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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33c1cf7 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #54765 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/54765) diff --git a/old/54765-0.txt b/old/54765-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 0911a38..0000000 --- a/old/54765-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,16130 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Leopard's Spots, by Thomas Dixon, Jr. - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Leopard's Spots - A Romance Of The White Man's Burden--1865-1900 - -Author: Thomas Dixon, Jr. - -Illustrator: C. D. Williams - -Release Date: May 23, 2017 [EBook #54765] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEOPARD'S SPOTS *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - - - - - - - - -THE LEOPARD’S Spots - -A Romance Of The White Man’s Burden--1865-1900 - -By Thomas Dixon, Jr. - -Illustrated By C. D. Williams - -New York:Doubleday, Page & Co. - -1902 - -[Illustration: 0001] - -[Illustration: 0008] - -[Illustration: 0009] - - -TO - -HARRIET - -SWEET-VOICED DAUGHTER OF THE OLD FASHIONED SOUTH - - - - -HISTORICAL NOTE - -In answer to hundreds of letters, I wish to say that all the incidents -used in Book I., which is properly the prologue of my story, were -selected from authentic records, or came within my personal knowledge. - -The only serious liberty I have taken with history is to tone down the -facts to make them credible in fiction. The village of “Hambright” is my -birthplace, and is located near the center of “Military District No. 2,” - comprising the Carolinas, which were destroyed as States by an Act of -Congress in 1867. It will be a century yet before people outside the -South can be made to believe a literal statement of the history of those -times. - -I tried to write this book with the utmost restraint. - -Thomas Dixon, Jr. - -May 9, 1902. - -Elmington Manor, Dixondale, Va. - - - - -LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY - -Scene: The Foothills of North Carolina-Boston-New York Time: From 1865 -to 1900 - -Charles Gaston...........Who dreams of a Governor’s Mansion - -Sallie Worth.............A daughter of the old fashioned South - -Gen. Daniel Worth..................................Her father - -Mrs. Worth...........................................Sallie’s mother - -The Rev. John Durham.........A preacher who threw his life away - -Mrs. Durham........Of the Southern Army that never surrendered - -Tom Camp.....................A one-legged Confederate soldier - -Flora....................................Tom’s little daughter - -Simon Legree........Ex-slave driver and Reconstruction leader - -Allan McLeod..............................A Scalawag - -Hon. Everett Lowell..........Member of Congress from Boston - -Helen Lowell........................His daughter - -Miss Susan Walker.................A maiden of Boston - -Major Stuart Dameron..............Chief of the Ku Klux Klan - -Hose Norman.......................A dare-devil poor white man - -Nelse........................A black hero of the old régime - -Aunt Eve.....................His wife-“a respectable woman.” - -Hon. Tim Shelby...................Political boss of the new era - -Hon. Pete Sawyer.........Sold seven times, got the money once - -George Harris, Jr............An Educated Negro, son of Eliza - -Dick.......................................An unsolved riddle - -THE LEOPARD’S SPOTS - -BOOK ONE--LEGREE’S REGIME - - - - -CHAPTER I--A HERO RETURNS - -ON the field of Appomattox General Lee was waiting the return of a -courier. His handsome face was clouded by the deepening shadows of -defeat. Rumours of surrender had spread like wildfire, and the ranks of -his once invincible army were breaking into chaos. - -Suddenly the measured tread of a brigade was heard marching into action, -every movement quick with the perfect discipline, the fire, and the -passion of the first days of the triumphant Confederacy. - -“What brigade is that?” he sharply asked. - -“Cox’s North Carolina,” an aid replied. - -As the troops swept steadily past the General, his eyes filled with -tears, he lifted his hat, and exclaimed, “God bless old North Carolina!” - -The display of matchless discipline perhaps recalled to the great -commander that awful day of Gettysburg when the Twenty-sixth North -Carolina infantry had charged with 820 men rank and file and left 704 -dead and wounded on the ground that night. Company F from Campbell -county charged with 91 men and lost every man killed and wounded. -Fourteen times their colours were shot down, and fourteen times raised -again. The last time they fell from the hands of gallant Colonel Harry -Burgwyn, twenty-one years old, commander of the regiment, who seized -them and was holding them aloft when instantly killed. - -The last act of the tragedy had closed. Johnston surrendered to Sherman -at Greensboro on April 26th, 1865, and the Civil War ended,--the -bloodiest, most destructive war the world ever saw. The earth had been -baptized in the blood of five hundred thousand heroic soldiers, and a -new map of the world had been made. - -The ragged troops were straggling home from Greensboro and Appomattox -along the country roads. There were no mails, telegraph lines or -railroads. The men were telling the story of the surrender. White-faced -women dressed in coarse homespun met them at their doors and with -quivering lips heard the news. - -Surrender! - -A new word in the vocabulary of the South--a word so terrible in its -meaning that the date of its birth was to be the landmark of time. -Henceforth all events would be reckoned from this; “before the -Surrender,” or “after the Surrender.” - -Desolation everywhere marked the end of an era. Not a cow, a sheep, a -horse, a fowl, or a sign of animal life save here and there a stray dog, -to be seen. Grim chimneys marked the site of once fair homes. Hedgerows -of tangled blackberry briar and bushes showed where a fence had stood -before war breathed upon the land with its breath of fire and harrowed -it with teeth of steel. - -These tramping soldiers looked worn and dispirited. Their shoulders -stooped, they were dirty and hungry. They looked worse than they felt, -and they felt that the end of the world had come. - -They had answered those awful commands to charge without a murmur; and -then, rolled back upon a sea of blood, they charged again over the dead -bodies of their comrades. When repulsed the second time and the mad -cry for a third charge from some desperate commander had rung over the -field, still without a word they pulled their old ragged hats down close -over their eyes as though to shut out the hail of bullets, and, through -level sheets of blinding flame, walked straight into the jaws of hell. -This had been easy. Now their feet seemed to falter as though they were -not sure of the road. - -In every one of these soldier’s hearts, and over all the earth hung the -shadow of the freed Negro, transformed by the exigency of war from a -Chattel to be bought and sold into a possible Beast to be feared and -guarded. Around this dusky figure every white man’s soul was keeping its -grim vigil. - -North Carolina, the typical American Democracy, had loved peace and -sought in vain to stand between the mad passions of the Cavalier of the -South and the Puritan fanatic of the North. She entered the war at last -with a sorrowful heart but a soul clear in the sense of tragic duty. She -sent more boys to the front than any other state of the Confederacy--and -left more dead on the field. She made the last charge and fired the last -volley for Lee’s army at Appomattox. - -These were the ragged country boys who were slowly tramping homeward. -The group whose fortunes we are to follow were marching toward the -little village of Hambright that nestled in the foothills of the Blue -Ridge under the shadows of King’s Mountain. They were the sons of -the men who had first declared their independence of Great Britain in -America and had made their country a hornet’s nest for Lord Cornwallis -in the darkest days of the cause of Liberty. What tongue can tell the -tragic story of their humble home coming? - -In rich Northern cities could be heard the boom of guns, the scream of -steam whistles, the shouts of surging hosts greeting returning regiments -crowned with victory. From every flag-staff fluttered proudly the flag -that our fathers had lifted in the sky--the flag that had never met -defeat. - -It is little wonder that in this hour of triumph the world should -forget the defeated soldiers who without a dollar in their pockets were -tramping to their ruined homes. - -Yet Nature did not seem to know of sorrow or death. Birds were singing -their love songs from the hedgerows, the fields were clothed in -gorgeous robes of wild flowers beneath which forget-me-nots spread their -contrasting hues of blue, while life was busy in bud and starting leaf -reclothing the blood-stained earth in radiant beauty. - -As the sun was setting behind the peaks of the Blue Ridge, a giant negro -entered the village of Ham-bright. He walked rapidly down one of the -principal streets, passed the court house square unobserved in the -gathering twilight, and three blocks further along paused before a -law-office that stood in the corner of a beautiful lawn filled with -shrubbery and flowers. - -“Dars de ole home, praise de Lawd! En now I’se erfeard ter see my Missy, -en tell her Marse Charles’s daid. Hit’ll kill her! Lawd hab mussy on my -po black soul! How kin I!” - -He walked softly up the alley that led toward the kitchen past the “big” - house, which after all was a modest cottage boarded up and down with -weatherstrips nestling amid a labyrinth of climbing roses, honeysuckles, -fruit bearing shrubbery and balsam trees. The negro had no difficulty in -concealing his movements as he passed. - -“Lordy, dars Missy watchin’ at de winder! How pale she look! En she -wuz de purties’ bride in de two counties! God-der-mighty, I mus’ git -somebody ter he’p me! I nebber tell her! She drap daid right ’fore -my eyes, en liant me twell I die. I run fetch de Preacher, Marse John -Durham, he kin tell her.” - -A few moments later he was knocking at the door of the parsonage of the -Baptist church. - -“Nelse! At last! I knew you’d come!” - -“Yassir, Marse John, I’se home. Hit’s me.” - -“And your Master is dead. I was sure of it, but I never dared tell your -Mistress. You came for me to help you tell her. People said you had gone -over into the promised land of freedom and forgotten your people; but -Nelse, I never believed it of you and I’m doubly glad to shake your hand -to-night because you’ve brought a brave message from heroic lips and -because you have brought a braver message in your honest black face of -faith and duty and life and love.” - -“Thankee Marse John, I wuz erbleeged ter come home.” - -The Preacher stepped into the hall and called the servant from the -kitchen. - -“Aunt Mary, when your Mistress returns tell her I’ve received an urgent -call and will not be at home for supper.” - -“I’ll be ready in a minute, Nelse,” he said, as he disappeared into the -study. When he reached his desk, he paused and looked about the room in -a helpless way as though trying to find some half forgotten volume in -the rows of books that lined the walls and lay in piles on his desk and -tables. He knelt beside the desk and prayed. When he rose there was a -soft light in his eyes that were half filled with tears. - -Standing in the dim light of his study he was a striking man. He had -a powerful figure of medium height, deep piercing eyes and a high -intellectual forehead. His hair was black and thick. He was a man of -culture, had graduated at the head of his class at Wake Forest College -before the war, and was a profound student of men and books. He was -now thirty-five years old and the acknowledged leader of the Baptist -denomination in the state. He was eloquent, witty, and proverbially -good natured. His voice in the pulpit was soft and clear, and full of a -magnetic quality that gave him hypnotic power over an audience. He had -the prophetic temperament and was more of poet than theologian. - -The people of this village were proud of the man as a citizen and loved -him passionately as their preacher. Great churches had called him, -but he had never accepted. There was in his make-up an element of the -missionary that gave his personality a peculiar force. - -He had been the college mate of Colonel Charles Gaston whose faithful -slave had come to him for help, and they had always been bosom friends. -He had performed the marriage ceremony for the Colonel ten years before -when he had led to the altar the beautiful daughter of the richest -planter in the adjoining county. Durham’s own heart was profoundly -moved by his friend’s happiness and he threw into the brief preliminary -address so much of tenderness and earnest passion that the trembling -bride and groom forgot their fright and were melted to tears. Thus began -an association of their family life that was closer than their college -days. - -He closed his lips firmly for an instant, softly shut the door and was -soon on the way with Nelse. On reaching the house, Nelse went directly -to the kitchen, while the Preacher walking along the circular drive -approached the front. His foot had scarcely touched the step when Mrs. -Gaston opened the door. - -“Oh, Dr. Durham, I am so glad you have come!” she exclaimed. “I’ve been -depressed to-day, watching the soldiers go by. All day long the poor -foot-sore fellows have been passing. I stopped some of them to ask about -Colonel Gaston and I thought one of them knew something and would not -tell me. I brought him in and gave him dinner, and tried to coax him, -but he only looked wistfully at me, stammered and said he didn’t know. -But some how I feel that he did. Come in Doctor, and say something to -cheer me. If I only had your faith in God!” - -“I have need of it all to-night, Madam!” he answered with bowed head. - -“Then you have heard bad news?” - -“I have heard news,--wonderful news of faith and love, of heroism and -knightly valour, that will be a priceless heritage to you and yours. -Nelse has returned--” - -“God have mercy on me!”--she gasped covering her face and raising her -arm as though cowering from a mortal blow. - -“Here is Nelse, Madam. Hear his story. He has only told me a word or -two.” Nelse had slipped quietly in the back door. - -“Yassum. Missy, I’se home at las’.” - -She looked at him strangely for a moment. “Nelse, I’ve dreamed and -dreamed of your coming, but always with him. And now you come alone to -tell me he is dead. Lord have pity! there is nothing left!” There was a -far-away sound in her voice as though half dreaming. - -“Yas, Missy, dey is, I jes seed him--my young Marster--dem bright eyes, -de ve’y nose, de chin, de mouf! He walks des like Marse Charles, he -talks like him, he de ve’y spit er him, en how he hez growed! He’ll be -er man fo you knows it. En I’se got er letter fum his Pa fur him, an er -letter fur you, Missy.” - -At this moment Charlie entered the room, slipped past Nelse and climbed -into his mother’s arms. He was a sturdy little fellow of eight years -with big brown eyes and sensitive mouth. - -“Yassir--Ole Grant wuz er pushin’ us dar afo’ Richmond Pear ter me lak -Marse Robert been er fightin’ him ev’y day for six monts. But he des -keep on pushin’ en pushin’ us. Marse Charles say ter me one night -atter I been playin’ de banjer fur de boys, Come ter my tent Nelse -fo turnin’ in--I wants ter see you.’ He talk so solemn like, I cut de -banjer short, en go right er long wid him. He been er writin’ en done -had two letters writ. He say, ‘Nelse, we gwine ter git outen dese -trenches ter-morrer. It twell be my las’ charge. I feel it. Ef I falls, -you take my swode, en watch en dese letters back home to your Mist’ess -and young Marster, en you promise me, boy, to stan’ by em in life ez I -stan’ by you.’ He know I lub him bettern any body in dis work, en dat -I’d rudder be his slave dan be free if he’s daid! En I say, ‘Dat I will, -Marse Charles.’ - -“De nex day we up en charge ole Grant. Pears ter me I nebber see so many -dead Yankees on dis yearth ez we see layin’ on de groun’ whar we brake -froo dem lines! But dey des kep fetchin’ up annudder army back er de -one we breaks, twell bymeby, dey swing er whole millyon er Yankees right -plum behin’ us, en five millyon er fresh uns come er swoopin’ down in -front. Den yer otter see my Marster! He des kinder riz in de air--pear -ter me like he wuz er foot taller en say to his men--’ ‘Bout face, en -charge de line in de rear!’ Wall sar, we cut er hole clean froo dem -Yankees en er minute, end den bout face ergin en begin ter walk backerds -er fightin’ like wilecats ev’y inch. We git mos back ter de trenches, -when Marse Charles drap des lak er flash! I runned up to him en dar wuz -er big hole in his breas’ whar er bullet gone clean froo his heart. He -nebber groan. I tuk his head up in my arms en cry en take on en call -him! I pull back his close en listen at his heart. Hit wuz still. I -takes de swode an de watch en de letters outen de pockets en start -on--when bress God, yer cum dat whole Yankee army ten hundred millyons, -en dey tromple all over us! - -“Den I hear er Yankee say ter me ‘Now, my man, you’se free.’ ‘Yassir, -sezzi, dats so,’ en den I see a hole ter run whar dey warn’t no Yankees, -en I run spang into er millyon mo. De Yankees wuz ev’y whar. Pear ter -me lak dey riz up outer de groun’. All dat day I try ter get away fum -’em. En long ’bout night dey ’rested me en fetch me up fo er -Genr’l, en he say, ‘What you tryin’ ter get froo our lines fur, nigger? -Doan yer know yer free now, en if you go back you’d be a slave ergin?’” - -“Dats so, sah,” sezzi, “but I’se ’bleeged ter go home.” - -“What fur?” sezze. - -“Promise Marse Charles ter take dese letters en swode en watch back home -to my Missus en young Marster, en dey waitin’ fur me--I’se ’bleeged -ter go.” - -“Den he tuk de letters en read er minute, en his eyes gin ter water en -he choke up en say, ‘Go-long!’ - -“Den I skeedaddled ergin. Dey kep on ketchin’ me twell bimeby er nasty -stinkin low-life slue-footed Yankee kotched me en say dat I wuz er -dang’us nigger, en sont me wid er lot er our prisoners way up ter ole -Jonson’s Islan’ whar I mos froze ter deaf. I stay dar twell one day er -fine lady what say she from Boston cum er long, en I up en tells her all -erbout Marse Charles and my Missus, en how dey all waitin’ fur me, en -how bad I want ter go home, en de nex news I knowed I wuz on er train er -whizzin’ down home wid my way all paid. I get wid our men at Greensboro -en come right on fas’ ez my legs’d carry me.” - -There was silence for a moment and then slowly Mrs. Gaston said, “May -God reward you, Nelse!” - -“Yassum, I’se free, Missy, but I gwine ter wuk for you en my young -Marster.” - -Mrs. Gaston had lived daily in a sort of trance through those four years -of war, dreaming and planning for the great day when her lover would -return a handsome bronzed and famous man. She had never conceived of -the possibility of a world without his will and love to lean upon. The -Preacher was both puzzled and alarmed by the strangely calm manner she -now assumed. Before leaving the home he cautioned Aunt Eve to watch her -Mistress closely and send for him if anything happened. - -When the boy was asleep in the nursery adjoining her room, she quietly -closed the door, took the sword of her dead lover-husband in her lap and -looked long and tenderly at it. On the hilt she pressed her lips in a -lingering kiss. - -“Here his dear hand must have rested last!” she murmured. She sat -motionless for an hour with eyes fixed without seeing. At last she rose -and hung the sword beside his picture near her bed and drew from her -bosom the crumpled, worn letters Nelse had brought. The first was -addressed to her. - -_“In the Trenches Near Richmond, May 4, 1864._ - -_“Sweet Wifie:--I have a presentiment to-night that I shall not live to -see you again. I feel the shadows of defeat and ruin closing upon us. -I am surer day by day that our cause is lost and surrender is a word I -have never learned to speak. If I could only see you for one hour, that -I might tell you all I have thought in the lone watches of the night in -camp, or marching over desolate fields. Many tender things I have never -said to you I have learned in these days. I write this last message to -tell you how, more and more beyond the power of words to express, your -love has grown upon me, until your spirit seems the breath I breathe. My -heart is so full of love for you and my boy, that I can’t go into battle -now without thinking how many hearts will ache and break in far away, -homes because of the work I am about to do. I am sick of it all. I long -to be at home again and walk with my sweet young bride among the flowers -she loves so well, and hear the old mocking bird that builds each spring -in those rose bushes at our window._ - -_“If I am killed, you must live for our boy and rear him to a glorious -manhood in the new nation that will be born in this agony. I love -you,--I love you unto the uttermost, and beyond death I will live, if -only to love you forever._ - -_“Always in life or death your own,_ - -_“Charles._” - -For two hours she held this letter open in her hands and seemed unable -to move it. And then mechanically she opened the one addressed to -“Charles Gaston, jr.” - -“_My Darling Boy:--I send you by Nelse my watch and sword. It will be -all I can bequeath to you from the wreck that will follow the war. This -sword was your great grandfather’s. He held it as he charged up the -heights of King’s Mountain against Ferguson and helped to carve this -nation out of a wilderness. It was a sorrowful day for me when I felt -it my duty to draw that sword against the old flag in defence of my home -and my people. You will live to see a reunited country. Hang this sword -back beside the old flag of our fathers when the end has come, and -always remember that it was never drawn from its scabbard by your -father, or your grandfather who fought with Jackson at New Orleans, or -your great grandfather in the Revolution, save in the cause of justice -and right. I am not fighting to hold slaves in bondage. I am fighting -for the inalienable rights of my people under the Constitution our -fathers created. It may be we have outgrown this Constitution. But I -calmly leave to God and history the question as to who is right in its -interpretation. Whatever you do in life, first, last and always do what -you believe to be right. Everything else is of little importance. With a -heart full of love, Your father,_ - -_“Charles Gaston.”_ - -***** - -This letter she must have held open for hours, for it was two o’clock in -the morning when a wild peal of laughter rang from her feverish lips and -brought Aunt Eve and Nelse hurrying into the room. - -It took but a moment for them to discover that their Mistress was -suffering from a violent delirium. They soothed her as best they could. -The noise and confusion had awakened the boy. Running to the door -leading into his mother’s room he found it bolted, and with his little -heart fluttering in terror he pressed his ear close to the key-hole -and heard her wild ravings. How strange her voice seemed! Her voice had -always been so soft and low and full of soothing music. Now it was sharp -and hoarse and seemed to rasp his flesh with needles. What could it -all mean? Perhaps the end of the world, about which he had heard the -Preacher talk on Sundays At last unable to bear the terrible suspense -longer he cried through the key-hole, “Aunt Eve, what’s the matter? Open -the door quick.” - -“No, honey, you mustn’t come in. Yo Ma’s awful sick. You run out ter -de barn, ketch de mare, en fly for de doctor while me en Nelse stay wid -her. Run honey, day’s nuttin’ ter hurt yer.” - -His little bare feet were soon pattering over the long stretch of the -back porch toward the barn. The night was clear and sky studded with -stars. There was no moon. He was a brave little fellow, but a fear -greater than all the terrors of ghosts and the white sheeted dead with -which Negro superstition had filled his imagination, now nerved his -child’s soul. His mother was about to die! His very heart ceased to beat -at the thought. He must bring the doctor and bring him quickly. - -He flew to the stable not looking to the right or the left. The mare -whinnied as he opened the door to get the bridle. - -“It’s me Bessie. Mama’s sick. We must go for the doctor quick!” - -The mare thrust her head obediently down to the child’s short arm for -the bridle. She seemed to know by some instinct his quivering voice had -roused that the home was in distress and her hour had come to bear a -part. - -In a moment he led her out through the gate, climbed on the fence, and -sprang on her back. - -“Now, Bess, fly for me!” he half whispered, half cried through the tears -he could no longer keep back. The mare bounded forward in a swift gallop -as she felt his trembling bare legs clasp her side, and the clatter of -her hoofs echoed in the boy’s ears through the silent streets like the -thunder of charging cavalry. How still the night! He saw shadows under -the trees, shut his eyes and leaning low on the mare’s neck patted her -shoulders with his hands and cried, “Faster. Bessie! Faster!” And then -he tried to pray. “Lord don’t let her die! Please, dear God, and I will -always be good. I am sorry I robbed the bird’s nests last summer--I’ll -never do it again. Please, Lord I’m such a wee boy and I’m so lonely. I -can’t lose my Mama!”--and the voice choked and became, a great sob. He -looked across the square as he passed the court house in a gallop and -saw a light in the window of the parsonage and felt its rays warm his -soul like an answer to his prayer. - -He reached the doctor’s house on the further side of the town, sprang -from the mare’s back, bounded up the steps and knocked at the door. No -one answered. He knocked again. How loud it rang through the hall! May -be the doctor was gone! He had not thought of such a possibility before. -He choked at the thought. Springing quickly from the steps to the ground -he felt for a stone, bounded back and began to pound on the door with -all his might. - -The window was raised, and the old doctor thrust his head out calling, -“What on earth’s the matter? Who is that?” - -“It’s me, Charlie Gaston--my Mama’s sick--she’s awful sick, I’m afraid -she’s dying--you must come quick!” - -“All right, sonny, I’ll be ready in a minute.” - -The boy waited and waited. It seemed to him hours, days, weeks, years! -To every impatient call the doctor would answer, “In a minute, sonny, in -a minute!” - -At last he emerged with his lantern, to catch his horse. The doctor -seemed so slow. He fumbled over the harness. - -“Oh! Doctor you’re so slow! I tell you my Mama’s sick--!” - -“Well, well, my boy, we’ll soon be there,” the old man kindly replied. - -When the boy saw the doctor’s horse jogging quickly toward his home -he turned the mare’s head aside as he reached the court house square, -roused the Preacher, and between his sobs told the story of his mother’s -illness. Mrs. Durham had lost her only boy two years before. Soon -Charlie was sobbing in her arms. - -“You poor little darling, out by yourself so late at night, were you not -scared?” she asked as she kissed the tears from his eyes. - -“Yessum, I was scared, but I had to go for the doctor. I want you and -Dr. Durham to come as quick as you can. I’m afraid to go home. I’m -afraid she’s dead, or I’ll hear her laugh that awful way I heard -to-night.” - -“Of course we will come, dear, right away. We will be there almost as -soon as you can get to the house.” - -He rode slowly along the silent street looking back now and then for the -Preacher and his wife. As he was passing a small deserted house he saw -to his horror a ragged man peering into the open window. Before he had -time to run, the man stepped quickly up to the mare and said, “Who lived -here last, little man?” - -“Old Miss Spurlin,” answered the boy. - -“Where is she now?” - -“She’s dead.” - -The man sighed, and the boy saw by his gray uniform that he was a -soldier just back from the war, and he quickly added, “Folks said they -had a hard time, but Preacher Durham helped them lots when they had -nothing to eat.” - -“So my poor old mother’s dead. I was afraid of it.” He seemed to be -talking to himself. “And do you know where her gal is that lived with -her?” - -“She’s in a little house down in the woods below town. They say she’s a -bad woman, and my Mama would never let me go near her.” - -The man flinched as though struck with a knife, steadied himself for -a moment with his hands on the mare’s neck and said, “You’re a brave -little one to be out alone this time o’night,--what’s your name?” - -“Charles Gaston.” - -“Then you’re my Colonel’s boy--many a time I followed him where men were -failin’ like leaves--I wish to God I was with him now in the ground! -Don’t tell anybody you saw me,--them that knowed me will think I’m dead, -and it’s better so.” - -“Good-bye, sir,” said the child “I’m sorry for you if you’ve got no -home. I’m after the doctor for my Mama,--she’s very sick. I’m afraid -she’s going to die, and if you ever pray I wish you’d pray for her.” - -The soldier came closer. “I wish I knew how to pray, my boy. But it -seemed to me I forgot everything that was good in the war, and there’s -nothin’ left but death and hell. But I’ll not forget you, good-bye!” - When Charlie was in bed, he lay an hour with wide staring eyes, holding -his breath now and then to catch the faintest sound from his mother’s -room. All was quiet at last and he fell asleep. But he was no longer a -child. The shadow of a great sorrow had enveloped his soul and clothed -him with the dignity and fellowship of the mystery of pain. - - - - -CHAPTER II--A LIGHT SHINING IN DARKNESS - -IN the rear of Mrs. Gaston’s place, there stood in the midst of an -orchard a log house of two rooms, with hallway between them. There was -a mud-thatched wooden chimney at each end, and from the back of the -hallway a kitchen extension of the same material with another mud -chimney. The house stood in the middle of a ten acre lot, and a woman -was busy in the garden with a little girl, planting seed. - -“Hurry up Annie, less finish this in time to fix up a fine dinner er -greens and turnips an’taters an a chicken. Yer Pappy’ll get home -to-day sure. Colonel Gaston’s Nelse come last night. Yer Pappy was in -the Colonel’s regiment an’ Nelse said he passed him on the road comin’ -with two one-legged soldiers. He ain’t got but one leg, he says. But, -Lord, if there’s a piece of him left we’ll praise God an’ be thankful -for what we’ve got.” - -“Maw, how did he look? I mos’ forgot--’s been so long sence I seed -him?” asked the child. - -“Look! Honey! He was the handsomest man in Campbell county! He had a -tall fine figure, brown curly beard, and the sweetest mouth that was -always smilin’ at me, an’ his eyes twinklin’ over somethin’ funny he’d -seed or thought about. When he was young ev’ry gal around here was crazy -about him. I got him all right, an’ he got me too. Oh me! I can’t help -but cry, to think he’s been gone so long. But he’s comin’ to-day! I jes -feel it in my bones.” - -“Look a yonder, Maw, what a skeer-crow ridin’ er ole hoss!” cried the -girl, looking suddenly toward the road. - -“Glory to God! It’s Tom!” she shouted, snatching her old faded -sun-bonnet off her head and fairly flying across the field to the gate, -her cheeks aflame, her blond hair tumbling over her shoulders, her eyes -wet with tears. - -Tom was entering the gate of his modest home in as fine style as -possible, seated proudly on a stack of bones that had once been a horse, -an old piece of wool on his head that once had been a hat, and a wooden -peg fitted into a stump where once was a leg. His face was pale and -stained with the red dust of the hill roads, and his beard, now iron -grey, and his ragged buttonless uniform were covered with dirt. He was -truly a sight to scare crows, if not of interest to buzzards. But to the -woman whose swift feet were hurrying to his side, and whose lips were -muttering half articulate cries of love, he was the knightliest figure -that ever rode in the lists before the assembled beauty of the world. - -“Oh! Tom, Tom, Tom, my ole man! You’ve come at last!” she sobbed as -she threw her arms around his neck, drew him from the horse and fairly -smothered him with kisses. - -“Look out, ole woman, you’ll break my new leg!” cried Tom when he could -get breath. - -“I don’t care,--I’ll get you another one,” she laughed through her -tears. - -“Look out there again you’re smashing my game shoulder. Got er Minie -ball in that one.” - -“Well your mouth’s all right I see,” cried the delighted woman, as she -kissed and kissed him. - -“Say, Annie, don’t be so greedy, give me a chance at my young one.” - Tom’s eyes were devouring the excited girl who had drawn nearer. - -“Come and kiss your Pappy and tell him how glad you are to see him!” - said Tom, gathering her in his arms and attempting to carry her to the -house. - -He stumbled and fell. In a moment the strong arms of his wife were about -him and she was helping him into the house. - -She laid him tenderly on the bed, petted him and cried over him. “My -poor old man, he’s all shot and cut to pieces. You’re so weak, Tom--I -can’t believe it. You were so strong. But we’ll take care of you. Don’t -you worry. You just sleep a week and then rest all summer and watch us -work the garden for you!” - -He lay still for a few moments with a smile playing around his lips. - -“Lord, ole woman, you don’t know how nice it is to be petted like that, -to hear a woman’s voice, feel her breath on your face and the touch of -her hand, warm and soft after four years sleeping on dirt and living -with men and mules, and fightin’ and runnin’ and diggin’ trenches like -rats and moles, killin’ men, buryin’ the dead like carrion, holdin’ men -while doctors sawed their legs off, till your turn came to be held and -sawed! You can’t believe it, but this is the first feather bed I’ve -touched in four years.” - -“Well, well!--Bless God it’s over now,” she cried. “S’long as I’ve got -two strong arms to slave for you--as long as there’s a piece of you left -big enough to hold on to--I’ll work for you,” and again she bent low -over his pale face, and crooned over him as she had so often done over -his baby in those four lonely years of war and poverty. - -Suddenly Tom pushed her aside and sprang up in bed. - -“Geemimy, Annie, I forgot my pardners--there’s two more peg-legs out at -the gate by this time waiting for us to get through huggin’ and carryin’ -on before they come in. Run, fetch’em in quick!” - -Tom struggled to his feet and met them at the door. - -“Come right into my palace, boys. I’ve seen some fine places in my time, -but this is the handsomest one I ever set eyes on. Now, Annie, put the -big pot in the little one and don’t stand back for expenses. Let’s have -a dinner these fellers’ll never forget.” - -It was a feast they never forgot. Tom’s wife had raised a brood of early -chickens, and managed to keep them from being stolen. She killed four of -them and cooked them as only a Southern woman knows how. She had sweet -potatoes carefully saved in the mound against the kitchen chimney. There -were turnips and greens and radishes, young onions and lettuce and hot -corn dodgers fit for a king; and in the centre of the table she deftly -fixed a pot of wild flowers little Annie had gathered. She did not tell -them that it was the last peck of potatoes and the last pound of meal. -This belonged to the morrow. To-day they would live. - -They laughed and joked over this splendid banquet, and told stories of -days and nights of hunger and exhaustion, when they had filled their -empty stomachs with dreams of home. - -“Miss Camp, you’ve got the best husband in seven states, did you know -that?” asked one of the soldiers, a mere boy. - -“Of course she’ll agree to that, sonny,” laughed Tom. - -“Well it’s so. If it hadn’t been for him, M’am, we’d a been peggin’ -along somewhere way up in Virginny ‘stead o’ bein’ so close to home. You -see he let us ride his hoss a mile and then he’d ride a mile. We took it -turn about, and here we are.” - -“Tom, how in this world did you get that horse?” asked his wife. - -“Honey, I got him on my good looks,” said he with a wink. “You see I was -a settin’ out there in the sun the day o’ the surrender. I was sorter -cryin’ and wonderin’ how I’d get home with that stump of wood instead -of a foot, when along come a chunky heavy set Yankee General, looking as -glum as though his folks had surrendered instead of Marse Robert. He saw -me, stopped, looked at me a minute right hard and says, ‘Where do you -live?’” - -“Way down in ole No’th Caliny,” I says, “at Ham-bright, not far from -King’s Mountain.” - -“How are you going to get home?” says he. - -“God knows, I don’t, General. I got a wife and baby down there I ain’t -seed fer nigh four years, and I want to see ’em so bad I can taste -’em. I was lookin’ the other way when I said that, fer I was purty -well played out, and feelin’ weak and watery about the eyes, an’ I -didn’t want no Yankee General to see water in my eyes.” - -“He called a feller to him and sorter snapped out to him, ‘Go bring the -best horse you can spare for this man and give it to him’.” - -“Then he turns to me and seed I was all choked up and couldn’t say -nothin’ and says: - -“I’m General Grant. Give my love to your folks when you get home. I’ve -known what it was to be a poor white man down South myself once for -awhile.” - -“God bless you, General. I thanks you from the bottom of my heart,” I -says as quick as I could find my tongue, “if it had to be surrender I’m -glad it was to such a man as you.” - -“He never said another word, but just walked slow along smoking a big -cigar. So ole woman, you know the reason I named that hoss, ‘General -Grant.’ It may be I have seen finer hosses than that one, but I couldn’t -recollect anything about ’em on the road home.” - -Dinner over, Tom’s comrades rose and looked wistfully down the dusty -road leading southward. - -“Well, Tom, ole man, we gotter be er movin’,” said the older of the -two soldiers. “We’re powerful obleeged to you fur helpin’ us along this -fur.” - -“All right, boys, you’ll find yer train standin’ on the side o’ the -track eatin’ grass. Jes climb up, pull the lever and let her go.” - -The men’s faces brightened, their lips twitched. They looked at Tom, and -then at the old horse. They looked down the long dusty road stretching -over hill and valley, hundreds of miles south, and then at Tom’s wife -and child, whispered to one another a moment, and the elder said: - -“No, pardner, you’ve been awful good to us, but we’ll get along -somehow--we can’t take yer hoss. It’s all yer got now ter make a livin’ -on yer place.” - -“All I got?” shouted Tom, “man alive, ain’t you seed my ole woman, as -fat and jolly and han’some as when I married her ’leven years ago? -Didn’t you hear her cryin’ an’ shoutin’ like she’s crazy when I got -home? Didn’t you see my little gal with eyes jes like her daddy’s? Don’t -you see my cabin standin’ as purty as a ripe peach in the middle of the -orchard when hundreds of fine houses are lyin’ in ashes? Ain’t I got ten -acres of land? Ain’t I got God Almighty above me and all around me, the -same God that watched over me on the battlefields? All I got? That old -stack o’ bones that looks like er hoss? Well I reckon not!” - -“Pardner, it ain’t right,” grumbled the soldier, with more of cheerful -thanks than protest in his voice. - -“Oh! Get off you fools,” said Tom good-naturedly, “ain’t it my hoss? -Can’t I do what I please with him?” So with hearty hand-shakes they -parted, the two astride the old horse’s back. One had lost his right -leg, the other his left, and this gave them a good leg on each side to -hold the cargo straight. - -“Take keer yerself, Tom!” they both cried in the same breath as they -moved away. - -“Take keer yerselves, boys. I’m all right!” answered Tom, as he stumped -his way back to the home. “It’s all right, it’s all right,” he muttered -to himself. “He’d a come in handy, but I’d a never slept thinkin’ o’ -them peggin’ along them rough roads.” - -Before reaching the house he sat down on a wooden bench beneath a tree -to rest. It was the first week in May and the leaves were not yet grown. -The sun was pouring his hot rays down into the moist earth, and the heat -began to feel like summer. As he drank in the beauty and glory of the -spring his soul was melted with joy. The fruit trees were laden with -the promise of the treasures of the summer and autumn, a cat-bird was -singing softly to his mate in the tree over his head, and a mocking-bird -seated in the topmost branch of an elm near his cabin home was leading -the oratorio of feathered songsters. The wild plum and blackberry briars -were in full bloom in the fence comers, and the sweet odour filled the -air. He heard his wife singing in the house. - -“It’s a fine old world after all!” he exclaimed leaning back and half -closing his eyes, while a sense of ineffable peace filled his soul. -“Peace at last! Thank God! May I never see a gun or a sword, or hear a -drum or a fife’s scream on this earth again!” - -A hound came close wagging his tail and whining for a word of love and -recognition. - -“Well. Bob, old boy, you’re the only one left. You’ll have to chase -cotton-tails by yourself now.” - -Bob’s eyes watered and he licked his master’s hand apparently -understanding every word he said. - -Breaking from his master’s hands the dog ran toward the gate barking, -and Tom rose in haste as he recognised the sturdy tread of the Preacher, -Rev. John Durham, walking rapidly toward the house. - -Grasping him heartily by the hand the Preacher said, “Tom, you don’t -know how it warms my soul to look into your face again. When you left, I -felt like a man who had lost one hand. I’ve found it to-day. You’re the -same stalwart Christian full of joy and love. Some men’s religion didn’t -stand the wear and tear of war. You’ve come out with your soul like gold -tried in the fire. Colonel Gaston wrote me you were the finest soldier -in the regiment, and that you were the only Chaplain he had seen that he -could consult for his own soul’s cheer. That’s the kind of a deacon -to send to the front! I’m proud of you, and you’re still at your old -tricks. I met two one-legged soldiers down the road riding your horse -away as though you had a stable full at your command. You needn’t -apologise or explain, they told me all about it.” - -“Preacher, it’s good to have the Lord’s messenger speak words like them. -I can’t tell you how glad I am to be home again and shake your hand. -I tell you it was a comfort to me when I lay awake at night on them -battlefields, a wonderin’ what had become of my ole woman and the baby, -to recollect that you were here, and how often I’d heard you tell us how -the Lord tempered the wind to the shorn lamb. Annie’s been telling me -who watched out for her them dark days when there was nothin’ to eat. -I reckon you and your wife knows the way to this house about as well -as you do to the church.” Tom had pulled the Preacher down on the seat -beside him while he said this. - -“The dark days have only begun, Tom. I’ve come to see you to have you -cheer me up. Somehow you always seemed to me to be closer to God than -any man in the church. You will need all your faith now. It seems to me -that every second woman I know is a widow. Hundreds of families have -no seed even to plant, no horses to work crops, no men who will work -if they had horses. What are we to do? I see hungry children in every -house.” - -“Preacher, the Lord is looking down here to-day and sees all this as -plain as you and me. As long as He is in the sky everything will come -all right on the earth.” - -“How’s your pantry?” asked the Preacher. - -“Don’t know. ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,’ you know. When I hear -these birds in the trees an’ see this old dog waggin’ his tail at me, -and smell the breath of them flowers, and it all comes over me that I’m -done killin’ men, and I’m at home, with a bed to sleep on, a roof over -my head, a woman to pet me and tell me I’m great and handsome, I don’t -feel like I’ll ever need anything more to eat! I believe I could live a -whole month here without eatin’ a bite.” - -“Good. You come to the prayer meeting to-night and say a few things -like that, and the folks will believe they have been eating three square -meals every day.” - -“I’ll be there. I ain’t asked Annie what she’s got, but I know she’s -got greens and turnips, onions and col-lards, and strawberries in the -garden. Irish taters’ll be big enough to eat in three weeks, and sweets -comin’ right on. We’ve got a few chickens. The blackberries and plums -and peaches and apples are all on the road. Ah! Preacher, it’s my soul -that’s been starved away from my wife and child!” - -“You don’t know how much I need help sometimes Tom. I am always giving, -giving myself in sympathy and help to others, I’m famished now and then. -I feel faint and worn out. You seem to fill me again with life.” - -“I’m glad to hear you say that, Preacher. I get downhearted sometimes, -when I recollect I’m nothin’ but a poor white man. I’ll remember your -words. I’m goin’ to do my part in the church work. You know where to -find me.” - -“Well, that’s partly what brought me here this morning. I want you to -help me look after Mrs. Gaston and her little boy. She is prostrated -over the death of the Colonel and is hanging between life and death. -She is in a delirious condition all the time and must be watched day and -night. I want you to watch the first half of the night with Nelse, and -Eve and Mary will watch the last half.” - -“Of course, I’ll do anything in the world I can for my Colonel’s widder. -He was the bravest man that ever led a regiment, and he was a father to -us boys. I’ll be there. But I won’t set up with that nigger. He can go -to bed.” - -“Tom, it’s a funny thing to me that as good a Christian as you are -should hate a nigger so. He’s a human being. It’s not right.” - -“He may be human, Preacher, I don’t know. To tell you the truth, I have -my doubts. Anyhow, I can’t help it. God knows I hate the sight of ’em -like I do a rattlesnake. That nigger Nelse, they say is a good one. He -was faithful to the Colonel, I know, but I couldn’t bear him no more -than any of the rest of ’em. I always hated a nigger since I was knee -high. My daddy and my mammy hated ’em before me. Somehow, we always -felt like they was crowdin’ us to death on them big plantations, and the -little ones too. And then I had to leave my wife and baby and fight four -years, all on account of their stinkin’ hides, that never done nothin’ -for me except make it harder to live. Every time I’d go into battle and -hear them Minie balls begin to sing over us, it seemed to me I could see -their black ape faces grinnin’ and makin’ fun of poor whites. At night -when they’d detail me to help the ambulance corps carry off the dead and -the wounded, there was a strange smell on the field that came from the -blood and night damp and burnt powder. It always smelled like a nigger -to me! It made me sick. Yes, Preacher, God forgive me, I hate ’em! I -can’t help it any more than I can the color of my skin or my hair.” - -“I’ll fix it with Nelse, then. You take the first part of the night ’till -twelve o’clock. I’ll go down with you from the church to-night,” said -the Preacher, as he shook Tom’s hand and took his leave. - - - - -CHAPTER III--DEEPENING SHADOWS - -ON the second day after Mrs. Gaston was stricken a forlorn little boy -sat in the kitchen watching Aunt Eve get supper. He saw her nod while -she worked the dough for the biscuits. - -“Aunt Eve, I’m going to sit up to-night and every night with my Mama, -’till she gets well. I can’t sleep for hours and hours. I lie awake -and cry when I hear her talking ’till I feel like I’ll die. I must do -something to help her.” - -“Laws, honey, you’se too little. You can’t keep ’wake ’tall. You get -so lonesome and skeered all by yerself.” - -“I don’t care, I’ve told Tom to wake me to-night if I’m asleep when -he goes, and I’ll sit up from twelve ’till two o’clock and then call -you.” - -“All right, Mammy’s darlin’ boy, but you git tired en can’t stan’ it.” - -So that night at midnight he took his place by the bedside. His mother -was sleeping, at first. He sat and gazed with aching heart at her still, -white face. She stirred, opened her eyes, saw him, and imagined he was -his father. - -“Dearie-, I knew you would come,” she murmured. “They told me you were -dead; but I knew better. What a long, long time you have been away. How -brown the sun has tanned your face, but it’s just as handsome. I think -handsomer than ever. And how like you is little Charlie! I knew you -would be proud of him!” - -While she talked, her eyes had a glassy look, that seemed to take no -note of anything in the room. - -The child listened for ten minutes, and then the horror of her strange -voice, and look and words overwhelmed him. He burst into tears and threw -his arms around his mother’s neck and sobbed. - -“Oh! Mama dear, it’s me, Charlie, your little boy, who loves you so -much. Please, don’t talk that way. Please look at me like you used to. -There! Let me kiss your eyes ’till they are soft and sweet again!” - -He covered her eyes with kisses. - -The mother seemed dazed for a moment, held him off at arm’s length, and -then burst into laughter. - -“Of course, you silly, I know you. You must run to bed now. Kiss me good -night.” - -“But you are sick, Mama, I am sitting up with you.” Again she ignored -his presence. She was back in the old days with her Love. She was -kissing her hand to him as he left her for his day’s work. Charlie -looked at the clock. It was time to give her the soothing drops the -doctor left. She took it, obedient as a child, and went on and on with -interminable dreams of the past, now and then uttering strange things -for a boy’s ears. But so terrible was the anguish with which he watched -her, the words made little impression on his mind. It seemed to him -some one was strangling him to death, and a great stone was piled on his -little prostrate body. - -When she grew quiet, at last, and dosed, how still the house seemed! -How loud the tick of the clock! How slowly the hands moved! He had never -noticed this before. He watched the hands for five minutes. It seemed -each minute was an hour, and five minutes were as long as a day. What -strange noises in the house! Suppose a ghost should walk into the room! -Well, he wouldn’t run and leave his Mama; he made up his mind to that. - -Some nights there were other sounds more ominous. The town was crowded -with strange negroes, who were hanging around the camp of the garrison. -One night a drunken gang came shouting and screaming up the alley close -beside the house, firing pistols and muskets. They stopped at the house, -and one of them yelled, “Burn the rebel’s house down! It’s our turn -now!” - -The terrified boy rushed to the kitchen and called Nelse. In a minute, -Nelse was on the scene. There was no more trouble that night. - -“De lazy black debbels,” said Nelse, as he mopped the perspiration from -his brow, “I’ll teach ’em what freedom is.” - -The next day when the Rev. John Durham had an interview with the -Commandant of the troops, he succeeded in getting a consignment of corn -for seed, and to meet the threat of starvation among some families whose -condition he reported. This important matter settled, he said to the -officer: - -“Captain, we must look to you for protection. The town is swarming with -vagrant negroes, bent on mischief. There are camp followers with you -organizing them into some sort of Union League meetings, dealing out -arms and ammunition to them, and what is worse, inflaming the worst -passions against their former masters, teaching them insolence and -training them for crime.” - -“I’ll do the best I can for you Doctor, but I can’t control the camp -followers who are organising the Union League. They live a charmed -life.” - -That night, as the Preacher walked home from a visit to a destitute -family he encountered a burly negro on the sidewalk, dressed in an old -suit of Federal uniform, evidently under the influence of whiskey. He -wore a belt around his waist, in which he had thrust, conspicuously, an -old horse pistol. - -Standing squarely across the pathway, he said to the Preacher, “Git -outer de road, white man, you’se er rebel, I’se er Loyal Union Leaguer!” - -It was his first experience with Negro insolence since the emancipation -of his slaves. Quick as a flash, his right arm was raised. But he took a -second thought, stepped aside, and allowed the drunken fool to pass. He -went home wondering in a hazy sort of way through his excited passions -what the end of it all would be. Gradually in his mind for days this -towering figure of the freed Negro had been growing more and more -ominous, until its menace overshadowed the poverty, the hunger, the -sorrows and the devastation of the South, throwing the blight of its -shadow over future generations, a veritable Black Death for the land and -its people. - - - - -CHAPTER IV--MR. LINCOLN’S DREAM - -EVERY morning before the Preacher could finish his breakfast, callers -were knocking at the door--the negro, the poor white, the widow, the -orphan, the wounded, the hungry, an endless procession. - -The spirit of the returned soldiers was all that he could ask. There was -nowhere a slumbering spark of war. There was not the slightest effort -to continue the lawless habits of four years of strife. Everywhere the -spirit of patience, self-restraint and hope marked the life of the men -who had made the most terrible soldiery. They were glad to be done with -war, and have the opportunity to rebuild their broken fortunes. They -were glad, too, that the everlasting question of a divided Union was -settled and settled forever. There was now to be one country and one -flag, and deep down in their souls they were content with it. - -The spectacle of this terrible army of the Confederacy, the memory of -whose battle cry yet thrills the world, transformed in a month into -patient and hopeful workmen, has never been paralleled in history. - -Who destroyed this scene of peaceful rehabilitation? Hell has no pit -dark enough, and no damnation deep enough for these conspirators when -once history has fixed their guilt. - -The task before the people of the South was one to tax the genius of the -Anglo-Saxon race as never in its history, even had every friendly aid -possible been extended by the victorious North. Four million negroes had -suddenly been freed, and the foundations of economic order destroyed. -Five billions of dollars worth of property were wiped out of existence, -banks closed, every dollar of money worthless paper, the country -plundered by victorious armies, its cities, mills and homes burned, and -the flower of its manhood buried in nameless trenches, or worse still, -flung upon the charity of poverty, maimed wrecks. The task of organising -this wrecked society and marshalling into efficient citizenship this -host of ignorant negroes, and yet to preserve the civilisation of -the Anglo-Saxon race, the priceless heritage of two thousand years of -struggle, was one to appal the wisdom of ages. Honestly and earnestly -the white people of the South set about this work, and accepted the -Thirteenth amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery without a -protesting vote. - -The President issued his proclamation announcing the method of restoring -the Union as it had been handed to him from the martyred Lincoln, and -endorsed unanimously by Lincoln’s Cabinet. This plan was simple, broad -and statesmanlike, and its spirit breathed Fraternity and Union with -malice toward none and charity toward all. It declared what Lincoln had -always taught, that the Union was indestructible, that the rebellious -states had now only to repudiate Secession, abolish slavery, and resume -their positions in the Union, to preserve which so many lives had been -sacrificed. - -The people of North Carolina accepted this plan in good faith. They -elected a Legislature composed of the noblest men of the state, and -chose an old Union man, Andrew Macon, Governor. Against Macon was pitted -the man who was now the President and organiser of a federation of -secret oath-bound societies, of which the Union League, destined to play -so tragic a part in the drama about to follow was the type. This man, -Amos Hogg, was a writer of brilliant and forceful style. Before the war, -a virulent Secessionist leader, he had justified and upheld slavery, and -had written a volume of poems dedicated to John C. Calhoun. He had led -the movement for Secession in the Convention which passed the ordinance. -But when he saw his ship was sinking, he turned his back upon the -“errors” of the past, professed the most loyal Union sentiments, wormed -himself into the confidence of the Federal Government, and actually -succeeded in securing the position of Provisional Governor of the state! -He loudly professed his loyalty, and with fury and malice demanded that -Vance, the great war Governor, his predecessor, who, as a Union man had -opposed Secession, should now be hanged, and with him his own former -associates in the Secession Convention, whom he had misled with his -brilliant pen. - -But the people had a long memory. They saw through this hollow pretense, -grieved for their great leader, who was now locked in a prison cell in -Washington, and voted for Andrew Macon. - -In the bitterness of defeat, Amos Hogg sharpened his wits and his pen, -and began his schemes of revengeful ambition. - -The fires of passion burned now in the hearts of hosts of cowards, North -and South, who had not met their foe in battle. Their day had come. -The times were ripe for the Apostles of Revenge and their breed of -statesmen. - -The Preacher threw the full weight of his character and influence to -defeat Hogg and he succeeded in carrying the county for Macon by an -overwhelming majority. At the election only the men who had voted under -the old regime were allowed to vote. The Preacher had not appeared on -the hustings as a speaker, but as an organizer and leader of opinion -he was easily the most powerful man in the county, and one of the most -powerful in the state. - - - - -CHAPTER V--THE OLD AND THE NEW CHURCH - -IN the village of Hambright the church was the centre of gravity of -the life of the people. There were but two churches, the Baptist and -the Methodist. The Episcopalians had a building, but it was built by the -generosity of one of their dead members. There were four Presbyterian -families in town, and they were working desperately to build a church. -The Baptists had really taken the county, and the Methodists were -their only rivals. The Baptists had fifteen flourishing churches in the -county, the Methodists six. There were no others. - -The meetings at the Baptist church in the village of Hambright were the -most important gatherings in the county. On Sunday mornings everybody -who could walk, young and old, saint and sinner, went to church, and by -far the larger number to the Baptist church. - -You could tell by the stroke of the bells that the two were rivals. The -sextons acquired a peculiar skill in ringing these bells with a snap and -a jerk that smashed the clapper against the side in a stroke that spoke -defiance to all rival bells, warning of everlasting fire to all sinners -that should stay away, and due notice to the saints that even an apostle -might become a castaway unless he made haste. - -The men occupied one side of the house, the women the other. Only very -small boys accompanying their mothers were to be seen on the woman’s -side, together with a few young men who fearlessly escorted thither -their sweethearts. - -Before the services began, between the ringing of the first and second -bells, the men gathered in groups in the church yard and discussed grave -questions of politics and weather. The services over the men lingered in -the yard to shake hands with neighbours, praise or criticise the sermon, -and once more discuss great events. The boys gathered in quiet, wistful -groups and watched the girls come slowly out of the other door, and now -and then a daring youngster summoned courage to ask to see one of them -home. - -The services were of the simplest kind. The Singing of the old hymns of -Zion, the Reading of the Bible, the Prayer, the Collection, the Sermon, -the Benediction. - -The Preacher never touched on politics, no matter what the event under -whose world import his people gathered. War was declared, and fought for -four terrible years. Lee surrendered, the slaves were freed, and society -was torn from the foundations of centuries, but you would never have -known it from the lips of the Rev. John Durham in his pulpit. These -things were but passing events. When he ascended the pulpit he was the -Messenger of Eternity. He spoke of God, of Truth, of Righteousness, of -Judgment, the same yesterday, to-day and forever. - -Only in his prayers did he come closer to the inner thoughts and -perplexities of the daily life of the people. He was a man of remarkable -power in the pulpit. His mastery of the Bible was profound. He could -speak pages of direct discourse in its very language. To him it was -a divine alphabet, from whose letters he could compose the most -impassioned message to the individual hearer before him. Its literature, -its poetic fire, the epic sweep of the Old Testament record of life, -were inwrought into the very fibre of his soul. As a preacher he spoke -with authority. He was narrow and dogmatic in his interpretations of -the Bible, but his very narrowness and dogmatism were of his flesh and -blood, elements of his power. He never stooped to controversy. He simply -announced the Truth. The wise received it. The fools rejected it and -were damned. That was all there was to it. - -But it was in his public prayers that he was at his best. Here all the -wealth of tenderness of a great soul was laid bare. In these prayers he -had the subtle genius that could find the way direct into the hearts of -the people before him, realise as his own their sins and sorrows, their -burdens and hopes and dreams and fears, and then, when he had made them -his own, he could give them the wings of deathless words and carry them -up to the heart of God. He prayed in a low soft tone of voice; it was -like an honest earnest child pleading with his father. What a hush fell -on the people when these prayers began! With what breathless suspense -every earnest soul followed him! - -Before and during the war, the gallery of this church, which was built -and reserved for the negroes, was always crowded with dusky listeners -that hung spellbound on his words. Now there were only a few, perhaps a -dozen, and they were growing fewer. Some new and mysterious power was at -work among the negroes, sowing the seeds of distrust and suspicion. He -wondered what it could be. He had always loved to preach to these simple -hearted children of nature, and watch the flash of resistless emotion -sweep their dark faces. He had baptised over five hundred of them into -the fellowship of the churches in the village and the county during the -ten years of his ministry. - -He determined to find out the cause of this desertion of his church by -the negroes to whom he had ministered so many years. - -At the close of a Sunday morning’s service, Nelse was slowly descending -the gallery stairs leading Charlie Gaston by the hand, after the church -had been nearly emptied of the white people. The Preacher stopped him -near the door. - -“How’s your Mistress, Nelse?” - -“She’s gettin’ better all de time now praise de Lawd. Eve she stay -wid er dis mornin’, while I fetch dis boy ter church. He des so sot on -goin’.” - -“Where are all the other folks who used to fill that gallery, Nelse?” - -“You doan tell me, you aint heard about dem?” he answered with a grin. - -“Well, I haven’t heard, and I want to hear.” - -“De laws-a-massy, dey done got er church er dey own! Dey has meetin’ now -in de school house dat Yankee ’oman built. De teachers tell ’em ef -dey aint good ernuf ter set wid de white folks in dere chu’ch, dey got -ter hole up dey haids, and not ’low nobody ter push em up in er nigger -gallery. So dey’s got ole Uncle Josh Miller to preach fur ’em. He -’low he got er call, en he stan’ up dar en holler fur ’em bout er -hour ev’ry Sunday mawnin’ en night. En sech whoopin’, en yellin’, en -bawlin’! Yer can hear ’em er mile. Dey tries ter git me ter go. I tell -’em, Marse John Durham’s preach-in’s good ernuf fur me, gall’ry er no -gall’ry. I tell ’em dat I spec er gall’ry nigher heaven den de lower -flo’ enyhow--en fuddermo’, dat when I goes ter church, I wants ter hear -sumfin’ mo’ dan er ole fool nigger er bawlin’. I can holler myself. En -dey low I gwine back on my colour. En den I tell ’em I spec I aint so -proud dat I can’t larn fum white folks. En dey say dey gwine ter lay fur -me yit.” - -“I’m sorry to hear this,” said the Preacher thoughtfully. - -“Yassir, hits des lak I tell yer. I spec dey gone fur good. Niggers aint -got no sense nohow. I des wish I own ’em erbout er week! Dey gitten -madder’n madder et me all de time case I stay at de ole place en wuk fer -my po’ sick Mistus. Dey sen’ er Kermittee ter see me mos’ ev’ry day ter -’splain ter me I’se free. De las’ time dey come I lam one on de haid -wid er stick er wood erfo dey leave me lone.” - -“You must be careful, Nelse.” - -“Yassir, I nebber hurt ’im. Des sorter crack his skull er little ter -show ’im what I gwine do wid ’im nex’ time dey come pesterin’ me.” - -“Have they been back to see you since?” - -“Dat dey aint. But dey sont me word dey gwine git de Freeman’s Buro -atter me. En I sont ’em back word ter sen Mr. Buro right on en I land -’im in de middle er a spell er sickness, des es sho es de Lawd gimme -strenk.” - -“You can’t resist the Freedman’s Bureau, Nelse.” - -“What dat Buro got ter do wid me, Marse John?” - -“They’ve got everything to do with you, my boy. They have absolute -power over all questions between the Negro and the white man. They can -prohibit you from working for a white person without their consent, and -they can fix your wages and make your contracts.” - -“Well, dey better lemme erlone, or dere’ll be trouble in dis town, sho’s -my name’s Nelse.” - -“Don’t you resist their officer. Come to me if you get into trouble with -them,” was the Preacher’s parting injunction. - -Nelse made his way out leading Charlie by the hand, and bowing his giant -form in a quaint deferential way to the white people he knew. He seemed -proud of his association in the church with the whites, and the position -of inferiority assigned him in no sense disturbed his pride. He was -muttering to himself as he walked slowly along looking down at the -ground thoughtfully. There was infinite scorn and defiance in his voice. - -“Bu-ro! Bu-ro! Des let ’em fool wid me! I’ll make ’em see de seben -stars in de middle er de day!” - - - - -CHAPTER VI--THE PREACHER AND THE WOMAN OF BOSTON - -THE next day the Preacher had a call from Miss Susan Walker of Boston, -whose liberality had built the new Negro school house and whose life and -fortune was devoted to the education and elevation of the Negro race. -She had been in the village often within the year, running up from -Independence where she was building and endowing a magnificent classical -college for negroes. He had often heard of her, but as she stopped -with negroes when on her visits he had never met her. He was especially -interested in her after hearing incidentally that she was a member of a -Baptist church in Boston. - -On entering the parlour the Preacher greeted his visitor with the -deference the typical Southern man instinctively pays to woman. - -“I am pleased to meet you, Madam,” he said with a graceful bow and -kindly smile, as he led her to the most comfortable seat he could find. - -She looked him squarely in the face for a moment as though surprised -and smilingly replied, “I believe you Southern men are all alike, woman -flatterers. You have a way of making every woman believe you think her -a queen. It pleases me, I can’t help confessing it, though I sometimes -despise myself for it. But I am not going to give you an opportunity -to feed my vanity this morning. I’ve come for a plain face to face -talk with you on the one subject that fills my heart, my work among the -Freedmen. You are a Baptist minister. I have a right to your friendship -and co-operation.” - -A cloud overshadowed the Preacher’s face as he seated himself. He said -nothing for a moment, looking curiously and thoughtfully at his visitor. - -He seemed to be studying her character and to be puzzled by the problem. -She was a woman of prepossessing appearance, well past thirty-five, with -streaks of grey appearing in her smoothly brushed black hair. She was -dressed plainly in rich brown material cut in tailor fashion, and her -heavy hair was drawn straight up pompadour style from her forehead with -apparent carelessness and yet in a way that heightened the impression of -strength and beauty in her face. Her nose was the one feature that gave -warning of trouble in an encounter. She was plump in figure, almost -stout, and her nose seemed too small for the breadth of her face. It was -broad enough, but too short, and was pug tipped slightly at the end. She -fell just a little short of being handsome and this nose was responsible -for the failure. It gave to her face when agitated, in spite of evident -culture and refinement, the expression of a feminine bull dog. - -Her eyes were flashing now, and her nostrils opened a little wider -and began to push the tip of her nose upward. At last she snapped out -suddenly, “Well, which is it, friend or foe? What do you honestly think -of my work?” - -“Pardon me, Miss Walker, I am not accustomed to speak rudely to a lady. -If I am honest, I don’t know where to begin.” - -“Bah! Lay aside your Don Quixote Southern chivalry this morning and talk -to me in plain English. It doesn’t matter whether I am a woman or a man. -I am an idea, a divine mission this morning. I mean to establish a high -school in this village for the negroes, and to build a Baptist church -for them. I learn from them that they have great faith in you. Many of -them desire your approval and co-operation. Will you help me?” - -“To be perfectly frank, I will not. You ask me for plain English. I will -give it to you. Your presence in this village as a missionary to the -heathen is an insult to our intelligence and Christian manhood. You come -at this late day a missionary among the heathen, the heathen whose heart -and brain created this Republic with civil and religious liberty for -its foundations, a missionary among the heathen who gave the world -Washington, whose giant personality three times saved the cause of -American Liberty from ruin when his army had melted away. You are a -missionary among the children of Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, -Jackson, Clay and Calhoun! Madam, I have baptised into the fellowship -of the church of Christ in this county more negroes than you ever saw in -all your life before you left Boston. - -“At the close of the war there were thousands of negro members of white -Baptist churches in the state. Your mission is not to proclaim the -gospel of Jesus Christ. Your mission is to teach crack-brained theories -of social and political equality to four millions of ignorant negroes, -some of whom are but fifty years removed from the savagery of African -jungles. Your work is to separate and alienate the negroes from their -former masters who can be their only real friends and guardians. Your -work is to sow the dragon’s teeth of an impossible social order that -will bring forth its harvest of blood for our children.” - -He paused a moment, and, suddenly facing her continued, “I should like -to help the cause you have at heart: and the most effective service I -could render it now would be to box you up in a glass cage, such as are -used for rattlesnakes, and ship you back to Boston.” - -“Indeed! I suppose then it is still a crime in the South to teach -the Negro?” she asked this in little gasps of fury, her eyes flashing -defiance and her two rows of white teeth uncovering by the rising of her -pugnacious nose. - -“For you, yes. It is always a crime to teach a lie.” - -“Thank you. Your frankness is all one could wish!” - -“Pardon my apparent rudeness. You not only invited, you demanded it. -While about it, let me make a clean breast of it. I do you personally -the honour to acknowledge that you are honest and in dead earnest, and -that you mean well. You are simply a fanatic.” - -“Allow me again to thank you for your candour!” - -“Don’t mention it, Madam. You will be canonised in due time. In the -meantime let us understand one another. Our lives are now very far -apart, though we read the same Bible, worship the same God and hold the -same great faith. In the settlement of this Negro question you are an -insolent interloper. You’re worse, you are a wilful spoiled child of -rich and powerful parents playing with matches in a powder mill. I -not only will not help you, I would, if I had the power seize you, -and remove you to a place of safety. But I cannot oppose you. You are -protected in your play by a million bayonets and back of these bayonets -are banked the fires of passion in the North ready to burst into flame -in a moment. The only thing I can do is to ignore your existence. You -understand my position.” - -“Certainly, Doctor,” she replied good naturedly. - -She had recovered from the rush of her anger now and was herself again. -A curious smile played round her lips as she quietly added: - -“I must really thank you for your candour. You have helped me immensely. -I understand the situation now perfectly. I shall go forward cheerfully -in my work and never bother my brain again about you, or your people, -or your point of view. You have aroused all the fighting blood in me. -I feel toned up and ready for a life struggle. I assure you I shall -cherish no ill feeling toward you. I am only sorry to see a man of your -powers so blinded by prejudice. I will simply ignore you.” - -“Then, Madam, it is quite clear we agree upon establishing and -maintaining a great mutual ignorance. Let us hope, paradoxical as it may -seem, that it may be for the enlightenment of future generations!” - -She arose to go, smiling at his last speech. - -“Before we part, perhaps never to meet again, let me ask you one -question,” said the Preacher still looking thoughtfully at her. - -“Certainly, as many as you like.” - -“Why is it that you good people of the North are spending your millions -here now to help only the negroes, who feel least of all the sufferings -of this war? The poor white people of the South are your own flesh and -blood. These Scotch Covenanters are of the same Puritan stock, these -German, Huguenot and English people are all your kinsmen, who stood at -the stake with your fathers in the old world. They are, many of them, -homeless, without clothes, sick and hungry and broken hearted. But one -in ten of them ever owned a slave. They had to fight this war because -your armies invaded their soil. But for their sorrows, sufferings and -burdens you have no ear to hear and no heart to pity. This is a strange -thing to me.” - -“The white people of the South can take care of themselves. If they -suffer, it is God’s just punishment for their sins in owning slaves and -fighting against the flag. Do I make myself clear?” she snapped. - -“Perfectly, I haven’t another word to say.” - -“My heart yearns for the poor dear black people who have suffered so -many years in slavery and have been denied the rights of human beings. I -am not only going to establish schools and colleges for them here, but I -am conducting an experiment of thrilling interest to me which will prove -that their intellectual, moral, and social capacity is equal to any -white man’s.” - -“Is it so?” asked the Preacher. - -“Yes, I am collecting from every section of the South the most -promising specimens of negro boys and sending them to our great Northern -Universities where they will be educated among men who treat them as -equals, and I expect from the boys reared in this atmosphere, men of -transcendent genius, whose brilliant achievements in science, art and -letters will forever silence the tongues of slander against their race. -The most interesting of these students I have at Harvard now is young -George Harris. His mother is Eliza Harris, the history of whose escape -over the ice of the Ohio River fleeing from slavery thrilled the world. -This boy is a genius, and if he lives he will shake this nation.” - -“It may be, Miss Walker. There are more ways than one to shake a nation. -And while I ignore your work, as a citizen and public man,--privately -and personally, I shall watch this experiment with profound interest.” - -“I know it will succeed. I believe God made us of one blood,” she said -with enthusiasm. - -“Is it true. Madam, that you once endowed a home for homeless cats -before you became interested in the black people?” With a twinkle in his -eye the Preacher softly asked this apparently irrelevant question. - -“Yes, sir, I did,--I am proud of it. I love cats. There are over a -thousand in the home now, and they are well cared for. Whose business is -it?” - -“I meant no offense by the question. I love cats too. But I wondered if -you were collecting negroes only now, or, whether you were adding other -specimens to your menagerie for experimental purposes.” - -She bit her lips, and in spite of her efforts to restrain her anger, -tears sprang to her eyes as she turned toward the Preacher whose face -now looked calmly down upon her with ill-concealed pride. - -“Oh! the insolence of you Southern people toward those who dare to -differ with you about the Negro!” she cried with rage. - -“I confess it humbly as a Christian, it is true. My scorn for these -maudlin ideas is so deep that words have no power to convey it. But -come,” said the Preacher in the kindliest tone. “Enough of this. I am -pained to see tears in your eyes. Pardon my thoughtlessness. Let us -forget now for a little while that you are an idea, and remember only -that you are a charming Boston woman of the household of our own faith. -Let me call Mrs. Durham, and have you know her and discuss with her the -thousand and one things dear to all women’s hearts.” - -“No, I thank you! I feel a little sore and bruised, and social amenities -can have no meaning for those whose souls are on fire with such -antagonistic ideas as yours and mine. If Mrs. Durham can give me any -sympathy in my work I’ll be delighted to see her, otherwise I must go.” - -The Preacher laughed aloud. - -“Then let me beg of you, never meet Mrs. Durham. If you do, the war -will break out again. I don’t wish to figure in a case of assault and -battery. Mrs. Durham was the owner of fifty slaves. She represents the -bluest of the blue blood of the slave-holding aristocracy of the -South. She has never surrendered and she never will. Wars, surrenders, -constitutional amendments and such little things make no impression -on her mind whatever. If you think I am difficult, you had better not -puzzle your brain over her. I am a mildly constructive man of progress. -She is a Conservative.” - -“Then we will say good-bye,” said Miss Walker, extending her small plump -hand in friendly parting. “I accept your challenge which this interview -implies. I will succeed if God lives,” and she set her lips with a snap -that spoke volumes. - -“And I will watch you from afar with sorrow and fear and trembling,” - responded the Preacher. - - - - -CHAPTER VII--THE HEART OF A CHILD - -MRS. GASTON’S recovery from the brain fever which followed her -prostration was slow and painful. For days she would be quite herself as -she would sit up in bed and smile at the wistful face of the boy who sat -tenderly gazing into her eyes, or with swift feet was running to do her -slightest wish. - -Then days of relapse would follow when the child’s heart would ache and -ache with a dumb sense of despair as he listened to her incoherent talk, -and heard her meaningless laughter. When at length he could endure it -no longer, he would call Aunt Eve, run from the house, as fast as his -little legs could carry him, and in the woods lie down in the shadows -and cry for hours. - -“I wonder if God is dead?” he said one day as he lay and gazed at the -clouds sweeping past the openings in the green foliage above. - -“I pray every day and every night, but she don’t get well. Why does He -leave her like that, when she’s so good!” and then his voice choked into -sobs, and he buried his face in the leaves. - -He was suddenly roused by the voice of Nelse who stood looking down on -his forlorn figure with tenderness. - -“What you doin’ out in dese woods, honey, by yo’ se’f?” - -“Nothin’, Nelse.” - -“I knows. You’se er crying ’bout yo Ma.” - -The boy nodded without looking up. - -“Doan do dat way, honey. You’se too little ter cry lak dat. Yer Ma’s -gittin’ better ev’ry day, de doctor done tole me so.” - -“Do you think so, Nelse?” There was an eagerness and yearning in the -child’s voice, that would have moved the heart of a stone. - -“Cose I does. She be strong en well in little while when cole wedder -comes. Fros ’ll soon be here. I see whar er ole rabbit been er eatin’ -on my turnip tops. Dat’s er sho sign. I gwine make you er rabbit box -ter-morrer ter ketch dat rabbit.” - -“Will you, Nelse?” - -“Sho’s you bawn. Now des lemme pick you er chune on dis banjer ’fo I -goes ter my wuk.” - -Of all the music he had ever heard, the boy thought Nelse’s banjo was -the sweetest. He accompanied the music in a deep bass voice which he -kept soft and soothing. The boy sat entranced. With wide open eyes and -half parted lips he dreamed his mother was well, and then that he -had grown to be a man, a great man, rich and powerful. Now he was the -Governor of the state, living in the Governor’s palace, and his mother -was presiding at a banquet in his honour. He was bending proudly over -her and whispering to her that she was the most beautiful mother in the -world. And he could hear her say with a smile, “You dear boy!” - -Suddenly the banjo stopped, and Nelse railed with mock severity, “Now -look at ’im er cryin’ ergin, en me er pickin’ de eens er my fingers -off fur ’im!” - -“No, I aint cryin’. I am just listenin’ to the music. Nelse, you’re the -greatest banjo player in the world!” - -“Na, honey, hits de banjer. Dats de Jo-bloin’est banjer! En des ter -t’ink--er Yankee gin’er to me in de wah! Dat wuz the fus’ Yankee I -ebber seed hab sense enuf ter own er banjer. I kinder hate ter fight dem -Yankees atter dat.” - -“But Nelse, if you were fighting with our men how did you get close to -any Yankees?” - -“Lawd child, we’s allers slippin’ out twixt de lines atter night er -carryin’ on wid dem Yankees. We trade ’em terbaccer fur coffee en -sugar, en play cyards, en talk twell mos’ day sometime. I slip out fust -in er patch er woods twix’ de lines, en make my banjer talk. En den yere -dey come! De Yankees fum one way en our boys de yudder. I make out lak I -doan see ’em tall, des playin’ ter myself. Den I make dat banjer moan -en cry en talk about de folks way down in Dixie. De boys creep up closer -en closer twell dey right at my elbow en I see ’em cryin’, some un -’em--den I gin’er a juk! en way she go pluckety plunck! en dey gin ter -dance and laugh! Sometime dey cuss me lak dey mad en lam me on de back. -When dey hit me hard den I know dey ready ter gimme all dey got.” - -“But how did you get this banjo, Nelse?” - -“Yankee gin’er ter me one night ter try’er, en when he hear me des -fairly pull de insides outen ’er, he ’low dat hit ’ed be er sin -ter ebber sep’rate us. Say he nebber know what ’uz in er banjer.” - -Nelse rose to go. - -“Now, honey, doan you cry no mo, en I make you dat rabbit box sho, en -erlong ’bout Chris’mas I gwine larn you how ter shoot.” - -“Will you let me hold the gun?” the boy eagerly asked. - -“I des sho you how ter poke yo gun in de crack er de fence en whisper -ter de trigger. Den look out birds en rabbits!” - -The boy’s face was one great smile. - -It was late in September before his mother was strong enough to venture -out of the house--six terrible months from the day she was stricken. -What an age it seemed to a sensitive boy’s soul. To him the days were -weeks, the weeks months, the months, long weary years. It seemed to him -he had lived a life-time, died, and was born again the day he saw her -first walking on the soft grass that grew under the big trees at the -back of the house. He was gently holding her by the hand. - -“Now, Mama dear, sit here on this seat--you mustn’t get in the sun.” - -“But, Charlie, I want to see the flowers on the front lawn.” - -“No, no, Mama, the sun is shinin’ awful on that side of the house!” - -A great fear caught the boy’s heart. The lawn had grown up a mass of -weeds and grass during the long hot summer and he was afraid his mother -would cry when she saw the ruin of those flowers she loved so well. - -How impossible for his child’s mind to foresee the gathering black -hurricane of tragedy and ruin soon to burst over that lawn! - -Skillfully and firmly he kept her on the seat in the rear where she -could not see the lawn. He said everything he could think of to please -her. She would smile and kiss him in her old sweet way until his heart -was full to bursting. - -“Do you remember, Mama, how many times when you were so sick I used to -slip up close and kiss your mouth and eyes?” - -“I often dreamed you were kissing me.” - -“I thought you would know. I’ll soon be a man. I’m going to be rich, and -build a great house and you are going to live in it with me, and I am to -take care of you as long as you live.” - -“I expect you will marry some pretty girl, and almost forget your old -Mama who will be getting grey.” - -“But I’ll never love anybody like I love you, Mama dear!” - -His little arms slipped around her neck, held her close for a moment, -and then he tenderly kissed her. - -After supper he sought Nelse. - -“Nelse, we must work out the flowers in the lawn. Mama wants to see -them. It was all I could do to keep her from going out there to-day.” - -“Lawd chile, hit’ll take two niggers er week ter clean out dat lawn. -Hits gone fur dis year. Yer Ma’ll know dat, honey.” - -The next morning after breakfast the boy found a hoe, and in the -piercing sun began manfully to work at those flowers. He had worked -perhaps, a half hour. His face was red with heat and wet with sweat. He -was tired already and seemed to make no impression on the wilderness of -weeds and grass. - -Suddenly he looked up and saw his mother smiling at him. - -“Come here, Charlie!” she called. - -He dropped his hoe and hurried to her side. She caught him in her arms -and kissed the sweat drops from his eyes and mouth. - -“You are the sweetest boy in the world!” - -What music to his soul these words to the last day of his life! - -“I was afraid when you saw all these weeds you would cry about your -flowers, Mama.” - -“It does hurt me, dear, to see them, but it’s worth all their loss to -see you out there in the broiling sun working so hard to please me. I’ve -seen the most beautiful flower this morning that ever blossomed on my -lawn!--and its perfume will make sweet my whole life. I am going to be -brave and live for you now.” - -And she kissed him fondly again. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII--AN EXPERIMENT IN MATRIMONY - -NELSE was informed by the Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau when summoned -before that tribunal that he must pay a fee of one dollar for a marriage -license and be married over again. - -“What’s dat? Dis yer war bust up me en Eve’s marryin’?” - -“Yes,” said the Agent. “You must be legally married.” - -Nelse chucked on a brilliant scheme that flashed through his mind. - -“Den I see you ergin ’bout dat,” he said as he hastily took his leave. - -He made his way homeward revolving his brilliant scheme. “But won’t I -fetch dat nigger Eve down er peg er two! I gwine ter make her t’ink -I won’ marry her nohow. I make’er ax my pardon fur all dem little -disergreements. She got ter talk mighty putty now sho nuf!” And he -smiled over his coming triumph. - -It was four o’clock in the afternoon when he reached his cabin door on -the lot back of Mrs. Gaston’s home. Eve was busy mending some clothes -for their little boy now nearly five years old. - -“Good evenin’, Miss Eve!” - -Eve looked up at him with a sudden flash of her eye. “What de matter wid -you nigger?” - -“Nuttin’ tall. Des drapped in lak ter pass de time er day, en ax how’s -you en yer son stallin’ dis hot wedder!” Nelse bowed and smiled. - -“What ail you, you big black baboon?” - -“Nuttin’ tall M’am, des callin’ roun’ ter see my frien’s.” Still smiling -Nelse walked in and sat down. - -Eve put down her sewing, stood up before him, her arms akimbo, and gazed -at him steadily till the whites of her eyes began to shine like two -moons. - -“You wants me ter whale you ober de head wid dat poker?” - -“Not dis evenin’, M’am.” - -“Den what ail you?” - -“De Buro des inform me, dat es I’se er young han’some man en you’se er -gittin’ kinder ole en fat, dat we aint married nohow. En dey gimme er -paper fur er dollar dat allow me ter marry de young lady er my choice. -Dat sho is er great Buro!” - -“We aint married?” - -“Nob-um.” - -“Atter we stan’ up dar befo’ Marse John Durham en say des what all dem -white folks say?” - -“Nob-um.” - -Eve slowly took her seat and gazed down the road thoughtfully. - -“I t’ink I drap eroun’ ter see you en gin you er chance wid de odder -gals fo’ I steps off,” explained Nelse with a grin. - -No answer. - -“You ’member dat night I say sumfin’ ’bout er gal I know once, en -you riz en grab er poun’ er wool outen my head fo’ I kin move?” - -No answer yet. - -“Min’ dat time, you bust de biscuit bode ober my head, en lam me wid de -fire-shovel, en hit me in de burr er de year wid er flatiron es I wuz -makin’ fur de do’?” - -“Yas, I min’s dat sho!” said Eve with evident satisfaction. - -“Doan you wish you nebber done dat?” - -“You black debbil!” - -“Dat’s hit! I’se er bad nigger, M’am,--bad nigger fo’ de war. En I’se -gittin’ wuss en wuss,” Nelse chuckled. - -She looked at him with gathering rage and contempt. - -“En den fudder mo, M’am, I doan lak de way you talk ter me sometimes. -Yo voice des kinder takes de skin off same’s er file. I laks ter hear er -’oman’s voice lak my Missy’s, des es sof’ es wool. Sometime one word -from her keep me warm all winter. De way you talk sometime make me cole -in de summer time.” - -Nelse rose while Eve sat motionless. - -“I des call, M’am, ter drap er little intent inter dem years er yourn, -dat’ll percerlate froo you min’, en when I calls ergin I hopes ter be -welcome wid smiles.” - -Nelse bowed himself out the door in grandiloquent style. - -All the afternoon he was laughing to himself over his triumph, and -imagining the welcome when he returned that evening with his marriage -license and the officer to perform the ceremony. At supper in the -kitchen he was polite and formal in his manners to Eve. She eyed him -in a contemptuous sort of way and never spoke unless it was absolutely -necessary. - -It was about half past eight when Nelse arrived at home with the license -duly issued and the officer of the Bureau ready to perform the ceremony. - -“Des wait er minute here at de corner, sah, twell I kinder breaks de -news to ’em,” said Nelse to the officer. He approached the cabin door -and knocked. - -It was shut and fastened. He got no response. - -He knocked loudly again. - -Eve thrust her head out the window. - -“Who’s dat?” - -“Hits me, M’am, Mister Nelson Gaston, I’se call ter see you.” - -“Den you hump yo’se’f en git away from dat do, you rascal.” - -“De Lawd, honey, I’se des been er foolin’ you ter day. I’se got dem -licenses en de Buro man right out dar now ready ter marry us. You know -yo ole man nebber gwine back on you--I des been er foolin’.” - -“Den you been er foolin’ wid de wrong nigger!” - -“Lawd, honey, doan keep de bridegroom er waitin’.” - -“Git er way from dat do!” - -“G’long chile, en quit yer projeckin’.” Nelse was using his softest and -most persuasive tones now. - -“G’way from dat do!” - -“Come on, Eve, de man waitin’ out dar fur us!” - -“Git away I tells you er I scald you wid er kittle er hot water!” - -Nelse drew back slightly from the door. - -“But, honey, whar yo ole man gwine ter sleep?” - -“Dey’s straw in de barn, en pine shatters in de dog house!” she shouted -slamming the window. - -“Eve, honey!”-- - -“Doan you come honeyin’ me, I’se er spec’able ’oman I is. Ef you wants -ter marry me you got ter come cotin’ me in de day time fust, en bring me -candy, en ribbins en flowers and sich, en you got ter talk purtier’n -you ebber talk in all yo born days. Lots er likely lookin’ niggers come -settin up ter me while you gone in dat wah, en I keep studin’ ’bout -you, you big black rascal. Now you got ter hump yo’se’f ef you eber see -de inside er dis cabin ergin.” - -Crestfallen Nelse returned to the officer. - -“Wall sah, deys er kinder hitch in de perceedins.” - -“What’s the matter?” - -“She ’low I got ter come cotin’ her fust. En I spec I is.” - -The officer laughed and returned to his home. She made Nelse sleep in -the barn for three weeks, court her an hour every day, and bring her -five cents worth of red stick candy and a bouquet of flowers as a peace -offering at every visit. Finally she made him write her a note and ask -her to take a ride with him. Nelse got Charlie to write it for him, and -made his own boy carry it to his mother. After three weeks of humility -and attention to her wishes, she gave her consent, and they were duly -married again. - - - - -CHAPTER IX--A MASTER OF MEN - -THE first Monday in October was court day at Hambright, and from every -nook and corner of Campbell county, the people flocked to town. - -The court house had not yet been transformed into the farce-tragedy hall -where jail birds and drunken loafers were soon to sit on judge’s bench -and in attorney’s chair instead of standing in the prisoner’s dock. The -merciful stay laws enacted by the Legislature had silenced the cry of -the auctioneer until the people might have a moment to gird themselves -for a new life struggle. - -But the black cloud was already seen on the horizon. The people -were restless and discouraged by the wild rumours set afloat by the -Freedman’s Bureau, of coming confiscation, revolution and revenge. A -greater crowd than usual had come to town on the first day. The streets -were black with negroes. - -A shout was heard from the crowd in the square, as the stalwart figure -of General Daniel Worth, the brigade commander of Colonel Gaston’s -regiment was seen shaking hands with the men of his old army. - -The General was a man to command instant attention in any crowd. -An expert in anthropology would have selected his face from among a -thousand as the typical man of the Caucasian race. He was above the -average height, a strong muscular and well-rounded body, crowned by a -heavy shock of what had once been raven black hair, now iron grey. His -face was ruddy with the glow of perfect health and his full round lips -and the twinkle of his eye showed him to be a lover of the good things -of life. He wore a heavy moustache which seemed a fitting ballast -for the lower part of his face against the heavy projecting straight -eyebrows and bushy hair. - -As he shook hands with his old soldiers his face was wreathed in smiles, -his eyes flashed with something like tears and he had a pleasant word -for all. - -Tom Camp was one of the first to spy the General and hobble to him as -fast as his peg-leg would carry him. - -“Howdy, General, howdy do! Lordy it’s good for sore eyes ter see ye!” - Tom held fast to his hand and turning to the crowd said, “Boys, here’s -the best General that ever led a brigade, and there wasn’t a man in it -that wouldn’t a died for him. Now three times three cheers!” And they -gave it with a will. - -“Ah! Tom you’re still at your old tricks,” said the General. “What are -you after now?” - -“A speech General!”--“A speech! A speech!” the crowd echoed. - -The General slapped Tom on the back and said, “What sort of a job is -this you’re putting up on me--I’m no orator! But I’ll just say to you, -boys, that this old peg-leg here was the finest soldier that I ever saw -carry a musket and the men who stood beside him were the most patient, -the most obedient, the bravest men that ever charged a foe and crowned -their General with glory while he safely stood in the rear.” - -Again a cheer broke forth. The General was hurrying toward the court -house, when he was suddenly surrounded by a crowd of negroes. In the -front ranks were a hundred of his old slaves who had worked on his -Campbell county plantation. They seized his hands and laughed and cried -and pleaded for recognition like a crowd of children. Most of them he -knew. Some of their faces he had forgotten. - -“Hi dar, Marse Dan’l, you knows me! Lordy, I’se your boy Joe dat used -ter ketch yo hoss down at the plantation!” - -“Of course, Joe! Of course.” - -“I know Marse Dan’l aint forget old Uncle Rube,” said an aged negro -pushing his way to the front. - -“That I haven’t Reuben! and how’s Aunt Julie Ann? - -“She des tollable, Marse Dan’l. We’se bof un us had de plumbago. How is -you all sence de wah?” - -“Oh! first rate, Reuben. We manage somehow to get enough to eat and if -we do that nowadays we can’t complain.” - -“Dats de God’s truf, Marster sho! En now Marse Dan’l, we all wants you -ter make us er speech en ’splain erbout dis freedom ter us. Dey’s so -many dese yere Buroers en Leaguers round here tellin’ us niggers what’s -er coming’, twell we des doan know nuttin’ fur sho.” - -“Yassir dat’s hit! You tell us er speech Marse Dan’l!” - -The white men crowded up nearer and joined in the cry. There was no -escape. In a few moments the court house was filled with a crowd. - -When he arose a cheer shook the building, and strange as it may seem -to-day, it came with almost equal enthusiasm from white and black. - -“I thank you, my friends,” said the General, “for this evidence of your -confidence. I was a Whig in politics. I reckon I hated a Democrat as God -hates sin. I was a Union man and fought Secession. My opponents won. My -state asked me to defend her soil. As an obedient son I gave my life in -loyal service. - -“I need not tell you as a Union man that I am glad this war is over. -I have always felt as a business man, a cotton manufacturer as well as -farmer, in touch with the free labour of the North as well as the -slave labour of the South, that free labour was the most economical -and efficient. I believe that terrible as the loss of four billions of -dollars in slaves will be to the South, if the South is only let alone -by the politicians and allowed to develop her resources, she will become -what God meant her to be, the garden of the world. I say it calmly and -deliberately, I thank God that slavery is a thing of the past.” - -A whirlwind of applause arose from the negroes. Uncle Reuben’s voice -could be heard above the din. - -“Hear dat! You niggers! Dat’s my ole Marster talkin’ now!” - -“Let me say to the negroes here to-day, this war was not fought for your -freedom by the North, and yet in its terrific struggle, God saw fit to -give you freedom. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are now -yours and the birthright of your children. - -“We need your labour. Be honest, humble, patient, industrious and every -white man in the South will be your friend. What you need now is to -go to work with all your might, build a roof over your head, get a few -acres of land under your feet that is your own, put decent clothes on -your back, and some money in the bank, and you will become indispensable -to the people of the South. They will be your best friends and give you -every right and privilege you are prepared to receive. - -“The man who tells you that your old Master’s land will be divided among -you, is a criminal, or a fool, or both. If you ever own land, you will -earn it in the sweat of your brow like I got mine.” - -“Hear dat now, niggers!” cried old Reuben. - -“The man who tells you that you are going to be given the ballot -indiscriminately with which you can rule your old masters is a criminal -or a fool, or both. It is insanity to talk about the enfranchisement of -a million slaves who can not read their ballots. Mr. Lincoln who set you -free was opposed to any such measure. - -“Let me read an extract from a letter Mr. Lincoln wrote me just before -the war.” - -The General drew from his pocket a letter in the handwriting of the -President and read:-- - -“_My Dear Worth:--You must hold the Union men of the South together at -all hazards. The one passion of my soul is to save the Union. In answer -to the question you ask me about the equality of the races I enclose you -a newspaper clipping reporting my reply to Judge Douglas at Charleston, -Sept. 18, 1858. I could not express myself more plainly. Have this -extract published in every paper in the South you can get to print it._” - -The General paused and turning toward the negroes said, “Now listen -carefully to every word. Says Mr. Lincoln, _I am not, nor ever have been -in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality -of the white and black races! (here is marked applause from a Northern -audience.) I am not, nor ever have been in favour of making voters -or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to -intermarry with white people. I will say in addition to this that there -is a physical difference between the white and black races which I -believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of -social and political equality: and inasmuch as they can not so live, -while they do remain together, there must be the position of the -inferior and superior, and I am, as much as any other man, in favour of -having the superior position assigned to the white race._ - -“This was Lincoln’s position and is the position of nine-tenths of the -voters of his party. It is insanity to believe that the Anglo-Saxon race -at the North can ever be so blinded by passion that they can assume any -other position. - -“Slavery is dead for all time. It would have been destroyed whatever the -end of the war. I know some of the secrets of the diplomatic history of -the Confederacy. General Lee asked the government at Richmond to enlist -200,000 negroes to defend the South, which he declared was their country -as well as ours, and grant them freedom on enlistment. General Lee’s -request was ultimately accepted as the policy of the Confederacy though -too late to save its waning fortunes. Not only this, but the Confederate -government sent a special ambassador to England and France and offered -them the pledge of the South to emancipate every slave in return for -the recognition of the independence of the Confederacy. But when the -ambassador arrived in Europe, the lines of our army had been so broken, -the governments were afraid to interfere. - -“The man who tells you that your old masters are your enemies and may -try to reinslave you is a wilful and malicious liar.” - -“Hear dat, folks!” yelled old Reuben as he waved his arm grandly toward -the crowd. - -“To the white people here to-day, I say be of good cheer. Let politics -alone for awhile and build up your ruined homes. You have boundless -wealth in your soil. God will not forget to send the rain and the dew -and the sun. You showed yourselves on a hundred fields ready to die for -your country. Now I ask you to do something braver and harder. Live for -her when it is hard to live. Let cowards run, but let the brave stand -shoulder to shoulder and build up the waste places till our country is -once more clothed in wealth and beauty.” - -The General bowed in closing to a round of applause. His soldiers -were delighted with his speech and his old slaves revelled In it with -personal pride. But the rank and file of the negroes were puzzled. He -did not preach the kind of doctrine they wished to hear. They had hoped -freedom meant eternal rest, not work. They had dreamed of a life of ease -with government rations three times a day, and old army clothes to last -till they put on the white robes above and struck their golden harps in -paradise. This message the General brought was painful to their newly -awakened imaginations. - -As the General passed through the crowd he met the Ex-Provisional -Governor, Amos Hogg, busy with the organising work of his Leagues. - -“Glad to see you General,” said Hogg extending his hand with a smile on -his leathery face. - -“Well, how are you, Amos, since Macon pulled your wool?” - -“Never felt better in my life, General. I want a few minutes’ talk with -you.” - -“All right, what is it?” - -“General, you’re a progressive man. Come, you’re flirting with the -enemy. The truly loyal men must get together to rescue the state from -the rebels who have it again under their heel.” - -“So Macon’s a rebel because he licked you?” - -“You know the rebel crowd are running this state,” said Hogg. - -“Why, Hogg you were the biggest fool Secessionist I ever saw, and Macon -and I were staunch Union men. We had to fight you tooth and nail. You -talk about the truly loyal!” - -“Yes but, General, I’ve repented. I’ve got my face turned toward the -light.” - -“Yes, I see,--the light that shines in the Governor’s Mansion.” - -“I don’t deny it. ‘Great men choose greater sins, ambition’s mine.’ -Come into this Union movement with me, Worth, and I’ll make you the next -Governor.” - -“I’ll see you in hell first. No, Amos, we don’t belong to the same -breed. You were a Secessionist as long as it paid. When the people you -had misled were being overwhelmed with ruin, and it no longer paid, you -deserted and became ‘loyal’ to get an office. Now you’re organising the -negroes, deserters, and criminals into your secret oath-bound societies. -Union men when the war came fought on one side or the other, because -a Union man was a man, not a coward. If he felt his state claimed his -first love, he fought for his native soil. The gang of plugs you are -getting together now as ‘truly loyal’ are simply cowards, deserters, -and common criminals who claim they were persecuted as Union men. It’s a -weak lie.” - -“We’ll win,” urged Hogg. - -“Never!” the General snorted, and angrily turned on his heel. Before -leaving he wheeled suddenly, faced Hogg and said, “Go on with your fool -societies. You are sowing the wind. There’ll be a lively harvest. I -am organising too. I’m organising a cotton mill, rebuilding our burned -factory, borrowing money from the Yankees who licked us to buy machinery -and give employment to thousands of our poor people. That’s the way to -save the state. We’ve got water power enough to turn the wheels of the -world.” - -“You’ll need our protection in the fight that’s coming,” replied Hogg, -with a straight look that meant much. - -The General was silent a moment. Then he shook his fist in Hogg’s face -and slowly said, “Let me tell you something. When I need protection I’ll -go to headquarters. I’ve got Yankee money in my mills and I can get -more if I need it. You lay your dirty claws on them and I’ll break your -neck.” - - - - -CHAPTER X--THE MAN OR BRUTE IN EMBRYO - -TWO months later General Worth, while busy rebuilding his mills at -Independence, had served on him a summons to appear before the Agent -of the Freedman’s Bureau at Hambright and answer the charge of using -“abusive language” to a freedman. - -The particular freedman who desired to have his feelings soothed by -law was a lazy young negro about sixteen years old whom the General -had ordered whipped and sent from the stables into the fields on one -occasion during the war while on a visit to his farm. Evidently the boy -had a long memory. - -“Now don’t that beat the devil!” exclaimed the General. - -“What is it?” asked his foreman. - -“I’ve got to leave my work, ride on an old freight train thirty -miles, pull through twenty more miles of red mud in a buggy to get to -Hambright, and lose four days, to answer such a charge as that before -some little wizeneyed skunk of a Bureau Agent. My God, it’s enough to -make a Union man remember Secession with regrets!” - -“My stars, General, we can’t get along without you now when we are -getting this machinery in place. Send a lawyer,” growled the foreman. - -“Can’t do it, John--I’m charged with a crime.” - -“Well, I’ll swear!” - -“Do the best you can, I’ll be back in four days, if I don’t kill a -nigger!” said the General with a smile. “I’ve got a settlement to make -with the farm hands anyhow.” - -There was no help for it. When the court convened, and the young negro -saw the face of his old master red with wrath, his heart failed him. He -fled the town and there was no accusing witness. - -The General gazed at the Agent with cold contempt and never opened his -mouth in answer to expressions of regret at the fiasco. - -A few moments later he rode up to the gate of his farm house on the -river hills about a mile out of town. A strapping young fellow of -fifteen hastened to open the gate. - -“Well, Allan, my boy, how are you?” - -“First rate, General. We’re glad to see you! but we didn’t make a -half crop, sir, the niggers were always in town loafing around that -Freedman’s Bureau, holding meetings all night and going to sleep in the -fields.” - -“Well, show me the books,” said the General as they entered the house. - -The General examined the accounts with care and then looked at young -Allan McLeod for a moment as though he had made a discovery. - -“Young man, you’ve done this work well.” - -“I tried to, sir. If the niggers dispute anything, I fixed that by -making the store-keepers charge each item in two books, one on your -account, and one on an account kept separate for every nigger.” - -“Good enough. They’ll get up early to get ahead of you.” - -“I’m afraid they are going to make trouble at the Bureau, sir. That -Agent’s been here holding Union League meetings two or three nights -every week, and he’s got every nigger under his thumb.” - -“The dirty whelp!” growled the General. - -“If you can see me out of the trouble, General, I’d like to jump on him -and beat the life out of him next time he comes out here!” - -The General frowned. - -“Don’t you touch him,--any more than you would a pole cat. I’ve trouble -enough just now.” - -“I could knock the mud out of him in two minutes, if you say the word,” - said Allan eagerly. - -“Yes, I’ve no doubt of it.” The General looked at him thoughtfully. - -He was a well knit powerful youth just turned his fifteenth birthday. He -had red hair, a freckled face, and florid complexion. His features -were regular and pleasing, and his stalwart muscular figure gave him a -handsome look that impressed one with indomitable physical energy. -His lips were full and sensuous, his eyebrows straight, and his high -forehead spoke of brain power as well as horse power. - -He had a habit of licking his lips and running his tongue around inside -of his cheeks when he saw anything or heard anything that pleased him -that was far from intellectual in its suggestiveness. When he did this -one could not help feeling that he was looking at a young well fed -tiger. There was no doubt about his being alive and that he enjoyed it. -His boisterous voice and ready laughter emphasised this impression. - -“Allan, my boy,” said the General when he had examined his accounts, “if -you do everything in life as well as you did these books, you’ll make a -success.” - -“I’m going to do my best to succeed, General. I’ll not be a poor white -man. I’ll promise you that.” - -“Do you go to church anywhere?” - -“No sir, Maw’s not a member of any church, and it’s so far to town I -don’t go.” - -“Well, you must go. You must go to the Sunday School too, and get -acquainted with all the young folks. I’ll speak to Mrs. Durham and get -her to look after you.” - -“All right, sir, I’ll start next Sunday.” Allan was feeling just then -in a good humour with himself and all the world. The compliment of his -employer had so elated him, he felt fully prepared to enter the ministry -if the General had only suggested it. - -The following day was appointed for a settlement of the annual contract -with the negroes. The Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau was the judge -before whom the General, his overseer, and clerk of account, and all the -negroes assembled. - -If the devil himself had devised an instrument for creating race -antagonism and strife he could not have improved on this Bureau in its -actual workings. Had clean handed, competent agents been possible it -might have accomplished good. These agents were as a rule the riff-raff -and trash of the North. It was the supreme opportunity of army cooks, -teamsters, fakirs, and broken down preachers who had turned insurance -agents. They were lifted from penury to affluence and power. The -possibility of corruption and downright theft were practically -limitless. - -The Agent at Hambright had been a preacher in Michigan who lost his -church because of unsavory rumours about his character. He had eked out -a living as a book agent, and then insurance agent. He was a man of some -education and had a glib tongue which the negroes readily mistook -for inspired eloquence. He assumed great dignity and an extraordinary -judicial tone of voice when adjusting accounts. - -General Worth submitted his accounts and they showed that all but six -of the fifty negroes employed had a little overdrawn their wages in -provisions and clothing. - -“I think there is a mistake, General, in these accounts,” said the Rev. -Ezra Perkins the Agent. - -“What?” thundered the General. - -“A mistake in your view of the contracts,” answered Ezra in his oiliest -tone. - -The negroes began to grin and nudge one another, amid exclamations of -“Dar now!” - -“Hear dat!” - -“What do you mean? The contracts are plain. There can be but one -interpretation. I agreed to furnish the men their supplies in advance -and wait until the end of the year for adjustment after the crops were -gathered. As it is, I will lose over five hundred dollars on the farm.” - The General paused and looked at the Agent with rising wrath. - -“It’s useless to talk. I decide that under this contract you are to -furnish supplies yourself and pay your people their monthly wages -besides. I have figured it out that you owe them a little over fifteen -hundred dollars.” - -“Fifteen hundred dollars! You thief!”---- - -“Softly, softly!--I’ll commit you for contempt of court!” - -The General turned on his heel without a word, sprang on his horse, and -in a few minutes alighted at the hotel. He encountered the assistant -agent of the Bureau on the steps. - -[Illustration: 0097] - -“Did you wish to see me, General?” he asked. - -“No! I’m looking for a man--a Union soldier not a turkey buzzard!” He -dashed up to the clerk’s desk. - -“Is Major Grant in his room?” - -“Yes, sir.” - -“Tell him I want to see him.” - -“What can I do for you, General Worth?” asked the Major as he hastened -to meet him. - -“Major Grant, I understand you are a lawyer. You are a man of principle, -or you wouldn’t have fought. When I meet a man that fought us I know I -am talking to a man, not a skunk. This greasy sanctified Bureau Agent, -has decided that I owe my hands fifteen hundred dollars. He knows it’s a -lie. But his power is absolute. I have no appeal to a court. He has all -the negroes under his thumb and he is simply arranging to steal this -money. I want to pay you a hundred dollars as a retainer and have you -settle with the Lord’s anointed, the Rev. Ezra Perkins for me.” - -“With pleasure, General. And it shall not cost you a cent.” - -“I’ll be glad to pay you, Major. Such a decision enforced against me now -would mean absolute ruin. I can’t borrow another cent.” - -“Leave Ezra with me.” - -“Why couldn’t they put soldiers into this Bureau if they had to have it, -instead of these skunks and wolves?” snorted the General. - -“Well, some of them are a little off in the odour of their records at -home, I’ll admit,” said the Major with a dry smile. “But this is the day -of the carrion crow, General. You know they always follow the armies. -They attack the wounded as well as the dead. You have my heartfelt -sympathy. You have dark days ahead! The death of Mr. Lincoln was the -most awful calamity that could possibly have befallen the South. I’m -sorry. I’ve learned to like you Southerners, and to love these beautiful -skies, and fields of eternal green. It’s my country and yours. I fought -you to keep it as the heritage of my children.” - -The General’s eyes filled with tears and the two men silently clasped -each other’s hands. - -“Send in your accounts by your clerk. I’ll look them over to-night and -I’ve no doubt the Honourable Reverend Ezra Perkins will see a new light -with the rising of tomorrow’s sun.” - -And Ezra did see a new light. As the Major cursed him in all the moods -and tenses he knew, Ezra thought he smelled brimstone in that light. - -“I assure you, Major, I’m sorry the thing happened. My assistant did -all the work on these papers. I hadn’t time to give them personal -attention,” the Agent apologised in his humblest voice. - -“You’re a liar. Don’t waste your breath.” - -Ezra bit his lips and pulled his Mormon whiskers. - -“Write out your decision now--this minute--confirming these accounts in -double quick order, unless you are looking for trouble.” - -And Ezra hastened to do as he was bidden. - -The next day while the General was seated on the porch of the little -hotel discussing his campaigns with Major Grant, Tom Camp sent for him. - -Tom took the General round behind his house, with grave ceremony. - -“What are you up to, Tom?” - -“Show you in a minute! I wish I could make you a handsomer present, -General, to show you how much I think of you. But I know yer weakness -anyhow. There’s the finest lot er lightwood you ever seed.” - -Tom turned back some old bagging and revealed a pile of fat pine chips -covered with rosin, evidently chipped carefully out of the boxed place -of live pine trees. - -The General had two crochets, lightwood and waterpower. When he got hold -of a fine lot of lightwood suitable for kindling fires, he would fill -his closet with it, conceal it under his bed, and sometimes under his -mattress. He would even hide it in his bureau drawers and wardrobe and -take it out in little bits like a miser. - -“Lord Tom, that beats the world!” - -“Ain’t it fine? Just smell?” - -“Rosin on every piece! Tom, you cut every tree on your place and every -tree in two miles clean to get that. You couldn’t have made me a gift I -would appreciate more. Old boy, if there’s ever a time in your life that -you need a friend, you know where to find me.” - -“I knowed ye’d like it!” said Tom with a smile. - -“Tom, you’re a man after my own heart. You’re feeling rich enough to -make your General a present when we are all about to starve. You’re a -man of faith. So am I. I say keep a stiff upper lip and peg away. The -sun still shines, the rains refresh, and water runs down hill yet. -That’s one thing Uncle Billy Sherman’s army couldn’t do much with when -they put us to the test of fire. He couldn’t burn up our water power. -Tom, you may not know it, but I do--we’ve got water power enough to turn -every wheel in the world. Wait till we get our harness on it and make -it spin and weave our cotton,--we’ll feed and clothe the human race. -Faith’s my motto. I can hardly get enough to eat now, but better times -are coming. A man’s just as big as his faith. I’ve got faith in the -South. I’ve got faith in the good will of the people of the North. -Slavery is dead. They can’t feel anything but kindly toward an enemy -that fought as bravely and lost all. We’ve got one country now and it’s -going to be a great one.” - -“You’re right, General, faith’s the word.” - -“Tom, you don’t know how this gift from you touches me.” - -The General pressed the old soldier’s hand with feeling. He changed -his orders from a buggy to a two-horse team that could carry all his -precious lightwood. - -He filled the vehicle, and what was left he packed carefully in his -valise. - -He stopped his team in front of the Baptist parsonage to see Mrs. Durham -about Allan McLeod. - -“Delighted to see you, General Worth. It’s refreshing to look into the -faces of our great leaders, if they are still outlawed as rebels by the -Washington government.” - -“Ah, Madam, I need not say it is refreshing to see you, the rarest and -most beautiful flower of the old South in the days of her wealth and -pride! And always the same!” The General bowed over her hand. - -“Yes, I haven’t surrendered yet.” - -“And you never will,” he laughed. - -“Why should I? They’ve done their worst. They have robbed me of all. -I’ve only rags and ashes left.” - -“Things might still be worse, Madam.” - -“I can’t see it. There is nothing but suffering and ruin before us. -These ignorant negroes are now being taught by people who hate or -misunderstand us. They can only be a scourge to society. I am heart-sick -when I try to think of the future!” - -There was a mist about her eyes that betrayed the deep emotion with -which she uttered the last sentence. - -She was a queenly woman of the brunette type with full face of striking -beauty surmounted by a mass of rich chestnut hair. The loss of her -slaves and estate in the war had burned its message of bitterness into -her soul. She had the ways of that imperious aristocracy of the South -that only slavery could nourish. She was still uncompromising upon every -issue that touched the life of the past. - -She believed in slavery as the only possible career for a negro in -America. The war had left her cynical on the future of the new “Mulatto” - nation as she called it, born in its agony. Her only child had died -during the war, and this great sorrow had not softened but rather -hardened her nature. - -Her husband’s career as a preacher was now a double cross to her because -it meant the doom of eternal poverty. In spite of her love for her -husband and her determination with all her opposite tastes to do her -duty as his wife, she could not get used to poverty. She hated it in her -soul with quiet intensity. - -The General was thinking of all this as he tried to frame a cheerful -answer. Somehow he could not think of anything worth while to say to -her. So he changed the subject. - -“Mrs. Durham, I’ve called to ask your interest in your Sunday School in -a boy who is a sort of ward of mine, young Allan McLeod.” - -“That handsome red-headed fellow that looks like a tiger, I’ve seen -playing in the streets?” - -“Yes, I want you to tame him.” - -“Well, I will try for your sake, though he’s a little older than any boy -in my class. He must be over fifteen.” - -“Just fifteen. I’m deeply interested in him. I am going to give him a -good education. His father was a drunken Scotchman in my brigade, whose -loyalty to me as his chief was so genuine and touching I couldn’t help -loving him. He was a man of fine intellect and some culture. His trouble -was drink. He never could get up in life on that account. I have an idea -that he married his wife while on one of his drunks. She is from down in -Robeson county, and he told me she was related to the outlaws who have -infested that section for years. This boy looks like his mother, though -he gets that red hair and those laughing eyes from his father. I want -you to take hold of him and civilise him for me.” - -“I’ll try, General. You know, I love boys.” - -“You will find him rude and boisterous at first, but I think he’s got -something in him.” - -“I’ll send for him to come to see me Saturday.” - -“Thank you, Madam. I must go. My love to Dr. Durham.” - -The next Saturday when Mrs. Durham walked into her little parlour to see -Allan, the boy was scared nearly out of his wits. He sprang to his feet, -stammered and blushed, and looked as though he were going to jump out of -the window. - -Mrs. Durham looked at him with a smile that quite disarmed his fears, -took his outstretched hand, and held it trembling in hers. - -“I know we will be good friends, won’t we?” - -“Yessum,” he stammered. - -“And you won’t tie any more tin cans to dogs like you did to Charlie -Gaston’s little terrier, will you? I like boys full of life and spirit, -just so they don’t do mean and cruel things.” - -The boy was ready to promise her anything. He was charmed with her -beauty and gentle ways. He thought her the most beautiful woman he had -ever seen in the world. - -As they started toward the door, she gently slipped one arm around him, -put her hand under his chin and kissed him. - -Then he was ready to die for her. It was the first kiss he had ever -received from a woman’s lips. His mother was not a demonstrative woman. -He never recalled a kiss she had given him. His blood tingled with the -delicious sense of this one’s sweetness. All the afternoon he sat out -under a tree and dreamed and watched the house where this wonderful -thing had happened to him. - - - - -CHAPTER XI--SIMON LEGREE - -IN the death of Mr. Lincoln, a group of radical politicians, hitherto -suppressed, saw their supreme opportunity to obtain control of the -nation in the crisis of an approaching Presidential campaign. - -Now they could fasten their schemes of proscription, confiscation, and -revenge upon the South. - -Mr. Lincoln had held these wolves at bay during his life by the power -of his great personality. But the Lion was dead, and the Wolf, who had -snarled and snapped at him in life, put on his skin and claimed the -heritage of his power. The Wolf whispered his message of hate, and in -the hour of partisan passion became the master of the nation. - -Busy feet had been hurrying back and forth from the Southern states to -Washington whispering in the Wolf’s ear the stories of sure success, -if only the plan of proscription, disfranchisement of whites, and -enfranchisement of blacks were carried out. - -This movement was inaugurated two years after the war, with every -Southern state in profound peace, and in a life and death struggle -with nature to prevent famine. The new revolution destroyed the Union a -second time, paralysed every industry in the South, and transformed ten -peaceful states into roaring hells of anarchy. We have easily outlived -the sorrows of the war. That was a surgery which healed the body. But -the child has not yet been born whose children’s children will live -to see the healing of the wounds from those four years of chaos, when -fanatics blinded by passion, armed millions of ignorant negroes and -thrust them into mortal combat with the proud, bleeding, halfstarving -Anglo-Saxon race of the South. Such a deed once done, can never be -undone. It fixes the status of these races for a thousand years, if not -for eternity. - -The South was now rapidly gathering into two hostile armies under these -influences, with race marks as uniforms--the Black against the White. - -The Negro army was under the command of a triumvirate, the Carpet-bagger -from the North, the native Scalawag and the Negro Demagogue. - -Entirely distinct from either of these was the genuine Yankee soldier -settler in the South after the war, who came because he loved its genial -skies and kindly people. - -Ultimately some of these Northern settlers were forced into politics -by conditions around them, and they constituted the only conscience -and brains visible in public life during the reign of terror which the -“Reconstruction” régime inaugurated. - -In the winter of 1866 the Union League at Hambright held a meeting of -special importance. The attendance was large and enthusiastic. - -Amos Hogg, the defeated candidate for Governor in the last election, now -the President of the Federation of “Loyal Leagues,” had sent a special -ambassador to this meeting to receive reports and give instructions. - -This ambassador was none other than the famous Simon Legree of Red -River, who had migrated to North Carolina attracted by the first -proclamation of the President, announcing his plan for readmitting the -state to the Union. The rumours of his death proved a mistake. He had -quit drink, and set his mind on greater vices. - -In his face were the features of the distinguished ruffian whose cruelty -to his slaves had made him unique in infamy in the annals of the South. -He was now preeminently the type of the “truly loyal”. At the first -rumour of war he had sold his negroes and migrated nearer the border -land, that he might the better avoid service in either army. He -succeeded in doing this. The last two years of the war, however, the -enlisting officers pressed him hard, until finally he hit on a brilliant -scheme. - -He shaved clean, and dressed as a German emigrant woman. He wore dresses -for two years, did house work, milked the cows and cut wood for a good -natured old German. He paid for his board, and passed for a sister, just -from the old country. - -When the war closed, he resumed male attire, became a violent Union man, -and swore that he had been hounded and persecuted without mercy by the -Secessionist rebels. - -He was looking more at ease now than ever in his life. He wore a silk -hat and a new suit of clothes made by a fashionable tailor in Raleigh. -He was a little older looking than when he killed Uncle Tom on his farm -some ten years before, but otherwise unchanged. He had the same short -muscular body, round bullet head, light grey eyes and shaggy eyebrows, -but his deep chestnut bristly hair had been trimmed by a barber. His -coarse thick lips drooped at the corners of his mouth and emphasised -the crook in his nose. His eyes, well set apart, as of old were bold, -commanding, and flashed with the cold light of glittering steel. His -teeth that once were pointed like the fangs of a wolf had been filed by -a dentist. But it required more than the file of a dentist to smooth out -of that face the ferocity and cruelty that years of dissolute habits had -fixed. - -He was only forty-two years old, but the flabby flesh under his eyes and -his enormous square-cut jaw made him look fully fifty. - -It was a spectacle for gods and men, to see him harangue that Union -League in the platitudes of loyalty to the Union, and to watch the crowd -of negroes hang breathless on his every word as the inspired Gospel of -God. The only notable change in him from the old days was in his speech. -He had hired a man to teach him grammar and pronunciation. He had high -ambitions for the future. - -“Be of good cheer, beloved!” he said to the negroes. “A great day is -coming for you. You are to rule this land. Your old masters are to dig -in the fields and you are to sit under the shade and be gentlemen. Old -Andy Johnson will be kicked out of the White House or hung, and the -farms you’ve worked on so long will be divided among you. You can rent -them to your old masters and live in ease the balance of your life.” - -“Glory to God!” shouted an old negro. - -“I have just been to Washington for our great leader, Amos Hogg. I’ve -seen Mr. Sumner, Mr. Stevens and Mr. Butler. I have shown them that we -can carry any state in the South, if they will only give you the ballot -and take it away from enough rebels. We have promised them the votes in -the Presidential election, and they are going to give us what we want.” - -“Hallelujah! Amen! Yas Lawd!” The fervent exclamations came from every -part of the room. - -After the meeting the negroes pressed around Legree and shook his hand -with eagerness--the same hand that was red with the blood of their race. - -When the crowd had dispersed a meeting of the leaders was held. - -Dave Haley, the ex-slave trader from Kentucky who had dodged back and -forth from the mountains of his native state to the mountains of Western -North Carolina and kept out of the armies, was there. He had settled -in Hambright and hoped at least to get the postoffice under the new -dispensation. - -In the group was the full blooded negro, Tim Shelby. He had belonged to -the Shelbys of Kentucky, but had escaped through Ohio into Canada before -the war. He had returned home with great expectations of revolutions to -follow in the wake of the victorious armies of the North. He had been -disappointed in the programme of kindliness and mercy that immediately -followed the fall of the Confederacy; but he had been busy day and night -since the war in organising the negroes, in secretly furnishing them -arms and wherever possible he had them grouped in military posts and -regularly drilled. He was elated at the brilliant prospects which -Legree’s report from Washington opened. - -“Glorious news you bring us, brother!” he exclaimed as he slapped Legree -on the back. - -“Yes, and it’s straight.” - -“Did Mr. Stevens tell you so?” - -“He’s the man that told me.” - -“Well, you can tie to him. He’s the master now that rules the country,” - said Tim with enthusiasm. - -“You bet he’s runnin’ it. He showed me his bill to confiscate the -property of the rebels and give it to the truly loyal and the niggers. -It’s a hummer. You ought to have seen the old man’s eyes flash fire when -he pulled that bill out of his desk and read it to me.” - -“When will he pass it?” - -“Two years, yet. He told me the fools up North were not quite ready -for it; and that he had two other bills first, that would run the South -crazy and so fire the North that he could pass anything he wanted and -hang old Andy Johnson besides.” - -“Praise God,” shouted Tim, as he threw his arms around Legree and hugged -him. - -Tim kept his kinky hair cut close, and when excited he had a way of -wrinkling his scalp so as to lift his ears up and down like a mule. -His lips were big and thick, and he combed assiduously a tiny moustache -which he tried in vain to pull out in straight Napoleonic style. - -He worked his scalp and ears vigourously as he exclaimed, “Tell us the -whole plan, brother!” - -“The plan’s simple,” said Legree. “Mr. Stevens is going to give the -nigger the ballot, and take it from enough white men to give the niggers -a majority. Then he will kick old Andy Johnson out of the White House, -put the gag on the Supreme Court so the South can’t appeal, pass his -bill to confiscate the property of the rebels and give it to loyal men -and the niggers, and run the rebels out.” - -“And the beauty of the plan is,” said Tim with unction, “that they are -going to allow the Negro to vote to give himself the ballot and not -allow the white man to vote against it. That’s what I call a dead sure -thing.” Tim drew himself up, a sardonic grin revealing his white teeth -from ear to ear, and burst into an impassioned harangue to the excited -group. He was endowed with native eloquence, and had graduated from a -college in Canada under the private tutorship of its professors. He was -well versed in English History. He could hold an audience of negroes -spell bound, and his audacity commanded the attention of the boldest -white man who heard him. - -Legree, Perkins and Haley cheered his wild utterances and urged him to -greater flights. - -He paused as though about to stop when Legree, evidently surprised and -delighted at his powers said, “Go on! Go on!” - -“Yes, go on,” shouted Perkins. “We are done with race and colour lines.” - -A dreamy look came to Tim’s eyes as he continued, “Our proud white -aristocrats of the South are in a panic it seems. They fear the coming -power of the Negro. They fear their Desdemonas may be fascinated again -by an Othello! Well, Othello’s day has come at last. If he has dreamed -dreams in the past his tongue dared not speak, the day is fast coming -when he will put these dreams into deeds, not words. - -“The South has not paid the penalties of her crimes. The work of the -conqueror has not yet been done in this land. Our work now is to -bring the proud low and exalt the lowly. This is the first duty of the -conqueror. - -“The French Revolutionists established a tannery where they tanned the -hides of dead aristocrats into leather with which they shod the common -people. This was France in the eighteenth century with a thousand years -of Christian culture. - -“When the English army conquered Scotland they hunted and killed every -fugitive to a man, tore from the homes of their fallen foes their wives, -stripped them naked, and made them follow the army begging bread, the -laughing stock and sport of every soldier and camp follower! This was -England in the meridian of Anglo-Saxon intellectual glory, the England -of Shakespeare who was writing Othello to please the warlike populace. - -“I say to my people now in the language of the inspired Word, ‘All -things are yours!’ I have been drilling and teaching them through the -Union League, the young and the old. I have told the old men that they -will be just as useful as the young. If they can’t carry a musket they -can apply the torch when the time comes. And they are ready now to -answer the call of the Lord!” - -They crowded around Tim and wrung his hand. - -* * * * * - -Early in 1867, two years after the war, Thaddeus Stevens passed through -Congress his famous bill destroying the governments of the Southern -states, and dividing them into military districts, enfranchising the -whole negro race, and disfranchising one-fourth of the whites. The army -was sent back to the South to enforce these decrees at the point of -the bayonet. The authority of the Supreme Court was destroyed by a -supplementary act and the South denied the right of appeal. Mr. Stevens -then introduced his bill to confiscate the property of the white people -of the South. The negroes laid down their hoes and plows and began to -gather in excited meetings. Crimes of violence increased daily. Not -a night passed but that a burning barn or home wrote its message of -anarchy on the black sky. - -The negroes refused to sign any contracts to work, to pay rents, or -vacate their houses on notice even from the Freedman’s Bureau. - -The negroes on General Worth’s plantation, not only refused to work, or -move, but organised to prevent any white man from putting his foot on -the land. - -General Worth procured a special order from the headquarters of the -Freedman’s Bureau for the district located at Independence. When the -officer appeared and attempted to serve this notice, the negroes mobbed -him. - -A company of troops were ordered to Hambright, and the notice served -again by the Bureau official accompanied by the Captain of this company. - -The negroes asked for time to hold a meeting and discuss the question. -They held their meeting and gathered fully five hundred men from the -neighbourhood, all armed with revolvers or muskets. They asked Legree -and Tim Shelby to tell them what they should do. There was no uncertain -sound in what Legree said. He looked over the crowd of eager faces with -pride and conscious power. - -“Gentlemen, your duty is plain. Hold your land. It’s yours. You’ve -worked it for a lifetime. These officers here tell you that old Andy -Johnson has pardoned General Worth and that you have no rights on the -land without his contract. I tell you old Andy Johnson has no right to -pardon a rebel, and that he will be hung before another year. Thaddeus -Stevens, Charles Sumner and B. F. Butler are running this country. Mr. -Stevens has never failed yet on anything he has set his hand. He has -promised to give you the land. Stick to it. Shake your fist in old Andy -Johnson’s face and the face of this Bureau and tell them so.” - -“Dat we will!” shouted a negro woman, as Tim Shelby rose to speak. - -“You have suffered,” said Tim. “Now let the white man suffer. Times -have changed. In the old days the white man said, ‘John, come black my -boots’! And the poor negro had to black his boots. I expect to see the -day when I will say to a white man, ‘Black my boots!’ And the white man -will tip his hat and hurry to do what I tell him.” - -“Yes, Lawd! Glory to God! Hear dat now!” - -“We will drive the white men out of this country. That is the purpose of -our friends at Washington. If white men want to live in the South they -can become our servants. If they don’t like their job they can move to -a more congenial climate. You have Congress on your side, backed by a -million bayonets. There is no President. The Supreme Court is chained. -In San Domingo no white man is allowed to vote, hold office, or hold -a foot of land. We will make this mighty South a more glorious San -Domingo.” - -A frenzied shout rent the air. Tim and Legree were carried on the -shoulders of stalwart men in triumphant procession with five hundred -crazy negroes yelling and screaming at their heels. - -The officers made their escape in the confusion and beat a hasty retreat -to town. They reported the situation to headquarters, and asked for -instructions. - - - - -CHAPTER XII--RED SNOW DROPS - -THE spirit of anarchy was in the tainted air. The bonds that held -society were loosened. Government threatened to become organised crime -instead of the organised virtue of the community. - -The report of crimes of unusual horror among the ignorant and the -vicious began now to startle the world. - -The Rev. John Durham on his rounds among the poor discovered a little -negro boy whom the parents had abandoned to starve. His father had -become a drunken loafer at Independence and the Freedman’s Bureau -delivered the child to his mother and her sister who lived in a cabin -about two miles from Hambright, and ordered them to care for the boy. - -A few days later the child had disappeared. A search was instituted, and -the charred bones were found in an old ash heap in the woods near this -cabin. The mother had knocked him in the head and burned the body in a -drunken orgie with dissolute companions. - -The sense of impending disaster crushed the hearts of thoughtful and -serious people. One of the last acts of Governor Macon, whose office was -now under the control of the military commandant at Charleston, South -Carolina, was to issue a proclamation, appointing a day of fasting and -prayer to God for deliverance from the ruin that threatened the state -under the dominion of Legree and the negroes. - -It was a memorable day in the history of the people. - -In many places they met in the churches the night before, and held -all-night watches and prayer meetings. They felt that a pestilence -worse than the Black Death of the Middle Ages threatened to extinguish -civilisation. - -The Baptist church at Hambright was crowded to the doors with -white-faced women and sorrowful men. - -About ten o’clock in the morning, pale and haggard from a sleepless -night of prayer and thought, the Preacher arose to address the people. -The hush of death fell as he gazed silently over the audience for -a moment. How pale his face! They had never seen him so moved with -passions that stirred his inmost soul. His first words were addressed to -God. He did not seem to see the people before him. - -“Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. - -“Before the mountains were brought forth or ever Thou hadst formed the -earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God!” - -The people instinctively bowed their heads, fired by the subtle quality -of intense emotion the tones of his voice communicated, and many of the -people were already in tears. - -“Thou turnest man to destruction: and sayest, return, ye children of -men.” - -“Who knowest the power of thine anger?” - -“Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent Thee concerning Thy -servants.” - -“Beloved,” he continued, “it was permitted unto your fathers and -brothers and children to die for their country. You must live for her in -the black hour of despair. There will be no roar of guns, no long lines -of gleaming bayonets, no flash of pageantry or martial music to stir -your souls. - -“You are called to go down, man by man, alone, naked and unarmed in -the blackness of night and fight with the powers of hell for your -civilisation. - -“You must look this question squarely in the face. You are to be put to -the supreme test. You are to stand at the judgment bar of the ages and -make good your right to life. The attempt is to be deliberately made to -blot out Anglo-Saxon society and substitute African barbarism. - -“A few years ago a Southern Representative in a stupid rage knocked -Charles Sumner down with a cane and cracked his skull. Now it is this -poor cracked brain, mad with hate and revenge, that is attempting to -blot the Southern states from the map of the world and build Negro -territories on their ruins. In the madness of party passions, for the -first time in history, an anarchist, Thaddeus Stevens, has obtained the -dictatorship of a great Constitutional Government, hauled down its flag -and nailed the Black Flag of Confiscation and Revenge to its masthead. - -“The excuse given for this, that the lawmakers of the South attempted to -reinslave the Negro by their enactments against vagrants and provisions -for apprenticeship, is so weak a lie, it will not deserve the notice -of a future historian. Every law passed on these subjects since the -abolition of slavery was simply copied from the codes of the Northern -states where free labour was the basis of society. - -“Lincoln alone, with his great human heart and broad statesmanship could -have saved us. But the South had no luck. Again and again in the war, -victory was within her grasp, and an unseen hand snatched it away. In -the hour of her defeat the bullet of a madman strikes down the great -President, her last refuge in ruin! - -“God alone is our help. Let us hold fast to our faith in Him. We can -only cry with aching hearts in the language of the Psalmist of old, ‘How -long, O Lord? how long!’ - -“The voices of three men now fill the world with their bluster--Charles -Sumner, a crack-brained theorist; Thad-deus Stevens, a clubfooted -misanthrope, and B. F. Butler, a triumvirate of physical and mental -deformity. Yet they are but the cracked reeds of a great organ that -peals forth the discord of a nation’s blind rage. When the storm is -past, and reason rules passion, they will be flung into oblivion. We -must bend to the storm. It is God’s will.” - -The people left the church with heavy hearts. They were hopelessly -depressed. In the afternoon, as the churches were being slowly emptied, -groups of negroes stood on the corners talking loudly and discussing the -meaning of this new Sunday so strangely observed. It began to snow. It -was late in March and this was an unusual phenomenon in the South. - -The next morning the earth was covered with four inches of snow, that -glistened in the sun with a strange reddish hue. On examination it was -found that every snow drop had in it a tiny red spot that looked like -a drop of blood! Nothing of the kind had ever been seen before in the -history of the world, so far as any one knew. - -This freak of nature seemed a harbinger of sure and terrible calamity. -Even the most cultured and thoughtful could not shake off the impression -it made. - -The Preacher did his best to cheer the people in his daily intercourse -with them. His Sunday sermons seemed in these darkest days unusually -tender and hopeful. It was a marvel to those who heard his bitter and -sorrowful speech on the day of fasting and prayer, that he could preach -such sermons as those which followed. - -Occasionally old Uncle Joshua Miller would ask him to preach for the -negroes in their new church on Sunday afternoons. He always went, hoping -to keep some sort of helpful influence over them in spite of their new -leaders and teachers. It was strange to watch this man shake hands with -these negroes, call them familiarly by their names, ask kindly after -their families, and yet carry in his heart the presage of a coming -irreconcilable conflict. For no one knew more clearly than he, that the -issues were being joined from the deadly grip of that conflict of -races that would determine whether this Republic would be Mulatto or -Anglo-Saxon. Yet at heart he had only the kindliest feelings for -these familiar dusky faces now rising a black storm above the horizon, -threatening the existence of civilised society, under the leadership of -Simon Legree, and Mr. Stevens. - -It seemed a joke sometimes as he thought of it, a huge, preposterous -joke, this actual attempt to reverse the order of nature, turn society -upside down, and make a thicklipped, flat-nosed negro but yesterday -taken from the jungle, the ruler of the proudest and strongest race of -men evolved in two thousand years of history. Yet when he remembered the -fierce passions in the hearts of the demagogues who were experimenting -with this social dynamite, it was a joke that took on a hellish, -sinister meaning. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII--DICK - -WHEN Charlie Gaston reached his home after a never-to-be-forgotten day -in the woods with the Preacher, he found a ragged little dirt-smeared -negro boy peeping through the fence into the woodyard. - -“What you want?” cried Charlie. - -“Nuttin!” - -“What’s your name?” - -“Dick.” - -“Who’s your father?” - -“Haint got none. My mudder say she was tricked, en I’se de trick!” he -chuckled and walled his eyes. - -Charlie came close and looked him over. Dick giggled and showed the -whites of his eyes. - -“What made that streak on your neck?” - -“Nigger done it wid er axe.” - -“What nigger?” - -“Low life nigger name er Amos what stays roun’ our house Sundays.” - -“What made him do it?” - -“He low he wuz me daddy, en I sez he wuz er liar, en den he grab de axe -en try ter chop me head off.” - -“Gracious, he ’most killed you!” - -“Yassir, but de doctor sewed me head back, en hit grow’d.” - -“Goodness me!” - -“Say!” grinned Dick. - -“What?” - -“I likes you.” - -“Do you?” - -“Yassir, en I aint gwine home no mo’. I done run away, en I wants ter -live wid you.” - -“Will you help me and Nelse work?” - -“Dat I will. I can do mos’ anyting. You ax yer Ma fur me, en doan let -dat nigger Nelse git holt er me.” Charlie’s heart went out to the ragged -little waif. He took him by the hand, led him into the yard, found his -mother, and begged her to give him a place to sleep and keep him. - -His mother tried to persuade him to make Dick go back to his own home. -Nelse was loud in his objections to the new comer, and Aunt Eve looked -at him as though she would throw him over the fence. - -But Dick stuck doggedly to Charlie’s heels. - -“Mama dear, see, they tried to cut his head oft with an axe,” cried the -boy, and he wheeled Dick around and showed the terrible scar across the -back of his neck. - -“I spec hits er pity dey didn’t cut hit clean off,” muttered Nelse. - -“Mama, you can’t send him back to be killed!” - -“Well, darling, I’ll see about it to-morrow.” - -“Come on Dick, I’ll show you where to sleep!” - -The next day Dick’s mother was glad to get rid of him by binding him -legally to Mrs. Gaston, and a lonely boy found a playmate and partner in -work, he was never to forget. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV--THE NEGRO UPRISING - -THE summer of 1867! Will ever a Southern man or woman who saw it forget -its scenes? A group of oath-bound secret societies, The Union League, -The Heroes of America, and The Red Strings dominating society, and -marauding bands of negroes armed to the teeth terrorising the country, -stealing, burning and murdering. - -Labour was not only demoralised, it had ceased to exist Depression -was universal, farming paralysed, investments dead, and all property -insecure. Moral obligations were dropping away from conduct, and a gulf -as deep as hell and high as heaven opening between the two races. - -The negro preachers openly instructed their flocks to take what they -needed from their white neighbours. If any man dared prosecute a thief, -the answer was a burned barn or a home in ashes. - -The wildest passions held riot at Washington. The Congress of the United -States as a deliberative body under constitutional forms of government -no longer existed. The Speaker of the House shook his fist at the -President and threatened openly to hang him, and he was arraigned for -impeachment for daring to exercise the constitutional functions of his -office! - -The division agents of the Freedman’s Bureau in the South sent to -Washington the most alarming reports, declaring a famine imminent. In -reply the vindictive leaders levied a tax of fifteen dollars a bale on -cotton, plunging thousands of Southern farmers into immediate bankruptcy -and giving to India and Egypt the mastery of the cotton markets of the -world! - -Congress became to the desolate South what Attila, the “_Scourge of -God_” was to civilised Europe. - -The Abolitionists of the North, whose conscience was the fire that -kindled the Civil War, rose in solemn protest against this insanity. -Their protest was drowned in the roar of multitudes maddened by -demagogues who were preparing for a political campaign. - -Late in August Hambright and Campbell county were thrilled with horror -at the report of a terrible crime. A whole white family had been -murdered in their home, the father, mother and three children in one -night, and no clue to the murderers could be found. - -Two days later the rumour spread over the country that a horde of -negroes heavily armed were approaching Hambright burning, pillaging and -murdering. - -All day terrified women, some walking with babes in their arms, some -riding in old wagons and carrying what household goods they could load -on them, were hurrying with blanched faces into the town. - -By night five hundred determined white men had answered an alarm bell -and assembled in the court house. Every negro save a few faithful -servants had disappeared. A strange stillness fell over the village. - -Mrs. Gaston sat in her house without a light, looking anxiously out -of the window, overwhelmed with the sense of helplessness. Charlie, -frightened by the wild stories he had heard, was trying in spite of his -fears to comfort her. - -“Don’t cry, Mama!” - -“I’m not crying because I’m afraid, darling, I’m only crying because -your father is not here to-night. I can’t get used to living without him -to protect us.” - -“I’ll take care of you, Mama--Nelse and me.” - -“Where is Nelse?” - -“He’s cleaning up the shot gun.” - -“Tell him to come here.” - -When Nelse approached his Mistress asked, “Nelse, do you really think -this tale is true?” - -“No, Missy, I doan believe nary word uf it. Same time I’se gettin’ ready -fur ’em. Ef er nigger come foolin’ roun’ dis house ter night, he’ll -t’ink he’s run ergin er whole regiment! I hain’t been ter wah fur -nuttin’.” - -“Nelse, you have always been faithful. I trust you implicitly.” - -“De Lawd, Missy, dat you kin do! I fight fur you en dat boy till I drap -dead in my tracks!” - -“I believe you would.” - -“Yessum, cose I would. En I wants dat swo’de er Marse Charles to-night, -Missy, en Charlie ter help me sharpen ’im on de grine stone.” - -She took the sword from its place and handed it to Nelse. Was there just -a shade of doubt in her heart as she saw his black hand close over its -hilt as he drew it from the scabbard and felt its edge! If so she gave -no sign. - -Charlie turned the grindstone while Nelse proceeded to violate the laws -of nations by putting a keen edge on the blade. - -“Nebber seed no sense in dese dull swodes nohow!” - -“Why ain’t they sharp, Nelse?” - -“Doan know, honey. Marse Charles tell me de law doan ’low it, but dey -sho hain’t no law now!” - -“We’ll sharpen it, won’t we, Nelse?” whispered the boy as he turned -faster. - -“Dat us will, honey. En den you des watch me mow niggers ef dey come er -prowlin’ round dis house!” - -“Did you kill many Yankees in the war, Nelse?” - -“Doan know, honey, spec I did.” - -“Are you going to take the gun or the sword?” - -“Bofe um ’em chile. I’se gwine ter shoot er pair er niggers fust, en -den charge de whole gang wid dis swode. Hain’t nuttin’ er nigger’s feard -uf lak er keen edge. Wish ter God I had a razer long es dis swode! I’d -des walk clean froo er whole army er niggers wid guns. Man, hit ’ud -des natchelly be er sight! Day’d slam dem guns down en bust demselves -open gittin’ outen my way!” - -When the sun rose next morning the bodies of ten negroes lay dead and -wounded in the road about a mile outside of town. The pickets thrown out -in every direction had discovered their approach about eleven o’clock. -They were allowed to advance within a mile. There were not more than two -hundred in the gang, dozens of them were drunk, and like the Sepoys of -India, they were under the command of a white Scalawag. At the first -volley they broke and fled in wild disorder. Their leader managed to -escape. - -This event cleared the atmosphere for a few weeks; and the people -breathed more freely when another company of army regulars marched into -the town and camped in the school grounds of the old academy. - - - - -CHAPTER XV--THE NEW CITIZEN KING - -OF all the elections ever conducted by the English speaking race the -one held under the “Reconstruction” act of 1867 in the South was the -most unique. - -Ezra Perkins the agent of the Freedman’s Bureau issued a windy -proclamation to the new citizens to come forward on a certain day to -register and receive their ‘elective franchise.’ - -The negroes poured into town from every direction from early dawn. Some -carried baskets, some carried jugs, and some were pushing wheelbarrows, -but most of them had an empty bag. They were packed around the Agency in -a solid black mass. - -Nelse laughed until a crowd gathered around him. - -“Lordy, look at dem bags!” he shouted. “En dars ole Ike wid er jug. -He’s gwine ter take hisen in licker. En bress God dars er fool wid er -wheel-barer!” Nelse lay down and rolled with laughter. - -They failed to see the joke, and when the Agency was opened they made a -break for the door, trampling each other down in a mad fear that there -wouldn’t be enough ‘elective franchise’ to go round! - -The first negro who emerged from the door came with a crestfallen face -and an empty bag on his arm. - -He was surrounded by anxious inquirers. “What wuz hit?” - -“Nuffin. Des stan up dar befo’ er man wid big whiskers en he make me -swar ter export de Constertution er de Nunited States er Nor’f Calliny.” - -When Nelse appeared Perkins looked at him a moment and asked, “Are you a -member of the Union League?” - -“Dat I hain’t.” - -“Then stand aside and let these men register. If you want to vote you -had better join.” - -Nelse made no reply, but in a short time he returned with the Rev. John -Durham by his side. He was allowed to register, but from that day he was -a marked man among his race. - -When the registration closed Perkins was in high glee. - -“We’ve got ’em, Timothy! It’s a dead sure thing!” he cried as he -slipped his arm around Tim’s shoulder. - -“Will the majority be big?” asked Tim. - -“If it ain’t big enough we’ll disfranchise more aristocrats and -enfranchise the dogs.” Tim wondered whether this proposition was -altogether flattering. - -During the progress of the campaign, a committee from the organisation -of the “truly loyal,” Ezra Perkins and Dave Haley, called on Tom Camp. - -“Mr. Camp, we want your help as a leader among the poor white people to -save the country from these rebel aristocrats who have ruined it,” said -Ezra. - -“You’re barkin’ up the wrong tree!” answered Tom dryly. - -“The poor men have got to stand together now and get their rights.” - -“Well if I’ve got to stand with niggers, have ’em hug me and blow -their breath in my face, as you fellers are doin’, you can count me -out!--and if that’s all you want with me, you’ll find the door open.” - -Haley tried his hand. - -“Look here, Camp, we ain’t got no hard feelin’s agin you, but there’s -agoin’ to be trouble for every rebel in this county who don’t git on our -side and do it quick.” - -“I’m used to trouble pardner,” replied Tom. - -“You’ve got a nice little cabin home and ten acres of land. Fight us, -and we will give this house and lot to a nigger.” - -“I don’t believe it,” cried Tom. - -“Come, come,” said Perkins, “you’re not fool enough to fight us when -we’ve got a dead sure thing, a majority fixed before the voting begins, -Congress and the whole army back of us?” - -“I ain’t er nigger!” said Tom, doggedly. - -“What’s the use to be a fool Camp,” cried Haley. “We are just using the -nigger to stick the votes in the box. He thinks he’s goin’ to heaven, -but we’ll ride him all the way up to the gate and hitch him on the -outside. Will you come in with us?” - -“Don’t like your complexion!” he answered rising and going toward the -door. - -“Then we’ll turn you out into the road in less than two years,” said -Haley as they left. - -“All right!” laughed the old soldier, “I slept on the ground four years, -boys.” - -When he came back into the room he met his wife with tears in her eyes. -“Oh! Tom, I’m afraid they’ll do what they say.” - -“To tell you the truth, ole woman, I’m afraid so too. But we’re in the -hands of the Lord. This is His house. If He wants to take it away from -me now when I’m crippled and helpless, He knows what’s best.” - -“I wish you didn’t have to go agin ’em.” - -“I ain’t er nigger, ole gal, and I don’t flock with niggers. If God -Almighty had meant me to be one He’d have made my skin black.” - -On election day no publication of the polling places had been made. -Ezra Perkins had in charge the whole county. He consolidated the fifteen -voting precincts into three and located these in negro districts. He -notified only the members of the secret Leagues where these three voting -places were to be found, and other people were allowed to find them on -the day of the election as best they could. - -Perkins made himself the poll holder at Hambright though he was a -candidate for member of the Constitutional Convention, and the poll -holders were allowed to keep the ballots in their possession for three -days before forwarding to the General in command at Charleston, South -Carolina. - -Scores of negroes, under the instructions of their leaders voted three -times that day. Every negro boy fairly well grown was allowed to vote -and no questions asked as to his age. - -Nelse approached the polls attempting to cast a vote against the Rev. -Ezra Perkins the poll holder. A crowd of infuriated negroes surrounded -him in a moment. - -“Kill ’im! Knock ’im in the head! De black debbil, votin’ agin his -colour!” - -Nelse threw his big fists right and left and soon had an open space in -the edge of which lay a half dozen negroes scrambling to get to their -feet. - -The negroes formed a line in front of him and the foremost one said, -“You try ter put dat vote in de box we bust yo head open!” - -Nelse knocked him down before he got the words well out of him mouth. -“Honey, I’se er bad nigger!” he shouted with a grin as he stepped back -and started to rush the line. - -Perkins ordered the guard to arrest him. - -As the guard carried Nelse away a crowd of angry negroes followed -grinning and cursing. - -“We lay fur you yit, ole hoss!” was their parting word as he disappeared -through the jail door. - -That night at the supper table in the hotel at Ham-bright an informal -census of the voters was taken. There were present at the table a -distinguished ex-judge, two lawyers, a General, two clergymen, a -merchant, a farmer, and two mechanics. The only man of all allowed to -vote that day was the negro who waited on the table. - -Thus began the era of a corrupt and degraded ballot in the South that -was to bring forth sorrow for generations yet unborn. The intelligence, -culture, wealth, social prestige, brains, conscience and the historic -institutions of a great state had been thrust under the hoof of -ignorance and vice. - -The votes were sent to the military commandant at Charleston and the -results announced. The negroes had elected no representatives and the -whites 10. It was gravely announced from Washington that a “republican -form of government” had at last been established in North Carolina. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI--LEGREE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE - -THE new government was now in full swing and a saturnalia began. Amos -Hogg was Governor, Simon Legree Speaker of the House, and the Hon. Tim -Shelby leader of the majority on the floor of the House. - -Raleigh, the quaint little City of Oaks, never saw such an assemblage of -law-makers gather in the grey stone Capitol. - -Ezra Perkins, who was a member of the Senate, was frugal in his habits -and found lodgings at an unpretentious boarding house near the Capitol -square. - -The room was furnished with six iron cots on which were placed straw -mattresses and six honourable members of the new Legislature occupied -these. They were close enough together to allow a bottle of whiskey to -be freely passed from member to member at any hour of the night. They -thought the beds were arranged with this in view and were much pleased. - -Ezra was the only man of the crowd who arrived in Raleigh with a valise -or trunk. He had a carpet bag. The others simply had one shirt and a few -odds and ends tied in red bandana handkerchiefs. - -Three of them had walked all the way to Raleigh and kept in the woods -from habit as deserters. The other two rode on the train and handed -their tickets to the first stranger they saw on the platform of the car -they boarded. - -“What’s this for!” said the stranger. - -“Them’s our tickets. Ain’t you the door keeper?” - -“No, but there ought to be one to every circus. You’ll have one when you -get to Raleigh.” - -The landlady, Mrs. Duke, apologised for the poor beds, when she showed -them to their room. “I’m sorry, gentlemen, I can’t give you softer -beds.” - -“That’s all right M’am! them’s fine. Us fellows been sleeping in the -woods and in straw stacks so long dodgin’ ole Vance’s officers, them -white sheets is the finest thing we’ve seed in four years, er more.” - -They were humble and made no complaints. But at the end of the week they -gathered around the Rev. Ezra Perkins for a grave consultation. - -“When are we goin’ ter draw?” said one. - -“Air we ever goin’ ter draw?” asked another with sorrow and doubt. - -“What are we here fer ef we cain’t draw?” pleaded another looking sadly -at Ezra. - -“Gentlemen,” answered Ezra, “it will be all right in a little while. The -Treasurer is just cranky. We can draw our mileage Monday anyhow.” - -At daylight they took their places on the bank’s steps, and at ten -o’clock when the bank opened, the doors were besieged by a mob of -members painfully anxious to draw before it might be too late. - -Next morning there was a disturbance at the breakfast table. The morning -paper had in blazing head lines an account of one James “Mileage,” who -was a member of the Legislature from an adjoining county thirty-seven -miles distant. He had sworn to a mileage record of one hundred and seven -dollars. - -“That’s an unfortunate mistake, sir,” said Perkins. - -“Ten’ ter yer own business?” answered James. - -“I call it er purty sharp trick,” grinned his partner. - -“I call it stealin’,” sneered an honourable member, evidently envious. - -And James “Mileage” was his name for all time, but “Mileage” shot a -malicious look at the member who had called him a thief. - -The next morning the paper of the Opposition had another biographical -sketch on the front page. - -“I see your name in the paper this morning, Mr. Scoggins?” remarked Mrs. -Duke, looking pleasantly at the member who had spoken so rudely to James -“Mileage” the day before. - -“Well I reckon I’ll make my mark down here before it’s over,” chuckled -Scoggins with pride. “What do they say about me, M’am?” - -“They say you stole a lot of hogs!” tittered the landlady. - -Mr. Scoggins turned red. - -“Oho, is there another thief in this hon’able body?” sneered James -“Mileage.” - -“That’s all a lie, M’am, ’bout them hogs. I didn’ steal ’em. I just -pressed ’em from a Secessiner.” - -“Jes so,” said James ‘Mileage’, “but they say you were a deserter at the -time, and not exactly in the service of your country.” - -“Ye can’t pay no ’tention ter rebel lies ergin Union men!” explained -Scoggins, eating faster. - -“Yes, that’s so,” said James ‘Mileage’, “but there’s another funny thing -in the paper about you.” - -“What’s that?” cried Scoggins with new alarm. - -“That Mr. Scoggins met Sherman’s army with loud talk about lovin’ -the Union, but that a mean Yankee officer gave him a cussin’ fur not -fightin’ on one side or the other, took all that bacon he had stolen, -hung him up by the heels, gave him thirty lashes and left him hanging in -the air.” - -“It’s a lie! It’s a lie!” bellowed Scoggins. - -“Gentlemen! Gentlemen! we must not have such behaviour at my table!” - exclaimed Mrs. Duke. - -And “Hog” Scoggins was his name from that day. - -By the end of the week another painful story was printed about one of -this group of statesmen. The newspaper brutally declared that he had -been convicted of stealing a rawhide from a neighbour’s tanyard. It -could not be denied. And then a sad thing happened. The moral sentiment -of the little community could not endure the strain. It suddenly -collapsed. They laughed at these incidents of the sad past and agreed -that they were jokes. They began to call each other James “Mileage,” - “Hog” Scoggins, and “Rawhide” in the friendliest way, and dared a -scornful world to make them feel ashamed of anything! - -But the Rev. Ezra Perkins was pained by this breakdown. He felt that -being safely removed two thousand miles from his own past, he might hope -for a future. - -“Mrs. Duke,” he complained to his landlady, “I will have to ask you to -give me a room to myself. I’ll pay double. I want quiet where I can read -my Bible and meditate occasionally.” - -“Certainly Mr. Perkins, if you are willing to pay for it.” - -It was so arranged. But this assumption of moral superiority by Perkins -grieved “Mileage,” “Hog” and “Rawhide,” and a coolness sprang up between -them, until they found Ezra one night in his place of meditation dead -drunk and his room on fire. He had gone to sleep in his chair with his -empty bottle by his side, and knocked the candle over on the bed. Then -they agreed that forever after they would all stand together, shoulder -to shoulder, until they brought the haughty low and exalted the lowly -and the “loyal.” - -Tim Shelby early distinguished himself in this august assemblage. His -wit and eloquence from the first commanded the admiration of his party. - -When he had fairly established himself as leader, he rose in his seat -one day with unusual gravity. His scalp was working his ears with great -rapidity showing his excitement. - -He had in his hands a bill on which he had spent months in secret study. -He had not even hinted its contents to any of his associates. Under the -call for bills his voice rang with deep emphasis, “Mr. Speaker!” - -Legree gave him instant recognition. - -“I desire to introduce the following: ‘A Bill to be Entitled An Act to -Relieve Married Women from the Bonds of Matrimony when United to Felons, -and to Define Felony’.” - -A page hurried to the Reading Clerk with his bill. - -The hum of voices ceased. The five or six representatives of the white -race left their desks and walked quickly toward the Speaker. The Clerk -read in a loud clear voice. - -“The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact: - -“I That all citizens of the State who took part in the Rebellion and -fought against the Union, or held office in the so called Confederate -States of America, shall be held guilty of felony, and shall be forever -debarred from voting or holding office.” - -“II That the married relations of all such felons are hereby dissolved -and their wives absolutely divorced, and said felons shall be forever -barred from contracting marriage or living under the same roof with -their former wives.” - -Instantly four Carpet-bagger members of some education rushed for Tim’s -seat. “Withdraw that bill, man, quick! My God, are you mad!” they all -cried in a breath. - -Tim was dazed by this unexpected turn, and grinned in an obstinate way. - -“I can’t see it gentlemen. That bill will kill out the breed of rebels -and fix the status of every Southern state for five hundred years. It’s -just what we need to make this state loyal.” - -“You pass that bill and hell will break loose!” - -“How so, brother? Ain’t we on top and the rebels on the bottom? Ain’t -the army here to protect us?” persisted Tim. - -There was a brief consultation among the little group in opposition and -the leader said, “Mr. Speaker, I move that the bill be at once printed -and laid on the desk of the members for consideration.” - -Tim was astonished at this move of his enemy. Le-gree looked at him and -waited his pleasure. - -“Mr. Speaker, I withdraw that bill for the present,” he said at length. - -That night the wires were hot between Washington and Raleigh, and the -entire power of Congress was hurled upon the unhappy Tim. His bill was -not only suppressed but the news agencies were threatened and subsidised -to prevent accounts of its introduction being circulated throughout the -country. - -Tim decided to lay this measure over until Congress was off his -hands, and the state’s autonomy fully recognised. Then he would dare -interference. In the meantime he turned his great mind to financial -matters. His success here was overwhelming. - -His first measure was to increase the per diem of the members from three -to seven dollars a day. It passed with a whoop. - -Uncle Pete Sawyer a coal-black fatherly looking old darkey from an -Eastern county made himself immortal in that debate. - -“Mistah Speakah!” he bawled drawing himself up with great dignity, and -holding a pen in his left hand as though he had been writing. “What do -dese white gem’men mean by ezposen dis bill? Ef we doan pay de members -enuf, dey des be erbleeged ter steal. Hit aint right, sah, ter fo’ce de -members er dis hon’able body ter prowl atter dark when day otter be here -’tendin’ ter de business o’ de country. En I moves you, sah. Mistah -Speakah, dat dese rema’ks er mine be filed in de arkibes er grabity!” - -They were filed and embalmed in the archives of gravity where they will -remain a monument to their author and his times. - -As Tim’s great financial measures made progress, the members began -to wear better clothes, assumed white linen shirts, had their shoes -blacked, and put on the airs of overworked statesmen. - -When they had used up all the funds of the state in mileage and per -diem, they sold and divided the school fund, railroad bonds worth a half -million, for a hundred thousand ready cash. It was soon found that Simon -Legree, the Speaker of the House, was the master of financial measures -and Tim Shelby was his mouthpiece. - -Legree organised three groups of thieves composed of the officials -needed to perfect the thefts in every branch of the government while he -retained the leadership of the federated groups. The Treasurer, who was -an honest man, was stripped of power by a special act. - -The Capitol Ring merely picked up the odds and ends about the Capitol -building. They refurnished the Legislative Halls. They spent over two -hundred thousand dollars for furniture, and when it was appraised, its -value was found to be seventeen thousand dollars at the prices they -actually paid for it. The Ring stole one hundred and seventy thousand -dollars on this item alone. - -An appropriation of three hundred thousand dollars was made for -“supplies, sundries and incidentals.” With this they built a booth -around the statue of Washington at the end of the Capitol and -established a bar with fine liquors and cigars for the free use of the -members and their friends. They kept it open every day and night during -their reign, and in a suite of rooms in the Capitol they established a -brothel. From the galleries a swarm of courtesans daily smiled on their -favourites on the floor. - -The printing had never cost the state more than eight thousand dollars -in any one year. This year it cost four hundred and eighty thousand. -Legree drew thousands of warrants on the state for imaginary persons. -There were eight pages in the House. He drew pay for one hundred and -fifty-six pages. In this way he raised an enormous corruption fund for -immediate use in bribing the lawmakers to carry through his schemes. - -The Railroad Ring was his most effective group of brigands. - -They passed bills authorising the issue of twenty-five millions of -dollars in bonds, and actually issued and stole fourteen millions, and -never built one foot of railroad. - -When Legree’s movement was at its high tide, Ezra Perkins sought Uncle -Pete Sawyer one night in behalf of a pet measure of his pending in the -House. - -Peter was seated by his table counting by the light of a candle three -big piles of gold. - -His face was wreathed in smiles. - -“Peter, you seem well pleased with the world tonight?” said Ezra -gleefully. - -“Well, brudder, you see dem piles er yaller money?” - -“Yes, it is a fine sight.” - -Uncle Pete smacked his lips and grinned from ear to ear. - -“Well, brudder, I tells you. I ben sol’ seben times in my life, but -’fore Gawd dat’s de fust time I ebber got de money!” - -Uncle Pete dreamed that night that Congress passed a law extending the -blessings of a “republican form of government” to North Carolina for -forty years and that the Legislature never adjourned. - -But the Legislature finally closed, and in a drunken revel which lasted -all night. They had bankrupted the state, destroyed its school funds, -and increased its debt from sixteen to forty-two millions of dollars, -without adding one cent to its wealth or power. - -Legree then organised a Municipal and County Ring to exploit the towns, -cities, and counties, having passed a bill vacating all county and city -offices. - -This Ring secured the control of Hambright and levied a tax of -twenty-five per cent for municipal purposes! Tom Camp’s little home -was assessed for eighty-five dollars in taxes. Mrs. Gaston’s home was -assessed for one hundred and sixty dollars. They could have raised a -million as easily as the sum of these assessments. - -It cost the United States government two hundred millions of dollars -that year to pay the army required to guard the Legrees and their -“loyal” men while they were thus establishing and maintaining “a -republican form of government” in the South. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII--THE SECOND REIGN OF TERROR - -IT was the bluest Monday the Rev. John Durham ever remembered in his -ministry. A long drought had parched the corn into twisted and stunted -little stalks that looked as though they had been burnt in a prairie -fire. The fly had destroyed the wheat crop and the cotton was dying in -the blistering sun of August, and a blight worse than drought, or flood, -or pestilence, brooded over the stricken land, flinging the shadow of -its Black Death over every home. The tax gatherer of the new “republican -form of government,” recently established in North Carolina now demanded -his pound of flesh. - -The Sunday before had been a peculiarly hard one for the Preacher. He -had tried by the sheer power of personal sympathy to lift the despairing -people out of their gloom and make strong their faith in God. In his -morning sermon he had torn his heart open and given them its red blood -to drink. At the night service he could not rally from the nerve tension -of the morning. He felt that he had pitiably failed. The whole day -seemed a failure black and hopeless. - -All day long the sorrowful stories of ruin and loss of homes were poured -into his ear. - -The Sheriff had advertised for sale for taxes two thousand three hundred -and twenty homes in Campbell county. The land under such conditions had -no value. - -It was only a formality for the auctioneer to cry it and knock it down -for the amount of the tax bill. - -As he arose from bed with the burden of all this hopeless misery -crushing his soul, a sense of utter exhaustion and loneliness came over -him. - -“My love, I must go back to bed and try to sleep. I lay awake last night -until two o’clock. I can’t eat anything,” he said to his wife as she -announced breakfast. - -“John, dear, don’t give up like that.” - -“Can’t help it.” - -“But you must. Come, here is something that will tone you up. I found -this note under the front door this morning.” - -“What is it?” - -“A notice from some of your admirers that you must leave this county in -forty-eight hours or take the consequences.” - -He looked at this anonymous letter and smiled. - -“Not such a failure after all, am I?” he mused. - -“I thought that would help you,” she laughed. - -“Yes, I can eat breakfast on the strength of that.” - -He spread this letter out beside his plate, and read and reread it as he -ate, while his eyes flashed with a strange half humourous light. - -“Really, that’s fine, isn’t it?” - -“You sower of sedition and rebellion, hypocrite and false prophet. The -day has come to clean this county of treason and traitors. If you dare -to urge the people to further resistance to authority, there will be one -traitor less in this county.” - -“That sounds like the voice of a Daniel come to judgment, don’t it?” - -“I think Ezra Perkins might know something about it.” - -“I am sure of it.” - -“Well, I’m duly grateful, it’s done for you what your wife couldn’t do, -cheered you up this morning.” - -“That is so, isn’t it? It takes a violent poison sometimes to stimulate -the heart’s action.” - -“Now if you will work the garden for me, where I’ve been watering it the -past month, you will be yourself by dinner time.” - -“I will. That’s about all we’ve got to eat. I’ve had no salary in two -months, and I’ve no prospects for the next two months.” - -He was at work in the garden when Charlie Gaston suddenly ran through -the gate toward him. His face was red, his eyes streaming with tears, -and his breath coming in gasps. - -“Doctor, they’ve killed Nelse! Mama says please come down to our house -as quick as you can.” - -“Is he dead, Charlie?” - -“He’s most dead. I found him down in the woods lying in a gully, one leg -is broken, there’s a big gash over his eye, his back is beat to a jelly, -and one of his arms is broken. We put him in the wagon, and hauled him -to the house. I’m afraid he’s dead now. Oh me!” The boy broke down and -choked with sobs. - -“Run, Charlie, for the doctor, and I’ll be there in a minute.” - -The boy flew through the gate to the doctor’s house. - -When the Preacher reached Mrs. Gaston’s, Aunt Eve was wiping the blood -from Nelse’s mouth. - -“De Lawd hab mussy! My po’ ole man’s done kilt.” - -“Who could have done this, Eve?” - -“Dem Union Leaguers. Dey say dey wuz gwine ter kill him fur not jinin’ -’em, en fur tryin’ ter vote ergin ’em.” - -“I’ve been afraid of it,” sighed the Preacher as he felt Nelse’s pulse. - -“Yassir, en now dey’s done hit. My po’ ole man. I wish I’d a been better -ter ’im. Lawd Jesus, help me now!” - -Eve knelt by the bed and laid her face against Nelse’s while the tears -rained down her black face. - -“Aunt Eve, it may not be so bad,” said the Preacher hopefully. “His -pulse is getting stronger. He has an iron constitution. I believe he -will pull through, if there are no internal injuries.” - -“Praise God! ef he do git well, I tell yer now, Marse John, I fling er -spell on dem niggers bout dis!” - -“I am afraid you can do nothing with them. The courts are all in the -hands of these scoundrels, and the Governor of the state is at the head -of the Leagues.” - -“I doan want no cotes, Marse John, I’se cote ennuf. I kin cunjure dem -niggers widout any cote.” - -The doctor pronounced his injuries dangerous but not necessarily fatal. -Charlie and Dick watched with Eve that night until nearly midnight. -Nelse opened his eyes, and saw the eager face of the boy, his eyes yet -red from crying. “I aint dead, honey!” he moaned. - -“Oh! Nelse, I’m so glad!” - -“Doan you believe I gwine die! I gwine ter git eben wid dem niggers -’fore I leab dis worl’.” - -Nelse spoke feebly, but there was a way about his saying it that boded -no good to his enemies, and Eve was silent. As Nelse improved, Eve’s -wrath steadily rose. - -The next day she met in the street one of the negroes who had threatened -Nelse. - -“How’s Mistah Gaston dis mawnin’ M’am?” he asked. - -Without a word of warning she sprang on him like a tigress, bore him -to the ground, grasped him by the throat and pounded his head against a -stone. She would have choked him to death, had not a man who was passing -come to the rescue. - -“Lemme lone, man, I’se doin’ de wuk er God!” - -“You’re committing murder, woman.” - -When the negro got up he jumped the fence and tore down through a corn -field, as though pursued by a hundred devils, now and then glancing over -his shoulder to see if Eve were after him. - -The Preacher tried in vain to bring the perpetrators of this outrage -on Nelse to justice. He identified six of them positively. They were -arrested, and when put on trial immediately discharged by the judge who -was himself a member of the League that had ordered Nelse whipped. - -***** - -Tom Camp’s daughter was now in her sixteenth year and as plump and -winsome a lassie, her Scotch mother declared, as the Lord ever made. She -was engaged to be married to Hose Norman, a gallant poor white from the -high hill country at the foot of the mountains. Hose came to see her -every Sunday riding a black mule, gaily trapped out in martingales with -red rings, double girths to his saddle and a flaming red tassel tied on -each side of the bridle. Tom was not altogether pleased with his future -son-in-law. He was too wild, went to too many frolics, danced too much, -drank too much whiskey and was too handy with a revolver. - -“Annie, child, you’d better think twice before you step off with that -young buck,” Tom gravely warned his daughter as he stroked her fair hair -one Sunday morning while she waited for Hose to escort her to church. - -“I have thought a hundred times, Paw, but what’s the use. I love him. He -can just twist me ’round his little finger. I’ve got to have him.” - -“Tom Camp, you don’t want to forget you were not a saint when I stood up -with you one day,” cried his wife with a twinkle in her eye. - -“That’s a fact, ole woman,” grinned Tom. - -“You never give me a day’s trouble after I got hold of you. Sometimes -the wildest colts make the safest horses.” - -“Yes, that’s so. It’s owing to who has the breaking of ’em,” - thoughtfully answered Tom. - -“I like Hose. He’s full of fun, but he’ll settle down and make her a -good husband.” - -The girl slipped close to her mother and squeezed her hand. - -“Do you love him much, child?” asked her father. - -“Well enough to live and scrub and work for him and to die for him, I -reckon.” - -“All right, that settles it, you’re too many for me, you and Hose and -your Maw. Get ready for it quick. We’ll have the weddin’ Wednesday -night. This home is goin’ to be sold Thursday for taxes and it will be -our last night under our own roof. We’ll make the best of it.” - -It was so fixed. On Wednesday night Hose came down from the foothills -with three kindred spirits, and an old fiddler to make the music. He -wanted to have a dance and plenty of liquor fresh from the mountain-dew -district. But Tom put his foot down on it. - -“No dancin’ in my house, Hose, and no licker,” said Tom with emphasis. -“I’m a deacon in the Baptist church. I used to be young and as good -lookin’ as you, my boy, but I’ve done with them things. You’re goin’ -to take my little gal now. I want you to quit your foolishness and be a -man.” - -“I will, Tom, I will. She is the prettiest sweetest little thing in this -world, and to tell you the truth I’m goin’ to settle right down now to -the hardest work I ever did in my life.” - -“That’s the way to talk, my boy,” said Tom putting his hand on Hose’s -shoulder. “You’ll have enough to do these hard times to make a livin’.” - -They made a handsome picture, in that humble home, as they stood there -before the Preacher. The young bride was trembling from head to foot -with fright. Hose was trying to look grave and dignified and grinning in -spite of himself whenever he looked into the face of his blushing mate. -The mother was standing near, her face full of pride in her daughter’s -beauty and happiness, her heart all a quiver with the memories of her -own wedding day seventeen years before. Tom was thinking of the morrow -when he would be turned out of his home and his eyes filled with tears. - -The Rev. John Durham had pronounced them man and wife and hurried away -to see some people who were sick. The old fiddler was doing his best. -Hose and his bride were shaking hands with their friends, and the boys -were trying to tease the bridegroom with hoary old jokes. - -Suddenly a black shadow fell across the doorway. The fiddle ceased, -and every eye was turned to the door. The burly figure of a big negro -trooper from a company stationed in the town stood before them. His face -was in a broad grin, and his eyes bloodshot with whiskey. He brought his -musket down on the floor with a bang. - -“My frien’s, I’se sorry ter disturb yer but I has orders ter search dis -house.” - -“Show your orders,” said Tom hobbling before him. - -“Well, deres one un ’em!” he said still grinning as he cocked his gun -and presented it toward Tom. “En ef dat aint ennuf dey’s fifteen mo’ -stanin’ ’roun’ dis house. It’s no use ter make er fuss. Come on, -boys!” - -[Illustration: 0147] - -Before Tom could utter another word of protest six more negro troopers -laughing and nudging one another crowded into the room. Suddenly one of -them threw a bucket of water in the fire place where a pine knot blazed -and two others knocked out the candles. - -There was a scuffle, the quick thud of heavy blows, and Hose Norman fell -to the floor senseless. A piercing scream rang from his bride as she was -seized in the arms of the negro who first appeared. He rapidly bore her -toward the door surrounded by the six scoundrels who had accompanied -him. - -“My God, save her! They are draggin’ Annie out of the house,” shrieked -her mother. - -“Help! Help! Lord have mercy!” screamed the girl as they bore her away -toward the woods, still laughing and yelling. - -Tom overtook one of them, snatched his wooden leg off, and knocked him -down. Hose’s mountain boys were crowding round Tom with their pistols in -their hands. - -“What shall we do, Tom? If we shoot we may kill Annie.” - -“Shoot, men! My God, shoot! There are things worse than death!” - -They needed no urging. Like young tigers they sprang across the orchard -toward the woods whence came the sound of the laughter of the negroes. - -“Stop de screechin’!” cried the leader. - -“She nebber get dat gag out now.” - -“Too smart fur de po’ white trash dis time sho’!” laughed one. - -Three pistol shots rang out like a single report! Three more! and three -more! There was a wild scramble. Taken completely by surprise, the -negroes fled in confusion. Four lay on the ground. Two were dead, one -mortally wounded and three more had crawled away with bullets in their -bodies. There in the midst of the heap lay the unconscious girl gagged. - -“Is she hurt?” cried a mountain boy. - -“Can’t tell, take her to the house quick.” - -They laid her across the bed in the room that had been made sweet and -tidy for the bride and groom. The mother bent over her quickly with a -light. Just where the blue veins crossed in her delicate temple there -was a round hole from which a scarlet stream was running down her white -throat. - -Without a word the mother brought Tom, showed it to him, and then fell -into his arms and burst into a flood of tears. - -“Don’t, don’t cry so Annie! It might have been worse. Let us thank God -she was saved from them brutes.” - -Hose’s friends crowded round Tom now with tear-stained faces. - -“Tom, you don’t know how broke up we all are over this. Poor child, we -did the best we could.” - -“It’s all right, boys. You’ve been my friends to-night. You’ve saved my -little gal. I want to shake hands with you and thank you. If you hadn’t -been here--My God, I can’t think of what would ’a happened! Now it’s all -right. She’s safe in God’s hands.” - -The next morning when Tom Camp called at the parsonage to see the -Preacher and arrange for the funeral of his daughter he found him in -bed. - -“Dr. Durham is quite sick, Mr. Camp, but he’ll see you,” said Mrs. -Durham. - -“Thank you, M’am.” - -She took the old soldier by the hand and her voice choked as she said, -“You have my heart’s deepest sympathy in your awful sorrow.” - -“It’ll be all for the best, M’am. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken -away. I will still say, Blessed is the name of the Lord!” - -“I wish I had such faith.” She led Tom into the room where the Preacher -lay. - -“Why, what’s this, Preacher? A bandage over your eye, looks like -somebody knocked you in the head?” - -“Yes, Tom, but it’s nothing. I’ll be all right by tomorrow. You needn’t -tell me anything that happened at your house. I’ve heard the black -hell-lit news. It will be all over this county by night and the town -will be full of grim-visaged men before many hours. Your child has not -died in vain. A few things like this will be the trumpet of the God of -our fathers that will call the sleeping manhood of the Anglo-Saxon race -to life again. I must be up and about this afternoon to keep down the -storm. It is not time for it to break.” - -“But, Preacher, what happened to you?” - -“Oh! nothing much, Tom.” - -“I’ll tell you what happened,” cried Mrs. Durham standing erect with her -great dark eyes flashing with anger. - -“As he came home last night from a visit to the sick, he was ambushed -by a gang of negroes led by a white scoundrel, knocked down, bound and -gagged and placed on a pile of dry fence rails. They set fire to the -pile and left him to burn to death. It attracted the attention of Doctor -Graham who was passing. He got to him in time to save him.” - -“You don’t say so!” - -“I’m sorry, Tom, I’m so weak this morning I couldn’t come to see you. I -know your poor wife is heartbroken.” - -“Yes, sir, she is, and it cuts me to the quick when I think that I gave -the orders to the boys to shoot. But, Preacher, I’d a killed her with my -own hand if I couldn’t a saved her no other way. I’d do it over again a -thousand times if I had to.” - -“I don’t blame you, I’d have done the same thing. I can’t come to see -you to-day, Tom, I’ll be down to your house to-morrow a few minutes -before we start for the cemetery. I must get up for dinner and prevent -the men from attacking these troops. They’ll not dare to try to sell -your place to-day. The public square is full of men now, and it’s only -nine o’clock. You go home and cheer up your wife. How is Hose?” - -“He’s still in bed. The Doctor says his skull is broken in one place, -but he’ll be over it in a few weeks.” - -Tom hobbled back to his house, shaking hands with scores of silent men -on the way. - -The Preacher crawled to his desk and wrote this note to the young -officer in command of the post, - -_My Dear Captain,_ - -_In the interest of peace and order I would advise you to telegraph to -Independence for two companies of white regulars to come immediately on -a special, and that you start your negro troops on double quick marching -order to meet them. There will be a thousand armed men in Hambright by -sundown, and no power on earth can prevent the extermination of that -negro company if they attack them. I will do my best to prevent further -bloodshed but I can do nothing if these troops remain here to-day. -Respectfully,_ - -_John Durham._ - -The Commandant acted on the advice immediately. - -It was the week following before the sales began. There was no help -for it. The town and the county were doomed to a ruin more complete and -terrible than the four years of war had brought. Independence had been -saved by a skillful movement of General Worth, who sought an interview -with Legree when his council first issued their levy of thirty per cent -for municipal purposes. - -“Mr. Legree, let’s understand one another,” said the General. - -“All right, I’m a man of reason.” - -“A bird in hand is worth two in the bush!” - -“Every time, General.” - -“Well, call off your dogs, and rescind your order for a thirty per cent -tax levy, and I’ll raise $30,000 in cash and pay it to you in two days.” - -“Make it $50,000 and it’s a bargain.” - -“Agreed.” - -The General raised twenty thousand in the city, went North and borrowed -the remaining thirty thousand. - -Legree and his brigands received this ransom and moved on to the next -town. - -Poor Hambright was but a scrawny little village on a red hill with no -big values to be saved, and no mills to interest the commercial world, -and the auctioneer lifted his hammer. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII--THE RED FLAG OF THE AUCTIONEER - -THE excitement through which Tom Camp had passed in the death of his -daughter, and the stirring events connected with it, had been more than -his feeble body could endure. He had been stricken with paroxysms of -pain and nausea from his old wounds. For three days and nights he -had suffered unspeakable agonies. He had borne his pain with stoical -indifference. - -“Tom, old man, do look at me! You skeer me,” said his wife leaning -tenderly over him. - -“Oh! I’m all right, Annie.” - -“What was you studyin’ about then?” - -“I was just a thinkin’ we didn’t kill babies in the war. Them was awful -times, but they wuz nothin’ to what we’re goin’ through now. The Lord -knows best, but I can’t understand it.” - -“Well, don’t talk any more. You’re too weak.” - -“I must git up, Annie. Got to git out anyhow. The Sheriff’s goin’ to -sell us out to-day, and I want to sorter look ’round once before we -go.” - -So, leaning on his wife’s arm, he hobbled around the place saying -good-bye to its familiar objects. They stopped before the garden gate. - -“Don’t go in there, Tom, I can’t stand it,” cried his wife. “When I -think of leavin’ that garden I’ve worked so hard on all these years, and -that’s give us so many good things to eat, and never failed us the year -round, I just feel like it’ll tear my heart out.” - -“Do you mind the day we set out these trees, Annie, an’ you, my own -purty gal holdin’ ’em fur me while I packed the dirt around ’em, and -told you how sweet you wuz?” - -“Yes, and I love every twig of ’em. They’ve all helped me in times -of need. Oh! Lord, it’s hard to give it up!” She couldn’t keep back the -tears. - -“Well, now, ole woman, you mustn’t break down. You’re strong and well -and I’m all shot to pieces and crippled and no ’count. But the Lord -still lives. We’ll get this place back. The Lord’s just trying our -faith. He thinks mebbe I’ll give up.” - -“You think we can ever get it back?” - -“General Worth sent me word he couldn’t do anything now, but to let it -go and keep a stiff upper lip. The General ain’t no fool.” - -“Surely the Lord can’t let us starve.” - -“Starve! I reckon not! The foxes have holes, the birds of the air nests, -but the Son of Man had not where to lay His head, but He never starved. -No, God’s in Heaven. I’ll trust Him.” - -A mocking bird whose mate had just built her nest to rear a second brood -for the season was seated on the topmost branch of a cedar near the -house, and singing as though he would fill heaven and earth with the -glory of his love. - -“Just listen at that bird, Tom!” whispered his wife. “He does sing -sweet, don’t he?” - -“Oh dear, oh dear, how can I give it all up! I’ve fed that bird and his -mate for years. He knows my voice. I can call him down out of that tree. -Many a night when you were away in the war he sat close to my window -and sang softly to me all night. When I’d wake, I’d hear him singin’ low -like he was afraid he’d wake somebody. I’d sit down there by the window -and cry for you and dream of your comin’ home till he’d sing me to -sleep in the chair. And now we’ve got to leave him. Oh Lord, my heart is -broken! I can’t see the way!” - -She buried her face on Tom’s shoulder and shook with sobs. - -“Hush, hush, honey, we must face trouble. We are used to it.” - -“But not this, Tom. It’ll tear my heart out when I have to leave.” - -“It can’t be helped, Annie. We’ve got to pay for this nigger -government.” - -Eleven o’clock was the hour fixed for the sale. At half past ten a crowd -of negroes had gathered. There were only two or three white men present, -the Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau and some of his henchmen. - -They began to inspect the place. Tim Shelby was present, dressed in a -suit of broadcloth and a silk hat placed jauntily on his close-cropped -scalp. - -“That’s a fine orchard, gentlemen,” Tim exclaimed. - -“Yes, en dats er fine gyarden,” said a negro standing near. - -“Let’s look at the house,” said Tim starting to the door. - -Tom stood up in the doorway with a musket in his hand, “Put your foot on -that doorstep and I’ll blow your brains out, you flat-nosed baboon!” - -Tim paused and bowed with a smile. - -“Ain’t the premises for sale, Mr. Camp?” - -“Yes, but my family ain’t for inspection by niggers.” - -“Just wanted to see the condition of the house, sir,” said Tim still -smiling. - -“Well, I’m livin’ here yet, and don’t you forget it,” answered Tom with -quiet emphasis. Tim walked away laughing. - -Tom stepped out of the house, and with his wooden leg marked a dead -line around the house about ten feet from each corner. To the crowd -that stood near he said in a clear ringing voice as he stood up in the -doorway. - -[Illustration: 0158] - -“I’ll kill the first nigger that crosses that line.” - -There was no attempt to cross it. They did not like the look of Tom’s -face as he sat there pale and silent. And they could hear the sobs of -his wife inside. - -The sale was a brief formality. There was but one bidder, the Honourable -Tim Shelby. It was knocked down to Tim for the sum of eighty-five -dollars, the exact amount of the tax levy which Legree and his brigands -had fixed. - -Tim was not buying on his own account. He was the purchasing agent of -the subsidiary ring which Legree had organised to hold the real estate -forfeited for taxes until a rise in value would bring them millions of -profit. They had stolen from the state Treasury the money to capitalise -this company. Where it was possible to exact a cash ransom, they always -took it and cancelled the tax order, preferring the certainty of good -gold in their pockets to the uncertainties of politics. - -They tried their best to get a cash ransom of ten thousand dollars for -the town of Hambright. But the ruined people could not raise a thousand. -So Tim Shelby as the agent of the “Union Land and Improvement Company,” - became the owner of farm after farm and home after home. - -It was a vain hope that relief could come from any quarter. The red flag -of the Sheriff’s auctioneer fluttered from two thousand three hundred -and twenty doors in the county. This was over two-thirds of the total. - -Those who were saved, just escaped by the skin of their teeth. They sold -old jewelry or plate that had been hidden in the war, or they sold their -corn and provisions, trusting to their ability to live on dried fruit, -berries, walnuts, hickory nuts, and such winter vegetables as they could -raise in their gardens. - -The Preacher secured for Tom a tumbled-down log cabin on the outskirts -of town, with a half-acre of poor red hill land around it, which his -wife at once transformed into a garden. She took up the bulbs and -flowers that she had tended so lovingly about the door of their old -home, and planted them with tears around this desolate cabin. Now and -then she would look down at the work and cry. Then she would go bravely -back to it. As nobody occupied her old home, she went back and forth -until she moved all the jonquils and sweet pinks from the borders of -the garden walk, and reset them in the new garden. She moved then her -strawberries and rapsberries, and gooseberries, and set her fall cabbage -plants. In three weeks she had transformed a desolate red clay lot into -a smiling garden. She had watered every plant daily, and Tom had watched -her with growing wonder and love. - -“Ole woman, you’re an angel!” he cried, “if God had sent one down from -the skies she couldn’t have done any more.” - -* * * * * - -The problem which pressed heaviest of all on the Preacher’s heart in -this crisis was how to save Mrs. Gaston’s home. - -“If that place is sold next week, my dear,” he said to his wife, “she -will never survive.” - -“I know it. She is sinking every day. It breaks my heart to look at -her.” - -“What can we do?” - -“I’m sure I can’t tell. We’ve given everything we have on earth except -the clothes on our back. I haven’t another piece of jewelry, or even an -old dress.” - -“The tax and the costs may amount to a hundred and seventy-five dollars. -There isn’t a man in this county who has that much money, or I’d borrow -it if I had to mortgage my body and soul to do it.” - -“I’ll tell you what you might do,” his wife suddenly exclaimed. -“Telegraph your old college mate in Boston that you will accept his -invitation to supply his pulpit those last two Sundays in August. They -will pay you handsomely.” - -“It may be possible, but where am I to get the money for a telegram and -a ticket?” - -“Surely you can borrow some here!” - -“I don’t know a man in the county who has it.” - -“Then go to the young Commandant of the post here. Tell him the facts. -Tell him that a widow of a brave Confederate soldier is about to be -turned out of her home because she can’t pay the taxes levied by -this infamous negro government. Ask him to loan you the money for the -telegram and the ticket.” - -The Preacher seized his hat and made his way as fast as possible to the -camp. The young Captain heard his story with grave courtesy. - -“Certainly, doctor,” he said, “I’ll loan you the forty dollars with -pleasure. I wish I could do more to relieve the distress of the people. -Believe me, sir, the people of the North do not dream of the awful -conditions of the South. They are being fooled by the politicians. I’ll -thank God when I am relieved of this job and get home. What has amazed -me is that you hot-headed Southern people have stood it thus far. I -don’t know a Northern community that would have endured it.” - -“Ah, Captain, the people are heartsick of bloodshed, They surrendered in -good faith. They couldn’t foresee this. If they had”-- - -The Preacher paused, his eyes grew misty with tears, and he looked -thoughtfully out on the blue mountain peaks that loomed range after -range in the distance until the last bald tops were lost in the clouds. - -“If General Lee had dreamed of such an infamy being forced on the South -two years after his surrender, as this attempt to make the old slaves -the rulers of their masters, and to destroy the Anglo-Saxon civilisation -of the South--he would have withdrawn his armies into that Appalachian -mountain wild and fought till every white man in the South was -exterminated. - -“The Confederacy went to pieces in a day, not because the South could no -longer fight, but because they were fighting the flag of their fathers, -and they were tired of it. They went back to the old flag. They expected -to lose their slaves and repudiate the dogma of Secession forever. But, -they never dreamed of Negro dominion, or Negro deification, of Negro -equality and amalgamation, now being rammed down their throats with -bayonets. They never dreamed of the confiscation of the desolate -homes of the poor and the weak and the brokenhearted. Over two hundred -thousand Southern men fought in the Union army in answer to Lincoln’s -call--even against their own flesh and blood. But if this program had -been announced, every one of the two hundred thousand Southern soldiers -who wore the blue, would have rallied around the firesides of the South. -This infamy was something undreamed save in the souls of a few desperate -schemers at Washington who waited their opportunity, and found it in the -nation’s blind agony over the death of a martyred leader.” - -The Preacher pressed the Captain’s hand and hastened to tell Mrs. Gaston -of his plans. He found her seated pale and wistful at her window looking -out on the lawn, now being parched and ruined since Nelse was disabled -and could no longer tend it. - -Charlie was trying to kiss the tears away from her eyes. - -“Mama dear, you mustn’t cry any more!” - -“I can’t help it, darling.” - -“They can’t take our home away from us. I tore the sign down they nailed -on the door, and Dick burned it up!” - -“But they will do it, Charlie. The Sheriff will sell it at auction next -week, and we will never have a home of our own again.” - -Charlie bounded to the door and showed the Preacher in. - -“I have good news for you, Mrs. Gaston! I start to Boston to-night to -preach two Sundays. I am going to try to borrow the money there to save -your home. We will not be too sure till it’s done, but you must cheer -up!” - -“Oh! doctor, you’re giving me a new lease on life!” she cried, looking -up at him through tears of gratitude. - -That night the Preacher hurried on his way to Boston. - -The days dragged slowly one after another, and still no word came to the -anxious waiting woman. It was only two days now until the day fixed for -the sale. - -She asked the Sheriff to come to see her. He was a brutal illiterate -henchman of Legree, who had been appointed to the office to do his -bidding. He was a brother of the immortal “Hog” Scoggins, who had -represented an adjoining county in the Legislature. - -“Mr. Scoggins, I’ve sent for you to ask you to postpone the sale until -Dr. Durham returns from Boston. I expect to get the money from him to -pay the tax bill.” - -“Can’t do it, M’um. They’s er lot er folks comin’ ter bid on the place.” - -“But I tell you I’m going to pay the tax bill.” - -“Well, M’um, hit’ll have ter be paid afore the time sot, er I’ll be -erbleeged to sell.” - -“I’m sure Dr. Durham will get the money.” - -“Ef he does, hit ’ll be the fust time hit’s happened in this county -sence the sales begun.” - -In vain she waited for a letter or a telegram from Boston. Charlie went -faithfully asking Dave Haley, the postmaster, two or three times on the -arrival of each mail. - -“I tell ye there’s nothin’ fur ye!” he yelled as he glared at the boy. -“Ef ye don’t go way from that winder, I’ll pitch ye out the door!” - -The scoundrel had recognised the letter in Dr. Durham’s handwriting and -had hidden it, suspecting its contents. - -When the day came for the sale Mrs. Gaston tried to face the trial -bravely. But it was too much for her. When she saw a great herd of -negroes trampling down her flowers, laughing, cracking vulgar jokes, and -swarming over the porches, she sank feebly into her chair, buried her -face in her hands and gave way to a passionate flood of tears. She was -roused by the thumping of heavy feet in the hall, and the unmistakable -odour of perspiring negroes. They had begun to ransack the house on -tours of inspection. The poor woman’s head drooped and she fell to the -floor in a dead swoon. - -There was a sudden charge as of an armed host, the sound of blows, a -wild scramble, and the house was cleared. Aunt Eve with a fire shovel, -Charlie with a broken hoe handle, and Dick with a big black snake whip -had cleared the air. - -Aunt Eve stood on the front door-step shaking the shovel at the crowd. - -“Des put yo big flat hoofs in dis house ergin! I’ll split yo heads wide -open! You black cattle!” - -“Dat we will!” railed Dick as he cracked the whip at a little negro -passing. - -Charlie ran into his mother’s room to see what she was doing, and found -her lying across the floor on her face. - -“Aunt Eve, come quick, Mama’s dying!” he shouted. - -They lifted her to the bed, and Dick ran for the doctor. - -Dr. Graham looked very grave when he had completed his examination. - -“Come here, my boy, I must tell you some sad news.” - -Charlie’s big brown eyes glanced up with a startled look into the -doctor’s face. - -“Don’t tell me she’s dying, doctor, I can’t stand it.” - -The doctor took his hand. “You’re getting to be a man now, my son, you -will soon be thirteen. You must be brave. Your mother will not live -through the night.” - -The boy sank on his knees beside the still white figure, tenderly -clasped her thin hand in his, and began to kiss it slowly. He would kiss -it, lay his wet cheek against it, and try to warm it with his hot young -blood. - -It was about nine o’clock when she opened her eyes with a smile and -looked into his face. - -“My sweet boy,” she whispered. - -“Oh! Mama, do try to live! Don’t leave me,” he sobbed in quivering tones -as he leaned over and kissed her lips. She smiled faintly again. - -“Yes, I must go, dear. I am tired. Your papa is waiting for me. I see -him smiling and beckoning to me now. I must go.” - -A sob shook the boy with an agony no words could frame. - -“There, there, dear, don’t,” she soothingly said, “you will grow to be a -brave strong man. You will fight this battle out, and win back our -home and bring your own bride here in the far away days of sunshine and -success I see for you. She will love you, and the flowers will blossom -on the lawn again. But I am tired. Kiss me--I must go.” - -Her heart fluttered on for a while, but she never spoke again. - -At ten o’clock Mrs. Durham tenderly lifted the boy from the bedside, -kissed him, and said as she led him to his room, “She’s done with -suffering, Charlie. You are going to live with me now, and let me love -you and be your mother.” - -* * * * * - -The Preacher had made a profound impression on his Boston congregation. - -They were charmed by his simple direct appeal to the heart. His fiery -emphasis, impassioned dogmatic faith, his tenderness and the strange -pathos of his voice swept them off their feet. At night the big church -was crowded to the doors, and throngs were struggling in vain to gain -admittance. At the close of the services he was overwhelmed with the -expressions of gratitude and heartfelt sympathy with which they thanked -him for his messages. - -He was feasted and dined and taken out into the parks behind spanking -teams, until his head was dizzy with the unaccustomed whirl. - -The Preacher went through it all with a heavy heart. Those beautiful -homes with their rich carpets, handsome furniture, and those long lines -of beautiful carriages in the parks, made a contrast with the agony of -universal ruin which he left at home that crushed his soul. - -He hastened to tell the story of Mrs. Gaston to a genial old merchant -who had taken a great fancy to him. - -A tear glistened in the old man’s eye as he quickly rose. - -“Come right down to my store. I’ll get you a money order before the -post-office closes. I’ve got tickets for you to go to the Coliseum -with me to-night and hear the music!--the great Peace Jubilee. We are -celebrating the return of peace and prosperity, and the preservation of -the Union. It’s the greatest musical festival the world ever saw.” - -The Preacher was dazed with the sense of its sublimity and the pathetic -tragedy of the South that lay back of its joy. - -The great Coliseum, constructed for the purpose, seated over forty -thousand people. Such a crowd he had never seen gathered together within -one building. The soul of the orator in him leaped with divine power -as he glanced over the swaying ocean of human faces. There were twelve -thousand trained voices in the chorus. He had dreamed of such music in -Heaven when countless hosts of angels should gather around God’s throne. -He had never expected to hear it on this earth. He was transported with -a rapture that thrilled and lifted him above the consciousness of time -and sense. - -They rendered the masterpieces of all the ages. The music continued hour -after hour, day after day, and night after night. - -The grand chorus within the Coliseum was accompanied by the ringing of -bells in the city, and the firing of cannon on the common, discharged -in perfect time with the melody that rolled upward from those twelve -thousand voices and broke against the gates of Heaven! When every -voice was in full cry, and every instrument of music that man had ever -devised, throbbed in harmony, and a hundred anvils were ringing a chorus -of steel in perfect time, Parepa Rosa stepped forward on the great -stage, and in a voice that rang its splendid note of triumph over all -like the trumpet of the archangel, sang the Star Spangled Banner! - -Men and women fainted, and one woman died, unable to endure the strain. -The Preacher turned his head away and looked out of the window. A soft -wind was blowing from the South. On its wings were borne to his heart -the cry of the widow and orphan, the hungry and the dying still being -trampled to death by a war more terrible than the first, because it was -waged against the unarmed, women and children, the wounded, the starving -and the defenceless! He tried in vain to keep back the tears. Bending -low, he put his face in his hands and cried like a child. - -“God forgive them! They know not what they do!” he moaned. - -The kindly old man by his side said nothing, supposing he was overcome -by the grandeur of the music. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX--THE RALLY OF THE CLANSMEN - -WHEN the Preacher took the train in Boston for the South, his friendly -merchant, a deacon, was by his side. - -“Now, you put my name and address down in your note book, William Crane. -And don’t forget about us.” - -“I’ll never forget you, deacon.” - -“Say, I just as well tell you,” whispered the deacon bending close, “we -are not going to allow you to stay down South. We’ll be down after you -before long--just as well be packing up!” - -The Preacher smiled, looked out of the car window, and made no reply. - -“Well, good-bye, Doctor, good-bye. God bless you and your work and your -people! You’ve brought me a message warm from God’s heart. I’ll never -forget it.” - -“Good-bye, deacon.” - -As the train whirled southward through the rich populous towns and -cities of the North, again the sharp contrast with the desolation of his -own land cut him like a knife. He thought of Legree and Haley, -Perkins and Tim Shelby robbing widows and orphans and sweeping the -poverty-stricken Southland with riot, pillage, murder and brigandage, -and posing as the representatives of the conscience of the North. And -his heart was heavy with sorrow. - -On reaching Hambright he was thunderstruck at the news of the sale of -Mrs. Gaston’s place and her tragic death. - -“Why, my dear, I sent the money to her on the first Monday I spent in -Boston!” he declared to his wife. - -“It never reached her.” - -“Then Dave Haley, the dirty slave driver, has held that letter. I’ll see -to this.” He hurried to the postoffice. - -“Mr. Haley,” he exclaimed, “I sent a money order letter to Mrs. Gaston -from Boston on Monday a week ago.” - -“Yes, sir,” answered Haley in his blandest manner, “it got here the day -after the sale.” - -“You’re an infamous liar!” shouted the Preacher. - -“Of course! Of course! All Union men are liars to hear rebel traitors -talk.” - -“I’ll report you to Washington for this rascality.” - -“So do, so do. Mor’n likely the President and the Post-Office -Department’ll be glad to have this information from so great a man.” - -As the Preacher was leaving the post-office he encountered the Hon. Tim -Shelby dressed in the height of fashion, his silk hat shining in the -sun, and his eyes rolling with the joy of living. The Preacher stepped -squarely in front of Tim. - -“Tim Shelby, I hear you have moved into Mrs. Gaston’s home and are using -her furniture. By whose authority do you dare such insolence?” - -“By authority of the law, sir. Mrs. Gaston died intestate. Her effects -are in the hands of our County Administrator, Mr. Ezra Perkins. I’ll be -pleased to receive you, sir, any time you would like to call!” said Tim -with a bow. - -“I’ll call in due time,” replied the Preacher, looking Tim straight in -the eye. - -Haley had been peeping through the window, watching and listening to -this encounter. - -“These charmin’ preachers think they own this county, brother Shelby,” - laughed Haley as he grasped Tim’s outstretched hand. - -“Yes, they are the curse of the state. I wish to God they had succeeded -in burning him alive that night the boys tried it. They’ll get him later -on. Brother Haley, he’s a dangerous man. He must be put out of the way, -or we’ll never have smooth sailing in this county.” - -“I believe you’re right, he’s just been in here cussin’ me about that -letter of the widder’s that didn’t get to her in time. He thinks he can -run the post-office.” - -“Well, we’ll show him this county’s in the hands of the loyal!” added -Tim. - -“Heard the news from Charleston?” - -“Heard it? I guess I have. I talked with the commanding General in -Charleston two weeks ago. He told me then he was going to set aside that -decision of the Supreme Court in a ringing order permitting the marriage -of negroes to white women, and commanding its enforcement on every -military post. I see he’s done it in no uncertain words.” - -“It’s a great day, brother, for the world. There’ll be no more colour -line.” - -“Yes, times have changed,” said Tim with a triumphant smile. “I guess -our white hot-bloods will sweat and bluster and swear a little when they -read that order. But we’ve got the bayonets to enforce it. They’d just -as well cool down.” - -“That’s the stuff,” said Haley, taking a fresh chew of tobacco. - -“Let ’em squirm. They’re flat on their backs. We are on top, and we -are going to stay on top. I expect to lead a fair white bride into my -house before another year and have poor white aristocrats to tend my -lawn.” Tim worked his ears and looked up at the ceiling in a dreamy sort -of way. - -“That’ll be a sight won’t it!” exclaimed Haley with delight. “Where’s -that scoundrel Nelse that lived with Mrs. Gaston?” - -“Oh, we fixed him,” said Tim. “The black rascal wouldn’t join the -League, and wouldn’t vote with his people, and still showed fight after -we beat him half to death, so we put a levy of fifty dollars on his -cabin, sold him out, and every piece of furniture, and every rag of -clothes we could get hold of. He’ll leave the country now, or we’ll kill -him next time.” - -“You ought to a killed him the first time, and then the job would ha’ -been over.” - -“Oh, we’ll have the country in good shape in a little while, and don’t -you forget it.” - -The news of the order of the military commandant of “District No. 2,” - comprising the Carolinas, abrogating the decisions of the North Carolina -Supreme Court, forbidding the intermarriage of negroes and whites, fell -like a bombshell on Campbell county. The people had not believed that -the military authorities would dare go to the length of attempting to -force social equality. - -This order from Charleston was not only explicit, its language was -peculiarly emphatic. It apparently commanded intermarriage, and ordered -the military to enforce the command at the point of the bayonet. - -The feelings of the people were wrought to the pitch of fury. It -needed but a word from a daring leader, and a massacre, of every negro, -scalawag and carpet-bagger in the county might have followed. The Rev. -John Durham was busy day and night seeking to allay excitement and -prevent an uprising of the white population. - -Along with the announcement of this military order, came the startling -news that Simon Legree, whose infamy was known from end to end of the -state, was to be the next Governor, and that the Hon. Tim Shelby was a -candidate for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. - -Legree was in Washington at the time on a mission to secure a stand of -twenty thousand rifles from the Secretary of War, with which to arm the -negro troops he was drilling for the approaching election. The grant was -made and Legree came back in triumph with his rifles. - -Relief for the ruined people was now a hopeless dream. Black despair -was clutching at every white man’s heart. The taxpayers had held a -convention and sent their representatives to Washington exposing the -monstrous thefts that were being committed under the authority of the -government by the organised band of thieves who were looting the -state. But the thieves were the pets of politicians high in power. The -committee of taxpayers were insulted and sent home to pay their taxes. - -And then a thing happened in Hambright that brought matters to a sudden -crisis. - -The Hon. Tim Shelby as school commissioner, had printed the notices for -an examination of school teachers for Campbell county. An enormous tax -had been levied and collected by the county for this purpose, but no -school had been opened. Tim announced, however, that the school would be -surely opened the first Monday in October. - -Miss Mollie Graham, the pretty niece of the old doctor, was struggling -to support a blind mother and four younger children. Her father and -brother had been killed in the war. Their house had been sold for taxes, -and they were required now to pay Tim Shelby ten dollars a month for -rent. When she saw that school notice her heart gave a leap. If she -could only get the place, it would save them from beggary. - -She fairly ran to the Preacher to get his advice. - -“Certainly, child, try for it. It’s humiliating to ask such a favour of -that black ape, but if you can save your loved ones, do it.” - -So with trembling hand she knocked at Tim’s door. He required all -applicants to apply personally at his house. Tim met her with the bows -and smirks of a dancing master. - -“Delighted to see your pretty face this morning, Miss Graham,” he cried -enthusiastically. - -The girl blushed and hesitated at the door. - -“Just walk right in the parlour, I’ll join you in a moment.” - -She bravely set her lips and entered. - -“And now what can I do for you, Miss Graham?” - -“I’ve come to apply for a teacher’s place in the school.” - -“Ah indeed, I’m glad to know that. There is only one difficulty. You -must be loyal. Your people were rebels, and the new government has -determined to have only loyal teachers.” - -“I think I’m loyal enough to the old flag now that our people have -surrendered,” said the girl. - -“Yes, yes, I dare say, but do you think you can accept the new régime -of government and society which we are now establishing in the South? -We have abolished the colour line. Would you have a mixed school if -assigned one?” - -“I think I’d prefer to teach a negro school outright to a mixed one,” - she said after a moment’s hesitation. - -Tim continued, “You know we are living in a new world. The supreme law -of the land has broken down every barrier of race and we are henceforth -to be one people. The struggle for existence knows no race or colour. -It’s a struggle now for bread. I’m in a position to be of great help to -you and your family if you will only let me.” - -The girl suddenly rose impelled by some resistless instinct. - -“May I have the place then?” she asked approaching the door. - -“Well, now you know it depends really altogether on my fancy. I’ll tell -you what I’ll do. You’re still full of silly prejudices. I can see that. -But if you will overcome them enough to do one thing for me as a test, -that will cost you nothing and of which the world will never be the -wiser, I’ll give you the place and more, I’ll remit the ten dollars a -month rent you’re now paying. Will you do it?” - -“What is it?” the girl asked with pale quivering lips. - -“Let me kiss you--once!” he whispered. - -With a scream, she sprang past him out of the door, ran like a deer -across the lawn, and fell sobbing in her mother’s arms when she reached -her home. - -The next day the town was unusually quiet. Tim had business with the -Commandant of the company of regulars still quartered at Hambright. -He spent most of the day with him, and walked about the streets -ostentatiously showing his familiarity with the corporal who accompanied -him. A guard of three soldiers was stationed around Tim’s house for two -nights and then withdrawn. - -The next night at twelve o’clock two hundred white-robed horses -assembled around the old home of Mrs. Gaston where Tim was sleeping. The -moon was full and flooded-the lawn with silver glory. On those horses -sat two hundred white-robed silent men whose closefitting hood disguises -looked like the mail helmets of ancient knights. - -It was the work of a moment to seize Tim, and bind him across a horse’s -back. Slowly the grim procession moved to the court house square. - -When the sun rose next morning the lifeless body of Tim Shelby was -dangling from a rope tied to the iron rail of the balcony of the court -house. His neck was broken and his body was hanging low--scarcely three -feet from the ground. His thick lips had been split with a sharp knife -and from his teeth hung this placard: - -“_The answer of the Anglo-Saxon race to Negro lips that dare pollute -with words the womanhood of the South. K. K. K._” - -And the Ku Klux Klan was master of Campbell county. - -The origin of this Law and Order League which sprang up like magic in a -night and nullified the programme of Congress though backed by an army -of a million veteran soldiers, is yet a mystery. - -The simple truth is, it was a spontaneous and resistless racial uprising -of clansmen of highland origin living along the Appalachian mountains -and foothills of the South, and it appeared almost simultaneously in -every Southern state produced by the same terrible conditions. - -It was the answer to their foes of a proud and indomitable race of men -driven to the wall. In the hour of their defeat they laid down their -arms and accepted in good faith the results of the war. And then, when -unarmed and defenceless, a group of pot-house politicians for political -ends, renewed the war, and attempted to wipe out the civilisation of the -South. - -This Invisible Empire of White Robed Anglo-Saxon Knights was simply the -old answer of organised manhood to organised crime. Its purpose was to -bring order out of chaos, protect the weak and defenceless, the widows -and orphans of brave men who had died for their country, to drive from -power the thieves who were robbing the people, redeem the commonwealth -from infamy, and reëstablish civilisation. - -Within one week from its appearance, life and property were as safe as -in any Northern community. - -When the negroes came home from their League meeting one night they ran -terror stricken past long rows of white horsemen. Not a word was spoken, -but that was the last meeting the “Union League of America” ever held in -Hambright. - -Every negro found guilty of a misdemeanor was promptly thrashed and -warned against its recurrence. The sudden appearance of this host of -white cavalry grasping at their throats with the grip of cold steel -struck the heart of Legree and his followers with the chill of a deadly -fear. - -It meant inevitable ruin, overthrow, and a prison cell for the -“loyal” statesmen who were with him in his efforts to maintain the new -“republican form of government” in North Carolina. - -At the approaching election, this white terror could intimidate every -negro in the state unless he could arm them all, suspend the writ of -_Habeas Corpus_, and place every county under the strictest martial law. - -Washington was besieged by a terrified army of the “loyal” who saw their -occupation threatened. They begged for more troops, more guns for negro -militia, and for the reestablishment of universal martial law until the -votes were properly counted. - -But the great statesmen laughed them to scorn as a set of weak cowards -and fools frightened by negro stories of ghosts. It was incredible to -them that the crushed, poverty stricken and unarmed South could dare -challenge the power of the National Government. They were sent back with -scant comfort. - -The night that Ezra Perkins and Haley got back from Washington, where -they had gone summoned by Legree and Hogg, to testify to the death of -Tim Shelby, they saw a sight that made their souls quake. - -At ten o’clock, the Ku Klux Klan held a formal parade through the -streets of Hambright. How the news was circulated nobody knew, but it -seemed everybody in the county knew of it. The streets were lined with -thousands of people who had poured in town that afternoon. - -At exactly ten o’clock, a bugle call was heard on the hill to the west -of the town, and the muffled tread of soft shod horses came faintly -on their ears. Women stood on the sidewalks, holding their babies and -smiling, and children were laughing and playing in the streets. - -They rode four abreast in perfect order slowly through the town. It was -utterly impossibly to recognise a man or a horse, so complete was the -simple disguise of the white sheet which blanketed the horse fitting -closely over his head and ears and falling gracefully over his form -toward the ground. - -No citizen of Hambright was in the procession. They were all in the -streets watching it pass. There were fifteen hundred men in line. -But the reports next day all agreed in fixing the number at over five -thousand. - -Perkins and Haley had watched it from a darkened room. - -“Brother Haley, that’s the end! Lord I wish I was back in Michigan, jail -er no jail,” said Perkins mopping the perspiration from his brow. - -“We’ll have ter dig out purty quick, I reckon,” answered Haley. - -“And to think them fools at Washington laughed at us!” cried Perkins -clinching his fists. - -And that night, mothers and fathers gathered their children to bed with -a sense of grateful security they had not felt through years of war and -turmoil. - - - - -CHAPTER XX--HOW CIVILISATION WAS SAVED - -THE success of the Ku Klux Klan was so complete, its organisers were -dazed. Its appeal to the ignorance and superstition of the Negro at once -reduced the race to obedience and order. Its threat against the scalawag -and carpet-bagger struck terror to their craven souls, and the “Union -League,” “Red Strings,” and “Heroes of America” went to pieces with -incredible rapidity. - -Major Stuart Dameron, the chief of the Klan in Campbell county was -holding a conference with the Rev. John Durham in his study. - -“Doctor, our work has succeeded beyond our wildest dream.” - -“Yes, and I thank God we can breathe freely if only for a moment, Major. -The danger now lies in our success. We are necessarily playing with -fire.” - -“I know it, and it requires my time day and night to prevent reckless -men from disgracing us.” - -“It will not be necessary to enforce the death penalty against any other -man in this county, Major. The execution of Tim Shelby was absolutely -necessary at the time and it has been sufficient.” - -“I agree with you. I’ve impressed this on the master of every lodge, but -some of them are growing reckless.” - -“Who are they?” - -“Young Allan McLeod for one. He is a dare devil and only eighteen years -old. - -“He’s a troublesome boy. I don’t seem to have any influence with him. -But I think Mrs. Durham can manage him. He seems to think a great deal -of her, and in spite of his wild habits, he comes regularly to her -Sunday School class.” - -“I hope she can bring him to his senses.” - -“Leave him to me then a while. We will see what can be done.” - -***** - -Hogg’s Legislature promptly declared the Scotch-Irish hill counties in a -state of insurrection, passed a militia bill, and the Governor issued a -proclamation suspending the writ of _Habeas Corpus_ in these counties. - -Fearing the effects of negro militia in the hill districts, he surprised -Hambright by suddenly marching into the court house square a regiment of -white mountain guerrillas recruited from the outlaws of East Tennessee -and commanded by a noted desperado, Colonel Henry Berry. The regiment -had two pieces of field artillery. - -It was impossible for them to secure evidence against any member of -the Klan unless by the intimidation of some coward who could be made to -confess. Not a disguise had ever been penetrated. It was the rule of the -order for its decrees to be executed in the district issuing the decree -by the lodge furthest removed in the county from the scene. In this way -not a man or a horse was ever identified. - -The Colonel made an easy solution of this difficulty, however. Acting -under instructions from Governor Hogg, he secured from Haley and Perkins -a list of every influential man in every precinct in the county, and a -list of possible turncoats and cowards. He detailed five hundred of his -men to make arrests, distributed them throughout the county and arrested -without warrants over two hundred citizens in one day. - -The next day Berry hand-cuffed together the Rev. John Durham and Major -Dameron, and led them escorted by a company of cavalry on a grand -circuit of the county, that the people might be terrified by the -sight of their chains. An ominous silence greeted them on every -hand. Additional arrests were made by this troop and twenty-five more -prisoners led into Hambright the next day. - -The jail was crowded, and the court house was used as a jail. Over a -hundred and fifty men were confined in the court room. Rev. John Durham -was everywhere among the crowd, laughing, joking and cheering the men. - -“Major Dameron, a jail never held so many honest men before,” he said -with a smile, as he looked over the crowd of his church members gathered -from every quarter of the county. - -“Well, Doctor, you’ve got a quorum here of your church and you can call -them to order for business.” - -“That’s a fact, isn’t it?” - -“There’s old Deacon Kline over there who looks like he wished he hadn’t -come!” The Preacher walked over to the deacon. - -“What’s the matter, brother Kline, you look pensive?” - -The deacon laughed. “Yes, I don’t like my bed. I’m used to feathers.” - -“Well, they say they are going to give you feathers mixed with tar so -you won’t lose them so easily.” - -“I’ll have company, I reckon,” said the deacon with a wink. - -“The funny thing, deacon, is that Major Dameron tells me there isn’t a -man in all the crowd of two hundred and fifty arrested who ever went -on a raid. It’s too bad you old fellows have to pay for the follies of -youth.” - -“It is tough. But we can stand it, Preacher.” They clasped hands. - -“Haven’t smelled a coward anywhere have you, deacon?” - -“I’ve seen one or two a little fidgety, I thought. Cheer ’em up with a -word, Preacher.” - -Springing on the platform of the judge’s desk he looked over the crowd -for a moment, and a cheer shook the building. - -“Boys, I don’t believe there’s a single coward in our ranks.” Another -cheer. - -“Just keep cool now and let our enemies do the talking. In ten days -every man of you will be back at home at his work.” - -“How will we get out with the writ suspended?” asked a man standing -near. - -“That’s the richest thing of all. A United States judge has just decided -that the Governor of the state cannot suspend the rights of a citizen of -the United States under the new Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution -so recently rammed down our throats. Hogg is hoisted on his own petard. -Our lawyers are now serving out writs of _Habeas Corpus_ before this -Federal judge under the Fourteenth Amendment, and you will be discharged -in less than ten days unless there’s a skunk among you. And I don’t -smell one anywhere.” Again a cheer shook the building. - -An orderly walked up to the Preacher and handed him a note. - -“What is it?” - -“Read it!” The men crowded around. - -“Read it, Major Dameron, I’m dumb,” said the Preacher. - -“A military order from the dirty rascal. Berry, commanding the -mountain bummers, forbidding the Rev. John Durham to speak during his -imprisonment!” - -A roar of laughter followed this announcement. - -“That’s cruel! It’ll kill him!” cried deacon Kline as he jabbed the -Preacher in the ribs. - -In a few minutes, the Preacher was back in his place with five of the -best singers from his church by his side. He began to sing the old hymns -of Zion and every man in the room joined until the building quivered -with melody. - -“Now a good old Yankee hymn, that suits this hour, written by an an old -Baptist preacher I met in Boston the other day!” cried the Preacher. - - “My country ’tis of thee, - - Sweet land of liberty, - - Of thee I sing!” - -Heavens, how they sang it, while the Preacher lined it off, stood above -them beating time, and led in a clear mighty voice! Again the orderly -appeared with a note. - -“What is it now?” they cried on every side. - -Again Major Dameron announced “Military order No. 2, forbidding the Rev. -John Durham to sing or induce anybody to sing while in prison.” - -Another roar of laughter that broke into a cheer which made the glass -rattle. When the soldier had disappeared, the Rev. John Durham ascended -the platform, looked about him with a humourous twinkle in his eye, -straightened himself to his full height and crowed like a rooster! A -cheer shook the building to its foundations. Roar after roar of its -defiant cadence swept across the square and made Haley and Perkins -tremble as they looked at each other over their conference table with -Berry. - -“What the devil’s the matter now?” cried Haley. - -“Do you suppose it’s a rescue?” whispered Perkins. - -“No, it’s some new trick of that damned Preacher. I’ll chain him in a -room to himself,” growled Berry. - -“Better not, Colonel. He’s the pet of these white devils. Ye’d better -let him alone.” Berry accepted the advice. - -Five days later the prisoners were arraigned before the United States -judge, Preston Rivers, at Independence. Not a scrap of evidence could -be produced against them. Governor Hogg was present, with a flaming -military escort. He held a stormy interview with Judge Rivers. - -“If you discharge these prisoners, you destroy the government of this -state, sir!” thundered Hogg. - -“Are they not citizens of the United States? Does not the Fourteenth -Amendment apply to a white man as well as a negro?” quietly asked the -judge. - -“Yes, but they are conspirators against the Union. They are murderers -and felons.” - -“Then prove it in my court and I’ll hand them back to you. They are -entitled to a trial, under our Constitution.” - -“I’ll demand your removal by the President,” shouted Hogg. - -“Get out of this room, or I’ll remove you with the point of my boot!” - thundered the judge with rising wrath. “You have suspended the writ of -_Habeas Corpus_ to win a political campaign. The Ku Klux Klan has broken -up your Leagues. You are fighting for your life. But I’ll tell you now, -you can’t suspend the Constitution of the United States while I’m a -Federal judge in this state. I am not a henchman of yours to do your -dirty campaign work. The election is but ten days off. Your scheme is -plain enough. But if you want to keep these men in prison it will be -done on sworn evidence of guilt and a warrant, not on your personal -whim.” - -The Governor cursed, raved and threatened in vain. Judge Rivers -discharged every prisoner and warned Colonel Berry against the -repetition of such arrests within his jurisdiction. - -When these prisoners were discharged, a great mass meeting was called to -give them a reception in the public square of Independence. A platform -was hastily built in the square and that night five thousand excited -people crowded past the stand, shook hands with the men and cheered till -they were hoarse. The Governor watched the demonstration in helpless -fury from his room in the hotel. - -The speaking began at nine o’clock. Every discordant element of the old -South’s furious political passions was now melted into harmonious unity. -Whig and Democrat who had fought one another with relentless hatred sat -side by side on that platform. Secessionist and Unionist now clasped -hands. It was a White Man’s Party, and against it stood in solid array -the Black Man’s Party, led by Simon Legree. - -Henceforth there could be but one issue, are you a White Man or a Negro? - -They declared there was but one question to be settled:-- - -“_Shall the future American be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto?_” - -These determined impassioned men believed that this question was more -important than any theory of tariff or finance and that it was larger -than the South, or even the nation, and held in its solution the -brightest hopes of the progress of the human race. And they believed -that they were ordained of God in this crisis to give this question its -first authoritative answer. - -The state burst into a flame of excitement that fused in its white heat -the whole Anglo-Saxon race. - -In vain Hogg marched and counter-marched his twenty thousand state -troops. They only added fuel to the fire. If they arrested a man, he -became forthwith a hero and was given an ovation. They sent bands of -music and played at the jail doors, and the ladies filled the jail with -every delicacy that could tempt the appetite or appeal to the senses. - -Hogg and Legree were in a panic of fear with the certainty of defeat, -exposure and a felon’s cell yawning before them. - -Two days before the election, the prayer meeting was held at eight -o’clock in the Baptist church at Ham-bright. It was the usual mid-week -service, but the attendance was unusually large. - -After the meeting, the Preacher, Major Dameron, and eleven men quietly -walked back to the church and assembled in the pastor’s study. The -door opened at the rear of the church and could be approached by a side -street. - -“Gentlemen,” said Major Dameron, “I’ve asked you here to-night to -deliver to you the most important order I have ever given, and to have -Dr. Durham as our chaplain to aid me in impressing on you its great -urgency.” - -“We’re ready for orders, Chief,” said young Ambrose Kline, the deacon’s -son. - -“You are to call out every troop of the Klan in full force the night -before the election. You are to visit every negro in the county, and -warn every one as he values his life not to approach the polls at this -election. Those who come, will be allowed to vote without molestation. -All cowards will stay at home. Any man, black or white, who can be -scared out of his ballot is not fit to have one. Back of every ballot is -the red blood of the man that votes. The ballot is force. This is simply -a test of manhood. It will be enough to show who is fit to rule the -state. As the masters of the eleven township lodges of the Klan, you are -the sole guardians of society to-day. When a civilised government has -been restored, your work will be done.” - -“We will do it, sir,” cried Kline. - -“Let me say, men,” said the Preacher, “that I heartily endorse the plan -of your chief. See that the work is done thoroughly and it will be done -for all time. In a sense this is fraud. But it is the fraud of war. The -spy is a fraud, but we must use him when we fight. Is war justifiable? - -“It is too late now for us to discuss that question. We are in a war, -the most ghastly and hellish ever waged, a war on women and children, -the starving and the wounded, and that with sharpened swords. The Turk -and Saracen once waged such a war. We must face it and fight it out. -Shall we flinch?” - -“No! no!” came the passionate answer from every man. - -“You are asked to violate for the moment a statutory law. There is a -higher law. You are the sworn officers of that higher law.” - -The group of leaders left the church with enthusiasm and on the -following night they carried out their instructions to the letter. - -The election was remarkably quiet. Thousands of soldiers were used at -the polls by Hogg’s orders. But they seemed to make no impression on the -determined men who marched up between their files and put the ballots in -the box. - -Legree’s ticket was buried beneath an avalanche. The new “Conservative” - party carried every county in the state save twelve and elected one -hundred and six members of the new Legislature out of a total of one -hundred and twenty. - -The next day hundreds of carpet-bagger thieves fled to the North, and -Legree led the procession. - -Legree had on deposit in New York two millions of dollars, and the -total amount of his part of the thefts he had engineered reached five -millions. He opened an office on Wall Street, bought a seat in the Stock -Exchange, and became one of the most daring and successful of a group of -robbers who preyed on the industries of the nation. - -The new Legislature appointed a Fraud Commission which uncovered -the infamies of the Legree régime, but every thief had escaped. They -promptly impeached the Governor and removed him from office, and the -old commonwealth once more lifted up her head and took her place in the -ranks of civilised communities. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI--THE OLD AND THE NEW NEGRO - -NELSE was elated over the defeat and dissolution of the Leagues that -had persecuted him with such malignant hatred. When the news of the -election came he was still in bed suffering from his wounds. He had -received an internal injury that threatened to prove fatal. - -“Dar now!” he cried, sitting up in bed, “Ain’t I done tole you no -kinky-headed niggers gwine ter run dis gov’ment!” - -“Keep still dar, ole man, you’ll be faintin’ ergin,” worried Aunt Eve. - -“Na honey, I’se feelin’ better. Gwine ter git up and meander down town -en ax dem niggers how’s de Ku Kluxes comin’ on dese days.” - -In spite of all Eve could say he crawled out of bed, fumbled into his -clothes and started down town, leaning heavily on his cane. He had gone -about a block, when he suddenly reeled and fell. Eve was watching him -from the door, and was quickly by his side. He died that afternoon at -three o’clock. He regained consciousness before the end, and asked Eve -for his banjo. - -He put it lovingly into the hands of Charlie Gaston who stood by the bed -crying. - -“You keep ’er, honey. You lub ’er talk better’n any body in de work, -en ’member Nelse when you hear ’er moan en sigh. En when she talk -short en sassy en make ’em all gin ter shuffle, dat’s me too. Dat’s me -got back in ’er.” - -Charlie Gaston rode with Aunt Eve to the cemetery. He walked back home -through the fields with Dick. - -“I wouldn’ cry ’bout er ole nigger!” said Dick looking into his -reddened eyes. - -“Can’t help it. He was my best friend.” - -“Haint I wid you?” - -“Yes, but you ain’t Nelse.” - -“Well, I stan’ by you des de same.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXII--THE DANGER OF PLAYING WITH FIRE - -THE following Saturday the Rev. John Durham preached at a cross roads -school house in the woods about ten miles from Hambright. He preached -every Saturday in the year at such a mission station. He was fond of -taking Charlie with him on these trips. There was an unusually large -crowd in attendance, and the Preacher was much pleased at this evidence -of interest. It had been a hard community to impress. At the close of -the services, while the Preacher was shaking hands with the people, -Charlie elbowed his way rapidly among the throng to his side. - -“Doctor, there’s a nigger man out at the buggy says he wants to see you -quick,” he whispered. - -“All right, Charlie, in a minute.” - -“Says to come right now. It’s a matter of life and death, and he don’t -want to come into the crowd.” - -A troubled look flashed over the Preacher’s face and he hastily followed -the boy, fearing now a sinister meaning to his great crowd. - -“Preacher,” said the negro looking timidly around, “dc Ku Klux is gwine -ter kill ole Uncle Rufus Lattimore ter night. I come ter see ef you -can’t save him. He aint done nuthin’ in God’s work ’cept he would’n’ -pull his waggin clear outen de road one day fur dat redheaded Allan -McLeod ter pass, en he cussed ’im black and blue en tole ’im he -gwine git eben wid ’im.” - -“How do you know this?” - -“I wuz huntin’ in de woods en hear a racket en dim’ er tree. En de Ku -Kluxes had der meetin’ right under de tree. En I hear ev’ry word.” - -“Who was leading the crowd?” - -“Dat Allan McLeod, en Hose Norman.” - -“Where are they going to meet?” - -“Right at de cross-roads here at de school house at mid-night. Dey sont -er man atter plenty er licker en dey gwine ter git drunk fust. I was -erfeered ter come ter de meetin’ case I see er lot er de boys in -de crowd. Fur de Lawd sake, Preacher, do save de ole man. He des es -harmless ez er chile. En I’m gwine ter marry his gal, en she des plum -crazy. We’se got five men ter fight fur ’im but I spec dey kill ’em -all ef you can’t he’p us.” - -“Are you one of General Worth’s negroes?” - -“Yassir. I run erway up here, ’bout dat Free’mens Bureau trick dey put -me up ter, but I’se larned better sense now.” - -“Well, Sam, you go to Uncle Rufus and tell him not to be afraid. I’ll -stop this business before night.” - -The negro stepped into the woods and disappeared. - -“Charlie, we must hurry,” said the Preacher springing in his buggy. He -was driving a beautiful bay mare, a gift from a Kentucky friend. Her -sleek glistening skin and big round veins showed her fine blood. - -“Well, Nancy, it’s your life now or a man’s, or maybe a dozen. You must -take us to Hambright in fifty minutes over these rough hills!” cried the -Preacher. And he gave her the reins. - -The mare bounded forward with a rush that sent four spinning circles -of sand and dust from each wheel. She had seldom felt the lines slacken -across her beautiful back except in some great emergency. She swung past -buggies and wagons without a pause. The people wondered why the Preacher -was in such a hurry. Over long sand stretches of heavy road the mare -flew in a cloud of dust. The Preacher’s lips were firmly set, and a -scowl on his brow. They had made five miles without slackening up. - -The mare was now a mass of white foam, her big-veined nostrils wide open -and quivering, and her eyes flashing with the fire of proud ancestry. -The slackened lines on her back seemed to her an insufferable insult! -“Doctor, you’ll kill Nancy!” pleaded Charlie. - -“Can’t help it, son, there’s a lot of drunken devils, masquerading as Ku -Klux, going to kill a man to-night. If we can’t reach Major Dameron’s -in time for him to get a lot of men and stop them there’ll be a terrible -tragedy.” - -On the mare flew lifting her proud sensitive head higher and higher, -while her heart beat her foaming flanks like a trip hammer. She never -slackened her speed for the ten miles, but dashed up to Major Dameron’s -gate at sundown, just forty-nine minutes from the time she started. The -Preacher patted her dripping neck. - -“Good, Nancy! good! I believe you’ve got a soul!” She stood with her -head still high, pawing the ground. - -“Major Dameron, I’ve driven my mare here at a killing speed to tell you -that young McLeod and Hose Norman have a crowd of desperadoes organised -to kill old Rufus Lattimore to-night. You must get enough men together, -and get there in time to stop them. Sam Worth overheard their plot, -knows every one of them, and there will be a battle if they attempt it.” - -“My God!” exclaimed the Major.-“You haven’t a minute to spare. They are -already loading up on moonshine whiskey.” - -“Doctor Durham, this is the end of the Ku Klux Klan in this county. I’ll -break up every lodge in the next forty-eight hours. It’s too easy for -vicious men to abuse it. Its power is too great. Besides its work is -done.” - -“I was just going to ask you to take that step, Major. And now for God’s -sake get there in time to-night. I’d go with you but my mare can’t stand -it.” - -“I’ll be there on time. Never fear,” replied the Major, springing on his -horse already saddled at the door. - -The Preacher drove slowly to his home, the mare pulling steadily on her -lines. She walked proudly into her stable lot, her head high and fine -eyes flashing, reeled and fell dead in the shafts! The Preacher couldn’t -keep back the tears. He called Dick and left him and Charlie the -sorrowful task of taking off her harness. He hurried into the house and -shut himself up in his study. - -That night when the crowd of young toughs assembled at their rendezvous -it was barely ten o’clock. - -Suddenly a pistol shot rang from behind the school-house, and before -McLeod and Lis crowd knew what had happened fifty white horsemen wheeled -into a circle about them. They were completely surprised and cowed. -Major Dameron rode up to McLeod. - -“Young man, you are the prisoner of the Chief of the Ku Klux Klan of -Campbell county. Lift your hand now and I’ll hang you in five minutes. -You have forfeited your life by disobedience to my orders. You go back -to Hambright with me under guard. Whether I execute you depends on -the outcome of the next two days’ conferences with the chiefs of the -township lodges.” - -The Major wheeled his horse and rode home. The next day he ordered -every one of the eleven township chiefs to report in person to him, at -different hours the same day. To each one his message was the same. -He dissolved the order and issued a perpetual injunction against any -division of the Klan ever going on another raid. - -There were only a few who could see the wisdom of such hasty action. -The success had been so marvellous, their power so absolute, it seemed -a pity to throw it all away. Young Kline especially begged the Major to -postpone his action. - -“It’s impossible Kline. The Klan has done its work. The carpet-baggers -have fled. The state is redeemed from the infamies of a negro -government, and we have a clean economical administration, and we can -keep it so as long as the white people are a unit without any secret -societies.” - -“But, Major, we may be needed again.” - -“I can’t assume the responsibility any longer. The thing is getting -beyond my control. The order is full of wild youngsters and revengeful -men. They try to bring their grudges against neighbours into the order, -and when I refuse to authorise a raid, they take their disguises and go -without authority. An archangel couldn’t command such a force.” - -Within two weeks from the dissolution of the Klan by its Chief, every -lodge had been reorganised. Some of the older men had dropped out, but -more young men were initiated to take their places. Allan McLeod led in -this work of prompt reorganisation, and was elected Chief of the county -by the younger element which now had a large majority. - -He at once served notice on Major Dameron, the former Chief, that if he -dared to interfere with his work-even by opening his mouth in criticism, -he would order a raid, and thrash him. - -When the Major found this note under his door one morning, he read and -re-read it with increasing wrath. Springing on his horse he went in -search of McLeod. He saw him leisurely crossing the street going from -the hotel to the court house. - -Throwing his horse’s rein to a passing boy, he walked rapidly to him -and, without a word, boxed his ears as a father would an impudent child. -McLeod was so astonished, he hesitated for a moment whether to strike -or to run. He did neither, but blushed red and stammered, “What do you -mean, sir?” - -“Read that letter, you young whelp!” The Major thrust the letter into -his hand. - -“I know nothing of this.” - -“You’re a liar. You are its author. No other fool in this county would -have conceived it. Now, let me give you a little notice. I am prepared -for you and your crowd. Call any time. I can whip a hundred puppies of -your breed any time by myself with one hand tied behind me, and never -get a scratch. Dare to lift your finger against me, or any of the men -who refused to go with your new fool’s movement, and I’ll shoot you on -sight as I would a mad dog.” Before McLeod could reply, the Major turned -on his heels and left him. - -McLeod made no further attempt to molest the Major, nor did he allow -any raids bent on murder. The sudden authority placed in his hands in -a measure sobered him. He inaugurated a series of petty deviltries, -whipping negroes and poor white men against whom some of his crowd had a -grudge, and annoying the school teachers of negro schools. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII--THE BIRTH OF A SCALAWAG - -THE overwhelming defeat of their pets in the South, and the toppling -of their houses of paper built on Negro supremacy, brought to Congress a -sense of guilt and shame, that required action. Their own agents in -the South were now in the penitentiary or in exile for well established -felonies, and the future looked dark. - -They found the scapegoat in these fool later day Ku Klux marauders. -Once more the public square at Ham-bright saw the bivouac of the regular -troops of the United States Army. The Preacher saw the glint of their -bayonets with a sense of relief. - -With this army came a corps of skilled detectives, who set to work. -All that was necessary, was to arrest and threaten with summary death -a coward, and they got all the information he could give. The jail was -choked with prisoners and every day saw a squad depart for the stockade -at Independence. Sam Worth gave information that led to the immediate -arrest of Allan McLeod. He was the first man led into the jail. - -The officers had a long conference with him that lasted four hours. - -And then the bottom fell out. A wild stampede of young men for the -West! Somebody who held the names of every man in the order had proved a -traitor. - -Every night from hundreds of humble homes might be heard the choking -sobs of a mother saying good-bye in the darkness to the last boy the -war had left her old age. When the good-bye was said, and the father, -waiting in the buggy at the gate, had called for haste, and the boy was -hurrying out with his grip-sack, there was a moan, the soft rush of a -coarse homespun dress toward the gate and her arms were around his neck -again. - -“I can’t let you go, child! Lord have mercy! He’s the last!” And the low -pitiful sobs! - -“Come, come, now Ma, we must get away from here before the officers are -after him!” - -“Just a minute!” - -A kiss, and then another long and lingering. A sigh, and then a -smothered choking cry from a mother’s broken heart and he was gone. - -Thus Texas grew into the Imperial Commonwealth of the South. - -***** - -To save appearance McLeod was removed to Independence with the other -prisoners, and in a short time released, with a number of others against -whom insignificant charges were lodged. - -When he returned to Hambright the people looked at him with suspicion. - -“How is it, young man,” asked the Preacher, “that you are at home so -soon, while brave boys are serving terms in Northern prisons?” - -“Had nothing against me,” he replied. - -“That’s strange, when Sam Worth swore that you organised the raid to -kill Rufe Lattimore.” - -“They didn’t believe him.” - -“Well, I’ve an idea that you saved your hide by puking. I’m not sure -yet, but information was given that only the man in command of the whole -county could have possessed.” - -“There were a half-dozen men who knew as much as I did. You mustn’t -think me capable of such a thing, Dr. Durham!” protested McLeod with -heightened colour. - -“It’s a nasty suspicion. I’d rather sec a child of mine transformed into -a cur dog, and killed for stealing sheep, than fall to the level of such -a man. But only time will prove the issue.” - -“I’ve made up my mind to turn over a new leaf,” said McLeod. “I’m sick -of rowdyism. I’m going to be a law-abiding, loyal citizen.” - -“That’s just what I’m afraid of!” exclaimed the Preacher with a sneer as -he turned and left him. - -And his fears were soon confirmed. Within a month the Independence -Observer contained a dispatch from Washington announcing the appointment -of Allan McLeod a Deputy United States Marshal for the District of -Western North Carolina, together with the information that he had -renounced his allegiance to his old disloyal associates, and had become -an enthusiastic Republican; and that henceforth he would labour with -might and main to establish peace and further the industrial progress of -the South. - -“I knew it. The dirty whelp!” cried the Preacher, as he showed the paper -to his wife. - -“Now don’t be too hard on the boy, Doctor Durham,” urged his wife. “He -may be sincere in his change of politics. You never did like him.” - -“Sincere! yes, as the devil is always sincere. He’s dead in earnest now. -He’s found his level, and his success is sure. Mark my words the boy’s -a villain from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. He has -bartered his soul to save his skin, and the skin is all that’s left.” - -“I’m sorry to think it. I couldn’t help liking him.” - -“And that’s the funniest freak I ever knew your fancy to take, my -dear,--I never could understand it.” - -When McLeod had established his office in Hambright, he made special -efforts to allay the suspicions against his name. His indignant denials -of the report of his treachery convinced many that he had been wronged. -Two men alone, maintained toward him an attitude of contempt, Major -Dameron and the Preacher. - -He called on Mrs. Durham, and with his smooth tongue convinced her -that he had been foully slandered. She urged him to win the Doctor. -Accordingly he called to talk the question over with the Preacher and -ask him for a fair chance to build his character untarnished in the -community. - -The Preacher heard him through patiently, but in silence. Allan was -perspiring before he reached the end of his plausible explanation. It -was a tougher task than he thought, this deliberate lying, under the -gaze of those glowing black eyes that looked out from their shaggy brows -and pierced through his inmost soul. - -“You’ve got an oily tongue. It will carry you a long way in this world. -I can’t help admiring the skill with which you are fast learning to use -it. You’ve fooled Mrs. Durham with it, but you can’t fool me,” said the -Preacher. - -“Doctor, I solemnly swear to you I am not guilty.” - -“It’s no use to add perjury to plain lying. I know you did it. I know -it as well as if I were present in that jail and heard you basely betray -the men, name by name, whom you had lured to their ruin.” - -“Doctor, I swear you are mistaken!” - -“Bah! Don’t talk about it. You nauseate me!” The Preacher sprang to -his feet, paced across the floor, sat down on the edge of his table and -glared at McLeod for a moment. And then with his voice low and quivering -with a storm of emotion he said, “The curse of God upon you--the God of -your fathers! Your fathers in far-off Scotland’s hills, who would have -suffered their tongues torn from their heads and their skin stripped -inch by inch from their flesh sooner than betray one of their clan in -distress. You have betrayed a thousand of your own men, and you, their -sworn chieftain! Hell was made to consume such leper trash!” McLeod was -dazed at first by this outburst. At length he sprang to his feet livid -with rage. - -“I’ll not forget this, sir!” he hissed. - -“Don’t forget it!” cried the Preacher trembling with passion as he -opened the door. “Go on and live your lie.