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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Crestlands, by Mary Addams Bayne
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Crestlands
+ A Centennial Story of Cane Ridge
+
+Author: Mary Addams Bayne
+
+Illustrator: O. A. Stemler
+
+Release Date: March 14, 2010 [EBook #31640]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CRESTLANDS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by David Garcia and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Kentuckiana Digital Library)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: _Abner gently checked his mare, and sat watching her._]
+
+
+
+
+CRESTLANDS
+
+_A Centennial Story of Cane Ridge_
+
+
+
+BY
+
+MARY ADDAMS BAYNE
+
+
+
+_Illustrated by O. A. Stemler_
+
+
+
+THE STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
+CINCINNATI, OHIO
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1907, BY
+THE STANDARD PUBLISHING CO.
+CINCINNATI, O.
+
+
+
+
+DEDICATION
+
+_To my husband, J. C. Bayne, who in this, as in all else I have
+attempted, has given loving, loyal, unstinted support and
+encouragement._
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+ PAGE
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE COMING OF THE SCHOOLMASTER 1
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+GETTING TO WORK 19
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CANE RIDGE MEETING-HOUSE 27
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WINTER SCHOOL-DAYS 38
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+"SETTIN' TILL BEDTIME" 42
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO 59
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE "HOUSE-RAISIN'" 69
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM 75
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE GREAT REVIVAL 78
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+AFTERNOON IN THE GROVE 82
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+LIGHT DAWNS 91
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+COMMENT AND CRITICISM 96
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+COURT DAY 103
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+BETSY SAYS "WAIT" 107
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE WAITING-TIME 113
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A SINGULAR WILL 120
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+AT CANE RIDGE AGAIN 130
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+DRAKE PRACTICES PENMANSHIP 135
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE BETROTHAL 141
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE LONE GRAVE IN THE MOUNTAINS 151
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+GILCREST'S ATTITUDE 159
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+BANISHMENT 169
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+MASON ROGERS' DIPLOMACY 173
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE BAR SINISTER 181
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE PACKAGE OF OLD LETTERS 190
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+SPRINGFIELD PRESBYTERY 199
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+BETSY DECLINES THE HONOR 203
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+AT THE BLUE HERON 213
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+AUNT DILSEY TO THE RESCUE 221
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+YOUNG LOCHINVAR 228
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+A NOVEL BRIDAL TOUR 232
+
+CHAPTER XXXII.
+
+EXIT JAMES ANSON DRANE 241
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE STRANGER PREACHER 252
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE CUP OF COLD WATER 258
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+CONCLUSION 263
+
+APPENDIX 269
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+ PAGE
+
+1. Abner gently checked his mare, and sat
+ watching her _Frontispiece_
+
+2. Cane Ridge Meeting-house 27
+
+3. Portrait of Barton Warren Stone 113
+
+4. "I have come for my answer, Betty" 143
+
+5. At this juncture the door was flung open by old Dilsey 225
+
+6. The bridal equipage comes to grief 236
+
+
+
+
+PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS.
+
+
+Abner Dudley (Logan,) a young schoolmaster from Virginia.
+
+Major Gilcrest, ex-Revolutionary soldier and prominent churchman.
+
+Mason Rogers, pioneer settler and warm advocate of Barton Stone.
+
+Barton Warren Stone, preacher at Cane Ridge meeting-house.
+
+James Anson Drane, young lawyer and land agent.
+
+Betsy Gilcrest, only daughter of Major and Mrs. Gilcrest.
+
+Abby Patterson, niece of Major Gilcrest.
+
+Sarah Jane Gilcrest, wife of Major Gilcrest.
+
+Cynthia Ann Rogers, bustling wife of Mason Rogers.
+
+Aunt Dilsey, negro nurse and under-house keeper at Oaklands.
+
+
+MINOR CHARACTERS.
+
+David Purviance, Simon Lucky, Matthew Houston, Wm. Trabue, Shadrac
+Landrum, Thomas Hinkson, members of Cane Ridge Church.
+
+Richard McNemar, tried by synod for heresy.
+
+General Wilkinson, Judge Innes, Judge Murray, Judge Sebastian, supposed
+Spanish intriguants.
+
+Graham, detective in employ of Federal Government.
+
+Henry Clay and Joseph Hamilton Daviess, opposing counsel in the Burr
+trial.
+
+Polly Hinkson and Molly Trabue, rustic belles.
+
+Richard Dudley, of Virginia, foster-father of Abner Dudley (Logan.)
+
+John Calvin, Martin Luther, Silas, Philip, Matthew, sons of Major and
+Mrs. Gilcrest.
+
+Henry, Susan, Lucindy, Lucy, Tommy, Barton, the six children of Mason
+and Cynthia Ann Rogers.
+
+Uncle Tony, Rube, Tom, Rache, Aunt Dink, slaves belonging to the
+Rogerses.
+
+
+
+
+CRESTLANDS
+
+_A Story of Early Kentucky_
+
+
+MARY ADDAMS BAYNE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE COMING OF THE SCHOOLMASTER
+
+
+The spirit of Indian Summer, enveloped in a delicate bluish haze,
+pervaded the Kentucky forest. Through the treetops sounded a sighing
+minor melody as now and then a leaf bade adieu to the companions of its
+summer revels, and sought its winter's rest on the ground beneath. On a
+fallen log a redbird sang with jubilant note. What cared he for the
+lament of the leaves? True, he must soon depart from this summer home;
+but only to wing his way to brighter skies, and then return when
+mating-time should come again. Near a group of hickory-trees a colony
+of squirrels gathered their winter store of nuts; and a flock of wild
+turkeys led by a pompous, bearded gobbler picked through the
+underbrush. At a wayside puddle a deer bent his head to slake his
+thirst, but scarcely had his lips touched the water when his head was
+reared again. For an instant he listened, limbs quivering, nostrils
+dilating, a startled light in his soft eyes; then with a bound he was
+away into the depths of the forest. The turkeys, heeding the tocsin of
+alarm from their leader, sought the shelter of the deeper undergrowth;
+the squirrels dropped their nuts and found refuge in the topmost
+branches of the tree which they had just pilfered; but the redbird,
+undisturbed, went on with his caroling, too confident in his own beauty
+and the charm of his song to fear any intruder.
+
+The cause of alarm was a horseman whose approach had been proclaimed by
+the crackling of dried twigs in the bridle-path he was traversing. He
+was an erect, broad-shouldered, dark-eyed young man with ruddy
+complexion, clear-cut features, and a well-formed chin. A rifle lay
+across his saddle-bow, and behind him was a pair of bulky saddle-bags.
+He wore neither the uncouth garb of the hunter nor the plain homespun
+of the settler, but rather the dress of the Virginian cavalier of the
+period, although his hair, instead of being tied in a queue, was short,
+and curled loosely about his finely shaped head. The broad brim of his
+black hat was cocked in front by a silver boss; the gray traveler's
+cape, thrown back, revealed a coat of dark blue, a waistcoat ornamented
+with brass buttons, and breeches of the same color as the coat,
+reaching to the knees, and terminating in a black cloth band with
+silver buckles.
+
+He rode rapidly along the well-defined bridle-way, and soon emerged
+into a broader thoroughfare. Presently he heard the high-pitched,
+quavering notes of a negro melody, faint at first and seeming as much a
+part of nature as the russet glint of the setting sun through the
+trees. The song grew louder as he advanced, until, emerging into an
+open space, he came upon the singer, a gray-haired negro trudging
+sturdily along with a stout hickory stick in his hand. The negro doffed
+his cap and bowed humbly.
+
+"Marstah, hez you seed anythin' ob a spotted heifer wid one horn broke
+off, anywhars on de road? She's pushed down de bars an' jes' skipped
+off somewhars."
+
+"No, uncle, I've met no stray cows; but can you tell me how far it is
+to Major Hiram Gilcrest's? I'm a stranger in this region."
+
+"Major Gilcrest's!" exclaimed the darkey. "You'se done pass de turnin'
+whut leads dar. Didn' you see a lane forkin' off 'bout a mile back by
+de crick, close to de big 'simmon-tree? Dat's de lane whut leads to
+Marstah Gilcrest's, suh."
+
+"Ah, I see! but perhaps you can direct me to Mister Mason Rogers'
+house? My business is with him as well as with Major Gilcrest."
+
+"I shorely kin," answered the negro, with a grin. "I b'longs to Marse
+Mason; I'se his ole uncle Tony. We libs two mile fuddah down dis heah
+same road, an' ef you wants to see my marstah an' Marstah Gilcrest
+bofe, you might ez well see Marse Mason fust, anyways; kaze whutevah he
+say, Marse Hiram's boun' to say, too. Dey's mos' mighty thick."
+
+The stranger turned his head to hide a momentary smile.
+
+"You jes' ride straight on," continued Uncle Tony, pointing northward
+with his stick; "fus' you comes to a big log house wid de shettahs all
+barred up, settin' by itse'f a leetle back frum de road, wid a woods
+all roun' it--dat's Cane Redge meetin'-house. Soon's you pass it, you
+comes to de big spring, den to a dirty leetle cabin whar dem pore white
+trash, de Simminses, libs. Den you strikes a cawnfiel', den a orchid.
+Den you'se dar. De dawgs an' chickens will sot up a tur'ble rumpus, but
+you jes' ride up to de stile an' holler, 'Hello!' an' some dem
+no-'count niggahs'll tek yo' nag an' construct you inter Miss Cynthy
+Ann's presence. I'd show you de way myse'f, on'y Is'e bountah fin' dat
+heifer; but you carn't miss de way."
+
+With this he hobbled off down the road in search of the errant heifer.
+Meanwhile our traveler rode steadily forward until, in another
+half-hour, he came in sight of a more prosperous-looking clearing than
+any he had seen since leaving Bourbonton. To the right of the road some
+long-horned cattle and a mare and colt were grazing in a woodland
+pasture; to the left, in a field, several negroes were gathering the
+yellow corn from the shock and heaping it into piles. In an orchard
+adjoining the cornfield a barefooted, freckled-faced little girl was
+standing under an apple-tree with her apron held out to catch the fruit
+which another barefooted, freckled-faced little girl in the branches
+overhead was tossing down to her. In the center of a tree-shaded yard
+stood the house, a spacious, two-story log structure, with a huge rock
+chimney at each end.
+
+As the stranger drew rein at the stile, he was greeted by a chorus of
+dogs, followed instantly by the cries of a number of half-clad,
+grinning little darkeys who came running forward from the negro
+quarters in the rear.
+
+"Doan be skeered o' Ketchum, Mistah; he shan't tech you," called the
+largest of them, a bright-skinned mulatto, quieting the snarling dog
+with a kick.
+
+"Reckon Marse Mason's somewhars 'roun' de place, suh," added the darkey
+in answer to the traveler's inquiry. "Miss Cynthy Ann she's in de
+settin'-room. Jes' walk in dar tru de passage-way, an' knock at de fust
+door you comes to. I'll tek yo' hoss, suh."
+
+The stranger crossed the low, clapboard-covered porch and entered a
+wide, dusky hall running through the entire length of the house. The
+hum of a spinning-wheel guided him to a side door, at which he knocked.
+In answer to a loud "Come in," he stepped into a large room made
+cheerful by a gay rag carpet on the floor. A comely, middle-aged woman
+sat at a side window, at work with her needle on some coarse homespun
+material. Near her a bright-faced, rosy-cheeked girl, clad in short,
+linsey dress and homespun apron, had charge of the spinning-wheel in
+the center of the room. In one corner a negro girl was carding wool;
+and on the wide rock hearth two little boys were parching corn in a
+skillet.
+
+"Glad to see you, suh," exclaimed Mrs. Rogers heartily, hastening
+toward the stranger with outstretched hand. "Susan," she said to the
+spinner, who came forward with a modest courtesy and a shy "Good
+evenin'," "set a cheer an' tek the gentleman's hat. Rache"--to the
+negro--"put by yer cardin' an' tek thet spinnin'-wheel out to the
+loom-room. Tommy an' Buddy, stop litt'rin' up the h'arth, an' run wash
+yer faces. Heah, tek this skillet with you, an' then see ef you kin
+find yer pap. He's down whar they're geth'rin' cawn, I reckon."
+
+Seizing a split broom as she spoke, she brushed the hearth, then gave a
+tap with her foot to the smouldering logs, which broke into a blaze and
+sent a shower of sparks up the wide chimney.
+
+"The days is gittin' cooler, 'spesh'ly ez night comes on. Draw up to
+the fire, suh--an', heah, tek this cheer; it's comf'tabler then
+that'n'," she said hospitably, ejecting a big tortoise-shell cat from
+the depths of a cushioned rocker which she pulled forward.
+
+"My name is Dudley, madam; Abner Dudley," said the guest as he
+exchanged the straight, split-bottom chair for the rocker. "I learned
+from Squire Osborne, of Bourbonton, that a teacher was wanted in this
+neighborhood. I had intended going to Major Gilcrest's to-night, but
+made the wrong turning, and then met your old servant, who directed me
+here."
+
+"You're welcome, I'm shore, 'spesh'ly ef you're a schoolmastah. We'd
+begun to think we warn't to hev no school a'tall this wintah. Folks
+'roun' heah air beginnin' to tek big stock in schoolin'," she went on
+as she resumed her seat and began to sew.
+
+"So Squire Osborne told me," answered Dudley. "I'm glad the people are
+interested in educational matters."
+
+"Yes; Mr. Rogers, Hirum Gilcrest an' John Trabue air plum daft about
+it. Preachah Stone said last time he preached fur us thet we sartainly
+air progressin', an' I'm glad on it, too, though I never hed edvantiges
+myse'f. When I wuz a little gal down in Car'liny, I went to school long
+'nough to l'arn my a-b-c's. Then the redskins broke up the school, an'
+we didn't hev no more tell I wuz a big gal an' 'shamed to go an' l'arn
+my a-b abs 'long with the little shavers. When I wuz 'bout sixteen,
+'long comes Mr. Rogers, an' I didn't keer nothin' more 'bout school.
+You know, when a gal gits marryin' in her haid, thar ain't no room left
+in it fur book-l'arnin'. Mason he wuz a sprightly, well-sot-up young
+fellah, an' soon's I laid eyes on him (it wuz at a house-raisin'
+party), I wuz ready to say 'snip' ez soon ez he'd say 'snap.' Folks
+them days didn't fool 'way much time a-courtin'. A man'd see a likely
+gal, an' soon's he'd got a piece o' ground cl'ared an' a cabin raised,
+they'd be ready to splice. So Mason an' me wuz married, an' moved up to
+Kaintuck. Thet fust wintah, while we wuz a-livin' in the fort, Mason he
+broke his laig out huntin', an' while he wuz laid up a spaill, he
+l'arned me to read an' write an' ciphah some. I reckon ef it hadn't 'a'
+been fur thet crippled laig o' his'n, I'd nevah l'arned even thet
+much." She dropped her work for a moment as she reviewed this incident
+of her early married life.
+
+"Doubtless, madam, you underrate your stock of learning. I dare say you
+made rapid progress," said Dudley, politely.
+
+"Oh, I l'arned the readin' an' writin' all right, but, la! I nevah hed
+no haid fur figgahs. I jogged 'long purty brisk with the addin' an'
+subtractin', but them multiplyin' tables floored me. To this day I
+allus staggers at the nines, an' ef you wuz to ax me how much wuz seven
+times nine, I'd haf to count on my fingahs before I could tell whuthah
+it made forty-eight or fifty-seven--though I know it's one or tuthah.
+But times is changed, an' I want my childurn edicated in all the
+accompaniments."
+
+"How many children have you?"
+
+"Six livin'. We lost our fust two. Henry is goin' on seventeen, an' he
+jes' natch'ally teks to books--knows more'n his pap now, I reckon. Why,
+he kin figgah ez fast ez I kin ravel out a piece o' knittin', an' I
+nevah in my borned days heard nobody, 'cept mayby Preachah Stone, whut
+could read lak him. He kin run 'long ovah them big names in the papah
+an' them generalgies in the Bible lak a racin' pony. Susan, our eldest
+gal, is a little the rise o' fourteen, an' wuz counted the best spellah
+in the school last wintah. The twins, Lucindy an' Lucy, air real peart,
+too, fur ther age, jes' turned intah ther ninth year. Tommy, he's only
+five, but his pap'll sign him, too; fur we want him brung 'long fast in
+his books befoh he's big 'nough to holp with the wuck."
+
+"That leaves only your youngest, I believe," said Dudley. "What is his
+name?"
+
+"His real name is Barton Warren Stone, aftah our preachah. Mason he
+sets a big store by Preachah Stone--says he's the godliest man to be so
+smart an' the smartest man to be so godly he evah seen; an' you know
+them two things don't allus jump togethah."
+
+"No, indeed," acknowledged Dudley; "they're not so often found in
+company as one might wish."
+
+"Jes' so," assented Mrs. Rogers. "Well, ez I was a-sayin', Brothah
+Stone hed been preachin' fur us onct a month at Cane Redge
+meetin'-house 'bout a year when our youngest wuz borned; an' nothin'
+would do Mason but he must be called fur the preachah. It's a
+well-soundin' name, I think myse'f. So we writ it down in the big
+Bible, but, la! he might ez well be called aftah Ebenezer or Be'lzebub
+or any the rest o' them Ole Testament prophets. 'Bart,' or 'Barty,' is
+all he evah gits o' his big name, an' most times it's jes' 'Sonny' or
+'Buddy.' But I reckon you're nigh 'bout starved, aftah ridin' so fur,"
+she added, folding her sewing and rising briskly. "Heah, you kin look
+ovah last week's paper tell the men folks gits in. We air mighty proud
+o' that paper. It's the fust evah printed in Kaintuck. Mason an' Henry
+sets up tell nigh onto nine o'clock readin' it, the fust night aftah it
+comes. It's printed at Lexin'ton by John Bradford. He usetah live out
+heah, but, ten or twelve year ago, he moved intah Lexin'ton an' started
+up the 'Gazette,' an' I reckon it's 'bout the fines' paper whut evah
+wuz; leastways, it makes mighty fine trimmin's fur the cup'od shelves."
+
+When his garrulous hostess had departed, Dudley, instead of reading the
+paper, looked about him. The chinked log walls of the room and the
+stout beams overhead were whitewashed, and the four tiny windows were
+curtained with spotless dimity. The high-posted bedstead was furnished
+with a plump feather bed, a bright patchwork quilt, and fat pillows in
+coarse but well-bleached slips. Underneath the four-poster was a
+trundle-bed with a blue and white checked coverlet. In an angle by the
+fireplace was a three-cornered cupboard, and between the front windows
+stood a chest of drawers with glass knobs. On the chest lay a big
+Bible, a hymn-book, and several more well-thumbed volumes. A large deal
+table with hinged leaves, a rude stand covered with a towel, several
+rush-bottomed chairs, and the rocker constituted the chief items of
+furniture. On the tall mantel, beside a loud-ticking clock, shone
+several brass candlesticks, flanked by a china vase, a turkey wing, and
+a pile of papers. Suspended from a row of pegs near the bed were
+various garments, and over the back doorway a pair of buck horns
+supported a rifle, near which hung a powder-horn.
+
+Presently a heavy step was heard on the loose boards of a back porch.
+"Lucy," called a loud voice from without, "fotch some hot watah and the
+noggin o' soap. Lucindy, find me a towel." Further commands were lost
+in a loud splashing and spluttering; and in a few minutes Mason Rogers,
+red-faced, red-haired, and huge of frame, entered the room, pulling
+down the sleeves of his coarse shirt as he came.
+
+"Howdy? howdy? Glad to see you, suh," he exclaimed, extending his hand.
+"My wife says you're a schoolmarster; and you air ez welcome ez rain to
+a parched cawnfield. Whar'd you say you hailed frum?" He seated himself
+as he spoke, tilting his chair against the mantel.
+
+"From Virginia, sir."
+
+"From Virginny! Then you're twict ez welcome. I wuz borned an' raised
+in the old State myse'f; and I'll allus hev a sneakin' fondness fur
+her, though she wouldn't loose her holt on us ez soon ez she oughter,
+an' she hain't treated us egzactly fair 'bout thet Transylvany College
+bus'ness, nuther."
+
+"Oh," Dudley said pleasantly, "Virginia's the mother State, you know,
+and Kentucky a favorite child whom she grieved to have leave the
+parental roof."
+
+"Well, hev it your own way, suh," answered Rogers, genially, drawing
+from the pocket of his butternut jeans trousers a twist of tobacco and
+helping himself to a generous chew. "'Pears to me, though, she acted
+more lak a stepmother--couldn't manidge us herse'f, but wuz jealous uv
+us settin' up fur ourse'ves. Still, that's all past an' gone. We got
+our freedom ez soon ez it wuz good fur us, I reckon; so I shan't hold
+no gredge agin her--'spesh'ly ez it won't mek a mite o' diffruns to her
+ef I do. Whut part o' Virginny air you frum, suh?"
+
+"Culpeper County, near----"
+
+"Culpeper County!" ejaculated Rogers, bringing his chair to a level
+with a bang and planting a hand on each knee. "Why, thet's my county,
+an' thar ain't another lak it on the livin' airth. Cynthy Ann," he
+called, striding to the back door, "you an' Dink skeer up somethin'
+extry fur suppah, can't you? This young feller's frum Culpeper
+County.--Hi, thar, Eph, give the gentleman's hoss a rubbin' down an' a
+extry good feed, an' let him have the best stall--Whut you say? Dandy
+an' Roan in the best stalls? Turn 'em out, then. Don't stand thar
+scratchin' yer haid an' grinnin' lak a 'possum, but stir yer stumps
+'bout thet hoss!" Returning to his chair and resuming his former
+attitude, he said in a milder tone: "I 'low you b'long to the
+lawyer-makin' class o' schoolmarsters; all the teachers we've had yit
+b'longed to one o' two kinds. Either they wuz jes' school-keepers, kaze
+they wuz too 'tarnal lazy to do anythin' else, or they wuz ambitious
+young fellers whut aimed to mek the schoolmarster's desk a
+steppin'-stone to the jedge's bench. Now, you don't look lak one o' the
+lazy kind; so I reckon you air a sproutin' lawyer, hey?"
+
+"No, sir, I've no ambition of that kind. My intention is to look about,
+while teaching, for a good tract of land. I want to settle in Kentucky,
+not as a lawyer, but as a farmer."
+
+"Now you're talkin' sense! Lawyers an' perfessionals air gittin' ez
+thick in Bourbon an' Fayette ez lice in a niggah's haid. Ev'ry othah
+young fellah you see, ef he hez any book-l'arnin', thinks he's a second
+Patrick Henry or John Hancock. But whut we need hain't more lawyers an'
+sich lak, but more farmahs an' carpentahs an' shoemakahs. An', ez fur
+land, thar's a track uv 'bout three hundurd acres back thar on Hinkson
+Crick whut ole man Lucky, I heah, will sell fur one dollah an' two bits
+a acre--lays well, is well watered an' well timbered, an' the sile
+fairly stinks with richness. All it needs is cl'arin' up. I've been
+castin' longin' eyes on it myse'f, but I couldn't manidge no more land
+jes' now, I reckon. So my advice fur you is to buy uv Lucky right away.
+An', I tell you whut, ef you hain't got money 'nough by you jes' now,
+I'll lend it to you, an' tek a morgitch on the land. I tell you this is
+the fines' country in the univarse--healthy climit, sile thet'll grow
+anything, an', to cap all, the fines' grazin' in the world. Nevah seed
+nothin' lak it! Talk 'bout yer roses an' honeysuckles! they can't hold
+a candle to the grass 'roun' heah. It has a sortah glisten to it an' a
+bluish look when it heads out thet beats any flower thet blows fur
+purty. I hain't no Solomon, nor yit among the prophets; but, mark my
+word, in twenty year from now, this'll be the gairden spot o' creation.
+A clock-tinkah frum Connecticut, whut wuz heah last spring, got sortah
+riled at us, an' said we Kaintucks wuz ez full o' brag ez ef we wuz
+fust cousins to the king of England; but, Lawd! hain't we got reason to
+brag? Hain't ourn a reasonabler conceit then thet uv them ole
+'ristercrats 'roun' Lexin'ton an' Bourbonton, allus talkin' o' ther
+pedergrees, an' ez proud ez though they wuz ascended frum the Sultan o'
+Asia Minor or the Holy Virgus hisse'f?"
+
+"Indeed, you have reason to be proud," agreed Dudley, warmly; "in only
+a few years you have made a howling wilderness to blossom as the rose."
+
+"You may well say this wuz a howlin' wilderness. Why, suh, jes' twenty
+year ago, in the spring o' 1780, when Dan'l Boone come to Kaintuck frum
+Car'liny, 'bout fifty uv us frum thet State come with him, through
+Cumberlan' Gap by the ole Wilderness road, an' we fit Injuns an'
+painters an' copperhaids all 'long the way."
+
+"Did you settle at Boonesborough first?"
+
+"Some did; but me an' Cynthy Ann (we wuz jes' married then) an' the
+Houstons an' Luckys an' Finleys an' Trabues pushed on up to whar
+Bourbonton is now. We built a fort near a big spring, an' called it an'
+the crick near by aftah ole Matt Houston. Thar wuzn't anothah house in
+this region, 'cep' at Bryant Station; and look at us now! Lexin'ton,
+nearly two thousand population--the biggest town in the State--an'
+Bourbonton a-treadin' right 'long on her heels--ovah four hundurd
+people now, an' a-growin' lak a ironweed. But in them ole days the only
+road wuz a big buffalo trail whut hez sence been widened an' wucked up
+inter 'Smith's wagon road,' runnin' 'long nigh Fort Houston; an' we
+settlers would kill buffalo an' sich like, an' tan the hides. Then
+'long in 1784 some uv us concluded, ez the Injun varmints hed 'bout all
+been kilt or skeered away, that we'd open up farms. Boone come 'long
+agin, an' we axed him whar to settle--you know, he'd roamed all ovah
+these parts, an' knowed all the best places. He told us to come out to
+this redge whut sep'rates the waters o' Hinkson an' Stoner Cricks; an'
+he named it Cane Redge, fur, ez he said, the biggest cane an' the
+biggest sugar-trees in Kaintuck growed on it. So we come; an' a
+rough-an'-tumble life it wuz at fust." He crossed the room and drew
+back the curtain from one of the windows. "Thet ole smoke-house out
+thar undah the buckeye-tree wuz my fust home heah, suh. Until aftah the
+fust craps wuz in, none o' the settlers' cabins hed anythin' but dirt
+floors.
+
+"Cissy," he said to Susan, who had just entered, "tell yer ma to git
+out the boughten table-cloth an' them blue chaney dishes--an' say,
+honey, you must set the table in heah. I hain't gwineter sot Mr. Dudley
+down to eat in the kitchen the fust night he breaks bread with us.
+
+"Welt, ez I wuz a-sayin'," he continued to Dudley, resuming his seat,
+"our cabins hed dirt floors, an' the walls warn't chinked; an' ez fur
+winder glass, why, bless yer soul, we hardly knowed thar wuz sich a
+thing. The only cheers we had wuz stools made o' slabs sot on three
+laigs. Our table wuz made the same, an' our bed wuz laid on slabs whut
+rested on poles at the outsides, with the othah eends o' them let in
+between the logs o' the hut. Henry wuz a baby then, an' he wuz rocked
+in a sugar-trough cradle. But, pshaw! heah my tongue's a-runnin' lak a
+bell clappah; I reckon these ole 'membrances don't intrust you much,
+an'----"
+
+"Indeed they do. It is more interesting than a romance. But tell me,
+how did you acquire so many negroes? You surely didn't bring them with
+you?"
+
+"Lawd, no! Why, we wuz pore ez Job's turkey, an' hardly owned a shut to
+our backs, let 'lone niggahs. Aftah the country wuz more cl'ared up,
+folks moved in frum Virginny an' even Pennsylvany, an' brought slaves
+with 'em. Then the Yankee dealers begun to fotch 'em in an' sell 'em at
+Lexin'ton an' Louisville an' Limestone. Rube an' Dink wuz the fust I
+owned--bought 'em o' ole Jake Bledsoe in the spring o' '87. Now I own
+nigh on to twenty darkeys, big an' little. The place is fairly runnin'
+ovah with the lazy imps, an' it keeps me an' Cynthy Ann on the tight
+jump frum sun-up tell dark lookin' aftah 'em."
+
+"How long have you owned Uncle Tony? He talks like a Virginia darkey."
+
+"So he is. He's not only frum my own State, but frum my county an'
+town--ole Lawsonville. Cynthy Ann 'lows Tony's done got the measure o'
+my foot, an' thet I spile him dreadful. I reckon I hev got a sneakin'
+likin' fur his ole black hide; but whut could you expaict when he's the
+only pusson, black or white, I've laid eyes on frum Lawsonville sence I
+run away to Car'liny nigh thirty year ago? I'll tell you sometime how I
+happened on Tony; hain't time now, fur I smell the bacon a-fryin', an'
+I reckon suppah'll be dished up in no time now."
+
+"Did I understand you to say Uncle Tony was from Lawsonville?"
+
+"Egzactly! Do you know the place?"
+
+"Why, it's my native town," said Dudley.
+
+"Whut!" exclaimed Rogers. "Shake agin, suh," striding over to Dudley,
+who also had risen. "Then you're jes' lak my own kin frum this time on.
+Frum Lawsonville!" he repeated, a tear on each swarthy cheek as he
+grasped the young man's hand.
+
+"Say," he continued eagerly, after a moment's silence, "is the ole
+forge whut stood at the crossroads, jes' on the aidge o' the town,
+still thar? And the little brown house jes' behind it with the big
+mulberry-tree in the yard? That's whar I wuz borned, an' many's the
+hoss I've shod at the ole forge.--Tommy." addressing the little boy who
+was passing the door of the room, "run to the spring-house branch an'
+fotch some mint, an' then a gourd o' watah. We'll celebrate with a
+toddy, I reckon, suh," he said to Dudley, as he went to the cupboard
+for a glass, sugar, and a demijohn of whiskey. "Tell me, is ole Jeems
+Little still livin'? He usetah keep the red tavern in the middle uv the
+town. An' say, whut's become o' Si Johnson an' Mack Truman? We wuz boys
+together, an' many's the game we've--Good Lawd!" he broke off joyfully
+as he mixed the toddy, "I hain't been so happy sence the day I wuz
+convarted an' chased the devil outen the persimmon-tree!"
+
+Presently the family and their guest were seated at the supper table
+bedecked in all the splendor of the "boughten cloth" and "blue chaney"
+dishes, and loaded with corn dodgers, roasted potatoes, bacon, hominy,
+pickled cabbage leaves and honey. Just as the others were taking their
+places, Henry Rogers entered, and, after bashfully greeting the
+stranger, took his place at the table. He was a tall, raw-boned,
+sandy-haired lad of seventeen, with stooping shoulders, slouching
+figure, big feet and toilworn hands. His large-featured, freckled face
+was kept from commonplaceness by its frank gray eyes, broad brow, firm
+chin and refined mouth.
+
+"Try an' mek out yer suppah, suh," Mrs. Rogers urged as she handed
+Dudley a cup of steaming coffee. "I'm feared thar ain't much fittin' to
+eat. Ef we'd knowed in time, we might hev killed a shoat."
+
+"Try some o' this middlin'," chimed in Rogers on the other side,
+passing the dish. "Tilt up the plattah an' git some gravy; it's
+better'n the meat. Wish 'twuz time fur 'possum. My mouth fa'rly watahs
+fur a taste o' possum meat. 'Tain't jes' a fashionable dish now, I
+reckon," he continued, reaching out for a potato; "Susan heah kindah
+turns up her nose et 'possum, an' I reckon Mar'm Gilcrest would die
+away et the sight uv 'possum meat on her table, but----"
+
+The mention of Mrs. Gilcrest acted as a challenge to Mrs. Rogers. "Jane
+Gilcrest's a fine somebody to turn up her nose et 'possum! A purty mess
+her table'd be, fur all its silver spoons an' fine chaney, ef she hed
+the settin' uv it.--Tommy, don't spill thet gravy on the tablechoth.
+I'll send you'n' Buddy to the kitchen ef you can't eat lak white
+folks!--She puffs herse'f on bein' a Temple, an' claims they wuz uv the
+bluest blood in Virginny. Frum the way she spouts 'bout her
+generalgies, her fambly tree must be ez fine an' big ez thet ole elm
+down thah by the spring-house; but be thet ez it may, she's a pore limb
+offen any fambly tree, with her sheftless ways.--Rache, fotch in some
+moah hom'ny.--Gilcrest's got the finest house in these parts, and----"
+
+"Yes," interrupted her husband, "the logs is weathahboa'ded an' the
+walls plarstahed, an' thah's big porches with pillahs an' lots o' fine
+fixin's 'roun' the cornish. The weathahboa'din' an' shingles an' door
+an' windah frames wuz brung frum Pittsburg to Limestone on flatboats,
+an' wagoned through frum thah. Sam Carr did the wag'nin'! 'Twuz a big
+undahtakin', but he made money on it."
+
+"The furnicher's ez fine ez the house," went on Mrs. Rogers. "Thar is a
+boughten cairpit in the parlor, an' mahog'ny sofy an' cheers.--Lucindy,
+wipe yer knife on yer bread befoh he'pin' yo'se'f to buttah. Can't I
+nevah l'arn you no mannahs?"
+
+"They have a big music-piece with ivory keys, and Miss Abby's teaching
+Betsy to play on it," said Susan, forgetting her shyness, and her blue
+eyes shining at the recollection of this wonder.
+
+"Yes, it's all mighty fine, an' I'm shore I don't begrudge any uv it:
+an' now thet Miss Abby hez come to live thar an' Betsy's gittin' to be
+a big gal, things is bettah looked aftah," Mrs. Rogers conceded. "The
+heft o' manidgment falls on Betsy an' Miss Abby, fur Jane hain't no
+more faculty then a grasshopper.--Lucy, don't eat with yer fingers lak
+a niggah. Whut's yer knife fur, ef it ain't to eat with?--I wuz ovah
+there last spring, 'long in April or May, an' axed Jane ef she'd got
+her soap grease made up. She looked et me onconsarned lak, an' says she
+really didn't know; ole Dilsey allus looked aftah sich things. Think on
+it! a wife an' mothah an' housekeepah not knowin' ef the year's soap
+grease wuz wucked up--an' it late on in spring, too. Jane she knits
+some, an' she kin do a lot o' fine herrin'-bonin' an' tattin' an'
+tambour wuck; but spinnin' an' weavin' an' mekin' candles an' soap, an'
+sich useful emplements, she don't consarn about no more'n my Lucindy
+an' Lucy.--Henry, ef you eat any more o' thet bacon, you'll be
+squealin' lak a pig, befoh mawnin'. Hev some more honey, Mistah
+Dudley."
+
+After supper was over, the table cleared, and the two little boys
+stowed away in the trundle-bed, the rest of the family gathered about
+the broad hearth.
+
+"Heah." Mrs. Rogers said to the twins, "you don't go to the kitchen to
+play. You fooled 'way so much time out in the orcha'd this evenin' thet
+yer stent hain't nigh done. Set right down on them stools, an' don't
+let me heah a word outen you tell them socks is ready to hev the heel
+sot. Ha'f a finger length more you've both got to knit." She measured
+the unfinished socks, and then handed each little girl her task.
+"Henry, you'll put yer eyes out readin' by thet fire, an' me an' Susan
+needs all the candle-light fur our wuck. 'Pears lak you ain't nevah
+happy 'less you've got yer nose in some book. Heah, Cissy, them
+britches' laigs is ready to seam up. Mek yer stitches good an' tight,
+else you'll haf to rip it all out an' do it ovah. Snuff the candle,
+fust, an' hand me thet hank o' thread an' the shears, befoh you set
+down."
+
+"Le's see," said Rogers to his guest, taking a corncob pipe from the
+mantel and lighting it with a fire coal. "This is Friday, an' school
+oughtah begin Monday. Bettah draw up a subscription paper to-night, an'
+ride 'roun' with it airly to-morrow. I'll send Henry 'long to show you
+the way. Set right down heah by the table an' draw up yer writin's.
+Henry, light anothah candle." As he spoke, he went to the tall chest of
+drawers and took out paper, a bottle of pokeberry ink, and a bunch of
+quills.
+
+"I see you kin mek a pen," he continued, as Dudley took out his knife,
+selected a quill, and proceeded in a businesslike way to point it.
+"Now, whut kind uv a fist do you write? Hope you kin mek all the
+flourishes; ha'f the folks in Bourbon County jedge a man's book
+l'arnin' by the way he writes. That's hunkey-dorey!" he exclaimed,
+looking over the writer's shoulder. "Thet'll fetch 'em!"
+
+When the clock pointed to half-past eight, Mrs. Rogers rolled up her
+work, declaring it time for all honest folks to be abed. "Thar's lots
+o' wuck to be did to-morrow, an' the only way to git it did, is to tek
+a good holt on the day at the start, an' set it squarely on its laigs."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+GETTING TO WORK
+
+
+"This process of 'setting the day on its legs' is certainly a noisy
+one," was Abner's first thought next morning as he awoke in the gray
+dawn to find that the place beside him in the big feather bed had
+already been vacated by Henry.
+
+Above the clatter made by dogs, chickens and geese in the yard below,
+could be heard the stentorian tones of Mason Rogers evoking his black
+myrmidons. "Hi, thar, Rube, Tom, Dink, Eph! Wake up, you lazy
+varmints!" From the negro quarters came, in answer to each name, "Yes,
+suh! Comin', Marstah!" The creaking boards of the back porch, the
+slamming of doors, the clatter of cooking utensils, and the admonishing
+voice of Mrs. Rogers attested that she, too, was taking "holt on the
+day" in earnest.
+
+Dudley slipped into his clothes and hastened down the steep stairway in
+search of such toilet accessories as his attic apartment did not
+afford. When he reached the porch, the twins provided him with a basin
+of water, a "noggin" of lye soap, and a towel; and telling him he would
+find the "coarse comb on the chist of drawers in the settin'-room,"
+hurried to the poultry-yard, where the chickens were already off their
+roosts and clamoring for their morning meal.
+
+His toilet completed, Dudley started for a ramble before breakfast. At
+first a faint pink light began to tinge the eastern sky, but presently,
+from over the crest of the hills across the road, the sun arose like a
+red ball, dispersing the chill gray mist, and the new day, fresh and
+radiant and vibrant with the songs of birds, the crowing and cackling
+of chickens, and the lowing of cattle, was fully inaugurated.
+
+If the stranger found the scene in front of the house quietly
+beautiful, no less interesting was the more homely one to the rear. In
+the stable lot Susan and Rache were each stooping beside a long-horned
+cow, milking. In another enclosure Eph was struggling to head off a
+determined little calf from its mother, a fierce-looking spotted cow
+which a negro woman was trying to milk. At the window of the barn loft
+could be seen a negro man tossing down hay to the horses; and in a lot
+across the way a number of hogs, in answer to Henry's loud "Soo-e-ey,
+soo-e-ey!" came clamoring and squealing for the corn "nubbins" he was
+tossing from the sack across his shoulders.
+
+Soon after breakfast, Abner, accompanied by Henry, set out with the
+subscription paper.
+
+"How many signers did you git?" inquired Rogers that night when the
+family were again assembled around the fire.
+
+"Forty-three down, four more doubtful, and two more promised
+conditionally."
+
+"Who air the conditionals?"
+
+"The Hinkson children."
+
+"Whut's Bushrod Hinkson mekin' conditions fur, I'd lak to know?"
+exclaimed Mrs. Rogers. "I'll bet it's jes' his stinginess. He'd skin a
+flea fur its hide an' taller, any day."
+
+"He will send his children only on condition that I work out a certain
+problem which it seems the last two schoolmasters could not solve."
+
+"Pshaw!" ejaculated Rogers. "Is he still pipin' on thet ole sum? It's
+in po'try, ain't it?"
+
+"Yes," replied Dudley, taking a slip of paper from his pocket and
+reading therefrom:
+
+ "A landed man two daughters had,
+ And both were very fair;
+ To each he gave a piece of land,
+ One round, the other square.
+
+ "Twenty shillings to an acre,
+ Each piece this value had;
+ But the shillings that could compass it
+ For it just ten times paid.
+
+ "And if once across a shilling be an inch,
+ As which is very near,
+ Which had the better fortune,
+ The round one or the square?"
+
+"Kin you wuck it?" asked Rogers, anxiously.
+
+"Oh, yes, I think so. It doesn't seem a very complicated affair."
+
+"Bushrod Hinkson sartinly is the crankiest ole somebody I evah hearn
+tell on," was Mrs. Rogers' verdict. "What diffruns would it mattah ef
+you couldn't wuck thet fool sum? His two shavers hain't no fu'thah
+'long in ther books then my twins, air they, Susan?"
+
+"Lawdy!" ejaculated Rogers. "I hope you kin wuck it, an' shet him up
+fur good an' all. He thinks he knows it all when it comes to figgahs,
+an' kin siphah fastah'n a hoss kin gallop. It's time somebody took him
+down 'bout thet ole po'try sum. I'd lak to choke him on it.
+
+"Reckon Gilcrest put you through yer gaits, too, didn' he?" Rogers
+asked presently, removing his cowhide shoes, stretching his legs out in
+front of the fire, and proceeding, as he explained, "to toast his feet
+befoh goin' to roost."
+
+"Yes, sir," answered Dudley, "and he looked so stern and eyed me so
+keenly from underneath his grizzled eyebrows that I felt as though I
+were before the Inquisition."
+
+"Jes' so!" Rogers assented, although he had probably never heard of the
+Inquisition. "Hiram's three hobby hosses air 'good roads, Calvinism and
+slavery.' Which o' them ponies wuz he ridin' this mawnin'?"
+
+"He took a gallop on all three," laughingly answered Abner; "but he
+rode the doctrinal steed longest and hardest."
+
+"Egzactly!" said Rogers, taking a chew of tobacco. "He's daft on good
+roads; kinder rabid on slavery; but when it comes to the 'five p'ints,'
+he's rank pizinous. I s'pose he rid the good-roads hoss fust. He
+ginerly does."
+
+"Yes, he took a preliminary canter on it. Then he looked at me
+searchingly and asked if I was opposed to slavery. I rather think he
+suspected me of being here on some secret mission to stir up
+insurrection among the negroes; but when I said that I thought they
+were much better off as slaves than they were in their native heathen
+condition, he relaxed considerably. He then worked around to church and
+doctrinal matters, and was argumentative and dictatorial about
+'predestination,' 'effectual calling,' etc.; but I finally told him
+that though not a church-member, I had been reared under strict
+Presbyterian influences. This delighted him, and he said I was
+doubtless well grounded, and that if I was one of the 'elect,' I would
+be called in the Lord's own good time."
+
+"I'm glad you got through so well. Hiram's a good man at bottom, but ez
+full o' prejudice ez a aigg's full o' meat. He even claims thet Stone
+hain't sound on orthodoxy, which means he ain't so streenous 'bout God
+Almighty's fav'rin' some folks to etarnal salvation, befoh the
+foundations o' the world, and others, jes' ez good, to everlastin'
+damnation. Brother Stone he's mighty quiet an' mild-like, but kindah
+hints thet God Almighty's too just to hev fav'rites. I tell you, thar's
+trouble brewin' on this very p'int; and thar's gwintah be a tur'ble
+split 'foh long in Cane Ridge meeting-house."
+
+"Did you see the rest o' the folks at Gilcrest's?" Mrs. Rogers asked.
+
+"No, ma'am, the interview was held at the stile block; but Major
+Gilcrest asked me to return after seeing the other patrons, and take
+dinner; and he also said something about my boarding with him."
+
+"Boahdin' at Gilcrest's!" said Rogers. "Not ef me an' Cynthy Ann knows
+it! Of course you'll stop with us."
+
+"Yes," added his wife, "me an' Susan's been all maw-nin' a-fixin' up
+the north room fer you, so's you kin hev----"
+
+"You are certainly most kind, Mrs. Rogers. I'm sure I'll be pleased
+with everything which you and Mr. Rogers arrange."
+
+"Well," said Rogers, again taking up the subscription paper and making
+a calculation, "you've done fine gittin' up a school, an' will mek a
+purty little sum outen yer wintah's wuck--'bout one hundred an' thirty
+dollahs, I mek it. Now, how many acres et a dollar an' two bits a acre
+kin be bought fer thet? 'Bout one hundred an' four, hain't it?"
+
+"Yes, one hundred and four acres, if there were no other expenses,
+but----"
+
+"Whut othah expenses kin you hev wuth namin'? You've got a saddle-bag
+full o' clothes an' books, hain't you?--'nough to last through the
+wintah; so whut----"
+
+"But my board! You haven't said how much that will be."
+
+"Well, now," said Rogers, with a sly wink at his wife, "how much do you
+reckon 'twould be right ter pay?"
+
+"About five shillings per week. I'm told that is the usual----"
+
+"Five shillin's! The granny's hind foot! Why, boy, whut you tek me an'
+Cynthy Ann fur? We shan't tek five shillin's nor yit five cents. A boy
+like you, not much older'n our William, ef he'd 'a' lived, an' frum
+Lawsonville, too! Didn't I tell you you'd be jes' lak my own frum this
+time on? Board, indeed! Heah's plenty o' cawn pone, hom'ny, bacon an'
+taters, I reckon; 'sides cawn an' oats an' stable room fur yer nag. All
+we ax is thet you nevah say board to us agin. But, ef you like," he
+added kindly, "you kin holp Henry an' Cissy some o' nights in ther
+books, an' mek a hand to wuck roads, one Sat'dy in each month tell snow
+comes."
+
+Early Monday morning, while the frost yet glistened on grass and hedge
+row, Abner, accompanied by Susan, Tommy and the twins, set out for the
+schoolhouse, a mile distant. At the same time, by a dozen different
+paths through woods and fields, other children with dinner pails and
+spelling-books hastened toward the same goal, regardless of nuts, wild
+grapes and other woodland attractions; for each wanted to be first to
+reach the schoolhouse on this, the opening day.
+
+Cane Ridge schoolhouse was a large hut of unhewn logs, with a roof of
+rough boards and bark. The windows were covered with oiled paper
+instead of glass, and the scanty light thus admitted was augmented by
+that which came in through frequent gaps in the mud-daubed walls. Wind,
+rain and snow likewise found free admission through these crevices; but
+on winter days the climate of the schoolroom was tempered by the
+blazing logs piled in the mammoth fireplace occupying one entire end of
+the building.
+
+A rude platform opposite the fireplace was the master's rostrum,
+whereon was his high, box-like desk of pine and his split-bottomed
+chair. Just back of his seat upon the floor of the platform stood a row
+of dinner pails, and above on wooden pegs hung the children's hats and
+bonnets. On each side of the room was a long writing-desk, merely a
+rough board resting with the proper slant upon stout pins driven into
+the walls. Here on rude, backless benches sat the larger boys and
+girls. At the right-hand side of the room, on a lower bench in front of
+the older pupils, sat the little boys "with curving backs and swinging
+feet, and with eyes that beamed all day long with fun or apprehension."
+Opposite them, on a similar bench, was a row of little girls in linsey
+dresses and tow-linen pinafores.
+
+Every grade of home was represented--the shiftless renter's squalid
+hovel, the backwoods hunter's rude hut, the substantial log house of
+the prosperous farmer, and the more pretentious dwelling of such men as
+Gilcrest and Dunlap and Winston, who claimed kinship with the flower of
+Virginian aristocracy.
+
+In the pioneer schools grammar, history, geography, and the sciences,
+if taught at all, were usually treated orally; but in the main,
+spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic were the only branches
+studied. As reading-charts for the little ones, the alphabet was pasted
+upon broad hickory paddles which were frequently used for outside as
+well as inside application of knowledge. Readers were coming into
+vogue, but in most schools the pupils in reading advanced from
+alphabetical paddle to spelling-book; from spelling-book to "Pilgrim's
+Progress" or the Bible. Sometimes the Bible was the only reading-book
+allowed by the parent, and many a child in those days learned to read
+by wrestling with the jaw-breaking words in Kings and Chronicles; for,
+as Bushrod Hinkson declared when he refused to buy a reader for his
+son, "The Bible's 'nough tex'-book on readin', an' when a boy hez
+learned to knock the pins frum undah all the big words in the 'Good
+Book,' he'll be able to travel like a streak o' lightnin' through all
+kinds o' print."
+
+[Illustration: _Cane Ridge Meeting-house._]
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+CANE RIDGE MEETING-HOUSE
+
+
+The third Sunday in October was the regular once-a-month meeting-day at
+Cane Ridge Church. Early in the morning a note of preparation was
+sounded throughout the Rogers domain, and by nine o'clock the entire
+household was en route for the place of worship. On chairs in the wagon
+drawn by two stout farm horses sat Mr. and Mrs. Rogers and the four
+youngest children, while young Dudley, Henry and Susan rode horseback.
+Uncle Tony, by reason of age, and Aunt Dink, by reason of flesh,
+instead of walking with the other negroes, were allowed to sit on the
+straw-covered floor of the wagon behind the white occupants.
+
+As the cavalcade neared the church, a big, weather-stained log
+structure, they saw that, early as it was, a crowd had preceded them.
+Other wagons were stationed about in the shade, and many horses were
+tethered to overhanging boughs.
+
+While waiting for service to begin, Abner stood near the church and
+looked around with some curiosity and not a little surprise; for nearly
+every grade of frontier society seemed represented--aristocrats and
+adventurers; mistresses and slaves; farmers and land agents;
+ex-Revolutionary officers and ex-Indian-fighters; lately established
+settlers and weather-beaten survivors of early pioneer days.
+
+"Visiting together" near the woman's entrance were a number of matrons,
+some in homespun gowns, calico split bonnets and cowhide shoes; others
+in more pretentious apparel--bombazine gowns, muslin tuckers, and
+"dress bonnets" of surprising depth and magnitude. Near the other
+entrance, comparing notes upon fall wheat-sowing or corn-gathering, was
+a cluster of farmers in shirt sleeves, homespun trousers and
+well-greased shoes. Upon the horse-block a group of merry belles,
+divesting themselves of mud-stained riding-skirts, stood forth in
+bright array--beads and ribands, flaunting chintzes, clocked stockings
+and morocco slippers. Some distance off, upon the roots of a
+wide-spreading elm, sat two barefooted, swarthy, scarred old hunters
+with raccoon skin caps, linsey hunting-shirts and buckskin breeches.
+Near by, a group of urchins listened with open-mouthed absorption to
+blood-curdling reminiscences of days when upon this now peaceful slope
+the scream of the wildcat and the whoop of the Indian were more
+familiar sounds than the songs of Zion and the eloquence of the
+revivalist. Less in accord with the quiet beauty of this October
+Sunday, a squad of loud-voiced, swaggering, half-intoxicated young men
+lounged under the trees, recounting incidents of yesterday's cock-fight
+or betting upon the wrestling-match next muster day.
+
+In contrast to the other vehicles, the Gilcrest family coach, with its
+span of glossy-coated bays, presently drew up before the church. The
+negro driver sprang from his high seat, and, bowing obsequiously, let
+down the steps and opened the door of the coach, from which emerged,
+first, Hiram Gilcrest in all the glory of Sunday broadcloth; next, two
+small boys, then a negro woman bearing in her arms the youngest scion
+of the house of Gilcrest, an infant in long clothes. Lastly came Mrs.
+Gilcrest, a fragile, faded woman in rustling brocade and satin
+petticoat. Close behind the coach rode a horseback party of four--Betsy
+Gilcrest, two of her brothers, and a young woman in long black
+riding-skirt and loose jacket, her features hidden by the gauze veil
+depending from her dress bonnet of corded white silk.
