloise answered quickly. "I am Eloise Albertina
+Smith. My father was Homer Smith; my mother was Eudora Harris, from
+Florida, a concert singer, till she lost her mind and was put in a
+private asylum in San Francisco. You took her out, and she is here. You
+call her Mrs. Amy. She never told me of you. I don't know why. She never
+talked much of her girlhood. I don't think she was very happy. She sent
+me this cloak, and that's how I knew she was here. I have worn it many
+times when a child. I knew it in a moment, and I have come to see her.
+Where is she?"
+
+This was worse than Jake's letter, and every nerve in the Colonel's body
+was quivering with excitement, and he felt as if a hundred prickly
+sensations were chasing each other up and down his arms and legs, and
+making his tongue thick as he tried to call for Peter. Succeeding at
+last, he said faintly, "Take this girl away before she kills me."
+
+"I shall not go," Eloise rejoined, "until I see my mother. I tell you
+she is my mother. Has she never spoken of me?"
+
+"Never," the Colonel answered. "She has talked of a baby who died, and
+you are not dead."
+
+"No, but I am Baby,--her pet name for me always. Why she should think me
+dead, I don't know. Send for her, and see if she does not know me."
+
+She had come close to the trembling old man, and put one of her hands
+on his cold, clammy one. He didn't shake it off, but looked at her with
+an expression in his eyes which roused her sympathy.
+
+"I don't mean any harm," she said. "I only want my mother. Send for her,
+please."
+
+There was a motion of assent toward Peter, who left the room,
+encountering Mrs. Biggs outside the door. There was too much going on
+for her not to have a hand in it, and she stood listening and waiting
+till Amy came down the hall, her white cashmere wrapper trailing softly
+behind her, and her hair coiled under a pretty invalid cap. She had been
+roused from a sound sleep, which had cleared her brain somewhat, and
+when told the Colonel wished to see her, she rose at once and started to
+go to him, fearing he was worse. He heard her coming, and braced himself
+up. Eloise heard her, and, with her head thrown back and her hands
+clasped together, stood waiting for her. For a moment Amy did not see
+her, so absorbed was she in the expression of the Colonel, who was
+watching her intently. When at last she did see her, she started
+suddenly, while a strange light leaped into her eyes. Then a wild, glad
+cry of "Baby! Baby!" rang through the room, and was answered by one of
+"Mother! Mother!" as the two women sprang to each other's arms.
+
+Amy was the first to recover herself. Turning Eloise around and
+examining her minutely, she said, "I thought you dead. He told me so,
+and everything has been a blank to me since."
+
+"You see she is my mother!" Eloise said to the Colonel; "and if she is
+your daughter, you must be my grandfather!"
+
+If the Colonel had been carved in stone he could not have sat more
+motionless than he did, giving no sign that he heard.
+
+"No matter! I shall find it all out for myself," Eloise continued, as
+she turned again to her mother, who was examining the red cloak as if
+she wondered how it came there.
+
+The mention of "finding it out" affected the Colonel more than anything
+else had done. Amy had said the same thing to him once. She had not
+found it out, but this slip of a girl would, he was sure, and with
+something like a groan he sank back in his chair with a call for Peter.
+
+"Take them away," he said huskily. "I can't bear any more,
+and,--and,--the girl must stay, if Amy wants her, and bring me a
+hot-water bag,--two of them,--I was never so cold in my life."
+
+Peter nodded that he understood, and, ringing the bell for Amy's maid,
+bade her take her mistress to her room, and the young lady, too. "She is
+Mrs. Amy's daughter," he added.
+
+There was no need to tell this, for Mrs. Biggs had done her duty, and
+every servant in the house had heard the news and was anxious to see the
+stranger. Amy was always at her best in her own room, where Sarah left
+her alone with Eloise, and hastened away to gossip with Mrs. Biggs and
+Peter. The shock, instead of making Amy worse, had for the time being
+cleared her brain to some extent, so that she was able to talk quite
+rationally to Eloise, whose first question was why she had thought her
+dead. "I was so homesick for you, and cried so much after you went away
+that he was angry and hard with me,--very hard,--and I said at last if
+he didn't send for you I'd never sing again, and meant it, too," Amy
+replied. "It was at Los Angeles on a concert night. I must have been
+pretty bad, and he seemed half afraid of me, and finally told me you
+were dead, and had been for three weeks, and that he had meant to keep
+it from me till the season was over. I believed him, and something
+snapped in my head and let in a pain and noise which have never left it;
+but they will now I have found you. I went before the footlights once
+that night, and the stage was full of coffins in which you lay, and I
+saw the little grave in the New England cemetery where he said you were
+buried. At last I fainted, and have never sung again. They were very
+kind to me at Dr. Haynes's, where he came often to see me till I heard
+he was dead. I was not sorry; he had been so,--so--I can't explain."
+
+"I know," Eloise said, remembering her father's manner toward this weak,
+timid woman, who went on: "Then Col. Crompton came and brought me home.
+I used to live here years ago and called him father, till he said he was
+not my father. I never told you of him, or that this was once my home,
+although I described the place to you as something I had seen. If he
+were not my father I did not want to know who was, and did not want to
+talk about it, and after I married Mr. Smith it was very dreadful. He
+hated the Colonel when he found he could not get money from him, and
+sometimes taunted me with my birth, saying I was a Harris and a Cracker;
+but the cruelest of all was telling me you were dead. Why did he do it?"
+
+"I think your fretting for me irritated him, and he feared you might
+never sing again unless he sent for me, and he did not want me," Eloise
+said. "He never wanted me. He was a bad man, and I could not feel sorry
+when he died."
+
+"You needn't," Amy exclaimed excitedly, and, getting up she began to
+walk the floor as she continued, "It is time things were cleared up. I
+am not afraid of him now, although I was when he was living. He broke
+all the spirit I had, till the sound of his voice when he was angry made
+me shake. Thank God he was not your father! there has been a lie all the
+time, and that wore upon me. Your father,--Adolph Candida,--is lying in
+the Protestant burying-ground in Rome."
+
+Grasping her mother's arm Eloise cried, "Oh, mother, what is this you
+are saying, and why have I never heard it before?"
+
+Amy had been tolerably clear in her conversation up to this point, but
+she was getting tired, and it was a long, rambling story she told, with
+many digressions and much irrelevant matter, but Eloise managed to
+follow her and get a fairly correct version of the truth. Candida, whom
+Amy loved devotedly, and with whom she had been very happy, had died
+after a brief illness when Eloise was an infant. Homer Smith, the
+handsome American, who had attached himself to the Candidas, was very
+kind to the young widow, whom he induced to marry him, and to let her
+little girl take his name.
+
+"I don't know why I did that," Amy said; "only he always made me do what
+he pleased, and he pretended to love you so much, and he didn't want his
+friends to know he was my second husband when he came to America. I
+couldn't understand that, but I yielded, as I did in everything. He
+seemed to hate the name of Candida, and was jealous of him in his
+grave, and would never let me speak of him. I think he was crazy, and
+he said I was, and shut me up. He once wrote to Col. Crompton for money
+and got a dreadful letter, telling him to go to that place where I am
+afraid he has gone, and saying I was welcome to come home any time, if I
+would leave the singing master. There was a bad word before the
+'singing,' which I can't speak. I meant to go home some time and take
+you with me. I hated the stage, and the pain got in my head, and I
+forgot so many things after he said you were dead, but never forgot you,
+although I didn't talk about you much. I couldn't, for a bunch came in
+my throat and choked me, and my head seemed to open and shut on the top
+when I thought of you. Col. Crompton has been very kind to me since I
+came. I think now he is my father. I asked him once, and he said, No. I
+believed him then, and accepted in my mind some Mr. Harris, for I knew
+my mother was a true woman. We will find it all out, you and I."
+
+"Yes," Eloise replied, "and the pain will go away, and you will tell me
+more of my own father. I know now why I never could feel a daughter's
+love for the other one. Does grandmother know? She was always kind to
+me, and I love her."
+
+Amy shook her head, and said, "I think not, but am not sure. It will be
+clearer by and by. I must sleep now."
+
+When she was tired she always slept, and, adjusting the cushions on the
+sofa, Eloise made her lie down, and spread over her the little red cloak
+which had been the means of bringing them together.
+
+"Yes, that's right. Cover me with the dear old cloak Jakey gave me,"
+Amy said sleepily. "You'll help me find him."
+
+Eloise didn't know who Jakey was, or what connection he had with the
+cloak; but she answered promptly, "Yes, I'll help you find him and
+everything."
+
+Thus reassured, Amy fell asleep, while Eloise sat by her until startled
+by the entrance of Mrs. Biggs. That worthy woman had been busy telling
+the servants everything she knew about Eloise since she came to
+Crompton, and that she had always mistrusted she was somebody out of the
+common. Then, as Eloise did not appear, and the carriage from Miller's
+was still waiting at a dollar and a half an hour, it occurred to her
+that if Eloise should not prove to be somebody out of the common she
+would have to pay the bill, as she had ordered the turn-out. Going to
+Amy's room, she walked in unannounced, and asked, "Be you goin' home
+with me, or goin' to stay?"
+
+"I don't know what I am to do," Eloise said, starting to her feet.
+
+Amy decided for her. Mrs. Biggs had roused her, and, hearing what was
+wanted, she protested so vehemently against Eloise's leaving her even
+for an hour, that Mrs. Biggs departed without her, thinking to herself
+as she rode in state behind the fleet horses, "It beats the Dutch what
+luck some folks have. I've lost my boarder, and Ruby Ann has got the
+school, just as I knew she would, and mebby I'll have to pay for the
+rig. I wonder how long I've had it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE SHADOW OF DEATH
+
+
+This was on Saturday, and by Monday the whole town of Crompton, from
+District No. 5 to the village on the seashore, was buzzing with the news
+told eagerly from one to another. The young girl who had sprained her
+ankle while coming to take charge of the school in District No. 5 had,
+it was told, turned out to be the daughter of Mrs. Amy, and was at the
+Crompton House with her mother, who had thought her dead. This some
+believed and some did not, until assured by Mrs. Biggs, who, having done
+her washing on Saturday, was free on Monday to call upon her neighbors
+and repeat the story over and over, ending always with, "I mistrusted
+from the first that she was somebody."
+
+The second piece of news was scarcely less exciting, but sad. After his
+interview with Eloise, the Colonel had complained of nausea and
+faintness, and had gone early to bed. Before going, however, he had
+asked if Eliza Ann were still in the house. An idea once lodged in his
+brain was apt to stay, and Eliza Ann had taken too strong a hold upon
+his senses to be easily removed.
+
+"Bring her here," he said.
+
+She came at once and asked what she could do for him.
+
+"Sit down," he said. "You seem to be lame."
+
+He had evidently forgotten about the accident, and Eloise did not remind
+him of it, but sat down while he catechised her with regard to what she
+had told him of herself. Some of his comments on Homer Smith were not
+very complimentary, and this emboldened Eloise to tell him who her real
+father was.
+
+"Thank God!" he said emphatically. "I'm glad you are not that rascal's,
+and because you are not you can stay with Amy and fare as she fares. But
+why did she think you dead?"
+
+Eloise told him all she thought necessary to tell him, while his face
+grew purple with anger, and his clenched fists beat the air as if
+attacking an imaginary Homer Smith.
+
+"It's a comfort to know, if there is a God--and I know there is--he is
+getting his deserts," he said. Then, as his mood changed, he continued,
+"And you are the little normal I didn't want, and you board with Mrs.
+Biggs?"
+
+"Yes," Eloise replied. "I am the normal you did not want, and I board
+with Mrs. Biggs, where I heard a great deal of Mrs. Amy, as they call
+her. I must have a slow, stupid mind, or I should have suspected who she
+was. I never heard the name Harris connected with her. If I had I should
+have known. It is so clear to me now."
+
+The Colonel looked at her a moment, and then said, "If you are Amy's
+daughter you are a Harris, and they are queer, with slow minds,--and now
+go. I am infernally tired, and cannot keep up much longer."
+
+He moved his hand toward her, and Eloise took it and pressed it to her
+lips.
+
+"D-don't," the Colonel said, but held fast to the soft, warm hand
+clasping his. "If one's life could roll back," he added, more to himself
+than to Eloise, as his head dropped wearily upon his breast, and he
+whispered, "I am sorry for a great deal. God knows I am sorry. Call
+Peter."
+
+The old servant came and got him to bed, and sat by him most of the
+night. Toward morning, finding that he was sleeping quietly, he, too,
+lay down and slept until the early sun was shining into the room. Waking
+with a start, he hurried to his master's side, to find him with
+wide-open eyes full of terror as he tried to ask what had happened to
+him. All power to move except his head was gone, and when he tried to
+talk his lips gave only inarticulate sounds which no one could
+understand.
