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diff --git a/old/lsokc10.txt b/old/lsokc10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..109471f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lsokc10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9594 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come by Fox + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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A "BLAB SCHOOL" ON KINGDOM COME +4. THE COMING OF THE TIDE +5. OUT OF THE WILDERNESS +6. LOST AT THE CAPITAL +7. A FRIEND ON THE ROAD +8. HOME WITH THE MAJOR +9. MARGARET +10. THE BLUEGRASS +11. A TOURNAMENT +12. BACK TO KINGDOM COME +13. ON TRIAL FOR HIS LIFE +14. THE MAJOR IN THE MOUNTAINS +15. TO COLLEGE IN THE BLUEGRASS +16. AGAIN THE BAR SINISTER +17. CHADWICK BUFORD, GENTLEMAN +18. THE SPIRIT OF '76 AND THE SHADOW OF '61 +19. THE BLUE OR THE GRAY +20. OFF TO THE WAR +21. MELISSA +22. MORGAN'S MEN +23. CHAD CAPTURES AN OLD FRIEND +24. A RACE BETWEEN DIXIE AND DAWN +25. AFTER DAWS DILLON--GUERILLA +26. BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER AT LAST +27. AT THE HOSPITAL OF MORGAN'S MEN +28. PALL-BEARERS OF THE LOST CAUSE +29. MELISSA AND MARGARET +30. PEACE +31. THE WESTWARD WAY + + + + +THE LITTLE SHEPHERD +OF KINGDOM COME + + + +CHAPTER 1 + +TWO RUNAWAYS FROM LONESOME + +The days of that April had been days of mist and rain. Sometimes, for hours, +there would come a miracle of blue sky, white cloud, and yellow light, but +always between dark and dark the rain would fall and the mist creep up the +mountains and steam from the tops--only to roll together from either range, +drip back into the valleys, and lift, straightway, as mist again. So that, all +the while Nature was trying to give lustier life to every living thing in the +lowland Bluegrass, all the while a gaunt skeleton was stalking down the +Cumberland--tapping with fleshless knuckles, now at some unlovely cottage of +faded white and green, and now at a log cabin, stark and gray. Passing the +mouth of Lonesome, he flashed his scythe into its unlifeing shadows and went +stalking on. High up, at the source of the dismal little stream, the point of +the shining blade darted thrice into the open door of a cabin set deep into a +shaggy flank of Black Mountain, and three spirits, within, were quickly loosed +from aching flesh for the long flight into the unknown. + +It was the spirit of the plague that passed, taking with it the breath of the +unlucky and the unfit: and in the hut on Lonesome three were dead--a gaunt +mountaineer, a gaunt daughter, and a gaunt son. Later, the mother, too, "jes' +kind o' got tired," as little Chad said, and soon to her worn hands and feet +came the well-earned rest. Nobody was left then but Chad and Jack, and Jack +was a dog with a belly to feed and went for less than nothing with everybody +but his little master and the chance mountaineer who had sheep to guard. So, +for the fourth time, Chad, with Jack at his heels, trudged up to the point of +a wooded spur above the cabin, where, at the foot of a giant poplar and under +a wilderness of shaking June leaves, were three piles of rough boards, loosely +covering three hillocks of rain-beaten earth; and, near them, an open grave. +There was no service sung or spoken over the dead, for the circuit-rider was +then months away; so, unnoticed, Chad stood behind the big poplar, watching +the neighbors gently let down into the shallow trench a home-made coffin, +rudely hollowed from the half of a bee-gum log, and, unnoticed, slipped away +at the first muffled stroke of the dirt--doubling his fists into his eyes and +stumbling against the gnarled bodies of laurel and rhododendron until, out in +a clear sunny space, he dropped on a thick, velvet mat of moss and sobbed +himself to sleep. When he awoke, Jack was licking his face and he sat up, +dazed and yawning. The sun was dropping fast, the ravines were filling with +blue shadows, luminous and misty, and a far drowsy tinkling from the valley +told him that cows were starting homeward. From habit, he sprang quickly to +his feet, but, sharply conscious on a sudden, dropped slowly back to the moss +again, while Jack, who had started down the spur, circled back to see what the +matter was, and stood with uplifted foot, much puzzled. + +There had been a consultation about Chad early that morning among the +neighbors, and old Nathan Cherry, who lived over on Stone Creek, in the next +cove but one, said that he would take charge of the boy. Nathan did not wait +for the burial, but went back home for his wagon, leaving word that Chad was +to stay all night with a neighbor and meet him at the death-stricken cabin an +hour by sun. The old man meant to have Chad bound to him for seven years by +law--the boy had been told that--and Nathan hated dogs as much as Chad hated +Nathan. So the lad did not lie long. He did not mean to be bound out, nor to +have Jack mistreated, and he rose quickly and Jack sprang before him down the +rocky path and toward the hut that had been a home to both. Under the poplar, +Jack sniffed curiously at the new-made grave, and Chad called him away so +sharply that Jack's tail drooped and he crept toward his master, as though to +ask pardon for a fault of which he was not conscious. For one moment, Chad +stood looking. Again the stroke of the falling earth smote his ears and his +eyes filled; a curious pain caught him by the throat and he passed on, +whistling--down into the shadows below to the open door of the cabin. + +It was deathly still. The homespun bedclothes and hand-made quilts of +brilliant colors had been thrown in a heap on one of the two beds of hickory +withes; the kitchen utensils--a crane and a few pots and pans--had been piled +on the hearth, along with strings of herbs and beans and red pepper-pods--all +ready for old Nathan when he should come over for them, next morning, with his +wagon. Not a living thing was to be heard or seen that suggested human life, +and Chad sat down in the deepening loneliness, watching the shadows rise up +the green walls that bound him in, and wondering what he should do, and where +he should go, if he was not to go to old Nathan; while Jack, who seemed to +know that some crisis was come, settled on his haunches a little way off, to +wait, with perfect faith and patience, for the boy to make up his mind. + +It was the first time, perhaps, that Chad had ever thought very seriously +about himself, or wondered who he was, or whence he had come. Digging back +into his memory as far as he could, it seemed to him that what had just +happened now had happened to him once before, and that he had simply wandered +away. He could not recollect where he had started from first, but he could +recall many of the places where he had lived, and why he had left +them--usually because somebody, like old Nathan, had wanted to have him bound +out, or had misused Jack, or would not let the two stray off into the woods +together, when there was nothing else to be done. He had stayed longest where +he was now, because the old man and his son and his girl had all taken a great +fancy to Jack, and had let the two guard cattle in the mountains and drive +sheep and, if they stayed out in the woods over night, struck neither a stroke +of hand nor tongue. The old mother had been his mother and, once more, Chad +leaned his head against the worn lintel and wept silently. So far, nobody had +seemed to care particularly who he was, or was not--nor had Chad. Most people +were very kind to him, looking upon him as one of the wandering waifs that one +finds throughout the Cumberland, upon whom the good folks of the mountains do +not visit the father's sin. He knew what he was thought to be, and it mattered +so little, since it made no discrimination against him, that he had accepted +it without question. It did not matter now, except as it bore on the question +as to where he should start his feet. It was a long time for him to have +stayed in one place, and the roving memories, stirred within him now, took +root, doubtless, in the restless spirit that had led his unknown ancestor into +those mountain wilds after the Revolution. + +All this while he had been sitting on the low threshold, with his elbows in +the hollows of his thighs and his left hand across his mouth. Once more, he +meant to be bound to no man's service and, at the final thought of losing +Jack, the liberty loving little tramp spat over his hand with sharp decision +and rose. + +Just above him and across the buck antlers over the door, lay a long +flint-lock rifle; a bullet-pouch, a powder-horn, and a small raccoon-skin +haversack hung from one of the prongs: and on them the boy's eyes rested +longingly. Old Nathan, he knew, claimed that the dead man had owed him money; +and he further knew that old Nathan meant to take all he could lay his hands +on in payment: but he climbed resolutely upon a chair and took the things +down, arguing the question, meanwhile: + +"Uncle Jim said once he aimed to give this rifle gun to me. Mebbe he was +foolin', but I don t believe he owed ole Nathan so much, an', anyways, he +muttered grimly, "I reckon Uncle Jim ud kind o' like fer me to git the better +of that ole devil--jes a LEETLE, anyways." + +The rifle, he knew, was always loaded, there was not much powder in the horn +and there were not more than a dozen bullets in the pouch, but they would last +him until he could get far away. No more would he take, however, than what he +thought he could get along with--one blanket from the bed and, from the +fireplace, a little bacon and a pone of corn-bread + +"An' I KNOW Aunt Jane wouldn't 'a' keered about these leetle fixin's, fer I +have to have 'em, an' I know I've earned 'em anyways." + +Then he closed the door softly on the spirits on the dead within, and caught +the short, deer skin latch-string to the wooden pin outside. With his Barlow +knife, he swiftly stripped a bark string from a pawpaw bush near by, folded +and tied his blanket, and was swinging the little pack to his shoulder, when +the tinkle of a cow-bell came through the bushes, close at hand. Old Nance, +lean and pied, was coming home; he had forgotten her, it was getting late, and +he was anxious to leave for fear some neighbor might come; but there was no +one to milk and, when she drew near with a low moo, he saw that her udders +were full and dripping. It would hurt her to go unmilked, so Chad put his +things down and took up a cedar piggin from a shelf outside the cabin and did +the task thoroughly--putting the strippings in a cup and, so strong was the +habit in him, hurrying with both to the rude spring-house and setting them in +cool running water. A moment more and he had his pack and his rifle on one +shoulder and was climbing the fence at the wood-pile. There he stopped once +more with a sudden thought, and wrenching loose a short axe from the face of a +hickory log, staggered under the weight of his weapons up the mountain. The +sun was yet an hour high and, on the spur, he leaned his rifle against the big +poplar and set to work with his axe on a sapling close by--talking frankly now +to the God who made him: + +"I reckon You know it, but I'm a-goin' to run away now. I hain't got no daddy +an' no mammy, an' I hain't never had none as I knows--but Aunt Jane +hyeh--she's been jes' like a mother to me an' I'm a-doin' fer her jes' whut I +wish You'd have somebody do fer my mother, ef You know whar she's a-layin'." + +Eight round sticks he cut swiftly--four long and four short--and with these he +built a low pen, as is the custom of the mountaineers, close about the fresh +mound, and, borrowing a board or two from each of the other mounds, covered +the grave from the rain. Then he sunk the axe into the trunk of the great +poplar as high up as he could reach--so that it could easily be seen--and +brushing the sweat from his face, he knelt down: + +"God!" he said, simply, "I hain't nothin' but a boy, but I got to ack like a +man now. I'm a-goin' now. I don't believe You keer much and seems like I bring +ever'body bad luck: an' I'm a-goin' to live up hyeh on the mountain jes' as +long as I can. I don t want you to think I'm a-complainin'--fer I ain't. Only +hit does seem sort o' curious that You'd let me be down hych--with me +a-keerint fer nobody now, an' nobody a-keerin' fer me. But Thy ways is +inscrutable--leastwise, that's whut the circuit-rider says--an' I ain't got a +word more to say--Amen." + +Chad rose then and Jack, who had sat perfectly still, with his head cocked to +one side, and his ears straight forward in wonder over this strange +proceeding, sprang into the air, when Chad picked up his gun, and, with a +joyful bark, circled a clump of bushes and sped back, leaping as high as the +little fellow's head and trying to lick his face--for Jack was a rover, too. + +The sun was low when the two waifs turned their backs upon it, and the blue +shadows in valley and ravine were darkening fast. Down the spur they went +swiftly--across the river and up the slope of Pine Mountain. As they climbed, +Chad heard the last faint sound of a cow-bell far below him and he stopped +short, with a lump in his throat that hurt. Soon darkness fell, and, on the +very top, the boy made a fire with his flint and steel, cooked a little bacon, +warmed his corn-pone, munched them and, wrapping his blanket around him and +letting Jack curl into the hollow of his legs and stomach, turned his face to +the kindly stars and went to sleep. + + +CHAPTER 2 + +FIGHTING THEIR WAY + +Twice, during the night, Jack roused him by trying to push himself farther +under the blanket and Chad rose to rebuild the fire. The third time he was +awakened by the subtle prescience of dawn and his eyes opened on a flaming +radiance in the east. Again from habit he started to spring hurriedly to his +feet and, again sharply conscious, he lay down again. There was no wood to +cut, no fire to rekindle, no water to carry from the spring, no cow to milk, +no corn to hoe; there was nothing to do--nothing. Morning after morning, with +a day's hard toil at a man's task before him, what would he not have given, +when old Jim called him, to have stretched his aching little legs down the +folds of the thick feather-bed and slipped back into the delicious rest of +sleep and dreams? Now he was his own master and, with a happy sense of +freedom, he brushed the dew from his face and, shifting the chunk under his +head, pulled his old cap down a little more on one side and closed his eyes. +But sleep would not come and Chad had his first wonder over the perverse +result of the full choice to do, or not to do. At once, the first keen savor +of freedom grew less sweet to his nostrils and, straightway, he began to feel +the first pressure of the chain of duties that was to be forged for him out of +his perfect liberty, link by link, and he lay vaguely wondering. + +Meanwhile, the lake of dull red behind the jagged lines of rose and crimson +that streaked the east began to glow and look angry. A sheen of fiery vapor +shot upward and spread swiftly over the miracle of mist that had been wrought +in the night. An ocean of it and, white and thick as snowdust, it filled +valley, chasm, and ravine with mystery and silence up to the dark jutting +points and dark waving lines of range after range that looked like breakers, +surged up by some strange new law from an under-sea of foam; motionless, it +swept down the valleys, poured swift torrents through high gaps in the hills +and one long noiseless cataract over a lesser range--all silent, all +motionless, like a great white sea stilled in the fury of a storm. Morning +after morning, the boy had looked upon just such glory, calmly watching the +mist part, like the waters, for the land, and the day break, with one phrase, +"Let there be light," ever in his mind--for Chad knew his Bible. And, most +often, in soft splendor, trailing cloud-mist, and yellow light leaping from +crest to crest, and in the singing of birds and the shining of leaves and +dew--there was light. + +But that morning there was a hush in the woods that Chad understood. On a +sudden, a light wind scurried through the trees and showered the mistdrops +down. The smoke from his fire shot through the low undergrowth, without +rising, and the starting mists seemed to clutch with long, white fingers at +the tree-tops, as though loath to leave the safe, warm earth for the upper +air. A little later, he felt some great shadow behind him, and he turned his +face to see black clouds marshalling on either flank of the heavens and +fitting their black wings together, as though the retreating forces of the +night were gathering for a last sweep against the east. A sword flashed +blindingly from the dome high above them and, after it, came one shaking peal +that might have been the command to charge, for Chad saw the black hosts start +fiercely. Afar off, the wind was coming; the trees began to sway above him, +and the level sea of mist below began to swell, and the wooded breakers seemed +to pitch angrily. + +Challenging tongues ran quivering up the east, and the lake of red coals under +them began to heave fiercely in answer. On either side the lightning leaped +upward and forward, striking straight and low, sometimes, as though it were +ripping up the horizon to let into the conflict the host of dropping stars. +Then the artillery of the thunder crashed in earnest through the shaking +heavens, and the mists below pitched like smoke belched from gigantic unseen +cannon. The coming sun answered with upleaping swords of fire and, as the +black thunder hosts swept overhead, Chad saw, for one moment, the whole east +in a writhing storm of fire. A thick darkness rose from the first crash of +battle and, with the rush of wind and rain, the mighty conflict went on +unseen. + +Chad had seen other storms at sunrise, but something happened now and he could +never recall the others nor ever forget this. All it meant to him, young as he +was then, was unrolled slowly as the years came on--more than the first great +rebellion of the powers of darkness when, in the beginning, the Master gave +the first command that the seven days' work of His hand should float through +space, smitten with the welcoming rays of a million suns; more than the +beginning thus of light--of life; more even than the first birth of a spirit +in a living thing: for, long afterward, he knew that it meant the dawn of a +new consciousness to him--the birth of a new spirit within him, and the +foreshadowed pain of its slow mastery over his passion-racked body and heart. +Never was there a crisis, bodily or spiritual, on the battle-field or alone +under the stars, that this storm did not come back to him. And, always, +through all doubt, and, indeed, in the end when it came to him for the last +time on his bed of death, the slow and sullen dispersion of wind and rain on +the mountain that morning far, far back in his memory, and the quick coming of +the Sun-king's victorious light over the glad hills and trees held out to him +the promise of a final victory to the Sun-king's King over the darkness of all +death and the final coming to his own brave spirit of peace and rest. + +So Chad, with Jack drawn close to him, lay back, awe-stricken and with his +face wet from mysterious tears. The comfort of the childish self-pity that +came with every thought of himself, wandering, a lost spirit along the +mountain-tops, was gone like a dream and ready in his heart was the strong new +purpose to strike into the world for himself. He even took it as a good omen, +when he rose, to find his fire quenched, the stopper of his powder-horn out, +and the precious black grains scattered hopelessly on the wet earth. There +were barely more than three charges left, and something had to be done at +once. First, he must get farther away from old Nathan: the neighbors might +search for him and find him and take him back. + +So he started out, brisk and shivering, along the ridge path with Jack +bouncing before him. An hour later, he came upon a hollow tree, filled with +doty wood which he could tear out with his hands and he built a fire and +broiled a little more bacon. + +Jack got only a bit this time and barked reproachfully for more; but Chad +shook his head and the dog started out, with both eyes open, to look for his +own food. The sun was high enough now to make the drenched world flash like an +emerald and its warmth felt good, as Chad tramped the topmost edge of Pine +Mountain, where the brush was not thick and where, indeed, he often found a +path running a short way and turning into some ravine--the trail of cattle and +sheep and the pathway between one little valley settlement and another. He +must have made ten miles and more by noon--for he was a sturdy walker and as +tireless almost as Jack--and ten miles is a long way in the mountains, even +now. So, already, Chad was far enough away to have no fear of pursuit, even if +old Nathan wanted him back, which was doubtful. On the top of the next point, +Jack treed a squirrel and Chad took a rest and brought him down, shot through +the head and, then and there, skinned and cooked him and divided with Jack +squarely. + +"Jack," he said, as he reloaded his gun, "we can't keep this up much longer. I +hain't got more'n two more loads o' powder here." + +And, thereupon, Jack leaped suddenly in the air and, turning quite around, +lighted with his nose pointed, as it was before he sprang. Chad cocked the old +gun and stepped forward. A low hissing whir rose a few feet to one side of the +path and, very carefully, the boy climbed a fallen trunk and edged his way, +very carefully, toward the sound: and there, by a dead limb and with his ugly +head reared three inches above his coil of springs, was a rattlesnake. The +sudden hate in the boy's face was curious--it was instinctive, primitive, +deadly. He must shoot off-hand now and he looked down the long barrel, shaded +with tin, until the sight caught on one of the beady, unblinking eyes and +pulled the trigger. Jack leaped with the sound, in spite of Chad's yell of +warning, which was useless, for the ball had gone true and the poison was set +loose in the black, crushed head. + +"Jack," said Chad, "we just GOT to go down now." + +So they went on swiftly through the heat of the early afternoon. It was very +silent up there. Now and then, a brilliant blue-jay would lilt from a stunted +oak with the flute-like love-notes of spring; or a lonely little brown fellow +would hop with a low chirp from one bush to another as though he had been lost +up there for years and had grown quite hopeless about seeing his kind again. +When there was a gap in the mountains, he could hear the querulous, senseless +love-quarrel of flickers going on below him; passing a deep ravine, the note +of the wood-thrush--that shy lyrist of the hills--might rise to him from a +dense covert of maple and beech: or, with a startling call, a red-crested cock +of the woods would beat his white-striped wings from spur to spur, as though +he were keeping close to the long swells of an unseen sea. Several times, a +pert flicker squatting like a knot to a dead limb or the crimson plume of a +cock of the woods, as plain as a splash of blood on a wall of vivid green, +tempted him to let loose his last load, but he withstood them. A little later, +he saw a fresh bear-track near a spring below the head of a ravine; and, later +still, he heard the far-away barking of a hound and a deer leaped lightly into +an open sunny spot and stood with uplifted hoof and pointed ears. This was too +much and the boy's gun followed his heart to his throat, but the buck sprang +lightly into the bush and vanished noiselessly. + +The sun had dropped midway between the zenith and the blue bulks rolling +westward and, at the next gap, a broader path ran through it and down the +mountain. This, Chad knew, led to a settlement and, with a last look of +choking farewell to his own world, he turned down. At once, the sense of +possible human companionship was curiously potent: at once, the boy's +half-wild manner changed and, though alert and still watchful, he whistled +cheerily to Jack, threw his gun over his shoulder, and walked erect and +confident. His pace slackened. Carelessly now his feet tramped beds of soft +exquisite moss and lone little settlements of forget-me-nots, and his long +riflebarrel brushed laurel blossoms down in a shower behind him. Once even, he +picked up one of the pretty bells and looked idly at it, turning it bottom +upward. The waxen cup might have blossomed from a tiny waxen star. There was a +little green star for a calyx; above this, a little white star with its prongs +outstretched--tiny arms to hold up the pink-flecked chalice for the rain and +dew. There came a time when he thought of it as a star-blossom; but now his +greedy tongue swept the honey from it and he dropped it without another +thought to the ground. At the first spur down which the road turned, he could +see smoke in the valley. The laurel blooms and rhododendron bells hung in +thicker clusters and of a deeper pink. Here and there was a blossoming wild +cucumber and an umbrella-tree with huger flowers and leaves; and, sometimes, a +giant magnolia with a thick creamy flower that the boy could not have spanned +with both hands and big, thin oval leaves, a man's stride from tip to stem. +Soon, he was below the sunlight and in the cool shadows where the water ran +noisily and the air hummed with the wings of bees On the last spur, he came +upon a cow browsing on sassafras-bushes right in the path and the last shadow +of his loneliness straightway left him. She was old, mild, and unfearing, and +she started down the road in front of him as though she thought he had come to +drive her home, or as though she knew he was homeless and was leading him to +shelter. A little farther on, the river flashed up a welcome to him through +the trees and at the edge of the water, her mellow bell led him down stream +and he followed. In the next hollow, he stooped to drink from a branch that +ran across the road and, when he rose to start again, his bare feet stopped as +though riven suddenly to the ground; for, half way up the next low slope, was +another figure as motionless as his--with a bare head, bare feet, a startled +face and wide eyes--but motionless only until the eyes met his: then there was +a flash of bright hair and scarlet homespun, and the little feet, that had +trod down the centuries to meet his, left the earth as though they had wings +and Chad saw them, in swift flight, pass silently over the hill. The next +moment, Jack came too near the old brindle and, with a sweep of her horns at +him and a toss of tail and heels in the air, she, too, swept over the slope +and on, until the sound of her bell passed out of hearing. Even to-day, in +lonely parts of the Cumberland, the sudden coming of a stranger may put women +and children to flight-- something like this had happened before to Chad--but +the sudden desertion and the sudden silence drew him in a flash back to the +lonely cabin he had left and the lonely graves under the big poplar and, with +a quivering lip, he sat down. Jack, too, dropped to his haunches and sat +hopeless, but not for long. The chill of night was coming on and Jack was +getting hungry. So he rose presently and trotted ahead and squatted again, +looking back and waiting. But still Chad sat irresolute and in a moment, Jack +heard something that disturbed him, for he threw his ears toward the top of +the hill and, with a growl, trotted back to Chad and sat close to him, looking +up the slope. Chad rose then with his thumb on the lock of his gun and over +the hill came a tall figure and a short one, about Chad's size and a dog, with +white feet and white face, that was bigger than Jack: and behind them, three +more figures, one of which was the tallest of the group. All stopped when they +saw Chad, who dropped the butt of his gun at once to the ground. At once the +strange dog, with a low snarl, started down toward the two little strangers +with his yellow ears pointed, the hair bristling along his back, and his teeth +in sight. Jack answered the challenge with an eager whimper, but dropped his +tail, at Chad's sharp command--for Chad did not care to meet the world as an +enemy, when he was looking for a friend. The group stood dumb with +astonishment for a moment and the small boy's mouth was wide-open with +surprise, but the strange dog came on with his tail rigid, and lifting his +feet high. + +"Begone!" said Chad, sharply, but the dog would not begone; he still came on +as though bent on a fight. + +"Call yo' dog off," Chad called aloud. "My dog'll kill him. You better call +him off," he called again, in some concern, but the tall boy in front laughed +scornfully. + +"Let's see him," he said, and the small one laughed, too. + +Chad's eyes flashed--no boy can stand an insult to his dog--and the curves of +his open lips snapped together in a straight red line. "All right," he said, +placidly, and, being tired, he dropped back on a stone by the wayside to await +results. The very tone of his voice struck all shackles of restraint from +Jack, who, with a springy trot, went forward slowly, as though he were making +up a definite plan of action; for Jack had a fighting way of his own, which +Chad knew. + +"Sick him, Whizzer!" shouted the tall boy, and the group of five hurried +eagerly down the hill and halted in a half circle about Jack and Chad; so that +it looked an uneven conflict, indeed, for the two waifs from over Pine +Mountain. + +The strange dog was game and wasted no time. With a bound he caught Jack by +the throat, tossed him several feet away, and sprang for him again. Jack +seemed helpless against such strength and fury, but Chad's face was as placid +as though it had been Jack who was playing the winning game. + +Jack himself seemed little disturbed; he took his punishment without an outcry +of rage or pain. You would have thought he had quietly come to the conclusion +that all he could hope to do was to stand the strain until his opponent had +worn himself out. But that was not Jack's game, and Chad knew it. The tall boy +was chuckling, and his brother of Chad's age was bent almost double with +delight. + +"Kill my dawg, will he?" he cried, shrilly. + +"Oh, Lawdy!" groaned the tall one. + +Jack was much bitten and chewed by this time, and, while his pluck and purpose +seemed unchanged, Chad had risen to his feet and was beginning to look +anxious. The three silent spectators behind pressed forward and, for the first +time, one of these--the tallest of the group--spoke: + +"Take yo' dawg off, Daws Dillon," he said, with quiet authority; but Daws +shook his head, and the little brother looked indignant. + +"He said he'd kill him," said Daws, tauntingly. + +"Yo' dawg's bigger and hit ain't fair," said the other again and, seeing +Chad's worried look, he pressed suddenly forward; but Chad had begun to smile, +and was sitting down on his stone again. Jack had leaped this time, with his +first growl during the fight, and Whizzer gave a sharp cry of surprise and +pain. Jack had caught him by the throat, close behind the jaws, and the big +dog shook and growled and shook again. Sometimes Jack was lifted quite from +the ground, but he seemed clamped to his enemy to stay. Indeed he shut his +eyes, finally, and seemed to go quite to sleep. The big dog threshed madly and +swung and twisted, howling with increasing pain and terror and increasing +weakness, while Jack's face was as peaceful as though he were a puppy once +more and hanging to his mother's neck instead of her breast, asleep. By and +by, Whizzer ceased to shake and began to pant; and, thereupon, Jack took his +turn at shaking, gently at first, but with maddening regularity and without at +all loosening his hold. The big dog was too weak to resist soon and, when Jack +began to jerk savagely, Whizzer began to gasp. + +"You take YO' dawg off," called Daws, sharply. + +Chad never moved. + +"Will you say 'nough for him?" he asked, quietly; and the tall one of the +silent three laughed. + +"Call him off, I tell ye," repeated Daws, savagely; but again Chad never +moved, and Daws started for a club. Chad's new friend came forward. + +"Hol'on, now, hol'on," he said, easily. "None o' that, I reckon." + +Daws stopped with an oath. "Whut you got to do with this, Tom Turner?" + +"You started this fight," said Tom. + +"I don't keer ef I did--take him off," Daws answered, savagely. + +"Will you say 'nough fer him?" said Chad again, and again Tall Tom chuckled. +The little brother clinched his fists and turned white with fear for Whizzer +and fury for Chad, while Daws looked at the tall Turner, shook his head from +side to side, like a balking steer, and dropped his eyes. + +"Y-e-s," he said, sullenly. + +"Say it, then," said Chad, and this time Tall Tom roared aloud, and even his +two silent brothers laughed. Again Daws, with a furious oath, started for the +dogs with his club, but Chad's ally stepped between. + +"You say 'nough, Daws Dillon," he said, and Daws looked into the quiet +half-smiling face and at the stalwart two grinning behind. + +"Takin' up agin yo' neighbors fer a wood-colt' airye?" + +"I'm a-takin' up fer what's right and fair. How do you know he's a +wood-colt--an' suppose he is? You say 'nough now, or--" + +Again Daws looked at the dogs. Jack had taken a fresh grip and was shaking +savagely and steadily. Whizzer's tongue was out--once his throat rattled. + +"Nough!" growled Daws, angrily, and the word was hardly jerked from his lips +before Chad was on his feet and prying Jack's jaws apart. "He ain't much +hurt," he said, looking at the bloody hold which Jack had clamped on his +enemy's throat, "but he'd a-killed him though, he al'ays does. Thar ain't no +chance fer NO dog, when Jack gits THAT hold." + +Then he raised his eyes and looked into the quivering face of the owner of the +dog--the little fellow--who, with the bellow of a yearling bull, sprang at +him. Again Chad's lips took a straight red line and being on one knee was an +advantage, for, as he sprang up, he got both underholds and there was a mighty +tussle, the spectators yelling with frantic delight. + +"Trip him, Tad," shouted Daws, fiercely. + +"Stick to him, little un," shouted Tom, and his brothers, stoical Dolph and +Rube, danced about madly. Even with underholds, Chad, being much the shorter +of the two, had no advantage that he did not need, and, with a sharp thud, the +two fierce little bodies struck the road side by side, spurting up a cloud of +dust. + +"Dawg--fall!" cried Rube, and Dolph rushed forward to pull the combatants +apart. + +"He don't fight fair," said Chad, panting, and rubbing his right eye which his +enemy had tried to "gouge"; "but lemme at him--I can fight thataway, too." +Tall Tom held them apart. + +"You're too little, and he don't fight fair. I reckon you better go on +home--you two--an' yo' mean dawg," he said to Daws; and the two Dillons--the +one sullen and the other crying with rage--moved away with Whizzer slinking +close to the ground after them. But at the top of the hill both turned with +bantering yells, derisive wriggling of their fingers at their noses, and with +other rude gestures. And, thereupon, Dolph and Rube wanted to go after them, +but the tall brother stopped them with a word. + +"That's about all they're fit fer," he said, contemptuously, and he turned to +Chad. + +"Whar you from, little man, an' whar you goin', an' what mought yo' name be?" + +Chad told his name, and where he was from, and stopped. + +"Whar you goin'?" said Tom again, without a word or look of comment. + +Chad knew the disgrace and the suspicion that his answer was likely to +generate, but he looked his questioner in the face fearlessly. + +"I don't know whar I'm goin'." + +The big fellow looked at him keenly, but kindly. + +"You ain't lyin' an' I reckon you better come with us." He turned for the +first time to his brothers and the two nodded. + +"You an' yo' dawg, though Mammy don't like dawgs much; but you air a stranger +an' you ain't afeerd, an' you can fight--you an' yo' dawg--an' I know Dad'll +take ye both in." + +So Chad and Jack followed the long strides of the three Turners over the hill +and to the bend of the river, where were three long cane fishing-poles with +their butts stuck in the mud--the brothers had been fishing, when the flying +figure of the little girl told them of the coming of a stranger into those +lonely wilds. Taking these up, they strode on--Chad after them and Jack +trotting, in cheerful confidence, behind. It is probable that Jack noticed, as +soon as Chad, the swirl of smoke rising from a broad ravine that spread into +broad fields, skirted by the great sweep of the river, for he sniffed the air +sharply, and trotted suddenly ahead. It was a cheering sight for Chad. Two +negro slaves were coming from work in a corn-field close by, and Jack's hair +rose when he saw them, and, with a growl, he slunk behind his master. Dazed, +Chad looked at them. + +"Whut've them fellers got on their faces?" he asked. Tom laughed. + +"Hain't you nuver seed a nigger afore?" he asked. + +Chad shook his head. + +"Lots o' folks from yo' side o' the mountains nuver have seed a nigger," said +Tom. "Sometimes hit skeers 'em." + +"Hit don't skeer me," said Chad. + +At the gate of the barn-yard, in which was a long stable with a deeply sloping +roof, stood the old brindle cow, who turned to look at Jack, and, as Chad +followed the three brothers through the yard gate, he saw a slim scarlet +figure vanish swiftly from the porch into the house. + +In a few minutes, Chad was inside the big log cabin and before a big log-fire, +with Jack between his knees and turning his soft human eyes keenly from one to +another of the group about his little master, telling how the mountain cholera +had carried off the man and the woman who had been father and mother to him, +and their children; at which the old mother nodded her head in growing +sympathy, for there were two fresh mounds in her own graveyard on the point of +a low hill not far away; how old Nathan Cherry, whom he hated, had wanted to +bind him out, and how, rather than have Jack mistreated and himself be +ill-used, he had run away along the mountain-top; how he had slept one night +under a log with Jack to keep him warm; how he had eaten sassafras and birch +back and had gotten drink from the green water-bulbs of the wild honeysuckle; +and how, on the second day, being hungry, and without powder for his gun, he +had started, when the sun sank, for the shadows of the valley at the mouth of +Kingdom Come. Before he was done, the old mother knocked the ashes from her +clay pipe and quietly went into the kitchen, and Jack, for all his good +manners, could not restrain a whine of eagerness when he heard the crackle of +bacon in a frying-pan and the delicious smell of it struck his quivering +nostrils. After dark, old Joel, the father of the house, came in--a giant in +size and a mighty hunter--and he slapped his big thighs and roared until the +rafters seemed to shake when Tall Tom told him about the dog-fight and the +boy-fight with the family in the next cove: for already the clanship was +forming that was to add the last horror to the coming great war and prolong +that horror for nearly half a century after its close. + +By and by, the scarlet figure of little Melissa came shyly out of the dark +shadows behind and drew shyly closer and closer, until she was crouched in the +chimney corner with her face shaded from the fire by one hand and a tangle of +yellow hair, listening and watching him with her big, solemn eyes, quite +fearlessly. Already the house was full of children and dependents, but no word +passed between old Joel and the old mother, for no word was necessary. Two +waifs who had so suffered and who could so fight could have a home under that +roof if they pleased, forever. And Chad's sturdy little body lay deep in a +feather-bed, and the friendly shadows from a big fireplace flickered hardly +thrice over him before he was asleep. And Jack, for that night at least, was +allowed to curl up by the covered coals, or stretch out his tired feet, if he +pleased, to a warmth that in all the nights of his life, perhaps, he had never +known before. + + + +CHAPTER 3. A "BLAB SCHOOL" ON KINGDOM COME + +Chad was awakened by the touch of a cold nose at his ear, the rasp of a warm +tongue across his face, and the tug of two paws at his cover. Git down, Jack!" +he said, and Jack, with a whimper of satisfaction, went back to the fire that +was roaring up the chimney, and a deep voice laughed and called: + +"I reckon you better git UP, little man!" + +Old Joel was seated at the fire with his huge legs crossed and a pipe in his +mouth. It was before busily astir. There was the sound of tramping in the +frosty air outside and the noise of getting breakfast ready in the kitchen. As +Chad sprang up, he saw Melissa's yellow hair drop out of sight behind the foot +of the bed in the next corner, and he turned his face quickly, and, slipping +behind the foot of his own bed and into his coat and trousers, was soon at the +fire himself, with old Joel looking him over with shrewd kindliness. + +"Yo' dawg's got a heap o' sense," said the old hunter, and Chad told him how +old Jack was, and how a cattle-buyer from the "settlements" of the Bluegrass +had given him to Chad when Jack was badly hurt and his owner thought he was +going to die. And how Chad had nursed him and how the two had always been +together ever since. Through the door of the kitchen, Chad could see the old +mother with her crane and pots and cooking-pans; outside, he could hear the +moo of the old brindle, the bleat of her calf, the nicker of a horse, one +lusty sheep-call, and the hungry bellow of young cattle at the barn, where +Tall Tom was feeding the stock. Presently Rube stamped in with a back log and +Dolph came through with a milk-pail. + +"I can milk," said Chad, eagerly, and Dolph laughed. + +"All right, I'll give ye a chance," he said, and old Joel looked pleased, for +it was plain that the little stranger was not going to be a drone in the +household, and, taking his pipe from his mouth but without turning his head, +he called out: + +"Git up thar, Melissy." + +Getting no answer, he looked around to find Melissa standing at the foot of +the bed. + +"Come here to the fire, little gal, nobody's agoin to eat ye." + +Melissa came forward, twisting her hands in front of her, and stood, rubbing +one bare foot over the other on the hearth-stones. She turned her face with a +blush when Chad suddenly looked at her, and, thereafter, the little man gazed +steadily into the fire in order to embarrass her no more. + +With the breaking of light over the mountain, breakfast was over and the work +of the day began. Tom was off to help a neighbor "snake" logs down the +mountain and into Kingdom Come, where they would be "rafted" and floated on +down the river to the capital--if a summer tide should come--to be turned into +fine houses for the people of the Bluegrass. Dolph and Rube disappeared at old +Joel's order to "go meet them sheep." Melissa helped her mother clear away the +table and wash the dishes; and Chad, out of the tail of his eye, saw her +surreptitiously feeding greedy Jack, while old Joel still sat by the fire, +smoking silently. Chad stepped outside. The air was chill, but the mists were +rising and a long band of rich, warm light lay over a sloping spur up the +river, and where this met the blue morning shadows, the dew was beginning to +drip and to sparkle. Chad could nor stand inaction long, and his eye lighted +up when he heard a great bleating at the foot of the spur and the shouts of +men and boys. Just then the old mother called from the rear of the cabin. + +"Joel, them sheep air comin'!" + +The big form of the old hunter filled the doorway and Jack bounded out between +his legs? while little Melissa appeared with two books, ready for school. Down +the road came the flock of lean mountain-sheep, Dolph and Rube driving them. +Behind, slouched the Dillon tribe--Daws and Whizzer and little Tad; Daws's +father, old Tad, long, lean! stooping, crafty: and two new ones cousins to +Daws--Jake and Jerry, the giant twins. "Joel Turner," said old Tad, sourly, +"here's yo' sheep! " + +Joel had bought the Dillons' sheep and meant to drive them to the county-seat +ten miles down the river. There had evidently been a disagreement between the +two when the trade was made, for Joel pulled out a gray pouch of coonskin, +took from it a roll of bills, and, without counting them, held them out. + +"Tad Dillon," he said, shortly, "here's yo' money! + +The Dillon father gave possession with a gesture and the Dillon faction, +including Whizzer and the giant twins, drew aside together--the father morose; +Daws watching Dolph and Rube with a look of much meanness; little Tad behind +him, watching Chad, his face screwed up with hate; and Whizzer, pretending not +to see Jack, but darting a surreptitious glance at him now and then, for then +and there was starting a feud that was to run fiercely on, long after the war +was done. + +"Git my hoss, Rube," said old Joel, and Rube turned to the stable, while Dolph +kept an eye on the sheep, which were lying on the road or straggling down the +river. As Rube opened the stable-door, a dirty white object bounded out, and +Rube, with a loud curse, tumbled over backward into the mud, while a fierce +old ram dashed with a triumphant bleat for the open gate. Beelzebub, as the +Turner mother had christened the mischievous brute, had been placed in the +wrong stall and Beelzebub was making for freedom. He gave another triumphant +baa as he swept between Dolph's legs and through the gate, and, with an +answering chorus, the silly sheep sprang to their feet and followed. A sheep +hates water, but not more than he loves a leader, and Beelzebub feared +nothing. Straight for the water of the low ford the old conqueror made and, in +the wake of his masterful summons, the flock swept, like a Mormon household, +after him. Then was there a commotion indeed. Old Joel shouted and swore; +Dolph shouted and swore and Rube shouted and swore. Old Dillon smiled grimly, +Daws and little Tad shouted with derisive laughter, and the big twins grinned. +The mother came to the door, broom in hand, and, with a frowning face, watched +the sheep splash through the water and into the woods across the river. Little +Melissa looked frightened. Whizzer, losing his head, had run down after the +sheep, barking and hastening their flight, until called back with a mighty +curse from old Joel, while Jack sat on his haunches looking at Chad and +waiting for orders. + +"Goddlemighty!" said Joel, "how air we goin' to git them sheep back?" Up and +up rose the bleating and baaing, for Beelzebub, like the prince of devils that +he was, seemed bent on making all the mischief possible. + +"How AIR we goin' to git 'em back?" + +Chad nodded then, and Jack with an eager yelp made for the river--Whizzer at +his heels. Again old Joel yelled furiously, as did Dolph and Rube, and Whizzer +stopped and turned back with a drooping tail, but Jack plunged in. He knew but +one voice behind him and Chad's was not in the chorus. + +"Call yo' dawg back, boy," said Joel, sternly, and Chad opened his lips with +anything but a call for Jack to come back--it was instead a fine high yell of +encouragement and old Joel was speechless. + +"That dawg'll kill them sheep," said Daws Dillon aloud. + +Joel's face was red and his eyes rolled. + +"Call that damned feist back, I tell ye," he shouted at last. "Hyeh, Rube, git +my gun, git my gun!" + +Rube started for the house, but Chad laughed. Jack had reached the other bank +now, and was flashing like a ball of gray light through the weeds and up into +the woods; and Chad slipped down the bank and into the river, hieing him on +excitedly. + +Joel was beside himself and he, too, lumbered down to the river, followed by +Dolph, while the Dillons roared from the road. + +"Boy!" he roared. "Eh, boy, eh! what's his name, Dolph? Call him back, Dolph, +call the little devil back. If I don't wear him out with a hickory; holler fer +'em, damn 'em! Heh-o-oo-ee!" The old hunter's bellow rang through the woods +like a dinner-horn. Dolph was shouting, too, but Jack and Chad seemed to have +gone stone-deaf; and Rube, who had run down with the gun, started with an oath +into the river himself, but Joel halted him. + +"Hol'on, hol'on!" he said, listening. "By the eternal, he's a-roundin' 'em +up!" The sheep were evidently much scattered, to judge from the bleating, but +here, there, and everywhere, they could hear Jack's bark, while Chad seemed to +have stopped in the woods and, from one place, was shouting orders to his dog. +Plainly, Jack was no sheep-killer and by and by Dolph and Rube left off +shouting, and old Joel's face became placid and all of them from swearing +helplessly fell to waiting quietly. Soon the bleating became less and less, +and began to concentrate on the mountain-side. Not far below, they could hear +Chad: + +Coo-oo-sheep! Coo-oo-sh'p-cooshy-cooshy-coo-oo-sheep!" + +The sheep were answering. They were coming down a ravine, and Chad's voice +rang out above: + +"Somebody come across, an' stand on each side o' the holler." + +Dolph and Rube waded across then, and soon the sheep came crowding down the +narrow ravine with Jack barking behind them and Chad shooing them down. But +for Dolph and Rube, Beelzebub would have led them up or down the river, and it +was hard work to get him into the water until Jack, who seemed to know what +the matter was, sharply nipped several sheep near him. These sprang violently +forward, the whole flock in front pushed forward, too, and Beelzebub was +thrust from the bank. Nothing else being possible, the old ram settled himself +with a snort into the water and made for the other shore. Chad and Jack +followed and, when they reached the road, Beelzebub was again a prisoner; the +sheep, swollen like sponges, were straggling down the river, and Dillons and +Turners were standing around in silence. Jack shook himself and dropped +panting in the dust at his master's feet, without so much as an upward glance +or a lift of his head for a pat of praise. As old Joel raised one foot heavily +to his stirrup, he grunted, quietly: + +"Well, I be damned." And when he was comfortably in his saddle he said again, +with unction: + +"I DO be damned. I'll just take that dawg to help drive them sheep down to +town. Come on, boy." + +Chad started joyfully, but the old mother called from the door: "Who's a-goin' +to take this gal to school, I'd like to know?" + +Old Joel pulled in his horse' straightened one leg, and looked all +around--first at the Dillons, who had started away, then at Dolph and Rube, +who were moving determinedly after the sheep (it was Court Day in town and +they could not miss Court Day), and then at Chad, who halted. + +"Boy," he said, "don't you want to go to school--you ought to go to school?" + +"Yes," said Chad, obediently, though the trip to town--and Chad had never been +to a town--was a sore temptation. + +"Go on, then, an' tell the teacher I sent ye. Here, Mammy--eh, what's yo' +name, boy? Oh, Mammy--Chad, here 'll take her. Take good keer o' that gal, +boy, an' learn yo' a-b-abs like a man now." + +Melissa came shyly forward from the door and Joel whistled to Jack and called +him, but Jack though he liked nothing better than to drive sheep lay still, +looking at Chad. + +"Go 'long, Jack," said Chad, and Jack sprang up and was off, though he stopped +again and looked back, and Chad had to tell him again to go on. In a moment +dog, men, and sheep were moving in a cloud of dust around a bend in the road +and little Melissa was at the gate. + +"Take good keer of 'Lissy," said the mother from the porch, kindly; and Chad, +curiously touched all at once by the trust shown him, stalked ahead like a +little savage, while Melissa with her basket followed silently behind. The boy +never thought of taking the basket himself that is not the way of men with +women in the hills and not once did he look around or speak on the way up the +river and past the blacksmith's shop and the grist-mill just beyond the mouth +of Kingdom Come; but when they arrived at the log school-house it was his turn +to be shy and he hung back to let Melissa go in first. Within, there was no +floor but the bare earth, no window but the cracks between the logs, and no +desks but the flat sides of slabs, held up by wobbling pegs. On one side were +girls in linsey and homespun some thin, undersized, underfed, and with weak, +dispirited eyes and yellow tousled hair; others, round-faced, round-eyed, +dark, and sturdy; most of them large-waisted and round-shouldered--especially +the older ones--from work in the fields; but, now and then, one like Melissa, +the daughter of a valley farmer, erect, agile, spirited, intelligent. On the +other side were the boys, in physical characteristics the same and suggesting +the same social divisions: at the top the farmer--now and then a slave-holder +and perhaps of gentle blood--who had dropped by the way on the westward march +of civilization and had cleared some rich river bottom and a neighboring +summit of the mountains, where he sent his sheep and cattle to graze; where a +creek opened into this valley some free-settler, whose grandfather had fought +at King's Mountain--usually of Scotch-Irish descent, often English, but +sometimes German or sometimes even Huguenot--would have his rude home of logs; +under him, and in wretched cabins at the head of the creek or on the washed +spur of the mountain above, or in some "deadenin"' still higher up and swept +by mists and low-trailing clouds, the poor white trash--worthless descendants +of the servile and sometimes criminal class who might have traced their origin +back to the slums of London hand-to-mouth tenants of the valley-aristocrat, +hewers of wood for him in the lowlands and upland guardians of his cattle and +sheep. And finally, walking up and down the earth floor--stern and smooth of +face and of a preternatural dignity hardly to be found elsewhere--the mountain +school-master. + +It was a "blab school," as the mountaineers characterize a school in which the +pupils study aloud, and the droning chorus as shrill as locust cries ceased +suddenly when Chad came in, and every eye was turned on him with a sexless +gaze of curiosity that made his face redden and his heart throb. But he forgot +them when the school-master pierced him with eyes that seemed to shoot from +under his heavy brows like a strong light from deep darkness. Chad met them, +nor did his chin droop, and Caleb Hazel saw that the boy's face was frank and +honest, and that his eye was fearless and kind, and, without question, he +motioned to a seat--with one wave of his hand setting Chad on the corner of a +slab and the studious drone to vibrating again. When the boy ventured to +glance around, he saw Daws Dillon in one corner, making a face at him, and +little Tad scowling from behind a book: and on the other side, among the +girls, he saw another hostile face--next little Melissa which had the pointed +chin and the narrow eyes of the "Dillon breed," as old Joel called the family, +whose farm was at the mouth of Kingdom Come and whose boundary touched his +own. When the first morning recess came "little recess," as it was called--the +master kept Chad in and asked him his name; if he had ever been to school, and +whether he knew his A B C's; and he showed no surprise when Chad, without +shame, told him no. So the master got Melissa's spelling-book and pointed out +the first seven letters of the alphabet, and made Chad repeat them three +times--watching the boy's earnest, wrinkling brow closely and with growing +interest. When school "took up" again, Chad was told to say them aloud in +concert with the others--which he did, until he could repeat them without +looking at his book, and the master saw him thus saying them while his eyes +roved around the room, and he nodded to himself with satisfaction--for he was +accustomed to visible communion with himself, in school and out. At noon--"big +recess" Melissa gave Chad some corn-bread and bacon, and the boys gathered +around him, while the girls looked at him curiously, merely because he was a +stranger, and some of them--especially the Dillon girl--whispered, and Chad +blushed and was uncomfortable, for once the Dillon girl laughed unkindly. The +boys had no games, but they jumped and threw "rocks" with great accuracy at a +little birch-tree, and Daws and Tad always spat on their stones and pointed +with he forefinger of the left hand first at what they were going to throw at, +while Chad sat to one side and took no part, though he longed to show them +what he could do. By and by they fell to wrestling, and finally Tad bantered +him for a trial. Chad hesitated, and his late enemy misunderstood. + +"I'll give ye both underholts agin," he said, loftily, "you're afeerd!" + +This was too much, and Chad sprang to his feet and grappled, disdaining the +proffered advantage, and got hurled to the ground, his head striking the earth +violently, and making him so dizzy that the brave smile with which he took his +fall looked rather sickly and pathetic. + +"Yes, an' Whizzer can whoop yo' dawg, too," said Tad, and Chad saw that he was +going to have trouble with those Dillons, for Daws winked at the other boys, +and the Dillon girl laughed again scornfully--at which Chad saw Melissa's eyes +flash and her hands clinch as, quite unconsciously, she moved toward him to +take his part; and all at once he was glad that he had nobody else to champion +him. + +"You wouldn' dare tech him if one of my brothers was here," she said, +indignantly, "an' don t you dare tech him again, Tad Dillon. An you--she said, +witheringly, "you--" she repeated and stopped helpless for the want of words +but her eyes spoke with the fierce authority of the Turner clan, and its +dominant power for half a century, and Nancy Dillon shrank, though she turned +and made a spiteful face, when Melissa walked toward the school-house alone. + +That afternoon was the longest of Chad's life--it seemed as though it would +never come to an end; for Chad had never sat so still for so long. His throat +got dry repeating the dreary round of letters over and over and his head ached +and he fidgeted in his chair while the slow hours passed and the sun went down +behind the mountain and left the school-house in rapidly cooling shadow. His +heart leaped when the last class was heard and the signal was given that meant +freedom for the little prisoners; but Melissa sat pouting in her seat-- she +had missed her lesson and must be kept in for a while. So Chad, too, kept his +seat and the master heard him say his letters, without the book, and nodded +his head as though to say to himself that such quickness was exactly what he +had looked for. By the time Chad had learned down to the letter 0, Melissa was +ready, for she was quick, too, and it was her anger that made her miss--and +the two started home, Chad stalking ahead once more. To save him, he could not +say a word of thanks, but how he wished that a bear or a wild-cat would spring +into the road! He would fight it with teeth and naked hands to show her how he +felt and to save her from harm. + +The sunlight still lay warm and yellow far under the crest of Pine Mountain, +and they had not gone far when Caleb Hazel overtook them and with long strides +forged ahead. The school-master "boarded around" and it was his week with the +Turners, and Chad was glad, for he already loved the tall, gaunt, awkward man +who asked him question after question so kindly--loved him as much as he +revered and feared him--and the boy's artless, sturdy answers in turn pleased +Caleb Hazel. And when Chad told who had given him Jack, the master began to +talk about the faraway, curious country of which the cattle-dealer had told +Chad so much: where the land was level and there were no mountains at all; +where on one farm might be more sheep, cattle, and slaves than Chad had seen +in all his life; where the people lived in big houses of stone and brick--what +brick was Chad could not imagine--and rode along hard, white roads in shiny +covered wagons, with two "niggers" on a high seat in front and one little +"nigger" behind to open gates, and were proud and very high-heeled indeed; +where there were towns that had more people than a whole county in the +mountains, with rock roads running through them in every direction and narrow +rock paths along these roads--like rows of hearth-stones--for the people to +walk on--the land of the bluegrass--the "settlemints of old Kaintuck." + +And there were churches everywhere as tall as trees and school-houses +a-plenty; and big schools, called colleges, to which the boys went when they +were through with the little schools. The master had gone to one of these +colleges for a year, and he was trying to make enough money to go again. And +Chad must go some day, too; there was no reason why he shouldn't, since any +boy could do anything he pleased if he only made up his mind and worked hard +and never gave up. The master was an orphan, too, he said with a slow smile; +he had been an orphan for a long while, and indeed the lonely struggle of his +own boyhood was what was helping to draw him to Chad. This college, he said, +was a huge brown house as big as a cliff that the master pointed out, that, +gray and solemn, towered high above the river; and with a rock porch bigger +than a great bowlder that hung just under the cliff, with twenty long, long +stone steps to climb before one came to the big double front door + +"How do you git thar?" Chad asked so breathlessly that Melissa looked quickly +up with a sudden foreboding that she might lose her little playfellow some +day. The master had walked, and it took him a week. A good horse could make +the trip in four days, and the river-men floated logs down the river to the +capital in eight or ten days, according to the "tide." "When did they go? In +the spring, when the 'tides' came. The Turners went down, didn't they, +Melissa?" And Melissa said that her brother Tom had made one trip, and that +Dolph and Rube were "might' nigh crazy" to go that coming spring; and, +thereupon, a mighty resolution filled Chad's heart to the brim and steadied +his eyes, but he did not open his lips then. + +Dusk was settling when the Turner cabin came in sight. None of the men-folks +had come home yet, and the mother was worried; there was wood to cut and the +cows to milk, and Chad's friend, old Betsey the brindle, had strayed off +again; but she was glad to see Caleb Hazel, who, without a word, went out to +the wood-pile, took off his coat, and swung the axe with mighty arms, while +Chad carried in the wood and piled it in the kitchen and then the two went +after the old brindle together. + +When they got back there was a great tumult at the cabin. Tom had brought some +friends from over the mountain, and had told the neighbors as he came along +that there was going to be a party at his house that night. + +So there was a great bustle about the barn where Rube was getting the stock +fed and the milking done; and around the kitchen, where Dolph was cutting more +wood and piling it up at the door. Inside, the mother was hurrying up supper +with Sintha, an older daughter, who had just come home from a visit, and +Melissa helping her, while old Joel sat by the fire in the sleeping-room and +smoked, with Jack lying on the hearth, or anywhere he pleased, for Jack, with +his gentle ways, was winning the household one by one. He sprang up when he +heard Chad's voice, and flew at him, jumping up and pawing him affectionately +and licking his face while Chad hugged him and talked to him as though he were +human and a brother; never before had the two been separated for a day. So, +while the master helped Rube at the barn and Chad helped Dolph at the +wood-pile, Jack hung about his master--tired and hungry as he was and much as +he wanted to be by the fire or waiting in the kitchen for a sly bit from +Melissa, whom he knew at once as the best of his new friends. + +After supper, Dolph got out his banjo and played "Shady Grove," and "Blind +Coon Dog," and "Sugar Hill," and "Gamblin' Man," while Chad's eyes glistened +and his feet shuffled under his chair. And when Dolph put the rude thing down +on the bed and went into the kitchen, Chad edged toward it and, while old Joel +was bragging about Jack to the school-master, he took hold of it with +trembling fingers and touched the strings timidly. Then he looked around +cautiously: nobody was paying any attention to him and he took it up into his +lap and began to pick, ever so softly. Nobody saw him but Melissa, who slipped +quietly to the back of the room and drew near him. Softly and swiftly Chad's +fingers worked and Melissa could scarcely hear the sound of the banjo under +her father's loud voice, but she could make out that he was playing a tune +that still vibrates unceasingly from the Pennsylvania border to the +pine-covered hills of Georgia-- "Sourwood Mountain." Melissa held her breath +while she listened--Dolph could not play like that--and by and by she slipped +quietly to her father and pulled his sleeve and pointed to Chad. Old Joel +stopped talking, but Chad never noticed; his head was bent over the neck of +the banjo, his body was swaying rhythmically, his chubby fingers were going +like lightning, and his eyes were closed--the boy was fairly lost to the +world. The tune came out in the sudden silence, clean-cut and swinging; + +Heh-o-dee-um-dee-eedle-dahdee-deet + +rang the strings and old Joel's eyes danced. + +"Sing it, boy!" he roared, "sing it!" And Chad sprang from the bed, on fire +with confusion and twisting his fingers helplessly. He looked almost +frightened when Dolph ran back into the room and cried: + +"Who was that a-pickin' that banjer?" + +It was not often that Dolph showed such excitement, but he had good cause, +and, when he saw Chad standing, shamefaced and bashful, in the middle of the +floor, and Melissa joyously pointing her finger at him, he caught up the banjo +from the bed and put it into the boy's hands. "Here, you just play that tune +agin!" + +Chad shrank back, half distressed and half happy, and only a hail outside from +the first of the coming guests saved him from utter confusion. Once started, +they came swiftly, and in half an hour all were there. Each got a hearty +welcome from old Joel, who, with a wink and a laugh and a nod to the old +mother, gave a hearty squeeze to some buxom girl, while the fire roared a +heartier welcome still. Then was there a dance indeed--no soft swish of lace +and muslin, but the active swing of linsey and simple homespun; no French +fiddler's bows and scrapings, no intricate lancers, no languid waltz; but neat +shuffling forward and back, with every note of the music beat; floor-thumping +"cuttings of the pigeon's wing," and jolly jigs, two by two, and a great +"swinging of corners," and "caging the bird," and "fust lady to the right +CHEAT an' swing"; no flirting from behind fans and under stairways and little +nooks, but honest, open courtship--strong arms about healthy waists, and a +kiss taken now and then, with everybody to see and nobody to care who saw. If +a chair was lacking, a pair of brawny knees made one chair serve for two, but +never, if you please, for two men. Rude, rough, semi-barbarous, if you will, +but simple, natural, honest, sane, earthy--and of the earth whence springs the +oak and in time, maybe, the flower of civilization. + +At the first pause in the dance, old Joel called loudly for Chad. The boy +tried to slip out of the door, but Dolph seized him and pulled him to a chair +in the corner and put the banjo in his hands. Everybody looked on with +curiosity at first, and for a little while Chad suffered; but when the dance +turned attention from him, he forgot himself again and made the old thing hum +with all the rousing tunes that had ever swept its string. When he stopped at +last, to wipe the perspiration from his face, he noticed for the first time +the school-master, who was yet divided between the church and the law, +standing at the door, silent, grave, disapproving. And he was not alone in his +condemnation; in many a cabin up and down the river, stern talk was going on +against the ungodly 'carryings on,' under the Turner roof, and, far from +accepting them as proofs of a better birth and broader social ideas, these +Calvinists of the hills set the merry-makers down as the special prey of the +devil, and the dance and the banjo as sly plots of the same to draw their +souls to hell. + +Chad felt the master's look, and he did not begin playing again, but put the +banjo down by his chair and the dance came to an end. Once more Chad saw the +master look, this time at Sintha, who was leaning against the wall with a +sturdy youth in a fringed hunting-shirt bending over her--his elbow against a +log directly over her shoulder, Sintha saw the look, too, and she answered +with a little toss of her head, but when Caleb Hazel turned to go out the +door, Chad saw that the girl's eyes followed him. A little later, Chad went +out too, and found the master at the corner of the fence and looking at a low +red star whose rich, peaceful light came through a gap in the hills. Chad +shyly drew near him, hoping in some way to get a kindly word, but the master +was so absorbed that he did not see or hear the boy and Chad, awed by the +stern, solemn face, withdrew and, without a word to anybody, climbed into the +loft and went to bed. He could hear every stroke on the floor below, every +call of the prompter, and the rude laughter and banter, but he gave little +heed to it all. For he lay thinking of Caleb Hazel and listening again to the +stories he and the cattle-dealer had told him about the wonderful settlements. +"God's Country," the dealer always called it, and such it must be, if what he +and the master said was true. By and by the steady beat of feet under him, the +swift notes of the banjo' the calls of the prompter and the laughter fused, +became inarticulate, distant-- ceased. And Chad, as he was wont to do, +journeyed on to "God's Country" in his dreams. + + + +CHAPTER 4. THE COMING OF THE TIDE + +While the corn grew, school went on and, like the corn, Chad's schooling put +forth leaves and bore fruit rapidly. The boy's mind was as clear as his eye +and, like a mountain-pool, gave back every image that passed before it. Not a +word dropped from the master's lips that he failed to hear and couldn't +repeat, and, in a month, he had put Dolph and Rube, who, big as they were, had +little more than learned the alphabet, to open shame; and he won immunity with +his fists from gibe and insult from every boy within his inches in +school--including Tad Dillon, who came in time to know that it was good to let +the boy alone. He worked like a little slave about the house, and, like Jack, +won his way into the hearts of old Joel and his wife, and even of Dolph and +Rube, in spite of their soreness over Chad's having spelled them both down +before the whole school. As for Tall Tom, he took as much pride as the school- +master in the boy, and in town, at the grist-mill, the cross-roads, or +blacksmith shop, never failed to tell the story of the dog and the boy, +whenever there was a soul to listen. And as for Melissa, while she ruled him +like a queen and Chad paid sturdy and uncomplaining homage, she would have +scratched out the eyes of one of her own brothers had he dared to lay a finger +on the boy. For Chad had God's own gift--to win love from all but enemies and +nothing but respect and fear from them. Every morning, soon after daybreak, he +stalked ahead of the little girl to school, with Dolph and Rube lounging along +behind, and, an hour before sunset, stalked back in the same way home again. +When not at school, the two fished and played together--inseparable. + +Corn was ripe now, and school closed and Chad went with the men into the +fields and did his part, stripping the gray blades from the yellow stalks, +binding them into sheaves, stowing them away under the low roof of the big +barn, or stacking them tent-like in the fields--leaving each ear perched like +a big roosting bird on each lone stalk. And when the autumn came, there were +husking parties and dances and much merriment; and, night after night, Chad +saw Sintha and the school-master in front of the fire--"settin' up"--close +together with their arms about each other's necks and whispering. And there +were quilting parties and housewarmings and house-raisings--one that was of +great importance to Caleb Hazel and to Chad. For, one morning, Sintha +disappeared and came back with the tall young hunter in the deerskin +leggings--blushing furiously--a bride. At once old Joel gave them some cleared +land at the head of a creek; the neighbors came in to build them a cabin, and +among them all, none worked harder than the school-master; and no one but Chad +guessed how sorely hit he was. + +Meanwhile, the woods high and low were ringing with the mellow echoes of axes, +and the thundering crash of big trees along the mountain-side; for already the +hillsmen were felling trees while the sap was in the roots, so that they could +lie all winter, dry better and float better in the spring, when the rafts were +taken down the river to the little capital in the Bluegrass. And Caleb Hazel +said that he would go down on a raft in the spring and perhaps Chad could go +with him who knew? For the school-master had now made up his mind finally--he +would go out into the world and make his way out there; and nobody but Chad +noticed that his decision came only after, and only a little while after, the +house-raising at the head of the creek. + +When winter came, school opened again, and on Saturdays and Sundays and cold +snowy nights, Chad and the school-master--for he too lived at the Turners' +now--sat before the fire in the kitchen, and the school-master read to him +from "Ivanhoe" and "The Talisman," which he had brought from the Bluegrass, +and from the Bible which had been his own since he was a child. And the boy +drank in the tales until he was drunk with them and learned the conscious +scorn of a lie, the conscious love of truth and pride in courage, and the +conscious reverence for women that make the essence of chivalry as +distinguished from the unthinking code of brave, simple people. He adopted the +master's dignified phraseology as best he could; he watched him, as the master +stood before the fire with his hands under his coat-tails, his chin raised, +and his eyes dreamily upward, and Tall Tom caught the boy in just this +attitude one day and made fun of him before all the others. He tried some +high-sounding phrases on Melissa, and Melissa told him he must be crazy. Once, +even, he tried to kiss her hand gallantly and she slapped his face. Undaunted, +he made a lance of white ash, threaded some loose yarn into Melissa's colors, +as he told himself, sneaked into the barn, where Beelzebub was tied, got on +the sheep's back and, as the old ram sprang forward, couched his lance at the +trough and shattered it with a thrill that left him trembling for half an +hour. It was too good to give up that secret joust and he made another lance +and essayed another tournament, but this time Beelzebub butted the door open +and sprang with a loud ba-a-a into the yard and charged for the gate--in full +view of old Joel, the three brothers, and the school-master, who were standing +in the road. Instinctively, Chad swung on in spite of the roar of laughter and +astonishment that greeted him and, as Tom banged the gate, the ram swerved and +Chad shot off sidewise as from a catapult and dropped, a most unheroic little +knight, in the mire. That ended Chad's chivalry in the hills, for in the roars +of laughter that greeted him, Chad recognized Caleb Hazel's as the loudest. If +HE laughed, chivalry could never thrive there, and Chad gave it up; but the +seeds were sown. + +The winter passed, and what a time Chad and Jack had, snaking logs out of the +mountains with two, four, six--yes, even eight yoke of oxen, when the log was +the heart of a monarch oak or poplar--snaking them to the chute; watching them +roll and whirl and leap like jack-straws from end to end down the steep +incline and, with one last shoot in the air, roll, shaking, quivering, into a +mighty heap on the bank of Kingdom Come. And then the "rafting" of those +logs--dragging them into the pool of the creek, lashing them together with +saplings driven to the logs with wooden pins in auger-holes--wading about, +meanwhile, waist deep in the cold water: and the final lashing of the raft to +a near-by tree with a grape-vine cable--to await the coming of a "tide." + +Would that tide never come? It seemed not. The spring ploughing was over, the +corn planted; there had been rain after rain, but gentle rains only. There had +been prayers for rain: + +"O Lord," said the circuit-rider, "we do not presume to dictate to Thee, but +we need rain, an' need it mighty bad. We do not presume to dictate, but, if it +pleases Thee, send us, not a gentle sizzle-sizzle, but a sod-soaker, O Lord, a +gullywasher. Give us a tide, O Lord!" Sunrise and sunset, old Joel turned his +eye to the east and the west and shook his head. Tall Tom did the same, and +Dolph and Rube studied the heavens for a sign. The school-master grew visibly +impatient and Chad was in a fever of restless expectancy. The old mother had +made him a suit of clothes--mountain-clothes--for the trip. Old Joel gave him +a five-dollar bill for his winter's work. Even Jack seemed to know that +something unusual was on hand and hung closer about the house, for fear he +might be left behind. + +Softly at last, one night, came the patter of little feet on the roof and +passed--came again and paused; and then there was a rush and a steady roar +that wakened Chad and thrilled him as he lay listening. It did not last long, +but the river was muddy enough and high enough for the Turner brothers to +float the raft slowly out from the mouth of Kingdom Come and down in front of +the house, where it was anchored to a huge sycamore in plain sight. At noon +the clouds gathered and old Joel gave up his trip to town. + +"Hit'll begin in about an hour, boys," he said, and in an hour it did begin. +There was to be no doubt about this flood. At dusk, the river had risen two +feet and the raft was pulling at its cable like an awakening sea-monster. +Meanwhile, the mother had cooked a great pone of corn-bread, three feet in +diameter, and had ground coffee and got sides of bacon ready. All night it +poured and the dawn came clear, only to darken into gray again. But the +river--the river! The roar of it filled the woods. The frothing hem of it +swished through the tops of the trees and through the underbrush, high on the +mountain-side. Arched slightly in the middle, for the river was still rising, +it leaped and surged, tossing tawny mane and fleck and foam as it thundered +along--a mad, molten mass of yellow struck into gold by the light of the sun. +And there the raft, no longer the awkward monster it was the day before, +floated like a lily-pad, straining at the cable as lightly as a greyhound +leaping against its leash. + +The neighbors were gathered to watch the departure--old Jerry Budd, blacksmith +and "yarb doctor," and his folks; the Cultons and Middletons, and even the +Dillons--little Tad and Whizzer--and all. And a bright picture of Arcadia the +simple folk made, the men in homespun and the women with their brilliant +shawls, as they stood on the bank laughing, calling to one another, and +jesting like children. All were aboard now and there was no kissing nor +shaking hands in the farewell. The good old mother stood on the bank, with +Melissa holding to her apron and looking at Chad gravely. + +"Take good keer o' yo'self, Chad," she said kindly, and then she looked down +at the little girl. "He's a-comin' back, honey--Chad's a-comin' back." And +Chad nodded brightly, but Melissa drew her apron across her mouth, dropped her +eyes to the old rifle in the boy's lap, and did not smile. + +All were aboard now--Dolph and Rube, old Squire Middleton, and the +school-master, all except Tall Tom, who stood by the tree to unwind the cable. + +"Hold on!" shouted the Squire. + +A raft shot suddenly around the bend above them and swept past with the Dillon +brothers Jake and Jerry, nephews of old Tad Dillon, at bow and stern--passed +with a sullen wave from Jerry and a good-natured smile from stupid Jake. + +"All right," Tom shouted, and he unwound the great brown pliant vine from the +sycamore and leaped aboard. Just then there was a mad howl behind the house +and a gray streak of light flashed over the bank and Jack, with a wisp of rope +armored his neck, sprang through the air from a rock ten feet high and landed +lightly on the last log as the raft shot forward. Chad gulped once and his +heart leaped with joy, for he had agreed to leave Jack with old Joel, and old +Joel had tied the dog in the barn. + +"Hi!" shouted the old hunter. "Throw that dawg off, Chad--throw him off." + +But Chad shook his head and smiled. + +"He won't go back," he shouted, and, indeed, there was Jack squatted on his +haunches close by his little master and looking gravely back as though he were +looking a last good-by. + +"Hi there!" shouted old Joel again. "How am I goin to git along without that +dawg? Throw him off, Boy--throw him off, I tell ye!" Chad seized the dog by +the shoulders, but Jack braced himself and, like a child, looked up in his +master's face. Chad let go and shook his head. + +A frantic yell from Tall Tom at the bow oar drew every eye to him. The current +was stronger than anyone guessed and the raft was being swept by an eddy +straight for the point of the opposite shore where there was a sharp turn in +the river. + +"Watch out thar," shouted old Joel, "you're goin to 'bow'!" Dolph and Rube +were slashing the stern oar forward and back through the swift water, but +straight the huge craft made for that deadly point. Every man had hold of an +oar and was tussling in silence for life. Every man on shore was yelling +directions and warning, while the women shrank back with frightened faces. +Chad scarcely knew what the matter was, but he gripped his rifle and squeezed +Jack closer to him. He heard Tom roar a last warning as the craft struck, +quivered a moment, and the stern swept around. The craft had "bowed." + +"Watch out--jump, boys, jump! Watch when she humps! Watch yo' legs!" These +were the cries from the shore, and still Chad did not understand. He saw Tom +leap from the bow, and, as the stern swung to the other shore, Dolph, too, +leaped. Then the stern struck. The raft humped in the middle like a bucking +horse--the logs ground savagely together. Chad heard a cry of pain from Jack +and saw the dog fly up in the air and drop in the water. He and his gun had +gone up, too, but he came back on the raft with one leg in between two logs +and he drew it up in time to keep the limb from being smashed to a pulp as the +logs crashed together again, but not quickly enough to save the foot from a +painful squeeze. Then he saw Tom and Dolph leap back again, the raft whirled +on and steadied in its course, and behind him he saw Jack swimming feebly for +the shore--fighting the waves for his life, for the dog was hurt. Twice he +turned his eyes despairingly toward Chad, and the boy would have leaped in the +water to save him if Tom had not caught him by the arm. + +"Tell him to git to shore," he said quickly, and Chad motioned, when Jack +looked again, and the dog obediently made for land. Old Joel was calling +tenderly: + +"Come on, Jack; come on, ole feller!" + +Chad watched with a thumping heart. Once Jack went under, but gave no sound. +Again he disappeared, and when he came up he gave a cry for help, but when he +heard Chad's answering cry he fought on stroke by stroke until Chad saw old +Joel reach out from the bushes and pull him in. And Chad could see that one of +his hind legs hung limp. Then the raft swung around the curve out of sight. + +Behind, the whole crowd rushed down to the water's edge. Jack tried to get +away from old Joel and scramble after Chad on his broken leg, but old Joel +held him, soothing him, and carried him back to the house, where the old "yarb +doctor" put splints on the leg and bound it up tightly, just as though it had +been the leg of a child. Melissa was crying and the old man put his hand on +her head. + +"He'll be all right, honey. That leg'll be as good as the other one in two or +three weeks. It's all right, little gal." + +Melissa stopped weeping with a sudden gulp. But when Jack was lying in the +kitchen by the fire alone, she slipped in and put her arm around the dog's +head, and, when Jack began to lick her face, she bent her own head down and +sobbed. + + + +CHAPTER 5. OUT OF THE WILDERNESS + +On the way to God's Country at last! Already Chad had schooled himself for the +parting with Jack, and but for this he must--little man that he was--have +burst into tears. As it was, the lump in his throat stayed there a long while, +but it passed in the excitement of that mad race down the river. The old +Squire had never known such a tide. + +"Boys," he said, gleefully, "we're goin' to make a REcord on this trip--you +jus' see if we don't. That is, if we ever git thar alive." + +All the time the old man stood in the middle of the raft yelling orders. Ahead +was the Dillon raft, and the twin brothers--the giants, one mild, the other +sour-faced--were gesticulating angrily at each other from bow and stern. As +usual, they were quarrelling. On the Turner raft, Dolph was at the bow, the +school-master at the stern, while Rube--who was cook--and Chad, in spite of a +stinging pain in one foot, built an oven of stones, where coffee could be +boiled and bacon broiled, and started a fire, for the air was chill on the +river, especially when they were running between the hills and no sun could +strike them. + +When the fire blazed up, Chad sat by it watching Tall Tom and the +school-master at the stern oar and Rube at the bow. When the turn was sharp, +how they lashed the huge white blades through the yellow water--with the +handle across their broad chests, catching with their toes in the little +notches that had been chipped along the logs and tossing the oars down and up +with a mighty swing that made the blades quiver and bend like the tops of +pliant saplings! Then, on a run, they would rush back to start the stroke +again, while the old Squire yelled: + +"Hit her up thar now--easy--easy! NOW! Hit her up! Hit her up--NOW!" + +Now they passed between upright, wooded, gray mountain-sides, threaded with +faint lines of the coming green; now between gray walls of rock streaked white +with water-falls, and now past narrow little valleys which were just beginning +to sprout with corn. At the mouth of the creeks they saw other rafts making +ready and, now and then, a raft would shoot out in the river from some creek +ahead or behind them. In an hour, they struck a smooth run of several hundred +yards where the men at the oars could sit still and rest, while the raft shot +lightly forward in the middle of the stream; and down the river they could see +the big Dillons making the next sharp turn and, even that far away, they could +hear Jerry yelling and swearing at his patient brother. + +"Some o' these days," said the old Squire, "that fool Jake's a-goin' to pick +up somethin' an' knock that mean Jerry's head off. I wonder he hain't done it +afore. Hit's funny how brothers can hate when they do git to hatin'." + +That night, they tied up at Jackson--to be famous long after the war as the +seat of a bitter mountain-feud. At noon the next day, they struck "the +Nahrrers" (Narrows), where the river ran like a torrent between high steep +walls of rock, and where the men stood to the oars watchfully and the old +squire stood upright, watching every movement of the raft; for "bowing" there +would have meant destruction to the raft and the death of them all. That night +they were in Beattyville, whence they floated next day, along lower hills and, +now and then, past a broad valley. Once Chad looked at the school-master--he +wondered if they were approaching the Bluegrass--but Caleb Hazel smiled and +shook his head. And had Chad waited another half hour, he would not have asked +the question, even with his eyes, for they swept between high cliffs +again--higher than he had yet seen. + +That night they ran from dark to dawn, for the river was broader and a +brilliant moon was high; and, all night, Chad could hear the swish of the +oars, as they floated in mysterious silence past the trees and the hills and +the moonlit cliffs, and he lay on his back, looking up at the moon and the +stars, and thinking about the land to which he was going and of Jack back in +the land he had left; and of little Melissa. She had behaved very strangely +during the last few days before the boy had left She had not been sharp with +him, even in play. She had been very quiet--indeed, she scarcely spoke a word +to him, but she did little things for him that she had never done before, and +she was unusually kind to Jack. Once, Chad found her crying behind the barn, +and then she was very sharp with him, and told him to go away and cried more +than ever. Her little face looked very white, as she stood on the bank, and, +somehow, Chad saw it all that night in the river and among the trees and up +among the stars, but he little knew what it all meant to him or to her. He +thought of the Turners back at home, and he could see them sitting around the +big fire--Joel with his pipe, the old mother spinning flax, Jack asleep on the +hearth, and Melissa's big solemn eyes shining from the dark corner where she +lay wide-awake in bed and, when he went to sleep, her eyes followed him in his +dreams. + +When he awoke, the day was just glimmering over the hills, and the chill air +made him shiver, as he built up the fire and began to get breakfast ready. At +noon, that day, though the cliffs were still high, the raft swung out into a +broader current, where the water ran smoothly and, once, the hills parted and, +looking past a log-cabin on the bank of the river, Chad saw a stone +house--relic of pioneer days--and, farther out, through a gap in the hills, a +huge house with great pillars around it and, on the hill-side, many sheep and +fat cattle and a great barn. There dwelt one of the lords of the Bluegrass +land, and again Chad looked to the school-master and, this time, the +school-master smiled and nodded as though to say: + +"We're getting close now, Chad." So Chad rose to his feet thrilled, and +watched the scene until the hills shut it off again. One more night and one +more dawn, and, before the sun rose, the hills had grown smaller and smaller +and the glimpses between them more frequent and, at last, far down the river, +Chad saw a column of smoke and all the men on the raft took off their hats and +shouted. The end of the trip was near, for that black column meant the +capital! + +Chad trembled on his feet and his heart rose into his throat, while Caleb +Hazel seemed hardly less moved. His hat was off and he stood motionless, with +his face uplifted, and his grave eyes fastened on that dark column as though +it rose from the pillar of fire that was leading him to some promised land. + +As they rounded the next curve, some monster swept out of the low hills on the +right, with a shriek that startled the boy almost into terror and, with a +mighty puffing and rumbling, shot out of sight again. The school-master +shouted to Chad, and the Turner brothers grinned at him delightedly: + +"Steam-cars!" they cried, and Chad nodded back gravely, trying to hold in his +wonder. + +Sweeping around the next curve, another monster hove in sight with the same +puffing and a long "h-o-o-ot!" A monster on the river and moving up stream +steadily, with no oar and no man in sight, and the Turners and the +school-master shouted again. Chad's eyes grew big with wonder and he ran +forward to see the rickety little steamboat approach and, with wide eyes, +devoured it, as it wheezed and labored up-stream past them--watched the +thundering stern-wheel threshing the water into a wake of foam far behind it +and flashing its blades, water-dripping in the sun--watched it till it puffed +and wheezed and labored on out of sight. Great Heavens! to think that +he--Chad--was seeing all that! + +About the next bend, more but thinner columns of smoke were visible. Soon the +very hills over the capital could be seen, with little green wheat-fields +dotting them and, as the raft drew a little closer, Chad could see houses on +the hills--more strange houses of wood and stone, and porches, and queer +towers on them from which glistened shining points. + +"What's them?" he asked. + +"Lightnin'-rods," said Tom, and Chad understood, for the school-master had +told him about them back in the mountains. Was there anything that Caleb Hazel +had not told him? The haze over the town was now visible, and soon they swept +past tall chimneys puffing out smoke, great warehouses covered on the outside +with weather-brown tin, and, straight ahead--Heavens, what a bridge!--arching +clear over the river and covered like a house, from which people were looking +down on them as they swept under. There were the houses, in two rows on the +streets, jammed up against each other and without any yards. And people! Where +had so many people come from? Close to the river and beyond the bridge was +another great mansion, with tall pillars, about it was a green yard, as smooth +as a floor, and negroes and children were standing on the outskirting stone +wall and looking down at them as they floated by. And another great house +still, and a big garden with little paths running through it and more patches +of that strange green grass. Was that bluegrass? It was, but it didn't look +blue and it didn't look like any other grass Chad had ever seen. Below this +bridge was another bridge, but not so high, and, while Chad looked, another +black monster on wheels were crashing over it. + +Tom and the school-master were working the raft slowly to the shore now, and, +a little farther down, Chad could see more rafts tied up--rafts, rafts, +nothing but rafts on the river, everywhere! Up the bank a mighty buzzing was +going on, amid a cloud of dust, and little cars with logs on them were +shooting about amid the gleamings of many saws, and, now and then, a log would +leap from the river and start up toward that dust-cloud with two glistening +iron teeth sunk in one end and a long iron chain stretching up along a groove +built of boards--and Heaven only knew what was pulling it up. On the bank was +a stout, jolly-looking man, whose red, kind face looked familiar to Chad, as +he ran down shouting a welcome to the Squire. Then the raft slipped along +another raft, Tom sprang aboard it with the grape-vine cable, and the +school-master leaped aboard with another cable from the stern. + +"Why, boy," cried the stout man. "Where's yo' dog?" Then Chad recognized him, +for he was none other than the cattle-dealer who had given him Jack. + +"I left him at home." + +"Is he all right?" + +"Yes--I reckon." + +"Then I'd like to have him back again." + +Chad smiled and shook his head. + +"Not much." + +"Well, he's the best sheep-dog on earth." + +The raft slowed up, creaking--slower--straining and creaking, and stopped. The +trip was over, and the Squire had made his "record," for the red-faced man +whistled incredulously when the old man told him what day he had left Kingdom +Come. + +An hour later the big Dillon twins hove in sight, just as the Turner party was +climbing the sawdust hill into the town, where Dolph and Rube were for taking +the middle of the street like other mountaineers, who were marching thus ahead +of them, single file, but Tom and the school-master laughed at them and drew +them over to the sidewalk. Bricks and stones laid down for people to walk +on--how wonderful. And all the houses were of brick or were +weather-boarded--all built together wall against wall. And the stores with the +big glass windows all filled with wonderful things! Then a pair of swinging +green shutters through which, while Chad and the school-master waited outside, +Tom insisted on taking Dolph and Rube and giving them their first drink of +Bluegrass whiskey--red liquor, as the hill-men call it. A little farther on, +they all stopped still on a corner of the street, while the school-master +pointed out to Chad and Dolph and Rube the Capitol--a mighty structure of +massive stone, with majestic stone columns, where people went to the +Legislature. How they looked with wondering eyes at the great flag floating +lazily over it, and at the wonderful fountain tossing water in the air, and +with the water three white balls which leaped and danced in the jet of shining +spray and never flew away from it. How did they stay there? The school-master +laughed--Chad had asked him a question at last that he couldn't answer. And +the tall spiked iron fence that ran all the way around the yard, which was +full of trees--how wonderful that was, too! As they stood looking, law-makers +and visitors poured out through the doors--a brave array--some of them in +tight trousers, high hats, and blue coats with brass buttons, and, as they +passed, Caleb Hazel reverently whispered the names of those he +knew--distinguished lawyers, statesmen, and Mexican veterans: witty Tom +Marshall; Roger Hanson, bulky, brilliant; stately Preston, eagle-eyed Buckner, +and Breckenridge, the magnificent, forensic in bearing. Chad was thrilled. + +A little farther on, they turned to the left, and the school-master pointed +out the Governor's mansion, and there, close by, was a high gray wall--a wall +as high as a house, with a wooden box taller than a man on each corner, and, +inside, another big gray building in which, visible above the walls, were +grated windows--the penitentiary! Every mountaineer has heard that word, and +another--the Legislator. + +Chad shivered as he looked, for he could recall that sometimes down in the +mountains a man would disappear for years and turn up again at home? whitened +by confinement; and, during his absence, when anyone asked about him, the +answer was penitentiary. He wondered what those boxes on the walls were for, +and he was about to ask, when a guard stepped from one of them with a musket +and started to patrol the wall, and he had no need to ask. Tom wanted to go up +on the hill and look at the Armory and the graveyard, but the school-master +said they did not have time, and, on the moment, the air was startled with +whistles far and near--six o'clock! At once Caleb Hazel led the way to supper +in the boarding-house, where a kind-faced old lady spoke to Chad in a motherly +way, and where the boy saw his first hot biscuit and was almost afraid to eat +anything at the table for fear he might do something wrong. For the first time +in his life, too, he slept on a mattress without any feather-bed, and Chad lay +wondering, but unsatisfied still. Not yet had he been out of sight of the +hills, but the master had told him that they would see the Bluegrass next day, +when they were to start back to the mountains by train as far as Lexington. +And Chad went to sleep, dreaming his old dream. + + + + + + +CHAPTER 6 + +LOST AT THE CAPITAL + +It had been arranged by the school-master that they should all meet at the +railway station to go home, next day at noon, and, as the Turner boys had to +help the Squire with the logs at the river, and the school-master had to +attend to some business of his own, Chad roamed all morning around the town. +So engrossed was he with the people and the sights and sounds of the little +village that he came to himself with a start and trotted back to the +boarding-house for fear that he might not be able to find the station alone. +The old lady was standing in the sunshine at the gate. + +Chad panted--"Where's--?" + +"They're gone." + +"Gone!" echoed Chad, with a sinking heart. + +"Yes, they've been gone--" But Chad did not wait to listen; he whirled into +the hall-way, caught up his rifle, and, forgetting his injured foot, fled at +full speed down the street. He turned the corner, but could not see the +station, and he ran on about another corner and still another, and, just when +he was about to burst into tears, he saw the low roof that he was looking for, +and hot, panting, and tired, he rushed to it, hardly able to speak. + +"Has that enJINE gone?" he asked breathlessly. The man who was whirling trunks +on their corners into the baggage-room did not answer. Chad's eyes flashed and +he caught the man by the coat-tail. + +"Has that enJINE gone?" he cried. + +The man looked over his shoulder. + +"Leggo my coat, you little devil. Yes, that enJINE'S gone," he added, +mimicking. Then he saw the boy's unhappy face and he dropped the trunk and +turned to him. + +"What's the matter?" he asked, kindly. + +Chad had turned away with a sob. + +"They've lef' me--they've lef' me," he said, and then, controlling himself: + +"Is thar another goin'?" + +"Not till to-morrow mornin'." + +Another sob came, and Chad turned away--he did not want anybody to see him +cry. And this was no time for crying, for Chad's prayer back at the grave +under the poplar flashed suddenly back to him. + +"I got to ack like a man now." And, sobered at once, he walked on up the +hill--thinking. He could not know that the school-master was back in the town, +looking for him. If he waited until the next morning, the Turners would +probably have gone on; whereas, if he started out now on foot, and walked all +night, he might catch them before they left Lexington next morning. And if he +missed the Squire and the Turner boys, he could certainly find the +school-master there. And if not, he could go on to the mountains alone. Or he +might stay in the "settlemints"--what had he come for? He might--he would--oh, +he'd get along somehow, he said to himself, wagging his head--he always had +and he always would. He could always go back to the mountains. If he only had +Jack--if he only had Jack! Nothing would make any difference then, and he +would never be lonely, if he only had Jack. But, cheered with his +determination, he rubbed the tears from his eyes with his coat-sleeve and +climbed the long hill. There was the Armory, which, years later, was to harbor +Union troops in the great war, and beyond it was the little city of the dead +that sits on top of the hill far above the shining river. At the great iron +gates he stopped a moment, peering through. He saw a wilderness of white slabs +and, not until he made his way across the thick green turf and spelled out the +names carved on them, could he make out what they were for. How he wondered +when he saw the innumerable green mounds, for he hardly knew there were as +many people in the world living as he saw there must be in that place, dead. +But he had no time to spare and he turned quickly back to the +pike--saddened--for his heart went back, as his faithful heart was always +doing, to the lonely graves under the big poplar back in the mountains. + +When he reached the top of the slope, he saw a rolling country of low hills +stretching out before him, greening with spring; with far stretches of thick +grass and many woodlands under a long, low sky, and he wondered if this was +the Bluegrass. But he "reckoned" not--not yet. And yet he looked in wonder at +the green slopes, and the woods, and the flashing creek, and nowhere in front +of him--wonder of all--could he see a mountain. It was as Caleb Hazel had told +him, only Chad was not looking for any such mysterious joy as thrilled his +sensitive soul. There had been a light sprinkle of snow--such a fall as may +come even in early April--but the noon sun had let the wheat-fields and the +pastures blossom through it, and had swept it from the gray moist pike until +now there were patches of white only in gully and along north hill-sides under +little groups of pines and in the woods, where the sunlight could not reach; +and Chad trudged sturdily on in spite of his heavy rifle and his lame foot, +keenly alive to the new sights and sounds and smells of the new world--on +until the shadows lengthened and the air chilled again; on, until the sun +began to sink close to the far-away haze of the horizon. Never had the horizon +looked so far away. His foot began to hurt, and on the top of a hill he had to +stop and sit down for a while in the road, the pain was so keen. The sun was +setting now in a glory of gold, rose, pink, and crimson over him, the still +clouds caught the divine light which swept swiftly through the heavens until +the little pink clouds over the east, too, turned golden pink and the whole +heavens were suffused with green and gold. In the west, cloud was piled on +cloud like vast cathedrals that must have been built for worship on the way +straight to the very throne of God. And Chad sat thrilled, as he had been at +the sunrise on the mountains the morning after he ran away. There was no +storm, but the same loneliness came to him now and he wondered what he should +do. He could not get much farther that night--his foot hurt too badly. He +looked up--the clouds had turned to ashes and the air was growing chill--and +he got to his feet and started on. At the bottom of the hill and down a little +creek he saw a light and he turned toward it. The house was small, and he +could hear the crying of a child inside and could see a tall man cutting wood, +so he stopped at the bars and shouted + +"Hello!" + +The man stopped his axe in mid-air and turned. A woman, with a baby in her +arms, appeared in the light of the door with children crowding about her. + +"Hello!" answered the man. + +"I want to git to stay all night." The man hesitated. + +"We don't keep people all night." + +"Not keep people all night," thought Chad with wonder. + +"Oh, I reckon you will," he said. Was there anybody in the world who wouldn't +take in a stranger for the night? From the doorway the woman saw that it was a +boy who was asking shelter and the trust in his voice appealed vaguely to her. + +"Come in!" she called, in a patient, whining tone. "You can stay, I reckon." + +But Chad changed his mind suddenly. If they were in doubt about wanting +him--he was in no doubt as to what he would do. + +"No, I reckon I'd better git on," he said sturdily. and he turned and limped +back up the hill to the road--still wondering, and he remembered that, in the +mountains, when people wanted to stay all night, they usually stopped before +sundown. Travelling after dark was suspicious in the mountains, and perhaps it +was in this land, too. So, with this thought, he had half a mind to go back +and explain, but he pushed on. Half a mile farther, his foot was so bad that +he stopped with a cry of pain in the road and, seeing a barn close by, he +climbed the fence and into the loft and burrowed himself under the hay. From +under the shed he could see the stars rising. It was very still and very +lonely and he was hungry--hungrier and lonelier than he had ever been in his +life, and a sob of helplessness rose to his lips--if he only had Jack--but he +held it back. + +"I got to ack like a man now." And, saying this over and over to himself, he +went to sleep. + + + +CHAPTER 7. A FRIEND ON THE ROAD + +Rain fell that night--gentle rain and warm, for the south wind rose at +midnight. At four o clock a shower made the shingles over Chad rattle sharply, +but without wakening the lad, and then the rain ceased; and when Chad climbed +stiffly from his loft--the world was drenched and still, and the dawn was +warm, for spring had come that morning, and Chad trudged along the +road--unchilled. Every now and then he had to stop to rest his foot. Now and +then he would see people getting breakfast ready in the farm-houses that he +passed, and, though his little belly was drawn with pain, he would not stop +and ask for something to eat--for he did not want to risk another rebuff. The +sun rose and the light leaped from every wet blade of grass and bursting leaf +to meet it--leaped as though flashing back gladness that the spring was come. +For a little while Chad forgot his hunger and forgot his foot--like the leaf +and grass-blade his stout heart answered with gladness, too, and he trudged +on. + +Meanwhile, far behind him, an old carriage rolled out of a big yard and +started toward him and toward Lexington. In the driver's seat was an old +gray-haired, gray-bearded negro with knotty hands and a kindly face; while, on +the oval shaped seat behind the lumbering old vehicle, sat a little darky with +his bare legs dangling down. In the carriage sat a man who might have been a +stout squire straight from merry England, except that there was a little tilt +to the brim of his slouch hat that one never sees except on the head of a +Southerner, and in his strong, but easy, good-natured mouth was a pipe of +corn-cob with a long cane stem. The horses that drew him were a handsome pair +of half thoroughbreds, and the old driver, with his eyes half closed, looked +as though, even that early in the morning, he were dozing. An hour later, the +pike ran through an old wooden-covered bridge, to one side of which a road led +down to the water, and the old negro turned the carriage to the creek to let +his horses drink. The carriage stood still in the middle of the stream and +presently the old driver turned his head: "Mars Cal!" he called in a low +voice. The Major raised his head. The old negro was pointing with his whip +ahead and the Major saw something sitting on the stone fence, some twenty +yards beyond, which stirred him sharply from his mood of contemplation. + +"Shades of Dan'l Boone!" he said, softly. It was a miniature pioneer--the +little still figure watching him solemnly and silently. Across the boy's lap +lay a long rifle--the Major could see that it had a flintlock--and on his +tangled hair was a coonskin cap--the scalp above his steady dark eyes and the +tail hanging down the lad's neck. And on his feet were--moccasins! The +carriage moved out of the stream and the old driver got down to hook the +check-reins over the shining bit of metal that curved back over the little +saddles to which the boy's eyes had swiftly strayed. Then they came back to +the Major. + +"Howdye!" said Chad. + +"Good-mornin', little man," said the Major pleasantly, and Chad knew +straightway that he had found a friend. But there was silence. Chad scanned +the horses and the strange vehicle and the old driver and the little +pickaninny who, hearing the boy's voice, had stood up on his seat and was +grinning over one of the hind wheels, and then his eyes rested on the Major +with a simple confidence and unconscious appeal that touched the Major at +once. + +"Are you goin' my way?" The Major's nature was too mellow and easy-going to +pay any attention to final g's. Chad lifted his old gun and pointed up the +road. + +"I'm a-goin' thataway." + +"Well, don't you want to ride?" + +"Yes," he said, simply. + +"Climb right in, my boy." + +So Chad climbed in, and, holding the old rifle upright between his knees, he +looked straight forward, in silence, while the Major studied him with a quiet +smile. + +"Where are you from, little man?" + +"I come from the mountains." + +"The mountains?" said the Major. + +The Major had fished and hunted in the mountains, and somewhere in that +unknown region he owned a kingdom of wild mountain-land, but he knew as little +about the people as he knew about the Hottentots, and cared hardly more. + +"What are you doin' up here?" + +"I'm goin' home," said Chad. + +"How did you happen to come away?" + +"Oh, I been wantin' to see the settleMINTS." + +"The settleMINTS," echoed the Major, and then he understood. He recalled +having heard the mountaineers call the Bluegrass region the "settlemints" +before. + +"I come down on a raft with Dolph and Tom and Rube and the Squire and the +school-teacher, an' I got lost in Frankfort. They've gone on, I reckon, an' +I'm tryin' to ketch 'em." + +"What will you do if you don't?" + +"Foller'em," said Chad, sturdily. + +"Does your father live down in the mountains?" + +"No," said Chad, shortly. + +The Major looked at the lad gravely. + +"Don't little boys down in the mountains ever say sir to their elders?" + +"No," said Chad. "No, sir," he added gravely and the Major broke into a +pleased laugh--the boy was quick as lightning. + +"I ain't got no daddy. An' no mammy--I ain't got--nothin'." It was said quite +simply, as though his purpose merely was not to sail under false colors, and +the Major's answer was quick and apologetic: + +"Oh!" he said, and for a moment there was silence again. Chad watched the +woods, the fields, and the cattle, the strange grain growing about him, and +the birds and the trees. Not a thing escaped his keen eye, and, now and then, +he would ask a question which the Major would answer with some surprise and +wonder. His artless ways pleased the old fellow. You haven't told me your +name. + +"You hain't axed me." + +"Well, I axe you now," laughed the Major, but Chad saw nothing to laugh at. + +"Chad," he said. + +"Chad what?" + +Now it had always been enough in the mountains, when anybody asked his name, +for him to answer simply--Chad. He hesitated now and his brow wrinkled as +though he were thinking hard. + +"I don't know," said Chad. + +"What? Don't know your own name?" The boy looked up into the Major's face with +eyes that were so frank and unashamed and at the same time so vaguely troubled +that the Major was abashed. + +"Of course not," he said kindly, as though it were the most natural thing in +the world that a boy should not know his own name. Presently the Major said, +reflectively: + +"Chadwick." + +"Chad," corrected the boy. + +"Yes, I know"; and the Major went on thinking that Chadwick happened to be an +ancestral name in his own family. + +Chad's brow was still wrinkled--he was trying to think what old Nathan Cherry +used to call him. + +"I reckon I hain't thought o' my name since I left old Nathan," he said. Then +he told briefly about the old man, and lifting his lame foot suddenly, he +said: "Ouch!" The Major looked around and Chad explained: + +"I hurt my foot comin' down the river an' hit got wuss walkin' so much." The +Major noticed then that the boy's face was pale, and that there were dark +hollows under his eyes, but it never occurred to him that the lad was hungry, +for, in the Major's land, nobody ever went hungry for long. But Chad was +suffering now and he leaned back in his seat and neither talked nor looked at +the passing fields. By and by, he spied a crossroads store. + +"I wonder if I can't git somethin' to eat in that store." + +The Major laughed: "You ain't gettin' hungry so soon, are you? You must have +eaten breakfast pretty early." + +"I ain't had no breakfast--an' I didn't hev no supper last night." + +"What?" shouted the Major. + +Chad stated the fact with brave unconcern, but his lip quivered slightly--he +was weak + +"Well, I reckon we'll get something to eat there whether they've got anything +or not." + +And then Chad explained, telling the story of his walk from Frankfort. The +Major was amazed that anybody could have denied the boy food and lodging. + +"Who were they, Tom?" he asked + +The old driver turned: + +"They was some po' white trash down on Cane Creek, I reckon, suh. Must'a' +been." There was a slight contempt in the negro's words that made Chad think +of hearing the Turners call the Dillons white trash--though they never said +"po' white trash." + +"Oh!" said the Major. So the carriage stopped, and when a man in a black +slouch hat came out, the Major called: + +"Jim, here's a boy who ain't had anything to eat for twenty-four hours. Get +him a cup of coffee right away, and I reckon you've got some cold ham handy." + +"Yes, indeed, Major," said Jim, and he yelled to a negro girl who was standing +on the porch of his house behind the store. + +Chad ate ravenously and the Major watched him with genuine pleasure. When the +boy was through, he reached in his pocket and brought out his old five-dollar +bill, and the Major laughed aloud and patted him on the head. + +"You can't pay for anything while you are with me, Chad." + +The whole earth wore a smile when they started out again. The swelling hills +had stretched out into gentler slopes. The sun was warm, the clouds were +still, and the air was almost drowsy. The Major's eyes closed and everything +lapsed into silence. That was a wonderful ride for Chad. It was all true, just +as the school-master had told him; the big, beautiful houses he saw now and +then up avenues of blossoming locusts; the endless stone fences, the +whitewashed barns, the woodlands and pastures; the meadow-larks flitting in +the sunlight and singing everywhere; fluting, chattering blackbirds, and a +strange new black bird with red wings, at which Chad wondered very much, as he +watched it balancing itself against the wind and singing as it poised. +Everything seemed to sing in that wonderful land. And the seas of bluegrass +stretching away on every side, with the shadows of clouds passing in rapid +succession over them, like mystic floating islands--and never a mountain in +sight. What a strange country it was. + +"Maybe some of your friends are looking for you in Frankfort," said the Major. + +"No, sir, I reckon not," said Chad--for the man at the station had told him +that the men who had asked about him were gone. + +"All of them?" asked the Major. + +Of course, the man at the station could not tell whether all of them had gone, +and perhaps the school-master had stayed behind--it was Calebazel if anybody. + +"Well, now, I wonder," said Chad--"the school-teacher might'a' stayed." + +Again the two lapsed into silence--Chad thinking very hard. He might yet catch +the school-master in Lexington, and he grew very cheerful at the thought. + +"You ain't told me yo' name," he said, presently. The Major's lips smiled +under the brim of his hat. + +"You hain't axed me." + +"Well, I axe you now." Chad, too, was smiling. + +"Cal," said the Major. "Cal what?" + +"I don't know." + +"Oh, yes, you do, now--you foolin' me"--the boy lifted one finger at the +Major. + +"Buford, Calvin Buford." + +"Buford--Buford--Buford," repeated the boy, each time with his forehead +wrinkled as though he were trying to recall something. + +"What is it, Chad?" + +"Nothin'--nothin'." + +And then he looked up with bewildered face at the Major and broke into the +quavering voice of an old man. + +"Chad Buford, you little devil, come hyeh this minute or I'll beat the life +outen you!" + +"What--what!" said the Major excitedly. The boy's face was as honest as the +sky above him. "Well, that's funny--very funny." + +"Well, that's it," said Chad, "that's what ole Nathan used to call me. I +reckon I hain't naver thought o' my name agin tell you axed me." The Major +looked at the lad keenly and then dropped back in his seat ruminating. + +Away back in 1778 a linchpin had slipped in a wagon on the Wilderness Road and +his grandfather's only brother, Chadwick Buford, had concluded to stop there +for a while and hunt and come on later--thus ran an old letter that the Major +had in his strong box at home--and that brother had never turned up again and +the supposition was that he had been killed by Indians. Now it would be +strange if he had wandered up in the mountains and settled there and if this +boy were a descendant of his. It would be very, very strange, and then the +Major almost laughed at the absurdity of the idea. The name Buford was all +over the State. The boy had said, with amazing frankness and without a +particle of shame, that he was a waif--a "woodscolt," he said, with paralyzing +candor. And so the Major dropped the matter out of his mind, except in so far +that it was a peculiar coincidence--again saying, half to himself-- + +"It certainly is very odd!" + + + +CHAPTER 8. HOME WITH THE MAJOR + +Ahead of them, it was Court Day in Lexington. From the town, as a centre, +white turnpikes radiated in every direction like the strands of a spider's +web. Along them, on the day before, cattle sheep, and hogs had made their slow +way. Since dawn, that morning, the fine dust had been rising under hoof and +wheel on every one of them, for Court Day is yet the great day of every month +throughout the Bluegrass. The crowd had gone ahead of the Major and Chad. Only +now and then would a laggard buggy or carriage turn into the pike from a +pasture-road or locust-bordered avenue. Only men were occupants, for the +ladies rarely go to town on court days--and probably none would go on that +day. Trouble was expected. An abolitionist, one Brutus Dean--not from the +North, but a Kentuckian, a slave-holder and a gentleman--would probably start +a paper in Lexington to exploit his views in the heart of the Bluegrass; and +his quondam friends would shatter his press and tear his office to pieces. So +the Major told Chad, and he pointed out some "hands" at work in a field. + +"An', mark my words, some day there's goin' to be the damnedest fight the +world ever saw over these very niggers. An' the day ain't so far away." + +It was noon before they reached the big cemetery on the edge of Lexington. +Through a rift in the trees the Major pointed out the grave of Henry Clay, and +told him about the big monument that was to be reared above his remains. The +grave of Henry Clay! Chad knew all about him. He had heard Caleb Hazel read +the great man's speeches aloud by the hour--had heard him intoning them to +himself as he walked the woods to and fro from school. Would wonders never +cease. + +There seemed to be no end to the houses and streets and people in this big +town, and Chad wondered why everybody turned to look at him and smiled, and, +later in the day, he came near getting into a fight with another boy who +seemed to be making fun of him to his companions. He wondered at that, too, +until it suddenly struck him that he saw nobody else carrying a rifle and +wearing a coonskin cap--perhaps it was his cap and his gun. The Major was +amused and pleased, and he took a certain pride in the boy's calm indifference +to the attention he was drawing to himself. And he enjoyed the little mystery +which he and his queer little companion seemed to create as they drove through +the streets. + +On one corner was a great hemp factory. + +Through the windows Chad could see negroes, dusty as millers, bustling about, +singing as they worked. Before the door were two men--one on horseback. The +Major drew up a moment. + +"How are you, John? Howdye, Dick?" Both men answered heartily, and both looked +at Chad--who looked intently at them--the graceful, powerful man on foot and +the slender, wiry man with wonderful dark eyes on horseback. + +"Pioneering, Major?" asked John Morgan. + +"This is a namesake of mine from the mountains. He's come up to see the +settlements." + +Richard Hunt turned on his horse. "How do you like 'em?" + +"Never seed nothin' like 'em in my life," said Chad, gravely. Morgan laughed +and Richard Hunt rode on with them down the street. + +"Was that Captin Morgan?" asked Chad. + +"Yes," said the Major. "Have you heard of him before?" + +"Yes, sir. A feller on the road tol' me, if I was lookin' fer somethin' to do +hyeh in Lexington to go to Captin Morgan." + +The Major laughed: "That's what everybody does." + +At once, the Major took the boy to an old inn and gave him a hearty meal; and +while the Major attended to some business, Chad roamed the streets. + +"Don't get into trouble, my boy," said the Major, an come back here an hour or +two by sun. + +Naturally, the lad drifted where the crowd was thickest--to Cheapside. +Cheapside--at once the market-place and the forum of the Bluegrass from +pioneer days to the present hour--the platform that knew Clay, Crittenden, +Marshall, Breckenridge, as it knows the lesser men of to-day, who resemble +those giants of old as the woodlands of the Bluegrass to-day resemble the +primeval forests from which they sprang. + +Cheapside was thronged that morning with cattle, sheep, hogs, horses, farmers, +aristocrats, negroes, poor whites. The air was a babel of cries from +auctioneers--head, shoulders, and waistband above the crowd--and the cries of +animals that were changing owners that day--one of which might now and then be +a human being. The Major was busy, and Chad wandered where he pleased--keeping +a sharp lookout everywhere for the school-master, but though he asked right +and left he could find nobody, to his great wonder, who knew even the master's +name. In the middle of the afternoon the country people began to leave town +and Cheapside was cleared, but, as Chad walked past the old inn, he saw a +crowd gathered within and about the wide doors of a livery-stable, and in a +circle outside that lapped half the street. The auctioneer was in plain sight +above the heads of the crowd, and the horses were led out one by one from the +stable. It was evidently a sale of considerable