+
+Betsy, rosy and dimpling, unencumbered by riding-skirt, dust-jacket or
+veil, tossed her bridle to her brother, John Calvin, and sprang from
+her saddle to the stile. Her movements were light and graceful, and she
+looked like a woodland nymph in a gown of light, gaily flowered chintz,
+and a large hat encircled in a wreath of bright leaves. As her
+companion, the girl in the corded silk bonnet, drew up, several
+gallants from the group of young people near by hastened eagerly
+forward to her assistance. After doffing riding-skirt and loose jacket,
+she stood a moment upon the block, adjusting her attire, a robe of
+misty lavender sarcenet with a pink crepe scarf loosely knotted across
+the bosom.
+
+"I wish she'd throw back that veil," thought Abner, as he stood with
+Henry a little apart.
+
+"That's Major Gilcrest's niece, come from Virginia to live with them,"
+explained Henry, seeing Abner's admiring gaze fixed upon the girl.
+"She's as pretty as a rosebush covered with pink blossoms; there ain't
+a girl comes to Cane Ridge that can stand alongside her. She makes even
+Sally Bledsoe and Molly Trabue look like common hollyhocks."
+
+By this time every one save the group of young people and a few
+stragglers out in the shade had entered the church, from which at this
+moment a loud voice was heard announcing, "Hymn 642;" while at the same
+time Deacon Hiram Gilcrest, standing at one door, and Deacon Bushrod
+Hinkson at the other, admonished all loiterers to come in.
+
+As soon as the congregation was seated, Mason Rogers, in a voice of
+much power and sweetness, started the hymn already announced. Others
+quickly joined in, until soon the building was filled with a swelling
+volume of melody which made the walls resound and the cobwebs tremble.
+The negro nurse on the doorstep crooned the hymn as she held the
+sleeping baby. Uncle Tony, sitting on the steps of the pulpit platform,
+swayed his body and nodded his head in rhythmic motion. He could not
+carry a tune, but now and then would join in with a single note which
+rang out clear and loud above all the rest. Other negroes from their
+places in the gallery over the doorways opposite the pulpit, though
+they knew not the words of the hymn, added the melody of their
+plaintive voices. Little girls seated by their mothers on the woman's
+side of the low partition, and little boys by their fathers on the
+other side of the church, joined in with piping treble. Deacon
+Gilcrest, his stern features relaxed, kept time with his hand (down,
+left, right, up) as he thundered forth a ponderous bass. Old Matthew
+Houston from one "amen corner" added his quavering notes; while from
+the other, Squire Trabue, his chair tilted back, his face beaming, sang
+with little regard to time or tune, but with melody in his heart, if
+not in his voice. Near the central partition Susan Rogers and Betsy
+Gilcrest, happy and bright-eyed, sang from the same book, their voices
+clear, true, and sweet as bird notes.
+
+As the music arose in a swelling wave of melody, Abner Dudley looked
+through the congregation for the girl in the lavender sarcenet.
+Presently he discovered her seated near a window and singing with the
+rest. Her veil was thrown back, and from the depths of the scoop
+bonnet, with a wreath of roses under its brim, shone forth a face of
+radiant loveliness. From her broad, white brow the shining brown hair
+was parted in rippling masses; she had darkly fringed blue eyes, a
+well-rounded chin, and skin whose tints of rose and pearl were like the
+delicate inner surface of a sea shell.
+
+"Abigail Patterson, of Williamsburg!" he mentally ejaculated. "What is
+she doing here? Henry said that she was Major Gilcrest's niece, too. So
+this is the 'Miss Abby' whom the Rogers children talk so much about,
+and whom the Gilcrest children are always quoting. And to think that I
+had pictured her a prim old maid."
+
+It was not until the preacher, who until now had been hidden by the
+high pulpit, stepped forward, that Abner was aroused to a sense of time
+and place. He looked up as the clear tones of the speaker rang through
+the building, and saw for the first time the man who was destined to
+exert a powerful influence upon his career--Barton Warren Stone. At
+this time, Stone was about twenty-nine years old, of slender build,
+refined features, earnest mien, and childlike simplicity--"an Israelite
+indeed in whom was no guile." This third Sunday in October was the day
+for the regular quarterly communion service, and the emblems of the
+sacred feast were spread upon the table in front of the pulpit.
+Extending his hand, the speaker reverently pronounced his text: "Put
+off the shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is
+holy ground" (Ex. 3:5).
+
+[Illustration: _Barton Warren Stone._]
+
+After pausing a moment that the words of the text might have due
+impressiveness, Stone proceeded. He explained that the command in its
+spiritual significance was still as imperative upon God's people when
+they entered the house dedicated to his service, as it had been in its
+literal sense to Moses when he had stood face to face with Jehovah at
+the foot of Mount Horeb. The speaker's musical accents fixed the
+attention of every hearer, and his words impressed every heart with the
+solemnity befitting the place and the hour.
+
+As soon as the people were dismissed for the noontide intermission,
+they scattered about the grounds, talking, laughing, and setting out,
+upon the table-cloths spread upon the grass, the luncheons which they
+had brought with them.
+
+While these preparations were in progress, Dudley started off with
+Henry to look after the horses. Before reaching the grove where they
+were tethered, he was hailed by Major and Mrs. Gilcrest with a cordial
+invitation to "break bread" at their table--an invitation which he,
+thinking of the beautiful niece, gladly accepted. He followed his host
+and hostess to a cluster of trees under which Abby Patterson and Betsy
+Gilcrest, assisted by their dusky servitors, had already spread a
+repast which an epicure might have envied. But to one, at least, of the
+guests it mattered little what viands were served; for young Dudley was
+soon enthralled by the witchery of the blue eyes, rose-tinted
+complexion and low-toned voice of the girl beside him. He was conscious
+the while of little else save an unreasoning animosity for a young man
+in powdered queue, flowered satin waistcoat, frilled shirt, and silver
+knee buckles, who sat at Miss Patterson's other hand, between her and
+Miss Gilcrest. This man, James Anson Drane, of Lexington, lawyer and
+land agent, notwithstanding Dudley's jealous fancies, divided his
+attentions almost equally between the two damsels, and seemed quite as
+content with Betsy's lively sallies as with Abby's gentler, more
+dignified conversation. As for the two gay youths, Thomas Hinkson and
+William Smith, who sat opposite, if Abner thought of them at all, it
+was only to pity them that the width of the table-cloth divided them
+from the angelic being at his right; although they had for their
+companions, Molly Trabue and Sally Bledsoe, who in their own buxom
+style were accounted beauties.
+
+Later, the young people started on a ramble through the woods. Dudley
+offered his arm to Miss Patterson, thus separating them in a measure
+from the rest of the company, who finally joined other groups of
+strollers, until at last he found himself alone with her.
+
+The air, odorous with the elusive fragrance of bark and crisping leaf,
+breathed a delicious languor. The summer green of the chinquapin burrs
+had given place to a richer coloring; the sumac and blackberry bushes
+flushed red in the sunlight. Not even when clad in the tender freshness
+of springtime beauty could the woods have been a more favorable place
+in which to indulge in tender fancies than now when panoplied in
+crimson and gold and burnished bronze, the scarlet fire of the maple
+and the gaudy yellow of the hickory contrasting with the sober brown of
+the beech, the dull red of the oak, and the dark gloss of the walnut. A
+redbird arose from the grass at their approach and circled away into
+the blue ether, and a rabbit, startled by the crackling of a twig,
+scattered away into the deeper undergrowth.
+
+Presently, Dudley and Abby reached a shady spot where a large spring,
+clear as crystal, bubbled up from a hillside cleft. Outside this leafy
+nook, myriads of gnats and bright-winged flies buzzed in the sunlight;
+the soft breeze murmured faintly through the treetops, and the far-off
+echo of laughter and merry shouts of other strollers accentuated the
+quiet of this little retreat. They seated themselves upon the gnarled
+roots of a big tree that guarded the spring. Abby, untying her bonnet,
+tossed it upon the grass, and the sunlight glinted upon her lavender
+gown and gave a warmer radiance to the wavy masses of her hair.
+
+"To-day is not the first time I have seen you, Miss Patterson," Abner
+said presently; "I recognized you the instant I saw you in church this
+morning."
+
+"Indeed!" she exclaimed, looking at him searchingly. "Are you not
+mistaken? I have no recollection of ever seeing you before; and I have
+a good memory for faces, too."
+
+"As to your having seen me, that's a different matter," he replied,
+"but I've a vivid recollection of you. It was at the Assembly ball at
+Williamsburg just four years ago this month."
+
+"Ah, that Assembly ball!" she exclaimed sadly. "That was the closing
+scene of my happy young girlhood. Trouble followed quickly upon trouble
+immediately after that night, until, within six weeks, I had lost
+everything that made life sweet. But," she asked with a quick change of
+manner, "if you were at that ball, how happened it I did not see you?
+Were you not among the dancers?"
+
+"On the contrary," Abner laughingly replied, "I was there as an
+uninvited guest. Not for me were the delights of minuet, cotillion and
+Roger de Coverly; for I had neither the costume nor the courage to
+penetrate into the ballroom. With several fellow-students, I had stolen
+from the college that night to witness the gay doings at the Capitol.
+As I stood in a doorway wishing I could exchange my sober college garb
+for that of a gentleman of fashion, you were pointed out to me as the
+belle of the ball; and memory has ever since treasured the radiant
+picture of the girl in a richly flowered brocade gown, who, with bright
+eyes glowing, powdered head held high, and with little feet that scarce
+touched the floor, led the dance with a handsome young soldier in
+officer's uniform."
+
+"Ah! those were happy days!" she said sadly. "I wonder you recognized
+me to-day; I've had so much to change and age me."
+
+"Changed you certainly are," he replied; "but, if I may say so, it is a
+change which has but enhanced your claims to the verdict I heard
+pronounced upon you that night--'the most beautiful woman in Virginia.'
+As for having aged, I can not agree with you. Beauty that owes its
+charm even more to sweetness of expression than to perfection of
+coloring and regularity of features never grows old. Besides, four
+years is not a long period, even when reckoned by youth's calendar.
+Some authorities, moreover, with whom I heartily agree, assert that no
+woman is older than she looks. According to that, you can not be more
+than sixteen."
+
+"But," she replied archly, "another and equally reliable theory is that
+a woman is as old as she feels. That would make me at least thirty-six.
+So, perhaps, between two such conflicting opinions, it would be well to
+take middle ground and place my age correctly, at twenty-six. But
+here!" she added laughingly, "you have actually inveigled me into
+confessing my age, and that, you know, is what no woman likes to
+do--especially when, as I suspect to be the case here, the woman is
+several years older than the man. I am forgetting, too, to do the
+honors of our spring, which is said to be the largest and most
+unfailing in Kentucky--at any rate, it is known all through this
+section as 'the big spring.' Boone declared this water to be the
+coolest in the State. I wish it was like that magical fountain of
+Lethe, and that a draught from it could make me forget my old life.
+But, there! I will not look back, although your reminder of that
+Assembly ball has stirred old memories to the depths. That road out
+there was once a buffalo trail, and the buffaloes, doubtless, always
+stopped at this spring to quench their thirst--at least, old hunters
+declare that this was their favorite camping-ground. It was also a
+favorite resort of the Indians, and a battle was fought here between
+them and the white settlers, before the terrible massacre at Bluelicks
+had aroused the whites to determined and well-organized resistance and
+war of extermination. You should get old Mr. Lucky or Mr. Houston to
+describe the battle at this spot--they were in it. But now you must
+drink of this spring before you can be properly considered a member of
+this community in 'good standing and full fellowship."
+
+"See!" she added, offering him a drink from an old gourd kept in a
+cleft of the rock for the use of chance passers-by. "This water is
+almost ice-cold--and just look at this mint. Uncle Hiram declares it to
+be the finest flavored he ever tasted. He never comes here without
+carrying away some for his morning julep. I will take a handful to stow
+away in the lunch-basket; it will save him a trip here after service
+this afternoon."
+
+Before drawing on her lace "half-hand" mitts, she held out her hands,
+and asked him to pour water from the gourd upon them. Then she drew
+from the swinging pocket at her belt a tiny embroidered square, but
+before she could use it, Abner rescued it, and, substituting his own
+handkerchief, dried her hands himself. Her loose sleeves fell back to
+the dimpled elbows, and as he lingered over his task, he noted the
+delicate tracery of blue veins along the inner curve of her white arms.
+He saw, too, the freckles upon her rounded wrists, and that her
+well-formed hands were sun-browned and hardened by work.
+
+"Are you counting the freckles?" she asked demurely, smiling at him
+from the depths of her white bonnet. "I fear you will not have time to
+make a complete inventory of all the freckles, needle-pricks and
+bruises; besides, it is some time since I heard voices, and we are far
+from the meeting-house. Uncle Hiram would think it no light offense to
+be late at afternoon service--and there is Betsy yonder by the big oak
+on the hill, waving and beckoning frantically. Let us join her at
+once."
+
+"Yes, we must hasten," assented Dudley, consulting his big silver
+watch, after thrusting his wet handkerchief into the bosom of his coat.
+
+
+David Purviance, a young licentiate awaiting ordination at the next
+session of presbytery, preached the afternoon sermon, and handled his
+theme, "The Final Perseverance of the Saints," in a masterly manner.
+But Abner Dudley gave little heed to the discourse; for his thoughts,
+stirred by the vision of the beautiful girl across the aisle, were
+wandering in an earthly paradise.
+
+Through the deepening twilight he rode home alone that evening in a
+tumult of bewildered feeling, scarcely able to realize that only that
+morning he had been on that same road with Henry and Susan; for in the
+interim he seemed to have entered an entirely new world of thought and
+feeling.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+WINTER SCHOOL-DAYS
+
+
+Soon beautiful, misty Indian summer had vanished before the stern
+approach of winter. The chestnut burs had all opened; the wild
+grapevines, clinging to fence rails along the roadside and twining in
+drooping profusion over the trees in wood and thicket, had long ago
+been robbed of their glistening, dark clusters of frost-ripened fruit.
+The squirrels had laid in their supply of nuts; the birds had given
+their last Kentucky concert of the season and had departed to fill
+their winter engagements in the Southland; and the forest trees waved
+their bare arms and bowed their heads to the wind that wailed a
+mournful requiem for departed summer.
+
+By this time the wheat had been sown, and the last shock of corn
+gathered. The school forces were, therefore, augmented by the advent of
+a dozen or more larger boys and young men, eager to gain all the
+learning that could be compassed in the months which intervened before
+early spring plowing and seeding would call them again to the fields.
+
+In the icy gray dawn of these winter days the boy whose week it was to
+build the schoolhouse fire, would resist the temptation to snug down
+again in the soft folds of the big feather bed for another trip into
+delicious dreamland, and would hurry from his warm nest to attend to
+his morning chores, so that as soon as the early breakfast was over he
+could hasten through the snow-covered fields to the schoolhouse. There
+he would pile the fagots high in the big fireplace, eager to have them
+blazing and crackling before the clap of the master's ferule upon his
+desk at eight o'clock should summon the school to its daily work.
+
+Cane Ridge school, under the gentle yet energetic sway of Abner Dudley,
+presented a busy scene. The click of the soapstone pencil upon the
+frameless slate, the scratch of the quill pen across the bespattered
+copybook, the shrill tone of the solitary reader as he stood with the
+rest of the class "toeing the mark" before the master, or the shriller
+tones of the arithmetic class reciting in concert the multiplication
+table, kept up a pleasant discord throughout the short day. The rear
+guard of this army of busy workers, the rows of chubby-faced little
+boys in short-legged pants and long-sleeved aprons, and of rosy-cheeked
+little girls in linsey dresses and nankeen pantalets, sat on their slab
+benches, droning mechanically "a-b, ab; e-b, eb," and looked with
+wonder at the middle rank of this army, adding up long columns of
+figures or singing the long list of capitals. Those of the middle rank,
+in their turn, as they gave place before the master's desk to the three
+bright pupils of the vanguard, wondered no less to see them performing
+strange maneuvers called "parsing and conjugating," or battling
+successfully against Tare and Tret, or that still more insidious foe,
+Vulgar Fractions. Ahead of this vanguard, on a far-off, dizzy peak of
+erudition, was Betsy Gilcrest, the courageous color-bearer of the
+army--actually speaking in an unknown tongue called Latin, and
+executing surprising feats of legerdemain with that strange trio, x, y
+and z, who had somehow escaped from their lowly position at the tail
+end of the alphabet, to play unheard-of antics and to assume characters
+utterly bewildering.
+
+There was not one of those fifty pupils who did not soon find a warm
+place in the master's heart; but, though he took care by special
+kindness to the others to hide his partiality, yet soon pre-eminent in
+his regard were the four advanced pupils, Henry and Susan Rogers,
+plodding, thoughtful, thorough; John Calvin Gilcrest, shrewd,
+retentive, independent; and Betsy Gilcrest, bright, original and
+ambitious.
+
+Betsy at sixteen was a capable, well-grown girl, such as the freedom
+and vigor of those pioneer days produced--glowing with health, instinct
+with life, and of saucy independence to her finger-tips. She possessed
+a fund of native wit which might, perhaps, often have taken the turn of
+waywardness, had not her scholarly pride held her girlish love of fun
+and frolic somewhat in check. Kindly-natured, bright-faced Betsy,
+champion of the poorest and meanest, helper of the dull and backward,
+idol of the little children, and object of the shy and silent but
+sincere adoration of all the big, uncouth boys! She was an exceedingly
+winsome lassie, with a light, graceful figure, and a richly expressive
+face framed in by a wealth of clustering dark hair. The sparkling light
+in the great brown eyes, the saucy curve of the scarlet lips, and the
+dimple in the rounded cheek betokened a laughter-loving nature; while
+the proud poise of head, the exquisite turn of sensitive nostrils, and
+the firm moulding of chin indicated dignity, refinement, and force of
+character. In her stuff dress of dark red, her braided black silk apron
+with coquettish little pockets, and her trim morocco shoes, she
+presented a striking contrast to the linsey-clad, coarsely shod girls
+on each side of her at the rude writing-desk, or even to her especial
+chum and chosen friend, Susan Rogers, in homespun gown, cotton
+neckerchief and gingham apron. It was well for the young schoolmaster
+that his heart was fortified by its growing love for Abby Patterson,
+else he could not, perhaps, have withstood the charming personality of
+Betsy Gilcrest, and a deeper regard than would have been in keeping
+with their character of master and pupil might have mingled with his
+interest in this warm-hearted, brilliant girl.
+
+The fashionable people from Lexington who visited at "Oaklands," the
+home of the Gilcrests, wondered that Major Gilcrest sent his only
+daughter to this backwoods school, and his wife sometimes urged that
+Betsy be sent to some finishing-school in Virginia, or at least to the
+fashionable female seminary at Lexington, or to the lately opened young
+ladies' college at Bourbonton. Probably, had Betsy seconded the hints
+of these friends and the rather languid suggestions of her mother, this
+might have been done; but this independent child of nature loved her
+home and the humble little schoolhouse by the spring; and her father,
+whether at the pleading of his daughter, or because of his ingrained
+dislike of any suggestions from outsiders, continued to send her to the
+little neighborhood school. In so doing he was building better than he
+knew; for humble as was the Cane Ridge school, there was in it an
+atmosphere of happiness and refinement more real than could be found
+amid the superficial culture, genteel primness and underlying
+selfishness of most of the fashionable female seminaries of that day.
+The young Virginian schoolmaster was teaching these boys and girls far
+better things than could be found in any text-books--independence of
+thought, reverence for learning, and love of purity and truth; and it
+was lessons such as these that made these Bourbon County boys and girls
+reverence their master and love their backwoods school.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+"SETTIN' TILL BEDTIME"
+
+
+One night in November the Rogers household had gathered as usual around
+the hearth in the spacious living-room. The fire roared and crackled
+merrily, dancing on the whitewashed walls, and shining brightly on the
+brass andirons and the glass doors of the cupboard.
+
+The candle-stand stood in the center of the room; on one side of it sat
+Abner Dudley, reading aloud from the "Kentucky Gazette"; on the other,
+Mrs. Rogers, seated in the cushioned rocker, was patching a linsey
+jacket for Tommy, who, with his youngest brother, was playing
+jackstones on the floor behind the stand. To supplement the light from
+candle and fire, a huge hickory knot had been thrust into the
+fireplace, against one of the andirons. By its light Henry was weaving
+a basket, the floor around him littered with the long, pliable osier
+slips which the twins were sorting for his use. In the opposite corner,
+on a low stool, the negro girl, Rache, nodded over a piece of knitting.
+Mason Rogers, enjoying his after-supper pipe, was engaged in mending a
+set of harness. Susan, dreamily staring into the fire, held her sewing
+idly in her lap until her mother's voice aroused her.
+
+"Come, Cissy, don't set thah with folded hands, ez though you wuz a
+fine lady. Ef you can't see well 'nough to do the overcastin' on thet
+jac'net petticoat, git out yer tettin' or them quilt squares. Rache,
+you triflin' niggah, wake up. You don't airn yer salt. I declar' I'll
+hev you sold down South the nex' time ole Jake Hopkins teks a drove to
+Alabam'. I reckon you won't hev much time fur noddin' down in them
+cottonfields, with the overseer's lash a-lippin' yer back ever' time he
+sees you idlin'. You'd better mek yer needles fly, fur nary a thing
+'cept a switch an' some ashes will you git in yer Chris'mas stockin',
+ef all them socks fur Rube an' Tom ain't done by then. Lucy, you an'
+Lucindy leave 'lone them strips; you're jes' hend'rin' yer brothah. Git
+yer nine patch pieces. Gre't, big gals lak you ortn't idle."
+
+"Some one's comin'!" exclaimed Mr. Rogers, the first to notice the
+barking of the dogs outside. "See who 'tis, Henry."
+
+"Heah, Lucy, gether up them twigs," bustled Mrs. Rogers, as she swept
+the hearth. "Rache, tek thet harnish out. I declar', Mason, I wish
+you'd do sich wuck in the kitchen or stable. Folks'll think I ain't no
+sort o' housekeepah."
+
+"How's Mrs. Gilcrest?" asked Mrs. Rogers a moment later, as she shook
+hands with Major Gilcrest and nodded to his boys, Martin Luther and
+Silas. "Wish she'd come with you, but I reckon she's feared to be out
+in the night air."
+
+"Why didn't Betsy come?" Susan asked.
+
+"Oh, Abby had company; Drane and Hart rode out from Lexington to spend
+the evening. Abby felt that she couldn't entertain two beaux at once,
+so Betsy stayed to help her."
+
+"Don't pull the house down, childurn," Mr. Rogers called cheerily, as
+his four youngest and the Gilcrest boys were hurrying off to the
+kitchen for a game of romps. "Hold out yer apurns, gals, an' tek some
+apples 'long," he added to the twins. "You kin roast 'em on the
+h'arth."
+
+"I hear, Mr. Dudley," said Gilcrest presently, "that you use the Bible
+as a reading-book in your school."
+
+"Only in one instance," replied Dudley. "Eli and Jacob Hinkson use the
+Bible as a reader because their father refuses to get them any other."
+
+"Ah!" exclaimed Gilcrest; "I must remonstrate with Hinkson."
+
+"I'll be obliged if you will. I said all I could to him with no avail."
+
+"It's a wrong use of the Word," said Gilcrest.
+
+"Oh, I don't say that," Dudley replied. "If the text were not such hard
+reading for the little fellows, I'd be satisfied to have the Bible the
+only reader used in school."
+
+"No, no!" Gilcrest objected with an emphatic shake of his head. "Such a
+course would tend to lead the young mind into error."
+
+"On the contrary," returned Dudley, thoughtfully, "might not the seed
+of the gospel, thus sown, fall unconsciously into the child's heart and
+bear fruit for good when he is older?"
+
+"No! It's dangerous to place the Bible in the hands of the unconverted
+young."
+
+"Do I understand you to mean that children should not read the Bible at
+all?" asked Dudley.
+
+"The mysteries of the Scriptures are not for the child to tamper with.
+When I was a schoolboy in Massachusetts, the New England Primer was the
+only reading-text, and I wish it were in vogue in our schools now; it
+contained the Lord's Prayer and the Shorter Catechism, and that's all a
+child should know about the Bible until after he is converted."
+
+"But," asked Dudley, "how can a child learn the way of salvation if not
+by Bible reading?"
+
+"By study of the catechism, of course," answered Gilcrest. "Once rooted
+and grounded in that, he will not be liable to fall into error later
+on, and put wrong interpretations on the Holy Scriptures. I'd rather
+have the Bible a sealed book to the unconverted, so that the Spirit may
+work untrammeled and sovereignly on his heart."
+
+"Ah! I see now why the priests in olden times chained up the Bible so
+that the common people could not have access to it," observed young
+Dudley, with a sarcasm which was entirely lost on Gilcrest. "But isn't
+it the idea of this age and country that there should be a 'free Bible
+for a free people'?"
+
+"Yes, for a 'free' people," retorted Gilcrest, "but not for those who
+are still under bondage to sin. Besides, those who have not been well
+instructed in the catechism, know nothing about 'rightly dividing the
+word.'"
+
+"How about that passage," asked Abner, "'All scripture is given by
+inspiration, and is profitable for--for--for----'?"
+
+"Henry kin say it fur you," interrupted Mason Rogers, thinking that the
+schoolmaster's Biblical knowledge had failed him; "he's mighty peart on
+quotin' Scriptur."
+
+Whereupon Henry, who up to this time had been a silent but interested
+listener to the discussion, repeated the passage.
+
+"Precisely!" Gilcrest exclaimed. "All Scripture is profitable--but to
+whom? To 'the man of God.' To such--the elect, the called--how are the
+Scriptures profitable? Why, as Paul says, to reprove and correct when
+he goes off into forbidden paths, and to instruct him further in
+righteousness. Only the regenerate, the elect, are referred to; for
+they only can do good works. Moreover, the very passages that are 'a
+savor of life unto life' to the called, are 'a savor of death unto
+death' to those out of Christ."
+
+"Egzactly! I see that p'int, anyway," said Mason Rogers, as he sat with
+chair tilted back, meditatively nibbling at the stem of his unlighted
+pipe. "Sartain Scriptures air made to suit sartain diseases, lak
+doctah's physic; an' ef took when the systum hain't jes' in the right
+fix fur it, they might kill, instid o' cure."
+
+Here Mrs. Rogers, who until now had been dutifully silent, intent on
+her sewing, remarked, "Well, Hirum, Preacher Stone hain't o' yo' way o'
+thinkin'; he's allus urgin' Bible readin'."
+
+"Ah! Sister Rogers, Stone has much to learn and to unlearn. He's too
+broad in his views. In fact, I sometimes question whether he believes
+in Calvinism at all."
+
+"Well, whut ef he don't, so long ez he lives right an' preaches right?"
+asked Mrs. Rogers. "When I heah him preach, I feel lak I want to be
+bettah. An' hain't thet whut preachin's fur, to mek folks want to live
+bettah lives? Whut diffruns whuthah he b'lieves in Ca'vinism, or not?
+It's jes' a big, onmeanin' word, anyway."
+
+"That won't do, Sister Rogers. Calvinism is the stronghold of the
+Christian religion. Furthermore, it's a logically constructed system of
+belief, and if you are loose on one point, you're loose on all. Every
+departure from Calvinism is a step towards atheism. The downward grades
+are from Calvinism to Arminianism; from Arminianism to Pelagianism;
+from Pelagianism to deism; from deism to atheism."
+
+"Pshaw!" exclaimed Mrs. Rogers, undaunted. "It teks a scholard to
+undahstand all them jawbreakahs. Common folks lak me nevah'd git the
+meanin' intah ther head pieces. An' I say thet the sort o' preachin' to
+do good is them plain, simple truths whut Bro. Stone gives us."
+
+"Yes, Hiram, Cynthy Ann's right," said Rogers. "The gospel ez Stone
+preaches it seems plain ez the nose on yer face, but when the 'five
+p'ints' is discussed, I git all uv a muddle."
+
+"But, Mason," asked Gilcrest, "you surely believe in the Confession of
+Faith of your church, do you not?"
+
+"Why, I s'pose I do b'lieve it--leastways, I subscribed to it when I
+jined the chu'ch; but I'll be fetched ef I understand it."
+
+"We've hed 'nough talk on religion fer one spaill, I think," now put in
+Mrs. Rogers. "Let's hev some apples an' cidah. Susan, see whut them
+childurn air about. They're mekin' 'nough fuss to tek the roof off." As
+she spoke, there came from the kitchen the sound of loud peals of
+laughter, much scampering, and the cry, "Pore Puss wants a corner!"
+indicating that the children were having an exciting game.
+
+Presently Gilcrest, as he took another apple, said, glancing at the
+"Gazette" on the stand: "So Aaron Burr came within one of the
+Presidency! I'm glad the House decided in favor of Jefferson. He is bad
+enough, but Burr would have been even worse. Are you a Federalist or a
+Democrat, Mr. Dudley?"
+
+"How could a Virginian be anything but a supporter of the great
+Jefferson?" replied Abner. "Could I have done so, I should have
+remained in Virginia until after the election, so as to cast my vote
+for Jefferson; but it was necessary for me to come to this State."
+
+"An' glad we air thet you come," said Rogers, heartily.
+
+"Being a Virginian ought to make you a Federalist, I should say,"
+suggested Gilcrest. "You forget that a greater than Jefferson was born
+in Virginia."
+
+"Then, as Massachusetts is your native State," said Dudley, "I suppose
+your Federalistic convictions are modeled according to the
+hard-and-fast principles laid down by Adams, rather than the more
+elastic federalism which Washington taught. That is, if place of birth
+really has anything to do with shaping one's political views."
+
+"One could not have a better leader than John Adams," Gilcrest stoutly
+asserted.
+
+"Whut!" exclaimed Rogers. "Afteh them Alien an' Sedition outrages?"
+
+"Why, man!" Gilcrest retorted, "those very laws were for the saving of
+the nation."
+
+"Though a Democrat, I'm inclined to agree with you there, Mr.
+Gilcrest," Dudley said.
+
+"Ha, Mr. Dudley," said Gilcrest, pleasantly, "I've hopes of your
+conversion into a good Federalist yet. You're young, and your political
+prejudices haven't become chronic--as is the case with Mason here."
+
+"My motto," rejoined Rogers, "is, 'Our State fust, then the nation.'
+The Federal Government didn't do no gre't shakes towa'ds he'pin'
+Kaintucky when redskins an' British skunks wuz 'bout to drive us offen
+the face o' the livin' airth."
+
+"But, Mason, remember that at that time our nation was battling for
+independence, and could ill spare aid for us in our struggle for
+supremacy in this western frontier."
+
+"Jes' so!" retorted Rogers. "An' whar'd you an' me an' the rest uv us
+who wuz strugglin' fur footholt heah hev been, ef we'd depended on the
+Federal Government to fight Caldwell, McKee, Simon Girty, an' ther red
+devils? We had to do our own fightin' then, you'll agree, Hiram."
+
+"Why, Major Gilcrest," Dudley exclaimed, "were you an Indian-fighter? I
+thought you were a Revolutionary soldier."
+
+"So I was," Gilcrest answered, "from the battle of Lexington until
+badly wounded in Virginia by Arnold's raiders in the spring of '81.
+Then, early in the next year I came to Kentucky."
+
+"You surprise me," Abner replied. "I thought you did not settle here
+until after Indian depredations had ceased."
+
+"Ha! ha!" laughed Gilcrest. "You thought I came like Abram from Ur of
+the Chaldees, bringing family, servants, goods and chattels, did you?
+No, I made that sort of migration several years later. I first came
+alone, to spy out the land, and to find a suitable location wherein to
+plant a home and rear a family. Descriptions of this new country beyond
+the mountains had led me to picture it a paradise of peace and plenty
+and tranquil beauty; but when I came, I found the picture obscured by
+the red billows of savage warfare. Why, the first time I ever saw Mason
+here, he was equipped with knife and tomahawk, rifle, pouch and
+powder-horn, and just setting forth to the relief of a beleaguered
+station."
+
+"No wondeh," exclaimed Rogers, "thet you found me an' ev'ry otheh
+able-bodied man uv us should'rin' our guns an' gittin' knives an'
+tommyhocks ready! You see, Abner, the Injuns undeh ther white leadahs
+wuz thet year mekin' a stubbo'ner an' bettah planned warfare than eveh
+befoh. Ruddell's an' Martin's stations hed been demolished, an'
+follerin' close hed come, airly in the spring, the defeat at Estell's,
+an' a leetle later, Holder's defeat; an' heah in August, on top o' them
+troubles, comes accounts uv more massacrein's an' sieges. If eveh the
+right man come at the right hour, it wuz you, Hiram," Rogers continued,
+"when you rid inteh Fort Houston jest afteh we'd got the news. Ez
+soon's I clapped eyes on you I sized you up ez a fellah afteh my own
+heart--a man ready to go whar danger wuz thickest, a man whut would
+stand by a comrid tell the last drap uv his own blood wuz spilt. Will
+you eveh furgit thet seventeenth o' August, Hiram, an' the tur'ble days
+whut follehed on its heels?"
+
+"Never, while life lasts," replied Gilcrest. "And, as for a comrade in
+time of peril, one could not want a braver or a truer than yourself,
+Mason. You see," he continued, turning to Dudley, "it was this way:
+Early that morning had come tidings that the Indians, a few days
+before, had surprised the scattered families around Hoy's, and had
+butchered many ere they could reach the fort. Hardly had this tidings
+been related before two more runners, half dead with fatigue,
+half-crazed with horror, came panting in from Bryan's to tell how
+Caldwell and Girty and their hordes of savages had surprised and
+surrounded that garrison. These two runners had managed to steal out
+under shelter of the tall corn back of the fort at Bryan's, to bring
+messages from Colonel Todd, imploring Fort Houston to come to the
+rescue. Other messengers had carried the same appeal to other stations.
+Ah!" he continued enthusiastically, "the men of Kentucky were brothers
+indeed in those trying times! And the garrisons of Houston, Harrods,
+St. Asaph's and all the other forts, responded as one man to that cry
+from Bryan's."
+
+"Did you leave the women and children in Fort Houston?" asked Dudley.
+
+"No, indeed," answered Rogers before Gilcrest could speak. "'Twuzn't
+safe. Houston's wuz li'ble to be attacked in our absence. Besides, it
+wuzn't ez big an' strong ez Bryan's, whar the stockades wuz
+bullet-proof, the gates uv solid puncheons, an' the houses within built
+afteh the ole block-house pattern. So we tuck our women an' childurn
+with us. Cynthy Ann, with our little William in her lap, rid behind me
+on the nag, an' I carried befoh me in the saddle a little chap
+belonging to one uv our men, who hed a sick wife an' a two-weeks-ole
+baby to look afteh. Thet was a sad, sad trip fur me an' Cynthy Ann," he
+murmured with a sudden break in his voice and a wistful look at his
+wife. "The hurryin' gallop oveh eighteen mile o' rough country with the
+br'ilin' sun a-scorchin' down on us all the way, cost us the life uv
+our fust-borned, our purty little William. I tell you," he added
+excitedly, "ef the men o' thet day showed up brave an' faithful, our
+women, God bless 'em, wuz even braver an' more endurin'."
+
+"They were indeed," Gilcrest heartily agreed with an appreciative
+glance at Mrs. Rogers, "and it was their heroic self-sacrifice and
+noble endurance that made it possible for us to subdue this wilderness.
+When I reached here that summer of '82, and saw the terrible life of
+the pioneer women, I was thankful I had left my betrothed bride in
+Virginia. It took women of stout courage and nerve, such as you, Sister
+Rogers, to be really a helpmeet to a man in this wilderness of twenty
+years ago. A woman of weak nerve or faint heart would have succumbed
+under the hardships and danger."
+
+"Like pore Page's wife," added Rogers.
+
+"Pore Mrs. Page!" exclaimed Mrs. Rogers. "I'll nevah furgit her hard
+fate."
+
+"She was the wife of one of the Page brothers who were with us at Blue
+Licks, was she not?" asked Gilcrest.
+
+"Yes," Rogers answered. "The two brothers hed come oveh the mountains
+the spring befoh, an' hed built a cabin an' made a sort o' cl'arin' out
+in the wilderness 'bout two mile frum Houston's, on the road to
+Bryan's. One uv the brothahs--I can't re-collect his fust name--wuzn't
+married; but the otheh hed a wife an' a four-year-old boy when they
+come, an' anotheh child wuz borned to 'em 'bout two weeks befoh thet
+last Injun raid. They hed been warned agin an' agin thet it wuzn't safe
+outside the fort; but still they lived on out thar till thet tur'ble
+August mawnin'--when they runs pantin' inteh Houston's with the tidings
+thet the savages hed attacked ther cabin. They'd been roused in the
+night by the stompin' an' nickerin uv the hosses. It wuz a starlight
+night, an' peepin' out uv a loophole in the front uv ther house, they
+seen redskins skulkin' in the shadow o' the trees. They couldn't tell
+how many ther wuz, but nigh a dozen they thought, an' they didn't know
+how many more might be hidin' in the bushes. So they decided it wuz no
+use to try to defend themselves, an' that ther only chance to save ther
+scalps wuz to steal out befoh the Injuns got to the door. You see, they
+couldn't git to the hosses, fur the red imps wuz between the house an'
+whar the hosses wuz in the woods which grew up close to the cabin in
+front. But at the back the trees wuz all cl'ared off, an' ther wuz a
+gairden patch next to the cabin, an' then a cawnfiel'. The only door
+wuz in front, an' thar wuz no windah either in the back--only two
+little loopholes. One uv the puncheons in the floor hed been left loose
+a purpus, an' they took it up without mekin' any noise. Then, afteh
+waitin' tell they saw thet the Injuns hed skulked up nearly to the
+door, they crawled through the gap in the floor, an' then frum undeh
+the house into the gairden, an' then to the cawnfiel', an' stole
+through it to the woods on t'otheh side. Then they run fur ther lives,
+expectin' ev'ry minit to be attacked. It wuz a meracle they eveh
+reached the fort alive. Pore Mrs. Page wuz 'bout tuckered out. You see,
+her baby wuz barely two weeks old; besides, she 'peared to be a pore,
+weak-sperrited creeter, anyway; an' the long run an' the skeer hed
+well-nigh done fur her. It wuz her little boy, the four-year-old
+shaver, whut I toted befoh me as we hurried to Bryan's. On the road, we
+hed to pass the Pages' cl'arin', an' thar, still burnin', wuz the
+remains o' their cabin which the redskins hed fired. Ther gairden an'
+cawnfiel' wuz trompled an' blackened an' ruined; an' jes' on the aidge
+uv the woods by the roadside thar lay ther pore cow, still breathin',
+but welterin' in her own blood. The red devils hed split her wide open
+with a tommyhock. Mrs. Page fainted away when she saw thet, an' wuz
+most dead when we got to Bryan's. She got bettah, though, an' the next
+day when we sot out in pursuit uv the Injuns, her husband went with us.
+But, pore woman, she an' her baby both died thar in the fort befoh we
+got back."
+
+Abner Dudley, listening with fascinated attention, was thrilled into
+strange excitement by the tantalizing impression of his having once
+been, as a little boy, a spectator or a participator in just such an
+episode as Mr. Rogers was describing--of the terror-stricken little
+family fleeing through the woods at night. He also seemed to recall the
+picture of a burning cabin, and of a slaughtered cow lying on the
+roadside. Still another picture seemed to flit before him--that of a
+group of women and children alone within high log walls, and of a
+bewildered, heart-broken little boy being lifted by one of these women
+from a rude pallet where lay a dying mother and a still-faced, tiny
+babe.
+
+Often before to-night Dudley had had dim, fleeting fancies or
+imaginings of such a scene which always, when he would have recalled
+more clearly, would vanish entirely. Realizing how impossible it was
+that he, born and reared in a quiet Virginia village, could ever have
+lived such a scene, he had always, when tormented by the fancy,
+concluded that the impression was evoked by the memory of some tale
+heard in early childhood of the horrors of pioneer life. So now,
+instead of trying to follow up these tantalizing fancies, he dismissed
+them again from his mind.
+
+"When we got to Bryan's," Rogers was saying when Abner again began to
+listen, "Girty an' Caldwell an' ther Wyandottes hed fled. The stockade
+hed held out agin 'em, an' all inside wuz safe. But, land o' liberty!
+whut a ruination all about the outside o' them walls! Oveh three
+hundurd dead cattle an' hogs an' sheep lay strowed 'round through the
+woods; the big cawnfiel's wuz cut down an' tromped an' ruined; so wuz
+the flax an' hempfiel's; an' the tater craps an' the other gairden
+stuff wuz pulled up. No wondeh we thusted fur vengeance. So us rescuin'
+parties an' the Bryan Station fo'ces, afteh a night consultation, set
+out et daybreak nex' mawnin' to folleh up an' punish. We thought ef we
+hurried we could soon ketch up with the enemy; so we didn't wait, as
+some o' the oldeh men advised, fur the reinfo'cements whut Gen'ral
+Logan hed already started."
+
+"Had we waited," interrupted Gilcrest sadly, "no doubt the story of
+savage butchery enacted at Blue Licks two days later, might have had a
+different ending."
+
+"Maybe so," assented Rogers, "or ef, when we did git to the springs
+thar on the banks uv the Lickin', we'd heeded the counsels uv Boone an'
+Todd an' Trigg, instid o' the lead o' thet red-headed, hot-blood
+Irishman, Hugh McGary, when he plunged his hoss inteh the river, an'
+wavin' his knife oveh his haid, challenged all whut wuzn't cowa'ds to
+folleh him. My soul! my hair rises yit when I think uv whut come next.
+On we all reshed afteh McGary inteh the river, an' up the redge on
+t'otheh side; fur, of course, Todd an' Boone an' our otheh rightful
+leadehs, whose advice we'd disregawded, wouldn't fursake us when they
+seed we wuz detarmined to rush it. Et fust, without ordeh or caution,
+we hustled forwa'd--until the foes sprung out uv ambush. Good Lawd!
+Ev'ry cliff, ev'ry bush an' cedah-tree wuz alive with them red devils;
+an' it seemed lak all hell hed bust loose on us. Still, Boone an' the
+otheh commandahs, afteh the fust minit's surprise, managed to rally us
+in spite o' the hell fire whut rained on us frum behind ev'ry tree an'
+rock. So when we'd reached the backbone uv the redge, we formed in some
+sort uv ordeh. Boone, fust in command, took the left wing; Todd, the
+centah; Trigg, the right; an' the Lincoln County men undeh Harlan,
+McBride an' McGary a sort o' advance guard. But 'twuz no use then. We
+only fired one round. Befoh we could reload, them devils wuz on us with
+tommyhocks an' scalpin'-knives. Then, a hand-to-hand fight fur a minit.
+Afteh thet, our men--all whut wuz left uv us--wuz mekin' back towa'ds
+the river, with the yellin', whoopin' swarm o' hell's imps at our
+heels."
+
+"Who can depict the horrors of that day!" Gilcrest ejaculated. "It has
+been estimated that at least one-tenth of all the able-bodied men in
+Kentucky either fell on that battlefield, or were carried captive to
+meet lingering death by torture. You see," he continued, "we had
+thought we could have a better chance at the enemy on foot than on
+horseback, so we had dismounted before forming into line; and then we
+were so closely pursued that few had time to reach the horses."
+
+"An' thet," said Rogers, taking up the narrative, "give the savages
+anotheh big edvantidge; fur they jumped on our hosses an' galloped
+afteh us, while we had to mek to the river on foot."
+
+"Yes," said Gilcrest, "and if it hadn't been for you, Mason, I'd never
+have reached the river. A fierce Wyandotte brave mounted on one of our
+horses had picked me out as his special prey, and I, exhausted by my
+long, hot run, and already slightly wounded, could never have reached
+the ford but for your timely aid."
+
+"Fo'tunately," Rogers put in, "I, who hadn't been so close pressed, hed
+hed time to reload my rifle. So we left thet Injun varmint rollin' in
+the dust with a bullet in his back, an' you an' me jumped on thet hoss
+an' swum the river. But, pshaw, Hiram! talk 'bout my savin' yer life!
+Thet wuz nothin' to some o' the brave things you an' others done thet
+day. Do you re-collect how two uv our men afteh they'd got safe oveh
+the river, instid o' mekin' fur the bresh, stopped thar on the bank in
+full range o' the Injuns on t'otheh side, an' rallied the men an' made
+'em halt an' fire back at the whoopin' red demons, so's we pore
+wretches whut wuz still swimmin' fur life could hev some chance to
+escape? It wuz Ben Netherlands an' one uv the Page brothehs--Marshall
+Page, I believe 'twuz--who did thet."
+
+"Marshall Page!" ejaculated Abner Dudley.
+
+"Yes, it was Marshall Page, I think," answered Major Gilcrest; "but why
+your exclamation, Mr. Dudley? Do you know any one of that name?"
+
+"I can't recall that I do," answered young Dudley; "but the name seems
+familiar, and, in fact, I have a dim impression, absurd though it may
+seem to you, of having heard or experienced many incidents such as you
+and Mr. Rogers have been describing. But my impressions may be
+baseless."
+
+"Your impressions," said Gilcrest, "are doubtless only the faint memory
+of some tale heard in your early childhood. Such harrowing incidents as
+Mason and I were recalling were common enough in the pioneer days, and
+have furnished the theme of many a fireside recital. As for Marshall
+Page, you very likely have known some one of the name; for I believe
+there are still many Pages living in Virginia and Maryland; but you can
+not have known the man I mean--either Marshall Page or his brother,
+whose Christian name I can not recall just now--for he was killed there
+on the banks of the Licking while bravely helping his comrades to
+escape. Which brother was it, Mason?"
+
+"Blest ef I know," Rogers replied; "but one, whicheveh it wuz, wuz
+killed at the Licking, an' the otheh wuz captured by the savages. Seems
+to me, though, I heard aftehwa'ds thet he escaped befoh they got to the
+Injun town way back in Ohio, an' thet he turned up agin at Bryan's thet
+fall, an' took the little Page boy back across the mountains to his own
+people. Wuzn't thet the way uv it, Cynthy Ann?"
+
+"Yes," Mrs. Rogers answered, "Mary Jane Hart, who kept the little boy
+with her at the station afteh his motheh died, tole me about it the
+nex' summeh when she come oveh to Houston's one day, an' uv how she
+hated to part with him; fur she hed no childurn uv her own then, an'
+hed took a mighty fancy to the pore little fellah."
+
+"Speaking of Netherland's and Page's brave deed," here spoke Major
+Gilcrest, "Mason, do you remember Aaron Reynolds' equally brave and
+self-sacrificing rescue of young Patterson that day?"
+
+And the two veterans, spurred by each other's promptings into livelier
+recollection, painted in vivid colors many more of the stirring
+incidents of that most tragic event in the annals of pioneer Kentucky,
+the battle of Blue Lick Springs.
+
+Young Dudley and Henry Rogers, their fighting blood aroused by the
+realistic portrayal, sat by with kindling eyes and quickened pulses,
+while each in his heart pictured some deed of daring heroism which
+himself might have achieved had he been in that memorable battle.
+
+Mrs. Rogers' sewing lay unheeded in her lap as she rocked slowly to and
+fro, her gaze fixed upon the fire. She, too, was painting pictures and
+seeing visions of the long ago--pictures which included not only the
+heroic band of Kentucky's defenders in the midst of the bloody horrors
+of that battlefield, but also that band of devoted women shut up alone
+with their helpless little ones in that lonely station, not knowing
+what terrible fate was befalling husbands, brothers, kinsmen out in the
+wilderness, nor what even greater evils from lurking foes might at any
+moment beset themselves within their stockade fortress; and her brave
+lip trembled and the visions in the fire became dimmed and blurred as
+she thought of that terrible ride under the scorching rays of the
+August sun, and of the eighteen-months-old babe, her little William,
+who, already ailing before the departure from Houston's, and unable to
+bear the merciless heat of the long journey, had died in her arms at
+Bryan's two days later--hours before her husband returned from that
+ill-fated march to the Licking.
+
+"No," she thought, as she wiped the tears from her eyes, and resumed
+her sewing, "our men didn't hev all the strugglin's an' the trials; we
+women fought our battles, too; an' ours, afteh all, wuz the hardest
+parts."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO
+
+
+The household at Oaklands presented a singular admixture of diverse
+elements working together harmoniously, and blending into a home life
+that was thrifty, stirring, and, at the same time, genial and refined.
+
+In Hiram Gilcrest, notwithstanding a certain air of Puritanical
+bigotry, there was a strong leaven of integrity and sound sense which
+won him much respect from his neighbors. Seeing him in the midst of his
+family, one thought him like a tall, vigorous New England fir-tree,
+standing sentinel over a garden of blooming children, and protecting
+and sheltering the delicate, listless wife who seemed like a frail
+hothouse flower which, too late in life, had been transplanted from the
+artificial warmth of a greenhouse into an outdoor garden.
+
+The sons, reared in the new and hardy soil of Kentucky, were like
+sturdy young shrubs. Betsy, in her youthful bloom and piquancy, was the
+type of the fragrant, spicy garden pink; and no one could look at Abby
+Patterson without thinking of a June rose.
+
+During the winter Abner Dudley was often at Oaklands. The
+undemonstrative yet hearty interest of Hiram Gilcrest, the serene
+cordiality of Miss Abby, and the boisterous greeting of the children
+made the young Virginian feel himself a welcome guest. But, whether he
+discussed affairs of church or school, state or nation with his host,
+or listened to Mrs. Gilcrest's somewhat languid conversation, or
+parried the sparkling quips and gay repartees of Betsy, he carried away
+from these visits very little realizing sense of anything save the
+presence and personality of Abby Patterson, whose serene gentleness and
+blooming beauty had power to stir within him "all impulse of soul and
+of sense."
+
+Another frequent visitor at Oaklands was James Anson Drane, the young
+lawyer and land agent of Lexington. In him Dudley at first feared a
+formidable rival; but it soon became apparent that Betsy Gilcrest, not
+Abby Patterson, was the magnet which drew the young lawyer to Oaklands.
+Hiram Gilcrest and Drane's father had been close friends. For this
+reason James was ever a welcome guest; and he ingratiated himself into
+still greater favor with Major Gilcrest by agreeing with him on all
+points, whenever religion or politics was the topic of discussion.
+Abner Dudley distrusted this easy acquiescence, and had a suspicion
+that the views which Drane expressed so glibly were not his true
+sentiments--a suspicion which Betsy Gilcrest appeared to share, as
+testified by the scornful toss of her head, the contemptuous smile that
+flitted across her lips, and the sarcastic light that flashed in her
+eyes whenever the bland and brilliant young lawyer fluently argued in
+favor of federalism and Calvinism.
+
+No distinctions of rank and culture disturbed the homogeneous character
+of society at Cane Ridge. Friendships were warm and constant; and just
+as these men and women had toiled and struggled together in the first
+days of settlement, so now they and their children lived, worked, and
+enjoyed their simple pleasures in cordial harmony. Although staunch
+Presbyterians in doctrine, these people did not, as a rule, oppose
+dancing. Mason Rogers was the fiddler of the neighborhood, and as much
+esteemed in that capacity as in that of song-leader at church; and even
+Deacon Gilcrest, notwithstanding the Puritanical stiffness of his
+mental joints upon questions of creed, relaxed considerably upon
+matters of social pastimes; nor did he assume superiority over his
+neighbors on account of his greater wealth and education. On the
+contrary, he encouraged his niece and daughter to mingle in all the
+social functions of the community. Hence, the young schoolmaster was
+likewise a frequenter of these gatherings--drawn thither by the hope of
+seeing Abby Patterson, who, although she did not participate in any of
+the more boisterous games, was frequently present as an onlooker; and
+while the crowd of merry young people were romping through
+"Rise-up-thimbler," "Shoot-the-buffalo," or "Skip-to-me, -Lou," Abner
+had the opportunity he coveted, a quiet chat with Abby in some retired
+corner of the room.
