diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 18756-8.txt | 7839 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 18756-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 160271 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 18756-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 293099 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 18756-h/18756-h.htm | 7959 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 18756-h/images/frontis.jpg | bin | 0 -> 58218 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 18756-h/images/illus186.jpg | bin | 0 -> 64335 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 18756.txt | 7839 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 18756.zip | bin | 0 -> 160266 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
11 files changed, 23653 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18756-8.txt b/18756-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f68b354 --- /dev/null +++ b/18756-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7839 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Heart's Kingdom, by Maria Thompson +Daviess, Illustrated by W. B. King + + +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 Heart's Kingdom + + +Author: Maria Thompson Daviess + + + +Release Date: July 4, 2006 [eBook #18756] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART'S KINGDOM*** + + +E-text prepared by Kathryn Lybarger, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18756-h.htm or 18756-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/5/18756/18756-h/18756-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/5/18756/18756-h.zip) + + + + + +THE HEART'S KINGDOM + +by + +MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS + +Author of The Melting of Molly, etc. + +Illustrated by W. B. King + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "_It's a mighty big turkle," he faltered, and snuggled +closer._] + + + + +New York +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers +Copyright, 1917 +by +The Reilly & Britton Co. +Made in U.S.A. +Published September 12, 1917 +Second Printing October 1, 1917 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I The World and the Flesh 9 + + II The Harpeth Jaguar 27 + + III The Gauntlet 41 + + IV To Turkey Gulch 61 + + V Having It Out 92 + + VI Deep Digging 109 + + VII The Tristan Love Song 132 + + VIII Breasting the Gale 146 + + IX Into Brambles 161 + + X Water and Oil 181 + + XI A Bit of Raw Life 195 + + XII The Tenacious Turtle 211 + + XIII The Short-Circuit 227 + + XIV Abide With Me 241 + + XV A Clandestine Adventure 258 + + XVI The Jewel in the Matrix 283 + + XVII The Pageant 297 + + XVIII Light--Into Darkness 312 + + XIX The Spark and the Blaze 327 + + XX The Covert of Wings 344 + + + + +The Heart's Kingdom + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WORLD AND THE FLESH + + +"A beautiful woman is intended to create a heaven on earth and she has +no business wasting herself making imaginary excursions into any future +paradise. The present is her time for action; and again, Charlotte, I +ask you to name the day upon which you intend to marry me," said Nickols +Powers, as he stood lounging in the broad window of Aunt Clara's music +room and gazing down into the subdued traffic of upper Madison Avenue. + +"I wish you had never taken me across that ferry and into that room +crowded with redolent humanity to hear an absurd little man string +together vivid, gross words about religion, words that made me tingle +all over," I answered as I threw my coat on a chair, lifted my hat from +my head and sat down on the seat before the dark old piano. "I think +religion is the most awful thing in the world and I am as afraid of it +as I am of--of death. I'm going home to my father." + +"Oh, don't be afraid of it. Religion is the most potent form of +intoxication known to the human race. That's why I took you over to hear +the little baseball player. I wanted you to get a sip. But don't let it +go to your head." And Nickols mocked me with soft tenderness in his +smile. + +"Well, it frightened me, and I don't like it. I'm going home to my +father and forget it," I reiterated with a kind of numbness upon me, the +like of which I had never before experienced. + +"I'll protect you from any religious danger just as effectively as Judge +Powers. I'm younger--slightly--than he, but I know just as many of the +wiles of the world and the flesh as he does and maybe a few more," +Nickols assured me, with a flash in his dark eyes that was both wicked +and humorous, as well as very delightful. + +"And the devil, too! But you don't understand. I must go home to my +father," I answered still again. + +"You don't understand yourself," returned Nickols. "There are strange +hieroglyphics imprinted on every woman's heart and a man can read only +an unconnected word here and there when he can get his flashlight thrown +into the depths--if he dares adventure into her life at all. I feel that +I take my own life in my hands when I allow you to talk to me as I am +allowing you to-night." + +"How do you know that those hieroglyphics might not mean the salvation +of the world if she could spell them out herself, or some great and good +person took a steady lamp and went down into her heart and--" + +"It takes a very wicked man to read a woman; good men are blinded by +them and stumble," Nickols assured me as he came over, stood beside me +and ran his long, slender, artist's fingers up and down the keys of the +piano, which evoked a strange, diabolical sort of harmony from them. "I +understand about it all, so please come tell me you'll marry me." This +time his arms almost encircled me, but I slipped between them as he +laughed at me with his adorable pagan charm. + +"No, Nickols, that would be an easy--and--and delightful way out, but I +am really frightened down in some queer part of my anatomy that lies +between my breast bone and my spinal column. Something is stirring in my +heart and I'm afraid of it. I've got to get out in a wilderness and +fight with it." + +"Take it out on me," offered Nickols, with a laugh that was both wistful +and provoking. + +"No, I've got a home panic and I must go." + +"Then when do I get my answer from what is left of you after the +battle?" + +"I'll let you know when to come and get it--under the roof of the +Poplars," I answered him from the doorway. + +And the very next morning I went down into the Harpeth Valley, driven I +knew not by what, nor to what. I only knew that I felt full of a living, +smothered flame and I was sure that it was best to let it burst forth in +my ancestral abiding place. + +I was born of a man who has the most evolved brain in the Harpeth +Valley, who has been a drunkard for twenty years, and of a very +beautiful and haughty woman whose own mother, to the day of her death, +shouted at Methodist love feasts. Is it any wonder that when I was tried +by fire I burned "as the cracklings of thorns under a pot?" + +"How _could_ you set that ridiculous little Methodist meeting house on +the very doorstep of my garden, father?" I demanded, as I stood tall and +furious before him in the breakfast room on the morning after my return +home from my winter in the East with Aunt Clara. "Cousin Nickols has +spent many months out of three years on the plans of restoration for +that garden, and he is coming down soon to sketch and photograph it to +use in some of his commissions. What shall I--what will _you_--say to +him when he finds that the vista he kept open for the line of Paradise +Ridge has been cut off by that pile of stones to house the singing of +psalms?" And as I raged I had a feeling of being relentlessly +pursued--by something I didn't understand. + +"Madam," returned father, with a dignity he always used with me when he +encountered one of my rages, "you will find that the chapel does not in +any way interfere with Nickols' carefully planned view. Gregory Goodloe +spent many days of thought in seeking to place it so that it would not +intrude itself upon your garden, and he built his parsonage completely +out of view, though it gives him only one large southern window to his +study and only northern ones to his bedroom." + +"Does the creature also sleep and eat and have his being right there +behind my hollyhocks?" I demanded, and my rage began to merge into +actual grief, which in turn threatened to come to the surface in hot +tears. + +"Now, Charlotte, my daughter," father was beginning to say with soothing +in his voice instead of the belligerence that from my youth up had +always just preceded my floods of tears. Dabney, the shriveled black +butler, who had always devotedly sympathized with my exhibitions of +temperament, to which he had, from my infancy, given the name of +"tantrums," set the platter of fried chicken before father's place at +the damask and silver-spread old table by the window, through which the +morning sun was shining genially. Then, with a smile as broad and genial +as that of the sun, he drew out my chair from behind the ancestral +silver coffee urn, which was puffing out clouds of fragrant steam. + +"Breakfast am sarved, honey chile," he crooned soothingly, "an' yo' +Mammy done put the liver wing right ag'in yo' fork." + +Dabney had many times stemmed my floods with choice food and was trying +his favorite method of pacification. + +I faltered and wavered at the temptation. I was hungry. + +"Just wait until you see Goodloe and talk it over with him," father +said, as he seized the advantage of my wavering and seated himself +opposite me as Dabney pushed in my chair and whisked the cover off the +silver sugar bowl and presented one of his old willow-ware cups for +father's two lumps and a dash of cream. "I asked him to--" + +"See him? You don't expect me to discuss Nickols' and my garden with an +ignorant bucolic Methodist minister, who probably doesn't know a +honeysuckle from a jimson weed, do you?" I asked with actual rage rising +again above the tears as I literally dashed the cream into his cup and +deluged the boiling coffee down upon it so that a scalding splatter +peppered my hand. "I never want to see or hear or speak to or about +him. I'll build a trellis as high as his church, run evergreen +honeysuckle on it and go my way in an opposite direction from his. +I'll--" Just here I observed consternation spread over Dabney's black +face, then communicate itself to father's distressed countenance as he +glanced out the window. Quickly he pushed his morning julep behind the +jar of roses in the center of the table, while Dabney flung a napkin +over the silver pitcher with frost on its sides and mint nodding over +its brim. + +And then, as I was about to pour my own coffee and launch forth on +another tirade on the subject of my neighbor, I heard a rich tenor voice +singing just outside the window in the garden beside the steps that led +down from the long windows in the dining room to the old flagstone walk. +Nickols and I had searched through volumes of dusty antique prints to +see just how we wanted that walk to lead out to the sunken garden beyond +the tall old poplars. I also saw the handle of a rake or hoe in action +across the window landscape and heard unmistakable sounds of vigorous +gardening. + +I rose to my feet with battle in my eyes and then stopped perfectly +still and listened--unwillingly but compelled. + + "Drink to me only with thine eyes + And I will pledge with mine," + +were the words that floated in at the window on the fragrant morning +sunbeams, in a voice of the most penetrating tenderness I had ever felt +break against my heartstrings. + +"I--I--he sometimes demolishes a--a few weeds," father faltered, while +Dabney ducked his cotton-wool old head and slipped out of the door. + +"You allow him to work in my--garden--and--" I faltered, just recovering +from the impact of the words of my favorite song of songs hurled at me +by the unseen enemy, when I was interrupted by his appearance in the +open door and we stood facing each other. + +I am a woman who has very decided tastes about the biological man. I +know just how I want the creatures to look, and I haven't much interest +in one that isn't at least of the type of my preferred kind. Because I +am very tall and broad and deep-bosomed and vivid and high colored, and +have strong white teeth that crunch up about as much food in the +twenty-four hours as most field hands consume, and altogether I am very +much like one of the most vigorous of Sorolla's paintings, that is the +probable pathological reason I have always preferred an evolved Whistler +masculine nocturne that retreats to the limits of my comprehension and +then beckons me to follow. All other men I have grouped beyond the +border of my feminine nature and sought to waste no thought upon them. +It was a shock to come, suddenly, in my own breakfast room, face to face +with a type of man I had never before met. The enemy was astonishingly +large and lithe and distinctly resembled one of the big gold-colored +lions that live in the wilds of the Harpeth Mountains out beyond +Paradise Ridge. His head, with its tawny thatch that ought to have waved +majestically but which was sleek and decorous to the point of +worldliness, was poised on his neck and shoulders with a singularly +strong line that showed through a silk soft collar, held together by an +exquisitely worldly amethyst silk scarf which, it was a shock to see, +matched glints from eyes back under his heavy gold brows with what +appeared to be extreme sophistication. After the shock of the tie the +loose gray London worsted coat and trousers made only a passing +impression; and from my involuntary summary of the whole surprising man, +which had taken less than an instant, my dazed brain came back and was +held and concentrated by the beauty of the smile that flooded out over +me in welcome after my father's hurried introduction. + +"The Reverend Mr. Gregory Goodloe--my daughter Charlotte," father +announced, as he rose and waved in my direction a hand that was cordial +to the point of bravado. + +"I'm so glad you came in time to see your crocuses and anemones, Miss +Powers," the Jaguar said as he took my hand in his. "Dabney has let me +help him hand-weed them and they are a glory, aren't they?" While he +spoke he still held my hand and I was still too dazed to regain +possession of it. Father saved the situation. + +"Sit down, sit down, Parson, and let Charlotte give you a cup of coffee +while it is on the simmer," he urged with hasty hospitality as if intent +upon effectively bottling me up, at least for the immediate present. +"She was just pouring my cup. Will you say grace before I take my first +sip?" was the high explosive he further proceeded to hurl in my face. + +And as he spoke I sank dumbly into my chair and helplessly bowed my head +to a ceremony so obsolete in the world from which I had come that I felt +as if I was slipping back into the days of the pioneer, when the customs +of life were still primitive and dictated by emotion rather than mental +science. + +And there, with father's concealed mint julep right against his +interlaced fingers, the mountain lion bowed his crested head and +involved me in prayer for the first time since chapel-service in my +college days. + +"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof ... for which we give +thanks, thy children, with Lord Jesus, Amen!" + +"Amen," mumbled father as if from the depths of embarrassment, and +against my will, as it were, a queer sort of a croon of an echo came +from my own throat. + +Also that was the first time I had ever heard words of prayer under the +roof of the Poplars. It embarrassed me and I hated it and the cause of +it. The spell which had possessed me since the entrance of the Reverend +Goodloe, vanished, and the rage that had been in me at the discovery of +the intrusion of his chapel and himself upon my life when I had come +home to be free to be wicked, boiled up within me and then sugared down +to a rich--and dangerous--syrup. While I poured his coffee I again took +stock of him, this time coldly and with deadly intent. The reasons for +his entry into my hitherto satisfactory family life, even at breakfast +time, I did not know, any more than I knew the reason for the chapel on +the other side of the hollyhocks, but I felt that I feared both and +intended to get rid of them. If the enemy had been what one could +reasonably expect a young Methodist preacher to be, I would have routed +him and his meekness within the hour and had the chapel moved to a lot +on a side street in town within the week. However, when a hunter comes +suddenly upon a Harpeth jaguar he is glad to use his best repeater and +he is careful how he shoots, though if he is very skillful he may tease +the lion aloft with a few nipping shots. I felt suddenly very strong for +the fight that I knew was on, though the lion didn't possess that +knowledge as yet. Deliberately I fired a preliminary bullet that seemed +to graze father, though it left the Parson unharmed. + +"Will you have your mint julep before I pour your coffee, Mr. Goodloe?" +I asked, with seemingly careless friendliness. "Dabney, put fresh ice in +father's glass and fill mine and Mr. Goodloe's." + +"I was feeling a little under the weather this morning," said father +hastily, as he set his glass from behind the rose jar upon Dabney's +waiter and motioned it all away from him, thus denying the morning +friend of his lifetime. I had never drunk a julep before breakfast in my +life, only tasted around the frosty edges of father's, but I held my +ground, and held out my glass to Dabney, who falteringly, almost in +terror, took the frosted silver pitcher from the sideboard and poured me +an unusually large draft of the family beverage. + +"Will you have yours now, Mr. Goodloe?" I asked again with still more of +the sugared solicitation. + +"No, I believe I prefer the coffee, but don't pour it until you have +drunk your julep; you know frost is a thing that soon passes," was the +cheerful answer, though a suspicion of an amethyst glint made me know +that the Jaguar had at least heard the zip of the bullet. + +I loathed that mixture of ice and sugar and mint and whiskey but I had +to drink it, and it heated me up inside both physically and mentally, +and took away all the queer dogging fear. And because of it I don't +remember what else happened at that breakfast except that I wanted to +clutch and cling to the warm, strong hand that I again found mine in at +the time of parting. But I didn't; at least, I don't think I did. After +it was taken away from me I went very slowly up to my room and again +went to bed, Mammy caressingly officiating and rejoicing that I was +going to "nap the steam cars outen my bones." + +I fell asleep with the continued strains of "Drink to me only" in my +ears, and wondering if I ought to put it down as insult added to injury, +and I awoke several hours later to find Letitia Cockrell, one of the +dear friends whom many generations had bestowed upon me, sitting on the +foot of my bed consuming the last of the box of marrons with which +Nickols had provisioned my journey down from New York. I was glad I had +tucked the note that came in the box under my pillow the night before. I +trust Letitia and she is entirely sophisticated, but she has never had a +lover who lives in Greenwich Village, New York, America. + +"Is this the open season for two-day hangovers, in New York?" she +demanded as she sniffed me suspiciously at the same time she dimpled and +smiled at me. + +"No, this is not a metropolitan hangover. It was acquired at breakfast, +Letitia," I answered her as I sat up and stretched out my bare arms to +give her a good shake and a hug. "'You may break, you may shatter the +glass if you will, but the scent of the julep will hang 'round you +still,'" I misquoted as I drew my knees up into my embrace and took the +last remaining marron. + +"Why, Mammy said Mr. Goodloe had breakfast with you. Did you sneak it +from the judge's pitcher?" demanded Letitia, as she likewise drew her +knees up into her arms and settled herself against one of the posts of +my bed for the many hours' résumé of our individual existences in which +we always indulged upon being reunited after separation. + +"I did not," I answered. "I drank it before his eyes, and then I don't +remember what happened and I don't care." + +"What?" + +"Just that. I never have been drunk because I never could drink enough. +I've always felt that there isn't enough liquid in the world to faze me, +and I don't like it anyway, but Dabney was so impressed by His Worship +that he poured it double for me before I had had breakfast. I hope I +staggered or swore but I don't think I did. The Reverend Goodloe can +tell you better than I. Ask him." + +"Gregory Goodloe? Oh, Charlotte!" + +"That's the point I was coming to, Letitia: Just who is this Reverend +Goodloe that I shouldn't drink a quart of mint julep before him if I +want to? I had well over a pint of champagne with a Mr. Justice two +nights before I left New York and I stopped then out of courtesy to one +of the generals whom we expect to defend us from the Kaiser. Who is your +Gregory Goodloe? Tell we all about him, unexpurgated and unafraid." + +"Didn't you know about him--and the chapel before you came?" Letitia +queried cautiously, as if fearing the explosion she felt was sure to +result. + +"I did not," I answered. "I met him and his chapel and the mint julep +all in the same five minutes, and is it any wonder I went down? Go on. +Tell me the worst or the best. I'm ready." And as I spoke I settled my +pillows comfortably, getting a little thrill from the crumpled letter +underneath the bottom one. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE HARPETH JAGUAR + + +"It is beautifully romantic, but I don't know what we are going to do +about it," answered Letitia with genuine trouble, puckering her brow +under one of her smooth waves of seal-brown hair. Letitia is one of the +wonderful variety of women who patch out life, piece by piece, in a +beautiful symmetrical pattern and who do not have imagination enough to +admire anything about a riotous crazy quilt. She is in love with Clifton +Gray, has been since she wound her brown braids about her head, and is +piecing strips of him into her life-fabric by the very sanest +love--courtship--marriage design. + +"We just can't go on as we have been doing lately," she continued. "We +all decided that you would know what to do about him, and would do it +when you came home. We suspected Judge Powers hadn't written you all the +facts when you didn't come and the building went on up. You will be +able to do something about him, won't you?" + +"I think it is likely," I answered, with the brittle sugar in my voice +that Letitia only half knows the flavor of. "But don't try to sketch +things, Letitia. Begin at the beginning and go straight to the end; I'll +pick up the pieces." + +"Well, of course you remember the Bishop Goodloe romance, don't you?" +asked Letitia, hopeful that she could get a small start ahead on her +chronicle. + +"I don't remember anything about any bishop, ever. I forget things about +that kind of people. What did, or didn't he do?" + +"Charlotte!" remonstrated Letitia. "He was the last of the Goodloes who +built that old Goodloe home on exactly the place where the first Goodloe +set the stakes of the first stockade put up in the Harpeth Valley, right +here in Goodloets. It burned down the night he married that Miss Gregory +in New York, before we were born. Don't you remember we used to play in +the ruins, just over here beyond the garden where the chapel stands now? +Your father bought the property. Part of your garden is old Madam +Goodloe's garden and that's why it was so wonderful for Judge Powers to +give the lot and let Mr. Goodloe build the chapel there. We all felt +that, though some of us were scared when we thought about what you might +do when you came home. Still, after we saw that wonderful little stone +chapel that Mr. Goodloe had one of the greatest architects in New York +design, after he had sent him packages of sketches of your garden and +the Poplars, so it would only make it all the more beautiful, we felt +better. You don't really mind about it, do you, dear?" Letitia's voice +was beseechingly enthusiastic, though keyed down with a note of anxiety. + +"Go on!" I commanded, packing down the rage in the dark corners of my +inmost heart. + +"Nobody ever knew why Bishop Goodloe never came back after he married +while on a mission from the Southern Methodist Conference to the +Northern Methodist Conference. He severed his relations with his own +Conference, and he never preached again though he was one of the most +wonderful and eloquent preachers the South has ever known. He was the +youngest bishop the church had ever ordained. Nobody ever knew what +happened, and all we know now is that this perfectly beautiful man, who +is the bishop's son, came down to the General Conference in Nashville, +was examined and ordained, and the presiding bishop sent him out here to +Goodloets last November. We don't know anything about him except that he +has been fighting in the trenches in France for a year and has had a +bullet cut out of his left lung. Everybody adores him, and we all sit +spellbound listening to him preach, I think mostly on account of his +voice, because none of us ever seems to remember what he is preaching +about. He's been having services in the ballroom at the Country Club but +he is going to dedicate the chapel soon and we are all relieved. It has +been fun to go out to church at the Club twice every Sunday and to +prayer meeting on Wednesday night all winter, and we've danced in the +long parlor at home and in the double parlors at Jessie Litton's so as +not to disarrange the pews, I mean the chairs, in the ballroom, but now +that the spring has come we--we need the Club. I'm glad you will be here +for the dedication, and you will help us kind of--kind of--" + +"Taper off from your religious spree?" I asked with a laugh that Letitia +echoed shamefacedly. + +"That's an awful way to put it--but--" + +"True?" + +"We've all tried hard, but--but it is such a--a bore. It doesn't seem +fair to enjoy Gregory Goodloe so much at dinners and parties and not +show our respect and--and admiration by being good church members. +Jessie joined his study workers and she took a class of the awful little +children from down in the Settlement beyond the Phosphate Mills, who all +smelled terribly. She worked hard with them twice a week for a month, +and then Mother Spurlock, who is the front pillar of his congregation, +found that she had taught all the dirty little things to sew with their +left hands. She came in one morning and found them all stitching away +industriously backwards, just because Jessie is left-handed herself. +Mother Elsie laughed until she lost her breath and Mr. Goodloe had to +help unloosen her belt for her. The meeting broke up with ice cream on +Jessie for everybody. We all belong to home mission societies and sewing +circles and--" + +"You want me to get you out of your purgatory and let you backslide +to--" + +"Don't say it!" exclaimed Letitia with a laugh. "But we just want not to +hurt his feelings and--" + +"We won't," I said grimly. "Now let's talk about the ball out at the +Club we are going to give Nickols when he comes down the first of May." + +"That's just what I mean. I knew you'd understand and I am so relieved +that you are not angry about the chapel and things. We can leave it all +to you and we'll have the times of our lives. Billy Harvey says his +ankles are getting stiff, it's been so long since he has fox-trotted. Do +call Mammy or Sallie and let's look at your clothes." With which Letitia +descended from her spiritual heights into the realm of the material and +plunged with both Mammy and Sallie into a riot of clothes. + +For an hour or two I lay back in my pillows and watched the two black +women and the white one indulge in primitive decorative orgies, and from +their delight my eyes would glance out and fix themselves wistfully on +the dim line of Paradise Ridge which was cut by the square steeple of +weathered stone just where Old Harpeth humps itself up above the rest of +the Ridge; and something sore and angry and trapped hurt under my +breast. + +"The earth is the Lord's--" chanted itself in my mind to the tune of +"Drink to me only," and my hand curled around the letter under my pillow +as if for comfort and--defense. + +"It is just as you told me that night at the piano, Nickols dear: +'Religion is the most potent form of intoxication known to the human +race,' and apparently all my friends have been getting the drink habit +badly. I'll rescue the poor dears and have an interesting time doing +it," I said to myself after Letitia had departed with my most choice +millinery creation fastened down upon her sleek braids because she found +she could not live without it. + +And then a strange thing happened, as I lay prone between the +lavender-scented sheets spread on the four-poster bed of my foremothers, +ready to drift off into another "bone resting" nap. The flood of tears +that had risen from my heart when I had sat that night a week ago and +listened to that remarkable little baseball evangelist, the tide of +which had been rolled back when Nickols had bent his beautiful dark head +against mine in Aunt Clara's music room and whispered above the roar of +New York, "religion is the most potent form of intoxication" to me, +again welled from my heart and this time flooded my lashes and my cheek +and my pillow. What was strangest of all, they seemed to wash away all +the tears of anger and fear that I had been pressing back into my depths +from breakfast time, and left me weak and again ready for sleep. And +like a comforted little child, I slept. + +It was sunset when I awoke, and I felt as strong as two women and ready +for action, the call for which was upon me by the time Sallie had put me +into her favorite creation, selected from the ones she had hung in +closets and wardrobe. + +"Mister Billy Harvey and Mister Hampton Dibrell is down on the front +porch ready to gallivant you, honey-bunch, and I seen Miss Letitia and +her Mister Cliff Gray coming in one direction and Miss Jessie in +another, so I reckon Sallie had better hurry with that New York twilight +she's fixing on you," Mammy announced as she stood in my doorway and +beamed upon me. "An' I expects the parson will be stepping over +likewise fer a few words, seeing you was so sweet and showed sich pretty +manners to him this morning," she added with reverent delight. + +"Sweet? Showed such pretty manners?" I gasped, as Sallie fastened the +last hook and eye and stood beside Mammy to admire me. + +"'Twas no more than you oughter done to the preacher, and I was proud of +my raising of you when you helt on to him and begged him to stay to +dinner. I was sho' disappointed that he had to leave us. I'm a Colored +Methodist, I am, and if I do say it, I knows how to shake a young pullet +in the skillet fer a preacher's taste, black or white. Now go on down +and stop that buzzing fer you on the front porch. Sallie, come and carry +out the tea and cakes to the guests," with which command to both of us +Mammy rolled her two hundred and fifty pounds down the hall with great +majesty, while Sallie meekly followed in her wake. + +"Sweet! Showed such pretty manners!" I quoted to myself as I slowly +descended the steps and went out on the wide porch to find my friends +assembled under the budding rose vine that wreathed the tall white +pillars of the Poplars. + +The parson was not there. + +"Rescued!" exclaimed Billy as he grasped one of my hands and hung on +with a very good imitation of a drowning man seizing a lifeline. They +all laughed and Hampton Dibrell held my other hand as ardently, though +not in quite such light vein. I had to rescue it to accept Clifton +Gray's nosegay of huge violets from his greenhouse, and I embraced +Jessie with the nosegay pressed to her pink cheeks. + +"Oh, Charlotte, I could fox-trot with you a week and not hesitate," +exclaimed Billy, still clinging to me. + +"Let's begin to-night," I assented warmly. Billy is contagious and to +dance with him is a high art. + +"Let's motor out to the Club in Hamp's car and mine, have a chicken +supper and dance until sun-up," suggested Billy. + +"We can stop by and get Mark Morgan and Nell, and I believe Harriet +Henderson will come along, if everybody asks her--all the men, I mean," +Letitia added with enthusiasm to match Billy's. Harriet Henderson is the +latest emerged widow in Goodloets and consequently is most interesting +to the masculine world at present. + +"Let's start now, so as to give the chicken plenty of time to get into +the frying pan and over the fire," said Hampton, who is always the +practical member to bring up the details of any situation. + +"I'm just from the tennis courts and I'll have to stop to dress, I'm +afraid," said Letitia meekly, as if she felt sure of a storm of +remonstrance. + +"People don't dress to dance these days, Letitia," said Billy, with the +greatest innocence of mien and expression, a manner he always uses in +speaking to Letitia's rather literal directness and in which he delights +greatly. "They undress. You are unclothed enough as to ankles and if you +roll the sleeves of your tennis shirt to your shoulders, take off your +collar and tuck in the flaps, it will be enough to satisfy our cravings +for fashionable and suitable attire. We really want fried chicken rather +than chicken--" + +"That will do, Billy," Letitia answered him with gentle firmness. + +"That was just what I remarked, Letitia dear. That will do, for we want +chicken dressed with cream gravy and don't care about any swathed in +chiffon. And furthermore--" + +"Do hush, Billy; look who's coming," Jessie interrupted him, and there +before my eyes I saw my entire group of friends begin to preen +themselves into new beings. Letitia smoothed down her skirts a fraction +of an inch, rolled down her sleeves another fraction and pushed back +into her braids a brown lock that was rioting across her brow. Jessie +shook out her muslin ruffles, reefed a fold of net higher across her +neck, and pinned it in place with a jeweled pin, while Hampton's and +Billy's and Cliff's expressions and poses of countenance and bodies +suddenly fell into lines of decorum. + +"Great Smokes! We all forgot it was prayer meeting to-night, and it'll +be no trotting the fox for ours," Billy groaned, while he rose to his +feet with a smile of angelic sweetness. "Hello, Parson! We were just +beginning to think about you," was his greeting to the Sacred Jaguar who +had come through the garden and around the house. I felt sure that he +had heard Billy's plaint of disappointment about the dance, for there +was a quick glint of the amethysts as he halted and stood on the walk +below us and smiled up at us. + +"I welcomed Miss Powers for breakfast, and now I find I want to come +over and do it again for tea," he said, and as I was perfectly cool, +sober and in my right mind at the moment he spoke, I had to concede that +his voice was the most wonderful I had ever heard, and something in me +made me resent it as well as the curious veneer that had spread over my +friends at his entry upon the scene. There they stood and sat, six +perfectly rational, fairly moral, representative free and equal +citizens, cowed by the representative of something that they neither +understood nor cared about, and it made me furious. They all wanted to +go to the Club to dance, to do the natural, usual, perfectly harmless +thing, and they were being constrained. If they had wanted to go to the +prayer meeting as they wanted to dance, they would have been natural and +joyful and eager about it. + +"I resent, even _I_ resent people's being bored with the God they think +exists, and I think it is disrespectful to go into His presence like +that," I said to myself, and then I suddenly determined to begin my +rescue work for the religiously involved, and now I felt was the +appointed time. Also I felt the excitement that comes from turning and +facing the foe which has pursued. + +"I'm glad you came over, Mr. Goodloe," I said with nice, cool +friendliness in my voice. "Billy was just planning a glorious fox-trot +for this evening and then suddenly remembered with dismay that you were +to have your--entertainment at the Club to-night. Couldn't we--we make +some sort of compromise? Or at least couldn't you cut your--prayers +short so he can get in an hour or two of his favorite pleasure +after--after duty well done?" As I spoke I had come to the edge of the +steps and thus stood alone above him, looking down on him with a kind of +cool aloofness as if he belonged to another world, while I heard all of +his recent converts grouped back of me give little gasps of dismay. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GAUNTLET + + +Was that young Methodist minister crushed by my plainly intended +gauntlet flung down to him? He was not. + +"I'm glad I came over in time to put Billy out of his misery," he +answered, smiling up at me with a quick comprehension that was enraging. +"I'm going to have informal services in the chapel to-night to try out +the acoustics before the contractor turns over the building. I am not +satisfied about the sounding board he has put in, and the only way is to +try it with at least part of the seats occupied. We'll sing a bit and +plan the dedication; not have a formal service. So then, Billy, you can +have your fox-trotting and a good time to all of you, bless you, my +children." As he spoke he smiled at the entire group with the most +delightful interest and pleasure. He was dressed in a straight black +coat with a plain silk vest cut around a white collar that buttoned in +the back, and his dull gold mane was brushed down sleek and close to his +beautiful head. Not a flash of expression in his strong face showed that +he felt any resentment or dismay at thus having some of his most +prominent church members backslide from his prayer meeting into a +fox-trot, and yet I knew--knew that he fully appreciated the situation +and laid the blame of it where the blame was due. + +"Of course we will come to the services first--that is, if you--if you +don't object," Letitia said with her usual directness and lack of any +kind of finesse, thus bringing the situation to a decided head. + +"Why not come over for the songs and then not stay for the conference?" +was the genial answer that positively astonished me, and as he spoke he +came up the steps and stood beside me. "Dabney and I found the first +Star of Bethlehem when we were weeding this afternoon. I brought it to +you carefully, and can I have a cup of that tea he has been trying to +make you serve for the last five minutes?" With these words the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe turned me around and sent me to the tea tray that Dabney +and Sallie had put on a table under the rose vine; but not before he had +taken up my hand, put the star flower in it and curled my fingers over +it. "I'll pass the muffins, Billy, and you take the cakes for Miss +Powers, and be more careful than you were last Sunday with my collection +plate for the poor." Billy feigned confusion, accepted the plate and was +just about to begin a defense, when a diversion occurred to stop him. + +"There comes Mark and Mrs. Mark," he exclaimed, "but they have got an +offspring apiece in their embrace and several trailers. Somebody ought +to remonstrate with Nell Morgan or have the firmness to apply the +superfluous blind kitten treatment every spring. Three children are +patriotic, but five are populistic and ought to be frowned upon," and +Billy grumbled all the while the Morgans were flocking up the front +walk. When they came to the steps the Jaguar descended and held out his +clerically befrocked arms so that the gurgler from Mark's shoulder and +the giggler from Nell's arms both fell into his embrace at one time. +"You young marplots, you!" he said as the gurgler printed a wet kiss on +his left ear and regarded him with rapture while the small cooer, +proclaimed as feminine by neck and sleeve ribbons, cuddled against his +shoulder with soft confidence. "They're going to take you both down to +the river and drown you," he confided with a soft note in his voice that +was an answer to the coo. + +"I wish you would," said Mark, as, with a laugh, he shook my hand +extended from the group around me, composed of Nell and the other three +kiddies, all crowded together in one passionate greeting. "Nurse and +Julia and the house and garden man have all gone to a wedding, so we +have fed 'em and are now starting out for a razoo, and we don't care +whether it lasts until midnight or not. Young Charlotte, you hug one +side of your Aunt Charlotte and let Jimmy get his innings on the other +side. Here, break away, all of you!" and while everybody laughed, Mark +disentangled the greetings, and seated the separated juvenile members in +a row on the steps beside the parson and the two babes. Nell he left in +the hollow of my arm. + +"Oh, it is so good to have you at home, Charlotte," she said, with +another hug. "We miss you terribly. We depend on you for everything. +Things don't go right without you. I had a terrible time with--that is, +you haven't seen baby yet. Give her to me, Mr. Goodloe," and as she +spoke Nell leaned over to get the cooer out of the Jaguar's arms for my +inspection. + +"You'll get neither Babe nor Suckling," was his answer as he cuddled the +two closer and hunched his shoulders in Nell's direction. "Don't you +know enough to let well enough alone? If they have got to go out to the +Club and fox-trot until midnight they ought to have repose now." + +"We promised to be good at church, but we didn't promise anything about +the Country Club, and if we go there we are going to be as bad as +anybody out there is," announced small Charlotte with determined +composure. "Dabney says that fox-trotting is a devil's dance and we want +to see you all do it with him." + +"Help!" exclaimed Billy, while Mr. Goodloe put his arm around Charlotte +and drew her to him with a kind of fierce tenderness. + +"Isn't she awful?" exclaimed Nell. "We meant to ask you if we could take +them with us out to the Club to prayer meeting. Some of the Settlement +women bring their babies and I know mine will be as good. Charlotte and +Sue and Jimmy promised, and the sound of your voice bewitches the babies +as it does all of us." + +As Nell finished speaking and bent to pat the head of the Suckling on +his shoulder, the Reverend Mr. Goodloe looked straight into my eyes and +laughed, perfect comprehension of me and my revolt in his direct +amethyst glances which shot into my depths. + +"They are all going over to listen to Mr. Goodloe sing hymns at his +chapel, Nell, and then all of you are coming by here for me to go out to +the Club to dance a few hours," was my answer to the shot as I calmly +refused the invitation into the fold that had been given me with the +rest of the backsliding flock. + +"We can't go--the babies would never in the world--" Nell was beginning +to exclaim. + +"Drat 'em!" exclaimed Billy, looking down aggrievedly at the small crew +of marplots. "A pair of perfectly good chaperons are hard to get, and to +think of that bunch of little miseries getting in the way of a good old +fox--" + +"They'll all go to sleep during the services and I'll keep them on my +bed in the parsonage until the fun is over, and agree to deliver them on +claim," Mr. Goodloe interrupted Billy to say with quiet decision. + +"Now that is what I call some church relation, nursery and parsonage +combined," said Billy with the deepest gratitude. "The rest of you hurry +over those muffins, even if you haven't had any of Mammy's for six +months, and, since the chicken fry is off, go home to get suppers and +ready for psalm-singing and foxing. Parson, you are some sport, and I'll +hold both of those puppies while you drink your tea from the hands of +fair Charlotte." + +"Thank you, I don't believe I want any tea after all, and I think I'll +take these 'puppies' on home with me through the garden, for they are +both dying to the world." As he spoke the parson rose to his feet and +stood with the two drowsing babies in his arms, looking down at me as I +stood with his cup of tea in my hand. And as he looked I felt my whole +rebellious heart and mind laid bare and I knew that he knew that I was +ready to fight him to the last ditch in the battle for possession of the +souls of my friends. I would fight for their independence of thought +and sincerity of life, and he would fight to lead them off into a far +country in quest of what I considered a tradition, a shibboleth, "a +potent agent for intoxication" of the reason by which man must progress. +I also knew that I faced a foe versed in the warfare between religion +and modern scientific decisions about it and that he would be one worthy +of my metal. His refusal of my cup of tea, for which he had announced +that he came, was his gauntlet and I accepted it as I turned with the +queer sugared rage in my heart and set the cup on the table. + +And as I had planned, and the Jaguar directed, the evening came to pass. +While I slipped into some dancing fluff, the strains of the most +wonderful hymn that the Christian religion possesses floated across my +garden and into my window and again beat against my heart. The parson +was singing with the rest of them, but his voice seemed to lift theirs +and bear them aloft on the strong, wide wings that went soaring away +into the night, even up to the bright stars that gleamed beyond the tips +of the old graybeard poplars. A queer tight breath gripped my heart for +a second as his plea, "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide," beat +against it, then I laughed it away. + +"It _is_ 'a potent agent for intoxication' when brewed by the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe, and here's where I run, both physically and mentally," I +said to myself as I ran down the steps and out to the two cars that +stood honking impatiently by the gate. + +I don't think I ever enjoyed a dance more, and I am sure that my +pleasure was partly due to the wild spirits of the religiously released +who were having the first joy fling for six months. + +"I'll not get enough until I wilt upon the floor and have to be carried +out," said Billy, as he held me closer and slid two steps to the right +and then back to get me out of the way of Hampton and Harriet Henderson, +who were dancing with regardless joy. + +"Will you feel that way about church next Sunday?" I asked him, but my +demand made no apparent dent, for he danced on without answering. + +At an hour after that of midnight the revelers came home and left me at +my gate, by request, to walk alone in the brilliant spring moonlight +through my garden to the wide door back of the white pillars. After they +had seen me safely started, they glided away and I stood on the steps +and watched Nell and Mark reclaim their family from a tall dark figure +that carried out two loads to the parental arms. Then the hush that +comes upon the world in the midnight hours fell over the Poplars and I +stood leaning against one of the tall pillars and reveled in it. + +Goodloets is one of the tradition-grayed old towns that are rooted deep +in the Harpeth Valley since the days of the Colonies, and in it can be +found perhaps the purest Americanism on the American continent. The +Poplars, under whose broad roof I made the seventh generation nested and +fledged, spreads out its wings and gables upon a low hill which is the +first swell of the Harpeth hills, and the rest of the old town stretches +out on the hillside before it down to the valley, in which runs the +Harpeth River, curving around the town and flowing out of the valley to +the Mississippi. Behind the Poplars roll the fields and meadows of the +Home Farm, which has given food and sustenance to the Poplars' brood +since the days of the redskins, when it was cleared by the first Powers +and his servants, with muskets ready to fire into the surrounding +forests. To the left of the Poplars and beyond the chapel lies the +Settlement, in which those lacking in worldly goods have lived for +generations in a kind of semi-poverty, which is about the only poverty +known in the Harpeth Valley. Lately, the Settlement has taken unto +itself a measure of prosperity, because of the great tannery and harness +works in its midst on the banks of the river, which is bringing in gold +from Russia and France. Everybody has made money in the last few years, +and the fashionable wing of Goodloets to the left of the Poplars shows +improvements and restorations that are both costly and sometimes +amazing. However, fortunately the inhabitants of the old village are +conservative, and very little of the delicious moss of tradition has +been scratched off; it has only been clipped into prosperous decorum, +and antiquity still flings its glamour over the town. + +"I feel as much rooted as one of the old poplars," I said to myself as +some whim made me go down the steps and out into the garden, along the +walks with their budding borders of narcissus and peonies, down through +Nickols' sunken garden to the two oldest of all the poplars that now +seemed to be standing sentinel to prevent any raid from me on the little +stone meeting house over the lilac hedge. "You dear old graybeard," I +said to the one on my left, as I looked up and saw a faint feathering of +silver on its branches. And as I spoke I took the old trunk into my +embrace and laid my cheek against the rough bark. + +And then something happened. Afterwards I was glad that I was leaning +against the strength of the old graybeard poplar and hidden behind it. + +Suddenly from out the shadows beyond the lilac hedge, through whose bare +branches any movement in the yard of the chapel showed plainly, a woman +came stumbling along towards the gate and beside her walked the parson +with his arm supporting hers. She was sobbing the hard, dry sobs that +any woman knows are those of despair, and which call any other woman who +hears them. My first impulse was to run to the hedge and speak to her; +then I stopped, for I was arrested by what the parson was saying to her. + +"What does it matter, Martha? You have your Master's forgiveness and His +permission to go and sin no more, even though those sins be as +scarlet." And as he spoke his voice was that of quiet authority as if he +felt fully his apostolic right to unloose sins upon this earth. + +"He'll come back now that _she_ has, and he'll come to me again. I can't +fight him. I'll slip back into hell. Just give me the money to go out +into the city and I'll not bother anybody any more. I'll take the child +and I'll die for all anybody in Goodloets ever knows. Lend me the money; +I'll send it back!" The girl's voice was hard and defiant and she turned +and faced the minister as if at bay. "Give me that money, if all that +praying and singing and preaching that you've done is true. I want to go +in the morning before he follows her here and puts me in hell again. God +won't clean me twice." + +"You shall go," came the calm answer in the apostle's beautiful voice, +"but I will have to have a few days to provide a place of safety for you +in the city, where the child can be cared for while you get suitable +work." + +"I won't wait. He'll follow her and he'll look down on me and the child +and damn me again. I won't wait. I'm weak and I dasn't. Give me that +money to-night!" And the demand was passionate and savage. + +"Then I'll meet you at the morning train with it and rush you to a place +of safety if there is no other way. You must go back home now, and it +will be best not to tell anyone where you are going until you no longer +fear your weakness, for they might betray your hiding place. Strength +will be given you, Martha, if you only ask." + +"I'll pray, Parson, I'll pray, now that you are going to give me my +chance to get strong enough to be good. I'll work and I'll pray, but +hide me until I do get strong." And the hard, dry sobs melted as the +girl put her head down upon the gate a moment and then went out through +it. + +"God bless you, child, and keep you ever in thought of Him," were the +words that she carried away with her as she hurried down the street +toward the Settlement. + +Then for a second some awful fear came across my heart that I did not +understand. I now know that it was a premonition of what was to wring my +own heart and I cowered against the old tree in agony. Gregory Goodloe +was not more than six feet away from me on the other side of the +budding, fragrant hedge, and in the moonlight I could see the beautiful +strength of his golden head and strong placid face, on which lines of +pain were drawn, and I had to restrain myself from crying out to him in +my own pain. I wanted to go quickly and cling to his strength. Then I +stopped and listened. + +He had raised his face to the stars and was praying. + +"O Father," he asked, as if speaking to someone with whom he walked in +the cool of the midnight, "help the weak on whom the strong prey." + +Then he went into the dark door of the little chapel and left me out in +the cold midnight alone. The fear was gone, and comforted I went back +through my budding garden and arrived at the front door just as old Mr. +Pate, the telegraph operator at the little station down the street, +turned in at the gate. + +"Miss Charlotte," he puffed, as he fairly flung the telegram at me, +"this come fer you at ten o'clock and I risked it and run up here with +it after I heard them ottermobiles go by. I'm courting Mrs. Jennie Hicks +myself and I understands about courtings." And before I could speak he +had run on back down the street. + +As I stood and looked at the yellow envelope fear again gripped my +heart, and without opening it I walked into the house, locking the great +door behind me with trembling fingers, and went toward a light I saw +shining from the trellised back porch and which I did not understand. I +have never in my life been the least bit afraid of anything, except +something within my own body, from the hideous pain of my green-apple +days to the pain I had felt as I talked beside the piano with Nickols in +New York, a thousand miles away; but something made me pause just for a +second in the pantry doorway before I stepped into the light upon the +porch. I shall never forget the scene that was enacted before my +wondering eyes in the dim light of a candle burning upon a table near +the refrigerator. + +Father stood with a bowl of ice in his hand and his fingers were just +closing around a squat, black bottle that I knew contained the rarest +and choicest whiskey ever run from a distillery. His iron-gray hair was +rampant, his dressing gown fell away from his throat and showed the +knotting of the great cords that ran down into his shoulders, and his +dark eyes glittered under their heavy, black brows, while his mouth was +twisted and white. Then, as I looked, something happened. A stealthy +padding of feet came around the house from the garden and up the back +steps, under the budding rose vine that was climbing through the trellis +as if to clutch at the light, and a huge figure loomed up from out the +shadow. + +It was the powerful Harpeth Jaguar out hunting, and his weapon was a +hoe, while under his arm he carried a roll that looked like a +contribution to a rag man of bedding and old clothes. + +"I tell you, Mr. Powers, there is frost in the air and I have collected +everything in the parsonage that would cover those late anemones. I saw +your light and I thought you might add to the collection. Now what would +we do if they should be wilted by the frost just as they are ready to +burst bud? Our honor is involved with Graveson, who brought the seeds +all the way from Guernsey through the trenches of France and trusted +them to me for propagation. Why, they represent a man's life work, and +that life may be put out by a bullet any moment! We'll have to rescue +them." As he spoke, the great jeweled eyes shone with excitement under +the dull gold brows and he seemed not to see at all the incriminating +ice and bottle. + +"Could you get into Mrs. Dabney's linen closet? We've got to have +something." He shivered in a little wind that blew under the rose vine +with a frosty gust. I was just observing that he was attired in his +pajama jacket and gray flannel trousers, and that his bare heels and +ankles declared themselves above and at the back of his slippers, when +my eyes were drawn to my father's face and rested there. My heart stood +still while I watched it change. All the pain and appetite, straining as +a beast strains at a leash, faded from his face. The deathly pallor +vanished and the color of human blood returned. The glitter in his deep +old eyes changed in a second from that of ferocity to that of anxious +excitement. + +"I do not know where the household linen is kept and I hesitate to +disturb Dabney, as he retired with an aching tooth; but I observed a box +of my daughter's apparel beside a trunk in the back hall which Dabney +had not carried up on account of its weight and which he was requiring +his wife to unpack piece by piece. I'll raid it for enough to save our +treasures and accept whatever is my just chastisement in the morning," +he said in a voice of guilty stealth. + +And there I stood in the shadow of the pantry and saw my father take two +armfuls of my costly linen and lace out into the garden. Nothing was +spared me, for from the window I could see him and the marauding Jaguar +weight their perfumed whiteness down with sticks and stones and clods of +earth. I suffered, but silently. + +"Good night, sir. God's blessing," I heard the rich voice calling as the +half-bare feet padded away as swiftly as they had come through the +garden, leaving father standing under the rose vine watching him go. And +I watched father--and for some reason my breath seemed suspended in my +lungs. + +For a very long minute he stood looking at the ice bowl and the bottle; +then with a queer wry smile he walked over and put them both in the +refrigerator, though the bottle's place was in the sideboard, and closed +the door carefully. Then he paused again and said under his breath, +"_You_, Judge Nickols Morris Powers!" He smiled at himself with +humorous pity and tiptoed past me into the front hall and up the +stairway to his rooms above. + +I seemed to feel strange padding footsteps down in my depths and I also +tiptoed up to my room after I had heard his door shut. + +After I had switched on my light (for under the roof of the Poplars +electricity had come to aid the candles of hallowed tradition, and was +called by Mammy, in deep suspicion, "ha'nt light") I discovered clutched +in my cold fingers the yellow envelope the romantic Mr. Pate had brought +to me in the midnight. It read: + + "Am coming down on Friday. Am afraid to trust the world and the + flesh and think the third member of the carnal firm ought to be + on the job. N." + +"Now I am frightened really," I confided to myself as I slipped between +the scented sheets and drew a corner of the rose-colored blanket over my +head. "I don't know what to do." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TO TURKEY GULCH + + +The next morning I was very late in descending to my breakfast, but +arrived in time to witness Mammy's arraignment of my father, which was +conducted in perfect respect, but with great severity. + +"I know, Jedge, that menfolks don't know lace that costs a million +dollars a yard from a blind woman's tatting, and that's what makes me +say what I does, that it sure am dangersome fer 'em to go on a rampage +in womenfolks' trunks. I ain't never goin' to git the stains from them +clods of earth outen my lambs' clothes, even if the minister did help +you put 'em on 'em." + +"But, Melissa, those anemones were more valuable than any lace ever +manufactured, and I am sure that Charlotte will absolve me when she +hears of the exigencies of the case," father pleaded over the top of +his morning paper. Mammy was pretending to dust his study, as a blind to +the lecture she was administering. + +"Yes, sir, I knows all that; but that lace was a heap more valuable than +that toothache in that wuthless Dabney's jaw, which he could er wropped +up, and hunted out all the old sheets for you instid of that petticoat +with them real lace ruffles," was Mammy's firm rejoinder, while she +passed a feather duster over the table and rolled her eyes at Dabney. + +"Let's let them both off this time, Mammy. Dabney can take the trunks +where they belong and lock them up," I said, as I went toward the dining +room, while she followed to minister upon my tardiness. + +"Them was all your finest lingerings," she said as she plied me with +breakfast. "And they was all lost on menfolks. They hasn't even one lady +rode by while I had 'em on the line in the sunshine," she grumbled as +she finally retired to the kitchen. + +After finishing my coffee I sauntered to the front of the house, led by +a chorus of hearty laughter in a fluty tenor voice, accompanied by a +bass growl, in which I was sure that father was recounting the scrape in +which his and the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's anemone adventure had got them. +I assured myself that I was annoyed by this repeated early morning +invasion of ministerial calls and intended to retire to my room until it +was over, but without knowing why, I found myself in the library and +greeting the enemy. + +"Please forgive us. The case was one of dire necessity," the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe pleaded, as he rose and took my hand in his, and held it in +such a way that I was forced to look in his face and smile, whether I +wished it or not. + +"From ambush I saw you take them, and I was powerless to prevent," I +answered with a smile at father. + +"I came over to ask you if you wouldn't like to go away out into the +Harpeth Hills on a mission with me this wonderful morning. I don't know +exactly whether I am called to officiate at a birth or a death or that +intermediate festivity, a wedding. This is the summons from an old +friend of mine:" As he spoke he held out to me a greasy paper on which +were a few words scrawled with a pencil. + + "Parson we need you in the morning bad. Please come with Bill + as brings this. Bring a bible and liniment and oblige your true + friend Jed Bangs and wife." + +"Isn't your friend Bill able to elucidate?" I asked, as I passed the +paper on to father. + +"Bill seems to be dumb without being deaf and has no histrionic talent +to act out the necessity, so I'm going with him. The Bangs family live +up on old Harpeth at Turkey Gulch, and Jed has shot partridges with me +all winter. Please, you and the Judge, come with me. I can get the car +over Paradise Ridge if I turn it into a wildcat. The morning is +delicious, and I feel that I'll need you both." Never in the world have +I heard a man's voice with such compelling notes in it that range from a +soft coax to a quiet command. + +I had not the slightest idea of going with him and I was about to refuse +with as much sugary hauteur as I dared use to him, when I looked into +father's face and accepted. I had never been on a picnic with my father +in my life and I could not understand the pleading in his eyes for my +acceptance of this invitation to an adventure in his company, but then, +several times since I had come home, I had seen a father I had never +known before, and he fascinated me. + +"The mountain laurel is in bloom and the rhododendron, and you are a +very gracious lady," the Reverend Mr. Goodloe assured me with a deep bow +over my hand, which he kissed in a very delightful foreign fashion which +made Mammy, who had come to the door to hear my decision, roll her eyes +in astonishment which, however, held no hint of criticism, for with her +the spiritual king could do no wrong. + +"I got a snack fixed up jest's soon as that Dabney tol' me about the +junket," she announced. "And I'll put a little wine jelly and flannels +in if it am a baby and a bunch of white jessimings in case it am a +death." + +"Suppose it is a wedding?" I asked her. + +"I don't take no notice of weddings. It was a wedding that got me into +all the trouble of that Dabney and his wuthless son, Jefferson, what +ain't like me in no way." With which fling at Dabney--who was hovering +at the door--she rolled herself back to her kitchen. + +"What have you been doing to her now, you rascal?" father demanded of +Dabney, who was handing him his hat and holding out his light overcoat +to put him into it. + +"I jist stepped into the kitchen while her light rolls fer supper was +raisin' and got a ruckus fer it," was his mild answer. Dabney lived his +connubial life mildly in the midst of the storms of his better half. + +"Well, don't do it again. And put that spade in Mr. Goodloe's car, for +I'm going to bring in some honeysuckle roots and a laurel sprout or two +to try out in the garden," father commanded, as I took my coat and hat +from the chair where I had thrown them the afternoon before, and went +out to the very unministerial-looking car which stood before the +parsonage. + +Of course, I had accepted the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's invitation for the +journey out into the hills in order to sit beside this very new kind of +father I was dimly discovering myself to possess, but I do not to this +day know how it happened that I was crushed against the arm steering the +gray racer as we sped through Goodloets toward Old Harpeth, while the +judge sat beaming, though silent, beside the more silent Bill--who did +not beam, but looked out at the road ahead with the shadow in his face +of the fatalism that so many of the mountain folk possess. + +We were just turning out from the edge of the town, past the last house +with its stately white pillars, when a bunch of pink-and-white +precipitated itself directly in front of the car--which made the first +of the wildcat springs that its master had prophesied for it and then +stood with its engine palpitating with what seemed like mechanical fear, +while I buried my head on the strong arm next to me, which I could feel +tremble for an instant as the Reverend Mr. Goodloe breathed a fervent, +"Thank God." Father rose from his seat with a good round oath and silent +Bill snorted like a wild animal. + +"Why didn't you stop when you saw me coming?" an imperious young voice +demanded in tones of distinct anger, and Charlotte, my name daughter of +the house of Morgan, calmly climbed up on the running board, over the +door next to father, and settled herself in between him and the silent +Bill. "Now you can go on," she calmly announced, in a very much +mollified tone of voice as she shook out her ruffles into a less +compressed state and wiped her face with her dirty hand, much to the +detriment of the roses in her cheeks. + +"Where are you going, Charlotte, may I inquire?" asked the Reverend Mr. +Goodloe in a cheerful and calm voice, though I saw that his fingers +still trembled on the steering wheel as he held back the enraged gray +engine. I was still speechless and I saw that father was in the same +condition. + +"You said I might go 'next time' when my Auntie Harriet didn't want me +to go with you last Tuesday on account of my stomach from the raw potato +Jimmy dared me to eat. This is that time," she calmly answered, as she +gave an interested look at the silent Bill and again settled the short, +pink skirts. + +"Yes, I did say that," admitted Mr. Goodloe, as he turned in his seat as +far as he could and began to argue the question. "But we shall be gone +almost all day and I am afraid your mother wouldn't want you to be gone +that long." + +"Is it true for you to say that when you know that she will be mighty +glad for you to keep me safe with you all day?" Charlotte demanded of +him, looking directly into his smiling, friendly face. + +"No, that wasn't quite honest, I'll admit," he answered her gravely with +the guilt of conviction showing in his face just as plainly as it would +have shown if one of his deacons had caught him evading a question of +grave moment. "And as it is the fulfillment of a promise which you +claim, I am going to ask Miss Powers and the judge if they will permit +me to add you to the party, and then go and get permission from your +mother to take you with us." + +"My mother told me to go and bother Auntie Charlotte an hour or two and +that was when I met you. I ran into the car just minding my mother," +Charlotte answered him with calm pride at her near achievement of death +through literal obedience. + +"Just drive by and we'll call to Nell. I am afraid the case must have +been desperate, for I am seldom the victim," I said in an undertone to +our host, who acquiesced with a laugh. "Harriet Henderson must be dead, +for Nell usually sends the worse one to her," I added under my breath. + +"My Auntie Harriet is having a man cut the ache out of one of her +teeth," Charlotte remarked, apropos of nothing, as the huge car swung +around into the street in which the Morgans reside. "And, besides, I +don't like her any more, because, when she said Sue had to have part of +the doll house she bought for us to play in down at her home, and I said +then Sue would have to take the outside because I wanted the inside, she +locked it up for all this week." + +"The modern business acumen of the feministic persuasion," father +remarked, as we all laughed at this candid revelation of an egocentric +attitude of mind in small Charlotte. + +After a few whirls of the gray wheels we paused a moment at the Morgan +gate. + +"Heavens, yes, and thank you," called Nell in response to our demand for +her small daughter's company. "If I had another one clean, I'd give it +to you." + +"Better go on quick, for Jimmy can wash in a piece of a minute if he +wants to," warned Charlotte, and in a second the parson had sent the +gray car flying out toward Old Harpeth, though I saw him glance back +with a trace of distress in his eyes at the fading vision of a small boy +running, howling, to the front gate of the Morgan residence. + +"Now mother'll whip him for crying if she does as she says she would, +but she won't," observed the tender big sister, as she rose to her feet +and waved a maddening farewell to the distressed urchin being left +behind. + +"Is she totally depraved?" I asked of the young Charlotte's spiritual +adviser at my side. + +"No; perfectly honest," he answered me with a glint in his eyes that was +a laughing challenge. + +"There is something awful about honesty," I answered, without appearing +to notice the glint. + +"There wouldn't be if it were a universal custom," was the answer I got +as we whirled by a farmer's wood lot and began to climb the first +foothill of Old Harpeth. + +All my life I have been going out to Old Harpeth on excursions, but +never had I spent a day like the one I had begun with the Jaguar in his +native fastnesses. The whole old mountain was beginning to bud and I +could almost see it draping on a regal Persian garment of rose and green +threaded with purple and blue woven against the old brown and gray of +the earth color. The wine-colored trillium with its huge spotted leaves, +the slender white dog-tooth violets, the rose-pink arbutus, the blue +star myrtle and the crimson oak buds, were matted into a vast robe that +was gorgeously oriental, while a perfume that was surely more delicious +than any ever wafted from the gardens of Arabia floated past us in gusts +through which the gray car sped without the slightest shortness of +breath. I seemed a million miles away from the great fetid city in which +I had been living--and fast going farther. As we wound up and up into +the great forest which is the crown of Old Harpeth, we could look down +through occasional vistas and see the Harpeth River curling and bending +through pastures in which the chocolate plowed fields were laid off in +huge checks with the green meadows, while the farmhouses and barns +dotted the valley like the crude figures on a hand-woven chintz. + +There are very few men who know enough not to talk to a woman when she +has no desire for their conversation, but the Reverend Jaguar seemed to +be one of the variety who comprehend the value of silences, and neither +of us spoke for at least ten miles, though, of course, it was his duty +to make hay while the sun of my nature shone upon him and delicately to +inquire into my spiritual condition. He didn't. He just let the wind +blow into my empty spaces and kept his eyes and thoughts on the road +ahead of him. Charlotte's chatter with father was blown back from me and +I was happy in a kind of aloneness I had never felt before. + +"We are in Hastings County now and in a few minutes we shall be in Hicks +Center, the county seat," were the first words that broke in on my +self-communion as we began to speed past rough board and log cabins, +each surrounded by a picket fence which in no way seemed to fend the +doorsteps from razor-back pigs, chickens and a few young mules and +calves. "It must be court day, for I don't see a single inhabitant +sitting chewing under his own vine and fig tree." + +"Yes; it's the first Monday," answered father, as the gray machine +pulled gallantly through a few hundred feet of thick, black mud and +turned from the wilderness into the public square of the metropolis of +Hicks Center. + +"Yes, court is in session and there the whole population is in the +courthouse," said father, as we glided slowly down the village street. +"They must be trying a murder or a horse-stealing case," and I saw his +eyes gleam for a second under their heavy brows as the eyes of an old +war horse must gleam when he scents powder. + +"Ugh," assented silent Bill, making the first remark of the journey, and +as he spoke the syllable he rose and pointed to the courthouse, which +stood in the midst of a mud-covered public square, completely surrounded +by hitching-posts to which were hitched all the vehicles of locomotion +of the last century down to the present in Hicks Center--which had not +as yet arrived as far as the day of the motor car. + +"Is Jed in there, Bill?" demanded the Reverend Mr. Goodloe; and as Bill +assented with muscular vigor, if not vocal, he drew the gray car up +beside, an old-fashioned carryall, whose wheels were at least five feet +high and which had hitched to its pole an old horse and a young mule. + +"That team makes a nice balance of--temperament," Mr. Goodloe remarked, +as he lifted out Charlotte and then turned to swing me, in his strong +arms, free of a mud puddle and onto the old brick pavement which was +green with the moss of generations. + +Then, piloted by the silent Bill, we made our way through a quiet throng +of men and women and children, from the awkward age of shoe-top trousers +and skirts to that which, in many cases, was partaking from the maternal +fount, as the women stood in groups and whispered as they looked at us +shyly. Somehow their decorous calico skirts, which just cleared the +ground, made me feel naked in my own of white corduroy, which was all of +eight inches from the mud in which theirs had draggled. + +And as silent as they, even Charlotte's chatter subdued, we entered the +court room and were led through a crowd up to the front seat. At least +the rest of us were seated, but the judge, jury and prisoner and +prosecuting attorney rose in a body and shook hands with the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe as if he were their common and best beloved son. + +"He's been in the Harpeth Valley less than a year, and look at that. +We've been here all our lives and they don't know who we are," +whispered father, with the same pride shining in his eyes that shone +upon the parson from the eyes of the gaunt prisoner, who rose and shook +hands with Mr. Goodloe with the sheriff beside him, while the rough old +judge from the bench waited his turn. + +"We accommodated Jed by waiting until you come before we begun his +trial, Parson," the judge said, as he turned back to his bench, which +was a splint-bottom chair behind a rude table, dignity being lent to the +chair by its being the only one in the room. The rest of the population +of the court room of Hicks Center were seated upon benches made of split +and hewn logs. + +"Thank you, Mr. Hilldrop," said the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, as he sat down +beside the prisoner and began a whispered conversation with him. + +"The court have come to order. Shoot ahead, Jim, and tell us what Jed +have done and how he done it," commanded the judge, as he tilted back +his chair, took out his knife and began to whittle a stick of bright red +cedar. Twelve good men and true, attired in butternut trousers stuffed +into muddy boots, settled themselves in the jury box, which was a log +bench set at right angles to the other benches, a little apart from the +table and chair of the judge, and nine of them took out their knives and +bits of cedar and began to follow the lead of the judge in making fine +pink curls fall upon the floor. + +"May it please your honor, the prisoner is charged with the stealing of +a young mule," said a lanky young mountain lawyer, who had put on a coat +over his flannel shirt and brushed a little patch of tow hair just above +his brows in deference to his position of prosecuting attorney. + +"State yo' case," commanded the judge, as he tried the point of his +splinter against his thumb to test its whittled sharpness. + +"Hiram Turner, over at Sycamore, lent Jed a team of mules to haul his +daughter, who married Jed, home in a wagon with her beds and truck, and +when he come down Paradise Ridge to git the team, Jed claimed one had +got away from him and run off in the big woods. They was a horse and +mule trader come along the same day Jed lost the mule and when Hi and +his boy, Bud, knocked Jed down in a fight they found fifty dollars on +him in a wad what he won't say where he got it." + +With which concise statement the prosecuting attorney sat down and +fanned his perspiring brow with his ragged felt hat. + +"Got anything to say, Jed?" inquired the judge in a friendly and +leisurely fashion, after the accused had been duly sworn in by the +sheriff. "How come a man like you to let a mule git away from him?" + +With the judge's friendly question there entered another actor on the +scene, in the person of a mountain girl who had been cowering on a bench +just behind Jed, her face hidden by a black calico split bonnet. + +"Please lemme tell, Jed," she pleaded in a soft whisper that only father +and I heard, as we sat just behind her. + +"Naw," was the one word he gave her, but it was spoken with a soft +little purr in his husky voice. Then he answered the judge with a kind +of quiet dignity, which I saw that the twelve booted jurymen listened to +with respect. + +"Jedge," he said, with a stern look into the judge's face, "I reckon +you'll have to send me down to the pen. I let that mule git away from me +and I didn't steal or sell him; that is all I got to say." And he sat +down. I felt father start at my side and then sink back onto his bench. + +"Where did you git the money, Jed?" the judge demanded. + +"That I ain't a-telling," answered Jed determinedly. "Jest send me down +to the pen, fer you-all know all you'll ever know." + +"Well, Jed," the judge was beginning to say in an argumentative tone of +voice, when father arose and stepped in front of the bench. + +"May it please your honor to appoint a counsel for the defense?" he +asked in a ringing voice that brought all the outsiders crowding into +the door. I had never heard or seen my father in a court room and I had +never suspected him of the resonant silver voice with which he made his +demand. + +"We ain't got a lawyer in Hicks Center but Jim Handy here, and he can't +prosecute and defend too. I always kinder looks out fer the prisoners +myself," answered the judge. + +"Then may I offer myself to the prisoner to conduct his defense?" father +demanded, and he looked over at Jed, who in turn looked at Mr. Goodloe +before he nodded. + +"Then shoot ahead, stranger. Jim have told all they is about it, but +you can have Hi and Bud Turner sworn in and git any more they have got +to say. Them men speaks truth when they speaks." At which statement +every good man and true nodded his head with firm conviction. A gaunt +old mountaineer who sat over by the window cleared his throat in an +embarrassment that marked him as the Hiram Turner alluded to. + +"I don't think I shall need the testimony of Mr. Turner or his son," +father answered quietly, as he stood tall and straight before the jury. +"I want to put Mr. Bangs' wife on the witness stand and question her +before the jury. Sheriff, call Mrs. Bangs." + +"Naw, stranger, naw," said Jed, and he rose as if to combat, but Mr. +Goodloe laid a restraining hand on his arm, and trembling, he took his +seat. + +"Don't tell nothing, honey," he whispered, as the girl rose from her +bench, laid aside her cavernous black bonnet and advanced, took the oath +administered by the sheriff and stood facing father. + +"Now, Mrs. Bangs," said father, with silvery tenderness in his voice +which I felt sure had gained him the reputation of never having lost a +case in which a woman was involved, "I want you to tell us all that +happened on the day that Jed let the mule escape him. Look at me and +tell me all about it." + +"Well, stranger," began the mountain girl, with a look of confidence +coming into her face that was like a little pink wide-open arbutus, "I +reckon you won't believe me--like Jed didn't at first, though he do +now." + +"Don't tell, honey," the prisoner commanded and implored in the one +plea. "I'd rather take the pen. They won't believe you." + +"It war this way," she continued, without seeming to hear the command of +her young husband, upon whose arm the parson again laid a restraining +hand. "Jed he had unhitched the team and tied them with their rope +halters to the fence 'fore our cabin, when it was almost dark 'fore we +got thar. Then while I was unpacking the wagon he got on one horse and +rid down the side of the gulch to see whar water was at. I was jest +takin' the things in when a man come along leading five mules and riding +on one. He was a city stranger in fine clothes and he asked me fer a +meal because he had lost his way from a man who had a tent and grub. My +mammy allus cooked fer strangers, so--" + +"She shore do that," ejaculated Mr. Turner, proud of his noted +hospitality. + +"So I made up a fire hasty in the yard and put on a coffee pot," the +girl continued. "I had some corn pone and bacon my mammy had give me fer +a snack and I het that up. Whilst I got the meal the stranger he went on +unloading our wagon and then he come to a bundle of bed quilts what my +mammy have been saving fer me from her mammy and her grandmammy. He took +a notion to them and ast me how old they was and I told him about as old +as any twenty-inch cedar on Old Harpeth. He asked me to trade 'em, but I +couldn't abear to until he had riz to fifty dollars, what was the price +of a young mule, all on account of his sister wanting quilts like them +up in a big city. I was kinder crying quiet at letting 'em go, but I +thought about what that mule would be to Jed who wuz so good to me, so I +give 'em to him and he tied 'em on his saddle and went away. It war most +a hour when Jed come and when I told him and showed him the money, he +didn't believe me about them old quilts and he tooken the rope from +around the neck of the mule he'd been riding and--" + +She paused here in her story and put her scarlet flower face in her +hands, while Jed groaned and dropped his own face down upon his arm. The +old judge's face took on a grim sternness, the jury stopped whittling +and the face of every woman in the court room gazed upon the girl with +stern unbelieving accusation. + +"Go on, now, honey, but they won't believe you," commanded Jed with a +sob. + +"Your husband took the rope from around the neck of the mule and left +him untied?" asked father gently. + +"What fer, Melissa?" asked the old judge, without gentleness or any show +of confidence in what the shrinking woman was saying. + +"To beat me with. He war crazed mad and called me a name, but I don't +hold it ag'in him," answered the young wife, with a glance at the +cowering prisoner. + +"He done right," calmly announced one of the twelve good men and true, +in the muddy boots and flannel shirt, and every mountain woman in the +court room nodded her head in approval of the pronouncement. + +"Order in the court room. You all shet up and listen," commanded the +judge, as father looked around the room and then at him with a stern +demand for control of the situation. + +"Then what happened, Mrs. Bangs?" father continued to question. + +"I hollered and fought and skeered the mule off into the big woods where +he can't be found to keep my husband out of the pen," she answered with +a sob. "It took me a week to make him believe about them quilts and then +pappy come along and fought him about the mule and found the money, as +he claimed he sold the mule fer what was the quilt money." + +"That will do. Thank you, Mrs. Bangs," said father, with the same +deference and tenderness he had used when he began to question her. +"Does the prosecution wish to question the witness?" + +"They ain't no use of questioning her when she says a man give her fifty +dollars fer five old quilts," was the answer made by the young +prosecuting attorney, who did not rise to his feet to make this remark. + +"Please ask Mrs. Bangs if the quilts were woven ones of three colors, +and then call me to the stand," I said to father quickly. + +He put the question to the weeping young wife and got an affirmative +answer, after which he dismissed her and had the sheriff swear me in. + +"Can you throw any light upon the matter of the purchase or sale of +these quilts, Miss Powers?" father questioned me formally. + +"If they were old hand-woven, herb-dyed, knitted quilts, they are worth +fifty dollars apiece in New York to-day. I paid that for one not five +months ago," I said, staring haughtily into the calmly doubting faces of +the mountaineers in the jury box and on the benches. + +"Do you want to question the witness?" my father asked of the indolent +young prosecutor. + +"Don't know who she is and don't believe she is telling the truth," was +the laconic refusal of the prosecutor to let me influence his case. + +"Well, now, Jim, Parson Goodloe here brought the gal along with him and +I reckon he can character witness for her," interposed the judge. +"Sheriff, swear in the parson." His command was duly executed. + +"Mr. Goodloe, do you consider Miss Powers a woman who can be depended +upon to speak the truth?" father asked him formally. + +"I do," the Reverend Mr. Goodloe answered quietly, and just for a second +a gleam from his eyes under their dull gold brows shot across the +distance to me, and if it hadn't all been so serious I should have +laughed with glee at his thus having to declare himself about my +character in public. But the next moment the situation became much more +serious and my heart positively stopped still as I seemed to see prison +doors close upon the young husband. + +"Do you want to question the witness?" father asked of the lolling young +prosecutor. + +"How long have you known the lady, Parson?" he asked, with a drawl and +one eye half closed. + +There was an intense silence in the court room for almost a minute. Then +the Reverend Mr. Gregory Goodloe answered calmly: + +"Three days." + +"That might be long enough fer a parson, but it ain't fer a jury," the +young attorney answered, and there was a quizzical kindness in the old +judge's face as he smiled at Mr. Goodloe and shook his head. + +Mr. Goodloe started to speak, but father waved him back to his seat, +turned to the judge and jury and began the most wonderful speech on the +subject of circumstantial evidence and ethical law that I have ever +heard. His beautiful deep voice was as clear as a bell and twenty years +seemed to have fallen from his shoulders. I was looking at and listening +to the man he had been before I was born. And when I could tear my eyes +from his radiant face I watched these stolid mountaineers with whom he +was working his will with a power they had never experienced before and +did not understand. The men in the jury box and the men on the hewn +benches dropped their eyes before his flaming ones as he shamed their +censorious manhood and some of the sun-bonneted women bent their heads +and sobbed when he arraigned them for the lack of motherhood and +sisterhood for the poor young wife who had come over the Ridge to live +among them. + +"Would you men and women rather believe a girl light of love and +faithless, and send your neighbor to prison for two years of his young +life when he could mean much to you and his state and his nation, than +to give them a little human sympathy and justice. Do you prefer to pin +your faith to the value of a worthless, vagrant mule than--" + +But just here, when Judge Nickols Morris Powers was winding himself up +for one of the greatest appeals to a jury he had ever made, a mule +stepped into the case and took away the honor of its winning. He poked +his inquisitive nose into a back window of the court room which looked +out upon the edge of the big woods, and gave the whole assemblage a +hew-haw of derision. + +"Lordy mighty, that are Pete come back hisself with all the curkles in +the big woods sticking to him!" exclaimed Hiram Turner, as he rose and +went to examine his property. "He wasn't sold to no mule man, fer they +crops the hair on their hoofs to see if they's healthy 'fore they buys. +This here frees Jed." + +"And now that you gentlemen have the testimony of a mule, will you not +believe the word of Mrs. Bangs and Miss Powers about the valuable +quilts?" my father said, after he had commanded silence by raising his +hand. + +"We shore do believe every word of it, stranger, and you won this here +case and not that mule," a stern old sister in a gingham apron and black +bonnet said, with a commanding glance at the jury. + +"Yes, stranger," answered the hoary old foreman, whom to this day I +believe to be the meek husband of the commanding old woman in the black +bonnet. "I have done got the mind of the jury and they all voted fer you +and not the mule." + +"I hereby gives that mule to Jed Bangs and my daughter, Melissa, and +I'll knock off a half on the price of his teammate to Jed if he gives me +his fergiveness and hern," old Hiram rose and turned with his hand on +the forelock of the mule hero to say to the assembled court room. "Go +around and halter him quick, Jed, 'fore he breaks away again, the durned +fool," he added in another voice. + +"Yes, prisoner, you are declared free, and hurry to ketch him, fer he's +straining ag'inst Hiram," was the judge's sentence, delivered from the +bench as everybody rose and began to stream out to watch the tussle +between Jed and the wild mule. Father and the parson were among the +first to gain the door. + +In the next few minutes I found that some of the shy mountain women were +beginning to hover about me, and in another ten minutes I had laid the +foundations of an export rug and quilt business that I have a feeling +will thrive greatly. + +"Were you arrested because your mother told you not to sell the quilts?" +was Charlotte's sympathetic question to the young Mrs. Bangs; and I saw +the mite take a clean handkerchief from her small pink pocket and apply +it to the tears that were coursing down Melissa's cheeks over the +dimples which her smiling mouth was putting in their way. "Just be a +good girl and God will forgive you," she comforted further, nestling a +dirty pink cheek, which rubbed off, against Melissa's wet one. + +"And I asked if she were totally depraved, less than an hour ago," I +apologized to my name daughter in my heart. + +All the way home I sat beside father, and once I laid a timid hand in +his, through whose fingers the pride I had in him must have flowed into +his. He flushed for a second and then was pale again. + +"You can't put new wine in old bottles, daughter," he said sadly, as he +glanced down into the valley. The car was running smoothly, slowly and +noiselessly around a sharp curve, and the Reverend Mr. Goodloe both +heard and answered the sad axiom. + +"The finest wine mellows in casks and is then bottled free of dregs, +Judge. I think the wine of life is of that vintage," he said, with one +of his radiant smiles that I could see fairly warm father from his +paleness. + +"I wonder just what he meant by 'the wine of life,'" I asked myself as I +went to say good night to Old Harpeth after I put out my light before +going to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HAVING IT OUT + + +"Well, of course, we knew Nickols would follow you, Charlotte, but we +did hope to have you all to ourselves for more than just a week," moaned +Nell Morgan, as we all sat on the front porch of the Poplars in the warm +spring sunlight several mornings after I had told them of Nickols' +arrival on Friday, which announcement had come in the midnight telegram. +I winced at the words "follow you," and then smiled at the absurdity of +the little shudder. + +"Yes, Nickols will be absorbing, but we can all sit hard on him and +perhaps put him in his place," responded Letitia Cockrell, as she drew a +fine thread through a ruffle she was making to adorn some part of the +person of one of Nell's progeny. "I do not believe in ever allowing a +man to take more than his share of a woman's time." + +"Do you use grocery scales or a pint cup to measure out Cliff Gray's +daily portion of yourself, Letitia?" asked Harriet Henderson, with a +very sophisticated laugh in which Nell joined with a little giggle. +Harriet was appliqueing velvet violets on a gray chiffon scarf and was +doing it with the zest of the newly liberated. Roger Henderson had had a +lot of money that, in default of a will, the law gave mostly to Harriet, +but in life he had not had the joy of seeing her spend it that he might +have had if he could have gazed back from placid death. "Do you make the +same allowance of affection to him in the light of the moon that you do +in the dark?" she further demanded of the serene Letitia. + +"Well, he doesn't have to see his share divided up into bits and handed +out to the other men," was the serene answer to Harriet's gibe and which +was pretty good for Letitia. + +"My dear child," declaimed Harriet, as she poised a purple violet on the +end of her needle, "don't ever, ever make the mistake of letting one of +the creatures know just what is coming to him. Isn't that right, Nell?" + +"Yes, and it is pretty hard to keep them in a state of uncertainty +about you when there are four certain children between you, but I go +over to visit my mother at Hillsboro as often as she'll have the caravan +and plead with Billy Harvey or Hampton Dibrell to keep me out until I'm +late for dinner every time they pick me up for a little charitable spin. +That and other deceptions have kept Mark Morgan uncertainly happy so +far, but if I am pushed to the wall I'll--I'll go to the Reverend Mr. +Goodloe's study for ministerial counsel like you did last Friday +afternoon, Harriet," was Nell's contribution to the discussion, which +she delivered over the head of the Suckling on her breast. + +"Now how did you get hold of that choice bit of scandal, Nellie?" asked +Harriet, with serene interest as she bit off a tag of purple silk thread +from the stem of one of her violets. + +"Billy Harvey says that scandal is a yellow pup that dogs a parson's +heels, to which everybody throws some kind of bone," remarked Jessie. +Jessie always vigorously represses Billy in his own presence and then +quotes him eternally when he is absent. + +"Mother Spurlock had come over from the Settlement to see him about the +state of the treasury of the Mothers' Aid Class, and she stopped in to +get a bundle of clothes I had for her," Nell answered Harriet's +question. "She said she didn't mind the hour lost if the parson could +give a 'wee bit of comfort' to your 'wrestling' soul. I didn't like to +tell her that I thought it might be Mr. Goodloe who was wrestling--for +life and liberty--for you and I have been friends since we could toddle, +Harriet, but it was temptation to share my anxiety with her." And +serenely Nellie patted the back of the drowsing Suckling. + +"Wrong this time, Nell," answered Harriet, as she placed still another +violet. "I was doing the wrestling, but I went to the mat. I gave up +twenty-five dollars and took the directorship of that Mothers' Aid. +Never having been a mother, I pointed out to him that I was not exactly +qualified, but he laid stress upon my energy and business acumen and I +gave up. I mentioned you for the honor, but those marvelous eyes of his +glowed with some sort of inner warmth and he said that you had all you +could do and would need help from me just as the women at the Settlement +do. I'm going to present your Susan with a frock out of that linen and +real Valenciennes I bought in the city last week for a blouse for my own +self, and I'm going to give the making to that little Burns woman, who +sews so beautifully and cheaply to support her seven offspring, while +Mr. Burns supports 'The Last Chance' saloon down at the end of the road. +In that way I'll be aiding two of Mr. Goodloe's flock at the same time, +and when I told him my decision he laughed and said be sure and have it +made two inches shorter than you made Sue's frocks, because her bare +knees ought not to be hid from the world. That was about all that +transpired in the whole hour of spiritual conference you are spreading +the scandal about, and you ought to be ashamed." + +Suddenly something in me made me determine to have it out with those +four women and see what results I could get. I felt thirsty for +knowledge of the wellsprings of other people's lives. + +"Harriet," I demanded, "just why did you join Mr. Goodloe's church?" + +"Let's see," answered Harriet, as she poised a violet and gave herself +up to introspection. + +"Mr. Goodloe?" I asked squarely, and my honesty drew its spark from +hers. + +"Mostly," she answered briefly. "And I believe in the church as an +institution," she added, with honest justice to herself. + +"I think it is absolutely horrid of you to ask a question like that, +Charlotte," said Nell, as she turned the fretting Suckling over on her +knee and began another series of pats. "We all of us went to church and +Sunday school when we were children." + +"Up to the time I left, not a single one of you ever had gone to church +with any kind of regularity and not a one of you had ever supported its +institutions. I've been here less than a week and each one of you has in +some way shown me how bored you are with the relation. That's all the +case I have against your or any church--just that the members are bored. +Also, do any of you get any help in your daily lives, aside from the +emotional pleasure it is to you to hear your minister sing twice a week, +which would be as great or greater if he sang love and waltz songs from +light opera for you?" + +And as I asked my question I looked quickly from one to the other of the +four women seated with me under the roof of the Poplars and tried to +search out what was in their hearts. I knew them and their lives with +the cruel completeness it is given to friends to know each other in +small towns like Goodloets and I could probe with a certain touch. And +as they all sat silent with me, each one driven to self-question by my +demand, I threw the flash of a searchlight into each of them. These are +some of the things that stood out in the illumination: + +Harriet Henderson has always been in love with Mark Morgan, since her +shoe-top-dress days, and she married Roger Henderson because Mark was as +poor as she before the Phosphate Company gave him his managership. Nell +and the babies are the nails driven in her heart every day and she loves +them all passionately. She is only twenty-eight and life will be long +for her. She needs help to live it. Whence will the help come? + +Nell married Mark when she was eighteen and has produced a result every +year and a half since. She loves him mildly and he loves her after a +fashion, but her endurance is wearing thin. His mother had seven +children and he thinks that an ideal number, though she was one +generation nearer the pioneer woman and also had a nurse trained in +slavery who was a wizard with children. Mark wants to have a lot of joy +of life and so far he drags poor exhausted Nell with him. It is a +question how long she can stand the social pace and the over-production. +What is going to help her when she breaks down? How will she hold him +faithful while she rears and trains all the kiddies? Where will she get +spirit to love him and work out their salvation? Also Harriet is always +there. Something will have to help Nell. What? + +Billy loves Nell and doesn't know it. He loved her before she was +married. The children make him rage superficially and burn inwardly. He +gambles and drinks, but is honest and adorable. What is going to make a +real man of him? + +Jessie Litton's mother died in a private sanitarium for the mentally +unbalanced and she knows all about it. She loves Hampton Dibrell and +never looks in his direction or is a moment alone with him. He is in the +unattached state of ease where any woman can get him if she cares to +try, and Jessie has to keep her hands behind her. + +Letitia is serenely happy with not a dark corner that I know of. She +loves Cliff Gray and always will. Cliff is faithful and as good as gold, +but he will hang around Jessie, who encourages him, because she is +lonely and considers him safely tied up with Letitia. Mr. Cockrell is +the best lawyer in town and Mrs. Cockrell the most devoted wife and +mother. I can only feel that Letitia Cockrell needs a jolt and I don't +see where it is coming from. + +And I? I am lonely. And I feel that the constant anxiety about father is +more than I can bear, worse now when I realize what he has been and +could be--and that I love him. He is the hardest drinker in Goodloets +and yet never is drunk. He is soaked from the beginning of one day to +another. He began to drink like that the day my mother died and I have +always known that _I_ was helpless to help him. The weakness was in him, +only supported by her strength so long as she was there. He was the most +brilliant mind in the state, and was one of the supreme judges when +mother died. Now Mr. Cockrell manages his business for him and I have +lately come to know that I must sit by and watch him disintegrate. I +cannot endure it now, as I have been doing. What is going to help me in +this--shame for him? I have gone away to my mother's people to forget +and left him to Dabney, and I've come home--to begin the suffering all +over. I'll never leave him again. What's going to help me? + +And there is something deeper--a race something that fairly eats the +heart out of my pride. On almost every page of the history of the +Harpeth Valley the name of Powers occurs. One Powers man has been +governor of the state, and there have been two United States congressmen +and a senator of our house. Father is the last of the line. Because race +instinct is the strongest in women, I am the one who suffers as I see my +family die out. What is going to help me? A few gospel hymns in a tenor +voice the like of which I should have to pay at least three dollars to +hear in the Metropolitan? The scene on the porch rose in my mind, but I +felt that I both doubted and feared such succor. + +And I am in still deeper depths. Nickols is the son of father's first +cousin, and has father's full name, Nickols Morris Powers, and he is the +last of his branch of the house. Father loves him and is proud of him +and nothing ever enters his mind except that I will marry Nickols and +start the family all over again. And this is the tragedy. I love Nickols +and am entirely unsatisfied with him. He is the Whistler nocturne that +my Sorolla nature demands, and he eternally makes me hold out my hand to +grasp--nothing. He stands just beyond. I am unable to decide whether he +does or does not love me. In New York he lives his life among the +artists and fashionable people with whom his highly successful +profession throws him, and I don't see why he cares to come back here +where he was born and reared, in pursuit of a woman like me. I am as +elemental as a shock of wheat back on one of father's meadows and +Nickols is completely evolved. He laughs at race pride and resents mine. +For six months I had been in New York living with Aunt Clara in Uncle +Jonathan Van Eyek's old house down on Gramercy just to go into Nickols' +life with him. I went about in the white lights of both Murray Hill and +Greenwich Village for about one hundred and eighty-five evenings, and +then I fled back to my garden and the poplars--and my anxiety. I thought +I had come home to be free and I found the same old chains. And then +had come Nickols' telegram of pursuit in the midnight after I had stood +by in the shadow and watched a strong man pray and a weak man battle +with himself. I was frightened, frightened at the future, and what was +going to help me? + +"I don't actually understand a word of Gregory Goodloe's sermons, really +understand them, I mean, but it helps me to see that somebody truly +believes that there is something somewhere that will straighten out +tangles--in life as well as thread." + +Harriet broke in on my still hunt into my own and other people's inner +shrines as she snapped a bit of tangled purple silk thread, knotted it +and began all over again on the violet. + +"I don't care what he preaches about--he's soothing and I need a little +repose in my life after--Oh, what is the matter now?" And as she +finished speaking Nell Morgan arose and went with the Suckling asquirm +in her arms to meet the large noise that was arriving down the front +walk. + +The delegation was headed by young Charlotte, whose blue eyes flamed +across a very tip-tilted nose that bespoke mischief. Jimmy stolidly +brought up the rear with small Sue clinging loyally to his dirty little +paddie, which she only let go to run and bury her cornsilk topknot in +Harriet's outspread arms, where she was engulfed into safety until only +the most delicious dimpled pink knees protruded above dusty white socks +and equally dusty white canvas sandals. Though within a few months of +four, Sue had discovered Harriet, and never failed to take advantage of +her. + +"What is the matter?" again demanded Nell, as the vocal chords of +Charlotte ceased reverberating and her countenance resumed a more normal +color and expression. + +"A rock flew and the minister's window got broked." Charlotte gave forth +this announcement with a diplomacy that might have been admirable +exerted in a juster cause. + +"Who had the rock?" demanded the mother sternly. + +"Jimmy," was the decided answer, given with a threatening glance at the +son of the house of Morgan, who quailed in his socks and sandals and +began an attempt to screw one of his toes under one of the flagstones of +the walk. I knew in an instant that that rock had never left the hand of +small James, but the clash of Nell's wits with young Charlotte is so +constant that at times the maternal ones are dulled. The accused must +have psychically scented my sympathy, for he lifted large, scared, +pleading eyes to mine for a brief second and then dropped them again. I +went to the rescue. + +"Sue, who broke the window?" I asked, as I extricated the four-year-old +witness from Harriet's chiffon and violets. I doubted if young Susan had +attained the years of prevarication as yet. I was right. + +"Tarlie," was the positive answer. "Boom--book--crk!" was the graphic +description of the crash she added as she squirmed back among the +violets and the needles and the thread. + +"Charlotte!" exclaimed Nell, in real despair. + +"Jimmy did have the rock in his pocket, and he just lent it to me to +throw at a bird right above the window. It was a nice round one, and he +brought it from home to see if he could kill anything. It most killed +the minister, and the rock is a little bluggy. Isn't it, Jimmy? He's +got it in his pocket for keeps." + +"Yes," answered young James, with the brevity with which he usually made +responses to the loquacity of his sister. + +"Do you mean that you hit Mr. Goodloe, as well as broke the window?" +demanded Nell in still more horror, as she came down two of the front +steps. + +"He didn't mind," answered Charlotte. "He liked it, because he made us +both learn a verse of a hymn to sing for punish, and Sue can sing it, +too. Come on, Sue!" and before any of us could recover from our horror +at the violence the young parson had suffered at the hands of the +marauders, Charlotte had lined the other two up on either hand and begun +her exhibition of the benefit arising from the throwing of the rock. It +was a very good example of the good that may result from evil, which is +one of the puzzling reverses of one of the Christian tenets. + + "'Work, for the night is coming, + Work through the morning hours, + Work while the dew is sparkling, + Work 'mid springing flowers,'" + +trilled Charlotte in a high, buzzy young voice, while Jimmy piped in a +few notes lower. Baby Sue's little, clear jumble of words in perfect +tune was so bewitchingly sweet that Harriet again engulfed her, while +the outraged mother, not so easily beguiled, sailed down the steps and +around through the garden toward the chapel, driving the two older +offenders before her to the scene of the crime. + +"Who is going to help Nell train up liars and murderers into good +citizens?" I asked myself in my depths, as I joined with the others in +the admiring laugh at young Charlotte's dramatic powers. + +"Mr. Goodloe is the most wonderful thing I ever saw with kiddies," said +Jessie Litton, as she rose to her feet to begin leave-taking. "Yes, I +must go, for father expects me to luncheon," she added, at my +remonstrance. + +"I'm going to kidnap Sue while I can, and I may never bring her back. I +must fly!" said Harriet, and she departed hastily to the small roadster +she had parked beside the gate. "Come on, Letitia, and let me take you +home," she called over her shoulder, and Letitia followed to secure the +short spin around the corner to the old Cockrell home, which was set +back from the street behind a tall hedge of waxy-leaved Cherokee roses. +Thus almost in the twinkling of an eye I was left alone, which state, +however, did not last more than a few seconds, for around the corner of +the house from the chapel, from which direction the whole world seemed +to be going or coming, arrived Mrs. Elsie Spurlock, beaming the welcome +to me that had always found a ready response. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +DEEP DIGGING + + +And in another twinkling of eyes, both of mine and hers, I had taken her +bundle from her, seated her in the largest rocking chair, and she had +untied her bonnet strings, which denoted that she had come for a genuine +visit. + +"Well, dearie, dearie me, the sight of you is good for tired eyes, +Charlotte," she bumbled in her rich, deep old voice. As she spoke she +tucked a white wisp of a curl back into place beneath the second water +wave that protruded from under the little white widow's ruche in her +bonnet and continued to beam at me. "I met Nellie Morgan and her +Annarugans hurrying to pray a pardon from Mr. Goodloe for that rock +which might have killed him, if thrown an inch to the right, instead of +only nicking that yellow head of his, the Lord be praised!" + +"What was that same Lord doing when he let the rock fly from +Charlotte's hand to within an inch of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's life, +Mother Spurlock?" I asked her, with the old warfare over the same old +subject rising at the very first minute of our meeting. I have wondered +sometimes in the last few years if the wrestling with me over her faith +was not ordained for the purpose of strengthening Mother Spurlock's +powers of patient argument. She is the only person in the world to whom +I speak from the depths, and the relief of her sweetened and seasoned +wisdom is the straw at which I often clutch to save myself. + +"I surmise that He guided the hand of that child so that the verse of +the hymn, and the chastisement of the rod I hope Nellie will inflict, +might work together for her good. All of us must at times let a little +blood for another's good--heart's blood, very often, not just that from +our scalps or shins." And as she answered me without a moment's +hesitation she enveloped me in loving question. "Are you always going to +occupy the anxious seat in front of the Lord, child? Still, sit as long +as you like and go on questioning Him. You'll find the answer." + +"The whole town seems to have gone into your fold and left me on the +'anxious seat' alone," I answered, as I drew my chair nearer to her and +took her lined, strong old hand in mine. + +"That Billy Harvey passes the collection plate up the aisle on Sunday +and plays poker all Saturday night till Sunday morning down at the Last +Chance, in a room in front of the one in which poor Pat Burns, who +carries a hod for his money, loses his all. Mary Burns sews all day and +half the night to feed him and the children, but she puts her pittance +into Billy's plate every Sunday, and I know that she gets the strength +to go on from day to day from the words that come from the same pulpit +he sets the plate behind. That is, we call the table out at your Country +Club a pulpit, until we get our own in the chapel from which to praise +the Lord. So you see that there are some sheep who have a taint of goat +hair in their wool still left--I won't say with you--out in the world. +And speaking of that world, have you come back to say good-bye to us?" + +"I don't know yet, Mother Spurlock," I answered her candidly. "I ran +away from that world, but it is coming after me on Friday." + +"You'll be sent into the vineyard where you are most needed, and there +you'll serve," she said, with a far-away look coming into her eyes as +she let her glances roam out to the dim hills of Paradise Ridge. A flood +of love and reverence rose in my heart for her as I sat quiet and let +her spirit roam. Mother Spurlock had been the gayest young matron in +Goodloets, living in the great old Spurlock home with handsome, +rollicking young George Spurlock for a husband, and three babies around +her knees, and in one short year she had been left with only one large +and three tiny graves out in the placid home of the dead, beyond the +river bend. The babies had been taken by that relentless child foe, +diphtheria, and young George, reckless with grief, had let a half-broken +horse break his neck. The young woman, aged by her grief, had sold the +great house to the next of kin and moved down into an old brick cottage +that sat "beside the road" in a gnarled old apple orchard, and had +become the "friend to man." Through the orchard and past the door of the +Little House ran the path that led from the Settlement to the Town, and +through her heart and hands flowed most of the love and charity that +bound the rich and poor, brother to brother. Mother Spurlock was never +without a bundle in which she carried labor of the poor sold for the +gold of the rich, or gifts from the rich back to the needy. I thought of +all the long years of service in the vineyard into which her tragedy had +thrown her, and I bent and picked up the bundle at our feet and held it +with reverent hands. + +"Just a few baby things that Nellie Morgan gave me to fix up a poor +little Mother Only in the village," she came back from her reverie to +say cheerfully, as she saw me with the bundle in my hand. Mother +Spurlock always refers to the children without the sanction of the law +for their birth as the Mother Onlies, and somehow, when she speaks it, +the name carries a world of tenderness into the heart of the hearer. + +"Whose now?" I asked her gently, because in a way Mother Spurlock and I +bore one another's burdens of spirit. + +"Hattie Garrett's, and it's a week old now. It is one of the saddest +things that ever happened in the village, and we none of us understand. +You remember, she taught the district school down in the Settlement." + +"As none of us understood about Martha Ensley. Is that all a mystery +still?" I asked, and I stroked the bundle of tiny garments. + +"Yes, and now she's gone nobody knows where, day before yesterday. +Jacob, her father, was rough and violent with her, but only from grief, +and she forgave all that. I'm troubled sorely, for she is gentle, and +not one to fight the world alone. She must have gone to the city, the +good Lord help her!" + +"He will--He is," I answered quickly, then stopped because I knew I must +not tell what I had overheard--should I say in the confessional? + +"Praise God! to hear you speak such words. Sometimes a body's faith gets +out of her heart past her mind and proclaims itself before the higher +criticism gets a chance to throttle it," the invincible old warrior +exclaimed with a delighted twinkle in her young blue eyes at having +caught me with religious goods on me. "He will, He will take _care_ of +us all, not that He doesn't expect us to put in about sixteen hours of +the day helping Him to do it for ourselves and others. That reminds me +that I seem to be growing to this chair. Luella May Spain has got a nice +place to work in the telegraph station with Mr. Pate, and if she's to +look neat she needs a few white shirt waists. I _could_ get them in this +bundle. If I get too many things from you and Harriet this morning to +carry myself, Hampton will take me down the hill in his car when he goes +to lunch, not that I wouldn't be frightened to death to ride with him +except on the Lord's mission." + +"Do you think that fact would keep Hampton from being run down by +Harriet when she cuts corners bias, as she insists on doing?" I asked, +as I started in the door to procure the toilet necessaries to Luella +May's telegraphic career, whether it devastated my supply of tennis +clothes or not. Nothing that any woman or any member of her family in +Goodloets wears or eats is secure from Mother Spurlock, and we have all +submitted to the fact with the greatest docility. + +"I know it does; and three shirt waists will be enough if you add a neat +black belt," was the answer that followed me through the hall. "Bless +my life, Nickols Powers, I was glad to see you at prayer meeting last +week, even if you and William Cockrell were just caught up out at your +Club in your chess game," I heard her exclaim, to draw a laughing answer +in father's most genial rumble. Then I heard him call loudly for Dabney, +and when Sallie descended with my bundle, that contained a complete +telegraphic outfit for Luella May which showed a decided leaning to +tennis style, she met Dabney on the front threshold with a rough parcel +from which I saw a shirt sleeve and a blue serge trouser leg protrude. + +"Thank you, Nickols. Since his accident, Bill Hanks has thinned out to +just about your size. Now he can go back to his job neatly and +respectably clad," Mother Spurlock was saying. + +"The citizens of Goodloets had better take the habit of wearing a double +suit of clothing for fear of having Elsie Spurlock strip them in public +to beyond the law," father grumbled in great pleasure, after he had +packed her and her bundles in Hampton's car. Father always calls Mother +Spurlock "Elsie," and once or twice I have seen a faint blush creep to +her cheeks and a glint flash from her eyes, but he blandly goes on +doing it. I wonder-- + +"Father," I said, as we went slowly up the front walk together, "Nickols +will be here on Friday; will you have Dabney get his rooms in the north +wing ready for him? He likes that light, and he can use the long green +room for a studio when he sketches." + +"That's good," answered father heartily. He likes Nickols and Nickols +manages him beautifully, by giving him all he wants to drink whenever he +suggests it, even introducing him to new Manhattan beverages. There is +perpetual war between Dabney, who knows father's nervous limit, and +Nickols, who doesn't care just as long as things and human beings that +surround him are kept pleasant. It is all right for the rest of the +world to have delirium tremens, just so they do it out of his sight and +hearing. + +"I wonder just what Nickols will think of Goodloe," father added, with a +slightly strained laugh. "You thought he would be enraged at Goodloe and +me for building the chapel and weeding the garden. Perhaps he will be +unhappy." + +"I don't believe your weeding would make anybody unhappy, father," I +answered with a laugh, choosing to ignore the issue of the building of +the chapel until Nickols was upon the scene and we could decide just +what to do. + +"Been over the whole garden twice and eaten several meals in the sweat +of my brow--that is, I took a cold shower before coming to the table, my +daughter," father said, and he looked ashamed of himself for being proud +of his own spurt of normality. I caught my breath, but I was wise enough +not to show my astonishment. "Goodloe is the most insinuating person I +ever met, and I advise you to be careful. He makes men do just as he +wants them to, and I should say that women would eat out of his hand." + +"I suppose I ought to eat a bite or two from his fingers to pay for all +the work he has got out of you and Dabney. I never saw the garden so +beautiful or so early. Look, father, the peonies are budding, two weeks +ahead of their usual time!" + +"They'd be damned ungrateful not to grow industriously, after the way +Dab and I have sprained our old backs spading and feeding them according +to spiritual direction that stood over us with a rake," answered +father, with proud if profane enthusiasm. There was a faint pink glow in +his haggard, thin cheeks, and he took from his pocket a huge knife I had +never seen him use before and began carefully to cut away a few dead +twigs from a budding rose vine. + +"Your mother always put a rose from this vine at my plate for breakfast, +and you got yours from that pink bush over there by the sun dial," he +said, with a softness in his voice that I had not heard since my tenth +summer, in which my mother had died. I tingled all over, but held on to +myself. + +"You go tell that old black lazybones to come here with his spade this +minute. I told him about digging in this mulch yesterday before the +dahlias sprouted, and he hasn't done it. I'm not going to do it for him, +like I put the fertilizer around the lilacs, just to save him from +Goodloe. Tell him to come right here to me, and not to let grass grow in +his shoe tracks," and father picked up a hoe from the walk beside the +neglected dahlias and began doing the work he had just declared against. +I fled around to the kitchen, and something lent wings to my feet. + +"Oh, Dab, what does it mean that father is really taking an interest in +the garden?" I demanded of the faithful old black friend, whom I found +enveloped in a kitchen apron helping his wife bring the dinner to a +serving head. + +"Praise God, his salvation am commenced, if it don't kill me before he +gits it," answered Dab, as he put his hand to his back and groaned. + +"They has been jest one-half a demijohn of devil heart whisky ordered up +outen that cellar in over a month, and I b'lieve this here no account +nigger drunk a pint of that," Mammy added to his answer. "Last month it +was two demijohns they had up, and before that it was three or four. +That parson done it with readin' and talkin' and hoein'. Glory! I wants +to hold my breath and shout at the same time, and I would if I could +trust this pullet in the skillet to either you or Dabney whilst I did +it. The Lord wouldn't listen to no shoutin' from a cook whose chicken +was frying black while she did her praisin'," and as she spoke Mammy +began a low humming, swaying from table to stove with a rhythm in the +swing of her fat body that had a certain dignified beauty to it. It was +crude emotion, and I knew it, but I felt it work in my own body as I +let the significance of what she had told me about the lessening amount +of whiskey father had been consuming add itself to the scene upon the +back porch and sink fully into my consciousness. I don't know what might +have happened to my shouting Methodist grandmother's worldly though +emotional descendant if father's voice, sharp and clear, with a note of +command I had forgotten it possessed, had not interrupted me. + +"Charlotte! Dab!" it called; and we both answered with all speed. + +"That Parson Goodloe have got the power to draw the teeth of seven +devils, and you both consider the words of his mouth or he'll git the +teeth outen yourn," Mammy called after us in ambiguous warning. + +And upon our arrival on the scene of action being executed upon the +dahlias, we found the commander of the devils awaiting us, though in his +hands was no forked instrument of dentistry, but in one he held a large +slice of rye bread thickly spread with butter, and the other was +disarmed by a ripe red apple. As we drew near he finished a direction to +father and took a huge bite out of the slab of bread that left a gap as +wide as one would expect a Harpeth jaguar to make. + +"Harrowing deep makes great growth in all plant life," he was saying +past the slice of bread with agricultural prosiness to father, who had +completely sweated down the very high and stiff collar which he always +wore swathed in a wide tie of black after a Henry Clay cut, in a savage +attack with the hoe upon the mulch that was smothering the dahlias in +richness. + +"Does the same deep digging result hold true in biological and psychic +life?" puffed father, and then he leaned on his hoe and looked up at the +young man towering over him. In his eyes was the appeal of disappointed +age calling to the ideals of flaming strength and youth in the +deep-jeweled eyes that answered with a look of passionate tenderness as +the parson poised the bread for another bite. + +"'Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,' Mr. Powers, is the direct data we +have on that subject," he said. Then he, for the first time, observed +the approach of Dabney and myself, of which his widening smile and the +quick lowering of the slab of rye pone gave notice to father, who +exploded accordingly. + +"You black son-of-a-gun! Why didn't you rake off these dahlias as I told +you to yesterday? Now you get his hide, Parson!" was the greeting that +Dabney received, while I was ignored by all concerned. + +"That hinge in your back rusty again, Dabney?" questioned the parson, +with leonine mildness. + +"I been upsot by my young mistis coming home," answered Dabney, with a +quick glance at me as if to indicate me as a substantial excuse for any +crimes. I stood convicted, for I do use Dabney continually in all my +hospitalities. + +"We understand, Dabney," was the answer he got from the feeding Jaguar, +who gave me that glint of a laugh that I had learned to expect and +to--dread. I knew what he meant to imply, and I also knew that he knew +that I understood that he considered me a disturbing element. Then he +again raised the half-demolished hunk of bread to his mouth, stopped and +regarded the apple in meditative indecision. From head to heels he was +clothed in the most exquisite white flannel and buckskin tennis +clothes, but for all their civilized worldliness he resembled nothing so +much as a feeding king of the forest in the poise of his wonderful head +and equally wonderful body. I glanced quickly at his face with its +gentle, deep, comprehending lines, in positive fear of him, and I found +reassurance in the smile that curled his strong red mouth and glinted at +me from his brilliant eyes under dull gold. Then, after the smile, he +decided for the apple rather than further conversation, and was just +going to set his white teeth in its rosy cheek when I stopped him with +an almost involuntary exclamation. + +"Don't!" I pleaded. "Dinner is just ready, and you'll spoil it if you +eat all that bread and butter and apple." Just exactly a week before, at +almost that exact hour, the Reverend Gregory Goodloe had refused the cup +of tea I had stood holding for him in my hand for five minutes on the +front porch of the Poplars, and I had taken a resolve that never would +he again receive a food invitation from me. I didn't count Mammy's +"snack" eaten on the Harpeth adventure. I didn't understand myself and +my sudden rush of dismay at the idea of a spoiled dinner for him, but I +couldn't stop myself as I added: + +"Mammy has apple dumplings and hard sauce; please don't--I mean please +_do_ come in to dinner with us." + +"Thank you, but as you see I've about dined," he answered me, as with a +laugh he held out his fragments. "Jefferson was feeling badly and I sent +him to bed instead of the parsonage kitchen." Mammy had told me that the +Reverend Mr. Goodloe had taken hers and Dabney's cherished and perfectly +worthless only son as his sole domestic dependence, and Mammy had added +the fact that Jeff had "shot nary crap since the parson rescued him from +the jaw of the jail." + +"Huh," ejaculated Dabney over the hoe he had taken from father and was +using at his direction while father lined the border beside the bed with +his sharp spade. I knew the contempt in his voice was for the illness of +Jefferson, and the Reverend Mr. Goodloe and I both laughed as he took +the last bite of the brown slab and then held out the unbitten side of +the apple to me. + +"You eat your fruit with me, not in dumplings with hard sauce," he said, +and there was a wooing note in his voice as if he pleaded for that +friendliness from me to heal a hurt. + +"No, _I_ won't eat out of your hand," I answered, with a cool emphasis +on the "I." And I looked him straight in the eyes, for I wanted him to +know that I had thoroughly understood his refusal of my invitation +couched so gently, but which I considered in reality haughty and +resentful, especially as I had been his guest in his car. "We'll wait +until you get your shower, father, and not much longer," I said to +father, as I turned and went along the flagstones to the steps that led +to the balcony upon which opened the long windows of the dining room. I +was furious and I was hurt. + +At times I become acutely conscious that I am very imperious, but it is +not entirely my fault. My friends have depended upon my clear head, in +which father's brain seems to work with a kind of feminine vigor, and I +have always felt that the superior force with which I have loved and +cherished them made it all right. I've always stood by them and used +myself mercilessly for their exigencies, and I suppose I have ruled them +as mercilessly. I rarely encounter another will, and to clash into one +as strong as mine drew the sparks of my nature. The blaze was soon over, +but I--smouldered. + +During dinner I was deeply interested in father's plans for my garden, +which brilliantly carried the plans Nickols and I had made to what I saw +in another year would be a marvelously artistic completeness. But under +the joy of hearing him talk as I had never really heard him since I was +old enough to appreciate his scintillating delicious choice of words and +phrases, I was hot and sore at the thought of my duty to render +gratitude where gratitude was due for having him like that. + +"It will be perfectly wonderful, father, and Nickols had not worked it +out to anything like that completeness. He will be wild about it, but +won't it take a lot of money? And where did you get your inspiration?" I +asked the question, though I hated the answer I knew it must receive. + +"The plans are entirely my own," answered father, with a pleased flush +making even brighter his dulled eyes and cheeks, faintly glowing from +the shower at which Dabney had officiated a few minutes before. I had +not failed to notice that we had sat down and were halfway through +dinner and father's hand had not motioned Dabney towards the decanter +and ice and siphon on the sideboard. "I must confess that the +inspiration came from a kind of rage when Goodloe said to me how much it +was to be regretted that all the great gardens in the North are being +made out of a sort of patchwork of English, French, Italian and even +Japanese influences. You couldn't expect anything more of the +inhabitants of the part of the country in the veins of whose people flow +just about that mixture of blood, but in the Harpeth Valley we have been +Americans for two and a half centuries, and I'll show 'em an American +garden if it does unhinge both mine and Dabney's backs and make Cockrell +swear I'm crazy when he audits my accounts once every month. No, Madam, +your own grandmother and great-grandmother, in conjunction with +Goodloe's maternal ancestors, conceived and laid out the beginning of +the great American garden, and we will combine to produce it." + +"What about Nickols' plans?" I asked, trying hard to raise indignation +in my heart and voice at the thought of Nickols Morris Powers' work, +for which the people of wealth in the North were beginning fairly to +clamor, being criticized and laid aside at the inspiration of the +Methodist parson across the lilac hedge. And I succeeded better than I +expected, for I saw father lose color and tremble with his own rage, +which he always quells with drink. + +"That sunken garden is Italian, and I'm going to tear it out and +put--Oh, my daughter; forgive me, but I forgot, in this queer nature +frenzy that has come over me of late and which I do not at all +understand, that the garden is yours, was your mother's and +grandmother's. So far the plans have just been begun, and nothing that +you and Nickols have done--Dabney, pour me three fingers of the 1875 +Bourbon." And in a second I saw father grow white and shaking with +mortification at what he felt to be an unmannerly trespass upon +another's rights. My father has been a drunkard for nearly twenty years, +but he is still a great gentleman. Slowly he drank the whiskey, every +drop of which seemed to go to my heart like cold lead. + +"But, father!" I exclaimed, determined to win him back. Dabney was +putting the silver stopper in the decanter over by the sideboard, and I +thought I saw a sob shake his bent old shoulders as his black hands +trembled. "I'd like to know if I'm not as purely American as you are, +and have I not the same right to want, demand and work for an American +nationalism, even in a garden, as you have? I'll have you know, sir, +that the future of the nation is in the hands of the women. We can +produce pure Americans or let the whole country go hybrid." And as I +spoke I let my temper rise to a point which I hoped would shock father +and take his mind from the decanter and the ice. "I demand that you +allow me to carry out your plans for my garden, and that you help me do +it to the limit of the hinges in your back and Dabney's. And, Dabney, +don't let me hear another word about that hinge until those dahlias are +in bloom. Also get me a half dozen bottles of dynamite to blow out that +Italian garden. I never did like it." + +"Yes'm," answered Dabney, meekly but comprehendingly, for he hastily +flung a napkin over the ice and gently set the decanter back in its +rack. "But dynamite, it comes in sticks and not in bottles. And it +would shake the roots of them old poplars clean most down to hell." + +"How'll we get that sunken garden out, then, father?" I asked, and I saw +the life and color come back to his face in a flood of humor. + +"We might try filling it in," he answered, and then we both laughed at +ourselves, with Dabney joining in. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TRISTAN LOVE SONG + + +After dinner father and I sat out on the porch in the soft, warm breeze +that waved a misty spring moonlight around us, and talked garden until +after ten o'clock. He was brilliant and delightful, but three times he +made trips to ice bowl and decanter on the sideboard. + +"It will be a great relief and happiness to me if Nickols does sanction +and set the seal of artistic approval upon our plans," he said, with +feverish but happy eyes. "You see, Nickols will represent the +cosmopolitan in judgment upon the normally developed insular. I remember +once that Mr. Justice Harlan said that in an opinion on freight rates I +had sent up to him I had represented both the cosmopolitan and the +insular interest with astonishing equity, and I told him that I +considered that it took at least six generations of insular mind culture +to see any kind of national equity. The same thing holds good with a +garden. It takes the sixth generation on a piece of land to produce a +garden, and then it has to be laid out around a library full of the +ideals of poet and scholar. In about three years I can, with your +permission, present the American nation with a garden that will +represent the best ideals of Americans; and I must go to bed if I expect +to get up and hunt the early worm. I can never decide which is the +harder work, the capture of that creature of tradition or the arousing +of Dabney to perform that task. You, Dabney." + +"Yes, sir," came a sleepy groan from just within the door, and in a +second the old black face was lit up with father's candle until the +white wool above shone like a halo as it appeared from out the gloom. +And I sat and watched the two old gentlemen, one black and one white, +toil slowly up the steps and down the wide hall of the Poplars. + +"Father _must_ come back; the nation needs him," I said fiercely under +my breath as I noticed that in Dabney's hand swung the ice bucket where +I had been accustomed to see it swing for years, but which I had not +seen him carry before since I came home. "And that's how _you_ help him +fight to come back," I arraigned myself with bitter scorn. "You have no +faith nor spiritual sources yourself, and you throw him back into +degradation when something is helping him crawl out. What's helping him? +No matter what it is, you are a coward to obstruct it." + +And for a long hour I sat thus raging at myself and questioning +hopelessly, while the young moon rose higher and higher over the tops of +the silvery poplars and young spring slipped about in the lights and +shadows, invisible except for perfumed wreathings of gossamer mist. +Above, I heard father pacing up and down his rooms, slowly, almost +feebly. Sometimes he would hesitate; then I would hear him stop beside +the window, where I knew the ice bowl and the decanter were placed upon +a table which had stood beside the head of his bed so burdened since my +early childhood. I had always dreaded his moroseness and instinctively +felt the cause of it. I had never really loved him until just the last +few days, and now I felt my love rise in a tide that threatened to +overwhelm me. + +"Oh, I found him, and now I've thrown him away," I sobbed to myself. +Then, as I sat listening, I heard the faltering steps come out into the +hall above, descend the steps one by one, go through the dark dining +room groping pitifully, and down the side steps out into the beloved +garden. Silently I watched the tall figure with the white hair silvered +radiantly by the moonlight go slowly down the path, past the old +graybeard poplars, and even up to the lilac hedge that ran as a bulwark +in front of the dark chapel door, which I could see was ajar as it +always is. + +"He's going for help," I muttered to myself, and I felt the padding of +fear pursuing me, while also something of the Methodist grandmother +within me began a queer calling and a tightening at my throat. + +Then something happened that interested me so that I lost all personal +anxiety. Father stopped beside the hedge and picked up something from +the grass. I saw it was a long, heavy hoe. Walking over to a long bed of +early roses he and Dabney had been fertilizing in the late afternoon, he +bent feebly and began to dig the food into their roots. As he swung the +long handle, each blow upon the soft earth became more decided. I crept +down behind the old snowball bush to be nearer him; I didn't dare go to +him in his fight, because I had in my selfish heedlessness brought it +all on, but in a little while he was not alone, for a bent old figure +with grizzled white wool sticking out from under a red flannel nightcap +came quietly along the path with a hoe in his hand, fell in directly +behind his master, and began a rhythmic blow-answering-blow contest with +the fragrant earth and the demon within the man. For at least an hour +the two old friends worked up and down the long bed, until I could see +father begin to totter with weakness. + +"Now, come on, Mas' Nick, honey, and go to bed. I'll pour a bucket of +cistern water over you and rub you down so as you'll sleep like a bug in +a rug," the staunch old comrade crooned, with a mother note in his +voice, as he took father's heavy hoe and shouldered it with his. + +"I think evening exercise is good for me, Dabney," answered father with +all the dignity and command come back into his voice. "Put both those +hoes in the tool house this time, and I'll not tell Mr. Goodloe you +left one down by the lilac hedge." + +"Yes, sir, thanky, sir, fer not telling him," answered Dabney, as he +followed his master to the tool house under the back steps, deposited +the garden implements where he was directed, and then again followed his +idol in through the long dining room window and was lost in the shadow. + +I went back to the front steps, again sank down, put my arms on my +knees, and let my head fall upon my clasped hands. As I sat there alone, +with the dark house yawning behind me in its emptiness, someone sat down +beside me and laid a warm, strong hand on my interlaced and strained +fingers for just about half a second. + +"Please forgive me about the apple dumplings and the hard sauce," a +merry, very lovely voice pleaded. + +"I went out to Old Harpeth with you when you asked me; but I loathe +going to church--I haven't been in one since I was strong enough to +rebel--and I'm not going to yours," was the apology I graciously offered +in return for that about the apple dumplings. "But I'd pay fifty +dollars for a tenth row seat to hear you sing Tristan in the +Metropolitan any day if I had to go hungry for a week to pay for it," I +added, as I laughed as softly as he had pleaded. All the sorrow and +strain of the last hours had vanished at the touch of his hand, and I +felt like an impish, teasing child. + +"I'll sing some of it for you now, if you'll give fifty cents to Mother +Spurlock for the Children's Day Picnic. And it'll be a bargain you are +getting," was the unexpected offer I encountered. + +"And a freezer of vanilla ice cream to boot," I assented, generously. + +And then something happened to me the like of which I know never +happened to anybody in all the world, and that could happen only the +once to me. Gregory Goodloe drew a little closer to me and bent his +great gold head until his face was just off my left shoulder, and in his +powerful, rich, fascinating voice, which he muted down in a way that +made it sound as if he were singing through a golden cloud, he sang +Tristan's immortal love agony in a way that shut out all the rest of the +universe and left me alone with him in a space swayed by his pleading +until my mortal body shook in actual pain. + +"Don't! I can't stand it!" I gasped, as I seized his wrist in my strong +hands and wrung it. "Stop!" + +The last tender note breathed itself into the air that seemed to hold it +in a long caress until it died away, and sobs shook me as I held on +desperately to his wrist. I felt that I _must_ be comforted. And I was! +Again the gentle fingers were laid over mine for a still smaller +fraction of a second, and then again the beautiful, clear voice began to +sing to me, just to me, out of the whole world. + +"'Abide with me, fast falls the even tide,'" he chanted, and then waited +while my sobs died away and I let go my drowning grasp on his wrist. + +"That's just what I mean. That's just why I wouldn't have any more +respect for myself if I should go to your church than if I joined in one +of Mammy's foot-washings down at the river and fell in a fit of shouting +in which it took two burly coons to 'hold my spirit down,' as she +describes those gymnastics to me. I hate you and I hate my friends for +indulging in religion, because it is just as 'potent an agent of +intoxication' as exists to-day, and it blinds us to the need of work +along scientific lines for the immediate improvement of the race. What +right have we to intoxicate reason with religion? If religion is +anything it must be reason." I fairly hurled my words of half-baked +skepticism at him, with the vision of father and Dabney digging in the +garden, still in my eyes. + +"I felt just as you do about it a year ago to-day," he answered me +quietly. "As you state the case of religion as emotion versus reason, it +doesn't exist. Religion is reason plus emotion, and when you combine the +two the eyes of your soul are open, whereas they had been closed. Nobody +can tell you about it, but you begin really to live when you see and +comprehend. Yes, it is going to take all the scientific reason the world +possesses to start its salvation, but it will not get far without +'emotion,' as you call what I _know_ is love of God, and, through that +love, compassion for man." + +"The assumption that every man is blind who does not believe as you do, +stops all argument," I said scornfully. + +"I didn't come to talk religion with you; I came over to get that apple +dumpling off my conscience, as I couldn't digest it because it wasn't +there. I preach twice, on Sunday and on Wednesday night, and I'm in my +study behind the altar every afternoon that I'm not playing tennis. I'll +be there any time by appointment." The worldly and protective raillery +in that young Methodist minister's voice almost interrupted my religious +researches, but I was in depths that were strange to me, and I was +floundering for a line out. + +"I'll never be there," I flared at him, then went on with my +floundering. "If a man is blind, how can he gain the sight that you +arrogate to yourself?" + +"A great man once prayed, 'Lord, help thou my unbelief,'" was the gentle +answer in which was that queer note of apostolic surety with which I +heard him address the woman in the garden that night. + +"I can't pray--there's nothing there," I said in a very small voice that +I could scarcely recognize as my own. "Oh, I mean that we are all +floundering, and where can we get the lifeline? Where did you get the +line that you think will pull you out of the vortex?" + +Then for a long moment he and I sat again involved in the emptiness of +the universe that Tristan's love song had opened for us, and I knew that +with ruthless feet I had entered his Holy of Holies and was being +allowed to stand across the threshold. + +"Forgive me," I gasped. + +"I never felt that I could tell it before," he said, slowly, and the +bounds of the emptiness retreated still further away as he turned so +that he sat facing me and again bent his dull gold head closer to mine. +In a second I knew why in my mind I had been calling him a Harpeth +jaguar. It was just my pictorial expression for the word freedom, the +freedom that comes from power. I knew that mentally and bodily I was +looking upon the first free man I had ever encountered, and I was +abashed. + +"Don't tell me," I said, with a gentleness in my voice I had never heard +before, and that came from something that I felt to be strangely like +meekness, though I had never before met that emotion in myself. + +"You know the romance of my father's life," the soft voice went on, +speaking as if I had not interrupted him, "but nobody knows the tragedy. +Love for my mother came upon him like an arrow shot out of ambush, and +he married into a worldly, pleasure-loving, agnostic circle of people +who all adored and flattered him until he--he became confused and +doubting. He had transgressed the law: 'yoke not yourselves with +unbelievers,' and he suffered. She never understood. It killed him, and +when he had been dead nearly twenty years I found the diary he kept the +months before he died. It was last year, just after her death. It was a +cry to me, who at that time was a mere babe, and it--it lighted the +flame he had almost let go out. As I read, the apostolic call came to me +and I answered. I was starting to the front in France, and I went on. My +year there was a series of experiences that gave me my surety. One day +it came more clearly than ever. I had gone out into one of the trenches +of the first line, because I am so strong that I can carry any man back +to the stretchers across my back or in my arms. I have carried two at a +time. There were nineteen men in the trench, and I made the twentieth. +Suddenly a machine gun found the range and mowed them all down like +cornstalks or wheat heads. Only I was left standing, bleeding under my +left ribs. I raised my voice and praised God for my surety of +immortality, and then fell. While I was practically dying in the +hospital with a clip in my lung I got suddenly and unaccountably well +and strong, and felt I must come back to try and help others to see what +we must see to assure every man of his immortality. When the race +awakens to that fact there will be no more use for machine guns. I may +not help much, but I can only try. Perhaps I do only work through the +emotions as yet, but I believe that my ministry will have its fruits. I +can wait." And the humility and patience in his voice beat against my +heart and bruised it so that I cried out. + +"Oh, why did you come here?" I positively moaned, as he and I both rose +and I put out my hand as if to force him out of that aloneness in which +we stood together. + +"America must lead the world in spiritual as well as material +regeneration, and this is the only real and dispassionate America, with +no foreign pull on its vitals. You must wake up; the cry has been heard +to 'Come over and help.' Why do you fight the--" + +"I can't help fighting. I must do what I conscientiously believe--" I +was saying with my hand still outstretched against him, when suddenly +the still place around us was invaded with a crash and its invisible +walls thrown down. + +"Charlotte!" came in Nickols' languid, fascinating voice that always +draws me to the edge of his world. "And Greg Goodloe, by all that is +good and holy--in tennis flannels!