+
+"Paralysis," the doctor said when summoned. "I have expected it a long
+time," he continued, and would give no hope to Amy and Eloise, who
+hastened to the sick-room.
+
+The moment they came in the Colonel's eyes brightened, and when Amy
+stooped and kissed him he tried to kiss her back. Then he fixed his eyes
+on Eloise with a questioning glance, which made her say to him, "Do you
+know me?"
+
+He struggled hard for a moment, and then replied, "Yesh, 'Lisha Ann!
+Stay!" and those were the only really intelligible words he ever spoke.
+
+They telegraphed to Worcester for Howard, and learning that he was in
+Boston, telegraphed there, and found him at the Vendome. "Come at once.
+Your uncle is dying," the telegram said, and Howard read it with a
+sensation for which he hated himself, and which he could not entirely
+shake off. He tried to believe he did not want his uncle to die, but if
+he did die, what might it not do for him, the only direct heir, if Amy
+were not a lawful daughter? And he did not believe she was. She had not
+been adopted, and he had never heard of a will, and before he was aware
+of it a feeling that he was master of Crompton Place crept over him. Amy
+would live there, of course, just as she did now, even if he should
+marry, as he might, and there came up before him the memory of a rainy
+night and a helpless little girl sitting on a mound of stones and dirt
+and crying with fear and pain. He had seen Jack's interest in Eloise
+with outward indifference, but with a growing jealousy he was too proud
+to show. He admired her greatly, and thought that under some
+circumstances he might love her. As a Crompton he ought to look higher,
+and if he proved to be the heir it would never do to think of her even
+if Jack were not in his way. All this passed like lightning through his
+mind as he read the telegram and handed it to Jack, who, he insisted,
+should return with him to Crompton.
+
+"I feel awfully shaky, and I want you there if anything happens," he
+said, while Jack, whose first thought had been that he would be in the
+way, was not loath to go.
+
+Eloise was in Crompton, and ever since he left it, a thought of her had
+been in his mind.
+
+"If I find her as sweet and lovely as I left her, I'll ask her to be my
+wife, and take her away from Mrs. Biggs," he was thinking as the train
+sped on over the New England hills toward Crompton, which it reached
+about two P.M.
+
+Peter was at the station with Sam, and to Howard's eager questions
+answered, "Pretty bad. No change since morning. Don't seem to know
+anybody except Mrs. Amy and Miss Eloise. She's with him all the time,
+and he tries to smile when she speaks to him."
+
+"Who?" both the young men asked in the same breath, and Peter told them
+all he knew of the matter during the rapid drive to the house.
+
+Howard was incredulous, and made Peter repeat the story twice, while his
+brain worked rapidly with a presentiment that this new complication
+might prove adverse to him.
+
+"What do you think of it?" he asked Jack, who replied, "I see no reason
+to doubt it," and he was conscious of a pang of regret that he had not
+asked Eloise to be his wife before her changed circumstances.
+
+"She would then know that I loved her for herself, and not for any
+family relations," he thought.
+
+He had no doubt that Amy was Col. Crompton's daughter, and if so,
+Eloise's position would be very different from what it had been.
+
+"I'll wait the course of events, as this is no time for love-making," he
+decided, as they drove up to the door, from which the doctor was just
+emerging.
+
+"Matter of a few hours," he said to Howard. "I am glad you have come.
+Evidently he wants to see you, or wants something, nobody can make out
+what. You have heard the news?"
+
+Howard bowed, and entering the house, ran up to his uncle's room. The
+Colonel was propped on pillows, laboring for breath, and trying to
+articulate words impossible to speak, while, if ever eyes talked, his
+were talking, first to Amy and then to Eloise, both of whom were beside
+him, Amy smoothing his hair and Eloise rubbing his cold hands.
+
+They had been with him for hours, trying to understand him as he
+struggled to speak.
+
+"There is something he wants to tell us," Eloise said, and in his eyes
+there was a look of affirmation, while the lips tried in vain to frame
+the words, which were only gurgling sounds.
+
+What did the dying man want to say? Was he trying to reveal a secret
+kept so many years, and which was planting his pillow with thorns? Was
+he back in the palmetto clearing, standing in the moonlight with Dora,
+and exacting a promise from her which broke her heart? No one could
+guess, and least of all the two women ministering to him so
+tenderly,--Amy, because she loved him, and Eloise, because she felt that
+he was more to her than a mere stranger. She was very quiet and
+self-contained. The events of the last two days had transformed her from
+a timid girl into a fearless woman, ready to fight for her own rights
+and those of her mother. Once when Amy was from the room a moment she
+bent close to the Colonel and said, "You are my mother's father?"
+
+There was a choking sound and an attempt to move the head which Eloise
+took for assent.
+
+"Then you are my grandfather?" she added.
+
+This time she was sure he nodded, and she said, "It will all be right.
+You can rest now," but he didn't rest.
+
+There was more on his mind which he could not tell.
+
+"I believe it is Mr. Howard," Eloise thought, and said to him, "He is
+coming on the next train. I hear it now. He will soon be here. Is that
+what you want?"
+
+The dying man turned his head wearily. There was more besides Howard he
+wanted, but when at last the young man came into the room, his eyes
+shone with a look of pleased recognition, and he tried to speak a
+welcome. In the hall outside Jack was waiting, and as Eloise passed out
+he gave her his hand, and leading her to a settee, sat down beside her,
+and told her how glad he was for the news he had heard of her, but
+feeling the while that he did not know whether he were glad or not. She
+had never looked fairer or sweeter to him than she did now, and yet
+there was a difference which he detected, and which troubled him. It
+would have been easy to say "I love you," to the helpless little
+school-teacher at Mrs. Biggs's, and he wished now he had done so, and
+not waited till she became a daughter of the Crompton House, as he
+believed she was. Now he could only look his love into the eyes which
+fell beneath his gaze, as he held her hand and questioned her of the
+Colonel's sudden attack, and the means by which she had discovered her
+relationship to Amy.
+
+Again he repeated, "I am so glad for you," and might have said more if
+Howard had not stepped into the hall, his face clouded and anxious.
+
+"He wants you, I think," he said to Eloise. "At least he wants
+something,--I don't know what."
+
+Eloise went to him at once, and again there was a painful effort to
+speak. But whatever he would say was never said, and after a little the
+palsied tongue ceased trying to articulate, and only his eyes showed
+how clear his reason was to the last. If there was sorrow for the past,
+he could not express it. If thoughts of the palmetto clearing were in
+his mind, no one knew it. All that could be guessed at was that he
+wanted Amy and Eloise with him.
+
+"Call him father. I think he will like it," Eloise said to her mother,
+while Howard looked up quickly, and to Peter, who was present, it seemed
+as if a frown settled on his face as a smile flickered around the
+Colonel's mouth at the sound of the name Amy had not given him since she
+came from California.
+
+All the afternoon and evening they watched him, as his breathing grew
+shorter and the heavy lids fell over the eyes, which, until they closed,
+rested upon Amy, who held his hand and spoke to him occasionally,
+calling him father, and asking if he knew her. To the very last he
+responded to the question with a quivering of the lids when he could no
+longer lift them, and when the clock on the stairs struck twelve, the
+physician who was present said to Eloise, "Take your mother away; he is
+dead."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+LOOKING FOR A WILL
+
+
+For three days the Colonel lay in the great drawing-room of the Crompton
+House, the blinds of which were closed, while knots of crape streamed
+from every door, and the servants talked together in low tones,
+sometimes of the dead man and sometimes of the future, wondering who
+would be master now of Crompton Place. Speculation on this point was
+rife everywhere, and on no one had it a stronger hold than on Howard
+himself. He would not like to have had it known that within twenty-four
+hours after his uncle's death he had gone through every pigeon-hole and
+nook in the Colonel's safe and private drawers, and turned over every
+paper searching for a will, and when he found none, had congratulated
+himself that in all human probability he was the sole heir. He was very
+properly sad, with an unmistakable air of ownership as he went about the
+place, giving orders to the servants. To Amy he paid great deference,
+telling the undertaker to ask what she liked and abide by her decisions.
+And here he was perfectly safe. With the shock of the Colonel's death
+Amy had relapsed into a dazed, silent mood, saying always, "I don't
+know; ask Eloise," and when Eloise was asked, she replied, "I have been
+here too short a time to give any orders. Mr. Howard will tell you."
+
+Thus everything was left to him, as he meant it should be, stipulating
+that Eloise meet the people who came, some to offer their sympathy, and
+more from a morbid curiosity to see whatever there was to be seen. This
+Eloise did with a dignity which surprised herself, and if Howard were
+the master, she was the mistress, and apparently as much at home as if
+she had lived there all her life. Ruby was the first to call. She had
+not seen Eloise since the astounding news that she was Amy's daughter.
+
+"I am so glad for you," she said, and the first tears Eloise had shed
+sprang to her eyes as she laid her head on Ruby's arm, just as she had
+done in the days of her trouble and pain.
+
+Mrs. Biggs came, too,--very loud in her protestations of delight and
+assertions that she had always known Eloise was above the common.
+
+Never since the memorable lawn party many years ago had there been so
+great a crowd in the house and grounds as on the day of the funeral. In
+honor of his memory, and because he had given the school-house to the
+town, the school was closed, and the pupils, with Ruby Ann at their
+head, marched up the avenue with wreaths of autumn leaves and bouquets
+of flowers intended for the grave. The Rev. Arthur Mason read the burial
+service, and as he glanced at the costly casket, nearly smothered in
+flowers, and at the crowd inside and out, he could not keep his thoughts
+from his father's description of another funeral, where the dead woman
+lay in her cheap coffin, with Crackers and negroes as spectators; and
+only a demented woman, a little child, and black Jake and Mandy Ann as
+mourners. The mourners here were Amy and Howard, Eloise and Jack, and
+next to him a plain-looking, elderly woman, who, Mrs. Biggs told every
+one near her, was old Mrs. Smith, Eloise's supposed grandmother from
+Mayville.
+
+Eloise had sent for her, and while telling the story of deception and
+wrong which had been practised so long, and to which the mother listened
+with streaming eyes, she had said, "But it makes no difference with us.
+You are mine just the same, and wherever I live in the future, you are
+to live, too, if you will."
+
+Mrs. Smith had smiled upon the young girl, and felt bewildered and
+strange in this grand house and at this grand funeral, unlike anything
+she had ever seen. It seemed like an endless line of carriages and foot
+passengers which followed the Colonel to the grave, and when the
+services were over, a few friends of the Colonel, who had come from a
+distance, returned to the house, and among them Mr. Ferris, the lawyer,
+who had been the Colonel's counsel and adviser for years, and managed
+his affairs. This was Howard's idea. He could not rest until he knew
+whether there was in the lawyer's possession any will or papers bearing
+upon Amy. When lunch was over he took the old man into his uncle's
+library, and said, hesitatingly, "I do not want to be too hasty, but it
+is better to have such matters settled, and if I have no interest in the
+Crompton estate I must leave, of course. Did my uncle leave a will?"
+
+Lawyer Ferris looked at him keenly through his glasses, took a huge
+pinch of snuff, and blew a good deal of it from him and some in Howard's
+face, making him sneeze before he replied, "Not that I know of; more's
+the pity. I tried my best to have him make one. The last time I urged it
+he said, 'There's no need. I've fixed it. Amy will be all right.' I was
+thinking of her. If there is no will, and she wasn't adopted and wasn't
+his daughter, it's hard lines for her."
+
+"But she was his daughter," came in a clear, decided voice, and both the
+lawyer and Howard turned to see Eloise standing in the door.
+
+Rain was beginning to fall, and she had come to close a window, with no
+thought that any one was in the library, until she heard the lawyer's
+last words, which stopped her suddenly. Where her mother was concerned
+she could be very brave, and, stepping into the room, she startled the
+two men with her assertion, "She was his daughter."
+
+"He told me so," she continued.
+
+"He did? When?" Howard asked, and Eloise replied, "I asked him, and his
+eyes looked yes, and when I said, 'You are my grandfather?' I was very
+sure he nodded. I know he meant it."
+
+The lawyer smiled and answered her, "That is something, but not enough.
+We must have a will or some document. He might have been your mother's
+father. I think he was; and still, she may not be--be--"
+
+He hesitated, for Eloise's eyes were fixed upon him, and the hot blood
+of shame was crimsoning her face. After a moment he continued, "A will
+can set things right; or, if we can prove a marriage, all will be fair
+sailing for your mother and you."
+
+"I was not thinking of myself," Eloise returned. "I am thinking of
+mother. I know all the dreadful gossip and everything. Mrs. Biggs has
+told me, and I am going to find out. Somebody knows, and I shall find
+them."