+
+One form of merry-making which was in high favor among the women of
+that day was the quilting-bee. These quilters of the long ago must have
+been accomplished needlewomen, as evidenced by the heirlooms in
+"diamond," "rose," "basket," and other quaint designs which have
+descended to us from our great-grandmothers.
+
+One Saturday in November there was a quilting-bee and a corn-shucking
+at farmer Trabue's. Early in the afternoon the matrons and maids of
+Cane Ridge--each with thimble, needles and scissors in a long reticule
+dangling from her waist--congregated in Mrs. Trabue's big upper room,
+where the quilt, already "swung," was awaiting them.
+
+To Polly Hinkson, who was considered highly accomplished in such
+matters, was accorded the honor of marking the quilt into the pattern
+previously decided upon, an elaborate and intricate design known as
+"bird-at-the-window." The marking done, women and girls seated
+themselves around the quilt, and began to work, taking care to make the
+stitches short and even, and to keep strictly to the chalk line
+defining the pattern.
+
+With an accompaniment of laughter, jest, good-natured gossip and
+innocent rivalry, the work went merrily forward all afternoon until the
+evening shadows began to gather in the upper room. Then the nearly
+finished quilt was rolled upon its frames; and the older women repaired
+to the kitchen to assist the hostess and her dusky handmaidens in
+supper preparations, while the girls doffed aprons and reticules,
+smoothed out Sunday merinoes or bombazines, and readjusted combs and
+fillets, to be ready for the evening gayeties; for by this time the
+beaux were arriving.
+
+In the kitchen, with its smoke-begrimed walls and its blackened
+rafters, from which dangled sides of meat, bunches of herbs, and
+strings of pepper, the supper was spread. Keeping guard at one end of
+the long table was the roast pig, brown, crisp and juicy, stuffed with
+sage dressing; around its neck a garland of sausage, in its mouth a
+turnip. At the other end of the table, facing the pig, was a turkey
+replete with gravy and rich stuffing, and garnished with parsley. Down
+each side of the board stretched a long line of edibles--sparerib,
+potatoes, cabbage, beans and hominy, pitchers of milk and of cider;
+within this double line, another of pies, white loaf bread, corn pone,
+flakey biscuit, pickles, honey and apple-butter. In the center of the
+board rested the masterpiece of culinary art, the tall "stack cake"
+shaped like a pyramid, and at its apex a wreath of myrtle. Ranged
+around this pyramid stood glasses of foaming, yellow "float."
+
+Immediately after supper the entire company assembled in the barn for
+the shucking bout. Several scaffolds had been erected at suitable
+intervals in the barn, their tops covered with dirt and rocks on which
+were big billets of blazing hickory to furnish light for the workers.
+The corn was apportioned as equally as possible, and then at a given
+signal a lively contest began.
+
+"You don't seem to be trying for the championship," laughingly remarked
+Abby Patterson to Abner Dudley that evening as they sat side by side in
+the long line of busy shuckers. "See how William Hinkson, Jed White and
+John Smith are working; and look how swiftly Thomas Miles is reducing
+his heap. I do believe he will win the contest."
+
+"He may, for all of me," was Abner's smiling rejoinder; "I'm well
+content to be among the laggards, so long as you are sitting near me.
+Besides, the prize is not one I should dare claim."
+
+"Is there a prize?" asked Abby. "I did not know that; this is the first
+shucking party I ever attended. What is the prize to be?"
+
+"A kiss from any girl the winner may choose from among the shuckers, I
+believe," Dudley answered demurely.
+
+"Oh!" murmured Abby, blushing warmly. "I now understand."
+
+"The girl of my choice," Abner added with a meaning glance at his
+companion, and with a decided emphasis upon "my," "is far too refined
+and womanly to permit my taking such a reward. Hence, I do not aspire
+to be a champion shucker, nor a fortunate finder of red ears of corn."
+
+"It is rather difficult, is it not, Betty," he continued presently,
+with a humorous twinkle in his eyes, as Miss Gilcrest came across to
+where he and her cousin were seated, "to find the logical connection
+between the championship as the fastest corn-shucker, and the privilege
+of kissing the girl of one's choice?"
+
+"The custom isn't founded upon logic, but solely upon the consent of
+the parties," was Betsy's ready rejoinder; "and who but a pair of old
+sobersides like you and Cousin Abby would sit here discoursing on
+'logical connections,' while all this fun is going on? 'Logical
+connection,' indeed!" she exclaimed merrily, with a saucy toss of her
+curls.
+
+"At any rate, those hilarious folks over yonder certainly appear to
+care but little as to whence the custom originated or upon what
+principle, logical or otherwise, it is perpetuated," Dudley added,
+nodding towards the center of the barn, where a number of noisy boys
+and girls were circling around Thomas Miles, who had just won the
+championship, and was now claiming his reward from the lips of the
+blushing, screaming, struggling, but by no means displeased, Mary Hitt.
+
+"It is wonderful, isn't it," Abner continued, as Betsy danced away,
+"how Betty always contrives to evade taking part in those detestable
+kissing games, and yet maintains her popularity with all those boys and
+girls? She's a rare combination--self-willed and impetuous, yet
+big-hearted and lovable--and how pretty she is growing!"
+
+"Pretty!" Abby exclaimed warmly. "She is more than pretty, she is
+lovely; and there is a certain force and dignity about her, too, that
+contrasts curiously with her piquant wit and coquettish ways. It would
+be a bold man indeed who would attempt a familiarity with her."
+
+Returning home after school one February afternoon, schoolmaster and
+pupils found an unusual stir and commotion agitating the Rogers domain,
+news having arrived that the neighbors would gather there that night
+for a dance.
+
+Soon after six o'clock, a loud hail from the stile block proclaimed the
+first arrivals, a big sledload of merry folks. Others followed quickly,
+until in half an hour the spacious family room was overflowing with
+life and laughter and excited chatter. Hoods and wraps were quickly
+thrown aside, rumpled dresses smoothed out, loosened ribbons
+readjusted, refractory ringlets reduced to order, and presently the
+sitting-room was deserted, and the entire company had assembled in the
+loom-room across the yard, where the dance was to be held.
+
+"Why do you wound me and slander yourself by such language?" Abner
+Dudley asked, gloomily, in answer to Miss Patterson's request that he
+leave her quietly in her corner, and choose some fairer, fresher,
+merrier partner for the first dance. "I shall not dance at all unless
+you favor me," he stoutly asserted.
+
+"In that case, I suppose I must yield," Abby answered good-naturedly;
+"I should hate to mar your pleasure of the first Kentucky dance you
+ever attended," and she rose smilingly and took his arm.
+
+A proud and happy man was Abner as they crossed the room to take their
+places among the eager groups who were standing about impatiently
+waiting while Mason Rogers fitted a new string to his fiddle.
+
+ "'Fairer than Rachel at the palmy well,
+ Fairer than Ruth amid the fields of corn,
+ Fair as the angel that said "hail," she seemed!'"
+
+quoted Abner, bending his head to look into the face of the girl beside
+him--the grandiloquence of the quotation and the blunt directness of
+the flattery atoned for by the earnest sincerity of his voice and
+glance.
+
+Abby was indeed a fair and gracious vision as she stood there, straight
+and lissome as a young palm-tree. The somber plainness of her winter
+gown of dark merino and the soft, clinging texture of her muslin tucker
+accentuated the delicate fairness of skin, the dainty perfection of
+feature, and the exquisite beauty of the white throat. Her quiet,
+rather pensive face was just now unusually animated, and the faint
+sea-shell tint of her cheek was deepened into a glowing crimson.
+
+"This homely scene is a contrast to that Assembly ball, isn't it?"
+Dudley said presently; "and how different my position now from that of
+the forlorn youth who that night stood afar off, gazing with useless
+longing at the brilliant scene within the ballroom! Little did I then
+dream that to-night in far-off Kentucky I should be leading the reel
+with the peerless belle of that assembly."
+
+"There stands the 'peerless belle' of this assembly," returned Miss
+Patterson, looking across to Betsy Gilcrest, the center of a group of
+boys and girls. "Dear little girl!" continued Abby; "she appears in her
+airiest, sauciest mood to-night, and is clearly bent on enjoying life
+to its fullest extent. No one holds her head so prettily as Betty; no
+one laughs and chatters with such innocent gayety. Is she not
+bewitching?"
+
+A momentary look of vexation flitted across the young man's face. "What
+is Betsy's witchery to me, and why does Abby always try to divert my
+attention when I would give our conversation a personal meaning?" he
+thought gloomily. "Of course," he admitted, glancing at Betsy with
+reluctant admiration, "she is bright and winning, and extremely
+attractive, at least to the youths of this community; but she is not
+the rose, and I----"
+
+"Ah! It is easy to see what is the attraction here for that bepowdered,
+beruffled, fashionable swain, as well as for the Cane Ridge youths,"
+Miss Patterson interrupted, as James Anson Drane presented himself
+before Betsy, and bowed over her hand with a courtly grace befitting a
+far more brilliant scene than this country dance in the old loom-room.
+
+"Do you think she favors him?" asked Dudley, anxiously, a momentary
+fierce pang of dislike or distrust or envy shivering through him as he
+looked at the debonair young lawyer.
+
+"At any rate," laughed Abby, "there can be no doubt of his intentions.
+As for her," she continued, looking earnestly at Abner, "I have in mind
+a far more suitable lover, who will, I hope, some day win that heart of
+gold."
+
+"Who is this fortunate one destined to 'win that heart of gold'?"
+Dudley carelessly inquired, feeling but little interest just then in
+any topic save that which concerned himself and the girl at his side.
+"Do I know him?"
+
+"Only slightly, I believe," Miss Patterson replied, looking down with a
+demure smile; "not nearly so well as I hope you will some day."
+
+Abner flushed warmly, and his pulse leaped high with hope; for he
+interpreted the words to refer to a closer relationship between Abby
+and himself. "Of course," he thought jubilantly, "I shall become well
+acquainted with Betsy's prospective husband, when Abby shall have
+accepted me."
+
+"Whoever he may be," said Abner, heartily, "since he has your approval,
+I wish him Godspeed with Betty; for," he added in a lower key, and
+frowning slightly, as he looked at Mr. Drane, "I can not, for the life
+of me, cordially like or trust yonder fine gentleman. But what about
+this other lover for Betty?"
+
+"At present," Abby answered with a meaning which Abner was far from
+construing correctly, "he thinks his affections are centered in a far
+less worthy object; and he is blind to his heart's best interests."
+
+"Let us hope that this blind Romeo may soon be restored to sight,"
+laughed Abner; "or else, that dear little Juliet yonder will be carried
+off by some clearer-visioned wooer. But see, Mr. Rogers has at last
+restrung that fiddle and tuned it to his notion; so now for our dance!"
+
+No stately minuet or mincing cotillion was the order of the evening.
+Instead, the "countre dance," the "gauntlet," the "four-handed
+reel"--old-time, energetic country dancing--shook the rafters overhead,
+and made the puncheon floor vibrate. Such jigging, such "cutting the
+pigeon wing," such swinging corners! No languid, lazy gliding, but
+hearty motion--up and down, round and round, faster and faster, as the
+twinkling bow sawed across the strings to the tune of "Coon Dog," "Roxy
+Ann," "Billy Batters," or "Niggah in the Cawnfield."
+
+Rousing music it was--"enough," as Rube and Tom declared, "to mek even
+a one-legged fellah git up an' hump hisse'f."
+
+Mason Rogers at one end of the room, his eyes beaming, his face
+shining, made the fiddle hum and sing. Interspersed with his music came
+energetic promptings, "Balance all!" "Swing yer pardnahs!" "Ladies,
+chain!" "Gals to the centah, an' boys all around!" Sometimes he
+admonished some laggard or blunderer, "Hurry, thah, Sammy!" "Bill, to
+the left!" his feet the while tapping the floor, and his body swaying
+rhythmically as his right arm swung the bow and the fingers of his left
+hand twinkled over the strings. A further incentive to merriment was
+the excited admiration of the negroes gathered outside at doors and
+windows--not only the darkeys of the Rogers household, but many from
+neighboring domains as well--heads bobbing, eyes rolling, teeth
+glistening, as their feet beat time on the frozen ground. Sometimes a
+dusky swain caught some dusky maid around the waist and swung her
+merrily; and all promised themselves "jes' sech a dance in the big
+cabin, nex' Sat'day night, with Marse Bushrod Hinkson's Jake fur
+fiddler."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE "HOUSE-RAISIN'"
+
+
+Soon after coming to the neighborhood, Abner Dudley, heeding the advice
+of Mason Rogers, had gone to see the tract of land lying on Hinkson's
+Creek. He found it to be all that Rogers had said of it--a rich,
+well-watered, well-timbered body of land. Early in November he had
+purchased of Simon Lucky his "head right" to four hundred acres, for
+four hundred and fifty dollars. He had enough money for the first
+payment, and Mason Rogers became security for the rest of the purchase
+price. After making a rough survey of the land, and recording the
+transfer in the land office at the county-seat, Dudley, with his ax,
+notched the corner trees of his purchase, and thus took formal
+possession.
+
+"Well, Abner," said Rogers the evening after he and young Dudley had
+returned from Bourbonton, whither they had gone to record the deed of
+transfer, "you've got four hundred acres uv ez good land ez thar is in
+Bourbon County, or in Kaintucky, fur thet matteh, an' now you kin push
+yer way right on, an' in a few years you'll be inderpendent rich. Ef I
+wuz you, I'd buy up a lot o' hogs, an' turn 'em loose in the woods, ez
+soon's you git yer place fenced in. They'll be no expense fer ther
+keep; they'll fatten on the mast undah the trees, an' be an advantidge
+ev'ry way. Henry'll holp you Sat'days to cl'ar off breshwood an' cut
+down trees, so's to let in the sun to dry yer ground in time fer yer
+spring plowin'. I'll spar' you Rube an' Tom this wintah sometimes, when
+thar ain't much a-doin' at home, an' you kin hev the ox team, too, to
+haul off the bresh. You'd bettah begin nex' Sat'day to girdle 'bout a
+dozen o' them big oaks ovah thar on yer west slope--it'll mek splendid
+cawn-ground."
+
+Spring in this favored locality was neither coy nor capricious, but
+came on with a steady step and an assured air, as though confident of
+her welcome. By the middle of February the icy fetters of winter's
+binding were loosened from creek and pond. Then came the fierce winds
+of March to melt the snow and to dry the earth; and presently woods and
+fields were springing into new beauty under the gentle touch of April
+shower and sunshine.
+
+The school term ended in March. The same need which called Abner and
+the larger boys to the fields, provided tasks in garden, poultry-yard,
+loom-room and springhouse for the girls.
+
+"Books is all very well fer wintah times," said Mrs. Rogers to Susan
+one afternoon as she sat on the back door-step, marking a basket of
+eggs to set. "But now thet warm weathah's tekin' holt in arnest, thar's
+more important things ter think 'bout. Thar's all thet soap grease to
+mek up soon's I kin git the leach bar'l sot up--'sides hens to set,
+gairden to plant, the turkey hens to watch so's they don't steal ther
+nests; an' Brindle an' Crooked Horn an' Spot all comin' in fresh nex'
+week, an' ther new calves to look aftah, 'sides all thet buttah an'
+milk an' cheese. The days hain't nigh long 'nough fer all the wuck
+thet's to be did. Heah, these aiggs is marked. Put 'em undah them five
+hens whut's been a-cluckin' an' takin' on fer a week or more. Eph made
+the nests fer you this mawnin'--a whole row o' 'em back o' the
+loom-room in a fresh place, so's the chiggers won't pester the hens.
+Hev you boys picked thet basket o' chips?" Mrs. Rogers then asked of
+Tommy and Buddy, who at this moment came around the corner of the
+house, prancing and dancing, each astride a stick horse. "Whut! You
+hain't? Drap them sticks this minit, or I'll w'ar 'em out on yer backs!
+Cl'ar out to thet woodpile, fast ez yer laigs'll carry you. Ef you
+don't look sharp, nary a step do you go to the sugah-camp ter-morrow,
+an' nary a mouthful o' thet maple sugah shell you hev."
+
+It was an unwritten law of the community that whenever a farm was
+opened up, a house should be immediately built upon it. In fact, a man
+was not considered to have positive possession of his land until a
+house of some description was erected thereon. So, although Dudley was
+to continue to live with the Rogerses at least for the spring and
+summer, as soon as the first plowing was done and the corn planted, he
+proceeded to build his house, the logs for which had already been cut;
+for Mason Rogers, in common with the other old settlers, held to the
+superstition that if the timber for a house was cut in the full moon of
+February, the future inmates of the house would never be molested by
+bedbugs--"An'," Mrs. Rogers had added when her husband was recommending
+this course to Dudley, "ef you gether pennyrile when it's in blossom,
+an' dry it, an' keep sprigs o' it b'tween yer bed-ticks, an' 'long the
+cracks o' the walls, you won't be pestered with fleas, nuther."
+
+It was another unwritten law of these early times that every ablebodied
+man should assist in a "house-raisin'." Therefore, one clear April
+morning about forty men and boys assembled with axes, mauls, and other
+rude tools, near the site of the proposed cabin. This site was a gently
+sloping, wooded prominence near the center of the farm. A pretty
+locality it was. Through the trees at the back there was a glimpse of
+Hinkson Creek, and across the newly plowed fields to the right and left
+could be seen the shadowy blue of some distant, low-lying hills. In
+front, several walnut, oak and elm trees had been left standing to
+preserve the wild beauty of the place.
+
+The first day was spent in preparing materials and laying the
+foundation logs. The men laughed and jested and shouted merrily as they
+worked; and by noon the timbers were prepared, and the rock hauled for
+the two mammoth chimneys. Well it was that the hardest part of the work
+was already done, for some of the party, not content with the efficacy
+of hard cider, had brought whisky, and at the noon repast many of the
+men imbibed so freely that they were incapacitated for active service,
+and spent the afternoon lounging on log heaps, dozing off the effects
+of their potations or singing maudlin songs and making still more
+maudlin jests. However, the whisky of those days was pure, and though
+it did inebriate, its after effects were not so injurious, nor did it
+render its votaries so quarrelsome as does our so-called "pure Bourbon"
+of to-day. By the next morning even the most intoxicated had slept off
+the effects of their indulgence, and all reassembled at sunrise for the
+"raisin'." Four "corner men" were chosen, whose business it was to
+notch and place the logs handed them by the rest of the men, as needed.
+Meanwhile, boards for window and door frames were placed in readiness,
+so that by the time the walls were a few rounds high, the sleepers were
+laid and the chimneys being built.
+
+The cabin was considered unusually commodious and elegant for a young
+householder. It was built of white oak logs and was forty feet long by
+eighteen wide. Moreover, it was a "double house;" that is, the two
+large rooms were separated by a passageway. The puncheon flooring was
+planed into delightful smoothness, and the mantels were of beautifully
+grained walnut, prepared by Abner during winter evenings.
+
+The house was to "set with the sun;" and on the second day, by the time
+the sun's rays shone squarely across the newly laid threshold, walls
+were raised, rafters laid, and door and window frames adjusted. The
+noon recess was a merry time. Lunches were eaten with greater relish,
+and cider and whisky circulated even more freely than on the previous
+day. Nevertheless, by four o'clock the work was completed, and the last
+helper had departed homeward.
+
+The cabin was, of course, not yet fit for occupancy; the walls were not
+chinked, nor the hearthstone laid. Doors were still unhung and windows
+unglazed; but as Abner stood alone that evening in his doorway, leaning
+on his ax and looking across his rich lands, his heart swelled with a
+feeling of proud proprietorship. He pictured how inviting this
+wilderness home would look when its interior walls should shine with a
+plentiful coat of whitewash, and when hop vines and morning-glories
+should cover the rough exterior, and convert doorways and window frames
+into bowers of beauty.
+
+"In a few years," he mused, "if I am as prosperous as I see reason to
+hope, this log cabin will be replaced by a mansion as commodious as any
+in Bourbon County. Flowers will bloom in my trim gardens; and my broad
+fields will whiten with a wealth of grain. A home that shall be a fit
+setting for the jewel of my love shall make her forget her former
+luxurious life in Virginia, as well as the toils and privations of the
+first days with me; and our children shall take their places with the
+highest in the land."
+
+From that October day when Abby Patterson had raised her veil in the
+old church and revealed the features of the beautiful girl who had
+entranced his boyish fancy at the Assembly ball four years before, a
+veil seemed lifted from his own vision. Love had dawned, and in its
+light life was invested with a deeper and more beautiful significance.
+"What if she is a few years older than I?" he would ask himself. "Is
+she not above me in everything else as well? So that, if she accepts my
+love, it will be through no worthiness of mine."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM
+
+ "Like ships that sailed for sunny isles,
+ But never came to shore."--_Hervey._
+
+
+All through the early spring Abner toiled with the might of a hopeful
+heart--love lightening every task and enduing him with the strength of
+two. His farm was soon enclosed, and divided into fields and woodland
+stretches by neat rail fences. Planting-time was over. The young corn
+was rank and tall, and its luxuriant green foliage almost hid the brown
+ridges and furrows.
+
+One day in May Abner stood at the threshold of his unfinished cabin,
+and gazed with unseeing eyes over fields and woods and growing corn.
+Alas for visions of domestic joy! The day before, he had asked Abby to
+be his wife. So gentle, so sad, and withal so tender, had been her
+manner, that at first he had refused to accept her decision. "Believe
+me, dear friend," she then said, "there is no answer possible save the
+one I have given. Though I honor you above any one else I have known
+during my life in Kentucky, I have no love to give you. Besides, I am
+too old, too grave, too disposed to melancholy, to make you happy. You
+need a younger, stronger, more joyous nature than mine. At present you
+can not understand this; some day you will, and then you will see that
+a far more suitable mate--a girl self-reliant, buoyant, and with a
+wealth of love in her pure, warm heart--is waiting for you. Ah! you are
+blind, blind, that you do not see how Happiness is holding out her hand
+to you."
+
+A dim, shadowy wonder as to whom she could mean flitted an instant
+across the young man's mind; but he was too eager, too absorbed, to
+entertain the thought, and renewed his pleading. Then Abby, after
+looking at him a moment in wistful silence, rose from her chair, and,
+standing before him, laid her hands upon his shoulders, and, looking
+earnestly into his face, said: "Abner, I have no love to give you; for
+long ago all the love of which my heart is capable was given to
+another. He is dead now; but I am as much his as though he stood here
+before me to-night. As I loved him at the first, I love him now, and
+must love him to the end. For some, and I hope it will be so for you,
+love reblossoms into new beauty and vigor; but not for me. My heart can
+have no second springtime."
+
+Abner Dudley was of too manly a nature to grow morbid--no
+healthy-minded, strong-bodied man does that--but for a long, dark
+season he went about his work with a cherished sadness in his soul. The
+spring was gone from his step, the light from his eyes, and he was so
+quiet, so little like his former cheery self, that Mason Rogers,
+noticing his depression and attributing it to overwork, urged him to
+take a "rest spaill."
+
+"Tain't wuck whut's ailin' you, Abner," said Mrs. Rogers. "Thet nevah.
+hurt nobody yit. It's stayin' so much in them damp woods. You're
+gittin' peaky ez a sick kitten, an' saller ez a punkin; you'll be down
+with fevers an' agers nex'. You need dosin' on boneset an'
+life-evehlastin', an' I'll brew you a cupful this very night. Drink it
+bilin' hot, then soak yer feet in hot watah with a lot o' mustard
+pounded up in it; then go to bed an' sweat it out, an' you'll be all
+right by mawnin'. Thar's nothin' lak a good sweat to drive fevers an'
+agers outen the systum."
+
+Abner thanked his kindly hostess, but could not help laughing secretly
+at her diagnosis and prescription. "Truly," thought he, "it's but a
+step from sentiment to bathos. 'Fevers an' agers' instead of
+disappointed love! Boneset tea and a mustard foot-bath for a broken
+heart! I really must pull myself together."
+
+This perfect unconsciousness of the simple household was helpful to the
+young man. Furthermore, his work necessitated his living much out of
+doors, and this helped him still more; for none but those who have the
+unseeing eye and the unappreciative heart for the beauty of woods and
+fields, summer sunshine, glinting stream, and joyous bird notes, can
+long be wholly without benefit from nature's ministry. Thus Abner had
+within reach two mighty remedies for sadness--the balm of nature's
+beauty, and the bracing tonic of hard work.
+
+For some time he kept aloof from Oaklands; not only because of Abby,
+but because, when in Betsy's presence, certain tones of her voice when
+speaking to him, and a wistful look in her eyes, troubled him with a
+vague, half-conscious sense that she, young though she was,
+comprehended his trouble.
+
+In July, Abby, taking advantage of the proffered companionship of a
+family who were returning to Virginia, went for a protracted visit.
+After arriving in Norfolk, she decided to make her home with a cousin
+there. It was many a day before Abner Dudley saw her again.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THE GREAT REVIVAL
+
+
+In the summer of 1801, Cane Ridge became a storm-center of the great
+religious agitation which at that time was sweeping over the Western
+States.
+
+In the spring of that year, Barton Stone, leaving his Bourbon County
+churches for a time, had gone to southern Kentucky to attend a meeting
+conducted by McGready, McGee, and other noted revivalists, upon the
+edge of a barren tract in Logan County where multitudes encamped, and
+where worship was in progress in some parts of the grounds during the
+entire meeting, which lasted over a week.
+
+This southern Kentucky revival was followed by others of a like nature
+throughout other portions of the State, and like a wind-driven fire
+through the dried grass of a prairie was the effect of such meetings.
+In the prevalence of this excitement, sectarianism, abashed, shrank
+away, and the people, irrespective of creed, united in the services.
+
+It was decided to hold a camp-meeting at Cane Ridge. The woodland slope
+surrounding the meeting-house was cleared of its thick undergrowth for
+a space of several hundred yards, and three-fourths of this space was
+soon covered with long rows of log seats with broad aisles between the
+rows. In front, a spacious platform was erected, and over all was a
+roof of loose boughs supported by posts.
+
+The meeting began Thursday night before the third Sunday in August.
+Before sunrise on that Thursday, the roads were thronged with
+carriages, wagons, ox-carts, horseback riders, and persons on foot, all
+moving toward the woodland rendezvous. Many came from distant parts of
+Kentucky; many from the neighboring States. A Revolutionary officer,
+skilled in estimating large encampments, declared that the crowd
+numbered between twenty-five and thirty thousand people.
+
+Enthusiasm gathered intensity with each succeeding hour. There was no
+fixed time for intermission. Each family cooked, ate, slept at any time
+its members chose, and returned to the services, which began at sunrise
+and continued until long after midnight. Sometimes several preachers
+were each exhorting a large audience in different parts of the ground
+at the same time, while singing, shouting, praying and groaning were
+the constant accompaniment of the fervid, chantlike exhortations.
+
+At night the vast encampment, illuminated by scores of bear-grease
+lamps, hundreds of rush-lights, and thousands of tallow dips, presented
+a spectacle of weird sublimity. In the improvised auditorium lights
+suspended from overhanging boughs fell upon a concourse of earnest
+worshipers whose voices, rising in the solemn melody of a hymn, mingled
+with the fervid petitions of the preacher, the shouts of the newly
+converted, the sobs and shrieks of the newly convicted. Pine knots set
+in sockets upon the rostrum revealed in unearthly radiance the face of
+some impassioned speaker, silhouetting his form with startling
+distinctness against a background of forest. In the shadowy depths
+beyond the rostrum could faintly be seen, by the light of smoldering
+campfires, the long, ghostly line of tents and wagons, and here and
+there the fitful gleam of torches, like giant fireflies in the
+surrounding gloom. Enclosing all this was a black and seemingly
+illimitable expanse, from which could be heard the occasional hoot of
+an owl or the baying of a hound, mingled with the unceasing voice of
+the trees, now rising almost to a scream, now softly sighing, now
+wailing as in a dying agony.
+
+In an environment of such great natural solemnity, and under the spell
+of tense religious fervor, it was not strange that the very atmosphere
+seemed surcharged with a mystical and awful force, and that many of the
+campers were soon the victims of those singular "manifestations"
+called, in the parlance of the times, "the falling exercise," "the
+jerks," "the trance," and "the ecstasy." The various phases of this
+strange disorder attacked indiscriminately the credulous and the
+critical, the fervid and the frivolous, the religious and the
+reprobate. A strong man, while quietly attending to the exposition of
+some text; a young girl, while listening with blanching lips and
+quickening pulses to the impassioned appeal of the exhorter; or a
+careless onlooker, while laughing and jesting, might suddenly be
+affected by this terrifying malady. Some scoffer might perhaps at one
+moment be sneering or denouncing the demonstrations as demoniac, and
+the next be attacked with great violence. Nor were the campers alone
+affected. New arrivals, while yet upon the outskirts of the encampment,
+were sometimes seized with violent and inexplicable sensations. The air
+seemed charged with an irresistible electrical force.
+
+Many farmers of the neighborhood attended the meeting, taking advantage
+of the comparatively leisure season between summer harvesting and fall
+wheat-sowing. Mason Rogers was among this number, his wife declaring
+that "the hull thing would likely fall through ef Mason warn't thar to
+holp lead the singin'. Ez fer me," she said cheerfully to her children,
+"I'll stay to home most o' the time to cook things fer you-all ter eat
+up thar et the camp. Some day when I kin spar' time, I'll be ovah to
+heah the preachin', an' ter see whut's goin' on. You kin go, too,
+Susan, ef you want to, seein' ez you air 'titled to a leetle
+play-spaill arter wuckin' so spry all summah. You kin find a place to
+sleep with Betsy in Gilcrest's tent, or with Molly an' Ann Trabue. I
+reckon yer pap an' Henry an' Abner kin git a shakedown in some uv the
+wagon-beds, or else on the groun'; 'twon't hurt 'em this dry weathah.
+No, Tommy, nary step do you go; you an' Buddy's gwintah stay right
+heah. Camp-meetin's hain't no place fer brats. Maybe, though, ef you're
+good, I'll tek you ovah with me some day; or I'll let you go 'long with
+Rache an' Tom some mawnin', when they tek the baskets uv vi'tuls fur
+the folks to eat."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+AFTERNOON IN THE GROVE
+
+
+One afternoon toward the close of the revival, Betsy and John Calvin
+Gilcrest and Henry and Susan Rogers took their lunch-baskets to a shady
+grove near the big spring, with the intention of spending the afternoon
+in the woods.
+
+"I'm completely worn out," declared Susan, throwing herself down upon a
+grassy knoll and tossing her bonnet aside. "I've had enough excitement
+for one while."
+
+"And I, too," assented Betsy, as she uncovered her lunch-basket. "Every
+nerve in my body is on the war-path. We'll be having the 'jerks,' if
+this meeting lasts much longer."
+
+"If you do," remarked John Calvin, as he attacked the wing of a fried
+chicken, "I suppose you'll think it an 'evidence of conversion,' as old
+Daddy Stratton shouted out this morning when Billy Hinkson fell to the
+ground foaming at the mouth."
+
+"'Evidence of conversion,' indeed!" rejoined Betty. "I never felt
+further from it in my life. My head is like a ragbag stuffed to
+overflowing with all sorts of odds and ends of doctrinal wisdom, and
+when I want to get at any one sensible idea, out tumble a dozen or more
+that are of no use whatever."
+
+"My head's all confused, too," acknowledged Susan. "Yesterday Dr.
+Poague preached on 'Saved by Grace,' and showed that all we have to do
+is just to sit still and wait for the Lord's call. I felt real
+comfortable under that discourse. But last night old Brother Steadman's
+text was, 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,' and he
+made me dreadfully uneasy. Now, are there two plans of salvation, or
+only one?"
+
+"Why, two, of course," said John Calvin, with laughing assurance. "One
+teaches that if you mean to get to heaven, you must keep your horse
+everlastingly hittin' the road; the other, that the best way to get
+there is just to sit still. I like the 'sittin'-still plan' best,
+myself," he declared, with boyish frivolity.
+
+"This is what puzzles me," said Betsy, ignoring her brother's
+irreverent summary of the two seemingly conflicting doctrines, "grace"
+and "works": "if it be true, as so many of our learned brethren teach,
+that nothing good that one can do merits salvation, then it seems to me
+that, in accordance with every principle of justice, nothing bad that
+one can do ought to merit damnation. Therefore, why should not I do the
+thing that pleaseth me best, whether it be good or bad? If I'm one of
+the 'elect,' nothing will keep me out of heaven, anyway."
+
+"If you're of the elect, Betsy, you won't ever want to be wicked,"
+Henry said gravely, speaking for the first time.
+
+"Then, I fear I'm not of the elect."
+
+"Oh, yes, I hope you are--only you're not yet converted. When you are,
+you'll see things differently." Henry was of a devout, reverent
+temperament, with a vivid imagination in spite of his quiet,
+self-contained manner. He had been greatly stirred by what he had seen
+and heard during the last ten days.
+
+"But, Henry," began Betsy, argumentatively, "if I'm among the chosen at
+all, I'm as much chosen now as I will ever be; for I'm a sheep, not a
+goat--'Once a sheep, always a sheep,' you know."
+
+"Well, sis," teasingly interrupted John Calvin, "if you're a sheep,
+you're surely one of the black ones; and it'll take a mighty heap o'
+scrubbin', I tell you, to get you white."
+
+"And you," rejoined his sister, playfully, "I fear must be a
+goat--judging by the way you're always butting in, and interrupting
+serious converse."
+
+"Oh," answered John Calvin, lightly, "I ain't bad enough to be classed
+with the goats, nor good enough to be a sheep, even a black one. That
+other parable about the wheatfield fits my case better. I reckon I'm
+just one of those useless tares."
+
+His sister retorted: "The parable also declares that 'he who sows the
+tares is the devil,' and I hardly believe you are prepared to call your
+parents the devil, although they put you into the church by having you
+baptized in infancy." Then, resuming her conversation with Henry, she
+said, "If I am of the elect at all, Henry, I am elected already, before
+conversion, am I not?"
+
+"To be sure," Henry replied. "God chose his people before the
+foundation of the world."
+
+"Bosh!" exclaimed Susan, impatiently. "You don't know what God was
+doing before the foundation of the world, and I doubt if any of those
+wise brethren up at the camp do, either."
+
+"Besides," added the irrepressible John Calvin, "the catechism says
+we're made of the dust of the earth; and before the foundation of the
+world, there wasn't any dust. So, the elect must mean some other
+folks--not us of this world, at all."
+
+"Doubtless the inhabitants of Mars or Jupiter," observed Betty,
+laughing in spite of herself at John's flippant remark.
+
+"Betsy," presently said Henry very earnestly, "I've watched you and
+Susan closely all during this revival, and I do believe that you both
+are really under conviction. The belief in your own wickedness and in
+the total depravity of the human heart is the first link in the
+chain--as Brother Weaver says."
+
+"But I do not believe in 'total depravity,'" maintained Betsy, stoutly.
+"If the human race was utterly depraved to start with, how could one
+keep growing worse and worse all the time?"
+
+"Ah, Betty," said Henry, "I reasoned just as you do, once; but now I
+understand these things better. Although I am of myself utterly vile
+and worthless, the mercy of God has taken hold of me and clothed and
+hidden me in the righteousness of his dear Son, and now I----"
+
+"Henry," interrupted Betsy, with sudden sweetness, for the time sobered
+by his earnest face and voice, "you mustn't feel hurt by anything I
+have said. You know I jest over the most solemn subjects, and see the
+ludicrous side of everything; but I can be impressed by real
+earnestness, and I have never doubted that you are sincere in all you
+say."
+
+"Yes," said Susan, "I'd sooner doubt my own eyesight than your
+sincerity, Henry. I can understand and believe in that at least; but in
+other things I must be a bigger simpleton than even the 'wayfaring
+man'; for the way of salvation is anything but plain, if it includes
+the doctrines of our churches. I can't understand them at all."
+
+"Understand them!" exclaimed Betsy. "Who can? Why, whenever one of our
+learned ministers is on the subject of 'reprobation,' 'predestination,'
+or 'effectual calling,' his reasoning is so subtle and his logic so
+ingenious that it must puzzle the elect angels themselves to understand
+his arguments."
+
+"But you surely believe in the beautiful doctrine of grace?" Henry
+asked earnestly. "You believe that the saints will persevere and get
+home at last to glory, don't you?"
+
+"We'll tell you more about that when we get there ourselves--if we ever
+do," replied Susan.
+
+"If the saints do persevere to glory," remarked John Calvin, "some of
+'em are makin' a mighty poor start of it here below. Look at Sam
+Ruddell, drunk half his time, and too lazy and mean to do any honest
+work at any time; yet he claims to be one of the elect, and the church
+accepts him as such."
+
+"And, Henry," Betty pursued mischievously, "in spite of your hopeful
+view about Sue and me, I, for one, am not under conviction, if every
+truly convicted penitent believes himself a 'sinner above all
+Galilee'--that's the orthodox phrase, isn't it? I'm not nearly so bad
+as Sam Ruddell, nor as Zebuel Simmons, who beats his wife."
+
+"Ah, but my dear little girl," said Barton Stone, who, with Dudley, had
+just come up, and had laid his hand gently upon the girl's shoulder,
+"you must remember that training and environment are the measure of
+guilt or innocence."
+
+"You'll think me a reckless girl, I'm afraid, Brother Stone," Betsy
+answered, laughing and coloring. "I shouldn't have made that speech had
+I known that you and Mr. Dudley were within hearing. But, nevertheless,
+I do not believe that I am the chief of sinners; others who have had
+just as good opportunities are as bad as I am, I'm sure."
+
+"Besides, if everybody who gets up in meeting and says he's the chief
+of sinners, is really so, there would be more chiefs in this
+neighborhood than in all the Indian tribes taken together," put in John
+Calvin, pertly, unabashed by the presence of parson and schoolmaster.
+
+"The trouble with so many ministers," said Dudley, as Betty, Susan and
+John Calvin strolled away, "is that they seem to think that furnishing
+people with doctrine is equivalent to awakening them to conviction and
+supplying them with faith."
+
+"Too true," assented Stone rather sadly. "Dogma and doctrine contain
+very little of the true essence of faith. But the time is coming when
+people will begin to search the Scriptures for themselves; and then,
+just as the walls of Jericho fell before the blasts of the trumpets, so
+will the whole superstructure of human theology, whose four
+corner-stones are bigotry, intolerance, superstition and speculative
+doctrine, crumble into nothingness. Even now the walls are beginning to
+tremble. When this human-built edifice shall have fallen, and all the
+debris shall have been cleared away, then shall arise upon the one true
+foundation, Jesus Christ, a glorious structure, pure, consecrated and
+untrammeled, the church of the living God."
+
+"Do you really believe," inquired Dudley, "that there will ever be a
+union of all the sects of Christendom?"
+
+"A union of sects? Never!" replied Stone, emphatically. "Such a thing
+is impossible from the very nature and meaning of sect. But union, or
+rather unity, of Christian people there will surely be. Our Saviour's
+prayer was that all his people might be one. That petition will
+certainly be answered."
+
+"We seem very far from the realization of that prayer now," said
+Dudley, thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes!" assented Stone. "That evil spirit of intolerance, the curse of
+the Corinthian church, besets the churches to-day. We must first
+overcome that foe before unity is possible. But some day--and I pray
+that it may be in my day," he continued with flashing eyes--"when the
+storm and stress of this battle are over, there will ring out, mingling
+with the shouts of victory from every rank and company of the Lord's
+hosts, this one clear, dominant note, 'Unity of all of Christ's
+people!'"
+
+After a moment, he continued: "Clergy nor presbytery nor synod has the
+right to stand between the people and the Bible, with authoritative
+creeds and confessions of faith; for the Bible is its own interpreter;
+and 'Equal rights to all, special privileges to none,' is a doctrine
+that will some day be adopted in religion as well as in civil and
+political matters."
+
+"Ah, Stone," Dudley replied, "that is indeed laying the ax to the very
+root of the tree of denominational intolerance. If you make public such
+opinions, you will be branded as a heretic."
+
+"I can stand that," Stone answered simply. "'Orthodoxy' and 'heresy,'"
+he continued after a pause, "are in truth variable terms in religion.
+The 'orthodoxy' of this generation may perhaps be considered by the
+next as ignorance and superstition; and what is to-day denounced as
+'heresy' in the father, may become 'orthodoxy' in the son."
+
+Henry Rogers, who for some time had remained a deeply interested but
+silent listener, sitting with his back against a tree, his hat shading
+his eyes, presently asked Stone what he thought of the singular
+manifestations at the camp-meeting.
+
+"I hardly know what to reply," said Stone. "Many things connected with
+this revival are mystifying to me; and, besides," he went on,
+smilingly, "your question places me in an embarrassing position, as,
+you know, I was largely instrumental in starting the meeting at this
+place. If I say I do not believe that these manifestations are
+conducive to good, you, Henry, I can see by the quickening sparkle in
+your eye, will immediately impale me upon one horn of my dilemma by
+asking me why, after seeing a similar excitement at the southern
+Kentucky revival, I should help to start this one. And if I say I do
+not believe that these manifestations are the work of God, there sits
+Abner, ready to confound me with arguments, psychological,
+philosophical and common-sensical. So what am I to answer?"
+
+"But, Stone," Abner exclaimed, "you surely do not deny the work of the
+Spirit in conversion, do you?"
+
+"Certainly not," Stone replied. "The Bible plainly teaches that without
+the unceasing instrumentality of the Holy Spirit there can be no real
+conversion; but nowhere in the Bible can I find it taught that we
+should seek in supernatural signs and special revelations, rather than
+in the clear and unchangeable testimonies and promises of the gospel,
+for evidence of our acceptance with God. In fact, I can find in the New
+Testament no account of any miraculous manifestation being sent for the
+sole purpose of converting any one, although there are instances where
+a miracle did attend the conversion."
+
+"What about Paul?"
+
+"The voice and the great light were, I think, sent more for the purpose
+of making him an apostle than for the purpose of converting him."
+
+Abner smiled. "You certainly dispose of Paul's case in a cool, offhand
+way; but how about the 'Philippian jailer'?"
+
+"You misunderstand me," said Stone; "whether Paul and the Philippian
+jailer were miraculously converted or not, I am not prepared to say. My
+statement was, that when a miracle did accompany any case of
+conversion, it was sent for some other purpose. Incidentally the
+miracle may have converted the jailer, but I do not think it was sent
+for that purpose."
+
+"Then, in the name of reason and common sense, what do you think it was
+sent for?" asked Dudley.
+
+"To free the two apostles. Through their imprisonment the gospel was
+enchained. For example, suppose some malicious boy hurls a stone to
+break a neighbor's window, and, in so doing, hits some one inside the
+house. He did not therefore throw the stone for the purpose of hitting
+the person, did he?"
+
+"You're a Stone too many for me," laughed Abner. "Your subtle
+reasonings and hair-splitting distinctions are too much for me to
+attempt to disprove, on such a broiling hot day as this."
+
+"Brother Stone! Brother Stone!" shouted a voice from the brow of the
+hill back of them. Looking up, they espied among the trees a man waving
+and beckoning.
+
+"Coming!" shouted Stone in reply. "I have an appointment at three
+o'clock with some of the brethren," he explained. "It must be fully
+that hour now; so I must hurry back. After all this excitement is over,
+I will talk further with you, Dudley, on the subject we were
+discussing. Will you return with me now?"
+
+"No," replied Abner, throwing himself down at full length on the grass
+under the big elm, and drawing his hat over his face. "I'd rather stay
+here and commune with nature. I want to think over what you've been
+saying--and see if I can't find arguments to confute you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+LIGHT DAWNS
+
+
+After Stone and Henry had disappeared through the woods, Dudley did not
+long ponder over the late discussion; he found in his environment too
+much food for other thought. He was on the same spot where, ten months
+before, he had first been alone with Abby Patterson. Yonder was the
+fallen log upon which she had sat toying with a spray of goldenrod, her
+white bonnet beside her, the soft wind playing with her brown hair, the
+sunlight through the overhanging boughs dancing over her head and
+hands, and making little patches of brightness on her lavender gown.
+The pungent odor of mint was in the air now as then when she had
+gathered some for her uncle's glass of toddy. The water sparkled and
+danced in the sunshine, trickling down the mossy rocks into the spring,
+and yonder in the cleft was the old gourd from which he had poured
+water on her hands.
+
+Somewhere in his reading he had come across the story of the man who
+always "thanked God for the blessings that passed over his head." Often
+in the last few weeks he had had a dim consciousness that perhaps it
+was best for both that Abby had not yielded to his pleadings; but
+hitherto he had thrust the thought from him, as though it were
+disloyalty to Abby and to love. But though the recollection of Abby had
+still a tender, half-sad sweetness, Dudley's nature was too vigorous
+and buoyant long to give way to melancholy and vain regrets. As he lay
+there in the forest solitude, a renewed hopefulness filled his soul,
+and he felt that he, too, could thank God for the blessing that had
+passed him by. He got up, intending to return to the encampment, but a
+recollection of something Abby had said in their last interview, about
+his being blind to the good that fate was ready to bestow upon him,
+suddenly arrested him. "What could she have meant?" he wondered, as he
+seated himself on a stump, pulled his hat over his eyes, and, with a
+stick in his hand, idly traced lines and figures in the dust at his
+feet.
+
+A slight noise presently made him look up, and there, standing under
+the big oak on the little prominence above him--just where she had
+stood that October afternoon, beckoning to him and Abby--was Betsy,
+again looking down upon him. She did not beckon this time; but as he
+looked up she turned quickly away, though not before he had caught the
+wistful, steadfast look in her eyes, and had seen the quick flush that
+covered her face.
+
+Like lightning came the thought, "Was it Betsy whom Abby meant?" and as
+quickly the truth was flashed upon him with all the force of an
+electric shock. In an instant, old things had passed away, and a tumult
+of feeling stronger than anything he had ever known leaped into life.
+It was not alone the realization of Betsy's love, coming to him in that
+flash of intuition, that set his nerves tingling and made the hot blood
+pulse madly through his veins; but, with a rapture that approximated
+pain in its intensity, there rushed into his soul an answering love,
+tender, deep and fixed.
+
+It is supposed by many people that man's love is founded upon
+uncertainty as to any answering passion in the woman's heart, and that
+a true woman never gives her love unsought; but there is more proof to
+warrant the contrary belief--that it is her love, unspoken, carefully
+hidden from all eyes, yet revealed by the mysterious telepathy of
+spiritual sympathy, that calls his love into being. A man of noble,
+generous nature is often thus kindled into responsiveness, and his love
+thus evoked is often the most reverent and the most lasting.
+
+In a moment Abner had to some extent regained his self-possession,
+though his pulses still beat riotously. He hastened after Betsy, who
+turned as he approached, her face still flushed, her eyes glowing with
+unwonted fire. She greeted him in her usual nonchalant manner, and
+walked demurely beside him, swinging her bonnet carelessly.
+
+"You seem to have forgotten, sir, that a big camp-meeting is in
+progress in these woods. You reminded me of Daniel Boone or Simon
+Kenton, sitting on that stump with your 'monarch-of-all-I-survey' air,
+as though you were alone in the heart of some vast wilderness of which
+you were the sole proprietor. What schemes were you hatching? and what
+were you doing with that stick? Working out some abstruse mathematical
+problem, or calculating how much money your year's crops will bring?
+This is no time for such worldly thoughts, while all these hair-lifting
+wonders are occurring yonder. Your leisure moments should be employed
+in pious meditation, or in repenting of your sins."
+
+Too much agitated by the revelation which had just come to him to
+answer her light banter, he walked silently by her side. She, surprised
+by his silence, glanced into his face. What she saw there arrested her
+footsteps and brought a startled look into her eyes. For a moment they
+stood still in the pathway, gazing into each other's faces--soul
+revealed to soul in the look. Then her eyes fell, a trembling seized
+her, and a wave of crimson swept over cheeks and brow and throat. In a
+voice hoarse with feeling, he exclaimed, "Betty! Betty!" and stretched
+out his arms toward her. Tremblingly she threw out her hands as though
+to repel his approach; and then, turning from him, ran down the path
+toward the encampment.
+
+
+Abner was in no mood for the noise and excitement of the "revival"; so
+he turned aside into a ravine where many of the campers' horses were
+tethered. Here he encountered Henry, to whom he said abruptly, saddling
+his mare as he spoke, "I'm sick of all this; I'm going for a gallop."
+
+"It's a pity to miss to-night's service," Henry answered. "The camp
+breaks up to-morrow."
+
+"No matter," Dudley replied as he sprang into the saddle. "I'm off
+now."
+
+"Better take a snack before you go. You must be hungry," called Henry,
+but Dudley, already beyond the ravine, gave no heed.
+
+In his overwrought mood hunger and slumber were equally impossible, and
+the quiet of his attic room would have been as intolerable as the glare
+of the torchlights and the singing, shouting, and wild ravings of the
+encampment. He rode on and on through the moonlight, over hills and
+fields and roads, until his mare, flecked with foam, was breathing
+uneasily. Then he allowed the reins to drop loosely over her neck, and
+rode slowly back until he reached his own unfinished cabin. But the air
+of the unused house was oppressive, and the walls seemed to stifle him.
+Freeing the mare of saddle and bridle, and turning her out to graze, he
+threw himself down on the sward in front of the house. Even then he
+could not sleep, but for a long time lay gazing into the clear,
+star-studded sky; for the sudden broadening of the perspective of his
+future kept him wide awake. He wondered at his long blindness, and with
+an agony of uncertainty questioned whether Betsy's sympathetic
+comprehension of his old feeling for her cousin might not now hinder
+the fulfillment of his dearest hope. But at last the solemn serenity of
+the summer night stilled his unquiet spirit, and he fell asleep.
+
+When he awoke, the flaming radiance in the eastern sky indicated
+another sultry day; but at this early hour there was a dewy freshness
+in the air, and all nature was astir and joyous. Upon the bark of a
+hickory-tree a crimson-crested woodpecker was tapping for his
+breakfast; under the edge of a half-decayed stump a colony of ants had
+already begun the day's labor. Lark and bee were on the wing; squirrels
+ran up and down the trunk of a big elm, leaping from branch to branch,
+where redbird, thrush and linnet were making the woods merry with their
+morning concert.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+COMMENT AND CRITICISM
+
+
+On Friday the campers returned to their homes, and Cane Ridge
+neighborhood settled down to its usual routine.
+
+"It's high time thet fo'ks should come to ther senses," said Mrs.