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +BREASTING THE GALE + + +In the radiant moonlight I saw the lithe muscles of the Jaguar grow taut +and stiff, and I felt rather than saw his long, strong hands clench +themselves. I was about to stretch out my arms and ward off something +that seemed like danger to Nickols, standing down at the bottom of the +steps, smiling up at us in the moonlight with his mocking, fascinating +smile, when suddenly the anger seemed to flow away from the body of the +parson and he smiled down into the upturned eyes with great gentleness +as we started down the steps together. + +"I didn't interrupt the salvation of Charlotte's soul, did I?" Nickols +asked, as he took my outstretched hand in his left hand and raised it to +his lips as he held out his right to the Reverend Mr. Goodloe. So real +had been that fraction of an instant when I had stood between the two +men that I almost felt the sensation of alarm a second time as I saw +Nickols' slender, magical, artist's fingers laid in the slim, powerful +hand of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, but the gentle voice reassured me as +the Harpeth Jaguar answered the intruder, or what he must have felt to +be the intruder, for I had something of that feeling myself at the +advent of my lover at the moment he had chosen for his arrival. + +"The trouble began about apple dumplings and hard sauce," I said, as +quickly as my wits would act. + +"How are you, Nickols Powers, since we separated 'somewhere in France,' +you with your sketch books and I with my hospital stretchers? I got a +dandy lung clip; did you bring away any lead?" And the parson's voice +was gentle and cordial and full of a laughing reminiscence. + +"Didn't smell powder after I left you," answered Nickols, as we all +ascended the steps and stood in a group before the door. "I got my books +full of sketches of bits of treasures that the war might destroy, and +beat it back to civilization. Did the Madonna of the Red Cross you had +in tow come across as sentimentally as was threatened?" Nickols' voice +was as cordial as the Reverend Goodloe's, but something in me made me +resent the question and the manner it was asked. + +"She was killed in a field hospital just a few weeks after we left +her--'somewhere in France.' She got God's welcome!" was the answer that +came to the laughing question in a quiet, reverent voice. And as he +spoke the parson started down the steps, then turned for his farewell. + +"That--or sweet oblivion," said Nickols, as he came to the edge of the +steps and looked down at the Harpeth Jaguar coolly. I again got the +sense of danger from the tall, lithe figure that stood in the moonlight, +radiant before us in the shadow. "We'll contest that point warmly while +we contest the meeting house Charlotte writes me that you planted in our +garden--of Eden." + +"I can contest--if I must," was the serene answer that came back at us +from over the white silk-clad shoulder. "Good night, both of you, and I +hope to see you both again soon. Smell the lilacs bursting bud in your +garden--of Eden!" With which farewell he left us to our greetings. + +"That's some man to be lost in the ranks of the shibboleths," said +Nickols with generous ease, as we watched the last glint of the moon on +the yellow head disappearing around the corner. "Degrees from three old +colleges, millions, women lovers in millions, all thrown away to sing +psalms for a few rustics in little old Goodloets. Can you beat it? But, +blast him, he can't take away my loving welcome with his fatal beauty," +and as he spoke, with a tender laugh Nickols held out his arms to me. I +went into them and he held me close. + +"I couldn't stay away--with Goodloe and the meeting house in the ring +against me," he whispered, and he tried to raise my head for the kiss I +had been holding from him all the long winter of our engagement, +claiming to want it only under the roof of the Poplars. I burrowed my +face in his shoulder and held to him with such fervor that it was +impossible for him to raise my head. + +"Not yet," was my muffled pleading. + +"Again, damn that huge blond giant for being in the way of my getting my +own on the first-sight wave," said Nickols with a good-humored laugh, as +he pushed me from him. "Take your time. I like ripe fruit--and kisses. +Did you say Goodloe had come over to steal apple dumplings and you had +caught him in the act? I never was so hungry before and one of Mrs. +Dabney's apple dumplings with that hard sugar stuff smothered with +cream--well, of course I could wait until breakfast, but I'd be mighty +weak. Your night train carries no dining car." + +"I feel sure that there is at least a half panful in the pantry; let's +go see," I answered with delight at the practical turn the scene had +taken, and I led him into the dark house, turned on one or two lights +and went with him back into the culinary department of the Poplars. + +And as I had predicted so we found the larder supplied. With a huge +plate of the pastry encrusted apples, smothered with all the cream from +one of Mammy's pans of milk, and a tall bottle from the sideboard, +Nickols led the way out of the long windows onto the south balcony over +which the moon, now high in the heavens, poured the radiance of a +new-toned daylight. I followed him with some glasses and sugar and a +bowl of cracked ice that I had found in its usual place in the corner of +the refrigerator. + +"Pretty good substitute for the affectionate sweet I thought of all the +way down from New York," said Nickols with an adorable laugh, as he +lifted the first spoonful, dripping with cream, to his mouth. Then with +the food almost bestowed he paused and looked out beyond the garden +toward the chapel, which loomed up gray and shimmering in the silver +light. + +"Great heavens!" he ejaculated, and for a long minute the spoon was +poised while his eyes fairly devoured the scene spread out before him +against the background of Paradise Ridge. + +"If you don't like it we can get rid of it," I said, as I poured his +drink over the ice tinkling against the side of the glass. + +"Not like it!" exclaimed Nickols, as he rose with the spoonful of +dumplings dashed back into the plate. "That is the most wonderful and +beautiful landscape effect I have ever beheld. That is just what our +garden needed. I suppose I would have seen it and put some sort of a +pavilion there, but that squat and perfect old church would have been +beyond me." + +"Oh, I'm glad!" I exclaimed, as he sank back on the step beside me, took +the glass from my hand, drank deeply and this time began a determined +attack upon the plate in his hand. And then as he ate I told him all +about father and his plans for the garden and his own improvement and to +what I hoped the work was leading him. But somehow I couldn't bring +myself to describe the scene which had that night been enacted in the +garden--I couldn't. "Oh, I am so glad you are not furious and will maybe +be willing to encourage him, even if it does mean to encourage the +Methodist Church and the minister thereof. You are wonderful, Nickols," +I finished with a squeeze of his arm that very nearly jostled the cream +out of the spoon upon his gray tweed trousers. + +"I'd be a wonderful ass not to take advantage of Judge Nickols Powers' +brain and money, plus Gregory Goodloe's brain and training and money +combined, to get a result that will be worth a hundred thousand dollars +to me and all the fame I can conveniently wear. Encourage 'em? Just +watch me! Only what the judge thinks will take two years can be done in +one season if we get experts down to do it, which we will. Trees two +hundred years old _can_ be moved for a few thousand dollars, as well as +plants in bloom that would require years to transplant. I know the man +to do it: Wilkerson of White Plains. I'll telegraph him in the +morning." + +"He won't interfere with--with father, will he?" I asked anxiously. + +"Not a bit--he'll just make what the judge and Gregory plan for year +after next, grow and bloom there in a couple of months. Wilkerson is not +a creator, he's just nature keyed up to the _n_th power. And also I'll +give him for a bait the Jeffries estate I was hesitating about making a +bid for. All the big fellows are after it. Old man Jeffries has made two +barrels of money in the last ten years in oil and he is going to build +an estate up on the Hudson that will make the world gasp. I hadn't put +in a bid, but this idea of the judge's and Greg's, with the whole +village grouped about it, has given me the keynote to win the thing from +the whole bunch of American architects. He wants the village built as +well as the estate. That American garden idea will bowl him over. He's +progressively and rabidly American. The bids don't close until December, +so I'll have time to get real photographs and sketches. Me for the +reformed judge and the parson!" + +"This is the most wonderful thing I ever heard and I want father pushed +to the limit with the planning. I don't care where the parson comes in, +just so I don't have to join the church to get the garden," I said, as I +tinkled the ice in Nickols' empty glass, while he consumed the last bit +of cream from the empty plate. + +"Oh, I'll join the church if it is needed to push the garden," said +Nickols with a laugh, as he lit a cigarette and puffed a smoke ring out +toward the gray little chapel. "Most people who join churches do it for +some kind of pull, social or business, or a respectability stamp or to +be white-washed. I'll put on a frock coat and pass the plate if it will +help the parson evolve another phase of gardenism." + +"Billy gets home from his poker game at the Last Chance, down in the +Settlement, on Sunday morning, just in time to bathe and get into his +frock coat to perform that office," I said with a laugh that had a hint +of recklessness tinged with contempt. + +"I'll see Billy through both ceremonials," said Nickols. "Has Billy come +into the fold?" + +"He has! So have all the rest," I answered. "I am the only black sheep +and they are all backsliding down on me. I am getting, and will get, +the blame of it all as a corrupter of public morals." + +"Why don't you join and then do as you please with the official stamp of +Christianity upon you?" Nickols asked, as he puffed comfortably away in +the moonlight. + +One of the things that cause me the deepest hurt is to try to get +Nickols to look down into my depths and read one, just any one, of the +hieroglyphics there. I know each time I open my nature to him he is +going to turn aside, and yet I will try. As his arm stole around me I +made another one of the attempts that I always know beforehand are +doomed to failure. + +"There is something in me, a quality of mind that seems to be judicial, +which insists that as a cold scheme for existence in this universe +nothing compares with that of life followed by eternal redemption +through personal effort interpreted by a mediator. The bare Christian +tenets have a nobility that it kills me to see belittled by the bored, +half-hearted observances of most of its protestants, who in turn are not +to be blamed for being half-hearted and bored by the dogmas and +restrictions and littleness with which the great bare scheme has been +enmeshed and clothed. The Methodist Church positively forbids Billy to +play poker or drink, but it just as positively forbids him to see +Pavlowa dance or Beerbohm Tree play Falstaff or Forbes Robertson +incarnate Hamlet. And look at its wretched machinery--they allow a young +man to give his life and expect inspiration from him at six hundred +dollars a year with a wife and two dozen children, which he has been +encouraged to bring down upon himself, dependent on that same six +hundred dollars. The great men who are expected to direct our spiritual +destinies don't get as much money as many ordinary grocers and certainly +not enough to support their obligations with dignity. What is true of +the Methodist Church is true of all the rest, in perhaps a greater +degree. So with their smallness and their pettiness and their befogging +stupidity I feel that they may be denying thinkers like you and me the +use of their scheme and we'll have to find another for ourselves if we +want immortality." + +"Do we want that immortality?" asked Nickols easily. "This world is a +pretty good old place if you don't regard the 'shalt nots,' but isn't it +long enough to live the allotted time? What do we want to do it all +over again for, that is, provided we do all the pleasant things while we +have the chance? I don't want to see any play twice, even a masterpiece. +I wouldn't want to live again unless I had been a Christian in this life +and felt that I wanted to come back and do a lot of the things I had +just heard about and previously hadn't tried." + +"Certainly I wouldn't want another life that is as unsatisfied as this," +I murmured, more to myself than to Nickols. + +"Do the things that satisfy," he urged again, and I could see a deviltry +dancing at me out of the corner of his eyes that I resented deeply +without exactly knowing why. + +"Harriet Henderson can't get Mark Morgan's love or--his children, and +Nell Morgan is unattainable for Billy. Though they have all the world's +goods and go a pace that pleases them, they are unsatisfied. If they +don't get the new deal that immortality promises they lose the whole +thing," I answered straight out from the shoulder. "And what about those +who die in infancy and--and you and me?" + +"If you'll just kiss me and hush preaching to me I'll be entirely +satisfied and ready to die as soon as I have lifted that fifty thousand +out of old Jeffries with the judge's and the Reverend Gregory's garden +and done a few more commissions. Try kissing me and see if you don't +feel more cheerful," Nickols answered with a laugh, as he drew me close +to him. I sadly shut up the doors of my depths, warded off the +kiss--why, I didn't know--and persuaded him to go up to his rooms which +I had seen Sallie and Dabney put in order that afternoon. + +It was midnight when I parted with Nickols at the head of the old +winding stairs in the fragrant darkness, lit only by the silver light of +the night from a long window at the front of the hall. He held me close +for a half second as he whispered: + +"Let me make you happy. I understand." + +"I don't understand, and until I do I'd make you miserable, dear," I +whispered back as I drew myself out of his reluctant arms and went into +my own door. + +Then for a long midnight hour I stood at my deep window and looked out +over the garden, past the squat steeple silvering beyond the lilac +hedge, to Paradise Ridge in the dim distance, and tried to read my own +hieroglyphics. I needed help. Nickols had come after me to Goodloets in +a spirit of gentle determination and I knew the fight would be to the +finish. And why should I fight? Any woman ought to be proud to marry +Nickols Morris Powers, especially a woman who had loved him since her +heart had been developed to the knowledge of love. Very unostentatiously +and with perfect good taste Nickols had let me see that Marie VanClive +with her Knickerbocker ancestry and her Manhattan land-grants fortune +was very decidedly interested in him in her cultured and perfected young +way, and young Mrs. Houston had herself shown me the same thing on one +of the week-end flights we had had on her yacht. And beyond all that my +own heart told me that Nickols was desirable. His gentleness and his +tenderness and his daring and his humor were irresistible to a woman. +And his lazy acquiescence in life was peaceful and inviting to my own +strenuosity. I felt as if I had always been an eagle breasting the gale +with no place to alight, and now Nickols was calling to me from an +eyrie on a mountain side to come and rest and be mated and comforted. + +"I'm tired of loneliness and I think I'll drift and be happy," I +murmured, as I fell asleep with my back to the silver steeple against +the dim hills. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +INTO BRAMBLES + + +The next morning I awoke with the same resolve in my heart, to be happy +if wicked, and proceeded to execute it with a great vigor. And in the +execution of that resolve dear old Goodloets almost had some of the moss +of its century's repose scraped off of its back. + +First and foremost, we all danced, day and night. We had really begun +the giddy whirl the summer before when we had built the little clubhouse +over in the oak grove by the river's edge, just between the Town and the +Settlement, so that we would no longer feel the limit and limitations to +our gliding of anybody's double parlors, and conservative Goodloets had +been duly shocked thereat. + +"Ladies did not dance outside of their own and their friends' private +homes in my day," Mrs. Cockrell had sighed, as she finished the petal +of the rose she was embroidering upon some of Letitia's lingerie. + +"I'd rather they danced in their den of iniquity than to execute these +modern gyrations in my home," had responded Harriet's mother, Mrs. +Sproul, as she finished the hundredth round on the shawl she was +knitting. Harriet's report of the conversation had been received with +great hilarity that evening at dinner at the Club. + +But Goodloets had had a year in which to recover from the shock of the +institution of the Country Club when I started in to enjoy myself. +Having church services there on Sundays and Wednesdays during the winter +had done much to remove the prejudice in the minds of the conservative. +I suspected the Reverend Mr. Goodloe of a great deal of worldly wisdom +when I saw how he had been able to persuade the directors, Hampton +Dibrell and Mark and Cliff, to let him do such a weird thing. Mrs. +Sproul and Mrs. Cockrell and their friends had first been tolled out to +prayer meeting and then had come to witness a tennis match. Billy, in +great glee, recounted to me the first time they had stayed to dinner +with him and father and Mr. Cockrell. They had been enjoying the prayer +meetings to the utmost and had come out with Mother Spurlock by mistake +on a Tuesday night, which was the regular dinner dance night. It was +some time before they discovered their mistake, for they were immensely +enjoying their visit with Mother Spurlock, and when the dancing began +Billy had seized Mother Elsie in his arms and danced her the whole +length of the room. The music had been too much for her feet in their +sensible shoes, and very suddenly they had unfolded their wings after +thirty long years of rest and had fairly flown up and down and backwards +and forwards with Billy's in a sedate version of one of the phases of +the tango. Mrs. George Spurlock had been the best dancer in Goodloets +when time was young. + +"Do you think that it was the devil that tempted you, Mother Elsie?" I +asked her about it one day when she had a leisure moment for teasing. + +"Effie Burns' youngest baby was born exactly while I was dancing, and we +will have six months' trouble with her because her band was not put on +properly," was her answer, as she took up her parcel of five pairs of +only slightly worn stockings that five girls in the Settlement needed +worse than I needed darns, and departed in a great hurry. "Oh, but you +should have seen Hattie Sproul's eyes while I danced," she called back +over her shoulder as she went through the gate. + +And so in the second summer of the Club's existence there had been no +bridle upon its gayeties--I had almost used the word license, and I +suppose it would have been a just one under the circumstances. Billy +called it "The Bucket of the Lost Lid," and every individual member did +exactly as he or she chose. The sideboard out on the back porch made as +good a bar as any in the state with old Uncle Wilks to officiate, and in +the wing in one of the private dining rooms a huge wheel stood with its +face to the wall during the day, but came complacently out of its corner +when night descended. On the porch could always be found either Mrs. +James Knight or Mrs. Buford Cunningham. They neither of them had +children, hated home and were serenely happy sitting on the front porch +knitting silk scarfs and gossiping with all comers, while James and +Buford hung around the sideboard at the back. They were institutions and +all of the unmarried boys and girls, men and women, widowed and +widowered, came and went at will, with the liberty that the chaperonage +of their certain presence allowed. + +"Suppose one of 'em should fall dead and the other have to attend her +funeral," Nickols remarked one Saturday night at a dinner table not more +than twelve feet away from the two couples. "The scandal that would soon +disrupt this town for lack of their free chaperonage would be like an +earthquake. None of you would have a shred of respectability with which +to drape yourselves to appear in public." + +"They don't wear much respectability anyway in the eyes of the +Settlement," said Billy, as he mixed the champagne cup with old Wilks +standing admiringly by. "The floor manager ordered Luella May Spain off +the floor at the dance they had in the lodge room over the Last Chance +last Saturday night for appearing in one of Harriet's last year dancing +frocks Mother Spurlock had collected for her, though they do say that +Luella May had sewed in two inches of tucker and put in sleeves. How's +that for an opinion passed upon the high and mighty from the meek and +lowly?" + +"I'd been in mourning a year. That was my coming out gown and I felt--" +Harriet was saying when Billy laughed and interrupted her. + +"And you came out, Harriet dear," he assured her, as he poured her +champagne cup and his and signaled Wilks to serve the rest of us. + +On the surface all of the joy that most of Goodloets was having was real +and brilliant and spontaneous, all the dancing and drinking and high +playing, but under the surface there were dark currents that ran in many +directions. Young Ted Montgomery and Billy played poker one Saturday +night until daylight out at the Club, and Bessie Thornton and Grace +Payne had "staid by" and were having bacon and eggs with them when the +sun rose. Judge Payne, Grace's father, has been a widower ten years and +Grace, with the four younger "pains," as Billy calls them, has run wild +away from him and her grandmother, old Madam Payne, who lives in a world +of crochet needles and silk thread with Mrs. Cockrell and Mrs. Sproul. +One night I went with Billy in his car to take Grace home and he had to +wait until I tiptoed to her room with my arm around her and put her to +bed, while Harriet was doing the same thing with Bessie Thornton. Those +girls are not much over twenty and they are only a little more +"liberated," as they call it, than the rest of their friends. Ted +Montgomery loves Grace, when he is himself and not at the card table, +but what chance have they to form a union of any solidity and +permanence? Billy's nephew, Clive Harvey, has always loved Bessie +Thornton, but he is teller in the Goodloets bank and almost never sees +her. He is one of the stewards in the Harpeth Jaguar's church, and the +suffering on his slim young face hurts me like a blow every time I meet +him. What's going to satisfy him, no matter what pace he should choose +to go or how many things he is driven by unhappiness to indulge himself +in? + +And it was true that everything done up in the town had its effect down +in the Settlement. The lodge hall over the Last Chance was the only hall +available for the young people in the Settlement to dance, and the bar +of the East Chance, at which old Jacob Ensley officiated, was no better +stocked than the lockers at the Country Club. And all of us knew that +very frequently Billy and Nickols and the rest of our friends went down +to dance and drink with the girls from the mills and the shops. Billy +had told me once that Milly Burt, who stays at the cigar stand in the +Goodloe Hotel in Goodloets, dances so much like me and is so perfumed +with my especial sachet from France, Mother Spurlock having collected +the chiffon blouse from me for her to wear at the entertainment of the +Epworth League, that he came very near addressing her by my name in +giving her the invitation to the dance. + +"Settlement or Town, they all add up to the sum of girl," he laughed, as +he told me about that Saturday night frolic in the Last Chance. + +It was the day after Billy's account of the ball at the Last Chance, in +which Luella May and Milly and the rest had frolicked in what ought to +have been a perfectly harmless way, that Mother Spurlock came to spend +the afternoon with me and in which we wrestled until I was almost on the +mat--not quite. + +"Goodloets has always been the gayest town in the state, but it has now +reached the place of the most wicked," she said, after a few preliminary +shots had been exchanged. "Every dignity of tradition seems to have been +dropped and everybody is dance or play or drink or speed mad. You are +the most influential personality in the whole town and I want you to +call a halt." + +"But aren't they all happy? Isn't everybody getting the most out of +life? The men are all working to their capacity and making more money +than they ever have before. Why shouldn't they play hard?" I answered +her, as I seated myself in the broad window seat of my room opposite the +wide maternal ancestral rocker she had chosen. + +"Are they happy?" she asked, with her keen eyes on my face. + +"They seem to be," I parried. + +"Well, as far as personal happiness is concerned I think it is not worth +talking about. It is the good of the whole for which I am working, for +which I am contending to-day. What you women do, who are not obliged to +add to the work of the world that you may live in it, is not of any +great importance; it is for the toilers in the vineyard that I plead. +The girls and young men in this town cannot dance and drink and play all +night and do the constructive work of the community in the daytime. If +Luella May Spain falls asleep or nods at her typewriter and fails to get +out the telegram to you or Nickols which Mr. Tate has shouted to her +off the keys, do you excuse her because she has been fatiguing herself +until midnight trying to learn some new dance that Billy Harvey has +brought down to the Last Chance from your Country Club? You would not! +She would be fired on your complaint." + +"But are we responsible for how the girls and men in the Settlement +spend their evenings?" I demanded with a fine show of indignation, but +with a thrill of fear in my heart. There has always been something in +Luella May Spain's shy and admiring glances that drew me and I have +always lingered to chat with her a few minutes if business called me +into the station. The last time I had spoken to her, not a week before, +she had seemed pale and listless and had answered me with indifference. + +"You and your class are the ones in power and what you do and what you +think is a moral influence that reaches and permeates every soul in this +town. You are not about your Father's business; and those less powerful +of brain and character follow you in by-paths from the straight road. +They are his Little Ones and you lead their feet into brambles. Oh, +Charlotte!" And Mother Spurlock stretched out her hands to me in +entreaty. + +"I'm not a leader," I denied her. "I don't see a foot ahead of me. I'm +not worth anything. I'm just living and trying to have a good time doing +it. You have got a leader, there over the hedge; why don't they follow +him and not me?" + +"Before you came Gregory Goodloe had services three times a week at your +Country Club, at which the Settlement met the Town. You were not willing +that even those few hours should be given over to the learning of the +Father's will from one whose mind and soul are ready to teach, and you +swept away his pews and his influence. And your dance tunes, to which +even I yielded, ring in the ears of his flock to drown out the echoes of +God's hymns. And now those who had begun to lean on him and to follow +him are turning to persecute him. When Jacob Ensley is drunk he openly +charges him with inveigling Martha away and hiding her. He was in a +dangerous state one night a week ago and Billy Harvey had to lock him up +in his own wine cellar to keep him and a few of his hangers-on from +'going after the parson,' who was down there praying with old Jennie +Neil as she died. He doesn't know his danger from Jacob and I think +Billy ought to tell him. All Goodloets has admired and aped you since +your birth, and now that you discountenance him they are again following +you. There were only ten people at prayer meeting last night in the +chapel, and the Wednesday before you turned him out of the Club which +had offered him its hospitality, there were one hundred and thirty, +Settlement and Town about evenly represented. You are responsible for +that prayer meeting last night. You may be responsible for the result of +one of Jacob's drunken fits. Sometime you'll have to answer for what you +do." + +"No, Mother Spurlock, I'm not responsible for the failure of Gregory +Goodloe to get to the heart of your people and hold them happy to his +services and observances, and I'm certainly not responsible for his +personal safety. What he offers is not enough to satisfy. His members +prefer their Country Club and their Last Chance and their knitting and +embroidery. What we all need from the Country Club to the Last Chance is +something that makes us want to be constructive, race constructive, so +that life will be desirable on through immortality, if there is such a +thing. I can't get a glimpse of it. Can you?" and I questioned her +beseechingly. + +"I can. I do! I have faith in my Father's plan to lead me through 'deep +waters' into 'pleasant pastures,'" she answered me, as her eyes looked +past me out at Paradise Ridge beyond the chapel. + +"Then give it to me," I demanded. + +"I can't. You must seek it yourself, and when you get it you will be +able to pour it out into the hearts of others as living water. I serve +by using my two talents of mercy and love, but God will some day give +you ten and you will have to return an hundred fold. He has given the +ten to Gregory Goodloe, and now is the night of his despair, but his +morning will dawn. You can't dance down and drink down and gamble down +and lust down a man like that. He can bide his time until his sheep come +to the fold to be fed and warmed in his bosom." + +"What practical thing can I do to make you believe that I do not mean to +pull down any structure that another human is building up with the hope +it is for the good of the whole, Mother Spurlock?" I demanded of her, +goaded to the last point of endurance. + +"The dedication services of the chapel will be next Sunday. Come, bring +Nickols and your father, and let the Town and Settlement see your +respect for Mr. Goodloe and for his church," she demanded, as she rose +to go, with patient defeat but a lingering hope in her voice and manner. + +"Endorse something that means nothing to me?" I asked with pained +patience. "You say the people follow me; shall I lead them to drink from +a spring that I consider dry, that is dry and has no water for my +thirst? No, Mother Spurlock, if the people among whom I have been born +trust me I will only lead them by going into paths I know and in which I +walk for my own good or pleasure." + +"To the Last Chance?" + +"At least they get joy there that makes toil easier or offsets the +grind," I answered her. + +"Is that your final--" she was asking me with her deep, wise old eyes +searching me, when she was interrupted by the banging open of my door +and the inburst of young Charlotte, young James as ever at her heels, +with Sue clinging to his hand. To-day, however, Charlotte had added one +to her cohorts, for she led by the hand a very dirty specimen of the +masculine gender, somewhat larger than herself and with a flaming red +head. + +"This is Mikey Burns, Aunt Charlotte, and he's a nice little boy that's +dirty and hungry because his mother has got seven like him. Won't you +wash him and feed him so we can play with him? The preacher cleaned up +four for us to play with yesterday and they are still clean enough. If +you clean Mikey I can have a baseball nine, with Sue to get the balls +that we don't hit. She gets balls nicely and Mikey throws lots +straighter than I can. Jimmy can hit 'em, too, with a wide stick." + +"I tan git 'em," declaimed small Sue with great pride. + +"I can pitch 'em," also declared Mikey, with evident desire to back up +his patroness. "But not as good as her," and his admiration amounted to +adoration, as he raised his young eyes to Charlotte. + +"You see, Oh, you see, even to the second generation they follow," +laughed Mother Spurlock, as she escaped through the door and left me +with my practical demonstration of class leadership. + +"Wash him, Auntie Charlotte, wash him," Charlotte continued to insist. +"I made Jimmy steal some of his things for him while nurse was +downstairs. Here they are," and young James, the thief and +aforementioned murderer, gave up his stolen goods. "And Mr. Nickols says +that all the Settlement children will go to school with us in the nice +schoolhouse he and Judge Powers and Minister are going to build in front +of Mother Spurlock's orchard. That is a law and then we'll have good +times, all of us. There is not many children in the Town and they are +all too dressed up, but it is a million down in the Settlement and we +are going to have two baseball nines and two armies to battle with. I +asked Mr. Nickols to have a place to wash the Settlements and he said he +had thought of that and is going to have five shower baths. If you'll +just wash Mikey for me I'll help you. I can attend to Jimmy's ears for +nurse real good, can't I, Jimmy?" + +"Yes," responded Jimmy with brotherly pride. + +"No," remonstrated Mikey with abject fear, for the sake of his ears or +propriety I was not sure. + +I got past the question by motioning him into my bathroom and sending +Charlotte and Sue to bring Dabney. Dabney is Charlotte's slave and was +soon under way to execute her commands upon Mikey while I beguiled her +from the superintendence thereof down into the garden with me, where +from my window I could see Nickols and father in deep conclave over some +drawings. Father had discarded his Henry Clay costume and looked young +and alive in some of Nickols' flannels and linen. They looked up with +interest as I came down the flagstone walk with Charlotte trotting on my +one side and wee Sue clinging on the other. + +"I'm glad you have come, daughter," said father, as he held up one of +the large blue prints before me. "Now you can help Nickols and me locate +the exact spot for the public school building. See, here is the public +square of Goodloets, with the courthouse in the middle." + +"That courthouse is as good as any minor _hotels de ville_ in any of the +small towns in France," said Nickols, as he came and stood beside me, +looking over my shoulder at the map. "The Farmers' Bank and one or two +of the very old brick stores are good, too," he added. + +"Now, this is Main Street that leads past us down into the Settlement. +Here is the Poplars, here the chapel, and this is Elsie Spurlock's +house. Nickols and the parson are inclined to place the schoolhouse +right opposite, but I am afraid it is too near the Settlement and too +far from the Town. Do you suppose the Town children will be able to walk +so far?" + +"Do you really--really plan to have the Town and the Settlement go to +school together?" I gasped. + +"Well, Goodloe thinks that the ideal public school system is only to be +executed in a democratic--" father was saying, when Nickols interrupted +him. + +"What does it matter where the two and a half kids from the decadent old +families that are dying out go to school? Their sterile parents can +motor 'em down to education!" he exclaimed. "Right here is the logical +place for the school with the meadow behind it to give a bit of +distance, the oak grove back of that, the Country Club beyond, with the +river beginning to curve it in. It solidifies and unifies the landscape +of the whole town and puts all the community centers where they belong. +The Town and Settlement straggled a bit before, but the chapel and the +school will unite them! Braid says the schoolhouse can be built of +weathered stone and concrete and finished by September fifth, in time to +start school. Wilkerson can begin immediately putting out his hedges and +the Reverend Gregory is down there now finishing laying out the +playground with his ball park." + +"That's it--that's the baseball nine Dabney is washing Mikey for!" +exclaimed Charlotte, catching up with the conversation. "And when we all +go to school with the Settlements and they are clean some, and Mildred +Payne and Grace Sproul and some of the others get dirty a little, nobody +will know the difference and we can play ball and scouts and everything +Minister teaches us. That school makes enough children to do things. We +haven't got enough for anything, but the Settlements have, and it is +mighty good of them to come up and let us play with them." + +"Keep up with the times, Charlotte; don't be a back number. Miss +Olymphia Lassiter's school may have held you and Nell, but it will never +hold young Charlotte," Nickols jeered, as father began to roll up the +map and speak to a young man that the great Wilkerson of White Plains +had sent down to juggle with the flora and fauna of the Harpeth Valley. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WATER AND OIL + + +I turned from Nickols' raillery and surveyed the great American garden. +The weeks had flown from May to late July and father's plans were +beginning to be materialized. Where the sunken garden had been filled in +a wide stone well house, the like of which can be found at many of the +farmhouses in the Harpeth Valley, had been built and a chain wheel and +bucket drew up the water from the deep cistern, which was supplied with +underground pipes from the south wing of the Poplars. + +"There is no water as soft as open-top cistern water, aerated by a chain +and bucket," father had informed me, and he and Dabney consumed buckets +of it, while Mammy refused anything else for cooking purposes and +insisted on a nightly bath of it for my face. A white clematis in full +bloom clambered over the eaves of the low stone house and a blush rose +nodded at its door, beside which was placed a rough bench made of square +stones and two large slabs, equally moss-covered and worn. + +"It is growing to be perfectly wonderful, Nickols," I said, as if I had +seen it for the first time, while my eyes followed the sweep of the +flagstone walk from the well house beneath the old graybeard poplars out +past stretches of velvety lawn, with groups of shrubs and trees casting +deep shadows even to the kitchen garden, whose long rows of vegetables, +bordered with old-fashioned blooming herbs and savories, led the +observer out into the meadows to the Home Farm and beyond to the dim +line of Paradise Ridge. "It is different and distinctive and--and +American," I added. + +"After this garden and the school are finished and a few of the +unfortunate restorations taken away from some of the old houses, like +the porch at Mrs. Sproul's and that bathroom addition of Morgan's, I am +going to bring Jeffries down in his private car and it will be difficult +to keep him from offering to buy Goodloets and have it all shipped up +the Hudson. Really, Charlotte, we have seen a vision of the future +materialize here and we ought to stand with hats off." + +"Whose vision?" I asked, as I stood and let the truth of his statement +sink in. + +"The parson's spiritual vision perhaps filtering through your father's +mentality, which has welded past, present and future. At least, that is +the way I see it with the material eye, which is all I have to view it +with--if we can call the recognition of beauty and completeness +material." + +"Now Mikey is nice and clean and we can go to Minister to play, thank +you, Aunt Charlotte," at this point young Charlotte broke in to say, +thus flinging us a line to haul us out of depths that were slightly over +our heads. "Isn't he lovely?" And she gazed upon her new-found comrade +with open admiration and self-congratulation. + +And small Mikey was indeed a bonny kiddie attired in the very stylish +trousers and blouse of small James and shining with Dabney's valeting. +His nicely plastered red mop to some extent mitigated the effect of the +bare and scratched feet and his rollicking blue eyes over a nose as +tip-tilted as Charlotte's own bespoke his delight. + +"Anyway, me mother made the togs fer Jim," he asserted with great +independence, as he rammed his hands into the diminutive pockets in the +trousers. + +"Yes, she did, and Auntie Harriet paid her for a present to Jimmy. She +sews for us and not for Mikey and her other children, because her +husband drinks up his money and our husband don't. Come on, let's go +help Minister!" was the shot that Charlotte fired, as she departed down +the garden path with her cohorts. + +"What about that for democracy?" demanded Nickols, as he and father and +I all laughed together. + +That night at a dinner party Nell was giving I sat next to the Harpeth +Jaguar and talked to him for the first time in many weeks. I had been +avoiding him and I didn't mind admitting it to myself. There was +something disturbing and puzzling in his serene eyes and free, strong, +beautiful body that gave me a queer haunting pain back of my breast. +Into my scheme of doing those things in life that give pleasure and not +doing those things that give pain he somehow would not fit. He had +become as much a part of the social fabric of Goodloets as was I, and +he came to our dinner parties, motored with us in his long, gray car and +was as happy with us seemingly as he was with that same gray car full of +small fry from the Settlement or going about the business of the chapel. +The car had always reminded me of his evening clothes, which were +straight and simple in line with the black silk vest cut up around the +collar buttoned in the back, but which were so fine in texture and +perfect in cut and fit that they seemed to be some kind of super clothes +that ought to be called by a name of their own, just as the people in +the Settlement had decided to call the car the "Chariot" as soon as they +had stopped resenting a parson's having it, from finding out how easy +were its cushions and how swift its ministrations in time of need. + +"Parson's Chariot, quick!" had moaned poor old Mrs. Kelly, when she had +slipped on Mrs. Burns' wet doorstep and dislocated her hip. Little Katie +Moore had been driven home as swiftly as if on wings after old Dr. +Harding had been overtaken, ten miles out on Providence Road, and had +used the back seat for an operating table while he put her small +splintered ankle in place between splints improvised by a long knife +from the car's kit. + +And from a distance I had wondered at the Reverend Gregory Goodloe, +wondered at his freedom from all resentment because of his ministerial +and spiritual failures and at his loving serenity and enjoyment of us +all. He partook of the joy in almost all of our adventures in pleasure, +and when we did things that in the nature of the case would seem to +merit his disapproval, he never administered it; he simply was not with +us, but was serenely about his business at the other end of the town +from the Country Club or the Last Chance, at whichever resort the +entertainment that did not interest him was in progress. He seemed +especially to enjoy coming to our dinner parties and he was such a +delight with his keen-bladed wit, his flow of joyous laughter and high +spirits and the music that bubbled up without accompaniment or denial +whenever we asked for it, that not a woman in town would invite the rest +to dine until she was sure of securing him first. + +[Illustration: "_I been upsot by my young mistis comin' home._"] + +"He's so economical," said Nell Morgan, as I helped her arrange her +guests for Mark's birthday dinner. While she talked I paused to consider +where to put Harriet Henderson and then dropped her card beside Mark's +with a little ache in my heart as I tucked Cliff Gray in by Jessie +Litton and left the place next Nell vacant for Billy. "People never +empty their champagne glasses when Mr. Goodloe gets to talking, and you +can put the extra bottles back in the cellar for next time. Do you +suppose he does it on purpose?" + +"Nobody could be as completely happy as he was at Jessie's Friday night +_on purpose_," I answered, as I laid the last card and went with Nell to +greet her first guests. + +After the soup I turned toward the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, whose card I +had placed next my own, and found him looking at me with a particular +softness in his eyes under the dull gold. + +"Charlotte's and Mikey's nine won twenty-eight to eighteen against Tommy +Braidy and Maudie Burns. Thank you for getting the pitcher into his +togs," he said, as he squared his shoulders slightly against the rest of +the world, the rest of the diners in particular, and bent toward me in +just that deferential angle that a man uses when he wants to signal to +the others that for a limited time he desires sole possession of the +woman dining next to him. + +"Your mixing of water and oil in the educational scheme is interesting +me greatly," I answered him with a laugh. "Do you really think it will +succeed?" + +"Any kind of kingdom can be built in the heart of a child, an oligarchy, +a democracy or a republic," he answered quickly. "Your name-daughter is +a born socialist." + +"She and James are murderers and liars and thieves and are wholly +engaging. Sue is fast learning from them the habits of their underworld +and is asleep upstairs now with Harriet's silver and jade chain, which +she brought home with her without the knowledge of the owner this +afternoon. What are you going to do about them? I take it you intend to +build a kingdom in and of their hearts." + +"Weed 'em, like Dabney and I did your dahlia bank ten times at least +this spring. You didn't help with the dahlias, but maybe you will with +the young Tenderloiners." His eyes entreated mine with a soft radiance +that almost made me dizzy. + +"I wouldn't know weeds from flowers, 'Minister,'" I answered with +prompt denial of his plea, but with a soft use of the children's name +for him. + +"I don't always know. Let's study botany--together," he again hazarded +daringly, and from the tenderness that suddenly curved his strong mouth +I knew my soft answer had hit its mark. "Are you coming to the +dedication of the chapel a week from Sunday?" He asked me the question +directly and with all his softness gone and a commanding note in his +voice and direct look. His jeweled eyes were so deep back under their +dull gold brows that between the bars of black lashes they looked like +stars shining down through a radiant night. They threw their rays +directly down into my heart and I could see that their owner was reading +the hieroglyphics of my uncertainties and that I could not hide them +from him. + +"I am not," I answered him with the frankness that his gaze compelled. + +"I'll not dedicate it until you help me do it and--" he was saying +quietly and positively, when Billy broke in over the excluding shoulder. +Billy really adores Gregory Goodloe, but he enjoys going to the limit of +his ministerial endurance. Over that limit he has never stepped and he +never will; none of them ever will, for there is that in the Harpeth +Jaguar which commands the very essence of respect for himself as well as +his cloth. + +"Say, Parson, what's that about the dedication of the chapel?" he asked, +as he twirled his champagne glass to break a few bubbles. "Charlotte and +Nickols are going to give Harriet and me that tennis dressing down +Sunday week if you don't need us to dedicate with." + +"No, I won't need you," answered the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, in an easy +agreeable voice, but that had in it the note that he always uses to make +Billy halt. "I'm not going to dedicate it yet." + +"Why?" came in a perfect chorus. + +"I've been working night and day on that altar cloth because I depended +on you to know the date of the dedication of your own church. I have +danced only once this week," said Letitia Cockrell, with her usual bland +directness. + +"The communion service from Gorham's has been packed away unopened in my +office a week," Hampton added in an aggrieved voice. "They hurried it +for us and it has to be sent back, piece at a time, to be marked." + +"The baptismal font is perfectly beautiful and I want the Suckling +sprinkled from it first. If you don't hurry she will get old enough to +misbehave herself. I know I promised, but I have decided that I can +never have the others baptized now, they are too bad," said Nell, as she +paused and listened for some sort of explosion from above as she did +every minute or two. + +"I'll rope Charlotte and drag her to the altar for you, and Mark can sit +on her feet while the parson sprinkles," offered Billy, and they all +laughed at the picture that he conjured, which seemed to be in keeping +with many scenes we had witnessed in the life of small Charlotte. + +"That won't be necessary. She will stand before me with folded hands +when her time comes," answered Mr. Goodloe, after he had laughed as +heartily as anybody else at Billy's threat. "The greatest difficulty +will be in persuading her to allow me to conduct my own services." + +"But what did you put off the dedication date for?" demanded Letitia, +with the hurry over the altar cloth still rankling. + +"I put off the dedication of the chapel until all of the people for whom +I cared deeply, whose cooperation with me is positively necessary, +should be ready to come and help me in the services. When that time +comes I will have the dedication. It may be a year and it may be +a--day," the parson answered with cool directness. + +"If you mean Charlotte, the offer I made for young Charlotte holds +good," said Billy with positive glee. "If you want her I'll rope her and +drag her in and the rest of you can bid for who holds her down while +being branded." + +"And my answer to your generous offer, Billy Harvey, is--" Mr. Goodloe +paused and looked at me, and Jessie giggled with nervousness--"the same +that I made to your offer about the constraining of young Charlotte." + +"Still it would be great sport to see both the Charlottes--" Billy was +saying, when a servant brought a note on his tray and handed it to Mr. +Goodloe, who glanced at it and then hurriedly opened and read it. + +"I am sorry, Mrs. Morgan, but will you let me answer this summons?" he +asked, and there was the regret in his rich voice of a great boy at +being snatched from a feast. "I am so hungry," he added with a laugh. + +"Come back later. I'll save some of everything for you," said Nell +pleadingly. + +"I will if I can," he answered. There was an excited smoulder in the +stars under the dull gold that made me restless and my eyes sought and +claimed his for a second in which a quick flash of the jeweled +tenderness of comprehension was flashed into my depths. + +"Good-bye, everybody," he said, and in a second was out of the dining +room and we could hear him running down the steps. + +"Oh, dear, if he just wasn't a preacher," sighed Harriet. "I suppose +somebody in the Settlement is dead or borned or drunk, and he has to go +and see about it. I wish--" + +"Great Jehovah!" exclaimed Billy, as he suddenly jumped to his feet. +"Ensley is fighting drunk and has the gang around the Last Chance. +Parson's life isn't worth a tinker's damn if he runs foul of them with +all that talk about Martha Ensley and Jacob's threat. She came back last +night and Goodloe threatened to have Jacob arrested for beating her. +Come on, Nickols, and let's follow him. We'll be enough. The rest of you +go on eating, drinking and merrying because old Mark was born. We'll +come right back just as soon as we see that all is serene on the Potomac +of the Last Chance." And with a last hasty gulp at his wine glass Billy +followed Nickols out of the room. Nickols was both white and livid and +the expression of his face frightened me, for I knew that Billy would +minimize any kind of danger in the presence of a woman while Nickols +would not take that trouble. + +It was with a queer breathlessness that we all sat before our wine +glasses in the midst of the perfume from the rich food and dying flowers +and waited--for what we didn't know. + +Then it came! + +A shot rang out clear and clean in the darkness and was quickly followed +by three barking echoes from a repeater. + +And there seated in my chair in the brilliantly lighted room, blocks +away from the scene, I felt a bullet thud against dull gold. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A BIT OF RAW LIFE + + +I don't know by what means of personal transportation my body was +carried down the street to the public square and to the pavement in +front of the courthouse, but I found myself standing there over a woman +who had raised Gregory Goodloe's head on her arm and was drawing deep, +hard sobs as she held a handkerchief to stanch a flow of blood that +showed crimson in the flash from Nickols' electric cigar lighter. + +"'When men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of +evil against you falsely for my sake--'" I quoted to myself softly as I +stood and looked down on the prostrate figure of the big lithe Harpeth +Jaguar while Billy struggled with a man a little way off in the darkness +and Nickols shut off the light and went to his aid. I didn't know +exactly where the words that rose so suddenly from my heart to my lips +had come from, and I only vaguely understood them, but I seemed to be +saying them without my own volition. + +"Yes, my God, yes, that's what they've done to him," sobbed Martha as +she looked up, peering at me through the darkness. "Pa is drunk, Miss +Charlotte; and the rest egged him on. This is the only friend I've got +and they've killed him." + +"Not by a good deal, Martha," came in a hearty grand opera voice just as +I dropped on my knee, and in time to stop me from taking that bleeding +gold head on my own breast and--"Jacob's bullet just clipped me but its +impact was as good as his fist would have been, which I wish he had +used." And as he spoke the wounded parson sprang lithely to his feet and +left us two women kneeling before him. In an instant a thought of Mary +and the Magdalen flashed through my brain as he bent to raise me to my +feet, while Martha crouched away from us in the dark. + +"Charlotte?" he questioned softly, as if not willing to believe the +witness of his hands and eyes, muffled by the starry darkness. + +"Young Charlotte stones you and Jacob shoots you, and I--" I both +sobbed and laughed as I clung to his hand just as I heard Billy and +Nickols throw the cursing, panting man to the ground not ten feet away. + +"Now then, Parson, we've got Jacob down and out. Nickols has got his +foot on his neck and I've got his pistol. What do you want done with +him?" Billy interrupted me pantingly to demand. + +"Let him up," answered Mr. Goodloe, as he gently extricated himself from +my clinging hand and went over to the scene of the conflict. "Had +enough, Jacob?" he asked just as gently as he had unhanded himself from +me. + +"I'll have had enough when I put you where you can't entice my girl +again," answered Jacob as he rose slowly to his feet. As he spoke Billy +went and stood beside the parson and Nickols stepped behind them into +the shadow in which Martha crouched. + +"You know that is not true, Jacob. I helped Martha to go away to a place +of safety to earn her living and keep her honesty. Isn't that so, +Martha?" the rich voice softly asked the woman crouching in the dark. + +"I told him that but he wouldn't believe me and the others don't," she +answered with a sob that was almost a shudder of fear. + +"What did she come back fer then?" demanded Jacob. "Answer me that. And +didn't she go straight to your preaching and praying joint like all the +other women, fine and sluts, do?" The liquor was still burning in +Jacob's head but at those words he got a response from the impact of +Billy's fist that again laid him low. + +"Oh, I dasn't say nothing. I dasn't," moaned Martha, as she clutched at +my skirts just as Nell and Hampton began to arrive on the scene of +action, followed by Harriet and Mark and the others. They were all +panting and wild with anxiety. They had taken the wrong turning at the +end of the square and had gone around the block, thus giving the little +tragedy time to enact itself before a mercifully small audience. + +"Go away quickly, Martha, in the shadow," I bent and whispered to the +trembling woman, and I didn't know where the sympathy in my voice came +from as I stood between her and the rest while she slipped behind an old +horse block before the court house gate and off in the darkness towards +the Settlement before they had noticed her presence. + +"Anybody hurt? What's the matter?" gasped Mark as he seized hold of the +Reverend Mr. Goodloe's arm. + +"Nothing serious," answered the parson in a voice that calmed the others +like oil on choppy water. "Jacob Ensley is out on a drunk and Billy had +to knock him down to quiet him. All of you go back to dinner quickly, +for I don't see why Sergeant Rogers should get Jacob this time. Billy +will help me get him home and I'll remonstrate with him when he is +sober. I'd rather do it at the Last Chance than at the jail. Jacob is a +leading citizen and I don't want a jail smirch on him. I intend to use +him later. Now all of you go. Go!" His voice was as gently positive as +if he had been speaking to a lot of children and nobody seemed even to +think of rebelling but we all began to fade away into the starlight as +rapidly as we had assembled and more quietly. + +"Thank you, and bless you," he said to me, as I went past him in the +darkness, and for just a second I suspected that his hand was laid on my +black braids but I was not sure. I knew the gratitude was for my +getting Martha off the scene of action so quietly and swiftly. + +"A bit of raw life for you, Charlotte," Nickols remarked as he went with +me through the fragrant night back to Mark's and Nell's feast. "The +eternal girl, two-men melee." + +"In this case it was girl--three men, the third skunking it," I answered +in words as coarse and as forcible as the scene I had just witnessed. +"I'd like to get my bare hands around the throat of the man who is +hiding behind Martha and that little child." + +"That remark from you, my dear Charlotte, just goes to show that when +women get even the smell of bloodshed they become fiercer than the +male," said Nickols with a cool laugh that further infuriated me. + +"Yes, I do feel like a female jaguar," I answered hotly and then +collapsed inside at the use of that name for myself in conjunction with +my secret title for the Reverend Mr. Goodloe. + +"It would be better if you felt yourself in the character of a ferret if +you intend to go out on a still hunt for all unacknowledged paternity, +even in dear, simple, little old Goodloets," Nickols further jeered as +we came up the steps of the Morgan house from where the others were just +going into the dining room to resume their eating and drinking and being +merry. + +"I'll find that one man," I answered as I swept into the dining room, +seated myself in my place and drained my glass of flat wine. + +"Heaven help him!" laughed Nickols wickedly, and he raised Mr. Goodloe's +full glass as he slipped into his place beside me. + +For a week after the shooting fray my soul sulked darkly in its tent and +meditated while I went on my usual gay rounds of self-enjoyment. The +garden was being brought to a most glorious mid-August triumph and the +inhabitants for miles around were coming to see it. All of father's old +friends, from whom he had shrunk in the last years, hung around him in +the old way. He sat with them under the old graybeard poplars around +which had been planted a plantation of slim young larches by the wizard +of White Plains. From discussions about gardening and Americanisms all +the old Solons of the local bar, and even of the towns around, gradually +led their fallen leader back into his place and were battling with him +over politics and jurisprudence as they had in past days. The day I went +into his library to ask father about employing another likely black +garden boy that Dabney had discovered, and found him, Judge Monfort from +over at Hillcrest in the third district, Mr. Cockrell and Mr. Sproul +around his table deep in huge volumes from the shelves, buried in a +cloud of tobacco smoke and argument in which Latin words flew back and +forth, I went up to my room and stood helpless before my window looking +out towards Paradise Ridge. + +"I want to thank somebody and there is nobody to thank," I whispered, +with a great emptiness within me. That was the bitterest cry of need my +heart had ever given forth, and I went swiftly down to Nickols in the +garden and told him what I had seen and heard. + +"It really is a remarkable come-back, sweetheart," he said, with the +most exquisite sympathy in his voice and face. "Mark Morgan told me just +an hour ago that they want to have him appointed back to his old place +on the bench and Mr. Cockrell answered the President's inquiry for a man +from this section for the Commerce Commission with the judge's name. +It'll be great to see the old boy on one of the seats of the mighty +again, thanks to the sweat of his brow and mind in this village +manifestation of American nationalism which has grown out of our little +old garden plan." + +"What can a man or woman do to render gratitude if there seems to be +nobody to take it, Nickols?" I asked him, not expecting, as usual, that +he would understand me. For once he did. + +"The philosophies all teach 'hand it on' in that case," he answered me. + +"I'll hand it on to Martha Ensley and help her and her child to their +place under the sun," I said slowly, thus by having a reason and an +obligation back of it, ratifying the vow I had already taken. + +"That is an impossibility," answered Nickols with easy coolness. "The +one 'come-back' that is impossible is the woman in that kind of a +situation." + +"I'll never admit such an injustice as that," I said, and I had a queer +premonition that I would be held to that declaration. + +The very next morning after my declaration of purpose to "hand on" my +father's "come-back" I went down into the Settlement to hunt for Martha +Ensley, not that I was really suffering about her, but because I felt a +kind of obligation to begin at once a thing that it appealed to my sense +of justice to accomplish. + +Sometimes in mid-August there comes down a night over the hot, lush, +maturing Harpeth Valley which is like a benediction that sprinkles cool +dew on a thirsting heart. And now the morning was cool and brilliant, +with the sun evaporating the heavy dew in soft clouds of perfume from +the grain fields, the meadows and the upturned soil out where the +farmers were breaking ground after the first harvests. I felt strong and +calm and full of an electric energy, which I found I needed before I had +more than started my quest. + +I put on my tennis clothes, snowy from collar to shoe tips, like the +trappings of the White Knight, and started to walk down into the +Settlement to find Martha. I intended to stop at Mother Spurlock's +"Little House Beside the Road," and some vague idea was in my mind of +having her dispatch a messenger to summons Martha to the interview I was +about to bestow upon her. That is not the way it all happened and I was +hot and dusty and sweat-drenched before I had been on my quest more than +a few hours. + +Mother Elsie was not at home. The door to the Little House was wide +open, as it always is when cold or rain does not close it, and huge old +Tabby with one eye purred on the doorstep in the sun. A bird was nesting +in the wisteria vine above the door and her soft whirring bespoke an +interesting domestic event as near at hand. It did not in the least +disturb Tab, and I wondered at the harmony between traditional enemies +that I met on Mother Spurlock's very doorstep. I went in and drew myself +a drink of fresh cool water from the cistern at the back door, looked in +a tin box over the kitchen table and took three crisp tea cakes +therefrom. I picked up a half knitted sock from beside the huge split +rocker in the shade of the gnarled old apple tree, which was a rooftree +in every sense of the word, for it crowded close against the door and +hovered in the whole tiny house. Just before I left I put all the loose +change I had in my white linen skirt pocket in an old lacquered tea +canister which had a slit in it cut with a can opener, and that stood +on the shelf of the old rock chimney in the low living room. I had +never heard that canister mentioned by Mother Spurlock and I don't know +how I knew that out of it came the emergency funds for many a crisis in +the Settlement. Then last I picked a blush rose from the monthly bloomer +trailing up and over the window and laid it on the empty, worn old Bible +on the wide arm of the rocker beside a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles. +Then I hesitated. I had been so sure of finding Mother Spurlock at home +and having her hunt up Martha for me that I found it difficult to adjust +myself to my first complexity of plans. And while I hesitated a resolve +came into my mind with the completeness of a spoken direction. + +"She lives at the Last Chance and I'll go right down there and find +her," I said to myself, as I started along the peony-bordered path to +the front gate of the Little House, over which a huge late snowball was +drooping, loaded down with snowy balls that would hold their own until +almost the time for frost. At my own decision I had a delicious little +feeling of fear, which was at least justifiable when I thought of that +huge drunken figure wrestling with Billy in the darkness and whom I +knew to be the proprietor of the resort into which I had determined to +penetrate. Also, from my early youth I had heard Jacob Ensley and the +Last Chance spoken of in tones of dread disapproval. Before I should +become really frightened I hurried down the hill, past the squalid and +tumble-down mill cottages which I had never really seen before, where it +seemed to me millions of children swarmed in and around and about, and +at last arrived at the infamous social center of the Settlement. + +And my astonishment was profound to find that the Last Chance sign hung +over a very prosperous grocery with boxes and barrels of provender out +on the pavement under an awning and with huge, newly-painted screen +doors guarding the wide entrance, at which I hesitated. + +"Come right in, lady, come right in," called a cheerful, booming man's +voice, and the door was swung open by a large man in a white apron, with +blue eyes that crinkled at the corners, a wide smile and white hair. +"What can we do for you to-day? We've a nice lot of late dewberries just +in from over on Paradise Ridge." + +"I'm--I'm looking for the--the Last Chance Saloon," I faltered, because +I was too astonished to utter anything but the truth to the delightful +and tenderly solicitous man standing before me in his huge, clean white +apron over his blue shirt that matched his eyes. + +"Well, lady," the nice Irish voice faltered a trifle, about as mine had, +though plainly with controlled astonishment tinged with amusement, +"could I get you anything to--to cool you off and bring it out here in +the grocery? It is cooler than it is back at the bar. I said to myself +jest last week, so I did, I said to myself, 'Jacob, you ought to get a +sody-water fountain for the ladies what has the same right to thirst as +a man.' And I will, too, if my bad luck just leaves me. How about a nice +cool bottle of beer sitting comfortable here before the counter?" + +"Are you--_you_--Jacob--I mean--Mr. Jacob Ensley?" I further gasped. +This daylight materialization of the grewsome beast of the night was too +much for me. + +"Jacob Ensley at your service, Miss," he answered with easy dignity. +"Now, will it be the bottle of beer I shall bring you? Or there's a new +drink I might mix fer you that a young gentleman friend of mine from +New York has taught me, and with a good Irish name of Thomas +Collins--the drink, not the young gentleman." Nickols had been living on +Tom Collins for the last month and I instantly knew that I recognized +the young friend from New York. Also my wits were at a branching of the +road and I didn't know just what to do or say as Jacob waited with easy +courtesy for my decision. And again I was too much perturbed for +invention and had to speak out the truth. + +"I'm Charlotte Powers, Mr. Ensley, and I came down to see your daughter, +Martha," I said, looking directly into his clear friendly eyes which I +saw instantly darken with a storm as the smile left his nice mouth and +it hardened into a straight line. + +"I'm sorry, Miss Powers, but my Martha ain't at home right now to you, +and I don't know when she will be. Is that all I can do for you? These +berries now, from over at Paradise Ridge?" And with the ease of a man of +the great upper world Jacob Ensley of the lower walks of life put me out +of the door of his private life into the ranks of the meddler and shut +it in my face. I acknowledged to myself that my rebuff was justifiable +and I was about to make an exit from the scene as gracefully as possible +with a box of the really delicious berries under my arm when a cry of +terror in a child's voice came from somewhere at the back of the grocery +and together the grocer and I ran to see what the matter could be. And +at the heels of the proprietor I then penetrated the blind of the +grocery and entered the Last Chance. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE TENACIOUS TURTLE + + +"It's Martha's Stray," the big man gasped in a kind of impatient alarm. +"I just left him here a minute ago to go front." Together he and I +started around the long room with its bar on the one side backed up by a +mirror whose gilt frame was swathed in mosquito netting and on either +side of which were shelves bearing pyramids of bottles. On the bar at +one end were piled oranges and at the other lemons and limes whose +sophistication seemed out of place somehow in the Settlement in the +Harpeth Valley. All the trappings that I judge would go with the +dispensing of liquor were present, but our eyes could discover no small +child and we stood together and waited anxiously. + +"He's got me toe, me toe, and won't let go. He's chewing it off!" at +last came a lusty yell from just outside a back door that led out into a +side yard from behind the bar, and with one accord the proprietor of +the Last Chance and I ran to the scene of the devouring. And as we ran I +heard a door slam in the rooms back of the bar and we met Martha face to +face on the scene of action. I shall never forget the picture that +confronted me there in that little back yard upon which the bar of the +Last Chance opened, and I somehow never want to. + +On a little grass plot a small boy danced and yelled and firmly to one +of the capering feet was hung a large mud turtle which was flapped this +way and that by the strenuous young leg, but which held on with +apparently every intention of letting only the traditional thunder +loosen its grasp on the pink prize. + +"Stand still, you Stray, and let me get at the varmint," commanded Jacob +impatiently. + +"Let mother get the beast, sonny," Martha pleaded as she knelt on the +grass and caught the dancing boy by his arm and brought his dervish +gyrations to a halt. + +I stood unconscious of intrusion and absorbed with interest and watched +the operations begun on the tenacious turtle and the writhing toe. +Neither of the three principals in the action noticed me at all as +Martha held the boy and Jacob bent and took hold of the turtle in his +hard brown spotted shell. And as the operations for his liberation were +begun the small boy became both still and quiet and I was able to get a +good view of him as he leaned against his mother's shoulder and held out +the foot to Jacob. + +As I looked at him something queer stirred in me with a sharp pain and +then was quiet. He was the most delicious bit of five-year-old humanity +I had ever beheld and I doubt if any childless woman could have seen +such a child cuddle to another woman's breast and shoulder and not have +had something of the same thrill of pain. His whiteness and pinkness and +sturdy chubbiness were like many another infant's charms but his jet +black top-knot that ascended on one side and cascaded over his ear on +the other in a hauntingly familiar way, his violet eyes under their long +lashes and his clear-cut, firm, commanding mouth, that curled into the +bud of a rose as he sobbed and then unfolded into lines of beauty and +strength as he hushed at his mother's comforting, were not like any +other young human that I had ever beheld. + +"It hurts. It hurts!" he sobbed. + +"Hush, _you_ mustn't cry!" commanded Martha, and there was a little +bitter emphasis on the "you" that cut me, I didn't exactly know why. + +And immediately the curled mouth was set in a firm line and the long +lashes winked back tears. + +"The beast will not leave go at all," was Jacob's verdict as after a +careful twisting and turning of the ugly turtle he rose to his feet. +"And they do say to kill it lets a venom into the place it is holt of. I +dunno what to do." And in his uncertainty Jacob's eyes sought my face +while at the same instant Martha lifted her wistful eyes to mine. It was +the instinctive turning of the masses to the domination of my class in +the time of need of leadership. + +"You git it, lady," suddenly demanded the kiddie, and in his voice and +glance there was none of the deferring to a superior force that I felt +in the others but a decided command of that force. And as he spoke he +stretched out an imperious hand that caught and clung to mine. "Git down +and git it," he again commanded. + +"Have you any ammonia, Martha?" I asked, my wits responding gallantly to +the sudden demand upon their biological knowledge. + +"I've some in the chist behind the bar. Times I uses it strong on heavy +drunks," responded Jacob and he went quickly into the bar and returned +with the bottle. "It's customers in the grocery and customers at the bar +that I'm keeping waiting fooling along with the brat and the varmint," +he grumbled. + +"I can manage the turtle and you can go and attend to the customers," I +answered, thus assuming calmly the command of the craft of the Last +Chance. Jacob immediately took me at my word and disappeared into the +bar. + +"Let's take him and lay him on the bed so we can muffle the turtle in a +towel while we use the ammonia," I said to Martha. + +"Yes," answered Martha, "that will be best. Let mother carry you, +sonny!" and Martha bent as if to lift him in her arms. + +"I kin hop," the young sufferer announced. "I'm too big to carry, I am," +he added with proud consideration in his glance at Martha's frailness. + +"I'll carry you and mother can carry the turtle," I answered, and to +prevent further delay I lifted him in my strong arms while Martha took +the turtle in her hands, protected by the gingham apron that she wore. +The black head wilted against my breast and the serious young violet +eyes were raised to mine in frightened confidence. + +"It's a mighty big turkle," he faltered and snuggled closer. + +"We'll get him," I reassured, as I laid him on a bed in a room that +opened, as did the bar, out on the tiny yard. + +And as I had promised we performed upon that stubborn turtle. With a +convulsion, as the ammonia fumes entered his nostrils, if he had such +things, he let go of the toe, shuddered and withdrew into his shell, to +die, I supposed, though I afterwards learned that he crawled off in the +night, much to the kiddie's grief. + +"That's a bad smell, poor old turkle," was all the thanks I got as the +sufferer climbed down from the bed and proceeded to seize his late enemy +in intrepid and sympathetic hands. His mother rescued both him and the +turtle by placing the latter in a bucket on a table at the window and +giving the rescued another bucket to get me a drink of water from the +well in the yard. + +"Northeast, bottom corner," he promised me with hospitality shining from +his entire face as he experimentally hopped out into the yard, then +forgot me and the water entirely in making the acquaintance of a very +dirty little dog that was barking at him through the fence. + +"Oh, he's lovely, Martha," I said, speaking from pure impulse in a way +that could not fail to carry conviction and melt the heart of any woman +who possessed a treasure like that. + +"I know he is, Miss Charlotte," Martha answered with gentle bitterness, +"and that makes it all the worse for him." + +"It doesn't; it can't be worse for anybody to be born as beautiful and +strong as that boy is," I answered her and felt somehow I had fallen +head foremost into my mission. "I came down here to see you, Martha, and +now that I have seen him--I--it's--it's a shame, all of it," I ended by +faltering with a total lack of the eloquence that I felt. + +"Yes, it's just that--a shame," Martha admitted to me with a great +hopelessness in her black eyes. "And nothing can make it better." + +"Something can be done!" I answered hotly. "You are young, Martha, and +he's a baby. You can get out of it all and you can get him out and begin +all over. I--I'll help you." And as I spoke I took her hand in mine. +Mine was brown and hard from tennis and Martha's from toil, but they met +and clung. + +"I--I tried that, Miss Charlotte. I had to come back," answered Martha, +and a bitter passion suddenly lit her pale face. "I'm too young to be +let go--yet." + +"What do you mean, Martha?" I asked, and suddenly I felt that some kind +of chasm had yawned at my feet that I had never suspected to exist +before. + +"Don't ask me, Miss Charlotte," Martha answered as the passion died out +of her face and voice and the sorrow fell over her like a shadow. + +"Do you remember that afternoon at Mother Spurlock's when we were ten, +and you climbed the tree and got the apples, while I picked them up for +her to make apple turn-overs for us?" I asked her suddenly as I held on +to her hand when she tried to draw it from me. "I cried for a week to +go and see you, Martha, and it was all wrong that I wasn't allowed. My +mother would have let me come if she had been alive, but Mammy was an +ignorant negro and didn't understand." + +"I cried for you, too," answered Martha, as the saddest smile I had ever +seen came across the darkness of her face. "And when you was a young +lady I crept up to the south window of the Poplars and saw you in your +dress for the big coming-out party. You were like an angel from Heaven +and I loved you. I wanted to be like you. All us girls did. They have +always envied you and watched you, but I loved you. I did! I did, +but--what chanct has a girl like me got against a man who's like--like +you are? But I did love you; I did!" + +"It doesn't seem right to--to either of us to have kept us apart," I +faltered, as Martha suddenly slipped to the floor at my feet and put her +head in her hands. + +"Don't be kind to me--I can't stand that. You mustn't, you mustn't! You +wouldn't if you knew," she sobbed. + +"I _am_ going to be--that is, I _am_ going to help you, Martha, and you +have got to show me how," I answered her as a kind of determination +that was stronger than any like emotion I had ever had came over me. +"Tell me what to do, Martha, for you and--and for the kiddie," I +commanded her with my usual imperiousness. + +"Miss Charlotte," said Martha, as she suddenly rose to her knees, looked +up into my face and bared her shoulder with one motion of her hand, +"that black bruise is from the licks father gave me when I wouldn't tell +him why it was I came back after I went away and why it was I went. He +beat me three times to make me tell whose that boy is--when he wasn't a +month old. He knew that Mr. Goodloe helped me to go away three months +ago and--and begin again, and he don't really believe that the parson +enticed me back. The gang just put that in his head when he was +drinking. He does think that Mr. Goodloe knows about it all and I'm +afraid--afraid that some time when he's drunk he'll try to make him tell +and--and--there'll be murder, maybe double murder. I can't tell you +anything. I'm a fly caught in a web and I'm being drawn down to hell. I +thought there was a way out; the parson prayed with me and I saw it. I +saw myself right and honest again, but--but at a word I--I came back. +Even the good of the child couldn't hold me when the--the calling came. +Please go and leave me, and forget about me and--and don't come down +here again." + +"No, Martha, I must help you," I answered, decidedly. I had never been +able to bear any kind of frustration and this made me doubly determined. + +"It's too late, Miss Charlotte, but, Oh, it ain't too late for some of +the others. Luella May and Sadie Todd and the rest. Miss Charlotte, make +the Town men let 'em alone, and stop the Saturday night games and dances +down here. You can do it. Pa would kill me for saying it, for it is then +he makes his money, but it isn't fair, it isn't fair. You Town women do +the same things, but you are protected and looked after. When Grace +Payne gets drunk at your Country Club you take her home yourself and see +no harm comes to her, and the men she's with protect her from +themselves, but it's not the same with Luella May Spain and--and me." + +"How did you know about Grace, Martha?" I faltered with terror in my +heart. I felt a kind of class nakedness that made me burn with positive +physical shame. + +"They all watch and talk about what you do, Miss Charlotte, you +especially, because you are more beautiful and more--more strong than +the rest. They all said you'd smash our going to the church meetings +with the Town folks at the Country Club when you got home. But I always +stand up that you are right and you are. The Town on the hill and the +Settlement in the valley are better--better apart. That's why I'm +begging you to go and leave me to fight it out or go under. Please go!" + +"Oh, but, Martha, I didn't--I don't--" I was beginning to falter a +denial to what had suddenly struck me as a truth when we were +interrupted by the advent of Martha's child, the Stray, as I afterwards +found was the only name he possessed, one cruelly indicative of his +relation to the social structure of the world into which he had +involuntarily been born. + +"Bottom of the well, northeast corner," he said, as he set a bucket of +water at my feet with a jolt that dashed a small wave over my white +buckskins, and he held out a dipper full to me with a little twirling +motion that sent another wave on my skirt and which had an unmistakably +professional knack to it. I have seen old Wilks set down beer steins and +cocktail glasses with exactly that twirl ever since he has officiated at +the lockers and sideboard at the Club, and I now know that his motions +had the latest Last Chance style to them. Thus, by gossamer links and +steel cable, the Town and the Settlement seemed to be held together. + +"Excuse me for spilling the water on you," added the young scion of the +bartender with grave courtesy, as he held a very dirty little paddie +under the drip of the dipper and elevated the drink for me in such a way +that I had to steady the small hand that held the handle with mine as I +drank. + +"Oh, son, how careless!" Martha was just exclaiming when a call in +Jacob's sharp voice interrupted her. + +"Martha, grocery!" it commanded her and I was not sure whether he was +ignorant of the fact that I was still her caller or was interrupting her +on purpose. I think Martha shared the same uncertainty; she blushed and +looked both ashamed and frightened. + +"I'll go now, Martha, out this door that leads onto the street," I +hastened to say to relieve her of the dilemma. "But I'm coming back to +you," I added with determination, as I made ready to slip out the side +door of the Last Chance in regular underworld style. + +"Please don't, Miss Charlotte," she called, as she was passing through +the other door into the world from which I was escaping. The sad +significance of our two exits struck me so forcibly that I was two +blocks away before I really became conscious of things around me, and +then I was brought back to the squalid street of the Settlement and its +surroundings by feeling a damp little hand slipped into mine as I strode +along. + +"Please take me with you, Miss Lady," the Stray pleaded, as he ran along +beside me, trying to keep up with my long steps. "I've got me a dog now +to keep off turkles from me and you." And the slinking brindle bunch of +ears and tail and very little else, at our heels, regarded me with the +same brave entreaty. He and the Stray, indeed, presented a picture of +chivalrous attention as they stood regarding me. + +"But what will your mother say?" I asked of my small human attendant +with conscientious contention against my desire to take them both with +me on out of the dirt and heat and flies and other swarming young humans +up into the coolness and shade and--loneliness--of my own life. + +"She groceries all day and has to forget me," he answered calmly. "You +can bring me back to bed when she is through." And to this plea was +added a pathetic wag of the brindle tail. + +"Well, I'll take you up as far as Mother Spurlock's and give you both a +tea cake," I capitulated as I started again up the street of the +Settlement towards the haven of the Town. + +And as my escort and I progressed through the Settlement I could see the +most violent signs of interest being manifested in all of us. Dirty, +sweaty women, with their sleeves rolled up, came to the doors to look at +us, and as I greeted them one and all with a nod they smiled back with +pleased astonishment. I had never been down in the Settlement before, +but most of them spoke to me by name and one toothless old woman hastily +broke off a bloom from a struggling geranium, came to her rickety gate +and offered it to me with an admiring smile. + +"Bless my soul, Miss Charlotte, be you a-kidnappin' Martha's Stray?" she +asked, as I accepted it with enthusiasm. + +"He and the dog are kidnapping me as far as Mother Spurlock's, and then +they'll let me go and come back," I answered, with a laugh, as we +started on. Not once had the strong little fingers let go of my hand as +we stood and talked and they only held the closer as we started climbing +the long, hot dusty hill to the Little House by the Side of the Road. +But in the long climb not once did the sturdy little legs lag or the +small arm drag on my strength. The clasp was one of equality and +affectionate attraction, not of dependence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE SHORT-CIRCUIT + + +And at last we arrived at the old snowball guarding the open gate of the +Little House and we went under its low boughs and up the walk. But we +did not march to an undisputed and stealthy raid on the tea cake box +above the kitchen table. The Little House was no longer the deserted +scene I had left it, but was teeming with human and juvenile activities +which streamed out to meet us at the door. + +"You can't come in here, Auntie Charlotte," was the command that greeted +me at the very doorstep as young Charlotte faced me with short skirts +outspread determinedly, while behind her Mikey of the red head, Jimmy, +Sue, Maudie, the sister of Mikey, and other known and unknown juveniles, +presented a solid support of defiance. "We are doing some Lord's work +and we don't need you, but we'll let the nice little boy and the lovely +dog come in. We do need them. Come in, little boy!" and as she spoke +Charlotte held out a welcoming hand to the Stray, who faltered and +looked up into my face to see if he might accept the invitation which +evidently swayed him by its commanding tone. + +"Couldn't I come in for just a second?" I asked with all due meekness. + +"Not for even a second," answered Charlotte sternly. "You'd interrupt +Minister. You go away and leave the boy." + +"Then how'll I get him back to his mother?" I pleaded, but as I spoke I +allowed the little fingers to slip from mine and I pushed the waif +towards Charlotte with the greatest confidence, which evidently +communicated itself to both him and the dog, for they left me +simultaneously and went towards the enemy's camp. + +"Shoo, it's only little Stray Ensley. I'll take him home when I go," the +redoubtable Mikey assured me with a wide smile at the kiddie, which was +answered with a rapture of hero worship. + +"What's his name?" demanded Charlotte as if seeking a passport. + +"Just Stray," answered Mikey in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "He +ain't got no father, dead or alive." + +"Then Stray is just short for stranger, because everybody else has +fathers, dead, alive or drunk," said Charlotte, in the same +matter-of-fact tone that Mikey had used, and he in no way seemed to feel +her remark personally derogatory to his paternal parent. + +"Well, let's take him to Minister to be learned his verses of the song +and dance. Come on, for we are keeping him and the Lord waiting," said +Charlotte as she marshaled them all into the Little House and calmly +shut the door in my face and left me standing alone in the middle of the +walk. Even the yellow pup had squeezed into the door before it was shut +and only I was left in the outer darkness away from the grand opera +voice that I could hear booming with a juvenile chorus out at the back +of the cottage where I knew the rehearsal was being held under the twin +of the old apple tree from which the front roof tree over my head was +eternally separated by the Little House. With actual sadness and a queer +feeling of shut-outness I did the only thing left to me and sauntered +slowly on up the hill under the tall old elm trees that the Town had +planted a century ago to keep the heat from the heads of the like of me +while the toilers down in the Settlement had no such proof of ancestral +care. + +"They are producing in the sweat of their brows while I--saunter," I +said to myself, as I stretched out my bare arm from which the white silk +sleeve had been rolled away after the prevailing mode of the sport for +which it was designed, and flexed and regarded the bunch of muscles that +knotted themselves on my smooth, tanned forearm. + +"It _could_ swing a wash tub as well as the best racquet this side of +the Meadowbrook Club," I added aloud with a queer kind of primitive +shame mixed with my physical pride in myself. + +"Or juggle a heavy baby and a kitchen stove into a square meal?" added a +laughing voice as the Jaguar padded up beside my shoulder on his tennis +shoes before I had heard him at all, so deep was my absorption in my own +judgment and absolution of myself. + +"Still I was put out just a few minutes ago by a woman half my size," I +laughed in return as the long strides shortened into harmony with mine. + +"I heard about it and ran after you to ask you to come back or, if you +refused, to let me go with you wherever you are going. I left Mother +Spurlock in charge of the newly installed Epworth Leaguers. Charlotte +disapproved of my coming and said so," and we both laughed in delight +over my strenuous name-daughter. + +"Are you asking me _quo vadis?_" I demanded, with a look at him out of a +corner of my eye that got in return a glint of the jewels under dull +gold that always infuriated as well as interested me. + +"'Whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge--'" +the parson suddenly chanted under his breath, using the old Gregorian +measure for the few words of the oldest song of impersonal love extant. +"Thank you for bringing Martha's boy up to the Little House. Jacob has +refused both Mother Spurlock and me to let him come." + +"I didn't bring him. He and the pup brought me and then he was stolen +from me into the fold, as it were," I answered as I paused at the front +gate of the Poplars, which had a white clematis drifting over its tall +stone pillars and clutching at the straight iron bars as if trying to +keep me out of even my own fold. "Will you come in with me?" I asked +with a laugh, as I flung the old gate wide in spite of the tendril +fingers. + +The parson laughed, whistled a strain of his "whither thou goest" chant +to me and followed me across the lawn to the foot of the poplars. On the +bench surrounding their trunks I found my basket with the fine seam I +was sewing for the Suckling in it and I dropped upon the thick mat of +grass on the very edge of the shadow from the silver branches above and +began to hunt for my thimble, leaving the Jaguar standing over me. + +"Stop looking down on me and come tell me what particular religious +incantations were going on from which Charlotte so violently barred me," +I laughed up at him, as I threw a flat grass cushion a little way from +my skirts, upon which he immediately sank and seemed to curl up at my +feet. + +"I had the whole bunch rehearsing the children's part in the dedication +services of our chapel. Do you know that small Sue can really sing? The +rest stagger well but Susan sings. It is delicious. It is going to be +hard on you women folks to hear her chant her responses to me on that +great day." And as he spoke he looked beyond me over to his beautiful +shimmering gray chapel and there was not a glint in his eyes that showed +me he was trying to sound out my intentions about attendance on that +ceremony. + +"Please, Mr. Goodloe, don't be serious in saying as you did last night +that you are not going to dedicate your chapel until I--I help you," in +all gentleness I said. + +"I can't do it until you come," he answered me with just as great +gentleness and he turned his head away from me, but not before I saw a +glow in his eyes that made me suddenly strong and calm and curiously +humble. + +"I--I could go as your guest," I faltered, offering a compromise which I +felt sure would not be accepted. + +"I can't, I just can't dedicate the chapel until you echo my ceremony in +your heart," he answered me with his eyes still turned away from me and +looking with the greatest sadness out on Paradise Ridge. + +"Why?" I asked with a simple directness that the situation demanded and +with no trace of the coquetry the question might have held. + +"Shall I tell you all of the reason with no reservations?" the parson +asked, as he swung around on his mat and faced me, with his eyes looking +straight into mine. + +"All," I answered. + +"In every community there is one soul which holds the real leadership of +the souls of those surrounding them. God seems to appoint captains of +the regiments of His people to lead them along the way, Christ the +captain of all the hosts. Spiritually you are more evolved than any +other person in this town and with you doubting I cannot get the others +to see. You are so gorgeous and so brilliant that you blind them all. +They have always followed your lead--up or down. There are a few like +Mother Spurlock who have gained their Christ knowledge through +suffering, but they are not of the calibre to help others to gain +theirs. With your hand in mine I can make this whole community see and +know; separated from you, you going one way and I another, I can do +nothing. You simply short-circuit my force and I am helpless without +you." He spoke very simply and directly down into my heart. + +"That is not true; no one person is responsible for any spiritual +decision that another makes," I answered hotly with an awful sense of +having had a burden placed on my shoulders that they could not carry. + +"The old 'brother's keeper' question will never be settled in any but +the right way," he answered me straight from the shoulder. "You are +responsible for the attitude of this whole town towards the cause I +represent and they'll have to wait for your eyes to be opened and for +you to make them see." + +"You minimize yourself," I answered quickly, for in some curious way it +hurt me to see that great strong man sit at my feet baffled by a force +that he declared to be in me but which I did not acknowledge or +understand. + +"They were listening to me--from a distance, as it were--and I might +have made them hear if you had not come home and thrown them back into +the old pleasant groove of non-action and non-belief. In a week you had +swept away all I had builded in six months." He spoke with simple +conviction and not a trace of the bitterness that might have been in the +arraignment. + +"Everybody in this town adores you," were the words that gushed out of +my heart for his comforting before I could stop them. "That is one +reason I have acted as I have. I do not, I cannot believe that the +religion which is great enough to bring the redemption of the whole race +into a desirable immortality can be composed of nine-tenths emotion, +with which all of them were following your beautiful voice and beautiful +eyes and beautiful church and beautiful words. If I am to be saved it +will be by something sterner than that; it will be something that makes +me sweat drops of blood from my mind, take up a hard cross of duty and +work, work to make the fibre of my soul strong enough to enjoy the +robust kind of immortality that alone seems worth while to me. Your Son +of Man walked from town to town in the hot sun and taught the people, +healed the multitude and yet had not where to lay his head to rest. His +church has lost His vigor. Your whole scheme hasn't enough action in it. +Your organization is too easy and too full of surface observances. It is +conducted with slipshod business methods and there is no force in it to +help me. If I join any church ever it will have to be a new one that can +compare with modern business in its efficiency. Your scheme of +redemption to immortality through an efficient mediation is perfectly +sound, but you don't back it up." + +"The Church of Christ has stood, endured and done business for almost +two thousand years," he answered quietly. "It is in some ways all you +say of it, but it has at least proved its vitality. Why seek to found a +new organization with a new head and a new scheme of immortality if you +recognize this scheme as good? The place to reorganize a business is +from the inside, not the outside. These people _must_ get their vision +_now_. Will you come and help me?" As he spoke he looked again down into +the depths from which I had been trying to translate some of the +hieroglyphics to him and he held out his long powerful hand to me in an +entreaty that shook my very foundations. + +"You make me want to do as you ask me, but I do not see what it is we +should strive for, what it is from which we should be saved. There are +tears in my eyes but do you want my emotions without my reason?" And I +asked my question with a quiver almost of timidity. + +"No, both!" he answered me, as he dropped his hand and arm from their +attitude of entreaty, shook his head sadly and again turned from me and +looked out on the dim distance of Old Harpeth. Suddenly I had the +feeling of having a great door shut in my face, and a terror of being +left all alone in the world came over me. Without knowing what I did I +stretched out my hand and caught at his arm and moved closer to him, +suddenly cold in the sunshine. + +"I'm frightened," I whispered, as I bowed my head on my hand, clutching +his arm. + +"Poor little wandering, hunting lamb," he crooned to me as he laid a +tender hand on my bowed head. "Keep watch over her, Lord Jesus," he +prayed under his breath and then as suddenly as I had felt the fear I +found again my courage. + +"That cry was woman to man, not child to priest. It is only honest to +tell you so," I said, as I suddenly raised my head and threw another +gauntlet that I knew would bring on another battle. "I hate myself for +it." + +"I wanted to win you for God and have you come to me then as a gift +from Him, but it may have to be the other way round," was the answer he +struck out at me with, and as he spoke he clasped my hand in his with a +force that seemed to create the great silent, untenanted space around us +as it had that night he had sung the Tristan music to me in the +moonlight. "I'm going to save you and--and _have_ you." + +"No, no!" I cried, as I tried to draw my hand away, found it held beyond +my effort and then suddenly released. + +"I knew the first minute I looked into your eyes, but I'll wait," he +said softly into the silence around us. + +"No, no, don't even think such a thing," I exclaimed, and I wanted to +rise to my feet and break the spell of that space around us, but I could +only cower closer to him on the grass beneath the rustling silver +leaves. "I'm going to marry Nickols in a few months and then I'm going +out of this world of yours and you can lead them all to--to safety." + +"No, it's in God's hands. He'll keep you and give you to me when the +time comes. It all may mean suffering to us both, probably does, but I +accept the cup--in His good time," and as he spoke he looked again into +my eyes with a lonely sadness that I could not endure. + +"I want to get away from you," I gasped and I felt that I must get out +of the aloneness with him. + +"We are in God's hands," he said again, as his warm hands found and held +mine. "We must wait on Him with--" Then suddenly the world closed in on +us again and we were on our feet--apart. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ABIDE WITH ME + + +"Auntie Charlotte, you stole Minister away from us in a no-fair way," +stormed Charlotte as she came around the young larches and wild swamp +root that had formed the world apart for the dangerous Jaguar and me. +"Mother Spurlock can't sing to any good and Sue is so little we gets the +key away from her. Let him come right back!" As she made this peremptory +demand for the release of my prisoner, my name-daughter stood her ground +with her cohorts, who had been scrambling around and over and through +the shrubbery, massed behind her. There were Mikey of the red head, +small James, the musical wee Susan, Maudie Burns and Jennie Todd, +besides several more of the Burns family, a few Sprouls and Paynes and a +very ragged young Jones, and they all looked at me with hostile and +accusing eyes as Charlotte hurled a final invective at me. "You are +wicked and the devil will burn you up," she threatened. + +"He won't neither, at all. Hush up!" came a defense and a command in a +very imperious young voice, and the Stray followed the voice from around +the large trunk of the oldest graybeard. He had arrived late on the +scene of action because his impedimenta had been the wriggling puppy of +brindle hue, which he immediately released as he came over and stood +between the Reverend Mr. Goodloe and me, with my hand in his own small +paddie and defiance and defense to the limit in his high-held young head +with its black crest and snapping violet eyes. At last I felt Charlotte +had met her match and I trembled for the result. + +"She never stoled nothing," he further declared, looking Charlotte full +in the eye. + +"I meant she tooken him away, Stranger," parleyed Charlotte with extreme +mildness for her and giving to the Stray the name that she had decided +upon by translating the cognomen of his state into that of another +almost equally forlorn. "My father told my Auntie Harriet that Aunt +Charlotte would git Minister yet and I'll call the devil to stop her if +she tries to get him away." + +"I'll bust that devil's head with a rock and a bad smell," answered the +Stray as he held tighter to my hand and hurled back his threat that held +a remembrance of the conquering of the tenacious turtle. + +"Auntie Harriet answered father that Auntie Charlotte and the devil +could do most anything that--" small James was contributing to the +general assault when with a wave of a calming hand Mr. Goodloe took the +field. + +"That will do, youngsters," he commanded with extreme mildness it seemed +to me, considering the appalling situation. "I thought you had had about +enough practice for to-day and Charlotte could have taught the little +boy--er--" + +"Stranger," prompted Charlotte. + +"You could have taught him up to the point you knew so I could have a +nice rest here under the lovely trees. Are you being kind to me in not +helping me a little bit? You know what you promised me." And the beloved +"Minister's" voice was just as grave and just as serious as if he had +been reproving one of his deacons. + +"Is talking to Auntie Charlotte and holding her hand the Lord's work?" +demanded Charlotte, looking him straight in the face. + +"Yes," answered Mr. Goodloe, gravely, looking her as straight in the eye +as she had looked him. + +"Then come on, Stranger, and learn the march without any tune but Sue," +she said as she stretched out her hand to the Stray, who ignored it and +clung to me with his serious eyes raised to mine. + +"I'll go with you now over in the chapel and play for you on the organ +and then we can all teach him," said the parson, and he picked wee +Susan, the music box, up in his arms and buried his lips in the curls on +the back of her fragrant little neck. + +"Are you all done with Auntie Charlotte?" asked young Charlotte, with +the extreme of consideration for him, not for my feelings. + +"Yes, for the present," he answered, and he held out his free hand to +the Stray, who was still clinging to me. + +"Go with him, sonny, and Mikey will take you home," I said to my small +champion, using the tender name that I had heard Martha give him. As I +spoke I laid his hand in that of Mr. Goodloe and I didn't raise my eyes +to his but turned from them and left him standing in the midst of his +flock of lambs under the silver leaves and out in the bright light, +while I went into the cool dark hall and on up to my own room which was +also cool and dark. + +"I am lost and blind and I don't know what to do," I murmured as I flung +myself down on my window seat and looked through the narrow opening of +the shutters out to the everlasting hills across the valley. "I know I +am ineffective and perfectly worthless as I am but I will not, I will +not be swayed by--" + +"Charlotte," called father's voice with its commanding note which had +apparently come into it now to stay. + +"Yes," I answered, and went down immediately, glad of the interruption +to my self-communion and arraignment. + +I found father and Nickols and Mark Morgan and Billy Harvey and Mr. +Cockrell down in father's study and I could see from their faces that +something unusual had happened. + +"City Council voted the appropriation to meet Cockrell's and my donation +for the schoolhouse, contracts have been signed and dirt is to be +broken to-morrow by Henry Todd and thirty workmen Nickols has ordered +down from the city," father announced, with jubilation in his voice. "We +thought Goodloe was here in the garden with you." + +"He was, but he has taken the children with him over to his chapel," I +answered, and for some reason I blushed, for I saw Mark Morgan's eyes +laughing at me and I also saw a glint I didn't like in Nickols' eyes. + +"School to be opened on September twelfth and then let the kids fight it +out," said Billy. "I bet on Charlotte to beat out the whole Settlement +the first day if allowed full swing." + +"If Goodloe didn't stand behind this mixing of--of social oil +and--water, I'd be scared to death," said Mark. + +"Mike Burns and Henry Todd and Spain had better be afraid of a loss of +progeny," jeered Billy. "I bet Charlotte and James and the scions of the +Sprouls and Paynes can lead the Settlement scions into by-paths of +iniquity of which they never dreamed." + +"I wish you had ten, blast you, for being so sensible as to have none," +Mark answered him, and I felt rather than saw the bolt of pain that shot +through Billy's heart. It's because Nell and her children are not his +that Billy is bad, and what is going to help him? + +"Well, let's go over to the parsonage and tell Goodloe all about it," +father suggested, and the other men followed him out into the garden +path that led through the Eden of my foremothers straight into that +little Methodist chapel. Only Nickols remained with me upon the wide +high vine-shadowed porch. + +"I'll marry you the first of October, Nickols, and then we can go to +France as you want to," I said to him without any preamble, and as I +spoke I drew close to him as if for protection from something I didn't +understand. + +"Fleeing from the wrath to come?" questioned Nickols with a tender jeer +as he took me in his arms and his lips sought the kiss I had been +keeping from him. Again I refused it and he laughed as he pushed me from +him and there was still more of the jeer in the laugh though the passion +in his eyes was devouring and glad. + +"Suppose we go north, right after Mr. Jeffries has finished his visit. +Let's have the ideal village wedding. We'll have out the school children +if any are left from the mix-up, and Goodloe can make us man and wife +out here under the trees in our own garden. Then we'll go away from the +whole show, the Christian religion included, and live happy ever after." +And as he spoke Nickols again drew me to him and sought the kiss I still +could not give him. + +"Nickols, Mother Spurlock and poor little Mrs. Burns and--and Mr. +Goodloe have something very real that we haven't," I faltered and, +utterly weary, I laid my head down against his strong shoulder. + +"That's what they say, but they can't prove it. They can't pass it on, +so it mustn't really be anything. They are not tightwads, so they +wouldn't hold back on us with their salvation, would they? Well, then, +they haven't anything. It's all just a substitute for love, dear. Mother +Spurlock fell back on it when she lost her husband. The little Burns +woman wouldn't have it any more than Nell has if Mike Burns was like +Mark Morgan. And Goodloe would lose it in a week if--if he could get you +in his arms." As Nickols spoke, his arms about me trembled and strained +me to him. + +"No!" I exclaimed as if I had heard blasphemy uttered. + +"It _is_, dear, it is just suppressed sex. The scientists agree on that +and all the religions are just that, from the most primitive to the most +evolved. Some are more frank about it than others. The Igorrotes when +they have their religious dancing at the mating season are more open +than the Methodists about their being one and the same thing, but it all +sums up alike. You can't get away from those facts." + +"Then I want to be dead," I said as I drew myself from his arm and stood +on the edge of the porch. + +"Or you want to love," muttered Nickols under his breath as he watched +me sullenly for a second. "Then it's October, is it?" he asked with one +of his infectious, delicious laughs that have always broken across my +serious moods and made them froth. + +"Yes," I answered steadily. + +"Then we'll tell Nell and Harriet and Jessie and Mrs. Sproul all about +it, as I see them coming, on gossip bent I feel sure," he said as he +went halfway down the walk to meet the girls before I could restrain +him. + +I shall always have with me the picture that Nickols made as he stood +tall and handsome and smiling against the background of the wonderful +garden he had helped to create, with the women smiling and clinging to +him as he looked up at me with a great laughing light in his face. In +some ways he was the handsomest man I had ever seen and his distinctions +sat upon him as easily as the college honors of a boy. A wave of race +pride and love swept up in my heart as I looked at him and I felt that +in him must be the refuge that I sought. His sophistries always sank +deep into me. + +"Charlotte, my dear," said Mrs. Sproul, as I led her to a seat beneath +the vines in a shady corner, "I wish I was sure that your mother knew of +this safe happiness of yours. She adored Nickols and nothing could have +given her a greater joy. And, my dear, for you to have held him against +the world, as it were, is a triumph, I assure you. Always remember that +men of his kind are--are desirable. I'll have a long talk with you +before you go away with him." And I didn't know why, but the smile with +which Mrs. Sproul whispered and patted my hand made me burn all over +with protest. + +"I wouldn't have you for a husband unless we were both convicted +together to a chain gang for at least five years after the ceremony, +Nickols Powers," said Harriet, with a laugh for which Nickols raised her +hand to his lips as he responded. + +"You like husbands in safety deposit vaults, don't you, Harriet?" At +which sally they all laughed as they seated themselves around Mrs. +Sproul and me. + +"Why will women want husbands to be as stationary as--as hitching posts, +Mrs. Sproul?" demanded Nickols as he leaned against one of the tall +pillars and lighted a cigarette for himself after having lighted one for +her and Jessie. Jessie Litton had always smoked, in secret until the +last year or two, and Mrs. Sproul had frankly taken up the habit as a +comfort for old age, she insisted. I suspect that she had had it for a +long time in advance of the fashion. It was a really delicious sight to +see the old world grace with which she accomplished it. + +"Women have the nestling habit and that is why they want to believe men +to be sturdy oaks in whose branches they can safely anchor a family as +well as twine around in their affectionate gourd fashion," answered Mrs. +Sproul, as she daintily puffed a smoke ring at Nickols. + +"A lot of times the gourd vine grows so strong that she doesn't realize +she is supporting her family by her own strength long after the oak has +faded away in her coils and sprouted up from an acorn in some other +locality," said Jessie, as she, too, puffed a ring of smoke in Nickols' +direction. + +"Is this agriculture, biology or religion we are discussing?" demanded +Harriet with a laugh as we all rose and went to the edge of the porch to +meet Billy and Mark and father, who had with them the beloved +"Minister." + +"Congratulations and condolences, Mr. Powers," said Mrs. Sproul as she +laid her hand in father's. + +"On what score, my dear madam," he demanded. + +"You know I asked for Charlotte on my fifteenth and her tenth birthday, +Judge," Nickols said, with his ready grace in any situation, and he came +and stood beside father and took his hand in his with the gentle +affection a girl might have shown the older man. "You said 'yes' then +and it has taken all these years to make her echo the word," and as he +finished speaking he held out his arm and drew me close to father and +himself. + +"Hurrah!" exclaimed Mark, but I saw him exchange a glance of amusement +with Harriet, and Nell gave him a warning little squeeze of the arm. + +"Bless you both," said father, as he gave us both a hug. + +All this I saw and noted before I raised my eyes to meet the jeweled +eyes under dull gold that I knew were gazing straight at me as Gregory +Goodloe stood in the background against the dark vine while the +rejoicings over the announcement of my betrothal were enacted. Somehow I +felt I could not make myself face their gaze, which yet I knew I must. I +met a flash that burned down into the very darkest spots in my nature +and illuminated them all. There was not a trace of male anger or demand +in the gaze but a cold valuation of me and the entire situation that +burned me as ice burns raw flesh, then over all of us there suddenly +poured from the same source a tenderness that was as radiant as the +summer sun. + +"Yes, God bless us all!" he exclaimed, as he held out his hands to all +of us, one of which Nickols took, with a swift challenging glance that +in the radiance softened to confidence, and the other father took and +fairly clung to in his happiness. I was glad, glad that I didn't have to +endure the touch of his hand on mine after that glance, but not for one +instant did my heart accuse his radiance of being dramatics. I rather +felt that it came from a warmth within him by which everybody else in +the world might be comforted but for which I would forever be cold. + +"I _want_ to be worth her, old man," Nickols said to him with a +curiously pleading note in his voice, and he, too, seemed to me to be +clinging to some of the strength that was not for me. + +"Then God help you," was the answer given with the very essence of +gentleness, but with a level glance into Nickols' eyes that was +profoundly sad. + +"And now let's hear the wedding plans," demanded Harriet. "This marrying +and giving in marriage is the best way I know of to make time pass, and +let's make Charlotte give us full measure. I'm matron of honor, of +course, and I suggest only twelve bridesmaids. I intend to be preceded +to the altar by Sue in an embroidered silk muslin I will provide, with a +bonnet of tulle in which nestles a pink rose to match the ones in her +basket. There will also be a display of pink knees that will be +ravishing and--" + +"Just let me remind you, Harriet, that this is Charlotte's wedding and +not that of my daughter, Susan, and her often-mentioned knees," said +Mark with a laugh that they all echoed. + +"I am going to marry Susan's pink knees when they are ripe," remarked +Billy and his suppression lasted long enough for me to attain command +enough of myself to manage the plans of my own wedding. + +Later when they had all gone by way of the chapel to help Mr. Goodloe +decide on some designs for a memorial window to his father he was having +made by a great artist he and Nickols had selected, I went in to make my +announcement to Mammy and Dabney. + +"Well, ram in the cork to the demijohn, honey, and it'll be all right," +was Dabney's semi-cordial consent, but Mammy went on industriously +beating her biscuits for supper the one hundred and twenty licks +prescribed by her reputation as a cook and her conscientious guarding of +that same reputation. + +"What do you say, Mammy?" I insisted on her giving her opinion. + +"Of course, if you want to eat plain biscuits instead of the showbread +from before the mercy seat--one hundred and two, one hundred and +three--" was the answer given between the licks upon the white dough, +and I fled before I should get a clearer manifestation of the +disappointment I felt raging in her faithful old heart. + +That night a young crescent moon was hung over the very crown of Old +Harpeth as I threw the shutters of my window wide to the night breezes +after I had put out my light and was ready for bed. I stood in its soft +light and looked across to the dark mass of the chapel opposite and saw +that a dim light was still burning from the window by the organ loft. +And as I stood and looked, the empty place that I had felt in the very +center of my heart grew colder and more bleak until suddenly across the +garden on perfumed waves of sound came the Tristan love song and filled +my emptiness with a pain that was both hot and cold. I stood and let the +flood dash over me as long as I could and then with a sob I sank on the +floor and rested my head on the window seat and began to weep as only +women such as I know how to weep. Then into my sorrow very quietly there +again stole another strain after the Tristan song had sobbed away into +the night and suddenly my own weeping was stilled and again something +within me was healed by the great tender voice singing out in the +darkness beyond the hedge: + + "Abide with me; fast falls the eventide-- + ... ... ... ... + Help of the helpless, O abide with me!" + +"I don't know what to do, I don't know," I cried, and sobbed myself to +sleep on my pillow after I had watched the light across the garden go +out and after all in the little parsonage beyond the hedge was dark and +quiet. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A CLANDESTINE ADVENTURE + + +It seems a strange, almost savage thing that the few months before a +woman's marriage are always filled so full of the doing of thousands and +tens of thousands of small things that she has no time to think of the +hugeness of the responsibilities she is assuming. Perhaps if she were +given time to realize them she would never assume them. Once or twice in +the long two, nearly three months that I had given myself to get ready +to marry Nickols, I paused and found myself thinking of the weighty +things of life, but I soon was able to shake off the thought of the +future. The time I felt it press most heavily was one morning that +Jessie Litton and I sat quietly sewing on some sort of fluff she and +Harriet had planned for my adornment, and very suddenly Jessie laid down +her ruffle and looked at me as she said: + +"Charlotte, I would be frightened, positively frightened, at the +prospect of marrying Nickols Powers." + +"I am; but why would you be?" I asked her directly. + +"I read that long résumé of his work in the Review last night and for +the first time I really realized what an important person he is to the +development of American art. He really is a huge national machine and +you'll be one of the important cogs on which the whole thing runs. +You'll be ground and ground by his life and you'll have to make good or +be responsible for some sort of a crash." + +"No," I answered, slowly drawing my thread through the sheer cloth. "No, +Nickols will live his own way regardless of the cogs on which it grinds. +I shall have an enormous task in keeping up with the social side of his +life, but Nickols is not the kind of a man who takes a woman into his +work." + +As I made my answer I was stabbed by the memory of the words that +Gregory Goodloe had said to me on that day in the garden: "Separated +from you, you going one way and I another, I can do nothing. You +short-circuit my force--I am helpless without you." And _he_ had been +inviting me into the work for which he had been ordained into the holy +Church of Christ. I felt myself groping blindly into the futility of my +own life, and I was sick at heart. + +"And if that is so, I would be still more frightened," Jessie said, +gazing at me with dismayed and honest affection. + +"Don't let's talk about it," I answered her and took up my sewing. At +that moment and from that moment I cast myself into the whole whirl of +activities in Goodloets and gave myself no more time or strength for +self-communion. I was fleeing, and from what I dared not know. + +And it was a busy month that stretched from August through September. +Nickols said it would be his last fling at the old town and he proposed +to leave his mark on its mossy sides. And he did. + +In the first place money was pouring into little old Goodloets from +three huge sources. The little one-horse tannery down by the river +beyond the Settlement doubled, tripled and then quadrupled its capacity +and next to it the little old saddle and harness factory in which Mr. +Cockrell and old Mr. Sproul had been making saddles and harness since +the days of the Confederacy, did the same and sent out consignment after +consignment of saddles and bridles which were paid for in huge checks of +Russian origin which almost paralyzed the Goodloets Bank and Trust +Company and which worked pale Clive Harvey into the night until he +managed to get young Henry Thornton in to assist him. His salary was +raised three times until it was large enough to harbor Bessie and any +number of small editions of them both, only she preferred to drink and +dance and joy-ride with Hugh Payne, who could not have supported such a +flowering by his own effort to have saved his own life and soul. + +And then to burden poor Clive still further, Hampton Dibrell and Mr. +Thornton hastily built huge pens over by the railroad and in these +assembled hundreds and thousands of mules to be shipped through to +France, which brought in return a steady stream of French francs to be +translated into American dollars. Still further, Billy and Mark and +Cliff, with Nickols' assistance, and the telegraph system, speculated in +War Brides down on Wall Street until their individual bank accounts +began to mount to giddy sums. Father and Mr. Sproul and more of the +other men did likewise and Buford Cunningham got some spectacular +returns from copper in Canada that Billy said would make Mrs. Buford +Cunningham try to buy the Country Club outright for a summer home. And +while there was prosperity in the Town the Settlement also had its +share. Wages rose higher and higher and many of the women went to work +at the machines in the saddle factory, leaving the care of the children +to the old dames, which resulted in an added pandemonium in the +Settlement streets. + +"I don't know what is the matter. Goodloets is money mad," wailed Mother +Spurlock, as she sank with weariness into the rocker on my porch one hot +August afternoon. "The girls and the women are all at work and two +babies have died this week from pure lack of mother's care, I might say +mother's milk. Ed Jones' wife weaned her six-months'-old baby so she +could go in the factory, and left it on condensed milk with old Mrs. +Jones, who fed it incessantly and not at all cleanly. Now it is not +expected to live. And they dance at the Last Chance until one o'clock +almost every night. Is the world mad?" + +"No, just prosperous, Mother Elsie," I answered her as I gave her a +large fan and Dabney brought her a tall glass of very cold tea. "Little +old Goodloets is having the same boom that the rest of America is +getting from feeding and furnishing the rest of the warring world." + +"Nickols Powers told me just last night that over two hundred thousand +dollars would be spent on the improvements to this town in the next two +months, counting the new schoolhouse, the restoration of the courthouse, +the paving of the public square and the enlargement of the electric +light plant. That doesn't count the money everybody is putting on their +own private homes. That camp of workmen down by the river that Nickols +has had sent down from the city has a hundred men in it now, and that is +one thing that demoralizes the Settlement. Jacob Ensley has had that +dance hall enlarged twice and he has employed George Spain to stand +behind the bar. It is breaking Mrs. Spain's heart, but she is helpless, +for George is being paid three dollars a day for being just where he +wants to be. I don't know what to do. I firmly believe the town is mad, +with only Gregory Goodloe to stand between it and God's wrath." + +"What is he doing to stem the joy tide?" I asked with a laugh, for it +did seem in a way funny to see one of the leading citizens of old +Goodloets so distressed over its improvement and modernization through +its enormous prosperity. + +"He was down in the workmen's camp last night having a song service and +seventy-five of them stayed there singing until midnight. Jacob had to +put out his lights at eleven o'clock because there were not enough to +pay to keep open. The chapel was full Sunday night and Jacob closed the +Last Chance at six o'clock for the first time in its existence. The men +passed it on to him to do it and he came and sat in a back pew himself. +They all call Mr. Goodloe 'Parson,' and he walks in and around and about +this town night and day shedding a kind of peace and good will even into +the darkest corners. He lends a hand here and there with the work, eats +out of the men's dinner pails when that Jefferson is too lazy to cook +for him, or takes a bite off some stove down in the Settlement out of +some old woman's pork and cabbage pot with just as much grace and +heartiness as he eats at Nell Morgan's or Harriet Henderson's most +elaborate dinners. And outside of his pulpit he never preaches; he just +lives. This is what I heard Jacob say to him just yesterday: + +"'Sure, and I wint up to set in one of your pews to see if your action +in your own job was as good as it is in the many you lend a hand to week +about.' + +"'Well?' asked Mr. Goodloe, as he picked up, one of those rosy apples +from the box Jacob keeps out on the sidewalk to blind the Last Chance. + +"'I knows when to run and not be caught,' Jacob answered, as he put +another apple in the parson's pocket and went back into the grocery +door." + +"Do you ever see Martha?" I asked with a kind of impatience. I had been +three times down to the Last Chance and each time Jacob's excuses for +Martha had been positive though courteous, and I had come away baffled, +with the green groceries I had purchased as a blind to my visit. I had +written to her and had had no response. At that I had stopped, with a +self-sufficient feeling of a duty well done, but through it all I also +felt that she was on the other side of a prison wall crying to me. + +"Never," answered Mother Spurlock, with real pain in her voice. "She +stays in that back room and cooks for Jacob, and the child stays with +her and has only the small yard back of the bar in which to play. Jacob +only let him come up to sing with Mr. Goodloe and the children a few +times and now he is kept as near in prison as his mother. Jacob's +attitude grows more morose about her and the child every day. I don't +understand it. I never will. Martha was the loveliest girl that ever +bloomed in the Settlement, and now she has been plucked and thrown into +the dust. And the child is too young to share her prison fate. He must +be got out and away." + +"He will," I answered, with a calm confidence. I didn't tell Mother +Spurlock, and I didn't know exactly why I didn't, but I was deeply +involved in a clandestine affair with the Stray which was fast becoming +one of the adventures of my life. It had begun in a positively weird +manner and was continuing along the same lines. One morning several +weeks after my first acquaintance and turtle adventure with him I had +waked up at dawn and gone to look out of the window just as the morning +star was fading over Old Harpeth. In the dim light I had spied a small +figure down in the garden, hopping along by a row of early young rose +bushes, with a can in one hand and a long stick in the other. Hastily +getting into a few clothes I crept down through the silent house and out +in the garden to find the Stray busily engaged in knocking large slugs +off into a can. + +"I feed 'em to mother's bird in the cage, 'cause he can't get out to get +'em," he explained. "They all sleep hard 'cause they work so late and I +crawl out the window and go back while they don't wake up. I like your +yard better than I do mine." The statement was made simply, without envy +of apology. + +And from that morning a queer kind of dawn life went on between the +small boy and me. Morning after morning he threw a pebble to waken me +and I hurried down to our tryst, which extended through the hour that +lies between the crack of day and the first glint of the awakening sun. +At first I had carried sweetmeats to our tryst, which were accepted +with moderate pleasure, but one morning I had taken a huge volume of +Rackham's Mother Goose which Nickols had brought me, and from then on +our hour had been one of spiritual communion. I found the young mind +insatiate and I had to ransack the library for stories and poems and +pictures suitable to his years, though he rapidly developed a very +advanced taste. The morning I read him the Shakespearian lines woven +around the little Princes in the Tower, having suitably connected up the +story for him with words of my own, we forgot the time and he overstayed +his limit, for Dabney was opening the house when he fled. For five +mornings he did not come and I could find no way to get news of him. I +asked Mikey and got a maddening response. + +"They shut up Stray in the back yard because he's a shame to old Jake," +was his answer to my question. "Jake would shoot anybody that climbed +that fence." + +"I bet I could get over and the bad man not see if I could get out in +the dark," Charlotte declared as she stood listening to my questioning. +"And I am going after Stranger that way, too, if ever they leave the +front door to my house unlocked. It is wicked to shut up a little boy, +and the devil would help me get him out." Charlotte's purpose was high +if she did slightly mix her theology. + +That night a wonderful thing happened in my moonlit room. I was dead +asleep when I felt a soft hand stroking my face, and then my hair, and I +awoke to find the Stray standing by my bed. + +"They tied me in bed when they found out I had runned away in the +mornings to see you, but I gnawed the rope that he put, because I wanted +to tell you that I can go to the big school when it opens because +Minister told him that he would be put in jail if I didn't. It is a law. +I heard him last night, and mother cried a long time, for what, I don't +know. Was she glad or sorry? Do you know?" + +"No, darling, I don't know, and I wish I did," I answered him as I put +my arms around him while he snuggled his black-crested head down beside +mine on the pillow. + +"My mother is sick, she cries so much," he said with a manly struggle +that drowned the sob in his throat. "I don't know what to do. Do you +know?" + +"I'll find out," I said with a sudden fierceness as I strained him +against my shoulder for an instant and then sat up in bed as if I must +do something at once. + +"I must run right back and tie myself before he wakes up and whips me," +the Stray said, and it sickened me to see him wrap the gnawed rope +around his little arm. + +"No!" I exclaimed, and held out my arms to him. + +"I must, but I don't mind whippings if I can read books in school and +you make mother not cry," and before I could stop him he ran out of the +dim room and I could hear his cautious bare feet patter down the long +stairway and hall. + +That moonlight tryst was the last of the adventure, but I did not worry, +for I knew that the school would be opened formally in ten days, and I +had laid my plans for Stray in an interested friendship with the very +competent young woman who had already come down from the state normal +college to teach the amalgamated young ideas of Goodloets to shoot. +Also, I had vague plans that hurt me, of getting Jessie or Harriet to +continue the trysts for me after the wedding, whose details they were +all pushing to completion by a mid-September day. + +And added to the strenuosity of the laying of my plans for at least a +year's absence, I had to help father make his arrangements for a six +months' stay in Washington, for he had accepted the President's +appointment on the Commerce Commission, and night and day he was at his +library desk. The silver-topped decanter still stood on the sideboard in +the dining room, and the silver ice bowl was formally filled before +every meal by Dabney. The mint glass was kept fresh and fragrant but +apparently father had forgotten entirely about all three. He ate twice +as much as I had ever seen him consume and the worn lines in his face +were slowly filling out into a delicious joviality. Mr. Hicks, the +little tailor who had always clothed him, had little by little made over +the outer man with new garments as the old ones grew restrictive, and +Mother Spurlock had carried his entire discarded wardrobe, garment at a +time, down to the Settlement for the clothing of some of her most needy +friends. + +But the most reborn person I had ever seen was Dabney. The little black +man had lived so long under the shadow of father's moroseness that when +the pressure was lifted from his bent black shoulders he rebounded to an +amazing extent. His reaction took the form of gala attire in which +Nickols encouraged him to the extent of silk hosiery of the most +delicate shades from his own wardrobe, with ties to match, not to +mention his own last year's Panama hat, pressed over into the extreme of +the prevailing style for youthful masculine head adornment. Also Nickols +bestowed upon him a very up-to-date Palm Beach suit, purchased at the +Hicks shop, and on his first appearance in the kitchen for his wife's +inspection I was present. + +"Go take them clothes off, nigger, and put 'em along of my black silk +shroud in the bottom drawer of the chist," she commanded, as she put her +hands on her sixty-inch waist and stood before him with arms akimbo. +"Folks is got no business to dress in life so fine that they shames they +burying clothes." + +"Shoo fly, I'm jest going to Washington, not to Heaven, in this here +rig. When I git into Heaven it'll be 'cause I'm hiding behind that +black silk skirt of your shroud, honey, if I'm as naked as borned," was +the admiring, wily and also wholly sincere answer to Mammy's fling at +the gorgeous raiment. + +And while the Poplars teemed with wedding plans Nickols kept the whole +village steamed up to be in readiness for the visit of Mr. Jeffries, +which was dated for just a week before the wedding, and the village +festival at the opening of the new school was to be the most important +ceremonial of the whole visit. Father was to give him a dinner at which +all of the Solons of the Harpeth Valley were to be present, and a ball +at the Country Club was being planned by Billy with all enthusiasm. But +the center of the buzz was down at Mother Spurlock's Little House, where +Mr. Goodloe daily, and it seemed almost hourly, drilled the children for +the ceremonial of the opening of their house of learning across the way +from the Little House by the Road. Only echoes of the orgies reached the +outside, and gossip ran high in the Settlement as well as the Town at +the fragments that the delighted scions brought home, of curious folk +dances mixed with fragments of weird tunes. + +"Sure, a minister of the gospel to teach me Mikey to stand on one leg +and spin around on the other with his hands over his head is a quare +thing, but the Riverend Goodloe is no ordinary man," said Mrs. Burns to +Mother Spurlock, who answered: + +"You can trust him, Mrs. Burns, even with Mikey's legs." + +And during all the long weeks of activity not once did I have a word +alone with the Harpeth Jaguar. We met constantly at dinner at the tables +of our friends and he came and went at the Poplars with the same freedom +that Nickols enjoyed. He was long hours in the library with father, and +somehow I felt that he was strengthening the structure that he had +builded on the ruined foundation and something passionate rose in my +heart and filled it with pain every time I heard his ringing laugh come +from the library table, accompanied by father's booming chuckle. Also, +he worked early and late in the garden with Nickols and the young man +from White Plains, and I saw that Nickols' artistic ideas flowed at top +speed when Gregory Goodloe was standing by. + +It was the same thing over at the new schoolhouse. Mr. Todd and the men +worked miracles with their stone and mortar and wood and iron when he +was standing by or lending a hand. The school was built partly of stone +like the chapel and partly of old purple-pink brick like Mother +Spurlock's Little House, and it was beamed with heavy timbers. It was +roofed with heavy colonial clapboards which made it look as if it had +already stood a century before the floors were laid or the very modern +desks installed. It was built to house increasing generations, though +only about fifty children would open its portals of education. + +"It speaks of education de luxe, doesn't it?" Billy asked as Nell and +Harriet and I stood with him and Nickols and the parson watching Mr. +Todd directing the men in screwing down the desks just a few days before +the opening. + +"There is scarcely a village in England to compare with old Goodloets +now, and nothing at all like it," said Nickols, as he looked first up +the hill to the Town and down the hill to the Settlement. "I know that +it is the first spot in America to express what the full grown nation is +going to be. When we add beauty to the materially perfected mode of +existence we are enjoying, life will be too short in the living. That +schoolhouse ought to produce some results in art cultures in the infant +mind of Goodloets." + +"Yes, America is learning that the foundation of its national existence, +trait upon trait, must be laid in the lives of the children," said Mr. +Goodloe, slowly, and he smiled as across from the Little House came wee +Susan's exquisite treble in a waltz song which was backed up by Mother +Spurlock's bumble and Charlotte's none too accurate accompaniment. And +we all smiled with him. + +Always it seemed to me I was with him and a part of a number of people +who felt the radiance of his loveliness, and not once had I for a second +come into personal touch with him. I had, like the rest, got my smiles +and friendliness from the dark eyes under dull gold, but the door to the +land in which I had been with Tristan when he sang his death song had +vanished and there were no traces of its portals. The only sign that was +between him and me was his continued evasion of setting a date for the +dedication of the chapel. He always answered inquiries by saying that +the opening of the school must come first and when the dedication was +mentioned he never looked in my direction. My soul seemed to be standing +still and listening for something that never came. + +And then Mr. Jeffries arrived on the scene of action. + +That night of Billy's ball for the magnate, who was having the time of +his gray-headed life under Billy's and Nickols' enthusiastic direction, +the strange alien thing that had been developed in my depths, part +unrest and part rebellion, since I had first looked into the eyes of the +young Methodist parson, who had intruded himself and his chapel into my +existence, got its death blow. In my presence Nickols made his formal +request of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe to officiate at our marriage. + +"Of course, Greg, old fellow, you are going to marry us next Tuesday, +aren't you?" asked Nickols, as we stood on the steps of the Poplars +after dinner, chatting with him as he was leaving to go over to the +chapel while we went out to the dance. "I suppose there is some sort of +formal way to make the request, but I don't know it." + +"If there is I don't know it, either," was the kindly answer, which +both Nickols and I took for assent. + +"Thank you, sir," said Nickols, as he turned away towards father and Mr. +Cockrell and Mr. Jeffries, who had come out on the porch with their +cigars, and left him and me standing alone in the starlight. + +"God guard you!" he said to me without taking the hand I held out to him +in the darkness with a kind of desperation that seemed that of a +drowning woman. "Good-bye!" and he was gone out into the night, leaving +me, I knew, forever outside of his life. + +"Wait, Oh wait!" I pleaded, but he was gone and I didn't even know if he +heard the cry out into the velvet darkness. + +That night was the most brilliant night that Goodloets had ever known. +The Town was full of guests who had motored over from all the towns +around in the Harpeth Valley. The Governor had come down from the +capital in his huge touring car to congratulate father on his +appointment and to meet Mr. Jeffries. His adjutant-general and several +of his aids were with him in their showy State Guard uniforms and all of +the girls were rosy with excitement at the presence of so many rows of +brass buttons. Mr. Jeffries opened the ball, and to the delight and +amusement of us all, he succeeded in leading out with him Mrs. Sproul, +who turned the opening dance into a stately old Virginia reel, which so +delighted the tango dancers with its novelty that the dance was repeated +several times during the evening by enthusiastic requests. + +And while the Town reveled in celebration of the new Goodloets, down in +the Settlement like rejoicings were being held at the dance hall of the +Last Chance. In fact, the whole small city was in the throes of a great +rejoicing. Why shouldn't all Goodloets revel when it was enjoying a +prosperity beyond anybody's dreams of two years before? Everybody had +been generous to the old town with the money that had come so easily +from other suffering people's necessities, and security and good +fellowship and prosperity reigned supreme. In each heart there was the +feeling that now the old town and their personal lives were founded on +solid rocks of peace and plenty and it was the time to eat, drink and be +merry. + +At supper the Governor's first toast, after that to the town itself, +was to father and his distinctions. Then Mr. Jeffries toasted Nickols +and me. He called Nickols the "American Wizard of Habitations," and, +amid cheering and clapping hands, announced his intention to have +Nickols build the American town on the Hudson. He called me the "Heart +of the Achievement," and father's pride as he looked down the long table +at Nickols and me was very wonderful and beautiful; and as great a pride +rose in my heart as I saw him lift his glass of water to pledge me, +leaving the bubbles breaking in his champagne. + +It was very near dawn when we all motored home and it was upon the verge +of the crack of day by the time Dabney and Nickols had got the Governor +and Mr. Jeffries and the other guests settled under the wide roof of the +Poplars, which had never hovered a more distinguished or brilliant house +party. + +For a few quiet minutes after they had all gone to their rooms Nickols +and I stood alone on the front porch in the cool darkness with its hint +of the dawn, while old Dabney shut up the back part of the house. + +"The school festival will be over to-morrow, sweetheart, and the next +day they will all be gone. The photographers are all through with the +photographing and to-morrow night all the extra workmen go back to the +city. There'll be three whole quiet days for you to get ready to give me +that kiss, which I won't take when you are as tired as you are now," +said Nickols, as he put a limp arm around me and leaned against the tall +door post. + +"To-morrow the old makes way for the new. Goodloets is dead! Long live +Goodloets!" I answered, as I in turn leaned against Nickols' jaded arm +for only a second before we preceded Dabney up the stairs to our rooms. + +In my room I went immediately to the window and opened wide the heavy +shutters. I found myself looking down on Goodloets, which lay below the +darkness of the Poplars like a long glowworm, brilliant with the lights +from the homes of the revelers who were going to bed with a sense of +perfect security. Still farther down the hill the lights from the +Settlement glowed with scarcely less brilliancy and I felt sure that the +Last Chance was still harboring a last fling of joy. + +Suddenly over my spirit came a deep wave of depression that amounted to +a great fear and then as I stood trembling in the darkness, a broad ray +of morning light shot up over Paradise Ridge and spread rapidly into a +crimson glow that was reflected against a black cloud hanging low over +the head of Old Harpeth. A flash of lightning darted from the cloud and +spread its gold fire through the crimson of the coming day, and then the +sullen-pointed cloud sank rapidly below Paradise Ridge, over which it +had risen, as if reconnoitering. Positively shuddering, I knelt against +the window seat and watched the day come with a hitherto unknown terror. +Then as I watched the dawn begin to drive away the sullen clouds a rich +voice began to sing out beyond the old poplars as a window of the gray +chapel was thrown open: + + "Arise, my soul, arise, + Shake off thy guilty fears; + ... ... ... ... + Before the throne my Surety stands + My name is written on His hands." + +The calmness that came into my frightened heart was like the peace of a +deep sleep, and with its strength I faced the day that was to be that of +my humiliation and which was to be the crest of the wave of the high +tide of Goodloets. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE JEWEL IN THE MATRIX + + +When I awoke from a few hours of deep and exhausted sleep I found my +room fast filling with the strenuosities of the day. In fact, I opened +them upon Harriet Henderson, up, dressed and briskly doing. She had a +large pasteboard box with her and the minute I brushed repose from my +eyes she opened it and held up for my inspection a very short tulle +garment besprinkled with tiny silk rosebuds, along with a bonnet and +other wee but distinctly feminine paraphernalia to match. A basket +adorned with a huge bow of tulle came from another box and I was forced +to voice my admiration with the greatest vigor. + +"How I'll ever keep from eating Sue up before she gets to the altar, I +can't see," said Harriet, as she held the wee frock for a second against +her breast. It hurts me to the quick of my own breast to see Harriet's +eyes when she broods over Sue. I don't see how she is going to live +life always as hungry as she is now. + +"I suppose I might just as well wear my tennis things, because the +guests will be already as completely enraptured as is humanly possible +before my entry upon the scene of action of my own wedding," I said, as +I sat up and took the small bonnet in my own hand. "It is too bad that +Jessie and Letitia should worry themselves over my own wedding frock, if +Susan is--" I was just saying when Nell arrived beside my bed with the +Suckling in the very act of obtaining her early luncheon from the +maternal fount. The nurse has always had to follow Nell about with her +successive hungry offspring. + +"Girls, I really don't know what to do, but young Charlotte has given +every single presentable garment that Jimmy possessed to different +unclothed children in the Settlement, who were needed in the pageant, +and Mark and Billy are laughing at her, while Jimmy is howling. I just +ran in to see Harriet a minute and ask her if she--" + +"Yes, Jimmie's wedding garments came home from Mrs. Burns' yesterday and +I'll lend them to you just to spite those men, who are simply ruining +Charlotte by the day," said Harriet, as Nell handed her the replete +Suckling wrong end foremost and picked up the small tulle bonnet with a +gurgle of maternal rapture that was in some ways as young as the happy +gurgle that the Suckling gave as she settled into Harriet's dependable +arms for her morning nap. Harriet cradled her against her own round, +firm breast and for a second brooded then joined in Nell's rapture over +the garments for the bedizening of wee Susan. + +"If Harriet didn't dress and discipline my children I feel sure they +would be found naked in a reform school," Nell said, with a happy and +careless gratitude. There are some women to whom life is incidental and +maternity the most casual adventure of all. The happy-go-lucky variety +are apt to produce just such children as Charlotte or young James or +Susan, and it is well if into their young lives there comes the hungry +woman with a brooding mission. + +"Young Charlotte will probably be the first woman governor of the state +and--" Harriet was saying with a laugh when Letitia and Jessie arrived +precipitately. Letitia had a parcel which contained a lingerie garment +of mine, whose lace and embroidery and ribbon combined would have +enraptured most women, and Jessie carried in her hand a package of +belated wedding cards. They were followed closely by Mammy, who was in +turn followed by the meek Sally. Mammy's address was delivered to me +first. + +"Git up quick, honey; the men folks has begun on the second round of +waffles and they'll be calling for you. The day is on its shanks and +a-going," she admonished, while Sallie turned on my bath. + +"They are having breakfast out in the garden and the day is perfect. Do +you want blue or pink ribbons in this Valenciennes set, Charlotte?" said +Letitia, as she seated herself on the foot of my bed and drew out a +ribbon bag whose contents were of many colors. + +"A fashionable wedding is a white lie; you invite all the people you +especially want to stay away," sighed Jessie, as she seated herself at +my desk and lighted a cigarette, at which Mammy rolled her black eyes +and departed with her nose in the air. + +And while they all chatted over the sealing of my fate I arose and had +my toilet made in my dressing room, in full hearing of the discussions +about the best groupings of bridesmaids and the horror at the count of +the cases of wine Billy had ordered from the city for the dinner to the +groomsmen the night before the wedding. + +"I adore Mark seven-tenths full, but I don't like to endure the end of +the jag next morning," laughed Nell, as she began to put ribbons into +the bodkins for Letitia. I saw Harriet give her a long look from under +her half-lowered eyelashes as she hugged the Suckling closer to her +breast. Billy had told Harriet and me casually a few nights before that +"old Mark's drinking to a double-decker liver and a sidestep in his +heart." + +"Oh, gentlemen always drink in moderation. I never worry over Cliff," +said Letitia complacently, as she tied a decorative shoulder knot. + +"You expect to give him a daily dose of three drops on a lump of sugar, +Letitia?" asked Harriet, as she exchanged glances with Jessie. One +evening last week Jessie and Harriet had motored Cliff in from the Club +just in time to save him from going over the riffles and Letitia had +been dancing with him without noticing his staggers. + +"There, that is the very last stitch to be taken on your trousseau, +Charlotte," said Letitia, as she laid down the filmy garment she had +been adorning with blue bowknots. "Press it, Sallie, and lay it with the +rest of the set in the second tray of the medium-sized trunk. You can +lock it and give me the key." + +"I just can't stand it, Charlotte," said Jessie to me in a low voice, as +I came from the hands of the skillful Sallie and stood beside the window +next to the desk. "You are all I have got and only you--you understand. +I can't give you up. I'm frightened." + +"Hush--so am I," I answered her, as my hand gripped her shoulder under +her heavy linen frock until I felt it must bruise it. Then I turned to +the others, collected them and descended to finish breakfast with the +Poplars' guests. + +Never a more radiantly beautiful morning had spread its loveliness over +the Harpeth Valley than the one I found out in the garden that +twenty-seventh day of September, the gala day in the history of +Goodloets. Huge white clouds drifted back and forth in a deep blue sky +and they were rosy at times with the sunlight, but from some of the +largest little tongues of lightning darted, while others were lit by +what seemed to be an internal glow of fire. Cool winds, perfumed with +the harvests and the ripening orchards and the vineyards out in the +valley, rustled in the treetops and flaunted in the vines. The ardent +sun seemed to be drawing from the bosom of the earth a hot mist which +lay over the town like a filmy bridal veil, only stirred gently by the +vagrant veering gusts of wind. Nature seemed to be holding herself in +leash and only breathing upon the earth gently, as if to stir some +latent lushness into autumnal activity. + +"A perfect Harpeth day for Mr. Jeffries," said the Governor, as he came +from his seat at the table to greet the girls and me. The rest of the +masculine breakfasters followed and I could see from the devastation of +the table that they had all breakfasted well and to repletion. I also +detected the worthless Jefferson, whom Mr. Goodloe had evidently loaned +to his parents for the occasion, lift father's full glass of julep and +drain it with one gulp, grab the half glass that Nickols had left, gulp +it and begin on the finger or so in Billy's tumbler before Dabney could +forcibly but quietly restrain him. In fact, I felt there would have +been a riot among my servitors if Mr. Goodloe had not stepped aside and +spoken a low word to Jefferson, which sent him busily at the table with +his tray. + +And from that moment Nickols' triumphant procession of inspection of +Goodloets began. Mr. Jeffries stood in the middle of the reincarnated +old garden, looked for a long time at the Poplars, which was like a +green encrusted gem with its old purple red brick under the vines, +glanced again and again at the chapel with its weathered stone that +stood beyond the silver-leafed graybeards, then let his eye wander down +the broad elm-bordered main street past the courthouse and past the +Settlement to the river bending around it all. + +"Money couldn't build anything like it, Powers," he said to Nickols at +his side. "Time and gentle living have formed it as a jewel is made in a +matrix. I was born in a mining camp, but I want you to start something +like it all for my great grandchildren to live in. How many generations +will it take?" + +"Give me five years, Mr. Jeffries," laughed Nickols in answer. "Greg +Goodloe's great great grandfather and mine fought off the Indians from +a stockade which stood where his chapel does now, but a year of modern +life about represents a generation of pioneer endeavor." + +"Not too fast, youngster, not too fast," said Mr. Jeffries, and I saw +him exchange a grave glance with father. "What we Americans must have is +stabilizers now that we have annihilated time. Without the discovery of +something of that sort we will hurl along to destruction. What say you, +Mr. Goodloe?" + +"We have the same 'covert of wings' that David used when things spun too +fast for him," answered Mr. Goodloe with the jeweled radiance that +always came from his face when he spoke of his faith even casually. +"Only 'where there is no vision the people perish,' and a people who +invent flying machines and hold international law to account have +vision. We don't know how much we've got, but it'll save us." + +"After the material glass through which we see darkly is completely +smashed for us," said father, with a curious sternness coming into his +face that made me wonder. "But we must take Mr. Jeffries for a nearer +inspection of our metropolis, be with Mrs. Sproul in time for luncheon +and then help Mr. Goodloe open the institute of learning for young +Goodloets." + +In the motor cars parked before the tall gate of the Poplars all of the +guests embarked for their review of the beauties of Goodloets. Nickols +remained behind them while the half sober but skillful Jefferson +wrestled with a slight tire trouble of his slim blue racer. For a few +minutes we were alone in the center of the wonderful garden, which had +never seemed so lovely as upon the day in which it had fulfilled its own +and Nickols' destiny. + +"To-day has brought just what I have longed for, have worked for and +waited for, the commission for the spending of millions of dollars to +make a little corner of the earth beautiful. Not a bad religion, that," +said Nickols, as he told me that Jeffries had spoken a few words of +decided business to him as he had packed him into Mr. Cockrell's car +with father and Mr. Goodloe. "We'll take a honeymoon wander on the other +side, as far from the machine guns as possible, and then I'll come home +to begin my masterpiece." And as Nickols spoke his wonderful eyes +glowed as he looked out at Paradise Ridge as if he were gazing into a +radiant future--perhaps he saw a city not made with hands and did +not--recognize it. "I see it all," he said, and put his arm around me +while we started down the front walk as Jefferson pressed the horn to +signal the readiness of the tire. + +"I'm too busy to go with you, but I'll meet you at Mrs. Sproul's," a +sudden impulse made me say, for I had intended until that instant to +accompany him. + +"A man can't eat his bride and have a trousseau, too," he laughed, as he +drove off rapidly, leaving me standing by the old gate watching him. +Then I turned and slowly walked out into the garden and down to the old +graybeards. And seated on one of the grass mats I found the reason I had +unconsciously been drawn back. Martha was waiting for me there. + +"Why, Martha," I exclaimed, startled without understanding just why. "I +might have gone and not known you were waiting. Why didn't you come and +tell me you were here?" + +"I couldn't--I found I couldn't," she answered me, looking up into my +face with her strange, sad eyes. "I--I suppose I just came to peep in +on you like I did to the coming-out party." She laughed softly, with a +note of self-scorn in her voice. + +"Is anything the matter with--with Sonny?" I asked quickly, again +unconsciously using the name for the Stray that her tenderness had given +him. Her white face and desperate manner frightened me. + +"No, he's dressed in one of Jimmy Morgan's old suits and he is going to +be taken from me this afternoon forever," she answered with the note of +bitterness deepening. + +"But you want him to go to school, don't you, Martha?" I asked +patiently, as I sat down on a mat beside her. I spoke to her as one +speaks to the limited intelligence of a child and I was slightly +impatient at her distress. + +"He asked me yesterday why everybody called him Stray and if it did mean +Stranger like Charlotte said, and if he would always be called that or +have an everyday name like Jimmy. Soon he'll know and then I'll lose him +as I'm losing everything else." + +"Why won't you let me help you to--to begin over again?" I asked her, +this time with less patience. "Why have you--you locked yourself away +from me?" + +"I can't--I won't ever tell you. I must go back, now I've seen you +in--in your happiness. But I don't hate you--I never have." And as she +spoke Martha rose and began to walk rapidly away from me. + +"Oh, please don't go, Martha," I said. "In just three days I'll be going +away for a long time, you know, and I want to help you in some way +before I go. You ought to let me, and it worries me that you don't, now +of all times," and as I put my selfish plea for ease to my conscience, +something that was hot and rebellious made me want to stop the woman who +was hurrying away from me. + +"I won't, I won't make you unhappy--but I must go. I must! I'll--I'll be +happy--and good now--if _you'll_ only be happy. Good-bye!" And as she +called back at me over her shoulder, Martha ran from me down through the +hedge and into the door of the chapel, which always, night and day, rain +and storm, stood slightly ajar. A queer pain smote me to see that she +had run from me into the only place in all the broad, smiling Harpeth +Valley where I could not--or would not, follow her. And the sanctuary +that she sought was for every man, woman or child who wanted it--only I +could not and would not seek it. + +"'The covert of wings,'" I whispered to myself, as I went down the +street to Mrs. Sproul's as rapidly as possible to be rid of my own +company. As I repeated the words that the parson had used to Mr. +Jeffries I noticed one great white cloud with a dark center flash fire +into another, to a great crashing and rumbling. "I wonder if it is +really going to storm," I speculated gloomily, as I turned into the +Sproul gate, but the brilliant sunshine seemed to fling me a dazzling +denial from every petal of the white clematis that wreathed itself +across the front porch, under which Mrs. Sproul, arrayed in all the +midday magnificence of good form, sat and waited for her guests. Mrs. +Cockrell sat beside her and they were delighted to see me and demanded +happiness from me which it was hard for me to give from the depths that +had been stirred by my strange interview with Martha, to which I felt I +ought to have a key, but could not find it anywhere. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE PAGEANT + + +"We were just saying, Charlotte dear, that this absurd school affair has +completely overshadowed your wedding day," said Mrs. Cockrell, as she +rocked back and forth in tune with her Irish point rose she was +constructing. "It seems to me a wedding ought to come before a school +festivity." + +"Social law requires that marriage take precedence of schooling," said +Mrs. Sproul, as her mischievous old eyes snapped at Mrs. Cockrell's +placid conventionality. "The correct order is for women to take husbands +and then school children should be the inevitable outcome. They are not, +however, in this day and generation, which is about to be the last, I'm +thinking." + +"There will be thirty-nine kiddies from the Settlement and eleven from +the Town to feast on reason and flow soul together in the new school," I +laughed, as I sat down between them. "Also I'm thinking that a lot more +will be forthcoming from the Settlement by next week. Young Charlotte +and Mother Spurlock clothed as far as they could, but they will keep at +it, I feel sure. I feel guilty at the idea of taking three trunks of +clothes away from the watchful eye of Mother Elsie, only I'm leaving the +accumulation of years for her distribution." + +"The passport to Elsie Spurlock's heart is a condition composed of rags, +hunger and unhappiness. She has no sympathy or time for a sanitary and +contented friend," said Mrs. Sproul with a decided tartness that was +only a reflex of the deep affection she bore the mistress of the Little +House, which had existed since childhood and would endure. + +"I hear some of the cars coming," announced Mrs. Cockrell, as she began +to crochet furiously at the last petal of a rose. "Is my cap straight? I +do so want to finish this row and can't go in to look." + +"You'll put out St. Peter's eye with a crochet needle while he's +unlocking the pearly gates for you, Lettie Cockrell," said Mrs. Sproul, +as she rose and stood with ceremony at the head of the steps to meet +the Governor and Mr. Jeffries and father as they came up her front walk. + +Mrs. Sproul always has the most delightful old world sort of midday +dinners and it was two o'clock before we all arose from her long table, +at one end of which had been demolished a spiced ham and from the other +end had disappeared two fat summer turkeys. A saddle of lamb had been +passed in between and we had wound up with sweet potato custards, apple +float and ice cream. + +"I understand now," said Mr. Jeffries, as his keen old eyes twinkled +down the table at Nickols. "This food should produce geniuses. The South +feeds for it." + +"Yes, we eat, drink, are merry and do it all over again to-morrow," said +Mark, as he walked beside Mrs. Sproul from the devastated dining room. +"And we must all hurry if we are to see your young ideas begin to shoot. +This day isn't really hot, but just thinks it is. Look at those clouds +boiling up back of Old Harpeth as if wanting to storm, but afraid to +begin it. There's not a breath of air stirring. Wish it _would_ shower, +for I believe the colors of Goodloe's pageant would run and I'd like to +see the true hue of this melee of his come out in the wash. It would do +Charlotte good to fade a bit. She has been hectic since daylight and the +rest of my juvenile family with her. Jimmy is S and Z in the alphabet +and Sue has got a huge A sewed on her back. Goodloe intends that +education shall be nailed to 'em." + +And at his admonition to hurry and the alluring description of the +entertainment to come, we all betook ourselves on foot toward the +schoolhouse down the street a few blocks, halfway between the Town and +the Settlement. + +And as we went all the rest of the Town hurried out of wide, high, +vine-covered doors, down broad, flower-lined walks, and joined us from +under bowers of blooming roses, honeysuckle and clematis. We actually +approached the schoolhouse in the form of quite a large procession, and +as we wound our way down the hill we met a like procession winding +itself up the hill from the Settlement, a procession arrayed in its best +bib, tucker and boiled shirt, just as we were adorned in silk, lace, +fine muslin and linen. + +"It looks like two armies approaching each other--Greek is going to meet +Greek," said Billy. + +"Rather Greek meets Vandal, and there stands Goodloe to do the +interpreting," Nickols jeered in answer. + +And as we all flocked into the wide gate of the school yard I was again +struck with the great beauty of the tall, broad, lithe, free man who +stood in the middle of the walk just inside, welcoming Town and +Settlement alike. And while he greeted us, his enthusiastic flock of +older children seated the groups of guests on the long rough benches +which were placed facing the door of the schoolhouse, leaving a wide +space at the foot of the steps, which was roped off with golden chains +of black-eyed daisies and which was evidently to be used as a stage for +the pageant. + +"Just look how Goodloe is failing to mix his oil and water," Nickols +whispered to me, as we observed all of the Settlement groups gravely +gravitate to the left side of the walk while all the Town in chattering +parties took seats on the right. "That's right, Burns, take off my last +summer coat," he added, still in a whisper to me as the Burns parent +struggled out of the unendurable gift garment and thus gave a signal +that whipped off every coat on the left side of the walk in the +twinkling of an eye, to the evident distress of the tightly girted and +uncomfortable but more formal feminine members of the Settlement +contingent. Conjugal strife was about to make its appearance when Mother +Spurlock, who was seated beside poor little Hettie Garrett, holding the +Mother Only in her arms with never a glance for Mrs. Sproul, who had +beckoned her to a seat next to her own beruffled silk skirts, passed the +word around that such comfort was to be accorded the masculine guests. +Even with such sanction, however, Luella May Spain looked pained at her +father's gay new red suspenders, and I could see that Mr. Todd's striped +shirt was hurting the feelings of Sadie Todd dreadfully, and she and +Luella May returned Billy's gallant salute with the greatest +embarrassment. And in all the buzz I found myself looking anxiously for +Martha Ensley's pale face and dark eyes, but failed to find them. + +"This is one place she ought not to have to peep into; here she has the +rights of her citizenship and her motherhood," I said to myself. + +But if the Town and the Settlement sat in the seats of the audience, +divided by the walk as were the walls of waters by the dry path along +which Moses led his chosen people out of the darkness of Egypt, such a +division was not noticeable among the performers of the pageant who were +supposed to be in hiding with their costumes behind a tall screen of +shrubs at one side of the schoolhouse, but who bubbled out on all sides. +Charlotte appeared once holding small Maudie Burns in a comforting +embrace and guided her to her mother for some sort of attention to the +very short skirts of blue gingham which were draped with about ten yards +of green crepe paper, while both Harriet and I gasped as we saw Mikey +jauntily hand the Suckling, tightly wrapped in brown swaddlings, into +the rapturous and tender embrace of Katie Moore, who had blue wings +sewed to her small gingham shoulders. + +"Great Guns! They've got Sucks in it, too!" gasped Billy. "That child is +too young to educate and Goodloe ought to be restrained from +cradle-snatching like--" + +But just here Billy was interrupted and the audience all quieted down as +Mr. Goodloe, in his white flannels and with his gold head ablaze in the +sun, which suddenly shone out fiercely from behind a white cloud which +was sheeting internally with electricity, mounted two of the front +steps of the schoolhouse and held up his hand for silence. + +"Mr. Todd," he said with beautiful deference, "will you lead us in +prayer?" There was a perceptible rustle of feeling on the Settlement +side of the walk, for Mr. Todd was one of the parson's deacons, but he +had also been the master workman in the building of the schoolhouse, and +his neighbors were quick to respond to the tribute offered him before +the distinguished men present. He rose, gaunt and grizzled in his shirt +sleeves, but what he said was brief and as square-cut and to the point +as any nail he had ever driven. I saw the Governor and father exchange +glances and I noticed when the Governor responded to his call he was +much less ornate of speech than usual and much more universal. They all +spoke, from Nickols along the line to father, and after repeated urgings +Mother Spurlock rose to the occasion, and by way of making the Town and +Settlement at home in its new joint quarters announced that the tea +canister with its slit would hereafter be nailed just inside the +schoolhouse door. + +The laugh and delighted applause that was given her seemed to have been +the last straw to the actors behind the shrubbery, restrained by their +young preceptress, for the pageant broke upon us. + +First Mikey, with huge white cambric stork wings, hopped upon the stage +of sward and deposited the brown-wrapped Suckling in a hollow log in the +center, and departed flapping. After that the ceremonial developed +itself into the education that was to flow down upon her defenseless +head at the waving of the wand of Minerva, who was Charlotte with a +tinsel star of wisdom resting rampantly upon her brow. And it came down +upon the Suckling with a vengeance. A whole troop of young letters of +the alphabet, led by small Susan with the large red A upon her fat back, +danced around the Suckling's helplessness and finally backed up to the +audience to spell the word "Reading." Next in hopped a flock of numerals +led by the indefatigable Mikey, which backed up and presented themselves +from one to ten to thus imply the hated science of "Arithmetic." + +The Suckling slept on amid delighted gurgles from her mother and +Harriet. She slept through a presentation of the script letters of +"Writing" and was still unconscious when "Geography" in crepe paper, +with flags of all nations, grouped around her. She only awoke when, all +by himself, sturdily, with his head in the air and fairly radiant with +beauty and courage, the Stray marched upon the scene, rolled into a +white roll of paper and girt about with a broad red ribbon sealed upon +his back to represent "Diploma." Silently and intent upon his duty he +walked straight to the Suckling in her log crib, bent over her, crooned +to her reassuringly a second, lifted her in his white arms and backed +off behind a tall laurel bush with her nodding in delight over his +shoulder. The boy was so beautiful and the little scene so tender that +the entire audience caught its breath at its--audacity. A gauntlet had +been thrown into the faces of both the Town and Settlement and they both +understood. + +They sat perfectly still with astonishment while the performers were +being massed in the schoolhouse by the young teacher for their final +march out to the steps for the hymn singing with the beloved "Minister," +which was to conclude the ceremonials. + +And while the audience sat awaiting the further presentations to be +made them by their offspring, Mr. Goodloe came out the door and halfway +down the steps. Then suddenly he stopped and looked out over the valley +with such an expression on his face that with one accord his audience +rose and looked with him. And as it looked a groan came that was a +chorus melted into one voice of terror, while all of them stood helpless +with amazement. While we had all been sitting in the curious sweltering +heat, watching with pride a future for our children being foretold for +them by themselves, death had reared itself behind Old Harpeth, coiled +itself into a huge black spiral of thunder and lightning and was driving +down the valley upon Goodloets with a velocity that defied the eyes to +follow. For a long second every man and woman stood rooted to his +foothold on the earth and watched the tornado strike the edge of the +Settlement, smash down the saddlery as if it were a house of cards, and +churn the little tannery into the river. Then as it grasped the roof of +the Last Chance and began twisting it with a roar that grew in volume +every instant, Gregory Goodloe suddenly raised his hand and spoke in a +perfectly calm voice that rang out above the groan of the tortured +shanties of the Settlement which were crashing down against each other. + +"Oh, God, we trust in the covert of thy wings," he prayed for a second +and then commanded: "Fall to the earth, all of you, and let it pass over +you!" + +"The children!" came a cry that was a wail of parenthood, as we all sank +to the ground just as the terrible black monster tore the roof from the +Little House and hurled it toward us across the street. I saw a huge +rafter hurtle through the air and strike down Mark Morgan as he started +toward the steps of the schoolhouse, and by not a half inch did it miss +drunken, useless Mike Burns as it fell beside him. Then I covered my +eyes as the cloud and the wind passed over me and I only heard it strike +and rend and crash and tear the schoolhouse, beam from beam and stone +from stone. An eerie wail of the voices of little children was mixed +with the roar of the monster which crashed on up through the Town, +laying low the homes of our pride and prosperity, leaving us with our +faces to the ground while upon us began to pour a deluge of cold rain. + +"Mark! Mark!" I heard Harriet moan beside me and I saw her crawl under +the wind toward where Mark had fallen. + +"My babies, Oh, my babies!" came a wail in Nell's voice, and I saw her +try to rise, be knocked over by the wind and then begin to crawl toward +the wrecked mass that a second before had been the schoolhouse and from +which now could be heard the screams and cries of the children. Then as +suddenly as it had laid us low the cruel wind left us and with one +accord we all sprang to our feet and surged toward the children's calls +and cries that came out to us in the semi-darkness that still enveloped +us, though both the wind and the rain were abating. + +But before a huge slab that had been the top step of the schoolhouse we +were all halted by a voice so stern and commanding that even the +agonized mothers and fathers paused. + +"Stop! Not a man or a woman must come a step nearer," said the parson, +with the authority in his voice that must always be obeyed when used by +one human being to another. "The roof of the house has split and sunk in +the middle and only one side beam is supporting it. If it is touched by +so much as a hand it may lose its balance and fall on the children. +Only one man must come forward and put his shoulder under the beam at +the other end while I hold this. The children must come out one by one, +so as not to shake anything on them. The beam may fall. Do you all +understand me? One man!" + +"Me, Parson, me!" demanded Mr. Todd. + +"A broader, younger man, Todd," answered the parson, and he was casting +his eye over the huddled people before him when a wail came clear and +distinct from within the ruin. + +"Stranger is caught and bleeding! Hurry, hurry!" were the words that +Charlotte sent forth with all the strength of her young lungs. + +"It's my child, Oh, it's mine!" came an answering, cry, and from behind +some hiding place Martha Ensley flung herself across the front of the +huddled group of the Settlement people and against the defense of +Gregory Goodloe's strong arm which held her from the tottering doorway +he was supporting. "Let me get him out!" + +"No, Martha," the parson said calmly and tenderly, as he held her back. + +"Then _you_ come and get him," Martha said, as she suddenly straightened +herself and looked out among us of the Town. "He's yours--come and save +him!" But even in her agony she was cautious in her appeal, which came +without the demand of a name. We all held our breath for an instant, +Settlement and Town. Who would answer her? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LIGHT--INTO DARKNESS + + +"Yes, Martha," came the answer after an instant's pause, and Nickols +Powers stepped from my side to that of Martha Ensley and took her wrung +hands in his. For another long moment we all stood tense at the +acknowledgment that the tragedy had forced to the surface. I stood +beside father like a woman of ice, yet on fire with a contemptuous +humiliation. The eyes of all my world were for an instant turned on me, +then they were all called back to the tragedy that was tottering over +us. + +"Hurry, hurry!" came another wail from within the ruins in Charlotte's +voice. "He's bleeding!" + +Again Martha started to fling herself past Nickols and the parson with a +scream of terror which was faintly echoed from within. + +"Somebody come to Martha," commanded Mr. Goodloe, as he held her off +with one hand while he eased the beam on his shoulder so that Nickols +could slip in past him to the other end. + +Suddenly a great, beautiful warmth melted the horror of pride and +humiliation that had frozen my heart as Nickols had stepped from my side +to that of Martha in acknowledgment of her claim upon him for the saving +of the child. All fear for her or us or the babies passed from me. My +soul had gone out into a darkness, called on some great Power that must +be there directing such a thing as was happening to us, and calm and +clear the answer of courage flowed into me. + +Then without another moment's hesitation I stepped forward and held out +my arms to Gregory Goodloe for Martha. He put her into their strong +embrace and I pressed her head down upon my shoulder in a great +tenderness I had never felt before, while Nickols, with a long, hunted +look at us both, crawled into the crumbling ruin and crouched under the +beam as Gregory Goodloe directed him. + +The wind had died down, the clouds were rolling away the darkness and +the rain had almost stopped as we all stood and waited for Gregory +Goodloe to bring from that ruin, in the way his superior judgment +thought best, either life or death. From within there came sobs and +smothered little moans that were so mingled that they could not be +identified by even the mother hearts held at bay by the faith that made +them obey the parson's command. + +And then as I stood there with the mother of the child of my lover +cowering against my breast, with the man who in a few days was to have +been my husband, crouched under almost certain grinding death, and +looked into what at any moment might be the grave of all the babies of +the women I held dear, a light was flooding into my darkness and all of +the obscure, untranslatable writings on my nature became clear and I +received my consciousness of my Master, the Lord Jesus, with a cry that +I sent up for His mediation for the lives of the little ones. It was my +first prayer. + +"O Christ in Heaven, help save them!" I pleaded. "Quick, Gregory, +quick!" I added another supplication in the next breath. + +"Sue is bleeding, too!" again came a wail in Charlotte's voice. "Mikey's +got the baby, but he's caught." + +Nell had been kneeling beside Mark's prostrate form, but at Charlotte's +call she laid his head on Harriet's breast and flung herself against my +arm outstretched to receive and restrain her. + +"Now, Nickols, steady! I'll lift them past the beam," said the parson, +as he braced himself in the door space which had been crushed into a +narrow opening. + +"Charlotte, take the baby from Mikey and hand her to me first," he +commanded. "Where are you caught, Mikey?" + +"Me leg," wailed Mikey and his wail was echoed by poor little Mrs. +Burns. + +"Here," said the parson, as he handed the brown swaddled bundle to Nell, +who caught it in her arms and sank shuddering to my feet. + +"Now, Charlotte, I want you to get all the other children who are not +caught into line and make them walk carefully, just as you did here to +me," said the parson in a perfectly calm voice, the one he had used to +command his small congregation in the weeks of the drill. + +"They are all crying and got their heads covered up," answered Charlotte +in despair. "They won't get up and march." Loud wails of fear and +anguish accompanied this statement, as if to corroborate it. + +"Sing with me, Susan, sing the march," came the command without an +instant's delay from the lips of the beloved Minister. + + "Onward, Christian soldiers + Marching as to war, + With the cross of Jesus + Going on before--" + +came wee Sue's high, sweet voice which rose from the cavern and joined +with the parson's in the old song that has led strong men through many a +death watch. + +For a long moment we all waited and then out of the hole in the mass of +stones and timbers and bricks, led by wee bleeding Susan, crawled a slow +stream of bloody, bruised, sobbing infant humanity to be absorbed with +cries of rapture into waiting arms. + +"Hurry, Goodloe, get the boy and Charlotte; my God, hurry, the beam is +sinking!" came in Nickols' smothered voice. + +Martha started, but I held her tight against my breast. + +"I've got Mikey's pants loose with my teeth," came in Charlotte's voice, +as a creaking of the timbers made a shudder run through the waiting +crowd as every man and woman who held a restored treasure close, waited +to see what would happen to the three left in the settling ruins. + +"Come out, Mikey, come out," called the Burns paternal parent. + +"I won't! I'm going to help Charlotte git out Stray," was the undutiful +response of courage to the craven. + +"Where is he caught, Charlotte?" asked the parson, as he edged a little +farther under the beam, which tottered and brought him to a cautious +standstill. + +"His middle. Mikey's pushing and I'm pulling, but he's all bluggy. He's +dead all but his toes that wiggle." + +"Hurry, Goodloe, hurry!" groaned Nickols, with what seemed a final +inspiration of breath. + +"Pull him loose and come quick, Charlotte, you and Mikey. Never mind the +blood," was the firm command and in a few seconds Charlotte and Mikey +squeezed through the fast closing opening, bloody and torn, but with +the limp Stray dragged between them. A great cheer went up as Martha +turned and caught the unconscious boy in her arms, then it froze in the +throats that had been uttering it. Slowly, but more rapidly than could +be stayed by human hands, the whole heavy roof crushed down upon the +rest of the ruin; and under it and the beam went Nickols Powers with +only one deep groan. Mr. Goodloe tried to hold up the whole side of the +roof on his own shoulders and only staggered out from the very brink of +being involved in the crash. Martha sank to the ground and hid her head +in my knees and sobbed while I heard a great cry break from my father's +lips. Nickols was the last of his race and our pride was blasted when he +fell. + +"Now forward, every man of you, but lift and dig carefully," commanded +the parson, as he stood on the very edge of the ruin. "Todd, you stand +at the corner and show them how to roll back the timbers to the right. +Carefully, men, but quick, quick, and with the help of God!" + +It seemed hours that the men wrestled with the timbers and tore away +brick and stone and steel, but it was only a few minutes before they +pried up a section of the heavy roof and lifted Nickols from the debris +beneath. + +"He's breathing," said Mr. Todd, as he laid him in the parson's great, +strong, outstretched arms open to receive him and which bore him out +through the crowd swiftly and laid him across the seats of Nickols' car. +Doctor Harding had just put Mark, a limp, heavy body, into his own car, +with Harriet to support the bleeding head, and Nell crouched beside him +with the Suckling in her arms, and sent them on up into the devastated +Town. Now he came and helped us settle Nickols on his cushions. + +"Shall I send my car and Colonel Leftwick for surgeons and nurses from +the Capital?" asked the Governor. "How is it with Morgan?" + +"He is dead," answered the old doctor with the calm serenity that he had +acquired after so many years of giving up his friends. "This case is +another matter. There may be a chance and I'll need help. We don't yet +know how many more are injured in the whole town. We'll need help." + +"Then I'll drive for it myself," answered the Governor, as he swung into +his powerful car and started it out into the valley. "I'll make it back +in six hours. No other man can drive this car as fast as I can." + +And true to his promise, he was back within the time with nurses and +surgeons and supplies of all kinds. By that time the whole Harpeth +Valley had heard of our tragedy and all who could find a way were +hurrying to our rescue or comforting. + +The dawn of the beautiful new day found Nickols still alive, stretched +on his bed in his own wing of the Poplars, which alone of all the homes +in the Town had not been touched by the storm monster. The old house +stood unharmed in all its beauty in its garden which had hardly a leaf +or a branch broken, and hovered under its roof the last of the name of +its builders. He lay quiet and unconscious while his life jetted itself +away from a great hole in his lung made by a splinter from the beam he +had held up until old Goodloet's children had been given back to its +future. The great surgeon who had come down with the Governor, watched, +shook his head and went at his task again and again with a dogged +courage. For an hour he would leave him to go and help Dr. Harding with +some of the other injured, but back he would come to his fight for +Nickols' life. + +And all over the stricken town there were similar tragedies being +enacted. Over at the Morgans Mark lay cold and still in the long parlor, +which was almost the only part of the handsome old house left intact by +the tornado, and Harriet sat beside him while Nell nursed maimed wee +Susan and torn Jimmy, and restrained Charlotte from injuring her sorely +twisted ankle. + +Down at the Last Chance, Jacob Ensley was stretched upon a bed in the +bar with a sheet drawn straight and decorously over his bruised white +head. He had been killed by a blow from a roof timber, while from right +beside him young George Spain had been rescued unharmed. When he had +crawled from the ruins he had held in his hand a bottle of whiskey which +he had just uncorked for his own and Jacob's refreshment when the +tornado tore at the East Chance, and scarcely a drop had been spilt. And +the tornado had displayed the vagaries of its kind. + +Old Granny Todd had been lifted in her rocking chair and carried halfway +over the Town and left beside the Spain cottage with her feeble life +intact, while Mrs. Spain, upon whose shoulders the burden of mothering +all seven of the Spains rested heavily, had had one of those valuable +shoulders broken and was left crushed and bleeding beside the rocking +chair in which the helpless old dame arrived for her enforced visit. The +household goods of one family had been torn from them and thrown into +the melee of another, and the Jamison clock was found ticking busily +away over on the roof of the Todd's chicken house. A girl mother in a +little cottage on the edge of the river bank was found floating against +the shore in her wooden bedstead, drowned, while near her the little two +days' old life had been perfectly preserved upon the pillow in the +rocking chair where it had been sleeping when the great storm beast had +made its raid. + +And all Goodloets mourned, crying for her children, and would not be +comforted. The second day after the storm the dead were buried. Mr. +Goodloe, with old Mr. Stokes, the Presbyterian minister, on one hand, +and the Baptist student preacher on the other, stood in the center of +the beautiful city of the dead, over which the storm had passed +unheeding, and had services for the rich and the poor alike. With the +same ceremonial were buried Mark Morgan and Jacob Ensley, and the girl +mother, Ted Montgomery, who had been struck down by the falling sign of +the Bank and Trust Company on Main Street, and a score of others. + +Then after all the tears had been shed and the sobs had ceased, all the +flowers strewn and the reluctant feet had left the silent city, I went +over behind the tall cedars into a corner and knelt beside Martha +Ensley, who had flung herself down across the new-made grave that held +all that was left of Jacob Ensley, the man who had bulwarked sin in his +Settlement and menaced all of Goodloets for many a year. The wide-eyed +boy crouched beside her and I took his hand in mine. + +"Martha," I said, as I bent beside her in the twilight. "I want you to +come home with me, you and Sonny. Your place is there now and you must +bring him." All day I had thought and I had prayed to be aided in doing +what I knew was best. + +"Oh, no, Miss Charlotte, no," she said, and shrank from my arms. + +"Yes, Martha," I said, and drew her closer. + +"It happened the summer we were all first grown and you were in Europe. +I couldn't fight him off. I knew he belonged to you and I loved you, +but I couldn't fight him off," she sobbed and the Stray's little arms +went around her neck. + +"I'll fight fer you--I'll fight," he said, with brave, wonderment in his +eyes and voice. + +"I went away this summer and I wanted to stay. Mr. Goodloe tried to help +me, but Nickols found where I was and made me come back. It was wrong to +you and I knew it. I stayed shut up in my room, but he would come. And I +sent him to his death. He was yours and I killed him for you! Please go +away and leave me!" And again Martha cowered away from me. + +"Nobody need know you are in the house, Martha, but you must come with +me," I said, and I spoke with such quiet authority that she rose and +followed me out of the shadows into the starlit night which had come +down over stricken Goodloets. I found Billy waiting for me in his car +and he spoke gently to Martha and settled her and the boy on the back +seat with never a question in his kind eyes. + +"God, you women!" he said to me under his breath, but I avoided his eye +and he drove us silently to the Poplars. The long halls were quiet and +empty in the anxious hush of the whole house which was keeping its +life--or death watch. I led Martha to the room that opened into mine, in +which all of the girl guests of the Poplars always slept, and made her +take off her hat and make the boy comfortable. Then I went for Dabney +and asked him to take food to them. + +"Yes'm, I will. God love my little miss," was his answer, and I knew +that I could trust his kindness to Martha and the boy. + +Then I went into the library to father. I found Mr. Goodloe with him and +father's calm under his anxious suffering gave me a thrill at the +thought of the regained strength it implied. The parson's face was +grave, but full of a white light from the fire burning back under the +dull gold brows. His warm hands took my cold ones in them and pressed +them palm to palm in the attitude of prayer and very tenderly, from his +soul to mine, he said: + +"'The Lord is good, for his mercy endureth forever.'" + +"Forever?" I asked him, looking up with the child's faith that had been +born in my heart shining in the confidence in my eyes. + +"Forever," he answered me with quiet authority. + +"Yes," said father solemnly, as if himself reassured after doubts. Then, +after a second's pause: "Daughter, Nickols is conscious and is asking +for you. Will you go to him?" + +I took my hands out of those which had given to mine the strength of +prayer and went. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE SPARK AND THE BLAZE + + +I found Nickols lying in his own dim and high bedroom, perfectly +motionless under the white sheet, as he had been for two days, the only +difference that now his great dark eyes burned into mine and on his +mouth there rested a faint trace of the old mocking smile. I sat down +close beside his pillow on a low chair which the nurse placed for me as +she gave me a warning look and left us alone. + +"This is your wedding day, Charlotte, and the license is over on the +desk to destroy," he said, with the mocking light in his eyes flaring up +into greater strength. "I suppose you are duly grateful for the merciful +escape accorded you." + +"Please don't, dear," I said, and I reached out and took his burning +hand in mine. + +"You never really cared, Charlotte. You cold women make havoc in a man's +life. I've no excuses to make, but I wish I could hear you say that you +forgive me. I'd go out more contentedly." And the light that sprang up +into his face showed me just what a hold I had on his loyalty and the +thing a man calls his honor. And it came to me on the wings of a quick, +silent prayer, prayed in a heart unlearned in the forms of petitions, +that I must make a fight to give him the peace of his heritage of +immortality before he entered it. + +"I do forgive you, Nick dear, as I hope to be forgiven by the Master for +the wrongs I have done others--the wrong of accepting your life--in +coldness," I answered, looking him steadily in the eye as I made my +simple declaration of my new-found faith to him. + +"You?" he faltered. "Do I behold you entered into the creed?" + +"Listen to me, Nick, for the time is short," I said, as I held his hand +close in mine. "We were blind--blind. When you and the children were in +that death house I found that I must ask help. I cried out in my +blindness and was answered, as Christ gave his promise that the eyes of +those who ask should be opened. And you must ask so that you will have +a vision to help--help you go to the blessed immortality that awaits +you. Ask, Oh, Nick, ask with me. Please, Lord Jesus, help us!" And as I +uttered my few faltering words of petition I fell on my knees beside the +bed. + +"It's too late now," he answered, but a helplessness came into his +bitterness. "I've done all the damage I could and I'm not going to +whimper. You'll help poor Martha?" he questioned softly, and I could +have cried out in thankfulness for the ray of tenderness that came +across his white face. + +"God has given you time to right the worst wrong, Nick," I said, as a +sudden thought came to me that gave to me a healing which I knew I must +pour out upon his wounds. "Marry Martha and give the boy your name and +your money to grow good and great with. Jacob is dead. They are alone in +the world. Give them to me that way, Nick, give them to me to care for +for you until we are all together where everything is made right." + +For a long moment he lay perfectly still and looked into my eyes and I +saw a wonder grow in his that spread all over his whole face. + +"Some kind of a God must have created a woman like that in you. Almost +I believe. Call Goodloe quick, and your father." And then he closed his +eyes and I could see a deathly weakness stealing over him. I called the +nurse and sent her for father and Gregory Goodloe, and to old Dabney who +had come to wait by the door I whispered to bring Martha and the boy and +keep them in the room beyond. Then I went back and knelt by the pillow +and took the hand which was beginning to grow cold in mine. + +"Could it be possible?" the white lips muttered. + +"Say it, Nickols; say, 'Lord, help thou my unbelief,'" I begged him. + +"Amen," he whispered with a quick smile just as father and Gregory +Goodloe came into the room. + +"Goodloe, what was the exact story about that skulker of a thief on the +cross?" Nickols asked with a sudden strength in his voice as he opened +his eyes and looked straight at the parson. + +"'The thief said unto Jesus, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into +thy kingdom." And Jesus said unto him, "Verily I say unto thee, to-day +shalt thou be with me in Paradise,"' are the exact words, Nickols," the +parson answered him. + +"Charlotte, ask the judge if he is willing that I should wipe the slate +clean as you propose in case there really is a door and an old Peter to +present a purified passport to," the dying man said to me with a touch +of his old whimsicality. "I give up, Greg; the soul that Charlotte +possesses can't be put out into nothingness; and if she's got one I have +too," he said, after a moment's fight for breath. "Hurry, all of you, to +get my passport made out and bring the girl here to me. Quick, get her. +There is very little time." + +"She's here, Nick," I answered, and after a few words to father and the +parson, to which they both gave assent, I called Martha and the boy into +the room. + +Straight as a bird to its nest Martha flew to the bedside and the dying +arms found strength to lift themselves and take her and the child into +their embrace. + +"Will you forgive me and let me make it as right with the world for you +and him as I can, Martha?" he asked. "I love you, but I'd have drawn us +all down into hell." + +"Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Martha, looking up at me with positive fear of +me and of father and of our world in her wild face. + +"Yes, Martha," I said, as I knelt beside her and took the Stray in my +arms, toward which he in his terror at the scene strained. "Father is a +justice and he'll make the license over there in the desk right. You +must, Martha, you must! It gives you and the boy to me to care for." + +"Yes, Martha," echoed Nickols' voice, out of which the strength was +quickly going. "Help me wipe off as much of the slate as you can," and +the wandering hand suddenly encountered the boy's wee paddie resting on +the edge of the bed and clasped it close. + +And with the three of us crouched there beside him, father and Mr. +Goodloe bound them legally and in the name of God, just as the last +flicker of strength flared up in Nickols' body. Immediately I rose with +the child in my arms and Martha took Nickols' head on her faithful +breast while the life ebbed away. + +"Amen, Charlotte, amen," were his last whispered words and I understood +that he was ratifying again my prayer for light to lead the way of his +faltering steps. + +And then came a stillness in which we all stood with bowed heads while +Martha sobbed. + +The death of Nickols Morris Powers was an event of national interest and +telegrams and letters and representatives of the press poured into +Goodloets from all parts of the country. Mr. Jeffries and the Governor +stayed with us until it was all over, and when Mr. Jeffries left he +pressed into father's hand a large check of five figures. + +"To help them build again, those who need it, in memory of him," he +said. + +The Governor and his staff spent time and effort in helping to +reorganize Goodloets, but through it all it was the powerful Harpeth +Jaguar on whom we all leaned. He came and went day and night, tireless, +quiet, commanding, and with that great light shining from back of his +eyes upon us all. And in his ministrations down in the Settlement he +took Martha with him day after day. He forced her to use up all of the +strength that she possessed each day so that she would drop with +exhaustion at night. To me he left most of the comforting of Nell--and +Harriet. Like all women of buoyant and shallow nature, Nell soon began +to rebound from her tragedy and it was hard to keep Billy within +decorous bounds in his comforting of her. It would have been impossible +to have done it at all with the former Billy, but the quiet, steady +light that shone in his honest eyes whenever he helped with Nell and the +children spoke well for a reformed and perfectly satisfactory future for +them all. + +"Billy," I said to him one afternoon when he had taken all four of the +kiddies out in his car to get wild grapes, when Harriet had counted on +having wee Susan to herself for the afternoon, while Nell was +interestedly busy over somber but much needed winter clothes for +herself. "You have just got to make up your mind that Harriet is going +to absolutely possess Sue for the future. I don't know about any +legalities but I am going to see that Harriet gets Susan." + +"What you say goes, Charlotte, as it always has," he answered me, with +honest adoring in his young eyes that had lost their reckless hunger. +"And if you aren't careful you'll lead us all into Kingdom Come in blind +bridles. Be careful not to over-fill Goodloe's fold. I don't want to +crowd you. I'll take my turn when it comes." He was laughing as he +spoke but there was a depth to the laughter that I understood. + +"Thank you, Billy, for your consideration," I answered him, as I took +small Sue's hand and turned in at the Sproul gate. + +Harriet sat on the steps in the fading sunlight and the small music box +flung herself into the outstretched arms with a force that was alarming. +It was easy to see that Susan was most temperamental and would be a +handful of anxieties in the years to come, anxieties that Harriet +needed. + +"Of course, she doesn't belong to me and I'm a fool," Harriet muttered +as Susan darted away to see what treasure for her lurked in the pocket +of Mrs. Sproul's beflowered silk skirt. + +"I started plans to get her for you, just five minutes ago, dear," I +said, as I sat down beside her. "I laid down the law to Billy on the +subject." + +"Charlotte," answered Harriet, as she looked with brooding into my eyes, +"do you really believe that--that we will find them again and--and--_do_ +you really believe?" And the question was so hungry and haunted and so +like what had driven me for years that my heart ached in my breast for +her, but I knew that I could only stand fast and pray that she be +comforted. I couldn't make her see. + +"Yes, dear, I _know_--but I can't make you know. Just go on--on +_hungering_ like you are and you'll be fed," I answered. + +"You've always understood, Charlotte, and if you say that the pain will +some day be eased I'll--I'll believe it. Yes, I'll make a start by +believing in you and there's no telling where it will land me." + +The confidence with which she raised her comforted eyes to mine made a +stab of pain hit me full in the breast. Words that Gregory Goodloe had +spoken to me out under the old graybeards were the weapon used. "With +your hand in mine I can make this whole community see and know; +separated from you--" In all humility I now understood what he meant. + +And in all the weeks in which he and I had worked together Gregory +Goodloe had given me not one single personal word or look. The priest +had comforted and strengthened me but the man had forever shut me out of +his heart. My suffering was intense, and yet, and yet I knew that in my +heart there was strength to endure the want of him with all +cheerfulness even to the end. At last I had found the key to my own +hieroglyphics and I could be honest with myself. I knew that I loved +Gregory Goodloe as it is seldom given to a woman to love a man, but I +also knew that the awakening of spirit I had found was not in any way +connected with my woman's love for him, but had come to me from the +years of suffering I had had while I sought it. I refused to acknowledge +that a sex spark had in any way set off the blaze; the fire had been +laid in my soul and it would burn on without any of his tending. But +even in that honest surety Nickols' mocking words "religion is +suppressed sex" haunted me. I knew it could not be true, so I put it all +out of my mind as I left Harriet and walked down the street towards the +Poplars. + +I was due in the library to help father in the packing of some of his +papers, for I had insisted that he go on to Washington to fulfill his +appointment. Martha and the boy would be with me and if he only left me +Dabney I could be safe and busy for the winter. Strange to say, Mammy's +disappointment at Dabney's loss of a sojourn in a strange clime was +greater than his own. + +"I don't believe in glorifying men by needing of them to any great +measure," she declared. "With me in the house and the preacher across +the fence it don't make no difference how good looking you are, Miss +Charlotte, you won't be too much for our protection. Dabney can jest go +on with the jedge." + +"Of course, little miss, you don't need me, but I sorter got rheumatics +in my homesick and I begged off from Mas' Nickols," Dabney replied with +the wily soothing that had made his conjugal life both pleasant and +possible. + +I was thinking of the argument and smiled with tenderness as I saw the +old grizzled white head bent over a hoe down in the dahlias, which he +was bedding. The young man from White Plains had stayed to put the +garden to bed as far as possible, and had left with perfect confidence +in Dabney and the likely yellow boy he had found. + +And now in late October the garden was in a conflagration of blossoming +glory. The borders of the walks blazed with the red and blue and gold +and purple of chrysanthemums and asters and zinnias and dahlias, while +long tendrils of russet autumn vines trailed in and over and around the +flowers and shrubs and hedges. The tang of ripening and falling seed was +mixed in all the perfume, and gorgeous leaves were beginning to rustle +on the green grass. It was Nickols' first harvest of beauty, and somehow +I felt that there was no need to regret that his eyes were not mortally +there to gather the fruits. + +I went from the front porch up to my room to take off my hat and see if +Martha had come from a day with Mother Spurlock down in the Settlement. +I found instead of Martha or the boy or Mother Elsie, Jessie Litton +seated at my desk and looking out the window across to Paradise Ridge. + +"I came up to wait, Charlotte, because--because I'm in deep water and +need a hand out. You have always helped and somehow I feel that you have +so much more to give me now than you ever had. Clifton Gray told me last +night that he loved me and is going to break his engagement with Letitia +Cockrell. He had heard Letitia and Nell talk over Nell's mourning +trousseau for the winter and he was disgusted--that, and--and I think it +has been coming some time. He is with Mr. Goodloe a lot lately in +getting things about the town started to going again and he is--is +thinking. I don't know how to help him think; it's a thing I've never +done. I am at sea myself but I know that he must not throw Letitia over. +Will you talk to him?" + +"I couldn't help him if--if Mr. Goodloe can't," I faltered, simply sick +with distress. + +"Cliff said not a week ago that your eyes made him feel like a light he +saw ahead on a wooded island after he had drifted without a paddle two +days in a canoe one time in Canada. You'll have to talk to him. Give him +a little life kernel; I've only got shells for myself. I'm going down to +Florida suddenly next week and when I come back I--I, well, I'll either +go into the movies or study with Mother Spurlock to get a deaconess' +cap." As she spoke I saw that the fight was on in Jessie's soul, and it +would be to a finish. + +"God bless and keep you, dear," I held her back long enough to say as +she picked up her sweater and left me. Hampton Dibrell has been +constantly with Bessie Thornton since Ted Montgomery's death, and I knew +that Jessie's time of trial had come, for her love for him had grown +through her denial because of the taint of her mad mother. And somehow I +felt sure of the outcome, that she would find strength to let him go. I +didn't know why I felt so sure; but I did, and I went down to the +library with a great peace in my heart that I knew later would be in +hers. + +And I made my entry into father's den in the midst of a scene of great +moment. I paused and listened with profound respect. Tradition was on +trial and the result I felt would be momentous. Father sat in his huge +chair before a small crackling fire in the wide chimney, and Martha's +boy stood before him with a large, profusely illustrated volume of Hans +Christian Andersen clasped passionately to his little breast. He had the +floor. + +"And Charlotte said they is no fairies anywhere and I say they is," he +declaimed, while father listened attentively. Suddenly I saw what I had +never seen before, that father's white hair rose in a crest on one side +and descended in a cascade on the other at exactly the same angle as the +black locks of the young arguer before him, and as they calmly regarded +each other I thought I had never seen such a likeness in personality as +well as form of feature. Love flooded all over me and I wanted to hug +them both but was restrained to silence by the gravity of the +situation. + +"And why did you argue that there are fairies?" father interrogated +calmly and judicially. + +"Charlotte said they ain't here 'cause she and me had never saw one, and +I said, 'How could a book and pictures be about nothing at all?' I +showed her this book that Lady gaved me and she said, 'Maybe, but ask +Minister.' I said, no, I'd ask you 'cause you are older and mighter saw +one onct. Did you?" + +"Well, sir, you argued from a positive, about ten pounds of positive, I +should judge from the size of that volume, while Charlotte certainly +argued from a negative viewpoint," said father, and his eyes twinkled as +he gave me an almost imperceptible wink. By his answer he also avoided +answering the question of faith put to him. + +"Did you see one?" came back the question in a tone that demanded an +answer. + +"Here comes Minister now and you can ask him," father said in all +cravenness as Mr. Goodloe came in the door behind me and came and stood +at my side. He had a huge yellow plume of goldenrod which he handed me +without looking at me directly. I buried my nose in its crispness and +watched to see him meet the issue. + +The boy put the question carefully just as he had put it to father, but +there was a quaver in his voice as he ended with his plea. + +"Is they no fairies, 'cause you can't see 'em?" + +"Do you feel them in your heart?" was the counter question that came +gravely from the lips of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe. + +"Yes, here," answered the pleader as he laid his hand carefully on the +pit of his stomach, which is nearer the seat of heartache than many a +perturbed older person has come. + +"Then for you there are fairies, right there in your heart, even if +Charlotte has lost them out of hers," was the answer, with a theology +that staggered me and set father smiling back into his youth. + +"I'll go tell her and maybe give her some of mine," exclaimed the boy as +he ran from the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE COVERT OF WINGS + + +"Oh, the faith of youth, the faith that reaches out to give itself," +sighed father as he turned to his papers. + +"Can faith give itself?" I asked, as I raised my eyes to the stars under +dull gold through which Gregory Goodloe was pouring a great smile down +into my depths. + +"Sometimes--just sometimes I think that perhaps it can--it does," he +answered me slowly and took my hands in his and held them with their +palms together prayerwise, a thing he had done several times in the +weeks past. Then he turned and walked over to father's desk and stood +looking down at him. + +"I want to dedicate the chapel on Sunday, Mr. Powers, as that is your +last Sunday before you go to Washington," he said, and as he spoke he +smiled first down into father's eyes raised to his and then into +mine--impersonally. I couldn't trust myself to speak but turned and went +up to my room to weep with a hurt that soon sent me to my knees, blind +for the comfort that came--that I knew always would come now, no matter +what the hurt. + +"He knows it has come to me, and he's thankful--but he doesn't care," I +sobbed and then laughed at my own contradictions. + +Martha found me kneeling beside my window seat when she came in with +Mother Spurlock and she shielded me until I could wipe away the tears +and be as glad to see them both as I really was. + +They were full of the plans for the dedication, which it gave me another +stab to find they had been discussing with Mr. Goodloe for several days. +In the hard weeks that had passed I had been their confidant, adviser +and many times their helper in the reconstructing around the tragedies +in the Settlement, but in this matter I had not been consulted. In fact, +Mother Spurlock showed an embarrassed hesitation as she talked of it +that still further hurt me and made me unenthusiastic and cold to their +plans. + +And why should I have been hurt that the surety in my heart had not +declared itself to them without words? So wonderful did it seem to me +that I thought it must be in my every word and deed and look and I was +confounded that as yet I was considered to be an outsider and not +entitled to plan for the ceremonial of the dedication of the material +fold for the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's flock. And then suddenly my hurt was +swept away by my sense of humor and I laughed to myself when I saw that +to Mother Spurlock, who had hungered and thirsted for my conversion, I +would have to prove it, tell it and repeat it. + +"Instead of the festal ceremonies in the dedication Mr. Goodloe is going +to have the simplest dedication ritual and then immediately hold the +memorial services for our--our dead," said Mother Spurlock, as she took +Martha's hand in hers and stroked it. "We want everybody to be there and +I could use a few more of those trunks full of colored new clothes, +Charlotte. The people down in the Settlement can use and wear after a +dye pot when you can't, bless your sweet heart," and as she made her +ruling request, which was still strong in death, she stroked the fold of +dull black silk over my knee which was cut from the same material as +the straight black widow's gown which Martha wore. + +"Make Martha buy you some things for some of them," I said lightly and +watched Martha as I spoke. She had never by word or deed showed that she +felt anything but adoringly dependent on me and my bounty, and had put +the check book I had given her from Mr. Cockrell away in my desk without +looking at it. I could see that my words both hurt and shocked her. + +"No, Oh, no," she faltered and turned away toward the window. + +"But, Martha," I was beginning to say, when an interruption burst into +the room. Young Charlotte stood before us and at her side the boy stood +his ground with the huge book still in what must have been very tired +arms. Their faces were belligerent and small James had upon his +countenance the alarm he always shows during Charlotte's most serious +and dangerous outbursts. Mikey was along, with his mischievous eyes +dancing with delight at the fray. + +"Auntie Charlotte, I think somebody ought to whip Stranger for saying +that Minister said he had fairies in his stomach. It is a lie." + +"I'll lick him fer you, Miss Charlotte," offered Mikey, with a pass at +the boy that I knew was only an affectionate threat. + +"I'll knock a stuffing out of you if you touch him," answered Charlotte, +taking Mikey's offer with her usual literal directness. "When he's +whipped, nobody but Auntie Charlotte can do it. Are you going to do it +now, Auntie Charlotte? We don't want the devil to get him for badness." +And as she spoke she took the boy's hand and held it tightly as if +willing to defend him from the flesh, the devil and the world, only +excepting myself. + +"But he did say that I had them here when I put my hand on it, didn't +he, Lady?" demanded the accused, with more courage than I would have +felt at meeting the accusation for him. I simply couldn't face the +explanation and I became craven. + +"Mr. Goodloe is down in the library. Go ask him what he did say," I +suggested hopefully. + +"We looked everywhere for him and that is the place we skipped. I felt +sure you wouldn't know anything at all about it, Auntie Charlotte, but +Stranger said you know just as much as Minister, which is another thing +I am going to ask him about. Come on, Stranger." And with her usual +lightning rapidity, Charlotte began to marshal her forces out of the +room. + +"Please don't!" were the words I sent faltering after her determination +to question Mr. Goodloe about his and my relative erudition, but I felt +that they made no impression. + +"Sonny thinks about you just as Charlotte does about Mr. Goodloe, and +he'll say so to everybody," said Martha, with a sad smile after the door +had closed with vigor enough to startle the household. + +"He's a fine child," said Mother Spurlock, with a great tenderness in +her smile at Martha. "Did you ask Mrs. Todd if that big hulk of a Jones +boy could get into the coat that Dabney got me from the judge's closet?" +she said, continuing the subject in hand, which lasted her for another +hour. When she went she took Martha with her to carry half the bundles +down to the Little House, the roof of which was the first thing to be +patched in stricken Goodloets. + +That night I felt the hands of the Stray on my face in the darkness and +his soft cheek cuddle to mine. + +"_You_ say they _is_ fairies, Lady," he coaxed. + +"There are fairies and there always will be for you," I answered, as I +drew him close and kissed the fragrant mouth so near mine. "Go back to +mother now," I added, as I felt the sleepy huddle of his little shoulder +against mine. He went and I promised myself that no matter how lonely I +was to be I would always send him back to his mother and not ever forget +that her claim was first. Tears were in my eyes as I turned my face into +the pillow, but suddenly the refrain of the song I had once heard in the +night, "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide," sung itself in my heart +until I again fell to sleep. + +The dedication day for Goodloe Chapel arrived upon Goodloets just one +month from the day upon which the beast of storm had ravaged it, and as +that fateful morning dawned with an extraordinary grandeur, so that +Sunday in mid-October came up from behind Paradise Ridge with unusual +beauty, only with the difference of calmness instead of splendor and +peace instead of tumult. The sun was warm and benignant, with not a +cloud in the deep blue sky to obscure its blessing. A gentle breeze blew +in from the fields and meadows laden with rich harvest odors and every +shrub and flower and vine which had been hiding back a few late buds let +them burst forth in honor of the day, and in many instances they bloomed +from a new growth thrown over the scars in the sides of the old town. In +one short month most of the ruins had been reduced to orderly piles of +material to be used in rebuilding, and a great many of the deepest +gashes had been healed completely and covered with merciful vine and +blossom. And it had also been like that with most of the scars in the +lives of the bereaved; they ached, but they had been covered with a +courage to go on building again until the new structure could be +complete. + +I think something of this feeling was in the minds of most of the people +as they began to assemble around Goodloe Chapel long before the time for +its opening. And as had happened once before, the procession from the +Town met the procession from the Settlement, only this time they were +not divided so completely from the right to the left. A tall mill woman, +whose husband had gone down in the crash at the saddlery, came and took +Nell's hand in hers and laid a strong arm around her shoulders, while +Harriet went over and took from the arms of the young father the little +motherless mite who had been rescued from the pillow floating on the +river. Billy shook hands with a young tanner in tight but wholly new +clothes, to whom Luella May Spain introduced him as her imminent +husband. + +In times of stress women are apt to seize and cling to the arm of +masculine protection, and Luella May had chosen to forget the +fascination of Billy's hesitation and two-steps and secure for herself a +life of thorough normality. She would probably never forget those dances +with Billy, and they would lend a kind of reminiscent glow of pleasure +over her boiling cabbage pots, but it would be no worse than that. + +Mr. Todd was shaven and habitated in the neat black coat he had thrown +off as he went at the ruin of the schoolhouse a month before, and with a +tender smile on his lean old face he came over and stood beside Martha, +as if to be watchful of her in the new order of her life. + +And it was for quite a half hour that most of the inhabitants of +Goodloets stood around in the yard of the chapel and waited for the +formal opening of the doors. We all knew that the chapel would not hold +the half of us, for the small Presbyterian congregation had been +dismissed by Mr. Farraday to come over and join us in the dedication, +and after a short service the boy Baptist divine had brought his flock +to do honor to the opening of the new fold. In fact, by count almost +every citizen in Goodloets stood before the chapel doors and waited for +them to be thrown open. And in the crowd who waited there was this +difference from the last time we had been together: All the children +were with us and not separated from us by walls that crash. I think that +the second meeting of Town and Settlement would have been impossible if +each parent had not had the confidence inspired by the small hands in +theirs. + +And for still more minutes we were patient while the delicious autumn +sun beamed upon us with Indian summer warmth and Old Harpeth looked down +on us from out on Paradise Ridge with its crown wreathed with purple and +gold and russet, all veiled in a tender haze. + +Then as the old clock on the courthouse up on the square boomed the hour +of eleven, Dabney with ceremony opened wide the tall doors and stepped +back into the shadow, Jefferson bowing and smiling behind him. With one +accord the people started toward the door, and then everybody again +stood still and seemed to be waiting for something. + +I knew for what they waited and I took Martha's hand in mine, with the +boy's in hers on the other side, and slowly we walked through the path +made for us between our friends and neighbors and in at the chapel door. +As I passed Harriet I motioned to her and she put her arm around Nell +and followed us, while Billy came behind them with father and the +children. And behind them walked all of those who had been bereaved by +the storm, and those who had been lamed and were suffering came with +them. + +My entry into the chapel had been accomplished and I felt like a +storm-torn bird who finds its sanctuary among the green leaves of a +great tree, while with Martha and the boy I went up to the very chancel +rail itself. + +Then I lifted my eyes and looked up into Gregory Goodloe's face, from +which the white light of a great joy tinged with a great sorrow, looked +down upon us. And as had been the case for all the long weeks stretched +out behind me there was in his eyes no glance to me of a personal +understanding; all the passion was that of a shepherd for his flock, and +in its greatness I humbly acquiesced as I fell upon my knees in the +front pew with Martha beside me, while he lifted his hands for the +opening prayer of his service. + +And in his short prayer he made the dedication of the pile of stone and +mortar which had stood before the face of the wind as sturdily as old +Harpeth itself. His words held the simplicity of those of a great poet +and each was a separate jewel that could be imbedded in the hearts of +his people to last for the span of their lives. He made a grateful +acknowledgment of the safety of the chapel and of the spared lives of +those before him, and in a few ringing sentences he prayed that we all +be delivered from the blindness of the prosperity which was upon us when +the disaster had made us halt in our rush and give time for brother to +face and call upon brother in affliction. So ringing and vivid was the +self-accusation of heedlessness in the few sentences when he dealt with +the condition of all of us when sorrow had come upon us, that we all +held our breath with almost a groan of conviction, and his promise of +our humbled and contrite hearts was ratified with a breath of relief. + +Then we rose from our knees and sat once more facing him while he stood +before us and began to read the memorial services for our dead. And +through the whole beautiful ritual he led us to the very words of +triumph: + + "Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written; + Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? + O grave, where is thy victory?" + +The warmth in his beautiful voice and the light upon his face poured +over us all with a healing that we knew would endure. + +After the dedication prayer and the memorial service the old +Presbyterian minister, whom we had all known and loved since infancy, +talked tenderly and with great sympathy to us for a few minutes and the +stammering young Baptist divine gave us an insight into a heart of +youthful devoutness. + +And then came my hour. + +"And now that we have given to the Lord formally this sanctuary we have +builded for him, I want to open its spiritual doors to any of you who +feel in your hearts the desire to unite with us in our worship of Him," +were the words of invitation that I suddenly felt beat themselves, in +the rich voice of the man in the pulpit, upon my heart. "I am going to +baptize the children, but are there any of you of 'riper years' who +desire to unite with us to 'constantly believe God's holy word, and +obediently keep his commandments'?" And as he spoke he came down from +the pulpit, stood at the chancel rail and stretched out his hands to all +of us. Without a second's delay I rose and went and knelt before him and +bowed my head in my hands. On my right knelt the young tanner and on my +left I felt rather than saw Clifton Gray. + +"The Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years" is long and +full of holy austerity. Word for word, response for question, I followed +the rich voice leading me, but not until it asked concerning our faith +in the "life everlasting" did I raise my eyes to those glowing above me +as I made answer: + +"All this I steadfastly believe." + +There was an instant's hush in the church as I made my response and in +all humility I seemed to feel that it reverberated in some of the +others' depths until it waked a faint echo. They had seen me face my +humiliation and had watched how I took it and it had had its effect. It +was as if I publicly led them to the well-spring of my courage and +offered it to them. Luella May stole forward and crowded in between the +young tanner and me, and I saw great tears steal out of father's closed +eyes and roll down his cheeks, as he came and knelt just behind me, with +two mill hands and several women. + +And then, after our blessing, while we rose and stood on the right and +the left of the chancel the parson asked that the children be brought +forward for baptism. + +Without waiting for anybody to come with her, Charlotte rose, took a +hand of Sue on one side and one of Jimmy on the other, and came and +stood looking up into the beloved Minister's eyes with such a vision in +her young face that I caught my breath. Then Nell came and with her came +Harriet with the Suckling asleep in her arms. The bereaved young father +held his baby in his arms alone and Mrs. Burns went and stood beside +him with Mikey and Maudie and the other five toddlers in front of her. +Other children were brought forward by parents from the Town and the +Settlement and were ranged to the right and to the left, but still I saw +that Martha cowered in her pew holding the hand of the Stray in hers as +he knelt beside her. Then I knew what I must do and I went quietly and +lifted her and led her to the chancel to a place just beside where +Harriet stood with the Suckling in her arms. I held one of the Stray's +little hands in mine, and young Charlotte dropped Jimmy's hand and +reached out and took the other in hers. So we stood and waited while the +beloved voice read through the beautiful ceremony with which children +are taken into the arms of their faith before they are yet ready to +understand what it is some day to mean to them. + +"It is your duty to teach him ... to obediently keep God's holy will and +commandments all of his life," were the closing words of the address +with which the parson looked us full in the eye and laid the vow upon +our souls. Then he reached out his hands, drew the Stray to him first, +encircled him with his strong arm, laid his hands on the bowed black +head, and looking me straight in the eye asked the question of his +ritual: + +"Name this child." + +For an instant I glanced at Martha and then at father standing beside +me, and as he nodded I slightly bent my head and into a deathly +stillness all over the chapel I let the name fall clear and distinct: + +"Nickols Morris Powers." + +A beautiful ray of light flooded from one of the tall windows over both +of us as he ratified the name with a few drops of water upon the boy's +brow, and then turned to Harriet and repeated his question while he took +the Suckling into his arms with the greatest tenderness. Then through +the group he went, naming his lambs as he held them against his heart or +within the circle of his strong arm. It was all so tender and so +beautiful that every eye in the chapel was wet with tears and sobs +echoed softly through his last prayer. + +However, at one time in the ceremonial there was danger of a laugh from +the aggregate, overwrought nerves when Charlotte promptly named herself +without waiting for Nell's response which came late but in time to save +embarrassment. + +Then it was all over and the whole congregation trooped but into the +sunshine. Father walked home with young Nickols on one side and +Charlotte on the other, Martha carrying the Suckling and walking beside +Harriet, who led Sue past the destruction of her white dress which every +mud puddle threatened. Cliff Gray came with me slowly up the street +after all the others had gone ahead and most of them had turned into the +gates of their respective homes. + +"Is everything all right now, Cliff?" I questioned him, as we walked +slowly under the old elms of our ancestors' planting. "It is all right +now?" I asked again, while Cliff looked off into the distance. + +"I have faith that I can make it that way now, Charlotte dear," he +answered, as I paused to turn in at my gate. We clasped hands for a +second and then he went on down the street toward the Cockrell gate; and +Letitia's material point of view on existence I knew would have a fair +chance at his hands. + +I felt that I had never loved my friends as I did that wonderful +Sunday, and I hoped it would not bore them if I at times let some of it +overflow into their well ordered lives. + +The rest of that long, hazy, dreamy, wonder day, in the morning of which +our hearts had been poured so full, we all of us spent with father, as +he was to leave us the next morning. Against the remonstrance of his +maternal parent, the worthless Jefferson had been chosen to go along in +the place of his father Dabney. The young negro's brisk packings filled +the house with a joy note that was delightful and Mammy admonished him +on subjects moral every time he came near the kitchen. + +Late in the afternoon I left father down in the garden with young +Nickols, to whom he was confiding the care of some very choice hollyhock +seeds that would need gathering in the next few weeks. + +"Your father got them from England," the judge said gravely, as he +showed the small paddies how to roll out the thin seed without crushing +them. + +"Have I got any father but the Lady?" asked the youngster with all +seriousness, as he beamed up in my direction. Suddenly Martha turned +and went indoors and up to her room. I followed her and sat down beside +the bed on which she had flung herself. + +"You'll have to make him understand it all; I can't," she said, after I +had tenderly hushed her weeping. "I give him to you. I--I won't be with +him long." As she spoke I noticed how the light shone through her pale +fingers as she held them up to clasp mine. + +"We'll go away to Florida for a rest, Martha," I said, with the +reassurance I found I had constantly to use to her. There was a great +and beautiful tenderness in the soul of Martha, but she was completely +lacking in any of the worldly initiative that makes lives move on. She +seemed to be standing still. + +"Yes, I'll go away," she answered softly, as she unclasped her hand from +mine, nestled her face in the pillow and shut her eyes. + +I left her to sleep and a year from that hour I knew that I had not +understood the measure of her exhaustion. She faded like a flower and +drifted on into eternity like a gossamer thread in the breeze. + +And it was with some of the depression that a kind of maternal brooding +over her gave me that I went out into the garden that night after all +the rest had gone to bed. A pale silver moon-crescent poised on the brow +of Old Harpeth and a tingling little breeze was coming down from the +north as if sent as a warning of the winter soon to be upon us. I went +down to the old graybeard poplars and their leaves seemed to hiss +together in the moonlight instead of rustling softly as they had been +all summer. A great many of them were drifted in dry waves on the grass +and their gold was turned to silver in the moonlight. Many of the tall +shrubs were naked ghosts of their former selves and gnashed their bones +drearily. I leaned against the tallest old poplar and looked out across +the valley with a kind of stillness in my heart that seemed to be +listening and then listening. + +"Oh, I'm thankful, thankful that strength has been given me to endure it +all--life," I said to myself, almost under my breath. "And no matter +what comes I can never lose it. I can go out into life now alone +and--unafraid." + +"'And whither thou goest I too will go, and thy--'" came the Gregorian +chant from close beside me, and I turned to find the Harpeth Jaguar +stalking me in the night. + +Then for a long time we stood and looked at each other, he tearing away +the veil from his man's heart and I laying aside that in my woman's +breast. + +"Oh, I've needed you so," I finally said, with a catch in my breath as I +put my hands in his which he put palm to palm, then raised to his lips. + +"You were in God's hands and I had to wait His time," he answered me. +"And I would have waited until the stars burn dim. As near as loss came +I never doubted. I had asked Him for you." + +"I didn't know I was going to join your church this morning," I +faltered. "I never intended to join your church. I was going to be +either a Baptist or a Presbyterian. I was afraid to mix--my faith +with--with you." + +"Hasn't it been tried sufficiently to stand any test? I think so. Ah, +dear, come to me--it's been long for me, too." His arms entreated me, +but I held myself away with my praying hands pressed to his breast. + +"Are you sure that I'm not mixing you and--your faith?" I asked, looking +him honestly in the face and giving voice to the thought that Nickols +had put into my mind and which had tortured me all the weary months +past. + +"Did any thought of me make you bring Martha Ensley to Nickols' death +bed and take into your heart and home what the world calls dishonor?" + +"No," I answered with honesty to myself. + +"Have you once since you knew--_knew_--felt that you must turn to me for +comfort and help in one of your dire hours?" + +"Not once," I answered again with honesty. + +"Have you not learned to turn to Him?" + +"I have!" I answered. + +"That's God's love. Then you can give me the love that belongs to me in +your heart's kingdom, can't you?" + +"I'm afraid--I'm going to love you too much--I feel it coming. What'll +you do with it? Stop me!" I said with both a sob and a laugh, as I began +to let myself be drawn into the strong, hungry arms. + +"You great, big, splendid woman of God! You've got love enough in you to +feed a multitude and you'll do it. Give me a part of my share now. It's +mine. God sent you to me; I'm going to take you." + +And he did. His lips pressed mine until I gave back a betrothal kiss +that was as complete as a great red flower. His arms held me so that +they were a circle of pain, but all the while I kept my hands prayerwise +between the clamor of our breasts. + +"Say it--'the covert of thy wings'--all that David said," I whispered. + +And he answered: + +"'I will abide in thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of +thy wings.'" + + + + +JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD'S STORIES OF ADVENTURE + +May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list. + + +_KAZAN_ + +The tale of a "quarter-strain wolf and three-quarters husky" torn +between the call of the human and his wild mate. + +_BAREE, SON OF KAZAN_ + +The story of the son of the blind Grey Wolf and the gallant part he +played in the lives of a man and a woman. + +_THE COURAGE OF CAPTAIN PLUM_ + +The story of the King of Beaver Island, a Mormon colony, and his battle +with Captain Plum. + +_THE DANGER TRAIL_ + +A tale of snow, of love, of Indian vengeance, and a mystery of the +North. + +_THE HUNTED WOMAN_ + +A tale of the "end of the line," and of a great fight in the "valley of +gold" for a woman. + +_THE FLOWER OF THE NORTH_ + +The story of Fort o' God, where the wild flavor of the wilderness is +blended with the courtly atmosphere of France. + +_THE GRIZZLY KING_ + +The story of Thor, the big grizzly who lived in a valley where man had +never come. + +_ISOBEL_ + +A love story of the Far North. + +_THE WOLF HUNTERS_ + +A thrilling tale of adventure in the Canadian wilderness. + +_THE GOLD HUNTERS_ + +The story of adventure in the Hudson Bay wilds. + +_THE COURAGE OF MARGE O'DOONE_ + +Filled with exciting incidents in the land of strong men and women. + +_BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY_ + +A thrilling story of the Far North. The great Photoplay was made from +this book. + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +THE NOVELS OF GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL LUTZ + +May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list. + + +_THE BEST MAN_ + +Through a strange series of adventures a young man finds himself +propelled up the aisle of a church and married to a strange girl. + +_A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS_ + +On her way West the heroine steps off by mistake at a lonely watertank +into a maze of thrilling events. + +_THE ENCHANTED BARN_ + +Every member of the family will enjoy this spirited chronicle of a young +girl's resourcefulness and pluck, and the secret of the "enchanted" +barn. + +_THE WITNESS_ + +The fascinating story of the enormous change an incident wrought in a +man's life. + +_MARCIA SCHUYLER_ + +A picture of ideal girlhood set in the time of full skirts and poke +bonnets. + +_LO, MICHAEL!_ + +A story of unfailing appeal to all who love and understand boys. + +_THE MAN OF THE DESERT_ + +An intensely moving love story of a man of the desert and a girl of the +East pictured against the background of the Far West. + +_PHOEBE DEANE_ + +A tense and charming love story, told with a grace and a fervor with +which only Mrs. Lutz could tell it. + +_DAWN OF THE MORNING_ + +A romance of the last century with all of its old-fashioned charm. A +companion volume to "Marcia Schuyler" and "Phoebe Deane." + + +_Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction_ + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART'S KINGDOM*** + + +******* This file should be named 18756-8.txt or 18756-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/5/18756 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/18756-8.zip b/18756-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e7b75f8 --- /dev/null +++ b/18756-8.zip diff --git a/18756-h.zip b/18756-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..40af7dc --- /dev/null +++ b/18756-h.zip diff --git a/18756-h/18756-h.htm b/18756-h/18756-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c84d54 --- /dev/null +++ b/18756-h/18756-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,7959 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Heart's Kingdom, by Maria Thompson Daviess</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i7 {display: block; margin-left: 7em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + hr.full { width: 100%; } + pre {font-size: 75%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Heart's Kingdom, by Maria Thompson +Daviess, Illustrated by W. B. King</h1> +<pre> +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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Heart's Kingdom</p> +<p>Author: Maria Thompson Daviess</p> +<p>Release Date: July 4, 2006 [eBook #18756]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART'S KINGDOM***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Kathryn Lybarger, Josephine Paolucci,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + +<h1>The Heart's Kingdom</h1> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="350" height="475" alt=""It's a mighty big turkle," he faltered, and snuggled +closer." title="" /> +<span class="caption">"It's a mighty big turkle," he faltered, and snuggled +closer.</span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>THE HEART'S KINGDOM</h2> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF THE MELTING OF MOLLY, <span class="smcap">Etc</span>.</h4> + +<h5>ILLUSTRATED BY</h5> <h4>W. B. KING</h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<p class="center"> +NEW YORK<br /> +GROSSET & DUNLAP<br /> +PUBLISHERS<br /> +</p> + + +<p class="center"> +Copyright, 1917<br /> +by<br /> +The Reilly & Britton Co.<br /> +<br /> +Made in U.S.A.<br /> +<br /> +Published September 12, 1917<br /> +Second Printing October 1, 1917<br /> +</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> +<tr><td align='left'>I The World and the Flesh</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>II The Harpeth Jaguar</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>III The Gauntlet</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>IV To Turkey Gulch</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>V Having It Out</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_92">92</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VI Deep Digging</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VII The Tristan Love Song</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_132">132</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>VIII Breasting the Gale</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_146">146</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>IX Into Brambles</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_161">161</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>X Water and Oil</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XI A Bit of Raw Life</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_195">195</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XII The Tenacious Turtle</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_211">211</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XIII The Short-Circuit</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_227">227</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XIV Abide With Me</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_241">241</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XV A Clandestine Adventure</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_258">258</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XVI The Jewel in the Matrix</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_283">283</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XVII The Pageant</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_297">297</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XVIII Light—Into Darkness</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XIX The Spark and the Blaze</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_327">327</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'>XX The Covert of Wings</td><td align='right'><a href="#Page_344">344</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p> +<h2>The Heart's Kingdom</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE WORLD AND THE FLESH</h3> + + +<p>"A beautiful woman is intended to create a heaven on earth and she has +no business wasting herself making imaginary excursions into any future +paradise. The present is her time for action; and again, Charlotte, I +ask you to name the day upon which you intend to marry me," said Nickols +Powers, as he stood lounging in the broad window of Aunt Clara's music +room and gazing down into the subdued traffic of upper Madison Avenue.</p> + +<p>"I wish you had never taken me across that ferry and into that room +crowded with redolent humanity to hear an absurd little man string +together vivid, gross words about religion, words that made me tingle +all over," I answered as I threw my coat on a chair, lifted my hat from +my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> head and sat down on the seat before the dark old piano. "I think +religion is the most awful thing in the world and I am as afraid of it +as I am of—of death. I'm going home to my father."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't be afraid of it. Religion is the most potent form of +intoxication known to the human race. That's why I took you over to hear +the little baseball player. I wanted you to get a sip. But don't let it +go to your head." And Nickols mocked me with soft tenderness in his +smile.</p> + +<p>"Well, it frightened me, and I don't like it. I'm going home to my +father and forget it," I reiterated with a kind of numbness upon me, the +like of which I had never before experienced.</p> + +<p>"I'll protect you from any religious danger just as effectively as Judge +Powers. I'm younger—slightly—than he, but I know just as many of the +wiles of the world and the flesh as he does and maybe a few more," +Nickols assured me, with a flash in his dark eyes that was both wicked +and humorous, as well as very delightful.</p> + +<p>"And the devil, too! But you don't understand. I must go home to my +father," I answered still again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You don't understand yourself," returned Nickols. "There are strange +hieroglyphics imprinted on every woman's heart and a man can read only +an unconnected word here and there when he can get his flashlight thrown +into the depths—if he dares adventure into her life at all. I feel that +I take my own life in my hands when I allow you to talk to me as I am +allowing you to-night."</p> + +<p>"How do you know that those hieroglyphics might not mean the salvation +of the world if she could spell them out herself, or some great and good +person took a steady lamp and went down into her heart and—"</p> + +<p>"It takes a very wicked man to read a woman; good men are blinded by +them and stumble," Nickols assured me as he came over, stood beside me +and ran his long, slender, artist's fingers up and down the keys of the +piano, which evoked a strange, diabolical sort of harmony from them. "I +understand about it all, so please come tell me you'll marry me." This +time his arms almost encircled me, but I slipped between them as he +laughed at me with his adorable pagan charm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, Nickols, that would be an easy—and—and delightful way out, but I +am really frightened down in some queer part of my anatomy that lies +between my breast bone and my spinal column. Something is stirring in my +heart and I'm afraid of it. I've got to get out in a wilderness and +fight with it."</p> + +<p>"Take it out on me," offered Nickols, with a laugh that was both wistful +and provoking.</p> + +<p>"No, I've got a home panic and I must go."</p> + +<p>"Then when do I get my answer from what is left of you after the +battle?"</p> + +<p>"I'll let you know when to come and get it—under the roof of the +Poplars," I answered him from the doorway.</p> + +<p>And the very next morning I went down into the Harpeth Valley, driven I +knew not by what, nor to what. I only knew that I felt full of a living, +smothered flame and I was sure that it was best to let it burst forth in +my ancestral abiding place.</p> + +<p>I was born of a man who has the most evolved brain in the Harpeth +Valley, who has been a drunkard for twenty years, and of a very +beautiful and haughty woman whose own mother, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> the day of her death, +shouted at Methodist love feasts. Is it any wonder that when I was tried +by fire I burned "as the cracklings of thorns under a pot?"</p> + +<p>"How <i>could</i> you set that ridiculous little Methodist meeting house on +the very doorstep of my garden, father?" I demanded, as I stood tall and +furious before him in the breakfast room on the morning after my return +home from my winter in the East with Aunt Clara. "Cousin Nickols has +spent many months out of three years on the plans of restoration for +that garden, and he is coming down soon to sketch and photograph it to +use in some of his commissions. What shall I—what will <i>you</i>—say to +him when he finds that the vista he kept open for the line of Paradise +Ridge has been cut off by that pile of stones to house the singing of +psalms?" And as I raged I had a feeling of being relentlessly +pursued—by something I didn't understand.</p> + +<p>"Madam," returned father, with a dignity he always used with me when he +encountered one of my rages, "you will find that the chapel does not in +any way interfere with Nickols' carefully planned view. Gregory Goodloe +spent many days<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> of thought in seeking to place it so that it would not +intrude itself upon your garden, and he built his parsonage completely +out of view, though it gives him only one large southern window to his +study and only northern ones to his bedroom."</p> + +<p>"Does the creature also sleep and eat and have his being right there +behind my hollyhocks?" I demanded, and my rage began to merge into +actual grief, which in turn threatened to come to the surface in hot +tears.</p> + +<p>"Now, Charlotte, my daughter," father was beginning to say with soothing +in his voice instead of the belligerence that from my youth up had +always just preceded my floods of tears. Dabney, the shriveled black +butler, who had always devotedly sympathized with my exhibitions of +temperament, to which he had, from my infancy, given the name of +"tantrums," set the platter of fried chicken before father's place at +the damask and silver-spread old table by the window, through which the +morning sun was shining genially. Then, with a smile as broad and genial +as that of the sun, he drew out my chair from behind the ancestral +silver coffee urn, which was puffing out clouds of fragrant steam.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Breakfast am sarved, honey chile," he crooned soothingly, "an' yo' +Mammy done put the liver wing right ag'in yo' fork."</p> + +<p>Dabney had many times stemmed my floods with choice food and was trying +his favorite method of pacification.</p> + +<p>I faltered and wavered at the temptation. I was hungry.</p> + +<p>"Just wait until you see Goodloe and talk it over with him," father +said, as he seized the advantage of my wavering and seated himself +opposite me as Dabney pushed in my chair and whisked the cover off the +silver sugar bowl and presented one of his old willow-ware cups for +father's two lumps and a dash of cream. "I asked him to—"</p> + +<p>"See him? You don't expect me to discuss Nickols' and my garden with an +ignorant bucolic Methodist minister, who probably doesn't know a +honeysuckle from a jimson weed, do you?" I asked with actual rage rising +again above the tears as I literally dashed the cream into his cup and +deluged the boiling coffee down upon it so that a scalding splatter +peppered my hand. "I never want to see or hear or speak to or about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> +him. I'll build a trellis as high as his church, run evergreen +honeysuckle on it and go my way in an opposite direction from his. +I'll—" Just here I observed consternation spread over Dabney's black +face, then communicate itself to father's distressed countenance as he +glanced out the window. Quickly he pushed his morning julep behind the +jar of roses in the center of the table, while Dabney flung a napkin +over the silver pitcher with frost on its sides and mint nodding over +its brim.</p> + +<p>And then, as I was about to pour my own coffee and launch forth on +another tirade on the subject of my neighbor, I heard a rich tenor voice +singing just outside the window in the garden beside the steps that led +down from the long windows in the dining room to the old flagstone walk. +Nickols and I had searched through volumes of dusty antique prints to +see just how we wanted that walk to lead out to the sunken garden beyond +the tall old poplars. I also saw the handle of a rake or hoe in action +across the window landscape and heard unmistakable sounds of vigorous +gardening.</p> + +<p>I rose to my feet with battle in my eyes and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> then stopped perfectly +still and listened—unwillingly but compelled.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Drink to me only with thine eyes<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And I will pledge with mine,"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>were the words that floated in at the window on the fragrant morning +sunbeams, in a voice of the most penetrating tenderness I had ever felt +break against my heartstrings.</p> + +<p>"I—I—he sometimes demolishes a—a few weeds," father faltered, while +Dabney ducked his cotton-wool old head and slipped out of the door.</p> + +<p>"You allow him to work in my—garden—and—" I faltered, just recovering +from the impact of the words of my favorite song of songs hurled at me +by the unseen enemy, when I was interrupted by his appearance in the +open door and we stood facing each other.</p> + +<p>I am a woman who has very decided tastes about the biological man. I +know just how I want the creatures to look, and I haven't much interest +in one that isn't at least of the type of my preferred kind. Because I +am very tall and broad and deep-bosomed and vivid and high colored, and +have strong white teeth that crunch up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> about as much food in the +twenty-four hours as most field hands consume, and altogether I am very +much like one of the most vigorous of Sorolla's paintings, that is the +probable pathological reason I have always preferred an evolved Whistler +masculine nocturne that retreats to the limits of my comprehension and +then beckons me to follow. All other men I have grouped beyond the +border of my feminine nature and sought to waste no thought upon them. +It was a shock to come, suddenly, in my own breakfast room, face to face +with a type of man I had never before met. The enemy was astonishingly +large and lithe and distinctly resembled one of the big gold-colored +lions that live in the wilds of the Harpeth Mountains out beyond +Paradise Ridge. His head, with its tawny thatch that ought to have waved +majestically but which was sleek and decorous to the point of +worldliness, was poised on his neck and shoulders with a singularly +strong line that showed through a silk soft collar, held together by an +exquisitely worldly amethyst silk scarf which, it was a shock to see, +matched glints from eyes back under his heavy gold brows with what +appeared to be extreme sophistication.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> After the shock of the tie the +loose gray London worsted coat and trousers made only a passing +impression; and from my involuntary summary of the whole surprising man, +which had taken less than an instant, my dazed brain came back and was +held and concentrated by the beauty of the smile that flooded out over +me in welcome after my father's hurried introduction.</p> + +<p>"The Reverend Mr. Gregory Goodloe—my daughter Charlotte," father +announced, as he rose and waved in my direction a hand that was cordial +to the point of bravado.</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad you came in time to see your crocuses and anemones, Miss +Powers," the Jaguar said as he took my hand in his. "Dabney has let me +help him hand-weed them and they are a glory, aren't they?" While he +spoke he still held my hand and I was still too dazed to regain +possession of it. Father saved the situation.</p> + +<p>"Sit down, sit down, Parson, and let Charlotte give you a cup of coffee +while it is on the simmer," he urged with hasty hospitality as if intent +upon effectively bottling me up, at least for the immediate present. +"She was just pouring my cup. Will you say grace before I take my first<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> +sip?" was the high explosive he further proceeded to hurl in my face.</p> + +<p>And as he spoke I sank dumbly into my chair and helplessly bowed my head +to a ceremony so obsolete in the world from which I had come that I felt +as if I was slipping back into the days of the pioneer, when the customs +of life were still primitive and dictated by emotion rather than mental +science.</p> + +<p>And there, with father's concealed mint julep right against his +interlaced fingers, the mountain lion bowed his crested head and +involved me in prayer for the first time since chapel-service in my +college days.</p> + +<p>"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof ... for which we give +thanks, thy children, with Lord Jesus, Amen!"</p> + +<p>"Amen," mumbled father as if from the depths of embarrassment, and +against my will, as it were, a queer sort of a croon of an echo came +from my own throat.</p> + +<p>Also that was the first time I had ever heard words of prayer under the +roof of the Poplars. It embarrassed me and I hated it and the cause of +it. The spell which had possessed me since<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> the entrance of the Reverend +Goodloe, vanished, and the rage that had been in me at the discovery of +the intrusion of his chapel and himself upon my life when I had come +home to be free to be wicked, boiled up within me and then sugared down +to a rich—and dangerous—syrup. While I poured his coffee I again took +stock of him, this time coldly and with deadly intent. The reasons for +his entry into my hitherto satisfactory family life, even at breakfast +time, I did not know, any more than I knew the reason for the chapel on +the other side of the hollyhocks, but I felt that I feared both and +intended to get rid of them. If the enemy had been what one could +reasonably expect a young Methodist preacher to be, I would have routed +him and his meekness within the hour and had the chapel moved to a lot +on a side street in town within the week. However, when a hunter comes +suddenly upon a Harpeth jaguar he is glad to use his best repeater and +he is careful how he shoots, though if he is very skillful he may tease +the lion aloft with a few nipping shots. I felt suddenly very strong for +the fight that I knew was on, though the lion didn't possess that +knowledge as yet. Deliberately I fired a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> preliminary bullet that seemed +to graze father, though it left the Parson unharmed.</p> + +<p>"Will you have your mint julep before I pour your coffee, Mr. Goodloe?" +I asked, with seemingly careless friendliness. "Dabney, put fresh ice in +father's glass and fill mine and Mr. Goodloe's."</p> + +<p>"I was feeling a little under the weather this morning," said father +hastily, as he set his glass from behind the rose jar upon Dabney's +waiter and motioned it all away from him, thus denying the morning +friend of his lifetime. I had never drunk a julep before breakfast in my +life, only tasted around the frosty edges of father's, but I held my +ground, and held out my glass to Dabney, who falteringly, almost in +terror, took the frosted silver pitcher from the sideboard and poured me +an unusually large draft of the family beverage.</p> + +<p>"Will you have yours now, Mr. Goodloe?" I asked again with still more of +the sugared solicitation.</p> + +<p>"No, I believe I prefer the coffee, but don't pour it until you have +drunk your julep; you know frost is a thing that soon passes," was the +cheerful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> answer, though a suspicion of an amethyst glint made me know +that the Jaguar had at least heard the zip of the bullet.</p> + +<p>I loathed that mixture of ice and sugar and mint and whiskey but I had +to drink it, and it heated me up inside both physically and mentally, +and took away all the queer dogging fear. And because of it I don't +remember what else happened at that breakfast except that I wanted to +clutch and cling to the warm, strong hand that I again found mine in at +the time of parting. But I didn't; at least, I don't think I did. After +it was taken away from me I went very slowly up to my room and again +went to bed, Mammy caressingly officiating and rejoicing that I was +going to "nap the steam cars outen my bones."</p> + +<p>I fell asleep with the continued strains of "Drink to me only" in my +ears, and wondering if I ought to put it down as insult added to injury, +and I awoke several hours later to find Letitia Cockrell, one of the +dear friends whom many generations had bestowed upon me, sitting on the +foot of my bed consuming the last of the box of marrons with which +Nickols had provisioned my journey down from New York. I was glad I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> +tucked the note that came in the box under my pillow the night before. I +trust Letitia and she is entirely sophisticated, but she has never had a +lover who lives in Greenwich Village, New York, America.</p> + +<p>"Is this the open season for two-day hangovers, in New York?" she +demanded as she sniffed me suspiciously at the same time she dimpled and +smiled at me.</p> + +<p>"No, this is not a metropolitan hangover. It was acquired at breakfast, +Letitia," I answered her as I sat up and stretched out my bare arms to +give her a good shake and a hug. "'You may break, you may shatter the +glass if you will, but the scent of the julep will hang 'round you +still,'" I misquoted as I drew my knees up into my embrace and took the +last remaining marron.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mammy said Mr. Goodloe had breakfast with you. Did you sneak it +from the judge's pitcher?" demanded Letitia, as she likewise drew her +knees up into her arms and settled herself against one of the posts of +my bed for the many hours' résumé of our individual existences in which +we always indulged upon being reunited after separation.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I did not," I answered. "I drank it before his eyes, and then I don't +remember what happened and I don't care."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Just that. I never have been drunk because I never could drink enough. +I've always felt that there isn't enough liquid in the world to faze me, +and I don't like it anyway, but Dabney was so impressed by His Worship +that he poured it double for me before I had had breakfast. I hope I +staggered or swore but I don't think I did. The Reverend Goodloe can +tell you better than I. Ask him."</p> + +<p>"Gregory Goodloe? Oh, Charlotte!"</p> + +<p>"That's the point I was coming to, Letitia: Just who is this Reverend +Goodloe that I shouldn't drink a quart of mint julep before him if I +want to? I had well over a pint of champagne with a Mr. Justice two +nights before I left New York and I stopped then out of courtesy to one +of the generals whom we expect to defend us from the Kaiser. Who is your +Gregory Goodloe? Tell we all about him, unexpurgated and unafraid."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you know about him—and the chapel before you came?" Letitia +queried cautiously, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> if fearing the explosion she felt was sure to +result.</p> + +<p>"I did not," I answered. "I met him and his chapel and the mint julep +all in the same five minutes, and is it any wonder I went down? Go on. +Tell me the worst or the best. I'm ready." And as I spoke I settled my +pillows comfortably, getting a little thrill from the crumpled letter +underneath the bottom one.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>THE HARPETH JAGUAR</h3> + + +<p>"It is beautifully romantic, but I don't know what we are going to do +about it," answered Letitia with genuine trouble, puckering her brow +under one of her smooth waves of seal-brown hair. Letitia is one of the +wonderful variety of women who patch out life, piece by piece, in a +beautiful symmetrical pattern and who do not have imagination enough to +admire anything about a riotous crazy quilt. She is in love with Clifton +Gray, has been since she wound her brown braids about her head, and is +piecing strips of him into her life-fabric by the very sanest +love—courtship—marriage design.</p> + +<p>"We just can't go on as we have been doing lately," she continued. "We +all decided that you would know what to do about him, and would do it +when you came home. We suspected Judge Powers hadn't written you all the +facts when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> you didn't come and the building went on up. You will be +able to do something about him, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"I think it is likely," I answered, with the brittle sugar in my voice +that Letitia only half knows the flavor of. "But don't try to sketch +things, Letitia. Begin at the beginning and go straight to the end; I'll +pick up the pieces."</p> + +<p>"Well, of course you remember the Bishop Goodloe romance, don't you?" +asked Letitia, hopeful that she could get a small start ahead on her +chronicle.</p> + +<p>"I don't remember anything about any bishop, ever. I forget things about +that kind of people. What did, or didn't he do?"</p> + +<p>"Charlotte!" remonstrated Letitia. "He was the last of the Goodloes who +built that old Goodloe home on exactly the place where the first Goodloe +set the stakes of the first stockade put up in the Harpeth Valley, right +here in Goodloets. It burned down the night he married that Miss Gregory +in New York, before we were born. Don't you remember we used to play in +the ruins, just over here beyond the garden where the chapel stands now? +Your father bought the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> property. Part of your garden is old Madam +Goodloe's garden and that's why it was so wonderful for Judge Powers to +give the lot and let Mr. Goodloe build the chapel there. We all felt +that, though some of us were scared when we thought about what you might +do when you came home. Still, after we saw that wonderful little stone +chapel that Mr. Goodloe had one of the greatest architects in New York +design, after he had sent him packages of sketches of your garden and +the Poplars, so it would only make it all the more beautiful, we felt +better. You don't really mind about it, do you, dear?" Letitia's voice +was beseechingly enthusiastic, though keyed down with a note of anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Go on!" I commanded, packing down the rage in the dark corners of my +inmost heart.</p> + +<p>"Nobody ever knew why Bishop Goodloe never came back after he married +while on a mission from the Southern Methodist Conference to the +Northern Methodist Conference. He severed his relations with his own +Conference, and he never preached again though he was one of the most +wonderful and eloquent preachers the South has ever known. He was the +youngest bishop the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> church had ever ordained. Nobody ever knew what +happened, and all we know now is that this perfectly beautiful man, who +is the bishop's son, came down to the General Conference in Nashville, +was examined and ordained, and the presiding bishop sent him out here to +Goodloets last November. We don't know anything about him except that he +has been fighting in the trenches in France for a year and has had a +bullet cut out of his left lung. Everybody adores him, and we all sit +spellbound listening to him preach, I think mostly on account of his +voice, because none of us ever seems to remember what he is preaching +about. He's been having services in the ballroom at the Country Club but +he is going to dedicate the chapel soon and we are all relieved. It has +been fun to go out to church at the Club twice every Sunday and to +prayer meeting on Wednesday night all winter, and we've danced in the +long parlor at home and in the double parlors at Jessie Litton's so as +not to disarrange the pews, I mean the chairs, in the ballroom, but now +that the spring has come we—we need the Club. I'm glad you will be here +for the dedication, and you will help us kind of—kind of—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Taper off from your religious spree?" I asked with a laugh that Letitia +echoed shamefacedly.</p> + +<p>"That's an awful way to put it—but—"</p> + +<p>"True?"</p> + +<p>"We've all tried hard, but—but it is such a—a bore. It doesn't seem +fair to enjoy Gregory Goodloe so much at dinners and parties and not +show our respect and—and admiration by being good church members. +Jessie joined his study workers and she took a class of the awful little +children from down in the Settlement beyond the Phosphate Mills, who all +smelled terribly. She worked hard with them twice a week for a month, +and then Mother Spurlock, who is the front pillar of his congregation, +found that she had taught all the dirty little things to sew with their +left hands. She came in one morning and found them all stitching away +industriously backwards, just because Jessie is left-handed herself. +Mother Elsie laughed until she lost her breath and Mr. Goodloe had to +help unloosen her belt for her. The meeting broke up with ice cream on +Jessie for everybody. We all belong to home mission societies and sewing +circles and—"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You want me to get you out of your purgatory and let you backslide +to—"</p> + +<p>"Don't say it!" exclaimed Letitia with a laugh. "But we just want not to +hurt his feelings and—"</p> + +<p>"We won't," I said grimly. "Now let's talk about the ball out at the +Club we are going to give Nickols when he comes down the first of May."</p> + +<p>"That's just what I mean. I knew you'd understand and I am so relieved +that you are not angry about the chapel and things. We can leave it all +to you and we'll have the times of our lives. Billy Harvey says his +ankles are getting stiff, it's been so long since he has fox-trotted. Do +call Mammy or Sallie and let's look at your clothes." With which Letitia +descended from her spiritual heights into the realm of the material and +plunged with both Mammy and Sallie into a riot of clothes.</p> + +<p>For an hour or two I lay back in my pillows and watched the two black +women and the white one indulge in primitive decorative orgies, and from +their delight my eyes would glance out and fix themselves wistfully on +the dim line of Paradise Ridge which was cut by the square steeple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> of +weathered stone just where Old Harpeth humps itself up above the rest of +the Ridge; and something sore and angry and trapped hurt under my +breast.</p> + +<p>"The earth is the Lord's—" chanted itself in my mind to the tune of +"Drink to me only," and my hand curled around the letter under my pillow +as if for comfort and—defense.</p> + +<p>"It is just as you told me that night at the piano, Nickols dear: +'Religion is the most potent form of intoxication known to the human +race,' and apparently all my friends have been getting the drink habit +badly. I'll rescue the poor dears and have an interesting time doing +it," I said to myself after Letitia had departed with my most choice +millinery creation fastened down upon her sleek braids because she found +she could not live without it.</p> + +<p>And then a strange thing happened, as I lay prone between the +lavender-scented sheets spread on the four-poster bed of my foremothers, +ready to drift off into another "bone resting" nap. The flood of tears +that had risen from my heart when I had sat that night a week ago and +listened to that remarkable little baseball evangelist, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> tide of +which had been rolled back when Nickols had bent his beautiful dark head +against mine in Aunt Clara's music room and whispered above the roar of +New York, "religion is the most potent form of intoxication" to me, +again welled from my heart and this time flooded my lashes and my cheek +and my pillow. What was strangest of all, they seemed to wash away all +the tears of anger and fear that I had been pressing back into my depths +from breakfast time, and left me weak and again ready for sleep. And +like a comforted little child, I slept.</p> + +<p>It was sunset when I awoke, and I felt as strong as two women and ready +for action, the call for which was upon me by the time Sallie had put me +into her favorite creation, selected from the ones she had hung in +closets and wardrobe.</p> + +<p>"Mister Billy Harvey and Mister Hampton Dibrell is down on the front +porch ready to gallivant you, honey-bunch, and I seen Miss Letitia and +her Mister Cliff Gray coming in one direction and Miss Jessie in +another, so I reckon Sallie had better hurry with that New York twilight +she's fixing on you," Mammy announced as she stood in my doorway and +beamed upon me. "An' I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> expects the parson will be stepping over +likewise fer a few words, seeing you was so sweet and showed sich pretty +manners to him this morning," she added with reverent delight.</p> + +<p>"Sweet? Showed such pretty manners?" I gasped, as Sallie fastened the +last hook and eye and stood beside Mammy to admire me.</p> + +<p>"'Twas no more than you oughter done to the preacher, and I was proud of +my raising of you when you helt on to him and begged him to stay to +dinner. I was sho' disappointed that he had to leave us. I'm a Colored +Methodist, I am, and if I do say it, I knows how to shake a young pullet +in the skillet fer a preacher's taste, black or white. Now go on down +and stop that buzzing fer you on the front porch. Sallie, come and carry +out the tea and cakes to the guests," with which command to both of us +Mammy rolled her two hundred and fifty pounds down the hall with great +majesty, while Sallie meekly followed in her wake.</p> + +<p>"Sweet! Showed such pretty manners!" I quoted to myself as I slowly +descended the steps and went out on the wide porch to find my friends +assembled under the budding rose vine that wreathed the tall white +pillars of the Poplars.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p> + +<p>The parson was not there.</p> + +<p>"Rescued!" exclaimed Billy as he grasped one of my hands and hung on +with a very good imitation of a drowning man seizing a lifeline. They +all laughed and Hampton Dibrell held my other hand as ardently, though +not in quite such light vein. I had to rescue it to accept Clifton +Gray's nosegay of huge violets from his greenhouse, and I embraced +Jessie with the nosegay pressed to her pink cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Charlotte, I could fox-trot with you a week and not hesitate," +exclaimed Billy, still clinging to me.</p> + +<p>"Let's begin to-night," I assented warmly. Billy is contagious and to +dance with him is a high art.</p> + +<p>"Let's motor out to the Club in Hamp's car and mine, have a chicken +supper and dance until sun-up," suggested Billy.</p> + +<p>"We can stop by and get Mark Morgan and Nell, and I believe Harriet +Henderson will come along, if everybody asks her—all the men, I mean," +Letitia added with enthusiasm to match Billy's. Harriet Henderson is the +latest emerged widow in Goodloets and consequently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> is most interesting +to the masculine world at present.</p> + +<p>"Let's start now, so as to give the chicken plenty of time to get into +the frying pan and over the fire," said Hampton, who is always the +practical member to bring up the details of any situation.</p> + +<p>"I'm just from the tennis courts and I'll have to stop to dress, I'm +afraid," said Letitia meekly, as if she felt sure of a storm of +remonstrance.</p> + +<p>"People don't dress to dance these days, Letitia," said Billy, with the +greatest innocence of mien and expression, a manner he always uses in +speaking to Letitia's rather literal directness and in which he delights +greatly. "They undress. You are unclothed enough as to ankles and if you +roll the sleeves of your tennis shirt to your shoulders, take off your +collar and tuck in the flaps, it will be enough to satisfy our cravings +for fashionable and suitable attire. We really want fried chicken rather +than chicken—"</p> + +<p>"That will do, Billy," Letitia answered him with gentle firmness.</p> + +<p>"That was just what I remarked, Letitia dear. That will do, for we want +chicken dressed with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> cream gravy and don't care about any swathed in +chiffon. And furthermore—"</p> + +<p>"Do hush, Billy; look who's coming," Jessie interrupted him, and there +before my eyes I saw my entire group of friends begin to preen +themselves into new beings. Letitia smoothed down her skirts a fraction +of an inch, rolled down her sleeves another fraction and pushed back +into her braids a brown lock that was rioting across her brow. Jessie +shook out her muslin ruffles, reefed a fold of net higher across her +neck, and pinned it in place with a jeweled pin, while Hampton's and +Billy's and Cliff's expressions and poses of countenance and bodies +suddenly fell into lines of decorum.</p> + +<p>"Great Smokes! We all forgot it was prayer meeting to-night, and it'll +be no trotting the fox for ours," Billy groaned, while he rose to his +feet with a smile of angelic sweetness. "Hello, Parson! We were just +beginning to think about you," was his greeting to the Sacred Jaguar who +had come through the garden and around the house. I felt sure that he +had heard Billy's plaint of disappointment about the dance, for there +was a quick glint of the amethysts as he halted and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> stood on the walk +below us and smiled up at us.</p> + +<p>"I welcomed Miss Powers for breakfast, and now I find I want to come +over and do it again for tea," he said, and as I was perfectly cool, +sober and in my right mind at the moment he spoke, I had to concede that +his voice was the most wonderful I had ever heard, and something in me +made me resent it as well as the curious veneer that had spread over my +friends at his entry upon the scene. There they stood and sat, six +perfectly rational, fairly moral, representative free and equal +citizens, cowed by the representative of something that they neither +understood nor cared about, and it made me furious. They all wanted to +go to the Club to dance, to do the natural, usual, perfectly harmless +thing, and they were being constrained. If they had wanted to go to the +prayer meeting as they wanted to dance, they would have been natural and +joyful and eager about it.</p> + +<p>"I resent, even <i>I</i> resent people's being bored with the God they think +exists, and I think it is disrespectful to go into His presence like +that," I said to myself, and then I suddenly determined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> to begin my +rescue work for the religiously involved, and now I felt was the +appointed time. Also I felt the excitement that comes from turning and +facing the foe which has pursued.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you came over, Mr. Goodloe," I said with nice, cool +friendliness in my voice. "Billy was just planning a glorious fox-trot +for this evening and then suddenly remembered with dismay that you were +to have your—entertainment at the Club to-night. Couldn't we—we make +some sort of compromise? Or at least couldn't you cut your—prayers +short so he can get in an hour or two of his favorite pleasure +after—after duty well done?" As I spoke I had come to the edge of the +steps and thus stood alone above him, looking down on him with a kind of +cool aloofness as if he belonged to another world, while I heard all of +his recent converts grouped back of me give little gasps of dismay.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>THE GAUNTLET</h3> + + +<p>Was that young Methodist minister crushed by my plainly intended +gauntlet flung down to him? He was not.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad I came over in time to put Billy out of his misery," he +answered, smiling up at me with a quick comprehension that was enraging. +"I'm going to have informal services in the chapel to-night to try out +the acoustics before the contractor turns over the building. I am not +satisfied about the sounding board he has put in, and the only way is to +try it with at least part of the seats occupied. We'll sing a bit and +plan the dedication; not have a formal service. So then, Billy, you can +have your fox-trotting and a good time to all of you, bless you, my +children." As he spoke he smiled at the entire group with the most +delightful interest and pleasure. He was dressed in a straight black +coat with a plain silk<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> vest cut around a white collar that buttoned in +the back, and his dull gold mane was brushed down sleek and close to his +beautiful head. Not a flash of expression in his strong face showed that +he felt any resentment or dismay at thus having some of his most +prominent church members backslide from his prayer meeting into a +fox-trot, and yet I knew—knew that he fully appreciated the situation +and laid the blame of it where the blame was due.</p> + +<p>"Of course we will come to the services first—that is, if you—if you +don't object," Letitia said with her usual directness and lack of any +kind of finesse, thus bringing the situation to a decided head.</p> + +<p>"Why not come over for the songs and then not stay for the conference?" +was the genial answer that positively astonished me, and as he spoke he +came up the steps and stood beside me. "Dabney and I found the first +Star of Bethlehem when we were weeding this afternoon. I brought it to +you carefully, and can I have a cup of that tea he has been trying to +make you serve for the last five minutes?" With these words the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe turned me around and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> sent me to the tea tray that Dabney +and Sallie had put on a table under the rose vine; but not before he had +taken up my hand, put the star flower in it and curled my fingers over +it. "I'll pass the muffins, Billy, and you take the cakes for Miss +Powers, and be more careful than you were last Sunday with my collection +plate for the poor." Billy feigned confusion, accepted the plate and was +just about to begin a defense, when a diversion occurred to stop him.</p> + +<p>"There comes Mark and Mrs. Mark," he exclaimed, "but they have got an +offspring apiece in their embrace and several trailers. Somebody ought +to remonstrate with Nell Morgan or have the firmness to apply the +superfluous blind kitten treatment every spring. Three children are +patriotic, but five are populistic and ought to be frowned upon," and +Billy grumbled all the while the Morgans were flocking up the front +walk. When they came to the steps the Jaguar descended and held out his +clerically befrocked arms so that the gurgler from Mark's shoulder and +the giggler from Nell's arms both fell into his embrace at one time. +"You young marplots, you!" he said as the gurgler printed a wet kiss on +his left ear and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> regarded him with rapture while the small cooer, +proclaimed as feminine by neck and sleeve ribbons, cuddled against his +shoulder with soft confidence. "They're going to take you both down to +the river and drown you," he confided with a soft note in his voice that +was an answer to the coo.</p> + +<p>"I wish you would," said Mark, as, with a laugh, he shook my hand +extended from the group around me, composed of Nell and the other three +kiddies, all crowded together in one passionate greeting. "Nurse and +Julia and the house and garden man have all gone to a wedding, so we +have fed 'em and are now starting out for a razoo, and we don't care +whether it lasts until midnight or not. Young Charlotte, you hug one +side of your Aunt Charlotte and let Jimmy get his innings on the other +side. Here, break away, all of you!" and while everybody laughed, Mark +disentangled the greetings, and seated the separated juvenile members in +a row on the steps beside the parson and the two babes. Nell he left in +the hollow of my arm.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is so good to have you at home, Charlotte," she said, with +another hug. "We miss you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> terribly. We depend on you for everything. +Things don't go right without you. I had a terrible time with—that is, +you haven't seen baby yet. Give her to me, Mr. Goodloe," and as she +spoke Nell leaned over to get the cooer out of the Jaguar's arms for my +inspection.</p> + +<p>"You'll get neither Babe nor Suckling," was his answer as he cuddled the +two closer and hunched his shoulders in Nell's direction. "Don't you +know enough to let well enough alone? If they have got to go out to the +Club and fox-trot until midnight they ought to have repose now."</p> + +<p>"We promised to be good at church, but we didn't promise anything about +the Country Club, and if we go there we are going to be as bad as +anybody out there is," announced small Charlotte with determined +composure. "Dabney says that fox-trotting is a devil's dance and we want +to see you all do it with him."</p> + +<p>"Help!" exclaimed Billy, while Mr. Goodloe put his arm around Charlotte +and drew her to him with a kind of fierce tenderness.</p> + +<p>"Isn't she awful?" exclaimed Nell. "We meant to ask you if we could take +them with us out to the Club to prayer meeting. Some of the Settlement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +women bring their babies and I know mine will be as good. Charlotte and +Sue and Jimmy promised, and the sound of your voice bewitches the babies +as it does all of us."</p> + +<p>As Nell finished speaking and bent to pat the head of the Suckling on +his shoulder, the Reverend Mr. Goodloe looked straight into my eyes and +laughed, perfect comprehension of me and my revolt in his direct +amethyst glances which shot into my depths.</p> + +<p>"They are all going over to listen to Mr. Goodloe sing hymns at his +chapel, Nell, and then all of you are coming by here for me to go out to +the Club to dance a few hours," was my answer to the shot as I calmly +refused the invitation into the fold that had been given me with the +rest of the backsliding flock.</p> + +<p>"We can't go—the babies would never in the world—" Nell was beginning +to exclaim.</p> + +<p>"Drat 'em!" exclaimed Billy, looking down aggrievedly at the small crew +of marplots. "A pair of perfectly good chaperons are hard to get, and to +think of that bunch of little miseries getting in the way of a good old +fox—"</p> + +<p>"They'll all go to sleep during the services<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> and I'll keep them on my +bed in the parsonage until the fun is over, and agree to deliver them on +claim," Mr. Goodloe interrupted Billy to say with quiet decision.</p> + +<p>"Now that is what I call some church relation, nursery and parsonage +combined," said Billy with the deepest gratitude. "The rest of you hurry +over those muffins, even if you haven't had any of Mammy's for six +months, and, since the chicken fry is off, go home to get suppers and +ready for psalm-singing and foxing. Parson, you are some sport, and I'll +hold both of those puppies while you drink your tea from the hands of +fair Charlotte."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, I don't believe I want any tea after all, and I think I'll +take these 'puppies' on home with me through the garden, for they are +both dying to the world." As he spoke the parson rose to his feet and +stood with the two drowsing babies in his arms, looking down at me as I +stood with his cup of tea in my hand. And as he looked I felt my whole +rebellious heart and mind laid bare and I knew that he knew that I was +ready to fight him to the last ditch in the battle for possession of the +souls of my friends. I would fight for their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> independence of thought +and sincerity of life, and he would fight to lead them off into a far +country in quest of what I considered a tradition, a shibboleth, "a +potent agent for intoxication" of the reason by which man must progress. +I also knew that I faced a foe versed in the warfare between religion +and modern scientific decisions about it and that he would be one worthy +of my metal. His refusal of my cup of tea, for which he had announced +that he came, was his gauntlet and I accepted it as I turned with the +queer sugared rage in my heart and set the cup on the table.</p> + +<p>And as I had planned, and the Jaguar directed, the evening came to pass. +While I slipped into some dancing fluff, the strains of the most +wonderful hymn that the Christian religion possesses floated across my +garden and into my window and again beat against my heart. The parson +was singing with the rest of them, but his voice seemed to lift theirs +and bear them aloft on the strong, wide wings that went soaring away +into the night, even up to the bright stars that gleamed beyond the tips +of the old graybeard poplars. A queer tight breath gripped my heart for +a second as his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> plea, "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide," beat +against it, then I laughed it away.</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i> 'a potent agent for intoxication' when brewed by the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe, and here's where I run, both physically and mentally," I +said to myself as I ran down the steps and out to the two cars that +stood honking impatiently by the gate.</p> + +<p>I don't think I ever enjoyed a dance more, and I am sure that my +pleasure was partly due to the wild spirits of the religiously released +who were having the first joy fling for six months.</p> + +<p>"I'll not get enough until I wilt upon the floor and have to be carried +out," said Billy, as he held me closer and slid two steps to the right +and then back to get me out of the way of Hampton and Harriet Henderson, +who were dancing with regardless joy.</p> + +<p>"Will you feel that way about church next Sunday?" I asked him, but my +demand made no apparent dent, for he danced on without answering.</p> + +<p>At an hour after that of midnight the revelers came home and left me at +my gate, by request, to walk alone in the brilliant spring moonlight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> +through my garden to the wide door back of the white pillars. After they +had seen me safely started, they glided away and I stood on the steps +and watched Nell and Mark reclaim their family from a tall dark figure +that carried out two loads to the parental arms. Then the hush that +comes upon the world in the midnight hours fell over the Poplars and I +stood leaning against one of the tall pillars and reveled in it.</p> + +<p>Goodloets is one of the tradition-grayed old towns that are rooted deep +in the Harpeth Valley since the days of the Colonies, and in it can be +found perhaps the purest Americanism on the American continent. The +Poplars, under whose broad roof I made the seventh generation nested and +fledged, spreads out its wings and gables upon a low hill which is the +first swell of the Harpeth hills, and the rest of the old town stretches +out on the hillside before it down to the valley, in which runs the +Harpeth River, curving around the town and flowing out of the valley to +the Mississippi. Behind the Poplars roll the fields and meadows of the +Home Farm, which has given food and sustenance to the Poplars' brood +since the days of the redskins, when it was cleared by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> the first Powers +and his servants, with muskets ready to fire into the surrounding +forests. To the left of the Poplars and beyond the chapel lies the +Settlement, in which those lacking in worldly goods have lived for +generations in a kind of semi-poverty, which is about the only poverty +known in the Harpeth Valley. Lately, the Settlement has taken unto +itself a measure of prosperity, because of the great tannery and harness +works in its midst on the banks of the river, which is bringing in gold +from Russia and France. Everybody has made money in the last few years, +and the fashionable wing of Goodloets to the left of the Poplars shows +improvements and restorations that are both costly and sometimes +amazing. However, fortunately the inhabitants of the old village are +conservative, and very little of the delicious moss of tradition has +been scratched off; it has only been clipped into prosperous decorum, +and antiquity still flings its glamour over the town.</p> + +<p>"I feel as much rooted as one of the old poplars," I said to myself as +some whim made me go down the steps and out into the garden, along the +walks with their budding borders of narcissus<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> and peonies, down through +Nickols' sunken garden to the two oldest of all the poplars that now +seemed to be standing sentinel to prevent any raid from me on the little +stone meeting house over the lilac hedge. "You dear old graybeard," I +said to the one on my left, as I looked up and saw a faint feathering of +silver on its branches. And as I spoke I took the old trunk into my +embrace and laid my cheek against the rough bark.</p> + +<p>And then something happened. Afterwards I was glad that I was leaning +against the strength of the old graybeard poplar and hidden behind it.</p> + +<p>Suddenly from out the shadows beyond the lilac hedge, through whose bare +branches any movement in the yard of the chapel showed plainly, a woman +came stumbling along towards the gate and beside her walked the parson +with his arm supporting hers. She was sobbing the hard, dry sobs that +any woman knows are those of despair, and which call any other woman who +hears them. My first impulse was to run to the hedge and speak to her; +then I stopped, for I was arrested by what the parson was saying to her.</p> + +<p>"What does it matter, Martha? You have your Master's forgiveness and His +permission to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> go and sin no more, even though those sins be as +scarlet." And as he spoke his voice was that of quiet authority as if he +felt fully his apostolic right to unloose sins upon this earth.</p> + +<p>"He'll come back now that <i>she</i> has, and he'll come to me again. I can't +fight him. I'll slip back into hell. Just give me the money to go out +into the city and I'll not bother anybody any more. I'll take the child +and I'll die for all anybody in Goodloets ever knows. Lend me the money; +I'll send it back!" The girl's voice was hard and defiant and she turned +and faced the minister as if at bay. "Give me that money, if all that +praying and singing and preaching that you've done is true. I want to go +in the morning before he follows her here and puts me in hell again. God +won't clean me twice."</p> + +<p>"You shall go," came the calm answer in the apostle's beautiful voice, +"but I will have to have a few days to provide a place of safety for you +in the city, where the child can be cared for while you get suitable +work."</p> + +<p>"I won't wait. He'll follow her and he'll look down on me and the child +and damn me again. I won't wait. I'm weak and I dasn't. Give me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> that +money to-night!" And the demand was passionate and savage.</p> + +<p>"Then I'll meet you at the morning train with it and rush you to a place +of safety if there is no other way. You must go back home now, and it +will be best not to tell anyone where you are going until you no longer +fear your weakness, for they might betray your hiding place. Strength +will be given you, Martha, if you only ask."</p> + +<p>"I'll pray, Parson, I'll pray, now that you are going to give me my +chance to get strong enough to be good. I'll work and I'll pray, but +hide me until I do get strong." And the hard, dry sobs melted as the +girl put her head down upon the gate a moment and then went out through +it.</p> + +<p>"God bless you, child, and keep you ever in thought of Him," were the +words that she carried away with her as she hurried down the street +toward the Settlement.</p> + +<p>Then for a second some awful fear came across my heart that I did not +understand. I now know that it was a premonition of what was to wring my +own heart and I cowered against the old tree in agony. Gregory Goodloe +was not more than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> six feet away from me on the other side of the +budding, fragrant hedge, and in the moonlight I could see the beautiful +strength of his golden head and strong placid face, on which lines of +pain were drawn, and I had to restrain myself from crying out to him in +my own pain. I wanted to go quickly and cling to his strength. Then I +stopped and listened.</p> + +<p>He had raised his face to the stars and was praying.</p> + +<p>"O Father," he asked, as if speaking to someone with whom he walked in +the cool of the midnight, "help the weak on whom the strong prey."</p> + +<p>Then he went into the dark door of the little chapel and left me out in +the cold midnight alone. The fear was gone, and comforted I went back +through my budding garden and arrived at the front door just as old Mr. +Pate, the telegraph operator at the little station down the street, +turned in at the gate.</p> + +<p>"Miss Charlotte," he puffed, as he fairly flung the telegram at me, +"this come fer you at ten o'clock and I risked it and run up here with +it after I heard them ottermobiles go by. I'm courting Mrs. Jennie Hicks +myself and I understands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> about courtings." And before I could speak he +had run on back down the street.</p> + +<p>As I stood and looked at the yellow envelope fear again gripped my +heart, and without opening it I walked into the house, locking the great +door behind me with trembling fingers, and went toward a light I saw +shining from the trellised back porch and which I did not understand. I +have never in my life been the least bit afraid of anything, except +something within my own body, from the hideous pain of my green-apple +days to the pain I had felt as I talked beside the piano with Nickols in +New York, a thousand miles away; but something made me pause just for a +second in the pantry doorway before I stepped into the light upon the +porch. I shall never forget the scene that was enacted before my +wondering eyes in the dim light of a candle burning upon a table near +the refrigerator.</p> + +<p>Father stood with a bowl of ice in his hand and his fingers were just +closing around a squat, black bottle that I knew contained the rarest +and choicest whiskey ever run from a distillery. His iron-gray hair was +rampant, his dressing gown fell away from his throat and showed the +knotting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> of the great cords that ran down into his shoulders, and his +dark eyes glittered under their heavy, black brows, while his mouth was +twisted and white. Then, as I looked, something happened. A stealthy +padding of feet came around the house from the garden and up the back +steps, under the budding rose vine that was climbing through the trellis +as if to clutch at the light, and a huge figure loomed up from out the +shadow.</p> + +<p>It was the powerful Harpeth Jaguar out hunting, and his weapon was a +hoe, while under his arm he carried a roll that looked like a +contribution to a rag man of bedding and old clothes.</p> + +<p>"I tell you, Mr. Powers, there is frost in the air and I have collected +everything in the parsonage that would cover those late anemones. I saw +your light and I thought you might add to the collection. Now what would +we do if they should be wilted by the frost just as they are ready to +burst bud? Our honor is involved with Graveson, who brought the seeds +all the way from Guernsey through the trenches of France and trusted +them to me for propagation. Why, they represent a man's life work, and +that life may be put out by a bullet any moment! We'll have to rescue +them."