+
+She looked very fearless as she left the room, and Howard felt that she
+would be no weak antagonist if he wanted to contest his right to the
+estate. But he didn't, he told himself, and Mr. Ferris, too. He was
+willing to abide by the law. If there was a will he'd like to find it;
+and, in any case, should be generous to Amy and--Eloise!
+
+"No doubt of it," the lawyer said, looking at him now over his
+spectacles, and taking a second pinch of snuff preparatory to the search
+among the dead man's papers, which Howard suggested that he make.
+
+Every place Howard had gone through was gone through again,--every paper
+unfolded and every envelope looked into. There was no will or scrap of
+writing bearing upon Amy. There were some receipts from Tom Hardy, of
+Palatka, for money received from the Colonel and paid over to Eudora
+Harris, and at these the lawyer looked curiously.
+
+"Harris was the name Amy sometimes went by before her marriage, I
+believe," he said. "Eudora was probably her mother. Now, if we can find
+Tom Hardy we may learn something. Shall I write to Palatka and inquire?"
+
+"Certainly," Howard replied, with a choke in his throat which he managed
+to hide from the lawyer.
+
+He didn't mean to be a scoundrel. He only wanted his own, and he meant
+to do right if chance made him master of Crompton, he said to himself,
+as he went to the drawing-room, where Jack and Eloise were sitting with
+a few friends who seemed to be waiting for something. Ruby and Mrs.
+Biggs, who, on the strength of their intimacy with Eloise, had remained
+in the house while the family was at the grave, were there, evidently
+expectant. It was not Howard's idea to broach the subject at once. He
+wanted to talk it over with Jack and Eloise, and make himself right with
+them. The lawyer had no such scruples. He had read wills after many
+funerals, and now that there was none to read, he spoke up:
+
+"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry I can't oblige you, but there ain't any
+will as we can find, and nothing to show who Mrs. Amy is, and matters
+must rest for a spell as they are. Meanwhile, Mr. Howard Crompton, as
+the Colonel's nephew and only known heir, must take charge of things."
+
+Eloise's face flushed, and Jack, who stole a look at her, saw that her
+hands trembled a little. No one spoke until Mrs. Biggs rose and said,
+"'Squire Ferris, if no will ain't found, and nothin' is proved for Mrs.
+Amy,--adoption nor nothin',--you know what I mean,--can't she inherit?"
+
+"Not a cent!" was the reply.
+
+"You mean she'll have nothin'?"
+
+"Legally nothing!"
+
+"And Mr. Howard will have everything?"
+
+"Yes, everything, as he is sole heir and next of kin."
+
+"Get out with your 'sole heir and next of kin' and law!" Mrs. Biggs
+exclaimed vehemently. "There ain't no justice in law. Look a-here,
+Squire; when women vote we'll have things different. Here is Amy, been
+used to them elegancies all her life." She swept her arm around the
+room, and, still keeping it poised, continued: "And now she's to be
+turned out because there ain't no will and you can't prove nothin'! And
+that's law! It makes me so mad! Who is goin' to take care of her, I'd
+like to know?"
+
+"I am!" and Eloise sprang to her feet, the central figure now in the
+room. "I shall take care of my mother! I don't care for the will, nor
+anything, except to prove that she is Col. Crompton's legitimate
+daughter, and that I will do. I am going where she was born, if I can
+find the place, and take her with me. I am not very lame now, and I
+would start to-morrow if--"
+
+She stopped, remembering that in her purse were only two and one half
+dollars, and this she owed to Mrs. Biggs for board; then her eyes fell
+upon Ruby, the friend who had stood by her in her need, and who had been
+the first to congratulate her on finding her mother. Ruby had offered
+her money for the journey to California, and something in Ruby's face
+told her it was still ready for her, and she went on: "I was foolish
+enough to think Crompton Place was her rightful home, and be glad for
+her, but if it is not, I shall take her away at once. No one need worry
+about mother! I shall care for her."
+
+"Bravo!" Mrs. Biggs rejoined, as Eloise sank back in her chair. "That's
+what I call pluck! Law, indeed! It makes me so mad! You can fetch her to
+my house any minit. Your old room is ready for you, and I won't charge a
+cent till you find something to do and can pay. Maybe Ruby'll give up
+the school. Won't you, Ruby Ann?"
+
+"Certainly, if she wishes it," Ruby answered, and going over to Eloise,
+she said, "You are a brave little girl, and the money is still waiting
+for you if you want it."
+
+As for Jack, he was ready to lay himself at her feet, but all he could
+do then was to say to Ruby, "Perhaps Miss Smith had better go to her
+room; she seems tired," and taking her arm, he went with her to the
+door, which Howard opened for her. That young man did not feel very
+comfortable, and as soon as Eloise was gone he said to the inmates of
+the room, "If any of you think me such a cad as to turn Mrs. Amy and her
+daughter from the house, or to allow them to go, you are mistaken. If it
+should prove that I am master here, they will share with me. I can do no
+more."
+
+"Good for you!" Jack said, wringing Howard's hand, while the party began
+to break up, as it was time for those who lived at a distance to take
+the train.
+
+Among those who arose to go was the Rev. Arthur Mason, whom Howard had
+asked to lunch after the burial. As he left the house he said to Jack,
+who stood for a moment with him on the piazza, "Please say to Miss Smith
+that I can direct her to her mother's birthplace in Florida. My father
+is preaching there."
+
+"Thanks! I will tell her," Jack replied, in some surprise, and then went
+in to where Howard was standing, with an expression on his face not
+quite such as one ought to have when he has just come into possession of
+a fortune.
+
+"I congratulate you, old boy," Jack said cheerily, as he went up to him.
+
+"Don't!" Howard answered impetuously. "Nothing is sure. A will may be
+found, or my uncle's marriage proved; in either case, I sink back into
+the cipher I was before. I cannot say I'm not glad to have money, but I
+don't want people blaming me. I can't help it if my uncle made no will
+and did not marry Amy's mother, and I don't believe he did, or why was
+he silent so many years?"
+
+Jack could not answer him and left the room, taking his way, he hardly
+knew why, to the village, where he fell in again with the rector. To
+talk of the recent events at the Crompton House was natural, and before
+they parted Jack knew the contents of the Rev. Charles's letter to his
+son, and in his mind there was no doubt of a secret marriage and Amy's
+legitimacy.
+
+"It will be hard on Howard," he thought, "but Amy ought to have her
+rights,--and,--Eloise! And she shall!" he added, as he retraced his
+steps to the Crompton House.
+
+Chancing to be alone with her, he told her in part what he had heard
+from the rector, keeping back everything pertaining to the poverty of
+the surroundings, and speaking mostly of Jakey and Mandy Ann, whom Amy
+might remember.
+
+"She does," Eloise replied, "and at every mention of them her brain
+seems to get clearer. Peter has brought me a copy of a letter which Col.
+Crompton received from Jake just before he went for my mother, and which
+he has kept all these years. It may help me to find whatever there is to
+be found, good or bad." She handed him the copy, and continued, "The
+letter was mailed in Palatka, but from what you tell me, Jakey is
+farther up the river. Shall I have any trouble in finding him, do you
+think?"
+
+"None whatever," Jack replied, a plan rapidly maturing in his mind as
+to what he would do if Eloise persisted in going to Florida. "Better
+leave your mother here," he said, when she told him of her determination
+to unravel the mystery.
+
+"No," she answered. "Mother must go. I expect much from a sight of her
+old home and Jakey."
+
+Jack shivered as he recalled the Rev. Charles Mason's picture of that
+home, but he would not enlighten her. She must guess something from
+Jakey's note to the Colonel, he thought. Evidently she did, for she
+asked him what a Cracker was.
+
+"I ought to know, of course, and have some idea," she said. "I asked
+mother, and she said she was one. What did she mean?"
+
+"If you go to Florida you will probably learn what a Cracker is," Jack
+replied, as he bade her good-night, pitying her for what he knew was in
+store for her.
+
+The next day a telegram from New York called him to the city. But before
+he went he had an interview with Ruby with regard to the journey which
+Eloise was designing to take as soon as her mother should have recovered
+from the shock of the Colonel's death.
+
+For a few days after his departure matters moved on quietly at the
+Crompton House, where Howard assumed the head unostentatiously, and
+without giving offence to any of the servants. The Crompton estate, as
+reported to him by Lawyer Ferris, was larger than he had supposed, and
+if it were his he would be a richer man than he had ever hoped to be. He
+liked money, and what it would bring him, and if he had been sure of his
+foothold he would have been very happy. And he was nearly sure. There
+was no will in the house, he was certain, for he had gone a second and
+third time through every place where one could possibly have been put,
+and found nothing. He was safe there, and as he did not know all which
+Mr. Mason had written to his son, he did not greatly fear the result of
+Eloise's trip to the South, which he thought a foolish undertaking. But
+she was bent upon going and the day was fixed. Grandmother Smith had
+returned home to await developments. Amy was ready. Eloise's lameness
+was nearly gone, "And to-morrow we start," she said to him one evening,
+when, after dinner, she joined him in the library, where he spent most
+of his time.
+
+Every day since his uncle's death, and he had seen so much of Eloise,
+Howard's interest in her had increased, until it amounted to a passion,
+if not positive love. Jack was a formidable rival, he knew, but now that
+he was probably master of Crompton Place, where her mother would be
+happier than elsewhere, she might think favorably of him. At all events
+he'd take the chance, and now was his time. Looking up quickly as she
+came in, and drawing a chair close to him for her, he said, "Sit down a
+moment while I talk to you." She sat down, and he continued, "I wish you
+would give up this journey, which can only end in disappointment. I have
+no idea there was a marriage, or that you could prove it if there was.
+My uncle was not a brute. He loved Amy, and would not have kept silent
+till he died if she had been his legitimate daughter. Give up the
+project. I will gladly share the fortune with you, and be a son to your
+mother. Will you, Eloise? I must call you that, and I ask you to be my
+wife. It is not so sudden as you may think," he continued, as he saw her
+look of surprise. "I do not show all I feel. I admired you from the
+first, but Jack seemed to be ahead, and I gave way to him, not
+understanding until within the last few days how much you were to me. I
+love you, and ask you again to be my wife."
+
+He had one of her hands in his, but it was cold and pulseless, and it
+seemed to him it told her answer before she said, very kindly, as if
+sorry to give him pain:
+
+"I believe you are my cousin, or, rather, my mother's, and I can esteem
+you as such, but I cannot be your wife."
+
+"Because you love Jack Harcourt, I suppose," Howard said, a little
+bitterly, and Eloise replied, "I do not think we should bring Mr.
+Harcourt into the discussion. When he asks me to be his wife it will be
+time to know whether I love him or not. I cannot marry you."
+
+She arose to go, while Howard tried to detain her, feeling every moment
+how his love was growing for this girl who had so recently come into his
+life, and was crossing his path, as he had felt she would when he first
+heard of her from his uncle, and had promised to sound her as to her
+fitness for a teacher. There had been no need for that; his uncle was
+dead, and she was going from him, perhaps to return as a usurper.
+
+"Eloise," he said again, with more feeling in his voice than when he
+first spoke, "you must listen to me. I cannot give you up. I would
+rather lose Crompton, if it is mine, than to lose you."
+
+Rising to his feet, he took her face between his hands and kissed it
+passionately.
+
+"How dare you!" she said, wresting herself from him.
+
+"Because I dare! Jack may have the second kiss, but I have had the
+first," he replied. Then his manner changed, and he said, entreatingly,
+"Forgive me, Eloise, I was beside myself for a moment. Don't give me an
+answer now. Think of what I have said while you are gone, if you will
+go; and if you fail, remember this is your home and your mother's, just
+as much as it will be if you succeed. Promise me you will come back here
+whatever happens. You will come?"
+
+"For a time, yes; till I know what to do if I fail," she replied.
+
+Then she went out and left him alone, to go again through the
+pigeon-holes and drawers and shelves he had been through so often and
+found nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+IN FLORIDA
+
+
+The Boston train was steaming into the Central Station in New York, and
+Eloise was gathering up her satchels and wraps, and looking anxiously
+out into the deepening twilight, wondering if the cars would be gone
+from the Jersey side, and what she should do if they were. She had
+intended taking a train which reached New York earlier, but there was
+some mistake in her reading of the time-table, and now it was growing
+dark, and for a moment her courage began to fail her, and she half
+wished herself back in Crompton, where every one had been so kind to
+her, and where every one had looked upon the journey as useless, except
+the rector and Ruby. These had encouraged her to go, and Ruby had
+furnished the money and had been very hopeful, and told her there was
+nothing to fear even in New York, which Eloise dreaded the most. Howard
+had seen her to the train and got her seats in the parlor car, and said
+to her, as he had once before:
+
+"I'd like to offer you money, but you say you have enough."