+Rogers, as she and her husband and young Dudley sat in the yard after
+supper that evening. "I don't see how you all stood it stiddy fur two
+weeks et a stretch up et the 'campment. Ev'ry time I sent the niggahs
+up thah with the fresh vittuls, they'd come back with ther eyes fa'rly
+bulgin' out o' ther haids, an' whut little wits they hed knocked sky
+west an' crooked. They brung me sich 'counts uv the goin's-on thet at
+last, thinks I, I'll go an' see fur myse'f. I knowed you an' Henry
+could tek keer uv yo'se'ves; but I wuz consarned 'bout Cissy, an' felt
+it high time to be lookin' artah her. I soon found her, an' when I seed
+she still hed her haid on her shouldahs, I wuz easier in my mind; but
+I'll nevah fergit thet fust visit. The meetin' hed been goin' on six
+days, an' things hed got in a good weavin' way. Thah wuz no less than
+five preachahs holdin' forth to oncet in diffrunt parts uv the grounds;
+so I tells Cissy thet ez thah wuz no tellin' when I'd git thah ag'in
+we'd meandeh 'roun' permiscous lak an' tek in all we could. Fust, we
+went to the arboh whah thah wuz a big geth'rin'--hardly even
+standin'-room in the aisles--but we manidged to squedge in on a seat
+close up in front. The platform wuz crammed with preachahs, an' ole
+Brothah Ranson wuz holdin' fo'th et a gran' rate. His subjec' wuz
+'Fleein' frum the wrath to come,' an' he wuz pow'rful. The pictures he
+drawed uv the tormints uv the lost, writhin' in the midst uv the fire
+an' brimstone in the bottomless pit, wuz 'nough to set a snowbank
+afire. I felt ez hot ez ef I wuz danglin' ovah thet pit myse'f; an' ef
+one o' the angels hed happened to peep ovah the battermints o' heaven
+et thet minit, he'd been scorched hisse'f by the billers o' flame whut
+riz mountain high frum thet sea o' tormint. But somehow, the fo'ks
+didn't git ez much rousement on 'em ez I'd looked fur--reckon they'd
+done hed so much preachment thet they wuz kindah tuckahed out. Oh, yes,
+thah wuz considahble groanin' an' wailin' an' sich like, an' a whole
+passel o' sinnahs come furwa'd to be prayed fur; but I could see thet
+Brothah Ranson wuz disapp'inted et the lack o' 'citement, an' thet he
+wuz fixin' to mek a big jump uv some sort. Fust, he prayed a
+ha'r-liftin' pertition; then, soon's thet wuz ovah, he swung hisse'f
+out to the aidge o' the platfo'm, stomped his foot, waved his arms, an'
+hollahed out, 'Ev'rybody whut wants to 'scape the wrath to come, an' to
+meet me in heaven, clap yer hands an' shout "Glory!" altogethah.' Thet
+fotched us shore 'nough."
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Rogers, "I hearn o' thet meetin', but I wuzn't thah. I
+wuz list'nin' to Brothah Rice et t'othah eend o' the camp."
+
+"Did you shout with the rest, Mrs. Rogers?" Dudley asked.
+
+"I should say so!" she answered. "Ev'rybody did, an' sich a hullabaloo
+ez it wuz--'nough to raise the dead. I thought fur a minit thet
+judgment-day hed come, an' wouldn't been s'prised to heah the toot o'
+Gabr'el's horn then an' thah. No wondeh fo'ks hed jerks an' fits an'
+swoondin' spaills et the camp! My ha'r wuz all creepy, thah wuz goose
+flesh all ovah my arms, an' hot an' cold chills a-chasin' one 'nothah
+up an' down the spines o' my back."
+
+"How'd Cissy behave in all thet rumpus?" asked Rogers.
+
+"I got Cissy outen thah none too soon," Mrs. Rogers acknowledged with a
+wise shake of her head. "Her face wuz ashy, an' she wuz all o' a shake
+an' a quake. I took her ovah to some trees whah a watah barr'l stood,
+an' made her tek a good swill, an' wet her hankchief an' mop her face.
+Then I walked her off to a quiet place an' says to her, 'Cissy, the
+Lawd knows I want to see you become a child o' grace, but I don't
+intend to hev religion jerked an' shouted an' skeered intah you.
+'Tain't fittin', to my notion, to see a modest young gal a-mekin' a
+show uv herse'f, an' the Lawd nevah intended it, nuthah. Ef you're
+'lected to salvation--an' I believe you air, fur he's a marciful an'
+gracious God, an' you're a nice, innercent, well-behaved gal--you kin
+be called in a quiet way; an' when he does call, whut you got to do is
+to heah an' obey. Thet's all thah is to convarsion, anyway. So I reckon
+you'd bettah come 'long home with me this evenin', outen all this
+fuss.' But she begged so hard to stay, an' promised so faithful not to
+git wrought up ag'in, thet I let her stay."
+
+After a short pause, Mrs. Rogers continued: "But I stick to it thet the
+Lawd nevah intended his people to go stark, starin' crazy ovah
+religion, no more'n ovah anything else. All them ravin's an' jerkin's
+an' holy-laughin's an' holy-dancin's air onseemly in any fo'ks, sinnah
+or saint. The Almighty don't want to be pestered with no sich
+tekin'-on. When he calls, listen; whut he says do, you jes' git up an'
+do. Thet's religion, an' nuthin' else."
+
+"You're 'bout right, Cynthy Ann," Rogers assented, as he lay at full
+length on the grass. "To my mind, the main p'int is to love God, an' do
+yer duty by yer neighbor an' fambly."
+
+"An' do it quiet, too," added his wife. "You nevah heah uv a woman
+tekin' spasms an' jerks ovah lovin' her husban' or childurn, or a gal
+ovah lovin' her sweetheart. Then, why must fo'ks raise sich a
+cavortment 'bout lovin' God--hollahin' an' whoopin' an' sprawlin'
+'roun' on the ground lak Sal Fox did thet las' time I wuz et the camp?
+She'd been a-jerkin' an' a-rollin' an' a-foamin' et the mouth wussen a
+mad dog, tell she wuz clean tuckahed out, an' thah she lay in the straw
+'roun' the altah, her pink caliker dusty an' tore lak she'd been
+a-chasin' through a briah patch, straws stickin' out all ovah her haid.
+Thah stood ole Brothah Stratton prayin' ovah her, her sister Jane an'
+Poll Tribble snifflin' an' snufflin' an' fannin' her, an' sayin' they
+feared she'd nevah come outen her trance. Thinks I, 'I'll fotch her
+out.' I walks up, an', pokin' her with my foot, I says, 'Git up, Sal!
+Hain't you 'shamed yo'se'f, layin' heah with yer haid lookin' lak a
+rat's nest, an' yer laigs a-showin'?' Daddy Stratton he prayed loudah,
+Poll she fanned fastah, an' Jane she sniffled an' snuffled harder'n
+evah, while Sal she jes' lay thah lak a dead corp. I knowed she heard
+me, though, fur she kindah flickahed her eyeleds, an' then lay
+stiffer'n evah. So I says, pokin' her ag'in, 'Ef I hed sich pipestems
+ez them laigs o' yourn, I'd keep 'em hid--an' heah comes Jed White,
+too!' With thet she sets up, smoothes down her dress, an' winds up her
+ha'r, spry ez a ant; fur Jed's her beau."
+
+"Oh, well, Sal nevah 'sperienced religion befoh," said Rogers, "so it
+went hard with her, 'cause, befoh this, she's allus resisted the
+Speret. But whut I can't stand is them Methodis' folks whut fall in an'
+out uv religion so of'en--'speri'ncin' a change o' heart ev'ry day in
+the week, an' mekin' the Lawd out a reg'lar Injin givah, bestowin'
+grace at ev'ry revival, an' tekin' it away soon's meetin's ovah. While
+the rousement lasts, the road to glory stretches out befoh 'em, an'
+they're ready, ez the hymn says, 'to bid far'well to ev'ry fear an'
+face a frownin' world.' Then by the nex' week they can't mustah up
+'nough strength to hoe a row o' cawn. Oh, yes, they're mighty happy
+while the meetin' lasts. They're on the way to the land o' promise,
+singin' ez they journey on, ez how they'll 'b'ar the toil, endure the
+pain, supported by His grace.' Soon's the revival's ovah, they're ready
+fur anothah kind o' journey, an' lak ez not, they will jine in a
+drinkin' spree, an' end up in a free fight an' a gen'ral fisticuff.
+Now, thahs Jake Simmons, a lazy, no-'count skunk whut won't even tote
+in a back log to keep his fambly frum freezin'. He's got religion ha'f
+a dozen times, an' teks on a leetle crazier ev'ry time. When I seed him
+a-rollin' an' stompin' an' cavortin' an' axin' the brethren to pray fer
+him, thinks I, 'Whut you need, Jake, wossen the prayers uv the saints,
+is a big blacksnake whip larruped ovah yer back.' The Lawd does the job
+up right when he really convarts a man. It's 'onc't in grace, allus in
+grace,' ez the catechism teaches."
+
+"But," said Dudley, who until now had listened silently to this
+discussion, "the Bible speaks of wanderers from the fold. No doubt Jake
+is a wandering sheep."
+
+"Maybe he is," Mrs. Rogers agreed; "but, ef so, he looks an' acts so
+lak a goat thet the angel Gabr'el hisse'f don't know the diffruns."
+
+"An' ef he is a sheep," added Mason, "he's so hidebound an' so
+fleece-growed, an' hez been herdin' with the goats in the devil's
+pastur' so long, thet he hain't wuth fotchin' home to the fold."
+
+
+As soon as the fall wheat-sowing was finished, Abner Dudley resumed his
+school, but under such changed conditions that he could not feel the
+same enthusiastic interest as during the previous term. John Calvin was
+now the only advanced pupil; Henry had entered Transylvania University,
+and neither Betsy nor Susan were in school.
+
+"Cissy's goin' on sixteen, an' hez eddication 'nough," said her mother.
+"It don't do gals no good to be too book-l'arned--jes' meks 'em uppish
+an' no-'count."
+
+Mr. Rogers submitted to his wife's decree. "I boss the boys," he said,
+"but I reckon Cynthy Ann knows whut's best fur the gals; though, ez fur
+ez I'm consarned, I'd like Cissy to be ez eddicated ez any uv them
+high-flyers 'roun' Lexin'ton."
+
+Susan was ambitious and loved study, and, although she did not openly
+rebel against her mother's ruling, went about her household tasks in a
+dejected way which greatly tried bustling Mrs. Rogers.
+
+"Now, Cissy," she said, coming to the girl's room one night and finding
+her sobbing over disappointed hopes, "don't you s'pose yer own mammy'll
+do whut's best fur her dautah? You mustn't think 'cause I'm sharp an'
+stirrin' with you thet I don't love you." She seated herself on the
+side of the bed and began to stroke Susan's hair. "'Tain't no use fur
+you to tek on so. You must jes' trust yer mammy, an' by an' by you'll
+see I'm right. I can't spar' you frum home this wintah, but you kin
+study o' nights, an' Abner'll holp you with yer books. So cheer up, lak
+a good gal; an' nex' time the packman comes 'long--an' I'm lookin' fer
+him 'most any day--I'll buy you some ribbon fur yer hair an' a string
+uv beads. Soon's we git the heft o' the fall wuck did up, you'n' me
+will mek you one o' them fine quilted silk petticoats, lak Betsy's, to
+w'ar under yer red calaminco dress. Thah now!"--and she kissed the
+girl--"say yer prayers, an' go to sleep." Then she murmured as she left
+the room, "Pore gal! 'Tis hard on her; but I jes' can't spar' her this
+wintah. I know she's ez purty an' ez good a gal ez kin be found
+anywhahs!"
+
+As the weeks went by, Betsy Gilcrest did not sing over her work in her
+old light-hearted way. Mrs. Gilcrest was not an observant woman; but
+Aunt Dilsey, the old "black mammy," noticed the change in her idolized
+young mistress. "The keer ob dis place an' all de man'gin' o' dem noisy
+boys an' lazy niggahs am too much 'sponsibility fur sich young
+shouldahs ez hern. Ole Dilsey does whut she kin to spar' de precious
+chile frum worry an' care; but one ole niggah lak me carn't do
+ebbrythin'; an' 'tain't no wondah Miss Betsy's gittin' pale an' peeky
+an' low-spereted."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+COURT DAY
+
+
+The old-time county court, held once a month, usually on Monday, was an
+interesting feature of early statehood.
+
+Judging by the crowds that always assembled at the county-seat upon
+court day, one would have supposed that if legal business were the main
+feature of the occasion, a surprising amount of litigation was
+necessary to the well-being of the commonwealth. But legal business was
+often the least important feature of these gatherings, which seemed to
+combine the characteristics of picnic, county fair, muster day and old
+English hustings.
+
+From an early hour upon court day, all was excitement, noise and
+confusion in and around the county-seat. The discordant bleating and
+lowing of sheep and cattle filled the air, and droves of swine, after
+the manner of their kind, refusing to be driven quietly to the
+market-place, wandered into byways, or sought refuge in stable lots and
+house yards. In fence corners and under trees, along every approach to
+the town, horses were hitched--many of them with heaps of provender on
+the ground before them, that they might feed at any hour which suited
+their appetites; and vehicles of every known pattern, from family coach
+to ox-cart, thronged the highways. It was a gala time for the
+slave-buyer, stock-trader, horse-jockey, and itinerant packman, as well
+as for the politician and the militia men. Not only was there much
+trading and political speech-making, but also horse-racing,
+cock-fighting, gambling and drunkenness; for society, even in the good
+old times, contained a large rioting element.
+
+At Fayette County court, however, the chief interest was usually the
+political; and the most popular rendezvous was the tree-bordered
+enclosure surrounding the court-house, until the noon hour; then the
+center of interest was the tavern, which, though but a two-storied log
+house, having only eleven rooms to serve all purposes of dining-hall,
+office, kitchen and guest chambers, was a famous resort. The sleeping
+apartments were large, and each was furnished with four beds. Always as
+many as two guests to a bed, and frequently as many as three, was the
+economical rule of the house--an arrangement which, though possibly
+inconvenient in some respects, was one likely to encourage a spirit of
+democratic sociability.
+
+Abner Dudley accepted Major Gilcrest's invitation to accompany him in
+his coach to Lexington upon a certain court day which was an occasion
+of unusual excitement. Tidings that the trade of the Mississippi River
+was again endangered had just been received. The treaty of 1795, which
+secured to Kentucky the right of navigation of the Mississippi and the
+right of deposit in the New Orleans Bank, had now come to a termination
+by limitation of treaty; and the Spanish Intendant of the province of
+Louisiana had issued a proclamation that there should be no renewal,
+although it had been plainly stipulated in the former treaty that the
+privileges should be renewed. The indignation which this act of broken
+faith produced in Kentucky was greatly augmented by tidings which had
+just reached the State that Louisiana had been ceded by Spain to France
+by the treaty made secretly in 1800, but not made public until 1802.
+
+The failure of all former efforts to induce Kentucky to sever her
+allegiance to the Union and to join her fortunes with Spain had not
+destroyed the hopes of the Spaniards and of self-seeking Kentucky
+agitators. Thus the revival of the old troubles over the navigation of
+the Mississippi afforded an opportunity of which treacherous
+conspirators were not slow to avail themselves.
+
+During the noon repast at the tavern, Dudley and James Drane had been
+neighbors at table; and when the meal was concluded, the two had linked
+arms and strolled up and down the wide portico running the length of
+the tavern, and serving to-day as a reception-room for the tavern and
+as a political arena for groups of excited men who were hotly
+denouncing Spain and all her works. Other groups near by were as
+earnestly, but far less noisily, insinuating that Spain was the best
+friend Kentucky could have, and that her interests lay in the direction
+of an alliance with the foreign power.
+
+Somewhat apart from the larger groups three men were talking in low
+tones. Presently, at a sign which, unperceived by Dudley, passed
+between his companion and one of the men, Drane, saying that he desired
+to introduce Abner to three of the most agreeable and gifted men of the
+age, drew him toward the trio at one end of the porch, and presented
+him to General Wilkinson, Judge Sebastian and Judge Murray. Immediately
+after the introduction, Drane excused himself and withdrew. Before any
+conversation, save the usual exchange of introductory courtesies, had
+passed between the three distinguished Kentuckians and our young
+Virginian, Hiram Gilcrest came through the door opening from the hall.
+Seeing Dudley in what was apparently a confidential conversation with
+the three older men, Gilcrest stood a moment in the doorway, frowning
+heavily; then, turning, he strode through the hall to the negro
+quarters of the hotel. Here he found Uncle Zeke, his coachman, and
+ordered him to prepare for a speedy return home. When he returned to
+the porch, he walked up to the group of which Dudley was one, and said
+to him, after a somewhat curt salutation to the other three, "I am
+sorry to cut short your day's pleasure, but I find that a matter of
+grave importance necessitates our leaving immediately."
+
+On the homeward drive Gilcrest explained the reason for this hasty
+retreat. "You were in the company of three of the slyest and most
+dangerous intriguers of these unsettled times. They are brilliant,
+daring men, and I fear many of our adventurous young men are being led
+away by their specious arguments and schemes for future greatness. You
+have never been in their company before to-day, have you?" with a keen
+glance at his companion.
+
+Dudley explained that he had only exchanged a few words of ordinary
+civility with the three before Gilcrest had interrupted the
+conversation. He did not, however, mention that Drane had brought about
+the meeting, and had spoken of the men in glowing terms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+BETSY SAYS "WAIT"
+
+
+Rarely ever since that August afternoon when Abner and Betsy had stood
+a moment in the pathway, gazing into each other's souls, and she had
+hurried away from him, could he by any pretext or maneuver succeed in
+being for one moment alone with her. Always when in her presence,
+either as one of the quiet home circle at her father's house, or at
+church, or at a neighbor's, he was conscious of a change in her manner
+towards himself. Much of her old, light-hearted gayety had vanished,
+and in its stead were a new quietness and reserve, without any trace of
+embarrassment, it is true, but with a demure dignity which made her
+seem to repel even such advances as ordinary gallantry would prompt any
+young man to make to a pretty girl.
+
+Dudley tried vainly to win her back to her former attitude of cordial
+ease. Occasionally he noticed a merry chord in her voice and something
+of the old, sparkling playfulness of manner; but if he sought to answer
+her quips in the same vein of pleasantry, she would color warmly,
+answer gravely, and then seem to shrink from him. Never could he get
+her eyes to meet his. Once or twice, in some rare opportunity when he
+found himself for a brief moment alone with her, he had tried with the
+most delicate and insinuating skill to approach the subject of his love
+for her; but at the first hint she, like a fish that sees the line
+gleaming in the sunlight, would dart away to another topic, or would
+find some ready excuse for leaving him. Furthermore, the very power of
+his love made him likewise often constrained and ill at ease in her
+presence; and as the months dragged on, it seemed to him that not only
+was he making no progress toward winning her, but that he was losing
+even her former frank regard. He frequently questioned the reliability
+of the revelation which had come to him that afternoon at the spring;
+for although it had given him unmistakable knowledge of his own
+feelings, it had, he feared, erred in its interpretation of hers. Nor
+was the element of jealousy wanting to complete his torment at this
+period. Betsy was developing into the recognized beauty and belle of
+the county, and not only did the rustic swains of the neighborhood
+court her favor, but the fashionable beaux from Lexington and Frankfort
+found abundant attraction at Oaklands. The one feared most by Abner was
+James Anson Drane, who, besides being well-to-do and of good family,
+was handsome and gallant and stood very high in Major Gilcrest's good
+graces. In fact, it seemed to Dudley in his moments of deepest
+despondency that Drane had everything in his favor, while he himself
+had nothing to plead in his own behalf save the might of his love, and
+that between two such suitors as Drane and himself no girl would
+hesitate to choose the former.
+
+Under the sway of these feelings, Abner's first instinctive dislike of
+Drane, which had been lulled to sleep by the young lawyer's courteous
+bearing, awoke into more than its former vigor. At times the
+schoolmaster felt ready to believe anything of James Anson Drane--he
+was a schemer, a traitor, and was doubtless even now plotting against
+the Government. He would marry Betty, of course, and would wreck her
+happiness, and bring financial ruin and political disgrace upon the
+Gilcrests. Nevertheless, although Betsy's reserve, his own lack of
+opportunity for wooing her, and his jealous distrust of Drane, made
+Abner alternately chafe and despond, yet through all these moods there
+ran the fiber of a proud, buoyant spirit which would not allow him to
+give up; and hope, though for a time baffled, retreated only to advance
+again with new courage.
+
+While returning from Bourbonton one May afternoon, Abner, lured by the
+beauty of the day, turned from the public road, and chose instead a
+sequestered bridle-path which, with many a devious turn and twist,
+wound through the forest whose giant trees, though centuries old, were
+now again clothed upon with youthful freshness and beauty. Through this
+green canopy of arching boughs, where sunshine and shadow intermingled,
+one caught glimpses of the sky, a dome of azure velvet flecked with
+fleecy white. A soft wind blew from the south, laden with the faint,
+elusive fragrance of anemone and violet. From every bush and treetop
+came the light-hearted carol of linnet and thrush and redbird; and in
+the open spaces between the trees the sportive sunlight gleamed and
+smiled so joyously that every blade of soft, green grass seemed to
+quiver with gladness. The day was so golden, so filled with the tender
+hope and promise of the Maytime, that Abner, yielding to its charm, for
+the moment forgot his doubts and perplexities. His path led in the
+direction of a shallow creek; and as he drew near the stream, he spied
+upon its bank a girl who had stopped to let her horse drink. It was
+Betty on old Selim. Abner gently checked his mare and sat watching her.
+Her white scoop-bonnet was hanging from the pommel of the saddle, the
+bridle-reins drooped carelessly upon old Selim's neck, and her hands,
+encased in white linen "half hands," were crossed in her lap. She was
+looking out across the country with a far-away, dreamy expression. Her
+lover noticed every detail of her beauty--the regal poise of head, the
+lovely outline of throat and shoulders, the rosy oval of face, the
+piquant cleft of the chin, the arch curve of the upper lip, and the
+ripe fullness of the lower. Presently her horse, more awake to outside
+influences than was his mistress, caught the sound of a breaking twig,
+and, raising his nose from the water, pricked up his ears and neighed.
+
+"Old Selim spied me first," said Abner, riding to Betty's side.
+
+She looked up for an instant, then her eyes fell before a scrutiny
+whose blending of admiration and passionate feeling she could not fail
+to understand.
+
+"Yes," she answered lightly, laughing and striving to regain
+self-possession, "Selim is glad to see you, I know; he is getting
+impatient for his supper, and there's no knowing how long I might have
+sat here day-dreaming, had you not appeared. Shall we ride on?"
+
+"And is not Selim's mistress glad to see me, too?" asked Abner, as he
+rode by her side.
+
+"Oh, of course," was the reply; "but it is getting late, and we had
+better hasten on."
+
+After riding a few moments in silence, he said, laying a detaining hand
+on her bridle: "Betty, why do you avoid me so persistently, and why are
+you so reserved with me? Is it because, knowing that you are becoming
+all the world to me, you would by avoidance and reserve spare me the
+pain of refusing my love? It is now nearly ten months since I first
+began to realize what you are to me, and that knowledge has become
+everything."
+
+"No! no! do not speak! Please, please do not!" she remonstrated, her
+face flushing and then paling.
+
+"Why will you not let me speak?" he continued gently.
+
+"Oh, not--not now," she murmured stammeringly. "I--I--I could not bear
+it. I can not listen--yet," she ended, her eyes filling with tears.
+
+Her manner, though it had something of a proud reserve, was not wholly
+unrelenting. In her voice there was a winning cadence which seemed to
+bid him hope. He understood her at once. She did not want to silence
+him entirely, but it was too soon--that was what she meant--too soon
+after his feeling for her cousin. She owed it to her own womanly
+dignity that his love should be put to the proof of time. She must not
+be too easily won. Yes, Abner felt that he understood her. Instantly
+the look of deprecating humility vanished from the young man's face,
+and in its stead there flashed into his eyes an eager, courageous
+light; for renewed hope was sending the warm blood leaping and dancing
+through his veins; and the humble, dejected suppliant of the moment
+before was transformed into the hopeful, assured lover.
+
+For a time he said nothing, but, with his hand still upon her bridle,
+they rode on silently through the twilight of the forest aisle, where
+all was so still and peaceful that their fast heart-throbs seemed
+almost audible. Pledges more definite and binding might afterwards be
+exchanged, yet in the hearts of these two lovers this solemn temple of
+nature was forever consecrated as the place of plighting.
+
+"I will wait, Betty," he said presently; "but do not keep me too long
+in suspense. Remember how long I have already waited for you. When may
+I speak?"
+
+"Oh, I--I don't know--not for a long time yet." Then, regaining her
+old, saucy air, and flashing into his eyes one glance, half tender,
+half defiant, she snatched her bridle-rein from his hand, and, with a
+flick of the switch across her horse's neck, rode on. As she galloped
+off, she looked back for an instant to say archly, "Spring is very
+beautiful; but I like autumn better, and November is my favorite month,
+for Thanksgiving Day comes then. No! no! do not follow me, sir," she
+added saucily, as he rode quickly towards her. "Your road lies straight
+on," pointing with her switch to where the roads forked. "Mine leads
+down this lane to Oaklands."
+
+"Very well," he answered with grave sweetness, "I will leave you now,
+but I shall remember what you have said, and hope that my own
+thanksgiving day may, in truth, come next November--though it is a
+weary while to wait."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+THE WAITING-TIME
+
+
+The Cane Ridge revival of the August before had been followed by many
+others of a similar nature throughout the country. Although there was
+much that was fanatical and grotesque in these meetings, much good was
+undoubtedly accomplished. With all the fanaticism, there was in them
+the wholesome leaven of gospel truth which did much to arouse the
+churches from their deathlike indifference. Better than this, the
+revivals were a bond of union between the different religious sects;
+for, in the prevalence of enthusiasm, even such rigid upholders of
+creed as Gilcrest and Landrum felt more concern about the salvation of
+their children than about the tenets of their church. In fact, from the
+beginning of the awakening, Books of Discipline and Confessions of
+Faith had been gathering dust, and soon would have been completely lost
+to view, had not the more strenuous churchmen at last in alarm put
+forth their hands to stay their tottering ark of creed, mistaking it
+for the ark of God. But though for a time the orthodox element held its
+peace, apparently well pleased to see members of other denominations
+joining cordially in the revivals, each sect finally became fearful
+lest other churches might draw away disciples from its own ranks. The
+tocsin was sounded, "'To your tents, O Israel!' Our creed is in
+jeopardy! There must be no more union meetings!" Thus the old
+denominational war waged with renewed fierceness.
+
+Though Barton Stone was, like John, gentle and tender, yet he was also,
+like Paul, ready at need to wield the double-edged sword of logic and
+truth to cut down sophistry and combat unbelief. Therefore, to those
+dominated by sectarianism, as well as to the indifferent and the
+scoffer, his work was unacceptable; but between the high-water mark of
+orthodoxy and the low-water mark of willful unbelief, there were many
+who heard him gladly.
+
+His June appointment at Cane Ridge was an occasion never to be
+forgotten by those present. Indeed, his sermon that day was well
+calculated to make the more orthodox members of the congregation writhe
+in their seats.
+
+He chose as his text the familiar sixteenth verse of the third chapter
+of John, announcing at the same time that his topics would be God's
+love as manifested in the gift of his Son; the gospel, the power of God
+unto salvation; faith, the first requisite, which all who willed might
+have.
+
+Stone began by portraying, forcibly and tenderly, the love of God,
+emphasizing the fact that "he willed not that one of his creatures
+should perish." His love included the whole world, and Christ, instead
+of being surety for an elect few only, had satisfied the demands of the
+Father's love by dying for all mankind. Thus "by the righteousness of
+one the free gift came upon all men unto justification," and Christ, by
+office, became the Saviour, not of a few only, but of all who would
+accept him.
+
+He said that the only way to reconcile the two passages of Scripture,
+John 6:44 and John 12:32, was to believe that the Father recognized no
+other means of drawing men to him than that of holding up his Son in
+the gospel; and that, therefore, all who believed on Christ and
+received the Word were elected to salvation.
+
+Stone next pointed out what he considered to be a marked contrast
+between the teachings of the Scriptures and that of the Confession of
+Faith of his church upon this point. He then spoke of regeneration, or
+the "new birth," and said that the declaration, "born not of
+corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God," showed
+clearly that the Word must first be believed in order to produce this
+effect; consequently, faith preceded regeneration. Furthermore, this
+faith was wrought in the heart by no outside or miraculous influence,
+but was freely given to all who would believe. He explained the
+passage, "Faith is the gift of God," by saying that the object of
+faith, "the man, Christ Jesus," is the gift of God.
+
+A strange sermon, indeed, to be preached at that time, to such a
+people, by an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church! As he
+spoke, several of the staunch supporters of orthodoxy shook their
+heads, and looked frowningly at the daring young preacher. Many
+recalled an incident of his ordination in that very house three years
+before. Stone, who had long entertained doubts upon the doctrines of
+predestination, regeneration and effectual calling, as set forth in the
+Confession of Faith of his church, had, on the day before the one set
+for his ordination, called aside two of the pillars of the Transylvania
+Presbytery, and with characteristic honesty had made known to them his
+difficulties. After laboring in vain to remove his doubts, the two men
+asked him how far he was willing to receive the Confession. "So far as
+I see it to be consistent with the word of God," was the answer, which
+they declared to be sufficient. No objection was raised to his answer
+when given before the presbytery the next day, and, after making
+satisfactory replies to all other questions propounded, he was
+ordained.
+
+When Stone had finished his discourse, he called upon Gilcrest to lead
+in prayer. With an angry shake of his head, and a frown upon his stern
+features, the old man declined. Old Brother Landrum was then asked to
+pray. In a voice which shook with emotion, he besought pardon for the
+error in the sermon just heard and enlightenment for the mind of the
+preacher that he might have a better understanding of the mysteries of
+the gospel. When he began further to petition that the Lord would in
+his own good time and way manifest himself to the unconverted elect in
+the congregation, he was interrupted by David Purviance: "Not to the
+elect alone, O Lord," he prayed, "but unto all--all within these walls;
+for thou, O God, art no respecter of persons, and salvation is free,
+free to all who will accept!"
+
+Notwithstanding the evident disapproval of some of his flock, Stone
+continued to preach sermons of a like nature. A few who heard him were
+stunned by his boldness and shocked by his ruthless defiance of the
+established order of things. Others found his words forcibly
+convincing. Still another class, though not exactly understanding his
+reasoning, had so great love for the young preacher and so great
+confidence in his ability that they were his warm advocates. Of this
+blindly trustful number, none were stouter in their adherence than
+Mason Rogers.
+
+To Hiram Gilcrest these sermons seemed the undermining, blowing up and
+pulverization of the whole structure of sound doctrine. One day, in the
+course of a discussion with Mason Rogers, Gilcrest angrily maintained
+not only that the church should take action against their minister, but
+that his transgressions should be reported at the next meeting of the
+synod. Rogers, of course, defended Stone. Hot words ensued on both
+sides, and the friendly relations between the two old neighbors were
+somewhat strained.
+
+One afternoon Gilcrest, who was so full of the subject of the parson's
+iniquities that he could think or speak of little else, encountered
+Dudley, to whom in no measured terms he denounced Stone. Abner would
+gladly have avoided argument with Gilcrest upon any subject, and
+especially upon this, which he felt did not concern himself personally;
+but Gilcrest was not to be evaded.
+
+"You know, Major Gilcrest," said Dudley at last, "that I'm not a
+church-member, and therefore it is not fitting for me to discuss the
+question."
+
+"No matter," answered Gilcrest; "you're a man and capable of reasoning,
+and can surely see the fallacy of this fellow's doctrine."
+
+"But Stone is a personal friend of mine," Abner urged.
+
+"What of that?" asked Hiram. "It's not the man, but his doctrine, that
+I abhor."
+
+Thus driven to bay, Abner had no alternative but to reply that from
+what he could learn by his own study of the Bible, Stone seemed to be
+right. This was literally throwing down the gauntlet to Gilcrest, and
+the discussion waxed hot and stormy.
+
+"This is a fine way to win the daughter--to be locking horns with the
+father in theological combat," Dudley soliloquized ruefully as Gilcrest
+rode off; but he laughed, too, as he thought how little like one "saved
+by grace" and "sanctified by the Spirit" the old man had appeared as,
+with frowning brow, loud voice and vehement gesticulation, he had
+stormed and raved against the offending Stone. "What a fool the old
+fellow did make of himself," thought Abner; "but not a bigger one than
+myself, considering all things. 'Never discuss theology with your
+intended father-in-law,' is a safe maxim for lovers to follow."
+
+
+Later in the summer, Abner Dudley received from his uncle, Dr. Richard
+Dudley, of Williamsburg, intelligence of a surprising nature; namely,
+that an uncle of Abner's mother, Andrew Hite, of Sterling County,
+Virginia, had died, leaving a will by which Abner was heir to all his
+worldly possessions.
+
+Richard Dudley urged upon Abner the necessity of coming at once to
+Virginia in regard to this inheritance. Accordingly, Abner, merely
+telling the Rogers family that he was summoned to Virginia on important
+business, set out one August afternoon. He went first to Lexington, and
+from there on horseback to Limestone. His companions on this horseback
+ride of sixty-five miles were Judge Benjamin Sebastian and Judge
+William Murray, against whom Hiram Gilcrest had seen fit to warn him.
+Nothing, however, of the negotiations and intrigues in which Sebastian
+and Murray may or may not have been concerned, had at this time been
+made public; and young Dudley saw no reason why the mere suspicions of
+so prejudiced a man as Hiram Gilcrest should deter him from accepting
+the company of two such agreeable men.
+
+Soon after taking the boat at Limestone, Sebastian and Murray told
+Abner that they intended spending the night at the island home of
+Harman Blennerhassett, and urged him to do likewise. He readily
+accepted; for he had heard of this secluded island paradise with its
+romantic surroundings, beautiful grounds and vast library, and of the
+gracious hospitality of the scholarly Irish recluse and his charming
+wife. He found the home and his host and hostess all that had been
+reported, and greatly enjoyed his little visit. The next day, leaving
+Sebastian and Murray still guests of the Blennerhassetts, Dudley
+continued his journey by boat to Pittsburg, and thence by horseback
+across Virginia to Williamsburg.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+A SINGULAR WILL
+
+
+Upon reaching Williamsburg, Abner, of course, examined the will of his
+late granduncle. It was dated May 2, 1782, when Andrew Hite, being
+dangerously ill, thought death imminent.
+
+Stripped of all legal verbosities, the purport of the document was that
+the testator bequeathed all of his earthly possessions, consisting of
+six hundred and forty acres of land in Henderson County, Kentucky;
+Crestlands, a Virginia estate of some three hundred acres, and all
+slaves, cattle, horses, goods and chattels pertaining to this estate,
+to his niece, Mary Belle Hollis Page, youngest child of Andrew Hite's
+sister, Mary Hite Hollis--"provided," so read the will, "Mary Belle
+Hollis Page, wife of Marshall Page, is still living at this date, the
+second day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred
+and eighty-two. If, however, said Mary Belle Hollis Page, wife of
+Marshall Page, is already deceased, I, Andrew Thurston Hite, of
+Crestlands, Sterling County, Virginia, do give and bequeath all my
+worldly possessions above mentioned to her legitimate offspring, if
+any. In case my niece, Mary Belle Hollis Page, be already deceased and
+has left no legitimate offspring, I give and bequeath all houses,
+lands, slaves, live stock, goods and chattels of whatsoever nature of
+which I die possessed to my niece, Sarah Jane Pepper, of Chestnut Hall,
+Caxton County, Virginia, only child of my half-sister, Sarah Melvina
+Thornton Pepper, deceased."
+
+Dr. Richard Dudley, of Lawsonville, "husband of Frances Hollis,
+deceased, sister of Mary Belle Hollis Page," was named as sole executor
+of this will. A codicil dated twenty years later, June 30, 1802, the
+very day of Andrew Hite's death, stated that all subsequent wills
+having been rendered null and void by the death of the testator's
+adopted son, Stephen Balleau Hite, were destroyed, and that the
+testator, Andrew Thurston Hite, decreed that the will dated May 2,
+1782, should be his last will and testament. This codicil also named
+Richard Dudley, "late of Lawsonville, now of Williamsburg," as sole
+executor.
+
+Contrary to his own convictions and the dictum of his physicians,
+Andrew Hite recovered from his illness in 1782, and five years later
+adopted a lad, Stephen Balleau, and reared him as his son. This
+Stephen, grown to manhood, but unmarried, was killed in a duel, four
+months before the death of his adopted father, then an old man of
+seventy-six years. After Stephen was killed, Andrew Hite seems to have
+lost all interest in life, and to have neglected making any provision
+as to the disposal of his property, until the very day of his death.
+Then, instead of making a new will, he on his deathbed, in the presence
+of his physician, his old body-servant, and a neighbor, simply added
+the codicil to the will made twenty years before.
+
+"This strange will still holds good, I presume, eccentric though it
+be," Abner said to Dr. Dudley, after reading the document.
+
+"Certainly," his uncle replied; "for your mother was undoubtedly living
+at the date specified in the will."
+
+"Yes," Abner said, "that can be established by your testimony, which is
+corroborated by the inscription on her tombstone at Lawsonville and by
+the record in your family Bible--both of which give the date of her
+death as that of August 21, 1782, three months after the will was
+written."
+
+"And," added the doctor, "even should the will not stand, you, the only
+child of your mother, are justly entitled to this bequest; for all that
+Andrew Hite possessed, save that Kentucky land which he in my presence
+promised your mother at his death, came through his father, your
+great-grandfather, Abner Hite; and Sarah Jane Pepper is connected only
+through her mother, Andrew Hite's half-sister, Sarah Thornton, who was
+not a descendant of old Abner Hite. Therefore, you need have no
+uneasiness on the score of either the justness or the validity of your
+claim; and you should at once take steps to put you in possession of
+your legacy."
+
+"That I shall certainly do," said Abner; "and I shall do so, not as
+Abner Dudley, but as Abner Dudley Logan. In fact, Uncle Richard, aside
+from all question of this bequest, I had already determined to assume
+my full name; for, much as I honor you who have been a second father to
+me, I think it but justice to my own father's memory, now that I have
+arrived at man's estate, that I should wear his name. You know I wished
+to do so before I went to Kentucky; but you were so averse to the idea
+that I yielded for the time, contrary to my convictions of justice to
+my father's memory and against my own preference. But now I am fully
+resolved to be known in future by my full name, Abner Dudley Logan."
+
+Dr. Dudley sat silent with downcast eyes, a gloomy, perplexed look upon
+his face; and his nephew went on:
+
+"Uncle Richard, I wish you would tell me more about my father and about
+my mother's early life. You have always been singularly reticent on the
+subject. Why! I was a boy of eleven or twelve before I even knew that
+my real name was Logan, and then I discovered it by accident; and it
+was not until I read this will of Uncle Hite's that I learned that my
+mother had married a second time. The time has now come, I think, when
+you should tell me all that you know of my father and mother."
+
+"Of your father," said Richard slowly, and, it seemed to Abner,
+reluctantly, "I know little more than the facts already in your
+possession. Briefly told, your mother's history is this: Her mother,
+Mary Hite, married John Hollis, of Plainfield, New Jersey. To this
+union were born eight children, of whom your Aunt Frances, my first
+wife, was the eldest, and your mother, the youngest. The six children
+intervening died in early childhood. Your grandfather, John Hollis,
+died when your mother was two months old, and his wife survived him but
+one month. Her half-sister, Sarah Thornton, who had just been married
+to Jackson Pepper, of Chestnut Hall in northern Virginia--a widower
+with one son--took your mother to raise as her own child. This Sarah
+Thornton Pepper died ten years later. She had but one child, Sarah Jane
+Pepper. Your mother, after her aunt's death, still lived at Chestnut
+Hall until she was about sixteen. Then she greatly offended Jackson
+Pepper by refusing to be betrothed to Fletcher Pepper, the son of
+Jackson's former marriage. Her home was rendered so unpleasant by
+Jackson Pepper's anger and Fletcher's persistence in his suit, that she
+went to live at Crestlands with her old bachelor uncle, Andrew Hite,
+until a few years later--in 1775, I think--when he went with a party of
+adventurers to Kentucky. He expected to be gone a year, and, before
+setting forth, he took your mother to Morristown, New Jersey, to find a
+temporary home with some of her Hollis connections, two maiden ladies,
+her father's cousins. When, however, Andrew Hite returned to Virginia,
+he, instead of recalling his niece and settling down with her at
+Crestlands, joined the Continental army. So your mother continued with
+her distant relatives at Morristown until the winter of 1776-77. After
+the battles at Trenton and Princeton, Washington's army, as you know,
+went into winter quarters at Morristown. In this army was a young
+soldier, John Logan. He and your mother met and immediately fell in
+love with each other; and in March, after an acquaintance of only five
+weeks, they were married. It was an ill-advised, imprudent marriage.
+Mary had nothing of her own, nor had John Logan; and, besides, he must
+necessarily be away from his young wife a great deal, and leave her
+unprotected and illy provided for while he was encountering the dangers
+and hardships of a soldier's life. Mary's relatives at Morristown were
+bitterly offended because of her marriage to a man of whose antecedents
+she knew nothing, and who was poor, and, still worse, a hated
+Continental soldier, for they were strong Tory sympathizers. They would
+have nothing whatever to do with Mary after her marriage. In the
+spring, when Washington left his winter quarters, Logan, of course,
+went with the army, and his wife was left alone at Morristown with a
+poor old couple of whom your father had rented lodgings. After the
+departure of the troops from Morristown, Logan very rarely could find
+opportunity to visit his wife, nor could he make adequate provision for
+her comfort. You were born there in the home of the old couple at
+Morristown, February 25, 1778. There your mother continued to live
+until after your father fell in the battle of Monmouth Court-house in
+June, 1778. Then she made her way with you, her four-months-old babe,
+back to your Aunt Frances and me. She lived with us until after the
+death of your Aunt Frances in March, 1781. Then that fall, and about
+five months before my marriage to Rachel Sneed, your mother was married
+to Marshall Page, and both she and he died the following August."
+
+"What of this Marshall Page, my stepfather?" asked Abner. "Where was he
+from? Was he a man calculated to make my mother happy?"
+
+"He was a brave, honest, hard-working fellow," acknowledged Richard,
+"from Maryland; but he had only a limited education, and had not been
+gently reared. I was not well pleased with the marriage; and had your
+Aunt Frances lived, I do not think Mary would have married him. But as
+I was a widower, and no blood relation to your mother, my house was
+hardly any longer a suitable refuge for her and her babe. When she and
+Marshall Page died the following summer, we--my second wife, Rachel,
+and I--took you as our own. It was your mother's dying request that you
+should, if possible, be spared all knowledge of her sad history, and be
+reared as our own child."
+
+"Nobly have you and Aunt Rachel tried to fulfill that dying request!"
+said the young man in a choked voice and with tears in his eyes, as he
+arose and threw his arm across his uncle's shoulder.
+
+"And nobly have you repaid our love and care, my boy," the older man
+answered huskily. "You have given us filial love and obedience, and
+have never crossed our wishes in anything, except when you persisted in
+going off to Kentucky, instead of staying here and becoming a lawyer.
+But there! there! you were right, I dare say. You had no liking for a
+legal profession, and that new country across the mountains is a better
+place than this old, aristocratic State for a young, energetic fellow
+who has nothing but his native ability and a good education to assist
+him forward. So enough of these saddening recollections," he added in a
+more cheerful tone, rising briskly and crossing the room to a table
+whereon were scattered various papers. "Now for the business pertaining
+to this fine fellow, Abner Dudley Logan, as he must be called in
+future, I suppose, and who has just come into a rich inheritance."
+
+"Of which inheritance," said Abner, joining his uncle at the table and
+picking up one of the papers, "the most valuable part, I'm inclined to
+think, will prove to be this Kentucky land. As for this Virginian
+estate, I fear from what you tell me that I can realize very little
+from it."
+
+"That is true," agreed Richard. "Owing to the recklessness and
+prodigality of Stephen Hite, and the neglect and mismanagement of Col.
+Andrew Hite during the last ten years of his life, the estate is
+well-nigh worthless. Besides being heavily mortgaged, the land is worn,
+and the grand old brick mansion built over a hundred years ago by your
+great-grandfather, Abner Hite, is sadly out of repair--in fact, is
+almost in ruins."
+
+"'Lord of Crestlands, an ancestral estate in the proud old dominion of
+Virginia,' sounds rich and grand," laughed Abner; "but is only as
+'sounding brass and tinkling cymbals,' after all, without money to lift
+mortgages and to repair the breaches made by the prodigality and
+carelessness of my predecessors. And, uncle, how about the negroes I am
+to inherit?" taking up the copy of the will, and reading therefrom, "'I
+give and bequeath all houses, lands, slaves, live stock, goods and
+chattels of whatsoever nature of which I die possessed, etc.' How many
+of these dusky retainers are there remaining in my ancestral halls?"
+
+"Only three," the doctor answered, "out of the troops of slaves which
+Andrew Hite owned twenty years ago. The others, I find, have been sold
+from time to time, to pay the gambling debts and for the other vicious
+habits of the precious Stephen, I presume. And of the three negroes
+still left, two are old and decrepit, which leaves but one of
+marketable value. But, Abner, my boy," jokingly added Dr. Dudley, "when
+you have realized a fortune out of that Henderson County land which you
+think so valuable, you can use this wealth to lift mortgages and to
+rebuild this home of your forefathers; so that you will be, after all,
+'lord of Crestlands,' the ancestral home of the family."
+
+"That plan doesn't appeal to me," said the young man, stoutly. "For one
+thing, I do not consider Crestlands as my ancestral estate. My
+Grandmother Hite lived there only until her marriage, and neither
+Hollises nor Logans had part or lot in it. No, my ancestral halls shall
+be of my own rearing," he said promptly. "I intend indeed to be one day
+known as 'Logan of Crestlands;' but not of that ramshackle old manor
+house in southeastern Virginia, but of a new Crestlands in that
+transmontine paradise, Kentucky. Crestlands!" he said musingly. "Yes, I
+like the name. It has a pleasing sound, and I mean that in its
+symbolical sense it shall be appropriate; for I intend that life in
+this home I shall found shall be one of purity, truth, love, and high
+ideals."
+
+"And from the light in your eyes, and that hopeful, exultant smile, I
+suspect," said Uncle Richard, "that you have found the fair damsel who
+is to reign queen of this goodly domain, this new Crestlands. Is it not
+so?"
+
+"I see visions and dream dreams of such a consummation," acknowledged
+the young man, flushing warmly; "but at present I am on probation with
+this lady fair. I shall know my fate when I return in November for her
+verdict. But, uncle, whatever my hopes in that direction, there's
+another hope almost equally dear--that my loving foster parents should
+share my prosperity. Leave this old home which must be lonely to you
+and Aunt Rachel now that I am gone and your daughters both married and
+gone from the home nest. You have toiled hard, and have borne the
+burden and heat of the day, and now in your declining years I would
+have your life all ease and sunshine. Come to me, and share my new
+home. I promise you comfort, cheer and happiness. Will you not come?"
+
+"No, my boy," answered his uncle. "'Ephraim is joined to his idols.' I
+am too old to transplant to a new soil, however vigorous and genial it
+may be; and your Aunt Rachel would never consent to go so far from her
+daughters and their children. But some day, when that saucy, black-eyed
+siren (I'm certain she is saucy and black-eyed) shall have come to
+reign as mistress of your hearth and home, I'll cross the mountains,
+old as I am, to spend a few months with you. But all this is far in the
+future, and we have too much business still to transact before we can
+hope to get you thoroughly established in your rights, to plan so far
+ahead."
+
+"As to this Kentucky land, Uncle Richard," said Abner, presently, "when
+and how did Uncle Hite acquire it?"
+
+"Back in 1775, I believe, when he went out there on that exploring
+trip. Under the provisions of the 'Henderson grant' made that same
+year, Andrew Hite purchased, as I see from these papers, a tract of
+four hundred acres in that part of the Green River valley now known as
+Henderson County. But, instead of remaining in Kentucky and settling on
+his land, he returned to this State and joined the army. Now, this
+'Henderson grant' was annulled in 1778 by the Virginia Assembly, but
+the next year, when the war burdens were beginning to press heavily on
+the country, the Assembly enacted a new land law which, besides
+arranging for the sale of lands in her western territory, also offered
+as military bounty tracts of these western lands to her soldiers. So,
+Hite, then a colonel in the Continental army, applied for and received
+from the State of Virginia this same land he had purchased under the
+old Henderson grant, and sixty acres adjoining. His title, therefore,
+was made doubly secure, and he seems to have been little troubled, as
+so many others were, by rival claimants. He was wounded in the battle
+of King's Mountain, and after his wound had healed, before rejoining
+the army, he managed to make another short visit to Kentucky. Upon his
+return, on his way to join Lafayette at Yorktown just before
+Cornwallis' surrender, Hite stopped at Lawsonville. It was soon after
+your Aunt Frances died, and when your mother was on the eve of marrying
+Marshall Page. After the war, Hite went to France, where he found this
+waif, Stephen Balleau, and brought him home as his adopted son, a year
+or so later. That is all I know about Andrew Hite. After that flying
+visit to Lawsonville I never saw him, nor heard anything more directly
+of him, until I was notified last May of his death, and asked to be
+present at the reading of his will.
+
+"This paper shows me," said Abner after a pause, "that Uncle Hite
+placed the management of his Kentucky affairs in the hands of an
+attorney, Anson Drane. Now, I know a young lawyer of Lexington named
+James Anson Drane. It must be the son of this old attorney."
+
+"Yes," said Dr. Dudley, handing his nephew another document, "and from
+this paper you will find that this son, your James Anson Drane, was
+employed after the death of the father to act as Hite's factor. So your
+first step, when you return, will, of course, be to communicate with
+this young Drane."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+AT CANE RIDGE AGAIN
+
+
+Abner returned to Kentucky early in October. At Pittsburg, on his
+return journey, he had again fallen in with Judge Sebastian, who
+intrusted him with a packet containing a sum of money, and with a
+package of books, requesting him to deliver them to Judge Innes.
+Arriving at Lexington, he delivered the money and books, and then went
+on to Cane Ridge, reaching Mason Rogers' about nightfall.
+
+The next morning he set out for his farm, intending, after he had
+looked after affairs there, to ride on to Bourbonton to post a letter,
+as it was the day on which the once-a-week mail-coach passed through
+the village.
+
+Over three months had elapsed since he had seen Betsy Gilcrest; and
+although he meant to obey her hint and wait until November to renew his
+suit, he felt that there was no prohibition against his seeing her.
+Accordingly, he purposed to return from Bourbonton by way of Oaklands.
+
+On the way to the farm he met James Drane. Abner had not made known to
+the Rogers family the nature of the business which had called him to
+Virginia, nor did he now say anything to the lawyer about consulting
+him professionally; for he had resolved that Betsy should be the first
+to be told of his good fortune. Drane, after congratulating Abner upon
+his safe return, and expressing an intention of calling soon to learn
+the particulars of the visit to Virginia, added that he must now hasten
+forward, as he had business to transact at Bourbonton. Whereupon,
+Abner, thinking to save himself a ride to the village, handed him the
+letter to post, and then went on towards his farm.
+
+As soon as Abner was out of sight, Drane took the letter from his
+pocket. When he saw its address, Judge Benjamin Sebastian, he uttered
+an ejaculation of surprise and pleasure. He rode on slowly for a time,
+in deep thought, then turned and galloped rapidly towards Oaklands. In
+a field adjoining the road was Hiram Gilcrest, superintending some
+negroes gathering corn. Drane, riding up to the fence, hailed Gilcrest,
+who advanced to meet him. Drane then took the letter from his pocket,
+and, showing its address, said, "You see, Major, my suspicions
+regarding your neighbor are well founded."
+
+"Has Dudley returned?" asked Gilcrest in some surprise.
+
+"Yes, last evening. He passed through Lexington yesterday. While there
+he doubtless gathered important information from others of the band,
+and this morning he asked me to post this letter, which, of course,
+transmits this information to Sebastian."
+
+After some further conversation, Drane exacted a pledge from Gilcrest
+of absolute secrecy in regard to the letter, and, declining an
+invitation to dine at Oaklands, rode away.
+
+Much to Abner's chagrin, he found, on arriving at Oaklands an hour
+after the interview between Drane and Gilcrest, that Betsy was on a
+visit to her friend, Mary Winston, who lived near Lexington. Mrs.
+Gilcrest, however, was unusually animated, and evinced great interest
+in his recent journey, and questioned him about people and places,
+changes and fashions in Virginia. Yet Abner could not but notice the
+lack of cordiality in Major Gilcrest. Thinking this due to recollection
+of the discussion just before the trip to Virginia, Abner tried to
+avoid all topics even remotely approaching church matters. He described
+his visit to Blennerhassett Island. Gilcrest, becoming interested,
+melted perceptibly, for a time; but when the young man, in the course
+of his narrative, mentioned the names of his two traveling companions
+from Lexington to Blennerhassett Island, Gilcrest's manner not only
+lost its lately recovered geniality, but became harder and more frigid
+than ever.