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> As he spoke, the great jeweled eyes shone with excitement under +the dull gold brows and he seemed not to see at all the incriminating +ice and bottle.</p> + +<p>"Could you get into Mrs. Dabney's linen closet? We've got to have +something." He shivered in a little wind that blew under the rose vine +with a frosty gust. I was just observing that he was attired in his +pajama jacket and gray flannel trousers, and that his bare heels and +ankles declared themselves above and at the back of his slippers, when +my eyes were drawn to my father's face and rested there. My heart stood +still while I watched it change. All the pain and appetite, straining as +a beast strains at a leash, faded from his face. The deathly pallor +vanished and the color of human blood returned. The glitter in his deep +old eyes changed in a second from that of ferocity to that of anxious +excitement.</p> + +<p>"I do not know where the household linen is kept and I hesitate to +disturb Dabney, as he retired with an aching tooth; but I observed a box +of my daughter's apparel beside a trunk in the back hall which Dabney +had not carried up on account of its weight and which he was requiring +his wife<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> to unpack piece by piece. I'll raid it for enough to save our +treasures and accept whatever is my just chastisement in the morning," +he said in a voice of guilty stealth.</p> + +<p>And there I stood in the shadow of the pantry and saw my father take two +armfuls of my costly linen and lace out into the garden. Nothing was +spared me, for from the window I could see him and the marauding Jaguar +weight their perfumed whiteness down with sticks and stones and clods of +earth. I suffered, but silently.</p> + +<p>"Good night, sir. God's blessing," I heard the rich voice calling as the +half-bare feet padded away as swiftly as they had come through the +garden, leaving father standing under the rose vine watching him go. And +I watched father—and for some reason my breath seemed suspended in my +lungs.</p> + +<p>For a very long minute he stood looking at the ice bowl and the bottle; +then with a queer wry smile he walked over and put them both in the +refrigerator, though the bottle's place was in the sideboard, and closed +the door carefully. Then he paused again and said under his breath, +"<i>You</i>, Judge Nickols Morris Powers!" He smiled at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> himself with +humorous pity and tiptoed past me into the front hall and up the +stairway to his rooms above.</p> + +<p>I seemed to feel strange padding footsteps down in my depths and I also +tiptoed up to my room after I had heard his door shut.</p> + +<p>After I had switched on my light (for under the roof of the Poplars +electricity had come to aid the candles of hallowed tradition, and was +called by Mammy, in deep suspicion, "ha'nt light") I discovered clutched +in my cold fingers the yellow envelope the romantic Mr. Pate had brought +to me in the midnight. It read:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Am coming down on Friday. Am afraid to trust the world and the +flesh and think the third member of the carnal firm ought to be +on the job. N."</p></div> + +<p>"Now I am frightened really," I confided to myself as I slipped between +the scented sheets and drew a corner of the rose-colored blanket over my +head. "I don't know what to do."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>TO TURKEY GULCH</h3> + + +<p>The next morning I was very late in descending to my breakfast, but +arrived in time to witness Mammy's arraignment of my father, which was +conducted in perfect respect, but with great severity.</p> + +<p>"I know, Jedge, that menfolks don't know lace that costs a million +dollars a yard from a blind woman's tatting, and that's what makes me +say what I does, that it sure am dangersome fer 'em to go on a rampage +in womenfolks' trunks. I ain't never goin' to git the stains from them +clods of earth outen my lambs' clothes, even if the minister did help +you put 'em on 'em."</p> + +<p>"But, Melissa, those anemones were more valuable than any lace ever +manufactured, and I am sure that Charlotte will absolve me when she +hears of the exigencies of the case," father pleaded over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> the top of +his morning paper. Mammy was pretending to dust his study, as a blind to +the lecture she was administering.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, I knows all that; but that lace was a heap more valuable than +that toothache in that wuthless Dabney's jaw, which he could er wropped +up, and hunted out all the old sheets for you instid of that petticoat +with them real lace ruffles," was Mammy's firm rejoinder, while she +passed a feather duster over the table and rolled her eyes at Dabney.</p> + +<p>"Let's let them both off this time, Mammy. Dabney can take the trunks +where they belong and lock them up," I said, as I went toward the dining +room, while she followed to minister upon my tardiness.</p> + +<p>"Them was all your finest lingerings," she said as she plied me with +breakfast. "And they was all lost on menfolks. They hasn't even one lady +rode by while I had 'em on the line in the sunshine," she grumbled as +she finally retired to the kitchen.</p> + +<p>After finishing my coffee I sauntered to the front of the house, led by +a chorus of hearty laughter in a fluty tenor voice, accompanied by a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> +bass growl, in which I was sure that father was recounting the scrape in +which his and the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's anemone adventure had got them. +I assured myself that I was annoyed by this repeated early morning +invasion of ministerial calls and intended to retire to my room until it +was over, but without knowing why, I found myself in the library and +greeting the enemy.</p> + +<p>"Please forgive us. The case was one of dire necessity," the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe pleaded, as he rose and took my hand in his, and held it in +such a way that I was forced to look in his face and smile, whether I +wished it or not.</p> + +<p>"From ambush I saw you take them, and I was powerless to prevent," I +answered with a smile at father.</p> + +<p>"I came over to ask you if you wouldn't like to go away out into the +Harpeth Hills on a mission with me this wonderful morning. I don't know +exactly whether I am called to officiate at a birth or a death or that +intermediate festivity, a wedding. This is the summons from an old +friend of mine:" As he spoke he held out to me a greasy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> paper on which +were a few words scrawled with a pencil.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Parson we need you in the morning bad. Please come with Bill +as brings this. Bring a bible and liniment and oblige your true +friend Jed Bangs and wife."</p></div> + +<p>"Isn't your friend Bill able to elucidate?" I asked, as I passed the +paper on to father.</p> + +<p>"Bill seems to be dumb without being deaf and has no histrionic talent +to act out the necessity, so I'm going with him. The Bangs family live +up on old Harpeth at Turkey Gulch, and Jed has shot partridges with me +all winter. Please, you and the Judge, come with me. I can get the car +over Paradise Ridge if I turn it into a wildcat. The morning is +delicious, and I feel that I'll need you both." Never in the world have +I heard a man's voice with such compelling notes in it that range from a +soft coax to a quiet command.</p> + +<p>I had not the slightest idea of going with him and I was about to refuse +with as much sugary hauteur as I dared use to him, when I looked into +father's face and accepted. I had never been on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> a picnic with my father +in my life and I could not understand the pleading in his eyes for my +acceptance of this invitation to an adventure in his company, but then, +several times since I had come home, I had seen a father I had never +known before, and he fascinated me.</p> + +<p>"The mountain laurel is in bloom and the rhododendron, and you are a +very gracious lady," the Reverend Mr. Goodloe assured me with a deep bow +over my hand, which he kissed in a very delightful foreign fashion which +made Mammy, who had come to the door to hear my decision, roll her eyes +in astonishment which, however, held no hint of criticism, for with her +the spiritual king could do no wrong.</p> + +<p>"I got a snack fixed up jest's soon as that Dabney tol' me about the +junket," she announced. "And I'll put a little wine jelly and flannels +in if it am a baby and a bunch of white jessimings in case it am a +death."</p> + +<p>"Suppose it is a wedding?" I asked her.</p> + +<p>"I don't take no notice of weddings. It was a wedding that got me into +all the trouble of that Dabney and his wuthless son, Jefferson, what +ain't like me in no way." With which fling at Dabney—who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> was hovering +at the door—she rolled herself back to her kitchen.</p> + +<p>"What have you been doing to her now, you rascal?" father demanded of +Dabney, who was handing him his hat and holding out his light overcoat +to put him into it.</p> + +<p>"I jist stepped into the kitchen while her light rolls fer supper was +raisin' and got a ruckus fer it," was his mild answer. Dabney lived his +connubial life mildly in the midst of the storms of his better half.</p> + +<p>"Well, don't do it again. And put that spade in Mr. Goodloe's car, for +I'm going to bring in some honeysuckle roots and a laurel sprout or two +to try out in the garden," father commanded, as I took my coat and hat +from the chair where I had thrown them the afternoon before, and went +out to the very unministerial-looking car which stood before the +parsonage.</p> + +<p>Of course, I had accepted the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's invitation for the +journey out into the hills in order to sit beside this very new kind of +father I was dimly discovering myself to possess, but I do not to this +day know how it happened that I was crushed against the arm steering the +gray<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> racer as we sped through Goodloets toward Old Harpeth, while the +judge sat beaming, though silent, beside the more silent Bill—who did +not beam, but looked out at the road ahead with the shadow in his face +of the fatalism that so many of the mountain folk possess.</p> + +<p>We were just turning out from the edge of the town, past the last house +with its stately white pillars, when a bunch of pink-and-white +precipitated itself directly in front of the car—which made the first +of the wildcat springs that its master had prophesied for it and then +stood with its engine palpitating with what seemed like mechanical fear, +while I buried my head on the strong arm next to me, which I could feel +tremble for an instant as the Reverend Mr. Goodloe breathed a fervent, +"Thank God." Father rose from his seat with a good round oath and silent +Bill snorted like a wild animal.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you stop when you saw me coming?" an imperious young voice +demanded in tones of distinct anger, and Charlotte, my name daughter of +the house of Morgan, calmly climbed up on the running board, over the +door next to father, and settled herself in between him and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> silent +Bill. "Now you can go on," she calmly announced, in a very much +mollified tone of voice as she shook out her ruffles into a less +compressed state and wiped her face with her dirty hand, much to the +detriment of the roses in her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going, Charlotte, may I inquire?" asked the Reverend Mr. +Goodloe in a cheerful and calm voice, though I saw that his fingers +still trembled on the steering wheel as he held back the enraged gray +engine. I was still speechless and I saw that father was in the same +condition.</p> + +<p>"You said I might go 'next time' when my Auntie Harriet didn't want me +to go with you last Tuesday on account of my stomach from the raw potato +Jimmy dared me to eat. This is that time," she calmly answered, as she +gave an interested look at the silent Bill and again settled the short, +pink skirts.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I did say that," admitted Mr. Goodloe, as he turned in his seat as +far as he could and began to argue the question. "But we shall be gone +almost all day and I am afraid your mother wouldn't want you to be gone +that long."</p> + +<p>"Is it true for you to say that when you know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> that she will be mighty +glad for you to keep me safe with you all day?" Charlotte demanded of +him, looking directly into his smiling, friendly face.</p> + +<p>"No, that wasn't quite honest, I'll admit," he answered her gravely with +the guilt of conviction showing in his face just as plainly as it would +have shown if one of his deacons had caught him evading a question of +grave moment. "And as it is the fulfillment of a promise which you +claim, I am going to ask Miss Powers and the judge if they will permit +me to add you to the party, and then go and get permission from your +mother to take you with us."</p> + +<p>"My mother told me to go and bother Auntie Charlotte an hour or two and +that was when I met you. I ran into the car just minding my mother," +Charlotte answered him with calm pride at her near achievement of death +through literal obedience.</p> + +<p>"Just drive by and we'll call to Nell. I am afraid the case must have +been desperate, for I am seldom the victim," I said in an undertone to +our host, who acquiesced with a laugh. "Harriet Henderson must be dead, +for Nell usually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> sends the worse one to her," I added under my breath.</p> + +<p>"My Auntie Harriet is having a man cut the ache out of one of her +teeth," Charlotte remarked, apropos of nothing, as the huge car swung +around into the street in which the Morgans reside. "And, besides, I +don't like her any more, because, when she said Sue had to have part of +the doll house she bought for us to play in down at her home, and I said +then Sue would have to take the outside because I wanted the inside, she +locked it up for all this week."</p> + +<p>"The modern business acumen of the feministic persuasion," father +remarked, as we all laughed at this candid revelation of an egocentric +attitude of mind in small Charlotte.</p> + +<p>After a few whirls of the gray wheels we paused a moment at the Morgan +gate.</p> + +<p>"Heavens, yes, and thank you," called Nell in response to our demand for +her small daughter's company. "If I had another one clean, I'd give it +to you."</p> + +<p>"Better go on quick, for Jimmy can wash in a piece of a minute if he +wants to," warned Charlotte, and in a second the parson had sent the +gray<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> car flying out toward Old Harpeth, though I saw him glance back +with a trace of distress in his eyes at the fading vision of a small boy +running, howling, to the front gate of the Morgan residence.</p> + +<p>"Now mother'll whip him for crying if she does as she says she would, +but she won't," observed the tender big sister, as she rose to her feet +and waved a maddening farewell to the distressed urchin being left +behind.</p> + +<p>"Is she totally depraved?" I asked of the young Charlotte's spiritual +adviser at my side.</p> + +<p>"No; perfectly honest," he answered me with a glint in his eyes that was +a laughing challenge.</p> + +<p>"There is something awful about honesty," I answered, without appearing +to notice the glint.</p> + +<p>"There wouldn't be if it were a universal custom," was the answer I got +as we whirled by a farmer's wood lot and began to climb the first +foothill of Old Harpeth.</p> + +<p>All my life I have been going out to Old Harpeth on excursions, but +never had I spent a day like the one I had begun with the Jaguar in his +native fastnesses. The whole old mountain was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> beginning to bud and I +could almost see it draping on a regal Persian garment of rose and green +threaded with purple and blue woven against the old brown and gray of +the earth color. The wine-colored trillium with its huge spotted leaves, +the slender white dog-tooth violets, the rose-pink arbutus, the blue +star myrtle and the crimson oak buds, were matted into a vast robe that +was gorgeously oriental, while a perfume that was surely more delicious +than any ever wafted from the gardens of Arabia floated past us in gusts +through which the gray car sped without the slightest shortness of +breath. I seemed a million miles away from the great fetid city in which +I had been living—and fast going farther. As we wound up and up into +the great forest which is the crown of Old Harpeth, we could look down +through occasional vistas and see the Harpeth River curling and bending +through pastures in which the chocolate plowed fields were laid off in +huge checks with the green meadows, while the farmhouses and barns +dotted the valley like the crude figures on a hand-woven chintz.</p> + +<p>There are very few men who know enough not to talk to a woman when she +has no desire for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> their conversation, but the Reverend Jaguar seemed to +be one of the variety who comprehend the value of silences, and neither +of us spoke for at least ten miles, though, of course, it was his duty +to make hay while the sun of my nature shone upon him and delicately to +inquire into my spiritual condition. He didn't. He just let the wind +blow into my empty spaces and kept his eyes and thoughts on the road +ahead of him. Charlotte's chatter with father was blown back from me and +I was happy in a kind of aloneness I had never felt before.</p> + +<p>"We are in Hastings County now and in a few minutes we shall be in Hicks +Center, the county seat," were the first words that broke in on my +self-communion as we began to speed past rough board and log cabins, +each surrounded by a picket fence which in no way seemed to fend the +doorsteps from razor-back pigs, chickens and a few young mules and +calves. "It must be court day, for I don't see a single inhabitant +sitting chewing under his own vine and fig tree."</p> + +<p>"Yes; it's the first Monday," answered father, as the gray machine +pulled gallantly through a few hundred feet of thick, black mud and +turned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> from the wilderness into the public square of the metropolis of +Hicks Center.</p> + +<p>"Yes, court is in session and there the whole population is in the +courthouse," said father, as we glided slowly down the village street. +"They must be trying a murder or a horse-stealing case," and I saw his +eyes gleam for a second under their heavy brows as the eyes of an old +war horse must gleam when he scents powder.</p> + +<p>"Ugh," assented silent Bill, making the first remark of the journey, and +as he spoke the syllable he rose and pointed to the courthouse, which +stood in the midst of a mud-covered public square, completely surrounded +by hitching-posts to which were hitched all the vehicles of locomotion +of the last century down to the present in Hicks Center—which had not +as yet arrived as far as the day of the motor car.</p> + +<p>"Is Jed in there, Bill?" demanded the Reverend Mr. Goodloe; and as Bill +assented with muscular vigor, if not vocal, he drew the gray car up +beside, an old-fashioned carryall, whose wheels were at least five feet +high and which had hitched to its pole an old horse and a young mule.</p> + +<p>"That team makes a nice balance of—temperament,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> Mr. Goodloe remarked, +as he lifted out Charlotte and then turned to swing me, in his strong +arms, free of a mud puddle and onto the old brick pavement which was +green with the moss of generations.</p> + +<p>Then, piloted by the silent Bill, we made our way through a quiet throng +of men and women and children, from the awkward age of shoe-top trousers +and skirts to that which, in many cases, was partaking from the maternal +fount, as the women stood in groups and whispered as they looked at us +shyly. Somehow their decorous calico skirts, which just cleared the +ground, made me feel naked in my own of white corduroy, which was all of +eight inches from the mud in which theirs had draggled.</p> + +<p>And as silent as they, even Charlotte's chatter subdued, we entered the +court room and were led through a crowd up to the front seat. At least +the rest of us were seated, but the judge, jury and prisoner and +prosecuting attorney rose in a body and shook hands with the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe as if he were their common and best beloved son.</p> + +<p>"He's been in the Harpeth Valley less than a year, and look at that. +We've been here all our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> lives and they don't know who we are," +whispered father, with the same pride shining in his eyes that shone +upon the parson from the eyes of the gaunt prisoner, who rose and shook +hands with Mr. Goodloe with the sheriff beside him, while the rough old +judge from the bench waited his turn.</p> + +<p>"We accommodated Jed by waiting until you come before we begun his +trial, Parson," the judge said, as he turned back to his bench, which +was a splint-bottom chair behind a rude table, dignity being lent to the +chair by its being the only one in the room. The rest of the population +of the court room of Hicks Center were seated upon benches made of split +and hewn logs.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Mr. Hilldrop," said the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, as he sat down +beside the prisoner and began a whispered conversation with him.</p> + +<p>"The court have come to order. Shoot ahead, Jim, and tell us what Jed +have done and how he done it," commanded the judge, as he tilted back +his chair, took out his knife and began to whittle a stick of bright red +cedar. Twelve good men and true, attired in butternut trousers stuffed +into muddy boots, settled themselves in the jury box,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> which was a log +bench set at right angles to the other benches, a little apart from the +table and chair of the judge, and nine of them took out their knives and +bits of cedar and began to follow the lead of the judge in making fine +pink curls fall upon the floor.</p> + +<p>"May it please your honor, the prisoner is charged with the stealing of +a young mule," said a lanky young mountain lawyer, who had put on a coat +over his flannel shirt and brushed a little patch of tow hair just above +his brows in deference to his position of prosecuting attorney.</p> + +<p>"State yo' case," commanded the judge, as he tried the point of his +splinter against his thumb to test its whittled sharpness.</p> + +<p>"Hiram Turner, over at Sycamore, lent Jed a team of mules to haul his +daughter, who married Jed, home in a wagon with her beds and truck, and +when he come down Paradise Ridge to git the team, Jed claimed one had +got away from him and run off in the big woods. They was a horse and +mule trader come along the same day Jed lost the mule and when Hi and +his boy, Bud, knocked Jed down in a fight they found fifty dollars on +him in a wad what he won't say where he got it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<p>With which concise statement the prosecuting attorney sat down and +fanned his perspiring brow with his ragged felt hat.</p> + +<p>"Got anything to say, Jed?" inquired the judge in a friendly and +leisurely fashion, after the accused had been duly sworn in by the +sheriff. "How come a man like you to let a mule git away from him?"</p> + +<p>With the judge's friendly question there entered another actor on the +scene, in the person of a mountain girl who had been cowering on a bench +just behind Jed, her face hidden by a black calico split bonnet.</p> + +<p>"Please lemme tell, Jed," she pleaded in a soft whisper that only father +and I heard, as we sat just behind her.</p> + +<p>"Naw," was the one word he gave her, but it was spoken with a soft +little purr in his husky voice. Then he answered the judge with a kind +of quiet dignity, which I saw that the twelve booted jurymen listened to +with respect.</p> + +<p>"Jedge," he said, with a stern look into the judge's face, "I reckon +you'll have to send me down to the pen. I let that mule git away from me +and I didn't steal or sell him; that is all I got<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> to say." And he sat +down. I felt father start at my side and then sink back onto his bench.</p> + +<p>"Where did you git the money, Jed?" the judge demanded.</p> + +<p>"That I ain't a-telling," answered Jed determinedly. "Jest send me down +to the pen, fer you-all know all you'll ever know."</p> + +<p>"Well, Jed," the judge was beginning to say in an argumentative tone of +voice, when father arose and stepped in front of the bench.</p> + +<p>"May it please your honor to appoint a counsel for the defense?" he +asked in a ringing voice that brought all the outsiders crowding into +the door. I had never heard or seen my father in a court room and I had +never suspected him of the resonant silver voice with which he made his +demand.</p> + +<p>"We ain't got a lawyer in Hicks Center but Jim Handy here, and he can't +prosecute and defend too. I always kinder looks out fer the prisoners +myself," answered the judge.</p> + +<p>"Then may I offer myself to the prisoner to conduct his defense?" father +demanded, and he looked over at Jed, who in turn looked at Mr. Goodloe +before he nodded.</p> + +<p>"Then shoot ahead, stranger. Jim have told all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> they is about it, but +you can have Hi and Bud Turner sworn in and git any more they have got +to say. Them men speaks truth when they speaks." At which statement +every good man and true nodded his head with firm conviction. A gaunt +old mountaineer who sat over by the window cleared his throat in an +embarrassment that marked him as the Hiram Turner alluded to.</p> + +<p>"I don't think I shall need the testimony of Mr. Turner or his son," +father answered quietly, as he stood tall and straight before the jury. +"I want to put Mr. Bangs' wife on the witness stand and question her +before the jury. Sheriff, call Mrs. Bangs."</p> + +<p>"Naw, stranger, naw," said Jed, and he rose as if to combat, but Mr. +Goodloe laid a restraining hand on his arm, and trembling, he took his +seat.</p> + +<p>"Don't tell nothing, honey," he whispered, as the girl rose from her +bench, laid aside her cavernous black bonnet and advanced, took the oath +administered by the sheriff and stood facing father.</p> + +<p>"Now, Mrs. Bangs," said father, with silvery tenderness in his voice +which I felt sure had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> gained him the reputation of never having lost a +case in which a woman was involved, "I want you to tell us all that +happened on the day that Jed let the mule escape him. Look at me and +tell me all about it."</p> + +<p>"Well, stranger," began the mountain girl, with a look of confidence +coming into her face that was like a little pink wide-open arbutus, "I +reckon you won't believe me—like Jed didn't at first, though he do +now."</p> + +<p>"Don't tell, honey," the prisoner commanded and implored in the one +plea. "I'd rather take the pen. They won't believe you."</p> + +<p>"It war this way," she continued, without seeming to hear the command of +her young husband, upon whose arm the parson again laid a restraining +hand. "Jed he had unhitched the team and tied them with their rope +halters to the fence 'fore our cabin, when it was almost dark 'fore we +got thar. Then while I was unpacking the wagon he got on one horse and +rid down the side of the gulch to see whar water was at. I was jest +takin' the things in when a man come along leading five mules and riding +on one. He was a city stranger in fine clothes and he asked me fer a +meal because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> he had lost his way from a man who had a tent and grub. My +mammy allus cooked fer strangers, so—"</p> + +<p>"She shore do that," ejaculated Mr. Turner, proud of his noted +hospitality.</p> + +<p>"So I made up a fire hasty in the yard and put on a coffee pot," the +girl continued. "I had some corn pone and bacon my mammy had give me fer +a snack and I het that up. Whilst I got the meal the stranger he went on +unloading our wagon and then he come to a bundle of bed quilts what my +mammy have been saving fer me from her mammy and her grandmammy. He took +a notion to them and ast me how old they was and I told him about as old +as any twenty-inch cedar on Old Harpeth. He asked me to trade 'em, but I +couldn't abear to until he had riz to fifty dollars, what was the price +of a young mule, all on account of his sister wanting quilts like them +up in a big city. I was kinder crying quiet at letting 'em go, but I +thought about what that mule would be to Jed who wuz so good to me, so I +give 'em to him and he tied 'em on his saddle and went away. It war most +a hour when Jed come and when I told him and showed him the money, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> +didn't believe me about them old quilts and he tooken the rope from +around the neck of the mule he'd been riding and—"</p> + +<p>She paused here in her story and put her scarlet flower face in her +hands, while Jed groaned and dropped his own face down upon his arm. The +old judge's face took on a grim sternness, the jury stopped whittling +and the face of every woman in the court room gazed upon the girl with +stern unbelieving accusation.</p> + +<p>"Go on, now, honey, but they won't believe you," commanded Jed with a +sob.</p> + +<p>"Your husband took the rope from around the neck of the mule and left +him untied?" asked father gently.</p> + +<p>"What fer, Melissa?" asked the old judge, without gentleness or any show +of confidence in what the shrinking woman was saying.</p> + +<p>"To beat me with. He war crazed mad and called me a name, but I don't +hold it ag'in him," answered the young wife, with a glance at the +cowering prisoner.</p> + +<p>"He done right," calmly announced one of the twelve good men and true, +in the muddy boots and flannel shirt, and every mountain woman in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> the +court room nodded her head in approval of the pronouncement.</p> + +<p>"Order in the court room. You all shet up and listen," commanded the +judge, as father looked around the room and then at him with a stern +demand for control of the situation.</p> + +<p>"Then what happened, Mrs. Bangs?" father continued to question.</p> + +<p>"I hollered and fought and skeered the mule off into the big woods where +he can't be found to keep my husband out of the pen," she answered with +a sob. "It took me a week to make him believe about them quilts and then +pappy come along and fought him about the mule and found the money, as +he claimed he sold the mule fer what was the quilt money."</p> + +<p>"That will do. Thank you, Mrs. Bangs," said father, with the same +deference and tenderness he had used when he began to question her. +"Does the prosecution wish to question the witness?"</p> + +<p>"They ain't no use of questioning her when she says a man give her fifty +dollars fer five old quilts," was the answer made by the young +prosecuting attorney, who did not rise to his feet to make this remark.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Please ask Mrs. Bangs if the quilts were woven ones of three colors, +and then call me to the stand," I said to father quickly.</p> + +<p>He put the question to the weeping young wife and got an affirmative +answer, after which he dismissed her and had the sheriff swear me in.</p> + +<p>"Can you throw any light upon the matter of the purchase or sale of +these quilts, Miss Powers?" father questioned me formally.</p> + +<p>"If they were old hand-woven, herb-dyed, knitted quilts, they are worth +fifty dollars apiece in New York to-day. I paid that for one not five +months ago," I said, staring haughtily into the calmly doubting faces of +the mountaineers in the jury box and on the benches.</p> + +<p>"Do you want to question the witness?" my father asked of the indolent +young prosecutor.</p> + +<p>"Don't know who she is and don't believe she is telling the truth," was +the laconic refusal of the prosecutor to let me influence his case.</p> + +<p>"Well, now, Jim, Parson Goodloe here brought the gal along with him and +I reckon he can character witness for her," interposed the judge. +"Sheriff, swear in the parson." His command was duly executed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mr. Goodloe, do you consider Miss Powers a woman who can be depended +upon to speak the truth?" father asked him formally.</p> + +<p>"I do," the Reverend Mr. Goodloe answered quietly, and just for a second +a gleam from his eyes under their dull gold brows shot across the +distance to me, and if it hadn't all been so serious I should have +laughed with glee at his thus having to declare himself about my +character in public. But the next moment the situation became much more +serious and my heart positively stopped still as I seemed to see prison +doors close upon the young husband.</p> + +<p>"Do you want to question the witness?" father asked of the lolling young +prosecutor.</p> + +<p>"How long have you known the lady, Parson?" he asked, with a drawl and +one eye half closed.</p> + +<p>There was an intense silence in the court room for almost a minute. Then +the Reverend Mr. Gregory Goodloe answered calmly:</p> + +<p>"Three days."</p> + +<p>"That might be long enough fer a parson, but it ain't fer a jury," the +young attorney answered, and there was a quizzical kindness in the old<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> +judge's face as he smiled at Mr. Goodloe and shook his head.</p> + +<p>Mr. Goodloe started to speak, but father waved him back to his seat, +turned to the judge and jury and began the most wonderful speech on the +subject of circumstantial evidence and ethical law that I have ever +heard. His beautiful deep voice was as clear as a bell and twenty years +seemed to have fallen from his shoulders. I was looking at and listening +to the man he had been before I was born. And when I could tear my eyes +from his radiant face I watched these stolid mountaineers with whom he +was working his will with a power they had never experienced before and +did not understand. The men in the jury box and the men on the hewn +benches dropped their eyes before his flaming ones as he shamed their +censorious manhood and some of the sun-bonneted women bent their heads +and sobbed when he arraigned them for the lack of motherhood and +sisterhood for the poor young wife who had come over the Ridge to live +among them.</p> + +<p>"Would you men and women rather believe a girl light of love and +faithless, and send your neighbor to prison for two years of his young +life<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> when he could mean much to you and his state and his nation, than +to give them a little human sympathy and justice. Do you prefer to pin +your faith to the value of a worthless, vagrant mule than—"</p> + +<p>But just here, when Judge Nickols Morris Powers was winding himself up +for one of the greatest appeals to a jury he had ever made, a mule +stepped into the case and took away the honor of its winning. He poked +his inquisitive nose into a back window of the court room which looked +out upon the edge of the big woods, and gave the whole assemblage a +hew-haw of derision.</p> + +<p>"Lordy mighty, that are Pete come back hisself with all the curkles in +the big woods sticking to him!" exclaimed Hiram Turner, as he rose and +went to examine his property. "He wasn't sold to no mule man, fer they +crops the hair on their hoofs to see if they's healthy 'fore they buys. +This here frees Jed."</p> + +<p>"And now that you gentlemen have the testimony of a mule, will you not +believe the word of Mrs. Bangs and Miss Powers about the valuable +quilts?" my father said, after he had commanded silence by raising his +hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We shore do believe every word of it, stranger, and you won this here +case and not that mule," a stern old sister in a gingham apron and black +bonnet said, with a commanding glance at the jury.</p> + +<p>"Yes, stranger," answered the hoary old foreman, whom to this day I +believe to be the meek husband of the commanding old woman in the black +bonnet. "I have done got the mind of the jury and they all voted fer you +and not the mule."</p> + +<p>"I hereby gives that mule to Jed Bangs and my daughter, Melissa, and +I'll knock off a half on the price of his teammate to Jed if he gives me +his fergiveness and hern," old Hiram rose and turned with his hand on +the forelock of the mule hero to say to the assembled court room. "Go +around and halter him quick, Jed, 'fore he breaks away again, the durned +fool," he added in another voice.</p> + +<p>"Yes, prisoner, you are declared free, and hurry to ketch him, fer he's +straining ag'inst Hiram," was the judge's sentence, delivered from the +bench as everybody rose and began to stream out to watch the tussle +between Jed and the wild mule.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> Father and the parson were among the +first to gain the door.</p> + +<p>In the next few minutes I found that some of the shy mountain women were +beginning to hover about me, and in another ten minutes I had laid the +foundations of an export rug and quilt business that I have a feeling +will thrive greatly.</p> + +<p>"Were you arrested because your mother told you not to sell the quilts?" +was Charlotte's sympathetic question to the young Mrs. Bangs; and I saw +the mite take a clean handkerchief from her small pink pocket and apply +it to the tears that were coursing down Melissa's cheeks over the +dimples which her smiling mouth was putting in their way. "Just be a +good girl and God will forgive you," she comforted further, nestling a +dirty pink cheek, which rubbed off, against Melissa's wet one.</p> + +<p>"And I asked if she were totally depraved, less than an hour ago," I +apologized to my name daughter in my heart.</p> + +<p>All the way home I sat beside father, and once I laid a timid hand in +his, through whose fingers the pride I had in him must have flowed into +his. He flushed for a second and then was pale again.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You can't put new wine in old bottles, daughter," he said sadly, as he +glanced down into the valley. The car was running smoothly, slowly and +noiselessly around a sharp curve, and the Reverend Mr. Goodloe both +heard and answered the sad axiom.</p> + +<p>"The finest wine mellows in casks and is then bottled free of dregs, +Judge. I think the wine of life is of that vintage," he said, with one +of his radiant smiles that I could see fairly warm father from his +paleness.</p> + +<p>"I wonder just what he meant by 'the wine of life,'" I asked myself as I +went to say good night to Old Harpeth after I put out my light before +going to bed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>HAVING IT OUT</h3> + + +<p>"Well, of course, we knew Nickols would follow you, Charlotte, but we +did hope to have you all to ourselves for more than just a week," moaned +Nell Morgan, as we all sat on the front porch of the Poplars in the warm +spring sunlight several mornings after I had told them of Nickols' +arrival on Friday, which announcement had come in the midnight telegram. +I winced at the words "follow you," and then smiled at the absurdity of +the little shudder.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Nickols will be absorbing, but we can all sit hard on him and +perhaps put him in his place," responded Letitia Cockrell, as she drew a +fine thread through a ruffle she was making to adorn some part of the +person of one of Nell's progeny. "I do not believe in ever allowing a +man to take more than his share of a woman's time."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Do you use grocery scales or a pint cup to measure out Cliff Gray's +daily portion of yourself, Letitia?" asked Harriet Henderson, with a +very sophisticated laugh in which Nell joined with a little giggle. +Harriet was appliqueing velvet violets on a gray chiffon scarf and was +doing it with the zest of the newly liberated. Roger Henderson had had a +lot of money that, in default of a will, the law gave mostly to Harriet, +but in life he had not had the joy of seeing her spend it that he might +have had if he could have gazed back from placid death. "Do you make the +same allowance of affection to him in the light of the moon that you do +in the dark?" she further demanded of the serene Letitia.</p> + +<p>"Well, he doesn't have to see his share divided up into bits and handed +out to the other men," was the serene answer to Harriet's gibe and which +was pretty good for Letitia.</p> + +<p>"My dear child," declaimed Harriet, as she poised a purple violet on the +end of her needle, "don't ever, ever make the mistake of letting one of +the creatures know just what is coming to him. Isn't that right, Nell?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and it is pretty hard to keep them in a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> state of uncertainty +about you when there are four certain children between you, but I go +over to visit my mother at Hillsboro as often as she'll have the caravan +and plead with Billy Harvey or Hampton Dibrell to keep me out until I'm +late for dinner every time they pick me up for a little charitable spin. +That and other deceptions have kept Mark Morgan uncertainly happy so +far, but if I am pushed to the wall I'll—I'll go to the Reverend Mr. +Goodloe's study for ministerial counsel like you did last Friday +afternoon, Harriet," was Nell's contribution to the discussion, which +she delivered over the head of the Suckling on her breast.</p> + +<p>"Now how did you get hold of that choice bit of scandal, Nellie?" asked +Harriet, with serene interest as she bit off a tag of purple silk thread +from the stem of one of her violets.</p> + +<p>"Billy Harvey says that scandal is a yellow pup that dogs a parson's +heels, to which everybody throws some kind of bone," remarked Jessie. +Jessie always vigorously represses Billy in his own presence and then +quotes him eternally when he is absent.</p> + +<p>"Mother Spurlock had come over from the Settlement<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> to see him about the +state of the treasury of the Mothers' Aid Class, and she stopped in to +get a bundle of clothes I had for her," Nell answered Harriet's +question. "She said she didn't mind the hour lost if the parson could +give a 'wee bit of comfort' to your 'wrestling' soul. I didn't like to +tell her that I thought it might be Mr. Goodloe who was wrestling—for +life and liberty—for you and I have been friends since we could toddle, +Harriet, but it was temptation to share my anxiety with her." And +serenely Nellie patted the back of the drowsing Suckling.</p> + +<p>"Wrong this time, Nell," answered Harriet, as she placed still another +violet. "I was doing the wrestling, but I went to the mat. I gave up +twenty-five dollars and took the directorship of that Mothers' Aid. +Never having been a mother, I pointed out to him that I was not exactly +qualified, but he laid stress upon my energy and business acumen and I +gave up. I mentioned you for the honor, but those marvelous eyes of his +glowed with some sort of inner warmth and he said that you had all you +could do and would need help from me just as the women at the Settlement +do. I'm going to present your Susan with a frock<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> out of that linen and +real Valenciennes I bought in the city last week for a blouse for my own +self, and I'm going to give the making to that little Burns woman, who +sews so beautifully and cheaply to support her seven offspring, while +Mr. Burns supports 'The Last Chance' saloon down at the end of the road. +In that way I'll be aiding two of Mr. Goodloe's flock at the same time, +and when I told him my decision he laughed and said be sure and have it +made two inches shorter than you made Sue's frocks, because her bare +knees ought not to be hid from the world. That was about all that +transpired in the whole hour of spiritual conference you are spreading +the scandal about, and you ought to be ashamed."</p> + +<p>Suddenly something in me made me determine to have it out with those +four women and see what results I could get. I felt thirsty for +knowledge of the wellsprings of other people's lives.</p> + +<p>"Harriet," I demanded, "just why did you join Mr. Goodloe's church?"</p> + +<p>"Let's see," answered Harriet, as she poised a violet and gave herself +up to introspection.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Goodloe?" I asked squarely, and my honesty drew its spark from +hers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mostly," she answered briefly. "And I believe in the church as an +institution," she added, with honest justice to herself.</p> + +<p>"I think it is absolutely horrid of you to ask a question like that, +Charlotte," said Nell, as she turned the fretting Suckling over on her +knee and began another series of pats. "We all of us went to church and +Sunday school when we were children."</p> + +<p>"Up to the time I left, not a single one of you ever had gone to church +with any kind of regularity and not a one of you had ever supported its +institutions. I've been here less than a week and each one of you has in +some way shown me how bored you are with the relation. That's all the +case I have against your or any church—just that the members are bored. +Also, do any of you get any help in your daily lives, aside from the +emotional pleasure it is to you to hear your minister sing twice a week, +which would be as great or greater if he sang love and waltz songs from +light opera for you?"</p> + +<p>And as I asked my question I looked quickly from one to the other of the +four women seated with me under the roof of the Poplars and tried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> to +search out what was in their hearts. I knew them and their lives with +the cruel completeness it is given to friends to know each other in +small towns like Goodloets and I could probe with a certain touch. And +as they all sat silent with me, each one driven to self-question by my +demand, I threw the flash of a searchlight into each of them. These are +some of the things that stood out in the illumination:</p> + +<p>Harriet Henderson has always been in love with Mark Morgan, since her +shoe-top-dress days, and she married Roger Henderson because Mark was as +poor as she before the Phosphate Company gave him his managership. Nell +and the babies are the nails driven in her heart every day and she loves +them all passionately. She is only twenty-eight and life will be long +for her. She needs help to live it. Whence will the help come?</p> + +<p>Nell married Mark when she was eighteen and has produced a result every +year and a half since. She loves him mildly and he loves her after a +fashion, but her endurance is wearing thin. His mother had seven +children and he thinks that an ideal number, though she was one +generation nearer the pioneer woman and also had a nurse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> trained in +slavery who was a wizard with children. Mark wants to have a lot of joy +of life and so far he drags poor exhausted Nell with him. It is a +question how long she can stand the social pace and the over-production. +What is going to help her when she breaks down? How will she hold him +faithful while she rears and trains all the kiddies? Where will she get +spirit to love him and work out their salvation? Also Harriet is always +there. Something will have to help Nell. What?</p> + +<p>Billy loves Nell and doesn't know it. He loved her before she was +married. The children make him rage superficially and burn inwardly. He +gambles and drinks, but is honest and adorable. What is going to make a +real man of him?</p> + +<p>Jessie Litton's mother died in a private sanitarium for the mentally +unbalanced and she knows all about it. She loves Hampton Dibrell and +never looks in his direction or is a moment alone with him. He is in the +unattached state of ease where any woman can get him if she cares to +try, and Jessie has to keep her hands behind her.</p> + +<p>Letitia is serenely happy with not a dark corner<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> that I know of. She +loves Cliff Gray and always will. Cliff is faithful and as good as gold, +but he will hang around Jessie, who encourages him, because she is +lonely and considers him safely tied up with Letitia. Mr. Cockrell is +the best lawyer in town and Mrs. Cockrell the most devoted wife and +mother. I can only feel that Letitia Cockrell needs a jolt and I don't +see where it is coming from.</p> + +<p>And I? I am lonely. And I feel that the constant anxiety about father is +more than I can bear, worse now when I realize what he has been and +could be—and that I love him. He is the hardest drinker in Goodloets +and yet never is drunk. He is soaked from the beginning of one day to +another. He began to drink like that the day my mother died and I have +always known that <i>I</i> was helpless to help him. The weakness was in him, +only supported by her strength so long as she was there. He was the most +brilliant mind in the state, and was one of the supreme judges when +mother died. Now Mr. Cockrell manages his business for him and I have +lately come to know that I must sit by and watch him disintegrate. I +cannot endure it now, as I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> been doing. What is going to help me in +this—shame for him? I have gone away to my mother's people to forget +and left him to Dabney, and I've come home—to begin the suffering all +over. I'll never leave him again. What's going to help me?</p> + +<p>And there is something deeper—a race something that fairly eats the +heart out of my pride. On almost every page of the history of the +Harpeth Valley the name of Powers occurs. One Powers man has been +governor of the state, and there have been two United States congressmen +and a senator of our house. Father is the last of the line. Because race +instinct is the strongest in women, I am the one who suffers as I see my +family die out. What is going to help me? A few gospel hymns in a tenor +voice the like of which I should have to pay at least three dollars to +hear in the Metropolitan? The scene on the porch rose in my mind, but I +felt that I both doubted and feared such succor.</p> + +<p>And I am in still deeper depths. Nickols is the son of father's first +cousin, and has father's full name, Nickols Morris Powers, and he is the +last of his branch of the house. Father loves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> him and is proud of him +and nothing ever enters his mind except that I will marry Nickols and +start the family all over again. And this is the tragedy. I love Nickols +and am entirely unsatisfied with him. He is the Whistler nocturne that +my Sorolla nature demands, and he eternally makes me hold out my hand to +grasp—nothing. He stands just beyond. I am unable to decide whether he +does or does not love me. In New York he lives his life among the +artists and fashionable people with whom his highly successful +profession throws him, and I don't see why he cares to come back here +where he was born and reared, in pursuit of a woman like me. I am as +elemental as a shock of wheat back on one of father's meadows and +Nickols is completely evolved. He laughs at race pride and resents mine. +For six months I had been in New York living with Aunt Clara in Uncle +Jonathan Van Eyek's old house down on Gramercy just to go into Nickols' +life with him. I went about in the white lights of both Murray Hill and +Greenwich Village for about one hundred and eighty-five evenings, and +then I fled back to my garden and the poplars—and my anxiety. I thought +I had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> come home to be free and I found the same old chains. And then +had come Nickols' telegram of pursuit in the midnight after I had stood +by in the shadow and watched a strong man pray and a weak man battle +with himself. I was frightened, frightened at the future, and what was +going to help me?</p> + +<p>"I don't actually understand a word of Gregory Goodloe's sermons, really +understand them, I mean, but it helps me to see that somebody truly +believes that there is something somewhere that will straighten out +tangles—in life as well as thread."</p> + +<p>Harriet broke in on my still hunt into my own and other people's inner +shrines as she snapped a bit of tangled purple silk thread, knotted it +and began all over again on the violet.</p> + +<p>"I don't care what he preaches about—he's soothing and I need a little +repose in my life after—Oh, what is the matter now?" And as she +finished speaking Nell Morgan arose and went with the Suckling asquirm +in her arms to meet the large noise that was arriving down the front +walk.</p> + +<p>The delegation was headed by young Charlotte,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> whose blue eyes flamed +across a very tip-tilted nose that bespoke mischief. Jimmy stolidly +brought up the rear with small Sue clinging loyally to his dirty little +paddie, which she only let go to run and bury her cornsilk topknot in +Harriet's outspread arms, where she was engulfed into safety until only +the most delicious dimpled pink knees protruded above dusty white socks +and equally dusty white canvas sandals. Though within a few months of +four, Sue had discovered Harriet, and never failed to take advantage of +her.</p> + +<p>"What is the matter?" again demanded Nell, as the vocal chords of +Charlotte ceased reverberating and her countenance resumed a more normal +color and expression.</p> + +<p>"A rock flew and the minister's window got broked." Charlotte gave forth +this announcement with a diplomacy that might have been admirable +exerted in a juster cause.</p> + +<p>"Who had the rock?" demanded the mother sternly.</p> + +<p>"Jimmy," was the decided answer, given with a threatening glance at the +son of the house of Morgan, who quailed in his socks and sandals and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> +began an attempt to screw one of his toes under one of the flagstones of +the walk. I knew in an instant that that rock had never left the hand of +small James, but the clash of Nell's wits with young Charlotte is so +constant that at times the maternal ones are dulled. The accused must +have psychically scented my sympathy, for he lifted large, scared, +pleading eyes to mine for a brief second and then dropped them again. I +went to the rescue.</p> + +<p>"Sue, who broke the window?" I asked, as I extricated the four-year-old +witness from Harriet's chiffon and violets. I doubted if young Susan had +attained the years of prevarication as yet. I was right.</p> + +<p>"Tarlie," was the positive answer. "Boom—book—crk!" was the graphic +description of the crash she added as she squirmed back among the +violets and the needles and the thread.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte!" exclaimed Nell, in real despair.</p> + +<p>"Jimmy did have the rock in his pocket, and he just lent it to me to +throw at a bird right above the window. It was a nice round one, and he +brought it from home to see if he could kill anything. It most killed +the minister, and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> rock is a little bluggy. Isn't it, Jimmy? He's +got it in his pocket for keeps."</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered young James, with the brevity with which he usually made +responses to the loquacity of his sister.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that you hit Mr. Goodloe, as well as broke the window?" +demanded Nell in still more horror, as she came down two of the front +steps.</p> + +<p>"He didn't mind," answered Charlotte. "He liked it, because he made us +both learn a verse of a hymn to sing for punish, and Sue can sing it, +too. Come on, Sue!" and before any of us could recover from our horror +at the violence the young parson had suffered at the hands of the +marauders, Charlotte had lined the other two up on either hand and begun +her exhibition of the benefit arising from the throwing of the rock. It +was a very good example of the good that may result from evil, which is +one of the puzzling reverses of one of the Christian tenets.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Work, for the night is coming,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Work through the morning hours,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Work while the dew is sparkling,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Work 'mid springing flowers,'"<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>trilled Charlotte in a high, buzzy young voice, while Jimmy piped in a +few notes lower. Baby Sue's little, clear jumble of words in perfect +tune was so bewitchingly sweet that Harriet again engulfed her, while +the outraged mother, not so easily beguiled, sailed down the steps and +around through the garden toward the chapel, driving the two older +offenders before her to the scene of the crime.</p> + +<p>"Who is going to help Nell train up liars and murderers into good +citizens?" I asked myself in my depths, as I joined with the others in +the admiring laugh at young Charlotte's dramatic powers.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Goodloe is the most wonderful thing I ever saw with kiddies," said +Jessie Litton, as she rose to her feet to begin leave-taking. "Yes, I +must go, for father expects me to luncheon," she added, at my +remonstrance.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to kidnap Sue while I can, and I may never bring her back. I +must fly!" said Harriet, and she departed hastily to the small roadster +she had parked beside the gate. "Come on, Letitia, and let me take you +home," she called over her shoulder, and Letitia followed to secure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> the +short spin around the corner to the old Cockrell home, which was set +back from the street behind a tall hedge of waxy-leaved Cherokee roses. +Thus almost in the twinkling of an eye I was left alone, which state, +however, did not last more than a few seconds, for around the corner of +the house from the chapel, from which direction the whole world seemed +to be going or coming, arrived Mrs. Elsie Spurlock, beaming the welcome +to me that had always found a ready response.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>DEEP DIGGING</h3> + + +<p>And in another twinkling of eyes, both of mine and hers, I had taken her +bundle from her, seated her in the largest rocking chair, and she had +untied her bonnet strings, which denoted that she had come for a genuine +visit.</p> + +<p>"Well, dearie, dearie me, the sight of you is good for tired eyes, +Charlotte," she bumbled in her rich, deep old voice. As she spoke she +tucked a white wisp of a curl back into place beneath the second water +wave that protruded from under the little white widow's ruche in her +bonnet and continued to beam at me. "I met Nellie Morgan and her +Annarugans hurrying to pray a pardon from Mr. Goodloe for that rock +which might have killed him, if thrown an inch to the right, instead of +only nicking that yellow head of his, the Lord be praised!"</p> + +<p>"What was that same Lord doing when he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> let the rock fly from +Charlotte's hand to within an inch of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's life, +Mother Spurlock?" I asked her, with the old warfare over the same old +subject rising at the very first minute of our meeting. I have wondered +sometimes in the last few years if the wrestling with me over her faith +was not ordained for the purpose of strengthening Mother Spurlock's +powers of patient argument. She is the only person in the world to whom +I speak from the depths, and the relief of her sweetened and seasoned +wisdom is the straw at which I often clutch to save myself.</p> + +<p>"I surmise that He guided the hand of that child so that the verse of +the hymn, and the chastisement of the rod I hope Nellie will inflict, +might work together for her good. All of us must at times let a little +blood for another's good—heart's blood, very often, not just that from +our scalps or shins." And as she answered me without a moment's +hesitation she enveloped me in loving question. "Are you always going to +occupy the anxious seat in front of the Lord, child? Still, sit as long +as you like and go on questioning Him. You'll find the answer."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The whole town seems to have gone into your fold and left me on the +'anxious seat' alone," I answered, as I drew my chair nearer to her and +took her lined, strong old hand in mine.</p> + +<p>"That Billy Harvey passes the collection plate up the aisle on Sunday +and plays poker all Saturday night till Sunday morning down at the Last +Chance, in a room in front of the one in which poor Pat Burns, who +carries a hod for his money, loses his all. Mary Burns sews all day and +half the night to feed him and the children, but she puts her pittance +into Billy's plate every Sunday, and I know that she gets the strength +to go on from day to day from the words that come from the same pulpit +he sets the plate behind. That is, we call the table out at your Country +Club a pulpit, until we get our own in the chapel from which to praise +the Lord. So you see that there are some sheep who have a taint of goat +hair in their wool still left—I won't say with you—out in the world. +And speaking of that world, have you come back to say good-bye to us?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know yet, Mother Spurlock," I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> answered her candidly. "I ran +away from that world, but it is coming after me on Friday."</p> + +<p>"You'll be sent into the vineyard where you are most needed, and there +you'll serve," she said, with a far-away look coming into her eyes as +she let her glances roam out to the dim hills of Paradise Ridge. A flood +of love and reverence rose in my heart for her as I sat quiet and let +her spirit roam. Mother Spurlock had been the gayest young matron in +Goodloets, living in the great old Spurlock home with handsome, +rollicking young George Spurlock for a husband, and three babies around +her knees, and in one short year she had been left with only one large +and three tiny graves out in the placid home of the dead, beyond the +river bend. The babies had been taken by that relentless child foe, +diphtheria, and young George, reckless with grief, had let a half-broken +horse break his neck. The young woman, aged by her grief, had sold the +great house to the next of kin and moved down into an old brick cottage +that sat "beside the road" in a gnarled old apple orchard, and had +become the "friend to man." Through the orchard and past the door of the +Little House ran the path that led from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> the Settlement to the Town, and +through her heart and hands flowed most of the love and charity that +bound the rich and poor, brother to brother. Mother Spurlock was never +without a bundle in which she carried labor of the poor sold for the +gold of the rich, or gifts from the rich back to the needy. I thought of +all the long years of service in the vineyard into which her tragedy had +thrown her, and I bent and picked up the bundle at our feet and held it +with reverent hands.</p> + +<p>"Just a few baby things that Nellie Morgan gave me to fix up a poor +little Mother Only in the village," she came back from her reverie to +say cheerfully, as she saw me with the bundle in my hand. Mother +Spurlock always refers to the children without the sanction of the law +for their birth as the Mother Onlies, and somehow, when she speaks it, +the name carries a world of tenderness into the heart of the hearer.</p> + +<p>"Whose now?" I asked her gently, because in a way Mother Spurlock and I +bore one another's burdens of spirit.</p> + +<p>"Hattie Garrett's, and it's a week old now. It is one of the saddest +things that ever happened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> in the village, and we none of us understand. +You remember, she taught the district school down in the Settlement."</p> + +<p>"As none of us understood about Martha Ensley. Is that all a mystery +still?" I asked, and I stroked the bundle of tiny garments.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and now she's gone nobody knows where, day before yesterday. +Jacob, her father, was rough and violent with her, but only from grief, +and she forgave all that. I'm troubled sorely, for she is gentle, and +not one to fight the world alone. She must have gone to the city, the +good Lord help her!"</p> + +<p>"He will—He is," I answered quickly, then stopped because I knew I must +not tell what I had overheard—should I say in the confessional?</p> + +<p>"Praise God! to hear you speak such words. Sometimes a body's faith gets +out of her heart past her mind and proclaims itself before the higher +criticism gets a chance to throttle it," the invincible old warrior +exclaimed with a delighted twinkle in her young blue eyes at having +caught me with religious goods on me. "He will, He will take <i>care</i> of +us all, not that He doesn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> expect us to put in about sixteen hours of +the day helping Him to do it for ourselves and others. That reminds me +that I seem to be growing to this chair. Luella May Spain has got a nice +place to work in the telegraph station with Mr. Pate, and if she's to +look neat she needs a few white shirt waists. I <i>could</i> get them in this +bundle. If I get too many things from you and Harriet this morning to +carry myself, Hampton will take me down the hill in his car when he goes +to lunch, not that I wouldn't be frightened to death to ride with him +except on the Lord's mission."</p> + +<p>"Do you think that fact would keep Hampton from being run down by +Harriet when she cuts corners bias, as she insists on doing?" I asked, +as I started in the door to procure the toilet necessaries to Luella +May's telegraphic career, whether it devastated my supply of tennis +clothes or not. Nothing that any woman or any member of her family in +Goodloets wears or eats is secure from Mother Spurlock, and we have all +submitted to the fact with the greatest docility.</p> + +<p>"I know it does; and three shirt waists will be enough if you add a neat +black belt," was the answer that followed me through the hall. "Bless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> +my life, Nickols Powers, I was glad to see you at prayer meeting last +week, even if you and William Cockrell were just caught up out at your +Club in your chess game," I heard her exclaim, to draw a laughing answer +in father's most genial rumble. Then I heard him call loudly for Dabney, +and when Sallie descended with my bundle, that contained a complete +telegraphic outfit for Luella May which showed a decided leaning to +tennis style, she met Dabney on the front threshold with a rough parcel +from which I saw a shirt sleeve and a blue serge trouser leg protrude.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Nickols. Since his accident, Bill Hanks has thinned out to +just about your size. Now he can go back to his job neatly and +respectably clad," Mother Spurlock was saying.</p> + +<p>"The citizens of Goodloets had better take the habit of wearing a double +suit of clothing for fear of having Elsie Spurlock strip them in public +to beyond the law," father grumbled in great pleasure, after he had +packed her and her bundles in Hampton's car. Father always calls Mother +Spurlock "Elsie," and once or twice I have seen a faint blush creep to +her cheeks and a glint flash<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> from her eyes, but he blandly goes on +doing it. I wonder—</p> + +<p>"Father," I said, as we went slowly up the front walk together, "Nickols +will be here on Friday; will you have Dabney get his rooms in the north +wing ready for him? He likes that light, and he can use the long green +room for a studio when he sketches."</p> + +<p>"That's good," answered father heartily. He likes Nickols and Nickols +manages him beautifully, by giving him all he wants to drink whenever he +suggests it, even introducing him to new Manhattan beverages. There is +perpetual war between Dabney, who knows father's nervous limit, and +Nickols, who doesn't care just as long as things and human beings that +surround him are kept pleasant. It is all right for the rest of the +world to have delirium tremens, just so they do it out of his sight and +hearing.</p> + +<p>"I wonder just what Nickols will think of Goodloe," father added, with a +slightly strained laugh. "You thought he would be enraged at Goodloe and +me for building the chapel and weeding the garden. Perhaps he will be +unhappy."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe your weeding would make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> anybody unhappy, father," I +answered with a laugh, choosing to ignore the issue of the building of +the chapel until Nickols was upon the scene and we could decide just +what to do.</p> + +<p>"Been over the whole garden twice and eaten several meals in the sweat +of my brow—that is, I took a cold shower before coming to the table, my +daughter," father said, and he looked ashamed of himself for being proud +of his own spurt of normality. I caught my breath, but I was wise enough +not to show my astonishment. "Goodloe is the most insinuating person I +ever met, and I advise you to be careful. He makes men do just as he +wants them to, and I should say that women would eat out of his hand."</p> + +<p>"I suppose I ought to eat a bite or two from his fingers to pay for all +the work he has got out of you and Dabney. I never saw the garden so +beautiful or so early. Look, father, the peonies are budding, two weeks +ahead of their usual time!"</p> + +<p>"They'd be damned ungrateful not to grow industriously, after the way +Dab and I have sprained our old backs spading and feeding them according +to spiritual direction that stood<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> over us with a rake," answered +father, with proud if profane enthusiasm. There was a faint pink glow in +his haggard, thin cheeks, and he took from his pocket a huge knife I had +never seen him use before and began carefully to cut away a few dead +twigs from a budding rose vine.</p> + +<p>"Your mother always put a rose from this vine at my plate for breakfast, +and you got yours from that pink bush over there by the sun dial," he +said, with a softness in his voice that I had not heard since my tenth +summer, in which my mother had died. I tingled all over, but held on to +myself.</p> + +<p>"You go tell that old black lazybones to come here with his spade this +minute. I told him about digging in this mulch yesterday before the +dahlias sprouted, and he hasn't done it. I'm not going to do it for him, +like I put the fertilizer around the lilacs, just to save him from +Goodloe. Tell him to come right here to me, and not to let grass grow in +his shoe tracks," and father picked up a hoe from the walk beside the +neglected dahlias and began doing the work he had just declared against. +I fled around to the kitchen, and something lent wings to my feet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, Dab, what does it mean that father is really taking an interest in +the garden?" I demanded of the faithful old black friend, whom I found +enveloped in a kitchen apron helping his wife bring the dinner to a +serving head.</p> + +<p>"Praise God, his salvation am commenced, if it don't kill me before he +gits it," answered Dab, as he put his hand to his back and groaned.</p> + +<p>"They has been jest one-half a demijohn of devil heart whisky ordered up +outen that cellar in over a month, and I b'lieve this here no account +nigger drunk a pint of that," Mammy added to his answer. "Last month it +was two demijohns they had up, and before that it was three or four. +That parson done it with readin' and talkin' and hoein'. Glory! I wants +to hold my breath and shout at the same time, and I would if I could +trust this pullet in the skillet to either you or Dabney whilst I did +it. The Lord wouldn't listen to no shoutin' from a cook whose chicken +was frying black while she did her praisin'," and as she spoke Mammy +began a low humming, swaying from table to stove with a rhythm in the +swing of her fat body that had a certain dignified beauty to it. It was +crude emotion, and I knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> it, but I felt it work in my own body as I +let the significance of what she had told me about the lessening amount +of whiskey father had been consuming add itself to the scene upon the +back porch and sink fully into my consciousness. I don't know what might +have happened to my shouting Methodist grandmother's worldly though +emotional descendant if father's voice, sharp and clear, with a note of +command I had forgotten it possessed, had not interrupted me.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte! Dab!" it called; and we both answered with all speed.</p> + +<p>"That Parson Goodloe have got the power to draw the teeth of seven +devils, and you both consider the words of his mouth or he'll git the +teeth outen yourn," Mammy called after us in ambiguous warning.</p> + +<p>And upon our arrival on the scene of action being executed upon the +dahlias, we found the commander of the devils awaiting us, though in his +hands was no forked instrument of dentistry, but in one he held a large +slice of rye bread thickly spread with butter, and the other was +disarmed by a ripe red apple. As we drew near he finished a direction to +father and took a huge<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> bite out of the slab of bread that left a gap as +wide as one would expect a Harpeth jaguar to make.</p> + +<p>"Harrowing deep makes great growth in all plant life," he was saying +past the slice of bread with agricultural prosiness to father, who had +completely sweated down the very high and stiff collar which he always +wore swathed in a wide tie of black after a Henry Clay cut, in a savage +attack with the hoe upon the mulch that was smothering the dahlias in +richness.</p> + +<p>"Does the same deep digging result hold true in biological and psychic +life?" puffed father, and then he leaned on his hoe and looked up at the +young man towering over him. In his eyes was the appeal of disappointed +age calling to the ideals of flaming strength and youth in the +deep-jeweled eyes that answered with a look of passionate tenderness as +the parson poised the bread for another bite.</p> + +<p>"'Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,' Mr. Powers, is the direct data we +have on that subject," he said. Then he, for the first time, observed +the approach of Dabney and myself, of which his widening smile and the +quick lowering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> of the slab of rye pone gave notice to father, who +exploded accordingly.</p> + +<p>"You black son-of-a-gun! Why didn't you rake off these dahlias as I told +you to yesterday? Now you get his hide, Parson!" was the greeting that +Dabney received, while I was ignored by all concerned.</p> + +<p>"That hinge in your back rusty again, Dabney?" questioned the parson, +with leonine mildness.</p> + +<p>"I been upsot by my young mistis coming home," answered Dabney, with a +quick glance at me as if to indicate me as a substantial excuse for any +crimes. I stood convicted, for I do use Dabney continually in all my +hospitalities.</p> + +<p>"We understand, Dabney," was the answer he got from the feeding Jaguar, +who gave me that glint of a laugh that I had learned to expect and +to—dread. I knew what he meant to imply, and I also knew that he knew +that I understood that he considered me a disturbing element. Then he +again raised the half-demolished hunk of bread to his mouth, stopped and +regarded the apple in meditative indecision. From head to heels he was +clothed in the most exquisite white<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> flannel and buckskin tennis +clothes, but for all their civilized worldliness he resembled nothing so +much as a feeding king of the forest in the poise of his wonderful head +and equally wonderful body. I glanced quickly at his face with its +gentle, deep, comprehending lines, in positive fear of him, and I found +reassurance in the smile that curled his strong red mouth and glinted at +me from his brilliant eyes under dull gold. Then, after the smile, he +decided for the apple rather than further conversation, and was just +going to set his white teeth in its rosy cheek when I stopped him with +an almost involuntary exclamation.</p> + +<p>"Don't!" I pleaded. "Dinner is just ready, and you'll spoil it if you +eat all that bread and butter and apple." Just exactly a week before, at +almost that exact hour, the Reverend Gregory Goodloe had refused the cup +of tea I had stood holding for him in my hand for five minutes on the +front porch of the Poplars, and I had taken a resolve that never would +he again receive a food invitation from me. I didn't count Mammy's +"snack" eaten on the Harpeth adventure. I didn't understand myself and +my sudden rush of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> dismay at the idea of a spoiled dinner for him, but I +couldn't stop myself as I added:</p> + +<p>"Mammy has apple dumplings and hard sauce; please don't—I mean please +<i>do</i> come in to dinner with us."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, but as you see I've about dined," he answered me, as with a +laugh he held out his fragments. "Jefferson was feeling badly and I sent +him to bed instead of the parsonage kitchen." Mammy had told me that the +Reverend Mr. Goodloe had taken hers and Dabney's cherished and perfectly +worthless only son as his sole domestic dependence, and Mammy had added +the fact that Jeff had "shot nary crap since the parson rescued him from +the jaw of the jail."</p> + +<p>"Huh," ejaculated Dabney over the hoe he had taken from father and was +using at his direction while father lined the border beside the bed with +his sharp spade. I knew the contempt in his voice was for the illness of +Jefferson, and the Reverend Mr. Goodloe and I both laughed as he took +the last bite of the brown slab and then held out the unbitten side of +the apple to me.</p> + +<p>"You eat your fruit with me, not in dumplings with hard sauce," he said, +and there was a wooing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> note in his voice as if he pleaded for that +friendliness from me to heal a hurt.</p> + +<p>"No, <i>I</i> won't eat out of your hand," I answered, with a cool emphasis +on the "I." And I looked him straight in the eyes, for I wanted him to +know that I had thoroughly understood his refusal of my invitation +couched so gently, but which I considered in reality haughty and +resentful, especially as I had been his guest in his car. "We'll wait +until you get your shower, father, and not much longer," I said to +father, as I turned and went along the flagstones to the steps that led +to the balcony upon which opened the long windows of the dining room. I +was furious and I was hurt.</p> + +<p>At times I become acutely conscious that I am very imperious, but it is +not entirely my fault. My friends have depended upon my clear head, in +which father's brain seems to work with a kind of feminine vigor, and I +have always felt that the superior force with which I have loved and +cherished them made it all right. I've always stood by them and used +myself mercilessly for their exigencies, and I suppose I have ruled them +as mercilessly. I rarely encounter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> another will, and to clash into one +as strong as mine drew the sparks of my nature. The blaze was soon over, +but I—smouldered.</p> + +<p>During dinner I was deeply interested in father's plans for my garden, +which brilliantly carried the plans Nickols and I had made to what I saw +in another year would be a marvelously artistic completeness. But under +the joy of hearing him talk as I had never really heard him since I was +old enough to appreciate his scintillating delicious choice of words and +phrases, I was hot and sore at the thought of my duty to render +gratitude where gratitude was due for having him like that.</p> + +<p>"It will be perfectly wonderful, father, and Nickols had not worked it +out to anything like that completeness. He will be wild about it, but +won't it take a lot of money? And where did you get your inspiration?" I +asked the question, though I hated the answer I knew it must receive.</p> + +<p>"The plans are entirely my own," answered father, with a pleased flush +making even brighter his dulled eyes and cheeks, faintly glowing from +the shower at which Dabney had officiated a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> minutes before. I had +not failed to notice that we had sat down and were halfway through +dinner and father's hand had not motioned Dabney towards the decanter +and ice and siphon on the sideboard. "I must confess that the +inspiration came from a kind of rage when Goodloe said to me how much it +was to be regretted that all the great gardens in the North are being +made out of a sort of patchwork of English, French, Italian and even +Japanese influences. You couldn't expect anything more of the +inhabitants of the part of the country in the veins of whose people flow +just about that mixture of blood, but in the Harpeth Valley we have been +Americans for two and a half centuries, and I'll show 'em an American +garden if it does unhinge both mine and Dabney's backs and make Cockrell +swear I'm crazy when he audits my accounts once every month. No, Madam, +your own grandmother and great-grandmother, in conjunction with +Goodloe's maternal ancestors, conceived and laid out the beginning of +the great American garden, and we will combine to produce it."</p> + +<p>"What about Nickols' plans?" I asked, trying hard to raise indignation +in my heart and voice<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> at the thought of Nickols Morris Powers' work, +for which the people of wealth in the North were beginning fairly to +clamor, being criticized and laid aside at the inspiration of the +Methodist parson across the lilac hedge. And I succeeded better than I +expected, for I saw father lose color and tremble with his own rage, +which he always quells with drink.</p> + +<p>"That sunken garden is Italian, and I'm going to tear it out and +put—Oh, my daughter; forgive me, but I forgot, in this queer nature +frenzy that has come over me of late and which I do not at all +understand, that the garden is yours, was your mother's and +grandmother's. So far the plans have just been begun, and nothing that +you and Nickols have done—Dabney, pour me three fingers of the 1875 +Bourbon." And in a second I saw father grow white and shaking with +mortification at what he felt to be an unmannerly trespass upon +another's rights. My father has been a drunkard for nearly twenty years, +but he is still a great gentleman. Slowly he drank the whiskey, every +drop of which seemed to go to my heart like cold lead.</p> + +<p>"But, father!" I exclaimed, determined to win<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> him back. Dabney was +putting the silver stopper in the decanter over by the sideboard, and I +thought I saw a sob shake his bent old shoulders as his black hands +trembled. "I'd like to know if I'm not as purely American as you are, +and have I not the same right to want, demand and work for an American +nationalism, even in a garden, as you have? I'll have you know, sir, +that the future of the nation is in the hands of the women. We can +produce pure Americans or let the whole country go hybrid." And as I +spoke I let my temper rise to a point which I hoped would shock father +and take his mind from the decanter and the ice. "I demand that you +allow me to carry out your plans for my garden, and that you help me do +it to the limit of the hinges in your back and Dabney's. And, Dabney, +don't let me hear another word about that hinge until those dahlias are +in bloom. Also get me a half dozen bottles of dynamite to blow out that +Italian garden. I never did like it."</p> + +<p>"Yes'm," answered Dabney, meekly but comprehendingly, for he hastily +flung a napkin over the ice and gently set the decanter back in its +rack. "But dynamite, it comes in sticks and not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> in bottles. And it +would shake the roots of them old poplars clean most down to hell."</p> + +<p>"How'll we get that sunken garden out, then, father?" I asked, and I saw +the life and color come back to his face in a flood of humor.</p> + +<p>"We might try filling it in," he answered, and then we both laughed at +ourselves, with Dabney joining in.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE TRISTAN LOVE SONG</h3> + + +<p>After dinner father and I sat out on the porch in the soft, warm breeze +that waved a misty spring moonlight around us, and talked garden until +after ten o'clock. He was brilliant and delightful, but three times he +made trips to ice bowl and decanter on the sideboard.</p> + +<p>"It will be a great relief and happiness to me if Nickols does sanction +and set the seal of artistic approval upon our plans," he said, with +feverish but happy eyes. "You see, Nickols will represent the +cosmopolitan in judgment upon the normally developed insular. I remember +once that Mr. Justice Harlan said that in an opinion on freight rates I +had sent up to him I had represented both the cosmopolitan and the +insular interest with astonishing equity, and I told him that I +considered that it took at least six generations of insular mind culture +to see any kind of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> national equity. The same thing holds good with a +garden. It takes the sixth generation on a piece of land to produce a +garden, and then it has to be laid out around a library full of the +ideals of poet and scholar. In about three years I can, with your +permission, present the American nation with a garden that will +represent the best ideals of Americans; and I must go to bed if I expect +to get up and hunt the early worm. I can never decide which is the +harder work, the capture of that creature of tradition or the arousing +of Dabney to perform that task. You, Dabney."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," came a sleepy groan from just within the door, and in a +second the old black face was lit up with father's candle until the +white wool above shone like a halo as it appeared from out the gloom. +And I sat and watched the two old gentlemen, one black and one white, +toil slowly up the steps and down the wide hall of the Poplars.</p> + +<p>"Father <i>must</i> come back; the nation needs him," I said fiercely under +my breath as I noticed that in Dabney's hand swung the ice bucket where +I had been accustomed to see it swing for years,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> but which I had not +seen him carry before since I came home. "And that's how <i>you</i> help him +fight to come back," I arraigned myself with bitter scorn. "You have no +faith nor spiritual sources yourself, and you throw him back into +degradation when something is helping him crawl out. What's helping him? +No matter what it is, you are a coward to obstruct it."</p> + +<p>And for a long hour I sat thus raging at myself and questioning +hopelessly, while the young moon rose higher and higher over the tops of +the silvery poplars and young spring slipped about in the lights and +shadows, invisible except for perfumed wreathings of gossamer mist. +Above, I heard father pacing up and down his rooms, slowly, almost +feebly. Sometimes he would hesitate; then I would hear him stop beside +the window, where I knew the ice bowl and the decanter were placed upon +a table which had stood beside the head of his bed so burdened since my +early childhood. I had always dreaded his moroseness and instinctively +felt the cause of it. I had never really loved him until just the last +few days, and now I felt my love rise in a tide that threatened to +overwhelm me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, I found him, and now I've thrown him away," I sobbed to myself. +Then, as I sat listening, I heard the faltering steps come out into the +hall above, descend the steps one by one, go through the dark dining +room groping pitifully, and down the side steps out into the beloved +garden. Silently I watched the tall figure with the white hair silvered +radiantly by the moonlight go slowly down the path, past the old +graybeard poplars, and even up to the lilac hedge that ran as a bulwark +in front of the dark chapel door, which I could see was ajar as it +always is.</p> + +<p>"He's going for help," I muttered to myself, and I felt the padding of +fear pursuing me, while also something of the Methodist grandmother +within me began a queer calling and a tightening at my throat.</p> + +<p>Then something happened that interested me so that I lost all personal +anxiety. Father stopped beside the hedge and picked up something from +the grass. I saw it was a long, heavy hoe. Walking over to a long bed of +early roses he and Dabney had been fertilizing in the late afternoon, he +bent feebly and began to dig the food into their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> roots. As he swung the +long handle, each blow upon the soft earth became more decided. I crept +down behind the old snowball bush to be nearer him; I didn't dare go to +him in his fight, because I had in my selfish heedlessness brought it +all on, but in a little while he was not alone, for a bent old figure +with grizzled white wool sticking out from under a red flannel nightcap +came quietly along the path with a hoe in his hand, fell in directly +behind his master, and began a rhythmic blow-answering-blow contest with +the fragrant earth and the demon within the man. For at least an hour +the two old friends worked up and down the long bed, until I could see +father begin to totter with weakness.</p> + +<p>"Now, come on, Mas' Nick, honey, and go to bed. I'll pour a bucket of +cistern water over you and rub you down so as you'll sleep like a bug in +a rug," the staunch old comrade crooned, with a mother note in his +voice, as he took father's heavy hoe and shouldered it with his.</p> + +<p>"I think evening exercise is good for me, Dabney," answered father with +all the dignity and command come back into his voice. "Put both those +hoes in the tool house this time, and I'll<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> not tell Mr. Goodloe you +left one down by the lilac hedge."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, thanky, sir, fer not telling him," answered Dabney, as he +followed his master to the tool house under the back steps, deposited +the garden implements where he was directed, and then again followed his +idol in through the long dining room window and was lost in the shadow.</p> + +<p>I went back to the front steps, again sank down, put my arms on my +knees, and let my head fall upon my clasped hands. As I sat there alone, +with the dark house yawning behind me in its emptiness, someone sat down +beside me and laid a warm, strong hand on my interlaced and strained +fingers for just about half a second.</p> + +<p>"Please forgive me about the apple dumplings and the hard sauce," a +merry, very lovely voice pleaded.</p> + +<p>"I went out to Old Harpeth with you when you asked me; but I loathe +going to church—I haven't been in one since I was strong enough to +rebel—and I'm not going to yours," was the apology I graciously offered +in return for that about the apple dumplings. "But I'd pay fifty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> +dollars for a tenth row seat to hear you sing Tristan in the +Metropolitan any day if I had to go hungry for a week to pay for it," I +added, as I laughed as softly as he had pleaded. All the sorrow and +strain of the last hours had vanished at the touch of his hand, and I +felt like an impish, teasing child.</p> + +<p>"I'll sing some of it for you now, if you'll give fifty cents to Mother +Spurlock for the Children's Day Picnic. And it'll be a bargain you are +getting," was the unexpected offer I encountered.</p> + +<p>"And a freezer of vanilla ice cream to boot," I assented, generously.</p> + +<p>And then something happened to me the like of which I know never +happened to anybody in all the world, and that could happen only the +once to me. Gregory Goodloe drew a little closer to me and bent his +great gold head until his face was just off my left shoulder, and in his +powerful, rich, fascinating voice, which he muted down in a way that +made it sound as if he were singing through a golden cloud, he sang +Tristan's immortal love agony in a way that shut out all the rest of the +universe and left me alone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> with him in a space swayed by his pleading +until my mortal body shook in actual pain.</p> + +<p>"Don't! I can't stand it!" I gasped, as I seized his wrist in my strong +hands and wrung it. "Stop!"</p> + +<p>The last tender note breathed itself into the air that seemed to hold it +in a long caress until it died away, and sobs shook me as I held on +desperately to his wrist. I felt that I <i>must</i> be comforted. And I was! +Again the gentle fingers were laid over mine for a still smaller +fraction of a second, and then again the beautiful, clear voice began to +sing to me, just to me, out of the whole world.</p> + +<p>"'Abide with me, fast falls the even tide,'" he chanted, and then waited +while my sobs died away and I let go my drowning grasp on his wrist.</p> + +<p>"That's just what I mean. That's just why I wouldn't have any more +respect for myself if I should go to your church than if I joined in one +of Mammy's foot-washings down at the river and fell in a fit of shouting +in which it took two burly coons to 'hold my spirit down,' as she +describes those gymnastics to me. I hate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> you and I hate my friends for +indulging in religion, because it is just as 'potent an agent of +intoxication' as exists to-day, and it blinds us to the need of work +along scientific lines for the immediate improvement of the race. What +right have we to intoxicate reason with religion? If religion is +anything it must be reason." I fairly hurled my words of half-baked +skepticism at him, with the vision of father and Dabney digging in the +garden, still in my eyes.</p> + +<p>"I felt just as you do about it a year ago to-day," he answered me +quietly. "As you state the case of religion as emotion versus reason, it +doesn't exist. Religion is reason plus emotion, and when you combine the +two the eyes of your soul are open, whereas they had been closed. Nobody +can tell you about it, but you begin really to live when you see and +comprehend. Yes, it is going to take all the scientific reason the world +possesses to start its salvation, but it will not get far without +'emotion,' as you call what I <i>know</i> is love of God, and, through that +love, compassion for man."</p> + +<p>"The assumption that every man is blind who<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> does not believe as you do, +stops all argument," I said scornfully.</p> + +<p>"I didn't come to talk religion with you; I came over to get that apple +dumpling off my conscience, as I couldn't digest it because it wasn't +there. I preach twice, on Sunday and on Wednesday night, and I'm in my +study behind the altar every afternoon that I'm not playing tennis. I'll +be there any time by appointment." The worldly and protective raillery +in that young Methodist minister's voice almost interrupted my religious +researches, but I was in depths that were strange to me, and I was +floundering for a line out.</p> + +<p>"I'll never be there," I flared at him, then went on with my +floundering. "If a man is blind, how can he gain the sight that you +arrogate to yourself?"</p> + +<p>"A great man once prayed, 'Lord, help thou my unbelief,'" was the gentle +answer in which was that queer note of apostolic surety with which I +heard him address the woman in the garden that night.</p> + +<p>"I can't pray—there's nothing there," I said in a very small voice that +I could scarcely recognize<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> as my own. "Oh, I mean that we are all +floundering, and where can we get the lifeline? Where did you get the +line that you think will pull you out of the vortex?"</p> + +<p>Then for a long moment he and I sat again involved in the emptiness of +the universe that Tristan's love song had opened for us, and I knew that +with ruthless feet I had entered his Holy of Holies and was being +allowed to stand across the threshold.</p> + +<p>"Forgive me," I gasped.</p> + +<p>"I never felt that I could tell it before," he said, slowly, and the +bounds of the emptiness retreated still further away as he turned so +that he sat facing me and again bent his dull gold head closer to mine. +In a second I knew why in my mind I had been calling him a Harpeth +jaguar. It was just my pictorial expression for the word freedom, the +freedom that comes from power. I knew that mentally and bodily I was +looking upon the first free man I had ever encountered, and I was +abashed.</p> + +<p>"Don't tell me," I said, with a gentleness in my voice I had never heard +before, and that came from something that I felt to be strangely like<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> +meekness, though I had never before met that emotion in myself.</p> + +<p>"You know the romance of my father's life," the soft voice went on, +speaking as if I had not interrupted him, "but nobody knows the tragedy. +Love for my mother came upon him like an arrow shot out of ambush, and +he married into a worldly, pleasure-loving, agnostic circle of people +who all adored and flattered him until he—he became confused and +doubting. He had transgressed the law: 'yoke not yourselves with +unbelievers,' and he suffered. She never understood. It killed him, and +when he had been dead nearly twenty years I found the diary he kept the +months before he died. It was last year, just after her death. It was a +cry to me, who at that time was a mere babe, and it—it lighted the +flame he had almost let go out. As I read, the apostolic call came to me +and I answered. I was starting to the front in France, and I went on. My +year there was a series of experiences that gave me my surety. One day +it came more clearly than ever. I had gone out into one of the trenches +of the first line, because I am so strong that I can carry any man back +to the stretchers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> across my back or in my arms. I have carried two at a +time. There were nineteen men in the trench, and I made the twentieth. +Suddenly a machine gun found the range and mowed them all down like +cornstalks or wheat heads. Only I was left standing, bleeding under my +left ribs. I raised my voice and praised God for my surety of +immortality, and then fell. While I was practically dying in the +hospital with a clip in my lung I got suddenly and unaccountably well +and strong, and felt I must come back to try and help others to see what +we must see to assure every man of his immortality. When the race +awakens to that fact there will be no more use for machine guns. I may +not help much, but I can only try. Perhaps I do only work through the +emotions as yet, but I believe that my ministry will have its fruits. I +can wait." And the humility and patience in his voice beat against my +heart and bruised it so that I cried out.</p> + +<p>"Oh, why did you come here?" I positively moaned, as he and I both rose +and I put out my hand as if to force him out of that aloneness in which +we stood together.</p> + +<p>"America must lead the world in spiritual as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> well as material +regeneration, and this is the only real and dispassionate America, with +no foreign pull on its vitals. You must wake up; the cry has been heard +to 'Come over and help.' Why do you fight the—"</p> + +<p>"I can't help fighting. I must do what I conscientiously believe—" I +was saying with my hand still outstretched against him, when suddenly +the still place around us was invaded with a crash and its invisible +walls thrown down.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte!" came in Nickols' languid, fascinating voice that always +draws me to the edge of his world. "And Greg Goodloe, by all that is +good and holy—in tennis flannels!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>BREASTING THE GALE</h3> + + +<p>In the radiant moonlight I saw the lithe muscles of the Jaguar grow taut +and stiff, and I felt rather than saw his long, strong hands clench +themselves. I was about to stretch out my arms and ward off something +that seemed like danger to Nickols, standing down at the bottom of the +steps, smiling up at us in the moonlight with his mocking, fascinating +smile, when suddenly the anger seemed to flow away from the body of the +parson and he smiled down into the upturned eyes with great gentleness +as we started down the steps together.</p> + +<p>"I didn't interrupt the salvation of Charlotte's soul, did I?" Nickols +asked, as he took my outstretched hand in his left hand and raised it to +his lips as he held out his right to the Reverend Mr. Goodloe. So real +had been that fraction of an instant when I had stood between the two +men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> that I almost felt the sensation of alarm a second time as I saw +Nickols' slender, magical, artist's fingers laid in the slim, powerful +hand of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, but the gentle voice reassured me as +the Harpeth Jaguar answered the intruder, or what he must have felt to +be the intruder, for I had something of that feeling myself at the +advent of my lover at the moment he had chosen for his arrival.</p> + +<p>"The trouble began about apple dumplings and hard sauce," I said, as +quickly as my wits would act.</p> + +<p>"How are you, Nickols Powers, since we separated 'somewhere in France,' +you with your sketch books and I with my hospital stretchers? I got a +dandy lung clip; did you bring away any lead?" And the parson's voice +was gentle and cordial and full of a laughing reminiscence.</p> + +<p>"Didn't smell powder after I left you," answered Nickols, as we all +ascended the steps and stood in a group before the door. "I got my books +full of sketches of bits of treasures that the war might destroy, and +beat it back to civilization. Did the Madonna of the Red Cross you had +in tow come across as sentimentally as was threatened?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> Nickols' voice +was as cordial as the Reverend Goodloe's, but something in me made me +resent the question and the manner it was asked.</p> + +<p>"She was killed in a field hospital just a few weeks after we left +her—'somewhere in France.' She got God's welcome!" was the answer that +came to the laughing question in a quiet, reverent voice. And as he +spoke the parson started down the steps, then turned for his farewell.</p> + +<p>"That—or sweet oblivion," said Nickols, as he came to the edge of the +steps and looked down at the Harpeth Jaguar coolly. I again got the +sense of danger from the tall, lithe figure that stood in the moonlight, +radiant before us in the shadow. "We'll contest that point warmly while +we contest the meeting house Charlotte writes me that you planted in our +garden—of Eden."</p> + +<p>"I can contest—if I must," was the serene answer that came back at us +from over the white silk-clad shoulder. "Good night, both of you, and I +hope to see you both again soon. Smell the lilacs bursting bud in your +garden—of Eden!" With which farewell he left us to our greetings.</p> + +<p>"That's some man to be lost in the ranks of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> shibboleths," said +Nickols with generous ease, as we watched the last glint of the moon on +the yellow head disappearing around the corner. "Degrees from three old +colleges, millions, women lovers in millions, all thrown away to sing +psalms for a few rustics in little old Goodloets. Can you beat it? But, +blast him, he can't take away my loving welcome with his fatal beauty," +and as he spoke, with a tender laugh Nickols held out his arms to me. I +went into them and he held me close.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't stay away—with Goodloe and the meeting house in the ring +against me," he whispered, and he tried to raise my head for the kiss I +had been holding from him all the long winter of our engagement, +claiming to want it only under the roof of the Poplars. I burrowed my +face in his shoulder and held to him with such fervor that it was +impossible for him to raise my head.</p> + +<p>"Not yet," was my muffled pleading.</p> + +<p>"Again, damn that huge blond giant for being in the way of my getting my +own on the first-sight wave," said Nickols with a good-humored laugh, as +he pushed me from him. "Take your time. I like ripe fruit—and kisses. +Did you say Goodloe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> had come over to steal apple dumplings and you had +caught him in the act? I never was so hungry before and one of Mrs. +Dabney's apple dumplings with that hard sugar stuff smothered with +cream—well, of course I could wait until breakfast, but I'd be mighty +weak. Your night train carries no dining car."</p> + +<p>"I feel sure that there is at least a half panful in the pantry; let's +go see," I answered with delight at the practical turn the scene had +taken, and I led him into the dark house, turned on one or two lights +and went with him back into the culinary department of the Poplars.</p> + +<p>And as I had predicted so we found the larder supplied. With a huge +plate of the pastry encrusted apples, smothered with all the cream from +one of Mammy's pans of milk, and a tall bottle from the sideboard, +Nickols led the way out of the long windows onto the south balcony over +which the moon, now high in the heavens, poured the radiance of a +new-toned daylight. I followed him with some glasses and sugar and a +bowl of cracked ice that I had found in its usual place in the corner of +the refrigerator.</p> + +<p>"Pretty good substitute for the affectionate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> sweet I thought of all the +way down from New York," said Nickols with an adorable laugh, as he +lifted the first spoonful, dripping with cream, to his mouth. Then with +the food almost bestowed he paused and looked out beyond the garden +toward the chapel, which loomed up gray and shimmering in the silver +light.</p> + +<p>"Great heavens!" he ejaculated, and for a long minute the spoon was +poised while his eyes fairly devoured the scene spread out before him +against the background of Paradise Ridge.</p> + +<p>"If you don't like it we can get rid of it," I said, as I poured his +drink over the ice tinkling against the side of the glass.</p> + +<p>"Not like it!" exclaimed Nickols, as he rose with the spoonful of +dumplings dashed back into the plate. "That is the most wonderful and +beautiful landscape effect I have ever beheld. That is just what our +garden needed. I suppose I would have seen it and put some sort of a +pavilion there, but that squat and perfect old church would have been +beyond me."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm glad!" I exclaimed, as he sank back on the step beside me, took +the glass from my hand, drank deeply and this time began a determined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> +attack upon the plate in his hand. And then as he ate I told him all +about father and his plans for the garden and his own improvement and to +what I hoped the work was leading him. But somehow I couldn't bring +myself to describe the scene which had that night been enacted in the +garden—I couldn't. "Oh, I am so glad you are not furious and will maybe +be willing to encourage him, even if it does mean to encourage the +Methodist Church and the minister thereof. You are wonderful, Nickols," +I finished with a squeeze of his arm that very nearly jostled the cream +out of the spoon upon his gray tweed trousers.</p> + +<p>"I'd be a wonderful ass not to take advantage of Judge Nickols Powers' +brain and money, plus Gregory Goodloe's brain and training and money +combined, to get a result that will be worth a hundred thousand dollars +to me and all the fame I can conveniently wear. Encourage 'em? Just +watch me! Only what the judge thinks will take two years can be done in +one season if we get experts down to do it, which we will. Trees two +hundred years old <i>can</i> be moved for a few thousand dollars, as well as +plants in bloom that would require years to transplant. I know the man +to do it:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> Wilkerson of White Plains. I'll telegraph him in the +morning."</p> + +<p>"He won't interfere with—with father, will he?" I asked anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Not a bit—he'll just make what the judge and Gregory plan for year +after next, grow and bloom there in a couple of months. Wilkerson is not +a creator, he's just nature keyed up to the <i>n</i>th power. And also I'll +give him for a bait the Jeffries estate I was hesitating about making a +bid for. All the big fellows are after it. Old man Jeffries has made two +barrels of money in the last ten years in oil and he is going to build +an estate up on the Hudson that will make the world gasp. I hadn't put +in a bid, but this idea of the judge's and Greg's, with the whole +village grouped about it, has given me the keynote to win the thing from +the whole bunch of American architects. He wants the village built as +well as the estate. That American garden idea will bowl him over. He's +progressively and rabidly American. The bids don't close until December, +so I'll have time to get real photographs and sketches. Me for the +reformed judge and the parson!"</p> + +<p>"This is the most wonderful thing I ever heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> and I want father pushed +to the limit with the planning. I don't care where the parson comes in, +just so I don't have to join the church to get the garden," I said, as I +tinkled the ice in Nickols' empty glass, while he consumed the last bit +of cream from the empty plate.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll join the church if it is needed to push the garden," said +Nickols with a laugh, as he lit a cigarette and puffed a smoke ring out +toward the gray little chapel. "Most people who join churches do it for +some kind of pull, social or business, or a respectability stamp or to +be white-washed. I'll put on a frock coat and pass the plate if it will +help the parson evolve another phase of gardenism."</p> + +<p>"Billy gets home from his poker game at the Last Chance, down in the +Settlement, on Sunday morning, just in time to bathe and get into his +frock coat to perform that office," I said with a laugh that had a hint +of recklessness tinged with contempt.</p> + +<p>"I'll see Billy through both ceremonials," said Nickols. "Has Billy come +into the fold?"</p> + +<p>"He has! So have all the rest," I answered. "I am the only black sheep +and they are all backsliding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> down on me. I am getting, and will get, +the blame of it all as a corrupter of public morals."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you join and then do as you please with the official stamp of +Christianity upon you?" Nickols asked, as he puffed comfortably away in +the moonlight.</p> + +<p>One of the things that cause me the deepest hurt is to try to get +Nickols to look down into my depths and read one, just any one, of the +hieroglyphics there. I know each time I open my nature to him he is +going to turn aside, and yet I will try. As his arm stole around me I +made another one of the attempts that I always know beforehand are +doomed to failure.</p> + +<p>"There is something in me, a quality of mind that seems to be judicial, +which insists that as a cold scheme for existence in this universe +nothing compares with that of life followed by eternal redemption +through personal effort interpreted by a mediator. The bare Christian +tenets have a nobility that it kills me to see belittled by the bored, +half-hearted observances of most of its protestants, who in turn are not +to be blamed for being half-hearted and bored by the dogmas and +restrictions and littleness with which the great bare<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> scheme has been +enmeshed and clothed. The Methodist Church positively forbids Billy to +play poker or drink, but it just as positively forbids him to see +Pavlowa dance or Beerbohm Tree play Falstaff or Forbes Robertson +incarnate Hamlet. And look at its wretched machinery—they allow a young +man to give his life and expect inspiration from him at six hundred +dollars a year with a wife and two dozen children, which he has been +encouraged to bring down upon himself, dependent on that same six +hundred dollars. The great men who are expected to direct our spiritual +destinies don't get as much money as many ordinary grocers and certainly +not enough to support their obligations with dignity. What is true of +the Methodist Church is true of all the rest, in perhaps a greater +degree. So with their smallness and their pettiness and their befogging +stupidity I feel that they may be denying thinkers like you and me the +use of their scheme and we'll have to find another for ourselves if we +want immortality."</p> + +<p>"Do we want that immortality?" asked Nickols easily. "This world is a +pretty good old place if you don't regard the 'shalt nots,' but isn't it +long<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> enough to live the allotted time? What do we want to do it all +over again for, that is, provided we do all the pleasant things while we +have the chance? I don't want to see any play twice, even a masterpiece. +I wouldn't want to live again unless I had been a Christian in this life +and felt that I wanted to come back and do a lot of the things I had +just heard about and previously hadn't tried."</p> + +<p>"Certainly I wouldn't want another life that is as unsatisfied as this," +I murmured, more to myself than to Nickols.</p> + +<p>"Do the things that satisfy," he urged again, and I could see a deviltry +dancing at me out of the corner of his eyes that I resented deeply +without exactly knowing why.</p> + +<p>"Harriet Henderson can't get Mark Morgan's love or—his children, and +Nell Morgan is unattainable for Billy. Though they have all the world's +goods and go a pace that pleases them, they are unsatisfied. If they +don't get the new deal that immortality promises they lose the whole +thing," I answered straight out from the shoulder. "And what about those +who die in infancy and—and you and me?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span></p> + +<p>"If you'll just kiss me and hush preaching to me I'll be entirely +satisfied and ready to die as soon as I have lifted that fifty thousand +out of old Jeffries with the judge's and the Reverend Gregory's garden +and done a few more commissions. Try kissing me and see if you don't +feel more cheerful," Nickols answered with a laugh, as he drew me close +to him. I sadly shut up the doors of my depths, warded off the +kiss—why, I didn't know—and persuaded him to go up to his rooms which +I had seen Sallie and Dabney put in order that afternoon.</p> + +<p>It was midnight when I parted with Nickols at the head of the old +winding stairs in the fragrant darkness, lit only by the silver light of +the night from a long window at the front of the hall. He held me close +for a half second as he whispered:</p> + +<p>"Let me make you happy. I understand."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand, and until I do I'd make you miserable, dear," I +whispered back as I drew myself out of his reluctant arms and went into +my own door.</p> + +<p>Then for a long midnight hour I stood at my deep window and looked out +over the garden, past<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> the squat steeple silvering beyond the lilac +hedge, to Paradise Ridge in the dim distance, and tried to read my own +hieroglyphics. I needed help. Nickols had come after me to Goodloets in +a spirit of gentle determination and I knew the fight would be to the +finish. And why should I fight? Any woman ought to be proud to marry +Nickols Morris Powers, especially a woman who had loved him since her +heart had been developed to the knowledge of love. Very unostentatiously +and with perfect good taste Nickols had let me see that Marie VanClive +with her Knickerbocker ancestry and her Manhattan land-grants fortune +was very decidedly interested in him in her cultured and perfected young +way, and young Mrs. Houston had herself shown me the same thing on one +of the week-end flights we had had on her yacht. And beyond all that my +own heart told me that Nickols was desirable. His gentleness and his +tenderness and his daring and his humor were irresistible to a woman. +And his lazy acquiescence in life was peaceful and inviting to my own +strenuosity. I felt as if I had always been an eagle breasting the gale +with no place to alight, and now Nickols was calling to me from an +eyrie<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> on a mountain side to come and rest and be mated and comforted.</p> + +<p>"I'm tired of loneliness and I think I'll drift and be happy," I +murmured, as I fell asleep with my back to the silver steeple against +the dim hills.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>INTO BRAMBLES</h3> + + +<p>The next morning I awoke with the same resolve in my heart, to be happy +if wicked, and proceeded to execute it with a great vigor. And in the +execution of that resolve dear old Goodloets almost had some of the moss +of its century's repose scraped off of its back.</p> + +<p>First and foremost, we all danced, day and night. We had really begun +the giddy whirl the summer before when we had built the little clubhouse +over in the oak grove by the river's edge, just between the Town and the +Settlement, so that we would no longer feel the limit and limitations to +our gliding of anybody's double parlors, and conservative Goodloets had +been duly shocked thereat.</p> + +<p>"Ladies did not dance outside of their own and their friends' private +homes in my day," Mrs. Cockrell had sighed, as she finished the petal +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> the rose she was embroidering upon some of Letitia's lingerie.</p> + +<p>"I'd rather they danced in their den of iniquity than to execute these +modern gyrations in my home," had responded Harriet's mother, Mrs. +Sproul, as she finished the hundredth round on the shawl she was +knitting. Harriet's report of the conversation had been received with +great hilarity that evening at dinner at the Club.</p> + +<p>But Goodloets had had a year in which to recover from the shock of the +institution of the Country Club when I started in to enjoy myself. +Having church services there on Sundays and Wednesdays during the winter +had done much to remove the prejudice in the minds of the conservative. +I suspected the Reverend Mr. Goodloe of a great deal of worldly wisdom +when I saw how he had been able to persuade the directors, Hampton +Dibrell and Mark and Cliff, to let him do such a weird thing. Mrs. +Sproul and Mrs. Cockrell and their friends had first been tolled out to +prayer meeting and then had come to witness a tennis match. Billy, in +great glee, recounted to me the first time they had stayed to dinner +with him and father and Mr. Cockrell. They had been enjoying<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> the prayer +meetings to the utmost and had come out with Mother Spurlock by mistake +on a Tuesday night, which was the regular dinner dance night. It was +some time before they discovered their mistake, for they were immensely +enjoying their visit with Mother Spurlock, and when the dancing began +Billy had seized Mother Elsie in his arms and danced her the whole +length of the room. The music had been too much for her feet in their +sensible shoes, and very suddenly they had unfolded their wings after +thirty long years of rest and had fairly flown up and down and backwards +and forwards with Billy's in a sedate version of one of the phases of +the tango. Mrs. George Spurlock had been the best dancer in Goodloets +when time was young.</p> + +<p>"Do you think that it was the devil that tempted you, Mother Elsie?" I +asked her about it one day when she had a leisure moment for teasing.</p> + +<p>"Effie Burns' youngest baby was born exactly while I was dancing, and we +will have six months' trouble with her because her band was not put on +properly," was her answer, as she took up her parcel of five pairs of +only slightly worn stockings that five girls in the Settlement needed +worse than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> I needed darns, and departed in a great hurry. "Oh, but you +should have seen Hattie Sproul's eyes while I danced," she called back +over her shoulder as she went through the gate.</p> + +<p>And so in the second summer of the Club's existence there had been no +bridle upon its gayeties—I had almost used the word license, and I +suppose it would have been a just one under the circumstances. Billy +called it "The Bucket of the Lost Lid," and every individual member did +exactly as he or she chose. The sideboard out on the back porch made as +good a bar as any in the state with old Uncle Wilks to officiate, and in +the wing in one of the private dining rooms a huge wheel stood with its +face to the wall during the day, but came complacently out of its corner +when night descended. On the porch could always be found either Mrs. +James Knight or Mrs. Buford Cunningham. They neither of them had +children, hated home and were serenely happy sitting on the front porch +knitting silk scarfs and gossiping with all comers, while James and +Buford hung around the sideboard at the back. They were institutions and +all of the unmarried boys and girls, men and women, widowed and +widowered,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> came and went at will, with the liberty that the chaperonage +of their certain presence allowed.</p> + +<p>"Suppose one of 'em should fall dead and the other have to attend her +funeral," Nickols remarked one Saturday night at a dinner table not more +than twelve feet away from the two couples. "The scandal that would soon +disrupt this town for lack of their free chaperonage would be like an +earthquake. None of you would have a shred of respectability with which +to drape yourselves to appear in public."</p> + +<p>"They don't wear much respectability anyway in the eyes of the +Settlement," said Billy, as he mixed the champagne cup with old Wilks +standing admiringly by. "The floor manager ordered Luella May Spain off +the floor at the dance they had in the lodge room over the Last Chance +last Saturday night for appearing in one of Harriet's last year dancing +frocks Mother Spurlock had collected for her, though they do say that +Luella May had sewed in two inches of tucker and put in sleeves. How's +that for an opinion passed upon the high and mighty from the meek and +lowly?"</p> + +<p>"I'd been in mourning a year. That was my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> coming out gown and I felt—" +Harriet was saying when Billy laughed and interrupted her.</p> + +<p>"And you came out, Harriet dear," he assured her, as he poured her +champagne cup and his and signaled Wilks to serve the rest of us.</p> + +<p>On the surface all of the joy that most of Goodloets was having was real +and brilliant and spontaneous, all the dancing and drinking and high +playing, but under the surface there were dark currents that ran in many +directions. Young Ted Montgomery and Billy played poker one Saturday +night until daylight out at the Club, and Bessie Thornton and Grace +Payne had "staid by" and were having bacon and eggs with them when the +sun rose. Judge Payne, Grace's father, has been a widower ten years and +Grace, with the four younger "pains," as Billy calls them, has run wild +away from him and her grandmother, old Madam Payne, who lives in a world +of crochet needles and silk thread with Mrs. Cockrell and Mrs. Sproul. +One night I went with Billy in his car to take Grace home and he had to +wait until I tiptoed to her room with my arm around her and put her to +bed, while Harriet was doing the same thing with Bessie Thornton. Those +girls are not much<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> over twenty and they are only a little more +"liberated," as they call it, than the rest of their friends. Ted +Montgomery loves Grace, when he is himself and not at the card table, +but what chance have they to form a union of any solidity and +permanence? Billy's nephew, Clive Harvey, has always loved Bessie +Thornton, but he is teller in the Goodloets bank and almost never sees +her. He is one of the stewards in the Harpeth Jaguar's church, and the +suffering on his slim young face hurts me like a blow every time I meet +him. What's going to satisfy him, no matter what pace he should choose +to go or how many things he is driven by unhappiness to indulge himself +in?</p> + +<p>And it was true that everything done up in the town had its effect down +in the Settlement. The lodge hall over the Last Chance was the only hall +available for the young people in the Settlement to dance, and the bar +of the East Chance, at which old Jacob Ensley officiated, was no better +stocked than the lockers at the Country Club. And all of us knew that +very frequently Billy and Nickols and the rest of our friends went down +to dance and drink with the girls from the mills and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> shops. Billy +had told me once that Milly Burt, who stays at the cigar stand in the +Goodloe Hotel in Goodloets, dances so much like me and is so perfumed +with my especial sachet from France, Mother Spurlock having collected +the chiffon blouse from me for her to wear at the entertainment of the +Epworth League, that he came very near addressing her by my name in +giving her the invitation to the dance.</p> + +<p>"Settlement or Town, they all add up to the sum of girl," he laughed, as +he told me about that Saturday night frolic in the Last Chance.</p> + +<p>It was the day after Billy's account of the ball at the Last Chance, in +which Luella May and Milly and the rest had frolicked in what ought to +have been a perfectly harmless way, that Mother Spurlock came to spend +the afternoon with me and in which we wrestled until I was almost on the +mat—not quite.</p> + +<p>"Goodloets has always been the gayest town in the state, but it has now +reached the place of the most wicked," she said, after a few preliminary +shots had been exchanged. "Every dignity of tradition seems to have been +dropped and everybody is dance or play or drink or speed mad. You<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> are +the most influential personality in the whole town and I want you to +call a halt."</p> + +<p>"But aren't they all happy? Isn't everybody getting the most out of +life? The men are all working to their capacity and making more money +than they ever have before. Why shouldn't they play hard?" I answered +her, as I seated myself in the broad window seat of my room opposite the +wide maternal ancestral rocker she had chosen.</p> + +<p>"Are they happy?" she asked, with her keen eyes on my face.</p> + +<p>"They seem to be," I parried.</p> + +<p>"Well, as far as personal happiness is concerned I think it is not worth +talking about. It is the good of the whole for which I am working, for +which I am contending to-day. What you women do, who are not obliged to +add to the work of the world that you may live in it, is not of any +great importance; it is for the toilers in the vineyard that I plead. +The girls and young men in this town cannot dance and drink and play all +night and do the constructive work of the community in the daytime. If +Luella May Spain falls asleep or nods at her typewriter and fails to get +out the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> telegram to you or Nickols which Mr. Tate has shouted to her +off the keys, do you excuse her because she has been fatiguing herself +until midnight trying to learn some new dance that Billy Harvey has +brought down to the Last Chance from your Country Club? You would not! +She would be fired on your complaint."</p> + +<p>"But are we responsible for how the girls and men in the Settlement +spend their evenings?" I demanded with a fine show of indignation, but +with a thrill of fear in my heart. There has always been something in +Luella May Spain's shy and admiring glances that drew me and I have +always lingered to chat with her a few minutes if business called me +into the station. The last time I had spoken to her, not a week before, +she had seemed pale and listless and had answered me with indifference.</p> + +<p>"You and your class are the ones in power and what you do and what you +think is a moral influence that reaches and permeates every soul in this +town. You are not about your Father's business; and those less powerful +of brain and character follow you in by-paths from the straight road. +They are his Little Ones and you lead their feet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> into brambles. Oh, +Charlotte!" And Mother Spurlock stretched out her hands to me in +entreaty.</p> + +<p>"I'm not a leader," I denied her. "I don't see a foot ahead of me. I'm +not worth anything. I'm just living and trying to have a good time doing +it. You have got a leader, there over the hedge; why don't they follow +him and not me?"</p> + +<p>"Before you came Gregory Goodloe had services three times a week at your +Country Club, at which the Settlement met the Town. You were not willing +that even those few hours should be given over to the learning of the +Father's will from one whose mind and soul are ready to teach, and you +swept away his pews and his influence. And your dance tunes, to which +even I yielded, ring in the ears of his flock to drown out the echoes of +God's hymns. And now those who had begun to lean on him and to follow +him are turning to persecute him. When Jacob Ensley is drunk he openly +charges him with inveigling Martha away and hiding her. He was in a +dangerous state one night a week ago and Billy Harvey had to lock him up +in his own wine cellar to keep him and a few of his hangers-on from +'going after the parson,'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> who was down there praying with old Jennie +Neil as she died. He doesn't know his danger from Jacob and I think +Billy ought to tell him. All Goodloets has admired and aped you since +your birth, and now that you discountenance him they are again following +you. There were only ten people at prayer meeting last night in the +chapel, and the Wednesday before you turned him out of the Club which +had offered him its hospitality, there were one hundred and thirty, +Settlement and Town about evenly represented. You are responsible for +that prayer meeting last night. You may be responsible for the result of +one of Jacob's drunken fits. Sometime you'll have to answer for what you +do."</p> + +<p>"No, Mother Spurlock, I'm not responsible for the failure of Gregory +Goodloe to get to the heart of your people and hold them happy to his +services and observances, and I'm certainly not responsible for his +personal safety. What he offers is not enough to satisfy. His members +prefer their Country Club and their Last Chance and their knitting and +embroidery. What we all need from the Country Club to the Last Chance is +something that makes us want to be constructive, race constructive,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> so +that life will be desirable on through immortality, if there is such a +thing. I can't get a glimpse of it. Can you?" and I questioned her +beseechingly.</p> + +<p>"I can. I do! I have faith in my Father's plan to lead me through 'deep +waters' into 'pleasant pastures,'" she answered me, as her eyes looked +past me out at Paradise Ridge beyond the chapel.</p> + +<p>"Then give it to me," I demanded.</p> + +<p>"I can't. You must seek it yourself, and when you get it you will be +able to pour it out into the hearts of others as living water. I serve +by using my two talents of mercy and love, but God will some day give +you ten and you will have to return an hundred fold. He has given the +ten to Gregory Goodloe, and now is the night of his despair, but his +morning will dawn. You can't dance down and drink down and gamble down +and lust down a man like that. He can bide his time until his sheep come +to the fold to be fed and warmed in his bosom."</p> + +<p>"What practical thing can I do to make you believe that I do not mean to +pull down any structure that another human is building up with the hope +it is for the good of the whole, Mother Spurlock?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> I demanded of her, +goaded to the last point of endurance.</p> + +<p>"The dedication services of the chapel will be next Sunday. Come, bring +Nickols and your father, and let the Town and Settlement see your +respect for Mr. Goodloe and for his church," she demanded, as she rose +to go, with patient defeat but a lingering hope in her voice and manner.</p> + +<p>"Endorse something that means nothing to me?" I asked with pained +patience. "You say the people follow me; shall I lead them to drink from +a spring that I consider dry, that is dry and has no water for my +thirst? No, Mother Spurlock, if the people among whom I have been born +trust me I will only lead them by going into paths I know and in which I +walk for my own good or pleasure."</p> + +<p>"To the Last Chance?"</p> + +<p>"At least they get joy there that makes toil easier or offsets the +grind," I answered her.</p> + +<p>"Is that your final—" she was asking me with her deep, wise old eyes +searching me, when she was interrupted by the banging open of my door +and the inburst of young Charlotte, young James as ever at her heels, +with Sue clinging to his hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> To-day, however, Charlotte had added one +to her cohorts, for she led by the hand a very dirty specimen of the +masculine gender, somewhat larger than herself and with a flaming red +head.</p> + +<p>"This is Mikey Burns, Aunt Charlotte, and he's a nice little boy that's +dirty and hungry because his mother has got seven like him. Won't you +wash him and feed him so we can play with him? The preacher cleaned up +four for us to play with yesterday and they are still clean enough. If +you clean Mikey I can have a baseball nine, with Sue to get the balls +that we don't hit. She gets balls nicely and Mikey throws lots +straighter than I can. Jimmy can hit 'em, too, with a wide stick."</p> + +<p>"I tan git 'em," declaimed small Sue with great pride.</p> + +<p>"I can pitch 'em," also declared Mikey, with evident desire to back up +his patroness. "But not as good as her," and his admiration amounted to +adoration, as he raised his young eyes to Charlotte.</p> + +<p>"You see, Oh, you see, even to the second generation they follow," +laughed Mother Spurlock, as she escaped through the door and left me +with my practical demonstration of class leadership.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Wash him, Auntie Charlotte, wash him," Charlotte continued to insist. +"I made Jimmy steal some of his things for him while nurse was +downstairs. Here they are," and young James, the thief and +aforementioned murderer, gave up his stolen goods. "And Mr. Nickols says +that all the Settlement children will go to school with us in the nice +schoolhouse he and Judge Powers and Minister are going to build in front +of Mother Spurlock's orchard. That is a law and then we'll have good +times, all of us. There is not many children in the Town and they are +all too dressed up, but it is a million down in the Settlement and we +are going to have two baseball nines and two armies to battle with. I +asked Mr. Nickols to have a place to wash the Settlements and he said he +had thought of that and is going to have five shower baths. If you'll +just wash Mikey for me I'll help you. I can attend to Jimmy's ears for +nurse real good, can't I, Jimmy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," responded Jimmy with brotherly pride.</p> + +<p>"No," remonstrated Mikey with abject fear, for the sake of his ears or +propriety I was not sure.</p> + +<p>I got past the question by motioning him into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> my bathroom and sending +Charlotte and Sue to bring Dabney. Dabney is Charlotte's slave and was +soon under way to execute her commands upon Mikey while I beguiled her +from the superintendence thereof down into the garden with me, where +from my window I could see Nickols and father in deep conclave over some +drawings. Father had discarded his Henry Clay costume and looked young +and alive in some of Nickols' flannels and linen. They looked up with +interest as I came down the flagstone walk with Charlotte trotting on my +one side and wee Sue clinging on the other.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you have come, daughter," said father, as he held up one of +the large blue prints before me. "Now you can help Nickols and me locate +the exact spot for the public school building. See, here is the public +square of Goodloets, with the courthouse in the middle."</p> + +<p>"That courthouse is as good as any minor <i>hotels de ville</i> in any of the +small towns in France," said Nickols, as he came and stood beside me, +looking over my shoulder at the map. "The Farmers' Bank and one or two +of the very old brick stores are good, too," he added.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now, this is Main Street that leads past us down into the Settlement. +Here is the Poplars, here the chapel, and this is Elsie Spurlock's +house. Nickols and the parson are inclined to place the schoolhouse +right opposite, but I am afraid it is too near the Settlement and too +far from the Town. Do you suppose the Town children will be able to walk +so far?"</p> + +<p>"Do you really—really plan to have the Town and the Settlement go to +school together?" I gasped.</p> + +<p>"Well, Goodloe thinks that the ideal public school system is only to be +executed in a democratic—" father was saying, when Nickols interrupted +him.</p> + +<p>"What does it matter where the two and a half kids from the decadent old +families that are dying out go to school? Their sterile parents can +motor 'em down to education!" he exclaimed. "Right here is the logical +place for the school with the meadow behind it to give a bit of +distance, the oak grove back of that, the Country Club beyond, with the +river beginning to curve it in. It solidifies and unifies the landscape +of the whole town and puts all the community centers where they belong. +The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> Town and Settlement straggled a bit before, but the chapel and the +school will unite them! Braid says the schoolhouse can be built of +weathered stone and concrete and finished by September fifth, in time to +start school. Wilkerson can begin immediately putting out his hedges and +the Reverend Gregory is down there now finishing laying out the +playground with his ball park."</p> + +<p>"That's it—that's the baseball nine Dabney is washing Mikey for!" +exclaimed Charlotte, catching up with the conversation. "And when we all +go to school with the Settlements and they are clean some, and Mildred +Payne and Grace Sproul and some of the others get dirty a little, nobody +will know the difference and we can play ball and scouts and everything +Minister teaches us. That school makes enough children to do things. We +haven't got enough for anything, but the Settlements have, and it is +mighty good of them to come up and let us play with them."</p> + +<p>"Keep up with the times, Charlotte; don't be a back number. Miss +Olymphia Lassiter's school may have held you and Nell, but it will never +hold young Charlotte," Nickols jeered, as father began to roll up the +map and speak to a young man that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> the great Wilkerson of White Plains +had sent down to juggle with the flora and fauna of the Harpeth Valley.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>WATER AND OIL</h3> + + +<p>I turned from Nickols' raillery and surveyed the great American garden. +The weeks had flown from May to late July and father's plans were +beginning to be materialized. Where the sunken garden had been filled in +a wide stone well house, the like of which can be found at many of the +farmhouses in the Harpeth Valley, had been built and a chain wheel and +bucket drew up the water from the deep cistern, which was supplied with +underground pipes from the south wing of the Poplars.</p> + +<p>"There is no water as soft as open-top cistern water, aerated by a chain +and bucket," father had informed me, and he and Dabney consumed buckets +of it, while Mammy refused anything else for cooking purposes and +insisted on a nightly bath of it for my face. A white clematis in full +bloom clambered over the eaves of the low stone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> house and a blush rose +nodded at its door, beside which was placed a rough bench made of square +stones and two large slabs, equally moss-covered and worn.</p> + +<p>"It is growing to be perfectly wonderful, Nickols," I said, as if I had +seen it for the first time, while my eyes followed the sweep of the +flagstone walk from the well house beneath the old graybeard poplars out +past stretches of velvety lawn, with groups of shrubs and trees casting +deep shadows even to the kitchen garden, whose long rows of vegetables, +bordered with old-fashioned blooming herbs and savories, led the +observer out into the meadows to the Home Farm and beyond to the dim +line of Paradise Ridge. "It is different and distinctive and—and +American," I added.</p> + +<p>"After this garden and the school are finished and a few of the +unfortunate restorations taken away from some of the old houses, like +the porch at Mrs. Sproul's and that bathroom addition of Morgan's, I am +going to bring Jeffries down in his private car and it will be difficult +to keep him from offering to buy Goodloets and have it all shipped up +the Hudson. Really, Charlotte, we have seen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> a vision of the future +materialize here and we ought to stand with hats off."</p> + +<p>"Whose vision?" I asked, as I stood and let the truth of his statement +sink in.</p> + +<p>"The parson's spiritual vision perhaps filtering through your father's +mentality, which has welded past, present and future. At least, that is +the way I see it with the material eye, which is all I have to view it +with—if we can call the recognition of beauty and completeness +material."</p> + +<p>"Now Mikey is nice and clean and we can go to Minister to play, thank +you, Aunt Charlotte," at this point young Charlotte broke in to say, +thus flinging us a line to haul us out of depths that were slightly over +our heads. "Isn't he lovely?" And she gazed upon her new-found comrade +with open admiration and self-congratulation.</p> + +<p>And small Mikey was indeed a bonny kiddie attired in the very stylish +trousers and blouse of small James and shining with Dabney's valeting. +His nicely plastered red mop to some extent mitigated the effect of the +bare and scratched feet and his rollicking blue eyes over a nose as +tip-tilted as Charlotte's own bespoke his delight.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Anyway, me mother made the togs fer Jim," he asserted with great +independence, as he rammed his hands into the diminutive pockets in the +trousers.</p> + +<p>"Yes, she did, and Auntie Harriet paid her for a present to Jimmy. She +sews for us and not for Mikey and her other children, because her +husband drinks up his money and our husband don't. Come on, let's go +help Minister!" was the shot that Charlotte fired, as she departed down +the garden path with her cohorts.</p> + +<p>"What about that for democracy?" demanded Nickols, as he and father and +I all laughed together.</p> + +<p>That night at a dinner party Nell was giving I sat next to the Harpeth +Jaguar and talked to him for the first time in many weeks. I had been +avoiding him and I didn't mind admitting it to myself. There was +something disturbing and puzzling in his serene eyes and free, strong, +beautiful body that gave me a queer haunting pain back of my breast. +Into my scheme of doing those things in life that give pleasure and not +doing those things that give pain he somehow would not fit. He had +become as much a part of the social<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> fabric of Goodloets as was I, and +he came to our dinner parties, motored with us in his long, gray car and +was as happy with us seemingly as he was with that same gray car full of +small fry from the Settlement or going about the business of the chapel. +The car had always reminded me of his evening clothes, which were +straight and simple in line with the black silk vest cut up around the +collar buttoned in the back, but which were so fine in texture and +perfect in cut and fit that they seemed to be some kind of super clothes +that ought to be called by a name of their own, just as the people in +the Settlement had decided to call the car the "Chariot" as soon as they +had stopped resenting a parson's having it, from finding out how easy +were its cushions and how swift its ministrations in time of need.</p> + +<p>"Parson's Chariot, quick!" had moaned poor old Mrs. Kelly, when she had +slipped on Mrs. Burns' wet doorstep and dislocated her hip. Little Katie +Moore had been driven home as swiftly as if on wings after old Dr. +Harding had been overtaken, ten miles out on Providence Road, and had +used the back seat for an operating table while he put her small +splintered ankle in place between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> splints improvised by a long knife +from the car's kit.</p> + +<p>And from a distance I had wondered at the Reverend Gregory Goodloe, +wondered at his freedom from all resentment because of his ministerial +and spiritual failures and at his loving serenity and enjoyment of us +all. He partook of the joy in almost all of our adventures in pleasure, +and when we did things that in the nature of the case would seem to +merit his disapproval, he never administered it; he simply was not with +us, but was serenely about his business at the other end of the town +from the Country Club or the Last Chance, at whichever resort the +entertainment that did not interest him was in progress. He seemed +especially to enjoy coming to our dinner parties and he was such a +delight with his keen-bladed wit, his flow of joyous laughter and high +spirits and the music that bubbled up without accompaniment or denial +whenever we asked for it, that not a woman in town would invite the rest +to dine until she was sure of securing him first.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 350px;"> +<img src="images/illus186.jpg" width="350" height="501" alt=""I been upsot by my young mistis comin' home."" title="" /> +<span class="caption">"I been upsot by my young mistis comin' home."</span> +</div> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He's so economical," said Nell Morgan, as I helped her arrange her +guests for Mark's birthday dinner. While she talked I paused to consider +where to put Harriet Henderson and then dropped her card beside Mark's +with a little ache in my heart as I tucked Cliff Gray in by Jessie +Litton and left the place next Nell vacant for Billy. "People never +empty their champagne glasses when Mr. Goodloe gets to talking, and you +can put the extra bottles back in the cellar for next time. Do you +suppose he does it on purpose?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody could be as completely happy as he was at Jessie's Friday night +<i>on purpose</i>," I answered, as I laid the last card and went with Nell to +greet her first guests.</p> + +<p>After the soup I turned toward the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, whose card I +had placed next my own, and found him looking at me with a particular +softness in his eyes under the dull gold.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte's and Mikey's nine won twenty-eight to eighteen against Tommy +Braidy and Maudie Burns. Thank you for getting the pitcher into his +togs," he said, as he squared his shoulders slightly against the rest of +the world, the rest of the diners in particular, and bent toward me in +just that deferential angle that a man uses when he wants to signal to +the others that for a limited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> time he desires sole possession of the +woman dining next to him.</p> + +<p>"Your mixing of water and oil in the educational scheme is interesting +me greatly," I answered him with a laugh. "Do you really think it will +succeed?"</p> + +<p>"Any kind of kingdom can be built in the heart of a child, an oligarchy, +a democracy or a republic," he answered quickly. "Your name-daughter is +a born socialist."</p> + +<p>"She and James are murderers and liars and thieves and are wholly +engaging. Sue is fast learning from them the habits of their underworld +and is asleep upstairs now with Harriet's silver and jade chain, which +she brought home with her without the knowledge of the owner this +afternoon. What are you going to do about them? I take it you intend to +build a kingdom in and of their hearts."</p> + +<p>"Weed 'em, like Dabney and I did your dahlia bank ten times at least +this spring. You didn't help with the dahlias, but maybe you will with +the young Tenderloiners." His eyes entreated mine with a soft radiance +that almost made me dizzy.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't know weeds from flowers, 'Minister,'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> I answered with +prompt denial of his plea, but with a soft use of the children's name +for him.