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diff --git a/45652-8.txt b/45652-8.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ff14dba..0000000 --- a/45652-8.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,9325 +0,0 @@ - JACK BALLINGTON, FORESTER - - - - -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 http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - - -Title: Jack Ballington, Forester -Author: John Trotwood Moore -Release Date: May 23, 2014 [EBook #45652] -Language: English -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK BALLINGTON, FORESTER *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - -[Illustration: Cover art] - - - - -[Illustration: I WAS NEVER SO HAPPY (Page 80)] - - - - - JACK BALLINGTON - FORESTER - - - BY - - JOHN TROTWOOD MOORE - - AUTHOR OF "OLD MISTIS;" "A SUMMER HYMNAL;" - "THE BISHOP OF COTTONTOWN;" - "UNCLE WASH," ETC. - - - - ILLUSTRATIONS BY GEORGE GIBBS - - - - THOMAS LANGTON - TORONTO, CANADA. - - - - - Copyright, 1911, by - THE JOHN C. WINSTON Co. - - - - - TO THE TWINS - HELEN AND MARY DANIEL MOORE - - - - - *CONTENTS* - - - *I* - - *THE HEIR OF THE BLUEGRASS* - -CHAPTER - -I Soul Dreams and the Soil -II Little Sister - - - *II* - - *"A TWILIGHT PIECE"* - -I The Flame in the Wood -II The Home-Stretch -III The Hickories -IV Colonel Goff -V Pedigrees and Principles -VI The Make-Believe -VII The Chimes of the Wisteria -VIII The Stone-Crop -IX The Transplanted Pine -X Conquering Satan -XI Two Ways of Love -XII Work and Mine Acre -XIII The Unattainable -XIV God and a Butterfly -XV Hickories and Old Hickory -XVI Heart's Ease -XVII "Lady Carfax" -XVIII The Last Dance -XIX The High Jump - - - *III* - - *THE HICKORY'S SON* - -I "Love is not Love That Alters" -II A Dream and Its Ending -III The Awakening -IV The Call of the Drum -V The First Tennessee -VI The Battle in the Bacaue Mountains -VII The Juramentados - - - *IV* - - *THE BURGEONING* - -I Two of a Kind -II How Aunt Lucretia Ran Away -III A Night with Captain Skipper -IV My First Automobile -V The Sick Tree - - - - - *ILLUSTRATIONS* - - -I Was Never So Happy . . . . . . _Frontispiece_ - -"Stop Her--He'll Kill Her," I Cried - -"Love is not Love that Alters." - -I was on Him, My Knee on His Breast - - - - - *FOREWORD* - - -_I am the child of the Centuries. I am the son of the Æons which were. -I have always been, and I shall always be. To make me it has taken -fire, star-dust, and the Spirit of God--the lives of billions of people, -and the lights of a million suns._ - -_I have grown from sun and star-dust to the Thing-Which-Thinks._ - -_It were the basest ingratitude if I were not both thankful to God and -proud of my pedigree._ - -_What has come to me has been good; what shall come will be better: for -I am Evolution, and I grow ever to greater things. Life has been good; -death will be better; for it is the cause of all my past, making for a -still greater future._ - -_And this I know, not from Books nor from Knowledge, but from the -unafraid, never silent voice of Instinct within me, which is God._ - -_My debt to the past is great: I can never, in full, repay it; for they, -my creditors, passed with it. They left me a world beautiful: shall I -make it a world bare? They left a world bountiful: shall I leave it -blazed and barren to the sands of death?_ - -_I am in debt to the Past. Shall the Future present the bill to find -that I have gone to my grave a bankrupt? Find that I have wantonly laid -waste the land, leaving no root of wild flower, no shade of tree, no -spring that falleth from the hills?_ - -_Shall I destroy their trees for the little gain it may bring to my -short Life-tenantry? Shall I make of their land a desert by day and a -deluge by night? Shall I stamp with the degeneracy of gullies my own -offspring, and scar with the red birth-mark of poverty the unborn of my -own breed?_ - -_I live, charged with a great Goodness from the Past: I can die, paying -it, only by a greater Kindness for the Future._ - - - - - *I* - - *THE HEIR OF THE BLUEGRASS* - - - - *JACK BALLINGTON, - FORESTER* - - - - *CHAPTER I* - - *SOUL-DREAMS AND THE SOIL* - - -Those who live near to Nature learn much: for it is only by living close -to her that we learn from her. The best advice ever given on longevity -was from the cheery old gentleman who said: "To live long, live -naturally; eat what you want, and walk on the sunny side of the street." - -School children think that some wise man made all the hard rules of -grammar that grown-up folks try to teach them. They do not know that -the child-man learned to talk first and that the rules were made from -his speech. It is like the simple people at the circus who think the -trained horse is dancing to the music; it is the music that is dancing -to him. From the facts of life we draw our rules just as the scholars -made rules of grammar from the facts of language. - -Nature is the One great Fact. - -I was thinking of one of her facts the other day--she has so many--but -one I had noticed very plainly: the man who lives close to her is an -optimist. - -Let the farmer fail year after year, and still he plants, hoping. Let -the merchant fall behind one year and he is shaken; another year, and he -quits. One season of deep water-hauling sends the fisherman home to his -fields. When the wild game vanishes the pioneer hunter becomes the -pioneer farmer. The merchant, the lawyer, the doctor,--there never was -one who did not dream, betimes, over his books, that he would yet live -to retire and till his acres. - -Every failure in life goes back to the soil for a new start. - -That is the fact; now for the rule. It is this: God intended that man -should be, first of all, a soil-worker. And tilling the soil includes -not only planting, but bringing all growing and living things thereon to -strength. - -Rearing things on the soil is man's natural vocation, since neither -drought, nor flood, nor failure, can shut out from his heart that -instinct of hope which has come down through so many centuries of -soil-loving ancestors. The hoping instinct has been housed in him so -long that it is part of his heredity. - -Maritime nations found empires, but not religions. Religions come from -the soil. Men, living in the open, watching their flocks by night, find -in the eternal wonder of the soul-questioning stars that which satisfies -their own souls. - -Imagine fighting Rome founding a religion! Or bookish Greece! Or the -trading Saxon! - -Religions come from mangers. All great soul-dreams were born amid -flocks and herds. - -This is my own story, and the telling of it shall be in my own way. And -as I am not a writer, but a forester, doubtless my telling will be all -awry. For I have seen enough of life to know that the generals who have -won in the field of fiction, like the generals who have won in the field -of fact, have won because they have had the drilling. - -And in my case the drilling has been only trees--trees, and their -children, the flowers. - - - - - *CHAPTER II* - - *LITTLE SISTER* - - -This is my story, as I said, and the telling of it must be in my own -way. That is why I am giving this chapter first--because it happened -first--four years before the real story began. Another reason is that in -the telling of it I can set forth the characters of the old general, my -grandsire, who believed in fighting; of my Aunt Lucretia, his daughter, -who believed in pedigrees; of Eloise, the beautiful and daring one, who -believed in dancing and riding and shooting, and in making those who -loved her miserable; of Colonel Goff, an Englishman, who believed in -horses and hounds; and of Little Sister, who believed in Uncle Jack; and -even of myself, Uncle Jack, who believed in trees. - -Little Sister is the three-year-old daughter of my brother Ned -Ballington, who, with his lovely wife, Thesis, and his major domo, Uncle -Wash (a colored gentleman of the Old School), and his other live things -and birds, resides on the farm adjoining ours. - -But Little Sister, whose real name is Mildred, and her brother, two -years younger, who was baptized Edward, but whom Uncle Jack had -nicknamed Captain Skipper, because nothing could keep him still, spent -the most of their time at The Home Stretch, the home of their great -grandsire, General John Rutherford, where also lived their Aunt -Lucretia, and Eloise, and Uncle Jack. - -It was either very hot or very cold on those days when Uncle Jack did -not drive them over to spend the day, and maybe a night, too. Once in a -great while the footing was too slippery for the pony. But these -omissions occurred, at the most, perhaps twice each summer and winter; -for the heart of the Middle Basin, that beautiful bluegrass country in -which they live, beats in the breast of Summer. - -John Rutherford, the First, built The Home Stretch in 1800. It adjoined -the lands of Andrew Jackson, and the very spirit of the old fighter -hangs over the place. For John Rutherford had loved him--nay, had -lived, fought, and died for him--at New Orleans. There is a tradition -that Old Hickory himself named the place--in fact, that John Rutherford -owned it for no other reason than that his horse beat Andrew Jackson's -in the home stretch. The bet was a thousand acres of land. The race -track may still be seen at Clover Bottom, just across the way, where -Stone's River makes a bend around a hundred acres of land, rich as ever -the crow made a granary of, and as level as Chalmette Plain, where -Jackson's riflemen stopped the British before New Orleans. - -Little Sister was a fair, frail, sensitive little tot. Her bright blue -eyes, pale pink face and dark brown hair kept one thinking of full -summer moons rainbowed at night. And her temper--she was fire and -powder there--a flash, maybe a clenched small fist, a small foot brought -down in sudden scorn--an explosion--and then she was sobbing for -forgiveness in your arms. That was Little Sister. - -Once she slapped Aunt Lucretia in the face. "I can't see where in the -world she gets her temper from," Aunt Lucretia said; "for if there is an -angel on earth it is Thesis, her mother. General Rutherford" (Aunt -Lucretia always called her father General Rutherford), "this child ought -to be spanked till she is conquered. Her mother sends her over here -expecting us to make her behave." - -"Tut, tut, Madam," said the General (he always called his daughter -madam), "that is not the way to break colts. That kind of a conquering -would spoil her. She'll need all of that temper, when she knows enough -to control it, to get through life and land anywhere near the wire -first. Besides, with her sensitiveness, don't you see she is suffering -now more than if we had punished her? If she were a plug now" (for the -General hated nothing so much as a plug), "she would never be sorry till -you made her sorry with a beating. But the conscience of a thoroughbred -beats hickory, and gentleness, Madam, is away ahead of blows in -everything but war--and we are not fighting now." - -Then to make sure that she did not get a whipping, Uncle Jack, who was -eighteen and preparing for college, would snatch her away from Aunt -Lucretia and take her out to see the colts. At sight of them her -troubles vanished; for her love of all live things which are born on a -stock farm was as deep as her Ballington blood. A great burst of -sunshine would spread over her conscience-stricken face. - -"O Uncle Jack, aren't they just too sweet for anything? Do let me get -down this minute and hug them--every one!" And Uncle Jack would let -her, if he had to catch each colt himself. - -The clear-cut way she talked English! And her great heart of -motherhood! These were the two wonderful things in a tot so small. It -was not difficult to see where she inherited the first. But how could so -tiny a thing have such a great mother-heart? She loved everything -little--everything _just born_ on the place. The fact that anything in -hair, hide or feathers had arrived was a cause of jollification. "O do -let me see the dear little things!" would be her cry. And she generally -saw them if Uncle Jack were around. - -One day they missed her from the house and Uncle Jack quickly tracked -her to the cow barn. It had occurred to him that the day before he had -shown her the Short-Horn's latest edition, a big, double-jointed, ugly, -hungry male calf, who slept all day in a bedded stall, a young Hercules -in repose, and only waked up long enough to wrinkle his huge nose and -sleep again. - -There Uncle Jack found her. She had climbed over the high stall-gate to -pet and coddle the great calf. She had placed her own beautiful string -of beads around his tawny neck. - -"Come out of there," laughed Uncle Jack. "What do you see pretty about -that great ugly calf?" - -"O Uncle Jack," and she sighed affectedly, "I am truly sorry for him. -He is not pretty, to be sure--and so I have given him my beads. And he -doesn't seem to be very bright, nor at all well mannered, poor -dear--but--but," she added reflectively--"he has a lovely curly head and -he seems to be such a healthy child!" - -On another occasion they missed her. It was nearly night. Everybody -started out in alarm to hunt for her. Aunt Lucretia was the first to -find her, coming from the brood-sow's lot. - -"Where in the world have you been, child?" she asked as she picked her -up. - -"Playing with the little yesterday-pigs," said Little Sister. "And Aunt -Lucretia, I ought to have come home sooner, I know, but I kissed one of -the cunningest of the little pigs good night, and all the others looked -so hurt, and squealed so because I didn't kiss them too, I just had to -catch and kiss every one before they would go to sleep." - -Inheritance had played a tremendous part in Little Sister. Most -children crow and lisp and talk in divers languages before they learn to -talk English; while some never learn at all. But not so with her. The -first long word she attempted was perfectly pronounced. The first -sentence she put together was grammatically correct. The correctness of -her language for one so small made it sound so quaint that Uncle Jack -had her always talking. Her earnestness and intensity only added to her -originality. - -Pete was a little darky on the farm whose chief business was to -entertain Little Sister when everything else failed. His repertoire -consisted of all the funny tricks of a monkey. But his two-star -performances were racking like Deacon Jones' old clay-bank pacer and -playing 'possum. Little Sister never tired of having Pete do these two -things. They were very comical. Everybody knew Deacon Jones, with his -angular, sedate, solemn way of riding, and the double-shuffling, -twisting, cork-screw gait of the old pacer. The ludicrous motions of -the pacer had struck Pete early in life, and he had soon learned to get -down on all-fours and make Deacon Jones's horse ashamed of himself. The -imitation was so perfect that Ned and Uncle Jack used to call in their -friends to see the show, which consisted of Pete's doing the racking -act, while Little Sister, astraddle of his back, with one hand in his -shirt collar, and the other wielding a hickory switch, played the -Deacon. - -One evening, before company, Pete had paced around so many times that he -was leg-weary. Little Sister, astride his back, whacked him in the -flanks vigorously and exclaimed: "Come, pace along there, damn you, or -I'll put a head on you!" - -The company nearly fell out of their chairs, while Thesis blushed and -Ned stammered an apology. Then he remembered that only a few days -before he had heard his grandsire, the swearing old Indian Fighter, make -the same remark to Pete for being slow about bringing his shaving water; -and he knew that if Little Sister was proud of anyone, it was of her -great grandsire, who fought valiantly with "Stonewall" in the Valley. - -Ned and Thesis gave the old gentleman a talk, and begged him to be -careful of his oaths in the presence of Little Sister: but when he had -heard it, he laughed more than he had laughed for a year, and -straightway proceeded to buy her a doll that cost a gold eagle, and was -as large, and nearly as beautiful, as Little Sister herself. - - -The spring that Little Sister was four years old, the General, as was -his custom every morning before breakfast, went out to the barn and -paddock to see the brood mares and colts. A stately brown mare, -ankle-deep in blue grass, stood in the paddock nearest the house, under -a great maple tree, its falling branches almost concealing her. She -turned every now and then in a nervous, unhappy way, and, going up to -the brown, new-born weakling of a colt lying in the blue grass, and -which seemed unable to rise, she lowered her shapely head till her -nozzle caressed it and then she whinnied softly. Something was very -badly wrong and she knew it. - -The old General had been looking on for quite a while, frowning. When -the General was sorry for anything he expressed his sympathy by a -nervous strutting and swearing. When he was angry or fighting--as his -battles in Virginia proved--he was as silent as a stone wall, and as -staunch. _Then_ he never swore. - -"The damned little thing's deformed, Jim," he said to the negro stable -boy who was standing near. "Poor old Betty," and he rubbed his favorite -saddle mare's nose, "she is distressed." - -There was the sound of fox hunters coming up the pike. The hounds -passed first, in a trot, nosing. Then the two hunters rode up to the -rock fence where the General stood. One of them rode a docked hunter -with ungainly long head and sloping rump and shoulders. Both horse and -rider were unmistakably English; the man was middle-aged, portly, and -handsome. The other rider was a young man riding a Tennessee saddle -horse. - -"Good morning, General," said the Englishman, saluting, "can't you join -us to-day? Thought we'd exercise the pack a bit. The blooming old chap -was out last night--over in the hills after a negro's chickens--and -we'll take up his trail and have a little chase. Fawncy striking him in -that stretch of Stone's River bottom--aw--but we'll have a chase!" - -"No--no--Goff," said the old General, impatiently, "I'm pestered to -death with this little colt. I don't know what to do with it." - -The hunter glanced over into the paddock. - -"O that old ambling saddle mare of yours! Aw--you know what we did with -them in England--two centuries ago--anything with that Andalusian jennet -blood in it--that old pacing gait--killed 'em--aw! exterminated 'em, -sir! Always told you so. They're fit for nothing but for old women to -ride to church on." - -The younger man broke out into a boisterous laugh. His face was round -and weak, his mouth wide, his eyes insincere, and his laugh was affected -and betook of his eyes. - -"The Colonel's right, Grandpa. Tell Jim to kill it an' come on with -us." - -The old General glanced at him quickly. "Braxton Bragg Rutherford, my -son, when you enter West Point you will find it a rule there that very -young officers do not try to impress their views on their superiors -until asked." - -"Colonel Goff, suh," he said, turning to the Englishman, "that old mare -has carried me for fifteen years and never stumped her toe. Her dam -carried me through the Valley campaign with Stonewall Jackson. She -helped us chase Banks and Fremont out of God's country. She saved my -life once because she could outfoot Yankee cavalry. You were with me -and know it. I owe the whole family a debt I can never repay, and suh, -I'll be damned if I don't hate to kill her colt." - -Colonel Goff looked over the fence at the colt lying in the grass. Then -he said to the negro, aside: "Pull out its legs, my man--there--that -will do. Hold them up!" - -The legs were knuckled over at the ankles, deformed evidently. When it -tried to stand it came down limply in a heap. - -Colonel Goff turned and, beckoning to the negro, whispered: "Jim, take -it into the stall there and destroy it without letting the General -know." Then he added in a louder tone, "Come, General, we'll wait till -you get your cup of coffee and join us." - -But the General shook his head. Rough he was and used to war and death, -yet this was old Betty's colt. Goff, knowing his stubbornness, saluted, -and rode on after the hounds. - -The old man stood thinking. He examined the deformed limbs again. Very -sternly he looked the colt over. Very sternly he reached his -conclusion, and once reached it was irrevocable. Jim, knowing, put in -apologetically: - -"Giner'l, hit'll never walk, we'll hafter kill it." - -"I don't want to see it done, Jim. I'll go in. Po' ole Betty--that she -should be played off on like that!" He stroked the mare's neck with a -kindly pat, and went in. - -Breakfast was ready for him. He sat down, abstracted, worried. Uncle -Jack, his grandson, eighteen, slender, and slightly lame, and who didn't -love to talk of the war, nor the thought of going to West Point, and who -wanted always to study about trees and a better way of farming, sat next -to Little Sister. The General told him of his misfortune. "It is a -great disappointment to me, suh, old Betty, my favorite saddle -mare--I've ridden her for fifteen years--the best mare in Tennessee, by -gad, suh, the very best! - -"It's weak, puny and no-count, Jack," he went on as he tested his -coffee--"deformed or something in its front, and knuckles over, can't -stand up." - -"That's too bad," said Uncle Jack; "I'll go out after breakfast and see -what I can do for it, Grandfather." - -"No use," said the General, gruffly. "It'll be merciful to destroy it. -I've told Jim, too; it'll be better off dead." - -Little Sister had not seemed to listen, but she had heard. This last -remark of her grandsire stopped a spoonful of oatmeal half way to her -mouth. The next instant, unobserved, she had slipped from her chair and -gone to the barn. - -"I tell you, Jack, I think this breeding business is a poor lottery," -went on the old General after a while. "To think of old Betty, the -gamest, speediest, best mare I ever owned--" - -There were protesting screams from the barn. They were instantly -recognized as Little Sister's. Uncle Jack glanced at her empty place, -paled, kicked over two chairs and a setter dog which blocked the door, -and rushed to the barn. - -A tragedy was on there. A negro stood in old Betty's stall with an ax -in his hand. On some straw in a far corner lay a sorry-looking colt. -But it was not alone, for Little Sister stood over it, shaking her tiny -fist at the black executioner, and screaming with grief and anger: - -"You shan't kill this baby colt--you shan't--don't you come in -here--don't! How dare you, Jim?" - -The flash of her keen blue eyes had awed the negro in the doorway. He -had stopped, hesitating, in confusion. - -"Go away, Jim," said Uncle Jack firmly. "Come, Little Sister, let us go -back to grandpa." But for once in her life Uncle Jack had no influence -over her. She was indignant, grieved. She fairly blazed through her -tears and sobs: she would never speak to grandpa again as long as she -lived! As for Jim, she would kill him as soon as she got big enough! -She wouldn't even speak to Uncle Jack unless he promised her that the -baby colt should not be killed! - -"Poor little colt," she said as she put her arms around its neck and her -tears fell over its big, soft eyes, "God sent you last night and they -want to kill you to-day." - -Uncle Jack brushed away a tear himself and, stooping, picked up the -colt's feet, one at a time, examining the little filly. - -Little Sister watched him intently: to her mind Uncle Jack knew -everything. The tears were still in her eyes when Uncle Jack looked up -quickly and said in his jolliest way: "Hello, Little Sister, this filly -is all right! Deformed be hanged! She's sound as a hound's tooth, just -weak in her tendons and we can soon fix them. Give her a little time for -strength. No, they'll not kill her, little one--" and he caught the -little girl up, giving her a hug. - -The tears gave way to a crackling little laugh. Little Sister was -dancing in the straw for joy! What fun it was to help Uncle Jack fix her -up! She brought him the cotton batting herself and gravely watched him -as he made stays for the weak tendons and bent ankles. Finally, when he -had the filly fixed and had called Jim, who held her in his arms to the -mother's flank until she had had a good breakfast, the little girl could -not keep still. In a burst Of generosity she begged Jim's pardon and -said she intended to give him a pair of grandpa's boots that very day. -In return for this Jim promptly named the filly "Little Sister." - -But having once said that the colt was "no-count," the old General -refused to notice it. "Po' little thing," said he, a month after it was -able to pace around without help from its stays, "po' little thing! -What a pity they didn't kill it." - -But Uncle Jack and Little Sister, with the help of old Uncle Wash, -nursed it, petted it and helped old Betty to raise it. And the next -spring their reward came in a nervous, high-strung but delicate looking -little slip that was indeed a beauty. The General would surely relent -now! But those who thought so did not know the old man. He merely -glanced at the weanling and remarked again: "The damned little weakling! -That old Betty should ever have played off on me like that!" He turned -indifferently away. Whereupon both the filly and the little girl turned -up their noses behind his back. - -The fall that the filly was three years old the big county fair came -off, with pacing stakes for the best three-year-old. The purse was a -thousand dollars, but greater still was the glory! - -The old General had entered a big colt named Princewood for the stakes. -This colt had been carefully trained for two seasons and had already -cost his owner more than he was worth. "But it's the reputation I am -after, suh," the General said to the driver, "the honor of the thing. -Our farm has already taken it twice, you know." - -Now Uncle Jack was something of a whip himself. He could not ride -because of a lame knee, so he became an expert in driving. The old -General had failed to notice how all the fall he had been giving Betty's -filly special attention with a hot brush now and then. Wrapped up as he -was in Princewood's wonderful speed, he had not noticed that Uncle Jack -had frequently called for his light road wagon, and that he and Little -Sister, now six years old, had taken delightful spins down the shady -places in the cool byways, where the footing was good and there was no -gravel or stones, and nobody could see them when they asked the -high-strung little filly "to step some," as Little Sister expressed it. - -Then at supper one night, when Colonel Goff had dropped in as he often -did, the old General began to brag about Princewood's wonderful speed -and of the way in which his favorite grandson, Braxton Bragg, could -drive him. - -"Why, Goff," said the General, "that boy is a wonder! He drove the colt -to-day a mile with one hand in 2:25." - -Uncle Jack winked at Little Sister, and she had to cram her mouth full -of peach preserves to keep from laughing. The General saw and guessed -there was a joke on him somewhere, and being one of those who loved to -joke others, but did not love to be joked himself, he flushed red and -began to praise Braxton Bragg openly, hoping it would go home to his -other grandson who sat so quietly at the table winking at Little Sister -and with something evidently up his sleeve.... - -"Yes, suh," said the General after a while, "Princewood will simply eat -up the field, and Braxton Bragg--ay, there's a boy for you!--he'll be a -great soldier some day--Braxton Bragg will simply drive the hoofs off -the whole bunch." - -Then Eloise looked up. Eloise was fifteen and lithe, with her red-gold -hair just being put up, and so graceful and beautiful that Little Sister -worshipped her, as did also Uncle Jack and Braxton Bragg, and Colonel -Goff for that matter. - -Eloise had caught the wink that Uncle Jack gave, and understood it in an -instant. For Eloise knew things, especially about horses. - -"And you really think Braxton Bragg and Princewood will eat up the -field," she said ever so sweetly and respectfully to the old General. -"My, I'd like ever so much to take the field end of that," she added -indifferently, but winking at Uncle Jack. - -"My dear," said the old General, "I don't gamble with sweet school -girls; but if Princewood fails to make good, I'll just give you that -fine Whiteman saddle you've been wanting all the time----" - -"I can't play a one-sided bet like that; it isn't fair," said Eloise. -"I'd like to be as generous as you are, sir, and put up a forfeit. But -dear me," and she sighed like the exiled queen in the fairy tale, "I'm -dowerless and own nothing." - -"Good," said Colonel Goff. "Brave girl! now that lets _me_ in. -General, just let me take the bet off your hands. Now then, Eloise, -I'll take you dowerless--for you are a dower all unto yourself," he -said, bowing grandly, "and I'll bet you--mark me now--I'll bet you that -new English saddle mare I've just imported, against your own sweet self, -that my friend the General's Princewood will win that race!" - -"It's a go," cried Eloise, rising gracefully and taking his hand, -"red-leather-bargain-done-for-ever," she added laughing. - -The General looked pleased--he showed it in his bland smile and the -vigorous nodding of his head. He whispered to Goff: "By gad, Goff, but -all joking aside--she'll make you the finest wife alive!" - -Eloise heard and looked over at Jack with a smile, but Jack's head was -down on his breast and there was no smile on his lips. - -Never remotely--in any way--in his dreams--(and being a poet, he dreamed -often) had he thought of Eloise belonging to anyone but him!... - -It looked as if all the county was there on the fine fall day of the -race. It was one of those sweet old country fairs where the yeomanry of -the hills and the lassies from the valleys make holiday, and the heifers -with polished horns share the glory with the fillies, bedecked with -ribbons, and stepping proudly in air to music. - -The field was a large one; for the purse was rich and the honor even -richer. - -"And Princewood's a prime favorite, suh," chuckled the old General as he -walked around, holding by the hand a little girl who went everywhere -with him, and who wondered whether, after all, Uncle Jack really knew. -And so hearing so much that was braggart of Princewood, she all but lost -faith: as is the way of us all if we do not touch, now and then, the -shrine of our Truth. - -Eloise was there, now flirting with the country beaux, and now riding -Colonel Goff's saddle mare in the rings for blue ribbons. By two -o'clock she had the mare's head-stall full of them, and one big one -adorned her own riding whip as "the best lady rider." Seeing her beauty -and grace, Colonel Goff murmured to himself: - -"By gad, but I'll make her Lady Carfax some day." - -The bell had already rung twice for the race and all the owners and -horses were supposed to be preparing to score down, when a new entry -drove in. He sat in a spider-framed four-wheeled gentleman's road cart -instead of in a sulky, which would make him at least four seconds slow -in a race like that. And he wore a cutaway business suit and a soft -felt hat, and not a gaudy jockey cap and silk coat as did Braxton Bragg, -who drove Princewood and was bragging about what he was going to do. - -The newcomer nodded familiarly to the starting judge and paced his -nervous looking little filly up the stretch. - -"Who is that coming into this race in that kind of a thing?" asked the -old General of a farmer standing near, for his eyesight was failing him. - -"Why, General, don't you know yo' own grandson? That's young Jack -Ballington," said the man. - -"The hell you say!" shouted the excited old man. "Why dammit, has Jack -gone crazy? He always was a fool!" And he clattered over a bench with -his wooden leg and hobbled up the stretch to head off the pair. - -"By gad, suh, Jack," he shouted, "are you going to drive in this race?" - -Jack nodded and smiled, while he soothed the nervous little filly with -gentle words. - -"And what's that little rakish looking thing you've got there?" - -"That's Little Sister, Grandfather," he said, good-naturedly. "I'm -really just driving her to please our little girl and see how she'll act -in company." - -The old General was amazed, indignant, outraged. "Why, you're the daddy -of all damned fools that ever lived!" he blurted. "They'll lose you -both in this race! Get off the track, Jack, for God's sake, and don't -disgrace old Betty this way--why, that old mare--I've ridden her for -fifteen years! Why, I rode her dam clear through the war. She helped -chase Banks and Fremont out of the valley--why that little no-count -thing--Jack, she'll drop dead if you extend her." - -Jack smiled. "It's just for a little fun, Grandfather, and to please -the little girl; for it's her pet, you know. I'll just trail them and -if she's too soft I'll pull out the second heat. But she's better than -you think," he added indifferently. - -The old General expostulated, threatened; but Jack laughed -good-naturedly and drove off. Then the old General repented. It was -comically pathetic to hear him call out: "Jack, Jack, don't tell anybody -it's old Betty's colt, will you? Promise me, boy. Why, I rode her for -fifteen years. I rode her dam all through the valley of Virginia with -Stonewall Jackson." But Uncle Jack drove on, chuckling to himself: -"I'll bet ten to one he'll be telling it before I do." - -When the little filly got into company she was positively gay. She -forgot all about herself, and like great people the world over she lost -her nervous ways when the great effort was on, and went away at the go -of the starter with a rush that almost took Uncle Jack's breath from -him. - -He pulled her quickly down. "Ho--ho, Little Sister--if you do that -again you'll give us all dead away, and that will spoil the fun." He -glanced quickly around to see if anyone saw him. But the crowd were all -busy watching Princewood. So Uncle Jack trailed behind, the very last of -the bunch, but with the little filly fighting indignantly for her head -all the way. - -Nobody seemed to see them at all, that is, nobody but a little girl, who -clung nervously to the old General's middle finger, and wondered, with -her child's faith fiercely battered, if her Uncle Jack, her Uncle Jack -who knew it all and could do anything, if he, the mighty, was really -going to tumble from his lofty throne in her mind? - -Then she got behind the General's big Prince Albert coat tail, and wiped -away two nervous little tears. Princewood had paced in way ahead. She -stuck her fingers in her ears, so that she could not hear the shouts, -and her little nervous lips closed tight with indignant shame. When she -took them out the shouting was over, but she heard the old General say, -"Wasn't it a walkover? That fool grandson of mine has always made me -tired. I don't believe the little thing can go round again." - -This cut into the soul of the little girl. She pretended to go after a -glass of the big red lemonade that they sold under a near-by tree; but -really she went to cry in the dark hall under the grand stand and to -wipe her tears on the frills of the pretty little petticoat Mother -Thesis had made for her just to wear to the fair. - -There was one who knew, however, because she really had horse sense. -She was riding a beautiful English saddle mare across the infield, and -she looked like a young Diana in her dark blue riding suit, and she sat -her horse like the Centaur's wife. As she rode across the grassy -infield, Braxton Bragg came up, and catching her mare by the bit, -stopped her short. His little round, weak face was focused into a -smile. Eloise flushed, vexed that he should seize a moving mare by the -bit, for it is against all good horsemanship to do it; just as one pilot -would resent another interfering with his wheel. She looked down on him -without a smile. - -"Say, Eloise," he said as one who seeks a compliment, "how do you like -the way I did it?" - -Long ago Eloise had said of Braxton Bragg: "Answer a fool according to -his folly." Therefore she smiled dryly now and said, "Beautifully. How -entirely and completely you do fill that sulky seat, Braggy." Braxton -Bragg, not knowing what satire was, took this for a compliment, and -smiled again. Then, encouraged, he whispered low to her: "You've never -given me a chance to show you just how much I could do for love of you, -Eloise." - -"Oh," she answered, ever so sweetly. - -"Yes," he sighed affectedly, trying to look love-lorn, cocking his head -with affected sadness and succeeding only in looking ridiculous. - -"Oh," she said sweetly again. If he had had sense he would have seen -the sweetness was for ends of her own. "Oh, how sweet of you and how -cruel of me, Braggy." Her tone was very clear. If he had only looked -down the past he might have remembered that whenever she had called him -Braggy she had been planning to do him. - -He sighed again, which shut his mouth the second time. Eloise, -demurely, but inwardly nearly bursting, did likewise. "Well?" he asked, -expectantly. - -"Yes," said Eloise encouragingly. - -"I mean--can't--I now?" - -"There's never a better time than the present, Braggy, you remember the -school books say." Then she reached down and, pretending earnestness, -said: - -"You've got a walk-over, it's plain. It's yours for the asking, Braggy. -And so--well--it's big odds I'm giving you, Braggy," and she laughed -like a wood thrush, "but if you win that race I'll be yours alone -henceforth and forever, Braggy." - -He paled, taking her hand, which fell sidewise down past her saddletree, -in his. - -"Oh Eloise--dearest,"--he started bookishly, but ended in his own way, -which was mentally unlearned: "Gee--but I'll win or bust!" - -"And if you don't," began Eloise, ever so indifferently. "Of course you -will," she smiled; "but if you don't, Braggy, now dear, why you'll just -send me that set of seal-skins for that fashionable hennery I'm going to -at Washington?" - -"Good! Good!" he cried boisterously. "What odds you give me! You -against a hundred dollar seal-skin! Oh, my, let me get busy!" And he -rushed off, smirking back sillily at her. - -"A saddle mare, a saddle, and a set of sealskins all in one day. Well, -that's going some," Eloise chuckled as she rode up to the fence where -Uncle Jack stood. Reaching down from her saddle, she tapped him on the -shoulder. - -He looked up into her laughing eyes, and flushed, for he had always -loved her. - -"Jack, Jack, you are a dandy! You did it beautifully! O, the stride of -that rush before you called her down! Say, how do you like my mare? -Isn't she a beauty?" - -"If you say so," he said slowly, testing her, "I'll lay up the next -heat; let _him_ win." He had remembered Goff's bet. - -She flushed. Then she rapped him over the shoulder lightly with her -whip. - -"Why, Jack, that would be horrible! Do you think I'd have made the bet -if I hadn't believed in you, loved you, brother mine?" - -Jack flushed. "Do you, Eloise--do you--" - -Eloise laughed. "Like a sister. Aunt Lucretia says we've got to marry -each other, so what's the use of my kicking? But listen--now--say, -Jack--you've played right into my hand. I'll need that Whiteman saddle -for this beautiful thing. So hold up a while till I ride over and close -that bet with the General. Now is my time! He's crazy about that great -lobster of his and I could win The Home Stretch on this bet if I had -anything to put up." - -She wheeled her horse, threw a kiss down at Jack, and galloped off to -find the General. - -When Little Sister got back from her cry the General was gone. He was -over at the table talking to Uncle Jack. - -"Now, Jack," said he, "don't disgrace old Betty any more. Why, I rode -her fifteen years. I rode her--" - -Uncle Jack had always been so quiet that it was a distinct surprise to -the old General when he showed an unsuspected grit and gameness. - -"Hang her old dam, Grandfather, and your cursed old war in Virginia! -Drop dead, will she? Well, sir, you are likely to see something drop -yourself before this heat is over." And he turned on his heels and -walked off. - -The old General looked at him astounded, and with positive admiration. - -"By gad," he said to himself, "he's either crazy or got more sense than -us all. By gad, to think of him getting mad and having grit like that! -He may make a soldier yet," and he chuckled with pride. - -Now Uncle Jack meant business. He changed his cart for a sulky. Again -they got the word. Princewood, having the pole and all advantage, -flashed ahead in his big lumbering pace, Little Sister in the very rear, -struggling for her head. Slowly, gradually, Uncle Jack let her have it. -Steadily, like moving machinery set in grooves of steel, she came up on -them, relentlessly, mercilessly cutting them down, one after another. -At the half there was nothing but Princewood ahead and no one even saw -her yet, for the shout was: "Princewood! Princewood!" This heat would -make the race his. - -"Princewood's got 'em, General!" yelled a countryman, his mouth so wide -open from excitement that tobacco juice ran down his chin whiskers and -into his shirt collar. "Princewood's got 'em! There's nothin' that kin -head 'im!" - -"He's got 'em!" yelled the partisans of the old General, packed solidly -around him and cackling with half crazy joy. "Now jes watch sum'thin' -drop." - -But a girl sitting on her horse and looking over the crowd saw it -differently. A daring, knowing, triumphant smile lingered around her -mouth. And not in heaven, nor in the star-lighted lake below, ever shone -two stars rippling into little wavelets of glint and glory like those in -the eyes of her. - -The General, seeing her, shouted: "Yes, watch it drop! No saddle for -you, young lady!" - -Down went her keen, fun-loving eyes to those of the old soldier. "It's -dropped already, General--see! I own that saddle now!" - -Something had happened. The little filly felt the reins relax and a -kindly chirrup come from her driver. In a twinkling, in the whir of a -spinning wheel, she was up with the big fellow, half frightened at her -own speed, half doubting that it was really she who did it, half sobbing -with the keen thrill of it, like a great singer who for the first time -hears her own voice filling a great hall. - -"_Princewood! Princewood!_" shouted the crowd around their idol, the -General, "_Princewood's broke the record!_" - -The old General rose in happy anticipation: "Yes, boys, it looks like -the record is busted by--" - -Here his jaw dropped as if paralyzed; for his trained eye took in the -situation and the word died in his mouth. What was that little bay -thing that had so gamely collared his big horse? Who is that -quiet-looking fellow in the soft hat handling the reins like a veteran -and leading the march like Stonewall's Foot-Cavalry in the Valley? His -grandson, Jack, was in a cart; this man sat in a sulky. And Jack was -driving a little limp-waisted, hollow-flanked-- - -"Who the devil--" he began, when someone clinging to his middle finger -looked up, great smiles chasing tears down her cheeks and so excited she -could scarcely breathe. - -"Why, it's Little Sister, Grandpa! Now isn't she just too sweet for -anything?" - -The next instant the little filly laughed in the big pacer's face, who -had quit in a tangled break, as much as to say: "_You big braggart -duffer, have you quit already?_" and then, like a homing pigeon loosed -for the first time, she sailed away from the field. - -"Princewood--Princewood has broke the record--" shouted the farmer who -hadn't caught on and was shouting for Princewood, but was looking at the -champion pumpkin in the window of the Agricultural Hall. - -And then the old General lost his head and what little religion he had -left. For he jumped on a bench, his wooden leg rattling as he danced up -and down, like a flock of goats in a barn loft, and this is what the -town crier in the courthouse window, a mile away, heard him yelling: - -"_Damn Princewood! Damn the record! It's Little Sister--Little -Sister--my own mare--old Betty's filly. I rode her fifteen years! I -rode her dam--_" - -"Oh--" sang out mockingly a beautiful girl, sitting her horse beside -him, with a laugh that sounded like a wood thrush's. "But I've won a -saddle and a seal-skin cloak and the sweetest mare in the world! Say, -Braggy," for Braxton Bragg just then drove in, the last of the whole -procession--"that engagement is all off, isn't it?" - -Then Uncle Jack, who had stopped and got out of the sulky, came up, his -face aglow. And she, her eyes still fired to starry beauty, leaned from -the saddle and kissed him. - -"You darling Jack, how can I ever get even for this?" - -"I said he'd be telling about it first," said Uncle Jack, wagging his -head at the crowd, where the old General stood telling them that it was -_he_ who had bred the great little filly and that it was _his old mare_ -who was the dam of her! - -"And the little old no-count thing did play off on you sure enough, -didn't she, Grandpa?" came from the tear-eyed tot beside him, so naively -in earnest and telling such a plain unvarnished truth that even the old -General's partisans had to wink and nudge each other as they walked off. -The old General laughed as he picked her up and said: "And here's the -little girl that saved her, gentlemen, the smartest girl in Tennessee; -and she's got more horse sense than her old granddaddy!" - -There was one more heat, of course; but it was only a procession, and -those behind--and that meant the field--cannot swear to this day which -way Little Sister went.... - - - - - *II* - - *"A TWILIGHT PIECE"* - - - ... "And all that I was born to be - and do, a twilight piece." - --_Robert Browning_. - - - - *CHAPTER I* - - *THE FLAME IN THE WOOD* - - -Home again and Tennessee in April! When the train swept over the -Highland Rim, the woods, not yet in full leaf, seemed afire with the -clustering blooms of the pink azaleas. On both sides, in little sudden -and short valleys, and farther off on dwarf-oak hillsides, they blazed. -Far beyond their faint, mist-like flush mingled with the sky line in the -distant openings, and seemed an arc of soft sunset clouds. - -Cream-white dogwoods rose up in open spaces against the blurred, pink -backgrounds, clustering like evening stars in rose cloud-banks. Anon -they grew in separate groups, down in little dells, and each of these -tiny bowls was full of them. - -Their odor, soft and fragrant, swept through the train, dew-damp and -like old memories in sweetness. - -This seems to me to be the main thought about all wild flowers, that -they alone are God's idea of beauty and not those that bloom in gardens -and hot houses through the skill of man. If, from any cause, such as -the gas from a comet's tail, men should vanish in a night, none of these -last would live to bloom again. Like their makers they would pass from -the earth. But like Nature's Maker the wild sweet things of the wood -and meadows and mountains would bloom again, although man were not, -mirroring God's idea of beauty even to the desert. - -If it is Nature's great desire that that which is best shall live, the -wild flowers have Nature's underwriting of approval. Ancient Linnæus -said of one unfolding: "I saw God in his glory passing near me and bowed -my head in worship." - -Through all the ages those who see, whether poet or planter, think the -same great thoughts. Tennyson said of the flower plucked from the -crannied wall, that if he could know what it was he should know what God -and man were. They bring a larger thought even than that, for they -prove that God _is Beauty_. - -Even as I was thinking this the train rushed through what had once been -a wood, but was now a burnt and scarred spot, bare of life. The azaleas -in their beauty, were the flame in the woods which Nature had kindled: -but this desolate spot was the flame which had come from the hand of -man... - -When the train stopped for water at the little station I got out and -gathered a great bunch of flowers for Eloise.... - -Then as we dropped down into the Middle Basin, filled with the blue -grass in its spring glory, whole acres of hepaticas twinkled up at us -like fallen fireflies. - -At last I was home again, and home with a new mission, new ideas. For -four years I had studied trees and flowers in a German university. I had -prepared myself to be a forester. Now I was looking out of the car -window at the wantonness that had turned hillsides into gullies and rich -loam into beds of clay. The little streams that I had remembered -running from a familiar wood, now crawled, winding amid sand dunes bare -of trees. The folly of it hurt me. I saw that here was work for me to -do. - - - - - *CHAPTER II* - - *THE HOME-STRETCH* - - -How familiar were the hills around the little Hermitage Station! And -how grateful was the sweet clear air of its dew-bathed meadows after the -noise and smoke of the train! - -My Aunt Lucretia imprinted two chilly kisses from tight-shut lips on -each of my cheeks. She was a large, strong, stout woman, with a fine, -high nose and full mouth, which, when it would, could settle quickly -into close-shut lips of determination. Her eyes were hazel and keen: -kindly when quiet; but quick to flash and far-seeing. - -Without a word and very deliberately she looked me over through her gold -nose glasses. I smiled as I remembered how often I had seen her pass on -a horse she was purchasing in the same way. Down the six feet of my -height her keen eyes went, dwelling, I imagine, a bit longer on my legs -where the old lameness had been in my knee since my boyhood sickness -from typhoid fever. Again I smiled, for in that same way I had seen her -linger over the doubtful tendon of a horse. But the noted German -surgeon, Hoffman, had, in my first year at Berlin, skillfully removed -the floating cartilage, and I saw my Aunt Lucretia's face light up, -satisfied with the straight limb, and my weight upon it. Then she -looked lengthwise across my shoulders, and a surprised pleasure shone in -her eyes. I had grown from a frail boy into an athlete. - -We had not said a word. I stood smiling at her, and she, as was her -custom, would not speak until her survey was done. Very deliberately -she looked me over. I had seen her examine Young Hickory, lineal -descendant of Andrew Jackson's famous Truxton in the same way. - -I was eager to say something and get to Eloise. I had caught a glimpse -of her face at the surrey's door. - -"I thought you would grow into that," Aunt Lucretia remarked, as she -readjusted her glasses. Then, as if to impress on me her long expressed -thought, she added, "You have grown beautifully up to your pedigree, -Jack." - -I laughed. "Well, if you have passed on me, here goes," I said -boisterously, as I seized her around the neck and gave her a kiss, which -knocked off her glasses. - -"Tut--tut, Jack, that will do! Kissing is silly and thoroughly -unsanity. There is Eloise waiting for you--but no kissing--no hugging -her--none of it," she added. - -I saw the straight, fine figure draw back half haughtily into the -carriage, and a half-protesting look flash for an instant over the -pretty face, profiled through the open space. She threw back her head -in the old tribute-demanding way, and her half-closed lids veiled her -eyes under great curving, brown-red brows. I caught a gleam of the old -daring fun in them, as she smiled and held out both her hands, taking -mine. - -"Awfully glad to see you, Jack--welcome home." - -My heart betrayed itself in the quick glance I gave her. She had -developed so wonderfully in those four years. And how I had longed to -see her! - -She sat smiling kindly into my eyes; I stood looking sillily into hers, -holding both of her hands in mine, forgetful of Aunt Lucretia, and with -no word that I could say to Eloise. - -"Eloise," I began haltingly at last, "is it--have you--is it really -you?" - -I bent down to kiss her, but she fenced away and drew back smiling. - -I dropped her hand, hurt. - -"Jack," and her tone tried to compensate me, "behave now--everybody is -looking." Then she added louder, "Have you really grown into this -handsome chap--and no lameness any more?" - -"Tut--tut," broke in Aunt Lucretia, half irritated, "you two make me -tired. Of course he has--you have both grown wonderfully up to your -pedigree--I always said so--nothing strange in that. And as you are -both grown now," she added patronizingly and with the old return of -authority, "I intend to marry you to each other before Christmas--see if -I don't." - -I blushed and Eloise smiled--a trace of the old fun-loving tease -breaking across the corners of her mouth. Her beautiful clear -blue-hazel eyes smiled up into mine, full of the old fun and daring. - -I bent over her. "Eloise, aren't you really going to kiss me?" - -"It is unsanitary, Jack,--and--" she glanced at Aunt Lucretia--"bad form -and--" - -I turned, hurt, and shook hands with old Thomas, the