+
+After striving vainly to bring his host back to a more pleasant mood,
+Abner felt that he could not, in the face of Gilcrest's increasing
+sternness and coldness, prolong the visit. Although it was raining
+heavily, he declined Mrs. Gilcrest's timid invitation to remain to
+dinner, and left a little before noon. As he rode home through the rain
+he thought over every trifling incident of his hour at Oaklands. He
+recalled every topic of conversation, without finding a clue to the
+enigma. "He's harking back to my old transgression in upholding Stone,"
+was his conclusion. "Interest in the account of my journey did for a
+time beguile him into forgetfulness of my offense, but his mind at last
+reverted to it; hence his return to the Frigid Zone. It was a regular
+freeze-out toward the end. If he were not Betty's father, I'd have
+nothing more to do with him. But what a fool I was to discuss
+theological matters with him in the first place! After all, this church
+trouble is no affair of mine, and Stone did not need my advocacy; he's
+quite able, single-handed, to play St. George to the dragon of
+sectarianism that trails its length through this region. A pretty time
+I'll have now, trying to reinstate myself in the old gentleman's good
+graces! I hope to heaven something will happen to call him out of the
+way the first of November; for see Betty then I will, no matter what
+happens."
+
+When James Drane, after his talk with Gilcrest, reached the main
+thoroughfare, instead of choosing the turning towards Bourbonton, he
+took the opposite course towards Lexington. As soon as he was in his
+office, and had barred his door, he carefully cut around the seal of
+Abner's letter. It contained merely a few lines stating that the money
+and books had been delivered to Innes.
+
+"The devil take it!" he ejaculated. "This shows nothing as to whether
+Sebastian and Murray took advantage of their opportunity to sound the
+schoolmaster; and I now very much doubt if the self-sufficient young
+prig can be drawn into our schemes. However, showing the address to
+Gilcrest this morning did my own personal cause a good turn. Now, how
+to follow up this advantage? I wonder if I could counterfeit
+Sebastian's peculiar chirography." From an inner locked drawer of his
+escritoire he took a small metal box, and from a number of papers
+contained therein he selected a letter which he examined closely.
+
+"No use to try imitation, when the original document will serve my
+purpose as well or better," he finally concluded. "The initials fit
+perfectly; and, thanks to Sebastian's cunning and to our cipher code,
+this letter is so obscurely worded that Gilcrest can gain from it no
+knowledge of our plans. But I'll have to wait some time yet in order to
+tell him a plausible tale. In the meanwhile, it would be well to try my
+skill at counterfeiting Dudley's writing. His precise, schoolmasterly
+hand would surely be easier to imitate than Sebastian's queer, crabbed
+characters, and there's no telling how or when my skill may be of use
+to me. But how to get more material to work upon? This short note to
+Sebastian isn't enough. Couldn't I get Dudley to copy some law papers
+for me?" He rose and paced the floor in deep thought. Finally he
+succeeded in elaborating a plan which would suit his purpose.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+DRANE PRACTICES PENMANSHIP
+
+
+One morning in October, Drane, who at this time seemed to have business
+demanding his frequent presence at Cane Ridge, passed by the Rogers'
+homestead just as Abner was coming from the house. The two conversed
+for a time at the stile, then Drane, as he was preparing to ride on,
+asked, "Any commissions I can execute for you in town, Dudley?"
+
+"No," Abner replied, "I believe not; I was in Lexington myself
+Thursday. But stay," he added, "you may post a letter, if you will be
+so kind. Wait a minute," and he ran to the house and soon returned with
+a letter which he handed Drane.
+
+This missive, which the lawyer opened as soon as he was in the privacy
+of his room, was addressed to Chas. M. Brady, Williamsburg, Virginia,
+and read as follows:
+
+ CANE RIDGE, Oct. the 5, 1802.
+
+ Honored Sir;--I was in Lexington again on Thursday; saw Morrison,
+ and del'v'd y'r enclosure containing recommendations, etc. But just now,
+ owing to the absence of two of the trustees, John Meeks and Israel
+ Power, I can accomplish nothing. Judge Barr favors y'r appointment,
+ but he is so handicapped that he can do very little. I learn from
+ a trustworthy informant that Ezra Spaiter, of Milledgeville, is
+ also an applicant for this professorship. Therefore, it would not
+ be advisable to open negotiations with Ingraham, for I know that
+ he is strongly in favor of Spaiter. Nor do I think it would be
+ well to make application through Brown, who, I learn, contemplates
+ withdrawing altogether from the University. Consequently, I advise
+ that you make no further move in this matter until you are apprised
+ of Power's return. I will see him and Tarr as soon as possible;
+ and you may rest assured that I will do all I can for you.
+
+ Y'r ob't, humble serv't to command,
+
+ Abner Dudley Logan. To Charles M. Brady,
+ Williamsburg, Va.
+
+"Now, what does this mean?" Drane thought as he saw the full signature,
+Abner Dudley Logan. "Has the fellow been adopting an alias? I must
+investigate this matter. But meanwhile I've another task before me,"
+and he spread the letter before him on the table, drew forth writing
+materials, and set to work. The next evening and the next found him
+similarly engaged, until by dint of repeated effort and close
+observation, aided by natural aptitude for such work, he produced a
+fair counterfeit of Abner's writing. While thus engaged, another scheme
+presented itself to his fertile brain. To carry out this scheme, he
+first made a copy of the letter to Brady. The wording was the same as
+that of the original, and the penmanship so good an imitation that only
+a suspicious and close observer could detect the difference.
+
+"As this Brady is far away, and probably not so well acquainted with
+the schoolmaster's fist as Gilcrest is, it will be safer to send my
+copy to him," Drane decided, "and manipulate the original for the
+Major's benefit. If this, in conjunction with that other document I
+shall show at the same time, doesn't put an end to that upstart's
+chances with Gilcrest's daughter, I'm much out of my reckoning. Ah,
+Betty! bewitching, tormenting Betty! I'll have you yet in spite of your
+stand-off airs and half-veiled scorn of James Anson Drane."
+
+The next afternoon found this unscrupulous plotter closeted with Major
+Gilcrest in the pleasant library at Oaklands.
+
+First pledging Gilcrest to absolute secrecy, Drane submitted a letter
+beginning with the address, "Dear A. D.," and signed with the initials
+"B. S." Much of the letter was couched in language so obscure as to
+bear no precise meaning without a verbal interpretation which, the
+letter stated, would be given by the bearer, S. Swartwourt, to whom "A.
+D." was referred. The letter alluded to the confidence the writer had
+hitherto placed in "A. D.," and to the former correspondence between
+them. It also mentioned an enclosure from "Gen. W.," written in cipher,
+to which cipher "B. S." stated "A. D." had a key. "B. S." ended his
+letter with the request that the enclosure from "W." be shown to
+Messrs. "M." and "A.," and then promptly forwarded to "T. P."
+
+Before showing this communication from "B. S." Drane had torn off that
+part which bore the date, "May 2, 1802," and at the bottom of the page
+had added in a fair likeness of the handwriting of "B. S.," the date,
+"Oct. 12, 1802."
+
+It will be remembered that at this period there was a renewal of the
+old rumors in regard to Spanish intrigues, and that Gilcrest on April
+court day had seen Abner in what had appeared to be a confidential
+conversation with Wilkinson, Sebastian and Murray; and also that Abner,
+when calling at Oaklands after his return from Virginia, had mentioned
+traveling in the company of Sebastian and Murray and stopping with them
+at Blennerhassett Island. Moreover, early in the year, Gilcrest,
+through his friend, Dr. Bullock, of Louisville, had been apprised of a
+conspiracy in which Thomas Power, a Spanish emissary, and the three
+prominent Kentuckians, Wilkinson, Sebastian and Murray, were suspected
+of being involved. So great was Gilcrest's infatuation for Drane, he
+had violated his promise made to Bullock, and had hinted of these
+intrigues to Drane, who thus had much material to work upon in his
+attempt to prejudice Gilcrest against Betsy's lover.
+
+"How in the world did this paper fall into your hands?" was Gilcrest's
+first query, after examining the communication of "B. S."
+
+"Wait," Drane answered, "until you have seen this," placing before the
+old gentleman the following torn and crumpled fragment:
+
+ CAN
+
+ Honored Sir:--I was in Lexington again
+ and del'v'd y'r enclosure containing reco
+ owing to the absence of two of the
+ Power, I can accomplish nothing. Jud
+ but he is so handicapped that he ca
+ a trustworthy informant that Ez
+ also an applicant for this pro
+ be advisable to open negotiation
+ he is strongly in favor of Spai
+ well to make application through B
+ withdrawing altogether from the Uni
+ that you make no further move in th
+ ed of Power's return. I will see him
+ and you may rest assured that I will
+
+ Y'r ob't, humble serv't to
+
+ Abner Dudley
+
+After this, too, had been examined, Drane explained. A short while
+before, he said, he was returning from a ride to Frankfort, and as he
+was on the road just by the woodland pasture belonging to Mason Rogers,
+had dismounted to dislodge a stone from his horse's foot. As he was
+preparing to remount, he spied a folded paper peeping out from some
+underbrush on the roadside. He had examined it. It was this enigmatical
+letter from "B. S." to "A. D." "I had my strong suspicions," Drane
+continued, "as to the identity of both writer and recipient; but, of
+course, not being sure that the document belonged to Abner Dudley, I
+did not think it wise to give it to him. Furthermore, it seemed that in
+view of what you had revealed to me in regard to certain malignant
+conspiracies with the Spanish Government, it behooved me to be
+cautious. It was too late in the day to see you; so I returned home,
+resolving that at the first opportunity I'd advise with you. The very
+day after finding that letter, last Thursday afternoon, Dudley rushed
+into my office and asked for writing materials. I furnished what he
+required, and he sat at my desk to write. He made several attempts and
+ruined several sheets of paper, which he tore up and tossed into the
+fire--all save this scrap," indicating the fragment shown above, "which
+lay on the floor under the desk and escaped his notice. He finally
+wrote a letter to suit him. This he sealed and directed, and then,
+saying a messenger was waiting, he thanked me hurriedly and rushed out.
+I have little doubt that this messenger was the 'S. Swartwourt'
+mentioned in 'B. S.'s' letter; for Swartwourt was in town that
+Thursday. I had seen him at noon at the tavern in close converse with
+William Murray, Isaac Adamson (in all likelihood, the Messrs. 'M.' and
+'A.' of 'B. S.'s' letter), and Abner Dudley, who is as certainly 'A.
+D.' as 'B. S.' is Benjamin Sebastian; and that torn fragment before you
+is that shameless young hypocrite's answer to Sebastian's letter of
+October 12."
+
+"You are undoubtedly correct in your surmises," said Gilcrest when
+Drane had finished. "The 'Power' referred to in this torn piece, and
+the 'T. P.' referred to in the letter signed 'B. S.,' both mean that
+vile and most dangerous diplomat, Thomas Power; and, see, Dudley
+mentions 'the enclosure,' too, which he had probably shown to Murray
+and Adamson, and then forwarded to Thomas Power. Notice, too, the
+expression in Dudley's letter, 'he is strongly in favor of
+Spai'--meaning, of course, Spain; and also this line, 'withdrawing
+altogether from the Uni', which last word, with its missing letters
+supplied, would be Union. Why, man, this is a most dangerous conspiracy
+against the Federal Government! We must be very wary indeed, if we
+would succeed in bringing the whole matter to light. But how careless
+of Dudley," he continued after a moment, "to lose that letter by the
+roadside! It is unlike his usual caution, and certainly not in keeping
+with the diabolical cunning and consummate skill with which the movers
+in this plot appear to be working. However, as the enclosure was
+already forwarded, and as the letter itself without the verbal
+interpretation is so obscure as to have no real meaning for one not in
+the scheme, I presume Dudley was not as cautious as he would have been
+had he dreamed that any one in this neighborhood had an inkling of
+these nefarious plots they are concocting."
+
+After some further consultation and further pledges between Drane and
+Gilcrest as to caution and silence, the former prepared to leave.
+
+"No, James," said Gilcrest, when the lawyer reached out to get the two
+documents, "you are impetuous and rather thoughtless; and besides, you
+are frequently away from home; so I had better take these papers into
+my charge for safe-keeping. You'll be showing them to some one, or,
+rather, somebody may get at them while you are out of town, and----"
+
+"But, Major Gilcrest," remonstrated Drane, secretly much frightened at
+this unexpected move on the part of his confidant, "I--I found them,
+and they belong to me. I assure you they will be perfectly secure with
+me, and--and--I----"
+
+"But they'll be safer with me," persisted Gilcrest.
+
+James argued and remonstrated as much as he dared without endangering
+by overeagerness his own nefarious little plot; but he could not shake
+the old gentleman's purpose, and at last he had to depart, thoroughly
+discomfited. Much enraged he was, too, as he rode homeward, and fully
+determined, as he said, "to regain possession of those two documents,
+in spite of that blamed, stubborn old blockhead, Hiram Gilcrest."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE BETROTHAL
+
+ "For I'll believe I have his heart,
+ As much as he has mine."
+
+
+Betsy came home the last week in October. Even her mother, the least
+observant of women, noticed her daughter's unusual silence and
+restlessness for the first few days after her return, and, attributing
+it to loneliness, wished Betty had brought Mary Winston home with her
+for a visit.
+
+"Rantin' 'roun' 'mong fine folks doan seem to 'gree wid you, honey,"
+old Aunt Dilsey said one morning when she found Betsy in the parlor,
+her hands folded listlessly on the unheeded sewing in her lap, as she
+gazed dreamily before her. "You'se all onsettled sence you'se come
+home. Things would go tah rack an' ruin heah, wid yo' ma allus ailin',
+an' you so no-'count, ef 'twan't fur ole Dilsey tah keep dese lazy
+niggahs frum gwinetah sleep en thah tracks. I usetah think you'd be a
+he'p an' a comfo't to yo' old brack mammy, an' turn out ez fine a
+man'ger an' housekeepah ez Miss Abby; but you hain't been yo'se'f sence
+thet camp-meetin'. I 'lowed et fust 'twuz too much 'ligion wuckin' in
+you, an' thought it would bring you all right to go to Miss Mary
+Winston's fine place; but you'se come back wussen evah. You hain't
+gwinetah be sick, is you, chile? One minit you looks lak thah warn't a
+drap o' blood in yo' body, then suddent lak, you flash up an' look so
+narvous an' so excited thet I fears you'se tekin' the fevahs."
+
+"No, mammy, I'm not the least sick. Nothing ails me, except that I feel
+the change a little from the gay times I've been having at Maybrook.
+I'll be all right presently."
+
+Soon after dinner upon the first day of November, Betsy, evading Aunt
+Dilsey's watchful eyes, called Jock, the old house-dog who was dozing
+in the south porch, and set off for a ramble. The balmy air and the
+brisk walk refreshed her, and by the time she reached the bars
+separating the upper from the lower woods, she felt lighter hearted
+than she had for a long time. Her eyes glowed with exercise, a bright
+tinge showed in her cheeks, and her red cloak and brown quilted bonnet
+lined with crimson made a warm bit of color in the landscape, and
+blended harmoniously with the rich shades of the trees. Nature was
+steeped in that tender, dreamy haze peculiar to Indian Summer, and the
+air held a pleasing odor like that of burning leaves. The songbirds had
+gone away to winter homes in the South, and the stillness of the forest
+was broken only by the dropping of nuts from the hickory-trees.
+
+"The first day of November!" she thought, as she stood leaning on the
+bars, with old Jock lying at her feet. "I wonder how soon he will
+come," and she smiled tenderly. "Not to-day or to-morrow, I know; for
+he has gone to Lexington again, so Susan said, and will not be back
+until the last of the week. It has been four months since I saw him.
+Perhaps I should not have kept him so long in suspense, but a girl
+should not be too easily won, and he must never know how nearly I came
+to complete surrender when he rode by my side that May day. How hard it
+was to resist the pleading tenderness of his eyes! Oh, Abner, Abner!
+how I love you!" she murmured, leaning her head upon the bars.
+
+Approaching footsteps made no noise on the carpeting of leaves and moss
+in the pathway over which she had come; and Betty, absorbed in her love
+and yearning, did not look up, even when Jock gave a joyous bark of
+welcome to the young man standing behind her.
+
+[Illustration: "_I have come for my answer, Betty._"]
+
+"I have come for my answer, Betty," he said, laying his hand over hers
+clasped on the topmost bar.
+
+Her eyes lit up with gladness as she raised her face, suffused with
+crimson, toward him; but she uttered no word of welcome.
+
+"You surely expected me," he said; "you did not think I'd wait one hour
+beyond the time, did you? Ah, sweetheart, did you but know what a
+torment of suspense and longing these last six months have been,
+you'd---- But now it's November, your favorite month, you said, because
+Thanksgiving comes in it. So now, my darling, say the word that alone
+can give me a thankful heart. You'll listen to me now, won't you,
+dear?" he asked of her as she still stood in trembling silence.
+
+"I suppose I must, sir," she said, dimpling and blushing, with a saucy
+toss of her head. "I can't very well stop my ears, seeing that you have
+imprisoned both hands. Oh, don't! don't! I haven't pledged myself yet,"
+she stammered, as he, raising her hands, drew them around his neck,
+folded her in his arms, and kissed her brow. Then, still holding her
+closely in one arm, with the other he turned her face to meet his,
+murmuring, "Not just your forehead, sweetness--O sweetheart! darling!
+wife!" as his lips closed over hers in a clinging kiss. "It is thus I
+take my pledge. You are mine, mine, you bewildering, tormenting Betty."
+
+"No! no!" she protested stammeringly, as she struggled to free herself.
+"Oh, you're too--too--you hold me so close! You lose count of time and
+season, sir," she added presently with an attempt at playfulness, and
+trying to assume an ease and nonchalance she was far from feeling.
+"This is November, remember--solemn, quiet Thanksgiving time. The
+summer of fulfillment hasn't come yet."
+
+"Yes, it has," boldly asserted her lover. "Winter is past, and summer
+is here--glorious, satisfying harvest time--and--and--it is thus I
+garner in my wealth," he murmured with tender rapture, gathering her
+still closer, and kissing the sweet eyes and throat and mouth. "No more
+half-way measures between us now! No more tormenting reserve! You trust
+me, sweetheart? You give yourself to me, do you not?"
+
+"I don't seem to have much liberty of choice," she replied with a
+resumption of her old sauciness, as she again freed herself from his
+embrace. "As you have already stolen my heart, I may as well trust you
+with the rest--and I do, I do," she added solemnly. "My welfare, my
+happiness, my life itself, I commit to your keeping," placing both
+hands in his. "I give all unreservedly. You are worthy the trust."
+
+"No," she said presently, in answer to the inevitable question as to
+when she had first begun to love him; "I shan't tell you that. You're
+too conceited and masterful as it is."
+
+"But you have promised to tell me everything," he said teasingly.
+
+"No, some things are better left unsaid, and if I were to tell you
+that, I'd never be able to get the upper hand with you again."
+
+"But you know you always did obey me," he answered, smiling
+reminiscently, "though it was often with a sweet rebellious look in
+your eyes; and besides, a wife is bound to obey her husband."
+
+"I don't know about that, sir. If that is the rule, I mean to be the
+exception that proves it; for I fully intend that you shall be the
+submissive one in our future relationship."
+
+"In that case, fair lady mine, the sooner you marry me, the better; for
+even with so competent a ruler as yourself, it will take long and close
+application on my part to learn the role of submissive husband. You
+see, my position of schoolmaster has weakened my natural talent for
+meekness and submission, so that at present these qualities are far
+from being in perfect condition."
+
+"You needn't tell me that," rejoined Betsy, with a demure smile and
+nodding her head sagely. "Cupid hasn't so blindfolded me but that I can
+still see a wee bit out of the corner of my eye--well enough, at least,
+to perceive that my lover has several imperfections in addition to a
+lack of meekness."
+
+"That, my dear, isn't the fault of Cupid's bandages, but it is due to
+your always having held me at a distance," he answered placidly,
+drawing her nearer to him. "Seen at close range, these little
+peculiarities of mine, which you have labeled defects, will turn out to
+be budding virtues of the finest quality."
+
+"Ah, then, most perfect and approved good master, you must give me back
+my pledge. I could stand a few faults and minor vices in my future
+lord; but such an array of excellencies appals me. I wed you not, Sir
+Paragon," she said, looking him full in the face and then dropping him
+a mocking little courtesy.
+
+"'By my troth and holidame,' I could have better spared a better
+Betty!" Abner exclaimed with mock fervor. "No, no, sweet mistress mine,
+rather than resign this dimpled hand of thine, I'll begin at once to
+uproot all my promising little sprouts of virtue, and plant in their
+stead an assortment of fine, robust misdemeanors, for which, in truth,
+the soil is well adapted."
+
+"Very well, then," she said with an air of resignation, "I foresee that
+I shall have to grow a few additional faults myself, to compete with
+you."
+
+"And I don't think, my dearest, that you'll have much difficulty in
+doing so," was his audacious rejoinder, as he pinched her cheek.
+"Natural aptitude counts for a great deal, you know."
+
+"Methinks, my lord, too much happiness hath weakened thy brain; what
+nonsense thou dost chatter," and she laughed with joyous abandon.
+
+"Oh, anybody can talk sense, but it takes a heap o' sense to talk
+nonsense sensibly," he said suavely, with a fine air of
+self-complacency. "Until to-day I did not know I had it in me to be so
+brilliant a conversationalist. Happiness is bringing out all my latent
+abilities. Ah, Betty, sweetest, dearest, most bewitching of girls," he
+added, fervently, "how happy you have made me!"
+
+They were now seated on a fallen tree, he indulging in a blissful sense
+of happiness realized, she sitting quiet and somewhat pensive.
+Presently he asked: "Of what are you thinking? Your brown eyes are
+filled with something that is almost sadness. Have you any regrets, any
+unfilled wish? I haven't--except that November might have come sooner."
+
+"Yes, I have a regret," said Betty, laying her hand upon his shoulder
+and looking wistfully at him. "I give you everything--my present, my
+future, and my past; but you--I know you love me now, but I am not the
+one you loved first. That is what makes me sad. I want your past as
+well as your present and future. Perhaps you think I didn't see. You
+supposed, when you were so miserable after Abby went away, that I
+didn't understand! Many and many a night have I lain awake, sorrowing
+over your sorrow and my inability to help you."
+
+"Listen to me, Betty dear. My feeling for your cousin, though pure and
+tender, was as nothing compared to what I have for you. Even when I was
+most under the spell of her beauty and sweetness, I thought of you as
+one who might well stir the pulse and thrill the heart of any man not
+made armor-proof by love for another."
+
+"But you did love Cousin Abby?" she questioned with another wistful,
+half-timid look.
+
+"Yes, I did, in a dreamy, poetical way. Or, rather, I was in love with
+love and romance, and all that, and she seemed the embodiment of beauty
+and poetry. But I never touched even the outer edges of her
+susceptibilities, and it was this complete unresponsiveness that healed
+my wound, even before I was aware. A man, warm-blooded, ardent, as I
+am, must have an answering love to keep his own alive. There was
+nothing in that first romantic feeling that need give you a pang of
+regret. It was a mere boyish fancy; this, dear, is the love of my
+manhood. And in fact, my darling, I don't believe there is so much as a
+kiss to choose between your love for me and mine for you. If there is,"
+he added humorously, "this will restore the balance," and he kissed her
+fondly. "And now, my dear girl," he went on, speaking soberly, but with
+a glad light in his eyes, "I have great news for you; but first, let me
+ask, by what name do you propose to be known when we are married?"
+
+"Well," exclaimed the girl in some bewilderment, "I said awhile ago
+that happiness had addled your brains; but I really did not suspect the
+trouble to be so serious as this. By what name, pray, should I be known
+but that of Mistress Betsy Dudley--ugly though it be? Oh, I see!" she
+cried, thinking she understood his meaning. "You don't like the name
+Betsy. Neither do I. It's perfectly horrid; and it is my standing
+grievance against my parents that they saddled upon their innocent babe
+so uncouth a prenomen. If father did wish to honor his mother by
+endowing his first-born with the name, why could he not have softened
+it into Betty, or Bettina, or Bessie, or, better still, have christened
+me Elizabeth, instead of insisting, as he always does, that I shall be
+called Betsy? I'll tell you what," she added archly, "when I'm married,
+I shall insist that everybody shall address me as Elizabeth. Isn't that
+more to your taste, my lord?"
+
+"Elizabeth what?" he persisted.
+
+"Upon my word, I begin to think you really are daft! Why, Elizabeth
+Dudley, of course," she said, flushing and looking shy and embarrassed;
+"that is, unless you mean for me to wed some saner man than this Abner
+Dudley, Esquire," she added saucily.
+
+"Would not the name Elizabeth or Betty or Betsy Logan suit you better?"
+asked her lover, who then proceeded to tell her all.
+
+She was greatly astonished, and rejoiced to learn of his brightened
+worldly prospects; but when he told her his full name, her countenance
+changed.
+
+He was too absorbed to note this, and went on: "The question now is, my
+dearest, how soon will you marry me? I need you now. Every day, every
+hour, I long for you, my pet. So I shall speak to your father at once.
+For some time he has been rather cool with me--ever since last summer,
+when I argued with him about Barton Stone's views. But he's too just
+and reasonable to refuse me your hand, upon no other objection than
+that I did not side with him in a church quarrel. I will see him
+to-morrow, and----"
+
+"No, no!" Betsy interrupted, "do not speak with him yet; and please do
+not let him know that your name is Logan. Let me tell him that, and
+also about your new inheritance."
+
+"But, my dear girl, why should not I tell him?"
+
+"I can't make it plain to you, I'm afraid," answered Betty; "but I have
+an instinctive feeling that things will not run at all smoothly--just
+at first, you know--when he learns your news."
+
+"All the more reason, then," Abner said, "for my telling him at once,
+and thus get over this rough part as soon as possible."
+
+"No, please let me speak to father first," urged Betsy.
+
+"I fail to see why you should wish to do so," Abner said; "and it
+certainly is my duty to speak to your father myself. Nor would it be
+manly in me to shirk this duty off upon you."
+
+"As I said," Betsy persisted, "I can't make my meaning clear to you. In
+truth, I can't understand myself why I wish this; but of one thing I am
+quite sure, both my father and mother, for some unknown cause, are
+greatly prejudiced against the name 'Logan.' Mother, in particular,
+abhors it. At some period of her life, she must have had some terrible
+knowledge of some one of the name--you know there are many Logans in
+this State and in Virginia--but whatever the reason for her extreme
+aversion to the name, that aversion certainly exists. Therefore, it
+behooves us to be very tactful in telling father and mother that you
+are a Logan. Just now I feel sure it would be unwise to tell them; for
+mother is unusually weak and nervous this fall, and father is so
+harassed over this church trouble that he is irritable and
+unreasonable, even with mother and me. We can't very well be married
+before spring, anyway; and long before then father'll be as cordial as
+ever with you; and he and mother will be fully reconciled to your new
+name, too. I'm your promised wife, and--and--I love you with all my
+heart. Isn't that happiness enough for you for awhile?"
+
+"But, dearest, I think your parents should be told at once that you are
+my betrothed wife. I don't like any appearance of secrecy. I'm too
+proud of my love for that."
+
+"No," Betsy still urged, "I know father better than you do. Please be
+guided by me in this, and say nothing to him for awhile."
+
+"But I can not delay much longer to make public that my name is Logan,
+and about my newly acquired property. There's business to be transacted
+in regard to this Henderson County land; and your father must
+inevitably soon hear of my name, from some one; and it would be better
+from me than from an outsider."
+
+However, Abner finally yielded to Betsy's pleadings, and agreed that
+they should take no one into their confidence at present in regard to
+their engagement; and that he should tell the Rogerses and James Drane
+about his real name, and of the inheritance left him by the will of the
+late Colonel Hite.
+
+"And you mustn't even come to see me," said Betty. "In father's present
+mood it would only irritate him to have you come. Besides, if you did
+come, they'd be sure to find us out; for we couldn't act toward each
+other just in the old, quiet, friendly way--at least, I couldn't
+and--and--oh, I know it will be hard, this restraint, this secrecy; not
+to see you, and not to let every one know that we are pledged to each
+other. But for my sake, and because it is for the best, you will be
+patient, won't you?"
+
+"I will try; but Heaven send your father a speedy change of heart
+toward your poor lover!" Abner fervently exclaimed as he kissed Betty
+good-by.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+THE LONE GRAVE IN THE MOUNTAINS
+
+
+That same evening, Abner took Mr. and Mrs. Rogers into his confidence
+concerning his name, and the business which had called him to Virginia.
+The good couple were greatly excited, and they could not have been more
+delighted had the inheritance fallen to one of their own children.
+
+A few days later, Abner went to see James Drane.
+
+"So old Colonel Hite is dead, and you are his heir," was Drane's
+astonished exclamation when his client had explained his business, and
+had shown a copy of the will. "I congratulate you most heartily upon
+your good fortune. Of course, I know all about this Henderson County
+tract; for my father was employed to survey it, and to record the
+claim, and afterwards to transact all business pertaining to it, until
+his death, five years ago; then I was employed as agent. I have here in
+my escritoire all papers relative to the business, and copies of all
+correspondence which passed between father and Colonel Hite. Colonel
+Hite visited Kentucky in '80 or '81, when I was a small boy; but I
+remember the circumstance. From what I can recall of him as he appeared
+then, and from what I gather from his correspondence since, I judge him
+to have been a very eccentric man. For several years after the tract
+came into Hite's possession, my father had considerable difficulty with
+rival claimants--squatters, you know, who claimed it by right of first
+settlement; but all such difficulties were adjusted long before the
+agency fell into my hands, and now I can foresee no trouble, nor any
+very great delay, in establishing you in your rights--to this part of
+your inheritance, at least. As to the Virginian estate, of course, you
+have already placed your interests in the hands of some competent
+attorney in that State, and have complied with all the necessary legal
+formalities. Now, in regard to this land of which I have been acting as
+factor," Drane continued, examining some papers which he had taken out
+of his desk. "Samuel Whitaker, whose claim adjoins the southeastern
+boundary of the Hite section, pays a yearly rental of forty-six dollars
+for 258 acres of the Hite land; and Daniel Pratt, who owns the
+homestead adjoining the southwestern boundary, holds a ten years' lease
+(three of which are unexpired) to 285 more acres. The remainder of the
+section--ninety-seven acres--lying on Buffalo Creek, is low and swampy,
+and has never been reclaimed."
+
+A few more business details were explained, and then Abner told the
+lawyer, as he had already told the Rogerses, that for the
+present--until all business relative to the winding up of the Hite
+estate was completed--he preferred to be known only as Abner Dudley. He
+then took his departure, leaving with Drane a copy of the will.
+
+When his client had gone, the lawyer barred his door, and then
+carefully examined the will. Although he had had the art to hide his
+feelings during the interview just closed, he was more astonished and
+puzzled than he had ever been before. Several months before this, in
+looking through some documents pertaining to the Gilcrest property, he
+had made two startling discoveries: First, that Mrs. Gilcrest's maiden
+name was Sarah Jane Pepper, instead of Jane Temple, as even her own
+children supposed it to be. Second, that she was a widow when Hiram
+Gilcrest married her, and that her first husband had been a John Logan
+who was killed in the battle of Monmouth Court-house. At the time when
+Drane had made these discoveries, Gilcrest had explained that Mrs.
+Gilcrest's first husband had been a worthless, bad fellow, and that for
+that reason her desire was that her children should be kept in
+ignorance of her ever having made this first marriage. On this account,
+and for another reason which Gilcrest did not confide to Drane, she had
+led her children to believe that her maiden name was Jane Temple, her
+maternal grandmother's maiden name.
+
+Abner had stated that his father was John Logan, a soldier in the
+Continental army, who was killed in the battle of Monmouth Court-house.
+"It may be a mere coincidence," thought Drane, "that two men named John
+Logan were killed in that battle; but, then, why should this fellow
+have, until now, worn the name of Dudley? Then, there's the unusual
+wording of the will," and he seized the document and read the words,
+"'to her' (Mary Belle Hollis Page) 'legitimate offspring, if any.'
+'There's something rotten in the state of Denmark'," was Drane's
+conclusion; "but how to discover it? Let me see, I'd better not mention
+this to old Gilcrest yet awhile; and certainly I must let no inkling of
+my suspicions escape to this Abner Dudley, or Abner Logan, or Page, or
+whatever his right name may be--why, good Lord! I don't believe he has
+a legitimate right to any name whatsoever. And this is the fine
+gentleman who dares lift his eyes to the peerless Betty! I needn't have
+run the risk I did in forging that letter, it seems; this will, I
+suspect, settle the schoolmaster's pretensions even more effectually,
+and with no danger to myself, either. But here, if his father and
+Madame Gilcrest's first husband were one and the same man, I must work
+very cautiously until I ascertain the exact date of the John Logan
+alliance with Sarah Jane and that of his connection with Mary Belle. It
+would be a pretty kettle of fish if I should take old Hiram into my
+confidence, and it should afterwards be revealed that Sarah Jane was
+the paramour and Mary Belle the true wife. Pshaw! that's not probable.
+Then, there's Hite's singular expression, 'to her legitimate
+offspring.' What a fine thing it would be to discover that Mrs.
+Gilcrest is Hite's lawful legatee. To do the schoolmaster justice,
+though, I believe him entirely innocent of intentional deception in
+this matter; but I'd stake my reputation for acuteness that this old
+Richard Dudley knows--only, of course, he bases his nephew's claim upon
+the fact that Mary Hollis Page was still living at the time Hite made
+this insane will. Abner Dudley, or Abner Logan, as the case may be,
+stated that she died in August, 1782. My first step must be to
+ascertain if this be correct. Let me see, Tom Gaines used to live in
+Lawsonville, and is still living in Culpeper County. I'll write him for
+information. On account of his connection with our Spanish schemes he
+can be trusted to mention my letter to no one. I'll write him
+immediately, and, while waiting his reply, I'll hover about Oaklands as
+much as possible, and try to ascertain the date of the Logan-Pepper
+alliance; and at the same time make another effort to recover
+possession of Sebastian's letter and that dangerous little specimen of
+forgery."
+
+The postal system of our country was a slow business in that day and
+time; but, in due course, Drane had Gaines' reply. From this he learned
+that a certain old tombstone in the Lawsonville graveyard bore this
+inscription:
+
+ MARY BELLE HOLLIS PAGE
+ born Feb'y 16th, 1758
+ died Aug. 21st, 1782.
+
+Other information contained in Gaines' letter was this, Mrs. Page had
+not died at Lawsonville, notwithstanding the tablet erected there to
+her memory. She had married Marshall Page in October, 1781, and she and
+her husband and the little Abner had migrated to Kentucky. Late in the
+next year, a brother of Marshall Page, who had accompanied them to
+Kentucky, returned to Lawsonville with the little boy, Abner Logan, and
+the intelligence that Marshall Page had been killed by Indians, and
+that Mary Page had died at Bryan's Station. The child had been
+committed to the care of Mrs. Page's relations in Lawsonville, the
+Dudleys, who had adopted him. Drane's informant also wrote that it had
+always been the impression with the people of Lawsonville that Mary
+Hollis had not been legally married to Abner's father, but that she had
+been entrapped into a form of marriage with John Logan at a time when
+he had a wife still living.
+
+"By the heavens above, this is the strangest affair that ever came
+within my ken!" said James Drane after reading Gaines' letter. "Why, I
+verily believe that the dainty schoolmaster is a bastard; and, what is
+more, that he has no claim to the Hite fortune. He certainly has not,
+if my surmises concerning that half-forgotten episode of that hamlet in
+the Cumberland Mountains be correct."
+
+The episode to which he referred was this. He, when a boy of ten, had
+once accompanied his father on a visit into southwestern Virginia. On
+the third day of their journey night had overtaken them near Centerton,
+a little settlement of five or six cabins in the Cumberland Mountains.
+They had stopped for shelter at one of these cabins, owned by a family
+named Wheeler. The next morning there was a terrible rain storm which
+had detained the travelers in the village until the following day.
+While there James had seen a neglected grave marked by a wooden slab,
+on the mountain-side, just back of the Wheelers' cabin. He was filled
+with boyish curiosity concerning this lonely grave, and had asked its
+history.
+
+Several years before, so Mrs. Wheeler had told him, some emigrants on
+their way into Kentucky had stopped at the Wheeler cabin. The wife of
+one of these emigrants had been bitten or stung on the cheek by some
+poisonous reptile while the party was camping in the mountains the
+night before. The poor woman was suffering horribly when they reached
+the Wheelers', and she died there the next day from the effects of the
+venomous wound in her face. They buried her under the trees back of the
+cabin, and her husband cut her name, age and the date of her death upon
+that oak slab, and placed it as a headstone to mark the last
+resting-place of his wife. He and the other emigrants then continued on
+their journey.
+
+This sad story and the lonely grave on the mountainside had made a deep
+impression upon the lad, James Drane. He now recalled the story, and he
+was sure that the name upon that slab was Mary Page. Moreover, he
+believed that the date recorded on the wooden slab was that of a day of
+the spring of 1782. After much reflection, Drane decided to tell Major
+Gilcrest of these discoveries and surmises.
+
+To say that Hiram Gilcrest was amazed at the story which the lawyer
+related would but feebly express his state of mind. "If our suspicions
+are correct," he said when he had thought over Drane's story, "as to
+the date of this woman's death, and if this son of hers is
+illegitimate, he has no rights at all, under the provisions of this
+will, to the Hite estates. My wife, in that case, is the heir; and, by
+heaven, she shall have her rights! It is not that I care so much for
+the monetary value of what this Andrew Hite left. I am not prompted by
+mercenary motives; for I have plenty to keep my wife and children in
+comfort, nor would I covet aught that lawfully or justly belonged to
+another; but I do not mean to be cheated, or to allow my wife to be
+cheated, out of her just rights by the crafty schemes of this Dr.
+Richard Dudley in behalf of his base-born nephew. I must say, though,
+that I have considerable commiseration for this young fellow, who is, I
+believe, not a party--that is, an intentional party--to this fraudulent
+scheme, notwithstanding his undoubted entanglement in those political
+plots of Sebastian, Wilkinson and Powers. I protest, I was never in all
+my life so deceived in a man as I have been in Abner Dudley, or Logan,
+if he pleases; and I flatter myself, too, upon being a pretty good
+judge of character. I was much taken with him when he first came to
+this community. I liked his face, his conversation, and his general
+bearing, and would have taken oath that he was one to be trusted in all
+things."
+
+"We must move warily in this matter, James," was the Major's caution,
+after musing awhile, "until the affair is in shape to be proven in
+court. I would spare my wife all agitation, if it were possible. She is
+in an extremely weak, nervous condition, and until it is absolutely
+necessary to do so, I wish her to know nothing of this matter; and even
+when it must be brought up in court, I want to spare her all the
+details of the affair--if that can be done; for any mention of the
+matter will cost her much excitement and will bring before her again
+all her old troubles."
+
+After further consultation and many admonitions from Gilcrest as to
+caution and secrecy, it was agreed that the lawyer should go at once to
+Centerton.
+
+He started the next morning. Reaching there three days later, he could
+find no trace of the Wheelers. Their cabin was now occupied by another
+family who knew nothing of the former occupants except that they had
+moved away eight years since, and that their present habitation was
+supposed to be somewhere in the mountains of northern Georgia. No one
+now living at Centerton could give any information about the grave on
+the mountain-side. Drane visited it. It was now but a sunken spot
+covered with a tangle of vines and weeds. The slab was still there, but
+it was prone on the ground, face downwards, and was much worn and
+defaced. Drane copied in his note-book all of the inscription that was
+legible:
+
+ Ma-y Be--e
+
+ wif- -f
+
+ Mar---- Page
+
+ di-d h--e
+
+ o- w-y -o
+
+ K--t--k-
+
+ Ma-ch 9 1-82
+
+ -ged 22
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+GILCREST'S ATTITUDE
+
+
+Several weeks wore away, and still no one except Major Gilcrest, his
+daughter, the Rogers family and James Drane was aware of the change in
+Abner's worldly prospects. As to his business affairs, he felt no
+uneasiness; for he knew that his interests in Virginia were being
+looked after by Dr. Dudley; and in regard to the Henderson County land,
+he agreed with Drane that as it was still in the hands of tenants,
+nothing need be done at present towards making known his ownership. But
+he became extremely impatient over the unsettled state of his love
+affair.
+
+Major Gilcrest, instead of growing more like his former self, became
+sterner, if possible, and had little to do with his neighbors. Betsy,
+strong in the belief that time would effect a favorable change in her
+father's attitude, still pleaded with Abner not to speak with him.
+
+James Drane was often at Oaklands, and Abner, aware of this, while he,
+Betsy's betrothed husband, was prohibited from visiting her, grew more
+and more moody and impatient, and sometimes in his despondency he
+pictured the girl as listening with growing interest to Drane's
+entertaining talk, and yielding more and more to his fascination.
+
+"With her headstrong old father so set against me, and so confoundedly
+wrapped up in Drane, it would be no great wonder if Betty were finally
+stolen from me," thought Abner bitterly, one afternoon when he knew
+that the lawyer was at Oaklands. He had little heart for social
+gayeties of the neighborhood, although he sometimes went to these
+gatherings in the hope of seeing Betsy. Yet these meetings amid a crowd
+of young people were very unsatisfactory.
+
+"I reckon Betsy holds herse'f above common fo'ks, now she's visitin'
+'mong the big bugs," Abner heard Mrs. Rogers say one day in answer to
+Lucy's remark that Betsy never came to see them now.
+
+"No, ma," Susan ventured, "Betsy is not one to change. She loves us as
+well as ever, I feel sure."
+
+"Well, ef she ain't too stuck up to notice us, her ma's too proud to
+let her," retorted Mrs. Rogers. "I allus said thet in spite uv Jane's
+meechin' ways, she felt herse'f above us. We ain't got blue blood in
+our veins. We ain't kin to the Temples an' Blairs an' Goodloes, and the
+rest uv them ristahcrats."
+
+"Mrs. Gilcrest always treats me well when I go there," answered Susan,
+"and as for Betsy," she continued, her cheeks flushing and her eyes
+shining, "she's the truest, sweetest girl that ever lived."
+
+"Then, why don't she come to see us lak she usetah?" demanded Mrs.
+Rogers.
+
+Susan said nothing, but involuntarily glanced at Abner. Their eyes met;
+Susan quickly averted hers, and he thought, "I wonder if Susan knows!"
+
+"Thah's her pap, too," Mrs. Rogers went on, "he's gittin' crusty an'
+stiff-lipped ez a sore-eyed b'ar."
+
+"Hiram ain't hisse'f jes' now," interposed Mason; "he's plum crazy kaze
+folks ain't ready to jump on Brothah Stone an' t'ar him limb frum limb.
+Hiram's daft on whut he calls pure faith an' docturn, an' is allus
+boastin' thet his ancestry wuz burnt et the stakes, way back in them
+dark ages, fur ther religion."
+
+"Religion! sich carryin'-on ain't no religion," exclaimed Mrs. Rogers.
+"'Tain't nothin' but stubbunness an' devilment, an' it'd be a good
+thing, I say, ef Hirum could be tied up an' sco'ched a bit hisse'f."
+
+"Well, well, he's a good man et bottom," replied her husband. "We hev
+lived neighbors ovah twenty year, an' he's allus been ready to do us a
+good turn, in sickness, in health an' in trouble. As fur his wife, I
+wondah, Cynthy Ann, thet you kin find it in yer heart to say aught
+ag'in her. Hev you furgot thet wintah the twins wuz borned, an' I wuz
+crippled up with rheumatiz, an' the niggahs down with the measles, how
+she sent ole Dilsey (though Jane hed a young baby herse'f, an' could
+ill spar' the niggah) to wait on us? Ez fur Betsy," with a sly look at
+Abner, "I agree with Cissy; she's the smartest, purtiest gal in these
+parts, an' good an' true ez she is purty."
+
+One Saturday afternoon in February, Betsy did come to see Susan Rogers.
+Mrs. Rogers had gone to spend the afternoon at a neighbor's, and Abner,
+who had been felling trees at his own place, did not return to the
+house until just as Betsy was leaving. With a timidity born of
+self-consciousness, Betsy grew still and embarrassed, and soon
+afterwards rose to go. "It gets dark so early now," she said, "and I
+came alone through the fields."
+
+Abner caught up his hat while she was donning cloak and hood.
+
+"Let's walk part way with Betsy," cried Lucindy. "Come, Lucy, an' you
+too, Cissy. Maybe we'll meet ma comin' home." But Susan said she must
+attend to supper; nor would she let the twins go.
+
+"Instead of taking the short cut through the fields, let's go around by
+the woods, dearest," Abner proposed as soon as he and Betsy had set out
+on their walk.
+
+"Very well, we have plenty of time," she agreed happily. "There's no
+telling when we may have another such chance, and I have much to say to
+you. You may walk as far as the upper woods with me, if you are good."
+
+"No farther than that?" he asked reproachfully.
+
+"Only to the bars this time, I think, dear," she answered gently,
+slipping her hand into his.
+
+In spite of her loving little gesture, he still looked gloomy. "Oh,
+these long, wretched weeks when I have so hungered for a sight of your
+face and the sound of your voice!" he presently exclaimed. "And now
+when I am at last alone with you, you appoint boundaries and limits,
+and place restrictions upon my walk with you!" and he grasped her hand
+in a tighter clasp and looked at her somewhat sternly. "Oh, my
+darling," he broke off, as she turned a wistful, tearful gaze upon him,
+"forgive my harsh words," and he gathered her into his arms and kissed
+her tenderly. "It is only because I love you so passionately, my life,
+my sweetest one. Won't you speak to me, dearest?" he asked, as she
+continued silent.
+
+"'Speech is silver, silence is golden,' according to some wise
+authority," Betsy at last said meaningly and rather reproachfully,
+although she smiled faintly and looked at him with love-lit eyes.
+
+"But the oracle, when he uttered that bit of questionable wisdom,
+wasn't, I dare say, walking with his sweetheart after dreary weeks of
+separation," said Abner, squeezing her hand. "If he had, he would have
+preferred silvery speech to golden silence--or, rather, the utterances
+of his beloved one would have been to him as doubly refined gold; and
+I'm perfectly certain that his sweetheart could not have compared with
+my piquant, peerless Betty. Besides, you declared awhile ago that you
+had much to say to me."
+
+"So I had, Sir Flatterer," the girl answered with a radiant smile, her
+momentary sadness completely banished by his fond words, "but at the
+present moment the delight of being in your improving society has
+robbed me of all desire to talk. And what greater proof could I give
+that I love you?" she continued with an arch glance. "It is surely a
+mighty power indeed that makes a chatterbox like me to revel in
+silence."
+
+"How I love this dear old forest!" was Abner's exclamation presently.
+"Every tree, every stick and stone, every foot of ground, seems sacred.
+Do you not love it all, my darling?"
+
+"I do indeed," she acknowledged. "In fact," she added laughingly, "I
+think, by rights, this woods belongs exclusively to us and our love,
+and I consider any one else guilty of sacrilegious effrontery in even
+walking through its sacred precincts. But you don't appear in
+especially radiant spirits, my friend, even though we are together in
+our hallowed woods," she said presently as he walked silently by her
+side.
+
+"How can I be in radiant humor, Betty?" he retorted sadly. "This
+restraint and concealment are becoming unendurable to me. We are nearly
+to the bars now where you say I must turn back, and I must first have
+some serious words with you. For three months and more, I have obeyed
+your behest and have kept aloof from your house; but patience ceases to
+be a virtue. I am no nearer winning your father to a more cordial frame
+of mind than I was at first. On the contrary, in the few times I have
+encountered him of late, he has appeared to be getting colder and more
+formal, and I really believe this is due in a great measure to his
+suspecting that there is a secret understanding between you and me. He
+is a straightforward man and likes straightforward courses. Moreover,
+how can I ever win his consent to our marriage unless I ask him? That's
+only common sense; and furthermore, anything underhanded or clandestine
+is as obnoxious to me as to him."
+
+"Oh," she begged with a frightened look, "please wait a little longer.
+He's sure to be in a more pliable humor after awhile, when this horrid
+old church difficulty is settled. Oh, Abner, my love, I know it is
+hard, but----"
+
+"How hard," he interrupted gloomily, "you are far from realizing. These
+miserable weeks of suppression and concealment have worn my patience
+and self-control to the breaking-point. Now," he went on firmly, "I
+will wait no longer. I will see your father to-morrow. Patience,
+forsooth!" he ejaculated in answer to her further pleading, "when I'm
+debarred from entering your home, must be satisfied with an occasional
+stolen interview like this; when, too, I know that James Drane is a
+frequent and welcome guest at Oaklands! How can I help being moody and
+bitter and harassed? Sometimes I think I have overcome my former
+dislike for Drane; for he is, to give him his due, invariably cordial
+to me--in fact, he seems to seek and to enjoy my company--but when I
+think of him as a favored guest at your father's house while I'm
+prohibited from entering its doors, and while you, my betrothed wife,
+beg me not to come near the house, is it any wonder I am harassed? He
+was at Oaklands again yesterday, was he not?"
+
+"Yes, he was; but that is of no moment," Betty answered frankly. "He is
+dad's friend, not mine. I treat him courteously, of course; but that----"
+
+"Your father may consider himself the magnet that draws Drane to
+Oaklands," sneered Abner; "but I know better, and so do you, my girl.
+The attraction for him is very different. The fellow's in love with
+you. That's plain. 'He who runs may read.'"
+
+"And he who reads had better run!" retorted Betsy, now thoroughly
+nettled, "if this reading construes anything I do or say into
+encouragement of this lawyer." And her eyes snapped wickedly, she drew
+herself up haughtily, and her face grew pale and set.
+
+"No, dear," Abner replied, undaunted by her anger. "I do not mean that.
+You must not catch up my words in that way. I know the truth and
+steadfastness of your nature too well to believe that you encourage or
+coquette with Drane or any other man. My meaning is this: your father
+likes Drane and thinks so highly of his brilliant prospects that the
+mere fact that he is a possible suitor for your hand will dispose your
+father to think with the less favor of my pretensions. And indeed,
+Betty dear, though I do not for a moment think you encourage the
+fellow, still what I have said of the situation is true in regard to
+his feelings and intentions; he wears his heart upon his sleeve."
+
+"That he does not!" returned Betty with spirit; "not all of his heart,
+at any rate; only such portions as are fit for public perusal. There's
+much in his heart that would, I'm convinced, make queer reading, if one
+could see into the depths of that well-controlled organ of his. You
+see, I haven't got over my original instinct of distrust of James
+Drane, if you have. Let him make love to me! Bah! I'd sooner listen to
+the uncouth love phrases of the veriest clodhopper in Bourbon County
+than to his honeyed, courtly utterances. Oh, there comes father!" she
+broke off abruptly, looking across the woods.
+
+When Major Gilcrest came up to the couple, his conduct fully justified
+what Abner had been telling Betty. He nodded curtly to the young man,
+asked Betty where she had been, and appeared little pleased when she
+told him. Then, reminding her that it was getting late and that her
+mother would be anxious, he advised her not to linger.
+
+When the three reached the stile, Gilcrest, instead of inviting Abner
+in, gave him another cool nod, and with a wave of his hand indicated
+that Betty was to enter the house. Abner, however, detained him a
+moment to request an interview on the morrow, which Gilcrest
+hesitatingly granted, and in a way that boded ill for the lover's
+hopes.
