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diff --git a/44547-h/44547-h.htm b/44547-h/44547-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b551372 --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/44547-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1610 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Polly, by Thomas Nelson Page. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2, h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + text-indent: 1.25em; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + + + .maintitle {font-size: 200%; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;} + .copyright {text-align: center; font-size: 70%;} + + img {border: 0;} +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +hr.chap {width: 65%} + + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + + + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold; font-size: 90%;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align:baseline; + position: relative; + bottom: 0.33em; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + +/*Drop caps*/ +.drop-cap { + text-indent: 0em; +} +.drop-cap:first-letter +{ + float: left; + margin: 0.15em 0.1em 0em 0em; + font-size: 250%; + line-height:0.5em; +} +@media handheld +{ + .drop-cap:first-letter + { + float: none; + margin: 0; + font-size: 100%; + } +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44547 ***</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 561px;"> +<img src="images/cover.jpg" width="561" height="800" alt="cover" /> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /> + + + + +<div class='maintitle'>POLLY</div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<div class='center'>IN UNIFORM STYLE<br />—————</div> + + + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="Book titles"> +<tr><td align="left">MARSE CHAN. A Tale of Old Virginia. Illustrated by W. T. Smedley.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">MEH LADY. A Story of the War. Illustrated by C. S. Reinhart.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">POLLY. A Christmas Recollection. Illustrated by A. Castaigne.</td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">UNC' EDINBURG. A Plantation Echo. Illustrated by B. West Clinedinst.</td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<div class='center'> +<i>Each, small quarto, $1.00</i><br /> +</div> + +<hr class="chap" /> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 441px;"><a id="frontis"></a> +<img src="images/frontis.jpg" width="441" height="600" alt="young man and young woman on horses" /> +<div class="caption">"<i>The young man found it necessary to lean over and +throw a steadying arm around her.</i>"</div> +</div> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h1>POLLY +<img src="images/title-1.png" width="319" height="37" alt="five leaves" /> +</h1> + +<div class='center'><br />A CHRISTMAS RECOLLECTION<br /> + +<br /> +BY THOMAS NELSON PAGE<br /> +<br /> +ILLUSTRATED BY A. CASTAIGNE<br /><br /><br /><br /> +</div> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 95px;"> +<img src="images/title-2.png" width="95" height="55" alt="two leaves" /> +</div> + +<div class='center'><br /><br /><br /> +CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS<br /> +NEW YORK, 1897 <img src="images/title-3.png" width="122" height="31" alt="three leaves" /> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap" /> + + +<div class='copyright'> +Copyright, 1894, by<br /> +Charles Scribner's Sons<br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +<small>TROW DIRECTORY</small><br /> +<small>PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPAN</small>Y<br /> +<small>NEW YORK</small><br /> +</div> + + + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<h2>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table"> +<tr><td align="left">"<i>The young man found it necessary to lean over and throw a steadying arm around her.</i>"</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#frontis">Frontispiece.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left"><i>Vignette heading.</i></td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">Page 1.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"<i>Drinkwater Torm fell sprawling on the floor.</i>"</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_10">Page 10.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"<i>'I will!' he said, throwing up his head.</i>"</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_22">Page 22.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"<i>There he was standing on the bridge just before her.</i>"</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_30">Page 30.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">"<i>He made Torm, Charity, and a half-dozen younger house-servants dress him.</i>"</td> +<td align="right"><a href="#Page_38">Page 38.</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="chap" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/image001.jpg" width="500" height="348" alt="man walking" /> +</div> + + +<div class='drop-cap'>IT was Christmas Eve. I remember it just as if it +was yesterday. The Colonel had been pretending +not to notice it, but when Drinkwater Torm<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> +knocked over both the great candlesticks, and in his +attempt to pick them up lurched over himself and fell +sprawling on the floor, he yelled at him. Torm pulled +himself together, and began an explanation, in which +the point was that he had not "teched a drap in Gord +knows how long," but the Colonel cut him short.</div> + +<p>"Get out of the room, you drunken vagabond!" +he roared.</p> + +<p>Torm was deeply offended. He made a low, grand +bow, and with as much dignity as his unsteady condition<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span> +would admit, marched very statelily from the +room, and passing out through the dining-room, where +he stopped to abstract only one more drink from the +long, heavy, cut-glass decanter on the sideboard, meandered +to his house in the back-yard, where he proceeded +to talk religion to Charity, his wife, as he always +did when he was particularly drunk. He was expounding +the vision of the golden candlestick, and the bowl +and seven lamps and two olive-trees, when he fell +asleep.</p> + +<p>The roarer, as has been said, was the Colonel; the +meanderer was Drinkwater Torm. The Colonel gave +him the name, "because," he said, "if he were to drink +water once he would die."</p> + +<p>As Drinkwater closed the door, the Colonel continued, +fiercely:</p> + +<p>"Damme, Polly, I will! I'll sell him to-morrow +morning; and if I can't sell him I'll give him away."</p> + +<p>Polly, with troubled great dark eyes, was wheedling +him vigorously.</p> + +<p>"No; I tell you, I'll sell him.—'Misery in his +back!' the mischief! he's a drunken, trifling, good-for-nothing +nigger! and I have sworn to sell him a +thousand—yes, ten thousand times; and now I'll have +to do it to keep my word."</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> + +<p>This was true. The Colonel swore this a dozen +times a day—every time Torm got drunk, and as that +had occurred very frequently for many years before +Polly was born, he was not outside of the limit. +Polly, however, was the only one this threat ever +troubled. The Colonel knew he could no more have +gotten on without Torm than his old open-faced watch, +which looked for all the world like a model of himself, +could have run without the mainspring. From tying +his shoes and getting his shaving-water to making his +juleps and lighting his candles, which was all he had to +do, Drinkwater Torm was necessary to him. (I think +he used to make the threat just to prove to himself that +Torm did not own him; if so, he failed in his purpose—Torm +did own him.) Torm knew it as well as he, +or better; and while Charity, for private and wifely +reasons, occasionally held the threat over him when +his expoundings passed even her endurance, she knew +it also.</p> + +<p>Thus, Polly was the only one it deceived or frightened. +It always deceived her, and she never rested +until she had obtained Torm's reprieve "for just one +more time." So on this occasion, before she got +down from the Colonel's knees, she had given him +in bargain "just one more squeeze," and received in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +return Torm's conditional pardon, "only till next +time."</p> + +<p>Everybody in the county knew the Colonel, and +everybody knew Drinkwater Torm, and everybody +who had been to the Colonel's for several years past +(and that was nearly everybody in the county, for the +Colonel kept open house) knew Polly. She had been +placed in her chair by the Colonel's side at the club +dinner on her first birthday after her arrival, and had +been afterward placed on the table and allowed to +crawl around among and in the dishes to entertain the +gentlemen, which she did to the applause of every one, +and of herself most of all; and from that time she had +exercised in her kingdom the functions of both Vashti +and Esther, and whatever Polly ordered was done. If +the old inlaid piano in the parlor had been robbed of +strings, it was all right, for Polly had taken them. +Bob had cut them out for her, without a word of protest +from anyone but Charity. The Colonel would +have given her his heartstrings if Polly had required +them.