+
+"Oh, yes," Eloise answered; "more than enough. Ruby has been so kind."
+
+Then he said good-by, and went back to the house, which seemed empty and
+desolate.
+
+"I ought at least to have gone to New York with them, but that little
+girl is so proud and independent, I dare say she would not have let me,"
+he said to himself, and all day his thoughts followed them, until by
+some clairvoyant process he seemed to see them at the station alone and
+afraid, just as for a short time Eloise was afraid and wished she had
+not come.
+
+Then, rallying, she said to herself, "This won't do. I must keep up,"
+and she helped her mother from the car, and began to walk through the
+long station toward the street. Only half the distance had been gone
+over when a hand was laid upon her shoulder, and a voice which made her
+heart bound with delight, said to her, "Here you are! I was afraid I had
+missed you in the crowd."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Harcourt, I am so glad! How did you know we were coming?"
+Eloise exclaimed, her gladness showing in her eyes and sounding in her
+voice.
+
+"Oh, I knew," Jack answered, taking her satchel and wraps and umbrella
+from her, and giving his disengaged arm to her mother. "I have a friend
+at court who lets me know what is going to happen. It is Ruby. She
+telegraphed."
+
+Calling a carriage, which was evidently waiting for him, Jack put the
+ladies into it, attended to the baggage, and then sprang in himself.
+With him opposite her, Eloise felt no further responsibility. Everything
+would be right, she was sure, and it was. They were in time for the
+south-bound train, and after a word with the porter, were ushered into a
+drawing-room compartment, which Jack said was to be theirs during the
+long journey.
+
+"Yes, I know," Eloise said. "It is large and comfortable, and away from
+the people, but I'm afraid it costs too much."
+
+"It's all right," Jack answered, beginning to remove Amy's jacket, with
+an air of being at home.
+
+Just then Eloise glanced from the window and saw they were moving.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Harcourt!" she screamed. "We have started! You will be carried
+off! Do hurry!"
+
+She put both hands on his arm to force him from the room, while he
+laughed and said, "Did you think I would let you go to Florida alone? I
+am going with you. I have a section all to myself outside, where you can
+sit when you are tired in here. Are you sorry?"
+
+"Sorry!" she repeated. "I was never so glad in my life. But are you sure
+you ought to go? Is it right?"
+
+"You mean proper? Perfectly!" he answered. "Your mother is with us. Your
+friend Ruby knows I am going, and Mr. Mason, and Mrs. Biggs, and
+everybody else by this time. It's all right. Mrs. Grundy will approve."
+
+Eloise was too happy to care for Mrs. Grundy, and her happiness
+increased with every hour which brought her nearer to Florida, and she
+saw more and more how thoroughly kind and thoughtful Jack was. Sometimes
+he sat with her and her mother in the compartment he had engaged for
+them, but oftener when Amy was resting she sat with him in his section,
+planning what she was to do first when Florida was reached, and how she
+was to find Jakey. Jack knew exactly what to do, but he liked to listen
+to her and watch the expression of her face, which seemed to him to
+grow more beautiful every hour. On the last evening they were to be upon
+the road, she was sitting with him just before the car lamps were
+lighted, and he said to her, "Suppose you don't succeed? What will you
+do?"
+
+For a moment Eloise was silent; then she replied, "I shall take mother
+home to my grandmother's. I call her that still, although you know she
+is not really mine, but I love her just the same, and shall take care of
+her and mother. I can do it. Ruby will let me have the school, I am
+sure, if I ask her, but I couldn't take it from her now. I can get
+another somewhere, or if not a school, I can find something to do. I am
+not afraid of work."
+
+She was trying to be very brave, but there was a pathetic look in her
+face which moved Jack strangely. Her hands were lying in her lap, and
+taking the one nearest to him, he said, "Eloise, I'll tell you what you
+are going to do, whether you succeed or not. You are going to be my
+wife! Yes, my wife!"
+
+"Mr. Harcourt!" Eloise exclaimed, trying to withdraw her hand from him.
+
+But he only held it closer, while he said, "Don't Mr. Harcourt me! Call
+me Jack, and I shall know you assent. I think I have loved you ever
+since I saw you on the rostrum in Mayville,--at any rate, ever since
+that stormy night when you came near being killed. I did not mean to
+speak here in the car, but I am glad I have settled it."
+
+He was taking her consent for granted, and was squeezing her hand until
+she said involuntarily, "Oh, Jack, you hurt me!"
+
+Then he dropped it and, stooping, kissed her, saying, "I am answered.
+You have called me Jack. You are mine,--my little wife,--the dearest a
+man ever had."
+
+He kissed her again, while she whispered, "Oh, Jack, how can you, with
+all the people looking on? and it isn't very dark yet."
+
+"There are not many to look on, and they are in front of us, and I don't
+care if the whole world sees me," Jack replied, passing his arm around
+her and drawing her close to him.
+
+"You must not, right here in the car; besides that, I haven't told you I
+would," she said, making an effort to free herself from him, as the
+porter began to light the lamps.
+
+He was satisfied with her answer, and kept his arm around her in the
+face of the porter, who was too much accustomed to such scenes to pay
+any attention to this particular one. He had spotted them as lovers from
+the first and was not surprised, but when eleven o'clock came and every
+berth was made up except that of Jack, who still sat with Eloise beside
+him, loath to let her go, the negro grew uneasy and anxious to finish
+his night's work.
+
+"Sir," he said at last to Jack, "'scuse me, but you might move into the
+gentlemen's wash-room whiles I make up the berth; it's gwine on toward
+mornin'."
+
+In a flash Eloise sprang up, and without a word went to her mother, who
+was sleeping quietly, just as she had left her three hours before. A
+lurch of the train awoke her, and, kneeling beside her, Eloise said to
+her, "Mr. Harcourt has asked me to be his wife. Are you glad?"
+
+"Yes, daughter, very glad. Are we in Florida?" Amy replied.
+
+"Yes, mother, and before long we shall reach your old home and Jakey,"
+was Eloise's answer, as she kissed her mother good-night and sought her
+own pillow to think of the great happiness which had come to her in Jack
+Harcourt's love, and which would compensate for any disappointment there
+might be in store for her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+IN THE PALMETTO CLEARING
+
+
+There were not many guests at the Brock House as the season had not
+fully opened, and Jack had no trouble to find rooms for the ladies and
+himself. Amy's was in front, looking upon the St. John's, which here
+spreads out into Lake Monroe. She had had glimpses of the river from the
+railway car, but had not seen it as distinctly as now, when she stood by
+the window with an expression on her face as if she were thinking of the
+past, before her reason was clouded.
+
+"Oh, the river!--the beautiful river!" she said. "It brings things
+back,--the boat I went in; not like that," and she pointed to a large,
+handsome steamboat lying at the wharf. "Not like that. What was its
+name?"
+
+Jack, who was in the room, and who had read Mr. Mason's letter to his
+son, suggested, "The 'Hatty'?"
+
+"Yes, the 'Hatty'!" Amy said. "Strange, I remember it when I have
+forgotten so much. And he was with me,--my father. Wasn't he my father?"
+
+She looked at Eloise, who answered promptly, "Yes, he was your father."
+
+"I thought so. He said I was to call him so," Amy went on, more to
+herself than to Eloise. "I didn't always, he was so cold and proud and
+hard with me, but he was kind at the last, and he is dead, and this is
+Florida, where the oranges and palm trees grow. They are there,--see!"
+and she pointed to the right, where a tall palm tree raised its head
+above an orange grove below.
+
+She was beginning to remember, and Eloise and Jack kept silent while she
+went on: "And we are here to find my mother and Jakey."
+
+She looked again at Eloise, who answered her: "To find Jakey,--yes; and
+to-morrow we shall see him. To-night you must rest."
+
+"Yes, rest to-night, and to-morrow go to Jakey," Amy replied, submissive
+as a little child to whatever Eloise bade her do.
+
+She was very tired, and slept soundly without once waking, and her first
+question in the morning was, "Is it to-morrow, and are we in Florida?"
+
+"Yes, dearest, we are in Florida, and going to find Jakey," was Eloise's
+reply, as she kissed her mother's face, and thought how young and fair
+it was still, with scarcely a line upon it.
+
+Only the eyes and the droop of the mouth showed signs of past suffering,
+and these were passing away with a renewal of old scenes and memories.
+Jack had found the Rev. Mr. Mason, who received him cordially.
+
+"I was expecting you," he said. "A telegram from my son told me you were
+on the way. I have not seen Jake, as it was only yesterday I had the
+despatch. I have one piece of news, however, for which I am sorry. Elder
+Covil died in Virginia soon after the war, and nothing can be learned
+from him."
+
+Jack was greatly disappointed. His hope had been to find Elder Covil,
+if living, or some trace of him, and that was swept away; but he would
+not tell Eloise. She was all eagerness and excitement, and was ready
+soon after breakfast for the drive to the palmetto clearing, and Amy
+seemed almost as excited and eager. Born amid palms and orange trees,
+and magnolias and negroes, the sight of them brought back the past in a
+misty kind of way, which was constantly clearing as Eloise helped her to
+remember. Of Mr. Mason she of course had no recollection, and shrank
+from him when presented to him. He did not tell her he had buried her
+mother. He only said he knew Jakey, and was going to take her to him,
+and they were soon on their way. The road was very different from the
+one over which he had been driven behind the white mule, and there were
+marks of improvement everywhere,--gardens and fields and cabins with
+little negroes swarming around the doors, and these, with the palm trees
+and the orange trees, helped to revive Amy's memories of the time when
+she played with the little darkys among the dwarf palmettos and ate
+oranges in the groves.
+
+In the doorway of one of the small houses a colored woman was standing,
+looking at the carriage as it passed. Recognizing Mr. Mason, she gave
+him a hearty "How d'ye, Mas'r Mason?" to which he responded without
+telling his companions that it was Mandy Ann. He wished Amy to see Jake
+first.
+
+"Here we are," he said at last. "This is the clearing; this is the
+house, and there is Jake himself."
+
+He pointed to a negro in the distance, and to a small house,--half log
+and half frame, for Jake had added to and improved it within a few
+years.
+
+"I'se gwine to make it 'spectable, so she won't be 'shamed if she ever
+comes back to see whar she was bawn," he had thought, and to him it
+seemed almost palatial, with its addition, which he called a "linter,"
+and which consisted of a large room furnished with a most heterogeneous
+mass of articles gathered here and there as he could afford them.
+
+Conspicuous in one corner was "lil Dory's cradle," which had been
+painted red, with a lettering in white on one side of it, "In memory of
+lil chile Dory." This he had placed in what he called the parlor that
+morning, after dusting it carefully and putting a fresh pillow case on
+the scanty pillow where Amy's head had lain. He was thinking of her and
+wondering he did not hear from the Colonel, when the sound of carriage
+wheels made him look up and start for his house. Mr. Mason was the first
+to alight; then Jack; then Eloise; and then Amy, whose senses for a
+moment left her entirely.
+
+"What is it? Where are we?" she said, pressing her hands to her
+forehead.
+
+Evidently the place did not impress her, except as something strange.
+
+"Let's go!" she whispered to Eloise. "We've nothing to do here; let's go
+back to the oranges and palmettos."
+
+"But, mother, Jakey is here!" Eloise replied, her eyes fixed upon the
+old man to whom Mr. Mason had been explaining, and whose "Bress de Lawd.
+I feels like havin' de pow', ef I b'lieved in it," she heard distinctly.
+
+Then he came rapidly toward them, and she could see the tears on his
+black face, which was working nervously.
+
+"Miss Dory! Miss Dory! 'Tain't you! Oh, de Lawd,--so growed,--so
+changed! Is it you for shu'?" he said, stretching his hands toward Amy,
+who drew closer to Eloise.
+
+"Go gently, Jake; gently! Remember her mind is weak," Mr. Mason said.
+
+"Yes, sar. I 'members de Harris's mind mostly was weak. Ole Miss didn't
+know nuffin', an' Miss Dory was a little quar, an' dis po' chile is like
+'em," was Jake's reply, which brought a deep flush to Eloise's face.
+
+She had felt her cheeks burning all the time she had been looking round
+on her mother's home, wondering what Jack would think of it. At Jake's
+mention of the Harrises she glanced at him so appealingly, that for
+answer he put his arm around her and whispered, "Keep up, darling, I see
+your mother is waking up."
+
+Jake had taken one of her hands, and was looking in her face as if he
+would find some trace of the "lil chile Dory" who left him years ago.
+And she was scanning him, not quite as if she knew him, but with a
+puzzled, uncertain manner, in which there was now no fear.