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV--A MODERN MIRACLE - -MRS. DURHAM, the Doctor wants you,” said Charlie when McLeod’s footfall -had died away. - -“Charlie, dear, why don’t you call me ‘Mama’--surely you love me a -little wee bit, don’t you?” she asked, taking the boy’s hand tenderly in -hers. - -“Yes’m,” he replied hanging his head. - -“Then do say Mama. You don’t know how good it would be in my ears.” - -“I try to but it chokes me,” he half whispered, glancing timidly up at -her. “Let me call you Aunt Margaret, I always wanted an aunt and I think -your name Margaret’s so sweet,” he shyly added. - -She kissed him and said, “All right, if that’s all you will give me.” - She passed on into the library where the Preacher waited her. - -“My dear, I’ve just given young McLeod a piece of my mind. I wanted to -say to you that you are entirely mistaken in his character. He’s a bad -egg. I know all the facts about his treachery. He’s as smooth a liar as -I’ve met in years.” - -“With all his brute nature, there’s some good in him,” she persisted. - -“Well, it will stay in him. He will never let it get out.” - -“All right, have your way about it for the time. We’ll see who is right -in the long run. Now I’ve a more pressing and tougher problem for your -solution.” - -“What is it?” - -“Dick.” - -“What’s he done this time?” - -“He steals everything he can get his hands on.” - -“He is a puzzle.” - -“He’s the greatest liar I ever saw,” she continued. “He simply will not -tell the truth if he can think up a lie in time. I’d say run him off -the place, but for Charlie. He seems to love the little scoundrel. I’m -afraid his influence over Charlie will be vicious, but it would break -the child’s heart to drive him away. What shall we do with him?” - -The Preacher laughed. “I give it up, my dear, you’ve got beyond my -depth now. I don’t know whether he’s got a soul. Certainly the very -rudimentary foundations of morals seem lacking. I believe you could take -a young ape and teach him quicker. I leave him with you. At present it’s -a domestic problem.” - -“Thanks, that’s so encouraging.” - -Dick was a puzzle and no mistake about it. But to Charlie his rolling -mischievous eyes, his cunning fingers and his wayward imagination were -unfailing fountains of life. He found every bird’s nest within two -miles of town. He could track a rabbit almost as swiftly and surely as -a hound. He could work like fury when he had a mind to, and loaf a half -day over one row of the garden when he didn’t want to work, which was -his chronic condition. - -When the revival season set in for the negroes in the summer, the days -of sorrow began for householders. Every negro in the community became -absolutely worthless and remained so until the emotional insanity -attending their meetings wore off. - -Aunt Mary, Mrs. Durham’s cook, got salvation over again every summer -with increasing power and increasing degeneration in her work. Some -nights she got home at two o’clock and breakfast was not ready until -nine. Some nights she didn’t get home at all, and Mrs. Durham had to get -breakfast herself. - -It was a hard time for Dick who had not yet experienced religion, and -on whom fell the brunt of the extra work and Mrs. Durham’s fretfulness -besides. - -“I tell you what less do, Charlie!” he cried one day. “Less go down ter -dat nigger chu’ch, en bus’ up de meetin’! I’se gettin’ tired er dis.” - -“How’ll you do it?” - -“I show you somefin’?” He reached under his shirt next to his skin, and -pulled out Dr. Graham’s sun glass. - -“Where’d you get that, Dick?” - -“Foun’ it whar er man lef’ it.” He walled his eyes solemnly. - -“Des watch here when I turns ’im in de sun. I kin set dat pile er -straw er fire wid it!” - -“You mustn’t set the church afire!” warned Charlie. - -“Naw, chile, but I git up in de gallery, en when ole Uncle Josh gins ter -holler en bawl en r’ar en charge, I fling dat blaze er light right on -his bal’ haid, en I set him afire sho’s you bawn!” - -“Dick, I wouldn’t do it,” said Charlie, laughing in spite of himself. - -Charlie refused to accompany him. But Dick’s mind was set on the -necessity of this work of reform. So in the afternoon he slipped off -without leave and quietly made his way into the gallery of the Negro -Baptist church. - -The excitement was running high. Uncle Josh had preached one sermon an -hour in length, and had called up the mourners. At least fifty had come -forward. The benches had been cleared for five rows back from the pulpit -to give plenty of room for the mourners to crawl over the floor, walk -back and forth and shout when they “came through,” and for their friends -to fan them. - -This open place was covered with wheat straw to keep the mourners off -the bare floor, and afford some sort of comfort for those far advanced -in mourning, who went into trances and sometimes lay motionless for -hours on their backs or flat on their faces. - -The mourners had kicked and shuffled this straw out to the edges and the -floor was bare. Uncle Josh had sent two deacons out for more straw. - -In the meantime he was working himself up to another mighty climax of -exhortation to move sinners to come forward. - -“Come on ter glory you po, po sinners, en flee ter de Lamb er God befo -de flames er hell swaller you whole! At de last great day de Sperit -’ll flash de light er his shinin’ face on dis ole parch up sinful -worl’, en hit ’ll ketch er fire in er minute, an de yearth ’ll melt -wid furvient heat! Whar ’ll you be den po tremblin’ sinner? Whar ’ll -you be when de flame er de Sperit smites de moon and de stars wid -fire, en dey gin ter drap outen de sky en knock big holes in de burnin’ -yearth? Whar ’ll you be when de rocks melt wid dat heat, en de sun -hide his face in de black smoke dat rise fum de pit?” - -Moans and groans and shrieks, louder and louder filled the air. Uncle -Josh paused a moment and looked for his deacons with the straw. They -were just coming up the steps with a great armful over their heads. - -“What’s de matter wid you breddern! Fetch on dat wheat straw! Here’s -dese tremblin’ souls gwine down inter de flames er hell des fur de lak -er wheat straw!” - -The brethren hurried forward with the wheat straw, and just as they -reached Uncle Josh standing perspiring in the midst of his groaning -mourners, Dick flashed from the gallery a stream of dazzling light on -the old man’s face and held it steadily on his bald head. Josh was too -astonished to move at first. He was simply paralysed with fear. It was -all right to talk about the flame of the Spirit, but he wasn’t exactly -ready to run into it. Suddenly he clapped his hands on the top of his -head and sprang straight up in the air yelling in a plain everyday -profane voice, “God-der-mighty! What’s dat?” - -The brethren holding the straw saw it and stood dumb with terror. The -light disappeared from Uncle Josh’s head and lit the straw in splendour -on one of the deacon’s shoulders. Aunt Mary’s voice was heard above the -mourners’ din, clear, shrill and soul piercing. - -“G-l-o-r-y! G-l-o-r-y ter God! De flame er de Sperit! De judgment day! -Yas Lawd, I’se here! Glory! Halleluyah!” - -Suddenly the straw on the deacon’s back burst into flames! And -pandemonium broke loose. A weak-minded sinner screamed, “De flames er -Hell!” - -The mourners smelled the smoke and sprang from the floor with white -staring eyes. When they saw the fire and got their bearings they made -for the open,--they jumped on each others’ back and made for the door -like madmen. Those nearest the windows sprang through, and when the -lower part of the window was jammed, big buck negroes jumped on the -backs of the lower crowd and plunged through the two upper sashes with a -crash that added new terror to the panic. - -In two minutes the church was empty, and the yard full of crazy, -shouting negroes. - -Dick stepped from the gallery into the crowd as the last ones emerged, -ran up to the pulpit and stamped out the fire in the straw with his bare -feet. He looked around to see if they had left anything valuable behind -in the stampede, and sauntered leisurely out of the church. - -“Now dog-gone ’em let ’em yell!” he muttered to himself. - -When Uncle Josh sufficiently recovered his senses to think, and saw -the church still standing, with not even a whiff of smoke to be seen, -instead of the roaring furnace he had expected, he was amazed. He -called his scattered deacons together and they went cautiously back to -investigate. - -“Hit’s no use in talkin’ Bre’r Josh, dey sho wuz er fire!” cried one of -the deacons. - -“Sho’s de Lawd’s in heaben. I feel it gittin’ on my fingers fo I drap -dat straw!” said another. - -“Hit smite me fust right on top er my haid!” whispered Uncle Josh in -awe. - -They cautiously approached the pulpit and there in front of it lay the -charred fragments of the burned straw pile. - -They gathered around it in awe-struck wonder. One of them touched it -with his foot. - -“Doan do dat!” cried Uncle Josh, lifting his hand with authority. - -They drew back, Uncle Josh saw the immense power in that heap of charred -straw. Some of it was a little damp and it had been only partly burned. - -“Dar’s de mericle er de Sperit!” he solemnly declared. - -“Yas Lawd!” echoed a deacon. - -“Fetch de hammer, en de saw, en de nails, en de boards en build right -dar en altar ter de Sperit!” were his prophetic commands. - -And they did. They got an old show case of glass, put the charred straw -in it, and built an open box work around it just where it fell in front -of the pulpit. - -Then a revival broke out that completely paralysed the industries of -Campbell county. Every negro stopped work and went to that church. Uncle -Josh didn’t have to preach or to plead. They came in troops towards the -magic altar, whose fame and mystery had thrilled every superstitious -soul with its power. The benches were all moved out and the whole church -floor given up to mourners. Uncle Josh had an easy time walking around -just adding a few terrifying hints to trembling sinners, or helping to -hold some strong sister when she had “come through,” with so much glory -in her bones that there was danger she would hurt somebody. - -After a week the matter became so serious that the white people set in -motion an investigation of the affair. Dick had thrown out a mysterious -hint that he knew some things that were very funny. - -“Doan you tell nobody!” he would solemnly say to Charlie. - -And then he would lie down on the grass and roll and laugh. At length -by dint of perseverance, and a bribe of a quarter, the Preacher induced -Dick to explain the mystery. He did, and it broke up the meeting. - -Uncle Josh’s fury knew no bounds. He was heartbroken at the sudden -collapse of his revival, chagrined at the recollection of his own terror -at the fire, and fearful of an avalanche of backsliders from the meeting -among those who had professed even with the greatest glory. - -He demanded that the Preacher should turn Dick over to him for -correction. The Preacher took a few hours to consider whether he should -whip him himself or turn him over to Uncle Josh. Dick heard Uncle Josh’s -demand. Out behind the stable he and Charlie held a council of war. - -“You go see Miss Mar’get fur me, en git up close to her, en tell her -taint right ter ’low no low down black nigger ter whip me!” - -“All right Dick, I will,” agreed Charlie. - -“Case ef ole Josh beats me I gwine ter run away. I nebber git ober dat.” - -Dick had threatened to run away often before when he wanted to force -Charlie to do something for him. Once he had gone a mile out of town -with his clothes tied in a bundle, and Charlie trudging after him -begging him not to leave. - -The boy did his best to save Dick the humiliation of a whipping at the -hands of Uncle Josh, but in vain. - -When Uncle Josh led him out to the stable lot, his face was not pleasant -to look upon. There was a dangerous gleam in Dick’s eye that boded no -good to his enemy. - -“You imp er de debbil!” exclaimed Uncle Josh shaking his switch with -unction. - -“I fool you good enough, you ole bal’ headed ape!” answered Dick -gritting his teeth defiantly. - -“I make you sing enudder chune fo I’se done wid you.” - -“En if you does, nigger, you know what I gwine do fur you?” cried Dick -rolling his eyes up at his enemy. - -“What kin you do, honey? asked Uncle Josh, humouring his victim now with -the evident relish of a cat before his meal on a mouse. - -“Ef you hits me hard, I gwine ter burn you house down on you haid some -night, en run erway des es sho es I kin stick er match to it,” said -Dick. - -“You is, is you?” thundered Josh with wrath. - -“Dat I is. En I burn yo ole chu’ch de same night.” - -Uncle Josh was silent a moment. Dick’s words had chilled his heart. -He was afraid of him, but he was afraid to back down from what was now -evidently his duty. So without further words he whipped him. Yet to save -his life he could not hit him as hard as he thought he deserved. - -That night Dick disappeared from Hambright, and for weeks every evening -at dusk the wistful face of Charlie Gaston could be seen on the big hill -to the south of town vainly watching for somebody. He would always take -something to eat in his pockets, and when he gave up his vigil he would -place the food under a big shelving rock where they had often played -together. But the birds and ground squirrels ate it. He would slip back -the next day hoping to see Dick jump out of the cave and surprise him. - -And then at last he gave it up, sat down under the rock and cried. He -knew Dick would grow to be a man somewhere out in the big world and -never come back. - - - - -BOOK TWO--LOVE’S DREAM - - - - -CHAPTER I--BLUE EYES AND BLACK HAIR - - -SHE’S coming next month, Charlie,” said Mrs. Durham, looking up from a -letter. - -“Who is it now. Auntie, another divinity with which you are going to -overwhelm me?” asked Gaston smiling as he laid his book down and leaned -back in his chair. - -“Some one I’ve been telling you about for the last month.” - -“Which one?” - -“Oh, you wretch! You don’t think about anything except your books. I’ve -been dinning that girl’s praises into your ears for fully five weeks, -and you look at me in that innocent way and ask which one?” - -“Honestly, Aunt Margaret, you’re always telling me about some beautiful -girl, I get them mixed. And then when I see them, they don’t come up to -the advance notices you’ve sent out. To tell you the truth, you are -such a beautiful woman, and I’ve got so used to your standard, the girls -can’t measure up to it.” - -“You flatterer. A woman of forty-two a standard of beauty! Well, it’s -sweet to hear you say it, you handsome young rascal.” - -“It’s the honest truth. You are one of the women who never show the -addition of a year. You have spoiled my eyesight for ordinary girls.” - -“Hush, sir, you don’t dare to talk to any girl like you talk to me. They -all say you’re afraid of them.” - -“Well, I am, in a sense. I’ve been disappointed so many times.” - -“Oh! you ’ll find her yet and when you do!”-- - -“What do you think will happen?” - -“I’m certain you will be the biggest fool in the state.” - -“That will make it nice for the girl, won’t it?” - -“Yes, and I shall enjoy your antics. You who have dissected love with -your brutal German philosophy, and found every girl’s faults with such -ease,--it will be fun to watch you flounder in the meshes at last.” - -“Auntie, seriously, it will be the happiest day of my life. For four -years my dreams have been growing more and more impossible. Who is this -one?” - -“She is the most beautiful girl I know, and the brightest and the best, -and if she gets hold of you she will clip your wings and bring you down -to earth. I ’ll watch you with interest,” said Mrs. Durham looking -over the letter again and laughing. - -“What are you laughing at?” - -“Just a little joke she gets off in this letter.” - -“But who is she? You haven’t told me.” - -“I did tell you--she’s General Worth’s daughter, Miss Sallie. She writes -she is coming up to spend a month at the Springs, with her friend Helen -Lowell, of Boston, and wants me to corral all the young men in the -community and have them fed and in fine condition for work when they -arrive.” - -“She evidently intends to have a good time.” - -“Yes, and she will.” - -“Fortunately my law practice is not rushing me at this season. My total -receipts for June last year were two dollars and twenty-five cents. It -will hardly go over two-fifty this year.” - -“I’ve told her you’re a rising young lawyer.” - -“I have plenty of room to rise, Auntie. If you will just keep on letting -me board with you, I hope to work my practice up to ten dollars a month -in the course of time.” - -“Don’t you want to hear something about Miss Sallie?” - -“Of course, I was just going to ask you if she’s as homely as that last -one you tried to get off on me.” - -“I’ve told you she’s a beauty. She made a sensation at her finishing -school in Baltimore. It’s funny that she was there the last year you -were at the Johns Hopkins University. She’s the belle of Independence, -rich, petted, and the only child of old General Worth, who thinks the -sun rises and sets in her pretty blue eyes.” - -“So she has blue eyes?” - -“Yes, blue eyes and black hair.” - -“What a funny combination! I never saw a girl with blue eyes and black -hair.” - -“It’s often seen in the far South. I expect you to be drowned in those -blue eyes. They are big, round and child-like, and look out of their -black lashes as though surprised at their dark setting. This contrast -accents their dreamy beauty, and her eyes seem to swim in a dim blue -mist like the point where the sea and sky meet on the horizon far out on -the ocean. She is bright, witty, romantic and full of coquetry. She is -determined to live her girl’s life to its full limit. She is fond of -society and dances divinely.” - -“That’s bad. I never even cut the pigeon’s wing in my life--and I’m too -old to learn.” - -“She has a full queenly figure, small hands and feet, delicate wrists, a -dimple in one cheek only, and a mass of brown-black hair that curls when -it’s going to rain.” - -“That’s fine, we wouldn’t need a barometer on life’s voyage, would we?” - -“No, but you will be looking for a pilot and a harbour before you’ve -known her a month. Her upper lip is a little fuller and projects -slightly over the lower, and they are both beautifully fluted and curved -like the petals of a flower, which makes the most tantalising mouth a -standing challenge for a kiss.” - -“Oh! Auntie, you’re joking! You never saw such a girl. You’re breaking -into my heart, stealing glances at my ideal.” - -“All right, sir, wait and see for yourself. She has pretty shell-like -ears, her laughter is full, contagious, and like music. She plays -divinely on the piano, can’t sing a note, but dresses to kill. You might -as well wind up your affairs, and get ready for the first serious work -of your life. You will have your hands full after you see her.” - -“But did I understand you to say she’s rich?” - -“Yes, they say her father is worth half a million.” - -“Do you think she could be interested in the poor in this county?” - -“Yes, she doesn’t seem to know she’s an heiress. Her father, the -General, is a deacon in the Baptist church at Independence, and hates -dudes and fops with all his old-fashioned soul. His idea of a man is one -of character, and the capacity of achievement, not merely a possessor of -money. Still, I imagine he is going to give any man trouble who tries to -take his daughter away from him.” - -“I’m afraid that money lets me out of the race.” - -“Nothing of the sort, when you see her you will never allow a little -thing like that to worry you.” - -“It’s not her dollars that will worry me. It’s the fact that she’s got -them and I haven’t. But, anyhow, Auntie, from your description you can -book me for one night at least.” - -“I’m going to book you for her lackey, her slave, devoted to her every -whim while she’s here. One night--the idea!” - -“Auntie, you’re too generous to others. I’ve no notion all this -rigmarole about your Miss Sallie Worth is true. But I ’ll do anything -to please you.” - -“Very well, I ’ll see whom you are trying to please later.” - -“I must go,” said Gaston, hastily rising. “I have an engagement to -discuss the coming political campaign with the Hon. Allan McLeod, the -present Republican boss of the state.” - -“I didn’t know you hobnobbed with the enemy.” - -“I don’t. But as far as I can understand him, he purposes to take me -up on an exceeding high mountain and offer me the world and the fulness -thereof. We all like to be tempted whether we fall or not. The Doctor -hates McLeod. I think he holds some grudge against him. What do you -think of him, Auntie? He swears by you. I used to dislike him as a boy, -but he seems a pretty decent sort of fellow now, and I can’t help liking -just a little anybody who loves you. I confess he has a fascination for -me.” - -“Why do you ask my opinion of him?” slowly asked Mrs. Durham. - -“Because I’m not quite sure of his honesty. He talks fairly, but there’s -something about him that casts a doubt over his fairest words. He says -he has the most important proposition of my life to place before me -to-day, and I’m at a loss how to meet him--whether as a well-meaning -friend or a scheming scoundrel. He’s a puzzle to me.” - -“Well Charlie, I don’t mind telling you that he is a puzzle to me. -I’ve always been strangely attracted to him, even when he was a big -red-headed brute of a boy. The Doctor always disliked him and I thought, -misjudged him. He has always paid me the supremest deference, and of -late years the most subtle flattery. No woman, who feels her life a -failure, as I do mine, can be indifferent to such a compliment from -a man of trained mind and masterful character. This is a sore subject -between the Doctor and myself. And when I see him shaking hands a little -too lingeringly with admiring sisters after his services, I repay him -with a chat with my devoted McLeod. Don’t ask me. I like him, and I -don’t like him. I admire him and at the same time I suspect and half -fear him.” - -“Strange we feel so much alike about him. But your heart has always been -very close to mine, since you slipped your arm around me that night -my mother died. I know about what he will say, and I know about what I -’ll do.” He stooped and kissed his fostermother tenderly. - -“Charlie, I’m in earnest about my pretty girl that’s coming. Don’t -forget it.” - -“Bah! You’ve fooled me before.” - - - - -CHAPTER II--THE VOICE OF THE TEMPTER - - -McLEOD was waiting with some impatience in his room at the hotel. - -“Walk in Gaston, you’re a little late. However, better late than never.” - McLeod plunged directly into the purpose of his visit. - -“Gaston you’re a man of brains, and oratorical genius. I heard your -speech in the last Democratic convention in Raleigh, and I don’t say -it to flatter you, that was the greatest speech made in any assembly in -this state since the war.” - -“Thanks!” said Gaston with a wave of his arm. - -“I mean it. You know too much to be in sympathy with the old moss-backs -who are now running this state. For fourteen years, the South has -marched to the polls and struck blindly at the Republican party, and -three times it struck to kill. The Southern people have nothing in -common with these Northern Democrats who make your platforms and -nominate your candidate. You don’t ask anything about the platform or -the man. You would vote for the devil if the Democrats nominated him, -and ask no questions; and what infuriates me is you vote to enforce -platforms that mean economic ruin to the South.” - -“Man shall not live by bread alone, McLeod.” - -“Sure, but he can’t live on dead men’s bones. You vote in solid mass -on the Negro question, which you settled by the power of Anglo-Saxon -insolence when you destroyed the Reconstruction governments at a blow. -Why should you keep on voting against every interest of the South, -merely because you hate the name Republican?” - -“Why? Simply because so long as the Negro is here with a ballot in his -hands he is a menace to civilisation. The Republican party placed him -here. The name Republican will stink in the South for a century, not -because they beat us in war, but because two years after the war, in -profound peace, they inaugurated a second war on the unarmed people of -the South, butchering the starving, the wounded, the women and children. -God in heaven, will I ever forget that day they murdered my mother! -Their attempt to establish with the bayonet an African barbarism on the -ruins of Southern society was a conspiracy against human progress. It -was the blackest crime of the nineteenth century.” - -“You are talking in a dead language. We are living in a new world.” - -“But principles are eternal.” - -“Principles? I’m not talking about principles. I’m talking about -practical politics. The people down here haven’t voted on a principle in -years. They’ve been voting on old Simon Legree. He left the state nearly -a quarter of a century ago.” - -“Yes, McLeod, but his soul has gone marching on. The Republican party -fought the South because such men as Legree lived in it, and abused the -negroes, and the moment they won, turn and make Legree and his breed -their pets. Simon Legree is more than a mere man who stole five -millions of dollars, alienated the races, and covered the South with the -desolation of anarchy. He is an idea. He represents everything that the -soul of the South loathes, and that the Republican party has tried to -ram down our throats, Negro supremacy in politics, and Negro equality in -society.” - -“You are talking about the dead past, Gaston. I’m surprised at a man -of your brain living under such a delusion. How can there be Negro -supremacy when they are in a minority?” - -“Supremacy under a party system is always held by a minority. The -dominant faction of a party rules the party, and the successful party -rules the state. If the Negro only numbered one-fifth the population and -they all belonged to one party, they could dictate the policy of that -party.” - -“You know that a few white brains really rule that black mob.” - -“Yes, but the black mob defines the limits within which you live and -have your being.” - -“Gaston, the time has come to shake off this nightmare, and face the -issues of our day and generation. We are going to win in this campaign, -but I want you. I like you. You are the kind of man we need now to take -the field and lead in this campaign.” - -“How are you going to win?” - -“We are going to form a contract with the Farmer’s Alliance and break -the backbone of the Bourbon Democracy of the South. The farmers have now -a compact body of 50,000 voters, thoroughly organised, and combined with -the negro vote we can hold this state until Gabriel blows his trumpet.” - -“That’s a pretty scheme. Our farmers are crazy now with all sorts of -fool ideas,” said Gaston thoughtfully. - -“Exactly, my boy, and we’ve got them by the nose.” - -“If you can carry through that programme, you’ve got us in a hole.” - -“In a hole? I should say we’ve got you in the bottomless pit with the -lid bolted down. You ’ll not even rise at the day of judgment. It -won’t be necessary!” laughed McLeod, and as he laughed changed his tone -in the midst of his laughter. - -“And what is the great proposition you have to make to me?” asked -Gaston. - -“Join with us in this new coalition, and stump the state for us. -Your fortune will be made, win or lose. I ’ll see that the National -Republican Committee pays you a thousand dollars a week for your -speeches, at least five a week, two hundred dollars apiece. If we lose, -you will make ten thousand dollars in the canvass, and stand in line for -a good office under the National Administration. If we win, I ’ll -put you in the Governor’s Palace for four years. There’s a tide in the -affairs of men, you know. It’s at the flood at this moment for you.” - -Gaston was silent a moment and looked thoughtfully out of the window. -The offer was a tremendous temptation. A group of old fogies had -dominated the Democratic party for ten years, and had kept the younger -men down with their war cries and old soldier candidates, until he had -been more than once disgusted. He felt as sure of McLeod’s success as if -he already saw it. It was precisely the movement he had warned the old -pudding-head set against in the preceding campaign in which they had -deliberately alienated the Farmer’s Alliance. They had pooh poohed his -warning and blundered on to their ruin. - -It was the dream of his life to have money enough to buy back his -mother’s old home, beautify it, and live there in comfort with a great -library of books he would gather. The possibility of a career at the -state Capital and then at Washington for so young a man was one of -dazzling splendour to his youthful mind. For the moment it seemed almost -impossible to say no. - -McLeod saw his hesitation and already smiled with the certainty of -triumph. A cloud overspread his face when Gaston at length said, “I -’ll give you my answer to-morrow.” - -“All right, you’re a gentleman. I can trust you. Our conversation is of -course only between you and me.” - -“Certainly, I understand that.” - -All that day and night he was alone fighting out the battle in his soul. -It was an easy solution of life that opened before him. The attainment -of his proudest ambitions lay within his grasp almost without a -struggle. Such a campaign, with his name on the lips of surging -thousands around those speaker’s stands, was an idea that fascinated him -with a serpent charm. - -All that he had to do was to give up his prejudices on the Negro -question. His own party stood for no principle except the supremacy of -the Anglo-Saxon. On the issue of the party platforms, he was in accord -with the modern Republican utterances at almost every issue, and so were -his associates in the Southern Democracy. The Negro was the point. -What was the use now of persisting in the stupid reiteration of the old -slogan of white supremacy? The Negro had the ballot. He was still the -ward of the nation, and likely to be for all time, so far as he could -see. The Negro was the one pet superstition of the millions who -lived where no negro dwelt. His person and his ballot were held more -peculiarly sacred and inviolate in the South than that of any white man -elsewhere. - -The possibility of a reunion in friendly understanding and sympathy -between the masses of the North and the masses of the South seemed -remote and impossible in his day and generation. - -He asked himself the question, could such a revolution toward universal -suffrage ever go backward, no matter how base the motive which gave it -birth? Why not give up impracticable dreams, accept things as they are, -and succeed? - -He did not confer with the Rev. John Durham on this question, because -he knew what his answer would be without asking. A thousand times he -had said to him, with the emphasis he could give to words, “_My boy, the -future American must be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto! We are now deciding -which it shall be. The future of the world depends on the future of this -Republic. This Republic can have no future if racial lines are broken, -and its proud citizenship sinks to the level of a mongrel breed of -Mulattoes. The South must tight this battle to a finish. Two thousand -years look down upon the struggle, and Two thousand years of the future -bend low to catch the message of life or death!_” - -He could see now his drawn face with its deep lines and his eyes -flashing with passion as he said this. These words haunted Gaston now -with strange power as he walked along the silent streets. - -He walked down past his old home, stopped and leaned on the gate, and -looked at it long and lovingly. What a flood of tender and sorrowful -memories swept his soul! He lived over again the days of despair when -his mother was an invalid. He recalled their awful poverty, and then the -last terrible day with that mob of negroes trampling over the lawn and -overrunning the house. He saw the white face of his mother whose memory -he loved as he loved life. And now he recalled a sentence from her dying -lips. He had all but lost its meaning. - -“You will grow to be a brave strong man. You will fight this battle out, -and win back our home, and bring your own bride here in the far away -days of sunshine and success I see for you.” - -_You will fight this battle out_--he had almost lost that sentence in -his hunger for that which followed. It came to his soul now ringing like -a trumpet call to honour and duty. - -He turned on his heel and walked rapidly home. He looked at his watch. -It was two o’clock in the morning. - -“We will fight it out on the old lines,” he said to McLeod next day. - -“You will find me a pretty good fighter.” - -“Unto death, let it be,” answered Gaston firmly setting his lips. - -“I admire your pluck, but I’m sorry for your judgment. You know you’re -beaten before you begin.” - -“Defeat that’s seen has lost its bitterness before it comes.” - -“Then get ready the flowers for the funeral. I hoped you would have -better sense. You are one of the men now I ’ll have to crush first, -thoroughly, and for all time. I’m not afraid of the old fools. I ’ll -be fair enough to tell you this,” said McLeod. - -“Not since Legree’s day has the Republican party had so dangerous a man -at its head,” said Gaston thoughtfully to himself as McLeod strode away -across the square. “He has ten times the brains of his older master, and -none of his superstitions. He will give me a hard fight.” - - - - -CHAPTER III--FLORA - -HAMBRIGHT had changed but little in the eighteen years of peace that -had followed the terrors of Legree’s régime. The population had doubled, -though but few houses had been built. The town had not grown from the -development of industry, but for a very simple reason--the country -people had moved into the town, seeking refuge from a new terror that -was growing of late more and more a menace to a country home, the roving -criminal negro. - -The birth of a girl baby was sure to make a father restless, and when -the baby looked up into his face one day with the soft light of a -maiden, he gave up his farm and moved to town. - -The most important development of these eighteen years was the complete -alienation of the white and black races as compared with the old -familiar trust of domestic life. - -When Legree finished his work as the master artificer of the -Reconstruction Policy, he had dug a gulf between the races as deep -as hell. It had never been bridged. The deed was done and it had -crystallised into the solid rock that lies at the basis of society. It -was done at a formative period, and it could no more be undone now than -you could roll the universe back in its course. - -The younger generation of white men only knew the Negro as an enemy of -his people in politics and society. - -He never came in contact with him except in menial service, in which -the service rendered was becoming more and more trifling, and his habits -more insolent. He had his separate schools, churches, preachers and -teachers, and his political leaders were the beneficiaries of Legree’s -legacies. - -With the Anglo-Saxon race guarding the door of marriage with fire and -sword, the effort was being made to build a nation inside a nation of -two antagonistic races. No such thing had ever been done in the history -of the human race, even under the development of the monarchial and -aristocratic forms of society. How could it be done under the formulas -of Democracy with Equality as the fundamental basis of law? And yet this -was the programme of the age. - -Gaston was feeling blue from the reaction which followed his temptation -by McLeod. His duty was clear the night before as he walked firmly -homeward, recalling the tragedy of the past. Now in the cold light -of day, the past seemed far away and unreal. The present was near, -pressing, vital. He laid down a book he was trying to read, locked his -office and strolled down town to see Tom Camp. - -This old soldier had come to be a sort of oracle to him. His affection -for the son of his Colonel was deep and abiding, and his extravagant -flattery of his talents and future were so evidently sincere they always -acted as a tonic. And he needed a tonic to-day. - -Tom was seated in a chair in his yard under a big cedar, working on a -basket, and a little golden-haired girl was playing at his feet. It was -his old home he had lost in Legree’s day, but had got back through the -help of General Worth, who came up one day and paid back Tom’s gift of -lightwood in gleaming yellow metal. His long hair and full beard were -white now, and his eyes had a soft deep look that told of sorrows borne -in patience and faith beyond the ken of the younger man. It was this -look on Tom’s face that held Gaston like a magnet when he was in -trouble. - -“Tom, I’m blue and heartsick. I’ve come down to have you cheer me up a -little.” - -“You’ve got the blues? Well that is a joke!” cried Tom. “You, young and -handsome, the best educated man in the county, the finest orator in -the state, life all before you, and God fillin’ the world to-day with -sunshine and spring flowers, and all for you! You blue! That is a joke.” - And Tom’s voice rang in hearty laughter. - -“Come here, Flora, and kiss me, you won’t laugh at me, will you?” - -The child climbed up into his lap, slipped her little arms around his -neck and hugged and kissed him. - -“Now, once more, dearie, long and close and hard--oh! That’s worth a -pound of candy!” Again she squeezed his neck and kissed him, looking -into his face with a smile. - -“I love you, Charlie,” she said with quaint seriousness. - -“Do you, dear? Well, that makes me glad. If I can win the love of as -pretty a little girl as you I’m not a failure, am I?” And he smoothed -her curls. - -“Ain’t she sweet?” cried Tom with pride as he laid aside his basket and -looked at her with moistened eyes. - -“Tom, she’s the sweetest child I ever saw.” - -“Yes, she’s God’s last and best gift to me, to show me He still loved -me. Talk about trouble. Man, you’re a baby. You ain’t cut your teeth -yet. Wait till you’ve seen some things I’ve seen. Wait till you’ve seen -the light of the world go out, and staggerin’ in the dark met the devil -face to face, and looked him in the eye, and smelled the pit. And then -feel him knock you down in it, and the red waves roll over you and -smother you. I’ve been there.” - -Tom paused and looked at Gaston. “You weren’t here when I come to the -end of the world, the time when that baby was born, and Annie died -with the little red bundle sleepin’ on her breast. The oldest girl was -murdered by Legree’s nigger soldiers. Then Annie give me that little -gal. Lord, I was the happiest old fool that ever lived that day! And -then when I looked into Annie’s dead face, I went down, down, down! But -I looked up from the bottom of the pit and I saw the light of them -blue eyes and I heard her callin’ me to take her. How I watched her and -nursed her, a mother and a father to her, day and night, through the -long years, and how them little fingers of hers got hold of my heart! -Now, I bless the Lord for all His goodness and mercy to me. She will -make it all right. She’s going to be a lady and such a beauty! She’s -goin’ to school now, and me and the General’s goin’ to take her ter -college bye and bye, and she’s goin’ to marry some big handsome fellow -like you, and her crippled grey haired daddy ’ll live in her house in -his old age. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want.” - -“Tom, you make me ashamed.” - -“You ought to be, man, a youngster like you to talk about gettin’ the -blues. What’s all your education for?” - -“Sometimes I think that only men like you have ever been educated.” - -“G’long with your foolishness, boy. I ain’t never had a show in this -world. The nigger’s been on my back since I first toddled into the -world, and I reckon he ’ll ride me into the grave. They are my only -rivals now making them baskets and they always undersell me.” - -Gaston started as Tom uttered the last sentence. - -“With you, boy, it’s all plain sailin’. You’re the best looking chap in -the county. I was a dandy when I was young. It does me good to look at -you if you don’t care nothin’ about fine clothes. Then you’re as sharp -as a razor. There ain’t a man in No’th Caliny that can stand up agin you -on the stump. I’ve heard ’em all. You ’ll be the Governor of this -state.” - -That was always the climax of Tom’s prophetic flattery. He could think -of no grander end of a human life than to crown it in the Governor’s -Palace of North Carolina. He belonged to the old days when it was a -bigger thing to be the Governor of a great state than to hold any office -short of the Presidency,--when men resigned seats in the United States -Senate to run for Governor, and when the national government was so -puny a thing that the bankers of Europe refused to loan money on United -States bonds unless countersigned by the State of Virginia. And that was -not so long ago. The bankers sent that answer to Buchanan’s Secretary of -the Treasury. - -“Tom, you’ve lifted me out of the dumps. I owe you a doctor’s fee,” - cried Gaston with enthusiasm as he placed Flora back on the grass and -started to his office. - -“All I charge you is to come again. The old man’s proud of his young -friend. You make me feel like I’m somebody in the old world after all. -And some day when you’re great and rich and famous and the world’s full -of your name, I ’ll tell folks I know you like my own boy, and I ’ll -brag about how many times you used to come to see me.” - -“Hush, Tom, you make me feel silly,” said Gaston as he warmly pressed -the old fellow’s hand. He went back toward his office with lighter step -and more buoyant heart. His mind was as clear as the noonday sun that -was now flooding the green fresh world with its splendour. He would -stand by his own people. He would sink or swim with them. If poverty and -failure were the result, let it be so. If success came, all the better. -There were things more to be desired than gold. - - - - -CHAPTER IV--THE ONE WOMAN - - -GASTON called at the post-office to get his mail. - -One relief the Cleveland administration had brought Hambright--a decent -citizen in charge of the post-office. Dave Haley had given place to -a Democrat and was now scheming and working with McLeod for the -“salvation” of it the state, which of course meant for the old slave -trader the restoration of his office under a Republican administration. -If the South had held no other reason for hating the Republican party, -the character of the men appointed to Federal office was enough to send -every honest man hurrying into the opposite party without asking any -questions as to its principles. - -Sam Love, the new postmaster was a jovial, honest, lazy, good-natured -Democrat whose ideal of a luxurious life was attained in his office. He -handed Gaston his mail with a giggle. - -“What’s the matter with you, Sam?” - -“Nuthin’ ‘tall. I just thought I’d tell you that I like her -handwriting,” he laughed. - -“How dare you study the handwriting on my letters, sir!” - -“What’s the use of being postmaster? There ain’t no big money in it. I -just take pride in the office,” said Sam genially. “That’s a new one, -ain’t it?” - -Gaston looked at the letter incredulously. It was a new one,--a big -square envelope with a seal on the back of it, addressed to him in the -most delicate feminine hand, and postmarked “Independence.” - -“Great Scott, this is interesting,” he cried, breaking the seal. - -When the postmaster saw he was going to open it right there in the -office, he stepped around in front and looking over his shoulder said, -“What is it, Charlie?” - -“It’s an invitation from the Ladies’ Memorial Association to deliver the -Memorial day oration at Independence the 10th of May. That’s great. No -money in it, but scores of pretty girls, big speech, congratulations, -the lion of the hour! Don’t you wish you were really a man of brains, -Sam?” - -“No, no, I’m married. It would be a waste now.” - -“Sam, I ’ll be there. Got the biggest speech of my life all cocked and -primed, full of pathos and eloquence,--been working on it at odd times -for four years. They ’ll think it a sudden inspiration.” - -“What’s the name of it?” - -“The Message of the New South to the Glorious Old.” - -“That sounds bully, that ought to fetch ’em.” - -“It will, my boy, and when Dave Haley gets this postoffice away from you -in the dark days coming, I ’ll publish that speech in a pamphlet, -and you can peddle it at a quarter and make a good living for your -children.” - -“Don’t talk like that, Gaston, that isn’t funny at all. You don’t think -the Radicals have got any chance?” - -“Chance! Between you and me they ’ll win.” - -Sam went back to the desk without another word, a great fear suddenly -darkening the future. McLeod had gotten off the same joke on him the day -before. It sounded ominous coming from both sides like that. He took up -his party paper, “The Old Timer’s Gazette” and read over again the sure -prophecies of victory and felt better. - -Gaston accepted the invitation with feverish haste. He had it all ready -to put in the office for the return mail to Independence. But he was -ashamed to appear in such a hurry, so he held the letter over until the -next day. He proudly showed the invitation to Mrs. Durham. - -“What do you think of that, Auntie?” - -“Immense. You will meet Miss Sallie sure. That letter is in her -handwriting. She’s the Secretary of the Association and signed the -Committee’s names.” - -“You don’t say that’s the great and only one’s handwriting!” - -“Couldn’t be mistaken. It has a delicate distinction about it. I’d know -it anywhere.” - -“It is beautiful,” acknowledged Gaston looking thoughtfully at the -letter. - -“I wish you had a new suit, Charlie.” - -“I wouldn’t mind it myself, if I had the money. But clothes don’t -interest me much, just so I’m fairly decent.” - -“I ’ll loan you the money, if you will promise me to devote yourself -faithfully to Sallie.” - -“Never. I ’ll not sell my interest in all those acres of pretty girls -just for one I never saw and a suit of clothes. No thanks. I’m going -down there with a premonition I may find Her of whom I’ve dreamed. They -say that town is full of beauties.” - -“You’re so conceited. That’s all the more reason you should look your -best.” - -“I don’t care so much about looks. I’m going to do my best, whatever I -look.” - -“Oh, you know you’re good looking and you don’t care,” said his foster -mother with pride. - -On the 10th of May Independence was in gala robes. The long rows of -beautiful houses, with dark blue grass lawns on which giant oaks spread -their cool arms, were gay with bunting, and with flowers, flowers -everywhere! Every urchin on the street and every man, woman and child -wore or carried flowers. - -The reception committee met Gaston at the depot on the arrival of the -excursion train that ran from Ham-bright. He was placed in an open -carriage beside a handsome chattering society woman, and drawn by two -prancing horses, was escorted to the hotel, where he was introduced to -the distinguished old soldiers of the Confederacy. - -At ten o’clock the procession was formed. What a sight! It stretched -from the hotel down the shaded pavements a mile toward the cemetery, -two long rows of beautiful girls holding great bouquets of flowers. This -long double line of beauty and sweetness opened, and escorted gravely -by the oldest General of the Confederacy present, he walked through this -mile of smiling girls and flowers. Behind him tramped the veterans, some -with one arm, some with wooden legs. - -When they passed through, the double line closed, and two and two the -hundreds of girls carried their flowers in solemn procession. Here was -the throbbing soul of the South, keeping fresh the love of her heroic -dead. - -They spread out over the great cemetery like a host of ministering -angels. There was a bugle call. They bent low a moment, and flowers were -smiling over every grave from the greatest to the lowliest. - -And then to a stone altar marked “To the Unknown Dead,” they came and -heaped up roses. Then a group of sad-faced women dressed in black, with -quaint little bonnets wreathing their brows like nuns, went silently -over to the National Cemetery across the way and each taking a basket, -walked past the long lines of the dead their boys had fought and dropped -a single rose on every soldier’s grave. They were women whose boys were -buried in strange lands in lonely unmarked trenches. They were doing now -what they hoped some woman’s hand would do for their lost heroes. - -The crowd silently gathered around the speakers’ stand and took their -seats in the benches placed beneath the trees. - -Gaston had never seen this ceremony so lavishly and beautifully -performed before. He was overwhelmed with emotion. His father’s straight -soldierly figure rose before him in imagination, and with him all the -silent hosts that now bivouacked with the dead. His soul was melted with -the infinite pathos and pity of it all. - -He had intended to say some sharp epigrammatic things that would cut the -chronic moss-backs that cling to the platforms on such occasions. But -somehow when he began they were melted out of his speech. He spoke with -a tenderness and reverence that stilled the crowd in a moment like low -music. - -His tribute to the dead was a poem of rhythmic and exalted thoughts. The -occasion was to him an inspiration and the people hung breathless on his -words. His voice was never strained but was penetrated and thrilled with -thought packed until it burst into the flame of speech. He felt with -conscious power his mastery of his audience. He was surprised at his own -mood of extraordinary tenderness as he felt his being softened by that -oldest religion of the ages, the worship of the dead--as old as sorrow -and as everlasting as death! He was for the moment clay in the hands of -some mightier spirit above him. - -He had spoken perhaps fifteen minutes when suddenly, straight in front -of him, he looked into the face of the One Woman of all his dreams! - -There she sat as still as death, her beautiful face tense with -breathless interest, her fluted red lips parted as if half in wonder, -half in joy, over some strange revelation, and her great blue eyes -swimming in a mist of tears. He smiled a look of recognition into her -soul and she answered with a smile that seemed to say “I’ve known you -always. Why haven’t you seen me sooner?” He recognised her instantly -from Mrs. Durham’s description and his heart gave a cry of joy. From -that moment every word that he uttered was spoken to her. Sometimes as -he would look straight through her eyes into her soul, she would flush -red to the roots of her brown-black hair, but she never lowered her -gaze. He closed his speech in a round of applause that was renewed again -and again. - -His old classmate, Bob St. Clare, rushed forward to greet him. - -“Old fellow, you’ve covered yourself with glory. By George, that was -great! Come, here’s a hundred girls want to meet you.” - -He was introduced to a host of beauties who showered him with -extravagant compliments which he accepted without affectation. He knew -he had outdone himself that day, and he knew why. The One Woman he had -been searching the world for was there, and inspired him beyond all he -had ever dared before. - -He was disappointed in not seeing her among the crowd who were shaking -his hand. He looked anxiously over the heads of those near by to see if -she had gone. He saw her standing talking to two stylishly dressed young -men. - -When the crowd had melted away from the rostrum, she walked straight -toward him extending her hand with a gracious smile. - -He knew he must look like a fool, but to save him he could not help it, -he was simply bubbling over with delight as he grasped her hand, and -before she could say a word he said, “You are Miss Sallie Worth, the -Secretary of the Association. My foster mother has described you so -accurately I should know you among a thousand.” - -“Yes, I have been looking forward with pleasure to our trip to the -Springs when I knew we should meet you. I am delighted to see you a -month earlier.” She said this with a simple earnestness that gave it a -deeper meaning than a mere commonplace. - -“Do you know that you nearly knocked me off my feet when I first saw you -in the crowd?” - -“Why? How?” she asked. - -“You startled me.” - -“I hope not unpleasantly,” she said, looking up at him with her blue -eyes twinkling. - -“Oh! Heavens no! You are such a perfect image of the girl she described -that I was so astonished I came near shouting at the top of my voice, -‘There she is!’ And that would have astonished the audience, wouldn’t -it?” - -“It would indeed,” she replied blushing just a little. - -“But I’m forgetting my mission, Mr. Gaston. Papa sent me to apologise -for his absence to-day. He was called out of the city on some mill -business. He told me to bring you home to dine with him. I’m the -Secretary, you know and exercise authority in these matters, so I’ve -fixed that programme. You have no choice. The carriage is waiting.” - - - - -CHAPTER V--THE MORNING OF LOVE - -TO his dying day Gaston will never forget that ride to her home with -Sallie Worth by his side. It was a perfect May day. The leaves on -the trees were just grown and flashed in their green satin under the -Southern sun, and every flower seemed in full bloom. - -A great joy filled his heart with a sense of divine restfulness. He was -unusually silent. And then she said something that made him open his -eyes in new wonder. - -“Don’t drive so fast Ben, and go around the longest way, I’m enjoying -this.” She paused and a mischievous look came into her eyes as she saw -his expression. “I’ve got the lion here by my side. I want to show all -the girls in town that I’m the only one here to-day. It isn’t often I’ve -a great man tied down fast like this.” - -“Why did you spoil the first part of that pretty speech with the last?” - he said with a frown. - -“It was only your vanity that made me pause.” - -“Could you read me like that?” - -“Of course, all men are vain, much vainer than women.” Again there was a -long silence. - -They had reached the outskirts of the city now and were driving slowly -through the deep shadows of a great forest. - -“What beautiful trees!” he exclaimed. - -“They are fine. Do you love big trees?” - -“Yes, they always seem to me to have a soul. It used to make me almost -cry to watch them fall beneath Nelse’s axe. I’d never have the heart to -clear a piece of woods if I owned it.” - -“I’m so glad to hear you say that. Papa laughed at me when I said -something of the sort when he wanted to cut these woods. He left them -just to please me. They belong to our place. They hide the house till -you get right up to the gate, but I love them.” - -Again he looked into her eyes and was silent. - -“Now, I come to think of it, you’re the only girl I’ve met to-day who -hasn’t mentioned my speech. That’s strange.” - -“How do you know that I’m not saving up something very pretty to say to -you later about it?” - -“Tell me now.” - -“No, you’ve spoiled it by your vanity in asking.” She said this looking -away carelessly. - -“Then I ’ll interpret your silence as the highest compliment you can -pay me. When words fail we are deeply moved.” - -“Vanity of vanity, all is vanity saith the preacher!” she exclaimed -lifting her pretty hands. - -They turned through a high arched iron gateway, across which was written -in gold letters, “Oakwood.” - -On a gently rising hill on the banks of the Catawba river rose a -splendid old Southern mansion, its big Greek columns gleaming through -the green trees like polished ivory. A wide porch ran across the full -width of the house behind the big pillars, and smaller columns supported -the full sweep of a great balcony above. The house was built of brick -with Portland cement finish, and the whole painted in two shades of -old ivory, with moss-green roof and dark rich Pompeian red brick -foundations. With its green background of magnolia trees it seemed like -a huge block of solid ivory flashing in splendour from its throne on the -hill. The drive wound down a little dale, around a great circle filled -with shrubbery and flowers and up to the pillared porte-cochere. - -“Oh! what a beautiful home!” Gaston exclaimed with feeling. - -“It is beautiful, isn’t it?” she said with delight. “I love every brick -in its walls, every tree and flower and blade of grass.” - -“I’ve always dreamed of a home like that. Those big columns seem to link -one to the past and add dignity and meaning to life.” - -“Then you can understand how I love it, when I was born here and every -nook and corner has its love message for me from the past that I have -lived, as well as its wider meaning which you see.” - -“The old South built beautiful homes, didn’t they? And that was one of -the finest things about the proud old days,” he said. - -“Yes, and the new South of which you spoke to-day will not forget this -heritage of the old, when it comes to itself and shakes off its long -suffering and poverty!” - -Strange to hear that sort of a speech from a girl who loves society, -dances divinely and dresses to kill. He thought of the words of his -foster mother with a pang. He hoped she was joking about those things. -But he had a strong suspicion from the consciousness of power with which -she had tried once or twice to tease him that they were going to prove -fatally true. - -“Mother tells me you were in Baltimore, in that swell girls’ school on -North Charles Street when I was a student at the University?” - -“Yes, and we gave reception after reception to the Hopkins men and you -never once honoured us with your presence.” - -“But I didn’t know you were there, Miss Sallie.” - -“Of course not. If you had, I wouldn’t speak to you now. They said you -were a recluse. That you never went into society and didn’t speak to a -woman for four years.” - -“How did you hear that?” - -“Bob St. Clare told me after I came home by way of apology for your bad -manners in so shamefully neglecting a young woman from your own state.” - -“I ’ll make amends, now.” - -“Oh! I’m not suffering from loneliness as I did then. You know Bob put -us up to inviting you to deliver the address. He said you were the only -orator in North Carolina.” - -“Bob’s the best friend I ever had. We entered college together at -fifteen, and became inseparable friends.” - -He helped her from the carriage and she ran lightly up the high stoop. - -“Now come here and look at the view of the river before Papa comes and -begins to talk about the tremendous water power in the falls.” - -He followed her to the end of the long porch overlooking the river. -Behind the house the hill abruptly plunged downward to the waters’ -edge in a mountainous cliff. The river wound around this cliff past the -house, emerging into a valley where it described a graceful curve almost -doubling on itself and rolled softly away amid green overhanging willows -and towering sycamores till lost in the distance toward the blue spurs -of King’s Mountain. - -“A glorious view!” said Gaston, looking long and lovingly at the silver -surface of the river. - -“Do you love the water, Mr. Gaston?” - -“Passionately. I was born among the hills, but the first time I saw -the ocean sweeping over five miles of sand reefs and breaking in white -thundering spray at my feet, I stood there on a sand dune on our wild -coast and gazed entranced for an hour without moving. Of all the things -God ever made on this earth I love the waters of the sea, and all moving -water suggests it to me. That river says, I must hurry to the sea!” - -“It is strange we should have such similar tastes, she said seriously. -But it did not seem strange to him. Somehow he expected to find her -agree with every whim and fancy of his nature. - -“Now we will find Mama. She is such an invalid she rarely goes out. Papa -will be home any minute.” - -“We are glad to welcome you Mr. Gaston,” said her mother in a kindly -manner. “I’m sure you’ve enjoyed the drive this beautiful day if Sallie -hasn’t been trying to tease you. The boys say she’s very tiresome at -times.” - -“Why Mama, I’m surprised at you. The idea of such a thing! There’s not a -word of truth in it, is there, Mr. Gaston?” - -“Certainly not, Miss Sallie. I ’ll testify, Mrs. Worth, that your -daughter has been simply charming.” - -She ran to meet her father at the door. There was the sound of a hearty -kiss, a little whispering, and the General stepped briskly into the -parlour where she had left her guest. - -“Pleased to welcome you to our home, young man. They say down town that -you made the greatest speech ever heard in Independence. Sorry I missed -it. We ’ll have you to dinner anyway. I knew your brave father in the -army. And now I come, to think of it, I saw you once when you were a -boy. I was struck with your resemblance to your father then, as now. You -showed me the way down to Tom Camp’s house. Don’t you remember?” - -“Certainly General, but I didn’t flatter myself that you would recall -it.” - -“I never forget a face. I hope you have been enjoying yourself?” - -“More than I can express, sir.” - -“I ’ll join you bye and bye,” said the General, taking leave. - -“Now isn’t he a dear old Papa?” she said demurely. - -“He certainly knows how to make a timid young man feel at home.” - -“Are you timid?” - -“Hadn’t you noticed it?” - -“Well, hardly.” She shook her head and closed her eyes in the most -tantalising way. “To see the cool insolence of conscious power with -which you looked that great crowd in the face when you arose on that -platform, I shouldn’t say I was struck with your timidity.” - -“I was really trembling from head to foot.” - -“I wonder how you would look if really cool!” - -“Honestly, Miss Sallie, I never speak to any crowd without the intensest -nervous excitement. I may put on a brave front, but it’s all on the -surface.” - -“I can’t believe it,” she said shaking her head. - -She looked at his serious face a moment and was silent. - -“It’s queer how we run out of something to say, isn’t it?” she asked at -length. - -“I hadn’t thought of it.” - -“Come up to the observatory and I’ll show you Lord Cornwallis’ look-out -when he had his headquarters here during the Revolution.” - -She lifted her soft white skirts and led the way up the winding mahogany -stairs into the observatory from which the surrounding country could be -seen for miles. - -“Here Lord Cornwallis waited in vain for Colonel Ferguson to join him -with his regiment from King’s Mountain.” - -“Where my great-grandfather was drawing around him his cordon of death -with his fierce mountain men!” interrupted Gaston. - -“Was your great-grandfather in that battle?” - -“Yes, it was fought on his land, and his two-story log house with the -rifle holes cut in the chimney jambs still stands.” - -“Then we will shake hands again,” she cried with enthusiasm, “for we are -both children of the Revolution!” - -Gaston took her beautiful hand in his and held it lingeringly. Never in -all his life had the mere touch of a human hand thrilled him with such -strange power, How long he held it he could not tell but it was with a -sort of hurt surprise he felt her gently withdraw it at last. - -They had reached the parlour again, and he slowly fell into an easy -chair. - -“Do you dance, Miss Sallie?” - -“Why yes, don’t you dance?” - -“Never tried in my life.” - -“Don’t you approve of dancing?” - -“I never had time to think about it. It always seemed silly to me.” - -“It’s great fun.” - -“I’d take lessons if you would agree to teach me, and I could dance with -you all the time, and keep all the other fellows away.” - -“Well, I must say that’s doing fairly well for a timid young man’s -first day’s acquaintance. What will you say when you once become fully -self-possessed?” She lifted her high arched eyebrows and looked at him -with those blue eyes full of tantalising fun until he had to look down -at the floor to keep from saying more than he dared. When he looked up -again he changed the subject. - -“Miss Sallie, I feel like I’ve known you ever since I was born.” She -blushed and made no reply. - -Dinner was announced, and Gaston was amazed to see Allan McLeod enter -chattering familiarly with the General. He seemed on the most intimate -terms with the family and his eye lingered fondly on Sallie’s face in a -way that somehow Gaston resented as an impertinence. - -“I didn’t even know you were acquainted with the Hon. Allan McLeod, Miss -Sallie,” said Gaston as they entered the parlour alone. - -“Yes, he was a sort of ward of Papa’s when he was a boy. Papa hates -his politics, but he has always been in and out almost like one of the -family since I can remember. I think he’s’ a fascinating man, don’t -you?” - -“I do, but I don’t like him.” - -“Well, he’s a great friend of mine, you mustn’t quarrel.” - -Gaston went to the hotel with his brain in a whirl wondering just what -she meant. It was nearly twelve o’clock before he left the General’s -house. How he had passed these eleven hours he could not imagine. They -seemed like eleven minutes in one way. In another he seemed to have -lived a lifetime that day. - -“By George, she’s an angel!” he kept saying over and over to himself as -he climbed to his room forgetting the elevator. - - - - -CHAPTER VI--BESIDE BEAUTIFUL WATERS - -WHEN Gaston tried to sleep, he found it impossible. His brain was -on fire, every nerve quivering with some new mysterious power and his -imagination soaring on tireless wings. He rolled and tossed an hour, -then got up, and sat by his open window looking out over the city -sleeping in the still white moonlight. He looked into the mirror and -grinned. - -“What is the matter with me!” he exclaimed. “I believe I’m going crazy.” - -He sat down and tried to work the thing out by the formulas of cold -reason. “It’s perfectly absurd to say I’m in love. My wild romancing -about a passion that will grasp all life in its torrent sweep is only a -boy’s day dream. The world is too prosy for that now.” - -Yet in spite of this argument the room seemed as bright as day, and the -moon was only a pale sister light to the radiance from the face of the -girl he had seen that day. Her face seemed to him smiling close into -his now. The light of her eyes was tender and soothing like the far away -memory of his mother’s voice. - -“It’s a passing fancy,” he said at last, after he had sat an hour -dreaming and dreaming of scenes he dared not frame in words even alone. -He stood by the window again. - -“What a beautiful old world this is after all!” he thought as he gazed -out on the tops of the oaks whose young leaves were softly sighing at -the touch of the night winds. Turning his eye downward to the street -he saw the men loading the morning papers into the wagons for the early -mail. - -“I wonder what sort of report of my speech they put in?” he exclaimed. -Unable to sleep he hastily dressed, went down and bought a paper. - -On the front page was a flattering portrait, two columns in width, with -a report of his speech filling the entire page, and an editorial review -of a column and a half. He was hailed as the coming man of the state in -this editorial, which contained the most extravagant praise. He knew it -was the best thing he had ever done, and he felt for the minute proud -of himself and his achievement. This contemplation of his own greatness -quieted his nerves and he fell asleep. He was awakened by the first -rolling of carts on the pavements at dawn. He knew he had not slept more -than two hours but he was as wide awake as though he had slept soundly -all night. - -“I must be threatened with that spell of fever Auntie has been worrying -about since I was a boy!” he laughed as he slowly dressed. - -“It’s now six o’clock, and my train don’t leave till nine,” he mused. -“But am I going on that train, that’s the question?” - -The fact was, now he came to think of it, there was no need of hurrying -home. He would stay a while and look this mystery in the face until he -was disillusioned. Besides he wanted to find out what McLeod’s visit -meant. He had a vague feeling of uneasiness when he recalled the way -McLeod had assumed about the General’s house. He had told Sallie he must -hurry home on the morning’s train for no earthly reason than that he had -intended to do so when he came. - -So after breakfast he wrote her a little note. - -“_My Dear Miss Worth,_ - -“_My train left me. Will you have compassion on a stranger in a strange -city and let me call to see you again to-day? Charles Gaston._” - -He waited impatiently until he heard his train leave, and then told the -boy to make tracks for the General’s house. - -A peal of laughter rang through the hall when Sallie’s dancing eyes read -that note. - -“Oh! the storyteller!” she cried. - -And this was the answer she sent back. - -“_Certainly. Come out at once. I ’ll take you buggy driving all by -myself over a lovely road up the river. I do this in acknowledgment of -the gracious flattery you pay me in the story you told about the train. -Of course I know you waited till the train left before you sent the -note. Sallie Worth._” - -“Now I wonder if that young rascal of a boy told her I wrote that note -an hour ago? I ’ll wring his neck if he did. Come here boy!” - -The negro came up grinning in hopes of another quarter. - -“Did you tell that young lady anything about when I wrote that note?” - -“Na-sah! Nebber tole her nuffin. She des laugh and laugh fit ter kill -herse’f des quick es she reads de note.” - -Gaston smiled and threw him another tip. - -“Yassah, she’s a knowin’ lady, sho’s you bawn, I been dar lots er times -fo’ dis!” - -Gaston was tempted to ask him for whom he carried those former messages. -He walked with bounding steps, his being tingling to his finger tips -with the joy of living. The avenue leading the full length of the city -toward the General’s house was two miles long before it reached the -woods at the gate. It seemed only a step this morning. - -As he passed through the cool shade of the woods a squirrel was playing -hide and seek with his mate on the old crooked fence beside the road. -His little nimble mistress flew up a great tree to its topmost bough and -chattered and laughed at her lover as he scrambled swiftly after her. -She waited until he was just reaching out his arm to grasp her, and -then with another scream of laughter leaped straight out into the air to -another tree top, and then another and another until lost in the heart -of the forest. - -“I wonder if that’s going to be my fate!” he mused as he turned into the -gateway. - -Again the majestic beauty of that gleaming mass of ivory on the hill -with its green background swept his soul with its power. It seemed a -different shade of colour now that he saw it with the sun at another -angle. Its surface seemed to have the soft sheen of creamy velvet. - -He paused and sighed, “Why should I be so poor! If I only had a house -like that I’d turn that big banquet hall on the left wing into a -library, and I’d ask no higher heaven.” - -And he fell to wondering if it would really be worth the having without -the face and voice of the girl who was there within waiting for him. -No, he was sure of it this morning for the first time in his life. -The certainty of this conviction brought to his heart a feeling of -loneliness and despair. When he thought of his abject poverty and the -long years of struggle before him, and of that beautiful accomplished -young woman rich, petted, the belle of the city, the gulf that separated -their lives seemed impassable. - -“I’m playing with fire!” he said to himself as he looked up at the -graceful pillars with their carved and fluted capitals. “Well, let it be -so. Let me live life to its deepest depths and its highest reach. It is -better to love and lose than never to love at all.” And he walked into -the cool hall with the ease and assurance of its master. - -Sallie greeted him with the kindliest grace. - -“I’m so glad you stayed to-day, Mr. Gaston. I should have been really -chagrined to think I made so slight an impression on you that you could -walk deliberately away on a pre-arranged schedule. I am not used to -being treated so lightly.” - -He tried to make some answer to this half serious banter, but was so -absorbed in just looking at her he said nothing. - -She was dressed in a morning gown of a soft red material, trimmed with -old cream lace. The material of a woman’s dress had never interested him -before. He knew calico from silk, but beyond that he never ventured an -opinion. To colour alone he was responsive. This combination of red and -creamy white, with the bodice cut low showing the lines of her beautiful -white shoulders and the great mass of dark hair rising in graceful -curves from her full round neck heightened her beauty to an -extraordinary degree. As she walked, the clinging folds of her dress, -outlining her queenly figure, seemed part of her very being and to be -imbued with her soul. He was dazzled with the new revelation of her -power over him. - -“Have you no apology, sir, for pretending that you were going home this -morning?” she said seating herself by his side. - -“You didn’t ask me to stay with fervour.” - -“It ought not to have been necessary.” - -“Didn’t you really know I was not going?” - -“Yes.” - -“I’m glad.” - -“Yes, you see I’m twenty-one years old, and I’ve seen such things happen -before!” she purred this slowly and burst into laughter. - -“Now, Miss Sallie, that’s cruel to throw me down in a heap of dead dogs -I don’t even know.” - -“Don’t you like dogs?” - -“Four legged ones, yes. But I like my friends alive.” - -“Oh! It didn’t kill any of them. They are all strong and hearty. But if -you’re so domestic in your tastes why haven’t you settled in life?” - -“Been waiting to find the woman of my dreams.” - -“And you haven’t found her?” - -“Not up to yesterday.” - -“Oh! I forgot,” she said archly, “you’re so timid.” - -“Honestly, I was.” - -“Up to yesterday!” she murmured. “Well, tell me what your dreams -demanded? What kind of a creature must she be?” - -“I have forgotten.” - -“What! Forgotten the dreams of your ideal woman?” - -“Yes.” - -“Since when?” - -“Yesterday.” - -“Thanks. We are getting on beautifully, aren’t we? You will get over -your timidity in time, I’m sure.” - -He smiled, looked down at the pattern of the carpet and did not speak -for some minutes. His soul was thrilled and satisfied in her presence. -As he lifted his eyes from the floor they rested on the piano. - -“Will you play for me, Miss Sallie? Auntie says you play delightfully.” - -“Auntie? Who is Auntie?” - -“Mrs. Durham, my foster mother, of course. Excuse my unconscious -assumption of your familiarity with all my antecedents. I can’t get over -the impression that I have known you all my life.” - -“And that reminds me that I started to say something to you yesterday -that was perfectly ridiculous, but caught myself in time.” - -“I wish you had said it.” - -“Mrs. Durham is a great flatterer of those she loves. She thinks I can -play. But I’m the veriest amateur.” - -“Let me be the judge.” - -She was looking over her music, and he had opened the piano. - -“I ’ll play for you with pleasure. Sit there in that big arm chair. -I’m sorry I tired you so early in the day with my chatter.” - -And before he could protest her fingers were touching the piano with the -ease of the born musician. - -He sat enraptured as he watched the sinuous grace with which her fingers -touched the ivory keys and heard their answering cry which seemed the -breath of her own soul in echo. - -She had an easy apparently careless touch. To old familiar music -she gave a charm that was new, adding something indefinable to the -musician’s thought that gave luminous power to its interpretation. He -had no knowledge of the technique of music, but now he knew that she was -improvising. The piano was the voice of her own beautiful soul, and it -was pulsing with a tenderness that melted him to tears. - -Suddenly the music ceased, and she turned her face full on his before -he could brush away a big tear that rolled down. She flushed, closed the -piano, and quietly resumed her place by his side. - -“And, now, you haven’t told me how well I played. You’re the first young -man so careless.” - -“I have told you.” - -“How?” - -“The way you told me yesterday that you understood me--with a tear.” - -“I appreciate it more than words.” - -“So did I,” he slowly said. Again there was a long silence. - -“But we do love to hear folks say in words what they think sometimes. I -confess I was immensely elated over the fine things the paper said about -me this morning.” - -“It’s a wonder too. Our editor is a cranky sort of fellow. I was afraid -he’d say a lot of mean things about you. But Papa says you swallowed him -whole.” - -“Did you wish him to say kind things about me?” - -“Of course,” she said, and then the look of mischief came back in her -eye. “Were you not our guest? I should have felt like whipping him if he -hadn’t said nice things.” - -“Then I ’ll tell you what I think about your playing. You gave those -strings a soul for the first time for me, beautiful, living, throbbing, -that spoke a message of its own. The piece you improvised, I shall never -forget. Such music seems to me the grasping of the infinite by hands -that touch the impalpable and bringing it for a moment within the sphere -of matter that a kindred soul may hear and see and feel.” - -She started to make some reply but her lips quivered and she looked away -across the valley at the river and made no answer. - -At dinner the General was in his most genial mood, laughing and joking, -and drawing out Gaston on politics and cotton-mill developments, and -trying with all his might to tease his daughter. - -As he took his departure for the mills, he said, “Young man, I’d ask you -to go with me and look at the machinery, but I see it’s no use. I heard -her twisting you around her fingers with that piano a while ago.” - -“Papa, don’t be so silly!’ cried Sallie, slipping her arm around him, -putting one hand over his mouth, and kissing him. - -“Go on to your work. I ’ll entertain Mr. Gaston.” - -“Indeed you will!” he shouted, throwing her another kiss as he left. - -“He’s the dearest father any girl ever had in this world. I know you -loved yours, didn’t you, Mr. Gaston?” - -“Mine was killed in battle, Miss Sallie. I never knew him. But I had the -most beautiful mother that ever lived. I lost her when a mere boy. And -the world has never been the same since. I envy you.” - -“I forgot. Forgive me,” she softly said, looking up into his face with -tenderness. - -“If I had only had a sister! How my heart used to ache when I’d see -other boys playing with a sister! My poor little starved soul was so -hungry, I would go off in the woods sometimes and cry for hours.” - -“I wish I had known you when you were a little boy,--I can’t conceive of -a dignified orator swaying thousands running around as a barefooted boy. -But you must have gone barefooted for I think Papa said so, didn’t he?” - -“Indeed I did, and sometimes I am afraid for the very good reason I -didn’t have any shoes.” - -“Well, you wouldn’t have worn them if you had. I always wanted to be a -boy just to go barefooted. I think girls lose so much of a child’s life -by having to wear shoes.” - -“But you never knew what it meant to want shoes and not be able to have -them,” he said, looking at the shining tips of her slippers peeping from -the edge of her dress. - -“No, but I never thought these things made a great difference in our -lives after all. I believe it is what we are, not what we have, that -gives life meaning.” - -He looked at her intently. - -“I must get ready now for our drive. The horse will be here in ten -minutes. Enjoy the view on the porch until I am ready,” and she bounded -up the stairs to her room. - -In a few minutes she was by his side again dressed in spotless white as -he had seen her first. She lifted the lines over the sleek horse, and he -dashed swiftly down the drive. - -Oh! the peace and bliss of that drive along the lonely river road by its -cool green banks! - -How he poured out to her his inmost thoughts--things he had not dared to -whisper alone with himself and God! And then he wondered why he had thus -laid bare his secret dreams to this girl he had known but twenty-four -hours. Nonsense, down in his soul he knew he had known her forever. -Before the world was made, ages and ages ago in eternity he had known -her. He turned to her now drawn by a resistless force as a plant turns -toward the sunlight for its life. How he could talk that day! All he had -ever known of art and beauty, all he knew of the deep truths of life, -were on his lips leaping forth in simple but impassioned words. For -hours he lay at her feet where she sat on a rock, high up on the cliffs -overlooking the river and poured out his heart like a child. And she -listened with a dreamy look as though to the music of a master. - -At last she sprang to her feet and looked at her watch. - -“Oh! Mama will be furious. It will be after sundown before we can get -home. We must hurry.” - -“I ’ll make it all right with your Mama,” he replied as though he were -skilled in meeting such emergencies. - -“Don’t you speak to her. It ’ll be all I can do to manage her.” - -The twilight was gathering when they reached the house, and an angry -anxious mother was waiting high up on the stoop. - -“Watch me smooth every wrinkle out of her brow now!” she whispered as -she flew up the steps. - -Before her mother could say a word, a white hand was on her mouth and -pretty lips were whispering something in her ears she had never heard -before. There was the sound of a kiss and he heard Sallie say, “Not a -word!” And the mother greeted him with a smile and a curiously searching -look. She chatted pleasantly until her daughter returned from her room, -and then left her. Again it was nearly twelve o’clock before he reached -the hotel. - -The next morning Bob St. Clare broke in on him before he was out of bed. - -“Look here, you sly dog, what are you doing slipping and sliding around -here yet?” - -“Bob, you’re the man I want to see. Tell me all you know about the -Worths.” - -“The Worths? Which one?” - -“There’s only one so far as I can see.” - -“Well, you may find out there’s two if you should happen to collide with -the General.” - -“Does he cut up at times?” - -“He’s all right till he turns on you, and then you want to find -shelter.” - -“Did you ever run up against him?” - -“No, I never got that far. He’s hail-fellow-well-met with every -youngster in town. He will laugh and joke about his daughter until he -thinks she is in earnest about a fellow, and then he swoops down on him -like a hawk. I ’ll bet a hundred dollars he’s playing you now for all -you’re worth against the latest favourite. But Miss Sallie--she’s an -angel!” - -“Look here, Bob, you’re not in love with her?” - -“Well, I’m convalescing at present my boy. Every boy in the town has -been there, but I don’t believe she cares a snap for a man of us unless -it’s that big redheaded McLeod. I can’t make his position out exactly.” - -“Did she jolt you hard when you hit the ground?” - -“Easiest thing you ever saw. She has a supreme genius for painless -cruelty. When the time comes she can pull your eye-tooth out in such a -delicate friendly way you will have to swear she hasn’t hurt you.” - -“You still go?” - -“Lord yes, we all do,--sort of a congress of the lost meet down there. -They all hang on. She keeps the friendship of every poor devil she -kills.” - -“You know you make the cold chills run down my back when you talk like -that.” - -“Are you in love with her, Gaston?” - -“To tell you the truth, I don’t know.” - -“Then what in the thunder have you been doing out there two days and -nights, if you haven’t made love to her?” - -“Just basking in the sun.” - -“Well, you are a fool. Eleven hours the first day, and fifteen hours -yesterday. Confound you, don’t you know a dozen fellows in town are -cursing you for all they can think of?” - -“What about?” - -“Why for trying to hog the whole time, day and night. She won’t let a -mother’s son of them come near till you’re gone.” - -“Well, that’s immense!” exclaimed Gaston slapping his friend on the -back. - -233 - -“Don’t be too sure. She’s just sizing you up. She’s done the same thing -a dozen times before.” - -“I don’t believe it.” - -And he didn’t go home until the end of the week when the last cent of -his money was gone. - - - - -CHAPTER VII--DREAMS AND FEARS - -HE was on the train at last homeward bound. Gazing out of the window -of the car he was trying to find where he stood. He must be in love. He -faced the remarkable fact that he had spent a whole week in Independence -at an expensive hotel, and squandered every cent of the small fee he -had received for his address in what would be otherwise a perfectly -senseless manner. - -Yet he felt rich. He was sure he had never spent money so wisely -and economically in his life. Beyond the shadow of a doubt he was in -love,--desperately and hopelessly committed to this one girl for life. -He said it in his heart with a shout of triumph. Life was not a sterile -desert of brute work. It was true. Love the magician of the ages, lived -in this world of lost faiths and dead religions. - -Now that he was leaving he felt a tingling impulse to leap off the -train, cut across the fields and run back to her--and he laughed aloud, -just as the train came to a sudden stop, and everybody looked at him and -smiled. - -A drummer looked up from a novel he was reading and said, “It is a fine -day, partner, isn’t it?” - -“Never saw a finer,” answered Gaston with another laugh. - -He dwelt long and greedily on the consciousness of this new vitalising -secret he felt for the first time throbbing in his soul. He bathed his -heart in its warmth until he could feel the red blood rush to the ends -of his fingers with its new fever. He breathed its perfume until every -nerve quivered. “I have never lived before. No matter now if I die, I -have lived!” he said slowly and reverently. - -He wondered long and wistfully what was in her heart while this wild -tumult was going on in him. He wondered if it were possible she loved -him. It seemed too good to be true. He was afraid to believe it. And yet -his whole soul with every power of his being cried out that she did. He -could not have been mistaken in the message he read in the liquid depths -of her eyes, and the delicate tenderness of her voice. Words may say -nothing, but these signs are the language of the universal. Still, -others had been equally sure, and been deceived. Might not he too make -the fatal mistake? It was possible. And there was the pain. - -She had not uttered a single word in all the hours they spent together -that might not be interpreted in a conventional meaningless way. - -Yet he had given to every one of these words a soul meaning that spoke -directly to his inner being and not his ear. - -He had never spoken a word of shallow love-making to a woman in his -life. To him love was too holy a mystery. It would have been the -blasphemy of the Holy Ghost--a sin that would not be forgiven in this -world or the world to come. His college mates had called him a crank -on this subject. But he shut his lips in a way that always closed the -argument, and they let him alone with his Idol. - -“I am afraid yet to put it to the test!” he said at last. “I must have -time to reveal my best self to her. I must see her again, live close to -her day by day, and bring to bear on her every power of body and soul -I possess.” Mrs. Durham met him with dancing eyes. “Oh, I’ve heard from -you, sir!” - -“Kiss me Auntie, and be kind. I’m in the last stages of delirium!” - -He took her hands both in his and looked at her long. “How good you’ve -been to me, Auntie, in all the past. You never looked so beautiful as -to-day. I want to thank you for every word you’ve said to Miss Sallie -for me. It may have helped just a little anyway.” - -“Well you are in the last stages!” she exclaimed gleefully. - -“And you are glad of it?” - -“Of course, I am, it will make a man of you.” - -“But suppose I lose?” - -She was silent a moment and then slipped her arm gently about him, drew -down his ear and whispered, “You shall not lose--I’ve set my heart on -it.” - -He pressed her hands and said, “How like my sweet mother’s voice was -that!” - -And then they fell to discussing plans for giving Miss Sallie and her -friend a jolly time at the Springs. - -“But Auntie, these plans don’t seem to me exactly what I’d like. You see -I want to be the whole thing. It may be hopelessly selfish, but I can’t -help it.” - -“Well that isn’t best.” - -“Say Auntie, what do I look like anyway? How would you describe my make -up? Let’s get at the weak spots and splint them up a little. You know, I -never seriously cared a rap before about my looks.” - -“Well”--she answered, slowly regarding him, “I ’ll be perfectly frank -with you. - -“You are tall--at least two inches taller than the average man, and your -muscular body gives one the impression of power. You have black hair, -dark-brown eyes that look out from your shaggy straight eye-brows with a -piercing light.” - -“You think the brows too shaggy?” - -“No, I like them. They suggest reserve power and brain capacity.” - -“Good, I never thought of that.” - -“You have a face that is massive, almost leonine, and a square-cut -determined mouth, that always clean shaven, sometimes looks too grim.” - -“I ’ll remember that and look pleasant.” - -“You have a big hand and sometimes shake hands too strongly. You have -a handsome aristocratic foot when you wear decent shoes. You often walk -humpshouldered, and sit so too.” - -“I ’ll brace up.” - -“You have deep vertical wrinkles between your eyes just where your -straight eyebrows meet.” - -“Heavens, I didn’t know I had wrinkles!” - -“Yes, but they mean habits of thought like your stooping shoulders, I -don’t object to such wrinkles in a man’s face. But the best feature -of all your stock is your eye. Your big brown eyes are about the only -perfect thing about you. There’s infinite tenderness in them. Now and -then they gleam with a hidden fire that tells of enthusiasm, thought, -will, character, and dauntless courage.” - -She looked and they were misty with tears. - -He pressed her hand. “Auntie, I didn’t know how much you’ve loved me all -these years. How love opens one’s eyes!” - -“You have a high temper, plenty of pride, and are given to looking on -the dark side of things too quickly. You lack poise of character and -sureness of touch yet, but with it all, yours is a masterful nature.” - -“One you think that a perfect woman could love?” - -“There are no perfect women; but I ’ll match you against any woman I -know. So there, now, take courage.” - -“I will,” he gravely answered. - -He hurried to his office and read his mail. There were two letters -retaining his services for jury work in important cases. His heart -leaped at the sign of coming success. What a new meaning love gave to -every event in life. - -He turned to his books, and began immediately a searching study of every -question involved in these cases. He would carry the court by storm. He -would lead the jury spellbound by his eloquence to a certain verdict. -How clear his brain! He felt he was alive to his finger-tips, and -argus-eyed. - -He worked hour after hour without the slightest fatigue or knowledge of -the flight of time. He looked up at last with surprise to find it was -night, and was startled by the voice of the Preacher calling him from -below. - -“What’s the matter with you? Mrs. Durham sent me to find you. She was -afraid you had gone up on the roof and walked off.” - -“I ’ll be ready in a minute, Doctor,” he called from the window. - -“I haven’t known you to take to law so violently in four years. What’s -up? Got a capital case?” - -“Yes, I believe I have. It’s a matter of life and death to one poor soul -anyhow.” - -“Now, honour bright haven’t you been working all this afternoon on a -love-letter that you’ve just finished and addressed to Independence?” - -“‘No sir. To tell you the fact, I didn’t dare to ask her to write to me. -I knew I couldn’t control a pen.” - -“My boy, I wish you success with all my heart. It makes me young again -to look into your face. I’ve had my supper, when you’ve finished your -confab with your Auntie, come out here in the square to the seat under -the old oak, I want to talk to you on some important business.” - -“What have you been doing,” asked Mrs. Durham. - -“Building a home for her!” he cried in a whisper. He went behind the -chair where his foster mother sat pouring his tea, bent low and kissed -her high white forehead. “My own Mother! I ’ll never call you Auntie -again!” - -Tears sprang to her eyes, and she kissed his hand, tenderly holding it -to her lips. - -“Ah! Love is a wonder worker, isn’t he Charlie?” - -“Yes, and I can’t realise the joy that lifts and inspires me when I -think that I am one of the elect. It’s too good to be true. I have been -initiated into the great secret. I have tasted the water of Life. I -shall not see Death.” - -She looked at him with pride. “I knew you would make a matchless lover. -I envy Sallie her young eyes and ears!” - -“You need not envy her. You will never grow old.” - -“So much the worse if we miss the dreams that fill the souls of the -young,” she said with an accent of sorrowful pride. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII--THE UNSOLVED RIDDLE - -GASTON found the Preacher quietly smoking, seated on the rustic under a -giant oak that stood in the corner of the square. - -Under this tree the speakers’ stand had always been built for joint -debates in political campaigns. - -Here, when a boy he had heard the great debate between Zebulon B. -Vance and Judge Thomas Settle in the fierce campaign which followed the -overthrow of Le-gree when the Republican party, under the leadership of -Judge Settle made its desperate effort for life. Settle, who was a man -of masterful personality, eloquent, and in dead earnest in his appeal -for a new South, had made a speech of great power to a crowd that were -hostile to every idea for which he stood; and yet he dazzled or stunned -them into sullen silence. - -And then he recalled with flashes of memory vivid as lightning, the -miracle that had followed. He could see Vance now as he slowly lifted -his big lion-like head, and calmly looked over the sea of faces with -eagle eyes that could flash with resistless humour or blaze with the -fury of elemental passion. He reviewed the terrible past in which he had -played the tragic role of their war Governor, and tore into tatters with -the facts of history the logic of his opponent. And then he opened his -batteries of wit and ridicule,--wit that cut to the heart’s red blood, -and yet convulsed the hearer with its unexpected turn. Ridicule that -withered and scorched what it touched into ashes. Five thousand people -now in breathless suspense as he swung them into heaven on the wings of -deathless words, now screaming with laughter, and now hushed in tears! - -The scene that followed this triumph! Two stalwart mountain men snatched -him from the rostrum and bore him on their shoulders through the -shouting, weeping crowd. Women pressed close and kissed his hands, and -old men reached forward their hands to touch his garments. Ah! if he -could inherit the power of this king among men! To-night as Gaston -walked under that tree with his heart beating with the ecstasy of a -new-found source of life, he felt that he could do, and that he would -do, what the master had done before him! - -“Charlie, I’ve heard some startling news since you left home, and I -can’t sleep nights thinking about it.” - -“You’ve heard of McLeod’s scheme.” - -“Exactly. And it means the ruin of this state and the ruin of the South -unless it can be defeated.” - -“How are you going to do it?” - -“It’s a puzzle but it’s got to be done. Half the farmers in the -strongholds of Democracy are crazy over their fool Sub-Treasury -and a hundred other fakir dreams. McLeod has promised them -everything--Sub-Treasury, pumpkin leaves for money,--anything they want -if they will join forces with his niggers and carry the state. You are -the man to begin now a quiet but thorough organisation of the young men, -and oust the fools from control of the party. - -“When the white race begin to hobnob with the Negro and seek his favour, -they must grant him absolute equality. That means ultimately social as -well as political equality. You can’t ask a man to vote for you and kick -him down your front doorstep and tell him to come around the back way.” - -“I think you exaggerate the social danger, but I see the political end -of it.” - -“I don’t exaggerate in the least. I am looking into the future. This -racial instinct is the ordinance of our life. Lose it and we have -no future. One drop of Negro blood makes a negro. It kinks the hair, -flattens the nose, thickens the lip, puts out the light of intellect, -and lights the fires of brutal passions. The beginning of Negro equality -as a vital fact is the beginning of the end of this nation’s life. There -is enough negro blood here to make mulatto the whole Republic.” - -“Such a danger seems too remote for serious alarm to me,” replied the -younger man. - -“Ah! there’s the tragedy,” passionately cried the Preacher. “You younger -men are growing careless and indifferent to this terrible problem. It’s -the one unsolved and unsolvable riddle of the coming century. _Can you -build, in a Democracy, a nation inside a nation of two hostile races?_ -We must do this or become mulatto, and that is death. Every inch in -the approach of these races across the barriers that separate them is a -movement toward death. You cannot seek the Negro vote without asking -him to your home sooner or later. If you ask him to your house, he will -break bread with you at last. And if you seat him at your table, he has -the right to ask your daughter’s hand in marriage.” - -“It seems to me a far cry to that. But I see the political crisis. What -is your plan?” - -“This,--organise the young Democracy in every township in the state, and -put yourself at its head, control the primaries and down the old crowd. -They’ve got to follow you. Fight the campaign with the desperation of -despair. If you are defeated, God have mercy on us, but you will be -ready for the next battle.” - -“I ’ll do it,” said Gaston with emphasis. - -“Then I want you to go on a mission to Col. Duke, the President of the -National Farmer’s Alliance. He’s a good Baptist. He means well, but -he’s crazy. He dreams of the Presidency when he has established the -Sub-Treasury for the farmers. He’s afraid of the Negro, and is nervous -about using him. He knows I am the most influential Baptist preacher in -the state. Tell him I say you will win, and that we will give him the -nomination for Governor, and put him in line for the Presidency.” - -“When shall I go to see him?” - -“Immediately. Get ready to-night.” - -The next week McLeod was seated in his office at Hambright receiving -reports from his political henchmen at Raleigh. - -“I tell you, McLeod, there’s a hitch. Something’s dropped. Duke’s as -coy as a maid of sixteen. He says no decision can be made now until -he submits a lot of rot to all the lodges of the Alliance and the -‘Referendum’ decides these points. You’d better get hold of him and comb -the kinks out of him quick.” - -McLeod’s eyes flashed with anger, as he twisted the points of his red -moustache. - -“It’s that damned Baptist Preacher,” he said. “I ’ll get even with him -yet if it’s the only thorough job I do on this earth.” - - - - -CHAPTER IX--THE RHYTHM OF THE DANCE - -BEFORE boarding the train he was to take for Raleigh, he lingered with -Mrs. Durham talking, talking, talking about the wonder of his love. As -he arose to leave he said, “Now, Mother dear”---- - -“Charlie, you just say that so beautifully to make me your slave.” - -“Of course I do. What I was going to say is, I can’t write to her. I -don’t dare. You can. Tell her all about me won’t you? Everything that -you think will interest and please her, and that will be discreet. Your -intuitions will tell you how far to go. Tell her how hard I’m working -and what an important mission I’ve undertaken, and the tremendous things -that hang on its outcome. And tell her how impatiently I’m waiting for -her to come to the Springs. Be sure to tell her that.” - -“All right. I ’ll act as your attorney in your absence. But hurry -back, she must not get here first. I want you to be on the spot.” - -“I ’ll be here if I have to give up politics and go into business--and -you know how I hate that word ‘business.’” - -“I ’ll telegraph you if she comes.” - -“Don’t let her come till I get back. Tell her the hotel isn’t fit to -receive guests yet--it never is for that matter--but anything to give me -time to get here.” - -He worked with indomitable courage for two weeks, visiting the principal -towns in the state, and everywhere arousing intense enthusiasm. There -was something contagious in his spirit. The young fellows were charmed -by his eager intense way of looking at things, they caught the infection -and he made hundreds of staunch friends. - -“You’re just in time!” cried his mother greeting him with radiant face -on his return. “She is coming tomorrow. I’ve a beautiful letter from -her. I think one of the sweetest letters a girl ever wrote.” - -“Let me see it!” - -“No.” - -“Why, Mother, I thought you were all on my side!” - -“But I’m not. I’m a woman, and you can’t see some things she says.” - -“Then it’s something awfully nice about me.” - -“Maybe the opposite.” - -“Then you’d resent it for me.” - -“I love her too, sir.” - -“Let me see the tip end of it where she signs her name!” - -“You can see that much, there”---- - -“Doesn’t she write a lovely hand!” He looked long and lovingly. “That -pretty name!--Sallie! So old-fashioned, and so homelike. It’s music, -isn’t it?” - -“I didn’t know you could be so silly, Charlie.” - -“It is funny, isn’t it? You know I think after all, we are made out of -the same stuff, saint and sinner, philosopher and fool. The differences -are only skin deep.” - -“You don’t think she is made out of ordinary clay?” - -“Oh! Lord, no, I meant the men. Every woman is something divine to me. -I think of God as a woman, not a man--a great loving Mother of all Life. -If I ever saw the face of God it was in my mother’s face.” - -“Hush! you will make me do anything you wish.” - -“No, no, I don’t want to see that letter unless you think it best.” - -“Well, you will not see any more of it, sir.” - -When Gaston met them at the depot with a carriage to take Sallie, her -mother, and Helen Lowell, her Boston schoolmate, to the Springs, the -first passenger to alight was Bob St. Clare. - -“What in the thunder are you doing here! This town is quarantined -against you!” said Gaston. - -“Hush!” said Bob in a stage whisper. “She’s here. There’s her valise.” - -“That’s why you can’t land. Two’s company, three’s a crowd. I like you, -Bob. But I won’t stand for this.” - -The crowd were pouring off the train and had cut off Sallie’s party in -the centre of the car. - -“Gaston, I just came up for your sake. I’m looking after Miss Lowell. -I’m lost, ruined. Scared to say a word. I thought maybe, you’d help me -out. We ’ll pool chances. I ’ll talk for you and you talk for me.” - -“It’s a bargain, St. Clare.” - -“I want a separate carriage,--get me one quick.” - -In a few moments, the brief introduction over, Gaston was seated in the -carriage facing Sallie and her mother whirling along the road, over the -long hills toward the Campbell Sulphur Springs in the woods, two miles -from the town. - -How beautiful and fresh she looked to him even in a dusty travelling -dress! He was drinking the nectar from the depths of her eyes. - -“Now don’t you think Helen the prettiest girl you ever saw, Mr. Gaston?” - she asked. - -“I hadn’t noticed it.” - -“Where were your eyes?” - -“Elsewhere. I’m so glad you are going to spend a month at the Springs, -Miss Sallie. I used to go to school there when a little boy. They had a -girl’s school there in the winter and boys under twelve were admitted. I -know every nook and corner of the big forest back of the hotel. I ’ll -see that you don’t get lost.” - -“That will be fine. But you must bring every goodlooking boy in the -county and make him bow down and worship Helen. She is not used to it, -but she is tickled to death over these Southern boys, and I’m going to -give her the best time she ever had in her life.” - -“I ’ll do everything you command--except bow down myself. Bob’s agreed -to do that.” - -She smiled in spite of her effort to look serious, and her mother -pinched her arm. She laughed. - -“So you and Bob St. Clare were out there plotting before we could get -out of the train?” - -“Nothing unlawful, I assure you.” - -The first day she allowed Gaston to monopolise, and then began his -torture. She declared there were others with whom she must be friendly. -She determined to give a ball to Helen the next week, and began -preparations. - -It was a new business for Gaston, but he did his best to please her, in -a pathetic half-hearted sort of way. He ran all sorts of errands, and -executed her orders with tact. - -“Oh! Sallie let the ball go. I don’t care for it. I can do nothing to -ever repay you for the good time I’ve been having,” said Helen as they -sat in her room one night. - -“We are going to have it, I tell you. I don’t care how much Mr. Gaston -sulks. I’m not taking orders from him.” - -“No, but you’d like to--you know it.” - -“What an idea!” - -“You know you like him better than all the others put together.” - -“Nonsense. I’m as free as a bird.” - -“Then what are you blushing for?” - -“I’m not.” But her face was scarlet. - -“You Southern girls are so queer. The moment you like a man you’re as -sly as a cat, and deny that you even know him. When I find the man I -love I don’t care who knows it, if he loves me.” - -“What do you think of Bob St. Clare?” - -“I like him.” - -“Hasn’t he made love to you yet?” - -“No, and the only one of the crowd who hasn’t. I don’t mind confessing -that I never had love made to me before this visit. In Boston it’s a -serious thing for a young man to call once. The second call, means -a family council, and at the third he must make a declaration of his -intentions or face consequences. Down here, the boys don’t seem to have -anything to do except to make their girl friends happy, and feel they -are the queens of the earth, and that their only mission is to minister -to them. And some of your girls are engaged to six boys at the same -time.” - -“Don’t you like it?” - -“It’s glorious. I feel that if I hadn’t come down here to see you I’d -have missed the meaning of life.” - -“Don’t our boys make love beautifully?” - -“I never dreamed of anything like it. They make it so seriously, so dead -in earnest, you can’t help believing them.” - -“And Bob hasn’t said a word?” - -“Hasn’t breathed a hint.” - -“Then you have him sure. They are hit hard when they are silent like -that. Bob made love to me the second day he ever saw me.” - -“Don’t tease me, dear,” said Helen as she put her pretty rosy cheek -against the dark beauty of the South. “Do you really think he likes me -seriously?” - -“He’s crazy about you, goose!” - -There was the sound of a kiss. - -“I can’t tell stories about it like you, Sallie, I’m afraid I’m in love -with him,” she whispered. - -“Well, I ’ll make him court you to-morrow or have him thrashed, if you -say so.” - -“Don’t you dare!” - -“Then do just as I tell you about this ball and get yourself up -regardless.” - -On the night of the ball, Gaston, sitting out on the porch, felt nervous -and fidgety, like a fish out of water. He knew he had no business there, -and yet he couldn’t go away. They had a quarrel about the ball. Sallie -had insisted that Gaston honour her by coming in evening dress whether -he danced or not. - -“But, Miss Sallie, I ’ll feel like a fool. Everybody in the country -knows that I never entered a ball-room.” - -“Do you care so much what everybody thinks about you?” - -“No, but I care what I think of myself.” - -“Well, if you don’t come in full dress suit, I won’t speak to you.” - -He turned pale in spite of his effort at self control. Then a queer -steel-like look came into his eyes. - -“I shall be more than sorry to fail to please you, but I have no dress -suit. I have never had time for social frivolities. I can’t afford to -buy one for this occasion. I couldn’t be nigger enough to hire one, so -that’s the end of it. I ’ll have to come dressed in my own fashion or -stay at home.” - -“Then you can stay at home,” she snapped. - -“I ’ll not do it,” he coolly replied. - -“Well, I like your insolence.” - -“I’m glad you do. I ’ll come as I come to all such functions, an -outsider. I ’ll sit out here on the porch in the shadows and see it -from afar. If I could only dance, I assure you I’d try to fill every -number of your card. Not being able to do so, I simply decline to make a -fool of myself.” - -“For that compliment, I ’ll compromise with you. Wear that big pompous -Prince Albert suit you spoke in at Independence, and I ’ll come out on -the porch and chat with you a while.” - -He sat there now in the shadows waiting for this ball to begin. It was -a clear night the first week in June. The new moon was hanging just over -the tree tops. His heart was full to bursting with the thought that the -girl he loved would, in a few minutes, be whirling over that polished -floor to the strains of a waltz, with another man’s arm around her. He -never knew how deeply he hated dancing before--that rhythmic touch -of the human body, set to the melody of motion, and voiced in the -passionate cry of music. He felt its challenge to his love to mortal -combat,--his love that claimed this one woman as his own, body and soul! - -The music from the Italian band was in full swing, its plaintive notes -instinct with the passion of sunny Italy, a music all Southern people -love. - -He felt that he should choke. A sudden thought came to him. Tearing a -sheet of paper from a note book he scrawled this line upon it. - -“Dear Miss Sallie:--Please let me see you a moment in the parlour before -you enter the ball-room. Gaston.” - -At least he would see her in her ball costume first. Yes, and if she -should hate him for it, he would beg her not to dance that night. He saw -McLeod, bowing and scraping in the ball-room arrayed in faultless full -dress, and glancing toward the door. He knew lie was waiting for her to -ask her to dance. How he would like to wring his handsome neck! - -The boy returned immediately and said the lady was waiting in the -parlour. He entered with a sense of fear and confusion. - -[Illustration: 0278] - -She came to him with her bare arm extended, a dazzling vision of -beauty. She was dressed in a creamy white crêpe ball gown, cut modestly -decollete over her full bust and gleaming shoulders, sleeveless, and -held with tiny straps across the curve of the upper arm. - -He was stunned. She smiled in triumph, conscious of her resistless -power. - -“Forgive me for my selfishness in keeping you here just a moment from -the rest. I wished to see you first.” - -“What? to inspect like Mama, to see if I look all right?” - -“No, with a mad desire to keep you as long as possible from the others.” - -Then she looked up at him and said slowly and softly, “Would it please -you very much if I were not to dance to-night?” - -“I wouldn’t dare ask so selfish a thing of you. It is with you a simple -habit of polite society, and you enjoy it as a child does play. I -understand that, and yet if you do not dance to-night, I feel as though -I would crawl round this world on my hands and knees for you if you -would ask it. There are men waiting for you in that ball room whom I -hate.” - -She looked at him timidly as though she were afraid he was about to -say too much and replied, “Then I will not dance to-night. I ’ll just -preside over the ball and let Helen be the queen.” - -“Words have no power to convey my gratitude. I count all my little -triumphs in life nothing to this. You promised to join me on the porch. -Don’t change that part of the programme. I will talk to your mother -until you come.” - -Gaston went down stairs treading on air. He sought her mother and -devoted himself to her with supreme tact. He discovered her tastes and -prejudices and paid her that knightly deference some young men express -easily and naturally to their elders. He had always been a favourite -with old people. He prided himself on it. This faculty he regarded as -a badge of honour. As he sat there and talked with this frail little -woman, his heart went out to her in a great yearning love. She was the -mother of the bride of his soul. He would love her forever for that. No -matter whether she loved him or hated him. He would love the mother who -gave to his thirsty lips the water of Life. - -Drawn irresistibly by the magnetism of his mind and manner Mrs. Worth -forgot the flight of time and thought but a moment had past when an hour -after the ball had opened, Sallie came out leaning on McLeod’s arm. - -“Mama, have you been monopolising Mr. Gaston for a whole hour?” - -“He hasn’t been here a half hour, Miss!” cried her mother. - -“He’s been here an hour and ten minutes. I’m going to tell Papa on you -just as soon as I get home.” - -“Go back to your dancing.” - -“No, thank you, I have an engagement to take a walk with your beau. Come -Mr. Gaston.” - -They walked to the spring and along the winding path by the brook at -the foot of the hill, and found a rustic seat. They were both silent for -several moments. - -“I saw you were charming Mama, or I would have come sooner.” - -“I hope she likes me.” - -“She has been praising you ever since your visit to Independence. I -never saw her talk so long to a young man in my life before. You must -have hypnotised her.” - -“I hope so.” - -A strange happiness filled her heart. She was afraid to look it in the -face; and yet she dared to play with the thought. - -“Are you enjoying your triumph to-night? I’ve had war inside.” - -“I feel like I am the Emperor of the World and that the Evening Star is -smiling on my court!” - -She smiled, tossed her head, leaned against the tree and said, “I wonder -if you are in the habit of saying things like that to girls?” - -“Upon my soul and honour, no.” - -“Then thanks. I ’ll dream about that, maybe.” - -They returned to the hotel and McLeod claimed her. They went back the -same walk, and by a freak of fate he chose the same seat she had just -vacated with Gaston. - -“Miss Sallie, you are of age now. You know that I have loved you -passionately since you were a child. I have made my way in life, I am -hungry for a home and your love to glorify it. Why will you keep me -waiting?” - -“Simply because I know now I do not love you, Allan, and I never will. -Once and forever, here, to-night I give you my last answer, I will not -be your wife.” - -“Then don’t give the answer to-night. I can wait,” he interrupted. “I -am just on the threshold of a great career. Success is sure. I can offer -you a dazzling position. Don’t give me such an answer. Leave the old -answer--to wait.” - -“No, I will not. I do not love you. If you were to become the President, -it would not change this fact, and it is everything.” - -“Then you love another.” - -“That is none of your business, sir. I have known you since childhood. I -have had ample time to know my own mind.” - -“All right, we will say good-bye for the present. You have made me a -laughing stock of young fools, but I can stand it. I’ll not give you up, -and if I can’t have you, no other man shall.” - -“If you leave my will out of the calculation, you will make a fatal -mistake.” - -“Women have been known to change their wills.” - -Before leaving her that night Gaston held her hand for an instant as he -bade her good-bye and said, “Miss Sallie, I thank you with inexpressible -gratitude for the honour you have done me.” - -“I’ve just been wondering what you have done to deserve it?” - -“Absolutely nothing,--that’s why it is so sweet. This has been the -happiest day I ever lived. I cannot see you again before you go. I leave -to-morrow on urgent business. May I come to Independence to see you?” - -“Yes, I ’ll be delighted to see you. Good-night.” - -Gaston was the last to return to Hambright. He walked the two miles -through the silent starlit woods. He took a short cut his bare feet had -travelled as a boy, and with uncovered head walked slowly through the -dim aisles of great trees. It was good, this cool silence and the soft -mantle of the night about his soul! The stars whispered love. The wind -sighed it through the leaves. - -He had withdrawn from the church in his college days because he had -grown to doubt everything--God, heaven, hell, and immortality. To-night -as he walked slowly home he heard that wonderful sentence of the old -Bible ringing down the ages, wet with tears and winged with hope, “_God -is love!_” - -He said it now softly and reverently, and the tears came unbidden from -his soul. He felt close to the heart of things. He knew he was close to -the heart of nature. What if nature was only another name for God? And -he whispered it again, “_God is love!_” - -“Ah! If I only knew it I would bow down and worship Him forever!” he -cried. - -When Sallie reached her mother’s room that night, Mrs. Worth was seated -by her window. - -“Why didn’t you dance?” - -“Didn’t care to.” - -“Sly Miss, you can’t fool me. You didn’t dance because Mr. Gaston -couldn’t. That was a dangerously loud way to talk to him.” - -“How did you like him, Mama?” - -“Come here, dear, and sit on the edge of my chair. I wish I knew when -you were in earnest about a man. I like him more than I can tell you. He -talked to me so beautifully about his mother, I wanted to kiss him. He -is charming.” - -“Why, Mama!” - -“I’d like him for a son. There’s a wealth of deep tenderness and manly -power in him.” - -“Mama, you’re getting giddy!” - -But she kissed her mother twice when she said good night. - - - - -CHAPTER X--THE HEART OF A VILLAIN - -McLEOD had developed into a man of undoubted power. He was but -thirty-two years old, and the dictator of his party in the state. - -He had the fighting temperament which Southern people demand in -their leaders. With this temperament he combined the skill of subtle -diplomatic tact. He had no moral scruples of any kind. The problem of -expediency alone interested him in ethics. - -McLeod’s pet aversion was a preacher, especially a Baptist or a -Methodist. His choicest oaths he reserved for them. He made a study of -their weaknesses, and could tell dozens of stories to their discredit, -many of them true. He had an instinct for finding their weak spots and -holding them up to ridicule. He bought every book of militant infidelity -he could find and memorised the bitterest of it. He took special pride -in scoffing at religion before the young converts of Durham’s church. - -He was endowed with a personal magnetism that fascinated the young as -the hiss of a snake holds a bird. His serious work was politics and -sensualism. In politics he was at his best. Here he was cunning, -plausible, careful, brilliant and daring. He never lost his head in -defeat or victory. He never forgot a friend, or forgave an enemy. Of his -foe he asked no quarter and gave none. - -His ambitions were purely selfish. He meant to climb to the top. As to -the means, the end would justify them. He preferred to associate -with white people. But when it was necessary to win a negro, he never -hesitated to go any length. The centre of the universe to his mind was -A. McLeod. - -He was fond of saying to a crowd of youngsters whom he taught to play -poker and drink whiskey, “Boys, I know the world. The great man is the -man who gets there.” - -He was generous with his money, and the boys called him a jolly good -fellow. He used to say in explanation of this careless habit, “It won’t -do for an ordinary fool to throw away money as I do. I play for big -stakes. I’m not a spendthrift. I’m simply sowing seed. I can wait for -the harvest.” And when they would admire this overmuch he would warn -them, As a rule my advice is, “Get money. Get it fairly and squarely if -you can, but whatever you do,--get it. When you come right down to it, -money’s your first, last, best and only friend. Others promise well but -when the scratch comes, they fail. Money never fails.” - -A boy of fifteen asked him one day when he was mellow with liquor, -“McLeod, which would you rather be, President of the United States or a -big millionaire?” - -“Boys,” he replied, smacking his lips, and running his tongue around -his cheeks inside and softly caressing them with one hand, while he half -closed his eyes, “They say old Simon Legree is worth fifty millions of -dollars, and that his actual income is twenty per cent on that. They say -he stole most of it, and that every dollar represents a broken life, -and every cent of it could be painted red with the blood of his victims. -Even so, I would rather be in Legree’s shoes and have those millions a -year than to be Almighty God with hosts of angels singing psalms to me -through all eternity.” - -And the shallow-pated satellites cheered this blasphemy with open-eyed -wonder. - -The weakest side of his nature was that turned toward women. He was vain -as a peacock, and the darling wish of his soul was to be a successful -libertine. This was the secret of the cruelty back of his desire of -boundless wealth. - -He had the intellectual forehead of his Scotch father, large, handsomely -modelled features, nostrils that dilated and contracted widely, and the -thick sensuous lips of his mother. His eyebrows were straight, thick, -and suggested undoubted force of intellect. His hair was a deep red, -thick and coarse, but his moustache was finer and it was his special -pride to point its delicately curved tips. - -His vanity was being stimulated just now by two opposite forces. He was -in love, as deeply as such a nature could love, with Sallie Worth. Her -continued rejection of his suit had wounded his vanity, but had roused -all the pugnacity of his nature to strengthen this apparent weakness. - -He had discovered recently that he exercised a potent influence over -Mrs. Durham. The moment he was repulsed, his vanity turned for renewed -strength toward her. He saw instantly the immense power even the -slightest indiscretion on her part would give him over the Preacher’s -life. He knew that while he was not a demonstrative man, he loved his -wife with intense devotion. He knew, too, that here was the Preacher’s -weakest spot. In his tireless devotion to his work, he had starved his -wife’s heart. He had noticed that she always called him “Dr. Durham” - now, and that he had gradually fallen into the habit of calling her -“Mrs. Durham.” - -This had been fixed in their habits, perhaps by the change from -housekeeping to living at the hotel. Since old Aunt Mary’s death, Mrs. -Durham had given up her struggle with the modern negro servants, closed -her house, and they had boarded for several years. - -He saw that if he could entangle her name with his in the dirty gossip -of village society, he could strike his enemy a mortal blow. He knew -that she had grown more and more jealous of the crowds of silly women -that always dog the heels of a powerful minister with flattery and open -admiration. He determined to make the experiment. - -Mrs. Durham, while nine years his senior, did not look a day over -thirty. Her face was as smooth and soft and round as a girl’s, her -figure as straight and full, and her every movement instinct with stored -vital powers that had never been drawn upon. - -She was in a dangerous period of her mental development. She had been -bitterly disappointed in life. Her loss of slaves and the ancestral -prestige of great wealth had sent the steel shaft of a poisoned dagger -into her soul. She was unreconciled to it. While she was passing through -the anarchy of Legree’s régime which followed the war, her unsatisfied -maternal instincts absorbed her in the work of relieving the poor and -the broken. But when the white race rose in its might and shook off this -nightmare and order and a measure of prosperity had come, she had fallen -back into brooding pessimism. - -She had reached the hour of that soul crisis when she felt life would -almost in a moment slip from her grasp, and she asked herself the -question, “Have I lived?” And she could not answer. - -She found herself asking the reasons for things long accepted as fixed -and eternal. What was good, right, truth? And what made it good, right, -or true? - -And she beat the wings of her proud woman’s heart against the bars that -held her, until tired, and bleeding she was exhausted but unconquered. - -She was furious with McLeod for his open association with negro -politicians. - -“Allan, in my soul, I am ashamed for you when I see you thus degrade -your manhood.” - -“Nonsense, Mrs. Durham,” he replied, “the most beautiful flower grows in -dirt, but the flower is not dirt.” - -“Well, I knew you were vain, but that caps the climax!” - -“Isn’t my figure true, whether you say I’m dog-fennel or a pink?” - -“No, you are not a flower. Will is the soul of man. The flower is ruled -by laws outside itself. A man’s will is creative. You can make law. You -can walk with your head among the stars, and you choose to crawl in a -ditch. I am out of patience with you.” - -“But only for a purpose. You must judge by the end in view.” - -“There’s no need to stoop so low.” - -“I assure you it is absolutely necessary to my aims in life. And they -are high enough. I appreciate your interest in me, more than I dare to -tell you. You have always been kind to me since I was a wild red-headed -brute of a boy. And you have always been my supreme inspiration in work. -While others have cursed and scoffed you smiled at me and your smile has -warmed my heart in its blackest nights.” - -She looked at him with a mother-like tenderness. - -“What ends could be high enough to justify such methods?” - -“I hate poverty and squalour. It’s been my fate. I’ve sworn to climb out -of it, if I have to fight or buy my way through hell to do it. I dream -of a palatial home, of soft white beds, grand banquet halls, and music -and wine, and the faces of those I love near me. Besides, the work I am -doing is the best for the state and the nation.” - -“But how can you walk arm in arm with a big black negro, as they say you -do, to get his vote?” - -“Simply because they represent 120,000 votes I need. You can’t tell -their colour when they get in the box. I use these fools as so many -worms. My political creed is for public consumption only. I never allow -anybody to impose on me. I don’t allow even Allan McLeod to deceive -me with a paper platform, or a lot of articulated wind. I’m not a -preacher.” - -She winced at that shot, blushed and looked at him curiously for a -moment. - -“No, you are not a preacher. I wish you were a better man.” - -“So do I, when I am with you,” he answered in a low serious voice. - -“But I can’t get over the sense of personal degradation involved in your -association with negroes as your equal,” she persisted. - -“The trouble is you’re an unreconstructed rebel. Women never really -forgive a social wrong.” - -“I am unreconstructed,” she snapped with pride. - -“And you thank God daily for it, don’t you?” - -“Yes, I do. Human nature can’t be reconstructed by the fiat of fools who -tinker with laws,” she cried. - -“These thousands of black votes are here. They’ve got to be controlled. -I’m doing the job.” - -“You don’t try to get rid of them.” - -“Get rid of them? Ye gods, that would be a task! The Negro is the -sentimental pet of the nation. Put him on a continent alone, and he will -sink like an iron wedge to the bottomless pit of barbarism. But he is -the ward of the Republic--our only orphan, chronic, incapable. That -wardship is a grip of steel on the throat of the South. Back of it is an -ocean of maudlin sentimental fools. I am simply making the most of the -situation. I didn’t make it to order. I’m just doing the best I can with -the material in hand.” - -“Why don’t you come out like a man and defy this horde of fools?” - -“Martyrdom has become too cheap. The preachers have a hundred thousand -missionaries now we are trying to support.” - -“Allan, I thought you held below the rough surface of your nature high -ideals,--you don’t mean this.” - -“What could one man do against these millions?” - -“Do!” she cried, her face ablaze. “The history of the world is made up -of the individuality of a few men. A little Yankee woman wrote a crude -book. The single act of that woman’s will caused the war, killed a -million men, desolated and ruined the South, and changed the history of -the world. The single dauntless personality of George Washington three -times saved the colonies from surrender and created the Republic. I am -surprised to hear a man of your brain and reading talk like that!” - -“When I am with you and hear your voice I have heroic impulses. You are -the only human being with whom I would take the time to discuss this -question. But the current is too strong. The other way is easier, and it -serves my ends better. Besides, I am not sure it isn’t better from every -point of view. We’ve got the Negro here, and must educate him.” - -“Hush! Tell that to somebody that hates you, not to me,” she cried. - -“Don’t you think we must educate them?” - -“No, I think it is a crime.” - -“Would you leave them in ignorance, a threat to society?” - -“Yes, until they can be moved. When I see these young negro men and -women coming out of their schools and colleges well dressed, with their -shallow veneer of an imitation culture, I feel like crying over the -farce.” - -“Surely, Mrs. Durham, you believe they are better fitted for life?” - -“They are not. They are lifted out of their only possible sphere of -menial service, and denied any career. It is simply inhuman. They are -led to certain slaughter of soul and body at last. It is a horrible -tragedy.” - -Allan looked at her, smiled, and replied, “I knew you were a bitter and -brilliant woman but I didn’t think you would go to such lengths even -with your pet aversions.” - -“It’s not an aversion, or a prejudice, sir. It’s a simple fact of -history. Education increases the power of the human brain to think and -the heart to suffer. Sooner or later these educated negroes feel the -clutch of the iron hand of the white man’s unwritten laws on their -throat. They have their choice between a suicide’s grave or a prison -cell. And the numbers who dare the grave and the prison cell daily -increase. The South is kinder to the Negro when he is kept in his -place.” - -“You are a quarter of a century behind the times.” - -“Am I so old?” she laughed. - -“The sentiment, not the woman. You are the most beautiful woman I ever -saw.” - -“I like all my boys to feel that way about me.” - -“You don’t class me quite with the rest, do you?” She blushed the -slightest bit. “No, I’ve always taken a peculiar interest in you. I have -quarrelled with everybody who has hated and spoken evil of you. I have -always believed you were capable of a high and noble life of great -achievement.” - -“And your faith in me has been my highest incentive to give the lie to -my enemies and succeed. And I will. I will be the master of this state -within two years. And I want you to remember that I lay it all at your -feet. The world need not know it,--you know it.” He spoke with intense -earnestness. - -“But I don’t want you to make such a success at the price of Negro -equality. I feel a sense of unspeakable degradation for you when I hear -your name hissed. At least I was your teacher once. Come Allan, give up -Negro politics and devote yourself to an honourable career in law!” - -He shook his head with calm persistence. - -“No, this is my calling.” - -“Then take a nobler one.” - -“To succeed grandly is the only title to nobility here.” - -“Is the Doctor on speaking terms with you now?” - -“Oh! yes, I joke him about his hide-bound Bourbonism, and he tells me -I am all sorts of a villain. But we have made an agreement to hate one -another in a polite sort of way as becomes a teacher in Israel and a -statesman with responsibilities. By the way, I saw him driving to the -Springs with a bevy of pretty girls a few hours ago.” - -“Indeed, I didn’t know it!” - -“Yes, he seemed to be having a royal time and to have renewed his -youth.” - -An angry flush came to her face and she made no reply. McLeod glanced at -her furtively and smiled at this evidence that his shot had gone home. - -“Would you drive with me to the Springs? We will get there before this -party starts back.” She hesitated, and answered, “yes.” - - - - -CHAPTER XI--THE OLD OLD STORY - - -WHEN Gaston arrived in Independence he went direct to St. Clare’s. - -“Where the Dickens have you been, Gaston?” - -“Jumping from Murphy to Manteo making love to hayseed statesmen.” - -“What luck?” - -“They’re all crazy. They swear they are going to have the United States -establish a Sub-Treasury in Raleigh and issue Government script they can -use as money on their pumpkins, or they are going to tear the nation to -tatters and vote for a nigger for Governor if necessary!” - -“Can’t you get into their fool heads that an alliance with the -Republican party is the last way on earth for them to go about their -Sub-Treasury schemes?” - -“Can’t seem to do a thing with them. McLeod’s stuffed them full. I’m -sick of it. I’ve a notion to let them go with the niggers and go to the -devil. It’s growing on me that there must be another way out. I can’t -get down in the dirt and prostitute my intellect and lie to these fools. -We’ve got to get rid of the Negro.” - -“A large job, old man.” - -“Yes, it is, and thank God I’m done with it for a week. I’m going -to heaven now for a few days. I ’ll see her in an hour. I rise on -tireless wings!” - -“Look out you don’t come down too suddenly. The earth may feel hard.” - -“Bob, I’m going to risk it. I’m going to look fate squarely in the face -and get my answer like a little man, for life or death.” - -Mrs. Worth met Gaston and greeted him with warmest cordiality. - -“We are charmed to welcome you to Oakwood again, Mr. Gaston.” - -“I assure you, Mrs. Worth, I never saw a home so beautiful. I feel as -though I am in paradise when I get here.” - -“I hope to see more of you this time, I feel that I know you so much -better since our talk at the Springs.” - -“Thank you, Mrs. Worth.” He said this so simply and earnestly she could -but feel his deep appreciation of her attitude of welcome. - -“Sallie will be down in a minute.” - -Gaston smiled in spite of himself. - -“What are you laughing at?” - -“I was just thinking how sweetly her name sounded on your lips.” - -“Do you like these old-fashioned Southern names?” - -“I think they are lovely.” - -“Well, that’s my name too.” - -Sallie suddenly stepped from the hall into the doorway. - -“Now, Mama, there you are again carrying on with one of my beaux! I -don’t know what I will do with you!” - -Mrs. Worth actually blushed, sprang up and struck Sallie lightly on the -arm with her fan exclaiming, “Oh! you sly thing, to stand out there and -listen to what I said! Mr. Gaston I turn her over to you to punish her -for such conduct.” - -“Isn’t she a dear?” said Sallie when her mother was gone. - -“I was charmed with her at the Springs, but the gracious way she made me -feel at home this morning completely won my heart.” - -“I can do anything with Mama. She’s the dearest mother that ever lived. -She always seems to know intuitively my heart’s wish, and, if it’s best, -give it to me, and if it’s not, she makes me cease to desire it. I wish -I could manage Papa as easily.” - -“I’m sure he idolises you, Miss Sallie.” - -“He does, but when he lays the law down, that settles it. I can’t move -him one inch.” - -“That’s the way with forceful men, who do things in the world.” - -“Well, I confess I like to have my own way sometimes. I wonder if you -are like that?” - -“I ’ll be frank with you. Somehow I never could be anything else if I -tried. I don’t think a man of strong character will yield to every whim -of a woman, whether wife or daughter.” - -“I heard of a man the other day who whipped his wife,” she said in a -far away tone of voice. “Come, my horse is ready, go with me for another -ride to-day. I am going to take you across the river and show you a -pretty drive over there.” - -They were soon lost in the deep shadows of the stately pine forest that -lay beyond the Catawba. The road was a cross-country narrow way that -wound in and out around the big trees. - -They jogged slowly along while he bathed his soul in the joy of her -presence. Oh, to be alone and near her! There seemed to him a magic -power in the touch of her dress as she sat in the little buggy so close -by his side. For hours, again he lay at her feet and drank the wine of -her beauty until his heart was drunk with love. - -Once he opened his lips to tell her, and a great fear awed him into -silence. He longed to pour out to her his passion, but feared -her answer. He Had studied her every word and tone and look and -hand-pressure since he had known her. He was sure she loved him. And yet -he was not sure. She was so skilled in the science of self defence, so -subtle a mistress of all the arts of polite society in which the soul’s -deepest secrets are hid from the world, he was paralysed now as the -moment drew near. He put it off another day and gave himself up to the -pure delight of her face and form and voice and presence. - -That evening when she entered the home her mother caught her hand and -softly whispered, “Did he court you to-day, Sallie?” - -She shook her head smilingly. “No, but I think he will to-morrow.” - -St. Clare was sitting on his veranda awaiting Gaston’s return. - -“What luck, old boy?” he eagerly asked. - -“Couldn’t say a word. I ’ll do it to-morrow or die.” - -“Shake hands partner. I’ve been there.” - -“Bob, it’s a serious thing to run up against a little answer ‘yes’ or -‘no,’ that means life or death.” - -“Feel like you’d rather live on hope a while, and let things drift, -don’t you?” - -“Exactly, I think I can understand for the first time in my life that -awful look in a prisoner’s face on trial for his life, when he watches -the lips of the foreman of the jury to catch the first letter of the -verdict. I used to think that an interesting psychological study. By -George, I feel I am his brother now.” - -The next day was perfect. The warm life-giving sun of June was tempered -by breezes that swept fresh and invigorating over the earth that had -been drenched with showers in the night. The woods were ringing with the -chorus of feathered throats chanting the old oratorio of life and love. -Again Gaston and Sallie were jogging along the shady river road they had -travelled on the first day she had taken him driving. - -“Do you remember this road?” she asked. - -“I ’ll never forget it. Along this road we hurried in the twilight -to face your angry mother, and just one kiss smoothed her brow into a -welcoming smile for me.” - -“Well, I’m going to risk greater trouble to-day, and take you a mile or -two further up the river to the old mill site at the rapids. It’s the -most beautiful and romantic spot in the country. The river spreads out -a quarter of a mile in width, and goes plunging and dashing down the -rapids through thousands of projecting rocks, a mass of white foam -as far as you can see. It’s full of tiny green islands with feras and -rhododendron and wild grape vines, and their perfume sweetens the air -for miles along the water. These little islands, some ten feet square, -some an acre, are full of mocking-birds nesting there, though since the -mills were burned during the war nobody has lived near. The songs of -these birds seem tuned to the music of the river.” - -“It must be a glimpse of fairy-land!” he exclaimed. - -“I know you will be thrilled with its romantic beauty. It’s five miles -from a house in any direction.” - -Gaston was silent. He made a resolution in his soul that he would never -leave that spot until he knew his fate. His heart began to thump now -like a sledge-hammer. He looked down furtively at her and tried to -imagine how she would look and what she would say when he should startle -her first with some word of tender endearment or the sound of her name -he had said over and over a thousand times in his heart, and aloud when -alone, but never dared to use without its prefix. - -She saw his abstraction and divined intuitively the current of emotions -with which he was struggling, but pretended not to notice it. He tied -the horse at the old mill, and they walked slowly down the bank of the -river. - -“That is my island,” she cried pointing out into the river. “That third -one in the group running out from the point. We can step from one rock -to another to it.” - -It was indeed an entrancing spot. The island seemed all alone in the -middle of the river when one was on it. It was not more than fifty feet -wide and a hundred feet long, its length lying with the swift current. -At the lower end of it a fine ash tree spread its dense shade, hanging -far over the still waters that stood in smooth eddy at its roots. On the -upper side of this tree lay a big boulder resting against its trunk and -embedded in a mass of clean white sand the water had filtered and washed -and thrown there on some spring flood. - -She climbed on this rock, sat down, and leaned her bare head against its -trunk. - -“This is my throne,” she laughingly cried. - -[Illustration: 0300] - -He leaned against the rock and looked up at her with eyes through -which the yearning, the hunger, the joy, and the fear of all life were -quivering. What a picture she made under the dark cool shadows! Her -dress was again of spotless white that seemed now to have been woven out -of the foam of the river. Her throat was bare, her cheeks flushed, and -her wavy hair the wind had blown loose into a hundred stray ringlets -about her face and neck. Her lips were trembling with a smile at his -speechless admiration. - -“You seem to have been struck dumb,” she said. “Isn’t this glorious?” - -“Beyond words, Miss Sallie. I didn’t know there was such a spot on the -earth.” - -“This is my favourite perch. Art and wealth could never make anything -like this! I could come here and sit and dream all day alone if Mama -would let me.” - -He tried to begin the story of his love, but every time his tongue -refused to move. He was trembling with nervous hesitation and began to -dig a hole in the sand with his heel. - -“What is the matter with you to-day? I never saw you so serious and -moody.” - -Just then a female mocking-bird in her modest dove-coloured dress lit on -a swaying limb whose tips touched the still water of the eddy at their -feet, and her proud mate with head erect, far up on the topmost twig -of the ash struck softly the first note of his immortal love poem, the -dropping song. - -“Listen, he’s going to sing his dropping song!” he cried in a whisper. - -And they listened. He sang his first stanza in a low dreamy voice, and -then as the sweetness of his love and the glory of his triumph grew on -his bird soul, he lifted his clear notes higher and higher until the -woods on the banks of the river rang with its melody. - -His mate turned her eyes upward and quietly twittered a sweet little -answer. - -His response rang like a silver trumpet far up in the sky! He sprang ten -feet into the air and slowly dropped singing, singing his long trilling -notes of melting sweetness. He stopped on the topmost twig, sat a -moment, never ceasing his matchless song, and then began to fall -downward from limb to limb toward his mate, pouring out his soul in mad -abandonment of joy, but growing softer, sweeter, more tender as he -drew nearer. They could see her tremble now with pride and love at his -approach, as she glanced timidly upward, and answered him with maiden -modesty. At last when he reached her side, his song was so low and sweet -and dream-like it could scarcely be heard. He touched the tip of -her beak with a bird kiss, they chirped, and flew away to the woods -together. - -Gaston determined to speak or die. His eyes were wet with unshed tears, -and he was trembling from head to foot. He had meant to pour out his -love for her like that bird in words of passionate beauty, but all he -could do was to say with stammering voice low and tense with emotion, -“Miss Sallie, I love you!” - -He had meant to say “Sallie,” but at the last gasp of breath, as he -spoke, his courage had failed. He did not look up at first. And when she -was silent, he timidly looked up, fearing to hear the answer or read -it in her face. She smiled at him and broke into a low peal of -joyous laughter! And there was a note of joy in her laughter that was -contagious. - -“Please don’t laugh at me,” he stammered, smiling himself. - -She buried her face in her hands and laughed again. She looked at him -with her great blue eyes wide open, dancing with fun, and wet with -tears. - -“Do you know, it’s the funniest thing in the world, you are the sixth -man who has made love to me on this rock within a year!” and again she -laughed in his face. - -“Look here, Miss Sallie, this is cruel!” - -“Dear old rock. It’s enchanted. It never fails!” and she laughed softly -again, and patted the rock with her hand. - -“Surely you have tortured me long enough. Have some pity.” - -“It is a pitiable sight to see a big eloquent man stammer and do silly -things isn’t it?” - -“Please give me your answer,” he cried still trembling. - -“Oh! it’s not so serious as all that!” she said with dancing eyes. - -“I’m in the dust at your feet.” - -“You mean in the sand. Did you know that you dug a hole in that sand -deep enough to bury me in? I thought once you were meditating murder by -the expression on your face.” - -“Please give me one earnest look from your eyes,” he pleaded. - -“You’re a terrible disappointment,” she answered leaning back and -putting her hands behind her head thoughtfully. - -His heart stood still at this unexpected speech. - -“How?” he slowly asked, looking down at the sand again. - -“Because,” she said in her old tantalising tone, “I expected so much of -you.” - -“Then you don’t class me with the other poor devils at least?” he asked -hopefully. - -“No, no, they were handsome boys and made me beautiful speeches. But you -are distinguished. You are a man that everybody would look at twice in -a crowd. You are a famous young orator who can hold thousands breathless -with eloquence. I thought you would make me the most beautiful speech. -But you acted like a school boy, stammered, looked foolish, and pawed a -hole in the ground!” Again she laughed. - -“I confess, Miss Sallie, I was never so overwhelmed with terror and -nervousness by an audience before.” - -“And just one girl to hear!” - -“Yes, but she counts more with me than all the other millions, and -one kind look from her eyes I would hold dearer at this moment than a -conquered world’s applause.” - -“That’s fine! That’s something like it. Say more!” she cried. - -His face clouded and he looked earnestly at her. - -“Come, come, Miss Sallie, this is too cruel. I have torn my heart’s -deepest secrets open to you, and tremblingly laid my life at your feet, -and you are laughing at me. I have paid you the highest homage one human -soul can offer another. Surely I deserve better than this?” - -“There, you do. Forgive me. I have seen so much shallow love making, -I am never quite sure a boy’s in dead earnest.” She spoke now with -seriousness. - -“You cannot doubt my earnestness. I have spoken to you this morning the -first words of love that ever passed my lips. One chamber of my soul has -always been sacred. It was the throne room of Love, reserved for the One -Woman waiting for me somewhere whom I should find. I would not allow an -angel to enter it, and I hid it from the face of God. I have opened it -this morning. It is yours.” - -She softly slipped her hand in his, and tremblingly said, while a tear -stole down her cheek, “I do love you!” - -He bent over her hand and kissed it, and kissed it, while his frame -shook with uncontrollable emotion. Then looking up through his dimmed -eyes, he said, “My darling, that was the sweetest music, that sentence, -that I shall ever hear in this world or in all the worlds beyond it in -eternity!” - -“When did you first begin to love me?” she asked. - -“I don’t know. But I loved you the first moment you looked into my face -while I was speaking that day. And I recognised you instantly as the -Dream of my Soul. I have loved you for ever, ages before we were born in -this world, somewhere, our souls met and knew and loved. And I’ve been -looking for you ever since. When I saw you there in the crowd that day -looking up at me with those beautiful blue eyes, I felt like shouting -‘I have found her! I have found her!’ and rushing to your side lest I -should not see you again.” - -“It is strange--this feeling that we have known each other forever. The -moment you touched my hand that first day, a sense of perfect content -and joy in living came over me. I couldn’t remember the time when I -hadn’t known you. You seemed so much a part of my inmost thoughts and -every day life. I laughed this morning from sheer madness of joy when -you told me your love. I knew you were going to tell me to-day. You -tried yesterday, but I held you back. I wanted you to tell me here at -this beautiful spot, that the music of this water might always sing its -chorus with the memory of your words.” - -“Let me kiss your lips once!” he pleaded. - -“No, you shall hold my hand and kiss that. Your touch thrills every -nerve of my being like wine. It is enough. I promised Mama I would -never allow a man to kiss me without asking her. And we are like loving -comrades. I couldn’t violate a promise to her. I will, when she says -so.” - -“Then I ’ll ask her. I know she’s on my side.” - -“Yes, I believe she loves you because I do.” - -“What did you whisper to her that night, when we came late, and you said -she would be angry?” - -“Told her I loved you.” - -“If I could only have caught that whisper then! You don’t know how it -delights me to think your mother likes me. I couldn’t help loving her. -It seems to me a divine seal on our lives.” - -“Yes, and what specially delights me is, you have completely captured -Papa, and he’s so hard to please.” - -“You don’t say so!” - -“Yes, he’s been preaching you at me ever since you came the first -time. I pretended to be indifferent to draw him out. He would say, ‘Now -Sallie, there’s a man for you,--no pretty dude, but a man, with a kingly -eye and a big brain. That’s the kind of a man who does things in the -world and makes history for smaller men to read.’ And then I’d say just -to aggravate him, ‘But Papa he’s as poor as Job’s turkey!’” - -“Then you ought to have heard him, ‘Well, what of it! You can begin in -a cabin like your mother and I did. He’s got a better start than I had, -for he has a better training.’” - -“I am certainly glad to hear that!” Gaston cried with elation. - -“You may be. For Papa is a man of such intense likes and dislikes. The -first thing that made my heart flutter with fear was that he might not -like you. He loves me intensely. And I love him devotedly. I could not -marry without his consent. You are so entirely different from any other -beau I ever had, I couldn’t imagine what Papa would think of you. You -wear such a serious face, never go into society, care nothing for fine -clothes, and are so careless that you even hung your feet out of the -buggy that first day I took you to drive. I was glad to have you in the -woods and not in town. The boys would have guyed me to death. In fact -you are the contradiction of the average man I have known, and of all -the men I thought as a girl I’d marry some day. I am so glad Papa likes -you.” - -That evening when they reached the house, she hurried through the hall -to her mother who was standing on the back porch. There was the sudden -swish of a dress, a kiss, another! and another! And then the low murmur -of a mother’s voice like the crooning over a baby. - - - - -CHAPTER XII--THE MUSIC OF THE MILLS - -WHEN Gaston reached his home that night St. Clare had gone to bed. It -was one o’clock. He could not sleep yet, so he sat in the window and -tried to realise his great happiness, as he looked out on the green lawn -with its white gravelled walk glistening in the full moon. - -“The world is beautiful, life is sweet, and God is good!” he cried in an -ecstasy of joy. - -He sat there in the moonlight for an hour dreaming of his love and the -great strenuous life of achievement he would live with her to inspire -him. It seemed too good to be true. And yet it was the largest living -fact. Like throbbing music the words were ringing in his heart keeping -time with the rhythm of its beat, “I do love you!” And then he did -something he had not done for years.--not since his boyhood,--he knelt -in the silence of the moonlit room and prayed. Love the great Revealer -had led him into the presence of God. The impulse was spontaneous and -resistless. “Lord, I have seen Thy face, heard Thy voice, and felt the -touch of Thy hand to-day! I bless and praise Thee! Forgive my doubts and -fears and sins, cleanse and make me worthy of her whom Thou has sent as -Thy messenger!” So he poured out his soul. - -Next morning he grasped St. Clare’s hand as he entered the room. “Bob, -I’m the happiest man in the world!” - -“Congratulations! You look it.” - -“She loves me! I’d like to climb up on the top of this house and shout -it until all earth and heaven could hear and be glad with me!” - -“Well, don’t do it, my boy. See her father first!” - -“She says he likes me.” - -“Then you’re elected.” - -“I’m going to tackle him before I go home.” - -“Don’t rush him. There’s a superstition prevalent here that the old -gentleman has no idea of ever letting his daughter leave that home, and -that he will never give his consent, when driven to the wall, unless his -son-inlaw that is to be, will agree to settle down there and take his -place in those big mills. He has two great loves, his daughter and his -mills, and he don’t mean to let either one of them go if he can help -it.” - -“Do you believe it’s true?” - -“Yes, I do. How do you like the idea?” - -“It’s not my style. I’ve a pretty clear idea of what I’m going to do in -this world.” - -“Well, you’d better begin to haul in your silk sails, and study cotton -goods, is my advice.” - -“I ’ll manage him.” - -“I don’t know about it, but if you’ve got her, you’re the first man -that ever got far enough to measure himself with the General. I wish you -luck.” - -“You the same, old chum. May you conquer Boston and all the Pilgrim -Fathers!” - -“Thanks. The vision of one of them disturbs my dreams. One will be -enough.” - -Then followed six golden days on the banks of the Catawba. Every day he -insisted with boyish enthusiasm on returning to that rock and seating -her on her throne. He called her his queen, and worshipped at her feet. - -He had the friendliest little chat with her mother, and told her how -he loved her daughter and hoped for her approval. She answered with -frankness that she was glad, and would love him as her own son, but that -she disapproved of kissing and extravagant love-making until they were -ready to be married, and their engagement duly announced. - -So he could only hold Sallie’s hand and kiss the tips of her fingers and -the little dimples where they joined the hand, and sometimes he would -hold it against his own cheek while she smiled at him. - -But when they rode homeward one evening he dared to put his arm behind -her, high on the phaeton’s leather cushion, as they were going down a -hill, and then lowered it a little as they started up the grade. She -leaned back and found it there. At first she nestled against it very -timidly and then trustingly. She looked into his face and both smiled. - -“Isn’t that nice, Sallie?” - -“Yes, it is,--I don’t think Mama would mind that, do you?” - -“Of course not.” - -“Well, I never promised not to lean back in a phaeton, did I?” - -“Certainly not, and it’s all right.” - -Toward the end of the week the General began to show him a grave -friendly interest. He invited Gaston to go over the mills with him. The -mills were located back of the wooded cliffs a quarter of a mile up the -river. There were now four magnificent brick buildings stretching out -over the river bottoms at right angles to its current. And there was a -big dye house, a ginning house and a cotton-seed oil mill. The General -stood on the hill top and proudly pointed it out to him. - -“Isn’t that a grand sight, young man! We employ 2,000 hands down there, -and consume hundreds of bales of cotton a day. We began here after the -war without a cent, except our faith, and this magnificent water power. -Now look!” - -“You have certainly done a great work,” said Gaston, “I had no idea you -had so many industries in the enclosure.” - -“Yes, I sit down here on the hill some nights in the moonlight and look -into this valley, and the hum of that machinery is like ravishing music. -The machinery seems to me to be a living thing, with millions of fingers -of steel and a great throbbing soul. I dream of the day when those swift -fingers will weave their fabrics of gold and clothe the whole South in -splendour!--the South I love, and for which I fought, and have yearned -over through all these years. Ah! young man, I wish you boys of -brain and genius would quit throwing yourselves away in law and dirty -politics, and devote your powers to the South’s development!” - -“Yes, but General, the people of the South had to go into politics -instead of business on account of the enfranchisement of the Negro. It -was a matter of life and death.” - -“I didn’t do it.” - -“No, sir, but others did for you.” - -“How?” he asked incredulously, with just a touch of wounded pride. - -“Well how many negroes do you employ in these mills?” - -“None. We don’t allow a negro to come inside the enclosure.” - -“Precisely so. You have prospered because you have got rid of the -Negro.” - -“I’ve simply let the Negro alone. Let others do the same.” - -“But everybody can’t do it. There are now nine millions of them. You’ve -simply shifted the burden on others’ shoulders. You haven’t solved the -problem.” - -“If we had less politics and more business, we would be better off.” - -“But the trouble is, General, we can’t have more business until politics -have settled some things.” - -“Bah! You’re throwing yourself away in politics, young man! There’s -nothing in it but dirt and disappointment.” - -“To me, sir, politics is a religion.” - -“Religion! Politics! I didn’t know you could ever mix ’em. I thought -they were about as far apart as heaven is from hell!” exclaimed the -General. - -“They ought not to be sir, whatever the terrible facts, I believe -that the Government is the organised virtue of the community, and that -politics is religion in action. It may be a poor sort of religion, but -it is the best we are capable of as members of society.” - -“Well, that’s a new idea.” - -“It’s coming to be more and more recognised by thoughtful men, General. -I believe that the State is now the only organ through which the whole -people can search for righteousness, and that the progress of the world -depends more than ever on its integrity and purity.” - -“Well, you’ve cut out a big job for yourself, if that’s your ideal. My -idea of politics is a pig pen. The way to clean it is to kill the pigs.” - -Gaston laughed and shook his head. - -When they returned from the mills, Mrs. Worth drew the General into her -room. - -“Did he ask you for Sallie?” - -“No, the young galoot never mentioned her name. I thought he would. But -I must have scared him.” - -“You didn’t quarrel over anything?” - -“No! But I found out he had a mind of his own.” - -“So have you, sir.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIII--THE FIRST KISS - -WHY didn’t you ask him yesterday?” cried Sallie, as she entered the -parlour the next morning. - -“Darling, I was scared out of my wits. We got crossways on some -questions we were discussing, and he snorted at me once, and every time -I tried to screw up my courage to speak, a lump got in my throat and -I gave it up. I thought I’d wait a day or two until he should be in a -better humour.” - -“He’s gone away to-day,” she said with disappointment. - -“I’m glad of it, I ’ll write him a letter.” - -“If you had asked him yesterday it would have been all right. He told me -so when he left this morning, with a very tender tremor in his voice.” - -“But it will be all right, sweetheart, when I write.” - -“I wanted my ring,” she whispered. - -“You shall have it,” he said, as he seized her hand and led her to a -seat. - -“Have you got it with you?” she asked with excitement. “Let me see it -quick.” - -He drew the little box from his pocket, withdrew the ring, concealing it -in his hand, slipped it on her finger and kissed it. She threw her hand -up into the light to see it. - -“Oh! it is glorious! It’s the big green diamond Hiddenite I saw at the -Exposition! It is the most beautiful stone I ever saw, and the only one -of its kind in size and colour in the world. Professor Hidden told me -so. I tried to get Papa to buy it for me. But he laughed at me, and said -it was childish extravagance. Charlie dear, how could you get it?” - -“That’s a little secret. But there are to be no secrets between us -any more. I had a little hoard saved from my mother’s estate for the -greatest need of my life. I confess my extravagance.” - -“You are a matchless lover. I’m the proudest and happiest girl that -breathes.” - -“Nothing is too good for you, I wish I could make a greater sacrifice.” - -“Wait, till I show it to Mama,” and she flew to her mother’s room. She -returned immediately, looking at the ring and kissing it. - -“Couldn’t show it to her, she had company,” she said. “Allan is talking -to her.” - -“Let’s get out of the house, dear. I hate that man like a rattlesnake.” - -“Don’t be silly, I never cared a snap for him.” - -“I know you didn’t, but there is a poison about him that taints the air -for me. Get your horse and let’s go to our place at the old mill.” - -They soon reached the spot, and with a laugh she sprang upon the rock -and took her seat against the tree. - -“Now, dear, humour this whim of mine. I’ve grown superstitious since -you’ve made me happy. I have a presentiment of evil because that man was -in the house. I am going to take the ring off and put it on your hand -again out here where only the eyes of our birds will see, and the river -we love will hear.” - -“That will be nicer. I somehow feel that my life is built on this dear -old rock,” she answered soberly. - -He took the ring off her finger, dipped it in the white foam of the -river, kissed it, and placed it on her hand. - -“Now the spell is broken, isn’t it?” she cried, holding it out in the -sunlight a moment to catch the flash of its green diamond depth. - -“I’ve another token for you. This, you will not even show to your mother -or father.” She bent low over a tiny package he unfolded. - -“This is the first medal I won at college,” he continued--“the first -victory of my life. It was the force that determined my character. -It gave me an inflexible will. I worked at a tremendous disadvantage. -Others were two years ahead of me in study for the contest. I locked -myself up in my room day and night for ten months, and took just enough -food and sleep for strength to work. I worked seventeen hours a day, -except Sundays, for ten months without an hour of play. I won it -brilliantly. Every line cut on its gold surface stands for a thousand -aches of my body. Every little pearl set in it, grew in a pain of that -struggle which set its seal on my inmost life. I came out of those ten -months a man. I have never known the whims of a boy since.” - -“And you engraved something on the back to me!” - -“Yes, can’t you read it?” - -“My eyes are dim,” she whispered. - -“It is this--_In the hand of manhood’s tenderest love I bring to thee -my boyhood’s brightest dream_. I was a man when I woke, but I have never -lived till you taught me. Keep this as a pledge of eternal love. It’s -the only little trinket I ever possessed. The world will see our ring. -Don’t let them see this. It is the seal of your sovereignty of my soul -in life, in death, and beyond. Will you make me this eternal pledge?” - -“Unto the uttermost!” she murmured. - -“Unto the uttermost!” he solemnly echoed. - -“And now, what can I say or do for you when you show me in this spirit -of prodigal sacrifice how dear I am in your eyes?” - -“Those words from your lips are enough,” he declared. - -“I ’ll give you more. I’m going to give you just a little bit of -myself. I haven’t asked Mama, but we are engaged now--come closer.” - -She placed her beautiful arms around his neck and pressed her lips upon -his in the first rapturous kiss of love. - -“No,--no more. It is enough,” she protested. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV--A MYSTERIOUS LETTER - -HE was at home now, waiting impatiently for the General’s answer to -his letter. Two weeks had passed and he had not received it. But she had -explained in her letters that her father had returned the day he left, -had a talk with McLeod, and left on important business. They were -expecting his return at any moment. - -It was a new revelation of life he found in their first love letters. He -never knew that he could write before. He sat for hours at his desk in -his law office and poured out to her his dreams, hopes and ambitions. -All the poetry of youth, and the passion and beauty of life, he put into -those letters. - -He wrote to her every day and she answered every other day. She wrote in -half tearful apology that her mother disapproved of a daily letter, and -she added wistfully, “I should like to write to you twice a day. Take -the will for the deed, and as you love me, be sure to continue yours -daily.” - -And on the days the letter came, with eager trembling hands he seized -it, without waiting for the rest of his mail or his papers. With set -face, and quick nervous step, he would mount the stairs to his office, -lock his door and sit down to devour it. He would hold it in his hands -sometimes for ten minutes just to laugh and muse over it and try to -guess what new trick of phrase she had used to express her love. He -was surprised at her brilliance and wit. He had not held her so deep a -thinker on the serious things of life as these letters had showed, nor -had he noticed how keen her sense of humour. He was so busy looking at -her beautiful face, and drinking the love-light from her eyes, he had -overlooked these things when with her. Now they flashed on him as a new -treasure, that would enrich his life. - -At the end of two weeks when the General had not answered his letter he -began to grow nervous. A vague feeling of fear grew on him. Something -had happened to darken his future. He felt it by a subtle telepathy of -sympathetic thought. He was gloomy and depressed all day after he had -received and feasted on the wittiest letter she had ever written. What -could it mean he asked himself a thousand times--some shadow had fallen -across their lives. He knew it as clearly as if the revelation of its -misery were already unfolded. - -He went to the post-office on the next day he was to receive a letter, -crushed with a sense of foreboding. He waited until the mail was -all distributed and the general delivery window flung open before he -approached his box. He was afraid to look at her letter. He slowly -opened the box. - -There was nothing in it! - -“Sam, you’re not holding out my letter to tease me, old boy?” he asked -pathetically. - -Sam was about to joke him about the uncertainties of love, when his eye -rested on his drawn face. - -“Lord no, Charlie,” he protested, “you know I wouldn’t treat you like -that.” - -“Then look again, you may have dropped it.” - -Sam turned and looked carefully over the floor, over and under his desks -and tables and returned. - -“No, but it may have been thrown into the wrong bag by that fool mail -clerk on the train. You may get it to-morrow.” - -He turned away and walked to his office, forgetting his key in the open -box. The vague sense of calamity that weighed on his heart for the past -two days, now became a reality. - -He sat in his office all the afternoon in a dull stupor of suspense. He -tried to read her last letter over. But the pages would get blurred and -fade out of sight, and he would wake to find he had been staring at one -sentence for an hour. - -He knew his foster mother would be all sympathy and tenderness if he -told her, but somehow he hadn’t the heart. She had led him to his -love. He had been so boyishly and frankly happy boasting to her of his -success, he sickened at the thought of telling her. He went out for -a walk in the woods, and lay down alone beside a brook like a wounded -animal. - -The next day he watched his box again with the hope that Sam’s guess -might be right, and the missing letter would come. But, instead of the -big square-cut envelope he had waited for, he received a bulky letter -in an old-fashioned masculine handwriting with the post mark of -Independence, and a mill mark in the upper left hand corner. - -He did not have to look twice at that letter. It was the sealed verdict -of his jury. He locked his office door. It was long and rambling, full -of a kindly sympathy expressed in a restrained manner. He could not -believe at first that so outspoken a man as the General could have -written it. The substance of its meaning, however, was plain enough. He -meant to say that as he was not in a position to make a suitable home at -present for a wife, and as he disapproved of long engagements, it seemed -better that no engagement should be entered into or announced. - -He stared at this letter for an hour, trying to grasp the mystery that -lay back of its halting, half-contradictory sentences. He did not know -till long afterwards that the General had written it with two blue eyes -tearfully watching him, and waiting to read it; that now and then there -was the sound of a great sob, and two arms were around his neck, and a -still white face lying on his shoulder, and that tears had washed all -the harshness and emphasis out of what he had meant to write, and all -but blotted out any meaning to what he did write. - -But withal it was clear enough in its import. It meant that the General -had haltingly but authoritatively denied his suit. He instantly made -up his mind to ask an interview at his home, and know plainly all his -reasons for this change of attitude. He wrote his letter and posted it -immediately by return mail. He knew that the request would precipitate a -crisis, and he trembled at the outcome. Either her father would hesitate -and receive him, or end it with a crash of his imperious will. - - - - -CHAPTER XV--A BLOW IN THE DARK - - -THE noon mail brought Gaston no answer. At night he felt sure it would -come. - -When the wagon dashed up to the post-office that night it was fifteen -minutes late. He was walking up and down the street on the opposite -pavement along the square, keeping under the shadows of the trees. -He turned, quickly crossed the street, and stood inside the office, -listening with a feeling of strange abstraction to the tramp of the -postmaster’s feet back and forth as he distributed the mail. He never -knew before what a tragedy might be concealed in the thrust of a bit of -folded paper into a tiny glass-eyed box. As he waited, fearing to face -his fate, he remembered the pathetic figure of a grey-haired old man who -stood there one day hanging on that desk softly talking to himself. -He was a stranger at the Springs, and they were alone in the office -together. Now and then he brushed a tear from his eyes, glanced timidly -at the window of the general delivery, starting at every quick movement -inside as though afraid the window had opened. Gaston had gone up close -to the old man, drawn by the look of anguish in his dignified face. -The stranger intuitively recognised the sympathy of the movement, and -explained tremblingly: “My son, I am waiting for a message of life or -death”--he faltered, seized his hand, adding, “and I’m afraid to see -it!” - -Just then the window opened and he clutched his arm and gasped, with -dilated staring eyes, “There, there it’s come! You go for me, my son, -and ask while I pray!--I’m afraid.” How well Gaston remembered now with -what trembling eagerness the old man had broken the seal, and then stood -with head bowed low, crying, “I thank and bless thee, oh, Mother of -Jesus, for this hour!” And looking up into his face with tear-streaming -eyes he cried in a rich low voice like tender music, “How beautiful are -the feet of them that bring glad tidings!” - -He could feel now the warm pressure of his hand as he walked out of the -office with him. - -How vividly the whole scene came rushing over him! He thought he -sympathised with his old friend that night, but now he entered into the -fellowship of his sorrow. Now he knew. - -At last he drew himself up, walked to his box and opened it. His heart -leaped. A big square-cut envelope lay in it, addressed to him in her own -beautiful hand. He snatched it out and hurried to his office. The moment -he touched it, his heart sank. It was light and thin. Evidently there -was but a single sheet of paper within. - -He tore it open and stared at it with parted lips and half-seeing eyes. -The first word struck his soul with a deadly chill. This was what he -read: - -_“My Dear Mr. Gaston:_ - -_“I write in obedience to the wishes of my parents to say our engagement -must end and our correspondence cease. I can not explain to you the -reasons for this. I have acquiesced in their judgment, that it is best._ - -_“I return your letters by to-morrow’s mail, and Mama requests that you -return mine to her at Oakwood immediately._ - -_“I leave to-night on the Limited for Atlanta where I join a friend. -We go to Savannah, and thence by steamer to Boston where I shall visit -Helen for a month._ - -_“Sincerely,_ - -_“Sallie Worth.”_ - -For a long time he looked at the letter in a stupor of amazement. That -her father could coerce her hand into writing such a brutal commonplace -note was a revelation of his power he had never dreamed. And then his -anger began to rise. His fighting blood from soldier ancestors made his -nerves tingle at this challenge. - -He took up the letter and read it again curiously studying each word. He -opened the folded sheet hoping to find some detached message. There was -nothing inside. But he noticed on the other side of the sheet a lot of -indentures as though made by the end of a needle. He turned it back -and studied these dots under different letters in the words made by the -needle points. He spelled,-- - -“_My Darling--Unto the Uttermost!_” - -And then he covered the note with kisses, sprang to his feet and looked -at his watch. - -It was now ten-thirty. The Limited left Independence at eleven o’clock -and made no stops for the first hundred miles toward Atlanta. But just -to the south where the railroad skirted the foot of King’s Mountain, -there was a water tank on the mountain side where he knew the train -stopped for water about midnight. - -With a fast horse he could make the eighteen miles and board the Limited -at this water station. The only danger was if the sky should cloud over -and the starlight be lost it would be difficult to keep in the narrow -road that wound over the semi-mountainous hills, densely wooded, that -must be crossed to make it. - -“I ’ll try it!” he exclaimed. “Yes, I will do it!” he added setting -his teeth. “I ’ll make that train.” - -He got the best horse he could find in the livery stable, saw that his -saddle girths were strong, sprang on and galloped toward the south. -It was a quarter to eleven when he started, and it seemed a doubtful -undertaking. The Limited would make the run from Independence, fifty-two -miles, in an hour at the most. If she were on time it would be a close -shave for him to make the eighteen miles. - -The sky clouded slightly before he reached the mountain. In spite of his -vigilance he lost his way and had gone a quarter of a mile before a rift -in the cloud showed him the north star suddenly, and he found he had -taken the wrong road at the crossing and was going straight back home. - -Wheeling his horse, he put spurs to him, and dashed at full speed back -through the dense woods. - -Just as he got within a mile of the tank he heard the train blow for the -bridge-crossing at the river near by. - -“Now, my boy,” he cried to his horse, patting him. “Now your level -best!” - -The horse responded with a spurt of desperate speed. He had a way of -handling a horse that the animal responded to with almost human sympathy -and intelligence. He seemed to breathe his own will into the horse’s -spirit. He flew over the ground, and reached the train just as the -fireman cut off the water and the engineer tapped his bell to start. - -He flung his horse’s rein over a hitching post that stood near the -silent little station-house, rushed to the track, and sprang on the day -coach as it passed. - -He had intended to ride fifty miles on this train, see his sweetheart -face to face--learn the truth from her own lips--and then return on the -up-train. He hoped to ride back to Hambright before day and keep the -fact of his trip a secret. - -Now a new difficulty arose--a very simple one--that he had not thought -of for a moment. She was in a Pullman sleeper of course, and asleep. - -There were three sleepers, one for Atlanta, one for New Orleans, and -one for Memphis. He hoped she was in the Atlanta sleeper as that was her -destination, though if that were crowded in its lower berths she might -be in either of the others. But how under heaven could he locate her? -The porter probably would not know her. - -He was puzzled. The conductor approached and he paid his fare to the -next stop, fifty miles. - -“I’ve an important message for a passenger in one of these sleepers, -Captain,” he exclaimed. “I have ridden across the mountains to catch the -train here.” - -“All right, sir,” said the genial conductor. “Go right in and deliver -it. You look like you had a tussle to get here.” - -“It was a close shave,” Gaston replied. - -He stepped into the Atlanta sleeper and encountered the dusky potentate -who presided over its aisles. - -The porter looked up from the shoes he was shining at Gaston’s -dishevelled hair and gave him no welcome. - -Gaston dropped a half dollar into his hand and the porter dropped the -shoes and grinned a royal welcome. “Any ting I kin do fer ye boss?” - -“Got any ladies on your car?” - -“Yassir, three un ’em.” - -“Young, or old?” - -“One young un, en two ole uns.” - -“Did the young lady get on at Independence?” - -“Yassir.” - -“Going to Atlanta?” - -“Yassir.” - -“Is she very beautiful?” - -“Boss, she’s de purtiess young lady I eber laid my eyes’ on--but look -lak she been cryin’.” - -“Then I want you to wake her. I must see her.” - -“Lordy boss, I cain do dat. Hit ergin de rules.” - -“But, I’m bound to see her. I’ve ridden eighteen miles across the -mountains and scratched my face all to pieces rushing through those -woods. I’ve a message of the utmost importance for her.” - -“Cain do hit boss, hits ergin de rules. But you can go wake her yoself, -ef you’se er mind ter. I cain keep you fum it. She’s dar in number -seben.” - -Gaston hesitated. “No, you must wake her,” he insisted, dropping another -half dollar in the porter’s hand. - -The porter got up with a grin. He felt he must rise to a great occasion. - -“Well, I des fumble roun’ de berth en mebbe she wake herse’f, en den I -tell her.” - -Just then the electric bell overhead rang and the index pointed to 7. -“Dar now, dat’s her callin’ me, sho!” - -He approached the berth. “What kin I do fur ye M’am?” he whispered. - -“Porter, who is that you are talking to? It sounds like some one I -know.” - -“Yassum, hit’s young gent name er Gaston, jump on bode at the water -station--say he got ‘portant message fur you.” - -“Tell him I will see him in a moment.” - -The porter returned with the message. - -“You des wait in dar, in number one--hits not made up--twell she come,” - he added. - -There was the soft rustle of a dressing gown--he sprang to his feet, -clasped her hand passionately, kissed it, and silently she took her -seat by his side. He still held her hand, and she pressed his gently -in response. He saw that she was crying, and his heart was too full for -words for a moment. - -He looked long and wistfully in her face. In her dishevelled hair by the -dim light of the car he thought her more beautiful than ever. At last -she brushed the tears from her eyes and turned her face full on his with -a sad smile. - -“My own dear love!” she sobbed, “I prayed that I might see you somehow -before I left. I was wide awake when I first heard the distant murmur of -your voice. Oh! I am so glad you came!” and she pressed his hand. - -“I got your letter at ten-thirty”-- - -“Oh! that awful letter! How I cried over it. Papa made me write it, and -read and mailed it himself. But you saw my message between the lines?” - -“Yes, and then I covered it with kisses. But what is the cause of this -sudden change of the General toward me? What have I done?” - -“Please don’t ask me. I can’t tell you,” she sobbed lowering her face a -moment to his hand and kissing it. “Don’t ask me.” - -“But, my dear, I must know. There can be no secrets between us.” - -“My lips will never tell you. There have been a thousand slanders -breathed against you. I met them with fury and scorn, and no one -has dared repeat them in my hearing. I would not pollute my lips by -repeating one of them.” - -“But who is their author?” - -“I can not tell you. I promised Mama I wouldn’t. She loves you, and she -is on our side, but said it was best. Papa has made up his mind to break -our engagement forever. And I defied him. We had a scene. I didn’t know -I had the strength of will that came to me. I said some terrible -things to him, and he said some very cruel things to me. Poor Mama was -prostrated. Her heart is weak, and I only yielded at last as far as -I have because of her tears and suffering. I could not endure her -pleadings. So I promised to do as he wished for the present, leave for -Boston, and cease to write to you.” - -“My love, I must know my enemy to meet him and face the issues he -raises. I can not be strangled in the dark like this.” - -“You will find it out soon enough, I can not tell you,” she repeated. “I -only ask you to trust me, in this the darkest hour that has ever come to -my life. You will trust me, will you not, dear?” she pleaded. - -“I have trusted you with my immortal soul. You know this.” - -“Yes, yes, dear, I do. Then you can love and trust me without a letter -or a word between us until Mama is better and I can get her consent to -write to you? Oh, I never knew how tenderly and desperately I love you -until this shadow came over our lives! No power shall ever separate us -when the final test comes, unless you shall grow weary.” - -“Do not say that,” he interrupted. “I love you with a love that has -brought me out of the shadows and shown me the face of God. Death shall -not bring weariness. But I dread with a sickening fear the efforts they -will make to plunge you into the whirl of frivolous society. I shall be -a lonely beggar a thousand miles away with not one friendly face near -you to plead my cause.” - -“Hush!” she broke in upon him. “You are for me the one living presence. -You are always near--oh so near, closer than breathing!” - -The roar of the train became sonorous with the vibration of a great -bridge. He started and looked at his watch. - -“We are more than half way to the stop where I must leave you and -return.” - -“How long have you been here?” - -“Over a half hour. It does not seem two minutes. Only a few minutes more -face to face, and all life crowding for utterance! How can I choose what -to say, when my tongue only desires to say _I love you!_ Bend near and -whisper to me again your love vow,” he cried in trembling accents. - -Close to his ear she placed her lips, holding fast his hand whispering -again and again, “My own dear love--unto the uttermost. In life, in -death, forever!” - -He bent again and pressed his lips on her hand and she felt the hot -tears. - -“And now, love, comes the hardest thing of all,” she sobbed, “I must -return to you my ring.” - -“For God’s sake keep it!” he pleaded. - -“No, I promised Mama for peace sake I would return it. She is very weak. -I could not dare to hurt her now with a broken promise. She may not live -long. I could never forgive myself. Keep it for me, dear, until I can -wear it.” - -She placed it in his hand and it burnt like a red hot coal. He placed -it in an inside pocket next to his heart. It felt like a huge millstone -crushing him. A lump rose in his throat and choked him until he gasped -for breath. - -She looked at him pathetically and saw his anguish. - -“Come, my love,” she pleaded reproachfully, “you must not make it harder -for me. You are a man. You are stronger than I am. Love is more my whole -life than it can be yours. For this cruel thing I have said and done, -you may press on my lips another kiss. If I am disobedient to my -mother’s wishes God will forgive me.” - -The train blew the long deep call for its hundred mile stop and they -both rose, he took her hands in his. - -“You have promised not to write to me, dear, but I have made no promise. -I will write to you as often as I can send you a cheerful message,” he -said. - -“It is so sweet of you!” - -“You have the little love-token still?” he asked. - -“Yes, in my bosom. I feel it warm and throbbing with your love, and it -shall not be taken from me in the grave!” - -“That thought will cheer the darkest hours that can come and now, till -we meet again, we must say goodbye,” he said huskily. - -She could make no response. He placed his arms around her, pressed her -close to his heart for a moment,--one long wistful kiss, and he was -gone. - -He rode slowly back to Hambright. The eastern horizon was fringed with -the light of dawn when he reached the town. The more he had thought of -his position and the way the General had treated him in attempting to -settle his fate by a fiat of his own will without a hearing, the more it -roused his wrath, and nerved him for the struggle. They were to measure -wills in a contest’ that on his part had life for its stake. - -“I ’ll give the old warrior the fight of his career!” he muttered as -he snapped his square jaw together with the grip of a vise. “My brains, -and every power with which nature has endowed me against his will and -his money. And for the dastard who has slandered me there will be a -reckoning.” - -He was fighting in the dark but deep down in him he had a soldier’s -love for a fight. His soul rose to meet the challenge of this hidden foe -armed in the steel of a proud heritage of courage. He went to bed and -slept soundly for six hours. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI--THE MYSTERY OF PAIN - -GASTON awoke next morning at half past ten o’clock with a dull -headache, and a sense of hopeless depression. His anger had cooled -and left him the pitiful consciousness of his loss. He slowly and -mechanically dressed. - -When he buttoned his coat he felt something hard press against his -heart. It was the ring. He sat down on his bed and drew it from his -pocket. To his surprise he found coiled inside it and tied by a tiny -ribbon a ringlet of her hair. She had taken off the ring in her mother’s -presence and promised her to register and mail it in Atlanta. She had -bound this little piece of herself with it. He kissed it tenderly. - -“My God, it is hard!” he groaned. And all the unshed tears that his -eager interest in her presence and his kindling anger the night before -had kept back now blinded him. - -He did not notice his door softly open, nor know his mother was near -until she placed her hand gently on his shoulder. He looked up at her -face full of tender sympathy, and poured out to her his trouble in a -torrent of hot rebellious words. - -“What have I done to be treated like a dog in this way?” he ended with a -voice trembling with protest. - -“Perhaps you have offended the General in some way?” - -“Impossible. I’ve been the soul of deference to him.” - -“He’s a very proud man when his vanity is touched, are you sure of it?” - -“As sure as that I live. No, some scoundrel has interfered between us -and in some unaccountable way covered me with infamy in the General’s -eyes.” - -“But who could have done it?” - -“I used my utmost power of persuasion to get it from her. But she would -not tell me. I have been stabbed in the dark.” - -“Whom do you suspect? She has a dozen suitors.” - -“There’s only one man among them who is capable of it, Allan McLeod.” - -“Nonsense, child. He is not one of her suitors,” she protested warmly. - -“Then why does he hang around the house with such dogged persistence?” - -“He has always had the run of the house. His father committed him to the -General when he died on the battle field.” - -Her face clouded, and then a great pity for his sorrow filled her heart. -She stooped and kissed him. - -“Come, Charlie, you must cheer up. If she loves you, it’s everything. -You will win her.” - -“But what rankles in my soul is that I have been treated like a dog. If -he objected to my poverty that was as evident the first day he welcomed -me to his house as the day he dictated to her his brutal message, -refusing me a word. He welcomed me to his house, and gave Miss Sallie -his approval of our love while I was there. There could be no mistake, -for she told me so.” - -“I can’t understand it,” she interrupted. - -“Now he suddenly shows me the door and refuses to allow me to even ask -an explanation. If he thinks he can settle my life for me in that simple -manner, I’ll show him that I ’ll at least help in the settlement.” - -“Good. I like to see your eyes flash that fire. Don’t forget your -resolution. Your enemies are your best friends.” She said this with a -ring of her old aristocratic pride. “Come,” she continued, “I’ve a nice -warm breakfast saved for you. You don’t know how much good you have done -me in my lonely life.” - -“Dear Mother!” he whispered pressing her hand. After breakfast he went -to his office and read over slowly the letters he had received from -Sallie, kissed them one by one, tied them up and sent them to her -mother. He took the ring out of his pocket and locked it in one of his -drawers. - -“I can’t work to-day. It’s no use trying!” he muttered looking out of -his window. He locked his office and started down town with no purpose -except in the walk to try to fight his pain. Instinctively he found his -way to Tom Camp’s cottage. - -“Tom, old boy, I’m in deep water. You’ve been there. I just want to feel -your hand.” - -Tom was clearing up his kitchen with one hand and holding the other -tight over the wound near his spinal column. He had suffered untold -agonies through the night past and was suffering yet, but he never -mentioned it. - -“You’ve just got your blues again!” Tom laughed. - -“No, a devil has stabbed me in the back in the dark.” And he told Tom of -his love and his inexplicable trouble. - -“So, so!” Tom mused with dancing eyes, “The General’s gal Miss Sallie! -My! my! but ain’t she a beauty! Next to my own little gal there she’s -the purtiest thing in No’th Caliny. And you’re her sweetheart, and she -told you she loved you?” - -“Yes.” - -“Then what ails you? Man, to hear that from such lips as she’s got’s -music enough for a year. You want the whole regimental band to be -playin’ all the time. If she loves you, that’s enough now to give you -nerve to fight all earth and hell combined.” Tom urged this with an -enthusiasm that admitted no reply. - -Flora had climbed in his lap, and was going through his pockets to find -some candy. - -“You didn’t bring me a bit this time!” she cried reproachfully. - -“Honey, I forgot it,” he apologised. - -“I don’t believe you love me any more, Charlie,” she declared placing -her hands on his cheeks and looking steadily into his eyes. “Am I your -sweetheart yet?” she asked. - -“Of course, dearie, and about the only one I can depend on!” - -“La, Charlie, your eyes are red!” she cried in surprise. “Do you cry?” - -“Sometimes, when my heart gets too full.” - -“Then, I ’ll kiss the red away!” she said as she softly kissed his -eyes. - -“That’s good, Flora. It will make them better.’ - -“Now, Pappy,” she said triumphantly, “you say I’m getting too big to -cry, and I ain’t but eleven years old, and Charlie’s big as you and he -cries.” - -Tom took her in his arms and smoothed his hand over her fair hair with -a tenderness that had in its trembling touch all the mystery of both -mother and father love in which his brooding soul had wrapped her. - -Gaston returned home with lighter step. He met, as he crossed the -square, the Preacher who was waiting for him. - -“Come here and sit down a minute. I’ve heard of your trouble. You have -my sympathy. But you ’ll come out all right. The oak that’s bent -by the storm makes a fibre fit for a ship’s rib. You can’t make steel -without white heat. God’s just trying your temper, boy, to see if -there’s anything in you. When he has tried you in the fire, and the pure -gold shines, he will call you to higher things.” - -Gaston nodded his assent to this saying, “And yet, Doctor, none of us -like the touch of fire or the smell of the smoke of our clothes.” - -“You are right. But it’s good for the soul. You are learning now that we -must face things that we don’t like in this world. I am older than you. -I will tell you something that you can’t really know until you have -lived through this. Love seems to you at this time the only thing in the -world. But it is not. My deepest sympathy is with Sallie. She’s already -pure gold. To such a woman love is the centre of gravity of all life. -This is not true of a strong normal man. The centre of gravity of a -strong man’s life as a whole is not in love and the emotions, but -in justice and intellect and their expression in the wider social -relations.” - -“And that means that I must brace up for this political fight?” - -“Exactly so. And it’s the best thing you can do for your love. Become a -power and you can coerce even a man of the General’s character.” - -“You are right, Doctor. I had my mind about fixed on that course.” - -“You will find the County Committee in session in the Clerk’s office -there now. They want to see you. I tell you to fight this coalition of -McLeod and the farmers every inch up to the last hour it is formed, and -if McLeod wins them, and the alliance is made, then fight to break it -every day and every hour and every minute till the votes are counted -out.” - -Gaston went at once into the consultation with the Democratic county -committee. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII--IS GOD OMNIPOTENT? - - -AS Gaston left the Preacher, the Rev. Ephraim Fox approached. He was -the pastor of the Negro Baptist church, and had succeeded old Uncle Josh -at his death ten years before. - -He bowed deferentially, and, hat in hand, stood close to the seat on -which Durham was still resting. - -“How dis you doan come down ter our chu’ch en preach fur us no mo Brer’ -Durham? We been er havin’ powerful times down dar lately, en de folks -wants you ter come en preach some mo.” - -“I can’t do it, Eph.” - -“What de matter, Preacher? We ain’t hu’t yo feelin’s.” - -“No, not in a personal way, but you’ve got beyond me.” - -“How’s dat?” asked Ephraim rolling his eyes. - -“Well, as long as I preach to your folks about heaven and the glory -beyond this world, they shout and sweat and sing. And when I jump on -the old sinners in the Bible, they are in glee. They like to see the -fur fly. But the minute I pounce on them about stealing, and lying, and -drinking, and lust,--they don’t want to furnish any of the fur.” - -“De Lawd, Preacher, hit’s des de same wid de white folks!” urged Ephraim -with a wink. - -“That’s so. But the difference is your people talk back at me after the -meeting.” - -“How’s dat?” Ephraim repeated. - -“Why when I preach righteousness and judgment on the thief and accuse -them of stealing, I lose my wood, and my corn, and my chickens.” - -Ephraim was silent a moment and then he smiled as he said, “Preacher, -dey ain’t er nigger in dis town doan lub you.” - -“Yes, I know it. That’s why they steal from me so much.” - -“Go long wid yo fun!” roared Ephraim. “You know you ain’t gone back on -us des cause some nigger tuck er stick er wood--deys sumfin’ else--you -cain fool me.” - -“Well, you are right, that isn’t the main reason. There are others. You -turned a man out of your church for voting the Democratic ticket.” - -“Yes, but Preacher,” interrupted Eph impatiently, “dat wuz er low-down -mean nigger. He didn’t hab no salvation nohow!” - -“Then you keep a deacon in your church who served two terms in the -penitentiary.” - -“But dat’s de bes’ deacon I got,” pleaded Eph sadly. - -“Turn him out I tell you!” - -“But dey all does little tings.” - -“Turn ’em all out!” - -“Den we ain’t got no chu’ch, en de shepherd ain’t got no flock ter tend, -er ter shear. You des splain how de Lawd tempers de win’ ter de shorn -lam’. Den ef I doan shear ’em, de win’ mought blow too hard on ’em. -En ef I doan keep ’em in de pen, how kin I shear ’em? I axes you -dat?” - -The Preacher smiled and continued, “Then I’ve heard some ugly things -about you, Eph,” suddenly darting a piercing look straight into his -face. - -“Who, me?” - -“Yes, you. And I can’t afford to go into the pulpit with you any more. -In the old slavery days you were taught the religion of Christ. It -didn’t mean crime, and lust, and lying, and drinking, whatever it meant. -Your religion has come to be a stench. You are getting lower and lower. -You will be governed by no one. I can’t use force. I leave you alone. -You have gone beyond me.” - -“But de Lawd lub a sinner, en his mercy enduref for-eber!” solemnly -grumbled Ephraim. - -“In the old days,” persisted the Preacher, “I used to preach to your -people. I saw before me many men of character, carpenters, bricklayers, -wheelwrights, farmers, faithful home servants that loved their masters -and were faithful unto death. Now I see a cheap lot of thieves and -jailbirds and trifling women seated in high places. You have shown no -power to stand alone on the solid basis of character.” - -“Why Brer’ Durham,” urged Eph in an injured voice, “I baptised inter de -kingdom over a hundred precious souls las’ year!” - -“Yes, but what they needed was not a baptism of water. You negroes -need a racial baptism into truth, integrity, virtue, self-restraint, -industry, courage, patience, and purity of manhood and womanhood. I used -to be hopeful about you, but I’d just as well be frank with you, -I’ve given you up. I’ve said the grace of God was sufficient for all -problems. I don’t know now. I’m getting older and it grows darker to me. -I have come to believe there are some things God Almighty can not do. -Can God make a stone so big He can’t lift it? In either event, He is not -omnipotent. It looks like He did just that thing when He made the Negro. -Leave me out of your calculation, Ephraim.” - -“Mus’ gib de nigger time, Preacher!” Eph muttered as he walked slowly -away. - -When Gaston emerged from the court house, the Preacher joined him and -they walked home to the hotel together. - -“What did the two farmers on your committee think of the chances of -preventing the Alliance from joining the negroes?” - -“Not much of them. They say we can’t do anything with them when the test -comes, unless we will endorse their scheme of issuing money on corn and -pumpkins and potatoes stored in a government barn. If it comes to that, -I will not prostitute my intellect by advocating any such measure on the -floor of our convention. We stand for one thing at least, the supremacy -of Anglo-Saxon civilisation. I had rather be beaten by the negroes and -their allies this time on such an issue.” - -“But, my boy, if McLeod and his negroes get control of this state for -four years, they can so corrupt its laws and its electorate, they may -hold it a quarter of a century. We must fight to the last ditch.” - -“I draw the line at pumpkin leaves for money,” insisted Gaston. - -It was but ten days to the meeting of the Democratic state convention, -and they were coming together divided in opinion, and at sea as to their -policy, with a united militant Farmers’ Alliance demanding the uprooting -of the foundations of the economic world, and a hundred thousand negro -voters grinning at this opportunity to strike their white foes, while -McLeod stood in the background smiling over the certainty of his -triumph. - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII--THE WAYS OF BOSTON - -WHEN Helen Lowell reached Boston from her visit with Sallie Worth, -she found her father in the midst of his political campaign. The Hon. -Everett Lowell was the representative of Congress from the Boston -Highlands district. His home was an old fashioned white Colonial house -built during the American Revolution. - -He was not a man of great wealth, but well-to-do, a successful -politician, enthusiastic student, a graduate of Harvard, and he had -always made a specialty of championing the cause of the “freedmen.” He -was a chronic proposer of a military force bill for the South. - -His family was one of the proudest in America. He had a family tree -five hundred years old--an unbroken line of unconquerable men who held -liberty dearer than life. He believed in the heritage of good honest -blood as he believed in blooded horses. His home was furnished in -perfect taste, with beautiful old rosewood and mahogany stuff that had -both character and history. On the walls hung the stately portraits of -his ancestors representative of three hundred years of American life. He -never confused his political theories about the abstract rights of -the African with his personal choice of associates or his pride in his -Anglo-Saxon blood. With him politics was one thing, society another. - -His pet hobby, which combined in one his philanthropic ideals and his -practical politics, was of late a patronage he had extended to young -George Harris, the bright mulatto son of Eliza and George Harris whose -dramatic slave history had made their son famous at Harvard. - -This young negro was a speaker of fair ability and was accompanying -Lowell on his campaign tours of the district, making speeches for his -patron, who had obtained for him a clerk’s position in the United States -Custom House. Harris was quite a drawing card at these meetings. He had -a natural aptitude for politics; modest, affable, handsome, and almost -white, he was a fine argument in himself to support Lowell’s political -theories, who used him for all he was worth as he had at the previous -election. - -Harris had become a familiar figure at Lowell’s home in the spacious -library, where he had the free use of the books, and frequently he -dined with the family, when there at dinner time hard at work on some -political speech or some study for a piece of music. - -Lowell had met his daughter at the depot behind his pair of Kentucky -thoroughbreds. This daughter, his only child, was his pride and joy. She -was a blonde beauty, and her resemblance to her father was remarkable. -He was a widower, and this lovely girl, at once the incarnation of his -lost love and so fair a reflection of his being, had ruled him with -absolute sway during the past few years. - -He was laughing like a boy at her coming. - -“Oh! my beauty, the sight of your face gives me new life!” he cried -smiling with love and admiration. - -“You mustn’t try to spoil me!” she laughed. - -“Did you really have a good time in Dixie?” he whispered. - -“Oh! Papa, such a time!” she exclaimed shutting her eyes as though she -were trying to live it over again. - -“Really?” - -“Beaux, morning, noon and night,--dancing, moonlight rides, boats -gliding along the beautiful river and mocking birds singing softly their -love-song under the window all night!” - -“Well you did have romance,” he declared. - -“Yes,” she went on “and such people, such hospitality--oh! I feel as -though I never had lived before.” - -“My dear, you mustn’t desert us all like that,” he protested. - -“I can’t help it, I’m a rebel now.” - -“Then keep still till the campaign’s over!” he warned in mock fear. - -“And the boys down there,” she continued, “they are such boys! Time -doesn’t seem to be an object with them at all. Evidently they have never -heard of our uplifting Yankee motto ‘_Time is money._’ And such knightly -deference! such charming old fashioned chivalrous ways!” - -“But, dear, isn’t that a little out of date?” - -“How staid and proper and busy Boston seems! I know I am going to be -depressed by it.” - -“I know what’s the matter with you!” he whistled. - -“What?” she slyly asked. - -“One of those boys.” - -“I confess. Papa, he’s as handsome as a prince.” - -“What does he look like?” - -“He is tall, dark, with black hair, black eyes, slender, graceful, all -fire and energy.” - -“What’s his name?” - -“St. Clare--Robert St. Clare. His father was away from home. He’s a -politician, I think.” - -“You don’t say! St. Clare. Well of all the jokes! His father is my -Democratic chum in the House--an old fire-eating Bourbon, but a capital -fellow.” - -“Did you ever see _him?_” - -“No, but I’ve had good times with his father. He used to own a hundred -slaves. He’s a royal fellow, and pretty well fixed in life for a -Southern politician. I don’t think though I ever saw his boy. Anything -really serious?” - -“He hasn’t said a word--but he’s coming to see me next week.” - -“Well things are moving, I must say!” - -“Yes, I pretended I must consult you, before telling him he could come. -I didn’t want to seem too anxious. I’m half afraid to let him wander -about Boston much, there are too many girls here.” - -Her father laughed proudly and looked at her. “I hope you will find him -all your heart most desires, and my congratulations on your first love!” - -“It will be my last, too,” she answered seriously. - -“Ah! you’re too young and pretty to say that!” - -“I mean it,” she said earnestly with a smile trembling on her lips. - -Her father was silent and pressed her hand for an answer. As they -entered the gate of the home, they met young Harris coming out with some -books under his arm. He bowed gracefully to them and passed on. - -“Oh! Papa, I had forgotten all about your fad for that young negro!” - -“Well, what of it, dear?” - -“You love me very much, don’t you?” she asked tenderly. “I’m going to -ask you to be inconsistent, for my sake.” - -“That’s easy. I’m often that for nobody’s sake. Consistency is only the -terror of weak minds.” - -“I’m going to ask you to keep that young negro out of the house when my -Southern friends are here. After my sweetheart comes I expect Sallie -and her mother. I wouldn’t have either of them to meet him here in our -library and especially in our dining-room for anything on earth!” - -“Well, you have joined the rebels, haven’t you?” - -“You know I never did like negroes any way,” she continued. “They always -gave me the horrors. Young Harris is a scholarly gentleman, I know. He -is good-looking, talented, and I’ve played his music for him sometimes -to please you, but I can’t get over that little kink in his hair, his -big nostrils and full lips, and when he looks at me, it makes my flesh -creep.” - -“Certainly, my darling, you don’t need to coax me. The Lowells, I -suspect, know by this time what is due to a guest. When your guests -come, our home and our time are theirs. If eating meat offends, we -will live on herbs. I ’ll send Harris down to the other side of the -district and keep him at work there until the end of the campaign. My -slightest wish is law for him.” - -“You see, Papa,” she went on, “they never could understand that negro’s -easy ways around our house, and I know if he were to sit down at our -table with them they would walk out of the dining-room with an excuse of -illness and go home on the first train.” - -“And yet,” returned her father lifting her from the carriage, “their -homes were full of negroes were they not?” - -“Yes, but they know their place. I’ve seen those beautiful Southern -children kiss their old black ‘Mammy.’ It made me shudder, until I -discovered they did it just as I kiss Fido.” - -“And this a daughter of Boston, the home of Garrison and Sumner!” he -exclaimed. - -“I’ve heard that Boston mobbed Garrison once,” she observed. - -“Yes, and I doubt if we have canonised Sumner yet. All right. If you say -so, I ’ll order a steam calliope stationed at the gate and hire a man -to play Dixie for you!” - -She laughed, and ran up the steps. - -* * * * * - -Sallie determined to keep the secret of her sorrow in her own heart. On -the ocean voyage she had cried the whole first day, and then kissed her -lover’s picture, put it down in the bottom of her trunk, brushed the -tears away and determined the world should not look on her suffering. - -She had written Helen of her lover’s declaration, and of her happiness. -She would find a good excuse for her sorrowful face in their separation. -She knew he would write to her, for he had said so, and she had slipped -the address into his hand as he left the car that night. - -At first she was puzzled to think what she could do about answering -these letters so Helen would not suspect her trouble. Then she hit on -the plan of writing to him every day, posting the letters herself and -placing them in her own trunk instead of the post-box. - -“He will read them some day. They will relieve my heart,” she sadly told -herself. - -Helen met her on the pier with a cry of girlish joy, and the first word -she uttered was, “Oh! Sallie, Bob loves me! He’s been here two weeks, -and he’s just gone home. I have been in heaven. We are engaged!” - -“Then I ’ll kiss you again, Helen.”--She gave her another kiss. - -“And I’ve a big letter at home for you already! It’s post-marked -‘Hambright.’ It came this morning. I know you will feast on it. If -Bob don’t write me faithfully I ’ll make him come here and live in -Boston.” - -When Sallie got this letter, she sat down in her room, and read and -re-read its passionate words. There was a tone of bitterness and wounded -pride in it. She struggled bravely to keep the tears back. Then the tone -of the letter changed to tenderness and faith and infinite love that -struggled in vain for utterance. - -She kissed the name and sighed. “Now I must go down and chat and smile -with Helen. She’s so silly about her own love, if I talk about Bob she -will forget I live.” - - - - -CHAPTER XIX--THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT - -MRS. WORTH had arrived in Boston a few days after Sallie, coming direct -by rail. She was still very weak from her recent attack, and it cut her -to the heart to watch Sallie write those letters faithfully, and never -mail them out of deference to her wishes. - -One night she drew her daughter down and kissed her. - -“Sallie, dear, you don’t know how it hurts me to see you suffer this -way, and write, and write these letters your lover never sees. You may -send him one letter a week, I don’t care what the General says.” - -There was a sob and another kiss and, Sallie was crying on her breast. - -In answer to her first letter, Gaston was thrilled with a new -inspiration. He sat down that night and answered it in verse. All the -deep longings of his soul, his hopes and fears, his pain and dreams he -set in rhythmic music. Her mother read all his letters after Sallie. And -she cried with sorrow and pride over this poem. - -“Sallie, I don’t blame you for being proud of such a lover. Your life -is rich hallowed by the love of such a man. Your father is wrong in his -position. If I were a girl and held the love of such a man, I’d cherish -it as I would my soul’s salvation. Be patient and faithful.” - -“Sweet mother heart!” she whispered as she smoothed the grey hair -tenderly. - -Allan McLeod had arrived in Boston the day before and the morning’s -papers were full of an interview with him on his brilliant achievement -in breaking the ranks of the Bourbon Democracy in North Carolina, and -the certainty of the success of his ticket at the approaching election. - -McLeod sent the paper to Mrs. Worth by a special messenger, lest she -might not see it, and that evening called. He asked Sallie to accompany -him to the theatre, and when she refused spent the evening. - -When her mother had retired McLeod drew his seat near her and again told -her in burning words his love. - -“Miss ‘Sallie, I have won the battle of life at its very threshold. I -shall be a United States Senator in a few months. I want to lead you, my -bride, into the gallery of the Senate before I walk down its aisles -to take the oath. I have loved you faithfully for years. I have your -father’s consent to my suit. I asked him before leaving on this trip. -Surely you will not say no?” - -“Allan McLeod, I do not love you. I do love another. I hate the sight of -you and the sound of your voice.” - -“If you do not marry Gaston, will you give me a chance?” - -“If I do not marry the man of my choice, I will never marry. Now go.” - -McLeod returned to the hotel with the fury of the devil seething in -his soul. He determined to return to Ham-bright, and if possible entrap -Gaston in dissipation and destroy his faith in Sallie’s loyalty. - -He wrote to the General that he had been rejected by his daughter who -still corresponded with Gaston. When General Worth received this letter -he wrote in wrath to his wife, peremptorily forbidding Sallie to write -another line to Gaston and closed saying, “I had trusted this matter to -you, my dear, now I take it out of your hands. I forbid another line or -word to this man.” - -Gaston watched and waited in vain for the letter he was to receive next -week. Again his soul sank with doubt and fear. What fiend was striking -him with an unseen hand? He felt he should choke with rage as he thought -of the infamy of such a warfare. - -His mother said to him shortly after McLeod’s arrival, “Charlie, I have -some bad news for you.” - -“It can’t be any worse than I have, the misery of an unexplained silence -of two weeks.” - -“I feel that I ought to tell you. It is the explanation of that silence, -I fear.” - -“What is it, Mother?” he asked soberly. - -“I hear that Sallie has plunged into frivolous society, is dancing every -night at the hotel at Narragansett Pier where they are stopping now, and -flirting with a halfdozen young men.” - -“I don’t believe it,” growled Gaston. - -“I’m afraid it’s true, Charlie, and I’m furious with her for treating -you like this. I thought she had more character.” - -“I ’ll love and trust her to the end!” he declared as he went moodily -to his office. But the poison of suspicion rankled in his thoughts. Why -had she ceased to write? Was not this mask of society a habit with those -who had learned to wear it? Was not habit, after all, life? Could one -ever escape it? It seemed to him more than probable that the old habits -should re-assert themselves in such a crisis, a thousand miles removed -from him or his personal influence. He held a very exaggerated idea of -the corruption of modern society. And his heart grew heavier from day to -day with the feeling that she was slipping away from him. - - - - -CHAPTER XX--A NEW LESSON IN LOVE - -McLEOD returned home to find his plans of political success in perfect -order. The programme went through without a hitch. In spite of the most -desperate efforts of the Democrats, he carried the state by a large -majority and made, for the Republican party and its strange allies, the -first breach in the solid phalanx of Democratic supremacy since Le-gree -left his legacy of corruption and terror. - -The Legislature elected two Senators. To the amazement of the world, the -day before the caucus of the Republicans met, McLeod withdrew. He had no -opposition so far as anybody knew, but a curious thing had happened. The -Rev. John Durham discovered the fact that McLeod kept a still and had -established his mother as an illicit distiller years before. One of his -deputies who had become an inebriate, confessed this to the doctor who -had informed the Preacher. - -The Preacher put this important piece of information into the hands of a -daring young Republican who had always been one from principle. He -went to Raleigh and interviewed McLeod. At first McLeod denied, and -blustered, and swore. When he produced the proofs, he gave up, and asked -sullenly, “What do you want?” - -“Get out of the race.” - -“All right. Is that all? You’re on top.” - -“No, give me the nomination.” - -“Never!” he yelled with an oath. - -“Then I ’ll expose you in to-morrow morning’s paper, and that’s the -end of you.” - -McLeod hesitated a moment, and then said, “I ’ll agree. You’ve got me. -But I ’ll make one little condition. You must give me the name of your -informant.” - -“The Rev. John Durham.” - -“I thought as much.” - -To the amazement of everyone McLeod waived the crown aside and placed -it on the head of one of his lieutenants. He returned to Hambright from -this dramatic event with an unruffled front. To his cronies he said, -“Bah! I was joking. Never had any idea of taking the office for myself. -I’m playing for larger stakes. I make these puppets, and pull the -strings.” - -He devoted himself assiduously in the leisure which followed to Mrs. -Durham. He never intimated to Durham that he knew anything about the -part he had taken in his withdrawal from the Senatorship. Nor had the -Preacher told his wife of his discovery. They had quarrelled several -times about McLeod. His wife seemed determined to remain loyal to the -boy she had taught. - -McLeod in his talk with her intimated that he had withdrawn from a -desire vaguely forming in his mind to get out of the filth of politics -altogether, sooner or later, influenced by her voice alone. - -With subtle skill he played upon her vanity and jealousy, and at last -felt that he had entangled her so far he could dare a declaration of his -feelings. There was one element only in her mental make-up he feared. -She held tenaciously the old-fashioned romantic ideals of love. To -her it seemed a divine mystery linking the souls that felt it to the -infinite. If he could only destroy this divine mystery idea, he felt -sure that her sense of isolation, and her proud rebellion against -the disappointments of life would make her an easy prey to his -blandishments. - -He searched his library over for a book that could scientifically -demonstrate the purely physical basis of love. He knew that somewhere in -his studies at a medical college in New York he had read it. - -At last he discovered it among a lot of old magazines. It was a brief -study by a great physician of Paris, entitled “The Natural History of -Love.” He gave it to her, and asked her to read it and give him her -candid opinion of its philosophy. - -He waited a week and on a Saturday when the Preacher was absent at -one of his county mission stations he called at the hotel for a long -afternoon’s talk. He determined to press his suit. - -“Do you know, Mrs. Durham, what gives a preacher his boasted power of -the spirit over his audiences?” he inquired with a curious laugh in the -midst of which he changed his tone of voice. - -“No, you are an expert on the diseases of preachers, what is it?” - -“Very simple. Religion is founded on love, there never was a magnetic -preacher who was not a resistless magnet for scores of magnetic women. -If you don’t believe it, watch how resistless is the impulse of all -these good-looking women to shake hands with their preacher, and how -fondly they look at him across the pews if the crowd is too dense to -reach his hand.” - -A frown passed over her face, and she winced at the thrust, yet her -answer was a surprising question to him. - -“Do you really believe in anything, Allan?” - -“You ask that?” he said leaning closer. “You whose great dark eyes look -through a man’s very soul?” - -“I begin to think I have never seen yours. I doubt if you have a soul.” - -“Well, what’s the use of a soul? I can’t satisfy the wants of my body.” - -“Answer my question. Do you believe in anything?” - -“Yes,” he replied, his voice sinking to a tense whisper, “I believe in -Woman,--in love.” - -“In Woman?” - -“Yes, Woman.” - -“You mean women,” she sneered. - -He started at her answer, looked intently at her, and said deliberately, -“I mean you, the One Woman, the only woman in the world to me.” - -“I do not believe one word you have uttered, yet, I confess with shame, -you have always fascinated me.” - -“Why with shame? You have but one life to live. The years pass. Even -beauty so rare as yours fades at last. The end is the grave and worms. -Why dash from your beautiful lips the cup of life when it is full to the -brim?” - -“How skillfully you echo the dark thoughts that flit on devil wings -through the soul, when we feel the bitterness of life’s failure, its -contradictions and mysteries!” she exclaimed, closing her eyes for a -moment and leaning back in her chair. - -“You’ve often talked to me about the necessity of some sort of slavery -for the Negro if he remain in America. I begin to believe that slavery -is a necessity for all women.” - -“I fail to see it, sir.” - -“All women are born slaves and choose to remain so through life. It -is curious to see you, a proud imperious woman, born of a race of -unconquerable men, staggering to-day under the chains of four thousand -years of conventional laws made by the brute strength of men. And -you, if you struggle at all, beat your wings against the bars that the -slaveholding male brute has built about your soul, fall back at last -and give up to the will of your master. This too, when you hold in your -simple will the key that would unlock your prison door and make you -free. It’s a pitiful sight.” - -“How shrewd a tempter!” - -“There you are again. He who dares to tell you that you are of yourself -a living human being, divinely free, is a tempter from the devil. You -are thinking about eternity. Well, now is eternity. Live, stand erect, -take a deep breath, and dare to be yourself and do what you please. That -is what I do. The future is a myth.” - -“Yes, I know the freedom of which you boast,” she quietly observed, “it -is the freedom of lust. The return to nature you dream of is simply -the fall downward into the dirt out of which a rational and spiritual -manhood has grown. I feel and know this in spite of your handsome face -and the fine ring of your voice.” - -“Dirt. Dirt!” he mused. “Yes, I was in the dirt once, was born in -it, the dirt of poverty and superstition and fears of laws here and -hereafter. But I awoke at last, and shook it off, washed myself in -knowledge and stood erect. I am a man now, with the eye of a king, -conscious of my power. I look a lying hypocritical world in the face. I -have made up my mind to live my own life in spite of fools, and in spite -of the laws and conventions of fools.” - -“And yet I believe you carry a horse-chestnut in your pocket, and will -not undertake an important work on Friday?” she returned. - -“But I never strangle a normal impulse of my nature that I can satisfy. -I am not that big a fool, at least.” - -She was silent, and then said, “I can never thank you enough for the -book you sent me.” - -McLeod sighed in relief at her change of tone. After all she was just -tantalising him! - -“Then you liked it?” he cried with glittering eyes. - -“I devoured every word of it with a greed you can not understand. A -great man wrote it.” - -“Then we can understand each other better from today,” he interrupted -smilingly. - -“Yes, far better. You gave me this book hoping that it might influence -my character by destroying my ideal of love, didn’t you, now frankly?” - -“Honestly, I did hope it would emancipate you from superstitions.” - -“It has,” she declared, but with a curious curve of her lip that chilled -him. - -“What are you driving at?” he asked suspiciously. - -“This book has given me the key that unlocked for me, for the first -time, the riddle of my physical being. It has shown me the physical -basis of love, just as I knew before there was a physical basis of the -soul.” - -“What did you understand the book to teach?” he asked. - -“Simply that love is based in its material life, on the lobe of the -brain which develops at the base of a child’s head near the age of -thirteen. That this lobe of the brain is the sex centre, and love is -impossible until it develops. That this centre of new powers at the base -of the skull is a physical magnet. That when a man and woman approach -each other, who are by nature mates, these magnetic centres are -disturbed by action and reaction, and that this disturbance develops -the second elemental passion called love. The first elemental passion, -hunger, has for its end the preservation of the individual; while love -finds its fulfillment in the preservation of the species. Love finds its -satisfaction in the child, its ardour cools, and it dies, unless kept -alive by the social conventions of the family, which are not based -merely on this violent emotion, but also on unity of tastes, which -produce the sense of comradeship. For these reasons it is possible to -fall violently in love more than once, and there are dozens of people -who possess this magnetic power over us and would respond to it -violently if we only came in social contact with them. That the romantic -bombast about the possibility of but one love in life, and that of -supernatural origin, is twaddle, and leads to false ideals. Have I given -the argument?” - -“Exactly. But what do you deduce from it?” - -“Freedom!” - -“Good!” he cried, licking his lips. - -“Freedom from superstitions about love,” she answered, “and positive -knowledge of its elemental beauty which Nature reveals. In short, I no -longer wonder and brood over your charm for me. I know exactly what it -means, and how it might occur again and again with another and another. -I have simply throttled it in a moment by an act of my will, based on -this knowledge.” - -“You amaze me.” - -“No doubt. One’s character centres in the soul, or the appetites. Mine -is in the soul, yours in the appetites. I see you to-day as you really -are, and I loathe you with an unspeakable loathing. You have opened -my eyes with this beautiful little book of Nature. I thank you. Your -scientist has convinced me that there are possibly a hundred men in the -world who would affect me as you do, were we to meet. And when I looked -back into the sweet face of my dead boy, I learned another truth, that -in the union of my first great love I was bound in marriage, not simply -by a social convention, or a state contract, but for life by Nature’s -eternal law. The period of infancy of one child extends over twenty-one -years, covering the whole maternal life of the woman who marries at the -proper age of twenty-four. This union of one man and one woman never -seemed so sacred to me as now. It is Nature’s law, it is God’s law.” - -McLeod’s anger was fast rising. - -“Don’t fool yourself,” he sneered, “You may overwork your maternal -intuitions. You remember the kiss you gave me when a boy just fifteen? -Well, you fooled yourself then about its maternal quality. The magnet -of my red head drew your coal black one down to it with irresistible -power.” - -“Perhaps so, Allan. Your work is done. There is the door. I say a last -good-bye, with pity for your shallow nature, and the bitter revelation -you have given me of your worthlessness.” - -Without another word he left, but with a dark resolution of slander with -which he would tarnish her name, and wring the Preacher’s heart with -anguish. - - - - -CHAPTER XXI--WHY THE PREACHER THREW HIS LIFE AWAY - -WHILE Mrs. Worth and Sallie were still in the North, the Rev. John -Durham received a unanimous call to the pastorate of one of the most -powerful Baptist churches in Boston, with a salary of five thousand -dollars a year. He was receiving a salary of nine hundred dollars at -Hambright, which could boast at most a population of two thousand. He -declined the call by return mail. - -The committee were thunderstruck at this quick adverse decision, refused -to consider it final, and wrote him a long urgent letter of protest -against such ill-considered treatment. They urged that he must come to -Boston, and preach one Sunday, at least, in answer to their generous -offer, before rendering a final decision. He consented to do so, and -went to Boston. He sought Sallie the day after his arrival. - -“Ah, my beautiful daughter of the South, it’s good to see you shining -here in the midst of the splendours of the Hub, the fairest of them -all!” he said shaking her hand feelingly. - -“You mean pining, not shining,” she protested. - -“That’s better still. I knew your heart was in the right place!” - -“How is he, Doctor?” she asked. - -“He’s trying to pull himself together with his work, and succeeding. -The shock of a great sorrow has steadied his nerves, broadened his -sympathies, and it will make him a man.” - -A look of longing came over her face. “I don’t want him to be too strong -without me,” she faltered. - -“Never fear. He’s so despondent at times I have to try to laugh him out -of countenance.” - -She smiled and pressed his hand for answer as he rose to go. - -“How do you like these Yankees, Miss Sallie?” - -“I’ve been surprised and charmed beyond measure with everything I’ve -seen!” - -“You don’t say so! How?” - -“Well, I thought they were cold-blooded and inhospitable. I never made -a more foolish mistake. I have never been more at home, or been treated -more graciously in the South. To tell you the truth, they seem like -our most cultured people at home, warm-hearted, cordial, sensible and -neighbourly. Mama is so pleased she’s trying to claim kin with the -Puritans, through her Scotch Covenanter ancestry.” - -“After all, I believe you are right. I never preached in my life to -so sensitive an audience. There’s an atmosphere of solid comfort, good -sense, and intelligence that holds me in a spell here. This is the place -in which I’ve dreamed I’d like to live and work.” - -“Then you will accept, Doctor?” - -“Now listen to you, child! Don’t you think I’ve a heart too? My brain -and body longs for such a home, but my heart’s down South with mine own -people who love and need me.” - -The committee did their best to bring the Preacher to a favourable -decision at once, but he smiled a firm refusal. They refused to -report it to the church, and sent Deacon Crane, now a venerable man -of seventy-six, the warmest admirer of the Preacher among them all to -Hambright. They authorised him to make an amazing offer of salary, if -that would be any inducement, and they felt sure it would. - -When the Deacon reached Hambright and saw its poverty and general air of -unimportance he felt encouraged. - -“A man of such power stay a lifetime in this little hole! Impossible!” - he exclaimed under his breath, when he looked out of the bus along the -wide deserted looking streets with a straggling cottage here and there -on either side. - -He stopped at the same hotel with the Preacher and became his shadow for -a week. He was seated with him under the oak in the square, threshing -over his argument for the hundredth time, in the most good-natured, but -everlastingly persistent way. - -“Doctor, it’s perfect nonsense for a man of your magnificent talents, of -your culture and power over an audience, to think of living always in a -little village like this!” - -“No, deacon, my work is here for the South.” - -“But, my dear man, in Boston, it would be for the whole nation, North -and South. I ’ll tell you what we will do. Say you will come, and we -will make your salary eight thousand a year. That’s the largest salary -ever offered a Baptist preacher in America. You will pack our church -with people, give us new life, and we can afford it. You will be a power -in Boston, and a power in the world.” - -The Preacher smiled and was silent. At length he said, “I appreciate -your offer, deacon. You pay me the highest compliment you know how to -express. But you prosperous Yankees can’t get into your heads the idea -that there are many things which money can’t measure.” - -“But we know a good thing when we see it, and we go for it!” interrupted -the deacon. - -“Believe me,” continued the Preacher, “I appreciate the sacrifice, the -generosity, and breadth of sympathy this offer shows in your hearts. But -it is not for me. My work is here. I don’t mind confessing to you that -you have vastly pleased me with that offer. I ’ll brag about it to -myself the rest of my life.” - -“But Doctor, think how much greater power a generous salary will give -you in furnishing your equipment for work, and in ministering to any -cause you may have at heart,” pleaded the deacon. - -“I don’t know. I have a salary of nine hundred dollars. With five -hundred I buy books,--food, clothes, shelter, the companionship for the -soul. The balance suffices for the body. I haven’t time to bother with -money. The man who receives a big salary must live up to its social -obligations, and he must pay for it with his life.” - -“Doctor, there must be some tremendous force that holds you to such a -decision in a village. It seems to me you are throwing your life away.” - -“There is a tremendous force, deacon. It is the overwhelming sense of -obligation I feel to my own people who have suffered so much, and are -still in the grip of poverty, and threatened with greater trials. -I can’t leave my own people while they are struggling yet with this -unsolved Negro problem. Two great questions shadow the future of -the American people, the conflict between Labor and Capital, and the -conflict between the African and the Anglo-Saxon race. The greatest, -most dangerous, and most hopeless of these, is the latter. My place is -here.” - -The deacon laughed. “You’re a crank on that subject. Come to Boston and -you will see with a better perspective that the question is settling -itself. In fact the war absolutely settled it.” - -“Deacon,” said the Preacher with a quizzical expression about his eyes, -“Do you believe in the doctrine of Election?” - -“Yes, I do.” - -“I thought so. You know, I never saw a man who believed in the doctrine -of Election who didn’t believe he was elected. I never saw a man in -my life, except a lying politician, who declared the Negro problem was -settled, unless he had removed his family to a place of fancied safety -where he would never come in contact with it. And they all believe that -the Negro’s place is in the South.” - -The deacon laughed good-naturedly. - -“Come with us, and we will show you greater problems. For one, the life -and death struggle of Christianity itself with modern materialism. I -tell you the Negro problem was settled when slavery was destroyed.” - -“You never made a sadder mistake. The South did not fight to hold -slaves. Our Confederate government at Richmond offered to guarantee -to Europe, the freedom of every slave for the recognition of our -independence. Slavery was bound of its own weight to fall. Virginia came -within one vote in her assembly of freeing her slaves years before the -war. But for the frenzy of your Abolition fanatics who first sought to -destroy the Union by Secession, and then forced Secession on the South, -we would have freed the slaves before this without a war, from the very -necessities of the progress of the material world, to say nothing of -its moral progress. We fought for the rights we held under the old -constitution, made by a slave-holding aristocracy. But we collided with -the resistless movement of humanity from the idea of local sovereignty -toward nationalism, centralisation, solidarity.” - -“That’s why I say,” interrupted the deacon, “your Negro question has -already been settled. The nation has become a reality not a name.” - -“And that is why I know, deacon,” insisted the Preacher, “that we have -not only not settled this question,--we haven’t even faced the issues. -Nationality demands solidarity. And you can never get solidarity in a -nation of equal rights out of two hostile races that do not intermarry. -_In a Democracy you can not build a nation inside of a nation of two -antagonistic races, and therefore the future American must be either an -Anglo Saxon or a Mulatto_. And if a Mulatto, will the future be worth -discussing?” - -“I never thought of it in just that way,” answered the deacon. - -“It is my work to maintain the racial absolutism of the Anglo-Saxon in -the South, politically, socially, economically.” - -“But can it be done? I see many evidences of a mixture of blood -already,” said the deacon seriously. - -“Yes, we are doing it. This mixture you observe has no social -significance, for a simple reason. It is all the result of the surviving -polygamous and lawless instincts of the white male. Unless by the -gradual encroachments of time, culture, wealth and political exigencies, -the time comes that a negro shall be allowed freely to choose a white -woman for his wife, the racial integrity remains intact. The right to -choose one’s mate is the foundation of racial life and of civilisation. -The South must guard with flaming sword every avenue of approach to -this holy of holies. And there are many subtle forces at work to obscure -these possible approaches.” - -“Well, no matter,” broke in the deacon, “come with us, and you will have -more power to touch with your ideas the wealth and virtue of the whole -nation.” - -The Preacher was silent a moment and seemed to be musing in a sort -of half dream. The deacon looked at him with a growing sense of the -hopelessness of his task, but of surprise at this revelation of the -secrets of his inner life. - -“The South has been voiceless in these later years,” he went on, “her -voice has been drowned in a din of cat-calls from an army of cheap -scribblers and demagogues. But when these children we are rearing down -here grow, rocked in their cradles of poverty, nurtured in the fierce -struggle to save the life of a mighty race, they will find speech, and -their songs will fill the world with pathos and power. - -“I’ve studied your great cities. Believe me the South is worth saving. -Against the possible day when a flood of foreign anarchy threatens the -foundations of the Republic and men shall laugh at the faiths of your -fathers, and undigested wealth beyond the dreams of avarice rots your -society, until it mocks at honour, love and God--against that day we -will preserve the South!” - -The Preacher’s voice was now vibrating with deep feeling, and the deacon -listened with breathless interest. - -“Believe me, deacon, the ark of the covenant of American ideals rests -to-day on the Appalachian Mountain range of the South. When your -metropolitan mobs shall knock at the doors of your life and demand the -reason of your existence, from these poverty-stricken homes, with their -old-fashioned, perhaps mediaeval ideas, will come forth the fierce -athletic sons and sweet-voiced daughters in whom the nation will find -a new birth!” The Preacher’s eyes had filled with tears and his voice -dropped into a low dream-like prophecy. - -“You can not understand,” he resumed, in a clear voice, “why I feel so -profoundly depressed just now because the Republican party, which, with -you stands for the virtue, wealth and intelligence of the community, -is now in charge of this state. I will tell you why. A Republican -administration in North Carolina simply means a Negro oligarchy. The -state is now being debauched and degraded by this fact in the innermost -depths of its character and life. My place is here in this fight.” - -“But, Doctor, will not your industrial training of the Negro gradually -minimise any danger to your society?” - -“No, it will gradually increase it. Industrial training gives power. If -the Negro ever becomes a serious competitor of the white labourer in -the industries of the South, the white man will kill him, just as your -labour Unions do in the North now where the conditions of life are hard, -and men fight with tooth and nail for bread. If you train the negroes to -be scientific farmers they will become a race of aristocrats, and when -five generations removed from the memory of slavery, a war of races will -be inevitable, unless the Anglo-Saxon grant this trained and wealthy -African equal social rights. The Anglo-Saxon can not do this without -suicide. One drop of Negro blood makes a negro.” - -“I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Doctor, that I can’t persuade you to -become our pastor. But I can understand since this talk something of the -larger views of your duty.” - -The deacon sought Mrs. Durham that evening and laid siege to her -resolutely. - -“Ah! deacon, you’re shrewd--you are going to flatter me, but I can’t let -you. I’m an old fogy and out of date. I’m not orthodox on the Negro from -Boston’s point of view.” - -“Nonsense!” growled the deacon. “We don’t care what you or the Doctor -either thinks about the Negro, or the Jap, or the Chinaman. We want a -preacher imbued with the power of the Holy Ghost to preach the Gospel of -Christ.” - -“Well, you have quite captured me since you have been here. You are a -revelation to me of what a deacon might be to a pastor and his wife. To -be frank with you, I am on your side. I am tired of the Negro. I don’t -want to solve him. He is an impossible job from my point of view. I -should be delighted to go to Boston now and begin life over again. But -I do not figure in the decision. Dr. Durham settles such questions for -himself. And I respect him more for it.” - -Encouraged by this decision of his wife the deacon renewed his efforts -to change the Preacher’s mind next day in vain. He stayed over Sunday, -heard him preach two sermons, and sorrowfully bade him good-bye on -Monday. He carried back to Boston his final word declining this call. - -As the deacon stepped on the train, he warmly pressed his hand and said, -“God bless you, Doctor. If you ever need a friend, you know my name and -address.” - - - - -CHAPTER XXII--THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT - -GASTON tried to wait in patience another week for a word from the woman -he loved, and when the last mail came and brought no letter for him, he -found himself face to face with the deepest soul crisis of his life. - -After all, thoughts are things. The report of her social frivolities at -first made little impression on him. But the thought had fallen in his -heart, and it was growing a poisoned weed. - -It is possible to kill the human body with an idea. The fairest day the -spring ever sent can be blackened and turned from sunshine into storm by -the flitting of a little cloud of thought no bigger than a man’s hand. - -So Gaston found this report of dancing and flirting in a gay society by -the woman whom he had enthroned in the holy of holies of his soul to be -destroying his strength of character, and like a deadly cancer eating -his heart out. - -He sat down by his window that night, unable to work, and tried to -reconcile such a life with his ideal. - -“Why should I be so provincial!” he mused. “The thing only shocks me -because I am unused to it. She has grown up in this atmosphere. To her -it is a harmless pastime.” - -Then he took out of his desk her picture, lit his lamp and looked long -and tenderly at it, until his soul was drunk again with the memory of -her beauty, the warm touch of her hand, and the thrill of her full soft -lips in the only two kisses he had ever received from the heart of a -woman. - -Then, the vision of a ball-room came to torture him. He could see her -dressed in that delicate creation of French genius he had seen her wear -the memorable night at the Springs. The French know so deeply the subtle -art of draping a woman’s body to tempt the souls of men. How he cursed -them to-night! He could see her bare arms, white gleaming shoulders, -neck, and back, and round full bosom softly rising and falling with her -breathing, as she swept through a brilliant ball-room to the strains of -entrancing music. - -He knew the dance was a social convention, of course. But its deep -Nature significance he knew also. He knew that it was as old as human -society, and full of a thousand subtle suggestions,--that it was the -actual touch of the human body, with rhythmic movement, set to the -passionate music of love. This music spoke in quivering melody what -the lips did not dare to say. This he knew was the deep secret of the -fascination of the dance for the boy and the girl, the man and the -woman. How he cursed it to-night! - -His imagination leaped the centuries that separate us from the great -races of the past who scorned humbug and hypocrisy, and held their -dances in the deep shadows of great forests, without the draperies of -tailors. These men and women looked Nature in the face and were not -afraid, and did not try to apologise or lie about it. He felt humiliated -and betrayed. - -He thought too of her wealth with a feeling of resentment and isolation. -Taken with this social nightmare it seemed to raise an impossible -barrier between them. He knew that in the terrible quarrel she had with -her father on their first clash, he had sworn if she disobeyed him to -disinherit her. She had answered him in bitter defiance. And yet time -often changes these noble visions of poverty and strenuous faith in high -ideals. Wealth and all its good things becomes with us at last habit. -And habit is life. - -Could it be possible she had weakened in resolution of loyalty when -brought face to face with the actual breaking of the habits of a -lifetime? Might not the three forces combined, the habit of social -conventions, the habit of luxury, and the habit of obedience to a -masterful and lovable father, be sufficient to crush her love at -last? It seemed to him to-night, not only a possibility, but almost an -accomplished fact. - -At one o’clock he went to bed and tried to sleep. He tossed for an hour. -His brain was on fire, and his imagination lit with its glare. He could -sweep the world with his vision in the silence and the darkness. Yes, -the world that is, and that which was, and is to come! - -He arose and dressed. It was half-past two o’clock. He knew that this -was to be the first night in all his life when he could not sleep. He -was shocked and sobered by the tremendous import of such an event in -the development of his character. He had never been swept off his feet -before. He knew now that before the sun rose he would fight with the -powers and princes of the air for the mastery of life. - -He left his room and walked out on the road to the Springs over which he -had gone so many times in childhood. The moon was obscured by fleeting -clouds, and the air had the sharp touch of autumn in its breath. He -walked slowly past the darkened silent houses and felt his brain begin -to cool in the sweet air. - -The last note he had received from her weeks ago was the brief one -announcing the new break in the poor little correspondence she had -promised him. The last paragraph of that note now took on a sinister -meaning. He recalled it word by word: - -“I feel like I can not trifle with you in this way again. It is -humiliating to me and to you. I can see no light in our future. I -release you from any tie I may have imposed on your life. I feel I -have fallen short of what you deserve, but I am so situated between my -mother’s failing health and my father’s will, and my love for them both, -I can not help it. I will love you always, but you are free.” - -Was not this a kindly and final breaking of their pledge to one another? -Yet she had not returned the little medal he had given her with that -exchange of eternal love and faith. Could she keep this and really mean -to break with him finally? He could not believe it. - -His whole life had been dominated by this dream of an ideal love. For it -he had denied himself the indulgences that his college mates and young -associates had taken as a matter of course. He had never touched wine. -He had never smoked. He had never learned the difference between a queen -and jack in cards. He had kept away from women. He had given his body -and soul to the service of his Ideal, and bent every energy to the -development of his mind that he might grasp with more power its -sweetness and beauty when realised. - -Did it pay? The Flesh was shrieking this question now into the face of -the Spirit? - -He had met the One Woman his soul had desired above all others. There -could be no mistake about that. And now she was failing him when he had -laid at her feet his life. It made him sick to recall how utter had been -his surrender. - -Why should he longer deny the flesh, when the soul’s dream failed the -test of pain and struggle? - -Was it possible that he had been a fool and was missing the full -expression of life, which is both flesh and spirit? - -The world was full of sweet odours. He had delicate and powerful -nostrils. Why not enjoy them? The world was full of beauty ravishing -to the eye. He had keen eyes trained to see. Why should he not open his -eyes and gaze on it all? The world was full of entrancing music. He had -ears trained to hear. Why should he stuff them with dreams of a doubtful -future, and not hear it all? The world was full of things soft and good -to the touch. Why should he not grasp them? His hands were cunning, and -every finger tingled with sensitive nerve tips. The world was full -of good things sweet to the taste, why should he not eat and drink as -others, as old and wise perhaps? - -Was a man full-grown until he had seen, felt, smelled, tasted, and -heard all life? Was there anything after all, in good or bad? Were these -things not names? If not, how could we know unless we tried them? What -was the good of good things? - -“Am I not a narrow-minded fool, instead of a wise man, to throttle my -impulses and deny the flesh for an imaginary gain?” he asked himself -aloud. - -She had written he was free. - -“Well, by the eternal, I will be free!” he exclaimed, “I will sweep the -whole gamut of human passion and human emotion. I will drink life to the -deepest dregs of its red wine. I will taste, feel, see, touch, hear all! -I will not be cheated. I will know for myself what it is to live.” - -When he woke to the consciousness of time and place, he found he was -seated at the Sulphur Spring where it gushed from the foot of the hill, -and that the eastern horizon was grey with the dawn. - -A sense of new-found power welled up in him. He had regained control of -himself. - -“Good! I will no longer be a moping love-sick fool. I am a man. To will -is to live, to cease to will is to die. I have regained my will,--I -live!” - -He walked rapidly back to town with vigourous step. His mind was clear. - -“I will never write her another line until she writes to me. I will not -be a dog and whine at any rich man’s door or any woman’s feet. The world -is large, and I am large. I will be sought as well as seek. Besides, my -country needs me. If I am to give myself it will be for larger ends than -for the smiles of one woman!” - -And then for two weeks he entered deliberately on a series of -dissipations. He left Hambright and sought convivial friends on the sea -coast. He amazed them by asking to be taught cards. - -He swept the gamut of all the senses without reserve, day after day, and -night after night. - -At the end of two weeks he found himself haunting the post-office -oftener, with a vague sense of impending calamity. - -“The thing’s all over I tell you!” he said to himself again and again. -And then he would hurry to the next mail as eagerly as ever. As the -excitement began to tire him, the sense of longing for her face, and -voice, and the touch of her hand became intolerable. - -“My God, I’d give all the world holds of sin to see her and hear one -word from her lips!” he exclaimed as he locked himself in his room one -night. - -“Why didn’t she answer my last letter?” he continued. “Ah, that was -the best letter I ever wrote her. I put my soul in every word. I didn’t -believe the woman lived who could read such confessions and such worship -without reply; Surely she has a heart!” - -When he went to the post-office next day he got a letter forwarded from -Hambright by the Preacher. It was postmarked Narragansett Pier, and -addressed in a bold masculine hand he had never seen before. - -He tore it open, and inside found his last letter to Sallie Worth, -returned with the seal unbroken. He sprang to his feet with flashing -eyes, trembling from head to foot. - -“Ah! they did not dare to let her receive another of my letters! So a -clerk returns it unopened,” he cried. - -And a great lump rose in his throat as he thought of the scenes of the -past two weeks. The old fever and the old longing came rushing over -his prostrate soul now in resistless torrents: “How dare a strange hand -touch a message to her! I could strangle him. We will see now who wins -the fight.” He set his lips with determination, packed his valise, and -took the train for home without a word of farewell to the companions of -his revels. - -When he reached Hambright he felt sure of a letter from her. A strange -joy filled his heart. - -“I have either got a letter or she’s writing one to me this minute!” he -exclaimed. - -He went to the post-office in a state of exhilaration. The letter was -not there. But it did not depress him. - -“It is on the way,” he quickly said. - -For two days, he remained in that condition of tense nervous excitement -and expectation, and on the following day he opened his box and found -his letter. - -“I knew it!” he said with a thrill of joy that was half awe at the -remarkable confirmation he had received of their sympathy. - -He hurried to his office and read the big precious message. - -How its words burned into his soul! Every line seemed alive with her -spirit. How beautiful the sight of her handwriting! He kissed it again -and again. He read with bated breath. The address was double expressive, -because it contained the first words of abandoned tenderness with which -she had ever written to him, except in the concealed message dotted in -the note that broke their earlier correspondence. - -“My Precious Darling:--I have gone through deep waters within the last -three weeks. I became so depressed and hungry to see you, I felt some -awful calamity was hanging over you and over me, and that it was my -fault. I could scarcely eat or sleep. - -“I felt I should go mad if I did not speak and so I told Mama. She -sympathised tenderly with me but insisted I should not write. She is so -feeble I could not cross her. But Oh! the agony of it! Sometimes I saw -you drowning and stretching out your hands to me for help. - -“Sometimes in my dreams I saw you fighting against overwhelming odds with -strong brutal men, whose faces were full of hate, and I could not reach -you. - -“I was nervous and unstrung, but you can never know how real the horror -of it all was upon me. - -“I made up my mind one night to telegraph you. I heard some one talking -inside Mama’s room. I gently opened the door between our rooms, and she -was praying aloud for me. I stood spellbound. I never knew how she loved -me before. When at last she prayed that in the end I might have the -desire of my heart, and my life be crowned with the joy of a noble man’s -love, and that it might be yours, and that she should be permitted to -see and rejoice with me, I could endure it no longer. - -“Choking with sobs I ran to her kneeling figure, threw my arms around her -neck and covered her dear face with kisses. - -“I could not send the message I had written after that scene. - -“The next day Papa came, and she told him in my presence, ‘Now, General I -have carried out your wishes with Sallie against my judgment. The strain -has been more than you can understand. I give up the task. You can -manage her now to suit yourself.’ - -“There was a firmness in her voice I had never heard before. He noted -it, and was startled into silence by it. He had a long talk with me and -repeated his orders with increasing emphasis. - -“The next day I was unusually depressed. I did not get out of bed all -day. At night I went down to supper. The clerk at the desk of the hotel -called me and said, ‘Miss Worth, I have a terrible sin to confess to -you. I’m a lover myself, and I’ve done you a wrong. I returned to a -young man yesterday a letter to you by request of the General. Forgive -me for it, and don’t tell him I told you.’ - -“That night Papa and I had a fearful scene. I will not attempt to -describe it. But the end was, I said to him with all the courage of -despair: I am twenty-one years old. I am a free woman. I will write to -whom I please and when I please and I will not ask you again. It is your -right to turn me out of your house, but you shall not murder my soul! - -“Then for the first time in his life Papa broke down and sobbed like a -child. We kissed and made up, and I am to write to you when I like. - -“Forgive my long silence. Write and tell me you love me. My heart is sick -with the thought that I have been cowardly and failed you. Write me a -long letter, and you can not say things extravagant enough for my hungry -heart. - -“I feel utterly helpless when I think how completely you have come to -rule my life. I wish you to rule it. It is all yours”---- - -And then she said many little foolish things that only the eyes of the -one lover should ever see, for only to him could they have meaning. - -When he finished reading this letter, and had devoured with eagerness -these foolish extravagances with which she closed it, he buried his face -in his arms across his desk. - -A big strong boastful man whose will had defied the world! Now he was -crying like a whipped child. - - - - -BOOK THREE--THE THE TRIAL BY FIRE - - - - -CHAPTER I--A GROWL BENEATH THE EARTH - -APPARENTLY McLeod’s triumph was complete and permanent. The farmers -were disappointed in their wild hopes of a sub-treasury, and other -socialistic schemes, but the passions of the campaign had been violent, -and the offices they had won with their Negro ally had been soothing to -their sense of pride. - -A Republican farmer was Governor for a term of four years, they had -elected two Senators, and three Supreme Court judges, and they had -completely smashed the power of the Democratic party in the county -governments. Everywhere they were triumphant in the local elections, -filling almost every county office with heavy-handed sons of toil from -the country districts, and making the town fops who had been drawing -these fat salaries get out and work for a living. - -Even McLeod was amazed at the thoroughness with which they cleaned the -state of every vestige of the invincible Democracy that had ruled with a -rod of iron since Legree’s flight. - -Gaston could see but one weak spot in the alliance. The negroes had -demanded their share of the spoils, and were gradually forcing their -reluctant allies to grant them. He watched the progress of this movement -with thrilling interest. The negroes had demanded the repeal of the -county government plan of the Democracy, under which the credit of the -forty black counties had been rescued from bankruptcy at the expense of -local selfgovernment. - -When the lawmakers who succeeded Legree had put this scheme of -centralised power in force, these forty counties were immediately lifted -from ruin to prosperity. But no negro ever held another office in them. - -Now the negroes demanded the return to the principles of pure Democracy -and the right to elect all town, township, and county officers direct. -They got their demands. They took charge in short order of the great -rich counties in the Black Belt, and white men ceased to hold the -offices. - -A negro college-graduate from Miss Walker’s classical institution had -started a newspaper at Independence noted for its open demands for the -recognition of the economic, social and political equality of the races. -Young negro men and women walking the streets now refused to give half -the sidewalk to a white man or woman when they met, and there were an -increasing number of fights from such causes. - -Gaston noted these signs with a growing sense of their import, and began -his work for the second great campaign. The election for a legislature -alone, he knew was lost already. His party had simply abandoned the -fight. The Allied Party had passed new election laws, and under the -tutelage of the doubtful methods of the past they had taken every -partisan advantage possible within the limits of the Constitution. They -could not be overthrown short of a political earthquake, and he knew it. -But he thought he heard in the depths of the earth the low rumble of its -coming, and he began to prepare for it. - - - - -CHAPTER II--FACE TO FACE WITH FATE - -THREE weeks before Christmas Gaston began to dream of the visit he was -to make to Independence to see Sallie Worth. How long it seemed since -she had kissed him in the twilight of that Pullman car and the Limited -had rolled away bearing her further and further from his life! He would -sit now for an hour reading her last letter, looking at her picture on -his desk, and dreaming of what she would say when he sat by her side -again in her own home. - -And then like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky came a tearful letter -announcing another storm at home. Her father had again forbidden her -to write. She said, at the last, that Gaston’s visit must be postponed -indefinitely for the present. He gazed at the letter with a hardened -look. - -“I _will_ go. I ’ll face General Worth in his own home, and demand his -reasons for such treatment. I am a man I am entitled to the respect of -a man.” He made this declaration with a quiet force that left no doubt -about his doing it. - -He wrote Sallie that he could not and would not endure such a fight in -the dark with the General, and that he was going to Independence on the -day before Christmas as she had planned at first, to have it out with -him face to face. - -She wrote in reply and begged him under no circumstances to come until -conditions were more favourable. He got this letter the day before he -was to start. - -“I ’ll go and I ’ll see him if I have to fight my way into his -house, that’s all there is to it!” he exclaimed. - -When he reached Independence, St. Clare met him at the depot, and gave -him an eager welcome. - -“I’ve been expecting you, you hard-headed fool!” he said impulsively. - -“Well, your words are not equal to your handshake. What’s the matter?” - asked Gaston. - -“You know what’s the matter. Miss Sallie has been to see me this -afternoon, and begged me to chain you at my house if you came to town -to-day.” - -“Well, you ’ll need handcuffs, and help to get them on,” replied -Gaston with quiet decision. - -“Look here, old boy, you’re not going down to that house to-night with -the old man threatening to kill you on sight, and your girl bordering on -collapse!” - -“I am. I’ve been bordering on collapse for some time myself. I’m getting -used to it.” - -“You’re a fool.” - -“Granted, but I ’ll risk it.” - -“But, man, I tell you Miss Sallie will be furious with you if you go -after all the messages she has sent you.” - -“I ’ll risk her fury too.” - -“Gaston, let me beg you not to do it.” - -“I’m going, Bob. It isn’t any use for you to waste your breath.” - -“You know where my heart is, old chum,” said Bob, yielding reluctantly. -“I couldn’t go down to that house to-night under the conditions you are -going for the world.” - -“Why not? It’s the manly thing to do.” - -“It’s a dangerous thing to do. Fathers have killed men under such -conditions.” - -“Well, I ’ll risk it. I’m going as soon as I can brush up a little.” - -Bob walked with him to the outskirts of the city, begging in vain that -he should turn back, but he never slacked his pace. - -When he turned to go home, Bob pressed his hand and said “Good luck. And -may your shadow never grow less.” - -Gaston walked rapidly on toward Oakwood. As he passed through the -shadows of the forest near the gate, a flood of tender memories rushed -over him. He was back again by her side on that morning he met her, with -the first flush of love thrilling his life. He could see her looking -earnestly at him as though trying to solve a riddle. He could hear her -laughter full of joy and happiness. As he turned into the gateway the -house flashed on him its gleaming windows from the hill top. He felt -his heart sink with bitterness as he realised the contrast of his last -entrance into that house, its welcomed guest, and his present unbidden -intrusion. Once those lights had gleamed only a message of peace and -love. Now they seemed signals of war some enemy had set on the hill to -warn of his approach. - -He paused a moment and wiped the perspiration from his brow. It was -Christmas eve, but the air was balmy and spring-like and his rapid walk -had tired him. He had eaten nothing all day, had slept only a few hours -the night before, and the nerve strain had been more than he knew. - -He looked up at the great white pillars softly shining in the starlight, -and a sickening fear of a possible tragedy behind those doors crept over -him. - -“My God!” he exclaimed, “I had rather charge a breastworks in the face -of flashing guns than to go into that house to-night and meet one man!” - -He recognised the breach of the finer amenities of life involved in -forcing his way into a home under such conditions, and it humiliated him -for a moment. - -“We will not stickle for forms now,” he said to himself firmly. “This -is war. I am to uncover the batteries of my enemy. I have hesitated long -enough. I will not fight in the dark another day.” - -As he stepped briskly up to the door, he started at a sudden thought. -What if the General had ordered the servants to slam the door in his -face! The possibility of such an unforeseen insult made the cold sweat -break out over his face as he rang the bell. No matter, he was in for it -now, he would face hell if need be! - -He waited but an instant, and heard the heavy tread of a man approach -the door. Instinctively he knew that the General himself was on guard, -and would open the door. Evidently he had expected him. - -The door opened about two feet and the General glared at him livid with -rage. He held one hand on the door and the other on its facing, and his -towering figure filled the space. - -“Good evening, General!” said Gaston with embarrassment. - -“What do you want, sir?” he growled. - -“I wish to see you for a few minutes.” - -“Well, I don’t want to see you.” - -“Whether you wish to or not, you must do it sooner of later,” answered -Gaston with dignity. - -“Indeed! Your insolence is sublime, I must say!” - -“The sooner you and I have a plain talk the better for both of us. It -can’t be put off any longer,” Gaston continued with self control. He -was looking the General straight in the eyes now, with head and broad -shoulders erect and his square-cut jaws were snapping his words with a -clean emphasis that was not lost on the older master of men before him. - -“Call at my office in the morning at ten o’clock.” he said, at length. - -“I will not do it. I am going home on the nine o’clock train. To-morrow -is Christmas day. The issue between us is of life import to me, and it -may be of equal importance to you. I will not put it off another hour!” - -The General glared at him. His hands began to tremble, and raising his -voice, he thundered, “I am not accustomed to take orders from young -upstarts. How dare you attempt to force yourself into my house when you -were told again and again not to attempt it, sir?” - -“Your former welcome to me on three occasions when the object of my -visits was as well known to you as to me, gives me, at least, the vested -rights of a final interview. I demand it,” retorted Gaston curtly. - -“And I refuse it!” Still there was a note of indecision in his voice -which Gaston was quick to catch. - -“General,” he protested, “you are a soldier and a gentleman. You never -fought an enemy with uncivilised warfare. Yet you have allowed some one -under your protection to stab me in the dark for the past year. I am -entitled to know why I fight and against whom. I ask your sense of -fairness as a soldier if I am not right?” - -The General hesitated, and finally said, as he opened the door, “Walk -into the parlour.” - -When they were seated, Gaston plunged immediately into the question he -had at heart. - -“Now, General, I wish to ask you plainly why you have treated me as you -have since I asked you for your daughter’s hand?” - -“The less said about it, the better. I have good and sufficient reasons, -and that settles it.” - -“But I have the right to know them.” - -“What right?” - -“The right of every man to face his accuser when on trial for his life.” - -“Bah! men don’t die nowadays for love, or women either,” the General -growled. - -“Besides,” continued Gaston, “you are under the deepest obligations to -tell me fairly your reasons.” - -“Obligations?” - -“The obligations of the commonest justice between man and man. You -invited me to your home. I was your welcome guest. You encouraged my -suit for your daughter’s hand.” - -“How dare you say such a thing, sir!” - -“Because she told me you did. I was led to believe that you not only -looked with favour on my suit, but that you were pleased with it. -I asked for your daughter. You insulted my manhood by refusing me -permission even to seek an interview, and know the reasons for your -change of views. Since then you have treated me with plain brutality. -Now something caused this change.” - -“Certainly something caused it, something of tremendous importance,” - said the General. - -“I am entitled to know what it is.” - -“Simply this. I received information concerning you, your habits, your -associates, your character, and your family, that caused me to change my -mind.” - -“Did you inquire as to their truth?” - -“It was unnecessary. I love my daughter beyond all other treasures I -possess. With her future I will take no risks.” - -“I have the right to know the charges, General,” insisted Gaston. “I -demand it.” - -“Well, sir, if you demand it, you will get it. I learned that you are -a man of the most dissolute habits and character, that you are a hard -drinker, a gambler, a rake and a spendthrift, and that your family’s -history is a deplorable one.” - -“My family history a deplorable one!” cried Gaston, springing to his -feet, with trembling clinched fists and scarlet face on which the blue -veins suddenly stood out. - -“I begged you to spare me and yourself the pain of this,” replied the -General in a softer voice. - -“No, I do not ask to be spared. Give me the particulars. What is the -stain on my family name?” - -“Not a moral one, but in some respects more hopeless, a physical one. I -have positive information that your people on one side are what is known -in the South as poor white trash--” - -Gaston smiled. “I thank you, General, for your frankness. The only wrong -of which I complain, is your withholding the name of the liar.” - -“There is no use of a fight over such things. I do not wish my -daughter’s name to be smirched with it.” - -“Her name is as dear to me as it can possibly be to you. Never fear. You -are her father, I honour you as such. I thank you for the information. I -scorn to stoop to answer. The humour of it forbids an answer if I could -stoop to make one. Now, General, I make you this proposition. I am not -in a hurry. I will patiently wait any time you see fit to set for any -developments in my life and character about which you have doubts. All -I ask is the privilege of writing to the woman I love. Is not this -reasonable?” - -“No, sir,” declared the General, “I will not have it. You are not in -a position to make me a proposition of any sort. I have settled this -affair. It is not open for discussion.” - -“You mean to say that I have no standing whatever in the case?” asked -Gaston with a smile, rubbing his hand over his smooth shaved lips and -chin. - -“Exactly. I’ve settled it. There’s nothing more to be said.” - -“I ’ll never give her up. She is the one woman God made for me, and -you will have to put me under the ground before you have settled my end -of it,” said Gaston still smiling. - -The old man’s face clouded for a moment, he wrinkled his brow, drew his -bushy eyebrows closer and then turned toward Gaston in a persuasive way. - -“Look here, Gaston, don’t be a fool. It’s amusing to me to hear a -youngster talk such drivel. Love is not a fatal disease for a man, or a -woman. You will find that out later if you don’t know it now. I loved -a half dozen girls, and when I got ready to marry, I asked the one -handiest, and that seemed most suited to my temper. We married and have -lived as happily as the romancers. The world is full of pretty girls. Go -on about your business, and quit bothering me and mine.” - -“There’s only one girl for me, General!” - -“That’s proof positive to my mind that you are a little cracked!” he -answered with a smile. - -Gaston laughed and shook his head. “I ’ll never give her up in this -world, or the next,” he doggedly added. - -Again the General frowned. “Look here, young man, did it ever occur to -you that your pursuit might be held the work of a low adventurer? My -daughter is an heiress. You haven’t’ a dollar. Don’t you know that I -will disinherit her if she marries without my consent?” - -“You can’t frighten me on that tack,” answered Gaston firmly. “No dollar -mark has yet been placed on the doors of Southern society. Manhood, -character and achievement are the keys that unlock it. You know that, -and I now it. I was poorer and more obscure the day you first invited me -here than to-day. And yet you gave me as hearty a welcome as her richest -suitor. All I ask is time to prove to you in my life my manhood and -worth,--one year, two years, five years, ten years, any time you see fit -to name.” - -“No, sir,” firmly snapped the General, “not a day. I don’t like long -engagements. Yours is ended, once and for all time. I have settled -that.” - -“Can even a father decide the destiny of two immortal souls off hand -like that?” - -“Now, you are assuming too much. I am not speaking for myself alone. I -have laid all the facts carefully before Sallie, and she has agreed to -the wisdom of my decision, and asked me to represent her in what I say -this evening.” - -Gaston turned pale, his lips quivered, and turning to the General -suddenly, he said, “That is the only important fact you have laid before -me. Just let her come here, stand by your side and say that with her own -lips, and I will never cross your path in life again.” - -The General hung his head and stammered, “No, it is not necessary. It -will embarrass and humiliate her. I will not permit it.” - -“Then I deny your credentials!” exclaimed Gaston. - -The General seemed embarrassed by the failure of this fatherly -subterfuge, and Gaston could not help smiling at the revelation of his -weakness. He decided to press his advantage and try to see her if only -for a moment. - -“General,” protested Gaston persuasively, “I appeal to your sense of -courtesy, even to an enemy. After all that has passed between us in this -house, is it fair or courteous to show me that door without one word of -farewell to the woman to whom I have given my life? Or is it wise from -your point of view?” - -Again the General hesitated. He was a big-hearted man of generous -impulses, and he felt worsted in this interview somehow, but it was hard -to deny such a request. He fumbled at his watch chain, arose, and said, -“I will see if she desires it.” - -Gaston’s heart bounded with joy! If she desired it! He could feel her -soul enveloping him with its love as he sat there conscious that she was -somewhere in that house praying for him! - -He fairly choked with the pain and the joy of the certainty that in a -moment he would be near her, touch her hand, see her glorious beauty and -his ears drink the music of her voice. - -“Just step this way,” said the General, re-appearing at the door. - -Gaston walked into the hall and met Sallie as she emerged from the -library door opposite. He tried to say something, but his throat was dry -and his tongue paralysed with the wonder of her presence! Besides, the -General stood grimly by like a guard over a life prisoner. - -He looked searchingly into her eyes as he held her hand for a moment -and felt its warm impulsive pressure. Oh! the eyes of the woman we love! -What are words to their language of melting tenderness, of faith and -longing. Gaston felt like shouting in the General’s face his triumph. -She tried to speak, but only pressed his hand again. It was enough. - -He bowed to the General, and left without a word. - - - - -CHAPTER III--A WHITE LIE - -THAT night as he walked back through the streets he was thrilled with -a sense of strength and of triumph. He knew his ground now. There was to -be war between him and the General to the bitter end. He had never asked -her once to oppose her father’s or mother’s command. Now he would see -who was master in a test of strength. And he was eager for the struggle. -His mind was alert, and every nerve and muscle tense with energy. - -“Heavens, how hungry I am!” he exclaimed when he reached the brilliantly -lighted business portion of the city. - -He went into a restaurant, ordered a steak, and enjoyed a good meal. He -recalled then that he had not eaten for twenty-four hours. The steak was -good, and the faces of the people seemed to him lit with gladness. He -was singing a battle song in his soul, and the eyes of the woman he -loved looked at him with yearning tenderness. - -“Now, Bob, I count on you,” he cried to his friend next morning. “I am -going to have a merry Christmas and you are to aid in the skirmishing.” - -“I’m with you to the finish!” Bob responded with enthusiasm. - -“We must make a feint this morning to deceive the enemy while I turn his -flank. I go home on the nine o’clock train. You understand?” - -“Yes, over the left. It’s dead easy too. There’s to be a big Christmas -party to-night at the Alexanders’. She’s invited. I ’ll see that she -goes to it if I have to drag her.” - -“Good. Don’t tell her I’m in town. I want to surprise her.” - -The General had a man at the morning train who reported Gaston’s -departure. He was surprised at Sallie’s good spirits but attributed it -to the magnificent present he had given her that morning of a diamond -ring and an exquisite pearl necklace. - -He bustled her off to the party that night and congratulated himself on -the certainty of his triumph over an aspiring youngster who dared to set -his will against his own. - -When the festivities had begun, and the children were busy with their -fireworks, Sallie strolled along the winding walks of the big lawn. She -was chatting with Bob St. Clare about a young man they both knew, and -when they reached the corner furthest from the house, under the shadows -of a great magnolia with low overhanging boughs she saw the figure of a -man. - -She smiled into Bob’s face, pressed his hand and said, “Now, Bob you’ve -done all a good friend could do. Go back. I don’t need you.” - -And Bob answered with a smile and left her. In a moment Gaston was by -her side with both her hands in his kissing them tenderly. - -“Didn’t I surprise you, dear?” he softly asked. - -“No. Bob denied you were here, but I knew it was a story. I was sure you -would never leave without seeing me. You couldn’t, could you?” - -“Not after what I saw in your eyes last night!” He whispered. - -“It seems a century since I’ve heard your voice,” she said wistfully. -“God alone knows what I have suffered, and I am growing weary of it.” - -“Do you think I have been treated fairly?” he asked. - -“No, I do not” - -“Then you will write to me?” - -“Yes. I will not starve my heart any longer.” And she pressed his hand. - -“You have made the world glorious again! When will you marry me, -Sallie?” he bent his face close to her, and for an answer she tenderly -kissed him. - -They stood in silence a moment with clasped hands, and then she said -slowly, “You didn’t want your freedom did you, dear? That’s the third -kiss, isn’t it? I wonder if kissing will be always as sweet! But you -asked me when we can marry? I can’t tell now. I can do nothing to shock -Mama. She seems to draw closer and closer to me every day. And now that -I have determined no power shall separate us, it seems more and more -necessary that I shall win Papa’s consent. He loves me dearly. I feel -that I must have his blessing on our lives. Give me time. I hope to win -him.” - -“And you will never let another week pass without writing to me?” - -“Never. Send my letters to Bob. He loves you better than he ever thought -he loved me. He will give them to me on Sundays at church, and when he -calls.” - -For two hours the kindly mantle of the magnolia sheltered them while -they told the old sweet story over and over again. And somehow that -night it seemed to them sweeter each time it was told. - - - - -CHAPTER IV--THE UNSPOKEN TERROR - -WHEN Gaston reached Hambright the following day, and whispered to his -mother the good news, he hastened to tell his friend Tom Camp. The young -man’s heart warmed toward the white-haired old soldier in this hour of -his victory. With sparkling eyes, he told Tom of his stormy scene with -the General, of its curious ending, and the hours he spent in heaven -beneath the limbs of an old magnolia. - -[Illustration: 0396] - -Tom listened with rapture. “Ah, didn’t I tell you, if you hung on you’d -get her by-and-by? So you bearded the General in his den did you? I -’ll bet his eyes blazed when he seed you! He’s got an awful temper -when you rile him. You ought to a seed him one day when our brigade was -ordered into a charge where three concealed batteries was cross firin’ -and men was failin’ like wheat under the knife. Geeminy but didn’t he -cuss! He wouldn’t take the order fust from the orderly, and sent to know -if the Major-General meant it. I tell you us fellers that was layin’ -there in the grass listenin’ to them bullets singin’ thought he was the -finest cusser that ever ripped an oath. - -“He reared and he charged, and he cussed, and He damned that man for -tryin’ to butcher his men, and he never moved till the third order came. -That was the night ten thousand wounded men lay on the field, and me in -the middle of ’em with a Minie ball in my shoulder. The Yankees and -our men was all mixed up together, and just after dark the full moon -came up through the trees and you could see as plain as day. I begun to -sing the old hymn, ‘There is a land of pure delight,’ and you ought to -have heard them ten thousand wounded men sing! - -“While we was singing the General came through lookin’ up his men. He -seed me and said, ‘Is that you, Tom Camp?’ - -“I looked up at him, and he was crying like a child, and he went on from -man to man cryin’ and cussin the fool that sent us into that hell-hole. -The General’s a rough man, if you rub his fur the wrong way, but his -heart’s all right. He’s all gold I tell you!” - -“Well, I’m in for a tussle with him, Tom.” - -“Shucks, man, you can beat him with one hand tied behind you if you’ve -got his gal’s heart. She’s got his fire, and a gal as purty as she is -can just about do what she pleases in this world.” - -“I hope she can bring him around. I like the General. I’d much rather -not fight him.” - -“Where’s Flora?” cried Tom looking around in alarm. - -“I saw her going toward the spring in the edge of the woods there a -minute ago,” replied Gaston. - -Tom sprang up and began to hop and jump down the path toward the spring -with incredible rapidity. - -Flora was playing in the branch below the spring and Tom saw the form of -a negro man passing over the opposite hill going along the spring path -that led in that direction. - -“Was you talkin’ with that nigger, Flora?” asked Tom holding his hand on -his side and trying to recover his breath. - -“Yes, I said howdy, when he stopped to get a drink of water, and he give -me a whistle,” she replied with a pout of her pretty lips and a frown. - -Tom seized her by the arm and shook her. “Didn’t I tell you to run every -time you seed a nigger unless I was with you!” - -“Yes, but he wasn’t hurtin’ me and you are!” she cried bursting into -tears. - -“I’ve a notion to whip you good for this!” Tom stormed. - -“Don’t Tom, she won’t do it any more, will you Flora?” pleaded Gaston -taking her in his arms and starting to the house with her. When they -reached the house, Tom was still pale and trembling with excitement. - -“Lord, there’s so many triflin’ niggers loafin’ round the county now -stealing and doin’ all sorts of devilment, I’m scared to death about -that child. She don’t seem any more afraid of ’em than she is of a -cat.” - -“I don’t believe anybody would hurt Flora, Tom,--she’s such a little -angel,” said Gaston kissing the tears from the child’s face. - -“She is cute--ain’t she?” said Tom with pride. “I’ve wished many a -time lately I’d gone out West with them Yankee fellers that took such a -likin’ to me in the war. They told me that a poor white man had a chance -out there, and that there wern’t a nigger in twenty miles of their home. -But then I lost my leg, how could I go?” - -He sat dreaming with open eyes for a moment and continued, looking -tenderly at Flora, “But, baby, don’t you dare go nigh er nigger, or let -one get nigh you no more’n you would a rattlesnake!” - -“I won’t Pappy!” she cried with an incredulous smile at his warning of -danger that made Tom’s heart sick. She was all joy and laughter, full of -health and bubbling life. She believed with a child’s simple faith that -all nature was as innocent as her own heart. - -Tom smoothed her curls and kissed her at last, and she slipped her arm -around his neck and squeezed it tight. - -“Ain’t she purty and sweet now?” he exclaimed. - -“Tom, you ’ll spoil her yet,” warned Gaston as he smiled and took his -leave, throwing a kiss to Flora as he passed through the little yard -gate. Tom had built a fence close around his house when Flora was a baby -to shut her in while he was at work. - -Two days later about five o’clock in the afternoon as Gaston sat in his -office writing a letter, to his sweetheart, his face aglow with love and -the certainty that she was his, as he read and re-read her last glowing -words he was startled by the sudden clang of the court house bell. -At first he did not move, only looking up from his paper. Sometimes -mischievous boys rang the bell and ran down the steps before any one -could catch them. But the bell continued its swift stroke seeming -to grow louder and wilder every moment. He saw a man rush across the -square, and then the bell of the Methodist, and then of the Baptist -churches joined their clamour to the alarm. - -He snapped the lid of his desk, snatched his hat and ran down the steps. - -As he reached the street, he heard the long piercing cry of a woman’s -voice, high, strenuous, quivering! - -“A lost child! A lost child!” - -What a cry! He was never so thrilled and awed by a human voice. In it -was trembling all the anguish of every mother’s broken heart transmitted -through the centuries! - -At the court house door an excited group had gathered. A man was -standing on the steps gesticulating wildly and telling the crowd all he -knew about it. Over the din he caught the name, “Tom Camp’s Flora!” - -He breathed hard, bit his lips, and prayed instinctively. - -“Lord have mercy on the poor old man! It will kill him!” A great fear -brooded over the hearts of the crowd, and soon the tumult was hushed -into an awed silence. - -In Gaston’s heart that fear became a horrible certainty from the first. -Within a half hour a thousand white people were in the crowd. Gaston -stood among them, cool and masterful, organising them in searching -parties, and giving to each group the signals to be used. - -In a moment the white race had fused into a homogeneous mass of love, -sympathy, hate, and revenge. The rich and the poor, the learned and the -ignorant, the banker and the blacksmith, the great and the small, they -were all one now. The sorrow of that old one-legged soldier was the -sorrow of all, every heart beat with his, and his life was their life, -and his child their child. - -But at the end of an hour there was not a negro among them! By some -subtle instinct they had recognised the secret feelings and fears of the -crowd and had disappeared. Had they been beasts of the field the gulf -between them would not have been deeper. - -When Gaston reached Tom’s house the crowd was divided into the groups -agreed upon and a signal gun given to each. If the child was not dead -when found two should be fired--if dead, but one. - -He sought Tom to be sure there was no mistake and that the child had not -fallen asleep about the house. He found the old man shut up in his room -kneeling in the middle of the floor praying. - -When Gaston laid his hand gently on his shoulder his lips ceased to -move, and he looked at him in a dazed sort of way at first without -speaking. - -“Oh!--it’s you, Charlie!” he sighed. - -“Yes, Tom, tell me quick. Are you sure she is nowhere in the house?” - -“Sure!--Sure?” he cried in a helpless stare. “Yes, yes, I found her -bonnet at the spring. I looked everywhere for an hour before I called -the neighbours!” - -“Then I’m off with the searchers. The signal is two guns if they find -her alive. One gun if she is dead. You will understand.” - -“Yes, Charlie,” answered the old soldier in a faraway tone of voice, -“and don’t forget to help me pray while you look for her.” - -“I’ve tried already, Tom,” he answered as he pressed his hand and left -the house. All night long the search continued, and no signal gun was -heard. Torches and lanterns gleamed from every field and wood, byway and -hedge for miles in every direction. - -Through every hour of this awful night Tom Camp was in his room -praying--his face now streaming with tears, now dry and white with the -unspoken terror that could stop the beat of his heart. His white hair -and snow-white beard were dishevelled, as he unconsciously tore them -with his trembling hands. Now he was crying in an agony of intensity, -“As thy servant of old wrestled with the angel of the Lord through the -night, so, oh God, will I lie at Thy feet and wrestle and pray! I will -not let Thee go until Thou bless me! Though I perish, let her live! -I have lost all and praised Thee still. Lord, Thou canst not leave me -desolate!” - -From the pain of his wound and the exhaustion of soul and body he -fainted once with his lips still moving in prayer. For more than an hour -he lay as one dead. When he revived, he looked at his clock and it was -but an hour till dawn. - -Again he fell on his knees, and again the broken accents of his husky -voice could be heard wrestling with God. Now he would beg and plead -like a child, and then he would rise in the unconscious dignity of an -immortal soul in combat with the powers of the infinite and his language -was in the sublime speech of the old Hebrew seers! - -Just before the sun rose the signal gun pealed its message of life, ONE! -TWO! in rapid succession. - -Tom sprang to his feet with blazing eyes. _One! Two!_ echoed the guns -from another hill, and fainter grew its repeated call from group to -group of the searchers. - -“There! Glory to God!” He screamed at the top of his voice, the last -note of his triumphant shout breaking into sobs. “God be praised! I knew -they would find her--she’s not dead, she’s alive! _alive!_ oh! my soul, -lift up thy head!” - -The tramp of swift feet was heard at the door and Gaston told him with -husky stammering voice, “She’s alive Tom, but unconscious. I ’ll have -her brought to the house. She was found just where your spring branch -runs into the Flat Rock, not five hundred yards from here in those -woods. Stay where you are. We will bring her in a minute.” - -Gaston bounded back to the scene. - -Tom paid no attention to his orders to stay at home, but sprang after -him jumping and falling and scrambling up again as he followed. Before -they knew it he was upon the excited tearful group that stood in a -circle around the child’s body. - -Gaston, who was standing on the opposite side from Tom’s approach, saw -him and shouted, “My God, men, stop him! Don’t let him see her yet!” But -Tom was too quick for them. He brushed aside, the boy who caught at him, -as though a feather, crying, “Stand back!” - -The circle of men fell away from the body and in a moment Tom stood over -it transfixed with horror. - -Flora lay on the ground with her clothes torn to shreds and stained with -blood. Her beautiful yellow curls were matted across her forehead in a -dark red lump beside a wound where her skull had been crushed. The stone -lay at her side, the crimson mark of her life showing on its jagged -edges. - -With that stone the brute had tried to strike the death blow. She was -lying on the edge of the hill with her head up the incline. It was too -plain, the terrible crime that had been committed. - -The poor father sank beside her body with an inarticulate groan as -though some one had crushed his head with an axe. He seemed dazed for -a moment, and looking around he shouted hoarsely, “The doctor boys! The -doctor quick! For God’s sake, quick! She’s not dead yet--we may save -her--help--help!” he sank again to the ground limp and faint from pain -and was soon insensible. - -Gaston gathered the child tenderly in his arms and carried her to the -house. The men hastily made a stretcher and carried Tom behind him. - - - - -CHAPTER V--A THOUSAND-LEGGED BEAST - -WHILE Gaston and the men were carrying Flora and Tom to the house, -another searching party was formed. There were no women and children -among them, only grim-visaged silent men, and a pair of little mild-eyed -sharp-nosed blood-hounds. All the morning men were coming in from the -country and joining this silent army of searchers. - -Doctor Graham came, looked long and gravely at Flora and turned a sad -face toward Tom. - -The ole soldier grasped his arm before he spoke. “‘Now, doctor -wait--don’t say a word yet. I don’t want to know the truth, if it’s the -worst. Don’t kill me in a minute. Let me live as long as there’s breath -in her body--after that! well, that’s the end--there’s nothin’ after -that!” - -The doctor started to speak. - -“Wait,” pleaded Tom, “let me tell you something. I’ve been praying all -night. I’ve seen God face to face. She can’t die. He told me so--” - -He paused and his grip on the doctor’s arm relaxed as though he were -about to faint, but he rallied. - -The kindly old doctor said gently, “Sit down Tom.” - -He tried to lead Tom away from the bed, but he held on like a bull dog. - -The child breathed heavily and moaned. - -Tom’s face brightened. “She’s comin’ to, doctor,--thank God!” - -The doctor paid no more attention to him and went on with his work as -best he could. - -Tom laid his tear-stained face close to hers, and murmured soothingly -to her as he used to when she was a wee baby in his arms, “There, there, -honey, it will be all right now! The doctor’s here, and he ’ll do all -he can! And what he can’t do, God will. The doctor ’ll save you. God -will save you! He loves you. He loves me. I prayed all night. He heard -me. I saw the shinin’ glory of His face! He’s only tryin’ His poor old -servant.” - -The broken artery was found and tied and the bleeding stopped. When the -wound in her head was dressed the doctor turned to Tom, “That wound is -bad, but not necessarily fatal.” - -“Praise God!” - -“Keep the house quiet and don’t let her see a strange face when she -regains consciousness,” was his parting injunction. - -The next morning her breathing was regular, and pulse stronger, but -feverish; and about seven o’clock she came out of her comatose state and -regained consciousness. She spoke but once, and apparently at the sound -of her own voice immediately went into a convulsion, clinching her -little fists, screaming and calling to her father for help! - -When Tom first heard that awful cry and saw her terrified eyes and drawn -face, he tried to cover his own eyes and stop his ears. Then he gathered -the little convulsed body into his arms and crooned into her ears, -“There, Pappy’s baby, don’t cry! Pappy’s got you now. Nothin’ can hurt -you. There, there, nothin’ shall come nigh you!” - -He covered her face with tears and kisses while he whispered and soothed -her to sleep. When the noon train came up from Independence, General -Worth arrived. Tom had asked Gaston to telegraph for him in his name. - -Tom eagerly grasped his hand. “General I knowed you’d come--you’re a man -to tie to. I never knowed you to fail me in your life. You’re one of the -smartest men in the world too. You never got us boys in a hole so deep -you didn’t pull us out”-- - -“What can I do for you?” interrupted the General. - -“Ah, now’s the worst of all, General. I’m in water too deep for me. My -baby, the last one left on earth, the apple of my eye, all that holds my -old achin’ body to this world--she’s--about--to--die! I can’t let her. -General, you must save her for me. I want more doctors. They say there’s -a great doctor at Independence. I want ’em all. Tell ’em it’s a poor -old one-legged soldier who’s shot all to pieces and lost his wife and -all his children--all but this one baby. And I can’t lose her! They -’ll come if you ask ’em--” His voice broke. - -“I ’ll do it, Tom. I ’ll have them here on a special in three hours -or maybe sooner,” returned the General pressing his hand and hurrying to -the telegraph office. - -The doctors arrived at three o’clock and held a consultation with Doctor -Graham. They decided that the loss of blood had been so great that the -only chance to save her was in the transfusion of blood. - -“I ’ll give her the blood, Tom,” said Gaston quietly removing his coat -and baring his arm. - -The old soldier looked up through grateful tears. - -“Next to the General, you’re the best friend God ever give me, boy!” - -The General turned his face away and looked out of the window. The -doctors immediately performed the operation, transfusing blood from -Gaston into the child. - -The results did not seem to promise what they had hoped. Her fever rose -steadily. She became conscious again and immediately went into the most -fearful convulsions, breaking the torn artery a second time. - -Just as the sun sank behind the blue mountains peaks in the west, her -heart fluttered and she was dead. - -Tom sat by the bed for two hours, looking, looking, looking with wide -staring eyes at her white dead face. There was not the trace of a tear. -His mouth was set in a hard cold way and he never moved or spoke. - -The Preacher tried to comfort Tom, who stared at him as though he did -not recognise him at first, and then slowly began, “Go away, Preacher, -I don’t want to see or talk to you now. It’s all a swindle and a lie. -There is no God!” - -“Tom, Tom!” groaned the Preacher. - -“I tell you I mean it,” he continued. “I don’t want any more of God or -His heaven. I don’t want to see God. For if I should see Him, I’d shake -my fist in His face and ask him where His almighty power was when my -poor little baby was screamin’ for help while that damned black beast -was tearin’ her to pieces! Many and many a time I’ve praised God when I -read the Bible there where it said, not a sparrow falleth to the ground -without His knowledge, and the very hairs of our head are numbered. -Well, where was He when my little bird was flutterin’ her broken -bleedin’ wings in the claws of that stinkin’ baboon,--damn him to -everlastin’ hell!--It’s all a swindle I tell you!” - -The Preacher was watching him now with silent pity and tenderness. - -“What a lie it all is!” Tom repeated. “Scratch my name off the church -roll. I ain’t got many more days here, but I won’t lie. I’m not a -hypocrite. I’m going to meet God cursin’ Him to His face!” - -The Preacher slipped his arm around the old soldier’s neck, and smoothed -the tangled hair back from his forehead as he said brokenly, “Tom, I -love you! My whole soul is melted in sympathy and pity for you!” - -The stricken man looked up into the face of his friend, saw his tears -and felt the warmth of his love flood his heart, and at last he burst -into tears. - -“Oh! Preacher, Preacher! you’re a good friend I know, but I’m done, -I can’t live any more! Every minute, day and night, I ’ll hear them -awful screams--her a callin’ me for help! I can see her lyin’ out there -in the woods all night alone moanin’ and bleedin’!” - -His breast heaved and he paused as if in reverie. And then he sprang up, -his face livid and convulsed with volcanic passions, that half strangled -him while he shrieked, “Oh! if I only had him here before me now, and -God Almighty would give me strength with these hands to tear his breast -open and rip his heart out!--I--could--eat--it--like--a--wolf!” - -* * * * * - -When they reached the cemetery the next day and the body was about to -be lowered into the grave, Tom suddenly spied old Uncle Reuben Worth -leaning on his spade by the edge of the crowd. Uncle Reuben was the -grave digger of the town and the only negro present. - -“Wait!” said Tom raising his hand. “Don’t put her in that grave! A -nigger dug it. I can’t stand it.” He turned to a group of old soldier -comrades standing by and said, “Boys, humour an old broken man once -more. You ’ll dig another grave for me, won’t you? It won’t take long. -The folks can go home that don’t want to stay. I ain’t got no home to go -to now but this graveyard.” - -His comrades filled up the grave that Uncle Reuben had dug, and opened -a new one on the other side of the graves where slept his other loved -ones. - -Gaston took Tom to his home and stayed with him several hours trying -to help him. He seemed to have settled into a stupor from which nothing -could rouse him. When at length the old man fell asleep, Gaston softly -closed the door and returned to his office with a heavy heart. - -As he neared the centre of the town, he heard a murmur like the distant -moaning of the wind in the hush that comes before a storm. It grew -louder and louder and became articulate with occasional words that -seemed far away and unreal. What could it be? He had never heard such -a sound before. Now it became clearer and the murmur was the tread of a -thousand feet and the clatter of horses’ hoofs. Not a cry, or a shout, -or a word. Silence and hurrying feet! - -Ah! he knew now. It was the searchers returning, a grim swaying -voiceless mob with one black figure amid them. They were swarming into -the court house square under the big oak where an informal trial was to -be held. - -He rushed forward to protest against a lynching. He could just catch a -glimpse of the negro’s head swaying back and forth, protesting innocence -in a singing monotone as though he were already half dead. - -He pushed his way roughly through the excited crowd, to the centre where -Hose Norman, the leader, stood with one end of a rope in his hand and -the other around the negro’s neck. - -The negro turned his head quickly toward the movement made by the crowd -as Gaston pressed forward. - -It was Dick! - -Dick recognised him at the same moment, leaped toward him and fell at -his feet crying and pleading as he held his feet and legs. - -“Save me, Charlie! I nebber done it! I nebber done it! For God’s sake -help me! Keep ’em off! Dey gwine burn me erlive!” - -Gaston turned to the crowd. “Men, there’s not one among you that loved -that old soldier and his girl as I did. But you must not do this crime. -If this negro is guilty, we can prove it in that court house there, and -he will pay the penalty with his life. Give him a fair trial”-- - -“That’s a lawyer talkin’ now!” said a man in the crowd. “We know that -tune. The lawyers has things their own way in a court house.” A murmur -of assent mingled with oaths ran through the crowd. - -“Fair trial!” sneered Hose Norman snatching Dick from the ground by the -rope. “Look at the black devil’s clothes splotched all over with her -blood. We found him under a shelvin’ rock where he’d got by wadin’ up -the branch a quarter of a mile to fool the dogs. We found his track in -the sand some places where he missed the water and tracked him clear -from where we found Flora to the cave he was lying in. Fair trial--hell! -We’re just waitin’ for er can o’ oil. You go back and read your law -books--we ’ll tend ter this devil.” - -The messenger came with the oil and the crowd moved forward. Hose -shouted, “Down by Tom Camp’s by his spring, down the spring branch to -the Flat Rock where he killed her!” - -On the crowd moved, swaying back and forth with Gaston in their midst by -Dick’s side begging for a fair trial for him. A crowd that hurries and -does not shout is a fearful thing. There is something inhuman in its -uncanny silence. - -Gaston’s voice sounded strained and discordant. They paid no more -attention to his protest than to the chirp of a cricket. - -They reached the spot where the child’s body had been found. They tied -the screaming, praying negro to a live pine and piled around his body a -great heap of dead wood and saturated it with oil. And then they poured -oil on his clothes. - -Gaston looked around him begging first one man then another to help him -fight the crowd and rescue him. Not a hand was lifted, or a voice raised -in protest. There was not a negro among them. Not only was no negro in -that crowd, but there was not a cabin in all that county that would -not have given shelter to the brute, though they knew him guilty of the -crime charged against him. This was the one terrible fact that paralysed -Gaston’s efforts. - -Hose Norman stepped forward to apply a match and Gaston grasped his arm. - -“For God’s sake, Hose, wait a minute!” he begged. “Don’t disgrace our -town, our county, our state, and our claims to humanity by this insane -brutality. A beast wouldn’t do this. You wouldn’t kill a mad dog or a -rattlesnake in such a way. If you will kill him, shoot him or knock him -in the head with a rock,--don’t burn him alive!” - -Hose glared at him and quietly remarked, “Are you done now? If you are, -stand out of the way!” - -He struck the match and Dick uttered a scream. As Hose leaned forward -with his match Gaston knocked him down, and a dozen stalwart men were -upon him in a moment. - -“Knock the fool in the head!” one shouted. - -“Pin his arms behind him!” said another. - -Some one quickly pinioned his arms with a cord. He stood in helpless -rage and pity, and as he saw the match applied, bowed his head and burst -into tears. - -He looked up at the silent crowd standing there like voiceless ghosts -with renewed wonder. - -Under the glare of the light and the tears the crowd seemed to melt into -a great crawling swaying creature, half reptile half beast, half dragon -half man, with a thousand legs, and a thousand eyes, and ten thousand -gleaming teeth, and with no ear to hear and no heart to pity! - -All they would grant him was the privilege of gathering Dick’s ashes and -charred bones for burial. - -***** - -The morning following the lynching, the Preacher hurried to Tom Camp’s -to see how he was bearing the strain. - -His door was wide open, the bureau drawers pulled out, ransacked, and -some of their contents were lying on the floor. - -“Poor old fellow, I’m afraid he’s gone crazy!” exclaimed the Preacher. -He hurried to the cemetery. There he found Tom at the newly made grave. -He had worked through the night and dug the grave open with his bare -hands and pulled the coffin up out of the ground. He had broken his -finger nails all off trying to open it and his fingers were bleeding. At -last he had given up the effort to open the coffin, sat down beside it, -and was arranging her toys he had made for her beside the box. He had -brought a lot of her clothes, a pair of little shoes and stockings, and -a bonnet, and he had placed these out carefully on top of the lid. He -was talking to her. - -The Preacher lifted him gently and led him away, a hopeless madman. - - - - -CHAPTER VI--THE BLACK PERIL - -THE longer Gaston pondered over the tragic events of that lynching the -more sinister and terrible became its meaning, and the deeper he was -plunged in melancholy. - -Beyond all doubt, within his own memory, since the negroes under -Legree’s lead had drawn the colour line in politics, the races had been -drifting steadily apart. The gulf was now impassable. - -Such crimes as Dick had committed, and for which he had paid such an -awful penalty, were unknown absolutely under slavery, and were unknown -for two years after the war. Their first appearance was under Legree’s -regime. Now scarcely a day passed in the South without the record of -such an atrocity, swiftly followed by a lynching, and lynching thus had -become a habit for all grave crimes. - -Since McLeod’s triumph in the state such crimes had increased with -alarming rapidity. The encroachments of negroes upon public offices had -been slow but resistless. Now there were nine hundred and fifty negro -magistrates in the state elected for no reason except the colour of -their skin. Feeling themselves intrenched behind state and Federal -power, the insolence of a class of young negro men was becoming more and -more intolerable. What would happen to these fools when once they roused -that thousand-legged, thousand-eyed beast with its ten thousand teeth -and nails! He had looked into its face, and he shuddered to recall the -hour. - -He knew that this power of racial fury of the Anglo-Saxon when aroused -was resistless, and that it would sweep its victims before its wrath -like chaff before a whirlwind. - -And then he thought of the day fast coming when culture and wealth would -give the African the courage of conscious strength and he would answer -that soul piercing shriek of his kindred for help, and that other -thousand-legged beast, now crouching in the shadows, would meet -thousand-legged beast around that beacon fire of a Godless revenge! - -More and more the impossible position of the Negro in America came home -to his mind. He was fast being overwhelmed with the conviction that -sooner or later we must squarely face the fact that two such races, -counting millions in numbers, can not live together under a Democracy. - -He recalled the fact that there were more negroes in the United States -than inhabitants in Mexico, the third republic of the world. - -Amalgamation simply meant Africanisation. The big nostrils, fiat nose, -massive jaw, protruding lip and kinky hair will register their animal -marks over the proudest intellect and the rarest beauty of any other -race. The rule that had no exception was that one drop of Negro blood -makes a negro. - -What could be the outcome of it? What was his duty as a citizen and -a member of civilised society? Since the scenes through which he -had passed with Tom Camp and that mob the question was insistent and -personal. It clouded his soul and weighed on him like the horrors of a -nightmare. - -Again and again the fateful words the Preacher had dinned into his ears -since childhood pressed upon him, “_You can not build in a Democracy a -nation inside a nation of two antagonistic races. The future American -must be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto_.” - -His depression and brooding over the fearful events in which he had so -recently taken part had tinged his life and all its hopes with sadness. -He had reflected this in his letters to Sallie Worth without even -mentioning the events. His heart was full of sickening foreboding. How -could one love and be happy in a world haunted by such horrors! He had -begged her to hasten her hour of final decision. He told her of his -sense of loneliness and isolation, and of his inexpressible need of her -love and presence in his daily life. - -Her answer had only intensified his moody feelings. She had written -that her love grew stronger every day and his love more and more became -necessary to her life, and yet she could not cloud its future with the -anger of her father and the broken heart of her mother by an elopement. -She feared such a shock would be fatal and all her life would be -embittered by it. They must wait. She was using all her skill to win her -father, but as yet without success. But she determined to win him, and -it would be so. - -All this seemed so far away and shadowy to Gaston’s eager restless soul. - -The letter had closed by saying she was preparing for another trip to -Boston to visit Helen Lowell and that she should be absent at least a -month. She asked that his next letter be addressed to Boston. - -Somehow Boston seemed just then out of the world on another planet, -it was so far away and its people and their life so unreal to his -imagination. - -But he sighed and turned resolutely to his work of preparation for an -event in his life which he, meant to make great in the history of the -state. It was the meeting of the Democratic convention, as yet nearly -two years in the future. He held a subordinate position in his party’s -councils, but defeat and ruin had taken the conceit out of the old line -leaders and he knew that his day was drawing near. - -“I ’ll take my place among the leaders and masters of men,” he told -himself with quiet determination, “I will compel the General’s respect; -and if I can not win his consent, I will take her without it.” - - - - -CHAPTER VII--EQUALITY WITH A RESERVATION - -THE lynching at Hambright had stirred the whole nation into unusual -indignant interest. It happened to be the climax of a series of such -crimes committed in the South in rapid succession, and the death of this -negro was reported with more than usual vividness by a young newspaper -man of genius. - -A grand mass meeting was called in Cooper Union, New York, at which were -gathered delegates from different cities and states to give emphasis and -unity to the movement and issue an appeal to the national government. - -When Sallie Worth reached Boston, she found Helen Lowell at home alone. -The Hon. Everett Lowell had made one of the speeches of his career at -the mass meeting held in Faneuil Hall, and he was in New York where he -had gone to make the principal address in the Cooper Union Convention of -Negro sympathisers. - -George Harris had accompanied him, supremely fascinated by the eloquent -and masterful appeal for human brotherhood he had heard him make in -Boston. There was something pathetic in the dog-like worship this young -negro gave to his brilliant patron. In his life in New England he had -been shocked more than once by the brutal prejudices of the people -against his race. His soul had been tried to the last of its powers -of endurance at times. He found to his amazement that, when put to the -test, the masses of the North had even deeper repugnance to the person -of a Negro than the Southerners who grew up with him from the cradle. -He had found himself cut off from every honourable way of earning his -bread, gentleman and scholar though he was, and had looked into the -river as he walked over the bridge to Cambridge one night with a -well-nigh resistless impulse to end it all. - -But Lowell had cheered him, laughed his gloomy ideas to scorn, and more -practical still, he had secured him a clerkship in the Custom House -which settled the problem of bread. Others had failed him, but this man -of trained powers had never failed him. He had taught him to lift up his -head and look the world squarely in the face. Lowell was, to his vivid -African imagination, the ideal man made in the image of God, calm in -judgment, free from all superstitions and prejudices, a citizen of the -world of human thought, a prince of that vast ethical aristocracy of the -free thinkers of all ages who knew no racial or conventional barriers -between man and man. - -Harris had published a volume of poems which he had dedicated to Lowell, -and his most inspiring verse was simply the outpouring of his soul in -worship of this ideal man. - -He was his devoted worshipper for another and more powerful reason. In -his daily intercourse with him in his library during his campaigns he -had frequently met his beautiful daughter, and had fallen deeply and -madly in love with her. This secret passion he had kept hidden in his -sensitive soul. He had worshipped her from afar as though she had been a -white-robed angel. To see her and be in the same house with her was -all he asked. Now and then he had stood beside the piano and turned the -music while she played and sang one of his new pieces, and he would live -on that scene for months, eating his heart out with voiceless yearnings -he dared not express. - -In his music he made his greatest success. There was a fiery sweep to -his passion, and a deep oriental rhythm in his cadence that held the -imagination of his hearers in a spell. It is needless to say it was in -this music he breathed his secret love. - -At first he had not dared to hope for the day when he could declare this -secret or take his place in the list of her admirers and fight for his -chance. But of late, a great hope had filled his soul and illumined -the world. As he had listened to Lowell’s impassioned appeals for human -brotherhood, his scathing ridicule of pride and prejudice, and -the poetic beauty of the language in which he proclaimed his own -emancipation from all the laws of caste, the fiery eloquence with which -he trampled upon all the barriers man had erected against his fellow -man, his soul was thrilled into ecstasy with the conviction that this -scholar and scientific thinker, at least, was a free man. He was sure -that he had risen above the limitations of provincialisms, racial or -national prejudices. - -He had begun to dream of the day he would ask this Godlike man for the -privilege of addressing his daughter. - -The great meeting at Cooper Union had brought this dream to a sudden -resolution. Lowell had outdone himself that night. With merciless -invective he had denounced the inhuman barbarism of the South in these -lynchings. The sea of eager faces had answered his appeals as water the -breath of a storm. He felt its mighty reflex influence sweep back on -his soul and lift him to greater heights. He demanded equality of man on -every inch of this earth’s soil. - -“I demand this perfect equality,” he cried, “absolutely without -reservation or subterfuge, both in form and essential reality. It is the -life-blood of Democracy. It is the reason of our existence. Without this -we are a living lie, a stench in the nostrils of God and humanity!” - -A cheer from a thousand negro throats rent the air as he thus closed. -The crowd surged over the platform and for ten minutes it was impossible -to restore order or continue the programme. Young Harris pressed his -patron’s hand and kissed it while tears of pride and gratitude rained -down his face. - -This speech made a national sensation. It was printed in full in all the -partisan papers where it was hoped capital might be made of it for the -next political campaign, and the National Campaign Committee of which -he was a member ordered a million copies of it printed for distribution -among the negroes. - -When Lowell and Harris reached Boston, as they parted at the depot -Harris said, “Will you be at home to-morrow, Mr. Lowell?” - -“Yes, why?” - -“I would like a talk with you in the morning on a matter of grave -importance. May I call at nine o’clock?” - -“Certainly. Come right into the library. You ’ll find me there, -George.” - -That night as Lowell walked through his brilliantly lighted home, he -felt a sense of glowing pride and strength. With his hands behind him he -paced back and forth in his great library and out through the spacious -hall with firm tread and flushed face. He felt he could look these great -ancestors in the face to-night as they gazed down on him from their -heavy gold frames. They had called him to high ambitions and a strenuous -life when his indolence had pleaded for ease and the dilettante-ism of -a fruitless dreaming. His father had cultivated his artistic tastes, -dreamed and done nothing. But these grim-visaged, eagle-eyed ancestors -had called him to a life of realities, and he had heard their voices. - -Yes, to-night his name was on a million lips. The door of the United -States Senate was opening at his touch and mightier possibilities loomed -in the future. - -He felt a sense of gratitude for the heritage of that stately old home -and its inspiring memories. Its roots struck down into the soil of a -thousand years, and spread beneath the ocean to that greater old world -life. He felt his heart beat with pride that he was adding new honours -to that family history, and adding to the soul-treasures his daughter’s -children would inherit. - -Seated in the library next morning Harris was nervous and embarrassed. -He made two or three attempts to begin the subject but turned aside with -some unimportant remark. - -“Well, George, what is the problem that makes you so grave this -morning?” asked Lowell with kindly patronage. - -Harris felt that his hour had come, and he must face it. He leaned -forward in his chair and looked steadily down at the rug, while he -clasped both his hands firmly across his lap and spoke with great -rapidity. - -“Mr. Lowell, I wish to say to you that you have taught me the greatest -faith of life, faith in my fellow man without which there can be no -faith in God. What I have suffered as a man as I have come in contact -with the brutality with which my race is almost universally treated, God -only can ever know. - -“The culture I have received has simply multiplied a thousandfold my -capacity to suffer. But for the inspiration of your manhood I would have -ended my life in the river. In you, I saw a great light. I saw a man -really made in the image of God with mind and soul trained, with head -erect, seeing the weak prejudices of caste, which dare to call the -image of God clean or unclean in passion or pride. - -“I lifted up my head and said, one such man redeems a world from infamy. -It’s worth while to live in a world honoured by one such man, for he is -the prophecy of more to come.” - -He paused a moment, fidgeted with a piece of paper he had picked up from -the table and seemed at a loss for a word. - -It never dawned on Lowell what he was driving at. He supposed, as a -matter of course, he was referring to his great speeches and was going -to ask for some promotion in a governmental department at Washington. - -“I’m proud to have been such an inspiration to you, George. You know how -much I think of you. What is on your mind?” he asked at length. - -“I have hidden it from every human eye, sir, I am afraid to breath it -aloud alone. I have only tried to sing it in song in an impersonal way. -Your wonderful words of late have emboldened me to speak. It is this--I -am madly, desperately in love with your daughter.” - -Lowell sprang to his feet as though a bolt of lightning had suddenly -shot down his backbone. He glared at the negro with wide dilated eyes -and heaving breath as though he had been transformed into a leopard or -tiger and was about to spring at his throat. - -Before answering, and with a gesture commanding silence, he walked -rapidly to the library door and closed it. - -“And I have come to ask you,” continued Harris ignoring his gesture, “if -I may pay my addresses to her with your consent.” - -“Harris, this is crazy nonsense. Such an idea is preposterous. I am -amazed that it should ever have entered your head. Let this be the end -of it here and now, if you have any desire to retain my friendship.” - -Lowell said this with a scowl, and an emphasis of indignant rising -inflection. The negro seemed stunned by this swift blow in his very -teeth, that seemed to place him outside the pale of a human being. - -“Why is such a hope unreasonable, sir, to a man of your scientific -mind?” - -“It is a question of taste,” snapped Lowell. - -“Am I not a graduate of the same university with you? Did I not stand as -high, and age for age, am I not your equal in culture?” - -“Granted. Nevertheless you are a negro, and I do not desire the infusion -of your blood in my family.” - -“But I have more of white than Negro blood, sir.” - -“So much the worse. It is the mark of shame.” - -“But it is the one drop of Negro blood at which your taste revolts, is -it not?” - -“To be frank, it is.” - -“Why is it an unpardonable sin in me that my ancestors were born under -tropic skies where skin and hair were tanned and curled to suit the -sun’s fierce rays?” - -“All tropic races are not negroes, and your race has characteristics -apart from accidents of climate that make it unique in the annals of -man,” rejoined Lowell. - -“And yet you demand perfect equality of man with man, absolutely in form -and substance without reservation or subterfuge!” - -“Yes, political equality.” - -“Politics is but a secondary phenomenon of society. You said absolute -equality,” protested Harris. - -“The question you broach is a question of taste, and the deeper social -instincts of racial purity and self preservation. I care not what your -culture, or your genius, or your position, I do not desire, and will not -permit, a mixture of Negro blood in my family. The idea is nauseating, -and to my daughter it would be repulsive beyond the power of words to -express it!” - -“And yet,” pleaded Harris, “you invited me to your home, introduced me -to your daughter, seated me at your table, and used me in your appeal to -your constituents, and now when I dare ask the privilege of seeking her -hand in honourable marriage, you, the scholar, patriot, statesman and -philosopher of Equality and Democracy, slam the door in my face and tell -me that I am a negro! Is this fair or manly?” - -“I fail to see its unfairness.” - -“It is amazing. You are a master of history and sociology. You know as -clearly as I do that social intercourse is the only possible pathway to -love. And you opened it to me with your own hand. Could I control the -beat of my heart? There are some powers within us that are involuntary. -You could have prevented my meeting your daughter as an equal. But all -the will power of earth could not prevent my loving her, when once I had -seen her, and spoken to her. The sound of the human voice, the touch of -the human hand in social equality are the divine sacraments that open -the mystery of love.” - -“Social rights are one thing, political rights another,” interrupted -Lowell. - -“I deny it. If you are honest with yourself, you know it is not true. -Politics is but a manifestation of society. Society rests on the family. -The family is the unit of civilisation. The right to love and wed where -one loves is the badge of fellowship in the order of humanity. The man -who is denied this right in any society is not a member of it. He is -outside any manifestation of its essential life. You had as well talk -about the importance of clothes for a dead man, as political rights for -such a pariah. You have classed him with the beasts of the field. As a -human unit he does not exist for you.” - -“Harris, it is utterly useless to argue a point like this,” Lowell -interrupted coldly. “This must be the end of our acquaintance. You must -not enter my house again.” - -“My God, sir, you can’t kick me out of your home like this when you -brought me to it, and made it an issue of life or death!” - -“I tell you again you are crazy. I have brought you here against her -wishes. She left the house with her friend this morning to avoid seeing -you. Your presence has always been repulsive to her, and with me it has -been a political study, not a social pleasure.” - -“I beg for only a desperate chance to overcome this feeling. Surely a -man of your profound learning and genius can not sympathise with such -prejudices? Let me try--let her decide the issue.” - -“I decline to discuss the question any further.” - -“I can’t give up without a struggle!” the negro cried with desperation. - -Lowell arose with a gesture of impatience. - -“Now you are getting to be simply a nuisance. To be perfectly plain with -you, I haven’t the slightest desire that my family with its proud record -of a thousand years of history and achievement shall end in this stately -old house in a brood of mulatto brats!” - -Harris winced and sprang to his feet, trembling with passion. “I see,” - he sneered, “the soul of Simon Le-gree has at last become the soul of -the nation. The South expresses the same luminous truth with a little -more clumsy brutality. But their way is after all more merciful. The -human body becomes unconscious at the touch of an oil-fed flame in sixty -seconds. Your methods are more refined and more hellish in cruelty. You -have trained my ears to hear, eyes to see, hands to touch and heart to -feel, that you might torture with the denial of every cry of body and -soul and roast me in the flames of impossible desires for time and -eternity!” - -“That will do now. There’s the door!” thundered Lowell with a gesture of -stern emphasis. “I happen to know the important fact that a man or woman -of negro ancestry, though a century removed, will suddenly breed back -to a pure negro child, thick lipped, kinky headed, flat nosed, black -skinned. One drop of your blood in my family could push it backward -three thousand years in history. If you were able to win her consent, a -thing unthinkable, I would do what old Virginius did in the Roman Forum, -kill her with my own hand, rather than see her sink in your arms into -the black waters of a Negroid life! Now go!” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII--THE NEW SIMON LEGREE - -HARRIS immediately resigned his office in the custom house which he -owed to Lowell and began a search for employment. - -“I will not be a pensioner of a government of hypocrites and liars,” he -exclaimed as he sealed his letter of resignation. - -And then began his weary tramp in search of work. Day after day, week -after week, he got the same answer--an emphatic refusal. The only thing -open to a negro was a position as porter, or bootblack, or waiter in -second-rate hotels and restaurants, or in domestic service as coachman, -butler or footman. He was no more fitted for these places than he was to -live with his head under water. - -“I will blow my brains out before I will prostitute my intellect, and -my consciousness of free manhood by such degrading associates and such -menial service!” he declared with sullen fury. - -At last he determined to lay aside his pride and education and learn a -manual trade. Not a labour union would allow him to enter its ranks. - -He managed to earn a few dollars at odd jobs and went to New York. Here -he was treated with greater brutality than in Boston. At last he got a -position in a big clothing factory. He was so bright in colour that the -manager never suspected that he was a negro, as he was accustomed to -employing swarthy Jews from Poland and Russia. - -When Harris entered the factory the employees discovered within an hour -his race, laid down their work, and walked out on a strike until he was -removed. - -He again tried to break into a labour union and get the protection of -its constitution and laws. He managed at last to make the acquaintance -of a labour leader who had been a Quaker preacher, and was elated to -discover that his name was Hugh Halliday, and that he was a son of one -of the Hallidays who had assisted in the rescue of his mother and father -from slavery. He told Halliday his history and begged his intercession -with the labour union. - -“I ’ll try for you, Harris,” he said, “but it’s a doubtful experiment. -The men fear the Negro as a pestilence.” - -“Do the best you can for me. I must have bread. I only ask a man’s -chance,” answered Harris. Halliday proposed his name and backed it up -with a strong personal endorsement, gave a brief sketch of his -culture and accomplishments and asked that he be allowed to learn the -bricklayer’s trade. - -When his name came up before the Brick Layers’ Union, and it was -announced that he was a negro, it precipitated a debate of such fury -that it threatened to develop into a riot. - -One of the men sprang toward the presiding officer with blazing eyes, -gesticulating wildly until recognised. - -“I have this to say,” he shouted. “No negro shall ever enter the door of -this Union except over my dead body. The Negro can under live us. We -can not compete with him, and as a race we can not organise him. Let him -stay in the South. We have no room for him here, and we will kill him if -he tries to take our bread from us!” - -“Have you no sympathy for his age-long sufferings in slavery?” - interrupted Halliday. - -“Slavery! of all the delusions the idea that slavery was abolished -in this country in 1865 is the silliest, Slavery was never firmly -established until the chattel form was abandoned for the wage system in -1865. Chattel slavery was too expensive. The wage system is cheaper. -Now they never have to worry about food, or clothes, or houses, or the -children, or the aged and infirm among wage slaves. - -“Once the master hunted the slave,--now the slave must hunt the master, -beg for the privilege of serving him and trample others to death trying -to fasten the chains on when a brother slave drops dead in his tracks. - -“No, I don’t shed any crocodile tears over the Negro slavery of the -South. It was a mild form of servitude, in which the Negro had plenty -to eat and wear, never suffered from cold, slept soundly and reared his -children in droves with never a thought for the morrow. - -“Then mothers and babes were sometimes, though not often, separated by -an executor’s or sheriff’s sale. Now, we know better than to allow babes -to be born. Then, a babe was a valuable asset and received the utmost -care. Now, we have baby farms which we fertilise with their bones. I -know of one old hag in this city who has killed over two thousand babes. - -“What chance has your girl or mine to marry and build a home? Not one in -a hundred will ever feel the breath of a babe at her breast. - -“No!” he closed in thunder tones. “I ’ll fight the encroachment of the -Negro on our life with every power of body and soul!” - -A hundred men leaped to their feet at once, shouting and gesticulating. -The chairman recognised a tall dark man with a Russian face, but who -spoke perfect English. - -“I, gentlemen, am an anarchist in principle, and differ slightly in -the process by which I come to the same conclusion as my friend who -has taken his seat. I grieve at the necessity before the workingmen -of returning to slavery. All we can hope now for a century or two -centuries, is socialism. Socialism is simply a system of slavery--that -is, enforced labour in which a Bureaucracy is master. We must enter -again a condition of involuntary servitude for the guarantee by the -State of food and clothes, shelter and children. - -“It is no time to weep over slavery. The one thing we demand now is the -nationalisation of industries under the control of State Bureaux which -will enforce labour from every citizen according to his capacity, for -the simple guarantee of what the negro slave received, the satisfaction -of the two elemental passions, hunger and love.” - -Again a clamour broke out that drowned the speaker’s voice. A Socialist -and an Anarchist clinched in a fight, and for five minutes pandemonium -reigned, but at the end of it Harris was tying on the sidewalk with a -gash in his head, and Halliday was bending over him. - -When Harris had recovered from his wound, Halliday took him on a round -of visits to big mills in a populous manufacturing city across in New -Jersey. - -“These mills are all owned by Simon Legree,” he informed Harris, “and -the unions have been crushed out of them by methods of which he is past -master. I don’t know, but it may be possible to get you in there.” - -They tried a half dozen mills in vain, and at last they met a foreman -who knew Halliday who consented to hear his plea. - -“You are fooling away your time and this man’s time, Halliday,” he told -him in a friendly way. “I’d cut my right arm off sooner than take a -negro in these mills and precipitate a strike.” - -“But would a strike occur with no union organisation?” - -“Yes, in a minute. You know Simon Legree who owns these mills. If a -disturbance occurred here now the old devil wouldn’t hesitate to close -every mill next day and beggar fifty thousand people.” - -“Why would he do such a stupid thing?” - -“Just to show the brute power of his fifty millions of dollars over the -human body. The awful power in that brute’s hands, represented in that -money, is something appalling. Before the war he cracked a blacksnake -whip over the backs of a handful of negroes. Now look at him, in his -black silk hat and faultless dress. With his millions he can commit any -and every crime from theft to murder with impunity. His power is greater -than a monarch. He controls fleets of ships, mines and mills, and has -under his employ many thousands of men. Their families and associates -make a vast population. He buys Judges, Juries, Legislatures, and -Governors and with one stroke of his pen to-day can beggar thousands of -people. He can equip an army of hirelings, make peace or war on his own -account, or force the governments to do it for him. He has neither faith -in God, nor fear of the devil. He regards all men as his enemies and all -women his game. - -“They say he used to haunt the New Orleans’ slave market, when he was -young and owned his Red River farm, occasionally spending his last -dollar to buy a handsome negro girl who took his fancy. - -“Look at him now with his bloated face, beastly jaw, and coarse lips. He -walks the streets with his lecherous eyes twinkling like a snake’s and -saliva trickling from the corners of his mouth practically monarch of -all he surveys. He selects his victims at his own sweet will, and with -his army of hirelings to do his bidding, backed by his millions, he -lives a charmed life in a round of daily crime. - -“How many lives he has blasted among the population of the multitude -of souls dependent on him for bread, God only knows. It is said he has -murdered the souls of many innocent girls in these mills--” - -“Surely that is an exaggeration,” broke in Halliday. - -“On the other hand I believe the picture is far too mild. I tell you no -human mind can conceive the awful brute power over the human body his -millions hold under our present conditions of life.” - -There was a tinge of deep personal bitterness in the man’s words -that held Halliday in a spell while he continued, “Under our present -conditions men and women must fight one another like beasts for food and -shelter. The wildest dreams of lust and cruelty under the old system of -Southern slavery would be laughed at by this modern master.” - -He paused a moment in painful reverie. - -“There lies his big yacht in the harbour now. She is just in from a -cruise in the Orient. She cost half a million dollars, and carries a -crew of fifty men. With them are beautiful girls hired at fancy wages -connected with the stewardess’ department. She ships a new crew every -trip. Not one of those young faces is ever lifted again among their -friends.” - -He paused again and a tear coursed down his face. - -“I confess I am bitter. I loved one of those girls once when I was -younger. She was a mere child of seventeen.” His voice broke. “Yes, she -came back shattered in health and ruined. I am supporting her now at a -quiet country place. She is dying. - -“Think of the farce of it all!” he continued passionately. - -“The picture of that brute with a whip in his hand beating a negro -caused the most terrible war in the history of the world. Three millions -of men flew at each other’s throats and for four years fought like -demons. A million men and six billions of dollars worth of property were -destroyed. - -“He was a poor harmless fool there beating his own faithful slave to -death. Compare that Legree with the one of to-day, and you compare a -mere stupid man with a prince of hell. But does this fiend excite the -wrath of the righteous? Far from it. His very name is whispered in -admiring awe by millions. He boasts that dozens of proud mothers strip -their daughters to the limit the police law will allow at every social -function he honours with his presence, and offer to sell him their -own flesh and blood for the paltry consideration of a life interest in -one-third of his estate! And he laughs at them all. His name is magic! - -“I know of one weak fool, a petty millionaire, whom Legree lured into a -speculative trap and ruined. On his knees in his Fifth Avenue palace the -whining coward kissed Legree’s feet and begged for mercy. He kicked him -and sneered at his misery. At last when he had tortured him to the verge -of madness he offered to spare him on one condition--that he should give -him his daughter as a ransom. And he did it. - -“No, the brute power of such a man to-day is beyond the grasp of the -human mind. His chances for debauchery and cruelty are limitless. The -brain of his hirelings is put to the test to invent new crime against -nature to interest his appetites. The only limit to his power of evil is -the capacity of the human mind to think, and his body to act and endure. -When he is exhausted, he can command the knowledge and the skill of ages -and the masters of all Science to restore his strength, while satellites -lick his feet and sing his praises-- - -“Risk the whim of such a man with the lives of these poor people -dependent on me? No, I’d sooner kill that negro you have brought here -and take my chances of detection.” - -Halliday gave up the task, returned to New York, and sought the aid of -the greatest labour leader in America, who had arrived in the city from -the West the day before. - -“No, Halliday,” he said emphatically. “Send your negro back down South. -We don’t want any more of them, or to come in contact with them. I have -just come from the West where a desperate strike was in progress in one -of Legree’s mines. Our men were toiling in the depth of the earth in -midnight darkness, never seeing the light of day, for just enough to -keep body and soul together. They tried to wring one little concession -from their absent master, who had never condescended to honour them with -his presence. What did he do? Shut down his mines, and brought up from -the South a herd of negroes who came crowding to the mines to push our -men back into hell. We begged them to go home and let us alone. They -grinned, shuffled and looked at their white driver for the signal to -go to work. I ordered the men to shoot them down like dogs. We made the -Governor issue a proclamation driving them back South and warning their -race that if they attempted to enter the borders of the state he would -meet them with Gatling guns. - -“No, send your friend South. The winters up here are too cold for him -and the summers too hot.” - -In the meantime Harris walked the streets with a storm of furious -passion raging in his soul. The realisation of the shame and the horror -of his position! He was the son of Eliza Harris who had fled from the -kindliest form of slavery in Kentucky. He had a trained mind, and the -brightest gifts of musical genius. Yet he stood that day at the door -of Simon Legree and begged in vain for the privilege of serving in the -meanest capacity as his slave! What a strange circle of time, those -forty years of the past! - -And then the tempter whispered the right word at the right moment, and -his fate was sealed. - -“There’s but one thing left. I will do it!” he exclaimed. - -He entered the employ of a gambling joint and deliberately began a -life of crime. After a month he won five hundred dollars, and went on -a strange journey, visiting the scenes in Colorado, Kansas, Indiana and -Ohio where negroes had recently been burned alive. He would find the -ash-heap, and place on it a wreath of costly flowers. He lingered -thoughtfully over the ash-piles he found in Kansas made from the flesh -of living negroes. He tried to imagine the figure of John Brown marching -by his side, but instead he felt the grip of Simon Legree’s hand on his -throat, living, militant, omnipotent. His soul had conquered the world. -Yet even Legree had never dared to burn a negro to death in the old days -of slavery. - -He found one of these ash-heaps at the foot of the monument in Indiana -to the great Western colleague of Thaddeus Stevens, and with a sigh -placed his wreath on it, and passed on into Ohio. - -He went to the spot where his mother had climbed up the banks of the -Ohio River into the promised land of liberty, and followed the track of -the old Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves a few miles. He came -to a village which was once a station of this system. Here strangest of -all, he found one of these ash-heaps in the public square. - - - - -CHAPTER IX--THE NEW AMERICA - -ANOTHER year of struggle and suffering, hope and fear, Gaston had -passed, and still he was no nearer the dream of realised love. If -anything had changed, the General’s pride had added new force to his -determination that his daughter should not marry the man who had defied -him. - -His chief reliance for Gaston’s defeat was on time, and the broadening -of Sallie’s mind by extended travel. He had sent her abroad twice, and -this year he sent her to spend another three months in Europe. - -These absences seemed only to intensify her longing for her lover. -On her return the General would burst into a storm of rage at her -persistence. She had ceased to give him any bitter answers, only smiling -quietly and maintaining an ominous silence. - -He had a new cause now of dislike for the man of her choice. Gaston had -become a man of acknowledged power in politics and was the leader of a -group of radical young men who demanded the complete reorganisation of -the Democratic party, the shelving of the old timers, among whom he was -numbered, and the announcement of a radical programme upon the Negro -issue. - -Radicalism of any sort he had always hated. Now, as advanced by this -young upstart, it was doubly odious. The General had never given much -time to his political duties, but his name was a power, and he gave -regularly to the campaign committee the largest cash contribution they -received. - -He tried in a clumsy way to put Gaston off the State Executive -Committee, but failed. He saw Gaston quietly laughing at him. Then he -opened his pocket book and worked up a machine. It was a formidable -power, and Gaston feared its influence in the coming convention. - -While this fight was in progress, and Sallie was in Europe, the -destruction of the _Maine_ in Havana harbour stilled the world into -silence with the echo of its sullen roar. There was a moment’s pause, -and the nation lifted its great silk battle flags from the Capitol at -Washington, and called for volunteers to wipe the empire of Spain from -the map of the Western world. - -The war lasted but a hundred days, but in those hundred days was packed -the harvest of centuries. - -War is always the crisis that flashes the search light into the souls of -men and nations, revealing their unknown strength and weakness, and the -changes that have been silently wrought in the years of peace. - -In these hundred days, statesmen who were giants suddenly shrivelled -into pigmies and disappeared from the nation’s life. Young men whose -names were unknown became leaders of the republic and won immortal fame. - -We were afraid that our nation still lacked unity. The world said we -were a mob of money-grubbers, and had lost our grasp of principle. The -President called for 125,000 men to die for their flag, and next morning -800,000 were struggling for place in the line. - -We feared that religion might threaten the future with its bitter feud -between the Roman Catholic and Protestant in a great crisis. We saw -our Catholic regiments march forth to that war with screaming fife and -throbbing drum and the flag of our country above them, going forth to -fight an army that had been blessed by the Pope of Rome. The flag had -become the common symbol of eternal justice, and the nation the organ -through which all creeds and cults sought for righteousness. - -We feared the gulf between the rich and the poor had become impassable, -and we saw the millionaire’s son take his place in the ranks with -the workingman. The first soldier wearing our uniform who fell before -Santiago with a Spanish bullet in his breast, was an only son from a -palatial home in New York, and by his side lay a cowboy from the West -and a plowboy from the South. Once more we showed the world that classes -and clothes are but thin disguises that hide the eternal childhood of -the soul. - -Sectionalism and disunity had been the most terrible realities in our -national history. Our fathers had a poet leader whose soul dreamed a -beautiful dream called _E Pluribus Unum._. But it had remained a dream. -New England had threatened secession years before South Carolina in -blind rage led the way. The Union was saved by a sacrifice of blood that -appalled the world. And still millions feared the South might be false -to her plighted honour at Appomattox. The ghost of Secession made and -unmade the men and measures of a generation. - -Then came the trumpet call that put the South to the test of fire and -blood. The world waked next morning to find for the first time in -our history the dream of union a living fact. There was no North, -no South,--but from the James to the Rio Grande the children of the -Confederacy rushed with eager flushed faces to defend the flag their -fathers had once fought. - -And God reserved in this hour for the South, land of ashes and tombs and -tears, the pain and the glory of the first offering of life on the altar -of the new nation. Our first and only officer who fell dead on the deck -of a warship, with the flag above him, was Worth Bagley, of North -Carolina, the son of a Confederate soldier. The gallant youngster who -stood on the bridge of the _Merrimac_, and between two towering -mountains of flaming cannon, in the darkness of night blew up his ship -and set a new standard of Anglo-Saxon daring, was the son of a -Confederate soldier of North Carolina. - -The town of Hambright furnished a whole company of eighty-six men, a -Captain, three Lieutenants, and a Major, who saw service in the war. - -When they were drawn up in the court house square under the old oak, -the Preacher stood before them and called the roll from four browned -parchments. They were Campbell county Confederate rosters. Every one -of the eighty-six men was a child of the Confederacy. And the immortal -company F, that was wiped out of existence at the battle of Gettysburg -furnished more than half these children. - -“Ah, boys, blood will tell!” cried the Preacher, shaking hands with each -man as they left. - -A single round from the guns, and it was over. The yellow flag of Spain, -lit with the sunset splendour of a world empire, faded from the sky of -the West. - -A new naval power had arisen to disturb the dreams of statesmen. The -_Oregon_, that fierce leviathan of hammered steel, had made her mark -upon the globe. In a long black trail of smoke and ribbon of foam, she -had circled the earth without a pause for breath. The thunder of her -lips of steel over the shattered hulks of a European navy proclaimed the -advent of a giant democracy that struck terror to the hearts of titled -snobs. - -He who dreamed this monster of steel, felt her heart beat, saw her rush -through foaming seas to victory, before the pick of a miner had -struck the ore for her ribs from a mountain side, was a child of the -Confederacy--that Confederacy whose desperate genius had sent then -_Alabama_ spinning round the globe in a whirlwind of fire. - -America united at last and invincible, waked to the consciousness of her -resistless power. - -And, most marvellous of all, this hundred days of war had re-united the -Anglo-Saxon race. This sudden union of the English speaking people in -friendly alliance disturbed the equilibrium of the world, and confirmed -the Anglo-Saxon in his title to the primacy of racial sway. - - - - -CHAPTER X--ANOTHER DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - -ALMOST every problem of national life had been illumined and made more -hopeful by the searchlight of war save one--the irrepressible conflict -between the African and the Anglo-Saxon in the development of our -civilisation. The glare of war only made the blackness of this question -the more apparent. - -While the well-drilled negro regulars, led by white officers acquitted -themselves with honour at Santiago, the negro volunteers were the source -of riot and disorder wherever they appeared. From the first, it was seen -by thoughtful men that the Negro was an impossibility in the newborn -unity of national life. When the Anglo-Saxon race was united into one -homogeneous mass in the fire of this crisis, the Negro ceased that -moment to be a ward of the nation. - -A negro regiment had been in camp at Independence during the war and -was still there awaiting orders to be mustered out. Its presence had -inflamed the passions of both races to the danger point of riot again -and again. The negro who was editing their paper at Independence had -gone to the length of the utmost license in seeking to influence race -antagonism. - -When the regiment of which the Hambright company was a member was -mustered out at Independence, Gaston was invited to deliver the address -of welcome home to the soldiers, and a crowd of five thousand people -were present, one-half of whom were negroes. - -While Gaston was speaking in the square, a negro trooper passing along -the street refused to give an inch of the sidewalk to a young lady and -her escort, who met him. He ran into the girl, jostling her roughly, and -the young white man knocked him down instantly and beat him to death. -The wildest passions of the negro regiment were roused. McLeod was among -them that day seeking to increase his popularity and influence in the -coming election, and he at once denounced Gaston as the cause of the -assault, and urged the leaders in secret to retaliate by putting a -bullet through his heart. - -The white regiment had been mustered out, and their guns in most cases -had been retained by the men. The negro troops were to be mustered out -the next day. - -Late in the afternoon Gaston had received information that a plot was on -foot to kill him that night, when a negro mob would batter down his door -on the pretense of searching for the man who had assaulted the trooper. -The Colonel of the regiment just disbanded heard it, and that night his -men bivouacked in the yard of the hotel and slept on their guns. - -A little after twelve o’clock, a mob of five hundred negroes attempted -to force their way into the hotel. They met a regiment of bayonets, -broke, and fled in wild confusion. - -This event was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. In the -morning paper a blazing notice in display capitals covered the first -page, calling a mass meeting of white citizens at noon in Independence -Hall. - -The little city of Independence was one of the oldest in the nation. -It boasted the first declaration of independence from Great Britain -antedating a year the Philadelphia document. The people had never rested -tamely under tyranny nor accepted insult. - -The McLeod Negro-Farmer Legislature had remodelled the ancient charter -of the city, and under the new instrument a combination of negroes and -criminal whites had taken possession of every office. - -One half of these office holders were incompetent and insolent negroes. -The Chief of Police was an ignoramus in league with criminals, and their -Mayor, a white demagogue elected by pandering to the lowest passions of -a negro constituency. - -Burglary and highway robbery were almost daily occurrences. The two -largest stores in the city and four residences had been burned within a -month. Appeal to the police became a farce, and it was necessary to -hire and arm a force of private guards to patrol the city at night. -When arrests were made, the servile authorities promptly released the -criminals. Negro insolence reached a height that made it impossible for -ladies to walk the streets without an armed escort, and white children -were waylaid and beaten on their way to the public schools. - -The incendiary organ of the negroes, a newspaper that had been noted for -its virulent spirit of race hatred, had published an editorial defaming -the virtue of the white women of the community. - -At eleven o’clock the quaint old hall, built in Revolutionary days -to seat five hundred people, was packed with a crowd of eight hundred -stern-visaged men standing so thick it was impossible to pass through -them and thousands were massed outside around the building. - -Gaston, whose ancestors had been leaders in the great Revolution, was -called to the chair. The speech-making was brief, fiery, and to the -point. - -Within one hour they unanimously adopted this resolution: - -“_Resolved, that we issue a second Declaration of Independence from the -infamy of corrupt and degraded government. The day of Negro domination -over the Anglo-Saxon race shall close, now, once and forever. The -government of North Carolina was established by a race of pioneer white -freemen for white men and it shall remain in the hands of freemen._ - -“_We demand the overthrow of the criminal and semi-barbarian régime under -which we now live, and to this end serve notice on the present Mayor of -this city, its Chief of Police, and the six negro aldermen and their low -white associates that their resignations are expected by nine o’clock -to-morrow morning. We demand that the negro anarchist who edits a paper -in this city shall close his office, remove its fixtures and leave this -county within twenty-four hours.”_ - -A committee of twenty-five, with Gaston as its Chairman, was appointed -to enforce these resolutions. - -By four o’clock an army of two thousand white men was organised, and -placed under the command of the Rev. Duncan McDonald, pastor of the -First Presbyterian Church of the city, who had been a brave young -officer in the Confederate army. Every minister in the county was -enrolled in this guard and carried a musket on picket duty, or in a -reserve camp that night. - -At six o’clock, Gaston summoned thirty-five of the more prominent -negroes of the county including two of the professors in Miss Susan -Walker’s college, to meet the Committee of Twenty-Five and receive -its ultimatum. Stern and hard of face sat the twenty-five chosen -representatives of that world-conquering race of men at one end of the -room, while at the other end sat the thirty-five negroes anxious and -fearful, realising that their day of dominion had ended. - -Gaston rose and handed them a copy of the resolutions. - -“We give you till seven-thirty to-morrow morning as the leaders of your -race to carry out these demands,” he said gravely. - -“But we have no authority, sir,” replied the negro preacher to whom he -handed the paper. - -“Your authority is equal to ours--the authority of elemental manhood. If -you can not execute them in peace, we will do it by force.” - -“We must decline such responsibility unless”--the negro started to argue -the question. - -“The meeting stands adjourned!” quietly announced Gaston, taking up his -hat and leaving the room followed by his Committee. - -At seven-thirty next morning no answer had been received. Gaston called -for seventy-five volunteers to execute the decrees. - -Within thirty minutes, five hundred men swung into line at eight -o’clock, and marched four abreast to the office of the negro paper. It -was promptly burned to the ground, its editor paid its cash value, and -with a rope around his neck, escorted to the depot and placed on a north -bound train. - -As Gaston handed him his ticket for Washington he quietly said to him, -“I have saved your life this morning. If you value it, never put your -foot on the soil of this state again.” - -“Thank you, sir. I ’ll not return.” - -While this guard, under strict military discipline, was executing this -decree, a mob of a thousand armed negroes concealed themselves in a -hedge-row and fired on them from ambush, killing one man and wounding -six. Gaston formed his men in line, returned the fire with deadly -effect, charged the mob, put them to flight, driving them into the woods -outside the city limits, and placed the town under informal but strict -martial law. By ten o’clock the resignation of every city and county -officer was in his hand, and the Mayor and Chief of Police were at his -feet begging for mercy. - -He posted a notice over the county warning every negro and white -associate that no further insolence or criminality would be tolerated. - -The county and municipal election was but three days off and there was -but one ticket on the field. When the white men elected were sworn in, -the guards went to the woods and told the terrified and half starving -negroes they could return to their homes, a competent police force was -organised, and the volunteer organisation disbanded. Negro refugees and -their associates once more filled the ear of the national government -with clamour for the return of the army to the South to uphold Negro -power, but for the first time since 1867, it fell on deaf ears. The -Anglo-Saxon race had been reunited. The Negro was no longer the ward -of the Republic. Henceforth, he must stand or fall on his own worth and -pass under the law of the survival of the fittest. - -This event made a tremendous impression on the imagination of the -people. It increased the popularity and power of Gaston, its intended -victim, The General was more than ever determined to destroy Gaston’s -power in the convention which was to meet in a few weeks. He had his -candidate for Governor well groomed and he had captured the largest -number of pledged delegates. There were three other candidates, but none -of them apparently were backed by Gaston. The General was puzzled at -his methods, and failed to discover his programme, though he spent money -with liberality and exhausted every resource at his command. - -A strange thing had occurred that had upset all calculations. Beginning -at Independence a race fire had broken into resistless fury and was -sweeping along the line of all the counties on the South Carolina border -and over the entire state with incredible rapidity. Everywhere, the -white men were arming themselves and parading the streets and public -roads in cavalry order dressed in scarlet shirts. This Red Shirt -movement was a spontaneous combustion of inflammable racial power that -had been accumulating for a generation. - -The Democratic Executive Committee was called together in haste and made -the most frantic efforts to stop it. But there was no head to it. It had -no organisation except a local one, and it spread by a spark flying from -one county to another. - -McLeod laughed at the address of the Democratic Committee and swore -Gaston was the organiser of the movement. He determined to nip it in the -bud by putting Gaston under a cloud that would destroy his influence. -He did not dare to attack him for his part in the Revolution at -Independence. He preferred to belittle that affair as a local -disturbance. - -But at an election for Congressman to fill a vacancy, the Democratic -candidate had won by a narrow margin in a campaign of great bitterness -under Gaston’s leadership. - -Charges of fraud were freely made on both sides. McLeod determined to -utilise these charges, and by producing perjured witnesses before a -packed court, place Gaston in jail without bail until the convention had -met. - -He had every advantage in such a conspiracy. The United States judge -whom he intended to utilise was a creature of his own making, a -trickster whose confirmation had been twice defeated in the Senate by -the members of his own party on his shady record. But he had won the -place at last by hook and crook, and McLeod owned him body and soul. - -Accordingly Gaston was arrested with a warrant McLeod had obtained -from his judge, arraigned before him and committed without bail. He was -charged with a felony under the election laws, taken to Asheville and -placed in jail. - -The audacity of this arrest and the vehemence with which McLeod pressed -his charges created a profound sensation in the state. It was rumoured -that the graver charge of murder lay back of the charge of felony -and would be pressed in due time. A murder had been committed in the -district during the exciting campaign and no clue had ever been found to -its perpetrator. McLeod knew he had no evidence connecting Gaston with -this event, but he knew that he had henchmen who would swear to any -thing he told them and stick to it. - - - - -CHAPTER XI--THE HEART OF A WOMAN - -A WEEK after Gaston’s imprisonment Sallie Worth arrived in New York -from her last trip abroad. She had cut her trip short and cabled her -father of her return. - -She was in an agony of suspense and uncertainty about her lover. -Gaston’s letters had failed to reach her for a month by reason of the -war which had demoralised the mail service. Her own letters had failed -to reach Gaston for a similar reason. - -The General hastened to New York to meet his wife and daughter and -persuade Sallie to remain in the North until December. He was hopeful -now that her long absence and Gaston’s absorption in politics, his -bitter opposition to him personally, and the cloud under which he rested -in prison, would be the final forces that would give him the victory in -the long conflict he had waged for the mastery of his daughter’s heart. - -Before informing Sallie of the stirring events at Independence and -the part Gaston had taken in them, or allowing her to learn of his -imprisonment, the General sought to find the exact state of her mind. - -“I trust, Sallie,” he began, “you are recovering from your infatuation -for this man. You know how dearly I love you. I have never taken a step -in life since I looked into your baby face that wasn’t for you and your -happiness.” - -She only looked at him wistfully and her eyes seemed to be dreaming, “I -want you to have some pride. Gaston has attempted to kick me out of the -councils of the party, and become the dictator of the state. His course -is one of violence and radicalism. I regard him as a dangerous man, and -I want you to have nothing to do with him.” - -She was gravely silent. - -“Do you believe he has been faithfully dreaming of you in your absence?” - asked the General. - -“Yes, I do!” - -“Then let me disabuse your mind. It is not the way of strong men. He -is absolutely absorbed in a desperate political struggle in which his -personal ambition’s are first. I have seen him paying the most devoted -attentions to the daughter of our rival down east, whose influence he -wants, and it is rumoured among his friends that he has proposed to -her.” - -“Who told you that?” she asked impetuously. - -“I had it first from Allan, but I’ve heard it since from others.” - -“I do not believe a word of it,” she declared. - -“That’s because you’re a woman and hold such silly ideals. I tell -you, he wants you only because he knows you are rich, and he wishes to -brow-beat me. Such a man will try to whip you before you have been -his wife five years. I know that kind of man. Why can’t you trust my -judgment?” - -“I had rather trust my heart’s intuitions, Papa, I can not be deceived -in such a question.” - -“Well, you are being deceived. He is anything but a languishing lover. -At present he is a political tiger at bay. Unless you hold him to you by -some pledge he has given, he will forget you, and marry another in two -years. I am a man and I know men. I thought I was desperately in love -twice before I met your mother. I got over both attacks without a -scratch, fell in love with her, married and have lived happily ever -since. You have overestimated your own importance to him and your -influence over him.” - -A great fear awed her into silence. For the first time in all her -struggle with her father the sense suddenly came into her heart of her -dependence on Gaston’s love for the very desire to live, and for the -first time she realised the possibility of losing him. What if he should -press his great ambitions to successful issue while she stood irresolute -and tortured him with her indecision? If he could win the world’s -applause without her, might he not, when successful, cease to need her? -Her breast heaved with the tumult of uncertainty. What if another woman -saw and loved him, and drew near to him in his hours of soul loneliness -and struggle, and he had learned to see her face with joy! The -conviction came crushing upon her that she had not responded bravely to -this powerful man’s singular devotion into which he had poured without -reserve his deepest passion. Had he weighed her and found her wanting -in some dark hour in her absence? Her heart was in her throat at the -thought! - -The General watched her keenly for several moments, and thought at last -he had broken the spell. He believed he could now tell her of the cloud -that hung over Gaston. - -“I said, Sallie, that I believed Gaston a dangerous man. I did not -speak lightly. We have had terrible riots in Independence while you -were absent in which Gaston was the leader of an armed revolution which -overturned the city and county government. Two thousand men were under -arms for a week and several were killed and wounded on both sides. The -results were good as a whole, I confess. We have a decent government -and we have security of property and life, but such methods will lead to -civil war.” - -Her face grew tense, and she looked at her father with breathless -interest during this recital. - -“Was he in danger in those riots?” she slowly asked. - -“Yes, and I expect him to be killed at an early day if he continues his -present methods. A mob of five hundred negroes attempted to kill him. -This was one of the causes that led to the Revolution.” - -She was on her feet now pale and trembling with excitement. - -“Where is he?” she gasped. - -“Now, my dear, it’s useless to get excited. The trouble is all over -and a new Mayor and police force are in charge of the city. But he -is resting under a serious cloud at present. He is held in jail at -Asheville on a charge of felony, and a charge of murder is being -pressed.” - -“In jail! in jail!” she cried incredulously while her eyes filled with -tears. - -“Yes, and Allan believes these ugly charges will be proved in the United -States court, and he will be convicted.” - -She did not seem to hear the last sentence. - -“In jail!” she repeated, “my lover, to whom I have given my life, and -you, my father, while I was three thousand miles away stood by and did -not lift a hand to help him?” - -“Has he not been my bitterest enemy, seeking to insult me!” thundered -the General. - -“No, he never insulted you, or spoke one unkind word about you in his -life. Oh! this is shameful! God forgive me that I was not here!” Tears -were streaming down her face. - -“You hold me responsible for the crazy young scamp’s career?” cried the -General indignantly. - -“Not another word to me!” she exclaimed. “You shall not abuse him in my -presence.” - -The General was afraid of her when she used the tone of voice in which -she uttered that sentence. He had heard it but once before, and that was -when she told him she was a free woman twenty-one years old, and he had -broken down. He looked at her now, fearing to speak. At length he said, -“I have engaged a suite of rooms for you here at the Waldorf-Astoria, -my dear, for the winter. I hope you will enjoy the season. Let us change -this painful subject.” - -“I do not want the rooms,” she firmly replied, “I am going to Asheville -on the first train.” - -The General stormed and raged for an hour, but she made no reply. Her -mother was suffering from the effects of the voyage and took no part in -this storm. - -“But your mother will not be able to accompany you. Surely you will not -disgrace me by visiting that man in jail!” - -“I will. And when he is released I will return. I will visit Stella -Holt. I shall have ample protection.” - -The General was afraid to oppose her in this dangerous mood, and begged -her mother to try to prevent her going. Sallie sent Gaston a telegram -that she was coming. - -In obedience to the General’s request her mother called her into her -room that night and they had a long talk and cry in each other’s arms. - -Mrs. Worth did not try very hard to persuade her not to go. Down in her -own woman’s soul she knew what she would do under similar conditions, -and she was too honest with her child to try to deceive her. She only -made love to her mother-fashion. - -“Oh! Mama,” cried Sallie, burying her face beside her mother as she lay -in bed. “I am at a great soul crisis. I don’t know what to do. I feel -lonely, helpless and heart-sick. You are a woman. Put your dear arms -about me and help me to know the truth and my duty. I want to ask you a -question.” - -“What is it, darling? I ’ll answer it, if I can,” she replied stroking -her dark hair tenderly. - -“Do you believe these stories about Charlie’s character?” - -“Not one word of them!” she promptly answered. - -An impulsive kiss and a sob! - -“Dear Mother!” she said in a low tearful voice. “And now one more. Papa -has been dinning into my ears his own fickleness in love when young and -the fact that he knows in a long life that love is of little importance -in a man’s existence. He says that I can forget and love again with -equal intensity and bet’ter judgment. Can one treat thus lightly the -soul’s deepest instincts and still find life rich and worthy of effort?” - Her voice broke and she continued slowly and tremblingly, as she held -one of her mother’s hands tightly, “Now, Mama dear, heart to heart, tell -me as you would talk in your inmost soul to God, do you believe this is -true? You have sounded life’s deep meaning Is this all you know of life? -You love me. Tell me truly?” - -“No, darling, a woman can not deny this deep yearning of her soul and -live. I would tear my tongue out sooner than deceive you in such an -hour.” - -“Sweet Mother!” she softly murmured again as she kissed her good night. - - - - -CHAPTER XII--THE SPLENDOUR OF SHAMELESS LOVE - -WHEN Gaston received her telegram in jail he was seated by a window -looking out through the bars on Mt. Pisgah’s distant peak looming in -grandeur amid a sea of smaller blue mountain waves. He read the message -and his soul was filled with a great peace. - -“At last! at last! These prison bars, they are good! I could kiss them. -I can never be grateful enough to my enemies!” - -He had taken his prison as a joke from the first, sneering at the judge -who had committed him. He knew that every day he stayed in that jail he -was becoming more and more the master of the people. If McLeod had tried -he could not have played into his hands with more fatal certainty. Five -hundred citizens of Independence had wired him their congratulations and -offered him any assistance he desired, from unlimited money for defence -to a delegation to tear the jail down. - -He declined any assistance. He knew the storm would break over their -heads soon enough, and they would be delighted to get rid of him. In the -meantime he gave himself up to his thoughts about the woman he loved, -and wondered what change had suddenly come over her to send him that -message. He felt sure the great crisis in their life had come. What -would it be? A sorrowful surrender on her part to her father’s iron will -and a tearful good-bye forever, or the full surrender of her woman’s -soul and body to the dominion of his love? - -He was glad the hour had struck that should decide. He trembled at the -import of her answer but he was ready to receive it. - -A carriage rolled into the jail enclosure and two young ladies alighted. -One of them stopped in the sitting room for visitors, and he heard the -tramp of a man’s heavy feet on the stairs and after it the tread of a -woman like a soft echo. - -The key grated in the lock, the door opened. She looked into his eyes -for just an instant of searching soul revelation, saw the yearning and -the grateful tears, and with a glad cry sprang into his arms. - -“You do love me!” she passionately cried. - -“Love you? I drew you back across the sea with my love. I knew you would -come. I willed it with a power you couldn’t resist.” - -“I never got your letters, and I was hungry to see you,” she whispered. - -“And I never got yours, and drew you back by the power of a great heart -purpose.” - -“Forgive me, for being away from you when you were in danger.” - -“I was glad you were safe. Don’t let this jail alarm you. I ’ll be out -too soon for my good I’m afraid.” - -“No other woman has come into your heart to cheer it even with her -friendship since I’ve been away, has she?” - -“What a silly question. I’ve never looked at any other woman since the -day I first saw you!” - -“Tell me you love me again!” - -“I--love--you, unto the uttermost, in life, in death, forever!” he -whispered tenderly. - -She sighed and smiled. “The sweetest music the ear of a woman ever -heard!” she half laughed, half cried. - -“Now, my dear, you are a full-grown woman in the beauty of a perfect -womanhood. For five years and more, I have waited and suffered. My life -is an open book before you. When are you going to end this suspense? You -must decide now whether your father’s will shall rule your life or my -love?” - -“Must I decide to-day?” she asked tremblingly. - -“Yes,” he answered. “It is not fair to torture me longer.” - -“Then I give up!” she tearfully exclaimed. “God forgive me if I am doing -wrong! I can not resist you longer. I do not desire to,--I _will_ not! -I am all yours, forever--soul, body, will, honour, life--all! I can not -live without you. I love you. I _love you!_--Kiss me!--again--ah, your -lips are sweeter than honey! Am I bold to say it? I do not care, I am -yours. Your arms are the bonds of my slavery and they are sweet!” - -Gaston was trembling with the joy that flooded his being with these the -first words of perfect faith and submissive love that had come from her -lips. And he winced at the memory now of those hours of dissipation when -he had doubted her. He tried to confess it and receive her absolution. - -“My dear, my joy is too great. It is pain, as well as joy. In the dark -days of our first year of separation I thought once you had forgotten -me. I went away into two weeks of debauchery. Your perfect love crushes -me with its beauty and purity. I must confess this wrong to you. I must -not deceive you in the smallest thing in this hour.” - -She placed her hand over his lips, “I will not hear it. I ought to have -been braver and fought for my rights and yours. I will not hear one word -of humiliation from you. I love you. You are my king. I love you, good -or bad. I would love you if you were a murderer on the gallows. I -can not help it. I do not wish to help it. I will follow you to the -bottomless pit or to the throne of God and say it without fear to devil -or angel. Kiss me again!--There, do not cry--let me see your beautiful -brown eyes. I ’ll kiss the tears away. Tears are for my eyes not -yours!” - -“Then you will fix the day, dear?” he softly urged. - -“How soon would you like it?” - -“The sooner the better.” - -“Then I fix to-day,” she said impulsively. - -“What, here, in this jail?” - -“Yes, where you are is heaven to me. I haven’t noticed the jail,” she -said soberly. - -He looked at her a moment, strained her to his heart and brushed the -tears of joy from his eyes. - -“My beautiful queen! This hour is worth every pain and every throb of -anguish I have suffered. Its memory will encompass life with a great -light.” - -“I ’ll go with Stella, see Dr. Durham who is here looking after your -case, have him get the license, and we will be back in half an hour!” - -The Preacher greeted her with delight. “Ah! Miss Sallie, if I had known -a little thing like this would have brought you back, I would have hired -a jail for him long ago, and put him in it.” - -“Doctor, I want you to get the license and marry us now, will you do -it?” - -“Will I? Just watch me. I ’ll have the documents and be ready for the -ceremony in fifteen minutes!” cried the preacher as he hurried to the -office of the Register of Deeds. - -Sallie ran up to Mrs. Durham’s room, told her, and asked her to be one -of the witnesses. - -“Of course, I will, Sallie. You are the one girl in the world I have -always wanted Charlie to marry.” - -Sallie slipped her arm around Mrs. Durham. “You don’t think I am doing -wrong to disobey my parents thus, do you?” she faltered. “I feel just -for a moment, now that I have decided, bruised and homesick,--I want my -mother. Let me feel your arms about my neck just once. You are a woman. -You love me as well as Charlie, tell me, am I doing wrong?” - -Mrs. Durham kissed her. “I do love you child. It is a solemn hour for -your soul. You alone can decide such a question. Any intrusion of advice -in such a trial would be a sacrilege. Under ordinary conditions it would -be a dangerous thing for a girl thus to leave her father’s roof and take -this step that will decide forever her destiny. Marriage is something -that swallows up life, the past, the present, the future. We seem to -have never known anything else. I can only say, if I were in your place, -knowing all I would do as you are doing.” - -Sallie impulsively kissed her, bit her lips to keep back a tear, and -held her hand. - -“I know your father well,” she continued. “He is a man I greatly admire. -But he is unreasonable with any one who dares to cross his will. You -could never get his consent now that his pride is aroused except by -forcing it. When it is over, he will forgive you, and when he knows your -lover as I know him, he will be as proud of his son-in-law as a peacock -of his plumage.” - -“Oh, it is so sweet to hear just the advice one wishes in such an hour,” - cried Sallie. “I shall always love you for these words.” - -“Yes, I congratulate you on the end of your long hesitation. I know you -will be happy. Any woman would be happy with the love of such a man, and -he was made for you.” - -“Then you don’t believe with Papa,” she said with a smile, “that his -mouth is cruel, and that he will try to whip me in five years, do you?” - -Mrs. Durham laughed. “Yes, he will whip you, but they will be love licks -and you will cry for more. Your lover is a rare and brilliant man. He -is strong, rugged, resistless in will, fierce in his passions from the -blood of sunny France in his veins, and masterful in life from the iron -heritage of the hardier races. You have seen these traits. Wait until -you know him as I do in his daily life, and you will find a wealth of -patience and a depth of tenderness that will startle. I envy you.” - -“Thank you,” Sallie interrupted. “You don’t know how glad your words are -to my heart. I’ve not seen much of that trait yet. I’ve been half afraid -of him sometimes. Let me kiss you again.” - -The keeper of the jail treated Gaston with every consideration and -arranged for the marriage to take place in the little sitting room where -he allowed him to come on parole. - -The bride wore a plain travelling dress in which she had come from New -York. She had driven from the depot past Stella Holt’s home, and with -her straight to the jail. - -Gaston thought her the fairest vision that ever greeted the eye of -man as he stood by her side; for he had seen that day the soul of a -radiantly beautiful woman in the splendour of shameless love. His own -soul was drunk with the joy of it all and his eyes now devoured her with -their intense light. - -Standing there before the Preacher whom he loved as his father, and the -foster mother who had wrapped his little shivering body in the warmth of -a great heart that night the light of life went out in his own mother’s -room, with Stella Holt’s sympathetic face reflecting her friend’s -happiness, the marriage ceremony was performed. He took Sallie’s -trembling hand in his and promised to love, honour and cherish her -as long as life endured. And under his breath he added, “Here and -hereafter--forever.” And then she looked into his smiling face with her -blue eyes full of unspeakable love, and in a voice low and soft as the -note of a flute, gave to him her life. - -And the Preacher said, “What God hath joined together, let not man put -asunder!” - -She stayed there with him until the gathering twilight. - -“Now, I must hurry back to my father and win him. I will not come to you -a beggar. My father shall not disinherit me. I am going to bring you my -fortune, too.” - -“Oh! curse that fortune, dear! I’ve feared it was that keeping us apart -so long.” - -“Don’t curse it. I like it, and I am going to win it for you. You are a -man of genius. Your success is as sure as if it were already won. I -will not come to you a helpless pauper. I have never been taught to do -anything. I should like to cook for you if I knew how, and I am going to -learn how. I am going to make you the most beautiful home that the heart -of a woman can dream I’d rob the world for treasure for it. I am going -to rob my dear old father. He has sworn to disinherit me if I marry -without his consent. He shall not do it.” - -“Then, don’t be long about it. You are my treasure. I can build you a -snug little nest at Hambright.” - -“I will only ask four weeks. Now do what I tell you. Sit down and write -Papa a letter telling him I am your affianced bride and ask his consent -to the celebration of our marriage within three weeks. That will produce -an earthquake, and something will surely happen within four weeks.” - -He wrote the letter, and she looked over his shoulder. “You see, dear,” - she said as she kissed him good-bye, “I love Papa so tenderly. You can’t -understand how close the tie is between us, perhaps some day in our own -home of which I’m dreaming you may understand as you can not now,” she -added softly. - -“Then for your sake, dearest, I hope you can win him. But I’m afraid of -this plan of yours.” - -“Leave it with me for a month, do just as I tell you, and then I ’ll -obey you all the rest of our lives,--if your orders suit me,” she -playfully added. - -She returned to Stella Holt’s, and Gaston went back to his jail room and -dreamed that night he was sleeping in the Governor’s Palace. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII--A SPEECH THAT MADE HISTORY - -WHEN General Worth received Gaston’s brief and startling letter, -the wires were hot between New York and Asheville for hours. His last -message was a peremptory command to his daughter to join him immediately -at Independence. - -When Sallie arrived at Oakwood the General was already there, and the -storm broke in all its fury. At every bitter word she only quietly -smiled, until the General was on the verge of collapse. Day after day -he begged, pleaded, raged and finally took to hard swearing as he looked -into her calm happy face. - -In the meantime McLeod and his henchman on the judge’s bench had seen -a new light. The excitement over the arrest of Gaston seemed to have -fanned the flames of the Red Shirt movement into a conflagration. He was -alarmed at its meaning. The judge heard a rumour that five thousand Red -Shirts were mobilising at the foot of the Blue Ridge near Hambright, -and that they were going to march across the mountains, into Asheville, -demolish the jail, liberate Gaston, and hang the judge who had committed -him without bail. - -The rumour was a fake, but he was not taking any chances. He issued an -order releasing Gaston on his own recognisance, and left for a vacation. - -Gaston returned to Hambright showered with congratulatory telegrams from -every quarter of the state. - -He received a brief note from Sallie saying the war was on but had -not reached its final climax, as the General was now devoting his best -energies to the Democratic convention which was to meet in ten days, -when he expected to crush any “fool movement of young upstarts!” - -Gaston knew of his organisation but he was sure the number of delegates -pledged to the General’s machine was not enough to dominate the body, -even if he could hold them in line. - -When this convention met at Raleigh, no body of representative men were -ever more completely at sea as to the platform or policy upon which they -would appeal to the people for the overthrow of an enemy. The coalition -that conquered the state and held it with the grip of steel for four -years was stronger than ever and was absolutely certain of victory. The -enormous patronage of the Federal Government had been in their hands for -four years, and with the state, county and municipal officers, a host of -powerful leaders had been gathered around McLeod’s daring personality. -Apparently he was about to fasten the rule of the Negro and his allies -on the state for a generation. - -When Gaston entered the convention hall he received an ovation, -heartfelt and generous, but it did not reach the point of a disturbing -element in the calculations of the three or four prominent candidates -for Governor. General Worth had drilled his cohorts so thoroughly in -opposition to him, that any sort of stampeding was out of the question. - -The platform committee was composed of seven leaders, among whom was -Gaston. There was a long wrangle over the document, and at length when -they reported, a sensation was created. For the first time since their -triumph over Simon Legree the committee was divided, and, refusing to -agree, submitted majority and minority reports. The committee stood five -for the majority and two for the minority. - -Gaston and a daring young politician from the heart of the Black Belt -signed the minority report. The majority report as submitted, was merely -a rehash of the old platform on which they had been defeated by -McLeod twice, with slight additional impeachment of the incapacity and -corruption of the State Administration. The delegates from the Black -Belt and the counties where the Red Shirts had been holding their -noonday parades received it with silence. General Worth’s machine -cheered it vigourously, and gave a rousing reception to their chosen -champion who made the presentation speech. - -When Gaston rose to offer and defend his minority report, a sudden hush -fell on the sea of eager faces. A few men in the convention had heard -him speak. All had heard he was an orator of power, and were anxious -to see him. His leadership in the Revolution of Independence and his -subsequent arrest and imprisonment had made him a famous man. - -“Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention,” he began with a deliberate -clear voice which spoke of greater reserve power than the words he -uttered conveyed--“I move to substitute for this document of meaningless -platitudes the following resolution on which to make this campaign.” - -You could have heard a pin fall, as in ringing tones like the call of -a bugle to battle he read, “Whereas, it is impossible to build a state -inside a state of two antagonistic races, And whereas, the future North -Carolinian must therefore be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto, Resolved, that -the hour has now come in our history to eliminate the Negro from our -life and reëstablish for all time the government of our fathers.” - -The delegates from New Hanover, Craven, and Halifax counties, the great -centres of the Black Belt, sprang on their seats with a roar of applause -that shook the building, and pandemonium broke loose. When one great -wave subsided another followed. It was ten minutes before order was -restored while Gaston stood calmly surveying the storm. - -Just before him sat General Worth, pale and trembling with excitement. -The audacity of those resolutions had swept him for a moment off his -feet and back into the years of his own daring young manhood. He could -not help admiring this challenge of the modern world to stand at the bar -of elemental manhood and make good its right to existence. He was about -to summon his messengers and rally his lieutenants when Gaston began to -speak, and his first words chained his attention. - -While the tumult raised by his resolutions was in progress he lifted his -eye toward the gallery and there just above him where it curved toward -the platform sat his beautiful secret bride. His heart leaped. Her face -was aflame with emotion, her eyes flashing with love and pride. She -slyly touched with her lips the tip of her finger and blew a kiss across -the intervening space. He smiled into her soul a look of gratitude, and -with every nerve strung to its highest tension resumed his place by the -speaker’s stand. When the tumult died away he began a speech that fixed -the history of a state for a thousand years. - -His resolutions had wrought the crowd to the highest pitch of -excitement, and his words, clear, penetrating, and deliberate thrilled -his hearers with electrical power. - -“Gentlemen,” he said, and the slightest whisper was hushed. “The history -of man is a series of great pulse beats, whose flood overwhelms his -future and fixes its life. Like the dammed torrent on a mountain side, -it breaks the conservatism that holds it stagnant for generations and -floods the world with its sweep. Theories, creeds, and institutions -hallowed by age, are cast as rubbish on the scarred hills that mark its -course. The old world is buried and a new one appears. - -“The Anglo-Saxon is entering the new century with the imperial crown of -the ages on his brow and the sceptre of the infinite in his hands. - -“The Old South fought against the stars in their courses--the resistless -tide of the rising consciousness of Nationality and World-Mission. The -young South greets the new era and glories in its manhood. He joins his -voice in the cheers of triumph which are ushering in this all-conquering -Saxon. Our old men dreamed of local supremacy. We dream of the conquest -of the globe. Threads of steel have knit state to state. Steam and -electricity have silently transformed the face of the earth, annihilated -time and space, and swept the ocean barriers from the path of man. The -black steam shuttles of commerce have woven continent to continent. - -“We believe that God has raised up our race, as he ordained Israel of -old, in this world-crisis to establish and maintain for weaker races, as -a trust for civilisation, the principles of civil and religious Liberty -and the forms of Constitutional Government. - -“In this hour of crisis, our flag has been raised over ten millions of -semi-barbaric black men in the foulest slave pen of the Orient. Shall -we repeat the farce of ‘67, reverse the order of nature, and make these -black people our rulers? If not, why should the African here, who is not -their equal, be allowed to imperil our life?” - -A whirlwind of applause shook the building. - -“A crisis approaches in the history of the human race. The world is -stirred by its consciousness today. The nation must gird up her loins -and show her right to live,--to master the future or be mastered in the -struggle. New questions press upon us for solution. - -“Shall this grand old commonwealth lag behind and sink into the filth -and degradation of a Negroid corruption in this solemn hour of the -world?” - -“No! No!” screamed a thousand voices. - -“What is our condition to-day in the dawn of the twentieth century? If -we attempt to move forward we are literally chained to the body of a -festering Black Death! - -“Fifty of our great counties are again under the heel of the Negro, and -the state is in his clutches. Our city governments are debauched by his -vote. His insolence threatens our womanhood, and our children are beaten -by negro toughs on the way to school while we pay his taxes. Shall we -longer tolerate negro inspectors of white schools, and negroes in charge -of white institutions? Shall we longer tolerate the arrest of white -women by negro officers and their trial before negro magistrates? - -“Let the manhood of the Aryan race with its four thousand years of -authentic history answer that question!” - -With blazing eyes, and voice that rang with the deep peal of defiant -power, Gaston hurled that sentence like a thunder bolt into the souls -of his two thousand hearers. The surging host sprang to their feet and -shouted back an answer that made the earth tremble! - -Lifting his hand for silence he continued, “It is no longer a question -of bad government. It is a question of impossible government. We lag -behind the age dragging the decaying corpse to which we are chained. - -“Who shall deliver us from the body of this death? - -“Hear me, men of my race, Norman and Celt, Angle and Saxon, Dane and -Frank, Huguenot and German martyr blood! - -“The hour has struck when we must rise in our might, break the chains -that bind us to this corruption, strike down the Negro as a ruling -power, and restore to our children their birthright, which we received, -a priceless legacy, from our fathers. - -“I believe in God’s call to our race to do His work in history. What -other races failed to do, you wrought in this continental wilderness, -fighting pestilence, hunger, cold, wild beasts, and savage hordes, until -out of it all has grown the mightiest nation of the earth. - -“Is the Negro worthy to rule over you? - -“Ask history. The African has held one fourth of this globe for 3000 -years. He has never taken one step in progress or rescued one jungle -from the ape and the adder, except as the slave of a superior race. - -“In Hayti and San Domingo he rose in servile insurrection and butchered -fifty thousand white men, women and children a hundred years ago. He -has ruled these beautiful islands since. Did he make progress with the -example of Aryan civilisation before him? No. But yesterday we received -reports of the discovery of cannibalism in Hayti. - -“He has had one hundred years of trial in the Northern states of this -Union with every facility of culture and progress, and he has not -produced one man who has added a feather’s weight to the progress of -humanity. In an hour of madness the dominion of the ten great states -of the South was given him without a struggle. A saturnalia of infamy -followed. - -“Shall we return to this? You must answer. The corruption of his -presence in our body politic is beyond the power of reckoning. We drove -the Carpet-bagger from our midst, but the Scalawag, our native product, -is always with us to fatten on this corruption and breed death to -society. The Carpet-bagger was a wolf, the Scalawag is a hyena. The one -was a highwayman, the other a sneak. - -“So long as the Negro is a factor in our political life, will violence -and corruption stain our history. We can not afford longer to play with -violence. We must remove the cause. - -“Suffrage in America has touched the lowest tide-mud of degradation. If -our cities and our Southern civilisation are to be preserved, there must -be a return to the sanity of the founders of this Republic. - -“A government of the wealth, virtue and intelligence of the community, -by the debased and the criminal, is a relapse to elemental barbarism to -which no race of freemen can submit. - -“Shall the future North Carolinian be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto? That -is the question before you. - -“Nations are made by men, not by paper constitutions and paper ballots. -We are not free because we have a Constitution. We have a Constitution -because our pioneer fathers who cleared the wilderness and dared the -might of kings, were freemen. It was in their blood, the tutelage of -generation on generation beyond the seas, the evolution of centuries of -struggle and sacrifice. - -“If you can make men out of paper, then it is possible with a scratch of -a pen in the hand of a madman to transform by its magic a million slaves -into a million kings. - -“We grant the Negro the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of -happiness if he can be happy without exercising kingship over the -Anglo-Saxon race, or dragging us down to his level. But if he can not -find happiness except in lording it over a superior race, let him look -for another world in which to rule. There is not room for both of us on -this continent!” - -Again and again Gaston raised his hand to still the mad tumult of -applause his words evoked. - -“And we will fight it out on this line, if it takes a hundred years, two -hundred, five hundred, or a thousand. It took Spain eight hundred years -to expel the Moors. When the time comes the Anglo-Saxon can do in one -century what the Spaniard did in eight. - -“We have been congratulated on our self-restraint under the awful -provocation of the past four years. There is a limit beyond which we -dare not go, for at this point, self-restraint becomes pusillanimous and -means the loss of manhood.” - -He then reviewed with thrilling power the history of the state and the -proud part played in the development of the Republic. He showed how -this border wilderness of North Carolina became the cradle of American -Democracy and the typical commonwealth of freemen. - -He played with the heart-strings of his hearers in this close personal -history as a great master touches the strings of a harp. His voice -was now low and quivering with the music of passion, and then soft -and caressing. He would swing them from laughter to tears in a single -sentence, and in the next, the lightning flash of a fierce invective -drove into their hearts its keen blade so suddenly the vast crowd -started as one man and winced at its power. - -Through it all he was conscious of two blue eyes swimming in tears -looking down on him from the gallery. - -The crowd now had grown so entranced, and the torrent of his speech so -rapid they forgot to cheer and feared to cheer lest they should lose -a word of the next sentence. They hung breathless on every flash of -feeling from his face or eloquent gesture. - -“I am not talking of a vague theory of constructive dominion,” he -continued, “when I refer to the Negro supremacy under which our -civilisation is being degraded. I use words in their plain meaning. -Negro supremacy means the rule of a party in which negroes predominate -and that means a Negro oligarchy. - -“I call your attention to one typical county of over forty thus -degraded, the county of Craven, whose quaint old city was once -the Capital of this commonwealth. What are the facts? The negro -office-holders of Craven county include a Congressman, a member of the -Legislature, a Register of Deeds, the City Attorney, the Coroner, two -Deputy Sheriffs, two County Commissioners, a Member of the School Board, -three Road Overseers, four Constables, twenty-seven Magistrates, three -City Aldermen and four Policemen. There are sixty-two negro officials in -this county of 12,000 inhabitants, and their member of the Legislature -is a convicted felon. The white people represent ninety-five per cent -of the wealth and intelligence of the community, and pay ninety-five per -cent of its taxes and are voiceless in its government. - -“Would a county in Massachusetts submit to such infamy? No, ten thousand -times, no! There is not a county in the North from Maine to California -that would submit to it twenty-four hours. Will the children of -Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill demand such submission from the -children of Washington and Jefferson? No. The passions that obscured -reason have subsided. The Anglo-Saxon race is united and has entered -upon its world mission. - -“We will take from an unprofitable servant the ballot he has abused. To -him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken -away even that which he hath. It is the law of nature. It is the law of -God. - -“Yes, I confess it,” he continued, “I am in a sense narrow and -provincial. I love mine own people. Their past is mine, their present -mine, their future is a divine trust. I hate the dish water of modern -world-citizenship. A shallow cosmopolitanism is the mask of death for -the individual. It is the froth of civilisation, as crime is its dregs. -Race, and race pride, are the ordinances of life. The true citizen of -the world loves his country. His country is a part of God’s world. - -“So I confess I love my people. I love the South,--the stolid silent -South, that for a generation has sneered at paper-made policies, and -scorned public opinion. The South, old-fashioned, mediaeval, provincial, -worshipping the dead, and raising men rather than making money, family -loving, home building, tradition ridden. The South, cruel and cunning -when fighting a treacherous foe, with brief volcanic bursts of wrath -and vengeance. The South, eloquent, bombastic, romantic, chivalrous, -lustful, proud, kind and hospitable. The South with her beautiful women -and brave men. The South, generous and reckless, never knowing her own -interest, but living her own life in her own way!--Yes, I love her! In -my soul are all her sins and virtues. And with it all she is worthy to -live. - -“The historian tells us that all things pass in time. Wolves whelp -and stable in the palaces of dead kings and forgotten civilisations. -Memphis, Thebes and Babylon are but names to-day. So New Orleans and -New York may perish. African antiquarians may explore their ruins -and speculate upon their life; but we may safely fix upon a thousand -centuries of intervening time. On your shoulders now rests the burden of -civilisation. We must face its responsibilities. For my part, I believe -in your future. - -“The courage of the Celt, the nobility of the Norman, the vigour of the -Viking, the energy of the Angle, the tenacity of the Saxon, the daring -of the Dane, the gallantry of the Gaul, the freedom of the Frank, the -earth-hunger of the Roman and the stoicism of the Spartan are all yours -by the lineal heritage of blood, from sire and dame through hundreds of -generations and through centuries of culture. - -“Will you halt now and surrender to a mob of ragged negroes led by white -cowards who at the first clash of conflict will hide in sewers? - -“I ask you, my people, freemen, North Carolinians, to rise to-day and -make good your right to live! The time for platitudes is past. Let us as -men face the world and say what we mean. - -“This is a white man’s government, conceived by white men, and -maintained by white men through every year of its history,--and by the -God of our Fathers it shall be ruled by white men until the Arch-angel -shall call the end of time! - -“If this be treason, let them that hear it make the most of it. - -“From the eighth day of November we will not submit to Negro dominion -another day, another hour, another moment! Back of every ballot is a -bayonet, and the red blood of the man who holds it. Let cowards -hear, and remember this! Man has never yet voted away his right to a -revolution. - -“Citizen kings, I call you to the consciousness of your kingship!” - -Gaston closed and turned toward his seat, while the crowd hung -breathless waiting for his next word. When they realised that he had -finished, a rumble like the crash in midheaven of two storms rolled over -the surging sea of men, broke against the girders of the roof like the -thunder of the Hatteras surf lashed by a hurricane. Two thousand men -went mad. With one common impulse they sprang to their feet, screaming, -shouting, cheering, shaking each other’s hands, crying and laughing. -With the sullen roar of crashing thunder another whirlwind of cheers -swept the crowd, shook the earth, and pierced the sky with its -challenge. Wave after wave of applause swept the building and flung -their rumbling echoes among the stars. These patient kindly people, slow -to anger, now terrible in wrath, were trembling with the pent-up passion -and fury of years. - -What power could resist their wrath! - -Through it all Gaston sat silent behind the group of the majority of the -platform committee, with eyes devouring a beautiful face bending toward -him from the gallery. She was softly weeping with love and pride too -deep for words. - -While the tumult was still raging, before he was conscious of his -presence, General Worth’s stalwart figure was bending over him, and -grasping his hand. - -“My boy, I give it up. You have beaten me. I’m proud of you. I forgive -everything for that speech. You can have my girl. The date you’ve fixed -for the marriage suits me. Let us forget the past.” - -Gaston pressed his hand muttering brokenly his thanks, and his soul sank -within him at the thought of this proud old iron-willed warrior’s anger -if he discovered their secret marriage. - -The General turned toward the side of the platform; for he had seen -the flash of Sallie’s dress on the stairs of the balcony leading to the -stage. He knew her keen eye had seen his surrender and his heart was -hungry for the kiss of reconciliation that would restore their old -perfect love. - -He met her at the foot of the stairs and she threw her arms impulsively -around his neck. - -“Oh! Papa, dear! I am the happiest girl in the world. The two men of all -men--the only two I love--are mine forever!” - -While the applause was still echoing and reëchoing over the sea of -surging men, and thousands of excited people were crowding the windows -from the outside and blocking the streets in every direction clamouring -for admittance, a tall man with grey beard and stentorian voice, sprang -on the platform. It was General Worth’s candidate for Governor. He had -not consulted the General but he had an important motion to make. The -crowd was stilled at last and his deep voice rang through the building, -“Gentlemen, I move that the minority report offered by Charles -Gaston”--again a thunder peal of applause--“be adopted as the platform -by acclamation!” - -A storm of “ayes” burst from the throats of the delegates in a single -breath like the crash of an explosion of dynamite. - -“And now that our eyes have seen the glory of the Lord, as we heard -His messenger anointed to lead His people, I move that this convention -nominate by acclamation for Governor--_Charles Gaston!_” - -Again two thousand men were on their feet shouting, cheering, shaking -hands, hugging one another and weeping and yelling like maniacs. - -A speech had been made that changed the current of history, and fixed -the status of life for millions of people. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV--THE RED SHIRTS - -AS soon as Gaston could leave the throngs of friends who were -congratulating him on his remarkable speech and his certainty of -election, he hastened to find Sallie. - -“My lover, my king!” she cried impulsively as he clasped her in his -arms. - -“Your eyes kindled the fire in my soul and gave me the power to mould -that crowd to my will!” he softly told her. - -“It is sweet to hear you say that!” - -“‘Now, my love, we are in an awful situation. What are we to do with -the General storming around preparing for a grand wedding? What if -that jailer gives out the news? McLeod can get it out of him if he ever -suspects anything.” - -“Don’t worry, dear. I ’ll manage everything. We’ve fixed the wedding -on the Inauguration day--so you can’t be defeated. We will be busy day -and night getting ready my trousseau, and issuing our invitations. Papa -will never dream that one ceremony has been performed already. He need -never know it until we are ready to tell him.” - -“If he discovers it, he will swear I have tried to humiliate him, and he -will never forgive it. Telegraph me if anything happens, and I will come -immediately. I can’t see you for weeks in the campaign, but I will write -to you every day.” - -“His Excellency, the Governor of North Carolina!” she softly exclaimed -with a dreamy look into his face. “My lover!” - -“Don’t make me vain. I may be the Governor, but I shall always be the -slave of a beautiful woman who came one day to a jail and made it a -palace with the glory of her love!” - -“I’m glad I didn’t wait for your success.” - -***** - -The campaign which followed was the most remarkable ever conducted in -the history of an American commonwealth. In the dawn of the twentieth -century, a resistless movement was inaugurated to destroy the party -in control of a state, and affiliated with the most powerful National -Administration since Andrew Jackson’s, on the open declaration of their -intention to nullify the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the -Constitution of the Republic. - -There was no violence except the calm demonstration in open daylight of -omnipotent racial power, and the defiance of any foe to lift a hand in -protest. - -When Gaston spoke at Independence, five thousand white men dressed in -scarlet shirts rode silently through the streets in solemn parade, and -six thousand negroes watched them with fear. There was no cheering or -demonstration of any kind. The silence of the procession gave it the -import of a religious rite. A thousand picked men were in line from -Hambright and Campbell county and they formed the guard of honour for -their candidate for Governor. - -Like scenes were enacted everywhere. Again the Anglo-Saxon race was -fused into a solid mass. The result was a foregone conclusion. - - - - -CHAPTER XV--THE HIGHER LAW - -McLEOD knew from the day of that outburst which followed Gaston’s -speech in the Democratic convention that no power on earth could save -his ticket. To the world he put on a bold face and made his fight to the -last ditch, predicting victory. - -His secret anger against the Preacher and Gaston, his pet, knew no -bounds. Chagrined at his repulse by Mrs. Durham and the attitude of -contempt she had maintained toward him, his tongue began to wag her name -in slander to the crowd of young satellites loafing around his office in -Hambright. - -“Yes, boys,” he said, “the Preacher is a great man, but his wife is -greater. She’s the handsomest woman in the state in spite of a grey -thread or two in her rich chestnut hair. She has the most beautiful -mouth that ever tempted the soul of a man--and boys, my lips know what -it means to touch it.” - -And when they stared with open eyes at this statement, McLeod shook -his head, laughed and whispered, “Say nothing about it--but facts are -facts!” - -McLeod chuckled over the certainty of the shame and suffering that would -wring the Preacher’s heart when dirty gossips of a village had magnified -these words into a complete drama of scandal. For all preachers McLeod -had profound contempt, and he felt secure now from personal harm. - -The day the Preacher first heard of these rumours was the occasion of -Gaston’s campaign address under the old oak in the square. He had looked -forward to this day with boyish pride mingled with a great fatherly -love. It would be his triumph. He had stirred this boy’s imagination and -moulded his character in the pliant hours of his childhood. He had told -himself that day he spent with him in the woods fishing, that he had -kindled a fire in his soul that would not go out till it blazed on the -altar of a redeemed country. And he was living to see that day. - -The streets and square were thronged with such a multitude as the -village had never seen since it was built. But the Preacher was not -among them at the hour the speaking began. - -A simple old friend from the country asked him about these rumours. -He turned pale as death, made no answer, and walked rapidly toward his -study in the church where his library was now arranged. He was dazed -with horror. It was the first he had heard of it. One thing in his -estimate of life had always been as securely fixed and sheltered in his -thought as his faith in God, and that was his love for his wife, and his -perfect faith in her honour. - -He closed his door and locked it and sat down trying to think. - -Had he not grown careless in the certainty of his wife’s devotion, and -his own quiet but intense love? Had he not forgotten the yearning of a -woman’s heart for the eternal repetition of love’s language of sign and -word? - -The tears were in his eyes now, and he felt that his heart would beat to -death and break within him! - -He saw that his enemy had struck at his weakest spot, and struck to -kill. - -He lifted his face toward the walls in a vague unseeing look and his -eyes rested on a pair of crossed swords over a bookcase. They had been -handed down to him from a long line of fighting ancestors. He arose, -took them down mechanically, and drew one from its scabbard. How snugly -its rough hilt fitted his nervous hand grip! He felt a curious throbbing -in this hilt like a pulse, it was alive, and its spirit stirred deep -waters in his soul that had never been ruffled before. - -He recalled vaguely in memory things he knew had never happened to him -and yet were part of his inmost life. - -“Damn him!” he involuntarily hissed as he gripped the sword hilt with -the instinctive power of the fighting animal that sleeps beneath the -skin of all our culture and religion. - -And then his eyes rested on a quaint little daguerreotype picture of his -wife in her bridal dress, her sweet girlish face full of innocent pride -and warm with his love. By its side he saw the portrait of their dead -boy. How he recalled now every hour of that wonderful period preceding -his birth--the unspeakable pride and tenderness with which he watched -over his young wife! He recalled the morning of his birth, and the heart -rending, piteous cries of young motherhood that tore his heart until -the nails of his own fingers cut the flesh and drew the blood. How the -minutes seemed long hours, and how at last he bent over her, softly -kissed the drawn white lips, and gazed with tearful wonder and awe on -the little red bundle resting on her breast! He recalled the tremor of -weariness in her voice when she drew his head down close and whispered, -“I didn’t mind the pain, John, though I couldn’t help the cries. He’s -yours and mine--I am as proud as a queen. Now our souls are one in -him--I am tired--I must sleep.” - -Every movement of his past life seemed to stand out in this crisis with -fiery clearness. He seemed to live in an instant whole years in every -detail of that closeness of personal life that makes marriage a part of -every stroke of the heart. - -At last he set his lips firmly and said, “Yes, damn him, I will kill him -as I would a snake!” He sat down and wrote his resignation as pastor -of the church, left it on his desk, and strode hurriedly from the study -leaving his door open. He purchased a revolver and a box of cartridges -and walked straight to McLeod’s office. - -The speaking was over, and McLeod was alone writing letters. He looked -up with scant politeness as the Preacher entered and motioned him to a -seat. - -Instead of seating himself, he closed the door, and standing erect in -front of it, said, “Allan McLeod, you are the author of an infamous -slander reflecting on the honour of my wife!” - -“Indeed!” McLeod sneered, wheeling in his chair. - -“I always knew that you were a moral leper”-- - -“Of course, Doctor, of course, but don’t get excited,” laughed McLeod -enjoying the marks of anguish on his face. - -“But that your lecherous body should dream of invading the sanctity of -my home, and your tongue attempt to smirch its honour, was beyond my -wildest dream of your effrontery. How dare you?”