moment, and there were +horse-raisers, horse-trainers, jockeys, stable-boys, gentlemen--all eager +spectators or bidders. Chad edged his way through the outer rim of the crowd +and to the edge of the sidewalk, and, when a spectator stepped down from a +dry-goods box from which he had been looking on, Chad stepped up and took his +place. Straightway, he began to wish he could buy a horse and ride back to the +mountains. What fun that would be, and how he would astonish the folks on +Kingdom Come. He had his five dollars still in his pocket, and when the first +horse was brought out, the auctioneer raised his hammer and shouted in loud +tones: + +"How much am I offered for this horse?" + +There was no answer, and the silence lasted so long that before he knew it +Chad called out in a voice that frightened him: + +"Five dollars!" Nobody heard the bid, and nobody paid any attention to him. + +"One hundred dollars," said a voice. + +"One hundred and twenty-five," said another, and the horse was knocked down +for two hundred dollars. + +A black stallion with curving neck and red nostrils and two white feet walked +proudly in. + +"How much am I offered?" + +"Five dollars," said Chad, promptly. A man who sat near heard the boy and +turned to look at the little fellow, and was hardly able to believe his ears. +And so it went on. Each time a horse was put up Chad shouted out: + +"Five dollars," and the crowd around him began to smile and laugh and +encourage him and wait for his bid. The auctioneer, too, saw him, and entered +into the fun himself, addressing himself to Chad at every opening bid. + +"Keep it up, little man," said a voice behind him. "You'll get one by and by." +Chad looked around. Richard Hunt was smiling to him from his horse on the edge +of the crowd. + +The last horse was a brown mare--led in by a halter. She was old and a trifle +lame, and Chad, still undispirited, called out this time louder than ever: + +"Five dollars!" + +He shouted out this time loudly enough to be heard by everybody, and a +universal laugh rose; then came silence, and, in that silence, an imperious +voice shouted back: + +"Let him have her!" It was the owner of the horse who spoke--a tall man with a +noble face and long iron-gray hair. The crowd caught his mood, and as nobody +wanted the old mare very much, and the owner would be the sole loser, nobody +bid against him, and Chad's heart thumped when the auctioneer raised his +hammer and said: + +"Five dollars, five dollars--what am I offered? Five dollars, five dollars, +going at five dollars, five dollars--going at five dollars--going--going, last +bid, gentlemen!" The hammer came down with a blow that made Chad's heart jump +and brought a roar of laughter from the crowd. + +"What is the name, please?" said the auctioneer, bending forward with great +respect and dignity toward the diminutive purchaser. + +"Chad." + +The auctioneer put his hand to one ear. + +"I beg your pardon--Dan'l Boone did you say? + +"No!" shouted Chad indignantly--he began to feel that fun was going on at his +expense. "You heerd me--CHAD." + +"Ah, Mr. Chad." + +Not a soul knew the boy, but they liked his spirit, and several followed him +when he went up and handed his five dollars and took the halter of his new +treasure trembling so that he could scarcely stand. The owner of the horse +placed his hand on the little fellow's head. + +"Wait a minute," he said, and, turning to a negro boy: "Jim, go bring a +bridle." The boy brought out a bridle, and the tall man slipped it on the old +mare's head, and Chad led her away--the crowd watching him. Just outside he +saw the Major, whose eyes opened wide: + +"Where'd you get that old horse, Chad?" + +"Bought her," said Chad. + +"What? What'd you give for her?" + +"Five dollars." + +The Major looked pained, for he thought the boy was lying, but Richard Hunt +called him aside and told the story of the purchase; and then how the Major +did laugh--laughed until the tears rolled down his face. + +And then and there he got out of his carriage and went into a saddler's shop +and bought a brand new saddle with a red blanket, and put it on the old mare +and hoisted the boy to his seat. Chad was to have no little honor in his day, +but he never knew a prouder moment than when he clutched the reins in his left +hand and squeezed his short legs against the fat sides of that old brown mare. + +He rode down the street and back again, and then the Major told him he had +better put the black boy on the mare, to ride her home ahead of him, and Chad +reluctantly got off and saw the little darky on his new saddle and his new +horse. + +"Take good keer o' that hoss, boy," he said, with a warning shake of his head, +and again the Major roared. + +First, the Major said, he would go by the old University and leave word with +the faculty for the school-master when he should come there to matriculate; +and so, at a turnstile that led into a mighty green yard in the middle of +which stood a huge gray mass of stone, the carriage stopped, and the Major got +out and walked through the campus and up the great flight of stone steps and +disappeared. The mighty columns, the stone steps--where had Chad heard of +them? And then the truth flashed. This was the college of which the +school-master had told him down in the mountains, and, looking, Chad wanted to +get closer. + +"I wonder if it'll make any difference if I go up thar?" he said to the old +driver. + +"No," the old man hesitated--"no, suh, co'se not." And Chad climbed out and +the old negro followed him with his eyes. He did not wholly approve of his +master's picking up an unknown boy on the road. It was all right to let him +ride, but to be taking him home--old Tom shook his head. + +"Jess wait till Miss Lucy sees that piece o' white trash," he said, shaking +his head. Chad was walking slowly with his eyes raised. It must be the college +where the school-master had gone to school--for the building was as big as the +cliff that he had pointed out down in the mountains, and the porch was as big +as the black rock that he pointed out at the same time--the college where +Caleb Hazel said Chad, too, must go some day. The Major was coming out when +the boy reached the foot of the steps, and with him was a tall, gray man with +spectacles and a white tie and very white nails, and the Major said: + +"There he is now, Professor." And the Professor looked at Chad curiously, and +smiled and smiled again kindly when he saw the boy's grave, unsmiling eyes +fastened on him. + +Then, out of the town and through the late radiant afternoon they went until +the sun sank and the carriage stopped before a gate. While the pickaninny was +opening it, another carriage went swiftly behind them, and the Major called +out cleanly to the occupants--a quiet, sombre, dignified-looking man and two +handsome boys and a little girl. "They're my neighbors, Chad," said the Major. + +Not a sound did the wheels make on the thick turf as they drove toward the +old-fashioned brick house (it had no pillars), with its windows shining +through the firs and cedars that filled the yard. The Major put his hand on +the boy's shoulder: + +"Well, here we are, little man." + +At the yard gate there was a great barking of dogs, and a great shout of +welcome from the negroes who came forward to take the horses. To each of them +the Major gave a little package, which each darky took with shining teeth and +a laugh of delight--all looking with wonder at the curious little stranger +with his rifle and coonskin cap, until a scowl from the Major checked the +smile that started on each black face. Then the Major led Chad up a flight of +steps and into a big hall and on into a big drawing-room, where there was a +huge fireplace and a great fire that gave Chad a pang of homesickness at once. +Chad was not accustomed to taking off his hat when he entered a house in the +mountains, but he saw the Major take off his, and he dropped his own cap +quickly. The Major sank into a chair. + +"Here we are, little man," he said, kindly. + +Chad sat down and looked at the books, and the portraits and prints, and the +big mirrors and the carpets on the floor, none of which he had ever seen +before, and he wondered at it all and what it all might mean. A few minutes +later, a tall lady in black, with a curl down each side of her pale face, came +in. Like old Tom, the driver, the Major, too, had been wondering what his +sister, Miss Lucy, would think of his bringing so strange a waif home, and +now, with sudden humor, he saw himself fortified. + +"Sister," he said, solemnly, "here's a little kinsman of yours. He's a +great-great-grandson of your great-great-uncle--Chadwick Buford. That's his +name. What kin does that make us?" + +"Hush, brother," said Miss Lucy, for she saw the boy reddening with +embarrassment and she went across and shook hands with him, taking in with a +glance his coarse strange clothes and his soiled hands and face and his +tangled hair, but pleased at once with his shyness and his dark eyes. She was +really never surprised at any caprice of her brother, and she did not show +much interest when the Major went on to tell where he had found the lad--for +she would have thought it quite possible that he might have taken the boy out +of a circus. As for Chad, he was in awe of her at once --which the Major +noticed with an inward chuckle, for the boy had shown no awe of him. Chad +could hardly eat for shyness at supper and because everything was so strange +and beautiful, and he scarcely opened his lips when they sat around the great +fire, until Miss Lucy was gone to bed. Then he told the Major all about +himself and old Nathan and the Turners and the school. master, and how he +hoped to come back to the Bluegrass, and go to that big college himself, and +he amazed the Major when, glancing at the books, he spelled out the titles of +two of Scott's novels, "The Talisman" and "Ivanhoe," and told how the +school-master had read them to him. And the Major, who had a passion for Sir +Walter, tested Chad's knowledge, and he could mention hardly a character or a +scene in the two books that did not draw an excited response from the boy. + +"Wouldn't you like to stay here in the Bluegrass now and go to school?" + +Chad's eyes lighted up. + +"I reckon I would; but how am I goin' to school, now, I'd like to know? I +ain't got no money to buy books, and the school-teacher said you have to pay +to go to school, up here." + +"Well, we'll see about that," said the Major, and Chad wondered what he meant. +Presently the Major got up and went to the sideboard and poured out a drink of +whiskey and, raising it to his lips, stopped: + +"Will you join me?" he asked, humorously, though it was hard for the Major to +omit that formula even with a boy. + +"I don't keer if I do," said Chad, gravely. The Major was astounded and +amused, and thought that the boy was not in earnest, but he handed him the +bottle and Chad poured out a drink that staggered his host, and drank it down +without winking. At the fire, the Major pulled out his chewing tobacco. This, +too, he offered and Chad accepted, equalling the Major in the accuracy with +which he reached the fireplace thereafter with the juice, carrying off his +accomplishment, too, with perfect and unconscious gravity. The Major was nigh +to splitting with silent laughter for a few minutes, and then he grew grave. + +"Does everybody drink and chew down in the mountains?" + +"Yes, sir," said Chad. "Everybody makes his own licker where I come from." + +"Don't you know it's very bad for little boys to drink and chew?" + +"No, sir." + +"Did nobody ever tell you it was very bad for little boys to drink and chew?" + +"No, sir"--not once had Chad forgotten that. + +"Well, it is." + +Chad thought for a minute. "Will it keep me from gittin' to be a BIG man?" + +"Yes." + +Chad quietly threw his quid into the fire. + +"Well, I be damned," said the Major under his breath. "Are you goin' to quit?" + +"Yes, sir." + +Meanwhile, the old driver, whose wife lived on the next farm, was telling the +servants over there about the queer little stranger whom his master had picked +up on the road that day, and after Chad was gone to bed, the Major got out +some old letters from a chest and read them over again. Chadwick Buford was +his great-grandfather's twin brother, and not a word had been heard of him +since the two had parted that morning on the old Wilderness Road, away back in +the earliest pioneer days. So, the Major thought and thought +suppose--suppose?" And at last he got up and with an uplifted candle, looked a +long while at the portrait of his grandfather that hung on the southern wall. +Then, with a sudden humor, he carried the light to the room where the boy was +in sound sleep, with his head on one sturdy arm, his hair loose on the pillow, +and his lips slightly parted and showing his white, even teeth; he looked at +the boy a long time and fancied he could see some resemblance to the portrait +in the set of the mouth and the nose and the brow, and he went back smiling at +his fancies and thinking--for the Major was sensitive to the claim of any drop +of the blood in his own veins--no matter how diluted. He was a handsome little +chap. + +"How strange! How strange!" + +And he smiled when he thought of the boy's last question. + +"Where's YO' mammy?" + +It had stirred the Major. + +"I am like you, Chad," he had said. "I've got no mammy--no nothin', except +Miss Lucy, and she don't live here. I'm afraid she won't be on this earth +long. Nobody lives here but me, Chad." + + + +CHAPTER 9. MARGARET + +The Major was in town and Miss Lucy had gone to spend the day with a neighbor; +so Chad was left alone. + +"Look aroun', Chad, and see how you like things," said the Major. "Go anywhere +you please." + +And Chad looked around. He went to the barn to see his old mare and the +Major's horses, and to the kennels, where the fox-hounds reared against the +palings and sniffed at him curiously; he strolled about the quarters, where +the little pickaninnies were playing, and out to the fields, where the +servants were at work under the overseer, Jerome Conners, a tall, thin man +with shrewd eyes, a sour, sullen face, and protruding upper teeth. One of the +few smiles that ever came to that face came now when the overseer saw the +little mountaineer. By and by Chad got one of the "hands" to let him take hold +of the plough and go once around the field, and the boy handled the plough +like a veteran, so that the others watched him, and the negro grinned, when he +came back, and said + +"You sutinly can plough fer a fac'!" + +He was lonesome by noon and had a lonely dinner, during which he could +scarcely realize that it was really he--Chad--Chad sitting up at the table +alone and being respectfully waited on by a kinky-headed little negro +girl--called Thanky-ma'am because she was born on Thanksgiving day--and he +wondered what the Turners would think if they could see him now--and the +school-master. Where was the school-master? He began to be sorry that he +hadn't gone to town to try to find him. Perhaps the Major would see him--but +how would the Major know the school-master? He was sorry he hadn't gone. After +dinner he started out-doors again. Earth and sky were radiant with light. +Great white tumbling clouds were piled high all around the horizon--and what a +long length of sky it was in every direction down in the mountains, he had to +look straight up, sometimes, to see the sky at all. Blackbirds chattered in +the cedars as he went to the yard gate. The field outside was full of singing +meadow-larks, and crows were cawing in the woods beyond. There had been a +light shower, and on the dead top of a tall tree he saw a buzzard stretching +his wings out to the sun. Past the edge of the woods, ran a little stream with +banks that were green to the very water's edge, and Chad followed it on +through the woods, over a worn rail-fence, along a sprouting wheat-field, out +into a pasture in which sheep and cattle were grazing, and on, past a little +hill, where, on the next low slope, sat a great white house with big white +pillars, and Chad climbed on top of the stone fence--and sat, looking. On the +portico stood a tall man in a slouch hat and a lady in black. At the foot of +the steps a boy--a head taller than Chad perhaps--was rigging up a +fishing-pole. A negro boy was leading a black pony toward the porch, and, to +his dying day, Chad never forgot the scene that followed. For, the next +moment, a little figure in a long riding-skirt stood in the big doorway and +then ran down the steps, while a laugh, as joyous as the water running at his +feet, floated down the slope to his ears. He saw the negro stoop, the little +girl bound lightly to her saddle; he saw her black curls shake in the +sunlight, again the merry laugh tinkled in his ears, and then, with a white +plume nodding from her black cap, she galloped off and disappeared among the +trees; and Chad sat looking after her--thrilled, mysteriously +thrilled--mysteriously saddened, straightway. Would he ever see her again? + +The tall man and the lady in black went in-doors, the negro disappeared, and +the boy at the foot of the steps kept on rigging his pole. Several times +voices sounded under the high creek bank below him, but, quick as his ears +were, Chad did not hear them. Suddenly there was a cry that startled him, and +something flashed in the sun over the edge of the bank and flopped in the +grass. + +"Snowball!" an imperious young voice called below the bank, "get that fish!" + +On the moment Chad was alert again--somebody was fishing down there--and he +sprang from his perch and ran toward the fish just as a woolly head and a +jet-black face peeped over the bank. + +The pickaninny's eyes were stretched wide when he saw the strange figure in +coonskin cap and moccasins running down on him, his face almost blanched with +terror, and he loosed his hold and, with a cry of fright, rolled back out of +sight. Chad looked over the bank. A boy of his own age was holding another +pole, and, hearing the little darky slide down, he said, sharply: + +"Get that fish, I tell you!" + +"Look dar, Mars' Dan, look dar!" + +The boy looked around and up and stared with as much wonder as his little +body-servant, but with no fear. + +"Howdye!" said Chad; but the white boy stared on silently. + +"Fishin'?" said Chad. + +"Yes," said Dan, shortly--he had shown enough curiosity and he turned his eyes +to his cork. "Get that fish, Snowball," he said again. + +"I'll git him fer ye," Chad said; and he went to the fish and unhooked it and +came down the bank with the perch in one hand and the pole in the other. + +"Whar's yo' string?" he asked, handing the pole to the still trembling little +darky. + +"I'll take it," said Dan, sticking the butt of his cane-pole in the mud. The +fish slipped through his wet fingers, when Chad passed it to him, dropped on +the bank, flopped to the edge of the creek, and the three boys, with the same +cry, scrambled for it--Snowball falling down on it and clutching it in both +his black little paws. + +"Dar now!" he shrieked. "I got him!" + +"Give him to me," said Dan. + +"Lemme string him," said the black boy. + +"Give him to me, I tell you!" And, stringing the fish, Dan took the other pole +and turned his eyes to his corks, while the pickaninny squatted behind him and +Chad climbed up and sat on the bank letting his legs dangle over. When Dan +caught a fish he would fling it with a whoop high over the bank. After the +third fish, the lad was mollified and got over his ill-temper. He turned to +Chad. + +"Want to fish?" + +Chad sprang down the bank quickly. + +"Yes," he said, and he took the other pole out of the bank, put on a fresh +wriggling worm, and moved a little farther down the creek where there was an +eddy. + +"Ketchin' any?" said a voice above the bank, and Chad looked up to see still +another lad, taller by a head than either he or Dan--evidently the boy whom he +had seen rigging a pole up at the big house on the hill. + +"Oh, 'bout'leven," said Dan, carelessly. + +"Howdye!" said Chad. + +"Howdye!" said the other boy, and he, too, stared curiously, but Chad had got +used to people staring at him. + +"I'm goin' over the big rock," added the new arrival, and he went down the +creek and climbed around a steep little cliff, and out on a huge rock that +hung over the creek, where he dropped his hook. He had no cork, and Chad knew +that he was trying to catch catfish. Presently he jerked, and a yellow mudcat +rose to the surface, fighting desperately for his life, and Dan and Snowball +yelled crazily. Then Dan pulled out a perch. + +"I got another one," he shouted. And Chad fished silently. They were making "a +mighty big fuss," he thought, "over mighty little fish. If he just had a +minnow an' had 'em down in the mountains,' I Gonnies, he'd show'em what +fishin' was!" But he began to have good luck as it was. Perch after perch he +pulled out quietly, and he kept Snowball busy stringing them until he had five +on the string. The boy on the rock was watching him and so was the boy near +him--furtively--while Snowball's admiration was won completely. and he grinned +and gurgled his delight, until Dan lost his temper again and spoke to him +sharply. Dan did not like to be beatin at anything. Pretty soon there was a +light thunder of hoofs on the turf above the bank. A black pony shot around +the bank and was pulled in at the edge of the ford, and Chad was looking into +the dancing black eyes of a little girl with a black velvet cap on her dark +curls and a white plume waving from it. + +"Howdye!" said Chad, and his heart leaped curiously, but the little girl did +not answer. She, too, stared at him as all the others had done and started to +ride into the creek, but Dan stopped her sharply: + +"Now, Margaret, don't you ride into that water. You'll skeer the fish." + +"No, you won't," said Chad, promptly. "Fish don't keer nothin' about a hoss." +But the little girl stood still, and her brother's face flushed. He resented +the stranger's interference and his assumption of a better knowledge of fish. + +"Mind your own business," trembled on his tongue, and the fact that he held +the words back only served to increase his ill-humor and make a worse outbreak +possible. But, if Chad did not understand, Snowball did, and his black face +grew suddenly grave as he sprang more alertly than ever at any word from his +little master. Meanwhile, all unconscious, Chad fished on, catching perch +after perch, but he could not keep his eyes on his cork while the little girl +was so near, and more than once he was warned by a suppressed cry from the +pickaninny when to pull. Once, when he was putting on a worm, he saw the +little girl watching the process with great disgust, and he remembered that +Melissa would never bait her own hook. All girls were alike, he "reckoned" to +himself, and when he caught a fish that was unusually big, he walked over to +her. + +"I'll give this un to you," he said, but she shrank from it. + +"Go 'way!" she said, and she turned her pony. Dan was red in the face by this +time. How did this piece of poor white trash dare to offer a fish to his +sister. And this time the words came out like the crack of a whip: + +"S'pose you mind your own business!" + +Chad started as though he had been struck and looked around quickly. He said +nothing, but he stuck the butt of his pole in the mud at once and climbed up +on the bank again and sat there, with his legs hanging over; and his own face +was not pleasant to see. The little girl was riding at a walk up the road. +Chad kept perfect silence, for he realized that he had not been minding his +own business; still he did not like to be told so and in such a way. Both +corks were shaking at the same time now. + +"You got a bite," said Dan, but Chad did not move. + +"You got a bite, I tell you," he said, in almost the tone he had used to +Snowball, but Chad, when the small aristocrat looked sharply around, dropped +his elbows to his knees and his chin into his hand--taking no notice. Once he +spat dexterously into the creek. Dan's own cork was going under: + +"Snowball!" he cried--"jerk!" A fish flew over Chad's head. Snowball had run +for the other pole at command and jerked, too, but the fish was gone and with +it the bait. + +"You lost that fish!" said the boy, hotly, but Chad sat silent--still. If he +would only say something! Dan began to think that the stranger was a coward. +So presently, to show what a great little man he was, he began to tease +Snowball, who was up on the bank unhooking the fish, of which Chad had taken +no notice. + +"What's your name?" + +"Snowball!" henchman, obediently. + +"Louder!" + +"S-n-o-w-b-a-l-l-l" + +"Louder!" The little black fellow opened his mouth wide. + +"S-N-O-W-B-A-L-L!" he shrieked. + +"LOUDER!" + +At last Chad spoke quietly. + +"He can't holler no louder." + +"What do you know about it? Louder!", and Dan started menacingly after the +little darky but Chad stepped between. + +"Don't hit him!" + +Now Dan had never struck Snowball in his life' and he would as soon have +struck his own brother--but he must not be told that he couldn't. His face +flamed and little Hotspur that he was, he drew his fist back and hit Chad full +in the chest. Chad leaped back to avoid the blow, tumbling Snowball down the +bank; the two clinched, and, while they tussled, Chad heard the other brother +clambering over the rocks, the beat of hoofs coming toward him on the turf, +and the little girl's cry: + +"Don't you DARE touch my brother!" + +Both went down side by side with their head just hanging over the bank, where +both could see Snowball's black wool coming to the surface in the deep hole, +and both heard his terrified shriek as he went under again. Chad was first to +his feet. + +"Git a rail!" he shouted and plunged in, but Dan sprang in after him. In three +strokes, for the current was rather strong, Chad had the kinky wool in his +hand, and, in a few strokes more, the two boys had Snowball gasping on the +bank. Harry, the taller brother, ran forward to help them carry him up the +bank, and they laid him, choking and bawling, on the grass. Whip in one hand +and with the skirt of her long black riding-habit in the other, the little +girl stood above, looking on--white and frightened. The hullabaloo had reached +the house and General Dean was walking swiftly down the hill, with Snowball's +mammy, topped by a red bandanna handkerchief, rushing after him and the +kitchen servants following. + +"What does this mean?" he said, sternly, and Chad was in a strange awe at +once--he was so tall, and he stood so straight, and his eye was so piercing. +Few people could lie into that eye. The little girl spoke first--usually she +does speak first, as well as last. + +"Dan and--and--that boy were fighting and they pushed Snowball into the +creek." + +"Dan was teasin' Snowball," said Harry the just. + +"And that boy meddled," said Dan. + +"Who struck first?" asked the General, looking from one boy to the other. Dan +dropped his eyes sullenly and Chad did not answer. + +"I wasn't goin' to hit Snowball," said Dan. + +"I thought you wus," said Chad. + +"Who struck first?" repeated the General, looking at Dan now. + +"That boy meddled and I hit him." + +Chad turned and answered the General's eyes steadily. + +"I reckon I had no business meddlin'!" + +"He tried to give sister a fish." + +That was unwise in Dan--Margaret's chin lifted. + +"Oh," she said, "that was it, too, was it? Well--" + +"I didn't see no harm givin' the little gal a fish," said Chad. "Little gal," +indeed! Chad lost the ground he might have gained. Margaret's eyes looked all +at once like her father's. + +"I'm a little GIRL, thank you." + +Chad turned to her father now, looking him in the face straight and steadily. + +"I reckon I had no business meddlin', but I didn't think hit was fa'r fer him +to hit the nigger; the nigger was littler, an' I didn't think hit 'as right." + +"I didn't mean to hit him--I was only playin'!" + +"But I THOUGHT you was goin' to hit him," said Chad. He looked at the General +again. "But I had no business meddlin'." And he picked up his old coonskin cap +from the grass to start away. + +"Hold on, little man," said the General. + +"Dan, haven't I told you not to tease Snowball?" Dan dropped his eyes again. + +"Yes, sir." + +"You struck first, and this boy says he oughtn't to have meddled, but I think +he did just right. Have you anything to say to him?" Dan worked the toe of his +left boot into the turf for a moment "No, sir." + +"Well, go up to your room and think about it awhile and see if you don't owe +somebody an apology. Hurry up now an' change your clothes. + +"You'd better come up to the house and get some dry clothes for yourself, my +boy," he added to Chad. "You'll catch cold." + +"Much obleeged," said Chad. "But I don't ketch cold." + +He put on his old coonskin cap, and then the General recognized him. + +"Why, aren't you the little boy who bought a horse from me in town the other +day?" And then Chad recognized him as the tall man who had cried "Let him have +her." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, I know all about you," said the General, kindly. "You are staying with +Major Buford. He's a great friend and neighbor of mine. Now you must come up +and get some clothes, Harry!" --But Chad, though he hesitated, for he knew now +that the gentleman had practically given him the mare, interrupted, sturdily, + +"No, sir, I can't go--not while he's a-feelin' hard at me." + +"Very well," said the General, gravely. Chad started off on a trot and stopped +suddenly, "I wish you'd please tell that little GURL"--Chad pronounced the +word with some difficulty--"that I didn't mean nothin' callin' her a little +gal. Ever'body calls gurls gals whar I come from." + +"All right," laughed the General. Chad trotted all the way home and there Miss +Lucy made him take off his wet clothes at once, though the boy had to go to +bed while they were drying, for he had no other clothes, and while he lay in +bed the Major came up and listened to Chad's story of the afternoon, which +Chad told him word for word just as it had all happened. + +"You did just right, Chad," said the Major, and he went down the stairs, +chuckling: + +"Wouldn't go in and get dry clothes because Dan wouldn't apologize. Dear me! I +reckon they'll have it out when they see each other again. I'd like to be on +hand, and I'd bet my bottom dollar on Chad." But they did not have it out. +Half an hour after supper somebody shouted "Hello!" at the gate, and the Major +went out and came back smiling. + +"Somebody wants to see you, Chad," he said. And Chad went out and found Dan +there on the black pony with Snowball behind him. + +"I've come over to say that I had no business hittin' you down at the creek, +and--" Chad interrupted him: + +"That's all right," he said, and Dan stopped and thrust out his hand. The two +boys shook hands gravely. + +"An' my papa says you are a man an' he wants you to come over and see us and I +want you--and Harry and Margaret. We all want you." + +"All right," said Chad. Dan turned his black pony and galloped off. + +"An' come soon!" he shouted back. + +Out in the quarters Mammy Ailsie, old Tom's wife, was having her own say that +night. + +"Ole Marse Cal Buford pickin' a piece of white trash out de gutter an' not +sayin' whar he come from an' nuttin' 'bout him. An' old Mars Henry takin' him +jus' like he was quality. My Tom say dae boy don' know who is his mammy ner +his daddy. I ain' gwine to let my little mistis play wid no sech trash, I tell +you--'deed I ain't!" And this talk would reach the drawing-room by and by, +where the General was telling the family, at just about the same hour, the +story of the horse sale and Chad's purchase of the old brood mare. + +"I knew where he was from right away," said Harry "I've seen mountain-people +wearing caps like his up at Uncle Brutus's, when they come down to go to +Richmond." + +The General frowned. + +"Well, you won't see any more people like him up there again." + +"Why, papa?" + +"Because you aren't going to Uncle Brutus's any more." + +"Why, papa?" + +The mother put her hand on her husband's knee. + +"Never mind, son," she said. + + + +CHAPTER 10. THE BLUEGRASS + +God's Country! + +No humor in that phrase to the Bluegrass Kentuckian! There never was--there is +none now. To him, the land seems in all the New World, to have been the pet +shrine of the Great Mother herself. She fashioned it with loving hands. She +shut it in with a mighty barrier of mighty mountains to keep the mob out. She +gave it the loving clasp of a mighty river, and spread broad, level prairies +beyond that the mob might glide by, or be tempted to the other side, where the +earth was level and there was no need to climb; that she might send priests +from her shrine to reclaim Western wastes or let the weak or the unloving--if +such could be--have easy access to another land. + +In the beginning, such was her clear purpose to the Kentuckian's eye, she +filled it with flowers and grass and trees, and fish and bird and wild beasts. +Just as she made Eden for Adam and Eve. The red men fought for the +Paradise--fought till it was drenched with blood, but no tribe, without mortal +challenge from another straightway, could ever call a rood its own. Boone +loved the land from the moment the eagle eye in his head swept its shaking +wilderness from a mountain-top, and every man who followed him loved the land +no less. And when the chosen came, they found the earth ready to receive +them--lifted above the baneful breath of river-bottom and marshland, drained +by rivers full of fish, filled with woods full of game, and +underlaid--all--with thick, blue, limestone strata that, like some divine +agent working in the dark, kept crumbling--ever crumbling--to enrich the soil +and give bone-building virtue to every drop of water and every blade of grass. +For those chosen people such, too, seemed her purpose--the Mother went to the +race upon whom she had smiled a benediction for a thousand years--the race +that obstacle but strengthens, that thrives best under an alien effort to +kill, that has ever conquered its conquerors, and that seems bent on the task +of carrying the best ideals any age has ever known back to the Old World from +which it sprang. The Great Mother knows! Knows that her children must suffer, +if they stray too far from her great teeming breasts. And how she has followed +close when this Saxon race--her youngest born--seemed likely to stray too +far--gathering its sons to her arms in virgin lands that they might suckle +again and keep the old blood fresh and strong. Who could know what danger +threatened it when she sent her blue-eyed men and women to people the +wilderness of the New World? To climb the Alleghenies, spread through the +wastes beyond, and plant their kind across a continent from sea to sea. Who +knows what dangers threaten now, when, his task done, she seems to be opening +the eastern gates of the earth with a gesture that seems to say--"Enter, +reclaim, and dwell therein!" + +One little race of that race in the New World, and one only, has she kept +flesh of her flesh, bone of her bone--to that race only did she give no +outside aid. She shut it in with gray hill and shining river. She shut it off +from the mother state and the mother nation and left it to fight its own fight +with savage nature, savage beast, and savage man. And thus she gave the little +race strength of heart and body and brain, and taught it to stand together as +she taught each man of the race to stand alone, protect his women, mind his +own business, and meddle not at all; to think his own thoughts and die for +them if need be, though he divided his own house against itself; taught the +man to cleave to one woman, with the penalty of death if he strayed elsewhere; +to keep her-- and even himself--in dark ignorance of the sins against Herself +for which she has slain other nations, and in that happy ignorance keeps them +to-day, even while she is slaying elsewhere still. + +And Nature holds the Kentuckians close even to-day--suckling at her breasts +and living after her simple laws. What further use she may have for them is +hid by the darkness of to-morrow, but before the Great War came she could look +upon her work and say with a smile that it was good. The land was a great +series of wooded parks such as one might have found in Merry England, except +that worm fence and stone wall took the place of hedge along the highways. It +was a land of peace and of a plenty that was close to easy luxury--for all. +Poor whites were few, the beggar was unknown, and throughout the region there +was no man, woman, or child, perhaps, who did not have enough to eat and to +wear and a roof to cover his head, whether it was his own roof or not. If +slavery had to be--then the fetters were forged light and hung loosely. And, +broadcast, through the people, was the upright sturdiness of the +Scotch-Irishman, without his narrowness and bigotry; the grace and chivalry of +the Cavalier without his Quixotic sentiment and his weakness; the jovial +good-nature of the English squire and the leavening spirit of a simple +yeomanry that bore itself with unconscious tenacity to traditions that seeped +from the very earth. And the wings of the eagle hovered over all. + +For that land it was the flowering time of the age and the people; and the bud +that was about to open into the perfect flower had its living symbol in the +little creature racing over the bluegrass fields on a black pony, with a black +velvet cap and a white nodding plume above her shaking curls, just as the +little stranger who had floated down into those Elysian fields--with better +blood in his veins than he knew--was a reincarnation perhaps of the spirit of +the old race that had lain dormant in the hills. The long way from log-cabin +to Greek portico had marked the progress of the generations before her, and, +on this same way, the boy had set his sturdy feet. + + + +CHAPTER 11. A TOURNAMENT + +On Sunday, the Major and Miss Lucy took Chad to church--a country church built +of red brick and overgrown with ivy--and the sermon was very short, Chad +thought, for, down in the mountains, the circuit-rider would preach for +hours--and the deacons passed around velvet pouches for the people to drop +money in, and they passed around bread, of which nearly everybody took a +pinch, and a silver goblet with wine, from which the same people took a +sip--all of which Chad did not understand. Usually the Deans went to Lexington +to church, for they were Episcopalians, but they were all at the country +church that day, and with them was Richard Hunt, who smiled at Chad and waved +his riding-whip. After church Dan came to him and shook hands. Harry nodded to +him gravely, the mother smiled kindly, and the General put his hand on the +boy's head. Margaret looked at him furtively, but passed him by. Perhaps she +was still "mad" at him, Chad thought, and he was much worried. Margaret was +not shy like Melissa, but her face was kind. The General asked them all over +to take dinner, but Miss Lucy declined--she had asked people to take dinner +with her. And Chad, with keen disappointment, saw them drive away. + +It was a lonely day for him that Sunday. He got tired staying so long at the +table, and he did not understand what the guests were talking about. The +afternoon was long, and he wandered restlessly about the yard and the +quarters. Jerome Conners, the overseer, tried to be friendly with him for the +first time, but the boy did not like the overseer and turned away from him. He +walked down to the pike gate and sat on it, looking over toward the Deans'. He +wished that Dan would come over to see him or, better still, that he could go +over to see Dan and Harry and--Margaret. But Dan did not come and Chad could +not ask the Major to let him go--he was too shy about it--and Chad was glad +when bedtime came. + +Two days more and spring was come in earnest. It was in the softness of the +air, the tenderness of cloud and sky, and the warmth of the sunlight. The +grass was greener and the trees quivered happily. Hens scratched and cocks +crowed more lustily. Insect life was busier. A stallion nickered in the barn, +and from the fields came the mooing of cattle. Field-hands going to work +chaffed the maids about the house and quarters. It stirred dreamy memories of +his youth in the Major, and it brought a sad light into Miss Lucy's faded +eyes. Would she ever see another spring? It brought tender memories to General +Dean, and over at Woodlawn, after he and Mrs. Dean had watched the children go +off with happy cries and laughter to school, it led them back into the house +hand in hand. And it set Chad's heart aglow as he walked through the dewy +grass and amid the singing of many birds toward the pike gate. He, too, was on +his way to school--in a brave new suit of clothes--and nobody smiled at him +now, except admiringly, for the Major had taken him to town the preceding day +and had got the boy clothes such as Dan and Harry wore. Chad was worried at +first--he did not like to accept so much from the Major. + +"I'll pay you back," said Chad. "I'll leave you my hoss when I go 'way, if I +don't," and the Major laughingly said that was all right and he made Chad, +too, think that it was all right. And so spring took the shape of hope in +Chad's breast, that morning, and a little later it took the shape of Margaret, +for he soon saw the Dean children ahead of him in the road and he ran to catch +up with them. + +All looked at him with surprise--seeing his broad white collar with ruffles, +his turned-back, ruffled cuffs, and his boots with red tops; but they were too +polite to say anything. Still Chad felt Margaret taking them all in and he was +proud and confident. And, when her eyes were lifted to the handsome face that +rose from the collar and the thick yellow hair, he caught them with his own in +an unconscious look of fealty, that made the little girl blush and hurry on +and not look at him again until they were in school, when she turned her eyes, +as did all the other boys and girls, to scan the new "scholar." Chad's work in +the mountains came in well now. The teacher, a gray, sad-eyed, thin-faced man, +was surprised at the boy's capacity, for he could read as well as Dan, and in +mental arithmetic even Harry was no match for him; and when in the spelling +class he went from the bottom to the head in a single lesson, the teacher +looked as though he were going to give the boy a word of praise openly and +Margaret was regarding him with a new light in her proud eyes. That was a +happy day for Chad, but it passed after school when, as they went home +together, Margaret looked at him no more; else Chad would have gone by the +Deans' house when Dan and Harry asked him to go and look at their ponies and +the new sheep that their father had just bought; for Chad was puzzled and awed +and shy of the little girl It was strange--he had never felt that way about +Melissa. But his shyness kept him away from her day after day until, one +morning, he saw her ahead of him going to school alone, and his heart thumped +as he quietly and swiftly overtook her without calling to her; but he stopped +running that she might not know that he had been running, and for the first +time she was shy with him. Harry and Dan were threatened with the measles, she +said, and would say no more. When they went through the fields toward the +school-house, Chad stalked ahead as he had done in the mountains with Melissa, +and, looking back, he saw that Margaret had stopped. He waited for her to come +up, and she looked at him for a moment as though displeased. Puzzled, Chad +gave back her look for a moment and turned without a word--still stalking +ahead. He looked back presently and Margaret had stopped and was pouting. + +"You aren't polite, little boy. My mamma says a NICE little boy always lets a +little GIRL go first." But Chad still walked ahead. He looked back presently +and she had stopped again--whether angry or ready to cry, he could not make +out-- so he waited for her, and as she came slowly near he stepped gravely +from the path, and Margaret went on like a queen. + +In town, a few days later, he saw a little fellow take off his hat when a lady +passed him, and it set Chad to thinking. He recalled asking the school-master +once what was meant when the latter read about a knight doffing his plume, and +the school-master had told him that men, in those days, took off their hats in +the presence of ladies just as they did in the Bluegrass now; but Chad had +forgotten. He understood it all then and he surprised Margaret, next morning, +by taking off his cap gravely when he spoke to her; and the little lady was +greatly pleased, for her own brothers did not do that, at least, not to her, +though she had heard her mother tell them that they must. All this must be +chivalry, Chad thought, and when Harry and Dan got well, he revived his old +ideas, but Harry laughed at him and Dan did, too, until Chad, remembering +Beelzebub, suggested that they should have a tournament with two rams that the +General had tied up in the stable. They would make spears and each would get +on a ram. Harry would let them out into the lot and they would have "a real +charge--sure enough." But Margaret received the plan with disdain, until Dan, +at Chad's suggestion, asked the General to read them the tournament scene in +"Ivanhoe," which excited the little lady a great deal; and when Chad said that +she must be the "Queen of Love and Beauty" she blushed prettily and thought, +after all, that it would be great fun. They would make lances of ash-wood and +helmets of tin buckets, and perhaps Margaret would make red sashes for them. +Indeed, she would, and the tournament would take place on the next Saturday. +But, on Saturday, one of the sheep was taken over to Major Buford's and the +other was turned loose in the Major's back pasture and the great day had to be +postponed. + +It was on the night of the reading from "Ivanhoe" that Harry and Dan found out +how Chad could play the banjo. Passing old Mammy's cabin that night before +supper, the three boys had stopped to listen to old Tom play, and after a few +tunes, Chad could stand it no longer. + +"I foller pickin' the banjer a leetle," he said shyly, and thereupon he had +taken the rude instrument and made the old negro's eyes stretch with +amazement, while Dan rolled in the grass with delight, and every negro who +heard ran toward the boy. After supper, Dan brought the banjo into the house +and made Chad play on the porch, to the delight of them all. And there, too, +the servants gathered, and even old Mammy was observed slyly shaking her +foot--so that Margaret clapped her hands and laughed the old woman into great +confusion. After that no Saturday came that Chad did not spend the night at +the Deans', or Harry and Dan did not stay at Major Buford's. And not a +Saturday passed that the three boys did not go coon-hunting with the darkies, +or fox-hunting with the Major and the General. Chad never forgot that first +starlit night when he was awakened by the near winding of a horn and heard the +Major jump from bed. He jumped too, and when the Major reached the barn, a +dark little figure was close at his heels. + +"Can I go, too?" Chad asked, eagerly. + +"Think you can stick on?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"All right. Get my bay horse. That old mare of yours is too slow." + +The Major's big bay horse! Chad was dizzy with pride. + +When they galloped out into the dark woods, there were the General and Harry +and Dan and half a dozen neighbors, sitting silently on their horses and +listening to the music of the hounds. + +The General laughed. + +"I thought you'd come," he said, and the Major laughed too, and cocked his +ear. "Old Rock's ahead," he said, for he knew, as did everyone there, the old +hound's tongue. + +"He's been ahead for an hour," said the General with quiet satisfaction, "and +I think he'll stay there." + +Just then a dark object swept past them, and the Major with a low cry hied on +his favorite hound. + +"Not now, I reckon," he said, and the General laughed again. + +Dan and Harry pressed their horses close to Chad, and all talked in low +voices. + +"Ain't it fun?" whispered Dan. Chad answered with a shiver of pure joy. + +"He's making for the creek," said the Major, sharply, and he touched spurs to +his horse. How they raced through the woods, cracking brush and whisking +around trees, and how they thundered over the turf and clattered across the +road and on! For a few moments the Major kept close to Chad, watching him +anxiously, but the boy stuck to the big bay like a jockey, and he left Dan and +Harry on their ponies far behind. All night they rode under the starlit sky, +and ten miles away they caught poor Reynard. Chad was in at the kill, with the +Major and the General, and the General gave Chad the brush with his own hand. + +"Where did you learn to ride, boy?" + +"I never learned," said Chad, simply, whereat the Major winked at his friends +and patted Chad on the shoulder. + +"I've got to let my boys ride better horses, I suppose," said the General; "I +can't have a boy who does not know how to ride beating them this way." + +Day was breaking when the Major and Chad rode into the stable-yard. The boy's +face was pale, his arms and legs ached, and he was so sleepy that he could +hardly keep his eyes open. + +"How'd you like it, Chad?" + +"I never knowed nothing like it in my life," said Chad. + +"I'm going to teach you to shoot." + +"Yes, sir," said Chad. + +As they approached the house, a squirrel barked from the woods. + +"Hear that, Chad?" said the Major. "We'll get him." + +The following morning, Chad rose early and took his old rifle out into the +woods' and when the Major came out on the porch before breakfast the boy was +coming up the walk with six squirrels in his hand. The Major's eyes opened and +he looked at the squirrels when Chad dropped them on the porch. Every one of +them was shot through the head. + +"Well, I'm damned! How many times did you shoot, Chad?" + +"Seven." + +"What--missed only once?" + +"I took a knot fer a squirrel once," said Chad. + +The Major roared aloud. + +"Did I say I was going to teach you to shoot, Chad?" + +"Yes, sir." + +The Major chuckled and that day he told about those squirrels and that knot to +everybody he saw. With every day the Major grew fonder and prouder of the boy +and more convinced than ever that the lad was of his own blood. + +"There's nothing that I like that that boy don't take to like a duck to +water." And when he saw the boy take off his hat to Margaret and observed his +manner with the little girl, he said to himself that if Chad wasn't a +gentleman born, he ought to have been, and the Major believed that he must be. + +Everywhere, at school, at the Deans', with the darkies--with everybody but +Conners, the overseer had became a favorite, but, as to Napoleon, so to Chad, +came Waterloo--with the long deferred tournament came Waterloo to Chad. + +And it came after a certain miracle on May-day. The Major had taken Chad to +the festival where the dance was on sawdust in the woodland--in the bottom of +a little hollow, around which the seats ran as in an amphitheatre. Ready to +fiddle for them stood none other than John Morgan himself, his gray eyes +dancing and an arch smile on his handsome face; and, taking a place among the +dancers, were Richard Hunt and--Margaret. The poised bow fell, a merry tune +rang out, and Richard Hunt bowed low to his little partner, who, smiling and +blushing, dropped him the daintiest of graceful courtesies. Then the miracle +came to pass. Rage straightway shook Chad's soul--shook it as a terrier shakes +a rat--and the look on his face and in his eyes went back a thousand years. +And Richard Hunt, looking up, saw the strange spectacle, understood, and did +not even smile. On the contrary, he went at once after the dance to speak to +the boy and got for his answer fierce, white, staring silence and a clinched +fist, that was almost ready to strike. Something else that was strange +happened then to Chad. He felt a very firm and a very gentle hand on his +shoulder, his own eyes dropped before the piercing dark eyes and kindly smile +above him, and, a moment later, he was shyly making his way with Richard Hunt +toward Margaret. + +It was on Thursday of the following week that Dan told him the two rams were +once more tied in his father's stable. On Saturday, then, they would have the +tournament. To get Mammy's help, Margaret had to tell the plan to her, and +Mammy stormed against the little girl taking part in any such undignified +proceedings, but imperious Margaret forced her to keep silent and help make +sashes and a tent for each of the two knights. Chad would be the "Knight of +the Cumberland" and Dan the "Knight of the Bluegrass." Snowball was to be +Dan's squire and black Rufus, Harry's body-servant, would be squire to Chad. +Harry was King John, the other pickaninnies would be varlets and vassals, and +outraged Uncle Tom, so Dan told him, would, "by the beard of Abraham," have to +be a "Dog of an Unbeliever." Margaret was undecided whether she would play +Rebecca, or the "Queen of Love and Beauty," until Chad told her she ought to +be both, so both she decided to be. So all was done--the spears fashioned of +ash, the helmets battered from tin buckets, colors knotted for the spears, and +shields made of sheepskins. On the stiles sat Harry and Margaret in royal +state under a canopy of calico, with indignant Mammy behind them. At each end +of the stable-lot was a tent of cotton, and before one stood Snowball and +before the other black Rufus, each with his master's spear and shield. Near +Harry stood Sam, the trumpeter, with a fox-horn to sound the charge, and four +black vassals stood at the stable-door to lead the chargers forth. + +Near the stiles were the neighbors' children, and around the barn was gathered +every darky on the place, while behind the hedge and peeping through it were +the Major and the General, the one chuckling, the other smiling indulgently. + +The stable-doors opened, the four vassals disappeared and came forth, each +pair leading a ram, one covered with red calico, the other with blue cotton, +and each with a bandanna handkerchief around his neck. Each knight stepped +forth from his tent, as his charger was dragged--ba-a-ing and butting--toward +it, and, grasping his spear and shield and setting his helmet on more firmly, +got astride gravely--each squire and vassal solemn, for the King had given +command that no varlet must show unseemly mirth. Behind the hedge, the Major +was holding his hands to his side, and the General was getting grave. It had +just occurred to him that those rams would make for each other like tornadoes, +and he said so. + +"Of course they will," chuckled the Major. "Don't you suppose they know that? +That's what they're doing it for. Bless my soul!" + +The King waved his hand just then and his black trumpeter tooted the charge. + +"Leggo!" said Chad. + +"Leggo!" said Dan. + +And Snowball and Rufus let go, and each ram ran a few paces and stopped with +his head close to the ground, while each knight brandished his spear and dug +with his spurred heels. One charger gave a ba-a! The other heard, raised his +head, saw his enemy, and ba-a-ed an answering challenge. Then they started for +each other with a rush that brought a sudden fearsome silence, quickly +followed by a babel of excited cries, in which Mammy's was loudest and most +indignant. Dan, nearly unseated, had dropped his lance to catch hold of his +charger's wool, and Chad had gallantly lowered the point of his, because his +antagonist was unarmed. But the temper of rams and not of knights was in that +fight now and they came together with a shock that banged the two knights into +each other and hurled both violently to the ground. General Dean and the Major +ran anxiously from the hedge. Several negro men rushed for the rams, who were +charging and butting like demons. Harry tumbled from the canopy in a most +unkingly fashion. Margaret cried and Mammy wrung her hands. Chad rose dizzily, +but Dan lay still. Chad's elbow had struck him in the temple and knocked him +unconscious. + +The servants were thrown into an uproar when Dan was carried back into the +house. Harry was white and almost in tears. + +"I did it, father, I did it," he said, at the foot of the steps. + +"No," said Chad, sturdily, "I done it myself." + +Margaret heard and ran from the hallway and down the steps, brushing away her +tears with both hands. + +"Yes, you did--you DID," she cried. "I hate you." + +"Why, Margaret," said General Dan. + +Chad startled and stung, turned without a word and, unnoticed by the rest, +made his way slowly across the fields. + + + +CHAPTER 12. BACK TO KINGDOM COME + +It was the tournament that, at last, loosed Mammy's tongue. She was savage in +her denunciation of Chad to Mrs. Dean--so savage and in such plain language +that her mistress checked her sharply, but not before Margaret had heard, +though the little girl, with an awed face, slipped quietly out of the room +into the yard, while Harry stood in the doorway, troubled and silent. + +"Don't let me hear you speak that way again Mammy," said Mrs. Dean, so sternly +that the old woman swept out of the room in high dudgeon And yet she told her +husband of Mammy's charge; + +"I am rather surprised at Major Buford." + +"Perhaps he doesn't know," said the General. "Perhaps it isn't true." + +"Nobody knows anything about the boy." + +"Well, I cannot have my children associating with a waif." + +"He seems like a nice boy." + +"He uses extraordinary language. I cannot have him teaching my children +mischief. Why I believe Margaret is really fond of him. I know Harry and Dan +are." The General looked thoughtful. + +"I will speak to Major Buford about him," he said, and he did--no little to +that gentleman's confusion--though he defended Chad staunchly--and the two +friends parted with some heat. + +Thereafter, the world changed for Chad, for if there any older and truer story +than that Evil has wings, while Good goes a plodding way? Chad felt the +change, in the negroes, in the sneering overseer, and could not understand. +The rumor reached Miss Lucy's ears and she and the Major had a spirited +discussion that rather staggered Chad's kind-hearted companion. It reached the +school, and a black-haired youngster, named Georgie Forbes, who had long been +one of Margaret's abject slaves, and who hated Chad, brought out the terrible +charge in the presence of a dozen school-children at noon-recess one day. It +had been no insult in the mountains, but Chad, dazed though he was, knew it +was meant for an insult, and his hard fist shot out promptly, landing in his +enemy's chin and bringing him bawling to the earth. Others gave out the cry +then, and the boy fought right and left like a demon. Dan stood sullenly near, +taking no part, and Harry, while he stopped the unequal fight, turned away +from Chad coldly, calling Margaret, who had run up toward them, away at the +same time, and Chad's three friends turned from him then and there, while the +boy, forgetting all else, stood watching them with dumb wonder and pain. The +school-bell clanged, but Chad stood still--with his heart well neigh breaking +In a few minutes the last pupil had disappeared through the school-room door, +and Chad stood under a great elm--alone. But only a moment, for he turned +quickly away, the tears starting to his eyes, walked rapidly through the +woods, climbed the worm fence beyond, and dropped, sobbing, in the thick +bluegrass. + +An hour later he was walking swiftly through the fields toward the old brick +house that had sheltered him. He was very quiet at supper that night, and +after Miss Lucy had gone to bed and he and the Major were seated before the +fire, he was so quiet that the Major looked at him anxiously. + +"What's the matter Chad? Are you sick?" + +"Nothin'--no, sir." + +But the Major was uneasy, and when he rose to go to bed, he went over and put +his hand on the boy's head. + +"Chad," he said, "if you hear of people saying mean things about you, you +mustn't pay any attention to them." + +"No, sir." + +"You're a good boy, and I want you to live here with me. Good-night, Chad," he +added, affectionately. Chad nearly broke down, but he steadied himself. + +"Good-by, Major," he said, brokenly. "I'm obleeged to you." + +"Good-by?" repeated the Major. "Why?" + +"Good-night, I mean," stammered Chad. + +The Major stood inside his own door, listening to the boy's slow steps up the +second flight. "I'm gettin' to love that boy," he said, wonderingly-- "An' I'm +damned if people who talk about him don't have me to reckon with"--and the +Major shook his head from side to side. Several times he thought he could hear +the boy moving around in the room above him, and while he was wondering why +the lad did not go to bed, he fell asleep. + +Chad was moving around. First, by the light of a candle, he laboriously dug +out a short letter to the Major--scalding it with tears. Then he took off his +clothes and got his old mountain-suit out of the closet--moccasins and +all--and put them on. Very carefully he folded the pretty clothes he had taken +off--just as Miss Lucy had taught him--and laid them on the bed. Then he +picked up his old rifle in one hand and his old coonskin cap in the other, +blew out the candle, slipped noiselessly down the stairs in his moccasined +feet, out the unbolted door and into the starlit night. From the pike fence he +turned once to look back to the dark, silent house amid the dark trees. Then +he sprang down and started through the fields--his face set toward the +mountains. + +It so happened that mischance led General Dean to go over to see Major Buford +about Chad next morning. The Major listened patiently--or tried ineffectively +to listen--and when the General was through, he burst out with a vehemence +that shocked and amazed his old friend. + +"Damn those niggers!" he cried, in a tone that seemed to include the General +in his condemnation, "that boy is the best boy I ever knew. I believe he is my +own blood, he looks a little like that picture there"--pointing to the old +portrait--"and if he is what I believe he is, by --, sir, he gets this farm +and all I have. Do you understand that?" + +"I believe he told you what he was." + +"He did--but I don't believe he knows, and, anyhow, whatever he is, he shall +have a home under this roof as long as he lives." + +The General rose suddenly--stiffly. + +"He must never darken my door again." + +"Very well." The Major made a gesture which plainly said, "In that event, you +are darkening mine too long," and the General rose, slowly descended the steps +of the portico, and turned: + +"Do you really mean, that you are going to let a little brat that you picked +up in the road only yesterday stand between you and me?" + +The Major softened. + +"Look here," he said, whisking a sheet of paper from his coat-pocket. While +the General read Chad's scrawl, the Major watched his face. + +"He's gone, by --. A hint was enough for him. If he isn't the son of a +gentleman, then I'm not, nor you." + +"Cal," said the General, holding out his hand, "we'll talk this over again." + +The bees buzzed around the honeysuckles that clambered over the porch. A crow +flew overhead. The sound of a crying child came around the corner of the house +from the quarters, and the General's footsteps died on the gravel-walk, but +the Major heard them not. Mechanically he watched the General mount his black +horse and canter toward the pike gate. The overseer called to him from the +stable, but the Major dropped his eyes to the scrawl in his hand, and when +Miss Lucy came out he silently handed it to her. + +"I reckon you know what folks is a-sayin' about me. I tol' you myself. But I +didn't know hit wus any harm, and anyways hit ain't my fault, I reckon, an' I +don't see how folks can blame me. But I don' want nobody who don' want me. An' +I'm leavin' 'cause I don't want to bother you. I never bring nothing but +trouble nohow an' I'm goin' back to the mountains. Tell Miss Lucy good-by. She +was mighty good to me, but I know she didn't like me. I left the hoss for you. +If you don't have no use fer the saddle, I wish you'd give hit to Harry, +'cause he tuk up fer me at school when I was fightin', though he wouldn't +speak to me no more. I'm mighty sorry to leave you. I'm obleeged to you cause +you wus so good to me an' I'm goin' to see you agin some day, if I can. +Good-by." + +"Left that damned old mare to pay for his clothes and his board and his +schooling," muttered the Major. "By the gods"--he rose suddenly and strode +away--"I beg your pardon, Lucy." + +A tear was running down each of Miss Lucy's faded cheeks. + +Dawn that morning found Chad springing from a bed in a haystack--ten miles +from Lexington. By dusk that day, he was on the edge of the Bluegrass and that +night he stayed at a farm-house, going in boldly, for he had learned now that +the wayfarer was as welcome in a Bluegrass farm-house as in a log-cabin in the +mountains. Higher and higher grew the green swelling slopes, until, climbing +one about noon next day, he saw the blue foothills of the Cumberland through +the clear air--and he stopped and looked long, breathing hard from pure +ecstasy. The plain-dweller never knows the fierce home hunger that the +mountain-born have for hills. + +Besides, beyond those blue summits were the Turners and the school-master and +Jack, waiting for him, and he forgot hunger and weariness as he trod on +eagerly toward them. That night, he stayed in a mountain-cabin, and while the +contrast of the dark room, the crowding children, the slovenly dress, and the +coarse food was strangely disagreeable, along with the strange new shock came +the thrill that all this meant hills and home. It was about three o'clock of +the fourth day that, tramping up the Kentucky River, he came upon a long, even +stretch of smooth water, from the upper end of which two black bowlders were +thrust out of the stream, and with a keener thrill he realized that he was +nearing home. He recalled seeing those rocks as the raft swept down the river, +and the old Squire had said that they were named after oxen--"Billy and Buck." +Opposite the rocks he met a mountaineer. + +"How fer is it to Uncle Joel Turner's?" + +"A leetle the rise o' six miles, I reckon." + +The boy was faint with weariness, and those six miles seemed a dozen. Idea of +distance is vague among the mountaineers, and two hours of weary travel +followed, yet nothing that he recognized was in sight. Once a bend of the +river looked familiar, but when he neared it, the road turned steeply from the +river and over a high bluff, and the boy started up with a groan. He meant to +reach the summit before he stopped to rest, but in sheer pain, he dropped a +dozen paces from the top and lay with his tongue, like a dog's, between his +lips. + +The top was warm, but a chill was rising from the fast-darkening shadows below +him. The rim of the sun was about to brush the green tip of a mountain across +the river, and the boy rose in a minute, dragged himself on to the point +where, rounding a big rock, he dropped again with a thumping heart and a +reeling brain. There it was--old Joel's cabin in the pretty valley below--old +Joel's cabin--home! Smoke was rising from the chimney, and that far away it +seemed that Chad could smell frying bacon. There was the old barn and he could +make out one of the boys feeding stock and another chopping wood--was that the +school-master? There was the huge form of old Joel at the fence talking with a +neighbor. He was gesticulating as though angry, and the old mother came to the +door as the neighbor moved away with a shuffling gait that the boy knew +belonged to the Dillon breed. Where was Jack? Jack! Chad sprang to his feet +and went down the hill on a run. He climbed the orchard fence, breaking the +top rail in his eagerness, and as he neared the house, he gave a shrill yell. +A scarlet figure flashed like a flame out of the door, with an answering cry, +and the Turners followed: + +"Why, boy," roared old Joel. "Mammy, hit's Chad!" + +Dolph dropped an armful of feed. The man with the axe left it stuck in a log, +and each man shouted: + +"Chad!" + +The mountaineers are an undemonstrative race, but Mother Turner took the boy +in her arms and the rest crowded around, slapping him on the back and all +asking questions at once Dolph and Rube and Tom. Yes, and there was the +school-master--every face was almost tender with love for the boy. But where +was Jack? + +"Where's--where's Jack?" said Chad. + +Old Joel changed face--looking angry; the rest were grave. Only the old mother +spoke: + +"Jack's all right." + +"Oh," said Chad, but he looked anxious. + +Melissa inside heard. He had not asked for HER, and with the sudden choking of +a nameless fear she sprang out the door to be caught by the school-master, who +had gone around the corner to look for her. + +"Lemme go," she said, fiercely, breaking his hold and darting away, but +stopping, when she saw Chad in the doorway, looking at her with a shy smile. + +"Howdye, Melissa!" + +The girl stared at him mildly and made no answer, and a wave of shame and +confusion swept over the boy as his thoughts flashed back to a little girl in +a black cap and on a black pony, and he stood reddening and helpless. There +was a halloo at the gate. It was old Squire Middleton and the circuit-rider, +and old Joel went toward them with a darkening face. + +"Why, hello, Chad," the Squire said. "You back again?" + +He turned to Joel. + +"Look hyeh, Joel. Thar hain't no use o' your buckin' agin yo' neighbors and +harborin' a sheep-killin' dog." Chad started and looked from one face to +another--slowly but surely making out the truth. + +"You never seed the dawg afore last spring. You don't know that he hain't a +sheep-killer." + +"It's a lie--a lie," Chad cried, hotly, but the school-master stopped him. + +"Hush, Chad," he said, and he took the boy inside and told him Jack was in +trouble. A Dillon sheep had been found dead on a hill-side. Daws Dillon had +come upon Jack leaping out of the pasture, and Jack had come home with his +muzzle bloody. Even with this overwhelming evidence, old Joel stanchly refused +to believe the dog was guilty and ordered old man Dillon off the place. A +neighbor had come over, then another, and an other, until old Joel got livid +with rage. + +"That dawg mought eat a dead sheep but he never would kill a live one, and if +you kill him, by , you've got to kill me fust." + +Now there is no more unneighborly or unchristian act for a farmer than to +harbor a sheep-killing dog. So the old Squire and the circuit-rider had come +over to show Joel the grievous error of his selfish, obstinate course, and, so +far, old Joel had refused to be shown. All of his sons sturdily upheld him and +little Melissa fiercely--the old mother and the school-master alone remaining +quiet and taking no part in the dissension. + +"Have they got Jack?" + +"No, Chad," said the school-master. "He's safe--tied up in the stable." Chad +started out, and no one followed but Melissa. A joyous bark that was almost +human came from the stable as Chad approached, for the dog must have known the +sound of his master's footsteps, and when Chad drew open the door, Jack sprang +the length of his tether to meet him and was jerked to his back. Again and +again he sprang, barking, as though beside himself, while Chad stood at the +door, looking sorrowfully at him. + +"Down, Jack!" he said sternly, and Jack dropped obediently, looking straight +at his master with honest eyes and whimpering like a child. + +"Jack," said Chad, "did you kill that sheep?" This was all strange conduct for +his little master, and Jack looked wondering and dazed, but his eyes never +wavered or blinked. Chad could not long stand those honest eyes. + +"No," he said, fiercely--"no, little doggie, no--no!" And Chad dropped on his +knees and took Jack in his arms and hugged him to his breast. + + + +CHAPTER 13. ON TRIAL FOR HIS LIFE + +By degrees the whole story was told Chad that night. Now and then the Turners +would ask him about his stay in the Bluegrass, but the boy would answer as +briefly as possible and come back to Jack. Before going to bed, Chad said he +would bring Jack into the house: + +"Somebody might pizen him," he explained, and when he came back, he startled +the circle about the fire: + +"Whar's Whizzer?" he asked, sharply. "Who's seen Whizzer?" + +Then it developed that no one had seen the Dillon dog--since the day before +the sheep was found dead near a ravine at the foot of the mountain in a back +pasture. Late that afternoon Melissa had found Whizzer in that very pasture +when she was driving old Betsy, the brindle, home at milking-time. Since +then, no one of the Turners had seen the Dillon dog. That, however, did not +prove that Whizzer was not at home. And yet, + +"I'd like to know whar Whizzer is now!" said Chad, and, after, at old Joel's +command, he had tied Jack to a bedpost--an outrage that puzzled the dog +sorely--the boy threshed his bed for an hour--trying to think out a defence +for Jack and wondering if Whizzer might not have been concerned in the death +of the sheep. + +It is hardly possible that what happened, next day, could happen anywhere +except among simple people of the hills. Briefly, the old Squire and the +circuit-rider had brought old Joel to the point of saying, the night before, +that he would give Jack up to be killed, if he could be proven guilty. But +the old hunter cried with an oath: + +"You've got to prove him guilty." And thereupon the Squire said he would give +Jack every chance that he would give a man--HE WOULD TRY HIM; each side could +bring in witnesses; old Joel could have a lawyer if he wished, and Jack's +case would go before a jury. If pronounced innocent, Jack should go free: if +guilty--then the dog should be handed over to the sheriff, to be shot at +sundown. Joel agreed. + +It was a strange procession that left the gate of the Turner cabin next +morning. Old Joel led the way, mounted, with "ole Sal," his rifle, across his +saddle-bow. Behind him came Mother Turner and Melissa on foot and Chad with +his rifle over his left shoulder, and leading Jack by a string with his right +hand. Behind them slouched Tall Tom with his rifle and Dolph and Rube, each +with a huge old-fashioned horse-pistol swinging from his right hip. Last +strode the school-master. The cabin was left deserted--the hospitable door +held closed by a deer-skin latch caught to a wooden pin outside. + +It was a strange humiliation to Jack thus to be led along the highway, like a +criminal going to the gallows. There was no power on earth that could have +moved him from Chad's side, other than the boy's own command--but old Joel +had sworn that he would keep the dog tied and the old hunter always kept his +word. He had sworn, too, that Jack should have a fair trial. Therefore, the +guns--and the school-master walked with his hands behind him and his eyes on +the ground: he feared trouble. + +Half a mile up the river and to one side of the road, a space of some thirty +feet square had been cut into a patch of rhododendron and filled with rude +benches of slabs--in front of which was a rough platform on which sat a +home-made, cane-bottomed chair. Except for the opening from the road, the +space was walled with a circle of living green through which the sun dappled +the benches with quivering disks of yellow light--and, high above, great +poplars and oaks arched their mighty heads. It was an open-air +"meeting-house" where the circuit-rider preached during his summer circuit +and there the trial was to take place. + +Already a crowd was idling, whittling, gossiping in the road, when the Turner +cavalcade came in sight--and for ten miles up and down the river people were +coming in for the trial + +"Mornin', gentlemen," said old Joel, gravely. + +"Mornin'," answered several, among whom was the Squire, who eyed Joel's gun +and the guns coming up the road. + +"Squirrel-huntin'?" he asked and, as the old hunter did not answer, he added, +sharply: + +"Air you afeerd, Joel Turner, that you ain't a-goin' to git justice from ME?" + + +"I don't keer whar it comes from," said Joel, grimly--"but I'm a-goin' to +HAVE it." + +It was plain that the old man not only was making no plea for sympathy, but +was alienating the little he had: and what he had was very little for who but +a lover of dogs can give full sympathy to his kind? And, then, Jack was +believed to be guilty. It was curious to see how each Dillon shrank +unconsciously as the Turners gathered--all but Jerry, one of the giant twins. +He always stood his ground--fearing nor man, nor dog--nor devil. + +Ten minutes later, the Squire took his seat on the platform, while the +circuit-rider squatted down beside him. The crowd, men and women and +children, took the rough benches. To one side sat and stood the Dillons, old +Tad and little Tad, Daws, Nance, and others of the tribe. Straight in front +of the Squire gathered the Turners about Melissa and Chad--and Jack as a +centre--with Jack squatted on his hanches foremost of all, facing the Squire +with grave dignity and looking at none else save, occasionally, the old +hunter or his little master. + +To the right stood the sheriff with his rifle, and on the outskirts hung the +school-master. Quickly the old Squire chose a jury--giving old Joel the +opportunity to object as he called each man's name. Old Joel objected to +none, for every man called, he knew, was more friendly to him than to the +Dillons: and old Tad Dillon raised no word of protest, for he knew his case +was clear. Then began the trial, and any soul that was there would have +shuddered could he have known how that trial was to divide neighbor against +neighbor, and mean death and bloodshed for half a century after the trial +itself was long forgotten. + +The first witness, old Tad--long, lean, stooping, crafty--had seen the sheep +rushing wildly up the hill-side "'bout crack o' day," he said, and had sent +Daws up to see what the matter was. Daws had shouted back: + +"That damned Turner dog has killed one o' our sheep. Thar he comes now. Kill +him!" And old Tad had rushed in-doors for his rifle and had taken a shot at +Jack as he leaped into the road and loped for home. Just then a stern, thick +little voice rose from behind Jack: + +"Hit was a God's blessin' fer you that you didn't hit him." + +The Squire glared down at the boy and old Joel said, kindly: + +"Hush, Chad." + +Old Dillon had then gone down to the Turners and asked them to kill the dog, +but old Joel had refused. + +"Whar was Whizzer?" Chad asked, sharply. + +"You can't axe that question," said the Squire. "Hit's er-er-irrelevant." + +Daws came next. When he reached the fence upon the hill-side he could see the +sheep lying still on the ground. As he was climbing over, the Turner dog +jumped the fence and Daws saw blood on his muzzle. + +"How close was you to him?" asked the Squire. + +"'Bout twenty feet," said Daws. + +"Humph!" said old Joel. + +"Whar was Whizzer?" Again the old Squire glared down at Chad. + +"Don't you axe that question again, boy. Didn't I tell you hit was +irrelevant?" + +"What's irrelevant?" the boy asked, bluntly. + +The Squire hesitated. "Why--why, hit ain't got nothin' to do with the case." + +"Hit ain't?" shouted Chad. + +"Joel," said the Squire, testily, "ef you don't keep that boy still, I'll +fine him fer contempt o' court." + +Joel laughed, but he put his heavy hand on the boy's shoulder. Little Tad +Dillon and Nance and the Dillon mother had all seen Jack running down the +road. There was no doubt but that it was the Turner dog. And with this clear +case against poor Jack, the Dillons rested. And what else could the Turners +do but establish Jack's character and put in a plea of mercy--a useless plea, +old Joel knew --for a first offence? Jack was the best dog old Joel had ever +known, and the old man told wonderful tales of the dog's intelligence and +kindness and how one night Jack had guarded a stray lamb that had broken its +leg--until daybreak--and he had been led to the dog and the sheep by Jack's +barking for help. The Turner boys confirmed this story, though it was +received with incredulity. + +How could a dog that would guard one lone helpless lamb all night long take +the life of another? + +There was no witness that had aught but kind words to say of the dog or aught +but wonder that he should have done this thing--even back to the +cattle-dealer who had given him to Chad. For at that time the dealer said--so +testified Chad, no objection being raised to hearsay evidence--that Jack was +the best dog he ever knew. That was all the Turners or anybody could do or +say, and the old Squire was about to turn the case over to the jury when Chad +rose: + +"Squire," he said and his voice trembled, "Jack's my dog. I lived with him +night an' day for 'bout three years an' I want to axe some questions." + +He turned to Daws: + +"I want to axe you ef thar was any blood around that sheep." + +"Thar was a great big pool o' blood," said Daws, indignantly. Chad looked at +the Squire. + +"Well, a sheep-killin' dog don't leave no great big pool o' blood, Squire, +with the FUST one he kills! He SUCKS it!" Several men nodded their heads. + +"Squire! The fust time I come over these mountains, the fust people I seed +was these Dillons--an' Whizzer. They sicked Whizzer on Jack hyeh and Jack +whooped him. Then Tad thar jumped me and I whooped him." (The Turner boys +were nodding confirmation.) "Sence that time they've hated Jack an' they've +hated me and they hate the Turners partly fer takin' keer o' me. Now you said +somethin' I axed just now was irrelevant, but I tell you, Squire, I know a +sheep-killin' dawg, and jes' as I know Jack AIN'T, I know the Dillon dawg +naturely is, and I tell you, if the Dillons' dawg killed that sheep and they +could put it on Jack--they'd do it. They'd do it--Squire, an' I tell you, +you--ortern't--to let--that sheriff--thar--shoot my--dog--until the Dillons +answers what I axed--" the boy's passionate cry rang against the green walls +and out the opening and across the river-- + +"WHAR'S WHIZZER?" + +The boy startled the crowd and the old Squire himself, who turned quickly to +the Dillons. + +"Well, whar is Whizzer?" + +Nobody answered. + +"He ain't been seen, Squire, sence the evenin' afore the night o' the +killin'!" Chad's statement seemed to be true. Not a voice contradicted. + +"An' I want to know if Daws seed signs o' killin' on Jack's head when he +jumped the fence, why them same signs didn't show when he got home." + +Poor Chad! Here old Tad Dillon raised his hand. + +"Axe the Turners, Squire," he said, and as the school-master on the outskirts +shrank, as though he meant to leave the crowd, the old man's quick eye caught +the movement and he added: + +"Axe the school-teacher!" + +Every eye turned with the Squire's to the master, whose face was strangely +serious straightway. + +"Did you see any signs on the dawg when he got home?" The gaunt man hesitated +with one swift glance at the boy, who almost paled in answer. + +"Why," said the school-master, and again he hesitated, but old Joel, in a +voice that was without hope, encouraged him: + +"Go on!" + +"What was they?" + +"Jack had blood on his muzzle, and a little strand o' wool behind one ear." + +There was no hope against that testimony. Melissa broke away from her mother +and ran out to the road--weeping. Chad dropped with a sob to his bench and +put his arms around the dog: then he rose up and walked out the opening while +Jack leaped against his leash to follow. The school-master put out his hand +to stop him, but the boy struck it aside without looking up and went on. he +could not stay to see Jack condemned. He knew what the verdict would be, and +in twenty minutes the jury gave it, without leaving their seats. + +"Guilty!" + +The Sheriff came forward. He knew Jack and Jack knew him, and wagged his tail +and whimpered up at him when he took the leash. + +"Well, by --, this is a job I don't like, an' I'm damned ef I'm agoin' to +shoot this dawg afore he knows what I'm shootin' him fer. I'm goin' to show +him that sheep fust. Whar's that sheep, Daws?" + +Daws led the way down the road, over the fence, across the meadow, and up the +hill-side where lay the slain sheep. Chad and Melissa saw them coming--the +whole crowd--before they themselves were seen. For a minute the boy watched +them. They were going to kill Jack where the Dillons said he had killed the +sheep, and the boy jumped to his feet and ran up the hill a little way and +disappeared in the bushes, that he might not hear Jack's death-shot, while +Melissa sat where she was, watching the crowd come on. Daws was at the foot +of the hill, and she saw him make a gesture toward her, and then the Sheriff +came on with Jack--over the fence, past her, the Sheriff saying, kindly, +"Howdy, Melissa. I shorely am sorry ta have to kill Jack," and on to the dead +sheep, which lay fifty yards beyond. If the Sheriff expected to drop head and +tail and look mean he was greatly mistaken. Jack neither hung back nor +sniffed at the carcass. Instead he put one fore foot on it and with the other +bent in the air, looked without shame into the Sheriff's eyes--as much as to +say: + +"Yes, this is a wicked and shameful thing, but what have I got to do with it? +Why are you bringing ME here?" + +The Sheriff came back greatly puzzled and shaking his head. Passing Melissa, +he stopped to let the unhappy little girl give Jack a last pat, and it was +there that Jack suddenly caught scent of Chad's tracks. With one mighty bound +the dog snatched the rawhide string from the careless Sheriff's hand, and in +a moment, with his nose to the ground, was speeding up toward the woods. With +a startled yell and a frightful oath the Sheriff threw his rifle to his +shoulder, but the little girl sprang up and caught the barrel with both +hands, shaking it fiercely up and down and hieing Jack on with shriek after +shriek. A minute later Jack had disappeared in the bushes, Melissa was +running like the wind down the hill toward home, while the whole crowd in the +meadow was rushing up toward the Sheriff, led by the Dillons, who were +yelling and swearing like madmen. Above them, the crestfallen Sheriff waited. +The Dillons crowded angrily about him, gesticulating and threatening, while +he told his story. But nothing could be done--nothing. They did not know that +Chad was up in the woods or they would have gone in search of him--knowing +that when they found him they would find Jack--but to look for Jack now would +be like searching for a needle in a hay-stack. There was nothing to do, then, +but to wait for Jack to come home, which he would surely do--to get to +Chad--and it was while old Joel was promising that the dog should be +surrendered to the Sheriff that little Tad Dillon gave an excited shriek. + +"Look up thar!" + +And up there at the edge of the wood was Chad standing and, at his feet, Jack +sitting on his haunches, with his tongue out and looking as though nothing +had happened or could ever happen to Chad or to him. + +"Come up hyeh," shouted Chad. + +"You come down hyeh," shouted the Sheriff, angrily. So Chad came down, with +Jack trotting after him. Chad had cut off the rawhide string, but the Sheriff +caught Jack by the nape of the neck. + +"You won't git away from me agin, I reckon." + +"Well, I reckon you ain't goin' to shoot him," said Chad. "Leggo that dawg." + +"Don't be a fool, Jim," said old Joel. "The dawg ain't goin' to leave the +boy." The Sheriff let go. + +"Come on up hyeh," said Chad. "I got somethin' to show ye." + +The boy turned with such certainty that with out a word Squire, Sheriff, +Turners, Dillons, and spectators followed. As they approached a deep ravine +the boy pointed to the ground where were evidences of some fierce +struggle--the dirt thrown up, and several small stones scattered about with +faded stains of blood on them. + +"Wait hyeh!" said the boy, and he slid down the ravine and appeared again +dragging something after him. Tall Tom ran down to help him and the two threw +before the astonished crowd the body of a black and white dog. "Now I reckon +you know whar Whizzer is," panted Chad vindictively to the Dillons. + +"Well, what of it?" snapped Daws + +"Oh, nothin'," said the boy with fine sarcasm. "Only WHIZZER killed that +sheep and Jack killed Whizzer." From every Dillon throat came a scornful +grunt. + +"Oh, I reckon so," said Chad, easily. "Look dhar!" He lifted the dead dog's +head, and pointed at the strands of wool between his teeth. He turned it +over, showing the deadly grip in the throat and close to the jaws, that had +choked the life from Whizzer--Jack's own grip. + +"Ef you will jes' rickollect, Jack had that same grip the time afore--when I +pulled him off o' Whizzer." + +"By --, that is so," said Tall Tom, and Dolph and Rube echoed him amid a +dozen voices, for not only old Joel, but many of his neighbors knew Jack's +method of fighting, which had made him a victor up and down the length of +Kingdom Come. + +There was little doubt that the boy was right--that Jack had come on Whizzer +killing the sheep, and had caught him at the edge of the ravine, where the +two had fought, rolling down and settling the old feud between them in the +darkness at the bottom. And up there on the hill-side, the jury that +pronounced Jack guilty pronounced him innocent, and, as the Turners started +joyfully down the hill, the sun that was to have sunk on Jack stiff in death +sank on Jack frisking before them--home. + +And yet another wonder was in store for Chad. A strange horse with a strange +saddle was hitched to the Turner fence; beside it was an old mare with a +boy's saddle, and as Chad came through the gate a familiar voice called him +cheerily by name. On the porch sat Major Buford. + + + +CHAPTER 14. THE MAJOR IN THE MOUNTAINS + +The quivering heat of August was giving way and the golden peace of autumn +was spreading through the land. The breath of mountain woods by day was as +cool as the breath of valleys at night. In the mountains, boy and girl were +leaving school for work in the fields, and from the Cumberland foothills to +the Ohio, boy and girl were leaving happy holidays for school. Along a rough, +rocky road and down a shining river, now sunk to deep pools with trickling +riffles between--for a drouth was on the land--rode a tall, gaunt man on an +old brown mare that switched with her tail now and then at a long-legged, +rough-haired colt stumbling awkwardly behind. Where the road turned from the +river and up the mountain, the man did a peculiar thing, for there, in that +lonely wilderness, he stopped, dismounted, tied the reins to an overhanging +branch and, leaving mare and colt behind, strode up the mountain, on and on, +disappearing over the top. Half an hour later, a sturdy youth hove in sight, +trudging along the same road with his cap in his hand, a long rifle over one +shoulder and a dog trotting at his heels. Now and then the boy would look +back and scold the dog and the dog would drop his muzzle with shame, until +the boy stooped to pat him on the head, when he would leap frisking before +him, until another affectionate scolding was due. The old mare turned her +head when she heard them coming, and nickered. Without a moment's hesitation +the lad untied her, mounted and rode up the mountain. For two days the man +and the boy had been "riding and tying," as this way of travel for two men +and one horse is still known in the hills, and over the mountain, they were +to come together for the night. At the foot of the spur on the other side, +boy and dog came upon the tall man sprawled at full length across a +moss-covered bowlder. The dog dropped behind, but the man's quick eye caught +him: + +"Where'd that dog come from, Chad?" Jack put his belly to the earth and +crawled slowly forward--penitent, but determined. + +"He broke loose, I reckon. He come tearin' up behind me 'bout an hour ago, +like a house afire. Let him go." Caleb Hazel frowned. + +"I told you, Chad, that we'd have no place to keep him." + +"Well, we can send him home as easy from up thar as we can from hyeh--let him +go." + +"All right!" Chad understood not a whit better than the dog; for Jack leaped +to his feet and jumped around the school-master, trying to lick his hands, +but the school-master was absorbed and would none of him. There, the +mountain-path turned into a wagon-road and the school-master pointed with one +finger. + +"Do you know what that is, Chad?" + +"No, sir." Chad said "sir" to the school-master now. + +"Well, that's"--the school-master paused to give his words effect--"that's +the old Wilderness Road." + +Ah, did he not know the old, old Wilderness Road! The boy gripped his rifle +unconsciously, as though there might yet be a savage lying in ambush in some +covert of rhododendron close by. And, as they trudged ahead, side by side +now, for it was growing late, the school-master told him, as often before, +the story of that road and the pioneers who had trod it--the hunters, +adventurers, emigrants, fine ladies and fine gentlemen who had stained it +with their blood; and how that road had broadened into the mighty way for a +great civilization from sea to sea. The lad could see it all, as he listened, +wishing that he had lived in those stirring days, never dreaming in how +little was he of different mould from the stout-hearted pioneers who beat out +the path with their moccasined feet; how little less full of danger were his +own days to be; how little different had been his own life, and was his our +pose now--how little different after all was the bourn to which his own +restless feet were bearing him. + +Chad had changed a good deal since that night after Jack's trial, when the +kind-hearted old Major had turned up at Joel's cabin to take him back to the +Bluegrass. He was taller, broader at shoulder, deeper of chest; his mouth and +eyes were prematurely grave from much brooding and looked a little defiant, +as though the boy expected hostility from the world and was prepared to meet +it, but there was no bitterness in them, and luminous about the lad was the +old atmosphere of brave, sunny cheer and simple self-trust that won people to +him. + +The Major and old Joel had talked late that night after Jack's trial. The +Major had come down to find out who Chad was, if possible, and to take him +back home, no matter who he might be. The old hunter looked long into the +fire. + +"Co'se I know hit 'ud be better fer Chad, but, Lawd, how we'd hate to give +him up. Still, I reckon I'll have to let him go, but I can stand hit better, +if you can git him to leave Jack hyeh." The Major smiled. Did old Joel know +where Nathan Cherry lived? The old hunter did. Nathan was a "damned old +skinflint who lived across the mountain on Stone Creek--who stole other +folks' farms and if he knew anything about Chad the old hunter would squeeze +it out of his throat; and if old Nathan, learning where Chad now was, tried +to pester him he would break every bone in the skinflint's body." So the +Major and old Joel rode over next day to see Nathan, and Nathan with his +shifting eyes told them Chad's story in a high, cracked voice that, recalling +Chad's imitation of it, made the Major laugh. Chad was a foundling, Nathan +said: his mother was dead and his father had gone off to the Mexican War and +never come back: he had taken the mother in himself and Chad had been born in +his own house, when he lived farther up the river, and the boy had begun to +run away as soon as he was old enough to toddle. And with each sentence +Nathan would call for confirmation on a silent, dark-faced daughter who sat +inside: "Didn't he, Betsy?" or "Wasn't he, gal?" And the girl would nod +sullenly, but say nothing. It seemed a hopeless mission except that, on the +way back, the Major learned that there were one or two Bufords living down +the Cumberland, and like old Joel, shook his head over Nathan's pharisaical +philanthropy to a homeless boy and wondered what the motive under it was--but +he went back with the old hunter and tried to get Chad to go home with him. +The boy was rock-firm in his refusal. + +"I'm obleeged to you, Major, but I reckon I better stay in the mountains." +That was all Chad would say, and at last the Major gave up and rode back over +the mountain and down the Cumberland alone, still on his quest. At a +blacksmith's shop far down the river he found a man who had "heerd tell of a +Chad Buford who had been killed in the Mexican War and whose daddy lived +'bout fifteen mile down the river." The Major found that Buford dead, but an +old woman told him his name was Chad, that he had "fit in the War o' 1812 +when he was nothin' but a chunk of a boy, and that his daddy, whose name, +too, was Chad, had been killed by Injuns some'eres aroun' Cumberland Gap." By +this time the Major was as keen as a hound on the scent, and, in a cabin at +the foot of the sheer gray wall that crumbles into the Gap, he had the +amazing luck to find an octogenarian with an unclouded memory who could +recollect a queer-looking old man who had been killed by Indians --"a ole +feller with the curiosest hair I ever did see," added the patriarch. His name +was Colonel Buford, and the old man knew where he was buried, for he himself +was old enough at the time to help bury him. Greatly excited, the Major hired +mountaineers to dig into the little hill that the old man pointed out, on +which there was, however, no sign of a grave, and, at last, they uncovered +the skeleton of an old gentleman in a wig and peruke! There was little doubt +now that the boy, no matter what the blot on his 'scutcheon, was of his own +flesh and blood, and the Major was tempted to go back at once for him, but it +was a long way, and he was ill and anxious to get back home. So he took the +Wilderness Road for the Bluegrass, and wrote old Joel the facts and asked him +to send Chad to him whenever he would come. But the boy would not go. There +was no definite reason in his mind. It was a stubborn instinct merely--the +instinct of pride, of stubborn independence--of shame that festered in his +soul like a hornet's sting. Even Melissa urged him. She never tired of +hearing Chad tell about the Bluegrass country, and when she knew that the +Major wanted him to go back, she followed him out in the yard that night and +found him on the fence whittling. A red star was sinking behind the +mountains. "Why won't you go back no more, Chad?" she said. + +"'Cause I HAIN'T got no daddy er mammy." Then Melissa startled him. + +"Well, I'd go--an' I hain't got no daddy er mammy." Chad stopped his +whittling. + +"Whut'd you say, Lissy?" he asked, gravely. + +Melissa was frightened--the boy looked so serious. + +"Cross yo' heart an' body that you won't NUVER tell NO body." Chad crossed. + +"Well, mammy said I mustn't ever tell nobody--but I HAIN'T got no daddy er +mammy. I heerd her a-tellin' the school-teacher." And the little girl shook +her head over her frightful crime of disobedience. + +"You HAIN'T?" + +"I HAIN'T!" + +Melissa, too, was a waif, and Chad looked at her with a wave of new affection +and pity. + +"Now, why won't you go back just because you hain't got no daddy an' mammy?" + +Chad hesitated. There was no use making Melissa unhappy. + +"Oh, I'd just ruther stay hyeh in the mountains," he said, carelessly--lying +suddenly like the little gentleman that he was--lying as he knew, and as +Melissa some day would come to know. Then Chad looked at the little girl a +long while, and in such a queer way that Melissa turned her face shyly to the +red star. + +"I'm goin' to stay right hyeh. Ain't you glad, Lissy?" + +The little girl turned her eyes shyly back again. "Yes, Chad," she said. + +He would stay in the mountains and work hard; and when he grew up he would +marry Melissa and they would go away where nobody knew him or her: or they +would stay right there in the mountains where nobody blamed him for what he +was nor Melissa for what she was; and he would study law like Caleb Hazel, +and go to the Legislature--but Melissa! And with the thought of Melissa in +the mountains came always the thought of dainty Margaret in the Bluegrass and +the chasm that lay between the two--between Margaret and him, for that +matter; and when Mother Turner called Melissa from him in the orchard next +day, Chad lay on his back under an apple-tree, for a long while, thinking; +and then he whistled for Jack and climbed the spur above the river where he +could look down on the shadowed water and out to the clouded heaps of rose +and green and crimson, where the sun was going down under one faint white +star. Melissa was the glow-worm that, when darkness came, would be a +watch-fire at his feet--Margaret, the star to which his eyes were lifted +night and day--and so runs the world. He lay long watching that star. It hung +almost over the world of which he had dreamed so long and upon which he had +turned his back forever. Forever? Perhaps, but he went back home that night +with a trouble in his soul that was not to pass, and while he sat by the fire +he awoke from the same dream to find Melissa's big eyes fixed on him, and in +them was a vague trouble that was more than his own reflected back to him. + +Still the boy went back sturdily to his old life, working in the fields, busy +about the house and stable, going to school, reading and studying with the +school-master at nights, and wandering in the woods with Jack and his rifle. +And he hungered for spring to come again when he should go with the Turner +boys to take another raft of logs down the river to the capital. Spring came, +and going out to the back pasture one morning, Chad found a long-legged, +ungainly creature stumbling awkwardly about his old mare--a colt! That, too, +he owed the Major, and he would have burst with pride had he known that the +colt's sire was a famous stallion in the Bluegrass. That spring he did go +down the river again. He did not let the Major know he was coming and, +through a nameless shyness, he could not bring himself to go to see his old +friend and kinsman, but in Lexington, while he and the school-master were +standing on Cheapside, the Major whirled around a corner on them in his +carriage, and, as on the turnpike a year before, old Tom, the driver, called +out: + +"Look dar, Mars Cal!" And there stood Chad. + +"Why, bless my soul! Chad--why, boy! How you have grown!" For Chad had grown, +and his face was curiously aged and thoughtful. The Major insisted on taking +him home, and the school-master, too, who went reluctantly. Miss Lucy was +there, looking whiter and more fragile than ever, and she greeted Chad with a +sweet kindliness that took the sting from his unjust remembrance of her. And +what that failure to understand her must have been Chad better knew when he +saw the embarrassed awe, in her presence, of the school-master, for whom all +in the mountains had so much reverence. At the table was Thankyma'am waiting. +Around the quarters and the stable the pickaninnies and servants seemed to +remember the boy in a kindly genuine way that touched him, and even Jerome +Conners, the overseer, seemed glad to see him. The Major was drawn at once to +the grave school-master, and he had a long talk with him that night. It was +no use, Caleb Hazel said, trying to persuade the boy to live with the +Major--not yet. And the Major was more content when he came to know in what +good hands the boy was, and, down in his heart, he loved the lad the more for +his sturdy independence, and for the pride that made him shrink from facing +the world with the shame of his birth; knowing that Chad thought of him +perhaps more than of himself. Such unwillingness to give others trouble +seemed remarkable in so young a lad. Not once did the Major mention the Deans +to the boy, and about them Chad asked no questions--not even when he saw +their carriage passing the Major's gate. When they came to leave the Major +said: + +"Well, Chad, when that filly of yours is a year old, I'll buy 'em both from +you, if you'll sell 'em, and I reckon you can come up and go to school then." + + +Chad shook his head. Sell that colt? He would as soon have thought of selling +Jack. But the temptation took root, just the same, then and there, and grew +steadily until, after another year in the mountains, it grew too strong. For, +in that year, Chad grew to look the fact of his birth steadily in the face, +and in his heart grew steadily a proud resolution to make his way in the +world despite it. It was curious how Melissa came to know the struggle that +was going on within him and how Chad came to know that she knew-- though no +word passed between them: more curious still, how it came with a shock to +Chad one day to realize how little was the tragedy of his life in comparison +with the tragedy in hers, and to learn that the little girl with swift vision +had already reached that truth and with sweet unselfishness had reconciled +herself. He was a boy--he could go out in the world and conquer it, while her +life was as rigid and straight before her as though it ran between close +walls of rock as steep and sheer as the cliff across the river. One thing he +never guessed--what it cost the little girl to support him bravely in his +purpose, and to stand with smiling face when the first breath of one sombre +autumn stole through the hills, and Chad and the school-master left the +Turner home for the Bluegrass, this time to stay. + +She stood in the doorway after they had waved good-by from the head of the +river--the smile gone and her face in a sudden dark eclipse. The wise old +mother went in-doors. Once the girl started through the yard as though she +would rush after them and stopped at the gate, clinching it hard with both +hands. As suddenly she became quiet. + +She went in-doors to her work and worked quietly and without a word. Thus she +did all day while her mind and her heart ached. When she went after the cows +before sunset she stopped at the barn where Beelzebub had been tied. She +lifted her eyes to the hay-loft where she and Chad had hunted for hens' eggs +and played hide-and-seek. She passed through the orchard where they had +worked and played so many happy hours, and on to the back pasture where the +Dillon sheep had been killed and she had kept the Sheriff from shooting Jack. +And she saw and noted everything with a piteous pain and dry eyes. But she +gave no sign that night, and not until she was in bed did she with covered +head give way. Then the bed shook with her smothered sobs. This is the sad +way with women. After the way of men, Chad proudly marched the old Wilderness +Road that led to a big, bright, beautiful world where one had but to do and +dare to reach the stars. The men who had trod that road had made that big +world beyond, and their life Chad himself had lived so far. Only, where they +had lived he had been born--in a log cabin. Their weapons--the axe and the +rifle-- had been his. He had had the same fight with Nature as they. He knew +as well as they what life in the woods in "a half-faced camp" was. Their rude +sports and pastimes, their log-rollings, house-raisings, quilting parties, +corn-huskings, feats of strength, had been his. He had the same lynx eyes, +cool courage, swiftness of foot, readiness of resource that had been trained +into them. His heart was as stout and his life as simple and pure. He was +taking their path and, in the far West, beyond the Bluegrass world where he +was going, he could, if he pleased, take up the same life at the precise point +where they had left off. At sunset, Chad and the school-master stood on the +summit of the Cumberland foothills and looked over the rolling land with +little less of a thrill, doubtless, than the first hunters felt when the land +before them was as much a wilderness as the wilds through which they had made +their way. Below them a farmhouse shrank half out of sight into a little +hollow, and toward it they went down. + +The outside world had moved swiftly during the two years that they had been +buried in the hills as they learned at the farm-house that night. Already the +national storm was threatening, the air was electrically charged with alarms, +and already here and there the lightning had flashed. The underground railway +was busy with black freight, and John Brown, fanatic, was boldly lifting his +shaggy head. Old Brutus Dean was even publishing an abolitionist paper at +Lexington, the aristocratic heart of the State. He was making abolition +speeches throughout the Bluegrass with a dagger thrust in the table before +him--shaking his black mane and roaring defiance like a lion. The news +thrilled Chad unaccountably, as did the shadow of any danger, but it threw +the school-master into gloom. There was more. A dark little man by the name +of Douglas and a sinewy giant by the name of Lincoln were thrilling the West. +Phillips and Garrison were thundering in Massachusetts, and fiery tongues in +the South were flashing back scornful challenges and threats that would +imperil a nation. An invisible air-line shot suddenly between the North and +the South, destined to drop some day and lie a dead-line on the earth, and on +each side of it two hordes of brothers, who thought themselves two hostile +peoples, were shrinking away from each other with the half-conscious purpose +of making ready for a charge. In no other State in the Union was the +fratricidal character of the coming war to be so marked as in Kentucky, in no +other State was the national drama to be so fully played to the bitter end. + +That night even, Brutus Dean was going to speak near by, and Chad and Caleb +Hazel went to hear him. The fierce abolitionist first placed a Bible before +him. + +"This is for those who believe in religion," he said; then a copy of the +Constitution: "this for those who believe in the laws and in freedom of +speech. And this," he thundered, driving a dagger into the table and leaving +it to quiver there, "is for the rest!" Then he went on and no man dared to +interrupt. + +And only next day came the rush of wind that heralds the storm. Just outside +of Lexington Chad and the school-master left the mare and colt at a +farm-house and with Jack went into town on foot. It was Saturday afternoon, +the town was full of people, and an excited crowd was pressing along Main +Street toward Cheapside. The man and the boy followed eagerly. Cheapside was +thronged--thickest around a frame building that bore a newspaper sign on +which was the name of Brutus Dean. A man dashed from a hardware store with an +axe, followed by several others with heavy hammers in their hands. One swing +of the axe, the door was crashed open and the crowd went in like wolves. +Shattered windows, sashes and all, flew out into the street, followed by +showers of type, chair-legs, table-tops, and then, piece by piece, the +battered cogs, wheels, and forms of a printing-press. The crowd made little +noise. In fifteen minutes the house was a shell with gaping windows, +surrounded with a pile of chaotic rubbish, and the men who had done the work +quietly disappeared. Chad looked at the school-master for the first time +neither of them had uttered a word. The school-master's face was white with +anger, his hands were clinched, and his eyes were so fierce and burning that +the boy was frightened. + + + +CHAPTER 15. TO COLLEGE IN THE BLUEGRASS + +As the school-master had foretold, there was no room at college for Jack. +Several times Major Buford took the dog home with him, but Jack would not +stay. The next morning the dog would turn up at the door of the dormitory +where Chad and the school-master slept, and as a last resort the boy had to +send Jack home. So, one Sunday morning Chad led Jack out of the town for +several miles, and at the top of a high hill pointed toward the mountains and +sternly told him to go home. And Jack, understanding that the boy was in +earnest, trotted sadly away with a placard around his neck: + +I own this dog. His name is Jack. He is on his way to Kingdom Come. Please +feed him. Uncle Joel Turner will shoot any man who steels him. CHAD. + +It was no little consolation to Chad to think that the faithful sheep-dog +would in no small measure repay the Turners for all they had done for him. +But Jack was the closest link that bound him to the mountains, and dropping +out of sight behind the crest of the hill, Chad crept to the top again and +watched Jack until he trotted out of sight, and the link was broken. Then +Chad went slowly and sorrowfully back to his room. + +It was the smallest room in the dormitory that the school-master had chosen +for himself and Chad, and in it were one closet, one table, one lamp, two +chairs and one bed--no more. There were two windows in the little room--one +almost swept by the branches of a locust-tree and overlooking the brown-gray +sloping campus and the roofs and church-steeples of the town--the other +opening to the east on a sweep of field and woodland over which the sun rose +with a daily message from the unseen mountains far beyond and toward which +Chad had sent Jack trotting home. It was a proud day for Chad when Caleb +Hazel took him to "matriculate"--leading him from one to another of the +professors, who awed the lad with their preternatural dignity, but it was a +sad blow when he was told that in everything but mathematics he must go to +the preparatory department until the second session of the term--the +"kitchen," as it was called by the students. He bore it bravely, though, and +the school-master took him down the shady streets to the busy thoroughfare, +where the official book-store was, and where Chad, with pure ecstasy, caught +his first new books under one arm and trudged back, bending his head now and +then to catch the delicious smell of the fresh leaves and print. It was while +he was standing with his treasures under the big elm at the turnstile, +looking across the campus at the sundown that two boys came down the gravel +path. He knew them both at once as Dan and Harry Dean. Both looked at him +curiously, as he thought, but he saw that neither knew him and no one spoke. +The sound of wheels came up the street behind him just then, and a carriage +halted at the turnstile to take them in. Turning, Chad saw a slender girl +with dark hair and eyes and heard her call brightly to the boys. He almost +caught his breath at the sound of her voice, but he kept sturdily on his way, +and the girl's laugh rang in his ears as it rang the first time he heard it, +was ringing when he reached his room, ringing when he went to bed that night, +and lay sleepless, looking through his window at the quiet stars. + +For some time, indeed, no one recognized him, and Chad was glad. Once he met +Richard Hunt riding with Margaret, and the piercing dark eyes that the boy +remembered so well turned again to look at him. Chad colored and bravely met +them with his own, but there was no recognition. And he saw John +Morgan--Captain John Morgan--at the head of the "Lexington Rifles," which he +had just formed from the best blood of the town, as though in long +preparation for that coming war--saw him and Richard Hunt, as lieutenant, +drilling them in the campus, and the sight thrilled him as nothing else, +except Margaret, had ever done. Many times he met the Dean brothers on the +playground and in the streets, but there was no sign that he was known until +he was called to the blackboard one day in geometry, the only course in which +he had not been sent to the "kitchen." Then Chad saw Harry turn quickly when +the professor called his name. Confused though he was for a moment, he gave +his demonstration in his quaint speech with perfect clearness and without +interruption from the professor, who gave the boy a keen look as he said, +quietly: + +"Very good, sir!" And Harry could see his fingers tracing in his class-book +the figures that meant a perfect recitation. + +"How are you, Chad?" he said in the hallway afterward. + +"Howdye!" said Chad, shaking the proffered hand. + +"I didn't know you--you've grown so tall. Didn't you know me?" + +"Yes." + +"Then why didn't you speak to me?" + +"'Cause you didn't know ME." + +Harry laughed. "Well, that isn't fair. See you again." + +"All right," said Chad. + +That very afternoon Chad met Dan in a football game--an old-fashioned game, +in which there were twenty or thirty howling lads on each side and nobody +touched the ball except with his foot--met him so violently that, clasped in +each other's arms, they tumbled to the ground. + +"Leggo!" said Dan. + +"S'pose you leggo!" said Chad. + +As Dan started after the ball he turned to look at Chad and after the game he +went up to him. + +"Why, aren't you the boy who was out at Major Buford's once?" + +"Yes." Dan thrust out his hand and began to laugh. So did Chad, and each knew +that the other was thinking of the tournament. + +"In college?" + +"Math'matics," said Chad. "I'm in the kitchen fer the rest." + +"Oh!" said Dan. "Where you living?" Chad pointed to the dormitory, and again +Dan said "Oh!" in a way that made Chad flush, but added, quickly: + +"You better play on our side to-morrow." + +Chad looked at his clothes--foot-ball seemed pretty hard on clothes--"I don't +know," he said--"mebbe." + +It was plain that neither of the boys was holding anything against Chad, but +neither had asked the mountain lad to come to see him--an omission that was +almost unforgivable according to Chad's social ethics. So Chad proudly went +into his shell again, and while the three boys met often, no intimacy +developed. Often he saw them with Margaret, on the street, in a carriage or +walking with a laughing crowd of boys and girls; on the porticos of old +houses or in the yards; and, one night, Chad saw, through the wide-open door +of a certain old house on the corner of Mill and Market Streets, a party +going on; and Margaret, all in white, dancing, and he stood in the shade of +the trees opposite with new pangs shooting through him and went back to his +room in desolate loneliness, but with a new grip on his resolution that his +own day should yet come. + +Steadily the boy worked, forging his way slowly but surely toward the head of +his class in the "kitchen," and the school-master helped him unwearyingly. +And it was a great help--mental and spiritual--to be near the stern Puritan, +who loved the boy as a brother and was ever ready to guide him with counsel +and aid him with his studies. In time the Major went to the president to ask +him about Chad, and that august dignitary spoke of the lad in a way that made +the Major, on his way through the campus, swish through the grass with his +cane in great satisfaction. He always spoke of the boy now as his adopted son +and, whenever it was possible, he came in to take Chad out home to spend +Sunday with him; but, being a wise man and loving Chad's independence, he let +the boy have his own way. He had bought the filly--and would hold her, he +said, until Chad could buy her back, and he would keep the old nag as a +broodmare and would divide profits with Chad--to all of which the boy agreed. +The question of the lad's birth was ignored between them, and the Major +rarely spoke to Chad of the Deans, who were living in town during the winter, +nor questioned him about Dan or Harry or Margaret. But Chad had found out +where the little girl went to church, and every Sunday, despite Caleb Hazel's +protest, he would slip into the Episcopal church, with a queer +feeling--little Calvinist of the hills that he was that it was not quite +right for him even to enter that church; and he would watch the little girl +come in with her family and, after the queer way of these "furriners," kneel +first in prayer. And there, with soul uplifted by the dim rich light and the +peal of the organ, he would sit watching her; rising when she rose, watching +the light from the windows on her shining hair and sweet-spirited face, +watching her reverent little head bend in obeisance to the name of the Master, +though he kept his own held straight, for no Popery like that was for him. +Always, however, he would slip out before the service was quite over and never +wait even to see her come out of church. He was too proud for that and, +anyhow, it made him lonely to see the people greeting one another and chatting +and going off home together when there was not a soul to speak to him. It was +just one such Sunday that they came face to face for the first time. Chad had +gone down the street after leaving the church, had changed his mind and was +going back to his room. People were pouring from the church, as he went by, +but Chad did not even look across. A clatter rose behind him and he turned to +see a horse and rockaway coming at a gallop up the street, which was narrow. +The negro driver, frightened though he was, had sense enough to pull his +running horse away from the line of vehicles in front of the church so that +the beast stumbled against the curb-stone, crashed into a tree, and dropped +struggling in the gutter below another line of vehicles waiting on the other +side of the street. Like lightning, Chad leaped and landed full length on the +horse's head and was tossed violently to and fro, but he held on until the +animal lay still. + +"Unhitch the hoss," he called, sharply. + +"Well, that was pretty quick work for a boy," said a voice across the street +that sounded familiar, and Chad looked across to see General Dean and +Margaret watching him. The boy blushed furiously when his eyes met Margaret's +and he thought he saw her start slightly, but he lowered his eyes and hurried +away. + +It was only a few days later that, going up from town toward the campus, he +turned a corner and there was Margaret alone and moving slowly ahead of him. +Hearing his steps she turned her head to see who it was, but Chad kept his +eyes on the ground and passed her without looking up. And thus he went on, +although she was close behind him, across the street and to the turnstile. As +he was passing through, a voice rose behind him: + +"You aren't very polite, little boy." He turned quickly--Margaret had not +gone around the corner: she, too, was coming through the campus and there she +stood, grave and demure, though her eyes were dancing. + +"My mamma says a NICE little boy always lets a little GIRL go FIRST." + +"I didn't know you was comin' through." + +"Was comin' through!" Margaret made a little face as though to say--"Oh, +dear." + +"I said I didn't know you were coming through this way." + +Margaret shook her head. "No," she said; "no, you didn't." + +"Well, that's what I meant to say." Chad was having a hard time with his +English. He had snatched his cap from his head, had stepped back outside the +stile and was waiting to turn it for her. Margaret passed through and waited +where the paths forked. + +"Are you going up to the college?" she asked. + +"I was--but I ain't now--if you'll let me walk a piece with you." He was +scarlet with confusion--a tribute that Chad rarely paid his kind. His way of +talking was very funny, to be sure, but had she not heard her father say that +"the poor little chap had had no chance in life;" and Harry, that some day he +would be the best in his class? + +"Aren't you--Chad?" + +"Yes--ain't you Margaret--Miss Margaret?" + +"Yes, I'm Margaret." She was pleased with the hesitant title and the boy's +halting reverence. + +"An' I called you a little gal." Margaret's laugh tinkled in merry +remembrance. "An' you wouldn't take my fish." + +"I can't bear to touch them." + +"I know," said Chad, remembering Melissa. + +They passed a boy who knew Chad, but not Margaret. The lad took off his hat, +but Chad did not lift his; then a boy and a girl and, when only the two girls +spoke, the other boy lifted his hat, though he did not speak to Margaret. +Still Chad's hat was untouched and when Margaret looked up, Chad's face was +red with confusion again. But it never took the boy long to learn and, +thereafter, during the walk his hat came off unfailingly. Everyone looked at +the two with some surprise and Chad noticed that the little girl's chin was +being lifted higher and higher. His intuition told him what the matter was, +and when they reached the stile across the campus and Chad saw a crowd of +Margaret's friends coming down the street, he halted as if to turn back, but +the little girl told him imperiously to come on. It was a strange escort for +haughty Margaret--the country-looking boy, in coarse homespun--but Margaret +spoke cheerily to her friends and went on, looking up at Chad and talking to +him as though he were the dearest friend she had on earth. + +At the edge of town she suggested that they walk across a pasture and go back +by another street, and not until they were passing through the woodland did +Chad come to himself. + +"You know I didn't rickollect when you called me 'little boy.'" + +"Indeed!" + +"Not at fust, I mean," stammered Chad. + +Margaret grew mock-haughty and Chad grew grave. He spoke very slowly and +steadily. "I reckon I rickollect ever'thing that happened out thar a sight +better'n you. I ain't forgot nothin'--anything." + +The boy's sober and half-sullen tone made Margaret catch her breath with a +sudden vague alarm. + +Unconsciously she quickened her pace, but, already, she was mistress of an +art to which she was born and she said, lightly: + +"Now, that's MUCH better." A piece of pasteboard dropped from Chad's jacket +just then, and, taking the little girl's cue to swerve from the point at +issue, he picked it up and held it out for Margaret to read. It was the first +copy of the placard which he had tied around Jack's neck when he sent him +home, and it set Margaret to laughing and asking questions. Before he knew it +Chad was telling her about Jack and the mountains; how he had run away; about +the Turners and about Melissa and coming down the river on a raft--all he had +done and all he meant to do. And from looking at Chad now and then, Margaret +finally kept her eyes fixed on his--and thus they stood when they reached the +gate, while crows flew cawing over them and the air grew chill. + +"And did Jack go home?" + +Chad laughed. + +"No, he didn't. He come back, and I had to hide fer two days. Then, because +he couldn't find me he did go, thinking I had gone back to the mountains, +too. He went to look fer me." + +"Well, if he comes back again I'll ask my papa to get them to let you keep +Jack at college," said Margaret. + +Chad shook his head. + +"Then I'll keep him for you myself." The boy looked his gratitude, but shook +his head again. + +"He won't stay." + +Margaret asked for the placard again as they moved down the street. + +"You've got it spelled wrong," she said, pointing to "steel." Chad blushed. +"I can't spell when I write," he said. "I can't even talk--right." + +"But you'll learn," she said. + +"Will you help me?" + +"Yes." + +"Tell me when I say things wrong?" + +"Yes." + +"Where'm I goin' to see you?" + +Margaret shook her head thoughtfully: then the reason for her speaking first +to Chad came out. + +"Papa and I saw you on Sunday, and papa said you must be very strong as well +as brave, and that you knew something about horses. Harry told us who you +were when papa described you, and then I remembered. Papa told Harry to bring +you to see us. And you must come," she said, decisively. + +They had reached the turnstile at the campus again. + +"Have you had any more tournaments?" asked Margaret. + +"No," said Chad, apprehensively. + +"Do you remember the last thing I said to you?" + +"I rickollect that better'n anything," said Chad. + +"Well, I didn't hate you. I'm sorry I said that," she said gently. Chad +looked very serious. + +"That's all right," he said. "I seed--I saw you on Sunday, too." + +"Did you know me?" + +"I reckon I did. And that wasn't the fust time." Margaret's eyes were opening +with surprise. + +"I been goin' to church ever' Sunday fer nothin' else but just to see you." +Again his tone gave her vague alarm, but she asked: + +"Why didn't you speak to me?" + +They were nearing the turnstile across the campus now, and Chad did not +answer. + +"Why didn't you speak to me?" + +Chad stopped suddenly, and Margaret looked quickly at him, and saw that his +face was scarlet. The little girl started and her own face flamed. There was +one thing she had forgotten, and even now she could not recall what it +was--only that it was something terrible she must not know--old Mammy's words +when Dan was carried in senseless after the tournament. Frightened and +helpless, she shrank toward the turnstile, but Chad did not wait. With his +cap in his hand, he turned abruptly, without a sound, and strode away. + + + +CHAPTER 16. AGAIN THE BAR SINISTER + +And yet, the next time Chad saw Margaret, she spoke to him shyly but +cordially, and when he did not come near her, she stopped him on the street +one day and reminded him of his promise to come and see them. And Chad knew +the truth at once--that she had never asked her father about him, but had not +wanted to know what she had been told she must not know, and had properly +taken it for granted that her father would not ask Chad to his house, if there +were a good reason why he should not come. But Chad did not go even to the +Christmas party that Margaret gave in town, though the Major urged him. He +spent Christmas with the Major, and he did go to a country party, where the +Major was delighted with the boy's grace and agility dancing the quadrille, +and where the lad occasioned no little amusement with his improvisations in +the way of cutting pigeon's wings and shuffling, which he had learned in the +mountains. So the Major made him accept a loan and buy a suit for social +purposes after Christmas, and had him go to Madam Blake's dancing school, and +promise to go to the next party to which he was asked. And that Chad did--to +the big gray house on the corner, through whose widespread doors his longing +eyes had watched Margaret and her friends flitting like butterflies months +before. + +It intoxicated the boy--the lights, music, flowers, the little girls in +white--and Margaret. For the first time he met her friends, Nellie Hunt, +sister to Richard; Elizabeth Morgan, cousin to John Morgan; and Miss Jennie +Overstreet, who, young as she was, wrote poems--but Chad had eyes only for +Margaret. It was while he was dancing a quadrille with her, that he noticed a +tall, pale youth with black hair, glaring at him, and he recognized Georgie +Forbes, a champion of Margaret, and the old enemy who had caused his first +trouble in his new home. Chad laughed with fearless gladness, and Margaret +tossed her head. It was Georgie now who blackened and spread the blot on +Chad's good name, and it was Georgie to whom Chad--fast learning the ways of +gentlemen--promptly sent a pompous challenge, that the difficulty might be +settled "in any way the gentleman saw fit." Georgie insultingly declined to +fight with one who was not his equal, and Chad boxed his jaws in the presence +of a crowd, floored him with one blow, and contemptuously twisted his nose. +Thereafter open comment ceased. Chad was making himself known. He was the +swiftest runner on the football field; he had the quickest brain in +mathematics; he was elected to the Periclean Society, and astonished his +fellow-members with a fiery denunciation of the men who banished Napoleon to +St. Helena--so fiery was it, indeed, that his opponents themselves began to +wonder how that crime had ever come to pass. He would fight at the drop of a +hat, and he always won; and by-and-by the boy began to take a fierce joy in +battling his way upward against a block that would have crushed a weaker soul. +It was only with Margaret that that soul was in awe. He began to love her with +a pure reverence that he could never know at another age. Every Saturday +night, when dusk fell, he was mounting the steps of her house. Every Sunday +morning he was waiting to take her home from church. Every afternoon he looked +for her, hoping to catch sight of her on the streets, and it was only when Dan +and Harry got indignant, and after Margaret had made a passionate defence of +Chad in the presence of the family, that the General and Mrs. Dean took the +matter in hand. It was a childish thing, of course; a girlish whim. It was +right that they should be kind to the boy--for Major Buford's sake, if not for +his own; but they could not have even the pretence of more than a friendly +intimacy between the two, and so Margaret was told the truth. Immediately, +when Chad next saw her, her honest eyes sadly told him that she knew the +truth, and Chad gave up then. Thereafter he disappeared from sports and from +his kind every way, except in the classroom and in the debating hall. Sullenly +he stuck to his books. From five o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock at +night, he was at them steadily, in his room, or at recitation except for an +hour's walk with the school-master and the three half-hours that his meals +kept him away. He grew so pale and thin that the Major and Caleb Hazel were +greatly worried, but protest from both was useless. Before the end of the term +he had mounted into college in every study, and was holding his own. At the +end he knew his power--knew what he COULD do, and his face was set, for his +future, dauntless. When vacation came, he went at once to the Major's farm, +but not to be idle. In a week or two he was taking some of the reins into his +own hands as a valuable assistant to the Major. He knew a good horse, could +guess the weight of a steer with surprising accuracy, and was a past master in +knowledge of sheep. By instinct he was canny at a trade--what mountaineer is +not?