</p> + +<p>"I don't always know. Let's study botany—together," he again hazarded +daringly, and from the tenderness that suddenly curved his strong mouth +I knew my soft answer had hit its mark. "Are you coming to the +dedication of the chapel a week from Sunday?" He asked me the question +directly and with all his softness gone and a commanding note in his +voice and direct look. His jeweled eyes were so deep back under their +dull gold brows that between the bars of black lashes they looked like +stars shining down through a radiant night. They threw their rays +directly down into my heart and I could see that their owner was reading +the hieroglyphics of my uncertainties and that I could not hide them +from him.</p> + +<p>"I am not," I answered him with the frankness that his gaze compelled.</p> + +<p>"I'll not dedicate it until you help me do it and—" he was saying +quietly and positively, when Billy broke in over the excluding shoulder. +Billy really adores Gregory Goodloe, but he enjoys going to the limit of +his ministerial endurance. Over that limit he has never stepped and he +never<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> will; none of them ever will, for there is that in the Harpeth +Jaguar which commands the very essence of respect for himself as well as +his cloth.</p> + +<p>"Say, Parson, what's that about the dedication of the chapel?" he asked, +as he twirled his champagne glass to break a few bubbles. "Charlotte and +Nickols are going to give Harriet and me that tennis dressing down +Sunday week if you don't need us to dedicate with."</p> + +<p>"No, I won't need you," answered the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, in an easy +agreeable voice, but that had in it the note that he always uses to make +Billy halt. "I'm not going to dedicate it yet."</p> + +<p>"Why?" came in a perfect chorus.</p> + +<p>"I've been working night and day on that altar cloth because I depended +on you to know the date of the dedication of your own church. I have +danced only once this week," said Letitia Cockrell, with her usual bland +directness.</p> + +<p>"The communion service from Gorham's has been packed away unopened in my +office a week," Hampton added in an aggrieved voice. "They hurried it +for us and it has to be sent back, piece at a time, to be marked."</p> + +<p>"The baptismal font is perfectly beautiful and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> I want the Suckling +sprinkled from it first. If you don't hurry she will get old enough to +misbehave herself. I know I promised, but I have decided that I can +never have the others baptized now, they are too bad," said Nell, as she +paused and listened for some sort of explosion from above as she did +every minute or two.</p> + +<p>"I'll rope Charlotte and drag her to the altar for you, and Mark can sit +on her feet while the parson sprinkles," offered Billy, and they all +laughed at the picture that he conjured, which seemed to be in keeping +with many scenes we had witnessed in the life of small Charlotte.</p> + +<p>"That won't be necessary. She will stand before me with folded hands +when her time comes," answered Mr. Goodloe, after he had laughed as +heartily as anybody else at Billy's threat. "The greatest difficulty +will be in persuading her to allow me to conduct my own services."</p> + +<p>"But what did you put off the dedication date for?" demanded Letitia, +with the hurry over the altar cloth still rankling.</p> + +<p>"I put off the dedication of the chapel until all of the people for whom +I cared deeply, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> cooperation with me is positively necessary, +should be ready to come and help me in the services. When that time +comes I will have the dedication. It may be a year and it may be +a—day," the parson answered with cool directness.</p> + +<p>"If you mean Charlotte, the offer I made for young Charlotte holds +good," said Billy with positive glee. "If you want her I'll rope her and +drag her in and the rest of you can bid for who holds her down while +being branded."</p> + +<p>"And my answer to your generous offer, Billy Harvey, is—" Mr. Goodloe +paused and looked at me, and Jessie giggled with nervousness—"the same +that I made to your offer about the constraining of young Charlotte."</p> + +<p>"Still it would be great sport to see both the Charlottes—" Billy was +saying, when a servant brought a note on his tray and handed it to Mr. +Goodloe, who glanced at it and then hurriedly opened and read it.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry, Mrs. Morgan, but will you let me answer this summons?" he +asked, and there was the regret in his rich voice of a great boy at +being snatched from a feast. "I am so hungry," he added with a laugh.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Come back later. I'll save some of everything for you," said Nell +pleadingly.</p> + +<p>"I will if I can," he answered. There was an excited smoulder in the +stars under the dull gold that made me restless and my eyes sought and +claimed his for a second in which a quick flash of the jeweled +tenderness of comprehension was flashed into my depths.</p> + +<p>"Good-bye, everybody," he said, and in a second was out of the dining +room and we could hear him running down the steps.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, if he just wasn't a preacher," sighed Harriet. "I suppose +somebody in the Settlement is dead or borned or drunk, and he has to go +and see about it. I wish—"</p> + +<p>"Great Jehovah!" exclaimed Billy, as he suddenly jumped to his feet. +"Ensley is fighting drunk and has the gang around the Last Chance. +Parson's life isn't worth a tinker's damn if he runs foul of them with +all that talk about Martha Ensley and Jacob's threat. She came back last +night and Goodloe threatened to have Jacob arrested for beating her. +Come on, Nickols, and let's follow him. We'll be enough. The rest of you +go on eating, drinking and merrying because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> old Mark was born. We'll +come right back just as soon as we see that all is serene on the Potomac +of the Last Chance." And with a last hasty gulp at his wine glass Billy +followed Nickols out of the room. Nickols was both white and livid and +the expression of his face frightened me, for I knew that Billy would +minimize any kind of danger in the presence of a woman while Nickols +would not take that trouble.</p> + +<p>It was with a queer breathlessness that we all sat before our wine +glasses in the midst of the perfume from the rich food and dying flowers +and waited—for what we didn't know.</p> + +<p>Then it came!</p> + +<p>A shot rang out clear and clean in the darkness and was quickly followed +by three barking echoes from a repeater.</p> + +<p>And there seated in my chair in the brilliantly lighted room, blocks +away from the scene, I felt a bullet thud against dull gold.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>A BIT OF RAW LIFE</h3> + + +<p>I don't know by what means of personal transportation my body was +carried down the street to the public square and to the pavement in +front of the courthouse, but I found myself standing there over a woman +who had raised Gregory Goodloe's head on her arm and was drawing deep, +hard sobs as she held a handkerchief to stanch a flow of blood that +showed crimson in the flash from Nickols' electric cigar lighter.</p> + +<p>"'When men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of +evil against you falsely for my sake—'" I quoted to myself softly as I +stood and looked down on the prostrate figure of the big lithe Harpeth +Jaguar while Billy struggled with a man a little way off in the darkness +and Nickols shut off the light and went to his aid. I didn't know +exactly where the words that rose so suddenly from my heart to my lips +had come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> from, and I only vaguely understood them, but I seemed to be +saying them without my own volition.</p> + +<p>"Yes, my God, yes, that's what they've done to him," sobbed Martha as +she looked up, peering at me through the darkness. "Pa is drunk, Miss +Charlotte; and the rest egged him on. This is the only friend I've got +and they've killed him."</p> + +<p>"Not by a good deal, Martha," came in a hearty grand opera voice just as +I dropped on my knee, and in time to stop me from taking that bleeding +gold head on my own breast and—"Jacob's bullet just clipped me but its +impact was as good as his fist would have been, which I wish he had +used." And as he spoke the wounded parson sprang lithely to his feet and +left us two women kneeling before him. In an instant a thought of Mary +and the Magdalen flashed through my brain as he bent to raise me to my +feet, while Martha crouched away from us in the dark.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte?" he questioned softly, as if not willing to believe the +witness of his hands and eyes, muffled by the starry darkness.</p> + +<p>"Young Charlotte stones you and Jacob shoots<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> you, and I—" I both +sobbed and laughed as I clung to his hand just as I heard Billy and +Nickols throw the cursing, panting man to the ground not ten feet away.</p> + +<p>"Now then, Parson, we've got Jacob down and out. Nickols has got his +foot on his neck and I've got his pistol. What do you want done with +him?" Billy interrupted me pantingly to demand.</p> + +<p>"Let him up," answered Mr. Goodloe, as he gently extricated himself from +my clinging hand and went over to the scene of the conflict. "Had +enough, Jacob?" he asked just as gently as he had unhanded himself from +me.</p> + +<p>"I'll have had enough when I put you where you can't entice my girl +again," answered Jacob as he rose slowly to his feet. As he spoke Billy +went and stood beside the parson and Nickols stepped behind them into +the shadow in which Martha crouched.</p> + +<p>"You know that is not true, Jacob. I helped Martha to go away to a place +of safety to earn her living and keep her honesty. Isn't that so, +Martha?" the rich voice softly asked the woman crouching in the dark.</p> + +<p>"I told him that but he wouldn't believe me and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> the others don't," she +answered with a sob that was almost a shudder of fear.</p> + +<p>"What did she come back fer then?" demanded Jacob. "Answer me that. And +didn't she go straight to your preaching and praying joint like all the +other women, fine and sluts, do?" The liquor was still burning in +Jacob's head but at those words he got a response from the impact of +Billy's fist that again laid him low.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I dasn't say nothing. I dasn't," moaned Martha, as she clutched at +my skirts just as Nell and Hampton began to arrive on the scene of +action, followed by Harriet and Mark and the others. They were all +panting and wild with anxiety. They had taken the wrong turning at the +end of the square and had gone around the block, thus giving the little +tragedy time to enact itself before a mercifully small audience.</p> + +<p>"Go away quickly, Martha, in the shadow," I bent and whispered to the +trembling woman, and I didn't know where the sympathy in my voice came +from as I stood between her and the rest while she slipped behind an old +horse block before the court house gate and off in the darkness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> towards +the Settlement before they had noticed her presence.</p> + +<p>"Anybody hurt? What's the matter?" gasped Mark as he seized hold of the +Reverend Mr. Goodloe's arm.</p> + +<p>"Nothing serious," answered the parson in a voice that calmed the others +like oil on choppy water. "Jacob Ensley is out on a drunk and Billy had +to knock him down to quiet him. All of you go back to dinner quickly, +for I don't see why Sergeant Rogers should get Jacob this time. Billy +will help me get him home and I'll remonstrate with him when he is +sober. I'd rather do it at the Last Chance than at the jail. Jacob is a +leading citizen and I don't want a jail smirch on him. I intend to use +him later. Now all of you go. Go!" His voice was as gently positive as +if he had been speaking to a lot of children and nobody seemed even to +think of rebelling but we all began to fade away into the starlight as +rapidly as we had assembled and more quietly.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, and bless you," he said to me, as I went past him in the +darkness, and for just a second I suspected that his hand was laid on my +black braids but I was not sure. I knew the gratitude<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> was for my +getting Martha off the scene of action so quietly and swiftly.</p> + +<p>"A bit of raw life for you, Charlotte," Nickols remarked as he went with +me through the fragrant night back to Mark's and Nell's feast. "The +eternal girl, two-men melee."</p> + +<p>"In this case it was girl—three men, the third skunking it," I answered +in words as coarse and as forcible as the scene I had just witnessed. +"I'd like to get my bare hands around the throat of the man who is +hiding behind Martha and that little child."</p> + +<p>"That remark from you, my dear Charlotte, just goes to show that when +women get even the smell of bloodshed they become fiercer than the +male," said Nickols with a cool laugh that further infuriated me.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do feel like a female jaguar," I answered hotly and then +collapsed inside at the use of that name for myself in conjunction with +my secret title for the Reverend Mr. Goodloe.</p> + +<p>"It would be better if you felt yourself in the character of a ferret if +you intend to go out on a still hunt for all unacknowledged paternity, +even in dear, simple, little old Goodloets," Nickols<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> further jeered as +we came up the steps of the Morgan house from where the others were just +going into the dining room to resume their eating and drinking and being +merry.</p> + +<p>"I'll find that one man," I answered as I swept into the dining room, +seated myself in my place and drained my glass of flat wine.</p> + +<p>"Heaven help him!" laughed Nickols wickedly, and he raised Mr. Goodloe's +full glass as he slipped into his place beside me.</p> + +<p>For a week after the shooting fray my soul sulked darkly in its tent and +meditated while I went on my usual gay rounds of self-enjoyment. The +garden was being brought to a most glorious mid-August triumph and the +inhabitants for miles around were coming to see it. All of father's old +friends, from whom he had shrunk in the last years, hung around him in +the old way. He sat with them under the old graybeard poplars around +which had been planted a plantation of slim young larches by the wizard +of White Plains. From discussions about gardening and Americanisms all +the old Solons of the local bar, and even of the towns around, gradually +led their fallen leader back into his place and were battling with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> him +over politics and jurisprudence as they had in past days. The day I went +into his library to ask father about employing another likely black +garden boy that Dabney had discovered, and found him, Judge Monfort from +over at Hillcrest in the third district, Mr. Cockrell and Mr. Sproul +around his table deep in huge volumes from the shelves, buried in a +cloud of tobacco smoke and argument in which Latin words flew back and +forth, I went up to my room and stood helpless before my window looking +out towards Paradise Ridge.</p> + +<p>"I want to thank somebody and there is nobody to thank," I whispered, +with a great emptiness within me. That was the bitterest cry of need my +heart had ever given forth, and I went swiftly down to Nickols in the +garden and told him what I had seen and heard.</p> + +<p>"It really is a remarkable come-back, sweetheart," he said, with the +most exquisite sympathy in his voice and face. "Mark Morgan told me just +an hour ago that they want to have him appointed back to his old place +on the bench and Mr. Cockrell answered the President's inquiry for a man +from this section for the Commerce<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> Commission with the judge's name. +It'll be great to see the old boy on one of the seats of the mighty +again, thanks to the sweat of his brow and mind in this village +manifestation of American nationalism which has grown out of our little +old garden plan."</p> + +<p>"What can a man or woman do to render gratitude if there seems to be +nobody to take it, Nickols?" I asked him, not expecting, as usual, that +he would understand me. For once he did.</p> + +<p>"The philosophies all teach 'hand it on' in that case," he answered me.</p> + +<p>"I'll hand it on to Martha Ensley and help her and her child to their +place under the sun," I said slowly, thus by having a reason and an +obligation back of it, ratifying the vow I had already taken.</p> + +<p>"That is an impossibility," answered Nickols with easy coolness. "The +one 'come-back' that is impossible is the woman in that kind of a +situation."</p> + +<p>"I'll never admit such an injustice as that," I said, and I had a queer +premonition that I would be held to that declaration.</p> + +<p>The very next morning after my declaration of purpose to "hand on" my +father's "come-back" I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> went down into the Settlement to hunt for Martha +Ensley, not that I was really suffering about her, but because I felt a +kind of obligation to begin at once a thing that it appealed to my sense +of justice to accomplish.</p> + +<p>Sometimes in mid-August there comes down a night over the hot, lush, +maturing Harpeth Valley which is like a benediction that sprinkles cool +dew on a thirsting heart. And now the morning was cool and brilliant, +with the sun evaporating the heavy dew in soft clouds of perfume from +the grain fields, the meadows and the upturned soil out where the +farmers were breaking ground after the first harvests. I felt strong and +calm and full of an electric energy, which I found I needed before I had +more than started my quest.</p> + +<p>I put on my tennis clothes, snowy from collar to shoe tips, like the +trappings of the White Knight, and started to walk down into the +Settlement to find Martha. I intended to stop at Mother Spurlock's +"Little House Beside the Road," and some vague idea was in my mind of +having her dispatch a messenger to summons Martha to the interview I was +about to bestow upon her. That is not the way it all happened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> and I was +hot and dusty and sweat-drenched before I had been on my quest more than +a few hours.</p> + +<p>Mother Elsie was not at home. The door to the Little House was wide +open, as it always is when cold or rain does not close it, and huge old +Tabby with one eye purred on the doorstep in the sun. A bird was nesting +in the wisteria vine above the door and her soft whirring bespoke an +interesting domestic event as near at hand. It did not in the least +disturb Tab, and I wondered at the harmony between traditional enemies +that I met on Mother Spurlock's very doorstep. I went in and drew myself +a drink of fresh cool water from the cistern at the back door, looked in +a tin box over the kitchen table and took three crisp tea cakes +therefrom. I picked up a half knitted sock from beside the huge split +rocker in the shade of the gnarled old apple tree, which was a rooftree +in every sense of the word, for it crowded close against the door and +hovered in the whole tiny house. Just before I left I put all the loose +change I had in my white linen skirt pocket in an old lacquered tea +canister which had a slit in it cut with a can opener, and that stood +on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> the shelf of the old rock chimney in the low living room. I had +never heard that canister mentioned by Mother Spurlock and I don't know +how I knew that out of it came the emergency funds for many a crisis in +the Settlement. Then last I picked a blush rose from the monthly bloomer +trailing up and over the window and laid it on the empty, worn old Bible +on the wide arm of the rocker beside a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles. +Then I hesitated. I had been so sure of finding Mother Spurlock at home +and having her hunt up Martha for me that I found it difficult to adjust +myself to my first complexity of plans. And while I hesitated a resolve +came into my mind with the completeness of a spoken direction.</p> + +<p>"She lives at the Last Chance and I'll go right down there and find +her," I said to myself, as I started along the peony-bordered path to +the front gate of the Little House, over which a huge late snowball was +drooping, loaded down with snowy balls that would hold their own until +almost the time for frost. At my own decision I had a delicious little +feeling of fear, which was at least justifiable when I thought of that +huge drunken figure wrestling with Billy in the darkness and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> whom I +knew to be the proprietor of the resort into which I had determined to +penetrate. Also, from my early youth I had heard Jacob Ensley and the +Last Chance spoken of in tones of dread disapproval. Before I should +become really frightened I hurried down the hill, past the squalid and +tumble-down mill cottages which I had never really seen before, where it +seemed to me millions of children swarmed in and around and about, and +at last arrived at the infamous social center of the Settlement.</p> + +<p>And my astonishment was profound to find that the Last Chance sign hung +over a very prosperous grocery with boxes and barrels of provender out +on the pavement under an awning and with huge, newly-painted screen +doors guarding the wide entrance, at which I hesitated.</p> + +<p>"Come right in, lady, come right in," called a cheerful, booming man's +voice, and the door was swung open by a large man in a white apron, with +blue eyes that crinkled at the corners, a wide smile and white hair. +"What can we do for you to-day? We've a nice lot of late dewberries just +in from over on Paradise Ridge."</p> + +<p>"I'm—I'm looking for the—the Last Chance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> Saloon," I faltered, because +I was too astonished to utter anything but the truth to the delightful +and tenderly solicitous man standing before me in his huge, clean white +apron over his blue shirt that matched his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well, lady," the nice Irish voice faltered a trifle, about as mine had, +though plainly with controlled astonishment tinged with amusement, +"could I get you anything to—to cool you off and bring it out here in +the grocery? It is cooler than it is back at the bar. I said to myself +jest last week, so I did, I said to myself, 'Jacob, you ought to get a +sody-water fountain for the ladies what has the same right to thirst as +a man.' And I will, too, if my bad luck just leaves me. How about a nice +cool bottle of beer sitting comfortable here before the counter?"</p> + +<p>"Are you—<i>you</i>—Jacob—I mean—Mr. Jacob Ensley?" I further gasped. +This daylight materialization of the grewsome beast of the night was too +much for me.</p> + +<p>"Jacob Ensley at your service, Miss," he answered with easy dignity. +"Now, will it be the bottle of beer I shall bring you? Or there's a new +drink I might mix fer you that a young gentleman<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> friend of mine from +New York has taught me, and with a good Irish name of Thomas +Collins—the drink, not the young gentleman." Nickols had been living on +Tom Collins for the last month and I instantly knew that I recognized +the young friend from New York. Also my wits were at a branching of the +road and I didn't know just what to do or say as Jacob waited with easy +courtesy for my decision. And again I was too much perturbed for +invention and had to speak out the truth.</p> + +<p>"I'm Charlotte Powers, Mr. Ensley, and I came down to see your daughter, +Martha," I said, looking directly into his clear friendly eyes which I +saw instantly darken with a storm as the smile left his nice mouth and +it hardened into a straight line.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, Miss Powers, but my Martha ain't at home right now to you, +and I don't know when she will be. Is that all I can do for you? These +berries now, from over at Paradise Ridge?" And with the ease of a man of +the great upper world Jacob Ensley of the lower walks of life put me out +of the door of his private life into the ranks of the meddler and shut +it in my face. I acknowledged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> to myself that my rebuff was justifiable +and I was about to make an exit from the scene as gracefully as possible +with a box of the really delicious berries under my arm when a cry of +terror in a child's voice came from somewhere at the back of the grocery +and together the grocer and I ran to see what the matter could be. And +at the heels of the proprietor I then penetrated the blind of the +grocery and entered the Last Chance.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>THE TENACIOUS TURTLE</h3> + + +<p>"It's Martha's Stray," the big man gasped in a kind of impatient alarm. +"I just left him here a minute ago to go front." Together he and I +started around the long room with its bar on the one side backed up by a +mirror whose gilt frame was swathed in mosquito netting and on either +side of which were shelves bearing pyramids of bottles. On the bar at +one end were piled oranges and at the other lemons and limes whose +sophistication seemed out of place somehow in the Settlement in the +Harpeth Valley. All the trappings that I judge would go with the +dispensing of liquor were present, but our eyes could discover no small +child and we stood together and waited anxiously.</p> + +<p>"He's got me toe, me toe, and won't let go. He's chewing it off!" at +last came a lusty yell from just outside a back door that led out into a +side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> yard from behind the bar, and with one accord the proprietor of +the Last Chance and I ran to the scene of the devouring. And as we ran I +heard a door slam in the rooms back of the bar and we met Martha face to +face on the scene of action. I shall never forget the picture that +confronted me there in that little back yard upon which the bar of the +Last Chance opened, and I somehow never want to.</p> + +<p>On a little grass plot a small boy danced and yelled and firmly to one +of the capering feet was hung a large mud turtle which was flapped this +way and that by the strenuous young leg, but which held on with +apparently every intention of letting only the traditional thunder +loosen its grasp on the pink prize.</p> + +<p>"Stand still, you Stray, and let me get at the varmint," commanded Jacob +impatiently.</p> + +<p>"Let mother get the beast, sonny," Martha pleaded as she knelt on the +grass and caught the dancing boy by his arm and brought his dervish +gyrations to a halt.</p> + +<p>I stood unconscious of intrusion and absorbed with interest and watched +the operations begun on the tenacious turtle and the writhing toe.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> +Neither of the three principals in the action noticed me at all as +Martha held the boy and Jacob bent and took hold of the turtle in his +hard brown spotted shell. And as the operations for his liberation were +begun the small boy became both still and quiet and I was able to get a +good view of him as he leaned against his mother's shoulder and held out +the foot to Jacob.</p> + +<p>As I looked at him something queer stirred in me with a sharp pain and +then was quiet. He was the most delicious bit of five-year-old humanity +I had ever beheld and I doubt if any childless woman could have seen +such a child cuddle to another woman's breast and shoulder and not have +had something of the same thrill of pain. His whiteness and pinkness and +sturdy chubbiness were like many another infant's charms but his jet +black top-knot that ascended on one side and cascaded over his ear on +the other in a hauntingly familiar way, his violet eyes under their long +lashes and his clear-cut, firm, commanding mouth, that curled into the +bud of a rose as he sobbed and then unfolded into lines of beauty and +strength as he hushed at his mother's comforting,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> were not like any +other young human that I had ever beheld.</p> + +<p>"It hurts. It hurts!" he sobbed.</p> + +<p>"Hush, <i>you</i> mustn't cry!" commanded Martha, and there was a little +bitter emphasis on the "you" that cut me, I didn't exactly know why.</p> + +<p>And immediately the curled mouth was set in a firm line and the long +lashes winked back tears.</p> + +<p>"The beast will not leave go at all," was Jacob's verdict as after a +careful twisting and turning of the ugly turtle he rose to his feet. +"And they do say to kill it lets a venom into the place it is holt of. I +dunno what to do." And in his uncertainty Jacob's eyes sought my face +while at the same instant Martha lifted her wistful eyes to mine. It was +the instinctive turning of the masses to the domination of my class in +the time of need of leadership.</p> + +<p>"You git it, lady," suddenly demanded the kiddie, and in his voice and +glance there was none of the deferring to a superior force that I felt +in the others but a decided command of that force. And as he spoke he +stretched out an imperious hand that caught and clung to mine. "Git down +and git it," he again commanded.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Have you any ammonia, Martha?" I asked, my wits responding gallantly to +the sudden demand upon their biological knowledge.</p> + +<p>"I've some in the chist behind the bar. Times I uses it strong on heavy +drunks," responded Jacob and he went quickly into the bar and returned +with the bottle. "It's customers in the grocery and customers at the bar +that I'm keeping waiting fooling along with the brat and the varmint," +he grumbled.</p> + +<p>"I can manage the turtle and you can go and attend to the customers," I +answered, thus assuming calmly the command of the craft of the Last +Chance. Jacob immediately took me at my word and disappeared into the +bar.</p> + +<p>"Let's take him and lay him on the bed so we can muffle the turtle in a +towel while we use the ammonia," I said to Martha.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Martha, "that will be best. Let mother carry you, +sonny!" and Martha bent as if to lift him in her arms.</p> + +<p>"I kin hop," the young sufferer announced. "I'm too big to carry, I am," +he added with proud consideration in his glance at Martha's frailness.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll carry you and mother can carry the turtle," I answered, and to +prevent further delay I lifted him in my strong arms while Martha took +the turtle in her hands, protected by the gingham apron that she wore. +The black head wilted against my breast and the serious young violet +eyes were raised to mine in frightened confidence.</p> + +<p>"It's a mighty big turkle," he faltered and snuggled closer.</p> + +<p>"We'll get him," I reassured, as I laid him on a bed in a room that +opened, as did the bar, out on the tiny yard.</p> + +<p>And as I had promised we performed upon that stubborn turtle. With a +convulsion, as the ammonia fumes entered his nostrils, if he had such +things, he let go of the toe, shuddered and withdrew into his shell, to +die, I supposed, though I afterwards learned that he crawled off in the +night, much to the kiddie's grief.</p> + +<p>"That's a bad smell, poor old turkle," was all the thanks I got as the +sufferer climbed down from the bed and proceeded to seize his late enemy +in intrepid and sympathetic hands. His mother rescued both him and the +turtle by placing the latter in a bucket on a table at the window and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> +giving the rescued another bucket to get me a drink of water from the +well in the yard.</p> + +<p>"Northeast, bottom corner," he promised me with hospitality shining from +his entire face as he experimentally hopped out into the yard, then +forgot me and the water entirely in making the acquaintance of a very +dirty little dog that was barking at him through the fence.</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's lovely, Martha," I said, speaking from pure impulse in a way +that could not fail to carry conviction and melt the heart of any woman +who possessed a treasure like that.</p> + +<p>"I know he is, Miss Charlotte," Martha answered with gentle bitterness, +"and that makes it all the worse for him."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't; it can't be worse for anybody to be born as beautiful and +strong as that boy is," I answered her and felt somehow I had fallen +head foremost into my mission. "I came down here to see you, Martha, and +now that I have seen him—I—it's—it's a shame, all of it," I ended by +faltering with a total lack of the eloquence that I felt.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it's just that—a shame," Martha admitted to me with a great +hopelessness in her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> black eyes. "And nothing can make it better."</p> + +<p>"Something can be done!" I answered hotly. "You are young, Martha, and +he's a baby. You can get out of it all and you can get him out and begin +all over. I—I'll help you." And as I spoke I took her hand in mine. +Mine was brown and hard from tennis and Martha's from toil, but they met +and clung.</p> + +<p>"I—I tried that, Miss Charlotte. I had to come back," answered Martha, +and a bitter passion suddenly lit her pale face. "I'm too young to be +let go—yet."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, Martha?" I asked, and suddenly I felt that some kind +of chasm had yawned at my feet that I had never suspected to exist +before.</p> + +<p>"Don't ask me, Miss Charlotte," Martha answered as the passion died out +of her face and voice and the sorrow fell over her like a shadow.</p> + +<p>"Do you remember that afternoon at Mother Spurlock's when we were ten, +and you climbed the tree and got the apples, while I picked them up for +her to make apple turn-overs for us?" I asked her suddenly as I held on +to her hand when she tried to draw it from me. "I cried for a week<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> to +go and see you, Martha, and it was all wrong that I wasn't allowed. My +mother would have let me come if she had been alive, but Mammy was an +ignorant negro and didn't understand."</p> + +<p>"I cried for you, too," answered Martha, as the saddest smile I had ever +seen came across the darkness of her face. "And when you was a young +lady I crept up to the south window of the Poplars and saw you in your +dress for the big coming-out party. You were like an angel from Heaven +and I loved you. I wanted to be like you. All us girls did. They have +always envied you and watched you, but I loved you. I did! I did, +but—what chanct has a girl like me got against a man who's like—like +you are? But I did love you; I did!"</p> + +<p>"It doesn't seem right to—to either of us to have kept us apart," I +faltered, as Martha suddenly slipped to the floor at my feet and put her +head in her hands.</p> + +<p>"Don't be kind to me—I can't stand that. You mustn't, you mustn't! You +wouldn't if you knew," she sobbed.</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> going to be—that is, I <i>am</i> going to help you, Martha, and you +have got to show me how,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> I answered her as a kind of determination +that was stronger than any like emotion I had ever had came over me. +"Tell me what to do, Martha, for you and—and for the kiddie," I +commanded her with my usual imperiousness.</p> + +<p>"Miss Charlotte," said Martha, as she suddenly rose to her knees, looked +up into my face and bared her shoulder with one motion of her hand, +"that black bruise is from the licks father gave me when I wouldn't tell +him why it was I came back after I went away and why it was I went. He +beat me three times to make me tell whose that boy is—when he wasn't a +month old. He knew that Mr. Goodloe helped me to go away three months +ago and—and begin again, and he don't really believe that the parson +enticed me back. The gang just put that in his head when he was +drinking. He does think that Mr. Goodloe knows about it all and I'm +afraid—afraid that some time when he's drunk he'll try to make him tell +and—and—there'll be murder, maybe double murder. I can't tell you +anything. I'm a fly caught in a web and I'm being drawn down to hell. I +thought there was a way out; the parson prayed with me and I saw it. I +saw myself right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> and honest again, but—but at a word I—I came back. +Even the good of the child couldn't hold me when the—the calling came. +Please go and leave me, and forget about me and—and don't come down +here again."</p> + +<p>"No, Martha, I must help you," I answered, decidedly. I had never been +able to bear any kind of frustration and this made me doubly determined.</p> + +<p>"It's too late, Miss Charlotte, but, Oh, it ain't too late for some of +the others. Luella May and Sadie Todd and the rest. Miss Charlotte, make +the Town men let 'em alone, and stop the Saturday night games and dances +down here. You can do it. Pa would kill me for saying it, for it is then +he makes his money, but it isn't fair, it isn't fair. You Town women do +the same things, but you are protected and looked after. When Grace +Payne gets drunk at your Country Club you take her home yourself and see +no harm comes to her, and the men she's with protect her from +themselves, but it's not the same with Luella May Spain and—and me."</p> + +<p>"How did you know about Grace, Martha?" I faltered with terror in my +heart. I felt a kind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> of class nakedness that made me burn with positive +physical shame.</p> + +<p>"They all watch and talk about what you do, Miss Charlotte, you +especially, because you are more beautiful and more—more strong than +the rest. They all said you'd smash our going to the church meetings +with the Town folks at the Country Club when you got home. But I always +stand up that you are right and you are. The Town on the hill and the +Settlement in the valley are better—better apart. That's why I'm +begging you to go and leave me to fight it out or go under. Please go!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, but, Martha, I didn't—I don't—" I was beginning to falter a +denial to what had suddenly struck me as a truth when we were +interrupted by the advent of Martha's child, the Stray, as I afterwards +found was the only name he possessed, one cruelly indicative of his +relation to the social structure of the world into which he had +involuntarily been born.</p> + +<p>"Bottom of the well, northeast corner," he said, as he set a bucket of +water at my feet with a jolt that dashed a small wave over my white +buckskins, and he held out a dipper full to me with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> little twirling +motion that sent another wave on my skirt and which had an unmistakably +professional knack to it. I have seen old Wilks set down beer steins and +cocktail glasses with exactly that twirl ever since he has officiated at +the lockers and sideboard at the Club, and I now know that his motions +had the latest Last Chance style to them. Thus, by gossamer links and +steel cable, the Town and the Settlement seemed to be held together.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me for spilling the water on you," added the young scion of the +bartender with grave courtesy, as he held a very dirty little paddie +under the drip of the dipper and elevated the drink for me in such a way +that I had to steady the small hand that held the handle with mine as I +drank.</p> + +<p>"Oh, son, how careless!" Martha was just exclaiming when a call in +Jacob's sharp voice interrupted her.</p> + +<p>"Martha, grocery!" it commanded her and I was not sure whether he was +ignorant of the fact that I was still her caller or was interrupting her +on purpose. I think Martha shared the same uncertainty; she blushed and +looked both ashamed and frightened.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll go now, Martha, out this door that leads onto the street," I +hastened to say to relieve her of the dilemma. "But I'm coming back to +you," I added with determination, as I made ready to slip out the side +door of the Last Chance in regular underworld style.</p> + +<p>"Please don't, Miss Charlotte," she called, as she was passing through +the other door into the world from which I was escaping. The sad +significance of our two exits struck me so forcibly that I was two +blocks away before I really became conscious of things around me, and +then I was brought back to the squalid street of the Settlement and its +surroundings by feeling a damp little hand slipped into mine as I strode +along.</p> + +<p>"Please take me with you, Miss Lady," the Stray pleaded, as he ran along +beside me, trying to keep up with my long steps. "I've got me a dog now +to keep off turkles from me and you." And the slinking brindle bunch of +ears and tail and very little else, at our heels, regarded me with the +same brave entreaty. He and the Stray, indeed, presented a picture of +chivalrous attention as they stood regarding me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But what will your mother say?" I asked of my small human attendant +with conscientious contention against my desire to take them both with +me on out of the dirt and heat and flies and other swarming young humans +up into the coolness and shade and—loneliness—of my own life.</p> + +<p>"She groceries all day and has to forget me," he answered calmly. "You +can bring me back to bed when she is through." And to this plea was +added a pathetic wag of the brindle tail.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll take you up as far as Mother Spurlock's and give you both a +tea cake," I capitulated as I started again up the street of the +Settlement towards the haven of the Town.</p> + +<p>And as my escort and I progressed through the Settlement I could see the +most violent signs of interest being manifested in all of us. Dirty, +sweaty women, with their sleeves rolled up, came to the doors to look at +us, and as I greeted them one and all with a nod they smiled back with +pleased astonishment. I had never been down in the Settlement before, +but most of them spoke to me by name and one toothless old woman hastily +broke off a bloom from a struggling geranium,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> came to her rickety gate +and offered it to me with an admiring smile.</p> + +<p>"Bless my soul, Miss Charlotte, be you a-kidnappin' Martha's Stray?" she +asked, as I accepted it with enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"He and the dog are kidnapping me as far as Mother Spurlock's, and then +they'll let me go and come back," I answered, with a laugh, as we +started on. Not once had the strong little fingers let go of my hand as +we stood and talked and they only held the closer as we started climbing +the long, hot dusty hill to the Little House by the Side of the Road. +But in the long climb not once did the sturdy little legs lag or the +small arm drag on my strength. The clasp was one of equality and +affectionate attraction, not of dependence.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>THE SHORT-CIRCUIT</h3> + + +<p>And at last we arrived at the old snowball guarding the open gate of the +Little House and we went under its low boughs and up the walk. But we +did not march to an undisputed and stealthy raid on the tea cake box +above the kitchen table. The Little House was no longer the deserted +scene I had left it, but was teeming with human and juvenile activities +which streamed out to meet us at the door.</p> + +<p>"You can't come in here, Auntie Charlotte," was the command that greeted +me at the very doorstep as young Charlotte faced me with short skirts +outspread determinedly, while behind her Mikey of the red head, Jimmy, +Sue, Maudie, the sister of Mikey, and other known and unknown juveniles, +presented a solid support of defiance. "We are doing some Lord's work +and we don't need you, but we'll let the nice little boy and the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> lovely +dog come in. We do need them. Come in, little boy!" and as she spoke +Charlotte held out a welcoming hand to the Stray, who faltered and +looked up into my face to see if he might accept the invitation which +evidently swayed him by its commanding tone.</p> + +<p>"Couldn't I come in for just a second?" I asked with all due meekness.</p> + +<p>"Not for even a second," answered Charlotte sternly. "You'd interrupt +Minister. You go away and leave the boy."</p> + +<p>"Then how'll I get him back to his mother?" I pleaded, but as I spoke I +allowed the little fingers to slip from mine and I pushed the waif +towards Charlotte with the greatest confidence, which evidently +communicated itself to both him and the dog, for they left me +simultaneously and went towards the enemy's camp.</p> + +<p>"Shoo, it's only little Stray Ensley. I'll take him home when I go," the +redoubtable Mikey assured me with a wide smile at the kiddie, which was +answered with a rapture of hero worship.</p> + +<p>"What's his name?" demanded Charlotte as if seeking a passport.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Just Stray," answered Mikey in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "He +ain't got no father, dead or alive."</p> + +<p>"Then Stray is just short for stranger, because everybody else has +fathers, dead, alive or drunk," said Charlotte, in the same +matter-of-fact tone that Mikey had used, and he in no way seemed to feel +her remark personally derogatory to his paternal parent.</p> + +<p>"Well, let's take him to Minister to be learned his verses of the song +and dance. Come on, for we are keeping him and the Lord waiting," said +Charlotte as she marshaled them all into the Little House and calmly +shut the door in my face and left me standing alone in the middle of the +walk. Even the yellow pup had squeezed into the door before it was shut +and only I was left in the outer darkness away from the grand opera +voice that I could hear booming with a juvenile chorus out at the back +of the cottage where I knew the rehearsal was being held under the twin +of the old apple tree from which the front roof tree over my head was +eternally separated by the Little House. With actual sadness and a queer +feeling of shut-outness I did the only thing left to me and sauntered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +slowly on up the hill under the tall old elm trees that the Town had +planted a century ago to keep the heat from the heads of the like of me +while the toilers down in the Settlement had no such proof of ancestral +care.</p> + +<p>"They are producing in the sweat of their brows while I—saunter," I +said to myself, as I stretched out my bare arm from which the white silk +sleeve had been rolled away after the prevailing mode of the sport for +which it was designed, and flexed and regarded the bunch of muscles that +knotted themselves on my smooth, tanned forearm.</p> + +<p>"It <i>could</i> swing a wash tub as well as the best racquet this side of +the Meadowbrook Club," I added aloud with a queer kind of primitive +shame mixed with my physical pride in myself.</p> + +<p>"Or juggle a heavy baby and a kitchen stove into a square meal?" added a +laughing voice as the Jaguar padded up beside my shoulder on his tennis +shoes before I had heard him at all, so deep was my absorption in my own +judgment and absolution of myself.</p> + +<p>"Still I was put out just a few minutes ago by a woman half my size," I +laughed in return as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> the long strides shortened into harmony with mine.</p> + +<p>"I heard about it and ran after you to ask you to come back or, if you +refused, to let me go with you wherever you are going. I left Mother +Spurlock in charge of the newly installed Epworth Leaguers. Charlotte +disapproved of my coming and said so," and we both laughed in delight +over my strenuous name-daughter.</p> + +<p>"Are you asking me <i>quo vadis?</i>" I demanded, with a look at him out of a +corner of my eye that got in return a glint of the jewels under dull +gold that always infuriated as well as interested me.</p> + +<p>"'Whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge—'" +the parson suddenly chanted under his breath, using the old Gregorian +measure for the few words of the oldest song of impersonal love extant. +"Thank you for bringing Martha's boy up to the Little House. Jacob has +refused both Mother Spurlock and me to let him come."</p> + +<p>"I didn't bring him. He and the pup brought me and then he was stolen +from me into the fold, as it were," I answered as I paused at the front +gate of the Poplars, which had a white clematis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> drifting over its tall +stone pillars and clutching at the straight iron bars as if trying to +keep me out of even my own fold. "Will you come in with me?" I asked +with a laugh, as I flung the old gate wide in spite of the tendril +fingers.</p> + +<p>The parson laughed, whistled a strain of his "whither thou goest" chant +to me and followed me across the lawn to the foot of the poplars. On the +bench surrounding their trunks I found my basket with the fine seam I +was sewing for the Suckling in it and I dropped upon the thick mat of +grass on the very edge of the shadow from the silver branches above and +began to hunt for my thimble, leaving the Jaguar standing over me.</p> + +<p>"Stop looking down on me and come tell me what particular religious +incantations were going on from which Charlotte so violently barred me," +I laughed up at him, as I threw a flat grass cushion a little way from +my skirts, upon which he immediately sank and seemed to curl up at my +feet.</p> + +<p>"I had the whole bunch rehearsing the children's part in the dedication +services of our chapel. Do you know that small Sue can really<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> sing? The +rest stagger well but Susan sings. It is delicious. It is going to be +hard on you women folks to hear her chant her responses to me on that +great day." And as he spoke he looked beyond me over to his beautiful +shimmering gray chapel and there was not a glint in his eyes that showed +me he was trying to sound out my intentions about attendance on that +ceremony.</p> + +<p>"Please, Mr. Goodloe, don't be serious in saying as you did last night +that you are not going to dedicate your chapel until I—I help you," in +all gentleness I said.</p> + +<p>"I can't do it until you come," he answered me with just as great +gentleness and he turned his head away from me, but not before I saw a +glow in his eyes that made me suddenly strong and calm and curiously +humble.</p> + +<p>"I—I could go as your guest," I faltered, offering a compromise which I +felt sure would not be accepted.</p> + +<p>"I can't, I just can't dedicate the chapel until you echo my ceremony in +your heart," he answered me with his eyes still turned away from me and +looking with the greatest sadness out on Paradise Ridge.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why?" I asked with a simple directness that the situation demanded and +with no trace of the coquetry the question might have held.</p> + +<p>"Shall I tell you all of the reason with no reservations?" the parson +asked, as he swung around on his mat and faced me, with his eyes looking +straight into mine.</p> + +<p>"All," I answered.</p> + +<p>"In every community there is one soul which holds the real leadership of +the souls of those surrounding them. God seems to appoint captains of +the regiments of His people to lead them along the way, Christ the +captain of all the hosts. Spiritually you are more evolved than any +other person in this town and with you doubting I cannot get the others +to see. You are so gorgeous and so brilliant that you blind them all. +They have always followed your lead—up or down. There are a few like +Mother Spurlock who have gained their Christ knowledge through +suffering, but they are not of the calibre to help others to gain +theirs. With your hand in mine I can make this whole community see and +know; separated from you, you going one way and I another, I can do +nothing. You simply short-circuit my force and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> I am helpless without +you." He spoke very simply and directly down into my heart.</p> + +<p>"That is not true; no one person is responsible for any spiritual +decision that another makes," I answered hotly with an awful sense of +having had a burden placed on my shoulders that they could not carry.</p> + +<p>"The old 'brother's keeper' question will never be settled in any but +the right way," he answered me straight from the shoulder. "You are +responsible for the attitude of this whole town towards the cause I +represent and they'll have to wait for your eyes to be opened and for +you to make them see."</p> + +<p>"You minimize yourself," I answered quickly, for in some curious way it +hurt me to see that great strong man sit at my feet baffled by a force +that he declared to be in me but which I did not acknowledge or +understand.</p> + +<p>"They were listening to me—from a distance, as it were—and I might +have made them hear if you had not come home and thrown them back into +the old pleasant groove of non-action and non-belief. In a week you had +swept away all I had builded in six months." He spoke with simple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> +conviction and not a trace of the bitterness that might have been in the +arraignment.</p> + +<p>"Everybody in this town adores you," were the words that gushed out of +my heart for his comforting before I could stop them. "That is one +reason I have acted as I have. I do not, I cannot believe that the +religion which is great enough to bring the redemption of the whole race +into a desirable immortality can be composed of nine-tenths emotion, +with which all of them were following your beautiful voice and beautiful +eyes and beautiful church and beautiful words. If I am to be saved it +will be by something sterner than that; it will be something that makes +me sweat drops of blood from my mind, take up a hard cross of duty and +work, work to make the fibre of my soul strong enough to enjoy the +robust kind of immortality that alone seems worth while to me. Your Son +of Man walked from town to town in the hot sun and taught the people, +healed the multitude and yet had not where to lay his head to rest. His +church has lost His vigor. Your whole scheme hasn't enough action in it. +Your organization is too easy and too full of surface observances. It is +conducted with slipshod<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> business methods and there is no force in it to +help me. If I join any church ever it will have to be a new one that can +compare with modern business in its efficiency. Your scheme of +redemption to immortality through an efficient mediation is perfectly +sound, but you don't back it up."</p> + +<p>"The Church of Christ has stood, endured and done business for almost +two thousand years," he answered quietly. "It is in some ways all you +say of it, but it has at least proved its vitality. Why seek to found a +new organization with a new head and a new scheme of immortality if you +recognize this scheme as good? The place to reorganize a business is +from the inside, not the outside. These people <i>must</i> get their vision +<i>now</i>. Will you come and help me?" As he spoke he looked again down into +the depths from which I had been trying to translate some of the +hieroglyphics to him and he held out his long powerful hand to me in an +entreaty that shook my very foundations.</p> + +<p>"You make me want to do as you ask me, but I do not see what it is we +should strive for, what it is from which we should be saved. There are +tears in my eyes but do you want my emotions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> without my reason?" And I +asked my question with a quiver almost of timidity.</p> + +<p>"No, both!" he answered me, as he dropped his hand and arm from their +attitude of entreaty, shook his head sadly and again turned from me and +looked out on the dim distance of Old Harpeth. Suddenly I had the +feeling of having a great door shut in my face, and a terror of being +left all alone in the world came over me. Without knowing what I did I +stretched out my hand and caught at his arm and moved closer to him, +suddenly cold in the sunshine.</p> + +<p>"I'm frightened," I whispered, as I bowed my head on my hand, clutching +his arm.</p> + +<p>"Poor little wandering, hunting lamb," he crooned to me as he laid a +tender hand on my bowed head. "Keep watch over her, Lord Jesus," he +prayed under his breath and then as suddenly as I had felt the fear I +found again my courage.</p> + +<p>"That cry was woman to man, not child to priest. It is only honest to +tell you so," I said, as I suddenly raised my head and threw another +gauntlet that I knew would bring on another battle. "I hate myself for +it."</p> + +<p>"I wanted to win you for God and have you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> come to me then as a gift +from Him, but it may have to be the other way round," was the answer he +struck out at me with, and as he spoke he clasped my hand in his with a +force that seemed to create the great silent, untenanted space around us +as it had that night he had sung the Tristan music to me in the +moonlight. "I'm going to save you and—and <i>have</i> you."</p> + +<p>"No, no!" I cried, as I tried to draw my hand away, found it held beyond +my effort and then suddenly released.</p> + +<p>"I knew the first minute I looked into your eyes, but I'll wait," he +said softly into the silence around us.</p> + +<p>"No, no, don't even think such a thing," I exclaimed, and I wanted to +rise to my feet and break the spell of that space around us, but I could +only cower closer to him on the grass beneath the rustling silver +leaves. "I'm going to marry Nickols in a few months and then I'm going +out of this world of yours and you can lead them all to—to safety."</p> + +<p>"No, it's in God's hands. He'll keep you and give you to me when the +time comes. It all may mean suffering to us both, probably does, but I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> +accept the cup—in His good time," and as he spoke he looked again into +my eyes with a lonely sadness that I could not endure.</p> + +<p>"I want to get away from you," I gasped and I felt that I must get out +of the aloneness with him.</p> + +<p>"We are in God's hands," he said again, as his warm hands found and held +mine. "We must wait on Him with—" Then suddenly the world closed in on +us again and we were on our feet—apart.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>ABIDE WITH ME</h3> + + +<p>"Auntie Charlotte, you stole Minister away from us in a no-fair way," +stormed Charlotte as she came around the young larches and wild swamp +root that had formed the world apart for the dangerous Jaguar and me. +"Mother Spurlock can't sing to any good and Sue is so little we gets the +key away from her. Let him come right back!" As she made this peremptory +demand for the release of my prisoner, my name-daughter stood her ground +with her cohorts, who had been scrambling around and over and through +the shrubbery, massed behind her. There were Mikey of the red head, +small James, the musical wee Susan, Maudie Burns and Jennie Todd, +besides several more of the Burns family, a few Sprouls and Paynes and a +very ragged young Jones, and they all looked at me with hostile and +accusing eyes as Charlotte hurled a final invective at me.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> "You are +wicked and the devil will burn you up," she threatened.</p> + +<p>"He won't neither, at all. Hush up!" came a defense and a command in a +very imperious young voice, and the Stray followed the voice from around +the large trunk of the oldest graybeard. He had arrived late on the +scene of action because his impedimenta had been the wriggling puppy of +brindle hue, which he immediately released as he came over and stood +between the Reverend Mr. Goodloe and me, with my hand in his own small +paddie and defiance and defense to the limit in his high-held young head +with its black crest and snapping violet eyes. At last I felt Charlotte +had met her match and I trembled for the result.</p> + +<p>"She never stoled nothing," he further declared, looking Charlotte full +in the eye.</p> + +<p>"I meant she tooken him away, Stranger," parleyed Charlotte with extreme +mildness for her and giving to the Stray the name that she had decided +upon by translating the cognomen of his state into that of another +almost equally forlorn. "My father told my Auntie Harriet that Aunt +Charlotte would git Minister yet and I'll call the devil to stop her if +she tries to get him away."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll bust that devil's head with a rock and a bad smell," answered the +Stray as he held tighter to my hand and hurled back his threat that held +a remembrance of the conquering of the tenacious turtle.</p> + +<p>"Auntie Harriet answered father that Auntie Charlotte and the devil +could do most anything that—" small James was contributing to the +general assault when with a wave of a calming hand Mr. Goodloe took the +field.</p> + +<p>"That will do, youngsters," he commanded with extreme mildness it seemed +to me, considering the appalling situation. "I thought you had had about +enough practice for to-day and Charlotte could have taught the little +boy—er—"</p> + +<p>"Stranger," prompted Charlotte.</p> + +<p>"You could have taught him up to the point you knew so I could have a +nice rest here under the lovely trees. Are you being kind to me in not +helping me a little bit? You know what you promised me." And the beloved +"Minister's" voice was just as grave and just as serious as if he had +been reproving one of his deacons.</p> + +<p>"Is talking to Auntie Charlotte and holding her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> hand the Lord's work?" +demanded Charlotte, looking him straight in the face.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered Mr. Goodloe, gravely, looking her as straight in the eye +as she had looked him.</p> + +<p>"Then come on, Stranger, and learn the march without any tune but Sue," +she said as she stretched out her hand to the Stray, who ignored it and +clung to me with his serious eyes raised to mine.</p> + +<p>"I'll go with you now over in the chapel and play for you on the organ +and then we can all teach him," said the parson, and he picked wee +Susan, the music box, up in his arms and buried his lips in the curls on +the back of her fragrant little neck.</p> + +<p>"Are you all done with Auntie Charlotte?" asked young Charlotte, with +the extreme of consideration for him, not for my feelings.</p> + +<p>"Yes, for the present," he answered, and he held out his free hand to +the Stray, who was still clinging to me.</p> + +<p>"Go with him, sonny, and Mikey will take you home," I said to my small +champion, using the tender name that I had heard Martha give him. As I +spoke I laid his hand in that of Mr. Goodloe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> and I didn't raise my eyes +to his but turned from them and left him standing in the midst of his +flock of lambs under the silver leaves and out in the bright light, +while I went into the cool dark hall and on up to my own room which was +also cool and dark.</p> + +<p>"I am lost and blind and I don't know what to do," I murmured as I flung +myself down on my window seat and looked through the narrow opening of +the shutters out to the everlasting hills across the valley. "I know I +am ineffective and perfectly worthless as I am but I will not, I will +not be swayed by—"</p> + +<p>"Charlotte," called father's voice with its commanding note which had +apparently come into it now to stay.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered, and went down immediately, glad of the interruption +to my self-communion and arraignment.</p> + +<p>I found father and Nickols and Mark Morgan and Billy Harvey and Mr. +Cockrell down in father's study and I could see from their faces that +something unusual had happened.</p> + +<p>"City Council voted the appropriation to meet Cockrell's and my donation +for the schoolhouse,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> contracts have been signed and dirt is to be +broken to-morrow by Henry Todd and thirty workmen Nickols has ordered +down from the city," father announced, with jubilation in his voice. "We +thought Goodloe was here in the garden with you."</p> + +<p>"He was, but he has taken the children with him over to his chapel," I +answered, and for some reason I blushed, for I saw Mark Morgan's eyes +laughing at me and I also saw a glint I didn't like in Nickols' eyes.</p> + +<p>"School to be opened on September twelfth and then let the kids fight it +out," said Billy. "I bet on Charlotte to beat out the whole Settlement +the first day if allowed full swing."</p> + +<p>"If Goodloe didn't stand behind this mixing of—of social oil +and—water, I'd be scared to death," said Mark.</p> + +<p>"Mike Burns and Henry Todd and Spain had better be afraid of a loss of +progeny," jeered Billy. "I bet Charlotte and James and the scions of the +Sprouls and Paynes can lead the Settlement scions into by-paths of +iniquity of which they never dreamed."</p> + +<p>"I wish you had ten, blast you, for being so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> sensible as to have none," +Mark answered him, and I felt rather than saw the bolt of pain that shot +through Billy's heart. It's because Nell and her children are not his +that Billy is bad, and what is going to help him?</p> + +<p>"Well, let's go over to the parsonage and tell Goodloe all about it," +father suggested, and the other men followed him out into the garden +path that led through the Eden of my foremothers straight into that +little Methodist chapel. Only Nickols remained with me upon the wide +high vine-shadowed porch.</p> + +<p>"I'll marry you the first of October, Nickols, and then we can go to +France as you want to," I said to him without any preamble, and as I +spoke I drew close to him as if for protection from something I didn't +understand.</p> + +<p>"Fleeing from the wrath to come?" questioned Nickols with a tender jeer +as he took me in his arms and his lips sought the kiss I had been +keeping from him. Again I refused it and he laughed as he pushed me from +him and there was still more of the jeer in the laugh though the passion +in his eyes was devouring and glad.</p> + +<p>"Suppose we go north, right after Mr. Jeffries<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> has finished his visit. +Let's have the ideal village wedding. We'll have out the school children +if any are left from the mix-up, and Goodloe can make us man and wife +out here under the trees in our own garden. Then we'll go away from the +whole show, the Christian religion included, and live happy ever after." +And as he spoke Nickols again drew me to him and sought the kiss I still +could not give him.</p> + +<p>"Nickols, Mother Spurlock and poor little Mrs. Burns and—and Mr. +Goodloe have something very real that we haven't," I faltered and, +utterly weary, I laid my head down against his strong shoulder.</p> + +<p>"That's what they say, but they can't prove it. They can't pass it on, +so it mustn't really be anything. They are not tightwads, so they +wouldn't hold back on us with their salvation, would they? Well, then, +they haven't anything. It's all just a substitute for love, dear. Mother +Spurlock fell back on it when she lost her husband. The little Burns +woman wouldn't have it any more than Nell has if Mike Burns was like +Mark Morgan. And Goodloe would lose it in a week if—if he could get you +in his arms." As Nickols<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> spoke, his arms about me trembled and strained +me to him.</p> + +<p>"No!" I exclaimed as if I had heard blasphemy uttered.</p> + +<p>"It <i>is</i>, dear, it is just suppressed sex. The scientists agree on that +and all the religions are just that, from the most primitive to the most +evolved. Some are more frank about it than others. The Igorrotes when +they have their religious dancing at the mating season are more open +than the Methodists about their being one and the same thing, but it all +sums up alike. You can't get away from those facts."</p> + +<p>"Then I want to be dead," I said as I drew myself from his arm and stood +on the edge of the porch.</p> + +<p>"Or you want to love," muttered Nickols under his breath as he watched +me sullenly for a second. "Then it's October, is it?" he asked with one +of his infectious, delicious laughs that have always broken across my +serious moods and made them froth.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I answered steadily.</p> + +<p>"Then we'll tell Nell and Harriet and Jessie and Mrs. Sproul all about +it, as I see them coming, on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> gossip bent I feel sure," he said as he +went halfway down the walk to meet the girls before I could restrain +him.</p> + +<p>I shall always have with me the picture that Nickols made as he stood +tall and handsome and smiling against the background of the wonderful +garden he had helped to create, with the women smiling and clinging to +him as he looked up at me with a great laughing light in his face. In +some ways he was the handsomest man I had ever seen and his distinctions +sat upon him as easily as the college honors of a boy. A wave of race +pride and love swept up in my heart as I looked at him and I felt that +in him must be the refuge that I sought. His sophistries always sank +deep into me.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte, my dear," said Mrs. Sproul, as I led her to a seat beneath +the vines in a shady corner, "I wish I was sure that your mother knew of +this safe happiness of yours. She adored Nickols and nothing could have +given her a greater joy. And, my dear, for you to have held him against +the world, as it were, is a triumph, I assure you. Always remember that +men of his kind are—are desirable. I'll have a long talk with you +before you go away with him." And I didn't know why,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> but the smile with +which Mrs. Sproul whispered and patted my hand made me burn all over +with protest.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't have you for a husband unless we were both convicted +together to a chain gang for at least five years after the ceremony, +Nickols Powers," said Harriet, with a laugh for which Nickols raised her +hand to his lips as he responded.</p> + +<p>"You like husbands in safety deposit vaults, don't you, Harriet?" At +which sally they all laughed as they seated themselves around Mrs. +Sproul and me.</p> + +<p>"Why will women want husbands to be as stationary as—as hitching posts, +Mrs. Sproul?" demanded Nickols as he leaned against one of the tall +pillars and lighted a cigarette for himself after having lighted one for +her and Jessie. Jessie Litton had always smoked, in secret until the +last year or two, and Mrs. Sproul had frankly taken up the habit as a +comfort for old age, she insisted. I suspect that she had had it for a +long time in advance of the fashion. It was a really delicious sight to +see the old world grace with which she accomplished it.</p> + +<p>"Women have the nestling habit and that is why<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> they want to believe men +to be sturdy oaks in whose branches they can safely anchor a family as +well as twine around in their affectionate gourd fashion," answered Mrs. +Sproul, as she daintily puffed a smoke ring at Nickols.</p> + +<p>"A lot of times the gourd vine grows so strong that she doesn't realize +she is supporting her family by her own strength long after the oak has +faded away in her coils and sprouted up from an acorn in some other +locality," said Jessie, as she, too, puffed a ring of smoke in Nickols' +direction.</p> + +<p>"Is this agriculture, biology or religion we are discussing?" demanded +Harriet with a laugh as we all rose and went to the edge of the porch to +meet Billy and Mark and father, who had with them the beloved +"Minister."</p> + +<p>"Congratulations and condolences, Mr. Powers," said Mrs. Sproul as she +laid her hand in father's.</p> + +<p>"On what score, my dear madam," he demanded.</p> + +<p>"You know I asked for Charlotte on my fifteenth and her tenth birthday, +Judge," Nickols said, with his ready grace in any situation, and he came +and stood beside father and took his hand in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> his with the gentle +affection a girl might have shown the older man. "You said 'yes' then +and it has taken all these years to make her echo the word," and as he +finished speaking he held out his arm and drew me close to father and +himself.</p> + +<p>"Hurrah!" exclaimed Mark, but I saw him exchange a glance of amusement +with Harriet, and Nell gave him a warning little squeeze of the arm.</p> + +<p>"Bless you both," said father, as he gave us both a hug.</p> + +<p>All this I saw and noted before I raised my eyes to meet the jeweled +eyes under dull gold that I knew were gazing straight at me as Gregory +Goodloe stood in the background against the dark vine while the +rejoicings over the announcement of my betrothal were enacted. Somehow I +felt I could not make myself face their gaze, which yet I knew I must. I +met a flash that burned down into the very darkest spots in my nature +and illuminated them all. There was not a trace of male anger or demand +in the gaze but a cold valuation of me and the entire situation that +burned me as ice burns raw flesh, then over all of us there suddenly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> +poured from the same source a tenderness that was as radiant as the +summer sun.</p> + +<p>"Yes, God bless us all!" he exclaimed, as he held out his hands to all +of us, one of which Nickols took, with a swift challenging glance that +in the radiance softened to confidence, and the other father took and +fairly clung to in his happiness. I was glad, glad that I didn't have to +endure the touch of his hand on mine after that glance, but not for one +instant did my heart accuse his radiance of being dramatics. I rather +felt that it came from a warmth within him by which everybody else in +the world might be comforted but for which I would forever be cold.</p> + +<p>"I <i>want</i> to be worth her, old man," Nickols said to him with a +curiously pleading note in his voice, and he, too, seemed to me to be +clinging to some of the strength that was not for me.</p> + +<p>"Then God help you," was the answer given with the very essence of +gentleness, but with a level glance into Nickols' eyes that was +profoundly sad.</p> + +<p>"And now let's hear the wedding plans," demanded Harriet. "This marrying +and giving in marriage is the best way I know of to make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> time pass, and +let's make Charlotte give us full measure. I'm matron of honor, of +course, and I suggest only twelve bridesmaids. I intend to be preceded +to the altar by Sue in an embroidered silk muslin I will provide, with a +bonnet of tulle in which nestles a pink rose to match the ones in her +basket. There will also be a display of pink knees that will be +ravishing and—"</p> + +<p>"Just let me remind you, Harriet, that this is Charlotte's wedding and +not that of my daughter, Susan, and her often-mentioned knees," said +Mark with a laugh that they all echoed.</p> + +<p>"I am going to marry Susan's pink knees when they are ripe," remarked +Billy and his suppression lasted long enough for me to attain command +enough of myself to manage the plans of my own wedding.</p> + +<p>Later when they had all gone by way of the chapel to help Mr. Goodloe +decide on some designs for a memorial window to his father he was having +made by a great artist he and Nickols had selected, I went in to make my +announcement to Mammy and Dabney.</p> + +<p>"Well, ram in the cork to the demijohn, honey, and it'll be all right," +was Dabney's semi-cordial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> consent, but Mammy went on industriously +beating her biscuits for supper the one hundred and twenty licks +prescribed by her reputation as a cook and her conscientious guarding of +that same reputation.</p> + +<p>"What do you say, Mammy?" I insisted on her giving her opinion.</p> + +<p>"Of course, if you want to eat plain biscuits instead of the showbread +from before the mercy seat—one hundred and two, one hundred and +three—" was the answer given between the licks upon the white dough, +and I fled before I should get a clearer manifestation of the +disappointment I felt raging in her faithful old heart.</p> + +<p>That night a young crescent moon was hung over the very crown of Old +Harpeth as I threw the shutters of my window wide to the night breezes +after I had put out my light and was ready for bed. I stood in its soft +light and looked across to the dark mass of the chapel opposite and saw +that a dim light was still burning from the window by the organ loft. +And as I stood and looked, the empty place that I had felt in the very +center of my heart grew colder and more bleak until suddenly across the +garden on perfumed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> waves of sound came the Tristan love song and filled +my emptiness with a pain that was both hot and cold. I stood and let the +flood dash over me as long as I could and then with a sob I sank on the +floor and rested my head on the window seat and began to weep as only +women such as I know how to weep. Then into my sorrow very quietly there +again stole another strain after the Tristan song had sobbed away into +the night and suddenly my own weeping was stilled and again something +within me was healed by the great tender voice singing out in the +darkness beyond the hedge:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Abide with me; fast falls the eventide—<br /></span> +<span class="i7">... ... ... ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Help of the helpless, O abide with me!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"I don't know what to do, I don't know," I cried, and sobbed myself to +sleep on my pillow after I had watched the light across the garden go +out and after all in the little parsonage beyond the hedge was dark and +quiet.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>A CLANDESTINE ADVENTURE</h3> + + +<p>It seems a strange, almost savage thing that the few months before a +woman's marriage are always filled so full of the doing of thousands and +tens of thousands of small things that she has no time to think of the +hugeness of the responsibilities she is assuming. Perhaps if she were +given time to realize them she would never assume them. Once or twice in +the long two, nearly three months that I had given myself to get ready +to marry Nickols, I paused and found myself thinking of the weighty +things of life, but I soon was able to shake off the thought of the +future. The time I felt it press most heavily was one morning that +Jessie Litton and I sat quietly sewing on some sort of fluff she and +Harriet had planned for my adornment, and very suddenly Jessie laid down +her ruffle and looked at me as she said:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Charlotte, I would be frightened, positively frightened, at the +prospect of marrying Nickols Powers."</p> + +<p>"I am; but why would you be?" I asked her directly.</p> + +<p>"I read that long résumé of his work in the Review last night and for +the first time I really realized what an important person he is to the +development of American art. He really is a huge national machine and +you'll be one of the important cogs on which the whole thing runs. +You'll be ground and ground by his life and you'll have to make good or +be responsible for some sort of a crash."</p> + +<p>"No," I answered, slowly drawing my thread through the sheer cloth. "No, +Nickols will live his own way regardless of the cogs on which it grinds. +I shall have an enormous task in keeping up with the social side of his +life, but Nickols is not the kind of a man who takes a woman into his +work."</p> + +<p>As I made my answer I was stabbed by the memory of the words that +Gregory Goodloe had said to me on that day in the garden: "Separated +from you, you going one way and I another, I can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> do nothing. You +short-circuit my force—I am helpless without you." And <i>he</i> had been +inviting me into the work for which he had been ordained into the holy +Church of Christ. I felt myself groping blindly into the futility of my +own life, and I was sick at heart.</p> + +<p>"And if that is so, I would be still more frightened," Jessie said, +gazing at me with dismayed and honest affection.</p> + +<p>"Don't let's talk about it," I answered her and took up my sewing. At +that moment and from that moment I cast myself into the whole whirl of +activities in Goodloets and gave myself no more time or strength for +self-communion. I was fleeing, and from what I dared not know.</p> + +<p>And it was a busy month that stretched from August through September. +Nickols said it would be his last fling at the old town and he proposed +to leave his mark on its mossy sides. And he did.</p> + +<p>In the first place money was pouring into little old Goodloets from +three huge sources. The little one-horse tannery down by the river +beyond the Settlement doubled, tripled and then quadrupled its capacity +and next to it the little old saddle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> and harness factory in which Mr. +Cockrell and old Mr. Sproul had been making saddles and harness since +the days of the Confederacy, did the same and sent out consignment after +consignment of saddles and bridles which were paid for in huge checks of +Russian origin which almost paralyzed the Goodloets Bank and Trust +Company and which worked pale Clive Harvey into the night until he +managed to get young Henry Thornton in to assist him. His salary was +raised three times until it was large enough to harbor Bessie and any +number of small editions of them both, only she preferred to drink and +dance and joy-ride with Hugh Payne, who could not have supported such a +flowering by his own effort to have saved his own life and soul.</p> + +<p>And then to burden poor Clive still further, Hampton Dibrell and Mr. +Thornton hastily built huge pens over by the railroad and in these +assembled hundreds and thousands of mules to be shipped through to +France, which brought in return a steady stream of French francs to be +translated into American dollars. Still further, Billy and Mark and +Cliff, with Nickols' assistance, and the telegraph system, speculated in +War Brides<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> down on Wall Street until their individual bank accounts +began to mount to giddy sums. Father and Mr. Sproul and more of the +other men did likewise and Buford Cunningham got some spectacular +returns from copper in Canada that Billy said would make Mrs. Buford +Cunningham try to buy the Country Club outright for a summer home. And +while there was prosperity in the Town the Settlement also had its +share. Wages rose higher and higher and many of the women went to work +at the machines in the saddle factory, leaving the care of the children +to the old dames, which resulted in an added pandemonium in the +Settlement streets.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what is the matter. Goodloets is money mad," wailed Mother +Spurlock, as she sank with weariness into the rocker on my porch one hot +August afternoon. "The girls and the women are all at work and two +babies have died this week from pure lack of mother's care, I might say +mother's milk. Ed Jones' wife weaned her six-months'-old baby so she +could go in the factory, and left it on condensed milk with old Mrs. +Jones, who fed it incessantly and not at all cleanly. Now it is not +expected to live. And they dance at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> the Last Chance until one o'clock +almost every night. Is the world mad?"</p> + +<p>"No, just prosperous, Mother Elsie," I answered her as I gave her a +large fan and Dabney brought her a tall glass of very cold tea. "Little +old Goodloets is having the same boom that the rest of America is +getting from feeding and furnishing the rest of the warring world."</p> + +<p>"Nickols Powers told me just last night that over two hundred thousand +dollars would be spent on the improvements to this town in the next two +months, counting the new schoolhouse, the restoration of the courthouse, +the paving of the public square and the enlargement of the electric +light plant. That doesn't count the money everybody is putting on their +own private homes. That camp of workmen down by the river that Nickols +has had sent down from the city has a hundred men in it now, and that is +one thing that demoralizes the Settlement. Jacob Ensley has had that +dance hall enlarged twice and he has employed George Spain to stand +behind the bar. It is breaking Mrs. Spain's heart, but she is helpless, +for George is being paid three dollars a day for being just where he +wants to be. I don't know<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> what to do. I firmly believe the town is mad, +with only Gregory Goodloe to stand between it and God's wrath."</p> + +<p>"What is he doing to stem the joy tide?" I asked with a laugh, for it +did seem in a way funny to see one of the leading citizens of old +Goodloets so distressed over its improvement and modernization through +its enormous prosperity.</p> + +<p>"He was down in the workmen's camp last night having a song service and +seventy-five of them stayed there singing until midnight. Jacob had to +put out his lights at eleven o'clock because there were not enough to +pay to keep open. The chapel was full Sunday night and Jacob closed the +Last Chance at six o'clock for the first time in its existence. The men +passed it on to him to do it and he came and sat in a back pew himself. +They all call Mr. Goodloe 'Parson,' and he walks in and around and about +this town night and day shedding a kind of peace and good will even into +the darkest corners. He lends a hand here and there with the work, eats +out of the men's dinner pails when that Jefferson is too lazy to cook +for him, or takes a bite off some stove down in the Settlement out of +some old woman's pork and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> cabbage pot with just as much grace and +heartiness as he eats at Nell Morgan's or Harriet Henderson's most +elaborate dinners. And outside of his pulpit he never preaches; he just +lives. This is what I heard Jacob say to him just yesterday:</p> + +<p>"'Sure, and I wint up to set in one of your pews to see if your action +in your own job was as good as it is in the many you lend a hand to week +about.'</p> + +<p>"'Well?' asked Mr. Goodloe, as he picked up, one of those rosy apples +from the box Jacob keeps out on the sidewalk to blind the Last Chance.</p> + +<p>"'I knows when to run and not be caught,' Jacob answered, as he put +another apple in the parson's pocket and went back into the grocery +door."</p> + +<p>"Do you ever see Martha?" I asked with a kind of impatience. I had been +three times down to the Last Chance and each time Jacob's excuses for +Martha had been positive though courteous, and I had come away baffled, +with the green groceries I had purchased as a blind to my visit. I had +written to her and had had no response. At that I had stopped, with a +self-sufficient feeling of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> a duty well done, but through it all I also +felt that she was on the other side of a prison wall crying to me.</p> + +<p>"Never," answered Mother Spurlock, with real pain in her voice. "She +stays in that back room and cooks for Jacob, and the child stays with +her and has only the small yard back of the bar in which to play. Jacob +only let him come up to sing with Mr. Goodloe and the children a few +times and now he is kept as near in prison as his mother. Jacob's +attitude grows more morose about her and the child every day. I don't +understand it. I never will. Martha was the loveliest girl that ever +bloomed in the Settlement, and now she has been plucked and thrown into +the dust. And the child is too young to share her prison fate. He must +be got out and away."</p> + +<p>"He will," I answered, with a calm confidence. I didn't tell Mother +Spurlock, and I didn't know exactly why I didn't, but I was deeply +involved in a clandestine affair with the Stray which was fast becoming +one of the adventures of my life. It had begun in a positively weird +manner and was continuing along the same lines. One morning several +weeks after my first acquaintance and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> turtle adventure with him I had +waked up at dawn and gone to look out of the window just as the morning +star was fading over Old Harpeth. In the dim light I had spied a small +figure down in the garden, hopping along by a row of early young rose +bushes, with a can in one hand and a long stick in the other. Hastily +getting into a few clothes I crept down through the silent house and out +in the garden to find the Stray busily engaged in knocking large slugs +off into a can.</p> + +<p>"I feed 'em to mother's bird in the cage, 'cause he can't get out to get +'em," he explained. "They all sleep hard 'cause they work so late and I +crawl out the window and go back while they don't wake up. I like your +yard better than I do mine." The statement was made simply, without envy +of apology.</p> + +<p>And from that morning a queer kind of dawn life went on between the +small boy and me. Morning after morning he threw a pebble to waken me +and I hurried down to our tryst, which extended through the hour that +lies between the crack of day and the first glint of the awakening sun. +At first I had carried sweetmeats to our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> tryst, which were accepted +with moderate pleasure, but one morning I had taken a huge volume of +Rackham's Mother Goose which Nickols had brought me, and from then on +our hour had been one of spiritual communion. I found the young mind +insatiate and I had to ransack the library for stories and poems and +pictures suitable to his years, though he rapidly developed a very +advanced taste. The morning I read him the Shakespearian lines woven +around the little Princes in the Tower, having suitably connected up the +story for him with words of my own, we forgot the time and he overstayed +his limit, for Dabney was opening the house when he fled. For five +mornings he did not come and I could find no way to get news of him. I +asked Mikey and got a maddening response.</p> + +<p>"They shut up Stray in the back yard because he's a shame to old Jake," +was his answer to my question. "Jake would shoot anybody that climbed +that fence."</p> + +<p>"I bet I could get over and the bad man not see if I could get out in +the dark," Charlotte declared as she stood listening to my questioning. +"And I am going after Stranger that way, too,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> if ever they leave the +front door to my house unlocked. It is wicked to shut up a little boy, +and the devil would help me get him out." Charlotte's purpose was high +if she did slightly mix her theology.</p> + +<p>That night a wonderful thing happened in my moonlit room. I was dead +asleep when I felt a soft hand stroking my face, and then my hair, and I +awoke to find the Stray standing by my bed.</p> + +<p>"They tied me in bed when they found out I had runned away in the +mornings to see you, but I gnawed the rope that he put, because I wanted +to tell you that I can go to the big school when it opens because +Minister told him that he would be put in jail if I didn't. It is a law. +I heard him last night, and mother cried a long time, for what, I don't +know. Was she glad or sorry? Do you know?"</p> + +<p>"No, darling, I don't know, and I wish I did," I answered him as I put +my arms around him while he snuggled his black-crested head down beside +mine on the pillow.</p> + +<p>"My mother is sick, she cries so much," he said with a manly struggle +that drowned the sob in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> his throat. "I don't know what to do. Do you +know?"</p> + +<p>"I'll find out," I said with a sudden fierceness as I strained him +against my shoulder for an instant and then sat up in bed as if I must +do something at once.</p> + +<p>"I must run right back and tie myself before he wakes up and whips me," +the Stray said, and it sickened me to see him wrap the gnawed rope +around his little arm.</p> + +<p>"No!" I exclaimed, and held out my arms to him.</p> + +<p>"I must, but I don't mind whippings if I can read books in school and +you make mother not cry," and before I could stop him he ran out of the +dim room and I could hear his cautious bare feet patter down the long +stairway and hall.</p> + +<p>That moonlight tryst was the last of the adventure, but I did not worry, +for I knew that the school would be opened formally in ten days, and I +had laid my plans for Stray in an interested friendship with the very +competent young woman who had already come down from the state normal +college to teach the amalgamated young ideas of Goodloets to shoot. +Also, I had vague plans that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> hurt me, of getting Jessie or Harriet to +continue the trysts for me after the wedding, whose details they were +all pushing to completion by a mid-September day.</p> + +<p>And added to the strenuosity of the laying of my plans for at least a +year's absence, I had to help father make his arrangements for a six +months' stay in Washington, for he had accepted the President's +appointment on the Commerce Commission, and night and day he was at his +library desk. The silver-topped decanter still stood on the sideboard in +the dining room, and the silver ice bowl was formally filled before +every meal by Dabney. The mint glass was kept fresh and fragrant but +apparently father had forgotten entirely about all three. He ate twice +as much as I had ever seen him consume and the worn lines in his face +were slowly filling out into a delicious joviality. Mr. Hicks, the +little tailor who had always clothed him, had little by little made over +the outer man with new garments as the old ones grew restrictive, and +Mother Spurlock had carried his entire discarded wardrobe, garment at a +time, down to the Settlement for the clothing of some of her most needy +friends.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the most reborn person I had ever seen was Dabney. The little black +man had lived so long under the shadow of father's moroseness that when +the pressure was lifted from his bent black shoulders he rebounded to an +amazing extent. His reaction took the form of gala attire in which +Nickols encouraged him to the extent of silk hosiery of the most +delicate shades from his own wardrobe, with ties to match, not to +mention his own last year's Panama hat, pressed over into the extreme of +the prevailing style for youthful masculine head adornment. Also Nickols +bestowed upon him a very up-to-date Palm Beach suit, purchased at the +Hicks shop, and on his first appearance in the kitchen for his wife's +inspection I was present.</p> + +<p>"Go take them clothes off, nigger, and put 'em along of my black silk +shroud in the bottom drawer of the chist," she commanded, as she put her +hands on her sixty-inch waist and stood before him with arms akimbo. +"Folks is got no business to dress in life so fine that they shames they +burying clothes."</p> + +<p>"Shoo fly, I'm jest going to Washington, not to Heaven, in this here +rig. When I git into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> Heaven it'll be 'cause I'm hiding behind that +black silk skirt of your shroud, honey, if I'm as naked as borned," was +the admiring, wily and also wholly sincere answer to Mammy's fling at +the gorgeous raiment.</p> + +<p>And while the Poplars teemed with wedding plans Nickols kept the whole +village steamed up to be in readiness for the visit of Mr. Jeffries, +which was dated for just a week before the wedding, and the village +festival at the opening of the new school was to be the most important +ceremonial of the whole visit. Father was to give him a dinner at which +all of the Solons of the Harpeth Valley were to be present, and a ball +at the Country Club was being planned by Billy with all enthusiasm. But +the center of the buzz was down at Mother Spurlock's Little House, where +Mr. Goodloe daily, and it seemed almost hourly, drilled the children for +the ceremonial of the opening of their house of learning across the way +from the Little House by the Road. Only echoes of the orgies reached the +outside, and gossip ran high in the Settlement as well as the Town at +the fragments that the delighted scions brought home, of curious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> folk +dances mixed with fragments of weird tunes.</p> + +<p>"Sure, a minister of the gospel to teach me Mikey to stand on one leg +and spin around on the other with his hands over his head is a quare +thing, but the Riverend Goodloe is no ordinary man," said Mrs. Burns to +Mother Spurlock, who answered:</p> + +<p>"You can trust him, Mrs. Burns, even with Mikey's legs."</p> + +<p>And during all the long weeks of activity not once did I have a word +alone with the Harpeth Jaguar. We met constantly at dinner at the tables +of our friends and he came and went at the Poplars with the same freedom +that Nickols enjoyed. He was long hours in the library with father, and +somehow I felt that he was strengthening the structure that he had +builded on the ruined foundation and something passionate rose in my +heart and filled it with pain every time I heard his ringing laugh come +from the library table, accompanied by father's booming chuckle. Also, +he worked early and late in the garden with Nickols and the young man +from White Plains, and I saw that Nickols' artistic ideas flowed at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> top +speed when Gregory Goodloe was standing by.</p> + +<p>It was the same thing over at the new schoolhouse. Mr. Todd and the men +worked miracles with their stone and mortar and wood and iron when he +was standing by or lending a hand. The school was built partly of stone +like the chapel and partly of old purple-pink brick like Mother +Spurlock's Little House, and it was beamed with heavy timbers. It was +roofed with heavy colonial clapboards which made it look as if it had +already stood a century before the floors were laid or the very modern +desks installed. It was built to house increasing generations, though +only about fifty children would open its portals of education.</p> + +<p>"It speaks of education de luxe, doesn't it?" Billy asked as Nell and +Harriet and I stood with him and Nickols and the parson watching Mr. +Todd directing the men in screwing down the desks just a few days before +the opening.</p> + +<p>"There is scarcely a village in England to compare with old Goodloets +now, and nothing at all like it," said Nickols, as he looked first up +the hill to the Town and down the hill to the Settlement. "I know that +it is the first spot in America to express what the full grown nation is +going to be.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> When we add beauty to the materially perfected mode of +existence we are enjoying, life will be too short in the living. That +schoolhouse ought to produce some results in art cultures in the infant +mind of Goodloets."</p> + +<p>"Yes, America is learning that the foundation of its national existence, +trait upon trait, must be laid in the lives of the children," said Mr. +Goodloe, slowly, and he smiled as across from the Little House came wee +Susan's exquisite treble in a waltz song which was backed up by Mother +Spurlock's bumble and Charlotte's none too accurate accompaniment. And +we all smiled with him.</p> + +<p>Always it seemed to me I was with him and a part of a number of people +who felt the radiance of his loveliness, and not once had I for a second +come into personal touch with him. I had, like the rest, got my smiles +and friendliness from the dark eyes under dull gold, but the door to the +land in which I had been with Tristan when he sang his death song had +vanished and there were no traces of its portals. The only sign that was +between him and me was his continued evasion of setting a date for the +dedication of the chapel. He always answered inquiries by saying that +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> opening of the school must come first and when the dedication was +mentioned he never looked in my direction. My soul seemed to be standing +still and listening for something that never came.</p> + +<p>And then Mr. Jeffries arrived on the scene of action.</p> + +<p>That night of Billy's ball for the magnate, who was having the time of +his gray-headed life under Billy's and Nickols' enthusiastic direction, +the strange alien thing that had been developed in my depths, part +unrest and part rebellion, since I had first looked into the eyes of the +young Methodist parson, who had intruded himself and his chapel into my +existence, got its death blow. In my presence Nickols made his formal +request of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe to officiate at our marriage.</p> + +<p>"Of course, Greg, old fellow, you are going to marry us next Tuesday, +aren't you?" asked Nickols, as we stood on the steps of the Poplars +after dinner, chatting with him as he was leaving to go over to the +chapel while we went out to the dance. "I suppose there is some sort of +formal way to make the request, but I don't know it."</p> + +<p>"If there is I don't know it, either," was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> kindly answer, which +both Nickols and I took for assent.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," said Nickols, as he turned away towards father and Mr. +Cockrell and Mr. Jeffries, who had come out on the porch with their +cigars, and left him and me standing alone in the starlight.</p> + +<p>"God guard you!" he said to me without taking the hand I held out to him +in the darkness with a kind of desperation that seemed that of a +drowning woman. "Good-bye!" and he was gone out into the night, leaving +me, I knew, forever outside of his life.</p> + +<p>"Wait, Oh wait!" I pleaded, but he was gone and I didn't even know if he +heard the cry out into the velvet darkness.</p> + +<p>That night was the most brilliant night that Goodloets had ever known. +The Town was full of guests who had motored over from all the towns +around in the Harpeth Valley. The Governor had come down from the +capital in his huge touring car to congratulate father on his +appointment and to meet Mr. Jeffries. His adjutant-general and several +of his aids were with him in their showy State Guard uniforms and all of +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> girls were rosy with excitement at the presence of so many rows of +brass buttons. Mr. Jeffries opened the ball, and to the delight and +amusement of us all, he succeeded in leading out with him Mrs. Sproul, +who turned the opening dance into a stately old Virginia reel, which so +delighted the tango dancers with its novelty that the dance was repeated +several times during the evening by enthusiastic requests.</p> + +<p>And while the Town reveled in celebration of the new Goodloets, down in +the Settlement like rejoicings were being held at the dance hall of the +Last Chance. In fact, the whole small city was in the throes of a great +rejoicing. Why shouldn't all Goodloets revel when it was enjoying a +prosperity beyond anybody's dreams of two years before? Everybody had +been generous to the old town with the money that had come so easily +from other suffering people's necessities, and security and good +fellowship and prosperity reigned supreme. In each heart there was the +feeling that now the old town and their personal lives were founded on +solid rocks of peace and plenty and it was the time to eat, drink and be +merry.</p> + +<p>At supper the Governor's first toast, after that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> to the town itself, +was to father and his distinctions. Then Mr. Jeffries toasted Nickols +and me. He called Nickols the "American Wizard of Habitations," and, +amid cheering and clapping hands, announced his intention to have +Nickols build the American town on the Hudson. He called me the "Heart +of the Achievement," and father's pride as he looked down the long table +at Nickols and me was very wonderful and beautiful; and as great a pride +rose in my heart as I saw him lift his glass of water to pledge me, +leaving the bubbles breaking in his champagne.</p> + +<p>It was very near dawn when we all motored home and it was upon the verge +of the crack of day by the time Dabney and Nickols had got the Governor +and Mr. Jeffries and the other guests settled under the wide roof of the +Poplars, which had never hovered a more distinguished or brilliant house +party.</p> + +<p>For a few quiet minutes after they had all gone to their rooms Nickols +and I stood alone on the front porch in the cool darkness with its hint +of the dawn, while old Dabney shut up the back part of the house.</p> + +<p>"The school festival will be over to-morrow,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> sweetheart, and the next +day they will all be gone. The photographers are all through with the +photographing and to-morrow night all the extra workmen go back to the +city. There'll be three whole quiet days for you to get ready to give me +that kiss, which I won't take when you are as tired as you are now," +said Nickols, as he put a limp arm around me and leaned against the tall +door post.</p> + +<p>"To-morrow the old makes way for the new. Goodloets is dead! Long live +Goodloets!" I answered, as I in turn leaned against Nickols' jaded arm +for only a second before we preceded Dabney up the stairs to our rooms.</p> + +<p>In my room I went immediately to the window and opened wide the heavy +shutters. I found myself looking down on Goodloets, which lay below the +darkness of the Poplars like a long glowworm, brilliant with the lights +from the homes of the revelers who were going to bed with a sense of +perfect security. Still farther down the hill the lights from the +Settlement glowed with scarcely less brilliancy and I felt sure that the +Last Chance was still harboring a last fling of joy.</p> + +<p>Suddenly over my spirit came a deep wave of depression that amounted to +a great fear and then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> as I stood trembling in the darkness, a broad ray +of morning light shot up over Paradise Ridge and spread rapidly into a +crimson glow that was reflected against a black cloud hanging low over +the head of Old Harpeth. A flash of lightning darted from the cloud and +spread its gold fire through the crimson of the coming day, and then the +sullen-pointed cloud sank rapidly below Paradise Ridge, over which it +had risen, as if reconnoitering. Positively shuddering, I knelt against +the window seat and watched the day come with a hitherto unknown terror. +Then as I watched the dawn begin to drive away the sullen clouds a rich +voice began to sing out beyond the old poplars as a window of the gray +chapel was thrown open:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Arise, my soul, arise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Shake off thy guilty fears;<br /></span> +<span class="i6">... ... ... ...<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Before the throne my Surety stands<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My name is written on His hands."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The calmness that came into my frightened heart was like the peace of a +deep sleep, and with its strength I faced the day that was to be that of +my humiliation and which was to be the crest of the wave of the high +tide of Goodloets.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>THE JEWEL IN THE MATRIX</h3> + + +<p>When I awoke from a few hours of deep and exhausted sleep I found my +room fast filling with the strenuosities of the day. In fact, I opened +them upon Harriet Henderson, up, dressed and briskly doing. She had a +large pasteboard box with her and the minute I brushed repose from my +eyes she opened it and held up for my inspection a very short tulle +garment besprinkled with tiny silk rosebuds, along with a bonnet and +other wee but distinctly feminine paraphernalia to match. A basket +adorned with a huge bow of tulle came from another box and I was forced +to voice my admiration with the greatest vigor.</p> + +<p>"How I'll ever keep from eating Sue up before she gets to the altar, I +can't see," said Harriet, as she held the wee frock for a second against +her breast. It hurts me to the quick of my own breast to see Harriet's +eyes when she broods over Sue.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> I don't see how she is going to live +life always as hungry as she is now.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I might just as well wear my tennis things, because the +guests will be already as completely enraptured as is humanly possible +before my entry upon the scene of action of my own wedding," I said, as +I sat up and took the small bonnet in my own hand. "It is too bad that +Jessie and Letitia should worry themselves over my own wedding frock, if +Susan is—" I was just saying when Nell arrived beside my bed with the +Suckling in the very act of obtaining her early luncheon from the +maternal fount. The nurse has always had to follow Nell about with her +successive hungry offspring.</p> + +<p>"Girls, I really don't know what to do, but young Charlotte has given +every single presentable garment that Jimmy possessed to different +unclothed children in the Settlement, who were needed in the pageant, +and Mark and Billy are laughing at her, while Jimmy is howling. I just +ran in to see Harriet a minute and ask her if she—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jimmie's wedding garments came home from Mrs. Burns' yesterday and +I'll lend them to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> you just to spite those men, who are simply ruining +Charlotte by the day," said Harriet, as Nell handed her the replete +Suckling wrong end foremost and picked up the small tulle bonnet with a +gurgle of maternal rapture that was in some ways as young as the happy +gurgle that the Suckling gave as she settled into Harriet's dependable +arms for her morning nap. Harriet cradled her against her own round, +firm breast and for a second brooded then joined in Nell's rapture over +the garments for the bedizening of wee Susan.</p> + +<p>"If Harriet didn't dress and discipline my children I feel sure they +would be found naked in a reform school," Nell said, with a happy and +careless gratitude. There are some women to whom life is incidental and +maternity the most casual adventure of all. The happy-go-lucky variety +are apt to produce just such children as Charlotte or young James or +Susan, and it is well if into their young lives there comes the hungry +woman with a brooding mission.</p> + +<p>"Young Charlotte will probably be the first woman governor of the state +and—" Harriet was saying with a laugh when Letitia and Jessie arrived +precipitately. Letitia had a parcel which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> contained a lingerie garment +of mine, whose lace and embroidery and ribbon combined would have +enraptured most women, and Jessie carried in her hand a package of +belated wedding cards. They were followed closely by Mammy, who was in +turn followed by the meek Sally. Mammy's address was delivered to me +first.</p> + +<p>"Git up quick, honey; the men folks has begun on the second round of +waffles and they'll be calling for you. The day is on its shanks and +a-going," she admonished, while Sallie turned on my bath.</p> + +<p>"They are having breakfast out in the garden and the day is perfect. Do +you want blue or pink ribbons in this Valenciennes set, Charlotte?" said +Letitia, as she seated herself on the foot of my bed and drew out a +ribbon bag whose contents were of many colors.</p> + +<p>"A fashionable wedding is a white lie; you invite all the people you +especially want to stay away," sighed Jessie, as she seated herself at +my desk and lighted a cigarette, at which Mammy rolled her black eyes +and departed with her nose in the air.</p> + +<p>And while they all chatted over the sealing of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span> my fate I arose and had +my toilet made in my dressing room, in full hearing of the discussions +about the best groupings of bridesmaids and the horror at the count of +the cases of wine Billy had ordered from the city for the dinner to the +groomsmen the night before the wedding.</p> + +<p>"I adore Mark seven-tenths full, but I don't like to endure the end of +the jag next morning," laughed Nell, as she began to put ribbons into +the bodkins for Letitia. I saw Harriet give her a long look from under +her half-lowered eyelashes as she hugged the Suckling closer to her +breast. Billy had told Harriet and me casually a few nights before that +"old Mark's drinking to a double-decker liver and a sidestep in his +heart."</p> + +<p>"Oh, gentlemen always drink in moderation. I never worry over Cliff," +said Letitia complacently, as she tied a decorative shoulder knot.</p> + +<p>"You expect to give him a daily dose of three drops on a lump of sugar, +Letitia?" asked Harriet, as she exchanged glances with Jessie. One +evening last week Jessie and Harriet had motored Cliff in from the Club +just in time to save him from going over the riffles and Letitia had +been dancing with him without noticing his staggers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There, that is the very last stitch to be taken on your trousseau, +Charlotte," said Letitia, as she laid down the filmy garment she had +been adorning with blue bowknots. "Press it, Sallie, and lay it with the +rest of the set in the second tray of the medium-sized trunk. You can +lock it and give me the key."</p> + +<p>"I just can't stand it, Charlotte," said Jessie to me in a low voice, as +I came from the hands of the skillful Sallie and stood beside the window +next to the desk. "You are all I have got and only you—you understand. +I can't give you up. I'm frightened."</p> + +<p>"Hush—so am I," I answered her, as my hand gripped her shoulder under +her heavy linen frock until I felt it must bruise it. Then I turned to +the others, collected them and descended to finish breakfast with the +Poplars' guests.</p> + +<p>Never a more radiantly beautiful morning had spread its loveliness over +the Harpeth Valley than the one I found out in the garden that +twenty-seventh day of September, the gala day in the history of +Goodloets. Huge white clouds drifted back and forth in a deep blue sky +and they were rosy at times with the sunlight, but from some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> of the +largest little tongues of lightning darted, while others were lit by +what seemed to be an internal glow of fire. Cool winds, perfumed with +the harvests and the ripening orchards and the vineyards out in the +valley, rustled in the treetops and flaunted in the vines. The ardent +sun seemed to be drawing from the bosom of the earth a hot mist which +lay over the town like a filmy bridal veil, only stirred gently by the +vagrant veering gusts of wind. Nature seemed to be holding herself in +leash and only breathing upon the earth gently, as if to stir some +latent lushness into autumnal activity.</p> + +<p>"A perfect Harpeth day for Mr. Jeffries," said the Governor, as he came +from his seat at the table to greet the girls and me. The rest of the +masculine breakfasters followed and I could see from the devastation of +the table that they had all breakfasted well and to repletion. I also +detected the worthless Jefferson, whom Mr. Goodloe had evidently loaned +to his parents for the occasion, lift father's full glass of julep and +drain it with one gulp, grab the half glass that Nickols had left, gulp +it and begin on the finger or so in Billy's tumbler before Dabney could +forcibly but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> quietly restrain him. In fact, I felt there would have +been a riot among my servitors if Mr. Goodloe had not stepped aside and +spoken a low word to Jefferson, which sent him busily at the table with +his tray.</p> + +<p>And from that moment Nickols' triumphant procession of inspection of +Goodloets began. Mr. Jeffries stood in the middle of the reincarnated +old garden, looked for a long time at the Poplars, which was like a +green encrusted gem with its old purple red brick under the vines, +glanced again and again at the chapel with its weathered stone that +stood beyond the silver-leafed graybeards, then let his eye wander down +the broad elm-bordered main street past the courthouse and past the +Settlement to the river bending around it all.</p> + +<p>"Money couldn't build anything like it, Powers," he said to Nickols at +his side. "Time and gentle living have formed it as a jewel is made in a +matrix. I was born in a mining camp, but I want you to start something +like it all for my great grandchildren to live in. How many generations +will it take?"</p> + +<p>"Give me five years, Mr. Jeffries," laughed Nickols in answer. "Greg +Goodloe's great great<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> grandfather and mine fought off the Indians from +a stockade which stood where his chapel does now, but a year of modern +life about represents a generation of pioneer endeavor."</p> + +<p>"Not too fast, youngster, not too fast," said Mr. Jeffries, and I saw +him exchange a grave glance with father. "What we Americans must have is +stabilizers now that we have annihilated time. Without the discovery of +something of that sort we will hurl along to destruction. What say you, +Mr. Goodloe?"</p> + +<p>"We have the same 'covert of wings' that David used when things spun too +fast for him," answered Mr. Goodloe with the jeweled radiance that +always came from his face when he spoke of his faith even casually. +"Only 'where there is no vision the people perish,' and a people who +invent flying machines and hold international law to account have +vision. We don't know how much we've got, but it'll save us."</p> + +<p>"After the material glass through which we see darkly is completely +smashed for us," said father, with a curious sternness coming into his +face that made me wonder. "But we must take Mr. Jeffries for a nearer +inspection of our metropolis,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> be with Mrs. Sproul in time for luncheon +and then help Mr. Goodloe open the institute of learning for young +Goodloets."</p> + +<p>In the motor cars parked before the tall gate of the Poplars all of the +guests embarked for their review of the beauties of Goodloets. Nickols +remained behind them while the half sober but skillful Jefferson +wrestled with a slight tire trouble of his slim blue racer. For a few +minutes we were alone in the center of the wonderful garden, which had +never seemed so lovely as upon the day in which it had fulfilled its own +and Nickols' destiny.</p> + +<p>"To-day has brought just what I have longed for, have worked for and +waited for, the commission for the spending of millions of dollars to +make a little corner of the earth beautiful. Not a bad religion, that," +said Nickols, as he told me that Jeffries had spoken a few words of +decided business to him as he had packed him into Mr. Cockrell's car +with father and Mr. Goodloe. "We'll take a honeymoon wander on the other +side, as far from the machine guns as possible, and then I'll come home +to begin my masterpiece." And as Nickols spoke his wonderful eyes +glowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> as he looked out at Paradise Ridge as if he were gazing into a +radiant future—perhaps he saw a city not made with hands and did +not—recognize it. "I see it all," he said, and put his arm around me +while we started down the front walk as Jefferson pressed the horn to +signal the readiness of the tire.</p> + +<p>"I'm too busy to go with you, but I'll meet you at Mrs. Sproul's," a +sudden impulse made me say, for I had intended until that instant to +accompany him.</p> + +<p>"A man can't eat his bride and have a trousseau, too," he laughed, as he +drove off rapidly, leaving me standing by the old gate watching him. +Then I turned and slowly walked out into the garden and down to the old +graybeards. And seated on one of the grass mats I found the reason I had +unconsciously been drawn back. Martha was waiting for me there.</p> + +<p>"Why, Martha," I exclaimed, startled without understanding just why. "I +might have gone and not known you were waiting. Why didn't you come and +tell me you were here?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't—I found I couldn't," she answered me, looking up into my +face with her strange, sad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> eyes. "I—I suppose I just came to peep in +on you like I did to the coming-out party." She laughed softly, with a +note of self-scorn in her voice.</p> + +<p>"Is anything the matter with—with Sonny?" I asked quickly, again +unconsciously using the name for the Stray that her tenderness had given +him. Her white face and desperate manner frightened me.</p> + +<p>"No, he's dressed in one of Jimmy Morgan's old suits and he is going to +be taken from me this afternoon forever," she answered with the note of +bitterness deepening.</p> + +<p>"But you want him to go to school, don't you, Martha?" I asked +patiently, as I sat down on a mat beside her. I spoke to her as one +speaks to the limited intelligence of a child and I was slightly +impatient at her distress.</p> + +<p>"He asked me yesterday why everybody called him Stray and if it did mean +Stranger like Charlotte said, and if he would always be called that or +have an everyday name like Jimmy. Soon he'll know and then I'll lose him +as I'm losing everything else."</p> + +<p>"Why won't you let me help you to—to begin<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> over again?" I asked her, +this time with less patience. "Why have you—you locked yourself away +from me?"</p> + +<p>"I can't—I won't ever tell you. I must go back, now I've seen you +in—in your happiness. But I don't hate you—I never have." And as she +spoke Martha rose and began to walk rapidly away from me.</p> + +<p>"Oh, please don't go, Martha," I said. "In just three days I'll be going +away for a long time, you know, and I want to help you in some way +before I go. You ought to let me, and it worries me that you don't, now +of all times," and as I put my selfish plea for ease to my conscience, +something that was hot and rebellious made me want to stop the woman who +was hurrying away from me.</p> + +<p>"I won't, I won't make you unhappy—but I must go. I must! I'll—I'll be +happy—and good now—if <i>you'll</i> only be happy. Good-bye!" And as she +called back at me over her shoulder, Martha ran from me down through the +hedge and into the door of the chapel, which always, night and day, rain +and storm, stood slightly ajar. A queer pain smote me to see that she +had run from me into the only place in all the broad, smiling Harpeth +Valley<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> where I could not—or would not, follow her. And the sanctuary +that she sought was for every man, woman or child who wanted it—only I +could not and would not seek it.</p> + +<p>"'The covert of wings,'" I whispered to myself, as I went down the +street to Mrs. Sproul's as rapidly as possible to be rid of my own +company. As I repeated the words that the parson had used to Mr. +Jeffries I noticed one great white cloud with a dark center flash fire +into another, to a great crashing and rumbling. "I wonder if it is +really going to storm," I speculated gloomily, as I turned into the +Sproul gate, but the brilliant sunshine seemed to fling me a dazzling +denial from every petal of the white clematis that wreathed itself +across the front porch, under which Mrs. Sproul, arrayed in all the +midday magnificence of good form, sat and waited for her guests. Mrs. +Cockrell sat beside her and they were delighted to see me and demanded +happiness from me which it was hard for me to give from the depths that +had been stirred by my strange interview with Martha, to which I felt I +ought to have a key, but could not find it anywhere.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>THE PAGEANT</h3> + + +<p>"We were just saying, Charlotte dear, that this absurd school affair has +completely overshadowed your wedding day," said Mrs. Cockrell, as she +rocked back and forth in tune with her Irish point rose she was +constructing. "It seems to me a wedding ought to come before a school +festivity."</p> + +<p>"Social law requires that marriage take precedence of schooling," said +Mrs. Sproul, as her mischievous old eyes snapped at Mrs. Cockrell's +placid conventionality. "The correct order is for women to take husbands +and then school children should be the inevitable outcome. They are not, +however, in this day and generation, which is about to be the last, I'm +thinking."</p> + +<p>"There will be thirty-nine kiddies from the Settlement and eleven from +the Town to feast on reason and flow soul together in the new school," I +laughed, as I sat down between them. "Also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> I'm thinking that a lot more +will be forthcoming from the Settlement by next week. Young Charlotte +and Mother Spurlock clothed as far as they could, but they will keep at +it, I feel sure. I feel guilty at the idea of taking three trunks of +clothes away from the watchful eye of Mother Elsie, only I'm leaving the +accumulation of years for her distribution."</p> + +<p>"The passport to Elsie Spurlock's heart is a condition composed of rags, +hunger and unhappiness. She has no sympathy or time for a sanitary and +contented friend," said Mrs. Sproul with a decided tartness that was +only a reflex of the deep affection she bore the mistress of the Little +House, which had existed since childhood and would endure.</p> + +<p>"I hear some of the cars coming," announced Mrs. Cockrell, as she began +to crochet furiously at the last petal of a rose. "Is my cap straight? I +do so want to finish this row and can't go in to look."</p> + +<p>"You'll put out St. Peter's eye with a crochet needle while he's +unlocking the pearly gates for you, Lettie Cockrell," said Mrs. Sproul, +as she rose and stood with ceremony at the head of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> steps to meet +the Governor and Mr. Jeffries and father as they came up her front walk.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Sproul always has the most delightful old world sort of midday +dinners and it was two o'clock before we all arose from her long table, +at one end of which had been demolished a spiced ham and from the other +end had disappeared two fat summer turkeys. A saddle of lamb had been +passed in between and we had wound up with sweet potato custards, apple +float and ice cream.</p> + +<p>"I understand now," said Mr. Jeffries, as his keen old eyes twinkled +down the table at Nickols. "This food should produce geniuses. The South +feeds for it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, we eat, drink, are merry and do it all over again to-morrow," said +Mark, as he walked beside Mrs. Sproul from the devastated dining room. +"And we must all hurry if we are to see your young ideas begin to shoot. +This day isn't really hot, but just thinks it is. Look at those clouds +boiling up back of Old Harpeth as if wanting to storm, but afraid to +begin it. There's not a breath of air stirring. Wish it <i>would</i> shower, +for I believe the colors of Goodloe's pageant would run and I'd like to +see the true hue of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> melee of his come out in the wash. It would do +Charlotte good to fade a bit. She has been hectic since daylight and the +rest of my juvenile family with her. Jimmy is S and Z in the alphabet +and Sue has got a huge A sewed on her back. Goodloe intends that +education shall be nailed to 'em."</p> + +<p>And at his admonition to hurry and the alluring description of the +entertainment to come, we all betook ourselves on foot toward the +schoolhouse down the street a few blocks, halfway between the Town and +the Settlement.</p> + +<p>And as we went all the rest of the Town hurried out of wide, high, +vine-covered doors, down broad, flower-lined walks, and joined us from +under bowers of blooming roses, honeysuckle and clematis. We actually +approached the schoolhouse in the form of quite a large procession, and +as we wound our way down the hill we met a like procession winding +itself up the hill from the Settlement, a procession arrayed in its best +bib, tucker and boiled shirt, just as we were adorned in silk, lace, +fine muslin and linen.</p> + +<p>"It looks like two armies approaching each other—Greek is going to meet +Greek," said Billy.</p> + +<p>"Rather Greek meets Vandal, and there stands<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> Goodloe to do the +interpreting," Nickols jeered in answer.</p> + +<p>And as we all flocked into the wide gate of the school yard I was again +struck with the great beauty of the tall, broad, lithe, free man who +stood in the middle of the walk just inside, welcoming Town and +Settlement alike. And while he greeted us, his enthusiastic flock of +older children seated the groups of guests on the long rough benches +which were placed facing the door of the schoolhouse, leaving a wide +space at the foot of the steps, which was roped off with golden chains +of black-eyed daisies and which was evidently to be used as a stage for +the pageant.</p> + +<p>"Just look how Goodloe is failing to mix his oil and water," Nickols +whispered to me, as we observed all of the Settlement groups gravely +gravitate to the left side of the walk while all the Town in chattering +parties took seats on the right. "That's right, Burns, take off my last +summer coat," he added, still in a whisper to me as the Burns parent +struggled out of the unendurable gift garment and thus gave a signal +that whipped off every coat on the left side of the walk in the +twinkling of an eye, to the evident distress of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> tightly girted and +uncomfortable but more formal feminine members of the Settlement +contingent. Conjugal strife was about to make its appearance when Mother +Spurlock, who was seated beside poor little Hettie Garrett, holding the +Mother Only in her arms with never a glance for Mrs. Sproul, who had +beckoned her to a seat next to her own beruffled silk skirts, passed the +word around that such comfort was to be accorded the masculine guests. +Even with such sanction, however, Luella May Spain looked pained at her +father's gay new red suspenders, and I could see that Mr. Todd's striped +shirt was hurting the feelings of Sadie Todd dreadfully, and she and +Luella May returned Billy's gallant salute with the greatest +embarrassment. And in all the buzz I found myself looking anxiously for +Martha Ensley's pale face and dark eyes, but failed to find them.</p> + +<p>"This is one place she ought not to have to peep into; here she has the +rights of her citizenship and her motherhood," I said to myself.</p> + +<p>But if the Town and the Settlement sat in the seats of the audience, +divided by the walk as were the walls of waters by the dry path along +which Moses led his chosen people out of the darkness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> of Egypt, such a +division was not noticeable among the performers of the pageant who were +supposed to be in hiding with their costumes behind a tall screen of +shrubs at one side of the schoolhouse, but who bubbled out on all sides. +Charlotte appeared once holding small Maudie Burns in a comforting +embrace and guided her to her mother for some sort of attention to the +very short skirts of blue gingham which were draped with about ten yards +of green crepe paper, while both Harriet and I gasped as we saw Mikey +jauntily hand the Suckling, tightly wrapped in brown swaddlings, into +the rapturous and tender embrace of Katie Moore, who had blue wings +sewed to her small gingham shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Great Guns! They've got Sucks in it, too!" gasped Billy. "That child is +too young to educate and Goodloe ought to be restrained from +cradle-snatching like—"</p> + +<p>But just here Billy was interrupted and the audience all quieted down as +Mr. Goodloe, in his white flannels and with his gold head ablaze in the +sun, which suddenly shone out fiercely from behind a white cloud which +was sheeting internally with electricity, mounted two of the front<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> +steps of the schoolhouse and held up his hand for silence.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Todd," he said with beautiful deference, "will you lead us in +prayer?" There was a perceptible rustle of feeling on the Settlement +side of the walk, for Mr. Todd was one of the parson's deacons, but he +had also been the master workman in the building of the schoolhouse, and +his neighbors were quick to respond to the tribute offered him before +the distinguished men present. He rose, gaunt and grizzled in his shirt +sleeves, but what he said was brief and as square-cut and to the point +as any nail he had ever driven. I saw the Governor and father exchange +glances and I noticed when the Governor responded to his call he was +much less ornate of speech than usual and much more universal. They all +spoke, from Nickols along the line to father, and after repeated urgings +Mother Spurlock rose to the occasion, and by way of making the Town and +Settlement at home in its new joint quarters announced that the tea +canister with its slit would hereafter be nailed just inside the +schoolhouse door.</p> + +<p>The laugh and delighted applause that was given her seemed to have been +the last straw to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> the actors behind the shrubbery, restrained by their +young preceptress, for the pageant broke upon us.</p> + +<p>First Mikey, with huge white cambric stork wings, hopped upon the stage +of sward and deposited the brown-wrapped Suckling in a hollow log in the +center, and departed flapping. After that the ceremonial developed +itself into the education that was to flow down upon her defenseless +head at the waving of the wand of Minerva, who was Charlotte with a +tinsel star of wisdom resting rampantly upon her brow. And it came down +upon the Suckling with a vengeance. A whole troop of young letters of +the alphabet, led by small Susan with the large red A upon her fat back, +danced around the Suckling's helplessness and finally backed up to the +audience to spell the word "Reading." Next in hopped a flock of numerals +led by the indefatigable Mikey, which backed up and presented themselves +from one to ten to thus imply the hated science of "Arithmetic."</p> + +<p>The Suckling slept on amid delighted gurgles from her mother and +Harriet. She slept through a presentation of the script letters of +"Writing" and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> was still unconscious when "Geography" in crepe paper, +with flags of all nations, grouped around her. She only awoke when, all +by himself, sturdily, with his head in the air and fairly radiant with +beauty and courage, the Stray marched upon the scene, rolled into a +white roll of paper and girt about with a broad red ribbon sealed upon +his back to represent "Diploma." Silently and intent upon his duty he +walked straight to the Suckling in her log crib, bent over her, crooned +to her reassuringly a second, lifted her in his white arms and backed +off behind a tall laurel bush with her nodding in delight over his +shoulder. The boy was so beautiful and the little scene so tender that +the entire audience caught its breath at its—audacity. A gauntlet had +been thrown into the faces of both the Town and Settlement and they both +understood.</p> + +<p>They sat perfectly still with astonishment while the performers were +being massed in the schoolhouse by the young teacher for their final +march out to the steps for the hymn singing with the beloved "Minister," +which was to conclude the ceremonials.</p> + +<p>And while the audience sat awaiting the further<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> presentations to be +made them by their offspring, Mr. Goodloe came out the door and halfway +down the steps. Then suddenly he stopped and looked out over the valley +with such an expression on his face that with one accord his audience +rose and looked with him. And as it looked a groan came that was a +chorus melted into one voice of terror, while all of them stood helpless +with amazement. While we had all been sitting in the curious sweltering +heat, watching with pride a future for our children being foretold for +them by themselves, death had reared itself behind Old Harpeth, coiled +itself into a huge black spiral of thunder and lightning and was driving +down the valley upon Goodloets with a velocity that defied the eyes to +follow. For a long second every man and woman stood rooted to his +foothold on the earth and watched the tornado strike the edge of the +Settlement, smash down the saddlery as if it were a house of cards, and +churn the little tannery into the river. Then as it grasped the roof of +the Last Chance and began twisting it with a roar that grew in volume +every instant, Gregory Goodloe suddenly raised his hand and spoke in a +perfectly calm voice that rang out above the groan of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> the tortured +shanties of the Settlement which were crashing down against each other.</p> + +<p>"Oh, God, we trust in the covert of thy wings," he prayed for a second +and then commanded: "Fall to the earth, all of you, and let it pass over +you!"</p> + +<p>"The children!" came a cry that was a wail of parenthood, as we all sank +to the ground just as the terrible black monster tore the roof from the +Little House and hurled it toward us across the street. I saw a huge +rafter hurtle through the air and strike down Mark Morgan as he started +toward the steps of the schoolhouse, and by not a half inch did it miss +drunken, useless Mike Burns as it fell beside him. Then I covered my +eyes as the cloud and the wind passed over me and I only heard it strike +and rend and crash and tear the schoolhouse, beam from beam and stone +from stone. An eerie wail of the voices of little children was mixed +with the roar of the monster which crashed on up through the Town, +laying low the homes of our pride and prosperity, leaving us with our +faces to the ground while upon us began to pour a deluge of cold rain.</p> + +<p>"Mark! Mark!" I heard Harriet moan beside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> me and I saw her crawl under +the wind toward where Mark had fallen.</p> + +<p>"My babies, Oh, my babies!" came a wail in Nell's voice, and I saw her +try to rise, be knocked over by the wind and then begin to crawl toward +the wrecked mass that a second before had been the schoolhouse and from +which now could be heard the screams and cries of the children. Then as +suddenly as it had laid us low the cruel wind left us and with one +accord we all sprang to our feet and surged toward the children's calls +and cries that came out to us in the semi-darkness that still enveloped +us, though both the wind and the rain were abating.</p> + +<p>But before a huge slab that had been the top step of the schoolhouse we +were all halted by a voice so stern and commanding that even the +agonized mothers and fathers paused.</p> + +<p>"Stop! Not a man or a woman must come a step nearer," said the parson, +with the authority in his voice that must always be obeyed when used by +one human being to another. "The roof of the house has split and sunk in +the middle and only one side beam is supporting it. If it is touched by +so much as a hand it may lose its balance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> and fall on the children. +Only one man must come forward and put his shoulder under the beam at +the other end while I hold this. The children must come out one by one, +so as not to shake anything on them. The beam may fall. Do you all +understand me? One man!"</p> + +<p>"Me, Parson, me!" demanded Mr. Todd.</p> + +<p>"A broader, younger man, Todd," answered the parson, and he was casting +his eye over the huddled people before him when a wail came clear and +distinct from within the ruin.</p> + +<p>"Stranger is caught and bleeding! Hurry, hurry!" were the words that +Charlotte sent forth with all the strength of her young lungs.</p> + +<p>"It's my child, Oh, it's mine!" came an answering, cry, and from behind +some hiding place Martha Ensley flung herself across the front of the +huddled group of the Settlement people and against the defense of +Gregory Goodloe's strong arm which held her from the tottering doorway +he was supporting. "Let me get him out!"</p> + +<p>"No, Martha," the parson said calmly and tenderly, as he held her back.</p> + +<p>"Then <i>you</i> come and get him," Martha said, as she suddenly straightened +herself and looked out<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> among us of the Town. "He's yours—come and save +him!" But even in her agony she was cautious in her appeal, which came +without the demand of a name. We all held our breath for an instant, +Settlement and Town. Who would answer her?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>LIGHT—INTO DARKNESS</h3> + + +<p>"Yes, Martha," came the answer after an instant's pause, and Nickols +Powers stepped from my side to that of Martha Ensley and took her wrung +hands in his. For another long moment we all stood tense at the +acknowledgment that the tragedy had forced to the surface. I stood +beside father like a woman of ice, yet on fire with a contemptuous +humiliation. The eyes of all my world were for an instant turned on me, +then they were all called back to the tragedy that was tottering over +us.</p> + +<p>"Hurry, hurry!" came another wail from within the ruins in Charlotte's +voice. "He's bleeding!"</p> + +<p>Again Martha started to fling herself past Nickols and the parson with a +scream of terror which was faintly echoed from within.</p> + +<p>"Somebody come to Martha," commanded Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> Goodloe, as he held her off +with one hand while he eased the beam on his shoulder so that Nickols +could slip in past him to the other end.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a great, beautiful warmth melted the horror of pride and +humiliation that had frozen my heart as Nickols had stepped from my side +to that of Martha in acknowledgment of her claim upon him for the saving +of the child. All fear for her or us or the babies passed from me. My +soul had gone out into a darkness, called on some great Power that must +be there directing such a thing as was happening to us, and calm and +clear the answer of courage flowed into me.</p> + +<p>Then without another moment's hesitation I stepped forward and held out +my arms to Gregory Goodloe for Martha. He put her into their strong +embrace and I pressed her head down upon my shoulder in a great +tenderness I had never felt before, while Nickols, with a long, hunted +look at us both, crawled into the crumbling ruin and crouched under the +beam as Gregory Goodloe directed him.</p> + +<p>The wind had died down, the clouds were rolling away the darkness and +the rain had almost stopped as we all stood and waited for Gregory<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> +Goodloe to bring from that ruin, in the way his superior judgment +thought best, either life or death. From within there came sobs and +smothered little moans that were so mingled that they could not be +identified by even the mother hearts held at bay by the faith that made +them obey the parson's command.</p> + +<p>And then as I stood there with the mother of the child of my lover +cowering against my breast, with the man who in a few days was to have +been my husband, crouched under almost certain grinding death, and +looked into what at any moment might be the grave of all the babies of +the women I held dear, a light was flooding into my darkness and all of +the obscure, untranslatable writings on my nature became clear and I +received my consciousness of my Master, the Lord Jesus, with a cry that +I sent up for His mediation for the lives of the little ones. It was my +first prayer.</p> + +<p>"O Christ in Heaven, help save them!" I pleaded. "Quick, Gregory, +quick!" I added another supplication in the next breath.</p> + +<p>"Sue is bleeding, too!" again came a wail in Charlotte's voice. "Mikey's +got the baby, but he's caught."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span></p> + +<p>Nell had been kneeling beside Mark's prostrate form, but at Charlotte's +call she laid his head on Harriet's breast and flung herself against my +arm outstretched to receive and restrain her.</p> + +<p>"Now, Nickols, steady! I'll lift them past the beam," said the parson, +as he braced himself in the door space which had been crushed into a +narrow opening.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte, take the baby from Mikey and hand her to me first," he +commanded. "Where are you caught, Mikey?"</p> + +<p>"Me leg," wailed Mikey and his wail was echoed by poor little Mrs. +Burns.</p> + +<p>"Here," said the parson, as he handed the brown swaddled bundle to Nell, +who caught it in her arms and sank shuddering to my feet.</p> + +<p>"Now, Charlotte, I want you to get all the other children who are not +caught into line and make them walk carefully, just as you did here to +me," said the parson in a perfectly calm voice, the one he had used to +command his small congregation in the weeks of the drill.</p> + +<p>"They are all crying and got their heads covered up," answered Charlotte +in despair. "They won't get up and march." Loud wails of fear<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> and +anguish accompanied this statement, as if to corroborate it.</p> + +<p>"Sing with me, Susan, sing the march," came the command without an +instant's delay from the lips of the beloved Minister.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Onward, Christian soldiers<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Marching as to war,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With the cross of Jesus<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Going on before—"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>came wee Sue's high, sweet voice which rose from the cavern and joined +with the parson's in the old song that has led strong men through many a +death watch.</p> + +<p>For a long moment we all waited and then out of the hole in the mass of +stones and timbers and bricks, led by wee bleeding Susan, crawled a slow +stream of bloody, bruised, sobbing infant humanity to be absorbed with +cries of rapture into waiting arms.</p> + +<p>"Hurry, Goodloe, get the boy and Charlotte; my God, hurry, the beam is +sinking!" came in Nickols' smothered voice.</p> + +<p>Martha started, but I held her tight against my breast.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I've got Mikey's pants loose with my teeth," came in Charlotte's voice, +as a creaking of the timbers made a shudder run through the waiting +crowd as every man and woman who held a restored treasure close, waited +to see what would happen to the three left in the settling ruins.</p> + +<p>"Come out, Mikey, come out," called the Burns paternal parent.</p> + +<p>"I won't! I'm going to help Charlotte git out Stray," was the undutiful +response of courage to the craven.</p> + +<p>"Where is he caught, Charlotte?" asked the parson, as he edged a little +farther under the beam, which tottered and brought him to a cautious +standstill.</p> + +<p>"His middle. Mikey's pushing and I'm pulling, but he's all bluggy. He's +dead all but his toes that wiggle."</p> + +<p>"Hurry, Goodloe, hurry!" groaned Nickols, with what seemed a final +inspiration of breath.</p> + +<p>"Pull him loose and come quick, Charlotte, you and Mikey. Never mind the +blood," was the firm command and in a few seconds Charlotte and Mikey +squeezed through the fast closing opening,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> bloody and torn, but with +the limp Stray dragged between them. A great cheer went up as Martha +turned and caught the unconscious boy in her arms, then it froze in the +throats that had been uttering it. Slowly, but more rapidly than could +be stayed by human hands, the whole heavy roof crushed down upon the +rest of the ruin; and under it and the beam went Nickols Powers with +only one deep groan. Mr. Goodloe tried to hold up the whole side of the +roof on his own shoulders and only staggered out from the very brink of +being involved in the crash. Martha sank to the ground and hid her head +in my knees and sobbed while I heard a great cry break from my father's +lips. Nickols was the last of his race and our pride was blasted when he +fell.</p> + +<p>"Now forward, every man of you, but lift and dig carefully," commanded +the parson, as he stood on the very edge of the ruin. "Todd, you stand +at the corner and show them how to roll back the timbers to the right. +Carefully, men, but quick, quick, and with the help of God!"</p> + +<p>It seemed hours that the men wrestled with the timbers and tore away +brick and stone and steel, but it was only a few minutes before they +pried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> up a section of the heavy roof and lifted Nickols from the debris +beneath.</p> + +<p>"He's breathing," said Mr. Todd, as he laid him in the parson's great, +strong, outstretched arms open to receive him and which bore him out +through the crowd swiftly and laid him across the seats of Nickols' car. +Doctor Harding had just put Mark, a limp, heavy body, into his own car, +with Harriet to support the bleeding head, and Nell crouched beside him +with the Suckling in her arms, and sent them on up into the devastated +Town. Now he came and helped us settle Nickols on his cushions.