+
+At the appointed hour next morning, the young man, screwing up his
+courage to the sticking-place, knocked at the door of Oaklands. The
+servant ushered him at once into her master's private office. Gilcrest
+received his caller with extreme hauteur. Abner at once made known his
+business.
+
+Gilcrest heard him through without question or comment. Then, after a
+pause, he said, "I have other plans for my daughter, Mr. Dudley."
+
+"But--but--if--if--she herself--" stammered poor Abner, striving to
+find the right words for Betty as well as for himself.
+
+"There are no 'buts' nor 'ifs' about it, sir," Gilcrest answered
+haughtily. "Betsy will do as I wish. She's at times rather self-willed,
+and no doubt has been led away for the moment by some romantic
+nonsense; but she's a sensible girl in the main, and knows what's best
+for her. If she doesn't, I do, and I'm master of my own household, I
+assure you."
+
+"Has she other suitors?" Abner ventured.
+
+"That, sir, if you will permit my saying so, is no affair of yours. She
+shall not marry any one against my will, you may be sure; and when she
+does marry, it will be a man whose social position and worldly
+prospects are such as to preclude all suspicion of his seeking her from
+any selfish motives."
+
+"Sir," Abner broke forth hotly, "do you mean to insinuate that I have
+self-seeking motives in wishing to marry your daughter?"
+
+"I mean to insinuate nothing, young man."
+
+"But you do, sir; by God, you do insinuate that my love is founded upon
+self-interest, and that is something I can not permit."
+
+"Come, come, Mr. Dudley, keep your temper, and don't talk to me about
+not permitting. Let your motives be what they may, we will not discuss
+that. Suffice it to say, I refuse my consent."
+
+"At least tell me this, Major Gilcrest: do you object to me personally,
+or is your refusal due to other reasons? I'm of as good blood as
+yourself, and I can maintain your daughter in comfort."
+
+"Understand this, young sir, once for all," replied Gilcrest, "I
+decline positively to accept any proposal from you. If you will have a
+plain answer, I now tell you that aside from any other matrimonial
+views which I may or may not have for my daughter, I should in any case
+decline the honor of an alliance with you. I bid you good morning, sir.
+Polly, open the door for Mr. Dudley."
+
+From an upper window Betsy was watching for Abner; and the angry flush
+on his face, and the way he flung himself into the saddle, told her
+that he had fared ill. She raised the window, and he looked up. He
+gazed at her yearningly, then, with a wave of his hand toward her
+father's room, rode down the long avenue.
+
+Betsy waited in her room an hour, then sought her father. He was
+fumbling with some papers, too busy to take any notice of her. Finally,
+as he would not speak, she went to him. "Father, why have you sent
+Abner away?"
+
+Major Gilcrest was proud of his only girl, and, in his own way,
+extremely fond of her; but he would listen to no plea in behalf of her
+lover. He gave no reason, but simply said that the young man was no
+suitable match for her, and that she would one day be thankful that she
+had not been allowed to marry him.
+
+Betsy, at first gentle and pleading, grew indignant. Her father, even
+more indignant, finally ordered her to her room, forbidding her to hold
+further communication with her lover.
+
+Next day, Abner wrote her. He assured her of his unchangeable love, and
+bade her have courage. He wrote also to Major Gilcrest, stating that
+although he would not at present seek Betsy or urge his claim in any
+way, he nevertheless considered that they were pledged to one another,
+and that he would never give her up unless she herself asked for her
+release.
+
+One day, a month after this, Betsy from her window saw Mr. Drane riding
+up the avenue. She got her bonnet and stole out the back way to where
+her horse was saddled. Coming back after a gallop, she met Abner, and
+they rode together a short while. Then her father overtook them.
+Without even a bow to her escort, Major Gilcrest told his daughter she
+was wanted at home, and, laying hold of her bridle, compelled her to
+ride on with him. This was intolerable to Betty's lover, and, after
+tossing all night in a tumult of indignation, he again sought her
+father.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+BANISHMENT
+
+
+When Abner reached Oaklands next morning, Gilcrest, just returned from
+a ride to the lower farm, was standing on the stile-block, and a negro
+boy was leading his horse toward the stables. Gilcrest scowled at the
+young man as he rode up, and gave him no word of greeting, nor asked
+him to alight.
+
+Abner began at once: "Major Gilcrest, I have come this morning to have
+a talk with you."
+
+"Very well; state your business," was the curt rejoinder.
+
+"It is private business and of grave importance. Can we not seek a more
+retired place than this?"
+
+"Either here, or not at all, sir," answered Gilcrest.
+
+"Major Gilcrest, no man has a right to treat another as you have me
+without some cause, and I demand the reason for your conduct."
+
+"I'm answerable to no one save myself and my God for my conduct,"
+returned Gilcrest. "Demand, indeed!" he continued with a short laugh.
+"What right has a popinjay like you to demand?"
+
+"Well, then, I do not demand; I entreat you to assign some reason. I am
+willing to believe your motives to be good, but that you are laboring
+under some mistake."
+
+"I have good reason for what I do, Mr. Dudley. Your conscience, if it
+be not already too much seared and deadened, ought to tell you why. I
+know more than you think, young man."
+
+"My conscience certainly acquits me of any serious misdemeanor,"
+answered Abner. "So far as I can see, my only offense is in loving your
+daughter and seeking her hand in marriage; and surely that is not an
+unpardonable crime. When I came to this community you treated me most
+cordially, inviting me to your house, and treating me when I did visit
+you with the utmost kindness, and even affection. In fact, up to the
+time of my return from Virginia, we were on terms of intimate
+friendship, notwithstanding the difference in age and position. But
+since my return all this is changed, and I'm convinced that this change
+is due to some far graver cause than disapproval of me as a suitor for
+your daughter. The matter is inexplicable to me; and so guiltless do I
+feel, that I'm certain you are but laboring under some egregious
+mistake."
+
+"Young man, I'm laboring under no mistake."
+
+"Then, what are your reasons for this course?" Abner asked again.
+
+"That you have no right to ask. Moreover, it is quite unnecessary; for,
+in spite of your pretended ignorance, you know quite well to what I
+refer."
+
+"As God in heaven is my judge, I do not, sir," exclaimed Abner.
+
+"Do not call upon your Maker to witness your false protestations. Do
+not add blasphemy and perjury to the rest of your iniquities. Marry my
+daughter! You! I'd see her in her grave first!" By this time he had
+worked himself into a frenzy; his face was purple and the veins of his
+forehead were swollen and knotted like cords.
+
+Abner, still apparently cool, though he could with difficulty restrain
+himself, replied stoutly, "Nothing which I have done or intended can
+justify your language to me, Major Gilcrest."
+
+"Don't lie to me!" roared Gilcrest, "Don't I know what you have been
+about, plotting vagabond!" and he shook his cowhide riding-whip in
+Abner's face, causing the horse to rear and plunge.
+
+The young man quieted his horse, then looked straight into Gilcrest's
+eyes, his own blazing and his face gray with passion. "Hiram Gilcrest,
+put down that whip. By God, sir, you shall retract your words!"
+
+"I retract nothing," shouted Gilcrest, still brandishing the whip. "Get
+out of my sight, before I demean myself by striking you!"
+
+Abner leaned over, and with a sudden movement snatched the whip from
+Gilcrest's hand, then flung it far over the fence into the adjoining
+field. Trying to master his anger and speak calmly, he said: "Now
+listen to me, Major Gilcrest. I love your daughter with an honorable
+love--stop! stop! You shall hear me through! I love your daughter, and
+the dearest wish of my life is to make her my wife; yet I should have
+accepted your decision, painful though it would have been, hoping that
+in time I could overcome your objections--be quiet! You shall listen to
+me!--but now, when you will give no reason for objecting to me, and in
+addition to this injustice heap opprobrious epithets upon me, I tell
+you emphatically that I shall pay no regard whatsoever to your wishes.
+Only Betsy herself shall decide. So long as she loves me and considers
+herself my promised wife, I will see her whenever I can, and will write
+to her whenever I have opportunity. But when she wishes to be free, I
+will then, and not till then, return to her her plighted word. As for
+you, you have forfeited all claim to consideration; you have grossly,
+wantonly insulted me, and without the shadow of reason."
+
+"Out of my sight, you impudent impostor!" cried Gilcrest, choking with
+rage and shaking his fist at the young man. "You sneaking bastard, with
+no right to the name you bear!"
+
+"You are so led away by passion, old man, that you are scarcely
+responsible for what you say--bastard and impostor, indeed!" he
+ejaculated, quivering with indignation. "Those epithets are as false as
+foul, and you know it. You shall not----"
+
+"If they are false, prove them so, you insolent puppy!" shouted
+Gilcrest.
+
+"Not even your gray hairs should protect you from the chastisement you
+deserve, were you not Betty's father; but I love her too well to forget
+consideration for you, on her account."
+
+"Out of my sight! Go! this instant!" cried the old man, beside himself
+with fury. "If you ever set foot on this place again, my negroes shall
+drag you through the hog wallow. I would not demean my own hands by
+touching you."
+
+Abner, feeling that, if he heard any more, he would forget his
+antagonist's gray head, his age and fatherhood, and strike him, wheeled
+quickly and rode away, leaving Gilcrest still shouting and
+gesticulating until horse and rider were out of sight.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+MASON ROGERS' DIPLOMACY
+
+
+Ever since Stone's memorable sermon in June of the preceding year,
+Deacon Gilcrest, who really believed that the young minister was
+subverting the truth and teaching dangerous heresies, had urged that
+the synod investigate the matter, and that until such investigation
+should be made, Stone should not be allowed to occupy the pulpit at
+Cane Ridge. But the majority of the members were convinced of the truth
+of Stone's teachings, and had, moreover, too warm a regard for their
+minister to permit them to listen to Gilcrest.
+
+These were bitter days for the old man. In the main just and
+kindhearted, despite all his narrowness and vindictiveness, it was no
+small element of his trouble that his brethren with whom until now his
+opinions had been highly esteemed and his influence paramount, should
+pay no attention to his views. Especially did he sorrow because of
+Mason Rogers. The intense regard which these two men, so contrasted in
+culture and worldly position, had always felt for each other, was both
+strong and pathetic. More in sorrow than in anger had Gilcrest argued,
+reasoned and pleaded to bring Rogers to his own way of thinking. Rogers
+did not attempt to combat any of Gilcrest's arguments, and rarely
+protested against anything he said, except when he attacked his own
+beloved minister personally. Each valued the other too highly to lose
+self-control in these talks, both seeming determined that no matter
+what their differences of opinion with respect to church and minister,
+they themselves would live in neighborly harmony. But what neither
+minister nor religious difference could effect was presently brought
+about by the schoolmaster.
+
+Abner, knowing the long friendship between Gilcrest and Rogers, and not
+wishing to be the means of causing a rupture, for some time told his
+kind host nothing of Gilcrest's altered demeanor toward himself. But
+after the encounter at the stile-block he informed Rogers of his
+engagement to Betsy and of her father's opposition and bitter enmity.
+Rogers accordingly went to Oaklands.
+
+Several days had elapsed since Abner had been so grossly insulted.
+Gilcrest had had time for reflection and for realizing that he had said
+many things in that stormy interview which good feeling and prudence
+should have forbidden. He was at heart a gentleman, and since his
+passion had cooled he bitterly reproached himself for his brutal taunt
+in regard to Abner's probable illegitimacy; for Gilcrest was sure the
+poor boy was entirely ignorant on this point. Gilcrest also acquitted
+him of being knowingly a party to any fraud in claiming to be heir to
+the Hite estate. The Major likewise reproached himself for lack of
+caution; for until he and Drane had made full investigation into Mary
+Page's history, it behooved them to be absolutely silent concerning
+Mrs. Gilcrest's claim. Moreover, it was essential that for the present
+his suspicions of Abner's connection with political plots should not be
+revealed. So now that Mason Rogers was here, eager to set matters right
+between Betsy's father and her lover, Gilcrest was in a quandary. He
+refused to give his reasons for opposing Abner's suit; but he hinted
+darkly of nefarious schemes and dangerous, even treasonable, plots in
+which the young man was implicated.
+
+"I nevah hearn tell uv sich an outrageous thing in my borned days,"
+exclaimed Rogers, "I thought too high uv you, Hiram, to believe you'd
+listen to whispers an' insinerations ag'in sich a man as Abner."
+
+"But, Mason, I tell you I have not heeded mere whispers and
+insinuations; I have clear proof, proof, man, for what I hold against
+this schoolmaster."
+
+"Then, fur the sake uv common jestice, out with yer proofs!"
+
+"I can not, Mason; I am pledged to silence; moreover, it would be
+dangerous to the peace of the commonwealth, and frustrate the ends of
+justice, to reveal anything now. I had intended to let no hint of my
+suspicions reach him, but when he presented himself as a suitor for my
+girl, and would demand my reasons for refusing him, and was altogether
+high-headed and arrogant and impudent, I was carried away by
+indignation, and hinted that I had knowledge of his intriguing
+schemes."
+
+"High-headed he may be," said Rogers, "an' who hez a bettah right, I'd
+like to know? But arregent an' imperdent he ain't; an' not even you,
+Hiram, shell call him so to my face, 'thout me denyin' it."
+
+"Mark what I tell you, my friend," interrupted Gilcrest; "I could with
+truth say even harder things of that young man. He has hoodwinked you
+finely, but the time is not far distant when you yourself will say that
+I am right."
+
+"The time won't nevah come," said Rogers with homely dignity, "when I
+shell hev cause to think anything but good uv that deah boy. He's eat
+o' my bread an' sot et my h'arth fur three year come nex' October, an'
+he's lak my own son."
+
+"Ah! he's deceived you grandly," retorted Gilcrest with a sneer, losing
+all patience. "I tell you he's a political schemer and traitor, and if
+he ever dares show his face on my premises again, I'll have him
+flogged."
+
+"Yes, Hiram Gilcrest, I am deceived," Rogers answered slowly, but with
+rising anger, "an' it's in you, not him. I've stood a heap frum you
+lately. I've held my lip while you've been dissercratin' religion, an'
+tryin' to turn ole Cane Redge chu'ch upside down, inside out, an' wrong
+eend foremos'; but, blame yer hide! I won't stand ev'rything, an' I
+draw the line et yo' abusin' Abner Dudley."
+
+"Why, Mason, old friend----" began Gilcrest.
+
+"Don' you 'Mason' an' 'ole friend' me, Hiram Gilcrest! I'm done with
+you. Ef Abner hain't good 'nough to set foot on yo' place, you hain't
+good 'nough to set foot on mine; an', by glory, ef you evah do, I'll
+sick the dogs on you. You need hoss-whippin' to fetch you to yo'
+senses. You've got so et up with proud flesh an' malice, kaze you can't
+be high cock-o'-the-walk in Cane Redge chu'ch, thet you're gittin'
+rabid ez a mad dog."
+
+"Not even from you, Mason Rogers, will I stand such words," exclaimed
+Gilcrest, furiously.
+
+"Then, don't stand 'em!" retorted Rogers. "Set down on 'em, or lay on
+'em, or roll ovah on 'em--jes' ez you please! I'm done with you," and,
+without once looking back, he strode wrathfully out of the house.
+
+He was in a towering rage as he rode homeward, but, before reaching his
+own gate, he had cooled down sufficiently to plan what he should and
+should not say at home about his visit to Oaklands.
+
+"'Twon't do to tell Abner whut thet ole sea skunk hinted 'bout plots
+an' treasons. Hiram'd be tortured by Injuns befoh he'd tell out plain
+whut he'd promised to keep secret; an' ef Abner knowed he'd hinted et
+sich damnation things ag'in him, he'd t'ar up the airth to mek him
+tell; fur Ab in his own way's ez stubbo'n an' sot ez the ole Scratch
+hisse'f. With the two uv 'em to manidge, I'm betwixt tommyhock an'
+buzzard, so to speak, an' I won't hev a minit's peace tell I wollop 'em
+both, an' mek 'em behave therse'ves. So I reckon I'll hafto talk in
+kindah gen'ral terms, or in par'bles, ez Brothah Stone would say, when
+Abner axes me 'bout my intahview with Hiram."
+
+The opportunity for Rogers' diplomatic use of "par'bles" came that
+evening. "The angel Gabriel hisse'f couldn't mek heads or tails o' whut
+Hiram means," he said in answer to a question from Abner. "He don't
+know hisse'f whut he means. He's bittah an' sore ag'in ev'rything an'
+ev'rybody whut hain't ready to fall on Brothah Stone, an' eat him ha'r
+an' hide. You teched him up fust on thet p'int; then while he's still
+kindah riled with you--fur it teks him a long time to fergit a man's
+darin' to sot up opinions 'ginst his'n--up you prances ag'in 'bout
+Betsy. No, you didn't beg him sortah bashful an' meechin' lak--I know
+you so well, Ab--but you jes' demands his gal's hand in marridge. This
+riles him still futhah. Then, instid o' bein' meek an' lowly, an'
+smoothin' him down, an' axin' him to please be so kind ez to reconsidah
+the mattah, you puts on yo' I'm-ez-good-ez-you-an'-a-blamed-sight-bettah
+air, an' axes him to explain his conduc'."
+
+"But indeed, Mr. Rogers, I was both respectful and deferential to Major
+Gilcrest."
+
+"Oh, yes, ez meek ez Moses, I s'pose you think yo'se'f," ejaculated
+Mason, with a shrewd smile.
+
+"I don't know exactly how meek Moses really was when he was courting
+Jethro's daughter," Abner began.
+
+"Oh, go to thundah with yo' Moses an' yo' Jethro's daughtah!" laughed
+Mason, impatiently. "Mayby you thought you wuz meek an' differential;
+but don't I know you? Then, thah's anothah p'int," he added after a
+pause. "Thah's thet sneakin' fellah, Drane. Buttah won't melt in his
+mouth, an' maple syrup hain't ez sweet ez his ways. He's rich an' fine
+ez a fiddle, too, an' is all respect an' 'umbleness with ole Hi, who
+thinks jes' kaze the daddy, ole Anson Drane, wuz a honest man, thet the
+son is natchelly obleeged to be honest too. But with all this drawin'
+uv the wool ovah ole Hiram's eyes, Jeemes hain't succeedin' egzactly
+with the gal, an' he's cute 'nough to see whah the hitch is; so he uses
+his influence with her pap to belittle an' backbite the one she does
+favor. Mark my words, thet slick-tongued lawyer is et the bottom uv a
+lot o' this devilment."
+
+"I never did thoroughly trust that fellow," exclaimed Abner, "but I've
+no proof against him; so what can be done?"
+
+"No, you hain't no proof," returned Rogers, thoughtfully, "and mayby we
+mistrust him wrongful. So, fur the present," he added with quaint
+humor, "whut you got to do is to jes' fire low an' save yo' waddin'.
+'Sides, ef Betsy loves you, an' you're both patient, things is bound to
+come out right in the eend."
+
+"As for patience," Abner rejoined, "just think how long I've waited
+already. This state of things must not go on much longer, for Betty's
+sake as well as for mine."
+
+"See here, my boy," said Rogers, quickly, a new gentleness in look and
+tone, "you hain't thought uv this thing in all its bearin's."
+
+"Yes, I have. I've thought of nothing else for months," Abner responded
+gloomily.
+
+"No, thah's one p'int you've ovahlooked," pursued the older man. "It's
+how ole Hiram will treat her, ef you an' her persists in goin' ag'in
+him; an' ef you love Betsy strong an' tendah, you'll hafto begin to
+think on it. Why, boy, that's the only way to spell love--to kiver self
+out o' sight, an' think only uv the peace an' well-bein' uv the gal
+whut hez given her heart intah yer keepin'. Hiram's a kind fathah
+usually, an' thet gal o' his'n is lak his very eyeballs to him; but
+thet very love an' pride he hez fur her will mek him more ovahbearin'
+an' obstrep'rous, ef she persists in open disregawd o' his wishes an'
+commands; an' thah's no tellin' how mean he might git. He might even
+lock her up."
+
+"If I thought that----" cried Abner. "But he's not so much of a villain
+as that, for all his dictatorialness and his insulting treatment of
+me."
+
+"But he hain't in his senses jes' now, I tell you," replied Rogers,
+judicially. "Thah's no tellin' how much uv a brute he may act, an' it's
+her we should be thinkin' uv."
+
+"By heaven," Abner exclaimed, starting up, "if I thought he'd ever
+mistreat Betty, I'd----"
+
+"You'd whut?"
+
+"I'd run away with her," he answered, facing Rogers as he spoke. "If a
+father abuses his authority, he no longer merits consideration on the
+ground of his fatherhood."
+
+"Well, my boy," said Rogers, kindly, "I advise patience an' prudence;
+but ef the wust comes to the wust, an' he begins to act mean to the
+gal, you'll do right to tek her away. I'll holp you all I kin;
+leastways, I'll wink et whut you do. Betsy's too fine a gal--bless her
+sweet face--to be made onhappy jes' bekaze her ole daddy's et up with
+spitefulness ag'in you an Parson Stone."
+
+Rogers, knowing his wife's old feeling against the Gilcrests--a feeling
+compounded of envy on account of the superior social position of the
+family at Oaklands, jealousy on account of the friendship between her
+husband and Hiram Gilcrest, and resentment against Gilcrest's treatment
+of Stone--did not give her an account of his encounter with Gilcrest,
+but merely told her that Betsy and Abner loved each other, that her
+father did not favor the match, and that he had forbidden Betsy to have
+anything more to say to the young man.
+
+"Reckon Hirum an' Jane expaict a dukedom or a king ter marry ther gal,"
+remarked Mrs. Rogers, scornfully. "Abner not good 'nough! He's wuth the
+whole kit an' bilin' o' Gilcrests an' Temples; an' ef Betsy lets 'em
+threaten an' coax or skeer her inteh breakin' her word to him, she
+hain't the gal I tek her to be. But, pore thing! she must be havin' a
+hard time. An' who'd 'a' thought uv them two a-lovin' each othah lak
+thet? Come to think on it, though, it's a wondah I hain't suspicioned
+'em foh this; but, la! they're both so young. Abner hain't more'n
+twenty-four or twenty-five, an' Betsy hain't but two yeah oldah'n our
+Cissy."
+
+"You furgit, Cynthy Ann, thet Betsy's ez old or oldah then you wuz when
+you fust begun to mek eyes et me," observed Mason, with a droll smile.
+
+"La, now, I wouldn't wondah ef Cissy didn't know all about Abner an'
+Betsy right 'long; her'n' Betsy wuz allus so thick," commented Mrs.
+Rogers, ignoring her husband's remark.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+THE BAR SINISTER
+
+
+Not even to Mason Rogers could Abner bring himself to mention Hiram
+Gilcrest's most insulting insinuation; but the memory of that base
+epithet, bastard, cut deeper and deeper into the young man's soul.
+"What could the vicious old man possibly have heard or imagined about
+my history to lead him to utter so foul a charge?" he thought again and
+again. "'A bastard who has no right to the name he bears,' those were
+his very words. I wonder I did not throttle him then and there--if he
+is the father of my betrothed wife. But, by heaven, he shall apologize
+and that right humbly, or else I'll--but pshaw! the old fellow was so
+enraged that he didn't know what he was saying. The epithet was simply
+a gratuitous insult which he in his anger was scarcely responsible for.
+But what could have turned him so completely against me?" Thus Abner
+tormented himself, his thoughts ever revolving about the puzzling
+question. At times he would find some comfort in the belief that the
+allusion to his parentage meant nothing but that Gilcrest was
+senselessly enraged when he made it. Then again, when he remembered
+that it was by accident that he himself had discovered his father's
+name, or when he thought of Richard and Rachel Dudley's singular
+reticence, and of Dr. Dudley's evident uneasiness and reluctance when
+pressed for the details of the life of Mary Hollis and John Logan, a
+sickening foreboding of he knew not what would seize him. "There's
+something about my father's and mother's life that Uncle Richard has
+always concealed from me," he would conclude, "and whatever it is, I
+must learn it. It's no use to write; I must see uncle face to face, and
+demand a full revelation. Much as I dread another long, lonely journey,
+it must be made, and that at once, if I am ever to know peace again.
+Everything is at a standstill: my hopes of Betty, my farm work, my
+other business. In no direction can I proceed, until I have solved this
+mystery. There may be nothing in it--surely there isn't, and I am
+tormenting myself unnecessarily. Still, if what Gilcrest said, meant
+nothing more, it certainly indicated most forcibly his extreme
+animosity to me; and I am convinced that the solution to his altered
+demeanor can best be discovered by another journey to Williamsburg."
+
+It was getting late in the season, and farm work was pressing; but
+Mason Rogers promised that he would superintend the two negro men Abner
+had hired from Squire Trabue for the corn-planting, and that he and
+Henry would do all in their power to see that affairs at the farm on
+Hinkson Creek went on smoothly.
+
+
+In addition to the facts already narrated in regard to Abner's parents,
+this was the story he heard the evening of his arrival in Williamsburg,
+as he and his uncle sat together in Dr. Dudley's office:
+
+After an absence of several months, John Logan came to see Mary in the
+spring after the birth of his child. Mary had endured great privations
+and had led a lonely life during the last few months. Moreover, she was
+weak and nervous and broken in health. When her husband paid this brief
+visit, she bitterly reproached him for having drawn her into so
+imprudent a marriage, and for the hardships of her lot. Logan, who was
+weary and careworn, and had suffered many privations with the
+struggling army during the disastrous spring campaign, was in no mood
+to endure patiently Mary's tears and upbraidings. Hard words were
+exchanged, and he took his leave after but a partial reconciliation.
+She never saw him again. Late in June, she received tidings of his
+death on the battlefield at Monmouth. The comrade who brought this
+tidings was by Logan's side when he fell, had received his last
+messages, and brought Mary a letter from Logan, written the night
+before the battle. In this letter Logan acknowledged that he had
+wronged Mary, asked her forgiveness, and promised that if his life was
+spared he would try to atone to her and to their little son for all the
+wrong, assuring her that in spite of everything all the love of his
+heart was hers and their babe's. He also urged her to find refuge until
+the war was over with her sister Frances at Lawsonville.
+
+Mary wrote Frances, telling of her sad plight, and asking shelter for
+herself and her babe. Richard Dudley could not come for Mary, but he
+sent a trusty messenger with money for her journey; and he assured her
+of a loving welcome and a home for herself and her boy.
+
+She left Morristown at once, and on her way to Virginia, she stopped at
+Philadelphia. While there, she learned of a young woman in that city
+claiming to be the widow of a soldier, John Logan, who had been killed
+at Monmouth Court-house. Mary, in great foreboding, went to see this
+woman, who proved to be her cousin, Sarah Pepper. The two had heard
+nothing of each other during the years that had elapsed since Mary had
+quitted Chestnut Hall. Sarah was not penniless, but otherwise her
+condition was as pitiable as Mary's. The story she told Mary was this:
+She had first met John Logan in the summer of 1776. They fell in love
+with one another; and on account of her father's opposition and his
+threat of disinheritance if she did not renounce her lover, she and
+Logan were secretly married on her seventeenth birthday, November 19,
+1776, at the house of Samuel and Ellen Smith, tenants on the Pepper
+estate. Her father was in Maryland at the time. The only one beside the
+Smiths, who was privy to this marriage, was Sarah's former nurse, Aunt
+Myra, a negro belonging to Jackson Pepper.
+
+Logan remained in the neighborhood, meeting his wife at the Smiths'
+until early in February, when he left to join Washington's troops at
+Morristown. A week after his departure, Jackson Pepper returned home,
+and died suddenly of apoplexy a month later.
+
+But even before Logan left the neighborhood, poor Sarah had cause to
+bitterly repent the step she had taken. Logan had proven a
+violent-tempered, dissolute, selfish man. He was constantly in want of
+money, and when Sarah supplied him, he would resort to the tavern in
+the village, and drink and gamble with a lot of low companions whose
+society seemed more congenial to him than that of the poor, deluded
+Sarah.
+
+In April, Logan returned to the neighborhood, and he and Sarah were
+then quietly but openly married. Immediately afterward she quitted
+Chestnut Hall, and went to live in Philadelphia, her husband returning
+to his regiment. She only saw him after that at infrequent intervals
+and for a few hours at a time. His only object on these occasions
+appeared to be to extort money from her. Then, in June, came tidings of
+his having fallen in the battle of Monmouth.
+
+"Were there two John Logans?" Abner asked huskily, his lips pallid, the
+shadow of a great horror upon his face.
+
+"That was what both these poor women at first thought," answered Dr.
+Dudley, sadly; "but they were soon convinced otherwise."
+
+"How was that?" asked Abner, feeling as if the ground which had
+hitherto seemed solid was giving way under his feet.
+
+"Your mother," Richard continued, "had with her a miniature of your
+father. She showed it to Sarah, who recognized it as that of the man
+she had married. A further description of the man tended to prove this
+more conclusively--age, height, build, all corresponded. Logan,
+according to both women, was very tall and slender, had wavy dark hair,
+dark gray eyes, was a native of Kenelworth, Pennsylvania, and was
+twenty-eight years old at the time of his death. Soon after your mother
+came to us, I wrote to an old resident of this village, Kenelworth, and
+learned from him that he knew of but one family of Logans who had ever
+lived in the place. That was the family of Ezra Logan, who had been
+dead several years, and had left two daughters and one son. Both
+daughters had married and removed to a distant section of the country,
+and the son, John Logan, had been killed at the battle of Monmouth, in
+June, 1778."
+
+"My God, my God!" Abner exclaimed, turning faint and sick, while the
+perspiration stood in great drops upon his forehead and about his drawn
+lips. He threw himself into a chair, and buried his face in his hands.
+
+"My poor lad! my dear son!" said his uncle, sobbingly, standing over
+the stricken boy, and laying a hand tenderly on the bowed head. "Would
+that you could have been spared this. I have tried, God knows I have
+tried, to hide this from you."
+
+"Yes, yes!" muttered Abner, grasping his uncle's hand, but not looking
+up, "you have done the best you could for me. You are all I have left
+now, you and Aunt Rachel. All else is gone. I a bastard! My father,
+whose memory I have revered as that of a brave soldier who gave his
+life for his country, a dastardly libertine! And my precious young
+mother--oh, my God in heaven! I can not bear this. Would that I were
+lying by your side, my poor, innocent, deceived mother; or, better
+still, that I had never been born! I have no name, no place in the
+world!" and as he thought of Betty, his heart was wrung with such agony
+as few can ever feel.
+
+After a time, when the first storm of grief and horror had subsided
+somewhat, he again spoke. "Uncle Richard, if that clandestine marriage
+with Sarah Pepper was valid, why the open marriage five months later?"
+he asked, clinging to this straw of hope.
+
+"Your poor mother asked that, my boy," Dudley replied, "and Sarah told
+her this: Several years before Sarah met Logan, her father had disowned
+and driven from home his son, Fletcher, on account of dishonorable
+conduct. The will, made soon after Sarah had been forbidden to have
+anything to do with Logan, left everything to her who, as this will
+read, 'had been a loving and dutiful daughter, ever ready to yield her
+own will in obedience to her father.' When the purport of the will was
+made known, after Jackson Pepper's death, Logan urged upon Sarah that
+the clandestine marriage ceremony must never be revealed, lest Fletcher
+Pepper should try to break the will on the plea that Sarah had not been
+a dutiful and obedient daughter."
+
+"But why," asked Abner, "if she had discovered in the interval between
+the two marriages that this man Logan did not love her, and was a
+reckless, bad man, did she still wish to have more to do with him? Why,
+instead, did not she still hide the fact of the clandestine marriage,
+and refuse to go through with the open ceremony?"
+
+"Because," answered Dudley, "she had discovered in the meanwhile that
+she was to become a mother; and on that account, although she had
+managed to hide her condition from every one except the negro woman,
+old Myra, she dared not refuse to be openly married to Logan. As soon
+as this second marriage ceremony was performed, she left Chestnut Hall,
+taking the faithful Myra with her. They went to Philadelphia, where
+they were strangers; and there, in September, 1777, Sarah gave birth to
+a child which, mercifully, was born dead. She told your mother all
+this, and also that once Logan, in one of his rages, because she had
+been unable to supply him money, had struck her, and had taunted her
+with having been his mistress before she had become his wife, asserting
+that the secret marriage was a fraud, the man who performed the
+ceremony not having been a real clergyman. He also told her that he had
+always loved another woman, and that his only motive in marrying
+herself had been that he might get control of her wealth. Then, at
+other times, when he was in better humor--so Sarah told your mother--he
+would deny all that he had asserted when angry, and would assure Sarah
+that the clandestine marriage was valid. Your mother, remembering that
+Logan in that last letter to herself had acknowledged that he had
+wronged her, was convinced that the clandestine marriage to Sarah was
+valid; and in that case, of course, her own marriage, three months
+later, was not."
+
+"Was no trace of the scoundrel, if scoundrel he was, who performed the
+clandestine marriage ceremony, ever found?" asked Abner.
+
+"Sarah never succeeded in locating him; but, years after, I, by
+accident, ascertained that without a doubt----"
+
+"What?" eagerly asked Abner, his heavy, bloodshot eyes lighting with
+renewed hope.
+
+"I found, my boy," answered Richard, sadly, "not what you hope, but the
+contrary. Thomas Baker was the man's name, and he was undoubtedly an
+ordained clergyman when he married Sarah Pepper to John Logan, November
+19, 1776."
+
+"What became of Sarah Pepper, or Sarah Logan?" Abner inquired after a
+long, miserable pause.
+
+Dr. Dudley did not know where she was, nor whether she was still
+living. She had written once, he said, to her cousin, just before
+Mary's marriage to Page, and had said in her letter that she herself
+was on the eve of marrying again; but Dudley could not now remember, if
+he had ever heard, the name of her intended husband. "But," Richard
+continued, "the letter is no doubt in the package which your mother
+left with your Aunt Frances. When you feel equal to the painful task,
+you should go over these papers--they are in that old oak box in the
+garret--and then, perhaps, they had better be destroyed. You know," he
+continued presently, in explanation of his being unable to give any
+information about Sarah Pepper's whereabouts, "I never saw Mary's
+cousin. I married your Aunt Frances, who was seventeen years your
+mother's senior, at Plainfield, New Jersey, just before the death of
+John Hollis and his wife, and before Sarah Thornton, your mother's
+aunt, married Jackson Pepper. I brought my bride to Lawsonville, and
+she never saw her Pepper connections, who lived, as you are aware, in
+quite another part of the State."
+
+"There is another fact in regard to your mother which I had better tell
+you now, Abner," Dr. Dudley went on after a time. "She did not die at
+Lawsonville, although I erected a stone there to her memory." He then
+related to his nephew what James Drane had already learned from Tom
+Gaines; namely, that Mary Hollis and her second husband, with her
+little son, then four years of age, had emigrated to Kentucky in the
+spring of 1782. Dudley likewise told Abner that Marshall Page had been
+killed the following August, at Blue Licks; that Mary had died at Bryan
+Station two days later; and that Marshall's brother had brought the
+little Abner back to the Dudleys late in that same year.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+THE PACKAGE OF OLD LETTERS
+
+
+"I think you once told me, Uncle Richard," Abner said, later in the
+conversation with his uncle, "that Andrew Hite visited Lawsonville
+while my mother was living with you."
+
+"Yes, he did," Dudley replied, "a week or so before she and Page were
+married."
+
+"Did he learn of the cruel deception of which she was the victim?"
+
+"Yes, I told him that, and of her approaching marriage and intended
+removal to Kentucky. She was in poor health, and I feared a decline,
+but she and Page thought her best chance for recovery was to marry, and
+to find a new home far from anything that could remind her of her
+connection with your father."
+
+"This," said Abner, "explains Andrew Hite's will. He thought that my
+mother, being his nearest relative, had the first claim upon him; but,
+in case she died before he did--which doubtless appeared probable,
+owing to her frail health--he preferred that his property should go to
+his half-sister's child, rather than to me, the bastard son of a
+dastard father. I have, therefore, morally no claim whatsoever to this
+inheritance, and I will never touch a farthing of it. Oh, why," he went
+on bitterly, "was I not told, years ago, my true history? Had I always
+known it, the burden of shame which is my only lawful inheritance would
+have gradually adjusted itself to my strength, and would not now have
+such crushing weight. It is the contrast between what I thought I was
+and what I am that is the bitterest ingredient in my cup of misery."
+
+"I deserve your reproaches, my poor boy," said Richard Dudley,
+sorrowfully; "but Heaven is my witness that my only motive in keeping
+this from you was to spare you shame and sorrow."
+
+"Ah, I know that," cried Abner, "and it is ungrateful and cowardly to
+reproach you, my more than father. It was the suddenness of the shock
+that made me utter that unmanly plaint. Forgive me. I know you have
+been actuated in all that you have done by your regard for me."
+
+"As to this inheritance," said Dudley presently, "it is lawfully yours.
+It was left to your mother, and you inherit it, not directly from
+Andrew Hite, but from her."
+
+"No, no! The whole tenor of the will was to cut me out of all share in
+the estate. It would be infamous in me, knowing what I do, to claim it.
+Besides, my mother died before coming into possession of this property.
+How, then, could I inherit through her, when it was never actually
+hers?"
+
+"Who, then, is heir under the will?" argued Dudley. "Not Sarah Pepper;
+for it is clearly set forth in the document that she inherits only
+under the condition that your mother be dead, leaving no legitimate
+heirs, before the date of the will."
+
+"Then, the will must be declared null and void," firmly asserted the
+young man. "It is a mad will, anyway."
+
+"In that case," retorted the doctor, "you being the only child of your
+mother, the next of kin, are, as you once pointed out, the rightful
+heir--at least, you are co-heir with Sarah Pepper."
+
+But Abner stoutly adhered to his determination to have nothing to do
+with the property. It, therefore, became imperative to ascertain the
+whereabouts of Sarah Jane Pepper, or her heirs, if any.
+
+That night Abner looked through his mother's papers. He found several
+letters beginning, "My Darling Wife:--" or, "My Own Mary:--." The
+signature to each of these epistles was, "Your affectionate husband,
+John Logan." The tone of each letter was thoughtful tender, solicitous.
+"These do not read like the letters of a villain," Abner thought, a
+momentary gleam of hope penetrating the thick gloom; "but then, the
+evidence to the contrary is conclusive. I must not allow myself to
+hope. I do not wonder, though, that my poor mother was deceived; for
+such words as these would mislead any simple, trusting heart like hers.
+He did love her, I suppose, as well as his craven, selfish nature would
+admit of his loving any one."
+
+The last letter in the package gave the young man, alone in the low
+attic room, a shock of amazement. It was dated "Chestnut Hall, February
+1, 1782," and was signed, "Your affectionate cousin, Sarah." It stated
+that the writer had returned to Chestnut Hall, after the death of the
+faithful Myra, and that she was now living alone with the negro
+attendants, in the home of her childhood; that she was betrothed to a
+man who held the rank of major in the Continental army. This man, she
+wrote, had been badly wounded the spring before in a skirmish with
+Arnold's raiders, near her home. He had been carried to the Hall, and
+she had nursed him back to complete recovery; and he was now in
+Kentucky looking for a suitable location for their future home. He
+intended to return in the course of a year, marry her, and remove to
+the new home across the mountains. The name of this man was Hiram
+Gilcrest. The letter likewise said that Major Gilcrest knew her to be a
+widow Logan, whose husband had fallen in battle, but that she had told
+her future husband none of the miserable details of her connection with
+John Logan except that he had treated her with great cruelty. She had
+extracted a promise from Major Gilcrest that no one in their new home
+in Kentucky should know that she had been a widow, and in order that
+this fact of her widowhood might the more easily be concealed, she had
+induced him to agree that if ever the question arose as to her maiden
+name, it was to be given as Jane Temple. Another motive, Sarah wrote,
+for this change of name from Pepper to Temple, was in order to prevent
+anybody knowing of her relationship to Fletcher Pepper, who had
+rendered the name of Pepper odious to all who had ever heard it, by his
+desertion of the patriot army to join the traitor Arnold.
+
+[Illustration:
+
+GENEALOGICAL TABLE
+
+Showing Abner Logan's and Mrs. Gilcrest's Claims
+to Andrew Hite's Estate
+
+ +---------------------------------------------------+
+ | |
+ Abner Hite and Jane Temple Daniel Thornton and Jane Temple
+ | (widow of Abner Hite)
++---------------+--------------+ +-----------+----------------+
+| | | | | |
+ Silas Andrew Mary Sarah
+ (d. in (inherits (m. John (m. Jackson Pepper)
+ childhood) estate) Hollis) |
+ | | |
++---------------+----------------------+ +----+----------------+
+| | | | | |
+ Frances 6 other children Mary Belle Sarah Jane
+ (m. Richard (d. in (m. 1. John Logan (m. 1. John Logan
+ Dudley) infancy) 2. Marshall Page) 2. Hiram Gilcrest)
+ | |
+ +------+---------+ +--------+---+
+ | | | | | |
+ Abner Dudley Logan | Betsey
+ | John Calvin
+ | Martin
+ | Silas
+ | Philip
+ | Matthew]
+
+Until he read that letter, Abner had, half unconsciously, clung to the
+hope that even though his father had been a dastardly villain who had
+wrecked the happiness of two trusting women, it might still be possible
+to establish his own legitimacy. Now, even that shadowy hope must be
+abandoned. "What!" he thought despairingly, "prove my right to wear my
+father's name at the cost of the fair repute of Betty's mother! Never,
+never! Rather will I accept the bar sinister for my own escutcheon."
+
+He could bear no more. Thrusting the papers roughly aside, he rushed
+down the stairs and out into the darkness. Here, throwing himself face
+downward upon the ground, his hands dug into the sod, he cursed the day
+upon which he was born. But at last the soft serenity of the starry
+June night soothed him into a better mood. He arose, and, with a prayer
+for strength and guidance, re-entered the house.
+
+"My first duty must be to write to Major Gilcrest and Betty," was his
+first waking thought next morning. "My precious, loving Betty, I must
+give you up; for even should you, after knowing my history, be willing
+to marry me, I love you too well to allow one so sweet and pure, so
+high in worldly position, to link her fate with a base-born earthworm
+such as I am. O Father in heaven, give me strength to do the right!
+Uncle Richard must take the necessary steps toward establishing Mrs.
+Gilcrest in possession of the Hite estates," he concluded after more
+reflection. "Not that she has any claim under the will, but because she
+(barring myself) is Andrew Hite's next of kin. However, all this is
+Uncle Richard's affair, not mine; but I hope the business can be
+accomplished without revealing to any one that dark page in Jane
+Gilcrest's early life. Betsy, at any cost, must be spared the
+knowledge."
+
+Abner wrote to Major Gilcrest, renouncing all claim to Betsy, and
+enclosing a note for her, which he requested her father to give to her.
+
+After this duty was performed, the young man fell into a state of dull
+despair which benumbed every faculty. Holmes has said, "A great
+calamity is as old as the trilobites an hour after it has happened. It
+stains backward through all the leaves we have turned over in the book
+of life, before its blot of tears and of blood is dry upon the page we
+are turning." For weeks after Abner had learned the secret of his
+birth, it seemed to him that this blighting, blackening misery which
+had laid low his pride, and killed every hope, permeated, not only all
+his past, but all his future. He seemed to have been born for nothing
+else but to experience this agony of loss and shame. He could make no
+plans. The future stretched out before him a desert waste; for, with
+the downfall of family pride and the loss of Betty, his ambition
+likewise had perished.
+
+He was finally aroused by a communication from James Anson Drane. This
+communication stated that, owing to certain facts which had recently
+come into the writer's possession, he must decline to act any longer as
+"Mr. Logan's" agent. These facts, as Mr. Drane wrote, were as follows:
+The Mary Belle Hollis Page named in the will of the late Colonel Andrew
+Hite, of Crestlands, Sterling County, Virginia, had died and been
+buried at the village of Centerton, Virginia, March 9, 1782, nearly two
+months prior to the execution of the will; she had left no legitimate
+issue; and, therefore, Sarah Jane Pepper, daughter of Sarah Thornton,
+and now the wife of Hiram Gilcrest, of Cane Ridge, Bourbon County,
+Kentucky, was the sole lawful heir to the estates of the said Colonel
+Andrew Hite, deceased.
+
+Mr. Drane then went on to give an account of the manner of Mary Page's
+death, and to explain that it was not until immediately after her
+burial at Centerton that her husband, Marshall Page, accompanied by his
+brother and sister-in-law and his little stepson, had gone on into
+Kentucky. Enclosed in Drane's letter was a loose slip of paper
+containing a copy of the half-effaced inscription upon the oak slab
+which marked the grave at Centerton. The slip was headed "Copied at
+Centerton by James Anson Drane, from the slab marking the grave of Mary
+Belle Hollis Page."
+
+This communication served to awaken Abner from his apathy; for the
+statement conveyed in it respecting the time and place of Mary Page's
+death, if not proven false, would tend to very seriously reflect upon
+the integrity of Richard Dudley, executor of the Hite will, and would
+probably render him liable to arrest and trial on the charge of being
+party to a fraud.
+
+Abner was thoroughly convinced that the statement in Drane's letter,
+concerning Mary's death, was false. He had full confidence in Richard
+Dudley's clear-sightedness and uprightness. Moreover, his own intuition
+and his faint recollection of episodes in his own early life made him
+sure that his mother had died that August night in the stockade
+fortress of Bryan Station. These dim, tantalizing recollections which
+had been first partially aroused that November night by Gilcrest's and
+Rogers' recital of the horrors of the famous Indian uprising of 1782,
+had been kindled into stronger life by what his uncle had recently told
+him of the attack upon the cabin of the Pages, the flight to Bryan's,
+the death there of Mary Page, and the return of her little orphaned boy
+to his Lawsonville people. But, although his faith in his uncle's honor
+and in his own intuitions and memories were to himself "confirmation
+strong as Holy Writ," they would not be accepted as evidence in a court
+of law. Hence it now behooved him and Dr. Dudley to learn something
+more of Marshall Page's brother.
+
+Neither Richard nor Rachel Dudley knew anything of the man--not even
+his Christian name.
+
+"This Page and his wife did not start for Kentucky from Lawsonville,"
+Dr. Dudley said. "They came from Maryland, and joined Marshall and Mary
+at some appointed place--I do not now recall--on the road, many miles
+from Lawsonville."
+
+"But when the man returned with me," asked Abner, "did you not then
+learn his full name, and something of his history?"
+
+"I did not see him," was Dudley's reply. "I was away from home, and he
+stayed only an hour or so after committing you into your aunt's care.
+She was too shocked by the tidings he brought and by her pity and care
+for you, cold, sick, half starved, and bewildered as you were by the
+long, rough travel, to think of anything else."
+
+"Could it be possible," thought Abner, "that the man deceived the
+Dudleys in regard to the woman who had died at Bryan's, and that it was
+his own wife instead of Marshall's? No, that could not be," he
+concluded; "he could have had no possible motive for the deception.
+Surely, there must be numbers of persons still living who were in the
+siege of Bryan Station, or the battle of Blue Licks, and who could not
+only remember this man's full name, but other circumstances that will
+be of service to us now. Mason Rogers can, I'm certain, find some
+person or persons who can give the evidence we need. I will communicate
+with him; and, in the meanwhile, I will go to Centerton."
+
+Abner returned from Centerton without having gleaned any information
+that would throw additional light upon the mystery. He was further
+perplexed that no reply to his letter to Rogers had reached
+Williamsburg.
+
+"I suppose I will have to go to Cane Ridge for information," he
+concluded when another month had passed bringing no word from Rogers,
+"although my soul revolts against revisiting the place of my lost
+happiness. But go I must, unless I soon hear from Mr. Rogers. I will
+tell everything to dear Mr. and Mrs. Rogers. They are noble-hearted,
+discreet and sympathetic, and they will still be my staunch friends. I
+will also while there make some disposition of my farm--I think I can
+easily find a buyer or a renter for it. Afterwards, I do not know what
+I shall do, nor does it matter much, either, what becomes of a
+nameless, baseborn--no, no!" he broke off, ashamed of his momentary
+weakness. "I will not let such unworthy sentiments master me. It is
+unmanly to give way like this, and is a wrong to my noble, unselfish
+foster mother and father. And even if they were not still left me, I
+must still be true to myself, and rise above the shameful circumstances
+which would pull me down. It would not do for me to return permanently
+to Cane Ridge. It would try my strength too far, to be daily in the
+neighborhood of my lost darling; nor would it be kind to her and her
+family for me to do so; and it would be a source of embarrassment and
+trouble to the Rogers family, and would perhaps estrange them still
+more from their old neighbors at Oaklands. But I will not hide my head
+in some far-away, obscure corner where my birth and antecedents are
+unknown. No! Here is my battleground. Here, where I received the blow
+which bereft me of my love and my position, will I fight the fight, and
+attain the victory. I will take up the study of the law, as Uncle
+Richard always wanted me to do; and I will strive to become useful and
+honored in my profession. I can nevermore be happy; but I can, and I
+will, make the name of Logan an honored one, in spite of all."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+SPRINGFIELD PRESBYTERY
+
+
+Against the jealousy and strife which arose after the religious
+excitement induced by the revival meetings of the previous year, Barton
+Stone and other ministers lifted up their voices in protest, urging
+that the bitter discussion of doctrinal points should cease. This only
+turned the tide of warfare against themselves, and they soon became the
+objects of bitter invective, because they had ceased to teach
+speculative theology, and labored instead to show the people a more
+liberal view of the redemptive plan.
+
+Among the ministers who at this time taught a free salvation offered to
+all men on the same conditions, was Richard McNemar, a member of the
+Presbytery of Ohio, which had carried him through a trial for preaching
+what was deemed to be anti-Calvinistic doctrine. By this presbytery his
+case was referred to the Synod of Lexington. Stone and three other
+ministers of the same views, perceiving in this trial of McNemar a blow
+aimed against themselves, drew up a protest against such proceedings.
+Then, declaring their freedom from synodical authority, they withdrew
+from the jurisdiction, but not from the communion, of the organization;
+although several unsuccessful attempts were made, before the synod
+convened, to reclaim them in view of their record as able and
+influential ministers.
+
+In due time the synod met in Lexington, and took up McNemar's case.
+Stone and the other three ministers presented the protest to the synod
+through its moderator. A committee was sent to confer and to reason
+with the protesting ministers. One immediate result of the conference
+was that Matthew Houston, a member of the committee, became convinced
+of the justice of the views of Barton Stone and his associates, and
+became an advocate of their cause.
+
+After prolonged discussion, the synod suspended the five ministers,
+upon the ground that they had departed from the established creed of
+their church. The ministers insisted, however, that as they had already
+protested and withdrawn from the jurisdiction of the synod, that body
+had no power to suspend them--"no more," to quote Stone's words, "than
+had the Pope of Rome to suspend Luther after he had done the same
+thing; for if Luther's suspension was valid, then the entire Protestant
+succession was out of order, and in that case the synod had no power;
+so that the act of suspension in this case was utterly void."
+
+The action of the synod created great excitement and much dissension
+throughout the country, and not only churches, but families, were
+divided. Many persons, convinced that the turmoil was produced, not by
+the Bible, but by human, authoritative creeds, were henceforth set
+against such creeds, as being disturbers of religious liberty and
+detrimental to Christian unity.
+
+At the first regular appointment at Cane Ridge, after this action of
+the synod, Barton Stone tendered his resignation of the ministry of
+that church. It was not accepted, however, for he had, during his six
+years' ministry, labored to good purpose, and, with the exception of
+Hiram Gilcrest and Shadrac Landrum, the church-members were all in
+harmony with their minister.