--and he astonished the Major with the shrewd deals he made. Authority +seemed to come naturally to him, and the Major swore that he could get more +work out of the "hands" than the overseer himself, who sullenly resented +Chad's interference, but dared not open his lips. Not once did he go to the +Deans', and neither Harry nor Dan came near him. There was little intercourse +between the Major and the General, as well; for, while the Major could not, +under the circumstances, blame the General, inconsistently, he could not quite +forgive him, and the line of polite coolness between the neighbors was never +overstepped. At the end of July, Chad went to the mountains to see the Turners +and Jack and Melissa. He wore his roughest clothes, put on no airs, and, to +all eyes, save Melissa's, he was the same old Chad. But feminine subtlety +knows no social or geographical lines, and while Melissa knew what had +happened as well as Chad, she never let him see that she knew. Apparently she +was giving open encouragement to Dave Hilton, a tawny youth from down the +river, who was hanging, dog-like, about the house, and foolish Chad began to +let himself dream of Margaret with a light heart. On the third day before he +was to go back to the Bluegrass, a boy came from over Black Mountain with a +message from old Nathan Cherry. Old Nathan had joined the church, had fallen +ill, and, fearing he was going to die, wanted to see Chad. Chad went over with +curious premonitions that were not in vain, and he came back with a strange +story that he told only to old Joel, under promise that he would never make it +known to Melissa. Then he started for the Bluegrass, going over Pine Mountain +and down through Cumberland Gap. He would come back every year of his life, he +told Melissa and the Turners, but Chad knew he was bidding a last farewell to +the life he had known in the mountains. At Melissa's wish and old Joel's, he +left Jack behind, though he sorely wanted to take the dog with him. It was +little enough for him to do in return for their kindness, and he could see +that Melissa's affection for Jack was even greater than his own: and how +incomparably lonelier than his life was the life that she must lead! This time +Melissa did not rush to the yard gate when he was gone. She sank slowly where +she stood to the steps of the porch, and there she sat stone-still. Old Joel +passed her on the way to the barn. Several times the old mother walked to the +door behind her, and each time starting to speak, stopped and turned back, but +the girl neither saw nor heard them. Jack trotted by, whimpering. He sat down +in front of her, looking up at her unseeing eyes, and it was only when he +crept to her and put his head in her lap, that she put her arms around him and +bent her own head down; but no tears came. + + + +CHAPTER 17. CHADWICK BUFORD, GENTLEMAN + +And so, returned to the Bluegrass, the midsummer of that year, Chadwick Buford +gentleman. A youth of eighteen, with the self-possession of a man, and a pair +of level, clear eyes, that looked the world in the face as proudly as ever but +with no defiance and no secret sense of shame It was a curious story that Chad +brought back and told to the Major, on the porch under the honeysuckle vines, +but it seemed to surprise the Major very little: how old Nathan had sent for +him to come to his death-bed and had told Chad that he was no foundling; that +one of his farms belonged to the boy; that he had lied to the Major about +Chad's mother, who was a lawful wife, in order to keep the land for himself; +how old Nathan had offered to give back the farm, or pay him the price of it +in livestock, and how, at old Joel's advice he had taken the stock and turned +the stock into money. How, after he had found his mother's grave, his first +act had been to take up the rough bee-gum coffin that held her remains, and +carry it down the river, and bury her where she had the right to lie, side by +side with her grandfather and his--the old gentleman who slept in wig and +peruke on the hill-side--that her good name and memory should never again +suffer insult from any living tongue. It was then that Major took Chad by the +shoulders roughly, and, with tears in his eyes, swore that he would have no +more nonsense from the boy; that Chad was flesh of his flesh and bone of his +bone; that he would adopt him and make him live where he belonged, and break +his damned pride. And it was then that Chad told him how gladly he would come, +now that he could bring him an untarnished name. And the two walked together +down to the old family graveyard, where the Major said that the two in the +mountains should be brought some day and where the two brothers who had parted +nearly fourscore years ago could, side by side, await Judgment Day. + +When they went back into the house the Major went to the sideboard. + +"Have a drink, Chad?" + +Chad laughed: "Do you think it will stunt my growth?" + +"Stand up here, and let's see," said the Major. + +The two stood up, back to back, in front of a long mirror, and Chad's shaggy +hair rose at least an inch above the Major's thin locks of gray. The Major +turned and looked at him from head to foot with affectionate pride. + +"Six feet in your socks, to the inch, without that hair. I reckon it won't +stunt you--not now." + +"All right," laughed Chad, "then I'll take that drink." And together they +drank. + +Thus, Chadwick Buford, gentleman, after the lapse of three-quarters of a +century, came back to his own: and what that own, at that day and in that +land, was! + +It was the rose of Virginia, springing, in full bloom, from new and richer +soil--a rose of a deeper scarlet and a stronger stem: and the big village +where the old University reared its noble front was the very heart of that +rose. There were the proudest families, the stateliest homes, the broadest +culture, the most gracious hospitality, the gentlest courtesies, the finest +chivalry, that the State has ever known. There lived the political idols; +there, under the low sky, rose the memorial shaft to Clay. There had lived +beaux and belles, memories of whom hang still about the town, people it with +phantom shapes, and give an individual or a family here and there a subtle +distinction to-day. There the grasp of Calvinism was most lax. There were the +dance, the ready sideboard, the card table, the love of the horse and the dog, +and but little passion for the game-cock. There were as manly virtues, as +manly vices, as the world has ever known. And there, love was as far from lust +as heaven from hell. + +It was on the threshold of this life that Chad stood. Kentucky had given birth +to the man who was to uphold the Union--birth to the man who would seek to +shatter it. Fate had given Chad the early life of one, and like blood with the +other; and, curiously enough, in his own short life, he already epitomized the +social development of the nation, from its birth in a log cabin to its swift +maturity behind the columns of a Greek portico. Against the uncounted +generations of gentlepeople that ran behind him to sunny England, how little +could the short sleep of three in the hills count! It may take three +generations to make a gentleman, but one is enough, if the blood be there, the +heart be right, and the brain and hand come early under discipline. + +It was to General Dean that the Major told Chad's story first. The two old +friends silently grasped hands, and the cloud between them passed like mist. + +"Bring him over to dinner on Saturday, Cal--you and Miss Lucy, won't you? Some +people are coming out from town." In making amends, there was no half-way with +General Dean. + +"I will," said the Major, "gladly." + +The cool of the coming autumn was already in the air that Saturday when Miss +Lucy and the Major and Chad, in the old carriage, with old Tom as driver and +the pickaninny behind, started for General Dean's. The Major was beautiful to +behold, in his flowered waistcoat, his ruffled shirt, white trousers strapped +beneath his highly polished, high-heeled boots, high hat and frock coat, with +only the lowest button fastened, in order to rive a glimpse of that wonderful +waistcoat, just as that, too, was unbuttoned at the top that the ruffles might +peep out upon the world. Chad's raiment, too, was a Solomon's--for him. He had +protested, but in vain; and he, too, wore white trousers with straps, +high-heeled boots, and a wine-colored waistcoat and slouch hat, and a brave, +though very conscious, figure he made, with his tall body, well-poised head, +strong shoulders and thick hair. It was a rare thing for Miss Lucy to do, but +the old gentlewoman could not resist the Major, and she, too, rode in state +with them, smiling indulgently at the Major's quips, and now, kindly, on Chad. +A drowsy peace lay over the magnificent woodlands, unravaged then except for +firewood; the seared pastures, just beginning to show green again for the +second spring; the flashing creek, the seas of still hemp and yellow corn. and +Chad saw a wistful shadow cross Miss Lucy's pale face, and a darker one +anxiously sweep over he Major's jesting lips. + +Guests were arriving, when they entered the yard gate, and guests were coming +behind them. General and Mrs. Dean were receiving them on the porch, and Harry +and Dan were helping the ladies out of their carriages, while, leaning against +one of the columns, in pure white, was the graceful figure of Margaret. That +there could ever have been any feeling in any member of the family other than +simple, gracious kindliness toward him, Chad could neither see nor feel. At +once every trace of embarrassment in him was gone, and he could but wonder at +the swift justice done him in a way that was so simple and effective. Even +with Margaret there was no trace of consciousness. The past was wiped clean of +all save courtesy and kindness. There were the Hunts--Nellie, and the +Lieutenant of the Lexington Rifles, Richard Hunt, a dauntless-looking dare- +devil, with the ready tongue of a coffee-house wit and the grace of a +cavalier. There was Elizabeth Morgan, to whom Harry's grave eyes were always +wandering, and Miss Jennie Overstreet, who was romantic and openly now wrote +poems for the Observer, and who looked at Chad with no attempt to conceal her +admiration of his appearance and her wonder as to who he was. And there were +the neighbors roundabout--the Talbotts, Quisenberrys, Clays, Prestons, +Morgans--surely no less than forty strong, and all for dinner. It was no +little trial for Chad in that crowd of fine ladies, judges, soldiers, lawyers, +statesmen--but he stood it well. While his self-consciousness made him +awkward, he had pronounced dignity of bearing; his diffidence emphasized his +modesty, and he had the good sense to stand and keep still. Soon they were at +table--and what a table and what a dinner that was! The dining-room was the +biggest and sunniest room in the house; its walls covered with hunting prints, +pictures of game and stag heads. The table ran the length of it. The snowy +tablecloth hung almost to the floor. At the head sat Mrs. Dean, with a great +tureen of calf's head soup in front of her. Before the General was the saddle +of venison that was to follow, drenched in a bottle of ancient Madeira, and +flanked by flakes of red-currant jelly. Before the Major rested broiled wild +ducks, on which he could show his carving skill--on game as well as men. A +great turkey supplanted the venison, and last to come, and before Richard +Hunt, Lieutenant of the Rifles, was a Kentucky ham. That ham! Mellow, aged, +boiled in champagne, baked brown, spiced deeply, rosy pink within, and of a +flavor and fragrance to shatter the fast of a Pope; and without, a brown-edged +white layer, so firm that the lieutenant's deft carving knife, passing +through, gave no hint to the eye that it was delicious fat. There had been +merry jest and laughter and banter and gallant compliment before, but it was +Richard Hunt's turn now, and story after story he told, as the rose-flakes +dropped under his knife in such thin slices that their edges coiled. It was +full half an hour before the carver and story-teller were done. After that ham +the tablecloth was lifted, and the dessert spread on another lying beneath; +then that, too, was raised, and the nuts and wines were placed on a third--red +damask this time. + +Then came the toasts: to the gracious hostess from Major Buford; to Miss Lucy +from General Dean; from valiant Richard Hunt to blushing Margaret, and then +the ladies were gone, and the talk was politics--the election of Lincoln, +slavery, disunion. + +"If Lincoln is elected, no power but God's can avert war," said Richard Hunt, +gravely. + +Dan's eyes flashed. "Will you take me?" + +The lieutenant lifted his glass. "Gladly, my boy." + +"Kentucky's convictions are with the Union; her kinship and sympathies with +the South," said a deep-voiced lawyer. "She must remain neutral." + +"Straddling the fence," said the Major, sarcastically. + +"No; to avert the war, if possible, or to act the peacemaker when the tragedy +is over." + +"Well, I can see Kentuckians keeping out of a fight," laughed the General, and +he looked around. Three out of five of the men present had been in the Mexican +war. The General had been wounded at Cerro Gordo, and the Major had brought +his dead home in leaden coffins. + +"The fanatics of Boston, the hot-heads of South Carolina--they are making the +mischief." + +"And New England began with slavery," said the lawyer again. + +"And naturally, with that conscience that is a national calamity, was the +first to give it up," said Richard Hunt, "when the market price of slaves fell +to sixpence a pound in the open Boston markets." There was an incredulous +murmur. + +"Oh, yes," said Hunt, easily, "I can show you advertisements in Boston papers +of slaves for sale at sixpence a pound." + +Perhaps it never occurred to a soul present that the word "slave" was never +heard in that region except in some such way. With Southerners, the negroes +were "our servants" or "our people"--never slaves. Two lads at that table were +growing white--Chad and Harry--and Chad's lips opened first. + +"I don't think slavery has much to do with the question, really," he said, +"not even with Mr. Lincoln." The silent surprise that followed the boy's +embarrassed statement ended in a gasp of astonishment when Harry leaned across +the table and said, hotly: + +"Slavery has EVERYTHING to do with the question." + +The Major looked bewildered; the General frowned, and the keen-eyed lawyer +spoke again: + +"The struggle was written in the Constitution. The framers evaded it. Logic +leads one way as well as another and no man can logically blame another for +the way he goes." + +"No more politics now, gentlemen," said the General quickly. "We will join the +ladies. Harry," he added, with some sternness, "lead the way!" + +As the three boys rose, Chad lifted his glass. His face was pale and his lips +trembled. + +"May I propose a toast, General Dean?" + +"Why, certainly," said the General, kindly. + +"I want to drink to one man but for whom I might be in a log cabin now, and +might have died there for all I know--my friend and, thank God! my +kinsman--Major Buford." + +It was irregular and hardly in good taste, but the boy had waited till the +ladies were gone, and it touched the Major that he should want to make such a +public acknowledgment that there should be no false colors in the flag he +meant henceforth to bear. + +The startled guests drank blindly to the confused Major, though they knew not +why, but as the lads disappeared the lawyer asked: + +"Who is that boy, Major?" + +Outside, the same question had been asked among the ladies and the same story +told. The three girls remembered him vaguely, they said, and when Chad +reappeared, in the eyes of the poetess at least, the halo of romance floated +above his head. + +She was waiting for Chad when he came out on the porch, and she shook her +curls and flashed her eyes in a way that almost alarmed him. Old Mammy dropped +him a curtsey, for she had had her orders, and, behind her, Snowball, now a +tall, fine-looking coal-black youth, grinned a welcome. The three girls were +walking under the trees, with their arms mysteriously twined about one +anther's waists, and the poetess walked down toward them with the three lads, +Richard Hunt following. Chad could not know how it happened, but, a moment +later, Dan was walking away with Nellie Hunt one way; Harry with Elizabeth +Morgan the other; the Lieutenant had Margaret alone, and Miss Overstreet was +leading him away, raving meanwhile about the beauty of field and sky. As they +went toward the gate he could not help flashing one look toward the pair under +the fir tree. An amused smile was playing under the Lieutenant's beautiful +mustache, his eyes were dancing with mischief, and Margaret was blushing with +anything else than displeasure. + +"Oho!" he said, as Chad and his companion passed on. "Sits the wind in that +corner? Bless me, if looks could kill, I'd have a happy death here at your +feet, Mistress Margaret. SEE the young man! It's the second time he has almost +slain me." + +Chad could scarcely hear Miss Jennie's happy chatter, scarcely saw the shaking +curls, the eyes all but in a frenzy of rolling. His eyes were in the back of +his head, and his backward-listening ears heard only Margaret's laugh behind +him. + +"Oh, I do love the autumn"--it was at the foot of those steps, thought Chad, +that he first saw Margaret springing to the back of her pony and dashing off +under the fir trees--" and it's coming. There's one scarlet leaf +already"--Chad could see the rock fence where he had sat that spring day-- +"it's curious and mournful that you can see in any season a sign of the next +to come." And there was the creek where he found Dan fishing, and there the +road led to the ford where Margaret had spurned his offer of a slimy +fish--ugh!" I do love the autumn. It makes me feel like the young woman who +told Emerson that she had such mammoth thoughts she couldn't give them +utterance--why, wake up, Mr. Buford, wake up!" Chad came to with a start. + +"Do you know you aren't very polite, Mr. Buford?" Mr. Buford! That did sound +funny. + +"But I know what the matter is," she went on. "I saw you look"--she nodded her +head backward. "Can you keep a secret?" Chad nodded; he had not yet opened his +lips. + +"Thae's going to be a match back there. He's only a few years older. The +French say that a woman should be half a man's age plus seven years. That +would make her only a few years too young, and she can wait." Chad was scarlet +under the girl's mischievous torture, but a cry from the house saved him. Dan +was calling them back. + +"Mr. Hunt has to go back early to drill the Rifles. Can you keep another +secret?" Again Chad nodded gravely. "Well, he is going to drive me back. I'll +tell him what a dangerous rival he has." Chad was dumb; there was much yet for +him to learn before he could parry with a tongue like hers. + +"He's very good-looking," said Miss Jennie, when she joined the girls, "but +oh, so stupid." + +Margaret turned quickly and unsuspiciously. "Stupid! Why, he's the first man +in his class." + +"Oh," said Miss Jennie, with a demure smile, "perhaps I couldn't draw him +out," and Margaret flushed to have caught the deftly tossed bait so readily. + +A moment later the Lieutenant was gathering up the reins, with Miss Jennie by +his side. He gave a bow to Margaret, and Miss Jennie nodded to Chad. + +"Come see me when you come to town, Mr. Buford," she called, as though to an +old friend, and still Chad was dumb, though he lifted his hat gravely. + +At no time was Chad alone with Margaret, and he was not sorry--her manner so +puzzled him. The three lads and three girls walked together through Mrs. +Dean's garden with its grass walks and flower beds and vegetable patches +surrounded with rose bushes. At the lower edge they could see the barn with +sheep in the yard around it, and there were the very stiles where Harry and +Margaret had sat in state when Dan and Chad were charging in the tournament. +The thing might never have happened for any sign from Harry or Dan or +Margaret, and Chad began to wonder if his past or his present were a dream. + +How fine this courtesy was Chad could not realize. Neither could he know that +the favor Margaret had shown him when he was little more than outcast he must +now, as an equal, win for himself. Miss Jennie had called him "Mr. Buford." He +wondered what Margaret would call him when he came to say good-by. She called +him nothing. She only smiled at him. + +"You must come to see us soon again," she said, graciously, and so said all +the Deans. + +The Major was quiet going home, and Miss Lucy drowsed. All evening the Major +was quiet. + +"If a fight does come," he said, when they were going to bed, "I reckon I'm +not too old to take a hand." + +"And I reckon I'm not too young," said Chad. + + + +CHAPTER 18. THE SPIRIT OF '76 AND THE SHADOW OF '61 + +One night, in the following April, there was a great dance in Lexington. Next +day the news of Sumter came. Chad pleaded to be let off from the dance, but +the Major would not hear of it. It was a fancy-dress ball, and the Major had a +pet purpose of his own that he wanted gratified and Chad had promised to aid +him. That fancy was that Chad should go in regimentals, as the stern, old +soldier on the wall, of whom the Major swore the boy was the "spit and image." +The Major himself helped Chad dress in wig, peruke, stock, breeches, boots, +spurs, cocked hat, sword and all. And then he led the boy down into the +parlor, where Miss Lucy was waiting for them, and stood him up on one side of +the portrait. To please the old fellow, Chad laughingly struck the attitude of +the pictured soldier, and the Major cried: + +"What'd I tell you, Lucy!" Then he advanced and made a low bow. + +"General Buford," he said, "General Washington's compliments, and will General +Buford plant the flag on that hill where the left wing of the British is +entrenched?" + +"Hush, Cal," said Miss Lucy, laughing. + +"General Buford's compliments to General Washington. General Buford will plant +that flag on ANY hill that ANY enemy holds against it." + +The lad's face paled as the words, by some curious impulse, sprang to his +lips, but the unsuspecting Major saw no lurking significance in his manner, +nor in what he said, and then there was a rumble of carriage wheels at the +door. + +The winter had sped swiftly. Chad had done his work in college only fairly +well, for Margaret had been a disturbing factor. The girl was an impenetrable +mystery to him, for the past between them was not only wiped clean--it seemed +quite gone. Once only had he dared to open his lips about the old days, and +the girl's flushed silence made a like mistake forever impossible. He came and +went at the Deans' as he pleased. Always they were kind, courteous, +hospitable--no more, no less, unvaryingly. During the Christmas holidays he +and Margaret had had a foolish quarrel, and it was then that Chad took his +little fling at his little world--a fling that was foolish, but harmful, +chiefly in that it took his time and his mind and his energy from his work. He +not only neglected his studies, but he fell in with the wild young bucks of +the town, learned to play cards, took more wine than was good for him +sometimes, was on the verge of several duels, and night after night raced home +in his buggy against the coming dawn. Though Miss Lucy looked worried, the +indulgent old Major made no protest. Indeed he was rather pleased. Chad was +sowing his wild oats--it was in the blood, and the mood would pass. It did +pass, naturally enough, on the very day that the breach between him and +Margaret was partly healed; and the heart of Caleb Hazel, whom Chad, for +months, had not dared to face, was made glad when the boy came back to him +remorseful and repentant--the old Chad once more. + +They were late in getting to the dance. Every window in the old Hunt home was +brilliant with light. Chinese lanterns swung in the big yard. The scent of +early spring flowers smote the fresh night air. Music and the murmur of nimble +feet and happy laughter swept out the wide-open doors past which white figures +flitted swiftly. Scarcely anybody knew Chad in his regimentals, and the Major, +with the delight of a boy, led him around, gravely presenting him as General +Buford here and there. Indeed, the lad made a noble figure with his superb +height and bearing, and he wore sword and spurs as though born to them. +Margaret was dancing with Richard Hunt when she saw his eyes searching for her +through the room, and she gave him a radiant smile that almost stunned him. +She had been haughty and distant when he went to her to plead forgiveness: she +had been too hard. and Margaret, too, was repentant. + +"Why, who's that?" asked Richard Hunt. "Oh, yes," he added, getting his answer +from Margaret's face. "Bless me, but he's fine--the very spirit of '76. I must +have him in the Rifles." + +"Will you make him a lieutenant?" asked Margaret. + +"Why, yes, I will," said Mr. Hunt, decisively. "I'll resign myself in his +favor, if it pleases you." + +"Oh, no, no--no one could fill your place." + +"Well, he can, I fear--and here he comes to do it. I'll have to retreat some +time, and I suppose I'd as well begin now." And the gallant gentleman bowed to +Chad. + +"Will you pardon me, Miss Margaret? My mother is calling me." + +"You must have keen ears," said Margaret; "your mother is upstairs." + +"Yes; but she wants me. Everybody wants me, but--" he bowed again with an +imperturbable smile and went his way. + +Margaret looked demurely into Chad's eager eyes. + +"And how is the spirit of '76?" + +"The spirit of '76 is unchanged." + +"Oh, yes, he is; I scarcely knew him." + +"But he's unchanged; he never will change." + +Margaret dropped her eyes and Chad looked around. + +"I wish we could get out of here." + +"We can," said Margaret, demurely. + +"We will!" said Chad, and he made for a door, outside which lanterns were +swinging in the wind. Margaret caught up some flimsy garment and wound it +about her pretty round throat--they call it a "fascinator" in the South. + +Chad looked down at her. + +"I wish you could see yourself; I wish I could tell you how you look." + +"I have," said Margaret, "every time I passed a mirror. And other people have +told me. Mr. Hunt did. He didn't seem to have much trouble." + +"I wish I had his tongue." + +"If you had, and nothing else, you wouldn't have me"--Chad started as the +little witch paused a second, drawling--"leaving my friends and this jolly +dance to go out into a freezing yard and talk to an aged Colonial who doesn't +appreciate his modern blessings. The next thing you'll be wanting, I +suppose--will be--" + +"You, Margaret; you--YOU!" + +It had come at last and Margaret hardly knew the choked voice that interrupted +her. She had turned her back to him to sit down. She paused a moment, +standing. Her eyes closed; a slight tremor ran through her, and she sank with +her face in her hands. Chad stood silent, trembling. Voices murmured about +them, but like the music in the house, they seemed strangely far away. The +stirring of the wind made the sudden damp on his forehead icy-cold. Margaret's +hands slowly left her face, which had changed as by a miracle. Every trace of +coquetry was gone. It was the face of a woman who knew her own heart, and had +the sweet frankness to speak it, that was lifted now to Chad. + +"I'm so glad you are what you are, Chad; but had you been otherwise--that +would have made no difference to me. You believe that, don't you, Chad? They +might not have let me marry you, but I should have cared, just the same. They +may not now, but that, too, will make no difference." She turned her eyes from +his for an instant, as though she were looking far backward. "Ever since that +day," she said, slowly, "when I heard you say, 'Tell the little gurl I didn't +mean nothin' callin' her a little gal'"--there was a low, delicious gurgle in +the throat as she tried to imitate his odd speech, and then her eyes suddenly +filled with tears, but she brushed them away, smiling brightly. "Ever since +then, Chad--" she stopped--a shadow fell across the door of the little summer +house. + +"Here I am, Mr. Hunt," she said, lightly; "is this your dance?" She rose and +was gone. "Thank you, Mr. Buford," she called back, sweetly. + +For a moment Chad stood where he was, quite dazed--so quickly, so unexpectedly +had the crisis come. The blood had rushed to his face and flooded him with +triumphant happiness. A terrible doubt chilled him as quickly. Had he heard +aright?--could he have misunderstood her? Had the dream of years really come +true? What was it she had said? He stumbled around in the half darkness, +wondering. Was this another phase of her unceasing coquetry? How quickly her +tone had changed when Richard Hunt's shadow came. At that moment, he neither +could nor would have changed a hair had some genie dropped them both in the +midst of the crowded ball-room. He turned swiftly toward the dancers. He must +see, know--now! + +The dance was a quadrille and the figure was "Grand right and left." Margaret +had met Richard Hunt opposite, half-way, when Chad reached the door and was +curtseying to him with a radiant smile. Again the boy's doubts beat him +fiercely; and then Margaret turned her head, as though she knew he must be +standing there. Her face grew so suddenly serious and her eyes softened with +such swift tenderness when they met his, that a wave of guilty shame swept +through him. And when she came around to him and passed, she leaned from the +circle toward him, merry and mock-reproachful: + +"You mustn't look at me like that," she whispered, and Hunt, close at hand, +saw, guessed and smiled. Chad turned quickly away again. + +That happy dawn--going home! The Major drowsed and fell asleep. The first +coming light, the first cool breath that was stealing over the awakening +fields, the first spring leaves with their weight of dew, were not more fresh +and pure than the love that was in the boy's heart. He held his right hand in +his left, as though he were imprisoning there the memory of the last little +clasp that she had given it. He looked at the Major, and he wondered how +anybody on earth, at that hour, could be asleep. He thought of the wasted days +of the past few months; the silly, foolish life he had led, and thanked God +that, in the memory of them, there was not one sting of shame. How he would +work for her now! Little guessing how proud she already was, he swore to +himself how proud she should be of him some day. He wondered where she was, +and what she was doing. She could not be asleep, and he must have cried aloud +could he have known--could he have heard her on her knees at her bedside, +whispering his name for the first time in her prayers; could he have seen her, +a little later, at her open window, looking across the fields, as though her +eyes must reach him through the morning dusk. + +That happy dawn--for both, that happy dawn! + +It was well that neither, at that hour, could see beyond the rim of his own +little world. In a far Southern city another ball, that night, had been going +on. Down there the air was charged with the prescience of dark trouble, but, +while the music moaned to many a heart like a god in pain, there was no +brooding--only a deeper flush to the cheek, a brighter sparkle to the eye, a +keener wit to the tongue; to the dance, a merrier swing. And at that very hour +of dawn, ladies, slippered, bare of head, and in evening gowns, were +fluttering like white moths along the streets of old Charleston, and down to +the Battery, where Fort Sumter lay, gray and quiet in the morning mist--to +await with jest and laughter the hissing shriek of one shell that lighted the +fires of a four years' hell in a happy land of God-fearing peace and God-given +plenty, and the hissing shriek of another that Anderson, Kentuckian, hurled +back, in heroic defence of the flag struck for the first time by other than an +alien hand. + + + +CHAPTER 19. THE BLUE OR THE GRAY + +In the far North, as in the far South, men had but to drift with the tide. +Among the Kentuckians, the forces that moulded her sons--Davis and +Lincoln--were at war in the State, as they were at war in the nation. By ties +of blood, sympathies, institutions, Kentucky was bound fast to the South. Yet, +ten years before, Kentuckians had demanded the gradual emancipation of the +slave. That far back, they had carved a pledge on a block of Kentucky marble, +which should be placed in the Washington monument, that Kentucky would be the +last to give up the Union. For ten years, they had felt the shadow of the war +creeping toward them. In the dark hours of that dismal year, before the dawn +of final decision, the men, women, and children of Kentucky talked of little +else save war, and the skeleton of war took its place in the closet of every +home from the Ohio to the crest of the Cumberland. When the dawn of that +decision came, Kentucky spread before the world a record of +independent-mindedness, patriotism, as each side save the word, and sacrifice +that has no parallel in history. She sent the flower of her youth--forty +thousand strong--into the Confederacy; she lifted the lid of her treasury to +Lincoln, and in answer to his every call, sent him a soldier, practically +without a bounty and without a draft. And when the curtain fell on the last +act of the great tragedy, half of her manhood was behind it--helpless from +disease, wounded, or dead on the battle-field. + +So, on a gentle April day, when the great news came, it came like a sword +that, with one stroke, slashed the State in twain, shearing through the +strongest bonds that link one man to another, whether of blood, business, +politics or religion, as though they were no more than threads of wool. +Nowhere in the Union was the National drama so played to the bitter end in the +confines of a single State. As the nation was rent apart, so was the +commonwealth; as the State, so was the county; as the county, the +neighborhood; as the neighborhood, the family; and as the family, so brother +and brother, father and son. In the nation the kinship was racial only. +Brother knew not the face of brother. There was distance between them, +antagonism, prejudice, a smouldering dislike easily fanned to flaming hatred. +In Kentucky the brothers had been born in the same bed, slept in the same +cradle, played under the same roof, sat side by side in the same schoolroom, +and stood now on the threshold of manhood arm in arm, with mutual interests, +mutual love, mutual pride in family that made clan feeling peculiarly intense. +For antislavery fanaticism, or honest unionism, one needed not to go to the +far North; as, for imperious, hotheaded, non-interference or pure State +sovereignty, one needed not to go to the far South. They were all there in the +State, the county, the family--under the same roof. Along the border alone did +feeling approach uniformity--the border of Kentucky hills. There unionism was +free from prejudice as nowhere else on the continent save elsewhere throughout +the Southern mountains. Those Southern Yankees knew nothing about the valley +aristocrat, nothing about his slaves, and cared as little for one as for the +other. Since '76 they had known but one flag, and one flag only, and to that +flag instinctively they rallied. But that the State should be swept from +border to border with horror, there was division even here: for, in the +Kentucky mountains, there was, here and there, a patriarch like Joel Turner +who owned slaves, and he and his sons fought for them as he and his sons would +have fought for their horses, or their cattle, or their sheep. + +It was the prescient horror of such a condition that had no little part in the +neutral stand that Kentucky strove to maintain. She knew what war was--for +every fireside was rich in memories that men and women had of kindred who had +fallen on numberless battle-fields--back even to St. Clair's defeat and the +Raisin massacre; and though she did not fear war for its harvest of dangers +and death, she did look with terror on a conflict between neighbors, friends, +and brothers. So she refused troops to Lincoln; she refused them to Davis. +Both pledged her immunity from invasion, and, to enforce that pledge, she +raised Home Guards as she had already raised State Guards for internal +protection and peace. And there--as a State--she stood: but the tragedy went +on in the Kentucky home--a tragedy of peculiar intensity and pathos in one +Kentucky home--the Deans'. + +Harry had grown up tall, pale, studious, brooding. He had always been the pet +of his Uncle Brutus--the old Lion of White Hall. Visiting the Hall, he had +drunk in the poison, or consecration, as was the point of view, of +abolitionism. At the first sign he was never allowed to go again. But the +poison had gone deep. Whenever he could he went to hear old Brutus speak. +Eagerly he heard stories of the fearless abolitionist's hand-to-hand fights +with men who sought to skewer his fiery tongue. Deeply he brooded on every +word that his retentive ear had caught from the old man's lips, and on the +wrongs he endured in behalf of his cause and for freedom of speech. + +One other hero did he place above him--the great commoner after whom he had +been christened, Henry Clay Dean. He knew how Clay's life had been devoted to +averting the coming war, and how his last days had been darkly shadowed by the +belief that, when he was gone, the war must come. At times he could hear that +clarion voice as it rang through the Senate with the bold challenge to his own +people that paramount was his duty to the nation--subordinate his duty to his +State. Who can tell what the nation owed, in Kentucky, at least, to the +passionate allegiance that was broadcast through the State to Henry Clay? It +was not in the boy's blood to be driven an inch, and no one tried to drive +him. In his own home he was a spectre of gnawing anguish to his mother and +Margaret, of unspeakable bitterness and disappointment to his father, and an +impenetrable sphinx to Dan. For in Dan there was no shaking doubt. He was the +spirit, incarnate, of the young, unquestioning, unthinking, generous, +reckless, hotheaded, passionate South. + +And Chad? The news reached Major Buford's farm at noon, and Chad went to the +woods and came in at dusk, haggard and spent. Miserably now he held his tongue +and tortured his brain. Purposely, he never opened his lips to Harry Dean. He +tried to make known to the Major the struggle going on within him, but the +iron-willed old man brushed away all argument with an impatient wave of his +hand. With Margaret he talked once, and straightway the question was dropped +like a living coal. So, Chad withdrew from his fellows. The social life of the +town, gayer than ever now, knew him no more. He kept up his college work, but +when he was not at his books, he walked the fields, and many a moonlit +midnight found him striding along a white turnpike, or sitting motionless on +top of a fence along the border of some woodland, his chin in both hands, +fighting his fight out in the cool stillness alone. He himself little knew the +unmeant significance there was in the old Continental uniform he had worn to +the dance. Even his old rifle, had he but known it, had been carried with +Daniel Morgan from Virginia to Washington's aid in Cambridge. His earliest +memories of war were rooted in thrilling stories of King's Mountain. He had +heard old men tell of pointing deadly rifles at red-coats at New Orleans, and +had absorbed their own love of Old Hickory. The school-master himself, when a +mere lad, had been with Scott in Mexico. The spirit of the back-woodsman had +been caught in the hills, and was alive and unchanged at that very hour. The +boy was practically born in Revolutionary days, and that was why, like all +mountaineers, Chad had little love of State and only love of country--was +first, last and all the time, simply American. It was not reason--it was +instinct. The heroes the school-master had taught him to love and some day to +emulate, had fought under one flag, and, like them, the mountaineers never +dreamed there could be another. And so the boy was an unconscious +reincarnation of that old spirit, uninfluenced by temporary apostasies in the +outside world, untouched absolutely by sectional prejudice or the appeal of +the slave. The mountaineer had no hatred of the valley aristocrat, because he +knew nothing of him, and envied no man what he was, what he had, or the life +he led. So, as for slavery, that question, singularly enough, never troubled +his soul. To him slaves were hewers of wood and drawers of water. The Lord had +made them so and the Bible said that it was right. That the school-master had +taught Chad. He had read "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and the story made him smile. +The tragedies of it he had never known and he did not believe. Slaves were +sleek, well-fed, well-housed, loved and trusted, rightly inferior and happy; +and no aristocrat ever moved among them with a more lordly, righteous air of +authority than did this mountain lad who had known them little more than half +a dozen years. Unlike the North, the boy had no prejudice, no antagonism, no +jealousy, no grievance to help him in his struggle. Unlike Harry, he had no +slave sympathy to stir him to the depths, no stubborn, rebellious pride to +prod him on. In the days when the school-master thundered at him some speech +of the Prince of Kentuckians, it was always the national thrill in the fiery +utterance that had shaken him even then. So that unconsciously the boy was the +embodiment of pure Americanism, and for that reason he and the people among +whom he was born stood among the millions on either side, quite alone. + +What was he fighting then--ah, what? If the bed-rock of his character was not +loyalty, it was nothing. In the mountains the Turners had taken him from the +Wilderness. In the Bluegrass the old Major had taken him from the hills. His +very life he owed to the simple, kindly mountaineers, and what he valued more +than his life he owed to the simple gentleman who had picked him up from the +roadside and, almost without question, had taken him to his heart and to his +home. The Turners, he knew, would fight for their slaves as they would have +fought Dillon or Devil had either proposed to take from them a cow, a hog, or +a sheep. For that Chad could not blame them. And the Major was going to fight, +as he believed, for his liberty, his State, his country, his property, his +fireside. So in the eyes of both, Chad must be the snake who had warmed his +frozen body on their hearthstones and bitten the kindly hands that had warmed +him back to life. What would Melissa say? Mentally he shrank from the fire of +her eyes and the scorn of her tongue when she should know. And Margaret--the +thought of her brought always a voiceless groan. To her, he had let his doubts +be known, and her white silence closed his own lips then and there. The simple +fact that he had doubts was an entering wedge of coldness between them that +Chad saw must force them apart for he knew that the truth must come soon, and +what would be the bitter cost of that truth. She could never see him as she +saw Harry. Harry was a beloved and erring brother. Hatred of slavery had been +cunningly planted in his heart by her father's own brother, upon whose head +the blame for Harry's sin was set. The boy had been taunted until his own +father's scorn had stirred his proud independence into stubborn resistance and +intensified his resolution to do what he pleased and what he thought was +right. But Chad--she would never understand him. She would never understand +his love for the Government that had once abandoned her people to savages and +forced her State and his to seek aid from a foreign land. In her eyes, too, he +would be rending the hearts that had been tenderest to him in all the world: +and that was all. Of what fate she would deal out to him he dared not think. +If he lifted his hand against the South, he must strike at the heart of all he +loved best, to which he owed most. If against the Union, at the heart of all +that was best in himself. In him the pure spirit that gave birth to the nation +was fighting for life. Ah, God! what should he do--what should he do? + + + +CHAPTER 20. OFF TO THE WAR + +Throughout that summer Chad fought his fight, daily swaying this way and +that-- fought it in secret until the phantom of neutrality faded and gave +place to the grim spectre of war--until with each hand Kentucky drew a sword +and made ready to plunge both into her own stout heart. When Sumter fell, she +shook her head resolutely to both North and South. Crittenden, in the name of +Union lovers and the dead Clay, pleaded with the State to take no part in the +fratricidal crime. From the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of +thirty-one counties came piteously the same appeal. Neutrality, to be held +inviolate, was the answer to the cry from both the North and the South; but +armed neutrality, said Kentucky. The State had not the moral right to secede; +the Nation, no constitutional right to coerce: if both the North and the South +left their paths of duty and fought--let both keep their battles from her +soil. Straightway State Guards went into camp and Home Guards were held in +reserve, but there was not a fool in the Commonwealth who did not know that, +in sympathy, the State Guards were already for the Confederacy and the Home +Guards for the Union cause. This was in May. + +In June, Federals were enlisting across the Ohio; Confederates, just over the +border of Dixie which begins in Tennessee. Within a month Stonewall Jackson +sat on his horse, after Bull Run, watching the routed Yankees, praying for +fresh men that he might go on and take the Capitol, and, from the Federal +dream of a sixty-days' riot, the North woke with a gasp. A week or two later, +Camp Dick Robinson squatted down on the edge of the Bluegrass, the first +violation of the State's neutrality, and beckoned with both hands for Yankee +recruits. Soon an order went round to disarm the State Guards, and on that +very day the State Guards made ready for Dixie. On that day the crisis came at +the Deans', and on that day Chad Buford made up his mind. When the Major and +Miss Lucy went to bed that night, he slipped out of the house and walked +through the yard and across the pike, following the little creek half +unconsciously toward the Deans', until he could see the light in Margaret's +window, and there he climbed the worm fence and sat leaning his head against +one of the forked stakes with his hat in his lap. He would probably not see +her again. He would send her word next morning to ask that he might, and he +feared what the result of that word would be. Several times his longing eyes +saw her shadow pass the curtain, and when her light was out, he closed his +eyes and sat motionless--how long he hardly knew; but, when he sprang down, he +was stiffened from the midnight chill and his unchanged posture. He went back +to his room then, and wrote Margaret a letter and tore it up and went to bed. +There was little sleep for him that night, and when the glimmer of morning +brightened at his window, he rose listlessly, dipped his hot head in a bowl of +water and stole out to the barn. His little mare whinnied a welcome as he +opened the barn door. He patted her on the neck. + +"Good-by, little girl," he said. He started to call her by name and stopped. +Margaret had named the beautiful creature "Dixie." The servants were stirring. + +"Good-mawnin', Mars Chad," said each, and with each he shook hands, saying +simply that he was going away that morning. Only old Tom asked him a question. + +"Foh Gawd, Mars Chad," said the old fellow, "old Mars Buford can't git along +widout you. You gwine to come back soon?" + +"I don't know, Uncle Tom," said Chad, sadly. + +"Whar you gwine, Mars Chad?" + +"Into the army." + +"De ahmy?" The old man smiled. "You gwine to fight de Yankees?" + +"I'm going to fight WITH the Yankees." + +The old driver looked as though he could not have heard aright. + +"You foolin' this ole nigger, Mars Chad, ain't you?" + +Chad shook his head, and the old man straightened himself a bit. + +"I'se sorry to heah it, suh," he said, with dignity, and he turned to his +work. + +Miss Lucy was not feeling well that morning and did not come down to +breakfast. The boy was so pale and haggard that the Major looked at him +anxiously. + +"What's the matter with you, Chad? Are you--?" + +"I didn't sleep very well last night, Major." + +The Major chuckled. "I reckon you ain't gettin' enough sleep these days. I +reckon I wouldn't, either, if I were in your place." + +Chad did not answer. After breakfast he sat with the Major on the porch in the +fresh, sunny air. The Major smoked his pipe, taking the stem out of his mouth +now and then to shout some order as a servant passed under his eye. + +"What's the news, Chad?" + +"Mr. Crittenden is back." + +"What did old Lincoln say?" + +"That Camp Dick Robinson was formed for Kentuckians by Kentuckians, and he did +not believe that it was the wish of the State that it should be removed." + +"Well, by --! after his promise. What did Davis say?" + +"That if Kentucky opened the Northern door for invasion, she must not close +the Southern door to entrance for defence." + +"And dead right he is," growled the Major with satisfaction. + +"Governor Magoffin asked Ohio and Indiana to join in an effort for a peace +Congress," Chad added. + +"Well?" + +"Both governors refused." + +"I tell you, boy, the hour has come." + +The hour had come. + +"I'm going away this morning, Major." + +The Major did not even turn his head. + +"I thought this was coming," he said quietly. Chad's face grew even paler, and +he steeled his heart for the revelation. + +"I've already spoken to Lieutenant Hunt," the Major went on. "He expects to be +a captain, and he says that, maybe, he can make you a lieutenant. You can take +that boy Brutus as a body servant." He brought his fist down on the railing of +the porch. "God, but I'd give the rest of my life to be ten years younger than +I am now." + +"Major, I'm GOING INTO THE UNION ARMY." + +The Major's pipe almost dropped from between his lips. Catching the arms of +his chair with both hands, he turned heavily and with dazed wonder, as though +the boy had struck him with his fist from behind, and, without a word, stared +hard into Chad's tortured face. The keen old eye had not long to look before +it saw the truth, and then, silently, the old man turned back. His hands +trembled on the chair, and he slowly thrust them into his pockets, breathing +hard through his nose. The boy expected an outbreak, but none came. A bee +buzzed above them. A yellow butterfly zigzagged by. Blackbirds chattered in +the firs. The screech of a peacock shrilled across the yard, and a ploughman's +singing wailed across the fields: + +Trouble, O Lawd! + Nothin' but trouble in de lan' of Canaan. + +The boy knew he had given his old friend a mortal hurt. + +"Don't, Major," he pleaded. "You don't know how I have fought against this. I +tried to be on your side. I thought I was. I joined the Rifles. I found first +that I couldn't fight WITH the South, and--then--I--found that I had to fight +FOR the North. It almost kills me when I think of all you have done " + +The Major waved his hand imperiously. He was not the man to hear his favors +recounted, much less refer to them himself. He straightened and got up from +his chair. His manner had grown formal, stately, coldly courteous. + +"I cannot understand, but you are old enough, sir, to know your own mind. You +should have prepared me for this. You will excuse me a moment." Chad rose and +the Major walked toward the door, his step not very steady, and his shoulders +a bit shrunken--his back, somehow, looked suddenly old. + +"Brutus!" he called sharply to a black boy who was training rosebushes in the +yard. "Saddle Mr. Chad's horse." Then, without looking again at Chad, he +turned into his office, and Chad, standing where he was, with a breaking +heart, could hear, through the open window, the rustling of papers and the +scratching of a pen. + +In a few minutes he heard the Major rise and he turned to meet him. The old +man held a roll of bills in one hand and a paper in the other. + +"Here is the balance due you on our last trade," he said, quietly. "The mare +is yours--Dixie," he added, grimly. "The old mare is in foal. I will keep her +and send you your due when the time comes. We are quite even," he went on in a +level tone of business. "Indeed, what you have done about the place more than +exceeds any expense that you have ever caused me. If anything, I am still in +your debt." + +"I can't take it!" said Chad, choking back a sob. + +"You will have to take it," the Major broke in, curtly, unless--" the Major +held back the bitter speech that was on his lips and Chad understood. The old +man did not want to feel under any obligations to him. + +"I would offer you Brutus, as was my intention, except that I know you would +not take him," again he added, grimly, "and Brutus would run away from you." + +"No, Major," said Chad, sadly, "I would not take Brutus," and he stepped down +one step of the porch backward. + +"I tried to tell you, Major, but you wouldn't listen. I don't wonder, for I +couldn't explain to you what I couldn't understand myself. I--" the boy choked +and tears filled his eyes. He was afraid to hold out his hand. + +"Good-by, Major," he said, brokenly. + +"Good-by, sir," answered the Major, with a stiff bow, but the old man's lip +shook and he turned abruptly within. + +Chad did not trust himself to look back, but, as he rode through the pasture +to the pike gate, his ears heard, never to forget, the chatter of the +blackbirds, the noises around the barn, the cry of the peacock, and the +wailing of the ploughman: + +Trouble, O Lawd! + Nothin' but trouble-- + +At the gate the little mare turned her head toward town and started away in +the easy swinging lope for which she was famous. From a cornfield Jerome +Conners, the overseer, watched horse and rider for a while, and then his lips +were lifted over his protruding teeth in one of his ghastly, infrequent +smiles. Chad Buford was out of his way at last. At the Deans' gate, Snowball +was just going in on Margaret's pony and Chad pulled up. + +"Where's Mr. Dan, Snowball?--and Mr. Harry?" + +"Mars Dan he gwine to de wah--an' I'se gwine wid him." + +"Is Mr. Harry going, too?" Snowball hesitated. He did not like to gossip about +family matters, but it was a friend of the family who was questioning him. + +"Yessuh! But Mammy say Mars Harry's teched in de haid. He gwine to fight wid +de po' white trash." + +"Is Miss Margaret at home?" + +"Yessuh." + +Chad had his note to Margaret, unsealed. He little felt like seeing her now, +but he had just as well have it all over at once. He took it out and looked it +over once more--irresolute. + +"I'm going away to join the Union army, Margaret. May I come to tell you +good-by? If not, God bless you always. CHAD." + +"Take this to Miss Margaret, Snowball, and bang me an answer here as soon as +you can." + +"Yessuh." + +The black boy was not gone long. Chad saw him go up the steps, and in a few +moments he reappeared and galloped back. + +"Ole Mistis say dey ain't no answer." + +"Thank you, Snowball." Chad pitched him a coin and loped on toward Lexington +with his head bent, his hands folded on the pommel, and the reins flapping +loosely. Within one mile of Lexington he turned into a cross-road and set his +face toward the mountains. + +An hour later, the General and Harry and Dan stood on the big portico. Inside, +the mother and Margaret were weeping in each other's arms. Two negro boys were +each leading a saddled horse from the stable, while Snowball was blubbering at +the corner of the house. At the last moment Dan had decided to leave him +behind. If Harry could have no servant, Dan, too, would have none. Dan was +crying without shame. Harry's face was as white and stern as his father's. As +the horses drew near the General stretched out the sabre in his hand to Dan. + +"This should belong to you, Harry." + +"It is yours to give, father," said Harry, gently. + +"It shall never be drawn against my roof and your mother." + +The boy was silent. + +"You are going far North?" asked the General, more gently. "You will not fight +on Kentucky soil?" + +"You taught me that the first duty of a soldier is obedience. I must go where +I'm ordered." + +"God grant that you two may never meet." + +"Father!" It was a cry of horror from both the lads. + +The horses were waiting at the stiles. The General took Dan in his arms and +the boy broke away and ran down the steps, weeping. + +"Father," said Harry, with trembling lips, "I hope you won't be too hard on +me. Perhaps the day will come when you won't be so ashamed of me. I hope you +and mother will forgive me. I can't do otherwise than I must. Will you shake +hands with me, father?" + +"Yes, my son. God be with you both." + +And then, as he watched the boys ride side by side to the gate, he added: + +"I could kill my own brother with my own hand for this." + +He saw them stop a moment at the gate; saw them clasp hands and turn opposite +ways--one with his face set for Tennessee, the other making for the Ohio. Dan +waved his cap in a last sad good-by. Harry rode over the hill without turning +his head. The General stood rigid, with his hands clasped behind his back, +staring across the gray fields between them. Through the winds, came the low +sound of sobbing. + + + +CHAPTER 21. MELISSA + +Shortly after dusk, that night, two or three wagons moved quietly out of +Lexington, under a little guard with guns loaded and bayonets fixed. Back at +the old Armory--the home of the "Rifles"--a dozen youngsters drilled +vigorously with faces in a broad grin, as they swept under the motto of the +company--"Our laws the commands of our Captain." They were following out those +commands most literally. Never did Lieutenant Hunt give his orders more +sonorously--he could be heard for blocks away. Never did young soldiers stamp +out maneuvers more lustily--they made more noise than a regiment. Not a man +carried a gun, though ringing orders to "Carry arms" and "Present arms" made +the windows rattle. It was John Morgan's first ruse. While that mock-drill was +going on, and listening Unionists outside were laughing to think how those +Rifles were going to be fooled next day, the guns of the company were moving +in those wagons toward Dixie--toward mocking-bird-haunted Bowling Green, where +the underfed, unclothed, unarmed body of Albert Sydney Johnston's army lay, +with one half-feathered wing stretching into the Cumberland hills and the +frayed edge of the other touching the Ohio. + +Next morning, the Home Guards came gayly around to the Armory to seize those +guns, and the wily youngsters left temporarily behind (they, too, fled for +Dixie, that night) gibed them unmercifully; so that, then and there, a little +interchange of powder-and-ball civilities followed; and thus, on the very +first day, Daniel Dean smelled the one and heard the other whistle right +harmlessly and merrily. Straightway, more guards were called out; cannon were +planted to sweep the principal streets, and from that hour the old town was +under the rule of a Northern or Southern sword for the four years' reign of +the war. + +Meanwhile, Chad Buford was giving a strange journey to Dixie. Whenever he +dismounted, she would turn her head toward the Bluegrass, as though it surely +were time they were starting for home. When they reached the end of the +turnpike, she lifted her feet daintily along the muddy road, and leaped pools +of water like a cat. Climbing the first foot-hills, she turned her beautiful +head to right and left, and with pointed ears snorted now and then at the +strange dark woods on either side and the tumbling water-falls. The red of her +wide nostrils was showing when she reached the top of the first mountain, and +from that high point of vantage she turned her wondering eyes over the wide +rolling stretch that waved homeward, and whinnied with distinct uneasiness +when Chad started her down into the wilderness beyond. Distinctly that road +was no path for a lady to tread, but Dixie was to know it better in the coming +war. + +Within ten miles of the Turners', Chad met the first man that he knew--Hence +Sturgill from Kingdom Come. He was driving a wagon. + +"Howdye, Hence!" said Chad, reining in. + +"Whoa!" said Hence, pulling in and staring at Chad's horse and at Chad from +hat to spur. + +"Don't you know me, Hence?" + +"Well, God--I--may--die, if it ain't Chad! How air ye, Chad? Goin' up to ole +Joel's?" + +"Yes. How are things on Kingdom Come?" + +Hence spat on the ground and raised one hand high over his head: + +"God--I--may--die, if thar hain't hell to pay on Kingdom Come. You better keep +offo' Kingdom Come," and then he stopped with an expression of quick alarm, +looked around him into the bushes and dropped his voice to a whisper: + +"But I hain't sayin' a word--rickollect now--not a word!" + +Chad laughed aloud. "What's the matter with you, Hence?" + +Hence put one finger on one side of his nose--still speaking in a low tone: + +"Whut'd I say, Chad? D'I say one word?" He gathered up his reins. "You +rickollect Jake and Jerry Dillon?" Chad nodded. "You know Jerry was al'ays +a-runnin' over Jake 'cause Jake' didn't have good sense. Jake was drapped when +he was a baby. Well, Jerry struck Jake over the head with a fence-rail 'bout +two months ago, an when Jake come to, he had just as good sense as anybody, +and now he hates Jerry like pizen, an Jerry's half afeard of him. An' they do +say a how them two brothers air a-goin'" Again Hence stopped abruptly and +clucked to his team "But I ain't a-sayin' a word, now, mind ye--not a word!" + +Chad rode on, amused, and thinking that Hence had gone daft, but he was to +learn better. A reign of forty years' terror was starting in those hills. + +Not a soul was in sight when he reached the top of the hill from which he +could see the Turner home below--about the house or the orchard or in the +fields. No one answered his halloo at the Turner gate, though Chad was sure +that he saw a woman's figure flit past the door. It was a full minute before +Mother Turner cautiously thrust her head outside the door and peered at him + +"Why, Aunt Betsey," called Chad, "don't you know me?" + +At the sound of his voice Melissa sprang out the door with a welcoming cry, +and ran to him, Mother Turner following with a broad smile on her kind old +face. Chad felt the tears almost come--these were friends indeed. How tall +Melissa had grown, and how lovely she was, with her tangled hair and flashing +eyes and delicately modelled face. She went with him to the stable to help him +put up his horse, blushing when he looked at her and talking very little, +while the old mother, from the fence, followed him with her dim eyes. At once +Chad began to ply both with questions--where was Uncle Joel and the boys and +the school-master? And, straightway, Chad felt a reticence in both--a curious +reticence even with him. On each side of the fireplace, on each side of the +door, and on each side of the window, he saw narrow blocks fixed to the logs. +One was turned horizontal, and through the hole under it Chad saw +daylight--portholes they were. At the door were taken blocks as catches for a +piece of upright wood nearby, which was plainly used to bar the door. The +cabin was a fortress. By degrees the story came out. The neighborhood was in a +turmoil of bloodshed and terror. Tom and Dolph had gone off to the +war--Rebels. Old Joel had been called to the door one night, a few weeks +since, and had been shot down without warning. They had fought all night. +Melissa herself had handled a rifle at one of the portholes. Rube was out in +the woods now, with Jack guarding and taking care of his wounded father. A +Home Guard had been organized, and Daws Dillon was captain. They were driving +out of the mountains every man who owned a negro, for nearly every man who +owned a negro had taken, or was forced to take, the Rebel side. The Dillons +were all Yankees, except Jerry, who had gone off with Tom; and the giant +brothers, Rebel Jerry and Yankee Jake--as both were already known--had sworn +to kill each other on sight. Bushwhacking had already begun. When Chad asked +about the school-master, the old woman's face grew stern, and Melissa's lip +curled with scorn. + +"Yankee!" The girl spat the word out with such vindictive bitterness that +Chad's face turned slowly scarlet, while the girl's keen eyes pierced him like +a knife, and narrowed as, with pale face and heaving breast, she rose suddenly +from her chair and faced him--amazed, bewildered, burning with sudden hatred. +"And you're another!" The girl's voice was like a hiss. + +"Why, 'Lissy!" cried the old mother, startled, horrified. + +"Look at him!" said the girl. The old woman looked; her face grew hard and +frightened, and she rose feebly, moving toward the girl as though for +protection against him. Chad's very heart seemed suddenly to turn to water. He +had been dreading the moment to come when he must tell He knew it would be +hard, but he was not looking for this. + +"You better git away!" quavered the old woman, "afore Joel and Rube come in." + +"Hush!" said the girl, sharply, her hands clinched like claws, her whole body +stiff, like a tigress ready to attack, or awaiting attack. + +"Mebbe he come hyeh to find out whar they air--don't tell him!" + +"Lissy!" said Chad, brokenly. + +"Then whut did you come fer?" + +"To tell you good-by, I came to see all of you, Lissy." + +The girl laughed scornfully, and Chad knew he was helpless. He could not +explain, and they could not understand--nobody had understood. + +"Aunt Betsey," he said, "you took Jack and me in, and you took care of me just +as though I had been your own child. You know I'd give my life for you or +Uncle Joel, or any one of the boys"--his voice grew a little stern--"and you +know it, too, Lissy--" + +"You're makin' things wuss," interrupted the girl, stridently, "an' now you're +goin' to do all you can to kill us. I reckon you can see that door. Why don't +you go over to the Dillons?" she panted. "They're friends o' your'n. An' don't +let Uncle Joel or Rube ketch you anywhar round hyeh!" + +"I'm not afraid to see Uncle Joel or Rube, Lissy." + +"You must git away, Chad," quavered the old woman. "They mought hurt ye!" + +"I'm sorry not to see Jack. He's the only friend I have now." + +"Why, Jack would snarl at ye," said the girl, bitterly. "He hates a Yankee." +She pointed again with her finger. "I reckon you can see that door." + +They followed him, Melissa going on the porch and the old woman standing in +the doorway. On one side of the walk Chad saw a rose-bush that he had brought +from the Bluegrass for Melissa. It was dying. He took one step toward it, his +foot sinking in the soft earth where the girl had evidently been working +around it, and broke off the one green leaf that was left. + +"Here, Lissy! You'll be sorry you were so hard on me. I'd never get over it if +I didn't think you would. Keep this, won't you, and let's be friends, not enemies." + +He held it out, and the girl angrily struck the rose-leaf from his hand to her +feet. + +Chad rode away at a walk. Two hundred yards below, where the hill rose, the +road was hock-deep with sand, and Dixie's feet were as noiseless as a cat's. A +few yards beyond a ravine on the right, a stone rolled from the bushes into +the road. Instinctively Chad drew rein, and Dixie stood motionless. A moment +later, a crouching figure, with a long squirrel rifle, slipped out of the +bushes and started noiselessly across the ravine. Chad's pistol flashed. + +"Stop!" + +The figure crouched more, and turned a terror-stricken face--Daws Dillon's. + +"Oh, it's you, is it--Well, drop that gun and come down here." + +The Dillon boy rose, leaving his gun on the ground, and came down, trembling. + +"What're you doin' sneaking around in the brush?" + +"Nothin'!" The Dillon had to make two efforts before he could speak at all. +"Nothin', jes' a-huntin'!" + +"Huntin'!" repeated Chad. He lowered his pistol and looked at the sorry figure +silently. + +"I know what you were huntin', you rattlesnake! I understand you are captain +of the Home Guard. I reckon you don't know that nobody has to go into this +war. That a man has the right to stay peaceably at home, and nobody has the +right to bother him. If you don't know it, I tell you now. I believe you had +something to do with shooting Uncle Joel." + +The Dillon shook his head, and fumbled with his hands. + +"If I knew it, I'd kill you where you stand, now. But I've got one word to say +to you, you hell-pup. I hate to think it, but you and I are on the same +side--that is, if you have any side. But in spite of that, if I hear of any +harm happening to Aunt Betsey, or Melissa, or Uncle Joel, or Rube, while they +are all peaceably at home, I'm goin' to hold you and Tad responsible, whether +you are or not, and I'll kill you"--he raised one hand to make the Almighty a +witness to his oath --"I'll kill you, if I have to follow you both to hell for +doin' it. Now, you take keer of 'em! Turn 'round!" + +The Dillon hesitated. + +"Turn!" Chad cried, savagely, raising his pistol. "Go back to that gun, an' if +you turn your head I'll shoot you where you're sneakin' aroun' to shoot Rube +or Uncle Joel--in the back, you cowardly feist. Pick up that gun! Now, let her +off! See if you can hit that beech-tree in front of you. Just imagine that +it's me." + +The rifle cracked and Chad laughed. + +"Well, you ain't much of a shot. I reckon you must have chills and fever. Now, +come back here. Give me your powder-horn. You'll find it on top of the hill on +the right-hand side of the road. Now, you trot--home!" + +Then Dillon stared. + +"Double-quick!" shouted Chad. "You ought to know what that means if you are a +soldier--a soldier!" he repeated, contemptuously. + +The Dillon disappeared on a run. + +Chad rode all that night. At dawn he reached the foot-hills, and by noon he +drew up at the road which turned to Camp Dick Robinson. He sat there a long +time thinking, and then pushed on toward Lexington. If he could, he would keep +from fighting on Kentucky soil. + +Next morning he was going at an easy "running-walk" along the old Maysville +road toward the Ohio. Within three miles of Major Buford's, he leaped the +fence and stuck across the fields that he might go around and avoid the risk +of a painful chance meeting with his old friend or any of the Deans. + +What a land of peace and plenty it was--the woodlands, meadows, pasture lands! +Fat cattle raised their noses from the thick grass and looked with mild +inquiry at him. Sheep ran bleating toward him, as though he were come to salt +them. A rabbit leaped from a thorn-bush and whisked his white flag into safety +in a hemp-field. Squirrels barked in the big oaks, and a covey of young quail +fluttered up from a fence corner and sailed bravely away. 'Possum signs were +plentiful, and on the edge of the creek he saw a coon solemnly searching under +a rock with one paw for crawfish Every now and then Dixie would turn her head +impatiently to the left, for she knew where home was. The Deans' house was +just over the hill he would have but the ride to the top to see it and, +perhaps, Margaret. There was no need. As he sat, looking up the hill, Margaret +herself rode slowly over it, and down, through the sunlight slanting athwart +the dreaming woods, straight toward him Chad sat still. Above him the road +curved, and she could not see him until she turned the little thicket just +before him. Her pony was more startled than was she. A little leap of color to +her face alone showed her surprise. + +"Did you get my note?" + +"I did. You got my mother's message?" + +"I did." Chad paused. "That is why I am passing around you." + +The girl said nothing. + +"But I'm glad I came so near. I wanted to see you once more. I wish I could +make you understand. But nobody understands. I hardly understand myself. But +please try to believe that what I say is true. I'm just back from the +mountains, and listen, Margaret--" He halted a moment to steady his voice. +"The Turners down there took me in when I was a ragged outcast. They clothed +me, fed me, educated me. The Major took me when I was little more; and he fed +me, clothed me, educated me. The Turners scorned me--Melissa told me to go +herd with the Dillons. The Major all but turned me from his door. Your father +was bitter toward me, thinking that I had helped turn Harry to the Union +cause. But let me tell you! If the Turners died, believing me a traitor; if +Lissy died with a curse on her lips for me; if the Major died without, as he +believed, ever having polluted his lips again with my name; if Harry were +brought back here dead, and your father died, believing that his blood was on +my hands; and if I lost you and your love, and you died, believing the same +thing--I must still go. Oh, Margaret, I can't understand--I have ceased to +reason. I only know I must go!" + +The girl in the mountains had let her rage and scorn loose like a storm, but +the gentlewoman only grew more calm. Every vestige of color left her, but her +eyes never for a moment wavered from his face. Her voice was quiet and even +and passionless. + +"Then, why don't you go?" + +The lash of an overseer's whip across his face could not have made his soul so +bleed. Even then he did not lose himself. + +"I am in your way," he said, quietly. And backing Dixie from the road, and +without bending his head or lowering his eyes, he waited, hat in hand, for +Margaret to pass. + +All that day Chad rode, and, next morning, Dixie climbed the Union bank of the +Ohio and trotted into the recruiting camp of the Fourth Ohio Cavalry. The +first man Chad saw was Harry Dean--grave, sombre, taciturn, though he smiled +and thrust out his hand eagerly. Chad's eyes dropped to the sergeant's stripes +on Harry's sleeves, and again Harry smiled. + +"You'll have 'em yourself in a week. These fellows ride like a lot of +meal-bags over here. Here's my captain," he added, in a lower voice. + +A pompous officer rode slowly up. He pulled in his horse when he saw Chad. + +"You want to join the army?" + +"Yes," said Chad. + +"All right. That's a fine horse you've got." + +Chad said nothing. + +"What's his name?" + +"HER name is Dixie." + +The captain stared. Some soldiers behind laughed in a smothered fashion, +sobering their' faces quickly when the captain turned upon them, furious. + +"Well, change her name!" + +"I'll not change her name," said Chad, quietly. + +"What!" shouted the officer. "How dare you--" Chad's eyes looked ominous. + +"Don't you give any orders to me--not yet. You haven't the right; and when you +have, you can save your breath by not giving that one. This horse comes from +Kentucky, and so do I; her name will stay Dixie as long as I straddle her, and +I propose to straddle her until one of us dies, or,"--he smiled and nodded +across the river--"somebody over there gets her who won't object to her name +as much as you do." + +The astonished captain's lips opened, but a quiet voice behind interrupted +him: + +"Never mind, Captain." Chad turned and saw a short, thick-set man with a +stubbly brown beard, whose eyes were twinkling, though his face was grave. "A +boy who wants to fight for the Union, and insists on calling his horse Dixie, +must be all right. Come with me, my lad." + +As Chad followed, he heard the man saluted as Colonel Grant, but he paid no +heed. Few people at that time did pay heed to the name of Ulysses Grant. + + + +CHAPTER 22. MORGAN'S MEN + +Boots and saddles at daybreak! + +Over the border, in Dixie, two videttes in gray trot briskly from out a leafy +woodland, side by side, and looking with keen eyes right and left; one, erect, +boyish, bronzed; the other, slouching, bearded, huge--the boy, Daniel Dean; +the man, Rebel Jerry Dillon, one of the giant twins. + +Fifty yards behind them emerges a single picket; after him come three more +videttes, the same distance apart. Fifty yards behind the last rides "the +advance"--a guard of twenty-five picked men. No commission among "Morgan's +Men" was more eagerly sought than a place on that guard of hourly risk and +honor. Behind it trot still three more videttes, at intervals of one hundred +yards, and just that interval behind the last of these ride Morgan's Men, the +flower of Kentucky's youth, in columns of fours--Colonel Hunt's regiment in +advance, the colors borne by Renfrew the Silent in a brilliant Zouave jacket +studded with buttons of red coral. In the rear rumble two Parrot guns, +affectionately christened the "Bull Pups." + +Skirting the next woodland ran a cross-road. Down one way gallops Dan, and +down the other lumbers Rebel Jerry, each two hundred yards. A cry rings from +vidette to vidette behind them and back to the guard. Two horsemen spur from +the "advance" and take the places of the last two videttes, while the videttes +in front take and keep the original formation until the column passes that +cross-road, when Dean and Dillon gallop up to their old places in the extreme +front again. Far in front, and on both flanks, are scouting parties, miles +away. + +This was the way Morgan marched. + +Yankees ahead! Not many, to be sure--no more numerous than two or three to +one; so back fall the videttes and forward charges that advance guard like a +thunderbolt, not troubling the column behind. Wild yells, a clattering of +hoofs, the crack of pistol-shots, a wild flight, a merry chase, a few +riderless horses gathered in from the fleeing Yankees, and the incident is +over. + +Ten miles more, and many hostile bayonets gleam ahead. A serious fight, this, +perhaps--so back drops the advance, this time as a reserve; up gallops the +column into single rank and dismounts, while the flank companies, deploying as +skirmishers, cover the whole front, one man out of each set of fours and the +corporals holding the horses in the rear. The "Bull Pups" bark and the Rebel +yell rings as the line--the files two yards apart--"a long flexible line +curving forward at each extremity"--slips forward at a half run. This time the +Yankees charge. + +From every point of that curving line pours a merciless fire, and the charging +men in blue recoil--all but one. (War is full of grim humor.) On comes one +lone Yankee, hatless, red-headed, pulling on his reins with might and main, +his horse beyond control, and not one of the enemy shoot as he sweeps +helplessly into their line. A huge rebel grabs his bridle-rein. + +"I don't know whether to kill you now, "he says, with pretended ferocity, "or +wait till the fight is over." + +"For God's sake, don't kill me at all!" shouts the Yankee. "I'm a dissipated +character, and not prepared to die." + +Shots from the right flank and rear, and the line is thrown about like a rope. +But the main body of the Yankees is to the left. + +"Left face! Double-quick!" is the ringing order, and, by magic, the line +concentrates in a solid phalanx and sweeps forward. + +This was the way Morgan fought. + +And thus, marching and fighting, he went his triumphant way into the land of +the enemy, without sabres, without artillery, without even the "Bull Pups," +sometimes--fighting infantry, cavalry, artillery with only muzzle-loading +rifles, pistols, and shotguns; scattering Home Guards like turkeys; destroying +railroads and bridges; taking towns and burning Government stores, and +encompassed, usually, with forces treble his own. + +This was what Morgan did on a raid, was what he had done, what he was starting +out now to do again. + +Darkness threatens, and the column halts to bivouac for the night on the very +spot where, nearly a year before, Morgan's Men first joined Johnston's army, +which, like a great, lean, hungry hawk, guarded the Southern border. + +Daniel Dean was a war-worn veteran now. He could ride twenty hours out of the +twenty-four; he could sleep in his saddle or anywhere but on picket duty, and +there was no trick of the trade in camp, or on the march, that was not at his +finger's end. + +Fire first! Nobody had a match, the leaves were wet and the twigs soggy, but +by some magic a tiny spark glows under some shadowy figure, bites at the +twigs, snaps at the branches, and wraps a log in flames. + +Water next! A tin cup rattles in a bucket, and another shadowy figure steals +off into the darkness, with an instinct as unerring as the skill of a +water-witch with a willow wand. The Yankees chose open fields for camps, but +your rebel took to the woods. Each man and his chum picked a tree for a home, +hung up canteens and spread blankets at the foot of it. Supper--Heavens, what +luck--fresh beef! One man broils it on coals, pinning pieces of fat to it to +make gravy; another roasts it on a forked stick, for Morgan carried no cooking +utensils on a raid. + +Here, one man made up bread in an oilcloth (and every Morgan's man had one +soon after they were issued to the Federals); another worked up corn-meal into +dough in the scooped-out half of a pumpkin; one baked bread on a flat rock, +another on a board, while a third had twisted his dough around his ram-rod; if +it were spring-time, a fourth might be fitting his into a cornshuck to roast +in ashes. All this Dan Dean could do. + +The roaring fire thickens the gloom of the woods where the lonely pickets +stand. Pipes are out now. An oracle outlines the general campaign of the war +as it will be and as it should have been. A long-winded, innocent braggart +tells of his personal prowess that day. A little group is guying the new +recruit. A wag shaves a bearded comrade on one side of his face, pockets his +razor and refuses to shave the other side. A poet, with a bandaged eye, and +hair like a windblown hay-stack, recites "I am dying, Egypt-- dying," and then +a pure, clear, tenor voice starts through the forest-aisles, and there is +sudden silence. Every man knows that voice, and loves the boy who owns +it--little Tom Morgan, Dan's brother-in-arms, the General's seventeen-year-old +brother--and there he stands leaning against a tree, full in the light of the +fire, a handsome, gallant figure--a song like a seraph's pouring from his +lips. One bearded soldier is gazing at him with curious intentness, and when +the song ceases, lies down with a suddenly troubled face. He has seen the +"death-look" in the boy's eyes--that prophetic death-look in which he has +unshaken faith. The night deepens, figures roll up in blankets, quiet comes, +and Dan lies wide awake and deep in memories, and looking back on those early +helpless days of the war with a tolerant smile. + +He was a war-worn veteran now, but how vividly he could recall that first +night in the camp of a big army, in the very woods where he now lay--dusk +settling over the Green River country, which Morgan's Men grew to love so +well; a mocking-bird singing a farewell song from the top of a stunted oak to +the dead summer and the dying day; Morgan seated on a cracker-box in front of +his tent, contemplatively chewing one end of his mustache; Lieutenant Hunt +swinging from his horse, smiling grimly. + +"It would make a horse laugh--a Yankee cavalry horse, anyhow--to see this +army." + +Hunt had been over the camp that first afternoon on a personal tour of +investigation. They were not a thousand Springfield and Enfield rifles at that +time in Johnston's army. Half of the soldiers were armed with shotguns and +squirrel rifle and the greater part of the other half with flintlock muskets. +But nearly every man, thinking he was in for a rough-and-tumble fight, had a +bowie knife and a revolver swung to his belt. + +"Those Arkansas and Texas fellows have got knives that would make a Malay's +blood run cold." + +"Well, they'll do to hew firewood and cut meat," laughed Morgan. + +The troops were not only badly armed. On his tour, Hunt had seen men making +blankets of pieces of old carpet, lined on one side with a piece of cotton +cloth; men wearing ox-hide buskins, or complicated wrapping of rags, for +shoes; orderly sergeants making out reports on shingles; surgeon using a +twisted handkerchief instead of a tourniquet. There was a total lack of +medicine, and camp diseases were already breaking out--measles, typhoid fever, +pneumonia, bowel troubles--each fatal, it seemed, in time of war. + +"General Johnston has asked Richmond for a stand of thirty thousand arms," +Morgan had mused, and Hunt looked up inquiringly. + +"Mr. Davis can only spare a thousand." + +"That's lucky," said Hunt, grimly. + +And then the military organization of that army, so characteristic of the +Southerner! An officer who wanted to be more than a colonel, and couldn't be a +brigadier, would have a "legion"-- a hybrid unit between a regiment and a +brigade. Sometimes there was a regiment whose roll-call was more than two +thousand men, so popular was its colonel. Companies would often refuse to +designate themselves by letter, but by the thrilling titles they had given +themselves. How Morgan and Hunt had laughed over "The Yellow Jackets," "The +Dead Shots," "The Earthquakes," "The Chickasha Desperadoes," and "The Hell +Roarers"! Regiments would bear the names of their commanders--a singular +instance of the Southerner's passion for individuality, as a man, a company, a +regiment, or a brigade. And there was little or no discipline, as the word is +understood among the military elect, and with no army that the world has ever +seen, Richard Hunt always claimed, was there so little need of it. For +Southern soldiers, he argued, were, from the start, obedient, zealous, and +tolerably patient, from good sense and a strong sense of duty. They were born +fighters; a spirit of emulation induced them to learn the drill; pride and +patriotism kept them true and patient to the last, but they could not be made, +by punishment or the fear of it, into machines. They read their chance of +success, not in opposing numbers, but in the character and reputation of their +commanders, who, in turn, believed, as a rule, that "the unthinking automaton, +formed by routine and punishment, could no more stand before the high-strung +young soldier with brains and good blood, and some practice and knowledge of +warfare, than a tree could resist a stroke of lightning." So that with +Southern soldiers discipline came to mean "the pride which made soldiers learn +their duties rather than incur disgrace; the subordination that came from +self-respect and respect for the man whom they thought worthy to command +them." + +Boots and saddles again at daybreak! By noon the column reached Green River, +over the Kentucky line, where Morgan, even on his way down to join Johnston, +had begun the operations which were to make him famous. No picket duty that +infantry could do as well, for Morgan's cavalry! He wanted it kept out on the +front or the flanks of an army, and as close as possible upon the enemy. Right +away, there had been thrilling times for Dan in the Green River +country--setting out at dark, chasing countrymen in Federal pay or sympathy, +prowling all night around and among pickets and outposts; entrapping the +unwary; taking a position on the line of retreat at daybreak, and turning +leisurely back to camp with prisoners and information. How memories thronged! +At this very turn of the road, Dan remembered, they had their first brush with +the enemy. No plan of battle had been adopted, other than to hide on both +sides of the road and send their horses to the rear. + +"I think we ought to charge 'em," said Georgie Forbes, Chad's old enemy. Dan +saw that his lip trembled, and, a moment later, Georgie, muttering something, +disappeared. + +The Yankees had come on, and, discovering them, halted. Morgan himself stepped +out in the road and shot the officer riding at the head of the column. His men +fell back without returning the fire, deployed and opened up. Dan recognized +the very tree behind which he had stood, and again he could almost hear +Richard Hunt chuckling from behind another close by. + +"We would be in bad shape," said Richard Hunt, as the bullets whistled high +overhead, "if we were in the tops of these trees instead of behind them." +There had been no maneuvering, no command given among the Confederates. Each +man fought his own fight. In ten minutes a horse-holder ran up from the rear, +breathless, and announced that the Yankees were flanking. Every man withdrew, +straightway, after his own fashion, and in his own time. One man was wounded +and several were shot through the clothes. + +"That was like a camp-meeting or an election row," laughed Morgan, when they +were in camp. + +"Or an affair between Austrian and Italian outposts," said Hunt. + +A chuckle rose behind them. A lame colonel was limping past. + +"I got your courier," he said. + +"I sent no courier," said Morgan. + +"It was Forbes who wanted to charge 'em," said Dan. + +Again the Colonel chuckled. + +"The Yankees ran when you did," he said, and limped, chuckling, away. + +But it was great fun, those moonlit nights, burning bridges and chasing Home +Guards who would flee fifteen or twenty miles sometimes to "rally." Here was a +little town through which Dan and Richard Hunt had marched with nine prisoners +in a column--taken by them alone--and a captured United States flag, flying in +front, scaring Confederate sympathizers and straggling soldiers, as Hunt +reported, horribly. Dan chuckled at the memory, for the prisoners were +quartered with different messes, and, that night, several bottles of sparkling +Catawba happened, by some mystery, to be on hand. The prisoners were told that +this was regularly issued by their commissaries, and thereupon they plead, +with tears, to be received into the Confederate ranks. + +This kind of service was valuable training for Morgan's later work. Slight as +it was, it soon brought him thirty old, condemned artillery-horses--Dan smiled +now at the memory of those ancient chargers--which were turned over to Morgan +to be nursed until they would bear a mount, and, by and by, it gained him a +colonelcy and three companies, superbly mounted and equipped, which, as +"Morgan's Squadron," became known far and near. Then real service began. + +In January, the right wing of Johnston's hungry hawk had been broken in the +Cumberland Mountains. Early in February, Johnston had withdrawn it from +Kentucky before Buell's hosts, with its beak always to the foe. By the middle +of the month, Grant had won the Western border States to the Union, with the +capture of Fort Donelson. In April, the sun of Shiloh rose and set on the +failure of the first Confederate aggressive campaign at the West; and in that +fight Dan saw his first real battle, and Captain Hunt was wounded. In May, +Buell had pushed the Confederate lines south and east toward Chattanooga. To +retain a hold on the Mississippi valley, the Confederates must make another +push for Kentucky, and it was this great Southern need that soon put John +Morgan's name on the lips of every rebel and Yankee in the middle South. In +June, provost-marshals were appointed in every county in Kentucky; the dogs of +war began to be turned locals on the "secesh sympathizers" throughout the +State, and Jerome Conners, overseer, began to render sly service to the Union +cause. + +For it was in June that Morgan paid his first memorable little visit to the +Bluegrass, and Daniel Dean wrote his brother Harry the short tale of the raid. + +"We left Dixie with nine hundred men," the letter ran, "and got back in +twenty-four days with twelve hundred. Travelled over one thousand miles, +captured seventeen towns, destroyed all Government supplies and arms in them, +scattered fifteen hundred Home Guards, and paroled twelve hundred regular +troops. Lost of the original nine hundred, in killed, wounded, and missing, +about ninety men. How's that? We kept twenty thousand men busy guarding +Government posts or chasing us, and we're going back often. Oh Harry, I AM +glad that you are with Grant." + +But Harry was not with Grant--not now While Morgan was marching up from Dixie +to help Kirby Smith in the last great effort that the Confederacy was about to +make to win Kentucky--down from the yellow river marched the Fourth Ohio +Cavalry to go into camp at Lexington; and with it marched Chadwick Buford and +Harry Dean who, too, were veterans now--who, too, were going home. Both lads +wore a second lieutenant's empty shoulder-straps, which both yet meant to fill +with bars, but Chad's promotion had not come as swiftly as Harry had +predicted; the Captain, whose displeasure he had incurred, prevented that. It +had come, in time, however, and with one leap he had landed, after Shiloh, at +Harry's side. In the beginning, young Dean had wanted to go to the Army of the +Potomac, as did Chad, but one quiet word from the taciturn colonel with the +stubbly reddish-brown beard and the perpetual black cigar kept both where they +were. + +"Though," said Grant to Chad, as his eye ran over beautiful Dixie from tip of +nose to tip of tail, and came back to Chad, slightly twinkling, "I've a great +notion to put you in the infantry just to get hold of that horse." + +So it was no queer turn of fate that had soon sent both the lads to help hold +Zollicoffer at Cumberland Gap, that stopped them at Camp Dick Robinson to join +forces with Wolford's cavalry, and brought Chad face to face with an old +friend. Wolford's cavalry was gathered from the mountains and the hills, and +when some scouts came in that afternoon, Chad, to his great joy, saw, mounted +on a gaunt sorrel, none other than his old school-master, Caleb Hazel, who, +after shaking hands with both Harry and Chad, pointed silently at a great, +strange figure following him on a splendid horse some fifty yards behind. The +man wore a slouch hat, tow linen breeches, home-made suspenders, a belt with +two pistols, and on his naked heels were two huge Texan spurs. Harry broke +into a laugh, and Chad's puzzled face cleared when the man grinned; it was +Yankee Jake Dillon, one of the giant twins. Chad looked at him curiously; that +blow on the head that his brother, Rebel Jerry, had given him, had wrought a +miracle. The lips no longer hung apart, but were set firmly, and the eye was +almost keen; the face was still rather stupid, but not foolish--and it was +still kind. Chad knew that, somewhere in the Confederate lines, Rebel Jerry +was looking for Jake, as Yankee Jake, doubtless, was now looking for Jerry, +and he began to think that it might be well for Jerry if neither was ever +found. Daws Dillon, so he learned from Caleb Hazel and Jake, was already +making his name a watchword of terror along the border of Virginia and +Tennessee, and was prowling, like a wolf, now and then, along the edge of the +Bluegrass. Old Joel Turner had died of his wound, Rube had gone off to the war +and Mother Turner and Melissa were left at home, alone. + +"Daws fit fust on one side and then on t'other," said Jake, and then he smiled +in a way that Chad understood; "an' sence you was down thar last Daws don't +seem to hanker much atter meddlin' with the Turners, though the two women did +have to run over into Virginny, once in a while. Melissy," he added, "was +a-goin' to marry Dave Hilton, so folks said; and he reckoned they'd already +hitched most likely, sence Chad thar--" + +A flash from Chad's eyes stopped him, and Chad, seeing Harry's puzzled face, +turned away. He was glad that Melissa was going to marry--yes, he was glad; +and how he did pray that she might be happy! + +Fighting Zollicoffer, only a few days later, Chad and Harry had their baptism +of fire, and strange battle orders they heard, that made them smile even in +the thick of the fight. + +"Huddle up thar!" "Scatterout, now!" "Form a line of fight!" "Wait till you +see the shine of their eyes!" + +"I see 'em!" shouted a private, and "bang" went his gun. That was the way the +fight opened. Chad saw Harry's eyes blazing like stars from his pale face, +which looked pained and half sick, and Chad understood--the lads were fighting +their own people, and there was no help for it. A voice bellowed from the +rear, and a man in a red cap loomed in the smoke-mist ahead: + +"Now, now! Git up and git, boys!" + +That was the order for the charge, and the blue line went forward. Chad never +forgot that first battle-field when he saw it a few hours later strewn with +dead and wounded, the dead lying, as they dropped, in every conceivable +position, features stark, limbs rigid; one man with a half-smoked cigar on his +breast; the faces of so many beardless; some frowning, some as if asleep and +dreaming; and the wounded--some talking pitifully, some in delirium, some +courteous, patient, anxious to save trouble, others morose, sullen, stolid, +independent; never forgot it, even the terrible night after Shiloh, when he +searched heaps of wounded and slain for Caleb Hazel, who lay all through the +night wounded almost to death. + +Later, the Fourth Ohio followed Johnston, as he gave way before Buell, and +many times did they skirmish and fight with ubiquitous Morgan's Men. Several +times Harry and Dan sent each other messages to say that each was still +unhurt, and both were in constant horror of some day coming face to face. +Once, indeed, Harry, chasing a rebel and firing at him, saw him lurch in his +saddle, and Chad, coming up, found the lad on the ground, crying over a +canteen which the rebel had dropped. It was marked with the initials D. D., +the strap was cut by the bullet Harry had fired, and not for a week of +agonizing torture did Harry learn that the canteen, though Dan's, had been +carried that day by another man. + +It was on these scouts and skirmishes that the four--Harry and Chad, and Caleb +Hazel and Yankee Jake Dillon, whose dog-like devotion to Chad soon became a +regimental joke--became known, not only among their own men, but among their +enemies, as the shrewdest and most daring scouts in the Federal service. Every +Morgan's man came to know the name of Chad Buford; but it was not until Shiloh +that Chad got his shoulder-straps, leading a charge under the very eye of +General Grant. After Shiloh, the Fourth Ohio went back to its old quarters +across the river, and no sooner were Chad and Harry there than Kentucky was +put under the Department of the Ohio; and so it was also no queer turn of fate +that now they were on their way to new head-quarters in Lexington. + +Straight along the turnpike that ran between the Dean and the Buford farms, +the Fourth Ohio went in a cloud of thick dust that rose and settled like a +gray choking mist on the seared fields. Side by side rode Harry and Chad, and +neither spoke when, on the left, the white columns of the Dean house came into +view, and, on the right, the red brick of Chad's old home showed through the +dusty leaves; not even when both saw on the Dean porch the figures of two +women who, standing motionless, were looking at them. Harry's shoulders +drooped, and he stared stonily ahead, while Chad turned his head quickly. The +front door and shutters of the Buford house were closed, and there were few +signs of life about the place. Only at the gate was the slouching figure of +Jerome Conners, the overseer, who, waving his hat at the column, recognized +Chad, as he rode by, and spoke to him, Chad thought, with a covert sneer. +Farther ahead, and on the farthest boundary of the Buford farm, was a Federal +fort, now deserted, and the beautiful woodland that had once stood in perfect +beauty around it was sadly ravaged and nearly gone, as was the Dean woodland +across the road. It was plain that some people were paying the Yankee piper +for the death-dance in which a mighty nation was shaking its feet. + +On they went, past the old college, down Broadway, wheeling at Second +Street--Harry going on with the regiment to camp on the other edge of the +town; Chad reporting with his colonel at General Ward's head-quarters, a +columned brick house on one corner of the college campus, and straight across +from the Hunt home, where he had first danced with Margaret Dean. + +That night the two lay on the edge of the Ashland woods, looking up at the +stars, the ripened bluegrass--a yellow, moonlit sea--around them and the woods +dark and still behind them. Both smoked and were silent, but each knew that to +the other his thoughts were known; for both had been on the same errand that +day, and the miserable tale of the last ten months both had learned. + +Trouble had soon begun for the ones who were dear to them, when both left for +the war. At once General Anderson had promised immunity from arrest to every +peaceable citizen in the State, but at once the shiftless, the prowling, the +lawless, gathered to the Home Guards for self-protection, to mask deviltry and +to wreak vengeance for private wrongs. At once mischief began. Along the Ohio, +men with Southern sympathies were clapped into prison. Citizens who had joined +the Confederates were pronounced guilty of treason, and Breckinridge was +expelled from the Senate as a traitor. Morgan's great raid in June, '61, +spread consternation through the land and, straightway, every district and +county were at the mercy of a petty local provost. No man of Southern +sympathies could stand for office. Courts in session were broken up with the +bayonet. Civil authority was overthrown. Destruction of property, indemnity +assessments on innocent men, arrests, imprisonment, and murder became of daily +occurrence. Ministers were jailed and lately prisons had even been prepared +for disloyal women. Major Buford, forced to stay at home on account of his +rheumatism and the serious illness of Miss Lucy, had been sent to prison once +and was now under arrest again. General Dean, old as he was, had escaped and +had gone to Virginia to fight with Lee; and Margaret and Mrs. Dean, with a few +servants, were out on the farm alone. + +But neither spoke of the worst that both feared was yet to come--and "Taps" +sounded soft and dear on the night air. + + + +CHAPTER 23. CHAD CAPTURES AN OLD FRIEND + +Meanwhile Morgan was coming on--led by the two videttes in gray--Daniel Dean +and Rebel Jerry Dillon--coming on to meet Kirby Smith in Lexington after that +general had led the Bluegrass into the Confederate fold. They were taking +short cuts through the hills now, and Rebel Jerry was guide, for he had joined +Morgan for that purpose. Jerry had long been notorious along the border. He +never gave quarter on his expeditions for personal vengeance, and it was said +that not even he knew how many men he had killed. Every Morgan's man had heard +of him, and was anxious to see him; and see him they did, though they never +heard him open his lips except in answer to a question. To Dan he seemed to +take a strange fancy right away, but he was as voiceless as the grave, except +for an occasional oath, when bush-whackers of Daws Dillon's ilk would pop at +the advance guard--sometimes from a rock directly overhead, for chase was +useless. It took a roundabout climb of one hundred yards to get to the top of +that rock, so there was nothing for videttes and guards to do but pop back, +which they did to no purpose. On the third day, however, after a skirmish in +which Dan had charged with a little more dare-deviltry than usual, the big +Dillon ripped out an oath of protest. An hour later he spoke again: + +"I got a brother on t'other side." + +Dan started. "Why, so have I," he said. "What's your brother with?" + +"Wolford's cavalry." + +"That's curious. So was mine--for a while. He's with Grant now." The boy +turned his head away suddenly. + +"I might meet him, if he were with Wolford now," he said, half to himself, but +Jerry heard him and smiled viciously. + +"Well, that's what I'm goin' with you fellers fer--to meet mine." + +"What!" said Dan, puzzled. + +"We've been lookin' fer each other sence the war broke out. I reckon he went +on t'other side to keep me from killin' him." + +Dan shrank away from the giant with horror; but next day the mountaineer saved +the boy's life in a fight in which Dan's chum--gallant little Tom Morgan--lost +his; and that night, as Dan lay sleepless and crying in his blanket, Jerry +Dillon came in from guard-duty and lay down by him. + +"I'm goin' to take keer o' you." + +"I don't need you," said Dan, gruffly, and Rebel Jerry grunted, turned over on +his side and went to sleep. Night and day thereafter he was by the boy's side. + +A thrill ran through the entire command when the column struck the first +Bluegrass turnpike, and a cheer rang from front to rear. Near Midway, a little +Bluegrass town some fifteen miles from Lexington, a halt was called, and +another deafening cheer arose in the extreme rear and came forward like a +rushing wind, as a coal-black horse galloped the length of the column--its +rider, hat in hand, bowing with a proud smile to the flattering storm--for the +idolatry of the man and his men was mutual--with the erect grace of an Indian, +the air of a courtier, and the bearing of a soldier in every line of the six +feet and more of his tireless frame. No man who ever saw John Morgan on +horseback but had the picture stamped forever on his brain, as no man who ever +saw that coal-black horse ever forgot Black Bess. Behind him came his staff, +and behind them came a wizened little man, whose nickname was +"Lightning"--telegraph operator for Morgan's Men. There was need of Lightning +now, so Morgan sent him on into town with Dan and Jerry Dillon, while he and +Richard Hunt followed leisurely. + +The three troopers found the station operator seated on the platform--pipe in +mouth, and enjoying himself hugely. He looked lazily at them. + +"Call up Lexington," said Lightning, sharply. + +"Go to hell!" said the operator, and then he nearly toppled from his chair. +Lightning, with a vicious gesture, had swung a pistol on him. + +"Here--here!" he gasped, "what'd you mean?" + +"Call up Lexington," repeated Lightning. The operator seated himself. + +"What do you want in Lexington?" he growled. + +"Ask the time of day?" The operator stared, but the instrument clicked. + +"What's your name?" asked Lightning. + +"Woolums." + +"Well, Woolums, you're a 'plug.' I wanted to see how you handled the key. Yes, +Woolums, you're a plug." + +Then Lightning seated himself, and Woolums' mouth flew open--Lightning copied +his style with such exactness. Again the instrument clicked and Lightning +listened, smiling: + +"Will there be any danger coming to Midway?" asked a railroad conductor in +Lexington. Lightning answered, grinning: + +"None. Come right on. No sign of rebels here." Again a click from Lexington. + +"General Ward orders General Finnell of Frankfort to move his forces. General +Ward will move toward Georgetown, to which Morgan with eighteen hundred men is +marching." + +Lightning caught his breath--this was Morgan's force and his intention +exactly. He answered: + +"Morgan with upward of two thousand men has taken the road to Frankfort. This +is reliable." Ten minutes later, Lightning chuckled. + +"Ward orders Finnell to recall his regiment to Frankfort." + +Half an hour later another idea struck Lightning. He clicked as though +telegraphing from Frankfort: + +"Our pickets just driven in. Great excitement. Force of enemy must be two +thousand." + +Then Lightning laughed. "I've fooled 'em," said Lightning. + +There was turmoil in Lexington. The streets thundered with the tramp of +cavalry going to catch Morgan. Daylight came and nothing was done--nothing +known. The afternoon waned, and still Ward fretted at head-quarters, while his +impatient staff-sat on the piazza talking, speculating, wondering where the +wily raider was. Leaning on the campus-fence near by were Chadwick Buford and +Harry Dean. + +It had been a sad day for those two. The mutual tolerance that prevailed among +their friends in the beginning of the war had given way to intense bitterness +now. There was no thrill for them in the flags fluttering a welcome to them +from the windows of loyalists, for under those flags old friends passed them +in the street with no sign of recognition, but a sullen, averted face, or a +stare of open contempt. Elizabeth Morgan had met them, and turned her head +when Harry raised his cap, though Chad saw tears spring to her eyes as she +passed. Sad as it was for him, Chad knew what the silent torture in Harry's +heart must be, for Harry could not bring himself, that day, even to visit his +own home. And now Morgan was coming, and they might soon be in a death-fight, +Harry with his own blood-brother and both with boyhood friends. + +"God grant that you two may never meet!" + +That cry from General Dean was beating ceaselessly through Harry's brain now, +and he brought one hand down on the fence, hardly noticing the drop of blood +that oozed from the force of the blow. + +"Oh, I wish I could get away from here!" + +"I shall the first chance that comes," said Chad, and he lifted his head +sharply, staring down the street. A phaeton was coming slowly toward them and +in it were a negro servant and a girl in white. Harry was leaning over the +fence with his back toward the street, and Chad, the blood rushing to his +face, looked in silence, for the negro was Snowball and the girl was Margaret. +He saw her start and flush when she saw him, her hands giving a little +convulsive clutch at the reins; but she came on, looking straight ahead. +Chad's hand went unconsciously to his cap, and when Harry rose, puzzled to see +him bareheaded, the phaeton stopped, and there was a half-broken cry: + +"Harry!" + +Cap still in hand, Chad strode away as the brother, with an answering cry, +sprang toward her. + +. . . . . . + +When he came back, an hour later, at dusk, Harry was seated on the portico, +and the long silence between them was broken at last. + +"She--they oughtn't to come to town at a time like this," said Chad, roughly. + +"I told her that," said Harry, "but it was useless. She will come and go just +as she pleases." + +Harry rose and leaned for a moment against one of the big pillars, and then he +turned impulsively, and put one hand lightly on the other's shoulder. + +"I'm sorry, old man," he said, gently. + +A pair of heels clicked suddenly together on the grass before them, and an +orderly stood at salute. + +"General Ward's compliments, and will Lieutenant Buford and Lieutenant Dean +report to him at once?" + +The two exchanged a swift glance, and the faces of both grew grave with sudden +apprehension. + +Inside, the General looked worried, and hit manner was rather sharp. + +"Do you know General Dean?" he asked, looking at Harry + +"He is my father, + +The General wheeled in his chair. + +"What!" he exclaimed. "Well--um--I suppose one of you will be enough. You can +go." + +When the door closed behind Harry, he looked at Chad. + +"There are two rebels at General Dean's house to-night," he said, quietly. +"One of them, I am told---why, he must be that boy's brother," and again the +General mused; then he added, sharply: + +"Take six good men out there right away and capture them. And watch out for +Daws Dillon and his band of cut-throats. I am told he is in this region. I've +sent a company after him. But you capture the two at General Dean's." + +"Yes, sir," said Chad, turning quickly, but the General had seen the lad's +face grow pale. + +"It is very strange down here--they may be his best friends," he thought, and, +being a kindhearted man, he reached out his hand toward a bell to summon Chad +back, and drew it in again. + +"I cannot help that; but that boy must have good stuff in him." + +Harry was waiting for him outside. He knew that Dan would go home if it was +possible, and what Chad's mission must be. + +"Don't hurt him, Chad." + +"You don't have to ask that," answered Chad, sadly. + +. . . . . . . + +So Chad's old enemy, Daws Dillon, was abroad. There was a big man with the boy +at the Deans', General Ward had said, but Chad little guessed that it was +another old acquaintance, Rebel Jerry Dillon, who, at that hour, was having +his supper brought out to the stable to him, saying that he would sleep there, +take care of the horses, and keep on the look-out for Yankees. Jerome +Conners's hand must be in this, Chad thought, for he never for a moment +doubted that the overseer had brought the news to General Ward. He was playing +a fine game of loyalty to both sides, that overseer, and Chad grimly made up +his mind that, from one side or the other, his day would come. And this was +the fortune of war--to be trotting, at the head of six men, on such a mission, +along a road that, at every turn, on every little hill, and almost in every +fence-corner, was stored with happy memories for him; to force entrance as an +enemy under a roof that had showered courtesy and kindness down on him like +rain, that in all the world was most sacred to him; to bring death to an old +playmate, the brother of the woman whom he loved, or capture, which might mean +a worse death in a loathsome prison. He thought of that dawn when he drove +home after the dance at the Hunts' with the old Major asleep at his side and +his heart almost bursting with high hope and happiness, and he ran his hand +over his eyes to brush the memory away. He must think only of his duty now, +and that duty was plain. + +Across the fields they went in a noiseless walk, and leaving their horses in +the woods, under the care of one soldier, slipped into the yard. Two men were +posted at the rear of the house, one was stationed at each end of the long +porch to command the windows on either side, and, with a sergeant at his +elbow, Chad climbed the long steps noiselessly and knocked at the front door. +In a moment it was thrown open by a woman, and the light fell full in Chad's +face. + +"You--you--YOU!" said a voice that shook with mingled terror and contempt, and +Margaret shrank back, step by step. Hearing her, Mrs. Dean hurried into the +hallway. Her face paled when she saw the Federal uniform in her doorway, but +her chin rose haughtily, and her voice was steady and most courteous: + +"What can we do for you?" she asked, and she, too, recognized Chad, and her +face grew stern as she waited for him to answer. + +"Mrs. Dean," he said, half choking, "word has come to head-quarters that two +Confederate soldiers are spending the night here, and I have been ordered to +search the house for them. My men have surrounded it, but if you will give me +your word that they are not here, not a man shall cross your threshold--not +even myself." + +Without a word Mrs. Dean stood aside. + +"I am sorry," said Chad, motioning to the Sergeant to follow him. As he passed +the door of the drawing-room, he saw, under the lamp, a pipe with ashes strewn +about its bowl. Chad pointed to it. + +"Spare me, Mrs. Dean." But the two women stood with clinched hands, silent. +Dan had flashed into the kitchen, and was about to leap from the window when +he saw the gleam of a rifle-barrel, not ten feet away. He would be potted like +a rat if he sprang out there, and he dashed noiselessly up the back stairs, as +Chad started up the front stairway toward the garret, where he had passed many +a happy hour playing with Margaret and Harry and the boy whom he was after as +an enemy, now. The door was open at the first landing, and the creak of the +stairs under Dan's feet, heard plainly, stopped. The Sergeant, pistol in hand, +started to push past his superior. + +"Keep back," said Chad, sternly, and as he drew his pistol, a terrified +whisper rose from below. + +"Don't, don't!" And then Dan, with hands up, stepped into sight. + +"I'll spare you," he said, quietly. "Not a word, mother. They've got me. You +can tell him there is no one else in the house, though." + +Mrs. Dean's eyes filled with tears, and a sob broke from Margaret. + +"There is no one else," she said, and Chad bowed. "In the house," she added, +proudly, scorning the subterfuge. + +"Search the barn," said Chad, "quick!" The Sergeant ran down the steps. + +"I reckon you are a little too late, my friend," said Dan. "Why, bless me, +it's my old friend Chad--and a lieutenant! I congratulate you," he added, but +he did not offer to shake hands. + +Chad