+
+"Doan' you know me, Miss Dory? I'm Shaky,--ole Shaky,--what use' to play
+b'ar wid you, an' tote you on his back," he said to her.
+
+"I think I do. Yes. Where's Mandy Ann?" Amy asked.
+
+"She 'members,--she does!" Jake cried, excitedly. "Mandy Ann was de nuss
+girl what looked after her an' ole Miss." Then to Amy he said, "Mandy
+Ann's done grow'd like you, an' got chillen as big as you. Twins, four
+on 'em, as was christened in your gown. Come into de house. You'll
+member then. Come inter de gret room, but fust wait a minit. I seen a
+boy out dar,--Aaron,--one of Mandy Ann's twins, an' I'se gwine to sen'
+for Mandy Ann.
+
+"Hello, you flat-footed chap!" he called. "Make tracks home the fastest
+you ever did, an' tell yer mother to come quick, 'case lil Miss Dory's
+hyar. Run, I say."
+
+The boy Aaron started, and Jake led the way to the door of the "gret
+room," which he threw open with an air of pride.
+
+"Walk in, gemmen an' ladies, walk in," he said, holding Amy's hand.
+
+They walked in, and he led Amy to a lounge and sat down beside her,
+close to the red cradle, to which he called her attention.
+
+"Doan' you 'member it, Miss Dory?" he said, giving it a jog. "I use' ter
+rock yer to sleep wid you kickin' yer heels an' doublin' yer fists, an'
+callin' me ole fool, an' I singin':
+
+    "'Lil chile Dory, Shaky's lil lam',
+      Mudder's gone to heaven,
+      Shaky leff behime
+      To care for lil chile Dory, Shaky's lil lam'.'
+
+Doan' you 'member it, honey,--an' doan' you member me? I'm Shaky,--I
+is."
+
+There was a touching pathos in Jakey's voice as he sang, and it was
+intensified when he asked, "Doan' you 'member me, honey?"
+
+Both Mr. Mason and Jack turned their heads aside to hide the moisture in
+their eyes, while Eloise's tears fell fast as she watched the strange
+pair,--the wrinkled old negro and the white-faced woman, in whom a
+wonderful transformation seemed to be taking place. With the first sound
+of the weird melody and the words "Lil chile Dory, Shaky's lil lam',"
+she leaned forward and seemed to be either listening intently or trying
+to recall something which came and went, and which she threw out her
+hands to retain. As the singing went on the expression of her face
+changed from one of painful thought to one of perfect peace and quiet,
+and when it ceased and Jakey appealed lo her memory, she answered him,
+"Yes, Shaky, I remember." Then to Eloise she said, "The lullaby of my
+childhood, which has rung in my ears for years. He used to want me to
+sing a negro melody to the people, and said it made them cry. That's
+because I wanted to cry, as I do now, and can't. I believe I must have
+sung it that last night in Los Angeles before everything grew dark."
+
+Moving closer to Jakey she laid her head upon his arm and whispered to
+him, "Sing it again, Shaky. The tightness across the top of my head is
+giving way. It has ached so long."
+
+Jake began the song again, his voice more tremulous than before, while
+Amy's hands tightened on his arm, and her head sank lower on his breast.
+As he sang he jogged the cradle with one foot, and kept time with the
+other and a swaying motion of his body, which brought Amy almost across
+his lap. When she lifted up her head there were tears in her eyes, and
+they ran at last like rivers down her cheeks, while a storm of
+hysterical sobs shook her frame and brought Eloise to her.
+
+"Don't cry so," she said. "You frighten me."
+
+Amy put her aside, and answered, "I must cry; it cools my brain. There
+are oceans yet to come,--all the pent-up tears of the years--since he
+told me you were dead. I am so glad to cry."
+
+For some moments she wept on, until Jakey began to soothe her with his
+"Doan' cry no mo', honey. Summat has done happened you bad, but it's
+done gone now, an' we're all here,--me an' I do' know her name, but
+she's you uns, an' Mas'r Mason an' de oder gemman. We're all here, an'
+de light is breakin'. Doan' you feel it, honey?"
+
+"Yes, I feel it," she said, lifting up her head and wiping away her
+tears. "The light is breaking; my head is better. This is the old home.
+How did we get here?"
+
+Her mind was misty still, but Eloise felt a crisis was past, and that in
+time the films which had clouded her mother's brain would clear away,
+not wholly, perhaps, for she was a Harris, and "all the Harrises," Jake
+said, "were quar." She was very quiet now, and listened as they talked,
+but could recall nothing of her mother or the funeral, which Mr. Mason
+had attended. She seemed very tired, and at Eloise's suggestion lay
+clown upon the lounge and soon fell asleep, while Jack put question
+after question to Jake, hoping some light would be thrown upon the
+mystery they had come to unravel.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE LITTLE HAIR TRUNK
+
+
+Jake could tell them but little more than he had told Mr. Mason on a
+former visit. This he repeated with some additions, while Eloise
+listened, sometimes with indignation at Col. Crompton, and sometimes
+with shame and a thought as to what Jack would think of it. Her mother's
+family history was being unrolled before her, and she did not like it.
+There was proud blood in her veins, and she felt it coming to the
+surface and rebelling against the family tree of which she was a
+branch,--the Harrises, the Crackers, and, more than all, the uncertainty
+as to her mother's legitimacy, which she began to fear must remain an
+uncertainty. It was not a very desirable ancestry, and she glanced
+timidly at Jack to see how he was taking it. His face was very placid
+and unmoved as he questioned Jake of the relatives in Georgia, whom
+Amy's mother had visited.
+
+"We must find them," he said. "Do you know anything of them? Were they
+Harrises, or what?"
+
+Jake said they were "Browns an' Crackers; not the real no 'counts.
+Thar's a difference, an' I'm shu' ole Miss Lucy was fust class, 'case
+Miss Dory was a lady bawn."
+
+"Are there no papers anywhere to tell us who they were?" Jack asked, and
+Jake replied, "Thar's papers in de little har trunk whar I keeps de
+writin' book Miss Dory used, an' de book she read in to learn, but dem's
+no 'count. Some receipts an' bills an' some letters ole Mas'r Harris
+writ to Miss Lucy 'fo' they was married,--love letters, in course, which
+I seen Miss Dory tie up wid a white ribbon. I've never opened dem, 'case
+it didn't seem fittin' like to read what a boy writ to a gal."
+
+"Why, Jake," Jack exclaimed, "don't you see those letters may tell us
+where Miss Lucy lived in Georgia? and that is probably where Miss Dory
+visited. Bring us the trunk."
+
+"'Clar for't. I never thought of that," Jake said, rising with alacrity
+and going into the room where he slept.
+
+Mr. Mason, too, stepped out for a few moments, leaving Eloise alone with
+Jack. Now was her time, and, going up to him, she said, "Jack, I want to
+tell you now, you mustn't marry me!"
+
+"Mustn't marry you!" Jack repeated. "Are you crazy?"
+
+"Not yet," Eloise answered with a sob, "but I may be in time, or queer,
+like all the Harrises,--mother and her mother and 'old Miss.' We are all
+Harrises, and,--and,--oh, Jack, I know what a Cracker is now; mother is
+one; I am one, and it is all so dreadful; and mother nobody, perhaps. I
+can't bear it, and you must not marry me."
+
+"I shall marry you," Jack said, folding her in his arms. "Do you think I
+care who your family are, or how queer they are? You'll never be queer.
+I'll shield you so carefully from every care that you can't even spell
+the word."
+
+He took her hands and made her look at him, while he kissed her lips
+and said, "It is you I want, with all the Harrises and Crackers in
+Christendom thrown in, if necessary. Are you satisfied?"
+
+He knew she was, and was kissing her again when Jake appeared with the
+trunk, which he said had held Miss Dory's clothes when she went to
+Georgia. There was a musty odor about it when he opened it, and the few
+papers inside were yellow with age.
+
+"Dis yer is de reader Miss Dory use' to go over so much," Jake said,
+handing the book to Eloise, who turned its worn pages reverently, as if
+touching the hands of the dead girl, who, Jake said, "had rassled with
+the big words an' de no 'count pieces. She liked de po'try, an' got by
+heart 'bout de boy on de burnin' deck, but de breakin' waves floo'd her,
+'case 'twan't no story like Cassy-by-anker."
+
+He pointed the latter poem out to Eloise, who said, "Will you give me
+this book?"
+
+Jake hesitated before he replied, "He wanted it, the Colonel, an' I tole
+him no, but you're different. I'll think about it."
+
+Mr. Mason had returned by this time, and with Jack was looking at the
+bundle of letters tied with a satin ribbon which Jake said Miss Dory had
+taken from her white dress, the one he believed she was married in, as
+it was her bestest. There were four letters and a paper which did not
+seem to be a letter, and which slipped to the floor at Eloise's feet as
+Jack untied the ribbon. There was also a small envelope containing a
+card with "James Crompton" upon it, the one Mandy Ann had carried her
+mistress on a china plate, and which poor Dora had kept as a souvenir of
+that visit. With the card were the remains of what must have been a
+beautiful rose. The petals were brown and crumbling to dust, but still
+gave out a faint perfume, which Eloise detected. While she was looking
+at these mementos of a past, Jack was running his eyes over the almost
+illegible directions on the letters, making out "Miss Lucy Brown,
+Atlanta, Ga."
+
+"That doesn't help us much," he said to Mr. Mason. "Brown is a common
+name, and the Atlanta before the war was not like the Atlanta of
+to-day."
+
+"Perhaps something inside will give a cue," Mr. Mason suggested, and
+Jack opened one of the letters carefully, for it was nearly torn apart.
+
+The spelling was bad and the writing was bad, but it rang true with a
+young man's love for the girl of his choice, and it seemed to Jack like
+sacrilege to read it. Very hurriedly he went through the four letters,
+finding nothing to guide him but "Atlanta," and a few names of people
+who must have been living in the vicinity.
+
+"Here's another," Eloise said, passing him the paper which she had
+picked from the floor.
+
+Jack took it, and opening it, glanced at the contents. Then, with a cry
+of "Eureka!" he began a sort of pirouette, while Eloise and Mr. Mason
+wondered if he, too, had gone quar, like the Harrises.
+
+"It's the marriage certificate," he said, sobering down at last, and
+reading aloud that at the Hardy Plantation, Fulton County, Georgia, on
+December--, 18--, the Rev. John Covil united in marriage James Crompton,
+of Troutburg, Massachusetts, and Miss Eudora Harris, of Volucia County,
+Florida.
+
+Upon no one did the finding of this certificate produce so miraculous an
+effect as upon Jake.
+
+"Fo' de Lawd!" he exclaimed, "I feels as if I mus' have de pow',--what
+I hain't had since I jined de 'Piscopals. To think dat ar was lyin' in
+thar all dis time, an' I not know it. I 'members now dat Elder Covil
+comed hyar oncet after the lil chile was bawn, to see Miss Dory, an' I
+seen him write a paper an' give it to her, an' she put it in her bosom.
+I axed no questions, but I know now 'twas this. The Cunnel tole her not
+to tell, an' if she said she wouldn't, she wouldn't. Dat's like de
+Harrises,--dey's mighty quar, stickin' to dar word till they die like
+that Cassy-by-anker on de burnin' ship. Glory to God, glory! I mus'
+shout, I mus' hurrah. Glory!"
+
+He went careering round the room like one mad, knocking over a chair,
+waking up Amy, and bringing her to the scene of action.
+
+"Bress de Lawd!" he said, taking her by the arm and giving her a whirl,
+"we've done foun' your mudder's stifficut in de letters whar she put it
+an' tied 'em wid her weddin' ribbon. Glory hollerluyer!"
+
+Amy looked frightened, and when Eloise explained to her she did not seem
+as much impressed as the others. Her mind had grasped Jake and the old
+home, and could not then take in much more. Still, in a way she
+understood, and when Eloise said to her, "Col. Crompton was really your
+father,--married to your mother,--and you were Amy Crompton, and not
+Harris," she said, "I am glad, and wish he knew. He used to taunt me
+with my low birth and call me a Cracker. When are we going home?"
+
+Her mind had reverted at once to Crompton Place, now hers in reality,
+although she probably did not think of that.
+
+"I am very glad, and congratulate you that Crompton Place is your home
+without a doubt," Jack said to her. Then, turning to Eloise, he
+continued, in a low tone, "I can't tell you how glad I am for you,
+provided you don't feel so high and mighty that you want to cast me
+off."
+
+"Oh, Jack," Eloise replied, "don't talk such nonsense. I am still of the
+Harris blood and part Cracker, and maybe quar. If you can stand that I
+think I can stand you."
+
+At this point there was the sound of hurrying feet outside, and a
+woman's voice was heard saying, "Now, mind your manners, or you'll cotch
+it." Then four woolly heads were thrust in at the door and with them was
+Mandy Ann.