</p> + +<p>"Shall I send my car and Colonel Leftwick for surgeons and nurses from +the Capital?" asked the Governor. "How is it with Morgan?"</p> + +<p>"He is dead," answered the old doctor with the calm serenity that he had +acquired after so many years of giving up his friends. "This case is +another matter. There may be a chance and I'll need help. We don't yet +know how many more are injured in the whole town. We'll need help."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll drive for it myself," answered the Governor, as he swung into +his powerful car and started it out into the valley. "I'll make it back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> +in six hours. No other man can drive this car as fast as I can."</p> + +<p>And true to his promise, he was back within the time with nurses and +surgeons and supplies of all kinds. By that time the whole Harpeth +Valley had heard of our tragedy and all who could find a way were +hurrying to our rescue or comforting.</p> + +<p>The dawn of the beautiful new day found Nickols still alive, stretched +on his bed in his own wing of the Poplars, which alone of all the homes +in the Town had not been touched by the storm monster. The old house +stood unharmed in all its beauty in its garden which had hardly a leaf +or a branch broken, and hovered under its roof the last of the name of +its builders. He lay quiet and unconscious while his life jetted itself +away from a great hole in his lung made by a splinter from the beam he +had held up until old Goodloet's children had been given back to its +future. The great surgeon who had come down with the Governor, watched, +shook his head and went at his task again and again with a dogged +courage. For an hour he would leave him to go and help Dr. Harding with +some of the other injured, but back he would come to his fight for +Nickols' life.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p> + +<p>And all over the stricken town there were similar tragedies being +enacted. Over at the Morgans Mark lay cold and still in the long parlor, +which was almost the only part of the handsome old house left intact by +the tornado, and Harriet sat beside him while Nell nursed maimed wee +Susan and torn Jimmy, and restrained Charlotte from injuring her sorely +twisted ankle.</p> + +<p>Down at the Last Chance, Jacob Ensley was stretched upon a bed in the +bar with a sheet drawn straight and decorously over his bruised white +head. He had been killed by a blow from a roof timber, while from right +beside him young George Spain had been rescued unharmed. When he had +crawled from the ruins he had held in his hand a bottle of whiskey which +he had just uncorked for his own and Jacob's refreshment when the +tornado tore at the East Chance, and scarcely a drop had been spilt. And +the tornado had displayed the vagaries of its kind.</p> + +<p>Old Granny Todd had been lifted in her rocking chair and carried halfway +over the Town and left beside the Spain cottage with her feeble life +intact, while Mrs. Spain, upon whose shoulders the burden of mothering +all seven of the Spains rested<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> heavily, had had one of those valuable +shoulders broken and was left crushed and bleeding beside the rocking +chair in which the helpless old dame arrived for her enforced visit. The +household goods of one family had been torn from them and thrown into +the melee of another, and the Jamison clock was found ticking busily +away over on the roof of the Todd's chicken house. A girl mother in a +little cottage on the edge of the river bank was found floating against +the shore in her wooden bedstead, drowned, while near her the little two +days' old life had been perfectly preserved upon the pillow in the +rocking chair where it had been sleeping when the great storm beast had +made its raid.</p> + +<p>And all Goodloets mourned, crying for her children, and would not be +comforted. The second day after the storm the dead were buried. Mr. +Goodloe, with old Mr. Stokes, the Presbyterian minister, on one hand, +and the Baptist student preacher on the other, stood in the center of +the beautiful city of the dead, over which the storm had passed +unheeding, and had services for the rich and the poor alike. With the +same ceremonial were buried Mark Morgan and Jacob<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> Ensley, and the girl +mother, Ted Montgomery, who had been struck down by the falling sign of +the Bank and Trust Company on Main Street, and a score of others.</p> + +<p>Then after all the tears had been shed and the sobs had ceased, all the +flowers strewn and the reluctant feet had left the silent city, I went +over behind the tall cedars into a corner and knelt beside Martha +Ensley, who had flung herself down across the new-made grave that held +all that was left of Jacob Ensley, the man who had bulwarked sin in his +Settlement and menaced all of Goodloets for many a year. The wide-eyed +boy crouched beside her and I took his hand in mine.</p> + +<p>"Martha," I said, as I bent beside her in the twilight. "I want you to +come home with me, you and Sonny. Your place is there now and you must +bring him." All day I had thought and I had prayed to be aided in doing +what I knew was best.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, Miss Charlotte, no," she said, and shrank from my arms.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Martha," I said, and drew her closer.</p> + +<p>"It happened the summer we were all first grown and you were in Europe. +I couldn't fight him off. I knew he belonged to you and I loved<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> you, +but I couldn't fight him off," she sobbed and the Stray's little arms +went around her neck.</p> + +<p>"I'll fight fer you—I'll fight," he said, with brave, wonderment in his +eyes and voice.</p> + +<p>"I went away this summer and I wanted to stay. Mr. Goodloe tried to help +me, but Nickols found where I was and made me come back. It was wrong to +you and I knew it. I stayed shut up in my room, but he would come. And I +sent him to his death. He was yours and I killed him for you! Please go +away and leave me!" And again Martha cowered away from me.</p> + +<p>"Nobody need know you are in the house, Martha, but you must come with +me," I said, and I spoke with such quiet authority that she rose and +followed me out of the shadows into the starlit night which had come +down over stricken Goodloets. I found Billy waiting for me in his car +and he spoke gently to Martha and settled her and the boy on the back +seat with never a question in his kind eyes.</p> + +<p>"God, you women!" he said to me under his breath, but I avoided his eye +and he drove us silently to the Poplars. The long halls were quiet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> and +empty in the anxious hush of the whole house which was keeping its +life—or death watch. I led Martha to the room that opened into mine, in +which all of the girl guests of the Poplars always slept, and made her +take off her hat and make the boy comfortable. Then I went for Dabney +and asked him to take food to them.</p> + +<p>"Yes'm, I will. God love my little miss," was his answer, and I knew +that I could trust his kindness to Martha and the boy.</p> + +<p>Then I went into the library to father. I found Mr. Goodloe with him and +father's calm under his anxious suffering gave me a thrill at the +thought of the regained strength it implied. The parson's face was +grave, but full of a white light from the fire burning back under the +dull gold brows. His warm hands took my cold ones in them and pressed +them palm to palm in the attitude of prayer and very tenderly, from his +soul to mine, he said:</p> + +<p>"'The Lord is good, for his mercy endureth forever.'"</p> + +<p>"Forever?" I asked him, looking up with the child's faith that had been +born in my heart shining in the confidence in my eyes.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Forever," he answered me with quiet authority.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said father solemnly, as if himself reassured after doubts. Then, +after a second's pause: "Daughter, Nickols is conscious and is asking +for you. Will you go to him?"</p> + +<p>I took my hands out of those which had given to mine the strength of +prayer and went.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE SPARK AND THE BLAZE</h3> + + +<p>I found Nickols lying in his own dim and high bedroom, perfectly +motionless under the white sheet, as he had been for two days, the only +difference that now his great dark eyes burned into mine and on his +mouth there rested a faint trace of the old mocking smile. I sat down +close beside his pillow on a low chair which the nurse placed for me as +she gave me a warning look and left us alone.</p> + +<p>"This is your wedding day, Charlotte, and the license is over on the +desk to destroy," he said, with the mocking light in his eyes flaring up +into greater strength. "I suppose you are duly grateful for the merciful +escape accorded you."</p> + +<p>"Please don't, dear," I said, and I reached out and took his burning +hand in mine.</p> + +<p>"You never really cared, Charlotte. You cold women make havoc in a man's +life. I've no<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> excuses to make, but I wish I could hear you say that you +forgive me. I'd go out more contentedly." And the light that sprang up +into his face showed me just what a hold I had on his loyalty and the +thing a man calls his honor. And it came to me on the wings of a quick, +silent prayer, prayed in a heart unlearned in the forms of petitions, +that I must make a fight to give him the peace of his heritage of +immortality before he entered it.</p> + +<p>"I do forgive you, Nick dear, as I hope to be forgiven by the Master for +the wrongs I have done others—the wrong of accepting your life—in +coldness," I answered, looking him steadily in the eye as I made my +simple declaration of my new-found faith to him.</p> + +<p>"You?" he faltered. "Do I behold you entered into the creed?"</p> + +<p>"Listen to me, Nick, for the time is short," I said, as I held his hand +close in mine. "We were blind—blind. When you and the children were in +that death house I found that I must ask help. I cried out in my +blindness and was answered, as Christ gave his promise that the eyes of +those who ask should be opened. And you must ask so that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> you will have +a vision to help—help you go to the blessed immortality that awaits +you. Ask, Oh, Nick, ask with me. Please, Lord Jesus, help us!" And as I +uttered my few faltering words of petition I fell on my knees beside the +bed.</p> + +<p>"It's too late now," he answered, but a helplessness came into his +bitterness. "I've done all the damage I could and I'm not going to +whimper. You'll help poor Martha?" he questioned softly, and I could +have cried out in thankfulness for the ray of tenderness that came +across his white face.</p> + +<p>"God has given you time to right the worst wrong, Nick," I said, as a +sudden thought came to me that gave to me a healing which I knew I must +pour out upon his wounds. "Marry Martha and give the boy your name and +your money to grow good and great with. Jacob is dead. They are alone in +the world. Give them to me that way, Nick, give them to me to care for +for you until we are all together where everything is made right."</p> + +<p>For a long moment he lay perfectly still and looked into my eyes and I +saw a wonder grow in his that spread all over his whole face.</p> + +<p>"Some kind of a God must have created a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> woman like that in you. Almost +I believe. Call Goodloe quick, and your father." And then he closed his +eyes and I could see a deathly weakness stealing over him. I called the +nurse and sent her for father and Gregory Goodloe, and to old Dabney who +had come to wait by the door I whispered to bring Martha and the boy and +keep them in the room beyond. Then I went back and knelt by the pillow +and took the hand which was beginning to grow cold in mine.</p> + +<p>"Could it be possible?" the white lips muttered.</p> + +<p>"Say it, Nickols; say, 'Lord, help thou my unbelief,'" I begged him.</p> + +<p>"Amen," he whispered with a quick smile just as father and Gregory +Goodloe came into the room.</p> + +<p>"Goodloe, what was the exact story about that skulker of a thief on the +cross?" Nickols asked with a sudden strength in his voice as he opened +his eyes and looked straight at the parson.</p> + +<p>"'The thief said unto Jesus, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into +thy kingdom." And Jesus said unto him, "Verily I say unto thee, to-day +shalt thou be with me in Paradise,"' are the exact words, Nickols," the +parson answered him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Charlotte, ask the judge if he is willing that I should wipe the slate +clean as you propose in case there really is a door and an old Peter to +present a purified passport to," the dying man said to me with a touch +of his old whimsicality. "I give up, Greg; the soul that Charlotte +possesses can't be put out into nothingness; and if she's got one I have +too," he said, after a moment's fight for breath. "Hurry, all of you, to +get my passport made out and bring the girl here to me. Quick, get her. +There is very little time."</p> + +<p>"She's here, Nick," I answered, and after a few words to father and the +parson, to which they both gave assent, I called Martha and the boy into +the room.</p> + +<p>Straight as a bird to its nest Martha flew to the bedside and the dying +arms found strength to lift themselves and take her and the child into +their embrace.</p> + +<p>"Will you forgive me and let me make it as right with the world for you +and him as I can, Martha?" he asked. "I love you, but I'd have drawn us +all down into hell."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Martha, looking up at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> me with positive fear of +me and of father and of our world in her wild face.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Martha," I said, as I knelt beside her and took the Stray in my +arms, toward which he in his terror at the scene strained. "Father is a +justice and he'll make the license over there in the desk right. You +must, Martha, you must! It gives you and the boy to me to care for."</p> + +<p>"Yes, Martha," echoed Nickols' voice, out of which the strength was +quickly going. "Help me wipe off as much of the slate as you can," and +the wandering hand suddenly encountered the boy's wee paddie resting on +the edge of the bed and clasped it close.</p> + +<p>And with the three of us crouched there beside him, father and Mr. +Goodloe bound them legally and in the name of God, just as the last +flicker of strength flared up in Nickols' body. Immediately I rose with +the child in my arms and Martha took Nickols' head on her faithful +breast while the life ebbed away.</p> + +<p>"Amen, Charlotte, amen," were his last whispered words and I understood +that he was ratifying again my prayer for light to lead the way of his +faltering steps.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p> + +<p>And then came a stillness in which we all stood with bowed heads while +Martha sobbed.</p> + +<p>The death of Nickols Morris Powers was an event of national interest and +telegrams and letters and representatives of the press poured into +Goodloets from all parts of the country. Mr. Jeffries and the Governor +stayed with us until it was all over, and when Mr. Jeffries left he +pressed into father's hand a large check of five figures.</p> + +<p>"To help them build again, those who need it, in memory of him," he +said.</p> + +<p>The Governor and his staff spent time and effort in helping to +reorganize Goodloets, but through it all it was the powerful Harpeth +Jaguar on whom we all leaned. He came and went day and night, tireless, +quiet, commanding, and with that great light shining from back of his +eyes upon us all. And in his ministrations down in the Settlement he +took Martha with him day after day. He forced her to use up all of the +strength that she possessed each day so that she would drop with +exhaustion at night. To me he left most of the comforting of Nell—and +Harriet. Like all women of buoyant and shallow nature,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> Nell soon began +to rebound from her tragedy and it was hard to keep Billy within +decorous bounds in his comforting of her. It would have been impossible +to have done it at all with the former Billy, but the quiet, steady +light that shone in his honest eyes whenever he helped with Nell and the +children spoke well for a reformed and perfectly satisfactory future for +them all.</p> + +<p>"Billy," I said to him one afternoon when he had taken all four of the +kiddies out in his car to get wild grapes, when Harriet had counted on +having wee Susan to herself for the afternoon, while Nell was +interestedly busy over somber but much needed winter clothes for +herself. "You have just got to make up your mind that Harriet is going +to absolutely possess Sue for the future. I don't know about any +legalities but I am going to see that Harriet gets Susan."</p> + +<p>"What you say goes, Charlotte, as it always has," he answered me, with +honest adoring in his young eyes that had lost their reckless hunger. +"And if you aren't careful you'll lead us all into Kingdom Come in blind +bridles. Be careful not to over-fill Goodloe's fold. I don't want to +crowd you. I'll take my turn when it comes." He was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> laughing as he +spoke but there was a depth to the laughter that I understood.</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Billy, for your consideration," I answered him, as I took +small Sue's hand and turned in at the Sproul gate.</p> + +<p>Harriet sat on the steps in the fading sunlight and the small music box +flung herself into the outstretched arms with a force that was alarming. +It was easy to see that Susan was most temperamental and would be a +handful of anxieties in the years to come, anxieties that Harriet +needed.</p> + +<p>"Of course, she doesn't belong to me and I'm a fool," Harriet muttered +as Susan darted away to see what treasure for her lurked in the pocket +of Mrs. Sproul's beflowered silk skirt.</p> + +<p>"I started plans to get her for you, just five minutes ago, dear," I +said, as I sat down beside her. "I laid down the law to Billy on the +subject."</p> + +<p>"Charlotte," answered Harriet, as she looked with brooding into my eyes, +"do you really believe that—that we will find them again and—and—<i>do</i> +you really believe?" And the question was so hungry and haunted and so +like what had driven me for years that my heart ached in my breast for +her, but I knew that I could only stand fast<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> and pray that she be +comforted. I couldn't make her see.</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear, I <i>know</i>—but I can't make you know. Just go on—on +<i>hungering</i> like you are and you'll be fed," I answered.</p> + +<p>"You've always understood, Charlotte, and if you say that the pain will +some day be eased I'll—I'll believe it. Yes, I'll make a start by +believing in you and there's no telling where it will land me."</p> + +<p>The confidence with which she raised her comforted eyes to mine made a +stab of pain hit me full in the breast. Words that Gregory Goodloe had +spoken to me out under the old graybeards were the weapon used. "With +your hand in mine I can make this whole community see and know; +separated from you—" In all humility I now understood what he meant.</p> + +<p>And in all the weeks in which he and I had worked together Gregory +Goodloe had given me not one single personal word or look. The priest +had comforted and strengthened me but the man had forever shut me out of +his heart. My suffering was intense, and yet, and yet I knew that in my +heart there was strength to endure the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> want of him with all +cheerfulness even to the end. At last I had found the key to my own +hieroglyphics and I could be honest with myself. I knew that I loved +Gregory Goodloe as it is seldom given to a woman to love a man, but I +also knew that the awakening of spirit I had found was not in any way +connected with my woman's love for him, but had come to me from the +years of suffering I had had while I sought it. I refused to acknowledge +that a sex spark had in any way set off the blaze; the fire had been +laid in my soul and it would burn on without any of his tending. But +even in that honest surety Nickols' mocking words "religion is +suppressed sex" haunted me. I knew it could not be true, so I put it all +out of my mind as I left Harriet and walked down the street towards the +Poplars.</p> + +<p>I was due in the library to help father in the packing of some of his +papers, for I had insisted that he go on to Washington to fulfill his +appointment. Martha and the boy would be with me and if he only left me +Dabney I could be safe and busy for the winter. Strange to say, Mammy's +disappointment at Dabney's loss of a sojourn in a strange clime was +greater than his own.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't believe in glorifying men by needing of them to any great +measure," she declared. "With me in the house and the preacher across +the fence it don't make no difference how good looking you are, Miss +Charlotte, you won't be too much for our protection. Dabney can jest go +on with the jedge."</p> + +<p>"Of course, little miss, you don't need me, but I sorter got rheumatics +in my homesick and I begged off from Mas' Nickols," Dabney replied with +the wily soothing that had made his conjugal life both pleasant and +possible.</p> + +<p>I was thinking of the argument and smiled with tenderness as I saw the +old grizzled white head bent over a hoe down in the dahlias, which he +was bedding. The young man from White Plains had stayed to put the +garden to bed as far as possible, and had left with perfect confidence +in Dabney and the likely yellow boy he had found.</p> + +<p>And now in late October the garden was in a conflagration of blossoming +glory. The borders of the walks blazed with the red and blue and gold +and purple of chrysanthemums and asters and zinnias and dahlias, while +long tendrils of russet autumn vines trailed in and over and around the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> +flowers and shrubs and hedges. The tang of ripening and falling seed was +mixed in all the perfume, and gorgeous leaves were beginning to rustle +on the green grass. It was Nickols' first harvest of beauty, and somehow +I felt that there was no need to regret that his eyes were not mortally +there to gather the fruits.</p> + +<p>I went from the front porch up to my room to take off my hat and see if +Martha had come from a day with Mother Spurlock down in the Settlement. +I found instead of Martha or the boy or Mother Elsie, Jessie Litton +seated at my desk and looking out the window across to Paradise Ridge.</p> + +<p>"I came up to wait, Charlotte, because—because I'm in deep water and +need a hand out. You have always helped and somehow I feel that you have +so much more to give me now than you ever had. Clifton Gray told me last +night that he loved me and is going to break his engagement with Letitia +Cockrell. He had heard Letitia and Nell talk over Nell's mourning +trousseau for the winter and he was disgusted—that, and—and I think it +has been coming some time. He is with Mr. Goodloe a lot lately in +getting things about the town started to going again and he is—is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> +thinking. I don't know how to help him think; it's a thing I've never +done. I am at sea myself but I know that he must not throw Letitia over. +Will you talk to him?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't help him if—if Mr. Goodloe can't," I faltered, simply sick +with distress.</p> + +<p>"Cliff said not a week ago that your eyes made him feel like a light he +saw ahead on a wooded island after he had drifted without a paddle two +days in a canoe one time in Canada. You'll have to talk to him. Give him +a little life kernel; I've only got shells for myself. I'm going down to +Florida suddenly next week and when I come back I—I, well, I'll either +go into the movies or study with Mother Spurlock to get a deaconess' +cap." As she spoke I saw that the fight was on in Jessie's soul, and it +would be to a finish.</p> + +<p>"God bless and keep you, dear," I held her back long enough to say as +she picked up her sweater and left me. Hampton Dibrell has been +constantly with Bessie Thornton since Ted Montgomery's death, and I knew +that Jessie's time of trial had come, for her love for him had grown +through her denial because of the taint of her mad mother. And somehow I +felt sure of the outcome,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> that she would find strength to let him go. I +didn't know why I felt so sure; but I did, and I went down to the +library with a great peace in my heart that I knew later would be in +hers.</p> + +<p>And I made my entry into father's den in the midst of a scene of great +moment. I paused and listened with profound respect. Tradition was on +trial and the result I felt would be momentous. Father sat in his huge +chair before a small crackling fire in the wide chimney, and Martha's +boy stood before him with a large, profusely illustrated volume of Hans +Christian Andersen clasped passionately to his little breast. He had the +floor.</p> + +<p>"And Charlotte said they is no fairies anywhere and I say they is," he +declaimed, while father listened attentively. Suddenly I saw what I had +never seen before, that father's white hair rose in a crest on one side +and descended in a cascade on the other at exactly the same angle as the +black locks of the young arguer before him, and as they calmly regarded +each other I thought I had never seen such a likeness in personality as +well as form of feature. Love flooded all over me and I wanted to hug +them both but was restrained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> to silence by the gravity of the +situation.</p> + +<p>"And why did you argue that there are fairies?" father interrogated +calmly and judicially.</p> + +<p>"Charlotte said they ain't here 'cause she and me had never saw one, and +I said, 'How could a book and pictures be about nothing at all?' I +showed her this book that Lady gaved me and she said, 'Maybe, but ask +Minister.' I said, no, I'd ask you 'cause you are older and mighter saw +one onct. Did you?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, you argued from a positive, about ten pounds of positive, I +should judge from the size of that volume, while Charlotte certainly +argued from a negative viewpoint," said father, and his eyes twinkled as +he gave me an almost imperceptible wink. By his answer he also avoided +answering the question of faith put to him.</p> + +<p>"Did you see one?" came back the question in a tone that demanded an +answer.</p> + +<p>"Here comes Minister now and you can ask him," father said in all +cravenness as Mr. Goodloe came in the door behind me and came and stood +at my side. He had a huge yellow plume<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span> of goldenrod which he handed me +without looking at me directly. I buried my nose in its crispness and +watched to see him meet the issue.</p> + +<p>The boy put the question carefully just as he had put it to father, but +there was a quaver in his voice as he ended with his plea.</p> + +<p>"Is they no fairies, 'cause you can't see 'em?"</p> + +<p>"Do you feel them in your heart?" was the counter question that came +gravely from the lips of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe.</p> + +<p>"Yes, here," answered the pleader as he laid his hand carefully on the +pit of his stomach, which is nearer the seat of heartache than many a +perturbed older person has come.</p> + +<p>"Then for you there are fairies, right there in your heart, even if +Charlotte has lost them out of hers," was the answer, with a theology +that staggered me and set father smiling back into his youth.</p> + +<p>"I'll go tell her and maybe give her some of mine," exclaimed the boy as +he ran from the room.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span></p> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>THE COVERT OF WINGS</h3> + + +<p>"Oh, the faith of youth, the faith that reaches out to give itself," +sighed father as he turned to his papers.</p> + +<p>"Can faith give itself?" I asked, as I raised my eyes to the stars under +dull gold through which Gregory Goodloe was pouring a great smile down +into my depths.</p> + +<p>"Sometimes—just sometimes I think that perhaps it can—it does," he +answered me slowly and took my hands in his and held them with their +palms together prayerwise, a thing he had done several times in the +weeks past. Then he turned and walked over to father's desk and stood +looking down at him.</p> + +<p>"I want to dedicate the chapel on Sunday, Mr. Powers, as that is your +last Sunday before you go to Washington," he said, and as he spoke he +smiled first down into father's eyes raised to his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> and then into +mine—impersonally. I couldn't trust myself to speak but turned and went +up to my room to weep with a hurt that soon sent me to my knees, blind +for the comfort that came—that I knew always would come now, no matter +what the hurt.</p> + +<p>"He knows it has come to me, and he's thankful—but he doesn't care," I +sobbed and then laughed at my own contradictions.</p> + +<p>Martha found me kneeling beside my window seat when she came in with +Mother Spurlock and she shielded me until I could wipe away the tears +and be as glad to see them both as I really was.</p> + +<p>They were full of the plans for the dedication, which it gave me another +stab to find they had been discussing with Mr. Goodloe for several days. +In the hard weeks that had passed I had been their confidant, adviser +and many times their helper in the reconstructing around the tragedies +in the Settlement, but in this matter I had not been consulted. In fact, +Mother Spurlock showed an embarrassed hesitation as she talked of it +that still further hurt me and made me unenthusiastic and cold to their +plans.</p> + +<p>And why should I have been hurt that the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> surety in my heart had not +declared itself to them without words? So wonderful did it seem to me +that I thought it must be in my every word and deed and look and I was +confounded that as yet I was considered to be an outsider and not +entitled to plan for the ceremonial of the dedication of the material +fold for the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's flock. And then suddenly my hurt was +swept away by my sense of humor and I laughed to myself when I saw that +to Mother Spurlock, who had hungered and thirsted for my conversion, I +would have to prove it, tell it and repeat it.</p> + +<p>"Instead of the festal ceremonies in the dedication Mr. Goodloe is going +to have the simplest dedication ritual and then immediately hold the +memorial services for our—our dead," said Mother Spurlock, as she took +Martha's hand in hers and stroked it. "We want everybody to be there and +I could use a few more of those trunks full of colored new clothes, +Charlotte. The people down in the Settlement can use and wear after a +dye pot when you can't, bless your sweet heart," and as she made her +ruling request, which was still strong in death, she stroked the fold of +dull black silk over my knee which was cut from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> same material as +the straight black widow's gown which Martha wore.</p> + +<p>"Make Martha buy you some things for some of them," I said lightly and +watched Martha as I spoke. She had never by word or deed showed that she +felt anything but adoringly dependent on me and my bounty, and had put +the check book I had given her from Mr. Cockrell away in my desk without +looking at it. I could see that my words both hurt and shocked her.</p> + +<p>"No, Oh, no," she faltered and turned away toward the window.</p> + +<p>"But, Martha," I was beginning to say, when an interruption burst into +the room. Young Charlotte stood before us and at her side the boy stood +his ground with the huge book still in what must have been very tired +arms. Their faces were belligerent and small James had upon his +countenance the alarm he always shows during Charlotte's most serious +and dangerous outbursts. Mikey was along, with his mischievous eyes +dancing with delight at the fray.</p> + +<p>"Auntie Charlotte, I think somebody ought to whip Stranger for saying +that Minister said he had fairies in his stomach. It is a lie."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll lick him fer you, Miss Charlotte," offered Mikey, with a pass at +the boy that I knew was only an affectionate threat.</p> + +<p>"I'll knock a stuffing out of you if you touch him," answered Charlotte, +taking Mikey's offer with her usual literal directness. "When he's +whipped, nobody but Auntie Charlotte can do it. Are you going to do it +now, Auntie Charlotte? We don't want the devil to get him for badness." +And as she spoke she took the boy's hand and held it tightly as if +willing to defend him from the flesh, the devil and the world, only +excepting myself.</p> + +<p>"But he did say that I had them here when I put my hand on it, didn't +he, Lady?" demanded the accused, with more courage than I would have +felt at meeting the accusation for him. I simply couldn't face the +explanation and I became craven.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Goodloe is down in the library. Go ask him what he did say," I +suggested hopefully.</p> + +<p>"We looked everywhere for him and that is the place we skipped. I felt +sure you wouldn't know anything at all about it, Auntie Charlotte, but +Stranger said you know just as much as Minister, which is another thing +I am going to ask<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> him about. Come on, Stranger." And with her usual +lightning rapidity, Charlotte began to marshal her forces out of the +room.</p> + +<p>"Please don't!" were the words I sent faltering after her determination +to question Mr. Goodloe about his and my relative erudition, but I felt +that they made no impression.</p> + +<p>"Sonny thinks about you just as Charlotte does about Mr. Goodloe, and +he'll say so to everybody," said Martha, with a sad smile after the door +had closed with vigor enough to startle the household.</p> + +<p>"He's a fine child," said Mother Spurlock, with a great tenderness in +her smile at Martha. "Did you ask Mrs. Todd if that big hulk of a Jones +boy could get into the coat that Dabney got me from the judge's closet?" +she said, continuing the subject in hand, which lasted her for another +hour. When she went she took Martha with her to carry half the bundles +down to the Little House, the roof of which was the first thing to be +patched in stricken Goodloets.</p> + +<p>That night I felt the hands of the Stray on my face in the darkness and +his soft cheek cuddle to mine.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> say they <i>is</i> fairies, Lady," he coaxed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There are fairies and there always will be for you," I answered, as I +drew him close and kissed the fragrant mouth so near mine. "Go back to +mother now," I added, as I felt the sleepy huddle of his little shoulder +against mine. He went and I promised myself that no matter how lonely I +was to be I would always send him back to his mother and not ever forget +that her claim was first. Tears were in my eyes as I turned my face into +the pillow, but suddenly the refrain of the song I had once heard in the +night, "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide," sung itself in my heart +until I again fell to sleep.</p> + +<p>The dedication day for Goodloe Chapel arrived upon Goodloets just one +month from the day upon which the beast of storm had ravaged it, and as +that fateful morning dawned with an extraordinary grandeur, so that +Sunday in mid-October came up from behind Paradise Ridge with unusual +beauty, only with the difference of calmness instead of splendor and +peace instead of tumult. The sun was warm and benignant, with not a +cloud in the deep blue sky to obscure its blessing. A gentle breeze blew +in from the fields and meadows laden with rich harvest odors and every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> +shrub and flower and vine which had been hiding back a few late buds let +them burst forth in honor of the day, and in many instances they bloomed +from a new growth thrown over the scars in the sides of the old town. In +one short month most of the ruins had been reduced to orderly piles of +material to be used in rebuilding, and a great many of the deepest +gashes had been healed completely and covered with merciful vine and +blossom. And it had also been like that with most of the scars in the +lives of the bereaved; they ached, but they had been covered with a +courage to go on building again until the new structure could be +complete.</p> + +<p>I think something of this feeling was in the minds of most of the people +as they began to assemble around Goodloe Chapel long before the time for +its opening. And as had happened once before, the procession from the +Town met the procession from the Settlement, only this time they were +not divided so completely from the right to the left. A tall mill woman, +whose husband had gone down in the crash at the saddlery, came and took +Nell's hand in hers and laid a strong arm around her shoulders, while +Harriet went over and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> took from the arms of the young father the little +motherless mite who had been rescued from the pillow floating on the +river. Billy shook hands with a young tanner in tight but wholly new +clothes, to whom Luella May Spain introduced him as her imminent +husband.</p> + +<p>In times of stress women are apt to seize and cling to the arm of +masculine protection, and Luella May had chosen to forget the +fascination of Billy's hesitation and two-steps and secure for herself a +life of thorough normality. She would probably never forget those dances +with Billy, and they would lend a kind of reminiscent glow of pleasure +over her boiling cabbage pots, but it would be no worse than that.</p> + +<p>Mr. Todd was shaven and habitated in the neat black coat he had thrown +off as he went at the ruin of the schoolhouse a month before, and with a +tender smile on his lean old face he came over and stood beside Martha, +as if to be watchful of her in the new order of her life.</p> + +<p>And it was for quite a half hour that most of the inhabitants of +Goodloets stood around in the yard of the chapel and waited for the +formal opening of the doors. We all knew that the chapel<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> would not hold +the half of us, for the small Presbyterian congregation had been +dismissed by Mr. Farraday to come over and join us in the dedication, +and after a short service the boy Baptist divine had brought his flock +to do honor to the opening of the new fold. In fact, by count almost +every citizen in Goodloets stood before the chapel doors and waited for +them to be thrown open. And in the crowd who waited there was this +difference from the last time we had been together: All the children +were with us and not separated from us by walls that crash. I think that +the second meeting of Town and Settlement would have been impossible if +each parent had not had the confidence inspired by the small hands in +theirs.</p> + +<p>And for still more minutes we were patient while the delicious autumn +sun beamed upon us with Indian summer warmth and Old Harpeth looked down +on us from out on Paradise Ridge with its crown wreathed with purple and +gold and russet, all veiled in a tender haze.</p> + +<p>Then as the old clock on the courthouse up on the square boomed the hour +of eleven, Dabney with ceremony opened wide the tall doors and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> stepped +back into the shadow, Jefferson bowing and smiling behind him. With one +accord the people started toward the door, and then everybody again +stood still and seemed to be waiting for something.</p> + +<p>I knew for what they waited and I took Martha's hand in mine, with the +boy's in hers on the other side, and slowly we walked through the path +made for us between our friends and neighbors and in at the chapel door. +As I passed Harriet I motioned to her and she put her arm around Nell +and followed us, while Billy came behind them with father and the +children. And behind them walked all of those who had been bereaved by +the storm, and those who had been lamed and were suffering came with +them.</p> + +<p>My entry into the chapel had been accomplished and I felt like a +storm-torn bird who finds its sanctuary among the green leaves of a +great tree, while with Martha and the boy I went up to the very chancel +rail itself.</p> + +<p>Then I lifted my eyes and looked up into Gregory Goodloe's face, from +which the white light of a great joy tinged with a great sorrow, looked +down upon us. And as had been the case for all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> the long weeks stretched +out behind me there was in his eyes no glance to me of a personal +understanding; all the passion was that of a shepherd for his flock, and +in its greatness I humbly acquiesced as I fell upon my knees in the +front pew with Martha beside me, while he lifted his hands for the +opening prayer of his service.</p> + +<p>And in his short prayer he made the dedication of the pile of stone and +mortar which had stood before the face of the wind as sturdily as old +Harpeth itself. His words held the simplicity of those of a great poet +and each was a separate jewel that could be imbedded in the hearts of +his people to last for the span of their lives. He made a grateful +acknowledgment of the safety of the chapel and of the spared lives of +those before him, and in a few ringing sentences he prayed that we all +be delivered from the blindness of the prosperity which was upon us when +the disaster had made us halt in our rush and give time for brother to +face and call upon brother in affliction. So ringing and vivid was the +self-accusation of heedlessness in the few sentences when he dealt with +the condition of all of us when sorrow had come upon us, that we all +held our breath with almost a groan of conviction,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> and his promise of +our humbled and contrite hearts was ratified with a breath of relief.</p> + +<p>Then we rose from our knees and sat once more facing him while he stood +before us and began to read the memorial services for our dead. And +through the whole beautiful ritual he led us to the very words of +triumph:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written; +Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? +O grave, where is thy victory?"</p></div> + +<p>The warmth in his beautiful voice and the light upon his face poured +over us all with a healing that we knew would endure.</p> + +<p>After the dedication prayer and the memorial service the old +Presbyterian minister, whom we had all known and loved since infancy, +talked tenderly and with great sympathy to us for a few minutes and the +stammering young Baptist divine gave us an insight into a heart of +youthful devoutness.</p> + +<p>And then came my hour.</p> + +<p>"And now that we have given to the Lord formally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> this sanctuary we have +builded for him, I want to open its spiritual doors to any of you who +feel in your hearts the desire to unite with us in our worship of Him," +were the words of invitation that I suddenly felt beat themselves, in +the rich voice of the man in the pulpit, upon my heart. "I am going to +baptize the children, but are there any of you of 'riper years' who +desire to unite with us to 'constantly believe God's holy word, and +obediently keep his commandments'?" And as he spoke he came down from +the pulpit, stood at the chancel rail and stretched out his hands to all +of us. Without a second's delay I rose and went and knelt before him and +bowed my head in my hands. On my right knelt the young tanner and on my +left I felt rather than saw Clifton Gray.</p> + +<p>"The Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years" is long and +full of holy austerity. Word for word, response for question, I followed +the rich voice leading me, but not until it asked concerning our faith +in the "life everlasting" did I raise my eyes to those glowing above me +as I made answer:</p> + +<p>"All this I steadfastly believe."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p> + +<p>There was an instant's hush in the church as I made my response and in +all humility I seemed to feel that it reverberated in some of the +others' depths until it waked a faint echo. They had seen me face my +humiliation and had watched how I took it and it had had its effect. It +was as if I publicly led them to the well-spring of my courage and +offered it to them. Luella May stole forward and crowded in between the +young tanner and me, and I saw great tears steal out of father's closed +eyes and roll down his cheeks, as he came and knelt just behind me, with +two mill hands and several women.</p> + +<p>And then, after our blessing, while we rose and stood on the right and +the left of the chancel the parson asked that the children be brought +forward for baptism.</p> + +<p>Without waiting for anybody to come with her, Charlotte rose, took a +hand of Sue on one side and one of Jimmy on the other, and came and +stood looking up into the beloved Minister's eyes with such a vision in +her young face that I caught my breath. Then Nell came and with her came +Harriet with the Suckling asleep in her arms. The bereaved young father +held his baby in his arms<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> alone and Mrs. Burns went and stood beside +him with Mikey and Maudie and the other five toddlers in front of her. +Other children were brought forward by parents from the Town and the +Settlement and were ranged to the right and to the left, but still I saw +that Martha cowered in her pew holding the hand of the Stray in hers as +he knelt beside her. Then I knew what I must do and I went quietly and +lifted her and led her to the chancel to a place just beside where +Harriet stood with the Suckling in her arms. I held one of the Stray's +little hands in mine, and young Charlotte dropped Jimmy's hand and +reached out and took the other in hers. So we stood and waited while the +beloved voice read through the beautiful ceremony with which children +are taken into the arms of their faith before they are yet ready to +understand what it is some day to mean to them.</p> + +<p>"It is your duty to teach him ... to obediently keep God's holy will and +commandments all of his life," were the closing words of the address +with which the parson looked us full in the eye and laid the vow upon +our souls. Then he reached out his hands, drew the Stray to him first, +encircled him with his strong arm, laid his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> hands on the bowed black +head, and looking me straight in the eye asked the question of his +ritual:</p> + +<p>"Name this child."</p> + +<p>For an instant I glanced at Martha and then at father standing beside +me, and as he nodded I slightly bent my head and into a deathly +stillness all over the chapel I let the name fall clear and distinct:</p> + +<p>"Nickols Morris Powers."</p> + +<p>A beautiful ray of light flooded from one of the tall windows over both +of us as he ratified the name with a few drops of water upon the boy's +brow, and then turned to Harriet and repeated his question while he took +the Suckling into his arms with the greatest tenderness. Then through +the group he went, naming his lambs as he held them against his heart or +within the circle of his strong arm. It was all so tender and so +beautiful that every eye in the chapel was wet with tears and sobs +echoed softly through his last prayer.</p> + +<p>However, at one time in the ceremonial there was danger of a laugh from +the aggregate, overwrought nerves when Charlotte promptly named<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> herself +without waiting for Nell's response which came late but in time to save +embarrassment.</p> + +<p>Then it was all over and the whole congregation trooped but into the +sunshine. Father walked home with young Nickols on one side and +Charlotte on the other, Martha carrying the Suckling and walking beside +Harriet, who led Sue past the destruction of her white dress which every +mud puddle threatened. Cliff Gray came with me slowly up the street +after all the others had gone ahead and most of them had turned into the +gates of their respective homes.</p> + +<p>"Is everything all right now, Cliff?" I questioned him, as we walked +slowly under the old elms of our ancestors' planting. "It is all right +now?" I asked again, while Cliff looked off into the distance.</p> + +<p>"I have faith that I can make it that way now, Charlotte dear," he +answered, as I paused to turn in at my gate. We clasped hands for a +second and then he went on down the street toward the Cockrell gate; and +Letitia's material point of view on existence I knew would have a fair +chance at his hands.</p> + +<p>I felt that I had never loved my friends as I did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> that wonderful +Sunday, and I hoped it would not bore them if I at times let some of it +overflow into their well ordered lives.</p> + +<p>The rest of that long, hazy, dreamy, wonder day, in the morning of which +our hearts had been poured so full, we all of us spent with father, as +he was to leave us the next morning. Against the remonstrance of his +maternal parent, the worthless Jefferson had been chosen to go along in +the place of his father Dabney. The young negro's brisk packings filled +the house with a joy note that was delightful and Mammy admonished him +on subjects moral every time he came near the kitchen.</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon I left father down in the garden with young +Nickols, to whom he was confiding the care of some very choice hollyhock +seeds that would need gathering in the next few weeks.</p> + +<p>"Your father got them from England," the judge said gravely, as he +showed the small paddies how to roll out the thin seed without crushing +them.</p> + +<p>"Have I got any father but the Lady?" asked the youngster with all +seriousness, as he beamed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> up in my direction. Suddenly Martha turned +and went indoors and up to her room. I followed her and sat down beside +the bed on which she had flung herself.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to make him understand it all; I can't," she said, after I +had tenderly hushed her weeping. "I give him to you. I—I won't be with +him long." As she spoke I noticed how the light shone through her pale +fingers as she held them up to clasp mine.</p> + +<p>"We'll go away to Florida for a rest, Martha," I said, with the +reassurance I found I had constantly to use to her. There was a great +and beautiful tenderness in the soul of Martha, but she was completely +lacking in any of the worldly initiative that makes lives move on. She +seemed to be standing still.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I'll go away," she answered softly, as she unclasped her hand from +mine, nestled her face in the pillow and shut her eyes.</p> + +<p>I left her to sleep and a year from that hour I knew that I had not +understood the measure of her exhaustion. She faded like a flower and +drifted on into eternity like a gossamer thread in the breeze.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p> + +<p>And it was with some of the depression that a kind of maternal brooding +over her gave me that I went out into the garden that night after all +the rest had gone to bed. A pale silver moon-crescent poised on the brow +of Old Harpeth and a tingling little breeze was coming down from the +north as if sent as a warning of the winter soon to be upon us. I went +down to the old graybeard poplars and their leaves seemed to hiss +together in the moonlight instead of rustling softly as they had been +all summer. A great many of them were drifted in dry waves on the grass +and their gold was turned to silver in the moonlight. Many of the tall +shrubs were naked ghosts of their former selves and gnashed their bones +drearily. I leaned against the tallest old poplar and looked out across +the valley with a kind of stillness in my heart that seemed to be +listening and then listening.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm thankful, thankful that strength has been given me to endure it +all—life," I said to myself, almost under my breath. "And no matter +what comes I can never lose it. I can go out into life now alone +and—unafraid."</p> + +<p>"'And whither thou goest I too will go, and thy—'" came the Gregorian +chant from close beside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> me, and I turned to find the Harpeth Jaguar +stalking me in the night.</p> + +<p>Then for a long time we stood and looked at each other, he tearing away +the veil from his man's heart and I laying aside that in my woman's +breast.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I've needed you so," I finally said, with a catch in my breath as I +put my hands in his which he put palm to palm, then raised to his lips.</p> + +<p>"You were in God's hands and I had to wait His time," he answered me. +"And I would have waited until the stars burn dim. As near as loss came +I never doubted. I had asked Him for you."</p> + +<p>"I didn't know I was going to join your church this morning," I +faltered. "I never intended to join your church. I was going to be +either a Baptist or a Presbyterian. I was afraid to mix—my faith +with—with you."</p> + +<p>"Hasn't it been tried sufficiently to stand any test? I think so. Ah, +dear, come to me—it's been long for me, too." His arms entreated me, +but I held myself away with my praying hands pressed to his breast.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure that I'm not mixing you and—your faith?" I asked, looking +him honestly in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> face and giving voice to the thought that Nickols +had put into my mind and which had tortured me all the weary months +past.</p> + +<p>"Did any thought of me make you bring Martha Ensley to Nickols' death +bed and take into your heart and home what the world calls dishonor?"</p> + +<p>"No," I answered with honesty to myself.</p> + +<p>"Have you once since you knew—<i>knew</i>—felt that you must turn to me for +comfort and help in one of your dire hours?"</p> + +<p>"Not once," I answered again with honesty.</p> + +<p>"Have you not learned to turn to Him?"</p> + +<p>"I have!" I answered.</p> + +<p>"That's God's love. Then you can give me the love that belongs to me in +your heart's kingdom, can't you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid—I'm going to love you too much—I feel it coming. What'll +you do with it? Stop me!" I said with both a sob and a laugh, as I began +to let myself be drawn into the strong, hungry arms.</p> + +<p>"You great, big, splendid woman of God! You've got love enough in you to +feed a multitude and you'll do it. Give me a part of my share now.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> It's +mine. God sent you to me; I'm going to take you."</p> + +<p>And he did. His lips pressed mine until I gave back a betrothal kiss +that was as complete as a great red flower. His arms held me so that +they were a circle of pain, but all the while I kept my hands prayerwise +between the clamor of our breasts.</p> + +<p>"Say it—'the covert of thy wings'—all that David said," I whispered.</p> + +<p>And he answered:</p> + +<p>"'I will abide in thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of +thy wings.'"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD'S</h2> <h4>STORIES OF ADVENTURE</h4> + +<p>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list.</p> + + +<p><i>KAZAN</i></p> + +<p>The tale of a "quarter-strain wolf and three-quarters husky" torn +between the call of the human and his wild mate.</p> + +<p><i>BAREE, SON OF KAZAN</i></p> + +<p>The story of the son of the blind Grey Wolf and the gallant part he +played in the lives of a man and a woman.</p> + +<p><i>THE COURAGE OF CAPTAIN PLUM</i></p> + +<p>The story of the King of Beaver Island, a Mormon colony, and his battle +with Captain Plum.</p> + +<p><i>THE DANGER TRAIL</i></p> + +<p>A tale of snow, of love, of Indian vengeance, and a mystery of the +North.</p> + +<p><i>THE HUNTED WOMAN</i></p> + +<p>A tale of the "end of the line," and of a great fight in the "valley of +gold" for a woman.</p> + +<p><i>THE FLOWER OF THE NORTH</i></p> + +<p>The story of Fort o' God, where the wild flavor of the wilderness is +blended with the courtly atmosphere of France.</p> + +<p><i>THE GRIZZLY KING</i></p> + +<p>The story of Thor, the big grizzly who lived in a valley where man had +never come.</p> + +<p><i>ISOBEL</i></p> + +<p>A love story of the Far North.</p> + +<p><i>THE WOLF HUNTERS</i></p> + +<p>A thrilling tale of adventure in the Canadian wilderness.</p> + +<p><i>THE GOLD HUNTERS</i></p> + +<p>The story of adventure in the Hudson Bay wilds.</p> + +<p><i>THE COURAGE OF MARGE O'DOONE</i></p> + +<p>Filled with exciting incidents in the land of strong men and women.</p> + +<p><i>BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY</i></p> + +<p>A thrilling story of the Far North. The great Photoplay was made from +this book.</p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3>THE NOVELS OF</h3> <h2>GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL LUTZ</h2> + +<p>May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list.</p> + + +<p><i>THE BEST MAN</i></p> + +<p>Through a strange series of adventures a young man finds himself +propelled up the aisle of a church and married to a strange girl.</p> + +<p><i>A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS</i></p> + +<p>On her way West the heroine steps off by mistake at a lonely watertank +into a maze of thrilling events.</p> + +<p><i>THE ENCHANTED BARN</i></p> + +<p>Every member of the family will enjoy this spirited chronicle of a young +girl's resourcefulness and pluck, and the secret of the "enchanted" +barn.</p> + +<p><i>THE WITNESS</i></p> + +<p>The fascinating story of the enormous change an incident wrought in a +man's life.</p> + +<p><i>MARCIA SCHUYLER</i></p> + +<p>A picture of ideal girlhood set in the time of full skirts and poke +bonnets.</p> + +<p><i>LO, MICHAEL!</i></p> + +<p>A story of unfailing appeal to all who love and understand boys.</p> + +<p><i>THE MAN OF THE DESERT</i></p> + +<p>An intensely moving love story of a man of the desert and a girl of the +East pictured against the background of the Far West.</p> + +<p><i>PHOEBE DEANE</i></p> + +<p>A tense and charming love story, told with a grace and a fervor with +which only Mrs. Lutz could tell it.</p> + +<p><i>DAWN OF THE MORNING</i></p> + +<p>A romance of the last century with all of its old-fashioned charm. A +companion volume to "Marcia Schuyler" and "Phoebe Deane."</p> + + +<p><i>Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction</i></p> + + +<p><span class="smcap">Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York</span></p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART'S KINGDOM***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 18756-h.txt or 18756-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/5/18756">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/7/5/18756</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution.</p> + + + +<pre> +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>. + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's +eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII, +compressed (zipped), HTML and others. + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over +the old filename and etext number. The replaced older file is renamed. +VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving +new filenames and etext numbers. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a> + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + +EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000, +are filed in directories based on their release date. If you want to +download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular +search system you may utilize the following addresses and just +download by the etext year. + +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a> + + (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99, + 98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90) + +EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are +filed in a different way. The year of a release date is no longer part +of the directory path. The path is based on the etext number (which is +identical to the filename). The path to the file is made up of single +digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename. For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/18756-h/images/frontis.jpg b/18756-h/images/frontis.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4fcd3c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/18756-h/images/frontis.jpg diff --git a/18756-h/images/illus186.jpg b/18756-h/images/illus186.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ef0f74 --- /dev/null +++ b/18756-h/images/illus186.jpg diff --git a/18756.txt b/18756.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..abc87d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/18756.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7839 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Heart's Kingdom, by Maria Thompson +Daviess, Illustrated by W. B. King + + +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 Heart's Kingdom + + +Author: Maria Thompson Daviess + + + +Release Date: July 4, 2006 [eBook #18756] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART'S KINGDOM*** + + +E-text prepared by Kathryn Lybarger, Josephine Paolucci, and the Project +Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18756-h.htm or 18756-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/5/18756/18756-h/18756-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/5/18756/18756-h.zip) + + + + + +THE HEART'S KINGDOM + +by + +MARIA THOMPSON DAVIESS + +Author of The Melting of Molly, etc. + +Illustrated by W. B. King + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "_It's a mighty big turkle," he faltered, and snuggled +closer._] + + + + +New York +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers +Copyright, 1917 +by +The Reilly & Britton Co. +Made in U.S.A. +Published September 12, 1917 +Second Printing October 1, 1917 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I The World and the Flesh 9 + + II The Harpeth Jaguar 27 + + III The Gauntlet 41 + + IV To Turkey Gulch 61 + + V Having It Out 92 + + VI Deep Digging 109 + + VII The Tristan Love Song 132 + + VIII Breasting the Gale 146 + + IX Into Brambles 161 + + X Water and Oil 181 + + XI A Bit of Raw Life 195 + + XII The Tenacious Turtle 211 + + XIII The Short-Circuit 227 + + XIV Abide With Me 241 + + XV A Clandestine Adventure 258 + + XVI The Jewel in the Matrix 283 + + XVII The Pageant 297 + + XVIII Light--Into Darkness 312 + + XIX The Spark and the Blaze 327 + + XX The Covert of Wings 344 + + + + +The Heart's Kingdom + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE WORLD AND THE FLESH + + +"A beautiful woman is intended to create a heaven on earth and she has +no business wasting herself making imaginary excursions into any future +paradise. The present is her time for action; and again, Charlotte, I +ask you to name the day upon which you intend to marry me," said Nickols +Powers, as he stood lounging in the broad window of Aunt Clara's music +room and gazing down into the subdued traffic of upper Madison Avenue. + +"I wish you had never taken me across that ferry and into that room +crowded with redolent humanity to hear an absurd little man string +together vivid, gross words about religion, words that made me tingle +all over," I answered as I threw my coat on a chair, lifted my hat from +my head and sat down on the seat before the dark old piano. "I think +religion is the most awful thing in the world and I am as afraid of it +as I am of--of death. I'm going home to my father." + +"Oh, don't be afraid of it. Religion is the most potent form of +intoxication known to the human race. That's why I took you over to hear +the little baseball player. I wanted you to get a sip. But don't let it +go to your head." And Nickols mocked me with soft tenderness in his +smile. + +"Well, it frightened me, and I don't like it. I'm going home to my +father and forget it," I reiterated with a kind of numbness upon me, the +like of which I had never before experienced. + +"I'll protect you from any religious danger just as effectively as Judge +Powers. I'm younger--slightly--than he, but I know just as many of the +wiles of the world and the flesh as he does and maybe a few more," +Nickols assured me, with a flash in his dark eyes that was both wicked +and humorous, as well as very delightful. + +"And the devil, too! But you don't understand. I must go home to my +father," I answered still again. + +"You don't understand yourself," returned Nickols. "There are strange +hieroglyphics imprinted on every woman's heart and a man can read only +an unconnected word here and there when he can get his flashlight thrown +into the depths--if he dares adventure into her life at all. I feel that +I take my own life in my hands when I allow you to talk to me as I am +allowing you to-night." + +"How do you know that those hieroglyphics might not mean the salvation +of the world if she could spell them out herself, or some great and good +person took a steady lamp and went down into her heart and--" + +"It takes a very wicked man to read a woman; good men are blinded by +them and stumble," Nickols assured me as he came over, stood beside me +and ran his long, slender, artist's fingers up and down the keys of the +piano, which evoked a strange, diabolical sort of harmony from them. "I +understand about it all, so please come tell me you'll marry me." This +time his arms almost encircled me, but I slipped between them as he +laughed at me with his adorable pagan charm. + +"No, Nickols, that would be an easy--and--and delightful way out, but I +am really frightened down in some queer part of my anatomy that lies +between my breast bone and my spinal column. Something is stirring in my +heart and I'm afraid of it. I've got to get out in a wilderness and +fight with it." + +"Take it out on me," offered Nickols, with a laugh that was both wistful +and provoking. + +"No, I've got a home panic and I must go." + +"Then when do I get my answer from what is left of you after the +battle?" + +"I'll let you know when to come and get it--under the roof of the +Poplars," I answered him from the doorway. + +And the very next morning I went down into the Harpeth Valley, driven I +knew not by what, nor to what. I only knew that I felt full of a living, +smothered flame and I was sure that it was best to let it burst forth in +my ancestral abiding place. + +I was born of a man who has the most evolved brain in the Harpeth +Valley, who has been a drunkard for twenty years, and of a very +beautiful and haughty woman whose own mother, to the day of her death, +shouted at Methodist love feasts. Is it any wonder that when I was tried +by fire I burned "as the cracklings of thorns under a pot?" + +"How _could_ you set that ridiculous little Methodist meeting house on +the very doorstep of my garden, father?" I demanded, as I stood tall and +furious before him in the breakfast room on the morning after my return +home from my winter in the East with Aunt Clara. "Cousin Nickols has +spent many months out of three years on the plans of restoration for +that garden, and he is coming down soon to sketch and photograph it to +use in some of his commissions. What shall I--what will _you_--say to +him when he finds that the vista he kept open for the line of Paradise +Ridge has been cut off by that pile of stones to house the singing of +psalms?" And as I raged I had a feeling of being relentlessly +pursued--by something I didn't understand. + +"Madam," returned father, with a dignity he always used with me when he +encountered one of my rages, "you will find that the chapel does not in +any way interfere with Nickols' carefully planned view. Gregory Goodloe +spent many days of thought in seeking to place it so that it would not +intrude itself upon your garden, and he built his parsonage completely +out of view, though it gives him only one large southern window to his +study and only northern ones to his bedroom." + +"Does the creature also sleep and eat and have his being right there +behind my hollyhocks?" I demanded, and my rage began to merge into +actual grief, which in turn threatened to come to the surface in hot +tears. + +"Now, Charlotte, my daughter," father was beginning to say with soothing +in his voice instead of the belligerence that from my youth up had +always just preceded my floods of tears. Dabney, the shriveled black +butler, who had always devotedly sympathized with my exhibitions of +temperament, to which he had, from my infancy, given the name of +"tantrums," set the platter of fried chicken before father's place at +the damask and silver-spread old table by the window, through which the +morning sun was shining genially. Then, with a smile as broad and genial +as that of the sun, he drew out my chair from behind the ancestral +silver coffee urn, which was puffing out clouds of fragrant steam. + +"Breakfast am sarved, honey chile," he crooned soothingly, "an' yo' +Mammy done put the liver wing right ag'in yo' fork." + +Dabney had many times stemmed my floods with choice food and was trying +his favorite method of pacification. + +I faltered and wavered at the temptation. I was hungry. + +"Just wait until you see Goodloe and talk it over with him," father +said, as he seized the advantage of my wavering and seated himself +opposite me as Dabney pushed in my chair and whisked the cover off the +silver sugar bowl and presented one of his old willow-ware cups for +father's two lumps and a dash of cream. "I asked him to--" + +"See him? You don't expect me to discuss Nickols' and my garden with an +ignorant bucolic Methodist minister, who probably doesn't know a +honeysuckle from a jimson weed, do you?" I asked with actual rage rising +again above the tears as I literally dashed the cream into his cup and +deluged the boiling coffee down upon it so that a scalding splatter +peppered my hand. "I never want to see or hear or speak to or about +him. I'll build a trellis as high as his church, run evergreen +honeysuckle on it and go my way in an opposite direction from his. +I'll--" Just here I observed consternation spread over Dabney's black +face, then communicate itself to father's distressed countenance as he +glanced out the window. Quickly he pushed his morning julep behind the +jar of roses in the center of the table, while Dabney flung a napkin +over the silver pitcher with frost on its sides and mint nodding over +its brim. + +And then, as I was about to pour my own coffee and launch forth on +another tirade on the subject of my neighbor, I heard a rich tenor voice +singing just outside the window in the garden beside the steps that led +down from the long windows in the dining room to the old flagstone walk. +Nickols and I had searched through volumes of dusty antique prints to +see just how we wanted that walk to lead out to the sunken garden beyond +the tall old poplars. I also saw the handle of a rake or hoe in action +across the window landscape and heard unmistakable sounds of vigorous +gardening. + +I rose to my feet with battle in my eyes and then stopped perfectly +still and listened--unwillingly but compelled. + + "Drink to me only with thine eyes + And I will pledge with mine," + +were the words that floated in at the window on the fragrant morning +sunbeams, in a voice of the most penetrating tenderness I had ever felt +break against my heartstrings. + +"I--I--he sometimes demolishes a--a few weeds," father faltered, while +Dabney ducked his cotton-wool old head and slipped out of the door. + +"You allow him to work in my--garden--and--" I faltered, just recovering +from the impact of the words of my favorite song of songs hurled at me +by the unseen enemy, when I was interrupted by his appearance in the +open door and we stood facing each other. + +I am a woman who has very decided tastes about the biological man. I +know just how I want the creatures to look, and I haven't much interest +in one that isn't at least of the type of my preferred kind. Because I +am very tall and broad and deep-bosomed and vivid and high colored, and +have strong white teeth that crunch up about as much food in the +twenty-four hours as most field hands consume, and altogether I am very +much like one of the most vigorous of Sorolla's paintings, that is the +probable pathological reason I have always preferred an evolved Whistler +masculine nocturne that retreats to the limits of my comprehension and +then beckons me to follow. All other men I have grouped beyond the +border of my feminine nature and sought to waste no thought upon them. +It was a shock to come, suddenly, in my own breakfast room, face to face +with a type of man I had never before met. The enemy was astonishingly +large and lithe and distinctly resembled one of the big gold-colored +lions that live in the wilds of the Harpeth Mountains out beyond +Paradise Ridge. His head, with its tawny thatch that ought to have waved +majestically but which was sleek and decorous to the point of +worldliness, was poised on his neck and shoulders with a singularly +strong line that showed through a silk soft collar, held together by an +exquisitely worldly amethyst silk scarf which, it was a shock to see, +matched glints from eyes back under his heavy gold brows with what +appeared to be extreme sophistication. After the shock of the tie the +loose gray London worsted coat and trousers made only a passing +impression; and from my involuntary summary of the whole surprising man, +which had taken less than an instant, my dazed brain came back and was +held and concentrated by the beauty of the smile that flooded out over +me in welcome after my father's hurried introduction. + +"The Reverend Mr. Gregory Goodloe--my daughter Charlotte," father +announced, as he rose and waved in my direction a hand that was cordial +to the point of bravado. + +"I'm so glad you came in time to see your crocuses and anemones, Miss +Powers," the Jaguar said as he took my hand in his. "Dabney has let me +help him hand-weed them and they are a glory, aren't they?" While he +spoke he still held my hand and I was still too dazed to regain +possession of it. Father saved the situation. + +"Sit down, sit down, Parson, and let Charlotte give you a cup of coffee +while it is on the simmer," he urged with hasty hospitality as if intent +upon effectively bottling me up, at least for the immediate present. +"She was just pouring my cup. Will you say grace before I take my first +sip?" was the high explosive he further proceeded to hurl in my face. + +And as he spoke I sank dumbly into my chair and helplessly bowed my head +to a ceremony so obsolete in the world from which I had come that I felt +as if I was slipping back into the days of the pioneer, when the customs +of life were still primitive and dictated by emotion rather than mental +science. + +And there, with father's concealed mint julep right against his +interlaced fingers, the mountain lion bowed his crested head and +involved me in prayer for the first time since chapel-service in my +college days. + +"The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof ... for which we give +thanks, thy children, with Lord Jesus, Amen!" + +"Amen," mumbled father as if from the depths of embarrassment, and +against my will, as it were, a queer sort of a croon of an echo came +from my own throat. + +Also that was the first time I had ever heard words of prayer under the +roof of the Poplars. It embarrassed me and I hated it and the cause of +it. The spell which had possessed me since the entrance of the Reverend +Goodloe, vanished, and the rage that had been in me at the discovery of +the intrusion of his chapel and himself upon my life when I had come +home to be free to be wicked, boiled up within me and then sugared down +to a rich--and dangerous--syrup. While I poured his coffee I again took +stock of him, this time coldly and with deadly intent. The reasons for +his entry into my hitherto satisfactory family life, even at breakfast +time, I did not know, any more than I knew the reason for the chapel on +the other side of the hollyhocks, but I felt that I feared both and +intended to get rid of them. If the enemy had been what one could +reasonably expect a young Methodist preacher to be, I would have routed +him and his meekness within the hour and had the chapel moved to a lot +on a side street in town within the week. However, when a hunter comes +suddenly upon a Harpeth jaguar he is glad to use his best repeater and +he is careful how he shoots, though if he is very skillful he may tease +the lion aloft with a few nipping shots. I felt suddenly very strong for +the fight that I knew was on, though the lion didn't possess that +knowledge as yet. Deliberately I fired a preliminary bullet that seemed +to graze father, though it left the Parson unharmed. + +"Will you have your mint julep before I pour your coffee, Mr. Goodloe?" +I asked, with seemingly careless friendliness. "Dabney, put fresh ice in +father's glass and fill mine and Mr. Goodloe's." + +"I was feeling a little under the weather this morning," said father +hastily, as he set his glass from behind the rose jar upon Dabney's +waiter and motioned it all away from him, thus denying the morning +friend of his lifetime. I had never drunk a julep before breakfast in my +life, only tasted around the frosty edges of father's, but I held my +ground, and held out my glass to Dabney, who falteringly, almost in +terror, took the frosted silver pitcher from the sideboard and poured me +an unusually large draft of the family beverage. + +"Will you have yours now, Mr. Goodloe?" I asked again with still more of +the sugared solicitation. + +"No, I believe I prefer the coffee, but don't pour it until you have +drunk your julep; you know frost is a thing that soon passes," was the +cheerful answer, though a suspicion of an amethyst glint made me know +that the Jaguar had at least heard the zip of the bullet. + +I loathed that mixture of ice and sugar and mint and whiskey but I had +to drink it, and it heated me up inside both physically and mentally, +and took away all the queer dogging fear. And because of it I don't +remember what else happened at that breakfast except that I wanted to +clutch and cling to the warm, strong hand that I again found mine in at +the time of parting. But I didn't; at least, I don't think I did. After +it was taken away from me I went very slowly up to my room and again +went to bed, Mammy caressingly officiating and rejoicing that I was +going to "nap the steam cars outen my bones." + +I fell asleep with the continued strains of "Drink to me only" in my +ears, and wondering if I ought to put it down as insult added to injury, +and I awoke several hours later to find Letitia Cockrell, one of the +dear friends whom many generations had bestowed upon me, sitting on the +foot of my bed consuming the last of the box of marrons with which +Nickols had provisioned my journey down from New York. I was glad I had +tucked the note that came in the box under my pillow the night before. I +trust Letitia and she is entirely sophisticated, but she has never had a +lover who lives in Greenwich Village, New York, America. + +"Is this the open season for two-day hangovers, in New York?" she +demanded as she sniffed me suspiciously at the same time she dimpled and +smiled at me. + +"No, this is not a metropolitan hangover. It was acquired at breakfast, +Letitia," I answered her as I sat up and stretched out my bare arms to +give her a good shake and a hug. "'You may break, you may shatter the +glass if you will, but the scent of the julep will hang 'round you +still,'" I misquoted as I drew my knees up into my embrace and took the +last remaining marron. + +"Why, Mammy said Mr. Goodloe had breakfast with you. Did you sneak it +from the judge's pitcher?" demanded Letitia, as she likewise drew her +knees up into her arms and settled herself against one of the posts of +my bed for the many hours' resume of our individual existences in which +we always indulged upon being reunited after separation. + +"I did not," I answered. "I drank it before his eyes, and then I don't +remember what happened and I don't care." + +"What?" + +"Just that. I never have been drunk because I never could drink enough. +I've always felt that there isn't enough liquid in the world to faze me, +and I don't like it anyway, but Dabney was so impressed by His Worship +that he poured it double for me before I had had breakfast. I hope I +staggered or swore but I don't think I did. The Reverend Goodloe can +tell you better than I. Ask him." + +"Gregory Goodloe? Oh, Charlotte!" + +"That's the point I was coming to, Letitia: Just who is this Reverend +Goodloe that I shouldn't drink a quart of mint julep before him if I +want to? I had well over a pint of champagne with a Mr. Justice two +nights before I left New York and I stopped then out of courtesy to one +of the generals whom we expect to defend us from the Kaiser. Who is your +Gregory Goodloe? Tell we all about him, unexpurgated and unafraid." + +"Didn't you know about him--and the chapel before you came?" Letitia +queried cautiously, as if fearing the explosion she felt was sure to +result. + +"I did not," I answered. "I met him and his chapel and the mint julep +all in the same five minutes, and is it any wonder I went down? Go on. +Tell me the worst or the best. I'm ready." And as I spoke I settled my +pillows comfortably, getting a little thrill from the crumpled letter +underneath the bottom one. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE HARPETH JAGUAR + + +"It is beautifully romantic, but I don't know what we are going to do +about it," answered Letitia with genuine trouble, puckering her brow +under one of her smooth waves of seal-brown hair. Letitia is one of the +wonderful variety of women who patch out life, piece by piece, in a +beautiful symmetrical pattern and who do not have imagination enough to +admire anything about a riotous crazy quilt. She is in love with Clifton +Gray, has been since she wound her brown braids about her head, and is +piecing strips of him into her life-fabric by the very sanest +love--courtship--marriage design. + +"We just can't go on as we have been doing lately," she continued. "We +all decided that you would know what to do about him, and would do it +when you came home. We suspected Judge Powers hadn't written you all the +facts when you didn't come and the building went on up. You will be +able to do something about him, won't you?" + +"I think it is likely," I answered, with the brittle sugar in my voice +that Letitia only half knows the flavor of. "But don't try to sketch +things, Letitia. Begin at the beginning and go straight to the end; I'll +pick up the pieces." + +"Well, of course you remember the Bishop Goodloe romance, don't you?" +asked Letitia, hopeful that she could get a small start ahead on her +chronicle. + +"I don't remember anything about any bishop, ever. I forget things about +that kind of people. What did, or didn't he do?" + +"Charlotte!" remonstrated Letitia. "He was the last of the Goodloes who +built that old Goodloe home on exactly the place where the first Goodloe +set the stakes of the first stockade put up in the Harpeth Valley, right +here in Goodloets. It burned down the night he married that Miss Gregory +in New York, before we were born. Don't you remember we used to play in +the ruins, just over here beyond the garden where the chapel stands now? +Your father bought the property. Part of your garden is old Madam +Goodloe's garden and that's why it was so wonderful for Judge Powers to +give the lot and let Mr. Goodloe build the chapel there. We all felt +that, though some of us were scared when we thought about what you might +do when you came home. Still, after we saw that wonderful little stone +chapel that Mr. Goodloe had one of the greatest architects in New York +design, after he had sent him packages of sketches of your garden and +the Poplars, so it would only make it all the more beautiful, we felt +better. You don't really mind about it, do you, dear?" Letitia's voice +was beseechingly enthusiastic, though keyed down with a note of anxiety. + +"Go on!" I commanded, packing down the rage in the dark corners of my +inmost heart. + +"Nobody ever knew why Bishop Goodloe never came back after he married +while on a mission from the Southern Methodist Conference to the +Northern Methodist Conference. He severed his relations with his own +Conference, and he never preached again though he was one of the most +wonderful and eloquent preachers the South has ever known. He was the +youngest bishop the church had ever ordained. Nobody ever knew what +happened, and all we know now is that this perfectly beautiful man, who +is the bishop's son, came down to the General Conference in Nashville, +was examined and ordained, and the presiding bishop sent him out here to +Goodloets last November. We don't know anything about him except that he +has been fighting in the trenches in France for a year and has had a +bullet cut out of his left lung. Everybody adores him, and we all sit +spellbound listening to him preach, I think mostly on account of his +voice, because none of us ever seems to remember what he is preaching +about. He's been having services in the ballroom at the Country Club but +he is going to dedicate the chapel soon and we are all relieved. It has +been fun to go out to church at the Club twice every Sunday and to +prayer meeting on Wednesday night all winter, and we've danced in the +long parlor at home and in the double parlors at Jessie Litton's so as +not to disarrange the pews, I mean the chairs, in the ballroom, but now +that the spring has come we--we need the Club. I'm glad you will be here +for the dedication, and you will help us kind of--kind of--" + +"Taper off from your religious spree?" I asked with a laugh that Letitia +echoed shamefacedly. + +"That's an awful way to put it--but--" + +"True?" + +"We've all tried hard, but--but it is such a--a bore. It doesn't seem +fair to enjoy Gregory Goodloe so much at dinners and parties and not +show our respect and--and admiration by being good church members. +Jessie joined his study workers and she took a class of the awful little +children from down in the Settlement beyond the Phosphate Mills, who all +smelled terribly. She worked hard with them twice a week for a month, +and then Mother Spurlock, who is the front pillar of his congregation, +found that she had taught all the dirty little things to sew with their +left hands. She came in one morning and found them all stitching away +industriously backwards, just because Jessie is left-handed herself. +Mother Elsie laughed until she lost her breath and Mr. Goodloe had to +help unloosen her belt for her. The meeting broke up with ice cream on +Jessie for everybody. We all belong to home mission societies and sewing +circles and--" + +"You want me to get you out of your purgatory and let you backslide +to--" + +"Don't say it!" exclaimed Letitia with a laugh. "But we just want not to +hurt his feelings and--" + +"We won't," I said grimly. "Now let's talk about the ball out at the +Club we are going to give Nickols when he comes down the first of May." + +"That's just what I mean. I knew you'd understand and I am so relieved +that you are not angry about the chapel and things. We can leave it all +to you and we'll have the times of our lives. Billy Harvey says his +ankles are getting stiff, it's been so long since he has fox-trotted. Do +call Mammy or Sallie and let's look at your clothes." With which Letitia +descended from her spiritual heights into the realm of the material and +plunged with both Mammy and Sallie into a riot of clothes. + +For an hour or two I lay back in my pillows and watched the two black +women and the white one indulge in primitive decorative orgies, and from +their delight my eyes would glance out and fix themselves wistfully on +the dim line of Paradise Ridge which was cut by the square steeple of +weathered stone just where Old Harpeth humps itself up above the rest of +the Ridge; and something sore and angry and trapped hurt under my +breast. + +"The earth is the Lord's--" chanted itself in my mind to the tune of +"Drink to me only," and my hand curled around the letter under my pillow +as if for comfort and--defense. + +"It is just as you told me that night at the piano, Nickols dear: +'Religion is the most potent form of intoxication known to the human +race,' and apparently all my friends have been getting the drink habit +badly. I'll rescue the poor dears and have an interesting time doing +it," I said to myself after Letitia had departed with my most choice +millinery creation fastened down upon her sleek braids because she found +she could not live without it. + +And then a strange thing happened, as I lay prone between the +lavender-scented sheets spread on the four-poster bed of my foremothers, +ready to drift off into another "bone resting" nap. The flood of tears +that had risen from my heart when I had sat that night a week ago and +listened to that remarkable little baseball evangelist, the tide of +which had been rolled back when Nickols had bent his beautiful dark head +against mine in Aunt Clara's music room and whispered above the roar of +New York, "religion is the most potent form of intoxication" to me, +again welled from my heart and this time flooded my lashes and my cheek +and my pillow. What was strangest of all, they seemed to wash away all +the tears of anger and fear that I had been pressing back into my depths +from breakfast time, and left me weak and again ready for sleep. And +like a comforted little child, I slept. + +It was sunset when I awoke, and I felt as strong as two women and ready +for action, the call for which was upon me by the time Sallie had put me +into her favorite creation, selected from the ones she had hung in +closets and wardrobe. + +"Mister Billy Harvey and Mister Hampton Dibrell is down on the front +porch ready to gallivant you, honey-bunch, and I seen Miss Letitia and +her Mister Cliff Gray coming in one direction and Miss Jessie in +another, so I reckon Sallie had better hurry with that New York twilight +she's fixing on you," Mammy announced as she stood in my doorway and +beamed upon me. "An' I expects the parson will be stepping over +likewise fer a few words, seeing you was so sweet and showed sich pretty +manners to him this morning," she added with reverent delight. + +"Sweet? Showed such pretty manners?" I gasped, as Sallie fastened the +last hook and eye and stood beside Mammy to admire me. + +"'Twas no more than you oughter done to the preacher, and I was proud of +my raising of you when you helt on to him and begged him to stay to +dinner. I was sho' disappointed that he had to leave us. I'm a Colored +Methodist, I am, and if I do say it, I knows how to shake a young pullet +in the skillet fer a preacher's taste, black or white. Now go on down +and stop that buzzing fer you on the front porch. Sallie, come and carry +out the tea and cakes to the guests," with which command to both of us +Mammy rolled her two hundred and fifty pounds down the hall with great +majesty, while Sallie meekly followed in her wake. + +"Sweet! Showed such pretty manners!" I quoted to myself as I slowly +descended the steps and went out on the wide porch to find my friends +assembled under the budding rose vine that wreathed the tall white +pillars of the Poplars. + +The parson was not there. + +"Rescued!" exclaimed Billy as he grasped one of my hands and hung on +with a very good imitation of a drowning man seizing a lifeline. They +all laughed and Hampton Dibrell held my other hand as ardently, though +not in quite such light vein. I had to rescue it to accept Clifton +Gray's nosegay of huge violets from his greenhouse, and I embraced +Jessie with the nosegay pressed to her pink cheeks. + +"Oh, Charlotte, I could fox-trot with you a week and not hesitate," +exclaimed Billy, still clinging to me. + +"Let's begin to-night," I assented warmly. Billy is contagious and to +dance with him is a high art. + +"Let's motor out to the Club in Hamp's car and mine, have a chicken +supper and dance until sun-up," suggested Billy. + +"We can stop by and get Mark Morgan and Nell, and I believe Harriet +Henderson will come along, if everybody asks her--all the men, I mean," +Letitia added with enthusiasm to match Billy's. Harriet Henderson is the +latest emerged widow in Goodloets and consequently is most interesting +to the masculine world at present. + +"Let's start now, so as to give the chicken plenty of time to get into +the frying pan and over the fire," said Hampton, who is always the +practical member to bring up the details of any situation. + +"I'm just from the tennis courts and I'll have to stop to dress, I'm +afraid," said Letitia meekly, as if she felt sure of a storm of +remonstrance. + +"People don't dress to dance these days, Letitia," said Billy, with the +greatest innocence of mien and expression, a manner he always uses in +speaking to Letitia's rather literal directness and in which he delights +greatly. "They undress. You are unclothed enough as to ankles and if you +roll the sleeves of your tennis shirt to your shoulders, take off your +collar and tuck in the flaps, it will be enough to satisfy our cravings +for fashionable and suitable attire. We really want fried chicken rather +than chicken--" + +"That will do, Billy," Letitia answered him with gentle firmness. + +"That was just what I remarked, Letitia dear. That will do, for we want +chicken dressed with cream gravy and don't care about any swathed in +chiffon. And furthermore--" + +"Do hush, Billy; look who's coming," Jessie interrupted him, and there +before my eyes I saw my entire group of friends begin to preen +themselves into new beings. Letitia smoothed down her skirts a fraction +of an inch, rolled down her sleeves another fraction and pushed back +into her braids a brown lock that was rioting across her brow. Jessie +shook out her muslin ruffles, reefed a fold of net higher across her +neck, and pinned it in place with a jeweled pin, while Hampton's and +Billy's and Cliff's expressions and poses of countenance and bodies +suddenly fell into lines of decorum. + +"Great Smokes! We all forgot it was prayer meeting to-night, and it'll +be no trotting the fox for ours," Billy groaned, while he rose to his +feet with a smile of angelic sweetness. "Hello, Parson! We were just +beginning to think about you," was his greeting to the Sacred Jaguar who +had come through the garden and around the house. I felt sure that he +had heard Billy's plaint of disappointment about the dance, for there +was a quick glint of the amethysts as he halted and stood on the walk +below us and smiled up at us. + +"I welcomed Miss Powers for breakfast, and now I find I want to come +over and do it again for tea," he said, and as I was perfectly cool, +sober and in my right mind at the moment he spoke, I had to concede that +his voice was the most wonderful I had ever heard, and something in me +made me resent it as well as the curious veneer that had spread over my +friends at his entry upon the scene. There they stood and sat, six +perfectly rational, fairly moral, representative free and equal +citizens, cowed by the representative of something that they neither +understood nor cared about, and it made me furious. They all wanted to +go to the Club to dance, to do the natural, usual, perfectly harmless +thing, and they were being constrained. If they had wanted to go to the +prayer meeting as they wanted to dance, they would have been natural and +joyful and eager about it. + +"I resent, even _I_ resent people's being bored with the God they think +exists, and I think it is disrespectful to go into His presence like +that," I said to myself, and then I suddenly determined to begin my +rescue work for the religiously involved, and now I felt was the +appointed time. Also I felt the excitement that comes from turning and +facing the foe which has pursued. + +"I'm glad you came over, Mr. Goodloe," I said with nice, cool +friendliness in my voice. "Billy was just planning a glorious fox-trot +for this evening and then suddenly remembered with dismay that you were +to have your--entertainment at the Club to-night. Couldn't we--we make +some sort of compromise? Or at least couldn't you cut your--prayers +short so he can get in an hour or two of his favorite pleasure +after--after duty well done?" As I spoke I had come to the edge of the +steps and thus stood alone above him, looking down on him with a kind of +cool aloofness as if he belonged to another world, while I heard all of +his recent converts grouped back of me give little gasps of dismay. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE GAUNTLET + + +Was that young Methodist minister crushed by my plainly intended +gauntlet flung down to him? He was not. + +"I'm glad I came over in time to put Billy out of his misery," he +answered, smiling up at me with a quick comprehension that was enraging. +"I'm going to have informal services in the chapel to-night to try out +the acoustics before the contractor turns over the building. I am not +satisfied about the sounding board he has put in, and the only way is to +try it with at least part of the seats occupied. We'll sing a bit and +plan the dedication; not have a formal service. So then, Billy, you can +have your fox-trotting and a good time to all of you, bless you, my +children." As he spoke he smiled at the entire group with the most +delightful interest and pleasure. He was dressed in a straight black +coat with a plain silk vest cut around a white collar that buttoned in +the back, and his dull gold mane was brushed down sleek and close to his +beautiful head. Not a flash of expression in his strong face showed that +he felt any resentment or dismay at thus having some of his most +prominent church members backslide from his prayer meeting into a +fox-trot, and yet I knew--knew that he fully appreciated the situation +and laid the blame of it where the blame was due. + +"Of course we will come to the services first--that is, if you--if you +don't object," Letitia said with her usual directness and lack of any +kind of finesse, thus bringing the situation to a decided head. + +"Why not come over for the songs and then not stay for the conference?" +was the genial answer that positively astonished me, and as he spoke he +came up the steps and stood beside me. "Dabney and I found the first +Star of Bethlehem when we were weeding this afternoon. I brought it to +you carefully, and can I have a cup of that tea he has been trying to +make you serve for the last five minutes?" With these words the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe turned me around and sent me to the tea tray that Dabney +and Sallie had put on a table under the rose vine; but not before he had +taken up my hand, put the star flower in it and curled my fingers over +it. "I'll pass the muffins, Billy, and you take the cakes for Miss +Powers, and be more careful than you were last Sunday with my collection +plate for the poor." Billy feigned confusion, accepted the plate and was +just about to begin a defense, when a diversion occurred to stop him. + +"There comes Mark and Mrs. Mark," he exclaimed, "but they have got an +offspring apiece in their embrace and several trailers. Somebody ought +to remonstrate with Nell Morgan or have the firmness to apply the +superfluous blind kitten treatment every spring. Three children are +patriotic, but five are populistic and ought to be frowned upon," and +Billy grumbled all the while the Morgans were flocking up the front +walk. When they came to the steps the Jaguar descended and held out his +clerically befrocked arms so that the gurgler from Mark's shoulder and +the giggler from Nell's arms both fell into his embrace at one time. +"You young marplots, you!" he said as the gurgler printed a wet kiss on +his left ear and regarded him with rapture while the small cooer, +proclaimed as feminine by neck and sleeve ribbons, cuddled against his +shoulder with soft confidence. "They're going to take you both down to +the river and drown you," he confided with a soft note in his voice that +was an answer to the coo. + +"I wish you would," said Mark, as, with a laugh, he shook my hand +extended from the group around me, composed of Nell and the other three +kiddies, all crowded together in one passionate greeting. "Nurse and +Julia and the house and garden man have all gone to a wedding, so we +have fed 'em and are now starting out for a razoo, and we don't care +whether it lasts until midnight or not. Young Charlotte, you hug one +side of your Aunt Charlotte and let Jimmy get his innings on the other +side. Here, break away, all of you!" and while everybody laughed, Mark +disentangled the greetings, and seated the separated juvenile members in +a row on the steps beside the parson and the two babes. Nell he left in +the hollow of my arm. + +"Oh, it is so good to have you at home, Charlotte," she said, with +another hug. "We miss you terribly. We depend on you for everything. +Things don't go right without you. I had a terrible time with--that is, +you haven't seen baby yet. Give her to me, Mr. Goodloe," and as she +spoke Nell leaned over to get the cooer out of the Jaguar's arms for my +inspection. + +"You'll get neither Babe nor Suckling," was his answer as he cuddled the +two closer and hunched his shoulders in Nell's direction. "Don't you +know enough to let well enough alone? If they have got to go out to the +Club and fox-trot until midnight they ought to have repose now." + +"We promised to be good at church, but we didn't promise anything about +the Country Club, and if we go there we are going to be as bad as +anybody out there is," announced small Charlotte with determined +composure. "Dabney says that fox-trotting is a devil's dance and we want +to see you all do it with him." + +"Help!" exclaimed Billy, while Mr. Goodloe put his arm around Charlotte +and drew her to him with a kind of fierce tenderness. + +"Isn't she awful?" exclaimed Nell. "We meant to ask you if we could take +them with us out to the Club to prayer meeting. Some of the Settlement +women bring their babies and I know mine will be as good. Charlotte and +Sue and Jimmy promised, and the sound of your voice bewitches the babies +as it does all of us." + +As Nell finished speaking and bent to pat the head of the Suckling on +his shoulder, the Reverend Mr. Goodloe looked straight into my eyes and +laughed, perfect comprehension of me and my revolt in his direct +amethyst glances which shot into my depths. + +"They are all going over to listen to Mr. Goodloe sing hymns at his +chapel, Nell, and then all of you are coming by here for me to go out to +the Club to dance a few hours," was my answer to the shot as I calmly +refused the invitation into the fold that had been given me with the +rest of the backsliding flock. + +"We can't go--the babies would never in the world--" Nell was beginning +to exclaim. + +"Drat 'em!" exclaimed Billy, looking down aggrievedly at the small crew +of marplots. "A pair of perfectly good chaperons are hard to get, and to +think of that bunch of little miseries getting in the way of a good old +fox--" + +"They'll all go to sleep during the services and I'll keep them on my +bed in the parsonage until the fun is over, and agree to deliver them on +claim," Mr. Goodloe interrupted Billy to say with quiet decision. + +"Now that is what I call some church relation, nursery and parsonage +combined," said Billy with the deepest gratitude. "The rest of you hurry +over those muffins, even if you haven't had any of Mammy's for six +months, and, since the chicken fry is off, go home to get suppers and +ready for psalm-singing and foxing. Parson, you are some sport, and I'll +hold both of those puppies while you drink your tea from the hands of +fair Charlotte." + +"Thank you, I don't believe I want any tea after all, and I think I'll +take these 'puppies' on home with me through the garden, for they are +both dying to the world." As he spoke the parson rose to his feet and +stood with the two drowsing babies in his arms, looking down at me as I +stood with his cup of tea in my hand. And as he looked I felt my whole +rebellious heart and mind laid bare and I knew that he knew that I was +ready to fight him to the last ditch in the battle for possession of the +souls of my friends. I would fight for their independence of thought +and sincerity of life, and he would fight to lead them off into a far +country in quest of what I considered a tradition, a shibboleth, "a +potent agent for intoxication" of the reason by which man must progress. +I also knew that I faced a foe versed in the warfare between religion +and modern scientific decisions about it and that he would be one worthy +of my metal. His refusal of my cup of tea, for which he had announced +that he came, was his gauntlet and I accepted it as I turned with the +queer sugared rage in my heart and set the cup on the table. + +And as I had planned, and the Jaguar directed, the evening came to pass. +While I slipped into some dancing fluff, the strains of the most +wonderful hymn that the Christian religion possesses floated across my +garden and into my window and again beat against my heart. The parson +was singing with the rest of them, but his voice seemed to lift theirs +and bear them aloft on the strong, wide wings that went soaring away +into the night, even up to the bright stars that gleamed beyond the tips +of the old graybeard poplars. A queer tight breath gripped my heart for +a second as his plea, "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide," beat +against it, then I laughed it away. + +"It _is_ 'a potent agent for intoxication' when brewed by the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe, and here's where I run, both physically and mentally," I +said to myself as I ran down the steps and out to the two cars that +stood honking impatiently by the gate. + +I don't think I ever enjoyed a dance more, and I am sure that my +pleasure was partly due to the wild spirits of the religiously released +who were having the first joy fling for six months. + +"I'll not get enough until I wilt upon the floor and have to be carried +out," said Billy, as he held me closer and slid two steps to the right +and then back to get me out of the way of Hampton and Harriet Henderson, +who were dancing with regardless joy. + +"Will you feel that way about church next Sunday?" I asked him, but my +demand made no apparent dent, for he danced on without answering. + +At an hour after that of midnight the revelers came home and left me at +my gate, by request, to walk alone in the brilliant spring moonlight +through my garden to the wide door back of the white pillars. After they +had seen me safely started, they glided away and I stood on the steps +and watched Nell and Mark reclaim their family from a tall dark figure +that carried out two loads to the parental arms. Then the hush that +comes upon the world in the midnight hours fell over the Poplars and I +stood leaning against one of the tall pillars and reveled in it. + +Goodloets is one of the tradition-grayed old towns that are rooted deep +in the Harpeth Valley since the days of the Colonies, and in it can be +found perhaps the purest Americanism on the American continent. The +Poplars, under whose broad roof I made the seventh generation nested and +fledged, spreads out its wings and gables upon a low hill which is the +first swell of the Harpeth hills, and the rest of the old town stretches +out on the hillside before it down to the valley, in which runs the +Harpeth River, curving around the town and flowing out of the valley to +the Mississippi. Behind the Poplars roll the fields and meadows of the +Home Farm, which has given food and sustenance to the Poplars' brood +since the days of the redskins, when it was cleared by the first Powers +and his servants, with muskets ready to fire into the surrounding +forests. To the left of the Poplars and beyond the chapel lies the +Settlement, in which those lacking in worldly goods have lived for +generations in a kind of semi-poverty, which is about the only poverty +known in the Harpeth Valley. Lately, the Settlement has taken unto +itself a measure of prosperity, because of the great tannery and harness +works in its midst on the banks of the river, which is bringing in gold +from Russia and France. Everybody has made money in the last few years, +and the fashionable wing of Goodloets to the left of the Poplars shows +improvements and restorations that are both costly and sometimes +amazing. However, fortunately the inhabitants of the old village are +conservative, and very little of the delicious moss of tradition has +been scratched off; it has only been clipped into prosperous decorum, +and antiquity still flings its glamour over the town. + +"I feel as much rooted as one of the old poplars," I said to myself as +some whim made me go down the steps and out into the garden, along the +walks with their budding borders of narcissus and peonies, down through +Nickols' sunken garden to the two oldest of all the poplars that now +seemed to be standing sentinel to prevent any raid from me on the little +stone meeting house over the lilac hedge. "You dear old graybeard," I +said to the one on my left, as I looked up and saw a faint feathering of +silver on its branches. And as I spoke I took the old trunk into my +embrace and laid my cheek against the rough bark. + +And then something happened. Afterwards I was glad that I was leaning +against the strength of the old graybeard poplar and hidden behind it. + +Suddenly from out the shadows beyond the lilac hedge, through whose bare +branches any movement in the yard of the chapel showed plainly, a woman +came stumbling along towards the gate and beside her walked the parson +with his arm supporting hers. She was sobbing the hard, dry sobs that +any woman knows are those of despair, and which call any other woman who +hears them. My first impulse was to run to the hedge and speak to her; +then I stopped, for I was arrested by what the parson was saying to her. + +"What does it matter, Martha? You have your Master's forgiveness and His +permission to go and sin no more, even though those sins be as +scarlet." And as he spoke his voice was that of quiet authority as if he +felt fully his apostolic right to unloose sins upon this earth. + +"He'll come back now that _she_ has, and he'll come to me again. I can't +fight him. I'll slip back into hell. Just give me the money to go out +into the city and I'll not bother anybody any more. I'll take the child +and I'll die for all anybody in Goodloets ever knows. Lend me the money; +I'll send it back!" The girl's voice was hard and defiant and she turned +and faced the minister as if at bay. "Give me that money, if all that +praying and singing and preaching that you've done is true. I want to go +in the morning before he follows her here and puts me in hell again. God +won't clean me twice." + +"You shall go," came the calm answer in the apostle's beautiful voice, +"but I will have to have a few days to provide a place of safety for you +in the city, where the child can be cared for while you get suitable +work." + +"I won't wait. He'll follow her and he'll look down on me and the child +and damn me again. I won't wait. I'm weak and I dasn't. Give me that +money to-night!" And the demand was passionate and savage. + +"Then I'll meet you at the morning train with it and rush you to a place +of safety if there is no other way. You must go back home now, and it +will be best not to tell anyone where you are going until you no longer +fear your weakness, for they might betray your hiding place. Strength +will be given you, Martha, if you only ask." + +"I'll pray, Parson, I'll pray, now that you are going to give me my +chance to get strong enough to be good. I'll work and I'll pray, but +hide me until I do get strong." And the hard, dry sobs melted as the +girl put her head down upon the gate a moment and then went out through +it. + +"God bless you, child, and keep you ever in thought of Him," were the +words that she carried away with her as she hurried down the street +toward the Settlement. + +Then for a second some awful fear came across my heart that I did not +understand. I now know that it was a premonition of what was to wring my +own heart and I cowered against the old tree in agony. Gregory Goodloe +was not more than six feet away from me on the other side of the +budding, fragrant hedge, and in the moonlight I could see the beautiful +strength of his golden head and strong placid face, on which lines of +pain were drawn, and I had to restrain myself from crying out to him in +my own pain. I wanted to go quickly and cling to his strength. Then I +stopped and listened. + +He had raised his face to the stars and was praying. + +"O Father," he asked, as if speaking to someone with whom he walked in +the cool of the midnight, "help the weak on whom the strong prey." + +Then he went into the dark door of the little chapel and left me out in +the cold midnight alone. The fear was gone, and comforted I went back +through my budding garden and arrived at the front door just as old Mr. +Pate, the telegraph operator at the little station down the street, +turned in at the gate. + +"Miss Charlotte," he puffed, as he fairly flung the telegram at me, +"this come fer you at ten o'clock and I risked it and run up here with +it after I heard them ottermobiles go by. I'm courting Mrs. Jennie Hicks +myself and I understands about courtings." And before I could speak he +had run on back down the street. + +As I stood and looked at the yellow envelope fear again gripped my +heart, and without opening it I walked into the house, locking the great +door behind me with trembling fingers, and went toward a light I saw +shining from the trellised back porch and which I did not understand. I +have never in my life been the least bit afraid of anything, except +something within my own body, from the hideous pain of my green-apple +days to the pain I had felt as I talked beside the piano with Nickols in +New York, a thousand miles away; but something made me pause just for a +second in the pantry doorway before I stepped into the light upon the +porch. I shall never forget the scene that was enacted before my +wondering eyes in the dim light of a candle burning upon a table near +the refrigerator. + +Father stood with a bowl of ice in his hand and his fingers were just +closing around a squat, black bottle that I knew contained the rarest +and choicest whiskey ever run from a distillery. His iron-gray hair was +rampant, his dressing gown fell away from his throat and showed the +knotting of the great cords that ran down into his shoulders, and his +dark eyes glittered under their heavy, black brows, while his mouth was +twisted and white. Then, as I looked, something happened. A stealthy +padding of feet came around the house from the garden and up the back +steps, under the budding rose vine that was climbing through the trellis +as if to clutch at the light, and a huge figure loomed up from out the +shadow. + +It was the powerful Harpeth Jaguar out hunting, and his weapon was a +hoe, while under his arm he carried a roll that looked like a +contribution to a rag man of bedding and old clothes. + +"I tell you, Mr. Powers, there is frost in the air and I have collected +everything in the parsonage that would cover those late anemones. I saw +your light and I thought you might add to the collection. Now what would +we do if they should be wilted by the frost just as they are ready to +burst bud? Our honor is involved with Graveson, who brought the seeds +all the way from Guernsey through the trenches of France and trusted +them to me for propagation. Why, they represent a man's life work, and +that life may be put out by a bullet any moment! We'll have to rescue +them." As he spoke, the great jeweled eyes shone with excitement under +the dull gold brows and he seemed not to see at all the incriminating +ice and bottle. + +"Could you get into Mrs. Dabney's linen closet? We've got to have +something." He shivered in a little wind that blew under the rose vine +with a frosty gust. I was just observing that he was attired in his +pajama jacket and gray flannel trousers, and that his bare heels and +ankles declared themselves above and at the back of his slippers, when +my eyes were drawn to my father's face and rested there. My heart stood +still while I watched it change. All the pain and appetite, straining as +a beast strains at a leash, faded from his face. The deathly pallor +vanished and the color of human blood returned. The glitter in his deep +old eyes changed in a second from that of ferocity to that of anxious +excitement. + +"I do not know where the household linen is kept and I hesitate to +disturb Dabney, as he retired with an aching tooth; but I observed a box +of my daughter's apparel beside a trunk in the back hall which Dabney +had not carried up on account of its weight and which he was requiring +his wife to unpack piece by piece. I'll raid it for enough to save our +treasures and accept whatever is my just chastisement in the morning," +he said in a voice of guilty stealth. + +And there I stood in the shadow of the pantry and saw my father take two +armfuls of my costly linen and lace out into the garden. Nothing was +spared me, for from the window I could see him and the marauding Jaguar +weight their perfumed whiteness down with sticks and stones and clods of +earth. I suffered, but silently. + +"Good night, sir. God's blessing," I heard the rich voice calling as the +half-bare feet padded away as swiftly as they had come through the +garden, leaving father standing under the rose vine watching him go. And +I watched father--and for some reason my breath seemed suspended in my +lungs. + +For a very long minute he stood looking at the ice bowl and the bottle; +then with a queer wry smile he walked over and put them both in the +refrigerator, though the bottle's place was in the sideboard, and closed +the door carefully. Then he paused again and said under his breath, +"_You_, Judge Nickols Morris Powers!" He smiled at himself with +humorous pity and tiptoed past me into the front hall and up the +stairway to his rooms above. + +I seemed to feel strange padding footsteps down in my depths and I also +tiptoed up to my room after I had heard his door shut. + +After I had switched on my light (for under the roof of the Poplars +electricity had come to aid the candles of hallowed tradition, and was +called by Mammy, in deep suspicion, "ha'nt light") I discovered clutched +in my cold fingers the yellow envelope the romantic Mr. Pate had brought +to me in the midnight. It read: + + "Am coming down on Friday. Am afraid to trust the world and the + flesh and think the third member of the carnal firm ought to be + on the job. N." + +"Now I am frightened really," I confided to myself as I slipped between +the scented sheets and drew a corner of the rose-colored blanket over my +head. "I don't know what to do." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +TO TURKEY GULCH + + +The next morning I was very late in descending to my breakfast, but +arrived in time to witness Mammy's arraignment of my father, which was +conducted in perfect respect, but with great severity. + +"I know, Jedge, that menfolks don't know lace that costs a million +dollars a yard from a blind woman's tatting, and that's what makes me +say what I does, that it sure am dangersome fer 'em to go on a rampage +in womenfolks' trunks. I ain't never goin' to git the stains from them +clods of earth outen my lambs' clothes, even if the minister did help +you put 'em on 'em." + +"But, Melissa, those anemones were more valuable than any lace ever +manufactured, and I am sure that Charlotte will absolve me when she +hears of the exigencies of the case," father pleaded over the top of +his morning paper. Mammy was pretending to dust his study, as a blind to +the lecture she was administering. + +"Yes, sir, I knows all that; but that lace was a heap more valuable than +that toothache in that wuthless Dabney's jaw, which he could er wropped +up, and hunted out all the old sheets for you instid of that petticoat +with them real lace ruffles," was Mammy's firm rejoinder, while she +passed a feather duster over the table and rolled her eyes at Dabney. + +"Let's let them both off this time, Mammy. Dabney can take the trunks +where they belong and lock them up," I said, as I went toward the dining +room, while she followed to minister upon my tardiness. + +"Them was all your finest lingerings," she said as she plied me with +breakfast. "And they was all lost on menfolks. They hasn't even one lady +rode by while I had 'em on the line in the sunshine," she grumbled as +she finally retired to the kitchen. + +After finishing my coffee I sauntered to the front of the house, led by +a chorus of hearty laughter in a fluty tenor voice, accompanied by a +bass growl, in which I was sure that father was recounting the scrape in +which his and the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's anemone adventure had got them. +I assured myself that I was annoyed by this repeated early morning +invasion of ministerial calls and intended to retire to my room until it +was over, but without knowing why, I found myself in the library and +greeting the enemy. + +"Please forgive us. The case was one of dire necessity," the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe pleaded, as he rose and took my hand in his, and held it in +such a way that I was forced to look in his face and smile, whether I +wished it or not. + +"From ambush I saw you take them, and I was powerless to prevent," I +answered with a smile at father. + +"I came over to ask you if you wouldn't like to go away out into the +Harpeth Hills on a mission with me this wonderful morning. I don't know +exactly whether I am called to officiate at a birth or a death or that +intermediate festivity, a wedding. This is the summons from an old +friend of mine:" As he spoke he held out to me a greasy paper on which +were a few words scrawled with a pencil. + + "Parson we need you in the morning bad. Please come with Bill + as brings this. Bring a bible and liniment and oblige your true + friend Jed Bangs and wife." + +"Isn't your friend Bill able to elucidate?" I asked, as I passed the +paper on to father. + +"Bill seems to be dumb without being deaf and has no histrionic talent +to act out the necessity, so I'm going with him. The Bangs family live +up on old Harpeth at Turkey Gulch, and Jed has shot partridges with me +all winter. Please, you and the Judge, come with me. I can get the car +over Paradise Ridge if I turn it into a wildcat. The morning is +delicious, and I feel that I'll need you both." Never in the world have +I heard a man's voice with such compelling notes in it that range from a +soft coax to a quiet command. + +I had not the slightest idea of going with him and I was about to refuse +with as much sugary hauteur as I dared use to him, when I looked into +father's face and accepted. I had never been on a picnic with my father +in my life and I could not understand the pleading in his eyes for my +acceptance of this invitation to an adventure in his company, but then, +several times since I had come home, I had seen a father I had never +known before, and he fascinated me. + +"The mountain laurel is in bloom and the rhododendron, and you are a +very gracious lady," the Reverend Mr. Goodloe assured me with a deep bow +over my hand, which he kissed in a very delightful foreign fashion which +made Mammy, who had come to the door to hear my decision, roll her eyes +in astonishment which, however, held no hint of criticism, for with her +the spiritual king could do no wrong. + +"I got a snack fixed up jest's soon as that Dabney tol' me about the +junket," she announced. "And I'll put a little wine jelly and flannels +in if it am a baby and a bunch of white jessimings in case it am a +death." + +"Suppose it is a wedding?" I asked her. + +"I don't take no notice of weddings. It was a wedding that got me into +all the trouble of that Dabney and his wuthless son, Jefferson, what +ain't like me in no way." With which fling at Dabney--who was hovering +at the door--she rolled herself back to her kitchen. + +"What have you been doing to her now, you rascal?" father demanded of +Dabney, who was handing him his hat and holding out his light overcoat +to put him into it. + +"I jist stepped into the kitchen while her light rolls fer supper was +raisin' and got a ruckus fer it," was his mild answer. Dabney lived his +connubial life mildly in the midst of the storms of his better half. + +"Well, don't do it again. And put that spade in Mr. Goodloe's car, for +I'm going to bring in some honeysuckle roots and a laurel sprout or two +to try out in the garden," father commanded, as I took my coat and hat +from the chair where I had thrown them the afternoon before, and went +out to the very unministerial-looking car which stood before the +parsonage. + +Of course, I had accepted the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's invitation for the +journey out into the hills in order to sit beside this very new kind of +father I was dimly discovering myself to possess, but I do not to this +day know how it happened that I was crushed against the arm steering the +gray racer as we sped through Goodloets toward Old Harpeth, while the +judge sat beaming, though silent, beside the more silent Bill--who did +not beam, but looked out at the road ahead with the shadow in his face +of the fatalism that so many of the mountain folk possess. + +We were just turning out from the edge of the town, past the last house +with its stately white pillars, when a bunch of pink-and-white +precipitated itself directly in front of the car--which made the first +of the wildcat springs that its master had prophesied for it and then +stood with its engine palpitating with what seemed like mechanical fear, +while I buried my head on the strong arm next to me, which I could feel +tremble for an instant as the Reverend Mr. Goodloe breathed a fervent, +"Thank God." Father rose from his seat with a good round oath and silent +Bill snorted like a wild animal. + +"Why didn't you stop when you saw me coming?" an imperious young voice +demanded in tones of distinct anger, and Charlotte, my name daughter of +the house of Morgan, calmly climbed up on the running board, over the +door next to father, and settled herself in between him and the silent +Bill. "Now you can go on," she calmly announced, in a very much +mollified tone of voice as she shook out her ruffles into a less +compressed state and wiped her face with her dirty hand, much to the +detriment of the roses in her cheeks. + +"Where are you going, Charlotte, may I inquire?" asked the Reverend Mr. +Goodloe in a cheerful and calm voice, though I saw that his fingers +still trembled on the steering wheel as he held back the enraged gray +engine. I was still speechless and I saw that father was in the same +condition. + +"You said I might go 'next time' when my Auntie Harriet didn't want me +to go with you last Tuesday on account of my stomach from the raw potato +Jimmy dared me to eat. This is that time," she calmly answered, as she +gave an interested look at the silent Bill and again settled the short, +pink skirts. + +"Yes, I did say that," admitted Mr. Goodloe, as he turned in his seat as +far as he could and began to argue the question. "But we shall be gone +almost all day and I am afraid your mother wouldn't want you to be gone +that long." + +"Is it true for you to say that when you know that she will be mighty +glad for you to keep me safe with you all day?" Charlotte demanded of +him, looking directly into his smiling, friendly face. + +"No, that wasn't quite honest, I'll admit," he answered her gravely with +the guilt of conviction showing in his face just as plainly as it would +have shown if one of his deacons had caught him evading a question of +grave moment. "And as it is the fulfillment of a promise which you +claim, I am going to ask Miss Powers and the judge if they will permit +me to add you to the party, and then go and get permission from your +mother to take you with us." + +"My mother told me to go and bother Auntie Charlotte an hour or two and +that was when I met you. I ran into the car just minding my mother," +Charlotte answered him with calm pride at her near achievement of death +through literal obedience. + +"Just drive by and we'll call to Nell. I am afraid the case must have +been desperate, for I am seldom the victim," I said in an undertone to +our host, who acquiesced with a laugh. "Harriet Henderson must be dead, +for Nell usually sends the worse one to her," I added under my breath. + +"My Auntie Harriet is having a man cut the ache out of one of her +teeth," Charlotte remarked, apropos of nothing, as the huge car swung +around into the street in which the Morgans reside. "And, besides, I +don't like her any more, because, when she said Sue had to have part of +the doll house she bought for us to play in down at her home, and I said +then Sue would have to take the outside because I wanted the inside, she +locked it up for all this week." + +"The modern business acumen of the feministic persuasion," father +remarked, as we all laughed at this candid revelation of an egocentric +attitude of mind in small Charlotte. + +After a few whirls of the gray wheels we paused a moment at the Morgan +gate. + +"Heavens, yes, and thank you," called Nell in response to our demand for +her small daughter's company. "If I had another one clean, I'd give it +to you." + +"Better go on quick, for Jimmy can wash in a piece of a minute if he +wants to," warned Charlotte, and in a second the parson had sent the +gray car flying out toward Old Harpeth, though I saw him glance back +with a trace of distress in his eyes at the fading vision of a small boy +running, howling, to the front gate of the Morgan residence. + +"Now mother'll whip him for crying if she does as she says she would, +but she won't," observed the tender big sister, as she rose to her feet +and waved a maddening farewell to the distressed urchin being left +behind. + +"Is she totally depraved?" I asked of the young Charlotte's spiritual +adviser at my side. + +"No; perfectly honest," he answered me with a glint in his eyes that was +a laughing challenge. + +"There is something awful about honesty," I answered, without appearing +to notice the glint. + +"There wouldn't be if it were a universal custom," was the answer I got +as we whirled by a farmer's wood lot and began to climb the first +foothill of Old Harpeth. + +All my life I have been going out to Old Harpeth on excursions, but +never had I spent a day like the one I had begun with the Jaguar in his +native fastnesses. The whole old mountain was beginning to bud and I +could almost see it draping on a regal Persian garment of rose and green +threaded with purple and blue woven against the old brown and gray of +the earth color. The wine-colored trillium with its huge spotted leaves, +the slender white dog-tooth violets, the rose-pink arbutus, the blue +star myrtle and the crimson oak buds, were matted into a vast robe that +was gorgeously oriental, while a perfume that was surely more delicious +than any ever wafted from the gardens of Arabia floated past us in gusts +through which the gray car sped without the slightest shortness of +breath. I seemed a million miles away from the great fetid city in which +I had been living--and fast going farther. As we wound up and up into +the great forest which is the crown of Old Harpeth, we could look down +through occasional vistas and see the Harpeth River curling and bending +through pastures in which the chocolate plowed fields were laid off in +huge checks with the green meadows, while the farmhouses and barns +dotted the valley like the crude figures on a hand-woven chintz. + +There are very few men who know enough not to talk to a woman when she +has no desire for their conversation, but the Reverend Jaguar seemed to +be one of the variety who comprehend the value of silences, and neither +of us spoke for at least ten miles, though, of course, it was his duty +to make hay while the sun of my nature shone upon him and delicately to +inquire into my spiritual condition. He didn't. He just let the wind +blow into my empty spaces and kept his eyes and thoughts on the road +ahead of him. Charlotte's chatter with father was blown back from me and +I was happy in a kind of aloneness I had never felt before. + +"We are in Hastings County now and in a few minutes we shall be in Hicks +Center, the county seat," were the first words that broke in on my +self-communion as we began to speed past rough board and log cabins, +each surrounded by a picket fence which in no way seemed to fend the +doorsteps from razor-back pigs, chickens and a few young mules and +calves. "It must be court day, for I don't see a single inhabitant +sitting chewing under his own vine and fig tree." + +"Yes; it's the first Monday," answered father, as the gray machine +pulled gallantly through a few hundred feet of thick, black mud and +turned from the wilderness into the public square of the metropolis of +Hicks Center. + +"Yes, court is in session and there the whole population is in the +courthouse," said father, as we glided slowly down the village street. +"They must be trying a murder or a horse-stealing case," and I saw his +eyes gleam for a second under their heavy brows as the eyes of an old +war horse must gleam when he scents powder. + +"Ugh," assented silent Bill, making the first remark of the journey, and +as he spoke the syllable he rose and pointed to the courthouse, which +stood in the midst of a mud-covered public square, completely surrounded +by hitching-posts to which were hitched all the vehicles of locomotion +of the last century down to the present in Hicks Center--which had not +as yet arrived as far as the day of the motor car. + +"Is Jed in there, Bill?" demanded the Reverend Mr. Goodloe; and as Bill +assented with muscular vigor, if not vocal, he drew the gray car up +beside, an old-fashioned carryall, whose wheels were at least five feet +high and which had hitched to its pole an old horse and a young mule. + +"That team makes a nice balance of--temperament," Mr. Goodloe remarked, +as he lifted out Charlotte and then turned to swing me, in his strong +arms, free of a mud puddle and onto the old brick pavement which was +green with the moss of generations. + +Then, piloted by the silent Bill, we made our way through a quiet throng +of men and women and children, from the awkward age of shoe-top trousers +and skirts to that which, in many cases, was partaking from the maternal +fount, as the women stood in groups and whispered as they looked at us +shyly. Somehow their decorous calico skirts, which just cleared the +ground, made me feel naked in my own of white corduroy, which was all of +eight inches from the mud in which theirs had draggled. + +And as silent as they, even Charlotte's chatter subdued, we entered the +court room and were led through a crowd up to the front seat. At least +the rest of us were seated, but the judge, jury and prisoner and +prosecuting attorney rose in a body and shook hands with the Reverend +Mr. Goodloe as if he were their common and best beloved son. + +"He's been in the Harpeth Valley less than a year, and look at that. +We've been here all our lives and they don't know who we are," +whispered father, with the same pride shining in his eyes that shone +upon the parson from the eyes of the gaunt prisoner, who rose and shook +hands with Mr. Goodloe with the sheriff beside him, while the rough old +judge from the bench waited his turn. + +"We accommodated Jed by waiting until you come before we begun his +trial, Parson," the judge said, as he turned back to his bench, which +was a splint-bottom chair behind a rude table, dignity being lent to the +chair by its being the only one in the room. The rest of the population +of the court room of Hicks Center were seated upon benches made of split +and hewn logs. + +"Thank you, Mr. Hilldrop," said the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, as he sat down +beside the prisoner and began a whispered conversation with him. + +"The court have come to order. Shoot ahead, Jim, and tell us what Jed +have done and how he done it," commanded the judge, as he tilted back +his chair, took out his knife and began to whittle a stick of bright red +cedar. Twelve good men and true, attired in butternut trousers stuffed +into muddy boots, settled themselves in the jury box, which was a log +bench set at right angles to the other benches, a little apart from the +table and chair of the judge, and nine of them took out their knives and +bits of cedar and began to follow the lead of the judge in making fine +pink curls fall upon the floor. + +"May it please your honor, the prisoner is charged with the stealing of +a young mule," said a lanky young mountain lawyer, who had put on a coat +over his flannel shirt and brushed a little patch of tow hair just above +his brows in deference to his position of prosecuting attorney. + +"State yo' case," commanded the judge, as he tried the point of his +splinter against his thumb to test its whittled sharpness. + +"Hiram Turner, over at Sycamore, lent Jed a team of mules to haul his +daughter, who married Jed, home in a wagon with her beds and truck, and +when he come down Paradise Ridge to git the team, Jed claimed one had +got away from him and run off in the big woods. They was a horse and +mule trader come along the same day Jed lost the mule and when Hi and +his boy, Bud, knocked Jed down in a fight they found fifty dollars on +him in a wad what he won't say where he got it." + +With which concise statement the prosecuting attorney sat down and +fanned his perspiring brow with his ragged felt hat. + +"Got anything to say, Jed?" inquired the judge in a friendly and +leisurely fashion, after the accused had been duly sworn in by the +sheriff. "How come a man like you to let a mule git away from him?" + +With the judge's friendly question there entered another actor on the +scene, in the person of a mountain girl who had been cowering on a bench +just behind Jed, her face hidden by a black calico split bonnet. + +"Please lemme tell, Jed," she pleaded in a soft whisper that only father +and I heard, as we sat just behind her. + +"Naw," was the one word he gave her, but it was spoken with a soft +little purr in his husky voice. Then he answered the judge with a kind +of quiet dignity, which I saw that the twelve booted jurymen listened to +with respect. + +"Jedge," he said, with a stern look into the judge's face, "I reckon +you'll have to send me down to the pen. I let that mule git away from me +and I didn't steal or sell him; that is all I got to say." And he sat +down. I felt father start at my side and then sink back onto his bench. + +"Where did you git the money, Jed?" the judge demanded. + +"That I ain't a-telling," answered Jed determinedly. "Jest send me down +to the pen, fer you-all know all you'll ever know." + +"Well, Jed," the judge was beginning to say in an argumentative tone of +voice, when father arose and stepped in front of the bench. + +"May it please your honor to appoint a counsel for the defense?" he +asked in a ringing voice that brought all the outsiders crowding into +the door. I had never heard or seen my father in a court room and I had +never suspected him of the resonant silver voice with which he made his +demand. + +"We ain't got a lawyer in Hicks Center but Jim Handy here, and he can't +prosecute and defend too. I always kinder looks out fer the prisoners +myself," answered the judge. + +"Then may I offer myself to the prisoner to conduct his defense?" father +demanded, and he looked over at Jed, who in turn looked at Mr. Goodloe +before he nodded. + +"Then shoot ahead, stranger. Jim have told all they is about it, but +you can have Hi and Bud Turner sworn in and git any more they have got +to say. Them men speaks truth when they speaks." At which statement +every good man and true nodded his head with firm conviction. A gaunt +old mountaineer who sat over by the window cleared his throat in an +embarrassment that marked him as the Hiram Turner alluded to. + +"I don't think I shall need the testimony of Mr. Turner or his son," +father answered quietly, as he stood tall and straight before the jury. +"I want to put Mr. Bangs' wife on the witness stand and question her +before the jury. Sheriff, call Mrs. Bangs." + +"Naw, stranger, naw," said Jed, and he rose as if to combat, but Mr. +Goodloe laid a restraining hand on his arm, and trembling, he took his +seat. + +"Don't tell nothing, honey," he whispered, as the girl rose from her +bench, laid aside her cavernous black bonnet and advanced, took the oath +administered by the sheriff and stood facing father. + +"Now, Mrs. Bangs," said father, with silvery tenderness in his voice +which I felt sure had gained him the reputation of never having lost a +case in which a woman was involved, "I want you to tell us all that +happened on the day that Jed let the mule escape him. Look at me and +tell me all about it." + +"Well, stranger," began the mountain girl, with a look of confidence +coming into her face that was like a little pink wide-open arbutus, "I +reckon you won't believe me--like Jed didn't at first, though he do +now." + +"Don't tell, honey," the prisoner commanded and implored in the one +plea. "I'd rather take the pen. They won't believe you." + +"It war this way," she continued, without seeming to hear the command of +her young husband, upon whose arm the parson again laid a restraining +hand. "Jed he had unhitched the team and tied them with their rope +halters to the fence 'fore our cabin, when it was almost dark 'fore we +got thar. Then while I was unpacking the wagon he got on one horse and +rid down the side of the gulch to see whar water was at. I was jest +takin' the things in when a man come along leading five mules and riding +on one. He was a city stranger in fine clothes and he asked me fer a +meal because he had lost his way from a man who had a tent and grub. My +mammy allus cooked fer strangers, so--" + +"She shore do that," ejaculated Mr. Turner, proud of his noted +hospitality. + +"So I made up a fire hasty in the yard and put on a coffee pot," the +girl continued. "I had some corn pone and bacon my mammy had give me fer +a snack and I het that up. Whilst I got the meal the stranger he went on +unloading our wagon and then he come to a bundle of bed quilts what my +mammy have been saving fer me from her mammy and her grandmammy. He took +a notion to them and ast me how old they was and I told him about as old +as any twenty-inch cedar on Old Harpeth. He asked me to trade 'em, but I +couldn't abear to until he had riz to fifty dollars, what was the price +of a young mule, all on account of his sister wanting quilts like them +up in a big city. I was kinder crying quiet at letting 'em go, but I +thought about what that mule would be to Jed who wuz so good to me, so I +give 'em to him and he tied 'em on his saddle and went away. It war most +a hour when Jed come and when I told him and showed him the money, he +didn't believe me about them old quilts and he tooken the rope from +around the neck of the mule he'd been riding and--" + +She paused here in her story and put her scarlet flower face in her +hands, while Jed groaned and dropped his own face down upon his arm. The +old judge's face took on a grim sternness, the jury stopped whittling +and the face of every woman in the court room gazed upon the girl with +stern unbelieving accusation. + +"Go on, now, honey, but they won't believe you," commanded Jed with a +sob. + +"Your husband took the rope from around the neck of the mule and left +him untied?" asked father gently. + +"What fer, Melissa?" asked the old judge, without gentleness or any show +of confidence in what the shrinking woman was saying. + +"To beat me with. He war crazed mad and called me a name, but I don't +hold it ag'in him," answered the young wife, with a glance at the +cowering prisoner. + +"He done right," calmly announced one of the twelve good men and true, +in the muddy boots and flannel shirt, and every mountain woman in the +court room nodded her head in approval of the pronouncement. + +"Order in the court room. You all shet up and listen," commanded the +judge, as father looked around the room and then at him with a stern +demand for control of the situation. + +"Then what happened, Mrs. Bangs?" father continued to question. + +"I hollered and fought and skeered the mule off into the big woods where +he can't be found to keep my husband out of the pen," she answered with +a sob. "It took me a week to make him believe about them quilts and then +pappy come along and fought him about the mule and found the money, as +he claimed he sold the mule fer what was the quilt money." + +"That will do. Thank you, Mrs. Bangs," said father, with the same +deference and tenderness he had used when he began to question her. +"Does the prosecution wish to question the witness?" + +"They ain't no use of questioning her when she says a man give her fifty +dollars fer five old quilts," was the answer made by the young +prosecuting attorney, who did not rise to his feet to make this remark. + +"Please ask Mrs. Bangs if the quilts were woven ones of three colors, +and then call me to the stand," I said to father quickly. + +He put the question to the weeping young wife and got an affirmative +answer, after which he dismissed her and had the sheriff swear me in. + +"Can you throw any light upon the matter of the purchase or sale of +these quilts, Miss Powers?" father questioned me formally. + +"If they were old hand-woven, herb-dyed, knitted quilts, they are worth +fifty dollars apiece in New York to-day. I paid that for one not five +months ago," I said, staring haughtily into the calmly doubting faces of +the mountaineers in the jury box and on the benches. + +"Do you want to question the witness?" my father asked of the indolent +young prosecutor. + +"Don't know who she is and don't believe she is telling the truth," was +the laconic refusal of the prosecutor to let me influence his case. + +"Well, now, Jim, Parson Goodloe here brought the gal along with him and +I reckon he can character witness for her," interposed the judge. +"Sheriff, swear in the parson." His command was duly executed. + +"Mr. Goodloe, do you consider Miss Powers a woman who can be depended +upon to speak the truth?" father asked him formally. + +"I do," the Reverend Mr. Goodloe answered quietly, and just for a second +a gleam from his eyes under their dull gold brows shot across the +distance to me, and if it hadn't all been so serious I should have +laughed with glee at his thus having to declare himself about my +character in public. But the next moment the situation became much more +serious and my heart positively stopped still as I seemed to see prison +doors close upon the young husband. + +"Do you want to question the witness?" father asked of the lolling young +prosecutor. + +"How long have you known the lady, Parson?" he asked, with a drawl and +one eye half closed. + +There was an intense silence in the court room for almost a minute. Then +the Reverend Mr. Gregory Goodloe answered calmly: + +"Three days." + +"That might be long enough fer a parson, but it ain't fer a jury," the +young attorney answered, and there was a quizzical kindness in the old +judge's face as he smiled at Mr. Goodloe and shook his head. + +Mr. Goodloe started to speak, but father waved him back to his seat, +turned to the judge and jury and began the most wonderful speech on the +subject of circumstantial evidence and ethical law that I have ever +heard. His beautiful deep voice was as clear as a bell and twenty years +seemed to have fallen from his shoulders. I was looking at and listening +to the man he had been before I was born. And when I could tear my eyes +from his radiant face I watched these stolid mountaineers with whom he +was working his will with a power they had never experienced before and +did not understand. The men in the jury box and the men on the hewn +benches dropped their eyes before his flaming ones as he shamed their +censorious manhood and some of the sun-bonneted women bent their heads +and sobbed when he arraigned them for the lack of motherhood and +sisterhood for the poor young wife who had come over the Ridge to live +among them. + +"Would you men and women rather believe a girl light of love and +faithless, and send your neighbor to prison for two years of his young +life when he could mean much to you and his state and his nation, than +to give them a little human sympathy and justice. Do you prefer to pin +your faith to the value of a worthless, vagrant mule than--" + +But just here, when Judge Nickols Morris Powers was winding himself up +for one of the greatest appeals to a jury he had ever made, a mule +stepped into the case and took away the honor of its winning. He poked +his inquisitive nose into a back window of the court room which looked +out upon the edge of the big woods, and gave the whole assemblage a +hew-haw of derision. + +"Lordy mighty, that are Pete come back hisself with all the curkles in +the big woods sticking to him!" exclaimed Hiram Turner, as he rose and +went to examine his property. "He wasn't sold to no mule man, fer they +crops the hair on their hoofs to see if they's healthy 'fore they buys. +This here frees Jed." + +"And now that you gentlemen have the testimony of a mule, will you not +believe the word of Mrs. Bangs and Miss Powers about the valuable +quilts?" my father said, after he had commanded silence by raising his +hand. + +"We shore do believe every word of it, stranger, and you won this here +case and not that mule," a stern old sister in a gingham apron and black +bonnet said, with a commanding glance at the jury. + +"Yes, stranger," answered the hoary old foreman, whom to this day I +believe to be the meek husband of the commanding old woman in the black +bonnet. "I have done got the mind of the jury and they all voted fer you +and not the mule." + +"I hereby gives that mule to Jed Bangs and my daughter, Melissa, and +I'll knock off a half on the price of his teammate to Jed if he gives me +his fergiveness and hern," old Hiram rose and turned with his hand on +the forelock of the mule hero to say to the assembled court room. "Go +around and halter him quick, Jed, 'fore he breaks away again, the durned +fool," he added in another voice. + +"Yes, prisoner, you are declared free, and hurry to ketch him, fer he's +straining ag'inst Hiram," was the judge's sentence, delivered from the +bench as everybody rose and began to stream out to watch the tussle +between Jed and the wild mule. Father and the parson were among the +first to gain the door. + +In the next few minutes I found that some of the shy mountain women were +beginning to hover about me, and in another ten minutes I had laid the +foundations of an export rug and quilt business that I have a feeling +will thrive greatly. + +"Were you arrested because your mother told you not to sell the quilts?" +was Charlotte's sympathetic question to the young Mrs. Bangs; and I saw +the mite take a clean handkerchief from her small pink pocket and apply +it to the tears that were coursing down Melissa's cheeks over the +dimples which her smiling mouth was putting in their way. "Just be a +good girl and God will forgive you," she comforted further, nestling a +dirty pink cheek, which rubbed off, against Melissa's wet one. + +"And I asked if she were totally depraved, less than an hour ago," I +apologized to my name daughter in my heart. + +All the way home I sat beside father, and once I laid a timid hand in +his, through whose fingers the pride I had in him must have flowed into +his. He flushed for a second and then was pale again. + +"You can't put new wine in old bottles, daughter," he said sadly, as he +glanced down into the valley. The car was running smoothly, slowly and +noiselessly around a sharp curve, and the Reverend Mr. Goodloe both +heard and answered the sad axiom. + +"The finest wine mellows in casks and is then bottled free of dregs, +Judge. I think the wine of life is of that vintage," he said, with one +of his radiant smiles that I could see fairly warm father from his +paleness. + +"I wonder just what he meant by 'the wine of life,'" I asked myself as I +went to say good night to Old Harpeth after I put out my light before +going to bed. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +HAVING IT OUT + + +"Well, of course, we knew Nickols would follow you, Charlotte, but we +did hope to have you all to ourselves for more than just a week," moaned +Nell Morgan, as we all sat on the front porch of the Poplars in the warm +spring sunlight several mornings after I had told them of Nickols' +arrival on Friday, which announcement had come in the midnight telegram. +I winced at the words "follow you," and then smiled at the absurdity of +the little shudder. + +"Yes, Nickols will be absorbing, but we can all sit hard on him and +perhaps put him in his place," responded Letitia Cockrell, as she drew a +fine thread through a ruffle she was making to adorn some part of the +person of one of Nell's progeny. "I do not believe in ever allowing a +man to take more than his share of a woman's time." + +"Do you use grocery scales or a pint cup to measure out Cliff Gray's +daily portion of yourself, Letitia?" asked Harriet Henderson, with a +very sophisticated laugh in which Nell joined with a little giggle. +Harriet was appliqueing velvet violets on a gray chiffon scarf and was +doing it with the zest of the newly liberated. Roger Henderson had had a +lot of money that, in default of a will, the law gave mostly to Harriet, +but in life he had not had the joy of seeing her spend it that he might +have had if he could have gazed back from placid death. "Do you make the +same allowance of affection to him in the light of the moon that you do +in the dark?" she further demanded of the serene Letitia. + +"Well, he doesn't have to see his share divided up into bits and handed +out to the other men," was the serene answer to Harriet's gibe and which +was pretty good for Letitia. + +"My dear child," declaimed Harriet, as she poised a purple violet on the +end of her needle, "don't ever, ever make the mistake of letting one of +the creatures know just what is coming to him. Isn't that right, Nell?" + +"Yes, and it is pretty hard to keep them in a state of uncertainty +about you when there are four certain children between you, but I go +over to visit my mother at Hillsboro as often as she'll have the caravan +and plead with Billy Harvey or Hampton Dibrell to keep me out until I'm +late for dinner every time they pick me up for a little charitable spin. +That and other deceptions have kept Mark Morgan uncertainly happy so +far, but if I am pushed to the wall I'll--I'll go to the Reverend Mr. +Goodloe's study for ministerial counsel like you did last Friday +afternoon, Harriet," was Nell's contribution to the discussion, which +she delivered over the head of the Suckling on her breast. + +"Now how did you get hold of that choice bit of scandal, Nellie?" asked +Harriet, with serene interest as she bit off a tag of purple silk thread +from the stem of one of her violets. + +"Billy Harvey says that scandal is a yellow pup that dogs a parson's +heels, to which everybody throws some kind of bone," remarked Jessie. +Jessie always vigorously represses Billy in his own presence and then +quotes him eternally when he is absent. + +"Mother Spurlock had come over from the Settlement to see him about the +state of the treasury of the Mothers' Aid Class, and she stopped in to +get a bundle of clothes I had for her," Nell answered Harriet's +question. "She said she didn't mind the hour lost if the parson could +give a 'wee bit of comfort' to your 'wrestling' soul. I didn't like to +tell her that I thought it might be Mr. Goodloe who was wrestling--for +life and liberty--for you and I have been friends since we could toddle, +Harriet, but it was temptation to share my anxiety with her." And +serenely Nellie patted the back of the drowsing Suckling. + +"Wrong this time, Nell," answered Harriet, as she placed still another +violet. "I was doing the wrestling, but I went to the mat. I gave up +twenty-five dollars and took the directorship of that Mothers' Aid. +Never having been a mother, I pointed out to him that I was not exactly +qualified, but he laid stress upon my energy and business acumen and I +gave up. I mentioned you for the honor, but those marvelous eyes of his +glowed with some sort of inner warmth and he said that you had all you +could do and would need help from me just as the women at the Settlement +do. I'm going to present your Susan with a frock out of that linen and +real Valenciennes I bought in the city last week for a blouse for my own +self, and I'm going to give the making to that little Burns woman, who +sews so beautifully and cheaply to support her seven offspring, while +Mr. Burns supports 'The Last Chance' saloon down at the end of the road. +In that way I'll be aiding two of Mr. Goodloe's flock at the same time, +and when I told him my decision he laughed and said be sure and have it +made two inches shorter than you made Sue's frocks, because her bare +knees ought not to be hid from the world. That was about all that +transpired in the whole hour of spiritual conference you are spreading +the scandal about, and you ought to be ashamed." + +Suddenly something in me made me determine to have it out with those +four women and see what results I could get. I felt thirsty for +knowledge of the wellsprings of other people's lives. + +"Harriet," I demanded, "just why did you join Mr. Goodloe's church?" + +"Let's see," answered Harriet, as she poised a violet and gave herself +up to introspection. + +"Mr. Goodloe?" I asked squarely, and my honesty drew its spark from +hers. + +"Mostly," she answered briefly. "And I believe in the church as an +institution," she added, with honest justice to herself. + +"I think it is absolutely horrid of you to ask a question like that, +Charlotte," said Nell, as she turned the fretting Suckling over on her +knee and began another series of pats. "We all of us went to church and +Sunday school when we were children." + +"Up to the time I left, not a single one of you ever had gone to church +with any kind of regularity and not a one of you had ever supported its +institutions. I've been here less than a week and each one of you has in +some way shown me how bored you are with the relation. That's all the +case I have against your or any church--just that the members are bored. +Also, do any of you get any help in your daily lives, aside from the +emotional pleasure it is to you to hear your minister sing twice a week, +which would be as great or greater if he sang love and waltz songs from +light opera for you?" + +And as I asked my question I looked quickly from one to the other of the +four women seated with me under the roof of the Poplars and tried to +search out what was in their hearts. I knew them and their lives with +the cruel completeness it is given to friends to know each other in +small towns like Goodloets and I could probe with a certain touch. And +as they all sat silent with me, each one driven to self-question by my +demand, I threw the flash of a searchlight into each of them. These are +some of the things that stood out in the illumination: + +Harriet Henderson has always been in love with Mark Morgan, since her +shoe-top-dress days, and she married Roger Henderson because Mark was as +poor as she before the Phosphate Company gave him his managership. Nell +and the babies are the nails driven in her heart every day and she loves +them all passionately. She is only twenty-eight and life will be long +for her. She needs help to live it. Whence will the help come? + +Nell married Mark when she was eighteen and has produced a result every +year and a half since. She loves him mildly and he loves her after a +fashion, but her endurance is wearing thin. His mother had seven +children and he thinks that an ideal number, though she was one +generation nearer the pioneer woman and also had a nurse trained in +slavery who was a wizard with children. Mark wants to have a lot of joy +of life and so far he drags poor exhausted Nell with him. It is a +question how long she can stand the social pace and the over-production. +What is going to help her when she breaks down? How will she hold him +faithful while she rears and trains all the kiddies? Where will she get +spirit to love him and work out their salvation? Also Harriet is always +there. Something will have to help Nell. What? + +Billy loves Nell and doesn't know it. He loved her before she was +married. The children make him rage superficially and burn inwardly. He +gambles and drinks, but is honest and adorable. What is going to make a +real man of him? + +Jessie Litton's mother died in a private sanitarium for the mentally +unbalanced and she knows all about it. She loves Hampton Dibrell and +never looks in his direction or is a moment alone with him. He is in the +unattached state of ease where any woman can get him if she cares to +try, and Jessie has to keep her hands behind her. + +Letitia is serenely happy with not a dark corner that I know of. She +loves Cliff Gray and always will. Cliff is faithful and as good as gold, +but he will hang around Jessie, who encourages him, because she is +lonely and considers him safely tied up with Letitia. Mr. Cockrell is +the best lawyer in town and Mrs. Cockrell the most devoted wife and +mother. I can only feel that Letitia Cockrell needs a jolt and I don't +see where it is coming from. + +And I? I am lonely. And I feel that the constant anxiety about father is +more than I can bear, worse now when I realize what he has been and +could be--and that I love him. He is the hardest drinker in Goodloets +and yet never is drunk. He is soaked from the beginning of one day to +another. He began to drink like that the day my mother died and I have +always known that _I_ was helpless to help him. The weakness was in him, +only supported by her strength so long as she was there. He was the most +brilliant mind in the state, and was one of the supreme judges when +mother died. Now Mr. Cockrell manages his business for him and I have +lately come to know that I must sit by and watch him disintegrate. I +cannot endure it now, as I have been doing. What is going to help me in +this--shame for him? I have gone away to my mother's people to forget +and left him to Dabney, and I've come home--to begin the suffering all +over. I'll never leave him again. What's going to help me? + +And there is something deeper--a race something that fairly eats the +heart out of my pride. On almost every page of the history of the +Harpeth Valley the name of Powers occurs. One Powers man has been +governor of the state, and there have been two United States congressmen +and a senator of our house. Father is the last of the line. Because race +instinct is the strongest in women, I am the one who suffers as I see my +family die out. What is going to help me? A few gospel hymns in a tenor +voice the like of which I should have to pay at least three dollars to +hear in the Metropolitan? The scene on the porch rose in my mind, but I +felt that I both doubted and feared such succor. + +And I am in still deeper depths. Nickols is the son of father's first +cousin, and has father's full name, Nickols Morris Powers, and he is the +last of his branch of the house. Father loves him and is proud of him +and nothing ever enters his mind except that I will marry Nickols and +start the family all over again. And this is the tragedy. I love Nickols +and am entirely unsatisfied with him. He is the Whistler nocturne that +my Sorolla nature demands, and he eternally makes me hold out my hand to +grasp--nothing. He stands just beyond. I am unable to decide whether he +does or does not love me. In New York he lives his life among the +artists and fashionable people with whom his highly successful +profession throws him, and I don't see why he cares to come back here +where he was born and reared, in pursuit of a woman like me. I am as +elemental as a shock of wheat back on one of father's meadows and +Nickols is completely evolved. He laughs at race pride and resents mine. +For six months I had been in New York living with Aunt Clara in Uncle +Jonathan Van Eyek's old house down on Gramercy just to go into Nickols' +life with him. I went about in the white lights of both Murray Hill and +Greenwich Village for about one hundred and eighty-five evenings, and +then I fled back to my garden and the poplars--and my anxiety. I thought +I had come home to be free and I found the same old chains. And then +had come Nickols' telegram of pursuit in the midnight after I had stood +by in the shadow and watched a strong man pray and a weak man battle +with himself. I was frightened, frightened at the future, and what was +going to help me? + +"I don't actually understand a word of Gregory Goodloe's sermons, really +understand them, I mean, but it helps me to see that somebody truly +believes that there is something somewhere that will straighten out +tangles--in life as well as thread." + +Harriet broke in on my still hunt into my own and other people's inner +shrines as she snapped a bit of tangled purple silk thread, knotted it +and began all over again on the violet. + +"I don't care what he preaches about--he's soothing and I need a little +repose in my life after--Oh, what is the matter now?" And as she +finished speaking Nell Morgan arose and went with the Suckling asquirm +in her arms to meet the large noise that was arriving down the front +walk. + +The delegation was headed by young Charlotte, whose blue eyes flamed +across a very tip-tilted nose that bespoke mischief. Jimmy stolidly +brought up the rear with small Sue clinging loyally to his dirty little +paddie, which she only let go to run and bury her cornsilk topknot in +Harriet's outspread arms, where she was engulfed into safety until only +the most delicious dimpled pink knees protruded above dusty white socks +and equally dusty white canvas sandals. Though within a few months of +four, Sue had discovered Harriet, and never failed to take advantage of +her. + +"What is the matter?" again demanded Nell, as the vocal chords of +Charlotte ceased reverberating and her countenance resumed a more normal +color and expression. + +"A rock flew and the minister's window got broked." Charlotte gave forth +this announcement with a diplomacy that might have been admirable +exerted in a juster cause. + +"Who had the rock?" demanded the mother sternly. + +"Jimmy," was the decided answer, given with a threatening glance at the +son of the house of Morgan, who quailed in his socks and sandals and +began an attempt to screw one of his toes under one of the flagstones of +the walk. I knew in an instant that that rock had never left the hand of +small James, but the clash of Nell's wits with young Charlotte is so +constant that at times the maternal ones are dulled. The accused must +have psychically scented my sympathy, for he lifted large, scared, +pleading eyes to mine for a brief second and then dropped them again. I +went to the rescue. + +"Sue, who broke the window?" I asked, as I extricated the four-year-old +witness from Harriet's chiffon and violets. I doubted if young Susan had +attained the years of prevarication as yet. I was right. + +"Tarlie," was the positive answer. "Boom--book--crk!" was the graphic +description of the crash she added as she squirmed back among the +violets and the needles and the thread. + +"Charlotte!" exclaimed Nell, in real despair. + +"Jimmy did have the rock in his pocket, and he just lent it to me to +throw at a bird right above the window. It was a nice round one, and he +brought it from home to see if he could kill anything. It most killed +the minister, and the rock is a little bluggy. Isn't it, Jimmy? He's +got it in his pocket for keeps." + +"Yes," answered young James, with the brevity with which he usually made +responses to the loquacity of his sister. + +"Do you mean that you hit Mr. Goodloe, as well as broke the window?" +demanded Nell in still more horror, as she came down two of the front +steps. + +"He didn't mind," answered Charlotte. "He liked it, because he made us +both learn a verse of a hymn to sing for punish, and Sue can sing it, +too. Come on, Sue!" and before any of us could recover from our horror +at the violence the young parson had suffered at the hands of the +marauders, Charlotte had lined the other two up on either hand and begun +her exhibition of the benefit arising from the throwing of the rock. It +was a very good example of the good that may result from evil, which is +one of the puzzling reverses of one of the Christian tenets. + + "'Work, for the night is coming, + Work through the morning hours, + Work while the dew is sparkling, + Work 'mid springing flowers,'" + +trilled Charlotte in a high, buzzy young voice, while Jimmy piped in a +few notes lower. Baby Sue's little, clear jumble of words in perfect +tune was so bewitchingly sweet that Harriet again engulfed her, while +the outraged mother, not so easily beguiled, sailed down the steps and +around through the garden toward the chapel, driving the two older +offenders before her to the scene of the crime. + +"Who is going to help Nell train up liars and murderers into good +citizens?" I asked myself in my depths, as I joined with the others in +the admiring laugh at young Charlotte's dramatic powers. + +"Mr. Goodloe is the most wonderful thing I ever saw with kiddies," said +Jessie Litton, as she rose to her feet to begin leave-taking. "Yes, I +must go, for father expects me to luncheon," she added, at my +remonstrance. + +"I'm going to kidnap Sue while I can, and I may never bring her back. I +must fly!" said Harriet, and she departed hastily to the small roadster +she had parked beside the gate. "Come on, Letitia, and let me take you +home," she called over her shoulder, and Letitia followed to secure the +short spin around the corner to the old Cockrell home, which was set +back from the street behind a tall hedge of waxy-leaved Cherokee roses. +Thus almost in the twinkling of an eye I was left alone, which state, +however, did not last more than a few seconds, for around the corner of +the house from the chapel, from which direction the whole world seemed +to be going or coming, arrived Mrs. Elsie Spurlock, beaming the welcome +to me that had always found a ready response. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +DEEP DIGGING + + +And in another twinkling of eyes, both of mine and hers, I had taken her +bundle from her, seated her in the largest rocking chair, and she had +untied her bonnet strings, which denoted that she had come for a genuine +visit. + +"Well, dearie, dearie me, the sight of you is good for tired eyes, +Charlotte," she bumbled in her rich, deep old voice. As she spoke she +tucked a white wisp of a curl back into place beneath the second water +wave that protruded from under the little white widow's ruche in her +bonnet and continued to beam at me. "I met Nellie Morgan and her +Annarugans hurrying to pray a pardon from Mr. Goodloe for that rock +which might have killed him, if thrown an inch to the right, instead of +only nicking that yellow head of his, the Lord be praised!" + +"What was that same Lord doing when he let the rock fly from +Charlotte's hand to within an inch of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's life, +Mother Spurlock?" I asked her, with the old warfare over the same old +subject rising at the very first minute of our meeting. I have wondered +sometimes in the last few years if the wrestling with me over her faith +was not ordained for the purpose of strengthening Mother Spurlock's +powers of patient argument. She is the only person in the world to whom +I speak from the depths, and the relief of her sweetened and seasoned +wisdom is the straw at which I often clutch to save myself. + +"I surmise that He guided the hand of that child so that the verse of +the hymn, and the chastisement of the rod I hope Nellie will inflict, +might work together for her good. All of us must at times let a little +blood for another's good--heart's blood, very often, not just that from +our scalps or shins." And as she answered me without a moment's +hesitation she enveloped me in loving question. "Are you always going to +occupy the anxious seat in front of the Lord, child? Still, sit as long +as you like and go on questioning Him. You'll find the answer." + +"The whole town seems to have gone into your fold and left me on the +'anxious seat' alone," I answered, as I drew my chair nearer to her and +took her lined, strong old hand in mine. + +"That Billy Harvey passes the collection plate up the aisle on Sunday +and plays poker all Saturday night till Sunday morning down at the Last +Chance, in a room in front of the one in which poor Pat Burns, who +carries a hod for his money, loses his all. Mary Burns sews all day and +half the night to feed him and the children, but she puts her pittance +into Billy's plate every Sunday, and I know that she gets the strength +to go on from day to day from the words that come from the same pulpit +he sets the plate behind. That is, we call the table out at your Country +Club a pulpit, until we get our own in the chapel from which to praise +the Lord. So you see that there are some sheep who have a taint of goat +hair in their wool still left--I won't say with you--out in the world. +And speaking of that world, have you come back to say good-bye to us?" + +"I don't know yet, Mother Spurlock," I answered her candidly. "I ran +away from that world, but it is coming after me on Friday." + +"You'll be sent into the vineyard where you are most needed, and there +you'll serve," she said, with a far-away look coming into her eyes as +she let her glances roam out to the dim hills of Paradise Ridge. A flood +of love and reverence rose in my heart for her as I sat quiet and let +her spirit roam. Mother Spurlock had been the gayest young matron in +Goodloets, living in the great old Spurlock home with handsome, +rollicking young George Spurlock for a husband, and three babies around +her knees, and in one short year she had been left with only one large +and three tiny graves out in the placid home of the dead, beyond the +river bend. The babies had been taken by that relentless child foe, +diphtheria, and young George, reckless with grief, had let a half-broken +horse break his neck. The young woman, aged by her grief, had sold the +great house to the next of kin and moved down into an old brick cottage +that sat "beside the road" in a gnarled old apple orchard, and had +become the "friend to man." Through the orchard and past the door of the +Little House ran the path that led from the Settlement to the Town, and +through her heart and hands flowed most of the love and charity that +bound the rich and poor, brother to brother. Mother Spurlock was never +without a bundle in which she carried labor of the poor sold for the +gold of the rich, or gifts from the rich back to the needy. I thought of +all the long years of service in the vineyard into which her tragedy had +thrown her, and I bent and picked up the bundle at our feet and held it +with reverent hands. + +"Just a few baby things that Nellie Morgan gave me to fix up a poor +little Mother Only in the village," she came back from her reverie to +say cheerfully, as she saw me with the bundle in my hand. Mother +Spurlock always refers to the children without the sanction of the law +for their birth as the Mother Onlies, and somehow, when she speaks it, +the name carries a world of tenderness into the heart of the hearer. + +"Whose now?" I asked her gently, because in a way Mother Spurlock and I +bore one another's burdens of spirit. + +"Hattie Garrett's, and it's a week old now. It is one of the saddest +things that ever happened in the village, and we none of us understand. +You remember, she taught the district school down in the Settlement." + +"As none of us understood about Martha Ensley. Is that all a mystery +still?" I asked, and I stroked the bundle of tiny garments. + +"Yes, and now she's gone nobody knows where, day before yesterday. +Jacob, her father, was rough and violent with her, but only from grief, +and she forgave all that. I'm troubled sorely, for she is gentle, and +not one to fight the world alone. She must have gone to the city, the +good Lord help her!" + +"He will--He is," I answered quickly, then stopped because I knew I must +not tell what I had overheard--should I say in the confessional? + +"Praise God! to hear you speak such words. Sometimes a body's faith gets +out of her heart past her mind and proclaims itself before the higher +criticism gets a chance to throttle it," the invincible old warrior +exclaimed with a delighted twinkle in her young blue eyes at having +caught me with religious goods on me. "He will, He will take _care_ of +us all, not that He doesn't expect us to put in about sixteen hours of +the day helping Him to do it for ourselves and others. That reminds me +that I seem to be growing to this chair. Luella May Spain has got a nice +place to work in the telegraph station with Mr. Pate, and if she's to +look neat she needs a few white shirt waists. I _could_ get them in this +bundle. If I get too many things from you and Harriet this morning to +carry myself, Hampton will take me down the hill in his car when he goes +to lunch, not that I wouldn't be frightened to death to ride with him +except on the Lord's mission." + +"Do you think that fact would keep Hampton from being run down by +Harriet when she cuts corners bias, as she insists on doing?" I asked, +as I started in the door to procure the toilet necessaries to Luella +May's telegraphic career, whether it devastated my supply of tennis +clothes or not. Nothing that any woman or any member of her family in +Goodloets wears or eats is secure from Mother Spurlock, and we have all +submitted to the fact with the greatest docility. + +"I know it does; and three shirt waists will be enough if you add a neat +black belt," was the answer that followed me through the hall. "Bless +my life, Nickols Powers, I was glad to see you at prayer meeting last +week, even if you and William Cockrell were just caught up out at your +Club in your chess game," I heard her exclaim, to draw a laughing answer +in father's most genial rumble. Then I heard him call loudly for Dabney, +and when Sallie descended with my bundle, that contained a complete +telegraphic outfit for Luella May which showed a decided leaning to +tennis style, she met Dabney on the front threshold with a rough parcel +from which I saw a shirt sleeve and a blue serge trouser leg protrude. + +"Thank you, Nickols. Since his accident, Bill Hanks has thinned out to +just about your size. Now he can go back to his job neatly and +respectably clad," Mother Spurlock was saying. + +"The citizens of Goodloets had better take the habit of wearing a double +suit of clothing for fear of having Elsie Spurlock strip them in public +to beyond the law," father grumbled in great pleasure, after he had +packed her and her bundles in Hampton's car. Father always calls Mother +Spurlock "Elsie," and once or twice I have seen a faint blush creep to +her cheeks and a glint flash from her eyes, but he blandly goes on +doing it. I wonder-- + +"Father," I said, as we went slowly up the front walk together, "Nickols +will be here on Friday; will you have Dabney get his rooms in the north +wing ready for him? He likes that light, and he can use the long green +room for a studio when he sketches." + +"That's good," answered father heartily. He likes Nickols and Nickols +manages him beautifully, by giving him all he wants to drink whenever he +suggests it, even introducing him to new Manhattan beverages. There is +perpetual war between Dabney, who knows father's nervous limit, and +Nickols, who doesn't care just as long as things and human beings that +surround him are kept pleasant. It is all right for the rest of the +world to have delirium tremens, just so they do it out of his sight and +hearing. + +"I wonder just what Nickols will think of Goodloe," father added, with a +slightly strained laugh. "You thought he would be enraged at Goodloe and +me for building the chapel and weeding the garden. Perhaps he will be +unhappy." + +"I don't believe your weeding would make anybody unhappy, father," I +answered with a laugh, choosing to ignore the issue of the building of +the chapel until Nickols was upon the scene and we could decide just +what to do. + +"Been over the whole garden twice and eaten several meals in the sweat +of my brow--that is, I took a cold shower before coming to the table, my +daughter," father said, and he looked ashamed of himself for being proud +of his own spurt of normality. I caught my breath, but I was wise enough +not to show my astonishment. "Goodloe is the most insinuating person I +ever met, and I advise you to be careful. He makes men do just as he +wants them to, and I should say that women would eat out of his hand." + +"I suppose I ought to eat a bite or two from his fingers to pay for all +the work he has got out of you and Dabney. I never saw the garden so +beautiful or so early. Look, father, the peonies are budding, two weeks +ahead of their usual time!" + +"They'd be damned ungrateful not to grow industriously, after the way +Dab and I have sprained our old backs spading and feeding them according +to spiritual direction that stood over us with a rake," answered +father, with proud if profane enthusiasm. There was a faint pink glow in +his haggard, thin cheeks, and he took from his pocket a huge knife I had +never seen him use before and began carefully to cut away a few dead +twigs from a budding rose vine. + +"Your mother always put a rose from this vine at my plate for breakfast, +and you got yours from that pink bush over there by the sun dial," he +said, with a softness in his voice that I had not heard since my tenth +summer, in which my mother had died. I tingled all over, but held on to +myself. + +"You go tell that old black lazybones to come here with his spade this +minute. I told him about digging in this mulch yesterday before the +dahlias sprouted, and he hasn't done it. I'm not going to do it for him, +like I put the fertilizer around the lilacs, just to save him from +Goodloe. Tell him to come right here to me, and not to let grass grow in +his shoe tracks," and father picked up a hoe from the walk beside the +neglected dahlias and began doing the work he had just declared against. +I fled around to the kitchen, and something lent wings to my feet. + +"Oh, Dab, what does it mean that father is really taking an interest in +the garden?" I demanded of the faithful old black friend, whom I found +enveloped in a kitchen apron helping his wife bring the dinner to a +serving head. + +"Praise God, his salvation am commenced, if it don't kill me before he +gits it," answered Dab, as he put his hand to his back and groaned. + +"They has been jest one-half a demijohn of devil heart whisky ordered up +outen that cellar in over a month, and I b'lieve this here no account +nigger drunk a pint of that," Mammy added to his answer. "Last month it +was two demijohns they had up, and before that it was three or four. +That parson done it with readin' and talkin' and hoein'. Glory! I wants +to hold my breath and shout at the same time, and I would if I could +trust this pullet in the skillet to either you or Dabney whilst I did +it. The Lord wouldn't listen to no shoutin' from a cook whose chicken +was frying black while she did her praisin'," and as she spoke Mammy +began a low humming, swaying from table to stove with a rhythm in the +swing of her fat body that had a certain dignified beauty to it. It was +crude emotion, and I knew it, but I felt it work in my own body as I +let the significance of what she had told me about the lessening amount +of whiskey father had been consuming add itself to the scene upon the +back porch and sink fully into my consciousness. I don't know what might +have happened to my shouting Methodist grandmother's worldly though +emotional descendant if father's voice, sharp and clear, with a note of +command I had forgotten it possessed, had not interrupted me. + +"Charlotte! Dab!" it called; and we both answered with all speed. + +"That Parson Goodloe have got the power to draw the teeth of seven +devils, and you both consider the words of his mouth or he'll git the +teeth outen yourn," Mammy called after us in ambiguous warning. + +And upon our arrival on the scene of action being executed upon the +dahlias, we found the commander of the devils awaiting us, though in his +hands was no forked instrument of dentistry, but in one he held a large +slice of rye bread thickly spread with butter, and the other was +disarmed by a ripe red apple. As we drew near he finished a direction to +father and took a huge bite out of the slab of bread that left a gap as +wide as one would expect a Harpeth jaguar to make. + +"Harrowing deep makes great growth in all plant life," he was saying +past the slice of bread with agricultural prosiness to father, who had +completely sweated down the very high and stiff collar which he always +wore swathed in a wide tie of black after a Henry Clay cut, in a savage +attack with the hoe upon the mulch that was smothering the dahlias in +richness. + +"Does the same deep digging result hold true in biological and psychic +life?" puffed father, and then he leaned on his hoe and looked up at the +young man towering over him. In his eyes was the appeal of disappointed +age calling to the ideals of flaming strength and youth in the +deep-jeweled eyes that answered with a look of passionate tenderness as +the parson poised the bread for another bite. + +"'Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,' Mr. Powers, is the direct data we +have on that subject," he said. Then he, for the first time, observed +the approach of Dabney and myself, of which his widening smile and the +quick lowering of the slab of rye pone gave notice to father, who +exploded accordingly. + +"You black son-of-a-gun! Why didn't you rake off these dahlias as I told +you to yesterday? Now you get his hide, Parson!" was the greeting that +Dabney received, while I was ignored by all concerned. + +"That hinge in your back rusty again, Dabney?" questioned the parson, +with leonine mildness. + +"I been upsot by my young mistis coming home," answered Dabney, with a +quick glance at me as if to indicate me as a substantial excuse for any +crimes. I stood convicted, for I do use Dabney continually in all my +hospitalities. + +"We understand, Dabney," was the answer he got from the feeding Jaguar, +who gave me that glint of a laugh that I had learned to expect and +to--dread. I knew what he meant to imply, and I also knew that he knew +that I understood that he considered me a disturbing element. Then he +again raised the half-demolished hunk of bread to his mouth, stopped and +regarded the apple in meditative indecision. From head to heels he was +clothed in the most exquisite white flannel and buckskin tennis +clothes, but for all their civilized worldliness he resembled nothing so +much as a feeding king of the forest in the poise of his wonderful head +and equally wonderful body. I glanced quickly at his face with its +gentle, deep, comprehending lines, in positive fear of him, and I found +reassurance in the smile that curled his strong red mouth and glinted at +me from his brilliant eyes under dull gold. Then, after the smile, he +decided for the apple rather than further conversation, and was just +going to set his white teeth in its rosy cheek when I stopped him with +an almost involuntary exclamation. + +"Don't!" I pleaded. "Dinner is just ready, and you'll spoil it if you +eat all that bread and butter and apple." Just exactly a week before, at +almost that exact hour, the Reverend Gregory Goodloe had refused the cup +of tea I had stood holding for him in my hand for five minutes on the +front porch of the Poplars, and I had taken a resolve that never would +he again receive a food invitation from me. I didn't count Mammy's +"snack" eaten on the Harpeth adventure. I didn't understand myself and +my sudden rush of dismay at the idea of a spoiled dinner for him, but I +couldn't stop myself as I added: + +"Mammy has apple dumplings and hard sauce; please don't--I mean please +_do_ come in to dinner with us." + +"Thank you, but as you see I've about dined," he answered me, as with a +laugh he held out his fragments. "Jefferson was feeling badly and I sent +him to bed instead of the parsonage kitchen." Mammy had told me that the +Reverend Mr. Goodloe had taken hers and Dabney's cherished and perfectly +worthless only son as his sole domestic dependence, and Mammy had added +the fact that Jeff had "shot nary crap since the parson rescued him from +the jaw of the jail." + +"Huh," ejaculated Dabney over the hoe he had taken from father and was +using at his direction while father lined the border beside the bed with +his sharp spade. I knew the contempt in his voice was for the illness of +Jefferson, and the Reverend Mr. Goodloe and I both laughed as he took +the last bite of the brown slab and then held out the unbitten side of +the apple to me. + +"You eat your fruit with me, not in dumplings with hard sauce," he said, +and there was a wooing note in his voice as if he pleaded for that +friendliness from me to heal a hurt. + +"No, _I_ won't eat out of your hand," I answered, with a cool emphasis +on the "I." And I looked him straight in the eyes, for I wanted him to +know that I had thoroughly understood his refusal of my invitation +couched so gently, but which I considered in reality haughty and +resentful, especially as I had been his guest in his car. "We'll wait +until you get your shower, father, and not much longer," I said to +father, as I turned and went along the flagstones to the steps that led +to the balcony upon which opened the long windows of the dining room. I +was furious and I was hurt. + +At times I become acutely conscious that I am very imperious, but it is +not entirely my fault. My friends have depended upon my clear head, in +which father's brain seems to work with a kind of feminine vigor, and I +have always felt that the superior force with which I have loved and +cherished them made it all right. I've always stood by them and used +myself mercilessly for their exigencies, and I suppose I have ruled them +as mercilessly. I rarely encounter another will, and to clash into one +as strong as mine drew the sparks of my nature. The blaze was soon over, +but I--smouldered. + +During dinner I was deeply interested in father's plans for my garden, +which brilliantly carried the plans Nickols and I had made to what I saw +in another year would be a marvelously artistic completeness. But under +the joy of hearing him talk as I had never really heard him since I was +old enough to appreciate his scintillating delicious choice of words and +phrases, I was hot and sore at the thought of my duty to render +gratitude where gratitude was due for having him like that. + +"It will be perfectly wonderful, father, and Nickols had not worked it +out to anything like that completeness. He will be wild about it, but +won't it take a lot of money? And where did you get your inspiration?" I +asked the question, though I hated the answer I knew it must receive. + +"The plans are entirely my own," answered father, with a pleased flush +making even brighter his dulled eyes and cheeks, faintly glowing from +the shower at which Dabney had officiated a few minutes before. I had +not failed to notice that we had sat down and were halfway through +dinner and father's hand had not motioned Dabney towards the decanter +and ice and siphon on the sideboard. "I must confess that the +inspiration came from a kind of rage when Goodloe said to me how much it +was to be regretted that all the great gardens in the North are being +made out of a sort of patchwork of English, French, Italian and even +Japanese influences. You couldn't expect anything more of the +inhabitants of the part of the country in the veins of whose people flow +just about that mixture of blood, but in the Harpeth Valley we have been +Americans for two and a half centuries, and I'll show 'em an American +garden if it does unhinge both mine and Dabney's backs and make Cockrell +swear I'm crazy when he audits my accounts once every month. No, Madam, +your own grandmother and great-grandmother, in conjunction with +Goodloe's maternal ancestors, conceived and laid out the beginning of +the great American garden, and we will combine to produce it." + +"What about Nickols' plans?" I asked, trying hard to raise indignation +in my heart and voice at the thought of Nickols Morris Powers' work, +for which the people of wealth in the North were beginning fairly to +clamor, being criticized and laid aside at the inspiration of the +Methodist parson across the lilac hedge. And I succeeded better than I +expected, for I saw father lose color and tremble with his own rage, +which he always quells with drink. + +"That sunken garden is Italian, and I'm going to tear it out and +put--Oh, my daughter; forgive me, but I forgot, in this queer nature +frenzy that has come over me of late and which I do not at all +understand, that the garden is yours, was your mother's and +grandmother's. So far the plans have just been begun, and nothing that +you and Nickols have done--Dabney, pour me three fingers of the 1875 +Bourbon." And in a second I saw father grow white and shaking with +mortification at what he felt to be an unmannerly trespass upon +another's rights. My father has been a drunkard for nearly twenty years, +but he is still a great gentleman. Slowly he drank the whiskey, every +drop of which seemed to go to my heart like cold lead. + +"But, father!" I exclaimed, determined to win him back. Dabney was +putting the silver stopper in the decanter over by the sideboard, and I +thought I saw a sob shake his bent old shoulders as his black hands +trembled. "I'd like to know if I'm not as purely American as you are, +and have I not the same right to want, demand and work for an American +nationalism, even in a garden, as you have? I'll have you know, sir, +that the future of the nation is in the hands of the women. We can +produce pure Americans or let the whole country go hybrid." And as I +spoke I let my temper rise to a point which I hoped would shock father +and take his mind from the decanter and the ice. "I demand that you +allow me to carry out your plans for my garden, and that you help me do +it to the limit of the hinges in your back and Dabney's. And, Dabney, +don't let me hear another word about that hinge until those dahlias are +in bloom. Also get me a half dozen bottles of dynamite to blow out that +Italian garden. I never did like it." + +"Yes'm," answered Dabney, meekly but comprehendingly, for he hastily +flung a napkin over the ice and gently set the decanter back in its +rack. "But dynamite, it comes in sticks and not in bottles. And it +would shake the roots of them old poplars clean most down to hell." + +"How'll we get that sunken garden out, then, father?" I asked, and I saw +the life and color come back to his face in a flood of humor. + +"We might try filling it in," he answered, and then we both laughed at +ourselves, with Dabney joining in. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE TRISTAN LOVE SONG + + +After dinner father and I sat out on the porch in the soft, warm breeze +that waved a misty spring moonlight around us, and talked garden until +after ten o'clock. He was brilliant and delightful, but three times he +made trips to ice bowl and decanter on the sideboard. + +"It will be a great relief and happiness to me if Nickols does sanction +and set the seal of artistic approval upon our plans," he said, with +feverish but happy eyes. "You see, Nickols will represent the +cosmopolitan in judgment upon the normally developed insular. I remember +once that Mr. Justice Harlan said that in an opinion on freight rates I +had sent up to him I had represented both the cosmopolitan and the +insular interest with astonishing equity, and I told him that I +considered that it took at least six generations of insular mind culture +to see any kind of national equity. The same thing holds good with a +garden. It takes the sixth generation on a piece of land to produce a +garden, and then it has to be laid out around a library full of the +ideals of poet and scholar. In about three years I can, with your +permission, present the American nation with a garden that will +represent the best ideals of Americans; and I must go to bed if I expect +to get up and hunt the early worm. I can never decide which is the +harder work, the capture of that creature of tradition or the arousing +of Dabney to perform that task. You, Dabney." + +"Yes, sir," came a sleepy groan from just within the door, and in a +second the old black face was lit up with father's candle until the +white wool above shone like a halo as it appeared from out the gloom. +And I sat and watched the two old gentlemen, one black and one white, +toil slowly up the steps and down the wide hall of the Poplars. + +"Father _must_ come back; the nation needs him," I said fiercely under +my breath as I noticed that in Dabney's hand swung the ice bucket where +I had been accustomed to see it swing for years, but which I had not +seen him carry before since I came home. "And that's how _you_ help him +fight to come back," I arraigned myself with bitter scorn. "You have no +faith nor spiritual sources yourself, and you throw him back into +degradation when something is helping him crawl out. What's helping him? +No matter what it is, you are a coward to obstruct it." + +And for a long hour I sat thus raging at myself and questioning +hopelessly, while the young moon rose higher and higher over the tops of +the silvery poplars and young spring slipped about in the lights and +shadows, invisible except for perfumed wreathings of gossamer mist. +Above, I heard father pacing up and down his rooms, slowly, almost +feebly. Sometimes he would hesitate; then I would hear him stop beside +the window, where I knew the ice bowl and the decanter were placed upon +a table which had stood beside the head of his bed so burdened since my +early childhood. I had always dreaded his moroseness and instinctively +felt the cause of it. I had never really loved him until just the last +few days, and now I felt my love rise in a tide that threatened to +overwhelm me. + +"Oh, I found him, and now I've thrown him away," I sobbed to myself. +Then, as I sat listening, I heard the faltering steps come out into the +hall above, descend the steps one by one, go through the dark dining +room groping pitifully, and down the side steps out into the beloved +garden. Silently I watched the tall figure with the white hair silvered +radiantly by the moonlight go slowly down the path, past the old +graybeard poplars, and even up to the lilac hedge that ran as a bulwark +in front of the dark chapel door, which I could see was ajar as it +always is. + +"He's going for help," I muttered to myself, and I felt the padding of +fear pursuing me, while also something of the Methodist grandmother +within me began a queer calling and a tightening at my throat. + +Then something happened that interested me so that I lost all personal +anxiety. Father stopped beside the hedge and picked up something from +the grass. I saw it was a long, heavy hoe. Walking over to a long bed of +early roses he and Dabney had been fertilizing in the late afternoon, he +bent feebly and began to dig the food into their roots. As he swung the +long handle, each blow upon the soft earth became more decided. I crept +down behind the old snowball bush to be nearer him; I didn't dare go to +him in his fight, because I had in my selfish heedlessness brought it +all on, but in a little while he was not alone, for a bent old figure +with grizzled white wool sticking out from under a red flannel nightcap +came quietly along the path with a hoe in his hand, fell in directly +behind his master, and began a rhythmic blow-answering-blow contest with +the fragrant earth and the demon within the man. For at least an hour +the two old friends worked up and down the long bed, until I could see +father begin to totter with weakness. + +"Now, come on, Mas' Nick, honey, and go to bed. I'll pour a bucket of +cistern water over you and rub you down so as you'll sleep like a bug in +a rug," the staunch old comrade crooned, with a mother note in his +voice, as he took father's heavy hoe and shouldered it with his. + +"I think evening exercise is good for me, Dabney," answered father with +all the dignity and command come back into his voice. "Put both those +hoes in the tool house this time, and I'll not tell Mr. Goodloe you +left one down by the lilac hedge." + +"Yes, sir, thanky, sir, fer not telling him," answered Dabney, as he +followed his master to the tool house under the back steps, deposited +the garden implements where he was directed, and then again followed his +idol in through the long dining room window and was lost in the shadow. + +I went back to the front steps, again sank down, put my arms on my +knees, and let my head fall upon my clasped hands. As I sat there alone, +with the dark house yawning behind me in its emptiness, someone sat down +beside me and laid a warm, strong hand on my interlaced and strained +fingers for just about half a second. + +"Please forgive me about the apple dumplings and the hard sauce," a +merry, very lovely voice pleaded. + +"I went out to Old Harpeth with you when you asked me; but I loathe +going to church--I haven't been in one since I was strong enough to +rebel--and I'm not going to yours," was the apology I graciously offered +in return for that about the apple dumplings. "But I'd pay fifty +dollars for a tenth row seat to hear you sing Tristan in the +Metropolitan any day if I had to go hungry for a week to pay for it," I +added, as I laughed as softly as he had pleaded. All the sorrow and +strain of the last hours had vanished at the touch of his hand, and I +felt like an impish, teasing child. + +"I'll sing some of it for you now, if you'll give fifty cents to Mother +Spurlock for the Children's Day Picnic. And it'll be a bargain you are +getting," was the unexpected offer I encountered. + +"And a freezer of vanilla ice cream to boot," I assented, generously. + +And then something happened to me the like of which I know never +happened to anybody in all the world, and that could happen only the +once to me. Gregory Goodloe drew a little closer to me and bent his +great gold head until his face was just off my left shoulder, and in his +powerful, rich, fascinating voice, which he muted down in a way that +made it sound as if he were singing through a golden cloud, he sang +Tristan's immortal love agony in a way that shut out all the rest of the +universe and left me alone with him in a space swayed by his pleading +until my mortal body shook in actual pain. + +"Don't! I can't stand it!" I gasped, as I seized his wrist in my strong +hands and wrung it. "Stop!" + +The last tender note breathed itself into the air that seemed to hold it +in a long caress until it died away, and sobs shook me as I held on +desperately to his wrist. I felt that I _must_ be comforted. And I was! +Again the gentle fingers were laid over mine for a still smaller +fraction of a second, and then again the beautiful, clear voice began to +sing to me, just to me, out of the whole world. + +"'Abide with me, fast falls the even tide,'" he chanted, and then waited +while my sobs died away and I let go my drowning grasp on his wrist. + +"That's just what I mean. That's just why I wouldn't have any more +respect for myself if I should go to your church than if I joined in one +of Mammy's foot-washings down at the river and fell in a fit of shouting +in which it took two burly coons to 'hold my spirit down,' as she +describes those gymnastics to me. I hate you and I hate my friends for +indulging in religion, because it is just as 'potent an agent of +intoxication' as exists to-day, and it blinds us to the need of work +along scientific lines for the immediate improvement of the race. What +right have we to intoxicate reason with religion? If religion is +anything it must be reason." I fairly hurled my words of half-baked +skepticism at him, with the vision of father and Dabney digging in the +garden, still in my eyes. + +"I felt just as you do about it a year ago to-day," he answered me +quietly. "As you state the case of religion as emotion versus reason, it +doesn't exist. Religion is reason plus emotion, and when you combine the +two the eyes of your soul are open, whereas they had been closed. Nobody +can tell you about it, but you begin really to live when you see and +comprehend. Yes, it is going to take all the scientific reason the world +possesses to start its salvation, but it will not get far without +'emotion,' as you call what I _know_ is love of God, and, through that +love, compassion for man." + +"The assumption that every man is blind who does not believe as you do, +stops all argument," I said scornfully. + +"I didn't come to talk religion with you; I came over to get that apple +dumpling off my conscience, as I couldn't digest it because it wasn't +there. I preach twice, on Sunday and on Wednesday night, and I'm in my +study behind the altar every afternoon that I'm not playing tennis. I'll +be there any time by appointment." The worldly and protective raillery +in that young Methodist minister's voice almost interrupted my religious +researches, but I was in depths that were strange to me, and I was +floundering for a line out. + +"I'll never be there," I flared at him, then went on with my +floundering. "If a man is blind, how can he gain the sight that you +arrogate to yourself?" + +"A great man once prayed, 'Lord, help thou my unbelief,'" was the gentle +answer in which was that queer note of apostolic surety with which I +heard him address the woman in the garden that night. + +"I can't pray--there's nothing there," I said in a very small voice that +I could scarcely recognize as my own. "Oh, I mean that we are all +floundering, and where can we get the lifeline? Where did you get the +line that you think will pull you out of the vortex?" + +Then for a long moment he and I sat again involved in the emptiness of +the universe that Tristan's love song had opened for us, and I knew that +with ruthless feet I had entered his Holy of Holies and was being +allowed to stand across the threshold. + +"Forgive me," I gasped. + +"I never felt that I could tell it before," he said, slowly, and the +bounds of the emptiness retreated still further away as he turned so +that he sat facing me and again bent his dull gold head closer to mine. +In a second I knew why in my mind I had been calling him a Harpeth +jaguar. It was just my pictorial expression for the word freedom, the +freedom that comes from power. I knew that mentally and bodily I was +looking upon the first free man I had ever encountered, and I was +abashed. + +"Don't tell me," I said, with a gentleness in my voice I had never heard +before, and that came from something that I felt to be strangely like +meekness, though I had never before met that emotion in myself. + +"You know the romance of my father's life," the soft voice went on, +speaking as if I had not interrupted him, "but nobody knows the tragedy. +Love for my mother came upon him like an arrow shot out of ambush, and +he married into a worldly, pleasure-loving, agnostic circle of people +who all adored and flattered him until he--he became confused and +doubting. He had transgressed the law: 'yoke not yourselves with +unbelievers,' and he suffered. She never understood. It killed him, and +when he had been dead nearly twenty years I found the diary he kept the +months before he died. It was last year, just after her death. It was a +cry to me, who at that time was a mere babe, and it--it lighted the +flame he had almost let go out. As I read, the apostolic call came to me +and I answered. I was starting to the front in France, and I went on. My +year there was a series of experiences that gave me my surety. One day +it came more clearly than ever. I had gone out into one of the trenches +of the first line, because I am so strong that I can carry any man back +to the stretchers across my back or in my arms. I have carried two at a +time. There were nineteen men in the trench, and I made the twentieth. +Suddenly a machine gun found the range and mowed them all down like +cornstalks or wheat heads. Only I was left standing, bleeding under my +left ribs. I raised my voice and praised God for my surety of +immortality, and then fell. While I was practically dying in the +hospital with a clip in my lung I got suddenly and unaccountably well +and strong, and felt I must come back to try and help others to see what +we must see to assure every man of his immortality. When the race +awakens to that fact there will be no more use for machine guns. I may +not help much, but I can only try. Perhaps I do only work through the +emotions as yet, but I believe that my ministry will have its fruits. I +can wait." And the humility and patience in his voice beat against my +heart and bruised it so that I cried out. + +"Oh, why did you come here?" I positively moaned, as he and I both rose +and I put out my hand as if to force him out of that aloneness in which +we stood together. + +"America must lead the world in spiritual as well as material +regeneration, and this is the only real and dispassionate America, with +no foreign pull on its vitals. You must wake up; the cry has been heard +to 'Come over and help.' Why do you fight the--" + +"I can't help fighting. I must do what I conscientiously believe--" I +was saying with my hand still outstretched against him, when suddenly +the still place around us was invaded with a crash and its invisible +walls thrown down. + +"Charlotte!" came in Nickols' languid, fascinating voice that always +draws me to the edge of his world. "And Greg Goodloe, by all that is +good and holy--in tennis flannels!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +BREASTING THE GALE + + +In the radiant moonlight I saw the lithe muscles of the Jaguar grow taut +and stiff, and I felt rather than saw his long, strong hands clench +themselves. I was about to stretch out my arms and ward off something +that seemed like danger to Nickols, standing down at the bottom of the +steps, smiling up at us in the moonlight with his mocking, fascinating +smile, when suddenly the anger seemed to flow away from the body of the +parson and he smiled down into the upturned eyes with great gentleness +as we started down the steps together. + +"I didn't interrupt the salvation of Charlotte's soul, did I?" Nickols +asked, as he took my outstretched hand in his left hand and raised it to +his lips as he held out his right to the Reverend Mr. Goodloe. So real +had been that fraction of an instant when I had stood between the two +men that I almost felt the sensation of alarm a second time as I saw +Nickols' slender, magical, artist's fingers laid in the slim, powerful +hand of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, but the gentle voice reassured me as +the Harpeth Jaguar answered the intruder, or what he must have felt to +be the intruder, for I had something of that feeling myself at the +advent of my lover at the moment he had chosen for his arrival. + +"The trouble began about apple dumplings and hard sauce," I said, as +quickly as my wits would act. + +"How are you, Nickols Powers, since we separated 'somewhere in France,' +you with your sketch books and I with my hospital stretchers? I got a +dandy lung clip; did you bring away any lead?" And the parson's voice +was gentle and cordial and full of a laughing reminiscence. + +"Didn't smell powder after I left you," answered Nickols, as we all +ascended the steps and stood in a group before the door. "I got my books +full of sketches of bits of treasures that the war might destroy, and +beat it back to civilization. Did the Madonna of the Red Cross you had +in tow come across as sentimentally as was threatened?" Nickols' voice +was as cordial as the Reverend Goodloe's, but something in me made me +resent the question and the manner it was asked. + +"She was killed in a field hospital just a few weeks after we left +her--'somewhere in France.' She got God's welcome!" was the answer that +came to the laughing question in a quiet, reverent voice. And as he +spoke the parson started down the steps, then turned for his farewell. + +"That--or sweet oblivion," said Nickols, as he came to the edge of the +steps and looked down at the Harpeth Jaguar coolly. I again got the +sense of danger from the tall, lithe figure that stood in the moonlight, +radiant before us in the shadow. "We'll contest that point warmly while +we contest the meeting house Charlotte writes me that you planted in our +garden--of Eden." + +"I can contest--if I must," was the serene answer that came back at us +from over the white silk-clad shoulder. "Good night, both of you, and I +hope to see you both again soon. Smell the lilacs bursting bud in your +garden--of Eden!" With which farewell he left us to our greetings. + +"That's some man to be lost in the ranks of the shibboleths," said +Nickols with generous ease, as we watched the last glint of the moon on +the yellow head disappearing around the corner. "Degrees from three old +colleges, millions, women lovers in millions, all thrown away to sing +psalms for a few rustics in little old Goodloets. Can you beat it? But, +blast him, he can't take away my loving welcome with his fatal beauty," +and as he spoke, with a tender laugh Nickols held out his arms to me. I +went into them and he held me close. + +"I couldn't stay away--with Goodloe and the meeting house in the ring +against me," he whispered, and he tried to raise my head for the kiss I +had been holding from him all the long winter of our engagement, +claiming to want it only under the roof of the Poplars. I burrowed my +face in his shoulder and held to him with such fervor that it was +impossible for him to raise my head. + +"Not yet," was my muffled pleading. + +"Again, damn that huge blond giant for being in the way of my getting my +own on the first-sight wave," said Nickols with a good-humored laugh, as +he pushed me from him. "Take your time. I like ripe fruit--and kisses. +Did you say Goodloe had come over to steal apple dumplings and you had +caught him in the act? I never was so hungry before and one of Mrs. +Dabney's apple dumplings with that hard sugar stuff smothered with +cream--well, of course I could wait until breakfast, but I'd be mighty +weak. Your night train carries no dining car." + +"I feel sure that there is at least a half panful in the pantry; let's +go see," I answered with delight at the practical turn the scene had +taken, and I led him into the dark house, turned on one or two lights +and went with him back into the culinary department of the Poplars. + +And as I had predicted so we found the larder supplied. With a huge +plate of the pastry encrusted apples, smothered with all the cream from +one of Mammy's pans of milk, and a tall bottle from the sideboard, +Nickols led the way out of the long windows onto the south balcony over +which the moon, now high in the heavens, poured the radiance of a +new-toned daylight. I followed him with some glasses and sugar and a +bowl of cracked ice that I had found in its usual place in the corner of +the refrigerator. + +"Pretty good substitute for the affectionate sweet I thought of all the +way down from New York," said Nickols with an adorable laugh, as he +lifted the first spoonful, dripping with cream, to his mouth. Then with +the food almost bestowed he paused and looked out beyond the garden +toward the chapel, which loomed up gray and shimmering in the silver +light. + +"Great heavens!" he ejaculated, and for a long minute the spoon was +poised while his eyes fairly devoured the scene spread out before him +against the background of Paradise Ridge. + +"If you don't like it we can get rid of it," I said, as I poured his +drink over the ice tinkling against the side of the glass. + +"Not like it!" exclaimed Nickols, as he rose with the spoonful of +dumplings dashed back into the plate. "That is the most wonderful and +beautiful landscape effect I have ever beheld. That is just what our +garden needed. I suppose I would have seen it and put some sort of a +pavilion there, but that squat and perfect old church would have been +beyond me." + +"Oh, I'm glad!" I exclaimed, as he sank back on the step beside me, took +the glass from my hand, drank deeply and this time began a determined +attack upon the plate in his hand. And then as he ate I told him all +about father and his plans for the garden and his own improvement and to +what I hoped the work was leading him. But somehow I couldn't bring +myself to describe the scene which had that night been enacted in the +garden--I couldn't. "Oh, I am so glad you are not furious and will maybe +be willing to encourage him, even if it does mean to encourage the +Methodist Church and the minister thereof. You are wonderful, Nickols," +I finished with a squeeze of his arm that very nearly jostled the cream +out of the spoon upon his gray tweed trousers. + +"I'd be a wonderful ass not to take advantage of Judge Nickols Powers' +brain and money, plus Gregory Goodloe's brain and training and money +combined, to get a result that will be worth a hundred thousand dollars +to me and all the fame I can conveniently wear. Encourage 'em? Just +watch me! Only what the judge thinks will take two years can be done in +one season if we get experts down to do it, which we will. Trees two +hundred years old _can_ be moved for a few thousand dollars, as well as +plants in bloom that would require years to transplant. I know the man +to do it: Wilkerson of White Plains. I'll telegraph him in the +morning." + +"He won't interfere with--with father, will he?" I asked anxiously. + +"Not a bit--he'll just make what the judge and Gregory plan for year +after next, grow and bloom there in a couple of months. Wilkerson is not +a creator, he's just nature keyed up to the _n_th power. And also I'll +give him for a bait the Jeffries estate I was hesitating about making a +bid for. All the big fellows are after it. Old man Jeffries has made two +barrels of money in the last ten years in oil and he is going to build +an estate up on the Hudson that will make the world gasp. I hadn't put +in a bid, but this idea of the judge's and Greg's, with the whole +village grouped about it, has given me the keynote to win the thing from +the whole bunch of American architects. He wants the village built as +well as the estate. That American garden idea will bowl him over. He's +progressively and rabidly American. The bids don't close until December, +so I'll have time to get real photographs and sketches. Me for the +reformed judge and the parson!" + +"This is the most wonderful thing I ever heard and I want father pushed +to the limit with the planning. I don't care where the parson comes in, +just so I don't have to join the church to get the garden," I said, as I +tinkled the ice in Nickols' empty glass, while he consumed the last bit +of cream from the empty plate. + +"Oh, I'll join the church if it is needed to push the garden," said +Nickols with a laugh, as he lit a cigarette and puffed a smoke ring out +toward the gray little chapel. "Most people who join churches do it for +some kind of pull, social or business, or a respectability stamp or to +be white-washed. I'll put on a frock coat and pass the plate if it will +help the parson evolve another phase of gardenism." + +"Billy gets home from his poker game at the Last Chance, down in the +Settlement, on Sunday morning, just in time to bathe and get into his +frock coat to perform that office," I said with a laugh that had a hint +of recklessness tinged with contempt. + +"I'll see Billy through both ceremonials," said Nickols. "Has Billy come +into the fold?" + +"He has! So have all the rest," I answered. "I am the only black sheep +and they are all backsliding down on me. I am getting, and will get, +the blame of it all as a corrupter of public morals." + +"Why don't you join and then do as you please with the official stamp of +Christianity upon you?" Nickols asked, as he puffed comfortably away in +the moonlight. + +One of the things that cause me the deepest hurt is to try to get +Nickols to look down into my depths and read one, just any one, of the +hieroglyphics there. I know each time I open my nature to him he is +going to turn aside, and yet I will try. As his arm stole around me I +made another one of the attempts that I always know beforehand are +doomed to failure. + +"There is something in me, a quality of mind that seems to be judicial, +which insists that as a cold scheme for existence in this universe +nothing compares with that of life followed by eternal redemption +through personal effort interpreted by a mediator. The bare Christian +tenets have a nobility that it kills me to see belittled by the bored, +half-hearted observances of most of its protestants, who in turn are not +to be blamed for being half-hearted and bored by the dogmas and +restrictions and littleness with which the great bare scheme has been +enmeshed and clothed. The Methodist Church positively forbids Billy to +play poker or drink, but it just as positively forbids him to see +Pavlowa dance or Beerbohm Tree play Falstaff or Forbes Robertson +incarnate Hamlet. And look at its wretched machinery--they allow a young +man to give his life and expect inspiration from him at six hundred +dollars a year with a wife and two dozen children, which he has been +encouraged to bring down upon himself, dependent on that same six +hundred dollars. The great men who are expected to direct our spiritual +destinies don't get as much money as many ordinary grocers and certainly +not enough to support their obligations with dignity. What is true of +the Methodist Church is true of all the rest, in perhaps a greater +degree. So with their smallness and their pettiness and their befogging +stupidity I feel that they may be denying thinkers like you and me the +use of their scheme and we'll have to find another for ourselves if we +want immortality." + +"Do we want that immortality?" asked Nickols easily. "This world is a +pretty good old place if you don't regard the 'shalt nots,' but isn't it +long enough to live the allotted time? What do we want to do it all +over again for, that is, provided we do all the pleasant things while we +have the chance? I don't want to see any play twice, even a masterpiece. +I wouldn't want to live again unless I had been a Christian in this life +and felt that I wanted to come back and do a lot of the things I had +just heard about and previously hadn't tried." + +"Certainly I wouldn't want another life that is as unsatisfied as this," +I murmured, more to myself than to Nickols. + +"Do the things that satisfy," he urged again, and I could see a deviltry +dancing at me out of the corner of his eyes that I resented deeply +without exactly knowing why. + +"Harriet Henderson can't get Mark Morgan's love or--his children, and +Nell Morgan is unattainable for Billy. Though they have all the world's +goods and go a pace that pleases them, they are unsatisfied. If they +don't get the new deal that immortality promises they lose the whole +thing," I answered straight out from the shoulder. "And what about those +who die in infancy and--and you and me?" + +"If you'll just kiss me and hush preaching to me I'll be entirely +satisfied and ready to die as soon as I have lifted that fifty thousand +out of old Jeffries with the judge's and the Reverend Gregory's garden +and done a few more commissions. Try kissing me and see if you don't +feel more cheerful," Nickols answered with a laugh, as he drew me close +to him. I sadly shut up the doors of my depths, warded off the +kiss--why, I didn't know--and persuaded him to go up to his rooms which +I had seen Sallie and Dabney put in order that afternoon. + +It was midnight when I parted with Nickols at the head of the old +winding stairs in the fragrant darkness, lit only by the silver light of +the night from a long window at the front of the hall. He held me close +for a half second as he whispered: + +"Let me make you happy. I understand." + +"I don't understand, and until I do I'd make you miserable, dear," I +whispered back as I drew myself out of his reluctant arms and went into +my own door. + +Then for a long midnight hour I stood at my deep window and looked out +over the garden, past the squat steeple silvering beyond the lilac +hedge, to Paradise Ridge in the dim distance, and tried to read my own +hieroglyphics. I needed help. Nickols had come after me to Goodloets in +a spirit of gentle determination and I knew the fight would be to the +finish. And why should I fight? Any woman ought to be proud to marry +Nickols Morris Powers, especially a woman who had loved him since her +heart had been developed to the knowledge of love. Very unostentatiously +and with perfect good taste Nickols had let me see that Marie VanClive +with her Knickerbocker ancestry and her Manhattan land-grants fortune +was very decidedly interested in him in her cultured and perfected young +way, and young Mrs. Houston had herself shown me the same thing on one +of the week-end flights we had had on her yacht. And beyond all that my +own heart told me that Nickols was desirable. His gentleness and his +tenderness and his daring and his humor were irresistible to a woman. +And his lazy acquiescence in life was peaceful and inviting to my own +strenuosity. I felt as if I had always been an eagle breasting the gale +with no place to alight, and now Nickols was calling to me from an +eyrie on a mountain side to come and rest and be mated and comforted. + +"I'm tired of loneliness and I think I'll drift and be happy," I +murmured, as I fell asleep with my back to the silver steeple against +the dim hills. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +INTO BRAMBLES + + +The next morning I awoke with the same resolve in my heart, to be happy +if wicked, and proceeded to execute it with a great vigor. And in the +execution of that resolve dear old Goodloets almost had some of the moss +of its century's repose scraped off of its back. + +First and foremost, we all danced, day and night. We had really begun +the giddy whirl the summer before when we had built the little clubhouse +over in the oak grove by the river's edge, just between the Town and the +Settlement, so that we would no longer feel the limit and limitations to +our gliding of anybody's double parlors, and conservative Goodloets had +been duly shocked thereat. + +"Ladies did not dance outside of their own and their friends' private +homes in my day," Mrs. Cockrell had sighed, as she finished the petal +of the rose she was embroidering upon some of Letitia's lingerie. + +"I'd rather they danced in their den of iniquity than to execute these +modern gyrations in my home," had responded Harriet's mother, Mrs. +Sproul, as she finished the hundredth round on the shawl she was +knitting. Harriet's report of the conversation had been received with +great hilarity that evening at dinner at the Club. + +But Goodloets had had a year in which to recover from the shock of the +institution of the Country Club when I started in to enjoy myself. +Having church services there on Sundays and Wednesdays during the winter +had done much to remove the prejudice in the minds of the conservative. +I suspected the Reverend Mr. Goodloe of a great deal of worldly wisdom +when I saw how he had been able to persuade the directors, Hampton +Dibrell and Mark and Cliff, to let him do such a weird thing. Mrs. +Sproul and Mrs. Cockrell and their friends had first been tolled out to +prayer meeting and then had come to witness a tennis match. Billy, in +great glee, recounted to me the first time they had stayed to dinner +with him and father and Mr. Cockrell. They had been enjoying the prayer +meetings to the utmost and had come out with Mother Spurlock by mistake +on a Tuesday night, which was the regular dinner dance night. It was +some time before they discovered their mistake, for they were immensely +enjoying their visit with Mother Spurlock, and when the dancing began +Billy had seized Mother Elsie in his arms and danced her the whole +length of the room. The music had been too much for her feet in their +sensible shoes, and very suddenly they had unfolded their wings after +thirty long years of rest and had fairly flown up and down and backwards +and forwards with Billy's in a sedate version of one of the phases of +the tango. Mrs. George Spurlock had been the best dancer in Goodloets +when time was young. + +"Do you think that it was the devil that tempted you, Mother Elsie?" I +asked her about it one day when she had a leisure moment for teasing. + +"Effie Burns' youngest baby was born exactly while I was dancing, and we +will have six months' trouble with her because her band was not put on +properly," was her answer, as she took up her parcel of five pairs of +only slightly worn stockings that five girls in the Settlement needed +worse than I needed darns, and departed in a great hurry. "Oh, but you +should have seen Hattie Sproul's eyes while I danced," she called back +over her shoulder as she went through the gate. + +And so in the second summer of the Club's existence there had been no +bridle upon its gayeties--I had almost used the word license, and I +suppose it would have been a just one under the circumstances. Billy +called it "The Bucket of the Lost Lid," and every individual member did +exactly as he or she chose. The sideboard out on the back porch made as +good a bar as any in the state with old Uncle Wilks to officiate, and in +the wing in one of the private dining rooms a huge wheel stood with its +face to the wall during the day, but came complacently out of its corner +when night descended. On the porch could always be found either Mrs. +James Knight or Mrs. Buford Cunningham. They neither of them had +children, hated home and were serenely happy sitting on the front porch +knitting silk scarfs and gossiping with all comers, while James and +Buford hung around the sideboard at the back. They were institutions and +all of the unmarried boys and girls, men and women, widowed and +widowered, came and went at will, with the liberty that the chaperonage +of their certain presence allowed. + +"Suppose one of 'em should fall dead and the other have to attend her +funeral," Nickols remarked one Saturday night at a dinner table not more +than twelve feet away from the two couples. "The scandal that would soon +disrupt this town for lack of their free chaperonage would be like an +earthquake. None of you would have a shred of respectability with which +to drape yourselves to appear in public." + +"They don't wear much respectability anyway in the eyes of the +Settlement," said Billy, as he mixed the champagne cup with old Wilks +standing admiringly by. "The floor manager ordered Luella May Spain off +the floor at the dance they had in the lodge room over the Last Chance +last Saturday night for appearing in one of Harriet's last year dancing +frocks Mother Spurlock had collected for her, though they do say that +Luella May had sewed in two inches of tucker and put in sleeves. How's +that for an opinion passed upon the high and mighty from the meek and +lowly?" + +"I'd been in mourning a year. That was my coming out gown and I felt--" +Harriet was saying when Billy laughed and interrupted her. + +"And you came out, Harriet dear," he assured her, as he poured her +champagne cup and his and signaled Wilks to serve the rest of us. + +On the surface all of the joy that most of Goodloets was having was real +and brilliant and spontaneous, all the dancing and drinking and high +playing, but under the surface there were dark currents that ran in many +directions. Young Ted Montgomery and Billy played poker one Saturday +night until daylight out at the Club, and Bessie Thornton and Grace +Payne had "staid by" and were having bacon and eggs with them when the +sun rose. Judge Payne, Grace's father, has been a widower ten years and +Grace, with the four younger "pains," as Billy calls them, has run wild +away from him and her grandmother, old Madam Payne, who lives in a world +of crochet needles and silk thread with Mrs. Cockrell and Mrs. Sproul. +One night I went with Billy in his car to take Grace home and he had to +wait until I tiptoed to her room with my arm around her and put her to +bed, while Harriet was doing the same thing with Bessie Thornton. Those +girls are not much over twenty and they are only a little more +"liberated," as they call it, than the rest of their friends. Ted +Montgomery loves Grace, when he is himself and not at the card table, +but what chance have they to form a union of any solidity and +permanence? Billy's nephew, Clive Harvey, has always loved Bessie +Thornton, but he is teller in the Goodloets bank and almost never sees +her. He is one of the stewards in the Harpeth Jaguar's church, and the +suffering on his slim young face hurts me like a blow every time I meet +him. What's going to satisfy him, no matter what pace he should choose +to go or how many things he is driven by unhappiness to indulge himself +in? + +And it was true that everything done up in the town had its effect down +in the Settlement. The lodge hall over the Last Chance was the only hall +available for the young people in the Settlement to dance, and the bar +of the East Chance, at which old Jacob Ensley officiated, was no better +stocked than the lockers at the Country Club. And all of us knew that +very frequently Billy and Nickols and the rest of our friends went down +to dance and drink with the girls from the mills and the shops. Billy +had told me once that Milly Burt, who stays at the cigar stand in the +Goodloe Hotel in Goodloets, dances so much like me and is so perfumed +with my especial sachet from France, Mother Spurlock having collected +the chiffon blouse from me for her to wear at the entertainment of the +Epworth League, that he came very near addressing her by my name in +giving her the invitation to the dance. + +"Settlement or Town, they all add up to the sum of girl," he laughed, as +he told me about that Saturday night frolic in the Last Chance. + +It was the day after Billy's account of the ball at the Last Chance, in +which Luella May and Milly and the rest had frolicked in what ought to +have been a perfectly harmless way, that Mother Spurlock came to spend +the afternoon with me and in which we wrestled until I was almost on the +mat--not quite. + +"Goodloets has always been the gayest town in the state, but it has now +reached the place of the most wicked," she said, after a few preliminary +shots had been exchanged. "Every dignity of tradition seems to have been +dropped and everybody is dance or play or drink or speed mad. You are +the most influential personality in the whole town and I want you to +call a halt." + +"But aren't they all happy? Isn't everybody getting the most out of +life? The men are all working to their capacity and making more money +than they ever have before. Why shouldn't they play hard?" I answered +her, as I seated myself in the broad window seat of my room opposite the +wide maternal ancestral rocker she had chosen. + +"Are they happy?" she asked, with her keen eyes on my face. + +"They seem to be," I parried. + +"Well, as far as personal happiness is concerned I think it is not worth +talking about. It is the good of the whole for which I am working, for +which I am contending to-day. What you women do, who are not obliged to +add to the work of the world that you may live in it, is not of any +great importance; it is for the toilers in the vineyard that I plead. +The girls and young men in this town cannot dance and drink and play all +night and do the constructive work of the community in the daytime. If +Luella May Spain falls asleep or nods at her typewriter and fails to get +out the telegram to you or Nickols which Mr. Tate has shouted to her +off the keys, do you excuse her because she has been fatiguing herself +until midnight trying to learn some new dance that Billy Harvey has +brought down to the Last Chance from your Country Club? You would not! +She would be fired on your complaint." + +"But are we responsible for how the girls and men in the Settlement +spend their evenings?" I demanded with a fine show of indignation, but +with a thrill of fear in my heart. There has always been something in +Luella May Spain's shy and admiring glances that drew me and I have +always lingered to chat with her a few minutes if business called me +into the station. The last time I had spoken to her, not a week before, +she had seemed pale and listless and had answered me with indifference. + +"You and your class are the ones in power and what you do and what you +think is a moral influence that reaches and permeates every soul in this +town. You are not about your Father's business; and those less powerful +of brain and character follow you in by-paths from the straight road. +They are his Little Ones and you lead their feet into brambles. Oh, +Charlotte!" And Mother Spurlock stretched out her hands to me in +entreaty. + +"I'm not a leader," I denied her. "I don't see a foot ahead of me. I'm +not worth anything. I'm just living and trying to have a good time doing +it. You have got a leader, there over the hedge; why don't they follow +him and not me?" + +"Before you came Gregory Goodloe had services three times a week at your +Country Club, at which the Settlement met the Town. You were not willing +that even those few hours should be given over to the learning of the +Father's will from one whose mind and soul are ready to teach, and you +swept away his pews and his influence. And your dance tunes, to which +even I yielded, ring in the ears of his flock to drown out the echoes of +God's hymns. And now those who had begun to lean on him and to follow +him are turning to persecute him. When Jacob Ensley is drunk he openly +charges him with inveigling Martha away and hiding her. He was in a +dangerous state one night a week ago and Billy Harvey had to lock him up +in his own wine cellar to keep him and a few of his hangers-on from +'going after the parson,' who was down there praying with old Jennie +Neil as she died. He doesn't know his danger from Jacob and I think +Billy ought to tell him. All Goodloets has admired and aped you since +your birth, and now that you discountenance him they are again following +you. There were only ten people at prayer meeting last night in the +chapel, and the Wednesday before you turned him out of the Club which +had offered him its hospitality, there were one hundred and thirty, +Settlement and Town about evenly represented. You are responsible for +that prayer meeting last night. You may be responsible for the result of +one of Jacob's drunken fits. Sometime you'll have to answer for what you +do." + +"No, Mother Spurlock, I'm not responsible for the failure of Gregory +Goodloe to get to the heart of your people and hold them happy to his +services and observances, and I'm certainly not responsible for his +personal safety. What he offers is not enough to satisfy. His members +prefer their Country Club and their Last Chance and their knitting and +embroidery. What we all need from the Country Club to the Last Chance is +something that makes us want to be constructive, race constructive, so +that life will be desirable on through immortality, if there is such a +thing. I can't get a glimpse of it. Can you?" and I questioned her +beseechingly. + +"I can. I do! I have faith in my Father's plan to lead me through 'deep +waters' into 'pleasant pastures,'" she answered me, as her eyes looked +past me out at Paradise Ridge beyond the chapel. + +"Then give it to me," I demanded. + +"I can't. You must seek it yourself, and when you get it you will be +able to pour it out into the hearts of others as living water. I serve +by using my two talents of mercy and love, but God will some day give +you ten and you will have to return an hundred fold. He has given the +ten to Gregory Goodloe, and now is the night of his despair, but his +morning will dawn. You can't dance down and drink down and gamble down +and lust down a man like that. He can bide his time until his sheep come +to the fold to be fed and warmed in his bosom." + +"What practical thing can I do to make you believe that I do not mean to +pull down any structure that another human is building up with the hope +it is for the good of the whole, Mother Spurlock?" I demanded of her, +goaded to the last point of endurance. + +"The dedication services of the chapel will be next Sunday. Come, bring +Nickols and your father, and let the Town and Settlement see your +respect for Mr. Goodloe and for his church," she demanded, as she rose +to go, with patient defeat but a lingering hope in her voice and manner. + +"Endorse something that means nothing to me?" I asked with pained +patience. "You say the people follow me; shall I lead them to drink from +a spring that I consider dry, that is dry and has no water for my +thirst? No, Mother Spurlock, if the people among whom I have been born +trust me I will only lead them by going into paths I know and in which I +walk for my own good or pleasure." + +"To the Last Chance?" + +"At least they get joy there that makes toil easier or offsets the +grind," I answered her. + +"Is that your final--" she was asking me with her deep, wise old eyes +searching me, when she was interrupted by the banging open of my door +and the inburst of young Charlotte, young James as ever at her heels, +with Sue clinging to his hand. To-day, however, Charlotte had added one +to her cohorts, for she led by the hand a very dirty specimen of the +masculine gender, somewhat larger than herself and with a flaming red +head. + +"This is Mikey Burns, Aunt Charlotte, and he's a nice little boy that's +dirty and hungry because his mother has got seven like him. Won't you +wash him and feed him so we can play with him? The preacher cleaned up +four for us to play with yesterday and they are still clean enough. If +you clean Mikey I can have a baseball nine, with Sue to get the balls +that we don't hit. She gets balls nicely and Mikey throws lots +straighter than I can. Jimmy can hit 'em, too, with a wide stick." + +"I tan git 'em," declaimed small Sue with great pride. + +"I can pitch 'em," also declared Mikey, with evident desire to back up +his patroness. "But not as good as her," and his admiration amounted to +adoration, as he raised his young eyes to Charlotte. + +"You see, Oh, you see, even to the second generation they follow," +laughed Mother Spurlock, as she escaped through the door and left me +with my practical demonstration of class leadership. + +"Wash him, Auntie Charlotte, wash him," Charlotte continued to insist. +"I made Jimmy steal some of his things for him while nurse was +downstairs. Here they are," and young James, the thief and +aforementioned murderer, gave up his stolen goods. "And Mr. Nickols says +that all the Settlement children will go to school with us in the nice +schoolhouse he and Judge Powers and Minister are going to build in front +of Mother Spurlock's orchard. That is a law and then we'll have good +times, all of us. There is not many children in the Town and they are +all too dressed up, but it is a million down in the Settlement and we +are going to have two baseball nines and two armies to battle with. I +asked Mr. Nickols to have a place to wash the Settlements and he said he +had thought of that and is going to have five shower baths. If you'll +just wash Mikey for me I'll help you. I can attend to Jimmy's ears for +nurse real good, can't I, Jimmy?" + +"Yes," responded Jimmy with brotherly pride. + +"No," remonstrated Mikey with abject fear, for the sake of his ears or +propriety I was not sure. + +I got past the question by motioning him into my bathroom and sending +Charlotte and Sue to bring Dabney. Dabney is Charlotte's slave and was +soon under way to execute her commands upon Mikey while I beguiled her +from the superintendence thereof down into the garden with me, where +from my window I could see Nickols and father in deep conclave over some +drawings. Father had discarded his Henry Clay costume and looked young +and alive in some of Nickols' flannels and linen. They looked up with +interest as I came down the flagstone walk with Charlotte trotting on my +one side and wee Sue clinging on the other. + +"I'm glad you have come, daughter," said father, as he held up one of +the large blue prints before me. "Now you can help Nickols and me locate +the exact spot for the public school building. See, here is the public +square of Goodloets, with the courthouse in the middle." + +"That courthouse is as good as any minor _hotels de ville_ in any of the +small towns in France," said Nickols, as he came and stood beside me, +looking over my shoulder at the map. "The Farmers' Bank and one or two +of the very old brick stores are good, too," he added. + +"Now, this is Main Street that leads past us down into the Settlement. +Here is the Poplars, here the chapel, and this is Elsie Spurlock's +house. Nickols and the parson are inclined to place the schoolhouse +right opposite, but I am afraid it is too near the Settlement and too +far from the Town. Do you suppose the Town children will be able to walk +so far?" + +"Do you really--really plan to have the Town and the Settlement go to +school together?" I gasped. + +"Well, Goodloe thinks that the ideal public school system is only to be +executed in a democratic--" father was saying, when Nickols interrupted +him. + +"What does it matter where the two and a half kids from the decadent old +families that are dying out go to school? Their sterile parents can +motor 'em down to education!" he exclaimed. "Right here is the logical +place for the school with the meadow behind it to give a bit of +distance, the oak grove back of that, the Country Club beyond, with the +river beginning to curve it in. It solidifies and unifies the landscape +of the whole town and puts all the community centers where they belong. +The Town and Settlement straggled a bit before, but the chapel and the +school will unite them! Braid says the schoolhouse can be built of +weathered stone and concrete and finished by September fifth, in time to +start school. Wilkerson can begin immediately putting out his hedges and +the Reverend Gregory is down there now finishing laying out the +playground with his ball park." + +"That's it--that's the baseball nine Dabney is washing Mikey for!" +exclaimed Charlotte, catching up with the conversation. "And when we all +go to school with the Settlements and they are clean some, and Mildred +Payne and Grace Sproul and some of the others get dirty a little, nobody +will know the difference and we can play ball and scouts and everything +Minister teaches us. That school makes enough children to do things. We +haven't got enough for anything, but the Settlements have, and it is +mighty good of them to come up and let us play with them." + +"Keep up with the times, Charlotte; don't be a back number. Miss +Olymphia Lassiter's school may have held you and Nell, but it will never +hold young Charlotte," Nickols jeered, as father began to roll up the +map and speak to a young man that the great Wilkerson of White Plains +had sent down to juggle with the flora and fauna of the Harpeth Valley. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WATER AND OIL + + +I turned from Nickols' raillery and surveyed the great American garden. +The weeks had flown from May to late July and father's plans were +beginning to be materialized. Where the sunken garden had been filled in +a wide stone well house, the like of which can be found at many of the +farmhouses in the Harpeth Valley, had been built and a chain wheel and +bucket drew up the water from the deep cistern, which was supplied with +underground pipes from the south wing of the Poplars. + +"There is no water as soft as open-top cistern water, aerated by a chain +and bucket," father had informed me, and he and Dabney consumed buckets +of it, while Mammy refused anything else for cooking purposes and +insisted on a nightly bath of it for my face. A white clematis in full +bloom clambered over the eaves of the low stone house and a blush rose +nodded at its door, beside which was placed a rough bench made of square +stones and two large slabs, equally moss-covered and worn. + +"It is growing to be perfectly wonderful, Nickols," I said, as if I had +seen it for the first time, while my eyes followed the sweep of the +flagstone walk from the well house beneath the old graybeard poplars out +past stretches of velvety lawn, with groups of shrubs and trees casting +deep shadows even to the kitchen garden, whose long rows of vegetables, +bordered with old-fashioned blooming herbs and savories, led the +observer out into the meadows to the Home Farm and beyond to the dim +line of Paradise Ridge. "It is different and distinctive and--and +American," I added. + +"After this garden and the school are finished and a few of the +unfortunate restorations taken away from some of the old houses, like +the porch at Mrs. Sproul's and that bathroom addition of Morgan's, I am +going to bring Jeffries down in his private car and it will be difficult +to keep him from offering to buy Goodloets and have it all shipped up +the Hudson. Really, Charlotte, we have seen a vision of the future +materialize here and we ought to stand with hats off." + +"Whose vision?" I asked, as I stood and let the truth of his statement +sink in. + +"The parson's spiritual vision perhaps filtering through your father's +mentality, which has welded past, present and future. At least, that is +the way I see it with the material eye, which is all I have to view it +with--if we can call the recognition of beauty and completeness +material." + +"Now Mikey is nice and clean and we can go to Minister to play, thank +you, Aunt Charlotte," at this point young Charlotte broke in to say, +thus flinging us a line to haul us out of depths that were slightly over +our heads. "Isn't he lovely?" And she gazed upon her new-found comrade +with open admiration and self-congratulation. + +And small Mikey was indeed a bonny kiddie attired in the very stylish +trousers and blouse of small James and shining with Dabney's valeting. +His nicely plastered red mop to some extent mitigated the effect of the +bare and scratched feet and his rollicking blue eyes over a nose as +tip-tilted as Charlotte's own bespoke his delight. + +"Anyway, me mother made the togs fer Jim," he asserted with great +independence, as he rammed his hands into the diminutive pockets in the +trousers. + +"Yes, she did, and Auntie Harriet paid her for a present to Jimmy. She +sews for us and not for Mikey and her other children, because her +husband drinks up his money and our husband don't. Come on, let's go +help Minister!" was the shot that Charlotte fired, as she departed down +the garden path with her cohorts. + +"What about that for democracy?" demanded Nickols, as he and father and +I all laughed together. + +That night at a dinner party Nell was giving I sat next to the Harpeth +Jaguar and talked to him for the first time in many weeks. I had been +avoiding him and I didn't mind admitting it to myself. There was +something disturbing and puzzling in his serene eyes and free, strong, +beautiful body that gave me a queer haunting pain back of my breast. +Into my scheme of doing those things in life that give pleasure and not +doing those things that give pain he somehow would not fit. He had +become as much a part of the social fabric of Goodloets as was I, and +he came to our dinner parties, motored with us in his long, gray car and +was as happy with us seemingly as he was with that same gray car full of +small fry from the Settlement or going about the business of the chapel. +The car had always reminded me of his evening clothes, which were +straight and simple in line with the black silk vest cut up around the +collar buttoned in the back, but which were so fine in texture and +perfect in cut and fit that they seemed to be some kind of super clothes +that ought to be called by a name of their own, just as the people in +the Settlement had decided to call the car the "Chariot" as soon as they +had stopped resenting a parson's having it, from finding out how easy +were its cushions and how swift its ministrations in time of need. + +"Parson's Chariot, quick!" had moaned poor old Mrs. Kelly, when she had +slipped on Mrs. Burns' wet doorstep and dislocated her hip. Little Katie +Moore had been driven home as swiftly as if on wings after old Dr. +Harding had been overtaken, ten miles out on Providence Road, and had +used the back seat for an operating table while he put her small +splintered ankle in place between splints improvised by a long knife +from the car's kit. + +And from a distance I had wondered at the Reverend Gregory Goodloe, +wondered at his freedom from all resentment because of his ministerial +and spiritual failures and at his loving serenity and enjoyment of us +all. He partook of the joy in almost all of our adventures in pleasure, +and when we did things that in the nature of the case would seem to +merit his disapproval, he never administered it; he simply was not with +us, but was serenely about his business at the other end of the town +from the Country Club or the Last Chance, at whichever resort the +entertainment that did not interest him was in progress. He seemed +especially to enjoy coming to our dinner parties and he was such a +delight with his keen-bladed wit, his flow of joyous laughter and high +spirits and the music that bubbled up without accompaniment or denial +whenever we asked for it, that not a woman in town would invite the rest +to dine until she was sure of securing him first. + +[Illustration: "_I been upsot by my young mistis comin' home._"] + +"He's so economical," said Nell Morgan, as I helped her arrange her +guests for Mark's birthday dinner. While she talked I paused to consider +where to put Harriet Henderson and then dropped her card beside Mark's +with a little ache in my heart as I tucked Cliff Gray in by Jessie +Litton and left the place next Nell vacant for Billy. "People never +empty their champagne glasses when Mr. Goodloe gets to talking, and you +can put the extra bottles back in the cellar for next time. Do you +suppose he does it on purpose?" + +"Nobody could be as completely happy as he was at Jessie's Friday night +_on purpose_," I answered, as I laid the last card and went with Nell to +greet her first guests. + +After the soup I turned toward the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, whose card I +had placed next my own, and found him looking at me with a particular +softness in his eyes under the dull gold. + +"Charlotte's and Mikey's nine won twenty-eight to eighteen against Tommy +Braidy and Maudie Burns. Thank you for getting the pitcher into his +togs," he said, as he squared his shoulders slightly against the rest of +the world, the rest of the diners in particular, and bent toward me in +just that deferential angle that a man uses when he wants to signal to +the others that for a limited time he desires sole possession of the +woman dining next to him. + +"Your mixing of water and oil in the educational scheme is interesting +me greatly," I answered him with a laugh. "Do you really think it will +succeed?" + +"Any kind of kingdom can be built in the heart of a child, an oligarchy, +a democracy or a republic," he answered quickly. "Your name-daughter is +a born socialist." + +"She and James are murderers and liars and thieves and are wholly +engaging. Sue is fast learning from them the habits of their underworld +and is asleep upstairs now with Harriet's silver and jade chain, which +she brought home with her without the knowledge of the owner this +afternoon. What are you going to do about them? I take it you intend to +build a kingdom in and of their hearts." + +"Weed 'em, like Dabney and I did your dahlia bank ten times at least +this spring. You didn't help with the dahlias, but maybe you will with +the young Tenderloiners." His eyes entreated mine with a soft radiance +that almost made me dizzy. + +"I wouldn't know weeds from flowers, 'Minister,'" I answered with +prompt denial of his plea, but with a soft use of the children's name +for him. + +"I don't always know. Let's study botany--together," he again hazarded +daringly, and from the tenderness that suddenly curved his strong mouth +I knew my soft answer had hit its mark. "Are you coming to the +dedication of the chapel a week from Sunday?" He asked me the question +directly and with all his softness gone and a commanding note in his +voice and direct look. His jeweled eyes were so deep back under their +dull gold brows that between the bars of black lashes they looked like +stars shining down through a radiant night. They threw their rays +directly down into my heart and I could see that their owner was reading +the hieroglyphics of my uncertainties and that I could not hide them +from him. + +"I am not," I answered him with the frankness that his gaze compelled. + +"I'll not dedicate it until you help me do it and--" he was saying +quietly and positively, when Billy broke in over the excluding shoulder. +Billy really adores Gregory Goodloe, but he enjoys going to the limit of +his ministerial endurance. Over that limit he has never stepped and he +never will; none of them ever will, for there is that in the Harpeth +Jaguar which commands the very essence of respect for himself as well as +his cloth. + +"Say, Parson, what's that about the dedication of the chapel?" he asked, +as he twirled his champagne glass to break a few bubbles. "Charlotte and +Nickols are going to give Harriet and me that tennis dressing down +Sunday week if you don't need us to dedicate with." + +"No, I won't need you," answered the Reverend Mr. Goodloe, in an easy +agreeable voice, but that had in it the note that he always uses to make +Billy halt. "I'm not going to dedicate it yet." + +"Why?" came in a perfect chorus. + +"I've been working night and day on that altar cloth because I depended +on you to know the date of the dedication of your own church. I have +danced only once this week," said Letitia Cockrell, with her usual bland +directness. + +"The communion service from Gorham's has been packed away unopened in my +office a week," Hampton added in an aggrieved voice. "They hurried it +for us and it has to be sent back, piece at a time, to be marked." + +"The baptismal font is perfectly beautiful and I want the Suckling +sprinkled from it first. If you don't hurry she will get old enough to +misbehave herself. I know I promised, but I have decided that I can +never have the others baptized now, they are too bad," said Nell, as she +paused and listened for some sort of explosion from above as she did +every minute or two. + +"I'll rope Charlotte and drag her to the altar for you, and Mark can sit +on her feet while the parson sprinkles," offered Billy, and they all +laughed at the picture that he conjured, which seemed to be in keeping +with many scenes we had witnessed in the life of small Charlotte. + +"That won't be necessary. She will stand before me with folded hands +when her time comes," answered Mr. Goodloe, after he had laughed as +heartily as anybody else at Billy's threat. "The greatest difficulty +will be in persuading her to allow me to conduct my own services." + +"But what did you put off the dedication date for?" demanded Letitia, +with the hurry over the altar cloth still rankling. + +"I put off the dedication of the chapel until all of the people for whom +I cared deeply, whose cooperation with me is positively necessary, +should be ready to come and help me in the services. When that time +comes I will have the dedication. It may be a year and it may be +a--day," the parson answered with cool directness. + +"If you mean Charlotte, the offer I made for young Charlotte holds +good," said Billy with positive glee. "If you want her I'll rope her and +drag her in and the rest of you can bid for who holds her down while +being branded." + +"And my answer to your generous offer, Billy Harvey, is--" Mr. Goodloe +paused and looked at me, and Jessie giggled with nervousness--"the same +that I made to your offer about the constraining of young Charlotte." + +"Still it would be great sport to see both the Charlottes--" Billy was +saying, when a servant brought a note on his tray and handed it to Mr. +Goodloe, who glanced at it and then hurriedly opened and read it. + +"I am sorry, Mrs. Morgan, but will you let me answer this summons?" he +asked, and there was the regret in his rich voice of a great boy at +being snatched from a feast. "I am so hungry," he added with a laugh. + +"Come back later. I'll save some of everything for you," said Nell +pleadingly. + +"I will if I can," he answered. There was an excited smoulder in the +stars under the dull gold that made me restless and my eyes sought and +claimed his for a second in which a quick flash of the jeweled +tenderness of comprehension was flashed into my depths. + +"Good-bye, everybody," he said, and in a second was out of the dining +room and we could hear him running down the steps. + +"Oh, dear, if he just wasn't a preacher," sighed Harriet. "I suppose +somebody in the Settlement is dead or borned or drunk, and he has to go +and see about it. I wish--" + +"Great Jehovah!" exclaimed Billy, as he suddenly jumped to his feet. +"Ensley is fighting drunk and has the gang around the Last Chance. +Parson's life isn't worth a tinker's damn if he runs foul of them with +all that talk about Martha Ensley and Jacob's threat. She came back last +night and Goodloe threatened to have Jacob arrested for beating her. +Come on, Nickols, and let's follow him. We'll be enough. The rest of you +go on eating, drinking and merrying because old Mark was born. We'll +come right back just as soon as we see that all is serene on the Potomac +of the Last Chance." And with a last hasty gulp at his wine glass Billy +followed Nickols out of the room. Nickols was both white and livid and +the expression of his face frightened me, for I knew that Billy would +minimize any kind of danger in the presence of a woman while Nickols +would not take that trouble. + +It was with a queer breathlessness that we all sat before our wine +glasses in the midst of the perfume from the rich food and dying flowers +and waited--for what we didn't know. + +Then it came! + +A shot rang out clear and clean in the darkness and was quickly followed +by three barking echoes from a repeater. + +And there seated in my chair in the brilliantly lighted room, blocks +away from the scene, I felt a bullet thud against dull gold. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +A BIT OF RAW LIFE + + +I don't know by what means of personal transportation my body was +carried down the street to the public square and to the pavement in +front of the courthouse, but I found myself standing there over a woman +who had raised Gregory Goodloe's head on her arm and was drawing deep, +hard sobs as she held a handkerchief to stanch a flow of blood that +showed crimson in the flash from Nickols' electric cigar lighter. + +"'When men shall revile you, and persecute you, and say all manner of +evil against you falsely for my sake--'" I quoted to myself softly as I +stood and looked down on the prostrate figure of the big lithe Harpeth +Jaguar while Billy struggled with a man a little way off in the darkness +and Nickols shut off the light and went to his aid. I didn't know +exactly where the words that rose so suddenly from my heart to my lips +had come from, and I only vaguely understood them, but I seemed to be +saying them without my own volition. + +"Yes, my God, yes, that's what they've done to him," sobbed Martha as +she looked up, peering at me through the darkness. "Pa is drunk, Miss +Charlotte; and the rest egged him on. This is the only friend I've got +and they've killed him." + +"Not by a good deal, Martha," came in a hearty grand opera voice just as +I dropped on my knee, and in time to stop me from taking that bleeding +gold head on my own breast and--"Jacob's bullet just clipped me but its +impact was as good as his fist would have been, which I wish he had +used." And as he spoke the wounded parson sprang lithely to his feet and +left us two women kneeling before him. In an instant a thought of Mary +and the Magdalen flashed through my brain as he bent to raise me to my +feet, while Martha crouched away from us in the dark. + +"Charlotte?" he questioned softly, as if not willing to believe the +witness of his hands and eyes, muffled by the starry darkness. + +"Young Charlotte stones you and Jacob shoots you, and I--" I both +sobbed and laughed as I clung to his hand just as I heard Billy and +Nickols throw the cursing, panting man to the ground not ten feet away. + +"Now then, Parson, we've got Jacob down and out. Nickols has got his +foot on his neck and I've got his pistol. What do you want done with +him?" Billy interrupted me pantingly to demand. + +"Let him up," answered Mr. Goodloe, as he gently extricated himself from +my clinging hand and went over to the scene of the conflict. "Had +enough, Jacob?" he asked just as gently as he had unhanded himself from +me. + +"I'll have had enough when I put you where you can't entice my girl +again," answered Jacob as he rose slowly to his feet. As he spoke Billy +went and stood beside the parson and Nickols stepped behind them into +the shadow in which Martha crouched. + +"You know that is not true, Jacob. I helped Martha to go away to a place +of safety to earn her living and keep her honesty. Isn't that so, +Martha?" the rich voice softly asked the woman crouching in the dark. + +"I told him that but he wouldn't believe me and the others don't," she +answered with a sob that was almost a shudder of fear. + +"What did she come back fer then?" demanded Jacob. "Answer me that. And +didn't she go straight to your preaching and praying joint like all the +other women, fine and sluts, do?" The liquor was still burning in +Jacob's head but at those words he got a response from the impact of +Billy's fist that again laid him low. + +"Oh, I dasn't say nothing. I dasn't," moaned Martha, as she clutched at +my skirts just as Nell and Hampton began to arrive on the scene of +action, followed by Harriet and Mark and the others. They were all +panting and wild with anxiety. They had taken the wrong turning at the +end of the square and had gone around the block, thus giving the little +tragedy time to enact itself before a mercifully small audience. + +"Go away quickly, Martha, in the shadow," I bent and whispered to the +trembling woman, and I didn't know where the sympathy in my voice came +from as I stood between her and the rest while she slipped behind an old +horse block before the court house gate and off in the darkness towards +the Settlement before they had noticed her presence. + +"Anybody hurt? What's the matter?" gasped Mark as he seized hold of the +Reverend Mr. Goodloe's arm. + +"Nothing serious," answered the parson in a voice that calmed the others +like oil on choppy water. "Jacob Ensley is out on a drunk and Billy had +to knock him down to quiet him. All of you go back to dinner quickly, +for I don't see why Sergeant Rogers should get Jacob this time. Billy +will help me get him home and I'll remonstrate with him when he is +sober. I'd rather do it at the Last Chance than at the jail. Jacob is a +leading citizen and I don't want a jail smirch on him. I intend to use +him later. Now all of you go. Go!" His voice was as gently positive as +if he had been speaking to a lot of children and nobody seemed even to +think of rebelling but we all began to fade away into the starlight as +rapidly as we had assembled and more quietly. + +"Thank you, and bless you," he said to me, as I went past him in the +darkness, and for just a second I suspected that his hand was laid on my +black braids but I was not sure. I knew the gratitude was for my +getting Martha off the scene of action so quietly and swiftly. + +"A bit of raw life for you, Charlotte," Nickols remarked as he went with +me through the fragrant night back to Mark's and Nell's feast. "The +eternal girl, two-men melee." + +"In this case it was girl--three men, the third skunking it," I answered +in words as coarse and as forcible as the scene I had just witnessed. +"I'd like to get my bare hands around the throat of the man who is +hiding behind Martha and that little child." + +"That remark from you, my dear Charlotte, just goes to show that when +women get even the smell of bloodshed they become fiercer than the +male," said Nickols with a cool laugh that further infuriated me. + +"Yes, I do feel like a female jaguar," I answered hotly and then +collapsed inside at the use of that name for myself in conjunction with +my secret title for the Reverend Mr. Goodloe. + +"It would be better if you felt yourself in the character of a ferret if +you intend to go out on a still hunt for all unacknowledged paternity, +even in dear, simple, little old Goodloets," Nickols further jeered as +we came up the steps of the Morgan house from where the others were just +going into the dining room to resume their eating and drinking and being +merry. + +"I'll find that one man," I answered as I swept into the dining room, +seated myself in my place and drained my glass of flat wine. + +"Heaven help him!" laughed Nickols wickedly, and he raised Mr. Goodloe's +full glass as he slipped into his place beside me. + +For a week after the shooting fray my soul sulked darkly in its tent and +meditated while I went on my usual gay rounds of self-enjoyment. The +garden was being brought to a most glorious mid-August triumph and the +inhabitants for miles around were coming to see it. All of father's old +friends, from whom he had shrunk in the last years, hung around him in +the old way. He sat with them under the old graybeard poplars around +which had been planted a plantation of slim young larches by the wizard +of White Plains. From discussions about gardening and Americanisms all +the old Solons of the local bar, and even of the towns around, gradually +led their fallen leader back into his place and were battling with him +over politics and jurisprudence as they had in past days. The day I went +into his library to ask father about employing another likely black +garden boy that Dabney had discovered, and found him, Judge Monfort from +over at Hillcrest in the third district, Mr. Cockrell and Mr. Sproul +around his table deep in huge volumes from the shelves, buried in a +cloud of tobacco smoke and argument in which Latin words flew back and +forth, I went up to my room and stood helpless before my window looking +out towards Paradise Ridge. + +"I want to thank somebody and there is nobody to thank," I whispered, +with a great emptiness within me. That was the bitterest cry of need my +heart had ever given forth, and I went swiftly down to Nickols in the +garden and told him what I had seen and heard. + +"It really is a remarkable come-back, sweetheart," he said, with the +most exquisite sympathy in his voice and face. "Mark Morgan told me just +an hour ago that they want to have him appointed back to his old place +on the bench and Mr. Cockrell answered the President's inquiry for a man +from this section for the Commerce Commission with the judge's name. +It'll be great to see the old boy on one of the seats of the mighty +again, thanks to the sweat of his brow and mind in this village +manifestation of American nationalism which has grown out of our little +old garden plan." + +"What can a man or woman do to render gratitude if there seems to be +nobody to take it, Nickols?" I asked him, not expecting, as usual, that +he would understand me. For once he did. + +"The philosophies all teach 'hand it on' in that case," he answered me. + +"I'll hand it on to Martha Ensley and help her and her child to their +place under the sun," I said slowly, thus by having a reason and an +obligation back of it, ratifying the vow I had already taken. + +"That is an impossibility," answered Nickols with easy coolness. "The +one 'come-back' that is impossible is the woman in that kind of a +situation." + +"I'll never admit such an injustice as that," I said, and I had a queer +premonition that I would be held to that declaration. + +The very next morning after my declaration of purpose to "hand on" my +father's "come-back" I went down into the Settlement to hunt for Martha +Ensley, not that I was really suffering about her, but because I felt a +kind of obligation to begin at once a thing that it appealed to my sense +of justice to accomplish. + +Sometimes in mid-August there comes down a night over the hot, lush, +maturing Harpeth Valley which is like a benediction that sprinkles cool +dew on a thirsting heart. And now the morning was cool and brilliant, +with the sun evaporating the heavy dew in soft clouds of perfume from +the grain fields, the meadows and the upturned soil out where the +farmers were breaking ground after the first harvests. I felt strong and +calm and full of an electric energy, which I found I needed before I had +more than started my quest. + +I put on my tennis clothes, snowy from collar to shoe tips, like the +trappings of the White Knight, and started to walk down into the +Settlement to find Martha. I intended to stop at Mother Spurlock's +"Little House Beside the Road," and some vague idea was in my mind of +having her dispatch a messenger to summons Martha to the interview I was +about to bestow upon her. That is not the way it all happened and I was +hot and dusty and sweat-drenched before I had been on my quest more than +a few hours. + +Mother Elsie was not at home. The door to the Little House was wide +open, as it always is when cold or rain does not close it, and huge old +Tabby with one eye purred on the doorstep in the sun. A bird was nesting +in the wisteria vine above the door and her soft whirring bespoke an +interesting domestic event as near at hand. It did not in the least +disturb Tab, and I wondered at the harmony between traditional enemies +that I met on Mother Spurlock's very doorstep. I went in and drew myself +a drink of fresh cool water from the cistern at the back door, looked in +a tin box over the kitchen table and took three crisp tea cakes +therefrom. I picked up a half knitted sock from beside the huge split +rocker in the shade of the gnarled old apple tree, which was a rooftree +in every sense of the word, for it crowded close against the door and +hovered in the whole tiny house. Just before I left I put all the loose +change I had in my white linen skirt pocket in an old lacquered tea +canister which had a slit in it cut with a can opener, and that stood +on the shelf of the old rock chimney in the low living room. I had +never heard that canister mentioned by Mother Spurlock and I don't know +how I knew that out of it came the emergency funds for many a crisis in +the Settlement. Then last I picked a blush rose from the monthly bloomer +trailing up and over the window and laid it on the empty, worn old Bible +on the wide arm of the rocker beside a pair of horn-rimmed spectacles. +Then I hesitated. I had been so sure of finding Mother Spurlock at home +and having her hunt up Martha for me that I found it difficult to adjust +myself to my first complexity of plans. And while I hesitated a resolve +came into my mind with the completeness of a spoken direction. + +"She lives at the Last Chance and I'll go right down there and find +her," I said to myself, as I started along the peony-bordered path to +the front gate of the Little House, over which a huge late snowball was +drooping, loaded down with snowy balls that would hold their own until +almost the time for frost. At my own decision I had a delicious little +feeling of fear, which was at least justifiable when I thought of that +huge drunken figure wrestling with Billy in the darkness and whom I +knew to be the proprietor of the resort into which I had determined to +penetrate. Also, from my early youth I had heard Jacob Ensley and the +Last Chance spoken of in tones of dread disapproval. Before I should +become really frightened I hurried down the hill, past the squalid and +tumble-down mill cottages which I had never really seen before, where it +seemed to me millions of children swarmed in and around and about, and +at last arrived at the infamous social center of the Settlement. + +And my astonishment was profound to find that the Last Chance sign hung +over a very prosperous grocery with boxes and barrels of provender out +on the pavement under an awning and with huge, newly-painted screen +doors guarding the wide entrance, at which I hesitated. + +"Come right in, lady, come right in," called a cheerful, booming man's +voice, and the door was swung open by a large man in a white apron, with +blue eyes that crinkled at the corners, a wide smile and white hair. +"What can we do for you to-day? We've a nice lot of late dewberries just +in from over on Paradise Ridge." + +"I'm--I'm looking for the--the Last Chance Saloon," I faltered, because +I was too astonished to utter anything but the truth to the delightful +and tenderly solicitous man standing before me in his huge, clean white +apron over his blue shirt that matched his eyes. + +"Well, lady," the nice Irish voice faltered a trifle, about as mine had, +though plainly with controlled astonishment tinged with amusement, +"could I get you anything to--to cool you off and bring it out here in +the grocery? It is cooler than it is back at the bar. I said to myself +jest last week, so I did, I said to myself, 'Jacob, you ought to get a +sody-water fountain for the ladies what has the same right to thirst as +a man.' And I will, too, if my bad luck just leaves me. How about a nice +cool bottle of beer sitting comfortable here before the counter?" + +"Are you--_you_--Jacob--I mean--Mr. Jacob Ensley?" I further gasped. +This daylight materialization of the grewsome beast of the night was too +much for me. + +"Jacob Ensley at your service, Miss," he answered with easy dignity. +"Now, will it be the bottle of beer I shall bring you? Or there's a new +drink I might mix fer you that a young gentleman friend of mine from +New York has taught me, and with a good Irish name of Thomas +Collins--the drink, not the young gentleman." Nickols had been living on +Tom Collins for the last month and I instantly knew that I recognized +the young friend from New York. Also my wits were at a branching of the +road and I didn't know just what to do or say as Jacob waited with easy +courtesy for my decision. And again I was too much perturbed for +invention and had to speak out the truth. + +"I'm Charlotte Powers, Mr. Ensley, and I came down to see your daughter, +Martha," I said, looking directly into his clear friendly eyes which I +saw instantly darken with a storm as the smile left his nice mouth and +it hardened into a straight line. + +"I'm sorry, Miss Powers, but my Martha ain't at home right now to you, +and I don't know when she will be. Is that all I can do for you? These +berries now, from over at Paradise Ridge?" And with the ease of a man of +the great upper world Jacob Ensley of the lower walks of life put me out +of the door of his private life into the ranks of the meddler and shut +it in my face. I acknowledged to myself that my rebuff was justifiable +and I was about to make an exit from the scene as gracefully as possible +with a box of the really delicious berries under my arm when a cry of +terror in a child's voice came from somewhere at the back of the grocery +and together the grocer and I ran to see what the matter could be. And +at the heels of the proprietor I then penetrated the blind of the +grocery and entered the Last Chance. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE TENACIOUS TURTLE + + +"It's Martha's Stray," the big man gasped in a kind of impatient alarm. +"I just left him here a minute ago to go front." Together he and I +started around the long room with its bar on the one side backed up by a +mirror whose gilt frame was swathed in mosquito netting and on either +side of which were shelves bearing pyramids of bottles. On the bar at +one end were piled oranges and at the other lemons and limes whose +sophistication seemed out of place somehow in the Settlement in the +Harpeth Valley. All the trappings that I judge would go with the +dispensing of liquor were present, but our eyes could discover no small +child and we stood together and waited anxiously. + +"He's got me toe, me toe, and won't let go. He's chewing it off!" at +last came a lusty yell from just outside a back door that led out into a +side yard from behind the bar, and with one accord the proprietor of +the Last Chance and I ran to the scene of the devouring. And as we ran I +heard a door slam in the rooms back of the bar and we met Martha face to +face on the scene of action. I shall never forget the picture that +confronted me there in that little back yard upon which the bar of the +Last Chance opened, and I somehow never want to. + +On a little grass plot a small boy danced and yelled and firmly to one +of the capering feet was hung a large mud turtle which was flapped this +way and that by the strenuous young leg, but which held on with +apparently every intention of letting only the traditional thunder +loosen its grasp on the pink prize. + +"Stand still, you Stray, and let me get at the varmint," commanded Jacob +impatiently. + +"Let mother get the beast, sonny," Martha pleaded as she knelt on the +grass and caught the dancing boy by his arm and brought his dervish +gyrations to a halt. + +I stood unconscious of intrusion and absorbed with interest and watched +the operations begun on the tenacious turtle and the writhing toe. +Neither of the three principals in the action noticed me at all as +Martha held the boy and Jacob bent and took hold of the turtle in his +hard brown spotted shell. And as the operations for his liberation were +begun the small boy became both still and quiet and I was able to get a +good view of him as he leaned against his mother's shoulder and held out +the foot to Jacob. + +As I looked at him something queer stirred in me with a sharp pain and +then was quiet. He was the most delicious bit of five-year-old humanity +I had ever beheld and I doubt if any childless woman could have seen +such a child cuddle to another woman's breast and shoulder and not have +had something of the same thrill of pain. His whiteness and pinkness and +sturdy chubbiness were like many another infant's charms but his jet +black top-knot that ascended on one side and cascaded over his ear on +the other in a hauntingly familiar way, his violet eyes under their long +lashes and his clear-cut, firm, commanding mouth, that curled into the +bud of a rose as he sobbed and then unfolded into lines of beauty and +strength as he hushed at his mother's comforting, were not like any +other young human that I had ever beheld. + +"It hurts. It hurts!" he sobbed. + +"Hush, _you_ mustn't cry!" commanded Martha, and there was a little +bitter emphasis on the "you" that cut me, I didn't exactly know why. + +And immediately the curled mouth was set in a firm line and the long +lashes winked back tears. + +"The beast will not leave go at all," was Jacob's verdict as after a +careful twisting and turning of the ugly turtle he rose to his feet. +"And they do say to kill it lets a venom into the place it is holt of. I +dunno what to do." And in his uncertainty Jacob's eyes sought my face +while at the same instant Martha lifted her wistful eyes to mine. It was +the instinctive turning of the masses to the domination of my class in +the time of need of leadership. + +"You git it, lady," suddenly demanded the kiddie, and in his voice and +glance there was none of the deferring to a superior force that I felt +in the others but a decided command of that force. And as he spoke he +stretched out an imperious hand that caught and clung to mine. "Git down +and git it," he again commanded. + +"Have you any ammonia, Martha?" I asked, my wits responding gallantly to +the sudden demand upon their biological knowledge. + +"I've some in the chist behind the bar. Times I uses it strong on heavy +drunks," responded Jacob and he went quickly into the bar and returned +with the bottle. "It's customers in the grocery and customers at the bar +that I'm keeping waiting fooling along with the brat and the varmint," +he grumbled. + +"I can manage the turtle and you can go and attend to the customers," I +answered, thus assuming calmly the command of the craft of the Last +Chance. Jacob immediately took me at my word and disappeared into the +bar. + +"Let's take him and lay him on the bed so we can muffle the turtle in a +towel while we use the ammonia," I said to Martha. + +"Yes," answered Martha, "that will be best. Let mother carry you, +sonny!" and Martha bent as if to lift him in her arms. + +"I kin hop," the young sufferer announced. "I'm too big to carry, I am," +he added with proud consideration in his glance at Martha's frailness. + +"I'll carry you and mother can carry the turtle," I answered, and to +prevent further delay I lifted him in my strong arms while Martha took +the turtle in her hands, protected by the gingham apron that she wore. +The black head wilted against my breast and the serious young violet +eyes were raised to mine in frightened confidence. + +"It's a mighty big turkle," he faltered and snuggled closer. + +"We'll get him," I reassured, as I laid him on a bed in a room that +opened, as did the bar, out on the tiny yard. + +And as I had promised we performed upon that stubborn turtle. With a +convulsion, as the ammonia fumes entered his nostrils, if he had such +things, he let go of the toe, shuddered and withdrew into his shell, to +die, I supposed, though I afterwards learned that he crawled off in the +night, much to the kiddie's grief. + +"That's a bad smell, poor old turkle," was all the thanks I got as the +sufferer climbed down from the bed and proceeded to seize his late enemy +in intrepid and sympathetic hands. His mother rescued both him and the +turtle by placing the latter in a bucket on a table at the window and +giving the rescued another bucket to get me a drink of water from the +well in the yard. + +"Northeast, bottom corner," he promised me with hospitality shining from +his entire face as he experimentally hopped out into the yard, then +forgot me and the water entirely in making the acquaintance of a very +dirty little dog that was barking at him through the fence. + +"Oh, he's lovely, Martha," I said, speaking from pure impulse in a way +that could not fail to carry conviction and melt the heart of any woman +who possessed a treasure like that. + +"I know he is, Miss Charlotte," Martha answered with gentle bitterness, +"and that makes it all the worse for him." + +"It doesn't; it can't be worse for anybody to be born as beautiful and +strong as that boy is," I answered her and felt somehow I had fallen +head foremost into my mission. "I came down here to see you, Martha, and +now that I have seen him--I--it's--it's a shame, all of it," I ended by +faltering with a total lack of the eloquence that I felt. + +"Yes, it's just that--a shame," Martha admitted to me with a great +hopelessness in her black eyes. "And nothing can make it better." + +"Something can be done!" I answered hotly. "You are young, Martha, and +he's a baby. You can get out of it all and you can get him out and begin +all over. I--I'll help you." And as I spoke I took her hand in mine. +Mine was brown and hard from tennis and Martha's from toil, but they met +and clung. + +"I--I tried that, Miss Charlotte. I had to come back," answered Martha, +and a bitter passion suddenly lit her pale face. "I'm too young to be +let go--yet." + +"What do you mean, Martha?" I asked, and suddenly I felt that some kind +of chasm had yawned at my feet that I had never suspected to exist +before. + +"Don't ask me, Miss Charlotte," Martha answered as the passion died out +of her face and voice and the sorrow fell over her like a shadow. + +"Do you remember that afternoon at Mother Spurlock's when we were ten, +and you climbed the tree and got the apples, while I picked them up for +her to make apple turn-overs for us?" I asked her suddenly as I held on +to her hand when she tried to draw it from me. "I cried for a week to +go and see you, Martha, and it was all wrong that I wasn't allowed. My +mother would have let me come if she had been alive, but Mammy was an +ignorant negro and didn't understand." + +"I cried for you, too," answered Martha, as the saddest smile I had ever +seen came across the darkness of her face. "And when you was a young +lady I crept up to the south window of the Poplars and saw you in your +dress for the big coming-out party. You were like an angel from Heaven +and I loved you. I wanted to be like you. All us girls did. They have +always envied you and watched you, but I loved you. I did! I did, +but--what chanct has a girl like me got against a man who's like--like +you are? But I did love you; I did!" + +"It doesn't seem right to--to either of us to have kept us apart," I +faltered, as Martha suddenly slipped to the floor at my feet and put her +head in her hands. + +"Don't be kind to me--I can't stand that. You mustn't, you mustn't! You +wouldn't if you knew," she sobbed. + +"I _am_ going to be--that is, I _am_ going to help you, Martha, and you +have got to show me how," I answered her as a kind of determination +that was stronger than any like emotion I had ever had came over me. +"Tell me what to do, Martha, for you and--and for the kiddie," I +commanded her with my usual imperiousness. + +"Miss Charlotte," said Martha, as she suddenly rose to her knees, looked +up into my face and bared her shoulder with one motion of her hand, +"that black bruise is from the licks father gave me when I wouldn't tell +him why it was I came back after I went away and why it was I went. He +beat me three times to make me tell whose that boy is--when he wasn't a +month old. He knew that Mr. Goodloe helped me to go away three months +ago and--and begin again, and he don't really believe that the parson +enticed me back. The gang just put that in his head when he was +drinking. He does think that Mr. Goodloe knows about it all and I'm +afraid--afraid that some time when he's drunk he'll try to make him tell +and--and--there'll be murder, maybe double murder. I can't tell you +anything. I'm a fly caught in a web and I'm being drawn down to hell. I +thought there was a way out; the parson prayed with me and I saw it. I +saw myself right and honest again, but--but at a word I--I came back. +Even the good of the child couldn't hold me when the--the calling came. +Please go and leave me, and forget about me and--and don't come down +here again." + +"No, Martha, I must help you," I answered, decidedly. I had never been +able to bear any kind of frustration and this made me doubly determined. + +"It's too late, Miss Charlotte, but, Oh, it ain't too late for some of +the others. Luella May and Sadie Todd and the rest. Miss Charlotte, make +the Town men let 'em alone, and stop the Saturday night games and dances +down here. You can do it. Pa would kill me for saying it, for it is then +he makes his money, but it isn't fair, it isn't fair. You Town women do +the same things, but you are protected and looked after. When Grace +Payne gets drunk at your Country Club you take her home yourself and see +no harm comes to her, and the men she's with protect her from +themselves, but it's not the same with Luella May Spain and--and me." + +"How did you know about Grace, Martha?" I faltered with terror in my +heart. I felt a kind of class nakedness that made me burn with positive +physical shame. + +"They all watch and talk about what you do, Miss Charlotte, you +especially, because you are more beautiful and more--more strong than +the rest. They all said you'd smash our going to the church meetings +with the Town folks at the Country Club when you got home. But I always +stand up that you are right and you are. The Town on the hill and the +Settlement in the valley are better--better apart. That's why I'm +begging you to go and leave me to fight it out or go under. Please go!" + +"Oh, but, Martha, I didn't--I don't--" I was beginning to falter a +denial to what had suddenly struck me as a truth when we were +interrupted by the advent of Martha's child, the Stray, as I afterwards +found was the only name he possessed, one cruelly indicative of his +relation to the social structure of the world into which he had +involuntarily been born. + +"Bottom of the well, northeast corner," he said, as he set a bucket of +water at my feet with a jolt that dashed a small wave over my white +buckskins, and he held out a dipper full to me with a little twirling +motion that sent another wave on my skirt and which had an unmistakably +professional knack to it. I have seen old Wilks set down beer steins and +cocktail glasses with exactly that twirl ever since he has officiated at +the lockers and sideboard at the Club, and I now know that his motions +had the latest Last Chance style to them. Thus, by gossamer links and +steel cable, the Town and the Settlement seemed to be held together. + +"Excuse me for spilling the water on you," added the young scion of the +bartender with grave courtesy, as he held a very dirty little paddie +under the drip of the dipper and elevated the drink for me in such a way +that I had to steady the small hand that held the handle with mine as I +drank. + +"Oh, son, how careless!" Martha was just exclaiming when a call in +Jacob's sharp voice interrupted her. + +"Martha, grocery!" it commanded her and I was not sure whether he was +ignorant of the fact that I was still her caller or was interrupting her +on purpose. I think Martha shared the same uncertainty; she blushed and +looked both ashamed and frightened. + +"I'll go now, Martha, out this door that leads onto the street," I +hastened to say to relieve her of the dilemma. "But I'm coming back to +you," I added with determination, as I made ready to slip out the side +door of the Last Chance in regular underworld style. + +"Please don't, Miss Charlotte," she called, as she was passing through +the other door into the world from which I was escaping. The sad +significance of our two exits struck me so forcibly that I was two +blocks away before I really became conscious of things around me, and +then I was brought back to the squalid street of the Settlement and its +surroundings by feeling a damp little hand slipped into mine as I strode +along. + +"Please take me with you, Miss Lady," the Stray pleaded, as he ran along +beside me, trying to keep up with my long steps. "I've got me a dog now +to keep off turkles from me and you." And the slinking brindle bunch of +ears and tail and very little else, at our heels, regarded me with the +same brave entreaty. He and the Stray, indeed, presented a picture of +chivalrous attention as they stood regarding me. + +"But what will your mother say?" I asked of my small human attendant +with conscientious contention against my desire to take them both with +me on out of the dirt and heat and flies and other swarming young humans +up into the coolness and shade and--loneliness--of my own life. + +"She groceries all day and has to forget me," he answered calmly. "You +can bring me back to bed when she is through." And to this plea was +added a pathetic wag of the brindle tail. + +"Well, I'll take you up as far as Mother Spurlock's and give you both a +tea cake," I capitulated as I started again up the street of the +Settlement towards the haven of the Town. + +And as my escort and I progressed through the Settlement I could see the +most violent signs of interest being manifested in all of us. Dirty, +sweaty women, with their sleeves rolled up, came to the doors to look at +us, and as I greeted them one and all with a nod they smiled back with +pleased astonishment. I had never been down in the Settlement before, +but most of them spoke to me by name and one toothless old woman hastily +broke off a bloom from a struggling geranium, came to her rickety gate +and offered it to me with an admiring smile. + +"Bless my soul, Miss Charlotte, be you a-kidnappin' Martha's Stray?" she +asked, as I accepted it with enthusiasm. + +"He and the dog are kidnapping me as far as Mother Spurlock's, and then +they'll let me go and come back," I answered, with a laugh, as we +started on. Not once had the strong little fingers let go of my hand as +we stood and talked and they only held the closer as we started climbing +the long, hot dusty hill to the Little House by the Side of the Road. +But in the long climb not once did the sturdy little legs lag or the +small arm drag on my strength. The clasp was one of equality and +affectionate attraction, not of dependence. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE SHORT-CIRCUIT + + +And at last we arrived at the old snowball guarding the open gate of the +Little House and we went under its low boughs and up the walk. But we +did not march to an undisputed and stealthy raid on the tea cake box +above the kitchen table. The Little House was no longer the deserted +scene I had left it, but was teeming with human and juvenile activities +which streamed out to meet us at the door. + +"You can't come in here, Auntie Charlotte," was the command that greeted +me at the very doorstep as young Charlotte faced me with short skirts +outspread determinedly, while behind her Mikey of the red head, Jimmy, +Sue, Maudie, the sister of Mikey, and other known and unknown juveniles, +presented a solid support of defiance. "We are doing some Lord's work +and we don't need you, but we'll let the nice little boy and the lovely +dog come in. We do need them. Come in, little boy!" and as she spoke +Charlotte held out a welcoming hand to the Stray, who faltered and +looked up into my face to see if he might accept the invitation which +evidently swayed him by its commanding tone. + +"Couldn't I come in for just a second?" I asked with all due meekness. + +"Not for even a second," answered Charlotte sternly. "You'd interrupt +Minister. You go away and leave the boy." + +"Then how'll I get him back to his mother?" I pleaded, but as I spoke I +allowed the little fingers to slip from mine and I pushed the waif +towards Charlotte with the greatest confidence, which evidently +communicated itself to both him and the dog, for they left me +simultaneously and went towards the enemy's camp. + +"Shoo, it's only little Stray Ensley. I'll take him home when I go," the +redoubtable Mikey assured me with a wide smile at the kiddie, which was +answered with a rapture of hero worship. + +"What's his name?" demanded Charlotte as if seeking a passport. + +"Just Stray," answered Mikey in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. "He +ain't got no father, dead or alive." + +"Then Stray is just short for stranger, because everybody else has +fathers, dead, alive or drunk," said Charlotte, in the same +matter-of-fact tone that Mikey had used, and he in no way seemed to feel +her remark personally derogatory to his paternal parent. + +"Well, let's take him to Minister to be learned his verses of the song +and dance. Come on, for we are keeping him and the Lord waiting," said +Charlotte as she marshaled them all into the Little House and calmly +shut the door in my face and left me standing alone in the middle of the +walk. Even the yellow pup had squeezed into the door before it was shut +and only I was left in the outer darkness away from the grand opera +voice that I could hear booming with a juvenile chorus out at the back +of the cottage where I knew the rehearsal was being held under the twin +of the old apple tree from which the front roof tree over my head was +eternally separated by the Little House. With actual sadness and a queer +feeling of shut-outness I did the only thing left to me and sauntered +slowly on up the hill under the tall old elm trees that the Town had +planted a century ago to keep the heat from the heads of the like of me +while the toilers down in the Settlement had no such proof of ancestral +care. + +"They are producing in the sweat of their brows while I--saunter," I +said to myself, as I stretched out my bare arm from which the white silk +sleeve had been rolled away after the prevailing mode of the sport for +which it was designed, and flexed and regarded the bunch of muscles that +knotted themselves on my smooth, tanned forearm. + +"It _could_ swing a wash tub as well as the best racquet this side of +the Meadowbrook Club," I added aloud with a queer kind of primitive +shame mixed with my physical pride in myself. + +"Or juggle a heavy baby and a kitchen stove into a square meal?" added a +laughing voice as the Jaguar padded up beside my shoulder on his tennis +shoes before I had heard him at all, so deep was my absorption in my own +judgment and absolution of myself. + +"Still I was put out just a few minutes ago by a woman half my size," I +laughed in return as the long strides shortened into harmony with mine. + +"I heard about it and ran after you to ask you to come back or, if you +refused, to let me go with you wherever you are going. I left Mother +Spurlock in charge of the newly installed Epworth Leaguers. Charlotte +disapproved of my coming and said so," and we both laughed in delight +over my strenuous name-daughter. + +"Are you asking me _quo vadis?