</p> + +<p>She had owned him body and soul from the second +he first laid eyes on her, when, on the instant he entered +the room, she had stretched out her little chubby +hands to him, and on his taking her had, after a few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +infantile caresses, curled up and, with her finger in her +mouth, gone to sleep in his arms like a little white +kitten.</p> + +<p>Bob used to wonder in a vague, boyish way where +the child got her beauty, for the Colonel weighed two +hundred and fifty pounds, and was as ugly as a red +head and thirty or forty years of Torm's mint-juleps +piled on a somewhat reckless college career could +make him; but one day, when the Colonel was away +from home, Charity showed him a daguerreotype of a +lady, which she got out of the top drawer of the +Colonel's big secretary with the brass lions on it, and +it looked exactly like Polly. It had the same great +big dark eyes and the same soft white look, though +Polly was stouter; for she was a great tomboy, and +used to run wild over the place with Bob, climbing +cherry-trees, fishing in the creek, and looking as blooming +as a rose, with her hair all tangled over her +pretty head, until she grew quite large, and the +Colonel got her a tutor. He thought of sending her +to a boarding-school, but the night he broached the +subject he raised such a storm, and Polly was in such +a tempest of tears, that he gave up the matter at once. +It was well he did so, for Polly and Charity cried all +night and Torm was so overcome that even next<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +morning he could not bring the Colonel his shaving-water, +and he had to shave with cold water for the +first time in twenty years. He therefore employed a +tutor. Most people said the child ought to have had +a governess, and one or two single ladies of forgotten +age in the neighborhood delicately hinted that they +would gladly teach her; but the Colonel swore that +he would have no women around him, and he would +be eternally condemned if any should interfere with +Polly; so he engaged Mr. Cranmer, and invited Bob +to come over and go to school to him also, which he +did; for his mother, who had up to that time taught +him herself, was very poor, and was unable to send +him to school, her husband, who was the Colonel's +fourth cousin, having died largely indebted, and all +of his property, except a small farm adjoining the +Colonel's, and a few negroes, having gone into the +General Court.</p> + +<p>Bob had always been a great favorite with the +Colonel, and ever since he was a small boy he had +been used to coming over and staying with him.</p> + +<p>He could gaff a chicken as well as Drinkwater +Torm, which was a great accomplishment in the +Colonel's eyes; for he had the best game-chickens in +the county, and used to fight them, too, matching<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +them against those of one or two of his neighbors who +were similarly inclined, until Polly grew up and made +him stop. He could tame a colt quicker than anybody +on the plantation. Moreover he could shoot +more partridges in a day than the Colonel, and could +beat him shooting with a pistol as well, though the +Colonel laid the fault of the former on his being so fat, +and that of the latter on his spectacles. They used to +practice with the Colonel's old pistols that hung in +their holsters over the tester of his bed, and about +which Drinkwater used to tell so many lies; for although +they were kept loaded, and their brass-mounted +butts peeping out of their leathern covers used to look +ferocious enough to give some apparent ground for +Torm's story of how "he and the Colonel had shot +Judge Cabell spang through the heart," the Colonel +always said that Cabell behaved very handsomely, and +that the matter was arranged on the field without a +shot. Even at that time some people said that Bob's +mother was trying to catch the Colonel, and that if the +Colonel did not look out she would yet be the mistress +of his big plantation. And all agreed that the +boy would come in for something handsome at the +Colonel's death; for Bob was his cousin and his nearest +male relative, if Polly <i>was</i> his niece, and he would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +hardly leave her all his property, especially as she was +so much like her mother, with whom, as everybody +knew, the Colonel had been desperately in love, but +who had treated him badly, and, notwithstanding his +big plantation and many negroes, had run away with +his younger brother, and both of them had died in the +South of yellow fever, leaving of all their children only +this little Polly; and the Colonel had taken Drinkwater +and Charity, and had travelled in his carriage all +the way to Mississippi, to get and bring Polly back.</p> + +<p>It was Christmas Eve when they reached home, and +the Colonel had sent Drinkwater on a day ahead to +have the fires made and the house aired for the baby; +and when the carriage drove up that night you would +have thought a queen was coming, sure enough.</p> + +<p>Every hand on the plantation was up at the great +house waiting for them, and every room in the house +had a fire in it. (Torm had told the overseer so many +lies that he had had the men cutting wood all day, although +the regular supply was already cut.) And +when Charity stepped out of the carriage, with the +baby all bundled up in her arms, making a great show +about keeping it wrapped up, and walked up the steps +as slowly as if it were made of gold, you could have +heard a pin drop; even the Colonel fell back, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +spoke in a whisper. The great chamber was given +up to the baby, the Colonel going to the wing room, +where he always stayed after that. He spoke of sitting +up all night to watch the child, but Charity assured +him that she was not going to take her eyes off +of her during the night, and with a promise to come in +every hour and look after them, the Colonel went to +his room, where he snored until nine o'clock the next +morning.</p> + +<p>But I was telling what people said about Bob's +mother.</p> + +<p>When the report reached the Colonel about the +widow's designs, he took Polly on his knees and told +her all about it, and then both laughed until the tears +ran down the Colonel's face and dropped on his big +flowered vest and on Polly's little blue frock; and he +sent the widow next day a fine short-horned heifer to +show his contempt of the gossip.</p> + +<p>And now Bob was the better shot of the two; and +they taught Polly to shoot also, and to load and unload +the pistols, at which the Colonel was as proud as if one +of his young stags had whipped an old rooster.</p> + +<p>But they never could induce her to shoot at anything +except a mark. She was the tenderest-hearted +little thing in the world.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span></p> + +<p>If her taste had been consulted she would have selected +a crossbow, for it did not make such a noise, +and she could shoot it without shutting her eyes; besides +that, she could shoot it in the house, which, indeed, +she did, until she had shot the eyes out of nearly +all the bewigged gentlemen and bare-necked, long-fingered +ladies on the walls. Once she came very near +shooting Torm's eye out also; but this was an accident, +though Drinkwater declared it was not, and tried to +make out that Bob had put her up to it. "Dat's +de mischievouses' boy Gord uver made," he said, complainingly, +to Charity. Fortunately, his eye got well, +and it gave him an excuse for staying half drunk for +nearly a week; and afterward, like a dog that has once +been lame in his hind-leg, whenever he saw Polly, and +did not forget it, he squinted up that eye and tried to +look miserable. Polly was quite a large girl then, and +was carrying the keys (except when she lost them), +though she could not have been more than twelve +years old; for it was just after this that the birthday +came when the Colonel gave her her first real silk +dress. It was blue silk, and came from Richmond, +and it was hard to tell which was the proudest, Polly, +or Charity, or Drinkwater, or the Colonel. Torm got +drunk before the dinner was over, "drinking de<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +healthsh to de young mistis in de sky-blue robes what +stands befo' de throne, you know," he explained to +Charity, after the Colonel had ordered him from the +dining-room, with promises of prompt sale on the +morrow.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 436px;"> +<img src="images/facing010.jpg" width="436" height="600" alt="Corlonel and with child on lap, man sprawled on floor in front of fire" /> +<div class="caption">"<i>Drinkwater Torm fell sprawling on the floor.