+
+"Hyar she comes wid de fo' twins," Jake said, going forward to meet her.
+"Mandy Ann," he began, "hyar's de lil chile Dory. Miss Amy they done
+call her. Would you know'd her?"
+
+"Know'd her? I reckon so,--anywhar in de dark. Praise de Lawd, an' now
+let His servant 'part in peace, 'case my eyes has seen de lil chile
+oncet mo'," Mandy Ann exclaimed, going up to Amy and putting her hands
+on her shoulders.
+
+"She's 'peatin' some o' de chant in de Pra'r Book. Mandy Ann is mighty
+pious, she is," Jake said in a low tone, while Amy drew back a little,
+and looked timidly at the tall negress calling her lil chile Dory.
+
+"Mandy Ann wasn't so big," she said, turning to the twins, Alex and
+Aaron, Judy and Dory, who brought the past back more vividly when Mandy
+Ann was about their size.
+
+A look of inquiry passed from Mandy Ann to Jake, who touched his
+forehead, while Mandy whispered, "Quar, like ole Miss an' all of 'em.
+Oh, de pity of it! What happened her?" Then to Amy she said, with all
+the motherhood of her ten children in her voice, "Doan' you 'member me,
+Mandy Ann, what use' to dress you in de mornin', an' comb yer har, an'
+wass yer face?"
+
+"Up, instead of down," Amy said quickly, while everybody laughed instead
+of herself.
+
+"To be shu'," Mandy Ann rejoined. "I reckon I did sometimes wass up
+'sted of down. I couldn't help it, 'case you's gen'rally pullin' an'
+haulin' an' kickin' me to git away, but you 'members me, an' Judy, wid
+dis kind of face?"
+
+She touched her eyes and nose and mouth to show where Judy's features
+were marked with ink, and then Amy laughed, and as if the mention of
+Judy took her back to the vernacular of her childhood, she said, "Oh,
+yes, I done 'members Judy. Whar is she?"
+
+This lapse of her mother into negro dialect was more dreadful to Eloise
+than anything which had gone before, but Mr. Mason, who read her concern
+in her face, said to her, "It's all right, and shows she is taking up
+the tangled threads."
+
+No one present knew of Judy's sale at the Rummage, and no one could
+reply to the question, "Whar is she?" Amy forgot it in a moment in her
+interest in the twins, whom Mandy presented one after another, saying,
+"I've six mo' grow'd up, some on 'em, an' one is married, 'case I'se
+old,--I'se fifty-three, an' you's about forty."
+
+To this Amy paid no attention. She was still absorbed with the twins,
+who, Mandy Ann told her, had worn her white frock at their christening.
+Mandy Ann had not yet heard of the finding of the marriage certificate,
+and when Jake told her she did not seem greatly surprised.
+
+"I allus knew she was married, without a stifficut," she said. "I
+b'lieved it the fust time he come befo' lil Miss Dory was bawn."
+
+"Tell me about his coming," Eloise said, and Mandy Ann, who liked
+nothing better than to talk, began at the beginning, and told every
+particular of the first visit, when Miss Dora wore the white gown she
+was married in and buried in, and the rose on her bosom. "And you think
+this is it?" Eloise asked, holding carefully in a bit of paper the ashes
+of what had once been a rose.
+
+"I 'clar for't, yes," Mandy said, "I seen her put it somewhar with the
+card he done gin me. You'se found it?"
+
+Eloise nodded and held fast to the relics of a past which in this way
+was linking itself to the present. "Tell us of the second time, when he
+took mother," Eloise suggested, and here Mandy Ann was very eloquent,
+describing everything in detail, repeating much which Jake had told,
+telling of the ring,--a real stone, sent her from Savannah, and which
+she had given her daughter as it was too small for her now. From a
+drawer in the chamber above she brought a little white dress, stiff with
+starch and yellow and tender with time, which she said "lil Miss Dory
+wore when she first saw her father."
+
+This Eloise seized at once, saying, "You will let me have it as
+something which belonged to mother far back."
+
+Mandy Ann looked doubtful. There would probably be grandchildren, and
+Jake's scruples might be overcome and the white gown do duty again as a
+christening robe. But Jake spoke up promptly.
+
+"In course it's your'n, an' de book, too, if you wants it, though it's
+like takin' a piece of de ole times. Strange Miss Dora don't pay no
+'tention, but is so wropp'd up in dem twins. 'Specs it seems like when
+de little darkys use' to play wid her," he continued, looking at Amy,
+who, if she heard what Mandy Ann was saying, gave no sign, but seemed,
+as Jake said, "wropp'd up" in the twins.
+
+There was not much more for Mandy Ann to tell of the Colonel, except to
+speak of the money he had sent to her and Jake, proving that he was not
+"the wustest man in the world, if she did cuss him kneeling on Miss
+Dory's grave the night after the burial." She spoke of that and of "ole
+Miss Thomas, who was the last to _gin in_," and wouldn't have done it
+then but for the ring on her finger. At this point Jake, who thought she
+had told enough, said to her, "Hole on a spell. Your tongue is like a
+mill wheel when it starts. Thar's some things you or'to keep to your
+self. Ole man Crompton is dead, an' God is takin' keer of him. He knows
+all the good thar was at the last, an' I 'specs thar was a heap."
+
+By this time Amy had tired of the twins, who had fingered her rings and
+buttons, and stroked her dress and hair, and called her a pretty lady,
+and asked her on the sly for a nickel. She was getting restless, when
+Jakey said, "If you'd like to see your mudder's grave, come wid me."
+
+From the house to the enclosure where the Harrises were buried he had
+made a narrow road, beside which eucalyptus trees and oleanders were
+growing, and along this walk the party followed him to Eudora's grave.
+
+"I can have 'Crompton' put hyar now that I am shu'," Jake said, pointing
+to the vacant space after Eudora. "I wish dar was room for 'belobed wife
+of Cunnel Crompton.' I reckons, though, she wasn't 'belobed,' or why was
+he so dogon mean to her?" he added, kneeling by the grave and picking a
+dead leaf and bud which his quick eye had detected amid the bloom.
+"Couldn't you done drap a tear 'case your mother is lyin' here?" he said
+to Amy, who shook her head.
+
+The dead mother was not as real to her as the living Jake, to whom she
+said, "As you talk to me I remember something of her, and people making
+a noise. But it is long ago, and much has happened since. I can't cry.
+Is it wrong?"
+
+She looked at Eloise, who replied, "No, darling; you have cried enough
+for one day. Some time we will come here again, and you'll remember
+more. Let us go."
+
+"What is your plan now?" Mr. Mason asked Jack when, after a half hour
+spent with Jake, they were driving back to the Brock House.
+
+"I have been thinking," Jack replied, "that I will leave the ladies for
+a few days at the hotel, while I go to Palatka and Atlanta, and see if
+anything can be learned of the Browns, or Harrises, or the Hardy
+plantation, where the marriage took place. I wish to get all the facts I
+can, although the certificate should be sufficient to establish Mrs.
+Amy's right to the estate. I don't think she realizes her position, as
+heir to the finest property in Crompton."
+
+She didn't realize it at all, but was very willing to stay at the Brock
+House with Eloise, while Jack went to Palatka and Atlanta to see what he
+could find. It was not much. Tom Hardy had been killed in the war, and
+had left no family. This he was told in Palatka. In Atlanta he learned
+that before the war there had been a plantation near the city owned by a
+Hardy family, all of whom were dead or had disappeared. There were
+Browns in plenty in the Directory, and Jack saw them all, but none had
+any connection with the Harrises. At last he struck an old negress, who
+had belonged to the Hardys, and who remembered a double wedding at the
+plantation years before, and who said that an Andrew Jackson Brown, who
+must have been present, as he was a son of the house, was living in
+Boston, and was a conductor of a street car. With this information as
+the result of his search Jack went back to Enterprise, where he found
+Amy greatly improved in mind and body. Every day Jake and Mandy Ann had
+been to see her, or with Eloise she had driven to the clearing, where
+her dormant faculties continued to awaken with the familiar objects of
+her childhood. Many people and much talking still bewildered her, and
+her memory was treacherous on many points, but to a stranger who knew
+nothing of her history she seemed a quiet, sane woman, "not a bit quar,"
+Eloise said to Jack as she welcomed him back. "And I believe she will
+continue to improve when we get her home, away from the people who talk
+to her so much and confuse her. When can we go?"
+
+"To-morrow, if you like," Jack said, and the next day they left
+Enterprise, after bidding an affectionate good-by to Mandy Ann, with
+whom they left a substantial remembrance of their visit.
+
+Amy would have liked to take the twins with her, but Eloise said, "Not
+yet, mother; wait and see, and perhaps they will all come later."
+
+It was sure that Jakey was to follow them soon and spend as much time
+with them as he pleased.
+
+"Stay always, if you will. We owe you everything," Eloise said to him,
+when at parting he stood on the platform with his "God bress you, Mas'r
+Harcourt an' Miss Amy, an' Miss t'other one," until the train was out of
+sight.
+
+They made the journey by easy stages, for Amy was worn with excitement,
+and it was a week after leaving Florida when a telegram was received at
+the Crompton House saying they would arrive that evening.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+WHAT HOWARD FOUND
+
+
+Jack had sent Howard a postal on the road to Florida, and a few lines
+from Enterprise on the day of their arrival. Since that time he had been
+so busy that he had failed to write, thinking he could tell the news so
+much better, and Howard argued from his silence that the errand had been
+unsuccessful. Crompton Place was undoubtedly his, and still he had not
+been altogether happy in his role as heir. The servants had been very
+respectful; people had treated him with deference; trades-people had
+sought his patronage; subscription papers had poured in upon him from
+all quarters, and in many ways he was made to feel that he was really
+Crompton of Crompton, with a prospective income of many thousands. He
+had gone over his uncle's papers, and knew exactly what he was worth,
+and when his dividends and rents were due. He was a rich man, unless
+they found something unexpected in Florida, and he did not believe they
+would. It seemed impossible that if there were a marriage it should have
+been kept secret so long. "My uncle would certainly have told it at the
+last and not left a stain on Amy," he said to himself again and again,
+and nearly succeeded in making himself believe that he had a right to be
+where he was,--his uncle's heir and head of the house. Why no provision
+was made for Amy he could not imagine. "But it will make no difference,"
+he said; "I shall provide for her and Eloise."
+
+At the thought of her his heart gave a great throb, for she was dearer
+to him than he had supposed. "I believe I'd give up Crompton if I could
+win her," he thought, "but that cannot be; Jack is the lucky fellow,"
+and then he began to calculate how much he would give Amy out and out.
+"She can live here, of course, if she will, but she must have something
+of her own. Will twenty thousand be enough, or too much?" he said, and
+from the sum total of the estate he subtracted twenty thousand dollars,
+with so large a remainder that he decided to give her that amount in
+bonds and mortgages, which would cause her as little trouble as
+possible. There were some government bonds in a private drawer, through
+which he had searched for a will. He would have a look at them and see
+which were the more desirable for Amy. He had been through that drawer
+three or four times, and there was no thought of the will now as he
+opened it, wondering that it came so hard, as if something were binding
+on the top or side. It shut harder, or, rather, it didn't shut at all,
+and with a jerk he pulled it out to see what was the matter. As he did
+so a folded sheet of foolscap, which had been lodged between the drawer
+and the side of the desk, fell to the floor. With a presentiment of the
+truth Howard took it up and read, "THE LAST WILL AND CONFESSION OF JAMES
+CROMPTON!"
+
+It had come at last, and, unfolding the sheet, Howard began to read,
+glancing first at the date, which was a few weeks after Amy came from
+California.
+
+"KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS," it began, "that I, JAMES CROMPTON, am
+a coward and a sneak and a villain, and have lived a lie for forty
+years, hiding a secret I was too proud to divulge at first, and which
+grew harder and harder to tell as time went on and people held me so
+high as the soul of honor and rectitude. Honor! There isn't a hair of it
+on my head! I broke the heart of an innocent girl, and left her to die
+alone. AMY EUDORA SMITH is my own daughter, the lawful child of my
+marriage with EUDORA HARRIS, which took place December--, 18--, on the
+Hardy Plantation, Fulton County, in Georgia, several miles from
+Atlanta."
+
+Up to this point Howard had been standing, but now the floor seemed to
+rise up and strike him in the face. Sitting down in the nearest chair,
+he breathed hard for a moment, and then went on with what the Colonel
+called his CONFESSION, which he had not had courage to make verbally
+while living.