+
+As soon as the church refused to accept Stone's resignation, Hiram
+Gilcrest demanded that his name and that of his wife should be stricken
+from the church books. The church would have granted them letters of
+dismissal, but these he would not accept. Shadrac Landrum, though
+equally bitter in his opposition to Stone's teaching, did not, when it
+came to the test, withdraw from the church. Thus Gilcrest stood alone;
+and it was a bitter day for the stern and narrow, but conscientious,
+old man, when he found himself thus deserted by his only ally, and
+turned adrift from the church of which, until two years before, he had
+been the most influential member.
+
+Soon after their separation from the Lexington Synod, the five
+ministers constituted themselves into a separate organization, which
+they styled "Springfield Presbytery." In a pamphlet entitled "The
+Apology of the Springfield Presbytery," they stated the cause which had
+led to the separation from the Lexington body; their objections to
+confessions of faith of human origin; their abandonment from henceforth
+of all human authoritative creeds; and their adherence to the Bible
+alone as the only rule of faith and practice. It has been asserted that
+this pamphlet was the first public declaration of religious freedom in
+the western hemisphere, and the first in the world since that of Martin
+Luther was set at naught by the act of nullification of Augsburg. The
+pamphlet produced much inquiry throughout the country. It was speedily
+republished in several other States, and it soon found many adherents
+among both preachers and laymen of all denominations.
+
+Under the name of "Springfield Presbytery," the ministers who belonged
+to the organization continued to preach and to plant churches for about
+one year. Later, perceiving that the name and the organization itself
+"savored of a party spirit," they, in the words of Barton Stone, "with
+the man-made creeds threw overboard the man-made name, and took the
+name 'Christian' as the name given to the disciples by divine
+appointment first at Antioch."[1] "Thus divested of all party name and
+party creed," continues Barton Stone, "and trusting alone to God and
+the word of his grace, we became at first a laughing-stock and a byword
+to the sects around, all prophesying our speedy annihilation.... Yet
+through much tribulation and opposition we advanced, and churches and
+preachers were multiplied."
+
+ [1] See Appendix, p. 269.
+
+This was the beginning, in the dawn of the nineteenth century, of that
+great reformatory or restoratory movement, of which another writer
+says: "The first churches planted and organized since the grand
+apostacy, with the Bible as the only creed or church book, and the name
+'Christian' as the only family name, were organized in Kentucky in the
+year 1804;"[2] and of these churches so planted and organized, Cane
+Ridge, Bourbon County, was the first.
+
+ [2] John A. Gano.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+BETSY DECLINES THE HONOR
+
+
+For Betsy Gilcrest the year of 1803 dragged along in dreary monotony.
+All through the radiant freshness of June, the rich glow of July, the
+intense, white heat of August, and the mellow charm of early autumn the
+temperature in her veins had been steadily declining; for she had no
+message from her betrothed.
+
+In June her father had received Abner's letter. Its manly resignation
+of Betty, and its undertone of hopeless sadness, touched Major
+Gilcrest; for now that his soul was no longer vexed with apprehension
+for his daughter's future, his better nature asserted itself, and he
+felt the most profound pity for the unfortunate youth in his undeserved
+disgrace. For the time, Major Gilcrest even forgot his suspicions that
+Abner had been in league with Wilkinson, Sebastian and Powers in any
+traitorous designs against the Government.
+
+A note for Betsy had been enclosed in the letter to her father. He
+thought best to withhold this note, lest its tender sadness might have
+the opposite effect to that which he desired; and, instead of causing
+her to forget her lover, it might make her cling the more tenaciously
+to the memory of her lost happiness.
+
+During all these months Major Gilcrest had taken no steps toward
+establishing his wife's claim to the Hite inheritance; nor had James
+Drane made any move toward this end, since his letter declining to act
+as Abner's agent. The reason for this stay of proceedings was due to
+Mrs. Gilcrest. Her husband, while refraining from entering into full
+particulars, had told her enough of his hopes and intentions to cause
+her the greatest apprehension. If this claim was pushed forward openly,
+she thought, not only must the world learn her real maiden name, and
+that she had been a widow Logan, but, what was far worse to the weak,
+timid woman, her husband would learn that she had deceived him all
+these years about her clandestine marriage, and regarding all the
+shameful details of her connection with John Logan. She begged and
+prayed Major Gilcrest to make no claim to the inheritance. They did not
+need it, and the publicity and comment and surmise that would follow,
+if he tried to enforce her claim, would kill her, she said. He did not
+consent at once, but finally, when she became so agitated as to fall
+really ill, he, fearing that further agitation in her weak condition
+might prove actually fatal to her, decided to make no public move in
+the matter, for the present, at least--until her nerves and strength
+had recovered their usual tone.
+
+Thus time wore on, and each succeeding day as it passed, bringing no
+tidings to poor Betty, carried hope and love and happiness further from
+her grasp. Oaklands had never before seemed desolate and drear; and she
+could not have believed, had she been told, that she could ever look
+with ungracious eyes upon the stately home of her childhood. She missed
+the boisterous gayety of her brothers. John Calvin and Martin were
+students at Cambridge University, Silas and Philip were absent all day
+at the neighborhood school, and only little Matthew was left at home.
+None of the family were allowed to attend services at Cane Ridge
+meeting-house; Betsy was forbidden to hold intercourse with the Rogers
+family; and she had no heart for any of the little merrymakings of the
+neighborhood. Her parents urged another visit to Mary Winston, but to
+this Betsy would not consent; for at the Winstons James Drane would be
+an almost daily visitor, and Betsy now shared fully her lover's
+distrust of the young lawyer.
+
+One morning in early October, Betsy, sitting languidly with her sewing
+in the long side porch, saw Mr. Drane ride up the avenue. She at once
+gathered up her work and slipped away to her room, where she sat
+expecting every moment a summons to come down. When an hour had passed,
+she supposed that the visitor had departed, and she was folding up her
+work, intending to go for a ramble through the woods--for her chief
+solace now was to revisit the spot where she, nearly a year before, had
+plighted her troth--when little Matthew came with a message from her
+father that she was to come down at once to the parlor. "An' I mussen
+tum back wid oo, pappy says," added the little fellow; "I'se to doe to
+Mammy Dilsey an' det my face washed, an' my hair turled, an' a c'ean
+apawn on."
+
+"Who's there, baby, besides father? and where's mother?"
+
+"Her's dere too, an' Mistah Drane, an' he tissed me, an' say I'se a
+fine 'ittle man, an' he will tek me a nice wide on his pitty b'ack
+hawse; so huwy up, sisser, an' tum an' see him, so's we tan doe
+a-widin'."
+
+When the girl entered the parlor, she saw at once that this was to be a
+momentous interview. Her mother, dressed in her best silk gown, but
+looking pale and nervous, was talking to Mr. Drane, who was seated
+beside her on the sofa; while her father, looking more bland than she
+had seen him for a long time, was slowly pacing the floor.
+
+Mrs. Gilcrest gave her daughter an appealing, deprecating look as the
+girl entered, and then sank back on the sofa with her hands twitching
+nervously. Drane rose at once, and, stepping briskly across the room to
+meet Betsy, bowed long before her, and then extended his hand. After a
+moment's hesitation, she gave him hers in return, which he with
+graceful gallantry carried to his lips. Then, still holding her hand,
+he led her across the room and placed an arm-chair for her facing her
+father. After a slight hesitation, Drane was about to leave the room,
+but Major Gilcrest quietly invited him to remain, whereupon the young
+man retired to a position in a window-seat.
+
+"My daughter," said Gilcrest, in his most stately manner, "our esteemed
+young friend has done us the honor of seeking an alliance with this
+family by a marriage with yourself; and, like the honorable gentleman
+he is, he has, before addressing you, laid his proposal before your
+parents. I have desired him to remain in the room that he may hear me
+tell you that there is no one to whom I would more willingly intrust my
+daughter's future. You have known him long, and, I dare say, esteem him
+highly; for he has everything to recommend him to your favor. Your
+mother and I have given our cordial approval, and we will now leave him
+to plead his cause with you. Knowing him as I do, and knowing you, I
+feel sure he will not plead in vain. Come, my dear," he said to his
+wife, "we will now withdraw."
+
+If Gilcrest by this confident manner thought to overawe his daughter
+and surprise her into acceptance, he was speedily undeceived.
+
+"Stop, father! Stop, mother!" Betty cried, rising from her chair and
+facing her father, her lips firmly set, her face pale, determination in
+every line of her graceful figure. "What I have to say to Mr. Drane
+must be said in your hearing." Gilcrest, surprised at the firmness of
+her voice and the determination and dignity of her bearing, stood
+still, facing her; Mrs. Gilcrest sank limply into the nearest chair.
+Betsy continued: "I am sensible of the honor Mr. Drane does me in
+seeking my hand; but I am surprised at his persisting in a suit which
+he must know is displeasing to me. More than once has he so plainly
+intimated his intentions that I could not fail to understand, and just
+as plainly have I intimated that I could not favor his suit. I now, in
+your presence, say what I have so often hinted to him--that I can never
+be his wife."
+
+"Tut! tut! girl, have done with these unseemly airs!" said her father,
+sharply. "You are not capable of judging. Your parents know best what
+is good for you."
+
+"No, sir," said Betty, firmly, "in this matter which involves my whole
+future, not even my parents shall choose for me. And you know, too,
+that my love is given and my troth plighted to another."
+
+"Stop such maudlin raving! Your 'troth plighted'! Tut! you do not know
+what you are saying; and as for your love, it is but the puling
+sentimentality of a silly girl, which you will soon outgrow."
+
+"Sir," said Betsy, turning toward the crestfallen young lawyer, "I beg
+that you leave us. I have given you my answer; it is irrevocable.
+Though humbly thanking you for the honor you would confer upon me, I
+can not be your wife."
+
+"No, no! don't go, James. The girl does not know her own mind; but, by
+heaven, she shall be made to hear reason!" exclaimed Gilcrest,
+furiously. "Wait, man, I beg of you; I wish to confer further with you.
+As for you, you undutiful, foolish girl, you may leave the room while I
+talk with Mr. Drane."
+
+"No," said James, "it will be better for me to leave you now," and,
+bowing low, he took up his hat and departed.
+
+"But, James, I--we----" stammered Hiram; but the discomfited suitor was
+out of hearing.
+
+Gilcrest turned angrily to his daughter. "You self-willed, troublesome
+baggage!" he ejaculated.
+
+"Father," said Betty, quietly, "it is of no use for you to storm in
+this way. I have always been a dutiful daughter; but in this matter I
+mean to decide for myself."
+
+"Why don't you speak to her, Jane?" he asked, turning to his wife. "Why
+do you sit there listless and dumb? Have you no influence over the
+girl?" But Mrs. Gilcrest was dissolved in tears, and leaned back
+tremblingly in her chair, saying never a word.
+
+"Is everything going against me?" groaned the old man, pacing the room
+excitedly. "I'm thwarted and set at naught on every hand--church,
+neighbors, friends. I'll sell out and go back to Massachusetts. To
+think that my only daughter!--Truly a man's worst foes are often those
+of his own household."
+
+"I grieve to cross you, father," answered Betsy, "for you have until
+lately been fond and indulgent."
+
+Trying to control himself to speak gently, he continued: "Betsy, my
+daughter, believe me, I know what is best for you. As James Drane's
+wife, you will be tenderly loved and indulged in every luxury, and have
+every whim gratified; and I do think that my heartfelt desire in this
+matter should incline you to at least consider well before you reject a
+man whom any other girl in the State would be proud to accept."
+
+"Dear father," said Betty, going up to him and laying her hand
+beseechingly upon his arm, "I can never marry James Anson Drane."
+
+The old man wavered as he saw the tears in his daughter's eyes, and
+felt the clinging touch of her fingers. "There, there!" he said
+soothingly, as he tenderly touched her wet cheek, "dry your eyes, dear,
+and be comforted. It is only your welfare and happiness I seek. We'll
+say nothing more just now; after awhile you'll see differently; and I
+predict that before many months have gone by, you will not only be
+reconciled to marrying James, but will be happy in the shelter of his
+love, and will thank me for having urged you to accept him."
+
+"Never!" exclaimed Betsy, drawing back defiantly. "I shall never again
+listen to him, nor to you even, upon this subject. I dislike him
+exceedingly, and I love Abner Dudley with my whole heart. Marry James
+Drane! The very thought of such a thing fills me with loathing. I have
+no confidence in his truth and integrity. I would beg my bread rather
+than be his wife."
+
+"I'll lock you up!" cried Gilcrest, exasperated beyond bounds, his
+momentary tenderness completely vanquished by the girl's words. "I'll
+starve you on bread and water, you insolent, outrageous fool!"
+
+"O Hiram! Hiram! don't!" wailed Mrs. Gilcrest. "Don't be so hard. I can
+not bear it! Oh, what shall I do! what shall I do!" and she wept and
+trembled, and wrung her hands, until her husband and her daughter were
+alarmed.
+
+"This is your work," he said to Betsy, as he bent over his hysterical
+wife. "You are breaking your mother's heart, you obstinate vixen. Ring
+the bell for Dilsey, at once. Remain where you are, until I return," he
+added to Betsy when Aunt Dilsey had obeyed the summons, and was
+assisting him to carry his wife upstairs.
+
+His anger had cooled somewhat when he returned to the parlor half an
+hour later. "I can not, of course, force you to marry any one," he said
+to his daughter; "nor for the present will I urge upon your
+consideration the suit of Mr. Drane, against whom you have taken so
+unreasoning and unjust a prejudice; but there's another point upon
+which I must do my duty without shrinking. I command you to give up
+thinking of Abner Dudley, now and forever."
+
+"I can give you no such obedience," Betsy replied. "I am his promised
+wife; but even though loving him as I do, I would give him back his
+troth, if you could show just and adequate reason why I should.
+Instead, you give no reason whatever."
+
+"Is not my wish reason enough?" he asked, desiring to spare her the
+humiliating knowledge of Abner's low birth, and the fact that he had
+given her back her freedom.
+
+"No, sir, it is not. I am no longer a child, to be made to obey you
+blindly and unquestioningly."
+
+"Then, if you will insist upon knowing my reasons, you willful girl,
+you shall be enlightened. Your precious lover has renounced you; and,
+what is more, he will never show his face in this community again."
+
+"No, no! It can't be true. He is loyal. I will believe in him above all
+the world. He will return. I know he will," cried Betsy, shrinking and
+paling, but still strong in her faith.
+
+"But he has renounced you, Betsy, my daughter. He has written me that
+he must give you up."
+
+"Let me see the letter," said Betsy, still unbelieving.
+
+Gilcrest crossed the hall to his office, and in a few seconds returned
+with Abner's letter. "I would have spared you this, my child, if
+possible," her father said as she eagerly seized the letter.
+
+"Oh, what lie is this they have told you, my persecuted, darling
+Abner?" she exclaimed. "You, my proud, high-minded, noble lover, a
+bastard! Never, never, never! It's all a vile plot to cheat you of your
+betrothed wife and your inheritance. Ah! I know whose work this is. It
+is that smiling, treacherous Judas, James Anson Drane. I feel it, I
+know it."
+
+"You rave, my miserable, deluded child," Gilcrest said sadly, "but even
+though you are for the moment well-nigh bereft of reason by the shock
+of hearing that your lover has given you up, you must not in your
+bitterness utter so wicked, so utterly unfounded an accusation against
+an honorable man who loves you truly and would make you his wife."
+
+Nothing her father could say could induce her to believe that Abner was
+not laboring under some delusion about his being base-born. She could
+give no reason for this belief, she said; but her own heart and her own
+instincts told her it was all a mistake, or else a scheme to separate
+her and her lover. "This will all be cleared up, I feel that it will,"
+she said again and again, "and he will come back to me soon, and
+without a stain upon his name. I intend to write to him at once, and
+tell him that though all the world should forsake him, I will still be
+true to him, and will believe, too, in his right to wear an honorable
+name."
+
+Her father reasoned and pleaded in vain. He finally lost all patience,
+and grew angrier than he had ever been with her. "Go to your room, you
+unreasonable fool," he finally said. "Go! No longer offend my sight by
+your presence--but listen, first, and remember I will be obeyed. I
+forbid your writing one line to that base-born vagabond. Further, I
+forbid your leaving these premises or holding any communication with
+any one except members of this household, until you pledge me your word
+of honor to have nothing more to do with Abner Dudley."
+
+"Then, I'm a prisoner for life," answered Betty; "for so long as I live
+and breathe, I shall love him. I mean to write to him as soon as I can
+manage to escape your vigilance and tyranny long enough to post a
+letter to him, and when he comes back to claim me, I will marry him in
+spite of you and that villain, James Drane."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+AT THE "BLUE HERON"
+
+
+Upon the evening preceding Abner's contemplated return to Kentucky, to
+wind up his business there, and to hunt for evidence in regard to the
+Page brothers, he strolled down to the "Blue Heron," a tavern in an
+adjacent street. Entering the tavern, he found himself in the midst of
+rather an exciting scene, occasioned by a bet just made as to the
+relative height of two men who were standing leaning on the bar. Both
+men were of unusual height. At a casual glance the younger of the two,
+a frequenter of the tavern, would appear to be the taller, by reason of
+his extreme slenderness of build. The older man was a stranger. The two
+took their places in the center of the room, back to back; and it was
+then found that the older man was the taller by nearly an inch. Upon
+being measured, his exact height was ascertained to be six feet, two
+inches.
+
+"Seems like I've shrunk some sence I wuz a young man," said the old
+fellow in a jocular tone, as he pocketed the stakes; "for then I
+measured six foot, two an' a ha'f, in my sock feet. Thar wuz only one
+feller in our reg'ment taller'n me, an' that wuz John Logan--'long
+John' we called him to 'stinguish him frum t'other John Logan, who wuz
+oncommon tall too, but nigh two inch shorter than 'long John.'"
+
+For a moment Abner was unable to utter a word; then, under cover of the
+noise made by the hilarious group standing at the bar, drinking at the
+expense of the man who had lost the wager, he drew the old man to one
+side, and asked, "Were the two John Logans you speak of related?"
+
+"Not thet I knows on, stranger--yes, sence I come to think on it, they
+wuz said to be cousins. I remember, too, thet they hailed frum the same
+place--somewhars in Pennsylvany."
+
+"Can you tell me any more about them?" asked Abner, by a mighty effort
+managing to control his excitement, and to speak calmly.
+
+"I don't know much uv Jack Logan, as the shorter uv the two wuz
+called," replied the stranger, who gave his name as Sam Butler, "'cept
+thet he wuz a fine feller, an' a brave soldier who wuz killed on the
+same day, in the same fight, as long John wuz. They both fell at
+Monmouth Court-house. But I knew long John well. He wuz my messmate an'
+marchin' comrid, an' we slept many a night side by side on the ground,
+under the same blanket, when we wuz fortunit 'nough to hev blankets to
+kiver us. Why, I wuz by his side when he fell, killed by a bullet
+through his heart. I drug him offen the field, an' thet night holped
+bury him in the trench whar we laid so many uv our men whut lost ther
+lives in thet hot, awful fight."
+
+"Where was he from?"
+
+"He wuz borned in Kenelworth, Pennsylvany; but his folks moved 'round
+consider'ble. They wuz sort o' sheftless, I should jedge, an' never
+stayed long in any place."
+
+"Was he married?"
+
+"He hed a wife in Philadelphy, though I hed never hearn him speak uv
+her. After he wuz dead, I found in one uv his pockets a worn letter,
+months old, frum her, dated Philadelphy; and I got her word uv his
+death, though frum her letter I gethered thet they hedn't been gittin'
+on well together, an' thet she 'peared to think he had misused her, an'
+keered nothin' fur her. He wuz a reckless, drinkin', high-tempered,
+rough feller; but, Lordee! how brave, when it come to fightin'! He
+wuzn't feared o' old Nick hisse'f or eny uv his imps."
+
+"What was his wife's name?"
+
+"Blest ef I kin re-collect, stranger. It's twenty-odd year ago, an' you
+see, I----"
+
+"Was it Mary?"
+
+"No, I don't think thet wuz it."
+
+"Was it Sarah?"
+
+"Yes, thet's it. Sarah--Sarah Jane, thet's it. I'm pos'tive it wuz
+Sarah Jane. Did you know eny uv her people?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," Abner replied, "but I'm still more interested in the
+other John Logan."
+
+"Well, sir, ez I said, I knew nothin' uv him, more'n whut I fust told
+you; but, stop, Peter Stump wuz his comrid, an' he----"
+
+"Is this Peter Stump living, and, if so, where?" was the next anxious
+inquiry.
+
+"Why, yes, he's alive an' a-kickin'; leastways, he wuz last Monday
+three weeks ago, when I seen him at Pockville. He lives two mile south
+uv thar, on the road to Richmond."
+
+That night our much-tried hero went once more to the old box in the
+garret, and took from it the miniature of his father, and the letter to
+Mary, written the night before the battle. With these in his pocket,
+Abner the next morning went to Pockville. He had no difficulty in
+finding Peter Stump, and was soon in possession of information which
+filled him with renewed life and joy. Stump recognized the miniature as
+that of his messmate, John (or Jack) Logan. Stump remembered the other
+John Logan, and said that in features and sometimes in expression the
+two Logans were much alike, but that in complexion and disposition they
+were utterly dissimilar. Jack Logan was of dark and sallow complexion,
+had curly black hair, and was about six feet, one inch in height. He
+was reserved, quiet, sober in his habits, and peaceably inclined. The
+other John had a ruddy complexion, hair a shade lighter than his
+cousin's, and a temper so fiery and quarrelsome that he was forever in
+some broil with his comrades. He was a hard drinker, too, and a
+gambler. He was nearly two inches taller than Jack Logan, and was the
+tallest man in the regiment. Jack Logan, up to the beginning of the
+war, had always lived in Kenelworth, but the other John Logan, although
+born in Kenelworth, had lived a wandering life. Other facts which Stump
+revealed explained the message in Jack Logan's last letter to Mary.
+Stump and Logan had been close friends, and the former had learned from
+his friend the reason of the hasty marriage. Mary Hollis, at the time,
+was living with her cousins, two old maidens, who were ardent British
+sympathizers, and, therefore, did their utmost to prejudice the young
+girl against her lover, until he, fearing that if his sweetheart
+remained under the influence of her Tory relatives, she would finally
+be estranged from him, persuaded her to marry him at once. It was just
+after the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and Logan, elated by these
+two victories for the American cause, was inclined, like many other
+hopeful young patriots, to believe that the war would soon be over. So,
+although he knew that for the present he must be separated from his
+bride much of the time, and that he was but poorly able to provide for
+her, rashly persuaded her to marry him. As the months went by, and the
+Continental army, instead of achieving fresh victories, was suffering
+loss and increasing hardship, Logan grew more and more remorseful and
+unhappy about his young wife and infant son. The night before the
+battle of Monmouth, he seemed to have a premonition of his fate on the
+morrow, and was more than ever troubled over the future for his wife
+and babe. He wrote his wife, asking forgiveness for having persuaded
+her into the imprudent marriage, promising that if his life was spared,
+he would try to atone to her for all she had suffered, and begging her
+in any case to find shelter with her sister until the war would be
+over. After Logan was killed, Stump had himself managed to convey this
+letter to Mary at Morristown; but he could only stay a few minutes with
+her, as his regiment was hurrying eastward. During the Virginia
+campaign several years later, when Stump's regiment was with Lafayette
+around Yorktown--about twenty miles from Lawsonville--he had intended
+to ask for leave of absence, and go to see how it fared with his former
+comrade's widow; but, hearing that she had married again and removed to
+Kentucky, he did not go to Lawsonville.
+
+When Abner Logan returned to Williamsburg the day after his conference
+with Peter Stump, he found a letter from Mason Rogers. Mr. Rogers wrote
+that he had questioned several men who had been in the fight at Blue
+Licks and who remembered the Page brothers well. The elder brother was
+Marshall, the name of the younger was Marcemus. Rogers further wrote
+that two women who had been in Bryan Station during the siege and who
+were now living in Fayette County, remembered that Marcemus Page, after
+his escape from the Indians, had come back to Bryan's for the little
+orphan boy whom he took to the mother's people in Virginia. These
+witnesses could swear that it was Marshall Page's wife who had died at
+the station in August, 1782, while the men were in pursuit of the
+Indians. Moreover, one of the women remembered that Marcemus Page had
+told her that he intended, after placing Marshall's little stepson in
+the care of the boy's Virginia relations, to go on to Maryland. The
+woman also said that Marcemus had told her that his own wife, who had
+died that spring on the way into Kentucky, was a native of Maryland,
+from Charles County.
+
+After hearing what these women said, Rogers, knowing that Barton Stone
+was a native of Charles County, Maryland, had then gone to see him.
+Stone, though but a lad when his family had removed from Charles
+County, remembered the Page family. There were two brothers, Marshall
+and Marcemus, and Marcemus had married Mary Beale, a cousin of Stone's
+mother; and soon afterward had left Maryland with his wife to join his
+brother somewhere in Virginia, intending to go on with him to settle in
+the backwoods of Kentucky.
+
+After receiving Rogers' letter, Abner Logan lost no time in returning
+to Kentucky. The day following his arrival at Cane Ridge, he sent Major
+Gilcrest a note asking for an interview. The messenger brought back the
+note unopened and the verbal message from Gilcrest declining to hold
+any intercourse with Abner or to receive any written communication from
+him.
+
+Rogers then advised communicating with the Major through a lawyer, but
+Abner felt that he must see Betty before he could decide upon this
+course. He contrived, through Aunt Dilsey, to convey a note to the
+girl. She wrote back that she would meet him that afternoon at their
+former trysting-place. Here, accordingly, the two lovers met, after a
+separation of over half a year, and renewed their vows of love and
+fealty.
+
+Abner gave Betsy a full account of everything, and consulted with her
+as to the best way to communicate with her father; for it was
+imperative that Major Gilcrest should immediately be made acquainted
+with Abner's true history and his right to the Hite inheritance. Betsy
+urged her lover not to place his affairs in the hands of a lawyer until
+she had first tried what she could do with her father. She also thought
+that her mother, first of all, should be told everything. To this Abner
+agreed.
+
+That night Betsy had a long talk with her mother. Poor Mrs. Gilcrest,
+who for many years had been oppressed by the dark secret of her early
+life, felt now, when she had learned all that her daughter had to
+reveal, as if a great burden was lifted from her spirit. She rejoiced
+not only in the certainty that her own clandestine marriage was valid,
+and that her cousin had been a lawfully wedded wife, but also because
+of the knowledge that Abner Logan, whom she had always greatly liked,
+was the son of her well-beloved cousin and foster sister, Mary Hollis,
+and that he was in every respect a suitable mate for Betsy.
+
+In her relief and joy she felt that she now had courage to confess all
+to her husband. The next evening she nerved herself for this ordeal.
+
+Mrs. Gilcrest could not have chosen a less favorable occasion for her
+purpose; for Major Gilcrest had just learned, through one of the
+servants, that Betsy had met her lover the afternoon before. He was
+furiously exasperated that his daughter had thus set at naught his
+commands; and he raved in so frenzied a style of disobedience,
+deception, and of the infamy of any girl who would hold clandestine
+meetings with a man, that poor, cowardly Mrs. Gilcrest's newly acquired
+valor evaporated before the fire of her husband's wrath, and she dared
+not confess the secret she had withheld during all their married life.
+She did, however, intercede for Abner, venturing her conviction that in
+birth and character he was fit to wed with Betsy. But the poor creature
+was so cowed by her habitual awe of her lord and master, and by his
+present irascible temper, as well as by the burden of her own yet
+unconfessed secret, that the stammering, incoherent tale she told of
+the two John Logans, of the time and place of Mary Hollis' death, and
+of Abner's being Andrew Hite's legal heir, was anything but convincing.
+Her feeble attempt at explanation and intercession, instead of
+softening the obstinate Major, only wrought him up to a still higher
+pitch of exasperation.
+
+Mrs. Gilcrest's effort to enlighten her husband having failed, young
+Logan engaged an attorney, through whom the lord of Oaklands was
+perforce convinced of Abner's legitimacy and right to the Hite
+possessions.
+
+But there still remained in the secret drawer of the Major's escritoire
+those documentary proofs against "A. D.'s" political integrity, and in
+the Major's mind those convictions of the young man's connection with
+dangerous Spanish intrigues. More than that, there was the Major's
+ingrained obstinacy and his aversion to confessing himself in the
+wrong. So that, although he was not unduly covetous of the Hite
+inheritance, and although, had he not been so harassed and imbittered
+by his daughter's defiance, he would have rejoiced that Abner Logan was
+well born and prosperous, just now he was in a humor the reverse of
+rejoicing or yielding. Therefore his opposition to Betsy's suitor was
+as firm as ever; and the two lovers appeared as far as ever from the
+attainment of their hopes.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX.
+
+AUNT DILSEY TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+"Send Miss Betsy to me at once," was Gilcrest's order to a negro girl
+who was sweeping the hall one cold, snowy morning in December, as he
+strode into the house, whip in hand, clad in overcoat and riding-boots.
+"Where's your mistress?"
+
+"In the settin'-room, marstah."
+
+"Then send Miss Betsy to me there. Put down that broom, and go at
+once--move quickly, nigger!" With a grim look he went into the
+sitting-room, where his wife was dawdling over her tambour frame; and
+Polly sped up the stairs. In the upper hall she encountered Aunt
+Dilsey.
+
+"Whut's the mattah, gal?" asked the old negress. "You look lak a rabbit
+skeered outen a bresh heap."
+
+"Marstah's stompin' an' ragin' 'roun lak a mad bull down thah," panted
+the girl. "He say teh fotch Miss Betsy to him to oncet in the
+settin'-room. She's gwine kotch it sho 'nough this time."
+
+"'Deed she hain't, long's her brack mammy's heah teh p'otect her! Marse
+Hi's losin' his las' grain o' sense; but he bettah min' how he capers
+'roun'. He's been pussecutin' thet bressed chile long 'nough--all kaze
+she's true teh her 'fections, an' woan give in when he say she shan't
+hev thet nice, rosy-cheek, perlite young gemmin she's begaged to. Ole
+Dilsey's done kep' still long 'nough; it's time fer her teh lay down de
+law a bit. I hain't feared o' Marse Hi, ef he does stomp an' rumpage.
+You heahs me, doan you?"
+
+In this, as in all other large households throughout the Southern
+States, the "black mammy" was an indispensable part of the family. The
+real mother usually gave her children careful attention and
+superintended their training; but she took upon herself little of the
+drudgery and burden of their upbringing. A subordinate nurse was the
+children's guardian and companion when they went out for play or
+exercise, but the "black mammy" ruled over this negro and was the
+highest authority on all matters pertaining to the nursery. Even the
+real mother humored this foster mother in the management of the
+children; and when, as in the case of Mrs. Gilcrest, the mistress was
+frail of health and unassertive by nature, the black mammy's authority
+became almost paramount. And such was the nature of Dilsey's authority.
+
+Silas Gilcrest, Hiram's father, had bought Dilsey from a Massachusetts
+slave-ship when she was a child of twelve years. She was just from
+Africa, and could not speak a word of English. Silas Gilcrest brought
+her at once into his own house, where she served first as nurse to the
+infant Hiram, and later as upper house servant. Her skin was black as
+ebony, but she was of superior intelligence and of stout and loyal
+heart. She nursed Hiram Gilcrest in his babyhood, was his caretaker and
+faithful attendant in boyhood, and his loyal adherent in early manhood.
+When he married, she went with him from Massachusetts to Virginia, and
+from there she and her husband and two children accompanied Hiram and
+his wife to Kentucky.
+
+When Betsy, Hiram's first-born, was laid in old Dilsey's arms, she had
+just buried her own baby, and all the mother love of her passionate
+nature went out to this tiny scion of the house of Gilcrest.
+Thenceforward, the unreasoning, self-sacrificing devotion which in
+former days Dilsey had lavished upon Hiram was transferred to his
+daughter.
+
+As time went on, and her cares and responsibilities multiplied with the
+advent of each new baby to her master and mistress, Mammy Dilsey,
+though still faithful and devoted, became more and more self-important
+and dictatorial. She felt herself superior in education and position to
+the other negroes, and almost, if not quite, as important a part of the
+household as the master himself. As for Mrs. Gilcrest, Dilsey's regard
+for her was compounded of admiration and pitying patronage. She loved
+and tended and ruled over all the children, but Betsy was her idol, for
+whom she would cheerfully have laid down her own life. Throughout
+Betsy's disagreement with her father, Dilsey had been her confidant and
+comforter; and her indignation against her master for the past few
+months had only thus far been restrained from actual outbreak by
+Betty's entreating her to be silent, lest by want of tactful patience
+she might still further provoke the irascible spirit of the master of
+Oaklands. On this particular morning, however, Aunt Dilsey's spirit was
+stirred within her, and she felt it high time to assert herself.
+
+When Betsy reached the sitting-room she found her mother crying
+helplessly and her father fuming up and down the room.
+
+"What do you mean by this, girl?" he asked, flourishing a folded paper
+in her face. "Did I not command you to have nothing more to do with
+that worthless fellow? And here you are actually writing to him, and
+bribing my servants to fetch his letters and to take him your answers!
+What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean, sir," Betsy answered, facing him bravely, "that I'll not
+submit to your tyrannical treatment any longer--keeping me a prisoner
+in these grounds, and forbidding me to hold any communication with the
+man I love and honor and mean to marry. I have been for weeks under
+restraint; not even allowed to walk about the yard without a spying
+black slave at my heels. More than this, two weeks ago you intercepted
+a letter addressed to me, and you now hold in your hand--without any
+right whatever--a note of mine to Mr. Logan. What if I did 'stoop to
+bribe a servant' to carry a message to my lover? That is little in
+comparison with your keeping me in durance, and intercepting my
+letters. And you talk to me of 'stooping' and of dishonor!"
+
+"Betsy! Betsy! my dear, my dear!" wailed her mother, "don't use such
+language. Oh, oh, you and your father are killing me!"
+
+"Mother, mother, have you no feeling for your daughter, that you have
+said no word to help her in all these months? Are you so under the
+thrall of that tyrant that you meekly submit without a protest to such
+treatment of me? Yes," she said, turning to her father, who stood
+motionless, his eyes blazing, his face white with passion, "you are a
+tyrant, but I defy you. You shall not break my spirit. I mean to marry
+Abner Logan as soon as he says the word."
+
+"Be silent, before I strike you!" cried her father, advancing toward
+her. "Go! Fling yourself into your lover's arms as soon as you please.
+I wash my hands of you, you willful, passionate hussy!"
+
+"Stop! stop! this instant, Hiram Gilcrest," shrieked his wife, rising
+from her chair and stamping her foot. Then she rushed to him, caught
+his arm and actually shook him, crying: "You shall not heap such abuse
+on my child! I have been silent long enough."
+
+If the portrait of old Silas Gilcrest, hanging above the mantel, had
+opened its mouth and spoken, father and daughter could not have been
+more astounded than at this outbreak. In the whole course of her
+married life this was the first time that Jane Gilcrest had ever
+asserted herself, or raised her voice against her lord and master.
+"Yes, you are a brute to use such language and to treat your daughter
+so! And now, I suppose you'll beat me, next; you look as though you'd
+like to fell us both to the earth with that whip--oh! oh! oh!" she
+shrieked, and fell back in a swoon.
+
+Betsy, white, unnerved, and more frightened than she had ever been in
+her life, sprang to her mother's aid, who recovered from her faint only
+to go into violent hysterics. Gilcrest stood dazed and motionless,
+staring at his wife, with the riding-whip unconsciously clenched in his
+hand.
+
+[Illustration: _At this juncture the door was flung open by old
+Dilsey._]
+
+At this juncture, the door was flung open by old Dilsey. She stood a
+second on the threshold, as though paralyzed at the tableau before her.
+Mrs. Gilcrest leaned back in her chair, moaning and trembling; Betsy
+crouched by her side, in reality trying to pacify her mother, though
+apparently seeking shelter from her father, who stood before them with
+the uplifted whip. Then, her black eyes blazing, the negress sprang
+forward with the swiftness and fierceness of a tiger; and charging upon
+her master with such force as almost to throw him down, she seized his
+arm and wrenched the whip from his grasp.
+
+"I said you had done gone plum crazy," she cried, "but I nebbah thought
+I'd lib teh see the day you'd raise yo' arm ag'in yo' own wife an'
+chile. Don' you dar' tech 'em! I'll p'otect 'em wid my life's blood!"
+
+"Shut up, you old harridan!" returned Gilcrest. "Nobody's going to
+strike your mistress, or her daughter either. Take your Miss Jane to
+her room, and attend to her."
+
+"I doan lebe dis room tell I speaks my min' 'bout yo' ongodly carryin'
+on an' yo' shameful 'buse ob my sweet lamb, my own Miss Betsy."
+
+"Shut up, I tell you!" again cried Gilcrest.
+
+"I woan shet up. I will speak my min'!"
+
+"I'll cowhide you, you black witch!" shouted her master, threateningly.
+
+"Whip me? Ole Dilsey? 'Deed you woan! Ef you lays de weight ob a fingah
+on me, I'll t'ar you limb f'um limb!" She faced him, arms akimbo, eyes
+snapping, and defiance in every line of her tall figure and in every
+fold of her red turban. "Does you think I'se feared ob you? Me, whut
+nussed an' tended you when you wuz a pore, sickly baby, an' bossed you,
+an' spanked yo' back sides many a time when you wuz a streprous,
+mis-che-vous boy?"
+
+"Leave the room this instant!" cried Gilcrest, white with anger.
+
+"Nary step does I budge tell I frees my mind," answered Dilsey with
+determination. "Hain't you no bowels ob marcy fur yo' own flesh an'
+blood? Is you done persessed by de Debble, dat you treats dat pore lamb
+so, whut hain't done nuthin' but be true to her sweetheart? Yo' fust
+borned chile, too, yo' leetle gal whut you kissed an' cried obah fur
+joy when ole Dilsey fotch her to you; an' you tuck her in yo' arms, de
+tears runnin' down yo' cheeks an' yo' voice trem'lin' an' a-shakin', ez
+you thanked de good Lawd fur yo' purty black-eyed baby gal, an' fur
+bringin' yo' pore young wife safe frew her trial!"
+
+"There, there, Dilsey," said Gilcrest, moved in spite of himself by her
+rough eloquence. "You have entirely misconceived the situation. I had
+no intention of striking either your mistress or Miss Betsy. Leave off
+your foolish raving, and help me get your Miss Jane to her bed. Don't
+you see she is not able to stand?" Then to his daughter he added, "If
+all this excitement and trouble make your mother really ill, it is your
+fault, you rebellious girl."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX.
+
+YOUNG LOCHINVAR
+
+ "So light to the croup the fair lady he swung,
+ So light to the saddle before her he sprung;
+ 'She is won! we are gone--over bank, bush and scaur;
+ They'll have fleet steeds that follow,' quoth Young Lochinvar."
+
+
+The next afternoon, Major Gilcrest, from the window of a back room, saw
+his daughter coming in alone through the shrubbery, and strongly
+suspected that she had been meeting Abner Logan again. Gilcrest,
+however, said nothing to her, and she went upstairs. She remained in
+her room, busy over some needlework, about an hour. Then, as it was
+getting too dark to sew, she put aside her work to go downstairs; but
+just then she heard the key turned in her door, and found it locked
+from the outside. She was a prisoner in her bedchamber.
+
+She remained there for two days, without seeing any one but the negro
+girl Polly, who three times a day came to the room to replenish the
+fire and to bring her meals. From Polly, Betsy learned that Mrs.
+Gilcrest was ill and confined to her room, and that Major Gilcrest was
+preparing for a journey, and purposed taking his daughter with him. He
+sent by Polly a curt note which further enlightened Betty of his
+intentions. She was directed to pack her clothes and be in readiness to
+start with him for Massachusetts as soon as her mother's health would
+allow him to leave home. He also informed Betsy that he meant to leave
+her in Massachusetts at a boarding-school.
+
+Instead of obeying her father's command, Betsy spent her solitary hours
+in trying to hit upon some mode of escape from her prison, or at least
+for some means of communicating with her lover.
+
+On the third night of her imprisonment she retired early, feeling that
+she would need all her strength for the morrow's struggle; for she was
+fully resolved that no power on earth should be strong enough to compel
+her to leave home with her father. She was exhausted, and soon fell
+asleep. In the night she was awakened by some one shaking her and
+calling her name softly. She opened her eyes, and found Aunt Dilsey
+standing over her with a lighted candle in one hand.
+
+"Sh--, sh--, honey, don't mek no noise!"
+
+"How did you get here?" asked Betsy, sitting up in bed and now
+thoroughly roused.
+
+"I stole de key f'um de nail in de hall, an' den slipped up de sta'rs.
+I allus walks jes lak a cat, you knows, so Marse Hi didn't heah me. But
+nebbah min' dat now. Git up quick, an' do whut I tells you. I'se
+gwineteh he'p you 'scape to Marse Abner, dis berry hour. He's waitin'
+fur you on his nag down to de bars at de eend ob de leetle woods
+pastur', an' he'll tek you straight to de preachah's house, an' you kin
+be married right off."
+
+"But, mammy," began Betsy.
+
+"Shet up, chile, an' do ez I says. It's yo' on'y chance; fur onct Marse
+Hi gits you 'way f'um heah, it'll be many a long day foh you sees yo'
+sweetheart ag'in. I tell you yo' pap's thet desprut dar's no tellin'
+whut he woan do teh keep you an' yo' sweetheart 'part. So doan let me
+heah no 'jections, but jes' listen to me. You'se to slip out frew de
+ole log-room heah--you carn't git out frew de hall; fur yo' pap'll heah
+you, shore, kaze his door's open, an' you knows he allus sleeps wid one
+eye an' bofe years open. But you go inteh de log-room, an' clamb out by
+de windah. See! Heah's a rope I done mek outen bedclothes. We'll tie it
+to de bed-post, an' it's plenty long 'nough to reach most to de groun'
+frew de windah, whut hain't more'n twelve or fou'teen foot f'um de
+groun'. 'Sides, dar's notches all down de wall outside whah de
+chinkin's done fell out. So you kin hold ontah de ropes, put yo' foots
+in de gaps, an' git down ez easy ez ef 'twuz on sta'r steps."
+
+The chamber Betsy occupied was in the ell of the house, and
+communicated through a closet with the upper room of the old log house
+of two rooms which had been left standing when the new house was built.
+The lower apartment of this old structure was now used as a
+weaving-room.
+
+"But why not go down through the window of the lower room?" asked
+Betsy.
+
+"Kaze I carn't fin' de key to de door et de foot ob de sta'rway intah
+de loom-room. But you woan hab no trouble, noways, climbin' down dat
+wall. So hurry, an' while you dresses, I'll pack up some ob yo' clo's
+in a bundle. I'se done shet ole Jock an' Ponto up in de woodhouse to
+keep dem f'um barkin' an' rousin' yo' pap. Soon's you'se down safe,
+I'll go out an' lock yo' door ag'in, slip down de sta'rs, an' Marse,
+when he fin's you'se skipped, will think you'se 'scaped by yo'se'f.
+But, anyways, I doan much keer ef he does fin' dat ole Dilsey holped
+you; I hain't feared. He woan dar' tackle me."
+
+"It seems hard," said Betty, "that I must steal out of my father's
+house in this way like a thief; but it's my only chance."
+
+Aunt Dilsey's plan worked successfully. Betsy, by means of her
+bed-quilt rope and the chinks in the wall, had no difficulty in making
+her escape. Old Dilsey, as soon as her young mistress reached the
+ground, softly dropped the bundle after her, and then the girl sped
+across the snow through the side yard to the little woods, where at the
+bars her lover awaited her. She climbed up behind him on his brown
+mare, Bess, and in a short while reached Barton Stone's house.
+
+Logan had already related the circumstances of the case to the
+minister, who said that the young couple were fully justified in the
+step they had taken; and so they were married. Stone and his wife urged
+them to remain the night with them, but Abner said that Mr. and Mrs.
+Rogers were expecting them. Accordingly they rode away, and reached the
+Rogers home about midnight. Late as it was, the entire family were up
+and fully prepared to receive them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI.
+
+A NOVEL BRIDAL TOUR
+
+
+The next morning the young couple, accompanied by Susan Rogers, with
+Rache in the capacity of serving-woman, set out on their bridal tour, a
+three-mile ride over the snow, to their future home. A stout sledge
+drawn by a yoke of oxen was the primitive equipage of the bridal party.
+
+The wedding presents, though the gifts of but one family, were many and
+useful, if not beautiful and costly. A feather bed and a pair of fat
+pillows were Mrs. Rogers' most valuable gift. "No, Betsy," she said as
+she tied them up in an old quilt, "we hain't robbin' ourse'ves; we've
+got more beds an' pillahs then we hev people to sleep on 'em; besides,
+hain't we got plenty geese?"
+
+"Nevah you mind, Betsy," chuckled Mason Rogers; "Cynthy Ann knows
+better'n you do whut she kin spar' tow'ds settin' you an' Ab up to
+housekeepin'. The real offus uv a bride is to be ornamental. So, all
+you got to do this mawnin' is to set up on thet ther sled, an' look
+purty."
+
+A coarse but well-bleached tablecloth, a gourd of lard, a cheese, half
+a loaf of cake, a skillet and a coffee boiler completed Mrs. Rogers'
+list.
+
+The gifts of her husband were no less generous: a side of meat, a
+supply of meal, potatoes, hominy, sugar, a jug of cider vinegar, and
+another of molasses, concerning which gifts he declared, in answer to
+Abner's protest: "Of course, you'n' Betty kin live on love; so I jes'
+put in them eatables fur Susan--pore gal, she ain't got no husban' yit
+to mek her fergit she's got a stommick. Besides, even you an' yer bride
+will find livin' on love a weak'nin' exper'ence artah the fust few
+days; an' this snow looks lak it hed come to stay all wintah. The roads
+'tween heah an' Bourbonton won't be broke through 'nough fur you to
+haul a load o' things frum thar befoh March, mayby. Allus feed yer
+husban' good, Betty. With all the men whut evah I seen, the stommick
+'pears to be the seat o' the affections; an' Abner hain't no exception.
+He kin mek an ash cake or a hunk o' middlin' disappear 'bout ez fast ez
+the nex' one; an' when it comes to tacklin' a stack o' flitters
+seasoned with maple merlasses, he kin beat all creation, unless 'tis
+Tommy an' Buddy, an' the amount o' vittels them two shavers kin manidge
+to stow 'way is 'nough to mek a pusson think ther laigs is holler.
+These two cheers," he continued as he tied them in place on the sledge,
+"air fur me an' Cynthy Ann to set on when we come ovah nex' Sunday to
+pay our bridal call an' to fotch Cissy an' Rache home. Abner hain't got
+but two cheers, Betty--one fur Susan, an' one fur you an' him; but me
+an' Cynthy Ann's done got pas' the time when one cheer kin 'commerdate
+us both comf'table. Whut you got thar?" he asked the negro Tom, as he
+came forward, while Rube lingered bashfully in the background.
+
+"Me an' Rube wants tab gib somethin' ter spress our 'gratulatins ter
+Miss Betsy an' Marse Ab; so we presents dese ax-handles whut we'se made
+oursel's, an' dis bowl whut we'se hollered outen a ash-tree fur a nice
+bread-tray; an' we wishes you bofe much joy in de road you'se dis day
+sotten out on in double harnish." Grinning and bobbing, he presented
+the offerings, and then stepped back to make room for Uncle Tony.
+"Marse Ab, you'll 'cep' dis bunch o' brooms f'um ole Tony; kaze he wuz
+yer fus' 'quaintunce when you come ter dis kintry. Dese brooms will
+'min' you ob yer ole home; kaze dey's tied wid de same twist an' loop
+jes' ez dey mek brooms wid in ole Virginny. An' I wishes you 'n' yer
+purty bride all de hap'ness an' prosp'ity whut kin come ter us pore
+morsels trablin' frew dis vale ob tears."
+
+"Well, Ab," said Mason, gleefully, as Abner, after gratefully thanking
+the darkeys, proceeded to find a place for the things on the
+well-loaded sled, "you'd bettah walk straight now; a broom's a
+dangerous weepon in a woman's hands. You know the ole sayin' 'bout
+brooms, Betsy? 'In fair weathah use one eend; in foul weathah use
+t'other!'"
+
+Susan's contributions were a pair of blankets and a supply of tow-linen
+sheeting and toweling, all of her own weaving. The twins, not to be
+outdone, begged Betsy to accept all their nine-patch pieces, "which
+only lack a few more squares," they said, "to mek a quilt big 'nough
+fur any bed."
+
+"Tek 'em, Betty," laughingly urged Mrs. Rogers; "Lucindy an' Lucy air
+only too glad ter git 'em off ther hands; they know they'd hev ter
+finish thet quilt this wintah, ef them pieces stayed heah, an' they
+hate sewin' wussen a mad dog hates watah."
+
+"We want you to have these, too," said Lucy, handing to Betsy a pair of
+plaster-of-paris angels. "Lucindy an' me bought 'em of the packman with
+our own money. They'll look mighty sweet settin' up on your
+mantel-tree. One of 'em's got its wing broke off, but thet won't show
+much when it's set facin' the room."
+
+"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed Rogers. "The twins presents you with angels, an'
+Tommy an' Buddy contributes live stock." The two little boys advanced,
+Tommy with a curly black pup under his arm, Buddy with two half-grown
+kittens in his apron.
+
+"Yes, yes, tek 'em," urged Mrs. Rogers; "you'll do me a favor to tek
+thet mis-che-vous pup, an' will save them kittens frum a grave in the
+hoss-pond; I've done said I'd drown the whole litter. Heah's a sack fur
+the kittens, an' you kin put the pup undah this heah kittle; 'twon't
+smothah undah thar; an' 'twon't mek no diffruns ef it does."
+
+Every negro on the place, elated and excited by the romantic event of a
+runaway marriage, brought offerings. Rache gave gourds and a cymbling
+bowl; Eph, a string of red-pepper; the other little darkeys, gifts of
+maple sugar, walnuts and hickorynuts; while Aunt Dink presented a large
+blue-flowered platter which until now had been the chief ornament of
+the chest of drawers in her cabin, and was none the less precious to
+her because of the big crack through the middle and the nick out of one
+corner.
+
+"The coach and four is now waiting with the bride's outfit already
+packed in the boot; so bride, bridesmaid and waiting-woman will please
+take their places," laughed Abner, happily, helping Betsy, Susan and
+Rache into the sledge. "You've loaded us so heavily with your generous
+gifts that I fear the bridal equipage will break down before reaching
+the end of the first stage, and bury bride, bridesmaid, waiting-woman
+and dowry in a snowbank."
+
+At this moment, out came little Buddy again, carrying a tiny arm-chair
+which he had long since outgrown, and insisting that it should make
+part of the bridal outfit on the sledge.
+
+"That's right, sonny," said Rogers, as he placed the chair. "They don't
+need it yit awhile, but 'tis likely it'll come in handy in a year or
+so. Hold on thar a minit," Rogers exclaimed, as Logan was hastily
+preparing to start off. Rushing into the house, he emerged in a few
+minutes, carrying a pine cradle with deep, sloping sides and broad,
+rough rockers. "Heah's a companion piece fur thet cheer. Hope you'll
+hev use fur it befoh we do ag'in," and nothing would do but that the
+cradle should be placed on the sled. "Ha! ha! ha!" Rogers laughed
+uproariously as he surveyed the outfit. "This turnout looks lak a
+emigrant wagon mekin' a journey frum Cumberlan' Gap to the
+settlements."
+
+Good-by's were exchanged, and the train started. The bride with her two
+attendants sat bravely on the sledge surrounded by her household goods,
+while the groom stepped proudly on to guide his awkward team, his own
+faithful dog, Toby, following at his heels. His house was not on the
+main thoroughfare, and the shrubs and tangled vines, weighted down with
+snow, bent over the narrow, little-used roadway, making it in places
+almost impassable; but the cavalcade proceeded safely, if slowly, until
+about half the journey was accomplished. Then, as they were going down
+a steep hillside with a considerable slant to the left, the groom came
+back from his post at the head of the team, to the side of his bride.