</i>"</div> +</div> + +<p>Bob was there, and it was the last time Polly ever +sucked her thumb. She had almost gotten out of the +habit anyhow, and it was in a moment of forgetfulness +that she let Bob see her do it. He was a great tease, +and when she was smaller had often worried her about +it until she would fly at him and try to bite him with +her little white teeth. On this occasion, however, she +stood everything until he said that about a girl who +wore a blue silk dress sucking her thumb; then she +boxed his jaws. The fire flew from his eyes, but hers +were even more sparkling. He paused for a minute, +and then caught her in his arms and kissed her violently. +She never sucked her thumb after that.</p> + +<p>This happened out in front of her mammy's house, +within which Torm was delivering a powerful exhortation +on temperance; and, strange to say, Charity took +Bob's side, while Torm espoused Polly's, and afterward +said she ought to have "tooken a stick and knocked +Marse Bob's head spang off." This, fortunately, Polly +did not do (and when Bob went to the university afterward<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +he was said to have the best head in his class). +She just turned around and ran into the house, with +her face very red. But she never slapped Bob after +that. Not long after this he went off to college; for +Mr. Cranmer, the tutor, said he already knew more +than most college graduates did, and that it would be +a shame for him not to have a university education. +When the question of ways and means was mooted, +the Colonel, who was always ready to lend money if +he had it, and to borrow it if he did not, swore he +would give him all the money he wanted; but, to his +astonishment, Bob refused to accept it, and although +the Colonel abused him for it, and asked Polly if she +did not think he was a fool (which Polly did, for she +was always ready to take and spend all the money he +or any one else gave her), yet he did not like him the +less for it, and he finally persuaded Bob to take it as a +loan, and Bob gave him his bond.</p> + +<p>The day before he left home he was over at the +Colonel's, where they had a great dinner for him, and +Polly presided in her newest silk dress (she had three +then); and when Bob said good-by she slipped something +into his hand, and ran away to her room, and +when he looked at it, it was her ten-dollar gold piece, +and he took it.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<p>He was at college not quite three years, for his +mother was taken sick, and he had to come home and +nurse her; but he had stood first in most of his classes, +and not lower than third in any; and he had thrashed +the carpenter on Vinegar Hill, who was the bully of +the town. So that although he did not take his degree, +he had gotten the start which enabled him to +complete his studies during the time he was taking +care of his mother, which he did until her death, so +that as soon as he was admitted to the bar he made his +mark. It was his splendid defence of the man who +shot the deputy-sheriff at the court-house on election +day that brought him out as the Democratic candidate +for the Constitutional Convention, where he made such +a reputation as a speaker that the <i>Enquirer</i> declared him +the rising man of the State; and even the <i>Whig</i> admitted +that perhaps the Loco-foco party might find a +leader to redeem it. Polly was just fifteen when she +began to take an interest in politics; and although she +read the papers diligently, especially the <i>Enquirer</i>, +which her uncle never failed to abuse, yet she never +could exactly satisfy herself which side was right; for +the Colonel was a stanch Whig, while most people +must have been Democrats, as Bob was elected by a +big majority. She wanted to be on the Colonel's side,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +and made him explain everything to her, which he did +to his own entire satisfaction, and to hers too, she tried +to think; but when Bob came over to tea, which he +very frequently did, and the Colonel and he got into a +discussion, her uncle always seemed to her to get the +worst of the argument; at any rate, he generally got +very hot. This, however, might have been because +Bob was so cool, while the Colonel was so hot-tempered.</p> + +<p>Bob had grown up very handsome. His mouth +was strong and firm, and his eyes were splendid. He +was about six feet, and his shoulders were as broad as +the Colonel's. She did not see him now as often as +she did when he was a boy, but it was because he was +kept so busy by his practice. (He used to get cases +in three or four counties now, and big ones at that.) +She knew, however, that she was just as good a friend +of his as ever; indeed, she took the trouble to tell herself +so. A compliment to him used to give her the +greatest happiness, and would bring deeper roses into +her cheeks. He was the greatest favorite with everybody. +Torm thought that there was no one in the +world like him. He had long ago forgiven him his +many pranks, and said "he was the grettest gent'man +in the county skusin him [Torm] and the Colonel,"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +and that "he al'ays handled heself to be raisin'," by +which Torm made indirect reference to regular donations +made to him by the aforesaid "gent'man," and +particularly to an especially large benefaction then +lately conferred. It happened one evening at the +Colonel's, after dinner, when several guests, including +Bob, were commenting on the perfections of various +ladies who were visiting in the neighborhood that summer. +The praises were, to Torm's mind, somewhat +too liberally bestowed, and he had attempted to console +himself by several visits to the pantry; but when +all the list was disposed of, and Polly's name had not +been mentioned, endurance could stand it no longer, +and he suddenly broke in with his judgment that they +"didn't none on 'em hol' a candle to his young mistis, +whar wuz de ve'y pink an' flow'r on 'em all."</p> + +<p>The Colonel, immensely pleased, ordered him out, +with a promise of immediate sale on the morrow. But +that evening, as he got on his horse, Bob slipped into +his hand a five-dollar gold piece, and he told Polly +that if the Colonel really intended to sell Torm, just to +send him over to his house; he wanted the benefit of +his judgment.</p> + +<p>Polly, of course, did not understand his allusion, +though the Colonel had told her of Torm's speech; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +Bob had a rose on his coat when he came out of the +window, and the long pin in Polly's bodice was not +fastened very securely, for it slipped, and she lost all +her other roses, and he had to stoop and pick them up +for her. Perhaps, though, Bob was simply referring to +his having saved some money, for shortly afterward he +came over one morning, and, to the Colonel's disgust, +paid him down in full the amount of his bond. He +attempted a somewhat formal speech of thanks, but +broke down in it so lamentably that two juleps were +ordered out by the Colonel to reinstate easy relations +between them—an effect which apparently was not +immediately produced—and the Colonel confided to +Polly next day that since the fellow had been taken +up so by those Loco-focos he was not altogether as he +used to be.</p> + +<p>"Why, he don't even drink his juleps clear," the old +man asserted, as if he were charging him with, at the +least, misprision of treason. "However," he added, +softening as the excuse presented itself to his mind, +"that may be because his mother was always so opposed +to it. You know mint never would grow there," +he pursued to Polly, who had heard him make the +same observation, with the same astonishment, a hundred +times. "Strangest thing I ever knew. But he's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +a confoundedly clever fellow, though, Polly," he continued, +with a sudden reviving of the old-time affection. +"Damme! I like him." And, as Polly's face turned +a sweet carmine, added: "Oh, I forgot, Polly; didn't +mean to swear; damme! if I did. It just slipped out. +Now I haven't sworn before for a week; you know I +haven't; yes, of course, I mean except <i>then</i>." For +Polly, with softly fading color, was reading him the +severest of lectures on his besetting sin, and citing an +ebullition over Torm's failing of the day before. +"Come and sit down on your uncle's knee and kiss +him once as a token of forgiveness. Just one more +squeeze," as the fair girlish arms were twined about his +neck, and the sweetest of faces was pressed against his +own rough cheek. "Polly, do you remember," asked +the old man, holding her off from him and gazing at +the girlish face fondly—"do you remember how, when +you were a little scrap, you used to climb up on my +knee and squeeze me, 'just once more,' to save that +rascal Drinkwater, and how you used to say you were +'going to marry Bob' and me when you were grown +up?"