driver. - -"Mighty glad to see you back home, Marse Jack, mighty glad!" said he. - -I looked closely at his horses, with that pretended admiration that I -knew would please him, in order to hide my chagrin. There was -embarrassment in it too, for I knew I was under inspection from the eyes -of Eloise. - -"I declare, Marse Jack," he went on, "dis sho'ly ain't you, is it? I -declar to goodness if you ain't biggern yo' daddy wuz, and yo' -gran'pa--the ole Jineral." He grew easily loquacious. "When I fust seed -you a-comin' out dat cyar dore, I didn't know you, and yit I sed to -myself, _sholy I've seed dat face--hit 'pears mighty complicated to me -somehow_." - -A smothered laugh from Eloise. "That is what I've been trying to say, -Thomas, but couldn't, to save me, think of the right word. Thank you so -much--'_complicated,_' Jack--that's too good!" - -I showed plainly that I did not like this from Eloise. Ridicule we may -bear, but not from our beloved. And I had loved Eloise always, but -never so much as now. Then she suddenly broke into a smile, and said in -her sweet sisterly way of old: "Forgive me, Jack--I haven't lost my old -teasing way with you, have I?" - -"I don't want you to," I said quietly. - -"Well, what do you think of her?" broke in Aunt Lucretia. - -"I can't tell you how beautiful I think she is, Aunt Lucretia," said I. - -Eloise laughed, and looked dreamily up. How quickly her eyes had -changed from daring to dreams. In her low, even laugh lay four years of -fashionable Washington schooling. In the soft tones of her voice were a -thousand music lessons. In the well-gowned girl before me was training, -the spirit of gentlefolk, centuries of correct pedigrees. She had -always been strong, and with a form as lithe as a young frost-pinched -hickory. How she could ride a horse and handle a gun! Her hair had -been yellowish and flossy, now it was like the distant flush of a -red-top meadow, mower-ripe. I had left her an over-long school girl, -thin and callow, daring, caring for nothing so much as running a risk of -her neck and limbs in trees, and bare-back gallops on any half-broken -colt on the farm. But now-- - -Aunt Lucretia, watching me, guessed. - -"Oh, well, she'll pass, won't she?" she said rather braggartly for her, -I thought. "You'll believe what I kept writing you now, eh? Though you -never referred to it once, not once." - -"Oh! Aunt Lucretia," began Eloise protestingly. Even her voice had -changed. It was not the imperative, rollicking, colt-breaking voice of -the school girl I had known four years ago. It was now like a fall of -soft, freestone water over a moss-lined rock bed, purling into a deep -pool below, sand-bordered and waveless. - -"Please don't tease him," she began again. - -Aunt Lucretia laughed triumphantly: "Oh, never mind. I want to rub it -in on Jack. He needs it curried into him. He hasn't written me a line -to show that he intended to carry out my wishes until I grew positively -uneasy, for fear he'd marry one of those Hessians, whose ancestors -Washington crossed the Delaware to whip that night." - -(Hadn't written, I thought. But no one shall ever know what I had -dreamed and hoped in those four years.) - -I was looking into Eloise's eyes; she flushed, for I saw she knew my -thoughts. - -"You shan't be hard on Jack," she said, taking my part as it seemed to -save herself. "Jack, dear," and she took my hand in hers, her eyes for -the first time flashed with sympathy, "we must do as of old, we must -pool interests, when she is against us we must combine to beat her. And -to prove it I am going to defy her and kiss you, for you've heard her -say that we are betrothed, and this is always the first thing after a -betrothal," and with the old daring in her eyes she looked up at me. - -I remember into what a perfect Cupid's bow her hitherto straight lips -curved, and I flushed crimson as my lips met hers. Aunt Lucretia, -seeing this, said with emphatic shame, "Tut--tut, unsanitary and silly! -Get into the surrey, Jack. Thomas, drive these two fools home!" - -In my heart I thanked Aunt Lucretia for that tirade. I knew Eloise of -old. She was always on the side of the under dog. For that reason she -had kissed me. Still, with all her pretense I noticed that Aunt -Lucretia had arranged that we should sit together, and had seated -herself in front with Thomas, where she could watch her roan span trot -off. - -"Eloise," I whispered, dropping my hand on hers, "is it really you? I -never dreamed you would be so beautiful. I have loved you always, -Little Sister. Don't you love me a little?" - -She laughed at my low voice. Then she suddenly grew serious, and said -in a tone that hurt me, "Of course I do, Jack, as your adopted sister. -But don't!" she protested, as I tried to kiss her cheek. "You are -acting so queerly; as if we were really in love!" - -I drew back, very much hurt. "Eloise!" - -"Don't be silly, Jack, or you'll spoil it all. Haven't I always been -your little sister?" - -"But surely, Eloise," I said, my heart in my throat, "after all these -years--you don't know how I've loved you always, and lately yearned for -home and you." - -She gave me a startled look. "Jack, we must stop this. I have -something to tell you." - -The hills swayed as the surrey rushed by. I saw the old field mistily, -the distant trees and the white lime roads. I was almost reeling in the -fear which her tone had brought. - -"What do you think of them?" asked Aunt Lucretia proudly. - -I looked at the handsome pair, stepping like one, at a good three -minutes' gait. - -"Splendid," I said. "I should guess they were Young Hickory's, and -their dam, Nuthunter." - -Uncle Thomas could not restrain a laugh. These horses were his pride. -"Ain't los' none of yo' hoss sense hobnobbin' with them furrin' folks, -Marse Jack. You sho' hit it 'zactly!" - -"I was afraid," went on Aunt Lucretia, "that I might not be successful -in straightening out the Nuthunter legs; he hasn't the best of hocks, -you know. But did you ever see anything more beautiful?" she added. - -"I never," I answered, looking steadily into Eloise's eyes. - -"Jack," laughed Eloise, "I must discipline you." - -For answer I caught up her hand behind Aunt Lucretia's back and kissed -it. - -"I'm sorry for you, Jack," she said with her old quietness, -"but--but--well, I'll see you to-night and explain." Then she looked -out and exclaimed, "The Home Stretch, Jack! Isn't it beautiful? Has it -changed any?" - - - - - *CHAPTER III* - - *THE HICKORIES* - - -We drove up to the great mansion built of home-baked bricks. It sat on -a blue grass slope, and before it lay twenty acres of blue grass lawn, -tree-peopled: oaks, ash, poplars; and elms, red and white; and a great -broad-topped gum. Eloise and I remembered this last best of all, for in -the fall it early turned into a great, flaming brushheap of red, crimson -streaked with black. Scattered about on the lawn, filling the gaps, were -single trees of dogwood. In the dusk they shone like silver nosegays in -dark vases. - -The evening dank was in the air as we drove up; that rare odor, which is -really no odor, but only a memory of one; and as we whirled up the drive -there came a whisp of perfume, blue grass cut before its time, fresh -spring hay, for a sick brood mare, in the meadow beyond. - -The night sounds made me homesick, even though I was at home; a -whippoorwill, a whinnying mare, the lowing of a lonesome calf in the -barn. Far off, in the faint purple twilight, stood the hills; and -nearer was the black fringe of trees which moated Stone's River. Here -was home and April, and my heart was eager for them. - -This was The Home Stretch, the home of my grandsire, General John -Rutherford. His daughter, my Aunt Lucretia, ran the farm for him, as -she did everything else within ten miles of her, for my grandsire was -old, and had lost a leg while fighting with Stonewall Jackson in the -Valley. - -Eloise guessed my thoughts. Her voice was quiet and tender as she said, -"You should see our hickories, Jack!" - -I jumped from the surrey at the door, and drew her with me. "Let us -look at them first of all," I said, "because there was our playhouse, -there were our dreams." - -She smiled as she pointed to the walks still lined with sunken ale -bottles, their mouths projecting upward as borders for our flower beds. - -Aunt Lucretia had gone into the house. Thomas had wheeled the surrey and -team to the barn. - -The land we stood on had once belonged to Andrew Jackson. Here he had -lived before he had moved to the farm four miles away known as the -Hermitage. Clover Bottom had been the pride of a great, strong heart. -In the field beyond had stood the pioneer store where Jackson and Coffee -had traded, with Indians. Beyond that was the far-famed circular field, -in the great bend of Stone's River, and level as a floor, where Truxton -and Plowboy and the unbeaten Maria had once raced. Still farther beyond -Stone's River circled like a tube of quicksilver through the green of -the wooded hills. - -Never before was honesty put to such a test as when Andrew Jackson gave -up this home to pay an unjust debt. Without complaint he moved further -into the wilderness, and built his great double log-cabin home. That -cabin is now a shrine! - -Here stood the giant hickories in a group, the rugged, stately trees. -Why did he plant them here? Or had the old hero, with that love of his -for the unbending tree for which he was named, let them stand unscathed, -as Nature had placed them? They stood in a great group, cathedral-like, -one taller and more stately than his fellows, like a spire. - -Of all the trees the hickory is the conqueror. Its purpose in life is to -withstand. It is a fighting tree, rough of dress, careless of manner, -rude in its unpolished bark. To be frightened by the hails of heaven is -not for it. The hurricane cannot quell it. From its youth it has -fought the storm, and when the storm has tired it has still stood, -tattered but glorious. - -Every fall in one great flaming pyre as of a burning bush wherein there -is Divinity, they have blazed and burned before our wondering eyes. A -warrior tree, and yet, withal, what no warrior ever was: a giver of -gifts, not a wrecker of those already garnered; not bullets, not shells, -not grape shot dropped on the land; but nuts. Some day, truly, the real -conqueror of the world will conquer like this tree--overcoming in a hail -of kindness flung from loving hands. - -"It was these trees," I said, turning to Eloise, "that sent me to -Germany to study forestry; these trees and Dr. Gottlieb. How is he? I -can hardly wait till morning to run over to his cabin." - -Eloise laughed. "Oh! you were always a poet, Jack. Dr. Gottlieb is the -same, and he is famous now; such books he has written of flowers and -trees!" - -"Do you know they use his text-books in Germany?" I asked proudly; "and -that last work of his, 'Tree Influence on Precipitation,' was talked -about in all the universities. Look," I said, pointing to a scarred and -gullied hillside across the road, showing bare even in the twilight, -"there is the great work to be done in our land, there is the coming -field for the young brains of our country--that, and better farming, and -the watering of our great barren spots in the West. We've cut down our -trees wantonly--our pioneer sires did so before us,--for the land had to -be cleared or they would have died. But now if I can only get them to -change! You should see the German and French system. When I came -through France, along their coasts, both on the Mediterranean and the -Channel, were great forests planted to break the winds and storms. I was -told that a century ago the winds began to make deserts of their coasts, -encroaching mile after mile into the land. Now, with the trees planted, -it is a garden again." - -Eloise was listening silently. Then she said, "Jack, that is all very -fine, and it took courage in you to do it, to go over there. It was not -Aunt Lucretia's idea; hers was a horse-farm for you; and the General's -was West Point and war. He has never been the same toward you, Jack--I -can see it--since you would not go to West Point." - -"He never cared for me as he did for Braxton," I said. I winced, for I -loved my old grandsire. - -"He has not written me a line since I have been gone," I went on. - -"Poor Jack," and she took my hand in hers in the old way, "and I have -always teased you cruelly, Jack." - -"And Eloise," I said, "I have always loved you." - -"Jack," she said, "Little Brother,"--those words I knew of old meant -condescension--"I knew it would not do. I wanted you to love someone -else. You know Aunt Lucretia's silly conditions." She flushed in the -twilight. "I hoped while you were away," she went on, "if we didn't -write you'd forget me." - -"And instead," I said, bringing her hand to my lips, "I thought of no -one else but you. I came back loving you, Eloise, more than ever; as a -man's love is greater than a boy's." - -She grew suddenly stern. "Jack, Jack, haven't I told you not to?" - -"Not?" I cried. "Did any real lover ever have a choice? It's not his -part to decide--" - -"Listen, Jack; you know I would not lie to you, but you must understand -how foolish--how useless--" - -"Come to supper, Jack--Eloise." It was Aunt Lucretia calling. "Here is -father and Colonel Goff," she added as we walked up the steps. "Father -has grown quite deaf, Jack, since you saw him." - -Colonel Goff, handsome, alert, and quick even to bluntness, came -forward, and shook my hand. - -"Glad to see you back again, Jack--welcome home." - -My grandfather sat in his great chair, facing the lawn. His wooden leg -rested on the railing. Great curls of tobacco smoke rose from his corner -of the porch. - -There was the old nervous, staccato clatter of wood and cane meeting on -the floor as he arose to greet me. I saw the stern, unyielding face -give back no smile of pleasure as he took my hand. He stood looking at -me doubtfully, his mind evidently weakening with old age. The sadness -of it flashed over me, for his mind had been the mind of a strong man in -his day. My Aunt Lucretia promptly screamed in his ear, "This is Jack, -Father; he has come home." - -"Jack, ah--ah--Jack, glad to see you, suh; and who did you say it was, -Lucretia?" - -"Your grandson, Jack Ballington. He has been away studying in Germany," -she screamed again. - -"Aha," said the old man, "aha--of course--wouldn't go to West Point, -though the President himself gave him the appointment in my behalf. -Aha--Jack--a brooding, dreaming sort of a feller--always mooning around -trees and writing poetry. Won't fight--not a damn one of 'em will. And -what a chance to fight you would have now! What a bully scrap we are -going to have! Have you heard, suh," he turned, and spoke sharply to -me, "have you heard that the Spaniards blew up our battleship the other -month, and that we are going to blow hell out of 'em? And they've been -needing it for two centuries. Ah! If I were only younger, wouldn't I -be in! Imagine it, Goff," he said, turning to him, "imagine me fighting -under the old flag again! Didn't think I'd ever live to see that day -when we were charging Banks in the Valley. Ah, 'twas a family -scrap--only a family fight--like old man Tully and wife--have to fight a -little at home now and then, so they'd love each other more when they -made up. Ah, suh, I'd give this farm to be your age again, and a chance -to fight under the old flag once more. Joe Wheeler wrote me the other -day that President McKinley would make me a Brigadier, if I'd go in. By -gad, suh, I sat down, and shed tears to think I was too old!" - -He was silent awhile; then, "Ha, ha, but I read in the paper to-day that -the Spanish Prime Minister is out in a statement saying it'll be easy to -whip us, because we're divided North and South, and that the Southern -Confederacy will arise again! He is right. We have already arisen. I -see in every Southern State ten times more have volunteered than their -quota calls for. Yes, we'll arise, and will help McKinley whip hell out -of them!" He stamped his wooden leg on the floor. - -"Now, Braxton Bragg--ah, he's in it. Do you know, suh, that he's a -Captain in the First Tennessee, and they are preparing now to go to the -Philippines? Ah, what a chance, what a chance you had, suh! And what -do you say you did in Germany?" - -"I studied forestry and farming, sir," I said, flushing hot under his -words, "and with it I took two years' training in the military school at -Berlin, taking instructions up to the rank of captain in the Emperor's -Guards." - -"The hell you did!" he shouted excitedly. "Did you have sense enough to -do that? Those soldiers are the best drilled soldiers in the world, -Goff. Your damned English to the contrary notwithstanding," he added, -smiling at the Colonel. "In the Emperor's Guards! Strike a match, -Lucretia, and let me see him." In the light of the match he stood up I -stood above him six good inches. That and my shoulders breadth -surprised him, for he went on: "You left here a crippled stripling, -mooning all the time over flowers and such cat-hair, and crying if -anybody cut down a tree. But you'll never fight, none of you ever have! -Sissy is the word for the whole kit of the world's mooners. Still, you -do surprise me, suh, now and then; I'll be honest about it; like this -studying military in Germany. Ha--ha--think of it!" - -"And beating you and your whole bragging bunch with Little Sister--have -you forgotten that, sir?" asked Eloise, nervily thrusting her intense -face into his, her eyes flashing, ready as she always had been to fight -my battles for me. - -My grandsire laughed good-naturedly. He had always had respect for -Eloise in her fighting moods, as had everybody else on the farm. His -voice was decidedly conciliatory as he said, "There, dear,--maybe I am -too hard on Jack--ha--ha--guess that was neatly turned, and we took our -medicine like men and soldiers. Eh, Goff?" He turned to me suddenly. -"If you'd only quit this tree foolishness and fight; but you won't do -it, suh--not a damned one of you ever did! And your lameness?" - -"It was a cartilage in my knee, sir; Dr. Hoffman, the famous surgeon, -took it out soon after I went over. I am not lame now, sir, at all." - -"Glad to hear it, suh, glad to hear it." - -He was silent for a moment, looking out into the dusk. "And you know -all about trees--aha--well, there's only one tree in the world I care a -damn for; there it is, and it is dying. My mother loved it. She used -to nurse me there," he added tenderly, his voice dropping low. - -"It's that beautiful elm at the dining-room window, Jack," explained my -Aunt. - -"The most perfect tree I ever saw," went on my grandsire, reminiscently. -"The others just grew up any way, but that one stood like the great -feathered eagle plume in the hair of the Comanche chief, Setting Sun. -He was the first Indian I killed on the plains--in a hand to hand -fight--and that eagle feather in his hair--I'll never forget it. And -that elm was like it--and--and my mother loved it," he said, his voice -muffled up in huskiness. He blew his nose vigorously, and went on more -cheerily, "Make yourself at home, suh--do what you please. I wanted you -to be a soldier, suh, like Braxton Bragg, ah, what a man that boy has -developed into at West Point! But it isn't born in you--can't make a -fighter out of a dreamer." - -He sat down, and Aunt Lucretia, taking my hand, led me in. "Goff," I -heard him say, "that fight at Winchester when we charged into the -town--you led me a little you know, and--" - -I felt Eloise's hand in mine as we went down the hall. "I hate him," -she said, tossing her head back toward the old man. "It's mean and -sinful; but I hate him! After all these years to greet you in that way. -And Braxton Bragg--you should see what a fool he is, Jack, in his -captain's straps, and living hourly up to his name!" - - - - - *CHAPTER IV* - - *COLONEL GOFF* - - -Colonel Goff followed us shortly afterwards into the hall. He had -ridden over on his English hunter while Eloise and I had been on the -lawn greeting our tree friends. He was immaculately groomed, in -polished boots, puttees and cap, an English crop in his hands. Fifty -years old, his black hair slightly streaked with gray, he was handsome, -and there was a masterful air about him that even an enemy must have -admired. A younger son of the Earl of Carfax, he had come to America -when my grandsire was fighting with Stonewall Jackson in Virginia. He -had volunteered for service, and had been placed in Jackson's corps, and -on my grandsire's staff. Here his real, sterling qualities found birth -and he proved to be a brilliant soldier. It was he who charged ahead of -the rebel yell and led the advance that scattered Banks. It was he who -led again at Cedar Creek, caught the brilliant Sheridan napping, and -sent his command reeling back in a retreat which would have meant -demoralization for anyone but Sheridan. His fondness for my grandsire -was no less than the old man's for him, and after the war Colonel Goff, -being in disgrace, it was said, with his father at home, moved to -Tennessee to be near his old commander. He had bought a fine place near -ours, and here he had lived the life of an English gentleman, with his -hounds, his horses, and his utter disregard of all the local and -established ideas of country temperance or morals. He was not a man who -asked for things, he took them. - -Even before I left home I had secretly rebelled at his admiration for -Eloise. In all her masterful ways, her riding, her fox chasing, her -hunting with the men, following Goff or the General all day on her pony, -and killing quail dead-straight, in the flush of the covey, he had -openly admired her. Afterwards I heard him say that she was a duchess -born, and the only one he had seen in America. He had humored, petted -and helped to spoil her as a child. As a girl, there never was a costly -thing she wanted but he gave it to her. - -In the dining-room, when supper had been announced, I noticed the -flushed pleasure in Eloise's eyes at sight of him. It was half a daring -look, as of the hunted defying the hunter, that I saw in her eyes, but I -could not rightly decipher it, or tell whether it meant she was -conquered or as yet unconquered. - -My heart burned with jealousy at the sight of it. The great joy of my -home-coming was gone! I knew his way, and that he would stay for -supper. - -"I had thought," I whispered sourly to Eloise, "that I would at least -have this first evening alone with you." - -Eloise laughed. "Oh, he comes when he pleases, and I--I send him home -when I please." - -He had greeted me pleasantly, but during supper he paid little attention -to me. Once he laughed at my study of forestry, and added, "And to go -to Germany for it, when you might have gone to England!" - -After supper, when I had gone with Aunt Lucretia to the barn to help her -with a sick colt, I smelt the odor of his cigar coming up from our old -seat under the elm. I grew bitter at the thought that anyone but I -should sit there with Eloise. My Aunt must have noticed this, for she -called: "Come in here--both of you. This isn't fair to Jack." - -Aunt Lucretia and Colonel Goff could never meet ten minutes in their -lives without a heated argument over American and English horses. She -generally worsted him, because she had all the records at her tongue's -end, and because in any kind of controversy she was fearless. For an -hour to-night, and until he left, she scored him fearlessly. "Take that -nick-tailed horse of yours," said Aunt Lucretia, "Colonel Goff, couldn't -you do better than that in England?" There were two things which always -especially incensed her; one was to cut off a horse's tail and the other -to import an animal from England, when a better one might be had here. - -Colonel Goff explained that there were no such horses in America. "He -is a four-mile hurdler," said he. "You've nothing of the kind in this -blooming country." - -"Why, madam, he holds the record jump behind the Quoin hounds at -Melton-Mowbry. The kill was in the main driveway of a manor and his -rider cleared the picket fence to be in first. That fence measured five -and a half feet and to this day it is the record at Melton-Mowbry." - -"A four-miler, that means a running horse," said my Aunt. "Of course we -have them. And a hurdler--that's only a jumping horse. Now, we've -never cared much for jumpers. Why, I've a mule in my barn that can go -over a ten rail fence any day. Uncle Ned says she just climbs it; -anyway, I've never been able to build one high enough to keep her out of -the cornfield on the other side. But there's Eloise's Satan, son of -Young Hickory, scion of General Jackson's Truxton. The man his sire is -named for used to beat your English at any kind of a game at New -Orleans, and I'll wager that Satan would be a mighty hurdler and high -jumper if he only had a chawnce," she said, smiling, in funny mimicry of -Goff. - -"Fawncy!" laughed Goff, twisting his mustache. "Why, he couldn't jump -over a chalk line! It's all in the training and pedigree! My Nestor -colt holds the record for the Melton-Mowbry meet, and his high jump was -five feet six." - -My Aunt turned the subject as if it were forgotten. But I knew she -never forgot, and that she had something up her sleeve. - -I was worried that Goff should linger so on my first night, for I saw -plainly that he hoped we would retire and that he wanted to get Eloise -off for a _tête-à-tête_. Aunt Lucretia saw this also, and whispered to -me when she got the chance, "Freeze him out, Jack; he shan't have her -to-night!" - -"Why, Major Hawthorn," she said presently, turning and rising abruptly. - -The major came in on us silently, in his soft, well-bred way. I rose -instantly to greet him. - -"Jack, my boy!" said he, throwing one arm around me, and drawing me to -him. "How you have grown! I heard you had come home, and I had to see -you to-night." - -"And you didn't want to see _me_?" said Eloise, coming up, and kissing -him; for the Major was her ideal, and she was always his pet. "Now, -Major, you always said that you loved me as much as you did Jack," she -teased, winding an arm into his. - -"Just the same as ever, my dear; you are both my two children always," -he laughed. "Why, good evening, Goff--and the General, where is he?" he -asked my Aunt Lucretia. "I have news that will please him." - -My Aunt went after my grandfather. - -"Jack," he turned to me, "what a man you have grown into! I'm hungry -for a long talk with you." - -The Major sat down, and Colonel Goff offered him a cigar. He struck a -match, but before using it, held it a moment to my face. "Inspection, -Jack," said he, smiling; "you know how hard it is to break an old -soldier of his habits." - -I saw his finely-cut, sensitive face light up. I noticed the familiar -turn of his mustache, his kindly mouth, the correct dress, the straight, -martial bearing, and the courtesy, that seemed a gift of his own. - -"And it looks as if I might die in harness," he went on. "Ah, here's -the General." - -He rose and shook hands with my grandsire. "I have come over to tell -you, General, of a telegram I received this afternoon from the -President, and I should so like to have your advice before -answering--the advice of all of you," he said kindly, turning and bowing -our way. - -"Ah, Hawthorne," said my grandsire, "I know what it is--I knew it was -coming--I wrote Joe Wheeler--" - -"I thought you had something to do with it," said the Major, "and I -shall abide by your decision, my General," he added softly. - -"McKinley has appointed you Brigadier-General," went on my grandsire -quietly. "The First Tennessee will be in your brigade. I can't talk of -it, Hawthorne--I want to go to the Philippines with you so bad, and give -the damned Yankees--ah, pardon--pardon me--I mean the damned Spaniards -another good drubbing!" - -There was a burst of laughter from us all. My grandsire sat down -confused. - -"It is as you said," Major Hawthorne replied, "and I am going to do as -you say, General. I have taken your orders in Virginia too often to -refuse now." - -"Hawthorne, I envy you; by gad, I envy you," said the old man. - -"General, do you know that I never was so happy before? I have so -wanted to fight under the old flag. Jack," he turned to me, his face -smiling, "Jack, I have come to see you for this purpose--I want you on -my staff--I know the training you have had, I know the stuff that is in -you. I want you, my boy. I've ridden ten miles to-night to tell you." - -"Tut--tut--Hawthorne--nonsense!" broke in the General. "Don't start out -making breaks like that. Jack is a good boy, but he is not a -fighter--now, there's Braxton Bragg--" - -"My grandfather is doubtless right, General Hawthorne," I said quietly. -"I thank you from my heart for your kindness--but--" - -Eloise arose flushing, indignant. "Jack _is_ a fighter; a better -fighter than some people who strut around in khaki, and make great -pretense, but amount to nothing," she said deliberately and with -emphasis. - -Then she came over and put one arm affectionately on my shoulder. "And -General Rutherford," she went on, her voice trembling with anger, "I -mean this for you, and I mean no disrespect; but it is cruel of you the -way you have slurred Jack, and I almost doubt that you ever made the -good fighting record you have, when I think how easily you can be fooled -into taking a tin soldier for the real thing! I do, and now you know -what _I_ think." - -Colonel Goff laughed, pleased. "You pinked him just right, Eloise. -Been thinking I'd tell the General that myself--eh, General?" and he -slapped the old man familiarly on the back. - -The old General answered testily, "Tut--tut--madam;" and then he -laughed. "Gad, but I wish you were a man! Damned if _you_ wouldn't -fight!" - - - - - *CHAPTER V* - - *PEDIGREES AND PRINCIPLES* - - -My Aunt Lucretia undoubtedly was the real master of The Home Stretch. -She ruled its thousand acres of low, rolling, blue grass land, which -bore in pioneer days the canebrake and the poplar, and for a century had -been the nursery of thoroughbreds. - -My Aunt lived and dreamed in pedigrees. Heaven, according to her, was a -blue-grass meadow filled with pedigreed people, and hell--I remember how -I had laughed when she said, "Why, Jack, if there is such a place, it's -a low jockey-yard filled with scrubs!" - -Pedigrees, I am certain, was her gauge of life. She was more man than -woman, handsome though she was. She should have been a bewigged, -knee-breeched, ruffle-shirted, horse-racing Virginia gentleman of the -old school, as many of her ancestors had been. She still clung to a few -blooded horses, though her immaculate dairy of Jersey cows was her -greatest pride. When my parents died, even before I could remember, she -had adopted me. She intended that I should inherit The Home Stretch. -Then, true to her ideas, she had planned a proper mate for me. She had -been a success in mating everything but herself. Her ribbons won at -State Fairs and in Horse Shows proved it; for her Merino sheep she held -a great cup from the International Exhibit in Paris. The wool of her -Tennessee sheep had gone back across the ocean, and beaten the parent -wool on its own soil. This great, heavy, solid silver cup sat on the -mantel in the library, and every spring, when I had a cold, she had -given me punch cobbler out of it. - -She had early paired me off with Eloise Ward, who was an orphan, and a -distant relative of her mother. My Aunt had adopted her, as she had me, -and given her every grace of a fashionable education. At ten she had, -as she expressed it, engaged us. I remember it was Eloise's tenth -birthday and my twelfth. She bought a little turquoise ring and made me -give it to Eloise. - -"Now, Jack, Eloise is yours! Eloise, you will marry him when you are -grown. Now kiss each other as sensibly engaged people do, to seal it. -After this no more kissing." - -The last advice was unneeded. Up to then we had never kissed, but had -fought continually. Knowing Aunt Lucretia, and that if we did not do as -she said, something uncomfortable would happen to us, we screwed up our -mouths, each trying to outdo the other in mock martyrdom, and complied. - -After that Aunt Lucretia was very gracious. I think we showed remarkable -horse-sense, young as we were, in carrying out her wishes, inasmuch as -we expected some day to own the great farm and house. - -To comfort me she used to say--for she knew my love of blooded stock: -"She is beautiful, Jack, well built and coupled just right in the back. -One link more of vertebræ would have spoiled her, turned her up too -sloping between the shoulders, and made her gangling in the hips. If -there's too many links in a filly's back, when the pinch of contest -comes, you know, Jack, as well as I do, there will be a crumpling--and -it is generally in their legs. And Eloise's, Jack--well, you should see -it--thoroughbred--taut as a bow string--holding hip and head together. -And not too short, either, Jack; the little dicky, short-backed ones, -with schooner hips, are a sure sign of several vertebræ being lost by -sitting on them for too many generations at the loom or the wheel, or -carrying home the week's washing on their heads! It's the scrub sign, -my boy. And Eloise is clean-limbed with good flat bones. Jack, as you -love me and your God, never marry a woman that can't span her ankle with -her thumb and forefinger--that kind of a fetlock is a scrub of the most -pronounced type! It came from ancestors before them for a thousand -years, who had all their weight on their ankles--just hauling plows like -beasts of burden. And Eloise has great style with a fine sweep and -action. Look how boldly she steps and clean and true! No loblolling, -lazy ambling there--hitting even on the ground--and her hair, -Jack--red-chestnut--it is beautiful and not too much. Shun the -brood-mare with mane thick and heavy. It is pretty but comes from the -scrub Shetlands or Andalusian jennets. Look--look, Jack--isn't she -beautiful?" - -I watched her myself, tall, her scornful, daring head thrown back, her -fine braids of sorrel, silken hair flying out, as in a long-limbed, -leaping sweep, she chased the collie across the yard. - -The comparison was fitting--as a thoroughbred, Eloise was superb. My -Aunt had copied it all by herself, tabulating for me, most elaborately -and artistically, on a great sheet of parchment, Eloise's pedigree. It -was such a tabulation as I had seen her work over night after night, -often for months, handing down volume after volume of the English and -Bruce's Stud Book and the Trotting and Pacing Register. In bold, block, -decorated letters, she gradually evolved Eloise's sire and dam, as she -grimly called them, and thence on to granddams and g. g. dams (every g. -as I learned standing for another generation) until it looked, when -finished, like a great river, with a hundred branching streams flowing -in, and an endless row of g. g. g. g. g.'s - -Under each sire and dam, and in red ink, in contrast to the black of -their names, she had written their records, short and pointed, and often -with astonishing frankness. I remember that under her grandsire--a -Governor of Virginia--the red ink ran: _Died of a wetting, while drunk -at a horse race! Watch your children for too much crude liquor!_ - -Under one of her dams, daughter of a Carolina judge, she had: _She had a -streak of common, for she ate onions. If you have daughters, don't -plant the things in your garden!_ - -Another of her great Virginia ancestors was a preacher, noted for his -zeal in proselyting; under him was: _Too religious--the reaction may -come in your grandson, who is likely to be an infidel, Nature -maintaining her balance in morals as in matter_. - -Now that I had come home from Germany it was evidently my Aunt's -intention that Eloise and I should marry. - -"Come, Eloise," said she, after our guests had left, and my grandfather -had retired, "we will light Jack to bed in the old way." - -Eloise jumped up, slipping her arm into mine. Then she two-stepped with -me up the hall, humming "A Hot Time In The Old Town To-night." - -Aunt Lucretia looked on, her stern face relaxed into a satisfied smile. - -I slipped my arm around Eloise's slim waist, and, bending over, tried to -kiss her cheek. But she drew back laughing, and Aunt Lucretia's voice -came sternly from behind. "Jack--Eloise!" - -We stopped instantly under the chandelier. Aunt Lucretia shut the heavy -doors, and came up with all the sternness of a Roman lictor in her face. - -"Turn her loose, Jack. Listen, both of you: I had intended to inform -you to-morrow finally, but this is as good a time as any." - -We stood silent before her. Eloise's pretty mouth drooped in pretended -humbleness. - -"You know how I love you both, and--well, how you respect each other. -You know that I have planned and dreamed for you both, ever since I -brought you together here. Now let me see. This is April--well, I am -going to marry you to each other in the fall, and until I marry you -off," she went on sternly, "I have only one rule--no hugging--no -kissing. It is bad before marriage, and after you are married," she -added with becoming stiffness, "you will not want to." - -"Don't you think your conditions are awfully severe for engaged people?" -asked Eloise demurely. - -"And I may seal it with a kiss surely, Aunt Lucretia," I said, "for -once." - -"No, not for once. That silly performance has caused more trouble in -the world than all the sins of Satan combined. We will never have a -decent race of people till kissing is cut out," she exclaimed. "There, -no more at present--march!" - -And she marched us into my room. - -"Isn't this fine!" I said, looking around at the old room, glad to be -home again. - -It was twenty by twenty, the pioneer size, with a great fireplace, built -of oak and ash. In a corner was my old mahogany tester bed, big posted -and canopy-topped. The little cherry writing desk stood near, and so -did the quaint mahogany bureau, resting on dragon claws, with great -drawers for a base, and ending pyramid-like in a top of granite finish, -set off by a little mirror, and with a tiny shaving drawer for my -razors. Big windows looked out on all sides. - -After Eloise had left Aunt Lucretia sat quietly thinking, looking now -and then at a pedigree of Eloise which she had once made and hung over -my mantel. It was framed in walnut and decorated with fancy letters. -At last she smiled. - -"Isn't she a thoroughbred, Jack?" - -"I haven't really got my breath yet, Aunt Lucretia," I answered. "I -never dreamed she would grow into a being so beautiful. Don't you -really believe you might er--er--hurry up this--er--affair--" and I -stopped, blushing. - -Aunt Lucretia broke out in her rare, good-humored laugh. - -"Poor boy! Jack, you must be careful. You talk as if you had a real -case of the silly, unsensible thing." - -"Always had it, Aunt Lucretia," I smiled weakly. - -"Jack, that would be very unfortunate. I want you to marry on common -sense--not love." - -"You know how I have always loved her," I went on. Aunt Lucretia -glanced sharply at me. "I mean how I've cared for her," I amended. "But -do you--do you honestly believe, Aunt Lucretia, that she loves me--cares -for me that way?" - -"Tut--tut," she said sharply, "what nonsense you talk! What does it -matter? This silly love business has spoiled more good pedigrees and -brought more fools into the world, I tell you, than anything else under -the sun. What a fine breed of folks we'd have had in the world by now -if so many idiots had not fallen in love and married without a moment's -thought of results. You ought to be grateful to me, Jack," she -continued after a while; "you will be grateful, I am sure, some day, -that you had me to select a wife for you and didn't just happen to fall -in love. That's an accident often as fatal as happening to fall down -the steps. - -"It is awful, Jack, this haphazard of humanity!" she went on in a -moment. "No wonder only one in a hundred is born who has got any brains -in his head. Think of it, Jack, our race is so pig-headed from -thoughtless marryings that it took them three hundred years after they -invented a saddle before it dawned upon them that they needed stirrups -to complete it. Rode three centuries on bare saddles for lack of sense -enough to invent stirrups! Some day for the benefit of humanity I am -going to open a human Registry. I want to do this because I think it is -our duty to try to teach people to take as much interest in their own -children's pedigree as they do in their horses' or dogs'. Many a man -falls in love with and marries a woman whose qualities and character, -and pedigree, if she were a horse, he wouldn't be caught trading a blind -mule for! And many a woman, under the same divine influence, marries -some vicious brute of a man for no other reason than because she has -just fallen in love with him, or maybe wants to reform him, who, if he -were turned into a buggy horse she wouldn't be caught risking her neck -behind. - -"And this is the way I'd go to registering my people," she continued. -"In all registration there must be a foundation stock. For man, I'd let -Truthfulness, Bravery, Honesty, Manliness, and Ability to Do Things, -count as Foundations. This would change the present social system -radically and let into good society and life a flood of good blood that -is at present badly needed but is shut out, unless it suddenly happens -to get rich and comes in under a dress suit. I would make -accomplishments, the _Ability to Do Things_, from the Ability to do -Poetry, Art, Drama, Music--everything that is worth while--to the -ability to make two blades of grass grow, the greatest of them all, -count as my classes, and it wouldn't take me long to straighten out Old -Humanity and breed a race of people, who, in a few generations, as old -Horace says, would strike the stars with their uplifted heads!" - -She laughed. "Look, Jack, here it is. I have worked it all out, just -for fun." She unrolled a parchment, as immaculately executed in -decorated letters as Eloise's pedigree had been. Then she read, -glancing over her glasses now and then to emphasize her remarks. - - - "_A STANDARD OF HUMAN REGISTRATION_. - -When white men and women meet the following requirements and are duly -registered, they shall be accepted as standard bred, and shall be -permitted to marry: - -FIRST: Any white man, who has a home of his own and is honest, -industrious, and truthful, and sound in wind, limb and eye. - -SECOND: Any white woman, who can cook a good meal, make her own clothes, -keep a home clean, lives a pure life, and has some moral standard for -herself and children, and will agree to raise them under it. - -THIRD: Every man who is the father of a great man or woman. - -FOURTH: Every woman who is the mother of a great man or woman. - -_NON-STANDARD_: - -The following shall be Non-Standard, and neither they nor their children -shall be registered. - -FIRST: Fools. - -SECOND: Liars. - -THIRD: Cranks. - -FOURTH: Idiots. - -FIFTH: Geniuses. They are freaks merely, and fools in another form. - -SIXTH: Sissy men. - -SEVENTH: Consumptives, the cancerous, the insane. - -EIGHTH: Impure women. - -NINTH: Society people wherever found, and their one child. - -TENTH: Married men who lead Germans. - -ELEVENTH: The children of women who play cards for money and prizes. - -TWELFTH: Evangelists who preach slang from the pulpit. - -THIRTEENTH: Praying lawyers. - -FOURTEENTH: Trading preachers. - -FIFTEENTH: Professional politicians. - -SIXTEENTH: Bank cashiers who run Sunday Schools. - -SEVENTEENTH: Doctors who cut open people quickly, or dope them with much -medicine. - -LUCRETIA RUTHERFORD, - Registrar." - - -I laughed. "It wouldn't do any harm to try it awhile, Aunt Lucretia; -but--referring again to Eloise--" - -"We'll not refer again to Eloise," she said, seeing what I was coming -to; "this thing is settled. You two will marry this fall, and until then -I want no foolishness around me." - -"But, suppose she--" I began. - -"She is not to suppose anything--nor you. Get her a beautiful ring the -next time you go to town. I'll attend to the rest of it." - -We talked for an hour or two. I could see how glad she was that I was -at home again, for, with all of her stern ways, my Aunt Lucretia was -very fond of me. - -"And to think of your being the man you are, Jack," she said finally, -"and that lameness all gone. Ah, but that is what I'm telling you--the -Germans are the greatest thinkers in the world--because--well, because -they have been bred to think. Yes, it is good to see you here again, -Jack, and sound, and you will earn your oats from now on, young man, -remember that." - - - - - *CHAPTER VI* - - *THE MAKE-BELIEVE* - - -After Aunt Lucretia had gone there was a faint tap at my window, which I -knew of old. When I raised the sash Eloise stood outside, smiling at me. -On the veranda she slipped her arm through mine, and led the way to our -old seat under the hickories. - -"Jack," she began, and her serious tone seemed to bode no good, "I just -couldn't go to sleep until I had talked with you. Aunt Lucretia thinks -I'm in bed; just as she used to think we both were when we weren't, -Little Brother." She smiled half tenderly. "I think I ought to speak -to you. This thing is getting serious, don't you think?" - -"It's been that way with me all the time," I said earnestly, "if I could -only get you to look at it seriously--" - -For reply she thumped my cheek with her thumb and forefinger. It was a -trick Aunt Lucretia had used when I had been naughty as a boy, and -Eloise knew that nothing made me madder. - -"Now, Jack--no nonsense--listen. We must do something--about--" - -"Our marriage this fall?" I interrupted. - -Eloise laughed. "Isn't it nonsense?" - -"Well, I don't know," I said. "She has always said so, and we have -always done as she said. I have always found it was the best thing for -me," I added. - -Eloise pretended indignation. "Well, now, let me tell you, Jack, this -is my funeral as well as yours, and for once this isn't the right idea!" - -"Oh," said I, "maybe you've grown big enough since I saw you to defy -Aunt Lucretia. Well, _I_ haven't; and dear, dear Little Sister," I went -on, taking her slim hand in mine with more warmth than she seemed to -like, "I have learned to hold my own among men, but Aunt Lucretia is a -very different thing! I am not going to defy her, or go contrary to her -wishes--I've tried it and know better! And you?" - -"Of course I am," she said, moving a little away from me; "the idea! -Why, Jack, it is absurd! Jack--" and instantly she stopped. Her voice -dropped with a sad little wilt, and she laid her head upon my shoulder. - -I knew that she was brave and never cried, or else I would have believed -she was in tears. - -"Dear Little Sister," I said consolingly, "why, what is it? What has -happened since I left? This has been Aunt Lucretia's dream all her life, -and mine too," I said, tenderly kissing her cheek. - -Eloise sighed; then after a while she answered. "Of course, Jack, she -has said that always, ever since we were children, and being children, -why we couldn't say anything, for our very home and living depended on -it. But Jack, I see it all now. I'm ashamed of it--though I couldn't -help it--this--this awful buy-and-sell way, this bartering me because I -am poor and an orphan, this closing the chance of the great dream of my -life for me--that one dream which every woman loves more than life, -Jack. It's--why, I've treated you so badly. I wonder that you care for -me at all. But--oh, Jack, I had such ideas of love, and now to be mated -off like her cattle!" - -"I know it," I said, "only you were never as mean as you say. Young as -we were I felt it, too, and that is why I didn't blame you. But it -never made any difference with me, Eloise--I have loved you always, and -I'm as proud of you now as anyone can be." - -"Oh, you dear boy," said she. She laid her head upon my shoulder, then -reached up and kissed me on the cheek. She was silent and I was never -so happy, with her head lying there, and the perfume of her hair in my -face. - -At last she laughed. "Jack, you neglected me shamefully while you were -away, studying." - -"I wrote you a love letter every week!" I exclaimed. - -"But people in love write to each other every day," she said. "You -don't really love me, Jack!" - -"Eloise, I couldn't write every day, but I thought of you the last thing -every night before I went to sleep, and I slept with your picture under -my pillow, and I used to play that we were married, and that my dressing -gown in the chair was you." - -"O, Jack," and she clasped my hand in hers, "you dear boy! And I must -say I never dreamed you'd be so big and handsome!" - -I seized her hands, holding them in mine: "And let me tell you, Eloise, -you almost took my breath when I saw you for the first time this -morning!" - -There was a long silence before Eloise spoke. "Jack, what are we going -to do about--about--Aunt Lucretia?" - -"Why, I tell you there is nothing to do but to do as she -says--marry--you know how she has planned this all her life. It would -break her heart; and mine," I added softly. - -"Listen now," said Eloise earnestly. "Jack, that is nonsense. I don't -love you that way nor you me. I don't care what she says. Love is made -from higher, nobler motives, and true marriages should be made in heaven -as they say. I," she went on with a sigh, "Jack, I have given up; I was -not made for love like that--as you want to love me. I am too selfish, -I care too much for the fine world around me, for my own self, for -pleasure. I love to will, to conquer, Jack. I don't want to love, to -give myself up to any man and his whims unless--" - -"Unless what?" I asked eagerly. - -"Well, two things," she said. "First; unless I loved him--oh, if I only -could! How I would love him! And if not that--well, for--for--it would -have to be compensation of another kind, such as great wealth, and all -that, to have a great name like that of the Countess of Carfax." - -"The Countess of Carfax?" I asked. - -She was looking at me very earnestly. I felt her eyes on my face. -Something unpleasant began to dawn upon me. - -"Jack, I cannot deceive you. I do not, I cannot love anyone that -way--that one sweet way. It is not in me. I might have loved you that -way, Jack, it is the truth, but Aunt Lucretia has thwarted the chance -you had with me, with her blooded stock idea of it. That is why I've -treated you so all my life; it was not I, it was Love resenting this -profanity of itself." - -I could not speak. Eloise, I saw, had much to tell that I did not know. - -"Four years is a long time to be away, and after you left I was so -lonely, I had no comrade, no Little Brother in my summer vacations. And -you were far away, and Colonel Goff--you know how queerly he has always -persisted in wanting to marry me some day--not quite as bad as Aunt -Lucretia's way, but almost as bad--because, well, I think for no other -reason than because I ride well--" she was speaking brokenly. "Aunt -Lucretia wants me to marry you because I've got a good pedigree, and -Colonel Goff wants me to marry him because I ride well, but I want to -marry someone because I love him. You know how grandfather is about -Colonel Goff, Jack? Oh, I can't tell it all, but he has made it so -unpleasant for me since you left, worrying me about--that I should marry -Colonel Goff--that I had nothing, and how great a man Colonel Goff -was--and--oh, he has seemed to become childish of late, so irritable and -strange, and so he has almost driven me away from home or into marrying -Colonel Goff; and you were far away, Jack. And so when Colonel -Goff--well, he was as persistent as grandfather, and so kind always and -good to me--Jack, you see how I was placed between them--" - -"Well?" I said bitterly, "go on." - -"And so when Colonel Goff asked me, I--" - -The great trees above me seemed to reel, and my heart to stop, and then -thump fiercely in my throat. - -"Eloise, please don't," I begged. "Do you--you don't love that man!" - -"Of course not," she answered coolly, and very quietly, "but--and this -is my secret, Jack. Promise me--it isn't known yet, but it will be -before long. You know since he came home from the war with grandfather -and lived here he has been at outs with his people in England. You know -how he had to leave them. Well, it seems that all of his brothers over -there have died but one, and that Colonel Goff is next heir, and that he -has received a letter from the physician asking him to come and see his -brother before he dies, that he wants to arrange about the estates, for -they are large, and the brother is the Earl of Carfax." - -I had dropped her hand, and my head was bent. I knew what was coming. - -"But you don't love him, Eloise, surely--" I arose, the stars whirling -above my head, the great trees soughing as in sorrow. She came up in -the starlight and put her arms around my neck. She tried to laugh and -pull me back to our