had thought of the barn too late. Snowball had seen the men creeping +through the yard, had warned Jerry Dillon, and Jerry had slipped the horses +into the woodland, and had crept back to learn what was going on. + +"I will wait for you out here," said Chad. "Take your time." + +"Thank you," said Dan. + +He came out in a moment and Mrs. Dean and Margaret followed him. At a gesture +from the Sergeant, a soldier stationed himself on each side of Dan, and, as +Chad turned, he took off his cap again. His face was very pale and his voice +almost broke: + +"You will believe, Mrs. Dean," he said, "that this was something I HAD to do." + +Mrs. Dean bent her head slightly. + +"Certainly, mother," said Dan. "Don't blame Lieutenant Chad. Morgan will have +Lexington in a few days and then I'll be free again. Maybe I'll have +Lieutenant Chad a prisoner--no telling!" + +Chad smiled faintly, and then, with a flush, he spoke again--warning Mrs. +Dean, in the kindliest way, that, henceforth, her house would be under +suspicion, and telling her of the severe measures that had been inaugurated +against rebel sympathizers. + +"Such sympathizers have to take oath of allegiance and give bonds to keep it." + +"If they don't?" + +"Arrest and imprisonment." + +"And if they give the oath and violate it?" + +"The penalty is death, Mrs. Dean." + +"And if they aid their friends?" + +"They are to be dealt with according to military law." + +"Anything else?" + +"If loyal citizens are hurt or damaged by guerrillas, disloyal citizens of the +locality must make compensation." + +"Is it true that a Confederate sympathizer will be shot down if on the streets +of Lexington?" + +"There was such an order, Mrs. Dean." + +"And if a loyal citizen is killed by one of these so-called guerillas, for +whose acts nobody is responsible, prisoners of war are to be shot in +retaliation?" + +"Mother!" cried Margaret. + +"No, Mrs. Dean--not prisoners of war--guerillas." + +"And when will you begin war on women?" + +"Never, I hope." His hesitancy brought a scorn into the searching eyes of his +pale questioner that Chad could not face, and without daring even to look at +Margaret he turned away. + +Such retaliatory measures made startling news to Dan. He grew very grave while +he listened, but as he followed Chad he chatted and laughed and joked with his +captors. Morgan would have Lexington in three days. He was really glad to get +a chance to fill his belly with Yankee grub. It hadn't been full more than two +or three times in six months. + +All the time he was watching for Jerry Dillon, who, he knew, would not leave +him if there was the least chance of getting him out of the Yankee's clutches. +He did not have to wait long. Two men had gone to get the horses, and as Dan +stepped through the yard-gate with his captors, two figures rose out of the +ground. One came with head bent like a battering-ram. He heard Snowball's head +strike a stomach on one side of him, and with an astonished groan the man went +down. He saw the man on his other side drop from some crashing blow, and he +saw Chad trying to draw his pistol. His own fist shot out, catching Chad on +the point of the chin. At the same instant there was a shot and the Sergeant +dropped. + +"Come on, boy!" said a hoarse voice, and then he was speeding away after the +gigantic figure of Jerry Dillon through the thick darkness, while a harmless +volley of shots sped after them. At the edge of the woods they dropped. Jerry +Dillon had his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing aloud. + +"The hosses ain't fer away," he said. "Oh, Lawd!" + +"Did you kill him?" + +"I reckon not," whispered Jerry. "I shot him on the wrong side. I'm al'ays +a-fergettin' which side a man's heart's on." + +"What became of Snowball?" + +"He run jes' as soon as he butted the feller on his right. He said he'd git +one, but I didn't know what he was doin' when I seed him start like a sheep. +Listen!" + +There was a tumult at the house--moving lights, excited cries, and a great +hurrying. Black Rufus was the first to appear with a lantern, and when he held +it high as the fence, Chad saw Margaret in the light, her hands clinched and +her eyes burning. + +"Have you killed him?" she asked, quietly but fiercely. "You nearly did once +before. Have you succeeded this time?" Then she saw the Sergeant writhing on +the ground, his right forearm hugging his breast, and her hands relaxed and +her face changed. + +"Did Dan do that? Did Dan do that?" + +"Dan was unarmed," said Chad, quietly. + +"Mother," called the girl, as though she had not heard him, send someone to +help. Bring him to the house," she added, turning. As no movement was made, +she turned again. + +"Bring him up to the house," she said, imperiously, and when the hesitating +soldiers stooped to pick up the wounded man, she saw the streak of blood +running down Chad's chin and she stared open-eyed. She made one step toward +him, and then she shrank back out of the light. + +"Oh!," she said. "Are you wounded, too? Oh!" + +"No!" said Chad, grimly. "Dan didn't do that"--pointing to the Sergeant--"he +did this--with his fist. It's the second time Dan has done this. Easy, men," +he added, with low-voiced authority. + +Mrs. Dean was holding the door open. + +"No," said Chad, quickly. "That wicker lounge will do. He will be cooler on +the porch." Then he stooped, and loosening the Sergeant's blouse and shirt +examined the wound. + +"It's only through the shoulder, Lieutenant," said the man, faintly. But it +was under the shoulder, and Chad turned. + +"Jake," he said, sharply, "go back and bring a surgeon--and an officer to +relieve me. I think he can be moved in the morning, Mrs. Dean. With your +permission I will wait here until the Surgeon comes. Please don't disturb +yourself further"-- Margaret had appeared at the door, with some bandages that +she and her mother had been making for Confederates and behind her a servant +followed with towels and a pail of water--"I am sorry to trespass." + +"Did the bullet pass through?" asked Mrs. Dean, simply. + +"No, Mrs. Dean," said Chad. + +Margaret turned indoors. Without another word, her mother knelt above the +wounded man, cut the shirt away, staunched the trickling blood, and deftly +bound the wound with lint and bandages, while Chad stood, helplessly watching +her. + +"I am sorry," he said again, when she rose, "sorry--" + +"It is nothing," said Mrs. Dean, quietly. "If you need anything, you will let +me know. I shall be waiting inside." + +She turned and a few moments later Chad saw Margaret's white figure swiftly +climb the stairs--but the light still burned in the noiseless room below. + + . . . . . . + +Meanwhile Dan and Jerry Dillon were far across the fields on their way to +rejoin Morgan. When they were ten miles away, Dan, who was leading, turned. + +"Jerry, that Lieutenant was an old friend of mine. General Morgan used to say +he was the best scout in the Union Army. He comes from your part of the +country, and his name is Chad Buford. Ever heard of him?" + +"I've knowed him sence he was a chunk of a boy, but I don't rickollect ever +hearin' his last name afore. I naver knowed he had any." + +"Well, I heard him call one of his men Jake--and he looked exactly like you." +The giant pulled in his horse. + +"I'm goin' back." + +"No, you aren't," said Dan; "not now--it's too late. That's why I didn't tell +you before." Then he added, angrily: "You are a savage and you ought to be +ashamed of yourself harboring such hatred against your own blood-brother." + +Dan was perhaps the only one of Morgan's Men who would have dared to talk that +way to the man, and Jerry Dillon took it only in sullen silence. + +A mile farther they struck a pike, and, as they swept along, a brilliant light +glared into the sky ahead of them, and they pulled in. A house was in flames +on the edge of a woodland, and by its light they could see a body of men dash +out of the woods and across the field on horseback, and another body dash +after them in pursuit--the pursuers firing and the pursued sending back +defiant yells. Daws Dillon was at his work again, and the Yankees were after +him. + +. . . . . . . + +Long after midnight Chad reported the loss of his prisoner. He was much +chagrined--for failure was rare with him--and his jaw and teeth ached from the +blow Dan had given him, but in his heart he was glad that the boy had got away +When he went to his tent, Harry was awake and waiting for him. + +"It's I who have escaped," he said; "escaped again. Four times now we have +been in the same fight. Somehow fate seems to be pointing always one +way--always one way. Why, night after night, I dream that either he or I--" +Harry's voice trembled--he stopped short, and, leaning forward, stared out the +door of his tent. A group of figures had halted in front of the Colonel's tent +opposite, and a voice called, sharply: + +"Two prisoners, sir. We captured 'em with Daws Dillon. They are guerillas, +sir." + +"It's a lie, Colonel," said an easy voice, that brought both Chad and Harry to +their feet, and plain in the moonlight both saw Daniel Dean, pale but cool, +and near him, Rebel Jerry Dillon--both with their hands bound behind them. + + + +CHAPTER 24. A RACE BETWEEN DIXIE AND DAWN + +But the sun sank next day from a sky that was aflame with rebel victories. It +rose on a day rosy with rebel hopes, and the prophetic coolness of autumn was +in the early morning air when Margaret in her phaeton moved through the front +pasture on her way to town--alone. She was in high spirits and her head was +lifted proudly. Dan's boast had come true. Kirby Smith had risen swiftly from +Tennessee, had struck the Federal Army on the edge of the Bluegrass the day +before and sent it helter-skelter to the four winds. Only that morning she had +seen a regiment of the hated Yankees move along the turnpike in flight for the +Ohio. It was the Fourth Ohio Cavalry, and Harry and one whose name never +passed her lips were among those dusty cavalrymen; but she was glad, and she +ran down o the stile and, from the fence, waved the Stars and Bars at them as +they passed--which was very foolish, but which brought her deep content. Now +he rebels did hold Lexington. Morgan's Men were coming that day and she was +going into town to see Dan and Colonel Hunt and General Morgan and be +fearlessly happy and triumphant. At the Major's gate, whom should she see +coming out but the dear old fellow himself, and, when he got off his horse and +came to her, she leaned forward and kissed him, because he looked so thin and +pale from confinement, and because she was so glad to see him. Morgan's Men +were really coming, that very day, the Major said, and he told her much +thrilling news. Jackson had obliterated Pope at the second battle of Manassas. +Eleven thousand prisoners had been taken at Harper's Ferry and Lee had gone on +into Maryland on the flank of Washington. Recruits were coming into the +Confederacy by the thousands. Bragg had fifty-five thousand men and an +impregnable stronghold in front of Buell, who had but few men more--not enough +to count a minute, the Major said. + +"Lee has routed 'em out of Virginia," cried the old fellow, "and Buell is +doomed. I tell you, little girl, the fight is almost won." + +Jerome Conners rode to the gate and called to the Major in a tone that +arrested the girl's attention. She hated that man and she had noted a queer +change in his bearing since the war began. She looked for a flash of anger +from the Major, but none came, and she began to wonder what hold the overseer +could have on his old master. + +She drove on, puzzled, wondering, and disturbed; but her cheeks were +flushed--the South was going to win, the Yankees were gone, and she must get +to town in time to see the triumphant coming of Morgan's Men. They were coming +in when she reached the Yankee head-quarters, which, she saw, had changed +flags--thank God--coming proudly in, amid the waving of the Stars and Bars and +frenzied shouts of welcome. Where were the Bluegrass Yankees now? The Stars +and Stripes that had fluttered from their windows had been drawn in and they +were keeping very quiet, indeed--Oh! it was joy! There was gallant Morgan +himself swinging from Black Bess to kiss his mother, who stood waiting for him +at her gate, and there was Colonel Hunt, gay, debonair, jesting, shaking hands +right and left, and crowding the streets, Morgan's Men--the proudest blood in +the land every gallant trooper getting his welcome from the lips and arms of +mother, sister, sweetheart, or cousin of farthest degree. But where was Dan? +She had heard nothing of him since the night he had escaped capture, and while +she looked right and left for him to dash toward her and swing from his horse, +she heard her name called, and turning she saw Richard Hunt at the wheel of +her phaeton. He waved his hand toward the happy reunions going on around them. + +"The enforced brotherhood, Miss Margaret," he said, his eyes flashing, "I +belong to that, you know." + +For once the subtle Colonel made a mistake. Perhaps the girl in her trembling +happiness and under the excitement of the moment might have welcomed him, as +she was waiting to welcome Dan, but she drew back now. + +"Oh! no, Colonel--not on that ground." + +Her eyes danced, she flushed curiously, as she held out her hand, and the +Colonel's brave heart quickened. Straightway he began to wonder--but a quick +shadow in Margaret's face checked him. + +"But where's Dan? Where is Dan?" she repeated, impatiently. + +Richard Hunt looked puzzled. He had just joined his command and something must +have gone wrong with Dan. So he lied swiftly. + +"Dan is out on a scout. I don't think he has got back yet. I'll find out." + +Margaret watched him ride to where Morgan stood with his mother in the midst +of a joyous group of neighbors and friends, and, a moment later, the two +officers came toward her on foot. + +"Don't worry, Miss Margaret," said Morgan, with a smile. "The Yankees have got +Dan and have taken him away as prisoner--but don't worry, we'll get him +exchanged in a week. I'll give three brigadier-generals for him." + +Tears came to the girl's eyes, but she smiled through them bravely. + +"I must go back and tell mother," she said, brokenly. "I hoped--" + +"Don't worry, little girl," said Morgan again. "I'll have him if I have to +capture the whole State of Ohio." + +Again Margaret smiled, but her heart was heavy, and Richard Hunt was unhappy. +He hung around her phaeton all the while she was in town. He went home with +her, cheering her on the way and telling her of the Confederate triumph that +was at hand. He comforted Mrs. Dean over Dan's capture, and he rode back to +town slowly, with his hands on his saddle-bow--wondering again. Perhaps +Margaret had gotten over her feeling for that mountain boy--that Yankee--and +there Richard Hunt checked his own thoughts, for that mountain boy, he had +discovered, was a brave and chivalrous enemy, and to such, his own high +chivalry gave salute always. + +He was very thoughtful when he reached camp. He had an unusual desire to be +alone, and that night, he looked long at the stars, thinking of the girl whom +he had known since her babyhood-- knowing that he would never think of her +except as a woman again. + +So the Confederates waited now in the Union hour of darkness for Bragg to +strike his blow. He did strike it, but it was at the heart of the South. He +stunned the Confederacy by giving way before Buell. He brought hope back with +the bloody battle of Perryville. Again he faced Buell at Harrodsburg, and then +he wrought broadcast despair by falling back without battle, dividing his +forces and retreating into Tennessee. The dream of a battle-line along the +Ohio with a hundred thousand more men behind it was gone and the last and best +chance to win the war was lost forever. Morgan, furious with disappointment, +left Lexington. Kentucky fell under Federal control once more; and Major +Buford, dazed, dismayed, unnerved, hopeless, brought the news out to the +Deans. + +"They'll get me again, I suppose, and I can't leave home on account of Lucy." + +"Please do, Major," said Mrs. Dean. "Send Miss Lucy over here and make your +escape. We will take care of her." The Major shook his head sadly and rode +away. + +Next day Margaret sat on the stile and saw the Yankees coming back to +Lexington. On one side of her the Stars and Bars were fixed to the fence from +which they had floated since the day she had waved the flag at them as they +fled. She saw the advance guard come over the hill and jog down the slope and +then the regiment slowly following after. In the rear she could see two men, +riding unarmed. Suddenly three cavalrymen spurred forward at a gallop and +turned in at her gate. The soldier in advance was an officer, and he pulled +out a handkerchief, waved it once, and, with a gesture to his companions, came +on alone. She knew the horse even before she recognized the rider, and her +cheeks flushed, her lips were set, and her nostrils began to dilate. The +horseman reined in and took off his cap. + +"I come under a flag of truce," he said, gravely, to ask this garrison to haul +down its colors-- and--to save useless effusion of blood," he added, still +more gravely. + +"Your war on women has begun, then?" + +I am obeying orders--no more, no less." + +"I congratulate you on your luck or your good Judgment always to be on hand +when disagreeable duties are to be done." + +Chad flushed. + +"Won't you take the flag down?" + +"No, make your attack. You will have one of your usual victories--with +overwhelming numbers--and it will be safe and bloodless. There are only two +negroes defending this garrison. They will not fight, nor will we." + +"Won't you take the flag down?" + +"No!" + +Chad lifted his cap and wheeled. The Colonel was watching at the gate. + +"Well, sir" he asked, frowning. + +"I shall need help, sir, to take that flag down," said Chad. + +"What do you mean, sir?" + +"A woman is defending it." + +"What!" shouted the Colonel. + +"That is my sister, Colonel," said Harry Dean. The Colonel smiled and then +grew grave. + +"You should warn her not to provoke the authorities. The Government is +advising very strict measures now with rebel sympathizers." Then he smiled +again. + +"Fours! Left wheel! Halt! Present--sabres!" + +A line of sabres flashed in the sun, and Margaret, not understanding, snatched +the flag from the fence and waved it back in answer. The Colonel laughed +aloud. The column moved on, and each captain, following, caught the humor of +the situation and each company flashed its sabres as it went by, while +Margaret stood motionless. + +In the rear rode those two unarmed prisoners. She could see now that their +uniforms were gray and she knew that they were prisoners, but she little +dreamed that they were her brother Dan and Rebel Jerry Dillon, nor did Chad +Buford or Harry Dean dream of the purpose for which, just at that time, they +were being brought back to Lexington. Perhaps one man who saw them did know: +for Jerome Conners, from the woods opposite, watched the prisoners ride by +with a malicious smile that nothing but impending danger to an enemy could +ever bring to his face; and with the same smile he watched Margaret go slowly +back to the house, while her flag still fluttered from the stile. + +The high tide of Confederate hopes was fast receding now. The army of the +Potomac, after Antietam, which overthrew the first Confederate aggressive +campaign at the East, was retreating into its Southern stronghold, as was the +army of the West after Bragg's abandonment of Mumfordsville, and the rebel +retirement had given the provost-marshals in Kentucky full sway. Two hundred +Southern sympathizers, under arrest, had been sent into exile north of the +Ohio, and large sums of money were levied for guerilla outrages here and +there--a heavy sum falling on Major Buford for a vicious murder done in his +neighborhood by Daws Dillon and his band on the night of the capture of Daniel +Dean and Rebel Jerry. The Major paid the levy with the first mortgage he had +ever given in his life, and straightway Jerome Conners, who had been dealing +in mules and other Government supplies, took an attitude that was little short +of insolence toward his old master, whose farm was passing into the overseer's +clutches at last. Only two nights before, another band of guerillas had burned +a farm-house, killed a Unionist, and fled to the hills before the incoming +Yankees, and the Kentucky Commandant had sworn vengeance after the old Mosaic +way on victims already within his power. + +That night Chad and Harry were summoned before General Ward. They found him +seated with his chin in his hand, looking out the window at the moonlit +campus. Without moving, he held out a dirty piece of paper to Chad. + +"Read that," he said. + +"YOU HAVE KETCHED TWO OF MY MEN AND I HEAR AS HOW YOU MEAN TO HANG 'EM. IF YOU +HANG THEM TWO MEN, I'M A-GOIN' TO HANG EVERY MAN OF YOURS I CAN GIT MY HANDS +ON. + +DAWS DILLON--Captain. + +Chad gave a low laugh and Harry smiled, but the General kept grave. + +"You know, of course, that your brother belongs to Morgan's command?" + +"I do, sir," said Harry, wonderingly. + +"Do you know that his companion--the man Dillon--Jerry Dillon--does?" + +"I do not, sir." + +"They were captured by a squad that was fighting Daws Dillon. This Jerry +Dillon has the same name and you found the two together at General Dean's." + +"But they had both just left General Morgan's command," said Harry, +indignantly. + +"That may be true, but this Daws Dillon has sent a similar message to the +Commandant, and he has just been in here again and committed two wanton +outrages night before last. The Commandant is enraged and has issued orders +for stern retaliation." + +"It's a trick of Daws Dillon," said Chad, hotly, "an infamous trick. He hates +his Cousin Jerry, he hates me, and he hates the Deans, because they were +friends of mine." General Ward looked troubled. + +"The Commandant says he has been positively informed that both the men joined +Daws Dillon in the fight that night. He has issued orders that not only every +guerilla captured shall be hung, but that, whenever a Union citizen has been +killed by one of them, four of such marauders are to be taken to the spot and +shot in retaliation. It is the only means left, he says." + +There was a long silence. The faces of both the lads had turned white as each +saw the drift of the General's meaning, and Harry strode forward to his desk. + +"Do you mean to say, General Ward--" + +The General wheeled in his chair and pointed silently to an order that lay on +the desk, and as Harry started to read it, his voice broke. Daniel Dean and +Rebel Jerry were to be shot next morning at sunrise. + +. . . . . . + +The General spoke very kindly to Harry. + +"I have known this all day, but I did not wish to tell you until I had done +everything I could. I did not think it would be necessary to tell you at all, +for I thought there would be no trouble. I telegraphed the Commandant, +but"--he turned again to the window--"I have not been able to get them a trial +by court-martial, or even a stay in the execution. You'd better go see your +brother--he knows now--and you'd better send word to your mother and sister." + +Harry shook his head. His face was so drawn and ghastly as he stood leaning +heavily against the table that Chad moved unconsciously to his side. + +"Where is the Commandant?" he asked. + +"In Frankfort," said the General. Chad's eyes kindled. + +"Will you let me go see him to-night?" + +"Certainly, and I will give you a message to him. Perhaps you can yet save the +boy, but there is no chance for the man Dillon." The General took up a pen. +Harry seemed to sway as he turned to go, and Chad put one arm around him and +went with him to the door. + +"There have been some surprising desertions from the Confederate ranks," said +the General, as he wrote. "That's the trouble." he looked at his watch as he +handed the message over his shoulder to Chad. "You have ten hours before +sunrise and it is nearly sixty miles there and back If you are not here with a +stay of execution both will be shot. Do you think that you can make it. Of +course you need not bring the message back yourself. You can get the +Commandant to telegraph--" The slam of a door interrupted him--Chad was gone. + +Harry was holding Dixie's bridle when he reached the street and Chad swung +into the + +"Don't tell them at home," he said. "I'll be back here on time, or I'll be +dead." + +The two grasped hands. Harry nodded dumbly and Dixie's feet beat the rhythm of +her matchless gallop down the quiet street. The sensitive little mare seemed +to catch at once the spirit of her rider. Her haunches quivered. She tossed +her head and champed her bit, but not a pound did she pull as she settled into +an easy lope that told how well she knew that the ride before her was long and +hard. Out they went past the old cemetery, past the shaft to Clay rising from +it, silvered with moonlight, out where the picket fires gleamed and converging +on toward the Capital, unchallenged for the moon showed the blue of Chad's +uniform and his face gave sign that no trivial business, that night, was his. +Over quiet fields and into the aisles of sleeping woods beat that musical +rhythm ceaselessly, awakening drowsy birds by the wayside, making bridges +thunder, beating on and on up hill and down until picket fires shone on the +hills that guard the Capital. Through them, with but one challenge, Chad went, +down the big hill, past the Armory, and into the town--pulling panting Dixie +up before a wondering sentinel who guarded the Commandant's sleeping quarters. + +"The Commandant is asleep." + +"Wake him up," said Chad, sharply. A staff-officer appeared at the door in +answer to the sentinel's knock. + +"What is your business?" + +"A message from General Ward." + +"The Commandant gave orders that he was not to be disturbed." + +"He must be," said Chad. "It is a matter of life and death." + +Above him a window was suddenly raised and the Commandant's own head was +thrust out. + +"Stop that noise," he thundered. Chad told his mission and the Commandant +straightway was furious. + +"How dare General Ward broach that matter again? My orders are given and they +will not be changed." As he started to pull the window down, Chad cried: + +"But, General--" and at the same time a voice called down the street: + +"General!" Two men appeared under the gaslight--one was a sergeant and the +other a frightened negro. + +"Here is a message, General." + +The sash went down, a light appeared behind it, and soon the Commandant, in +trousers and slippers, was at the door. He read the note with a frown. + +"Where did you get this?" + +"A sojer come to my house out on the edge o' town, suh, and said he'd kill me +to-morrow if I didn't hand dis note to you pussonally." + +The Commandant turned to Chad. Somehow his manner seemed suddenly changed. + +"Do you know that these men belonged to Morgan's command?" + +"I know that Daniel Dean did and that the man Dillon was with him when +captured." + +Still frowning savagely, the Commandant turned inside to his desk and a moment +later the staff-officer brought out a telegram and gave it to Chad. + +"You can take this to the telegraph office yourself. It is a stay of +execution." + +"Thank you." + +Chad drew a long breath of relief and gladness and patted Dixie on the neck as +he rode slowly toward the low building where he had missed the train on his +first trip to the Capital. The telegraph operator dashed to the door as Chad +drew up in front of it. He looked pale and excited. + +"Send this telegram at once," said Chad. + +The operator looked at it. + +"Not in that direction to-night," he said, with a strained laugh, "the wires +are cut." + +Chad almost reeled in his saddle--then the paper was whisked from the +astonished operator's hand and horse and rider clattered up the hill. + +. . . . . . + +At head-quarters the Commandant was handing the negro's note to a +staff-officer. It read: + +"YOU HANG THOSE TWO MEN AT SUNRISE TO-MORROW, AND I'LL HANG YOU AT SUNDOWN." + +It was signed "John Morgan," and the signature was Morgan's own. + +"I gave the order only last night. How could Morgan have heard of it so soon, +and how could he have got this note to me? Could he have come back?" + +"Impossible," said the staff-officer. "He wouldn't dare come back now." + +The Commandant shook his head doubtfully, and just then there was a knock at +the door and the operator, still pale and excited, spoke his message: + +"General, the wires are cut." + +The two officers stared at each other in silence. + +. . . . . . + +Twenty-seven miles to go and less than three hours before sunrise. There was a +race yet for the life of Daniel Dean. The gallant little mare could cover the +stretch with nearly an hour to spare, and Chad, thrilled in every nerve, but +with calm confidence, raced against the coming dawn. + +"The wires are cut." + +Who had cut them and where and when and why? No matter--Chad had the paper in +his pocket that would save two lives and he would be on time even if Dixie +broke her noble heart, but he could not get the words out of his brain--even +Dixie's hoofs beat them out ceaselessly: + +"The wires are cut--the wires are cut!" + +The mystery would have been clear, had Chad known the message that lay on the +Commandant's desk back at the Capital, for the boy knew Morgan, and that +Morgan's lips never opened for an idle threat. He would have ridden just as +hard, had he known, but a different purpose would have been his. + +An hour more and there was still no light in the East. An hour more and one +red streak had shot upward; then ahead of him gleamed a picket fire --a fire +that seemed farther from town than any post he had seen on his way down to the +Capital --but he galloped on. Within fifty yards a cry came: + +"Halt! Who comes there?" + +"Friend," he shouted, reining in. A bullet whizzed past his head as he pulled +up outside the edge of the fire and Chad shouted indignantly: + +"Don't shoot, you fool! I have a message for General Ward!" + +"Oh! All right! Come on!" said the sentinel, but his hesitation and the tone +of his voice made the boy alert with suspicion. The other pickets about the +fire had risen and grasped their muskets. The wind flared the flames just then +and in the leaping light Chad saw that their uniforms were gray. + +The boy almost gasped. There was need for quick thought and quick action now. + +"Lower that blunderbuss," he called out, jestingly, and kicking loose from one +stirrup, he touched Dixie with the spur and pulled her up with an impatient +"Whoa," as though he were trying to replace his foot. + +"You come on!" said the sentinel, but he dropped his musket to the hollow of +his arm, and, before he could throw it to his shoulder again, fire flashed +under Dixie's feet and the astonished rebel saw horse and rider rise over the +pike-fence. His bullet went overhead as Dixie landed on the other side, and +the pickets at the fire joined in a fusillade at the dark shapes speeding +across the bluegrass field. A moment later Chad's mocking yell rang from the +edge of the woods beyond and the disgusted sentinel split the night with +oaths. + +"That beats the devil. We never touched him I swear, I believe that hoss had +wings." + +Morgan! The flash of that name across his brain cleared the mystery for Chad +like magic. Nobody but Morgan and his daredevils could rise out of the ground +like that in the very midst of enemies when they were supposed to be hundreds +of Mlles away ~n Tennessee. Morgan had cut those wires. Morgan had every road +around Lexington guarded, no doubt, and was at that hour hemming in Chad's +unsuspicious regiment, whose camp was on the other side of town, and unless he +could give warning, Morgan would drop like a thunderbolt on it, asleep. He +must circle the town now to get around the rebel posts, and that meant several +miles more for Dixie. + +He stopped and reached down to feel the little mare's flanks. Dixie drew a +long breath and dropped her muzzle to tear up a rich mouthful of bluegrass. + +"Oh, you beauty!" said the boy, "you wonder!" And on he went, through woodland +and field, over gully, log, and fence, bullets ringing after him from nearly +every road he crossed. + +Morgan was near. In disguise, when Bragg retreated, he had got permission to +leave Kentucky in his own way. That meant wheeling and making straight back to +Lexington to surprise the Fourth Ohio Cavalry; representing himself on the +way, one night, as his old enemy Wolford, and being guided a short cut through +the edge of the Bluegrass by an ardent admirer of the Yankee Colonel--the said +admirer giving Morgan the worst tirade possible, meanwhile, and nearly +tumbling from his horse when Morgan told him who he was and sarcastically +advised him to make sure next time to whom he paid his compliments. + +So that while Chad, with the precious message under his jacket, and Dixie were +lightly thundering along the road, Morgan's Men were gobbling up pickets +around Lexington and making ready for an attack on the sleeping camp at dawn. + +The dawn was nearly breaking now, and Harry Dean was pacing to and fro before +the old CourtHouse where Dan and Rebel Jerry lay under guard --pacing to and +fro and waiting for his mother and sister to come to say the last good-by to +the boy--for Harry had given up hope and had sent for them. At that very hour +Richard Hunt was leading his regiment around the Ashland woods where the enemy +lay; another regiment was taking its place between the camp and the town, and +gray figures were slipping noiselessly on the provost-guard that watched the +rebel prisoners who were waiting for death at sunrise. As the dawn broke, the +dash came, and Harry Dean was sick at heart as he sharply rallied the startled +guard to prevent the rescue of his own brother and straightway delirious with +joy when he saw the gray mass sweeping on him and knew that he would fail. A +few shots rang out; the far rattle of musketry rose between the camp and town; +the thunder of the " Bull Pups" saluted the coming light, and Dan and Rebel +Jerry had suddenly--instead of death--life, liberty, arms, a horse each, and +the sudden pursuit of happiness in a wild dash toward the Yankee camp, while +~n a dew-drenched meadow two miles away Chad Buford drew Dixie in to listen. +The fight was on. + +If the rebels won, Dan Dean would be safe; if the Yankees--then there would +still be need of him and the paper over his heart. He was too late to warn, +but not, maybe, to fight--so he galloped on. + +But the end came as he galloped. The amazed Fourth Ohio threw down its arms at +once, and Richard Hunt and his men, as they sat on their horses outside the +camp picking up stragglers, saw a lone scout coming at a gallop across the +still, gray fields. His horse was black and his uniform was blue, but he came +straight on, apparently not seeing the rebels behind the ragged hedge along +the road. When within thirty yards, Richard Hunt rode through a roadside gate +to meet him and saluted. + +"You are my prisoner," he said, courteously. + +The Yankee never stopped, but wheeled, almost brushing the hedge as he turned. + +"Prisoner--hell!" he said, clearly, and like a bird was skimming away while +the men behind the hedge, paralyzed by his daring, fired not a shot. Only Dan +Dean started through the gate in pursuit. + +"I want him," he said, savagely. + +"Who's that?" asked Morgan, who had ridden up. + +"That's a Yankee," laughed Colonel Hunt. + +"Why didn't you shoot him?" The Colonel laughed again. + +"I don't know," he said, looking around at his men, who, too, were smiling. + +"That's the fellow who gave us so much trouble in the Green River Country," +said a soldier. "It's Chad Buford." + +"Well, I'm glad we didn't shoot him," said Colonel Hunt, thinking of Margaret. +That was not the way he liked to dispose of a rival. + +"Dan will catch him," said an officer. He wants him bad, and I don't wonder." +Just then Chad lifted Dixie over a fence. + +"Not much," said Morgan. "I'd rather you'd shot him than that horse." + +Dan was gaining now, and Chad, in the middle of the field beyond the fence, +turned his head and saw the lone rebel in pursuit. Deliberately he pulled +weary Dixie in, faced about, and waited. He drew his pistol, raised it, saw +that the rebel was Daniel Dean, and dropped it again to his side. Verily the +fortune of that war was strange. Dan's horse refused the fence and the boy, in +a rage, lifted his pistol and fired. Again Chad raised his own pistol and +again he lowered it just as Dan fired again. This time Chad lurched in his +saddle, but recovering himself, turned and galloped slowly away, while +Dan--his pistol hanging at his side--stared after him, and the wondering +rebels behind the hedge stared hard at Dan. + +. . . . . . + +All was over. The Fourth Ohio Cavalry was in rebel hands, and a few minutes +later Dan rode with General Morgan and Colonel Hunt toward the Yankee camp. +There had been many blunders in the fight. Regiments had fired into each other +in the confusion and the "Bull Pups" had kept on pounding the Yankee camp even +while the rebels were taking possession of it. On the way they met Renfrew, +the Silent, in his brilliant Zouave jacket. + +"Colonel," he said, indignantly--and it was the first time many had ever heard +him open his lips --"some officer over there deliberately fired twice at me, +though I was holding my arms over my head." + +"It was dark," said Colonel Hunt, soothingly. "He didn't know you." + +"Ah, Colonel, he might not have known me-- but he must have known this +jacket." + +On the outskirts of one group of prisoners was a tall, slender young +lieutenant with a streak of blood across one cheek. Dan pulled in his horse +and the two met each other's eyes silently. Dan threw himself from his horse. + +"Are you hurt, Harry?" + +"It's nothing--but you've got me, Dan." + +"Why, Harry!" said Morgan. "Is that you? You are paroled, my boy," he added, +kindly. "Go home and stay until you are exchanged." + +So, Harry, as a prisoner, did what he had not done before--he went home +immediately. And home with him went Dan and Colonel Hunt, while they could, +for the Yankees would soon be after them from the north, east, south and west. +Behind them trotted Rebel Jerry. On the edge of town they saw a negro lashing +a pair of horses along the turnpike toward them. Two white faced women were +seated in a carriage behind him, and in a moment Dan was in the arms of his +mother and sister and both women were looking, through tears, their speechless +gratitude to Richard Hunt. + +The three Confederates did not stay long at the Deans'. Jerry Dillon was on +the lookout, and even while the Deans were at dinner, Rufus ran in with the +familiar cry that Yankees were coming. It was a regiment from an adjoining +county, but Colonel Hunt finished his coffee, amid all the excitement, most +leisurely. + +"You'll pardon us for eating and running, won't you, Mrs. Dean?" It was the +first time in her life that Mrs. Dean ever speeded a parting guest. + +"Oh, do hurry, Colonel--please, please." Dan laughed. + +"Good-by, Harry," he said. "We'll give you a week or two at home before we get +that exchange." + +"Don't make it any longer than necessary, please," said Harry, gravely. + +"We're coming back again, Mrs. Dean," said he Colonel, and then in a lower +tone to Margaret: "I'm coming often," he added, and Margaret blushed in a way +that would not have given very great joy to one Chadwick Buford. + +Very leisurely the three rode out to the pike gate, where they halted and +surveyed the advancing column, which was still several hundred yards away, and +then with a last wave of their caps, started in a slow gallop for town. The +advance guard started suddenly in pursuit, and the Deans saw Dan turn in his +saddle and heard his defiant yell. Margaret ran down and fixed her flag in its +place on the fence--Harry watching her. + +"Mother," he said, sadly, "you don't know what trouble you may be laying for +up yourself." + +Fate could hardly lay up more than what she already had, but the mother +smiled. + +"I can do nothing with Margaret," she said. + +In town the Federal flags had been furled and the Stars and Bars thrown out to +the wind. Morgan was preparing to march when Dan and Colonel Hunt galloped up +to head-quarters. + +"They're coming," said Hunt, quietly. + +"Yes," said Morgan, "from every direction." + +"Ah, John," called an old fellow, who, though a Unionist, believing in keeping +peace with both sides, "when we don't expect you--then is the time you come. +Going to stay long?" + +"Not long," said Morgan, grimly. "In fact, I guess we'll be moving along now." + +And he did--back to Dixie with his prisoners, tearing up railroads, burning +bridges and trestles, and pursued by enough Yankees to have eaten him and his +entire command if they ever could have caught him. As they passed into Dixie, +"Lightning" captured a telegraph office and had a last little fling at his +Yankee brethren. + +"Head-quarters, Telegraph Dept. of Ky., Confederate States of America"--thus +he headed his General Order No. to the various Union authorities throughout +the State + +"Hereafter," he clicked, grinning, "an operator will destroy telegraphic +instruments and all material in charge when informed that Morgan has crossed +the border. Such instances of carelessness as lately have been exhibited in +the Bluegrass will be severely dealt with. + +"By order of + +LIGHTNING, + +"Gen. Supt. C. S. Tel. Dept." + +Just about that time Chad Buford, in a Yankee hospital, was coming back from +the land of ether dreams. An hour later, the surgeon who had taken Dan's +bullet from his shoulder, handed him a piece of paper, black with faded blood +and scarcely legible. + +"I found that in your jacket," he said. "Is it important?" + +Chad smiled. + +"No," he said. "Not now." + + + +CHAPTER 25. AFTER DAWS DILLON--GUERILLA + +Once more, and for the last time, Chadwick Buford jogged along the turnpike +from the Ohio to the heart of the Bluegrass. He had filled his empty +shoulder-straps with two bars. He had a bullet wound through one shoulder and +there was a beautiful sabre cut across his right cheek. He looked the soldier +every inch of him; he was, in truth, what he looked; and he was, moreover, a +man. Naturally, his face was stern and resolute, if only from habit of +authority, but he had known no passion during the war that might have seared +its kindness; no other feeling toward his foes than admiration for their +unquenchable courage and miserable regret that to such men he must be a foe. + +Now, it was coming spring again--the spring of '64, and but one more year of +the war to come. + +The capture of the Fourth Ohio by Morgan that autumn of '62 had given Chad his +long-looked-for chance. He turned Dixie's head toward the foothills to join +Wolford, for with Wolford was the work that he loved--that leader being more +like Morgan in his method and daring than any other Federal cavalryman in the +field behind him, in Kentucky, he left the State under martial sway once more, +and, thereafter, the troubles of rebel sympathizers multiplied steadily, for +never again was the State under rebel control. A heavy hand was laid on every +rebel roof. Major Buford was sent to prison again. General Dean was in +Virginia, fighting, and only the fact that there was no man in the Dean +household on whom vengeance could fall, saved Margaret and Mrs. Dean from +suffering, but even the time of women was to come. + +On the last day of '62, Murfreesboro was fought and the second great effort of +the Confederacy at the West was lost. Again Bragg withdrew. On New Year's Day, +'63, Lincoln freed the slaves--and no rebel was more indignant than was +Chadwick Buford. The Kentucky Unionists, in general, protested: the +Confederates had broken the Constitution, they said; the Unionists were +helping to maintain that contract and now the Federals had broken the +Constitution, and their own high ground was swept from beneath their feet. +They protested as bitterly as their foes, be it said, against the Federals +breaking up political conventions with bayonets and against the ruin of +innocent citizens for the crimes of guerillas, for whose acts nobody was +responsible, but all to no avail. The terrorism only grew the more. + +When summer came, and while Grant was bisecting the Confederacy at Vicksburg, +by opening the Mississippi, and Lee was fighting Gettysburg, Chad, with +Wolford, chased Morgan when he gathered his clans for his last daring +venture--to cross the Ohio and strike the enemy on its own hearth-stones--and +thus give him a little taste of what the South had long known from border to +border. Pursued by Federals, Morgan got across the river, waving a farewell to +his pursuing enemies on the other bank, and struck out. Within three days, one +hundred thousand men were after him and his two thousand daredevils, cutting +down trees behind him (in case he should return!), flanking him, getting in +his front, but on he went, uncaught and spreading terror for a thousand miles, +while behind him for six hundred miles country people lined the dusty road, +singing "Rally 'round the Flag, Boys," and handing out fried chicken and +blackberry-pie to his pursuers. Men taken afterward with typhoid fever sang +that song through their delirium and tasted fried chicken no more as long as +they lived. Hemmed in as Morgan was, he would have gotten away, but for the +fact that a heavy fog made him miss the crossing of the river, and for the +further reason that the first rise in the river in that month for twenty years +made it impossible for his command to swim. He might have fought out, but his +ammunition was gone. Many did escape, and Morgan himself could have gotten +away. Chad, himself, saw the rebel chief swimming the river on a powerful +horse, followed by a negro servant on another--saw him turn deliberately in +the middle of the stream, when it was plain that his command could not escape, +and make for the Ohio shore to share the fortunes of his beloved officers who +were left behind. Chad heard him shout to the negro: + +"Go back, you will be drowned." The negro turned his face and Chad laughed--it +was Snowball, grinning and shaking his head: + +"No, Mars John, no suh!" he yelled. "It's all right fer YOU! YOU can git a +furlough, but dis nigger ain't gwine to be cotched in no free State. 'Sides, +Mars Dan, he gwine to get away, too." And Dan did get away, and Chad, to his +shame, saw Morgan and Colonel Hunt loaded on a boat to be sent down to prison +in a State penitentiary! It was a grateful surprise to Chad, two months later, +to learn from a Federal officer that Morgan with six others had dug out of +prison and escaped. + +"I was going through that very town," said the officer, "and a fellow, shaved +and sheared like a convict, got aboard and sat down in the same seat with me. +As we passed the penitentiary, he turned with a yawn--and said, in a +matter-of-fact way: + +"'That's where Morgan is kept, isn't it?" and then he drew out a flask. I +thought he had wonderfully good manners in spite of his looks, and, so help +me, if he didn't wave his hand, bow like a Bayard, and hand it over to me: + +"'Let's drink to the hope that Morgan may always be as safe as he is now.' I +drank to his toast with a hearty Amen, and the fellow never cracked a smile. +It was Morgan himself." + +Early in '64 the order had gone round for negroes to be enrolled as soldiers, +and again no rebel felt more outraged than Chadwick Buford. Wolford, his +commander, was dishonorably dismissed from the service for bitter protests and +harsh open criticism of the Government, and Chad, himself, felt like tearing +off with his own hands the straps which he had won with so much bravery and +worn with so much pride. But the instinct that led him into the Union service +kept his lips sealed when his respect for that service, in his own State, was +well-nigh gone--kept him in that State where he thought his duty lay. There +was need of him and thousands more like him. For, while active war was now +over in Kentucky, its brood of evils was still thickening. Every county in the +State was ravaged by a guerilla band--and the ranks of these marauders began +to be swelled by Confederates, particularly in the mountains and in the hills +that skirt them. Banks, trains, public vaults, stores, were robbed right and +left, and murder and revenge were of daily occurrence. Daws Dillon was an open +terror both in the mountains and in the Bluegrass. Hitherto the bands had been +Union and Confederate but now, more and more, men who had been rebels joined +them. And Chad Buford could understand. For, many a rebel soldier--"hopeless +now for his cause," as Richard Hunt was wont to say, "fighting from pride, +bereft of sympathy, aid, and encouragement that he once received, and +compelled to wring existence from his own countrymen; a cavalryman on some +out-post department, perhaps, without rations, fluttering with rags; shod, if +shod at all, with shoes that sucked in rain and cold; sleeping at night under +the blanket that kept his saddle by day from his sore-backed horse; paid, if +paid at all, with waste paper; hardened into recklessness by war--many a rebel +soldier thus became a guerrilla--consoling himself, perhaps, with the thought +that his desertion was not to the enemy." + +Bad as the methods of such men were, they were hardly worse than the means +taken in retaliation. At first, Confederate sympathizers were arrested and +held as hostages for all persons captured and detained by guerillas. Later, +when a citizen was killed by one of these bands, four prisoners, supposed to +be chosen from this class of free-booters, were taken from prison and shot to +death on the spot where the deed was done. Now it was rare that one of these +brigands was ever taken alive, and thus regular soldier after soldier who was +a prisoner of war, and entitled to consideration as such, was taken from +prison and murdered by the Commandant without even a court-martial. It was +such a death that Dan Dean and Rebel Jerry had narrowly escaped. Union men +were imprisoned even for protesting against these outrages, so that between +guerilla and provost-marshal no citizen, whether Federal or Confederate, in +sympathy, felt safe in property, life, or liberty. The better Unionists were +alienated, but worse yet was to come. Hitherto, only the finest chivalry had +been shown women and children throughout the war. Women whose brothers and +husbands and sons were in the rebel army, or dead on the battle-field, were +banished now with their children to Canada under a negro guard, or sent to +prison. State authorities became openly arrayed against provost-marshals and +their followers. There was almost an open clash. The Governor, a Unionist, +threatened even to recall the Kentucky troops from the field to come back and +protect their homes. Even the Home Guards got disgusted with their masters, +and for a while it seemed as if the State, between guerilla and +provost-marshal, would go to pieces. For months the Confederates had +repudiated all connection with these free-booters and had joined with Federals +in hunting them down, but when the State government tried to raise troops to +crush them, the Commandant not only ordered his troops to resist the State, +but ordered the muster-out of all State troops then in service. + +The Deans little knew then how much trouble Captain Chad Buford, whose daring +service against guerillas had given him great power with the Union +authorities, had saved them--how he had kept them from arrest and imprisonment +on the charge of none other than Jerome Conners, the overseer; how he had +ridden out to pay his personal respects to the complainant, and that brave +gentleman, seeing him from afar, had mounted his horse and fled, +terror-stricken. They never knew that just after this he had got a furlough +and gone to see Grant himself, who had sent him on to tell his story to Mr. +Lincoln + +"Go back to Kentucky, then," said Grant, with his quiet smile, "and if General +Ward has nothing particular for you to do, I want him to send you to me," and +Chad had gone from him, dizzy with pride and hope. + +"I'm going to do something," said Mr. Lincoln, "and I'm going to do it right +away." + +And now, in the spring of '64, Chad carried in his breast despatches from the +President himself to General Ward at Lexington. + +As he rode over the next hill, from which he would get his first glimpse of +his old home and the Deans', his heart beat fast and his eyes swept both sides +of the road. Both houses even the Deans'--were shuttered and closed--both +tenantless. He saw not even a negro cabin that showed a sign of life. + +On he went at a gallop toward Lexington. Not a single rebel flag had he seen +since he left the Ohio, nor was he at all surprised; the end could not be far +off, and there was no chance that the Federals would ever again lose the +State. + +On the edge of the town he overtook a Federal officer. It was Harry Dean, pale +and thin from long imprisonment and sickness. Harry had been with Sherman, had +been captured again, and, in prison, had almost died with fever. He had come +home to get well only to find his sister and mother sent as exiles to Canada. +Major Buford was still in prison, Miss Lucy was dead, and Jerome Conners +seemed master of the house and farm. General Dean had been killed, had been +sent home, and was buried in the garden. It was only two days after the +burial, Harry said, that Margaret and her mother had to leave their home. Even +the bandages that Mrs. Dean had brought out to Chad's wounded sergeant, that +night he had captured and lost Dan, had been brought up as proof that she and +Margaret were aiding and abetting Confederates. Dan had gone to join Morgan +and Colonel Hunt over in southwestern Virginia, where Morgan had at last got a +new command only a few months before. Harry made no word of comment, but +Chad's heart got bitter as gall as he listened. And this had happened to the +Deans while he was gone to serve them. But the bloody Commandant of the State +would be removed from power--that much good had been done--as Chad learned +when he presented himself, with a black face, to his general. + +"I could not help it," said the General, quickly. "He seems to have hated the +Deans." And again read the despatches slowly. "You have done good work. There +will be less trouble now." Then he paused. "I have had a letter from General +Grant. He wants you on his staff." Again he paused, and it took the three past +years of discipline to help Chad keep his self-control. "That is, if I have +nothing particular for you to do. He seems to know what you have done and to +suspect that there may be something more here for you to do. He's right. I +want you to destroy Daws Dillon and his band. There will be no peace until he +is out of the way. You know the mountains better than anybody. You are the man +for the work. You will take one company from Wolford's regiment--he has been +reinstated, you know--and go at once. When you have finished that--you can go +to General Grant." The General smiled. "You are rather young to be so near a +major--perhaps." + +A major! The quick joy of the thought left him when he went down the stairs to +the portico and saw Harry Dean's thin, sad face, and thought of the new grave +in the Deans' garden and those two lonely women in exile. There was one small +grain of consolation. It was his old enemy, Daws Dillon, who had slain Joel +Turner; Daws who had almost ruined Major Buford and had sent him to +prison--Daws had played no small part in the sorrows of the Deans, and on the +heels of Daws Dillon he soon would be. + +"I suppose I am to go with you," said Harry. + +"Why, yes," said Chad, startled; "how did you know?" + +"I didn't know. How far is Dillon's hiding-place from where Morgan is?" + +"Across the mountains." Chad understood suddenly. "You won't have to go," he +said, quickly. + +"I'll go where I am ordered," said Harry Dean. + + + +CHAPTER 26. BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER AT LAST + +It was the first warm day of spring and the sunshine was very soothing to +Melissa as she sat on the old porch early in the afternoon. Perhaps it was a +memory of childhood, perhaps she was thinking of the happy days she and Chad +had spent on the river bank long ago, and perhaps it was the sudden thought +that, with the little they had to eat in the house and that little the same +three times a day, week in and week out, Mother Turner, who had been ailing, +would like to have some fish; perhaps it was the primitive hunting instinct +that, on such a day, sets a country boy's fingers itching for a squirrel rifle +or a cane fishing-pole, but she sprang from her seat, leaving old Jack to doze +on the porch, and, in half an hour, was crouched down behind a boulder below +the river bend, dropping a wriggling worm into a dark, still pool. As she sat +there, contented and luckless, the sun grew so warm that she got drowsy and +dozed--how long she did not know--but she awoke with a start and with a +frightened sense that someone was near her, though she could hear no sound. +But she lay still--her heart beating high--and so sure that her instinct was +true that she was not even surprised when she heard a voice in the thicket +above--a low voice, but one she knew perfectly well: + +"I tell you he's a-comin' up the river now. He's a-goin' to stay with ole Ham +Blake ter-night over the mountain an' he'll be a-comin' through Hurricane Gap +'bout daylight termorrer or next day, shore. He's got a lot o' men, but we can +layway 'em in the Gap an' git away all right." It was Tad Dillon +speaking--Daws Dillon, his brother, answered: + +"I don't want to kill anybody but that damned Chad--Captain Chad BUFORD, he +calls hisself." + +"Well, we can git him all right. I heerd that they was a-lookin' fer us an' +was goin' to ketch us if they could." + +"I wish I knowed that was so," said Daws with an oath. "Nary a one of 'em +would git away alive if I just knowed it was so. But we'll git CAPTAIN Chad +Buford, shore as hell! You go tell the boys to guard the Gap ter-night. They +mought come through afore day." And then the noise of their footsteps fainted +out of hearing and Melissa rose and sped back to the house. + +From behind a clump of bushes above where she had sat, rose the gigantic +figure of Rebel Jerry Dillon. He looked after the flying girl with a grim +smile and then dropped his great bulk down on the bed of moss where he had +been listening to the plan of his enemies and kinsmen. Jerry had made many +expeditions over from Virginia lately and each time he had gone back with a +new notch on the murderous knife that he carried in his belt. He had but two +personal enemies alive now--Daws Dillon, who had tried to have him shot, and +his own brother, Yankee Jake. This was the second time he had been over for +Daws, and after his first trip he had persuaded Dan to ask permission from +General Morgan to take a company into Kentucky and destroy Daws and his band, +and Morgan had given him leave, for Federals and Confederates were chasing +down these guerillas now--sometimes even joining forces to further their +common purpose. Jerry had been slipping through the woods after Daws, meaning +to crawl close enough to kill him and, perhaps, Tad Dillon too, if necessary, +but after hearing their plan he had let them go, for a bigger chance might be +at hand. If Chad Buford was in the mountains looking for Daws, Yankee Jake was +with him. If he killed Daws now, Chad and his men would hear of his death and +would go back, most likely--and that was the thought that checked his finger +on the trigger of his pistol. Another thought now lifted him to his feet with +surprising quickness and sent him on a run down the river where his horse was +hitched in the bushes. He would go over the mountain for Dan. He could lead +Dan and his men to Hurricane Gap by daylight. Chad Buford could fight it out +with Daws and his gang, and he and Dan would fight it out with the men who +won--no matter whether Yankees or guerillas. And a grim smile stayed on Rebel +Jerry's face as he climbed. + +On the porch of the Turner cabin sat Melissa with her hands clinched and old +Jack's head in her lap. There was no use worrying Mother Turner--she feared +even to tell her--but what should she do? She might boldly cross the mountain +now, for she was known to be a rebel, but the Dillons knowing, too, how close +Chad had once been to the Turners might suspect and stop her. No, if she went +at all, she must go after nightfall--but how would she get away from Mother +Turner, and how could she make her way, undetected through Hurricane Gap? The +cliffs were so steep and close together in one place that she could hardly +pass more than forty feet from the road on either side and she could not pass +that close to pickets and not be heard. Her brain ached with planning and she +was so absorbed as night came on that several times old Mother Turner +querulously asked what was ailing her and why she did not pay more heed to her +work, and the girl answered her patiently and went on with her planning. +Before dark, she knew what she would do, and after the old mother was asleep, +she rose softly and slipped out the door without awakening even old Jack, and +went to the barn, where she got the sheep-bell that old Beelzebub used to wear +and with the clapper caught in one hand, to keep the bell from tinkling, she +went swiftly down the road toward Hurricane Gap. Several times she had to dart +into the bushes while men on horseback rode by her, and once she came near +being caught by three men on foot--all hurrying at Daws Dillon's order to the +Gap through which she must go. When the road turned from the river, she went +slowly along the edge of it, so that if discovered, she could leap with one +spring into the bushes. It was raining--a cold drizzle that began to chill her +and set her to coughing so that she was half afraid that she might disclose +herself. At the mouth of the Gap she saw a fire on one side of the road and +could hear talking, but she had no difficulty passing it, on the other side. +But on, where the Gap narrowed--there was the trouble. It must have been an +hour before midnight when she tremblingly neared the narrow defile. The rain +had ceased, and as she crept around a boulder she could see, by the light of +the moon between two black clouds, two sentinels beyond. The crisis was at +hand now. She slipped to one side of the road, climbed the cliff as high as +she could and crept about it. She was past one picket now, and in her +eagerness one foot slipped and she half fell. She almost held her breath and +lay still. + +"I hear somethin' up thar in the bresh," shouted the second picket. "Halt!" + +Melissa tinkled the sheep-bell and pushed a bush to and fro as though a sheep +or a cow might be rubbing itself, and the picket she had passed laughed aloud. + +"Goin' to shoot ole Sally Perkins's cow, air you?" he said, jeeringly. "Yes, I +heerd her," he added, lying; for, being up all the night before, he had +drowsed at his post. A moment later, Melissa moved on, making considerable +noise and tinkling her bell constantly. She was near the top now and when she +peered out through the bushes, no one was in sight and she leaped into the +road and fled down the mountain. At the foot of the spur another ringing cry +smote the darkness in front of her: + +"Halt! Who goes there?" + +"Don't shoot!" she cried, weakly. "It's only me." + +"Advance, 'Me,'" said the picket, astonished to hear a woman's voice. And then +into the light of his fire stepped a shepherdess with a sheep-bell in her +hand, with a beautiful, pale, distressed face, a wet, clinging dress, and +masses of yellow hair surging out of the shawl over her head. The ill startled +picket dropped the butt of his musket to the ground and stared. + +"I want to see Ch--, your captain," she said, timidly. + +"All right," said the soldier, courteously. "He's just below there and I guess +he's up. We are getting ready to start now. Come along." + +"Oh, no!" said Melissa, hurriedly. "I can't go down there." It had just struck +her that Chad must not see her; but the picket thought she naturally did not +wish to face a lot of soldiers in her bedraggled and torn dress, and he said +quickly: + +"All right. Give me your message and I'll take it to him." He smiled. "You can +wait here and stand guard." + +Melissa told him hurriedly how she had come over the mountain and what was +going on over there, and the picket with a low whistle started down toward his +camp without another word. + +Chad could not doubt the accuracy of the information--the picket had names and +facts. + +"A girl, you say?" + +"Yes, sir"--the soldier hesitated--"and a very pretty one, too. She came over +the mountain alone and on foot through this darkness. She passed the pickets +on the other side--pretending to be a sheep. She had a bell in her hand." Chad +smiled--he knew that trick. + +"Where is she?" + +"She's standing guard for me." + +The picket turned at a gesture from Chad and led the way. They found no +Melissa. She had heard Chad's voice and fled up the mountain. Before daybreak +she was descending the mountain on the other side, along the same way, +tinkling her sheep-bell and creeping past the pickets. It was raining again +now and her cold had grown worse. Several times she had to muffle her face +into her shawl to keep her cough from betraying her. As she passed the ford +below the Turner cabin, she heard the splash of many horses crossing the river +and she ran on, frightened and wondering. Before day broke she had slipped +into her bed without arousing Mother Turner, and she did not get up that day, +but lay ill abed. + +The splashing of those many horses was made by Captain Daniel Dean and his +men, guided by Rebel Jerry. High on the mountain side they hid their horses in +a ravine and crept toward the Gap on foot--so that while Daws with his gang +waited for Chad, the rebels lay in the brush waiting for him. Dan was merry +over the prospect: + +"We will just let them fight it out," he said, "and then we'll dash in and +gobble 'em both up. That was a fine scheme of yours, Jerry." + +Rebel Jerry smiled: there was one thing he had not told his captain--who those +rebels were. Purposely he had kept that fact hidden. He had seen Dan purposely +refrain from killing Chad Buford once and he feared that Dan might think his +brother Harry was among the Yankees. All this Rebel Jerry failed to +understand, and he wanted nothing known now that might stay anybody's hand. +Dawn broke and nothing happened. Not a shot rang out and only the smoke of the +guerillas' fire showed in the peaceful mouth of the Gap. Dan wanted to attack +the guerillas, but Jerry persuaded him to wait until he could learn how the +land lay, and disappeared in the bushes. At noon he came back. + +"The Yankees have found out Daws is thar in the Gap," he said, "an' they are +goin' to slip over before day ter-morrer and s'prise him. Hit don't make no +difference to us, which s'prises which--does it?" + +So the rebels kept hid through the day in the bushes on the mountain side, and +when Chad slipped through the Gap next morning, before day, and took up the +guerilla pickets, Dan had moved into the same Gap from the other side, and was +lying in the bushes with his men, near the guerillas' fire, waiting for the +Yankees to make their attack. He had not long to wait. At the first white +streak of dawn overhead, a shout rang through the woods from the Yankees to +the startled guerillas. + +"Surrender!" A fusillade followed. Again: + +"Surrender!" and there was a short silence, broken by low curses from the +guerillas, and a stern Yankee voice giving short, quick orders. The guerillas +had given up. Rebel Jerry moved restlessly at Dan's side and Dan cautioned +him. + +"Wait! Let them have time to disarm the prisoners," he whispered. + +"Now," he added, a little while later--"creep quietly, boys." + +Forward they went like snakes, creeping to the edge of the brush whence they +could see the sullen guerillas grouped on one side of the fire--their arms +stacked, while a tall figure in blue moved here and there, and gave orders in +a voice that all at once seemed strangely familiar to Dan. + +"Now, boys," he said, half aloud, "give 'em a volley and charge." + +At his word there was a rattling fusillade, and then the rebels leaped from +the bushes and dashed on the astonished Yankees and their prisoners. It was +pistol to pistol at first and then they closed to knife thrust and musket +butt, hand to hand--in a cloud of smoke. At the first fire from the rebels +Chad saw his prisoner, Daws Dillon, leap for the stacked arms and disappear. A +moment later, as he was emptying his pistol at his charging foes, he felt a +bullet clip a lock of hair from the back of his head and he turned to see Daws +on the farthest edge of the firelight levelling his pistol for another shot +before he ran. Like lightning he wheeled and when his finger pulled the +trigger, Daws sank limply, his grinning, malignant face sickening as he fell. + +The tall fellow in blue snapped his pistol at Dan, and as Dan, whose pistol, +too, was empty, sprang forward and closed with him, he heard a triumphant yell +behind him and Rebel Jerry's huge figure flashed past him. With the same +glance he saw among the Yankees another giant--who looked like another +Jerry--saw his face grow ghastly with fear when Jerry's yell rose, and then +grow taut with ferocity as he tugged at his sheath to meet the murderous knife +flashing toward him. The terrible Dillon twins were come together at last, and +Dan shuddered, but he saw no more, for he was busy with the lithe Yankee in +whose arms he was closed. As they struggled, Dan tried to get his knife and +the Yankee tugged for his second pistol each clasping the other's wrist. Not a +sound did they make nor could either see the other's face, for Dan had his +chin in his opponent's breast and was striving to bend him backward. He had +clutched the Yankee's right hand, as it went back for his pistol, just as the +Yankee had caught his right in front, feeling for his knife. The advantage +would have been all Dan's except that the Yankee suddenly loosed his wrist and +gripped him tight about the body in an underhold, so that Dan could not whirl +him round; but he could twist that wrist and twist it he did, with both hands +and all his strength. Once the Yankee gave a smothered groan of pain and Dan +heard him grit his teeth to keep it back. The smoke had lifted now, and, when +they fell, it was in the light of the fire. The Yankee had thrown him with a +knee-trick that Harry used to try on him when they were boys, but something +about the Yankee snapped, as they fell, and he groaned aloud. Clutching him by +the throat, Dan threw him oft--he could get at his knife now. + +"Surrender!" he said, hoarsely. + +His answer was a convulsive struggle and then the Yankee lay still. + +"Surrender!" said Dan again, lifting his knife above the Yankee's breast, "or, +damn you, I'll--" + +The Yankee had turned his face weakly toward the fire, and Dan, with a cry of +horror, threw his knife away and sprang to his feet. Straightway the Yankee's +closed eyes opened and he smiled faintly. + +"Why, Dan, is that you?" he asked. "I thought it would come," he added, +quietly, and then Harry Dean lapsed into unconsciousness. + +Thus, at its best, this fratricidal war was being fought out that daybreak in +one little hollow of the Kentucky mountains and thus, at its worst, it was +being fought out in another little hollow scarcely twenty yards away, where +the giant twins--Rebel Jerry and Yankee Jake--who did know they were brothers, +sought each other's lives in mutual misconception and mutual hate. + +There were a dozen dead Federals and guerillas around the fire, and among them +was Daws Dillon with the pallor of death on his face and the hate that life +had written there still clinging to it like a shadow. As Dan bent tenderly +over his brother Harry, two soldiers brought in a huge body from the bushes, +and he turned to see Rebel Jerry Dillon. There were a half a dozen rents in +his uniform and a fearful slash under his chin--but he was breathing still. +Chad Buford had escaped and so had Yankee Jake. + + + +CHAPTER 27. AT THE HOSPITAL OF MORGAN'S MEN + +In May, Grant simply said--Forward! The day he crossed the Rapidan, he said it +to Sherman down in Georgia. After the battle of the Wilderness he said it +again, and the last brutal resort of hammering down the northern buttress and +sea-wall of the rebellion--old Virginia--and Atlanta, the keystone of the +Confederate arch, was well under way. Throughout those bloody days Chad was +with Grant and Harry Dean was with Sherman on his terrible trisecting march to +the sea. For, after the fight between Rebels and Yankees and Daws Dillon's +guerilla band, over in Kentucky, Dan, coming back from another raid into the +Bluegrass, had found his brother gone. Harry had refused to accept a parole +and had escaped. Not a man, Dan was told, fired a shot at him, as he ran. One +soldier raised his musket, but Renfrew the Silent struck the muzzle upward. + +In September, Atlanta fell and, in that same month, Dan saw his great leader, +John Morgan, dead in Tennessee. In December, the Confederacy toppled at the +west under Thomas's blows at Nashville. In the spring of '65, one hundred and +thirty-five thousand wretched, broken-down rebels, from Richmond to the Rio +Grande, confronted Grant's million men, and in April, Five Forks was the +beginning of the final end everywhere. + +At midnight, Captain Daniel Dean, bearer of dispatches to the great +Confederate General in Virginia, rode out of abandoned Richmond with the +cavalry of young Fitzhugh Lee. They had threaded their way amid troops, +trains, and artillery across the bridge. The city was on fire. By its light, +the stream of humanity was pouring out of town--Davis and his cabinet, +citizens, soldiers, down to the mechanics in the armories and workshops. The +chief concern with all was the same, a little to eat for a few days; for, with +the morning, the enemy would come and Confederate money would be as mist. Afar +off the little fleet of Confederate gunboats blazed and the thundering +explosions of their magazines split the clear air. Freight depots with +supplies were burning. Plunderers were spreading the fires and slipping like +ghouls through red light and black shadows. At daybreak the last retreating +gun rumbled past and, at sunrise, Dan looked back from the hills on the +smoking and deserted city and Grant's blue lines sweeping into it. + +Once only he saw his great chief--the next morning before day, when he rode +through the chill mist and darkness to find the head-quarters of the +commanding General--two little fires of rubbish and two ambulances--with Lee +lying on a blanket under the open sky. He rose, as Dan drew near, and the +firelight fell full on his bronzed and mournful face. He looked so sad and so +noble that the boy's heart was wrenched, and as Dan turned away, he said, +brokenly: + +"General, I am General Dean's son, and I want to thank you--" He could get no +farther. Lee laid one hand on his shoulder. + +"Be as good a man as your father was, my boy," he said, and Dan rode back the +pitiable way through the rear of that noble army of Virginia--through ranks of +tattered, worn, hungry soldiers, among the broken debris of wagons and +abandoned guns, past skeleton horses and skeleton men. + +All hope was gone, but Fitz Lee led his cavalry through the Yankee lines and +escaped. In that flight Daniel Dean got his only wound in the war--a bullet +through the shoulder. When the surrender came, Fitz Lee gave up, too, and led +back his command to get Grant's generous terms. But all his men did not go +with him, and among the cavalrymen who went on toward southwestern Virginia +was Dan--making his way back to Richard Hunt--for now that gallant Morgan was +dead, Hunt was general of the old command. + +Behind, at Appomattox, Chad was with Grant. He saw the surrender--saw Lee look +toward his army, when he came down the steps after he had given up, saw him +strike his hands together three times and ride Traveller away through the +profound and silent respect of his enemies and the tearful worship of his own +men. And Chad got permission straightway to go back to Ohio, and he mustered +out with his old regiment, and he, too, started back through Virginia. + +Meanwhile, Dan was drawing near the mountains. He was worn out when he reached +Abingdon. The wound in his shoulder was festering and he was in a high fever. +At the camp of Morgan's Men he found only a hospital left--for General Hunt +had gone southward--and a hospital was what he most needed now. As he lay, +unconscious with fever, next day, a giant figure, lying near, turned his head +and stared at the boy. It was Rebel Jerry Dillon, helpless from a sabre cut +and frightfully scarred by the fearful wounds his brother, Yankee Jake, had +given him. And thus, Chadwick Buford, making for the Ohio, saw the two strange +messmates, a few days later, when he rode into the deserted rebel camp. + +All was over. Red Mars had passed beyond the horizon and the white Star of +Peace already shone faintly on the ravaged South. The shattered remnants of +Morgan's cavalry, pall-bearers of the Lost Cause--had gone South--bare-footed +and in rags--to guard Jefferson Davis to safety, and Chad's heart was wrung +when he stepped into the little hospital they had left behind--a space cleared +into a thicket of rhododendron. There was not a tent--there was little +medicine--little food. The drizzling rain dropped on the group of ragged sick +men from the branches above them. Nearly all were youthful, and the youngest +was a mere boy, who lay delirious with his head on the root of a tree. As Chad +stood looking, the boy opened his eyes and his mouth twitched with pain. + +"Hello, you damned Yankee." Again his mouth twitched and again the old +dare-devil light that Chad knew so well kindled in his hazy eyes. + +"I said," he repeated, distinctly, "Hello, you damned Yank. DAMNED Yank I +said." Chad beckoned to two men. + +"Go bring a stretcher." + +The men shook their heads with a grim smile--they had no stretcher. + +The boy talked dreamily. + +"Say, Yank, didn't we give you hell in--oh, well, in lots o' places. But +you've got me." The two soldiers were lifting him in their arms. "Goin' to +take me to prison? Goin' to take me out to shoot me, Yank? You ARE a damned +Yank." A hoarse growl rose behind them and the giant lifted himself on one +elbow, swaying his head from side to side. + +"Let that boy alone!" Dan nodded back at him confidently. + +"That's all right, Jerry. This Yank's a friend of mine." His brow wrinkled. +"At any rate he looks like somebody I know. He's goin' to give me something to +eat and get me well--like hell," he added to himself--passing off into +unconsciousness again. Chad had the lad carried to his own tent, had him +stripped, bathed, and bandaged and stood looking down at him. It was hard to +believe that the broken, aged youth was the red-cheeked, vigorous lad whom he +had known as Daniel Dean. He was ragged, starved, all but bare-footed, +wounded, sick, and yet he was as undaunted, as defiant, as when he charged +with Morgan's dare-devils at the beginning of the war. Then Chad went back to +the hospital--for a blanket and some medicine. + +"They are friends," he said to the Confederate surgeon, pointing at a huge +gaunt figure. + +"I reckon that big fellow has saved that boy's life a dozen times. Yes, +they're mess-mates." + +And Chad stood looking down at Jerry Dillon, one of the giant twins--whose +name was a terror throughout the mountains of the middle south. Then he turned +and the surgeon followed. + +There was a rustle of branches on one side when they were gone, and at the +sound the wounded man lifted his head. The branches parted and the oxlike face +of Yankee Jake peered through. For a full minute, the two brothers stared at +each other. + +"I reckon you got me, Jake," said Jerry. + +"I been lookin' fer ye a long while," said Jake, simply, and he smiled +strangely as he moved slowly forward and looked down at his enemy--his heavy +head wagging from side to side. Jerry was fumbling at his belt. The big knife +flashed, but Jake's hand was as quick as its gleam, and he had the wrist that +held it. His great fingers crushed together, the blade dropped on the ground, +and again the big twins looked at each other. Slowly, Yankee Jake picked up +the knife. The other moved not a muscle and in his fierce eyes was no plea for +mercy. The point of the blade moved slowly down--down over the rebel's heart, +and was thrust into its sheath again. Then Jake let go the wrist. + +"Don't tech it agin," he said, and he strode away. The big fellow lay +blinking. He did not open his lips when, in a moment, Yankee Jake slouched in +with a canteen of water. When Chad came back, one giant was drawing on the +other a pair of socks. The other was still silent and had his face turned the +other way. Looking up, Jake met Chad's surprised gaze with a grin. + +A day later, Dan came to his senses. A tent was above him, a heavy blanket was +beneath him and there were clothes on his body that felt strangely fresh and +clean. He looked up to see Chad's face between the flaps of the tent. + +"D'you do this?" + +"That's all right," said Chad. "This war is over." And he went away to let Dan +think it out. When he came again, Dan held out his hand silently. + + + +CHAPTER 28. PALL-BEARERS OF THE LOST CAUSE + +The rain was falling with a steady roar when General Hunt broke camp a few +days before. The mountain-tops were black with thunderclouds, and along the +muddy road went Morgan's Men--most of them on mules which had been taken from +abandoned wagons when news of the surrender came--without saddles and with +blind bridles or rope halters--the rest slopping along through the yellow mud +on foot--literally--for few of them had shoes; they were on their way to +protect Davis and join Johnston, now that Lee was no more. There was no +murmuring, no faltering, and it touched Richard Hunt to observe that they were +now more prompt to obedience, when it was optional with them whether they +should go or stay, than they had ever been in the proudest days of the +Confederacy. + +Threatened from Tennessee and cut off from Richmond, Hunt had made up his mind +to march eastward to join Lee, when the news of the surrender came. Had the +sun at that moment dropped suddenly to the horizon from the heaven above them, +those Confederates would have been hardly more startled or plunged into deeper +despair. Crowds of infantry threw down their arms and, with the rest, all +sense of discipline was lost. Of the cavalry, however, not more than ten men +declined to march south, and out they moved through the drenching rain in a +silence that was broken only with a single cheer when ninety men from another +Kentucky brigade joined them, who, too, felt that as long as the Confederate +Government survived, there was work for them to do. So on they went to keep up +the struggle, if the word was given, skirmishing, fighting and slipping past +the enemies that were hemming them in, on with Davis, his cabinet, and General +Breckinridge to join Taylor and Forrest in Alabama. Across the border of South +Carolina, an irate old lady upbraided Hunt for allowing his soldiers to take +forage from her barn. + +"You are a gang of thieving Kentuckians," she said, hotly; "you are afraid to +go home, while our boys are surrendering decently." + +"Madam!"--Renfrew the Silent spoke--spoke from the depths of his once +brilliant jacket--"you South Carolinians had a good deal to say about getting +up this war, but we Kentuckians have contracted to close it out." + +Then came the last Confederate council of war. In turn, each officer spoke of +his men and of himself and each to the same effect; the cause was lost and +there was no use in prolonging the war. + +"We will give our lives to secure your safety, but we cannot urge our men to +struggle against a fate that is inevitable, and perhaps thus forfeit all hope +of a restoration to their homes and friends." + +Davis was affable, dignified, calm, undaunted. + +"I will hear of no plan that is concerned only with my safety. A few brave men +can prolong the war until this panic has passed, and they will be a nucleus +for thousands more." + +The answer was silence, as the gaunt, beaten man looked from face to face. He +rose with an effort. + +"I see all hope is gone," he said, bitterly, and though his calm remained, his +bearing was less erect, his face was deathly pale and his step so infirm that +he leaned upon General Breckinridge as he neared the door--in the bitterest +moment, perhaps, of his life. + +So, the old Morgan's Men, so long separated, were united at the end. In a +broken voice General Hunt forbade the men who had followed him on foot three +hundred miles from Virginia to go farther, but to disperse to their homes; and +they wept like children. + +In front of him was a big force of Federal cavalry; retreat the way he had +come was impossible, and to the left, if he escaped, was the sea; but +dauntless Hunt refused to surrender except at the order of a superior, or +unless told that all was done that could be done to assure the escape of his +President. That order came from Breckinridge. + +"Surrender," was the message. "Go back to your homes, I will not have one of +these young men encounter one more hazard for my sake." + +That night Richard Hunt fought out his fight with himself, pacing to and fro +under the stars. He had struggled faithfully for what he believed still +believed, and would, perhaps, always believe, was right. He had fought for the +broadest ideal of liberty as he understood it, for citizen, State and nation. +The appeal had gone to the sword and the verdict was against him. He would +accept it. He would go home, take the oath of allegiance, resume the law, and, +as an American citizen, do his duty. He had no sense of humiliation he had no +apology to make and would never have--he had done his duty. He felt no +bitterness, and had no fault to find with his foes, who were brave and had +done their duty as they had seen it; for he granted them the right to see a +different duty from what he had decided was his. And that was all. + +Renfrew the Silent was waiting at the smouldering fire. He neither looked up +nor made any comment when General Hunt spoke his determination. His own face +grew more sullen and he reached his hand into his breast and pulled from his +faded jacket the tattered colors that he once had borne. + +"These will never be lowered as long as I live," he said, "nor afterwards if I +can prevent it." And lowered they never were. On a little island in the +Pacific Ocean, this strange soldier, after leaving his property and his +kindred forever, lived out his life among the natives with this bloodstained +remnant of the Stars and Bars over his hut, and when he died, the flag was +hung over his grave, and above that grave to-day the tattered emblem still +sways in southern air. + +. . . . . . + +A week earlier, two Rebels and two Yankees started across the mountain +together--Chad and Dan and the giant Dillon twins--Chad and Yankee Jake afoot. +Up Lonesome they went toward the shaggy flank of Black Mountain where the +Great Reaper had mowed down Chad's first friends. The logs of the cabin were +still standing, though the roof was caved in and the yard was a tangle of +undergrowth. A dull pain settled in Chad's breast, while he looked, and as +they were climbing the spur, he choked when he caught sight of the graves +under the big poplar. + +There was the little pen that he had built over his foster-mother's +grave--still undisturbed. He said nothing and, as they went down the spur, +across the river and up Pine Mountain, he kept his gnawing memories to +himself. Only ten years before, and he seemed an old, old man now. He +recognized the very spot where he had slept the first night after he ran away +and awakened to that fearful never-forgotten storm at sunrise, which lived in +his memory now as a mighty portent of the storms of human passion that had +swept around him on many a battlefield. There was the very tree where he had +killed the squirrel and the rattlesnake. It was bursting spring now, but the +buds of laurel and rhododendron were unbroken. Down Kingdom Come they went. +Here was where he had met the old cow, and here was the little hill where Jack +had fought Whizzer and he had fought Tad Dillon and where he had first seen +Melissa. Again the scarlet of her tattered gown flashed before his eyes. At +the bend of the river they parted from the giant twins. Faithful Jake's face +was foolish when Chad took him by the hand and spoke to him, as man to man, +and Rebel Jerry turned his face quickly when Dan told him that he would never +forget him, and made him promise to come to see him, if Jerry ever took +another raft down to the capital. Looking back from the hill, Chad saw them +slowly moving along a path toward the woods--not looking at each other and +speaking not at all. + +Beyond rose the smoke of the old Turner cabin. On the porch sat the old Turner +mother, her bonnet in her hand, her eyes looking down the river. Dozing at her +feet was Jack--old Jack. She had never forgiven Chad, and she could not +forgive him now, though Chad saw her eyes soften when she looked at the +tattered butternut that Dan wore. But Jack--half-blind and aged--sprang +trembling to his feet when he heard Chad's voice and whimpered like a child. +Chad sank on the porch with one arm about the old dog's neck. Mother Turner +answered all questions shortly. + +Melissa had gone to the "Settlemints." Why? The old woman would not answer. +She was coming back, but she was ill. She had never been well since she went +afoot, one cold night, to warn some YANKEE that Daws Dillon was after him. +Chad started. It was Melissa who had perhaps saved his life. Tad Dillon had +stepped into Daws's shoes, and the war was still going on in the hills. Tom +Turner had died in prison. The old mother was waiting for Dolph and Rube to +come back--she was looking for them every hour, day and night She did not know +what had become of the school-master--but Chad did, and he told her. The +school-master had died, storming breastworks at Gettysburg. The old woman said +not a word. + +Dan was too weak to ride now. So Chad got Dave Hilton, Melissa's old +sweetheart, to take Dixie to Richmond--a little Kentucky town on the edge of +the Bluegrass--and leave her there and he bought the old Turner canoe. She +would have no use for it, Mother Turner said--he could have it for nothing; +but when Chad thrust a ten dollar Federal bill into her hands, she broke down +and threw her arms around him and cried. + +So down the river went Chad and Dan--drifting with the tide--Chad in the +stern, Dan lying at full length, with his head on a blue army-coat and looking +up at the over-swung branches and the sky and the clouds above them--down, +through a mist of memories for Chad--down to the capital. + +And Harry Dean, too, was on his way home--coming up from the far South--up +through the ravaged land of his own people, past homes and fields which his +own hands had helped to lay waste. + + + +CHAPTER 29. MELISSA AND MARGARET + +The early spring sunshine lay like a benediction over the Dean household, for +Margaret and her mother were home from exile. On the corner of the veranda sat +Mrs. Dean, where she always sat, knitting. Under the big weeping willow in the +garden was her husband's grave. When she was not seated near it, she was there +in the porch, and to it her eyes seemed always to stray when she lifted them +from her work. + +The mail had just come and Margaret was reading a letter from Dan, and, as she +read, her cheeks flushed. + +"He took me into his own tent, mother, and put his own clothes on me and +nursed me like a brother. And now he is going to take me to you and Margaret, +he says, and I shall be strong enough, I hope, to start in a week. I shall be +his friend for life." + +Neither mother nor daughter spoke when the girl ceased reading. Only Margaret +rose soon and walked down the gravelled walk to the stile. + +Beneath the hill, the creek sparkled. She could see the very pool where her +brothers and the queer little stranger from the mountains were fishing the day +he came into her life. She remembered the indignant heart-beat with which she +had heard him call her "little gal," and she smiled now, but she could recall +the very tone of his voice and the steady look in his clear eyes when he +offered her the perch he had caught. Even then his spirit appealed +unconsciously to her, when he sturdily refused to go up to the house because +her brother was "feelin' hard towards him." How strange and far away all that +seemed now! Up the creek and around the woods she strolled, deep in memories. +For a long while she sat on a stone wall in the sunshine--thinking and +dreaming, and it was growing late when she started back to the house. At the +stile, she turned for a moment to look at the old Buford home across the +fields. As she looked, she saw the pike-gate open and a woman's figure enter, +and she kept her eyes idly upon it as she walked on toward the house. The +woman came slowly and hesitatingly toward the yard. When she drew nearer, +Margaret could see that she wore homespun, home-made shoes, and a poke-bonnet. +On her hands were yarn half-mits, and, as she walked, she pushed her bonnet +from her eyes with one hand, first to one side, then to the other--looking at +the locusts planted along the avenue, the cedars in the yard, the sweep of +lawn overspread with springing bluegrass. At the yard gate she stopped, +leaning over it--her eyes fixed on the stately white house, with its mighty +pillars. Margaret was standing on the steps now, motionless and waiting, and, +knowing that she was seen, the woman opened the gate and walked up the +gravelled path--never taking her eyes from the figure on the porch. Straight +she walked to the foot of the steps, and there she stopped, and, pushing her +bonnet back, she said, simply: + +"Are you Mar-ga-ret?" pronouncing the name slowly and with great distinctness. + +Margaret started. + +"Yes," she said. + +The girl merely looked at her--long and hard. Once her lips moved: + +"Mar-ga-ret," and still she looked. "Do you know whar Chad is?" + +Margaret flushed. + +"Who are you?" + +"Melissy." + +Melissa! The two girls looked deep into each other's eyes and, for one +flashing moment, each saw the other's heart--bared and beating--and Margaret +saw, too, a strange light ebb slowly from the other's face and a strange +shadow follow slowly after. + +"You mean Major Buford?" + +"I mean Chad. Is he dead?" + +"No, he is bringing my brother home." + +"Harry?" + +"No--Dan." + +"Dan--here?" + +"Yes." + +"When?" + +"As soon as my brother gets well enough to travel. He is wounded." + +Melissa turned her face then. Her mouth twitched and her clasped hands were +working in and out. Then she turned again. + +"I come up here from the mountains, afoot jus' to tell ye--to tell YOU that +Chad ain't no"-- she stopped suddenly, seeing Margaret's quick flush--"CHAD'S +MOTHER WAS MARRIED. I jus' found it out last week. He ain't no--"--she started +fiercely again and stopped again. "But I come here fer HIM--not fer YOU. YOU +oughtn't to 'a' keered. Hit wouldn't 'a' been his fault. He never was the same +after he come back from here. Hit worried him most to death, an' I know hit +was you--YOU he was always thinkin' about. He didn't keer 'cept fer you." +Again that shadow came and deepened. "An' you oughtn't to 'a' keered what he +was--and that's why I hate you," she said, calmly--"fer worryin' him an' bein' +so high-heeled that you was willin' to let him mighty nigh bust his heart +about somethin' that wasn't his fault. I come fer him--you understand--fer +HIM. I hate YOU!" + +She turned without another word, walked slowly back down the walk and through +the gate. Margaret stood dazed, helpless, almost frightened. She heard the +girl cough and saw now that she walked as if weak and ill. As she turned into +the road, Margaret ran down the steps and across the fields to the turnpike. +When she reached the road-fence the girl was coming around the bend her eyes +on the ground, and every now and she would cough and put her hand to her +breast. She looked up quickly, hearing the noise ahead of her, and stopped as +Margaret climbed the low stone wall and sprang down. + +"Melissa, Melissa! You mustn't hate me. You mustn't hate ME." Margaret's eyes +were streaming and her voice trembled with kindness. She walked up to the girl +and put one hand on her shoulder. "You are sick. I know you are, and you must +come back to the house." + +Melissa gave way then, and breaking from the girl's clasp she leaned against +the stone wall and sobbed, while Margaret put her arms about her and waited +silently. + +"Come now," she said, "let me help you over. There now. You must come back and +get something to eat and lie down." And Margaret led Melissa back across the +fields. + + + +CHAPTER 30. PEACE + +It was strange to Chad that he should be drifting toward a new life down the +river which once before had carried him to a new world. The future then was no +darker than now, but he could hardly connect himself with the little fellow in +coon-skin cap and moccasins who had floated down on a raft so many years ago, +when at every turn of the river his eager eyes looked for a new and thrilling +mystery. + +They talked of the long fight, the two lads, for, in spite of the war-worn +look of them, both were still nothing but boys--and they talked with no +bitterness of camp life, night attacks, surprises, escapes, imprisonment, +incidents of march and battle. Both spoke little of their boyhood days or the +future. The pall of defeat overhung Dan. To him the world seemed to be nearing +an end, while to Chad the outlook was what he had known all his life--nothing +to begin with and everything to be done. Once only Dan voiced his own trouble: + +"What are you going to do, Chad--now that this infernal war is over? Going +into the regular army?" + +"No," said Chad, decisively. About his own future Dan volunteered nothing--he +only turned his head quickly to the passing woods, as though in fear that Chad +might ask some similar question, but Chad was silent. And thus they glided +between high cliffs and down into the lowlands until at last, through a little +gorge between two swelling river hills, Dan's eye caught sight of an orchard, +a leafy woodland, and a pasture of bluegrass. With a cry he raised himself on +one elbow. + +"Home! I tell you, Chad, we're getting home!" He closed his eyes and drew the +sweet air in as though he were drinking it down like wine. His eyes were +sparkling when he opened them again and there was a new color in his face. On +they drifted until, toward noon, the black column of smoke that meant the +capital loomed against the horizon. There Mrs. Dean was waiting for them, and +Chad turned his face aside when the mother took her son in her arms. With a +sad smile she held out her hand to Chad. + +"You must come home with us," Mrs. Dean said, with quiet decision. + +"Where is Margaret, mother?" Chad almost trembled when he heard the name. + +"Margaret couldn't come. She is not very well and she is taking care of +Harry." + +The very station had tragic memories to Chad. There was the long hill which he +had twice climbed--once on a lame foot and once on flying Dixie--past the +armory and the graveyard. He had seen enough dead since he peered through +those iron gates to fill a dozen graveyards the like in size. Going up in the +train, he could see the barn where he had slept in the hayloft the first time +he came to the Bluegrass, and the creek-bridge where Major Buford had taken +him into his carriage. Major Buford was dead. He had almost died in prison, +Mrs. Dean said, and Chad choked and could say nothing. Once, Dan began a +series of eager questions about the house and farm, and the servants and the +neighbors, but his mother's answers were hesitant and he stopped short. She, +too, asked but few questions, and the three were quiet while the train rolled +on with little more speed than Chad and Dixie had made on that long ago +night-ride to save Dan and Rebel Jerry. About that ride Chad had kept Harry's +lips and his own closed, for he wished no such appeal as that to go to +Margaret Dean. Margaret was not at the station in Lexington. She was not well +Rufus said; so Chad would not go with them that night, but would come out next +day. + +"I owe my son's life to you, Captain Buford," said Mrs. Dean, with trembling +lip, "and you must make our house your home while you are here. I bring that +message to you from Harry and Margaret. I know and they know now all you have +done for us and all you have tried to do." + +Chad could hardly speak his thanks. He would be in the Bluegrass only a few +days, he stammered, but he would go out to see them next day. That night he +went to the old inn where the Major had taken him to dinner. Next day he hired +a horse from the livery stable where he had bought the old brood mare, and +early in the afternoon he rode out the broad turnpike in a nervous tumult of +feeling that more than once made him halt in the road. He wore his uniform, +which was new, and made him uncomfortable--it looked too much like waving a +victorious flag in the face of a beaten enemy--but it was the only stitch of +clothes he had, and that he might not explain. + +It was the first of May. Just eight years before, Chad with a burning heart +had watched Richard Hunt gayly dancing with Margaret, while the dead +chieftain, Morgan, gayly fiddled for the merry crowd. Now the sun shone as it +did then, the birds sang, the wind shook the happy leaves and trembled through +the budding heads of bluegrass to show that nature had known no war and that +her mood was never other than of hope and peace. But there were no fat cattle +browsing in the Dean pastures now, no flocks of Southdown sheep with frisking +lambs The worm fences had lost their riders and were broken down here and +there. The gate sagged on its hinges; the fences around yard and garden and +orchard had known no whitewash for years; the paint on the noble old house was +cracked and peeling, the roof of the barn was sunken in, and the cabins of the +quarters were closed, for the hand of war, though unclinched, still lay heavy +on the home of the Deans. Snowball came to take his horse. He was respectful, +but his white teeth did not flash the welcome Chad once had known. Another +horse stood at the hitching-post and on it was a cavalry saddle and a rebel +army blanket, and Chad did not have to guess whose it might be. From the +porch, Dan shouted and came down to meet him, and Harry hurried to the door, +followed by Mrs. Dean. Margaret was not to be seen, and Chad was glad--he +would have a little more time for self-control. She did not appear even when +they were seated in the porch until Dan shouted for her toward the garden; and +then looking toward the gate Chad saw her coming up the garden walk bare- +headed, dressed in white, with flowers in her hand; and walking by her side, +looking into her face and talking earnestly, was Richard Hunt. The sight of +him nerved Chad at once to steel. Margaret did not lift her face until she was +half-way to the porch, and then she stopped suddenly. + +"Why, there's Major Buford," Chad heard her say, and she came on ahead, +walking rapidly. Chad felt the blood in his face again, and as he watched +Margaret nearing him--pale, sweet, frank, gracious, unconscious--it seemed +that he was living over again another scene in his life when he had come from +the mountains to live with old Major Buford; and, with a sudden prayer that +his past might now be wiped as clean as it was then, he turned from Margaret's +hand-clasp to look into the brave, searching eyes of Richard Hunt and feel his +sinewy fingers in a grip that in all frankness told Chad plainly that between +them, at least, one war was not quite over yet. + +"I am glad to meet you, Major Buford, in these piping times of peace." + +"And I am glad to meet you, General Hunt--only in times of peace," Chad said, +smiling. + +The two measured each other swiftly, calmly. Chad had a mighty admiration for +Richard Hunt. Here was a man who knew no fight but to the finish, who would +die as gamely in a drawing-room as on a battle-field. To think of him--a +brigadier-general at twenty-seven, as undaunted, as unbeaten as when he heard +the first bullet of the war whistle, and, at that moment, as good an American +as Chadwick Buford or any Unionist who had given his life for his cause! Such +a foe thrilled Chad, and somehow he felt that Margaret was measuring them as +they were measuring each other. Against such a man what chance had he? + +He would have been comforted could he have known Richard Hunt's thoughts, for +that gentleman had gone back to the picture of a ragged mountain boy in old +Major Buford's carriage, one court day long ago, and now he was looking that +same lad over from the visor of his cap down his superb length to the heels of +his riding-boots. His eyes rested long on Chad's face. The change was +incredible, but blood had told. The face was highly red, clean, frank, nobly +handsome; it had strength and dignity, and the scar on his cheek told a story +that was as well known to foe as to friend. + +"I have been wanting to thank you, not only for trying to keep us out of that +infernal prison after the Ohio raid, but for trying to get us out. Harry here +told me. That was generous." + +"That was nothing," said Chad. "You forget, you could have killed me once +and--and you didn't." Margaret was listening eagerly. + +"You didn't give me time," laughed General Hunt. + +"Oh, yes, I did. I saw you lift your pistol and drop it again. I have never +ceased to wonder why you did that." + +Richard Hunt laughed. "Perhaps I'm sorry sometimes that I did," he said, with +a certain dryness. + +"Oh, no, you aren't, General," said Margaret. + +Thus they chatted and laughed and joked together above the sombre tide of +feeling that showed in the face of each if it reached not his tongue, for, +when the war was over, the hatchet in Kentucky was buried at once and buried +deep. Son came back to father, brother to brother, neighbor to neighbor; +political disabilities were removed and the sundered threads, unravelled by +the war, were knitted together fast. That is why the postbellum terrors of +reconstruction were practically unknown in the State. The negroes scattered, +to be sure, not from disloyalty so much as from a feverish desire to learn +whether they really could come and go as they pleased. When they learned that +they were really free, most of them drifted back to the quarters where they +were born, and meanwhile the white man's hand that had wielded the sword went +just as bravely to the plough, and the work of rebuilding war-shattered ruins +began at once. Old Mammy appeared, by and by, shook hands with General Hunt +and made Chad a curtsey of rather distant dignity. She had gone into exile +with her "chile" and her "ole Mistis" and had come home with them to stay, +untempted by the doubtful sweets of freedom. "Old Tom, her husband, had +remained with Major Buford, was with him on his deathbed," said Margaret, "and +was on the place still, too old, he said, to take root elsewhere." + +Toward the middle of the afternoon Dan rose and suggested that they take a +walk about the place. Margaret had gone in for a moment to attend to some +household duty, and as Richard Hunt was going away next day he would stay, he +said, with Mrs. Dean, who was tired and could not join them. The three walked +toward the dismantled barn where the tournament had taken place and out into +the woods. Looking back, Chad saw Margaret and General Hunt going slowly +toward the garden, and he knew that some crisis was at hand between the two. +He had hard work listening to Dan and Harry as they planned for the future, +and recalled to each other and to him the incidents of their boyhood. Harry +meant to study law, he said, and practise in Lexington; Dan would stay at home +and run the farm. Neither brother mentioned that the old place was heavily +mortgaged, but Chad guessed the fact and it made him heartsick to think of the +struggle that was before them and of the privations yet in store for Mrs. Dean +and Margaret. + +"Why don't you, Chad?" + +"Do what?" + +"Stay here and study law," Harry smiled. "We'll go into partnership." + +Chad shook his head. "No," he said, decisively. "I've already made up my mind. +I'm going West." + +"I'm sorry," said Harry, and no more; he had learned long ago how useless it +was to combat any purpose of Chadwick Buford. + +General Hunt and Margaret were still away when they got back to the house. In +fact, the sun was sinking when they came in from the woods, still walking +slowly, General Hunt talking earnestly and Margaret with her hands clasped +before her and her eyes on the path. The faces of both looked pale, even that +far away, but when they neared the porch, the General was joking and Margaret +was smiling, nor was anything perceptible to Chad when he said good-by, except +a certain tenderness in his tone and manner toward Margaret, and one fleeting +look of distress in her clear eyes. He was on his horse now, and was lifting +his cap. + +"Good-by, Major," he said. "I'm glad you got through the war alive. Perhaps +I'll tell you some day why I didn't shoot you that morning." And then he rode +away, a gallant, knightly figure, across the pasture. At the gate he waved his +cap and at a gallop was gone. + +After supper, a heaven-born chance led Mrs. Dean to stroll out into the lovely +night. Margaret rose to go too, and Chad followed. The same chance, perhaps, +led old Mammy to come out on the porch and call Mrs. Dean back. Chad and +Margaret walked on toward the stiles where still hung Margaret's +weather-beaten Stars and Bars. The girl smiled and touched the flag. + +"That was very nice of you to salute me that morning. I never felt so bitter +against Yankees after that day. I'll take it down now," and she detached it +and rolled it tenderly about the slender staff. + +"That was not my doing,?" said Chad, "though if I had been Grant, and there +with the whole Union army, I would have had it salute you. I was under orders, +but I went back for help. May I carry it for you?" + +"Yes," said Margaret, handing it to him. Chad had started toward the garden, +but Margaret turned him toward the stile and they walked now down through the +pasture toward the creek that ran like a wind-shaken ribbon of silver under +the moon. + +"Won't you tell me something about Major Buford? I've been wanting to ask, but +I simply hadn't the heart. Can't we go over there tonight? I want to see the +old place, and I must leave to-morrow." + +"To-morrow!" said Margaret. "Why--I--I was going to take you over there +to-morrow, for I--but, of course, you must go to-night if it is to be your +only chance." + +And so, as they walked along, Margaret told Chad of the old Major's last days, +after he was released from prison, and came home to die. She went to see him +every day, and she was at his bedside when he breathed his last. He had +mortgaged his farm to help the Confederate cause and to pay indemnity for a +guerilla raid, and Jerome Conners held his notes for large amounts. + +"The lawyer told me that he believed some of the notes were forged, but he +couldn't prove it. He says it is doubtful if more than the house and a few +acres will be left." A light broke in on Chad's brain. + +"He told you?" + +Margaret blushed. "He left all he had to me," she said, simply. + +"I'm so glad," said Chad. + +"Except a horse which belongs to you. The old mare is dead." + +"Dear old Major!" + +At the stone fence Margaret reached for the flag. + +"We'll leave it here until we come back," she said, dropping it in a shadow. +Somehow the talk of Major Buford seemed to bring them nearer together--so near +that once Chad started to call her by her first name and stopped when it had +half passed his lips. Margaret smiled. + +"The war is over," she said, and Chad spoke eagerly: + +"And you'll call me?" + +"Yes, Chad." + +The very leaves over Chad's head danced suddenly, and yet the girl was so +simple and frank and kind that the springing hope in his breast was as quickly +chilled. + +"Did he ever speak of me except about business matters?" + +"Never at all at first," said Margaret, blushing again incomprehensively, "but +he forgave you before he died." + +"Thank God for that!" + +"And you will see what he did for you--the last thing of his life." + +They were crossing the field now. + +"I have seen Melissa," said Margaret, suddenly. Chad was so startled that he +stopped in the path. + +"She came all the way from the mountains to ask if you were dead, and to tell +me about--about your mother. She had just learned it, she said, and she did +not know that you knew. And I never let her know that I knew, since I supposed +you had some reason for not wanting her to know." + +"I did," said Chad, sadly, but he did not tell his reason. Melissa would never +have learned the one thing from him as Margaret would not learn the other now. + +"She came on foot to ask about you and to defend you against--against me. And +she went back afoot. She disappeared one morning before we got up. She seemed +very ill, too, and unhappy. She was coughing all the time, and I wakened one +night and heard her sobbing, but she was so sullen and fierce that I was +almost afraid of her. Next morning she was gone. I would have taken her part +of the way home myself. Poor thing!" Chad was walking with his head bent. + +"I'm going down to see her before I go West." + +"You are going West--to live?" + +"Yes." + +They had reached the yard gate now which creaked on rusty hinges when Chad +pulled it open. The yard was running wild with plantains, the gravelled walk +was overgrown, the house was closed, shuttered, and dark, and the spirit of +desolation overhung the place, but the ruin looked gentle in the moonlight. +Chad's throat hurt and his eyes filled. + +"I want to show you now the last thing he did," said Margaret. Her eyes +lighted with tenderness and she led him wondering down through the tangled +garden to the old family graveyard. + +"Climb over and look, Chad," she said, leaning over the wall. + +There was the grave of the Major's father which he knew so well; next that, to +the left, was a new mound under which rested the Major himself. To the right +was a stone marked "Chadwick Buford, born in Virginia, 1750, died in +Kentucky"--and then another stone marked simply: + +Mary Buford. + +"He had both brought from the mountains," said Margaret, softly, "and the last +time he was out of the house was when he leaned here to watch them buried +there. He said there would always be a place next your mother for you. 'Tell +the boy that,' he said." Chad put his arms around the tombstone and then sank +on one knee by his mother's grave. It was strewn with withered violets. + +"You--YOU did that, Margaret?" + +Margaret nodded through her tears. + +. . . . . . . + + +The wonder of it! They stood very still, looking for a long time into each +other's eyes. Could the veil of the hereafter have been lifted for them at +that moment and they have seen themselves walking that same garden path, hand +in hand, their faces seamed with age to other eyes, but changed in not a line +to them, the vision would not have added a jot to their perfect faith. They +would have nodded to each other and smiled--"Yes, we know, we know!" The +night, the rushing earth, the star-swept spaces of the infinite held no +greater wonder than was theirs--they held no wonder at all. The moon shone, +that night, for them; the wind whispered, leaves danced, flowers nodded, and +crickets chirped from the grass for them; the farthest star kept eternal lids +apart just for them and beyond, the Maker himself looked down, that night, +just to bless them. + +Back they went through the old garden, hand in hand. No caress had ever passed +between these two. That any man could ever dare even to dream of touching her +sacred lips had been beyond the boy's imaginings--such was the reverence in +his love for her--and his very soul shook when, at the gate, Margaret's eyes +dropped from his to the sabre cut on his cheek and she suddenly lifted her +face. + +"I know how you got that, Chad," she said, and with her lips she gently +touched the scar. Almost timidly the boy drew her to him. Again her lips were +lifted in sweet surrender, and every wound that he had known in his life was +healed. + +. . . . . . + +"I'll show you your horse, Chad." + +They did not waken old Tom, but went around to the stable and Chad led out a +handsome colt, his satiny coat shining in the moonlight like silver. He lifted +his proud head, when he saw Margaret, and whinnied. + +"He knows his mistress, Margaret--and he's yours." + +"Oh, no, Chad." + +"Yes," said Chad, "I've still got Dixie." + +"Do you still call her Dixie?" + +"All through the war." + +Homeward they went through the dewy fields. + +"I wish I could have seen the Major before he died. If he could only have +known how I suffered at causing him so much sorrow. And if you could have +known " + +"He did know and so did I--later. All that is over now." + +They had reached the stone wall and Chad picked up the flag again. + +"This is the only time I have ever carried this flag, unless I--unless it had +been captured." + +"You had captured it, Chad." + +"There?" Chad pointed to the stile and Margaret nodded. + +"There--here everywhere." + +Seated on the porch, Mrs. Dean and Harry and Dan saw them coming across the +field and Mrs. Dean sighed. + +"Father would not say a word against it, mother," said the elder boy, "if he +were here." + +"No," said Dan, "not a word." + +"Listen, mother," said Harry, and he told the two about Chad's ride for Dan +from Frankfort to Lexington. "He asked me not to tell. He did not wish +Margaret to know. And listen again, mother. In a skirmish one day we were +fighting hand to hand. I saw one man with his pistol levelled at me and +another with his sabre lifted on Chad. He saw them both. My pistol was empty, +and do you know what he did? He shot the man who was about to shoot me instead +of his own assailant. That is how he got that scar. I did tell Margaret that." + +"Yes, you must go down in the mountain first," Margaret was saying, "and see +if there is anything you can do for the people who were s' good to you--and to +see Melissa. I am worried about her." + +"And then I must come back to you?" + +"Yes, you must come back to see me once more if you can. And then some day you +will come again and buy back the Major's farm "--she stopped, blushing. "I +think that was his wish Chad, that you and I--but I would never let him say +it." + +"And if that should take too long?" + +"I will come to you, Chad," said Margaret. + +Old Mammy came out on the porch as they were climbing the stile. + +"Ole Miss," she said, indignantly, "my Tom say that he can't get nary a +triflin' nigger to come out hyeh to wuk, an' ef that cawnfiel' ain't ploughed +mighty soon, it's gwine to bu'n up." + +"How many horses are there on the place, Mammy?" asked Dan. + +"Hosses!" sniffed the old woman. "They ain't NARY a hoss--nothin' but two ole +broken-down mules." + +"Well, I'll take one and start a plough myself," said Harry. + +"And I'll take the other," said Dan. + +Mammy groaned. + +. . . . . . + +And still the wonder of that night to Chad and Margaret! + +"It was General Hunt who taught me to understand--and forgive. Do you know +what he said? That every man, on both sides, was right--who did his duty." + +"God bless him," said Chad. + + + +CHAPTER 31. THE WESTWARD WAY + +Mother Turner was sitting in the porch with old Jack at her feet when Chad and +Dixie came to the gate--her bonnet off, her eyes turned toward the West. The +stillness of death lay over the place, and over the strong old face some +preternatural sorrow. She did not rise when she saw Chad, she did not speak +when he spoke. She turned merely and looked at him with a look of helpless +suffering. She knew the question that was on his lips, for she dumbly motioned +toward the door and then put her trembling hands on the railing of the porch +and bent her face down on them. With sickening fear, Chad stepped on the +threshold--cap in hand--and old Jack followed, whimpering. As his eyes grew +accustomed to the dark interior, he could see a sheeted form on a bed in the +corner and, on the pillow, a white face. + +"Melissa!" he called, brokenly. A groan from the porch answered him, and, as +Chad dropped to his knees, the old woman sobbed aloud. + +In low tones, as though in fear they might disturb the dead girl's sleep, the +two talked on the porch. Brokenly, the old woman told Chad how the girl had +sickened and suffered with never a word of complaint. How, all through the +war, she had fought his battles so fiercely that no one dared attack him in +her hearing. How, sick as she was, she had gone, that night, to save his life. +How she had nearly died from the result of cold and exposure and was never the +same afterward. How she worked in the house and in the garden to keep their +bodies and souls together, after the old hunter was shot down and her boys +were gone to the war. How she had learned the story of Chad's mother from old +Nathan Cherry's daughter and how, when the old woman forbade her going to the +Bluegrass, she had slipped away and gone afoot to clear his name. And then the +old woman led Chad to where once had grown the rose-bush he had brought +Melissa from the Bluegrass, and pointed silently to a box that seemed to have +been pressed a few inches into the soft earth, and when Chad lifted it, he saw +under it the imprint of a human foot--his own, made that morning when he held +out a rose-leaf to her and she had struck it from his hand and turned him, as +an enemy, from her door. + +Chad silently went inside and threw open the window to let the last sunlight +in: and he sat there, with his face as changeless as the still face on the +pillow, sat there until the sun went down and the darkness came in and closed +softly about her. She had died, the old woman said, with his name on her lips. + +. . . . . . + +Dolph and Rube had come back and they would take good care of the old mother +until the end of her days. But. Jack--what should be done with Jack? The old +dog could follow him no longer. He could live hardly more than another year, +and the old mother wanted him--to remind her, she said, of Chad and of +Melissa, who had loved him. He patted his faithful old friend tenderly and, +when he mounted Dixie, late the next afternoon, Jack started to follow him. + +"No, Jack," said Chad, and he rode on, with his eyes blurred. On the top of +the steep mountain he dismounted, to let his horse rest a moment, and sat on a +log, looking toward the sun. He could not go back to Margaret and +happiness--not now. It seemed hardly fair to the dead girl down in the valley. +He would send Margaret word, and she would understand. + +Once again he was starting his life over afresh, with his old capital, a +strong body and a stout heart. In his breast still burned the spirit that had +led his race to the land, had wrenched it from savage and from king, had made +it the high temple of Liberty for the worship of freemen--the Kingdom Come for +the oppressed of the earth--and, himself the unconscious Shepherd of that +Spirit, he was going to help carry its ideals across a continent Westward to +another sea and on--who knows--to the gates of the rising sun. An eagle swept +over his head, as he rose, and the soft patter of feet sounded behind him. It +was Jack trotting after him. He stooped and took the old dog in his arms. + +"Go back home, Jack!" he said. + +Without a whimper, old Jack slowly wheeled, but he stopped and turned again +and sat on his haunches--looking back. + +"Go home, Jack!" Again the old dog trotted down the path and once more he +turned. + +"Home, Jack!" said Chad. + +The eagle was a dim, black speck in the band of yellow that lay over the rim +of the sinking sun, and after its flight, horse and rider took the westward +way. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg Etext The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come by Fox + diff --git a/old/lsokc10.zip b/old/lsokc10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..12769f7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lsokc10.zip diff --git a/old/lsokc11.txt b/old/lsokc11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d0d94ce --- /dev/null +++ b/old/lsokc11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9679 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come +by John Fox, Jr. + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come + +Author: John Fox, Jr. + +Release Date: Feb, 2000 [EBook #2059] +[Most recently updated: June 9, 2002] + +Edition: 11 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME *** + + + + +Etext scanned by Mary Starr, corrections by Martin Robb. + + + + + +THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME + +by JOHN FOX, JR. + + + + +To +CURRIE DUKE +DAUGHTER OF THE CHIEF +AMONG +MORGAN'S MEN + +KENTUCKY, APRIL, 1898 + +CONTENTS + +1. TWO RUNAWAYS FROM LONESOME +2. FIGHTING THEIR WAY +3. A "BLAB SCHOOL" ON KINGDOM COME +4. THE COMING OF THE TIDE +5. OUT OF THE WILDERNESS +6. LOST AT THE CAPITAL +7. A FRIEND ON THE ROAD +8. HOME WITH THE MAJOR +9. MARGARET +10. THE BLUEGRASS +11. A TOURNAMENT +12. BACK TO KINGDOM COME +13. ON TRIAL FOR HIS LIFE +14. THE MAJOR IN THE MOUNTAINS +15. TO COLLEGE IN THE BLUEGRASS +16. AGAIN THE BAR SINISTER +17. CHADWICK BUFORD, GENTLEMAN +18. THE SPIRIT OF '76 AND THE SHADOW OF '61 +19. THE BLUE OR THE GRAY +20. OFF TO THE WAR +21. MELISSA +22. MORGAN'S MEN +23. CHAD CAPTURES AN OLD FRIEND +24. A RACE BETWEEN DIXIE AND DAWN +25. AFTER DAWS DILLON--GUERILLA +26. BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER AT LAST +27. AT THE HOSPITAL OF MORGAN'S MEN +28. PALL-BEARERS OF THE LOST CAUSE +29. MELISSA AND MARGARET +30. PEACE +31. THE WESTWARD WAY + + + + +THE LITTLE SHEPHERD +OF KINGDOM COME + + + +CHAPTER 1 + +TWO RUNAWAYS FROM LONESOME + +The days of that April had been days of mist and rain. Sometimes, for hours, +there would come a miracle of blue sky, white cloud, and yellow light, but +always between dark and dark the rain would fall and the mist creep up the +mountains and steam from the tops--only to roll together from either range, +drip back into the valleys, and lift, straightway, as mist again. So that, all +the while Nature was trying to give lustier life to every living thing in the +lowland Bluegrass, all the while a gaunt skeleton was stalking down the +Cumberland--tapping with fleshless knuckles, now at some unlovely cottage of +faded white and green, and now at a log cabin, stark and gray. Passing the +mouth of Lonesome, he flashed his scythe into its unlifeing shadows and went +stalking on. High up, at the source of the dismal little stream, the point of +the shining blade darted thrice into the open door of a cabin set deep into a +shaggy flank of Black Mountain, and three spirits, within, were quickly loosed +from aching flesh for the long flight into the unknown. + +It was the spirit of the plague that passed, taking with it the breath of the +unlucky and the unfit: and in the hut on Lonesome three were dead--a gaunt +mountaineer, a gaunt daughter, and a gaunt son. Later, the mother, too, "jes' +kind o' got tired," as little Chad said, and soon to her worn hands and feet +came the well-earned rest. Nobody was left then but Chad and Jack, and Jack +was a dog with a belly to feed and went for less than nothing with everybody +but his little master and the chance mountaineer who had sheep to guard. So, +for the fourth time, Chad, with Jack at his heels, trudged up to the point of +a wooded spur above the cabin, where, at the foot of a giant poplar and under +a wilderness of shaking June leaves, were three piles of rough boards, loosely +covering three hillocks of rain-beaten earth; and, near them, an open grave. +There was no service sung or spoken over the dead, for the circuit-rider was +then months away; so, unnoticed, Chad stood behind the big poplar, watching +the neighbors gently let down into the shallow trench a home-made coffin, +rudely hollowed from the half of a bee-gum log, and, unnoticed, slipped away +at the first muffled stroke of the dirt--doubling his fists into his eyes and +stumbling against the gnarled bodies of laurel and rhododendron until, out in +a clear sunny space, he dropped on a thick, velvet mat of moss and sobbed +himself to sleep. When he awoke, Jack was licking his face and he sat up, +dazed and yawning. The sun was dropping fast, the ravines were filling with +blue shadows, luminous and misty, and a far drowsy tinkling from the valley +told him that cows were starting homeward. From habit, he sprang quickly to +his feet, but, sharply conscious on a sudden, dropped slowly back to the moss +again, while Jack, who had started down the spur, circled back to see what the +matter was, and stood with uplifted foot, much puzzled. + +There had been a consultation about Chad early that morning among the +neighbors, and old Nathan Cherry, who lived over on Stone Creek, in the next +cove but one, said that he would take charge of the boy. Nathan did not wait +for the burial, but went back home for his wagon, leaving word that Chad was +to stay all night with a neighbor and meet him at the death-stricken cabin an +hour by sun. The old man meant to have Chad bound to him for seven years by +law--the boy had been told that--and Nathan hated dogs as much as Chad hated +Nathan. So the lad did not lie long. He did not mean to be bound out, nor to +have Jack mistreated, and he rose quickly and Jack sprang before him down the +rocky path and toward the hut that had been a home to both. Under the poplar, +Jack sniffed curiously at the new-made grave, and Chad called him away so +sharply that Jack's tail drooped and he crept toward his master, as though to +ask pardon for a fault of which he was not conscious. For one moment, Chad +stood looking. Again the stroke of the falling earth smote his ears and his +eyes filled; a curious pain caught him by the throat and he passed on, +whistling--down into the shadows below to the open door of the cabin. + +It was deathly still. The homespun bedclothes and hand-made quilts of +brilliant colors had been thrown in a heap on one of the two beds of hickory +withes; the kitchen utensils--a crane and a few pots and pans--had been piled +on the hearth, along with strings of herbs and beans and red pepper-pods--all +ready for old Nathan when he should come over for them, next morning, with his +wagon. Not a living thing was to be heard or seen that suggested human life, +and Chad sat down in the deepening loneliness, watching the shadows rise up +the green walls that bound him in, and wondering what he should do, and where +he should go, if he was not to go to old Nathan; while Jack, who seemed to +know that some crisis was come, settled on his haunches a little way off, to +wait, with perfect faith and patience, for the boy to make up his mind. + +It was the first time, perhaps, that Chad had ever thought very seriously +about himself, or wondered who he was, or whence he had come. Digging back +into his memory as far as he could, it seemed to him that what had just +happened now had happened to him once before, and that he had simply wandered +away. He could not recollect where he had started from first, but he could +recall many of the places where he had lived, and why he had left +them--usually because somebody, like old Nathan, had wanted to have him bound +out, or had misused Jack, or would not let the two stray off into the woods +together, when there was nothing else to be done. He had stayed longest where +he was now, because the old man and his son and his girl had all taken a great +fancy to Jack, and had let the two guard cattle in the mountains and drive +sheep and, if they stayed out in the woods over night, struck neither a stroke +of hand nor tongue. The old mother had been his mother and, once more, Chad +leaned his head against the worn lintel and wept silently. So far, nobody had +seemed to care particularly who he was, or was not--nor had Chad. Most people +were very kind to him, looking upon him as one of the wandering waifs that one +finds throughout the Cumberland, upon whom the good folks of the mountains do +not visit the father's sin. He knew what he was thought to be, and it mattered +so little, since it made no discrimination against him, that he had accepted +it without question. It did not matter now, except as it bore on the question +as to where he should start his feet. It was a long time for him to have +stayed in one place, and the roving memories, stirred within him now, took +root, doubtless, in the restless spirit that had led his unknown ancestor into +those mountain wilds after the Revolution. + +All this while he had been sitting on the low threshold, with his elbows in +the hollows of his thighs and his left hand across his mouth. Once more, he +meant to be bound to no man's service and, at the final thought of losing +Jack, the liberty loving little tramp spat over his hand with sharp decision +and rose. + +Just above him and across the buck antlers over the door, lay a long +flint-lock rifle; a bullet-pouch, a powder-horn, and a small raccoon-skin +haversack hung from one of the prongs: and on them the boy's eyes rested +longingly. Old Nathan, he knew, claimed that the dead man had owed him money; +and he further knew that old Nathan meant to take all he could lay his hands +on in payment: but he climbed resolutely upon a chair and took the things +down, arguing the question, meanwhile: + +"Uncle Jim said once he aimed to give this rifle gun to me. Mebbe he was +foolin', but I don't believe he owed ole Nathan so much, an', anyways," he +muttered grimly, "I reckon Uncle Jim ud kind o' like fer me to git the better +of that ole devil--jes a LEETLE, anyways." + +The rifle, he knew, was always loaded, there was not much powder in the horn +and there were not more than a dozen bullets in the pouch, but they would last +him until he could get far away. No more would he take, however, than what he +thought he could get along with--one blanket from the bed and, from the +fireplace, a little bacon and a pone of corn-bread. + +"An' I KNOW Aunt Jane wouldn't 'a' keered about these leetle fixin's, fer I +have to have 'em, an' I know I've earned 'em anyways." + +Then he closed the door softly on the spirits of the dead within, and caught +the short, deer skin latch-string to the wooden pin outside. With his Barlow +knife, he swiftly stripped a bark string from a pawpaw bush near by, folded +and tied his blanket, and was swinging the little pack to his shoulder, when +the tinkle of a cow-bell came through the bushes, close at hand. Old Nance, +lean and pied, was coming home; he had forgotten her, it was getting late, and +he was anxious to leave for fear some neighbor might come; but there was no +one to milk and, when she drew near with a low moo, he saw that her udders +were full and dripping. It would hurt her to go unmilked, so Chad put his +things down and took up a cedar piggin from a shelf outside the cabin and did +the task thoroughly--putting the strippings in a cup and, so strong was the +habit in him, hurrying with both to the rude spring-house and setting them in +cool running water. A moment more and he had his pack and his rifle on one +shoulder and was climbing the fence at the wood-pile. There he stopped once +more with a sudden thought, and wrenching loose a short axe from the face of a +hickory log, staggered under the weight of his weapons up the mountain. The +sun was yet an hour high and, on the spur, he leaned his rifle against the big +poplar and set to work with his axe on a sapling close by--talking frankly now +to the God who made him: + +"I reckon You know it, but I'm a-goin' to run away now. I hain't got no daddy +an' no mammy, an' I hain't never had none as I knows--but Aunt Jane +hyeh--she's been jes' like a mother to me an' I'm a-doin' fer her jes' whut I +wish You'd have somebody do fer my mother, ef You know whar she's a-layin'." + +Eight round sticks he cut swiftly--four long and four short--and with these he +built a low pen, as is the custom of the mountaineers, close about the fresh +mound, and, borrowing a board or two from each of the other mounds, covered +the grave from the rain. Then he sunk the axe into the trunk of the great +poplar as high up as he could reach--so that it could easily be seen--and +brushing the sweat from his face, he knelt down: + +"God!" he said, simply, "I hain't nothin' but a boy, but I got to ack like a +man now. I'm a-goin' now. I don't believe You keer much and seems like I bring +ever'body bad luck: an' I'm a-goin' to live up hyeh on the mountain jes' as +long as I can. I don't want you to think I'm a-complainin'--fer I ain't. Only +hit does seem sort o' curious that You'd let me be down hyah--with me +a-keerint fer nobody now, an' nobody a-keerin' fer me. But Thy ways is +inscrutable--leastwise, that's whut the circuit-rider says--an' I ain't got a +word more to say--Amen." + +Chad rose then and Jack, who had sat perfectly still, with his head cocked to +one side, and his ears straight forward in wonder over this strange +proceeding, sprang into the air, when Chad picked up his gun, and, with a +joyful bark, circled a clump of bushes and sped back, leaping as high as the +little fellow's head and trying to lick his face--for Jack was a rover, too. + +The sun was low when the two waifs turned their backs upon it, and the blue +shadows in valley and ravine were darkening fast. Down the spur they went +swiftly--across the river and up the slope of Pine Mountain. As they climbed, +Chad heard the last faint sound of a cow-bell far below him and he stopped +short, with a lump in his throat that hurt. Soon darkness fell, and, on the +very top, the boy made a fire with his flint and steel, cooked a little bacon, +warmed his corn-pone, munched them and, wrapping his blanket around him and +letting Jack curl into the hollow of his legs and stomach, turned his face to +the kindly stars and went to sleep. + + +CHAPTER 2 + +FIGHTING THEIR WAY + +Twice, during the night, Jack roused him by trying to push himself farther +under the blanket and Chad rose to rebuild the fire. The third time he was +awakened by the subtle prescience of dawn and his eyes opened on a flaming +radiance in the east. Again from habit he started to spring hurriedly to his +feet and, again sharply conscious, he lay down again. There was no wood to +cut, no fire to rekindle, no water to carry from the spring, no cow to milk, +no corn to hoe; there was nothing to do--nothing. Morning after morning, with +a day's hard toil at a man's task before him, what would he not have given, +when old Jim called him, to have stretched his aching little legs down the +folds of the thick feather-bed and slipped back into the delicious rest of +sleep and dreams? Now he was his own master and, with a happy sense of +freedom, he brushed the dew from his face and, shifting the chunk under his +head, pulled his old cap down a little more on one side and closed his eyes. +But sleep would not come and Chad had his first wonder over the perverse +result of the full choice to do, or not to do. At once, the first keen savor +of freedom grew less sweet to his nostrils and, straightway, he began to feel +the first pressure of the chain of duties that was to be forged for him out of +his perfect liberty, link by link, and he lay vaguely wondering. + +Meanwhile, the lake of dull red behind the jagged lines of rose and crimson +that streaked the east began to glow and look angry. A sheen of fiery vapor +shot upward and spread swiftly over the miracle of mist that had been wrought +in the night. An ocean of it and, white and thick as snowdust, it filled +valley, chasm, and ravine with mystery and silence up to the dark jutting +points and dark waving lines of range after range that looked like breakers, +surged up by some strange new law from an under-sea of foam; motionless, it +swept down the valleys, poured swift torrents through high gaps in the hills +and one long noiseless cataract over a lesser range--all silent, all +motionless, like a great white sea stilled in the fury of a storm. Morning +after morning, the boy had looked upon just such glory, calmly watching the +mist part, like the waters, for the land, and the day break, with one phrase, +"Let there be light," ever in his mind--for Chad knew his Bible. And, most +often, in soft splendor, trailing cloud-mist, and yellow light leaping from +crest to crest, and in the singing of birds and the shining of leaves and +dew--there was light. + +But that morning there was a hush in the woods that Chad understood. On a +sudden, a light wind scurried through the trees and showered the mistdrops +down. The smoke from his fire shot through the low undergrowth, without +rising, and the starting mists seemed to clutch with long, white fingers at +the tree-tops, as though loath to leave the safe, warm earth for the upper +air. A little later, he felt some great shadow behind him, and he turned his +face to see black clouds marshalling on either flank of the heavens and +fitting their black wings together, as though the retreating forces of the +night were gathering for a last sweep against the east. A sword flashed +blindingly from the dome high above them and, after it, came one shaking peal +that might have been the command to charge, for Chad saw the black hosts start +fiercely. Afar off, the wind was coming; the trees began to sway above him, +and the level sea of mist below began to swell, and the wooded breakers seemed +to pitch angrily. + +Challenging tongues ran quivering up the east, and the lake of red coals under +them began to heave fiercely in answer. On either side the lightning leaped +upward and forward, striking straight and low, sometimes, as though it were +ripping up the horizon to let into the conflict the host of dropping stars. +Then the artillery of the thunder crashed in earnest through the shaking +heavens, and the mists below pitched like smoke belched from gigantic unseen +cannon. The coming sun answered with upleaping swords of fire and, as the +black thunder hosts swept overhead, Chad saw, for one moment, the whole east +in a writhing storm of fire. A thick darkness rose from the first crash of +battle and, with the rush of wind and rain, the mighty conflict went on +unseen. + +Chad had seen other storms at sunrise, but something happened now and he could +never recall the others nor ever forget this. All it meant to him, young as he +was then, was unrolled slowly as the years came on--more than the first great +rebellion of the powers of darkness when, in the beginning, the Master gave +the first command that the seven days' work of His hand should float through +space, smitten with the welcoming rays of a million suns; more than the +beginning thus of light--of life; more even than the first birth of a spirit +in a living thing: for, long afterward, he knew that it meant the dawn of a +new consciousness to him--the birth of a new spirit within him, and the +foreshadowed pain of its slow mastery over his passion-racked body and heart. +Never was there a crisis, bodily or spiritual, on the battle-field or alone +under the stars, that this storm did not come back to him. And, always, +through all doubt, and, indeed, in the end when it came to him for the last +time on his bed of death, the slow and sullen dispersion of wind and rain on +the mountain that morning far, far back in his memory, and the quick coming of +the Sun-king's victorious light over the glad hills and trees held out to him +the promise of a final victory to the Sun-king's King over the darkness of all +death and the final coming to his own brave spirit of peace and rest. + +So Chad, with Jack drawn close to him, lay back, awe-stricken and with his +face wet from mysterious tears. The comfort of the childish self-pity that +came with every thought of himself, wandering, a lost spirit along the +mountain-tops, was gone like a dream and ready in his heart was the strong new +purpose to strike into the world for himself. He even took it as a good omen, +when he rose, to find his fire quenched, the stopper of his powder-horn out, +and the precious black grains scattered hopelessly on the wet earth. There +were barely more than three charges left, and something had to be done at +once. First, he must get farther away from old Nathan: the neighbors might +search for him and find him and take him back. + +So he started out, brisk and shivering, along the ridge path with Jack +bouncing before him. An hour later, he came upon a hollow tree, filled with +doty wood which he could tear out with his hands and he built a fire and +broiled a little more bacon. + +Jack got only a bit this time and barked reproachfully for more; but Chad +shook his head and the dog started out, with both eyes open, to look for his +own food. The sun was high enough now to make the drenched world flash like an +emerald and its warmth felt good, as Chad tramped the topmost edge of Pine +Mountain, where the brush was not thick and where, indeed, he often found a +path running a short way and turning into some ravine--the trail of cattle and +sheep and the pathway between one little valley settlement and another. He +must have made ten miles and more by noon--for he was a sturdy walker and as +tireless almost as Jack--and ten miles is a long way in the mountains, even +now. So, already, Chad was far enough away to have no fear of pursuit, even if +old Nathan wanted him back, which was doubtful. On the top of the next point, +Jack treed a squirrel and Chad took a rest and brought him down, shot through +the head and, then and there, skinned and cooked him and divided with Jack +squarely. + +"Jack," he said, as he reloaded his gun, "we can't keep this up much longer. I +hain't got more'n two more loads o' powder here." + +And, thereupon, Jack leaped suddenly in the air and, turning quite around, +lighted with his nose pointed, as it was before he sprang. Chad cocked the old +gun and stepped forward. A low hissing whir rose a few feet to one side of the +path and, very carefully, the boy climbed a fallen trunk and edged his way, +very carefully, toward the sound: and there, by a dead limb and with his ugly +head reared three inches above his coil of springs, was a rattlesnake. The +sudden hate in the boy's face was curious--it was instinctive, primitive, +deadly. He must shoot off-hand now and he looked down the long barrel, shaded +with tin, until the sight caught on one of the beady, unblinking eyes and +pulled the trigger. Jack leaped with the sound, in spite of Chad's yell of +warning, which was useless, for the ball had gone true and the poison was set +loose in the black, crushed head. + +"Jack," said Chad, "we just GOT to go down now." + +So they went on swiftly through the heat of the early afternoon. It was very +silent up there. Now and then, a brilliant blue-jay would lilt from a stunted +oak with the flute-like love-notes of spring; or a lonely little brown fellow +would hop with a low chirp from one bush to another as though he had been lost +up there for years and had grown quite hopeless about seeing his kind again. +When there was a gap in the mountains, he could hear the querulous, senseless +love-quarrel of flickers going on below him; passing a deep ravine, the note +of the wood-thrush--that shy lyrist of the hills--might rise to him from a +dense covert of maple and beech: or, with a startling call, a red-crested cock +of the woods would beat his white-striped wings from spur to spur, as though +he were keeping close to the long swells of an unseen sea. Several times, a +pert flicker squatting like a knot to a dead limb or the crimson plume of a +cock of the woods, as plain as a splash of blood on a wall of vivid green, +tempted him to let loose his last load, but he withstood them. A little later, +he saw a fresh bear-track near a spring below the head of a ravine; and, later +still, he heard the far-away barking of a hound and a deer leaped lightly into +an open sunny spot and stood with uplifted hoof and pointed ears. This was too +much and the boy's gun followed his heart to his throat, but the buck sprang +lightly into the bush and vanished noiselessly. + +The sun had dropped midway between the zenith and the blue bulks rolling +westward and, at the next gap, a broader path ran through it and down the +mountain. This, Chad knew, led to a settlement and, with a last look of +choking farewell to his own world, he turned down. At once, the sense of +possible human companionship was curiously potent: at once, the boy's +half-wild manner changed and, though alert and still watchful, he whistled +cheerily to Jack, threw his gun over his shoulder, and walked erect and +confident. His pace slackened. Carelessly now his feet tramped beds of soft +exquisite moss and lone little settlements of forget-me-nots, and his long +riflebarrel brushed laurel blossoms down in a shower behind him. Once even, he +picked up one of the pretty bells and looked idly at it, turning it bottom +upward. The waxen cup might have blossomed from a tiny waxen star. There was a +little green star for a calyx; above this, a little white star with its prongs +outstretched--tiny arms to hold up the pink-flecked chalice for the rain and +dew. There came a time when he thought of it as a star-blossom; but now his +greedy tongue swept the honey from it and he dropped it without another +thought to the ground. At the first spur down which the road turned, he could +see smoke in the valley. The laurel blooms and rhododendron bells hung in +thicker clusters and of a deeper pink. Here and there was a blossoming wild +cucumber and an umbrella-tree with huger flowers and leaves; and, sometimes, a +giant magnolia with a thick creamy flower that the boy could not have spanned +with both hands and big, thin oval leaves, a man's stride from tip to stem. +Soon, he was below the sunlight and in the cool shadows where the water ran +noisily and the air hummed with the wings of bees. On the last spur, he came +upon a cow browsing on sassafras-bushes right in the path and the last shadow +of his loneliness straightway left him. She was old, mild, and unfearing, and +she started down the road in front of him as though she thought he had come to +drive her home, or as though she knew he was homeless and was leading him to +shelter. A little farther on, the river flashed up a welcome to him through +the trees and at the edge of the water, her mellow bell led him down stream +and he followed. In the next hollow, he stooped to drink from a branch that +ran across the road and, when he rose to start again, his bare feet stopped as +though riven suddenly to the ground; for, half way up the next low slope, was +another figure as motionless as his--with a bare head, bare feet, a startled +face and wide eyes--but motionless only until the eyes met his: then there was +a flash of bright hair and scarlet homespun, and the little feet, that had +trod down the centuries to meet his, left the earth as though they had wings +and Chad saw them, in swift flight, pass silently over the hill. The next +moment, Jack came too near the old brindle and, with a sweep of her horns at +him and a toss of tail and heels in the air, she, too, swept over the slope +and on, until the sound of her bell passed out of hearing. Even to-day, in +lonely parts of the Cumberland, the sudden coming of a stranger may put women +and children to flight-- something like this had happened before to Chad--but +the sudden desertion and the sudden silence drew him in a flash back to the +lonely cabin he had left and the lonely graves under the big poplar and, with +a quivering lip, he sat down. Jack, too, dropped to his haunches and sat +hopeless, but not for long. The chill of night was coming on and Jack was +getting hungry. So he rose presently and trotted ahead and squatted again, +looking back and waiting. But still Chad sat irresolute and in a moment, Jack +heard something that disturbed him, for he threw his ears toward the top of +the hill and, with a growl, trotted back to Chad and sat close to him, looking +up the slope. Chad rose then with his thumb on the lock of his gun and over +the hill came a tall figure and a short one, about Chad's size and a dog, with +white feet and white face, that was bigger than Jack: and behind them, three +more figures, one of which was the tallest of the group. All stopped when they +saw Chad, who dropped the butt of his gun at once to the ground. At once the +strange dog, with a low snarl, started down toward the two little strangers +with his yellow ears pointed, the hair bristling along his back, and his teeth +in sight. Jack answered the challenge with an eager whimper, but dropped his +tail, at Chad's sharp command--for Chad did not care to meet the world as an +enemy, when he was looking for a friend. The group stood dumb with +astonishment for a moment and the small boy's mouth was wide-open with +surprise, but the strange dog came on with his tail rigid, and lifting his +feet high. + +"Begone!" said Chad, sharply, but the dog would not begone; he still came on +as though bent on a fight. + +"Call yo' dog off," Chad called aloud. "My dog'll kill him. You better call +him off," he called again, in some concern, but the tall boy in front laughed +scornfully. + +"Let's see him," he said, and the small one laughed, too. + +Chad's eyes flashed--no boy can stand an insult to his dog--and the curves of +his open lips snapped together in a straight red line. "All right," he said, +placidly, and, being tired, he dropped back on a stone by the wayside to await +results. The very tone of his voice struck all shackles of restraint from +Jack, who, with a springy trot, went forward slowly, as though he were making +up a definite plan of action; for Jack had a fighting way of his own, which +Chad knew. + +"Sick him, Whizzer!" shouted the tall boy, and the group of five hurried +eagerly down the hill and halted in a half circle about Jack and Chad; so that +it looked an uneven conflict, indeed, for the two waifs from over Pine +Mountain. + +The strange dog was game and wasted no time. With a bound he caught Jack by +the throat, tossed him several feet away, and sprang for him again. Jack +seemed helpless against such strength and fury, but Chad's face was as placid +as though it had been Jack who was playing the winning game. + +Jack himself seemed little disturbed; he took his punishment without an outcry +of rage or pain. You would have thought he had quietly come to the conclusion +that all he could hope to do was to stand the strain until his opponent had +worn himself out. But that was not Jack's game, and Chad knew it. The tall boy +was chuckling, and his brother of Chad's age was bent almost double with +delight. + +"Kill my dawg, will he?" he cried, shrilly. + +"Oh, Lawdy!" groaned the tall one. + +Jack was much bitten and chewed by this time, and, while his pluck and purpose +seemed unchanged, Chad had risen to his feet and was beginning to look +anxious. The three silent spectators behind pressed forward and, for the first +time, one of these--the tallest of the group--spoke: + +"Take yo' dawg off, Daws Dillon," he said, with quiet authority; but Daws +shook his head, and the little brother looked indignant. + +"He said he'd kill him," said Daws, tauntingly. + +"Yo' dawg's bigger and hit ain't fair," said the other again and, seeing +Chad's worried look, he pressed suddenly forward; but Chad had begun to smile, +and was sitting down on his stone again. Jack had leaped this time, with his +first growl during the fight, and Whizzer gave a sharp cry of surprise and +pain. Jack had caught him by the throat, close behind the jaws, and the big +dog shook and growled and shook again. Sometimes Jack was lifted quite from +the ground, but he seemed clamped to his enemy to stay. Indeed he shut his +eyes, finally, and seemed to go quite to sleep. The big dog threshed madly and +swung and twisted, howling with increasing pain and terror and increasing +weakness, while Jack's face was as peaceful as though he were a puppy once +more and hanging to his mother's neck instead of her breast, asleep. By and +by, Whizzer ceased to shake and began to pant; and, thereupon, Jack took his +turn at shaking, gently at first, but with maddening regularity and without at +all loosening his hold. The big dog was too weak to resist soon and, when Jack +began to jerk savagely, Whizzer began to gasp. + +"You take YO' dawg off," called Daws, sharply. + +Chad never moved. + +"Will you say 'nough for him?" he asked, quietly; and the tall one of the +silent three laughed. + +"Call him off, I tell ye," repeated Daws, savagely; but again Chad never +moved, and Daws started for a club. Chad's new friend came forward. + +"Hol'on, now, hol'on," he said, easily. "None o' that, I reckon." + +Daws stopped with an oath. "Whut you got to do with this, Tom Turner?" + +"You started this fight," said Tom. + +"I don't keer ef I did--take him off," Daws answered, savagely. + +"Will you say 'nough fer him?" said Chad again, and again Tall Tom chuckled. +The little brother clinched his fists and turned white with fear for Whizzer +and fury for Chad, while Daws looked at the tall Turner, shook his head from +side to side, like a balking steer, and dropped his eyes. + +"Y-e-s," he said, sullenly. + +"Say it, then," said Chad, and this time Tall Tom roared aloud, and even his +two silent brothers laughed. Again Daws, with a furious oath, started for the +dogs with his club, but Chad's ally stepped between. + +"You say 'nough, Daws Dillon," he said, and Daws looked into the quiet +half-smiling face and at the stalwart two grinning behind. + +"Takin' up agin yo' neighbors fer a wood-colt' airye?" + +"I'm a-takin' up fer what's right and fair. How do you know he's a +wood-colt--an' suppose he is? You say 'nough now, or--" + +Again Daws looked at the dogs. Jack had taken a fresh grip and was shaking +savagely and steadily. Whizzer's tongue was out--once his throat rattled. + +"Nough!" growled Daws, angrily, and the word was hardly jerked from his lips +before Chad was on his feet and prying Jack's jaws apart. "He ain't much +hurt," he said, looking at the bloody hold which Jack had clamped on his +enemy's throat, "but he'd a-killed him though, he al'ays does. Thar ain't no +chance fer NO dog, when Jack gits THAT hold." + +Then he raised his eyes and looked into the quivering face of the owner of the +dog--the little fellow--who, with the bellow of a yearling bull, sprang at +him. Again Chad's lips took a straight red line and being on one knee was an +advantage, for, as he sprang up, he got both underholds and there was a mighty +tussle, the spectators yelling with frantic delight. + +"Trip him, Tad," shouted Daws, fiercely. + +"Stick to him, little un," shouted Tom, and his brothers, stoical Dolph and +Rube, danced about madly. Even with underholds, Chad, being much the shorter +of the two, had no advantage that he did not need, and, with a sharp thud, the +two fierce little bodies struck the road side by side, spurting up a cloud of +dust. + +"Dawg--fall!" cried Rube, and Dolph rushed forward to pull the combatants +apart. + +"He don't fight fair," said Chad, panting, and rubbing his right eye which his +enemy had tried to "gouge"; "but lemme at him--I can fight thataway, too." +Tall Tom held them apart. + +"You're too little, and he don't fight fair. I reckon you better go on +home--you two--an' yo' mean dawg," he said to Daws; and the two Dillons--the +one sullen and the other crying with rage--moved away with Whizzer slinking +close to the ground after them. But at the top of the hill both turned with +bantering yells, derisive wriggling of their fingers at their noses, and with +other rude gestures. And, thereupon, Dolph and Rube wanted to go after them, +but the tall brother stopped them with a word. + +"That's about all they're fit fer," he said, contemptuously, and he turned to +Chad. + +"Whar you from, little man, an' whar you goin', an' what mought yo' name be?" + +Chad told his name, and where he was from, and stopped. + +"Whar you goin'?" said Tom again, without a word or look of comment. + +Chad knew the disgrace and the suspicion that his answer was likely to +generate, but he looked his questioner in the face fearlessly. + +"I don't know whar I'm goin'." + +The big fellow looked at him keenly, but kindly. + +"You ain't lyin' an' I reckon you better come with us." He turned for the +first time to his brothers and the two nodded. + +"You an' yo' dawg, though Mammy don't like dawgs much; but you air a stranger +an' you ain't afeerd, an' you can fight--you an' yo' dawg--an' I know Dad'll +take ye both in." + +So Chad and Jack followed the long strides of the three Turners over the hill +and to the bend of the river, where were three long cane fishing-poles with +their butts stuck in the mud--the brothers had been fishing, when the flying +figure of the little girl told them of the coming of a stranger into those +lonely wilds. Taking these up, they strode on--Chad after them and Jack +trotting, in cheerful confidence, behind. It is probable that Jack noticed, as +soon as Chad, the swirl of smoke rising from a broad ravine that spread into +broad fields, skirted by the great sweep of the river, for he sniffed the air +sharply, and trotted suddenly ahead. It was a cheering sight for Chad. Two +negro slaves were coming from work in a corn-field close by, and Jack's hair +rose when he saw them, and, with a growl, he slunk behind his master. Dazed, +Chad looked at them. + +"Whut've them fellers got on their faces?" he asked. Tom laughed. + +"Hain't you nuver seed a nigger afore?" he asked. + +Chad shook his head. + +"Lots o' folks from yo' side o' the mountains nuver have seed a nigger," said +Tom. "Sometimes hit skeers 'em." + +"Hit don't skeer me," said Chad. + +At the gate of the barn-yard, in which was a long stable with a deeply sloping +roof, stood the old brindle cow, who turned to look at Jack, and, as Chad +followed the three brothers through the yard gate, he saw a slim scarlet +figure vanish swiftly from the porch into the house. + +In a few minutes, Chad was inside the big log cabin and before a big log-fire, +with Jack between his knees and turning his soft human eyes keenly from one to +another of the group about his little master, telling how the mountain cholera +had carried off the man and the woman who had been father and mother to him, +and their children; at which the old mother nodded her head in growing +sympathy, for there were two fresh mounds in her own graveyard on the point of +a low hill not far away; how old Nathan Cherry, whom he hated, had wanted to +bind him out, and how, rather than have Jack mistreated and himself be +ill-used, he had run away along the mountain-top; how he had slept one night +under a log with Jack to keep him warm; how he had eaten sassafras and birch +back and had gotten drink from the green water-bulbs of the wild honeysuckle; +and how, on the second day, being hungry, and without powder for his gun, he +had started, when the sun sank, for the shadows of the valley at the mouth of +Kingdom Come. Before he was done, the old mother knocked the ashes from her +clay pipe and quietly went into the kitchen, and Jack, for all his good +manners, could not restrain a whine of eagerness when he heard the crackle of +bacon in a frying-pan and the delicious smell of it struck his quivering +nostrils. After dark, old Joel, the father of the house, came in--a giant in +size and a mighty hunter--and he slapped his big thighs and roared until the +rafters seemed to shake when Tall Tom told him about the dog-fight and the +boy-fight with the family in the next cove: for already the clanship was +forming that was to add the last horror to the coming great war and prolong +that horror for nearly half a century after its close. + +By and by, the scarlet figure of little Melissa came shyly out of the dark +shadows behind and drew shyly closer and closer, until she was crouched in the +chimney corner with her face shaded from the fire by one hand and a tangle of +yellow hair, listening and watching him with her big, solemn eyes, quite +fearlessly. Already the house was full of children and dependents, but no word +passed between old Joel and the old mother, for no word was necessary. Two +waifs who had so suffered and who could so fight could have a home under that +roof if they pleased, forever. And Chad's sturdy little body lay deep in a +feather-bed, and the friendly shadows from a big fireplace flickered hardly +thrice over him before he was asleep. And Jack, for that night at least, was +allowed to curl up by the covered coals, or stretch out his tired feet, if he +pleased, to a warmth that in all the nights of his life, perhaps, he had never +known before. + + + +CHAPTER 3. A "BLAB SCHOOL" ON KINGDOM COME + +Chad was awakened by the touch of a cold nose at his ear, the rasp of a warm +tongue across his face, and the tug of two paws at his cover. "Git down, Jack!" +he said, and Jack, with a whimper of satisfaction, went back to the fire that +was roaring up the chimney, and a deep voice laughed and called: + +"I reckon you better git UP, little man!" + +Old Joel was seated at the fire with his huge legs crossed and a pipe in his +mouth. It was before busily astir. There was the sound of tramping in the +frosty air outside and the noise of getting breakfast ready in the kitchen. As +Chad sprang up, he saw Melissa's yellow hair drop out of sight behind the foot +of the bed in the next corner, and he turned his face quickly, and, slipping +behind the foot of his own bed and into his coat and trousers, was soon at the +fire himself, with old Joel looking him over with shrewd kindliness. + +"Yo' dawg's got a heap o' sense," said the old hunter, and Chad told him how +old Jack was, and how a cattle-buyer from the "settlements" of the Bluegrass +had given him to Chad when Jack was badly hurt and his owner thought he was +going to die. And how Chad had nursed him and how the two had always been +together ever since. Through the door of the kitchen, Chad could see the old +mother with her crane and pots and cooking-pans; outside, he could hear the +moo of the old brindle, the bleat of her calf, the nicker of a horse, one +lusty sheep-call, and the hungry bellow of young cattle at the barn, where +Tall Tom was feeding the stock. Presently Rube stamped in with a back log and +Dolph came through with a milk-pail. + +"I can milk," said Chad, eagerly, and Dolph laughed. + +"All right, I'll give ye a chance," he said, and old Joel looked pleased, for +it was plain that the little stranger was not going to be a drone in the +household, and, taking his pipe from his mouth but without turning his head, +he called out: + +"Git up thar, Melissy." + +Getting no answer, he looked around to find Melissa standing at the foot of +the bed. + +"Come here to the fire, little gal, nobody's agoin to eat ye." + +Melissa came forward, twisting her hands in front of her, and stood, rubbing +one bare foot over the other on the hearth-stones. She turned her face with a +blush when Chad suddenly looked at her, and, thereafter, the little man gazed +steadily into the fire in order to embarrass her no more. + +With the breaking of light over the mountain, breakfast was over and the work +of the day began. Tom was off to help a neighbor "snake" logs down the +mountain and into Kingdom Come, where they would be "rafted" and floated on +down the river to the capital--if a summer tide should come--to be turned into +fine houses for the people of the Bluegrass. Dolph and Rube disappeared at old +Joel's order to "go meet them sheep." Melissa helped her mother clear away the +table and wash the dishes; and Chad, out of the tail of his eye, saw her +surreptitiously feeding greedy Jack, while old Joel still sat by the fire, +smoking silently. Chad stepped outside. The air was chill, but the mists were +rising and a long band of rich, warm light lay over a sloping spur up the +river, and where this met the blue morning shadows, the dew was beginning to +drip and to sparkle. Chad could nor stand inaction long, and his eye lighted +up when he heard a great bleating at the foot of the spur and the shouts of +men and boys. Just then the old mother called from the rear of the cabin. + +"Joel, them sheep air comin'!" + +The big form of the old hunter filled the doorway and Jack bounded out between +his legs, while little Melissa appeared with two books, ready for school. Down +the road came the flock of lean mountain-sheep, Dolph and Rube driving them. +Behind, slouched the Dillon tribe--Daws and Whizzer and little Tad; Daws's +father, old Tad, long, lean, stooping, crafty: and two new ones cousins to +Daws--Jake and Jerry, the giant twins. "Joel Turner," said old Tad, sourly, +"here's yo' sheep!" + +Joel had bought the Dillons' sheep and meant to drive them to the county-seat +ten miles down the river. There had evidently been a disagreement between the +two when the trade was made, for Joel pulled out a gray pouch of coonskin, +took from it a roll of bills, and, without counting them, held them out. + +"Tad Dillon," he said, shortly, "here's yo' money!" + +The Dillon father gave possession with a gesture and the Dillon faction, +including Whizzer and the giant twins, drew aside together--the father morose; +Daws watching Dolph and Rube with a look of much meanness; little Tad behind +him, watching Chad, his face screwed up with hate; and Whizzer, pretending not +to see Jack, but darting a surreptitious glance at him now and then, for then +and there was starting a feud that was to run fiercely on, long after the war +was done. + +"Git my hoss, Rube," said old Joel, and Rube turned to the stable, while Dolph +kept an eye on the sheep, which were lying on the road or straggling down the +river. As Rube opened the stable-door, a dirty white object bounded out, and +Rube, with a loud curse, tumbled over backward into the mud, while a fierce +old ram dashed with a triumphant bleat for the open gate. Beelzebub, as the +Turner mother had christened the mischievous brute, had been placed in the +wrong stall and Beelzebub was making for freedom. He gave another triumphant +baa as he swept between Dolph's legs and through the gate, and, with an +answering chorus, the silly sheep sprang to their feet and followed. A sheep +hates water, but not more than he loves a leader, and Beelzebub feared +nothing. Straight for the water of the low ford the old conqueror made and, in +the wake of his masterful summons, the flock swept, like a Mormon household, +after him. Then was there a commotion indeed. Old Joel shouted and swore; +Dolph shouted and swore and Rube shouted and swore. Old Dillon smiled grimly, +Daws and little Tad shouted with derisive laughter, and the big twins grinned. +The mother came to the door, broom in hand, and, with a frowning face, watched +the sheep splash through the water and into the woods across the river. Little +Melissa looked frightened. Whizzer, losing his head, had run down after the +sheep, barking and hastening their flight, until called back with a mighty +curse from old Joel, while Jack sat on his haunches looking at Chad and +waiting for orders. + +"Goddlemighty!" said Joel, "how air we goin' to git them sheep back?" Up and +up rose the bleating and baaing, for Beelzebub, like the prince of devils that +he was, seemed bent on making all the mischief possible. + +"How AIR we goin' to git 'em back?" + +Chad nodded then, and Jack with an eager yelp made for the river--Whizzer at +his heels. Again old Joel yelled furiously, as did Dolph and Rube, and Whizzer +stopped and turned back with a drooping tail, but Jack plunged in. He knew but +one voice behind him and Chad's was not in the chorus. + +"Call yo' dawg back, boy," said Joel, sternly, and Chad opened his lips with +anything but a call for Jack to come back--it was instead a fine high yell of +encouragement and old Joel was speechless. + +"That dawg'll kill them sheep," said Daws Dillon aloud. + +Joel's face was red and his eyes rolled. + +"Call that damned feist back, I tell ye," he shouted at last. "Hyeh, Rube, git +my gun, git my gun!" + +Rube started for the house, but Chad laughed. Jack had reached the other bank +now, and was flashing like a ball of gray light through the weeds and up into +the woods; and Chad slipped down the bank and into the river, hieing him on +excitedly. + +Joel was beside himself and he, too, lumbered down to the river, followed by +Dolph, while the Dillons roared from the road. + +"Boy!" he roared. "Eh, boy, eh! what's his name, Dolph? Call him back, Dolph, +call the little devil back. If I don't wear him out with a hickory; holler fer +'em, damn 'em! Heh-o-oo-ee!" The old hunter's bellow rang through the woods +like a dinner-horn. Dolph was shouting, too, but Jack and Chad seemed to have +gone stone-deaf; and Rube, who had run down with the gun, started with an oath +into the river himself, but Joel halted him. + +"Hol'on, hol'on!" he said, listening. "By the eternal, he's a-roundin' 'em +up!" The sheep were evidently much scattered, to judge from the bleating, but +here, there, and everywhere, they could hear Jack's bark, while Chad seemed to +have stopped in the woods and, from one place, was shouting orders to his dog. +Plainly, Jack was no sheep-killer and by and by Dolph and Rube left off +shouting, and old Joel's face became placid and all of them from swearing +helplessly fell to waiting quietly. Soon the bleating became less and less, +and began to concentrate on the mountain-side. Not far below, they could hear +Chad: + +Coo-oo-sheep! Coo-oo-sh'p-cooshy-cooshy-coo-oo-sheep!" + +The sheep were answering. They were coming down a ravine, and Chad's voice +rang out above: + +"Somebody come across, an' stand on each side o' the holler." + +Dolph and Rube waded across then, and soon the sheep came crowding down the +narrow ravine with Jack barking behind them and Chad shooing them down. But +for Dolph and Rube, Beelzebub would have led them up or down the river, and it +was hard work to get him into the water until Jack, who seemed to know what +the matter was, sharply nipped several sheep near him. These sprang violently +forward, the whole flock in front pushed forward, too, and Beelzebub was +thrust from the bank. Nothing else being possible, the old ram settled himself +with a snort into the water and made for the other shore. Chad and Jack +followed and, when they reached the road, Beelzebub was again a prisoner; the +sheep, swollen like sponges, were straggling down the river, and Dillons and +Turners were standing around in silence. Jack shook himself and dropped +panting in the dust at his master's feet, without so much as an upward glance +or a lift of his head for a pat of praise. As old Joel raised one foot heavily +to his stirrup, he grunted, quietly: + +"Well, I be damned." And when he was comfortably in his saddle he said again, +with unction: + +"I DO be damned. I'll just take that dawg to help drive them sheep down to +town. Come on, boy." + +Chad started joyfully, but the old mother called from the door: "Who's a-goin' +to take this gal to school, I'd like to know?" + +Old Joel pulled in his horse, straightened one leg, and looked all +around--first at the Dillons, who had started away, then at Dolph and Rube, +who were moving determinedly after the sheep (it was Court Day in town and +they could not miss Court Day), and then at Chad, who halted. + +"Boy," he said, "don't you want to go to school--you ought to go to school?" + +"Yes," said Chad, obediently, though the trip to town--and Chad had never been +to a town--was a sore temptation. + +"Go on, then, an' tell the teacher I sent ye. Here, Mammy--eh, what's yo' +name, boy? Oh, Mammy--Chad, here 'll take her. Take good keer o' that gal, +boy, an' learn yo' a-b-abs like a man now." + +Melissa came shyly forward from the door and Joel whistled to Jack and called +him, but Jack though he liked nothing better than to drive sheep lay still, +looking at Chad. + +"Go 'long, Jack," said Chad, and Jack sprang up and was off, though he stopped +again and looked back, and Chad had to tell him again to go on. In a moment +dog, men, and sheep were moving in a cloud of dust around a bend in the road +and little Melissa was at the gate. + +"Take good keer of 'Lissy," said the mother from the porch, kindly; and Chad, +curiously touched all at once by the trust shown him, stalked ahead like a +little savage, while Melissa with her basket followed silently behind. The boy +never thought of taking the basket himself: that is not the way of men with +women in the hills and not once did he look around or speak on the way up the +river and past the blacksmith's shop and the grist-mill just beyond the mouth +of Kingdom Come; but when they arrived at the log school-house it was his turn +to be shy and he hung back to let Melissa go in first. Within, there was no +floor but the bare earth, no window but the cracks between the logs, and no +desks but the flat sides of slabs, held up by wobbling pegs. On one side were +girls in linsey and homespun: some thin, undersized, underfed, and with weak, +dispirited eyes and yellow tousled hair; others, round-faced, round-eyed, +dark, and sturdy; most of them large-waisted and round-shouldered -- especially +the older ones -- from work in the fields; but, now and then, one like Melissa, +the daughter of a valley farmer, erect, agile, spirited, intelligent. On the +other side were the boys, in physical characteristics the same and suggesting +the same social divisions: at the top the farmer -- now and then a slave-holder +and perhaps of gentle blood -- who had dropped by the way on the westward march +of civilization and had cleared some rich river bottom and a neighboring +summit of the mountains, where he sent his sheep and cattle to graze; where a +creek opened into this valley some free-settler, whose grandfather had fought +at King's Mountain--usually of Scotch-Irish descent, often English, but +sometimes German or sometimes even Huguenot--would have his rude home of logs; +under him, and in wretched cabins at the head of the creek or on the washed +spur of the mountain above, or in some "deadenin"' still higher up and swept +by mists and low-trailing clouds, the poor white trash--worthless descendants +of the servile and sometimes criminal class who might have traced their origin +back to the slums of London; hand-to-mouth tenants of the valley-aristocrat, +hewers of wood for him in the lowlands and upland guardians of his cattle and +sheep. And finally, walking up and down the earth floor--stern and smooth of +face and of a preternatural dignity hardly to be found elsewhere--the mountain +school-master. + +It was a "blab school," as the mountaineers characterize a school in which the +pupils study aloud, and the droning chorus as shrill as locust cries ceased +suddenly when Chad came in, and every eye was turned on him with a sexless +gaze of curiosity that made his face redden and his heart throb. But he forgot +them when the school-master pierced him with eyes that seemed to shoot from +under his heavy brows like a strong light from deep darkness. Chad met them, +nor did his chin droop, and Caleb Hazel saw that the boy's face was frank and +honest, and that his eye was fearless and kind, and, without question, he +motioned to a seat--with one wave of his hand setting Chad on the corner of a +slab and the studious drone to vibrating again. When the boy ventured to +glance around, he saw Daws Dillon in one corner, making a face at him, and +little Tad scowling from behind a book: and on the other side, among the +girls, he saw another hostile face--next little Melissa which had the pointed +chin and the narrow eyes of the "Dillon breed," as old Joel called the family, +whose farm was at the mouth of Kingdom Come and whose boundary touched his +own. When the first morning recess came, "little recess," as it was called--the +master kept Chad in and asked him his name; if he had ever been to school, and +whether he knew his A B C's; and he showed no surprise when Chad, without +shame, told him no. So the master got Melissa's spelling-book and pointed out +the first seven letters of the alphabet, and made Chad repeat them three +times--watching the boy's earnest, wrinkling brow closely and with growing +interest. When school "took up" again, Chad was told to say them aloud in +concert with the others--which he did, until he could repeat them without +looking at his book, and the master saw him thus saying them while his eyes +roved around the room, and he nodded to himself with satisfaction--for he was +accustomed to visible communion with himself, in school and out. At noon--"big +recess" Melissa gave Chad some corn-bread and bacon, and the boys gathered +around him, while the girls looked at him curiously, merely because he was a +stranger, and some of them--especially the Dillon girl--whispered, and Chad +blushed and was uncomfortable, for once the Dillon girl laughed unkindly. The +boys had no games, but they jumped and threw "rocks" with great accuracy at a +little birch-tree, and Daws and Tad always spat on their stones and pointed +with the forefinger of the left hand first at what they were going to throw at, +while Chad sat to one side and took no part, though he longed to show them +what he could do. By and by they fell to wrestling, and finally Tad bantered +him for a trial. Chad hesitated, and his late enemy misunderstood. + +"I'll give ye both underholts agin," he said, loftily, "you're afeerd!" + +This was too much, and Chad sprang to his feet and grappled, disdaining the +proffered advantage, and got hurled to the ground, his head striking the earth +violently, and making him so dizzy that the brave smile with which he took his +fall looked rather sickly and pathetic. + +"Yes, an' Whizzer can whoop yo' dawg, too," said Tad, and Chad saw that he was +going to have trouble with those Dillons, for Daws winked at the other boys, +and the Dillon girl laughed again scornfully--at which Chad saw Melissa's eyes +flash and her hands clinch as, quite unconsciously, she moved toward him to +take his part; and all at once he was glad that he had nobody else to champion +him. + +"You wouldn' dare tech him if one of my brothers was here," she said, +indignantly, "an' don t you dare tech him again, Tad Dillon. An you --" she said, +witheringly, "you --" she repeated and stopped helpless for the want of words +but her eyes spoke with the fierce authority of the Turner clan, and its +dominant power for half a century, and Nancy Dillon shrank, though she turned +and made a spiteful face, when Melissa walked toward the school-house alone. + +That afternoon was the longest of Chad's life--it seemed as though it would +never come to an end; for Chad had never sat so still for so long. His throat +got dry repeating the dreary round of letters over and over and his head ached +and he fidgeted in his chair while the slow hours passed and the sun went down +behind the mountain and left the school-house in rapidly cooling shadow. His +heart leaped when the last class was heard and the signal was given that meant +freedom for the little prisoners; but Melissa sat pouting in her seat-- she +had missed her lesson and must be kept in for a while. So Chad, too, kept his +seat and the master heard him say his letters, without the book, and nodded +his head as though to say to himself that such quickness was exactly what he +had looked for. By the time Chad had learned down to the letter 0, Melissa was +ready, for she was quick, too, and it was her anger that made her miss--and +the two started home, Chad stalking ahead once more. To save him, he could not +say a word of thanks, but how he wished that a bear or a wild-cat would spring +into the road! He would fight it with teeth and naked hands to show her how he +felt and to save her from harm. + +The sunlight still lay warm and yellow far under the crest of Pine Mountain, +and they had not gone far when Caleb Hazel overtook them and with long strides +forged ahead. The school-master "boarded around" and it was his week with the +Turners, and Chad was glad, for he already loved the tall, gaunt, awkward man +who asked him question after question so kindly--loved him as much as he +revered and feared him--and the boy's artless, sturdy answers in turn pleased +Caleb Hazel. And when Chad told who had given him Jack, the master began to +talk about the faraway, curious country of which the cattle-dealer had told +Chad so much: where the land was level and there were no mountains at all; +where on one farm might be more sheep, cattle, and slaves than Chad had seen +in all his life; where the people lived in big houses of stone and brick--what +brick was Chad could not imagine--and rode along hard, white roads in shiny +covered wagons, with two "niggers" on a high seat in front and one little +"nigger" behind to open gates, and were proud and very high-heeled indeed; +where there were towns that had more people than a whole county in the +mountains, with rock roads running through them in every direction and narrow +rock paths along these roads--like rows of hearth-stones--for the people to +walk on--the land of the bluegrass--the "settlemints of old Kaintuck." + +And there were churches everywhere as tall as trees and school-houses +a-plenty; and big schools, called colleges, to which the boys went when they +were through with the little schools. The master had gone to one of these +colleges for a year, and he was trying to make enough money to go again. And +Chad must go some day, too; there was no reason why he shouldn't, since any +boy could do anything he pleased if he only made up his mind and worked hard +and never gave up. The master was an orphan, too, he said with a slow smile; +he had been an orphan for a long while, and indeed the lonely struggle of his +own boyhood was what was helping to draw him to Chad. This college, he said, +was a huge brown house as big as a cliff that the master pointed out, that, +gray and solemn, towered high above the river; and with a rock porch bigger +than a great bowlder that hung just under the cliff, with twenty long, long +stone steps to climb before one came to the big double front door. + +"How do you git thar?" Chad asked so breathlessly that Melissa looked quickly +up with a sudden foreboding that she might lose her little playfellow some +day. The master had walked, and it took him a week. A good horse could make +the trip in four days, and the river-men floated logs down the river to the +capital in eight or ten days, according to the "tide." "When did they go?" In +the spring, when the 'tides' came. "The Turners went down, didn't they, +Melissa?" And Melissa said that her brother Tom had made one trip, and that +Dolph and Rube were "might' nigh crazy" to go that coming spring; and, +thereupon, a mighty resolution filled Chad's heart to the brim and steadied +his eyes, but he did not open his lips then. + +Dusk was settling when the Turner cabin came in sight. None of the men-folks +had come home yet, and the mother was worried; there was wood to cut and the +cows to milk, and Chad's friend, old Betsey the brindle, had strayed off +again; but she was glad to see Caleb Hazel, who, without a word, went out to +the wood-pile, took off his coat, and swung the axe with mighty arms, while +Chad carried in the wood and piled it in the kitchen and then the two went +after the old brindle together. + +When they got back there was a great tumult at the cabin. Tom had brought some +friends from over the mountain, and had told the neighbors as he came along +that there was going to be a party at his house that night. + +So there was a great bustle about the barn where Rube was getting the stock +fed and the milking done; and around the kitchen, where Dolph was cutting more +wood and piling it up at the door. Inside, the mother was hurrying up supper +with Sintha, an older daughter, who had just come home from a visit, and +Melissa helping her, while old Joel sat by the fire in the sleeping-room and +smoked, with Jack lying on the hearth, or anywhere he pleased, for Jack, with +his gentle ways, was winning the household one by one. He sprang up when he +heard Chad's voice, and flew at him, jumping up and pawing him affectionately +and licking his face while Chad hugged him and talked to him as though he were +human and a brother; never before had the two been separated for a day. So, +while the master helped Rube at the barn and Chad helped Dolph at the +wood-pile, Jack hung about his master--tired and hungry as he was and much as +he wanted to be by the fire or waiting in the kitchen for a sly bit from +Melissa, whom he knew at once as the best of his new friends. + +After supper, Dolph got out his banjo and played "Shady Grove," and "Blind +Coon Dog," and "Sugar Hill," and "Gamblin' Man," while Chad's eyes glistened +and his feet shuffled under his chair. And when Dolph put the rude thing down +on the bed and went into the kitchen, Chad edged toward it and, while old Joel +was bragging about Jack to the school-master, he took hold of it with +trembling fingers and touched the strings timidly. Then he looked around +cautiously: nobody was paying any attention to him and he took it up into his +lap and began to pick, ever so softly. Nobody saw him but Melissa, who slipped +quietly to the back of the room and drew near him. Softly and swiftly Chad's +fingers worked and Melissa could scarcely hear the sound of the banjo under +her father's loud voice, but she could make out that he was playing a tune +that still vibrates unceasingly from the Pennsylvania border to the +pine-covered hills of Georgia-- "Sourwood Mountain." Melissa held her breath +while she listened--Dolph could not play like that--and by and by she slipped +quietly to her father and pulled his sleeve and pointed to Chad. Old Joel +stopped talking, but Chad never noticed; his head was bent over the neck of +the banjo, his body was swaying rhythmically, his chubby fingers were going +like lightning, and his eyes were closed--the boy was fairly lost to the +world. The tune came out in the sudden silence, clean-cut and swinging; + +Heh - o - dee - um - dee - eedle - dahdee - deet + +rang the strings and old Joel's eyes danced. + +"Sing it, boy!" he roared, "sing it!" And Chad sprang from the bed, on fire +with confusion and twisting his fingers helplessly. He looked almost +frightened when Dolph ran back into the room and cried: + +"Who was that a-pickin' that banjer?" + +It was not often that Dolph showed such excitement, but he had good cause, +and, when he saw Chad standing, shamefaced and bashful, in the middle of the +floor, and Melissa joyously pointing her finger at him, he caught up the banjo +from the bed and put it into the boy's hands. "Here, you just play that tune +agin!" + +Chad shrank back, half distressed and half happy, and only a hail outside from +the first of the coming guests saved him from utter confusion. Once started, +they came swiftly, and in half an hour all were there. Each got a hearty +welcome from old Joel, who, with a wink and a laugh and a nod to the old +mother, gave a hearty squeeze to some buxom girl, while the fire roared a +heartier welcome still. Then was there a dance indeed--no soft swish of lace +and muslin, but the active swing of linsey and simple homespun; no French +fiddler's bows and scrapings, no intricate lancers, no languid waltz; but neat +shuffling forward and back, with every note of the music beat; floor-thumping +"cuttings of the pigeon's wing," and jolly jigs, two by two, and a great +"swinging of corners," and "caging the bird," and "fust lady to the right +CHEAT an' swing"; no flirting from behind fans and under stairways and little +nooks, but honest, open courtship--strong arms about healthy waists, and a +kiss taken now and then, with everybody to see and nobody to care who saw. If +a chair was lacking, a pair of brawny knees made one chair serve for two, but +never, if you please, for two men. Rude, rough, semi-barbarous, if you will, +but simple, natural, honest, sane, earthy--and of the earth whence springs the +oak and in time, maybe, the flower of civilization. + +At the first pause in the dance, old Joel called loudly for Chad. The boy +tried to slip out of the door, but Dolph seized him and pulled him to a chair +in the corner and put the banjo in his hands. Everybody looked on with +curiosity at first, and for a little while Chad suffered; but when the dance +turned attention from him, he forgot himself again and made the old thing hum +with all the rousing tunes that had ever swept its string. When he stopped at +last, to wipe the perspiration from his face, he noticed for the first time +the school-master, who was yet divided between the church and the law, +standing at the door, silent, grave, disapproving. And he was not alone in his +condemnation; in many a cabin up and down the river, stern talk was going on +against the ungodly 'carryings on,' under the Turner roof, and, far from +accepting them as proofs of a better birth and broader social ideas, these +Calvinists of the hills set the merry-makers down as the special prey of the +devil, and the dance and the banjo as sly plots of the same to draw their +souls to hell. + +Chad felt the master's look, and he did not begin playing again, but put the +banjo down by his chair and the dance came to an end. Once more Chad saw the +master look, this time at Sintha, who was leaning against the wall with a +sturdy youth in a fringed hunting-shirt bending over her--his elbow against a +log directly over her shoulder, Sintha saw the look, too, and she answered +with a little toss of her head, but when Caleb Hazel turned to go out the +door, Chad saw that the girl's eyes followed him. A little later, Chad went +out too, and found the master at the corner of the fence and looking at a low +red star whose rich, peaceful light came through a gap in the hills. Chad +shyly drew near him, hoping in some way to get a kindly word, but the master +was so absorbed that he did not see or hear the boy and Chad, awed by the +stern, solemn face, withdrew and, without a word to anybody, climbed into the +loft and went to bed. He could hear every stroke on the floor below, every +call of the prompter, and the rude laughter and banter, but he gave little +heed to it all. For he lay thinking of Caleb Hazel and listening again to the +stories he and the cattle-dealer had told him about the wonderful settlements. +"God's Country," the dealer always called it, and such it must be, if what he +and the master said was true. By and by the steady beat of feet under him, the +swift notes of the banjo, the calls of the prompter and the laughter fused, +became inarticulate, distant-- ceased. And Chad, as he was wont to do, +journeyed on to "God's Country" in his dreams. + + + +CHAPTER 4. THE COMING OF THE TIDE + +While the corn grew, school went on and, like the corn, Chad's schooling put +forth leaves and bore fruit rapidly. The boy's mind was as clear as his eye +and, like a mountain-pool, gave back every image that passed before it. Not a +word dropped from the master's lips that he failed to hear and couldn't +repeat, and, in a month, he had put Dolph and Rube, who, big as they were, had +little more than learned the alphabet, to open shame; and he won immunity with +his fists from gibe and insult from every boy within his inches in +school--including Tad Dillon, who came in time to know that it was good to let +the boy alone. He worked like a little slave about the house, and, like Jack, +won his way into the hearts of old Joel and his wife, and even of Dolph and +Rube, in spite of their soreness over Chad's having spelled them both down +before the whole school. As for Tall Tom, he took as much pride as the school-master in the boy, and in +town, at the grist-mill, the cross-roads, or +blacksmith shop, never failed to tell the story of the dog and the boy, +whenever there was a soul to listen. And as for Melissa, while she ruled him +like a queen and Chad paid sturdy and uncomplaining homage, she would have +scratched out the eyes of one of her own brothers had he dared to lay a finger +on the boy. For Chad had God's own gift--to win love from all but enemies and +nothing but respect and fear from them. Every morning, soon after daybreak, he +stalked ahead of the little girl to school, with Dolph and Rube lounging along +behind, and, an hour before sunset, stalked back in the same way home again. +When not at school, the two fished and played together--inseparable. + +Corn was ripe now, and school closed and Chad went with the men into the +fields and did his part, stripping the gray blades from the yellow stalks, +binding them into sheaves, stowing them away under the low roof of the big +barn, or stacking them tent-like in the fields--leaving each ear perched like +a big roosting bird on each lone stalk. And when the autumn came, there were +husking parties and dances and much merriment; and, night after night, Chad +saw Sintha and the school-master in front of the fire--"settin' up"--close +together with their arms about each other's necks and whispering. And there +were quilting parties and housewarmings and house-raisings--one that was of +great importance to Caleb Hazel and to Chad. For, one morning, Sintha +disappeared and came back with the tall young hunter in the deerskin +leggings--blushing furiously--a bride. At once old Joel gave them some cleared +land at the head of a creek; the neighbors came in to build them a cabin, and +among them all, none worked harder than the school-master; and no one but Chad +guessed how sorely hit he was. + +Meanwhile, the woods high and low were ringing with the mellow echoes of axes, +and the thundering crash of big trees along the mountain-side; for already the +hillsmen were felling trees while the sap was in the roots, so that they could +lie all winter, dry better and float better in the spring, when the rafts were +taken down the river to the little capital in the Bluegrass. And Caleb Hazel +said that he would go down on a raft in the spring and perhaps Chad could go +with him who knew? For the school-master had now made up his mind finally--he +would go out into the world and make his way out there; and nobody but Chad +noticed that his decision came only after, and only a little while after, the +house-raising at the head of the creek. + +When winter came, school opened again, and on Saturdays and Sundays and cold +snowy nights, Chad and the school-master--for he too lived at the Turners' +now--sat before the fire in the kitchen, and the school-master read to him +from "Ivanhoe" and "The Talisman," which he had brought from the Bluegrass, +and from the Bible which had been his own since he was a child. And the boy +drank in the tales until he was drunk with them and learned the conscious +scorn of a lie, the conscious love of truth and pride in courage, and the +conscious reverence for women that make the essence of chivalry as +distinguished from the unthinking code of brave, simple people. He adopted the +master's dignified phraseology as best he could; he watched him, as the master +stood before the fire with his hands under his coat-tails, his chin raised, +and his eyes dreamily upward, and Tall Tom caught the boy in just this +attitude one day and made fun of him before all the others. He tried some +high-sounding phrases on Melissa, and Melissa told him he must be crazy. Once, +even, he tried to kiss her hand gallantly and she slapped his face. Undaunted, +he made a lance of white ash, threaded some loose yarn into Melissa's colors, +as he told himself, sneaked into the barn, where Beelzebub was tied, got on +the sheep's back and, as the old ram sprang forward, couched his lance at the +trough and shattered it with a thrill that left him trembling for half an +hour. It was too good to give up that secret joust and he made another lance +and essayed another tournament, but this time Beelzebub butted the door open +and sprang with a loud ba-a-a into the yard and charged for the gate--in full +view of old Joel, the three brothers, and the school-master, who were standing +in the road. Instinctively, Chad swung on in spite of the roar of laughter and +astonishment that greeted him and, as Tom banged the gate, the ram swerved and +Chad shot off sidewise as from a catapult and dropped, a most unheroic little +knight, in the mire. That ended Chad's chivalry in the hills, for in the roars +of laughter that greeted him, Chad recognized Caleb Hazel's as the loudest. If +HE laughed, chivalry could never thrive there, and Chad gave it up; but the +seeds were sown. + +The winter passed, and what a time Chad and Jack had, snaking logs out of the +mountains with two, four, six--yes, even eight yoke of oxen, when the log was +the heart of a monarch oak or poplar--snaking them to the chute; watching them +roll and whirl and leap like jack-straws from end to end down the steep +incline and, with one last shoot in the air, roll, shaking, quivering, into a +mighty heap on the bank of Kingdom Come. And then the "rafting" of those +logs--dragging them into the pool of the creek, lashing them together with +saplings driven to the logs with wooden pins in auger-holes--wading about, +meanwhile, waist deep in the cold water: and the final lashing of the raft to +a near-by tree with a grape-vine cable--to await the coming of a "tide." + +Would that tide never come? It seemed not. The spring ploughing was over, the +corn planted; there had been rain after rain, but gentle rains only. There had +been prayers for rain: + +"O Lord," said the circuit-rider, "we do not presume to dictate to Thee, but +we need rain, an' need it mighty bad. We do not presume to dictate, but, if it +pleases Thee, send us, not a gentle sizzle-sizzle, but a sod-soaker, O Lord, a +gullywasher. Give us a tide, O Lord!" Sunrise and sunset, old Joel turned his +eye to the east and the west and shook his head. Tall Tom did the same, and +Dolph and Rube studied the heavens for a sign. The school-master grew visibly +impatient and Chad was in a fever of restless expectancy. The old mother had +made him a suit of clothes -- mountain-clothes -- for the trip. Old Joel gave him +a five-dollar bill for his winter's work. Even Jack seemed to know that +something unusual was on hand and hung closer about the house, for fear he +might be left behind. + +Softly at last, one night, came the patter of little feet on the roof and +passed--came again and paused; and then there was a rush and a steady roar +that wakened Chad and thrilled him as he lay listening. It did not last long, +but the river was muddy enough and high enough for the Turner brothers to +float the raft slowly out from the mouth of Kingdom Come and down in front of +the house, where it was anchored to a huge sycamore in plain sight. At noon +the clouds gathered and old Joel gave up his trip to town. + +"Hit'll begin in about an hour, boys," he said, and in an hour it did begin. +There was to be no doubt about this flood. At dusk, the river had risen two +feet and the raft was pulling at its cable like an awakening sea-monster. +Meanwhile, the mother had cooked a great pone of corn-bread, three feet in +diameter, and had ground coffee and got sides of bacon ready. All night it +poured and the dawn came clear, only to darken into gray again. But the +river--the river! The roar of it filled the woods. The frothing hem of it +swished through the tops of the trees and through the underbrush, high on the +mountain-side. Arched slightly in the middle, for the river was still rising, +it leaped and surged, tossing tawny mane and fleck and foam as it thundered +along--a mad, molten mass of yellow struck into gold by the light of the sun. +And there the raft, no longer the awkward monster it was the day before, +floated like a lily-pad, straining at the cable as lightly as a greyhound +leaping against its leash. + +The neighbors were gathered to watch the departure--old Jerry Budd, blacksmith +and "yarb doctor," and his folks; the Cultons and Middletons, and even the +Dillons--little Tad and Whizzer--and all. And a bright picture of Arcadia the +simple folk made, the men in homespun and the women with their brilliant +shawls, as they stood on the bank laughing, calling to one another, and +jesting like children. All were aboard now and there was no kissing nor +shaking hands in the farewell. The good old mother stood on the bank, with +Melissa holding to her apron and looking at Chad gravely. + +"Take good keer o' yo'self, Chad," she said kindly, and then she looked down +at the little girl. "He's a-comin' back, honey--Chad's a-comin' back." And +Chad nodded brightly, but Melissa drew her apron across her mouth, dropped her +eyes to the old rifle in the boy's lap, and did not smile. + +All were aboard now--Dolph and Rube, old Squire Middleton, and the +school-master, all except Tall Tom, who stood by the tree to unwind the cable. + +"Hold on!" shouted the Squire. + +A raft shot suddenly around the bend above them and swept past with the Dillon +brothers Jake and Jerry, nephews of old Tad Dillon, at bow and stern--passed +with a sullen wave from Jerry and a good-natured smile from stupid Jake. + +"All right," Tom shouted, and he unwound the great brown pliant vine from the +sycamore and leaped aboard. Just then there was a mad howl behind the house +and a gray streak of light flashed over the bank and Jack, with a wisp of rope +around his neck, sprang through the air from a rock ten feet high and landed +lightly on the last log as the raft shot forward. Chad gulped once and his +heart leaped with joy, for he had agreed to leave Jack with old Joel, and old +Joel had tied the dog in the barn. + +"Hi!" shouted the old hunter. "Throw that dawg off, Chad--throw him off." + +But Chad shook his head and smiled. + +"He won't go back," he shouted, and, indeed, there was Jack squatted on his +haunches close by his little master and looking gravely back as though he were +looking a last good-by. + + +"Hi there!" shouted old Joel again. "How am I goin to git along without that +dawg? Throw him off, Boy--throw him off, I tell ye!" Chad seized the dog by +the shoulders, but Jack braced himself and, like a child, looked up in his +master's face. Chad let go and shook his head. + +A frantic yell from Tall Tom at the bow oar drew every eye to him. The current +was stronger than anyone guessed and the raft was being swept by an eddy +straight for the point of the opposite shore where there was a sharp turn in +the river. + +"Watch out thar," shouted old Joel, "you're goin to 'bow'!" Dolph and Rube +were slashing the stern oar forward and back through the swift water, but +straight the huge craft made for that deadly point. Every man had hold of an +oar and was tussling in silence for life. Every man on shore was yelling +directions and warning, while the women shrank back with frightened faces. +Chad scarcely knew what the matter was, but he gripped his rifle and squeezed +Jack closer to him. He heard Tom roar a last warning as the craft struck, +quivered a moment, and the stern swept around. The craft had "bowed." + +"Watch out--jump, boys, jump! Watch when she humps! Watch yo' legs!" These +were the cries from the shore, and still Chad did not understand. He saw Tom +leap from the bow, and, as the stern swung to the other shore, Dolph, too, +leaped. Then the stern struck. The raft humped in the middle like a bucking +horse--the logs ground savagely together. Chad heard a cry of pain from Jack +and saw the dog fly up in the air and drop in the water. He and his gun had +gone up, too, but he came back on the raft with one leg in between two logs +and he drew it up in time to keep the limb from being smashed to a pulp as the +logs crashed together again, but not quickly enough to save the foot from a +painful squeeze. Then he saw Tom and Dolph leap back again, the raft whirled +on and steadied in its course, and behind him he saw Jack swimming feebly for +the shore--fighting the waves for his life, for the dog was hurt. Twice he +turned his eyes despairingly toward Chad, and the boy would have leaped in the +water to save him if Tom had not caught him by the arm. + +"Tell him to git to shore," he said quickly, and Chad motioned, when Jack +looked again, and the dog obediently made for land. Old Joel was calling +tenderly: + +"Come on, Jack; come on, ole feller!" + +Chad watched with a thumping heart. Once Jack went under, but gave no sound. +Again he disappeared, and when he came up he gave a cry for help, but when he +heard Chad's answering cry he fought on stroke by stroke until Chad saw old +Joel reach out from the bushes and pull him in. And Chad could see that one of +his hind legs hung limp. Then the raft swung around the curve out of sight. + +Behind, the whole crowd rushed down to the water's edge. Jack tried to get +away from old Joel and scramble after Chad on his broken leg, but old Joel +held him, soothing him, and carried him back to the house, where the old "yarb +doctor" put splints on the leg and bound it up tightly, just as though it had +been the leg of a child. Melissa was crying and the old man put his hand on +her head. + +"He'll be all right, honey. That leg'll be as good as the other one in two or +three weeks. It's all right, little gal." + +Melissa stopped weeping with a sudden gulp. But when Jack was lying in the +kitchen by the fire alone, she slipped in and put her arm around the dog's +head, and, when Jack began to lick her face, she bent her own head down and +sobbed. + + + +CHAPTER 5. OUT OF THE WILDERNESS + +On the way to God's Country at last! Already Chad had schooled himself for the +parting with Jack, and but for this he must--little man that he was--have +burst into tears. As it was, the lump in his throat stayed there a long while, +but it passed in the excitement of that mad race down the river. The old +Squire had never known such a tide. + +"Boys," he said, gleefully, "we're goin' to make a REcord on this trip--you +jus' see if we don't. That is, if we ever git thar alive." + +All the time the old man stood in the middle of the raft yelling orders. Ahead +was the Dillon raft, and the twin brothers--the giants, one mild, the other +sour-faced--were gesticulating angrily at each other from bow and stern. As +usual, they were quarrelling. On the Turner raft, Dolph was at the bow, the +school-master at the stern, while Rube--who was cook--and Chad, in spite of a +stinging pain in one foot, built an oven of stones, where coffee could be +boiled and bacon broiled, and started a fire, for the air was chill on the +river, especially when they were running between the hills and no sun could +strike them. + +When the fire blazed up, Chad sat by it watching Tall Tom and the +school-master at the stern oar and Rube at the bow. When the turn was sharp, +how they lashed the huge white blades through the yellow water--with the +handle across their broad chests, catching with their toes in the little +notches that had been chipped along the logs and tossing the oars down and up +with a mighty swing that made the blades quiver and bend like the tops of +pliant saplings! Then, on a run, they would rush back to start the stroke +again, while the old Squire yelled: + +"Hit her up thar now--easy--easy! NOW! Hit her up! Hit her up--NOW!" + +Now they passed between upright, wooded, gray mountain-sides, threaded with +faint lines of the coming green; now between gray walls of rock streaked white +with water-falls, and now past narrow little valleys which were just beginning +to sprout with corn. At the mouth of the creeks they saw other rafts making +ready and, now and then, a raft would shoot out in the river from some creek +ahead or behind them. In an hour, they struck a smooth run of several hundred +yards where the men at the oars could sit still and rest, while the raft shot +lightly forward in the middle of the stream; and down the river they could see +the big Dillons making the next sharp turn and, even that far away, they could +hear Jerry yelling and swearing at his patient brother. + +"Some o' these days," said the old Squire, "that fool Jake's a-goin' to pick +up somethin' an' knock that mean Jerry's head off. I wonder he hain't done it +afore. Hit's funny how brothers can hate when they do git to hatin'." + +That night, they tied up at Jackson--to be famous long after the war as the +seat of a bitter mountain-feud. At noon the next day, they struck "the +Nahrrers" (Narrows), where the river ran like a torrent between high steep +walls of rock, and where the men stood to the oars watchfully and the old +squire stood upright, watching every movement of the raft; for "bowing" there +would have meant destruction to the raft and the death of them all. That night +they were in Beattyville, whence they floated next day, along lower hills and, +now and then, past a broad valley. Once Chad looked at the school-master--he +wondered if they were approaching the Bluegrass--but Caleb Hazel smiled and +shook his head. And had Chad waited another half hour, he would not have asked +the question, even with his eyes, for they swept between high cliffs +again--higher than he had yet seen. + +That night they ran from dark to dawn, for the river was broader and a +brilliant moon was high; and, all night, Chad could hear the swish of the +oars, as they floated in mysterious silence past the trees and the hills and +the moonlit cliffs, and he lay on his back, looking up at the moon and the +stars, and thinking about the land to which he was going and of Jack back in +the land he had left; and of little Melissa. She had behaved very strangely +during the last few days before the boy had left. She had not been sharp with +him, even in play. She had been very quiet--indeed, she scarcely spoke a word +to him, but she did little things for him that she had never done before, and +she was unusually kind to Jack. Once, Chad found her crying behind the barn, +and then she was very sharp with him, and told him to go away and cried more +than ever. Her little face looked very white, as she stood on the bank, and, +somehow, Chad saw it all that night in the river and among the trees and up +among the stars, but he little knew what it all meant to him or to her. He +thought of the Turners back at home, and he could see them sitting around the +big fire--Joel with his pipe, the old mother spinning flax, Jack asleep on the +hearth, and Melissa's big solemn eyes shining from the dark corner where she +lay wide-awake in bed and, when he went to sleep, her eyes followed him in his +dreams. + +When he awoke, the day was just glimmering over the hills, and the chill air +made him shiver, as he built up the fire and began to get breakfast ready. At +noon, that day, though the cliffs were still high, the raft swung out into a +broader current, where the water ran smoothly and, once, the hills parted and, +looking past a log-cabin on the bank of the river, Chad saw a stone +house--relic of pioneer days--and, farther out, through a gap in the hills, a +huge house with great pillars around it and, on the hill-side, many sheep and +fat cattle and a great barn. There dwelt one of the lords of the Bluegrass +land, and again Chad looked to the school-master and, this time, the +school-master smiled and nodded as though to say: + +"We're getting close now, Chad." So Chad rose to his feet thrilled, and +watched the scene until the hills shut it off again. One more night and one +more dawn, and, before the sun rose, the hills had grown smaller and smaller +and the glimpses between them more frequent and, at last, far down the river, +Chad saw a column of smoke and all the men on the raft took off their hats and +shouted. The end of the trip was near, for that black column meant the +capital! + +Chad trembled on his feet and his heart rose into his throat, while Caleb +Hazel seemed hardly less moved. His hat was off and he stood motionless, with +his face uplifted, and his grave eyes fastened on that dark column as though +it rose from the pillar of fire that was leading him to some promised land. + +As they rounded the next curve, some monster swept out of the low hills on the +right, with a shriek that startled the boy almost into terror and, with a +mighty puffing and rumbling, shot out of sight again. The school-master +shouted to Chad, and the Turner brothers grinned at him delightedly: + +"Steam-cars!" they cried, and Chad nodded back gravely, trying to hold in his +wonder. + +Sweeping around the next curve, another monster hove in sight with the same +puffing and a long "h-o-o-ot!" A monster on the river and moving up stream +steadily, with no oar and no man in sight, and the Turners and the +school-master shouted again. Chad's eyes grew big with wonder and he ran +forward to see the rickety little steamboat approach and, with wide eyes, +devoured it, as it wheezed and labored up-stream past them--watched the +thundering stern-wheel threshing the water into a wake of foam far behind it +and flashing its blades, water-dripping in the sun--watched it till it puffed +and wheezed and labored on out of sight. Great Heavens! to think that +he--Chad--was seeing all that! + +About the next bend, more but thinner columns of smoke were visible. Soon the +very hills over the capital could be seen, with little green wheat-fields +dotting them and, as the raft drew a little closer, Chad could see houses on +the hills--more strange houses of wood and stone, and porches, and queer +towers on them from which glistened shining points. + +"What's them?" he asked. + +"Lightnin'-rods," said Tom, and Chad understood, for the school-master had +told him about them back in the mountains. Was there anything that Caleb Hazel +had not told him? The haze over the town was now visible, and soon they swept +past tall chimneys puffing out smoke, great warehouses covered on the outside +with weather-brown tin, and, straight ahead--Heavens, what a bridge!--arching +clear over the river and covered like a house, from which people were looking +down on them as they swept under. There were the houses, in two rows on the +streets, jammed up against each other and without any yards. And people! Where +had so many people come from? Close to the river and beyond the bridge was +another great mansion, with tall pillars, about it was a green yard, as smooth +as a floor, and negroes and children were standing on the outskirting stone +wall and looking down at them as they floated by. And another great house +still, and a big garden with little paths running through it and more patches +of that strange green grass. Was that bluegrass? It was, but it didn't look +blue and it didn't look like any other grass Chad had ever seen. Below this +bridge was another bridge, but not so high, and, while Chad looked, another +black monster on wheels went crashing over it. + +Tom and the school-master were working the raft slowly to the shore now, and, +a little farther down, Chad could see more rafts tied up--rafts, rafts, +nothing but rafts on the river, everywhere! Up the bank a mighty buzzing was +going on, amid a cloud of dust, and little cars with logs on them were +shooting about amid the gleamings of many saws, and, now and then, a log would +leap from the river and start up toward that dust-cloud with two glistening +iron teeth sunk in one end and a long iron chain stretching up along a groove +built of boards--and Heaven only knew what was pulling it up. On the bank was +a stout, jolly-looking man, whose red, kind face looked familiar to Chad, as +he ran down shouting a welcome to the Squire. Then the raft slipped along +another raft, Tom sprang aboard it with the grape-vine cable, and the +school-master leaped aboard with another cable from the stern. + +"Why, boy," cried the stout man. "Where's yo' dog?" Then Chad recognized him, +for he was none other than the cattle-dealer who had given him Jack. + +"I left him at home." + +"Is he all right?" + +"Yes--I reckon." + +"Then I'd like to have him back again." + +Chad smiled and shook his head. + +"Not much." + +"Well, he's the best sheep-dog on earth." + +The raft slowed up, creaking--slower--straining and creaking, and stopped. The +trip was over, and the Squire had made his "record," for the red-faced man +whistled incredulously when the old man told him what day he had left Kingdom +Come. + +An hour later the big Dillon twins hove in sight, just as the Turner party was +climbing the sawdust hill into the town, where Dolph and Rube were for taking +the middle of the street like other mountaineers, who were marching thus ahead +of them, single file, but Tom and the school-master laughed at them and drew +them over to the sidewalk. Bricks and stones laid down for people to walk +on--how wonderful. And all the houses were of brick or were +weather-boarded--all built together wall against wall. And the stores with the +big glass windows all filled with wonderful things! Then a pair of swinging +green shutters through which, while Chad and the school-master waited outside, +Tom insisted on taking Dolph and Rube and giving them their first drink of +Bluegrass whiskey--red liquor, as the hill-men call it. A little farther on, +they all stopped still on a corner of the street, while the school-master +pointed out to Chad and Dolph and Rube the Capitol--a mighty structure of +massive stone, with majestic stone columns, where people went to the +Legislature. How they looked with wondering eyes at the great flag floating +lazily over it, and at the wonderful fountain tossing water in the air, and +with the water three white balls which leaped and danced in the jet of shining +spray and never flew away from it. How did they stay there? The school-master +laughed--Chad had asked him a question at last that he couldn't answer. And +the tall spiked iron fence that ran all the way around the yard, which was +full of trees--how wonderful that was, too! As they stood looking, law-makers +and visitors poured out through the doors--a brave array--some of them in +tight trousers, high hats, and blue coats with brass buttons, and, as they +passed, Caleb Hazel reverently whispered the names of those he +knew--distinguished lawyers, statesmen, and Mexican veterans: witty Tom +Marshall; Roger Hanson, bulky, brilliant; stately Preston, eagle-eyed Buckner, +and Breckenridge, the magnificent, forensic in bearing. Chad was thrilled. + +A little farther on, they turned to the left, and the school-master pointed +out the Governor's mansion, and there, close by, was a high gray wall--a wall +as high as a house, with a wooden box taller than a man on each corner, and, +inside, another big gray building in which, visible above the walls, were +grated windows--the penitentiary! Every mountaineer has heard that word, and +another--the Legislator. + +Chad shivered as he looked, for he could recall that sometimes down in the +mountains a man would disappear for years and turn up again at home, whitened +by confinement; and, during his absence, when anyone asked about him, the +answer was penitentiary. He wondered what those boxes on the walls were for, +and he was about to ask, when a guard stepped from one of them with a musket +and started to patrol the wall, and he had no need to ask. Tom wanted to go up +on the hill and look at the Armory and the graveyard, but the school-master +said they did not have time, and, on the moment, the air was startled with +whistles far and near--six o'clock! At once Caleb Hazel led the way to supper +in the boarding-house, where a kind-faced old lady spoke to Chad in a motherly +way, and where the boy saw his first hot biscuit and was almost afraid to eat +anything at the table for fear he might do something wrong. For the first time +in his life, too, he slept on a mattress without any feather-bed, and Chad lay +wondering, but unsatisfied still. Not yet had he been out of sight of the +hills, but the master had told him that they would see the Bluegrass next day, +when they were to start back to the mountains by train as far as Lexington. +And Chad went to sleep, dreaming his old dream. + + + + + + +CHAPTER 6 + +LOST AT THE CAPITAL + +It had been arranged by the school-master that they should all meet at the +railway station to go home, next day at noon, and, as the Turner boys had to +help the Squire with the logs at the river, and the school-master had to +attend to some business of his own, Chad roamed all morning around the town. +So engrossed was he with the people and the sights and sounds of the little +village that he came to himself with a start and trotted back to the +boarding-house for fear that he might not be able to find the station alone. +The old lady was standing in the sunshine at the gate. + +Chad panted--"Where's--?" + +"They're gone." + +"Gone!" echoed Chad, with a sinking heart. + +"Yes, they've been gone--" But Chad did not wait to listen; he whirled into +the hall-way, caught up his rifle, and, forgetting his injured foot, fled at +full speed down the street. He turned the corner, but could not see the +station, and he ran on about another corner and still another, and, just when +he was about to burst into tears, he saw the low roof that he was looking for, +and hot, panting, and tired, he rushed to it, hardly able to speak. + +"Has that enJINE gone?" he asked breathlessly. The man who was whirling trunks +on their corners into the baggage-room did not answer. Chad's eyes flashed and +he caught the man by the coat-tail. + +"Has that enJINE gone?" he cried. + +The man looked over his shoulder. + +"Leggo my coat, you little devil. Yes, that enJINE'S gone," he added, +mimicking. Then he saw the boy's unhappy face and he dropped the trunk and +turned to him. + +"What's the matter?" he asked, kindly. + +Chad had turned away with a sob. + +"They've lef' me--they've lef' me," he said, and then, controlling himself: + +"Is thar another goin'?" + +"Not till to-morrow mornin'." + +Another sob came, and Chad turned away--he did not want anybody to see him +cry. And this was no time for crying, for Chad's prayer back at the grave +under the poplar flashed suddenly back to him. + +"I got to ack like a man now." And, sobered at once, he walked on up the +hill--thinking. He could not know that the school-master was back in the town, +looking for him. If he waited until the next morning, the Turners would +probably have gone on; whereas, if he started out now on foot, and walked all +night, he might catch them before they left Lexington next morning. And if he +missed the Squire and the Turner boys, he could certainly find the +school-master there. And if not, he could go on to the mountains alone. Or he +might stay in the "settlemints"--what had he come for? He might--he would--oh, +he'd get along somehow, he said to himself, wagging his head--he always had +and he always would. He could always go back to the mountains. If he only had +Jack--if he only had Jack! Nothing would make any difference then, and he +would never be lonely, if he only had Jack. But, cheered with his +determination, he rubbed the tears from his eyes with his coat-sleeve and +climbed the long hill. There was the Armory, which, years later, was to harbor +Union troops in the great war, and beyond it was the little city of the dead +that sits on top of the hill far above the shining river. At the great iron +gates he stopped a moment, peering through. He saw a wilderness of white slabs +and, not until he made his way across the thick green turf and spelled out the +names carved on them, could he make out what they were for. How he wondered +when he saw the innumerable green mounds, for he hardly knew there were as +many people in the world living as he saw there must be in that place, dead. +But he had no time to spare and he turned quickly back to the +pike--saddened--for his heart went back, as his faithful heart was always +doing, to the lonely graves under the big poplar back in the mountains. + +When he reached the top of the slope, he saw a rolling country of low hills +stretching out before him, greening with spring; with far stretches of thick +grass and many woodlands under a long, low sky, and he wondered if this was +the Bluegrass. But he "reckoned" not--not yet. And yet he looked in wonder at +the green slopes, and the woods, and the flashing creek, and nowhere in front +of him--wonder of all--could he see a mountain. It was as Caleb Hazel had told +him, only Chad was not looking for any such mysterious joy as thrilled his +sensitive soul. There had been a light sprinkle of snow--such a fall as may +come even in early April--but the noon sun had let the wheat-fields and the +pastures blossom through it, and had swept it from the gray moist pike until +now there were patches of white only in gully and along north hill-sides under +little groups of pines and in the woods, where the sunlight could not reach; +and Chad trudged sturdily on in spite of his heavy rifle and his lame foot, +keenly alive to the new sights and sounds and smells of the new world--on +until the shadows lengthened and the air chilled again; on, until the sun +began to sink close to the far-away haze of the horizon. Never had the horizon +looked so far away. His foot began to hurt, and on the top of a hill he had to +stop and sit down for a while in the road, the pain was so keen. The sun was +setting now in a glory of gold, rose, pink, and crimson over him, the still +clouds caught the divine light which swept swiftly through the heavens until +the little pink clouds over the east, too, turned golden pink and the whole +heavens were suffused with green and gold. In the west, cloud was piled on +cloud like vast cathedrals that must have been built for worship on the way +straight to the very throne of God. And Chad sat thrilled, as he had been at +the sunrise on the mountains the morning after he ran away. There was no +storm, but the same loneliness came to him now and he wondered what he should +do. He could not get much farther that night--his foot hurt too badly. He +looked up--the clouds had turned to ashes and the air was growing chill--and +he got to his feet and started on. At the bottom of the hill and down a little +creek he saw a light and he turned toward it. The house was small, and he +could hear the crying of a child inside and could see a tall man cutting wood, +so he stopped at the bars and shouted + +"Hello!" + +The man stopped his axe in mid-air and turned. A woman, with a baby in her +arms, appeared in the light of the door with children crowding about her. + +"Hello!" answered the man. + +"I want to git to stay all night." The man hesitated. + +"We don't keep people all night." + +"Not keep people all night," thought Chad with wonder. + +"Oh, I reckon you will," he said. Was there anybody in the world who wouldn't +take in a stranger for the night? From the doorway the woman saw that it was a +boy who was asking shelter and the trust in his voice appealed vaguely to her. + +"Come in!" she called, in a patient, whining tone. "You can stay, I reckon." + +But Chad changed his mind suddenly. If they were in doubt about wanting +him--he was in no doubt as to what he would do. + +"No, I reckon I'd better git on," he said sturdily, and he turned and limped +back up the hill to the road--still wondering, and he remembered that, in the +mountains, when people wanted to stay all night, they usually stopped before +sundown. Travelling after dark was suspicious in the mountains, and perhaps it +was in this land, too. So, with this thought, he had half a mind to go back +and explain, but he pushed on. Half a mile farther, his foot was so bad that +he stopped with a cry of pain in the road and, seeing a barn close by, he +climbed the fence and into the loft and burrowed himself under the hay. From +under the shed he could see the stars rising. It was very still and very +lonely and he was hungry--hungrier and lonelier than he had ever been in his +life, and a sob of helplessness rose to his lips--if he only had Jack--but he +held it back. + +"I got to ack like a man now." And, saying this over and over to himself, he +went to sleep. + + + +CHAPTER 7. A FRIEND ON THE ROAD + +Rain fell that night--gentle rain and warm, for the south wind rose at +midnight. At four o clock a shower made the shingles over Chad rattle sharply, +but without wakening the lad, and then the rain ceased; and when Chad climbed +stiffly from his loft--the world was drenched and still, and the dawn was +warm, for spring had come that morning, and Chad trudged along the +road--unchilled. Every now and then he had to stop to rest his foot. Now and +then he would see people getting breakfast ready in the farm-houses that he +passed, and, though his little belly was drawn with pain, he would not stop +and ask for something to eat--for he did not want to risk another rebuff. The +sun rose and the light leaped from every wet blade of grass and bursting leaf +to meet it--leaped as though flashing back gladness that the spring was come. +For a little while Chad forgot his hunger and forgot his foot--like the leaf +and grass-blade his stout heart answered with gladness, too, and he trudged +on. + +Meanwhile, far behind him, an old carriage rolled out of a big yard and +started toward him and toward Lexington. In the driver's seat was an old +gray-haired, gray-bearded negro with knotty hands and a kindly face; while, on +the oval shaped seat behind the lumbering old vehicle, sat a little darky with +his bare legs dangling down. In the carriage sat a man who might have been a +stout squire straight from merry England, except that there was a little tilt +to the brim of his slouch hat that one never sees except on the head of a +Southerner, and in his strong, but easy, good-natured mouth was a pipe of +corn-cob with a long cane stem. The horses that drew him were a handsome pair +of half thoroughbreds, and the old driver, with his eyes half closed, looked +as though, even that early in the morning, he were dozing. An hour later, the +pike ran through an old wooden-covered bridge, to one side of which a road led +down to the water, and the old negro turned the carriage to the creek to let +his horses drink. The carriage stood still in the middle of the stream and +presently the old driver turned his head: "Mars Cal!" he called in a low +voice. The Major raised his head. The old negro was pointing with his whip +ahead and the Major saw something sitting on the stone fence, some twenty +yards beyond, which stirred him sharply from his mood of contemplation. + +"Shades of Dan'l Boone!" he said, softly. It was a miniature pioneer--the +little still figure watching him solemnly and silently. Across the boy's lap +lay a long rifle--the Major could see that it had a flintlock--and on his +tangled hair was a coonskin cap--the scalp above his steady dark eyes and the +tail hanging down the lad's neck. And on his feet were--moccasins! The +carriage moved out of the stream and the old driver got down to hook the +check-reins over the shining bit of metal that curved back over the little +saddles to which the boy's eyes had swiftly strayed. Then they came back to +the Major. + +"Howdye!" said Chad. + +"Good-mornin', little man," said the Major pleasantly, and Chad knew +straightway that he had found a friend. But there was silence. Chad scanned +the horses and the strange vehicle and the old driver and the little +pickaninny who, hearing the boy's voice, had stood up on his seat and was +grinning over one of the hind wheels, and then his eyes rested on the Major +with a simple confidence and unconscious appeal that touched the Major at +once. + +"Are you goin' my way?" The Major's nature was too mellow and easy-going to +pay any attention to final g's. Chad lifted his old gun and pointed up the +road. + +"I'm a-goin' thataway." + +"Well, don't you want to ride?" + +"Yes," he said, simply. + +"Climb right in, my boy." + +So Chad climbed in, and, holding the old rifle upright between his knees, he +looked straight forward, in silence, while the Major studied him with a quiet +smile. + +"Where are you from, little man?" + +"I come from the mountains." + +"The mountains?" said the Major. + +The Major had fished and hunted in the mountains, and somewhere in that +unknown region he owned a kingdom of wild mountain-land, but he knew as little +about the people as he knew about the Hottentots, and cared hardly more. + +"What are you doin' up here?" + +"I'm goin' home," said Chad. + +"How did you happen to come away?" + +"Oh, I been wantin' to see the settleMINTS." + +"The settleMINTS," echoed the Major, and then he understood. He recalled +having heard the mountaineers call the Bluegrass region the "settlemints" +before. + +"I come down on a raft with Dolph and Tom and Rube and the Squire and the +school-teacher, an' I got lost in Frankfort. They've gone on, I reckon, an' +I'm tryin' to ketch 'em." + +"What will you do if you don't?" + +"Foller'em," said Chad, sturdily. + +"Does your father live down in the mountains?" + +"No," said Chad, shortly. + +The Major looked at the lad gravely. + +"Don't little boys down in the mountains ever say sir to their elders?" + +"No," said Chad. "No, sir," he added gravely and the Major broke into a +pleased laugh--the boy was quick as lightning. + +"I ain't got no daddy. An' no mammy--I ain't got--nothin'." It was said quite +simply, as though his purpose merely was not to sail under false colors, and +the Major's answer was quick and apologetic: + +"Oh!" he said, and for a moment there was silence again. Chad watched the +woods, the fields, and the cattle, the strange grain growing about him, and +the birds and the trees. Not a thing escaped his keen eye, and, now and then, +he would ask a question which the Major would answer with some surprise and +wonder. His artless ways pleased the old fellow. + +"You haven't told me your +name." + +"You hain't axed me." + +"Well, I axe you now," laughed the Major, but Chad saw nothing to laugh at. + +"Chad," he said. + +"Chad what?" + +Now it had always been enough in the mountains, when anybody asked his name, +for him to answer simply--Chad. He hesitated now and his brow wrinkled as +though he were thinking hard. + +"I don't know," said Chad. + +"What? Don't know your own name?" The boy looked up into the Major's face with +eyes that were so frank and unashamed and at the same time so vaguely troubled +that the Major was abashed. + +"Of course not," he said kindly, as though it were the most natural thing in +the world that a boy should not know his own name. Presently the Major said, +reflectively: + +"Chadwick." + +"Chad," corrected the boy. + +"Yes, I know"; and the Major went on thinking that Chadwick happened to be an +ancestral name in his own family. + +Chad's brow was still wrinkled--he was trying to think what old Nathan Cherry +used to call him. + +"I reckon I hain't thought o' my name since I left old Nathan," he said. Then +he told briefly about the old man, and lifting his lame foot suddenly, he +said: "Ouch!" The Major looked around and Chad explained: + +"I hurt my foot comin' down the river an' hit got wuss walkin' so much." The +Major noticed then that the boy's face was pale, and that there were dark +hollows under his eyes, but it never occurred to him that the lad was hungry, +for, in the Major's land, nobody ever went hungry for long. But Chad was +suffering now and he leaned back in his seat and neither talked nor looked at +the passing fields. By and by, he spied a crossroads store. + +"I wonder if I can't git somethin' to eat in that store." + +The Major laughed: "You ain't gettin' hungry so soon, are you? You must have +eaten breakfast pretty early." + +"I ain't had no breakfast--an' I didn't hev no supper last night." + +"What?" shouted the Major. + +Chad stated the fact with brave unconcern, but his lip quivered slightly--he +was weak. + +"Well, I reckon we'll get something to eat there whether they've got anything +or not." + +And then Chad explained, telling the story of his walk from Frankfort. The +Major was amazed that anybody could have denied the boy food and lodging. + +"Who were they, Tom?" he asked + +The old driver turned: + +"They was some po' white trash down on Cane Creek, I reckon, suh. Must'a' +been." There was a slight contempt in the negro's words that made Chad think +of hearing the Turners call the Dillons white trash--though they never said +"po' white trash." + +"Oh!" said the Major. So the carriage stopped, and when a man in a black +slouch hat came out, the Major called: + +"Jim, here's a boy who ain't had anything to eat for twenty-four hours. Get +him a cup of coffee right away, and I reckon you've got some cold ham handy." + +"Yes, indeed, Major," said Jim, and he yelled to a negro girl who was standing +on the porch of his house behind the store. + +Chad ate ravenously and the Major watched him with genuine pleasure. When the +boy was through, he reached in his pocket and brought out his old five-dollar +bill, and the Major laughed aloud and patted him on the head. + +"You can't pay for anything while you are with me, Chad." + +The whole earth wore a smile when they started out again. The swelling hills +had stretched out into gentler slopes. The sun was warm, the clouds were +still, and the air was almost drowsy. The Major's eyes closed and everything +lapsed into silence. That was a wonderful ride for Chad. It was all true, just +as the school-master had told him; the big, beautiful houses he saw now and +then up avenues of blossoming locusts; the endless stone fences, the +whitewashed barns, the woodlands and pastures; the meadow-larks flitting in +the sunlight and singing everywhere; fluting, chattering blackbirds, and a +strange new black bird with red wings, at which Chad wondered very much, as he +watched it balancing itself against the wind and singing as it poised. +Everything seemed to sing in that wonderful land. And the seas of bluegrass +stretching away on every side, with the shadows of clouds passing in rapid +succession over them, like mystic floating islands--and never a mountain in +sight. What a strange country it was. + +"Maybe some of your friends are looking for you in Frankfort," said the Major. + +"No, sir, I reckon not," said Chad--for the man at the station had told him +that the men who had asked about him were gone. + +"All of them?" asked the Major. + +Of course, the man at the station could not tell whether all of them had gone, +and perhaps the school-master had stayed behind--it was Caleb Hazel if anybody. + +"Well, now, I wonder," said Chad--"the school-teacher might'a' stayed." + +Again the two lapsed into silence--Chad thinking very hard. He might yet catch +the school-master in Lexington, and he grew very cheerful at the thought. + +"You ain't told me yo' name," he said, presently. The Major's lips smiled +under the brim of his hat. + +"You hain't axed me." + +"Well, I axe you now." Chad, too, was smiling. + +"Cal," said the Major. "Cal what?" + +"I don't know." + +"Oh, yes, you do, now--you foolin' me"--the boy lifted one finger at the +Major. + +"Buford, Calvin Buford." + +"Buford--Buford--Buford," repeated the boy, each time with his forehead +wrinkled as though he were trying to recall something. + +"What is it, Chad?" + +"Nothin'--nothin'." + +And then he looked up with bewildered face at the Major and broke into the +quavering voice of an old man. + +"Chad Buford, you little devil, come hyeh this minute or I'll beat the life +outen you!" + +"What--what!" said the Major excitedly. The boy's face was as honest as the +sky above him. "Well, that's funny--very funny." + +"Well, that's it," said Chad, "that's what ole Nathan used to call me. I +reckon I hain't naver thought o' my name agin tell you axed me." The Major +looked at the lad keenly and then dropped back in his seat ruminating. + +Away back in 1778 a linchpin had slipped in a wagon on the Wilderness Road and +his grandfather's only brother, Chadwick Buford, had concluded to stop there +for a while and hunt and come on later--thus ran an old letter that the Major +had in his strong box at home--and that brother had never turned up again and +the supposition was that he had been killed by Indians. Now it would be +strange if he had wandered up in the mountains and settled there and if this +boy were a descendant of his. It would be very, very strange, and then the +Major almost laughed at the absurdity of the idea. The name Buford was all +over the State. The boy had said, with amazing frankness and without a +particle of shame, that he was a waif--a "woodscolt," he said, with paralyzing +candor. And so the Major dropped the matter out of his mind, except in so far +that it was a peculiar coincidence--again saying, half to himself-- + +"It certainly is very odd!" + + + +CHAPTER 8. HOME WITH THE MAJOR + +Ahead of them, it was Court Day in Lexington. From the town, as a centre, +white turnpikes radiated in every direction like the strands of a spider's +web. Along them, on the day before, cattle, sheep, and hogs had made their slow +way. Since dawn, that morning, the fine dust had been rising under hoof and +wheel on every one of them, for Court Day is yet the great day of every month +throughout the Bluegrass. The crowd had gone ahead of the Major and Chad. Only +now and then would a laggard buggy or carriage turn into the pike from a +pasture-road or locust-bordered avenue. Only men were occupants, for the +ladies rarely go to town on court days--and probably none would go on that +day. Trouble was expected. An abolitionist, one Brutus Dean--not from the +North, but a Kentuckian, a slave-holder and a gentleman--would probably start +a paper in Lexington to exploit his views in the heart of the Bluegrass; and +his quondam friends would shatter his press and tear his office to pieces. So +the Major told Chad, and he pointed out some "hands" at work in a field. + +"An', mark my words, some day there's goin' to be the damnedest fight the +world ever saw over these very niggers. An' the day ain't so far away." + +It was noon before they reached the big cemetery on the edge of Lexington. +Through a rift in the trees the Major pointed out the grave of Henry Clay, and +told him about the big monument that was to be reared above his remains. The +grave of Henry Clay! Chad knew all about him. He had heard Caleb Hazel read +the great man's speeches aloud by the hour--had heard him intoning them to +himself as he walked the woods to and fro from school. Would wonders never +cease. + +There seemed to be no end to the houses and streets and people in this big +town, and Chad wondered why everybody turned to look at him and smiled, and, +later in the day, he came near getting into a fight with another boy who +seemed to be making fun of him to his companions. He wondered at that, too, +until it suddenly struck him that he saw nobody else carrying a rifle and +wearing a coonskin cap--perhaps it was his cap and his gun. The Major was +amused and pleased, and he took a certain pride in the boy's calm indifference +to the attention he was drawing to himself. And he enjoyed the little mystery +which he and his queer little companion seemed to create as they drove through +the streets. + +On one corner was a great hemp factory. + +Through the windows Chad could see negroes, dusty as millers, bustling about, +singing as they worked. Before the door were two men--one on horseback. The +Major drew up a moment. + +"How are you, John? Howdye, Dick?" Both men answered heartily, and both looked +at Chad--who looked intently at them--the graceful, powerful man on foot and +the slender, wiry man with wonderful dark eyes on horseback. + +"Pioneering, Major?" asked John Morgan. + +"This is a namesake of mine from the mountains. He's come up to see the +settlements." + +Richard Hunt turned on his horse. "How do you like 'em?" + +"Never seed nothin' like 'em in my life," said Chad, gravely. Morgan laughed +and Richard Hunt rode on with them down the street. + +"Was that Captin Morgan?" asked Chad. + +"Yes," said the Major. "Have you heard of him before?" + +"Yes, sir. A feller on the road tol' me, if I was lookin' fer somethin' to do +hyeh in Lexington to go to Captin Morgan." + +The Major laughed: "That's what everybody does." + +At once, the Major took the boy to an old inn and gave him a hearty meal; and +while the Major attended to some business, Chad roamed the streets. + +"Don't get into trouble, my boy," said the Major, "an' come back here an hour or +two by sun." + +Naturally, the lad drifted where the crowd was thickest--to Cheapside. +Cheapside--at once the market-place and the forum of the Bluegrass from +pioneer days to the present hour--the platform that knew Clay, Crittenden, +Marshall, Breckenridge, as it knows the lesser men of to-day, who resemble +those giants of old as the woodlands of the Bluegrass to-day resemble the +primeval forests from which they sprang. + +Cheapside was thronged that morning with cattle, sheep, hogs, horses, farmers, +aristocrats, negroes, poor whites. The air was a babel of cries from +auctioneers--head, shoulders, and waistband above the crowd--and the cries of +animals that were changing owners that day--one of which might now and then be +a human being. The Major was busy, and Chad wandered where he pleased--keeping +a sharp lookout everywhere for the school-master, but though he asked right +and left he could find nobody, to his great wonder, who knew even the master's +name. In the middle of the afternoon the country people began to leave town +and Cheapside was cleared, but, as Chad walked past the old inn, he saw a +crowd gathered within and about the wide doors of a livery-stable, and in a +circle