-- - -“Dare? Dare, Preacher?” interrupted McLeod still sneering. “Why, by ‘The -Higher Law,’ of course. You have been teaching all your life that there -are higher laws than paper-made statutes. You have trained this county -in crime under this beautiful ideal. Surely I may follow the teachings -of a master in Israel?” - -“What do you mean, you red-headed devil?” - -“Softly, Preacher,” smiled McLeod. “Simply this. You expound ‘The Higher -Law,’ for political consumption. I apply it to all life. - -“There are but two real laws of man’s nature, hunger and love--all -others change with time and progress. These are the higher laws, in fact -they are the highest laws. The stupid conventions that superstition has -built around them may hold back the weak, but the powerful have always -defied them. Your brilliant exposition of the higher law in politics -first set my mind to work, and led me to a complete emancipation from -the slavery of conventionalism in which fools have held society for -centuries. There are conventional laws and superstitions about the -little ceremony called marriage cherished by the weak-minded. There is a -higher law of nature. The brave live this life of daring freedom, while -cowards cling to forms. Do I make myself clear?” - -“Perfectly so, you mottled leper. You think that because I am a -preacher, I am a poltroon, and that you can play with me without danger -to your skin. Well, I was a man before I was a preacher. There are some -things deeper than the forms of religion, if you wish to push the higher -law to its last application. You have found that quick in my soul, mine -enemy! I have resigned my church--to kill you. There is not room for you -and me on this earth”-- - -[Illustration: 0484] - -McLeod sprang to his feet, his soul chilled by the tone in which the -threat was uttered. He started to call for help, and looked down the -gleaming barrel of a revolver. - -“Move now or open your mouth, and I kill you instantly. Sit down. I give -you five minutes to write your last message to this world.” - -McLeod sank into his seat trembling like a leaf, with the perspiration -standing out on his forehead in cold beads. Now and then he glanced -furtively at the stem face of blind fury towering over his crouching -form. - -Unable to endure the terrible strain, he sank to the floor whining, -slobbering, begging in abject cowardice for his life. He crawled toward -the Preacher, reached out his hand and touched his foot. - -“My God, Doctor, you are mad. You will not commit murder. You are a -minister of Jesus Christ. Have mercy. I am at your feet. Your wife is as -pure as an angel. I only said what I did to torture you”-- - -“Get up you snake!” hissed the Preacher, stamping his body with all his -might until McLeod screamed with pain and scrambled to his feet cowering -and whining like a cur. - -“Finish your letter. You will never leave this room alive.” - -A long pitiful sob broke the stillness, and McLeod was looking into the -Preacher’s face in vain for a ray of hope. - -Suddenly Gaston burst into the room trembling with excitement. “My God, -Doctor, what does this mean?” he cried seizing the revolver. - -McLeod sprang toward Gaston, groaning and crawling toward his feet. -“Save me Gaston,--the Doctor’s gone mad--he is about to kill me!” - -“Charlie, I must!” pleaded the Preacher. - -“No, no, this is madness. I thank God I am in time. I missed you at the -speaking, and hearing a rumour of this slander I hurried to find you. -I saw your study open and read your letter. I knew I’d find you here. I -’ll manage McLeod.” - -The Preacher sat down crying. McLeod had crawled back to his desk and -was mopping his face. Gaston walked over to him and said with slow -trembling emphasis, “I give you twelve hours to close this office, wind -up your business, and leave. In the meantime you will write a denial of -this slander satisfactory to me for publication. If you ever open your -mouth again about my foster-mother or put your foot in this county, I -will kill you. I expect your letter ready in two hours.” - -Gaston took the Preacher by the arm and led him down the stairs and back -to his study. In the reaction, there was a pitiable breakdown. - -“Oh! Charlie, you’ve saved me from an unspeakable horror. Yes, I was -mad. I was proud and wilful. I thought I knew myself. To-day, I have -looked into the bottom of hell. I have seen the depths of my own heart. -Yes, I have in me the germs of all sin and crime. I am the brother of -every thief, of every murderer, of every scarlet woman of the streets, -that ever stood in the stocks, or climbed the steps of a gallows”-- - -“Hush, I will not listen to such talk. You are a man, that’s all,” - interrupted Gaston. - -“But God’s mercy is great,” he went on. “I have tried to live for my -people and my country, not for myself. If I have failed to be a faithful -husband, this is my plea to God, I have not thought of myself, or of my -own, but of others.” - -After an hour he was quiet, and turning to Gaston he said, “Charlie, go -tell your mother to come here, I want to see her.” - -When she came, and sat down beside him with quiet dignity, she said, -“Now Doctor, say what you wish, Charlie has told me much, but not all. -Let us look into each other’s souls to-day.” - -“I only want to ask you, dear,” he said tenderly, “just how far your -friendship for this villain may have led you. I know you are innocent of -any crime. I only want to know the measure of my own guilt.” - -“You know, John,” she said, using his first name, as she had not for -years, “he has always interested me from a boy, and in the darkest hour -of my heart’s life, when I felt your love growing cold and slipping away -from me, and my faith in all things fading, he attempted to make vulgar -love to me. I repulsed him with scorn, and have since treated him with -contempt. You know that I kissed him once when he was a boy. I have told -you all. What do you propose to do?” - -“What will I do, my darling?” he softly asked, taking her hand. “Begin -anew from this moment to love and cherish, honour and protect you unto -death. You are my wife. I took you a beautiful child, innocent of the -world. If you have failed in the least, I have failed. If you have -stumbled in the dark even in your thought, I will lift you up in my arms -and soothe you as a mother would her babe. If you should fall into the -bottomless pit, into the pit and down to the lowest depths of hell I -would go, and lift you in the arms of my love. To break the tie that -binds us is unthinkable. It has passed into the infinite. Not only -are our souls one in a little boy’s grave, but there is something so -absorbing, so interwoven with the hidden things of nature in our union -that I defy all the fiends in perdition to break it. Love is eternal. -And your love for me was the great fixed thing in my life like my faith -in the living God!” - -“Oh, John, you are breaking my heart now, when I think that I doubted -your love! I could have brooked your anger, but this overwhelms me!” - -“It has always been my character,” he gravely said. - -“Then I have never known you until now,”--and in a moment she was -sobbing on his breast, the years had rolled back, and they were in the -sweet springtime of life again. - - - - -CHAPTER XVI--THE END OF A MODERN VILLAIN - -TWO days after McLeod’s flight from Hambright the press despatches -flashed from New York a startling two-column account of the attempted -assassination of the Hon. Allan McLeod, the Republican leader of -North Carolina, in the terrific campaign in progress, and that he was -compelled to flee from the state to save his life. - -Gaston was elected Governor by the largest majority ever given a -candidate for that office in the history of North Carolina. - -McLeod was promptly rewarded for his long career of villainy by an -appointment as our Ambassador to one of the Republics of South America, -and the Senate at once confirmed him. The salary attached to his office -was $15,000, and his dream of a life of ease and luxury had come at -last. - -For six months he had been quietly going to Boston paying the most -ardent court to Miss Susan Walker, whom he had met at her college at -Independence. She was a matured spinster now appproaching sixty years of -age, and worth $5,000 000 in her own name. - -He had easy sailing from the first. He joined her church in Boston, -after a brilliant profession of religion that moved Miss Walker to -tears, for he had told her it was her love that had opened his eyes. And -it was true. McLeod timed his last visit to Boston so that he arrived -the day the city was ringing with the sensation of his attempted -assassination, and the desperate fight he was making to uphold law and -order in the South. - -When Miss Walker read that article in her paper she resolved to marry -him immediately. She gave McLeod a wedding present of a half million -dollars. He wept for joy and gratitude, and kissed her with a fervour -that satisfied her hungry heart that he was the one peerless lover of -the world. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII--WEDDING BELLS IN THE GOVERNOR’S MANSION - -TWO days after McLeod and his bride reached Asheville on their wedding -trip, General Worth received a letter which threw him into a paroxysm of -rage. Sallie’s wedding had been fixed for the day of the inauguration -of the Governor. The invitations were out and society in a flutter -of comment and gossip over the romantic and brilliant career of young -Gaston, and his luck in winning power, love, and fortune in a day. - -The letter was from McLeod, at Asheville, informing him that his -daughter was already married, and that Gaston was simply seeking his -fortune by a subterfuge, and showing his power over him by humiliating -him at the last moment before the world. He enclosed a transcript of the -marriage record, signed by the Rev. John Durham, and witnessed by Mrs. -Durham and Stella Holt. This record was certified before the Clerk of -the Court and bore his seal. There was no doubt whatever of the facts. - -When the General handed this letter to Sallie she flushed, looked -wistfully into his face, saw its hard expression of speechless anger, -turned pale and burst into tears. - -Her father without a word went to his room, and locked himself in for -twenty-four hours, refusing to see her or speak to her. - -On the following day she forced her way into his presence, and they had -the last great battle of wills. All the iron power of his unconquered -pride, accustomed for a lifetime to command men and receive instant -obedience, was roused to the pitch of madness. - -“If you marry him I swear to you a thousand times you shall never cross -my doorstep, and you shall never receive one penny of my fortune. He is -a gambler and an adventurer, and seeks to make me a laughing stock for -the world!” - -“Papa, nothing could be further from his thoughts. He has always loved -and respected you. I assume all the responsibility for our secret -marriage.” - -“Then sharper than a serpent’s tooth is the ingratitude of a disobedient -child!” - -“But, Papa, I waited five years of patient suffering trying to obey -you,” she protested. - -“I had rather see you dead than to see you marry that man now, and have -him sneer his triumph in my face.” - -“We are already married. Why talk like that?” she pleaded tearfully. - -“I deny it. I am going to annul that marriage. Felony is ground for -the dissolution of the marriage tie. A ceremony performed under such -conditions, when one of the parties is in prison charged with felony -without bail, is illegal, and I ’ll show it. The lawyers will be here -in an hour and I will take action to-morrow.” - -“Never, with my consent!” she firmly replied. She left the room, -consulted with her mother, and hastily despatched a telegram to -Hambright summoning Gaston to Independence immediately. - -When this telegram came he was in his office hard at work on his -inaugural address, outlining the policy of his administration. He was in -a heated argument with the Preacher about the article on education, -which followed his recommendation of the disfranchisement of the Negro. - -He had advised large appropriations for the industrial training of -negroes along the lines of the new movement of their more sober leaders. - -“It’s a mistake,” argued the Preacher, “if the Negro is made master -of the industries of the South he will become the master of the South. -Sooner than allow him to take the bread from their mouths, the white -men will kill him here, as they do North, when the struggle for bread -becomes as tragic. The Negro must ultimately leave this continent. You -might as well begin to prepare for it.” - -“But we propose to train him principally in Agriculture. We need -millions of good farmers,” persisted Gaston. - -“So much the worse, I tell you,” replied the Preacher. “Make the Negro -a scientific and successful farmer, and let him plant his feet deep in -your soil, and it will mean a race war.” - -“It seems to me impracticable ever to move him.” - -“Why?” asked the Preacher. “Those over certain ages can be left to -end their days here. The Negro has cost us already the loss of -$7,000,000,000, a war that killed a half million men, the debauchery of -our suffrage, the corruption of our life, and threatens the future with -anarchy. Lincoln was right when he said, ‘There is a physical difference -between the white and the black races, which I believe will forever -forbid them living together on terms of social and political equality.’ - -“Even you are still labouring under the delusions of ‘Reconstruction.’ -The Ethiopian can not change his skin, or the leopard his spots. Those -who think it possible will always tell you that the place to work this -miracle is in the South. Exactly. If a man really believes in equality, -let him prove it by giving his daughter to a negro in marriage. That is -the test. When she sinks with her mulatto children into the black abyss -of a Negroid life, then ask him! Your scheme of education is humbug. You -don’t believe that any amount of education can fit a negro to rule an -Anglo-Saxon, or to marry his daughter. Then don’t be a hypocrite.” - -“But can we afford to stop his education?” - -“The more you educate, the more impossible you make his position in a -democracy. Education! Can you change the colour of his skin, the kink of -his hair, the bulge of his lips, the spread of his nose, or the beat of -his heart, with a spelling book? The Negro is the human donkey. You can -train him, but you can’t make of him a horse. Mate him with a horse, -you lose the horse, and get a larger donkey called a mule, incapable -of preserving his species. What is called our race prejudice is simply -God’s first law of nature--the instinct of selfpreservation.” - -Gaston was gazing at the ceiling with an absent look in his eyes and a -smile playing around his lips. - -“You are not listening to me now, you young rascal! You are dreaming -about your bride.” - -Gaston quickly lowered his eyes, and saw the messenger boy who had been -standing several minutes with his telegram. - -He read Sallie’s message with amazement. - -“What can that mean?” He handed the telegram to the Preacher. - -“It means he has discovered the facts, and there is going to be trouble. -He is a man of terrific passions when his pride is roused.” - -“I must go immediately.” - -He closed his office and caught his train after a hard drive. When he -reached Independence he sprang into a carriage and ordered the driver to -take him direct to Oakwood. What had happened he did not know and he did -not care. Of one thing he was now sure--Sallie’s love and the swift end -of their separation. - -His heart was singing with a great joy as he drove over the familiar -avenue through the deep shadows of the woods, and turning through the -gate saw the light gleaming from her room. - -“God bless her, she’s mine now--I hope I can take her home to-night!” he -cried. - -She had walked down the drive to meet him. He leaped from the carriage, -kissed her and asked, “What is it, dear?” - -“McLeod wrote him about our marriage, and now he swears he will bring a -suit to annul it. Leave your carriage here and come with me. If he don’t -send these lawyers away and receive you, I will be ready to go with you -in an hour.” - -“Queen of my heart!” he whispered. “You are all mine at last!” - -She called her father from the library into the parlour and stood on -the very spot where Gaston had writhed in agony on that night of his -interview with the General. - -He started at the expression on her face and the tense vigour with which -she held herself erect. His suit had not been progressing well with his -lawyers. They had tried to humour him, but had declined to express any -hope of success in such an action. He saw they were halfhearted and it -depressed him. - -“Now, Papa,” she firmly said, “It will not take us ten minutes to decide -forever the question of our lives. If you take another step with these -lawyers,--if you do not dismiss them at once, I will leave this house -in an hour, go with the man of my choice to his home, and you will never -see me again. You shall not humiliate me or him another hour.” - -The General looked at her as though stunned, his voice trembled as he -replied, “Would you leave me so in an hour, dear?” - -“Yes, Charlie is waiting there on the porch for me now, and his carriage -is outside. I will not subject him to another insult, nor allow any one -else to do it.” - -The General sank heavily into a chair, and stretched out his hands -toward her in a gesture of tender entreaty. - -“Come child and kiss me,--you know I can’t live without you! Forgive all -the foolish things I’ve said in anger and pride. Your happiness is more -to me than all else.” She was crying now in his arms. - -“Go, bring Charlie. The youngster has beaten me. I’ve fought a foeman -worthy of my steel. It’s no disgrace to surrender to him.” - -In a moment she led Gaston into the room, and the General grasped his -hand. - -“Young man, for the last time I welcome you to this house. Now, it is -yours. You can run this place to suit yourself. I’ve worked all my life -for Sallie. I give up the ship to you.” - -“General, let me assure you of my warmest love. I have never said an -unkind thing or harboured a harsh thought toward you. I shall be proud -of you as my father. I have loved you and Mrs. Worth since the first day -I looked into Sallie’s face.” - -The invitations stood. Gaston returned immediately to Hambright, and on -the morning of the inauguration, accompanied by Bob St. Clare, and the -Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he entered the grand old mansion -with its stately pillars and claimed his bride. The Chief Justice -performed a civil ceremony, and the party started on a triumphal -procession to the Capital. The General was bubbling over with pride in -the handsome appearance the bride and groom made, and tried to outdo -himself in kindliness toward Gaston. - -“Come to think it over, Governor,” he said to him after the -inauguration, “it was a brave thing in my little girl marching into that -jail alone and marrying her lover in a prison, wasn’t it? By George, -she’s a chip off the old block! I don’t care if the world does know it!” - -“General, that was the bravest thing a woman could do. She is the -heroine of the drama. I play second part.” - -They did not wait long for the people to know it. At four o’clock in the -afternoon an extra appeared with a startling account of the fact that -the Governor’s beautiful bride had braved the world and secretly married -him when his fortunes were at ebb-tide, and he was a prisoner in the -Asheville jail. - -That night when Sallie entered the Banquet Hall of the Governor’s -Mansion, leaning proudly on Gaston’s arm, she was greeted with an -outburst of homage and deep feeling she had never dreamed of receiving. -When the Governor acknowledged the applause of his name, he bowed to his -bride, not to the crowd. - -The Preacher rose to respond to the toast, “The Master and the Mistress -of the Governor’s Mansion,” and seemed to pay no attention to the -Governor, but turning to Sallie, he said, “To the queenly daughter of -the South, who had eyes to see a glorious manhood behind prison bars, -the nobility to stoop from wealth to poverty and transform a jail into -a palace with the beauty of her face and the splendour of her love--to -her, the heroine who inspired Charles Gaston with power to mould a -million wills in his, change the current of history, and become the -Governor of the Commonwealth--to her all honour, and praise, and homage. - -“My daughter, it is meet that our wealth and beauty should mate with -the genius and chivalry of the South. May it ever be so, and may your -children’s children be as the sands of the sea!” - -Sallie bowed her head as every eye was turned admiringly upon her. The -General trembled, and, when the crowd rose to their feet and reëchoed, -“To her all honour and praise and homage,” and the Governor bent proudly -kissing her hand, he bowed his head and wept. - -Her mother sitting by her side with shining eyes pressed her hand and -whispered, “My beautiful daughter, now my work is done.” - -As Gaston strolled out on the lawn with his bride after the banquet, -they found a seat in a secluded spot amid the shrubbery. - -“My sweet wife!” he exclaimed. - -“My husband!” she whispered, as they tenderly clasped hands. - -“Tell me now who was the author of all those lies about me to your -father?” - -“Why ask it, dear? You know Allan wrote the last letter.” - -“The dastard. I was sure of it from the first. Well, he had the facts in -that last letter, didn’t he?” - -“Yes,” she answered with a smile. - -They rose to return to the Mansion, roused by the stroke of midnight -from the clock in the tower of the City Hall. - -“From to-night, my dear,” he said, with enthusiasm, “you will share with -me all the honours and responsibilities of public life.” - -“No, my love, I do not desire any part in public life except through -you. You are my world. I ask no higher gift of God than your love, -whether you live in a Governor’s Mansion, or the humblest cottage. I -desire no career save that of a wife--your wife”--she hid her face on -his breast as a little sob caught her voice, “and I would not change -places with the proudest queen that ever wore a crown!” She said this -looking up into his face through a mist of tears. - -With trembling lips and dimmed eyes he stooped and kissed her as he -replied, “And I had rather be the husband of such a woman than to be the -ruler of the world.” - - -THE END - - - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Leopard's Spots, by Thomas Dixon, Jr. - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEOPARD'S SPOTS *** - -***** This file should be named 54765-0.txt or 54765-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/7/6/54765/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - - - -Title: The Leopard's Spots - A Romance Of The White Man's Burden--1865-1900 - -Author: Thomas Dixon, Jr. - -Illustrator: C. D. Williams - -Release Date: May 23, 2017 [EBook #54765] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEOPARD'S SPOTS *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - - - - - -</pre> - - <div style="height: 8em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h1> - THE LEOPARD’S SPOTS - </h1> - <h3> - A Romance Of The White Man’s Burden—1865-1900 - </h3> - <h2> - By Thomas Dixon, Jr. - </h2> - <h3> - Illustrated By C. D. Williams - </h3> - <h4> - New York:Doubleday, Page & Co. - </h4> - <h3> - 1902 - </h3> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0001.jpg" alt="0001 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0001.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0008.jpg" alt="0008 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0008.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0009.jpg" alt="0009 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0009.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <h3> - TO - </h3> - <h3> - HARRIET - </h3> - <h3> - SWEET-VOICED DAUGHTER OF THE OLD FASHIONED SOUTH - </h3> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - <b>CONTENTS</b> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> HISTORICAL NOTE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2book1"> <b>BOOK ONE—LEGREE’S REGIME</b> </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I—A HERO RETURNS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II—A LIGHT SHINING IN DARKNESS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III—DEEPENING SHADOWS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV—MR. LINCOLN’S DREAM </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V—THE OLD AND THE NEW CHURCH </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI—THE PREACHER AND THE WOMAN OF - BOSTON </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII—THE HEART OF A CHILD </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII—AN EXPERIMENT IN MATRIMONY - </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX—A MASTER OF MEN </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X—THE MAN OR BRUTE IN EMBRYO </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI—SIMON LEGREE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII—RED SNOW DROPS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII—DICK </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV—THE NEGRO UPRISING </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV—THE NEW CITIZEN KING </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI—LEGREE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE - </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII—THE SECOND REIGN OF TERROR - </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII—THE RED FLAG OF THE - AUCTIONEER </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX—THE RALLY OF THE CLANSMEN </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX—HOW CIVILISATION WAS SAVED </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI—THE OLD AND THE NEW NEGRO </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII—THE DANGER OF PLAYING WITH - FIRE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII—THE BIRTH OF A SCALAWAG </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV—A MODERN MIRACLE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> <b>BOOK TWO—LOVE’S DREAM</b> </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER I—BLUE EYES AND BLACK HAIR </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER II—THE VOICE OF THE TEMPTER </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER III—FLORA </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER IV—THE ONE WOMAN </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER V—THE MORNING OF LOVE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER VI—BESIDE BEAUTIFUL WATERS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER VII—DREAMS AND FEARS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER VIII—THE UNSOLVED RIDDLE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0033"> CHAPTER IX—THE RHYTHM OF THE DANCE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0034"> CHAPTER X—THE HEART OF A VILLAIN </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0035"> CHAPTER XI—THE OLD OLD STORY </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0036"> CHAPTER XII—THE MUSIC OF THE MILLS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0037"> CHAPTER XIII—THE FIRST KISS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0038"> CHAPTER XIV—A MYSTERIOUS LETTER </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0039"> CHAPTER XV—A BLOW IN THE DARK </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0040"> CHAPTER XVI—THE MYSTERY OF PAIN </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0041"> CHAPTER XVII—IS GOD OMNIPOTENT? </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0042"> CHAPTER XVIII—THE WAYS OF BOSTON </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0043"> CHAPTER XIX—THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0044"> CHAPTER XX—A NEW LESSON IN LOVE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0045"> CHAPTER XXI—WHY THE PREACHER THREW HIS LIFE - AWAY </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0046"> CHAPTER XXII—THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> <b>BOOK THREE—THE THE TRIAL BY FIRE</b> - </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0047"> CHAPTER I—A GROWL BENEATH THE EARTH </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0048"> CHAPTER II—FACE TO FACE WITH FATE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0049"> CHAPTER III—A WHITE LIE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0050"> CHAPTER IV—THE UNSPOKEN TERROR </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0051"> CHAPTER V—A THOUSAND-LEGGED BEAST </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0052"> CHAPTER VI—THE BLACK PERIL </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0053"> CHAPTER VII—EQUALITY WITH A RESERVATION - </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0054"> CHAPTER VIII—THE NEW SIMON LEGREE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0055"> CHAPTER IX—THE NEW AMERICA </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0056"> CHAPTER X—ANOTHER DECLARATION OF - INDEPENDENCE </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0057"> CHAPTER XI—THE HEART OF A WOMAN </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0058"> CHAPTER XII—THE SPLENDOUR OF SHAMELESS LOVE - </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0059"> CHAPTER XIII—A SPEECH THAT MADE HISTORY - </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0060"> CHAPTER XIV—THE RED SHIRTS </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0061"> CHAPTER XV—THE HIGHER LAW </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0062"> CHAPTER XVI—THE END OF A MODERN VILLAIN - </a> - </p> - <p class="toc"> - <a href="#link2HCH0063"> CHAPTER XVII—WEDDING BELLS IN THE - GOVERNOR’S MANSION </a> - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - HISTORICAL NOTE - </h2> - <p> - In answer to hundreds of letters, I wish to say that all the incidents - used in Book I., which is properly the prologue of my story, were selected - from authentic records, or came within my personal knowledge. - </p> - <p> - The only serious liberty I have taken with history is to tone down the - facts to make them credible in fiction. The village of “Hambright” is my - birthplace, and is located near the center of “Military District No. 2,” - comprising the Carolinas, which were destroyed as States by an Act of - Congress in 1867. It will be a century yet before people outside the South - can be made to believe a literal statement of the history of those times. - </p> - <p> - I tried to write this book with the utmost restraint. - </p> - <p> - Thomas Dixon, Jr. - </p> - <p> - May 9, 1902. - </p> - <p> - Elmington Manor, Dixondale, Va. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY - </h2> - <p> - Scene: The Foothills of North Carolina-Boston-New York Time: From 1865 to - 1900 - </p> - <p> - Charles Gaston...........Who dreams of a Governor’s Mansion - </p> - <p> - Sallie Worth.............A daughter of the old fashioned South - </p> - <p> - Gen. Daniel Worth..................................Her father - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Worth...........................................Sallie’s mother - </p> - <p> - The Rev. John Durham.........A preacher who threw his life away - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Durham........Of the Southern Army that never surrendered - </p> - <p> - Tom Camp.....................A one-legged Confederate soldier - </p> - <p> - Flora....................................Tom’s little daughter - </p> - <p> - Simon Legree........Ex-slave driver and Reconstruction leader - </p> - <p> - Allan McLeod..............................A Scalawag - </p> - <p> - Hon. Everett Lowell..........Member of Congress from Boston - </p> - <p> - Helen Lowell........................His daughter - </p> - <p> - Miss Susan Walker.................A maiden of Boston - </p> - <p> - Major Stuart Dameron..............Chief of the Ku Klux Klan - </p> - <p> - Hose Norman.......................A dare-devil poor white man - </p> - <p> - Nelse........................A black hero of the old régime - </p> - <p> - Aunt Eve.....................His wife-“a respectable woman.” - </p> - <p> - Hon. Tim Shelby...................Political boss of the new era - </p> - <p> - Hon. Pete Sawyer.........Sold seven times, got the money once - </p> - <p> - George Harris, Jr............An Educated Negro, son of Eliza - </p> - <p> - Dick.......................................An unsolved riddle - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <h1> - THE LEOPARD’S SPOTS - </h1> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2book1" id="link2book1"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - BOOK ONE—LEGREE’S REGIME - </h2> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER I—A HERO RETURNS - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N the field of - Appomattox General Lee was waiting the return of a courier. His handsome - face was clouded by the deepening shadows of defeat. Rumours of surrender - had spread like wildfire, and the ranks of his once invincible army were - breaking into chaos. - </p> - <p> - Suddenly the measured tread of a brigade was heard marching into action, - every movement quick with the perfect discipline, the fire, and the - passion of the first days of the triumphant Confederacy. - </p> - <p> - “What brigade is that?” he sharply asked. - </p> - <p> - “Cox’s North Carolina,” an aid replied. - </p> - <p> - As the troops swept steadily past the General, his eyes filled with tears, - he lifted his hat, and exclaimed, “God bless old North Carolina!” - </p> - <p> - The display of matchless discipline perhaps recalled to the great - commander that awful day of Gettysburg when the Twenty-sixth North - Carolina infantry had charged with 820 men rank and file and left 704 dead - and wounded on the ground that night. Company F from Campbell county - charged with 91 men and lost every man killed and wounded. Fourteen times - their colours were shot down, and fourteen times raised again. The last - time they fell from the hands of gallant Colonel Harry Burgwyn, twenty-one - years old, commander of the regiment, who seized them and was holding them - aloft when instantly killed. - </p> - <p> - The last act of the tragedy had closed. Johnston surrendered to Sherman at - Greensboro on April 26th, 1865, and the Civil War ended,—the - bloodiest, most destructive war the world ever saw. The earth had been - baptized in the blood of five hundred thousand heroic soldiers, and a new - map of the world had been made. - </p> - <p> - The ragged troops were straggling home from Greensboro and Appomattox - along the country roads. There were no mails, telegraph lines or - railroads. The men were telling the story of the surrender. White-faced - women dressed in coarse homespun met them at their doors and with - quivering lips heard the news. - </p> - <p> - Surrender! - </p> - <p> - A new word in the vocabulary of the South—a word so terrible in its - meaning that the date of its birth was to be the landmark of time. - Henceforth all events would be reckoned from this; “before the Surrender,” - or “after the Surrender.” - </p> - <p> - Desolation everywhere marked the end of an era. Not a cow, a sheep, a - horse, a fowl, or a sign of animal life save here and there a stray dog, - to be seen. Grim chimneys marked the site of once fair homes. Hedgerows of - tangled blackberry briar and bushes showed where a fence had stood before - war breathed upon the land with its breath of fire and harrowed it with - teeth of steel. - </p> - <p> - These tramping soldiers looked worn and dispirited. Their shoulders - stooped, they were dirty and hungry. They looked worse than they felt, and - they felt that the end of the world had come. - </p> - <p> - They had answered those awful commands to charge without a murmur; and - then, rolled back upon a sea of blood, they charged again over the dead - bodies of their comrades. When repulsed the second time and the mad cry - for a third charge from some desperate commander had rung over the field, - still without a word they pulled their old ragged hats down close over - their eyes as though to shut out the hail of bullets, and, through level - sheets of blinding flame, walked straight into the jaws of hell. This had - been easy. Now their feet seemed to falter as though they were not sure of - the road. - </p> - <p> - In every one of these soldier’s hearts, and over all the earth hung the - shadow of the freed Negro, transformed by the exigency of war from a - Chattel to be bought and sold into a possible Beast to be feared and - guarded. Around this dusky figure every white man’s soul was keeping its - grim vigil. - </p> - <p> - North Carolina, the typical American Democracy, had loved peace and sought - in vain to stand between the mad passions of the Cavalier of the South and - the Puritan fanatic of the North. She entered the war at last with a - sorrowful heart but a soul clear in the sense of tragic duty. She sent - more boys to the front than any other state of the Confederacy—and - left more dead on the field. She made the last charge and fired the last - volley for Lee’s army at Appomattox. - </p> - <p> - These were the ragged country boys who were slowly tramping homeward. The - group whose fortunes we are to follow were marching toward the little - village of Hambright that nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge under - the shadows of King’s Mountain. They were the sons of the men who had - first declared their independence of Great Britain in America and had made - their country a hornet’s nest for Lord Cornwallis in the darkest days of - the cause of Liberty. What tongue can tell the tragic story of their - humble home coming? - </p> - <p> - In rich Northern cities could be heard the boom of guns, the scream of - steam whistles, the shouts of surging hosts greeting returning regiments - crowned with victory. From every flag-staff fluttered proudly the flag - that our fathers had lifted in the sky—the flag that had never met - defeat. - </p> - <p> - It is little wonder that in this hour of triumph the world should forget - the defeated soldiers who without a dollar in their pockets were tramping - to their ruined homes. - </p> - <p> - Yet Nature did not seem to know of sorrow or death. Birds were singing - their love songs from the hedgerows, the fields were clothed in gorgeous - robes of wild flowers beneath which forget-me-nots spread their - contrasting hues of blue, while life was busy in bud and starting leaf - reclothing the blood-stained earth in radiant beauty. - </p> - <p> - As the sun was setting behind the peaks of the Blue Ridge, a giant negro - entered the village of Ham-bright. He walked rapidly down one of the - principal streets, passed the court house square unobserved in the - gathering twilight, and three blocks further along paused before a - law-office that stood in the corner of a beautiful lawn filled with - shrubbery and flowers. - </p> - <p> - “Dars de ole home, praise de Lawd! En now I’se erfeard ter see my Missy, - en tell her Marse Charles’s daid. Hit’ll kill her! Lawd hab mussy on my po - black soul! How kin I!” - </p> - <p> - He walked softly up the alley that led toward the kitchen past the “big” - house, which after all was a modest cottage boarded up and down with - weatherstrips nestling amid a labyrinth of climbing roses, honeysuckles, - fruit bearing shrubbery and balsam trees. The negro had no difficulty in - concealing his movements as he passed. - </p> - <p> - “Lordy, dars Missy watchin’ at de winder! How pale she look! En she wuz de - purties’ bride in de two counties! God-der-mighty, I mus’ git somebody ter - he’p me! I nebber tell her! She drap daid right ’fore my eyes, en - liant me twell I die. I run fetch de Preacher, Marse John Durham, he kin - tell her.” - </p> - <p> - A few moments later he was knocking at the door of the parsonage of the - Baptist church. - </p> - <p> - “Nelse! At last! I knew you’d come!” - </p> - <p> - “Yassir, Marse John, I’se home. Hit’s me.” - </p> - <p> - “And your Master is dead. I was sure of it, but I never dared tell your - Mistress. You came for me to help you tell her. People said you had gone - over into the promised land of freedom and forgotten your people; but - Nelse, I never believed it of you and I’m doubly glad to shake your hand - to-night because you’ve brought a brave message from heroic lips and - because you have brought a braver message in your honest black face of - faith and duty and life and love.” - </p> - <p> - “Thankee Marse John, I wuz erbleeged ter come home.” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher stepped into the hall and called the servant from the - kitchen. - </p> - <p> - “Aunt Mary, when your Mistress returns tell her I’ve received an urgent - call and will not be at home for supper.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll be ready in a minute, Nelse,” he said, as he disappeared into the - study. When he reached his desk, he paused and looked about the room in a - helpless way as though trying to find some half forgotten volume in the - rows of books that lined the walls and lay in piles on his desk and - tables. He knelt beside the desk and prayed. When he rose there was a soft - light in his eyes that were half filled with tears. - </p> - <p> - Standing in the dim light of his study he was a striking man. He had a - powerful figure of medium height, deep piercing eyes and a high - intellectual forehead. His hair was black and thick. He was a man of - culture, had graduated at the head of his class at Wake Forest College - before the war, and was a profound student of men and books. He was now - thirty-five years old and the acknowledged leader of the Baptist - denomination in the state. He was eloquent, witty, and proverbially good - natured. His voice in the pulpit was soft and clear, and full of a - magnetic quality that gave him hypnotic power over an audience. He had the - prophetic temperament and was more of poet than theologian. - </p> - <p> - The people of this village were proud of the man as a citizen and loved - him passionately as their preacher. Great churches had called him, but he - had never accepted. There was in his make-up an element of the missionary - that gave his personality a peculiar force. - </p> - <p> - He had been the college mate of Colonel Charles Gaston whose faithful - slave had come to him for help, and they had always been bosom friends. He - had performed the marriage ceremony for the Colonel ten years before when - he had led to the altar the beautiful daughter of the richest planter in - the adjoining county. Durham’s own heart was profoundly moved by his - friend’s happiness and he threw into the brief preliminary address so much - of tenderness and earnest passion that the trembling bride and groom - forgot their fright and were melted to tears. Thus began an association of - their family life that was closer than their college days. - </p> - <p> - He closed his lips firmly for an instant, softly shut the door and was - soon on the way with Nelse. On reaching the house, Nelse went directly to - the kitchen, while the Preacher walking along the circular drive - approached the front. His foot had scarcely touched the step when Mrs. - Gaston opened the door. - </p> - <p> - “Oh, Dr. Durham, I am so glad you have come!” she exclaimed. “I’ve been - depressed to-day, watching the soldiers go by. All day long the poor - foot-sore fellows have been passing. I stopped some of them to ask about - Colonel Gaston and I thought one of them knew something and would not tell - me. I brought him in and gave him dinner, and tried to coax him, but he - only looked wistfully at me, stammered and said he didn’t know. But some - how I feel that he did. Come in Doctor, and say something to cheer me. If - I only had your faith in God!” - </p> - <p> - “I have need of it all to-night, Madam!” he answered with bowed head. - </p> - <p> - “Then you have heard bad news?” - </p> - <p> - “I have heard news,—wonderful news of faith and love, of heroism and - knightly valour, that will be a priceless heritage to you and yours. Nelse - has returned—” - </p> - <p> - “God have mercy on me!”—she gasped covering her face and raising her - arm as though cowering from a mortal blow. - </p> - <p> - “Here is Nelse, Madam. Hear his story. He has only told me a word or two.” - Nelse had slipped quietly in the back door. - </p> - <p> - “Yassum. Missy, I’se home at las’.” - </p> - <p> - She looked at him strangely for a moment. “Nelse, I’ve dreamed and dreamed - of your coming, but always with him. And now you come alone to tell me he - is dead. Lord have pity! there is nothing left!” There was a far-away - sound in her voice as though half dreaming. - </p> - <p> - “Yas, Missy, dey is, I jes seed him—my young Marster—dem - bright eyes, de ve’y nose, de chin, de mouf! He walks des like Marse - Charles, he talks like him, he de ve’y spit er him, en how he hez growed! - He’ll be er man fo you knows it. En I’se got er letter fum his Pa fur him, - an er letter fur you, Missy.” - </p> - <p> - At this moment Charlie entered the room, slipped past Nelse and climbed - into his mother’s arms. He was a sturdy little fellow of eight years with - big brown eyes and sensitive mouth. - </p> - <p> - “Yassir—Ole Grant wuz er pushin’ us dar afo’ Richmond Pear ter me - lak Marse Robert been er fightin’ him ev’y day for six monts. But he des - keep on pushin’ en pushin’ us. Marse Charles say ter me one night atter I - been playin’ de banjer fur de boys, Come ter my tent Nelse fo turnin’ in—I - wants ter see you.’ He talk so solemn like, I cut de banjer short, en go - right er long wid him. He been er writin’ en done had two letters writ. He - say, ‘Nelse, we gwine ter git outen dese trenches ter-morrer. It twell be - my las’ charge. I feel it. Ef I falls, you take my swode, en watch en dese - letters back home to your Mist’ess and young Marster, en you promise me, - boy, to stan’ by em in life ez I stan’ by you.’ He know I lub him bettern - any body in dis work, en dat I’d rudder be his slave dan be free if he’s - daid! En I say, ‘Dat I will, Marse Charles.’ - </p> - <p> - “De nex day we up en charge ole Grant. Pears ter me I nebber see so many - dead Yankees on dis yearth ez we see layin’ on de groun’ whar we brake - froo dem lines! But dey des kep fetchin’ up annudder army back er de one - we breaks, twell bymeby, dey swing er whole millyon er Yankees right plum - behin’ us, en five millyon er fresh uns come er swoopin’ down in front. - Den yer otter see my Marster! He des kinder riz in de air—pear ter - me like he wuz er foot taller en say to his men—’ ‘Bout face, en - charge de line in de rear!’ Wall sar, we cut er hole clean froo dem - Yankees en er minute, end den bout face ergin en begin ter walk backerds - er fightin’ like wilecats ev’y inch. We git mos back ter de trenches, when - Marse Charles drap des lak er flash! I runned up to him en dar wuz er big - hole in his breas’ whar er bullet gone clean froo his heart. He nebber - groan. I tuk his head up in my arms en cry en take on en call him! I pull - back his close en listen at his heart. Hit wuz still. I takes de swode an - de watch en de letters outen de pockets en start on—when bress God, - yer cum dat whole Yankee army ten hundred millyons, en dey tromple all - over us! - </p> - <p> - “Den I hear er Yankee say ter me ‘Now, my man, you’se free.’ ‘Yassir, - sezzi, dats so,’ en den I see a hole ter run whar dey warn’t no Yankees, - en I run spang into er millyon mo. De Yankees wuz ev’y whar. Pear ter me - lak dey riz up outer de groun’. All dat day I try ter get away fum ’em. - En long ’bout night dey ’rested me en fetch me up fo er - Genr’l, en he say, ‘What you tryin’ ter get froo our lines fur, nigger? - Doan yer know yer free now, en if you go back you’d be a slave ergin?’” - </p> - <p> - “Dats so, sah,” sezzi, “but I’se ’bleeged ter go home.” - </p> - <p> - “What fur?” sezze. - </p> - <p> - “Promise Marse Charles ter take dese letters en swode en watch back home - to my Missus en young Marster, en dey waitin’ fur me—I’se ’bleeged - ter go.” - </p> - <p> - “Den he tuk de letters en read er minute, en his eyes gin ter water en he - choke up en say, ‘Go-long!’ - </p> - <p> - “Den I skeedaddled ergin. Dey kep on ketchin’ me twell bimeby er nasty - stinkin low-life slue-footed Yankee kotched me en say dat I wuz er dang’us - nigger, en sont me wid er lot er our prisoners way up ter ole Jonson’s - Islan’ whar I mos froze ter deaf. I stay dar twell one day er fine lady - what say she from Boston cum er long, en I up en tells her all erbout - Marse Charles and my Missus, en how dey all waitin’ fur me, en how bad I - want ter go home, en de nex news I knowed I wuz on er train er whizzin’ - down home wid my way all paid. I get wid our men at Greensboro en come - right on fas’ ez my legs’d carry me.” - </p> - <p> - There was silence for a moment and then slowly Mrs. Gaston said, “May God - reward you, Nelse!” - </p> - <p> - “Yassum, I’se free, Missy, but I gwine ter wuk for you en my young - Marster.” - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Gaston had lived daily in a sort of trance through those four years - of war, dreaming and planning for the great day when her lover would - return a handsome bronzed and famous man. She had never conceived of the - possibility of a world without his will and love to lean upon. The - Preacher was both puzzled and alarmed by the strangely calm manner she now - assumed. Before leaving the home he cautioned Aunt Eve to watch her - Mistress closely and send for him if anything happened. - </p> - <p> - When the boy was asleep in the nursery adjoining her room, she quietly - closed the door, took the sword of her dead lover-husband in her lap and - looked long and tenderly at it. On the hilt she pressed her lips in a - lingering kiss. - </p> - <p> - “Here his dear hand must have rested last!” she murmured. She sat - motionless for an hour with eyes fixed without seeing. At last she rose - and hung the sword beside his picture near her bed and drew from her bosom - the crumpled, worn letters Nelse had brought. The first was addressed to - her. - </p> - <p> - <i>“In the Trenches Near Richmond, May 4, 1864.</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>“Sweet Wifie:—I have a presentiment to-night that I shall not - live to see you again. I feel the shadows of defeat and ruin closing upon - us. I am surer day by day that our cause is lost and surrender is a word I - have never learned to speak. If I could only see you for one hour, that I - might tell you all I have thought in the lone watches of the night in - camp, or marching over desolate fields. Many tender things I have never - said to you I have learned in these days. I write this last message to - tell you how, more and more beyond the power of words to express, your - love has grown upon me, until your spirit seems the breath I breathe. My - heart is so full of love for you and my boy, that I can’t go into battle - now without thinking how many hearts will ache and break in far away, - homes because of the work I am about to do. I am sick of it all. I long to - be at home again and walk with my sweet young bride among the flowers she - loves so well, and hear the old mocking bird that builds each spring in - those rose bushes at our window.</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>“If I am killed, you must live for our boy and rear him to a glorious - manhood in the new nation that will be born in this agony. I love you,—I - love you unto the uttermost, and beyond death I will live, if only to love - you forever.</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>“Always in life or death your own,</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>“Charles.</i>” - </p> - <p> - For two hours she held this letter open in her hands and seemed unable to - move it. And then mechanically she opened the one addressed to “Charles - Gaston, jr.” - </p> - <p> - “<i>My Darling Boy:—I send you by Nelse my watch and sword. It will - be all I can bequeath to you from the wreck that will follow the war. This - sword was your great grandfather’s. He held it as he charged up the - heights of King’s Mountain against Ferguson and helped to carve this - nation out of a wilderness. It was a sorrowful day for me when I felt it - my duty to draw that sword against the old flag in defence of my home and - my people. You will live to see a reunited country. Hang this sword back - beside the old flag of our fathers when the end has come, and always - remember that it was never drawn from its scabbard by your father, or your - grandfather who fought with Jackson at New Orleans, or your great - grandfather in the Revolution, save in the cause of justice and right. I - am not fighting to hold slaves in bondage. I am fighting for the - inalienable rights of my people under the Constitution our fathers - created. It may be we have outgrown this Constitution. But I calmly leave - to God and history the question as to who is right in its interpretation. - Whatever you do in life, first, last and always do what you believe to be - right. Everything else is of little importance. With a heart full of love, - Your father,</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>“Charles Gaston.”</i> - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - This letter she must have held open for hours, for it was two o’clock in - the morning when a wild peal of laughter rang from her feverish lips and - brought Aunt Eve and Nelse hurrying into the room. - </p> - <p> - It took but a moment for them to discover that their Mistress was - suffering from a violent delirium. They soothed her as best they could. - The noise and confusion had awakened the boy. Running to the door leading - into his mother’s room he found it bolted, and with his little heart - fluttering in terror he pressed his ear close to the key-hole and heard - her wild ravings. How strange her voice seemed! Her voice had always been - so soft and low and full of soothing music. Now it was sharp and hoarse - and seemed to rasp his flesh with needles. What could it all mean? Perhaps - the end of the world, about which he had heard the Preacher talk on - Sundays At last unable to bear the terrible suspense longer he cried - through the key-hole, “Aunt Eve, what’s the matter? Open the door quick.” - </p> - <p> - “No, honey, you mustn’t come in. Yo Ma’s awful sick. You run out ter de - barn, ketch de mare, en fly for de doctor while me en Nelse stay wid her. - Run honey, day’s nuttin’ ter hurt yer.” - </p> - <p> - His little bare feet were soon pattering over the long stretch of the back - porch toward the barn. The night was clear and sky studded with stars. - There was no moon. He was a brave little fellow, but a fear greater than - all the terrors of ghosts and the white sheeted dead with which Negro - superstition had filled his imagination, now nerved his child’s soul. His - mother was about to die! His very heart ceased to beat at the thought. He - must bring the doctor and bring him quickly. - </p> - <p> - He flew to the stable not looking to the right or the left. The mare - whinnied as he opened the door to get the bridle. - </p> - <p> - “It’s me Bessie. Mama’s sick. We must go for the doctor quick!” - </p> - <p> - The mare thrust her head obediently down to the child’s short arm for the - bridle. She seemed to know by some instinct his quivering voice had roused - that the home was in distress and her hour had come to bear a part. - </p> - <p> - In a moment he led her out through the gate, climbed on the fence, and - sprang on her back. - </p> - <p> - “Now, Bess, fly for me!” he half whispered, half cried through the tears - he could no longer keep back. The mare bounded forward in a swift gallop - as she felt his trembling bare legs clasp her side, and the clatter of her - hoofs echoed in the boy’s ears through the silent streets like the thunder - of charging cavalry. How still the night! He saw shadows under the trees, - shut his eyes and leaning low on the mare’s neck patted her shoulders with - his hands and cried, “Faster. Bessie! Faster!” And then he tried to pray. - “Lord don’t let her die! Please, dear God, and I will always be good. I am - sorry I robbed the bird’s nests last summer—I’ll never do it again. - Please, Lord I’m such a wee boy and I’m so lonely. I can’t lose my Mama!”—and - the voice choked and became, a great sob. He looked across the square as - he passed the court house in a gallop and saw a light in the window of the - parsonage and felt its rays warm his soul like an answer to his prayer. - </p> - <p> - He reached the doctor’s house on the further side of the town, sprang from - the mare’s back, bounded up the steps and knocked at the door. No one - answered. He knocked again. How loud it rang through the hall! May be the - doctor was gone! He had not thought of such a possibility before. He - choked at the thought. Springing quickly from the steps to the ground he - felt for a stone, bounded back and began to pound on the door with all his - might. - </p> - <p> - The window was raised, and the old doctor thrust his head out calling, - “What on earth’s the matter? Who is that?” - </p> - <p> - “It’s me, Charlie Gaston—my Mama’s sick—she’s awful sick, I’m - afraid she’s dying—you must come quick!” - </p> - <p> - “All right, sonny, I’ll be ready in a minute.” - </p> - <p> - The boy waited and waited. It seemed to him hours, days, weeks, years! To - every impatient call the doctor would answer, “In a minute, sonny, in a - minute!” - </p> - <p> - At last he emerged with his lantern, to catch his horse. The doctor seemed - so slow. He fumbled over the harness. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Doctor you’re so slow! I tell you my Mama’s sick—!” - </p> - <p> - “Well, well, my boy, we’ll soon be there,” the old man kindly replied. - </p> - <p> - When the boy saw the doctor’s horse jogging quickly toward his home he - turned the mare’s head aside as he reached the court house square, roused - the Preacher, and between his sobs told the story of his mother’s illness. - Mrs. Durham had lost her only boy two years before. Soon Charlie was - sobbing in her arms. - </p> - <p> - “You poor little darling, out by yourself so late at night, were you not - scared?” she asked as she kissed the tears from his eyes. - </p> - <p> - “Yessum, I was scared, but I had to go for the doctor. I want you and Dr. - Durham to come as quick as you can. I’m afraid to go home. I’m afraid - she’s dead, or I’ll hear her laugh that awful way I heard to-night.” - </p> - <p> - “Of course we will come, dear, right away. We will be there almost as soon - as you can get to the house.” - </p> - <p> - He rode slowly along the silent street looking back now and then for the - Preacher and his wife. As he was passing a small deserted house he saw to - his horror a ragged man peering into the open window. Before he had time - to run, the man stepped quickly up to the mare and said, “Who lived here - last, little man?” - </p> - <p> - “Old Miss Spurlin,” answered the boy. - </p> - <p> - “Where is she now?” - </p> - <p> - “She’s dead.” - </p> - <p> - The man sighed, and the boy saw by his gray uniform that he was a soldier - just back from the war, and he quickly added, “Folks said they had a hard - time, but Preacher Durham helped them lots when they had nothing to eat.” - </p> - <p> - “So my poor old mother’s dead. I was afraid of it.” He seemed to be - talking to himself. “And do you know where her gal is that lived with - her?” - </p> - <p> - “She’s in a little house down in the woods below town. They say she’s a - bad woman, and my Mama would never let me go near her.” - </p> - <p> - The man flinched as though struck with a knife, steadied himself for a - moment with his hands on the mare’s neck and said, “You’re a brave little - one to be out alone this time o’night,—what’s your name?” - </p> - <p> - “Charles Gaston.” - </p> - <p> - “Then you’re my Colonel’s boy—many a time I followed him where men - were failin’ like leaves—I wish to God I was with him now in the - ground! Don’t tell anybody you saw me,—them that knowed me will - think I’m dead, and it’s better so.” - </p> - <p> - “Good-bye, sir,” said the child “I’m sorry for you if you’ve got no home. - I’m after the doctor for my Mama,—she’s very sick. I’m afraid she’s - going to die, and if you ever pray I wish you’d pray for her.” - </p> - <p> - The soldier came closer. “I wish I knew how to pray, my boy. But it seemed - to me I forgot everything that was good in the war, and there’s nothin’ - left but death and hell. But I’ll not forget you, good-bye!” When Charlie - was in bed, he lay an hour with wide staring eyes, holding his breath now - and then to catch the faintest sound from his mother’s room. All was quiet - at last and he fell asleep. But he was no longer a child. The shadow of a - great sorrow had enveloped his soul and clothed him with the dignity and - fellowship of the mystery of pain. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER II—A LIGHT SHINING IN DARKNESS - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>N the rear of Mrs. - Gaston’s place, there stood in the midst of an orchard a log house of two - rooms, with hallway between them. There was a mud-thatched wooden chimney - at each end, and from the back of the hallway a kitchen extension of the - same material with another mud chimney. The house stood in the middle of a - ten acre lot, and a woman was busy in the garden with a little girl, - planting seed. - </p> - <p> - “Hurry up Annie, less finish this in time to fix up a fine dinner er - greens and turnips an’taters an a chicken. Yer Pappy’ll get home - to-day sure. Colonel Gaston’s Nelse come last night. Yer Pappy was in the - Colonel’s regiment an’ Nelse said he passed him on the road comin’ with - two one-legged soldiers. He ain’t got but one leg, he says. But, Lord, if - there’s a piece of him left we’ll praise God an’ be thankful for what - we’ve got.” - </p> - <p> - “Maw, how did he look? I mos’ forgot—’s been so long sence I - seed him?” asked the child. - </p> - <p> - “Look! Honey! He was the handsomest man in Campbell county! He had a tall - fine figure, brown curly beard, and the sweetest mouth that was always - smilin’ at me, an’ his eyes twinklin’ over somethin’ funny he’d seed or - thought about. When he was young ev’ry gal around here was crazy about - him. I got him all right, an’ he got me too. Oh me! I can’t help but cry, - to think he’s been gone so long. But he’s comin’ to-day! I jes feel it in - my bones.” - </p> - <p> - “Look a yonder, Maw, what a skeer-crow ridin’ er ole hoss!” cried the - girl, looking suddenly toward the road. - </p> - <p> - “Glory to God! It’s Tom!” she shouted, snatching her old faded sun-bonnet - off her head and fairly flying across the field to the gate, her cheeks - aflame, her blond hair tumbling over her shoulders, her eyes wet with - tears. - </p> - <p> - Tom was entering the gate of his modest home in as fine style as possible, - seated proudly on a stack of bones that had once been a horse, an old - piece of wool on his head that once had been a hat, and a wooden peg - fitted into a stump where once was a leg. His face was pale and stained - with the red dust of the hill roads, and his beard, now iron grey, and his - ragged buttonless uniform were covered with dirt. He was truly a sight to - scare crows, if not of interest to buzzards. But to the woman whose swift - feet were hurrying to his side, and whose lips were muttering half - articulate cries of love, he was the knightliest figure that ever rode in - the lists before the assembled beauty of the world. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Tom, Tom, Tom, my ole man! You’ve come at last!” she sobbed as she - threw her arms around his neck, drew him from the horse and fairly - smothered him with kisses. - </p> - <p> - “Look out, ole woman, you’ll break my new leg!” cried Tom when he could - get breath. - </p> - <p> - “I don’t care,—I’ll get you another one,” she laughed through her - tears. - </p> - <p> - “Look out there again you’re smashing my game shoulder. Got er Minie ball - in that one.” - </p> - <p> - “Well your mouth’s all right I see,” cried the delighted woman, as she - kissed and kissed him. - </p> - <p> - “Say, Annie, don’t be so greedy, give me a chance at my young one.” Tom’s - eyes were devouring the excited girl who had drawn nearer. - </p> - <p> - “Come and kiss your Pappy and tell him how glad you are to see him!” said - Tom, gathering her in his arms and attempting to carry her to the house. - </p> - <p> - He stumbled and fell. In a moment the strong arms of his wife were about - him and she was helping him into the house. - </p> - <p> - She laid him tenderly on the bed, petted him and cried over him. “My poor - old man, he’s all shot and cut to pieces. You’re so weak, Tom—I - can’t believe it. You were so strong. But we’ll take care of you. Don’t - you worry. You just sleep a week and then rest all summer and watch us - work the garden for you!” - </p> - <p> - He lay still for a few moments with a smile playing around his lips. - </p> - <p> - “Lord, ole woman, you don’t know how nice it is to be petted like that, to - hear a woman’s voice, feel her breath on your face and the touch of her - hand, warm and soft after four years sleeping on dirt and living with men - and mules, and fightin’ and runnin’ and diggin’ trenches like rats and - moles, killin’ men, buryin’ the dead like carrion, holdin’ men while - doctors sawed their legs off, till your turn came to be held and sawed! - You can’t believe it, but this is the first feather bed I’ve touched in - four years.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, well!—Bless God it’s over now,” she cried. “S’long as I’ve - got two strong arms to slave for you—as long as there’s a piece of - you left big enough to hold on to—I’ll work for you,” and again she - bent low over his pale face, and crooned over him as she had so often done - over his baby in those four lonely years of war and poverty. - </p> - <p> - Suddenly Tom pushed her aside and sprang up in bed. - </p> - <p> - “Geemimy, Annie, I forgot my pardners—there’s two more peg-legs out - at the gate by this time waiting for us to get through huggin’ and - carryin’ on before they come in. Run, fetch’em in quick!” - </p> - <p> - Tom struggled to his feet and met them at the door. - </p> - <p> - “Come right into my palace, boys. I’ve seen some fine places in my time, - but this is the handsomest one I ever set eyes on. Now, Annie, put the big - pot in the little one and don’t stand back for expenses. Let’s have a - dinner these fellers’ll never forget.” - </p> - <p> - It was a feast they never forgot. Tom’s wife had raised a brood of early - chickens, and managed to keep them from being stolen. She killed four of - them and cooked them as only a Southern woman knows how. She had sweet - potatoes carefully saved in the mound against the kitchen chimney. There - were turnips and greens and radishes, young onions and lettuce and hot - corn dodgers fit for a king; and in the centre of the table she deftly - fixed a pot of wild flowers little Annie had gathered. She did not tell - them that it was the last peck of potatoes and the last pound of meal. - This belonged to the morrow. To-day they would live. - </p> - <p> - They laughed and joked over this splendid banquet, and told stories of - days and nights of hunger and exhaustion, when they had filled their empty - stomachs with dreams of home. - </p> - <p> - “Miss Camp, you’ve got the best husband in seven states, did you know - that?” asked one of the soldiers, a mere boy. - </p> - <p> - “Of course she’ll agree to that, sonny,” laughed Tom. - </p> - <p> - “Well it’s so. If it hadn’t been for him, M’am, we’d a been peggin’ along - somewhere way up in Virginny ‘stead o’ bein’ so close to home. You see he - let us ride his hoss a mile and then he’d ride a mile. We took it turn - about, and here we are.” - </p> - <p> - “Tom, how in this world did you get that horse?” asked his wife. - </p> - <p> - “Honey, I got him on my good looks,” said he with a wink. “You see I was a - settin’ out there in the sun the day o’ the surrender. I was sorter cryin’ - and wonderin’ how I’d get home with that stump of wood instead of a foot, - when along come a chunky heavy set Yankee General, looking as glum as - though his folks had surrendered instead of Marse Robert. He saw me, - stopped, looked at me a minute right hard and says, ‘Where do you live?’” - </p> - <p> - “Way down in ole No’th Caliny,” I says, “at Ham-bright, not far from - King’s Mountain.” - </p> - <p> - “How are you going to get home?” says he. - </p> - <p> - “God knows, I don’t, General. I got a wife and baby down there I ain’t - seed fer nigh four years, and I want to see ’em so bad I can taste - ’em. I was lookin’ the other way when I said that, fer I was purty - well played out, and feelin’ weak and watery about the eyes, an’ I didn’t - want no Yankee General to see water in my eyes.” - </p> - <p> - “He called a feller to him and sorter snapped out to him, ‘Go bring the - best horse you can spare for this man and give it to him’.” - </p> - <p> - “Then he turns to me and seed I was all choked up and couldn’t say nothin’ - and says: - </p> - <p> - “I’m General Grant. Give my love to your folks when you get home. I’ve - known what it was to be a poor white man down South myself once for - awhile.” - </p> - <p> - “God bless you, General. I thanks you from the bottom of my heart,” I says - as quick as I could find my tongue, “if it had to be surrender I’m glad it - was to such a man as you.” - </p> - <p> - “He never said another word, but just walked slow along smoking a big - cigar. So ole woman, you know the reason I named that hoss, ‘General - Grant.’ It may be I have seen finer hosses than that one, but I couldn’t - recollect anything about ’em on the road home.” - </p> - <p> - Dinner over, Tom’s comrades rose and looked wistfully down the dusty road - leading southward. - </p> - <p> - “Well, Tom, ole man, we gotter be er movin’,” said the older of the two - soldiers. “We’re powerful obleeged to you fur helpin’ us along this fur.” - </p> - <p> - “All right, boys, you’ll find yer train standin’ on the side o’ the track - eatin’ grass. Jes climb up, pull the lever and let her go.” - </p> - <p> - The men’s faces brightened, their lips twitched. They looked at Tom, and - then at the old horse. They looked down the long dusty road stretching - over hill and valley, hundreds of miles south, and then at Tom’s wife and - child, whispered to one another a moment, and the elder said: - </p> - <p> - “No, pardner, you’ve been awful good to us, but we’ll get along somehow—we - can’t take yer hoss. It’s all yer got now ter make a livin’ on yer place.” - </p> - <p> - “All I got?” shouted Tom, “man alive, ain’t you seed my ole woman, as fat - and jolly and han’some as when I married her ’leven years ago? - Didn’t you hear her cryin’ an’ shoutin’ like she’s crazy when I got home? - Didn’t you see my little gal with eyes jes like her daddy’s? Don’t you see - my cabin standin’ as purty as a ripe peach in the middle of the orchard - when hundreds of fine houses are lyin’ in ashes? Ain’t I got ten acres of - land? Ain’t I got God Almighty above me and all around me, the same God - that watched over me on the battlefields? All I got? That old stack o’ - bones that looks like er hoss? Well I reckon not!” - </p> - <p> - “Pardner, it ain’t right,” grumbled the soldier, with more of cheerful - thanks than protest in his voice. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Get off you fools,” said Tom good-naturedly, “ain’t it my hoss? Can’t - I do what I please with him?” So with hearty hand-shakes they parted, the - two astride the old horse’s back. One had lost his right leg, the other - his left, and this gave them a good leg on each side to hold the cargo - straight. - </p> - <p> - “Take keer yerself, Tom!” they both cried in the same breath as they moved - away. - </p> - <p> - “Take keer yerselves, boys. I’m all right!” answered Tom, as he stumped - his way back to the home. “It’s all right, it’s all right,” he muttered to - himself. “He’d a come in handy, but I’d a never slept thinkin’ o’ them - peggin’ along them rough roads.” - </p> - <p> - Before reaching the house he sat down on a wooden bench beneath a tree to - rest. It was the first week in May and the leaves were not yet grown. The - sun was pouring his hot rays down into the moist earth, and the heat began - to feel like summer. As he drank in the beauty and glory of the spring his - soul was melted with joy. The fruit trees were laden with the promise of - the treasures of the summer and autumn, a cat-bird was singing softly to - his mate in the tree over his head, and a mocking-bird seated in the - topmost branch of an elm near his cabin home was leading the oratorio of - feathered songsters. The wild plum and blackberry briars were in full - bloom in the fence comers, and the sweet odour filled the air. He heard - his wife singing in the house. - </p> - <p> - “It’s a fine old world after all!” he exclaimed leaning back and half - closing his eyes, while a sense of ineffable peace filled his soul. “Peace - at last! Thank God! May I never see a gun or a sword, or hear a drum or a - fife’s scream on this earth again!” - </p> - <p> - A hound came close wagging his tail and whining for a word of love and - recognition. - </p> - <p> - “Well. Bob, old boy, you’re the only one left. You’ll have to chase - cotton-tails by yourself now.” - </p> - <p> - Bob’s eyes watered and he licked his master’s hand apparently - understanding every word he said. - </p> - <p> - Breaking from his master’s hands the dog ran toward the gate barking, and - Tom rose in haste as he recognised the sturdy tread of the Preacher, Rev. - John Durham, walking rapidly toward the house. - </p> - <p> - Grasping him heartily by the hand the Preacher said, “Tom, you don’t know - how it warms my soul to look into your face again. When you left, I felt - like a man who had lost one hand. I’ve found it to-day. You’re the same - stalwart Christian full of joy and love. Some men’s religion didn’t stand - the wear and tear of war. You’ve come out with your soul like gold tried - in the fire. Colonel Gaston wrote me you were the finest soldier in the - regiment, and that you were the only Chaplain he had seen that he could - consult for his own soul’s cheer. That’s the kind of a deacon to send to - the front! I’m proud of you, and you’re still at your old tricks. I met - two one-legged soldiers down the road riding your horse away as though you - had a stable full at your command. You needn’t apologise or explain, they - told me all about it.” - </p> - <p> - “Preacher, it’s good to have the Lord’s messenger speak words like them. I - can’t tell you how glad I am to be home again and shake your hand. I tell - you it was a comfort to me when I lay awake at night on them battlefields, - a wonderin’ what had become of my ole woman and the baby, to recollect - that you were here, and how often I’d heard you tell us how the Lord - tempered the wind to the shorn lamb. Annie’s been telling me who watched - out for her them dark days when there was nothin’ to eat. I reckon you and - your wife knows the way to this house about as well as you do to the - church.” Tom had pulled the Preacher down on the seat beside him while he - said this. - </p> - <p> - “The dark days have only begun, Tom. I’ve come to see you to have you - cheer me up. Somehow you always seemed to me to be closer to God than any - man in the church. You will need all your faith now. It seems to me that - every second woman I know is a widow. Hundreds of families have no seed - even to plant, no horses to work crops, no men who will work if they had - horses. What are we to do? I see hungry children in every house.” - </p> - <p> - “Preacher, the Lord is looking down here to-day and sees all this as plain - as you and me. As long as He is in the sky everything will come all right - on the earth.” - </p> - <p> - “How’s your pantry?” asked the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t know. ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,’ you know. When I hear - these birds in the trees an’ see this old dog waggin’ his tail at me, and - smell the breath of them flowers, and it all comes over me that I’m done - killin’ men, and I’m at home, with a bed to sleep on, a roof over my head, - a woman to pet me and tell me I’m great and handsome, I don’t feel like - I’ll ever need anything more to eat! I believe I could live a whole month - here without eatin’ a bite.” - </p> - <p> - “Good. You come to the prayer meeting to-night and say a few things like - that, and the folks will believe they have been eating three square meals - every day.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll be there. I ain’t asked Annie what she’s got, but I know she’s got - greens and turnips, onions and col-lards, and strawberries in the garden. - Irish taters’ll be big enough to eat in three weeks, and sweets comin’ - right on. We’ve got a few chickens. The blackberries and plums and peaches - and apples are all on the road. Ah! Preacher, it’s my soul that’s been - starved away from my wife and child!” - </p> - <p> - “You don’t know how much I need help sometimes Tom. I am always giving, - giving myself in sympathy and help to others, I’m famished now and then. I - feel faint and worn out. You seem to fill me again with life.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m glad to hear you say that, Preacher. I get downhearted sometimes, - when I recollect I’m nothin’ but a poor white man. I’ll remember your - words. I’m goin’ to do my part in the church work. You know where to find - me.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, that’s partly what brought me here this morning. I want you to help - me look after Mrs. Gaston and her little boy. She is prostrated over the - death of the Colonel and is hanging between life and death. She is in a - delirious condition all the time and must be watched day and night. I want - you to watch the first half of the night with Nelse, and Eve and Mary will - watch the last half.” - </p> - <p> - “Of course, I’ll do anything in the world I can for my Colonel’s widder. - He was the bravest man that ever led a regiment, and he was a father to us - boys. I’ll be there. But I won’t set up with that nigger. He can go to - bed.” - </p> - <p> - “Tom, it’s a funny thing to me that as good a Christian as you are should - hate a nigger so. He’s a human being. It’s not right.” - </p> - <p> - “He may be human, Preacher, I don’t know. To tell you the truth, I have my - doubts. Anyhow, I can’t help it. God knows I hate the sight of ’em - like I do a rattlesnake. That nigger Nelse, they say is a good one. He was - faithful to the Colonel, I know, but I couldn’t bear him no more than any - of the rest of ’em. I always hated a nigger since I was knee high. - My daddy and my mammy hated ’em before me. Somehow, we always felt - like they was crowdin’ us to death on them big plantations, and the little - ones too. And then I had to leave my wife and baby and fight four years, - all on account of their stinkin’ hides, that never done nothin’ for me - except make it harder to live. Every time I’d go into battle and hear them - Minie balls begin to sing over us, it seemed to me I could see their black - ape faces grinnin’ and makin’ fun of poor whites. At night when they’d - detail me to help the ambulance corps carry off the dead and the wounded, - there was a strange smell on the field that came from the blood and night - damp and burnt powder. It always smelled like a nigger to me! It made me - sick. Yes, Preacher, God forgive me, I hate ’em! I can’t help it - any more than I can the color of my skin or my hair.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll fix it with Nelse, then. You take the first part of the night ’till - twelve o’clock. I’ll go down with you from the church to-night,” said the - Preacher, as he shook Tom’s hand and took his leave. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER III—DEEPENING SHADOWS - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N the second day - after Mrs. Gaston was stricken a forlorn little boy sat in the kitchen - watching Aunt Eve get supper. He saw her nod while she worked the dough - for the biscuits. - </p> - <p> - “Aunt Eve, I’m going to sit up to-night and every night with my Mama, ’till - she gets well. I can’t sleep for hours and hours. I lie awake and cry when - I hear her talking ’till I feel like I’ll die. I must do something - to help her.” - </p> - <p> - “Laws, honey, you’se too little. You can’t keep ’wake ’tall. - You get so lonesome and skeered all by yerself.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t care, I’ve told Tom to wake me to-night if I’m asleep when he - goes, and I’ll sit up from twelve ’till two o’clock and then call - you.” - </p> - <p> - “All right, Mammy’s darlin’ boy, but you git tired en can’t stan’ it.” - </p> - <p> - So that night at midnight he took his place by the bedside. His mother was - sleeping, at first. He sat and gazed with aching heart at her still, white - face. She stirred, opened her eyes, saw him, and imagined he was his - father. - </p> - <p> - “Dearie-, I knew you would come,” she murmured. “They told me you were - dead; but I knew better. What a long, long time you have been away. How - brown the sun has tanned your face, but it’s just as handsome. I think - handsomer than ever. And how like you is little Charlie! I knew you would - be proud of him!” - </p> - <p> - While she talked, her eyes had a glassy look, that seemed to take no note - of anything in the room. - </p> - <p> - The child listened for ten minutes, and then the horror of her strange - voice, and look and words overwhelmed him. He burst into tears and threw - his arms around his mother’s neck and sobbed. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Mama dear, it’s me, Charlie, your little boy, who loves you so much. - Please, don’t talk that way. Please look at me like you used to. There! - Let me kiss your eyes ’till they are soft and sweet again!” - </p> - <p> - He covered her eyes with kisses. - </p> - <p> - The mother seemed dazed for a moment, held him off at arm’s length, and - then burst into laughter. - </p> - <p> - “Of course, you silly, I know you. You must run to bed now. Kiss me good - night.” - </p> - <p> - “But you are sick, Mama, I am sitting up with you.” Again she ignored his - presence. She was back in the old days with her Love. She was kissing her - hand to him as he left her for his day’s work. Charlie looked at the - clock. It was time to give her the soothing drops the doctor left. She - took it, obedient as a child, and went on and on with interminable dreams - of the past, now and then uttering strange things for a boy’s ears. But so - terrible was the anguish with which he watched her, the words made little - impression on his mind. It seemed to him some one was strangling him to - death, and a great stone was piled on his little prostrate body. - </p> - <p> - When she grew quiet, at last, and dosed, how still the house seemed! How - loud the tick of the clock! How slowly the hands moved! He had never - noticed this before. He watched the hands for five minutes. It seemed each - minute was an hour, and five minutes were as long as a day. What strange - noises in the house! Suppose a ghost should walk into the room! Well, he - wouldn’t run and leave his Mama; he made up his mind to that. - </p> - <p> - Some nights there were other sounds more ominous. The town was crowded - with strange negroes, who were hanging around the camp of the garrison. - One night a drunken gang came shouting and screaming up the alley close - beside the house, firing pistols and muskets. They stopped at the house, - and one of them yelled, “Burn the rebel’s house down! It’s our turn now!” - </p> - <p> - The terrified boy rushed to the kitchen and called Nelse. In a minute, - Nelse was on the scene. There was no more trouble that night. - </p> - <p> - “De lazy black debbels,” said Nelse, as he mopped the perspiration from - his brow, “I’ll teach ’em what freedom is.” - </p> - <p> - The next day when the Rev. John Durham had an interview with the - Commandant of the troops, he succeeded in getting a consignment of corn - for seed, and to meet the threat of starvation among some families whose - condition he reported. This important matter settled, he said to the - officer: - </p> - <p> - “Captain, we must look to you for protection. The town is swarming with - vagrant negroes, bent on mischief. There are camp followers with you - organizing them into some sort of Union League meetings, dealing out arms - and ammunition to them, and what is worse, inflaming the worst passions - against their former masters, teaching them insolence and training them - for crime.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll do the best I can for you Doctor, but I can’t control the camp - followers who are organising the Union League. They live a charmed life.” - </p> - <p> - That night, as the Preacher walked home from a visit to a destitute family - he encountered a burly negro on the sidewalk, dressed in an old suit of - Federal uniform, evidently under the influence of whiskey. He wore a belt - around his waist, in which he had thrust, conspicuously, an old horse - pistol. - </p> - <p> - Standing squarely across the pathway, he said to the Preacher, “Git outer - de road, white man, you’se er rebel, I’se er Loyal Union Leaguer!” - </p> - <p> - It was his first experience with Negro insolence since the emancipation of - his slaves. Quick as a flash, his right arm was raised. But he took a - second thought, stepped aside, and allowed the drunken fool to pass. He - went home wondering in a hazy sort of way through his excited passions - what the end of it all would be. Gradually in his mind for days this - towering figure of the freed Negro had been growing more and more ominous, - until its menace overshadowed the poverty, the hunger, the sorrows and the - devastation of the South, throwing the blight of its shadow over future - generations, a veritable Black Death for the land and its people. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER IV—MR. LINCOLN’S DREAM - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">E</span>VERY morning - before the Preacher could finish his breakfast, callers were knocking at - the door—the negro, the poor white, the widow, the orphan, the - wounded, the hungry, an endless procession. - </p> - <p> - The spirit of the returned soldiers was all that he could ask. There was - nowhere a slumbering spark of war. There was not the slightest effort to - continue the lawless habits of four years of strife. Everywhere the spirit - of patience, self-restraint and hope marked the life of the men who had - made the most terrible soldiery. They were glad to be done with war, and - have the opportunity to rebuild their broken fortunes. They were glad, - too, that the everlasting question of a divided Union was settled and - settled forever. There was now to be one country and one flag, and deep - down in their souls they were content with it. - </p> - <p> - The spectacle of this terrible army of the Confederacy, the memory of - whose battle cry yet thrills the world, transformed in a month into - patient and hopeful workmen, has never been paralleled in history. - </p> - <p> - Who destroyed this scene of peaceful rehabilitation? Hell has no pit dark - enough, and no damnation deep enough for these conspirators when once - history has fixed their guilt. - </p> - <p> - The task before the people of the South was one to tax the genius of the - Anglo-Saxon race as never in its history, even had every friendly aid - possible been extended by the victorious North. Four million negroes had - suddenly been freed, and the foundations of economic order destroyed. Five - billions of dollars worth of property were wiped out of existence, banks - closed, every dollar of money worthless paper, the country plundered by - victorious armies, its cities, mills and homes burned, and the flower of - its manhood buried in nameless trenches, or worse still, flung upon the - charity of poverty, maimed wrecks. The task of organising this wrecked - society and marshalling into efficient citizenship this host of ignorant - negroes, and yet to preserve the civilisation of the Anglo-Saxon race, the - priceless heritage of two thousand years of struggle, was one to appal the - wisdom of ages. Honestly and earnestly the white people of the South set - about this work, and accepted the Thirteenth amendment to the Constitution - abolishing slavery without a protesting vote. - </p> - <p> - The President issued his proclamation announcing the method of restoring - the Union as it had been handed to him from the martyred Lincoln, and - endorsed unanimously by Lincoln’s Cabinet. This plan was simple, broad and - statesmanlike, and its spirit breathed Fraternity and Union with malice - toward none and charity toward all. It declared what Lincoln had always - taught, that the Union was indestructible, that the rebellious states had - now only to repudiate Secession, abolish slavery, and resume their - positions in the Union, to preserve which so many lives had been - sacrificed. - </p> - <p> - The people of North Carolina accepted this plan in good faith. They - elected a Legislature composed of the noblest men of the state, and chose - an old Union man, Andrew Macon, Governor. Against Macon was pitted the man - who was now the President and organiser of a federation of secret - oath-bound societies, of which the Union League, destined to play so - tragic a part in the drama about to follow was the type. This man, Amos - Hogg, was a writer of brilliant and forceful style. Before the war, a - virulent Secessionist leader, he had justified and upheld slavery, and had - written a volume of poems dedicated to John C. Calhoun. He had led the - movement for Secession in the Convention which passed the ordinance. But - when he saw his ship was sinking, he turned his back upon the “errors” of - the past, professed the most loyal Union sentiments, wormed himself into - the confidence of the Federal Government, and actually succeeded in - securing the position of Provisional Governor of the state! He loudly - professed his loyalty, and with fury and malice demanded that Vance, the - great war Governor, his predecessor, who, as a Union man had opposed - Secession, should now be hanged, and with him his own former associates in - the Secession Convention, whom he had misled with his brilliant pen. - </p> - <p> - But the people had a long memory. They saw through this hollow pretense, - grieved for their great leader, who was now locked in a prison cell in - Washington, and voted for Andrew Macon. - </p> - <p> - In the bitterness of defeat, Amos Hogg sharpened his wits and his pen, and - began his schemes of revengeful ambition. - </p> - <p> - The fires of passion burned now in the hearts of hosts of cowards, North - and South, who had not met their foe in battle. Their day had come. The - times were ripe for the Apostles of Revenge and their breed of statesmen. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher threw the full weight of his character and influence to - defeat Hogg and he succeeded in carrying the county for Macon by an - overwhelming majority. At the election only the men who had voted under - the old regime were allowed to vote. The Preacher had not appeared on the - hustings as a speaker, but as an organizer and leader of opinion he was - easily the most powerful man in the county, and one of the most powerful - in the state. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER V—THE OLD AND THE NEW CHURCH - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>N the village of - Hambright the church was the centre of gravity of the life of the people. - There were but two churches, the Baptist and the Methodist. The - Episcopalians had a building, but it was built by the generosity of one of - their dead members. There were four Presbyterian families in town, and - they were working desperately to build a church. The Baptists had really - taken the county, and the Methodists were their only rivals. The Baptists - had fifteen flourishing churches in the county, the Methodists six. There - were no others. - </p> - <p> - The meetings at the Baptist church in the village of Hambright were the - most important gatherings in the county. On Sunday mornings everybody who - could walk, young and old, saint and sinner, went to church, and by far - the larger number to the Baptist church. - </p> - <p> - You could tell by the stroke of the bells that the two were rivals. The - sextons acquired a peculiar skill in ringing these bells with a snap and a - jerk that smashed the clapper against the side in a stroke that spoke - defiance to all rival bells, warning of everlasting fire to all sinners - that should stay away, and due notice to the saints that even an apostle - might become a castaway unless he made haste. - </p> - <p> - The men occupied one side of the house, the women the other. Only very - small boys accompanying their mothers were to be seen on the woman’s side, - together with a few young men who fearlessly escorted thither their - sweethearts. - </p> - <p> - Before the services began, between the ringing of the first and second - bells, the men gathered in groups in the church yard and discussed grave - questions of politics and weather. The services over the men lingered in - the yard to shake hands with neighbours, praise or criticise the sermon, - and once more discuss great events. The boys gathered in quiet, wistful - groups and watched the girls come slowly out of the other door, and now - and then a daring youngster summoned courage to ask to see one of them - home. - </p> - <p> - The services were of the simplest kind. The Singing of the old hymns of - Zion, the Reading of the Bible, the Prayer, the Collection, the Sermon, - the Benediction. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher never touched on politics, no matter what the event under - whose world import his people gathered. War was declared, and fought for - four terrible years. Lee surrendered, the slaves were freed, and society - was torn from the foundations of centuries, but you would never have known - it from the lips of the Rev. John Durham in his pulpit. These things were - but passing events. When he ascended the pulpit he was the Messenger of - Eternity. He spoke of God, of Truth, of Righteousness, of Judgment, the - same yesterday, to-day and forever. - </p> - <p> - Only in his prayers did he come closer to the inner thoughts and - perplexities of the daily life of the people. He was a man of remarkable - power in the pulpit. His mastery of the Bible was profound. He could speak - pages of direct discourse in its very language. To him it was a divine - alphabet, from whose letters he could compose the most impassioned message - to the individual hearer before him. Its literature, its poetic fire, the - epic sweep of the Old Testament record of life, were inwrought into the - very fibre of his soul. As a preacher he spoke with authority. He was - narrow and dogmatic in his interpretations of the Bible, but his very - narrowness and dogmatism were of his flesh and blood, elements of his - power. He never stooped to controversy. He simply announced the Truth. The - wise received it. The fools rejected it and were damned. That was all - there was to it. - </p> - <p> - But it was in his public prayers that he was at his best. Here all the - wealth of tenderness of a great soul was laid bare. In these prayers he - had the subtle genius that could find the way direct into the hearts of - the people before him, realise as his own their sins and sorrows, their - burdens and hopes and dreams and fears, and then, when he had made them - his own, he could give them the wings of deathless words and carry them up - to the heart of God. He prayed in a low soft tone of voice; it was like an - honest earnest child pleading with his father. What a hush fell on the - people when these prayers began! With what breathless suspense every - earnest soul followed him! - </p> - <p> - Before and during the war, the gallery of this church, which was built and - reserved for the negroes, was always crowded with dusky listeners that - hung spellbound on his words. Now there were only a few, perhaps a dozen, - and they were growing fewer. Some new and mysterious power was at work - among the negroes, sowing the seeds of distrust and suspicion. He wondered - what it could be. He had always loved to preach to these simple hearted - children of nature, and watch the flash of resistless emotion sweep their - dark faces. He had baptised over five hundred of them into the fellowship - of the churches in the village and the county during the ten years of his - ministry. - </p> - <p> - He determined to find out the cause of this desertion of his church by the - negroes to whom he had ministered so many years. - </p> - <p> - At the close of a Sunday morning’s service, Nelse was slowly descending - the gallery stairs leading Charlie Gaston by the hand, after the church - had been nearly emptied of the white people. The Preacher stopped him near - the door. - </p> - <p> - “How’s your Mistress, Nelse?” - </p> - <p> - “She’s gettin’ better all de time now praise de Lawd. Eve she stay wid er - dis mornin’, while I fetch dis boy ter church. He des so sot on goin’.” - </p> - <p> - “Where are all the other folks who used to fill that gallery, Nelse?” - </p> - <p> - “You doan tell me, you aint heard about dem?” he answered with a grin. - </p> - <p> - “Well, I haven’t heard, and I want to hear.” - </p> - <p> - “De laws-a-massy, dey done got er church er dey own! Dey has meetin’ now - in de school house dat Yankee ’oman built. De teachers tell ’em - ef dey aint good ernuf ter set wid de white folks in dere chu’ch, dey got - ter hole up dey haids, and not ’low nobody ter push em up in er - nigger gallery. So dey’s got ole Uncle Josh Miller to preach fur ’em. - He ’low he got er call, en he stan’ up dar en holler fur ’em - bout er hour ev’ry Sunday mawnin’ en night. En sech whoopin’, en yellin’, - en bawlin’! Yer can hear ’em er mile. Dey tries ter git me ter go. - I tell ’em, Marse John Durham’s preach-in’s good ernuf fur me, - gall’ry er no gall’ry. I tell ’em dat I spec er gall’ry nigher - heaven den de lower flo’ enyhow—en fuddermo’, dat when I goes ter - church, I wants ter hear sumfin’ mo’ dan er ole fool nigger er bawlin’. I - can holler myself. En dey low I gwine back on my colour. En den I tell ’em - I spec I aint so proud dat I can’t larn fum white folks. En dey say dey - gwine ter lay fur me yit.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m sorry to hear this,” said the Preacher thoughtfully. - </p> - <p> - “Yassir, hits des lak I tell yer. I spec dey gone fur good. Niggers aint - got no sense nohow. I des wish I own ’em erbout er week! Dey gitten - madder’n madder et me all de time case I stay at de ole place en wuk fer - my po’ sick Mistus. Dey sen’ er Kermittee ter see me mos’ ev’ry day ter ’splain - ter me I’se free. De las’ time dey come I lam one on de haid wid er stick - er wood erfo dey leave me lone.” - </p> - <p> - “You must be careful, Nelse.” - </p> - <p> - “Yassir, I nebber hurt ’im. Des sorter crack his skull er little - ter show ’im what I gwine do wid ’im nex’ time dey come - pesterin’ me.” - </p> - <p> - “Have they been back to see you since?” - </p> - <p> - “Dat dey aint. But dey sont me word dey gwine git de Freeman’s Buro atter - me. En I sont ’em back word ter sen Mr. Buro right on en I land ’im - in de middle er a spell er sickness, des es sho es de Lawd gimme strenk.” - </p> - <p> - “You can’t resist the Freedman’s Bureau, Nelse.” - </p> - <p> - “What dat Buro got ter do wid me, Marse John?” - </p> - <p> - “They’ve got everything to do with you, my boy. They have absolute power - over all questions between the Negro and the white man. They can prohibit - you from working for a white person without their consent, and they can - fix your wages and make your contracts.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, dey better lemme erlone, or dere’ll be trouble in dis town, sho’s - my name’s Nelse.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t you resist their officer. Come to me if you get into trouble with - them,” was the Preacher’s parting injunction. - </p> - <p> - Nelse made his way out leading Charlie by the hand, and bowing his giant - form in a quaint deferential way to the white people he knew. He seemed - proud of his association in the church with the whites, and the position - of inferiority assigned him in no sense disturbed his pride. He was - muttering to himself as he walked slowly along looking down at the ground - thoughtfully. There was infinite scorn and defiance in his voice. - </p> - <p> - “Bu-ro! Bu-ro! Des let ’em fool wid me! I’ll make ’em see de - seben stars in de middle er de day!” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VI—THE PREACHER AND THE WOMAN OF BOSTON - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE next day the - Preacher had a call from Miss Susan Walker of Boston, whose liberality had - built the new Negro school house and whose life and fortune was devoted to - the education and elevation of the Negro race. She had been in the village - often within the year, running up from Independence where she was building - and endowing a magnificent classical college for negroes. He had often - heard of her, but as she stopped with negroes when on her visits he had - never met her. He was especially interested in her after hearing - incidentally that she was a member of a Baptist church in Boston. - </p> - <p> - On entering the parlour the Preacher greeted his visitor with the - deference the typical Southern man instinctively pays to woman. - </p> - <p> - “I am pleased to meet you, Madam,” he said with a graceful bow and kindly - smile, as he led her to the most comfortable seat he could find. - </p> - <p> - She looked him squarely in the face for a moment as though surprised and - smilingly replied, “I believe you Southern men are all alike, woman - flatterers. You have a way of making every woman believe you think her a - queen. It pleases me, I can’t help confessing it, though I sometimes - despise myself for it. But I am not going to give you an opportunity to - feed my vanity this morning. I’ve come for a plain face to face talk with - you on the one subject that fills my heart, my work among the Freedmen. - You are a Baptist minister. I have a right to your friendship and - co-operation.” - </p> - <p> - A cloud overshadowed the Preacher’s face as he seated himself. He said - nothing for a moment, looking curiously and thoughtfully at his visitor. - </p> - <p> - He seemed to be studying her character and to be puzzled by the problem. - She was a woman of prepossessing appearance, well past thirty-five, with - streaks of grey appearing in her smoothly brushed black hair. She was - dressed plainly in rich brown material cut in tailor fashion, and her - heavy hair was drawn straight up pompadour style from her forehead with - apparent carelessness and yet in a way that heightened the impression of - strength and beauty in her face. Her nose was the one feature that gave - warning of trouble in an encounter. She was plump in figure, almost stout, - and her nose seemed too small for the breadth of her face. It was broad - enough, but too short, and was pug tipped slightly at the end. She fell - just a little short of being handsome and this nose was responsible for - the failure. It gave to her face when agitated, in spite of evident - culture and refinement, the expression of a feminine bull dog. - </p> - <p> - Her eyes were flashing now, and her nostrils opened a little wider and - began to push the tip of her nose upward. At last she snapped out - suddenly, “Well, which is it, friend or foe? What do you honestly think of - my work?” - </p> - <p> - “Pardon me, Miss Walker, I am not accustomed to speak rudely to a lady. If - I am honest, I don’t know where to begin.” - </p> - <p> - “Bah! Lay aside your Don Quixote Southern chivalry this morning and talk - to me in plain English. It doesn’t matter whether I am a woman or a man. I - am an idea, a divine mission this morning. I mean to establish a high - school in this village for the negroes, and to build a Baptist church for - them. I learn from them that they have great faith in you. Many of them - desire your approval and co-operation. Will you help me?” - </p> - <p> - “To be perfectly frank, I will not. You ask me for plain English. I will - give it to you. Your presence in this village as a missionary to the - heathen is an insult to our intelligence and Christian manhood. You come - at this late day a missionary among the heathen, the heathen whose heart - and brain created this Republic with civil and religious liberty for its - foundations, a missionary among the heathen who gave the world Washington, - whose giant personality three times saved the cause of American Liberty - from ruin when his army had melted away. You are a missionary among the - children of Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, Jackson, Clay and - Calhoun! Madam, I have baptised into the fellowship of the church of - Christ in this county more negroes than you ever saw in all your life - before you left Boston. - </p> - <p> - “At the close of the war there were thousands of negro members of white - Baptist churches in the state. Your mission is not to proclaim the gospel - of Jesus Christ. Your mission is to teach crack-brained theories of social - and political equality to four millions of ignorant negroes, some of whom - are but fifty years removed from the savagery of African jungles. Your - work is to separate and alienate the negroes from their former masters who - can be their only real friends and guardians. Your work is to sow the - dragon’s teeth of an impossible social order that will bring forth its - harvest of blood for our children.” - </p> - <p> - He paused a moment, and, suddenly facing her continued, “I should like to - help the cause you have at heart: and the most effective service I could - render it now would be to box you up in a glass cage, such as are used for - rattlesnakes, and ship you back to Boston.” - </p> - <p> - “Indeed! I suppose then it is still a crime in the South to teach the - Negro?” she asked this in little gasps of fury, her eyes flashing defiance - and her two rows of white teeth uncovering by the rising of her pugnacious - nose. - </p> - <p> - “For you, yes. It is always a crime to teach a lie.” - </p> - <p> - “Thank you. Your frankness is all one could wish!” - </p> - <p> - “Pardon my apparent rudeness. You not only invited, you demanded it. While - about it, let me make a clean breast of it. I do you personally the honour - to acknowledge that you are honest and in dead earnest, and that you mean - well. You are simply a fanatic.” - </p> - <p> - “Allow me again to thank you for your candour!” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t mention it, Madam. You will be canonised in due time. In the - meantime let us understand one another. Our lives are now very far apart, - though we read the same Bible, worship the same God and hold the same - great faith. In the settlement of this Negro question you are an insolent - interloper. You’re worse, you are a wilful spoiled child of rich and - powerful parents playing with matches in a powder mill. I not only will - not help you, I would, if I had the power seize you, and remove you to a - place of safety. But I cannot oppose you. You are protected in your play - by a million bayonets and back of these bayonets are banked the fires of - passion in the North ready to burst into flame in a moment. The only thing - I can do is to ignore your existence. You understand my position.” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly, Doctor,” she replied good naturedly. - </p> - <p> - She had recovered from the rush of her anger now and was herself again. A - curious smile played round her lips as she quietly added: - </p> - <p> - “I must really thank you for your candour. You have helped me immensely. I - understand the situation now perfectly. I shall go forward cheerfully in - my work and never bother my brain again about you, or your people, or your - point of view. You have aroused all the fighting blood in me. I feel toned - up and ready for a life struggle. I assure you I shall cherish no ill - feeling toward you. I am only sorry to see a man of your powers so blinded - by prejudice. I will simply ignore you.” - </p> - <p> - “Then, Madam, it is quite clear we agree upon establishing and maintaining - a great mutual ignorance. Let us hope, paradoxical as it may seem, that it - may be for the enlightenment of future generations!” - </p> - <p> - She arose to go, smiling at his last speech. - </p> - <p> - “Before we part, perhaps never to meet again, let me ask you one - question,” said the Preacher still looking thoughtfully at her. - </p> - <p> - “Certainly, as many as you like.” - </p> - <p> - “Why is it that you good people of the North are spending your millions - here now to help only the negroes, who feel least of all the sufferings of - this war? The poor white people of the South are your own flesh and blood. - These Scotch Covenanters are of the same Puritan stock, these German, - Huguenot and English people are all your kinsmen, who stood at the stake - with your fathers in the old world. They are, many of them, homeless, - without clothes, sick and hungry and broken hearted. But one in ten of - them ever owned a slave. They had to fight this war because your armies - invaded their soil. But for their sorrows, sufferings and burdens you have - no ear to hear and no heart to pity. This is a strange thing to me.” - </p> - <p> - “The white people of the South can take care of themselves. If they - suffer, it is God’s just punishment for their sins in owning slaves and - fighting against the flag. Do I make myself clear?” she snapped. - </p> - <p> - “Perfectly, I haven’t another word to say.” - </p> - <p> - “My heart yearns for the poor dear black people who have suffered so many - years in slavery and have been denied the rights of human beings. I am not - only going to establish schools and colleges for them here, but I am - conducting an experiment of thrilling interest to me which will prove that - their intellectual, moral, and social capacity is equal to any white - man’s.” - </p> - <p> - “Is it so?” asked the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I am collecting from every section of the South the most promising - specimens of negro boys and sending them to our great Northern - Universities where they will be educated among men who treat them as - equals, and I expect from the boys reared in this atmosphere, men of - transcendent genius, whose brilliant achievements in science, art and - letters will forever silence the tongues of slander against their race. - The most interesting of these students I have at Harvard now is young - George Harris. His mother is Eliza Harris, the history of whose escape - over the ice of the Ohio River fleeing from slavery thrilled the world. - This boy is a genius, and if he lives he will shake this nation.” - </p> - <p> - “It may be, Miss Walker. There are more ways than one to shake a nation. - And while I ignore your work, as a citizen and public man,—privately - and personally, I shall watch this experiment with profound interest.” - </p> - <p> - “I know it will succeed. I believe God made us of one blood,” she said - with enthusiasm. - </p> - <p> - “Is it true. Madam, that you once endowed a home for homeless cats before - you became interested in the black people?” With a twinkle in his eye the - Preacher softly asked this apparently irrelevant question. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, sir, I did,—I am proud of it. I love cats. There are over a - thousand in the home now, and they are well cared for. Whose business is - it?” - </p> - <p> - “I meant no offense by the question. I love cats too. But I wondered if - you were collecting negroes only now, or, whether you were adding other - specimens to your menagerie for experimental purposes.” - </p> - <p> - She bit her lips, and in spite of her efforts to restrain her anger, tears - sprang to her eyes as she turned toward the Preacher whose face now looked - calmly down upon her with ill-concealed pride. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! the insolence of you Southern people toward those who dare to differ - with you about the Negro!” she cried with rage. - </p> - <p> - “I confess it humbly as a Christian, it is true. My scorn for these - maudlin ideas is so deep that words have no power to convey it. But come,” - said the Preacher in the kindliest tone. “Enough of this. I am pained to - see tears in your eyes. Pardon my thoughtlessness. Let us forget now for a - little while that you are an idea, and remember only that you are a - charming Boston woman of the household of our own faith. Let me call Mrs. - Durham, and have you know her and discuss with her the thousand and one - things dear to all women’s hearts.” - </p> - <p> - “No, I thank you! I feel a little sore and bruised, and social amenities - can have no meaning for those whose souls are on fire with such - antagonistic ideas as yours and mine. If Mrs. Durham can give me any - sympathy in my work I’ll be delighted to see her, otherwise I must go.” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher laughed aloud. - </p> - <p> - “Then let me beg of you, never meet Mrs. Durham. If you do, the war will - break out again. I don’t wish to figure in a case of assault and battery. - Mrs. Durham was the owner of fifty slaves. She represents the bluest of - the blue blood of the slave-holding aristocracy of the South. She has - never surrendered and she never will. Wars, surrenders, constitutional - amendments and such little things make no impression on her mind whatever. - If you think I am difficult, you had better not puzzle your brain over - her. I am a mildly constructive man of progress. She is a Conservative.” - </p> - <p> - “Then we will say good-bye,” said Miss Walker, extending her small plump - hand in friendly parting. “I accept your challenge which this interview - implies. I will succeed if God lives,” and she set her lips with a snap - that spoke volumes. - </p> - <p> - “And I will watch you from afar with sorrow and fear and trembling,” - responded the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VII—THE HEART OF A CHILD - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>RS. GASTON’S - recovery from the brain fever which followed her prostration was slow and - painful. For days she would be quite herself as she would sit up in bed - and smile at the wistful face of the boy who sat tenderly gazing into her - eyes, or with swift feet was running to do her slightest wish. - </p> - <p> - Then days of relapse would follow when the child’s heart would ache and - ache with a dumb sense of despair as he listened to her incoherent talk, - and heard her meaningless laughter. When at length he could endure it no - longer, he would call Aunt Eve, run from the house, as fast as his little - legs could carry him, and in the woods lie down in the shadows and cry for - hours. - </p> - <p> - “I wonder if God is dead?” he said one day as he lay and gazed at the - clouds sweeping past the openings in the green foliage above. - </p> - <p> - “I pray every day and every night, but she don’t get well. Why does He - leave her like that, when she’s so good!” and then his voice choked into - sobs, and he buried his face in the leaves. - </p> - <p> - He was suddenly roused by the voice of Nelse who stood looking down on his - forlorn figure with tenderness. - </p> - <p> - “What you doin’ out in dese woods, honey, by yo’ se’f?” - </p> - <p> - “Nothin’, Nelse.” - </p> - <p> - “I knows. You’se er crying ’bout yo Ma.” - </p> - <p> - The boy nodded without looking up. - </p> - <p> - “Doan do dat way, honey. You’se too little ter cry lak dat. Yer Ma’s - gittin’ better ev’ry day, de doctor done tole me so.” - </p> - <p> - “Do you think so, Nelse?” There was an eagerness and yearning in the - child’s voice, that would have moved the heart of a stone. - </p> - <p> - “Cose I does. She be strong en well in little while when cole wedder - comes. Fros ’ll soon be here. I see whar er ole rabbit been er - eatin’ on my turnip tops. Dat’s er sho sign. I gwine make you er rabbit - box ter-morrer ter ketch dat rabbit.” - </p> - <p> - “Will you, Nelse?” - </p> - <p> - “Sho’s you bawn. Now des lemme pick you er chune on dis banjer ’fo - I goes ter my wuk.” - </p> - <p> - Of all the music he had ever heard, the boy thought Nelse’s banjo was the - sweetest. He accompanied the music in a deep bass voice which he kept soft - and soothing. The boy sat entranced. With wide open eyes and half parted - lips he dreamed his mother was well, and then that he had grown to be a - man, a great man, rich and powerful. Now he was the Governor of the state, - living in the Governor’s palace, and his mother was presiding at a banquet - in his honour. He was bending proudly over her and whispering to her that - she was the most beautiful mother in the world. And he could hear her say - with a smile, “You dear boy!” - </p> - <p> - Suddenly the banjo stopped, and Nelse railed with mock severity, “Now look - at ’im er cryin’ ergin, en me er pickin’ de eens er my fingers off - fur ’im!” - </p> - <p> - “No, I aint cryin’. I am just listenin’ to the music. Nelse, you’re the - greatest banjo player in the world!” - </p> - <p> - “Na, honey, hits de banjer. Dats de Jo-bloin’est banjer! En des ter t’ink—er - Yankee gin’er to me in de wah! Dat wuz the fus’ Yankee I ebber seed hab - sense enuf ter own er banjer. I kinder hate ter fight dem Yankees atter - dat.” - </p> - <p> - “But Nelse, if you were fighting with our men how did you get close to any - Yankees?” - </p> - <p> - “Lawd child, we’s allers slippin’ out twixt de lines atter night er - carryin’ on wid dem Yankees. We trade ’em terbaccer fur coffee en - sugar, en play cyards, en talk twell mos’ day sometime. I slip out fust in - er patch er woods twix’ de lines, en make my banjer talk. En den yere dey - come! De Yankees fum one way en our boys de yudder. I make out lak I doan - see ’em tall, des playin’ ter myself. Den I make dat banjer moan en - cry en talk about de folks way down in Dixie. De boys creep up closer en - closer twell dey right at my elbow en I see ’em cryin’, some un ’em—den - I gin’er a juk! en way she go pluckety plunck! en dey gin ter dance and - laugh! Sometime dey cuss me lak dey mad en lam me on de back. When dey hit - me hard den I know dey ready ter gimme all dey got.” - </p> - <p> - “But how did you get this banjo, Nelse?” - </p> - <p> - “Yankee gin’er ter me one night ter try’er, en when he hear me des fairly - pull de insides outen ’er, he ’low dat hit ’ed be er - sin ter ebber sep’rate us. Say he nebber know what ’uz in er - banjer.” - </p> - <p> - Nelse rose to go. - </p> - <p> - “Now, honey, doan you cry no mo, en I make you dat rabbit box sho, en - erlong ’bout Chris’mas I gwine larn you how ter shoot.” - </p> - <p> - “Will you let me hold the gun?” the boy eagerly asked. - </p> - <p> - “I des sho you how ter poke yo gun in de crack er de fence en whisper ter - de trigger. Den look out birds en rabbits!” - </p> - <p> - The boy’s face was one great smile. - </p> - <p> - It was late in September before his mother was strong enough to venture - out of the house—six terrible months from the day she was stricken. - What an age it seemed to a sensitive boy’s soul. To him the days were - weeks, the weeks months, the months, long weary years. It seemed to him he - had lived a life-time, died, and was born again the day he saw her first - walking on the soft grass that grew under the big trees at the back of the - house. He was gently holding her by the hand. - </p> - <p> - “Now, Mama dear, sit here on this seat—you mustn’t get in the sun.” - </p> - <p> - “But, Charlie, I want to see the flowers on the front lawn.” - </p> - <p> - “No, no, Mama, the sun is shinin’ awful on that side of the house!” - </p> - <p> - A great fear caught the boy’s heart. The lawn had grown up a mass of weeds - and grass during the long hot summer and he was afraid his mother would - cry when she saw the ruin of those flowers she loved so well. - </p> - <p> - How impossible for his child’s mind to foresee the gathering black - hurricane of tragedy and ruin soon to burst over that lawn! - </p> - <p> - Skillfully and firmly he kept her on the seat in the rear where she could - not see the lawn. He said everything he could think of to please her. She - would smile and kiss him in her old sweet way until his heart was full to - bursting. - </p> - <p> - “Do you remember, Mama, how many times when you were so sick I used to - slip up close and kiss your mouth and eyes?” - </p> - <p> - “I often dreamed you were kissing me.” - </p> - <p> - “I thought you would know. I’ll soon be a man. I’m going to be rich, and - build a great house and you are going to live in it with me, and I am to - take care of you as long as you live.” - </p> - <p> - “I expect you will marry some pretty girl, and almost forget your old Mama - who will be getting grey.” - </p> - <p> - “But I’ll never love anybody like I love you, Mama dear!” - </p> - <p> - His little arms slipped around her neck, held her close for a moment, and - then he tenderly kissed her. - </p> - <p> - After supper he sought Nelse. - </p> - <p> - “Nelse, we must work out the flowers in the lawn. Mama wants to see them. - It was all I could do to keep her from going out there to-day.” - </p> - <p> - “Lawd chile, hit’ll take two niggers er week ter clean out dat lawn. Hits - gone fur dis year. Yer Ma’ll know dat, honey.” - </p> - <p> - The next morning after breakfast the boy found a hoe, and in the piercing - sun began manfully to work at those flowers. He had worked perhaps, a half - hour. His face was red with heat and wet with sweat. He was tired already - and seemed to make no impression on the wilderness of weeds and grass. - </p> - <p> - Suddenly he looked up and saw his mother smiling at him. - </p> - <p> - “Come here, Charlie!” she called. - </p> - <p> - He dropped his hoe and hurried to her side. She caught him in her arms and - kissed the sweat drops from his eyes and mouth. - </p> - <p> - “You are the sweetest boy in the world!” - </p> - <p> - What music to his soul these words to the last day of his life! - </p> - <p> - “I was afraid when you saw all these weeds you would cry about your - flowers, Mama.” - </p> - <p> - “It does hurt me, dear, to see them, but it’s worth all their loss to see - you out there in the broiling sun working so hard to please me. I’ve seen - the most beautiful flower this morning that ever blossomed on my lawn!—and - its perfume will make sweet my whole life. I am going to be brave and live - for you now.” - </p> - <p> - And she kissed him fondly again. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VIII—AN EXPERIMENT IN MATRIMONY - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">N</span>ELSE was informed - by the Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau when summoned before that tribunal - that he must pay a fee of one dollar for a marriage license and be married - over again. - </p> - <p> - “What’s dat? Dis yer war bust up me en Eve’s marryin’?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes,” said the Agent. “You must be legally married.” - </p> - <p> - Nelse chucked on a brilliant scheme that flashed through his mind. - </p> - <p> - “Den I see you ergin ’bout dat,” he said as he hastily took his - leave. - </p> - <p> - He made his way homeward revolving his brilliant scheme. “But won’t I - fetch dat nigger Eve down er peg er two! I gwine ter make her t’ink I won’ - marry her nohow. I make’er ax my pardon fur all dem little disergreements. - She got ter talk mighty putty now sho nuf!” And he smiled over his coming - triumph. - </p> - <p> - It was four o’clock in the afternoon when he reached his cabin door on the - lot back of Mrs. Gaston’s home. Eve was busy mending some clothes for - their little boy now nearly five years old. - </p> - <p> - “Good evenin’, Miss Eve!” - </p> - <p> - Eve looked up at him with a sudden flash of her eye. “What de matter wid - you nigger?” - </p> - <p> - “Nuttin’ tall. Des drapped in lak ter pass de time er day, en ax how’s you - en yer son stallin’ dis hot wedder!” Nelse bowed and smiled. - </p> - <p> - “What ail you, you big black baboon?” - </p> - <p> - “Nuttin’ tall M’am, des callin’ roun’ ter see my frien’s.” Still smiling - Nelse walked in and sat down. - </p> - <p> - Eve put down her sewing, stood up before him, her arms akimbo, and gazed - at him steadily till the whites of her eyes began to shine like two moons. - </p> - <p> - “You wants me ter whale you ober de head wid dat poker?” - </p> - <p> - “Not dis evenin’, M’am.” - </p> - <p> - “Den what ail you?” - </p> - <p> - “De Buro des inform me, dat es I’se er young han’some man en you’se er - gittin’ kinder ole en fat, dat we aint married nohow. En dey gimme er - paper fur er dollar dat allow me ter marry de young lady er my choice. Dat - sho is er great Buro!” - </p> - <p> - “We aint married?” - </p> - <p> - “Nob-um.” - </p> - <p> - “Atter we stan’ up dar befo’ Marse John Durham en say des what all dem - white folks say?” - </p> - <p> - “Nob-um.” - </p> - <p> - Eve slowly took her seat and gazed down the road thoughtfully. - </p> - <p> - “I t’ink I drap eroun’ ter see you en gin you er chance wid de odder gals - fo’ I steps off,” explained Nelse with a grin. - </p> - <p> - No answer. - </p> - <p> - “You ’member dat night I say sumfin’ ’bout er gal I know - once, en you riz en grab er poun’ er wool outen my head fo’ I kin move?” - </p> - <p> - No answer yet. - </p> - <p> - “Min’ dat time, you bust de biscuit bode ober my head, en lam me wid de - fire-shovel, en hit me in de burr er de year wid er flatiron es I wuz - makin’ fur de do’?” - </p> - <p> - “Yas, I min’s dat sho!” said Eve with evident satisfaction. - </p> - <p> - “Doan you wish you nebber done dat?” - </p> - <p> - “You black debbil!” - </p> - <p> - “Dat’s hit! I’se er bad nigger, M’am,—bad nigger fo’ de war. En I’se - gittin’ wuss en wuss,” Nelse chuckled. - </p> - <p> - She looked at him with gathering rage and contempt. - </p> - <p> - “En den fudder mo, M’am, I doan lak de way you talk ter me sometimes. Yo - voice des kinder takes de skin off same’s er file. I laks ter hear er ’oman’s - voice lak my Missy’s, des es sof’ es wool. Sometime one word from her keep - me warm all winter. De way you talk sometime make me cole in de summer - time.” - </p> - <p> - Nelse rose while Eve sat motionless. - </p> - <p> - “I des call, M’am, ter drap er little intent inter dem years er yourn, - dat’ll percerlate froo you min’, en when I calls ergin I hopes ter be - welcome wid smiles.” - </p> - <p> - Nelse bowed himself out the door in grandiloquent style. - </p> - <p> - All the afternoon he was laughing to himself over his triumph, and - imagining the welcome when he returned that evening with his marriage - license and the officer to perform the ceremony. At supper in the kitchen - he was polite and formal in his manners to Eve. She eyed him in a - contemptuous sort of way and never spoke unless it was absolutely - necessary. - </p> - <p> - It was about half past eight when Nelse arrived at home with the license - duly issued and the officer of the Bureau ready to perform the ceremony. - </p> - <p> - “Des wait er minute here at de corner, sah, twell I kinder breaks de news - to ’em,” said Nelse to the officer. He approached the cabin door - and knocked. - </p> - <p> - It was shut and fastened. He got no response. - </p> - <p> - He knocked loudly again. - </p> - <p> - Eve thrust her head out the window. - </p> - <p> - “Who’s dat?” - </p> - <p> - “Hits me, M’am, Mister Nelson Gaston, I’se call ter see you.” - </p> - <p> - “Den you hump yo’se’f en git away from dat do, you rascal.” - </p> - <p> - “De Lawd, honey, I’se des been er foolin’ you ter day. I’se got dem - licenses en de Buro man right out dar now ready ter marry us. You know yo - ole man nebber gwine back on you—I des been er foolin’.” - </p> - <p> - “Den you been er foolin’ wid de wrong nigger!” - </p> - <p> - “Lawd, honey, doan keep de bridegroom er waitin’.” - </p> - <p> - “Git er way from dat do!” - </p> - <p> - “G’long chile, en quit yer projeckin’.” Nelse was using his softest and - most persuasive tones now. - </p> - <p> - “G’way from dat do!” - </p> - <p> - “Come on, Eve, de man waitin’ out dar fur us!” - </p> - <p> - “Git away I tells you er I scald you wid er kittle er hot water!” - </p> - <p> - Nelse drew back slightly from the door. - </p> - <p> - “But, honey, whar yo ole man gwine ter sleep?” - </p> - <p> - “Dey’s straw in de barn, en pine shatters in de dog house!” she shouted - slamming the window. - </p> - <p> - “Eve, honey!”— - </p> - <p> - “Doan you come honeyin’ me, I’se er spec’able ’oman I is. Ef you - wants ter marry me you got ter come cotin’ me in de day time fust, en - bring me candy, en ribbins en flowers and sich, en you got ter talk - purtier’n you ebber talk in all yo born days. Lots er likely lookin’ - niggers come settin up ter me while you gone in dat wah, en I keep studin’ - ’bout you, you big black rascal. Now you got ter hump yo’se’f ef - you eber see de inside er dis cabin ergin.” - </p> - <p> - Crestfallen Nelse returned to the officer. - </p> - <p> - “Wall sah, deys er kinder hitch in de perceedins.” - </p> - <p> - “What’s the matter?” - </p> - <p> - “She ’low I got ter come cotin’ her fust. En I spec I is.” - </p> - <p> - The officer laughed and returned to his home. She made Nelse sleep in the - barn for three weeks, court her an hour every day, and bring her five - cents worth of red stick candy and a bouquet of flowers as a peace - offering at every visit. Finally she made him write her a note and ask her - to take a ride with him. Nelse got Charlie to write it for him, and made - his own boy carry it to his mother. After three weeks of humility and - attention to her wishes, she gave her consent, and they were duly married - again. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER IX—A MASTER OF MEN - </h2> - <p> - THE first Monday in October was court day at Hambright, and from every - nook and corner of Campbell county, the people flocked to town. - </p> - <p> - The court house had not yet been transformed into the farce-tragedy hall - where jail birds and drunken loafers were soon to sit on judge’s bench and - in attorney’s chair instead of standing in the prisoner’s dock. The - merciful stay laws enacted by the Legislature had silenced the cry of the - auctioneer until the people might have a moment to gird themselves for a - new life struggle. - </p> - <p> - But the black cloud was already seen on the horizon. The people were - restless and discouraged by the wild rumours set afloat by the Freedman’s - Bureau, of coming confiscation, revolution and revenge. A greater crowd - than usual had come to town on the first day. The streets were black with - negroes. - </p> - <p> - A shout was heard from the crowd in the square, as the stalwart figure of - General Daniel Worth, the brigade commander of Colonel Gaston’s regiment - was seen shaking hands with the men of his old army. - </p> - <p> - The General was a man to command instant attention in any crowd. An expert - in anthropology would have selected his face from among a thousand as the - typical man of the Caucasian race. He was above the average height, a - strong muscular and well-rounded body, crowned by a heavy shock of what - had once been raven black hair, now iron grey. His face was ruddy with the - glow of perfect health and his full round lips and the twinkle of his eye - showed him to be a lover of the good things of life. He wore a heavy - moustache which seemed a fitting ballast for the lower part of his face - against the heavy projecting straight eyebrows and bushy hair. - </p> - <p> - As he shook hands with his old soldiers his face was wreathed in smiles, - his eyes flashed with something like tears and he had a pleasant word for - all. - </p> - <p> - Tom Camp was one of the first to spy the General and hobble to him as fast - as his peg-leg would carry him. - </p> - <p> - “Howdy, General, howdy do! Lordy it’s good for sore eyes ter see ye!” Tom - held fast to his hand and turning to the crowd said, “Boys, here’s the - best General that ever led a brigade, and there wasn’t a man in it that - wouldn’t a died for him. Now three times three cheers!” And they gave it - with a will. - </p> - <p> - “Ah! Tom you’re still at your old tricks,” said the General. “What are you - after now?” - </p> - <p> - “A speech General!”