</p> + +<p>Polly's memory, apparently, was not very good. +That evening, however, it seemed much better, when, +dressed all in soft white, and with cheeks reflecting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +the faint tints of the sunset clouds, she was strolling +through the old flower-garden with a tall young fellow +whose hat sat on his head with a jaunty air, and who +was so very careful to hold aside the long branches of +the rose-bushes. They had somehow gotten to recalling +each in turn some incident of the old boy-and-girl +days. Bob knew the main facts as well as she, +but Polly remembered the little details and circumstances +of each incident best, except those about the +time they were playing "knucks" together. Then, +singularly, Bob recollected most. He was positive +that when she cried because he shot so hard, he had +kissed her to make it well. Curiously, Polly's recollection +failed again, and was only distinct about very +modern matters. She remembered with remarkable +suddenness that it was tea-time.</p> + +<p>They were away down at the end of the garden, +and her lapse of memory had a singular effect on +Bob; for he turned quite pale, and insisted that she +did remember it; and then said something about having +wanted to see the Colonel, and having waited, +and did so strangely that if that rose-bush had not +caught her dress, he might have done something else. +But the rose-bush caught her dress, and Polly, who +looked really scared at it or at something, ran away<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +just as the Colonel's voice was heard calling them to +tea.</p> + +<p>Bob was very silent at the table, and when he left, +the Colonel was quite anxious about him. He asked +Polly it she had not noticed his depression. Polly +had not.</p> + +<p>"That's just the way with you women," said the +Colonel, testily. "A man might die under your very +eyes, and you would not notice it. <i>I</i> noticed it, and I +tell you the fellow's sick. I say he's sick!" he reiterated, +with a little habit he had acquired since he +had begun to grow slightly deaf. "I shall advise him +to go away and have a little fling somewhere. He +works too hard, sticks too close at home. He never +goes anywhere except here, and he don't come here as +he used to do. He ought to get married. Advise +him to get married. Why don't he set up to Sally +Brent or Malviny Pegram? He's a likely fellow, and +they'd both take him—fools if they didn't;—I say they +are fools if they didn't. What say?"</p> + +<p>"I didn't say anything," said Polly, quietly going to +the piano.</p> + +<p>Her music often soothed the Colonel to sleep.</p> + +<p>The next morning but one Bob rode over, and instead +of hooking his horse to the fence as he usually<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +did, he rode on around toward the stables. He greeted +Torm, who was in the backyard, and after extracting +some preliminary observations from him respecting the +"misery in his back," he elicited the further facts that +Miss Polly was going down the road to dine at the +Pegrams', of which he had some intimation before, and +that the Colonel was down on the river farm, but would +be back about two o'clock. He rode on.</p> + +<p>At two o'clock promptly Bob returned. The +Colonel had not yet gotten home. He, however, dismounted, +and, tying his horse, went in. He must +have been tired of sitting down, for he now walked up +and down the portico without once taking a seat.</p> + +<p>"Marse Bob'll walk heself to death," observed +Charity to Torm, from her door.</p> + +<p>Presently the Colonel came in, bluff, warm, and +hearty. He ordered dinner from the front gate as he +dismounted, and juleps from the middle of the walk, +greeted Bob with a cheeriness which that gentleman in +vain tried to imitate, and was plumped down in his +great split-bottomed chair, wiping his red head with +his still redder bandana handkerchief, and abusing the +weather, the crops, the newspapers, and his overseer +before Bob could get breath to make a single remark. +When he did, he pitched in on the weather.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span></p> + +<p>That is a safe topic at all times. It was astonishing +how much comfort Bob got out of it this afternoon. +He talked about it until dinner began to come in +across the yard, the blue china dishes gleaming in the +hands of Phœbe and her numerous corps of ebon and +mahogany assistants, and Torm brought out the juleps, +with the mint looking as if it were growing in the +great silver cans, with frosted work all over the sides.</p> + +<p>Dinner was rather a failure, so far as Bob was concerned. +Perhaps he missed something that usually +graced the table; perhaps only his body was there, +while he himself was down at Miss Malviny Pegram's; +perhaps he had gone back and was unfastening an impertinent +rose-bush from a filmy white dress in the +summer twilight; perhaps—; but anyhow he was so +silent and abstracted that the Colonel rallied him good-humoredly, +which did not help matters.</p> + +<p>They had adjourned to the porch, and had been +there for some time, when Bob broached the subject of +his visit.</p> + +<p>"Colonel," he said, suddenly, and wholly irrelevant +to everything that had gone before, "there is a matter +I want to speak to you about—a—ah—we—a little +matter of great importance to—ah—myself." He was +getting very red and confused, and the Colonel instantly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +divining the matter, and secretly flattering himself, +and determining to crow over Polly, said, to help +him out:</p> + +<p>"Aha, you rogue, I knew it. Come up to the +scratch, sir. So you are caught at last. Ah, you sly +fox! It's the very thing you ought to do. Why, I +know half a dozen girls who'd jump at you. I knew +it. I said so the other night. Polly—"</p> + +<p>Bob was utterly off his feet by this time. "I want +to ask your consent to marry Polly," he blurted out +desperately; "I love her."</p> + +<p>"The devil you do!" exclaimed the Colonel. He +could say no more; he simply sat still, in speechless, +helpless, blank amazement. To him Polly was still a +little girl climbing his knees, and an emperor might +not aspire to her.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 445px;"> +<img src="images/facing022.jpg" width="445" height="600" alt="man in rocking chair tlkaing to young man standing" /> +<div class="caption"><i>"'I will!' he said, throwing up his head."</i></div> +</div> + +<p>"Yes, sir, I do," said Bob, calm enough now—growing +cool as the Colonel became excited. "I love her, +and I want her.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, you can't have her!" roared the Colonel, +pulling himself up from his seat in the violence of his +refusal. He looked like a tawny lion whose lair had +been invaded.</p> + +<p>Bob's face paled, and a look came on it that the +Colonel recalled afterward, and which he did not remember<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +ever to have seen on it before, except once, +when, years ago, some one shot one of his dogs—a +look made up of anger and of dogged resolution. "I +will!" he said, throwing up his head and looking the +Colonel straight in the eyes, his voice perfectly calm, +but his eyes blazing, the mouth drawn close, and the +lines of his face as if they had been carved in granite.</p> + +<p>"I'll be —— if you shall!" stormed the Colonel: +"the King of England should not have her!" and, +turning, he stamped into the house and slammed the +door behind him.</p> + +<p>Bob walked slowly down the steps and around to +the stables, where he ordered his horse. He rode home +across the fields without a word, except, as he jumped +his horse over the line fence, "I will have her," he repeated, +between his fast-set teeth.</p> + +<p>That evening Polly came home all unsuspecting +anything of the kind; the Colonel waited until she had +taken off her things and come down in her fresh muslin +dress. She surpassed in loveliness the rose-buds that +lay on her bosom, and the impertinence that could +dare aspire to her broke over the old man in a fresh +wave. He had nursed his wrath all the evening.</p> + +<p>"Polly!" he blurted out, suddenly rising with a jerk +from his arm-chair, and unconsciously striking an attitude<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +before the astonished girl, "do you want to marry +Bob?"</p> + +<p>"Why, no," cried Polly, utterly shaken out of her +composure by the suddenness and vehemence of the +attack.</p> + +<p>"I <i>knew it</i>!" declared the Colonel, triumphantly. +"It was a piece of cursed impertinence!" and he +worked himself up to such a pitch of fury, and grew +so red in the face, that poor Polly, who had to steer +between two dangers, was compelled to employ all her +arts to soothe the old man and keep him out of a fit of +apoplexy. She learned the truth, however, and she +learned something which, until that time, she had never +known; and though, as she kissed her uncle "good-night," +she made no answer to his final shot of, "Well, +I'm glad we are not going to have any nonsense about +the fellow; I have made up my mind, and we'll treat +his impudence as it deserves," she locked her door carefully +when she was within her own room, and the next +morning she said she had a headache.