seat. - -"Jack," she said, "I want you to help me--will you not do something--the -last something I shall ever ask you for?" - -"I love you enough to give you my life," I said. - -"You were always so good to me. It is this, Jack--our secret: Colonel -Goff and I will be married as soon as he can arrange to go back to -England, in a month or two. I don't want any scene with Aunt Lucretia, -and so, and so, Jack, we'll just make-believe--let her believe it is all -right--that we are carrying out her plans up to the very day." - -"I'll say nothing," I answered; "you and Aunt Lucretia can arrange it." - -"You'll have to act as if you loved me, Jack." - -"I cannot act any other way," I said. - -She laughed, her voice floating up triumphantly. "And you will have to -send me that diamond ring, you know--" - -"Eloise," I said again, after a moment, "this is desecration! You know -you don't love that old man!" - -"I like him enough to be the Countess of Carfax. If I've got to be sold -to anyone, Jack," she said with bitterness, "got to be traded off like a -Jersey, why I'd rather be traded off as the Countess of Carfax than any -other way!" - -I flushed hot. - -"But Jack, think of grandfather. It is that or be turned out." - -"Eloise," I cried, "you know I wouldn't stand for that!" - -"No," she whispered softly, "not if you could help. But Jack, I forgot -to tell you, you are already out." - -I could only look my astonishment. - -"I wanted to write you," she went on, "but I was afraid. I learned it -all from Braxton Bragg." - -"What did he have to do with it?" - -"You know he has had a silly idea that he was going to marry me himself -some day, though you know how I have always despised him. Well, Jack, -you'll never know what he has done; because you don't know the -conditions on The Home Stretch. I, myself, didn't, till Braxton Bragg -showed me the papers the very month you left. You know how grandfather -has always kept that secret drawer in his safe locked? But you remember -how we children learned all about it?" - -"I remember Braxton showed it to me," I said. "I never knew how he found -it out." - -"Nor I, nor how he stole the parchment from it, the one that grandfather -kept from all eyes, even Aunt Lucretia's, for she knows nothing of it -yet. But he did, and he showed it to me, thinking--well, you'll guess -why. Jack, we're outcasts, you and I, we have nothing." - -She hesitated a moment, then went on. "It seems that the first John -Rutherford, the Old Indian fighter, who was killed at New Orleans, left -a secret paper with his will, in which he begged the heir who inherited -from him, your great-grandfather, John Rutherford, second, who fought in -the Mexican war, you know, to bequeath the estate to that son of his who -should be a soldier, and that it should be passed on in that way -secretly to each generation. Now John Rutherford the second, had only -one son, your grandfather, and his son, Braxton's father, was killed in -the war. - -"Oh, I see now," I said amazed, "and that was why he wanted me to go to -West Point." - -"And why Braxton Bragg, who is a coward," she cried indignantly, "did go -to West Point, after he stole that parchment and read it. And as proof -of it, when grandfather was trying to persuade me to listen to Colonel -Goff, he told me he was going to leave The Home Stretch so that it would -go to Braxton Bragg after Aunt Lucretia's death." - -In an instant I saw it all. I understood things that I had given no -serious thought to before. - -"Yes, I am out," I agreed. - -"Jack, Little Brother, I hope I haven't made you unhappy on your first -night at home." - -I did not speak; she sighed. - -"And so I am going to marry Colonel Goff, Jack, and be the Countess of -Carfax, and you'll do as I say--you'll make-believe with me. I'd so -hate to have Aunt Lucretia know now." - -"I'll go on as if it were I," I said bitterly. "I'd do anything for you, -Eloise--and--and I do hope you'll be happy yet." - -She shook her head: "Jack, you do not know me--that kind of happiness -that I have craved all my life is not for me, and it is so hard that it -should be, for I have always had such beautiful dreams of that kind of -happiness--I, who could love so if I only might--I who wish it so, to be -widowed of it all my life." - -"I could make you if you'd only wait--give me a chance to prove mine--to -make you love me, Eloise." - -"It is too late. O, Jack, you deserve better of me than this; you do -not deserve so poor return as this make-believe--a make-belief--only -this--a little sisterly kiss," and she held up her face in the starlight -to mine. - -But I sat silent. My heart--it would not take such a make-believe -tribute. - -I rose from our seat. "Good night, Eloise, I wish now that I had stayed -in Germany," I said as I walked in. - -"Jack, come back, don't be angry with me. I've done the best I could." - -I saw her turn defiantly, like one who, receiving a hurt, fights back. -I left her sitting under the trees. - - - - - *CHAPTER VII* - - *THE CHIMES OF THE WISTERIA* - - -I was up and out the next morning before Aunt Lucretia or any of the -servants. I wanted to get to the dairy in time to see Tammas milk. I -longed to see his whitewashed cottage and the clean, stone dairy under -the hill, near the spring. - -I walked through the lot where the Jersey herd had lain the night -before, leaving shimmering shapes of themselves impressed in the hollow -mold of blue grass, crushed and shining for lack of dew. Nearby was the -brood-mare paddock, sloping downward to the meadow. Beyond, the -tree-covered hills. - -It was a perfect picture; the sun flushing the green of the hills, the -air damp and tainted with the earth-odor of early day. But I had not -beaten Tammas nor Marget, his good wife; nobody ever beat them up, not -even the cows. He was calling them to the barn in the same way as of -old, in the voice that I had heard ever since I could remember. He -stood squarely in the barn door, blocky and bowed of legs, his broad -Scotch face split wide across with a big, kindly mouth from which came, -like the deep tones of a cathedral's bell down the valley: "Coom, -lassies--coom, noo!" - -Like children called into supper they obeyed; silver grays, fawns, -chocolates, red-fawns and pied, crumpled of horns and slim of tail, -marching solemnly down. One, a three-year old heifer, with her first -calf, answered him like a school girl, whirling half around in awkward -romp and elephantine effort to kick up her stiff heels even as she had -seen the standard-bred filly do! - -How restful and natural Tammas's cottage looked! I could see Marget -bestirring herself for greater cleanliness of an already over-clean -cottage. She was humming, and I guessed it was one of her old kirk -hymns or maybe Bobbie Burns. For it was Marget who could read Bobbie -Burns! How rich and grand the lines came in her broad dialect! I was a -child when she had begun to read Bobbie Burns to me; and though I knew -not what she said I hung upon her numbers, and a queer, fine feeling -swept over me. I was nearly grown before I learned the dialect myself, -from hearing them talk to each other, and knew the greatness of Bobbie -Burns in the original. - -Tammas and Marget were good people, as genuine as the rocksalt they gave -the herd to lick, hiding it in the deep grasses of the meadow, where the -thirsty cows would come upon it in unexpected places. Once when I found -a cube of it, gleaming in the grass for the cows, I thought how much -their own lives were like that pure cube of comfort, doing their work in -kindliness and obscurity. Then the clamoring tongues of the beagles -thrilled me as of old, as the game little fellows came down the slope of -the hill. They had followed me from the house and struck the trail of -an early stray rabbit. Across the hills they went, their little piping -tongues echoing slowly as they nosed along. - - -For many years Tammas and Marget had run my Aunt's dairy in the hollow -where the great stream came tumbling down from the hills. I looked at -it there in the valley, and I tasted again in anticipation the cottage -cheese, the buttermilk, and the Scotch rye bread. - -Now I saw Marget bestirring herself and again up the valley I heard the -call, "_Coom, lassies, coom, noo!_" - -In changing their home, Tammas and Marget had changed little else. Even -after twenty-five years of life at The Home Stretch they still spoke to -each other in their native tongue, though to others they often spoke -English with their broad brogue. Even then, Scotch words would break in -on their English with the suddenness and sweep of a tidal wave flowing -in from the firth. Though they could speak English purely, and were well -read in their way, their earnestness might always be gauged by the -number of Scotch words which crept into their talk. - -Marget had not yet seen me. I went up the path to the little cottage -porch, over which wisteria, in full bloom, hung in purple bunches, and -whorls of clustering chimes. As I stood there listening, I seemed to -hear their chimes, for the odor of the wisteria is a chime of memory. I -heard the melody of other days, faint and yet so clear, memories that -were almost legendary, of the little boy, motherless, and who had never -seen his father, always a nature-worshiper, and a tree-lover; of his -Aunt Lucretia; of his adopted sister, Eloise; of his fighting old -grandsire, who had been the right hand to Stonewall Jackson when he -swept clean the valley of the Shenandoah; and of these two good Scotch -people who had taken him to their hearts even as their own. Here had he -dreamed and grown up, loving them and the things they loved, and his -dreams had been of writing, of poetry, of music; and not of war, as his -grandsire had wished. Young as he was he had seen war with clear eyes. -How it took the bravest and the best,--and left the weaklings to -reproduce themselves. It reversed all the laws of Nature. If Nature -had done the same thing for the flowers, not a larkspur purpling the -meadows in blossoming ladders, not a wild lupine in whorls of stars, not -a nodding head of clover blossom, not a stone-crop of the early spring, -nor the flushes of wild hepatica would have survived to-day. - -Dog fennel alone would inherit the earth! - -Marget, her keen black eyes lighting up with that joy I knew so well, -came to meet me. She seized my hands in both of hers, and shouted to -Tammas: "Tammas, whaur are ye, Tammas? Come quick an' see whit I hae to -show ye!" - -"Weel, weel, I'm comin', wumman," said Tammas, wobbling up in his great -awkward way, his broad mouth smiling. He grasped both my hands in his. -"It's Jack, oor Jack! Whit wey did ye no' tell me ye were here? Eh, -Marget, but jist see whit a man oor Jack is!" - -I felt Marget's keen eyes sweep over me. "Ay, Tammas, but is na he a wee -bit shilpit like? I dinna like to see him sae pale like." - -I laughed. "Oh, Marget, you and Tammas, come, you make me think of the -lecture room and the discipline of the German drill-master. I smell -those Scotch scones right there upon the table, and the cottage cheese, -I haven't had any for four years." - -"Oh," laughed Marget, "he's jist like he aye was, oor laddie. His -appetite and his heart were aye the biggest pairts o' him. Eh, but I'm -that glad tae see ye laddie, if ever I kissed ony that was o' the male -gender, it's you I'd be kissing. Come on ben." - -They led me in, Marget holding my hand and beaming up into my face. -"Wha ever wad hae thocht it, oor wee Jack," she kept saying proudly to -Tammas. - -"Wheest," said Tammas, vainly trying to say one thing and mean another, -"Wheest wumman, it's Mr. Jack noo." - -For answer I stopped and looked at him with feigned pain, and Marget -clapped her hands and laughed. - -"Where is Elsie?" I said, suddenly remembering. "Has she grown any?" - -I thought Tammas's smile would spread over the rest of him when I asked -for his granddaughter. - -"Has she grown any? My, my! Why listen, Jack, 'tis four years since -you saw her--she was twelve then--our little lassie, and four years make -a deal o' difference in a lassie." - -"She has jist gane oot to the dairy to get some cream for breakfast," -said Marget. "See, yonder she comes. Look an' tell me if she's the -same," and Marget pointed with a smile. - -I saw a tall girl coming down the little path, carrying a pitcher of -cream in one hand and twirling a Scotch sunbonnet in the other. Her -dark red-brown hair fell in two school girl braids down her back. Her -every line showed gentleness of breeding; and her beauty of face was -really wonderful. - -"She's jist pat on ane o' her low necked morning gowns, an' she's that -thin that they show ower muckle o' her neck," said Marget -apologetically. - -"She is lovely," I said; "you should have named her Annie Laurie," and I -hummed the old song: - - "Her cheek is like the snow drift, - Her neck is like the swan." - - -"Dae ye really think she is that bonnie?" Tammas smiled, pleased that I -should have compared her to Annie Laurie. - -"It is not exactly beauty so much, Tammas," I said; "it is something -like royalty. She looks like some Greek nymph of the woods that has -stepped out of a water lily." - -Marget was smiling at my praise. - -"Ay, but it's jist as ye say, Jack," said Tammas. "Oor lassie looks -that way." He stopped and his voice dropped. "An' her bonnie mother, -oor daughter,--it is that like her that Elsie is,--aye, the very twin -star o' oor ain bairn, Marget." - -"Look," said Marget, "dae you ken I canna mak her wear her shoes yet, -when there's nobody aboot, and the pools o' the spring sae inviting. -Look ye, if ever there was a child," and she laughed, pulling Tammas and -me to the door to see better. - -Elsie had stopped, and sat down on the grass above the pool, her pitcher -beside her, and was splashing her feet in the water. - -"She may be grown, Tammas, but she is the same child I've known always. -I remember the funny little thing when she was two years old." - -"Three," corrected Marget, "that was when we took her after the passing -of oor bonnie lassie." - -"And how she loved to follow me around like a kitten." - -I had never asked Tammas and Marget for Elsie's history. I knew it had -been sad to them. - -"I did not tell you about her. I did not tell you, lad, it was all too -sad," said Marget, as if guessing my thoughts, "but noo that it is so -long ago and you have grown, you and Elsie, I think it only fair that we -tell you only a bit of it, so that you may not misjudge her, nor us," -and she looked inquiringly at Tammas. - -Tammas nodded. - -"She was oor only daughter," she said, "we never saw him. He stole oor -lassie when she lookit jist as ye see yon ane, and nae aulder, an' -because she wasna' o' his station, his graun' folk scorned her and her -bairn. Aye, but he was true, tho', standing up for oor lassie -till--till. Weel, there was a tragedy, an' he had to flee for his life. -He gaed to the war somewhere--we never saw him--an' we dinna ken. Then -she died, and syne we cam' here wi' Elsie." - -I saw the tears start into her eyes. "E-lsie, E-lsie, here's our Mr. -Jack come back," she called. - -Instantly there was a flutter of feet withdrawn from the pool. The -pitcher was left on the bank, and the hat also. She came running, her -blue eyes smiling at me, quite unembarrassed, and even singularly calm. - -She came up, put both her hands into mine, and her blue eyes flashed at -me. - -"Kiss him," laughed Marget, "it's oor ain Mr. Jack." - -She instantly obeyed, touching me lightly on one cheek. Then in an -earnest little voice she said, "Mr. Jack, I'm so glad you have come -home. How I have missed you these four years!" - -"If I had dreamed that you had grown to be so beautiful," I said -teasingly, "I'd have come home sooner." - -She glanced at me quickly and seriously. "Oh, I've forgotten my cream -and it's time for breakfast," she said hastily, and ran back down the -path. - -"I should say so, Marget," I said. "How hungry I am!" - -"It's good to be here again," I added, as I sat down to the little -table; "and, Tammas, there is Elsie back with the cream. Put on some of -that clotted cream in the pot, cream thick, for it is a long lost -brother that I've been separated from." - -"Ay, but the cottage cheese. Don't forget that is your appetizer," -cried Marget authoritatively, as she pushed a great saucer, flaked up to -white foaminess, toward me. - -For answer I fell to. - -"Hold!" cried Tammas, his hand going up and the great fun-loving mouth -changing to quick solemnity. Often as a boy I had seen his hand raised -most unexpectedly, and never had I failed to obey. My head bent. Then -Tammas, his great knotted hand uplifted, prayed in Scotch, as was his -wont: - - "'Oh, Thou wha kindly dost provide, - For every creature's want! - We bless Thee, God o' Nature wide, - For a' Thy goodness lent: - An' gin it please Thee, heavenly guide, - May never waur be sent; - But whether granted or denied, - Lord, bless us wi' content!' - -And to-day thanks be added, greatest of all, that our Jackie is with us -again. Amen!" - -"Amen," chimed in Marget. - -I looked over the table at the Scotch scones, the poached eggs, the -funny little cuts of butter, miniature loaves of it pressed and -decorated. "I see you've got the same bill of fare, Marget," I said. - -"Well," she answered, falling again into English, "we are two old people -set in our ways, and it seems to suit us." - -"Noo, if you'd only told us you were coming," said Tammas, trying to -speak ironically, "I'd 'a had some o' thae auld things ye're sae fond -o', Jackie, such as sliced Indian turnips like ye got up in the lodge of -the rocks on the hill yon day," and he laughed as he recalled the -burning my lips got from the raw turnip. - -I laughed. "Tammas, it must not go back to Aunt Lucretia that I ate my -first breakfast with you." - -"It's a mile to the hoose," said Marget, "an it's only sax o'clock, sae -there's a graun' excuse for ye to eat anither breakfast, when ye gang -back." She smiled with that funny little smile I had known of old when -she wanted one to know that she was meaning the opposite, but was too -Scotch to express it. - -"Weel, we winna say onything about it," said Tammas. "Jackie, lad, if -ye've got onything like ye're auld appetite, ye'll be ready for anither -at the hoose when ye get back. Dae ye mind hoo ye used to dae that when -ye were jist oor wee laddie, running aboot the dairy an' dipping your -fingers on the sly in oor cream pots?" - -So I let him launch into his favorite subject, the cows, and the -wonderful record they had made since I left. Of Gladys Gaily, who had -made her pound of butter from less than five pounds of milk. - -"Aye, lad, 'tis the ould Top Sawyer bluid that's doing it," he said -proudly. And that I would find it all in the last "Butter Tests of -Jersey Cows." Several of my old friends had died and one--"Ou, but it -hurts me sadly, my boy, to tell it--Gladys Gaily, herself, has passed -with that milk fever. Aye, but it takes only the rich ones." - - - - - *CHAPTER VIII* - - *THE STONE-CROP* - - -I remember that April day when I first saw the stone-crop in bloom. - -Across the valley from the dairy is the blue grass pasture of the cows; -and on a hillside studded with dwarf cedars, Nature's first efforts to -cover up her nakedness after man's ax has passed, runs a streak of bare, -brown limestone, winding across the hills an acre wide. Above it the -grass and cedars grew down to the bare rocks, and then they stopped -short, for no soil was there. Years before, pioneer men, fighting, -unthinking, world-conquering, with the primal instinct of the Aryan -_wander-lust_ in their blood, had stripped that spot of earth of its -clothing, leaving the naked ground beneath, lifeless and bare. In all -the beautiful blue grass pasture this was the one scar: on this green -shield of Nature, the one rent. The birds, which love the deep shade of -the cedars, stopped at its borders and flew back from the strip of brown -desert. - -The rabbits, hiding in the tangled thickets above, and whose -spring-water ran in the glen below, made a path around it, through the -concealing grass and cedar boughs that brushed their furry coats. None -would cross this bare spot, hot to their feet in summer and freezing to -them in winter, where they would be stared at by every bird, or hunted -by the eyes of men. - -Even the crows drew their line there, and would not fly over it; for the -crow makes no path in the sky above that does not parallel a path of -supplies below. Often had I seen the Jersey herd, brown and gray and -chocolate, browsing in a phalanx, following the earliest grass which -grew closest to the rocks, come to the very border of this scar in the -cheek of the earth and then in sudden anger plunge in and seek the -cedars on the hill, anywhere to forget this outrage on Nature! - -I remember the spring I first saw the stone-crop. The winter had been -long and raw. Even the blue grass had had a struggle to keep green, and -the cedars' stems had become black under the bite of frost. But blacker -yet lay the earth's scar beyond them. - -Then one day in the spring I went over the hill to Tammas's home. As I -came up from the slope and out from the great lindens, and looked across -at the other hill for the ugly scar, I stopped thrilled with a strange -and nameless beauty. I have no word for the exultation that swept over -me. - -But I remembered when Elizabeth Browning was dying--she so unbeautiful -in face and so star-like in mind,--she uttered a poem which seemed to me -to surpass all that great woman ever wrote. For the characters in it -were she, her husband, and her God: and the subject was The Beauty of -Immortality. - -"How do you feel, dearest?" he asked, holding her in his arms and -looking into her dying face. - -"Oh, I feel beautiful," she said, as she smiled back into his face and -died. - -Oh, frail little woman, who never wrote a weak line! O, earth-bound and -earth-found one, who never created save of heaven! O, little homely -one, whose portrait I did not till then even love to recall, so -different it seemed from the soul which could write as it wrote: now it -hangs the most beautiful thing on my study wall. - -I stood there, looking, steeped in the thrill of it. I thought a pink -rainbow had fallen across the hills. - -Then the nobility of this pink flower went into me, for there is -nobleness even among flowers and trees. The blue grass is the -aristocrat, who sits only at the richest tables, with cedars to wait on -him, refreshed with the waters of a thousand hills. The bermuda runs -hither and yon, sending its stolons after the fat things of earth; and -the redtop grows only where it can reach the richest granaries. The -stone-crop alone clings to this bare brown rock, shielding its poverty. - -Seeing this, I gloried in the chance that faced me, the chance to be -another type of pioneer, and to undo the wrongs and ravages of my -forbears. For this I had sacrificed the love of my grandsire, the -General, who had wanted me to be a soldier, and of my Aunt Lucretia, and -even of Eloise, it seemed, that one sweet dream of my life. For in the -four years I had been gone from her I had lost my chance to win her. -What did her talk of the night before mean but that she meant to wed -another? - - - - - *CHAPTER IX* - - *THE TRANSPLANTED PINE* - - -Tradition, that greatest of all historians, had it, that the first -settlers on the lands of The Home Stretch had been a young pioneer and -his bride from Virginia; and that she, leaving her old home for a new -one in the wilderness, yielded to the pretty sentiment of her girl's -heart, and brought away with her a young pine from under her own roof -tree. Nursed and watered through all the long journey, over mountains, -wilderness and river, she planted it among the great oaks and poplars of -her western home. Tradition told how, when the young husband had built -his double log-cabin from the solid trunks of the black walnut and -thatched it with the rich red hearts of the cedar shingles, the little -bride cherished the pine. The story was full of pathos; she and her baby -had died that first year, and both were buried in the same grave under -the little pine. It was a great pine now, but lonely. It had been a -great pine since I could remember. It had always appealed to me, -standing alone amid the other trees. For miles I could see it, towering -above all the others. And always a little tremor of loneliness came, as -one who passes a deserted schoolhouse door where once children have -played. The great trees around it, oaks, elms, poplars, maples, seemed -at home. This was _their soil_, these were their friends and kindred. -But the pine was not of them. It had been transplanted. Were trees -men, the pine would be a Highlander of the clan McGregor. And away from -its clan, in a valley where it belonged not, in soil that made for -fatness and richness but not for religion and art, it was lonely. For -trees are but men who are dumb. - -Often, as a boy, staying with Dr. Gottlieb in his cabin, I would awake -at night and hear the pine sighing. Once I remember there had been a -fierce storm, and as it swept through the forest it maddened the other -trees until they roared in their wrath. But the lonely pine tree had -called above the roar of the others. One would not look in the Swiss -mountains for the cherries of the valley, nor for the cedars of Lebanon -in the rich loam of the rivers. This pine was the Scotch McGregor in an -English court. It was Bonaparte on Elba. It was Thomas Carlyle in -Gaiety street. It was a tree without a country.... - -Dr. Gottlieb lived among the trees in a double log-cabin, and had lived -there since I could remember. My Aunt Lucretia's heart was as big as -her farm, and for many years she and Dr. Gottlieb had been friends. He, -being a scholar and a botanist, a very babe in a strange land in spite -of all his learning, had been easily parted from what little he had -brought to America, and had actually come to sickness and want. Then it -was that my Aunt Lucretia took him in and gave him this cabin on her -farm. Since then he had grown famous, and was known over two continents -as one of the greatest living botanists. In fall and winter he was dean -of that department in a noted college, but in spring and summer nothing -could keep him from his walnut log-cabin by the great pine in the little -valley, where his wild flowers grew in the hills behind him and the -trees were his friends and comrades. - -His story was like that of many who claim America as home. In the -discontent of the Bavarians in their struggle for a more liberal -government, many republican ideas were advanced. Gottlieb, then a -student in Munich, with a number of other young men, attempted to -celebrate Washington's birthday in the Bavarian capital with speeches so -revolutionary that they brought on a riot. In the fighting his roommate -and best friend killed a police officer. Gottlieb's family was -influential and stood high in royal favor. But the boy who had done the -killing was not so fortunate. To be found out meant certain death for -him. So Gottlieb pleaded guilty for his friend's sake, and would have -been executed, but for the influence of his family. Even they could not -save him from banishment, and so he had lived with us, as great a -patriot as I ever knew, loving his country so that the thought of it -would bring tears to his eyes, loving his Fatherland, and yet himself a -man without a country. - -Now I stood looking down on the double log-cabin that was his home. All -around it was peace and calmness. Here had I learned under Dr. Gottlieb -to love the flowers, and the trees, and his books. - -What a picture his home made! A great wooded blue grass hill rose -gradually, slope on slope, above it, and on a little plateau sat the -solid log-cabin. At the foot of the slope and running like a horseshoe -around it, was a bubbling stream, coming from the hills to the north, -circling around and running into the valley below. Over this, a rustic -foot-bridge led to the house. The meadows lay in front of it all. I -stood back and wondered how that young pioneer had known so accurately -and artistically where to place this cabin? Had it been placed ten -yards either way, to right or left, it would have ruined the center of -the background of trees beyond, and fifty feet further in front would -have placed it too far down the dead level of the center. - -In stately distances around stood maples, beeches and poplars, some -towering high above the cabin. Lengthwise to the rustic bridge it -stood, a beautiful, solid home of walnut, and the red heart of the -cedar, its dark, rich logs chinked with the white cement of the lime -hills. Clear across the front ran the big porch, solid floored; both -ends flanked with purple stars of clematis, hanging overhead, and -drooping low over the entrance its great masses of bloom. - -The orchard, of apple, peach, plum, and cherry trees, lay off to the -right. The old-fashioned flowers were all to the right and the pine -tree towered over them all. - -I raised the latch and entered. Dr. Gottlieb stood before me, framed by -shelves of dried flowers and herbs, a small man with a large head, kind -blue eyes. The broad brow wrinkled into its smile as he saw me. I -pointed to the stone-crop running across the hill. "Oh, Dr. Gottlieb," -I cried, "what is it that in one night makes the bare spots so -beautiful?" - -He quit his books and came forward, taking both of my hands in his. -"Jack, Jack, my boy, you have come back to us again--and from the -Fatherland--the Fatherland! ... Let me hold your hand--it has touched -the soil of the Fatherland--let me look into your eyes, they have seen -the Rhine!" There were tears in his blue eyes. - -"Do you remember how it changes every spring, Dr. Gottlieb?" I asked, -pointing to the distant crowned hills, the rainbow of stone-crop -beneath, and the level stretches of pasture land. - -He smiled as he looked across at the crimson covering of the bare -hillside. "Ay; but I've not been idle, Jack, since you left. You -remember what I had done before you went away--fifteen hundred species -all catalogued in my book." He turned and pointed to the glass shelves -around. "Now I have added four hundred more." - -We talked long over our pipes. He had saved some rare old German ale in -cobwebbed bottles, and these we broke in honor of my return. I had to -go over my entire life in Germany, and all the four years' work there. -As I dwelt on this, as I told of the old places and scenes, he sat with -his head down, and I suspected tears. - -I cannot remember when Dr. Gottlieb was not in love with my Aunt -Lucretia, though he had never spoken to her on the subject. He spoke -only to me, and that always in the same way. So I knew what was coming. -I had heard it before, and when I arose to go I could not help but smile -as he said, "Ah, Jack, but your Aunt Lucretia! That most beautiful and -charming of women! Did you know that each of us has our prototype in a -plant or flower; did you know that she resembles the great red wood -lily--_lilium Philadelphicum_? Ah, Jack, it has always been my -favorite." - - - - - *CHAPTER X* - - *CONQUERING SATAN* - - -Eloise and I had always enjoyed riding over The Home Stretch with Aunt -Lucretia. Since I could remember she had ridden the same horse, a great -raw-boned sorrel pacer, full seventeen hands high, and so powerful that -he carried my aunt, large woman though she was, as if she had been a -child. "His beauty is in his gait," she used to say; "there is but one -saddle gait fit for business, and that is the nodding fox-trot, and -Tempest has that perfectly." - -It was amusing to watch them in action. With his head down and nodding -with every stride, Tempest seemed fairly to butt his way into space, -reeling off the miles like a great machine in motion, and Aunt Lucretia, -in her great, high-pommeled side saddle, double girthed and double -decked, sat him as comfortably as if she were in her rocker. - -Her saddle-bags, thrown over the saddle, were in themselves unusual, for -they held everything needed in an emergency on the farm. In one pocket -were the hatchet and nails, for she never rode by a loose plank but she -nailed it on again, and in the other were her medicines, everything -needed on the farm from a hypodermic syringe to a package of salts. - -The day after I came home I rode over the farm with her. "It's good to -ride Little Sister," I said, stroking her crest. "What a beautiful -saddle mare she has made." - -"Eloise did it," said my Aunt. "Jack, do you know she was always -foolish about that mare after you left?" - -She squared her big horse up to me. "Jack," she whispered, "I don't -believe in the stuff, of course. It is all foolishness and not fit to -marry on, but there is a great vein of sentiment in that girl in spite -of her make-believe and her indifference. After you left she wouldn't -ride anything but that mare and I knew it was because of you, and the -clever way you did up those two old braggarts of ours in that race." - -"Did she, Aunt Lucretia?" - -She looked at me cuttingly and then burst into a laugh. "Jack, what -shall I do with you? You are so in love with Eloise that it's -positively painful. You must overcome it before you marry her; it's not -good policy, not manly nor becoming. The greatest race of men was in the -days when a man took his wife by force, conquered her and beat her into -submission. He couldn't own her until he proved he was a better man -than she. Now, the woman rules in everything. Take your silly weddings; -they're a glorification of the bride. To see them one would think the -poor devil of a groom was a kind of matrimonial valet, a second fiddler, -used chiefly to make a background for the bride to show off on--he is -not marrying--oh, no, it is the woman--and it's the same everywhere. -The women are writing our novels, our magazines, our poetry, running our -conventions, starring in our theatres and churches, and doing everything -else worth while except making the money. The men have become -unconsciously so enslaved that the few of them who do write novels or -poetry write effeminate things because the age is under the influence of -woman. There is no man-poetry any longer, that's why I never read it. -If we don't get a man-age into the world again," she added vehemently, -"we are all going to the devil, going to be wiped out by some heathen -man-race of the Nibelungen woods, not yet born!" - -I smiled guiltily, for I saw Eloise coming out of the house and my heart -fluttered queerly at sight of her. She came forward and I saw Goff's -roses pinned on her breast. - -"This is like old times, Jack," she said laughing, "but where is my -horse?" She looked around, glancing at the little pony-mare we had -saddled for her. - -"I thought you'd like to ride the pony-mare again," said Jim, who stood -holding the reins, "like you useter ride with Mr. Jack," he added. - -Eloise tossed her head. "No, no; now, Jim, you may saddle Satan for me. -Why, I've been dreaming of this for months, a chance to show the -splendid fellow and his paces to Jack. I wouldn't miss it for -anything." - -Jim stood scratching his chin thoughtfully. "Dat devil horse, he ain't a -good horse, this mohnin', ma'am, 'specially for ladies." - -"Jim," she said sternly, "look me in the eye! What have you been doing -to Satan?" - -Jim grinned apologetically. "I had to ride him las' night for some -med'cine for my sick chile." - -"And I told you never to ride him, that he hated the very smell of a -negro." - -Jim still grinned. - -"But you tried him?" she went on. - -"Yes'um, and he flung me!" - -Eloise laughed. "Served you right. You know that horse doesn't like -you." - -"An' when I went into the stall to saddle him, he remembered it." - -"Of course he did. I told him never to let you or anyone else ride -him--no one but me." - -"That horse," said Aunt Lucretia, as we followed Eloise to the barn, "is -dangerous. I have been expecting to hear of him killing her. It's all -in his pedigree, Jack; he can't help being mean. His sire was a -rattle-headed but game and iron horse--fast, but utterly unreliable. -You may remember how fast he was, but would go crazy, and ran away in a -race, running into another horse and getting a sulky shaft driven -through his heart. All of his colts I ever saw are crazy, fast and -game--but cruelly mean when roused. Still I'm to blame for this one. I -thought Little Sister's brain and sweet temper might overcome it in the -sire." - -"Little Sister is his dam, then?" I said, patting the neck of the mare I -was riding. - -"Yes, he was foaled the year after you left for school, and is now -three," she answered. - -I heard Satan before I saw him. He was walking the length of his -halter, now and then neighing, then whinnying to Eloise softly. It was -the sound of her voice that had softened him. Above the anger which -shook his frame, maddened at the sight of the groom who had offended -him, he had heard the soothing voice of Eloise, and responded with a -gentle whinny. - -She smiled. "Just listen to him! Dangerous--he's an angel! Bring him -out, Jim." She winked at Aunt Lucretia and me. - -Jim grinned sillily. "'Scuse me, Miss 'Leeze; you's jes' sayin' that to -guy me. He loves my leetle boy, an' he feeds him an' keers for 'im," he -added, "but it looks like he thinks I put an insultment on him. 'Scuse -me, Miss Leeze, but I wouldn't go in there for no money." - -It was true. At the sound of Jim's voice, Satan's eyes had kindled, and -he threw back his head, trying to break his halter to get to him. - -"You try him, Jack," said Eloise; "I'm sure he loves you. I never knew -one that didn't." - -I opened the door. Never had I looked upon so superb a horse: a great -star stood out beneath the tangled foretop of his mane, on a great -square, broad forehead, so black it was silken. The rest of him, too, -was midnight, except one white satin foot. His tail was a heavy hemp of -black, shiny silk; his shoulders sloped in the line of strength. His -chest was splendid, his muscles, fore and aft, bunched above the -cleanest of bony legs. There was great strength, brain, and self-will -in his head. - -He was watching me keenly, as a wild beast eyes a new keeper. An animal -knows friend or foe instantly. Their instinct is unerring and surpasses -man's reason. I saw his eyes light up doubtfully, hesitate, and then -gleam when I put my hands out and rubbed his cheek. "You splendid -fellow; mean? It's not true. Did Jim put an insultment on you, old -boy?" I laughed. - -Then he rubbed my shoulder with his clean-cut nose. - -Eloise laughed behind me. "I knew he'd love you, Jack." - -Satan came out playing. Rearing, he stood on two legs like a great boy, -showing off before another. Then he came up, rubbing his nose on my -shoulder and reaching for the apple Eloise had for him. Meanwhile Aunt -Lucretia sat smiling doubtfully. - -I saddled him, and when Eloise sprang up they looked superbly splendid, -the horse proud of his rider. - -"Well, we'll go," said Aunt Lucretia, starting off. - -We turned to go to the left. Satan made two quick leaps, playfully, as -if to follow, and then, taking the bit he wheeled to the right despite -Eloise's protest. He saw Jim holding the gate open for us. He wheeled -and refused to go through it; he laid back his ears and quivered with -rage at the sight of the negro. - -Aunt Lucretia stopped. I pulled up sharply. Eloise sat white with anger -on her uncontrollable mount. - -"Oh, don't be angry with him," said Aunt Lucretia. "You will have to go -as he says." - -Eloise touched him with her whip and he reared, leaping high into the -air. I caught my breath when she came down firmly with him. He stood -backing his ears at Jim. Again she urged him, again he refused. She -brought her whip down sharply. - -"Don't, Eloise," I cried, "he's dangerous." - -Again he leaped high in the air, tossing his head. - -Eloise slid down, white with anger. "Jack, put your saddle on him," she -said quietly. - -"I think we'd better," I said. "I'll ride him for you for a while. -It's Jim. He'll never forget him." - -"You have a sharp knife?" asked Eloise, after I had put my saddle on the -horse. She took the reins in her hands. "No, no, I'll hold him. Don't -put my saddle on your mare. Wait." - -"What do you mean?" I asked. - -"Eloise," said Aunt Lucretia, "you shan't get up on that horse again." - -But Eloise did not notice her; her lips were set; her face white. I -knew the meaning of old. - -"Jack," she said quietly, "grasp my skirt at the hem, petticoat and all, -and cut it clean down from above my knees. Don't listen to Aunt -Lucretia. Please, Jack, it is life and death with the horse and me. -I'd rather die than have him conquer me." - -I knew from her voice that she meant it. - -Grasping her skirts at the hem in an instant I had ripped them through. - -"Now behind," she said; "it's my old riding skirt, Jack." - -In an instant it, too, was split. - -She smiled, a flash of her old humor behind her sternness. "Now, turn, -Jack." - -When I turned back again she had slipped both her garters over her -divided skirts, so that they were held firmly to her ankles. The next -instant she was in my saddle, astride. - -"You, dear, sweet, old, stubborn Satan," she said softly, "I am sorry I -must punish you. Shut the gate, Jim; I am going to make him do his best -stunt to pay for this." - -At the first blow from her whip he sprang up in anger, but the whip fell -fast and with fury. Her lithe body sat him easily, like a part of him, -her two heels buried in his flanks. He made leap after leap, but still -she sat him, cutting his sides into whelks. He leaped high to dismount -her; he wheeled suddenly, but never caught her off her guard. The whip -never let up. Frighted, angry, he bolted for the plank fence. The gate -was shut, but Eloise gave him the whip at every jump. - -"Stop her--he'll kill her!" I cried, as I saw him rise for the leap. - -[Illustration: "STOP HER--HE'LL KILL HER," I CRIED.] - -I expected to see him strike the fence midway, and come back on her in a -heap. Instead I saw Eloise lift him, with a quick firm hand, straight -up towards the sky and I saw the horse land on the other side clean, and -clear, without losing a stride. Then they vanished in a whirl of dust -up the pike. - -"I'll ride after her," I cried to Aunt Lucretia. "He'll kill her yet." - -"Don't worry," she smiled, "she's more apt to kill him. But that jump, -Jack, that jump--did you see it?" - -My Aunt's eyes were ablaze with a kindled fire. I had seen it often when -a race was on. She rode up to the fence. "Five feet six, Jack," she -said laughing; "why, the record cross-country is five feet six--that's -the record held by Colonel Goff's horse--" and she laughed again -meaningly. - -It was fifteen minutes before we saw Satan coming back! He came in a -gentle canter, his great head held high in pride, because Eloise was -laughing and joking with him, patting his mane and calling him sweet -names. "You darling Satan," she cried, as she leaped down, "I did so -hate to punish you!" - -They say horses do not weep, but there were tears in the eyes of Satan -as he rubbed his head against her breast, and nibbled the apple she held -out to him. - -Up the road cantered a horseman in haste, riding an English hunter. -Eloise looked up and smiled. "I can't go with you to-day, Jack. Here -comes Colonel Goff. I wanted you to see that jump. Isn't he great? -He's done it a dozen times, and yet Colonel Goff really thinks he owns -the champion." She laughed, her eyes shining. "I must run in and change -my habit for the scolding I know is coming." - -I turned sullenly in my saddle and rode off. I did not wish to see Goff -take her away from us. - -I did not enjoy the ride over the farm. The sick brood mare, with the -young colt, which nickered so distressingly for Aunt Lucretia, alone -excited my sympathy. I was heartsick myself. I did not even enjoy -seeing Tammas and Marget. - -As we rode away from the dairy we met Elsie coming down the wooded path, -a smile on her pretty lips. - -"That girl," said my Aunt, "is a fine creature, and do you know, Jack, -if I know anything of breeding, she's got rare blood in her. It shows -in a hundred ways. Now, watch her." - -She was dressed in white, her hair hanging in two plaits down her back. -"I am playing at being in Scotland," she said as we came up, "and I have -gathered these Scotch wild flowers for Mr. Jack." She handed them up to -me, and when my eyes met hers in thanks Aunt Lucretia saw the blush that -flushed her face. She looked sharply at me a moment and then smiled. I -walked to the barn gate, Elsie going with us, and telling me of the -Scotch flowers and trees. "I would be quite happy here," she said, "if -we only had the heather on these hills." - -Aunt Lucretia turned at the gate. "You must come up to the house some -night this week, and we'll have a Bobbie Burns evening," said she. - -"Oh, thank you," Elsie answered, smiling at me instead of at Aunt -Lucretia. - -"Who was that you were talking to before we met you?" I asked. "The -gentleman who rode off when he saw us coming?" - -"That was Captain Braxton. He has asked my hand in marriage, but I -dinna think I shall," she added, with a little sigh. "I dinna like him -as I should, but I dinna say yet, for I shall think it over. He's noo -like Mr. Jack." Her little Scotch words would slip in now and then. - -I flushed and looked at Aunt Lucretia, who sat biting her lips as if in -anger. Elsie was all frankness. She put her hand in mine trustingly, -and instantly I knew why she had told me. - -"No brother could love you more than I do," I said. "Tammas and Marget -raised me, too, so I'm really your brother." I laughed to hide my anger -at Braxton Bragg and the turn affairs had taken. - -She had lifted my hand with a loyal little gesture and pressed it to her -cheek before I could withdraw it. "You'll come to see me, often, won't -you, Mr. Jack? I need you to help me." - -"Jack," I said, smiling at her, "just Jack from now on." - -"Oh, but that's not respectful, and I'd not be wanting in respect for -you for the world." - -"I'll not call you Elsie then, any more," I answered, "nor make the -request of you I'm going to make." - -"Jack, then," she said. "And your request--it is already granted." - -"That you'll not see Braxton Bragg alone until--well, until I have -talked with you," I said earnestly. - -"O--h," and her eyes opened wide. "Jack, why, of course. If he writes -to me again I'll send the letter to you before I answer it." - -"Bring it," I said; "I want to see it right away." - -We rode back to the house. - -"Jack," said my aunt, "he is the most contemptible reversion to a scrub -that ever came from a good pedigree! But if he tries that game on that -child--he has played it recklessly since you left--I'll kill him -myself--damn him!" - -I soon forgot Elsie. I caught sight of Eloise entertaining Goff in our -old bower, and I could see that as he sat there, smoking and watching -her, he already thought she was the Countess of Carfax. - - - - - *CHAPTER XI* - - *TWO WAYS OF LOVE* - - -I knew that Colonel Goff would not only stay the afternoon but the -evening also. He had been doing it ever since the war, for he regarded -his General's home as his also. The assurance of the man incensed me. -The divine right of his old kings seemed to have been born in him; and -now that he had won Eloise, she and The Home Stretch and all that it -contained were his whenever he chose to have them. - -Eloise would tease him in pure wantonness, and scorn him, and even -ridicule him; for all of which he worshipped her, as is apt to be the -way with men. Yet I very quickly noticed the little touch of sadness, -which, despite her efforts, fell over her so suddenly. To her wit and -repartee, her fun and humor, his only answer would be flashes of his -fine teeth, and his favorite exclamation, "Fawncy now, but isn't that a -blooming good one?" I was convinced that he loved Eloise and was proud -of her; but I thought it was such a feeling as he might have for any -beautiful animal, the same worship he might easily have bestowed upon an -Arab mare of the desert. - -It was not long before Colonel Goff and Aunt Lucretia were in their -usual dispute about horses and he was scolding her for letting Eloise -ride Satan: "Ah, that unregistered fool! Really, my dear madam, you -should not let her go near him, he'll be the death of her yet. Now, -there is my imported Irish hunter; he's got a head as well as legs; say -now--suppose I just send him over for her," and he looked at Eloise to -see what she would say. - -Eloise threw up her fine head significantly. - -"The idea, Colonel Goff! Why, I wouldn't be caught riding him! That -big thing better than Satan! Why His Satanic Majesty can gallop rings -all around him." - -Colonel Goff laughed. "Fawncy!" - -"Yes, fawncy!" said Eloise, mimicking him, which made him flush again -and then look at her admiringly. - -Aunt Lucretia broke in. "He can," she said very firmly. "I wonder, -Colonel Goff, why you should send to England for a horse when you have -better ones at home?" - -Colonel Goff laughed loudly. - -"Why you even think that bang-tailed son of Nestor can jump," went on -Aunt Lucretia, laying her trap quietly for him. - -This was the one strong point of the son of Nestor, and the one thing -about him that his owner had published on his arrival. - -"Madam," he said with great seriousness, a bit offended, "madam, I think -I told you before that he held the championship for cross-country at -Melton-Mowbry." - -"Oh, so you did," said my Aunt Lucretia, ever so sweetly, "and yet I -believe Satan can beat him both at the distance and over the hurdles." - -Goff laughed, but not as though pleased. He was too well-bred to reply -to Aunt Lucretia in her kind. So he only tapped his boot, and looked at -Eloise, who smiled sweetly at him, as if urging him on. - -"I was talking the other day to Secretary Roswick of our State Fair," -went on Aunt Lucretia calmly, "and was entering some of my own things. -Now, Roswick, you know, makes me put up about half of his programmes. -He has asked me to get up some novelties on the side. We'll just have a -hurdle race if you say so." - -"Capital, capital!" said Goff, for the first time showing excitement. -Then he quieted down suddenly. "What am I thinking about? What, in -this unregistered country, could go against Nestor, champion hurdler of -his class?" - -"Satan," said Aunt Lucretia, smiling sweetly. - -"Fawncy!" shouted the Colonel decisively. - -"I'll lay you five hundred that he can," said my Aunt, "and I don't know -a thing in the world about your game." - -"Madam," said Goff, quietly, "I have never taken an unfair advantage of -a woman." - -"Colonel Goff," said my Aunt very seriously, "you know as well as you -know anything, that if I know anything it is horses, that I am of age, -and that I am good for all my obligations. I'll bet you five hundred -dollars that Satan will beat your horse at his own game." - -"Do you know, madam," said Goff, "that a jumping horse is born to jump? -Not one in a thousand can go over a three-foot hurdle, and this brute of -yours--" - -"Brute?" said Eloise, icily. "Brute, Colonel Goff, he is an angel! He -can do anything." - -"And you will ride him?" he asked. - -"Nobody else can," said my Aunt. "Yes, she'll ride him and beat you, -too." - -"I'll take your bet," said he. "I'd give five hundred dollars to ride -once in a race with the only girl in America who is really English. How -she ever got into this blooming country I can't see!" - -I left my Aunt and the Colonel arranging their new game for the -Cumberland meeting. I did not take much interest in Eloise riding -against him! - -I had ordered my horse, intending to ride over to Ned's; I wanted to see -my pets there, Little Sister, and Captain Skipper and the new arrival. -Eloise followed me through the wood lot. She came up and slipped her -arm through mine, and its very touch carried a sadness, it seemed as if -the quick electric pulse was gone. In her eyes there was a weariness, -an indefinable longing. It touched me to see her so, my live, -light-hearted, foster sister of old. - -"Jack," she sighed, "I am--I am--" She stopped and looked up into my -face. - -"What?" I asked. "I should think you would be happy, so soon to marry -an Earl." - -"It is sooner than you suppose," she said seriously. "He does not wish -it known yet because the proper notification has not come from his -attorneys in England, but--but--Jack--Jack, his brother is already dead -and he wants me to marry him. I have already promised to marry him next -month." - -I knew she saw me pale. I could have cursed myself for the weakness. - -She went on. "When I promised him six months ago it was all so vague, -so far off, and I was so miserable, Jack--so homeless and badgered, and -dependent, it was all so far off, I thought--waiting for his brother to -die, and now! You know how these English are, they take these things so -seriously, their marriages and promises, they are so matter-of-fact -about it, and so consistent: why, Jack, he looks on me already as his -bride. He is just as busy planning for our future, arranging how the -estate is to be remodeled, what home we are to have, I couldn't get out -of it honorably even--Jack, even if--" - -"Even if you should happen to love me?" I said, looking very earnestly -into her eyes. - -She nodded, her head dropped low. For the first time in her life I saw -tears in her eyes. - -"Oh, Jack, I am miserable! It was all so far off once,--now--only next -month,--and you know I'd die before I'd deceive him--big boy that he is, -and trusting and worshipping me, Jack. Yes, that is what hurts -me--worshipping me as he does--I couldn't. I couldn't, Jack! If I have -any one strong thing in me, you know it is--" - -"Keeping your faith with your friends," said I. She nodded. "Do you -think I am wicked to marry him this way? Won't you come, in after -years, to despise me?" - -For answer I stooped and kissed her. She put both her arms around my -neck. "Please stay with me," she cried, "I do so need you. I just -heard it to-day. It was why he came and stayed so long. Please stay -and be with me till he leaves. Just stay with me, Little Brother, this -time." - -"Why," I said, "this time? Surely he will resent it. Any man would -want this night of all others to be with you." - -"Jack, you don't understand. I am miserable. That is why I rode Satan -as I did. When I put him at that fence I hoped--it is wicked I -know--but I hoped that he would kill me." - -She was sobbing in my arms. - -"Eloise, don't," I said; "let me go. Don't you know that it is harder -on me than it is on you? Do you think I am made of stone--of wood--to -come home expecting sweetness and find it all rue--my dreams about -you--" - -"Just to-night, Jack. You'll--you'll laugh at me when I say why, but, -but, you know how punctilious these Englishmen are, and he thinks I must -kiss him to-night when he goes." - -I felt the hot blood rush to my heart. It was instinct, the reversion -of a past ancestor who fought another man for kissing his wilderness -bride. - -"Eloise, you wouldn't?" - -"If you'll kiss me again, Jack, as you did just now. I never felt so -before--until--but it you'll kiss me again--that way, I'll never kiss -him--never!" - -I held her in my arms. I kissed her eyes, which were moist. I kissed -her mouth, and it seemed as though my soul went into hers; for when, in -desperation, in an exhilaration which was all but madness I broke away I -heard her cry faintly, "_Jack, Jack!