—“A speech! A speech!” the crowd echoed. - </p> - <p> - The General slapped Tom on the back and said, “What sort of a job is this - you’re putting up on me—I’m no orator! But I’ll just say to you, - boys, that this old peg-leg here was the finest soldier that I ever saw - carry a musket and the men who stood beside him were the most patient, the - most obedient, the bravest men that ever charged a foe and crowned their - General with glory while he safely stood in the rear.” - </p> - <p> - Again a cheer broke forth. The General was hurrying toward the court - house, when he was suddenly surrounded by a crowd of negroes. In the front - ranks were a hundred of his old slaves who had worked on his Campbell - county plantation. They seized his hands and laughed and cried and pleaded - for recognition like a crowd of children. Most of them he knew. Some of - their faces he had forgotten. - </p> - <p> - “Hi dar, Marse Dan’l, you knows me! Lordy, I’se your boy Joe dat used ter - ketch yo hoss down at the plantation!” - </p> - <p> - “Of course, Joe! Of course.” - </p> - <p> - “I know Marse Dan’l aint forget old Uncle Rube,” said an aged negro - pushing his way to the front. - </p> - <p> - “That I haven’t Reuben! and how’s Aunt Julie Ann? - </p> - <p> - “She des tollable, Marse Dan’l. We’se bof un us had de plumbago. How is - you all sence de wah?” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! first rate, Reuben. We manage somehow to get enough to eat and if we - do that nowadays we can’t complain.” - </p> - <p> - “Dats de God’s truf, Marster sho! En now Marse Dan’l, we all wants you ter - make us er speech en ’splain erbout dis freedom ter us. Dey’s so - many dese yere Buroers en Leaguers round here tellin’ us niggers what’s er - coming’, twell we des doan know nuttin’ fur sho.” - </p> - <p> - “Yassir dat’s hit! You tell us er speech Marse Dan’l!” - </p> - <p> - The white men crowded up nearer and joined in the cry. There was no - escape. In a few moments the court house was filled with a crowd. - </p> - <p> - When he arose a cheer shook the building, and strange as it may seem - to-day, it came with almost equal enthusiasm from white and black. - </p> - <p> - “I thank you, my friends,” said the General, “for this evidence of your - confidence. I was a Whig in politics. I reckon I hated a Democrat as God - hates sin. I was a Union man and fought Secession. My opponents won. My - state asked me to defend her soil. As an obedient son I gave my life in - loyal service. - </p> - <p> - “I need not tell you as a Union man that I am glad this war is over. I - have always felt as a business man, a cotton manufacturer as well as - farmer, in touch with the free labour of the North as well as the slave - labour of the South, that free labour was the most economical and - efficient. I believe that terrible as the loss of four billions of dollars - in slaves will be to the South, if the South is only let alone by the - politicians and allowed to develop her resources, she will become what God - meant her to be, the garden of the world. I say it calmly and - deliberately, I thank God that slavery is a thing of the past.” - </p> - <p> - A whirlwind of applause arose from the negroes. Uncle Reuben’s voice could - be heard above the din. - </p> - <p> - “Hear dat! You niggers! Dat’s my ole Marster talkin’ now!” - </p> - <p> - “Let me say to the negroes here to-day, this war was not fought for your - freedom by the North, and yet in its terrific struggle, God saw fit to - give you freedom. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are now yours - and the birthright of your children. - </p> - <p> - “We need your labour. Be honest, humble, patient, industrious and every - white man in the South will be your friend. What you need now is to go to - work with all your might, build a roof over your head, get a few acres of - land under your feet that is your own, put decent clothes on your back, - and some money in the bank, and you will become indispensable to the - people of the South. They will be your best friends and give you every - right and privilege you are prepared to receive. - </p> - <p> - “The man who tells you that your old Master’s land will be divided among - you, is a criminal, or a fool, or both. If you ever own land, you will - earn it in the sweat of your brow like I got mine.” - </p> - <p> - “Hear dat now, niggers!” cried old Reuben. - </p> - <p> - “The man who tells you that you are going to be given the ballot - indiscriminately with which you can rule your old masters is a criminal or - a fool, or both. It is insanity to talk about the enfranchisement of a - million slaves who can not read their ballots. Mr. Lincoln who set you - free was opposed to any such measure. - </p> - <p> - “Let me read an extract from a letter Mr. Lincoln wrote me just before the - war.” - </p> - <p> - The General drew from his pocket a letter in the handwriting of the - President and read:— - </p> - <p> - “<i>My Dear Worth:—You must hold the Union men of the South together - at all hazards. The one passion of my soul is to save the Union. In answer - to the question you ask me about the equality of the races I enclose you a - newspaper clipping reporting my reply to Judge Douglas at Charleston, - Sept. 18, 1858. I could not express myself more plainly. Have this extract - published in every paper in the South you can get to print it.</i>” - </p> - <p> - The General paused and turning toward the negroes said, “Now listen - carefully to every word. Says Mr. Lincoln, <i>I am not, nor ever have been - in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality - of the white and black races! (here is marked applause from a Northern - audience.) I am not, nor ever have been in favour of making voters or - jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to - intermarry with white people. I will say in addition to this that there is - a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe - will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and - political equality: and inasmuch as they can not so live, while they do - remain together, there must be the position of the inferior and superior, - and I am, as much as any other man, in favour of having the superior - position assigned to the white race.</i> - </p> - <p> - “This was Lincoln’s position and is the position of nine-tenths of the - voters of his party. It is insanity to believe that the Anglo-Saxon race - at the North can ever be so blinded by passion that they can assume any - other position. - </p> - <p> - “Slavery is dead for all time. It would have been destroyed whatever the - end of the war. I know some of the secrets of the diplomatic history of - the Confederacy. General Lee asked the government at Richmond to enlist - 200,000 negroes to defend the South, which he declared was their country - as well as ours, and grant them freedom on enlistment. General Lee’s - request was ultimately accepted as the policy of the Confederacy though - too late to save its waning fortunes. Not only this, but the Confederate - government sent a special ambassador to England and France and offered - them the pledge of the South to emancipate every slave in return for the - recognition of the independence of the Confederacy. But when the - ambassador arrived in Europe, the lines of our army had been so broken, - the governments were afraid to interfere. - </p> - <p> - “The man who tells you that your old masters are your enemies and may try - to reinslave you is a wilful and malicious liar.” - </p> - <p> - “Hear dat, folks!” yelled old Reuben as he waved his arm grandly toward - the crowd. - </p> - <p> - “To the white people here to-day, I say be of good cheer. Let politics - alone for awhile and build up your ruined homes. You have boundless wealth - in your soil. God will not forget to send the rain and the dew and the - sun. You showed yourselves on a hundred fields ready to die for your - country. Now I ask you to do something braver and harder. Live for her - when it is hard to live. Let cowards run, but let the brave stand shoulder - to shoulder and build up the waste places till our country is once more - clothed in wealth and beauty.” - </p> - <p> - The General bowed in closing to a round of applause. His soldiers were - delighted with his speech and his old slaves revelled In it with personal - pride. But the rank and file of the negroes were puzzled. He did not - preach the kind of doctrine they wished to hear. They had hoped freedom - meant eternal rest, not work. They had dreamed of a life of ease with - government rations three times a day, and old army clothes to last till - they put on the white robes above and struck their golden harps in - paradise. This message the General brought was painful to their newly - awakened imaginations. - </p> - <p> - As the General passed through the crowd he met the Ex-Provisional - Governor, Amos Hogg, busy with the organising work of his Leagues. - </p> - <p> - “Glad to see you General,” said Hogg extending his hand with a smile on - his leathery face. - </p> - <p> - “Well, how are you, Amos, since Macon pulled your wool?” - </p> - <p> - “Never felt better in my life, General. I want a few minutes’ talk with - you.” - </p> - <p> - “All right, what is it?” - </p> - <p> - “General, you’re a progressive man. Come, you’re flirting with the enemy. - The truly loyal men must get together to rescue the state from the rebels - who have it again under their heel.” - </p> - <p> - “So Macon’s a rebel because he licked you?” - </p> - <p> - “You know the rebel crowd are running this state,” said Hogg. - </p> - <p> - “Why, Hogg you were the biggest fool Secessionist I ever saw, and Macon - and I were staunch Union men. We had to fight you tooth and nail. You talk - about the truly loyal!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes but, General, I’ve repented. I’ve got my face turned toward the - light.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I see,—the light that shines in the Governor’s Mansion.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t deny it. ‘Great men choose greater sins, ambition’s mine.’ Come - into this Union movement with me, Worth, and I’ll make you the next - Governor.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll see you in hell first. No, Amos, we don’t belong to the same breed. - You were a Secessionist as long as it paid. When the people you had misled - were being overwhelmed with ruin, and it no longer paid, you deserted and - became ‘loyal’ to get an office. Now you’re organising the negroes, - deserters, and criminals into your secret oath-bound societies. Union men - when the war came fought on one side or the other, because a Union man was - a man, not a coward. If he felt his state claimed his first love, he - fought for his native soil. The gang of plugs you are getting together now - as ‘truly loyal’ are simply cowards, deserters, and common criminals who - claim they were persecuted as Union men. It’s a weak lie.” - </p> - <p> - “We’ll win,” urged Hogg. - </p> - <p> - “Never!” the General snorted, and angrily turned on his heel. Before - leaving he wheeled suddenly, faced Hogg and said, “Go on with your fool - societies. You are sowing the wind. There’ll be a lively harvest. I am - organising too. I’m organising a cotton mill, rebuilding our burned - factory, borrowing money from the Yankees who licked us to buy machinery - and give employment to thousands of our poor people. That’s the way to - save the state. We’ve got water power enough to turn the wheels of the - world.” - </p> - <p> - “You’ll need our protection in the fight that’s coming,” replied Hogg, - with a straight look that meant much. - </p> - <p> - The General was silent a moment. Then he shook his fist in Hogg’s face and - slowly said, “Let me tell you something. When I need protection I’ll go to - headquarters. I’ve got Yankee money in my mills and I can get more if I - need it. You lay your dirty claws on them and I’ll break your neck.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER X—THE MAN OR BRUTE IN EMBRYO - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>WO months later - General Worth, while busy rebuilding his mills at Independence, had served - on him a summons to appear before the Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau at - Hambright and answer the charge of using “abusive language” to a freedman. - </p> - <p> - The particular freedman who desired to have his feelings soothed by law - was a lazy young negro about sixteen years old whom the General had - ordered whipped and sent from the stables into the fields on one occasion - during the war while on a visit to his farm. Evidently the boy had a long - memory. - </p> - <p> - “Now don’t that beat the devil!” exclaimed the General. - </p> - <p> - “What is it?” asked his foreman. - </p> - <p> - “I’ve got to leave my work, ride on an old freight train thirty miles, - pull through twenty more miles of red mud in a buggy to get to Hambright, - and lose four days, to answer such a charge as that before some little - wizeneyed skunk of a Bureau Agent. My God, it’s enough to make a Union man - remember Secession with regrets!” - </p> - <p> - “My stars, General, we can’t get along without you now when we are getting - this machinery in place. Send a lawyer,” growled the foreman. - </p> - <p> - “Can’t do it, John—I’m charged with a crime.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I’ll swear!” - </p> - <p> - “Do the best you can, I’ll be back in four days, if I don’t kill a - nigger!” said the General with a smile. “I’ve got a settlement to make - with the farm hands anyhow.” - </p> - <p> - There was no help for it. When the court convened, and the young negro saw - the face of his old master red with wrath, his heart failed him. He fled - the town and there was no accusing witness. - </p> - <p> - The General gazed at the Agent with cold contempt and never opened his - mouth in answer to expressions of regret at the fiasco. - </p> - <p> - A few moments later he rode up to the gate of his farm house on the river - hills about a mile out of town. A strapping young fellow of fifteen - hastened to open the gate. - </p> - <p> - “Well, Allan, my boy, how are you?” - </p> - <p> - “First rate, General. We’re glad to see you! but we didn’t make a half - crop, sir, the niggers were always in town loafing around that Freedman’s - Bureau, holding meetings all night and going to sleep in the fields.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, show me the books,” said the General as they entered the house. - </p> - <p> - The General examined the accounts with care and then looked at young Allan - McLeod for a moment as though he had made a discovery. - </p> - <p> - “Young man, you’ve done this work well.” - </p> - <p> - “I tried to, sir. If the niggers dispute anything, I fixed that by making - the store-keepers charge each item in two books, one on your account, and - one on an account kept separate for every nigger.” - </p> - <p> - “Good enough. They’ll get up early to get ahead of you.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m afraid they are going to make trouble at the Bureau, sir. That - Agent’s been here holding Union League meetings two or three nights every - week, and he’s got every nigger under his thumb.” - </p> - <p> - “The dirty whelp!” growled the General. - </p> - <p> - “If you can see me out of the trouble, General, I’d like to jump on him - and beat the life out of him next time he comes out here!” - </p> - <p> - The General frowned. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t you touch him,—any more than you would a pole cat. I’ve - trouble enough just now.” - </p> - <p> - “I could knock the mud out of him in two minutes, if you say the word,” - said Allan eagerly. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I’ve no doubt of it.” The General looked at him thoughtfully. - </p> - <p> - He was a well knit powerful youth just turned his fifteenth birthday. He - had red hair, a freckled face, and florid complexion. His features were - regular and pleasing, and his stalwart muscular figure gave him a handsome - look that impressed one with indomitable physical energy. His lips were - full and sensuous, his eyebrows straight, and his high forehead spoke of - brain power as well as horse power. - </p> - <p> - He had a habit of licking his lips and running his tongue around inside of - his cheeks when he saw anything or heard anything that pleased him that - was far from intellectual in its suggestiveness. When he did this one - could not help feeling that he was looking at a young well fed tiger. - There was no doubt about his being alive and that he enjoyed it. His - boisterous voice and ready laughter emphasised this impression. - </p> - <p> - “Allan, my boy,” said the General when he had examined his accounts, “if - you do everything in life as well as you did these books, you’ll make a - success.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m going to do my best to succeed, General. I’ll not be a poor white - man. I’ll promise you that.” - </p> - <p> - “Do you go to church anywhere?” - </p> - <p> - “No sir, Maw’s not a member of any church, and it’s so far to town I don’t - go.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you must go. You must go to the Sunday School too, and get - acquainted with all the young folks. I’ll speak to Mrs. Durham and get her - to look after you.” - </p> - <p> - “All right, sir, I’ll start next Sunday.” Allan was feeling just then in a - good humour with himself and all the world. The compliment of his employer - had so elated him, he felt fully prepared to enter the ministry if the - General had only suggested it. - </p> - <p> - The following day was appointed for a settlement of the annual contract - with the negroes. The Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau was the judge before - whom the General, his overseer, and clerk of account, and all the negroes - assembled. - </p> - <p> - If the devil himself had devised an instrument for creating race - antagonism and strife he could not have improved on this Bureau in its - actual workings. Had clean handed, competent agents been possible it might - have accomplished good. These agents were as a rule the riff-raff and - trash of the North. It was the supreme opportunity of army cooks, - teamsters, fakirs, and broken down preachers who had turned insurance - agents. They were lifted from penury to affluence and power. The - possibility of corruption and downright theft were practically limitless. - </p> - <p> - The Agent at Hambright had been a preacher in Michigan who lost his church - because of unsavory rumours about his character. He had eked out a living - as a book agent, and then insurance agent. He was a man of some education - and had a glib tongue which the negroes readily mistook for inspired - eloquence. He assumed great dignity and an extraordinary judicial tone of - voice when adjusting accounts. - </p> - <p> - General Worth submitted his accounts and they showed that all but six of - the fifty negroes employed had a little overdrawn their wages in - provisions and clothing. - </p> - <p> - “I think there is a mistake, General, in these accounts,” said the Rev. - Ezra Perkins the Agent. - </p> - <p> - “What?” thundered the General. - </p> - <p> - “A mistake in your view of the contracts,” answered Ezra in his oiliest - tone. - </p> - <p> - The negroes began to grin and nudge one another, amid exclamations of “Dar - now!” - </p> - <p> - “Hear dat!” - </p> - <p> - “What do you mean? The contracts are plain. There can be but one - interpretation. I agreed to furnish the men their supplies in advance and - wait until the end of the year for adjustment after the crops were - gathered. As it is, I will lose over five hundred dollars on the farm.” - The General paused and looked at the Agent with rising wrath. - </p> - <p> - “It’s useless to talk. I decide that under this contract you are to - furnish supplies yourself and pay your people their monthly wages besides. - I have figured it out that you owe them a little over fifteen hundred - dollars.” - </p> - <p> - “Fifteen hundred dollars! You thief!”—— - </p> - <p> - “Softly, softly!—I’ll commit you for contempt of court!” - </p> - <p> - The General turned on his heel without a word, sprang on his horse, and in - a few minutes alighted at the hotel. He encountered the assistant agent of - the Bureau on the steps. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0097.jpg" alt="0097 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0097.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - “Did you wish to see me, General?” he asked. - </p> - <p> - “No! I’m looking for a man—a Union soldier not a turkey buzzard!” He - dashed up to the clerk’s desk. - </p> - <p> - “Is Major Grant in his room?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, sir.” - </p> - <p> - “Tell him I want to see him.” - </p> - <p> - “What can I do for you, General Worth?” asked the Major as he hastened to - meet him. - </p> - <p> - “Major Grant, I understand you are a lawyer. You are a man of principle, - or you wouldn’t have fought. When I meet a man that fought us I know I am - talking to a man, not a skunk. This greasy sanctified Bureau Agent, has - decided that I owe my hands fifteen hundred dollars. He knows it’s a lie. - But his power is absolute. I have no appeal to a court. He has all the - negroes under his thumb and he is simply arranging to steal this money. I - want to pay you a hundred dollars as a retainer and have you settle with - the Lord’s anointed, the Rev. Ezra Perkins for me.” - </p> - <p> - “With pleasure, General. And it shall not cost you a cent.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll be glad to pay you, Major. Such a decision enforced against me now - would mean absolute ruin. I can’t borrow another cent.” - </p> - <p> - “Leave Ezra with me.” - </p> - <p> - “Why couldn’t they put soldiers into this Bureau if they had to have it, - instead of these skunks and wolves?” snorted the General. - </p> - <p> - “Well, some of them are a little off in the odour of their records at - home, I’ll admit,” said the Major with a dry smile. “But this is the day - of the carrion crow, General. You know they always follow the armies. They - attack the wounded as well as the dead. You have my heartfelt sympathy. - You have dark days ahead! The death of Mr. Lincoln was the most awful - calamity that could possibly have befallen the South. I’m sorry. I’ve - learned to like you Southerners, and to love these beautiful skies, and - fields of eternal green. It’s my country and yours. I fought you to keep - it as the heritage of my children.” - </p> - <p> - The General’s eyes filled with tears and the two men silently clasped each - other’s hands. - </p> - <p> - “Send in your accounts by your clerk. I’ll look them over to-night and - I’ve no doubt the Honourable Reverend Ezra Perkins will see a new light - with the rising of tomorrow’s sun.” - </p> - <p> - And Ezra did see a new light. As the Major cursed him in all the moods and - tenses he knew, Ezra thought he smelled brimstone in that light. - </p> - <p> - “I assure you, Major, I’m sorry the thing happened. My assistant did all - the work on these papers. I hadn’t time to give them personal attention,” - the Agent apologised in his humblest voice. - </p> - <p> - “You’re a liar. Don’t waste your breath.” - </p> - <p> - Ezra bit his lips and pulled his Mormon whiskers. - </p> - <p> - “Write out your decision now—this minute—confirming these - accounts in double quick order, unless you are looking for trouble.” - </p> - <p> - And Ezra hastened to do as he was bidden. - </p> - <p> - The next day while the General was seated on the porch of the little hotel - discussing his campaigns with Major Grant, Tom Camp sent for him. - </p> - <p> - Tom took the General round behind his house, with grave ceremony. - </p> - <p> - “What are you up to, Tom?” - </p> - <p> - “Show you in a minute! I wish I could make you a handsomer present, - General, to show you how much I think of you. But I know yer weakness - anyhow. There’s the finest lot er lightwood you ever seed.” - </p> - <p> - Tom turned back some old bagging and revealed a pile of fat pine chips - covered with rosin, evidently chipped carefully out of the boxed place of - live pine trees. - </p> - <p> - The General had two crochets, lightwood and waterpower. When he got hold - of a fine lot of lightwood suitable for kindling fires, he would fill his - closet with it, conceal it under his bed, and sometimes under his - mattress. He would even hide it in his bureau drawers and wardrobe and - take it out in little bits like a miser. - </p> - <p> - “Lord Tom, that beats the world!” - </p> - <p> - “Ain’t it fine? Just smell?” - </p> - <p> - “Rosin on every piece! Tom, you cut every tree on your place and every - tree in two miles clean to get that. You couldn’t have made me a gift I - would appreciate more. Old boy, if there’s ever a time in your life that - you need a friend, you know where to find me.” - </p> - <p> - “I knowed ye’d like it!” said Tom with a smile. - </p> - <p> - “Tom, you’re a man after my own heart. You’re feeling rich enough to make - your General a present when we are all about to starve. You’re a man of - faith. So am I. I say keep a stiff upper lip and peg away. The sun still - shines, the rains refresh, and water runs down hill yet. That’s one thing - Uncle Billy Sherman’s army couldn’t do much with when they put us to the - test of fire. He couldn’t burn up our water power. Tom, you may not know - it, but I do—we’ve got water power enough to turn every wheel in the - world. Wait till we get our harness on it and make it spin and weave our - cotton,—we’ll feed and clothe the human race. Faith’s my motto. I - can hardly get enough to eat now, but better times are coming. A man’s - just as big as his faith. I’ve got faith in the South. I’ve got faith in - the good will of the people of the North. Slavery is dead. They can’t feel - anything but kindly toward an enemy that fought as bravely and lost all. - We’ve got one country now and it’s going to be a great one.” - </p> - <p> - “You’re right, General, faith’s the word.” - </p> - <p> - “Tom, you don’t know how this gift from you touches me.” - </p> - <p> - The General pressed the old soldier’s hand with feeling. He changed his - orders from a buggy to a two-horse team that could carry all his precious - lightwood. - </p> - <p> - He filled the vehicle, and what was left he packed carefully in his - valise. - </p> - <p> - He stopped his team in front of the Baptist parsonage to see Mrs. Durham - about Allan McLeod. - </p> - <p> - “Delighted to see you, General Worth. It’s refreshing to look into the - faces of our great leaders, if they are still outlawed as rebels by the - Washington government.” - </p> - <p> - “Ah, Madam, I need not say it is refreshing to see you, the rarest and - most beautiful flower of the old South in the days of her wealth and - pride! And always the same!” The General bowed over her hand. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I haven’t surrendered yet.” - </p> - <p> - “And you never will,” he laughed. - </p> - <p> - “Why should I? They’ve done their worst. They have robbed me of all. I’ve - only rags and ashes left.” - </p> - <p> - “Things might still be worse, Madam.” - </p> - <p> - “I can’t see it. There is nothing but suffering and ruin before us. These - ignorant negroes are now being taught by people who hate or misunderstand - us. They can only be a scourge to society. I am heart-sick when I try to - think of the future!” - </p> - <p> - There was a mist about her eyes that betrayed the deep emotion with which - she uttered the last sentence. - </p> - <p> - She was a queenly woman of the brunette type with full face of striking - beauty surmounted by a mass of rich chestnut hair. The loss of her slaves - and estate in the war had burned its message of bitterness into her soul. - She had the ways of that imperious aristocracy of the South that only - slavery could nourish. She was still uncompromising upon every issue that - touched the life of the past. - </p> - <p> - She believed in slavery as the only possible career for a negro in - America. The war had left her cynical on the future of the new “Mulatto” - nation as she called it, born in its agony. Her only child had died during - the war, and this great sorrow had not softened but rather hardened her - nature. - </p> - <p> - Her husband’s career as a preacher was now a double cross to her because - it meant the doom of eternal poverty. In spite of her love for her husband - and her determination with all her opposite tastes to do her duty as his - wife, she could not get used to poverty. She hated it in her soul with - quiet intensity. - </p> - <p> - The General was thinking of all this as he tried to frame a cheerful - answer. Somehow he could not think of anything worth while to say to her. - So he changed the subject. - </p> - <p> - “Mrs. Durham, I’ve called to ask your interest in your Sunday School in a - boy who is a sort of ward of mine, young Allan McLeod.” - </p> - <p> - “That handsome red-headed fellow that looks like a tiger, I’ve seen - playing in the streets?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I want you to tame him.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I will try for your sake, though he’s a little older than any boy - in my class. He must be over fifteen.” - </p> - <p> - “Just fifteen. I’m deeply interested in him. I am going to give him a good - education. His father was a drunken Scotchman in my brigade, whose loyalty - to me as his chief was so genuine and touching I couldn’t help loving him. - He was a man of fine intellect and some culture. His trouble was drink. He - never could get up in life on that account. I have an idea that he married - his wife while on one of his drunks. She is from down in Robeson county, - and he told me she was related to the outlaws who have infested that - section for years. This boy looks like his mother, though he gets that red - hair and those laughing eyes from his father. I want you to take hold of - him and civilise him for me.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll try, General. You know, I love boys.” - </p> - <p> - “You will find him rude and boisterous at first, but I think he’s got - something in him.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll send for him to come to see me Saturday.” - </p> - <p> - “Thank you, Madam. I must go. My love to Dr. Durham.” - </p> - <p> - The next Saturday when Mrs. Durham walked into her little parlour to see - Allan, the boy was scared nearly out of his wits. He sprang to his feet, - stammered and blushed, and looked as though he were going to jump out of - the window. - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Durham looked at him with a smile that quite disarmed his fears, took - his outstretched hand, and held it trembling in hers. - </p> - <p> - “I know we will be good friends, won’t we?” - </p> - <p> - “Yessum,” he stammered. - </p> - <p> - “And you won’t tie any more tin cans to dogs like you did to Charlie - Gaston’s little terrier, will you? I like boys full of life and spirit, - just so they don’t do mean and cruel things.” - </p> - <p> - The boy was ready to promise her anything. He was charmed with her beauty - and gentle ways. He thought her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen - in the world. - </p> - <p> - As they started toward the door, she gently slipped one arm around him, - put her hand under his chin and kissed him. - </p> - <p> - Then he was ready to die for her. It was the first kiss he had ever - received from a woman’s lips. His mother was not a demonstrative woman. He - never recalled a kiss she had given him. His blood tingled with the - delicious sense of this one’s sweetness. All the afternoon he sat out - under a tree and dreamed and watched the house where this wonderful thing - had happened to him. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XI—SIMON LEGREE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>N the death of Mr. - Lincoln, a group of radical politicians, hitherto suppressed, saw their - supreme opportunity to obtain control of the nation in the crisis of an - approaching Presidential campaign. - </p> - <p> - Now they could fasten their schemes of proscription, confiscation, and - revenge upon the South. - </p> - <p> - Mr. Lincoln had held these wolves at bay during his life by the power of - his great personality. But the Lion was dead, and the Wolf, who had - snarled and snapped at him in life, put on his skin and claimed the - heritage of his power. The Wolf whispered his message of hate, and in the - hour of partisan passion became the master of the nation. - </p> - <p> - Busy feet had been hurrying back and forth from the Southern states to - Washington whispering in the Wolf’s ear the stories of sure success, if - only the plan of proscription, disfranchisement of whites, and - enfranchisement of blacks were carried out. - </p> - <p> - This movement was inaugurated two years after the war, with every Southern - state in profound peace, and in a life and death struggle with nature to - prevent famine. The new revolution destroyed the Union a second time, - paralysed every industry in the South, and transformed ten peaceful states - into roaring hells of anarchy. We have easily outlived the sorrows of the - war. That was a surgery which healed the body. But the child has not yet - been born whose children’s children will live to see the healing of the - wounds from those four years of chaos, when fanatics blinded by passion, - armed millions of ignorant negroes and thrust them into mortal combat with - the proud, bleeding, halfstarving Anglo-Saxon race of the South. Such a - deed once done, can never be undone. It fixes the status of these races - for a thousand years, if not for eternity. - </p> - <p> - The South was now rapidly gathering into two hostile armies under these - influences, with race marks as uniforms—the Black against the White. - </p> - <p> - The Negro army was under the command of a triumvirate, the Carpet-bagger - from the North, the native Scalawag and the Negro Demagogue. - </p> - <p> - Entirely distinct from either of these was the genuine Yankee soldier - settler in the South after the war, who came because he loved its genial - skies and kindly people. - </p> - <p> - Ultimately some of these Northern settlers were forced into politics by - conditions around them, and they constituted the only conscience and - brains visible in public life during the reign of terror which the - “Reconstruction” régime inaugurated. - </p> - <p> - In the winter of 1866 the Union League at Hambright held a meeting of - special importance. The attendance was large and enthusiastic. - </p> - <p> - Amos Hogg, the defeated candidate for Governor in the last election, now - the President of the Federation of “Loyal Leagues,” had sent a special - ambassador to this meeting to receive reports and give instructions. - </p> - <p> - This ambassador was none other than the famous Simon Legree of Red River, - who had migrated to North Carolina attracted by the first proclamation of - the President, announcing his plan for readmitting the state to the Union. - The rumours of his death proved a mistake. He had quit drink, and set his - mind on greater vices. - </p> - <p> - In his face were the features of the distinguished ruffian whose cruelty - to his slaves had made him unique in infamy in the annals of the South. He - was now preeminently the type of the “truly loyal”. At the first rumour of - war he had sold his negroes and migrated nearer the border land, that he - might the better avoid service in either army. He succeeded in doing this. - The last two years of the war, however, the enlisting officers pressed him - hard, until finally he hit on a brilliant scheme. - </p> - <p> - He shaved clean, and dressed as a German emigrant woman. He wore dresses - for two years, did house work, milked the cows and cut wood for a good - natured old German. He paid for his board, and passed for a sister, just - from the old country. - </p> - <p> - When the war closed, he resumed male attire, became a violent Union man, - and swore that he had been hounded and persecuted without mercy by the - Secessionist rebels. - </p> - <p> - He was looking more at ease now than ever in his life. He wore a silk hat - and a new suit of clothes made by a fashionable tailor in Raleigh. He was - a little older looking than when he killed Uncle Tom on his farm some ten - years before, but otherwise unchanged. He had the same short muscular - body, round bullet head, light grey eyes and shaggy eyebrows, but his deep - chestnut bristly hair had been trimmed by a barber. His coarse thick lips - drooped at the corners of his mouth and emphasised the crook in his nose. - His eyes, well set apart, as of old were bold, commanding, and flashed - with the cold light of glittering steel. His teeth that once were pointed - like the fangs of a wolf had been filed by a dentist. But it required more - than the file of a dentist to smooth out of that face the ferocity and - cruelty that years of dissolute habits had fixed. - </p> - <p> - He was only forty-two years old, but the flabby flesh under his eyes and - his enormous square-cut jaw made him look fully fifty. - </p> - <p> - It was a spectacle for gods and men, to see him harangue that Union League - in the platitudes of loyalty to the Union, and to watch the crowd of - negroes hang breathless on his every word as the inspired Gospel of God. - The only notable change in him from the old days was in his speech. He had - hired a man to teach him grammar and pronunciation. He had high ambitions - for the future. - </p> - <p> - “Be of good cheer, beloved!” he said to the negroes. “A great day is - coming for you. You are to rule this land. Your old masters are to dig in - the fields and you are to sit under the shade and be gentlemen. Old Andy - Johnson will be kicked out of the White House or hung, and the farms - you’ve worked on so long will be divided among you. You can rent them to - your old masters and live in ease the balance of your life.” - </p> - <p> - “Glory to God!” shouted an old negro. - </p> - <p> - “I have just been to Washington for our great leader, Amos Hogg. I’ve seen - Mr. Sumner, Mr. Stevens and Mr. Butler. I have shown them that we can - carry any state in the South, if they will only give you the ballot and - take it away from enough rebels. We have promised them the votes in the - Presidential election, and they are going to give us what we want.” - </p> - <p> - “Hallelujah! Amen! Yas Lawd!” The fervent exclamations came from every - part of the room. - </p> - <p> - After the meeting the negroes pressed around Legree and shook his hand - with eagerness—the same hand that was red with the blood of their - race. - </p> - <p> - When the crowd had dispersed a meeting of the leaders was held. - </p> - <p> - Dave Haley, the ex-slave trader from Kentucky who had dodged back and - forth from the mountains of his native state to the mountains of Western - North Carolina and kept out of the armies, was there. He had settled in - Hambright and hoped at least to get the postoffice under the new - dispensation. - </p> - <p> - In the group was the full blooded negro, Tim Shelby. He had belonged to - the Shelbys of Kentucky, but had escaped through Ohio into Canada before - the war. He had returned home with great expectations of revolutions to - follow in the wake of the victorious armies of the North. He had been - disappointed in the programme of kindliness and mercy that immediately - followed the fall of the Confederacy; but he had been busy day and night - since the war in organising the negroes, in secretly furnishing them arms - and wherever possible he had them grouped in military posts and regularly - drilled. He was elated at the brilliant prospects which Legree’s report - from Washington opened. - </p> - <p> - “Glorious news you bring us, brother!” he exclaimed as he slapped Legree - on the back. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and it’s straight.” - </p> - <p> - “Did Mr. Stevens tell you so?” - </p> - <p> - “He’s the man that told me.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you can tie to him. He’s the master now that rules the country,” - said Tim with enthusiasm. - </p> - <p> - “You bet he’s runnin’ it. He showed me his bill to confiscate the property - of the rebels and give it to the truly loyal and the niggers. It’s a - hummer. You ought to have seen the old man’s eyes flash fire when he - pulled that bill out of his desk and read it to me.” - </p> - <p> - “When will he pass it?” - </p> - <p> - “Two years, yet. He told me the fools up North were not quite ready for - it; and that he had two other bills first, that would run the South crazy - and so fire the North that he could pass anything he wanted and hang old - Andy Johnson besides.” - </p> - <p> - “Praise God,” shouted Tim, as he threw his arms around Legree and hugged - him. - </p> - <p> - Tim kept his kinky hair cut close, and when excited he had a way of - wrinkling his scalp so as to lift his ears up and down like a mule. His - lips were big and thick, and he combed assiduously a tiny moustache which - he tried in vain to pull out in straight Napoleonic style. - </p> - <p> - He worked his scalp and ears vigourously as he exclaimed, “Tell us the - whole plan, brother!” - </p> - <p> - “The plan’s simple,” said Legree. “Mr. Stevens is going to give the nigger - the ballot, and take it from enough white men to give the niggers a - majority. Then he will kick old Andy Johnson out of the White House, put - the gag on the Supreme Court so the South can’t appeal, pass his bill to - confiscate the property of the rebels and give it to loyal men and the - niggers, and run the rebels out.” - </p> - <p> - “And the beauty of the plan is,” said Tim with unction, “that they are - going to allow the Negro to vote to give himself the ballot and not allow - the white man to vote against it. That’s what I call a dead sure thing.” - Tim drew himself up, a sardonic grin revealing his white teeth from ear to - ear, and burst into an impassioned harangue to the excited group. He was - endowed with native eloquence, and had graduated from a college in Canada - under the private tutorship of its professors. He was well versed in - English History. He could hold an audience of negroes spell bound, and his - audacity commanded the attention of the boldest white man who heard him. - </p> - <p> - Legree, Perkins and Haley cheered his wild utterances and urged him to - greater flights. - </p> - <p> - He paused as though about to stop when Legree, evidently surprised and - delighted at his powers said, “Go on! Go on!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, go on,” shouted Perkins. “We are done with race and colour lines.” - </p> - <p> - A dreamy look came to Tim’s eyes as he continued, “Our proud white - aristocrats of the South are in a panic it seems. They fear the coming - power of the Negro. They fear their Desdemonas may be fascinated again by - an Othello! Well, Othello’s day has come at last. If he has dreamed dreams - in the past his tongue dared not speak, the day is fast coming when he - will put these dreams into deeds, not words. - </p> - <p> - “The South has not paid the penalties of her crimes. The work of the - conqueror has not yet been done in this land. Our work now is to bring the - proud low and exalt the lowly. This is the first duty of the conqueror. - </p> - <p> - “The French Revolutionists established a tannery where they tanned the - hides of dead aristocrats into leather with which they shod the common - people. This was France in the eighteenth century with a thousand years of - Christian culture. - </p> - <p> - “When the English army conquered Scotland they hunted and killed every - fugitive to a man, tore from the homes of their fallen foes their wives, - stripped them naked, and made them follow the army begging bread, the - laughing stock and sport of every soldier and camp follower! This was - England in the meridian of Anglo-Saxon intellectual glory, the England of - Shakespeare who was writing Othello to please the warlike populace. - </p> - <p> - “I say to my people now in the language of the inspired Word, ‘All things - are yours!’ I have been drilling and teaching them through the Union - League, the young and the old. I have told the old men that they will be - just as useful as the young. If they can’t carry a musket they can apply - the torch when the time comes. And they are ready now to answer the call - of the Lord!” - </p> - <p> - They crowded around Tim and wrung his hand. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - Early in 1867, two years after the war, Thaddeus Stevens passed through - Congress his famous bill destroying the governments of the Southern - states, and dividing them into military districts, enfranchising the whole - negro race, and disfranchising one-fourth of the whites. The army was sent - back to the South to enforce these decrees at the point of the bayonet. - The authority of the Supreme Court was destroyed by a supplementary act - and the South denied the right of appeal. Mr. Stevens then introduced his - bill to confiscate the property of the white people of the South. The - negroes laid down their hoes and plows and began to gather in excited - meetings. Crimes of violence increased daily. Not a night passed but that - a burning barn or home wrote its message of anarchy on the black sky. - </p> - <p> - The negroes refused to sign any contracts to work, to pay rents, or vacate - their houses on notice even from the Freedman’s Bureau. - </p> - <p> - The negroes on General Worth’s plantation, not only refused to work, or - move, but organised to prevent any white man from putting his foot on the - land. - </p> - <p> - General Worth procured a special order from the headquarters of the - Freedman’s Bureau for the district located at Independence. When the - officer appeared and attempted to serve this notice, the negroes mobbed - him. - </p> - <p> - A company of troops were ordered to Hambright, and the notice served again - by the Bureau official accompanied by the Captain of this company. - </p> - <p> - The negroes asked for time to hold a meeting and discuss the question. - They held their meeting and gathered fully five hundred men from the - neighbourhood, all armed with revolvers or muskets. They asked Legree and - Tim Shelby to tell them what they should do. There was no uncertain sound - in what Legree said. He looked over the crowd of eager faces with pride - and conscious power. - </p> - <p> - “Gentlemen, your duty is plain. Hold your land. It’s yours. You’ve worked - it for a lifetime. These officers here tell you that old Andy Johnson has - pardoned General Worth and that you have no rights on the land without his - contract. I tell you old Andy Johnson has no right to pardon a rebel, and - that he will be hung before another year. Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner - and B. F. Butler are running this country. Mr. Stevens has never failed - yet on anything he has set his hand. He has promised to give you the land. - Stick to it. Shake your fist in old Andy Johnson’s face and the face of - this Bureau and tell them so.” - </p> - <p> - “Dat we will!” shouted a negro woman, as Tim Shelby rose to speak. - </p> - <p> - “You have suffered,” said Tim. “Now let the white man suffer. Times have - changed. In the old days the white man said, ‘John, come black my boots’! - And the poor negro had to black his boots. I expect to see the day when I - will say to a white man, ‘Black my boots!’ And the white man will tip his - hat and hurry to do what I tell him.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, Lawd! Glory to God! Hear dat now!” - </p> - <p> - “We will drive the white men out of this country. That is the purpose of - our friends at Washington. If white men want to live in the South they can - become our servants. If they don’t like their job they can move to a more - congenial climate. You have Congress on your side, backed by a million - bayonets. There is no President. The Supreme Court is chained. In San - Domingo no white man is allowed to vote, hold office, or hold a foot of - land. We will make this mighty South a more glorious San Domingo.” - </p> - <p> - A frenzied shout rent the air. Tim and Legree were carried on the - shoulders of stalwart men in triumphant procession with five hundred crazy - negroes yelling and screaming at their heels. - </p> - <p> - The officers made their escape in the confusion and beat a hasty retreat - to town. They reported the situation to headquarters, and asked for - instructions. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XII—RED SNOW DROPS - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE spirit of - anarchy was in the tainted air. The bonds that held society were loosened. - Government threatened to become organised crime instead of the organised - virtue of the community. - </p> - <p> - The report of crimes of unusual horror among the ignorant and the vicious - began now to startle the world. - </p> - <p> - The Rev. John Durham on his rounds among the poor discovered a little - negro boy whom the parents had abandoned to starve. His father had become - a drunken loafer at Independence and the Freedman’s Bureau delivered the - child to his mother and her sister who lived in a cabin about two miles - from Hambright, and ordered them to care for the boy. - </p> - <p> - A few days later the child had disappeared. A search was instituted, and - the charred bones were found in an old ash heap in the woods near this - cabin. The mother had knocked him in the head and burned the body in a - drunken orgie with dissolute companions. - </p> - <p> - The sense of impending disaster crushed the hearts of thoughtful and - serious people. One of the last acts of Governor Macon, whose office was - now under the control of the military commandant at Charleston, South - Carolina, was to issue a proclamation, appointing a day of fasting and - prayer to God for deliverance from the ruin that threatened the state - under the dominion of Legree and the negroes. - </p> - <p> - It was a memorable day in the history of the people. - </p> - <p> - In many places they met in the churches the night before, and held - all-night watches and prayer meetings. They felt that a pestilence worse - than the Black Death of the Middle Ages threatened to extinguish - civilisation. - </p> - <p> - The Baptist church at Hambright was crowded to the doors with white-faced - women and sorrowful men. - </p> - <p> - About ten o’clock in the morning, pale and haggard from a sleepless night - of prayer and thought, the Preacher arose to address the people. The hush - of death fell as he gazed silently over the audience for a moment. How - pale his face! They had never seen him so moved with passions that stirred - his inmost soul. His first words were addressed to God. He did not seem to - see the people before him. - </p> - <p> - “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. - </p> - <p> - “Before the mountains were brought forth or ever Thou hadst formed the - earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God!” - </p> - <p> - The people instinctively bowed their heads, fired by the subtle quality of - intense emotion the tones of his voice communicated, and many of the - people were already in tears. - </p> - <p> - “Thou turnest man to destruction: and sayest, return, ye children of men.” - </p> - <p> - “Who knowest the power of thine anger?” - </p> - <p> - “Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent Thee concerning Thy - servants.” - </p> - <p> - “Beloved,” he continued, “it was permitted unto your fathers and brothers - and children to die for their country. You must live for her in the black - hour of despair. There will be no roar of guns, no long lines of gleaming - bayonets, no flash of pageantry or martial music to stir your souls. - </p> - <p> - “You are called to go down, man by man, alone, naked and unarmed in the - blackness of night and fight with the powers of hell for your - civilisation. - </p> - <p> - “You must look this question squarely in the face. You are to be put to - the supreme test. You are to stand at the judgment bar of the ages and - make good your right to life. The attempt is to be deliberately made to - blot out Anglo-Saxon society and substitute African barbarism. - </p> - <p> - “A few years ago a Southern Representative in a stupid rage knocked - Charles Sumner down with a cane and cracked his skull. Now it is this poor - cracked brain, mad with hate and revenge, that is attempting to blot the - Southern states from the map of the world and build Negro territories on - their ruins. In the madness of party passions, for the first time in - history, an anarchist, Thaddeus Stevens, has obtained the dictatorship of - a great Constitutional Government, hauled down its flag and nailed the - Black Flag of Confiscation and Revenge to its masthead. - </p> - <p> - “The excuse given for this, that the lawmakers of the South attempted to - reinslave the Negro by their enactments against vagrants and provisions - for apprenticeship, is so weak a lie, it will not deserve the notice of a - future historian. Every law passed on these subjects since the abolition - of slavery was simply copied from the codes of the Northern states where - free labour was the basis of society. - </p> - <p> - “Lincoln alone, with his great human heart and broad statesmanship could - have saved us. But the South had no luck. Again and again in the war, - victory was within her grasp, and an unseen hand snatched it away. In the - hour of her defeat the bullet of a madman strikes down the great - President, her last refuge in ruin! - </p> - <p> - “God alone is our help. Let us hold fast to our faith in Him. We can only - cry with aching hearts in the language of the Psalmist of old, ‘How long, - O Lord? how long!’ - </p> - <p> - “The voices of three men now fill the world with their bluster—Charles - Sumner, a crack-brained theorist; Thad-deus Stevens, a clubfooted - misanthrope, and B. F. Butler, a triumvirate of physical and mental - deformity. Yet they are but the cracked reeds of a great organ that peals - forth the discord of a nation’s blind rage. When the storm is past, and - reason rules passion, they will be flung into oblivion. We must bend to - the storm. It is God’s will.” - </p> - <p> - The people left the church with heavy hearts. They were hopelessly - depressed. In the afternoon, as the churches were being slowly emptied, - groups of negroes stood on the corners talking loudly and discussing the - meaning of this new Sunday so strangely observed. It began to snow. It was - late in March and this was an unusual phenomenon in the South. - </p> - <p> - The next morning the earth was covered with four inches of snow, that - glistened in the sun with a strange reddish hue. On examination it was - found that every snow drop had in it a tiny red spot that looked like a - drop of blood! Nothing of the kind had ever been seen before in the - history of the world, so far as any one knew. - </p> - <p> - This freak of nature seemed a harbinger of sure and terrible calamity. - Even the most cultured and thoughtful could not shake off the impression - it made. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher did his best to cheer the people in his daily intercourse - with them. His Sunday sermons seemed in these darkest days unusually - tender and hopeful. It was a marvel to those who heard his bitter and - sorrowful speech on the day of fasting and prayer, that he could preach - such sermons as those which followed. - </p> - <p> - Occasionally old Uncle Joshua Miller would ask him to preach for the - negroes in their new church on Sunday afternoons. He always went, hoping - to keep some sort of helpful influence over them in spite of their new - leaders and teachers. It was strange to watch this man shake hands with - these negroes, call them familiarly by their names, ask kindly after their - families, and yet carry in his heart the presage of a coming - irreconcilable conflict. For no one knew more clearly than he, that the - issues were being joined from the deadly grip of that conflict of races - that would determine whether this Republic would be Mulatto or - Anglo-Saxon. Yet at heart he had only the kindliest feelings for these - familiar dusky faces now rising a black storm above the horizon, - threatening the existence of civilised society, under the leadership of - Simon Legree, and Mr. Stevens. - </p> - <p> - It seemed a joke sometimes as he thought of it, a huge, preposterous joke, - this actual attempt to reverse the order of nature, turn society upside - down, and make a thicklipped, flat-nosed negro but yesterday taken from - the jungle, the ruler of the proudest and strongest race of men evolved in - two thousand years of history. Yet when he remembered the fierce passions - in the hearts of the demagogues who were experimenting with this social - dynamite, it was a joke that took on a hellish, sinister meaning. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XIII—DICK - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Charlie Gaston - reached his home after a never-to-be-forgotten day in the woods with the - Preacher, he found a ragged little dirt-smeared negro boy peeping through - the fence into the woodyard. - </p> - <p> - “What you want?” cried Charlie. - </p> - <p> - “Nuttin!” - </p> - <p> - “What’s your name?” - </p> - <p> - “Dick.” - </p> - <p> - “Who’s your father?” - </p> - <p> - “Haint got none. My mudder say she was tricked, en I’se de trick!” he - chuckled and walled his eyes. - </p> - <p> - Charlie came close and looked him over. Dick giggled and showed the whites - of his eyes. - </p> - <p> - “What made that streak on your neck?” - </p> - <p> - “Nigger done it wid er axe.” - </p> - <p> - “What nigger?” - </p> - <p> - “Low life nigger name er Amos what stays roun’ our house Sundays.” - </p> - <p> - “What made him do it?” - </p> - <p> - “He low he wuz me daddy, en I sez he wuz er liar, en den he grab de axe en - try ter chop me head off.” - </p> - <p> - “Gracious, he ’most killed you!” - </p> - <p> - “Yassir, but de doctor sewed me head back, en hit grow’d.” - </p> - <p> - “Goodness me!” - </p> - <p> - “Say!” grinned Dick. - </p> - <p> - “What?” - </p> - <p> - “I likes you.” - </p> - <p> - “Do you?” - </p> - <p> - “Yassir, en I aint gwine home no mo’. I done run away, en I wants ter live - wid you.” - </p> - <p> - “Will you help me and Nelse work?” - </p> - <p> - “Dat I will. I can do mos’ anyting. You ax yer Ma fur me, en doan let dat - nigger Nelse git holt er me.” Charlie’s heart went out to the ragged - little waif. He took him by the hand, led him into the yard, found his - mother, and begged her to give him a place to sleep and keep him. - </p> - <p> - His mother tried to persuade him to make Dick go back to his own home. - Nelse was loud in his objections to the new comer, and Aunt Eve looked at - him as though she would throw him over the fence. - </p> - <p> - But Dick stuck doggedly to Charlie’s heels. - </p> - <p> - “Mama dear, see, they tried to cut his head oft with an axe,” cried the - boy, and he wheeled Dick around and showed the terrible scar across the - back of his neck. - </p> - <p> - “I spec hits er pity dey didn’t cut hit clean off,” muttered Nelse. - </p> - <p> - “Mama, you can’t send him back to be killed!” - </p> - <p> - “Well, darling, I’ll see about it to-morrow.” - </p> - <p> - “Come on Dick, I’ll show you where to sleep!” - </p> - <p> - The next day Dick’s mother was glad to get rid of him by binding him - legally to Mrs. Gaston, and a lonely boy found a playmate and partner in - work, he was never to forget. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XIV—THE NEGRO UPRISING - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE summer of 1867! - Will ever a Southern man or woman who saw it forget its scenes? A group of - oath-bound secret societies, The Union League, The Heroes of America, and - The Red Strings dominating society, and marauding bands of negroes armed - to the teeth terrorising the country, stealing, burning and murdering. - </p> - <p> - Labour was not only demoralised, it had ceased to exist Depression was - universal, farming paralysed, investments dead, and all property insecure. - Moral obligations were dropping away from conduct, and a gulf as deep as - hell and high as heaven opening between the two races. - </p> - <p> - The negro preachers openly instructed their flocks to take what they - needed from their white neighbours. If any man dared prosecute a thief, - the answer was a burned barn or a home in ashes. - </p> - <p> - The wildest passions held riot at Washington. The Congress of the United - States as a deliberative body under constitutional forms of government no - longer existed. The Speaker of the House shook his fist at the President - and threatened openly to hang him, and he was arraigned for impeachment - for daring to exercise the constitutional functions of his office! - </p> - <p> - The division agents of the Freedman’s Bureau in the South sent to - Washington the most alarming reports, declaring a famine imminent. In - reply the vindictive leaders levied a tax of fifteen dollars a bale on - cotton, plunging thousands of Southern farmers into immediate bankruptcy - and giving to India and Egypt the mastery of the cotton markets of the - world! - </p> - <p> - Congress became to the desolate South what Attila, the “<i>Scourge of God</i>” - was to civilised Europe. - </p> - <p> - The Abolitionists of the North, whose conscience was the fire that kindled - the Civil War, rose in solemn protest against this insanity. Their protest - was drowned in the roar of multitudes maddened by demagogues who were - preparing for a political campaign. - </p> - <p> - Late in August Hambright and Campbell county were thrilled with horror at - the report of a terrible crime. A whole white family had been murdered in - their home, the father, mother and three children in one night, and no - clue to the murderers could be found. - </p> - <p> - Two days later the rumour spread over the country that a horde of negroes - heavily armed were approaching Hambright burning, pillaging and murdering. - </p> - <p> - All day terrified women, some walking with babes in their arms, some - riding in old wagons and carrying what household goods they could load on - them, were hurrying with blanched faces into the town. - </p> - <p> - By night five hundred determined white men had answered an alarm bell and - assembled in the court house. Every negro save a few faithful servants had - disappeared. A strange stillness fell over the village. - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Gaston sat in her house without a light, looking anxiously out of the - window, overwhelmed with the sense of helplessness. Charlie, frightened by - the wild stories he had heard, was trying in spite of his fears to comfort - her. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t cry, Mama!” - </p> - <p> - “I’m not crying because I’m afraid, darling, I’m only crying because your - father is not here to-night. I can’t get used to living without him to - protect us.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll take care of you, Mama—Nelse and me.” - </p> - <p> - “Where is Nelse?” - </p> - <p> - “He’s cleaning up the shot gun.” - </p> - <p> - “Tell him to come here.” - </p> - <p> - When Nelse approached his Mistress asked, “Nelse, do you really think this - tale is true?” - </p> - <p> - “No, Missy, I doan believe nary word uf it. Same time I’se gettin’ ready - fur ’em. Ef er nigger come foolin’ roun’ dis house ter night, he’ll - t’ink he’s run ergin er whole regiment! I hain’t been ter wah fur - nuttin’.” - </p> - <p> - “Nelse, you have always been faithful. I trust you implicitly.” - </p> - <p> - “De Lawd, Missy, dat you kin do! I fight fur you en dat boy till I drap - dead in my tracks!” - </p> - <p> - “I believe you would.” - </p> - <p> - “Yessum, cose I would. En I wants dat swo’de er Marse Charles to-night, - Missy, en Charlie ter help me sharpen ’im on de grine stone.” - </p> - <p> - She took the sword from its place and handed it to Nelse. Was there just a - shade of doubt in her heart as she saw his black hand close over its hilt - as he drew it from the scabbard and felt its edge! If so she gave no sign. - </p> - <p> - Charlie turned the grindstone while Nelse proceeded to violate the laws of - nations by putting a keen edge on the blade. - </p> - <p> - “Nebber seed no sense in dese dull swodes nohow!” - </p> - <p> - “Why ain’t they sharp, Nelse?” - </p> - <p> - “Doan know, honey. Marse Charles tell me de law doan ’low it, but - dey sho hain’t no law now!” - </p> - <p> - “We’ll sharpen it, won’t we, Nelse?” whispered the boy as he turned - faster. - </p> - <p> - “Dat us will, honey. En den you des watch me mow niggers ef dey come er - prowlin’ round dis house!” - </p> - <p> - “Did you kill many Yankees in the war, Nelse?” - </p> - <p> - “Doan know, honey, spec I did.” - </p> - <p> - “Are you going to take the gun or the sword?” - </p> - <p> - “Bofe um ’em chile. I’se gwine ter shoot er pair er niggers fust, - en den charge de whole gang wid dis swode. Hain’t nuttin’ er nigger’s - feard uf lak er keen edge. Wish ter God I had a razer long es dis swode! - I’d des walk clean froo er whole army er niggers wid guns. Man, hit ’ud - des natchelly be er sight! Day’d slam dem guns down en bust demselves open - gittin’ outen my way!” - </p> - <p> - When the sun rose next morning the bodies of ten negroes lay dead and - wounded in the road about a mile outside of town. The pickets thrown out - in every direction had discovered their approach about eleven o’clock. - They were allowed to advance within a mile. There were not more than two - hundred in the gang, dozens of them were drunk, and like the Sepoys of - India, they were under the command of a white Scalawag. At the first - volley they broke and fled in wild disorder. Their leader managed to - escape. - </p> - <p> - This event cleared the atmosphere for a few weeks; and the people breathed - more freely when another company of army regulars marched into the town - and camped in the school grounds of the old academy. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XV—THE NEW CITIZEN KING - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>F all the - elections ever conducted by the English speaking race the one held under - the “Reconstruction” act of 1867 in the South was the most unique. - </p> - <p> - Ezra Perkins the agent of the Freedman’s Bureau issued a windy - proclamation to the new citizens to come forward on a certain day to - register and receive their ‘elective franchise.’ - </p> - <p> - The negroes poured into town from every direction from early dawn. Some - carried baskets, some carried jugs, and some were pushing wheelbarrows, - but most of them had an empty bag. They were packed around the Agency in a - solid black mass. - </p> - <p> - Nelse laughed until a crowd gathered around him. - </p> - <p> - “Lordy, look at dem bags!” he shouted. “En dars ole Ike wid er jug. He’s - gwine ter take hisen in licker. En bress God dars er fool wid er - wheel-barer!” Nelse lay down and rolled with laughter. - </p> - <p> - They failed to see the joke, and when the Agency was opened they made a - break for the door, trampling each other down in a mad fear that there - wouldn’t be enough ‘elective franchise’ to go round! - </p> - <p> - The first negro who emerged from the door came with a crestfallen face and - an empty bag on his arm. - </p> - <p> - He was surrounded by anxious inquirers. “What wuz hit?” - </p> - <p> - “Nuffin. Des stan up dar befo’ er man wid big whiskers en he make me swar - ter export de Constertution er de Nunited States er Nor’f Calliny.” - </p> - <p> - When Nelse appeared Perkins looked at him a moment and asked, “Are you a - member of the Union League?” - </p> - <p> - “Dat I hain’t.” - </p> - <p> - “Then stand aside and let these men register. If you want to vote you had - better join.” - </p> - <p> - Nelse made no reply, but in a short time he returned with the Rev. John - Durham by his side. He was allowed to register, but from that day he was a - marked man among his race. - </p> - <p> - When the registration closed Perkins was in high glee. - </p> - <p> - “We’ve got ’em, Timothy! It’s a dead sure thing!” he cried as he - slipped his arm around Tim’s shoulder. - </p> - <p> - “Will the majority be big?” asked Tim. - </p> - <p> - “If it ain’t big enough we’ll disfranchise more aristocrats and - enfranchise the dogs.” Tim wondered whether this proposition was - altogether flattering. - </p> - <p> - During the progress of the campaign, a committee from the organisation of - the “truly loyal,” Ezra Perkins and Dave Haley, called on Tom Camp. - </p> - <p> - “Mr. Camp, we want your help as a leader among the poor white people to - save the country from these rebel aristocrats who have ruined it,” said - Ezra. - </p> - <p> - “You’re barkin’ up the wrong tree!” answered Tom dryly. - </p> - <p> - “The poor men have got to stand together now and get their rights.” - </p> - <p> - “Well if I’ve got to stand with niggers, have ’em hug me and blow - their breath in my face, as you fellers are doin’, you can count me out!—and - if that’s all you want with me, you’ll find the door open.” - </p> - <p> - Haley tried his hand. - </p> - <p> - “Look here, Camp, we ain’t got no hard feelin’s agin you, but there’s - agoin’ to be trouble for every rebel in this county who don’t git on our - side and do it quick.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m used to trouble pardner,” replied Tom. - </p> - <p> - “You’ve got a nice little cabin home and ten acres of land. Fight us, and - we will give this house and lot to a nigger.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t believe it,” cried Tom. - </p> - <p> - “Come, come,” said Perkins, “you’re not fool enough to fight us when we’ve - got a dead sure thing, a majority fixed before the voting begins, Congress - and the whole army back of us?” - </p> - <p> - “I ain’t er nigger!” said Tom, doggedly. - </p> - <p> - “What’s the use to be a fool Camp,” cried Haley. “We are just using the - nigger to stick the votes in the box. He thinks he’s goin’ to heaven, but - we’ll ride him all the way up to the gate and hitch him on the outside. - Will you come in with us?” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t like your complexion!” he answered rising and going toward the - door. - </p> - <p> - “Then we’ll turn you out into the road in less than two years,” said Haley - as they left. - </p> - <p> - “All right!” laughed the old soldier, “I slept on the ground four years, - boys.” - </p> - <p> - When he came back into the room he met his wife with tears in her eyes. - “Oh! Tom, I’m afraid they’ll do what they say.” - </p> - <p> - “To tell you the truth, ole woman, I’m afraid so too. But we’re in the - hands of the Lord. This is His house. If He wants to take it away from me - now when I’m crippled and helpless, He knows what’s best.” - </p> - <p> - “I wish you didn’t have to go agin ’em.” - </p> - <p> - “I ain’t er nigger, ole gal, and I don’t flock with niggers. If God - Almighty had meant me to be one He’d have made my skin black.” - </p> - <p> - On election day no publication of the polling places had been made. Ezra - Perkins had in charge the whole county. He consolidated the fifteen voting - precincts into three and located these in negro districts. He notified - only the members of the secret Leagues where these three voting places - were to be found, and other people were allowed to find them on the day of - the election as best they could. - </p> - <p> - Perkins made himself the poll holder at Hambright though he was a - candidate for member of the Constitutional Convention, and the poll - holders were allowed to keep the ballots in their possession for three - days before forwarding to the General in command at Charleston, South - Carolina. - </p> - <p> - Scores of negroes, under the instructions of their leaders voted three - times that day. Every negro boy fairly well grown was allowed to vote and - no questions asked as to his age. - </p> - <p> - Nelse approached the polls attempting to cast a vote against the Rev. Ezra - Perkins the poll holder. A crowd of infuriated negroes surrounded him in a - moment. - </p> - <p> - “Kill ’im! Knock ’im in the head! De black debbil, votin’ - agin his colour!” - </p> - <p> - Nelse threw his big fists right and left and soon had an open space in the - edge of which lay a half dozen negroes scrambling to get to their feet. - </p> - <p> - The negroes formed a line in front of him and the foremost one said, “You - try ter put dat vote in de box we bust yo head open!” - </p> - <p> - Nelse knocked him down before he got the words well out of him mouth. - “Honey, I’se er bad nigger!” he shouted with a grin as he stepped back and - started to rush the line. - </p> - <p> - Perkins ordered the guard to arrest him. - </p> - <p> - As the guard carried Nelse away a crowd of angry negroes followed grinning - and cursing. - </p> - <p> - “We lay fur you yit, ole hoss!” was their parting word as he disappeared - through the jail door. - </p> - <p> - That night at the supper table in the hotel at Ham-bright an informal - census of the voters was taken. There were present at the table a - distinguished ex-judge, two lawyers, a General, two clergymen, a merchant, - a farmer, and two mechanics. The only man of all allowed to vote that day - was the negro who waited on the table. - </p> - <p> - Thus began the era of a corrupt and degraded ballot in the South that was - to bring forth sorrow for generations yet unborn. The intelligence, - culture, wealth, social prestige, brains, conscience and the historic - institutions of a great state had been thrust under the hoof of ignorance - and vice. - </p> - <p> - The votes were sent to the military commandant at Charleston and the - results announced. The negroes had elected no representatives and the - whites 10. It was gravely announced from Washington that a “republican - form of government” had at last been established in North Carolina. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XVI—LEGREE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE new government - was now in full swing and a saturnalia began. Amos Hogg was Governor, - Simon Legree Speaker of the House, and the Hon. Tim Shelby leader of the - majority on the floor of the House. - </p> - <p> - Raleigh, the quaint little City of Oaks, never saw such an assemblage of - law-makers gather in the grey stone Capitol. - </p> - <p> - Ezra Perkins, who was a member of the Senate, was frugal in his habits and - found lodgings at an unpretentious boarding house near the Capitol square. - </p> - <p> - The room was furnished with six iron cots on which were placed straw - mattresses and six honourable members of the new Legislature occupied - these. They were close enough together to allow a bottle of whiskey to be - freely passed from member to member at any hour of the night. They thought - the beds were arranged with this in view and were much pleased. - </p> - <p> - Ezra was the only man of the crowd who arrived in Raleigh with a valise or - trunk. He had a carpet bag. The others simply had one shirt and a few odds - and ends tied in red bandana handkerchiefs. - </p> - <p> - Three of them had walked all the way to Raleigh and kept in the woods from - habit as deserters. The other two rode on the train and handed their - tickets to the first stranger they saw on the platform of the car they - boarded. - </p> - <p> - “What’s this for!” said the stranger. - </p> - <p> - “Them’s our tickets. Ain’t you the door keeper?” - </p> - <p> - “No, but there ought to be one to every circus. You’ll have one when you - get to Raleigh.” - </p> - <p> - The landlady, Mrs. Duke, apologised for the poor beds, when she showed - them to their room. “I’m sorry, gentlemen, I can’t give you softer beds.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s all right M’am! them’s fine. Us fellows been sleeping in the woods - and in straw stacks so long dodgin’ ole Vance’s officers, them white - sheets is the finest thing we’ve seed in four years, er more.” - </p> - <p> - They were humble and made no complaints. But at the end of the week they - gathered around the Rev. Ezra Perkins for a grave consultation. - </p> - <p> - “When are we goin’ ter draw?” said one. - </p> - <p> - “Air we ever goin’ ter draw?” asked another with sorrow and doubt. - </p> - <p> - “What are we here fer ef we cain’t draw?” pleaded another looking sadly at - Ezra. - </p> - <p> - “Gentlemen,” answered Ezra, “it will be all right in a little while. The - Treasurer is just cranky. We can draw our mileage Monday anyhow.” - </p> - <p> - At daylight they took their places on the bank’s steps, and at ten o’clock - when the bank opened, the doors were besieged by a mob of members - painfully anxious to draw before it might be too late. - </p> - <p> - Next morning there was a disturbance at the breakfast table. The morning - paper had in blazing head lines an account of one James “Mileage,” who was - a member of the Legislature from an adjoining county thirty-seven miles - distant. He had sworn to a mileage record of one hundred and seven - dollars. - </p> - <p> - “That’s an unfortunate mistake, sir,” said Perkins. - </p> - <p> - “Ten’ ter yer own business?” answered James. - </p> - <p> - “I call it er purty sharp trick,” grinned his partner. - </p> - <p> - “I call it stealin’,” sneered an honourable member, evidently envious. - </p> - <p> - And James “Mileage” was his name for all time, but “Mileage” shot a - malicious look at the member who had called him a thief. - </p> - <p> - The next morning the paper of the Opposition had another biographical - sketch on the front page. - </p> - <p> - “I see your name in the paper this morning, Mr. Scoggins?” remarked Mrs. - Duke, looking pleasantly at the member who had spoken so rudely to James - “Mileage” the day before. - </p> - <p> - “Well I reckon I’ll make my mark down here before it’s over,” chuckled - Scoggins with pride. “What do they say about me, M’am?” - </p> - <p> - “They say you stole a lot of hogs!” tittered the landlady. - </p> - <p> - Mr. Scoggins turned red. - </p> - <p> - “Oho, is there another thief in this hon’able body?” sneered James - “Mileage.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s all a lie, M’am, ’bout them hogs. I didn’ steal ’em. - I just pressed ’em from a Secessiner.” - </p> - <p> - “Jes so,” said James ‘Mileage’, “but they say you were a deserter at the - time, and not exactly in the service of your country.” - </p> - <p> - “Ye can’t pay no ’tention ter rebel lies ergin Union men!” - explained Scoggins, eating faster. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, that’s so,” said James ‘Mileage’, “but there’s another funny thing - in the paper about you.” - </p> - <p> - “What’s that?” cried Scoggins with new alarm. - </p> - <p> - “That Mr. Scoggins met Sherman’s army with loud talk about lovin’ the - Union, but that a mean Yankee officer gave him a cussin’ fur not fightin’ - on one side or the other, took all that bacon he had stolen, hung him up - by the heels, gave him thirty lashes and left him hanging in the air.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s a lie! It’s a lie!” bellowed Scoggins. - </p> - <p> - “Gentlemen! Gentlemen! we must not have such behaviour at my table!” - exclaimed Mrs. Duke. - </p> - <p> - And “Hog” Scoggins was his name from that day. - </p> - <p> - By the end of the week another painful story was printed about one of this - group of statesmen. The newspaper brutally declared that he had been - convicted of stealing a rawhide from a neighbour’s tanyard. It could not - be denied. And then a sad thing happened. The moral sentiment of the - little community could not endure the strain. It suddenly collapsed. They - laughed at these incidents of the sad past and agreed that they were - jokes. They began to call each other James “Mileage,” “Hog” Scoggins, and - “Rawhide” in the friendliest way, and dared a scornful world to make them - feel ashamed of anything! - </p> - <p> - But the Rev. Ezra Perkins was pained by this breakdown. He felt that being - safely removed two thousand miles from his own past, he might hope for a - future. - </p> - <p> - “Mrs. Duke,” he complained to his landlady, “I will have to ask you to - give me a room to myself. I’ll pay double. I want quiet where I can read - my Bible and meditate occasionally.” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly Mr. Perkins, if you are willing to pay for it.” - </p> - <p> - It was so arranged. But this assumption of moral superiority by Perkins - grieved “Mileage,” “Hog” and “Rawhide,” and a coolness sprang up between - them, until they found Ezra one night in his place of meditation dead - drunk and his room on fire. He had gone to sleep in his chair with his - empty bottle by his side, and knocked the candle over on the bed. Then - they agreed that forever after they would all stand together, shoulder to - shoulder, until they brought the haughty low and exalted the lowly and the - “loyal.” - </p> - <p> - Tim Shelby early distinguished himself in this august assemblage. His wit - and eloquence from the first commanded the admiration of his party. - </p> - <p> - When he had fairly established himself as leader, he rose in his seat one - day with unusual gravity. His scalp was working his ears with great - rapidity showing his excitement. - </p> - <p> - He had in his hands a bill on which he had spent months in secret study. - He had not even hinted its contents to any of his associates. Under the - call for bills his voice rang with deep emphasis, “Mr. Speaker!” - </p> - <p> - Legree gave him instant recognition. - </p> - <p> - “I desire to introduce the following: ‘A Bill to be Entitled An Act to - Relieve Married Women from the Bonds of Matrimony when United to Felons, - and to Define Felony’.” - </p> - <p> - A page hurried to the Reading Clerk with his bill. - </p> - <p> - The hum of voices ceased. The five or six representatives of the white - race left their desks and walked quickly toward the Speaker. The Clerk - read in a loud clear voice. - </p> - <p> - “The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact: - </p> - <p> - “I That all citizens of the State who took part in the Rebellion and - fought against the Union, or held office in the so called Confederate - States of America, shall be held guilty of felony, and shall be forever - debarred from voting or holding office.” - </p> - <p> - “II That the married relations of all such felons are hereby dissolved and - their wives absolutely divorced, and said felons shall be forever barred - from contracting marriage or living under the same roof with their former - wives.” - </p> - <p> - Instantly four Carpet-bagger members of some education rushed for Tim’s - seat. “Withdraw that bill, man, quick! My God, are you mad!” they all - cried in a breath. - </p> - <p> - Tim was dazed by this unexpected turn, and grinned in an obstinate way. - </p> - <p> - “I can’t see it gentlemen. That bill will kill out the breed of rebels and - fix the status of every Southern state for five hundred years. It’s just - what we need to make this state loyal.” - </p> - <p> - “You pass that bill and hell will break loose!” - </p> - <p> - “How so, brother? Ain’t we on top and the rebels on the bottom? Ain’t the - army here to protect us?” persisted Tim. - </p> - <p> - There was a brief consultation among the little group in opposition and - the leader said, “Mr. Speaker, I move that the bill be at once printed and - laid on the desk of the members for consideration.” - </p> - <p> - Tim was astonished at this move of his enemy. Le-gree looked at him and - waited his pleasure. - </p> - <p> - “Mr. Speaker, I withdraw that bill for the present,” he said at length. - </p> - <p> - That night the wires were hot between Washington and Raleigh, and the - entire power of Congress was hurled upon the unhappy Tim. His bill was not - only suppressed but the news agencies were threatened and subsidised to - prevent accounts of its introduction being circulated throughout the - country. - </p> - <p> - Tim decided to lay this measure over until Congress was off his hands, and - the state’s autonomy fully recognised. Then he would dare interference. In - the meantime he turned his great mind to financial matters. His success - here was overwhelming. - </p> - <p> - His first measure was to increase the per diem of the members from three - to seven dollars a day. It passed with a whoop. - </p> - <p> - Uncle Pete Sawyer a coal-black fatherly looking old darkey from an Eastern - county made himself immortal in that debate. - </p> - <p> - “Mistah Speakah!” he bawled drawing himself up with great dignity, and - holding a pen in his left hand as though he had been writing. “What do - dese white gem’men mean by ezposen dis bill? Ef we doan pay de members - enuf, dey des be erbleeged ter steal. Hit aint right, sah, ter fo’ce de - members er dis hon’able body ter prowl atter dark when day otter be here - ’tendin’ ter de business o’ de country. En I moves you, sah. Mistah - Speakah, dat dese rema’ks er mine be filed in de arkibes er grabity!” - </p> - <p> - They were filed and embalmed in the archives of gravity where they will - remain a monument to their author and his times. - </p> - <p> - As Tim’s great financial measures made progress, the members began to wear - better clothes, assumed white linen shirts, had their shoes blacked, and - put on the airs of overworked statesmen. - </p> - <p> - When they had used up all the funds of the state in mileage and per diem, - they sold and divided the school fund, railroad bonds worth a half - million, for a hundred thousand ready cash. It was soon found that Simon - Legree, the Speaker of the House, was the master of financial measures and - Tim Shelby was his mouthpiece. - </p> - <p> - Legree organised three groups of thieves composed of the officials needed - to perfect the thefts in every branch of the government while he retained - the leadership of the federated groups. The Treasurer, who was an honest - man, was stripped of power by a special act. - </p> - <p> - The Capitol Ring merely picked up the odds and ends about the Capitol - building. They refurnished the Legislative Halls. They spent over two - hundred thousand dollars for furniture, and when it was appraised, its - value was found to be seventeen thousand dollars at the prices they - actually paid for it. The Ring stole one hundred and seventy thousand - dollars on this item alone. - </p> - <p> - An appropriation of three hundred thousand dollars was made for “supplies, - sundries and incidentals.” With this they built a booth around the statue - of Washington at the end of the Capitol and established a bar with fine - liquors and cigars for the free use of the members and their friends. They - kept it open every day and night during their reign, and in a suite of - rooms in the Capitol they established a brothel. From the galleries a - swarm of courtesans daily smiled on their favourites on the floor. - </p> - <p> - The printing had never cost the state more than eight thousand dollars in - any one year. This year it cost four hundred and eighty thousand. Legree - drew thousands of warrants on the state for imaginary persons. There were - eight pages in the House. He drew pay for one hundred and fifty-six pages. - In this way he raised an enormous corruption fund for immediate use in - bribing the lawmakers to carry through his schemes. - </p> - <p> - The Railroad Ring was his most effective group of brigands. - </p> - <p> - They passed bills authorising the issue of twenty-five millions of dollars - in bonds, and actually issued and stole fourteen millions, and never built - one foot of railroad. - </p> - <p> - When Legree’s movement was at its high tide, Ezra Perkins sought Uncle - Pete Sawyer one night in behalf of a pet measure of his pending in the - House. - </p> - <p> - Peter was seated by his table counting by the light of a candle three big - piles of gold. - </p> - <p> - His face was wreathed in smiles. - </p> - <p> - “Peter, you seem well pleased with the world tonight?” said Ezra - gleefully. - </p> - <p> - “Well, brudder, you see dem piles er yaller money?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, it is a fine sight.” - </p> - <p> - Uncle Pete smacked his lips and grinned from ear to ear. - </p> - <p> - “Well, brudder, I tells you. I ben sol’ seben times in my life, but ’fore - Gawd dat’s de fust time I ebber got de money!” - </p> - <p> - Uncle Pete dreamed that night that Congress passed a law extending the - blessings of a “republican form of government” to North Carolina for forty - years and that the Legislature never adjourned. - </p> - <p> - But the Legislature finally closed, and in a drunken revel which lasted - all night. They had bankrupted the state, destroyed its school funds, and - increased its debt from sixteen to forty-two millions of dollars, without - adding one cent to its wealth or power. - </p> - <p> - Legree then organised a Municipal and County Ring to exploit the towns, - cities, and counties, having passed a bill vacating all county and city - offices. - </p> - <p> - This Ring secured the control of Hambright and levied a tax of twenty-five - per cent for municipal purposes! Tom Camp’s little home was assessed for - eighty-five dollars in taxes. Mrs. Gaston’s home was assessed for one - hundred and sixty dollars. They could have raised a million as easily as - the sum of these assessments. - </p> - <p> - It cost the United States government two hundred millions of dollars that - year to pay the army required to guard the Legrees and their “loyal” men - while they were thus establishing and maintaining “a republican form of - government” in the South. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XVII—THE SECOND REIGN OF TERROR - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>T was the bluest - Monday the Rev. John Durham ever remembered in his ministry. A long - drought had parched the corn into twisted and stunted little stalks that - looked as though they had been burnt in a prairie fire. The fly had - destroyed the wheat crop and the cotton was dying in the blistering sun of - August, and a blight worse than drought, or flood, or pestilence, brooded - over the stricken land, flinging the shadow of its Black Death over every - home. The tax gatherer of the new “republican form of government,” - recently established in North Carolina now demanded his pound of flesh. - </p> - <p> - The Sunday before had been a peculiarly hard one for the Preacher. He had - tried by the sheer power of personal sympathy to lift the despairing - people out of their gloom and make strong their faith in God. In his - morning sermon he had torn his heart open and given them its red blood to - drink. At the night service he could not rally from the nerve tension of - the morning. He felt that he had pitiably failed. The whole day seemed a - failure black and hopeless. - </p> - <p> - All day long the sorrowful stories of ruin and loss of homes were poured - into his ear. - </p> - <p> - The Sheriff had advertised for sale for taxes two thousand three hundred - and twenty homes in Campbell county. The land under such conditions had no - value. - </p> - <p> - It was only a formality for the auctioneer to cry it and knock it down for - the amount of the tax bill. - </p> - <p> - As he arose from bed with the burden of all this hopeless misery crushing - his soul, a sense of utter exhaustion and loneliness came over him. - </p> - <p> - “My love, I must go back to bed and try to sleep. I lay awake last night - until two o’clock. I can’t eat anything,” he said to his wife as she - announced breakfast. - </p> - <p> - “John, dear, don’t give up like that.” - </p> - <p> - “Can’t help it.” - </p> - <p> - “But you must. Come, here is something that will tone you up. I found this - note under the front door this morning.” - </p> - <p> - “What is it?” - </p> - <p> - “A notice from some of your admirers that you must leave this county in - forty-eight hours or take the consequences.” - </p> - <p> - He looked at this anonymous letter and smiled. - </p> - <p> - “Not such a failure after all, am I?” he mused. - </p> - <p> - “I thought that would help you,” she laughed. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I can eat breakfast on the strength of that.” - </p> - <p> - He spread this letter out beside his plate, and read and reread it as he - ate, while his eyes flashed with a strange half humourous light. - </p> - <p> - “Really, that’s fine, isn’t it?” - </p> - <p> - “You sower of sedition and rebellion, hypocrite and false prophet. The day - has come to clean this county of treason and traitors. If you dare to urge - the people to further resistance to authority, there will be one traitor - less in this county.” - </p> - <p> - “That sounds like the voice of a Daniel come to judgment, don’t it?” - </p> - <p> - “I think Ezra Perkins might know something about it.” - </p> - <p> - “I am sure of it.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I’m duly grateful, it’s done for you what your wife couldn’t do, - cheered you up this morning.” - </p> - <p> - “That is so, isn’t it? It takes a violent poison sometimes to stimulate - the heart’s action.” - </p> - <p> - “Now if you will work the garden for me, where I’ve been watering it the - past month, you will be yourself by dinner time.” - </p> - <p> - “I will. That’s about all we’ve got to eat. I’ve had no salary in two - months, and I’ve no prospects for the next two months.” - </p> - <p> - He was at work in the garden when Charlie Gaston suddenly ran through the - gate toward him. His face was red, his eyes streaming with tears, and his - breath coming in gasps. - </p> - <p> - “Doctor, they’ve killed Nelse! Mama says please come down to our house as - quick as you can.” - </p> - <p> - “Is he dead, Charlie?” - </p> - <p> - “He’s most dead. I found him down in the woods lying in a gully, one leg - is broken, there’s a big gash over his eye, his back is beat to a jelly, - and one of his arms is broken. We put him in the wagon, and hauled him to - the house. I’m afraid he’s dead now. Oh me!” The boy broke down and choked - with sobs. - </p> - <p> - “Run, Charlie, for the doctor, and I’ll be there in a minute.” - </p> - <p> - The boy flew through the gate to the doctor’s house. - </p> - <p> - When the Preacher reached Mrs. Gaston’s, Aunt Eve was wiping the blood - from Nelse’s mouth. - </p> - <p> - “De Lawd hab mussy! My po’ ole man’s done kilt.” - </p> - <p> - “Who could have done this, Eve?” - </p> - <p> - “Dem Union Leaguers. Dey say dey wuz gwine ter kill him fur not jinin’ ’em, - en fur tryin’ ter vote ergin ’em.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve been afraid of it,” sighed the Preacher as he felt Nelse’s pulse. - </p> - <p> - “Yassir, en now dey’s done hit. My po’ ole man. I wish I’d a been better - ter ’im. Lawd Jesus, help me now!” - </p> - <p> - Eve knelt by the bed and laid her face against Nelse’s while the tears - rained down her black face. - </p> - <p> - “Aunt Eve, it may not be so bad,” said the Preacher hopefully. “His pulse - is getting stronger. He has an iron constitution. I believe he will pull - through, if there are no internal injuries.” - </p> - <p> - “Praise God! ef he do git well, I tell yer now, Marse John, I fling er - spell on dem niggers bout dis!” - </p> - <p> - “I am afraid you can do nothing with them. The courts are all in the hands - of these scoundrels, and the Governor of the state is at the head of the - Leagues.” - </p> - <p> - “I doan want no cotes, Marse John, I’se cote ennuf. I kin cunjure dem - niggers widout any cote.” - </p> - <p> - The doctor pronounced his injuries dangerous but not necessarily fatal. - Charlie and Dick watched with Eve that night until nearly midnight. Nelse - opened his eyes, and saw the eager face of the boy, his eyes yet red from - crying. “I aint dead, honey!” he moaned. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Nelse, I’m so glad!” - </p> - <p> - “Doan you believe I gwine die! I gwine ter git eben wid dem niggers ’fore - I leab dis worl’.” - </p> - <p> - Nelse spoke feebly, but there was a way about his saying it that boded no - good to his enemies, and Eve was silent. As Nelse improved, Eve’s wrath - steadily rose. - </p> - <p> - The next day she met in the street one of the negroes who had threatened - Nelse. - </p> - <p> - “How’s Mistah Gaston dis mawnin’ M’am?” he asked. - </p> - <p> - Without a word of warning she sprang on him like a tigress, bore him to - the ground, grasped him by the throat and pounded his head against a - stone. She would have choked him to death, had not a man who was passing - come to the rescue. - </p> - <p> - “Lemme lone, man, I’se doin’ de wuk er God!” - </p> - <p> - “You’re committing murder, woman.” - </p> - <p> - When the negro got up he jumped the fence and tore down through a corn - field, as though pursued by a hundred devils, now and then glancing over - his shoulder to see if Eve were after him. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher tried in vain to bring the perpetrators of this outrage on - Nelse to justice. He identified six of them positively. They were - arrested, and when put on trial immediately discharged by the judge who - was himself a member of the League that had ordered Nelse whipped. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - Tom Camp’s daughter was now in her sixteenth year and as plump and winsome - a lassie, her Scotch mother declared, as the Lord ever made. She was - engaged to be married to Hose Norman, a gallant poor white from the high - hill country at the foot of the mountains. Hose came to see her every - Sunday riding a black mule, gaily trapped out in martingales with red - rings, double girths to his saddle and a flaming red tassel tied on each - side of the bridle. Tom was not altogether pleased with his future - son-in-law. He was too wild, went to too many frolics, danced too much, - drank too much whiskey and was too handy with a revolver. - </p> - <p> - “Annie, child, you’d better think twice before you step off with that - young buck,” Tom gravely warned his daughter as he stroked her fair hair - one Sunday morning while she waited for Hose to escort her to church. - </p> - <p> - “I have thought a hundred times, Paw, but what’s the use. I love him. He - can just twist me ’round his little finger. I’ve got to have him.” - </p> - <p> - “Tom Camp, you don’t want to forget you were not a saint when I stood up - with you one day,” cried his wife with a twinkle in her eye. - </p> - <p> - “That’s a fact, ole woman,” grinned Tom. - </p> - <p> - “You never give me a day’s trouble after I got hold of you. Sometimes the - wildest colts make the safest horses.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, that’s so. It’s owing to who has the breaking of ’em,” - thoughtfully answered Tom. - </p> - <p> - “I like Hose. He’s full of fun, but he’ll settle down and make her a good - husband.” - </p> - <p> - The girl slipped close to her mother and squeezed her hand. - </p> - <p> - “Do you love him much, child?” asked her father. - </p> - <p> - “Well enough to live and scrub and work for him and to die for him, I - reckon.” - </p> - <p> - “All right, that settles it, you’re too many for me, you and Hose and your - Maw. Get ready for it quick. We’ll have the weddin’ Wednesday night. This - home is goin’ to be sold Thursday for taxes and it will be our last night - under our own roof. We’ll make the best of it.” - </p> - <p> - It was so fixed. On Wednesday night Hose came down from the foothills with - three kindred spirits, and an old fiddler to make the music. He wanted to - have a dance and plenty of liquor fresh from the mountain-dew district. - But Tom put his foot down on it. - </p> - <p> - “No dancin’ in my house, Hose, and no licker,” said Tom with emphasis. - “I’m a deacon in the Baptist church. I used to be young and as good - lookin’ as you, my boy, but I’ve done with them things. You’re goin’ to - take my little gal now. I want you to quit your foolishness and be a man.” - </p> - <p> - “I will, Tom, I will. She is the prettiest sweetest little thing in this - world, and to tell you the truth I’m goin’ to settle right down now to the - hardest work I ever did in my life.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s the way to talk, my boy,” said Tom putting his hand on Hose’s - shoulder. “You’ll have enough to do these hard times to make a livin’.” - </p> - <p> - They made a handsome picture, in that humble home, as they stood there - before the Preacher. The young bride was trembling from head to foot with - fright. Hose was trying to look grave and dignified and grinning in spite - of himself whenever he looked into the face of his blushing mate. The - mother was standing near, her face full of pride in her daughter’s beauty - and happiness, her heart all a quiver with the memories of her own wedding - day seventeen years before. Tom was thinking of the morrow when he would - be turned out of his home and his eyes filled with tears. - </p> - <p> - The Rev. John Durham had pronounced them man and wife and hurried away to - see some people who were sick. The old fiddler was doing his best. Hose - and his bride were shaking hands with their friends, and the boys were - trying to tease the bridegroom with hoary old jokes. - </p> - <p> - Suddenly a black shadow fell across the doorway. The fiddle ceased, and - every eye was turned to the door. The burly figure of a big negro trooper - from a company stationed in the town stood before them. His face was in a - broad grin, and his eyes bloodshot with whiskey. He brought his musket - down on the floor with a bang. - </p> - <p> - “My frien’s, I’se sorry ter disturb yer but I has orders ter search dis - house.” - </p> - <p> - “Show your orders,” said Tom hobbling before him. - </p> - <p> - “Well, deres one un ’em!” he said still grinning as he cocked his - gun and presented it toward Tom. “En ef dat aint ennuf dey’s fifteen mo’ - stanin’ ’roun’ dis house. It’s no use ter make er fuss. Come on, - boys!” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0147.jpg" alt="0147 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0147.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - Before Tom could utter another word of protest six more negro troopers - laughing and nudging one another crowded into the room. Suddenly one of - them threw a bucket of water in the fire place where a pine knot blazed - and two others knocked out the candles. - </p> - <p> - There was a scuffle, the quick thud of heavy blows, and Hose Norman fell - to the floor senseless. A piercing scream rang from his bride as she was - seized in the arms of the negro who first appeared. He rapidly bore her - toward the door surrounded by the six scoundrels who had accompanied him. - </p> - <p> - “My God, save her! They are draggin’ Annie out of the house,” shrieked her - mother. - </p> - <p> - “Help! Help! Lord have mercy!” screamed the girl as they bore her away - toward the woods, still laughing and yelling. - </p> - <p> - Tom overtook one of them, snatched his wooden leg off, and knocked him - down. Hose’s mountain boys were crowding round Tom with their pistols in - their hands. - </p> - <p> - “What shall we do, Tom? If we shoot we may kill Annie.” - </p> - <p> - “Shoot, men! My God, shoot! There are things worse than death!” - </p> - <p> - They needed no urging. Like young tigers they sprang across the orchard - toward the woods whence came the sound of the laughter of the negroes. - </p> - <p> - “Stop de screechin’!” cried the leader. - </p> - <p> - “She nebber get dat gag out now.” - </p> - <p> - “Too smart fur de po’ white trash dis time sho’!” laughed one. - </p> - <p> - Three pistol shots rang out like a single report! Three more! and three - more! There was a wild scramble. Taken completely by surprise, the negroes - fled in confusion. Four lay on the ground. Two were dead, one mortally - wounded and three more had crawled away with bullets in their bodies. - There in the midst of the heap lay the unconscious girl gagged. - </p> - <p> - “Is she hurt?” cried a mountain boy. - </p> - <p> - “Can’t tell, take her to the house quick.” - </p> - <p> - They laid her across the bed in the room that had been made sweet and tidy - for the bride and groom. The mother bent over her quickly with a light. - Just where the blue veins crossed in her delicate temple there was a round - hole from which a scarlet stream was running down her white throat. - </p> - <p> - Without a word the mother brought Tom, showed it to him, and then fell - into his arms and burst into a flood of tears. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t, don’t cry so Annie! It might have been worse. Let us thank God she - was saved from them brutes.” - </p> - <p> - Hose’s friends crowded round Tom now with tear-stained faces. - </p> - <p> - “Tom, you don’t know how broke up we all are over this. Poor child, we did - the best we could.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s all right, boys. You’ve been my friends to-night. You’ve saved my - little gal. I want to shake hands with you and thank you. If you hadn’t - been here—My God, I can’t think of what would ’a happened! - Now it’s all right. She’s safe in God’s hands.” - </p> - <p> - The next morning when Tom Camp called at the parsonage to see the Preacher - and arrange for the funeral of his daughter he found him in bed. - </p> - <p> - “Dr. Durham is quite sick, Mr. Camp, but he’ll see you,” said Mrs. Durham. - </p> - <p> - “Thank you, M’am.” - </p> - <p> - She took the old soldier by the hand and her voice choked as she said, - “You have my heart’s deepest sympathy in your awful sorrow.” - </p> - <p> - “It’ll be all for the best, M’am. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken - away. I will still say, Blessed is the name of the Lord!” - </p> - <p> - “I wish I had such faith.” She led Tom into the room where the Preacher - lay. - </p> - <p> - “Why, what’s this, Preacher? A bandage over your eye, looks like somebody - knocked you in the head?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, Tom, but it’s nothing. I’ll be all right by tomorrow. You needn’t - tell me anything that happened at your house. I’ve heard the black - hell-lit news. It will be all over this county by night and the town will - be full of grim-visaged men before many hours. Your child has not died in - vain. A few things like this will be the trumpet of the God of our fathers - that will call the sleeping manhood of the Anglo-Saxon race to life again. - I must be up and about this afternoon to keep down the storm. It is not - time for it to break.” - </p> - <p> - “But, Preacher, what happened to you?” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! nothing much, Tom.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll tell you what happened,” cried Mrs. Durham standing erect with her - great dark eyes flashing with anger. - </p> - <p> - “As he came home last night from a visit to the sick, he was ambushed by a - gang of negroes led by a white scoundrel, knocked down, bound and gagged - and placed on a pile of dry fence rails. They set fire to the pile and - left him to burn to death. It attracted the attention of Doctor Graham who - was passing. He got to him in time to save him.” - </p> - <p> - “You don’t say so!” - </p> - <p> - “I’m sorry, Tom, I’m so weak this morning I couldn’t come to see you. I - know your poor wife is heartbroken.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, sir, she is, and it cuts me to the quick when I think that I gave - the orders to the boys to shoot. But, Preacher, I’d a killed her with my - own hand if I couldn’t a saved her no other way. I’d do it over again a - thousand times if I had to.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t blame you, I’d have done the same thing. I can’t come to see you - to-day, Tom, I’ll be down to your house to-morrow a few minutes before we - start for the cemetery. I must get up for dinner and prevent the men from - attacking these troops. They’ll not dare to try to sell your place to-day. - The public square is full of men now, and it’s only nine o’clock. You go - home and cheer up your wife. How is Hose?” - </p> - <p> - “He’s still in bed. The Doctor says his skull is broken in one place, but - he’ll be over it in a few weeks.” - </p> - <p> - Tom hobbled back to his house, shaking hands with scores of silent men on - the way. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher crawled to his desk and wrote this note to the young officer - in command of the post, - </p> - <p> - <i>My Dear Captain,</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>In the interest of peace and order I would advise you to telegraph to - Independence for two companies of white regulars to come immediately on a - special, and that you start your negro troops on double quick marching - order to meet them. There will be a thousand armed men in Hambright by - sundown, and no power on earth can prevent the extermination of that negro - company if they attack them. I will do my best to prevent further - bloodshed but I can do nothing if these troops remain here to-day. - Respectfully,</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>John Durham.</i> - </p> - <p> - The Commandant acted on the advice immediately. - </p> - <p> - It was the week following before the sales began. There was no help for - it. The town and the county were doomed to a ruin more complete and - terrible than the four years of war had brought. Independence had been - saved by a skillful movement of General Worth, who sought an interview - with Legree when his council first issued their levy of thirty per cent - for municipal purposes. - </p> - <p> - “Mr. Legree, let’s understand one another,” said the General. - </p> - <p> - “All right, I’m a man of reason.” - </p> - <p> - “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush!” - </p> - <p> - “Every time, General.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, call off your dogs, and rescind your order for a thirty per cent - tax levy, and I’ll raise $30,000 in cash and pay it to you in two days.” - </p> - <p> - “Make it $50,000 and it’s a bargain.” - </p> - <p> - “Agreed.” - </p> - <p> - The General raised twenty thousand in the city, went North and borrowed - the remaining thirty thousand. - </p> - <p> - Legree and his brigands received this ransom and moved on to the next - town. - </p> - <p> - Poor Hambright was but a scrawny little village on a red hill with no big - values to be saved, and no mills to interest the commercial world, and the - auctioneer lifted his hammer. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XVIII—THE RED FLAG OF THE AUCTIONEER - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE excitement - through which Tom Camp had passed in the death of his daughter, and the - stirring events connected with it, had been more than his feeble body - could endure. He had been stricken with paroxysms of pain and nausea from - his old wounds. For three days and nights he had suffered unspeakable - agonies. He had borne his pain with stoical indifference. - </p> - <p> - “Tom, old man, do look at me! You skeer me,” said his wife leaning - tenderly over him. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! I’m all right, Annie.” - </p> - <p> - “What was you studyin’ about then?” - </p> - <p> - “I was just a thinkin’ we didn’t kill babies in the war. Them was awful - times, but they wuz nothin’ to what we’re goin’ through now. The Lord - knows best, but I can’t understand it.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, don’t talk any more. You’re too weak.” - </p> - <p> - “I must git up, Annie. Got to git out anyhow. The Sheriff’s goin’ to sell - us out to-day, and I want to sorter look ’round once before we go.” - </p> - <p> - So, leaning on his wife’s arm, he hobbled around the place saying good-bye - to its familiar objects. They stopped before the garden gate. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t go in there, Tom, I can’t stand it,” cried his wife. “When I think - of leavin’ that garden I’ve worked so hard on all these years, and that’s - give us so many good things to eat, and never failed us the year round, I - just feel like it’ll tear my heart out.” - </p> - <p> - “Do you mind the day we set out these trees, Annie, an’ you, my own purty - gal holdin’ ’em fur me while I packed the dirt around ’em, - and told you how sweet you wuz?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and I love every twig of ’em. They’ve all helped me in times - of need. Oh! Lord, it’s hard to give it up!” She couldn’t keep back the - tears. - </p> - <p> - “Well, now, ole woman, you mustn’t break down. You’re strong and well and - I’m all shot to pieces and crippled and no ’count. But the Lord - still lives. We’ll get this place back. The Lord’s just trying our faith. - He thinks mebbe I’ll give up.” - </p> - <p> - “You think we can ever get it back?” - </p> - <p> - “General Worth sent me word he couldn’t do anything now, but to let it go - and keep a stiff upper lip. The General ain’t no fool.” - </p> - <p> - “Surely the Lord can’t let us starve.” - </p> - <p> - “Starve! I reckon not! The foxes have holes, the birds of the air nests, - but the Son of Man had not where to lay His head, but He never starved. - No, God’s in Heaven. I’ll trust Him.” - </p> - <p> - A mocking bird whose mate had just built her nest to rear a second brood - for the season was seated on the topmost branch of a cedar near the house, - and singing as though he would fill heaven and earth with the glory of his - love. - </p> - <p> - “Just listen at that bird, Tom!” whispered his wife. “He does sing sweet, - don’t he?” - </p> - <p> - “Oh dear, oh dear, how can I give it all up! I’ve fed that bird and his - mate for years. He knows my voice. I can call him down out of that tree. - Many a night when you were away in the war he sat close to my window and - sang softly to me all night. When I’d wake, I’d hear him singin’ low like - he was afraid he’d wake somebody. I’d sit down there by the window and cry - for you and dream of your comin’ home till he’d sing me to sleep in the - chair. And now we’ve got to leave him. Oh Lord, my heart is broken! I - can’t see the way!” - </p> - <p> - She buried her face on Tom’s shoulder and shook with sobs. - </p> - <p> - “Hush, hush, honey, we must face trouble. We are used to it.” - </p> - <p> - “But not this, Tom. It’ll tear my heart out when I have to leave.” - </p> - <p> - “It can’t be helped, Annie. We’ve got to pay for this nigger government.” - </p> - <p> - Eleven o’clock was the hour fixed for the sale. At half past ten a crowd - of negroes had gathered. There were only two or three white men present, - the Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau and some of his henchmen. - </p> - <p> - They began to inspect the place. Tim Shelby was present, dressed in a suit - of broadcloth and a silk hat placed jauntily on his close-cropped scalp. - </p> - <p> - “That’s a fine orchard, gentlemen,” Tim exclaimed. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, en dats er fine gyarden,” said a negro standing near. - </p> - <p> - “Let’s look at the house,” said Tim starting to the door. - </p> - <p> - Tom stood up in the doorway with a musket in his hand, “Put your foot on - that doorstep and I’ll blow your brains out, you flat-nosed baboon!” - </p> - <p> - Tim paused and bowed with a smile. - </p> - <p> - “Ain’t the premises for sale, Mr. Camp?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but my family ain’t for inspection by niggers.” - </p> - <p> - “Just wanted to see the condition of the house, sir,” said Tim still - smiling. - </p> - <p> - “Well, I’m livin’ here yet, and don’t you forget it,” answered Tom with - quiet emphasis. Tim walked away laughing. - </p> - <p> - Tom stepped out of the house, and with his wooden leg marked a dead line - around the house about ten feet from each corner. To the crowd that stood - near he said in a clear ringing voice as he stood up in the doorway. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0158.jpg" alt="0158 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0158.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - “I’ll kill the first nigger that crosses that line.” - </p> - <p> - There was no attempt to cross it. They did not like the look of Tom’s face - as he sat there pale and silent. And they could hear the sobs of his wife - inside. - </p> - <p> - The sale was a brief formality. There was but one bidder, the Honourable - Tim Shelby. It was knocked down to Tim for the sum of eighty-five dollars, - the exact amount of the tax levy which Legree and his brigands had fixed. - </p> - <p> - Tim was not buying on his own account. He was the purchasing agent of the - subsidiary ring which Legree had organised to hold the real estate - forfeited for taxes until a rise in value would bring them millions of - profit. They had stolen from the state Treasury the money to capitalise - this company. Where it was possible to exact a cash ransom, they always - took it and cancelled the tax order, preferring the certainty of good gold - in their pockets to the uncertainties of politics. - </p> - <p> - They tried their best to get a cash ransom of ten thousand dollars for the - town of Hambright. But the ruined people could not raise a thousand. So - Tim Shelby as the agent of the “Union Land and Improvement Company,” - became the owner of farm after farm and home after home. - </p> - <p> - It was a vain hope that relief could come from any quarter. The red flag - of the Sheriff’s auctioneer fluttered from two thousand three hundred and - twenty doors in the county. This was over two-thirds of the total. - </p> - <p> - Those who were saved, just escaped by the skin of their teeth. They sold - old jewelry or plate that had been hidden in the war, or they sold their - corn and provisions, trusting to their ability to live on dried fruit, - berries, walnuts, hickory nuts, and such winter vegetables as they could - raise in their gardens. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher secured for Tom a tumbled-down log cabin on the outskirts of - town, with a half-acre of poor red hill land around it, which his wife at - once transformed into a garden. She took up the bulbs and flowers that she - had tended so lovingly about the door of their old home, and planted them - with tears around this desolate cabin. Now and then she would look down at - the work and cry. Then she would go bravely back to it. As nobody occupied - her old home, she went back and forth until she moved all the jonquils and - sweet pinks from the borders of the garden walk, and reset them in the new - garden. She moved then her strawberries and rapsberries, and gooseberries, - and set her fall cabbage plants. In three weeks she had transformed a - desolate red clay lot into a smiling garden. She had watered every plant - daily, and Tom had watched her with growing wonder and love. - </p> - <p> - “Ole woman, you’re an angel!” he cried, “if God had sent one down from the - skies she couldn’t have done any more.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - The problem which pressed heaviest of all on the Preacher’s heart in this - crisis was how to save Mrs. Gaston’s home. - </p> - <p> - “If that place is sold next week, my dear,” he said to his wife, “she will - never survive.” - </p> - <p> - “I know it. She is sinking every day. It breaks my heart to look at her.” - </p> - <p> - “What can we do?” - </p> - <p> - “I’m sure I can’t tell. We’ve given everything we have on earth except the - clothes on our back. I haven’t another piece of jewelry, or even an old - dress.” - </p> - <p> - “The tax and the costs may amount to a hundred and seventy-five dollars. - There isn’t a man in this county who has that much money, or I’d borrow it - if I had to mortgage my body and soul to do it.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll tell you what you might do,” his wife suddenly exclaimed. “Telegraph - your old college mate in Boston that you will accept his invitation to - supply his pulpit those last two Sundays in August. They will pay you - handsomely.” - </p> - <p> - “It may be possible, but where am I to get the money for a telegram and a - ticket?” - </p> - <p> - “Surely you can borrow some here!” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t know a man in the county who has it.” - </p> - <p> - “Then go to the young Commandant of the post here. Tell him the facts. - Tell him that a widow of a brave Confederate soldier is about to be turned - out of her home because she can’t pay the taxes levied by this infamous - negro government. Ask him to loan you the money for the telegram and the - ticket.” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher seized his hat and made his way as fast as possible to the - camp. The young Captain heard his story with grave courtesy. - </p> - <p> - “Certainly, doctor,” he said, “I’ll loan you the forty dollars with - pleasure. I wish I could do more to relieve the distress of the people. - Believe me, sir, the people of the North do not dream of the awful - conditions of the South. They are being fooled by the politicians. I’ll - thank God when I am relieved of this job and get home. What has amazed me - is that you hot-headed Southern people have stood it thus far. I don’t - know a Northern community that would have endured it.” - </p> - <p> - “Ah, Captain, the people are heartsick of bloodshed, They surrendered in - good faith. They couldn’t foresee this. If they had”— - </p> - <p> - The Preacher paused, his eyes grew misty with tears, and he looked - thoughtfully out on the blue mountain peaks that loomed range after range - in the distance until the last bald tops were lost in the clouds. - </p> - <p> - “If General Lee had dreamed of such an infamy being forced on the South - two years after his surrender, as this attempt to make the old slaves the - rulers of their masters, and to destroy the Anglo-Saxon civilisation of - the South—he would have withdrawn his armies into that Appalachian - mountain wild and fought till every white man in the South was - exterminated. - </p> - <p> - “The Confederacy went to pieces in a day, not because the South could no - longer fight, but because they were fighting the flag of their fathers, - and they were tired of it. They went back to the old flag. They expected - to lose their slaves and repudiate the dogma of Secession forever. But, - they never dreamed of Negro dominion, or Negro deification, of Negro - equality and amalgamation, now being rammed down their throats with - bayonets. They never dreamed of the confiscation of the desolate homes of - the poor and the weak and the brokenhearted. Over two hundred thousand - Southern men fought in the Union army in answer to Lincoln’s call—even - against their own flesh and blood. But if this program had been announced, - every one of the two hundred thousand Southern soldiers who wore the blue, - would have rallied around the firesides of the South. This infamy was - something undreamed save in the souls of a few desperate schemers at - Washington who waited their opportunity, and found it in the nation’s - blind agony over the death of a martyred leader.” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher pressed the Captain’s hand and hastened to tell Mrs. Gaston - of his plans. He found her seated pale and wistful at her window looking - out on the lawn, now being parched and ruined since Nelse was disabled and - could no longer tend it. - </p> - <p> - Charlie was trying to kiss the tears away from her eyes. - </p> - <p> - “Mama dear, you mustn’t cry any more!” - </p> - <p> - “I can’t help it, darling.” - </p> - <p> - “They can’t take our home away from us. I tore the sign down they nailed - on the door, and Dick burned it up!” - </p> - <p> - “But they will do it, Charlie. The Sheriff will sell it at auction next - week, and we will never have a home of our own again.” - </p> - <p> - Charlie bounded to the door and showed the Preacher in. - </p> - <p> - “I have good news for you, Mrs. Gaston! I start to Boston to-night to - preach two Sundays. I am going to try to borrow the money there to save - your home. We will not be too sure till it’s done, but you must cheer up!” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! doctor, you’re giving me a new lease on life!” she cried, looking up - at him through tears of gratitude. - </p> - <p> - That night the Preacher hurried on his way to Boston. - </p> - <p> - The days dragged slowly one after another, and still no word came to the - anxious waiting woman. It was only two days now until the day fixed for - the sale. - </p> - <p> - She asked the Sheriff to come to see her. He was a brutal illiterate - henchman of Legree, who had been appointed to the office to do his - bidding. He was a brother of the immortal “Hog” Scoggins, who had - represented an adjoining county in the Legislature. - </p> - <p> - “Mr. Scoggins, I’ve sent for you to ask you to postpone the sale until Dr. - Durham returns from Boston. I expect to get the money from him to pay the - tax bill.” - </p> - <p> - “Can’t do it, M’um. They’s er lot er folks comin’ ter bid on the place.” - </p> - <p> - “But I tell you I’m going to pay the tax bill.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, M’um, hit’ll have ter be paid afore the time sot, er I’ll be - erbleeged to sell.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m sure Dr. Durham will get the money.” - </p> - <p> - “Ef he does, hit ’ll be the fust time hit’s happened in this county - sence the sales begun.” - </p> - <p> - In vain she waited for a letter or a telegram from Boston. Charlie went - faithfully asking Dave Haley, the postmaster, two or three times on the - arrival of each mail. - </p> - <p> - “I tell ye there’s nothin’ fur ye!” he yelled as he glared at the boy. “Ef - ye don’t go way from that winder, I’ll pitch ye out the door!” - </p> - <p> - The scoundrel had recognised the letter in Dr. Durham’s handwriting and - had hidden it, suspecting its contents. - </p> - <p> - When the day came for the sale Mrs. Gaston tried to face the trial - bravely. But it was too much for her. When she saw a great herd of negroes - trampling down her flowers, laughing, cracking vulgar jokes, and swarming - over the porches, she sank feebly into her chair, buried her face in her - hands and gave way to a passionate flood of tears. She was roused by the - thumping of heavy feet in the hall, and the unmistakable odour of - perspiring negroes. They had begun to ransack the house on tours of - inspection. The poor woman’s head drooped and she fell to the floor in a - dead swoon. - </p> - <p> - There was a sudden charge as of an armed host, the sound of blows, a wild - scramble, and the house was cleared. Aunt Eve with a fire shovel, Charlie - with a broken hoe handle, and Dick with a big black snake whip had cleared - the air. - </p> - <p> - Aunt Eve stood on the front door-step shaking the shovel at the crowd. - </p> - <p> - “Des put yo big flat hoofs in dis house ergin! I’ll split yo heads wide - open! You black cattle!” - </p> - <p> - “Dat we will!” railed Dick as he cracked the whip at a little negro - passing. - </p> - <p> - Charlie ran into his mother’s room to see what she was doing, and found - her lying across the floor on her face. - </p> - <p> - “Aunt Eve, come quick, Mama’s dying!” he shouted. - </p> - <p> - They lifted her to the bed, and Dick ran for the doctor. - </p> - <p> - Dr. Graham looked very grave when he had completed his examination. - </p> - <p> - “Come here, my boy, I must tell you some sad news.” - </p> - <p> - Charlie’s big brown eyes glanced up with a startled look into the doctor’s - face. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t tell me she’s dying, doctor, I can’t stand it.” - </p> - <p> - The doctor took his hand. “You’re getting to be a man now, my son, you - will soon be thirteen. You must be brave. Your mother will not live - through the night.” - </p> - <p> - The boy sank on his knees beside the still white figure, tenderly clasped - her thin hand in his, and began to kiss it slowly. He would kiss it, lay - his wet cheek against it, and try to warm it with his hot young blood. - </p> - <p> - It was about nine o’clock when she opened her eyes with a smile and looked - into his face. - </p> - <p> - “My sweet boy,” she whispered. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Mama, do try to live! Don’t leave me,” he sobbed in quivering tones - as he leaned over and kissed her lips. She smiled faintly again. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I must go, dear. I am tired. Your papa is waiting for me. I see him - smiling and beckoning to me now. I must go.” - </p> - <p> - A sob shook the boy with an agony no words could frame. - </p> - <p> - “There, there, dear, don’t,” she soothingly said, “you will grow to be a - brave strong man. You will fight this battle out, and win back our home - and bring your own bride here in the far away days of sunshine and success - I see for you. She will love you, and the flowers will blossom on the lawn - again. But I am tired. Kiss me—I must go.” - </p> - <p> - Her heart fluttered on for a while, but she never spoke again. - </p> - <p> - At ten o’clock Mrs. Durham tenderly lifted the boy from the bedside, - kissed him, and said as she led him to his room, “She’s done with - suffering, Charlie. You are going to live with me now, and let me love you - and be your mother.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - The Preacher had made a profound impression on his Boston congregation. - </p> - <p> - They were charmed by his simple direct appeal to the heart. His fiery - emphasis, impassioned dogmatic faith, his tenderness and the strange - pathos of his voice swept them off their feet. At night the big church was - crowded to the doors, and throngs were struggling in vain to gain - admittance. At the close of the services he was overwhelmed with the - expressions of gratitude and heartfelt sympathy with which they thanked - him for his messages. - </p> - <p> - He was feasted and dined and taken out into the parks behind spanking - teams, until his head was dizzy with the unaccustomed whirl. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher went through it all with a heavy heart. Those beautiful homes - with their rich carpets, handsome furniture, and those long lines of - beautiful carriages in the parks, made a contrast with the agony of - universal ruin which he left at home that crushed his soul. - </p> - <p> - He hastened to tell the story of Mrs. Gaston to a genial old merchant who - had taken a great fancy to him. - </p> - <p> - A tear glistened in the old man’s eye as he quickly rose. - </p> - <p> - “Come right down to my store. I’ll get you a money order before the - post-office closes. I’ve got tickets for you to go to the Coliseum with me - to-night and hear the music!—the great Peace Jubilee. We are - celebrating the return of peace and prosperity, and the preservation of - the Union. It’s the greatest musical festival the world ever saw.” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher was dazed with the sense of its sublimity and the pathetic - tragedy of the South that lay back of its joy. - </p> - <p> - The great Coliseum, constructed for the purpose, seated over forty - thousand people. Such a crowd he had never seen gathered together within - one building. The soul of the orator in him leaped with divine power as he - glanced over the swaying ocean of human faces. There were twelve thousand - trained voices in the chorus. He had dreamed of such music in Heaven when - countless hosts of angels should gather around God’s throne. He had never - expected to hear it on this earth. He was transported with a rapture that - thrilled and lifted him above the consciousness of time and sense. - </p> - <p> - They rendered the masterpieces of all the ages. The music continued hour - after hour, day after day, and night after night. - </p> - <p> - The grand chorus within the Coliseum was accompanied by the ringing of - bells in the city, and the firing of cannon on the common, discharged in - perfect time with the melody that rolled upward from those twelve thousand - voices and broke against the gates of Heaven! When every voice was in full - cry, and every instrument of music that man had ever devised, throbbed in - harmony, and a hundred anvils were ringing a chorus of steel in perfect - time, Parepa Rosa stepped forward on the great stage, and in a voice that - rang its splendid note of triumph over all like the trumpet of the - archangel, sang the Star Spangled Banner! - </p> - <p> - Men and women fainted, and one woman died, unable to endure the strain. - The Preacher turned his head away and looked out of the window. A soft - wind was blowing from the South. On its wings were borne to his heart the - cry of the widow and orphan, the hungry and the dying still being trampled - to death by a war more terrible than the first, because it was waged - against the unarmed, women and children, the wounded, the starving and the - defenceless! He tried in vain to keep back the tears. Bending low, he put - his face in his hands and cried like a child. - </p> - <p> - “God forgive them! They know not what they do!” he moaned. - </p> - <p> - The kindly old man by his side said nothing, supposing he was overcome by - the grandeur of the music. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XIX—THE RALLY OF THE CLANSMEN - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN the Preacher - took the train in Boston for the South, his friendly merchant, a deacon, - was by his side. - </p> - <p> - “Now, you put my name and address down in your note book, William Crane. - And don’t forget about us.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll never forget you, deacon.” - </p> - <p> - “Say, I just as well tell you,” whispered the deacon bending close, “we - are not going to allow you to stay down South. We’ll be down after you - before long—just as well be packing up!” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher smiled, looked out of the car window, and made no reply. - </p> - <p> - “Well, good-bye, Doctor, good-bye. God bless you and your work and your - people! You’ve brought me a message warm from God’s heart. I’ll never - forget it.” - </p> - <p> - “Good-bye, deacon.” - </p> - <p> - As the train whirled southward through the rich populous towns and cities - of the North, again the sharp contrast with the desolation of his own land - cut him like a knife. He thought of Legree and Haley, Perkins and Tim - Shelby robbing widows and orphans and sweeping the poverty-stricken - Southland with riot, pillage, murder and brigandage, and posing as the - representatives of the conscience of the North. And his heart was heavy - with sorrow. - </p> - <p> - On reaching Hambright he was thunderstruck at the news of the sale of Mrs. - Gaston’s place and her tragic death. - </p> - <p> - “Why, my dear, I sent the money to her on the first Monday I spent in - Boston!” he declared to his wife. - </p> - <p> - “It never reached her.” - </p> - <p> - “Then Dave Haley, the dirty slave driver, has held that letter. I’ll see - to this.” He hurried to the postoffice. - </p> - <p> - “Mr. Haley,” he exclaimed, “I sent a money order letter to Mrs. Gaston - from Boston on Monday a week ago.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, sir,” answered Haley in his blandest manner, “it got here the day - after the sale.” - </p> - <p> - “You’re an infamous liar!” shouted the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - “Of course! Of course! All Union men are liars to hear rebel traitors - talk.