</p> + +<p>Bob did not come that day.</p> + +<p>If the Colonel had not been so hot-headed—that is, +if he had not been a man—things would doubtless +have straightened themselves out in some of those +mysterious ways in which the hardest knots into which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +two young peoples' affairs contrive to get untangle +themselves; but being a man, he must needs, man-like, +undertake to manage according to his own plan, which +is always the wrong one.</p> + +<p>When, therefore, he announced to Polly at the +breakfast-table that morning that she would have no +further annoyance from that fellow's impertinence; for +he had written him a note apologizing for leaving him +abruptly in his own house the day before, but forbidding +him, in both their names, to continue his addresses, +or, indeed, to put his foot on the place again; +he fully expected to see Polly's face brighten, and to +receive her approbation and thanks. What, then, was +his disappointment to see her face grow distinctly +white. All she said was, "Oh, uncle!"</p> + +<p>It was unfortunate that the day was Sunday, and +that the Colonel went with her to church (which she +insisted on attending, notwithstanding her headache), +and was by when she met Bob. They came on each +other suddenly. Bob took off his hat and stood like +a soldier on review, erect, expectant, and a little pale. +The Colonel, who had almost forgotten his "impertinence," +and was about to shake hands with him as +usual, suddenly remembered it, and drawing himself +up, stepped to the other side of Polly, and handed her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +by the younger gentleman as if he were protecting her +from a mob. Polly, who had been looking anxiously +everywhere but in the right place, meaning to give Bob +a smile which would set things straight, caught his eye +only at that second, and felt rather than saw the change +in his attitude and manner. She tried to throw him +the smile, but it died in her eyes, and even after her +back was turned she was sensible of his defiance. She +went into church, and dropped down on her knees in +the far end of her pew, with her little heart needing all +the consolations of her religion.</p> + +<p>The man she prayed hardest for did not come into +church that day.</p> + +<p>Things went very badly after that, and the knots got +tighter and tighter. An attempt which Bob made to +loosen them failed disastrously, and the Colonel, who +was the best-hearted man in the world, but whose prejudices +were made of wrought iron, took it into his +head that Bob had insulted him, and Polly's indirect +efforts at pacification aroused him to such an extent +that for the first time in his life he was almost hard +with her. He conceived the absurd idea that she +was sacrificing herself for Bob on account of her +friendship for him, and that it was his duty to protect +her against herself, which, man-like, he proceeded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +to do in his own fashion, to poor Polly's great distress.</p> + +<p>She was devoted to her uncle, and knew the strength +of his affection for her. On the other hand, Bob and +she had been friends so long. She never could remember +the time when she did not have Bob. But he +had never said a word of love to her in his life. To +be sure, on that evening in the garden she had known +it just as well as if he had fallen on his knees at her +feet. She knew his silence was just because he had +owed her uncle the money; and oh! if she just hadn't +gotten frightened; and oh! if her uncle just hadn't +done it; and oh! she was so unhappy! The poor +little thing, in her own dainty, white-curtained room, +where were the books and things he had given her, and +the letters he had written her, used to—but that is a +secret. Anyhow, it was not because he was gone. +She knew that was not the reason—indeed, she very +often said so to herself; it was because he had been +treated so unjustly, and suffered so, and she had done +it all. And she used to introduce many new petitions +into her prayers, in which, if there was not any name +expressed, she felt that it would be understood, and the +blessings would reach him just the same.</p> + +<p>The summer had gone, and the Indian summer had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +come in its place, hazy, dreamy, and sad. It always +made Polly melancholy, and this year, although the +weather was perfect, she was affected, she said, by the +heat, and did not go out of doors much. So presently +her cheeks were not as blooming as they had been, and +even her great dark eyes lost some of their lustre; at +least, Charity thought so, and said so too, not only to +Polly, but to her master, whom she scared half to death; +and who, notwithstanding that Dr. Stopper was coming +over every other day to see a patient on the plantation, +and that the next day was the time for his regular visit, +put a boy on a horse that night and sent him with a +note urging him to come the next morning to breakfast.</p> + +<p>The doctor came, and spent the day: examined +Polly's lungs and heart, prescribed out-door exercise, +and left something less than a bushel-basketful of medicines +for her to take.</p> + +<p>Polly was, at the time of his visit, in a very excited +state, for the Colonel had, with a view of soothing her, +the night before delivered a violent philippic against +marriage in general, and in particular against marriage +with "impudent young puppies who did not know +their places;" and he had proposed an extensive tour, +embracing all the United States and Canada, and intended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +to cover the entire winter and spring following. +Polly, who had stood as much as she could stand, +finally rebelled, and had with flashing eyes and mantling +cheeks espoused Bob's cause with a courage and +dash which had almost routed the old Colonel. "Not +that he was anything to her except a friend," she was +most careful to explain; but she was tired of hearing +her "friend" assailed, and she thought that it was the +highest compliment a man could pay a woman, etc., +etc., for all of which she did a great deal of blushing +in her own room afterwards.</p> + +<p>Thus it happened, that she was both excited and +penitent the next day, and thinking to make some +atonement, and at the same time to take the prescribed +exercise, which would excuse her from taking the +medicines, she filled a little basket with goodies to take +old Aunt Betty at the Far Quarters; and thus it happened, +that, as she was coming back along the path +which ran down the meadow on the other side of the +creek which was the dividing line between the two +plantations, and was almost at the foot-bridge that +Somebody had made for her so carefully with logs cut +out of his own woods, and the long shadows of the +willows made it gloomy, and everything was so still +that she had grown very lonely and unhappy—thus it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +happened, that just as she was thinking how kind he +had been about making the bridge and hand-rail so +strong, and about everything, and how cruel he must +think her, and how she would never see him any more +as she used to do, she turned the clump of willows to +step up on the log, and there he was standing on the +bridge just before her, looking down into her eyes! +She tried to get by him—she remembered that afterwards; +but he was so mean. It was always a little +confused in her memory, and she could never recall +exactly how it was. She was sure, however, that it +was because he was so pale that she said it, and that +she did not begin to cry until afterwards, and that +it was because he would not listen to her explanation; +and that she didn't let him do it, she could not +help it, and she did not know her head was on his +shoulder.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 429px;"> +<img src="images/facing030.jpg" width="429" height="600" alt="Man on bridge" /> +<div class="caption"><i>"There he was standing on the bridge just before her."</i></div> +</div> + +<p>Anyhow, when she got home that evening her improvement +was so apparent that the Colonel called +Charity in to note it, and declared that Virginia country +doctors were the finest in the world, and that +Stopper was the greatest doctor in the State. The +change was wonderful, indeed; and the old gilt mirror, +with its gauze-covered frame, would never have known +for the sad-eyed Polly of the day before the bright,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +happy maiden that stood before it now and smiled +at the beaming face which dimpled at its own content.