_" ... - -I saw her arms around the great fatherly tree, her head against it. - - - - - *CHAPTER XII* - - *WORK AND MINE ACRE* - - -There is but one balm for a heartache, and that is work. - -Nothing in all my life had left me so stranded; had killed so utterly -the sweetness of all my dreams as this giving up of Eloise. And with no -dream there is no life. - -I felt that she was lost to me now: if she were not engaged to Colonel -Goff, there was nothing in me now, I thought bitterly, that could awaken -in her the real love she had never felt for anyone. Yet with all her -spirit, her apparent indifference, and even recklessness, I knew she had -a throne in her heart of hearts for love on a higher plane than those -who love easily. I knew that only one side of her had ever been -revealed, either to herself or to the world; that beautiful as she was -there was a yet more beautiful side to her; and that brave as she was -there were yet deeper depths of bravery within her, a moral bravery -which under the spur of her soul would take another leap, as far greater -than that she took on Satan as the brave leap of Pegasus over the -clouds. I had known her always. I knew what she did not know: that I -was loving an Eloise that was yet, and forever would be, an unseen star -in an unknown heaven, above the head of the man who had never yet -learned to look up. Should I sit still and let him take her, let him do -this irreparable wrong both to himself, and to her and to me? My heart -cowered a moment at the thought of its hopelessness. Then--how -wonderful is the word of the soul unto the soul, the passed soul to the -passing soul, the absent soul to the present soul,--I thought of the -words of Aunt Lucretia: "What would Andrew Jackson do, Jack?" Into my -soul came the steel of Andrew Jackson. With the quickness of the -thought came the change. "_Aye, my unseeing old grandsire," I said, -"you shall see whether I am a fighter or not! ... For Eloise._" - -From that moment I resolved to fight. God's blessings on the memory of -Andrew Jackson! - -But I would fight in my own way. For I knew that Eloise's idea of love -was a love of life and death: she who would ride a mad horse over a -five-foot fence for the conquering instinct of a mastering nature, what -would she not do for love--_her love_--and she a woman? For let it be -writ both of history and life, 'tis woman at last who loves. Man knows -not love. Even as his own life came to him the babe of Love and -Passion, so only can he give that unto another. But she who gave it -being, _her name was Love_! Oh, to win such a love as I knew Eloise -would bring to me; which she herself knew not was there. - -I lost my bitterness of it all when it came clear to me. Before, I had -been maddened to think she would barter this love of hers for title and -wealth and the place it bought. But now I saw clearly, now I knew that -she was blameless, because never having had that love, she knew not what -she was giving away. Like an Indian princess, who owned an island of -pearls, but did not know their value, she would give them to the first -foreigner, coming down in ships, for the baubles of his forecastle. - -But I would show my Princess what her pearls were worth. I would string -them in globes of beauty around her neck, and brow, and belt, and I -would put my crowning Great Pearl of Sacrifice into the diadem of her -hair, and then I would lead her down to the sweet glassy sea of her own -unbartered, unbought home, her own sweet kingdom of kindness and -content, and by the still waters, in God's own groves, I would lead her -until her feet dipped into the mirroring pools, and, kissing her, bid -her look for the first time and behold Love crowned. - - -Would she barter herself for baubles then? Would she not know the -difference between pearls and paste beads? I, yes, happy I, would show -it to her; I would introduce Eloise to herself--Eloise loveless to -Eloise in love. - -I laughed now in the happiness of my little conceit. Very distinctly I -could hear my Aunt Lucretia say: "_Sure, Jack, that is the way Andrew -Jackson did--took her from the toad who had deceived her, right out of -his arms, and then killed every other toad who croaked about it. -Sure!_" ... - -There was much for me to do, both of love and duty. My duty was work, -and that came first. For I had faith both in God and myself, and if I -did my duty and my work, God would give the rest to me. - -Work--the glory and sweetness of it! And to find one's work in one's -life--that One Work which fits the One Life: this to me has always been -the greatest gift of the Giver. - -There was so much for me to do. I was the pioneer of a great truth in -the world's greatest country. In all great causes it is the pioneer who -is the sacrifice, it is he who is held up to contempt and scorn. -Strange that it should be so! That he who sees first the Great New -Truth, the Blessing that has been withheld because of no one to see it, -the Great Invention uplifting through one man all men into a new world, -that it is he who must suffer.... - -The hurt does not matter from those who love us not. I was willing that -the herd should think of me as it would, as its own little light -permitted, but I had that pride of race which every honest man has, and -I wanted the love of my fighting old grandsire. And he openly despised -my profession, and he secretly despised me. "What's the use of worrying -about making more on an acre of this rich soil?" he would say. "Ain't -The Home Stretch rich enough? And fiddling about saving trees--why damn -it, ain't there too many of them already? Didn't I have all the hard -work of my life clearing some of the land, and my father before me, that -it might make us a living!" - -He would never understand me, of course. The discoverer is never -understood, and the forester falls in the same class, more maligned than -any of them. He would never understand that it was not a sentimental -dream to save trees because they are trees, but to grow them and harvest -them in the right way, even as wheat is harvested: that we did not want -to see rich acres, the homes of unborn people, covered only with trees, -when the land was needed for bread, but the unfertile hillside, and the -heads of our water streams. There, we insisted, trees should remain -because that was Nature's own way of protecting the land from droughts -and floods. Nor could I hope to make him understand that rich as the -land was--even as a man of genius--it should have a chance to bring -forth all the fruit that was in it. That our waste was something -appalling, our methods crude, and that our people, with all their -plenty, were only half fed; that while we were rich and The Home Stretch -was a garden, the poor farmers of the hills and less fertile places were -living only half lives, they and their families, because there was no -one to show them something better. - -My Aunt I knew was sorry for me; but I could see she hoped and believed -I would yet get over it. And in my own heart I felt that if I had -chosen West Point, perhaps Eloise-- - -I flushed, ashamed. How prone our little weak Self always is to play -Arnold with our Soul! - -I began at once to work. It is what one does with one's own acre, not -what one preaches should be done to the acres of others, that convinces -his neighbors at last, and settles the standard of his life's text among -them. - -I started it on a gullied hillside of The Home Stretch. These gullies I -filled. Young trees were easy to transplant from the over-crowded -growth of the woodland. Nature is at last her own greatest doctor. I -gave her the soil she had been begging for, and very quickly she studded -it with little pioneers of the game black locust, to hold back that -which she had, to shadow it with coolness and damp that grass might grow -beneath, and mold form, and the blistered soil have yet another chance, -and that later the trees might rear their great heads high, stealing -from the clouds the moisture for the earth. - -My neighbors knew me, had known me from a boy, and it was not difficult -to get them to meet me at the little schoolhouse once a week and hear my -talk. Now talks all depend upon one's honesty and earnestness, not on -one's brightness; in a month they became interested and were one with -me. They had always looked upon a forest as a necessary evil, as a -great wood put there to be cut down, burnt, destroyed, that man might -till the land. Indeed, from their pioneer fathers, whose greatest -burden was clearing the land, there had come down to them the instinct -of forest hatred, just as had come their instinct of Indian hatred, bear -and wolf and panther hatred. But at the same time I knew that they had -in the heart of their pedigrees another and sweeter instinct, and that -it came from their forest-loving Briton and Saxon and even remote Aryan -sires, whose ancestors before them, had long ago gone through the same -fight with the primeval forest, but whose children after them for a -thousand years, from the North Sea to the Mediterranean, were forced to -go back to tree-planting, to forest preservation, or die with their -soil. It did not take much to make this forest preserving, -land-preserving, life-preserving instinct outcrop again among their -children here. It was a revelation to them when I explained that the -true forester was he who assisted the farmer and the lumberman in -rearing more trees and better trees where they should be, and destroying -the worthless ones, even all of them if need were, where they should not -be. In their prejudice they thought a forester was a dreamer, an -impractical person, who preached forest preservation from sentiment, and -would let the trees grow where children ought to grow. I won them all -when I explained that a tree, when ripe, should be garnered, just as -corn or wheat, or any other product of the soil. But during the years -while it ripens for the saw, the young things beneath it, which should -take its place, must be protected, and their life preserved in the -harvesting of the ripe trees; or if the land was to be cleared for -tilling, other places on the farm, especially the unproductive hillside, -and the sources of the stream, should be given over to forestry. This -would save the hillsides from washing and depositing their flinty soil -over the rich valleys below, and guarding the water head, preserve the -springs. But when the tree is ripe it should be harvested, unless it -stood in some park or yard or town for a street ornament or shade. If -it were in any of these places it should die in the ripeness of -beautiful old age, a younger one taking its place. It was not long -before I had a class of forestry, and there was much of the German -methods I had learned in every branch of farming which I gave them for -nothing, that helped me greatly. It is what one gives for nothing that -brings in the greatest returns at last. - -But my greatest help was in a flood early in May. The headwaters of the -Cumberland lie in the Appalachian range, that great wooded mountain -strip which mothers the headwaters of the Ohio, the Tennessee, and the -Cumberland, and so of all the states they water. That long ridge of -wooded slope had been a sponge, the gauge that controlled the flow from -half the tillable Union. On the Tennessee, the forest had been brutally -butchered, and on the Cumberland as badly treated. The flood came. -There was but little to hold, and check it, and we had a deluge such as -was never known before. Even my grandsire, seeing it, admitted what I -said. The seemingly wasted word had fallen as the drift of the elm -tree's shaft had taken root in a corner of the old field. - - - - - *CHAPTER XIII* - - *THE UNATTAINABLE* - - -My work took me daily to Tammas's cottage. There was nothing so restful -to me as these two good people, and their sweetness and cheer, and Elsie -held my interest. I had always been fond of her, and now that she had -grown into this rare, delicate flower, so sensitively turned, so -romantically original, I found the greatest pleasure in studying her, -and, in humoring her, as everybody did who came into her sphere. She -commanded obedience as readily as she gave it. Every day was a different -mood, and always a romance with her. One day she had on a large white -apron, and was helping Tammas with the churning. - -"I am playing a new game, to-day, Jack," she said, pulling me to a -corner of the dairy where the spring water whirled through the stone -troughs. "You'll laugh when you hear it," she added, her eyes shining -into mine. - -"I'll not," I said, "I'll be more apt to play with you. What is the -game to-day?" - -She laughed merrily. "Well, to-day I am a duke's daughter, who was -secretly exchanged in her cradle with the dairyman's baby. Now only -three people know it; the dairyman, who is old, and about to die; and -who is so sorry that he ever did it, but he did so want his own daughter -to be a lady in the land; and me, whom he has told at the last minute, -and the bad, bold knight, very dashing, who has bribed the dairyman to -tell him, and who wishes very much to marry me. But I want to marry my -own bonny prince, you see." - -"I should think he'd be proud and loyally love his dairymaid bride," I -laughed, pinching her cheek. - -"But, Jack, you are so stupid," she said, pouting. "You don't catch on. -I can't play a game by myself. I want you to play the prince." - -Tammas stood looking on, his face in its favorite Scotch grin. "Weel, -weel, did ye ever hear the like o' that, an' it's no' leap-year either!" - -I could see that he was pleased and proud. - -"And it is the prince I'll play from now on, my ane braw lassie," I -said, dropping into her own dialect. "Isn't that what you call them in -Scotch?" I asked. - -"An' noo," said Tammas, "a' lasses get unco thrang when their lovers are -aboot, to gar them think they are unco worthy." - -Elsie laughed and went vigorously to work, molding butter pounds. I -stood watching her while I talked to Tammas. She was not all a child. -There was a certain queenliness, a quiet dignity about her that was very -attractive. In her fine-cut face, deep down in her great blue eyes, in -her very poise there was a quiet naturalness, a pretty aloofness which -spoke of reserve forces, that seemed to soothe me. God only knew how I -needed it! - -After an hour with her and Tammas I felt, as I went down the wooded -path, under the great trees of the dairy lot, as I had when I heard for -the first time, in the deep hours of the night, the chimes of the bells -of Munich. I had not cared for the service with all its symbols and, to -me, its meaningless metaphors; but I had loved its music, the great -bells which calmed my soul. - -I wish to join a new church. I am tired of these which preach. I want -to join one where there is no preaching, no talking, nothing but music, -music which makes you feel God. Why all this preaching anyway? God and -talk do not go together. Religion is not a science to be proven, not a -thesis to be demonstrated, not a problem to be solved, but a silent -Soul-Force to be felt. - -Preachers and priests in their vanity to be heard, or their zeal to -proselyte, or their over-humanness just to talk, talk, talk, have robbed -the church of half its sweetness and power. Will they never learn that -God's house was made for God's children and in it they should do as God -does,--be silent and worship? And if there be a voice to break it, let -it be the Voice of that which is nearest to God on earth--Music.... It -was this feeling that Elsie gave me--of calmness, of restfulness, of -devotion. There are those who irritate us, and they cannot help it; -there are those who provoke us, anger us, madden us by their very -presence. There are others who stir us up for trade and money-making; -the sound of whose very voice makes us wish to own land, or buy stock or -build houses; and there are those--God help them--whose talk, be it ever -so brief, falls over us like an unwholesome thing. - -Elsie read much of romance, and her small library was choice; but the -love-poems of Burns she knew best of all, and she always read them to me -when I was about to leave, as if she would hold me longer. Then I would -remember them far into the night and the radiant-faced, spiritual girl -with the deep eyes, reading them. I needed the restfulness which -Elsie's friendship gave. I needed her sweetness that calmed me, her -fresh friendship that was like a great rose at the window of my soul. -In her utter unseekingness, her loyal trustfulness, I saw that she did -not even suspect that I loved Eloise. - -I stayed all day at the cottage and she flitted around with her great -white apron on, now and then calling me her bonny prince, especially if -Tammas and Marget were not around. I humored her, seeing how much -pleasure she took in it. - -"If I am your Prince," I said, when I had her alone in the butter room, -"I am going to call you my Heart's-Ease." - -She looked up quickly and a faint blush came into her face. She did not -reply, but busied herself about the house, while Tammas and I talked of -the new test of Lass o' Lowrie, one of his cows, which, from five -gallons of milk daily was making three pounds of butter. - -"Dae ye ken Mr. Jack, whit's daeing it?" said the old man. "It's nae -ither than the auld Top Sawyer bluid!" - -Elsie, daintily gowned in a pretty white frock and for the first time -with her hair up in a comical little Scotch top-knot, walked with me -down the wooded path to the parting of our ways. A tiny heart's-ease -had just thrust out its fragrant leaves in the rich mold under the -trees. She plucked the leaf, and there was the faintest trace of a -twinkle in her blue eyes as she came up and pinned it on my lapel. - -"Here is your heart's-ease, my Prince," she said slyly. - -I felt a flush upon my cheek. She was silent, and then she said slowly, -"Do you know Mr. Jack--Jack, that I believe every prince at times has -need of a heart's-ease friend, and--and--well, maids need a prince to -help them." - -I looked at her quickly. - -"I am your good Knight always if I can help you, Elsie." - -She flushed and turned her face aside that I might not see it. - -"And you won't misunderstand?" she asked. - -"I don't think I could misunderstand you, Elsie. I don't think anybody -could." - -She came up closer. - -"Well, it's this, Jack. Sit down here by me. I have no one I can -confide in but you. You know how kind you have always been to me. Ever -since I was a wee bairn in a strange land. I can't talk to Tammas about -it, but I feel there is something strange between Colonel Goff and me. -I feel that there is--" - -I started. She was pale, but went on. - -"Well, you know, I didn't come here with them. I didn't come here with -them--with my grandparents; that was so long ago I don't remember what -is back of it. Anyway, soon after I came I remember Colonel Goff. And -do you know," she went on, "he has been so good to me that--that I -cannot understand it at all--only I feel when I am with him that I am -drawn to him so! Oh, I have seen so much in him that others don't -see--and when I see him watching me so closely and saying nothing, it -hurts me." - -She did not finish, but looked down the path, up which Colonel Goff, -himself, was riding towards us. - -Elsie paled and then flushed quickly. He was smiling at us, his little -eyes twinkling kindly. He gave us a quick military salute. - -"My word, a _tête-à-tête_, and a bloomin' fool it is who'd break in on -it. Hello, lassie--Jack!" - -He got down from his horse, shaking hands with us gravely. I noticed -that he was watching Elsie, and she, knowing it, was reddening. - -"You are a good guesser, Colonel," I said, with feigned lightness, for I -felt that he was taking it too seriously, "and pray tell me who would -not like to be with so fine a lassie?" - -He looked at me quickly. "If you mean that, Jack," he said, in his -blunt, unseeing English way, "here is my hand." - -Elsie broke into a little confused laugh. "The idea of pinning Mr. Jack -down like that," she said, looking bravely into Goff's eyes. "What else -could he say? Now give me that box of candy. I see it sticking out of -your pocket." - -Goff pulled out the box of candy, and catching her to him, kissed her on -the cheek. - -"She is my own lassie, Jack," he said, holding her an instant in his -arms. "I have loved her since she was so high." He paused. "Well, -perhaps it was because I was an exile in your country, and she is the -Scotch flower I found blooming here. Eh, lassie?" - -Elsie kissed his cheek. - -"You have been mighty good to me, Colonel Goff. But go your way. -Tammas said he wanted to see you if you came by and--well--Mr. Jack and -I want some candy!" - -For a moment he looked at us queerly, trying to smile. He glanced into -my eyes, but I met his squarely and unflinchingly. He was not a man -whose mental action was quick. He saw but one side of things at a time. -I saw that he was embarrassed in his slow way. Very awkwardly he left -us, going up to Tammas's cottage. Elsie walked on with me. - -The wind blew her hair around her temples and the reflection of the blue -hills of Scotland was in her eyes. "This is such an inconsistent world, -Jack," she said after a while. "I can't ever learn it, and I get so -lonely up here with only Tammas and Marget, I often wish that they would -tell me more of myself. I should so love to know who my father is." - -"Did it ever occur to you that it might not be at all pleasant for you -to know? They love you and they want you to be happy." - -She paled. "I had never thought of that. I had never thought of -that--oh, why didn't I think of it!" - -"Elsie," I said, taking her hand in mine, and drawing her to me as I had -when she was a child, and I her big brother, "you have no better friend -than I. Tell me what it is that is troubling you?" - -"You would hate me, Jack," she said, looking up quickly into my face -with great, earnest eyes. - -"Hate you? Nonsense," and I laughed, pinching her ear. "Tell me," I -pleaded, smiling. - -"Nay, nay, bide a wee--bide a wee," she said abstractedly falling into -her childhood's dialect as she so often did when she forgot. "And -first," she went on, "why, first I'd have to kind of explain it, Jack; -but it is like this now: suppose one was not satisfied with one's lot -and had those feelings I have been telling you of." - -I nodded. - -"And suppose--now this is the worst of it--now suppose one really loved -another--one found one's soul dream," she paused, blushing. - -"Soul dreams, Elsie, ay, I think I understand," I said. "I too have -them--they are the great, unattainable things of our life. Do you know -I think that their being unattainable is what makes them great?" - -She looked up. "If it is worth so much--this unattainable thing--why -then does it hurt so?" - -"Ay, ay, that's it. It is the things that hurt which count. 'Our -sweetest love is always sweetest pain,'" I said, quoting the line of a -poem. - -"Oh," she said, clasping my arm. "You have said it, Jack." - -I looked at her quickly. - -"Elsie," I said, "you once told me--do you remember what you said to me -and Aunt Lucretia--about your hand being sought in marriage? Is it the -same person you now speak of?" - -"It is Captain Rutherford," she said, her face drawn tensely. - -I started, angry, flushed. - -"Elsie, this will never do. Do you love him at all?" - -"No, Jack, not as compared to the other--the unattainable. Well, I -should say about as the difference between a--well--say a star and a -little firefly." - -A dry, fighting anger clinched my throat and I could scarcely speak. I -could have throttled Braxton Bragg then! - -"Tell me, Elsie," I said, controlling my anger and trying to speak -calmly, "tell your big brother all." - -But she was silent, her face turned from me; at last she said, "It is -all so strange, Jack; those we love, love us not, and those we do not -love want to marry us even if they are not fit to." - -"Not fit to hold your shoe, let alone your heart," I added angrily. - -She put her hand over my mouth. - -"Have I done wrong? Have I said too much? Come, I must go. I see the -Colonel waiting for me." - -I took her by both hands, holding her before me, for I was strangely -worried and I wished to know--I looked earnestly into her eyes. - -"Do you love me, Elsie?" - -She blushed crimson. In an instant her arms were around my neck. - -Shamed and stricken with my own thoughtlessness I tore her arms from me. - -"Elsie, forgive me, you don't understand!" - -In reply she gave me one shamed, hurt look and fled up the path. I saw -Goff waiting for her. - - - - - *CHAPTER XIV* - - *GOD AND A BUTTERFLY* - - -I saw a race for life the other day. It occurred in mid-air in a -kingdom not of earth--not of our own; but the air was sweet where the -fight was on, and the fields were green, and the woods lay calm and -soothing beneath, and the great, kind sun was above. - -It was the pursuit of a golden-winged butterfly, one of those filmy -creatures that is more of sky than of earth, made of rainbow and a rose, -of light and a lily's blossom. It seemed strange to me that this -beautiful thing, thrown off from the rim of a rainbow, living on the -nectar of a flower, sleeping on the bosom of a nodding lily and floating -on the breath of a zephyr, so spiritual it was, should fall under the -cruel laws of life, and be forced to fight for its brief but beautiful -existence. - -Who were its enemies? Two glorious mocking birds that had sung like -spirits from an heavenly choir around the house all spring and summer, -that had been permitted to live and rear their young in contentment and -happiness and should have held no grudge against any other creature. - -Golden-Wings was in the garden, and he was content until that which -sustained life gave out--food. Ay, there is the rub! We would all be -angels if it were not for food, we would be saints but for our stomachs. -He had sucked every flower in his pasture, he must go to pastures fresh -or die. The distance was only a few hundred yards of air, but he knew -that in that air was death. He thought of it a long time as he hovered -from flower to flower; of life, of his mate, of death. Had he been all -spirit he would have stayed forever among the flowers, but he was like -all of us, half spirit and half flesh, and the flesh of him was -rebelling and begging for food. He must go. He rose slowly, and with -uncertain wing, frightened, straight up, every sense awake, every nerve -keyed, his eyes on the lookout for his enemy. Up, up he rose, -quivering, scared, frightened, then he winged his way across the ether -in a flight which proved to be for his life. - -The mocking bird is a flycatcher, but not an expert one. Compared with -the swallow, the martin, the crested flycatcher or the bold king bird he -is a poor imitation; but the mocking bird is also a poet and everything -is grist that comes to the poet's mill, from the grasshopper on the -ground to the butterfly in the air. - -The male bird saw Golden-Wings and gave him the first heat for his life; -up in the air he darted, circled and swooped. Golden-Wings, terrified, -ducked, dived and escaped. The poet dropped to a twig in disgust and -his mate took up the fight. Golden-Wings saw her coming and his heart -swelled with fear; he stood quivering in the air, he knew not which way -to turn. She darted straight and all but caught him; for a moment in -mid-air they whirled, twisted and tumbled, Golden-Wings, panting and -fluttering for a chance once more for home and love and life, and the -poetess for a morsel to eat. It ended in the butterfly getting above -the bird, which always seemed to be his tactics, and the latter dropped -down in disgust to her mate. - -Then, maddened, they both started after Golden-Wings, and it looked as -if this flight was to be his last. - -It was a terrible chase that the two poets gave him, the tumbling, -darting, circling of the birds in maddened earnestness. Their wings -were often so close that they fanned him about like a whiff of gold -tissue paper in the wind. Twice they got above him, dropped and missed! -Then he was lost altogether, and only by watching the circling of the -birds could one guess where he was. When seen again he had got above -his enemies, and was steadily pursuing his zigzag, frightened, -graceless, paper-fluttering flight for the distant trees and life! - -"Luck to you, O Golden-Wings!" I cried. "For already you have taught me -a lesson for Life. Let us keep _above_ our enemies if we would be safe, -not beneath them--for there we are a prey to their talons, besmirched -with dirt; nor on their level, for there we are no better than they; but -_above_ them where they cannot reach us, and where we may go on to our -destiny with only the sunlight around us and the unseen stars above." - -The birds dropped down, baffled, to rest in the top of a sugar-maple -tree. Like all poets, in losing their game they had lost their temper, -and now between panting and hard breathing they could be heard -quarreling. "It was you," said the wife, "you conceited thing; it is -all your fault! I had him once if you had let me alone." "Oh, you had -him, did you," sneered the mate; "if your talents only equaled your -tongue you would be better off!" They almost spat upon each other; they -were beaten and angry and they took it out that way. - -Golden-Wings was safe. He was high up in the air. His very flight was -now the flight of victory. Twenty yards more and he would drop down -into the great splotch of green below where his wife was waiting him on -the blossom of a wild cherry. - -I was about to cheer him with the silent approval of true applause when -I saw a lightning bolt of red drop from the jagged bar of the dead limb -of a great oak near by, in the midst of the forest and high above the -weary, yet happy Golden-Wings. I paled at the sight, for I knew that no -butterfly would ever escape this new-comer. Even Golden-Wings -recognized his fate, and, paralyzed with fear, stopped his flight in -mid-air in a few yards of his home, and lay quivering in hopeless fear. -Well he might, for the red and white bolt was a red-headed woodpecker, a -very king in the tribe of the flycatchers. Often I had seen him poise -above an air-bound moth, then drop like a dead bird in the air and no -moth would be there. - -The hand of the world is against the marauder, be he bird or man. But -they revere the man who robs by rule. - -Straight at Golden-Wings he went. The race was up. He used the same -old tactics: above the butterfly he soared, then, gauging the distance -from his own great beak to butterfly beneath he folded his wings and -dropped like a plummet of lead. - -I was out that morning with the twelve gauge, smokeless shells and seven -and a half chilled shot. It was thieving crow I had come after, thinking -I might get a shot. To the marauder my thought was as lightning, for -when I caught the first flash of his crimson head, this went distinctly -through my mind: "_Nature is Nature even to tooth and claw, and yet -there is that which says even when a butterfly shall fall. He makes our -lives and marks out our destiny. Sometimes amid injustice, He calls -himself Retribution. And then He has been known to raise up a man, and -a gun, invent smokeless powder and deadly chilled shot, give accuracy of -aim, and, most wonderful of all, the Voice of a Purpose to say that harm -shall not happen to a Butterfly._" - -There was no smoke from the report, and so I distinctly saw Golden-Wings -drop joyfully among the green leaves. But a red marauder lies in the -field where he fell. - - - - - *CHAPTER XV* - - *HICKORIES AND OLD HICKORY* - - -June, and June as it breaks only over the Middle Basin. - -There had been great rains, saturating the leaves and grasses until they -were almost blackened in their deep greenness. There had followed, -flushing the grass on all the hills around the Hermitage, the mauve -tints of coming dandelions, followed by the red, white, and blue flags -of the clovers, until across deep valleys and on distant slopes there -was a pale light much like moonlight. - -I had been very busy. There was much for me to do, and I sought it -eagerly, for I wished to forget and not to see. It is what we fail to -forget that hurts. And so I worked. - -Colonel Goff, as was his race, had acted straight-forwardly in the -matter of his marriage to Eloise. Over a month ago he had sought out -Aunt Lucretia and told her frankly that he sought the hand of her ward -in marriage, that he wished to marry her and take her at once to -England. He said that his brother, the Earl of Carfax, had died without -heirs, and that he inherited the estate. The family name, he told her, -was Goff, and he had kept it while in America. In the early fall his -attorneys would have every legal provision complete for his return, and -for immediate occupation of his estate. And he told her with equal -frankness why it could not be done sooner, that in his younger days he -had married out of his class, and had been blacklisted by his family for -it, especially by his elder brother; that they had had not only hot -words but a stand-up fight in which he had all but killed, and had -really maimed the older brother for life. "I had to get out," he said -brusquely, "and get out quick. As it was they tried to disinherit me, -but England's laws are greater than England's men. My wife was to -follow, but she died." - -My Aunt was a woman of great sense and said nothing. But I noticed that -she thought much, because she was very silent, and that she grew -suddenly very tender to me. When Eloise had gone to Washington my Aunt -went with her. Two things happened before they left, which I remember -quite distinctly. - -My Aunt's admiration for the character and achievements of Andrew -Jackson bordered on the idolatrous. As a boy she would take me often to -the Hermitage, and tell me of the wilderness giant who lived there. She -knew more about him than anyone I ever met. She understood the thousand -sides of this man's great nature, from his horse-racing to his religion. -In the spot where he had lived so long there was, of course, a world of -tradition. It came down from lip to lip. Of these stories my Aunt -remembered all. A few days after Goff had talked with her as my Aunt and -I were going over the grounds she stopped before the log-cabin in the -pasture near the great spring where Jackson lived before he built the -present Hermitage. - -"Jack," said she, "Andrew Jackson was the gamest thing God ever gave to -humanity, and the gentlest. It is staggering to think what he had to -overcome to do his life's work. The fights, the sicknesses, the -suffering, the slander, the insults, the lies, the butcheries they -called battles, starvation, mutinies of his own men, all met and -overcome by one tall, slim, sallow, pain-wracked man, on one -thoroughbred horse, with a gun in his hand, and two in his eyes. Talk -of Indian fights--Mills, and Cooks and Custers--they were child's play -to the great Creek Nation Jackson had to fight. And England behind -them--selfish always and forever wanting that of others." - -She looked at me quickly, and went on: "But he waited and then hit them -hard. No one, from Hannibal to Cæsar and Bonaparte, would ever have -attacked Keane and his troops, just landed and in an open plain with New -Orleans at their mercy before them, in the night-time as did Jackson and -his ragged, half-armed militia. No one would ever have risked it but -Jackson; he was greater than them all! For that seemingly foolhardy -night attack saved him. He cut the very vitals out of them in the dark. -He hacked them as a game cock does when he sticks his gaffs into the -very heart of his foe. That was why on January eighth they could not go -over his breastworks, even with the combined force of Packenham and -Gibbs and the troops that afterwards won Waterloo. He had gaffed them -in the ditch in the dark. He cut them into giblets. It was hell with -the lid on. They say it was a useless battle, but they lie, Jack. If -Jackson hadn't stopped them, they would never have given up the -Louisiana Purchase until we drove them out with another war. There are -two kinds of men, Jack--talkers and doers. The talkers are all -orators--they are all liars. They began with Aaron, whom God made a -mouthpiece to Moses. Moses was the doer, but he could not talk. Aaron, -the orator, talked for him, but it is Moses who lives. Jackson was a -Moses, Clay an Aaron, a dead one, Jack, as all Aarons are, and growing -deader every year. All orators, being liars, fool people while they -live. Dead, they do not even fool themselves. - -It was Clay and Crawford who let the British make that treaty of -December twenty-fourth in which they said that they would not be bound -by Bonaparte's constructions. At that time Lord Castlereagh had every -reason to believe that Packenham, sent out November twenty-fourth, with -the best army and navy that ever left Portsmouth for a foreign shore, -had taken the 'crown colony of Louisiana,' as they called it. And under -that treaty they would have held it. It was Jackson who stopped them, -just one day before that treaty was signed. - -"Yes, Clay is dead," she said laconically; "he ought to be. - -"They wanted New Orleans, and they wanted it bad. 'Booty and Beauty' -was the word they passed down the line when they landed and started -across the Chalmette plain, to take the fair Creole City. They were -going to take her and then rape her as they did the cities of Spain, and -they would if Jackson had not gaffed their very vitals out in that night -attack of December twenty-third." - -She turned suddenly on me, her eyes ablaze. "Do you think, Jack, if he -had loved a girl and an Englishman wanted her bad enough to take her -right out of his arms that he would have given her up?" - -I looked up quickly and her face flushed with fighting fire. - -"And he was the tenderest, Jack," she went on calmly. "Old Parton tells -a pretty story about him. One bitter, sleeting March day, an early lamb -had all but died in the field here, and his little adopted grandchild, a -tot of four, found the lamb and cried for it; and so Jackson brought -them both to the house, and by the fire; and to comfort the child he -took them both into his arms and so sat here, before this great hearth, -holding them both in his arms. - -"He, who had killed bad men as he had dogs, who had cut to death the -pick of the army that later won Waterloo, he sat coddling a lamb and a -child and thinking of his dead wife, and she,--oh, Jack, I all but shed -tears when I think of it! The night she died, and he would not have it -so, but lay all night beside her, holding her in his arms, and trying to -get her warm again, with the great love of his own great heart." - -There were tears in Aunt Lucretia's eyes. Oh, the depths of her stern -heart! It is like the mountain capped with snow. But when the snow -melts and the flowers come up among the crannied rocks there are no -flowers in the valleys below that equal them. - -The other recollection was of Eloise. It was the night before she left -for Washington. Colonel Goff, who had spent the evening with her, had -ridden off. I, pretending to work, was really listening for her -footstep, as she came back to her room up the great steps. - -"Jack," she said, standing just outside the window, "come." And she -beckoned to me. - -We sat down under the wisteria vine, which grew over the porch. - -"Jack," she said, "I want you to do me one favor. No one loves Satan -here but you and me. Won't you take care of him while I am gone? Ride -him whenever you can, the harder the better, for he is made of iron and -needs it." - -"He and I are good friends," I said. "I have ridden him daily. We -understand each other," I added softly; "we both love you." - -"And Jack," her hand was instantly in mine in the old way, "in after -years you won't think evil of me for selling myself this way, will you?" - -"Why, no," I said seriously. "I have been thinking of it, and all life -is just a barter and trade." - -I saw her face in the starlight. - -"I've no right to make you wretched like this, Jack," she said, rising. -"I am going in; and when I return do you be gone Jack, -somewhere--anywhere." Her voice trembled. She stood quiet, and I by -her, dazed and helpless. - -"There is one thing I am going to take to England with me, Jack," and -she pulled out from beneath her gown yoke, a little token I had -forgotten. I recognized the locket and the chain I had given her years -ago. "And this little picture in it is you, Jack. You gave them both -to me the day I helped you lick Braxton Bragg." - -Then she turned quickly and left me. - -"Jack," said my Aunt, as we parted the next day at the station, "I am -afraid things are all against us. Father, I see, is going to will The -Home Stretch to Braxton Bragg. If I were you--" - -"I have already done it," I said. "I am going to move to-day to Dr. -Gottlieb's; there I shall work out my plans." - -My Aunt smiled grimly. "I want you to remember one thing when I am -gone. Don't give up--remember Old Hickory." - -I looked up at her quickly. I saw something in her eye that gave me -heart again. I bade her good-by. I dared not say it to Eloise. I -slipped away, but I watched the train of cars die away behind the trail -of smoke in the distance as I rode back home, and it seemed as if my -whole afterlife lay clouded in that path of smoke. It was hard to give -up my home, the old home, every tree I knew, and with them Eloise and my -life-dream.... - -One's dream and one's home--what else is there which grips so the very -tendrils of one's soul. To give up one cuts deeply into the roots of the -heart, but when the blow is doubled, there is only one thing that can -make one stand upright and not fall, and that is the Spirit Within. -People have different ideas of God as their souls reveal. It runs all -the way from the pitiable, crude, faint conception which comes to the -savage in cloud, a sun, or star or image of stone, to the higher mind -which perceives Him in the Great Spirit of the Universe. None of these -is my idea of God. I have never been able to dissociate God from my own -self. I have never been able to conceive of Him as apart from me.... -And not always the same, but always there.... In my meaner self so -little of Him is there, so tiny a spot of the divine light ... so faint, -so seemingly nothing. And this is the greatest of it--this is the -test--the very divinest evidence. _He is always there_; and when a blow -comes, humbling the material, the meaner of me, then He claims His -own--my nobler self--taking it unto His care, flooding it with His -presence. It is then, searching yourself and your own heart that you -find Him--that you know that you are a part of God because He is there! - -Riding home it all swept over me so. In my innermost soul I knew it: -like a flash came the inspiration of it, the old Prophet of Deuteronomy: -"_As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth -abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings._" Did God -mean in this, the wrecking of my nest, that I should fly--even as a -young eagle? - -"And remember Satan, Jack, to keep him fit," I heard Eloise's voice say. - - - - - *CHAPTER XVI* - - *HEART'S-EASE* - - -Never was there a quieter, better place to work than at Dr. Gottlieb's, -whither I had gone after Aunt Lucretia and Eloise had left. In a short -while I had become reconciled, in my hard work, to my lot; for to live -with Dr. Gottlieb meant to work, to classify, to probe into things, and -this meant to put aside all else, even for awhile one's heart's trouble -for the hard mental strain of it. I remember those study nights well -and with such pleasure. I can recall the little quiet man with his -books, his abstraction, his quaint comments, the learned deductions that -fell now and then from his lips as if he were unconscious that he was -speaking. From studying the pollen of a flower he would look up -abstractedly and drawl, "_Ah, Jack; and Miss Lucretia--that most -beautiful and charming of women! Did I ever tell you that each of us -has our prototype in a plant? And how much to my mind--ah, Jack, and to -my heart, how much she resembles the beautiful red wood lily!