+Susan was looking out across the landscape; Rache was engrossed with
+her efforts to keep the various small articles from falling off the
+sledge. The moment seemed propitious; he leaned over to give Betty a
+reassuring kiss and embrace. Just then the vehicle ran over a stump
+which was hidden, but not protected, by the snow, and it careened
+sharply to the left. Abner, on the right, instantly threw his weight to
+stay the tottering ark. This only added the proper impetus, with, as
+the result, a complete overturn.
+
+[Illustration: _Out tumbled bride, bridesmaid and servant in the
+snow._]
+
+Out tumbled bride, bridesmaid and servant in the snow, with feather
+bed, chairs, table utensils, skillet, kettle, coffee boiler, buckets,
+brooms, provisions on top. The two kittens, escaping from their sack,
+and frightened out of at least four of their eighteen lives, scampered
+madly up the nearest tree, in which house of refuge they sat with
+arching backs and bristling tails, spitting and hissing. The pup,
+liberated from his kettle, and confident that Toby was somehow to blame
+for this melee, charged rashly at him. Toby, resenting this
+insinuation, met the curly pup with gaping jaws and bristling back. A
+terrific dog-fight ensued, in which the self-confident puppy was routed
+with great damage. During the excitement, it fortunately never occurred
+to the mild-eyed oxen to make a bolt with the sledge; on the contrary,
+they stood still in their tracks the whole time, gazing with placid
+indifference straight before them. No one was hurt, and the wintry
+woods rang with the merry laughter of the party as they righted the
+sledge, collected the scattered wedding outfit, and replaced it
+securely. The vanquished puppy was again confined in his iron dungeon.
+The kittens, after much coaxing, at last ventured upon a limb low
+enough for them to be reached by Abner's long arm; and the bridal car
+then proceeded, without further hurt or damage, to the future home.
+
+Betsy, though the child of rich parents, was used to work and to
+household management; but here was housekeeping to be begun under an
+environment quite different from that to which she had been accustomed
+in her father's well-ordered house. It was a heavy draft upon the young
+bride's faith and love to gaze undaunted at the prospect before her;
+but she was of a brave and hopeful spirit, and soon her blithe laugh
+chimed in with that of Abner and Susan, as they talked over the
+ludicrous mishap on the wedding tour. Presently, however, as Abner
+looked around the uninviting interior of his future abode, and then
+glanced at his young bride, he was sobered.
+
+"An empty hovel with unwhitewashed walls, stoneless hearth, and
+dirt-encrusted windows and floors, is certainly no fit welcome for you,
+my dearest," he said to her as they stood alone a moment, while Susan
+and Rache were taking a survey of the inner room. "Do you regret the
+step you have taken?"
+
+"Regret? Not for one instant," she bravely answered. "'Better a dinner
+of herbs where love is, than a stalled ox and hatred therewith'--and
+how dare you slander my new abode by calling it a hovel?" she added
+playfully. "Instead of belittling this commodious mansion, set to work
+at once, sir, and build us a fire."
+
+In a short time Logan had collected fuel. His flint yielded the ready
+spark, and fagots and logs soon blazed cheerily in the wide fireplace
+in each room.
+
+"That big kettle which pa insisted upon our bringing, does come in
+handy right at the start," exclaimed Susan. "We'll have it filled and
+hung on that crane, so that Rache can scrub the floors; and while the
+water is heating, let's get something to eat. I'm as hungry as any bear
+that ever prowled through these woods."
+
+"I'll lay the hearthstones, whitewash the walls, and put up some
+shelves over in that corner to-morrow," said Abner.
+
+"When that is done, the windows cleaned and curtained, and the things
+all arranged, it will be quite a cozy place," added Susan.
+
+"Yes," assented Logan, "it will do, I suppose, until I can get to town
+to buy whatever we need."
+
+"Oh, it's good as it is, and we will soon make it a very inviting
+home," interrupted Betty. "Don't worry because you haven't a stately
+mansion for your bride. It's bad enough to have a wife thrust upon you
+in this unceremonious style, without your impoverishing yourself to fit
+up a luxurious home for her all at once."
+
+The work went merrily forward during the next two days, although the
+season was hardly propitious for housecleaning. Rache, who enjoyed it
+all as much as any one, declared with a grin, "It's de fust time I evah
+hearn uv folks doin' ther spring cleanin' when de snow am two foot
+deep, an' it am so sinful cold thet it mighty nigh freezes de nose
+offen yer face."
+
+The floors, by dint of repeated scrubbings, were soon, as Rache
+declared, "clean 'nough ter eat on." The walls and rafters were
+whitened, and the windows curtained with snowy dimity. At the foot of
+the bed, in one room, stood a packing-case to serve as a wardrobe, a
+valance of calico tacked on its top, concealing the true nature of the
+contrivance. Another box, set on end and similarly attired, served as a
+dresser; still another as a washstand. This room was sitting-room,
+parlor, library, and Susan's sleeping apartment. The other room was
+dining-room and kitchen, where Rache was accommodated with a pallet
+upon the floor in front of the fire; while, for the present, the rude
+loft over the two rooms, reached by means of a ladder in the
+sitting-room, was the bedchamber for bride and groom.
+
+
+Consternation reigned at Oaklands when Betsy's flight was discovered
+the morning after the elopement. Her father, after giving orders that
+everything on the place which could be considered her personal property
+should be packed and sent to her immediately, then assembled the entire
+household, struck Betsy's name from the family Bible, and commanded
+that no one in his presence should ever again mention her name, and
+that no one on the premises should ever dare to hold any communication
+with her. Later, that same day, he drove to Lexington, sought a lawyer,
+and made a will disinheriting her.
+
+Upon the third morning after the marriage there came to the new home a
+sled driven by a negro man from Oaklands. On the sled was Marthy, a
+negro woman of thirty-five; also a huge packing-case containing Betsy's
+clothes, books and ornaments, some bed quilts which she had pieced
+herself, some bright-colored rugs she had woven, besides china and a
+set of silver spoons which had descended to her from her maternal
+grandmother. Behind the sled rode Sambo on Betsy's saddle-horse,
+driving a young cow which was also considered the girl's property. The
+two negroes, Marthy and Sambo, had belonged to Mrs. Gilcrest, to do
+with as she pleased, and she sent them as a gift to her daughter.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXII
+
+EXIT JAMES ANSON DRANE
+
+ "Treason doth never prosper, ... for, should it prosper, none dare
+ call it treason."
+
+
+During the spring of 1806 the country became greatly agitated over
+rumors of secret expeditions and conspiracies of a most startling
+nature, in which many men of prominence were concerned. The old
+difficulty over the free navigation of the Mississippi River, and the
+schemes which grew out of this difficulty, although already settled in
+a large measure by the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, had been
+too much agitated in Kentucky not to leave much material for
+conspirators. Hence, Kentucky became the stage upon which were enacted
+many of the incidents of that dramatic episode of American history
+known as "Burr's Conspiracy."
+
+Opinion was then, as it will ever be, somewhat divided as to the exact
+nature of the schemes which Aaron Burr was at that time maturing.
+According to his own statements and to the extracts from his journal of
+that period, his designs were not actually treasonable; but they were
+certainly dangerous to the future well-being of the States along the
+southern Mississippi.
+
+In 1805 this brilliant, ambitious and fascinating man, whose term as
+Vice-President had just expired, and who had, by his ill-advised attack
+upon the administration and by his duel with Alexander Hamilton,
+forfeited much of his political prestige, as well as the sympathy of
+most of his adherents in the North, came to Kentucky. He spent some
+weeks at Frankfort in an apparently quiet manner, and next proceeded on
+a tour down the Mississippi, visiting all important points from St.
+Louis to New Orleans. The following year he again appeared in the West,
+this time paying several visits to Lexington and Louisville. His
+headquarters on both these Western tours was the romantic, ill-fated
+island home of Harman Blennerhassett, where he was met more than once
+by many prominent men of Kentucky and other Western States. Soon after
+these visits, rumors began to be circulated that boats were being built
+in Kentucky and Ohio; provisions and military accoutrements ordered,
+which, when furnished, were stored on Blennerhassett Island; and that
+some daring military expedition was planned in which many were to be
+engaged.
+
+Presently the "Western World," a newspaper published at Frankfort, came
+out with a series of articles in which the old Spanish intrigues and
+these later projects of Aaron Burr were blended in a confused manner.
+Mingled with hints and vague innuendoes, some facts were stated and
+some names given that created no little sensation. Sebastian, a judge
+of the Supreme Court; Brown, United States Senator from Kentucky;
+Innes, a judge of the Federal Court; Wilkinson and Adair, generals in
+the regular army, and many other Kentuckians of more or less
+prominence, were implicated by these articles, which also plainly
+denounced Aaron Burr as a traitor and his scheme as a treasonable
+design against the United States Government. Truth and error in these
+articles were so mixed together that no one was able to separate the
+two, and people all over the country were bewildered and excited.
+Friends of those implicated resented the attacks, and demanded a
+retraction of the charges; but the paper sturdily adhered to its
+policy. Other papers began to take up the matter, until the public
+awoke to the fact that some dangerous movement was on foot; and the
+unsettled condition of the country, and the unsatisfactory relations
+between the United States and Spain, caused these rumors to arouse
+alarm.
+
+In November, 1806, Joseph Hamilton Daviess, United States attorney for
+Kentucky, brought at Frankfort an indictment against Burr for high
+treason; and Wednesday, December 2, was set for trial. Burr succeeded
+in convincing Henry Clay and John Allen, another able lawyer of the
+Lexington bar, of his innocence, and secured them as counsel.
+
+Shortly before this movement of Daviess, however, Graham, a detective
+in the United States employ (though not known to be such at the time),
+came to Kentucky; and, after spending some time in Fayette and Woodford
+Counties, came out to Cane Ridge. He represented himself as a land
+agent, and in this capacity called on Abner Logan one evening about
+sunset. He was invited to stay the night, and accepted. After supper,
+taking up a copy of the "Western World" which was lying on the table,
+he naturally turned the conversation upon the charges which the paper
+had been making. He said that, as a stranger in the State, he was of
+course ignorant in a great measure of the charges, whereupon Logan
+enlightened him as well as he could, discussing the matter with him at
+some length. The next morning Graham took his departure, and the Logans
+attached no importance to the visit.
+
+James Anson Drane had by no means severed his friendly relations with
+Hiram Gilcrest. He was at this time employed by Gilcrest to settle some
+old and troublesome land claims, and this business called him to
+Oaklands on the Thursday before the day set for Burr's trial at
+Frankfort. While Drane and Gilcrest were in the latter's library, one
+of the little negroes about the place brought Drane a note which the
+little darkey said had been left at the kitchen door by a peddler. The
+two men were seated at a center table littered with papers and
+documents. As Drane read the note, Gilcrest noticed that he appeared
+greatly disturbed; his cheeks and lips turned ashy pale, and the hand
+holding the note shook with agitation. He quickly commanded himself,
+however, thrust the note into his pocket, and explained that he was
+called to Lexington at once on urgent business. Gilcrest, seeing that
+the business must be of a grave and peremptory nature, did not urge
+Drane to stay, but gave the order for the lawyer's horse to be brought
+immediately. Telling his host that he would call again in a few days,
+Drane gathered up his papers which were scattered about the table, and
+hurried into the hall for his hat and great coat. He tried to thrust
+the papers into his breast pocket, but there were too many for one
+pocket, and, in taking some of them out to put in a different
+receptacle, the little note which he had just received fluttered to the
+floor unperceived either by himself or his host.
+
+Shortly afterwards, Polly, the housemaid, brought her master a crumpled
+slip of paper, explaining that she had found it on the hall floor, and
+thought it might perhaps be something important. Without glancing at
+the address, or thinking much about the matter, Gilcrest opened the
+paper and read the contents before he realized that it was the note
+which had been handed to Drane a few minutes before. It read thus: "A
+sincere and disinterested friend warns 'A. D.' that he is to be
+summoned as a witness in the trial of B---- at F----, and advises him
+to leave the country at once, taking with him or destroying all
+compromising papers which he may have in his possession."
+
+After gazing at the note in amazement for a few moments, Gilcrest
+crossed over to the secretary in one corner of the room, and took from
+a locked receptacle the two papers which James Anson Drane, four years
+since, had exhibited to him in that room.
+
+As Gilcrest now sat musing with the two documents in his hand, he
+recalled several points which, had he not been so completely under the
+influence of the wily lawyer, would have aroused grave suspicions. One
+was the exceeding reluctance Drane had shown in regard to leaving the
+two papers at Oaklands; another was the singular fascination which, of
+late, the old mahogany secretary had seemed to hold for the lawyer; and
+still another was this, that once when Drane and Gilcrest were in this
+room, the latter had been called out. Returning unexpectedly, a moment
+later, he found Drane with his hand on the knob of that little locked
+inner drawer, as if he were trying to pull it open. At the time, Drane
+had averted suspicion by saying that he was examining the peculiar
+mechanism of the old and valuable secretary, and admiring its beautiful
+carving and workmanship.
+
+Major Gilcrest now also remembered that for several months prior to the
+showing of the two papers--in fact, ever since Logan's visit to
+Virginia--Drane had been dropping hints and insinuations against Abner.
+But Gilcrest recalled, too, that even earlier than this, Logan had
+once, in a conversation at Rogers' house, expressed the greatest
+admiration for Aaron Burr; also that he had been seen in what appeared
+to be close counsel with Wilkinson, Sebastian and Murray at the tavern
+on court day, and that he had visited Blennerhassett Island in company
+with Sebastian and Murray. So that for several years Gilcrest had
+entertained no doubt that his son-in-law was to some degree implicated
+in this treasonable movement. But now, having read that anonymous
+warning which Drane had dropped in the hall an hour since, Gilcrest was
+altogether puzzled. There could be no doubt that the initials "A. D."
+in the anonymous note stood, not for Abner Dudley, but for Anson Drane,
+who probably for greater security had dropped his first baptismal name
+in the correspondence with the intriguers. "Can it be," he thought,
+"that both men are implicated in this nefarious matter? For even if
+this letter from B. S. to A. D. was written to Anson Drane instead of
+Abner Dudley, this torn fragment, which is undoubtedly in Logan's
+handwriting, seems suspicious; but, perhaps, if I had the whole letter,
+the references in it would bear an entirely different construction to
+that which I have placed."
+
+Early Friday morning Gilcrest called for his horse, and rode to
+Lexington. Arriving there, he went straight to Drane's office, but
+found it locked. He then made inquiry at the young man's tavern, where
+he was told that Drane had left town very hurriedly the evening before,
+and had not said when he would return.
+
+That was the last time that James Anson Drane was seen in Kentucky.
+When the day set for Burr's trial in Frankfort arrived, Drane was
+sought in vain. Later, when Burr, Blennerhassett, and other
+conspirators, were arraigned at Natchez, and still later at Richmond,
+Drane was again in demand, but he had completely disappeared; and his
+exact connection with that famous episode of American history, the
+Aaron Burr conspiracy, was never known. About twelve years later, a man
+said to be very like him was reported as an influential and wealthy
+lawyer of St. Louis.
+
+
+Upon the same Thursday that Drane received at Oaklands the anonymous
+warning, Abner Logan, while at work in a field near the road, received
+from a passing packman a note which, the bearer said, had been given
+him for Logan, by a man whose name the peddler had forgotten, but who,
+as the peddler said, "lived down that way," pointing vaguely down the
+road. The messenger was not Simon Smith, the packman who periodically
+visited the neighborhood to sell his wares to the housewives
+thereabout, but a stranger. The note which he gave Logan was worded
+exactly as the one Drane had received an hour earlier at Oaklands.
+
+Abner's first feeling upon reading this missive was bewilderment as to
+the identity of the friend who had sent it; his second, indignation
+that any one should think him in any way implicated in the Burr affair.
+"'A sincere and disinterested friend,' indeed," he thought; "it's some
+ruse to get me into this queer business."
+
+Before receiving the anonymous communication, Logan, being desirous of
+hearing Clay and Daviess speak, had partly promised Mason Rogers, who
+felt a lively interest in the trial, to go with him to Frankfort. Logan
+now fully determined to let nothing prevent his going; and, fearing to
+alarm his wife, he resolved to say nothing of the warning he had
+received.
+
+Upon the following Tuesday evening Graham, the detective, came to
+Oaklands, and spent the night there. He was able to supply to Gilcrest
+at least one missing link of evidence--the fellow to the torn piece of
+letter to Charles M. Brady. This, with one or two other documents of a
+more or less compromising nature, Drane had overlooked in his haste to
+get out of the vicinity of Frankfort; and Graham, when he searched the
+apartment a few hours after Drane's escape, had found the papers in the
+escritoire.
+
+
+Early Wednesday morning Logan, in company of Mason Rogers, Samuel
+Trabue and William Hinkson, set out on horseback for the State capital.
+On the way they were overtaken by the Gilcrest coach-and-four driven by
+Uncle Zeke. In the coach sat Hiram Gilcrest, a strange gentleman from
+Louisville, and the pretended land agent, Graham. As the vehicle passed
+the four equestrians, Gilcrest gave a distant salutation to Trabue and
+Hinkson, who were riding on the left, but did not turn his head to the
+right where rode his son-in-law and his former bosom friend, Mason
+Rogers.
+
+The trial at Frankfort did not come off, because of Daviess' failure to
+secure the attendance of some important witnesses; but those people who
+were gathered at the court-house were by no means defrauded of
+entertainment; for they heard a brilliant debate between Henry Clay and
+Joseph Hamilton Daviess. The crowds that filled the floor, windows,
+galleries and platform of the big court-room remained for hours
+spellbound while these two renowned men, each stimulated by the other's
+thrilling oratory, and glowing with the ardent conviction of the
+justice of his cause, met in intellectual combat. Henry Clay was the
+leader of the popular political party in the State, and had the
+sympathy of the audience on his side. Daviess was a Federalist, and his
+prosecution was regarded by many of his hearers as simply a persecution
+of an unfortunate and innocent man who, from motives of political
+hatred only, was here arraigned as a traitor. Daviess, however, was
+made strong by his full conviction of Burr's guilt; moreover, this very
+infatuation of the audience, and the smiling security and
+self-assurance of the suspected traitor who sat before him, spurred
+Daviess to brilliant effort. But all was in vain, for the present at
+least; for, on account of the non-appearance of proper witnesses, the
+prosecution was dismissed--to the great rejoicing of the friends of
+Burr, who were at that time so under the spell of his fascinating
+personality that even had the court found a true bill against him, they
+would still have believed him innocent. To show their admiration and
+sympathy, these friends and admirers gave a grand public ball at
+Frankfort the next evening to celebrate "Aaron Burr's triumph over his
+enemies." This ball was followed by another equally brilliant given by
+the friends of Daviess, to show their admiration of him and their
+belief in the justice of his suit against Burr.
+
+Logan and his three companions returned from Frankfort late Thursday
+afternoon. On Saturday, as Logan was leaving the house after an early
+breakfast, he was astonished to see Hiram Gilcrest on horseback at the
+front gate. Abner hastened down the walk to meet him; but, instead of
+accepting the invitation to alight and enter the house, Major Gilcrest
+with stern dignity replied that he preferred to remain where he was,
+having called that morning, not to pay a visit, but to atone for an
+injustice of which he had for a number of years been guilty.
+
+Logan, thinking that the "injustice" had reference to Gilcrest's
+opposition to his daughter's marriage, replied that no explanation or
+apology was necessary, as the very fact that Major Gilcrest was there
+at Crestlands was apology enough. He again invited the Major to come
+in, urging the pleasure it would be to Betsy to welcome her father in
+her own house, and to have him see her little son William, now a fine
+little fellow two years old, and the tiny baby daughter. Hiram,
+however, again refused the invitation.
+
+"Mr. Logan," he said, "I have for some years back been greatly in error
+with regard to you, as the result of the base representations and lying
+statements of James Anson Drane, in whose character I have been most
+woefully deceived." Handing Logan the anonymous note that Drane had
+dropped in the hall, the letter from "B. S." to "A. D.," and the two
+torn parts of the letter to Charles Brady, he then entered into a full
+explanation of all the circumstances which had influenced him to think
+Logan a political traitor.
+
+When Gilcrest had finished his explanation, Logan replied that he was
+fully satisfied, and that he could not wonder that, under the
+circumstances, Major Gilcrest had been deceived. "But now," he went on,
+smiling cordially and extending his hand, "let us forget all hard
+feelings, and be to each other henceforth as father and son should be.
+Betty will be wild with happiness to welcome her father into her own
+home."
+
+But the stubborn old fellow would neither grasp his son-in-law's hand
+nor accept the invitation to enter the house. "No, Mr. Logan," he said
+firmly, "I am an honorable and, I hope, a just man; and my sense of
+honor and of justice prompted me to apologize for an unjust suspicion
+of you; but, sir," and his deep-set eyes flashed as he spoke, "though
+you are exonerated from all blame in this political intrigue, you are
+still guilty of a far greater wrong--that of alienating the affections
+of my child, my only daughter, of basely abducting her from her
+father's house, and well-nigh breaking that father's heart. That wrong,
+sir, I can never forget, and for that, sir, I can never forgive you."
+
+"But--but, Major Gilcrest, I beg of you," began Abner, earnestly; but
+Gilcrest would not listen, and, with a wave of his hand to command
+silence, he continued: "No explanation, no apology, no reparation, or
+prayer of either you or your wife, can atone. I shall never under any
+circumstances enter your door; but I will no longer forbid my wife to
+visit her daughter, nor object to you and your wife returning those
+visits. I bid you good morning, sir," and the proud and unyielding old
+man rode away.
+
+Several years later, Logan, while on a trip to Louisville, again
+encountered Graham, and learned from him that the strange peddler who
+had delivered the anonymous note to him and the one to Drane was Graham
+himself in disguise. He had employed this ruse to ascertain which of
+the two young men was the guilty one. When, in the guise of a land
+agent, he had in 1806 visited that region, his suspicions had already
+been slightly aroused against Drane. He had therefore managed to be
+much in the company of the young lawyer, who, if he suspected that
+Graham was other than he claimed to be, had the art to hide his
+suspicions, and in pretended unconsciousness and innocence had also
+managed to instill into the stranger's mind much doubt of Logan. These
+doubts were in a measure allayed by Graham's visit to Logan; but, to be
+entirely sure as to which was his man, he had resorted to the device of
+sending the two warnings, intending that the one who took alarm should
+be arrested. Drane, however, had been too swift in his movements, and
+had thus escaped.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIII.
+
+THE STRANGER PREACHER
+
+
+One Thursday in June, several years later, Major Gilcrest was returning
+from a business trip which had called him to a distant county. His road
+led him by a little log schoolhouse on the banks of Shanklin Creek.
+Here he found a meeting in progress in the locust grove surrounding the
+schoolhouse.
+
+When last he had been through this region, the little school building
+had been used occasionally as a Presbyterian meeting-house, there being
+no church building in the neighborhood. Accordingly, Gilcrest, thinking
+this a meeting of brethren of his own faith and order, tied his horse
+to a sapling, and, joining the congregation in the grove, sat down on a
+log not far from the speaker's stand, just as a minister was finishing
+his discourse. When he had concluded, a man who seemed to be the
+moderator of the meeting rose to speak.
+
+"We are sorry indeed to announce that our beloved Brother Elgood, who
+was next to have addressed us, is providentially hindered from being
+here to-day. This is a great disappointment; for we who know how
+powerful and eloquent Brother Elgood is, had hoped to be greatly
+edified by his discourse. It still lacks an hour and ten minutes to
+noon; and while we await the time for dinner to be spread in the
+grounds, another brother, a stranger from a distant part of the State,
+will speak." Thereupon, a tall, ungainly man of about forty years rose
+from a seat at the back of the platform and came forward. He was clad
+in copperas-dyed jeans trousers, ill-fitting cotton coat, and homespun
+shirt. He wore neither stock nor waistcoat, his trousers were baggy and
+too short for his long legs, and his cowhide shoes were covered with
+dust. His face was pale, his eyes deep set, his hair long and
+straggling, shoulders stooping, form gaunt to emaciation. The
+moderator's mode of introduction had not been one to reassure a timid
+man, nor to prepossess an audience favorably toward a speaker. The
+stranger came forward with ungraceful hesitation, and stood silently
+facing his audience. The people stared an instant at the uncouth
+figure; some laughed, and many turned to leave the auditorium, thinking
+that a stroll about the grounds, chatting with friends, would be a more
+agreeable pastime until lunch was served than to sit before this
+awkward fellow.
+
+Suddenly the stranger regained self-possession, and, drawing his figure
+up to its full height, he pointed a long forefinger at a group of
+people standing near, who were evidently making sport of him, and
+called out, "Thus cried Job unto his revilers, 'Suffer me that I may
+speak, and after that I have spoken, mock on.'" His penetrating tones
+reached every one in the grove. Some who had risen to leave, sat down,
+curious to know what manner of man this might be; but many more, after
+a moment's hesitation, started off again. He then cried in still louder
+tone, "'Hear, O my people, and I wilt testify unto thee, O Israel, if
+thou wilt but hearken unto me!'"
+
+Many more, now smiling and willing to be amused, returned to their
+places; but the speaker, seeing many groups still hesitating in the
+distance, cried out for the third time, with all the strength of his
+powerful lungs, "'Hear my words, O ye wise men; and give ear unto me,
+ye that have understanding; for the ear trieth words as the mouth
+tasteth meat.'"
+
+Then, as the last straggler returned to his seat, the speaker said with
+a winning smile which utterly changed the expression of his gaunt
+visage: "And now, friends, you are doubtless beset with curiosity as to
+who this strange fellow in butternut jeans and cowhide shoes may be;
+but it mattereth not who he is, whence he came, or whither he goeth.
+The message, not the man, is the important thing."
+
+Without a Bible he quoted his text, "'Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
+corner-stone, elect, precious; and he that believeth on him shall never
+be confounded' (1 Pet. 2:6); 'Other foundation can no man lay than that
+is laid, which is Jesus Christ' (1 Cor. 3: 11)."
+
+He described the church of apostolic days--its trials, its zeal, its
+simplicity, its oneness of aim. "The multitude of them that believed
+were of one heart and one soul," and "continued with one accord in
+prayer and supplication." He pointed out that this unity was not merely
+a spiritual and invisible union, but tangible, visible, organic, a
+union in which caste and nationality were ignored, and where Judean and
+Samaritan, Israelite and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, rich and poor,
+free and bond, formed one common brotherhood, working together with
+such harmony and power that, despite stripes and imprisonments,
+persecutions and tortures, they multiplied and strengthened, until
+idolatry was crushed, paganism vanquished, heathen philosophy
+confounded, and unbelief abashed.
+
+For a time, Hiram Gilcrest sat upon his log and listened to the
+speaker's vivid eloquence with a satisfaction which amounted to
+enthusiasm. "Would that this man," Gilcrest mused, "had been our pastor
+at Cane Ridge, instead of that mischief-brewer, that pestilent heretic,
+Barton Stone. Then our church would not have been led off into this
+schism." But as the stranger proceeded in his discourse, Gilcrest awoke
+to the fact that he was listening to what was in his opinion most
+dangerous doctrine.
+
+"To-day," the preacher said, "the church is so bound by the shackles of
+dogma and doctrine, so crippled by doubtful disputations over 'mint,
+anise and cumin,' that she is well-nigh powerless to carry on the task
+assigned to her, the evangelization of the world. Sectarianism, with
+her vermin swarm of envy, hatred, error, waste and confusion,
+devastates the land. In the kingdom of the 'Prince of peace' is heard
+the drum-beat of party warfare, where theology prevails against
+Christology, dogma against devotion, partyism against piety; and where
+the dictation of ecclesiastic councils is obeyed rather than the voice
+of Christ."
+
+His musical tones fixed the attention and thrilled every heart. Without
+gesture or excitement, his manner was quietly forcible, until he
+reached the second head of his theme. Then his spirit seemed to
+overleap all impediments; and, as if inspired, he proclaimed the
+sovereign efficacy of the sacrifice upon Calvary.
+
+"The existence and development of the church," he said, "rests not upon
+the acceptance of any system of opinion or tradition or interpretation,
+but upon the acknowledgment of Jesus as Redeemer and Messiah. 'Upon
+this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
+prevail against it,' was the reply of Jesus to Peter's confession,
+'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.' This is the one basic
+truth upon which rests all the testimony of prophet and apostle. This
+is the one sure foundation upon which the whole superstructure of the
+Christian life must be built. It is the one inspired creed and summary
+of the entire purpose and plan of the gospel.
+
+"Since the foundation of our faith," he continued, "is not a set of
+doctrinal tenets or a system of theological opinions, but a divine
+personality, it follows that the spirit of Christian unity must be as
+liberal and as broadly catholic as the spirit of Christ; and if we, the
+scattered hosts of the Lord's people, are ever to be brought together
+into one common bond of fellowship, we must each first learn to magnify
+our points of agreement upon all matters of Scriptural interpretation
+and exegesis, and to minimize our points of difference. Let us bear in
+mind that whether our own particular system of theology be based upon
+Calvin's predominating doctrine, the sovereignty of God and the
+unchangeableness of his decrees; or whether we, like Arminius, lay
+greater stress upon the doctrine of the freedom of the human will and
+man's individual responsibility; whether we be Calvinist or Arminian,
+Presbyterian or Methodist, Baptist or Quaker--we all worship the same
+God, and through the same Mediator. Therefore, laying aside all malice
+and envying and evil speaking and sectarian strife, let us preserve the
+'unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.'"
+
+Thus the stranger reasoned, and ere he had finished, Hiram Gilcrest,
+stripped of the armor under which he had so long battled for his stern
+creed, was left helpless and wounded; and the sharpest item of his
+defeat was this, that the Wellington of this Waterloo was proclaiming
+substantially the same doctrine as that of the hated Stone.
+
+His armor broken, his weapons captured, himself wounded, the old man
+sat with bowed head, too weak and crushed to quit the field until the
+sermon was finished. Then, unheeded, he threaded his way out of the
+throng. Awe at last stole over him as he rode slowly along the quiet
+lanes, with his hat slouched low over his face; and he was conscious of
+a deeper meaning in his favorite texts of Scripture than he had
+hitherto felt. Presently, however, he returned to his own habitual and
+(to him) more reassuring reasoning. "That fellow seems to think the
+whole ocean of God's eternal purpose and decree can be caught up and
+held in one little pint cup; and in his self-confident ignorance he
+looks upon the Lord's ways as though they were a child's reading-book
+which any man could learn at once. Even if there be truth in what he
+says, the simple gospel is too mild and too broad to be used thus
+freely. It would make the road to salvation toe easy for the
+transgressor. The Westminster Confession and the Shorter and Longer
+Catechisms are the skillful condensation and concentration of all
+Scripture truth. They are the framework of the church; and one might as
+well try to build a house without beams and rafters as to try to hold a
+church together without creeds and covenants and confessions of faith."
+
+He said nothing to any one of that sermon in the grove; but the next
+few weeks he searched the Scriptures as he had never done before. At
+first he sought to find texts to bolster up his preaccepted tenets, but
+as the weeks went by, and he grew more and more absorbed in the search,
+he began to study the Bible impartially and comprehensively; and,
+instead of being satisfied with fragments of truth taken here and there
+from disconnected texts, he studied the different passages with
+reference to their connected meaning. Reading, studying, pondering
+thus, his reason and judgment could not but admit the force of what
+Barton Stone and the other "New Light" ministers were teaching. Yes,
+his reason and judgment were at last convinced; yet this did not
+produce submission and a desire to acknowledge his error, but rather a
+feeling of resistance and defiance.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXIV.
+
+THE CUP OF COLD WATER
+
+
+In August of that same summer, Hiram Gilcrest, the man of strong nerve
+and iron constitution, whose boast it had been that he had never known
+a day's real sickness, was stricken down with disease, and after a few
+days of wasting illness, he was muttering in the delirium of typhus
+fever.
+
+He had never forgiven his daughter and her husband their runaway
+marriage. True, since the partial reconciliation of five years before,
+which had removed the ban of total non-communication between the two
+households, Betsy had occasionally visited her mother; but always, when
+at Oaklands, her father's manner, cold, distant, formal, had made her
+feel that not as a child of the house, nor even as an honored guest,
+but merely as a stranger, would she ever again be received in the home
+of her childhood. This was a great sorrow to her, the one dark cloud in
+the otherwise serene sky of her married happiness; and Logan, although
+he cared little on his own account for the cold looks and haughty
+demeanor of his father-in-law, loved his young wife too tenderly not to
+sorrow at her sorrow.
+
+Now that Major Gilcrest was ill, however, Abner and Betty forgot all
+his harsh injustice, and hurried to the bedside where he lay battling
+for life against the fire that filled his veins, sapped his strength
+and consumed his flesh. Mason Rogers, too, although he and Gilcrest had
+not spoken to each other since their stormy interview eight years
+before, now hearing of his old friend's illness, forgot all harsh words
+and thoughts, and hurried to Oaklands to offer assistance. Of
+Gilcrest's six children, only Betsy and Matthew, the first-born and the
+youngest, were there. Silas and Philip were in Massachusetts, students
+at Cambridge; John Calvin and Martin Luther, who had been among the
+first of those brave Kentucky volunteers to march to the defense of the
+territory of Indiana against the depredations of Tecumseh and the
+Prophet, were now with General Harrison at Vincennes.
+
+During the day, Betsy, who had left her three little children in the
+charge of the negress Marthy, shared with Aunt Dilsey the care of the
+sick man; and during the night watch Abner was his most constant
+attendant. Although Gilcrest was too delirious to recognize any one, it
+soon came to pass that no one else could influence him as could his
+once despised son-in-law; for poor Mrs. Gilcrest could not bear the
+sight of her husband's sufferings, and was hardly ever allowed to enter
+the room.
+
+All that the medical erudition of the time prescribed was done for the
+patient. He was bled twice a week, and smothered in blankets; he was
+poulticed and plastered, blistered and fomented; he was dosed with
+concoctions of fever-wort, boneset, burdock, pokeberry, mullein root,
+and other medicaments bitter of taste and vile of smell; and kept hot,
+weak, and miserable generally. Our forbears are represented to this
+generation as a brave, vigorous and healthy race; and no wonder, for
+disease in that heroic age was simply a question of the "survival of
+the fittest;" and the stringent remedies prescribed under the old
+dispensation were well calculated to eliminate all but the strongest
+members of the race.
+
+August and September passed, and still the master of Oaklands lay
+helpless, while fever raged in his gaunt frame with unrelenting
+violence. One thing was constantly denied him, fresh, cold water;
+although he pleaded with such pitiful agony that his nurses wept when
+they refused him. In delirium he talked of the old spring at his
+far-away childhood home--of the babbling music of the water as it
+sparkled over its pebbly bed and trickled down the rocky hillside--and
+again and again he pleaded for one draught of its reviving freshness.
+"Water! water!" was the burden of his plaint from morn till night, and
+from night till morn; and when too weak to speak, his hollow, bloodshot
+eyes still begged for water.
+
+Finally he was given up to die. "He can not last through the night,"
+was the verdict of the two physicians to the mourning ones around the
+bedside. His fainting wife was carried from the room; and his daughter,
+not able to endure the sight of his dying agonies, allowed her husband
+to lead her to her old room, where she threw herself across her bed in
+a paroxysm of grief. "Oh, father, father, my poor, dear old father!"
+she wailed, "if only you could speak to me again before you die, and
+tell me that you forgive me and love me. And my brothers, so far away!
+Oh, if you could be with us in this dark hour! It is so hard, so hard!"
+
+The doctors had left. Aunt Dilsey was upstairs in attendance upon her
+stricken mistress. The night wore on, and when the gray dawn was just
+beginning to creep into the chamber where Hiram Gilcrest lay
+unconscious and scarcely breathing, Mason Rogers and John Trabue, worn
+out with their long night's vigil, stole into an adjoining room to
+snatch an hour's rest. Only Abner Logan and William Bledsoe were left
+in attendance upon the dying man. Presently he opened his eyes and
+fixed his gaze on Abner.
+
+"Do you know me, Mr. Gilcrest?" asked Logan, tenderly touching the
+shrunken, parched hands.
+
+"Water! water!" was the reply; "for God's sake give me water! Have
+mercy, and let me have one drop before I die!"
+
+"You shall have it, sir," said Abner, his eyes filling. Then, to a
+negro boy who was just entering the room, he cried, "Run quickly to the
+spring-house, and fetch a bucket of water."
+
+"Are you not rash, Logan?" whispered Bledsoe. "You know the doctors
+have all along forbidden that."
+
+"But they have pronounced him dying; in any case the water can make no
+difference, and I can not resist his plea any longer."
+
+The water was brought, and Abner gave the sick man one sip, which was
+all he would take. To his fever-parched palate the water tasted a vile
+draught; and he turned from it in loathing and despair. With a tiny mop
+Logan then moistened the parched mouth with a solution of slippery elm.
+Presently the moan for water was again uttered, and now the fevered
+palate at last began to feel its coolness. With unnatural strength he
+seized the gourd, and drained its contents. "Bless you, my boy!" he
+exclaimed faintly; then fell back on his pillow exhausted, and dropped
+immediately into a deep sleep.
+
+"He's gone!" exclaimed Bledsoe, as he saw the perspiration gathering
+upon his brow. "He will never wake from this stupor," and again the
+sorrowing family were summoned. The solemnity of death reigned in the
+chamber, where the watchers restrained their weeping, and waited in
+awe-struck silence the approach of man's last grim foe.
+
+"He may live," Abner said at last as the moments passed and Gilcrest
+breathed on in quiet slumber.
+
+"If he does," responded Bledsoe, "that water will have saved him."
+
+Gilcrest slept on. Dawn gave place to full day, morning glided into
+afternoon. Late in the evening he awoke of his own accord, weak as a
+new-born babe, but with the fever gone and the light of reason once
+more in his sunken eyes.
+
+During the long weeks of convalescence that followed, while his body
+was slowly regaining vigor, his heart, too, was gradually expanding
+into a new spiritual life. He had ample time for reflection as he sat
+propped with pillows in the cushioned chair in his quiet room; and in
+those long hours of solitude and feeble helplessness, he first began to
+feel the need of a religion more healing and cheering than that which
+showed God only as an avenger, stern, partial and dictatorial.
+Gradually, and as naturally as a plant turns to the sun, his mind
+turned to that all-loving Father who, being "touched with a feeling for
+our infirmities," ever tempers his righteous judgments with tenderest
+mercy, and is ever yearning to deliver all from the penalty of sin.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXV.
+
+CONCLUSION
+
+
+Upon the third Sunday in November, while the congregation in Cane Ridge
+meeting-house was singing the opening hymn, Hiram Gilcrest entered,
+and, walking slowly down the aisle, seated himself upon the steps of
+the pulpit platform. All eyes were turned upon him, and for a moment
+there was a perceptible pause and break in the singing. Then Mason
+Rogers lined out the fifth stanza, and the congregation sang with
+redoubled zest.
+
+"Let us pray," said Barton Stone, coming forward with uplifted hands at
+the conclusion of the hymn; but Gilcrest arose, and, arresting him,
+stood facing the assembly. "Brethren," he said, "before we pray, allow
+me a few words. I have been a professor of religion for over forty
+years, and for twenty years of this time I was identified with this
+church. My walk was orderly, my conversation seemly. I gave tithes of
+all that I possessed, I was instant in season and out of season, and
+ever jealous for the well-being of the church. In things outward and, I
+thought, in things spiritual, I was a Christian; and though I was as
+self-righteous as any Pharisee, I was not a hypocrite, for I was
+self-deceived. In all these years I was as Simon the sorcerer, still
+'in the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity,' having neither
+part nor lot in true Christianity. But, brethren, the Lord in his mercy
+did at last reveal unto me the dark places of my soul wherein lurked
+pride, prejudice, vindictiveness, and all uncharitableness; and, like
+the publican, I cried, 'God be merciful to me, a sinner!'
+
+"For several years I have had at times an idea that in the position
+taken by this church in 1803, you were perhaps right and I wrong. A
+sermon by a strange preacher in a distant county last June further
+tended to convince me of this; but still I struggled with stubborn
+hardihood against the truth that was threatening to crush me. It was
+reserved for the Lord's own stroke to smite the rock and bring forth
+the sweet waters of repentance and confession. To-day I am here not so
+much because I have surrendered one jot or tittle of my former
+doctrinal tenets, as because of the conviction that no system of dogma,
+however true and logical, is of importance compared to this, that the
+professed followers of Jesus Christ should be a united people. I now
+see that whether the doctrines formulated by Calvin or those
+promulgated by Arminius be true, the acceptance of either
+interpretation of these disputed points does not constitute the vital
+essence of salvation. They are but matters of opinion, instead of the
+one supreme article of saving faith--belief in the redeeming efficacy
+of the sacrifice upon Calvary.
+
+"As I now understand the position taken by this congregation in 1803, I
+see that so far as it may be considered a distinctive religious
+movement, it is distinctive only in its denial of the binding authority
+of human organizations, and in its renunciation of humanly devised
+creeds as unscriptural and as opposed to the simplicity and unity of
+Christian people. Therefore, leaving out of the question all matters of
+opinion upon doctrinal theology, and standing, as you do, upon the one
+sure foundation-stone, faith in and reliance upon our crucified
+Redeemer, I come to you to-day, begging forgiveness for my opposition
+and vindictiveness, and asking that my own and my wife's name be
+replaced upon your church book, and that we be restored to your
+fellowship."
+
+Before he had finished, Barton Stone was beside him grasping his hand,
+but too overcome to utter a word. The congregation sat a moment in
+breathless silence, tears of sympathy and thankfulness in the eyes of
+even the most stolid. Then Mason Rogers, striding down the aisle, and
+facing the people, with one arm thrown over the shoulders of his old
+friend and comrade, lifted up his voice in thanksgiving. He prayed in
+his own homely words, but with fervency and fire as though his lips had
+indeed been touched with "a live coal from the altar."
+
+"Amen!" and "Amen!" were the exclamations from all parts of the
+building. Then, in a clear, full voice, he started the hymn:
+
+ "I'm not ashamed to own my Lord,
+ Nor to defend his cause."
+
+The congregation quickly joined in; and as the melody of noble old
+"Arlington" resounded through the building, the people left their
+seats, and, filing down the aisle, each in turn grasped the hand of the
+returned brother, and welcomed him again into fellowship.
+
+Thus, like a sincere and peace-loving Christian, Hiram Gilcrest once
+more took his place among his brethren, humbly and lovingly, with never
+again a trace of his former spirit of prejudice and dogmatic
+intolerance.
+
+
+As for the various other characters of this story, little more need be
+said.
+
+Barton Stone labored for many years in various fields of usefulness in
+Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Missouri. In 1843 he returned for a
+last visit to Cane Ridge. He was then an old man, bent and palsied, and
+so feeble that he had to be helped into the pulpit; but his eyes
+kindled with the old-time light, his bent form straightened with
+something of the old-time vigor, and his voice became full and vibrant
+as he stood facing that assembly where many seats were now occupied by
+the children and grandchildren of those who in this old meetinghouse
+forty years before had as a church renounced all human authoritative
+voice in matters of religious worship, and had resolved that
+henceforward the Bible should be their only rule of faith and practice,
+and belief in Jesus as the Christ their only creed. Stone preached this
+last sermon from the text of Paul's farewell to the brethren at
+Ephesus, "And now behold I know that ye all among whom I have gone
+preaching the kingdom of God shall see my face no more." He was truly
+the old man eloquent as, standing for the last time in that pulpit, he
+reviewed the past, spoke approvingly of the present, and admonished to
+future zeal. He died in 1844 in Missouri, and the following spring his
+remains were brought to Kentucky by the members of Cane Ridge Church,
+and reinterred in the old churchyard.
+
+Cane Ridge meeting-house is still used as a regular place of worship.
+Its log walls have been weather-boarded, its clapboard roof replaced by
+one of shingles, and its rough-hewn puncheon benches have given way to
+more comfortable seats. The quaint little window over the pulpit and
+the slaves' gallery opposite have been removed, and more modern heating
+appliance substituted for the old fireplace. Otherwise, the building is
+the same as it was one hundred years ago.
+
+To one who knows the history of its venerable walls and of those who
+rest in its old-fashioned graveyard, where, underneath the arching
+boughs of walnut and pine, oak and maple, there sleep Barton Stone and
+many others who took part in the first great religious movement of the
+nineteenth century, it is indeed a hallowed place. "What Geneva was to
+Calvin, Wittenberg to Luther, Edinburgh to Knox, and Epworth to the
+Wesleys,"[3] this beautiful nook of Bourbon County is to that great
+reformatory or restoratory movement inaugurated in 1803, whose plea was
+and still is the restoration of the simplicity, the freedom and the
+catholicity of apostolic Christianity; and whose dominant effort has
+ever been for the union of God's people upon the only efficient
+platform of Christian union, faith in Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.
+
+ [3] J. T. Sharrard.
+
+Mason Rogers and his bustling, kind-hearted wife lived to a ripe old
+age, happy in home, children and children's children, and in the
+affectionate regard of all who knew them. The warp of their daily life
+was plain and homely, but the bright threads of integrity and
+loving-kindness running through it, made it into a beautiful pattern,
+approved of all men.
+
+Henry Rogers, after finishing his course at Transylvania, dedicated his
+splendid talents to the ministry, winning many souls to Christ,
+enduring many trials, encountering much opposition from those professed
+Christians in whom the spirit of sectarian intolerance still held sway.
+Bravely he endured, and nobly he deserved, at the end of his long life
+of unselfishness, the plaudit, "Well done, good and faithful servant!"
+
+The strong bond of friendship between the Gilcrest, Rogers and Logan
+families was made still closer and stronger when John Calvin Gilcrest,
+at the close of the war of 1812, returned to Kentucky and married Susan
+Rogers.
+
+For Abner and Betsy Logan, the years as they sped onward brought an
+ever-increasing measure of happiness; for their love for each other had
+that steady, faithful, fireside quality which endures, and fills the
+daily life with peace and charm long after the first blaze of passion
+has sunk into the smouldering glow of sympathetic affection.
+
+Where once had stood their first humble log cabin, there arose in the
+course of a few years the new "Crestlands," a stately mansion of brick
+with spacious rooms, broad halls and pillared porches. This noble,
+historic homestead is to-day occupied by the fifth generation of
+Logans. Its founder, Abner Logan, realized his ideal; for his home
+became a center of peace and order, love and content--a radiating
+point, ever widening into increasing circles of beauty and usefulness;
+and the name, "Crestlands," is still a synonym for hospitality,
+integrity and Christian culture in that green and beautiful portion of
+"God's Country" called Cane Ridge.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+APPENDIX
+
+(SEE CHAPTER XXVI.)
+
+
+In June, 1804, the several ministers of the new organization met at
+Cane Ridge meeting-house, and drew up the "Last Will and Testament of
+Springfield Presbytery." A copy of this quaint and remarkable document
+is here subjoined:
+
+ THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF SPRINGFIELD PRESBYTERY
+
+ The Presbytery of Springfield, sitting at Caneridge, in the county
+ of Bourbon, in more than ordinary bodily health, growing in strength
+ and size daily; and in perfect soundness and composure of mind; but
+ knowing that it is appointed for all delegated bodies once to die;
+ and considering that the life of every such body is very uncertain,
+ do make and ordain this our last Will and Testament, in manner and
+ form following, viz.:
+
+ _Imprimis._ We _will_, that this body die, be dissolved, and sink
+ into union with the Body of Christ at large; for there is but one
+ body, and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our
+ calling.
+
+ _Item._ We _will_, that our name of distinction, with its _Reverend_
+ title, be forgotten, that there be but one Lord over God's heritage,
+ and His name one.
+
+ _Item._ We _will_, that our power of making laws for the government
+ of the church, and executing them by delegated authority, forever
+ cease; that the people may have free course to the Bible, and adopt
+ _the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus_.
+
+ _Item._ We _will_, that candidates for the Gospel ministry
+ henceforth study the Holy Scriptures with fervent prayer, and obtain
+ license from God to preach the simple Gospel, _with the Holy Ghost
+ sent down from heaven_, without any mixture of philosophy, vain
+ deceit, traditions of men, or the rudiments of the world. And let
+ none henceforth take _this honor to himself, but he that is called
+ of God, as was Aaron_.
+
+ _Item._ We _will_, that the church of Christ resume her native right
+ of internal government--try her candidates for the ministry, at to
+ their soundness in the faith, acquaintance with experimental
+ religion, gravity and aptness to teach; and admit no other proof of
+ their authority but Christ speaking in them. We will, that the
+ church of Christ look up to the Lord of the harvest to send forth
+ laborers into His harvest; and that she resume her primitive right
+ to try those _who say they are apostles, and are not_.
+
+ _Item._ We _will_, that each particular church, as a body, actuated
+ by the same spirit, choose her own preacher, and support him by a
+ freewill offering, without a written _call_ or _subscription_--admit
+ members, remove offences; and never henceforth _delegate_ her right
+ of government to any man or set of men whatever.
+
+ _Item._ We _will_, that the people henceforth take the Bible as the
+ only sure guide to heaven; and as many as are offended with other
+ books, which stand in competition with it, may cast them into the
+ fire if they choose; for it is better to enter into life having one
+ book, than having many to be cast into hell.
+
+ _Item._ We _will_, that preachers and people cultivate a spirit of
+ mutual forbearance; pray more and dispute less; and while they
+ behold the signs of the times, look up, and confidently expect that
+ redemption draweth nigh.
+
+ _Item._ We _will_, that our weak brethren who may have been wishing
+ to make the Presbytery of Springfield their king, and know not what
+ is now become of it, betake themselves to the Rock of Ages, and
+ follow Jesus for the future.
+
+ _Item._ We _will_, that the Synod of Kentucky examine every member
+ who may be _suspected_ of having departed from the Confession of
+ Faith, and suspend every such suspected heretic immediately; in
+ order that the oppressed may go free, and taste the sweets of gospel
+ liberty.
+
+ _Item._ We _will_, that Ja---- ----, the author of the two letters
+ lately published in Lexington, be encouraged in his zeal to destroy
+ _partyism_. We will, moreover, that our past conduct be examined
+ into by all who may have correct information; but let foreigners
+ beware of speaking evil of things which they know not.
+
+ _Item._ Finally we _will_, that all our _sister bodies_ read their
+ Bibles carefully, that they may see their fate there determined, and
+ prepare for death before it is too late.
+
+ Springfield Presbytery, }
+ June 28th, 1804. } L. S.
+
+ ROBERT MARSHALL, }
+ JOHN DUNLAVY, }
+ RICHARD MCNEMAR, }
+ B. W. STONE, } Witnesses.
+ JOHN THOMPSON, }
+ DAVID PURVIANCE, }
+
+
+There seemed to be throughout the United States at about this time a
+growing realization among Christian people of the fact that the one
+essential principle of Protestant Christianity--belief in and
+acceptance of Jesus as Redeemer and Christ--was already held in common
+by all evangelical denominations. Hence, soon after this there began in
+widely separated parts of the country various other movements similar
+in aim and method to that inaugurated in Kentucky by the dissolution of
+the Springfield Presbytery.
+
+It is only needed that these various movements become known to each
+other in order to become united. This union was effected in 1882; and
+rapidly crystalized into a body whose only distinguishing name is
+"Christian" or "Disciple," and whose differential character lies not in
+its advocacy of any new doctrine or theological tenet whatever; but in
+its rejection of that which in the way of human speculation, human
+interpretation and human dogma has been added to the original simple
+and all-comprehending faith of the apostolic church.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Crestlands, by Mary Addams Bayne
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