outside that lapped half the street. The auctioneer was in plain sight +above the heads of the crowd, and the horses were led out one by one from the +stable. It was evidently a sale of considerable moment, and there were +horse-raisers, horse-trainers, jockeys, stable-boys, gentlemen--all eager +spectators or bidders. Chad edged his way through the outer rim of the crowd +and to the edge of the sidewalk, and, when a spectator stepped down from a +dry-goods box from which he had been looking on, Chad stepped up and took his +place. Straightway, he began to wish he could buy a horse and ride back to the +mountains. What fun that would be, and how he would astonish the folks on +Kingdom Come. He had his five dollars still in his pocket, and when the first +horse was brought out, the auctioneer raised his hammer and shouted in loud +tones: + +"How much am I offered for this horse?" + +There was no answer, and the silence lasted so long that before he knew it +Chad called out in a voice that frightened him: + +"Five dollars!" Nobody heard the bid, and nobody paid any attention to him. + +"One hundred dollars," said a voice. + +"One hundred and twenty-five," said another, and the horse was knocked down +for two hundred dollars. + +A black stallion with curving neck and red nostrils and two white feet walked +proudly in. + +"How much am I offered?" + +"Five dollars," said Chad, promptly. A man who sat near heard the boy and +turned to look at the little fellow, and was hardly able to believe his ears. +And so it went on. Each time a horse was put up Chad shouted out: + +"Five dollars," and the crowd around him began to smile and laugh and +encourage him and wait for his bid. The auctioneer, too, saw him, and entered +into the fun himself, addressing himself to Chad at every opening bid. + +"Keep it up, little man," said a voice behind him. "You'll get one by and by." +Chad looked around. Richard Hunt was smiling to him from his horse on the edge +of the crowd. + +The last horse was a brown mare--led in by a halter. She was old and a trifle +lame, and Chad, still undispirited, called out this time louder than ever: + +"Five dollars!" + +He shouted out this time loudly enough to be heard by everybody, and a +universal laugh rose; then came silence, and, in that silence, an imperious +voice shouted back: + +"Let him have her!" It was the owner of the horse who spoke--a tall man with a +noble face and long iron-gray hair. The crowd caught his mood, and as nobody +wanted the old mare very much, and the owner would be the sole loser, nobody +bid against him, and Chad's heart thumped when the auctioneer raised his +hammer and said: + +"Five dollars, five dollars--what am I offered? Five dollars, five dollars, +going at five dollars, five dollars--going at five dollars--going--going, last +bid, gentlemen!" The hammer came down with a blow that made Chad's heart jump +and brought a roar of laughter from the crowd. + +"What is the name, please?" said the auctioneer, bending forward with great +respect and dignity toward the diminutive purchaser. + +"Chad." + +The auctioneer put his hand to one ear. + +"I beg your pardon--Dan'l Boone did you say?" + +"No!" shouted Chad indignantly--he began to feel that fun was going on at his +expense. "You heerd me--CHAD." + +"Ah, Mr. Chad." + +Not a soul knew the boy, but they liked his spirit, and several followed him +when he went up and handed his five dollars and took the halter of his new +treasure trembling so that he could scarcely stand. The owner of the horse +placed his hand on the little fellow's head. + +"Wait a minute," he said, and, turning to a negro boy: "Jim, go bring a +bridle." The boy brought out a bridle, and the tall man slipped it on the old +mare's head, and Chad led her away--the crowd watching him. Just outside he +saw the Major, whose eyes opened wide: + +"Where'd you get that old horse, Chad?" + +"Bought her," said Chad. + +"What? What'd you give for her?" + +"Five dollars." + +The Major looked pained, for he thought the boy was lying, but Richard Hunt +called him aside and told the story of the purchase; and then how the Major +did laugh--laughed until the tears rolled down his face. + +And then and there he got out of his carriage and went into a saddler's shop +and bought a brand new saddle with a red blanket, and put it on the old mare +and hoisted the boy to his seat. Chad was to have no little honor in his day, +but he never knew a prouder moment than when he clutched the reins in his left +hand and squeezed his short legs against the fat sides of that old brown mare. + +He rode down the street and back again, and then the Major told him he had +better put the black boy on the mare, to ride her home ahead of him, and Chad +reluctantly got off and saw the little darky on his new saddle and his new +horse. + +"Take good keer o' that hoss, boy," he said, with a warning shake of his head, +and again the Major roared. + +First, the Major said, he would go by the old University and leave word with +the faculty for the school-master when he should come there to matriculate; +and so, at a turnstile that led into a mighty green yard in the middle of +which stood a huge gray mass of stone, the carriage stopped, and the Major got +out and walked through the campus and up the great flight of stone steps and +disappeared. The mighty columns, the stone steps--where had Chad heard of +them? And then the truth flashed. This was the college of which the +school-master had told him down in the mountains, and, looking, Chad wanted to +get closer. + +"I wonder if it'll make any difference if I go up thar?" he said to the old +driver. + +"No," the old man hesitated--"no, suh, co'se not." And Chad climbed out and +the old negro followed him with his eyes. He did not wholly approve of his +master's picking up an unknown boy on the road. It was all right to let him +ride, but to be taking him home--old Tom shook his head. + +"Jess wait till Miss Lucy sees that piece o' white trash," he said, shaking +his head. Chad was walking slowly with his eyes raised. It must be the college +where the school-master had gone to school--for the building was as big as the +cliff that he had pointed out down in the mountains, and the porch was as big +as the black rock that he pointed out at the same time--the college where +Caleb Hazel said Chad, too, must go some day. The Major was coming out when +the boy reached the foot of the steps, and with him was a tall, gray man with +spectacles and a white tie and very white nails, and the Major said: + +"There he is now, Professor." And the Professor looked at Chad curiously, and +smiled and smiled again kindly when he saw the boy's grave, unsmiling eyes +fastened on him. + +Then, out of the town and through the late radiant afternoon they went until +the sun sank and the carriage stopped before a gate. While the pickaninny was +opening it, another carriage went swiftly behind them, and the Major called +out cleanly to the occupants--a quiet, sombre, dignified-looking man and two +handsome boys and a little girl. "They're my neighbors, Chad," said the Major. + +Not a sound did the wheels make on the thick turf as they drove toward the +old-fashioned brick house (it had no pillars), with its windows shining +through the firs and cedars that filled the yard. The Major put his hand on +the boy's shoulder: + +"Well, here we are, little man." + +At the yard gate there was a great barking of dogs, and a great shout of +welcome from the negroes who came forward to take the horses. To each of them +the Major gave a little package, which each darky took with shining teeth and +a laugh of delight--all looking with wonder at the curious little stranger +with his rifle and coonskin cap, until a scowl from the Major checked the +smile that started on each black face. Then the Major led Chad up a flight of +steps and into a big hall and on into a big drawing-room, where there was a +huge fireplace and a great fire that gave Chad a pang of homesickness at once. +Chad was not accustomed to taking off his hat when he entered a house in the +mountains, but he saw the Major take off his, and he dropped his own cap +quickly. The Major sank into a chair. + +"Here we are, little man," he said, kindly. + +Chad sat down and looked at the books, and the portraits and prints, and the +big mirrors and the carpets on the floor, none of which he had ever seen +before, and he wondered at it all and what it all might mean. A few minutes +later, a tall lady in black, with a curl down each side of her pale face, came +in. Like old Tom, the driver, the Major, too, had been wondering what his +sister, Miss Lucy, would think of his bringing so strange a waif home, and +now, with sudden humor, he saw himself fortified. + +"Sister," he said, solemnly, "here's a little kinsman of yours. He's a +great-great-grandson of your great-great-uncle--Chadwick Buford. That's his +name. What kin does that make us?" + +"Hush, brother," said Miss Lucy, for she saw the boy reddening with +embarrassment and she went across and shook hands with him, taking in with a +glance his coarse strange clothes and his soiled hands and face and his +tangled hair, but pleased at once with his shyness and his dark eyes. She was +really never surprised at any caprice of her brother, and she did not show +much interest when the Major went on to tell where he had found the lad--for +she would have thought it quite possible that he might have taken the boy out +of a circus. As for Chad, he was in awe of her at once --which the Major +noticed with an inward chuckle, for the boy had shown no awe of him. Chad +could hardly eat for shyness at supper and because everything was so strange +and beautiful, and he scarcely opened his lips when they sat around the great +fire, until Miss Lucy was gone to bed. Then he told the Major all about +himself and old Nathan and the Turners and the school-master, and how he +hoped to come back to the Bluegrass, and go to that big college himself, and +he amazed the Major when, glancing at the books, he spelled out the titles of +two of Scott's novels, "The Talisman" and "Ivanhoe," and told how the +school-master had read them to him. And the Major, who had a passion for Sir +Walter, tested Chad's knowledge, and he could mention hardly a character or a +scene in the two books that did not draw an excited response from the boy. + +"Wouldn't you like to stay here in the Bluegrass now and go to school?" + +Chad's eyes lighted up. + +"I reckon I would; but how am I goin' to school, now, I'd like to know? I +ain't got no money to buy books, and the school-teacher said you have to pay +to go to school, up here." + +"Well, we'll see about that," said the Major, and Chad wondered what he meant. +Presently the Major got up and went to the sideboard and poured out a drink of +whiskey and, raising it to his lips, stopped: + +"Will you join me?" he asked, humorously, though it was hard for the Major to +omit that formula even with a boy. + +"I don't keer if I do," said Chad, gravely. The Major was astounded and +amused, and thought that the boy was not in earnest, but he handed him the +bottle and Chad poured out a drink that staggered his host, and drank it down +without winking. At the fire, the Major pulled out his chewing tobacco. This, +too, he offered and Chad accepted, equalling the Major in the accuracy with +which he reached the fireplace thereafter with the juice, carrying off his +accomplishment, too, with perfect and unconscious gravity. The Major was nigh +to splitting with silent laughter for a few minutes, and then he grew grave. + +"Does everybody drink and chew down in the mountains?" + +"Yes, sir," said Chad. "Everybody makes his own licker where I come from." + +"Don't you know it's very bad for little boys to drink and chew?" + +"No, sir." + +"Did nobody ever tell you it was very bad for little boys to drink and chew?" + +"No, sir"--not once had Chad forgotten that. + +"Well, it is." + +Chad thought for a minute. "Will it keep me from gittin' to be a BIG man?" + +"Yes." + +Chad quietly threw his quid into the fire. + +"Well, I be damned," said the Major under his breath. "Are you goin' to quit?" + +"Yes, sir." + +Meanwhile, the old driver, whose wife lived on the next farm, was telling the +servants over there about the queer little stranger whom his master had picked +up on the road that day, and after Chad was gone to bed, the Major got out +some old letters from a chest and read them over again. Chadwick Buford was +his great-grandfather's twin brother, and not a word had been heard of him +since the two had parted that morning on the old Wilderness Road, away back in +the earliest pioneer days. So, the Major thought and thought +suppose--suppose? And at last he got up and with an uplifted candle, looked a +long while at the portrait of his grandfather that hung on the southern wall. +Then, with a sudden humor, he carried the light to the room where the boy was +in sound sleep, with his head on one sturdy arm, his hair loose on the pillow, +and his lips slightly parted and showing his white, even teeth; he looked at +the boy a long time and fancied he could see some resemblance to the portrait +in the set of the mouth and the nose and the brow, and he went back smiling at +his fancies and thinking--for the Major was sensitive to the claim of any drop +of the blood in his own veins--no matter how diluted. He was a handsome little +chap. + +"How strange! How strange!" + +And he smiled when he thought of the boy's last question. + +"Where's YO' mammy?" + +It had stirred the Major. + +"I am like you, Chad," he had said. "I've got no mammy--no nothin', except +Miss Lucy, and she don't live here. I'm afraid she won't be on this earth +long. Nobody lives here but me, Chad." + + + +CHAPTER 9. MARGARET + +The Major was in town and Miss Lucy had gone to spend the day with a neighbor; +so Chad was left alone. + +"Look aroun', Chad, and see how you like things," said the Major. "Go anywhere +you please." + +And Chad looked around. He went to the barn to see his old mare and the +Major's horses, and to the kennels, where the fox-hounds reared against the +palings and sniffed at him curiously; he strolled about the quarters, where +the little pickaninnies were playing, and out to the fields, where the +servants were at work under the overseer, Jerome Conners, a tall, thin man +with shrewd eyes, a sour, sullen face, and protruding upper teeth. One of the +few smiles that ever came to that face came now when the overseer saw the +little mountaineer. By and by Chad got one of the "hands" to let him take hold +of the plough and go once around the field, and the boy handled the plough +like a veteran, so that the others watched him, and the negro grinned, when he +came back, and said + +"You sutinly can plough fer a fac'!" + +He was lonesome by noon and had a lonely dinner, during which he could +scarcely realize that it was really he--Chad--Chad sitting up at the table +alone and being respectfully waited on by a kinky-headed little negro +girl--called Thanky-ma'am because she was born on Thanksgiving day--and he +wondered what the Turners would think if they could see him now--and the +school-master. Where was the school-master? He began to be sorry that he +hadn't gone to town to try to find him. Perhaps the Major would see him--but +how would the Major know the school-master? He was sorry he hadn't gone. After +dinner he started out-doors again. Earth and sky were radiant with light. +Great white tumbling clouds were piled high all around the horizon--and what a +long length of sky it was in every direction down in the mountains, he had to +look straight up, sometimes, to see the sky at all. Blackbirds chattered in +the cedars as he went to the yard gate. The field outside was full of singing +meadow-larks, and crows were cawing in the woods beyond. There had been a +light shower, and on the dead top of a tall tree he saw a buzzard stretching +his wings out to the sun. Past the edge of the woods, ran a little stream with +banks that were green to the very water's edge, and Chad followed it on +through the woods, over a worn rail-fence, along a sprouting wheat-field, out +into a pasture in which sheep and cattle were grazing, and on, past a little +hill, where, on the next low slope, sat a great white house with big white +pillars, and Chad climbed on top of the stone fence--and sat, looking. On the +portico stood a tall man in a slouch hat and a lady in black. At the foot of +the steps a boy--a head taller than Chad perhaps--was rigging up a +fishing-pole. A negro boy was leading a black pony toward the porch, and, to +his dying day, Chad never forgot the scene that followed. For, the next +moment, a little figure in a long riding-skirt stood in the big doorway and +then ran down the steps, while a laugh, as joyous as the water running at his +feet, floated down the slope to his ears. He saw the negro stoop, the little +girl bound lightly to her saddle; he saw her black curls shake in the +sunlight, again the merry laugh tinkled in his ears, and then, with a white +plume nodding from her black cap, she galloped off and disappeared among the +trees; and Chad sat looking after her--thrilled, mysteriously +thrilled--mysteriously saddened, straightway. Would he ever see her again? + +The tall man and the lady in black went in-doors, the negro disappeared, and +the boy at the foot of the steps kept on rigging his pole. Several times +voices sounded under the high creek bank below him, but, quick as his ears +were, Chad did not hear them. Suddenly there was a cry that startled him, and +something flashed in the sun over the edge of the bank and flopped in the +grass. + +"Snowball!" an imperious young voice called below the bank, "get that fish!" + +On the moment Chad was alert again--somebody was fishing down there--and he +sprang from his perch and ran toward the fish just as a woolly head and a +jet-black face peeped over the bank. + +The pickaninny's eyes were stretched wide when he saw the strange figure in +coonskin cap and moccasins running down on him, his face almost blanched with +terror, and he loosed his hold and, with a cry of fright, rolled back out of +sight. Chad looked over the bank. A boy of his own age was holding another +pole, and, hearing the little darky slide down, he said, sharply: + +"Get that fish, I tell you!" + +"Look dar, Mars' Dan, look dar!" + +The boy looked around and up and stared with as much wonder as his little +body-servant, but with no fear. + +"Howdye!" said Chad; but the white boy stared on silently. + +"Fishin'?" said Chad. + +"Yes," said Dan, shortly--he had shown enough curiosity and he turned his eyes +to his cork. "Get that fish, Snowball," he said again. + +"I'll git him fer ye," Chad said; and he went to the fish and unhooked it and +came down the bank with the perch in one hand and the pole in the other. + +"Whar's yo' string?" he asked, handing the pole to the still trembling little +darky. + +"I'll take it," said Dan, sticking the butt of his cane-pole in the mud. The +fish slipped through his wet fingers, when Chad passed it to him, dropped on +the bank, flopped to the edge of the creek, and the three boys, with the same +cry, scrambled for it--Snowball falling down on it and clutching it in both +his black little paws. + +"Dar now!" he shrieked. "I got him!" + +"Give him to me," said Dan. + +"Lemme string him," said the black boy. + +"Give him to me, I tell you!" And, stringing the fish, Dan took the other pole +and turned his eyes to his corks, while the pickaninny squatted behind him and +Chad climbed up and sat on the bank letting his legs dangle over. When Dan +caught a fish he would fling it with a whoop high over the bank. After the +third fish, the lad was mollified and got over his ill-temper. He turned to +Chad. + +"Want to fish?" + +Chad sprang down the bank quickly. + +"Yes," he said, and he took the other pole out of the bank, put on a fresh +wriggling worm, and moved a little farther down the creek where there was an +eddy. + +"Ketchin' any?" said a voice above the bank, and Chad looked up to see still +another lad, taller by a head than either he or Dan--evidently the boy whom he +had seen rigging a pole up at the big house on the hill. + +"Oh, 'bout 'leven," said Dan, carelessly. + +"Howdye!" said Chad. + +"Howdye!" said the other boy, and he, too, stared curiously, but Chad had got +used to people staring at him. + +"I'm goin' over the big rock," added the new arrival, and he went down the +creek and climbed around a steep little cliff, and out on a huge rock that +hung over the creek, where he dropped his hook. He had no cork, and Chad knew +that he was trying to catch catfish. Presently he jerked, and a yellow mudcat +rose to the surface, fighting desperately for his life, and Dan and Snowball +yelled crazily. Then Dan pulled out a perch. + +"I got another one," he shouted. And Chad fished silently. They were making "a +mighty big fuss," he thought, "over mighty little fish." If he just had a +minnow an' had 'em down in the mountains, "I Gonnies, he'd show'em what +fishin' was!" But he began to have good luck as it was. Perch after perch he +pulled out quietly, and he kept Snowball busy stringing them until he had five +on the string. The boy on the rock was watching him and so was the boy near +him--furtively--while Snowball's admiration was won completely, and he grinned +and gurgled his delight, until Dan lost his temper again and spoke to him +sharply. Dan did not like to be beaten at anything. Pretty soon there was a +light thunder of hoofs on the turf above the bank. A black pony shot around +the bank and was pulled in at the edge of the ford, and Chad was looking into +the dancing black eyes of a little girl with a black velvet cap on her dark +curls and a white plume waving from it. + +"Howdye!" said Chad, and his heart leaped curiously, but the little girl did +not answer. She, too, stared at him as all the others had done and started to +ride into the creek, but Dan stopped her sharply: + +"Now, Margaret, don't you ride into that water. You'll skeer the fish." + +"No, you won't," said Chad, promptly. "Fish don't keer nothin' about a hoss." +But the little girl stood still, and her brother's face flushed. He resented +the stranger's interference and his assumption of a better knowledge of fish. + +"Mind your own business," trembled on his tongue, and the fact that he held +the words back only served to increase his ill-humor and make a worse outbreak +possible. But, if Chad did not understand, Snowball did, and his black face +grew suddenly grave as he sprang more alertly than ever at any word from his +little master. Meanwhile, all unconscious, Chad fished on, catching perch +after perch, but he could not keep his eyes on his cork while the little girl +was so near, and more than once he was warned by a suppressed cry from the +pickaninny when to pull. Once, when he was putting on a worm, he saw the +little girl watching the process with great disgust, and he remembered that +Melissa would never bait her own hook. All girls were alike, he "reckoned" to +himself, and when he caught a fish that was unusually big, he walked over to +her. + +"I'll give this un to you," he said, but she shrank from it. + +"Go 'way!" she said, and she turned her pony. Dan was red in the face by this +time. How did this piece of poor white trash dare to offer a fish to his +sister. And this time the words came out like the crack of a whip: + +"S'pose you mind your own business!" + +Chad started as though he had been struck and looked around quickly. He said +nothing, but he stuck the butt of his pole in the mud at once and climbed up +on the bank again and sat there, with his legs hanging over; and his own face +was not pleasant to see. The little girl was riding at a walk up the road. +Chad kept perfect silence, for he realized that he had not been minding his +own business; still he did not like to be told so and in such a way. Both +corks were shaking at the same time now. + +"You got a bite," said Dan, but Chad did not move. + +"You got a bite, I tell you," he said, in almost the tone he had used to +Snowball, but Chad, when the small aristocrat looked sharply around, dropped +his elbows to his knees and his chin into his hand--taking no notice. Once he +spat dexterously into the creek. Dan's own cork was going under: + +"Snowball!" he cried--"jerk!" A fish flew over Chad's head. Snowball had run +for the other pole at command and jerked, too, but the fish was gone and with +it the bait. + +"You lost that fish!" said the boy, hotly, but Chad sat silent--still. If he +would only say something! Dan began to think that the stranger was a coward. +So presently, to show what a great little man he was, he began to tease +Snowball, who was up on the bank unhooking the fish, of which Chad had taken +no notice. + +"What's your name?" + +"Snowball!" henchman, obediently. + +"Louder!" + +"S-n-o-w-b-a-l-l-l" + +"Louder!" The little black fellow opened his mouth wide. + +"S-N-O-W-B-A-L-L!" he shrieked. + +"LOUDER!" + +At last Chad spoke quietly. + +"He can't holler no louder." + +"What do you know about it? Louder!", and Dan started menacingly after the +little darky but Chad stepped between. + +"Don't hit him!" + +Now Dan had never struck Snowball in his life' and he would as soon have +struck his own brother--but he must not be told that he couldn't. His face +flamed and little Hotspur that he was, he drew his fist back and hit Chad full +in the chest. Chad leaped back to avoid the blow, tumbling Snowball down the +bank; the two clinched, and, while they tussled, Chad heard the other brother +clambering over the rocks, the beat of hoofs coming toward him on the turf, +and the little girl's cry: + +"Don't you DARE touch my brother!" + +Both went down side by side with their head just hanging over the bank, where +both could see Snowball's black wool coming to the surface in the deep hole, +and both heard his terrified shriek as he went under again. Chad was first to +his feet. + +"Git a rail!" he shouted and plunged in, but Dan sprang in after him. In three +strokes, for the current was rather strong, Chad had the kinky wool in his +hand, and, in a few strokes more, the two boys had Snowball gasping on the +bank. Harry, the taller brother, ran forward to help them carry him up the +bank, and they laid him, choking and bawling, on the grass. Whip in one hand +and with the skirt of her long black riding-habit in the other, the little +girl stood above, looking on--white and frightened. The hullabaloo had reached +the house and General Dean was walking swiftly down the hill, with Snowball's +mammy, topped by a red bandanna handkerchief, rushing after him and the +kitchen servants following. + +"What does this mean?" he said, sternly, and Chad was in a strange awe at +once--he was so tall, and he stood so straight, and his eye was so piercing. +Few people could lie into that eye. The little girl spoke first--usually she +does speak first, as well as last. + +"Dan and--and--that boy were fighting and they pushed Snowball into the +creek." + +"Dan was teasin' Snowball," said Harry the just. + +"And that boy meddled," said Dan. + +"Who struck first?" asked the General, looking from one boy to the other. Dan +dropped his eyes sullenly and Chad did not answer. + +"I wasn't goin' to hit Snowball," said Dan. + +"I thought you wus," said Chad. + +"Who struck first?" repeated the General, looking at Dan now. + +"That boy meddled and I hit him." + +Chad turned and answered the General's eyes steadily. + +"I reckon I had no business meddlin'!" + +"He tried to give sister a fish." + +That was unwise in Dan--Margaret's chin lifted. + +"Oh," she said, "that was it, too, was it? Well--" + +"I didn't see no harm givin' the little gal a fish," said Chad. "Little gal," +indeed! Chad lost the ground he might have gained. Margaret's eyes looked all +at once like her father's. + +"I'm a little GIRL, thank you." + +Chad turned to her father now, looking him in the face straight and steadily. + +"I reckon I had no business meddlin', but I didn't think hit was fa'r fer him +to hit the nigger; the nigger was littler, an' I didn't think hit 'as right." + +"I didn't mean to hit him--I was only playin'!" + +"But I THOUGHT you was goin' to hit him," said Chad. He looked at the General +again. "But I had no business meddlin'." And he picked up his old coonskin cap +from the grass to start away. + +"Hold on, little man," said the General. + +"Dan, haven't I told you not to tease Snowball?" Dan dropped his eyes again. + +"Yes, sir." + +"You struck first, and this boy says he oughtn't to have meddled, but I think +he did just right. Have you anything to say to him?" + +Dan worked the toe of his +left boot into the turf for a moment "No, sir." + +"Well, go up to your room and think about it awhile and see if you don't owe +somebody an apology. Hurry up now an' change your clothes. + +"You'd better come up to the house and get some dry clothes for yourself, my +boy," he added to Chad. "You'll catch cold." + +"Much obleeged," said Chad. "But I don't ketch cold." + +He put on his old coonskin cap, and then the General recognized him. + +"Why, aren't you the little boy who bought a horse from me in town the other +day?" And then Chad recognized him as the tall man who had cried "Let him have +her." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Well, I know all about you," said the General, kindly. "You are staying with +Major Buford. He's a great friend and neighbor of mine. Now you must come up +and get some clothes, Harry!" --But Chad, though he hesitated, for he knew now +that the gentleman had practically given him the mare, interrupted, sturdily, + +"No, sir, I can't go--not while he's a-feelin' hard at me." + +"Very well," said the General, gravely. Chad started off on a trot and stopped +suddenly, "I wish you'd please tell that little GURL"--Chad pronounced the +word with some difficulty--"that I didn't mean nothin' callin' her a little +gal. Ever'body calls gurls gals whar I come from." + +"All right," laughed the General. Chad trotted all the way home and there Miss +Lucy made him take off his wet clothes at once, though the boy had to go to +bed while they were drying, for he had no other clothes, and while he lay in +bed the Major came up and listened to Chad's story of the afternoon, which +Chad told him word for word just as it had all happened. + +"You did just right, Chad," said the Major, and he went down the stairs, +chuckling: + +"Wouldn't go in and get dry clothes because Dan wouldn't apologize. Dear me! I +reckon they'll have it out when they see each other again. I'd like to be on +hand, and I'd bet my bottom dollar on Chad." But they did not have it out. +Half an hour after supper somebody shouted "Hello!" at the gate, and the Major +went out and came back smiling. + +"Somebody wants to see you, Chad," he said. And Chad went out and found Dan +there on the black pony with Snowball behind him. + +"I've come over to say that I had no business hittin' you down at the creek, +and--" Chad interrupted him: + +"That's all right," he said, and Dan stopped and thrust out his hand. The two +boys shook hands gravely. + +"An' my papa says you are a man an' he wants you to come over and see us and I +want you--and Harry and Margaret. We all want you." + +"All right," said Chad. Dan turned his black pony and galloped off. + +"An' come soon!" he shouted back. + +Out in the quarters Mammy Ailsie, old Tom's wife, was having her own say that +night. + +"Ole Marse Cal Buford pickin' a piece of white trash out de gutter an' not +sayin' whar he come from an' nuttin' 'bout him. An' old Mars Henry takin' him +jus' like he was quality. My Tom say dae boy don' know who is his mammy ner +his daddy. I ain' gwine to let my little mistis play wid no sech trash, I tell +you--'deed I ain't!" And this talk would reach the drawing-room by and by, +where the General was telling the family, at just about the same hour, the +story of the horse sale and Chad's purchase of the old brood mare. + +"I knew where he was from right away," said Harry. "I've seen mountain-people +wearing caps like his up at Uncle Brutus's, when they come down to go to +Richmond." + +The General frowned. + +"Well, you won't see any more people like him up there again." + +"Why, papa?" + +"Because you aren't going to Uncle Brutus's any more." + +"Why, papa?" + +The mother put her hand on her husband's knee. + +"Never mind, son," she said. + + + +CHAPTER 10. THE BLUEGRASS + +God's Country! + +No humor in that phrase to the Bluegrass Kentuckian! There never was--there is +none now. To him, the land seems in all the New World, to have been the pet +shrine of the Great Mother herself. She fashioned it with loving hands. She +shut it in with a mighty barrier of mighty mountains to keep the mob out. She +gave it the loving clasp of a mighty river, and spread broad, level prairies +beyond that the mob might glide by, or be tempted to the other side, where the +earth was level and there was no need to climb; that she might send priests +from her shrine to reclaim Western wastes or let the weak or the unloving--if +such could be--have easy access to another land. + +In the beginning, such was her clear purpose to the Kentuckian's eye, she +filled it with flowers and grass and trees, and fish and bird and wild beasts. +Just as she made Eden for Adam and Eve. The red men fought for the +Paradise--fought till it was drenched with blood, but no tribe, without mortal +challenge from another straightway, could ever call a rood its own. Boone +loved the land from the moment the eagle eye in his head swept its shaking +wilderness from a mountain-top, and every man who followed him loved the land +no less. And when the chosen came, they found the earth ready to receive +them--lifted above the baneful breath of river-bottom and marshland, drained +by rivers full of fish, filled with woods full of game, and +underlaid--all--with thick, blue, limestone strata that, like some divine +agent working in the dark, kept crumbling--ever crumbling--to enrich the soil +and give bone-building virtue to every drop of water and every blade of grass. +For those chosen people such, too, seemed her purpose--the Mother went to the +race upon whom she had smiled a benediction for a thousand years--the race +that obstacle but strengthens, that thrives best under an alien effort to +kill, that has ever conquered its conquerors, and that seems bent on the task +of carrying the best ideals any age has ever known back to the Old World from +which it sprang. The Great Mother knows! Knows that her children must suffer, +if they stray too far from her great teeming breasts. And how she has followed +close when this Saxon race--her youngest born--seemed likely to stray too +far--gathering its sons to her arms in virgin lands that they might suckle +again and keep the old blood fresh and strong. Who could know what danger +threatened it when she sent her blue-eyed men and women to people the +wilderness of the New World? To climb the Alleghenies, spread through the +wastes beyond, and plant their kind across a continent from sea to sea. Who +knows what dangers threaten now, when, his task done, she seems to be opening +the eastern gates of the earth with a gesture that seems to say--"Enter, +reclaim, and dwell therein!" + +One little race of that race in the New World, and one only, has she kept +flesh of her flesh, bone of her bone--to that race only did she give no +outside aid. She shut it in with gray hill and shining river. She shut it off +from the mother state and the mother nation and left it to fight its own fight +with savage nature, savage beast, and savage man. And thus she gave the little +race strength of heart and body and brain, and taught it to stand together as +she taught each man of the race to stand alone, protect his women, mind his +own business, and meddle not at all; to think his own thoughts and die for +them if need be, though he divided his own house against itself; taught the +man to cleave to one woman, with the penalty of death if he strayed elsewhere; +to keep her-- and even himself--in dark ignorance of the sins against Herself +for which she has slain other nations, and in that happy ignorance keeps them +to-day, even while she is slaying elsewhere still. + +And Nature holds the Kentuckians close even to-day--suckling at her breasts +and living after her simple laws. What further use she may have for them is +hid by the darkness of to-morrow, but before the Great War came she could look +upon her work and say with a smile that it was good. The land was a great +series of wooded parks such as one might have found in Merry England, except +that worm fence and stone wall took the place of hedge along the highways. It +was a land of peace and of a plenty that was close to easy luxury--for all. +Poor whites were few, the beggar was unknown, and throughout the region there +was no man, woman, or child, perhaps, who did not have enough to eat and to +wear and a roof to cover his head, whether it was his own roof or not. If +slavery had to be--then the fetters were forged light and hung loosely. And, +broadcast, through the people, was the upright sturdiness of the +Scotch-Irishman, without his narrowness and bigotry; the grace and chivalry of +the Cavalier without his Quixotic sentiment and his weakness; the jovial +good-nature of the English squire and the leavening spirit of a simple +yeomanry that bore itself with unconscious tenacity to traditions that seeped +from the very earth. And the wings of the eagle hovered over all. + +For that land it was the flowering time of the age and the people; and the bud +that was about to open into the perfect flower had its living symbol in the +little creature racing over the bluegrass fields on a black pony, with a black +velvet cap and a white nodding plume above her shaking curls, just as the +little stranger who had floated down into those Elysian fields--with better +blood in his veins than he knew--was a reincarnation perhaps of the spirit of +the old race that had lain dormant in the hills. The long way from log-cabin +to Greek portico had marked the progress of the generations before her, and, +on this same way, the boy had set his sturdy feet. + + + +CHAPTER 11. A TOURNAMENT + +On Sunday, the Major and Miss Lucy took Chad to church--a country church built +of red brick and overgrown with ivy--and the sermon was very short, Chad +thought, for, down in the mountains, the circuit-rider would preach for +hours--and the deacons passed around velvet pouches for the people to drop +money in, and they passed around bread, of which nearly everybody took a +pinch, and a silver goblet with wine, from which the same people took a +sip--all of which Chad did not understand. Usually the Deans went to Lexington +to church, for they were Episcopalians, but they were all at the country +church that day, and with them was Richard Hunt, who smiled at Chad and waved +his riding-whip. After church Dan came to him and shook hands. Harry nodded to +him gravely, the mother smiled kindly, and the General put his hand on the +boy's head. Margaret looked at him furtively, but passed him by. Perhaps she +was still "mad" at him, Chad thought, and he was much worried. Margaret was +not shy like Melissa, but her face was kind. The General asked them all over +to take dinner, but Miss Lucy declined--she had asked people to take dinner +with her. And Chad, with keen disappointment, saw them drive away. + +It was a lonely day for him that Sunday. He got tired staying so long at the +table, and he did not understand what the guests were talking about. The +afternoon was long, and he wandered restlessly about the yard and the +quarters. Jerome Conners, the overseer, tried to be friendly with him for the +first time, but the boy did not like the overseer and turned away from him. He +walked down to the pike gate and sat on it, looking over toward the Deans'. He +wished that Dan would come over to see him or, better still, that he could go +over to see Dan and Harry and--Margaret. But Dan did not come and Chad could +not ask the Major to let him go--he was too shy about it--and Chad was glad +when bedtime came. + +Two days more and spring was come in earnest. It was in the softness of the +air, the tenderness of cloud and sky, and the warmth of the sunlight. The +grass was greener and the trees quivered happily. Hens scratched and cocks +crowed more lustily. Insect life was busier. A stallion nickered in the barn, +and from the fields came the mooing of cattle. Field-hands going to work +chaffed the maids about the house and quarters. It stirred dreamy memories of +his youth in the Major, and it brought a sad light into Miss Lucy's faded +eyes. Would she ever see another spring? It brought tender memories to General +Dean, and over at Woodlawn, after he and Mrs. Dean had watched the children go +off with happy cries and laughter to school, it led them back into the house +hand in hand. And it set Chad's heart aglow as he walked through the dewy +grass and amid the singing of many birds toward the pike gate. He, too, was on +his way to school--in a brave new suit of clothes--and nobody smiled at him +now, except admiringly, for the Major had taken him to town the preceding day +and had got the boy clothes such as Dan and Harry wore. Chad was worried at +first--he did not like to accept so much from the Major. + +"I'll pay you back," said Chad. "I'll leave you my hoss when I go 'way, if I +don't," and the Major laughingly said that was all right and he made Chad, +too, think that it was all right. And so spring took the shape of hope in +Chad's breast, that morning, and a little later it took the shape of Margaret, +for he soon saw the Dean children ahead of him in the road and he ran to catch +up with them. + +All looked at him with surprise--seeing his broad white collar with ruffles, +his turned-back, ruffled cuffs, and his boots with red tops; but they were too +polite to say anything. Still Chad felt Margaret taking them all in and he was +proud and confident. And, when her eyes were lifted to the handsome face that +rose from the collar and the thick yellow hair, he caught them with his own in +an unconscious look of fealty, that made the little girl blush and hurry on +and not look at him again until they were in school, when she turned her eyes, +as did all the other boys and girls, to scan the new "scholar." Chad's work in +the mountains came in well now. The teacher, a gray, sad-eyed, thin-faced man, +was surprised at the boy's capacity, for he could read as well as Dan, and in +mental arithmetic even Harry was no match for him; and when in the spelling +class he went from the bottom to the head in a single lesson, the teacher +looked as though he were going to give the boy a word of praise openly and +Margaret was regarding him with a new light in her proud eyes. That was a +happy day for Chad, but it passed after school when, as they went home +together, Margaret looked at him no more; else Chad would have gone by the +Deans' house when Dan and Harry asked him to go and look at their ponies and +the new sheep that their father had just bought; for Chad was puzzled and awed +and shy of the little girl. It was strange--he had never felt that way about +Melissa. But his shyness kept him away from her day after day until, one +morning, he saw her ahead of him going to school alone, and his heart thumped +as he quietly and swiftly overtook her without calling to her; but he stopped +running that she might not know that he had been running, and for the first +time she was shy with him. Harry and Dan were threatened with the measles, she +said, and would say no more. When they went through the fields toward the +school-house, Chad stalked ahead as he had done in the mountains with Melissa, +and, looking back, he saw that Margaret had stopped. He waited for her to come +up, and she looked at him for a moment as though displeased. Puzzled, Chad +gave back her look for a moment and turned without a word--still stalking +ahead. He looked back presently and Margaret had stopped and was pouting. + +"You aren't polite, little boy. My mamma says a NICE little boy always lets a +little GIRL go first." But Chad still walked ahead. He looked back presently +and she had stopped again--whether angry or ready to cry, he could not make +out-- so he waited for her, and as she came slowly near he stepped gravely +from the path, and Margaret went on like a queen. + +In town, a few days later, he saw a little fellow take off his hat when a lady +passed him, and it set Chad to thinking. He recalled asking the school-master +once what was meant when the latter read about a knight doffing his plume, and +the school-master had told him that men, in those days, took off their hats in +the presence of ladies just as they did in the Bluegrass now; but Chad had +forgotten. He understood it all then and he surprised Margaret, next morning, +by taking off his cap gravely when he spoke to her; and the little lady was +greatly pleased, for her own brothers did not do that, at least, not to her, +though she had heard her mother tell them that they must. All this must be +chivalry, Chad thought, and when Harry and Dan got well, he revived his old +ideas, but Harry laughed at him and Dan did, too, until Chad, remembering +Beelzebub, suggested that they should have a tournament with two rams that the +General had tied up in the stable. They would make spears and each would get +on a ram. Harry would let them out into the lot and they would have "a real +charge--sure enough." But Margaret received the plan with disdain, until Dan, +at Chad's suggestion, asked the General to read them the tournament scene in +"Ivanhoe," which excited the little lady a great deal; and when Chad said that +she must be the "Queen of Love and Beauty" she blushed prettily and thought, +after all, that it would be great fun. They would make lances of ash-wood and +helmets of tin buckets, and perhaps Margaret would make red sashes for them. +Indeed, she would, and the tournament would take place on the next Saturday. +But, on Saturday, one of the sheep was taken over to Major Buford's and the +other was turned loose in the Major's back pasture and the great day had to be +postponed. + +It was on the night of the reading from "Ivanhoe" that Harry and Dan found out +how Chad could play the banjo. Passing old Mammy's cabin that night before +supper, the three boys had stopped to listen to old Tom play, and after a few +tunes, Chad could stand it no longer. + +"I foller pickin' the banjer a leetle," he said shyly, and thereupon he had +taken the rude instrument and made the old negro's eyes stretch with +amazement, while Dan rolled in the grass with delight, and every negro who +heard ran toward the boy. After supper, Dan brought the banjo into the house +and made Chad play on the porch, to the delight of them all. And there, too, +the servants gathered, and even old Mammy was observed slyly shaking her +foot--so that Margaret clapped her hands and laughed the old woman into great +confusion. After that no Saturday came that Chad did not spend the night at +the Deans', or Harry and Dan did not stay at Major Buford's. And not a +Saturday passed that the three boys did not go coon-hunting with the darkies, +or fox-hunting with the Major and the General. Chad never forgot that first +starlit night when he was awakened by the near winding of a horn and heard the +Major jump from bed. He jumped too, and when the Major reached the barn, a +dark little figure was close at his heels. + +"Can I go, too?" Chad asked, eagerly. + +"Think you can stick on?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"All right. Get my bay horse. That old mare of yours is too slow." + +The Major's big bay horse! Chad was dizzy with pride. + +When they galloped out into the dark woods, there were the General and Harry +and Dan and half a dozen neighbors, sitting silently on their horses and +listening to the music of the hounds. + +The General laughed. + +"I thought you'd come," he said, and the Major laughed too, and cocked his +ear. "Old Rock's ahead," he said, for he knew, as did everyone there, the old +hound's tongue. + +"He's been ahead for an hour," said the General with quiet satisfaction, "and +I think he'll stay there." + +Just then a dark object swept past them, and the Major with a low cry hied on +his favorite hound. + +"Not now, I reckon," he said, and the General laughed again. + +Dan and Harry pressed their horses close to Chad, and all talked in low +voices. + +"Ain't it fun?" whispered Dan. Chad answered with a shiver of pure joy. + +"He's making for the creek," said the Major, sharply, and he touched spurs to +his horse. How they raced through the woods, cracking brush and whisking +around trees, and how they thundered over the turf and clattered across the +road and on! For a few moments the Major kept close to Chad, watching him +anxiously, but the boy stuck to the big bay like a jockey, and he left Dan and +Harry on their ponies far behind. All night they rode under the starlit sky, +and ten miles away they caught poor Reynard. Chad was in at the kill, with the +Major and the General, and the General gave Chad the brush with his own hand. + +"Where did you learn to ride, boy?" + +"I never learned," said Chad, simply, whereat the Major winked at his friends +and patted Chad on the shoulder. + +"I've got to let my boys ride better horses, I suppose," said the General; "I +can't have a boy who does not know how to ride beating them this way." + +Day was breaking when the Major and Chad rode into the stable-yard. The boy's +face was pale, his arms and legs ached, and he was so sleepy that he could +hardly keep his eyes open. + +"How'd you like it, Chad?" + +"I never knowed nothing like it in my life," said Chad. + +"I'm going to teach you to shoot." + +"Yes, sir," said Chad. + +As they approached the house, a squirrel barked from the woods. + +"Hear that, Chad?" said the Major. "We'll get him." + +The following morning, Chad rose early and took his old rifle out into the +woods, and when the Major came out on the porch before breakfast the boy was +coming up the walk with six squirrels in his hand. The Major's eyes opened and +he looked at the squirrels when Chad dropped them on the porch. Every one of +them was shot through the head. + +"Well, I'm damned! How many times did you shoot, Chad?" + +"Seven." + +"What--missed only once?" + +"I took a knot fer a squirrel once," said Chad. + +The Major roared aloud. + +"Did I say I was going to teach you to shoot, Chad?" + +"Yes, sir." + +The Major chuckled and that day he told about those squirrels and that knot to +everybody he saw. With every day the Major grew fonder and prouder of the boy +and more convinced than ever that the lad was of his own blood. + +"There's nothing that I like that that boy don't take to like a duck to +water." And when he saw the boy take off his hat to Margaret and observed his +manner with the little girl, he said to himself that if Chad wasn't a +gentleman born, he ought to have been, and the Major believed that he must be. + +Everywhere, at school, at the Deans', with the darkies--with everybody but +Conners, the overseer, had became a favorite, but, as to Napoleon, so to Chad, +came Waterloo--with the long deferred tournament came Waterloo to Chad. + +And it came after a certain miracle on May-day. The Major had taken Chad to +the festival where the dance was on sawdust in the woodland--in the bottom of +a little hollow, around which the seats ran as in an amphitheatre. Ready to +fiddle for them stood none other than John Morgan himself, his gray eyes +dancing and an arch smile on his handsome face; and, taking a place among the +dancers, were Richard Hunt and--Margaret. The poised bow fell, a merry tune +rang out, and Richard Hunt bowed low to his little partner, who, smiling and +blushing, dropped him the daintiest of graceful courtesies. Then the miracle +came to pass. Rage straightway shook Chad's soul--shook it as a terrier shakes +a rat--and the look on his face and in his eyes went back a thousand years. +And Richard Hunt, looking up, saw the strange spectacle, understood, and did +not even smile. On the contrary, he went at once after the dance to speak to +the boy and got for his answer fierce, white, staring silence and a clinched +fist, that was almost ready to strike. Something else that was strange +happened then to Chad. He felt a very firm and a very gentle hand on his +shoulder, his own eyes dropped before the piercing dark eyes and kindly smile +above him, and, a moment later, he was shyly making his way with Richard Hunt +toward Margaret. + +It was on Thursday of the following week that Dan told him the two rams were +once more tied in his father's stable. On Saturday, then, they would have the +tournament. To get Mammy's help, Margaret had to tell the plan to her, and +Mammy stormed against the little girl taking part in any such undignified +proceedings, but imperious Margaret forced her to keep silent and help make +sashes and a tent for each of the two knights. Chad would be the "Knight of +the Cumberland" and Dan the "Knight of the Bluegrass." Snowball was to be +Dan's squire and black Rufus, Harry's body-servant, would be squire to Chad. +Harry was King John, the other pickaninnies would be varlets and vassals, and +outraged Uncle Tom, so Dan told him, would, "by the beard of Abraham," have to +be a "Dog of an Unbeliever." Margaret was undecided whether she would play +Rebecca, or the "Queen of Love and Beauty," until Chad told her she ought to +be both, so both she decided to be. So all was done--the spears fashioned of +ash, the helmets battered from tin buckets, colors knotted for the spears, and +shields made of sheepskins. On the stiles sat Harry and Margaret in royal +state under a canopy of calico, with indignant Mammy behind them. At each end +of the stable-lot was a tent of cotton, and before one stood Snowball and +before the other black Rufus, each with his master's spear and shield. Near +Harry stood Sam, the trumpeter, with a fox-horn to sound the charge, and four +black vassals stood at the stable-door to lead the chargers forth. + +Near the stiles were the neighbors' children, and around the barn was gathered +every darky on the place, while behind the hedge and peeping through it were +the Major and the General, the one chuckling, the other smiling indulgently. + +The stable-doors opened, the four vassals disappeared and came forth, each +pair leading a ram, one covered with red calico, the other with blue cotton, +and each with a bandanna handkerchief around his neck. Each knight stepped +forth from his tent, as his charger was dragged--ba-a-ing and butting--toward +it, and, grasping his spear and shield and setting his helmet on more firmly, +got astride gravely--each squire and vassal solemn, for the King had given +command that no varlet must show unseemly mirth. Behind the hedge, the Major +was holding his hands to his side, and the General was getting grave. It had +just occurred to him that those rams would make for each other like tornadoes, +and he said so. + +"Of course they will," chuckled the Major. "Don't you suppose they know that? +That's what they're doing it for. Bless my soul!" + +The King waved his hand just then and his black trumpeter tooted the charge. + +"Leggo!" said Chad. + +"Leggo!" said Dan. + +And Snowball and Rufus let go, and each ram ran a few paces and stopped with +his head close to the ground, while each knight brandished his spear and dug +with his spurred heels. One charger gave a ba-a! The other heard, raised his +head, saw his enemy, and ba-a-ed an answering challenge. Then they started for +each other with a rush that brought a sudden fearsome silence, quickly +followed by a babel of excited cries, in which Mammy's was loudest and most +indignant. Dan, nearly unseated, had dropped his lance to catch hold of his +charger's wool, and Chad had gallantly lowered the point of his, because his +antagonist was unarmed. But the temper of rams and not of knights was in that +fight now and they came together with a shock that banged the two knights into +each other and hurled both violently to the ground. General Dean and the Major +ran anxiously from the hedge. Several negro men rushed for the rams, who were +charging and butting like demons. Harry tumbled from the canopy in a most +unkingly fashion. Margaret cried and Mammy wrung her hands. Chad rose dizzily, +but Dan lay still. Chad's elbow had struck him in the temple and knocked him +unconscious. + +The servants were thrown into an uproar when Dan was carried back into the +house. Harry was white and almost in tears. + +"I did it, father, I did it," he said, at the foot of the steps. + +"No," said Chad, sturdily, "I done it myself." + +Margaret heard and ran from the hallway and down the steps, brushing away her +tears with both hands. + +"Yes, you did--you DID," she cried. "I hate you." + +"Why, Margaret," said General Dan. + +Chad startled and stung, turned without a word and, unnoticed by the rest, +made his way slowly across the fields. + + + +CHAPTER 12. BACK TO KINGDOM COME + +It was the tournament that, at last, loosed Mammy's tongue. She was savage in +her denunciation of Chad to Mrs. Dean--so savage and in such plain language +that her mistress checked her sharply, but not before Margaret had heard, +though the little girl, with an awed face, slipped quietly out of the room +into the yard, while Harry stood in the doorway, troubled and silent. + +"Don't let me hear you speak that way again Mammy," said Mrs. Dean, so sternly +that the old woman swept out of the room in high dudgeon And yet she told her +husband of Mammy's charge; + +"I am rather surprised at Major Buford." + +"Perhaps he doesn't know," said the General. "Perhaps it isn't true." + +"Nobody knows anything about the boy." + +"Well, I cannot have my children associating with a waif." + +"He seems like a nice boy." + +"He uses extraordinary language. I cannot have him teaching my children +mischief. Why I believe Margaret is really fond of him. I know Harry and Dan +are." The General looked thoughtful. + +"I will speak to Major Buford about him," he said, and he did--no little to +that gentleman's confusion--though he defended Chad staunchly--and the two +friends parted with some heat. + +Thereafter, the world changed for Chad, for is there any older and truer story +than that Evil has wings, while Good goes a plodding way? Chad felt the +change, in the negroes, in the sneering overseer, and could not understand. +The rumor reached Miss Lucy's ears and she and the Major had a spirited +discussion that rather staggered Chad's kind-hearted companion. It reached the +school, and a black-haired youngster, named Georgie Forbes, who had long been +one of Margaret's abject slaves, and who hated Chad, brought out the terrible +charge in the presence of a dozen school-children at noon-recess one day. It +had been no insult in the mountains, but Chad, dazed though he was, knew it +was meant for an insult, and his hard fist shot out promptly, landing in his +enemy's chin and bringing him bawling to the earth. Others gave out the cry +then, and the boy fought right and left like a demon. Dan stood sullenly near, +taking no part, and Harry, while he stopped the unequal fight, turned away +from Chad coldly, calling Margaret, who had run up toward them, away at the +same time, and Chad's three friends turned from him then and there, while the +boy, forgetting all else, stood watching them with dumb wonder and pain. The +school-bell clanged, but Chad stood still--with his heart well nigh breaking. +In a few minutes the last pupil had disappeared through the school-room door, +and Chad stood under a great elm--alone. But only a moment, for he turned +quickly away, the tears starting to his eyes, walked rapidly through the +woods, climbed the worm fence beyond, and dropped, sobbing, in the thick +bluegrass. + +An hour later he was walking swiftly through the fields toward the old brick +house that had sheltered him. He was very quiet at supper that night, and +after Miss Lucy had gone to bed and he and the Major were seated before the +fire, he was so quiet that the Major looked at him anxiously. + +"What's the matter Chad? Are you sick?" + +"Nothin'--no, sir." + +But the Major was uneasy, and when he rose to go to bed, he went over and put +his hand on the boy's head. + +"Chad," he said, "if you hear of people saying mean things about you, you +mustn't pay any attention to them." + +"No, sir." + +"You're a good boy, and I want you to live here with me. Good-night, Chad," he +added, affectionately. Chad nearly broke down, but he steadied himself. + +"Good-by, Major," he said, brokenly. "I'm obleeged to you." + +"Good-by?" repeated the Major. "Why?" + +"Good-night, I mean," stammered Chad. + +The Major stood inside his own door, listening to the boy's slow steps up the +second flight. "I'm gettin' to love that boy," he said, wonderingly-- "An' I'm +damned if people who talk about him don't have me to reckon with"--and the +Major shook his head from side to side. Several times he thought he could hear +the boy moving around in the room above him, and while he was wondering why +the lad did not go to bed, he fell asleep. + +Chad was moving around. First, by the light of a candle, he laboriously dug +out a short letter to the Major--scalding it with tears. Then he took off his +clothes and got his old mountain-suit out of the closet--moccasins and +all--and put them on. Very carefully he folded the pretty clothes he had taken +off--just as Miss Lucy had taught him--and laid them on the bed. Then he +picked up his old rifle in one hand and his old coonskin cap in the other, +blew out the candle, slipped noiselessly down the stairs in his moccasined +feet, out the unbolted door and into the starlit night. From the pike fence he +turned once to look back to the dark, silent house amid the dark trees. Then +he sprang down and started through the fields--his face set toward the +mountains. + +It so happened that mischance led General Dean to go over to see Major Buford +about Chad next morning. The Major listened patiently--or tried ineffectively +to listen--and when the General was through, he burst out with a vehemence +that shocked and amazed his old friend. + +"Damn those niggers!" he cried, in a tone that seemed to include the General +in his condemnation, "that boy is the best boy I ever knew. I believe he is my +own blood, he looks a little like that picture there"--pointing to the old +portrait--"and if he is what I believe he is, by --, sir, he gets this farm +and all I have. Do you understand that?" + +"I believe he told you what he was." + +"He did--but I don't believe he knows, and, anyhow, whatever he is, he shall +have a home under this roof as long as he lives." + +The General rose suddenly--stiffly. + +"He must never darken my door again." + +"Very well." The Major made a gesture which plainly said, "In that event, you +are darkening mine too long," and the General rose, slowly descended the steps +of the portico, and turned: + +"Do you really mean, that you are going to let a little brat that you picked +up in the road only yesterday stand between you and me?" + +The Major softened. + +"Look here," he said, whisking a sheet of paper from his coat-pocket. While +the General read Chad's scrawl, the Major watched his face. + +"He's gone, by --. A hint was enough for him. If he isn't the son of a +gentleman, then I'm not, nor you." + +"Cal," said the General, holding out his hand, "we'll talk this over again." + +The bees buzzed around the honeysuckles that clambered over the porch. A crow +flew overhead. The sound of a crying child came around the corner of the house +from the quarters, and the General's footsteps died on the gravel-walk, but +the Major heard them not. Mechanically he watched the General mount his black +horse and canter toward the pike gate. The overseer called to him from the +stable, but the Major dropped his eyes to the scrawl in his hand, and when +Miss Lucy came out he silently handed it to her. + +"I reckon you know what folks is a-sayin' about me. I tol' you myself. But I +didn't know hit wus any harm, and anyways hit ain't my fault, I reckon, an' I +don't see how folks can blame me. But I don' want nobody who don' want me. An' +I'm leavin' 'cause I don't want to bother you. I never bring nothing but +trouble nohow an' I'm goin' back to the mountains. Tell Miss Lucy good-by. She +was mighty good to me, but I know she didn't like me. I left the hoss for you. +If you don't have no use fer the saddle, I wish you'd give hit to Harry, +'cause he tuk up fer me at school when I was fightin', though he wouldn't +speak to me no more. I'm mighty sorry to leave you. I'm obleeged to you cause +you wus so good to me an' I'm goin' to see you agin some day, if I can. +Good-by." + +"Left that damned old mare to pay for his clothes and his board and his +schooling," muttered the Major. "By the gods"--he rose suddenly and strode +away--"I beg your pardon, Lucy." + +A tear was running down each of Miss Lucy's faded cheeks. + +Dawn that morning found Chad springing from a bed in a haystack--ten miles +from Lexington. By dusk that day, he was on the edge of the Bluegrass and that +night he stayed at a farm-house, going in boldly, for he had learned now that +the wayfarer was as welcome in a Bluegrass farm-house as in a log-cabin in the +mountains. Higher and higher grew the green swelling slopes, until, climbing +one about noon next day, he saw the blue foothills of the Cumberland through +the clear air--and he stopped and looked long, breathing hard from pure +ecstasy. The plain-dweller never knows the fierce home hunger that the +mountain-born have for hills. + +Besides, beyond those blue summits were the Turners and the school-master and +Jack, waiting for him, and he forgot hunger and weariness as he trod on +eagerly toward them. That night, he stayed in a mountain-cabin, and while the +contrast of the dark room, the crowding children, the slovenly dress, and the +coarse food was strangely disagreeable, along with the strange new shock came +the thrill that all this meant hills and home. It was about three o'clock of +the fourth day that, tramping up the Kentucky River, he came upon a long, even +stretch of smooth water, from the upper end of which two black boulders were +thrust out of the stream, and with a keener thrill he realized that he was +nearing home. He recalled seeing those rocks as the raft swept down the river, +and the old Squire had said that they were named after oxen--"Billy and Buck." +Opposite the rocks he met a mountaineer. + +"How fer is it to Uncle Joel Turner's?" + +"A leetle the rise o' six miles, I reckon." + +The boy was faint with weariness, and those six miles seemed a dozen. Idea of +distance is vague among the mountaineers, and two hours of weary travel +followed, yet nothing that he recognized was in sight. Once a bend of the +river looked familiar, but when he neared it, the road turned steeply from the +river and over a high bluff, and the boy started up with a groan. He meant to +reach the summit before he stopped to rest, but in sheer pain, he dropped a +dozen paces from the top and lay with his tongue, like a dog's, between his +lips. + +The top was warm, but a chill was rising from the fast-darkening shadows below +him. The rim of the sun was about to brush the green tip of a mountain across +the river, and the boy rose in a minute, dragged himself on to the point +where, rounding a big rock, he dropped again with a thumping heart and a +reeling brain. There it was--old Joel's cabin in the pretty valley below--old +Joel's cabin--home! Smoke was rising from the chimney, and that far away it +seemed that Chad could smell frying bacon. There was the old barn and he could +make out one of the boys feeding stock and another chopping wood--was that the +school-master? There was the huge form of old Joel at the fence talking with a +neighbor. He was gesticulating as though angry, and the old mother came to the +door as the neighbor moved away with a shuffling gait that the boy knew +belonged to the Dillon breed. Where was Jack? Jack! Chad sprang to his feet +and went down the hill on a run. He climbed the orchard fence, breaking the +top rail in his eagerness, and as he neared the house, he gave a shrill yell. +A scarlet figure flashed like a flame out of the door, with an answering cry, +and the Turners followed: + +"Why, boy," roared old Joel. "Mammy, hit's Chad!" + +Dolph dropped an armful of feed. The man with the axe left it stuck in a log, +and each man shouted: + +"Chad!" + +The mountaineers are an undemonstrative race, but Mother Turner took the boy +in her arms and the rest crowded around, slapping him on the back and all +asking questions at once. Dolph and Rube and Tom. Yes, and there was the +school-master--every face was almost tender with love for the boy. But where +was Jack? + +"Where's--where's Jack?" said Chad. + +Old Joel changed face--looking angry; the rest were grave. Only the old mother +spoke: + +"Jack's all right." + +"Oh," said Chad, but he looked anxious. + +Melissa inside heard. He had not asked for HER, and with the sudden choking of +a nameless fear she sprang out the door to be caught by the school-master, who +had gone around the corner to look for her. + +"Lemme go," she said, fiercely, breaking his hold and darting away, but +stopping, when she saw Chad in the doorway, looking at her with a shy smile. + +"Howdye, Melissa!" + +The girl stared at him mildly and made no answer, and a wave of shame and +confusion swept over the boy as his thoughts flashed back to a little girl in +a black cap and on a black pony, and he stood reddening and helpless. There +was a halloo at the gate. It was old Squire Middleton and the circuit-rider, +and old Joel went toward them with a darkening face. + +"Why, hello, Chad," the Squire said. "You back again?" + +He turned to Joel. + +"Look hyeh, Joel. Thar hain't no use o' your buckin' agin yo' neighbors and +harborin' a sheep-killin' dog." Chad started and looked from one face to +another--slowly but surely making out the truth. + +"You never seed the dawg afore last spring. You don't know that he hain't a +sheep-killer." + +"It's a lie--a lie," Chad cried, hotly, but the school-master stopped him. + +"Hush, Chad," he said, and he took the boy inside and told him Jack was in +trouble. A Dillon sheep had been found dead on a hill-side. Daws Dillon had +come upon Jack leaping out of the pasture, and Jack had come home with his +muzzle bloody. Even with this overwhelming evidence, old Joel stanchly refused +to believe the dog was guilty and ordered old man Dillon off the place. A +neighbor had come over, then another, and an other, until old Joel got livid +with rage. + +"That dawg mought eat a dead sheep but he never would kill a live one, and if +you kill him, by , you've got to kill me fust." + +Now there is no more unneighborly or unchristian act for a farmer than to +harbor a sheep-killing dog. So the old Squire and the circuit-rider had come +over to show Joel the grievous error of his selfish, obstinate course, and, so +far, old Joel had refused to be shown. All of his sons sturdily upheld him and +little Melissa fiercely--the old mother and the school-master alone remaining +quiet and taking no part in the dissension. + +"Have they got Jack?" + +"No, Chad," said the school-master. "He's safe--tied up in the stable." Chad +started out, and no one followed but Melissa. A joyous bark that was almost +human came from the stable as Chad approached, for the dog must have known the +sound of his master's footsteps, and when Chad drew open the door, Jack sprang +the length of his tether to meet him and was jerked to his back. Again and +again he sprang, barking, as though beside himself, while Chad stood at the +door, looking sorrowfully at him. + +"Down, Jack!" he said sternly, and Jack dropped obediently, looking straight +at his master with honest eyes and whimpering like a child. + +"Jack," said Chad, "did you kill that sheep?" This was all strange conduct for +his little master, and Jack looked wondering and dazed, but his eyes never +wavered or blinked. Chad could not long stand those honest eyes. + +"No," he said, fiercely--"no, little doggie, no--no!" And Chad dropped on his +knees and took Jack in his arms and hugged him to his breast. + + + +CHAPTER 13. ON TRIAL FOR HIS LIFE + +By degrees the whole story was told Chad that night. Now and then the Turners +would ask him about his stay in the Bluegrass, but the boy would answer as +briefly as possible and come back to Jack. Before going to bed, Chad said he +would bring Jack into the house: + +"Somebody might pizen him," he explained, and when he came back, he startled +the circle about the fire: + +"Whar's Whizzer?" he asked, sharply. "Who's seen Whizzer?" + +Then it developed that no one had seen the Dillon dog--since the day before +the sheep was found dead near a ravine at the foot of the mountain in a back +pasture. Late that afternoon Melissa had found Whizzer in that very pasture +when she was driving old Betsy, the brindle, home at milking-time. Since +then, no one of the Turners had seen the Dillon dog. That, however, did not +prove that Whizzer was not at home. And yet, + +"I'd like to know whar Whizzer is now!" said Chad, and, after, at old Joel's +command, he had tied Jack to a bedpost--an outrage that puzzled the dog +sorely--the boy threshed his bed for an hour--trying to think out a defence +for Jack and wondering if Whizzer might not have been concerned in the death +of the sheep. + +It is hardly possible that what happened, next day, could happen anywhere +except among simple people of the hills. Briefly, the old Squire and the +circuit-rider had brought old Joel to the point of saying, the night before, +that he would give Jack up to be killed, if he could be proven guilty. But +the old hunter cried with an oath: + +"You've got to prove him guilty." And thereupon the Squire said he would give +Jack every chance that he would give a man--HE WOULD TRY HIM; each side could +bring in witnesses; old Joel could have a lawyer if he wished, and Jack's +case would go before a jury. If pronounced innocent, Jack should go free: if +guilty--then the dog should be handed over to the sheriff, to be shot at +sundown. Joel agreed. + +It was a strange procession that left the gate of the Turner cabin next +morning. Old Joel led the way, mounted, with "ole Sal," his rifle, across his +saddle-bow. Behind him came Mother Turner and Melissa on foot and Chad with +his rifle over his left shoulder, and leading Jack by a string with his right +hand. Behind them slouched Tall Tom with his rifle and Dolph and Rube, each +with a huge old-fashioned horse-pistol swinging from his right hip. Last +strode the school-master. The cabin was left deserted--the hospitable door +held closed by a deer-skin latch caught to a wooden pin outside. + +It was a strange humiliation to Jack thus to be led along the highway, like a +criminal going to the gallows. There was no power on earth that could have +moved him from Chad's side, other than the boy's own command--but old Joel +had sworn that he would keep the dog tied and the old hunter always kept his +word. He had sworn, too, that Jack should have a fair trial. Therefore, the +guns--and the school-master walked with his hands behind him and his eyes on +the ground: he feared trouble. + +Half a mile up the river and to one side of the road, a space of some thirty +feet square had been cut into a patch of rhododendron and filled with rude +benches of slabs--in front of which was a rough platform on which sat a +home-made, cane-bottomed chair. Except for the opening from the road, the +space was walled with a circle of living green through which the sun dappled +the benches with quivering disks of yellow light--and, high above, great +poplars and oaks arched their mighty heads. It was an open-air +"meeting-house" where the circuit-rider preached during his summer circuit +and there the trial was to take place. + +Already a crowd was idling, whittling, gossiping in the road, when the Turner +cavalcade came in sight--and for ten miles up and down the river people were +coming in for the trial + +"Mornin', gentlemen," said old Joel, gravely. + +"Mornin'," answered several, among whom was the Squire, who eyed Joel's gun +and the guns coming up the road. + +"Squirrel-huntin'?" he asked and, as the old hunter did not answer, he added, +sharply: + +"Air you afeerd, Joel Turner, that you ain't a-goin' to git justice from ME?" + + +"I don't keer whar it comes from," said Joel, grimly--"but I'm a-goin' to +HAVE it." + +It was plain that the old man not only was making no plea for sympathy, but +was alienating the little he had: and what he had was very little, for who but +a lover of dogs can give full sympathy to his kind? And, then, Jack was +believed to be guilty. It was curious to see how each Dillon shrank +unconsciously as the Turners gathered--all but Jerry, one of the giant twins. +He always stood his ground--fearing nor man, nor dog--nor devil. + +Ten minutes later, the Squire took his seat on the platform, while the +circuit-rider squatted down beside him. The crowd, men and women and +children, took the rough benches. To one side sat and stood the Dillons, old +Tad and little Tad, Daws, Nance, and others of the tribe. Straight in front +of the Squire gathered the Turners about Melissa and Chad--and Jack as a +centre--with Jack squatted on his hanches foremost of all, facing the Squire +with grave dignity and looking at none else save, occasionally, the old +hunter or his little master. + +To the right stood the sheriff with his rifle, and on the outskirts hung the +school-master. Quickly the old Squire chose a jury--giving old Joel the +opportunity to object as he called each man's name. Old Joel objected to +none, for every man called, he knew, was more friendly to him than to the +Dillons: and old Tad Dillon raised no word of protest, for he knew his case +was clear. Then began the trial, and any soul that was there would have +shuddered could he have known how that trial was to divide neighbor against +neighbor, and mean death and bloodshed for half a century after the trial +itself was long forgotten. + +The first witness, old Tad--long, lean, stooping, crafty--had seen the sheep +rushing wildly up the hill-side "'bout crack o' day," he said, and had sent +Daws up to see what the matter was. Daws had shouted back: + +"That damned Turner dog has killed one o' our sheep. Thar he comes now. Kill +him!" And old Tad had rushed in-doors for his rifle and had taken a shot at +Jack as he leaped into the road and loped for home. Just then a stern, thick +little voice rose from behind Jack: + +"Hit was a God's blessin' fer you that you didn't hit him." + +The Squire glared down at the boy and old Joel said, kindly: + +"Hush, Chad." + +Old Dillon had then gone down to the Turners and asked them to kill the dog, +but old Joel had refused. + +"Whar was Whizzer?" Chad asked, sharply. + +"You can't axe that question," said the Squire. "Hit's er-er-irrelevant." + +Daws came next. When he reached the fence upon the hill-side he could see the +sheep lying still on the ground. As he was climbing over, the Turner dog +jumped the fence and Daws saw blood on his muzzle. + +"How close was you to him?" asked the Squire. + +"'Bout twenty feet," said Daws. + +"Humph!" said old Joel. + +"Whar was Whizzer?" Again the old Squire glared down at Chad. + +"Don't you axe that question again, boy. Didn't I tell you hit was +irrelevant?" + +"What's irrelevant?" the boy asked, bluntly. + +The Squire hesitated. "Why--why, hit ain't got nothin' to do with the case." + +"Hit ain't?" shouted Chad. + +"Joel," said the Squire, testily, "ef you don't keep that boy still, I'll +fine him fer contempt o' court." + +Joel laughed, but he put his heavy hand on the boy's shoulder. Little Tad +Dillon and Nance and the Dillon mother had all seen Jack running down the +road. There was no doubt but that it was the Turner dog. And with this clear +case against poor Jack, the Dillons rested. And what else could the Turners +do but establish Jack's character and put in a plea of mercy--a useless plea, +old Joel knew --for a first offence? Jack was the best dog old Joel had ever +known, and the old man told wonderful tales of the dog's intelligence and +kindness and how one night Jack had guarded a stray lamb that had broken its +leg--until daybreak--and he had been led to the dog and the sheep by Jack's +barking for help. The Turner boys confirmed this story, though it was +received with incredulity. + +How could a dog that would guard one lone helpless lamb all night long take +the life of another? + +There was no witness that had aught but kind words to say of the dog or aught +but wonder that he should have done this thing--even back to the +cattle-dealer who had given him to Chad. For at that time the dealer said--so +testified Chad, no objection being raised to hearsay evidence--that Jack was +the best dog he ever knew. That was all the Turners or anybody could do or +say, and the old Squire was about to turn the case over to the jury when Chad +rose: + +"Squire," he said and his voice trembled, "Jack's my dog. I lived with him +night an' day for 'bout three years an' I want to axe some questions." + +He turned to Daws: + +"I want to axe you ef thar was any blood around that sheep." + +"Thar was a great big pool o' blood," said Daws, indignantly. Chad looked at +the Squire. + +"Well, a sheep-killin' dog don't leave no great big pool o' blood, Squire, +with the FUST one he kills! He SUCKS it!" Several men nodded their heads. + +"Squire! The fust time I come over these mountains, the fust people I seed +was these Dillons--an' Whizzer. They sicked Whizzer on Jack hyeh and Jack +whooped him. Then Tad thar jumped me and I whooped him." (The Turner boys +were nodding confirmation.) "Sence that time they've hated Jack an' they've +hated me and they hate the Turners partly fer takin' keer o' me. Now you said +somethin' I axed just now was irrelevant, but I tell you, Squire, I know a +sheep-killin' dawg, and jes' as I know Jack AIN'T, I know the Dillon dawg +naturely is, and I tell you, if the Dillons' dawg killed that sheep and they +could put it on Jack--they'd do it. They'd do it--Squire, an' I tell you, +you--ortern't--to let--that sheriff--thar--shoot my--dog--until the Dillons +answers what I axed--" the boy's passionate cry rang against the green walls +and out the opening and across the river-- + +"WHAR'S WHIZZER?" + +The boy startled the crowd and the old Squire himself, who turned quickly to +the Dillons. + +"Well, whar is Whizzer?" + +Nobody answered. + +"He ain't been seen, Squire, sence the evenin' afore the night o' the +killin'!" Chad's statement seemed to be true. Not a voice contradicted. + +"An' I want to know if Daws seed signs o' killin' on Jack's head when he +jumped the fence, why them same signs didn't show when he got home." + +Poor Chad! Here old Tad Dillon raised his hand. + +"Axe the Turners, Squire," he said, and as the school-master on the outskirts +shrank, as though he meant to leave the crowd, the old man's quick eye caught +the movement and he added: + +"Axe the school-teacher!" + +Every eye turned with the Squire's to the master, whose face was strangely +serious straightway. + +"Did you see any signs on the dawg when he got home?" The gaunt man hesitated, +with one swift glance at the boy, who almost paled in answer. + +"Why," said the school-master, and again he hesitated, but old Joel, in a +voice that was without hope, encouraged him: + +"Go on!" + +"What was they?" + +"Jack had blood on his muzzle, and a little strand o' wool behind one ear." + +There was no hope against that testimony. Melissa broke away from her mother +and ran out to the road--weeping. Chad dropped with a sob to his bench and +put his arms around the dog: then he rose up and walked out the opening while +Jack leaped against his leash to follow. The school-master put out his hand +to stop him, but the boy struck it aside without looking up and went on. He +could not stay to see Jack condemned. He knew what the verdict would be, and +in twenty minutes the jury gave it, without leaving their seats. + +"Guilty!" + +The Sheriff came forward. He knew Jack and Jack knew him, and wagged his tail +and whimpered up at him when he took the leash. + +"Well, by --, this is a job I don't like, an' I'm damned ef I'm agoin' to +shoot this dawg afore he knows what I'm shootin' him fer. I'm goin' to show +him that sheep fust. Whar's that sheep, Daws?" + +Daws led the way down the road, over the fence, across the meadow, and up the +hill-side where lay the slain sheep. Chad and Melissa saw them coming--the +whole crowd--before they themselves were seen. For a minute the boy watched +them. They were going to kill Jack where the Dillons said he had killed the +sheep, and the boy jumped to his feet and ran up the hill a little way and +disappeared in the bushes, that he might not hear Jack's death-shot, while +Melissa sat where she was, watching the crowd come on. Daws was at the foot +of the hill, and she saw him make a gesture toward her, and then the Sheriff +came on with Jack--over the fence, past her, the Sheriff saying, kindly, +"Howdy, Melissa. I shorely am sorry ta have to kill Jack," and on to the dead +sheep, which lay fifty yards beyond. If the Sheriff expected to drop head and +tail and look mean he was greatly mistaken. Jack neither hung back nor +sniffed at the carcass. Instead he put one fore foot on it and with the other +bent in the air, looked without shame into the Sheriff's eyes--as much as to +say: + +"Yes, this is a wicked and shameful thing, but what have I got to do with it? +Why are you bringing ME here?" + +The Sheriff came back greatly puzzled and shaking his head. Passing Melissa, +he stopped to let the unhappy little girl give Jack a last pat, and it was +there that Jack suddenly caught scent of Chad's tracks. With one mighty bound +the dog snatched the rawhide string from the careless Sheriff's hand, and in +a moment, with his nose to the ground, was speeding up toward the woods. With +a startled yell and a frightful oath the Sheriff threw his rifle to his +shoulder, but the little girl sprang up and caught the barrel with both +hands, shaking it fiercely up and down and hieing Jack on with shriek after +shriek. A minute later Jack had disappeared in the bushes, Melissa was +running like the wind down the hill toward home, while the whole crowd in the +meadow was rushing up toward the Sheriff, led by the Dillons, who were +yelling and swearing like madmen. Above them, the crestfallen Sheriff waited. +The Dillons crowded angrily about him, gesticulating and threatening, while +he told his story. But nothing could be done--nothing. They did not know that +Chad was up in the woods or they would have gone in search of him--knowing +that when they found him they would find Jack--but to look for Jack now would +be like searching for a needle in a hay-stack. There was nothing to do, then, +but to wait for Jack to come home, which he would surely do--to get to +Chad--and it was while old Joel was promising that the dog should be +surrendered to the Sheriff that little Tad Dillon gave an excited shriek. + +"Look up thar!" + +And up there at the edge of the wood was Chad standing and, at his feet, Jack +sitting on his haunches, with his tongue out and looking as though nothing +had happened or could ever happen to Chad or to him. + +"Come up hyeh," shouted Chad. + +"You come down hyeh," shouted the Sheriff, angrily. So Chad came down, with +Jack trotting after him. Chad had cut off the rawhide string, but the Sheriff +caught Jack by the nape of the neck. + +"You won't git away from me agin, I reckon." + +"Well, I reckon you ain't goin' to shoot him," said Chad. "Leggo that dawg." + +"Don't be a fool, Jim," said old Joel. "The dawg ain't goin' to leave the +boy." The Sheriff let go. + +"Come on up hyeh," said Chad. "I got somethin' to show ye." + +The boy turned with such certainty that with out a word Squire, Sheriff, +Turners, Dillons, and spectators followed. As they approached a deep ravine +the boy pointed to the ground where were evidences of some fierce +struggle--the dirt thrown up, and several small stones scattered about with +faded stains of blood on them. + +"Wait hyeh!" said the boy, and he slid down the ravine and appeared again +dragging something after him. Tall Tom ran down to help him and the two threw +before the astonished crowd the body of a black and white dog. "Now I reckon +you know whar Whizzer is," panted Chad vindictively to the Dillons. + +"Well, what of it?" snapped Daws + +"Oh, nothin'," said the boy with fine sarcasm. "Only WHIZZER killed that +sheep and Jack killed Whizzer." From every Dillon throat came a scornful +grunt. + +"Oh, I reckon so," said Chad, easily. "Look dhar!" He lifted the dead dog's +head, and pointed at the strands of wool between his teeth. He turned it +over, showing the deadly grip in the throat and close to the jaws, that had +choked the life from Whizzer--Jack's own grip. + +"Ef you will jes' rickollect, Jack had that same grip the time afore--when I +pulled him off o' Whizzer." + +"By --, that is so," said Tall Tom, and Dolph and Rube echoed him amid a +dozen voices, for not only old Joel, but many of his neighbors knew Jack's +method of fighting, which had made him a victor up and down the length of +Kingdom Come. + +There was little doubt that the boy was right--that Jack had come on Whizzer +killing the sheep, and had caught him at the edge of the ravine, where the +two had fought, rolling down and settling the old feud between them in the +darkness at the bottom. And up there on the hill-side, the jury that +pronounced Jack guilty pronounced him innocent, and, as the Turners started +joyfully down the hill, the sun that was to have sunk on Jack stiff in death +sank on Jack frisking before them--home. + +And yet another wonder was in store for Chad. A strange horse with a strange +saddle was hitched to the Turner fence; beside it was an old mare with a +boy's saddle, and as Chad came through the gate a familiar voice called him +cheerily by name. On the porch sat Major Buford. + + + +CHAPTER 14. THE MAJOR IN THE MOUNTAINS + +The quivering heat of August was giving way and the golden peace of autumn +was spreading through the land. The breath of mountain woods by day was as +cool as the breath of valleys at night. In the mountains, boy and girl were +leaving school for work in the fields, and from the Cumberland foothills to +the Ohio, boy and girl were leaving happy holidays for school. Along a rough, +rocky road and down a shining river, now sunk to deep pools with trickling +riffles between--for a drouth was on the land--rode a tall, gaunt man on an +old brown mare that switched with her tail now and then at a long-legged, +rough-haired colt stumbling awkwardly behind. Where the road turned from the +river and up the mountain, the man did a peculiar thing, for there, in that +lonely wilderness, he stopped, dismounted, tied the reins to an overhanging +branch and, leaving mare and colt behind, strode up the mountain, on and on, +disappearing over the top. Half an hour later, a sturdy youth hove in sight, +trudging along the same road with his cap in his hand, a long rifle over one +shoulder and a dog trotting at his heels. Now and then the boy would look +back and scold the dog and the dog would drop his muzzle with shame, until +the boy stooped to pat him on the head, when he would leap frisking before +him, until another affectionate scolding was due. The old mare turned her +head when she heard them coming, and nickered. Without a moment's hesitation +the lad untied her, mounted and rode up the mountain. For two days the man +and the boy had been "riding and tying," as this way of travel for two men +and one horse is still known in the hills, and over the mountain, they were +to come together for the night. At the foot of the spur on the other side, +boy and dog came upon the tall man sprawled at full length across a +moss-covered bowlder. The dog dropped behind, but the man's quick eye caught +him: + +"Where'd that dog come from, Chad?" Jack put his belly to the earth and +crawled slowly forward--penitent, but determined. + +"He broke loose, I reckon. He come tearin' up behind me 'bout an hour ago, +like a house afire. Let him go." Caleb Hazel frowned. + +"I told you, Chad, that we'd have no place to keep him." + +"Well, we can send him home as easy from up thar as we can from hyeh--let him +go." + +"All right!" Chad understood not a whit better than the dog; for Jack leaped +to his feet and jumped around the school-master, trying to lick his hands, +but the school-master was absorbed and would none of him. There, the +mountain-path turned into a wagon-road and the school-master pointed with one +finger. + +"Do you know what that is, Chad?" + +"No, sir." Chad said "sir" to the school-master now. + +"Well, that's"--the school-master paused to give his words effect--"that's +the old Wilderness Road." + +Ah, did he not know the old, old Wilderness Road! The boy gripped his rifle +unconsciously, as though there might yet be a savage lying in ambush in some +covert of rhododendron close by. And, as they trudged ahead, side by side +now, for it was growing late, the school-master told him, as often before, +the story of that road and the pioneers who had trod it--the hunters, +adventurers, emigrants, fine ladies and fine gentlemen who had stained it +with their blood; and how that road had broadened into the mighty way for a +great civilization from sea to sea. The lad could see it all, as he listened, +wishing that he had lived in those stirring days, never dreaming in how +little was he of different mould from the stout-hearted pioneers who beat out +the path with their moccasined feet; how little less full of danger were his +own days to be; how little different had been his own life, and was his our +pose now--how little different after all was the bourn to which his own + +restless feet were bearing him. + +Chad had changed a good deal since that night after Jack's trial, when the +kind-hearted old Major had turned up at Joel's cabin to take him back to the +Bluegrass. He was taller, broader at shoulder, deeper of chest; his mouth and +eyes were prematurely grave from much brooding and looked a little defiant, +as though the boy expected hostility from the world and was prepared to meet +it, but there was no bitterness in them, and luminous about the lad was the +old atmosphere of brave, sunny cheer and simple self-trust that won people to +him. + +The Major and old Joel had talked late that night after Jack's trial. The +Major had come down to find out who Chad was, if possible, and to take him +back home, no matter who he might be. The old hunter looked long into the +fire. + +"Co'se I know hit 'ud be better fer Chad, but, Lawd, how we'd hate to give +him up. Still, I reckon I'll have to let him go, but I can stand hit better, +if you can git him to leave Jack hyeh." The Major smiled. Did old Joel know +where Nathan Cherry lived? The old hunter did. Nathan was a "damned old +skinflint who lived across the mountain on Stone Creek--who stole other +folks' farms and if he knew anything about Chad the old hunter would squeeze +it out of his throat; and if old Nathan, learning where Chad now was, tried +to pester him he would break every bone in the skinflint's body." So the +Major and old Joel rode over next day to see Nathan, and Nathan with his +shifting eyes told them Chad's story in a high, cracked voice that, recalling +Chad's imitation of it, made the Major laugh. Chad was a foundling, Nathan +said: his mother was dead and his father had gone off to the Mexican War and +never come back: he had taken the mother in himself and Chad had been born in +his own house, when he lived farther up the river, and the boy had begun to +run away as soon as he was old enough to toddle. And with each sentence +Nathan would call for confirmation on a silent, dark-faced daughter who sat +inside: "Didn't he, Betsy?" or "Wasn't he, gal?" And the girl would nod +sullenly, but say nothing. It seemed a hopeless mission except that, on the +way back, the Major learned that there were one or two Bufords living down +the Cumberland, and like old Joel, shook his head over Nathan's pharisaical +philanthropy to a homeless boy and wondered what the motive under it was--but +he went back with the old hunter and tried to get Chad to go home with him. +The boy was rock-firm in his refusal. + +"I'm obleeged to you, Major, but I reckon I better stay in the mountains." +That was all Chad would say, and at last the Major gave up and rode back over +the mountain and down the Cumberland alone, still on his quest. At a +blacksmith's shop far down the river he found a man who had "heerd tell of a +Chad Buford who had been killed in the Mexican War and whose daddy lived +'bout fifteen mile down the river." The Major found that Buford dead, but an +old woman told him his name was Chad, that he had "fit in the War o' 1812 +when he was nothin' but a chunk of a boy, and that his daddy, whose name, +too, was Chad, had been killed by Injuns some'eres aroun' Cumberland Gap." By +this time the Major was as keen as a hound on the scent, and, in a cabin at +the foot of the sheer gray wall that crumbles into the Gap, he had the +amazing luck to find an octogenarian with an unclouded memory who could +recollect a queer-looking old man who had been killed by Indians --"a ole +feller with the curiosest hair I ever did see," added the patriarch. His name +was Colonel Buford, and the old man knew where he was buried, for he himself +was old enough at the time to help bury him. Greatly excited, the Major hired +mountaineers to dig into the little hill that the old man pointed out, on +which there was, however, no sign of a grave, and, at last, they uncovered +the skeleton of an old gentleman in a wig and peruke! There was little doubt +now that the boy, no matter what the blot on his 'scutcheon, was of his own +flesh and blood, and the Major was tempted to go back at once for him, but it +was a long way, and he was ill and anxious to get back home. So he took the +Wilderness Road for the Bluegrass, and wrote old Joel the facts and asked him +to send Chad to him whenever he would come. But the boy would not go. There +was no definite reason in his mind. It was a stubborn instinct merely--the +instinct of pride, of stubborn independence--of shame that festered in his +soul like a hornet's sting. Even Melissa urged him. She never tired of +hearing Chad tell about the Bluegrass country, and when she knew that the +Major wanted him to go back, she followed him out in the yard that night and +found him on the fence whittling. A red star was sinking behind the +mountains. "Why won't you go back no more, Chad?" she said. + +"'Cause I HAIN'T got no daddy er mammy." Then Melissa startled him. + +"Well, I'd go--an' I hain't got no daddy er mammy." Chad stopped his +whittling. + +"Whut'd you say, Lissy?" he asked, gravely. + +Melissa was frightened--the boy looked so serious. + +"Cross yo' heart an' body that you won't NUVER tell NO body." Chad crossed. + +"Well, mammy said I mustn't ever tell nobody--but I HAIN'T got no daddy er +mammy. I heerd her a-tellin' the school-teacher." And the little girl shook +her head over her frightful crime of disobedience. + +"You HAIN'T?" + +"I HAIN'T!" + +Melissa, too, was a waif, and Chad looked at her with a wave of new affection +and pity. + +"Now, why won't you go back just because you hain't got no daddy an' mammy?" + +Chad hesitated. There was no use making Melissa unhappy. + +"Oh, I'd just ruther stay hyeh in the mountains," he said, carelessly--lying +suddenly like the little gentleman that he was--lying as he knew, and as +Melissa some day would come to know. Then Chad looked at the little girl a +long while, and in such a queer way that Melissa turned her face shyly to the +red star. + +"I'm goin' to stay right hyeh. Ain't you glad, Lissy?" + +The little girl turned her eyes shyly back again. "Yes, Chad," she said. + +He would stay in the mountains and work hard; and when he grew up he would +marry Melissa and they would go away where nobody knew him or her: or they +would stay right there in the mountains where nobody blamed him for what he +was nor Melissa for what she was; and he would study law like Caleb Hazel, +and go to the Legislature--but Melissa! And with the thought of Melissa in +the mountains came always the thought of dainty Margaret in the Bluegrass and +the chasm that lay between the two--between Margaret and him, for that +matter; and when Mother Turner called Melissa from him in the orchard next +day, Chad lay on his back under an apple-tree, for a long while, thinking; +and then he whistled for Jack and climbed the spur above the river where he +could look down on the shadowed water and out to the clouded heaps of rose +and green and crimson, where the sun was going down under one faint white +star. Melissa was the glow-worm that, when darkness came, would be a +watch-fire at his feet--Margaret, the star to which his eyes were lifted +night and day--and so runs the world. He lay long watching that star. It hung +almost over the world of which he had dreamed so long and upon which he had +turned his back forever. Forever? Perhaps, but he went back home that night +with a trouble in his soul that was not to pass, and while he sat by the fire +he awoke from the same dream to find Melissa's big eyes fixed on him, and in +them was a vague trouble that was more than his own reflected back to him. + +Still the boy went back sturdily to his old life, working in the fields, busy +about the house and stable, going to school, reading and studying with the +school-master at nights, and wandering in the woods with Jack and his rifle. +And he hungered for spring to come again when he should go with the Turner +boys to take another raft of logs down the river to the capital. Spring came, +and going out to the back pasture one morning, Chad found a long-legged, +ungainly creature stumbling awkwardly about his old mare--a colt! That, too, +he owed the Major, and he would have burst with pride had he known that the +colt's sire was a famous stallion in the Bluegrass. That spring he did go +down the river again. He did not let the Major know he was coming and, +through a nameless shyness, he could not bring himself to go to see his old +friend and kinsman, but in Lexington, while he and the school-master were +standing on Cheapside, the Major whirled around a corner on them in his +carriage, and, as on the turnpike a year before, old Tom, the driver, called +out: + +"Look dar, Mars Cal!" And there stood Chad. + +"Why, bless my soul! Chad--why, boy! How you have grown!" For Chad had grown, +and his face was curiously aged and thoughtful. The Major insisted on taking +him home, and the school-master, too, who went reluctantly. Miss Lucy was +there, looking whiter and more fragile than ever, and she greeted Chad with a +sweet kindliness that took the sting from his unjust remembrance of her. And +what that failure to understand her must have been Chad better knew when he +saw the embarrassed awe, in her presence, of the school-master, for whom all +in the mountains had so much reverence. At the table was Thankyma'am waiting. +Around the quarters and the stable the pickaninnies and servants seemed to +remember the boy in a kindly genuine way that touched him, and even Jerome +Conners, the overseer, seemed glad to see him. The Major was drawn at once to +the grave school-master, and he had a long talk with him that night. It was +no use, Caleb Hazel said, trying to persuade the boy to live with the +Major--not yet. And the Major was more content when he came to know in what +good hands the boy was, and, down in his heart, he loved the lad the more for +his sturdy independence, and for the pride that made him shrink from facing +the world with the shame of his birth; knowing that Chad thought of him +perhaps more than of himself. Such unwillingness to give others trouble +seemed remarkable in so young a lad. Not once did the Major mention the Deans +to the boy, and about them Chad asked no questions--not even when he saw +their carriage passing the Major's gate. When they came to leave the Major +said: + +"Well, Chad, when that filly of yours is a year old, I'll buy 'em both from +you, if you'll sell 'em, and I reckon you can come up and go to school then." + + +Chad shook his head. Sell that colt? He would as soon have thought of selling +Jack. But the temptation took root, just the same, then and there, and grew +steadily until, after another year in the mountains, it grew too strong. For, +in that year, Chad grew to look the fact of his birth steadily in the face, +and in his heart grew steadily a proud resolution to make his way in the +world despite it. It was curious how Melissa came to know the struggle that +was going on within him and how Chad came to know that she knew-- though no +word passed between them: more curious still, how it came with a shock to +Chad one day to realize how little was the tragedy of his life in comparison +with the tragedy in hers, and to learn that the little girl with swift vision +had already reached that truth and with sweet unselfishness had reconciled +herself. He was a boy--he could go out in the world and conquer it, while her +life was as rigid and straight before her as though it ran between close +walls of rock as steep and sheer as the cliff across the river. One thing he +never guessed--what it cost the little girl to support him bravely in his +purpose, and to stand with smiling face when the first breath of one sombre +autumn stole through the hills, and Chad and the school-master left the +Turner home for the Bluegrass, this time to stay. + +She stood in the doorway after they had waved good-by from the head of the +river--the smile gone and her face in a sudden dark eclipse. The wise old +mother went in-doors. Once the girl started through the yard as though she +would rush after them and stopped at the gate, clinching it hard with both +hands. As suddenly she became quiet. + +She went in-doors to her work and worked quietly and without a word. Thus she +did all day while her mind and her heart ached. When she went after the cows +before sunset she stopped at the barn where Beelzebub had been tied. She +lifted her eyes to the hay-loft where she and Chad had hunted for hens' eggs +and played hide-and-seek. She passed through the orchard where they had +worked and played so many happy hours, and on to the back pasture where the +Dillon sheep had been killed and she had kept the Sheriff from shooting Jack. +And she saw and noted everything with a piteous pain and dry eyes. But she +gave no sign that night, and not until she was in bed did she with covered +head give way. Then the bed shook with her smothered sobs. This is the sad +way with women. After the way of men, Chad proudly marched the old Wilderness +Road that led to a big, bright, beautiful world where one had but to do and +dare to reach the stars. The men who had trod that road had made that big +world beyond, and their life Chad himself had lived so far. Only, where they +had lived he had been born--in a log cabin. Their weapons--the axe and the +rifle-- had been his. He had had the same fight with Nature as they. He knew +as well as they what life in the woods in "a half-faced camp" was. Their rude +sports and pastimes, their log-rollings, house-raisings, quilting parties, +corn-huskings, feats of strength, had been his. He had the same lynx eyes, +cool courage, swiftness of foot, readiness of resource that had been trained +into them. His heart was as stout and his life as simple and pure. He was +taking their path and, in the far West, beyond the Bluegrass world where he +was going, he could, if he pleased, take up the same life at the precise point +where they had left off. At sunset, Chad and the school-master stood on the +summit of the Cumberland foothills and looked over the rolling land with +little less of a thrill, doubtless, than the first hunters felt when the land +before them was as much a wilderness as the wilds through which they had made +their way. Below them a farmhouse shrank half out of sight into a little +hollow, and toward it they went down. + +The outside world had moved swiftly during the two years that they had been +buried in the hills as they learned at the farm-house that night. Already the +national storm was threatening, the air was electrically charged with alarms, +and already here and there the lightning had flashed. The underground railway +was busy with black freight, and John Brown, fanatic, was boldly lifting his +shaggy head. Old Brutus Dean was even publishing an abolitionist paper at +Lexington, the aristocratic heart of the State. He was making abolition +speeches throughout the Bluegrass with a dagger thrust in the table before +him--shaking his black mane and roaring defiance like a lion. The news +thrilled Chad unaccountably, as did the shadow of any danger, but it threw +the school-master into gloom. There was more. A dark little man by the name +of Douglas and a sinewy giant by the name of Lincoln were thrilling the West. +Phillips and Garrison were thundering in Massachusetts, and fiery tongues in +the South were flashing back scornful challenges and threats that would +imperil a nation. An invisible air-line shot suddenly between the North and +the South, destined to drop some day and lie a dead-line on the earth, and on +each side of it two hordes of brothers, who thought themselves two hostile +peoples, were shrinking away from each other with the half-conscious purpose +of making ready for a charge. In no other State in the Union was the +fratricidal character of the coming war to be so marked as in Kentucky, in no +other State was the national drama to be so fully played to the bitter end. + +That night even, Brutus Dean was going to speak near by, and Chad and Caleb +Hazel went to hear him. The fierce abolitionist first placed a Bible before +him. + +"This is for those who believe in religion," he said; then a copy of the +Constitution: "this for those who believe in the laws and in freedom of +speech. And this," he thundered, driving a dagger into the table and leaving +it to quiver there, "is for the rest!" Then he went on and no man dared to +interrupt. + +And only next day came the rush of wind that heralds the storm. Just outside +of Lexington Chad and the school-master left the mare and colt at a +farm-house and with Jack went into town on foot. It was Saturday afternoon, +the town was full of people, and an excited crowd was pressing along Main +Street toward Cheapside. The man and the boy followed eagerly. Cheapside was +thronged--thickest around a frame building that bore a newspaper sign on +which was the name of Brutus Dean. A man dashed from a hardware store with an +axe, followed by several others with heavy hammers in their hands. One swing +of the axe, the door was crashed open and the crowd went in like wolves. +Shattered windows, sashes and all, flew out into the street, followed by +showers of type, chair-legs, table-tops, and then, piece by piece, the +battered cogs, wheels, and forms of a printing-press. The crowd made little +noise. In fifteen minutes the house was a shell with gaping windows, +surrounded with a pile of chaotic rubbish, and the men who had done the work +quietly disappeared. Chad looked at the school-master for the first time: +neither of them had uttered a word. The school-master's face was white with +anger, his hands were clinched, and his eyes were so fierce and burning that +the boy was frightened. + + + +CHAPTER 15. TO COLLEGE IN THE BLUEGRASS + +As the school-master had foretold, there was no room at college for Jack. +Several times Major Buford took the dog home with him, but Jack would not +stay. The next morning the dog would turn up at the door of the dormitory +where Chad and the school-master slept, and as a last resort the boy had to +send Jack home. So, one Sunday morning Chad led Jack out of the town for +several miles, and at the top of a high hill pointed toward the mountains and +sternly told him to go home. And Jack, understanding that the boy was in +earnest, trotted sadly away with a placard around his neck: + +I own this dog. His name is Jack. He is on his way to Kingdom Come. Please +feed him. Uncle Joel Turner will shoot any man who steels him. CHAD. + +It was no little consolation to Chad to think that the faithful sheep-dog +would in no small measure repay the Turners for all they had done for him. +But Jack was the closest link that bound him to the mountains, and dropping +out of sight behind the crest of the hill, Chad crept to the top again and +watched Jack until he trotted out of sight, and the link was broken. Then +Chad went slowly and sorrowfully back to his room. + +It was the smallest room in the dormitory that the school-master had chosen +for himself and Chad, and in it were one closet, one table, one lamp, two +chairs and one bed--no more. There were two windows in the little room--one +almost swept by the branches of a locust-tree and overlooking the brown-gray +sloping campus and the roofs and church-steeples of the town--the other +opening to the east on a sweep of field and woodland over which the sun rose +with a daily message from the unseen mountains far beyond and toward which +Chad had sent Jack trotting home. It was a proud day for Chad when Caleb +Hazel took him to "matriculate"--leading him from one to another of the +professors, who awed the lad with their preternatural dignity, but it was a +sad blow when he was told that in everything but mathematics he must go to +the preparatory department until the second session of the term--the +"kitchen," as it was called by the students. He bore it bravely, though, and +the school-master took him down the shady streets to the busy thoroughfare, +where the official book-store was, and where Chad, with pure ecstasy, caught +his first new books under one arm and trudged back, bending his head now and +then to catch the delicious smell of the fresh leaves and print. It was while +he was standing with his treasures under the big elm at the turnstile, +looking across the campus at the sundown that two boys came down the gravel +path. He knew them both at once as Dan and Harry Dean. Both looked at him +curiously, as he thought, but he saw that neither knew him and no one spoke. +The sound of wheels came up the street behind him just then, and a carriage +halted at the turnstile to take them in. Turning, Chad saw a slender girl +with dark hair and eyes and heard her call brightly to the boys. He almost +caught his breath at the sound of her voice, but he kept sturdily on his way, +and the girl's laugh rang in his ears as it rang the first time he heard it, +was ringing when he reached his room, ringing when he went to bed that night, +and lay sleepless, looking through his window at the quiet stars. + +For some time, indeed, no one recognized him, and Chad was glad. Once he met +Richard Hunt riding with Margaret, and the piercing dark eyes that the boy +remembered so well turned again to look at him. Chad colored and bravely met +them with his own, but there was no recognition. And he saw John +Morgan--Captain John Morgan--at the head of the "Lexington Rifles," which he +had just formed from the best blood of the town, as though in long +preparation for that coming war--saw him and Richard Hunt, as lieutenant, +drilling them in the campus, and the sight thrilled him as nothing else, +except Margaret, had ever done. Many times he met the Dean brothers on the +playground and in the streets, but there was no sign that he was known until +he was called to the blackboard one day in geometry, the only course in which +he had not been sent to the "kitchen." Then Chad saw Harry turn quickly when +the professor called his name. Confused though he was for a moment, he gave +his demonstration in his quaint speech with perfect clearness and without +interruption from the professor, who gave the boy a keen look as he said, +quietly: + +"Very good, sir!" And Harry could see his fingers tracing in his class-book +the figures that meant a perfect recitation. + +"How are you, Chad?" he said in the hallway afterward. + +"Howdye!" said Chad, shaking the proffered hand. + +"I didn't know you--you've grown so tall. Didn't you know me?" + +"Yes." + +"Then why didn't you speak to me?" + +"'Cause you didn't know ME." + +Harry laughed. "Well, that isn't fair. See you again." + +"All right," said Chad. + +That very afternoon Chad met Dan in a football game--an old-fashioned game, +in which there were twenty or thirty howling lads on each side and nobody +touched the ball except with his foot--met him so violently that, clasped in +each other's arms, they tumbled to the ground. + +"Leggo!" said Dan. + +"S'pose you leggo!" said Chad. + +As Dan started after the ball he turned to look at Chad and after the game he +went up to him. + +"Why, aren't you the boy who was out at Major Buford's once?" + +"Yes." Dan thrust out his hand and began to laugh. So did Chad, and each knew +that the other was thinking of the tournament. + +"In college?" + +"Math'matics," said Chad. "I'm in the kitchen fer the rest." + +"Oh!" said Dan. "Where you living?" Chad pointed to the dormitory, and again +Dan said "Oh!" in a way that made Chad flush, but added, quickly: + +"You better play on our side to-morrow." + +Chad looked at his clothes--foot-ball seemed pretty hard on clothes--"I don't +know," he said--"mebbe." + +It was plain that neither of the boys was holding anything against Chad, but +neither had asked the mountain lad to come to see him--an omission that was +almost unforgivable according to Chad's social ethics. So Chad proudly went +into his shell again, and while the three boys met often, no intimacy +developed. Often he saw them with Margaret, on the street, in a carriage or +walking with a laughing crowd of boys and girls; on the porticos of old +houses or in the yards; and, one night, Chad saw, through the wide-open door +of a certain old house on the corner of Mill and Market Streets, a party +going on; and Margaret, all in white, dancing, and he stood in the shade of +the trees opposite with new pangs shooting through him and went back to his +room in desolate loneliness, but with a new grip on his resolution that his +own day should yet come. + +Steadily the boy worked, forging his way slowly but surely toward the head of +his class in the "kitchen," and the school-master helped him unwearyingly. +And it was a great help--mental and spiritual--to be near the stern Puritan, +who loved the boy as a brother and was ever ready to guide him with counsel +and aid him with his studies. In time the Major went to the president to ask +him about Chad, and that august dignitary spoke of the lad in a way that made +the Major, on his way through the campus, swish through the grass with his +cane in great satisfaction. He always spoke of the boy now as his adopted son +and, whenever it was possible, he came in to take Chad out home to spend +Sunday with him; but, being a wise man and loving Chad's independence, he let +the boy have his own way. He had bought the filly--and would hold her, he +said, until Chad could buy her back, and he would keep the old nag as a +broodmare and would divide profits with Chad--to all of which the boy agreed. +The question of the lad's birth was ignored between them, and the Major +rarely spoke to Chad of the Deans, who were living in town during the winter, +nor questioned him about Dan or Harry or Margaret. But Chad had found out +where the little girl went to church, and every Sunday, despite Caleb Hazel's +protest, he would slip into the Episcopal church, with a queer +feeling -- little Calvinist of the hills that he was -- that it was not quite +right for him even to enter that church; and he would watch the little girl +come in with her family and, after the queer way of these "furriners," kneel +first in prayer. And there, with soul uplifted by the dim rich light and the +peal of the organ, he would sit watching her; rising when she rose, watching +the light from the windows on her shining hair and sweet-spirited face, +watching her reverent little head bend in obeisance to the name of the Master, +though he kept his own held straight, for no Popery like that was for him. +Always, however, he would slip out before the service was quite over and never +wait even to see her come out of church. He was too proud for that and, +anyhow, it made him lonely to see the people greeting one another and chatting +and going off home together when there was not a soul to speak to him. It was +just one such Sunday that they came face to face for the first time. Chad had +gone down the street after leaving the church, had changed his mind and was +going back to his room. People were pouring from the church, as he went by, +but Chad did not even look across. A clatter rose behind him and he turned to +see a horse and rockaway coming at a gallop up the street, which was narrow. +The negro driver, frightened though he was, had sense enough to pull his +running horse away from the line of vehicles in front of the church so that +the beast stumbled against the curb-stone, crashed into a tree, and dropped +struggling in the gutter below another line of vehicles waiting on the other +side of the street. Like lightning, Chad leaped and landed full length on the +horse's head and was tossed violently to and fro, but he held on until the +animal lay still. + +"Unhitch the hoss," he called, sharply. + +"Well, that was pretty quick work for a boy," said a voice across the street +that sounded familiar, and Chad looked across to see General Dean and +Margaret watching him. The boy blushed furiously when his eyes met Margaret's +and he thought he saw her start slightly, but he lowered his eyes and hurried +away. + +It was only a few days later that, going up from town toward the campus, he +turned a corner and there was Margaret alone and moving slowly ahead of him. +Hearing his steps she turned her head to see who it was, but Chad kept his +eyes on the ground and passed her without looking up. And thus he went on, +although she was close behind him, across the street and to the turnstile. As +he was passing through, a voice rose behind him: + +"You aren't very polite, little boy." He turned quickly--Margaret had not +gone around the corner: she, too, was coming through the campus and there she +stood, grave and demure, though her eyes were dancing. + +"My mamma says a NICE little boy always lets a little GIRL go FIRST." + +"I didn't know you was comin' through." + +"Was comin' through!" Margaret made a little face as though to say--"Oh, +dear." + +"I said I didn't know you were coming through this way." + +Margaret shook her head. "No," she said; "no, you didn't." + +"Well, that's what I meant to say." Chad was having a hard time with his +English. He had snatched his cap from his head, had stepped back outside the +stile and was waiting to turn it for her. Margaret passed through and waited +where the paths forked. + +"Are you going up to the college?" she asked. + +"I was--but I ain't now--if you'll let me walk a piece with you." He was +scarlet with confusion--a tribute that Chad rarely paid his kind. His way of +talking was very funny, to be sure, but had she not heard her father say that +"the poor little chap had had no chance in life;" and Harry, that some day he +would be the best in his class? + +"Aren't you--Chad?" + +"Yes--ain't you Margaret--Miss Margaret?" + +"Yes, I'm Margaret." She was pleased with the hesitant title and the boy's +halting reverence. + +"An' I called you a little gal." Margaret's laugh tinkled in merry +remembrance. "An' you wouldn't take my fish." + +"I can't bear to touch them." + +"I know," said Chad, remembering Melissa. + +They passed a boy who knew Chad, but not Margaret. The lad took off his hat, +but Chad did not lift his; then a boy and a girl and, when only the two girls +spoke, the other boy lifted his hat, though he did not speak to Margaret. +Still Chad's hat was untouched and when Margaret looked up, Chad's face was +red with confusion again. But it never took the boy long to learn and, +thereafter, during the walk his hat came off unfailingly. Everyone looked at +the two with some surprise and Chad noticed that the little girl's chin was +being lifted higher and higher. His intuition told him what the matter was, +and when they reached the stile across the campus and Chad saw a crowd of +Margaret's friends coming down the street, he halted as if to turn back, but +the little girl told him imperiously to come on. It was a strange escort for +haughty Margaret--the country-looking boy, in coarse homespun--but Margaret +spoke cheerily to her friends and went on, looking up at Chad and talking to +him as though he were the dearest friend she had on earth. + +At the edge of town she suggested that they walk across a pasture and go back +by another street, and not until they were passing through the woodland did +Chad come to himself. + +"You know I didn't rickollect when you called me 'little boy.'" + +"Indeed!" + +"Not at fust, I mean," stammered Chad. + +Margaret grew mock-haughty and Chad grew grave. He spoke very slowly and +steadily. "I reckon I rickollect ever'thing that happened out thar a sight +better'n you. I ain't forgot nothin'--anything." + +The boy's sober and half-sullen tone made Margaret catch her breath with a +sudden vague alarm. + +Unconsciously she quickened her pace, but, already, she was mistress of an +art to which she was born and she said, lightly: + +"Now, that's MUCH better." A piece of pasteboard dropped from Chad's jacket +just then, and, taking the little girl's cue to swerve from the point at +issue, he picked it up and held it out for Margaret to read. It was the first +copy of the placard which he had tied around Jack's neck when he sent him +home, and it set Margaret to laughing and asking questions. Before he knew it +Chad was telling her about Jack and the mountains; how he had run away; about +the Turners and about Melissa and coming down the river on a raft--all he had +done and all he meant to do. And from looking at Chad now and then, Margaret +finally kept her eyes fixed on his--and thus they stood when they reached the +gate, while crows flew cawing over them and the air grew chill. + +"And did Jack go home?" + +Chad laughed. + +"No, he didn't. He come back, and I had to hide fer two days. Then, because +he couldn't find me he did go, thinking I had gone back to the mountains, +too. He went to look fer me." + +"Well, if he comes back again I'll ask my papa to get them to let you keep +Jack at college," said Margaret. + +Chad shook his head. + +"Then I'll keep him for you myself." The boy looked his gratitude, but shook +his head again. + +"He won't stay." + +Margaret asked for the placard again as they moved down the street. + +"You've got it spelled wrong," she said, pointing to "steel." Chad blushed. +"I can't spell when I write," he said. "I can't even talk--right." + +"But you'll learn," she said. + +"Will you help me?" + +"Yes." + +"Tell me when I say things wrong?" + +"Yes." + +"Where'm I goin' to see you?" + +Margaret shook her head thoughtfully: then the reason for her speaking first +to Chad came out. + +"Papa and I saw you on Sunday, and papa said you must be very strong as well +as brave, and that you knew something about horses. Harry told us who you +were when papa described you, and then I remembered. Papa told Harry to bring +you to see us. And you must come," she said, decisively. + +They had reached the turnstile at the campus again. + +"Have you had any more tournaments?" asked Margaret. + +"No," said Chad, apprehensively. + +"Do you remember the last thing I said to you?" + +"I rickollect that better'n anything," said Chad. + +"Well, I didn't hate you. I'm sorry I said that," she said gently. Chad +looked very serious. + +"That's all right," he said. "I seed--I saw you on Sunday, too." + +"Did you know me?" + +"I reckon I did. And that wasn't the fust time." Margaret's eyes were opening +with surprise. + +"I been goin' to church ever' Sunday fer nothin' else but just to see you." +Again his tone gave her vague alarm, but she asked: + +"Why didn't you speak to me?" + +They were nearing the turnstile across the campus now, and Chad did not +answer. + +"Why didn't you speak to me?" + +Chad stopped suddenly, and Margaret looked quickly at him, and saw that his +face was scarlet. The little girl started and her own face flamed. There was +one thing she had forgotten, and even now she could not recall what it +was--only that it was something terrible she must not know--old Mammy's words +when Dan was carried in senseless after the tournament. Frightened and +helpless, she shrank toward the turnstile, but Chad did not wait. With his +cap in his hand, he turned abruptly, without a sound, and strode away. + + + +CHAPTER 16. AGAIN THE BAR SINISTER + +And yet, the next time Chad saw Margaret, she spoke to him shyly but +cordially, and when he did not come near her, she stopped him on the street +one day and reminded him of his promise to come and see them. And Chad knew +the truth at once--that she had never asked her father about him, but had not +wanted to know what she had been told she must not know, and had properly +taken it for granted that her father would not ask Chad to his house, if there +were a good reason why he should not come. But Chad did not go even to the +Christmas party that Margaret gave in town, though the Major urged him. He +spent Christmas with the Major, and he did go to a country party, where the +Major was delighted with the boy's grace and agility dancing the quadrille, +and where the lad occasioned no little amusement with his improvisations in +the way of cutting pigeon's wings and shuffling, which he had learned in the +mountains. So the Major made him accept a loan and buy a suit for social +purposes after Christmas, and had him go to Madam Blake's dancing school, and +promise to go to the next party to which he was asked. And that Chad did--to +the big gray house on the corner, through whose widespread doors his longing +eyes had watched Margaret and her friends flitting like butterflies months +before. + +It intoxicated the boy--the lights, music, flowers, the little girls in +white--and Margaret. For the first time he met her friends, Nellie Hunt, +sister to Richard; Elizabeth Morgan, cousin to John Morgan; and Miss Jennie +Overstreet, who, young as she was, wrote poems--but Chad had eyes only for +Margaret. It was while he was dancing a quadrille with her, that he noticed a +tall, pale youth with black hair, glaring at him, and he recognized Georgie +Forbes, a champion of Margaret, and the old enemy who had caused his first +trouble in his new home. Chad laughed with fearless gladness, and Margaret +tossed her head. It was Georgie now who blackened and spread the blot on +Chad's good name, and it was Georgie to whom Chad--fast learning the ways of +gentlemen--promptly sent a pompous challenge, that the difficulty might be +settled "in any way the gentleman saw fit." Georgie insultingly declined to +fight with one who was not his equal, and Chad boxed his jaws in the presence +of a crowd, floored him with one blow, and contemptuously twisted his nose. +Thereafter open comment ceased. Chad was making himself known. He was the +swiftest runner on the football field; he had the quickest brain in +mathematics; he was elected to the Periclean Society, and astonished his +fellow-members with a fiery denunciation of the men who banished Napoleon to +St. Helena--so fiery was it, indeed, that his opponents themselves began to +wonder how that crime had ever come to pass. He would fight at the drop of a +hat, and he always won; and by-and-by the boy began to take a fierce joy in +battling his way upward against a block that would have crushed a weaker soul. +It was only with Margaret that that soul was in awe. He began to love her with +a pure reverence that he could never know at another age. Every Saturday +night, when dusk fell, he was mounting the steps of her house. Every Sunday +morning he was waiting to take her home from church. Every afternoon he looked +for her, hoping to catch sight of her on the streets, and it was only when Dan +and Harry got indignant, and after Margaret had made a passionate defence of +Chad in the presence of the family, that the General and Mrs. Dean took the +matter in hand. It was a childish thing, of course; a girlish whim. It was +right that they should be kind to the boy--for Major Buford's sake, if not for +his own; but they could not have even the pretence of more than a friendly +intimacy between the two, and so Margaret was told the truth. Immediately, +when Chad next saw her, her honest eyes sadly told him that she knew the +truth, and Chad gave up then. Thereafter he disappeared from sports and from +his kind every way, except in the classroom and in the debating hall. Sullenly +he stuck to his books. From five o'clock in the morning until ten o'clock at +night, he was at them steadily, in his room, or at recitation except for an +hour's walk with the school-master and the three half-hours that his meals +kept him away. He grew so pale and thin that the Major and Caleb Hazel were +greatly worried, but protest from both was useless. Before the end of the term +he had mounted into college in every study, and was holding his own. At the +end he knew his power--knew what he COULD do, and his face was set, for his +future, dauntless. When vacation came, he went at once to the Major's farm, +but not to be idle. In a week or two he was taking some of the reins into his +own hands as a valuable assistant to the Major. He knew a good horse, could +guess the weight of a steer with surprising accuracy, and was a past master in +knowledge of sheep. By instinct he was canny at a trade--what mountaineer is +not?