_" - -He would put down his book, and look longingly out over the hills. It -was the only foolish thing he ever did, I thought, and so I forgave him, -knowing that each of us has at least one foolish thought within us. - -He always had a smile for me; often he would walk around all the evening -thinking abstractedly, or puttering among his books and plants and -geographical specimens, and then start into real work at midnight. And -I would work with him; for, besides studying my forestry, I was carrying -on some experiments, testing the various effects of fertilizers on the -soil of The Home Stretch. Dr. Gottlieb would say: "It is not the time, -it is the inspiration, Jack; catch it when it comes." - -Exercising Satan daily as I did, I became as attached to the great game -fellow as did he to me. He was a singular horse, of a type entirely his -own. The harder the ride, the more difficult the feat, the stubborner, -gamer he grew. Not every horse is an individual, in fact few are; they -are horses merely. But Satan was one, almost human in his -idiosyncrasies. If he had been a man he would have been one of the -world's leaders. There was nothing he would not do for me after he -learned to love me. - -Even in my heartache, in my despair at giving up Eloise, I thought often -of Elsie; for, having known her since she was a tot of three years, when -she came to live with Tammas and Marget, riding her, a wee girl in front -of me on my pony, going with her, a little maid, over the hills to hunt -for some Scotch flowers, I had that attachment for her that one has for -a little sister. She had developed far more beautifully than I had -dreamed of, both spiritually and in body; for the connection between -them at last is the same. I had never thought before that there was any -mystery about Elsie. Tammas and Marget, with all their apparent -frankness, had the greatest inherited trait of their race, a shrewd -secretiveness when it was best. Heretofore I had thought of Elsie only -as their orphaned grandchild. I supposed her father was some sturdy -Scotchman of their own class, who, perhaps, died after his wife, or, if -alive, had given her to her grandparents. But now I saw differently; -perhaps her beauty, and the romantic turn events had taken; the Juliet -outpouring of her own exquisite nature had touched in me some subtle -instinct. - -It was this affair of Braxton Bragg which worried me most of all. I had -not seen him since I returned. I did not want to. There are those born -into our lives who seem always to oppose, thwart, counteract what we do. -Braxton Bragg had played this part in my life. I could not escape him, -try as I would. Even when I was in Germany, with an ocean between us, -had he not cheated me of my own birthright? He was with his company in -the city of Nashville, where the Tennessee troops were mobilized for the -war. They expected orders to sail for the Philippines any day. All his -life Braxton Bragg, weak as he was in character and mind, with that -conceit which often goes with weakness, had really believed that, after -he had acquired The Home Stretch, or a greater military reputation in -the army, he would marry Eloise. All his life he had openly proclaimed -it. His mentality was not great, and he had not yet learned that in -real love monies, farms, reputation, fame, are the least that count. - -Goff had won her. Braxton Bragg now knew that. Goff had always -befriended him, and bore with him more than anyone else. Goff had -confided in him and trusted him. Braxton Bragg was as immoral as he was -weak. Therefore I reasoned this matter lay in one of two ways. Either -he was recklessly scheming to deceive and ruin Elsie, or else he had -found out something that none of us knew and was scheming to marry her -on account of it. Besides deceiving my grandsire, as he had all his -life, I now learned that he had further deceived him:--that, graduating -from West Point, he had been appointed to the army, but even before he -went on duty, he had been caught in an act unbecoming a soldier and -gentleman, and to escape courtmartial had resigned. My grandfather's -influence had saved him and got him elected captain of a company which -my grandsire had himself raised and equipped for the war. - -Absorbed in my own affairs, numbed by the wreckage which had come to my -soul's dream, I had neglected Elsie of late. When I realized it, and -what it meant to a sensitive nature such as hers, I went over at once, -fearing that, since our last meeting she might have misunderstood my -absence, and brooded over imaginary wrongs to her own hurt. I found it -was high time when I learned the real situation. - -Tammas met me, his face weary; for the first time in all our greetings -with no broad smile. - -"Tammas," I said, "where is Elsie? I want to see her." - -"Come, Mr. Jack," said he, taking off his big butter apron; "we'll gang -ben into Marget's room, for we baith want to talk to you." - -I found Marget quite as troubled as Tammas. - -"I feel that I've been neglecting you," I said, trying to talk -cheerfully, "but--I have--there have been great changes in my life--I -have gone to live with--" - -"Ay, we ken aboot it," said Marget, "and though we didna understand, we -thocht ye'd come ower in your ain guid time to tell us." - -"If we can help you, Mr. Jack," began Tammas quietly, "we will be glad -to do it." - -"Thank you, good friends," I said, taking his hand. "I can't explain it -all now; only this," I went on, forcing a smile that I did not feel, -"there has been scheming against me all around, everywhere, since I left -home, and--well," I smiled, "I've been turned out of home, -and--and--everything." - -Marget's eyes flashed: "They'll no' turn ye oot o' onything," she cried -hotly, "no' as long as we're here, Tammas an' me. Ye'll jist come ower -and bide wi' us. Here's your room, Mr. Jack. An' Tammas an' me--we -love ye as much as we dae oor ain bairn. I ken fine wha it is. Tammas, -didna I tell ye? It's juist that Braxton Bragg! He's been plotting -against ye ever since he was a wee bairn, an' ye're no' the only one -that he's mistreating; an' it breaks ma heart to think that ony man in -this country whaur we and oor lassie hae lived so correctly, should be -sae bold as to write this, an' it's been wanting to see ye we have, an' -to show it to ye. Ye are a' we hae to protect her, Jack; we are -truthful folks, an' oor lassie is a sweet and pure lass, that has been -a' her life here in this valley, like as to ony lily in it, an' we dinna -think she should be insulted by the like o' that." - -She had taken a note from her bosom and handed it to me. - -"Haud on a wee, afore ye read it," said Tammas. "Afore ye cam' hame," he -went on, "I didna like his attention to oor lassie, an' the untoward way -he had o' trying to meet her secretly gin she but gaed oot o' oor sicht, -an' ye ken Mr. Jack, hoo fond she was since a bairn, to hunt flo'ers an' -birds on the hills aroun'. Sae very frankly I gaed to him, as I thocht -it my duty to do, an I tell't him we had oor ain plans for the lassie, -an that he was in anither class frae her, an' any attention he showed -her wad be to the hurt o' the lassie, an' it wad be maist unbecoming in -him as a gentleman to persist. Eh, but it maddened me to hear him -explain and pass it a' aff as a joke, an' the flattery o' him fair -scunnert me, it did. But for a' I said till him he didna stop it, but -kept dogging the steps o' the lassie an' writing her love notes. Sae I -gaed till him again an' maist pintedly I made him understaun', that I -wad appeal to his grandfaither for protection. I am a man of peace, but -this maitter has reached its leemit, an' noo we're gaun to turn it ower -to you. Marget an' masel' hae thocht it a' oot, because if ever Elsie -had a brither it's oor Jack," he added. "There's only ae thing mair -I'll be asking ye afore ye act, an' it's jist this, that seeing the -matter's sae delicate an' talking aboot it micht injure oor lassie, I'll -jist ask ye to consult wi' Colonel Goff in the maitter." - -"Ay, an' ae day ye'll ken the reason," said Marget very quietly, nodding -approval to Tammas's remarks. - -I never was so angry as when I read the letter. I was fighting mad, no -other word will do. - -"Where is Elsie?" I asked, controlling myself. "I must talk with our -little lassie." - -"Weel, ye see," said Marget, "Jack, I dinna ken. The puir bairn is a' -but crushed--she's just like a lily that has grown a' simmer in the -valley, an' opens for the first time ae morning to find there's such a -thing in God's worl' as rain an' hail." - -Tammas came up to me whispering quietly. "We maun tell ye this, Mr. -Jack, it's only fair that ye should ken. We hae keepit' oor ain counsel -a' these years about oor lassie, an' that which we wad like ye to ken -aboot her Colonel Goff will tell ye. But this ye maun ken, there is -behind her on her faither's side that verra intensity of nature so -highly keyed for joy or sorrow, that it has sent mony o' her forbears -amang the gentle leddies o' her hoose to early deaths, even to taking -their ain lives. Ay, Elsie is jist sae like her faither's sister, the -bonnie ane that suicided for love. Eh, but oor hearts are wae aboot oor -bairn. She's shut hersel' in her room a' day, but jist afore ye cam' -she gaed off to the wood ower yonder." - -"Ay, ay, if there's ony ane in this worl' that can help us it's you, as -I said to Tammas afore ye cam'. The Lord be thankit for your coming!" - -"Ay, but the lassie;--Mr. Jack, would you let them that raised you be -plain to your face as becomes honest folks with those they love?" - -I nodded. "Then Elsie cares na' a bawbee for this bold rascallion--it's -you she loves, Mr. Jack, an' wi' a' respect and deference for so -delicate a thing, you'll sune ken that ye hae the love o' a lassie wham -the highest in England and Scotland wad be prood to mate wi'." - -At first I could not find her. She was hidden in her favorite place, a -natural arbor of low dogwoods overgrown with a beautiful root of tangled -wild-grape. - -I was never before more calm, for the seriousness of it all was on me. -Not only was her own reputation, her future happiness and life at stake, -but that of others also. The hint given me by Marget made things clear. -If I ever needed tact I needed it now. I was ready for any concession -to save her from the position she was in, even to forget Eloise, if I -could. - -I decided that it was best that she should not know that I knew -anything. My first glance showed me how seriously she was taking her -trouble. I had never seen such sorrow in her eyes, eyes which now -fought defiantly the gloom that was settling in them, as a child's when -it knows for the first time its mother has died. - -I sat down beside her, and without speaking drew her to me. "My little -Heart's-Ease," I said, "you'll let your prince help you?" I let her cry -on my shoulder until she cared to talk--stroking her hair. - -"I thought you had forgotten me," she said. "Where have you been so -long?" - -"Oh, I had much to do--to think about--that needed doing quickly. First -I had to move and get settled. I live with Dr. Gottlieb now--well--it -is a long story, but I'm--I have no home now, Heart's-Ease." - -"You shall live with us if you wish--if you will--Tammas and Marget and -me." - -I laughed boyishly. "I will if it comes to a rub." - -"I am so glad you've come. I have been so troubled, Jack. Just before -you came I was sitting here, and I thought I saw Ophelia in that pool -down there where the spring branch goes into the deep hole under the -willows, like my picture in Shakespeare." - -"Nonsense," I said, drawing her to me. "Tell me what you ate for supper -last night? I believe you are in love." - -She turned white, and her lips were drawn. - -"No one loves me," she said, and she blushed crimson, "no one in the -right way. It is just like Ophelia, and so I was thinking--" - -"No one shall love you any other way," I said, "unless they first reckon -with me, for I love you," I added tenderly, for I pitied her so much. - -She looked up, smiling through her tears. - -Then both of her arms were around my neck. "Jack, Jack!" - -Her hands were in mine: her eyes, looking up to mine, had tears in them. -I saw that she had misunderstood, but I saw that if I were to save her I -must save her through love. I felt the hot blood rush, for very shame, -into my face, stinging it red for punishment. - -"Forgive me, Elsie," I began, my throat choked with shame, "I can't -explain, I didn't--" - -For answer she kissed me, both arms around my neck, as she said, "Oh, I -am so happy." - -She was silent, her hands in mine. They burned me, yet to turn them -loose, to tell her truthfully, and she keyed so to the sensitiveness and -unthinking romance--I thought of the pool and Ophelia.... She laughed -happily: "Tell me, Jack, your Elsie, when did you find that you loved me -so? Was it because of my thoughts of you in the horror and folly of my -flirtation with Braxton Bragg?" - -"Never mind," I said; "you are never to mention that name to me." - -"Oh, Jack," she hid her face on my bosom. - -"You are not to speak of anything disagreeable. Only we'll just love -each other, Elsie." - -"Oh, please, please, just let me tell you a little, so that you will -always understand me--your silly Heart's-Ease. It was this way, Jack: -suppose now, suppose you were placed this way--that you were very -lonely--always had lived in a cabin, and so much you wished to see the -world--that in you was a strange, queer longing, a feeling that you had -been born for higher things--and--all at once right out of the sky--that -which you longed for came--the star of your soul." - -She hid her head on my arm. She was weeping. - -"Go on, child," I said; "I am listening. - -"And he--he would not tell you he was your prince; then you felt that -strange feeling again, only worse--to go away--to leave yourself--well, -then another comes--I do not know, only he did--I had only seen him -twice, and each time he was very kind, but so fulsome and so bold, that -well--I would not meet him again and so he wrote...." - -She was silent for a moment and then she spoke suddenly. "Oh, I fear I -did wrong to see the other--to answer his note. I was so unhappy -then--so wretched then, for I did not know that--that--you loved -me--then!" - -"Elsie, promise me--" I began. - -"Please don't, Jack, dear Jack, it is all right now. I have written him -already. I wrote him I'd never see him again and never to write me." - -"And if he does, will you tell me, turn his note over to me?" - -She laughed. "Why, Jack, of course I will." - -The setting sunlight streamed on her hair till it looked like banked -western clouds. The very skies of Heaven were in her eyes, and her -dignity and poise were like a queen's. - -She took off the heart's-ease she had pinned on my coat. - -"You don't need this now, my sweet prince." - -"Don't, Elsie," I said; "my God, I can't explain, but, child--I need it -now more than I ever did in my life." - -For a moment she looked at me with pretended offended eyes. - -"Ay, ay, I see; but you shall have me when you will, and you will need -it, my bonny prince, until I am there," and she pinned it back between -hot flushes and tears. "And you will see me soon, Jack, right here in -our sweet trysting place? - -"Good-by," she said in time. "You will see me soon, Jack?" Then taking -my hand before I could prevent, she pressed it to her bosom, kissing it. - -"Elsie, Elsie, don't--I would die to save you pain! I would die to save -you pain! Don't!" - -"I am so happy. Good-by, Jack." - -"Elsie!" I called. "Oh, you misunderstood me--you don't understand." - -But she only laughed back gladly as a child would, throwing kisses to me -as she ran like the doe of her own heather up the hill. - -I saw Marget and Tammas at the door, smiling; and I knew that they saw -Elsie's happiness. - - - - - *CHAPTER XVII* - - *"LADY CARFAX"* - - -I knew that I must save Elsie from the false, unthinking fate her own -romantic nature and Braxton Bragg's infamy might thrust upon her. I -loved Elsie as my own sister and knew that now I stood in a false -position toward her. Once as I strode home in the gathering darkness I -was tempted to turn back. I would right myself. I could not stand my -false position even until to-morrow. I had but a few days to act. -Elsie had gone home happy--I, miserable--hating myself. Always before me -was the glad smile I saw on Tammas' and Marget's faces as Elsie went up -the path--the smile of hopes fulfilled, of Elsie safe, of a great wish -come to pass.... How they stabbed me now--Elsie's words: "You shall -have me when you will, your Heart's-Ease." - -And yet if I did? Great God! I might be a murderer! I saw how much -Elsie was like Ophelia. I saw it all: the pale, conscience-stricken, -helpless little soul, the proud spirit scorned, the unthinking creature, -of romance and of hopes destroyed. The deep pool in the valley might -hide her in its waters before another day. So I went on, choosing what -seemed to be the lesser of two wrongs. - -As I rode Satan over to The Manor after supper I thought of all my past -life in which Braxton Bragg had figured. I remembered him first as a -large, bullying, overgrown boy, three years older and much larger than -I. I remembered his small, bullet-shaped head, the fat, heavy jowls, -the short neck, and the loud laugh. From the first he had teased and -derided me. I did not understand it then, but it was plain now. Young -as he was, he had set his plans to work to discredit me with my -grandsire; to own The Home Stretch himself, and to win Eloise. The -conceit of him! Only one great thing Braxton Bragg had in him, his aim. -That was something to his credit: but without brain and heart behind it, -of what availed the aim? He was like a wharf-rat, stealing on board a -man-of-war, to shoot a thirteen-inch gun at the moon! He had never been -a boy, a real playmate to me. He had always been cruel to the little -negroes around us, and to dumb animals, and in everything he had been a -coward and a bully. I had never taken his designs on Eloise seriously, -nor had she. Yet his persistency was notable, even up to now, when her -engagement to Colonel Goff had been announced. - -Braxton Bragg, I decided, meant to deceive Elsie, to play with her, this -little creature of fun and love, this pure little flower that was as -much of The Home Stretch as the flowers on the hills, the locust -blossoms that perfumed all the air in spring. - -He had beaten me out of my birthright by deceit and make-believe. I -could stand that. I could make my own Home Stretch, as every man must -make his, whether he will it or not, if he and his home shall ever -become two halves that make one. And he must make it by work of heart -as well as of brain and of body if he hold it truly: for God is -inexorable, and His law of possession is: _if you have not earned it, -you shall not hold it_! In vain do men subterfuge with that law, by -gifts, inheritance, entail, by trustees and trusts; shambling along they -may go a generation: then God and His Higher Court decrees, and the -little tenants by courtesy pass out. The little mice who have not the -love of it, which has been born of labor, the pride of it begot of -sacrifices given, find themselves food in the claws of the great eagles -which work and dare. - -This last act of Braxton Bragg roused me to an anger I had never felt -before in all my life. I had always been for quietness and peace. I -did not know it then, but I know now that there are Three of me--Me, -Myself, and my Soul--which are almost as distinct one from another as -three separate personalities. - -In grief and despair, in times of crisis only, do we see them most -distinctly; or, after a sweet sleep at night you do not quite waken in -the morning, they are then all so plainly distinct: there is Me--the -carnal one, selfish one, the animal one: the lowest: and there is -Myself, that is part of both, that would be spiritual, would be good, -only that not always may it be. And highest and loftiest, and -altogether greatest, and incomprehensible, and exclusive, standing -alone, and aloof above Me and Myself, the Supreme Judge of the others, -and the final arbiter of all their little efforts and aims is I, the -Spiritual, God-given small, silent-voiced I. - -It governs, controls, is king. - -Me--is a man merely: given to eating and drinking, to stomach troubles -and pills; to subterfuges and make-believes; to vacillations--changes: -to thinking this one day and that another--full of policies and conceits -and deceits; of whims and caprices: changeable; consistent only in one -thing that it is always animal, deceiving its own self all the time, and -Myself half the time, but deceiving _I--never_! - -I only smiles, and lets the other two go on till they need the judgment -and the whip--then they get them. - -ME--a miserable, little animal that came from the fishes, or perhaps -what is left of my anthropoid ancestors, full of fun one day and -to-morrow a lion full of fight, always an animal, sensual; -money-getting, love-getting, land-getting, place-getting, -fame-getting--always and forever, with an eye out for ME and My Chance. - -ME--a thing with a liver and two legs--Me! And above that is the second -Me, Myself--half spirit and half flesh. - -It is this that weeps, laughs or curses the acts of the First, yet has -no power to change them; it can arrest him somewhat, haul him up a -little while before the court--a kind of a police officer for a brief -trial--but only the Supreme Judge--only _I_ may pass the act that stops -him. When the First has groveled in the dust of things, it is This that -fights back with the spirit's disgust, giving due notice to the flesh -that it is not all supreme, not all in all, that there is really -something else, somewhere, somehow, or else we would not have sorrow -after sin, penitence after pain, fear after a fall. - -MYSELF, my little soul--a half-bred mongrel Compromising Thing it is--a -bird with gills and a bladder, a chrysalis that has yet to burst and be -a butterfly; a tadpole with a tail unshed, which one day may be dropped -in that metamorphosis to a higher state and yet more likely to die a -tadpole! - -And then there is I, the still, small, silent I. ME, it talks, and -struts and brags; and MYSELF and its little soul is full of whines and -little pretenses, of platitudes to Men and Things. But I--it never -speaks, never sleeps, never compromises, but always commands. - -It exercises its authority as it is needed in great sorrows, or the -great crises of the other little lives. And it comes sweetest and -clearest (which is proof positive that it exists) before even the others -are awake, in the first dawn of day, or in the still night watches of -dreams; and it fairly crushes you with the sweetness of its presence, in -that quiet kingdom through which you loiter, and then pass through--that -Kingdom between the Dawn and the Daylight. Suddenly we awake enough to -know that we are there--_It_ is there--in another world--painfully, -awfully, preciously there. Then we see how truly Me and Myself--my -little body of ME may die and pass away, and be as naught--but that _I_, -the still, small, silent I of Me has come from Æons to go on to -Eternities; and after all the little plans of me, and the braggart, -_this I will do and that I will not do of Me, this I will be and that I -will not be of Me_, and after all my resolves and final decisions, and -my well-laid plans of Me--_I_, the kingly _I of Me_ has only to appear, -sitting silent as a burning flame in the throne room of my soul, and all -My's plans both of doing and being, and all of my soul's resolve of -purpose--the great decisions of my very soul--become as slaves to fall -down before and crawl to do its bidding! ... - -Braxton Bragg's perfidy had aroused me to an anger that I had never -known before: I had been a quiet boy, I loved not strife, "_Oh, he won't -fight, not one of them will,_" I caught myself mimicking my grandsire, -and in hot forgetfulness, I struck the big horse I was riding with a -quick touch of my heel--I was almost unseated with the leap he made. - -"Steady, quiet, forgive me, old boy!" I cried, stroking his crest to -calmness--"that only means I see things differently; that in this little -world our ethics is one thing, our little religions, laws, our -civilization is one thing, and God and His laws are another. One says -if he smite you, turn your other cheek; the other says, if he strike -you, strike back harder. One says peace--the other says it is war, even -in the name of peace; one says Justice and her scales, the other says -the Eagle and the Battleship. There is a time in every honest man's -life when he must fight or die. Satan, old boy, I am going to fight -awhile!" - -I was lusty and twenty--ME. - -So I pondered as I rode over to see Colonel Goff. I found him in the -library of The Manor, and was soon seated with him. I noticed the -sterling beauty of the furniture, the trophies of the chase, both in -India and America, and a full portrait of Eloise over the mantel. I had -been a boy to Colonel Goff until my return. Now I imagined that my -sudden change into a full-grown man had never quite come home to him, -remembering me only as he had known me last. - -"You have given me an unexpected pleasure, my boy," he said with a touch -of cordiality in his voice. "I have been beastly lonely since Eloise -left." He eyed me through his half-closed lids as he lighted a cigar -and watched me light mine. - -I flushed, and I fear he noticed it. Then I broke abruptly into my -subject. "It is your help and advice I want to-night, sir. I have come -to talk of Elsie." - -He looked at me surprised, holding a half-lit match in his finger. -Instantly the match was snuffed out with a sudden twist and a smile -broke over his face. - -"It's all right, Jack," he said warmly; "I think I can guess--I have -seen for a month that you have cut me out--all of us--why--" - -"I fear you are mistaken, Colonel Goff," I said quietly. "I know how -much you think of her, that you are her friend, and I thought the two of -us together might help her out of an unfortunate affair." - -He turned on me quickly. - -"Why, what has happened? I saw her to-day; she was all right." - -"Nothing has happened yet," I said; "nor is it likely to now, since I am -going to do some acting myself, with your help." - -I handed him the note. I had heard my old grandsire say that in -critical places Goff was always coolest. He smoked while he read, not a -muscle moving. - -"This thing is so out of all our English ideas of sense and decency, and -so unusual, that I'm lost in it," he said quietly at last. "It seems -that he has actually induced my romantic little girl to agree to a -secret clandestine marriage with him, and his regiment leaves for the -Philippines to-morrow, marry her secretly, and claim her when he comes -back!" - -Instead of being angry Goff laughed, half ironically but with intent -behind it. He rose and walked to the door, calling his butler. "Tell -James to saddle my horse at once," I heard him say. Then he closed the -door and came up to me. "Jack, this is the damnedest piece of -blackguardism I ever had to kick out of my mind; we'll settle it in a -jiffy with him,--just as I'd kick a little cur out of my pack of running -hounds. You'll ride with me, of course, and witness it." - -"I will, Colonel Goff," I said sullenly, "if you'll let me do it in my -own way. It is I who want you to witness it." - -He slapped me on the shoulder. - -"You're all right, Jack, I've always known that: and if it is nothing -rash--you see if it were, why, the child would be talked about. Oh, -yes, damn him, if it wasn't for her I'd kill him myself." - -"Colonel Goff," I said rising, "I'm going to thrash him to-night before -I go to bed. I'm going to do it in my own way." - -He laughed outright and grasped my hand. "You must not," he said, "and I -will tell you why; you've earned it. This is my great secret. I've seen -all along that you have loved her--and, well, it's plain she loves you. -But I see through this affair much further than you because you don't -know. I'll tell you, you have earned both my friendship and my -gratitude. First, there is no insult here, in this note. I've been the -scoundrel's friend all his life. He had so few, and I told him in -confidence what I've never told anyone--did not intend to tell till the -announcement of my marriage next month--Elsie is my daughter--she is -Lady Carfax by birthright and by title, and this little scoundrel has -taken advantage of my confidence. He has always had a sneaking idea -that he would marry Eloise, and now that he can't, he loves me so much -he'd like to be my son-in-law, though he ruined my daughter's chances in -life to do it, with his fool secret marriage." - -He stopped and looked at me, thinking quietly for a moment. - -"You'll excuse me, Jack, for plainness, but we've no time for anything -else, and I mean it all kindly. But you, yourself, are mostly to blame -for this. I have read it in Elsie, but I thought you'd never see it, -never tell her of your love. Now, it's this way, my boy; and I'll be -frank. I am going to take Lady Carfax home and finish her education, -and give her the chance her place demands. You are always welcome to -come and be with us at any time as long as you choose, and if, on her -majority, she still loves you, and you her, why--" he stopped, smiling -kindly. - -"Colonel Goff," I said rising, "you certainly misunderstand me. All -that I'll talk to you about later. I'm in a mood to-night I've never -been in before. Get your horse and go with me. I want you to see that -I have a fair fight." - -"It won't do, Jack," he said. "I'll not even let you go with me. It's -Elsie I'm thinking of, Elsie and you. The quieter this thing is -settled, the better for all. I see through it--as I told you. I'll -ride over to see him. I'll catch him to-night, and when I have finished -with him, he'll never mention Elsie again, let alone try to marry her -secretly. I saw her to-night just before you came. Jack, my little -girl is happy. It pleases me--let her stay happy, and you shall be, -some day, if you will--" - -I did not reply. We rose to go. At the parting of the road I galloped -home, he to the city. - - - - - *CHAPTER XVIII* - - *THE LAST DANCE* - - -It was a night in early June. The Home Stretch was all a-glitter, its -porches and the great trees on the lawn lighted with rows of colored -lanterns. - -My Aunt and Eloise had returned; the Cumberland races, the social event -of the year, began the next day, and in accordance with her custom my -Aunt was giving her annual ball. This time it was to serve a two-fold -purpose; for it was also in honor of Eloise and Colonel Goff and was to -be the formal announcement of their coming marriage. - -I rode over early. If I was needed I wanted to help as of old; and I -had seen neither of them since they had returned a week ago, for I had -been away for several weeks, in an adjoining county, earning my first -fee in forestry. I had been employed by a corporation to pass upon a -large tract of timber, to report its millage and availability, but best -of all I was to put my plans into effect in its harvesting, cutting out -only the ripe trees, and preserving the young ones beneath from death -and mutilation. - -I had spent two weeks among them. There were many different kinds, and -they had become almost like children to me, and like children, they each -had different temperaments--these trees--different forms, dispositions, -dreams, and they always talked to me, through their little leaves, but -sweetest of all in the night, even as children do, when, full of -themselves and of life, they gossip so friendly in the balm of the June -moon. They told me like village gossipers, of their every little -affair, their little vexes, turmoils, the very little scandals of their -wood. And in more stirring moods when the night winds would arise and -sweep through them the writers, minstrels and poets, stirred to historic -flights, quivered with their greater dreams, sang their tales of tree -tragedies, of wars had, of fights for life and of martyr and hero -deaths. - -And I had lain and listened, and felt my heart grow big with throbbing -even as when I first read of the wanderings of Ulysses. - -I came from out among them older, braver, better. I came with higher -motives for my own life and eyes which saw clearer into the future and -read more kindly the lives of others. - -And gladly would I have stayed in the wood among them, to go -back--rather than to see what I must see--Eloise betrothed to another. -No tree tragedy could be more cruel than that which had killed the love -of my own life. - -In withholdingness and sorrow I left them: "duty" not as someone has -said, "is the sublimest word in the English language" because duty is -often done in pleasure, but the real sublimity of duty is the duty done -in pain. To fail to go were cowardice, and I was no coward even if my -grandsire did think so. - -But when I went into the great hall of The Home Stretch, filled with -chattering guests, the contrast was poignant. It was as if deep in the -sleeping and silent forces a cloud of chattering birds had landed -suddenly among my trees. - -"It is good to see you home again, Jack." - -It was Eloise who spoke. Her eyes told me that she had been waiting, -and a brave lingering smile went with her words. There were little -tired, hard lines around her sweet mouth. She looked tired but game, as -when, in a long day's hunt after quail and the route home was long, and -our luck nil, it needed a good heart to smile. - -She stood with Goff in the reception room, as though she were Countess -of Carfax already. The hand I held trembled for the first time in mine. - -"Glad to see you back, Jack," said Goff, his face aglow with the pride -he felt. - -"Where have you been, Jack? I thought you were never coming to see me -again?" Eloise asked. - -She gradually moved away with me from the crowd in the center of the -room until we stood apart in the large bay window. - -"Come," I said teasingly, "you have got away from your lord; he will -miss you." - -It was not fun to her. Her face flushed, then paled. "Jack, you must -dance with me once to-night--our last dance. I have something to tell -you then." - -"I don't think you ought to punish me any more than you have already, -Eloise," I said frankly. - -"Maybe I am punishing myself more," she said softly. - -"Eloise, Eloise--" - -But she had turned and was receiving the newly arrived and merry crowd -behind us. - -My Aunt held to some customs which she permitted none of the innovations -of society to alter. One was that her balls must open with the Virginia -Reel. I saw her coming and understood. - -"Jack," she nodded, commandingly, "we are ready, you and Eloise open it -up." - -Eloise stood behind her smiling. She placed both her hands in mine and -together we glided to the head of the line. We stood holding hands and -waiting for the music. Coming closer, my Aunt smiled and whispered, "I -wish you two children could see what a fine pair you make. Pedigree -counts even in a Virginia Reel, and you two were bred for it." - -We both laughed. - -"Look into that mirror across yonder," she laughed, "and see how much -better I am at pairing off people than they are themselves." - -We glanced across and saw Goff and a fat lady from town. - -"They are matched perfectly," said my Aunt Lucretia, "both grass-fed." - -"Please don't, Aunt Lucretia," said Eloise, "that isn't fair. You are -trying your best to keep me from being a countess." Then she added -suddenly, "Oh, Jack, tell me about Satan. You don't know how I've missed -him. Where have you two been?" - -"In the wood together. No--n-o--you shall never have him, such a -horse--such a comrade." - -Eloise pouted. "You'll see. Why Colonel Goff has promised I shall take -him to England with me. And Jack--how about his exercise? My heart is -set on beating him in that hurdle race, and Aunt Lucretia would have -apoplexy if she lost that bet." - -"Oh, he's hard enough. I rode him two hundred miles to Obion County and -back. I honestly believe he could run across the county to-morrow; and -jump! I am glad you mentioned it---it was wonderful--he is foolish -about me. It is because he knows I love you, dear," I said, whispering -in her ear. - -"Please don't, Jack, you only hurt me." - -"I was across a small ravine from him one day, had hitched him and was -looking at some timber. He broke his halter and came to me. I heard his -calling neigh and I answered him, and he came to me, clearing a ten-foot -ravine in a jump." - -Eloise clapped her hands, and my Aunt, who had come up and heard it, -smiled. Then she said, with her usual red-tape accuracy, "I hope you -took the measurements. Was it really ten feet, Jack?" - -"I measured it," I said, "and it was nearly bottomless. If one foot had -missed--" - -My Aunt nodded to Eloise. "That little branch in Cumberland Park is -only ten across from bank to bank. Oh, we'll play it on his lordship -fine! Come!" - -There was a crash of music. With radiant cheeks and eyes that I saw -many a night afterwards in my dreams, and a proud smile she went with me -down the line. - -There was a pretty surprise for us at the supper. We had filed into the -dining hall. My grandfather sat alone, his hair white under the -candles. On the right of him stood Eloise and Colonel Goff, and the -long line of expectant guests stood around down the long table. - -My grandfather rapped, and, raising his glass, proposed a toast to the -future Earl and Countess of Carfax. There was a burst of applause. The -guests lifted their glasses. - -"My friends," said Colonel Goff, bravely, when the room became quiet, "I -came to you years ago, an exiled Englishman, and I found a home here, -following my old commander from the war. I came lonely and alone. I go -back with a sorrow in my heart at leaving many friends behind, but -instead of going alone, I return taking with me one who will be the peer -of any countess of the long line of Carfax." - -He turned, bowing grandly to Eloise, who, pale, and with trembling lips -listened. I could see her breast faltering with quickened breathing. -Her parted lips panted for air, even though she stood beaming graciously -to the greeting. "I have another announcement to make," he went on very -quietly, "and I think it right that I do it now, that I may be just to -myself, to the good people who have reared her, and to my child whom I -love. My coming here was not altogether purposeless. You will -understand when I introduce to you my daughter, Lady Elsie." - -There was a stir at the lower end of the table, and I saw my Aunt -Lucretia open the folding doors and Tammas followed by Marget enter. -Elsie followed, her face ablaze with that beauty which was always hers -when excited. She was more like an angel of light than a girl, and -around her neck and in her hair were the jewels of the house of Carfax. - -Goff met and kissed her, and very simply and sweetly she advanced and -kissed Eloise, graciously, almost unconsciously, a kiss both of love and -tribute. She stood between them, bowing and smiling so graciously down -the table that her breeding was evident. - -All who knew her loved her, and for the next ten minutes they thronged -around her with kisses and congratulations. - -I did not go, for there were tears in my eyes and a great choking in my -throat. When I looked up Tammas and Marget were standing by me, Tammas -making a bold effort at winking his tears away and smiling. He mopped -his brow vigorously, and said mechanically, "'Tis a bonny night for us, -a bonny night and a glorious for our lassie!" - -"Ay, weel," said Marget between her sobs, "but dinna she look it--like -her ain sweet mother? Oh, but she was that bonny, and 'tis she, our -lassie, Tammas, can be looking down on her this blessed minute, her -bairn who has come into her own." - -Then Elsie saw us and came quietly forward. She clasped me impulsively -around the neck and kissed me, whispering, "Oh, it is mine, Jack, that I -felt but could not tell. 'Tis the unattainable come true, and now, -Jack, dear Jack, that I am Lady Elsie, now that I am worthy of you--" -she could not speak. Her lips were deadly white as if with faintness. -I held her, stroking her hair. - -"You were always worthy of anyone, sweet one. Be brave, be brave, now," -I whispered, "and go back to your father's side." - -I looked up to find Eloise's eyes upon me, and a strange understanding -in their depths. - -"I am staying with papa, at The Manor now," said Elsie as she left me -and Marget. "You will not let it keep you from coming to see me often, -will you, Jack?" - -"Ay, weel, to be sure, lassie," broke in Tammas, and I caught the -pleased look that seemed part of his countenance that night as if now -his heart's desire had already come to pass, "ay, weel, to be sure, for -our Mr. Jack will always be our Mr. Jack to us, lassie." ... - -It was the last waltz. Eloise beckoned to me, and when I reached her, -she opened her arms and I took her in mine. I could not speak, my heart -beating almost strangled me. I held her tight, and into the sweetness -of the music and the lure of the waltz came again all the past sweetness -from her girlhood up, all blending in memory with the perfume of her -hair, the whiteness of her throat, and the firm supple touch of her -lithe, strong body against mine. Again she was my Little Sister and -comrade of the long past. My life, my love, my all that I dreamed and -hoped, danced with her in that last dance.... - -I felt her heart beating against mine. Her breathing was a sob. I felt -her wilt, her limbs give way beneath her, her arms hang limp, her head -fall back. I carried her in my arms to the sofa.... - -"A little ice water," said my Aunt Lucretia. When I looked up Colonel -Goff stood over her bathing her face. "I should not have let her dance -so much--it was all too much for her." He bent again, stroking the -beautiful hair. I could not see more for my anger. - -In the cool air outside I came to myself. My anger died, all but my own -bitterness. I saw the long line of carriages and the men sleeping on -boxes, and then I heard a nicker, a friendly little recalling whinny -from Satan's stall, and the next instant I had swung into his saddle, -and touched my heel to his flank. - -I saw the grooms on the boxes sit up, and stare into the night, for -straight to the banks of a little creek I rode him, not down the old -road. He leaped high into the air, enjoying even more than I did the -glory of the risk and jump. He swept like a whirlwind through the gate. -The mad ride home soothed me. - - - - - *CHAPTER XIX* - - *THE HIGH JUMP* - - -From the crush of the great crowds around the grand stand at the -race-course, lining up far down the in-field, and jamming the betting -sheds, I saw my Aunt Lucretia forcing her sorrel horse through the -gathering. She had been a familiar figure at every fair and race -meeting as far back as I could remember. No secretary for twenty years -had questioned her judgment or her orders; they were too glad to have -her help. I was in the judges' stand helping them out. I had ridden -over early, leaving Satan to my Aunt's stable boy, who had already -worked him out with a stiff gallop of two miles, and rubbed him down for -the hurdle race and the high jump. - -My Aunt Lucretia rode up close to the little canopied stand and beckoned -to me. "Ever see such a crowd?" she said, smiling proudly. "I told -Roswick this special high jump and hurdle would draw 'em. I'll bet -there are twenty thousand people in that crowd." - -"What is the programme?" I asked indifferently, though I knew it as well -as she. I had come out under protest with myself as it were; I would -rather have been deep in the heart of my wood where I might not see -Eloise. I had tossed all night on my bed. If I dozed it was only to -awaken, feeling that I held Eloise fainting in my arms. I did not want -to see her, for in my heart, since I last danced, there had been such a -tempest of conflicting emotions as made me pace the floor all night; and -by day I knew not my own mind. Yet somehow it was not all sorrow. For I -knew now that Eloise loved me and at thought of it my heart almost burst -with gladness. Gladness was mingled so with sorrow that I wondered if -both were not sweeter for the mingling. - -"Colonel Goff and I have put up a few three-foot hurdles," my Aunt said, -sweeping the track with her hand, "and he and Eloise and a few of the -younger people are going to gallop over them just for fun. Goff really -wants to show off his record-breaking jumper and his _fiancée_ at the -same time," she said, smiling carelessly at me. "The hurdles will be for -any of them who care to go over them, but the high jump," and she -pointed to a movable gate of bars, flanked with high panels on each -side, "will be put across the wire at the finish for Goff and his hunter -only," and she laughed, winking at me slyly. "The record is five feet -six; Goff thinks that is what he is going after again; but I've put up -another bar for fun. I want to see Goff's imported record-breaking -'lepper,' as he calls him, break his blooming knees on that top bar." - -I turned impatiently. "Aunt Lucretia, that's dangerous, six feet--and -under the whip, after a mile dash!" - -Aunt Lucretia smiled. "None of them is supposed to go after the high -jump but the Colonel, and he swears he can do it. H-u-s-h!" she -whispered. "Not a word of this. Just let Eloise fix him. I've been -twenty years arguing with him about importing these worthless brutes and -the superiority of our own horses, now I am going to make him pay for -his obstinacy--s-sh! There they come now," and she pointed to the -in-field, through which a jolly group of riders came, society people -mostly, girls and boys and members of the hunting club who were out for -the mile gallop over the short hurdles. - -"There are ten couples of them in all," she said, "our smartest boys and -girls. Many of them will not even try the low hurdles and none of them -the high jump except the Colonel." - -"You ought not to try it," I said resolutely. "Don't you know that -nothing can keep Eloise and Satan from trying that gate of bars?" - -"Of course," said my Aunt, "but Goff doesn't know it, and that is where -he will part with his ducats. He has even forgotten the bet, he has -been so happy; but I'll remind him. He hasn't the least idea that Satan -could jump over his shadow in the road. O-h, no!" - -As we talked they rode up. "Now see here," said Colonel Goff to his -crowd, as he lined them up, "some of these hurdles are going to take a -bit of going, and you boys must give the ladies the front, for your dust -might blind the horses to the hurdles and make them rush over them with -chances for bad tumbles and broken knees. We'll finish the last quarter -flat; but I'll go over the gate and bars here for exhibition. It's a -pretty stiff affair and will take a bit of going, so the rest of you -will please be so kind as to give me the lead here and an open field; -just hack around this last quarter, following me, and dodge the gate. -There's plenty of room." - -The Colonel sat his horse near me as I stood, watch in hand in the -judges' stand. Eloise had not looked my way. She sat her great, -steel-limbed mount as unconcernedly as if she were going on a fox chase. -The others were laughing and excited, the untried horses nervous and -restless, but Satan stood still, looking as if carved out of the black -granite of the hills. Eloise glanced up and saw me. I turned my head -quickly, but she came over, her face pale, but her eyes smiling kindly -into mine. The old fun was in them, the old daring, colt-breaking fun I -had not seen there since my return. - -"Jack," she said, laughing, "if I could only get you behind the barn to -split my skirts again; this side-saddle is too heavy." She was looking -me bravely in the eye, laughing as she said it. Then all at once I saw -all the make-believe go out of her face and her eyes fall before mine. - -Riding up softly she whispered, "Jack, do you remember the Story of -Atalanta?" - -I nodded. - -"If he doesn't beat me this mile, and over that high jump he shall never -have me, I have told him so." - -There are little things even in big events that count more than the big -things themselves. I sat utterly wretched. I heard her calling her -horse pet names, and saw her rubbing his neck with her whip. I saw the -old daring nervousness that showed in the very shoulders of her, the -keen, fine play of her eyes, and the white lines that lay like a rim of -moonlight around the red of her lips. The next five minutes were spent -by the starter telling of the record of Goff's horse. - -They lined up ready for the word. It was I who gave it. Instantly from -Eloise, even in the thunder of the great leap of her horse I saw two -fingers fly to her lips in a kiss to me in her old daring, fun-loving -way. "Go!" I had cried. - -"But I am coming back, Jack. Good-by." - -The Colonel's horse, trained as he was, strode easily ahead of the -noisy, awkward bunch. I saw Eloise turn Satan loose, and in an instant -he had collared the imported one. They went over the first hurdle like -a pair, the field behind Nestor and Satan running neck and neck. With -my glasses I could see that Goff was smiling in the delight of the race -she was giving him. They were not going fast--it was more of a -gallop--for the Colonel set the pace to suit the slower field of -amateurs behind him. They mounted the last hurdle together, and came -into the back stretch for the last quarter of the mile. The six-foot -gate sat in the middle of the track. The judges rose and stood with -their timers in their hands. I heard the grand stand hum and buzz with -expectancy. - -"Now, hold back!" shouted Goff to all as he turned his horse loose in -the stretch. "Give me the right of way!" - -He came the last quarter with great speed, and then I saw the grand -stand rise to its feet, and a wild roar followed, for Eloise had passed -him as a full-set yacht a tug, headed straight for the bars. I heard -Goff shouting to her; he had lost his head in the fear for her safety. -They rose for the leap, Eloise two lengths ahead. I saw Satan rise -high, true to his stride, high up--straight up, his great form -silhouetted against the sky, Eloise smiling, triumphantly, beautifully, -splendidly lifting him over. - -It was Goff's horse that did it. In the excitement his rider did not -hold him true; he wavered a moment, dodged faint-heartedly, ducked, -shied the perilous leap before him, and, bolting, struck the nigh post -of the movable gate, hurling it forward ten feet, full under the flanks -of Satan, who had cleared it. It caught him cruelly as he came down, -under the flanks, making him turn a summersault, hurling Eloise into the -fence. I heard the grand stand groan. - -It was I who held her lifeless form in my arms.... - -I remember but little of the tent and the surgeons. I heard someone -say, "_She'll die, her back is broken!_" - -A horse, riderless, had followed us to the tent's very door; he had -thrust his head in, whinnying. It broke my heart to feel his cold nose -against my cheek. It was then I led him away, so blinded by tears that -I did not see where we went. - - - - - *III* - - *THE HICKORY'S SON* - - - - *CHAPTER I* - - *"LOVE IS NOT LOVE THAT ALTERS WHEN IT ALTERATION FINDS"* - - -Three weeks after Eloise was injured and while her life was yet -despaired of by the physician, my Aunt Lucretia came to me. I was -sitting on the rustic bench beneath the hickories. Night after night I -had sat there, watching the light from her window, and the coming and -going of the physician and nurses. To-day there had been a -consultation. My Aunt had sent for a famous surgeon of Philadelphia, -and all afternoon he had been in the sick room. When I saw my Aunt I -knew that his decision had been reached, and though I sat still, -apparently calm, my heart was smothered within me. She said very -distinctly, "It's her spine, Jack, he says she will never walk again." - - -I found myself an hour afterwards taking the old path to the dairy. I -saw the light from Tammas's cottage shining far out into the night. I -was wandering around numbed, stunned. As I passed the paddock I heard -Satan whinny appealingly to me. From the little window in his stall he -had thrust out his great head. This was the horse we had all feared, -and had cruelly misnamed. The great vicious horse that had almost -killed the groom, that had only been conquered by one woman, had his -head on my shoulder and was whinnying softly. I knew that he was -begging for news of Eloise, and for sympathy; and, dumb as he was, he -knew that I would understand. - - -"She insists that she must see you to-night," said my Aunt Lucretia, -when I reached the house. - -She led me up the old, familiar stairs, and down the great hall to -Eloise's room. She stopped at the door. - -"You will find her very brave," said my Aunt, "very brave, and so must -you be," she added, giving me a quick look. - -Then she opened the door, and I stood looking at Eloise, with drawn, -tied lips, and a great choking in my throat, trying to return the smile -she was giving me from among her pillows. I stood still, I could not -move, my limbs seemed to have caught the dead numbness of my heart. - -"I want you right here by me a moment, Jack," she said calmly. "You'll -let him sit on the side of the bed, Miss Rose, just a moment. I'll not -exert myself." - -She was more beautiful than ever. Her brave body had lost none of its -suppleness and grace; her face shone, and over the pillow her hair was -massed in great red-gold waves against the white of the linen. - -"See," she said, taking my hand, "see, Jack, I can move my head and both -my arms. Isn't that fine? And the doctor says I shall always be able -to do that, and, well--" she smiled, "he says there is no reason why I -should not outlive all of you to be an old woman. A crippled old -woman--" - -I turned my head quickly. As she had spoken I saw again the brave, -beautiful creature, coming in head-long flight at the six-foot bar, and -the triumphant smile that lit her face, sky-lined forever in my memory, -as she lifted her horse almost straight up towards the sky. - -She was speaking now to the nurse. "If you please, just a moment Miss -Rose--Aunt Lucretia, I would like to speak to Jack alone. I shall not -exert myself." I heard them go out. "There! I have been thinking, -Jack, all these weeks--one can think so very much lying in bed, and see -so very, very far. I have been thinking and seeing, Jack. It's so easy -to think and so hard to see. But--but--I have prayed, too, about it--to -help me see. Praying is seeing's eyesight, Jack. I want you to promise -me something. It is what I have seen in my prayer--it is the last thing -I shall ever ask of you--for you have done me so many favors, dear -Jack." - -I could not speak. - -"The Earl--Colonel Goff--they let me see him to-day. It hurt me more -than my own hurt to see the poor man suffer so in the blame he puts upon -himself for the accident. He won't see, Jack,--he can't--that it was -God's way of settling it--God's way. For He alone knew how foolish I -was--how wicked to sell myself as I did--and how my heart, though I did -not know it till that day, Jack--has always been yours!" - -I took her in my arms, my face pressed against her cheek. - -She lay still, patting my face with her hand and saying: "I am--it -is--well, it seems also to be one of God's ways: - - 'We look before and after - And pine for what is not.'" - - -I heard her try to laugh in her old, brave way. She was looking again -into my eyes, and I sat holding her hand. - -"But Colonel Goff," she went on, "gentleman that he is, thinks he must -settle the account for his blundering ride, and begs me to marry him -anyway; I, a cripple for life. He forgets that God balanced it when he -stopped me from the sin of selling my heart for--for--his bauble-- - -"I have sent him away satisfied, Jack. I believe he would love me -truly," and she smiled, "now that he sees that I cannot ride. Love me -for myself and not for my riding; but I shall love only you, Jack, till -I die--the old crippled woman." - -She was silent for a moment. "And the compensation for my admitting -it--you know it is costing me something--you don't know how hard it is -for me to say it first, Jack; but the compensation I claim, will you -give it to your little lame girl? It is this, and now nod your head, -say '_yes_' Jack. I've seen--Elsie loves you, and you must--you must -marry the child. She is everything you want, and you half-way love her -already. It will be easy now, Jack, promise it; for your sake--for both -your sakes, I'm asking. Promise me, Jack, I want to see you happy." - -She had my hand against her cheek, fondling it. Her eyes had never -seemed so beautiful. - -[Illustration: "LOVE IS NOT LOVE THAT ALTERS."] - -"Do you remember the kind of love I said I had for you that first night -after I came home?" She pressed my hand against her cheek again. "And -the kind you said you'd never felt, but would give your life to feel?" -Again I felt the pressure. "That kind which I told you of, and which I -have had for you all the time, is that kind that Shakespeare told of -when he said: - - "'Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.' - - -"That's the kind I have for you, Eloise--have always had; and do you -remember the love you said you wanted, you'd give your life for, -yourself, your soul and your body. '_I, who wish it so, to be widowed -of it all my life_'--those were your words. How they cut into my -heart--that love, Eloise, can't you see? Don't you know that it is -yours and you are widowed of it no longer?" - -She put her arms around my neck and pulled my face down to hers, -smothering her mouth in my kisses. - -"Oh, Jack, why did you say it--see it? Why did you not let me fool -myself--fool you? Why--and--oh, if you had only not seen it--not let me -know you saw it! Love? Don't you know now that the kind I said I'd -have is as I said it was? Worth life--worth death--worth all--worth -all--then God help me, Jack, if I sin--God forgive me, but I'd rather -hold it to my heart a helpless cripple that I am--hold it never to -satisfy it--never to know what it means, helpless, bed-ridden cripple -that I am than to be the well, strong thing I was without it. Oh, Jack, -don't you know now what I mean?" - -She kissed me again and again, holding my cheek to hers. - -"Good-by, you'll not see me again, Jack, so good-by, Jack, forever. And -in time, though you'll never forget me nor cease to love me, you will do -as I said; for yours is youth and love and strength, and they must be -mated. When you can think of me without tears, without sorrow or pity, -but as one who has lived and is gone--only as the memory of a sweet -dream that might have been--then, dear, dear Jack, remember the last -request I made of you, remember to make Elsie happy; and in time--in -time, Jack, oh, what a love-maker he is! be happy yourself. Hold me a -moment, just a moment to your heart--then--kiss me again and say with me -the little prayer Aunt Lucretia used to make us say, holding hands in -the long ago." - -Holding her face against mine, and with