+
+When in college he had for his room-mate Tom Hardy from Atlanta. The two
+were fast friends, and when the Colonel was invited to visit Georgia he
+did so gladly. Some miles from the town was the plantation owned by the
+Hardys. This the Colonel visited in company with his friend. A small
+log-house on a part of the farm was rented to a Mr. Brown, a perfectly
+respectable man, but ignorant and coarse. His family consisted of
+himself and wife and son, and daughter Mary, a pretty girl of twenty,
+and a cousin from Florida, Eudora Harris, a beautiful girl of sixteen,
+wholly uneducated and shy as a bird. There was about her a wonderful
+fascination for the Colonel, who went with his friend several times to
+the Brown's, and mixed with them familiarly for the sake of the girl
+whose eyes welcomed him so gladly, and in which he at last read
+unmistakable signs of love for himself, while the broad jokes of her
+friends warned him of his danger. Then his calls ceased, for nothing was
+further from his thought than marriage with Eudora. At last there came
+to him and Tom a badly written and spelled invitation to Mary's wedding,
+which was to take place on the afternoon of the nineteenth day of
+December, 18--.
+
+"Let's go; there'll be no end of fun," Tom said, but when the day came
+he was ill in bed with influenza, and the Colonel went without him,
+reaching the house just as the family were taking a hasty lunch,
+preparatory to the feast which was to follow the wedding.
+
+"I sat down with them," the Colonel wrote, "and made myself one of them,
+and drank vile whiskey and home-made wine until my head began to feel as
+big as two heads, and I do not think I knew what I was about. As bad
+luck would have it, the man who was to stand with Eudora as groomsman
+failed to come, and I was asked to take his place.
+
+"'Certainly, I am ready for anything,' I said, and my voice sounded
+husky and unnatural, and I wondered what ailed me.
+
+"'Then, s'posin' you and Dory get spliced, and we'll have a double
+weddin'. You have sparked it long enough, and we don't stand foolin'
+here,' Mr. Brown said to me, in a half-laughing, half-threatening tone.
+
+"I looked at Eudora, and her beautiful eyes were shining upon me with a
+look which made my pulses quicken as they never had before. I don't know
+what demon possessed me, unless it were the demon of the whiskey punch,
+of which I had drank far too much, and which prompted me to say, 'All
+right, if Eudora is willing.'
+
+"To do her justice, she hesitated a moment, but when I kissed her she
+yielded, and with the touch of her lips there came over me a feeling I
+mistook for love, and everything was forgotten except the girl. Elder
+Covil performed the double ceremony, and looked questioningly at me, as
+if doubtful whether I were in my right mind or not. I thought I was, and
+felt extremely happy, until I woke to what I had done, and from which
+there was no escape. I was bound to a girl whose sweet disposition and
+great beauty were her only attractions, and whose environments made me
+shudder. I could not bring her to Crompton Place and introduce her to my
+friends, and I did not know what to do.
+
+"Tom was furious when he heard of it, and suggested suicide and divorce,
+and everything else that was bad. But Dora's eyes held me for two weeks,
+and then I became so disillusionized and so sick of my surroundings,
+that I was nearly ready to follow Tom's advice and blow out my brains.
+
+"'If you won't kill yourself,' he said, 'send the girl home to Florida,
+and leave her there till you make up your mind what to do. There must be
+some way to untie that knot. If not, you are in for it.'
+
+"I sent her home, and after two or three weeks, during which Tom and I
+revolved a hundred plans, I decided on one, and went to see her in her
+home--and such a home! A log-house in a palmetto clearing, with a
+foolish old grandmother who did not know enough to ask or care what I
+was to Eudora. I could not endure it, and I told Eudora how impossible
+it was for me to take her North until she had some education and
+knowledge of the world. I would leave her, I said, until I could decide
+upon a school to which I would send her, and, as it would be absurd for
+a married woman to be attending school, she was to retain her maiden
+name of Harris, and tell no one of our marriage until I gave her
+permission to do so. I think she would have jumped into the river at my
+bidding, and she promised all that I required.
+
+"'I shall never tell I am your wife until you say I may,' she said to me
+when I left her, but there was a look in her eyes like that I once saw
+in a pet dog I had shot, and which in dying licked my hands.
+
+"Through Tom Hardy, who left Atlanta for Palatka, I sent her money
+regularly and wrote occasionally, while she replied through the same
+medium. Loving, pitiful letters they were, and would have moved the
+heart of any man who was not a brute and steeped to the dregs in pride
+and cowardice. I burned them as soon as I read them, for fear they might
+be found. I told her to do the same with mine, and have no doubt she
+did. I did mean fair about the school, and was making inquiries, slowly,
+it is true, as my heart was not in it, and I had nearly decided upon
+Lexington, Kentucky, when the birth of a little girl changed everything,
+but did not reconcile me to the situation. I never cared for
+children,--disliked them rather than otherwise,--and the fact that I was
+a father did not move me a whit.
+
+"There was a letter imploring me to come and see our baby, and I
+promised to go, with a vague idea that I might some time keep my word.
+But I didn't. I had no love for Eudora, none for the child; and still a
+thought of it haunted me continually, and was the cause of my giving the
+grounds and the school-house to the town. I wanted to expiate my sin,
+and at the same time increase my popularity, for at that time I was
+trying to make up my mind to acknowledge my marriage and bring Eudora
+home. The poor girl never knew it, for on the day of the lawn party she
+was buried. Tom Hardy wrote me she was dead, and that he was about
+starting for Europe, and had given Jake, a faithful servant of the
+family, my address. God knows my remorse when I heard it, and still I
+put off going for the child until Jake wrote me that the grandmother,
+too, had died, and added that it was not fitting for the little girl to
+be brought up with Crackers and negroes. He did not know that I had
+heard of Eudora's death from Tom, and was waiting for--I did not know
+what, unless it was to hear from him personally. There was more
+manliness in that negro's nature than in mine, and I knew it, and was
+ashamed of myself, and went for my daughter and stood by my wife's
+grave, and heard from Jake the story of her life, and knew she had kept
+her promise and never opened her lips, except to say that 'it was all
+right.'
+
+"The people believed her for the most part, and anathematized the
+unknown man who had deserted her, but they could not heap upon me all
+the odium I deserved. Why the story has never reached here I hardly
+know, except that intercourse between the North and the extreme South
+was not as easy as it is now, and then the war swept off Tom Hardy and
+most likely all who knew of the marriage.
+
+"When I brought Amy home I was too proud to acknowledge her as my
+daughter. The Harrises and the palmetto clearing stood in the way, and I
+let people think what they chose, hating myself with an added hatred for
+allowing a stain to rest on her birth. I was fond of her in a way, and
+angry when she married Candida, who died in Rome. Then she married a
+Smith, who took her round the country to sing in concerts, until her
+mind gave way, when he put her in a private asylum in San Francisco. I
+was very proud of her, and loved her more than she ever knew, but could
+not confess my relationship to her. When she married Candida I cast her
+off. She must have some of my spirit, for she never came begging for
+favors. Her rascally second husband wrote once for money, but I shut him
+up so that he never wrote again, and the next I heard was a message from
+Santa Barbara, where he died, and where, before he died, he had bidden
+his physician to write to me that his wife was in an asylum in San
+Francisco. I found her and brought her home, shattered in health and in
+mind, but I think she will recover. If she does before I die, I have
+sworn to tell her the truth, and will do it, so help me God!
+
+"She has at times spoken of a baby who died,--Smith's probably, and I
+hated him and did not care for his child. I have thought to make my
+will, but would rather write this confession, which will explain things
+and put Amy right as my heir. I have, however, one request to make to
+her, or those who attend to her affairs. I want my nephew, Howard, to
+have twenty thousand dollars,--enough for any young man to start on if
+there is any get-up in him, and Howard has considerable.
+
+"Written by me and signed this -- day of July, 18--, the anniversary of
+Eudora's funeral and the big picnic on my grounds.
+
+"JAMES M. CROMPTON."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+HOWARD'S TEMPTATION
+
+
+Howard did not know how long it took him to read this paper. It seemed
+to him an age, and when it was read he felt as if turning into stone.
+There was a fire in the grate before which he sat, and something said to
+him, "Burn it," so distinctly, that he looked over his shoulder to see
+who was there. "It's the devil," he thought, and his hand went toward
+the flame, then drew back quickly. He knew now what his uncle had tried
+so hard to tell them, and remembered how often his eyes had turned in
+the direction of the private drawer. He had put his confession there,
+and it had become wedged in and was out of sight, until frequent opening
+and shutting the drawer had brought it into view. He read the document
+again, and felt the perspiration oozing out of every pore. The twenty
+thousand recommended for him made him laugh, as he thought that was the
+sum he had intended for Amy, and which looked very small for his own
+needs. "Six times two are twelve," he said, calculating the interest at
+six per cent. "Twelve hundred a year is not much when one expected as
+many thousands. I believe I'll burn it!" and again the paper was held so
+near the fire that a corner of it was scorched.
+
+"I can't do it," he said, drawing it back a second time. "It would do
+no good, either, if they find out in Florida. I don't see, though, how
+they can, and if they have, Jack would have written, but I can't burn it
+yet. I must think a while."
+
+He put the paper aside, and, without his overcoat, went out into the
+cold, sleety rain, which was falling heavily. It chilled him at once,
+but he did not think of it as he went through the grounds and gardens
+and fields of the Crompton Place, where everything was in perfect order
+and bespoke the wealth of the owner. It was a fair heritage, and he
+could not give it up without a pang. He never knew how many miles he
+walked back and forth across the fields and through the woods. Nor did
+he know that he was cold, until he returned to the house with drenched
+garments and a chill which he felt to his bones. He had taken a heavy
+cold, and staid in-doors the next morning, shivering before the grate,
+which he told Peter to heap with coal until it was hot as--. He didn't
+finish the sentence, but added, "I'm infernally cold,--influenza, I
+reckon, but I won't have any nostrums brought to me. All I want is a
+good fire."
+
+Peter heaped up the fire until the room seemed to him like a furnace,
+and then left the young man alone with his thoughts and his temptation,
+which was assailing him a second time, stronger than before. He firmly
+believed the devil was there, urging him to burn the paper, and held
+several spirited conversations with him, pro and con, the cons finally
+gaining the victory.
+
+Late in the afternoon Jack's telegram was brought to him. "We'll be home
+this evening."
+
+"That means seven o'clock, and dinner at halfpast seven," he said to
+Peter. "Send Sam with the carriage, and see that there are fires in
+their rooms."
+
+He had given his orders and then sat down to decide what he would do.
+
+"I know the Old Harry is here with me, but his company is better than
+none," he said, wishing he had a shawl, he was so cold, with the room at
+90 degrees.
+
+The short day drew to a close. Peter came in and lighted the gas, and
+put more coal on the grate, and said Sam had gone to the station. Half
+an hour later Howard heard the whistle of the train, and then the sound
+of wheels coming up the avenue.
+
+"Now or never!" was whispered in his ear, and his hand, with the paper
+in it, went toward the fire.
+
+There was a fierce struggle, and Howard felt that he was really fighting
+with an unseen foe; then his hand came back with the paper in it, safe
+except for a second scorch on one side.
+
+"By the great eternal, it is never! I swear it!" he said, as his arm
+dropped beside him and the paper fell to the floor.
+
+There was a sound below of people entering the house. They had come, and
+he heard Eloise's voice as she passed his door on her way to her room
+with Amy. Was Jack there too? he was wondering--when Jack came in, gay
+and breezy, but startled when he met the woe-begone face turned toward
+him.
+
+"By George! old man," he said, "Peter told me you were shut up with a
+cold, but I didn't expect this. Why, you look like a ghost, and are
+sweating like a butcher, and no wonder. The thermometer must be a
+hundred. What's the matter?"
+
+"Jack," Howard said, "for forty-eight hours I have had a hand-to-hand
+tussle with the devil. He was here bodily, as much as you are, but I
+beat him, and swore I wouldn't burn the paper. Read it!"
+
+He pointed to it upon the floor at his feet.
+
+"I had it pretty near the fire twice, and singed it some," he continued,
+as Jack took it up, and, glancing at the first words, exclaimed, "A
+will! You found one, then?"
+
+"Not a regularly attested will, but answers every purpose," Howard
+replied, while Jack read on with lightning rapidity, understanding much
+that was dark before, and guessing in part what it was to Howard to have
+all his hopes swept away.
+
+"By Jove!" he said, as he finished reading, "there was good in the old
+man after all. I didn't think so when I heard Jakey's story, and saw
+where his wife lived and died. We found the marriage certificate."
+
+"You did!" Howard exclaimed, a great gladness that he had not destroyed
+the paper taking possession of him. "Why didn't you write and tell me?
+It would have saved me that fight with the devil."