</p> + +<p>Old Betty's was a protracted pleurisy, and the good +things Polly carried her daily did not tend to shorten +the sickness. Ever afterwards she "blessed the Lord +for dat chile" whenever Polly's name was mentioned. +She would doubtless have included Bob in her benison +had she known how sympathetic he was during this +period.</p> + +<p>But although he was inspecting that bridge every +afternoon regularly, notwithstanding Polly's oft-reiterated +wish and express orders as regularly declared, no +one knew a word of all this. And it was a bow drawn +at a venture when, on the evening that Polly had tried +to carry out her engagement to bring her uncle around, +the old man had said, "Why, hoity-toity! the young +rascal's cause seems to be thriving." She had been so +confident of her success that she was not prepared for +failure, and it struck her like a fresh blow; and though +she did not cry until she got into her own room, when +she got there she threw herself on the bed and cried +herself to sleep. "It was so cruel in him," she said to +herself, "to desire me never to speak to him again! +And, oh! if he should really catch him on the place<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +and shoot him!" The pronouns in our language were +probably invented by young women.</p> + +<p>The headache Polly had the next morning was not +invented. Poor little thing! her last hope was gone. +She determined to bid Bob good-by, and never see +him again. She had made up her mind to this on her +knees, so she knew she was right. The pain it cost +her satisfied her that she was.</p> + +<p>She was firmly resolved when she set out that afternoon +to see old Betty, who was in everybody's judgment +except her own quite convalescent, and whom +Dr. Stopper pronounced entirely well. She wavered a +little in her resolution when, descending the path along +the willows, which were leafless now, she caught sight +of a tall figure loitering easily up the meadow, and she +abandoned—that is, she forgot it altogether when, having +doubtfully suggested it, she was suddenly enfolded +in a pair of strong arms, and two gray eyes, lighting a +handsome face strong with the self-confidence which +women love, looked down into hers.</p> + +<p>Then he proposed it!</p> + +<p>Her heart almost stood still at his boldness. But he +was so strong, so firm, so reasonable, so self-reliant, and +yet so gentle, she could not but listen to him. Still +she refused—and she never did consent; she forbade<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +him ever to think of it again. Then she begged him +never to come there again, and told him of her uncle's +threats, and of her fears for him; and then, when he +laughed at them, she begged him never, never, under +any circumstances, to take any notice of what her uncle +might do or say, but rather to stand still and be shot +dead; and then, when Bob promised this, she burst +into tears, and he had to hold her and comfort her like +a little girl.</p> + +<p>It was pretty bad after that, and but for Polly's out-door +exercise she would undoubtedly have succumbed. +It seemed as if something had come between her and +her uncle. She no longer went about singing like a +bird. She suffered under the sense of being misunderstood, +and it was so lonely! He too was oppressed +by it. Even Torm shared in it, and his expositions +assumed a cast terrific in the last degree.</p> + +<p>It was now December.</p> + +<p>One evening it culminated. The weather had been +too bad for Polly to go out, and she was sick. Finally +Stopper was sent for. Polly, who, to use Charity's expression, +was "pestered till she was fractious," rebelled +flatly, and refused to keep her bed or to take the medicines +prescribed. Charity backed her. Torm got +drunk. The Colonel was in a fume, and declared his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span> +intention to sell Torm next morning, as usual, and to +take Charity and Polly and go to Europe. This was +well enough; but to Polly's consternation, when she +came to breakfast next morning, she found that the +old man's plans had ripened into a scheme to set out +on the very next day for Louisiana and New Orleans, +where he proposed to spend the winter looking after +some plantations she had, and showing her something +of the world. Polly remonstrated, rebelled, cajoled. +It was all in vain. Stopper had seriously frightened +the old man about her health, and he was adamant. +Preparations were set on foot; the brown hair trunks, +with their lines of staring brass tacks, were raked out +and dusted; the Colonel got into a fever, ordered up all +the negroes in the yard, and gave instructions from the +front door, like a major-general reviewing his troops; +got Torm, Charity, and all the others into a wild flutter; +attempted to superintend Polly's matters; made her +promises of fabulous gifts; became reminiscent, and +told marvelous stories of his old days, which Torm +corroborated; and so excited Polly and the plantation +generally, that from old Betty, who came from the Far +Quarters for the purpose of taking it in, down to the +blackest little dot on the place, there was not one who +did not get into a wild whirl, and talk as if they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +all going to New Orleans the next morning, with Joe +Rattler on the boot.</p> + +<p>Polly had, after a stout resistance, surrendered to her +fate, and packed her modest trunk with very mingled +feelings. Under other circumstances she would have +enjoyed the trip immensely; but she felt now as if it +were parting from Bob forever. Her heart was in her +throat all day, and even the excitement of packing +could not drive away the feeling. She knew she +would never see him again. She tried to work out +what the end would be. Would he die, or would he +marry Malviny Pegram? Every one said she would +just suit him, and she'd certainly marry him if he +asked her.</p> + +<p>The sun was shining over the western woods. Bob +rode down that way in the afternoon, even when it +was raining; he had told her so. He would think it +cruel of her to go away thus, and never even let him +know. She would at least go and tell him good-by. +So she did.</p> + +<p>Bob's face paled suddenly when she told him all, +and that look which she had not seen often before settled +on it. Then he took her hand and began to explain +everything to her. He told her that he had +loved her all her life; showed her how she had inspired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +him to work for and win every success that he had +achieved; how it had been her work even more than +his. Then he laid before her the life plans he had +formed, and proved how they were all for her, and for +her only. He made it all so clear, and his voice was +so confident, and his face so earnest, as he pleaded and +proved it step by step, that she felt, as she leaned +against him and he clasped her closely, that he was +right, and that she could not part from him.</p> + +<p>That evening Polly was unusually silent; but the +Colonel thought she had never been so sweet. She +petted him until he swore that no man on earth was +worthy of her, and that none should ever have her.</p> + +<p>After tea she went to his room to look over his +clothes (her especial work), and would let no one, not +even her mammy, help her; and when the Colonel insisted +on coming in to tell her some more concerning +the glories of New Orleans in his day, she finally put +him out and locked the door on him.</p> + +<p>She was very strange all the evening. As they were +to start the next morning, the Colonel was for retiring +early; but Polly would not go; she loitered around, +hung about the old fellow, petted him, sat on his knee +and kissed him, until he was forced to insist on her +going to bed. Then she said good-night, and astonished<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +the Colonel by throwing herself into his arms +and bursting out crying.</p> + +<p>The old man soothed her with caresses and baby +talk, such as he used to comfort her with when she was +a little girl, and when she became calm he handed her +to her door as if she had been a duchess.</p> + +<p>The house was soon quiet, except that once the +Colonel heard Polly walking in her room, and mentally +determined to chide her for sitting up so late. He, +however, drifted off from the subject when he heard +some of his young mules galloping around the yard, +and he made a sleepy resolve to sell them all, or to dismiss +his overseer next day for letting them out of the +lot. Before he had quite determined which he should +do, he dropped off to sleep again.</p> + +<p>It was possibly about this time that a young man +lifted into her saddle a dark-habited little figure, whose +face shone very white in the starlight, and whose tremulous +voice would have suggested a refusal had it not +been drowned in the deep, earnest tone of her lover. +Although she declared that she could not think of +doing it, she had on her hat and furs and riding-habit +when Bob came. She did, indeed, really beg him to +go away; but a few minutes later a pair of horses cantered +down the avenue toward the lawn gate, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +shut with a bang that so frightened the little lady on +the bay mare that the young man found it necessary +to lean over and throw a steadying arm around her.