clasped hands as of old, we -said: - - "Now I lay me down to sleep, - I pray the Lord my soul to keep; - If I should die before I wake, - I pray the Lord my soul to take." - - -Although the words of Eloise came to me again and again as I rode home -that night, I was never so happy, nor so hopeful. Yet she had said, -"Good-by, good-by, Jack, I shall never see you again." - -"I shall see her to-morrow night," my heart kept saying over and over. -"I will not give her up; I will marry her, if I have to carry her in my -arms through life!" - -But the next night when I rode over my grandfather met me at the door. -He greeted me with petulant indifference. Both Eloise and Aunt Lucretia -had left that morning--where, he did not know. She was a hopeless -cripple with a broken spine, and was carried away in a cot to some -institution where she might be cared for properly for the balance of her -life. I forgave the old man because he was old--the reiterated -statement that he had made allowance for her care himself, for although -she was no blood kin, and had no claim upon him, she had been with him -all her life, and was a ward of his daughter. - -I could learn nothing from the servants. Aunt Lucretia, Eloise, and the -nurse had gone. They had carried Eloise in a cot to the train and -boarded it. It was Thomas, the driver, who gave me Aunt Lucretia's -letter. She wrote, "I have thought it all over, Jack, and this is the -only thing to do. All of them are agreed, that she can never walk again. -To keep her at home will only make life a tragedy to you both. It is -best that you never see her again, nor she you. Sentiment is one thing, -and life another. Sometimes they go together, and it is well. But when -they cannot, when sentiment lives and that love of nature which -reproduces life is dead, it is folly to quibble, for the loss of being -is the loss of life. Be sensible, brave, and manly as you have always -been and forget Eloise. Changed conditions change one's life. You must -change yours. I have a request to make. I shall be at home in a month, -but I do not want you ever to mention Eloise to me, for I shall not tell -you where she is. This is hard, but I am doing it for your good, as I -have always done, my dear boy. When I return if she is alive you may -write to her, since she has begged me so, and this is the only one -happiness the poor child will have in her stunted life, and I will see -that she gets the letters, though she can never reply. It is best to -forget." - -The little note Eloise sent brought tears. It was a heart's-ease that -Aunt Lucretia had evidently gathered for her, and under it was written, -"_I am widowed of love but I am wedded. Forgive me, forget me, but love -me always, Jack, as I shall you--Eloise._" - - - - - *CHAPTER II* - - *A DREAM AND ITS ENDING* - - -In my grief at the going of Eloise I remember little of what I did in -the next few days. Then I received a note from Colonel Goff asking me -to ride over to The Manor, as both he and Elsie wanted to see me. - -On the way I stopped to see Tammas and Marget. In their worship of -Elsie I believe they thought only of her and her happiness. They had -certainly not understood about my relations with Eloise. Their -happiness was plain to be seen, the very laughter which at times broke -over their honest faces told me clearly their pride and happiness in the -turn affairs had taken with Elsie and me. - -But despite my efforts not to show what was crushing my heart, they -perceived that something was very seriously wrong with me. - -"Ay, Jackie, 'tis a hard time you have been having, my lad," said -Tammas, "and it's unreasonable to think the old General would turn you -out of home like this; but the final word in the book of every honest -man's life is the word good, and you'll not be losing out in the -end--na, na." - -"I think you are going now to see our lassie," said Marget, smiling -slyly, "and sure, Jackie, if ever man had recompense in the sweetness of -love 'tis you. Never have I seen anything sae near an angel of light in -spirit and sae beautiful in body, since she came up the hill to us that -evening with her doubts all gone; ay, it is Tammas and I who are as -happy as you, Jackie!" - -She sighed. "I dinna ken that it's a' gladness," she went on; "for the -Earl is preparing to leave soon for his estate in the auld country, and -he wants us to gang wi' him--of course--but--" and she looked at me -gravely as if seeking answer. - -But I only shook my head sadly. "I do not know, Marget--I do not know. -My plans--you see--Aunt Lucretia and Eloise--that awful accident!" - -Marget started to speak, but Tammas stopped her quickly, whispering to -her, "Wheest, wumman, dinna ye see, dinna ye understaun--she was as his -ain sister. It's that that's saddening him." And then he added louder, -"Eh, but it was a terrible thing--she that was sae young an' daring and -sae bonnie--to be an invalid a' her days--the bold beautiful thing that -loved life sae weel! An' it's a' but upset the Earl. I hae never kent -him to be sae troubled, for he was unco fond o' her, an' a grand -Countess she wad hae made him. An' to think it was his ain horse! The -puir man is nearly daft!" - -I was silent. I could not speak. For once the kindly talk of these two -good folks annoyed me. Marget saw this, and with a motherly tenderness -that touched me deeply, said, "Weel--weel, Jackie, dinna take it sae to -heart. When you go to her ain land an' see what you have won in oor -lassie, ye'll be sayin' with Rabbie Burns that 'tis the only place to -live and love in. But awa' ye gang," she said, giving me a gentle push; -"it's near supper time a' ready an' fine I ken that she an' the Earl are -wanting ye at The Manor. For three days she has come ower here, -wondering whit wey ye had na come; she kens aboot the accident an' is -sorrowfu', tae, but she's sae keen to see ye, Jackie, an' she'll be a -bit o' comfort till ye if ye will." - -Colonel Goff was already making preparations for his going. I found him -more quiet and serious than I had ever seen him. I understood that he -would give anything in the world to undo the accident, and that he now -found that he cared more for Eloise since she was lost to us than he had -himself known, and that, like me, he was in total ignorance as to where -Aunt Lucretia had taken her. - -"Jack, Jack!" he kept repeating as he walked the floor, "I can never -forgive myself! That beastly, beastly ride! To have loved horses as I -have all my life, to have done so much for them and their sport and to -have my pride in them all thrown away and the whole of my life changed -like that! ... There is Elsie--go with her, Jack--the child wants you!" -he added as he headed towards his stable. - -I pitied him, but I pitied myself more. For, looking at him, hearing -him talk, I saw that he did not know and would never know. God had not -made him to know as Eloise and I knew, not even as Elsie would know. In -spite of all that had passed before him, and all that he had seen, he -did not know that as he talked of Eloise it was I who was suffering -most. He did not even see remotely that it was I who loved her, not -he.... There are fish in the deep sea which carry their own electric -light.... There are others there which have not even eyes! ... - -Elsie was openly happy all the afternoon with me. Such dreams as she -had dreamt of our future! Such dreams as had come true even in her own -castle! - -I let her talk and plan for our future. I did not know what it all -meant, whither Fate was hurrying me. I could not see the end, but I -knew that the end would be well. For the real architect of our lives is -God. The very shadow of our doubt becomes pictures done in beauty. - -It takes shadows to make pictures. In the foreground of every shadow -already stands the picture from His hand. And as for the sorrows sent -of Him, they are not sorrows; rather are they crowns of Great Joy for -brows chosen of Martyrdom.... So I let her dream and love and plan, -knowing that whatever was coming to me would be good, that behind the -Wish of our own little dreams lay the larger Will of the Great -Dreamer.... - -In the afternoon I had slipped away to a place where two great maples -threw their shadows across the lawn. I was tired, and my heart was full -of conflicts. I wanted to think of Eloise. - -It was a quiet, sweet place. Then I heard Elsie coming, full of -happiness, to judge from the very tread of her feet on the grass. - -I was lying half propped against a tree. Looking up I saw she was -kneeling above me, her eyes laughing as she shyly peeped from behind the -trunk. There was a sofa pillow in her hands and she was trying to place -it under my head. "You must sleep, now," she said softly. "You are so -tired and hollow-cheeked, Jack, my bonnie Jack. I am going to begin to -learn now to take care of you. I will come to waken you in an hour, -then we are going to drive into town, father and you and me!" - -She lingered a moment slyly; then stooped to kiss my forehead and was -gone. - -I had not come to sleep, I had come to think of Eloise, to dream of her -once more. I took her note from my pocket; I kissed it and with tears I -read it. "_I was widowed of love but I am wedded. Forgive me, forget -me, but love me always, Jack, as I shall you,--Eloise._" How strange it -is, this joy-sorrow! There can be but one explanation of it: down the -endless chain of our ancestry so much sorrow has come that the taint of -it lies sweetly in the pedigree of our own breast. - -I kissed the withered heart's-ease. Later I must have fallen asleep... - -It was Colonel Goff who wakened me, coming on a run. - -"Quick, Jack!" he cried. - -I was up in an instant. He stood beside me panting, almost faint. He -held a little slip in his hand. His face was white, his lips drawn, but -a battle coolness that went like cold steel into my own soul was in his -voice. - -"Elsie, Jack! Stone's River bridge--you may save her yet! She is -drowning herself! Your horse, quick! I'll follow as best I can!" - -Instantly I understood. I glanced down. Eloise's note was gone. -Elsie's hat lay on the grass instead. - -Satan had been saddled for my ride to town and stood at the rack. In -two quick leaps I was by his side. The next minute I held the reins. - -"If you ever rode in your life," I heard her father saying behind me, -"if you ever rode in your life, Jack! You may save her yet--straight -down the pike to the bridge!" - -The horse seemed to know. He wheeled as the reins went over his head, -pivoted, as I'd seen him so often do, on two legs, for quickness, up -into the air, wheeling. - -I held a good clutch on the pommel and as I rose his own great bound -jerked me like a bolt into the saddle. I saw the old butler, -bare-headed, running to open the gate, and Colonel Goff panting, -helpless, crossing the grass. But even Satan knew we'd lose if we -waited. It was only a four-foot rock wall; it was play for him to clear -it. He landed squarely and already in a full run. - -The bridge was a mile away. It was made of iron and its sides were -protected by a railing. It was high where the pike reached it, spanning -a gorge cut through the hills. - -A rock fence ran along the pike up to the bridge on each side. There -the bluff was sheer twenty feet straight down to the river. Satan ran -like a tube of quick-silver down the long white pathway of the pike. As -we flashed up the slope leading to it, I caught just a glimpse of a -white gown going over the bridge from the middle railing. I had to -throw all my weight on his left rein to send him over the rock fence at -the foot of the bridge and I knew when he felt my heel go into his flank -and my pull that shot his great game head into the fence, that he -thought I was crazy, was sending us both to death! - -But he never faltered. It all depended on how he cleared that four-foot -fence and the twenty feet down to the river. I knew when he rose for -the leap that he expected firm ground on the other side. Would he balk, -falter and fail me when he saw? - -I drove my heel into him. I felt him quiver just a moment beneath me. -Then I held my breath. A white figure floated midway of the river -before me. Up went his head, the water only flashed beneath him twenty -full feet below. I watched the play of his ears for his thoughts. If -they fluttered, wavered, showed fright, I knew he would balk and quit. -For an instant I saw them flutter back and forth, little tell-tales of -surprise, then down they came angrily, glued to his neck as one grits -one's teeth in a crisis, and he shot over the wall, balanced squarely, -holding himself superbly, down! - -I clutched the pommel with both hands, locking my legs under his chest -as we struck the stinging, biting waters and went under. It seemed long -before we came up and I could see the white gown going down again. I -clutched it with one hand, drawing her head clear of the water against -my breast. I felt the horse moving easily beneath me. Would he see the -great bluffs and understand, or would he strike straight across for them -and drown us all, whirling round and round, trying to find a passway up -straight walls of rock? It all lay with him. It was correct instinct -now or death. - -I threw the reins over his head, crying, "_Go out--your way, Satan!_" - -It was his good sense that saved us, his instinct rather, that is -greater than sense. He lost no strength in useless floundering against -steep walls for a landing. He seemed to know instantly. I felt him -moving beneath me down stream while I held Elsie safe. Two, three, four -hundred feet he swam, the great game chap, till we passed the bluff; -then he floundered up and out on the bank like a great dog, shaking -himself. - - - - - *CHAPTER III* - - *THE AWAKENING* - - -It was Colonel Goff who met me at the door of The Manor when I called -the next night. Marget and Tammas were both there, silent, and with -awed, sorrowful faces. Two doctors were in the house, for Elsie's life -and mind lay in the balance, and it seemed that a straw would turn them -either way. - -It was Marget who spoke first. "Ay, Jackie--Jackie--'tis as I hinted to -you, lad," said she, "it was in the blood of the Carfaxes, and but for -your ride and leap, lad, our lassie had done what two of her grandames, -two of the ladies of Carfax, did before her." - -Tammas, tears standing in his eyes, could only hold my hand. - -Colonel Goff led me into the library. For a while he was silent, his -stolid face expressionless. Then he said very quietly, "Jack, the -chances are all against her, one way or the other; it looks as if my -little lassie is doomed to go the way of her house. If she survives the -shock I am afraid her mind will not; that is what is hinging now, that -is why we have sent for you again. It is only a chance--one chance in -ten--but the doctors thought--as the shock that unminded her came -through you, that you might--" - -I nodded. "I understand. I would give my life for her." - -He pressed my hand, his voice choking. "You proved that, my boy, you -proved that. How you escaped, how that horse ever cleared that fence -and cliff-- - -"Jack," he went on, turning impulsively, "I am a blunt man, plain and -not farseeing in things like all of these, that have come to me so swift -and fast. I don't mean these accidents--I'm used to them--life and the -whole little game of it is all a blind chance. I have taken mine all my -life--and--and--well, they've always been against me, Jack--always, even -now. I've lost--always--even as I shall lose now--Elsie. The great -hand of Fate that flings the dice for us has always thrown them loaded -for me--Jack." - -He was silent. I thought of God and the Butterfly. I pitied him, -seeing nothing as he did. - -"No, I am not farseeing--not farseeing--in things like the other side of -all this--not the blind chance side which has always been mine--but the -side you make yourself, someway, somehow, like this." - -He drew a blurred and crumpled note from his pocket. It was Eloise's. -I had seen it last when, holding it to my breast, I had fallen asleep -that afternoon under the trees. - -"This kind of a little thing, Jack," he said, handing me the little -relic. "I am a blundering fool--and I have to tell you so--to tell you -what an unseeing fool I have been. I see it all now--and yet I'd never -have seen. I found this clutched in Elsie's hand. This was her -shock--this was my folly--my unseeing folly. No, no," he cried quickly, -seeing I was about to say something. "No, no, Jack, I see it all--don't -say a word. You've been a man all through it--a white man, Jack. I am -not talking to put you on trial. I'm passing judgment on myself for -your sake, my boy; that you may understand what a selfish, unseeing fool -I have been. - -"Well, it's down to this--it's all past--let it go," he added. "But -Elsie--she is of the living present. You must help me, help me a little -yet awhile Jack--till--till the crisis is past." - -I pressed his hand silently. "Thank you," he said simply, "and now just -a word of explanation. This trouble of hers runs in the blood of the -Carfaxes. My grandmother, my own sister, went this way. They are keyed -high, and if a shock like this comes, it's death or an unbalancing. -When she read that," he said, "which unseeing one that I have been, was -all my fault, when she read it, Jack, she lost her reason, she was -temporarily insane when she made that leap. She is conscious now and -stronger; but still she remembers nothing up to that mental shock, the -shock of that note, that showed her all, and--oh well, I'm only a blunt -kind of a man--I can't tell it--you alone could do that. But it's this -now, Jack, you go in and talk to her. You stay with her--till we get -her right--and we've a chance to yet--Jack, until we get her right--just -let her believe--believe-- Oh, you know, Jack!" - -The tears were in his eyes as he led me into Elsie's room. - -Tammas and Marget were by the bed. Elsie lay amid her pillows, a -strange startled look in her eyes. - -"You and the old people, Jack," whispered the doctor, rising and taking -Goff by the arm, "you all just talk to her, get her back to the dairy -and the old ways again, if you can. If she can be quieted and her mind -bridged over the shock, she'll be all right again. And to-night will -tell," he added quietly, "so be very calm. I have given her all the -morphine she'll stand, tried everything, but if she can't be made to -sleep she'll lose her mind and if she doesn't sleep to-night her mind is -doomed." - -I was not certain, but I had always suspected that I possessed the power -of suggestion. I had felt it in dealing with dumb animals and weaker -people. - -I sat by her, talking to her in the old way. "It is Jack, Elsie," I -said, "your own Jack. We've met in our old trysting place. We are under -our old trees, and Tammas and Marget are here and you are tired and are -going to sleep while your head is on my lap. I'll watch you -sleep--sleep now," I said softly, stroking her forehead. - -There was a deep sigh, then the frightened wild look died out of her -eyes and with a smile like her old one she slept. - -The doctor beckoned me. "That's good," he said in the hallway. "Just -let the nurse and Marget stay with her, let her sleep all night if she -will." - -"But I will have to waken her," I said. - -He smiled. "Oh no; she'll waken herself." - -"I'll stay here all night, Colonel Goff," I assured her father. - -"Thank you, Jack," he said, his face brightening for the first time. -"Of course you will stay with her." - -"The crisis will come with her awakening," said the doctor. "She will -awaken sound of mind and at death's door, or she will awaken to live, -her mind gone. It is all in her sleeping, and to-night will decide it. -I will retire, waken me if I am needed." - -All night Colonel Goff and I sat up. Every little while we went into -her room to see Elsie sleeping, Marget by her side, the nurse asleep on -the cot. - -Twice the doctor came in. "Her pulse and temperature are normal," he -would say. "That's good. Let her sleep." - -But Colonel Goff and I could not sleep. All night he smoked, talked and -walked the floor. He told me his life's story, and in the hopefulness -of Elsie's sleeping he seemed to have taken a new hold of things. "If -the hand that has flung the loaded dice for me all my life will only -give me one clean deal now," he cried, as he paced the floor with his -steady military stride. - -"It will," I said, "Colonel Goff. It gives a clean deal to a clean -heart always, and yours is a different heart now. I see it; you are a -different man now. Now, I would give my very life for you and my poor -little Elsie." - -There was deep emotion in the man before me, his eyes were moist. -"Great God, Jack, do you mean that, man? Do you know you have said it? -It is even so--I see it--have seen it all night--wondering, how-- - -"God help me," he went on, "and save Elsie as He has saved me--from -myself--through it all. I see it now--through all my life--my own fool -will, my obstinacy, madness, sin--unseeingness: brought me through it -all, back to my own, my family name, my earldom--my own--Great God, -think of it--what has been done to unseeing, uncaring me! How much I -have received--how little I have earned!" - -I left him a strong man pacing the floor, his face aglow with a new -life. - -Elsie had slept twelve hours. - -"We can't awaken her," said the doctor as I went in after a short sleep. -"I suspect you possess unconsciously hypnotic power, Jack. It all looks -like it. You must awaken her if you can. I don't wish to use heroic -means." - -"If I have," I said, "I am not aware of it. But let me talk to her. And -if you please I would rather only Marget stayed." - -"Surely," he said nodding. "If she wakens we want no one with her but -you. And you'll just keep her thinking she's at her old place by the -dairy." - -I sat down by her, taking her hand in the old way. She was smiling in -her sleep. Then I said laughingly in her ear, slapping her cheek with -the back of my hand, "Wake up, little Heart's Ease; we are going to the -spring. It's Jack. I will not go unless you go with me, to gather the -Bluebells of Scotland on the hills--come--wake up!" - -Instantly she sat up, her blue eyes resting calmly on me. - -"Jack," she said, putting her arms about my neck, "I had wondered--I -have worried because--for so long a time I seem not to be able to -remember--where you were." - -I laughed. "Nonsense; you have only dreamed a bad dream last night," -said I. - -Marget was bustling around the room pretending to clean up. Her voice -choked so that she could scarcely speak and yet she said bravely, -"Surely, Elsie. It is as Mr. Jack says. You've been sick a little and -had bad dreams." - -Elsie clung to me sobbing. "Jack, my bonny Jack," she said, "it's good -of you, but I am all right now; I am strong again, so much stronger than -you would ever believe." - -"You must not let yourself think of anything unpleasant," I said -quietly, "for my sake now, Elsie, and daddy's." - -"I couldn't, Jack," she said with all her old frank candor, "with you -here. It all came because I thought you were gone. Call Daddy in," she -said firmly, "I want to talk to you all." - -Colonel Goff was already in the room, the smile on his face telling of -his great joy. He knelt by the bedside, kissing her. He was laughing -boyishly. "Bless me, but my Lady Elsie is feeling fine, isn't she?" -said he. - -Elsie nodded happily. - -"And you and I have been so blind, Daddy," she said, laying her hand on -mine. "So blind, both of us. Now, you know what we are going to do? I -am going to be very strong and well in a few days and then we are all -going to our English home, you and me, Marget and Tammas, and we are -going to find Eloise. Find her, Daddy, and make her well--for Jack--if -it takes half of all that earldom of yours." - -Colonel Goff kissed her again and again, and reaching out, gripped my -hand. "Thank God, Jack! Elsie," he added, "you're not to talk now, but -sleep again. I'll do as you say." - -"Now look here," she said in her old teasing way, "don't you for a -moment--don't you try any funny things on me. I'm as well as any of -you, and I'm going to get up, right soon. And I don't want ever to hear -of that dream I had again," she said, raising a commanding little finger -at us. - -"We have both been very foolish, Daddy, you and me," she went on, -"foolish and unseeing; but now we're both going to be very sensible and -brave, so you'll all go out but Marget, and Mr. Jack." She turned to -me, her eyes smiling in the old way, "You'll kiss me good-by now till -you come to see us at Carfax Hall--you and--and--" She clasped my neck, -kissing me quickly, "Good-by, my bonny, bonny Prince! I'll bring her -back to you, see if I don't!" - - - - - *CHAPTER IV* - - *THE CALL OF THE DRUM* - - -The Tennessee troops were to make a last parade before leaving for the -war in the Philippines. - -All the night before they left a strange, weird feeling had been upon -me. For hours I could not sleep, and when I did it seemed as if I were -going down a dimly remembered path, hearing a far-off call in far-away -mountains, the battle cry of my ancient Aryan people rallying against -the Mongrel and the Mongol. Then I awoke with the fire of battle in my -heart and the hot sweat of the conflict beaded over my face, to call it -a dream. But it was no dream. There are dreams, and there is that which -is more than dreams. There is the spirit's walk into wayside lands. - -I rose and dressed. I went out for calmness among my trees. They had -been my friends, my thousand-voiced leaf-whispering friends. But in -this strange feeling, this fighting mood which, despite all my efforts, -had overwhelmed me, I cared for them no longer. And they scorned me. -Not one leaf whispered to me. I had not one friend among them. They -were no longer my brothers in green. They were merely trees. My soul -had been torn up to its very roots by the Hand that had planted it and -told to grow into another soul or die! - -Everything I had held to in life had reversed itself on me. Every -star-enthroned truth which I had worshipped had fallen to earth, a clay -idol to mock me with its grinning lying lips of dirt! I had been turned -out from my home unjustly; the love of my very life was gone, dead, -perhaps; and Elsie-- - -Nothing since the tragedy that had fallen to Eloise had cut into my soul -like that nightmare leap over a rock wall into cold air and the stinging -whirl of yellow water and the glory of her courage and unselfishness as -she had said, "I'll bring her back to you, Jack--see if I don't!" - -And there had been the good-by of Tammas and Marget. Tammas could not -speak, he could only hold my hand with tears in his eyes. But Marget -spoke, kissing me for the first and last time. "Ay, but our Jackie, -good-by, 'tis God that stirs up the nest of His eagles. An' so God bide -ye, lad. God bless and God guide ye--for 'tis God that leads ye, -Jackie!" - -At the cabin Dr. Gottlieb had tried to explain to me the great book he -was writing, which was called "The Effect of the Insect Pollen-Gatherers -on Flower Life." - -But I would have none of it. I could not listen. I slipped out, knowing -he could read it all night to the big arm chair I had sat in, and not -know it was empty. - -The drum was calling to me--I who had been for peace, for trees, for -love, for poems, I knew I must now fight or my soul would die within me, -die like a Chinese foot in its wooden shoe. - -I saddled Satan and rode over to the Hermitage. Was it this horse, this -brave-souled, unafraid brute that had sent the fighting spirit into me, -since my first touch of him? For on him I felt that I could ride over a -regiment. I walked alone in the moonlight over the grounds of the -Hermitage. - -How bulwarked, restful and yet martial-walled was the old brick mansion! -And down the long avenues of cedars which ran from the gate to the home, -I met the fighting ghosts of my ancestors. - -Was it a dream or not? But what is the difference, since they are the -same. What is the difference? - -If a child comes into your home, smiling, from out the sunshine, is it -any more your child than the one which enters from out the still, dead -night, motherless and homeless, a fantastic waif, but your very own? - -I had walked through the old-fashioned garden, rose bordered and lined -with hollyhocks and rare old pinks that Aunt Rachel loved. And I had -stood bareheaded before the tomb of the old warrior and his bride. I -had gone across the meadow to the log cabin they had loved best of -all.... - -Then, very plainly I saw the great fireplace light up with the blaze of -hickory logs, and the shadows come and go across the smoked rafters -above. And before that fire sat the slim, grim, sword-faced fighter and -lover, with a child on one knee and a lamb on the other, even as old -Parton had told it. - -He turned, smiled, and reaching, took his sword from the wall behind him -and, beckoning to me, pointed to the west.... - -I rushed toward him. The solid door met me, knocking me to my knees on -the grass. I arose stunned, but thrilled. My doubts had gone, the -spirit of Andrew Jackson pointed me the way. On the grass I knelt for a -moment before that hut which is a shrine. _A lamb and a child and the -sword of the Lord and of Gideon: I thank thee, Lord; for it takes them -all to make a man!_ ... I had not slept but had ridden into town to see -the Tennessee troops go by in their last parade. - -They came by in battalions, the old battle flag of Jackson at their -head, and beside it rode old Hawthorne, sitting his horse as gallantly -as when in younger days he rode with Forrest and Morgan. - -He saw me, smiled, and saluted. - -I watched Braxton Bragg go by at the head of his company, and I saw him -look covetously at the beautiful horse I rode. - -Following an old custom, a fife and drum corps followed. I heard them -coming and my blood leaped fiercely as they marched by, playing "_The -Girl I Left Behind Me_." - -It was their last call for enlistment, and as they passed I stepped in -behind the big drum, throwing my silver dollar into its head. - -So I enlisted for the war. - -The old drummer smiled and nodded, the crowd cheered--I looked up--Old -Hawthorne had ridden back and sat his horse smiling down on me. "God -bless you, Jack, Jack!" he cried. "Do you know that I rode back to see -you do it? I knew you would do it--'tis the call of the drum--the blood -of the men of your tribe who could both pray and fight! Come, you shall -be on my staff. Captain Jack Ballington from the home of Old Hickory." - -I smiled. "General, you are good to me, too good. But let me prove my -own worth, if there is any in me. No soldier was ever made except by -merit. Give me a chance to make myself. I am going to the war and I am -going with you. But under two conditions: that this horse I am riding -goes with us, is yours. This is Eloise's," I added softly, "and I loved -her. 'Tis the only horse in Tennessee fit to carry our General. She -gave him to me. I give him to you." - -He was silent; he understood. - -"And the other is that you give me a rifle in the ranks." ... - -After I had enlisted I wanted to see the homestead again, the hickories -that Eloise and I had loved, and to bid my old grandsire farewell. - -He was sitting under his favorite elm tree smoking when I rode up. I -did not see who was with him until I had dismounted and stood before -him, hat off, holding my horse's reins. - -Then I saw that it was Braxton Bragg who was talking excitedly and -loudly; and I knew that he had been drinking. He did not speak to me -nor see me. The old man did not know me in the gathering darkness. - -"I am Jack, Grandfather, Jack Ballington. And I have come to bid you -good-by." - -"Ah, Jack--Jack--" he repeated--"and you are my grandson--ha-ha. I'd -about forgotten it. And you have come to tell me good-by--why I thought -you had gone, somewhere--ha-ha." - -I heard a short laugh from Braxton Bragg. I saw the sneering smile that -was unconcealed in his face. I turned on him with fighting anger, cut -to the heart. And then I remembered the first lesson of every soldier -is to command himself. Very calmly I said, "I have not gone far, sir; -only to Dr. Gottlieb's; but to-morrow I am going to the war. I have -enlisted with the First Tennessee, and I felt that it was my duty, sir, -to call and tell you good-by." - -Instantly he was on his feet, holding to a crutch he now carried. - -"Going to the war! Enlisted with the First Tennessee? By God, sir, do -you really mean that?" - -"I am, sir," I said. - -He pulled me to him and clasped me. "Jack, Jack, my boy!" - -He turned to Braxton Bragg. "Braxton, now by God, sir, this boy is -indeed my grandson; the lost has been found, the prodigal has returned! -I knew the old Rutherford blood would redeem him yet!" - -He laughed happily, still holding me to him. "Braxton, take him by the -hand, for 'by the Eternal,' as Old Hickory would say, he is the same -blood kin as you, and I am going to give him the same chance! Hey -there, Thomas! Oh, Thomas!" he called to his old body servant. "Bring -me a light, and paper and pencil! I'll drop a line to Hawthorne--to put -you on his staff as Captain. And my check book, Thomas! By God, -sir--Jack--my grandson, Jack, I'll give you a little ready money, only a -thousand dollars to see that you go like a soldier and a -Rutherford--ha-ha--damn him, I knew he'd do it!" - -"I'm going as a private, Grandfather; General Hawthorne has already -offered me the rank you suggest--but--" - -"You damned mooning fool, you shall not do it!" he cried. "No -Rutherford ever went to any war a private. Tut--tut--I'll fix that. -You are now my grandson, Jack." - -His voice fell. He spoke through tears. "Your mother, Jack--Emily--ay, -my boy--I can see her now with her sweet dreamy eyes of poetry, the -finely chiseled half sad face of religion, the heart of romance and of -sorrow. I loved her best of them all--Jack--and you are her son--my -grandson." - -"Grandfather," I said, "I thank you, and I shall try to be worthy of you -and of my mother and my father who died a gentleman. But I shall ask -only for this horse, for our General to ride, and that he shall be near -me, for I promised Eloise I would always care for him. She gave him to -me," I added. - -Instantly Braxton Bragg was on his feet. - -"Eloise never owned him. Why, it's what I have come by for, -Grandfather. What you had just promised me I could have when he rode -up." He came up to me, catching at the reins. "No sir, you shall never -ride him off this place, he is mine." - -My grandfather rose and stood between us. "Sit down, Braxton Bragg," he -said angrily. "You've been drinking and you've not too much sense when -you are sober. Now, I had forgotten--I forget so much of late: come to -think of it, it was Eloise's horse, no one else could touch him, and the -way that girl could ride him--no--no--if she gave him to Jack he shall -have him." - -"He has lied," Braxton Bragg cried, pushing the old man angrily aside to -shoulder up to me. "He is lying. She didn't give him the horse--" - -My fist shut the rest of his words in his mouth. I felt the cut of his -teeth where my knuckles struck them as I sent him suddenly full length -on the ground. - -He tried to rise, drawing his Colt's. But my grandfather struck it from -his hand with his crutch, knocking the weapon across the road. - -Cursing he tried to rise, but I was on him, my knee on his breast, his -two arms pinned to the ground. - -[Illustration: I WAS ON HIM, MY KNEE ON HIS BREAST.] - -"Grandfather," I said, "I don't want to hurt him, but you heard him give -me the lie." - -"I did," said the old man grimly. "I did, and I waited to see if you -would strike. If you had not, I was going to knock you down with my -crutch! Mount your horse and go to war, Jack Ballington, my grandson; -for by the living God I know now I'll have a fighter in that war worthy -the name of Rutherford when this cur turns coward and quits!" - - - - - *CHAPTER V.* - - *THE FIRST TENNESSEE* - - -I do not know where you are, Eloise. I do not even know that you are -alive; but if you are, I have the promise of Aunt Lucretia that this -letter shall go to you; and Aunt Lucretia, you know, does not break her -promises. - -And if you be dead, Dear Heart, as I do deep in my mind fear, for I have -not heard from you, nor Aunt Lucretia since that June day was turned -into December in a night--that day when I went to the old familiar, -sweet places, to find no longer there her who had made them sweet--why, -what matters so much? For the passing of the soul of a dear one, when -we see that it is passed, is such a natural thing at last, such a little -change to make so great a transition! While they lived and life looked -full and wholesome, it all seemed so large, their life and ours. But -they go in a night, in a breath's draught. And then we see how small it -was: a little finger-width zone across the world of things. A little -too much heat, a little too much cold, a tiny vein broken, a severed -cord, and it is whiffed out. Even in the fullness of strength and brave -life a dash at bars on a great game horse.... - -Forgive me, dear one, if you be alive to read this; for I would not -remind you now of a time you were different. 'Tis God's way, and since -He has kept in my heart my love of you, and through your accident showed -me your love for me, have we not His two greatest gifts for our very -own? - -And as to that other world, do you know what instinct tells me it is? -That there we will have a hundred senses where we now have but five; and -there we shall see the Thought as well as the Thing: every thought, -every dream, every hope, every love, these we know not as words but as -beautiful beings whom we shall meet face to face. And its only law is -Balance, Compensation, Recompense, Poise; the Equation of the Universe. -We wonder here why there should be such things as sin and sorrow and -injustice. But there we shall know that sin is not sin, but the prism -which shows us goodness, that sorrow is not sorrow but the prism of -gladness, and that death, as we now know it, is not a stopping, but the -prism through which we see another light. Here, on our little earth, -with only our five small senses, we see only the prism. There we shall -see the rays. It is the difference between the star and its light. - -And if we hold the prism of sorrow here, Dear Heart, as I do now, shall -I not hold a handful of the joys which stream through it there? For -here 'tis a poem written, but there the meaning of it. Here 'tis the -sun rising, there the dawn. Here the giving of alms, there the joy of -the giving. Here it is the instrument that makes music, there the -music. Here 'tis only a picture, there the soul that made it. - -And if you be passed, Eloise, if you be passed, even yet will I keep -writing to you. For if letters be written with one's heart's blood, I -know, in my soul of souls, that our dead will read them. For though I -have lived but a little while according to the span of things, and less -according to the knowledge of things, yet the little span and the little -knowledge have made known to me the greatest of all truths: _that I do -not know_: that even with my little knowing I have seen things come to -pass which were more wonderful than those which I thought could ever be; -that we live on the borderland of a world wonderful, mysterious; that we -are clasping hands with eternity, and need only the language that will -yet come to spell out the touch for us. And so I shall write to you -even though you are dead, write to you, sweetheart, a love letter for -your heaven, knowing that not only will you read it, but that I, in the -writing, as in all giving, will at last be the one who will get. - -It is selfishness in me at last, Eloise, selfishness that I may hold -through life and forever this love of you in my heart, now that it has -only memory and not your own sweet self to live on. And no greater love -and more constant can there be than that which lives on memory. For the -living-love, being flesh, must change with the years. But memory-love, -being eternal, can never change. - -I am at Iloilo; and the gap is great since that long ago June, that June -of Tennessee blue grass and roses, and the old home and you, sweetheart. - - * * * * * - -There is little to tell of my leaving; of my quick decision to fight for -my country and for you, Eloise. For, cast from my father's house there -was nothing left but my country's, and losing the love of my kindred -there was only your own great love left me, yours and my country's. For -these I am fighting. But at the last--I know you will want to hear it -all--at the last our old grandsire seemed strangely touched, and the -memory of it has burned my heart, once strangely amid flying Filipino -bullets on the firing line, and once amid the thunders of the great -thirteen-inch guns from the Monadnoc. And right glad I believe he will -be when he learns, that though he called me a fool for refusing a soft -place as aide to dear old Hawthorne, and a greater fool because I -refused a commission which he himself could have got for me for the -asking, and took a musket in the ranks instead, that I have risen from a -private to the Captaincy of the crack company of the First Tennessee. -So say the Regulars of the Bloody Fourth that we backed to a fight to -the death against the Filipino trenches. So says old Hawthorne -himself--God's blessing on his old white head!--now commanding our -brigade, who led us in with the rebel yell in his throat! And riding -Satan, Dear Heart; cannot you see the picture, such a man on such a -horse! And you should have seen how Satan loves the firing line and how -he hates the smell of a Filipino and his pony! - - * * * * * - -But this story must be told straight even in a love letter to my unseen -love in an unknown land. - -When I left home I only took my father's sword and Satan. I took him -because of my love of you, and that old Hawthorne, our General, might -have a horse to ride into battle that should be worthy of his rider. -For if you have ever thought of it, sweetheart, you will know that no -great soldier ever owned a mean horse. - -I joined a company of the First Tennessee. In the company next to me was -Braxton Bragg, commanding it by the influence of our old grandsire. - -My first promotion came in San Francisco, where we camped for a month -before sailing for Manila, via Honolulu. Our Captain was a Tennessee -lawyer who knew little of the game. It was I who drilled the company, -my German work stood me in good stead, and we won on dress parade drill. -We were the best drilled company of the First Tennessee. Then our -Captain resigned to practice law in San Francisco, and I was made First -Lieutenant. - -We dropped anchor off the city of Manila, November 28. It was an -inspiring sight as we sailed into the Bay, to see the sunken Spanish -ships, and Dewey's flag ship with Old Glory flying, proclaiming -Republican Liberty for the first time to the waters of the great Far -East. - -Our first fight came early in February. We had lain outside of the -walled city on the Lunetta Driveway for nearly three months. We knew -that Aguinaldo, with eighty thousand men, armed with guns we had given -him, and those of the Spanish, was in our front, feeling his way. - -It was nine o'clock Saturday night, February 4th, when the attack began. -We heard shots from the enemy, then three in rapid succession from our -pickets. It meant help. The men, who had been grumbling for three -months for fear they would have to go back home without a scrap, sprang -like school boys to a playground. Then the front lit up with a crackle -of fire. Our rear was another sheet of it from the fleet in the bay, -firing over our heads. - -It was a hot fighting front, the First Colorado, Tenth Pennsylvania, -Thirteenth Minnesota, Fifty-First Iowa, and First North Dakota standing -the brunt. We chafed all night, standing in line down by the beach, -away in the rear, the very base of our half-circle battle line. All -night we stood hoping that we might go into it before it was over, our -blood stirred by the battle and roar in front, and the thunder behind. - -At breakfast Sunday morning we still stood in line, expectant, keyed to -a fiddle's string, eager. The cook passed our Sunday fare up the line, -chicken and hot coffee. How little things stick in excitement! Then we -saw a courier come out of the smoke and flame, and old Hawthorne rode -Satan to our front. - -"Boys," he said quietly, "they have asked us to take the Filipino -trenches, and we are going to take them. Attention, regiment! right -shoulder arms, fours right, march!" - -A Utah battery and the Nebraska boys supported us as we charged over San -Juan bridge under fire and across a rice field. - -We kept step to the _boom--boom--boom_--of the thirteen-inch shells -firing over us from the guns of the Monadnoc. Down the bloody lane we -charged, the bullets humming like hornets. - -"Listen, boys," said a man in my company, "listen how they hum!" - -An old sergeant of the Regulars passed us, going to the rear. He was -binding a handkerchief around his arm, from which the blood was -squirting. But he laughed and called to us, "Oh, don't worry about those -that you hear humming--them you hear won't hurt you!" - -Then the trenches grinned in our front, spitting fire. We prepared to -charge. Behind us were Regulars, and in the crisis of it all I saw -Braxton Bragg. I hate to write this of the blood of a Rutherford. My -shame, my sorrow was greater than his. His nerve had simply left him. -He had got down from the hissing bullets behind a sandhill. He had quit -before his own men. They did not shoot him, they did not have time; they -charged with me, backing my own company. It was a quick rush and soon -over. The Filipinos left their breakfast of rice in the trenches. But -we left some of our bravest there, too. - -But battered and tired as we were, the real fight was just on. In -sweeping the Filipinos out of their trenches we had hurled them to the -left on our own water-works that supplied the city and the army. If -these were held by the Filipinos and our supply cut off our fight would -be in vain. It is said that twenty thousand of them stood between our -water and our line. Luck again was with us. The First Tennessee -happened to be nearest to them and it was we who cut through, and only -four hundred, a battalion, at that. In a quick bloody charge we took -the works. Old Hawthorne and Satan led us as if on dress parade, a -target for twenty thousand Filipino rifles, and not a bullet touched -them. With cheers we followed the white hair of the old Confederate on -his black horse with the north star on his head. We were holding a -perilous place, for we were in the rear of the Filipino army, with our -backs against the water-tanks, and foes in front and rear. But we held -it for two days until help came. And the first battalion and third -battalion had equally as good a record when the fighting was over. - -A week afterwards old Hawthorne came to my tent. He was holding a -telegram from the Secretary of War. "Jack," he said, "I am a Major -General, and you are the Captain of Braxton Bragg's company. The boys -of it wired petitions and elected you. They said you led them twice to -victory. They want you to lead them always." - -Our hardest fight was at Iloilo last week. We took the city, but once -out of the water we had to fight down barricaded walls, hemmed in and -shot at from walls and house tops. For two hours we were busier than a -bull-terrier in a den of cats. They were the best fighters we struck. -They were officered, we learned, by the brave and brainy little Japs. - -At the Lapaz sugar mill they tried to cut off some of the Regulars. We -were nearest. It was merely our luck. Any other regiment would have -cut through the enemy to save their comrades. At Naglocan they made a -stand and there we finished them. - - * * * * * - -That was written a month ago. I will finish and let it all go together, -finding you if it can; and if not, well my heart has found yours -somewhere, sweetheart; in the writing my thoughts have met, somewhere, -yours. - -We stay and hold Iloilo, but General Hawthorne with a battalion of our -boys went a month ago to Cebu to help out the Twenty-third regiment of -Regulars who were hemmed up there in the mountains and fighting for -their lives. - -Would you like to hear how close I came to death yesterday, and not on -the firing line at that? It was a nasty close call I had and the horror -of it still twangs on my nerves. It is that, and not knowing what the -morrow may bring, that has brought me to the writing of this last love -letter should either of us pass into the shadow of things. - -On the nearby Island of Mindanao live the savage fanatics, the Moros. -These people have been a terror to the Spaniards and are the nightmare -of our own men. They are Mohammedans, and the fiercest, most -treacherous fighters of all the Philippine Islands. They cannot be -civilized, they cannot be conquered, they can only be killed. There is a -bloody tradition about them and the Spaniards; how, hemmed up for -slaughter, when their warriors have all fallen, the women have been -known to rush on the Spanish lines with their babes in their arms, and, -as the Spaniards would meet them with their bayonets, hurl their babes -onto the steel, blocking both it and the fire behind it, and cut down -the soldiers with the deadly _borangs_ of their dead husbands. Then -there with their babes on the bayonets they would die. - -Of these Moros, there is one the soldier dreads more than the firing -line of death, more than the panther that springs at night, or the -rattlesnake that strikes in the grass. It is the _Juramentado_. - -When one of the Moros is adjudged guilty of thieving, impurity or half a -hundred other crimes and sentenced to death he becomes a _Juramentado_. -Strange, mystic ceremonies are performed over him by the priest in the -black wood of the black night. Cruel tortures are inflicted; his head, -face, eyebrows, and mustache are shaved clean, his face painted, his -body left half naked. - -There is but one atonement for him. He must kill as many Christians as -he can before dying himself. Dying in the act he is transplanted to -Paradise. - -They are great sailors and are liable to run amuck and then float out to -distant places, to any place where they can find a Christian. -Stealthily they creep into a camp, or town, or church, or wherever there -is a gathering. Their keen _borang_ is sheathed between two bamboo -reeds; its blade is a razor, its weight that of lead. With a blow they -have cut heads clean from shoulders, or split a soldier from neck to -hip. - -At a word they will turn in a crowd and kill all those around them. The -Spaniards tell how five of these fanatics slipped up to a company of -their men peacefully, and then in sudden frenzy killed nineteen soldiers -before they could shoot them down. - -Our orders are strict concerning them: a soldier must never be out of -lines without his side arms. And so nameless a danger is in their very -name that it is the unwritten law of the camp to courtmartial any -soldier who cries out for a joke, _Juramentado_! - -I was visiting the camp of the Regulars and as I went through the gate a -file passed out for guard mounting. A _Juramentado_ had paddled over -from Mindanao, slipped in, and suddenly attacked a soldier of the -Eighteenth Regulars, as he was returning on a pony from some duty. The -first blow of the _borang_ took off the man's arm at the shoulder. -Clapping spurs to his pony he rushed for the main entrance just as I -passed out, with the file of soldiers behind me. In an instant the -frenzied, howling, painted thing was on us. - -I heard the officer in charge cry "fire," and a dozen Krags snarled -their smokeless call, sending twelve steel-jacketed bullets into the -charging demon whose painted face, and sharp black teeth were grinning -like a wolf in my very face, and whose _borang_ was at my throat. - -The bugler got him with his Colt's 45. Twelve steel bullets had cut -twelve clean pin-point holes through him, and not one had stopped him, -not being in the brain. - -The Krag is a failure. It shoots too clean and hard to kill quick. -That old time Colt 45 saved my life. I saw the dead snarling thing all -night. When I waked his black painted teeth grinned in my face. I was -never un-nerved before. - -And so I am writing you, Dear Heart, for I realize now how near to death -I have been, how nearer I may yet be. And maybe another thing makes me -write to-night. It is such a story as Clarke, our First Lieutenant, has -brought back to me to-night. It has set me to dreaming, and made the -camp and men and guns sleeping under the mango trees seem like ghosts -from another land. Like ghosts, Dear Heart, for in the dream which is -always more real than the real, it is you and Old Tennessee that I see -to-night, not slumbering guns under mango trees, nor tropical mountain -tops, smoking mistily to the moonlighted skies, nor the palm trees, -sentineling the ghostly beach. - -Clarke has filled my thoughts to overflowing to-night. So I have left -him and the sleeping camp. And I lie alone on the beach looking across -the ocean toward home. - -He told of a girl in Cebu, where our main hospital is, one of the Red -Cross nurses from the States. She came over a month ago. Clarke has -talked of her till I can see only you. If I did not know you were ill -I'd swear it could be only you, peerless, bravest, gamest, most -beautiful woman that ever was. She is a trained nurse, but she rode -with old Hawthorne, rode Satan, too, to the relief of the Twenty-third -Regulars. - -Who could have done what she did but you and Satan, clear a ten-foot -fissure of a yawning volcanic abyss, outfooting the Filipino ponies when -they thought they had cut her off? And her shooting! Again I saw the -brown stubble of Tennessee wheatfields, the blue hills circling the sky -line, the flush and whir and the crack of the sweet little twenty gauge! -If you are not dead or in the hospital it was you--the only one in all -the world--there can be no other! - -But I shall not see her, for we leave for the States in the fall. They -are sending other boys to relieve us, others who want to serve their -country. - -I shall go home then to my work. I shall take up the life I left, the -life of labor and of love, of love, Dear Heart, love of all loves, love -of a Memory. And now good-night and for my pen, good-by, Eloise! ... - - - - - *CHAPTER VI* - - *THE BATTLE IN THE BACAUE MOUNTAINS* - - -I wrote you last from Iloilo, but no word has come back to me. And -toward the late fall, our term of service having expired, and so many -others crowding for a chance to serve, we were mustered out and ordered -home. The big transport Indiana stood by for our home-taking. - -It was good news for the boys, but sad for me. They were going home to -wife or sweetheart, but I had no home. - -There is one great thing about war, the steel it puts into the heart to -stand things, to die smiling and unafraid, to take life as a battle, and -fight it out on the firing line. There are many living, but few on the -firing line of life. They think they are soldiers, but they are -sutlers. - -In a short time we sighted Cebu. Our General, Hawthorne, and a -battalion of us were there, as I wrote you before, sent to help out the -Regulars. We were ordered to pick up this battalion; it completed what -was left of the First Tennessee, for some would sleep forever under -far-off Pacific skies. - -Cebu is a little city on the island of the same name in the center tier -of the Archipelago. Bitter and desperate are the inhabitants and savage -in the extreme, and to take the place has cost us a hard battle; and to -hold it almost cost the life of the Twenty-third, for they had been cut -off in the mountains and all but lost when Hawthorne came to their aid, -three months before. - -It is a long narrow island with a backbone of volcanic mountains, in the -recesses of which live a race of savage fighters who do not quibble to -rush, half naked, and with bolos and spears, upon lines of steel and -Gatlings. - -Their mountain fastnesses are all but impregnable. The volcanic -mountains run sheer up straight and the level plateaus yawn with the -most dangerous and sudden chasms. - -Here were the forts and fortifications of the savage Insurgents, and -here they had again threatened portions of the Sixth, Nineteenth and -Twenty-third Regulars under General Snyder. - -It was night when we heard it; we had anchored and prepared to take -General Hawthorne and our boys on the homeward journey. - -Then like a bolt came the news: portions of the Nineteenth Regulars were -surrounded and cut off in the mountains by ten thousand yellow savages. -They were doomed. - -And Hawthorne and his battalion, instead of being on the beach to embark -for home, had already gone back to the mountains to fight. - -I drew up our men in line of dress parade on the Indiana's decks. -"Men," I said, "we have been mustered out! We are no longer soldiers -but citizens of the Republic, homeward bound, with all it means to every -man of you who has done his duty as you all have. No man of you may be -ordered to go one step from this transport's deck till you reach your -own land. But news has come that the enemy has attacked and cut off our -comrades. Our General and a small battalion have already gone to their -aid. I ask no man to follow me. I am going, and every man who would go -with me take two steps forward." - -The First Tennessee to a man moved two steps forward on the deck. - -At daybreak we were off for the mountains eight miles away. All -forenoon we marched under the hot sun, passed mango trees and squalid -huts over ashes of dead volcanoes. We established headquarters on -Elpado Mountain across the Labanyon Valley. Along the low mountains in -our front ran the forts of the Filipinos, a rude fringe to the crest of -the hills. - -A detachment of the Sixth and Nineteenth Regulars had been over-daring. -They had got in behind the enemy, and being a new regiment sent to -relieve us, they had not known the true situation. They were surrounded -in front and rear. It was for us to cut through to them. - -They are peculiar little mountains. Volcanic in origin they have been -shaken by earthquakes until often their sides are precipices; on top -there are narrow plateaus, and along their whole length bristle the -savage fortifications. - -There we found old Hawthorne waiting for us. He knew we would come! - -At his word we began the ascent. It was a hand over hand climb, from -rock to rock, from scrub to scrub, with a spear or a bolo at any time -from above or behind any rock. And at unlooked for intervals would come -avalanches of rock and volcanic stones, rolled down by the savages -above. - -It was five hundred feet up, but it took us all the afternoon to reach -the first plateau, and half the night to derrick our cannon up with rope -and pulley. The tired men had had no sleep for eighteen hours and at -daylight they must fight. We camped within three hundred and fifty yards -of their fortifications, with all lights out. We made the assault at -daylight. - -Our guns knocked their forts down around their ears and when we charged -they went over the other ridge to the last line of what was left of the -forts. - -At the bloodiest angle of it when I came back to report to the General -our burying squad was already busy: - -"This," said a tough old sergeant to me as he pointed to their dead -piled up, "is a cordwood of good Filipinos." - -Such are the genialities of war. - -Our fiercest fighting was before us. Hand over hand and holding to -trees we went up to the next fort in an avalanche of stones, arrows, -bolos, and spears. - -We fought from rock to rock. Often a Krag or a Colt would speak -straight up, and a dead Filipino would come vaulting down to our feet. - -Again came the derricking of guns. Then we went through a deep aisle -where only one man could rush in at a time, with Filipino sharp-shooters -above us. But our last fight cut them from our front and we reached the -Regulars. They had held their place and escaped death only because they -had lain for two days in an old fissure with empty shells beside it and -canteens as dry as the old volcano. But weak as they were they charged -with us after the Filipinos, scattering them like mountain goats over -the hills. - -There was a tropic moon that tropic night. The Mango trees circled the -farther mountain sides and the bamboos stood in groups in the valley -below. The kingly palms towered high over all. The weird tropic night -sounds were borne to us on the breeze. The tired battle line of my -brave boys lolled by camp fires in one long line of sentinel light with -the last wrecked forts of the beaten enemy at their backs. The field -guns, rapid of fire, poked their long blue noses out into the night. -"Still smellin' for the varmints loike blood houns for nagurs," said -Moriarty, our fighting Irishman, and the wit of the regiment. - -Then he would walk over and pet the blue steel beauties, for they were -his. Moriarty it was who had brought them over mountain side and -_crevasses_ where no man dreamed they could go. - -"An' it's aisy it is," he would laugh and say when I praised him to his -face. "It's aisy, Cap'n; I've done nothin' but pet 'em, an' so they -jus' foller me loike dogs." - -Half a mile out a line of pickets faced the way the beaten enemy had -fled. Our fighting was over. Cebu's island would no longer be troubled -with Insurgents. And the next day would be the Indiana and home! - -Our General had thrown off his sword belt and come over to my camp, and -together we had smoked and talked of home and the war, of everything but -you, sweetheart. But when he left he smiled and said a puzzling thing -to me. "I've a surprise for you to-morrow, at Cebu, Jack, that will -knock the war and even the homegoing out of your head." - -Then he twisted his gray mustache and smiled delightedly. Had the old -man, as we all loved to call him, received word of another promotion for -me, I wondered. For myself I wanted no more war. I wanted only you, -Eloise, somewhere, somehow, living; or the memory of you amid my own -Tennessee trees. - -"General," I said, "there are worthier men here than I for any promotion -you may have. I will go back to my land and my work; but if you could -arrange for Moriarty here--" I added, pointing to the game little -Irishman. - -"Oh, Pat's fixed already," he answered. "He has brought these guns over -hills, through fissures, and the walls of hell. He'll be First -Lieutenant in the regular army as soon as I can wire this day's work to -the President. But you, Jack,--" - -I pressed his hand. "General, dear General, believe me, I want nothing -more, nothing but a chance to work and make a home in Tennessee." - -I was serious almost to that old gripping in the throat. But he laughed -and pressed my hand. - -"To-morrow, Jack, to-morrow! You are tired now; I want you to sleep. -You have earned your reward this day, my boy, and it shall be yours -to-morrow, a promotion that you will love." - -I followed him to his own tent door. A black horse stood haltered near -by, saddled as he had been for two days and nights. - -I took the General's whistle, the one I had used to train Satan to my -call in the old days, and which on the firing line the General himself -used in calls for his aides and orderlies. I blew softly the three -blasts I had taught him to know in the forest. He had not seen me for -months. He did not know I was there; but his head went up quickly with -the old devil fire in his eyes. The next minute he had thrown his great -weight back on the halter, snapping it. - -His head was on my shoulder, and he was whinnying. - -The General laughed. "It beats the world, Jack, that horse's love for -you. Take him to your own tent to-night, he'll rage like a hyena around -here all night, now that he knows you are here." - -It was true. But tethered at my own camp he was quiet. The confusion -had been so great and my men were so scattered that when I came back I -ordered Moriarty to call the roll before taps. He came back quickly with -word that Ross and Billings of our company were absent. I was -surprised. Investigation among the men, tired and half asleep, showed -that they had not stopped when we took the last fort, but had been swept -on with a squad of the Regulars after the flying Filipinos, carried away -with the excitement of it. - -I went quickly to the bivouac of the Regulars. They remembered the two -men, but thought they had returned, as they went off toward the right of -the little village Colena, two miles in our front and through which the -enemy had fled. - -"If they aren't here now," said an old sergeant, "no use to look for 'em -again; when we come back through that village, there wasn't a sound, not -a kid, nor a chicken, nor a coon, nor a dog; and when you don't hear -nothin' in a Filipino village, when you go through, look out for hell -when you come back." - -I looked at my watch. It had been full three hours since the Regulars -had returned. - -"I am going after them," I said, turning to go. - -"Ballington," it was the swarthy old Captain, of the Nineteenth who -spoke, "you'd be a fool to risk it." He pointed silently to a faint -glow across the valley on the side of the mountain beyond. I had -thought it was a rising star. "Yonder," he said, "see that other one on -the mountain top, that's the signal fire of the little yellow hyenas, -that means guerrilla bands in them mountains, they go in packs like -wolves, and the night is their time. They know every foot of the -mountain, every gorge, valley and _crevasse_. Why, two men lost over -there ain't got no more show than a pair of fool goats in a jungle. -Why, if them little hyenas couldn't see 'em, which they can--for they -see better by night than by day--they can smell 'em, like all jungle -breeds." - -"Boy," he said again, looking at me kindly and smiling an apology for -the title which we both bore, "I wouldn't let you go. I'd go to old -Hawthorne and have you arrested first. You Tennessee fellows," he said, -laying his big rough hand on my shoulder, "have done the whitest thing -ever done in this war. It ain't often we old Regulars that never go -home and have to serve 'till the last taps, takes much notice of you -volunteer fellows that fights awhile for fun and quits when the time is -up; but when you biled out of that transport and came over them -mountains an' cut through to us, you done a thing that'll warm the -cockles of our boys till the last tattoo and the taps. Now I ain't -goin' to let you go out there in no such fool thing. I'm an old -soldier, I fought with Miles and Cook on the plains, and I tell you now, -Sitting Bull and his Sioux were lambs to them little mountain savages. -You go back now," he said kindly, taking my hand in his own, "go back -and go to sleep. You are a boy yet, though you proved you are full -grown to-day, my lad, and ain't even got up a beard. Of course you have -got a sweetheart waiting in Tennessee. Go back to her, and the next -year send old Brawley of the Nineteenth a picture of her and the kid. -He ain't never had no time to marry, it's been fighting all his life -with him from hell to breakfast." - -I smiled, saluted, and went back to camp. - -Moriarty was waiting for me, and, when Moriarty does not smile, I know -what to expect. - -"Cap'n," he said, "it's not Moriarty that can sleep peaceful the night -till we find them, dead or alive." - -"And I, too, if you please, Cap'n," said Davis, my corporal, who had -been listening. - -"There is no need for a call then, men," I said, "we three will go down -to the village, we will doubtless find them near it. A Krag for rapid -firing and two Colts each," I added, "and plenty of shells. Don't let -the other men know; we'll be back by midnight." - -As we slipped out of the lines of camp I saw a thing that touched me. -Moriarty had stopped at the long, slim, blue-barreled rapid fire and for -a moment, lingering over it, one arm around it, he laid his cheek -against its lips. It was Moriarty's farewell kiss to the only bride he -had ever known. - - - - - *CHAPTER VII* - - *THE JURAMENTADOS* - - -There was a mistiness among the mango trees as we went out into the -moonlight. It was a mist from the ocean, but it made an uncanny -milkiness in the air, which seemed to cling to the long dew-damp leaves -of the tropic trees as we descended into the Labanyon Valley; and that -queer uncanniness stayed with me. I could not throw it off. - -At the picket line I left a note to be carried back with the relief. It -was to my First Lieutenant, explaining my absence and stating that, if I -were not back by daylight, he was to assume the command. And if, before -daylight, he heard any continual rapid fire, he was to send the company -to the sound of it, for it would mean that we needed help. - -The picket would be relieved at midnight. I asked him not to awaken -Lieutenant Clarke until then. - -"Captain," said the picket, touching his cap, "excuse me, but if you -weren't here I'd arrest Moriarty and Davis and send them back into camp. -'Tis a fool thing they are doing." - -"But what about our comrades out there, cut off, doubtless, and -surrounded by these savages?" - -"Then why not take a company?" he asked respectfully. - -"They'd be butchered," said Moriarty. "It's the three of us slippin' -around an' nosin' in that can save 'em if we find 'em. And with these -rifles and six Colts we'll be all of a company for arrows and bolos." - -"Look," said the sentinel, "do you see that?" He pointed to a dim red -star, glowing just above the mountain top. "That's a signal fire--and -that, and that. Captain," he pleaded earnestly, "go back and let the -boys all go with you. It's a fool thing, but if you will go--now -listen--when I hear you shoot, if shooting is on, I am going to fire and -waken the camp; the boys will want to come to your relief." - -Moriarty laughed. "Now don't let your old gun go off too suddent loike. -We'll be back without firin' a shot!" - -But I, Eloise, as I went down into that valley, became for a moment all -but a weakling when I thought of you! We went quietly out into the -moonlight, slipping along from the shadow of one great mango to another. -Sometimes these trees made a continuous shadow--so thick they were--and -our going was easy. But when we emerged into a moonlit space we stooped -and crawled through the high grass, for we were an easy target for their -sharpshooters on the peaks above. - -We were fully a mile from camp before we crossed a _crevasse_, about -twelve feet wide, spanned by a culvert or small bridge. I remember -noticing the little bridge and thinking that if it should be burnt by -the enemy in our rear, we would never be likely to get back into our -camp again. - -There was a Filipino village which lay off to the left in a mountain -gorge, and, scouting carefully around the side of the mountain, we -approached it over the last one-hundred yards, crawling through the -grass and under mango and cocoanut trees up to within fifty yards. It -lay before us, a dozen shacks on bamboo cane shocked with the coarse -straw of the rice stalk. The usual squalor and emptiness was around, -but there was not a sound, not a living thing. Moriarty nudged me. -"There's hell in there somewhere, Cap'n," he whispered, "it looks too -peaceful loike." - -It was a Filipino cur that gave us the first clue. They are a half wild -breed but little beyond the wild things from which they came. As we lay -in the grass listening, this dog which had come back for some morsel he -knew of, smelt us, and, barking, bolted down a wooded path to the right. -We saw him clearly as he ran up a hillside and over into a gorge beyond. - -"There's where we'll find the family," said Moriarty. "We'll cut around -and go into the rear." - -It took us a good hour to do it, crawling through bamboo and cane, under -mango and desert palm, through the tall grasses, and over _crevasses_. -Often we lay quiet in them, resting. - -It was a weird and unexpected sight that we saw. Before us lay a little -cup in the mountain gorge, a natural amphitheater, framed by a small -grove of palms and cocoanuts. Savage figures were going through queer -rites. - -We stopped, puzzled. "That isn't the village people," whispered Davis. -"There are no women or children there, they are headmen and warriors, -and that is some ceremony they are performing." - -We crawled up within fifty yards, and then I wished I had not come, for -Moriarty gripped me quickly, and pointing to two naked men bound and -laid out on the ground, whispered, "Ross and Billings!" - -"We're too late, Captain, they've been killed and now they are fixing to -mutilate them, cut off their heads and cut out their hearts and fill -their stomachs with stones." - -I nodded. It was the savage's way of mutilating all our dead. - -We recognized the fighting men easily. There were dozens of them, -squatted in a circle, armed with _bolos_, _borangs_, and _spears_. But -in the center stood a strange figure in a long black robe, his parted -hair hanging down his back. Around him stood six men, fierce savages, -with shaved heads, and half naked bodies. - -"_Juramentado!_" I whispered. "That's a Mohammedan priest in the center -and he is making _Juramentado_ of the six--look!" - -I heard both Davis and Moriarty slip the bolts of their Krags. To say -_Juramentado_ to any soldier was like crying wolf to a shepherd and his -flock. - -We lay still, seeing the mystic savage rite no white man ever saw -before. We could hear the words of the priest which, spoken in a mixed -Moro-Spanish, we easily interpreted. The six we soon learned were Moros -from Mindanao and had sailed over to sacrifice themselves to our army. - -It was indeed a weird rite he went through, and strange words he -used:--how, if each killed his Christian before dying, it meant first -heaven and an _houri_; and if two Christians a second heaven and two -_houri_, up to the seventh heaven and a harem if they died within our -lines with seven of our dead each to his credit. - -"And now behead them," he ordered, pointing to the two American -soldiers, "and anoint your bodies with their blood!" - -Instantly we saw our error in supposing our friends were dead, for when -the bound soldiers saw two of the _Juramentados_ seize their _borangs_, -each made a violent effort to break his bonds. - -"That priest is mine," said Moriarty, "I've always loved 'em." - -We fired together. The priest, two _Juramentados_, and five warriors -lay dead or dying. The others were instantly an awakened den of wolves. - -I flinch, Eloise, in writing you this, for it brings the tears even now -as I write. Its ending was in blood and the passing of two I loved as -only one man learns to love another who has backed him to death in the -last ditch. They rushed us quickly, for their leaders were -_Juramentados_ and they never retreat, but like a wounded jungle lion -charge instantly the men who have wounded them. They were ten to one -against us, and fast and furious was their rush, but, though it was only -a short distance, we bunched, and shoulder to back shingled the ground -with their dead, stopping many of them, who died at our very feet. The -others swarmed upon us, led by howling _Juramentados_, until even now I -awake at night with their twanging hyena howl in my ears. Our Colts -crackled fiercely for an instant in their faces. Then Davis fell and I -would have followed him had not Moriarty, shooting quick and shouldering -between us, blown out the brute's brains with the last shell in his -revolver.... - -I was dazed, bloody, and knocked down into the fissure at our backs by -the glancing _borang_ blow of the last of the _Juramentados_.... When I -came fully to myself I crawled for protection under an outcropping rock, -and none too soon, for the fanatic above hurled a spear the next instant -that quivered in the spot I had just left. - -And, emboldened by the frenzied _Juramentado_, and seeking my blood, I -saw other heads, peering from over the fissure side and around boulder -and rock. - -I was protected for a time under the boulder. I was faint, and hearing -running water I drank. - - * * * * * - -I prayed that I might not faint again. The wound on my head was a clean -cut. "If only I do not faint again," I kept saying while I bathed my -wound, and, packing my cap with my handkerchief, pulled it tight over my -temples to shut off the blood. - -Then I became calm and indifferent. I marvel even now to think how -undreading of death I was, feeling that I was so soon to die; -undreading, for in all the queerness of my head and the dizziness and -throbbing and the bitterness of the knowledge of the unequal fight, I -thought always of you and of Andrew Jackson, who when shot by Dickinson, -clinched his teeth on a bullet to keep from biting his tongue, clinched, -stood, and killed his man! ... - -Down in that death hole with savages above me waiting for a chance to -brain me or bolo me to death, I heard--I'll swear I heard Aunt Lucretia -say, "_Would Andrew Jackson faint or fight here, Jack?_" - -Yes, Eloise, believe me or not, but then I knew I would not faint again. -I crawled further under the rock, lying flat, face up, and drew both my -Colts.... - -My belt still held the shells. The fight I had with myself must have -been long, for they found forty-three empty shells at my side next -day.... I don't remember distinctly what happened, for my head would -spin every now and then and I had to close my eyes. - -Then I fired twice, thrice... A fool was starting down to see where I -was, a fool, and he met a fool's fate at my feet... So for hours I shot -that way and none dared to try to come down again, none but one who -suddenly dropped upon me from the left like a tiger from a cliff, the -last of the red painted things who sought death in order to gain -Paradise. - -He died literally on me; and he died quickly. He did not know that -having killed his companions with my right, I was on my back with a Colt -also in my left. So died the last of the _Juramentados_.... - -I knew this would end it, and I was glad, for I was beginning to forget, -with the fever flame licking amid the fagots of my brain. I had strange -deliriums.... Æons passed with me wallowing in the water beneath me, -thrusting my burning head into it and not knowing it.... And then came -the end of the delirium in the great joy of the volley of shots above me -and the cheers of the First Tennessee. I heard our General telling me I -was all right, and then the dreams returned, for I saw you on Satan, in -_khaki_, riding with the firing line; and then my head was in your lap, -and you were crying over me and kissing me, before all the boys. And -like one in a nightmare, when strange things happen, I told them it was -not real, that I was touched of a _borang_ in my head, and was a double -weakling for dreaming and then being such a fool as to weep over a -dream. But they only cheered me and laughed. - - * * * * * - -I remember very distinctly when I awoke in the hospital at Cebu. It was -night and the tropic moon lay half masted in the sea. I saw the -gunboats out in the bay and Old Glory floating from fort and mast head. -But I did not see the Indiana. I knew I was feverish and yet so sane, -so sane that it hurt as does all great saneness which follows a great -sleep. Then a sea-gull cried as it swept past my window, and that lone -sea-gull's cry quite overcame me: for then I remembered my first dream, -and you, and now I awoke and you were not there.... I turned my face to -the wall. Then I felt someone kneeling by me, her arms around me, her -kisses on my cheek. I heard someone saying, "Jack, Jack, be still, and -be very calm, for it is I, Eloise, your Eloise. I have nursed you a -month--I have slept by your side, darling, right here by your side, your -own Eloise. And now it is all right and so sweet that--hold my -hands--Jack--tight--tight Jack--we are going to say again our little -prayer, thanking God together as of old...." - -Then the next day when I was stronger and the danger had passed, we -spent the morning alone in the little hospital ward holding hands -sillily, talking always, and kissing when we could. And you told me how -it had all been: how Elsie and her father had found you and taken you -home with them to the great English surgeon who had cured you: how, -knowing I was here in the Philippines you had come as a trained nurse to -be near me: and how it had been fixed between the General and you that -we were to meet the very day that came so near being my last. And you -told of the strange dream you had that night, of my call that seemed to -come to you, and how, mounting a pony and dressed in _khaki_ that you -might pass the line as a soldier, you rode to our camp alone through the -night, following the army's path over the mountain, reaching our last -line at daylight, to find the battalion gone since midnight, to our -rescue. Taking Satan you followed: and it was Satan and you who found -me: for they had rescued Ross and Billings and found the bodies of poor -Davis and Moriarty, but they could not find me. All day they had ridden -and searched; and all day, delirious and fever stricken, I had lain in -the fissure under the boulder: and in the still of the evening, when the -boys had all but despaired, and you, heart-wrung and broken, had rested -a moment in the General's fly, suddenly there came a strange whistling -up the canyon, and Satan had broken loose going to it, the boys -following: and they had found me in wild delirium, but dreaming of home -and blowing the call of old for Satan with the whistle I had forgotten -was in my pocket. Even as you told me all this, old Hawthorne came in -with the familiar twinkle in his eye and bending over me stroked my -forehead as my dead sire would have done, saying, "Well, Colonel -Ballington, how do you feel to-day? - -"Jack," you cried, "he shall not tell you first! I hadn't got to that, -General. Please let me tell it all to him, my own self." - -The General laughed and nodded, enjoying our happiness as if it were his -own. - -"It is all too good, Jack," you went on, "but the President himself has -appointed you a Colonel in the regular army. And see--we have saved it -till you wakened--our dear old General and I--here is the message -President McKinley sent when he heard you had led them from the -Indiana's deck to the rescue of the Regulars." - -Then you read the message yourself, with tremor and tears: - - -"No more splendid exhibition of patriotism was ever shown than was shown -a few days ago in the Philippines. That gallant Tennessee Regiment from -our Southern border, that had been absent from home and family and -friends for more than a year, and was embarked on the good ship -_Indiana_ homeward bound--when the enemy attacked our forces remaining -near Cebu, these magnificent soldiers disembarked from their ship, -joined their comrades on the firing line and achieved a glorious triumph -for American arms. That is an example of patriotism that should be an -inspiration to duty to all of us in every part of our common country." - - -"It is good of him," I said, "God bless him--the sweetest, gentlest man -who ever sat in that chair. But if I get well I am going home and to my -trees." - -But still the old General stood smiling, and I knew there was more to -come. And, seeing it, you came over, smiling funnily yourself, and with -little tears, too; and kneeling, you laid your face against mine. -"Jack, forgive us, it was a mean thing to do, but you have been married -a month to-day and don't know it! But when we brought you here, you -talked all right--though you were a little flighty--and begged so hard -for me to marry you then--and--and--somebody had to sleep right here -with you, nursing you day and night, for the surgeon said it would all -be in the nursing and a mighty poor little chance at that--Jack--for it -was a terrible blow, cutting to your brain--and you begged so--and--I -didn't want ever to leave you again while you lived, and after the -Chaplain married us holding your hands in mine and kneeling here just as -I am now--it looked as if marrying had killed you, Jack--you went down -so quickly and deeply into the valley--and now to see you well--" - -You were crying in my arms. I could only kiss you, calling you wife. - -Then your old fun came back as of old. "It wasn't a square deal, -Jack--to take advantage of a sick man like that, and so, well--well, if -you are willing we will call it all off and wait till we get back home -where we will have a grand wedding at The Home Stretch; for I have been -cheated out of my _trousseau_, and my honeymoon, my new shoes and the -rice that ought to be in my back." - -"I have had make-believe enough," I said, kissing you again. "That -marriage holds and is good enough for me." - -Then the home going, overtaking the regiment at San Francisco and the -thunder of guns and welcoming whistles as we reached our native -Tennessee. And there, amid the great hubbub, and the welcoming -committee as our train rolled in, stood the old General, my grandsire, -holding back the crowd with his crutch that he might get to me first, -and rattling around on his wooden leg, shouting to my great -embarrassment:--"_By God, there he is--Jack--my grandson, Jack! I -raised him--He's my daughter's son--a game cock--the old blue hen's -chicken!..._" - -We have it framed now, Eloise, that telegram from the President. - - -"EXECUTIVE MANSION, - WASHINGTON. NOVEMBER 21, 1899. - -On the Nation's roll of honor is the First Tennessee Regiment U.S. -Volunteers, and nobly has the distinction been won. Their country's -gratitude awaits the homecoming of these brave men. - -WILLIAM McKINLEY." - - * * * * * - -Home again, Eloise, Home and June. Born of the same May mother, but -differing so, this and that other June! How un-of-kin they seem to be! -That last dance, the death ride over the bars, homeless, the despair of -that June a year ago. - -And now home again and The Home Stretch mine! - -June, and writing this to you as I sit in the old sweet place under the -old sweet trees, under the hickories we loved so, and afar off is the -flush of old gold above the violet of the western hills. - -And the same June sounds come over to me: the call of an ewe to an -errant lamb; the neigh of a mare and the answering whinny of her colt; -the distant staccato clatter of binders amid the wheat. - -And a wood-thrush deep in our laurel thicket rinsing clear the air -around with her liquid notes.... - -Since Christmas I have seen it all, for it was Christmas when the boys -came marching home, seen it again and again, never tiring of seeing it, -life as it shuttles across the loom of the Middle Basin. If the canvas -were a meadow backgrounded in green, this is how the picture would be: a -patch of red-bud now and then for early spring; and later, a green sheen -creeping like a high-tide over the hills. But later still, after the -wheat is harvested it were a stubblefield canvassed to cleanness; there -would run a riot of passion flowers and morning glories in brave, bold -colors of beauty. And the picture would be June in the Middle Basin. - -I have sat this afternoon watching the trees on the round breast of the -hill across the way, a shield of green on the round shoulder of the -hill; and as I looked I had a strange upliftingness which I knew was of -poetry and that it was the melting of my heart because it was June again -and home and because of the love of you. - -Why should I potter and make excuse of it? If there be love there is a -poem. - -Take mine as it is--this voice of the trees--as the sweetness of it all -came over me, listening, listening and loving you, Eloise. - - WHAT SAY THE BEECHES? - - What say the beeches, heart of my heart? - (Comrades we three!) - Wise in their canopied gallery of art-- - Clear-visioned, true, in their cloisters apart - From the life which dwarfs when the soul is the mart - Of passions set free. - Write it, dear beeches--historian tree-- - Write it for me. - - My heart, it hath doubted; my soul, it hath slept. - Alone with the trees and the stars it hath wept, - Not knowing the mystery, not seeing the end-- - Oh, be to it, beeches--calm beeches--its friend! - For part of the Infinite--you and the stars-- - Sing it the Truth with your infinite bars. - - The little leaves whisper'd, baby-voiced, low; - The finger-limbs wrote it 'mid starlighted glow: - "_Love and believe, and be kind as you go!_" - (O Heart, it is so!) - - -Why should you care for me to write of war and that last bloody fight, -now that I am at home again, and my heart in the melting? Is it because -it takes it all to make life, the melting, the June days, and the fight? - -And why have I written all this, here, at The Home Stretch, months after -it has happened, with you coming, even as I write it, down the old sweet -path to me, in the old sweet way? Coming to see if I have finished my -letter to you. And I wrote it because but yesterday you said, "Jack, -dear, I want you to finish that letter you wrote me in the Philippines, -the one you wrote to _your love that was lost_. Finish it, Jack, this -one here at home for me, in our own home, _ours_, and _for your love -that was found!_" - -And so I have done it, sweetheart. - - - - - *IV* - - *THE BURGEONING* - - - "Now burgeons every maze of quick - About the flowering squares, and thick - By ashen roots the violets blow." - --Tennyson. - - - - *CHAPTER I* - - *TWO OF A KIND* - - -As I said at the beginning, this is my story, and the telling of it must -be in my own way. It does not satisfy me to end it with our -home-coming, and I hold that no story is complete unless it satisfies, -first of all, him who tells it. - -Why should love stories end at the altar? For there is that in life -which surpasses the altar in sweetness. It is the hearth. And there is -that which is greater than love making. It is the home making. And -there are those in every marriage that is a marriage, of far greater -worth to the world--since only through them may the world's work go -on--than the two who joined their lives at the altar, and they are the -children who come of the marriage. - -If my love for Eloise was great before, it is greater now, for in the -sweet years that have passed have I not proved it a thousand times, as -hath she, in the little things of life, the knight-errantries of love, -the battle and the gauge that tests us all daily? And are not the -still, calm depths in the eyes of the wife more satisfying to the soul -than the merry frothy shoals that gleam so riotously in the eyes of the -sweetheart? - -No man has truly loved a woman until she has borne him children; not for -the child alone, uplifting as is the first sight of this tiny sweet seed -of the blossoming of their doubly growing souls, but as an evidence that -there is nothing worth while in the world except love, since not only -does it create every great, beautiful, sweet dream that has been given -to the world, but even the dreamer himself! - -No man has loved until he has seen the child of his love. It is not the -row-boat of the calm waters that the sailor loves as his very life, but -the good ship of the mid-seas that holds fast and true, even in the -throes of the tempest, bringing him to port and to joy in the morning. - -And so I have small respect, and a wholesome contempt for those -story-tellers who make of married love a marred love; who paint its -ending with the coming of children; and who would leave the wife at the -last page waiting for a lover's love lost in the husband's love. - -I did not know at first what it was that made Eloise change that first -year, from the brilliant, riding, hunting, dancing Eloise of old to this -thoughtful, beautiful creature who wanted always to slip off and read -Keats by herself, and was slyly making what I thought were doll clothes -for Little Sister; and when I was most happy with her to see now and -then, through the day, little strange, unnatural flashes of sadness come -into her deep, thoughtful eyes, and little, queer, unsatisfying doubts -that would creep in. Unknowing, I would see her watching me; and it -would end at night in our own room with her in my lap in tears and her -arms around me. - -"Jack! Jack!" she cried. "Oh, I am so foolish; but are you sure that -you will never love anybody better than you do me, not even your own -child?" - -How well I remember that day of my greatest agony and blessing, and the -long, long hours in which her life hung in the balance. I remember the -good old doctor who came first, and then, as the day wore on, the -graveness that settled in his eyes and the hurried sending to the city -for another one. I walked sorrowfully among the trees, a coward, a -weakling, for the first time in my life. - -Aunt Lucretia was my only comforter, and a stern, unflinching, rude -comforter she was. "Jack, _Colonel_ Ballington, actually wilted, a -weakling, ruined by matrimony and too much love, as I always said you'd -be, if you didn't look out. Jack, you make me tired; born on this stock -farm, seeing my crop of colts and calves, my spring lambs, too, and -whatnots; the finest and most high-bred matrons of my paddock, bringing -in their first borns and not a fool doctor in ten miles to meddle with -them and Nature and her ways! And now Eloise, the gamiest, nerviest, -bravest thoroughbred of them all! You make me tired! Come, I want to -make a man of you." - -She seized my arm and led me into the house. In the library she took -down her huge silver goblet, an international trophy won in France, her -prize for the best merino wool, and then she led me down into the -cellar. - -I had never been in it but once before. It was cool and damp, its -sleepers lined with cobwebs. She lit a lantern and led me into the -farthest, darkest, cobwebbiest corner. She stood before a small -ten-gallon cask, and said with some show of grim humor, "Jack, it was -fifteen years ago to-day--Did you know this was an anniversary? Well, -fifteen years ago to-day I brought Eloise here, adopted her and gave her -to you; and that day I told my old friend, Jack Daniel, to send me this -ten-gallon cask of pure whiskey, to be put away, and to get good and -mellow for just what I knew would one day happen--the first colt! And -now we are going to tap it in his honor!" - -"_His_ honor, Aunt Lucretia?" I said shamedly. "I had set my heart on -her being a--a--why, we are going to name her Lucretia," I added timidly -and with some confusion. - -"Jack, you were always a fool; a bigger one since you married, just as I -knew you'd be, all of 'em are. Why, of course he'll be a good lusty -chap; and I have already named him _Andrew Jackson_, and that's what -he'll be, name and all. I am going to give his daddy a drink; he needs -it, weak-kneeing around here like an old run-down selling-plater in the -home stretch." - -In the dining-room she took down a cut-glass goblet and pottered around -in the side-board till she had found her old-time loaf sugar. This she -broke into bits, and, putting a piece in the goblet, she held it up to -the light and eyed me queerly. - -I knew Aunt Lucretia, and that this ceremony was her way of playing for -time and a kindly way of diverting my mind from Eloise. - -"Very few people, Jack," she went on, "know how to make a toddy. Now -you pour a little water over this sugar and let it melt; if you crush it -with the spoon it spoils the whole thing, and then pour the whiskey in -slowly, stirring it all the time. The nutmeg; ah--" - -We took one each, and Aunt Lucretia smiled. "Feel better? Well, you'd -better stop at that! Another one might make you see -double--directly--and that would be horrible--twins! Why, Jack, I've -known men to be driving along, single, and after taking two of these to -swear they were driving a span! One more makes them think they are -holding a four-in-hand! Now, that boy of yours," she began, "why, Jack, -I wouldn't have him divided up into twins for anything." - -We stopped and looked quickly up. The old doctor was smiling at us. He -had slipped into the room while we were talking. - -"You have missed it, Miss Lucretia," he said, pouring out a half-glass -for himself and taking it straight. "Phew! But I need a bracer myself -after all that! It's a girl, Jack, a most beautiful, bloodlike little -girl." - -"Jack!" cried my Aunt, throwing up both hands, "Jack, get out of my -sight! But we'll drink to her," she added gamely. - -And we did. - -"Two of them!" cried the doctor, warmly shaking my hand. "Two beautiful -little girls, Jack! My boy, I congratulate you! And the mother is -doing fine, just tickled to death and begging me to let you come in at -once!" - -"Heaven help us!" cried my Aunt Lucretia, with feigned anger, but real -exultation shining in her eyes. "Twin colts never amount to a hill of -beans. We'll go in directly, Doctor, and drown one of them; it will -give the other a chance in life." - -I turned quickly. "Hand me that glass, Doctor," I said firmly. "I am -never going to be partial to my little ones. We've drunk to the first -one, here's to the second!" - -"Yes, even in our disappointment let us be just," said my Aunt, joining -me. - -And we drank to the second one, my Aunt laughing, pleased for all her -seeming anger. - -But my own heart was pounding under me with the same gripping in my -throat that I had felt as I stood on the deck of the Indiana and, -looking up, beheld Old Glory above me.... - -They were lying together by their mother, pink and white little -creatures, with heads quite hairless, and blue eyes that were already -smiling as plain as could be, twinkling, fun-loving eyes, which said, -then, as they have always said, "_It's a joke on Daddy we've played!_" - -Eloise, lying smiling by them, was holding out her arms to me. "I am -quite comfortable, and oh, so happy, Jack!" she whispered as I kissed -her again and again. "You can't love them both better than you do me! -And please don't inspect them too closely, Daddy," she went on, "for you -know what old Josh Billings said: '_There is two things no man is ever -prepared for--twins!_' So we've had to dress up one of them in Aunt -Lucretia's old flannel skirt and a crash towel, but she's just as sweet -as the other one and so like her own, sweet daddy!" - -"That Jack Daniel whiskey, sweetheart," I said, choking up -sillily,--"but I am so thankful, now that you are safe--and--and--I was -so proud and happy that I drank to each of their healths, till, Eloise, -really are you sure, but I'll swear I am seeing four little heads here -under the cover--and if there are--of course, if it is, it's all right -with me--and--and--Eloise, aren't they holding hands already?" - -Eloise broke out into her old laugh. "Of course they are," she cried -happily, "and there aren't but two of them, Jack; honest, just two--on -my word of honor, none of them have got away; but that's the funniest -part of it all--they clasped hands as soon as they were placed -together--just two sweet for anything! Such devotion to each other! -Look! And oh, Jack, you must never, never show any partiality, or love -one more than the other, or either of them more than me. And don't take -any more of Aunt Lucretia's Jack Daniel, for it makes me afraid to have -you see double this way! Don't now, for if you took two more of those -old drinks you might see triplets--oh,--the thought of it! Now kiss us -all goodnight; we want to sleep. And here--your hands, Jack, and our -little prayer." - - - - - *CHAPTER II* - - *HOW AUNT LUCRETIA RAN AWAY* - - -There never was a fall like Aunt Lucretia's when she did fall in love. -It is historic at The Home Stretch to this day, and the record is as -Aunt Lucretia wrote it to me after she had married Dr. Gottlieb. - -"Ran away!" exclaimed Eloise, after she had read the letter; "and -everybody on the place has been trying to marry them off to each other -for twenty years. But of course Aunt Lucretia had to do something -different!" - -"Of course, I knew, Jack," wrote Aunt Lucretia from Dr. Gottlieb's old -home in Germany, where they were spending their honeymoon, "that old -Gott,--bless the dear heart of him!--had been loving me all these years. -Women folks have a kind of a dog nose for the man that really loves -them--they know it by instinct. There are some men who court women -naturally, but there are lots of them every sensible woman has to court -a little herself. Old Gott was one of these. I knew if I ever married -him I'd have to court him myself, although he was crazy about me. But I -didn't love him then; he was so silly and made me so mad the way he did -it--always hinting around that I was that great red flower he was trying -to find, and writing me silly letters, begging me to kiss the postage -stamp when I replied, so he might kiss it also! Of course I was proud -of Gott and awfully fond of him. I knew he had a great mind and an -international reputation as a botanist, but as a lover, Jack, he was -very poor. - -"He courted me every way but the right way. Now there is only one way to -court a woman and that is to kiss her. You can get some of them to -marry you the other way--that is, by making them think they are little -tin goddesses, or stars 'way up above you, and all that, or by writing -them poetry and not daring to look at them except through a -long-distance telescope! - -"After five or six years and an innumerable number of family prayers and -pink teas you can get that kind to wed you. But she isn't worth much -after you win her; for you get a little pink-tea wife who presents you, -in the course of the first ten years, with one little offspring, and -devotes the rest of her time to pills and hospital operations for -appendicitis. Instead of going in for addition they go in for -subtraction, Jack." - -"Well, Jack, after you and Eloise married, I began to feel lonesome, and -I felt sorry for poor old Gott, pottering around out there among his -books and flowers, with nobody to take care of him. I used to ride by -to see him every day, thinking maybe he'd have sense enough to court me -in a decent way; but every time he would act worse, until it got so that -the poor man couldn't talk at all in my presence; he could only fold his -hands and sigh. - -"I knew the disease was running its course, and I became very uneasy. -In this stage the patient, in addition to all the previous symptoms, has -a steady rising temperature and becomes mentally unbalanced. This is -shown in intense jealousy, a disease of mind produced by nothing else in -the world but this malady. This hallucination takes violent possession -of the mind, so that he is ready to shoot, kill or stab anyone whom he -thinks stands in the way of his one great love; or, failing in that, to -kill himself on the slightest provocation. It makes them do all kinds -of queer things. - -"And he rapidly developed into the last stage, which is complete -imbecility. - -"There was nothing for me to do, Jack; I must save poor Gott's life and -mind. It would be hard on me, I knew, but for thirty years I had taken -care of him, even giving him a home; and I could not bear to see the -poor man, in his old age, become an imbecile and a suicide for want of a -little help from me. - -"As he was practically an imbecile already I decided to treat him as -such; to cajole him, to entrap him, to lead him into matrimony by making -him think it was something beautiful, and enchanting, 'up a winding -stair,' so to speak; a hot house at the end of a rainbow! - -"And this is the way it happened: I first hunted up that old red flower -and pinned it over my heart. Then I took a flask of Tennessee whiskey -in my saddle-bag and rode over to his house. - -"I caught him just right. He had been up all night, writing a thesis -for the University of Berlin on the 'Propagation of Pollen by -Differentiation,' and having finished that, he was beginning to tell his -pet parrot how much I resembled that great, red flower he was so fond -of, and talking about the evening star which he said was just rising. -It was ten o'clock in the morning and I knew at once what had happened. -He had begun his thesis the afternoon before, and had become so absorbed -that he had worked all night without knowing it, and now thought it was -tea time! - -"I was greatly distressed at the inroads the disease had made in his -mind, and I knew I must act with the greatest tact and foresight. He -was just telling the parrot all the beautiful things about me and my -resemblance to the red flower when I walked in, wearing the flower over -my heart. - -"He gave one look at me and the flower, and that was almost too much for -him. He began to mumble something, and then became speechless in his -chair. - -"I was almost heartbroken to see the swift inroads the disease had made -on him, poor dear. - -"'Gott,' I said gently, sitting down by him, 'you must take a little of -this,' and I made him drink a good stiff toddy. - -"He drank it, looking bewilderingly around, like the poor inmates of the -insane asylum I have seen, and every now and then looking at the red -lily and sighing as if in great pain. - -"At last he spoke. 'Er--Miss--Miss--er'-- - -"'Lucretia,' I said, smiling encouragingly at him; 'just Lucretia -always, dear Gott, between you and me!' - -"This would have landed any sensible man, but thirty years of the -disease had made Gott abnormal. - -"Again I saw the color leave his cheek, and his face turn pale. Another -good bracer, and he was better. - -"'As I was just going to remark,' he said, turning pale again, -'Lu--Lu--Lu--ere--' he stammered. - -"'Lucretia,' I said. 