--and he astonished the Major with the shrewd deals he made. Authority +seemed to come naturally to him, and the Major swore that he could get more +work out of the "hands" than the overseer himself, who sullenly resented +Chad's interference, but dared not open his lips. Not once did he go to the +Deans', and neither Harry nor Dan came near him. There was little intercourse +between the Major and the General, as well; for, while the Major could not, +under the circumstances, blame the General, inconsistently, he could not quite +forgive him, and the line of polite coolness between the neighbors was never +overstepped. At the end of July, Chad went to the mountains to see the Turners +and Jack and Melissa. He wore his roughest clothes, put on no airs, and, to +all eyes, save Melissa's, he was the same old Chad. But feminine subtlety +knows no social or geographical lines, and while Melissa knew what had +happened as well as Chad, she never let him see that she knew. Apparently she +was giving open encouragement to Dave Hilton, a tawny youth from down the +river, who was hanging, dog-like, about the house, and foolish Chad began to +let himself dream of Margaret with a light heart. On the third day before he +was to go back to the Bluegrass, a boy came from over Black Mountain with a +message from old Nathan Cherry. Old Nathan had joined the church, had fallen +ill, and, fearing he was going to die, wanted to see Chad. Chad went over with +curious premonitions that were not in vain, and he came back with a strange +story that he told only to old Joel, under promise that he would never make it +known to Melissa. Then he started for the Bluegrass, going over Pine Mountain +and down through Cumberland Gap. He would come back every year of his life, he +told Melissa and the Turners, but Chad knew he was bidding a last farewell to +the life he had known in the mountains. At Melissa's wish and old Joel's, he +left Jack behind, though he sorely wanted to take the dog with him. It was +little enough for him to do in return for their kindness, and he could see +that Melissa's affection for Jack was even greater than his own: and how +incomparably lonelier than his life was the life that she must lead! This time +Melissa did not rush to the yard gate when he was gone. She sank slowly where +she stood to the steps of the porch, and there she sat stone-still. Old Joel +passed her on the way to the barn. Several times the old mother walked to the +door behind her, and each time starting to speak, stopped and turned back, but +the girl neither saw nor heard them. Jack trotted by, whimpering. He sat down +in front of her, looking up at her unseeing eyes, and it was only when he +crept to her and put his head in her lap, that she put her arms around him and +bent her own head down; but no tears came. + + + +CHAPTER 17. CHADWICK BUFORD, GENTLEMAN + +And so, returned to the Bluegrass, the midsummer of that year, Chadwick Buford +gentleman. A youth of eighteen, with the self-possession of a man, and a pair +of level, clear eyes, that looked the world in the face as proudly as ever but +with no defiance and no secret sense of shame It was a curious story that Chad +brought back and told to the Major, on the porch under the honeysuckle vines, +but it seemed to surprise the Major very little: how old Nathan had sent for +him to come to his death-bed and had told Chad that he was no foundling; that +one of his farms belonged to the boy; that he had lied to the Major about +Chad's mother, who was a lawful wife, in order to keep the land for himself; +how old Nathan had offered to give back the farm, or pay him the price of it +in livestock, and how, at old Joel's advice he had taken the stock and turned +the stock into money. How, after he had found his mother's grave, his first +act had been to take up the rough bee-gum coffin that held her remains, and +carry it down the river, and bury her where she had the right to lie, side by +side with her grandfather and his--the old gentleman who slept in wig and +peruke on the hill-side--that her good name and memory should never again +suffer insult from any living tongue. It was then that Major took Chad by the +shoulders roughly, and, with tears in his eyes, swore that he would have no +more nonsense from the boy; that Chad was flesh of his flesh and bone of his +bone; that he would adopt him and make him live where he belonged, and break +his damned pride. And it was then that Chad told him how gladly he would come, +now that he could bring him an untarnished name. And the two walked together +down to the old family graveyard, where the Major said that the two in the +mountains should be brought some day and where the two brothers who had parted +nearly fourscore years ago could, side by side, await Judgment Day. + +When they went back into the house the Major went to the sideboard. + +"Have a drink, Chad?" + +Chad laughed: "Do you think it will stunt my growth?" + +"Stand up here, and let's see," said the Major. + +The two stood up, back to back, in front of a long mirror, and Chad's shaggy +hair rose at least an inch above the Major's thin locks of gray. The Major +turned and looked at him from head to foot with affectionate pride. + +"Six feet in your socks, to the inch, without that hair. I reckon it won't +stunt you--not now." + +"All right," laughed Chad, "then I'll take that drink." And together they +drank. + +Thus, Chadwick Buford, gentleman, after the lapse of three-quarters of a +century, came back to his own: and what that own, at that day and in that +land, was! + +It was the rose of Virginia, springing, in full bloom, from new and richer +soil--a rose of a deeper scarlet and a stronger stem: and the big village +where the old University reared its noble front was the very heart of that +rose. There were the proudest families, the stateliest homes, the broadest +culture, the most gracious hospitality, the gentlest courtesies, the finest +chivalry, that the State has ever known. There lived the political idols; +there, under the low sky, rose the memorial shaft to Clay. There had lived +beaux and belles, memories of whom hang still about the town, people it with +phantom shapes, and give an individual or a family here and there a subtle +distinction to-day. There the grasp of Calvinism was most lax. There were the +dance, the ready sideboard, the card table, the love of the horse and the dog, +and but little passion for the game-cock. There were as manly virtues, as +manly vices, as the world has ever known. And there, love was as far from lust +as heaven from hell. + +It was on the threshold of this life that Chad stood. Kentucky had given birth +to the man who was to uphold the Union--birth to the man who would seek to +shatter it. Fate had given Chad the early life of one, and like blood with the +other; and, curiously enough, in his own short life, he already epitomized the +social development of the nation, from its birth in a log cabin to its swift +maturity behind the columns of a Greek portico. Against the uncounted +generations of gentlepeople that ran behind him to sunny England, how little +could the short sleep of three in the hills count! It may take three +generations to make a gentleman, but one is enough, if the blood be there, the +heart be right, and the brain and hand come early under discipline. + +It was to General Dean that the Major told Chad's story first. The two old +friends silently grasped hands, and the cloud between them passed like mist. + +"Bring him over to dinner on Saturday, Cal--you and Miss Lucy, won't you? Some +people are coming out from town." In making amends, there was no half-way with +General Dean. + +"I will," said the Major, "gladly." + +The cool of the coming autumn was already in the air that Saturday when Miss +Lucy and the Major and Chad, in the old carriage, with old Tom as driver and +the pickaninny behind, started for General Dean's. The Major was beautiful to +behold, in his flowered waistcoat, his ruffled shirt, white trousers strapped +beneath his highly polished, high-heeled boots, high hat and frock coat, with +only the lowest button fastened, in order to give a glimpse of that wonderful +waistcoat, just as that, too, was unbuttoned at the top that the ruffles might +peep out upon the world. Chad's raiment, too, was a Solomon's--for him. He had +protested, but in vain; and he, too, wore white trousers with straps, +high-heeled boots, and a wine-colored waistcoat and slouch hat, and a brave, +though very conscious, figure he made, with his tall body, well-poised head, +strong shoulders and thick hair. It was a rare thing for Miss Lucy to do, but +the old gentlewoman could not resist the Major, and she, too, rode in state +with them, smiling indulgently at the Major's quips, and now, kindly, on Chad. +A drowsy peace lay over the magnificent woodlands, unravaged then except for +firewood; the seared pastures, just beginning to show green again for the +second spring; the flashing creek, the seas of still hemp and yellow corn, and +Chad saw a wistful shadow cross Miss Lucy's pale face, and a darker one +anxiously sweep over the Major's jesting lips. + +Guests were arriving, when they entered the yard gate, and guests were coming +behind them. General and Mrs. Dean were receiving them on the porch, and Harry +and Dan were helping the ladies out of their carriages, while, leaning against +one of the columns, in pure white, was the graceful figure of Margaret. That +there could ever have been any feeling in any member of the family other than +simple, gracious kindliness toward him, Chad could neither see nor feel. At +once every trace of embarrassment in him was gone, and he could but wonder at +the swift justice done him in a way that was so simple and effective. Even +with Margaret there was no trace of consciousness. The past was wiped clean of +all save courtesy and kindness. There were the Hunts--Nellie, and the +Lieutenant of the Lexington Rifles, Richard Hunt, a dauntless-looking dare-devil, with the ready tongue of +a coffee-house wit and the grace of a +cavalier. There was Elizabeth Morgan, to whom Harry's grave eyes were always +wandering, and Miss Jennie Overstreet, who was romantic and openly now wrote +poems for the Observer, and who looked at Chad with no attempt to conceal her +admiration of his appearance and her wonder as to who he was. And there were +the neighbors roundabout--the Talbotts, Quisenberrys, Clays, Prestons, +Morgans--surely no less than forty strong, and all for dinner. It was no +little trial for Chad in that crowd of fine ladies, judges, soldiers, lawyers, +statesmen--but he stood it well. While his self-consciousness made him +awkward, he had pronounced dignity of bearing; his diffidence emphasized his +modesty, and he had the good sense to stand and keep still. Soon they were at +table--and what a table and what a dinner that was! The dining-room was the +biggest and sunniest room in the house; its walls covered with hunting prints, +pictures of game and stag heads. The table ran the length of it. The snowy +tablecloth hung almost to the floor. At the head sat Mrs. Dean, with a great +tureen of calf's head soup in front of her. Before the General was the saddle +of venison that was to follow, drenched in a bottle of ancient Madeira, and +flanked by flakes of red-currant jelly. Before the Major rested broiled wild +ducks, on which he could show his carving skill--on game as well as men. A +great turkey supplanted the venison, and last to come, and before Richard +Hunt, Lieutenant of the Rifles, was a Kentucky ham. That ham! Mellow, aged, +boiled in champagne, baked brown, spiced deeply, rosy pink within, and of a +flavor and fragrance to shatter the fast of a Pope; and without, a brown-edged +white layer, so firm that the lieutenant's deft carving knife, passing +through, gave no hint to the eye that it was delicious fat. There had been +merry jest and laughter and banter and gallant compliment before, but it was +Richard Hunt's turn now, and story after story he told, as the rose-flakes +dropped under his knife in such thin slices that their edges coiled. It was +full half an hour before the carver and story-teller were done. After that ham +the tablecloth was lifted, and the dessert spread on another lying beneath; +then that, too, was raised, and the nuts and wines were placed on a third--red +damask this time. + +Then came the toasts: to the gracious hostess from Major Buford; to Miss Lucy +from General Dean; from valiant Richard Hunt to blushing Margaret, and then +the ladies were gone, and the talk was politics--the election of Lincoln, +slavery, disunion. + +"If Lincoln is elected, no power but God's can avert war," said Richard Hunt, +gravely. + +Dan's eyes flashed. "Will you take me?" + +The lieutenant lifted his glass. "Gladly, my boy." + +"Kentucky's convictions are with the Union; her kinship and sympathies with +the South," said a deep-voiced lawyer. "She must remain neutral." + +"Straddling the fence," said the Major, sarcastically. + +"No; to avert the war, if possible, or to act the peacemaker when the tragedy +is over." + +"Well, I can see Kentuckians keeping out of a fight," laughed the General, and +he looked around. Three out of five of the men present had been in the Mexican +war. The General had been wounded at Cerro Gordo, and the Major had brought +his dead home in leaden coffins. + +"The fanatics of Boston, the hot-heads of South Carolina--they are making the +mischief." + +"And New England began with slavery," said the lawyer again. + +"And naturally, with that conscience that is a national calamity, was the +first to give it up," said Richard Hunt, "when the market price of slaves fell +to sixpence a pound in the open Boston markets." There was an incredulous +murmur. + +"Oh, yes," said Hunt, easily, "I can show you advertisements in Boston papers +of slaves for sale at sixpence a pound." + +Perhaps it never occurred to a soul present that the word "slave" was never +heard in that region except in some such way. With Southerners, the negroes +were "our servants" or "our people"--never slaves. Two lads at that table were +growing white--Chad and Harry--and Chad's lips opened first. + +"I don't think slavery has much to do with the question, really," he said, +"not even with Mr. Lincoln." The silent surprise that followed the boy's +embarrassed statement ended in a gasp of astonishment when Harry leaned across +the table and said, hotly: + +"Slavery has EVERYTHING to do with the question." + +The Major looked bewildered; the General frowned, and the keen-eyed lawyer +spoke again: + +"The struggle was written in the Constitution. The framers evaded it. Logic +leads one way as well as another and no man can logically blame another for +the way he goes." + +"No more politics now, gentlemen," said the General quickly. "We will join the +ladies. Harry," he added, with some sternness, "lead the way!" + +As the three boys rose, Chad lifted his glass. His face was pale and his lips +trembled. + +"May I propose a toast, General Dean?" + +"Why, certainly," said the General, kindly. + +"I want to drink to one man but for whom I might be in a log cabin now, and +might have died there for all I know--my friend and, thank God! my +kinsman--Major Buford." + +It was irregular and hardly in good taste, but the boy had waited till the +ladies were gone, and it touched the Major that he should want to make such a +public acknowledgment that there should be no false colors in the flag he +meant henceforth to bear. + +The startled guests drank blindly to the confused Major, though they knew not +why, but as the lads disappeared the lawyer asked: + +"Who is that boy, Major?" + +Outside, the same question had been asked among the ladies and the same story +told. The three girls remembered him vaguely, they said, and when Chad +reappeared, in the eyes of the poetess at least, the halo of romance floated +above his head. + +She was waiting for Chad when he came out on the porch, and she shook her +curls and flashed her eyes in a way that almost alarmed him. Old Mammy dropped +him a curtsey, for she had had her orders, and, behind her, Snowball, now a +tall, fine-looking coal-black youth, grinned a welcome. The three girls were +walking under the trees, with their arms mysteriously twined about one +anther's waists, and the poetess walked down toward them with the three lads, +Richard Hunt following. Chad could not know how it happened, but, a moment +later, Dan was walking away with Nellie Hunt one way; Harry with Elizabeth +Morgan the other; the Lieutenant had Margaret alone, and Miss Overstreet was +leading him away, raving meanwhile about the beauty of field and sky. As they +went toward the gate he could not help flashing one look toward the pair under +the fir tree. An amused smile was playing under the Lieutenant's beautiful +mustache, his eyes were dancing with mischief, and Margaret was blushing with +anything else than displeasure. + +"Oho!" he said, as Chad and his companion passed on. "Sits the wind in that +corner? Bless me, if looks could kill, I'd have a happy death here at your +feet, Mistress Margaret. SEE the young man! It's the second time he has almost +slain me." + +Chad could scarcely hear Miss Jennie's happy chatter, scarcely saw the shaking +curls, the eyes all but in a frenzy of rolling. His eyes were in the back of +his head, and his backward-listening ears heard only Margaret's laugh behind +him. + +"Oh, I do love the autumn"--it was at the foot of those steps, thought Chad, +that he first saw Margaret springing to the back of her pony and dashing off +under the fir trees--" and it's coming. There's one scarlet leaf +already"--Chad could see the rock fence where he had sat that spring day-- +"it's curious and mournful that you can see in any season a sign of the next +to come." And there was the creek where he found Dan fishing, and there the +road led to the ford where Margaret had spurned his offer of a slimy +fish--ugh! "I do love the autumn. It makes me feel like the young woman who +told Emerson that she had such mammoth thoughts she couldn't give them +utterance--why, wake up, Mr. Buford, wake up!" Chad came to with a start. + +"Do you know you aren't very polite, Mr. Buford?" Mr. Buford! That did sound +funny. + +"But I know what the matter is," she went on. "I saw you look"--she nodded her +head backward. "Can you keep a secret?" Chad nodded; he had not yet opened his +lips. + +"Thae's going to be a match back there. He's only a few years older. The +French say that a woman should be half a man's age plus seven years. That +would make her only a few years too young, and she can wait." Chad was scarlet +under the girl's mischievous torture, but a cry from the house saved him. Dan +was calling them back. + +"Mr. Hunt has to go back early to drill the Rifles. Can you keep another +secret?" Again Chad nodded gravely. "Well, he is going to drive me back. I'll +tell him what a dangerous rival he has." Chad was dumb; there was much yet for +him to learn before he could parry with a tongue like hers. + +"He's very good-looking," said Miss Jennie, when she joined the girls, "but +oh, so stupid." + +Margaret turned quickly and unsuspiciously. "Stupid! Why, he's the first man +in his class." + +"Oh," said Miss Jennie, with a demure smile, "perhaps I couldn't draw him +out," and Margaret flushed to have caught the deftly tossed bait so readily. + +A moment later the Lieutenant was gathering up the reins, with Miss Jennie by +his side. He gave a bow to Margaret, and Miss Jennie nodded to Chad. + +"Come see me when you come to town, Mr. Buford," she called, as though to an +old friend, and still Chad was dumb, though he lifted his hat gravely. + +At no time was Chad alone with Margaret, and he was not sorry--her manner so +puzzled him. The three lads and three girls walked together through Mrs. +Dean's garden with its grass walks and flower beds and vegetable patches +surrounded with rose bushes. At the lower edge they could see the barn with +sheep in the yard around it, and there were the very stiles where Harry and +Margaret had sat in state when Dan and Chad were charging in the tournament. +The thing might never have happened for any sign from Harry or Dan or +Margaret, and Chad began to wonder if his past or his present were a dream. + +How fine this courtesy was Chad could not realize. Neither could he know that +the favor Margaret had shown him when he was little more than outcast he must +now, as an equal, win for himself. Miss Jennie had called him "Mr. Buford." He +wondered what Margaret would call him when he came to say good-by. She called +him nothing. She only smiled at him. + +"You must come to see us soon again," she said, graciously, and so said all +the Deans. + +The Major was quiet going home, and Miss Lucy drowsed. All evening the Major +was quiet. + +"If a fight does come," he said, when they were going to bed, "I reckon I'm +not too old to take a hand." + +"And I reckon I'm not too young," said Chad. + + + +CHAPTER 18. THE SPIRIT OF '76 AND THE SHADOW OF '61 + +One night, in the following April, there was a great dance in Lexington. Next +day the news of Sumter came. Chad pleaded to be let off from the dance, but +the Major would not hear of it. It was a fancy-dress ball, and the Major had a +pet purpose of his own that he wanted gratified and Chad had promised to aid +him. That fancy was that Chad should go in regimentals, as the stern, old +soldier on the wall, of whom the Major swore the boy was the "spit and image." +The Major himself helped Chad dress in wig, peruke, stock, breeches, boots, +spurs, cocked hat, sword and all. And then he led the boy down into the +parlor, where Miss Lucy was waiting for them, and stood him up on one side of +the portrait. To please the old fellow, Chad laughingly struck the attitude of +the pictured soldier, and the Major cried: + +"What'd I tell you, Lucy!" Then he advanced and made a low bow. + +"General Buford," he said, "General Washington's compliments, and will General +Buford plant the flag on that hill where the left wing of the British is +entrenched?" + +"Hush, Cal," said Miss Lucy, laughing. + +"General Buford's compliments to General Washington. General Buford will plant +that flag on ANY hill that ANY enemy holds against it." + +The lad's face paled as the words, by some curious impulse, sprang to his +lips, but the unsuspecting Major saw no lurking significance in his manner, +nor in what he said, and then there was a rumble of carriage wheels at the +door. + +The winter had sped swiftly. Chad had done his work in college only fairly +well, for Margaret had been a disturbing factor. The girl was an impenetrable +mystery to him, for the past between them was not only wiped clean--it seemed +quite gone. Once only had he dared to open his lips about the old days, and +the girl's flushed silence made a like mistake forever impossible. He came and +went at the Deans' as he pleased. Always they were kind, courteous, +hospitable--no more, no less, unvaryingly. During the Christmas holidays he +and Margaret had had a foolish quarrel, and it was then that Chad took his +little fling at his little world--a fling that was foolish, but harmful, +chiefly in that it took his time and his mind and his energy from his work. He +not only neglected his studies, but he fell in with the wild young bucks of +the town, learned to play cards, took more wine than was good for him +sometimes, was on the verge of several duels, and night after night raced home +in his buggy against the coming dawn. Though Miss Lucy looked worried, the +indulgent old Major made no protest. Indeed he was rather pleased. Chad was +sowing his wild oats--it was in the blood, and the mood would pass. It did +pass, naturally enough, on the very day that the breach between him and +Margaret was partly healed; and the heart of Caleb Hazel, whom Chad, for +months, had not dared to face, was made glad when the boy came back to him +remorseful and repentant--the old Chad once more. + +They were late in getting to the dance. Every window in the old Hunt home was +brilliant with light. Chinese lanterns swung in the big yard. The scent of +early spring flowers smote the fresh night air. Music and the murmur of nimble +feet and happy laughter swept out the wide-open doors past which white figures +flitted swiftly. Scarcely anybody knew Chad in his regimentals, and the Major, +with the delight of a boy, led him around, gravely presenting him as General +Buford here and there. Indeed, the lad made a noble figure with his superb +height and bearing, and he wore sword and spurs as though born to them. +Margaret was dancing with Richard Hunt when she saw his eyes searching for her +through the room, and she gave him a radiant smile that almost stunned him. +She had been haughty and distant when he went to her to plead forgiveness: she +had been too hard. and Margaret, too, was repentant. + +"Why, who's that?" asked Richard Hunt. "Oh, yes," he added, getting his answer +from Margaret's face. "Bless me, but he's fine--the very spirit of '76. I must +have him in the Rifles." + +"Will you make him a lieutenant?" asked Margaret. + +"Why, yes, I will," said Mr. Hunt, decisively. "I'll resign myself in his +favor, if it pleases you." + +"Oh, no, no--no one could fill your place." + +"Well, he can, I fear--and here he comes to do it. I'll have to retreat some +time, and I suppose I'd as well begin now." And the gallant gentleman bowed to +Chad. + +"Will you pardon me, Miss Margaret? My mother is calling me." + +"You must have keen ears," said Margaret; "your mother is upstairs." + +"Yes; but she wants me. Everybody wants me, but--" he bowed again with an +imperturbable smile and went his way. + +Margaret looked demurely into Chad's eager eyes. + +"And how is the spirit of '76?" + +"The spirit of '76 is unchanged." + +"Oh, yes, he is; I scarcely knew him." + +"But he's unchanged; he never will change." + +Margaret dropped her eyes and Chad looked around. + +"I wish we could get out of here." + +"We can," said Margaret, demurely. + +"We will!" said Chad, and he made for a door, outside which lanterns were +swinging in the wind. Margaret caught up some flimsy garment and wound it +about her pretty round throat--they call it a "fascinator" in the South. + +Chad looked down at her. + +"I wish you could see yourself; I wish I could tell you how you look." + +"I have," said Margaret, "every time I passed a mirror. And other people have +told me. Mr. Hunt did. He didn't seem to have much trouble." + +"I wish I had his tongue." + +"If you had, and nothing else, you wouldn't have me"--Chad started as the +little witch paused a second, drawling--"leaving my friends and this jolly +dance to go out into a freezing yard and talk to an aged Colonial who doesn't +appreciate his modern blessings. The next thing you'll be wanting, I +suppose--will be--" + +"You, Margaret; you--YOU!" + +It had come at last and Margaret hardly knew the choked voice that interrupted +her. She had turned her back to him to sit down. She paused a moment, +standing. Her eyes closed; a slight tremor ran through her, and she sank with +her face in her hands. Chad stood silent, trembling. Voices murmured about +them, but like the music in the house, they seemed strangely far away. The +stirring of the wind made the sudden damp on his forehead icy-cold. Margaret's +hands slowly left her face, which had changed as by a miracle. Every trace of +coquetry was gone. It was the face of a woman who knew her own heart, and had +the sweet frankness to speak it, that was lifted now to Chad. + +"I'm so glad you are what you are, Chad; but had you been otherwise--that +would have made no difference to me. You believe that, don't you, Chad? They +might not have let me marry you, but I should have cared, just the same. They +may not now, but that, too, will make no difference." She turned her eyes from +his for an instant, as though she were looking far backward. "Ever since that +day," she said, slowly, "when I heard you say, 'Tell the little gurl I didn't +mean nothin' callin' her a little gal'"--there was a low, delicious gurgle in +the throat as she tried to imitate his odd speech, and then her eyes suddenly +filled with tears, but she brushed them away, smiling brightly. "Ever since +then, Chad--" she stopped--a shadow fell across the door of the little summer +house. + +"Here I am, Mr. Hunt," she said, lightly; "is this your dance?" She rose and +was gone. "Thank you, Mr. Buford," she called back, sweetly. + +For a moment Chad stood where he was, quite dazed--so quickly, so unexpectedly +had the crisis come. The blood had rushed to his face and flooded him with +triumphant happiness. A terrible doubt chilled him as quickly. Had he heard +aright?--could he have misunderstood her? Had the dream of years really come +true? What was it she had said? He stumbled around in the half darkness, +wondering. Was this another phase of her unceasing coquetry? How quickly her +tone had changed when Richard Hunt's shadow came. At that moment, he neither +could nor would have changed a hair had some genie dropped them both in the +midst of the crowded ball-room. He turned swiftly toward the dancers. He must +see, know--now! + +The dance was a quadrille and the figure was "Grand right and left." Margaret +had met Richard Hunt opposite, half-way, when Chad reached the door and was +curtseying to him with a radiant smile. Again the boy's doubts beat him +fiercely; and then Margaret turned her head, as though she knew he must be +standing there. Her face grew so suddenly serious and her eyes softened with +such swift tenderness when they met his, that a wave of guilty shame swept +through him. And when she came around to him and passed, she leaned from the +circle toward him, merry and mock-reproachful: + +"You mustn't look at me like that," she whispered, and Hunt, close at hand, +saw, guessed and smiled. Chad turned quickly away again. + +That happy dawn--going home! The Major drowsed and fell asleep. The first +coming light, the first cool breath that was stealing over the awakening +fields, the first spring leaves with their weight of dew, were not more fresh +and pure than the love that was in the boy's heart. He held his right hand in +his left, as though he were imprisoning there the memory of the last little +clasp that she had given it. He looked at the Major, and he wondered how +anybody on earth, at that hour, could be asleep. He thought of the wasted days +of the past few months; the silly, foolish life he had led, and thanked God +that, in the memory of them, there was not one sting of shame. How he would +work for her now! Little guessing how proud she already was, he swore to +himself how proud she should be of him some day. He wondered where she was, +and what she was doing. She could not be asleep, and he must have cried aloud +could he have known--could he have heard her on her knees at her bedside, +whispering his name for the first time in her prayers; could he have seen her, +a little later, at her open window, looking across the fields, as though her +eyes must reach him through the morning dusk. + +That happy dawn--for both, that happy dawn! + +It was well that neither, at that hour, could see beyond the rim of his own +little world. In a far Southern city another ball, that night, had been going +on. Down there the air was charged with the prescience of dark trouble, but, +while the music moaned to many a heart like a god in pain, there was no +brooding--only a deeper flush to the cheek, a brighter sparkle to the eye, a +keener wit to the tongue; to the dance, a merrier swing. And at that very hour +of dawn, ladies, slippered, bare of head, and in evening gowns, were +fluttering like white moths along the streets of old Charleston, and down to +the Battery, where Fort Sumter lay, gray and quiet in the morning mist--to +await with jest and laughter the hissing shriek of one shell that lighted the +fires of a four years' hell in a happy land of God-fearing peace and God-given +plenty, and the hissing shriek of another that Anderson, Kentuckian, hurled +back, in heroic defence of the flag struck for the first time by other than an +alien hand. + + + +CHAPTER 19. THE BLUE OR THE GRAY + +In the far North, as in the far South, men had but to drift with the tide. +Among the Kentuckians, the forces that moulded her sons--Davis and +Lincoln--were at war in the State, as they were at war in the nation. By ties +of blood, sympathies, institutions, Kentucky was bound fast to the South. Yet, +ten years before, Kentuckians had demanded the gradual emancipation of the +slave. That far back, they had carved a pledge on a block of Kentucky marble, +which should be placed in the Washington monument, that Kentucky would be the +last to give up the Union. For ten years, they had felt the shadow of the war +creeping toward them. In the dark hours of that dismal year, before the dawn +of final decision, the men, women, and children of Kentucky talked of little +else save war, and the skeleton of war took its place in the closet of every +home from the Ohio to the crest of the Cumberland. When the dawn of that +decision came, Kentucky spread before the world a record of +independent-mindedness, patriotism, as each side gave the word, and sacrifice +that has no parallel in history. She sent the flower of her youth--forty +thousand strong--into the Confederacy; she lifted the lid of her treasury to +Lincoln, and in answer to his every call, sent him a soldier, practically +without a bounty and without a draft. And when the curtain fell on the last +act of the great tragedy, half of her manhood was behind it--helpless from +disease, wounded, or dead on the battle-field. + +So, on a gentle April day, when the great news came, it came like a sword +that, with one stroke, slashed the State in twain, shearing through the +strongest bonds that link one man to another, whether of blood, business, +politics or religion, as though they were no more than threads of wool. +Nowhere in the Union was the National drama so played to the bitter end in the +confines of a single State. As the nation was rent apart, so was the +commonwealth; as the State, so was the county; as the county, the +neighborhood; as the neighborhood, the family; and as the family, so brother +and brother, father and son. In the nation the kinship was racial only. +Brother knew not the face of brother. There was distance between them, +antagonism, prejudice, a smouldering dislike easily fanned to flaming hatred. +In Kentucky the brothers had been born in the same bed, slept in the same +cradle, played under the same roof, sat side by side in the same schoolroom, +and stood now on the threshold of manhood arm in arm, with mutual interests, +mutual love, mutual pride in family that made clan feeling peculiarly intense. +For antislavery fanaticism, or honest unionism, one needed not to go to the +far North; as, for imperious, hotheaded, non-interference or pure State +sovereignty, one needed not to go to the far South. They were all there in the +State, the county, the family--under the same roof. Along the border alone did +feeling approach uniformity--the border of Kentucky hills. There unionism was +free from prejudice as nowhere else on the continent save elsewhere throughout +the Southern mountains. Those Southern Yankees knew nothing about the valley +aristocrat, nothing about his slaves, and cared as little for one as for the +other. Since '76 they had known but one flag, and one flag only, and to that +flag instinctively they rallied. But that the State should be swept from +border to border with horror, there was division even here: for, in the +Kentucky mountains, there was, here and there, a patriarch like Joel Turner +who owned slaves, and he and his sons fought for them as he and his sons would +have fought for their horses, or their cattle, or their sheep. + +It was the prescient horror of such a condition that had no little part in the +neutral stand that Kentucky strove to maintain. She knew what war was--for +every fireside was rich in memories that men and women had of kindred who had +fallen on numberless battle-fields--back even to St. Clair's defeat and the +Raisin massacre; and though she did not fear war for its harvest of dangers +and death, she did look with terror on a conflict between neighbors, friends, +and brothers. So she refused troops to Lincoln; she refused them to Davis. +Both pledged her immunity from invasion, and, to enforce that pledge, she +raised Home Guards as she had already raised State Guards for internal +protection and peace. And there--as a State--she stood: but the tragedy went +on in the Kentucky home--a tragedy of peculiar intensity and pathos in one +Kentucky home--the Deans'. + +Harry had grown up tall, pale, studious, brooding. He had always been the pet +of his Uncle Brutus--the old Lion of White Hall. Visiting the Hall, he had +drunk in the poison, or consecration, as was the point of view, of +abolitionism. At the first sign he was never allowed to go again. But the +poison had gone deep. Whenever he could he went to hear old Brutus speak. +Eagerly he heard stories of the fearless abolitionist's hand-to-hand fights +with men who sought to skewer his fiery tongue. Deeply he brooded on every +word that his retentive ear had caught from the old man's lips, and on the +wrongs he endured in behalf of his cause and for freedom of speech. + +One other hero did he place above him--the great commoner after whom he had +been christened, Henry Clay Dean. He knew how Clay's life had been devoted to +averting the coming war, and how his last days had been darkly shadowed by the +belief that, when he was gone, the war must come. At times he could hear that +clarion voice as it rang through the Senate with the bold challenge to his own +people that paramount was his duty to the nation--subordinate his duty to his +State. Who can tell what the nation owed, in Kentucky, at least, to the +passionate allegiance that was broadcast through the State to Henry Clay? It +was not in the boy's blood to be driven an inch, and no one tried to drive +him. In his own home he was a spectre of gnawing anguish to his mother and +Margaret, of unspeakable bitterness and disappointment to his father, and an +impenetrable sphinx to Dan. For in Dan there was no shaking doubt. He was the +spirit, incarnate, of the young, unquestioning, unthinking, generous, +reckless, hotheaded, passionate South. + +And Chad? The news reached Major Buford's farm at noon, and Chad went to the +woods and came in at dusk, haggard and spent. Miserably now he held his tongue +and tortured his brain. Purposely, he never opened his lips to Harry Dean. He +tried to make known to the Major the struggle going on within him, but the +iron-willed old man brushed away all argument with an impatient wave of his +hand. With Margaret he talked once, and straightway the question was dropped +like a living coal. So, Chad withdrew from his fellows. The social life of the +town, gayer than ever now, knew him no more. He kept up his college work, but +when he was not at his books, he walked the fields, and many a moonlit +midnight found him striding along a white turnpike, or sitting motionless on +top of a fence along the border of some woodland, his chin in both hands, +fighting his fight out in the cool stillness alone. He himself little knew the +unmeant significance there was in the old Continental uniform he had worn to +the dance. Even his old rifle, had he but known it, had been carried with +Daniel Morgan from Virginia to Washington's aid in Cambridge. His earliest +memories of war were rooted in thrilling stories of King's Mountain. He had +heard old men tell of pointing deadly rifles at red-coats at New Orleans, and +had absorbed their own love of Old Hickory. The school-master himself, when a +mere lad, had been with Scott in Mexico. The spirit of the back-woodsman had +been caught in the hills, and was alive and unchanged at that very hour. The +boy was practically born in Revolutionary days, and that was why, like all +mountaineers, Chad had little love of State and only love of country--was +first, last and all the time, simply American. It was not reason--it was +instinct. The heroes the school-master had taught him to love and some day to +emulate, had fought under one flag, and, like them, the mountaineers never +dreamed there could be another. And so the boy was an unconscious +reincarnation of that old spirit, uninfluenced by temporary apostasies in the +outside world, untouched absolutely by sectional prejudice or the appeal of +the slave. The mountaineer had no hatred of the valley aristocrat, because he +knew nothing of him, and envied no man what he was, what he had, or the life +he led. So, as for slavery, that question, singularly enough, never troubled +his soul. To him slaves were hewers of wood and drawers of water. The Lord had +made them so and the Bible said that it was right. That the school-master had +taught Chad. He had read "Uncle Tom's Cabin," and the story made him smile. +The tragedies of it he had never known and he did not believe. Slaves were +sleek, well-fed, well-housed, loved and trusted, rightly inferior and happy; +and no aristocrat ever moved among them with a more lordly, righteous air of +authority than did this mountain lad who had known them little more than half +a dozen years. Unlike the North, the boy had no prejudice, no antagonism, no +jealousy, no grievance to help him in his struggle. Unlike Harry, he had no +slave sympathy to stir him to the depths, no stubborn, rebellious pride to +prod him on. In the days when the school-master thundered at him some speech +of the Prince of Kentuckians, it was always the national thrill in the fiery +utterance that had shaken him even then. So that unconsciously the boy was the +embodiment of pure Americanism, and for that reason he and the people among +whom he was born stood among the millions on either side, quite alone. + +What was he fighting then--ah, what? If the bed-rock of his character was not +loyalty, it was nothing. In the mountains the Turners had taken him from the +Wilderness. In the Bluegrass the old Major had taken him from the hills. His +very life he owed to the simple, kindly mountaineers, and what he valued more +than his life he owed to the simple gentleman who had picked him up from the +roadside and, almost without question, had taken him to his heart and to his +home. The Turners, he knew, would fight for their slaves as they would have +fought Dillon or Devil had either proposed to take from them a cow, a hog, or +a sheep. For that Chad could not blame them. And the Major was going to fight, +as he believed, for his liberty, his State, his country, his property, his +fireside. So in the eyes of both, Chad must be the snake who had warmed his +frozen body on their hearthstones and bitten the kindly hands that had warmed +him back to life. What would Melissa say? Mentally he shrank from the fire of +her eyes and the scorn of her tongue when she should know. And Margaret--the +thought of her brought always a voiceless groan. To her, he had let his doubts +be known, and her white silence closed his own lips then and there. The simple +fact that he had doubts was an entering wedge of coldness between them that +Chad saw must force them apart for he knew that the truth must come soon, and +what would be the bitter cost of that truth. She could never see him as she +saw Harry. Harry was a beloved and erring brother. Hatred of slavery had been +cunningly planted in his heart by her father's own brother, upon whose head +the blame for Harry's sin was set. The boy had been taunted until his own +father's scorn had stirred his proud independence into stubborn resistance and +intensified his resolution to do what he pleased and what he thought was +right. But Chad--she would never understand him. She would never understand +his love for the Government that had once abandoned her people to savages and +forced her State and his to seek aid from a foreign land. In her eyes, too, he +would be rending the hearts that had been tenderest to him in all the world: +and that was all. Of what fate she would deal out to him he dared not think. +If he lifted his hand against the South, he must strike at the heart of all he +loved best, to which he owed most. If against the Union, at the heart of all +that was best in himself. In him the pure spirit that gave birth to the nation +was fighting for life. Ah, God! what should he do--what should he do? + + + +CHAPTER 20. OFF TO THE WAR + +Throughout that summer Chad fought his fight, daily swaying this way and +that-- fought it in secret until the phantom of neutrality faded and gave +place to the grim spectre of war--until with each hand Kentucky drew a sword +and made ready to plunge both into her own stout heart. When Sumter fell, she +shook her head resolutely to both North and South. Crittenden, in the name of +Union lovers and the dead Clay, pleaded with the State to take no part in the +fratricidal crime. From the mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of +thirty-one counties came piteously the same appeal. Neutrality, to be held +inviolate, was the answer to the cry from both the North and the South; but +armed neutrality, said Kentucky. The State had not the moral right to secede; +the Nation, no constitutional right to coerce: if both the North and the South +left their paths of duty and fought--let both keep their battles from her +soil. Straightway State Guards went into camp and Home Guards were held in +reserve, but there was not a fool in the Commonwealth who did not know that, +in sympathy, the State Guards were already for the Confederacy and the Home +Guards for the Union cause. This was in May. + +In June, Federals were enlisting across the Ohio; Confederates, just over the +border of Dixie which begins in Tennessee. Within a month Stonewall Jackson +sat on his horse, after Bull Run, watching the routed Yankees, praying for +fresh men that he might go on and take the Capitol, and, from the Federal +dream of a sixty-days' riot, the North woke with a gasp. A week or two later, +Camp Dick Robinson squatted down on the edge of the Bluegrass, the first +violation of the State's neutrality, and beckoned with both hands for Yankee +recruits. Soon an order went round to disarm the State Guards, and on that +very day the State Guards made ready for Dixie. On that day the crisis came at +the Deans', and on that day Chad Buford made up his mind. When the Major and +Miss Lucy went to bed that night, he slipped out of the house and walked +through the yard and across the pike, following the little creek half +unconsciously toward the Deans', until he could see the light in Margaret's +window, and there he climbed the worm fence and sat leaning his head against +one of the forked stakes with his hat in his lap. He would probably not see +her again. He would send her word next morning to ask that he might, and he +feared what the result of that word would be. Several times his longing eyes +saw her shadow pass the curtain, and when her light was out, he closed his +eyes and sat motionless--how long he hardly knew; but, when he sprang down, he +was stiffened from the midnight chill and his unchanged posture. He went back +to his room then, and wrote Margaret a letter and tore it up and went to bed. +There was little sleep for him that night, and when the glimmer of morning +brightened at his window, he rose listlessly, dipped his hot head in a bowl of +water and stole out to the barn. His little mare whinnied a welcome as he +opened the barn door. He patted her on the neck. + +"Good-by, little girl," he said. He started to call her by name and stopped. +Margaret had named the beautiful creature "Dixie." The servants were stirring. + +"Good-mawnin', Mars Chad," said each, and with each he shook hands, saying +simply that he was going away that morning. Only old Tom asked him a question. + +"Foh Gawd, Mars Chad," said the old fellow, "old Mars Buford can't git along +widout you. You gwine to come back soon?" + +"I don't know, Uncle Tom," said Chad, sadly. + +"Whar you gwine, Mars Chad?" + +"Into the army." + +"De ahmy?" The old man smiled. "You gwine to fight de Yankees?" + +"I'm going to fight WITH the Yankees." + +The old driver looked as though he could not have heard aright. + +"You foolin' this ole nigger, Mars Chad, ain't you?" + +Chad shook his head, and the old man straightened himself a bit. + +"I'se sorry to heah it, suh," he said, with dignity, and he turned to his +work. + +Miss Lucy was not feeling well that morning and did not come down to +breakfast. The boy was so pale and haggard that the Major looked at him +anxiously. + +"What's the matter with you, Chad? Are you--?" + +"I didn't sleep very well last night, Major." + +The Major chuckled. "I reckon you ain't gettin' enough sleep these days. I +reckon I wouldn't, either, if I were in your place." + +Chad did not answer. After breakfast he sat with the Major on the porch in the +fresh, sunny air. The Major smoked his pipe, taking the stem out of his mouth +now and then to shout some order as a servant passed under his eye. + +"What's the news, Chad?" + +"Mr. Crittenden is back." + +"What did old Lincoln say?" + +"That Camp Dick Robinson was formed for Kentuckians by Kentuckians, and he did +not believe that it was the wish of the State that it should be removed." + +"Well, by --! after his promise. What did Davis say?" + +"That if Kentucky opened the Northern door for invasion, she must not close +the Southern door to entrance for defence." + +"And dead right he is," growled the Major with satisfaction. + +"Governor Magoffin asked Ohio and Indiana to join in an effort for a peace +Congress," Chad added. + +"Well?" + +"Both governors refused." + +"I tell you, boy, the hour has come." + +The hour had come. + +"I'm going away this morning, Major." + +The Major did not even turn his head. + +"I thought this was coming," he said quietly. Chad's face grew even paler, and +he steeled his heart for the revelation. + +"I've already spoken to Lieutenant Hunt," the Major went on. "He expects to be +a captain, and he says that, maybe, he can make you a lieutenant. You can take +that boy Brutus as a body servant." He brought his fist down on the railing of +the porch. "God, but I'd give the rest of my life to be ten years younger than +I am now." + +"Major, I'm GOING INTO THE UNION ARMY." + +The Major's pipe almost dropped from between his lips. Catching the arms of +his chair with both hands, he turned heavily and with dazed wonder, as though +the boy had struck him with his fist from behind, and, without a word, stared +hard into Chad's tortured face. The keen old eye had not long to look before +it saw the truth, and then, silently, the old man turned back. His hands +trembled on the chair, and he slowly thrust them into his pockets, breathing +hard through his nose. The boy expected an outbreak, but none came. A bee +buzzed above them. A yellow butterfly zigzagged by. Blackbirds chattered in +the firs. The screech of a peacock shrilled across the yard, and a ploughman's +singing wailed across the fields: + +Trouble, O Lawd! + Nothin' but trouble in de lan' of Canaan. + +The boy knew he had given his old friend a mortal hurt. + +"Don't, Major," he pleaded. "You don't know how I have fought against this. I +tried to be on your side. I thought I was. I joined the Rifles. I found first +that I couldn't fight WITH the South, and--then--I--found that I had to fight +FOR the North. It almost kills me when I think of all you have done " + +The Major waved his hand imperiously. He was not the man to hear his favors +recounted, much less refer to them himself. He straightened and got up from +his chair. His manner had grown formal, stately, coldly courteous. + +"I cannot understand, but you are old enough, sir, to know your own mind. You +should have prepared me for this. You will excuse me a moment." Chad rose and +the Major walked toward the door, his step not very steady, and his shoulders +a bit shrunken--his back, somehow, looked suddenly old. + +"Brutus!" he called sharply to a black boy who was training rosebushes in the +yard. "Saddle Mr. Chad's horse." Then, without looking again at Chad, he +turned into his office, and Chad, standing where he was, with a breaking +heart, could hear, through the open window, the rustling of papers and the +scratching of a pen. + +In a few minutes he heard the Major rise and he turned to meet him. The old +man held a roll of bills in one hand and a paper in the other. + +"Here is the balance due you on our last trade," he said, quietly. "The mare +is yours--Dixie," he added, grimly. "The old mare is in foal. I will keep her +and send you your due when the time comes. We are quite even," he went on in a +level tone of business. "Indeed, what you have done about the place more than +exceeds any expense that you have ever caused me. If anything, I am still in +your debt." + +"I can't take it!" said Chad, choking back a sob. + +"You will have to take it," the Major broke in, curtly, unless--" the Major +held back the bitter speech that was on his lips and Chad understood. The old +man did not want to feel under any obligations to him. + +"I would offer you Brutus, as was my intention, except that I know you would +not take him," again he added, grimly, "and Brutus would run away from you." + +"No, Major," said Chad, sadly, "I would not take Brutus," and he stepped down +one step of the porch backward. + +"I tried to tell you, Major, but you wouldn't listen. I don't wonder, for I +couldn't explain to you what I couldn't understand myself. I--" the boy choked +and tears filled his eyes. He was afraid to hold out his hand. + +"Good-by, Major," he said, brokenly. + +"Good-by, sir," answered the Major, with a stiff bow, but the old man's lip +shook and he turned abruptly within. + +Chad did not trust himself to look back, but, as he rode through the pasture +to the pike gate, his ears heard, never to forget, the chatter of the +blackbirds, the noises around the barn, the cry of the peacock, and the +wailing of the ploughman: + +Trouble, O Lawd! + Nothin' but trouble-- + +At the gate the little mare turned her head toward town and started away in +the easy swinging lope for which she was famous. From a cornfield Jerome +Conners, the overseer, watched horse and rider for a while, and then his lips +were lifted over his protruding teeth in one of his ghastly, infrequent +smiles. Chad Buford was out of his way at last. At the Deans' gate, Snowball +was just going in on Margaret's pony and Chad pulled up. + +"Where's Mr. Dan, Snowball?--and Mr. Harry?" + +"Mars Dan he gwine to de wah--an' I'se gwine wid him." + +"Is Mr. Harry going, too?" Snowball hesitated. He did not like to gossip about +family matters, but it was a friend of the family who was questioning him. + +"Yessuh! But Mammy say Mars Harry's teched in de haid. He gwine to fight wid +de po' white trash." + +"Is Miss Margaret at home?" + +"Yessuh." + +Chad had his note to Margaret, unsealed. He little felt like seeing her now, +but he had just as well have it all over at once. He took it out and looked it +over once more--irresolute. + +"I'm going away to join the Union army, Margaret. May I come to tell you +good-by? If not, God bless you always. CHAD." + +"Take this to Miss Margaret, Snowball, and bring me an answer here as soon as +you can." + +"Yessuh." + +The black boy was not gone long. Chad saw him go up the steps, and in a few +moments he reappeared and galloped back. + +"Ole Mistis say dey ain't no answer." + +"Thank you, Snowball." Chad pitched him a coin and loped on toward Lexington +with his head bent, his hands folded on the pommel, and the reins flapping +loosely. Within one mile of Lexington he turned into a cross-road and set his +face toward the mountains. + +An hour later, the General and Harry and Dan stood on the big portico. Inside, +the mother and Margaret were weeping in each other's arms. Two negro boys were +each leading a saddled horse from the stable, while Snowball was blubbering at +the corner of the house. At the last moment Dan had decided to leave him +behind. If Harry could have no servant, Dan, too, would have none. Dan was +crying without shame. Harry's face was as white and stern as his father's. As +the horses drew near the General stretched out the sabre in his hand to Dan. + +"This should belong to you, Harry." + +"It is yours to give, father," said Harry, gently. + +"It shall never be drawn against my roof and your mother." + +The boy was silent. + +"You are going far North?" asked the General, more gently. "You will not fight +on Kentucky soil?" + +"You taught me that the first duty of a soldier is obedience. I must go where +I'm ordered." + +"God grant that you two may never meet." + +"Father!" It was a cry of horror from both the lads. + +The horses were waiting at the stiles. The General took Dan in his arms and +the boy broke away and ran down the steps, weeping. + +"Father," said Harry, with trembling lips, "I hope you won't be too hard on +me. Perhaps the day will come when you won't be so ashamed of me. I hope you +and mother will forgive me. I can't do otherwise than I must. Will you shake +hands with me, father?" + +"Yes, my son. God be with you both." + +And then, as he watched the boys ride side by side to the gate, he added: + +"I could kill my own brother with my own hand for this." + +He saw them stop a moment at the gate; saw them clasp hands and turn opposite +ways--one with his face set for Tennessee, the other making for the Ohio. Dan +waved his cap in a last sad good-by. Harry rode over the hill without turning +his head. The General stood rigid, with his hands clasped behind his back, +staring across the gray fields between them. Through the winds, came the low +sound of sobbing. + + + +CHAPTER 21. MELISSA + +Shortly after dusk, that night, two or three wagons moved quietly out of +Lexington, under a little guard with guns loaded and bayonets fixed. Back at +the old Armory--the home of the "Rifles"--a dozen youngsters drilled +vigorously with faces in a broad grin, as they swept under the motto of the +company--"Our laws the commands of our Captain." They were following out those +commands most literally. Never did Lieutenant Hunt give his orders more +sonorously--he could be heard for blocks away. Never did young soldiers stamp +out maneuvers more lustily--they made more noise than a regiment. Not a man +carried a gun, though ringing orders to "Carry arms" and "Present arms" made +the windows rattle. It was John Morgan's first ruse. While that mock-drill was +going on, and listening Unionists outside were laughing to think how those +Rifles were going to be fooled next day, the guns of the company were moving +in those wagons toward Dixie--toward mocking-bird-haunted Bowling Green, where +the underfed, unclothed, unarmed body of Albert Sydney Johnston's army lay, +with one half-feathered wing stretching into the Cumberland hills and the +frayed edge of the other touching the Ohio. + +Next morning, the Home Guards came gayly around to the Armory to seize those +guns, and the wily youngsters left temporarily behind (they, too, fled for +Dixie, that night) gibed them unmercifully; so that, then and there, a little +interchange of powder-and-ball civilities followed; and thus, on the very +first day, Daniel Dean smelled the one and heard the other whistle right +harmlessly and merrily. Straightway, more guards were called out; cannon were +planted to sweep the principal streets, and from that hour the old town was +under the rule of a Northern or Southern sword for the four years' reign of +the war. + +Meanwhile, Chad Buford was giving a strange journey to Dixie. Whenever he +dismounted, she would turn her head toward the Bluegrass, as though it surely +were time they were starting for home. When they reached the end of the +turnpike, she lifted her feet daintily along the muddy road, and leaped pools +of water like a cat. Climbing the first foot-hills, she turned her beautiful +head to right and left, and with pointed ears snorted now and then at the +strange dark woods on either side and the tumbling water-falls. The red of her +wide nostrils was showing when she reached the top of the first mountain, and +from that high point of vantage she turned her wondering eyes over the wide +rolling stretch that waved homeward, and whinnied with distinct uneasiness +when Chad started her down into the wilderness beyond. Distinctly that road +was no path for a lady to tread, but Dixie was to know it better in the coming +war. + +Within ten miles of the Turners', Chad met the first man that he knew--Hence +Sturgill from Kingdom Come. He was driving a wagon. + +"Howdye, Hence!" said Chad, reining in. + +"Whoa!" said Hence, pulling in and staring at Chad's horse and at Chad from +hat to spur. + +"Don't you know me, Hence?" + +"Well, God--I--may--die, if it ain't Chad! How air ye, Chad? Goin' up to ole +Joel's?" + +"Yes. How are things on Kingdom Come?" + +Hence spat on the ground and raised one hand high over his head: + +"God--I--may--die, if thar hain't hell to pay on Kingdom Come. You better keep +offo' Kingdom Come," and then he stopped with an expression of quick alarm, +looked around him into the bushes and dropped his voice to a whisper: + +"But I hain't sayin' a word--rickollect now--not a word!" + +Chad laughed aloud. "What's the matter with you, Hence?" + +Hence put one finger on one side of his nose--still speaking in a low tone: + +"Whut'd I say, Chad? D'I say one word?" He gathered up his reins. "You +rickollect Jake and Jerry Dillon?" Chad nodded. "You know Jerry was al'ays +a-runnin' over Jake 'cause Jake' didn't have good sense. Jake was drapped when +he was a baby. Well, Jerry struck Jake over the head with a fence-rail 'bout +two months ago, an when Jake come to, he had just as good sense as anybody, +and now he hates Jerry like pizen, an Jerry's half afeard of him. An' they do +say a how them two brothers air a-goin'" Again Hence stopped abruptly and +clucked to his team "But I ain't a-sayin' a word, now, mind ye--not a word!" + +Chad rode on, amused, and thinking that Hence had gone daft, but he was to +learn better. A reign of forty years' terror was starting in those hills. + +Not a soul was in sight when he reached the top of the hill from which he +could see the Turner home below--about the house or the orchard or in the +fields. No one answered his halloo at the Turner gate, though Chad was sure +that he saw a woman's figure flit past the door. It was a full minute before +Mother Turner cautiously thrust her head outside the door and peered at him + +"Why, Aunt Betsey," called Chad, "don't you know me?" + +At the sound of his voice Melissa sprang out the door with a welcoming cry, +and ran to him, Mother Turner following with a broad smile on her kind old +face. Chad felt the tears almost come--these were friends indeed. How tall +Melissa had grown, and how lovely she was, with her tangled hair and flashing +eyes and delicately modelled face. She went with him to the stable to help him +put up his horse, blushing when he looked at her and talking very little, +while the old mother, from the fence, followed him with her dim eyes. At once +Chad began to ply both with questions--where was Uncle Joel and the boys and +the school-master? And, straightway, Chad felt a reticence in both--a curious +reticence even with him. On each side of the fireplace, on each side of the +door, and on each side of the window, he saw narrow blocks fixed to the logs. +One was turned horizontal, and through the hole under it Chad saw +daylight--portholes they were. At the door were taken blocks as catches for a +piece of upright wood nearby, which was plainly used to bar the door. The +cabin was a fortress. By degrees the story came out. The neighborhood was in a +turmoil of bloodshed and terror. Tom and Dolph had gone off to the +war--Rebels. Old Joel had been called to the door one night, a few weeks +since, and had been shot down without warning. They had fought all night. +Melissa herself had handled a rifle at one of the portholes. Rube was out in +the woods now, with Jack guarding and taking care of his wounded father. A +Home Guard had been organized, and Daws Dillon was captain. They were driving +out of the mountains every man who owned a negro, for nearly every man who +owned a negro had taken, or was forced to take, the Rebel side. The Dillons +were all Yankees, except Jerry, who had gone off with Tom; and the giant +brothers, Rebel Jerry and Yankee Jake--as both were already known--had sworn +to kill each other on sight. Bushwhacking had already begun. When Chad asked +about the school-master, the old woman's face grew stern, and Melissa's lip +curled with scorn. + +"Yankee!" The girl spat the word out with such vindictive bitterness that +Chad's face turned slowly scarlet, while the girl's keen eyes pierced him like +a knife, and narrowed as, with pale face and heaving breast, she rose suddenly +from her chair and faced him--amazed, bewildered, burning with sudden hatred. +"And you're another!" The girl's voice was like a hiss. + +"Why, 'Lissy!" cried the old mother, startled, horrified. + +"Look at him!" said the girl. The old woman looked; her face grew hard and +frightened, and she rose feebly, moving toward the girl as though for +protection against him. Chad's very heart seemed suddenly to turn to water. He +had been dreading the moment to come when he must tell. He knew it would be +hard, but he was not looking for this. + +"You better git away!" quavered the old woman, "afore Joel and Rube come in." + +"Hush!" said the girl, sharply, her hands clinched like claws, her whole body +stiff, like a tigress ready to attack, or awaiting attack. + +"Mebbe he come hyeh to find out whar they air--don't tell him!" + +"Lissy!" said Chad, brokenly. + +"Then whut did you come fer?" + +"To tell you good-by, I came to see all of you, Lissy." + +The girl laughed scornfully, and Chad knew he was helpless. He could not +explain, and they could not understand--nobody had understood. + +"Aunt Betsey," he said, "you took Jack and me in, and you took care of me just +as though I had been your own child. You know I'd give my life for you or +Uncle Joel, or any one of the boys"--his voice grew a little stern--"and you +know it, too, Lissy--" + +"You're makin' things wuss," interrupted the girl, stridently, "an' now you're +goin' to do all you can to kill us. I reckon you can see that door. Why don't +you go over to the Dillons?" she panted. "They're friends o' your'n. An' don't +let Uncle Joel or Rube ketch you anywhar round hyeh!" + +"I'm not afraid to see Uncle Joel or Rube, Lissy." + +"You must git away, Chad," quavered the old woman. "They mought hurt ye!" + +"I'm sorry not to see Jack. He's the only friend I have now." + +"Why, Jack would snarl at ye," said the girl, bitterly. "He hates a Yankee." +She pointed again with her finger. "I reckon you can see that door." + +They followed him, Melissa going on the porch and the old woman standing in +the doorway. On one side of the walk Chad saw a rose-bush that he had brought +from the Bluegrass for Melissa. It was dying. He took one step toward it, his +foot sinking in the soft earth where the girl had evidently been working +around it, and broke off the one green leaf that was left. + +"Here, Lissy! You'll be sorry you were so hard on me. I'd never get over it if +I didn't think you would. Keep this, won't you, and let's be friends, not enemies." + +He held it out, and the girl angrily struck the rose-leaf from his hand to her +feet. + +Chad rode away at a walk. Two hundred yards below, where the hill rose, the +road was hock-deep with sand, and Dixie's feet were as noiseless as a cat's. A +few yards beyond a ravine on the right, a stone rolled from the bushes into +the road. Instinctively Chad drew rein, and Dixie stood motionless. A moment +later, a crouching figure, with a long squirrel rifle, slipped out of the +bushes and started noiselessly across the ravine. Chad's pistol flashed. + +"Stop!" + +The figure crouched more, and turned a terror-stricken face--Daws Dillon's. + +"Oh, it's you, is it--Well, drop that gun and come down here." + +The Dillon boy rose, leaving his gun on the ground, and came down, trembling. + +"What're you doin' sneaking around in the brush?" + +"Nothin'!" The Dillon had to make two efforts before he could speak at all. +"Nothin', jes' a-huntin'!" + +"Huntin'!" repeated Chad. He lowered his pistol and looked at the sorry figure +silently. + +"I know what you were huntin', you rattlesnake! I understand you are captain +of the Home Guard. I reckon you don't know that nobody has to go into this +war. That a man has the right to stay peaceably at home, and nobody has the +right to bother him. If you don't know it, I tell you now. I believe you had +something to do with shooting Uncle Joel." + +The Dillon shook his head, and fumbled with his hands. + +"If I knew it, I'd kill you where you stand, now. But I've got one word to say +to you, you hell-pup. I hate to think it, but you and I are on the same +side--that is, if you have any side. But in spite of that, if I hear of any +harm happening to Aunt Betsey, or Melissa, or Uncle Joel, or Rube, while they +are all peaceably at home, I'm goin' to hold you and Tad responsible, whether +you are or not, and I'll kill you"--he raised one hand to make the Almighty a +witness to his oath --"I'll kill you, if I have to follow you both to hell for +doin' it. Now, you take keer of 'em! Turn 'round!" + +The Dillon hesitated. + +"Turn!" Chad cried, savagely, raising his pistol. "Go back to that gun, an' if +you turn your head I'll shoot you where you're sneakin' aroun' to shoot Rube +or Uncle Joel--in the back, you cowardly feist. Pick up that gun! Now, let her +off! See if you can hit that beech-tree in front of you. Just imagine that +it's me." + +The rifle cracked and Chad laughed. + +"Well, you ain't much of a shot. I reckon you must have chills and fever. Now, +come back here. Give me your powder-horn. You'll find it on top of the hill on +the right-hand side of the road. Now, you trot--home!" + +Then Dillon stared. + +"Double-quick!" shouted Chad. "You ought to know what that means if you are a +soldier--a soldier!" he repeated, contemptuously. + +The Dillon disappeared on a run. + +Chad rode all that night. At dawn he reached the foot-hills, and by noon he +drew up at the road which turned to Camp Dick Robinson. He sat there a long +time thinking, and then pushed on toward Lexington. If he could, he would keep +from fighting on Kentucky soil. + +Next morning he was going at an easy "running-walk" along the old Maysville +road toward the Ohio. Within three miles of Major Buford's, he leaped the +fence and stuck across the fields that he might go around and avoid the risk +of a painful chance meeting with his old friend or any of the Deans. + +What a land of peace and plenty it was--the woodlands, meadows, pasture lands! +Fat cattle raised their noses from the thick grass and looked with mild +inquiry at him. Sheep ran bleating toward him, as though he were come to salt +them. A rabbit leaped from a thorn-bush and whisked his white flag into safety +in a hemp-field. Squirrels barked in the big oaks, and a covey of young quail +fluttered up from a fence corner and sailed bravely away. 'Possum signs were +plentiful, and on the edge of the creek he saw a coon solemnly searching under +a rock with one paw for crawfish Every now and then Dixie would turn her head +impatiently to the left, for she knew where home was. The Deans' house was +just over the hill he would have but the ride to the top to see it and, +perhaps, Margaret. There was no need. As he sat, looking up the hill, Margaret +herself rode slowly over it, and down, through the sunlight slanting athwart +the dreaming woods, straight toward him. Chad sat still. Above him the road +curved, and she could not see him until she turned the little thicket just +before him. Her pony was more startled than was she. A little leap of color to +her face alone showed her surprise. + +"Did you get my note?" + +"I did. You got my mother's message?" + +"I did." Chad paused. "That is why I am passing around you." + +The girl said nothing. + +"But I'm glad I came so near. I wanted to see you once more. I wish I could +make you understand. But nobody understands. I hardly understand myself. But +please try to believe that what I say is true. I'm just back from the +mountains, and listen, Margaret--" He halted a moment to steady his voice. +"The Turners down there took me in when I was a ragged outcast. They clothed +me, fed me, educated me. The Major took me when I was little more; and he fed +me, clothed me, educated me. The Turners scorned me--Melissa told me to go +herd with the Dillons. The Major all but turned me from his door. Your father +was bitter toward me, thinking that I had helped turn Harry to the Union +cause. But let me tell you! If the Turners died, believing me a traitor; if +Lissy died with a curse on her lips for me; if the Major died without, as he +believed, ever having polluted his lips again with my name; if Harry were +brought back here dead, and your father died, believing that his blood was on +my hands; and if I lost you and your love, and you died, believing the same +thing--I must still go. Oh, Margaret, I can't understand--I have ceased to +reason. I only know I must go!" + +The girl in the mountains had let her rage and scorn loose like a storm, but +the gentlewoman only grew more calm. Every vestige of color left her, but her +eyes never for a moment wavered from his face. Her voice was quiet and even +and passionless. + +"Then, why don't you go?" + +The lash of an overseer's whip across his face could not have made his soul so +bleed. Even then he did not lose himself. + +"I am in your way," he said, quietly. And backing Dixie from the road, and +without bending his head or lowering his eyes, he waited, hat in hand, for +Margaret to pass. + +All that day Chad rode, and, next morning, Dixie climbed the Union bank of the +Ohio and trotted into the recruiting camp of the Fourth Ohio Cavalry. The +first man Chad saw was Harry Dean--grave, sombre, taciturn, though he smiled +and thrust out his hand eagerly. Chad's eyes dropped to the sergeant's stripes +on Harry's sleeves, and again Harry smiled. + +"You'll have 'em yourself in a week. These fellows ride like a lot of +meal-bags over here. Here's my captain," he added, in a lower voice. + +A pompous officer rode slowly up. He pulled in his horse when he saw Chad. + +"You want to join the army?" + +"Yes," said Chad. + +"All right. That's a fine horse you've got." + +Chad said nothing. + +"What's his name?" + +"HER name is Dixie." + +The captain stared. Some soldiers behind laughed in a smothered fashion, +sobering their' faces quickly when the captain turned upon them, furious. + +"Well, change her name!" + +"I'll not change her name," said Chad, quietly. + +"What!" shouted the officer. "How dare you--" Chad's eyes looked ominous. + +"Don't you give any orders to me--not yet. You haven't the right; and when you +have, you can save your breath by not giving that one. This horse comes from +Kentucky, and so do I; her name will stay Dixie as long as I straddle her, and +I propose to straddle her until one of us dies, or,"--he smiled and nodded +across the river--"somebody over there gets her who won't object to her name +as much as you do." + +The astonished captain's lips opened, but a quiet voice behind interrupted +him: + +"Never mind, Captain." Chad turned and saw a short, thick-set man with a +stubbly brown beard, whose eyes were twinkling, though his face was grave. "A +boy who wants to fight for the Union, and insists on calling his horse Dixie, +must be all right. Come with me, my lad." + +As Chad followed, he heard the man saluted as Colonel Grant, but he paid no +heed. Few people at that time did pay heed to the name of Ulysses Grant. + + + +CHAPTER 22. MORGAN'S MEN + +Boots and saddles at daybreak! + +Over the border, in Dixie, two videttes in gray trot briskly from out a leafy +woodland, side by side, and looking with keen eyes right and left; one, erect, +boyish, bronzed; the other, slouching, bearded, huge--the boy, Daniel Dean; +the man, Rebel Jerry Dillon, one of the giant twins. + +Fifty yards behind them emerges a single picket; after him come three more +videttes, the same distance apart. Fifty yards behind the last rides "the +advance"--a guard of twenty-five picked men. No commission among "Morgan's +Men" was more eagerly sought than a place on that guard of hourly risk and +honor. Behind it trot still three more videttes, at intervals of one hundred +yards, and just that interval behind the last of these ride Morgan's Men, the +flower of Kentucky's youth, in columns of fours--Colonel Hunt's regiment in +advance, the colors borne by Renfrew the Silent in a brilliant Zouave jacket +studded with buttons of red coral. In the rear rumble two Parrot guns, +affectionately christened the "Bull Pups." + +Skirting the next woodland ran a cross-road. Down one way gallops Dan, and +down the other lumbers Rebel Jerry, each two hundred yards. A cry rings from +vidette to vidette behind them and back to the guard. Two horsemen spur from +the "advance" and take the places of the last two videttes, while the videttes +in front take and keep the original formation until the column passes that +cross-road, when Dean and Dillon gallop up to their old places in the extreme +front again. Far in front, and on both flanks, are scouting parties, miles +away. + +This was the way Morgan marched. + +Yankees ahead! Not many, to be sure--no more numerous than two or three to +one; so back fall the videttes and forward charges that advance guard like a +thunderbolt, not troubling the column behind. Wild yells, a clattering of +hoofs, the crack of pistol-shots, a wild flight, a merry chase, a few +riderless horses gathered in from the fleeing Yankees, and the incident is +over. + +Ten miles more, and many hostile bayonets gleam ahead. A serious fight, this, +perhaps--so back drops the advance, this time as a reserve; up gallops the +column into single rank and dismounts, while the flank companies, deploying as +skirmishers, cover the whole front, one man out of each set of fours and the +corporals holding the horses in the rear. The "Bull Pups" bark and the Rebel +yell rings as the line--the files two yards apart--"a long flexible line +curving forward at each extremity"--slips forward at a half run. This time the +Yankees charge. + +From every point of that curving line pours a merciless fire, and the charging +men in blue recoil--all but one. (War is full of grim humor.) On comes one +lone Yankee, hatless, red-headed, pulling on his reins with might and main, +his horse beyond control, and not one of the enemy shoot as he sweeps +helplessly into their line. A huge rebel grabs his bridle-rein. + +"I don't know whether to kill you now," he says, with pretended ferocity, "or +wait till the fight is over." + +"For God's sake, don't kill me at all!" shouts the Yankee. "I'm a dissipated +character, and not prepared to die." + +Shots from the right flank and rear, and the line is thrown about like a rope. +But the main body of the Yankees is to the left. + +"Left face! Double-quick!" is the ringing order, and, by magic, the line +concentrates in a solid phalanx and sweeps forward. + +This was the way Morgan fought. + +And thus, marching and fighting, he went his triumphant way into the land of +the enemy, without sabres, without artillery, without even the "Bull Pups," +sometimes--fighting infantry, cavalry, artillery with only muzzle-loading +rifles, pistols, and shotguns; scattering Home Guards like turkeys; destroying +railroads and bridges; taking towns and burning Government stores, and +encompassed, usually, with forces treble his own. + +This was what Morgan did on a raid, was what he had done, what he was starting +out now to do again. + +Darkness threatens, and the column halts to bivouac for the night on the very +spot where, nearly a year before, Morgan's Men first joined Johnston's army, +which, like a great, lean, hungry hawk, guarded the Southern border. + +Daniel Dean was a war-worn veteran now. He could ride twenty hours out of the +twenty-four; he could sleep in his saddle or anywhere but on picket duty, and +there was no trick of the trade in camp, or on the march, that was not at his +finger's end. + +Fire first! Nobody had a match, the leaves were wet and the twigs soggy, but +by some magic a tiny spark glows under some shadowy figure, bites at the +twigs, snaps at the branches, and wraps a log in flames. + +Water next! A tin cup rattles in a bucket, and another shadowy figure steals +off into the darkness, with an instinct as unerring as the skill of a +water-witch with a willow wand. The Yankees chose open fields for camps, but +your rebel took to the woods. Each man and his chum picked a tree for a home, +hung up canteens and spread blankets at the foot of it. Supper--Heavens, what +luck--fresh beef! One man broils it on coals, pinning pieces of fat to it to +make gravy; another roasts it on a forked stick, for Morgan carried no cooking +utensils on a raid. + +Here, one man made up bread in an oilcloth (and every Morgan's man had one +soon after they were issued to the Federals); another worked up corn-meal into +dough in the scooped-out half of a pumpkin; one baked bread on a flat rock, +another on a board, while a third had twisted his dough around his ram-rod; if +it were spring-time, a fourth might be fitting his into a cornshuck to roast +in ashes. All this Dan Dean could do. + +The roaring fire thickens the gloom of the woods where the lonely pickets +stand. Pipes are out now. An oracle outlines the general campaign of the war +as it will be and as it should have been. A long-winded, innocent braggart +tells of his personal prowess that day. A little group is guying the new +recruit. A wag shaves a bearded comrade on one side of his face, pockets his +razor and refuses to shave the other side. A poet, with a bandaged eye, and +hair like a windblown hay-stack, recites "I am dying, Egypt-- dying," and then +a pure, clear, tenor voice starts through the forest-aisles, and there is +sudden silence. Every man knows that voice, and loves the boy who owns +it--little Tom Morgan, Dan's brother-in-arms, the General's seventeen-year-old +brother--and there he stands leaning against a tree, full in the light of the +fire, a handsome, gallant figure--a song like a seraph's pouring from his +lips. One bearded soldier is gazing at him with curious intentness, and when +the song ceases, lies down with a suddenly troubled face. He has seen the +"death-look" in the boy's eyes--that prophetic death-look in which he has +unshaken faith. The night deepens, figures roll up in blankets, quiet comes, +and Dan lies wide awake and deep in memories, and looking back on those early +helpless days of the war with a tolerant smile. + +He was a war-worn veteran now, but how vividly he could recall that first +night in the camp of a big army, in the very woods where he now lay--dusk +settling over the Green River country, which Morgan's Men grew to love so +well; a mocking-bird singing a farewell song from the top of a stunted oak to +the dead summer and the dying day; Morgan seated on a cracker-box in front of +his tent, contemplatively chewing one end of his mustache; Lieutenant Hunt +swinging from his horse, smiling grimly. + +"It would make a horse laugh--a Yankee cavalry horse, anyhow--to see this +army." + +Hunt had been over the camp that first afternoon on a personal tour of +investigation. They were not a thousand Springfield and Enfield rifles at that +time in Johnston's army. Half of the soldiers were armed with shotguns and +squirrel rifle and the greater part of the other half with flintlock muskets. +But nearly every man, thinking he was in for a rough-and-tumble fight, had a +bowie knife and a revolver swung to his belt. + +"Those Arkansas and Texas fellows have got knives that would make a Malay's +blood run cold." + +"Well, they'll do to hew firewood and cut meat," laughed Morgan. + +The troops were not only badly armed. On his tour, Hunt had seen men making +blankets of pieces of old carpet, lined on one side with a piece of cotton +cloth; men wearing ox-hide buskins, or complicated wrapping of rags, for +shoes; orderly sergeants making out reports on shingles; surgeon using a +twisted handkerchief instead of a tourniquet. There was a total lack of +medicine, and camp diseases were already breaking out--measles, typhoid fever, +pneumonia, bowel troubles--each fatal, it seemed, in time of war. + +"General Johnston has asked Richmond for a stand of thirty thousand arms," +Morgan had mused, and Hunt looked up inquiringly. + +"Mr. Davis can only spare a thousand." + +"That's lucky," said Hunt, grimly. + +And then the military organization of that army, so characteristic of the +Southerner! An officer who wanted to be more than a colonel, and couldn't be a +brigadier, would have a "legion"-- a hybrid unit between a regiment and a +brigade. Sometimes there was a regiment whose roll-call was more than two +thousand men, so popular was its colonel. Companies would often refuse to +designate themselves by letter, but by the thrilling titles they had given +themselves. How Morgan and Hunt had laughed over "The Yellow Jackets," "The +Dead Shots," "The Earthquakes," "The Chickasha Desperadoes," and "The Hell +Roarers"! Regiments would bear the names of their commanders--a singular +instance of the Southerner's passion for individuality, as a man, a company, a +regiment, or a brigade. And there was little or no discipline, as the word is +understood among the military elect, and with no army that the world has ever +seen, Richard Hunt always claimed, was there so little need of it. For +Southern soldiers, he argued, were, from the start, obedient, zealous, and +tolerably patient, from good sense and a strong sense of duty. They were born +fighters; a spirit of emulation induced them to learn the drill; pride and +patriotism kept them true and patient to the last, but they could not be made, +by punishment or the fear of it, into machines. They read their chance of +success, not in opposing numbers, but in the character and reputation of their +commanders, who, in turn, believed, as a rule, that "the unthinking automaton, +formed by routine and punishment, could no more stand before the high-strung +young soldier with brains and good blood, and some practice and knowledge of +warfare, than a tree could resist a stroke of lightning." So that with +Southern soldiers discipline came to mean "the pride which made soldiers learn +their duties rather than incur disgrace; the subordination that came from +self-respect and respect for the man whom they thought worthy to command +them." + +Boots and saddles again at daybreak! By noon the column reached Green River, +over the Kentucky line, where Morgan, even on his way down to join Johnston, +had begun the operations which were to make him famous. No picket duty that +infantry could do as well, for Morgan's cavalry! He wanted it kept out on the +front or the flanks of an army, and as close as possible upon the enemy. Right +away, there had been thrilling times for Dan in the Green River +country--setting out at dark, chasing countrymen in Federal pay or sympathy, +prowling all night around and among pickets and outposts; entrapping the +unwary; taking a position on the line of retreat at daybreak, and turning +leisurely back to camp with prisoners and information. How memories thronged! +At this very turn of the road, Dan remembered, they had their first brush with +the enemy. No plan of battle had been adopted, other than to hide on both +sides of the road and send their horses to the rear. + +"I think we ought to charge 'em," said Georgie Forbes, Chad's old enemy. Dan +saw that his lip trembled, and, a moment later, Georgie, muttering something, +disappeared. + +The Yankees had come on, and, discovering them, halted. Morgan himself stepped +out in the road and shot the officer riding at the head of the column. His men +fell back without returning the fire, deployed and opened up. Dan recognized +the very tree behind which he had stood, and again he could almost hear +Richard Hunt chuckling from behind another close by. + +"We would be in bad shape," said Richard Hunt, as the bullets whistled high +overhead, "if we were in the tops of these trees instead of behind them." +There had been no maneuvering, no command given among the Confederates. Each +man fought his own fight. In ten minutes a horse-holder ran up from the rear, +breathless, and announced that the Yankees were flanking. Every man withdrew, +straightway, after his own fashion, and in his own time. One man was wounded +and several were shot through the clothes. + +"That was like a camp-meeting or an election row," laughed Morgan, when they +were in camp. + +"Or an affair between Austrian and Italian outposts," said Hunt. + +A chuckle rose behind them. A lame colonel was limping past. + +"I got your courier," he said. + +"I sent no courier," said Morgan. + +"It was Forbes who wanted to charge 'em," said Dan. + +Again the Colonel chuckled. + +"The Yankees ran when you did," he said, and limped, chuckling, away. + +But it was great fun, those moonlit nights, burning bridges and chasing Home +Guards who would flee fifteen or twenty miles sometimes to "rally." Here was a +little town through which Dan and Richard Hunt had marched with nine prisoners +in a column--taken by them alone--and a captured United States flag, flying in +front, scaring Confederate sympathizers and straggling soldiers, as Hunt +reported, horribly. Dan chuckled at the memory, for the prisoners were +quartered with different messes, and, that night, several bottles of sparkling +Catawba happened, by some mystery, to be on hand. The prisoners were told that +this was regularly issued by their commissaries, and thereupon they plead, +with tears, to be received into the Confederate ranks. + +This kind of service was valuable training for Morgan's later work. Slight as +it was, it soon brought him thirty old, condemned artillery-horses--Dan smiled +now at the memory of those ancient chargers--which were turned over to Morgan +to be nursed until they would bear a mount, and, by and by, it gained him a +colonelcy and three companies, superbly mounted and equipped, which, as +"Morgan's Squadron," became known far and near. Then real service began. + +In January, the right wing of Johnston's hungry hawk had been broken in the +Cumberland Mountains. Early in February, Johnston had withdrawn it from +Kentucky before Buell's hosts, with its beak always to the foe. By the middle +of the month, Grant had won the Western border States to the Union, with the +capture of Fort Donelson. In April, the sun of Shiloh rose and set on the +failure of the first Confederate aggressive campaign at the West; and in that +fight Dan saw his first real battle, and Captain Hunt was wounded. In May, +Buell had pushed the Confederate lines south and east toward Chattanooga. To +retain a hold on the Mississippi valley, the Confederates must make another +push for Kentucky, and it was this great Southern need that soon put John +Morgan's name on the lips of every rebel and Yankee in the middle South. In +June, provost-marshals were appointed in every county in Kentucky; the dogs of +war began to be turned locals on the "secesh sympathizers" throughout the +State, and Jerome Conners, overseer, began to render sly service to the Union +cause. + +For it was in June that Morgan paid his first memorable little visit to the +Bluegrass, and Daniel Dean wrote his brother Harry the short tale of the raid. + +"We left Dixie with nine hundred men," the letter ran, "and got back in +twenty-four days with twelve hundred. Travelled over one thousand miles, +captured seventeen towns, destroyed all Government supplies and arms in them, +scattered fifteen hundred Home Guards, and paroled twelve hundred regular +troops. Lost of the original nine hundred, in killed, wounded, and missing, +about ninety men. How's that? We kept twenty thousand men busy guarding +Government posts or chasing us, and we're going back often. Oh Harry, I AM +glad that you are with Grant." + +But Harry was not with Grant--not now. While Morgan was marching up from Dixie +to help Kirby Smith in the last great effort that the Confederacy was about to +make to win Kentucky--down from the yellow river marched the Fourth Ohio +Cavalry to go into camp at Lexington; and with it marched Chadwick Buford and +Harry Dean who, too, were veterans now--who, too, were going home. Both lads +wore a second lieutenant's empty shoulder-straps, which both yet meant to fill +with bars, but Chad's promotion had not come as swiftly as Harry had +predicted; the Captain, whose displeasure he had incurred, prevented that. It +had come, in time, however, and with one leap he had landed, after Shiloh, at +Harry's side. In the beginning, young Dean had wanted to go to the Army of the +Potomac, as did Chad, but one quiet word from the taciturn colonel with the +stubbly reddish-brown beard and the perpetual black cigar kept both where they +were. + +"Though," said Grant to Chad, as his eye ran over beautiful Dixie from tip of +nose to tip of tail, and came back to Chad, slightly twinkling, "I've a great +notion to put you in the infantry just to get hold of that horse." + +So it was no queer turn of fate that had soon sent both the lads to help hold +Zollicoffer at Cumberland Gap, that stopped them at Camp Dick Robinson to join +forces with Wolford's cavalry, and brought Chad face to face with an old +friend. Wolford's cavalry was gathered from the mountains and the hills, and +when some scouts came in that afternoon, Chad, to his great joy, saw, mounted +on a gaunt sorrel, none other than his old school-master, Caleb Hazel, who, +after shaking hands with both Harry and Chad, pointed silently at a great, +strange figure following him on a splendid horse some fifty yards behind. The +man wore a slouch hat, tow linen breeches, home-made suspenders, a belt with +two pistols, and on his naked heels were two huge Texan spurs. Harry broke +into a laugh, and Chad's puzzled face cleared when the man grinned; it was +Yankee Jake Dillon, one of the giant twins. Chad looked at him curiously; that +blow on the head that his brother, Rebel Jerry, had given him, had wrought a +miracle. The lips no longer hung apart, but were set firmly, and the eye was +almost keen; the face was still rather stupid, but not foolish--and it was +still kind. Chad knew that, somewhere in the Confederate lines, Rebel Jerry +was looking for Jake, as Yankee Jake, doubtless, was now looking for Jerry, +and he began to think that it might be well for Jerry if neither was ever +found. Daws Dillon, so he learned from Caleb Hazel and Jake, was already +making his name a watchword of terror along the border of Virginia and +Tennessee, and was prowling, like a wolf, now and then, along the edge of the +Bluegrass. Old Joel Turner had died of his wound, Rube had gone off to the war +and Mother Turner and Melissa were left at home, alone. + +"Daws fit fust on one side and then on t'other," said Jake, and then he smiled +in a way that Chad understood; "an' sence you was down thar last Daws don't +seem to hanker much atter meddlin' with the Turners, though the two women did +have to run over into Virginny, once in a while. Melissy," he added, "was +a-goin' to marry Dave Hilton, so folks said; and he reckoned they'd already +hitched most likely, sence Chad thar--" + +A flash from Chad's eyes stopped him, and Chad, seeing Harry's puzzled face, +turned away. He was glad that Melissa was going to marry--yes, he was glad; +and how he did pray that she might be happy! + +Fighting Zollicoffer, only a few days later, Chad and Harry had their baptism +of fire, and strange battle orders they heard, that made them smile even in +the thick of the fight. + +"Huddle up thar!" "Scatterout, now!" "Form a line of fight!" "Wait till you +see the shine of their eyes!" + +"I see 'em!" shouted a private, and "bang" went his gun. That was the way the +fight opened. Chad saw Harry's eyes blazing like stars from his pale face, +which looked pained and half sick, and Chad understood--the lads were fighting +their own people, and there was no help for it. A voice bellowed from the +rear, and a man in a red cap loomed in the smoke-mist ahead: + +"Now, now! Git up and git, boys!" + +That was the order for the charge, and the blue line went forward. Chad never +forgot that first battle-field when he saw it a few hours later strewn with +dead and wounded, the dead lying, as they dropped, in every conceivable +position, features stark, limbs rigid; one man with a half-smoked cigar on his +breast; the faces of so many beardless; some frowning, some as if asleep and +dreaming; and the wounded--some talking pitifully, some in delirium, some +courteous, patient, anxious to save trouble, others morose, sullen, stolid, +independent; never forgot it, even the terrible night after Shiloh, when he +searched heaps of wounded and slain for Caleb Hazel, who lay all through the +night wounded almost to death. + +Later, the Fourth Ohio followed Johnston, as he gave way before Buell, and +many times did they skirmish and fight with ubiquitous Morgan's Men. Several +times Harry and Dan sent each other messages to say that each was still +unhurt, and both were in constant horror of some day coming face to face. +Once, indeed, Harry, chasing a rebel and firing at him, saw him lurch in his +saddle, and Chad, coming up, found the lad on the ground, crying over a +canteen which the rebel had dropped. It was marked with the initials D. D., +the strap was cut by the bullet Harry had fired, and not for a week of +agonizing torture did Harry learn that the canteen, though Dan's, had been +carried that day by another man. + +It was on these scouts and skirmishes that the four--Harry and Chad, and Caleb +Hazel and Yankee Jake Dillon, whose dog-like devotion to Chad soon became a +regimental joke--became known, not only among their own men, but among their +enemies, as the shrewdest and most daring scouts in the Federal service. Every +Morgan's man came to know the name of Chad Buford; but it was not until Shiloh +that Chad got his shoulder-straps, leading a charge under the very eye of +General Grant. After Shiloh, the Fourth Ohio went back to its old quarters +across the river, and no sooner were Chad and Harry there than Kentucky was +put under the Department of the Ohio; and so it was also no queer turn of fate +that now they were on their way to new head-quarters in Lexington. + +Straight along the turnpike that ran between the Dean and the Buford farms, +the Fourth Ohio went in a cloud of thick dust that rose and settled like a +gray choking mist on the seared fields. Side by side rode Harry and Chad, and +neither spoke when, on the left, the white columns of the Dean house came into +view, and, on the right, the red brick of Chad's old home showed through the +dusty leaves; not even when both saw on the Dean porch the figures of two +women who, standing motionless, were looking at them. Harry's shoulders +drooped, and he stared stonily ahead, while Chad turned his head quickly. The +front door and shutters of the Buford house were closed, and there were few +signs of life about the place. Only at the gate was the slouching figure of +Jerome Conners, the overseer, who, waving his hat at the column, recognized +Chad, as he rode by, and spoke to him, Chad thought, with a covert sneer. +Farther ahead, and on the farthest boundary of the Buford farm, was a Federal +fort, now deserted, and the beautiful woodland that had once stood in perfect +beauty around it was sadly ravaged and nearly gone, as was the Dean woodland +across the road. It was plain that some people were paying the Yankee piper +for the death-dance in which a mighty nation was shaking its feet. + +On they went, past the old college, down Broadway, wheeling at Second +Street--Harry going on with the regiment to camp on the other edge of the +town; Chad reporting with his colonel at General Ward's head-quarters, a +columned brick house on one corner of the college campus, and straight across +from the Hunt home, where he had first danced with Margaret Dean. + +That night the two lay on the edge of the Ashland woods, looking up at the +stars, the ripened bluegrass--a yellow, moonlit sea--around them and the woods +dark and still behind them. Both smoked and were silent, but each knew that to +the other his thoughts were known; for both had been on the same errand that +day, and the miserable tale of the last ten months both had learned. + +Trouble had soon begun for the ones who were dear to them, when both left for +the war. At once General Anderson had promised immunity from arrest to every +peaceable citizen in the State, but at once the shiftless, the prowling, the +lawless, gathered to the Home Guards for self-protection, to mask deviltry and +to wreak vengeance for private wrongs. At once mischief began. Along the Ohio, +men with Southern sympathies were clapped into prison. Citizens who had joined +the Confederates were pronounced guilty of treason, and Breckinridge was +expelled from the Senate as a traitor. Morgan's great raid in June, '61, +spread consternation through the land and, straightway, every district and +county were at the mercy of a petty local provost. No man of Southern +sympathies could stand for office. Courts in session were broken up with the +bayonet. Civil authority was overthrown. Destruction of property, indemnity +assessments on innocent men, arrests, imprisonment, and murder became of daily +occurrence. Ministers were jailed and lately prisons had even been prepared +for disloyal women. Major Buford, forced to stay at home on account of his +rheumatism and the serious illness of Miss Lucy, had been sent to prison once +and was now under arrest again. General Dean, old as he was, had escaped and +had gone to Virginia to fight with Lee; and Margaret and Mrs. Dean, with a few +servants, were out on the farm alone. + +But neither spoke of the worst that both feared was yet to come--and "Taps" +sounded soft and dear on the night air. + + + +CHAPTER 23. CHAD CAPTURES AN OLD FRIEND + +Meanwhile Morgan was coming on--led by the two videttes in gray--Daniel Dean +and Rebel Jerry Dillon--coming on to meet Kirby Smith in Lexington after that +general had led the Bluegrass into the Confederate fold. They were taking +short cuts through the hills now, and Rebel Jerry was guide, for he had joined +Morgan for that purpose. Jerry had long been notorious along the border. He +never gave quarter on his expeditions for personal vengeance, and it was said +that not even he knew how many men he had killed. Every Morgan's man had heard +of him, and was anxious to see him; and see him they did, though they never +heard him open his lips except in answer to a question. To Dan he seemed to +take a strange fancy right away, but he was as voiceless as the grave, except +for an occasional oath, when bush-whackers of Daws Dillon's ilk would pop at +the advance guard--sometimes from a rock directly overhead, for chase was +useless. It took a roundabout climb of one hundred yards to get to the top of +that rock, so there was nothing for videttes and guards to do but pop back, +which they did to no purpose. On the third day, however, after a skirmish in +which Dan had charged with a little more dare-deviltry than usual, the big +Dillon ripped out an oath of protest. An hour later he spoke again: + +"I got a brother on t'other side." + +Dan started. "Why, so have I," he said. "What's your brother with?" + +"Wolford's cavalry." + +"That's curious. So was mine--for a while. He's with Grant now." The boy +turned his head away suddenly. + +"I might meet him, if he were with Wolford now," he said, half to himself, but +Jerry heard him and smiled viciously. + +"Well, that's what I'm goin' with you fellers fer--to meet mine." + +"What!" said Dan, puzzled. + +"We've been lookin' fer each other sence the war broke out. I reckon he went +on t'other side to keep me from killin' him." + +Dan shrank away from the giant with horror; but next day the mountaineer saved +the boy's life in a fight in which Dan's chum--gallant little Tom Morgan--lost +his; and that night, as Dan lay sleepless and crying in his blanket, Jerry +Dillon came in from guard-duty and lay down by him. + +"I'm goin' to take keer o' you." + +"I don't need you," said Dan, gruffly, and Rebel Jerry grunted, turned over on +his side and went to sleep. Night and day thereafter he was by the boy's side. + +A thrill ran through the entire command when the column struck the first +Bluegrass turnpike, and a cheer rang from front to rear. Near Midway, a little +Bluegrass town some fifteen miles from Lexington, a halt was called, and +another deafening cheer arose in the extreme rear and came forward like a +rushing wind, as a coal-black horse galloped the length of the column--its +rider, hat in hand, bowing with a proud smile to the flattering storm--for the +idolatry of the man and his men was mutual--with the erect grace of an Indian, +the air of a courtier, and the bearing of a soldier in every line of the six +feet and more of his tireless frame. No man who ever saw John Morgan on +horseback but had the picture stamped forever on his brain, as no man who ever +saw that coal-black horse ever forgot Black Bess. Behind him came his staff, +and behind them came a wizened little man, whose nickname was +"Lightning"--telegraph operator for Morgan's Men. There was need of Lightning +now, so Morgan sent him on into town with Dan and Jerry Dillon, while he and +Richard Hunt followed leisurely. + +The three troopers found the station operator seated on the platform--pipe in +mouth, and enjoying himself hugely. He looked lazily at them. + +"Call up Lexington," said Lightning, sharply. + +"Go to hell!" said the operator, and then he nearly toppled from his chair. +Lightning, with a vicious gesture, had swung a pistol on him. + +"Here--here!" he gasped, "what'd you mean?" + +"Call up Lexington," repeated Lightning. The operator seated himself. + +"What do you want in Lexington?" he growled. + +"Ask the time of day?" The operator stared, but the instrument clicked. + +"What's your name?" asked Lightning. + +"Woolums." + +"Well, Woolums, you're a 'plug.' I wanted to see how you handled the key. Yes, +Woolums, you're a plug." + +Then Lightning seated himself, and Woolums' mouth flew open--Lightning copied +his style with such exactness. Again the instrument clicked and Lightning +listened, smiling: + +"Will there be any danger coming to Midway?" asked a railroad conductor in +Lexington. Lightning answered, grinning: + +"None. Come right on. No sign of rebels here." Again a click from Lexington. + +"General Ward orders General Finnell of Frankfort to move his forces. General +Ward will move toward Georgetown, to which Morgan with eighteen hundred men is +marching." + +Lightning caught his breath--this was Morgan's force and his intention +exactly. He answered: + +"Morgan with upward of two thousand men has taken the road to Frankfort. This +is reliable." Ten minutes later, Lightning chuckled. + +"Ward orders Finnell to recall his regiment to Frankfort." + +Half an hour later another idea struck Lightning. He clicked as though +telegraphing from Frankfort: + +"Our pickets just driven in. Great excitement. Force of enemy must be two +thousand." + +Then Lightning laughed. "I've fooled 'em," said Lightning. + +There was turmoil in Lexington. The streets thundered with the tramp of +cavalry going to catch Morgan. Daylight came and nothing was done--nothing +known. The afternoon waned, and still Ward fretted at head-quarters, while his +impatient staff sat on the piazza talking, speculating, wondering where the +wily raider was. Leaning on the campus-fence near by were Chadwick Buford and +Harry Dean. + +It had been a sad day for those two. The mutual tolerance that prevailed among +their friends in the beginning of the war had given way to intense bitterness +now. There was no thrill for them in the flags fluttering a welcome to them +from the windows of loyalists, for under those flags old friends passed them +in the street with no sign of recognition, but a sullen, averted face, or a +stare of open contempt. Elizabeth Morgan had met them, and turned her head +when Harry raised his cap, though Chad saw tears spring to her eyes as she +passed. Sad as it was for him, Chad knew what the silent torture in Harry's +heart must be, for Harry could not bring himself, that day, even to visit his +own home. And now Morgan was coming, and they might soon be in a death-fight, +Harry with his own blood-brother and both with boyhood friends. + +"God grant that you two may never meet!" + +That cry from General Dean was beating ceaselessly through Harry's brain now, +and he brought one hand down on the fence, hardly noticing the drop of blood +that oozed from the force of the blow. + +"Oh, I wish I could get away from here!" + +"I shall the first chance that comes," said Chad, and he lifted his head +sharply, staring down the street. A phaeton was coming slowly toward them and +in it were a negro servant and a girl in white. Harry was leaning over the +fence with his back toward the street, and Chad, the blood rushing to his +face, looked in silence, for the negro was Snowball and the girl was Margaret. +He saw her start and flush when she saw him, her hands giving a little +convulsive clutch at the reins; but she came on, looking straight ahead. +Chad's hand went unconsciously to his cap, and when Harry rose, puzzled to see +him bareheaded, the phaeton stopped, and there was a half-broken cry: + +"Harry!" + +Cap still in hand, Chad strode away as the brother, with an answering cry, +sprang toward her. + +. . . . . . + +When he came back, an hour later, at dusk, Harry was seated on the portico, +and the long silence between them was broken at last. + +"She--they oughtn't to come to town at a time like this," said Chad, roughly. + +"I told her that," said Harry, "but it was useless. She will come and go just +as she pleases." + +Harry rose and leaned for a moment against one of the big pillars, and then he +turned impulsively, and put one hand lightly on the other's shoulder. + +"I'm sorry, old man," he said, gently. + +A pair of heels clicked suddenly together on the grass before them, and an +orderly stood at salute. + +"General Ward's compliments, and will Lieutenant Buford and Lieutenant Dean +report to him at once?" + +The two exchanged a swift glance, and the faces of both grew grave with sudden +apprehension. + +Inside, the General looked worried, and his manner was rather sharp. + +"Do you know General Dean?" he asked, looking at Harry. + +"He is my father." + +The General wheeled in his chair. + +"What!" he exclaimed. "Well--um--I suppose one of you will be enough. You can +go." + +When the door closed behind Harry, he looked at Chad. + +"There are two rebels at General Dean's house to-night," he said, quietly. +"One of them, I am told---why, he must be that boy's brother," and again the +General mused; then he added, sharply: + +"Take six good men out there right away and capture them. And watch out for +Daws Dillon and his band of cut-throats. I am told he is in this region. I've +sent a company after him. But you capture the two at General Dean's." + +"Yes, sir," said Chad, turning quickly, but the General had seen the lad's +face grow pale. + +"It is very strange down here--they may be his best friends," he thought, and, +being a kindhearted man, he reached out his hand toward a bell to summon Chad +back, and drew it in again. + +"I cannot help that; but that boy must have good stuff in him." + +Harry was waiting for him outside. He knew that Dan would go home if it was +possible, and what Chad's mission must be. + +"Don't hurt him, Chad." + +"You don't have to ask that," answered Chad, sadly. + +. . . . . . . + +So Chad's old enemy, Daws Dillon, was abroad. There was a big man with the boy +at the Deans', General Ward had said, but Chad little guessed that it was +another old acquaintance, Rebel Jerry Dillon, who, at that hour, was having +his supper brought out to the stable to him, saying that he would sleep there, +take care of the horses, and keep on the look-out for Yankees. Jerome +Conners's hand must be in this, Chad thought, for he never for a moment +doubted that the overseer had brought the news to General Ward. He was playing +a fine game of loyalty to both sides, that overseer, and Chad grimly made up +his mind that, from one side or the other, his day would come. And this was +the fortune of war--to be trotting, at the head of six men, on such a mission, +along a road that, at every turn, on every little hill, and almost in every +fence-corner, was stored with happy memories for him; to force entrance as an +enemy under a roof that had showered courtesy and kindness down on him like +rain, that in all the world was most sacred to him; to bring death to an old +playmate, the brother of the woman whom he loved, or capture, which might mean +a worse death in a loathsome prison. He thought of that dawn when he drove +home after the dance at the Hunts' with the old Major asleep at his side and +his heart almost bursting with high hope and happiness, and he ran his hand +over his eyes to brush the memory away. He must think only of his duty now, +and that duty was plain. + +Across the fields they went in a noiseless walk, and leaving their horses in +the woods, under the care of one soldier, slipped into the yard. Two men were +posted at the rear of the house, one was stationed at each end of the long +porch to command the windows on either side, and, with a sergeant at his +elbow, Chad climbed the long steps noiselessly and knocked at the front door. +In a moment it was thrown open by a woman, and the light fell full in Chad's +face. + +"You--you--YOU!" said a voice that shook with mingled terror and contempt, and +Margaret shrank back, step by step. Hearing her, Mrs. Dean hurried into the +hallway. Her face paled when she saw the Federal uniform in her doorway, but +her chin rose haughtily, and her voice was steady and most courteous: + +"What can we do for you?" she asked, and she, too, recognized Chad, and her +face grew stern as she waited for him to answer. + +"Mrs. Dean," he said, half choking, "word has come to head-quarters that two +Confederate soldiers are spending the night here, and I have been ordered to +search the house for them. My men have surrounded it, but if you will give me +your word that they are not here, not a man shall cross your threshold--not +even myself." + +Without a word Mrs. Dean stood aside. + +"I am sorry," said Chad, motioning to the Sergeant to follow him. As he passed +the door of the drawing-room, he saw, under the lamp, a pipe with ashes strewn +about its bowl. Chad pointed to it. + +"Spare me, Mrs. Dean." But the two women stood with clinched hands, silent. +Dan had flashed into the kitchen, and was about to leap from the window when +he saw the gleam of a rifle-barrel, not ten feet away. He would be potted like +a rat if he sprang out there, and he dashed noiselessly up the back stairs, as +Chad started up the front stairway toward the garret, where he had passed many +a happy hour playing with Margaret and Harry and the boy whom he was after as +an enemy, now. The door was open at the first landing, and the creak of the +stairs under Dan's feet, heard plainly, stopped. The Sergeant, pistol in hand, +started to push past his superior. + +"Keep back," said Chad, sternly, and as he drew his pistol, a terrified +whisper rose from below. + +"Don't, don't!" And then Dan, with hands up, stepped into sight. + +"I'll spare you," he said, quietly. "Not a word, mother. They've got me. You +can tell him there is no one else in the house, though." + +Mrs. Dean's eyes filled with tears, and a sob broke from Margaret. + +"There is no one else," she said, and Chad bowed. "In the house," she added, +proudly, scorning the subterfuge. + +"Search the barn," said Chad, "quick!" The Sergeant ran down the steps. + +"I reckon