</p> + +<p>For the first time in her life Polly saw the sun rise +in North Carolina, and a few hours later a gentle-voiced +young clergyman, whose sweet-faced wife was +wholly carried away by Polly's beauty, received under +protest Bob's only gold piece, a coin which he twisted +from his watch-chain with the promise to quadruple it +if he would preserve it until he could redeem it.</p> + +<p>When Charity told the Colonel next morning that +Polly was gone, the old man for the first time in fifty +years turned perfectly white. Then he fell into a consuming +rage, and swore until Charity would not have +been much surprised to see the devil appear in visible +shape and claim him on the spot. He cursed Bob, +cursed himself, cursed Torm, Charity, and the entire +female sex individually and collectively, and then, +seized by a new idea, he ordered his horse, that he +might pursue the runaways, threatened an immediate +sale of his whole plantation, and the instantaneous +death of Bob, and did in fact get down his great brass-mounted +pistols, and lay them by him as he made +Torm, Charity, and a half-dozen younger house-servants +dress him.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 442px;"> +<img src="images/facing038.jpg" width="442" height="600" alt="Colonel being dressed" /> +<div class="caption"><i>"He made Torm, Charity, and a half-dozen younger house-servants +dress him."</i></div> +</div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<p>Dressing and shaving occupied him about an hour—he +always averred that a gentleman could not dress +like a gentleman in less time—and, still breathing out +threatenings and slaughter, he marched out of his room, +making Torm and Charity follow him, each with a +pistol. Something prompted him to stop and inspect +them in the hall. Taking first one and then the other, +he examined them curiously.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be——!" he said, dryly, and flung both +of them crashing through the window. Turning, he +ordered waffles and hoe-cakes for breakfast, and called +for the books to have prayers.</p> + +<p>Polly had utilized the knowledge she had gained as +a girl, and had unloaded both pistols the night before, +and rammed the balls down again without powder, so +as to render them harmless.</p> + +<p>By breakfast time Torm was in a state of such +advanced intoxication that he was unable to walk +through the back yard gate, and the Colonel was forced +to content himself with sending by Charity a message +that he would get rid of him early the next morning. +He straitly enjoined Charity to tell him, and she as +solemnly promised to do so. "Yes, suh, <i>I</i> gwi' tell +him," she replied, with a faint tone of being wounded +at his distrust; and she did.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<p>She needed an outlet.</p> + +<p>Things got worse. The Colonel called up the overseer +and gave new orders, as if he proposed to change +everything. He forbade any mention of Polly's name, +and vowed that he would send for Mr. Steep, his +lawyer, and change his will to spite all creation. This +humor, instead of wearing off, seemed to grow worse +as the time stretched on, and Torm actually grew sober +in the shadow that had fallen on the plantation. The +Colonel had Polly's room nailed up and shut himself +up in the house.</p> + +<p>The negroes discussed the condition of affairs in +awed undertones, and watched him furtively whenever +he passed. Various opinions by turns prevailed. Aunt +Betty, who was regarded with veneration, owing partly +to the interest the lost Polly had taken in her illness, and +partly to her great age (to which she annually added +three years) prophesied that he was going to die "in +torments," just like some old uncle of his whom no one +else had ever heard of until now, but who was raked +up by her to serve as a special example. The chief resemblance +seemed to be a certain "rankness in cussin'."</p> + +<p>Things were certainly going badly, and day by day +they grew worse. The Colonel became more and +more morose.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He don' even quoil no mo'," Torm complained +pathetically to Charity. "He jes set still and study. +I 'feard he gwine 'stracted."</p> + +<p>It was, indeed, lamentable. It was accepted on the +plantation that Miss Polly had gone for good—some +said down to Louisiana—and would never come back +any more. The prevailing impression was that, if she +did, the Colonel would certainly kill Bob. Torm had +not a doubt of it.</p> + +<p>Thus matters stood three days before Christmas. +The whole plantation was plunged in gloom. It +would be the first time since Miss Polly was a baby +that they had not had "a big Christmas."</p> + +<p>Torm's lugubrious countenance one morning seemed +to shock the Colonel out of his lethargy. He asked +how many days there would be before Christmas, and +learning that there were but three, he ordered preparations +to be made for a great feast and a big time generally. +He had the wood-pile replenished as usual, +got up his presents, and superintended the Christmas +operations himself, as Polly used to do. But it was +sad work, and when Torm and Charity retired Christmas +Eve night, although Torm had imbibed plentifully, +and the tables were all spread for the great +dinner for the servants next day, there was no peace in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +Torm's discourse; it was all of wrath and judgment to +come.</p> + +<p>He had just gone to sleep when there was a knock +at the door.</p> + +<p>"Who dat out dyah?" called Charity. "You +niggers better go 'long to bed."</p> + +<p>The knock was repeated.</p> + +<p>"Who dat out dyah, I say?" queried Charity, +testily. "Whyn't you go 'long 'way from dat do'? +Torm, Torm, dee's somebody at de do'," she said, as +the knocking was renewed.</p> + +<p>Torm was hard to wake, but at length he got up +and moved slowly to the door, grumbling to himself +all the time.</p> + +<p>When finally he undid the latch, Charity, who was +in bed, heard him exclaim, "Well, name o' Gord! +good Gord A'mighty!" and burst into a wild explosion +of laughter.</p> + +<p>In a second she too was outside of the door, and +had Polly in her arms, laughing, jumping, hugging, +and kissing her while Torm executed a series of caracoles +around them.</p> + +<p>"Whar Marse Bob?" asked both negroes, finally, +in a breath.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Torm! How are you, Mam' Charity?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +called that gentleman, cheerily, coming up from where +he had been fastening the horses; and Charity, suddenly +mindful of her peculiar appearance and of the +frosty air, "scuttled" into the house, conveying her +young mistress with her.</p> + +<p>Presently she came out dressed, and invited Bob in +too. She insisted on giving them something to eat; +but they had been to supper, and Polly was much too +excited hearing about her uncle to eat anything. She +cried a little at Charity's description of him, which she +tried to keep Bob from seeing, but he saw it, and had +to—however, when they got ready to go home, Polly +insisted on going to the yard and up on the porch, and +when there, she actually kissed the window-blind of +the room whence issued a muffled snore suggestive at +least of some degree of forgetfulness. She wanted Bob +to kiss it too, but that gentleman apparently found +something else more to his taste, and her entreaty was +drowned in another sound.</p> + +<p>Before they remounted their horses Polly carried +Bob to the greenhouse, where she groped around in +the darkness for something, to Bob's complete mystification. +"Doesn't it smell sweet in here?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't smell anything but that mint bed you've +been walking on," he laughed.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span></p> + +<p>As they rode off, leaving Torm and Charity standing +in the road, the last thing Polly said was, "Now +be sure you tell him—nine o'clock."</p> + +<p>"Umm! I know he gwi' sell me den sho 'nough," +said Torm, in a tone of conviction, as the horses cantered +away in the frosty night.</p> + +<p>Once or twice, as they galloped along, Bob made +some allusion to the mint bed on which Polly had +stepped, to which she made no reply. But as he +helped her down at her own door, he asked, "What +in the world have you got there?"</p> + +<p>"Mint," said she, with a little low, pleased laugh.</p> + +<p>By light next morning it was known all over the +plantation that Miss Polly had returned. The rejoicing, +however, was clouded by the fear that nothing +would come of it.