_" I demanded, with a look at him out of a +corner of my eye that got in return a glint of the jewels under dull +gold that always infuriated as well as interested me. + +"'Whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge--'" +the parson suddenly chanted under his breath, using the old Gregorian +measure for the few words of the oldest song of impersonal love extant. +"Thank you for bringing Martha's boy up to the Little House. Jacob has +refused both Mother Spurlock and me to let him come." + +"I didn't bring him. He and the pup brought me and then he was stolen +from me into the fold, as it were," I answered as I paused at the front +gate of the Poplars, which had a white clematis drifting over its tall +stone pillars and clutching at the straight iron bars as if trying to +keep me out of even my own fold. "Will you come in with me?" I asked +with a laugh, as I flung the old gate wide in spite of the tendril +fingers. + +The parson laughed, whistled a strain of his "whither thou goest" chant +to me and followed me across the lawn to the foot of the poplars. On the +bench surrounding their trunks I found my basket with the fine seam I +was sewing for the Suckling in it and I dropped upon the thick mat of +grass on the very edge of the shadow from the silver branches above and +began to hunt for my thimble, leaving the Jaguar standing over me. + +"Stop looking down on me and come tell me what particular religious +incantations were going on from which Charlotte so violently barred me," +I laughed up at him, as I threw a flat grass cushion a little way from +my skirts, upon which he immediately sank and seemed to curl up at my +feet. + +"I had the whole bunch rehearsing the children's part in the dedication +services of our chapel. Do you know that small Sue can really sing? The +rest stagger well but Susan sings. It is delicious. It is going to be +hard on you women folks to hear her chant her responses to me on that +great day." And as he spoke he looked beyond me over to his beautiful +shimmering gray chapel and there was not a glint in his eyes that showed +me he was trying to sound out my intentions about attendance on that +ceremony. + +"Please, Mr. Goodloe, don't be serious in saying as you did last night +that you are not going to dedicate your chapel until I--I help you," in +all gentleness I said. + +"I can't do it until you come," he answered me with just as great +gentleness and he turned his head away from me, but not before I saw a +glow in his eyes that made me suddenly strong and calm and curiously +humble. + +"I--I could go as your guest," I faltered, offering a compromise which I +felt sure would not be accepted. + +"I can't, I just can't dedicate the chapel until you echo my ceremony in +your heart," he answered me with his eyes still turned away from me and +looking with the greatest sadness out on Paradise Ridge. + +"Why?" I asked with a simple directness that the situation demanded and +with no trace of the coquetry the question might have held. + +"Shall I tell you all of the reason with no reservations?" the parson +asked, as he swung around on his mat and faced me, with his eyes looking +straight into mine. + +"All," I answered. + +"In every community there is one soul which holds the real leadership of +the souls of those surrounding them. God seems to appoint captains of +the regiments of His people to lead them along the way, Christ the +captain of all the hosts. Spiritually you are more evolved than any +other person in this town and with you doubting I cannot get the others +to see. You are so gorgeous and so brilliant that you blind them all. +They have always followed your lead--up or down. There are a few like +Mother Spurlock who have gained their Christ knowledge through +suffering, but they are not of the calibre to help others to gain +theirs. With your hand in mine I can make this whole community see and +know; separated from you, you going one way and I another, I can do +nothing. You simply short-circuit my force and I am helpless without +you." He spoke very simply and directly down into my heart. + +"That is not true; no one person is responsible for any spiritual +decision that another makes," I answered hotly with an awful sense of +having had a burden placed on my shoulders that they could not carry. + +"The old 'brother's keeper' question will never be settled in any but +the right way," he answered me straight from the shoulder. "You are +responsible for the attitude of this whole town towards the cause I +represent and they'll have to wait for your eyes to be opened and for +you to make them see." + +"You minimize yourself," I answered quickly, for in some curious way it +hurt me to see that great strong man sit at my feet baffled by a force +that he declared to be in me but which I did not acknowledge or +understand. + +"They were listening to me--from a distance, as it were--and I might +have made them hear if you had not come home and thrown them back into +the old pleasant groove of non-action and non-belief. In a week you had +swept away all I had builded in six months." He spoke with simple +conviction and not a trace of the bitterness that might have been in the +arraignment. + +"Everybody in this town adores you," were the words that gushed out of +my heart for his comforting before I could stop them. "That is one +reason I have acted as I have. I do not, I cannot believe that the +religion which is great enough to bring the redemption of the whole race +into a desirable immortality can be composed of nine-tenths emotion, +with which all of them were following your beautiful voice and beautiful +eyes and beautiful church and beautiful words. If I am to be saved it +will be by something sterner than that; it will be something that makes +me sweat drops of blood from my mind, take up a hard cross of duty and +work, work to make the fibre of my soul strong enough to enjoy the +robust kind of immortality that alone seems worth while to me. Your Son +of Man walked from town to town in the hot sun and taught the people, +healed the multitude and yet had not where to lay his head to rest. His +church has lost His vigor. Your whole scheme hasn't enough action in it. +Your organization is too easy and too full of surface observances. It is +conducted with slipshod business methods and there is no force in it to +help me. If I join any church ever it will have to be a new one that can +compare with modern business in its efficiency. Your scheme of +redemption to immortality through an efficient mediation is perfectly +sound, but you don't back it up." + +"The Church of Christ has stood, endured and done business for almost +two thousand years," he answered quietly. "It is in some ways all you +say of it, but it has at least proved its vitality. Why seek to found a +new organization with a new head and a new scheme of immortality if you +recognize this scheme as good? The place to reorganize a business is +from the inside, not the outside. These people _must_ get their vision +_now_. Will you come and help me?" As he spoke he looked again down into +the depths from which I had been trying to translate some of the +hieroglyphics to him and he held out his long powerful hand to me in an +entreaty that shook my very foundations. + +"You make me want to do as you ask me, but I do not see what it is we +should strive for, what it is from which we should be saved. There are +tears in my eyes but do you want my emotions without my reason?" And I +asked my question with a quiver almost of timidity. + +"No, both!" he answered me, as he dropped his hand and arm from their +attitude of entreaty, shook his head sadly and again turned from me and +looked out on the dim distance of Old Harpeth. Suddenly I had the +feeling of having a great door shut in my face, and a terror of being +left all alone in the world came over me. Without knowing what I did I +stretched out my hand and caught at his arm and moved closer to him, +suddenly cold in the sunshine. + +"I'm frightened," I whispered, as I bowed my head on my hand, clutching +his arm. + +"Poor little wandering, hunting lamb," he crooned to me as he laid a +tender hand on my bowed head. "Keep watch over her, Lord Jesus," he +prayed under his breath and then as suddenly as I had felt the fear I +found again my courage. + +"That cry was woman to man, not child to priest. It is only honest to +tell you so," I said, as I suddenly raised my head and threw another +gauntlet that I knew would bring on another battle. "I hate myself for +it." + +"I wanted to win you for God and have you come to me then as a gift +from Him, but it may have to be the other way round," was the answer he +struck out at me with, and as he spoke he clasped my hand in his with a +force that seemed to create the great silent, untenanted space around us +as it had that night he had sung the Tristan music to me in the +moonlight. "I'm going to save you and--and _have_ you." + +"No, no!" I cried, as I tried to draw my hand away, found it held beyond +my effort and then suddenly released. + +"I knew the first minute I looked into your eyes, but I'll wait," he +said softly into the silence around us. + +"No, no, don't even think such a thing," I exclaimed, and I wanted to +rise to my feet and break the spell of that space around us, but I could +only cower closer to him on the grass beneath the rustling silver +leaves. "I'm going to marry Nickols in a few months and then I'm going +out of this world of yours and you can lead them all to--to safety." + +"No, it's in God's hands. He'll keep you and give you to me when the +time comes. It all may mean suffering to us both, probably does, but I +accept the cup--in His good time," and as he spoke he looked again into +my eyes with a lonely sadness that I could not endure. + +"I want to get away from you," I gasped and I felt that I must get out +of the aloneness with him. + +"We are in God's hands," he said again, as his warm hands found and held +mine. "We must wait on Him with--" Then suddenly the world closed in on +us again and we were on our feet--apart. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +ABIDE WITH ME + + +"Auntie Charlotte, you stole Minister away from us in a no-fair way," +stormed Charlotte as she came around the young larches and wild swamp +root that had formed the world apart for the dangerous Jaguar and me. +"Mother Spurlock can't sing to any good and Sue is so little we gets the +key away from her. Let him come right back!" As she made this peremptory +demand for the release of my prisoner, my name-daughter stood her ground +with her cohorts, who had been scrambling around and over and through +the shrubbery, massed behind her. There were Mikey of the red head, +small James, the musical wee Susan, Maudie Burns and Jennie Todd, +besides several more of the Burns family, a few Sprouls and Paynes and a +very ragged young Jones, and they all looked at me with hostile and +accusing eyes as Charlotte hurled a final invective at me. "You are +wicked and the devil will burn you up," she threatened. + +"He won't neither, at all. Hush up!" came a defense and a command in a +very imperious young voice, and the Stray followed the voice from around +the large trunk of the oldest graybeard. He had arrived late on the +scene of action because his impedimenta had been the wriggling puppy of +brindle hue, which he immediately released as he came over and stood +between the Reverend Mr. Goodloe and me, with my hand in his own small +paddie and defiance and defense to the limit in his high-held young head +with its black crest and snapping violet eyes. At last I felt Charlotte +had met her match and I trembled for the result. + +"She never stoled nothing," he further declared, looking Charlotte full +in the eye. + +"I meant she tooken him away, Stranger," parleyed Charlotte with extreme +mildness for her and giving to the Stray the name that she had decided +upon by translating the cognomen of his state into that of another +almost equally forlorn. "My father told my Auntie Harriet that Aunt +Charlotte would git Minister yet and I'll call the devil to stop her if +she tries to get him away." + +"I'll bust that devil's head with a rock and a bad smell," answered the +Stray as he held tighter to my hand and hurled back his threat that held +a remembrance of the conquering of the tenacious turtle. + +"Auntie Harriet answered father that Auntie Charlotte and the devil +could do most anything that--" small James was contributing to the +general assault when with a wave of a calming hand Mr. Goodloe took the +field. + +"That will do, youngsters," he commanded with extreme mildness it seemed +to me, considering the appalling situation. "I thought you had had about +enough practice for to-day and Charlotte could have taught the little +boy--er--" + +"Stranger," prompted Charlotte. + +"You could have taught him up to the point you knew so I could have a +nice rest here under the lovely trees. Are you being kind to me in not +helping me a little bit? You know what you promised me." And the beloved +"Minister's" voice was just as grave and just as serious as if he had +been reproving one of his deacons. + +"Is talking to Auntie Charlotte and holding her hand the Lord's work?" +demanded Charlotte, looking him straight in the face. + +"Yes," answered Mr. Goodloe, gravely, looking her as straight in the eye +as she had looked him. + +"Then come on, Stranger, and learn the march without any tune but Sue," +she said as she stretched out her hand to the Stray, who ignored it and +clung to me with his serious eyes raised to mine. + +"I'll go with you now over in the chapel and play for you on the organ +and then we can all teach him," said the parson, and he picked wee +Susan, the music box, up in his arms and buried his lips in the curls on +the back of her fragrant little neck. + +"Are you all done with Auntie Charlotte?" asked young Charlotte, with +the extreme of consideration for him, not for my feelings. + +"Yes, for the present," he answered, and he held out his free hand to +the Stray, who was still clinging to me. + +"Go with him, sonny, and Mikey will take you home," I said to my small +champion, using the tender name that I had heard Martha give him. As I +spoke I laid his hand in that of Mr. Goodloe and I didn't raise my eyes +to his but turned from them and left him standing in the midst of his +flock of lambs under the silver leaves and out in the bright light, +while I went into the cool dark hall and on up to my own room which was +also cool and dark. + +"I am lost and blind and I don't know what to do," I murmured as I flung +myself down on my window seat and looked through the narrow opening of +the shutters out to the everlasting hills across the valley. "I know I +am ineffective and perfectly worthless as I am but I will not, I will +not be swayed by--" + +"Charlotte," called father's voice with its commanding note which had +apparently come into it now to stay. + +"Yes," I answered, and went down immediately, glad of the interruption +to my self-communion and arraignment. + +I found father and Nickols and Mark Morgan and Billy Harvey and Mr. +Cockrell down in father's study and I could see from their faces that +something unusual had happened. + +"City Council voted the appropriation to meet Cockrell's and my donation +for the schoolhouse, contracts have been signed and dirt is to be +broken to-morrow by Henry Todd and thirty workmen Nickols has ordered +down from the city," father announced, with jubilation in his voice. "We +thought Goodloe was here in the garden with you." + +"He was, but he has taken the children with him over to his chapel," I +answered, and for some reason I blushed, for I saw Mark Morgan's eyes +laughing at me and I also saw a glint I didn't like in Nickols' eyes. + +"School to be opened on September twelfth and then let the kids fight it +out," said Billy. "I bet on Charlotte to beat out the whole Settlement +the first day if allowed full swing." + +"If Goodloe didn't stand behind this mixing of--of social oil +and--water, I'd be scared to death," said Mark. + +"Mike Burns and Henry Todd and Spain had better be afraid of a loss of +progeny," jeered Billy. "I bet Charlotte and James and the scions of the +Sprouls and Paynes can lead the Settlement scions into by-paths of +iniquity of which they never dreamed." + +"I wish you had ten, blast you, for being so sensible as to have none," +Mark answered him, and I felt rather than saw the bolt of pain that shot +through Billy's heart. It's because Nell and her children are not his +that Billy is bad, and what is going to help him? + +"Well, let's go over to the parsonage and tell Goodloe all about it," +father suggested, and the other men followed him out into the garden +path that led through the Eden of my foremothers straight into that +little Methodist chapel. Only Nickols remained with me upon the wide +high vine-shadowed porch. + +"I'll marry you the first of October, Nickols, and then we can go to +France as you want to," I said to him without any preamble, and as I +spoke I drew close to him as if for protection from something I didn't +understand. + +"Fleeing from the wrath to come?" questioned Nickols with a tender jeer +as he took me in his arms and his lips sought the kiss I had been +keeping from him. Again I refused it and he laughed as he pushed me from +him and there was still more of the jeer in the laugh though the passion +in his eyes was devouring and glad. + +"Suppose we go north, right after Mr. Jeffries has finished his visit. +Let's have the ideal village wedding. We'll have out the school children +if any are left from the mix-up, and Goodloe can make us man and wife +out here under the trees in our own garden. Then we'll go away from the +whole show, the Christian religion included, and live happy ever after." +And as he spoke Nickols again drew me to him and sought the kiss I still +could not give him. + +"Nickols, Mother Spurlock and poor little Mrs. Burns and--and Mr. +Goodloe have something very real that we haven't," I faltered and, +utterly weary, I laid my head down against his strong shoulder. + +"That's what they say, but they can't prove it. They can't pass it on, +so it mustn't really be anything. They are not tightwads, so they +wouldn't hold back on us with their salvation, would they? Well, then, +they haven't anything. It's all just a substitute for love, dear. Mother +Spurlock fell back on it when she lost her husband. The little Burns +woman wouldn't have it any more than Nell has if Mike Burns was like +Mark Morgan. And Goodloe would lose it in a week if--if he could get you +in his arms." As Nickols spoke, his arms about me trembled and strained +me to him. + +"No!" I exclaimed as if I had heard blasphemy uttered. + +"It _is_, dear, it is just suppressed sex. The scientists agree on that +and all the religions are just that, from the most primitive to the most +evolved. Some are more frank about it than others. The Igorrotes when +they have their religious dancing at the mating season are more open +than the Methodists about their being one and the same thing, but it all +sums up alike. You can't get away from those facts." + +"Then I want to be dead," I said as I drew myself from his arm and stood +on the edge of the porch. + +"Or you want to love," muttered Nickols under his breath as he watched +me sullenly for a second. "Then it's October, is it?" he asked with one +of his infectious, delicious laughs that have always broken across my +serious moods and made them froth. + +"Yes," I answered steadily. + +"Then we'll tell Nell and Harriet and Jessie and Mrs. Sproul all about +it, as I see them coming, on gossip bent I feel sure," he said as he +went halfway down the walk to meet the girls before I could restrain +him. + +I shall always have with me the picture that Nickols made as he stood +tall and handsome and smiling against the background of the wonderful +garden he had helped to create, with the women smiling and clinging to +him as he looked up at me with a great laughing light in his face. In +some ways he was the handsomest man I had ever seen and his distinctions +sat upon him as easily as the college honors of a boy. A wave of race +pride and love swept up in my heart as I looked at him and I felt that +in him must be the refuge that I sought. His sophistries always sank +deep into me. + +"Charlotte, my dear," said Mrs. Sproul, as I led her to a seat beneath +the vines in a shady corner, "I wish I was sure that your mother knew of +this safe happiness of yours. She adored Nickols and nothing could have +given her a greater joy. And, my dear, for you to have held him against +the world, as it were, is a triumph, I assure you. Always remember that +men of his kind are--are desirable. I'll have a long talk with you +before you go away with him." And I didn't know why, but the smile with +which Mrs. Sproul whispered and patted my hand made me burn all over +with protest. + +"I wouldn't have you for a husband unless we were both convicted +together to a chain gang for at least five years after the ceremony, +Nickols Powers," said Harriet, with a laugh for which Nickols raised her +hand to his lips as he responded. + +"You like husbands in safety deposit vaults, don't you, Harriet?" At +which sally they all laughed as they seated themselves around Mrs. +Sproul and me. + +"Why will women want husbands to be as stationary as--as hitching posts, +Mrs. Sproul?" demanded Nickols as he leaned against one of the tall +pillars and lighted a cigarette for himself after having lighted one for +her and Jessie. Jessie Litton had always smoked, in secret until the +last year or two, and Mrs. Sproul had frankly taken up the habit as a +comfort for old age, she insisted. I suspect that she had had it for a +long time in advance of the fashion. It was a really delicious sight to +see the old world grace with which she accomplished it. + +"Women have the nestling habit and that is why they want to believe men +to be sturdy oaks in whose branches they can safely anchor a family as +well as twine around in their affectionate gourd fashion," answered Mrs. +Sproul, as she daintily puffed a smoke ring at Nickols. + +"A lot of times the gourd vine grows so strong that she doesn't realize +she is supporting her family by her own strength long after the oak has +faded away in her coils and sprouted up from an acorn in some other +locality," said Jessie, as she, too, puffed a ring of smoke in Nickols' +direction. + +"Is this agriculture, biology or religion we are discussing?" demanded +Harriet with a laugh as we all rose and went to the edge of the porch to +meet Billy and Mark and father, who had with them the beloved +"Minister." + +"Congratulations and condolences, Mr. Powers," said Mrs. Sproul as she +laid her hand in father's. + +"On what score, my dear madam," he demanded. + +"You know I asked for Charlotte on my fifteenth and her tenth birthday, +Judge," Nickols said, with his ready grace in any situation, and he came +and stood beside father and took his hand in his with the gentle +affection a girl might have shown the older man. "You said 'yes' then +and it has taken all these years to make her echo the word," and as he +finished speaking he held out his arm and drew me close to father and +himself. + +"Hurrah!" exclaimed Mark, but I saw him exchange a glance of amusement +with Harriet, and Nell gave him a warning little squeeze of the arm. + +"Bless you both," said father, as he gave us both a hug. + +All this I saw and noted before I raised my eyes to meet the jeweled +eyes under dull gold that I knew were gazing straight at me as Gregory +Goodloe stood in the background against the dark vine while the +rejoicings over the announcement of my betrothal were enacted. Somehow I +felt I could not make myself face their gaze, which yet I knew I must. I +met a flash that burned down into the very darkest spots in my nature +and illuminated them all. There was not a trace of male anger or demand +in the gaze but a cold valuation of me and the entire situation that +burned me as ice burns raw flesh, then over all of us there suddenly +poured from the same source a tenderness that was as radiant as the +summer sun. + +"Yes, God bless us all!" he exclaimed, as he held out his hands to all +of us, one of which Nickols took, with a swift challenging glance that +in the radiance softened to confidence, and the other father took and +fairly clung to in his happiness. I was glad, glad that I didn't have to +endure the touch of his hand on mine after that glance, but not for one +instant did my heart accuse his radiance of being dramatics. I rather +felt that it came from a warmth within him by which everybody else in +the world might be comforted but for which I would forever be cold. + +"I _want_ to be worth her, old man," Nickols said to him with a +curiously pleading note in his voice, and he, too, seemed to me to be +clinging to some of the strength that was not for me. + +"Then God help you," was the answer given with the very essence of +gentleness, but with a level glance into Nickols' eyes that was +profoundly sad. + +"And now let's hear the wedding plans," demanded Harriet. "This marrying +and giving in marriage is the best way I know of to make time pass, and +let's make Charlotte give us full measure. I'm matron of honor, of +course, and I suggest only twelve bridesmaids. I intend to be preceded +to the altar by Sue in an embroidered silk muslin I will provide, with a +bonnet of tulle in which nestles a pink rose to match the ones in her +basket. There will also be a display of pink knees that will be +ravishing and--" + +"Just let me remind you, Harriet, that this is Charlotte's wedding and +not that of my daughter, Susan, and her often-mentioned knees," said +Mark with a laugh that they all echoed. + +"I am going to marry Susan's pink knees when they are ripe," remarked +Billy and his suppression lasted long enough for me to attain command +enough of myself to manage the plans of my own wedding. + +Later when they had all gone by way of the chapel to help Mr. Goodloe +decide on some designs for a memorial window to his father he was having +made by a great artist he and Nickols had selected, I went in to make my +announcement to Mammy and Dabney. + +"Well, ram in the cork to the demijohn, honey, and it'll be all right," +was Dabney's semi-cordial consent, but Mammy went on industriously +beating her biscuits for supper the one hundred and twenty licks +prescribed by her reputation as a cook and her conscientious guarding of +that same reputation. + +"What do you say, Mammy?" I insisted on her giving her opinion. + +"Of course, if you want to eat plain biscuits instead of the showbread +from before the mercy seat--one hundred and two, one hundred and +three--" was the answer given between the licks upon the white dough, +and I fled before I should get a clearer manifestation of the +disappointment I felt raging in her faithful old heart. + +That night a young crescent moon was hung over the very crown of Old +Harpeth as I threw the shutters of my window wide to the night breezes +after I had put out my light and was ready for bed. I stood in its soft +light and looked across to the dark mass of the chapel opposite and saw +that a dim light was still burning from the window by the organ loft. +And as I stood and looked, the empty place that I had felt in the very +center of my heart grew colder and more bleak until suddenly across the +garden on perfumed waves of sound came the Tristan love song and filled +my emptiness with a pain that was both hot and cold. I stood and let the +flood dash over me as long as I could and then with a sob I sank on the +floor and rested my head on the window seat and began to weep as only +women such as I know how to weep. Then into my sorrow very quietly there +again stole another strain after the Tristan song had sobbed away into +the night and suddenly my own weeping was stilled and again something +within me was healed by the great tender voice singing out in the +darkness beyond the hedge: + + "Abide with me; fast falls the eventide-- + ... ... ... ... + Help of the helpless, O abide with me!" + +"I don't know what to do, I don't know," I cried, and sobbed myself to +sleep on my pillow after I had watched the light across the garden go +out and after all in the little parsonage beyond the hedge was dark and +quiet. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +A CLANDESTINE ADVENTURE + + +It seems a strange, almost savage thing that the few months before a +woman's marriage are always filled so full of the doing of thousands and +tens of thousands of small things that she has no time to think of the +hugeness of the responsibilities she is assuming. Perhaps if she were +given time to realize them she would never assume them. Once or twice in +the long two, nearly three months that I had given myself to get ready +to marry Nickols, I paused and found myself thinking of the weighty +things of life, but I soon was able to shake off the thought of the +future. The time I felt it press most heavily was one morning that +Jessie Litton and I sat quietly sewing on some sort of fluff she and +Harriet had planned for my adornment, and very suddenly Jessie laid down +her ruffle and looked at me as she said: + +"Charlotte, I would be frightened, positively frightened, at the +prospect of marrying Nickols Powers." + +"I am; but why would you be?" I asked her directly. + +"I read that long resume of his work in the Review last night and for +the first time I really realized what an important person he is to the +development of American art. He really is a huge national machine and +you'll be one of the important cogs on which the whole thing runs. +You'll be ground and ground by his life and you'll have to make good or +be responsible for some sort of a crash." + +"No," I answered, slowly drawing my thread through the sheer cloth. "No, +Nickols will live his own way regardless of the cogs on which it grinds. +I shall have an enormous task in keeping up with the social side of his +life, but Nickols is not the kind of a man who takes a woman into his +work." + +As I made my answer I was stabbed by the memory of the words that +Gregory Goodloe had said to me on that day in the garden: "Separated +from you, you going one way and I another, I can do nothing. You +short-circuit my force--I am helpless without you." And _he_ had been +inviting me into the work for which he had been ordained into the holy +Church of Christ. I felt myself groping blindly into the futility of my +own life, and I was sick at heart. + +"And if that is so, I would be still more frightened," Jessie said, +gazing at me with dismayed and honest affection. + +"Don't let's talk about it," I answered her and took up my sewing. At +that moment and from that moment I cast myself into the whole whirl of +activities in Goodloets and gave myself no more time or strength for +self-communion. I was fleeing, and from what I dared not know. + +And it was a busy month that stretched from August through September. +Nickols said it would be his last fling at the old town and he proposed +to leave his mark on its mossy sides. And he did. + +In the first place money was pouring into little old Goodloets from +three huge sources. The little one-horse tannery down by the river +beyond the Settlement doubled, tripled and then quadrupled its capacity +and next to it the little old saddle and harness factory in which Mr. +Cockrell and old Mr. Sproul had been making saddles and harness since +the days of the Confederacy, did the same and sent out consignment after +consignment of saddles and bridles which were paid for in huge checks of +Russian origin which almost paralyzed the Goodloets Bank and Trust +Company and which worked pale Clive Harvey into the night until he +managed to get young Henry Thornton in to assist him. His salary was +raised three times until it was large enough to harbor Bessie and any +number of small editions of them both, only she preferred to drink and +dance and joy-ride with Hugh Payne, who could not have supported such a +flowering by his own effort to have saved his own life and soul. + +And then to burden poor Clive still further, Hampton Dibrell and Mr. +Thornton hastily built huge pens over by the railroad and in these +assembled hundreds and thousands of mules to be shipped through to +France, which brought in return a steady stream of French francs to be +translated into American dollars. Still further, Billy and Mark and +Cliff, with Nickols' assistance, and the telegraph system, speculated in +War Brides down on Wall Street until their individual bank accounts +began to mount to giddy sums. Father and Mr. Sproul and more of the +other men did likewise and Buford Cunningham got some spectacular +returns from copper in Canada that Billy said would make Mrs. Buford +Cunningham try to buy the Country Club outright for a summer home. And +while there was prosperity in the Town the Settlement also had its +share. Wages rose higher and higher and many of the women went to work +at the machines in the saddle factory, leaving the care of the children +to the old dames, which resulted in an added pandemonium in the +Settlement streets. + +"I don't know what is the matter. Goodloets is money mad," wailed Mother +Spurlock, as she sank with weariness into the rocker on my porch one hot +August afternoon. "The girls and the women are all at work and two +babies have died this week from pure lack of mother's care, I might say +mother's milk. Ed Jones' wife weaned her six-months'-old baby so she +could go in the factory, and left it on condensed milk with old Mrs. +Jones, who fed it incessantly and not at all cleanly. Now it is not +expected to live. And they dance at the Last Chance until one o'clock +almost every night. Is the world mad?" + +"No, just prosperous, Mother Elsie," I answered her as I gave her a +large fan and Dabney brought her a tall glass of very cold tea. "Little +old Goodloets is having the same boom that the rest of America is +getting from feeding and furnishing the rest of the warring world." + +"Nickols Powers told me just last night that over two hundred thousand +dollars would be spent on the improvements to this town in the next two +months, counting the new schoolhouse, the restoration of the courthouse, +the paving of the public square and the enlargement of the electric +light plant. That doesn't count the money everybody is putting on their +own private homes. That camp of workmen down by the river that Nickols +has had sent down from the city has a hundred men in it now, and that is +one thing that demoralizes the Settlement. Jacob Ensley has had that +dance hall enlarged twice and he has employed George Spain to stand +behind the bar. It is breaking Mrs. Spain's heart, but she is helpless, +for George is being paid three dollars a day for being just where he +wants to be. I don't know what to do. I firmly believe the town is mad, +with only Gregory Goodloe to stand between it and God's wrath." + +"What is he doing to stem the joy tide?" I asked with a laugh, for it +did seem in a way funny to see one of the leading citizens of old +Goodloets so distressed over its improvement and modernization through +its enormous prosperity. + +"He was down in the workmen's camp last night having a song service and +seventy-five of them stayed there singing until midnight. Jacob had to +put out his lights at eleven o'clock because there were not enough to +pay to keep open. The chapel was full Sunday night and Jacob closed the +Last Chance at six o'clock for the first time in its existence. The men +passed it on to him to do it and he came and sat in a back pew himself. +They all call Mr. Goodloe 'Parson,' and he walks in and around and about +this town night and day shedding a kind of peace and good will even into +the darkest corners. He lends a hand here and there with the work, eats +out of the men's dinner pails when that Jefferson is too lazy to cook +for him, or takes a bite off some stove down in the Settlement out of +some old woman's pork and cabbage pot with just as much grace and +heartiness as he eats at Nell Morgan's or Harriet Henderson's most +elaborate dinners. And outside of his pulpit he never preaches; he just +lives. This is what I heard Jacob say to him just yesterday: + +"'Sure, and I wint up to set in one of your pews to see if your action +in your own job was as good as it is in the many you lend a hand to week +about.' + +"'Well?' asked Mr. Goodloe, as he picked up, one of those rosy apples +from the box Jacob keeps out on the sidewalk to blind the Last Chance. + +"'I knows when to run and not be caught,' Jacob answered, as he put +another apple in the parson's pocket and went back into the grocery +door." + +"Do you ever see Martha?" I asked with a kind of impatience. I had been +three times down to the Last Chance and each time Jacob's excuses for +Martha had been positive though courteous, and I had come away baffled, +with the green groceries I had purchased as a blind to my visit. I had +written to her and had had no response. At that I had stopped, with a +self-sufficient feeling of a duty well done, but through it all I also +felt that she was on the other side of a prison wall crying to me. + +"Never," answered Mother Spurlock, with real pain in her voice. "She +stays in that back room and cooks for Jacob, and the child stays with +her and has only the small yard back of the bar in which to play. Jacob +only let him come up to sing with Mr. Goodloe and the children a few +times and now he is kept as near in prison as his mother. Jacob's +attitude grows more morose about her and the child every day. I don't +understand it. I never will. Martha was the loveliest girl that ever +bloomed in the Settlement, and now she has been plucked and thrown into +the dust. And the child is too young to share her prison fate. He must +be got out and away." + +"He will," I answered, with a calm confidence. I didn't tell Mother +Spurlock, and I didn't know exactly why I didn't, but I was deeply +involved in a clandestine affair with the Stray which was fast becoming +one of the adventures of my life. It had begun in a positively weird +manner and was continuing along the same lines. One morning several +weeks after my first acquaintance and turtle adventure with him I had +waked up at dawn and gone to look out of the window just as the morning +star was fading over Old Harpeth. In the dim light I had spied a small +figure down in the garden, hopping along by a row of early young rose +bushes, with a can in one hand and a long stick in the other. Hastily +getting into a few clothes I crept down through the silent house and out +in the garden to find the Stray busily engaged in knocking large slugs +off into a can. + +"I feed 'em to mother's bird in the cage, 'cause he can't get out to get +'em," he explained. "They all sleep hard 'cause they work so late and I +crawl out the window and go back while they don't wake up. I like your +yard better than I do mine." The statement was made simply, without envy +of apology. + +And from that morning a queer kind of dawn life went on between the +small boy and me. Morning after morning he threw a pebble to waken me +and I hurried down to our tryst, which extended through the hour that +lies between the crack of day and the first glint of the awakening sun. +At first I had carried sweetmeats to our tryst, which were accepted +with moderate pleasure, but one morning I had taken a huge volume of +Rackham's Mother Goose which Nickols had brought me, and from then on +our hour had been one of spiritual communion. I found the young mind +insatiate and I had to ransack the library for stories and poems and +pictures suitable to his years, though he rapidly developed a very +advanced taste. The morning I read him the Shakespearian lines woven +around the little Princes in the Tower, having suitably connected up the +story for him with words of my own, we forgot the time and he overstayed +his limit, for Dabney was opening the house when he fled. For five +mornings he did not come and I could find no way to get news of him. I +asked Mikey and got a maddening response. + +"They shut up Stray in the back yard because he's a shame to old Jake," +was his answer to my question. "Jake would shoot anybody that climbed +that fence." + +"I bet I could get over and the bad man not see if I could get out in +the dark," Charlotte declared as she stood listening to my questioning. +"And I am going after Stranger that way, too, if ever they leave the +front door to my house unlocked. It is wicked to shut up a little boy, +and the devil would help me get him out." Charlotte's purpose was high +if she did slightly mix her theology. + +That night a wonderful thing happened in my moonlit room. I was dead +asleep when I felt a soft hand stroking my face, and then my hair, and I +awoke to find the Stray standing by my bed. + +"They tied me in bed when they found out I had runned away in the +mornings to see you, but I gnawed the rope that he put, because I wanted +to tell you that I can go to the big school when it opens because +Minister told him that he would be put in jail if I didn't. It is a law. +I heard him last night, and mother cried a long time, for what, I don't +know. Was she glad or sorry? Do you know?" + +"No, darling, I don't know, and I wish I did," I answered him as I put +my arms around him while he snuggled his black-crested head down beside +mine on the pillow. + +"My mother is sick, she cries so much," he said with a manly struggle +that drowned the sob in his throat. "I don't know what to do. Do you +know?" + +"I'll find out," I said with a sudden fierceness as I strained him +against my shoulder for an instant and then sat up in bed as if I must +do something at once. + +"I must run right back and tie myself before he wakes up and whips me," +the Stray said, and it sickened me to see him wrap the gnawed rope +around his little arm. + +"No!" I exclaimed, and held out my arms to him. + +"I must, but I don't mind whippings if I can read books in school and +you make mother not cry," and before I could stop him he ran out of the +dim room and I could hear his cautious bare feet patter down the long +stairway and hall. + +That moonlight tryst was the last of the adventure, but I did not worry, +for I knew that the school would be opened formally in ten days, and I +had laid my plans for Stray in an interested friendship with the very +competent young woman who had already come down from the state normal +college to teach the amalgamated young ideas of Goodloets to shoot. +Also, I had vague plans that hurt me, of getting Jessie or Harriet to +continue the trysts for me after the wedding, whose details they were +all pushing to completion by a mid-September day. + +And added to the strenuosity of the laying of my plans for at least a +year's absence, I had to help father make his arrangements for a six +months' stay in Washington, for he had accepted the President's +appointment on the Commerce Commission, and night and day he was at his +library desk. The silver-topped decanter still stood on the sideboard in +the dining room, and the silver ice bowl was formally filled before +every meal by Dabney. The mint glass was kept fresh and fragrant but +apparently father had forgotten entirely about all three. He ate twice +as much as I had ever seen him consume and the worn lines in his face +were slowly filling out into a delicious joviality. Mr. Hicks, the +little tailor who had always clothed him, had little by little made over +the outer man with new garments as the old ones grew restrictive, and +Mother Spurlock had carried his entire discarded wardrobe, garment at a +time, down to the Settlement for the clothing of some of her most needy +friends. + +But the most reborn person I had ever seen was Dabney. The little black +man had lived so long under the shadow of father's moroseness that when +the pressure was lifted from his bent black shoulders he rebounded to an +amazing extent. His reaction took the form of gala attire in which +Nickols encouraged him to the extent of silk hosiery of the most +delicate shades from his own wardrobe, with ties to match, not to +mention his own last year's Panama hat, pressed over into the extreme of +the prevailing style for youthful masculine head adornment. Also Nickols +bestowed upon him a very up-to-date Palm Beach suit, purchased at the +Hicks shop, and on his first appearance in the kitchen for his wife's +inspection I was present. + +"Go take them clothes off, nigger, and put 'em along of my black silk +shroud in the bottom drawer of the chist," she commanded, as she put her +hands on her sixty-inch waist and stood before him with arms akimbo. +"Folks is got no business to dress in life so fine that they shames they +burying clothes." + +"Shoo fly, I'm jest going to Washington, not to Heaven, in this here +rig. When I git into Heaven it'll be 'cause I'm hiding behind that +black silk skirt of your shroud, honey, if I'm as naked as borned," was +the admiring, wily and also wholly sincere answer to Mammy's fling at +the gorgeous raiment. + +And while the Poplars teemed with wedding plans Nickols kept the whole +village steamed up to be in readiness for the visit of Mr. Jeffries, +which was dated for just a week before the wedding, and the village +festival at the opening of the new school was to be the most important +ceremonial of the whole visit. Father was to give him a dinner at which +all of the Solons of the Harpeth Valley were to be present, and a ball +at the Country Club was being planned by Billy with all enthusiasm. But +the center of the buzz was down at Mother Spurlock's Little House, where +Mr. Goodloe daily, and it seemed almost hourly, drilled the children for +the ceremonial of the opening of their house of learning across the way +from the Little House by the Road. Only echoes of the orgies reached the +outside, and gossip ran high in the Settlement as well as the Town at +the fragments that the delighted scions brought home, of curious folk +dances mixed with fragments of weird tunes. + +"Sure, a minister of the gospel to teach me Mikey to stand on one leg +and spin around on the other with his hands over his head is a quare +thing, but the Riverend Goodloe is no ordinary man," said Mrs. Burns to +Mother Spurlock, who answered: + +"You can trust him, Mrs. Burns, even with Mikey's legs." + +And during all the long weeks of activity not once did I have a word +alone with the Harpeth Jaguar. We met constantly at dinner at the tables +of our friends and he came and went at the Poplars with the same freedom +that Nickols enjoyed. He was long hours in the library with father, and +somehow I felt that he was strengthening the structure that he had +builded on the ruined foundation and something passionate rose in my +heart and filled it with pain every time I heard his ringing laugh come +from the library table, accompanied by father's booming chuckle. Also, +he worked early and late in the garden with Nickols and the young man +from White Plains, and I saw that Nickols' artistic ideas flowed at top +speed when Gregory Goodloe was standing by. + +It was the same thing over at the new schoolhouse. Mr. Todd and the men +worked miracles with their stone and mortar and wood and iron when he +was standing by or lending a hand. The school was built partly of stone +like the chapel and partly of old purple-pink brick like Mother +Spurlock's Little House, and it was beamed with heavy timbers. It was +roofed with heavy colonial clapboards which made it look as if it had +already stood a century before the floors were laid or the very modern +desks installed. It was built to house increasing generations, though +only about fifty children would open its portals of education. + +"It speaks of education de luxe, doesn't it?" Billy asked as Nell and +Harriet and I stood with him and Nickols and the parson watching Mr. +Todd directing the men in screwing down the desks just a few days before +the opening. + +"There is scarcely a village in England to compare with old Goodloets +now, and nothing at all like it," said Nickols, as he looked first up +the hill to the Town and down the hill to the Settlement. "I know that +it is the first spot in America to express what the full grown nation is +going to be. When we add beauty to the materially perfected mode of +existence we are enjoying, life will be too short in the living. That +schoolhouse ought to produce some results in art cultures in the infant +mind of Goodloets." + +"Yes, America is learning that the foundation of its national existence, +trait upon trait, must be laid in the lives of the children," said Mr. +Goodloe, slowly, and he smiled as across from the Little House came wee +Susan's exquisite treble in a waltz song which was backed up by Mother +Spurlock's bumble and Charlotte's none too accurate accompaniment. And +we all smiled with him. + +Always it seemed to me I was with him and a part of a number of people +who felt the radiance of his loveliness, and not once had I for a second +come into personal touch with him. I had, like the rest, got my smiles +and friendliness from the dark eyes under dull gold, but the door to the +land in which I had been with Tristan when he sang his death song had +vanished and there were no traces of its portals. The only sign that was +between him and me was his continued evasion of setting a date for the +dedication of the chapel. He always answered inquiries by saying that +the opening of the school must come first and when the dedication was +mentioned he never looked in my direction. My soul seemed to be standing +still and listening for something that never came. + +And then Mr. Jeffries arrived on the scene of action. + +That night of Billy's ball for the magnate, who was having the time of +his gray-headed life under Billy's and Nickols' enthusiastic direction, +the strange alien thing that had been developed in my depths, part +unrest and part rebellion, since I had first looked into the eyes of the +young Methodist parson, who had intruded himself and his chapel into my +existence, got its death blow. In my presence Nickols made his formal +request of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe to officiate at our marriage. + +"Of course, Greg, old fellow, you are going to marry us next Tuesday, +aren't you?" asked Nickols, as we stood on the steps of the Poplars +after dinner, chatting with him as he was leaving to go over to the +chapel while we went out to the dance. "I suppose there is some sort of +formal way to make the request, but I don't know it." + +"If there is I don't know it, either," was the kindly answer, which +both Nickols and I took for assent. + +"Thank you, sir," said Nickols, as he turned away towards father and Mr. +Cockrell and Mr. Jeffries, who had come out on the porch with their +cigars, and left him and me standing alone in the starlight. + +"God guard you!" he said to me without taking the hand I held out to him +in the darkness with a kind of desperation that seemed that of a +drowning woman. "Good-bye!" and he was gone out into the night, leaving +me, I knew, forever outside of his life. + +"Wait, Oh wait!" I pleaded, but he was gone and I didn't even know if he +heard the cry out into the velvet darkness. + +That night was the most brilliant night that Goodloets had ever known. +The Town was full of guests who had motored over from all the towns +around in the Harpeth Valley. The Governor had come down from the +capital in his huge touring car to congratulate father on his +appointment and to meet Mr. Jeffries. His adjutant-general and several +of his aids were with him in their showy State Guard uniforms and all of +the girls were rosy with excitement at the presence of so many rows of +brass buttons. Mr. Jeffries opened the ball, and to the delight and +amusement of us all, he succeeded in leading out with him Mrs. Sproul, +who turned the opening dance into a stately old Virginia reel, which so +delighted the tango dancers with its novelty that the dance was repeated +several times during the evening by enthusiastic requests. + +And while the Town reveled in celebration of the new Goodloets, down in +the Settlement like rejoicings were being held at the dance hall of the +Last Chance. In fact, the whole small city was in the throes of a great +rejoicing. Why shouldn't all Goodloets revel when it was enjoying a +prosperity beyond anybody's dreams of two years before? Everybody had +been generous to the old town with the money that had come so easily +from other suffering people's necessities, and security and good +fellowship and prosperity reigned supreme. In each heart there was the +feeling that now the old town and their personal lives were founded on +solid rocks of peace and plenty and it was the time to eat, drink and be +merry. + +At supper the Governor's first toast, after that to the town itself, +was to father and his distinctions. Then Mr. Jeffries toasted Nickols +and me. He called Nickols the "American Wizard of Habitations," and, +amid cheering and clapping hands, announced his intention to have +Nickols build the American town on the Hudson. He called me the "Heart +of the Achievement," and father's pride as he looked down the long table +at Nickols and me was very wonderful and beautiful; and as great a pride +rose in my heart as I saw him lift his glass of water to pledge me, +leaving the bubbles breaking in his champagne. + +It was very near dawn when we all motored home and it was upon the verge +of the crack of day by the time Dabney and Nickols had got the Governor +and Mr. Jeffries and the other guests settled under the wide roof of the +Poplars, which had never hovered a more distinguished or brilliant house +party. + +For a few quiet minutes after they had all gone to their rooms Nickols +and I stood alone on the front porch in the cool darkness with its hint +of the dawn, while old Dabney shut up the back part of the house. + +"The school festival will be over to-morrow, sweetheart, and the next +day they will all be gone. The photographers are all through with the +photographing and to-morrow night all the extra workmen go back to the +city. There'll be three whole quiet days for you to get ready to give me +that kiss, which I won't take when you are as tired as you are now," +said Nickols, as he put a limp arm around me and leaned against the tall +door post. + +"To-morrow the old makes way for the new. Goodloets is dead! Long live +Goodloets!" I answered, as I in turn leaned against Nickols' jaded arm +for only a second before we preceded Dabney up the stairs to our rooms. + +In my room I went immediately to the window and opened wide the heavy +shutters. I found myself looking down on Goodloets, which lay below the +darkness of the Poplars like a long glowworm, brilliant with the lights +from the homes of the revelers who were going to bed with a sense of +perfect security. Still farther down the hill the lights from the +Settlement glowed with scarcely less brilliancy and I felt sure that the +Last Chance was still harboring a last fling of joy. + +Suddenly over my spirit came a deep wave of depression that amounted to +a great fear and then as I stood trembling in the darkness, a broad ray +of morning light shot up over Paradise Ridge and spread rapidly into a +crimson glow that was reflected against a black cloud hanging low over +the head of Old Harpeth. A flash of lightning darted from the cloud and +spread its gold fire through the crimson of the coming day, and then the +sullen-pointed cloud sank rapidly below Paradise Ridge, over which it +had risen, as if reconnoitering. Positively shuddering, I knelt against +the window seat and watched the day come with a hitherto unknown terror. +Then as I watched the dawn begin to drive away the sullen clouds a rich +voice began to sing out beyond the old poplars as a window of the gray +chapel was thrown open: + + "Arise, my soul, arise, + Shake off thy guilty fears; + ... ... ... ... + Before the throne my Surety stands + My name is written on His hands." + +The calmness that came into my frightened heart was like the peace of a +deep sleep, and with its strength I faced the day that was to be that of +my humiliation and which was to be the crest of the wave of the high +tide of Goodloets. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE JEWEL IN THE MATRIX + + +When I awoke from a few hours of deep and exhausted sleep I found my +room fast filling with the strenuosities of the day. In fact, I opened +them upon Harriet Henderson, up, dressed and briskly doing. She had a +large pasteboard box with her and the minute I brushed repose from my +eyes she opened it and held up for my inspection a very short tulle +garment besprinkled with tiny silk rosebuds, along with a bonnet and +other wee but distinctly feminine paraphernalia to match. A basket +adorned with a huge bow of tulle came from another box and I was forced +to voice my admiration with the greatest vigor. + +"How I'll ever keep from eating Sue up before she gets to the altar, I +can't see," said Harriet, as she held the wee frock for a second against +her breast. It hurts me to the quick of my own breast to see Harriet's +eyes when she broods over Sue. I don't see how she is going to live +life always as hungry as she is now. + +"I suppose I might just as well wear my tennis things, because the +guests will be already as completely enraptured as is humanly possible +before my entry upon the scene of action of my own wedding," I said, as +I sat up and took the small bonnet in my own hand. "It is too bad that +Jessie and Letitia should worry themselves over my own wedding frock, if +Susan is--" I was just saying when Nell arrived beside my bed with the +Suckling in the very act of obtaining her early luncheon from the +maternal fount. The nurse has always had to follow Nell about with her +successive hungry offspring. + +"Girls, I really don't know what to do, but young Charlotte has given +every single presentable garment that Jimmy possessed to different +unclothed children in the Settlement, who were needed in the pageant, +and Mark and Billy are laughing at her, while Jimmy is howling. I just +ran in to see Harriet a minute and ask her if she--" + +"Yes, Jimmie's wedding garments came home from Mrs. Burns' yesterday and +I'll lend them to you just to spite those men, who are simply ruining +Charlotte by the day," said Harriet, as Nell handed her the replete +Suckling wrong end foremost and picked up the small tulle bonnet with a +gurgle of maternal rapture that was in some ways as young as the happy +gurgle that the Suckling gave as she settled into Harriet's dependable +arms for her morning nap. Harriet cradled her against her own round, +firm breast and for a second brooded then joined in Nell's rapture over +the garments for the bedizening of wee Susan. + +"If Harriet didn't dress and discipline my children I feel sure they +would be found naked in a reform school," Nell said, with a happy and +careless gratitude. There are some women to whom life is incidental and +maternity the most casual adventure of all. The happy-go-lucky variety +are apt to produce just such children as Charlotte or young James or +Susan, and it is well if into their young lives there comes the hungry +woman with a brooding mission. + +"Young Charlotte will probably be the first woman governor of the state +and--" Harriet was saying with a laugh when Letitia and Jessie arrived +precipitately. Letitia had a parcel which contained a lingerie garment +of mine, whose lace and embroidery and ribbon combined would have +enraptured most women, and Jessie carried in her hand a package of +belated wedding cards. They were followed closely by Mammy, who was in +turn followed by the meek Sally. Mammy's address was delivered to me +first. + +"Git up quick, honey; the men folks has begun on the second round of +waffles and they'll be calling for you. The day is on its shanks and +a-going," she admonished, while Sallie turned on my bath. + +"They are having breakfast out in the garden and the day is perfect. Do +you want blue or pink ribbons in this Valenciennes set, Charlotte?" said +Letitia, as she seated herself on the foot of my bed and drew out a +ribbon bag whose contents were of many colors. + +"A fashionable wedding is a white lie; you invite all the people you +especially want to stay away," sighed Jessie, as she seated herself at +my desk and lighted a cigarette, at which Mammy rolled her black eyes +and departed with her nose in the air. + +And while they all chatted over the sealing of my fate I arose and had +my toilet made in my dressing room, in full hearing of the discussions +about the best groupings of bridesmaids and the horror at the count of +the cases of wine Billy had ordered from the city for the dinner to the +groomsmen the night before the wedding. + +"I adore Mark seven-tenths full, but I don't like to endure the end of +the jag next morning," laughed Nell, as she began to put ribbons into +the bodkins for Letitia. I saw Harriet give her a long look from under +her half-lowered eyelashes as she hugged the Suckling closer to her +breast. Billy had told Harriet and me casually a few nights before that +"old Mark's drinking to a double-decker liver and a sidestep in his +heart." + +"Oh, gentlemen always drink in moderation. I never worry over Cliff," +said Letitia complacently, as she tied a decorative shoulder knot. + +"You expect to give him a daily dose of three drops on a lump of sugar, +Letitia?" asked Harriet, as she exchanged glances with Jessie. One +evening last week Jessie and Harriet had motored Cliff in from the Club +just in time to save him from going over the riffles and Letitia had +been dancing with him without noticing his staggers. + +"There, that is the very last stitch to be taken on your trousseau, +Charlotte," said Letitia, as she laid down the filmy garment she had +been adorning with blue bowknots. "Press it, Sallie, and lay it with the +rest of the set in the second tray of the medium-sized trunk. You can +lock it and give me the key." + +"I just can't stand it, Charlotte," said Jessie to me in a low voice, as +I came from the hands of the skillful Sallie and stood beside the window +next to the desk. "You are all I have got and only you--you understand. +I can't give you up. I'm frightened." + +"Hush--so am I," I answered her, as my hand gripped her shoulder under +her heavy linen frock until I felt it must bruise it. Then I turned to +the others, collected them and descended to finish breakfast with the +Poplars' guests. + +Never a more radiantly beautiful morning had spread its loveliness over +the Harpeth Valley than the one I found out in the garden that +twenty-seventh day of September, the gala day in the history of +Goodloets. Huge white clouds drifted back and forth in a deep blue sky +and they were rosy at times with the sunlight, but from some of the +largest little tongues of lightning darted, while others were lit by +what seemed to be an internal glow of fire. Cool winds, perfumed with +the harvests and the ripening orchards and the vineyards out in the +valley, rustled in the treetops and flaunted in the vines. The ardent +sun seemed to be drawing from the bosom of the earth a hot mist which +lay over the town like a filmy bridal veil, only stirred gently by the +vagrant veering gusts of wind. Nature seemed to be holding herself in +leash and only breathing upon the earth gently, as if to stir some +latent lushness into autumnal activity. + +"A perfect Harpeth day for Mr. Jeffries," said the Governor, as he came +from his seat at the table to greet the girls and me. The rest of the +masculine breakfasters followed and I could see from the devastation of +the table that they had all breakfasted well and to repletion. I also +detected the worthless Jefferson, whom Mr. Goodloe had evidently loaned +to his parents for the occasion, lift father's full glass of julep and +drain it with one gulp, grab the half glass that Nickols had left, gulp +it and begin on the finger or so in Billy's tumbler before Dabney could +forcibly but quietly restrain him. In fact, I felt there would have +been a riot among my servitors if Mr. Goodloe had not stepped aside and +spoken a low word to Jefferson, which sent him busily at the table with +his tray. + +And from that moment Nickols' triumphant procession of inspection of +Goodloets began. Mr. Jeffries stood in the middle of the reincarnated +old garden, looked for a long time at the Poplars, which was like a +green encrusted gem with its old purple red brick under the vines, +glanced again and again at the chapel with its weathered stone that +stood beyond the silver-leafed graybeards, then let his eye wander down +the broad elm-bordered main street past the courthouse and past the +Settlement to the river bending around it all. + +"Money couldn't build anything like it, Powers," he said to Nickols at +his side. "Time and gentle living have formed it as a jewel is made in a +matrix. I was born in a mining camp, but I want you to start something +like it all for my great grandchildren to live in. How many generations +will it take?" + +"Give me five years, Mr. Jeffries," laughed Nickols in answer. "Greg +Goodloe's great great grandfather and mine fought off the Indians from +a stockade which stood where his chapel does now, but a year of modern +life about represents a generation of pioneer endeavor." + +"Not too fast, youngster, not too fast," said Mr. Jeffries, and I saw +him exchange a grave glance with father. "What we Americans must have is +stabilizers now that we have annihilated time. Without the discovery of +something of that sort we will hurl along to destruction. What say you, +Mr. Goodloe?" + +"We have the same 'covert of wings' that David used when things spun too +fast for him," answered Mr. Goodloe with the jeweled radiance that +always came from his face when he spoke of his faith even casually. +"Only 'where there is no vision the people perish,' and a people who +invent flying machines and hold international law to account have +vision. We don't know how much we've got, but it'll save us." + +"After the material glass through which we see darkly is completely +smashed for us," said father, with a curious sternness coming into his +face that made me wonder. "But we must take Mr. Jeffries for a nearer +inspection of our metropolis, be with Mrs. Sproul in time for luncheon +and then help Mr. Goodloe open the institute of learning for young +Goodloets." + +In the motor cars parked before the tall gate of the Poplars all of the +guests embarked for their review of the beauties of Goodloets. Nickols +remained behind them while the half sober but skillful Jefferson +wrestled with a slight tire trouble of his slim blue racer. For a few +minutes we were alone in the center of the wonderful garden, which had +never seemed so lovely as upon the day in which it had fulfilled its own +and Nickols' destiny. + +"To-day has brought just what I have longed for, have worked for and +waited for, the commission for the spending of millions of dollars to +make a little corner of the earth beautiful. Not a bad religion, that," +said Nickols, as he told me that Jeffries had spoken a few words of +decided business to him as he had packed him into Mr. Cockrell's car +with father and Mr. Goodloe. "We'll take a honeymoon wander on the other +side, as far from the machine guns as possible, and then I'll come home +to begin my masterpiece." And as Nickols spoke his wonderful eyes +glowed as he looked out at Paradise Ridge as if he were gazing into a +radiant future--perhaps he saw a city not made with hands and did +not--recognize it. "I see it all," he said, and put his arm around me +while we started down the front walk as Jefferson pressed the horn to +signal the readiness of the tire. + +"I'm too busy to go with you, but I'll meet you at Mrs. Sproul's," a +sudden impulse made me say, for I had intended until that instant to +accompany him. + +"A man can't eat his bride and have a trousseau, too," he laughed, as he +drove off rapidly, leaving me standing by the old gate watching him. +Then I turned and slowly walked out into the garden and down to the old +graybeards. And seated on one of the grass mats I found the reason I had +unconsciously been drawn back. Martha was waiting for me there. + +"Why, Martha," I exclaimed, startled without understanding just why. "I +might have gone and not known you were waiting. Why didn't you come and +tell me you were here?" + +"I couldn't--I found I couldn't," she answered me, looking up into my +face with her strange, sad eyes. "I--I suppose I just came to peep in +on you like I did to the coming-out party." She laughed softly, with a +note of self-scorn in her voice. + +"Is anything the matter with--with Sonny?" I asked quickly, again +unconsciously using the name for the Stray that her tenderness had given +him. Her white face and desperate manner frightened me. + +"No, he's dressed in one of Jimmy Morgan's old suits and he is going to +be taken from me this afternoon forever," she answered with the note of +bitterness deepening. + +"But you want him to go to school, don't you, Martha?" I asked +patiently, as I sat down on a mat beside her. I spoke to her as one +speaks to the limited intelligence of a child and I was slightly +impatient at her distress. + +"He asked me yesterday why everybody called him Stray and if it did mean +Stranger like Charlotte said, and if he would always be called that or +have an everyday name like Jimmy. Soon he'll know and then I'll lose him +as I'm losing everything else." + +"Why won't you let me help you to--to begin over again?" I asked her, +this time with less patience. "Why have you--you locked yourself away +from me?" + +"I can't--I won't ever tell you. I must go back, now I've seen you +in--in your happiness. But I don't hate you--I never have." And as she +spoke Martha rose and began to walk rapidly away from me. + +"Oh, please don't go, Martha," I said. "In just three days I'll be going +away for a long time, you know, and I want to help you in some way +before I go. You ought to let me, and it worries me that you don't, now +of all times," and as I put my selfish plea for ease to my conscience, +something that was hot and rebellious made me want to stop the woman who +was hurrying away from me. + +"I won't, I won't make you unhappy--but I must go. I must! I'll--I'll be +happy--and good now--if _you'll_ only be happy. Good-bye!" And as she +called back at me over her shoulder, Martha ran from me down through the +hedge and into the door of the chapel, which always, night and day, rain +and storm, stood slightly ajar. A queer pain smote me to see that she +had run from me into the only place in all the broad, smiling Harpeth +Valley where I could not--or would not, follow her. And the sanctuary +that she sought was for every man, woman or child who wanted it--only I +could not and would not seek it. + +"'The covert of wings,'" I whispered to myself, as I went down the +street to Mrs. Sproul's as rapidly as possible to be rid of my own +company. As I repeated the words that the parson had used to Mr. +Jeffries I noticed one great white cloud with a dark center flash fire +into another, to a great crashing and rumbling. "I wonder if it is +really going to storm," I speculated gloomily, as I turned into the +Sproul gate, but the brilliant sunshine seemed to fling me a dazzling +denial from every petal of the white clematis that wreathed itself +across the front porch, under which Mrs. Sproul, arrayed in all the +midday magnificence of good form, sat and waited for her guests. Mrs. +Cockrell sat beside her and they were delighted to see me and demanded +happiness from me which it was hard for me to give from the depths that +had been stirred by my strange interview with Martha, to which I felt I +ought to have a key, but could not find it anywhere. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE PAGEANT + + +"We were just saying, Charlotte dear, that this absurd school affair has +completely overshadowed your wedding day," said Mrs. Cockrell, as she +rocked back and forth in tune with her Irish point rose she was +constructing. "It seems to me a wedding ought to come before a school +festivity." + +"Social law requires that marriage take precedence of schooling," said +Mrs. Sproul, as her mischievous old eyes snapped at Mrs. Cockrell's +placid conventionality. "The correct order is for women to take husbands +and then school children should be the inevitable outcome. They are not, +however, in this day and generation, which is about to be the last, I'm +thinking." + +"There will be thirty-nine kiddies from the Settlement and eleven from +the Town to feast on reason and flow soul together in the new school," I +laughed, as I sat down between them. "Also I'm thinking that a lot more +will be forthcoming from the Settlement by next week. Young Charlotte +and Mother Spurlock clothed as far as they could, but they will keep at +it, I feel sure. I feel guilty at the idea of taking three trunks of +clothes away from the watchful eye of Mother Elsie, only I'm leaving the +accumulation of years for her distribution." + +"The passport to Elsie Spurlock's heart is a condition composed of rags, +hunger and unhappiness. She has no sympathy or time for a sanitary and +contented friend," said Mrs. Sproul with a decided tartness that was +only a reflex of the deep affection she bore the mistress of the Little +House, which had existed since childhood and would endure. + +"I hear some of the cars coming," announced Mrs. Cockrell, as she began +to crochet furiously at the last petal of a rose. "Is my cap straight? I +do so want to finish this row and can't go in to look." + +"You'll put out St. Peter's eye with a crochet needle while he's +unlocking the pearly gates for you, Lettie Cockrell," said Mrs. Sproul, +as she rose and stood with ceremony at the head of the steps to meet +the Governor and Mr. Jeffries and father as they came up her front walk. + +Mrs. Sproul always has the most delightful old world sort of midday +dinners and it was two o'clock before we all arose from her long table, +at one end of which had been demolished a spiced ham and from the other +end had disappeared two fat summer turkeys. A saddle of lamb had been +passed in between and we had wound up with sweet potato custards, apple +float and ice cream. + +"I understand now," said Mr. Jeffries, as his keen old eyes twinkled +down the table at Nickols. "This food should produce geniuses. The South +feeds for it." + +"Yes, we eat, drink, are merry and do it all over again to-morrow," said +Mark, as he walked beside Mrs. Sproul from the devastated dining room. +"And we must all hurry if we are to see your young ideas begin to shoot. +This day isn't really hot, but just thinks it is. Look at those clouds +boiling up back of Old Harpeth as if wanting to storm, but afraid to +begin it. There's not a breath of air stirring. Wish it _would_ shower, +for I believe the colors of Goodloe's pageant would run and I'd like to +see the true hue of this melee of his come out in the wash. It would do +Charlotte good to fade a bit. She has been hectic since daylight and the +rest of my juvenile family with her. Jimmy is S and Z in the alphabet +and Sue has got a huge A sewed on her back. Goodloe intends that +education shall be nailed to 'em." + +And at his admonition to hurry and the alluring description of the +entertainment to come, we all betook ourselves on foot toward the +schoolhouse down the street a few blocks, halfway between the Town and +the Settlement. + +And as we went all the rest of the Town hurried out of wide, high, +vine-covered doors, down broad, flower-lined walks, and joined us from +under bowers of blooming roses, honeysuckle and clematis. We actually +approached the schoolhouse in the form of quite a large procession, and +as we wound our way down the hill we met a like procession winding +itself up the hill from the Settlement, a procession arrayed in its best +bib, tucker and boiled shirt, just as we were adorned in silk, lace, +fine muslin and linen. + +"It looks like two armies approaching each other--Greek is going to meet +Greek," said Billy. + +"Rather Greek meets Vandal, and there stands Goodloe to do the +interpreting," Nickols jeered in answer. + +And as we all flocked into the wide gate of the school yard I was again +struck with the great beauty of the tall, broad, lithe, free man who +stood in the middle of the walk just inside, welcoming Town and +Settlement alike. And while he greeted us, his enthusiastic flock of +older children seated the groups of guests on the long rough benches +which were placed facing the door of the schoolhouse, leaving a wide +space at the foot of the steps, which was roped off with golden chains +of black-eyed daisies and which was evidently to be used as a stage for +the pageant. + +"Just look how Goodloe is failing to mix his oil and water," Nickols +whispered to me, as we observed all of the Settlement groups gravely +gravitate to the left side of the walk while all the Town in chattering +parties took seats on the right. "That's right, Burns, take off my last +summer coat," he added, still in a whisper to me as the Burns parent +struggled out of the unendurable gift garment and thus gave a signal +that whipped off every coat on the left side of the walk in the +twinkling of an eye, to the evident distress of the tightly girted and +uncomfortable but more formal feminine members of the Settlement +contingent. Conjugal strife was about to make its appearance when Mother +Spurlock, who was seated beside poor little Hettie Garrett, holding the +Mother Only in her arms with never a glance for Mrs. Sproul, who had +beckoned her to a seat next to her own beruffled silk skirts, passed the +word around that such comfort was to be accorded the masculine guests. +Even with such sanction, however, Luella May Spain looked pained at her +father's gay new red suspenders, and I could see that Mr. Todd's striped +shirt was hurting the feelings of Sadie Todd dreadfully, and she and +Luella May returned Billy's gallant salute with the greatest +embarrassment. And in all the buzz I found myself looking anxiously for +Martha Ensley's pale face and dark eyes, but failed to find them. + +"This is one place she ought not to have to peep into; here she has the +rights of her citizenship and her motherhood," I said to myself. + +But if the Town and the Settlement sat in the seats of the audience, +divided by the walk as were the walls of waters by the dry path along +which Moses led his chosen people out of the darkness of Egypt, such a +division was not noticeable among the performers of the pageant who were +supposed to be in hiding with their costumes behind a tall screen of +shrubs at one side of the schoolhouse, but who bubbled out on all sides. +Charlotte appeared once holding small Maudie Burns in a comforting +embrace and guided her to her mother for some sort of attention to the +very short skirts of blue gingham which were draped with about ten yards +of green crepe paper, while both Harriet and I gasped as we saw Mikey +jauntily hand the Suckling, tightly wrapped in brown swaddlings, into +the rapturous and tender embrace of Katie Moore, who had blue wings +sewed to her small gingham shoulders. + +"Great Guns! They've got Sucks in it, too!" gasped Billy. "That child is +too young to educate and Goodloe ought to be restrained from +cradle-snatching like--" + +But just here Billy was interrupted and the audience all quieted down as +Mr. Goodloe, in his white flannels and with his gold head ablaze in the +sun, which suddenly shone out fiercely from behind a white cloud which +was sheeting internally with electricity, mounted two of the front +steps of the schoolhouse and held up his hand for silence. + +"Mr. Todd," he said with beautiful deference, "will you lead us in +prayer?" There was a perceptible rustle of feeling on the Settlement +side of the walk, for Mr. Todd was one of the parson's deacons, but he +had also been the master workman in the building of the schoolhouse, and +his neighbors were quick to respond to the tribute offered him before +the distinguished men present. He rose, gaunt and grizzled in his shirt +sleeves, but what he said was brief and as square-cut and to the point +as any nail he had ever driven. I saw the Governor and father exchange +glances and I noticed when the Governor responded to his call he was +much less ornate of speech than usual and much more universal. They all +spoke, from Nickols along the line to father, and after repeated urgings +Mother Spurlock rose to the occasion, and by way of making the Town and +Settlement at home in its new joint quarters announced that the tea +canister with its slit would hereafter be nailed just inside the +schoolhouse door. + +The laugh and delighted applause that was given her seemed to have been +the last straw to the actors behind the shrubbery, restrained by their +young preceptress, for the pageant broke upon us. + +First Mikey, with huge white cambric stork wings, hopped upon the stage +of sward and deposited the brown-wrapped Suckling in a hollow log in the +center, and departed flapping. After that the ceremonial developed +itself into the education that was to flow down upon her defenseless +head at the waving of the wand of Minerva, who was Charlotte with a +tinsel star of wisdom resting rampantly upon her brow. And it came down +upon the Suckling with a vengeance. A whole troop of young letters of +the alphabet, led by small Susan with the large red A upon her fat back, +danced around the Suckling's helplessness and finally backed up to the +audience to spell the word "Reading." Next in hopped a flock of numerals +led by the indefatigable Mikey, which backed up and presented themselves +from one to ten to thus imply the hated science of "Arithmetic." + +The Suckling slept on amid delighted gurgles from her mother and +Harriet. She slept through a presentation of the script letters of +"Writing" and was still unconscious when "Geography" in crepe paper, +with flags of all nations, grouped around her. She only awoke when, all +by himself, sturdily, with his head in the air and fairly radiant with +beauty and courage, the Stray marched upon the scene, rolled into a +white roll of paper and girt about with a broad red ribbon sealed upon +his back to represent "Diploma." Silently and intent upon his duty he +walked straight to the Suckling in her log crib, bent over her, crooned +to her reassuringly a second, lifted her in his white arms and backed +off behind a tall laurel bush with her nodding in delight over his +shoulder. The boy was so beautiful and the little scene so tender that +the entire audience caught its breath at its--audacity. A gauntlet had +been thrown into the faces of both the Town and Settlement and they both +understood. + +They sat perfectly still with astonishment while the performers were +being massed in the schoolhouse by the young teacher for their final +march out to the steps for the hymn singing with the beloved "Minister," +which was to conclude the ceremonials. + +And while the audience sat awaiting the further presentations to be +made them by their offspring, Mr. Goodloe came out the door and halfway +down the steps. Then suddenly he stopped and looked out over the valley +with such an expression on his face that with one accord his audience +rose and looked with him. And as it looked a groan came that was a +chorus melted into one voice of terror, while all of them stood helpless +with amazement. While we had all been sitting in the curious sweltering +heat, watching with pride a future for our children being foretold for +them by themselves, death had reared itself behind Old Harpeth, coiled +itself into a huge black spiral of thunder and lightning and was driving +down the valley upon Goodloets with a velocity that defied the eyes to +follow. For a long second every man and woman stood rooted to his +foothold on the earth and watched the tornado strike the edge of the +Settlement, smash down the saddlery as if it were a house of cards, and +churn the little tannery into the river. Then as it grasped the roof of +the Last Chance and began twisting it with a roar that grew in volume +every instant, Gregory Goodloe suddenly raised his hand and spoke in a +perfectly calm voice that rang out above the groan of the tortured +shanties of the Settlement which were crashing down against each other. + +"Oh, God, we trust in the covert of thy wings," he prayed for a second +and then commanded: "Fall to the earth, all of you, and let it pass over +you!" + +"The children!" came a cry that was a wail of parenthood, as we all sank +to the ground just as the terrible black monster tore the roof from the +Little House and hurled it toward us across the street. I saw a huge +rafter hurtle through the air and strike down Mark Morgan as he started +toward the steps of the schoolhouse, and by not a half inch did it miss +drunken, useless Mike Burns as it fell beside him. Then I covered my +eyes as the cloud and the wind passed over me and I only heard it strike +and rend and crash and tear the schoolhouse, beam from beam and stone +from stone. An eerie wail of the voices of little children was mixed +with the roar of the monster which crashed on up through the Town, +laying low the homes of our pride and prosperity, leaving us with our +faces to the ground while upon us began to pour a deluge of cold rain. + +"Mark! Mark!" I heard Harriet moan beside me and I saw her crawl under +the wind toward where Mark had fallen. + +"My babies, Oh, my babies!" came a wail in Nell's voice, and I saw her +try to rise, be knocked over by the wind and then begin to crawl toward +the wrecked mass that a second before had been the schoolhouse and from +which now could be heard the screams and cries of the children. Then as +suddenly as it had laid us low the cruel wind left us and with one +accord we all sprang to our feet and surged toward the children's calls +and cries that came out to us in the semi-darkness that still enveloped +us, though both the wind and the rain were abating. + +But before a huge slab that had been the top step of the schoolhouse we +were all halted by a voice so stern and commanding that even the +agonized mothers and fathers paused. + +"Stop! Not a man or a woman must come a step nearer," said the parson, +with the authority in his voice that must always be obeyed when used by +one human being to another. "The roof of the house has split and sunk in +the middle and only one side beam is supporting it. If it is touched by +so much as a hand it may lose its balance and fall on the children. +Only one man must come forward and put his shoulder under the beam at +the other end while I hold this. The children must come out one by one, +so as not to shake anything on them. The beam may fall. Do you all +understand me? One man!" + +"Me, Parson, me!" demanded Mr. Todd. + +"A broader, younger man, Todd," answered the parson, and he was casting +his eye over the huddled people before him when a wail came clear and +distinct from within the ruin. + +"Stranger is caught and bleeding! Hurry, hurry!" were the words that +Charlotte sent forth with all the strength of her young lungs. + +"It's my child, Oh, it's mine!" came an answering, cry, and from behind +some hiding place Martha Ensley flung herself across the front of the +huddled group of the Settlement people and against the defense of +Gregory Goodloe's strong arm which held her from the tottering doorway +he was supporting. "Let me get him out!" + +"No, Martha," the parson said calmly and tenderly, as he held her back. + +"Then _you_ come and get him," Martha said, as she suddenly straightened +herself and looked out among us of the Town. "He's yours--come and save +him!" But even in her agony she was cautious in her appeal, which came +without the demand of a name. We all held our breath for an instant, +Settlement and Town. Who would answer her? + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +LIGHT--INTO DARKNESS + + +"Yes, Martha," came the answer after an instant's pause, and Nickols +Powers stepped from my side to that of Martha Ensley and took her wrung +hands in his. For another long moment we all stood tense at the +acknowledgment that the tragedy had forced to the surface. I stood +beside father like a woman of ice, yet on fire with a contemptuous +humiliation. The eyes of all my world were for an instant turned on me, +then they were all called back to the tragedy that was tottering over +us. + +"Hurry, hurry!" came another wail from within the ruins in Charlotte's +voice. "He's bleeding!" + +Again Martha started to fling herself past Nickols and the parson with a +scream of terror which was faintly echoed from within. + +"Somebody come to Martha," commanded Mr. Goodloe, as he held her off +with one hand while he eased the beam on his shoulder so that Nickols +could slip in past him to the other end. + +Suddenly a great, beautiful warmth melted the horror of pride and +humiliation that had frozen my heart as Nickols had stepped from my side +to that of Martha in acknowledgment of her claim upon him for the saving +of the child. All fear for her or us or the babies passed from me. My +soul had gone out into a darkness, called on some great Power that must +be there directing such a thing as was happening to us, and calm and +clear the answer of courage flowed into me. + +Then without another moment's hesitation I stepped forward and held out +my arms to Gregory Goodloe for Martha. He put her into their strong +embrace and I pressed her head down upon my shoulder in a great +tenderness I had never felt before, while Nickols, with a long, hunted +look at us both, crawled into the crumbling ruin and crouched under the +beam as Gregory Goodloe directed him. + +The wind had died down, the clouds were rolling away the darkness and +the rain had almost stopped as we all stood and waited for Gregory +Goodloe to bring from that ruin, in the way his superior judgment +thought best, either life or death. From within there came sobs and +smothered little moans that were so mingled that they could not be +identified by even the mother hearts held at bay by the faith that made +them obey the parson's command. + +And then as I stood there with the mother of the child of my lover +cowering against my breast, with the man who in a few days was to have +been my husband, crouched under almost certain grinding death, and +looked into what at any moment might be the grave of all the babies of +the women I held dear, a light was flooding into my darkness and all of +the obscure, untranslatable writings on my nature became clear and I +received my consciousness of my Master, the Lord Jesus, with a cry that +I sent up for His mediation for the lives of the little ones. It was my +first prayer. + +"O Christ in Heaven, help save them!" I pleaded. "Quick, Gregory, +quick!" I added another supplication in the next breath. + +"Sue is bleeding, too!" again came a wail in Charlotte's voice. "Mikey's +got the baby, but he's caught." + +Nell had been kneeling beside Mark's prostrate form, but at Charlotte's +call she laid his head on Harriet's breast and flung herself against my +arm outstretched to receive and restrain her. + +"Now, Nickols, steady! I'll lift them past the beam," said the parson, +as he braced himself in the door space which had been crushed into a +narrow opening. + +"Charlotte, take the baby from Mikey and hand her to me first," he +commanded. "Where are you caught, Mikey?" + +"Me leg," wailed Mikey and his wail was echoed by poor little Mrs. +Burns. + +"Here," said the parson, as he handed the brown swaddled bundle to Nell, +who caught it in her arms and sank shuddering to my feet. + +"Now, Charlotte, I want you to get all the other children who are not +caught into line and make them walk carefully, just as you did here to +me," said the parson in a perfectly calm voice, the one he had used to +command his small congregation in the weeks of the drill. + +"They are all crying and got their heads covered up," answered Charlotte +in despair. "They won't get up and march." Loud wails of fear and +anguish accompanied this statement, as if to corroborate it. + +"Sing with me, Susan, sing the march," came the command without an +instant's delay from the lips of the beloved Minister. + + "Onward, Christian soldiers + Marching as to war, + With the cross of Jesus + Going on before--" + +came wee Sue's high, sweet voice which rose from the cavern and joined +with the parson's in the old song that has led strong men through many a +death watch. + +For a long moment we all waited and then out of the hole in the mass of +stones and timbers and bricks, led by wee bleeding Susan, crawled a slow +stream of bloody, bruised, sobbing infant humanity to be absorbed with +cries of rapture into waiting arms. + +"Hurry, Goodloe, get the boy and Charlotte; my God, hurry, the beam is +sinking!" came in Nickols' smothered voice. + +Martha started, but I held her tight against my breast. + +"I've got Mikey's pants loose with my teeth," came in Charlotte's voice, +as a creaking of the timbers made a shudder run through the waiting +crowd as every man and woman who held a restored treasure close, waited +to see what would happen to the three left in the settling ruins. + +"Come out, Mikey, come out," called the Burns paternal parent. + +"I won't! I'm going to help Charlotte git out Stray," was the undutiful +response of courage to the craven. + +"Where is he caught, Charlotte?" asked the parson, as he edged a little +farther under the beam, which tottered and brought him to a cautious +standstill. + +"His middle. Mikey's pushing and I'm pulling, but he's all bluggy. He's +dead all but his toes that wiggle." + +"Hurry, Goodloe, hurry!" groaned Nickols, with what seemed a final +inspiration of breath. + +"Pull him loose and come quick, Charlotte, you and Mikey. Never mind the +blood," was the firm command and in a few seconds Charlotte and Mikey +squeezed through the fast closing opening, bloody and torn, but with +the limp Stray dragged between them. A great cheer went up as Martha +turned and caught the unconscious boy in her arms, then it froze in the +throats that had been uttering it. Slowly, but more rapidly than could +be stayed by human hands, the whole heavy roof crushed down upon the +rest of the ruin; and under it and the beam went Nickols Powers with +only one deep groan. Mr. Goodloe tried to hold up the whole side of the +roof on his own shoulders and only staggered out from the very brink of +being involved in the crash. Martha sank to the ground and hid her head +in my knees and sobbed while I heard a great cry break from my father's +lips. Nickols was the last of his race and our pride was blasted when he +fell. + +"Now forward, every man of you, but lift and dig carefully," commanded +the parson, as he stood on the very edge of the ruin. "Todd, you stand +at the corner and show them how to roll back the timbers to the right. +Carefully, men, but quick, quick, and with the help of God!" + +It seemed hours that the men wrestled with the timbers and tore away +brick and stone and steel, but it was only a few minutes before they +pried up a section of the heavy roof and lifted Nickols from the debris +beneath. + +"He's breathing," said Mr. Todd, as he laid him in the parson's great, +strong, outstretched arms open to receive him and which bore him out +through the crowd swiftly and laid him across the seats of Nickols' car. +Doctor Harding had just put Mark, a limp, heavy body, into his own car, +with Harriet to support the bleeding head, and Nell crouched beside him +with the Suckling in her arms, and sent them on up into the devastated +Town. Now he came and helped us settle Nickols on his cushions. + +"Shall I send my car and Colonel Leftwick for surgeons and nurses from +the Capital?" asked the Governor. "How is it with Morgan?" + +"He is dead," answered the old doctor with the calm serenity that he had +acquired after so many years of giving up his friends. "This case is +another matter. There may be a chance and I'll need help. We don't yet +know how many more are injured in the whole town. We'll need help." + +"Then I'll drive for it myself," answered the Governor, as he swung into +his powerful car and started it out into the valley. "I'll make it back +in six hours. No other man can drive this car as fast as I can." + +And true to his promise, he was back within the time with nurses and +surgeons and supplies of all kinds. By that time the whole Harpeth +Valley had heard of our tragedy and all who could find a way were +hurrying to our rescue or comforting. + +The dawn of the beautiful new day found Nickols still alive, stretched +on his bed in his own wing of the Poplars, which alone of all the homes +in the Town had not been touched by the storm monster. The old house +stood unharmed in all its beauty in its garden which had hardly a leaf +or a branch broken, and hovered under its roof the last of the name of +its builders. He lay quiet and unconscious while his life jetted itself +away from a great hole in his lung made by a splinter from the beam he +had held up until old Goodloet's children had been given back to its +future. The great surgeon who had come down with the Governor, watched, +shook his head and went at his task again and again with a dogged +courage. For an hour he would leave him to go and help Dr. Harding with +some of the other injured, but back he would come to his fight for +Nickols' life. + +And all over the stricken town there were similar tragedies being +enacted. Over at the Morgans Mark lay cold and still in the long parlor, +which was almost the only part of the handsome old house left intact by +the tornado, and Harriet sat beside him while Nell nursed maimed wee +Susan and torn Jimmy, and restrained Charlotte from injuring her sorely +twisted ankle. + +Down at the Last Chance, Jacob Ensley was stretched upon a bed in the +bar with a sheet drawn straight and decorously over his bruised white +head. He had been killed by a blow from a roof timber, while from right +beside him young George Spain had been rescued unharmed. When he had +crawled from the ruins he had held in his hand a bottle of whiskey which +he had just uncorked for his own and Jacob's refreshment when the +tornado tore at the East Chance, and scarcely a drop had been spilt. And +the tornado had displayed the vagaries of its kind. + +Old Granny Todd had been lifted in her rocking chair and carried halfway +over the Town and left beside the Spain cottage with her feeble life +intact, while Mrs. Spain, upon whose shoulders the burden of mothering +all seven of the Spains rested heavily, had had one of those valuable +shoulders broken and was left crushed and bleeding beside the rocking +chair in which the helpless old dame arrived for her enforced visit. The +household goods of one family had been torn from them and thrown into +the melee of another, and the Jamison clock was found ticking busily +away over on the roof of the Todd's chicken house. A girl mother in a +little cottage on the edge of the river bank was found floating against +the shore in her wooden bedstead, drowned, while near her the little two +days' old life had been perfectly preserved upon the pillow in the +rocking chair where it had been sleeping when the great storm beast had +made its raid. + +And all Goodloets mourned, crying for her children, and would not be +comforted. The second day after the storm the dead were buried. Mr. +Goodloe, with old Mr. Stokes, the Presbyterian minister, on one hand, +and the Baptist student preacher on the other, stood in the center of +the beautiful city of the dead, over which the storm had passed +unheeding, and had services for the rich and the poor alike. With the +same ceremonial were buried Mark Morgan and Jacob Ensley, and the girl +mother, Ted Montgomery, who had been struck down by the falling sign of +the Bank and Trust Company on Main Street, and a score of others. + +Then after all the tears had been shed and the sobs had ceased, all the +flowers strewn and the reluctant feet had left the silent city, I went +over behind the tall cedars into a corner and knelt beside Martha +Ensley, who had flung herself down across the new-made grave that held +all that was left of Jacob Ensley, the man who had bulwarked sin in his +Settlement and menaced all of Goodloets for many a year. The wide-eyed +boy crouched beside her and I took his hand in mine. + +"Martha," I said, as I bent beside her in the twilight. "I want you to +come home with me, you and Sonny. Your place is there now and you must +bring him." All day I had thought and I had prayed to be aided in doing +what I knew was best. + +"Oh, no, Miss Charlotte, no," she said, and shrank from my arms. + +"Yes, Martha," I said, and drew her closer. + +"It happened the summer we were all first grown and you were in Europe. +I couldn't fight him off. I knew he belonged to you and I loved you, +but I couldn't fight him off," she sobbed and the Stray's little arms +went around her neck. + +"I'll fight fer you--I'll fight," he said, with brave, wonderment in his +eyes and voice. + +"I went away this summer and I wanted to stay. Mr. Goodloe tried to help +me, but Nickols found where I was and made me come back. It was wrong to +you and I knew it. I stayed shut up in my room, but he would come. And I +sent him to his death. He was yours and I killed him for you! Please go +away and leave me!" And again Martha cowered away from me. + +"Nobody need know you are in the house, Martha, but you must come with +me," I said, and I spoke with such quiet authority that she rose and +followed me out of the shadows into the starlit night which had come +down over stricken Goodloets. I found Billy waiting for me in his car +and he spoke gently to Martha and settled her and the boy on the back +seat with never a question in his kind eyes. + +"God, you women!" he said to me under his breath, but I avoided his eye +and he drove us silently to the Poplars. The long halls were quiet and +empty in the anxious hush of the whole house which was keeping its +life--or death watch. I led Martha to the room that opened into mine, in +which all of the girl guests of the Poplars always slept, and made her +take off her hat and make the boy comfortable. Then I went for Dabney +and asked him to take food to them. + +"Yes'm, I will. God love my little miss," was his answer, and I knew +that I could trust his kindness to Martha and the boy. + +Then I went into the library to father. I found Mr. Goodloe with him and +father's calm under his anxious suffering gave me a thrill at the +thought of the regained strength it implied. The parson's face was +grave, but full of a white light from the fire burning back under the +dull gold brows. His warm hands took my cold ones in them and pressed +them palm to palm in the attitude of prayer and very tenderly, from his +soul to mine, he said: + +"'The Lord is good, for his mercy endureth forever.'" + +"Forever?" I asked him, looking up with the child's faith that had been +born in my heart shining in the confidence in my eyes. + +"Forever," he answered me with quiet authority. + +"Yes," said father solemnly, as if himself reassured after doubts. Then, +after a second's pause: "Daughter, Nickols is conscious and is asking +for you. Will you go to him?" + +I took my hands out of those which had given to mine the strength of +prayer and went. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE SPARK AND THE BLAZE + + +I found Nickols lying in his own dim and high bedroom, perfectly +motionless under the white sheet, as he had been for two days, the only +difference that now his great dark eyes burned into mine and on his +mouth there rested a faint trace of the old mocking smile. I sat down +close beside his pillow on a low chair which the nurse placed for me as +she gave me a warning look and left us alone. + +"This is your wedding day, Charlotte, and the license is over on the +desk to destroy," he said, with the mocking light in his eyes flaring up +into greater strength. "I suppose you are duly grateful for the merciful +escape accorded you." + +"Please don't, dear," I said, and I reached out and took his burning +hand in mine. + +"You never really cared, Charlotte. You cold women make havoc in a man's +life. I've no excuses to make, but I wish I could hear you say that you +forgive me. I'd go out more contentedly." And the light that sprang up +into his face showed me just what a hold I had on his loyalty and the +thing a man calls his honor. And it came to me on the wings of a quick, +silent prayer, prayed in a heart unlearned in the forms of petitions, +that I must make a fight to give him the peace of his heritage of +immortality before he entered it. + +"I do forgive you, Nick dear, as I hope to be forgiven by the Master for +the wrongs I have done others--the wrong of accepting your life--in +coldness," I answered, looking him steadily in the eye as I made my +simple declaration of my new-found faith to him. + +"You?" he faltered. "Do I behold you entered into the creed?" + +"Listen to me, Nick, for the time is short," I said, as I held his hand +close in mine. "We were blind--blind. When you and the children were in +that death house I found that I must ask help. I cried out in my +blindness and was answered, as Christ gave his promise that the eyes of +those who ask should be opened. And you must ask so that you will have +a vision to help--help you go to the blessed immortality that awaits +you. Ask, Oh, Nick, ask with me. Please, Lord Jesus, help us!" And as I +uttered my few faltering words of petition I fell on my knees beside the +bed. + +"It's too late now," he answered, but a helplessness came into his +bitterness. "I've done all the damage I could and I'm not going to +whimper. You'll help poor Martha?" he questioned softly, and I could +have cried out in thankfulness for the ray of tenderness that came +across his white face. + +"God has given you time to right the worst wrong, Nick," I said, as a +sudden thought came to me that gave to me a healing which I knew I must +pour out upon his wounds. "Marry Martha and give the boy your name and +your money to grow good and great with. Jacob is dead. They are alone in +the world. Give them to me that way, Nick, give them to me to care for +for you until we are all together where everything is made right." + +For a long moment he lay perfectly still and looked into my eyes and I +saw a wonder grow in his that spread all over his whole face. + +"Some kind of a God must have created a woman like that in you. Almost +I believe. Call Goodloe quick, and your father." And then he closed his +eyes and I could see a deathly weakness stealing over him. I called the +nurse and sent her for father and Gregory Goodloe, and to old Dabney who +had come to wait by the door I whispered to bring Martha and the boy and +keep them in the room beyond. Then I went back and knelt by the pillow +and took the hand which was beginning to grow cold in mine. + +"Could it be possible?" the white lips muttered. + +"Say it, Nickols; say, 'Lord, help thou my unbelief,'" I begged him. + +"Amen," he whispered with a quick smile just as father and Gregory +Goodloe came into the room. + +"Goodloe, what was the exact story about that skulker of a thief on the +cross?" Nickols asked with a sudden strength in his voice as he opened +his eyes and looked straight at the parson. + +"'The thief said unto Jesus, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into +thy kingdom." And Jesus said unto him, "Verily I say unto thee, to-day +shalt thou be with me in Paradise,"' are the exact words, Nickols," the +parson answered him. + +"Charlotte, ask the judge if he is willing that I should wipe the slate +clean as you propose in case there really is a door and an old Peter to +present a purified passport to," the dying man said to me with a touch +of his old whimsicality. "I give up, Greg; the soul that Charlotte +possesses can't be put out into nothingness; and if she's got one I have +too," he said, after a moment's fight for breath. "Hurry, all of you, to +get my passport made out and bring the girl here to me. Quick, get her. +There is very little time." + +"She's here, Nick," I answered, and after a few words to father and the +parson, to which they both gave assent, I called Martha and the boy into +the room. + +Straight as a bird to its nest Martha flew to the bedside and the dying +arms found strength to lift themselves and take her and the child into +their embrace. + +"Will you forgive me and let me make it as right with the world for you +and him as I can, Martha?" he asked. "I love you, but I'd have drawn us +all down into hell." + +"Oh, no, no!" exclaimed Martha, looking up at me with positive fear of +me and of father and of our world in her wild face. + +"Yes, Martha," I said, as I knelt beside her and took the Stray in my +arms, toward which he in his terror at the scene strained. "Father is a +justice and he'll make the license over there in the desk right. You +must, Martha, you must! It gives you and the boy to me to care for." + +"Yes, Martha," echoed Nickols' voice, out of which the strength was +quickly going. "Help me wipe off as much of the slate as you can," and +the wandering hand suddenly encountered the boy's wee paddie resting on +the edge of the bed and clasped it close. + +And with the three of us crouched there beside him, father and Mr. +Goodloe bound them legally and in the name of God, just as the last +flicker of strength flared up in Nickols' body. Immediately I rose with +the child in my arms and Martha took Nickols' head on her faithful +breast while the life ebbed away. + +"Amen, Charlotte, amen," were his last whispered words and I understood +that he was ratifying again my prayer for light to lead the way of his +faltering steps. + +And then came a stillness in which we all stood with bowed heads while +Martha sobbed. + +The death of Nickols Morris Powers was an event of national interest and +telegrams and letters and representatives of the press poured into +Goodloets from all parts of the country. Mr. Jeffries and the Governor +stayed with us until it was all over, and when Mr. Jeffries left he +pressed into father's hand a large check of five figures. + +"To help them build again, those who need it, in memory of him," he +said. + +The Governor and his staff spent time and effort in helping to +reorganize Goodloets, but through it all it was the powerful Harpeth +Jaguar on whom we all leaned. He came and went day and night, tireless, +quiet, commanding, and with that great light shining from back of his +eyes upon us all. And in his ministrations down in the Settlement he +took Martha with him day after day. He forced her to use up all of the +strength that she possessed each day so that she would drop with +exhaustion at night. To me he left most of the comforting of Nell--and +Harriet. Like all women of buoyant and shallow nature, Nell soon began +to rebound from her tragedy and it was hard to keep Billy within +decorous bounds in his comforting of her. It would have been impossible +to have done it at all with the former Billy, but the quiet, steady +light that shone in his honest eyes whenever he helped with Nell and the +children spoke well for a reformed and perfectly satisfactory future for +them all. + +"Billy," I said to him one afternoon when he had taken all four of the +kiddies out in his car to get wild grapes, when Harriet had counted on +having wee Susan to herself for the afternoon, while Nell was +interestedly busy over somber but much needed winter clothes for +herself. "You have just got to make up your mind that Harriet is going +to absolutely possess Sue for the future. I don't know about any +legalities but I am going to see that Harriet gets Susan." + +"What you say goes, Charlotte, as it always has," he answered me, with +honest adoring in his young eyes that had lost their reckless hunger. +"And if you aren't careful you'll lead us all into Kingdom Come in blind +bridles. Be careful not to over-fill Goodloe's fold. I don't want to +crowd you. I'll take my turn when it comes." He was laughing as he +spoke but there was a depth to the laughter that I understood. + +"Thank you, Billy, for your consideration," I answered him, as I took +small Sue's hand and turned in at the Sproul gate. + +Harriet sat on the steps in the fading sunlight and the small music box +flung herself into the outstretched arms with a force that was alarming. +It was easy to see that Susan was most temperamental and would be a +handful of anxieties in the years to come, anxieties that Harriet +needed. + +"Of course, she doesn't belong to me and I'm a fool," Harriet muttered +as Susan darted away to see what treasure for her lurked in the pocket +of Mrs. Sproul's beflowered silk skirt. + +"I started plans to get her for you, just five minutes ago, dear," I +said, as I sat down beside her. "I laid down the law to Billy on the +subject." + +"Charlotte," answered Harriet, as she looked with brooding into my eyes, +"do you really believe that--that we will find them again and--and--_do_ +you really believe?" And the question was so hungry and haunted and so +like what had driven me for years that my heart ached in my breast for +her, but I knew that I could only stand fast and pray that she be +comforted. I couldn't make her see. + +"Yes, dear, I _know_--but I can't make you know. Just go on--on +_hungering_ like you are and you'll be fed," I answered. + +"You've always understood, Charlotte, and if you say that the pain will +some day be eased I'll--I'll believe it. Yes, I'll make a start by +believing in you and there's no telling where it will land me." + +The confidence with which she raised her comforted eyes to mine made a +stab of pain hit me full in the breast. Words that Gregory Goodloe had +spoken to me out under the old graybeards were the weapon used. "With +your hand in mine I can make this whole community see and know; +separated from you--" In all humility I now understood what he meant. + +And in all the weeks in which he and I had worked together Gregory +Goodloe had given me not one single personal word or look. The priest +had comforted and strengthened me but the man had forever shut me out of +his heart. My suffering was intense, and yet, and yet I knew that in my +heart there was strength to endure the want of him with all +cheerfulness even to the end. At last I had found the key to my own +hieroglyphics and I could be honest with myself. I knew that I loved +Gregory Goodloe as it is seldom given to a woman to love a man, but I +also knew that the awakening of spirit I had found was not in any way +connected with my woman's love for him, but had come to me from the +years of suffering I had had while I sought it. I refused to acknowledge +that a sex spark had in any way set off the blaze; the fire had been +laid in my soul and it would burn on without any of his tending. But +even in that honest surety Nickols' mocking words "religion is +suppressed sex" haunted me. I knew it could not be true, so I put it all +out of my mind as I left Harriet and walked down the street towards the +Poplars. + +I was due in the library to help father in the packing of some of his +papers, for I had insisted that he go on to Washington to fulfill his +appointment. Martha and the boy would be with me and if he only left me +Dabney I could be safe and busy for the winter. Strange to say, Mammy's +disappointment at Dabney's loss of a sojourn in a strange clime was +greater than his own. + +"I don't believe in glorifying men by needing of them to any great +measure," she declared. "With me in the house and the preacher across +the fence it don't make no difference how good looking you are, Miss +Charlotte, you won't be too much for our protection. Dabney can jest go +on with the jedge." + +"Of course, little miss, you don't need me, but I sorter got rheumatics +in my homesick and I begged off from Mas' Nickols," Dabney replied with +the wily soothing that had made his conjugal life both pleasant and +possible. + +I was thinking of the argument and smiled with tenderness as I saw the +old grizzled white head bent over a hoe down in the dahlias, which he +was bedding. The young man from White Plains had stayed to put the +garden to bed as far as possible, and had left with perfect confidence +in Dabney and the likely yellow boy he had found. + +And now in late October the garden was in a conflagration of blossoming +glory. The borders of the walks blazed with the red and blue and gold +and purple of chrysanthemums and asters and zinnias and dahlias, while +long tendrils of russet autumn vines trailed in and over and around the +flowers and shrubs and hedges. The tang of ripening and falling seed was +mixed in all the perfume, and gorgeous leaves were beginning to rustle +on the green grass. It was Nickols' first harvest of beauty, and somehow +I felt that there was no need to regret that his eyes were not mortally +there to gather the fruits. + +I went from the front porch up to my room to take off my hat and see if +Martha had come from a day with Mother Spurlock down in the Settlement. +I found instead of Martha or the boy or Mother Elsie, Jessie Litton +seated at my desk and looking out the window across to Paradise Ridge. + +"I came up to wait, Charlotte, because--because I'm in deep water and +need a hand out. You have always helped and somehow I feel that you have +so much more to give me now than you ever had. Clifton Gray told me last +night that he loved me and is going to break his engagement with Letitia +Cockrell. He had heard Letitia and Nell talk over Nell's mourning +trousseau for the winter and he was disgusted--that, and--and I think it +has been coming some time. He is with Mr. Goodloe a lot lately in +getting things about the town started to going again and he is--is +thinking. I don't know how to help him think; it's a thing I've never +done. I am at sea myself but I know that he must not throw Letitia over. +Will you talk to him?" + +"I couldn't help him if--if Mr. Goodloe can't," I faltered, simply sick +with distress. + +"Cliff said not a week ago that your eyes made him feel like a light he +saw ahead on a wooded island after he had drifted without a paddle two +days in a canoe one time in Canada. You'll have to talk to him. Give him +a little life kernel; I've only got shells for myself. I'm going down to +Florida suddenly next week and when I come back I--I, well, I'll either +go into the movies or study with Mother Spurlock to get a deaconess' +cap." As she spoke I saw that the fight was on in Jessie's soul, and it +would be to a finish. + +"God bless and keep you, dear," I held her back long enough to say as +she picked up her sweater and left me. Hampton Dibrell has been +constantly with Bessie Thornton since Ted Montgomery's death, and I knew +that Jessie's time of trial had come, for her love for him had grown +through her denial because of the taint of her mad mother. And somehow I +felt sure of the outcome, that she would find strength to let him go. I +didn't know why I felt so sure; but I did, and I went down to the +library with a great peace in my heart that I knew later would be in +hers. + +And I made my entry into father's den in the midst of a scene of great +moment. I paused and listened with profound respect. Tradition was on +trial and the result I felt would be momentous. Father sat in his huge +chair before a small crackling fire in the wide chimney, and Martha's +boy stood before him with a large, profusely illustrated volume of Hans +Christian Andersen clasped passionately to his little breast. He had the +floor. + +"And Charlotte said they is no fairies anywhere and I say they is," he +declaimed, while father listened attentively. Suddenly I saw what I had +never seen before, that father's white hair rose in a crest on one side +and descended in a cascade on the other at exactly the same angle as the +black locks of the young arguer before him, and as they calmly regarded +each other I thought I had never seen such a likeness in personality as +well as form of feature. Love flooded all over me and I wanted to hug +them both but was restrained to silence by the gravity of the +situation. + +"And why did you argue that there are fairies?" father interrogated +calmly and judicially. + +"Charlotte said they ain't here 'cause she and me had never saw one, and +I said, 'How could a book and pictures be about nothing at all?' I +showed her this book that Lady gaved me and she said, 'Maybe, but ask +Minister.' I said, no, I'd ask you 'cause you are older and mighter saw +one onct. Did you?" + +"Well, sir, you argued from a positive, about ten pounds of positive, I +should judge from the size of that volume, while Charlotte certainly +argued from a negative viewpoint," said father, and his eyes twinkled as +he gave me an almost imperceptible wink. By his answer he also avoided +answering the question of faith put to him. + +"Did you see one?" came back the question in a tone that demanded an +answer. + +"Here comes Minister now and you can ask him," father said in all +cravenness as Mr. Goodloe came in the door behind me and came and stood +at my side. He had a huge yellow plume of goldenrod which he handed me +without looking at me directly. I buried my nose in its crispness and +watched to see him meet the issue. + +The boy put the question carefully just as he had put it to father, but +there was a quaver in his voice as he ended with his plea. + +"Is they no fairies, 'cause you can't see 'em?" + +"Do you feel them in your heart?" was the counter question that came +gravely from the lips of the Reverend Mr. Goodloe. + +"Yes, here," answered the pleader as he laid his hand carefully on the +pit of his stomach, which is nearer the seat of heartache than many a +perturbed older person has come. + +"Then for you there are fairies, right there in your heart, even if +Charlotte has lost them out of hers," was the answer, with a theology +that staggered me and set father smiling back into his youth. + +"I'll go tell her and maybe give her some of mine," exclaimed the boy as +he ran from the room. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE COVERT OF WINGS + + +"Oh, the faith of youth, the faith that reaches out to give itself," +sighed father as he turned to his papers. + +"Can faith give itself?" I asked, as I raised my eyes to the stars under +dull gold through which Gregory Goodloe was pouring a great smile down +into my depths. + +"Sometimes--just sometimes I think that perhaps it can--it does," he +answered me slowly and took my hands in his and held them with their +palms together prayerwise, a thing he had done several times in the +weeks past. Then he turned and walked over to father's desk and stood +looking down at him. + +"I want to dedicate the chapel on Sunday, Mr. Powers, as that is your +last Sunday before you go to Washington," he said, and as he spoke he +smiled first down into father's eyes raised to his and then into +mine--impersonally. I couldn't trust myself to speak but turned and went +up to my room to weep with a hurt that soon sent me to my knees, blind +for the comfort that came--that I knew always would come now, no matter +what the hurt. + +"He knows it has come to me, and he's thankful--but he doesn't care," I +sobbed and then laughed at my own contradictions. + +Martha found me kneeling beside my window seat when she came in with +Mother Spurlock and she shielded me until I could wipe away the tears +and be as glad to see them both as I really was. + +They were full of the plans for the dedication, which it gave me another +stab to find they had been discussing with Mr. Goodloe for several days. +In the hard weeks that had passed I had been their confidant, adviser +and many times their helper in the reconstructing around the tragedies +in the Settlement, but in this matter I had not been consulted. In fact, +Mother Spurlock showed an embarrassed hesitation as she talked of it +that still further hurt me and made me unenthusiastic and cold to their +plans. + +And why should I have been hurt that the surety in my heart had not +declared itself to them without words? So wonderful did it seem to me +that I thought it must be in my every word and deed and look and I was +confounded that as yet I was considered to be an outsider and not +entitled to plan for the ceremonial of the dedication of the material +fold for the Reverend Mr. Goodloe's flock. And then suddenly my hurt was +swept away by my sense of humor and I laughed to myself when I saw that +to Mother Spurlock, who had hungered and thirsted for my conversion, I +would have to prove it, tell it and repeat it. + +"Instead of the festal ceremonies in the dedication Mr. Goodloe is going +to have the simplest dedication ritual and then immediately hold the +memorial services for our--our dead," said Mother Spurlock, as she took +Martha's hand in hers and stroked it. "We want everybody to be there and +I could use a few more of those trunks full of colored new clothes, +Charlotte. The people down in the Settlement can use and wear after a +dye pot when you can't, bless your sweet heart," and as she made her +ruling request, which was still strong in death, she stroked the fold of +dull black silk over my knee which was cut from the same material as +the straight black widow's gown which Martha wore. + +"Make Martha buy you some things for some of them," I said lightly and +watched Martha as I spoke. She had never by word or deed showed that she +felt anything but adoringly dependent on me and my bounty, and had put +the check book I had given her from Mr. Cockrell away in my desk without +looking at it. I could see that my words both hurt and shocked her. + +"No, Oh, no," she faltered and turned away toward the window. + +"But, Martha," I was beginning to say, when an interruption burst into +the room. Young Charlotte stood before us and at her side the boy stood +his ground with the huge book still in what must have been very tired +arms. Their faces were belligerent and small James had upon his +countenance the alarm he always shows during Charlotte's most serious +and dangerous outbursts. Mikey was along, with his mischievous eyes +dancing with delight at the fray. + +"Auntie Charlotte, I think somebody ought to whip Stranger for saying +that Minister said he had fairies in his stomach. It is a lie." + +"I'll lick him fer you, Miss Charlotte," offered Mikey, with a pass at +the boy that I knew was only an affectionate threat. + +"I'll knock a stuffing out of you if you touch him," answered Charlotte, +taking Mikey's offer with her usual literal directness. "When he's +whipped, nobody but Auntie Charlotte can do it. Are you going to do it +now, Auntie Charlotte? We don't want the devil to get him for badness." +And as she spoke she took the boy's hand and held it tightly as if +willing to defend him from the flesh, the devil and the world, only +excepting myself. + +"But he did say that I had them here when I put my hand on it, didn't +he, Lady?" demanded the accused, with more courage than I would have +felt at meeting the accusation for him. I simply couldn't face the +explanation and I became craven. + +"Mr. Goodloe is down in the library. Go ask him what he did say," I +suggested hopefully. + +"We looked everywhere for him and that is the place we skipped. I felt +sure you wouldn't know anything at all about it, Auntie Charlotte, but +Stranger said you know just as much as Minister, which is another thing +I am going to ask him about. Come on, Stranger." And with her usual +lightning rapidity, Charlotte began to marshal her forces out of the +room. + +"Please don't!" were the words I sent faltering after her determination +to question Mr. Goodloe about his and my relative erudition, but I felt +that they made no impression. + +"Sonny thinks about you just as Charlotte does about Mr. Goodloe, and +he'll say so to everybody," said Martha, with a sad smile after the door +had closed with vigor enough to startle the household. + +"He's a fine child," said Mother Spurlock, with a great tenderness in +her smile at Martha. "Did you ask Mrs. Todd if that big hulk of a Jones +boy could get into the coat that Dabney got me from the judge's closet?" +she said, continuing the subject in hand, which lasted her for another +hour. When she went she took Martha with her to carry half the bundles +down to the Little House, the roof of which was the first thing to be +patched in stricken Goodloets. + +That night I felt the hands of the Stray on my face in the darkness and +his soft cheek cuddle to mine. + +"_You_ say they _is_ fairies, Lady," he coaxed. + +"There are fairies and there always will be for you," I answered, as I +drew him close and kissed the fragrant mouth so near mine. "Go back to +mother now," I added, as I felt the sleepy huddle of his little shoulder +against mine. He went and I promised myself that no matter how lonely I +was to be I would always send him back to his mother and not ever forget +that her claim was first. Tears were in my eyes as I turned my face into +the pillow, but suddenly the refrain of the song I had once heard in the +night, "Abide with me, fast falls the eventide," sung itself in my heart +until I again fell to sleep. + +The dedication day for Goodloe Chapel arrived upon Goodloets just one +month from the day upon which the beast of storm had ravaged it, and as +that fateful morning dawned with an extraordinary grandeur, so that +Sunday in mid-October came up from behind Paradise Ridge with unusual +beauty, only with the difference of calmness instead of splendor and +peace instead of tumult. The sun was warm and benignant, with not a +cloud in the deep blue sky to obscure its blessing. A gentle breeze blew +in from the fields and meadows laden with rich harvest odors and every +shrub and flower and vine which had been hiding back a few late buds let +them burst forth in honor of the day, and in many instances they bloomed +from a new growth thrown over the scars in the sides of the old town. In +one short month most of the ruins had been reduced to orderly piles of +material to be used in rebuilding, and a great many of the deepest +gashes had been healed completely and covered with merciful vine and +blossom. And it had also been like that with most of the scars in the +lives of the bereaved; they ached, but they had been covered with a +courage to go on building again until the new structure could be +complete. + +I think something of this feeling was in the minds of most of the people +as they began to assemble around Goodloe Chapel long before the time for +its opening. And as had happened once before, the procession from the +Town met the procession from the Settlement, only this time they were +not divided so completely from the right to the left. A tall mill woman, +whose husband had gone down in the crash at the saddlery, came and took +Nell's hand in hers and laid a strong arm around her shoulders, while +Harriet went over and took from the arms of the young father the little +motherless mite who had been rescued from the pillow floating on the +river. Billy shook hands with a young tanner in tight but wholly new +clothes, to whom Luella May Spain introduced him as her imminent +husband. + +In times of stress women are apt to seize and cling to the arm of +masculine protection, and Luella May had chosen to forget the +fascination of Billy's hesitation and two-steps and secure for herself a +life of thorough normality. She would probably never forget those dances +with Billy, and they would lend a kind of reminiscent glow of pleasure +over her boiling cabbage pots, but it would be no worse than that. + +Mr. Todd was shaven and habitated in the neat black coat he had thrown +off as he went at the ruin of the schoolhouse a month before, and with a +tender smile on his lean old face he came over and stood beside Martha, +as if to be watchful of her in the new order of her life. + +And it was for quite a half hour that most of the inhabitants of +Goodloets stood around in the yard of the chapel and waited for the +formal opening of the doors. We all knew that the chapel would not hold +the half of us, for the small Presbyterian congregation had been +dismissed by Mr. Farraday to come over and join us in the dedication, +and after a short service the boy Baptist divine had brought his flock +to do honor to the opening of the new fold. In fact, by count almost +every citizen in Goodloets stood before the chapel doors and waited for +them to be thrown open. And in the crowd who waited there was this +difference from the last time we had been together: All the children +were with us and not separated from us by walls that crash. I think that +the second meeting of Town and Settlement would have been impossible if +each parent had not had the confidence inspired by the small hands in +theirs. + +And for still more minutes we were patient while the delicious autumn +sun beamed upon us with Indian summer warmth and Old Harpeth looked down +on us from out on Paradise Ridge with its crown wreathed with purple and +gold and russet, all veiled in a tender haze. + +Then as the old clock on the courthouse up on the square boomed the hour +of eleven, Dabney with ceremony opened wide the tall doors and stepped +back into the shadow, Jefferson bowing and smiling behind him. With one +accord the people started toward the door, and then everybody again +stood still and seemed to be waiting for something. + +I knew for what they waited and I took Martha's hand in mine, with the +boy's in hers on the other side, and slowly we walked through the path +made for us between our friends and neighbors and in at the chapel door. +As I passed Harriet I motioned to her and she put her arm around Nell +and followed us, while Billy came behind them with father and the +children. And behind them walked all of those who had been bereaved by +the storm, and those who had been lamed and were suffering came with +them. + +My entry into the chapel had been accomplished and I felt like a +storm-torn bird who finds its sanctuary among the green leaves of a +great tree, while with Martha and the boy I went up to the very chancel +rail itself. + +Then I lifted my eyes and looked up into Gregory Goodloe's face, from +which the white light of a great joy tinged with a great sorrow, looked +down upon us. And as had been the case for all the long weeks stretched +out behind me there was in his eyes no glance to me of a personal +understanding; all the passion was that of a shepherd for his flock, and +in its greatness I humbly acquiesced as I fell upon my knees in the +front pew with Martha beside me, while he lifted his hands for the +opening prayer of his service. + +And in his short prayer he made the dedication of the pile of stone and +mortar which had stood before the face of the wind as sturdily as old +Harpeth itself. His words held the simplicity of those of a great poet +and each was a separate jewel that could be imbedded in the hearts of +his people to last for the span of their lives. He made a grateful +acknowledgment of the safety of the chapel and of the spared lives of +those before him, and in a few ringing sentences he prayed that we all +be delivered from the blindness of the prosperity which was upon us when +the disaster had made us halt in our rush and give time for brother to +face and call upon brother in affliction. So ringing and vivid was the +self-accusation of heedlessness in the few sentences when he dealt with +the condition of all of us when sorrow had come upon us, that we all +held our breath with almost a groan of conviction, and his promise of +our humbled and contrite hearts was ratified with a breath of relief. + +Then we rose from our knees and sat once more facing him while he stood +before us and began to read the memorial services for our dead. And +through the whole beautiful ritual he led us to the very words of +triumph: + + "Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written; + Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? + O grave, where is thy victory?" + +The warmth in his beautiful voice and the light upon his face poured +over us all with a healing that we knew would endure. + +After the dedication prayer and the memorial service the old +Presbyterian minister, whom we had all known and loved since infancy, +talked tenderly and with great sympathy to us for a few minutes and the +stammering young Baptist divine gave us an insight into a heart of +youthful devoutness. + +And then came my hour. + +"And now that we have given to the Lord formally this sanctuary we have +builded for him, I want to open its spiritual doors to any of you who +feel in your hearts the desire to unite with us in our worship of Him," +were the words of invitation that I suddenly felt beat themselves, in +the rich voice of the man in the pulpit, upon my heart. "I am going to +baptize the children, but are there any of you of 'riper years' who +desire to unite with us to 'constantly believe God's holy word, and +obediently keep his commandments'?" And as he spoke he came down from +the pulpit, stood at the chancel rail and stretched out his hands to all +of us. Without a second's delay I rose and went and knelt before him and +bowed my head in my hands. On my right knelt the young tanner and on my +left I felt rather than saw Clifton Gray. + +"The Ministration of Baptism to such as are of Riper Years" is long and +full of holy austerity. Word for word, response for question, I followed +the rich voice leading me, but not until it asked concerning our faith +in the "life everlasting" did I raise my eyes to those glowing above me +as I made answer: + +"All this I steadfastly believe." + +There was an instant's hush in the church as I made my response and in +all humility I seemed to feel that it reverberated in some of the +others' depths until it waked a faint echo. They had seen me face my +humiliation and had watched how I took it and it had had its effect. It +was as if I publicly led them to the well-spring of my courage and +offered it to them. Luella May stole forward and crowded in between the +young tanner and me, and I saw great tears steal out of father's closed +eyes and roll down his cheeks, as he came and knelt just behind me, with +two mill hands and several women. + +And then, after our blessing, while we rose and stood on the right and +the left of the chancel the parson asked that the children be brought +forward for baptism. + +Without waiting for anybody to come with her, Charlotte rose, took a +hand of Sue on one side and one of Jimmy on the other, and came and +stood looking up into the beloved Minister's eyes with such a vision in +her young face that I caught my breath. Then Nell came and with her came +Harriet with the Suckling asleep in her arms. The bereaved young father +held his baby in his arms alone and Mrs. Burns went and stood beside +him with Mikey and Maudie and the other five toddlers in front of her. +Other children were brought forward by parents from the Town and the +Settlement and were ranged to the right and to the left, but still I saw +that Martha cowered in her pew holding the hand of the Stray in hers as +he knelt beside her. Then I knew what I must do and I went quietly and +lifted her and led her to the chancel to a place just beside where +Harriet stood with the Suckling in her arms. I held one of the Stray's +little hands in mine, and young Charlotte dropped Jimmy's hand and +reached out and took the other in hers. So we stood and waited while the +beloved voice read through the beautiful ceremony with which children +are taken into the arms of their faith before they are yet ready to +understand what it is some day to mean to them. + +"It is your duty to teach him ... to obediently keep God's holy will and +commandments all of his life," were the closing words of the address +with which the parson looked us full in the eye and laid the vow upon +our souls. Then he reached out his hands, drew the Stray to him first, +encircled him with his strong arm, laid his hands on the bowed black +head, and looking me straight in the eye asked the question of his +ritual: + +"Name this child." + +For an instant I glanced at Martha and then at father standing beside +me, and as he nodded I slightly bent my head and into a deathly +stillness all over the chapel I let the name fall clear and distinct: + +"Nickols Morris Powers." + +A beautiful ray of light flooded from one of the tall windows over both +of us as he ratified the name with a few drops of water upon the boy's +brow, and then turned to Harriet and repeated his question while he took +the Suckling into his arms with the greatest tenderness. Then through +the group he went, naming his lambs as he held them against his heart or +within the circle of his strong arm. It was all so tender and so +beautiful that every eye in the chapel was wet with tears and sobs +echoed softly through his last prayer. + +However, at one time in the ceremonial there was danger of a laugh from +the aggregate, overwrought nerves when Charlotte promptly named herself +without waiting for Nell's response which came late but in time to save +embarrassment. + +Then it was all over and the whole congregation trooped but into the +sunshine. Father walked home with young Nickols on one side and +Charlotte on the other, Martha carrying the Suckling and walking beside +Harriet, who led Sue past the destruction of her white dress which every +mud puddle threatened. Cliff Gray came with me slowly up the street +after all the others had gone ahead and most of them had turned into the +gates of their respective homes. + +"Is everything all right now, Cliff?" I questioned him, as we walked +slowly under the old elms of our ancestors' planting. "It is all right +now?" I asked again, while Cliff looked off into the distance. + +"I have faith that I can make it that way now, Charlotte dear," he +answered, as I paused to turn in at my gate. We clasped hands for a +second and then he went on down the street toward the Cockrell gate; and +Letitia's material point of view on existence I knew would have a fair +chance at his hands. + +I felt that I had never loved my friends as I did that wonderful +Sunday, and I hoped it would not bore them if I at times let some of it +overflow into their well ordered lives. + +The rest of that long, hazy, dreamy, wonder day, in the morning of which +our hearts had been poured so full, we all of us spent with father, as +he was to leave us the next morning. Against the remonstrance of his +maternal parent, the worthless Jefferson had been chosen to go along in +the place of his father Dabney. The young negro's brisk packings filled +the house with a joy note that was delightful and Mammy admonished him +on subjects moral every time he came near the kitchen. + +Late in the afternoon I left father down in the garden with young +Nickols, to whom he was confiding the care of some very choice hollyhock +seeds that would need gathering in the next few weeks. + +"Your father got them from England," the judge said gravely, as he +showed the small paddies how to roll out the thin seed without crushing +them. + +"Have I got any father but the Lady?" asked the youngster with all +seriousness, as he beamed up in my direction. Suddenly Martha turned +and went indoors and up to her room. I followed her and sat down beside +the bed on which she had flung herself. + +"You'll have to make him understand it all; I can't," she said, after I +had tenderly hushed her weeping. "I give him to you. I--I won't be with +him long." As she spoke I noticed how the light shone through her pale +fingers as she held them up to clasp mine. + +"We'll go away to Florida for a rest, Martha," I said, with the +reassurance I found I had constantly to use to her. There was a great +and beautiful tenderness in the soul of Martha, but she was completely +lacking in any of the worldly initiative that makes lives move on. She +seemed to be standing still. + +"Yes, I'll go away," she answered softly, as she unclasped her hand from +mine, nestled her face in the pillow and shut her eyes. + +I left her to sleep and a year from that hour I knew that I had not +understood the measure of her exhaustion. She faded like a flower and +drifted on into eternity like a gossamer thread in the breeze. + +And it was with some of the depression that a kind of maternal brooding +over her gave me that I went out into the garden that night after all +the rest had gone to bed. A pale silver moon-crescent poised on the brow +of Old Harpeth and a tingling little breeze was coming down from the +north as if sent as a warning of the winter soon to be upon us. I went +down to the old graybeard poplars and their leaves seemed to hiss +together in the moonlight instead of rustling softly as they had been +all summer. A great many of them were drifted in dry waves on the grass +and their gold was turned to silver in the moonlight. Many of the tall +shrubs were naked ghosts of their former selves and gnashed their bones +drearily. I leaned against the tallest old poplar and looked out across +the valley with a kind of stillness in my heart that seemed to be +listening and then listening. + +"Oh, I'm thankful, thankful that strength has been given me to endure it +all--life," I said to myself, almost under my breath. "And no matter +what comes I can never lose it. I can go out into life now alone +and--unafraid." + +"'And whither thou goest I too will go, and thy--'" came the Gregorian +chant from close beside me, and I turned to find the Harpeth Jaguar +stalking me in the night. + +Then for a long time we stood and looked at each other, he tearing away +the veil from his man's heart and I laying aside that in my woman's +breast. + +"Oh, I've needed you so," I finally said, with a catch in my breath as I +put my hands in his which he put palm to palm, then raised to his lips. + +"You were in God's hands and I had to wait His time," he answered me. +"And I would have waited until the stars burn dim. As near as loss came +I never doubted. I had asked Him for you." + +"I didn't know I was going to join your church this morning," I +faltered. "I never intended to join your church. I was going to be +either a Baptist or a Presbyterian. I was afraid to mix--my faith +with--with you." + +"Hasn't it been tried sufficiently to stand any test? I think so. Ah, +dear, come to me--it's been long for me, too." His arms entreated me, +but I held myself away with my praying hands pressed to his breast. + +"Are you sure that I'm not mixing you and--your faith?" I asked, looking +him honestly in the face and giving voice to the thought that Nickols +had put into my mind and which had tortured me all the weary months +past. + +"Did any thought of me make you bring Martha Ensley to Nickols' death +bed and take into your heart and home what the world calls dishonor?" + +"No," I answered with honesty to myself. + +"Have you once since you knew--_knew_--felt that you must turn to me for +comfort and help in one of your dire hours?" + +"Not once," I answered again with honesty. + +"Have you not learned to turn to Him?" + +"I have!" I answered. + +"That's God's love. Then you can give me the love that belongs to me in +your heart's kingdom, can't you?" + +"I'm afraid--I'm going to love you too much--I feel it coming. What'll +you do with it? Stop me!" I said with both a sob and a laugh, as I began +to let myself be drawn into the strong, hungry arms. + +"You great, big, splendid woman of God! You've got love enough in you to +feed a multitude and you'll do it. Give me a part of my share now. It's +mine. God sent you to me; I'm going to take you." + +And he did. His lips pressed mine until I gave back a betrothal kiss +that was as complete as a great red flower. His arms held me so that +they were a circle of pain, but all the while I kept my hands prayerwise +between the clamor of our breasts. + +"Say it--'the covert of thy wings'--all that David said," I whispered. + +And he answered: + +"'I will abide in thy tabernacle forever: I will trust in the covert of +thy wings.'" + + + + +JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD'S STORIES OF ADVENTURE + +May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset and Dunlap's list. + + +_KAZAN_ + +The tale of a "quarter-strain wolf and three-quarters husky" torn +between the call of the human and his wild mate. + +_BAREE, SON OF KAZAN_ + +The story of the son of the blind Grey Wolf and the gallant part he +played in the lives of a man and a woman. + +_THE COURAGE OF CAPTAIN PLUM_ + +The story of the King of Beaver Island, a Mormon colony, and his battle +with Captain Plum. + +_THE DANGER TRAIL_ + +A tale of snow, of love, of Indian vengeance, and a mystery of the +North. + +_THE HUNTED WOMAN_ + +A tale of the "end of the line," and of a great fight in the "valley of +gold" for a woman. + +_THE FLOWER OF THE NORTH_ + +The story of Fort o' God, where the wild flavor of the wilderness is +blended with the courtly atmosphere of France. + +_THE GRIZZLY KING_ + +The story of Thor, the big grizzly who lived in a valley where man had +never come. + +_ISOBEL_ + +A love story of the Far North. + +_THE WOLF HUNTERS_ + +A thrilling tale of adventure in the Canadian wilderness. + +_THE GOLD HUNTERS_ + +The story of adventure in the Hudson Bay wilds. + +_THE COURAGE OF MARGE O'DOONE_ + +Filled with exciting incidents in the land of strong men and women. + +_BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY_ + +A thrilling story of the Far North. The great Photoplay was made from +this book. + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + + +THE NOVELS OF GRACE LIVINGSTON HILL LUTZ + +May be had wherever books are sold. Ask for Grosset & Dunlap's list. + + +_THE BEST MAN_ + +Through a strange series of adventures a young man finds himself +propelled up the aisle of a church and married to a strange girl. + +_A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS_ + +On her way West the heroine steps off by mistake at a lonely watertank +into a maze of thrilling events. + +_THE ENCHANTED BARN_ + +Every member of the family will enjoy this spirited chronicle of a young +girl's resourcefulness and pluck, and the secret of the "enchanted" +barn. + +_THE WITNESS_ + +The fascinating story of the enormous change an incident wrought in a +man's life. + +_MARCIA SCHUYLER_ + +A picture of ideal girlhood set in the time of full skirts and poke +bonnets. + +_LO, MICHAEL!_ + +A story of unfailing appeal to all who love and understand boys. + +_THE MAN OF THE DESERT_ + +An intensely moving love story of a man of the desert and a girl of the +East pictured against the background of the Far West. + +_PHOEBE DEANE_ + +A tense and charming love story, told with a grace and a fervor with +which only Mrs. Lutz could tell it. + +_DAWN OF THE MORNING_ + +A romance of the last century with all of its old-fashioned charm. A +companion volume to "Marcia Schuyler" and "Phoebe Deane." + + +_Ask for Complete free list of G. & D. Popular Copyrighted Fiction_ + + +GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEART'S KINGDOM*** + + +******* This file should be named 18756.txt or 18756.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/7/5/18756 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + diff --git a/18756.zip b/18756.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0731043 --- /dev/null +++ b/18756.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cff0099 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #18756 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18756) |