you are a little too late, my friend," said Dan. "Why, bless me, +it's my old friend Chad--and a lieutenant! I congratulate you," he added, but +he did not offer to shake hands. + +Chad had thought of the barn too late. Snowball had seen the men creeping +through the yard, had warned Jerry Dillon, and Jerry had slipped the horses +into the woodland, and had crept back to learn what was going on. + +"I will wait for you out here," said Chad. "Take your time." + +"Thank you," said Dan. + +He came out in a moment and Mrs. Dean and Margaret followed him. At a gesture +from the Sergeant, a soldier stationed himself on each side of Dan, and, as +Chad turned, he took off his cap again. His face was very pale and his voice +almost broke: + +"You will believe, Mrs. Dean," he said, "that this was something I HAD to do." + +Mrs. Dean bent her head slightly. + +"Certainly, mother," said Dan. "Don't blame Lieutenant Chad. Morgan will have +Lexington in a few days and then I'll be free again. Maybe I'll have +Lieutenant Chad a prisoner--no telling!" + +Chad smiled faintly, and then, with a flush, he spoke again--warning Mrs. +Dean, in the kindliest way, that, henceforth, her house would be under +suspicion, and telling her of the severe measures that had been inaugurated +against rebel sympathizers. + +"Such sympathizers have to take oath of allegiance and give bonds to keep it." + +"If they don't?" + +"Arrest and imprisonment." + +"And if they give the oath and violate it?" + +"The penalty is death, Mrs. Dean." + +"And if they aid their friends?" + +"They are to be dealt with according to military law." + +"Anything else?" + +"If loyal citizens are hurt or damaged by guerrillas, disloyal citizens of the +locality must make compensation." + +"Is it true that a Confederate sympathizer will be shot down if on the streets +of Lexington?" + +"There was such an order, Mrs. Dean." + +"And if a loyal citizen is killed by one of these so-called guerillas, for +whose acts nobody is responsible, prisoners of war are to be shot in +retaliation?" + +"Mother!" cried Margaret. + +"No, Mrs. Dean--not prisoners of war--guerillas." + +"And when will you begin war on women?" + +"Never, I hope." His hesitancy brought a scorn into the searching eyes of his +pale questioner that Chad could not face, and without daring even to look at +Margaret he turned away. + +Such retaliatory measures made startling news to Dan. He grew very grave while +he listened, but as he followed Chad he chatted and laughed and joked with his +captors. Morgan would have Lexington in three days. He was really glad to get +a chance to fill his belly with Yankee grub. It hadn't been full more than two +or three times in six months. + +All the time he was watching for Jerry Dillon, who, he knew, would not leave +him if there was the least chance of getting him out of the Yankee's clutches. +He did not have to wait long. Two men had gone to get the horses, and as Dan +stepped through the yard-gate with his captors, two figures rose out of the +ground. One came with head bent like a battering-ram. He heard Snowball's head +strike a stomach on one side of him, and with an astonished groan the man went +down. He saw the man on his other side drop from some crashing blow, and he +saw Chad trying to draw his pistol. His own fist shot out, catching Chad on +the point of the chin. At the same instant there was a shot and the Sergeant +dropped. + +"Come on, boy!" said a hoarse voice, and then he was speeding away after the +gigantic figure of Jerry Dillon through the thick darkness, while a harmless +volley of shots sped after them. At the edge of the woods they dropped. Jerry +Dillon had his hand over his mouth to keep from laughing aloud. + +"The hosses ain't fer away," he said. "Oh, Lawd!" + +"Did you kill him?" + +"I reckon not," whispered Jerry. "I shot him on the wrong side. I'm al'ays +a-fergettin' which side a man's heart's on." + +"What became of Snowball?" + +"He run jes' as soon as he butted the feller on his right. He said he'd git +one, but I didn't know what he was doin' when I seed him start like a sheep. +Listen!" + +There was a tumult at the house--moving lights, excited cries, and a great +hurrying. Black Rufus was the first to appear with a lantern, and when he held +it high as the fence, Chad saw Margaret in the light, her hands clinched and +her eyes burning. + +"Have you killed him?" she asked, quietly but fiercely. "You nearly did once +before. Have you succeeded this time?" Then she saw the Sergeant writhing on +the ground, his right forearm hugging his breast, and her hands relaxed and +her face changed. + +"Did Dan do that? Did Dan do that?" + +"Dan was unarmed," said Chad, quietly. + +"Mother," called the girl, as though she had not heard him, "send someone to +help. Bring him to the house," she added, turning. As no movement was made, +she turned again. + +"Bring him up to the house," she said, imperiously, and when the hesitating +soldiers stooped to pick up the wounded man, she saw the streak of blood +running down Chad's chin and she stared open-eyed. She made one step toward +him, and then she shrank back out of the light. + +"Oh!," she said. "Are you wounded, too? Oh!" + +"No!" said Chad, grimly. "Dan didn't do that"--pointing to the Sergeant--"he +did this--with his fist. It's the second time Dan has done this. Easy, men," +he added, with low-voiced authority. + +Mrs. Dean was holding the door open. + +"No," said Chad, quickly. "That wicker lounge will do. He will be cooler on +the porch." Then he stooped, and loosening the Sergeant's blouse and shirt +examined the wound. + +"It's only through the shoulder, Lieutenant," said the man, faintly. But it +was under the shoulder, and Chad turned. + +"Jake," he said, sharply, "go back and bring a surgeon--and an officer to +relieve me. I think he can be moved in the morning, Mrs. Dean. With your +permission I will wait here until the Surgeon comes. Please don't disturb +yourself further"-- Margaret had appeared at the door, with some bandages that +she and her mother had been making for Confederates and behind her a servant +followed with towels and a pail of water--"I am sorry to trespass." + +"Did the bullet pass through?" asked Mrs. Dean, simply. + +"No, Mrs. Dean," said Chad. + +Margaret turned indoors. Without another word, her mother knelt above the +wounded man, cut the shirt away, staunched the trickling blood, and deftly +bound the wound with lint and bandages, while Chad stood, helplessly watching +her. + +"I am sorry," he said again, when she rose, "sorry--" + +"It is nothing," said Mrs. Dean, quietly. "If you need anything, you will let +me know. I shall be waiting inside." + +She turned and a few moments later Chad saw Margaret's white figure swiftly +climb the stairs--but the light still burned in the noiseless room below. + + . . . . . . + +Meanwhile Dan and Jerry Dillon were far across the fields on their way to +rejoin Morgan. When they were ten miles away, Dan, who was leading, turned. + +"Jerry, that Lieutenant was an old friend of mine. General Morgan used to say +he was the best scout in the Union Army. He comes from your part of the +country, and his name is Chad Buford. Ever heard of him?" + +"I've knowed him sence he was a chunk of a boy, but I don't rickollect ever +hearin' his last name afore. I naver knowed he had any." + +"Well, I heard him call one of his men Jake--and he looked exactly like you." +The giant pulled in his horse. + +"I'm goin' back." + +"No, you aren't," said Dan; "not now--it's too late. That's why I didn't tell +you before." Then he added, angrily: "You are a savage and you ought to be +ashamed of yourself harboring such hatred against your own blood-brother." + +Dan was perhaps the only one of Morgan's Men who would have dared to talk that +way to the man, and Jerry Dillon took it only in sullen silence. + +A mile farther they struck a pike, and, as they swept along, a brilliant light +glared into the sky ahead of them, and they pulled in. A house was in flames +on the edge of a woodland, and by its light they could see a body of men dash +out of the woods and across the field on horseback, and another body dash +after them in pursuit--the pursuers firing and the pursued sending back +defiant yells. Daws Dillon was at his work again, and the Yankees were after +him. + +. . . . . . . + +Long after midnight Chad reported the loss of his prisoner. He was much +chagrined--for failure was rare with him--and his jaw and teeth ached from the +blow Dan had given him, but in his heart he was glad that the boy had got away +When he went to his tent, Harry was awake and waiting for him. + +"It's I who have escaped," he said; "escaped again. Four times now we have +been in the same fight. Somehow fate seems to be pointing always one +way--always one way. Why, night after night, I dream that either he or I--" +Harry's voice trembled--he stopped short, and, leaning forward, stared out the +door of his tent. A group of figures had halted in front of the Colonel's tent +opposite, and a voice called, sharply: + +"Two prisoners, sir. We captured 'em with Daws Dillon. They are guerillas, +sir." + +"It's a lie, Colonel," said an easy voice, that brought both Chad and Harry to +their feet, and plain in the moonlight both saw Daniel Dean, pale but cool, +and near him, Rebel Jerry Dillon--both with their hands bound behind them. + + + +CHAPTER 24. A RACE BETWEEN DIXIE AND DAWN + +But the sun sank next day from a sky that was aflame with rebel victories. It +rose on a day rosy with rebel hopes, and the prophetic coolness of autumn was +in the early morning air when Margaret in her phaeton moved through the front +pasture on her way to town--alone. She was in high spirits and her head was +lifted proudly. Dan's boast had come true. Kirby Smith had risen swiftly from +Tennessee, had struck the Federal Army on the edge of the Bluegrass the day +before and sent it helter-skelter to the four winds. Only that morning she had +seen a regiment of the hated Yankees move along the turnpike in flight for the +Ohio. It was the Fourth Ohio Cavalry, and Harry and one whose name never +passed her lips were among those dusty cavalrymen; but she was glad, and she +ran down o the stile and, from the fence, waved the Stars and Bars at them as +they passed--which was very foolish, but which brought her deep content. Now +the rebels did hold Lexington. Morgan's Men were coming that day and she was +going into town to see Dan and Colonel Hunt and General Morgan and be +fearlessly happy and triumphant. At the Major's gate, whom should she see +coming out but the dear old fellow himself, and, when he got off his horse and +came to her, she leaned forward and kissed him, because he looked so thin and +pale from confinement, and because she was so glad to see him. Morgan's Men +were really coming, that very day, the Major said, and he told her much +thrilling news. Jackson had obliterated Pope at the second battle of Manassas. +Eleven thousand prisoners had been taken at Harper's Ferry and Lee had gone on +into Maryland on the flank of Washington. Recruits were coming into the +Confederacy by the thousands. Bragg had fifty-five thousand men and an +impregnable stronghold in front of Buell, who had but few men more--not enough +to count a minute, the Major said. + +"Lee has routed 'em out of Virginia," cried the old fellow, "and Buell is +doomed. I tell you, little girl, the fight is almost won." + +Jerome Conners rode to the gate and called to the Major in a tone that +arrested the girl's attention. She hated that man and she had noted a queer +change in his bearing since the war began. She looked for a flash of anger +from the Major, but none came, and she began to wonder what hold the overseer +could have on his old master. + +She drove on, puzzled, wondering, and disturbed; but her cheeks were +flushed--the South was going to win, the Yankees were gone, and she must get +to town in time to see the triumphant coming of Morgan's Men. They were coming +in when she reached the Yankee head-quarters, which, she saw, had changed +flags--thank God--coming proudly in, amid the waving of the Stars and Bars and +frenzied shouts of welcome. Where were the Bluegrass Yankees now? The Stars +and Stripes that had fluttered from their windows had been drawn in and they +were keeping very quiet, indeed--Oh! it was joy! There was gallant Morgan +himself swinging from Black Bess to kiss his mother, who stood waiting for him +at her gate, and there was Colonel Hunt, gay, debonair, jesting, shaking hands +right and left, and crowding the streets, Morgan's Men--the proudest blood in +the land, every gallant trooper getting his welcome from the lips and arms of +mother, sister, sweetheart, or cousin of farthest degree. But where was Dan? +She had heard nothing of him since the night he had escaped capture, and while +she looked right and left for him to dash toward her and swing from his horse, +she heard her name called, and turning she saw Richard Hunt at the wheel of +her phaeton. He waved his hand toward the happy reunions going on around them. + +"The enforced brotherhood, Miss Margaret," he said, his eyes flashing, "I +belong to that, you know." + +For once the subtle Colonel made a mistake. Perhaps the girl in her trembling +happiness and under the excitement of the moment might have welcomed him, as +she was waiting to welcome Dan, but she drew back now. + +"Oh! no, Colonel--not on that ground." + +Her eyes danced, she flushed curiously, as she held out her hand, and the +Colonel's brave heart quickened. Straightway he began to wonder--but a quick +shadow in Margaret's face checked him. + +"But where's Dan? Where is Dan?" she repeated, impatiently. + +Richard Hunt looked puzzled. He had just joined his command and something must +have gone wrong with Dan. So he lied swiftly. + +"Dan is out on a scout. I don't think he has got back yet. I'll find out." + +Margaret watched him ride to where Morgan stood with his mother in the midst +of a joyous group of neighbors and friends, and, a moment later, the two +officers came toward her on foot. + +"Don't worry, Miss Margaret," said Morgan, with a smile. "The Yankees have got +Dan and have taken him away as prisoner--but don't worry, we'll get him +exchanged in a week. I'll give three brigadier-generals for him." + +Tears came to the girl's eyes, but she smiled through them bravely. + +"I must go back and tell mother," she said, brokenly. "I hoped--" + +"Don't worry, little girl," said Morgan again. "I'll have him if I have to +capture the whole State of Ohio." + +Again Margaret smiled, but her heart was heavy, and Richard Hunt was unhappy. +He hung around her phaeton all the while she was in town. He went home with +her, cheering her on the way and telling her of the Confederate triumph that +was at hand. He comforted Mrs. Dean over Dan's capture, and he rode back to +town slowly, with his hands on his saddle-bow--wondering again. Perhaps +Margaret had gotten over her feeling for that mountain boy--that Yankee--and +there Richard Hunt checked his own thoughts, for that mountain boy, he had +discovered, was a brave and chivalrous enemy, and to such, his own high +chivalry gave salute always. + +He was very thoughtful when he reached camp. He had an unusual desire to be +alone, and that night, he looked long at the stars, thinking of the girl whom +he had known since her babyhood-- knowing that he would never think of her +except as a woman again. + +So the Confederates waited now in the Union hour of darkness for Bragg to +strike his blow. He did strike it, but it was at the heart of the South. He +stunned the Confederacy by giving way before Buell. He brought hope back with +the bloody battle of Perryville. Again he faced Buell at Harrodsburg, and then +he wrought broadcast despair by falling back without battle, dividing his +forces and retreating into Tennessee. The dream of a battle-line along the +Ohio with a hundred thousand more men behind it was gone and the last and best +chance to win the war was lost forever. Morgan, furious with disappointment, +left Lexington. Kentucky fell under Federal control once more; and Major +Buford, dazed, dismayed, unnerved, hopeless, brought the news out to the +Deans. + +"They'll get me again, I suppose, and I can't leave home on account of Lucy." + +"Please do, Major," said Mrs. Dean. "Send Miss Lucy over here and make your +escape. We will take care of her." The Major shook his head sadly and rode +away. + +Next day Margaret sat on the stile and saw the Yankees coming back to +Lexington. On one side of her the Stars and Bars were fixed to the fence from +which they had floated since the day she had waved the flag at them as they +fled. She saw the advance guard come over the hill and jog down the slope and +then the regiment slowly following after. In the rear she could see two men, +riding unarmed. Suddenly three cavalrymen spurred forward at a gallop and +turned in at her gate. The soldier in advance was an officer, and he pulled +out a handkerchief, waved it once, and, with a gesture to his companions, came +on alone. She knew the horse even before she recognized the rider, and her +cheeks flushed, her lips were set, and her nostrils began to dilate. The +horseman reined in and took off his cap. + +"I come under a flag of truce," he said, gravely, "to ask this garrison to haul +down its colors-- and--to save useless effusion of blood," he added, still +more gravely. + +"Your war on women has begun, then?" + +"I am obeying orders--no more, no less." + +"I congratulate you on your luck or your good judgment always to be on hand +when disagreeable duties are to be done." + +Chad flushed. + +"Won't you take the flag down?" + +"No, make your attack. You will have one of your usual victories--with +overwhelming numbers--and it will be safe and bloodless. There are only two +negroes defending this garrison. They will not fight, nor will we." + +"Won't you take the flag down?" + +"No!" + +Chad lifted his cap and wheeled. The Colonel was watching at the gate. + +"Well, sir" he asked, frowning. + +"I shall need help, sir, to take that flag down," said Chad. + +"What do you mean, sir?" + +"A woman is defending it." + +"What!" shouted the Colonel. + +"That is my sister, Colonel," said Harry Dean. The Colonel smiled and then +grew grave. + +"You should warn her not to provoke the authorities. The Government is +advising very strict measures now with rebel sympathizers." Then he smiled +again. + +"Fours! Left wheel! Halt! Present--sabres!" + +A line of sabres flashed in the sun, and Margaret, not understanding, snatched +the flag from the fence and waved it back in answer. The Colonel laughed +aloud. The column moved on, and each captain, following, caught the humor of +the situation and each company flashed its sabres as it went by, while +Margaret stood motionless. + +In the rear rode those two unarmed prisoners. She could see now that their +uniforms were gray and she knew that they were prisoners, but she little +dreamed that they were her brother Dan and Rebel Jerry Dillon, nor did Chad +Buford or Harry Dean dream of the purpose for which, just at that time, they +were being brought back to Lexington. Perhaps one man who saw them did know: +for Jerome Conners, from the woods opposite, watched the prisoners ride by +with a malicious smile that nothing but impending danger to an enemy could +ever bring to his face; and with the same smile he watched Margaret go slowly +back to the house, while her flag still fluttered from the stile. + +The high tide of Confederate hopes was fast receding now. The army of the +Potomac, after Antietam, which overthrew the first Confederate aggressive +campaign at the East, was retreating into its Southern stronghold, as was the +army of the West after Bragg's abandonment of Mumfordsville, and the rebel +retirement had given the provost-marshals in Kentucky full sway. Two hundred +Southern sympathizers, under arrest, had been sent into exile north of the +Ohio, and large sums of money were levied for guerilla outrages here and +there--a heavy sum falling on Major Buford for a vicious murder done in his +neighborhood by Daws Dillon and his band on the night of the capture of Daniel +Dean and Rebel Jerry. The Major paid the levy with the first mortgage he had +ever given in his life, and straightway Jerome Conners, who had been dealing +in mules and other Government supplies, took an attitude that was little short +of insolence toward his old master, whose farm was passing into the overseer's +clutches at last. Only two nights before, another band of guerillas had burned +a farm-house, killed a Unionist, and fled to the hills before the incoming +Yankees, and the Kentucky Commandant had sworn vengeance after the old Mosaic +way on victims already within his power. + +That night Chad and Harry were summoned before General Ward. They found him +seated with his chin in his hand, looking out the window at the moonlit +campus. Without moving, he held out a dirty piece of paper to Chad. + +"Read that," he said. + +"YOU HAVE KETCHED TWO OF MY MEN AND I HEAR AS HOW YOU MEAN TO HANG 'EM. IF +YOU +HANG THEM TWO MEN, I'M A-GOIN' TO HANG EVERY MAN OF YOURS I CAN GIT MY +HANDS +ON. + +DAWS DILLON--Captain. + +Chad gave a low laugh and Harry smiled, but the General kept grave. + +"You know, of course, that your brother belongs to Morgan's command?" + +"I do, sir," said Harry, wonderingly. + +"Do you know that his companion--the man Dillon--Jerry Dillon--does?" + +"I do not, sir." + +"They were captured by a squad that was fighting Daws Dillon. This Jerry +Dillon has the same name and you found the two together at General Dean's." + +"But they had both just left General Morgan's command," said Harry, +indignantly. + +"That may be true, but this Daws Dillon has sent a similar message to the +Commandant, and he has just been in here again and committed two wanton +outrages night before last. The Commandant is enraged and has issued orders +for stern retaliation." + +"It's a trick of Daws Dillon," said Chad, hotly, "an infamous trick. He hates +his Cousin Jerry, he hates me, and he hates the Deans, because they were +friends of mine." General Ward looked troubled. + +"The Commandant says he has been positively informed that both the men joined +Daws Dillon in the fight that night. He has issued orders that not only every +guerilla captured shall be hung, but that, whenever a Union citizen has been +killed by one of them, four of such marauders are to be taken to the spot and +shot in retaliation. It is the only means left, he says." + +There was a long silence. The faces of both the lads had turned white as each +saw the drift of the General's meaning, and Harry strode forward to his desk. + +"Do you mean to say, General Ward--" + +The General wheeled in his chair and pointed silently to an order that lay on +the desk, and as Harry started to read it, his voice broke. Daniel Dean and +Rebel Jerry were to be shot next morning at sunrise. + +. . . . . . + +The General spoke very kindly to Harry. + +"I have known this all day, but I did not wish to tell you until I had done +everything I could. I did not think it would be necessary to tell you at all, +for I thought there would be no trouble. I telegraphed the Commandant, +but"--he turned again to the window--"I have not been able to get them a trial +by court-martial, or even a stay in the execution. You'd better go see your +brother--he knows now--and you'd better send word to your mother and sister." + +Harry shook his head. His face was so drawn and ghastly as he stood leaning +heavily against the table that Chad moved unconsciously to his side. + +"Where is the Commandant?" he asked. + +"In Frankfort," said the General. Chad's eyes kindled. + +"Will you let me go see him to-night?" + +"Certainly, and I will give you a message to him. Perhaps you can yet save the +boy, but there is no chance for the man Dillon." The General took up a pen. +Harry seemed to sway as he turned to go, and Chad put one arm around him and +went with him to the door. + +"There have been some surprising desertions from the Confederate ranks," said +the General, as he wrote. "That's the trouble." he looked at his watch as he +handed the message over his shoulder to Chad. "You have ten hours before +sunrise and it is nearly sixty miles there and back If you are not here with a +stay of execution both will be shot. Do you think that you can make it? Of +course you need not bring the message back yourself. You can get the +Commandant to telegraph--" The slam of a door interrupted him--Chad was gone. + +Harry was holding Dixie's bridle when he reached the street and Chad swung +into the saddle. + +"Don't tell them at home," he said. "I'll be back here on time, or I'll be +dead." + +The two grasped hands. Harry nodded dumbly and Dixie's feet beat the rhythm of +her matchless gallop down the quiet street. The sensitive little mare seemed +to catch at once the spirit of her rider. Her haunches quivered. She tossed +her head and champed her bit, but not a pound did she pull as she settled into +an easy lope that told how well she knew that the ride before her was long and +hard. Out they went past the old cemetery, past the shaft to Clay rising from +it, silvered with moonlight, out where the picket fires gleamed and converging +on toward the Capital, unchallenged for the moon showed the blue of Chad's +uniform and his face gave sign that no trivial business, that night, was his. +Over quiet fields and into the aisles of sleeping woods beat that musical +rhythm ceaselessly, awakening drowsy birds by the wayside, making bridges +thunder, beating on and on up hill and down until picket fires shone on the +hills that guard the Capital. Through them, with but one challenge, Chad went, +down the big hill, past the Armory, and into the town--pulling panting Dixie +up before a wondering sentinel who guarded the Commandant's sleeping quarters. + +"The Commandant is asleep." + +"Wake him up," said Chad, sharply. A staff-officer appeared at the door in +answer to the sentinel's knock. + +"What is your business?" + +"A message from General Ward." + +"The Commandant gave orders that he was not to be disturbed." + +"He must be," said Chad. "It is a matter of life and death." + +Above him a window was suddenly raised and the Commandant's own head was +thrust out. + +"Stop that noise," he thundered. Chad told his mission and the Commandant +straightway was furious. + +"How dare General Ward broach that matter again? My orders are given and they +will not be changed." As he started to pull the window down, Chad cried: + +"But, General--" and at the same time a voice called down the street: + +"General!" Two men appeared under the gaslight--one was a sergeant and the +other a frightened negro. + +"Here is a message, General." + +The sash went down, a light appeared behind it, and soon the Commandant, in +trousers and slippers, was at the door. He read the note with a frown. + +"Where did you get this?" + +"A sojer come to my house out on the edge o' town, suh, and said he'd kill me +to-morrow if I didn't hand dis note to you pussonally." + +The Commandant turned to Chad. Somehow his manner seemed suddenly changed. + +"Do you know that these men belonged to Morgan's command?" + +"I know that Daniel Dean did and that the man Dillon was with him when +captured." + +Still frowning savagely, the Commandant turned inside to his desk and a moment +later the staff-officer brought out a telegram and gave it to Chad. + +"You can take this to the telegraph office yourself. It is a stay of +execution." + +"Thank you." + +Chad drew a long breath of relief and gladness and patted Dixie on the neck as +he rode slowly toward the low building where he had missed the train on his +first trip to the Capital. The telegraph operator dashed to the door as Chad +drew up in front of it. He looked pale and excited. + +"Send this telegram at once," said Chad. + +The operator looked at it. + +"Not in that direction to-night," he said, with a strained laugh, "the wires +are cut." + +Chad almost reeled in his saddle--then the paper was whisked from the +astonished operator's hand and horse and rider clattered up the hill. + +. . . . . . + +At head-quarters the Commandant was handing the negro's note to a +staff-officer. It read: + +"YOU HANG THOSE TWO MEN AT SUNRISE TO-MORROW, AND I'LL HANG YOU AT +SUNDOWN." + +It was signed "John Morgan," and the signature was Morgan's own. + +"I gave the order only last night. How could Morgan have heard of it so soon, +and how could he have got this note to me? Could he have come back?" + +"Impossible," said the staff-officer. "He wouldn't dare come back now." + +The Commandant shook his head doubtfully, and just then there was a knock at +the door and the operator, still pale and excited, spoke his message: + +"General, the wires are cut." + +The two officers stared at each other in silence. + +. . . . . . + +Twenty-seven miles to go and less than three hours before sunrise. There was a +race yet for the life of Daniel Dean. The gallant little mare could cover the +stretch with nearly an hour to spare, and Chad, thrilled in every nerve, but +with calm confidence, raced against the coming dawn. + +"The wires are cut." + +Who had cut them and where and when and why? No matter--Chad had the paper in +his pocket that would save two lives and he would be on time even if Dixie +broke her noble heart, but he could not get the words out of his brain--even +Dixie's hoofs beat them out ceaselessly: + +"The wires are cut--the wires are cut!" + +The mystery would have been clear, had Chad known the message that lay on the +Commandant's desk back at the Capital, for the boy knew Morgan, and that +Morgan's lips never opened for an idle threat. He would have ridden just as +hard, had he known, but a different purpose would have been his. + +An hour more and there was still no light in the East. An hour more and one +red streak had shot upward; then ahead of him gleamed a picket fire --a fire +that seemed farther from town than any post he had seen on his way down to the +Capital --but he galloped on. Within fifty yards a cry came: + +"Halt! Who comes there?" + +"Friend," he shouted, reining in. A bullet whizzed past his head as he pulled +up outside the edge of the fire and Chad shouted indignantly: + +"Don't shoot, you fool! I have a message for General Ward!" + +"Oh! All right! Come on!" said the sentinel, but his hesitation and the tone +of his voice made the boy alert with suspicion. The other pickets about the +fire had risen and grasped their muskets. The wind flared the flames just then +and in the leaping light Chad saw that their uniforms were gray. + +The boy almost gasped. There was need for quick thought and quick action now. + +"Lower that blunderbuss," he called out, jestingly, and kicking loose from one +stirrup, he touched Dixie with the spur and pulled her up with an impatient +"Whoa," as though he were trying to replace his foot. + +"You come on!" said the sentinel, but he dropped his musket to the hollow of +his arm, and, before he could throw it to his shoulder again, fire flashed +under Dixie's feet and the astonished rebel saw horse and rider rise over the +pike-fence. His bullet went overhead as Dixie landed on the other side, and +the pickets at the fire joined in a fusillade at the dark shapes speeding +across the bluegrass field. A moment later Chad's mocking yell rang from the +edge of the woods beyond and the disgusted sentinel split the night with +oaths. + +"That beats the devil. We never touched him I swear, I believe that hoss had +wings." + +Morgan! The flash of that name across his brain cleared the mystery for Chad +like magic. Nobody but Morgan and his daredevils could rise out of the ground +like that in the very midst of enemies when they were supposed to be hundreds +of mlles away in Tennessee. Morgan had cut those wires. Morgan had every road +around Lexington guarded, no doubt, and was at that hour hemming in Chad's +unsuspicious regiment, whose camp was on the other side of town, and unless he +could give warning, Morgan would drop like a thunderbolt on it, asleep. He +must circle the town now to get around the rebel posts, and that meant several +miles more for Dixie. + +He stopped and reached down to feel the little mare's flanks. Dixie drew a +long breath and dropped her muzzle to tear up a rich mouthful of bluegrass. + +"Oh, you beauty!" said the boy, "you wonder!" And on he went, through woodland +and field, over gully, log, and fence, bullets ringing after him from nearly +every road he crossed. + +Morgan was near. In disguise, when Bragg retreated, he had got permission to +leave Kentucky in his own way. That meant wheeling and making straight back to +Lexington to surprise the Fourth Ohio Cavalry; representing himself on the +way, one night, as his old enemy Wolford, and being guided a short cut through +the edge of the Bluegrass by an ardent admirer of the Yankee Colonel--the said +admirer giving Morgan the worst tirade possible, meanwhile, and nearly +tumbling from his horse when Morgan told him who he was and sarcastically +advised him to make sure next time to whom he paid his compliments. + +So that while Chad, with the precious message under his jacket, and Dixie were +lightly thundering along the road, Morgan's Men were gobbling up pickets +around Lexington and making ready for an attack on the sleeping camp at dawn. + +The dawn was nearly breaking now, and Harry Dean was pacing to and fro before +the old CourtHouse where Dan and Rebel Jerry lay under guard --pacing to and +fro and waiting for his mother and sister to come to say the last good-by to +the boy--for Harry had given up hope and had sent for them. At that very hour +Richard Hunt was leading his regiment around the Ashland woods where the enemy +lay; another regiment was taking its place between the camp and the town, and +gray figures were slipping noiselessly on the provost-guard that watched the +rebel prisoners who were waiting for death at sunrise. As the dawn broke, the +dash came, and Harry Dean was sick at heart as he sharply rallied the startled +guard to prevent the rescue of his own brother and straightway delirious with +joy when he saw the gray mass sweeping on him and knew that he would fail. A +few shots rang out; the far rattle of musketry rose between the camp and town; +the thunder of the "Bull Pups" saluted the coming light, and Dan and Rebel +Jerry had suddenly--instead of death--life, liberty, arms, a horse each, and +the sudden pursuit of happiness in a wild dash toward the Yankee camp, while +in a dew-drenched meadow two miles away Chad Buford drew Dixie in to listen. +The fight was on. + +If the rebels won, Dan Dean would be safe; if the Yankees--then there would +still be need of him and the paper over his heart. He was too late to warn, +but not, maybe, to fight--so he galloped on. + +But the end came as he galloped. The amazed Fourth Ohio threw down its arms at +once, and Richard Hunt and his men, as they sat on their horses outside the +camp picking up stragglers, saw a lone scout coming at a gallop across the +still, gray fields. His horse was black and his uniform was blue, but he came +straight on, apparently not seeing the rebels behind the ragged hedge along +the road. When within thirty yards, Richard Hunt rode through a roadside gate +to meet him and saluted. + +"You are my prisoner," he said, courteously. + +The Yankee never stopped, but wheeled, almost brushing the hedge as he turned. + +"Prisoner--hell!" he said, clearly, and like a bird was skimming away while +the men behind the hedge, paralyzed by his daring, fired not a shot. Only Dan +Dean started through the gate in pursuit. + +"I want him," he said, savagely. + +"Who's that?" asked Morgan, who had ridden up. + +"That's a Yankee," laughed Colonel Hunt. + +"Why didn't you shoot him?" The Colonel laughed again. + +"I don't know," he said, looking around at his men, who, too, were smiling. + +"That's the fellow who gave us so much trouble in the Green River Country," +said a soldier. "It's Chad Buford." + +"Well, I'm glad we didn't shoot him," said Colonel Hunt, thinking of Margaret. +That was not the way he liked to dispose of a rival. + +"Dan will catch him," said an officer. "He wants him bad, and I don't wonder." +Just then Chad lifted Dixie over a fence. + +"Not much," said Morgan. "I'd rather you'd shot him than that horse." + +Dan was gaining now, and Chad, in the middle of the field beyond the fence, +turned his head and saw the lone rebel in pursuit. Deliberately he pulled +weary Dixie in, faced about, and waited. He drew his pistol, raised it, saw +that the rebel was Daniel Dean, and dropped it again to his side. Verily the +fortune of that war was strange. Dan's horse refused the fence and the boy, in +a rage, lifted his pistol and fired. Again Chad raised his own pistol and +again he lowered it just as Dan fired again. This time Chad lurched in his +saddle, but recovering himself, turned and galloped slowly away, while +Dan--his pistol hanging at his side--stared after him, and the wondering +rebels behind the hedge stared hard at Dan. + +. . . . . . + +All was over. The Fourth Ohio Cavalry was in rebel hands, and a few minutes +later Dan rode with General Morgan and Colonel Hunt toward the Yankee camp. +There had been many blunders in the fight. Regiments had fired into each other +in the confusion and the "Bull Pups" had kept on pounding the Yankee camp even +while the rebels were taking possession of it. On the way they met Renfrew, +the Silent, in his brilliant Zouave jacket. + +"Colonel," he said, indignantly--and it was the first time many had ever heard +him open his lips --"some officer over there deliberately fired twice at me, +though I was holding my arms over my head." + +"It was dark," said Colonel Hunt, soothingly. "He didn't know you." + +"Ah, Colonel, he might not have known me-- but he must have known this +jacket." + +On the outskirts of one group of prisoners was a tall, slender young +lieutenant with a streak of blood across one cheek. Dan pulled in his horse +and the two met each other's eyes silently. Dan threw himself from his horse. + +"Are you hurt, Harry?" + +"It's nothing--but you've got me, Dan." + +"Why, Harry!" said Morgan. "Is that you? You are paroled, my boy," he added, +kindly. "Go home and stay until you are exchanged." + +So, Harry, as a prisoner, did what he had not done before--he went home +immediately. And home with him went Dan and Colonel Hunt, while they could, +for the Yankees would soon be after them from the north, east, south and west. +Behind them trotted Rebel Jerry. On the edge of town they saw a negro lashing +a pair of horses along the turnpike toward them. Two white faced women were +seated in a carriage behind him, and in a moment Dan was in the arms of his +mother and sister and both women were looking, through tears, their speechless +gratitude to Richard Hunt. + +The three Confederates did not stay long at the Deans'. Jerry Dillon was on +the lookout, and even while the Deans were at dinner, Rufus ran in with the +familiar cry that Yankees were coming. It was a regiment from an adjoining +county, but Colonel Hunt finished his coffee, amid all the excitement, most +leisurely. + +"You'll pardon us for eating and running, won't you, Mrs. Dean?" It was the +first time in her life that Mrs. Dean ever speeded a parting guest. + +"Oh, do hurry, Colonel--please, please." Dan laughed. + +"Good-by, Harry," he said. "We'll give you a week or two at home before we get +that exchange." + +"Don't make it any longer than necessary, please," said Harry, gravely. + +"We're coming back again, Mrs. Dean," said he Colonel, and then in a lower +tone to Margaret: "I'm coming often," he added, and Margaret blushed in a way +that would not have given very great joy to one Chadwick Buford. + +Very leisurely the three rode out to the pike gate, where they halted and +surveyed the advancing column, which was still several hundred yards away, and +then with a last wave of their caps, started in a slow gallop for town. The +advance guard started suddenly in pursuit, and the Deans saw Dan turn in his +saddle and heard his defiant yell. Margaret ran down and fixed her flag in its +place on the fence--Harry watching her. + +"Mother," he said, sadly, "you don't know what trouble you may be laying +up for yourself." + +Fate could hardly lay up more than what she already had, but the mother +smiled. + +"I can do nothing with Margaret," she said. + +In town the Federal flags had been furled and the Stars and Bars thrown out to +the wind. Morgan was preparing to march when Dan and Colonel Hunt galloped up +to head-quarters. + +"They're coming," said Hunt, quietly. + +"Yes," said Morgan, "from every direction." + +"Ah, John," called an old fellow, who, though a Unionist, believing in keeping +peace with both sides, "when we don't expect you--then is the time you come. +Going to stay long?" + +"Not long," said Morgan, grimly. "In fact, I guess we'll be moving along now." + +And he did--back to Dixie with his prisoners, tearing up railroads, burning +bridges and trestles, and pursued by enough Yankees to have eaten him and his +entire command if they ever could have caught him. As they passed into Dixie, +"Lightning" captured a telegraph office and had a last little fling at his +Yankee brethren. + +"Head-quarters, Telegraph Dept. of Ky., Confederate States of America"--thus +he headed his General Order No. to the various Union authorities throughout +the State + +"Hereafter," he clicked, grinning, "an operator will destroy telegraphic +instruments and all material in charge when informed that Morgan has crossed +the border. Such instances of carelessness as lately have been exhibited in +the Bluegrass will be severely dealt with. + +"By order of + +LIGHTNING, + +"Gen. Supt. C. S. Tel. Dept." + +Just about that time Chad Buford, in a Yankee hospital, was coming back from +the land of ether dreams. An hour later, the surgeon who had taken Dan's +bullet from his shoulder, handed him a piece of paper, black with faded blood +and scarcely legible. + +"I found that in your jacket," he said. "Is it important?" + +Chad smiled. + +"No," he said. "Not now." + + + +CHAPTER 25. AFTER DAWS DILLON--GUERILLA + +Once more, and for the last time, Chadwick Buford jogged along the turnpike +from the Ohio to the heart of the Bluegrass. He had filled his empty +shoulder-straps with two bars. He had a bullet wound through one shoulder and +there was a beautiful sabre cut across his right cheek. He looked the soldier +every inch of him; he was, in truth, what he looked; and he was, moreover, a +man. Naturally, his face was stern and resolute, if only from habit of +authority, but he had known no passion during the war that might have seared +its kindness; no other feeling toward his foes than admiration for their +unquenchable courage and miserable regret that to such men he must be a foe. + +Now, it was coming spring again--the spring of '64, and but one more year of +the war to come. + +The capture of the Fourth Ohio by Morgan that autumn of '62 had given Chad his +long-looked-for chance. He turned Dixie's head toward the foothills to join +Wolford, for with Wolford was the work that he loved--that leader being more +like Morgan in his method and daring than any other Federal cavalryman in the +field behind him. In Kentucky, he left the State under martial sway once more, +and, thereafter, the troubles of rebel sympathizers multiplied steadily, for +never again was the State under rebel control. A heavy hand was laid on every +rebel roof. Major Buford was sent to prison again. General Dean was in +Virginia, fighting, and only the fact that there was no man in the Dean +household on whom vengeance could fall, saved Margaret and Mrs. Dean from +suffering, but even the time of women was to come. + +On the last day of '62, Murfreesboro was fought and the second great effort of +the Confederacy at the West was lost. Again Bragg withdrew. On New Year's Day, +'63, Lincoln freed the slaves--and no rebel was more indignant than was +Chadwick Buford. The Kentucky Unionists, in general, protested: the +Confederates had broken the Constitution, they said; the Unionists were +helping to maintain that contract and now the Federals had broken the +Constitution, and their own high ground was swept from beneath their feet. +They protested as bitterly as their foes, be it said, against the Federals +breaking up political conventions with bayonets and against the ruin of +innocent citizens for the crimes of guerillas, for whose acts nobody was +responsible, but all to no avail. The terrorism only grew the more. + +When summer came, and while Grant was bisecting the Confederacy at Vicksburg, +by opening the Mississippi, and Lee was fighting Gettysburg, Chad, with +Wolford, chased Morgan when he gathered his clans for his last daring +venture--to cross the Ohio and strike the enemy on its own hearth-stones--and +thus give him a little taste of what the South had long known from border to +border. Pursued by Federals, Morgan got across the river, waving a farewell to +his pursuing enemies on the other bank, and struck out. Within three days, one +hundred thousand men were after him and his two thousand daredevils, cutting +down trees behind him (in case he should return!), flanking him, getting in +his front, but on he went, uncaught and spreading terror for a thousand miles, +while behind him for six hundred miles country people lined the dusty road, +singing "Rally 'round the Flag, Boys," and handing out fried chicken and +blackberry-pie to his pursuers. Men taken afterward with typhoid fever sang +that song through their delirium and tasted fried chicken no more as long as +they lived. Hemmed in as Morgan was, he would have gotten away, but for the +fact that a heavy fog made him miss the crossing of the river, and for the +further reason that the first rise in the river in that month for twenty years +made it impossible for his command to swim. He might have fought out, but his +ammunition was gone. Many did escape, and Morgan himself could have gotten +away. Chad, himself, saw the rebel chief swimming the river on a powerful +horse, followed by a negro servant on another--saw him turn deliberately in +the middle of the stream, when it was plain that his command could not escape, +and make for the Ohio shore to share the fortunes of his beloved officers who +were left behind. Chad heard him shout to the negro: + +"Go back, you will be drowned." The negro turned his face and Chad laughed--it +was Snowball, grinning and shaking his head: + +"No, Mars John, no suh!" he yelled. "It's all right fer YOU! YOU can git a +furlough, but dis nigger ain't gwine to be cotched in no free State. 'Sides, +Mars Dan, he gwine to get away, too." And Dan did get away, and Chad, to his +shame, saw Morgan and Colonel Hunt loaded on a boat to be sent down to prison +in a State penitentiary! It was a grateful surprise to Chad, two months later, +to learn from a Federal officer that Morgan with six others had dug out of +prison and escaped. + +"I was going through that very town," said the officer, "and a fellow, shaved +and sheared like a convict, got aboard and sat down in the same seat with me. +As we passed the penitentiary, he turned with a yawn--and said, in a +matter-of-fact way: + +"'That's where Morgan is kept, isn't it?" and then he drew out a flask. I +thought he had wonderfully good manners in spite of his looks, and, so help +me, if he didn't wave his hand, bow like a Bayard, and hand it over to me: + +"'Let's drink to the hope that Morgan may always be as safe as he is now.' I +drank to his toast with a hearty Amen, and the fellow never cracked a smile. +It was Morgan himself." + +Early in '64 the order had gone round for negroes to be enrolled as soldiers, +and again no rebel felt more outraged than Chadwick Buford. Wolford, his +commander, was dishonorably dismissed from the service for bitter protests and +harsh open criticism of the Government, and Chad, himself, felt like tearing +off with his own hands the straps which he had won with so much bravery and +worn with so much pride. But the instinct that led him into the Union service +kept his lips sealed when his respect for that service, in his own State, was +well-nigh gone--kept him in that State where he thought his duty lay. There +was need of him and thousands more like him. For, while active war was now +over in Kentucky, its brood of evils was still thickening. Every county in the +State was ravaged by a guerilla band--and the ranks of these marauders began +to be swelled by Confederates, particularly in the mountains and in the hills +that skirt them. Banks, trains, public vaults, stores, were robbed right and +left, and murder and revenge were of daily occurrence. Daws Dillon was an open +terror both in the mountains and in the Bluegrass. Hitherto the bands had been +Union and Confederate but now, more and more, men who had been rebels joined +them. And Chad Buford could understand. For, many a rebel soldier--"hopeless +now for his cause," as Richard Hunt was wont to say, "fighting from pride, +bereft of sympathy, aid, and encouragement that he once received, and +compelled to wring existence from his own countrymen; a cavalryman on some +out-post department, perhaps, without rations, fluttering with rags; shod, if +shod at all, with shoes that sucked in rain and cold; sleeping at night under +the blanket that kept his saddle by day from his sore-backed horse; paid, if +paid at all, with waste paper; hardened into recklessness by war--many a rebel +soldier thus became a guerrilla--consoling himself, perhaps, with the thought +that his desertion was not to the enemy." + +Bad as the methods of such men were, they were hardly worse than the means +taken in retaliation. At first, Confederate sympathizers were arrested and +held as hostages for all persons captured and detained by guerillas. Later, +when a citizen was killed by one of these bands, four prisoners, supposed to +be chosen from this class of free-booters, were taken from prison and shot to +death on the spot where the deed was done. Now it was rare that one of these +brigands was ever taken alive, and thus regular soldier after soldier who was +a prisoner of war, and entitled to consideration as such, was taken from +prison and murdered by the Commandant without even a court-martial. It was +such a death that Dan Dean and Rebel Jerry had narrowly escaped. Union men +were imprisoned even for protesting against these outrages, so that between +guerilla and provost-marshal no citizen, whether Federal or Confederate, in +sympathy, felt safe in property, life, or liberty. The better Unionists were +alienated, but worse yet was to come. Hitherto, only the finest chivalry had +been shown women and children throughout the war. Women whose brothers and +husbands and sons were in the rebel army, or dead on the battle-field, were +banished now with their children to Canada under a negro guard, or sent to +prison. State authorities became openly arrayed against provost-marshals and +their followers. There was almost an open clash. The Governor, a Unionist, +threatened even to recall the Kentucky troops from the field to come back and +protect their homes. Even the Home Guards got disgusted with their masters, +and for a while it seemed as if the State, between guerilla and +provost-marshal, would go to pieces. For months the Confederates had +repudiated all connection with these free-booters and had joined with Federals +in hunting them down, but when the State government tried to raise troops to +crush them, the Commandant not only ordered his troops to resist the State, +but ordered the muster-out of all State troops then in service. + +The Deans little knew then how much trouble Captain Chad Buford, whose daring +service against guerillas had given him great power with the Union +authorities, had saved them--how he had kept them from arrest and imprisonment +on the charge of none other than Jerome Conners, the overseer; how he had +ridden out to pay his personal respects to the complainant, and that brave +gentleman, seeing him from afar, had mounted his horse and fled, +terror-stricken. They never knew that just after this he had got a furlough +and gone to see Grant himself, who had sent him on to tell his story to Mr. +Lincoln + +"Go back to Kentucky, then," said Grant, with his quiet smile, "and if General +Ward has nothing particular for you to do, I want him to send you to me," and +Chad had gone from him, dizzy with pride and hope. + +"I'm going to do something," said Mr. Lincoln, "and I'm going to do it right +away." + +And now, in the spring of '64, Chad carried in his breast despatches from the +President himself to General Ward at Lexington. + +As he rode over the next hill, from which he would get his first glimpse of +his old home and the Deans', his heart beat fast and his eyes swept both sides +of the road. Both houses: even the Deans'--were shuttered and closed--both +tenantless. He saw not even a negro cabin that showed a sign of life. + +On he went at a gallop toward Lexington. Not a single rebel flag had he seen +since he left the Ohio, nor was he at all surprised; the end could not be far +off, and there was no chance that the Federals would ever again lose the +State. + +On the edge of the town he overtook a Federal officer. It was Harry Dean, pale +and thin from long imprisonment and sickness. Harry had been with Sherman, had +been captured again, and, in prison, had almost died with fever. He had come +home to get well only to find his sister and mother sent as exiles to Canada. +Major Buford was still in prison, Miss Lucy was dead, and Jerome Conners +seemed master of the house and farm. General Dean had been killed, had been +sent home, and was buried in the garden. It was only two days after the +burial, Harry said, that Margaret and her mother had to leave their home. Even +the bandages that Mrs. Dean had brought out to Chad's wounded sergeant, that +night he had captured and lost Dan, had been brought up as proof that she and +Margaret were aiding and abetting Confederates. Dan had gone to join Morgan +and Colonel Hunt over in southwestern Virginia, where Morgan had at last got a +new command only a few months before. Harry made no word of comment, but +Chad's heart got bitter as gall as he listened. And this had happened to the +Deans while he was gone to serve them. But the bloody Commandant of the State +would be removed from power--that much good had been done--as Chad learned +when he presented himself, with a black face, to his general. + +"I could not help it," said the General, quickly. "He seems to have hated the +Deans." And again read the despatches slowly. "You have done good work. There +will be less trouble now." Then he paused. "I have had a letter from General +Grant. He wants you on his staff." Again he paused, and it took the three past +years of discipline to help Chad keep his self-control. "That is, if I have +nothing particular for you to do. He seems to know what you have done and to +suspect that there may be something more here for you to do. He's right. I +want you to destroy Daws Dillon and his band. There will be no peace until he +is out of the way. You know the mountains better than anybody. You are the man +for the work. You will take one company from Wolford's regiment--he has been +reinstated, you know--and go at once. When you have finished that--you can go +to General Grant." The General smiled. "You are rather young to be so near a +major--perhaps." + +A major! The quick joy of the thought left him when he went down the stairs to +the portico and saw Harry Dean's thin, sad face, and thought of the new grave +in the Deans' garden and those two lonely women in exile. There was one small +grain of consolation. It was his old enemy, Daws Dillon, who had slain Joel +Turner; Daws who had almost ruined Major Buford and had sent him to +prison--Daws had played no small part in the sorrows of the Deans, and on the +heels of Daws Dillon he soon would be. + +"I suppose I am to go with you," said Harry. + +"Why, yes," said Chad, startled; "how did you know?" + +"I didn't know. How far is Dillon's hiding-place from where Morgan is?" + +"Across the mountains." Chad understood suddenly. "You won't have to go," he +said, quickly. + +"I'll go where I am ordered," said Harry Dean. + + + +CHAPTER 26. BROTHER AGAINST BROTHER AT LAST + +It was the first warm day of spring and the sunshine was very soothing to +Melissa as she sat on the old porch early in the afternoon. Perhaps it was a +memory of childhood, perhaps she was thinking of the happy days she and Chad +had spent on the river bank long ago, and perhaps it was the sudden thought +that, with the little they had to eat in the house and that little the same +three times a day, week in and week out, Mother Turner, who had been ailing, +would like to have some fish; perhaps it was the primitive hunting instinct +that, on such a day, sets a country boy's fingers itching for a squirrel rifle +or a cane fishing-pole, but she sprang from her seat, leaving old Jack to doze +on the porch, and, in half an hour, was crouched down behind a boulder below +the river bend, dropping a wriggling worm into a dark, still pool. As she sat +there, contented and luckless, the sun grew so warm that she got drowsy and +dozed--how long she did not know--but she awoke with a start and with a +frightened sense that someone was near her, though she could hear no sound. +But she lay still--her heart beating high--and so sure that her instinct was +true that she was not even surprised when she heard a voice in the thicket +above--a low voice, but one she knew perfectly well: + +"I tell you he's a-comin' up the river now. He's a-goin' to stay with ole Ham +Blake ter-night over the mountain an' he'll be a-comin' through Hurricane Gap +'bout daylight termorrer or next day, shore. He's got a lot o' men, but we can +layway 'em in the Gap an' git away all right." It was Tad Dillon +speaking--Daws Dillon, his brother, answered: + +"I don't want to kill anybody but that damned Chad--Captain Chad BUFORD, he +calls hisself." + +"Well, we can git him all right. I heerd that they was a-lookin' fer us an' +was goin' to ketch us if they could." + +"I wish I knowed that was so," said Daws with an oath. "Nary a one of 'em +would git away alive if I just knowed it was so. But we'll git CAPTAIN Chad +Buford, shore as hell! You go tell the boys to guard the Gap ter-night. They +mought come through afore day." And then the noise of their footsteps fainted +out of hearing and Melissa rose and sped back to the house. + +From behind a clump of bushes above where she had sat, rose the gigantic +figure of Rebel Jerry Dillon. He looked after the flying girl with a grim +smile and then dropped his great bulk down on the bed of moss where he had +been listening to the plan of his enemies and kinsmen. Jerry had made many +expeditions over from Virginia lately and each time he had gone back with a +new notch on the murderous knife that he carried in his belt. He had but two +personal enemies alive now--Daws Dillon, who had tried to have him shot, and +his own brother, Yankee Jake. This was the second time he had been over for +Daws, and after his first trip he had persuaded Dan to ask permission from +General Morgan to take a company into Kentucky and destroy Daws and his band, +and Morgan had given him leave, for Federals and Confederates were chasing +down these guerillas now--sometimes even joining forces to further their +common purpose. Jerry had been slipping through the woods after Daws, meaning +to crawl close enough to kill him and, perhaps, Tad Dillon too, if necessary, +but after hearing their plan he had let them go, for a bigger chance might be +at hand. If Chad Buford was in the mountains looking for Daws, Yankee Jake was +with him. If he killed Daws now, Chad and his men would hear of his death and +would go back, most likely--and that was the thought that checked his finger +on the trigger of his pistol. Another thought now lifted him to his feet with +surprising quickness and sent him on a run down the river where his horse was +hitched in the bushes. He would go over the mountain for Dan. He could lead +Dan and his men to Hurricane Gap by daylight. Chad Buford could fight it out +with Daws and his gang, and he and Dan would fight it out with the men who +won--no matter whether Yankees or guerillas. And a grim smile stayed on Rebel +Jerry's face as he climbed. + +On the porch of the Turner cabin sat Melissa with her hands clinched and old +Jack's head in her lap. There was no use worrying Mother Turner--she feared +even to tell her--but what should she do? She might boldly cross the mountain +now, for she was known to be a rebel, but the Dillons knowing, too, how close +Chad had once been to the Turners might suspect and stop her. No, if she went +at all, she must go after nightfall--but how would she get away from Mother +Turner, and how could she make her way, undetected through Hurricane Gap? The +cliffs were so steep and close together in one place that she could hardly +pass more than forty feet from the road on either side and she could not pass +that close to pickets and not be heard. Her brain ached with planning and she +was so absorbed as night came on that several times old Mother Turner +querulously asked what was ailing her and why she did not pay more heed to her +work, and the girl answered her patiently and went on with her planning. +Before dark, she knew what she would do, and after the old mother was asleep, +she rose softly and slipped out the door without awakening even old Jack, and +went to the barn, where she got the sheep-bell that old Beelzebub used to wear +and with the clapper caught in one hand, to keep the bell from tinkling, she +went swiftly down the road toward Hurricane Gap. Several times she had to dart +into the bushes while men on horseback rode by her, and once she came near +being caught by three men on foot--all hurrying at Daws Dillon's order to the +Gap through which she must go. When the road turned from the river, she went +slowly along the edge of it, so that if discovered, she could leap with one +spring into the bushes. It was raining--a cold drizzle that began to chill her +and set her to coughing so that she was half afraid that she might disclose +herself. At the mouth of the Gap she saw a fire on one side of the road and +could hear talking, but she had no difficulty passing it, on the other side. +But on, where the Gap narrowed--there was the trouble. It must have been an +hour before midnight when she tremblingly neared the narrow defile. The rain +had ceased, and as she crept around a boulder she could see, by the light of +the moon between two black clouds, two sentinels beyond. The crisis was at +hand now. She slipped to one side of the road, climbed the cliff as high as +she could and crept about it. She was past one picket now, and in her +eagerness one foot slipped and she half fell. She almost held her breath and +lay still. + +"I hear somethin' up thar in the bresh," shouted the second picket. "Halt!" + +Melissa tinkled the sheep-bell and pushed a bush to and fro as though a sheep +or a cow might be rubbing itself, and the picket she had passed laughed aloud. + +"Goin' to shoot ole Sally Perkins's cow, air you?" he said, jeeringly. "Yes, I +heerd her," he added, lying; for, being up all the night before, he had +drowsed at his post. A moment later, Melissa moved on, making considerable +noise and tinkling her bell constantly. She was near the top now and when she +peered out through the bushes, no one was in sight and she leaped into the +road and fled down the mountain. At the foot of the spur another ringing cry +smote the darkness in front of her: + +"Halt! Who goes there?" + +"Don't shoot!" she cried, weakly. "It's only me." + +"Advance, 'Me,'" said the picket, astonished to hear a woman's voice. And then +into the light of his fire stepped a shepherdess with a sheep-bell in her +hand, with a beautiful, pale, distressed face, a wet, clinging dress, and +masses of yellow hair surging out of the shawl over her head. The ill startled +picket dropped the butt of his musket to the ground and stared. + +"I want to see Chad, your captain," she said, timidly. + +"All right," said the soldier, courteously. "He's just below there and I guess +he's up. We are getting ready to start now. Come along." + +"Oh, no!" said Melissa, hurriedly. "I can't go down there." It had just struck +her that Chad must not see her; but the picket thought she naturally did not +wish to face a lot of soldiers in her bedraggled and torn dress, and he said +quickly: + +"All right. Give me your message and I'll take it to him." He smiled. "You can +wait here and stand guard." + +Melissa told him hurriedly how she had come over the mountain and what was +going on over there, and the picket with a low whistle started down toward his +camp without another word. + +Chad could not doubt the accuracy of the information--the picket had names and +facts. + +"A girl, you say?" + +"Yes, sir"--the soldier hesitated--"and a very pretty one, too. She came over +the mountain alone and on foot through this darkness. She passed the pickets +on the other side--pretending to be a sheep. She had a bell in her hand." Chad +smiled--he knew that trick. + +"Where is she?" + +"She's standing guard for me." + +The picket turned at a gesture from Chad and led the way. They found no +Melissa. She had heard Chad's voice and fled up the mountain. Before daybreak +she was descending the mountain on the other side, along the same way, +tinkling her sheep-bell and creeping past the pickets. It was raining again +now and her cold had grown worse. Several times she had to muffle her face +into her shawl to keep her cough from betraying her. As she passed the ford +below the Turner cabin, she heard the splash of many horses crossing the river +and she ran on, frightened and wondering. Before day broke she had slipped +into her bed without arousing Mother Turner, and she did not get up that day, +but lay ill abed. + +The splashing of those many horses was made by Captain Daniel Dean and his +men, guided by Rebel Jerry. High on the mountain side they hid their horses in +a ravine and crept toward the Gap on foot--so that while Daws with his gang +waited for Chad, the rebels lay in the brush waiting for him. Dan was merry +over the prospect: + +"We will just let them fight it out," he said, "and then we'll dash in and +gobble 'em both up. That was a fine scheme of yours, Jerry." + +Rebel Jerry smiled: there was one thing he had not told his captain--who those +rebels were. Purposely he had kept that fact hidden. He had seen Dan purposely +refrain from killing Chad Buford once and he feared that Dan might think his +brother Harry was among the Yankees. All this Rebel Jerry failed to +understand, and he wanted nothing known now that might stay anybody's hand. +Dawn broke and nothing happened. Not a shot rang out and only the smoke of the +guerillas' fire showed in the peaceful mouth of the Gap. Dan wanted to attack +the guerillas, but Jerry persuaded him to wait until he could learn how the +land lay, and disappeared in the bushes. At noon he came back. + +"The Yankees have found out Daws is thar in the Gap," he said, "an' they are +goin' to slip over before day ter-morrer and s'prise him. Hit don't make no +difference to us, which s'prises which--does it?" + +So the rebels kept hid through the day in the bushes on the mountain side, and +when Chad slipped through the Gap next morning, before day, and took up the +guerilla pickets, Dan had moved into the same Gap from the other side, and was +lying in the bushes with his men, near the guerillas' fire, waiting for the +Yankees to make their attack. He had not long to wait. At the first white +streak of dawn overhead, a shout rang through the woods from the Yankees to +the startled guerillas. + +"Surrender!" A fusillade followed. Again: + +"Surrender!" and there was a short silence, broken by low curses from the +guerillas, and a stern Yankee voice giving short, quick orders. The guerillas +had given up. Rebel Jerry moved restlessly at Dan's side and Dan cautioned +him. + +"Wait! Let them have time to disarm the prisoners," he whispered. + +"Now," he added, a little while later--"creep quietly, boys." + +Forward they went like snakes, creeping to the edge of the brush whence they +could see the sullen guerillas grouped on one side of the fire--their arms +stacked, while a tall figure in blue moved here and there, and gave orders in +a voice that all at once seemed strangely familiar to Dan. + +"Now, boys," he said, half aloud, "give 'em a volley and charge." + +At his word there was a rattling fusillade, and then the rebels leaped from +the bushes and dashed on the astonished Yankees and their prisoners. It was +pistol to pistol at first and then they closed to knife thrust and musket +butt, hand to hand--in a cloud of smoke. At the first fire from the rebels +Chad saw his prisoner, Daws Dillon, leap for the stacked arms and disappear. A +moment later, as he was emptying his pistol at his charging foes, he felt a +bullet clip a lock of hair from the back of his head and he turned to see Daws +on the farthest edge of the firelight levelling his pistol for another shot +before he ran. Like lightning he wheeled and when his finger pulled the +trigger, Daws sank limply, his grinning, malignant face sickening as he fell. + +The tall fellow in blue snapped his pistol at Dan, and as Dan, whose pistol, +too, was empty, sprang forward and closed with him, he heard a triumphant yell +behind him and Rebel Jerry's huge figure flashed past him. With the same +glance he saw among the Yankees another giant--who looked like another +Jerry--saw his face grow ghastly with fear when Jerry's yell rose, and then +grow taut with ferocity as he tugged at his sheath to meet the murderous knife +flashing toward him. The terrible Dillon twins were come together at last, and +Dan shuddered, but he saw no more, for he was busy with the lithe Yankee in +whose arms he was closed. As they struggled, Dan tried to get his knife and +the Yankee tugged for his second pistol each clasping the other's wrist. Not a +sound did they make nor could either see the other's face, for Dan had his +chin in his opponent's breast and was striving to bend him backward. He had +clutched the Yankee's right hand, as it went back for his pistol, just as the +Yankee had caught his right in front, feeling for his knife. The advantage +would have been all Dan's except that the Yankee suddenly loosed his wrist and +gripped him tight about the body in an underhold, so that Dan could not whirl +him round; but he could twist that wrist and twist it he did, with both hands +and all his strength. Once the Yankee gave a smothered groan of pain and Dan +heard him grit his teeth to keep it back. The smoke had lifted now, and, when +they fell, it was in the light of the fire. The Yankee had thrown him with a +knee-trick that Harry used to try on him when they were boys, but something +about the Yankee snapped, as they fell, and he groaned aloud. Clutching him by +the throat, Dan threw him oft--he could get at his knife now. + +"Surrender!" he said, hoarsely. + +His answer was a convulsive struggle and then the Yankee lay still. + +"Surrender!" said Dan again, lifting his knife above the Yankee's breast, "or, +damn you, I'll--" + +The Yankee had turned his face weakly toward the fire, and Dan, with a cry of +horror, threw his knife away and sprang to his feet. Straightway the Yankee's +closed eyes opened and he smiled faintly. + +"Why, Dan, is that you?" he asked. "I thought it would come," he added, +quietly, and then Harry Dean lapsed into unconsciousness. + +Thus, at its best, this fratricidal war was being fought out that daybreak in +one little hollow of the Kentucky mountains and thus, at its worst, it was +being fought out in another little hollow scarcely twenty yards away, where +the giant twins--Rebel Jerry and Yankee Jake--who did know they were brothers, +sought each other's lives in mutual misconception and mutual hate. + +There were a dozen dead Federals and guerillas around the fire, and among them +was Daws Dillon with the pallor of death on his face and the hate that life +had written there still clinging to it like a shadow. As Dan bent tenderly +over his brother Harry, two soldiers brought in a huge body from the bushes, +and he turned to see Rebel Jerry Dillon. There were a half a dozen rents in +his uniform and a fearful slash under his chin--but he was breathing still. +Chad Buford had escaped and so had Yankee Jake. + + + +CHAPTER 27. AT THE HOSPITAL OF MORGAN'S MEN + +In May, Grant simply said--Forward! The day he crossed the Rapidan, he said it +to Sherman down in Georgia. After the battle of the Wilderness he said it +again, and the last brutal resort of hammering down the northern buttress and +sea-wall of the rebellion--old Virginia--and Atlanta, the keystone of the +Confederate arch, was well under way. Throughout those bloody days Chad was +with Grant and Harry Dean was with Sherman on his terrible trisecting march to +the sea. For, after the fight between Rebels and Yankees and Daws Dillon's +guerilla band, over in Kentucky, Dan, coming back from another raid into the +Bluegrass, had found his brother gone. Harry had refused to accept a parole +and had escaped. Not a man, Dan was told, fired a shot at him, as he ran. One +soldier raised his musket, but Renfrew the Silent struck the muzzle upward. + +In September, Atlanta fell and, in that same month, Dan saw his great leader, +John Morgan, dead in Tennessee. In December, the Confederacy toppled at the +west under Thomas's blows at Nashville. In the spring of '65, one hundred and +thirty-five thousand wretched, broken-down rebels, from Richmond to the Rio +Grande, confronted Grant's million men, and in April, Five Forks was the +beginning of the final end everywhere. + +At midnight, Captain Daniel Dean, bearer of dispatches to the great +Confederate General in Virginia, rode out of abandoned Richmond with the +cavalry of young Fitzhugh Lee. They had threaded their way amid troops, +trains, and artillery across the bridge. The city was on fire. By its light, +the stream of humanity was pouring out of town--Davis and his cabinet, +citizens, soldiers, down to the mechanics in the armories and workshops. The +chief concern with all was the same, a little to eat for a few days; for, with +the morning, the enemy would come and Confederate money would be as mist. Afar +off the little fleet of Confederate gunboats blazed and the thundering +explosions of their magazines split the clear air. Freight depots with +supplies were burning. Plunderers were spreading the fires and slipping like +ghouls through red light and black shadows. At daybreak the last retreating +gun rumbled past and, at sunrise, Dan looked back from the hills on the +smoking and deserted city and Grant's blue lines sweeping into it. + +Once only he saw his great chief--the next morning before day, when he rode +through the chill mist and darkness to find the head-quarters of the +commanding General--two little fires of rubbish and two ambulances--with Lee +lying on a blanket under the open sky. He rose, as Dan drew near, and the +firelight fell full on his bronzed and mournful face. He looked so sad and so +noble that the boy's heart was wrenched, and as Dan turned away, he said, +brokenly: + +"General, I am General Dean's son, and I want to thank you--" He could get no +farther. Lee laid one hand on his shoulder. + +"Be as good a man as your father was, my boy," he said, and Dan rode back the +pitiable way through the rear of that noble army of Virginia--through ranks of +tattered, worn, hungry soldiers, among the broken debris of wagons and +abandoned guns, past skeleton horses and skeleton men. + +All hope was gone, but Fitz Lee led his cavalry through the Yankee lines and +escaped. In that flight Daniel Dean got his only wound in the war--a bullet +through the shoulder. When the surrender came, Fitz Lee gave up, too, and led +back his command to get Grant's generous terms. But all his men did not go +with him, and among the cavalrymen who went on toward southwestern Virginia +was Dan--making his way back to Richard Hunt--for now that gallant Morgan was +dead, Hunt was general of the old command. + +Behind, at Appomattox, Chad was with Grant. He saw the surrender--saw Lee look +toward his army, when he came down the steps after he had given up, saw him +strike his hands together three times and ride Traveller away through the +profound and silent respect of his enemies and the tearful worship of his own +men. And Chad got permission straightway to go back to Ohio, and he mustered +out with his old regiment, and he, too, started back through Virginia. + +Meanwhile, Dan was drawing near the mountains. He was worn out when he reached +Abingdon. The wound in his shoulder was festering and he was in a high fever. +At the camp of Morgan's Men he found only a hospital left--for General Hunt +had gone southward--and a hospital was what he most needed now. As he lay, +unconscious with fever, next day, a giant figure, lying near, turned his head +and stared at the boy. It was Rebel Jerry Dillon, helpless from a sabre cut +and frightfully scarred by the fearful wounds his brother, Yankee Jake, had +given him. And thus, Chadwick Buford, making for the Ohio, saw the two strange +messmates, a few days later, when he rode into the deserted rebel camp. + +All was over. Red Mars had passed beyond the horizon and the white Star of +Peace already shone faintly on the ravaged South. The shattered remnants of +Morgan's cavalry, pall-bearers of the Lost Cause--had gone South--bare-footed +and in rags--to guard Jefferson Davis to safety, and Chad's heart was wrung +when he stepped into the little hospital they had left behind--a space cleared +into a thicket of rhododendron. There was not a tent--there was little +medicine--little food. The drizzling rain dropped on the group of ragged sick +men from the branches above them. Nearly all were youthful, and the youngest +was a mere boy, who lay delirious with his head on the root of a tree. As Chad +stood looking, the boy opened his eyes and his mouth twitched with pain. + +"Hello, you damned Yankee." Again his mouth twitched and again the old +dare-devil light that Chad knew so well kindled in his hazy eyes. + +"I said," he repeated, distinctly, "Hello, you damned Yank. DAMNED Yank I +said." Chad beckoned to two men. + +"Go bring a stretcher." + +The men shook their heads with a grim smile--they had no stretcher. + +The boy talked dreamily. + +"Say, Yank, didn't we give you hell in--oh, well, in lots o' places. But +you've got me." The two soldiers were lifting him in their arms. "Goin' to +take me to prison? Goin' to take me out to shoot me, Yank? You ARE a damned +Yank." A hoarse growl rose behind them and the giant lifted himself on one +elbow, swaying his head from side to side. + +"Let that boy alone!" Dan nodded back at him confidently. + +"That's all right, Jerry. This Yank's a friend of mine." His brow wrinkled. +"At any rate he looks like somebody I know. He's goin' to give me something to +eat and get me well--like hell," he added to himself--passing off into +unconsciousness again. Chad had the lad carried to his own tent, had him +stripped, bathed, and bandaged and stood looking down at him. It was hard to +believe that the broken, aged youth was the red-cheeked, vigorous lad whom he +had known as Daniel Dean. He was ragged, starved, all but bare-footed, +wounded, sick, and yet he was as undaunted, as defiant, as when he charged +with Morgan's dare-devils at the beginning of the war. Then Chad went back to +the hospital--for a blanket and some medicine. + +"They are friends," he said to the Confederate surgeon, pointing at a huge +gaunt figure. + +"I reckon that big fellow has saved that boy's life a dozen times. Yes, +they're mess-mates." + +And Chad stood looking down at Jerry Dillon, one of the giant twins--whose +name was a terror throughout the mountains of the middle south. Then he turned +and the surgeon followed. + +There was a rustle of branches on one side when they were gone, and at the +sound the wounded man lifted his head. The branches parted and the oxlike face +of Yankee Jake peered through. For a full minute, the two brothers stared at +each other. + +"I reckon you got me, Jake," said Jerry. + +"I been lookin' fer ye a long while," said Jake, simply, and he smiled +strangely as he moved slowly forward and looked down at his enemy--his heavy +head wagging from side to side. Jerry was fumbling at his belt. The big knife +flashed, but Jake's hand was as quick as its gleam, and he had the wrist that +held it. His great fingers crushed together, the blade dropped on the ground, +and again the big twins looked at each other. Slowly, Yankee Jake picked up +the knife. The other moved not a muscle and in his fierce eyes was no plea for +mercy. The point of the blade moved slowly down--down over the rebel's heart, +and was thrust into its sheath again. Then Jake let go the wrist. + +"Don't tech it agin," he said, and he strode away. The big fellow lay +blinking. He did not open his lips when, in a moment, Yankee Jake slouched in +with a canteen of water. When Chad came back, one giant was drawing on the +other a pair of socks. The other was still silent and had his face turned the +other way. Looking up, Jake met Chad's surprised gaze with a grin. + +A day later, Dan came to his senses. A tent was above him, a heavy blanket was +beneath him and there were clothes on his body that felt strangely fresh and +clean. He looked up to see Chad's face between the flaps of the tent. + +"D'you do this?" + +"That's all right," said Chad. "This war is over." And he went away to let Dan +think it out. When he came again, Dan held out his hand silently. + + + +CHAPTER 28. PALL-BEARERS OF THE LOST CAUSE + +The rain was falling with a steady roar when General Hunt broke camp a few +days before. The mountain-tops were black with thunderclouds, and along the +muddy road went Morgan's Men--most of them on mules which had been taken from +abandoned wagons when news of the surrender came--without saddles and with +blind bridles or rope halters--the rest slopping along through the yellow mud +on foot--literally--for few of them had shoes; they were on their way to +protect Davis and join Johnston, now that Lee was no more. There was no +murmuring, no faltering, and it touched Richard Hunt to observe that they were +now more prompt to obedience, when it was optional with them whether they +should go or stay, than they had ever been in the proudest days of the +Confederacy. + +Threatened from Tennessee and cut off from Richmond, Hunt had made up his mind +to march eastward to join Lee, when the news of the surrender came. Had the +sun at that moment dropped suddenly to the horizon from the heaven above them, +those Confederates would have been hardly more startled or plunged into deeper +despair. Crowds of infantry threw down their arms and, with the rest, all +sense of discipline was lost. Of the cavalry, however, not more than ten men +declined to march south, and out they moved through the drenching rain in a +silence that was broken only with a single cheer when ninety men from another +Kentucky brigade joined them, who, too, felt that as long as the Confederate +Government survived, there was work for them to do. So on they went to keep up +the struggle, if the word was given, skirmishing, fighting and slipping past +the enemies that were hemming them in, on with Davis, his cabinet, and General +Breckinridge to join Taylor and Forrest in Alabama. Across the border of South +Carolina, an irate old lady upbraided Hunt for allowing his soldiers to take +forage from her barn. + +"You are a gang of thieving Kentuckians," she said, hotly; "you are afraid to +go home, while our boys are surrendering decently." + +"Madam!"--Renfrew the Silent spoke--spoke from the depths of his once +brilliant jacket--"you South Carolinians had a good deal to say about getting +up this war, but we Kentuckians have contracted to close it out." + +Then came the last Confederate council of war. In turn, each officer spoke of +his men and of himself and each to the same effect; the cause was lost and +there was no use in prolonging the war. + +"We will give our lives to secure your safety, but we cannot urge our men to +struggle against a fate that is inevitable, and perhaps thus forfeit all hope +of a restoration to their homes and friends." + +Davis was affable, dignified, calm, undaunted. + +"I will hear of no plan that is concerned only with my safety. A few brave men +can prolong the war until this panic has passed, and they will be a nucleus +for thousands more." + +The answer was silence, as the gaunt, beaten man looked from face to face. He +rose with an effort. + +"I see all hope is gone," he said, bitterly, and though his calm remained, his +bearing was less erect, his face was deathly pale and his step so infirm that +he leaned upon General Breckinridge as he neared the door--in the bitterest +moment, perhaps, of his life. + +So, the old Morgan's Men, so long separated, were united at the end. In a +broken voice General Hunt forbade the men who had followed him on foot three +hundred miles from Virginia to go farther, but to disperse to their homes; and +they wept like children. + +In front of him was a big force of Federal cavalry; retreat the way he had +come was impossible, and to the left, if he escaped, was the sea; but +dauntless Hunt refused to surrender except at the order of a superior, or +unless told that all was done that could be done to assure the escape of his +President. That order came from Breckinridge. + +"Surrender," was the message. "Go back to your homes, I will not have one of +these young men encounter one more hazard for my sake." + +That night Richard Hunt fought out his fight with himself, pacing to and fro +under the stars. He had struggled faithfully for what he believed, still +believed, and would, perhaps, always believe, was right. He had fought for the +broadest ideal of liberty as he understood it, for citizen, State and nation. +The appeal had gone to the sword and the verdict was against him. He would +accept it. He would go home, take the oath of allegiance, resume the law, and, +as an American citizen, do his duty. He had no sense of humiliation, he had no +apology to make and would never have--he had done his duty. He felt no +bitterness, and had no fault to find with his foes, who were brave and had +done their duty as they had seen it; for he granted them the right to see a +different duty from what he had decided was his. And that was all. + +Renfrew the Silent was waiting at the smouldering fire. He neither looked up +nor made any comment when General Hunt spoke his determination. His own face +grew more sullen and he reached his hand into his breast and pulled from his +faded jacket the tattered colors that he once had borne. + +"These will never be lowered as long as I live," he said, "nor afterwards if I +can prevent it." And lowered they never were. On a little island in the +Pacific Ocean, this strange soldier, after leaving his property and his +kindred forever, lived out his life among the natives with this bloodstained +remnant of the Stars and Bars over his hut, and when he died, the flag was +hung over his grave, and above that grave to-day the tattered emblem still +sways in southern air. + +. . . . . . + +A week earlier, two Rebels and two Yankees started across the mountain +together--Chad and Dan and the giant Dillon twins--Chad and Yankee Jake afoot. +Up Lonesome they went toward the shaggy flank of Black Mountain where the +Great Reaper had mowed down Chad's first friends. The logs of the cabin were +still standing, though the roof was caved in and the yard was a tangle of +undergrowth. A dull pain settled in Chad's breast, while he looked, and as +they were climbing the spur, he choked when he caught sight of the graves +under the big poplar. + +There was the little pen that he had built over his foster-mother's +grave--still undisturbed. He said nothing and, as they went down the spur, +across the river and up Pine Mountain, he kept his gnawing memories to +himself. Only ten years before, and he seemed an old, old man now. He +recognized the very spot where he had slept the first night after he ran away +and awakened to that fearful never-forgotten storm at sunrise, which lived in +his memory now as a mighty portent of the storms of human passion that had +swept around him on many a battlefield. There was the very tree where he had +killed the squirrel and the rattlesnake. It was bursting spring now, but the +buds of laurel and rhododendron were unbroken. Down Kingdom Come they went. +Here was where he had met the old cow, and here was the little hill where Jack +had fought Whizzer and he had fought Tad Dillon and where he had first seen +Melissa. Again the scarlet of her tattered gown flashed before his eyes. At +the bend of the river they parted from the giant twins. Faithful Jake's face +was foolish when Chad took him by the hand and spoke to him, as man to man, +and Rebel Jerry turned his face quickly when Dan told him that he would never +forget him, and made him promise to come to see him, if Jerry ever took +another raft down to the capital. Looking back from the hill, Chad saw them +slowly moving along a path toward the woods--not looking at each other and +speaking not at all. + +Beyond rose the smoke of the old Turner cabin. On the porch sat the old Turner +mother, her bonnet in her hand, her eyes looking down the river. Dozing at her +feet was Jack--old Jack. She had never forgiven Chad, and she could not +forgive him now, though Chad saw her eyes soften when she looked at the +tattered butternut that Dan wore. But Jack--half-blind and aged--sprang +trembling to his feet when he heard Chad's voice and whimpered like a child. +Chad sank on the porch with one arm about the old dog's neck. Mother Turner +answered all questions shortly. + +Melissa had gone to the "Settlemints." Why? The old woman would not answer. +She was coming back, but she was ill. She had never been well since she went +afoot, one cold night, to warn some YANKEE that Daws Dillon was after him. +Chad started. It was Melissa who had perhaps saved his life. Tad Dillon had +stepped into Daws's shoes, and the war was still going on in the hills. Tom +Turner had died in prison. The old mother was waiting for Dolph and Rube to +come back--she was looking for them every hour, day and night She did not know +what had become of the school-master--but Chad did, and he told her. The +school-master had died, storming breastworks at Gettysburg. The old woman said +not a word. + +Dan was too weak to ride now. So Chad got Dave Hilton, Melissa's old +sweetheart, to take Dixie to Richmond--a little Kentucky town on the edge of +the Bluegrass--and leave her there and he bought the old Turner canoe. She +would have no use for it, Mother Turner said--he could have it for nothing; +but when Chad thrust a ten dollar Federal bill into her hands, she broke down +and threw her arms around him and cried. + +So down the river went Chad and Dan--drifting with the tide--Chad in the +stern, Dan lying at full length, with his head on a blue army-coat and looking +up at the over-swung branches and the sky and the clouds above them--down, +through a mist of memories for Chad--down to the capital. + +And Harry Dean, too, was on his way home--coming up from the far South--up +through the ravaged land of his own people, past homes and fields which his +own hands had helped to lay waste. + + + +CHAPTER 29. MELISSA AND MARGARET + +The early spring sunshine lay like a benediction over the Dean household, for +Margaret and her mother were home from exile. On the corner of the veranda sat +Mrs. Dean, where she always sat, knitting. Under the big weeping willow in the +garden was her husband's grave. When she was not seated near it, she was there +in the porch, and to it her eyes seemed always to stray when she lifted them +from her work. + +The mail had just come and Margaret was reading a letter from Dan, and, as she +read, her cheeks flushed. + +"He took me into his own tent, mother, and put his own clothes on me and +nursed me like a brother. And now he is going to take me to you and Margaret, +he says, and I shall be strong enough, I hope, to start in a week. I shall be +his friend for life." + +Neither mother nor daughter spoke when the girl ceased reading. Only Margaret +rose soon and walked down the gravelled walk to the stile. + +Beneath the hill, the creek sparkled. She could see the very pool where her +brothers and the queer little stranger from the mountains were fishing the day +he came into her life. She remembered the indignant heart-beat with which she +had heard him call her "little gal," and she smiled now, but she could recall +the very tone of his voice and the steady look in his clear eyes when he +offered her the perch he had caught. Even then his spirit appealed +unconsciously to her, when he sturdily refused to go up to the house because +her brother was "feelin' hard towards him." How strange and far away all that +seemed now! Up the creek and around the woods she strolled, deep in memories. +For a long while she sat on a stone wall in the sunshine--thinking and +dreaming, and it was growing late when she started back to the house. At the +stile, she turned for a moment to look at the old Buford home across the +fields. As she looked, she saw the pike-gate open and a woman's figure enter, +and she kept her eyes idly upon it as she walked on toward the house. The +woman came slowly and hesitatingly toward the yard. When she drew nearer, +Margaret could see that she wore homespun, home-made shoes, and a poke-bonnet. +On her hands were yarn half-mits, and, as she walked, she pushed her bonnet +from her eyes with one hand, first to one side, then to the other--looking at +the locusts planted along the avenue, the cedars in the yard, the sweep of +lawn overspread with springing bluegrass. At the yard gate she stopped, +leaning over it--her eyes fixed on the stately white house, with its mighty +pillars. Margaret was standing on the steps now, motionless and waiting, and, +knowing that she was seen, the woman opened the gate and walked up the +gravelled path--never taking her eyes from the figure on the porch. Straight +she walked to the foot of the steps, and there she stopped, and, pushing her +bonnet back, she said, simply: + +"Are you Mar-ga-ret?" pronouncing the name slowly and with great distinctness. + +Margaret started. + +"Yes," she said. + +The girl merely looked at her--long and hard. Once her lips moved: + +"Mar-ga-ret," and still she looked. "Do you know whar Chad is?" + +Margaret flushed. + +"Who are you?" + +"Melissy." + +Melissa! The two girls looked deep into each other's eyes and, for one +flashing moment, each saw the other's heart--bared and beating--and Margaret +saw, too, a strange light ebb slowly from the other's face and a strange +shadow follow slowly after. + +"You mean Major Buford?" + +"I mean Chad. Is he dead?" + +"No, he is bringing my brother home." + +"Harry?" + +"No--Dan." + +"Dan--here?" + +"Yes." + +"When?" + +"As soon as my brother gets well enough to travel. He is wounded." + +Melissa turned her face then. Her mouth twitched and her clasped hands were +working in and out. Then she turned again. + +"I come up here from the mountains, afoot jus' to tell ye--to tell YOU that +Chad ain't no"-- she stopped suddenly, seeing Margaret's quick flush--"CHAD'S +MOTHER WAS MARRIED. I jus' found it out last week. He ain't no--"--she started +fiercely again and stopped again. "But I come here fer HIM--not fer YOU. YOU +oughtn't to 'a' keered. Hit wouldn't 'a' been his fault. He never was the same +after he come back from here. Hit worried him most to death, an' I know hit +was you--YOU he was always thinkin' about. He didn't keer 'cept fer you." +Again that shadow came and deepened. "An' you oughtn't to 'a' keered what he +was--and that's why I hate you," she said, calmly--"fer worryin' him an' bein' +so high-heeled that you was willin' to let him mighty nigh bust his heart +about somethin' that wasn't his fault. I come fer him--you understand--fer +HIM. I hate YOU!" + +She turned without another word, walked slowly back down the walk and through +the gate. Margaret stood dazed, helpless, almost frightened. She heard the +girl cough and saw now that she walked as if weak and ill. As she turned into +the road, Margaret ran down the steps and across the fields to the turnpike. +When she reached the road-fence the girl was coming around the bend her eyes +on the ground, and every now and then she would cough and put her hand to her +breast. She looked up quickly, hearing the noise ahead of her, and stopped as +Margaret climbed the low stone wall and sprang down. + +"Melissa, Melissa! You mustn't hate me. You mustn't hate ME." Margaret's eyes +were streaming and her voice trembled with kindness. She walked up to the girl +and put one hand on her shoulder. "You are sick. I know you are, and you must +come back to the house." + +Melissa gave way then, and breaking from the girl's clasp she leaned against +the stone wall and sobbed, while Margaret put her arms about her and waited +silently. + +"Come now," she said, "let me help you over. There now. You must come back and +get something to eat and lie down." And Margaret led Melissa back across the +fields. + + + +CHAPTER 30. PEACE + +It was strange to Chad that he should be drifting toward a new life down the +river which once before had carried him to a new world. The future then was no +darker than now, but he could hardly connect himself with the little fellow in +coon-skin cap and moccasins who had floated down on a raft so many years ago, +when at every turn of the river his eager eyes looked for a new and thrilling +mystery. + +They talked of the long fight, the two lads, for, in spite of the war-worn +look of them, both were still nothing but boys--and they talked with no +bitterness of camp life, night attacks, surprises, escapes, imprisonment, +incidents of march and battle. Both spoke little of their boyhood days or the +future. The pall of defeat overhung Dan. To him the world seemed to be nearing +an end, while to Chad the outlook was what he had known all his life--nothing +to begin with and everything to be done. Once only Dan voiced his own trouble: + +"What are you going to do, Chad--now that this infernal war is over? Going +into the regular army?" + +"No," said Chad, decisively. About his own future Dan volunteered nothing--he +only turned his head quickly to the passing woods, as though in fear that Chad +might ask some similar question, but Chad was silent. And thus they glided +between high cliffs and down into the lowlands until at last, through a little +gorge between two swelling river hills, Dan's eye caught sight of an orchard, +a leafy woodland, and a pasture of bluegrass. With a cry he raised himself on +one elbow. + +"Home! I tell you, Chad, we're getting home!" He closed his eyes and drew the +sweet air in as though he were drinking it down like wine. His eyes were +sparkling when he opened them again and there was a new color in his face. On +they drifted until, toward noon, the black column of smoke that meant the +capital loomed against the horizon. There Mrs. Dean was waiting for them, and +Chad turned his face aside when the mother took her son in her arms. With a +sad smile she held out her hand to Chad. + +"You must come home with us," Mrs. Dean said, with quiet decision. + +"Where is Margaret, mother?" Chad almost trembled when he heard the name. + +"Margaret couldn't come. She is not very well and she is taking care of +Harry." + +The very station had tragic memories to Chad. There was the long hill which he +had twice climbed--once on a lame foot and once on flying Dixie--past the +armory and the graveyard. He had seen enough dead since he peered through +those iron gates to fill a dozen graveyards the like in size. Going up in the +train, he could see the barn where he had slept in the hayloft the first time +he came to the Bluegrass, and the creek-bridge where Major Buford had taken +him into his carriage. Major Buford was dead. He had almost died in prison, +Mrs. Dean said, and Chad choked and could say nothing. Once, Dan began a +series of eager questions about the house and farm, and the servants and the +neighbors, but his mother's answers were hesitant and he stopped short. She, +too, asked but few questions, and the three were quiet while the train rolled +on with little more speed than Chad and Dixie had made on that long ago +night-ride to save Dan and Rebel Jerry. About that ride Chad had kept Harry's +lips and his own closed, for he wished no such appeal as that to go to +Margaret Dean. Margaret was not at the station in Lexington. She was not well +Rufus said; so Chad would not go with them that night, but would come out next +day. + +"I owe my son's life to you, Captain Buford," said Mrs. Dean, with trembling +lip, "and you must make our house your home while you are here. I bring that +message to you from Harry and Margaret. I know and they know now all you have +done for us and all you have tried to do." + +Chad could hardly speak his thanks. He would be in the Bluegrass only a few +days, he stammered, but he would go out to see them next day. That night he +went to the old inn where the Major had taken him to dinner. Next day he hired +a horse from the livery stable where he had bought the old brood mare, and +early in the afternoon he rode out the broad turnpike in a nervous tumult of +feeling that more than once made him halt in the road. He wore his uniform, +which was new, and made him uncomfortable--it looked too much like waving a +victorious flag in the face of a beaten enemy--but it was the only stitch of +clothes he had, and that he might not explain. + +It was the first of May. Just eight years before, Chad with a burning heart +had watched Richard Hunt gayly dancing with Margaret, while the dead +chieftain, Morgan, gayly fiddled for the merry crowd. Now the sun shone as it +did then, the birds sang, the wind shook the happy leaves and trembled through +the budding heads of bluegrass to show that nature had known no war and that +her mood was never other than of hope and peace. But there were no fat cattle +browsing in the Dean pastures now, no flocks of Southdown sheep with frisking +lambs The worm fences had lost their riders and were broken down here and +there. The gate sagged on its hinges; the fences around yard and garden and +orchard had known no whitewash for years; the paint on the noble old house was +cracked and peeling, the roof of the barn was sunken in, and the cabins of the +quarters were closed, for the hand of war, though unclinched, still lay heavy +on the home of the Deans. Snowball came to take his horse. He was respectful, +but his white teeth did not flash the welcome Chad once had known. Another +horse stood at the hitching-post and on it was a cavalry saddle and a rebel +army blanket, and Chad did not have to guess whose it might be. From the +porch, Dan shouted and came down to meet him, and Harry hurried to the door, +followed by Mrs. Dean. Margaret was not to be seen, and Chad was glad--he +would have a little more time for self-control. She did not appear even when +they were seated in the porch until Dan shouted for her toward the garden; and +then looking toward the gate Chad saw her coming up the garden walk bare- +headed, dressed in white, with flowers in her hand; and walking by her side, +looking into her face and talking earnestly, was Richard Hunt. The sight of +him nerved Chad at once to steel. Margaret did not lift her face until she was +half-way to the porch, and then she stopped suddenly. + +"Why, there's Major Buford," Chad heard her say, and she came on ahead, +walking rapidly. Chad felt the blood in his face again, and as he watched +Margaret nearing him--pale, sweet, frank, gracious, unconscious--it seemed +that he was living over again another scene in his life when he had come from +the mountains to live with old Major Buford; and, with a sudden prayer that +his past might now be wiped as clean as it was then, he turned from Margaret's +hand-clasp to look into the brave, searching eyes of Richard Hunt and feel his +sinewy fingers in a grip that in all frankness told Chad plainly that between +them, at least, one war was not quite over yet. + +"I am glad to meet you, Major Buford, in these piping times of peace." + +"And I am glad to meet you, General Hunt--only in times of peace," Chad said, +smiling. + +The two measured each other swiftly, calmly. Chad had a mighty admiration for +Richard Hunt. Here was a man who knew no fight but to the finish, who would +die as gamely in a drawing-room as on a battle-field. To think of him--a +brigadier-general at twenty-seven, as undaunted, as unbeaten as when he heard +the first bullet of the war whistle, and, at that moment, as good an American +as Chadwick Buford or any Unionist who had given his life for his cause! Such +a foe thrilled Chad, and somehow he felt that Margaret was measuring them as +they were measuring each other. Against such a man what chance had he? + +He would have been comforted could he have known Richard Hunt's thoughts, for +that gentleman had gone back to the picture of a ragged mountain boy in old +Major Buford's carriage, one court day long ago, and now he was looking that +same lad over from the visor of his cap down his superb length to the heels of +his riding-boots. His eyes rested long on Chad's face. The change was +incredible, but blood had told. The face was highly bred, clean, frank, nobly +handsome; it had strength and dignity, and the scar on his cheek told a story +that was as well known to foe as to friend. + +"I have been wanting to thank you, not only for trying to keep us out of that +infernal prison after the Ohio raid, but for trying to get us out. Harry here +told me. That was generous." + +"That was nothing," said Chad. "You forget, you could have killed me once +and--and you didn't." Margaret was listening eagerly. + +"You didn't give me time," laughed General Hunt. + +"Oh, yes, I did. I saw you lift your pistol and drop it again. I have never +ceased to wonder why you did that." + +Richard Hunt laughed. "Perhaps I'm sorry sometimes that I did," he said, with +a certain dryness. + +"Oh, no, you aren't, General," said Margaret. + +Thus they chatted and laughed and joked together above the sombre tide of +feeling that showed in the face of each if it reached not his tongue, for, +when the war was over, the hatchet in Kentucky was buried at once and buried +deep. Son came back to father, brother to brother, neighbor to neighbor; +political disabilities were removed and the sundered threads, unravelled by +the war, were knitted together fast. That is why the postbellum terrors of +reconstruction were practically unknown in the State. The negroes scattered, +to be sure, not from disloyalty so much as from a feverish desire to learn +whether they really could come and go as they pleased. When they learned that +they were really free, most of them drifted back to the quarters where they +were born, and meanwhile the white man's hand that had wielded the sword went +just as bravely to the plough, and the work of rebuilding war-shattered ruins +began at once. Old Mammy appeared, by and by, shook hands with General Hunt +and made Chad a curtsey of rather distant dignity. She had gone into exile +with her "chile" and her "ole Mistis" and had come home with them to stay, +untempted by the doubtful sweets of freedom. "Old Tom, her husband, had +remained with Major Buford, was with him on his deathbed," said Margaret, "and +was on the place still, too old, he said, to take root elsewhere." + +Toward the middle of the afternoon Dan rose and suggested that they take a +walk about the place. Margaret had gone in for a moment to attend to some +household duty, and as Richard Hunt was going away next day he would stay, he +said, with Mrs. Dean, who was tired and could not join them. The three walked +toward the dismantled barn where the tournament had taken place and out into +the woods. Looking back, Chad saw Margaret and General Hunt going slowly +toward the garden, and he knew that some crisis was at hand between the two. +He had hard work listening to Dan and Harry as they planned for the future, +and recalled to each other and to him the incidents of their boyhood. Harry +meant to study law, he said, and practise in Lexington; Dan would stay at home +and run the farm. Neither brother mentioned that the old place was heavily +mortgaged, but Chad guessed the fact and it made him heartsick to think of the +struggle that was before them and of the privations yet in store for Mrs. Dean +and Margaret. + +"Why don't you, Chad?" + +"Do what?" + +"Stay here and study law," Harry smiled. "We'll go into partnership." + +Chad shook his head. "No," he said, decisively. "I've already made up my mind. +I'm going West." + +"I'm sorry," said Harry, and no more; he had learned long ago how useless it +was to combat any purpose of Chadwick Buford. + +General Hunt and Margaret were still away when they got back to the house. In +fact, the sun was sinking when they came in from the woods, still walking +slowly, General Hunt talking earnestly and Margaret with her hands clasped +before her and her eyes on the path. The faces of both looked pale, even that +far away, but when they neared the porch, the General was joking and Margaret +was smiling, nor was anything perceptible to Chad when he said good-by, except +a certain tenderness in his tone and manner toward Margaret, and one fleeting +look of distress in her clear eyes. He was on his horse now, and was lifting +his cap. + +"Good-by, Major," he said. "I'm glad you got through the war alive. Perhaps +I'll tell you some day why I didn't shoot you that morning." And then he rode +away, a gallant, knightly figure, across the pasture. At the gate he waved his +cap and at a gallop was gone. + +After supper, a heaven-born chance led Mrs. Dean to stroll out into the lovely +night. Margaret rose to go too, and Chad followed. The same chance, perhaps, +led old Mammy to come out on the porch and call Mrs. Dean back. Chad and +Margaret walked on toward the stiles where still hung Margaret's +weather-beaten Stars and Bars. The girl smiled and touched the flag. + +"That was very nice of you to salute me that morning. I never felt so bitter +against Yankees after that day. I'll take it down now," and she detached it +and rolled it tenderly about the slender staff. + +"That was not my doing," said Chad, "though if I had been Grant, and there +with the whole Union army, I would have had it salute you. I was under orders, +but I went back for help. May I carry it for you?" + +"Yes," said Margaret, handing it to him. Chad had started toward the garden, +but Margaret turned him toward the stile and they walked now down through the +pasture toward the creek that ran like a wind-shaken ribbon of silver under +the moon. + +"Won't you tell me something about Major Buford? I've been wanting to ask, but +I simply hadn't the heart. Can't we go over there tonight? I want to see the +old place, and I must leave to-morrow." + +"To-morrow!" said Margaret. "Why--I--I was going to take you over there +to-morrow, for I--but, of course, you must go to-night if it is to be your +only chance." + +And so, as they walked along, Margaret told Chad of the old Major's last days, +after he was released from prison, and came home to die. She went to see him +every day, and she was at his bedside when he breathed his last. He had +mortgaged his farm to help the Confederate cause and to pay indemnity for a +guerilla raid, and Jerome Conners held his notes for large amounts. + +"The lawyer told me that he believed some of the notes were forged, but he +couldn't prove it. He says it is doubtful if more than the house and a few +acres will be left." A light broke in on Chad's brain. + +"He told you?" + +Margaret blushed. "He left all he had to me," she said, simply. + +"I'm so glad," said Chad. + +"Except a horse which belongs to you. The old mare is dead." + +"Dear old Major!" + +At the stone fence Margaret reached for the flag. + +"We'll leave it here until we come back," she said, dropping it in a shadow. +Somehow the talk of Major Buford seemed to bring them nearer together--so near +that once Chad started to call her by her first name and stopped when it had +half passed his lips. Margaret smiled. + +"The war is over," she said, and Chad spoke eagerly: + +"And you'll call me?" + +"Yes, Chad." + +The very leaves over Chad's head danced suddenly, and yet the girl was so +simple and frank and kind that the springing hope in his breast was as quickly +chilled. + +"Did he ever speak of me except about business matters?" + +"Never at all at first," said Margaret, blushing again incomprehensively, "but +he forgave you before he died." + +"Thank God for that!" + +"And you will see what he did for you--the last thing of his life." + +They were crossing the field now. + +"I have seen Melissa," said Margaret, suddenly. Chad was so startled that he +stopped in the path. + +"She came all the way from the mountains to ask if you were dead, and to tell +me about--about your mother. She had just learned it, she said, and she did +not know that you knew. And I never let her know that I knew, since I supposed +you had some reason for not wanting her to know." + +"I did," said Chad, sadly, but he did not tell his reason. Melissa would never +have learned the one thing from him as Margaret would not learn the other now. + +"She came on foot to ask about you and to defend you against--against me. And +she went back afoot. She disappeared one morning before we got up. She seemed +very ill, too, and unhappy. She was coughing all the time, and I wakened one +night and heard her sobbing, but she was so sullen and fierce that I was +almost afraid of her. Next morning she was gone. I would have taken her part +of the way home myself. Poor thing!" Chad was walking with his head bent. + +"I'm going down to see her before I go West." + +"You are going West--to live?" + +"Yes." + +They had reached the yard gate now which creaked on rusty hinges when Chad +pulled it open. The yard was running wild with plantains, the gravelled walk +was overgrown, the house was closed, shuttered, and dark, and the spirit of +desolation overhung the place, but the ruin looked gentle in the moonlight. +Chad's throat hurt and his eyes filled. + +"I want to show you now the last thing he did," said Margaret. Her eyes +lighted with tenderness and she led him wondering down through the tangled +garden to the old family graveyard. + +"Climb over and look, Chad," she said, leaning over the wall. + +There was the grave of the Major's father which he knew so well; next that, to +the left, was a new mound under which rested the Major himself. To the right +was a stone marked "Chadwick Buford, born in Virginia, 1750, died in +Kentucky"--and then another stone marked simply: + +Mary Buford. + +"He had both brought from the mountains," said Margaret, softly, "and the last +time he was out of the house was when he leaned here to watch them buried +there. He said there would always be a place next your mother for you. 'Tell +the boy that,' he said." Chad put his arms around the tombstone and then sank +on one knee by his mother's grave. It was strewn with withered violets. + +"You--YOU did that, Margaret?" + +Margaret nodded through her tears. + +. . . . . . . + + +The wonder of it! They stood very still, looking for a long time into each +other's eyes. Could the veil of the hereafter have been lifted for them at +that moment and they have seen themselves walking that same garden path, hand +in hand, their faces seamed with age to other eyes, but changed in not a line +to them, the vision would not have added a jot to their perfect faith. They +would have nodded to each other and smiled--"Yes, we know, we know!" The +night, the rushing earth, the star-swept spaces of the infinite held no +greater wonder than was theirs--they held no wonder at all. The moon shone, +that night, for them; the wind whispered, leaves danced, flowers nodded, and +crickets chirped from the grass for them; the farthest star kept eternal lids +apart just for them and beyond, the Maker himself looked down, that night, +just to bless them. + +Back they went through the old garden, hand in hand. No caress had ever passed +between these two. That any man could ever dare even to dream of touching her +sacred lips had been beyond the boy's imaginings--such was the reverence in +his love for her--and his very soul shook when, at the gate, Margaret's eyes +dropped from his to the sabre cut on his cheek and she suddenly lifted her +face. + +"I know how you got that, Chad," she said, and with her lips she gently +touched the scar. Almost timidly the boy drew her to him. Again her lips were +lifted in sweet surrender, and every wound that he had known in his life was +healed. + +. . . . . . + +"I'll show you your horse, Chad." + +They did not waken old Tom, but went around to the stable and Chad led out a +handsome colt, his satiny coat shining in the moonlight like silver. He lifted +his proud head, when he saw Margaret, and whinnied. + +"He knows his mistress, Margaret--and he's yours." + +"Oh, no, Chad." + +"Yes," said Chad, "I've still got Dixie." + +"Do you still call her Dixie?" + +"All through the war." + +Homeward they went through the dewy fields. + +"I wish I could have seen the Major before he died. If he could only have +known how I suffered at causing him so much sorrow. And if you could have +known." + +"He did know and so did I--later. All that is over now." + +They had reached the stone wall and Chad picked up the flag again. + +"This is the only time I have ever carried this flag, unless I--unless it had +been captured." + +"You had captured it, Chad." + +"There?" Chad pointed to the stile and Margaret nodded. + +"There--here everywhere." + +Seated on the porch, Mrs. Dean and Harry and Dan saw them coming across the +field and Mrs. Dean sighed. + +"Father would not say a word against it, mother," said the elder boy, "if he +were here." + +"No," said Dan, "not a word." + +"Listen, mother," said Harry, and he told the two about Chad's ride for Dan +from Frankfort to Lexington. "He asked me not to tell. He did not wish +Margaret to know. And listen again, mother. In a skirmish one day we were +fighting hand to hand. I saw one man with his pistol levelled at me and +another with his sabre lifted on Chad. He saw them both. My pistol was empty, +and do you know what he did? He shot the man who was about to shoot me instead +of his own assailant. That is how he got that scar. I did tell Margaret that." + +"Yes, you must go down in the mountain first," Margaret was saying, "and see +if there is anything you can do for the people who were so good to you--and to +see Melissa. I am worried about her." + +"And then I must come back to you?" + +"Yes, you must come back to see me once more if you can. And then some day you +will come again and buy back the Major's farm" -- she stopped, blushing. "I +think that was his wish Chad, that you and I--but I would never let him say +it." + +"And if that should take too long?" + +"I will come to you, Chad," said Margaret. + +Old Mammy came out on the porch as they were climbing the stile. + +"Ole Miss," she said, indignantly, "my Tom say that he can't get nary a +triflin' nigger to come out hyeh to wuk, an' ef that cawnfiel' ain't ploughed +mighty soon, it's gwine to bu'n up." + +"How many horses are there on the place, Mammy?" asked Dan. + +"Hosses!" sniffed the old woman. "They ain't NARY a hoss--nothin' but two ole +broken-down mules." + +"Well, I'll take one and start a plough myself," said Harry. + +"And I'll take the other," said Dan. + +Mammy groaned. + +. . . . . . + +And still the wonder of that night to Chad and Margaret! + +"It was General Hunt who taught me to understand--and forgive. Do you know +what he said? That every man, on both sides, was right--who did his duty." + +"God bless him," said Chad. + + + +CHAPTER 31. THE WESTWARD WAY + +Mother Turner was sitting in the porch with old Jack at her feet when Chad and +Dixie came to the gate--her bonnet off, her eyes turned toward the West. The +stillness of death lay over the place, and over the strong old face some +preternatural sorrow. She did not rise when she saw Chad, she did not speak +when he spoke. She turned merely and looked at him with a look of helpless +suffering. She knew the question that was on his lips, for she dumbly motioned +toward the door and then put her trembling hands on the railing of the porch +and bent her face down on them. With sickening fear, Chad stepped on the +threshold--cap in hand--and old Jack followed, whimpering. As his eyes grew +accustomed to the dark interior, he could see a sheeted form on a bed in the +corner and, on the pillow, a white face. + +"Melissa!" he called, brokenly. A groan from the porch answered him, and, as +Chad dropped to his knees, the old woman sobbed aloud. + +In low tones, as though in fear they might disturb the dead girl's sleep, the +two talked on the porch. Brokenly, the old woman told Chad how the girl had +sickened and suffered with never a word of complaint. How, all through the +war, she had fought his battles so fiercely that no one dared attack him in +her hearing. How, sick as she was, she had gone, that night, to save his life. +How she had nearly died from the result of cold and exposure and was never the +same afterward. How she worked in the house and in the garden to keep their +bodies and souls together, after the old hunter was shot down and her boys +were gone to the war. How she had learned the story of Chad's mother from old +Nathan Cherry's daughter and how, when the old woman forbade her going to the +Bluegrass, she had slipped away and gone afoot to clear his name. And then the +old woman led Chad to where once had grown the rose-bush he had brought +Melissa from the Bluegrass, and pointed silently to a box that seemed to have +been pressed a few inches into the soft earth, and when Chad lifted it, he saw +under it the imprint of a human foot--his own, made that morning when he held +out a rose-leaf to her and she had struck it from his hand and turned him, as +an enemy, from her door. + +Chad silently went inside and threw open the window to let the last sunlight +in: and he sat there, with his face as changeless as the still face on the +pillow, sat there until the sun went down and the darkness came in and closed +softly about her. She had died, the old woman said, with his name on her lips. + +. . . . . . + +Dolph and Rube had come back and they would take good care of the old mother +until the end of her days. But. Jack--what should be done with Jack? The old +dog could follow him no longer. He could live hardly more than another year, +and the old mother wanted him--to remind her, she said, of Chad and of +Melissa, who had loved him. He patted his faithful old friend tenderly and, +when he mounted Dixie, late the next afternoon, Jack started to follow him. + +"No, Jack," said Chad, and he rode on, with his eyes blurred. On the top of +the steep mountain he dismounted, to let his horse rest a moment, and sat on a +log, looking toward the sun. He could not go back to Margaret and +happiness--not now. It seemed hardly fair to the dead girl down in the valley. +He would send Margaret word, and she would understand. + +Once again he was starting his life over afresh, with his old capital, a +strong body and a stout heart. In his breast still burned the spirit that had +led his race to the land, had wrenched it from savage and from king, had made +it the high temple of Liberty for the worship of freemen--the Kingdom Come for +the oppressed of the earth--and, himself the unconscious Shepherd of that +Spirit, he was going to help carry its ideals across a continent Westward to +another sea and on--who knows--to the gates of the rising sun. An eagle swept +over his head, as he rose, and the soft patter of feet sounded behind him. It +was Jack trotting after him. He stooped and took the old dog in his arms. + +"Go back home, Jack!" he said. + +Without a whimper, old Jack slowly wheeled, but he stopped and turned again +and sat on his haunches--looking back. + +"Go home, Jack!" Again the old dog trotted down the path and once more he +turned. + +"Home, Jack!" said Chad. + +The eagle was a dim, black speck in the band of yellow that lay over the rim +of the sinking sun, and after its flight, horse and rider took the westward +way. + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE LITTLE SHEPHERD OF KINGDOM COME *** + +This file should be named lsokc11.txt or lsokc11.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, lsokc12.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, lsokc11a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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