+
+"I don't know why I didn't," Jack replied. "I was awfully busy, and went
+at once to Palatka to see if Tom Hardy left any family there, and found
+he was never married. Then I went to Atlanta to find some trace of the
+Browns and the Hardy plantation. The latter had been sold, the Hardys
+were all gone, and the Browns, too,--killed in the war, most likely,
+except one who is a street-car conductor in Boston, and I am going to
+hunt him up, as I believe he was at the wedding, although he must have
+been quite young. Yes, I ought to have written, and I'm sorry for you,
+upon my soul. You look as if you'd had a taste of the infernal regions.
+I'm glad you didn't burn it."
+
+He took Howard's hand and held it, while he told him, very briefly, the
+circumstances of their finding the certificate, of whose existence Col.
+Crompton could not have known. "And, Howard," he added, "I've something
+else to tell you. Eloise is to be my wife. We settled it in the train
+before I knew she was a great heiress. Can't you congratulate me?" he
+asked, as Howard did not speak.
+
+"I expected it. You've got everything,--money and girl, too," Howard
+said at last. "You are a lucky dog, and, whether you believe me or not,
+I'd rather have the girl than the money. I asked her to marry me. Did
+she tell you?"
+
+"Of course not," Jack replied, and Howard went on, "Well, I did, and
+kissed her, too!"
+
+"Did she kiss you?" Jack asked a little sharply, and Howard replied,
+"No, sir; she was madder than a hatter; you've no cause to be jealous."
+
+"All right," Jack answered, his brow clearing. "All right. I'm more
+sorry for you now than I was before. I didn't know you really cared for
+her that way; but, I say, aren't you coming to dinner? The bell has rung
+twice, and I still in my travelling clothes and you in your
+dressing-gown."
+
+Howard shook his head. "Don't you see, I am sick with an infernal cold,"
+he said. "Got it tramping in the rain without my overcoat, and that
+fight I told you of has unstrung me. It was a regular battle. But you go
+yourself, and perhaps Eloise will come to see me. I shall show her the
+Colonel's confession, and she can do as she pleases about telling her
+mother."
+
+Jack left him and went to the dinner, which had been kept waiting some
+time, and at which Amy did not appear. She had gone at once to bed,
+Eloise explained, when she took her seat at the table with Jack. When
+told of Howard's message, she said, "Of course I'll go to him," and half
+an hour later she was in his room, and greatly shocked at his white,
+haggard face, which indicated more than the cold of which he complained.
+He did not tell her of his temptation. It was not necessary. He
+congratulated her upon her success, and upon her engagement, of which
+Jack had told him. Then he gave her the paper he had found, and watched
+her as she read it, sometimes with flashes of indignation upon her face,
+and again with tears of pity in her eyes.
+
+"He was a bad man," she said, with great energy, and then added, "A good
+one, too, in some respects, although I cannot understand the pride which
+made him such a coward."
+
+"I can," Howard rejoined. "It's the Crompton pride, stronger than life
+itself. I know, for I am a Crompton. You, probably, are more Harris than
+Crompton, and do not feel so deeply."
+
+He did not mean to reflect upon her mother's family, but Eloise's face
+was very red as she said, "The Harrises and Browns are not people to be
+proud of, I know, but they were as honest, perhaps, as the Cromptons,
+and they are mine, and if they all came here to-night I would not disown
+them."
+
+She looked every inch a Crompton as she spoke, and Howard laughed and
+said, "Good for you, little cousin; I believe you would, and if Jack
+finds the conductor in Boston, I dare say you will have him at your
+wedding. When is it to be?"
+
+"Just as soon as arrangements can be made," Jack replied, coming in in
+time to hear the last of Howard's remark, "and, of course, we'll have
+the street conductor if he will come. I start to-morrow to find him."
+
+He took an early train the next morning for Boston, and two days after
+he wrote to Eloise: "I believe there are a million street cars in the
+city and fifty conductors by the name of Brown. Fortunately, however,
+there is only one Andrew Jackson, or Andy, as they call him, and I found
+him on one of the suburban trains, rather old to be a conductor, but
+seemed young for his years. He is your grandmother's cousin, and was
+present at the double wedding, when Eudora Harris was married by Elder
+Covil to James Crompton, 'a mighty proud-lookin' chap,' he said, 'who
+deserted her in less than a month. I remember him well. Pop threatened
+to shoot him if he ever cotched him, but the wah broke out and pop was
+killed, and all of us but me, who married a little Yankee girl what
+brought things to us prisoners in Washington. She's right smart younger
+than I am, and I've got eight children and five grandchildren, peart and
+lively as rabbits. And you want me to swear that I seen Eudory married?
+Wall, I will, for I did, and I'd like to see her girl--Amy you call her.
+Mabby Mary Jane an' me will come to visit her when I have a spell off.'
+
+"All this he said in a breath, and when I told him I was to marry Amy's
+daughter, he called me his cousin, and asked when the wedding was to be.
+If it had not been for those eight children and five grandchildren,
+thirteen Browns in all, which I felt sure he would bring with him, I
+should have promised him and Mary Jane an invitation. As it was, I did
+nothing rash. I got his affidavit, and we parted the best of friends, he
+urging me to call at his shanty and see Mary Jane and the kids. I had to
+decline, but told him perhaps I'd bring my wife to see them. What do you
+say? Expect me to-morrow.
+
+"Lovingly,
+
+"JACK."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+It did not take long for all Crompton to know that Amy was Col.
+Crompton's daughter, and that the Colonel had left a paper to that
+effect, which Mr. Howard had found, and that Eloise had also found the
+marriage certificate, proving her mother's legitimacy beyond a doubt,
+and making her sole heir to the Crompton estate. It was Friday night
+when the travellers returned from the South, and on Saturday morning,
+Mrs. Biggs's washing day, she heard the news. Leaving her clothes in the
+suds, and her tubs of rinsing and bluing water upon the floor, she
+started for the Crompton House, which she reached breathless with haste
+and excitement, and eager to congratulate Amy and Eloise.
+
+"I swan, it 'most seem's if I was your relation," she said, shaking
+Eloise's hand, and telling her she always mistrusted she was somebody
+more than common, "and I hope we shall be neighborly. I s'pose you'll
+live here?"
+
+Eloise received her graciously, and said she should never forget her
+kindness, and told her some incidents of her journey, and, as Mrs. Biggs
+reported to Tim, "treated me as if I was just as good as she, if she is
+a Crompton."
+
+Ruby Ann came later in the day, genuinely glad for Eloise, and sure
+that nothing would ever change the young girl's friendship for herself,
+no matter what her position might be. Many others called that day and
+the following Monday, and Eloise received them with a dignity of which
+she was herself unconscious, and which they charged to the Crompton
+blood. Howard, who was still suffering from a severe cold, kept his room
+until Jack returned. Then he came out with a feeling of humiliation, not
+so much that he had lost the estate, as that he had thought to burn the
+paper which took it from him. This feeling, however, gradually wore off
+under Jack's geniality and Eloise's friendliness, and Amy's sweetness of
+manner as she called him Cousin Howard, and said she hoped he would look
+upon Crompton as his home. Then he was to have twenty thousand dollars
+when matters were adjusted, and that was something to one who, when he
+came to Crompton, had scarcely a dollar. His visit had paid, and, though
+he was not the master, he was the favored guest and cousin, who, at
+Eloise's request, took charge of affairs after Jack went home to New
+York.
+
+Early in December Jake came from the South, and was welcomed warmly by
+Amy and Eloise. To the servants he was a great curiosity, with his negro
+dialect and quaint ways, but no one could look at the old man's honest
+face without respecting him. Even Peter, who detected about him an order
+of the bad tobacco which had so offended his nostrils in the letters to
+his master, and who on general principles disliked negroes, was disarmed
+of his prejudices by Jake's confiding simplicity and thorough goodness.
+Taking him one day for a drive around the country and through the
+village, he bought him some first-class cigars with the thought "Maybe
+they'll take that smell out of his clothes."
+
+"Thankee, Mas'r Peter, thankee," Jake said, smacking his lips with his
+enjoyment of the flavor of the Havanas. "Dis yer am mighty fine, but I
+s'pecks I or'to stick to my backy. I done brought a lot wid me."
+
+He smoked the Havanas as long as they lasted, with no special diminution
+of odor as Peter could discover, and then returned to his backy and his
+clay pipe.
+
+In the love and tender care with which she was surrounded, Amy's mind
+recovered its balance to a great extent, with an occasional lapse when
+anything reminded her of her life in California as a public singer, or
+when she was very tired. She was greatly interested in Eloise's wedding,
+which was fixed for the 10th of January, her twentieth birthday. Jack,
+who came from New York every week, would have liked what he called a
+blow-out, but the recent death of the Colonel and Amy's mourning
+precluded that, and only a very few were bidden to the ceremony, which
+took place in the drawing-room of the Crompton House, instead of the
+church. Amy gave the bride away, and a stranger would never have
+suspected that she was what Jakey called quar. After Eloise left for her
+bridal trip she began to assume some responsibility as mistress of the
+house and to understand Mr. Ferris a little when he talked to her on
+business. Jake was a kind of ballast to her during Eloise's absence, but
+a Northern winter did not agree with the old man, who wore nearly as
+much clothing to keep him warm as Harry Gill, and then complained of
+the cold.
+
+"Florida suits me best, and I've a kind of hankerin' for de ole place
+whar deys all buried," he said, and in the spring he returned to his
+Lares and Penates, leaving Amy a little unsettled with his loss, but she
+soon recovered her spirits in the excitement of going abroad.
+
+It was Jack who suggested this trip, which he thought would benefit them
+all, and early in May they sailed for Europe, taking Ruby with them, not
+in any sense as a waiting maid, as some ill-natured ones suggested, but
+as a companion to Amy, and as the friend who had been so kind to Eloise
+in her need.
+
+That summer Howard was a conspicuous figure at a fashionable watering
+place with his fast horse and stylish buggy, and every other appearance
+of wealth and luxury. He had received his twenty thousand dollars and
+more, too, for Eloise was disposed to be very generous toward him, and
+Amy assented to whatever she suggested.
+
+"I'll have one good time and spend a whole year's interest if I choose,"
+he said, and he had a good time and made love to a little Western
+heiress, whose eyes were like those of Eloise, and first attracted him
+to her, and who before the season was over promised to be his wife.
+
+Just before she left for Europe Eloise brought her grandmother, Mrs.
+Smith, from Mayville, and established her in Crompton Place as its
+mistress, but that good woman had little to say, and allowed the
+servants to have their way in everything. The change from her quiet home
+to all the grandeur and ceremony of the Crompton House did not suit her,
+and she returned, like Jakey, to her household gods when the family
+came back in the spring.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Several years have passed since then, and Crompton Place is just as
+lovely as it was when we first saw it on the day of the lawn party.
+Three children are there now; two girls, Dora and Lucy, and a sturdy
+boy, who was christened James Harris Crompton, but is called Harry. The
+doll-house has been brought to light, with Mandy Ann and Judy, to the
+great delight of the little girls, and Amy is never brighter than when
+playing with the children, and telling them of the palms and oranges,
+alligators and negroes in Florida, which she speaks of as home.
+
+Eloise is very happy, and if a fear of the Harris taint ever creeps into
+her mind, it is dissipated at once in the perfect sunshine which crowns
+her life. Nearly every year Jakey comes to visit "chile Dory an' her lil
+ones," and once Mandy Ann spent a summer in Crompton as cook in place of
+Cindy, who was taking a vacation. But Northern ways of regularity and
+promptness did not suit her.
+
+"'Clar for't," she said, "I jess can't git use't to de Yankee Doodle
+quickstep nohow. At Miss Perkinses dey wasn't partic'lar ef things was
+half an hour behime."
+
+Her mind dwelt a good deal on what she had seen at Miss Perkins's, more
+than forty years before, and on her children and Ted, and when Cindy
+returned in the autumn she went back to him and the twins, laden with
+gifts from Amy and Eloise, the latter of whom saw that her mother gave
+more judiciously than she would otherwise have done. Both Amy and Eloise
+are fond of driving, and nearly every day the carriage goes out, but
+the coachman is no longer Sam. He is married and lives in the village,
+and his place is filled by Tom Walker, who wears a brown livery, and
+fills the position with a dignity one would scarcely expect in the tall,
+lank boy, once the bully in school and the blackguard of the town.
+
+There have been three or four different teachers in District No. 5,--all
+normal graduates, and all during their term of office boarding with Mrs.
+Biggs, who is never tired of boasting of her intimacy with the
+Cromptons, and Eloise in particular. Every detail of the accident is
+repeated again and again, with many incidents of Amy's girlhood. Then
+she takes up the Colonel and his private marriage, and with his
+introduction we end our story and leave her to tell hers in her own way.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cromptons, by Mary J. Holmes
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CROMPTONS ***
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