</p> + +<p>In Charity's house it was decided that Torm should +break the news. Torm was doubtful on the point as +the time drew near, but Charity's mind never wavered. +Finally he went in with his master's shaving-water, +having first tried to establish his courage by sundry +pulls at a black bottle. He essayed three times to deliver +the message, but each time his courage failed, and +he hastened out under pretence of the water having gotten +cold. The last time he attracted Charity's attention.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Name o' Gord, Torm, you gwine to scawl hawgs'?" +she asked, sarcastically.</p> + +<p>The next time he entered the Colonel was in a +fume of impatience, so he had to fix the water. He +set down the can, and bustled about with hypocritical +industry. The Colonel, at last, was almost through; +Torm retreated to the door. As his master finished, +he put his hand on the knob, and turning it, said, +"Miss Polly come home larse night; sh' say she +breakfast at nine o'clock."</p> + +<p>Slapbang! came the shaving-can, smashing against +the door, just as he dodged out, and the roar of the +Colonel followed him across the hall.</p> + +<p>When finally their master appeared on the portico, +Torm and Charity were watching in some doubt +whether he would not carry out on the spot his long-threatened +purpose. He strode up and down the long +porch, evidently in great excitement.</p> + +<p>"He's turrible dis mornin'," said Torm; "he th'owed +de whole kittle o' b'ilin' water at me."</p> + +<p>"Pity he didn' scawl you to death," said his wife, +sympathizingly. She thought Torm's awkwardness +had destroyed Polly's last chance. Torm resorted to +his black bottle, and proceeded to talk about the lake +of brimstone and fire.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span></p> + +<p>Up and down the portico strode the old Colonel. +His horse was at the rack, where he was always +brought before breakfast. (For twenty years he had +probably never missed a morning.) Finally he walked +down, and looked at the saddle; of course, it was all +wrong. He fixed it, and, mounting, rode off in the +opposite direction to that whence his invitation had +come. Charity, looking out of her door, inserted into +her diatribe against "all wuthless, drunken, fool niggers" +a pathetic parenthesis to the effect that "Ef +Marster meet Marse Bob dis mornin', de don' be a +hide nor hyah left o'nyah one on 'em; an' dat lamb +over dyah maybe got oystchers waitin' for him too."</p> + +<p>Torm was so much impressed that he left Charity +and went out of doors.</p> + +<p>The Colonel rode down the plantation, his great gray +horse quivering with life in the bright winter sunlight. +He gave him the rein, and he turned down a cross-road +which led out of the plantation into the main high-way. +Mechanically he opened the gate and rode out. +Before he knew where he was he was through the +wood, and his horse had stopped at the next gate. +It was the gate of Bob's place. The house stood out +bright and plain among the yard trees; lines of blue +smoke curled up almost straight from the chimneys;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +and he could see two or three negroes running backward +and forward between the kitchen and the house. +The sunlight glistened on something in the hand of +one of them, and sent a ray of dazzling light all the +way to the old man. He knew it was a plate or a +dish. He took out his watch and glanced at it; it +was five minutes to nine o'clock. He started to turn +around to go home. As he did so, the memory of all +the past swept over him, and of the wrong that had +been done him. He would go in and show them his +contempt for them by riding in and straight out again; +and he actually unlatched the gate and went in. As +he rode across the field he recalled all that Polly had +been to him from the time when she had first stretched +out her arms to him; all the little ways by which she +had brought back his youth, and had made his house +home, and his heart soft again. Every scene came before +him as if to mock him. He felt once more the +touch of her little hand; heard again the sound of her +voice as it used to ring through the old house and +about the grounds; saw her and Bob as children romping +about his feet, and he gave a great gulp as he +thought how desolate the house was now. He sat up +in his saddle stiffer than ever. D—— him! he would +enter his very house, and there to his face and hers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +denounce him for his baseness; he pushed his horse to +a trot. Up to the yard gate he rode, and, dismounting, +hitched his horse to the fence, and slamming the +gate fiercely behind him, stalked up the walk with +his heavy whip clutched fast in his hand. Up the +walk and up the steps, without a pause, his face +set as grim as rock, and purple with suppressed emotion; +for a deluge of memories was overwhelming +him.</p> + +<p>The door was shut; they had locked it on him; but +he would burst it in, and—Ah! what was that?</p> + +<p>The door flew suddenly open; there was a cry, a +spring, a vision of something swam before his eyes, and +two arms were clasped about his neck, while he was +being smothered with kisses from the sweetest mouth +in the world, and a face made up of light and laughter, +yet tearful, too, like a dew-bathed flower, was pressed +to his, and before the Colonel knew it he had, amid +laughter and sobs and caresses, been borne into the +house, and pressed down at the daintiest little breakfast-table +eyes ever saw, set for three persons, and +loaded with steaming dishes, and with a great fresh +julep by the side of his plate, and Torm standing +behind his chair, whilst Bob was helping him to +"oystchers," and Polly, with dimpling face, was attempting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +the exploit of pouring out his coffee without +moving her arm from around his neck.</p> + +<p>The first thing he said after he recovered his breath +was, "Where did you get this mint?"</p> + +<p>Polly broke into a peal of rippling, delicious +laughter, and tightened the arm about his neck.</p> + +<p>"Just one more squeeze," said the Colonel; and as +she gave it he said, with the light of it all breaking on +him, "Damme if I don't sell you! or, if I can't sell +you, I'll give you away—that is, if he'll come over +and live with us."</p> + +<p>That evening, after the great dinner, at which Polly +had sat in her old place at the head of the table, and +Bob at the foot, because the Colonel insisted on sitting +where Polly could give him one more squeeze, the +whole plantation was ablaze with "Christmas," and +Drinkwater Torm, steadying himself against the sideboard, +delivered a discourse on peace on earth and +good-will to men so powerful and so eloquent that the +Colonel, delighted, rose and drank his health, and said, +"Damme if I ever sell him again!"</p> + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTE:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1">[A]</a> This spelling is used because he was called "Torm" until it became his +name.</p></div></div> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44547 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/44547-h/images/cover.jpg b/44547-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ff2f71 --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/44547-h/images/facing010.jpg b/44547-h/images/facing010.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..db6bd47 --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/images/facing010.jpg diff --git a/44547-h/images/facing022.jpg b/44547-h/images/facing022.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0175720 --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/images/facing022.jpg diff --git a/44547-h/images/facing030.jpg b/44547-h/images/facing030.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ccd5c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/images/facing030.jpg diff --git a/44547-h/images/facing038.jpg b/44547-h/images/facing038.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e15b397 --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/images/facing038.jpg diff --git a/44547-h/images/frontis.jpg b/44547-h/images/frontis.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a4c841 --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/images/frontis.jpg diff --git a/44547-h/images/image001.jpg b/44547-h/images/image001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7a16d14 --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/images/image001.jpg diff --git a/44547-h/images/title-1.png b/44547-h/images/title-1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4cc9379 --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/images/title-1.png diff --git a/44547-h/images/title-2.png b/44547-h/images/title-2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e95cc0f --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/images/title-2.png diff --git a/44547-h/images/title-3.png b/44547-h/images/title-3.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1477ca3 --- /dev/null +++ b/44547-h/images/title-3.png |