'Of course, Gott, dear heart, dear heart, that is -my name--your name for me.' - -"He tried to faint again, but the Tennessee whiskey stood staunch. So -he threw up his hands with a little happy, pitiful gesture, and again -lost his voice! - -"After awhile I said to him: 'I am going to scold you, dear Gott; I am -going to take better care of you. You have been sitting up all night -writing and you are tired.' - -"'Oh, no,' he said; 'oh, no. I began to write a few hours ago. It is -now tea time. Won't you take tea with me?' - -"Jack, it was pitiful. I thought I'd take him in my arms and kiss him -then and there--just make him my own--only I was afraid the shock might -kill him! I must do it gradually. So I went on humoring him. 'Sure, -Gott, dear, old, precious Gott,' I said. 'Sure, it is just tea time, -and I'm going to sit out on the little porch under the wisteria vine and -the stars. Won't you come with me, precious?' - -"Jack, it proved near being fatal. He tried to speak, but had only a -kind of a gurgling spasm of a breath, panted violently, and turned red. - -"I let that soak in and got up and got busy. I thought if anything in -the world would fetch him, or any man, it would be to see a good-looking -woman, in a white apron, with rosy cheeks and eyes full of fun, buzzing -around in his old bachelor's den getting him a meal that was worth -while. - -"Poor old Gott! The disease of thirty years' standing had nearly ruined -him! - -"I cooked him one of my famous steaks, Jack; you know how. Skillet red -hot, a little butter on it, then drop the steak on, and, as quick as it -sears on that side, over it goes on the other, and quick again back, and -so on, holding the juice in rich and sweet. And the tea, Jack, the rare -old china I had brought in my saddle-bags, too; and the omelet; if -anything in the world would put heart into a man! - -"Eat it? You should have seen the dear old sweetheart. It almost made -me cry. God only knows when he'd had a meal before. I found out -afterwards that he had been writing two days, Jack, and then thought -every day was to-morrow! - -"He was so near gone, you may judge of it yourself. After those two -toddies and that good meal he--he--well, he didn't seem to catch on yet! -His mind didn't seem to be any clearer. But it helped him, for he had -courage enough to take my hand in his, and say, 'Lucretia, shall we sit -out under the wisteria--and--and--look at the moon?' - -"'I said _spoon_,' I replied firmly, for I saw then, Jack, that I must -be very gentle and firm with Gott, he was so badly afflicted! - -"I felt his hand quiver beneath mine. He tried to faint, but very -firmly I led him out into the full daylight under the wisteria vine. -And then very gently but firmly I began to woo him; poor dear, he was -nearly gone! - -"He looked so killing, too, Jack; the little fellow with his gray hair, -his handsome, red face, the fine turn of his large, intellectual head! -Oh, that horrid disease! For he sat there in broad daylight mistaking -the sun for the moon, and the little white jasmine blossoms above us for -stars! I thought the best way to win him would be through the red lily -he had worshipped so long. So, after sitting by him and taking his hand -in mine, I said, 'Dear heart, do you notice what flower I am wearing -to-day?' - -"Imagine my exasperation when he stammered, shook all over, and began -mechanically, 'Yes, madam, it is the _Lilium Philadelphium_, the red, -wood, flame, or Philadelphia Lily. Flowers: erect, tawny, or -red-tinted, outside: vermilion or sometimes reddish orange, and spotted -with madder brown within; one to five on separate peduncles, borne at -the summit. Periant of six distincts, spreading spatulate segments, -each narrowing into a claw and with a nectar groove at the base: six -stamens: one style; the club-shaped stigma three-lobed. Stem: one to -three feet tall, from a bulb composed of narrow jointed fleshy scales. -Leaves: in whorls of threes to eights, lance-shaped, sealed at intervals -on the stem. Preferred habitat: dry-woods, sandy soil, borders and -thickets; flower season, June and July; distribution, Northern border -United States and westward to Ontario, south to the Carolinas and -Virginia!' - -"He said it all like a parrot, looking up at the wisteria vine. Jack, I -saw that I must fight hard to save him. 'Dear heart,' I said, holding -his hand, 'don't you think you need someone always with you to take care -of you, cook your meals, nurse you? I fear you are sick now, darling,' -I added, laying my head on his bosom. - -"I could feel his heart panting like a trip-hammer. I saw him wince, -struggle, grit his teeth, as one who tries to overcome a terrible thing, -fighting for mastery of his mind; and then, Jack--I was so mad I could -have choked him! That terrible disease! - -"'Yes--Lucretia--dear--Miss--er--Miss Lucretia, I mean--do you think I -could hire some good old woman who--ah--whom would you suggest?' - -"'I could suggest a great many, Gott, I said, my arm around him; 'but I -will suggest only one. _I_ need a husband for my old age, and _you_,' I -said, 'darling,' and I put one arm around his neck. - -"He shivered, paled, and I thought he was dying; but I went on, -'Gott--you dear, old Gott--I have loved you a long time, but I've been -too busy to tell you so; but now, dear sweetheart, I want to make you my -wife--I mean, Gott, my husband, of course, and--and--kiss me, Gott; kiss -me, dearie!' - -"Oh, Jack, the divinity of it! I am ashamed of all I have said before! -Tear down that pedigree from your wall! Forget all I've said about -marrying people off like animals--about improving the breed--about -anything but love--love--love. For, when my lips touched his, life grew -different! I had never felt it before! From that moment I was in -love--divinely, gloriously in love! - -"He keeled over, of course. It all but killed him. It was the crisis -of the disease of thirty years' standing, but I had my nerve with me, -and when he came to he was so bashful and happy, Jack. He said shyly, -'But, darling Lucretia, don't you think our parents might object; -wouldn't it be romantic if we ran away?' - -"And we did, Jack, that very night. I had him put a ladder up to his -bed room window, and that night I slipped out, brought him down the -ladder, and we ran off to town and were married! - -"Oh, it was so romantic, such a sweet dream! And here we are in his old -home in Germany and so happy! - -"Forgive and forget all that I have ever said about people falling in -love, for mine at last was the hardest fall!" - - - - - *CHAPTER III* - - *A NIGHT WITH CAPTAIN SKIPPER* - - -Blessed is that man who is born with the saving grace of humor! -Blessings on the memory of my Celtic sires! - -One night when Eloise and the twins were away, I rode over to spend the -night with my brother Ned. He had been elected to Congress from the -Hermitage District, and together we were to frame a Forestry Bill--the -first of that series of acts which have steadily legislated toward the -Conservation of our national resources, and which will yet lead on to -greater things; first and foremost of which, and most vital, will be the -taking over for preservation by the national Government of the entire -Appalachian mountain range, the forests of which are at the headwaters -of nearly all the Eastern half of our country. - -My brother was not home, but the others were, and to my great delight a -girl baby as much like her mother as two turquoise shells. Little -Sister had grown into a slim, pretty girl, and Captain Skipper, more -positive than ever, began early begging his mother, since his father was -away, to let him sleep with his Uncle Jack that night. - -"Oh, do, Thesis," I said, after supper. "Let him have his way." - -"And that's where you'll drop your candy," said Little Sister in her -serio-quaint way. - -Thesis, who is so good that she says only what she thinks and is so -honest that she never suspects others of diplomatic pretenses, took me -at my word. Captain Skipper should sleep with his dear Uncle Jack that -night! - -You who read this, did you ever sleep with a boy? I don't mean one of -those good boys that you read of in Sunday-school books--the impossible -kind--who lives like a saint every day and says his prayers and retires -like a gentleman at night: but one of those lusty, growing young devils, -born with a spring in his back, who howls out the first year, sleeps out -the second, and by the time of the third is ready to chase the cat -around and fight brave battles with the hen folks. At four he is ready -for the birds' nests and tin cans for the dogs' tails, and a little -later he breaks every colt that tries to keep the Sabbath in the meadow -by the still waters. - -When night comes--ay, there is the rub! He howls away the twilight -hours and spends the night kicking, coughing, rolling out of bed or -having fits, and yet sleeping through it all like a cub in winter -quarters. - -The weather that night was warm, one of those hot April nights that lies -humid and close. "The dear little fellow will be so proud to sleep with -his Uncle Jack," said his fond mother, when she kissed him good night; -"and he does sleep so sound and quietly." - -Never having owned a boy, I believed all of this. Did you ever try to -undress a lad of four that had chased the cat around until he was hot? -His clothes stick to him like a plaster. Being a novice, I got -everything unbuttoned and then skinned him, peeled them off. To my -surprise--and I found later that there were all kinds of surprises in -that boy--in fact, that he was made out of surprises--he insisted upon -saying his prayers! But I never saw anything go more promptly to sleep -at his devotions. I had to derrick him up into the bed. - -One of the strange things about a boy is that when he starts to wiggle -around over the bed in his sleep he does it diagonally. I pulled him -back on his own side of the bed five times within the next hour. Then I -would hear him scuffling and flopping about, always ending in a -long-drawn, dismal and dreary sigh, that would have made his fortune as -Romeo. It always ended in his rounding up against the footboard in the -opposite corner, flat on his back, each limb and arm pointing to its own -cardinal point of the compass, his nightgown rolled up in a wad under -his neck, and his body looking like that of a young bull frog in a -Kentucky horse-pond. - -If there is anything more absurd than a boy in this attitude I have -never seen it. I tried to awaken him and get him back, but he only -sighed one of those long sighs, unlimbered and slept on. I went back to -my window and began to work on my bill, but my thoughts were soon -dispelled with a start. I heard a choking, gasping, frightfully -suffocating sound, mingled with a dolorous wheezing: -"_O-woo,--oo--oo--wow--O-woo--oo!_" - -I was at his side in an instant, this time frightened. He was sitting -stolidly up in bed, a strange gaze in his wide-open eyes, his face -beaded with a clammy moisture, his face drawn in a spasm. I had seen a -boy have a fit before and I went upstairs after his mother, two jumps at -a time. - -"Quick," I cried, "hurry down! He'll not live until we can get the -doctor!" - -She was rocking the baby to sleep. She did not become excited, but -smiled and whispered, "He isn't dying, Jack, it is just poor -circulation. Don't notice him at all." - -This made me cynical, bitter. - -"Poor circulation?" I said in disgust. "He has the best circulation I -ever saw; he has circulated all over that bed three times already. Not -notice him? It would take the mental aberration of a stone man to do -it." - -I fear I was a bit satirical, for it is not pleasant to be made a -laughing stock of by a boy who was not even awake. I was not assured, -however, and half expected to find him dead when I got back. But I was -disappointed. He had flopped across his pillow on his back, his arms -and legs curled up. And sleeping! No ground-hog in mid-winter ever -surpassed it. - -I spent the next hour planning how I would like to fix him so as to keep -him on his side of the bed and let me go to sleep. In fact, I quit -everything else and thought. If there is anything I like to do it is to -sleep when the time comes. These are some of the stunts that boy did in -that hour: Fits, three;--very distinct and prolonged: snorts,--one every -ten minutes: choking spells, at intervals: kicked the pitcher off of the -table near the bed twice: jumped up and talked perfectly naturally--so -naturally that I felt that he was awake,--but he was not. More snorts; -and then: "_Catch him! There he goes in that hole--hooray!_" - -I would have sworn then that he was awake, and examined him closely, -cuffing and shaking him. But he was not. He sighed and slept on.... - -The brilliant plan I finally settled on was to put the pillows between -us. It was nearly midnight before I had courage enough to retire at -all. I pulled him up on his side, straightened him out and put the -barrier between us, and then crept gingerly in. I lay still for a while -listening. My success was so complete I wanted to stay awake a while -and enjoy it. He would start out on his journey across the bed, but -would wind up suddenly against my barricade. There he would lie a -while, and I could feel his thumps against it. - -In my vanity I chuckled. - -I had dozed off in this state of self-conceit when I felt something -rammed into my mouth. I thought at first that burglars had entered and -that I had been chloroformed and gagged. It was not so. That boy had -shot his foot through under the pillow and popped me square in the -mouth. I had been told that it was not well to sleep with one's mouth -open--now I knew it. - -When people treat me that way, asleep or awake, I resent it. I fight. -I boxed that boy's ears. I pounded his head against the headboard so -that I would awaken him. I shook him, kicked him, and used words I -should not have wished his mother to hear. When I had finished, he -quietly sighed another of his long, peaceful, happy sighs, and slept on. - -Sleep was not for me after that, and I spent the next hour lying awake -and cataloguing the different things he would do. These were only a few -of them:--Another fit; seeing cats, and wolves and dragons around his -bed; chasing rabbits; talking in his sleep; telling of seeing a bear -ride a bicycle down the pike; breaking a colt; swimming in the creek; -fighting another boy; wheezing and thumping and making strange noises; -dreaming he was an infant again and imbibing from an imaginary bottle; -smacking his lips so loud that the noise could be heard all over the -house. - -It was three o'clock before a bright idea entered into my head. I -remembered that the only request that his mother had made of me was to -see that he did not fall out of bed. I remembered that in all his -circulations and maneuverings, this was the one thing that he never did, -like a runaway mule he knew how to take care of himself even in his -sleep. I began to anticipate him. I determined to humor some of his -little whims. I put a pitcher of ice water by the bed. I got a link of -the garden hose that felt clammy and looked like a snake. I doubled up -my pillow so I could strike hard with it. Then I sat up and waited. I -would make him realize all he dreamed. - -I did not have long to wait. This time he was falling from a tree or -down an endless precipice, for he sat on the edge of the bed, yelling: -"Catch me--catch me--I'm falling!" - -I let him fall. In fact I helped him along. I put a lot of force into -that pillow and it caught him squarely under the ear. He went out of -the bed, hitting the floor in a heap. It wakened him. "Where am I, -mamma? O, mamma?" he called. - -"Come to your mamma," I said softly; "dear little boy, you have fallen -out of the bed. Be careful how you roll." - -He was asleep before he touched the pillow. But in the next half hour he -did not roll any more, and so I learned that a boy may be taught things -even in his sleep if only the proper implements are used. - -But he was not yet cured of swimming in his sleep, for, just as I began -to doze off, thinking that he was properly broken, he began to splash -around in the bed, lamming me on the head and stomach, and shouting: -"Look out! There's a snake--pull for the shore!" - -This gave me my cue. Seizing a water pitcher I turned it over on him, -at the same time wrapping the clumsy hose around his leg. - -"Snakes," I cried in his ear, "dive for the shore!" - -He gave a wide-awake yell that time, and rolled backward out of bed. -One jump and he had cleared the room, going up stairs yelling: "Snakes, -mamma, s-n-a-k-e-s!" - -I let him go. Nay, I locked the door behind him and went to sleep. - -The breakfast bell rang twice, but I did not hear it. Little Sister had -to come to awaken me. They were all at breakfast when I came down, -Thesis, the baby, and the boy. - -"How soundly you must have slept!" she said, smiling. "I forgot to tell -you that the dear little fellow sometimes walks in his sleep; and do you -know, this morning I found him fast asleep on the first stair landing?" - -Little Sister, however, was wiser. She looked at me in her quaint way -and said, funnily: "Uncle Jack, you look real tired; like you'd dropped -your candy last night, sure enough." - - - - - *CHAPTER IV* - - *MY FIRST AUTOMOBILE* - - -It was one of those beautiful December mornings when the frost had hung -his laces everywhere, and a hunting fever fairly burned within me. It -comes over me at times, and then--well--I run away and obey it. - -As though through mental telepathy my telephone rang. "Hello! Is that -you, Jack? This is Horace Raymond, your old neighbor. I'm in town -to-day. Ever see such a pretty day? Let's take a quail hunt." - -"Glad to hear your voice again, Horace. No, I never did. I am ready -for a quail hunt any day except Sunday. Never had any luck on Sunday at -all." - -"I have just bought a new automobile," he went on, "and I want to try it -out to-day. I will be right out in a hurry." - -"Oh, say, Horace, now that's another thing. I have never ridden in one -of those things; they aren't bred right, don't like their gait; and -loving horses as I do, confound them, I've got religious scruples on the -subject. Now you come out here in the thing and I will have the little -mare and the buggy hooked up, a good lunch and the setters in, and--" - -I heard him laugh derisively. "Nonsense! Why, man, we're going way out -beyond you on the Lebanon pike--ten miles--and we want to go in a hurry. -I'll have you there in thirty minutes. Now the little mare would be -fully an hour making it, and then dead tired for a long drive back, with -a pointer and two setters crowding us out of the buggy. I'll be at your -place in twenty minutes with two dogs--have that champion pointer of -yours ready." And he rang off. - -I hung up the receiver. "I guess I'm up against it," I said, as I went -off to put on my hunting clothes, "but if it gets out on me I can prove -I didn't want to do it. Besides, this new hunting cap I've just bought -would make Moses look like a Turk in Hades; nobody would recognize me." - -"Jack, I'm ashamed of you," said Eloise with becoming scorn. "What -would Satan say? But of course, if you are going in that thing, and -happen to bag any birds--which I know you'll never do--please remember -the luncheon I am going to give to-morrow, dear. But you'll never get -them, going back on your raising like that--see if you do!" - -"No, see if you do," said one of the twins, now aged four. - -And the other added, "No, see if you do!" - -For which I kissed them both, because they were so femininely -consistent. - -The truth is, I wanted to go hunting. It was in my blood that morning, -and these beautiful December days with a hazy glow on the blue hills and -that stillness that comes like a dropping nut in a forest would put it -into anybody's blood, anybody who had it. And when the infection hits -you there is only one antidote, a dog, a gun, a tramp over the hills, -and--whir! bang! bang! - -And to-day was ideal. I had felt it all morning; the cool, bracing air -with that little frosty aroma of leaves curling to crispness under the -first blight of things, and that other delightful odor of pungent -woodland damp with frost-biting dew. And the hills blue and beautiful -are alone worth going to meet, and the trees crimson in the hectic flush -of the dying year. - -Dick, my pointer, was jumping all over me and turning dogsprings of -delight. - -"Down, Dick! Heigh ho, old boy; that machine is against my religion, -but I'd go hunting in a negro hearse to-day. Besides," I said, with a -twinge of conscience, "he'll get us to the field in forty minutes, and -the little mare is getting old and we've got a late start." - -I sighed and felt better. I had fought so long and said so much for the -horse, and now--now--it was inexorable; they were being driven to their -fate; they had to go before the relentless wheel of progress. I was -virtually admitting it, I, who had said I'd never-- - -I shouldered my gun. Somehow it didn't seem like the old, joyous hunt. - -At the front gate the automobile stood, a pretty thing, to be sure. Its -owner was smiling, goggle-eyed and all aglow, his hand on the wheel, or -whatever you call the steering end of it. - -"Jump in, Jack, old man; we must be in a hurry. Slap Dick in there -behind with my two setters. Be in a hurry! By George! I know where -there are a dozen coveys, and we'll be there in forty minutes. Hi, -Dick! What's the matter? Get in! Confound him, what's the matter with -that old dog?" - -I was lugging Dick and trying to get him in. He was kicking like a -half-roped steer. He had always jumped to his place in the little -buggy, but now-- - -I knew what was the matter. Even Dick, dog that he was, had his -principles, and he was man enough to say so. While I-- - -I turned crimson. - -"Get in, old boy," I begged. "We'll be there in a jiffy. Dead -bird--good doggie." - -I got him in, with his head down and his tail between his legs. To all -intents he was going to a funeral. I turned quickly away, for I could -not stand the scorn and dumb reproach of his eyes. Right then I would -have quit and gone back, but I didn't want to hurt my friend's feelings. - -"Jump in, jump in, let's be going," he shouted, in his nervous, business -way. "Oh, just a minute! There--you're on the ground. Say, here, take -this and give that starting crank a turn. I'm not very expert myself," -he went on, "and I sometimes forget; but you're on the -ground--there--right there!" - -I gave her a whirl, several of them. I whirled her like blue blazes. I -kept on whirling, while her owner grasped the wheel and his eyes danced -nervously, as he expected her to flash into the throb that said steam -was on. - -But she didn't fire, and I kept cranking. - -"Faster, Jack, harder!" he cried. - -I whirled and whirled. I began to get warm. The sweat began to pour -off. - -"Say," I said, gasping for breath, "this beats turning a grindstone. -What the devil--" - -"Why, I canth--thee," he lisped, "turnth again--quick--a tharp, sthnappy -onth!" - -I turned her again, quick, sharp and snappy. The thing pulled heavy and -felt like an unoiled grindstone, just out of the store. My arms ached, -the sweat poured off, and my back was nearly broken. - -I gave her a final desperate twist, and--there she was! Dead as a log -wagon. - -"Confound it," I said, mopping my forehead and staggering up; "I could -have curried the mare and hitched her up six times. Why, something's -wrong with your old gas wagon," I went on, getting hot. "I'll not turn -this crank any more," I said; "I'll be so sore in my arms I couldn't -hold my gun straight to-day." - -He looked puzzled, annoyed. - -"Why, I can't thee--" he began to lisp again. - -"What's that you've got in your mouth?" I jerked out. "You don't lisp -that way naturally." - -A smile broke over his face. He took out a little, black peg, and -roared. It was too funny--to him. - -"Beg yo' pardon, old boy--beg yo' pardon--ha-ha-ha! Good joke. That's -the switch plug. You take it out when the machine's idle, and I forgot -to put it back in the little hole. Here," he said, sticking it in, "it -connects the current--ha-ha--good joke--now give her a whirl." I gave -the whirl, but in no manner to enjoy the joke. I heard her fire up and -begin to throb. We moved off beautifully. We began to fly up the -smooth pike, my hand back in Dick's collar, for fear he'd jump out and -commit suicide. I dared not turn round to look the honest dog in the -eyes. - -"Fine, fine--ain't this fine, old man?" cried my friend -enthusiastically, as he buzzed up the road. "Look at your -watch--nine-twenty. Ah, now we'll be in the field at ten -sharp--sharp--two good hours for hunting before we eat our pocket lunch. - -"Now your little old mare," he laughed, "would take up those fifteen -miles by now? Say, ha! ha!--acknowledge the corn, old man--the decree -has gone forth--it's all over with the old pacers." - -I growled and said nothing. So did Dick. It was good, though, the way -we were eating up space and getting nearer to the birds, those game, -nervy, whirring birds that dart like winged flashes of thunder before -your gun. We whirled over the bridge at the river at lightning speed. -I saw the sign up about the fine for going faster than a walk, but how-- - -"How can an automobile walk--ha! ha!" he shouted, for he had read it -also and divined my thoughts and winked knowingly at me. "That applies -to horses and jackasses and such," he laughed--"things that walk. But -this don't walk, eh?" - -Honk! Honk! - -He was blowing for a stray mule to get out of his way. - -The mule got, tail up, and settled into a barbed wire fence, which he -tried to jump, but only succeeded in cutting up his countenance. - -Honk! Honk! "Get out of the way, if that's all the sense, you've got. -My! but ain't we buzzing?" - -I nodded, beginning to become exhilarated myself. - -"This is pretty good," I admitted. "I begin to see how you people soon -become speed-crazy. We'll get the birds to-day," I warmed up, "and I -thank you for--look out! Stop!" - -He stopped, but not in time. It was a nervous-looking, old, fleabitten, -gray mare, full of Stackpole, Traveler, Dan Rice and Boston blood. I -had seen it so often that I knew the very turn of its tail. In the -buckboard she was pulling were three country girls, fat, solid, happy, -their lines wabbling around anywhere, and the old mare going where she -listeth. They were the kind of girls I knew and loved in my sappy days. -I used to commence to kiss 'em about Christmas, knowing they'd wake up -and respond about the Fourth of July. Two of them amply filled up the -buckboard, but, as usual, a third one had piled on top of the others -somewhere, and-- - -"Great heaven, Horace!" I shouted. "Stop--that one there on top is -holding a baby!" - -I sprang out, for I saw the old mare begin to squat, her old, scared, -brown eyes blazing in her white face like holes in a big lard can. I -heard her snort like a scared bear and saw her feet pattering jigs all -over the pike. Then she whirled, running into a fence, where, between -the overturned buckboard, the shafts and the rail fence, she stood -wedged upon her hind legs, pawing the air. - -But the girls surprised me. Without a change in their fat, immutable, -expressionless faces, they simply rolled out on the pike in a bunch, the -baby on top, like snow folks tilted over by a boy. - -They got up, dusting their frocks. They had taken it for granted. It -was all right. There was not a squawk, not even from the baby, as one -of them picked it up and I grabbed the bits and straightened out the old -mare. - -"I hope you ladies aren't hurt," said my friend from the roadside, in -his machine. - -"Sally, is you hurt?" asked the fattest one. - -"Naw," she grunted. - -"Mamie, is you?" - -Mamie merely wiggled. - -"Is Tootsy hurt?" - -Tootsy was eating an apple, with unblinking eyes fixed on the wonderful -machine. - -Nothing was hurt but the harness. - -That was hurt before they started, but I had to spend the next twenty -minutes patching it up. Finally we got them all in, Tootsy on top. No -word had they spoken, but I could see they were eyeing me, with that -country suspicion that makes every maid of them rate every man she meets -in the road as Lothario, Jr., or a prince in disguise. - -"Now, ladies, you are all right," I said, trying to keep cheerful. "And -I am so glad none of you was hurt." - -Then one of them drawled, but looking over toward the distant horizon, -"Ain't you named Mister Jack?" - -I turned red and pleaded guilty. - -"After all you've writ, I don't think you had oughter done this," she -said, and then they all drove sedately off, still looking toward the -horizon. - -"Now that's the worst thing about automobiles," said Horace, after we -started again, "these fool country horses. Why, I waited till this time -of day, thinking they'd all be in town by now, for they get up with the -chickens. Anyway, we're not likely to meet any more of them." - -"I hope not," I sighed, pulling out a cigar and a match, as I'd always -done in the buggy. It was blown out before the sulphur burned. - -"You can't do that in an automobile," he yelled, "we're going too fast. -Like to stop for you, but we're fairly humming--be there in half an -hour, old man." Honk! Honk! - -We had turned a bend in the road. - -"Great Cæsar!" I shouted. "Nobody going to town! Look!" - -His jaws dropped. There they were. We could see for half a mile, and -so help me heaven, but this was the procession that passed as we pulled -out of the narrow pike on the roadside, consumed with impatience to get -to the field, the machine throbbing beneath us like a loft over a barn -dance: - -First an old sorrel mare, a worn-out buggy of the vintage of 1874, and -two old ladies. - -The whole thing approached gingerly, creeping up like a yellow cat. It -was a toss-up as to which of the two's eyes popped the biggest, or which -had her mouth shut tightest. The old mare was game, and sidled up, and -just as I saw the wheels begin to form in her head the occupants threw -down the lines and began to pop two pairs of country-yarned legs out of -the two sides of the buggy, exclaiming, "Fur ther Lord's sake thar, -Mister, ketch 'er!" - -I jumped out and had her by the bits. - -One of them relieved herself by spitting snuff over the dashboard, while -the other took it out on me, deprecating the day when "Sech folks an' -things blocks up ther public trail--an' so help me, ain't that thar -Mister Jack, an' my old man bred this mar' by his say so! -Jack,--Ananias," she sniffed, as she drove off. - -The next were right on us, two slick, three-year-old sugar-mules, -hauling a load of darkies. They came on at a rattling clip, making more -noise than a freight train, jollying, laughing and cackling. The men -were on plank seats across the wagon, the women in high-back hickory -chairs, squatting low and feeling as good as Senegambians usually do in -a white man's country, where he does all the worrying and thinking and -they do all the loafing and eating. - -They passed us without a wabble. I expected that, for a mule, like a -negro, never sees anything until he has passed it. I saw the gate of -the wagon had been taken out in the rear to let the damsels in: also the -chickens, the coop of ducks, a bundle of coon-skins, pumpkins, a sack of -unwashed wool, some spare ribs and a tub of only such nice chitlings as -a country mammy can prepare. They passed, and then the scare got into -those three-year-old corn feds good by way of their tails. For I saw -these straighten out first, then their ears. I saw the big driver fall -back on the lines, and-- - -"Whoa, dar!" - -They jumped twenty feet in the first jump, and ran half a mile in spite -of his lugging and sawing. But the first jump was enough. The damage -was done then, for everything in it but the driver, who held on to the -reins, came boiling out of the rear. Up the road for half a mile was a -telegraph line of chitlings, the rest were mixed up. They all rose but -one damsel, weighing close to 468 pounds. She sat still. A young buck -went to help her up. - -"G'way f'm heah, nigger, wait till I see ef my condiments is busted," -she cried, feeling her sides and her chest. "'Sides, I wants Brer Simon -to hope me up." - -Brother Simon helped her and she was all right. - -We gave her a dollar and the others a quarter each. It was expensive, -but I deemed it just. - -The following then passed with more or less hesitancy, shying and -plunging: a surrey and team; a boy and his best girl; a log wagon and -four mules, the leaders rushing by in terror, pulling the wheelers by -the neck, as they were trying to go the other way. - -Then came Old 'Squire Jones on his roan Hal pacer. The horse got -half-way by before he decided that the goggle eyes on the roadside had -him. Well--no goggle eyes had ever caught any of his tribe--not yet! -In bucking to wheel, he tapped the old 'Squire in the mouth with his -poll. The old man had been raised a Presbyterian, with Baptist -propensities, and he made the ozone sulphuric. He brought his horse -back to the scratch, spurring and swearing. It was all right this time, -till the old horse looked into the back of the machine. True to the -fool in his pedigree, he knew what the machine was, because he had never -seen one before; but the dogs--they were things he had seen all his -life, and he bolted backward again, jamming the old 'Squire's stomach -against the pommel and his back against the cantle. It was the time to -go, and we shot out, leaving the old horse waltzing into town on his -hind legs. - -"I didn't hear his last remarks," I said, as we went along. "They -seemed to be rather personal." - -"Let 'em go," said Horace. "You wouldn't want to put them in your -scrap-book." - -"I don't think the mare and buggy would have made us all these enemies," -I remarked, "and we would have been there by now. Do you know it's -eleven o'clock?" - -"We've got a fine run, now," he apologized. "We'll be there in thirty -minutes." - -"We'll be there by night," I snarled. "Say, we'll just call it a possum -hunt, eh?" - -This made him mad, and he did not speak till he got to the big hill. - -Here at the foot we stopped and sat, throbbing. - -Horace fumbled with a side brake a moment, touched a pedal and looked -wise. - -"What's all this for?" I said. - -"I'm resting for a little headway before taking that steep hill. And -say, while we're at it, you ought to know something about a machine, you -might be called on to help me in an emergency." - -I turned pale. Up to this time I had felt secure. Now I understood -something of the feelings of that pair of mules that never saw danger -until they had passed it. - -"Why, I thought you knew all about it," I began. - -"Of course I do, but something might happen to me. You might be thrown -on your own resources. Now here," he went on. "This little lever on -the wheel is the spark-control--it quickens things--the next one is the -throttle; that means more power. This is the switch-plug here: this is -the clutch, and this the brake. Now, remember, and watch me start." - -He did, the thing starting slowly up the hill and then beginning to go -in little jumps, exactly like a horse galloping. - -"Pull him down," I growled, "he's broken his gait." For I felt every -moment as if it would soon wabble and quit. But he kept galloping and I -settled down and began unconsciously to wabble my body as I would in -motion to a galloping horse. I couldn't help it. I glanced at Horace, -he was doing the same, but hitching at the side lever all the time, and -we were bobbing like two Muscovy ducks over a mud hole. - -It was uncomfortable, it was uncanny. - -"Confound you," I growled, "I tell you the thing's galloping--he's all -tangled up; bring him down." - -_Snap_ went something, and Horace breathed easy. - -"All right now," he said, as we began to climb the hill beautifully. -Over the top we went, and then--down--down! How she did fly! My heart -jumped into my throat! I held my breath and felt that same feeling I -used to feel pumping in a swing when I'd soar up to the top and start -down again, the same when I started down the elevator from the 19th -story of the Masonic Temple and felt my legs give way and threw my arms -around the neck of the elevator boy and begged him for heaven's sake to -stop until I got my breath and my legs in speaking distance of each -other, and collected the rest of myself. - -"Stop her," I cried, "down-this-hill-I'm-feeling-queer-Lord-I'm-stop, I -tell you!" - -"It's easy," he laughed. "Do it yourself--on that brake--there--just to -teach you--there!" - -Gasping for breath and pale with fright, I kicked up a little pedal. - -The thing jumped twenty feet! - -"Don't!" I heard him yell, "Good Lord, that's the throttle!" - -I saw a big ditch on the other side of us. I saw his hand dart quickly -to his side. - -Like all man and woman-kind, in emergencies with a horse, I do the fool -thing, grab at the reins. This instinct overpowered me. I grabbed the -brakes to help him. I over-did it. It stopped too quickly; it actually -kicked up behind. It stopped like a twelve-inch ball striking armor -plate. I went over clear across the ditch. The three dogs were -faithful and they followed. - -Horace tried it, but the steering wheel stopped him. - -"It was my fault," I said, as I limped up, after the dogs got off of me. -"I grabbed at your reins, I guess--thought you were running away." - -But the sudden stop had sprung something, and Horace was out fixing it. -He had pulled off his cap and got under the machine, and I saw the -beaded sweat begin to rise on the crown of his bald head, like bubbles -on a mill pond. - -This did me a world of good. I lighted a cigar, propped up and began to -smoke. - -For half an hour he tinkered and tinkered. I smoked and gave him such -bits of sarcastic encouragement as happened into my head. I reminded -him that Tempus was fugiting, and that it was already quite 9:50 and we -were still ten miles from nowhere; that the little mare would have been -there by now, and we would still have some friends left on the pike. - -"Consider the lilies that ride in automobiles," I quoted, "they toil -not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that old gray mare, in -all her glory, never worked as hard as you are working now." - -It was my time, and Dick and I enjoyed it, sensible dog that he was. -After every bit of such talk he'd wink and fairly guffaw. - -Horace was working hard. He was groveling in the dirt to do it, too, -and that suited me also. I could gauge his efforts by the sweat drops -that arose on his bald spot, growing and then bursting like soap -bubbles, to roll down his collar. - -"Plague it!" he said at last, rising, "I can't see very well without my -glasses. Say, stop your guying, now, and look under here and see if you -can see what's wrong." - -I got out as leisurely as a lord; all I could see was a small coil of -wire, red hot. "I see it," I said, solemnly. "The thing's appendix is -red hot. Give me an axe and I'll open it up." - -Dick howled with delight. I thought he'd die. Horace smiled grimly, but -it was a smile that said, "I'll even this up yet." - -"Put in your shells; we'll hunt around toward that farm house, and up -there I'll 'phone to town and have Smith come out and fix it." - -Thus he spoke, and I agreed. In fact, there was nothing else to do. We -rolled the machine aside, the dogs were let out, and we were soon -quartering a field toward a farm house. - -"Whose place is this?" I asked, as the dogs began to hunt down the wind. - -"Old Bogair's, a French Canadian. He came here three years ago from -Canada; ticklish old fellow, but he knows me, and it's all right." - -I felt secure, for while the game law is very strict, requiring written -permission to hunt on one's premises, intended as a guard against pot -hunters, no gentleman ever objected to another hunting on his farm. - -We started through a cedar wood in a gladey spot and I saw Dick -beginning to nose the wind and to throw up his head for quail. Then I -heard my companion calling lustily for me to come. I rushed up, Dick at -my heels. - -"What is it?" I asked. - -"A coon--a big coon--up in that cedar tree. Get on the other side, -quick!" - -I ran around, and, sure enough, up among the branches, trying to hide, -but showing the end of a brindled and streaked tail, was the coon. - -In a trice I let him have it, and he came crashing through the branches. -Dick ran up and seized it, shaking. I saw yellow eyes, ears laid back, -and the coon spitting and fighting for life. It was dying, but struck -out, tearing Dick's nose to threads. I ran up and planted the heel of -my hunting boot on its neck, while Dick howled with his lacerated nose. - -"That's a funny looking coon," I said, as I eyed the thing suspiciously. -I heard Horace laugh and saw him turn and make a break for the road. I -looked up. Old Bogair had run up, red-faced and breathless. - -"By gar," he yelled, as soon as he saw what I'd done, "vut fur you -keeled ze house cat fur? Vut fur?" - -It was true; but never had I seen a tomcat look more like a coon. On a -distant hillside I could see my deserting friend rolling on the grass -and shouting. - -In vain I apologized. Old Bogair kept dancing around and shouting, "Vut -fur you keel ze house cat fur? Vut fur?" - -"What are you damaged?" I said at last, with disgust. - -"Ah, en passant--dees one from T'ronto, I breeng. Hee's -registraire--fife taller, an' fife fur treespaire." - -I paid it like a man. Old Bogair smiled and bowed, with his hand on his -stomach. - -"Eet vus all right now." - -I took up the cat by the tail. - -"Vut fur? You don't vant heem?" he gasped. - -"Yes, I do," I said, hotly. "He's mine. I've paid for him and I want -to take him over yonder and rub him under the nose of that villain that -induced me to go hunting in an automobile and steered me on the premises -of a damned Dago who keeps registered cats that look exactly like coons -when up a tree." - -He thought I was complimenting him. - -"Voilà--I t'ank you," he said, bowing again, with his hand on his -stomach. - -I hunted around an hour before I went to the machine. I waited to cool -off. Dick found a fine covey, and I missed them right and left. I had -lost my nerve and my luck. - -When I reached the machine, Horace was in, blinking, and we said not a -word. It was my time to freeze. Smith had run out from town and fixed -it. A little wire the size of a pencil-point had got an inch out of -place, and it had been as dead as a log wagon on us. - -It was now exactly 3:30, but we decided we still had a chance to get a -covey. We made the next three miles in beautiful time, meeting only one -man driving a game, high-headed horse that swept by us without giving us -the least notice. - -"If they were all bred like that one," I said, "a man in a machine might -think he had some rights on the road." - -"Glad you are beginning to see the other side," said Horace. - -"We'll be there by four," he said; "just the time the birds begin to -feed good. Oh, we'll get a few yet. It's a long lane, you know. Our -luck is turning." - -"This is fun," I said, as we flew along the newly-graveled road parallel -with the creek, "fine, give it to her." - -The scenery was beautiful; the bluffs were draped in clustering red -berries, and the woods old gold and crimson. The water foamed over the -lime rocks, glowing iridescent in the sun, and the air was bracing as we -buzzed along. - -_Honk! Honk!_ "Let her out!" I cried, as a touch of speed mania got -into me. "Say, I see how it is," I said, "why a man soon gets the speed -mania in him. Horsemen can't blame you, for they have got it, too." - -"Oh, we're riding," he cried. "You have an hour yet." - -We were indeed riding, along a narrow path of the road rising to a -rather abrupt hill. Rising and peeping over, I saw a long procession of -creeping things, their ears just shining above the hill we were both -ascending. - -"Halt! Stop!" I cried. - -It was too late, everlastingly too late! We were meeting a negro -funeral procession, that of good old Uncle Thomas, as good an old time -darky as ever lived. I had known him well, a fellow of infinite jest. -But I did not recognize him promptly now. - -I hate to write what followed. I felt faint and sick. - -Be it known that every negro loves to be buried behind white mules. It -is his glory and his religion. This kind was hauling Uncle Thomas. Now, -a white mule is an old mule, and the older the mule, the bigger the -fool, and when they peeped over the top of that hill, only to butt into -a goggle-eyed demon, they did what mules always do. When I first saw -them I was looking at the north end of that negro hearse. The next -instant I was looking at the south end. And as the thing turned over -once to adjust itself to different direction, a venerable old darkey -shot out of the rear end of that hearse, followed by a two-dollar -coffin, and everything in that two miles of vehicles turned tail at the -same time. - -I jumped out, grabbing my hunting coat, which I knew held a flask of -whiskey, and rushed pell-mell through the woods for the creek bank. All -I wanted was a little water in that whiskey. - -After satisfying myself I would not faint, I went back in time to see -that everything had been fixed and the procession headed north again. - -"No, sah, it didn't hurt Brer Thomas," the preacher was explaining to -Horace; "but it did upsot some of the sisterin, an' they fainted when he -come outer the back end of that kerridge so nachul an' briefly. No, -sah; nobody's hurt, sah; it wuz jes' a sivigerus accerdent." - -"How much money have you, Horace? I've spent all mine on dead and -registered cats," I said, bitterly. - -He had plenty, and tipped the whole two miles of them, as they passed -by, singing: "_Jordan is a hard road to travel._" - -Never had that old song seemed so real to me! - -"I stop right here," I said, after assuring myself that I would not -faint again. "The sun is setting; we've been out all day, and found -nothing but a cat and a corpse." - -Our experience had taken our nerve, and we waited two hours by the -roadside, way after dark, until we'd seen everything we met in the -morning go back home. - -Then we lit up, and reached home at ten o'clock. - -Eloise and the twins met me at the gate, scared to death. - -"So glad you're safe," she cried, kissing me. "I know you've got a full -bag, you've never failed, and, oh, dearie, I've invited a dozen ladies -over to-morrow for lunch, promising quail on toast, so I hope nothing -has happened." - -By this time one of the twins was climbing over me, shouting, "Daddy, -show me old Bob White--show me old Brer Rabbit." And the other echoed, -"Daddy, show me old Bob White--show me old Brer Rabbit." - -The bitterness of it went into me. - -"Quail on toast?" I cried with sarcasm. "Change it now, my dear; write -them all a note at once and tell them tomcat is better, for that's all -I've killed to-day! Just make it tomcat on toast!" - -Eloise looked at me curiously. "Jack, I believe you have taken one of -those cheap drinks." - -"One?" I said. "I drank a flask of it. I had to or faint when I saw -poor old Uncle Thomas come out of the rear end of that hearse as natural -as life." - -"Oh!" said Eloise, putting her fingers in her ears. "Come in, dearie, -and I'll give you another, poor dear!" - -But it was rubbed in on me that night. It was midnight when Eloise came -to my room. I heard one of the twins crying. "Come here, Jack," she -said laughing. "One of them wants you, has waked up crying for you." - -She was sitting up in bed and her lamentations were loud. At sight of -me she broke out, "Daddy--you brought sister a dead cat -and--and--wouldn't--bring me--me--one!" - -To jolly her into good humor, as I often did, I picked her up and turned -her a somersault in the bed: I was unfortunate again--that accursed cat -and automobile! - -Accidentally her head was bumped. - -In blazing indignation, she sat up and spat upon me! - -I retreated as best I could: "Your mother will spank you for that"--I -said. - -She quieted--ashamed: but almost instantly the other one sat up in bed, -crying lustily. - -"What do _you_ want?" I said. "I thought you were asleep." - -"Tum back here," she wailed heart-brokenly, "_and let me spit on you -too!_" - -I heard Eloise laugh. - -"Hang an automobile and a dead cat," I said, as I went out--"they are -two Jonahs that will always smell alike to me hereafter!" - - - - - *CHAPTER V* - - *THE SICK TREE* - - -The going of my old grandsire was pathetic, for towards the last he lost -interest in the living, in everything except the great elm he had always -loved because his mother had nursed him under it. - -"And it is dying, Jack, just as I am going; but I do so want it to live -until I am gone!" - -"It shall, Grandfather," I said, "it is sick, but with a little surgery -I can save it. It shall live twenty years longer." - -The old tree, tall and beautiful even in death, was half rotted as it -stood. Any violent wind was likely to snap it off. Any great storm -would beat it to the earth. - -Every morning the old man would rise and look first of all to see if his -tree was still standing. - -He was greatly interested in the way I cured it. I cut away the dead rot -up the entire trunk; and when I had finished, little, except a shell, -remained. Into this I drove a section of iron railing from a railway -track, fully fifteen feet high, driven five feet into the ground, down -among the old roots of the tree. Around this and entirely filling the -hollow to the top of the iron rail, I poured cement, casing it in to fit -the old body that was gone, tucking sheets of zinc under the edges of -the bark whose layers carry the sap up and down. - -When this was painted and treated to a coating of tar, it looked like -the great tree in its youth, and under a strong wind it swayed, -supported by the cement and its rod of steel, with all the strength of -its younger days. - -There one evening, clasping it in the twilight, we found the old General -asleep. It was the last sleep of a second childhood, and having no -mother for the lullaby, he had slept, his arms around the tree she had -loved. - -The sun had set; the twilight had come; the great trees shadowed the -eternal hills. - -The old warrior had died a tree-lover; the young tree-lover had been -forced, of God, to fight. - -We plan, and, like the rough ashlar, we cut and hew; but the Sculptor is -God.... - - -I do not know why Eloise should have risked it, but she did; and though -I would not have her try it again for The Home Stretch nor feel again -that memory-pang of horror when, for one brief second, I saw what she -meant to do, yet when it was done my heart beat fiercely with pride and -love for her. How blessed are those children who have a mother both -brave and beautiful! - -We had ridden to town one day, as we often did when the weather was fit. -And for a pretense she had me ride out to the Fair Grounds to see a new -colt in training. I suspect she had fixed it all before; for I had seen -her practicing Satan on nearly every little ride, at jumps, stone walls, -mainly, and old rail fences up to four feet. - -"Oh, it's just to see if age and the campaigns of honorable war," she -laughed, "have stiffened the old fellow's muscles or softened his -heart"; and she would reach over and pat his great neck. - -At the track the old bars stood across. - -I sickened at the sight of them, remembering. But Eloise, pretending not -to notice, glanced quickly at me. - -"Who's put them back there?" I asked, paling with fear of my own -suspicion. "I'll tear them down now and burn them," I said, dismounting -quickly. - -But Eloise was too quick for me. Even Satan knew her thought and at the -sound of her bantering laugh and the old sideway flash of the whip above -his ears, he flew like a winged horse at the bars. - -I did not breathe, when, for one short, awful moment, I saw them mount -straight up toward the sky. Then, realizing that age and service had -hampered his driving power behind, the game horse threw his front easily -over, and like a great see-saw swung across, bringing his rear limbs, -not straight, to tap the bars and be tangled, but sidewise and parallel, -barely saving his neck! - -"Well, I did it!" She rode up laughing, Satan trembling so with -excitement and the effort I could see his knees quivering, his flank -fluttering wildly. And in Eloise's face there was the white flag of -peril yet lingering before the red of victory. - -She rode up close to me, her eyes lit with the tenderness of love's -light, and bedewed with its tears: "_Kiss me, Jack, dearest--for that is -what I had sworn all the time I would do. If--if they had only let me -break the world's record that first time._" - - - - - THE END - - - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JACK BALLINGTON, FORESTER *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45652 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, set forth in the -General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and -distributing Project Gutenberg(tm) electronic works to protect the -Project Gutenberg(tm) concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a -registered trademark, and may not be used if you charge for the eBooks, -unless you receive specific permission. 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