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll report you to Washington for this rascality.” - </p> - <p> - “So do, so do. Mor’n likely the President and the Post-Office - Department’ll be glad to have this information from so great a man.” - </p> - <p> - As the Preacher was leaving the post-office he encountered the Hon. Tim - Shelby dressed in the height of fashion, his silk hat shining in the sun, - and his eyes rolling with the joy of living. The Preacher stepped squarely - in front of Tim. - </p> - <p> - “Tim Shelby, I hear you have moved into Mrs. Gaston’s home and are using - her furniture. By whose authority do you dare such insolence?” - </p> - <p> - “By authority of the law, sir. Mrs. Gaston died intestate. Her effects are - in the hands of our County Administrator, Mr. Ezra Perkins. I’ll be - pleased to receive you, sir, any time you would like to call!” said Tim - with a bow. - </p> - <p> - “I’ll call in due time,” replied the Preacher, looking Tim straight in the - eye. - </p> - <p> - Haley had been peeping through the window, watching and listening to this - encounter. - </p> - <p> - “These charmin’ preachers think they own this county, brother Shelby,” - laughed Haley as he grasped Tim’s outstretched hand. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, they are the curse of the state. I wish to God they had succeeded in - burning him alive that night the boys tried it. They’ll get him later on. - Brother Haley, he’s a dangerous man. He must be put out of the way, or - we’ll never have smooth sailing in this county.” - </p> - <p> - “I believe you’re right, he’s just been in here cussin’ me about that - letter of the widder’s that didn’t get to her in time. He thinks he can - run the post-office.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, we’ll show him this county’s in the hands of the loyal!” added Tim. - </p> - <p> - “Heard the news from Charleston?” - </p> - <p> - “Heard it? I guess I have. I talked with the commanding General in - Charleston two weeks ago. He told me then he was going to set aside that - decision of the Supreme Court in a ringing order permitting the marriage - of negroes to white women, and commanding its enforcement on every - military post. I see he’s done it in no uncertain words.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s a great day, brother, for the world. There’ll be no more colour - line.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, times have changed,” said Tim with a triumphant smile. “I guess our - white hot-bloods will sweat and bluster and swear a little when they read - that order. But we’ve got the bayonets to enforce it. They’d just as well - cool down.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s the stuff,” said Haley, taking a fresh chew of tobacco. - </p> - <p> - “Let ’em squirm. They’re flat on their backs. We are on top, and we - are going to stay on top. I expect to lead a fair white bride into my - house before another year and have poor white aristocrats to tend my - lawn.” Tim worked his ears and looked up at the ceiling in a dreamy sort - of way. - </p> - <p> - “That’ll be a sight won’t it!” exclaimed Haley with delight. “Where’s that - scoundrel Nelse that lived with Mrs. Gaston?” - </p> - <p> - “Oh, we fixed him,” said Tim. “The black rascal wouldn’t join the League, - and wouldn’t vote with his people, and still showed fight after we beat - him half to death, so we put a levy of fifty dollars on his cabin, sold - him out, and every piece of furniture, and every rag of clothes we could - get hold of. He’ll leave the country now, or we’ll kill him next time.” - </p> - <p> - “You ought to a killed him the first time, and then the job would ha’ been - over.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh, we’ll have the country in good shape in a little while, and don’t you - forget it.” - </p> - <p> - The news of the order of the military commandant of “District No. 2,” - comprising the Carolinas, abrogating the decisions of the North Carolina - Supreme Court, forbidding the intermarriage of negroes and whites, fell - like a bombshell on Campbell county. The people had not believed that the - military authorities would dare go to the length of attempting to force - social equality. - </p> - <p> - This order from Charleston was not only explicit, its language was - peculiarly emphatic. It apparently commanded intermarriage, and ordered - the military to enforce the command at the point of the bayonet. - </p> - <p> - The feelings of the people were wrought to the pitch of fury. It needed - but a word from a daring leader, and a massacre, of every negro, scalawag - and carpet-bagger in the county might have followed. The Rev. John Durham - was busy day and night seeking to allay excitement and prevent an uprising - of the white population. - </p> - <p> - Along with the announcement of this military order, came the startling - news that Simon Legree, whose infamy was known from end to end of the - state, was to be the next Governor, and that the Hon. Tim Shelby was a - candidate for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. - </p> - <p> - Legree was in Washington at the time on a mission to secure a stand of - twenty thousand rifles from the Secretary of War, with which to arm the - negro troops he was drilling for the approaching election. The grant was - made and Legree came back in triumph with his rifles. - </p> - <p> - Relief for the ruined people was now a hopeless dream. Black despair was - clutching at every white man’s heart. The taxpayers had held a convention - and sent their representatives to Washington exposing the monstrous thefts - that were being committed under the authority of the government by the - organised band of thieves who were looting the state. But the thieves were - the pets of politicians high in power. The committee of taxpayers were - insulted and sent home to pay their taxes. - </p> - <p> - And then a thing happened in Hambright that brought matters to a sudden - crisis. - </p> - <p> - The Hon. Tim Shelby as school commissioner, had printed the notices for an - examination of school teachers for Campbell county. An enormous tax had - been levied and collected by the county for this purpose, but no school - had been opened. Tim announced, however, that the school would be surely - opened the first Monday in October. - </p> - <p> - Miss Mollie Graham, the pretty niece of the old doctor, was struggling to - support a blind mother and four younger children. Her father and brother - had been killed in the war. Their house had been sold for taxes, and they - were required now to pay Tim Shelby ten dollars a month for rent. When she - saw that school notice her heart gave a leap. If she could only get the - place, it would save them from beggary. - </p> - <p> - She fairly ran to the Preacher to get his advice. - </p> - <p> - “Certainly, child, try for it. It’s humiliating to ask such a favour of - that black ape, but if you can save your loved ones, do it.” - </p> - <p> - So with trembling hand she knocked at Tim’s door. He required all - applicants to apply personally at his house. Tim met her with the bows and - smirks of a dancing master. - </p> - <p> - “Delighted to see your pretty face this morning, Miss Graham,” he cried - enthusiastically. - </p> - <p> - The girl blushed and hesitated at the door. - </p> - <p> - “Just walk right in the parlour, I’ll join you in a moment.” - </p> - <p> - She bravely set her lips and entered. - </p> - <p> - “And now what can I do for you, Miss Graham?” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve come to apply for a teacher’s place in the school.” - </p> - <p> - “Ah indeed, I’m glad to know that. There is only one difficulty. You must - be loyal. Your people were rebels, and the new government has determined - to have only loyal teachers.” - </p> - <p> - “I think I’m loyal enough to the old flag now that our people have - surrendered,” said the girl. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, yes, I dare say, but do you think you can accept the new régime of - government and society which we are now establishing in the South? We have - abolished the colour line. Would you have a mixed school if assigned one?” - </p> - <p> - “I think I’d prefer to teach a negro school outright to a mixed one,” she - said after a moment’s hesitation. - </p> - <p> - Tim continued, “You know we are living in a new world. The supreme law of - the land has broken down every barrier of race and we are henceforth to be - one people. The struggle for existence knows no race or colour. It’s a - struggle now for bread. I’m in a position to be of great help to you and - your family if you will only let me.” - </p> - <p> - The girl suddenly rose impelled by some resistless instinct. - </p> - <p> - “May I have the place then?” she asked approaching the door. - </p> - <p> - “Well, now you know it depends really altogether on my fancy. I’ll tell - you what I’ll do. You’re still full of silly prejudices. I can see that. - But if you will overcome them enough to do one thing for me as a test, - that will cost you nothing and of which the world will never be the wiser, - I’ll give you the place and more, I’ll remit the ten dollars a month rent - you’re now paying. Will you do it?” - </p> - <p> - “What is it?” the girl asked with pale quivering lips. - </p> - <p> - “Let me kiss you—once!” he whispered. - </p> - <p> - With a scream, she sprang past him out of the door, ran like a deer across - the lawn, and fell sobbing in her mother’s arms when she reached her home. - </p> - <p> - The next day the town was unusually quiet. Tim had business with the - Commandant of the company of regulars still quartered at Hambright. He - spent most of the day with him, and walked about the streets - ostentatiously showing his familiarity with the corporal who accompanied - him. A guard of three soldiers was stationed around Tim’s house for two - nights and then withdrawn. - </p> - <p> - The next night at twelve o’clock two hundred white-robed horses assembled - around the old home of Mrs. Gaston where Tim was sleeping. The moon was - full and flooded-the lawn with silver glory. On those horses sat two - hundred white-robed silent men whose closefitting hood disguises looked - like the mail helmets of ancient knights. - </p> - <p> - It was the work of a moment to seize Tim, and bind him across a horse’s - back. Slowly the grim procession moved to the court house square. - </p> - <p> - When the sun rose next morning the lifeless body of Tim Shelby was - dangling from a rope tied to the iron rail of the balcony of the court - house. His neck was broken and his body was hanging low—scarcely - three feet from the ground. His thick lips had been split with a sharp - knife and from his teeth hung this placard: - </p> - <p> - “<i>The answer of the Anglo-Saxon race to Negro lips that dare pollute - with words the womanhood of the South. K. K. K.</i>” - </p> - <p> - And the Ku Klux Klan was master of Campbell county. - </p> - <p> - The origin of this Law and Order League which sprang up like magic in a - night and nullified the programme of Congress though backed by an army of - a million veteran soldiers, is yet a mystery. - </p> - <p> - The simple truth is, it was a spontaneous and resistless racial uprising - of clansmen of highland origin living along the Appalachian mountains and - foothills of the South, and it appeared almost simultaneously in every - Southern state produced by the same terrible conditions. - </p> - <p> - It was the answer to their foes of a proud and indomitable race of men - driven to the wall. In the hour of their defeat they laid down their arms - and accepted in good faith the results of the war. And then, when unarmed - and defenceless, a group of pot-house politicians for political ends, - renewed the war, and attempted to wipe out the civilisation of the South. - </p> - <p> - This Invisible Empire of White Robed Anglo-Saxon Knights was simply the - old answer of organised manhood to organised crime. Its purpose was to - bring order out of chaos, protect the weak and defenceless, the widows and - orphans of brave men who had died for their country, to drive from power - the thieves who were robbing the people, redeem the commonwealth from - infamy, and reëstablish civilisation. - </p> - <p> - Within one week from its appearance, life and property were as safe as in - any Northern community. - </p> - <p> - When the negroes came home from their League meeting one night they ran - terror stricken past long rows of white horsemen. Not a word was spoken, - but that was the last meeting the “Union League of America” ever held in - Hambright. - </p> - <p> - Every negro found guilty of a misdemeanor was promptly thrashed and warned - against its recurrence. The sudden appearance of this host of white - cavalry grasping at their throats with the grip of cold steel struck the - heart of Legree and his followers with the chill of a deadly fear. - </p> - <p> - It meant inevitable ruin, overthrow, and a prison cell for the “loyal” - statesmen who were with him in his efforts to maintain the new “republican - form of government” in North Carolina. - </p> - <p> - At the approaching election, this white terror could intimidate every - negro in the state unless he could arm them all, suspend the writ of <i>Habeas - Corpus</i>, and place every county under the strictest martial law. - </p> - <p> - Washington was besieged by a terrified army of the “loyal” who saw their - occupation threatened. They begged for more troops, more guns for negro - militia, and for the reestablishment of universal martial law until the - votes were properly counted. - </p> - <p> - But the great statesmen laughed them to scorn as a set of weak cowards and - fools frightened by negro stories of ghosts. It was incredible to them - that the crushed, poverty stricken and unarmed South could dare challenge - the power of the National Government. They were sent back with scant - comfort. - </p> - <p> - The night that Ezra Perkins and Haley got back from Washington, where they - had gone summoned by Legree and Hogg, to testify to the death of Tim - Shelby, they saw a sight that made their souls quake. - </p> - <p> - At ten o’clock, the Ku Klux Klan held a formal parade through the streets - of Hambright. How the news was circulated nobody knew, but it seemed - everybody in the county knew of it. The streets were lined with thousands - of people who had poured in town that afternoon. - </p> - <p> - At exactly ten o’clock, a bugle call was heard on the hill to the west of - the town, and the muffled tread of soft shod horses came faintly on their - ears. Women stood on the sidewalks, holding their babies and smiling, and - children were laughing and playing in the streets. - </p> - <p> - They rode four abreast in perfect order slowly through the town. It was - utterly impossibly to recognise a man or a horse, so complete was the - simple disguise of the white sheet which blanketed the horse fitting - closely over his head and ears and falling gracefully over his form toward - the ground. - </p> - <p> - No citizen of Hambright was in the procession. They were all in the - streets watching it pass. There were fifteen hundred men in line. But the - reports next day all agreed in fixing the number at over five thousand. - </p> - <p> - Perkins and Haley had watched it from a darkened room. - </p> - <p> - “Brother Haley, that’s the end! Lord I wish I was back in Michigan, jail - er no jail,” said Perkins mopping the perspiration from his brow. - </p> - <p> - “We’ll have ter dig out purty quick, I reckon,” answered Haley. - </p> - <p> - “And to think them fools at Washington laughed at us!” cried Perkins - clinching his fists. - </p> - <p> - And that night, mothers and fathers gathered their children to bed with a - sense of grateful security they had not felt through years of war and - turmoil. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XX—HOW CIVILISATION WAS SAVED - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE success of the - Ku Klux Klan was so complete, its organisers were dazed. Its appeal to the - ignorance and superstition of the Negro at once reduced the race to - obedience and order. Its threat against the scalawag and carpet-bagger - struck terror to their craven souls, and the “Union League,” “Red - Strings,” and “Heroes of America” went to pieces with incredible rapidity. - </p> - <p> - Major Stuart Dameron, the chief of the Klan in Campbell county was holding - a conference with the Rev. John Durham in his study. - </p> - <p> - “Doctor, our work has succeeded beyond our wildest dream.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and I thank God we can breathe freely if only for a moment, Major. - The danger now lies in our success. We are necessarily playing with fire.” - </p> - <p> - “I know it, and it requires my time day and night to prevent reckless men - from disgracing us.” - </p> - <p> - “It will not be necessary to enforce the death penalty against any other - man in this county, Major. The execution of Tim Shelby was absolutely - necessary at the time and it has been sufficient.” - </p> - <p> - “I agree with you. I’ve impressed this on the master of every lodge, but - some of them are growing reckless.” - </p> - <p> - “Who are they?” - </p> - <p> - “Young Allan McLeod for one. He is a dare devil and only eighteen years - old. - </p> - <p> - “He’s a troublesome boy. I don’t seem to have any influence with him. But - I think Mrs. Durham can manage him. He seems to think a great deal of her, - and in spite of his wild habits, he comes regularly to her Sunday School - class.” - </p> - <p> - “I hope she can bring him to his senses.” - </p> - <p> - “Leave him to me then a while. We will see what can be done.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - Hogg’s Legislature promptly declared the Scotch-Irish hill counties in a - state of insurrection, passed a militia bill, and the Governor issued a - proclamation suspending the writ of <i>Habeas Corpus</i> in these - counties. - </p> - <p> - Fearing the effects of negro militia in the hill districts, he surprised - Hambright by suddenly marching into the court house square a regiment of - white mountain guerrillas recruited from the outlaws of East Tennessee and - commanded by a noted desperado, Colonel Henry Berry. The regiment had two - pieces of field artillery. - </p> - <p> - It was impossible for them to secure evidence against any member of the - Klan unless by the intimidation of some coward who could be made to - confess. Not a disguise had ever been penetrated. It was the rule of the - order for its decrees to be executed in the district issuing the decree by - the lodge furthest removed in the county from the scene. In this way not a - man or a horse was ever identified. - </p> - <p> - The Colonel made an easy solution of this difficulty, however. Acting - under instructions from Governor Hogg, he secured from Haley and Perkins a - list of every influential man in every precinct in the county, and a list - of possible turncoats and cowards. He detailed five hundred of his men to - make arrests, distributed them throughout the county and arrested without - warrants over two hundred citizens in one day. - </p> - <p> - The next day Berry hand-cuffed together the Rev. John Durham and Major - Dameron, and led them escorted by a company of cavalry on a grand circuit - of the county, that the people might be terrified by the sight of their - chains. An ominous silence greeted them on every hand. Additional arrests - were made by this troop and twenty-five more prisoners led into Hambright - the next day. - </p> - <p> - The jail was crowded, and the court house was used as a jail. Over a - hundred and fifty men were confined in the court room. Rev. John Durham - was everywhere among the crowd, laughing, joking and cheering the men. - </p> - <p> - “Major Dameron, a jail never held so many honest men before,” he said with - a smile, as he looked over the crowd of his church members gathered from - every quarter of the county. - </p> - <p> - “Well, Doctor, you’ve got a quorum here of your church and you can call - them to order for business.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s a fact, isn’t it?” - </p> - <p> - “There’s old Deacon Kline over there who looks like he wished he hadn’t - come!” The Preacher walked over to the deacon. - </p> - <p> - “What’s the matter, brother Kline, you look pensive?” - </p> - <p> - The deacon laughed. “Yes, I don’t like my bed. I’m used to feathers.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, they say they are going to give you feathers mixed with tar so you - won’t lose them so easily.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll have company, I reckon,” said the deacon with a wink. - </p> - <p> - “The funny thing, deacon, is that Major Dameron tells me there isn’t a man - in all the crowd of two hundred and fifty arrested who ever went on a - raid. It’s too bad you old fellows have to pay for the follies of youth.” - </p> - <p> - “It is tough. But we can stand it, Preacher.” They clasped hands. - </p> - <p> - “Haven’t smelled a coward anywhere have you, deacon?” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve seen one or two a little fidgety, I thought. Cheer ’em up - with a word, Preacher.” - </p> - <p> - Springing on the platform of the judge’s desk he looked over the crowd for - a moment, and a cheer shook the building. - </p> - <p> - “Boys, I don’t believe there’s a single coward in our ranks.” Another - cheer. - </p> - <p> - “Just keep cool now and let our enemies do the talking. In ten days every - man of you will be back at home at his work.” - </p> - <p> - “How will we get out with the writ suspended?” asked a man standing near. - </p> - <p> - “That’s the richest thing of all. A United States judge has just decided - that the Governor of the state cannot suspend the rights of a citizen of - the United States under the new Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution - so recently rammed down our throats. Hogg is hoisted on his own petard. - Our lawyers are now serving out writs of <i>Habeas Corpus</i> before this - Federal judge under the Fourteenth Amendment, and you will be discharged - in less than ten days unless there’s a skunk among you. And I don’t smell - one anywhere.” Again a cheer shook the building. - </p> - <p> - An orderly walked up to the Preacher and handed him a note. - </p> - <p> - “What is it?” - </p> - <p> - “Read it!” The men crowded around. - </p> - <p> - “Read it, Major Dameron, I’m dumb,” said the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - “A military order from the dirty rascal. Berry, commanding the mountain - bummers, forbidding the Rev. John Durham to speak during his - imprisonment!” - </p> - <p> - A roar of laughter followed this announcement. - </p> - <p> - “That’s cruel! It’ll kill him!” cried deacon Kline as he jabbed the - Preacher in the ribs. - </p> - <p> - In a few minutes, the Preacher was back in his place with five of the best - singers from his church by his side. He began to sing the old hymns of - Zion and every man in the room joined until the building quivered with - melody. - </p> - <p> - “Now a good old Yankee hymn, that suits this hour, written by an an old - Baptist preacher I met in Boston the other day!” cried the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - “My country ’tis of thee, - </p> - <p class="indent20"> - Sweet land of liberty, - </p> - <p class="indent30"> - Of thee I sing!” - </p> - <p> - <br /> - </p> - <p> - Heavens, how they sang it, while the Preacher lined it off, stood above - them beating time, and led in a clear mighty voice! Again the orderly - appeared with a note. - </p> - <p> - “What is it now?” they cried on every side. - </p> - <p> - Again Major Dameron announced “Military order No. 2, forbidding the Rev. - John Durham to sing or induce anybody to sing while in prison.” - </p> - <p> - Another roar of laughter that broke into a cheer which made the glass - rattle. When the soldier had disappeared, the Rev. John Durham ascended - the platform, looked about him with a humourous twinkle in his eye, - straightened himself to his full height and crowed like a rooster! A cheer - shook the building to its foundations. Roar after roar of its defiant - cadence swept across the square and made Haley and Perkins tremble as they - looked at each other over their conference table with Berry. - </p> - <p> - “What the devil’s the matter now?” cried Haley. - </p> - <p> - “Do you suppose it’s a rescue?” whispered Perkins. - </p> - <p> - “No, it’s some new trick of that damned Preacher. I’ll chain him in a room - to himself,” growled Berry. - </p> - <p> - “Better not, Colonel. He’s the pet of these white devils. Ye’d better let - him alone.” Berry accepted the advice. - </p> - <p> - Five days later the prisoners were arraigned before the United States - judge, Preston Rivers, at Independence. Not a scrap of evidence could be - produced against them. Governor Hogg was present, with a flaming military - escort. He held a stormy interview with Judge Rivers. - </p> - <p> - “If you discharge these prisoners, you destroy the government of this - state, sir!” thundered Hogg. - </p> - <p> - “Are they not citizens of the United States? Does not the Fourteenth - Amendment apply to a white man as well as a negro?” quietly asked the - judge. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but they are conspirators against the Union. They are murderers and - felons.” - </p> - <p> - “Then prove it in my court and I’ll hand them back to you. They are - entitled to a trial, under our Constitution.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll demand your removal by the President,” shouted Hogg. - </p> - <p> - “Get out of this room, or I’ll remove you with the point of my boot!” - thundered the judge with rising wrath. “You have suspended the writ of <i>Habeas - Corpus</i> to win a political campaign. The Ku Klux Klan has broken up - your Leagues. You are fighting for your life. But I’ll tell you now, you - can’t suspend the Constitution of the United States while I’m a Federal - judge in this state. I am not a henchman of yours to do your dirty - campaign work. The election is but ten days off. Your scheme is plain - enough. But if you want to keep these men in prison it will be done on - sworn evidence of guilt and a warrant, not on your personal whim.” - </p> - <p> - The Governor cursed, raved and threatened in vain. Judge Rivers discharged - every prisoner and warned Colonel Berry against the repetition of such - arrests within his jurisdiction. - </p> - <p> - When these prisoners were discharged, a great mass meeting was called to - give them a reception in the public square of Independence. A platform was - hastily built in the square and that night five thousand excited people - crowded past the stand, shook hands with the men and cheered till they - were hoarse. The Governor watched the demonstration in helpless fury from - his room in the hotel. - </p> - <p> - The speaking began at nine o’clock. Every discordant element of the old - South’s furious political passions was now melted into harmonious unity. - Whig and Democrat who had fought one another with relentless hatred sat - side by side on that platform. Secessionist and Unionist now clasped - hands. It was a White Man’s Party, and against it stood in solid array the - Black Man’s Party, led by Simon Legree. - </p> - <p> - Henceforth there could be but one issue, are you a White Man or a Negro? - </p> - <p> - They declared there was but one question to be settled:— - </p> - <p> - “<i>Shall the future American be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto?</i>” - </p> - <p> - These determined impassioned men believed that this question was more - important than any theory of tariff or finance and that it was larger than - the South, or even the nation, and held in its solution the brightest - hopes of the progress of the human race. And they believed that they were - ordained of God in this crisis to give this question its first - authoritative answer. - </p> - <p> - The state burst into a flame of excitement that fused in its white heat - the whole Anglo-Saxon race. - </p> - <p> - In vain Hogg marched and counter-marched his twenty thousand state troops. - They only added fuel to the fire. If they arrested a man, he became - forthwith a hero and was given an ovation. They sent bands of music and - played at the jail doors, and the ladies filled the jail with every - delicacy that could tempt the appetite or appeal to the senses. - </p> - <p> - Hogg and Legree were in a panic of fear with the certainty of defeat, - exposure and a felon’s cell yawning before them. - </p> - <p> - Two days before the election, the prayer meeting was held at eight o’clock - in the Baptist church at Ham-bright. It was the usual mid-week service, - but the attendance was unusually large. - </p> - <p> - After the meeting, the Preacher, Major Dameron, and eleven men quietly - walked back to the church and assembled in the pastor’s study. The door - opened at the rear of the church and could be approached by a side street. - </p> - <p> - “Gentlemen,” said Major Dameron, “I’ve asked you here to-night to deliver - to you the most important order I have ever given, and to have Dr. Durham - as our chaplain to aid me in impressing on you its great urgency.” - </p> - <p> - “We’re ready for orders, Chief,” said young Ambrose Kline, the deacon’s - son. - </p> - <p> - “You are to call out every troop of the Klan in full force the night - before the election. You are to visit every negro in the county, and warn - every one as he values his life not to approach the polls at this - election. Those who come, will be allowed to vote without molestation. All - cowards will stay at home. Any man, black or white, who can be scared out - of his ballot is not fit to have one. Back of every ballot is the red - blood of the man that votes. The ballot is force. This is simply a test of - manhood. It will be enough to show who is fit to rule the state. As the - masters of the eleven township lodges of the Klan, you are the sole - guardians of society to-day. When a civilised government has been - restored, your work will be done.” - </p> - <p> - “We will do it, sir,” cried Kline. - </p> - <p> - “Let me say, men,” said the Preacher, “that I heartily endorse the plan of - your chief. See that the work is done thoroughly and it will be done for - all time. In a sense this is fraud. But it is the fraud of war. The spy is - a fraud, but we must use him when we fight. Is war justifiable? - </p> - <p> - “It is too late now for us to discuss that question. We are in a war, the - most ghastly and hellish ever waged, a war on women and children, the - starving and the wounded, and that with sharpened swords. The Turk and - Saracen once waged such a war. We must face it and fight it out. Shall we - flinch?” - </p> - <p> - “No! no!” came the passionate answer from every man. - </p> - <p> - “You are asked to violate for the moment a statutory law. There is a - higher law. You are the sworn officers of that higher law.” - </p> - <p> - The group of leaders left the church with enthusiasm and on the following - night they carried out their instructions to the letter. - </p> - <p> - The election was remarkably quiet. Thousands of soldiers were used at the - polls by Hogg’s orders. But they seemed to make no impression on the - determined men who marched up between their files and put the ballots in - the box. - </p> - <p> - Legree’s ticket was buried beneath an avalanche. The new “Conservative” - party carried every county in the state save twelve and elected one - hundred and six members of the new Legislature out of a total of one - hundred and twenty. - </p> - <p> - The next day hundreds of carpet-bagger thieves fled to the North, and - Legree led the procession. - </p> - <p> - Legree had on deposit in New York two millions of dollars, and the total - amount of his part of the thefts he had engineered reached five millions. - He opened an office on Wall Street, bought a seat in the Stock Exchange, - and became one of the most daring and successful of a group of robbers who - preyed on the industries of the nation. - </p> - <p> - The new Legislature appointed a Fraud Commission which uncovered the - infamies of the Legree régime, but every thief had escaped. They promptly - impeached the Governor and removed him from office, and the old - commonwealth once more lifted up her head and took her place in the ranks - of civilised communities. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XXI—THE OLD AND THE NEW NEGRO - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">N</span>ELSE was elated - over the defeat and dissolution of the Leagues that had persecuted him - with such malignant hatred. When the news of the election came he was - still in bed suffering from his wounds. He had received an internal injury - that threatened to prove fatal. - </p> - <p> - “Dar now!” he cried, sitting up in bed, “Ain’t I done tole you no - kinky-headed niggers gwine ter run dis gov’ment!” - </p> - <p> - “Keep still dar, ole man, you’ll be faintin’ ergin,” worried Aunt Eve. - </p> - <p> - “Na honey, I’se feelin’ better. Gwine ter git up and meander down town en - ax dem niggers how’s de Ku Kluxes comin’ on dese days.” - </p> - <p> - In spite of all Eve could say he crawled out of bed, fumbled into his - clothes and started down town, leaning heavily on his cane. He had gone - about a block, when he suddenly reeled and fell. Eve was watching him from - the door, and was quickly by his side. He died that afternoon at three - o’clock. He regained consciousness before the end, and asked Eve for his - banjo. - </p> - <p> - He put it lovingly into the hands of Charlie Gaston who stood by the bed - crying. - </p> - <p> - “You keep ’er, honey. You lub ’er talk better’n any body in - de work, en ’member Nelse when you hear ’er moan en sigh. En - when she talk short en sassy en make ’em all gin ter shuffle, dat’s - me too. Dat’s me got back in ’er.” - </p> - <p> - Charlie Gaston rode with Aunt Eve to the cemetery. He walked back home - through the fields with Dick. - </p> - <p> - “I wouldn’ cry ’bout er ole nigger!” said Dick looking into his - reddened eyes. - </p> - <p> - “Can’t help it. He was my best friend.” - </p> - <p> - “Haint I wid you?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but you ain’t Nelse.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I stan’ by you des de same.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XXII—THE DANGER OF PLAYING WITH FIRE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE following - Saturday the Rev. John Durham preached at a cross roads school house in - the woods about ten miles from Hambright. He preached every Saturday in - the year at such a mission station. He was fond of taking Charlie with him - on these trips. There was an unusually large crowd in attendance, and the - Preacher was much pleased at this evidence of interest. It had been a hard - community to impress. At the close of the services, while the Preacher was - shaking hands with the people, Charlie elbowed his way rapidly among the - throng to his side. - </p> - <p> - “Doctor, there’s a nigger man out at the buggy says he wants to see you - quick,” he whispered. - </p> - <p> - “All right, Charlie, in a minute.” - </p> - <p> - “Says to come right now. It’s a matter of life and death, and he don’t - want to come into the crowd.” - </p> - <p> - A troubled look flashed over the Preacher’s face and he hastily followed - the boy, fearing now a sinister meaning to his great crowd. - </p> - <p> - “Preacher,” said the negro looking timidly around, “dc Ku Klux is gwine - ter kill ole Uncle Rufus Lattimore ter night. I come ter see ef you can’t - save him. He aint done nuthin’ in God’s work ’cept he would’n’ pull - his waggin clear outen de road one day fur dat redheaded Allan McLeod ter - pass, en he cussed ’im black and blue en tole ’im he gwine - git eben wid ’im.” - </p> - <p> - “How do you know this?” - </p> - <p> - “I wuz huntin’ in de woods en hear a racket en dim’ er tree. En de Ku - Kluxes had der meetin’ right under de tree. En I hear ev’ry word.” - </p> - <p> - “Who was leading the crowd?” - </p> - <p> - “Dat Allan McLeod, en Hose Norman.” - </p> - <p> - “Where are they going to meet?” - </p> - <p> - “Right at de cross-roads here at de school house at mid-night. Dey sont er - man atter plenty er licker en dey gwine ter git drunk fust. I was erfeered - ter come ter de meetin’ case I see er lot er de boys in de crowd. Fur de - Lawd sake, Preacher, do save de ole man. He des es harmless ez er chile. - En I’m gwine ter marry his gal, en she des plum crazy. We’se got five men - ter fight fur ’im but I spec dey kill ’em all ef you can’t - he’p us.” - </p> - <p> - “Are you one of General Worth’s negroes?” - </p> - <p> - “Yassir. I run erway up here, ’bout dat Free’mens Bureau trick dey - put me up ter, but I’se larned better sense now.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, Sam, you go to Uncle Rufus and tell him not to be afraid. I’ll stop - this business before night.” - </p> - <p> - The negro stepped into the woods and disappeared. - </p> - <p> - “Charlie, we must hurry,” said the Preacher springing in his buggy. He was - driving a beautiful bay mare, a gift from a Kentucky friend. Her sleek - glistening skin and big round veins showed her fine blood. - </p> - <p> - “Well, Nancy, it’s your life now or a man’s, or maybe a dozen. You must - take us to Hambright in fifty minutes over these rough hills!” cried the - Preacher. And he gave her the reins. - </p> - <p> - The mare bounded forward with a rush that sent four spinning circles of - sand and dust from each wheel. She had seldom felt the lines slacken - across her beautiful back except in some great emergency. She swung past - buggies and wagons without a pause. The people wondered why the Preacher - was in such a hurry. Over long sand stretches of heavy road the mare flew - in a cloud of dust. The Preacher’s lips were firmly set, and a scowl on - his brow. They had made five miles without slackening up. - </p> - <p> - The mare was now a mass of white foam, her big-veined nostrils wide open - and quivering, and her eyes flashing with the fire of proud ancestry. The - slackened lines on her back seemed to her an insufferable insult! “Doctor, - you’ll kill Nancy!” pleaded Charlie. - </p> - <p> - “Can’t help it, son, there’s a lot of drunken devils, masquerading as Ku - Klux, going to kill a man to-night. If we can’t reach Major Dameron’s in - time for him to get a lot of men and stop them there’ll be a terrible - tragedy.” - </p> - <p> - On the mare flew lifting her proud sensitive head higher and higher, while - her heart beat her foaming flanks like a trip hammer. She never slackened - her speed for the ten miles, but dashed up to Major Dameron’s gate at - sundown, just forty-nine minutes from the time she started. The Preacher - patted her dripping neck. - </p> - <p> - “Good, Nancy! good! I believe you’ve got a soul!” She stood with her head - still high, pawing the ground. - </p> - <p> - “Major Dameron, I’ve driven my mare here at a killing speed to tell you - that young McLeod and Hose Norman have a crowd of desperadoes organised to - kill old Rufus Lattimore to-night. You must get enough men together, and - get there in time to stop them. Sam Worth overheard their plot, knows - every one of them, and there will be a battle if they attempt it.” - </p> - <p> - “My God!” exclaimed the Major.-“You haven’t a minute to spare. They are - already loading up on moonshine whiskey.” - </p> - <p> - “Doctor Durham, this is the end of the Ku Klux Klan in this county. I’ll - break up every lodge in the next forty-eight hours. It’s too easy for - vicious men to abuse it. Its power is too great. Besides its work is - done.” - </p> - <p> - “I was just going to ask you to take that step, Major. And now for God’s - sake get there in time to-night. I’d go with you but my mare can’t stand - it.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ll be there on time. Never fear,” replied the Major, springing on his - horse already saddled at the door. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher drove slowly to his home, the mare pulling steadily on her - lines. She walked proudly into her stable lot, her head high and fine eyes - flashing, reeled and fell dead in the shafts! The Preacher couldn’t keep - back the tears. He called Dick and left him and Charlie the sorrowful task - of taking off her harness. He hurried into the house and shut himself up - in his study. - </p> - <p> - That night when the crowd of young toughs assembled at their rendezvous it - was barely ten o’clock. - </p> - <p> - Suddenly a pistol shot rang from behind the school-house, and before - McLeod and Lis crowd knew what had happened fifty white horsemen wheeled - into a circle about them. They were completely surprised and cowed. Major - Dameron rode up to McLeod. - </p> - <p> - “Young man, you are the prisoner of the Chief of the Ku Klux Klan of - Campbell county. Lift your hand now and I’ll hang you in five minutes. You - have forfeited your life by disobedience to my orders. You go back to - Hambright with me under guard. Whether I execute you depends on the - outcome of the next two days’ conferences with the chiefs of the township - lodges.” - </p> - <p> - The Major wheeled his horse and rode home. The next day he ordered every - one of the eleven township chiefs to report in person to him, at different - hours the same day. To each one his message was the same. He dissolved the - order and issued a perpetual injunction against any division of the Klan - ever going on another raid. - </p> - <p> - There were only a few who could see the wisdom of such hasty action. The - success had been so marvellous, their power so absolute, it seemed a pity - to throw it all away. Young Kline especially begged the Major to postpone - his action. - </p> - <p> - “It’s impossible Kline. The Klan has done its work. The carpet-baggers - have fled. The state is redeemed from the infamies of a negro government, - and we have a clean economical administration, and we can keep it so as - long as the white people are a unit without any secret societies.” - </p> - <p> - “But, Major, we may be needed again.” - </p> - <p> - “I can’t assume the responsibility any longer. The thing is getting beyond - my control. The order is full of wild youngsters and revengeful men. They - try to bring their grudges against neighbours into the order, and when I - refuse to authorise a raid, they take their disguises and go without - authority. An archangel couldn’t command such a force.” - </p> - <p> - Within two weeks from the dissolution of the Klan by its Chief, every - lodge had been reorganised. Some of the older men had dropped out, but - more young men were initiated to take their places. Allan McLeod led in - this work of prompt reorganisation, and was elected Chief of the county by - the younger element which now had a large majority. - </p> - <p> - He at once served notice on Major Dameron, the former Chief, that if he - dared to interfere with his work-even by opening his mouth in criticism, - he would order a raid, and thrash him. - </p> - <p> - When the Major found this note under his door one morning, he read and - re-read it with increasing wrath. Springing on his horse he went in search - of McLeod. He saw him leisurely crossing the street going from the hotel - to the court house. - </p> - <p> - Throwing his horse’s rein to a passing boy, he walked rapidly to him and, - without a word, boxed his ears as a father would an impudent child. McLeod - was so astonished, he hesitated for a moment whether to strike or to run. - He did neither, but blushed red and stammered, “What do you mean, sir?” - </p> - <p> - “Read that letter, you young whelp!” The Major thrust the letter into his - hand. - </p> - <p> - “I know nothing of this.” - </p> - <p> - “You’re a liar. You are its author. No other fool in this county would - have conceived it. Now, let me give you a little notice. I am prepared for - you and your crowd. Call any time. I can whip a hundred puppies of your - breed any time by myself with one hand tied behind me, and never get a - scratch. Dare to lift your finger against me, or any of the men who - refused to go with your new fool’s movement, and I’ll shoot you on sight - as I would a mad dog.” Before McLeod could reply, the Major turned on his - heels and left him. - </p> - <p> - McLeod made no further attempt to molest the Major, nor did he allow any - raids bent on murder. The sudden authority placed in his hands in a - measure sobered him. He inaugurated a series of petty deviltries, whipping - negroes and poor white men against whom some of his crowd had a grudge, - and annoying the school teachers of negro schools. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XXIII—THE BIRTH OF A SCALAWAG - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE overwhelming - defeat of their pets in the South, and the toppling of their houses of - paper built on Negro supremacy, brought to Congress a sense of guilt and - shame, that required action. Their own agents in the South were now in the - penitentiary or in exile for well established felonies, and the future - looked dark. - </p> - <p> - They found the scapegoat in these fool later day Ku Klux marauders. Once - more the public square at Ham-bright saw the bivouac of the regular troops - of the United States Army. The Preacher saw the glint of their bayonets - with a sense of relief. - </p> - <p> - With this army came a corps of skilled detectives, who set to work. All - that was necessary, was to arrest and threaten with summary death a - coward, and they got all the information he could give. The jail was - choked with prisoners and every day saw a squad depart for the stockade at - Independence. Sam Worth gave information that led to the immediate arrest - of Allan McLeod. He was the first man led into the jail. - </p> - <p> - The officers had a long conference with him that lasted four hours. - </p> - <p> - And then the bottom fell out. A wild stampede of young men for the West! - Somebody who held the names of every man in the order had proved a - traitor. - </p> - <p> - Every night from hundreds of humble homes might be heard the choking sobs - of a mother saying good-bye in the darkness to the last boy the war had - left her old age. When the good-bye was said, and the father, waiting in - the buggy at the gate, had called for haste, and the boy was hurrying out - with his grip-sack, there was a moan, the soft rush of a coarse homespun - dress toward the gate and her arms were around his neck again. - </p> - <p> - “I can’t let you go, child! Lord have mercy! He’s the last!” And the low - pitiful sobs! - </p> - <p> - “Come, come, now Ma, we must get away from here before the officers are - after him!” - </p> - <p> - “Just a minute!” - </p> - <p> - A kiss, and then another long and lingering. A sigh, and then a smothered - choking cry from a mother’s broken heart and he was gone. - </p> - <p> - Thus Texas grew into the Imperial Commonwealth of the South. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - To save appearance McLeod was removed to Independence with the other - prisoners, and in a short time released, with a number of others against - whom insignificant charges were lodged. - </p> - <p> - When he returned to Hambright the people looked at him with suspicion. - </p> - <p> - “How is it, young man,” asked the Preacher, “that you are at home so soon, - while brave boys are serving terms in Northern prisons?” - </p> - <p> - “Had nothing against me,” he replied. - </p> - <p> - “That’s strange, when Sam Worth swore that you organised the raid to kill - Rufe Lattimore.” - </p> - <p> - “They didn’t believe him.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I’ve an idea that you saved your hide by puking. I’m not sure yet, - but information was given that only the man in command of the whole county - could have possessed.” - </p> - <p> - “There were a half-dozen men who knew as much as I did. You mustn’t think - me capable of such a thing, Dr. Durham!” protested McLeod with heightened - colour. - </p> - <p> - “It’s a nasty suspicion. I’d rather sec a child of mine transformed into a - cur dog, and killed for stealing sheep, than fall to the level of such a - man. But only time will prove the issue.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve made up my mind to turn over a new leaf,” said McLeod. “I’m sick of - rowdyism. I’m going to be a law-abiding, loyal citizen.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s just what I’m afraid of!” exclaimed the Preacher with a sneer as - he turned and left him. - </p> - <p> - And his fears were soon confirmed. Within a month the Independence - Observer contained a dispatch from Washington announcing the appointment - of Allan McLeod a Deputy United States Marshal for the District of Western - North Carolina, together with the information that he had renounced his - allegiance to his old disloyal associates, and had become an enthusiastic - Republican; and that henceforth he would labour with might and main to - establish peace and further the industrial progress of the South. - </p> - <p> - “I knew it. The dirty whelp!” cried the Preacher, as he showed the paper - to his wife. - </p> - <p> - “Now don’t be too hard on the boy, Doctor Durham,” urged his wife. “He may - be sincere in his change of politics. You never did like him.” - </p> - <p> - “Sincere! yes, as the devil is always sincere. He’s dead in earnest now. - He’s found his level, and his success is sure. Mark my words the boy’s a - villain from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. He has - bartered his soul to save his skin, and the skin is all that’s left.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m sorry to think it. I couldn’t help liking him.” - </p> - <p> - “And that’s the funniest freak I ever knew your fancy to take, my dear,—I - never could understand it.” - </p> - <p> - When McLeod had established his office in Hambright, he made special - efforts to allay the suspicions against his name. His indignant denials of - the report of his treachery convinced many that he had been wronged. Two - men alone, maintained toward him an attitude of contempt, Major Dameron - and the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - He called on Mrs. Durham, and with his smooth tongue convinced her that he - had been foully slandered. She urged him to win the Doctor. Accordingly he - called to talk the question over with the Preacher and ask him for a fair - chance to build his character untarnished in the community. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher heard him through patiently, but in silence. Allan was - perspiring before he reached the end of his plausible explanation. It was - a tougher task than he thought, this deliberate lying, under the gaze of - those glowing black eyes that looked out from their shaggy brows and - pierced through his inmost soul. - </p> - <p> - “You’ve got an oily tongue. It will carry you a long way in this world. I - can’t help admiring the skill with which you are fast learning to use it. - You’ve fooled Mrs. Durham with it, but you can’t fool me,” said the - Preacher. - </p> - <p> - “Doctor, I solemnly swear to you I am not guilty.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s no use to add perjury to plain lying. I know you did it. I know it - as well as if I were present in that jail and heard you basely betray the - men, name by name, whom you had lured to their ruin.” - </p> - <p> - “Doctor, I swear you are mistaken!” - </p> - <p> - “Bah! Don’t talk about it. You nauseate me!” The Preacher sprang to his - feet, paced across the floor, sat down on the edge of his table and glared - at McLeod for a moment. And then with his voice low and quivering with a - storm of emotion he said, “The curse of God upon you—the God of your - fathers! Your fathers in far-off Scotland’s hills, who would have suffered - their tongues torn from their heads and their skin stripped inch by inch - from their flesh sooner than betray one of their clan in distress. You - have betrayed a thousand of your own men, and you, their sworn chieftain! - Hell was made to consume such leper trash!” McLeod was dazed at first by - this outburst. At length he sprang to his feet livid with rage. - </p> - <p> - “I’ll not forget this, sir!” he hissed. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t forget it!” cried the Preacher trembling with passion as he opened - the door. “Go on and live your lie.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XXIV—A MODERN MIRACLE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>RS. DURHAM, the - Doctor wants you,” said Charlie when McLeod’s footfall had died away. - </p> - <p> - “Charlie, dear, why don’t you call me ‘Mama’—surely you love me a - little wee bit, don’t you?” she asked, taking the boy’s hand tenderly in - hers. - </p> - <p> - “Yes’m,” he replied hanging his head. - </p> - <p> - “Then do say Mama. You don’t know how good it would be in my ears.” - </p> - <p> - “I try to but it chokes me,” he half whispered, glancing timidly up at - her. “Let me call you Aunt Margaret, I always wanted an aunt and I think - your name Margaret’s so sweet,” he shyly added. - </p> - <p> - She kissed him and said, “All right, if that’s all you will give me.” She - passed on into the library where the Preacher waited her. - </p> - <p> - “My dear, I’ve just given young McLeod a piece of my mind. I wanted to say - to you that you are entirely mistaken in his character. He’s a bad egg. I - know all the facts about his treachery. He’s as smooth a liar as I’ve met - in years.” - </p> - <p> - “With all his brute nature, there’s some good in him,” she persisted. - </p> - <p> - “Well, it will stay in him. He will never let it get out.” - </p> - <p> - “All right, have your way about it for the time. We’ll see who is right in - the long run. Now I’ve a more pressing and tougher problem for your - solution.” - </p> - <p> - “What is it?” - </p> - <p> - “Dick.” - </p> - <p> - “What’s he done this time?” - </p> - <p> - “He steals everything he can get his hands on.” - </p> - <p> - “He is a puzzle.” - </p> - <p> - “He’s the greatest liar I ever saw,” she continued. “He simply will not - tell the truth if he can think up a lie in time. I’d say run him off the - place, but for Charlie. He seems to love the little scoundrel. I’m afraid - his influence over Charlie will be vicious, but it would break the child’s - heart to drive him away. What shall we do with him?” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher laughed. “I give it up, my dear, you’ve got beyond my depth - now. I don’t know whether he’s got a soul. Certainly the very rudimentary - foundations of morals seem lacking. I believe you could take a young ape - and teach him quicker. I leave him with you. At present it’s a domestic - problem.” - </p> - <p> - “Thanks, that’s so encouraging.” - </p> - <p> - Dick was a puzzle and no mistake about it. But to Charlie his rolling - mischievous eyes, his cunning fingers and his wayward imagination were - unfailing fountains of life. He found every bird’s nest within two miles - of town. He could track a rabbit almost as swiftly and surely as a hound. - He could work like fury when he had a mind to, and loaf a half day over - one row of the garden when he didn’t want to work, which was his chronic - condition. - </p> - <p> - When the revival season set in for the negroes in the summer, the days of - sorrow began for householders. Every negro in the community became - absolutely worthless and remained so until the emotional insanity - attending their meetings wore off. - </p> - <p> - Aunt Mary, Mrs. Durham’s cook, got salvation over again every summer with - increasing power and increasing degeneration in her work. Some nights she - got home at two o’clock and breakfast was not ready until nine. Some - nights she didn’t get home at all, and Mrs. Durham had to get breakfast - herself. - </p> - <p> - It was a hard time for Dick who had not yet experienced religion, and on - whom fell the brunt of the extra work and Mrs. Durham’s fretfulness - besides. - </p> - <p> - “I tell you what less do, Charlie!” he cried one day. “Less go down ter - dat nigger chu’ch, en bus’ up de meetin’! I’se gettin’ tired er dis.” - </p> - <p> - “How’ll you do it?” - </p> - <p> - “I show you somefin’?” He reached under his shirt next to his skin, and - pulled out Dr. Graham’s sun glass. - </p> - <p> - “Where’d you get that, Dick?” - </p> - <p> - “Foun’ it whar er man lef’ it.” He walled his eyes solemnly. - </p> - <p> - “Des watch here when I turns ’im in de sun. I kin set dat pile er - straw er fire wid it!” - </p> - <p> - “You mustn’t set the church afire!” warned Charlie. - </p> - <p> - “Naw, chile, but I git up in de gallery, en when ole Uncle Josh gins ter - holler en bawl en r’ar en charge, I fling dat blaze er light right on his - bal’ haid, en I set him afire sho’s you bawn!” - </p> - <p> - “Dick, I wouldn’t do it,” said Charlie, laughing in spite of himself. - </p> - <p> - Charlie refused to accompany him. But Dick’s mind was set on the necessity - of this work of reform. So in the afternoon he slipped off without leave - and quietly made his way into the gallery of the Negro Baptist church. - </p> - <p> - The excitement was running high. Uncle Josh had preached one sermon an - hour in length, and had called up the mourners. At least fifty had come - forward. The benches had been cleared for five rows back from the pulpit - to give plenty of room for the mourners to crawl over the floor, walk back - and forth and shout when they “came through,” and for their friends to fan - them. - </p> - <p> - This open place was covered with wheat straw to keep the mourners off the - bare floor, and afford some sort of comfort for those far advanced in - mourning, who went into trances and sometimes lay motionless for hours on - their backs or flat on their faces. - </p> - <p> - The mourners had kicked and shuffled this straw out to the edges and the - floor was bare. Uncle Josh had sent two deacons out for more straw. - </p> - <p> - In the meantime he was working himself up to another mighty climax of - exhortation to move sinners to come forward. - </p> - <p> - “Come on ter glory you po, po sinners, en flee ter de Lamb er God befo de - flames er hell swaller you whole! At de last great day de Sperit ’ll - flash de light er his shinin’ face on dis ole parch up sinful worl’, en - hit ’ll ketch er fire in er minute, an de yearth ’ll melt - wid furvient heat! Whar ’ll you be den po tremblin’ sinner? Whar ’ll - you be when de flame er de Sperit smites de moon and de stars wid fire, en - dey gin ter drap outen de sky en knock big holes in de burnin’ yearth? - Whar ’ll you be when de rocks melt wid dat heat, en de sun hide his - face in de black smoke dat rise fum de pit?” - </p> - <p> - Moans and groans and shrieks, louder and louder filled the air. Uncle Josh - paused a moment and looked for his deacons with the straw. They were just - coming up the steps with a great armful over their heads. - </p> - <p> - “What’s de matter wid you breddern! Fetch on dat wheat straw! Here’s dese - tremblin’ souls gwine down inter de flames er hell des fur de lak er wheat - straw!” - </p> - <p> - The brethren hurried forward with the wheat straw, and just as they - reached Uncle Josh standing perspiring in the midst of his groaning - mourners, Dick flashed from the gallery a stream of dazzling light on the - old man’s face and held it steadily on his bald head. Josh was too - astonished to move at first. He was simply paralysed with fear. It was all - right to talk about the flame of the Spirit, but he wasn’t exactly ready - to run into it. Suddenly he clapped his hands on the top of his head and - sprang straight up in the air yelling in a plain everyday profane voice, - “God-der-mighty! What’s dat?” - </p> - <p> - The brethren holding the straw saw it and stood dumb with terror. The - light disappeared from Uncle Josh’s head and lit the straw in splendour on - one of the deacon’s shoulders. Aunt Mary’s voice was heard above the - mourners’ din, clear, shrill and soul piercing. - </p> - <p> - “G-l-o-r-y! G-l-o-r-y ter God! De flame er de Sperit! De judgment day! Yas - Lawd, I’se here! Glory! Halleluyah!” - </p> - <p> - Suddenly the straw on the deacon’s back burst into flames! And pandemonium - broke loose. A weak-minded sinner screamed, “De flames er Hell!” - </p> - <p> - The mourners smelled the smoke and sprang from the floor with white - staring eyes. When they saw the fire and got their bearings they made for - the open,—they jumped on each others’ back and made for the door - like madmen. Those nearest the windows sprang through, and when the lower - part of the window was jammed, big buck negroes jumped on the backs of the - lower crowd and plunged through the two upper sashes with a crash that - added new terror to the panic. - </p> - <p> - In two minutes the church was empty, and the yard full of crazy, shouting - negroes. - </p> - <p> - Dick stepped from the gallery into the crowd as the last ones emerged, ran - up to the pulpit and stamped out the fire in the straw with his bare feet. - He looked around to see if they had left anything valuable behind in the - stampede, and sauntered leisurely out of the church. - </p> - <p> - “Now dog-gone ’em let ’em yell!” he muttered to himself. - </p> - <p> - When Uncle Josh sufficiently recovered his senses to think, and saw the - church still standing, with not even a whiff of smoke to be seen, instead - of the roaring furnace he had expected, he was amazed. He called his - scattered deacons together and they went cautiously back to investigate. - </p> - <p> - “Hit’s no use in talkin’ Bre’r Josh, dey sho wuz er fire!” cried one of - the deacons. - </p> - <p> - “Sho’s de Lawd’s in heaben. I feel it gittin’ on my fingers fo I drap dat - straw!” said another. - </p> - <p> - “Hit smite me fust right on top er my haid!” whispered Uncle Josh in awe. - </p> - <p> - They cautiously approached the pulpit and there in front of it lay the - charred fragments of the burned straw pile. - </p> - <p> - They gathered around it in awe-struck wonder. One of them touched it with - his foot. - </p> - <p> - “Doan do dat!” cried Uncle Josh, lifting his hand with authority. - </p> - <p> - They drew back, Uncle Josh saw the immense power in that heap of charred - straw. Some of it was a little damp and it had been only partly burned. - </p> - <p> - “Dar’s de mericle er de Sperit!” he solemnly declared. - </p> - <p> - “Yas Lawd!” echoed a deacon. - </p> - <p> - “Fetch de hammer, en de saw, en de nails, en de boards en build right dar - en altar ter de Sperit!” were his prophetic commands. - </p> - <p> - And they did. They got an old show case of glass, put the charred straw in - it, and built an open box work around it just where it fell in front of - the pulpit. - </p> - <p> - Then a revival broke out that completely paralysed the industries of - Campbell county. Every negro stopped work and went to that church. Uncle - Josh didn’t have to preach or to plead. They came in troops towards the - magic altar, whose fame and mystery had thrilled every superstitious soul - with its power. The benches were all moved out and the whole church floor - given up to mourners. Uncle Josh had an easy time walking around just - adding a few terrifying hints to trembling sinners, or helping to hold - some strong sister when she had “come through,” with so much glory in her - bones that there was danger she would hurt somebody. - </p> - <p> - After a week the matter became so serious that the white people set in - motion an investigation of the affair. Dick had thrown out a mysterious - hint that he knew some things that were very funny. - </p> - <p> - “Doan you tell nobody!” he would solemnly say to Charlie. - </p> - <p> - And then he would lie down on the grass and roll and laugh. At length by - dint of perseverance, and a bribe of a quarter, the Preacher induced Dick - to explain the mystery. He did, and it broke up the meeting. - </p> - <p> - Uncle Josh’s fury knew no bounds. He was heartbroken at the sudden - collapse of his revival, chagrined at the recollection of his own terror - at the fire, and fearful of an avalanche of backsliders from the meeting - among those who had professed even with the greatest glory. - </p> - <p> - He demanded that the Preacher should turn Dick over to him for correction. - The Preacher took a few hours to consider whether he should whip him - himself or turn him over to Uncle Josh. Dick heard Uncle Josh’s demand. - Out behind the stable he and Charlie held a council of war. - </p> - <p> - “You go see Miss Mar’get fur me, en git up close to her, en tell her taint - right ter ’low no low down black nigger ter whip me!” - </p> - <p> - “All right Dick, I will,” agreed Charlie. - </p> - <p> - “Case ef ole Josh beats me I gwine ter run away. I nebber git ober dat.” - </p> - <p> - Dick had threatened to run away often before when he wanted to force - Charlie to do something for him. Once he had gone a mile out of town with - his clothes tied in a bundle, and Charlie trudging after him begging him - not to leave. - </p> - <p> - The boy did his best to save Dick the humiliation of a whipping at the - hands of Uncle Josh, but in vain. - </p> - <p> - When Uncle Josh led him out to the stable lot, his face was not pleasant - to look upon. There was a dangerous gleam in Dick’s eye that boded no good - to his enemy. - </p> - <p> - “You imp er de debbil!” exclaimed Uncle Josh shaking his switch with - unction. - </p> - <p> - “I fool you good enough, you ole bal’ headed ape!” answered Dick gritting - his teeth defiantly. - </p> - <p> - “I make you sing enudder chune fo I’se done wid you.” - </p> - <p> - “En if you does, nigger, you know what I gwine do fur you?” cried Dick - rolling his eyes up at his enemy. - </p> - <p> - “What kin you do, honey? asked Uncle Josh, humouring his victim now with - the evident relish of a cat before his meal on a mouse. - </p> - <p> - “Ef you hits me hard, I gwine ter burn you house down on you haid some - night, en run erway des es sho es I kin stick er match to it,” said Dick. - </p> - <p> - “You is, is you?” thundered Josh with wrath. - </p> - <p> - “Dat I is. En I burn yo ole chu’ch de same night.” - </p> - <p> - Uncle Josh was silent a moment. Dick’s words had chilled his heart. He was - afraid of him, but he was afraid to back down from what was now evidently - his duty. So without further words he whipped him. Yet to save his life he - could not hit him as hard as he thought he deserved. - </p> - <p> - That night Dick disappeared from Hambright, and for weeks every evening at - dusk the wistful face of Charlie Gaston could be seen on the big hill to - the south of town vainly watching for somebody. He would always take - something to eat in his pockets, and when he gave up his vigil he would - place the food under a big shelving rock where they had often played - together. But the birds and ground squirrels ate it. He would slip back - the next day hoping to see Dick jump out of the cave and surprise him. - </p> - <p> - And then at last he gave it up, sat down under the rock and cried. He knew - Dick would grow to be a man somewhere out in the big world and never come - back. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - BOOK TWO—LOVE’S DREAM - </h2> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER I—BLUE EYES AND BLACK HAIR - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">S</span>HE’S coming next - month, Charlie,” said Mrs. Durham, looking up from a letter. - </p> - <p> - “Who is it now. Auntie, another divinity with which you are going to - overwhelm me?” asked Gaston smiling as he laid his book down and leaned - back in his chair. - </p> - <p> - “Some one I’ve been telling you about for the last month.” - </p> - <p> - “Which one?” - </p> - <p> - “Oh, you wretch! You don’t think about anything except your books. I’ve - been dinning that girl’s praises into your ears for fully five weeks, and - you look at me in that innocent way and ask which one?” - </p> - <p> - “Honestly, Aunt Margaret, you’re always telling me about some beautiful - girl, I get them mixed. And then when I see them, they don’t come up to - the advance notices you’ve sent out. To tell you the truth, you are such a - beautiful woman, and I’ve got so used to your standard, the girls can’t - measure up to it.” - </p> - <p> - “You flatterer. A woman of forty-two a standard of beauty! Well, it’s - sweet to hear you say it, you handsome young rascal.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s the honest truth. You are one of the women who never show the - addition of a year. You have spoiled my eyesight for ordinary girls.” - </p> - <p> - “Hush, sir, you don’t dare to talk to any girl like you talk to me. They - all say you’re afraid of them.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I am, in a sense. I’ve been disappointed so many times.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! you ’ll find her yet and when you do!”— - </p> - <p> - “What do you think will happen?” - </p> - <p> - “I’m certain you will be the biggest fool in the state.” - </p> - <p> - “That will make it nice for the girl, won’t it?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and I shall enjoy your antics. You who have dissected love with your - brutal German philosophy, and found every girl’s faults with such ease,—it - will be fun to watch you flounder in the meshes at last.” - </p> - <p> - “Auntie, seriously, it will be the happiest day of my life. For four years - my dreams have been growing more and more impossible. Who is this one?” - </p> - <p> - “She is the most beautiful girl I know, and the brightest and the best, - and if she gets hold of you she will clip your wings and bring you down to - earth. I ’ll watch you with interest,” said Mrs. Durham looking - over the letter again and laughing. - </p> - <p> - “What are you laughing at?” - </p> - <p> - “Just a little joke she gets off in this letter.” - </p> - <p> - “But who is she? You haven’t told me.” - </p> - <p> - “I did tell you—she’s General Worth’s daughter, Miss Sallie. She - writes she is coming up to spend a month at the Springs, with her friend - Helen Lowell, of Boston, and wants me to corral all the young men in the - community and have them fed and in fine condition for work when they - arrive.” - </p> - <p> - “She evidently intends to have a good time.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and she will.” - </p> - <p> - “Fortunately my law practice is not rushing me at this season. My total - receipts for June last year were two dollars and twenty-five cents. It - will hardly go over two-fifty this year.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve told her you’re a rising young lawyer.” - </p> - <p> - “I have plenty of room to rise, Auntie. If you will just keep on letting - me board with you, I hope to work my practice up to ten dollars a month in - the course of time.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t you want to hear something about Miss Sallie?” - </p> - <p> - “Of course, I was just going to ask you if she’s as homely as that last - one you tried to get off on me.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve told you she’s a beauty. She made a sensation at her finishing - school in Baltimore. It’s funny that she was there the last year you were - at the Johns Hopkins University. She’s the belle of Independence, rich, - petted, and the only child of old General Worth, who thinks the sun rises - and sets in her pretty blue eyes.” - </p> - <p> - “So she has blue eyes?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, blue eyes and black hair.” - </p> - <p> - “What a funny combination! I never saw a girl with blue eyes and black - hair.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s often seen in the far South. I expect you to be drowned in those - blue eyes. They are big, round and child-like, and look out of their black - lashes as though surprised at their dark setting. This contrast accents - their dreamy beauty, and her eyes seem to swim in a dim blue mist like the - point where the sea and sky meet on the horizon far out on the ocean. She - is bright, witty, romantic and full of coquetry. She is determined to live - her girl’s life to its full limit. She is fond of society and dances - divinely.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s bad. I never even cut the pigeon’s wing in my life—and I’m - too old to learn.” - </p> - <p> - “She has a full queenly figure, small hands and feet, delicate wrists, a - dimple in one cheek only, and a mass of brown-black hair that curls when - it’s going to rain.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s fine, we wouldn’t need a barometer on life’s voyage, would we?” - </p> - <p> - “No, but you will be looking for a pilot and a harbour before you’ve known - her a month. Her upper lip is a little fuller and projects slightly over - the lower, and they are both beautifully fluted and curved like the petals - of a flower, which makes the most tantalising mouth a standing challenge - for a kiss.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Auntie, you’re joking! You never saw such a girl. You’re breaking - into my heart, stealing glances at my ideal.” - </p> - <p> - “All right, sir, wait and see for yourself. She has pretty shell-like - ears, her laughter is full, contagious, and like music. She plays divinely - on the piano, can’t sing a note, but dresses to kill. You might as well - wind up your affairs, and get ready for the first serious work of your - life. You will have your hands full after you see her.” - </p> - <p> - “But did I understand you to say she’s rich?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, they say her father is worth half a million.” - </p> - <p> - “Do you think she could be interested in the poor in this county?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, she doesn’t seem to know she’s an heiress. Her father, the General, - is a deacon in the Baptist church at Independence, and hates dudes and - fops with all his old-fashioned soul. His idea of a man is one of - character, and the capacity of achievement, not merely a possessor of - money. Still, I imagine he is going to give any man trouble who tries to - take his daughter away from him.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m afraid that money lets me out of the race.” - </p> - <p> - “Nothing of the sort, when you see her you will never allow a little thing - like that to worry you.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s not her dollars that will worry me. It’s the fact that she’s got - them and I haven’t. But, anyhow, Auntie, from your description you can - book me for one night at least.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m going to book you for her lackey, her slave, devoted to her every - whim while she’s here. One night—the idea!” - </p> - <p> - “Auntie, you’re too generous to others. I’ve no notion all this rigmarole - about your Miss Sallie Worth is true. But I ’ll do anything to - please you.” - </p> - <p> - “Very well, I ’ll see whom you are trying to please later.” - </p> - <p> - “I must go,” said Gaston, hastily rising. “I have an engagement to discuss - the coming political campaign with the Hon. Allan McLeod, the present - Republican boss of the state.” - </p> - <p> - “I didn’t know you hobnobbed with the enemy.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t. But as far as I can understand him, he purposes to take me up on - an exceeding high mountain and offer me the world and the fulness thereof. - We all like to be tempted whether we fall or not. The Doctor hates McLeod. - I think he holds some grudge against him. What do you think of him, - Auntie? He swears by you. I used to dislike him as a boy, but he seems a - pretty decent sort of fellow now, and I can’t help liking just a little - anybody who loves you. I confess he has a fascination for me.” - </p> - <p> - “Why do you ask my opinion of him?” slowly asked Mrs. Durham. - </p> - <p> - “Because I’m not quite sure of his honesty. He talks fairly, but there’s - something about him that casts a doubt over his fairest words. He says he - has the most important proposition of my life to place before me to-day, - and I’m at a loss how to meet him—whether as a well-meaning friend - or a scheming scoundrel. He’s a puzzle to me.” - </p> - <p> - “Well Charlie, I don’t mind telling you that he is a puzzle to me. I’ve - always been strangely attracted to him, even when he was a big red-headed - brute of a boy. The Doctor always disliked him and I thought, misjudged - him. He has always paid me the supremest deference, and of late years the - most subtle flattery. No woman, who feels her life a failure, as I do - mine, can be indifferent to such a compliment from a man of trained mind - and masterful character. This is a sore subject between the Doctor and - myself. And when I see him shaking hands a little too lingeringly with - admiring sisters after his services, I repay him with a chat with my - devoted McLeod. Don’t ask me. I like him, and I don’t like him. I admire - him and at the same time I suspect and half fear him.” - </p> - <p> - “Strange we feel so much alike about him. But your heart has always been - very close to mine, since you slipped your arm around me that night my - mother died. I know about what he will say, and I know about what I ’ll - do.” He stooped and kissed his fostermother tenderly. - </p> - <p> - “Charlie, I’m in earnest about my pretty girl that’s coming. Don’t forget - it.” - </p> - <p> - “Bah! You’ve fooled me before.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER II—THE VOICE OF THE TEMPTER - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>cLEOD was waiting - with some impatience in his room at the hotel. - </p> - <p> - “Walk in Gaston, you’re a little late. However, better late than never.” - McLeod plunged directly into the purpose of his visit. - </p> - <p> - “Gaston you’re a man of brains, and oratorical genius. I heard your speech - in the last Democratic convention in Raleigh, and I don’t say it to - flatter you, that was the greatest speech made in any assembly in this - state since the war.” - </p> - <p> - “Thanks!” said Gaston with a wave of his arm. - </p> - <p> - “I mean it. You know too much to be in sympathy with the old moss-backs - who are now running this state. For fourteen years, the South has marched - to the polls and struck blindly at the Republican party, and three times - it struck to kill. The Southern people have nothing in common with these - Northern Democrats who make your platforms and nominate your candidate. - You don’t ask anything about the platform or the man. You would vote for - the devil if the Democrats nominated him, and ask no questions; and what - infuriates me is you vote to enforce platforms that mean economic ruin to - the South.” - </p> - <p> - “Man shall not live by bread alone, McLeod.” - </p> - <p> - “Sure, but he can’t live on dead men’s bones. You vote in solid mass on - the Negro question, which you settled by the power of Anglo-Saxon - insolence when you destroyed the Reconstruction governments at a blow. Why - should you keep on voting against every interest of the South, merely - because you hate the name Republican?” - </p> - <p> - “Why? Simply because so long as the Negro is here with a ballot in his - hands he is a menace to civilisation. The Republican party placed him - here. The name Republican will stink in the South for a century, not - because they beat us in war, but because two years after the war, in - profound peace, they inaugurated a second war on the unarmed people of the - South, butchering the starving, the wounded, the women and children. God - in heaven, will I ever forget that day they murdered my mother! Their - attempt to establish with the bayonet an African barbarism on the ruins of - Southern society was a conspiracy against human progress. It was the - blackest crime of the nineteenth century.” - </p> - <p> - “You are talking in a dead language. We are living in a new world.” - </p> - <p> - “But principles are eternal.” - </p> - <p> - “Principles? I’m not talking about principles. I’m talking about practical - politics. The people down here haven’t voted on a principle in years. - They’ve been voting on old Simon Legree. He left the state nearly a - quarter of a century ago.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, McLeod, but his soul has gone marching on. The Republican party - fought the South because such men as Legree lived in it, and abused the - negroes, and the moment they won, turn and make Legree and his breed their - pets. Simon Legree is more than a mere man who stole five millions of - dollars, alienated the races, and covered the South with the desolation of - anarchy. He is an idea. He represents everything that the soul of the - South loathes, and that the Republican party has tried to ram down our - throats, Negro supremacy in politics, and Negro equality in society.” - </p> - <p> - “You are talking about the dead past, Gaston. I’m surprised at a man of - your brain living under such a delusion. How can there be Negro supremacy - when they are in a minority?” - </p> - <p> - “Supremacy under a party system is always held by a minority. The dominant - faction of a party rules the party, and the successful party rules the - state. If the Negro only numbered one-fifth the population and they all - belonged to one party, they could dictate the policy of that party.” - </p> - <p> - “You know that a few white brains really rule that black mob.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but the black mob defines the limits within which you live and have - your being.” - </p> - <p> - “Gaston, the time has come to shake off this nightmare, and face the - issues of our day and generation. We are going to win in this campaign, - but I want you. I like you. You are the kind of man we need now to take - the field and lead in this campaign.” - </p> - <p> - “How are you going to win?” - </p> - <p> - “We are going to form a contract with the Farmer’s Alliance and break the - backbone of the Bourbon Democracy of the South. The farmers have now a - compact body of 50,000 voters, thoroughly organised, and combined with the - negro vote we can hold this state until Gabriel blows his trumpet.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s a pretty scheme. Our farmers are crazy now with all sorts of fool - ideas,” said Gaston thoughtfully. - </p> - <p> - “Exactly, my boy, and we’ve got them by the nose.” - </p> - <p> - “If you can carry through that programme, you’ve got us in a hole.” - </p> - <p> - “In a hole? I should say we’ve got you in the bottomless pit with the lid - bolted down. You ’ll not even rise at the day of judgment. It won’t - be necessary!” laughed McLeod, and as he laughed changed his tone in the - midst of his laughter. - </p> - <p> - “And what is the great proposition you have to make to me?” asked Gaston. - </p> - <p> - “Join with us in this new coalition, and stump the state for us. Your - fortune will be made, win or lose. I ’ll see that the National - Republican Committee pays you a thousand dollars a week for your speeches, - at least five a week, two hundred dollars apiece. If we lose, you will - make ten thousand dollars in the canvass, and stand in line for a good - office under the National Administration. If we win, I ’ll put you - in the Governor’s Palace for four years. There’s a tide in the affairs of - men, you know. It’s at the flood at this moment for you.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston was silent a moment and looked thoughtfully out of the window. The - offer was a tremendous temptation. A group of old fogies had dominated the - Democratic party for ten years, and had kept the younger men down with - their war cries and old soldier candidates, until he had been more than - once disgusted. He felt as sure of McLeod’s success as if he already saw - it. It was precisely the movement he had warned the old pudding-head set - against in the preceding campaign in which they had deliberately alienated - the Farmer’s Alliance. They had pooh poohed his warning and blundered on - to their ruin. - </p> - <p> - It was the dream of his life to have money enough to buy back his mother’s - old home, beautify it, and live there in comfort with a great library of - books he would gather. The possibility of a career at the state Capital - and then at Washington for so young a man was one of dazzling splendour to - his youthful mind. For the moment it seemed almost impossible to say no. - </p> - <p> - McLeod saw his hesitation and already smiled with the certainty of - triumph. A cloud overspread his face when Gaston at length said, “I ’ll - give you my answer to-morrow.” - </p> - <p> - “All right, you’re a gentleman. I can trust you. Our conversation is of - course only between you and me.” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly, I understand that.” - </p> - <p> - All that day and night he was alone fighting out the battle in his soul. - It was an easy solution of life that opened before him. The attainment of - his proudest ambitions lay within his grasp almost without a struggle. - Such a campaign, with his name on the lips of surging thousands around - those speaker’s stands, was an idea that fascinated him with a serpent - charm. - </p> - <p> - All that he had to do was to give up his prejudices on the Negro question. - His own party stood for no principle except the supremacy of the - Anglo-Saxon. On the issue of the party platforms, he was in accord with - the modern Republican utterances at almost every issue, and so were his - associates in the Southern Democracy. The Negro was the point. What was - the use now of persisting in the stupid reiteration of the old slogan of - white supremacy? The Negro had the ballot. He was still the ward of the - nation, and likely to be for all time, so far as he could see. The Negro - was the one pet superstition of the millions who lived where no negro - dwelt. His person and his ballot were held more peculiarly sacred and - inviolate in the South than that of any white man elsewhere. - </p> - <p> - The possibility of a reunion in friendly understanding and sympathy - between the masses of the North and the masses of the South seemed remote - and impossible in his day and generation. - </p> - <p> - He asked himself the question, could such a revolution toward universal - suffrage ever go backward, no matter how base the motive which gave it - birth? Why not give up impracticable dreams, accept things as they are, - and succeed? - </p> - <p> - He did not confer with the Rev. John Durham on this question, because he - knew what his answer would be without asking. A thousand times he had said - to him, with the emphasis he could give to words, “<i>My boy, the future - American must be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto! We are now deciding which it - shall be. The future of the world depends on the future of this Republic. - This Republic can have no future if racial lines are broken, and its proud - citizenship sinks to the level of a mongrel breed of Mulattoes. The South - must tight this battle to a finish. Two thousand years look down upon the - struggle, and Two thousand years of the future bend low to catch the - message of life or death!</i>” - </p> - <p> - He could see now his drawn face with its deep lines and his eyes flashing - with passion as he said this. These words haunted Gaston now with strange - power as he walked along the silent streets. - </p> - <p> - He walked down past his old home, stopped and leaned on the gate, and - looked at it long and lovingly. What a flood of tender and sorrowful - memories swept his soul! He lived over again the days of despair when his - mother was an invalid. He recalled their awful poverty, and then the last - terrible day with that mob of negroes trampling over the lawn and - overrunning the house. He saw the white face of his mother whose memory he - loved as he loved life. And now he recalled a sentence from her dying - lips. He had all but lost its meaning. - </p> - <p> - “You will grow to be a brave strong man. You will fight this battle out, - and win back our home, and bring your own bride here in the far away days - of sunshine and success I see for you.” - </p> - <p> - <i>You will fight this battle out</i>—he had almost lost that - sentence in his hunger for that which followed. It came to his soul now - ringing like a trumpet call to honour and duty. - </p> - <p> - He turned on his heel and walked rapidly home. He looked at his watch. It - was two o’clock in the morning. - </p> - <p> - “We will fight it out on the old lines,” he said to McLeod next day. - </p> - <p> - “You will find me a pretty good fighter.” - </p> - <p> - “Unto death, let it be,” answered Gaston firmly setting his lips. - </p> - <p> - “I admire your pluck, but I’m sorry for your judgment. You know you’re - beaten before you begin.” - </p> - <p> - “Defeat that’s seen has lost its bitterness before it comes.” - </p> - <p> - “Then get ready the flowers for the funeral. I hoped you would have better - sense. You are one of the men now I ’ll have to crush first, - thoroughly, and for all time. I’m not afraid of the old fools. I ’ll - be fair enough to tell you this,” said McLeod. - </p> - <p> - “Not since Legree’s day has the Republican party had so dangerous a man at - its head,” said Gaston thoughtfully to himself as McLeod strode away - across the square. “He has ten times the brains of his older master, and - none of his superstitions. He will give me a hard fight.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER III—FLORA - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>AMBRIGHT had - changed but little in the eighteen years of peace that had followed the - terrors of Legree’s régime. The population had doubled, though but few - houses had been built. The town had not grown from the development of - industry, but for a very simple reason—the country people had moved - into the town, seeking refuge from a new terror that was growing of late - more and more a menace to a country home, the roving criminal negro. - </p> - <p> - The birth of a girl baby was sure to make a father restless, and when the - baby looked up into his face one day with the soft light of a maiden, he - gave up his farm and moved to town. - </p> - <p> - The most important development of these eighteen years was the complete - alienation of the white and black races as compared with the old familiar - trust of domestic life. - </p> - <p> - When Legree finished his work as the master artificer of the - Reconstruction Policy, he had dug a gulf between the races as deep as - hell. It had never been bridged. The deed was done and it had crystallised - into the solid rock that lies at the basis of society. It was done at a - formative period, and it could no more be undone now than you could roll - the universe back in its course. - </p> - <p> - The younger generation of white men only knew the Negro as an enemy of his - people in politics and society. - </p> - <p> - He never came in contact with him except in menial service, in which the - service rendered was becoming more and more trifling, and his habits more - insolent. He had his separate schools, churches, preachers and teachers, - and his political leaders were the beneficiaries of Legree’s legacies. - </p> - <p> - With the Anglo-Saxon race guarding the door of marriage with fire and - sword, the effort was being made to build a nation inside a nation of two - antagonistic races. No such thing had ever been done in the history of the - human race, even under the development of the monarchial and aristocratic - forms of society. How could it be done under the formulas of Democracy - with Equality as the fundamental basis of law? And yet this was the - programme of the age. - </p> - <p> - Gaston was feeling blue from the reaction which followed his temptation by - McLeod. His duty was clear the night before as he walked firmly homeward, - recalling the tragedy of the past. Now in the cold light of day, the past - seemed far away and unreal. The present was near, pressing, vital. He laid - down a book he was trying to read, locked his office and strolled down - town to see Tom Camp. - </p> - <p> - This old soldier had come to be a sort of oracle to him. His affection for - the son of his Colonel was deep and abiding, and his extravagant flattery - of his talents and future were so evidently sincere they always acted as a - tonic. And he needed a tonic to-day. - </p> - <p> - Tom was seated in a chair in his yard under a big cedar, working on a - basket, and a little golden-haired girl was playing at his feet. It was - his old home he had lost in Legree’s day, but had got back through the - help of General Worth, who came up one day and paid back Tom’s gift of - lightwood in gleaming yellow metal. His long hair and full beard were - white now, and his eyes had a soft deep look that told of sorrows borne in - patience and faith beyond the ken of the younger man. It was this look on - Tom’s face that held Gaston like a magnet when he was in trouble. - </p> - <p> - “Tom, I’m blue and heartsick. I’ve come down to have you cheer me up a - little.” - </p> - <p> - “You’ve got the blues? Well that is a joke!” cried Tom. “You, young and - handsome, the best educated man in the county, the finest orator in the - state, life all before you, and God fillin’ the world to-day with sunshine - and spring flowers, and all for you! You blue! That is a joke.” And Tom’s - voice rang in hearty laughter. - </p> - <p> - “Come here, Flora, and kiss me, you won’t laugh at me, will you?” - </p> - <p> - The child climbed up into his lap, slipped her little arms around his neck - and hugged and kissed him. - </p> - <p> - “Now, once more, dearie, long and close and hard—oh! That’s worth a - pound of candy!” Again she squeezed his neck and kissed him, looking into - his face with a smile. - </p> - <p> - “I love you, Charlie,” she said with quaint seriousness. - </p> - <p> - “Do you, dear? Well, that makes me glad. If I can win the love of as - pretty a little girl as you I’m not a failure, am I?” And he smoothed her - curls. - </p> - <p> - “Ain’t she sweet?” cried Tom with pride as he laid aside his basket and - looked at her with moistened eyes. - </p> - <p> - “Tom, she’s the sweetest child I ever saw.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, she’s God’s last and best gift to me, to show me He still loved me. - Talk about trouble. Man, you’re a baby. You ain’t cut your teeth yet. Wait - till you’ve seen some things I’ve seen. Wait till you’ve seen the light of - the world go out, and staggerin’ in the dark met the devil face to face, - and looked him in the eye, and smelled the pit. And then feel him knock - you down in it, and the red waves roll over you and smother you. I’ve been - there.” - </p> - <p> - Tom paused and looked at Gaston. “You weren’t here when I come to the end - of the world, the time when that baby was born, and Annie died with the - little red bundle sleepin’ on her breast. The oldest girl was murdered by - Legree’s nigger soldiers. Then Annie give me that little gal. Lord, I was - the happiest old fool that ever lived that day! And then when I looked - into Annie’s dead face, I went down, down, down! But I looked up from the - bottom of the pit and I saw the light of them blue eyes and I heard her - callin’ me to take her. How I watched her and nursed her, a mother and a - father to her, day and night, through the long years, and how them little - fingers of hers got hold of my heart! Now, I bless the Lord for all His - goodness and mercy to me. She will make it all right. She’s going to be a - lady and such a beauty! She’s goin’ to school now, and me and the - General’s goin’ to take her ter college bye and bye, and she’s goin’ to - marry some big handsome fellow like you, and her crippled grey haired - daddy ’ll live in her house in his old age. The Lord is my shepherd - I shall not want.” - </p> - <p> - “Tom, you make me ashamed.” - </p> - <p> - “You ought to be, man, a youngster like you to talk about gettin’ the - blues. What’s all your education for?” - </p> - <p> - “Sometimes I think that only men like you have ever been educated.” - </p> - <p> - “G’long with your foolishness, boy. I ain’t never had a show in this - world. The nigger’s been on my back since I first toddled into the world, - and I reckon he ’ll ride me into the grave. They are my only rivals - now making them baskets and they always undersell me.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston started as Tom uttered the last sentence. - </p> - <p> - “With you, boy, it’s all plain sailin’. You’re the best looking chap in - the county. I was a dandy when I was young. It does me good to look at you - if you don’t care nothin’ about fine clothes. Then you’re as sharp as a - razor. There ain’t a man in No’th Caliny that can stand up agin you on the - stump. I’ve heard ’em all. You ’ll be the Governor of this - state.” - </p> - <p> - That was always the climax of Tom’s prophetic flattery. He could think of - no grander end of a human life than to crown it in the Governor’s Palace - of North Carolina. He belonged to the old days when it was a bigger thing - to be the Governor of a great state than to hold any office short of the - Presidency,—when men resigned seats in the United States Senate to - run for Governor, and when the national government was so puny a thing - that the bankers of Europe refused to loan money on United States bonds - unless countersigned by the State of Virginia. And that was not so long - ago. The bankers sent that answer to Buchanan’s Secretary of the Treasury. - </p> - <p> - “Tom, you’ve lifted me out of the dumps. I owe you a doctor’s fee,” cried - Gaston with enthusiasm as he placed Flora back on the grass and started to - his office. - </p> - <p> - “All I charge you is to come again. The old man’s proud of his young - friend. You make me feel like I’m somebody in the old world after all. And - some day when you’re great and rich and famous and the world’s full of - your name, I ’ll tell folks I know you like my own boy, and I ’ll - brag about how many times you used to come to see me.” - </p> - <p> - “Hush, Tom, you make me feel silly,” said Gaston as he warmly pressed the - old fellow’s hand. He went back toward his office with lighter step and - more buoyant heart. His mind was as clear as the noonday sun that was now - flooding the green fresh world with its splendour. He would stand by his - own people. He would sink or swim with them. If poverty and failure were - the result, let it be so. If success came, all the better. There were - things more to be desired than gold. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER IV—THE ONE WOMAN - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">G</span>ASTON called at - the post-office to get his mail. - </p> - <p> - One relief the Cleveland administration had brought Hambright—a - decent citizen in charge of the post-office. Dave Haley had given place to - a Democrat and was now scheming and working with McLeod for the - “salvation” of it the state, which of course meant for the old slave - trader the restoration of his office under a Republican administration. If - the South had held no other reason for hating the Republican party, the - character of the men appointed to Federal office was enough to send every - honest man hurrying into the opposite party without asking any questions - as to its principles. - </p> - <p> - Sam Love, the new postmaster was a jovial, honest, lazy, good-natured - Democrat whose ideal of a luxurious life was attained in his office. He - handed Gaston his mail with a giggle. - </p> - <p> - “What’s the matter with you, Sam?” - </p> - <p> - “Nuthin’ ‘tall. I just thought I’d tell you that I like her handwriting,” - he laughed. - </p> - <p> - “How dare you study the handwriting on my letters, sir!” - </p> - <p> - “What’s the use of being postmaster? There ain’t no big money in it. I - just take pride in the office,” said Sam genially. “That’s a new one, - ain’t it?” - </p> - <p> - Gaston looked at the letter incredulously. It was a new one,—a big - square envelope with a seal on the back of it, addressed to him in the - most delicate feminine hand, and postmarked “Independence.” - </p> - <p> - “Great Scott, this is interesting,” he cried, breaking the seal. - </p> - <p> - When the postmaster saw he was going to open it right there in the office, - he stepped around in front and looking over his shoulder said, “What is - it, Charlie?” - </p> - <p> - “It’s an invitation from the Ladies’ Memorial Association to deliver the - Memorial day oration at Independence the 10th of May. That’s great. No - money in it, but scores of pretty girls, big speech, congratulations, the - lion of the hour! Don’t you wish you were really a man of brains, Sam?” - </p> - <p> - “No, no, I’m married. It would be a waste now.” - </p> - <p> - “Sam, I ’ll be there. Got the biggest speech of my life all cocked - and primed, full of pathos and eloquence,—been working on it at odd - times for four years. They ’ll think it a sudden inspiration.” - </p> - <p> - “What’s the name of it?” - </p> - <p> - “The Message of the New South to the Glorious Old.” - </p> - <p> - “That sounds bully, that ought to fetch ’em.” - </p> - <p> - “It will, my boy, and when Dave Haley gets this postoffice away from you - in the dark days coming, I ’ll publish that speech in a pamphlet, - and you can peddle it at a quarter and make a good living for your - children.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t talk like that, Gaston, that isn’t funny at all. You don’t think - the Radicals have got any chance?” - </p> - <p> - “Chance! Between you and me they ’ll win.” - </p> - <p> - Sam went back to the desk without another word, a great fear suddenly - darkening the future. McLeod had gotten off the same joke on him the day - before. It sounded ominous coming from both sides like that. He took up - his party paper, “The Old Timer’s Gazette” and read over again the sure - prophecies of victory and felt better. - </p> - <p> - Gaston accepted the invitation with feverish haste. He had it all ready to - put in the office for the return mail to Independence. But he was ashamed - to appear in such a hurry, so he held the letter over until the next day. - He proudly showed the invitation to Mrs. Durham. - </p> - <p> - “What do you think of that, Auntie?” - </p> - <p> - “Immense. You will meet Miss Sallie sure. That letter is in her - handwriting. She’s the Secretary of the Association and signed the - Committee’s names.” - </p> - <p> - “You don’t say that’s the great and only one’s handwriting!” - </p> - <p> - “Couldn’t be mistaken. It has a delicate distinction about it. I’d know it - anywhere.” - </p> - <p> - “It is beautiful,” acknowledged Gaston looking thoughtfully at the letter. - </p> - <p> - “I wish you had a new suit, Charlie.” - </p> - <p> - “I wouldn’t mind it myself, if I had the money. But clothes don’t interest - me much, just so I’m fairly decent.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll loan you the money, if you will promise me to devote - yourself faithfully to Sallie.” - </p> - <p> - “Never. I ’ll not sell my interest in all those acres of pretty - girls just for one I never saw and a suit of clothes. No thanks. I’m going - down there with a premonition I may find Her of whom I’ve dreamed. They - say that town is full of beauties.” - </p> - <p> - “You’re so conceited. That’s all the more reason you should look your - best.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t care so much about looks. I’m going to do my best, whatever I - look.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh, you know you’re good looking and you don’t care,” said his foster - mother with pride. - </p> - <p> - On the 10th of May Independence was in gala robes. The long rows of - beautiful houses, with dark blue grass lawns on which giant oaks spread - their cool arms, were gay with bunting, and with flowers, flowers - everywhere! Every urchin on the street and every man, woman and child wore - or carried flowers. - </p> - <p> - The reception committee met Gaston at the depot on the arrival of the - excursion train that ran from Ham-bright. He was placed in an open - carriage beside a handsome chattering society woman, and drawn by two - prancing horses, was escorted to the hotel, where he was introduced to the - distinguished old soldiers of the Confederacy. - </p> - <p> - At ten o’clock the procession was formed. What a sight! It stretched from - the hotel down the shaded pavements a mile toward the cemetery, two long - rows of beautiful girls holding great bouquets of flowers. This long - double line of beauty and sweetness opened, and escorted gravely by the - oldest General of the Confederacy present, he walked through this mile of - smiling girls and flowers. Behind him tramped the veterans, some with one - arm, some with wooden legs. - </p> - <p> - When they passed through, the double line closed, and two and two the - hundreds of girls carried their flowers in solemn procession. Here was the - throbbing soul of the South, keeping fresh the love of her heroic dead. - </p> - <p> - They spread out over the great cemetery like a host of ministering angels. - There was a bugle call. They bent low a moment, and flowers were smiling - over every grave from the greatest to the lowliest. - </p> - <p> - And then to a stone altar marked “To the Unknown Dead,” they came and - heaped up roses. Then a group of sad-faced women dressed in black, with - quaint little bonnets wreathing their brows like nuns, went silently over - to the National Cemetery across the way and each taking a basket, walked - past the long lines of the dead their boys had fought and dropped a single - rose on every soldier’s grave. They were women whose boys were buried in - strange lands in lonely unmarked trenches. They were doing now what they - hoped some woman’s hand would do for their lost heroes. - </p> - <p> - The crowd silently gathered around the speakers’ stand and took their - seats in the benches placed beneath the trees. - </p> - <p> - Gaston had never seen this ceremony so lavishly and beautifully performed - before. He was overwhelmed with emotion. His father’s straight soldierly - figure rose before him in imagination, and with him all the silent hosts - that now bivouacked with the dead. His soul was melted with the infinite - pathos and pity of it all. - </p> - <p> - He had intended to say some sharp epigrammatic things that would cut the - chronic moss-backs that cling to the platforms on such occasions. But - somehow when he began they were melted out of his speech. He spoke with a - tenderness and reverence that stilled the crowd in a moment like low - music. - </p> - <p> - His tribute to the dead was a poem of rhythmic and exalted thoughts. The - occasion was to him an inspiration and the people hung breathless on his - words. His voice was never strained but was penetrated and thrilled with - thought packed until it burst into the flame of speech. He felt with - conscious power his mastery of his audience. He was surprised at his own - mood of extraordinary tenderness as he felt his being softened by that - oldest religion of the ages, the worship of the dead—as old as - sorrow and as everlasting as death! He was for the moment clay in the - hands of some mightier spirit above him. - </p> - <p> - He had spoken perhaps fifteen minutes when suddenly, straight in front of - him, he looked into the face of the One Woman of all his dreams! - </p> - <p> - There she sat as still as death, her beautiful face tense with breathless - interest, her fluted red lips parted as if half in wonder, half in joy, - over some strange revelation, and her great blue eyes swimming in a mist - of tears. He smiled a look of recognition into her soul and she answered - with a smile that seemed to say “I’ve known you always. Why haven’t you - seen me sooner?” He recognised her instantly from Mrs. Durham’s - description and his heart gave a cry of joy. From that moment every word - that he uttered was spoken to her. Sometimes as he would look straight - through her eyes into her soul, she would flush red to the roots of her - brown-black hair, but she never lowered her gaze. He closed his speech in - a round of applause that was renewed again and again. - </p> - <p> - His old classmate, Bob St. Clare, rushed forward to greet him. - </p> - <p> - “Old fellow, you’ve covered yourself with glory. By George, that was - great! Come, here’s a hundred girls want to meet you.” - </p> - <p> - He was introduced to a host of beauties who showered him with extravagant - compliments which he accepted without affectation. He knew he had outdone - himself that day, and he knew why. The One Woman he had been searching the - world for was there, and inspired him beyond all he had ever dared before. - </p> - <p> - He was disappointed in not seeing her among the crowd who were shaking his - hand. He looked anxiously over the heads of those near by to see if she - had gone. He saw her standing talking to two stylishly dressed young men. - </p> - <p> - When the crowd had melted away from the rostrum, she walked straight - toward him extending her hand with a gracious smile. - </p> - <p> - He knew he must look like a fool, but to save him he could not help it, he - was simply bubbling over with delight as he grasped her hand, and before - she could say a word he said, “You are Miss Sallie Worth, the Secretary of - the Association. My foster mother has described you so accurately I should - know you among a thousand.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I have been looking forward with pleasure to our trip to the Springs - when I knew we should meet you. I am delighted to see you a month - earlier.” She said this with a simple earnestness that gave it a deeper - meaning than a mere commonplace. - </p> - <p> - “Do you know that you nearly knocked me off my feet when I first saw you - in the crowd?” - </p> - <p> - “Why? How?” she asked. - </p> - <p> - “You startled me.” - </p> - <p> - “I hope not unpleasantly,” she said, looking up at him with her blue eyes - twinkling. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Heavens no! You are such a perfect image of the girl she described - that I was so astonished I came near shouting at the top of my voice, - ‘There she is!’ And that would have astonished the audience, wouldn’t it?” - </p> - <p> - “It would indeed,” she replied blushing just a little. - </p> - <p> - “But I’m forgetting my mission, Mr. Gaston. Papa sent me to apologise for - his absence to-day. He was called out of the city on some mill business. - He told me to bring you home to dine with him. I’m the Secretary, you know - and exercise authority in these matters, so I’ve fixed that programme. You - have no choice. The carriage is waiting.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER V—THE MORNING OF LOVE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>O his dying day - Gaston will never forget that ride to her home with Sallie Worth by his - side. It was a perfect May day. The leaves on the trees were just grown - and flashed in their green satin under the Southern sun, and every flower - seemed in full bloom. - </p> - <p> - A great joy filled his heart with a sense of divine restfulness. He was - unusually silent. And then she said something that made him open his eyes - in new wonder. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t drive so fast Ben, and go around the longest way, I’m enjoying - this.” She paused and a mischievous look came into her eyes as she saw his - expression. “I’ve got the lion here by my side. I want to show all the - girls in town that I’m the only one here to-day. It isn’t often I’ve a - great man tied down fast like this.” - </p> - <p> - “Why did you spoil the first part of that pretty speech with the last?” he - said with a frown. - </p> - <p> - “It was only your vanity that made me pause.” - </p> - <p> - “Could you read me like that?” - </p> - <p> - “Of course, all men are vain, much vainer than women.” Again there was a - long silence. - </p> - <p> - They had reached the outskirts of the city now and were driving slowly - through the deep shadows of a great forest. - </p> - <p> - “What beautiful trees!” he exclaimed. - </p> - <p> - “They are fine. Do you love big trees?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, they always seem to me to have a soul. It used to make me almost cry - to watch them fall beneath Nelse’s axe. I’d never have the heart to clear - a piece of woods if I owned it.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m so glad to hear you say that. Papa laughed at me when I said - something of the sort when he wanted to cut these woods. He left them just - to please me. They belong to our place. They hide the house till you get - right up to the gate, but I love them.” - </p> - <p> - Again he looked into her eyes and was silent. - </p> - <p> - “Now, I come to think of it, you’re the only girl I’ve met to-day who - hasn’t mentioned my speech. That’s strange.” - </p> - <p> - “How do you know that I’m not saving up something very pretty to say to - you later about it?” - </p> - <p> - “Tell me now.” - </p> - <p> - “No, you’ve spoiled it by your vanity in asking.” She said this looking - away carelessly. - </p> - <p> - “Then I ’ll interpret your silence as the highest compliment you - can pay me. When words fail we are deeply moved.” - </p> - <p> - “Vanity of vanity, all is vanity saith the preacher!” she exclaimed - lifting her pretty hands. - </p> - <p> - They turned through a high arched iron gateway, across which was written - in gold letters, “Oakwood.” - </p> - <p> - On a gently rising hill on the banks of the Catawba river rose a splendid - old Southern mansion, its big Greek columns gleaming through the green - trees like polished ivory. A wide porch ran across the full width of the - house behind the big pillars, and smaller columns supported the full sweep - of a great balcony above. The house was built of brick with Portland - cement finish, and the whole painted in two shades of old ivory, with - moss-green roof and dark rich Pompeian red brick foundations. With its - green background of magnolia trees it seemed like a huge block of solid - ivory flashing in splendour from its throne on the hill. The drive wound - down a little dale, around a great circle filled with shrubbery and - flowers and up to the pillared porte-cochere. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! what a beautiful home!” Gaston exclaimed with feeling. - </p> - <p> - “It is beautiful, isn’t it?” she said with delight. “I love every brick in - its walls, every tree and flower and blade of grass.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve always dreamed of a home like that. Those big columns seem to link - one to the past and add dignity and meaning to life.” - </p> - <p> - “Then you can understand how I love it, when I was born here and every - nook and corner has its love message for me from the past that I have - lived, as well as its wider meaning which you see.” - </p> - <p> - “The old South built beautiful homes, didn’t they? And that was one of the - finest things about the proud old days,” he said. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and the new South of which you spoke to-day will not forget this - heritage of the old, when it comes to itself and shakes off its long - suffering and poverty!” - </p> - <p> - Strange to hear that sort of a speech from a girl who loves society, - dances divinely and dresses to kill. He thought of the words of his foster - mother with a pang. He hoped she was joking about those things. But he had - a strong suspicion from the consciousness of power with which she had - tried once or twice to tease him that they were going to prove fatally - true. - </p> - <p> - “Mother tells me you were in Baltimore, in that swell girls’ school on - North Charles Street when I was a student at the University?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and we gave reception after reception to the Hopkins men and you - never once honoured us with your presence.” - </p> - <p> - “But I didn’t know you were there, Miss Sallie.” - </p> - <p> - “Of course not. If you had, I wouldn’t speak to you now. They said you - were a recluse. That you never went into society and didn’t speak to a - woman for four years.” - </p> - <p> - “How did you hear that?” - </p> - <p> - “Bob St. Clare told me after I came home by way of apology for your bad - manners in so shamefully neglecting a young woman from your own state.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll make amends, now.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! I’m not suffering from loneliness as I did then. You know Bob put us - up to inviting you to deliver the address. He said you were the only - orator in North Carolina.” - </p> - <p> - “Bob’s the best friend I ever had. We entered college together at fifteen, - and became inseparable friends.” - </p> - <p> - He helped her from the carriage and she ran lightly up the high stoop. - </p> - <p> - “Now come here and look at the view of the river before Papa comes and - begins to talk about the tremendous water power in the falls.” - </p> - <p> - He followed her to the end of the long porch overlooking the river. Behind - the house the hill abruptly plunged downward to the waters’ edge in a - mountainous cliff. The river wound around this cliff past the house, - emerging into a valley where it described a graceful curve almost doubling - on itself and rolled softly away amid green overhanging willows and - towering sycamores till lost in the distance toward the blue spurs of - King’s Mountain. - </p> - <p> - “A glorious view!” said Gaston, looking long and lovingly at the silver - surface of the river. - </p> - <p> - “Do you love the water, Mr. Gaston?” - </p> - <p> - “Passionately. I was born among the hills, but the first time I saw the - ocean sweeping over five miles of sand reefs and breaking in white - thundering spray at my feet, I stood there on a sand dune on our wild - coast and gazed entranced for an hour without moving. Of all the things - God ever made on this earth I love the waters of the sea, and all moving - water suggests it to me. That river says, I must hurry to the sea!” - </p> - <p> - “It is strange we should have such similar tastes, she said seriously. But - it did not seem strange to him. Somehow he expected to find her agree with - every whim and fancy of his nature. - </p> - <p> - “Now we will find Mama. She is such an invalid she rarely goes out. Papa - will be home any minute.” - </p> - <p> - “We are glad to welcome you Mr. Gaston,” said her mother in a kindly - manner. “I’m sure you’ve enjoyed the drive this beautiful day if Sallie - hasn’t been trying to tease you. The boys say she’s very tiresome at - times.” - </p> - <p> - “Why Mama, I’m surprised at you. The idea of such a thing! There’s not a - word of truth in it, is there, Mr. Gaston?” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly not, Miss Sallie. I ’ll testify, Mrs. Worth, that your - daughter has been simply charming.” - </p> - <p> - She ran to meet her father at the door. There was the sound of a hearty - kiss, a little whispering, and the General stepped briskly into the - parlour where she had left her guest. - </p> - <p> - “Pleased to welcome you to our home, young man. They say down town that - you made the greatest speech ever heard in Independence. Sorry I missed - it. We ’ll have you to dinner anyway. I knew your brave father in - the army. And now I come, to think of it, I saw you once when you were a - boy. I was struck with your resemblance to your father then, as now. You - showed me the way down to Tom Camp’s house. Don’t you remember?” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly General, but I didn’t flatter myself that you would recall it.” - </p> - <p> - “I never forget a face. I hope you have been enjoying yourself?” - </p> - <p> - “More than I can express, sir.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll join you bye and bye,” said the General, taking leave. - </p> - <p> - “Now isn’t he a dear old Papa?” she said demurely. - </p> - <p> - “He certainly knows how to make a timid young man feel at home.” - </p> - <p> - “Are you timid?” - </p> - <p> - “Hadn’t you noticed it?” - </p> - <p> - “Well, hardly.” She shook her head and closed her eyes in the most - tantalising way. “To see the cool insolence of conscious power with which - you looked that great crowd in the face when you arose on that platform, I - shouldn’t say I was struck with your timidity.” - </p> - <p> - “I was really trembling from head to foot.” - </p> - <p> - “I wonder how you would look if really cool!” - </p> - <p> - “Honestly, Miss Sallie, I never speak to any crowd without the intensest - nervous excitement. I may put on a brave front, but it’s all on the - surface.” - </p> - <p> - “I can’t believe it,” she said shaking her head. - </p> - <p> - She looked at his serious face a moment and was silent. - </p> - <p> - “It’s queer how we run out of something to say, isn’t it?” she asked at - length. - </p> - <p> - “I hadn’t thought of it.” - </p> - <p> - “Come up to the observatory and I’ll show you Lord Cornwallis’ look-out - when he had his headquarters here during the Revolution.” - </p> - <p> - She lifted her soft white skirts and led the way up the winding mahogany - stairs into the observatory from which the surrounding country could be - seen for miles. - </p> - <p> - “Here Lord Cornwallis waited in vain for Colonel Ferguson to join him with - his regiment from King’s Mountain.” - </p> - <p> - “Where my great-grandfather was drawing around him his cordon of death - with his fierce mountain men!” interrupted Gaston. - </p> - <p> - “Was your great-grandfather in that battle?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, it was fought on his land, and his two-story log house with the - rifle holes cut in the chimney jambs still stands.” - </p> - <p> - “Then we will shake hands again,” she cried with enthusiasm, “for we are - both children of the Revolution!” - </p> - <p> - Gaston took her beautiful hand in his and held it lingeringly. Never in - all his life had the mere touch of a human hand thrilled him with such - strange power, How long he held it he could not tell but it was with a - sort of hurt surprise he felt her gently withdraw it at last. - </p> - <p> - They had reached the parlour again, and he slowly fell into an easy chair. - </p> - <p> - “Do you dance, Miss Sallie?” - </p> - <p> - “Why yes, don’t you dance?” - </p> - <p> - “Never tried in my life.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t you approve of dancing?” - </p> - <p> - “I never had time to think about it. It always seemed silly to me.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s great fun.” - </p> - <p> - “I’d take lessons if you would agree to teach me, and I could dance with - you all the time, and keep all the other fellows away.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I must say that’s doing fairly well for a timid young man’s first - day’s acquaintance. What will you say when you once become fully - self-possessed?” She lifted her high arched eyebrows and looked at him - with those blue eyes full of tantalising fun until he had to look down at - the floor to keep from saying more than he dared. When he looked up again - he changed the subject. - </p> - <p> - “Miss Sallie, I feel like I’ve known you ever since I was born.” She - blushed and made no reply. - </p> - <p> - Dinner was announced, and Gaston was amazed to see Allan McLeod enter - chattering familiarly with the General. He seemed on the most intimate - terms with the family and his eye lingered fondly on Sallie’s face in a - way that somehow Gaston resented as an impertinence. - </p> - <p> - “I didn’t even know you were acquainted with the Hon. Allan McLeod, Miss - Sallie,” said Gaston as they entered the parlour alone. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, he was a sort of ward of Papa’s when he was a boy. Papa hates his - politics, but he has always been in and out almost like one of the family - since I can remember. I think he’s’ a fascinating man, don’t you?” - </p> - <p> - “I do, but I don’t like him.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, he’s a great friend of mine, you mustn’t quarrel.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston went to the hotel with his brain in a whirl wondering just what she - meant. It was nearly twelve o’clock before he left the General’s house. - How he had passed these eleven hours he could not imagine. They seemed - like eleven minutes in one way. In another he seemed to have lived a - lifetime that day. - </p> - <p> - “By George, she’s an angel!” he kept saying over and over to himself as he - climbed to his room forgetting the elevator. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VI—BESIDE BEAUTIFUL WATERS - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Gaston tried - to sleep, he found it impossible. His brain was on fire, every nerve - quivering with some new mysterious power and his imagination soaring on - tireless wings. He rolled and tossed an hour, then got up, and sat by his - open window looking out over the city sleeping in the still white - moonlight. He looked into the mirror and grinned. - </p> - <p> - “What is the matter with me!” he exclaimed. “I believe I’m going crazy.” - </p> - <p> - He sat down and tried to work the thing out by the formulas of cold - reason. “It’s perfectly absurd to say I’m in love. My wild romancing about - a passion that will grasp all life in its torrent sweep is only a boy’s - day dream. The world is too prosy for that now.” - </p> - <p> - Yet in spite of this argument the room seemed as bright as day, and the - moon was only a pale sister light to the radiance from the face of the - girl he had seen that day. Her face seemed to him smiling close into his - now. The light of her eyes was tender and soothing like the far away - memory of his mother’s voice. - </p> - <p> - “It’s a passing fancy,” he said at last, after he had sat an hour dreaming - and dreaming of scenes he dared not frame in words even alone. He stood by - the window again. - </p> - <p> - “What a beautiful old world this is after all!” he thought as he gazed out - on the tops of the oaks whose young leaves were softly sighing at the - touch of the night winds. Turning his eye downward to the street he saw - the men loading the morning papers into the wagons for the early mail. - </p> - <p> - “I wonder what sort of report of my speech they put in?” he exclaimed. - Unable to sleep he hastily dressed, went down and bought a paper. - </p> - <p> - On the front page was a flattering portrait, two columns in width, with a - report of his speech filling the entire page, and an editorial review of a - column and a half. He was hailed as the coming man of the state in this - editorial, which contained the most extravagant praise. He knew it was the - best thing he had ever done, and he felt for the minute proud of himself - and his achievement. This contemplation of his own greatness quieted his - nerves and he fell asleep. He was awakened by the first rolling of carts - on the pavements at dawn. He knew he had not slept more than two hours but - he was as wide awake as though he had slept soundly all night. - </p> - <p> - “I must be threatened with that spell of fever Auntie has been worrying - about since I was a boy!” he laughed as he slowly dressed. - </p> - <p> - “It’s now six o’clock, and my train don’t leave till nine,” he mused. “But - am I going on that train, that’s the question?” - </p> - <p> - The fact was, now he came to think of it, there was no need of hurrying - home. He would stay a while and look this mystery in the face until he was - disillusioned. Besides he wanted to find out what McLeod’s visit meant. He - had a vague feeling of uneasiness when he recalled the way McLeod had - assumed about the General’s house. He had told Sallie he must hurry home - on the morning’s train for no earthly reason than that he had intended to - do so when he came. - </p> - <p> - So after breakfast he wrote her a little note. - </p> - <p> - “<i>My Dear Miss Worth,</i> - </p> - <p> - “<i>My train left me. Will you have compassion on a stranger in a strange - city and let me call to see you again to-day? Charles Gaston.</i>” - </p> - <p> - He waited impatiently until he heard his train leave, and then told the - boy to make tracks for the General’s house. - </p> - <p> - A peal of laughter rang through the hall when Sallie’s dancing eyes read - that note. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! the storyteller!” she cried. - </p> - <p> - And this was the answer she sent back. - </p> - <p> - “<i>Certainly. Come out at once. I </i>’<i>ll take you buggy driving all - by myself over a lovely road up the river. I do this in acknowledgment of - the gracious flattery you pay me in the story you told about the train. Of - course I know you waited till the train left before you sent the note. - Sallie Worth.</i>” - </p> - <p> - “Now I wonder if that young rascal of a boy told her I wrote that note an - hour ago? I ’ll wring his neck if he did. Come here boy!” - </p> - <p> - The negro came up grinning in hopes of another quarter. - </p> - <p> - “Did you tell that young lady anything about when I wrote that note?” - </p> - <p> - “Na-sah! Nebber tole her nuffin. She des laugh and laugh fit ter kill - herse’f des quick es she reads de note.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston smiled and threw him another tip. - </p> - <p> - “Yassah, she’s a knowin’ lady, sho’s you bawn, I been dar lots er times - fo’ dis!” - </p> - <p> - Gaston was tempted to ask him for whom he carried those former messages. - He walked with bounding steps, his being tingling to his finger tips with - the joy of living. The avenue leading the full length of the city toward - the General’s house was two miles long before it reached the woods at the - gate. It seemed only a step this morning. - </p> - <p> - As he passed through the cool shade of the woods a squirrel was playing - hide and seek with his mate on the old crooked fence beside the road. His - little nimble mistress flew up a great tree to its topmost bough and - chattered and laughed at her lover as he scrambled swiftly after her. She - waited until he was just reaching out his arm to grasp her, and then with - another scream of laughter leaped straight out into the air to another - tree top, and then another and another until lost in the heart of the - forest. - </p> - <p> - “I wonder if that’s going to be my fate!” he mused as he turned into the - gateway. - </p> - <p> - Again the majestic beauty of that gleaming mass of ivory on the hill with - its green background swept his soul with its power. It seemed a different - shade of colour now that he saw it with the sun at another angle. Its - surface seemed to have the soft sheen of creamy velvet. - </p> - <p> - He paused and sighed, “Why should I be so poor! If I only had a house like - that I’d turn that big banquet hall on the left wing into a library, and - I’d ask no higher heaven.” - </p> - <p> - And he fell to wondering if it would really be worth the having without - the face and voice of the girl who was there within waiting for him. No, - he was sure of it this morning for the first time in his life. The - certainty of this conviction brought to his heart a feeling of loneliness - and despair. When he thought of his abject poverty and the long years of - struggle before him, and of that beautiful accomplished young woman rich, - petted, the belle of the city, the gulf that separated their lives seemed - impassable. - </p> - <p> - “I’m playing with fire!” he said to himself as he looked up at the - graceful pillars with their carved and fluted capitals. “Well, let it be - so. Let me live life to its deepest depths and its highest reach. It is - better to love and lose than never to love at all.” And he walked into the - cool hall with the ease and assurance of its master. - </p> - <p> - Sallie greeted him with the kindliest grace. - </p> - <p> - “I’m so glad you stayed to-day, Mr. Gaston. I should have been really - chagrined to think I made so slight an impression on you that you could - walk deliberately away on a pre-arranged schedule. I am not used to being - treated so lightly.” - </p> - <p> - He tried to make some answer to this half serious banter, but was so - absorbed in just looking at her he said nothing. - </p> - <p> - She was dressed in a morning gown of a soft red material, trimmed with old - cream lace. The material of a woman’s dress had never interested him - before. He knew calico from silk, but beyond that he never ventured an - opinion. To colour alone he was responsive. This combination of red and - creamy white, with the bodice cut low showing the lines of her beautiful - white shoulders and the great mass of dark hair rising in graceful curves - from her full round neck heightened her beauty to an extraordinary degree. - As she walked, the clinging folds of her dress, outlining her queenly - figure, seemed part of her very being and to be imbued with her soul. He - was dazzled with the new revelation of her power over him. - </p> - <p> - “Have you no apology, sir, for pretending that you were going home this - morning?” she said seating herself by his side. - </p> - <p> - “You didn’t ask me to stay with fervour.” - </p> - <p> - “It ought not to have been necessary.” - </p> - <p> - “Didn’t you really know I was not going?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m glad.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, you see I’m twenty-one years old, and I’ve seen such things happen - before!” she purred this slowly and burst into laughter. - </p> - <p> - “Now, Miss Sallie, that’s cruel to throw me down in a heap of dead dogs I - don’t even know.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t you like dogs?” - </p> - <p> - “Four legged ones, yes. But I like my friends alive.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! It didn’t kill any of them. They are all strong and hearty. But if - you’re so domestic in your tastes why haven’t you settled in life?” - </p> - <p> - “Been waiting to find the woman of my dreams.” - </p> - <p> - “And you haven’t found her?” - </p> - <p> - “Not up to yesterday.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! I forgot,” she said archly, “you’re so timid.” - </p> - <p> - “Honestly, I was.” - </p> - <p> - “Up to yesterday!” she murmured. “Well, tell me what your dreams demanded? - What kind of a creature must she be?” - </p> - <p> - “I have forgotten.” - </p> - <p> - “What! Forgotten the dreams of your ideal woman?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes.” - </p> - <p> - “Since when?” - </p> - <p> - “Yesterday.” - </p> - <p> - “Thanks. We are getting on beautifully, aren’t we? You will get over your - timidity in time, I’m sure.” - </p> - <p> - He smiled, looked down at the pattern of the carpet and did not speak for - some minutes. His soul was thrilled and satisfied in her presence. As he - lifted his eyes from the floor they rested on the piano. - </p> - <p> - “Will you play for me, Miss Sallie? Auntie says you play delightfully.” - </p> - <p> - “Auntie? Who is Auntie?” - </p> - <p> - “Mrs. Durham, my foster mother, of course. Excuse my unconscious - assumption of your familiarity with all my antecedents. I can’t get over - the impression that I have known you all my life.” - </p> - <p> - “And that reminds me that I started to say something to you yesterday that - was perfectly ridiculous, but caught myself in time.” - </p> - <p> - “I wish you had said it.” - </p> - <p> - “Mrs. Durham is a great flatterer of those she loves. She thinks I can - play. But I’m the veriest amateur.” - </p> - <p> - “Let me be the judge.” - </p> - <p> - She was looking over her music, and he had opened the piano. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll play for you with pleasure. Sit there in that big arm chair. - I’m sorry I tired you so early in the day with my chatter.” - </p> - <p> - And before he could protest her fingers were touching the piano with the - ease of the born musician. - </p> - <p> - He sat enraptured as he watched the sinuous grace with which her fingers - touched the ivory keys and heard their answering cry which seemed the - breath of her own soul in echo. - </p> - <p> - She had an easy apparently careless touch. To old familiar music she gave - a charm that was new, adding something indefinable to the musician’s - thought that gave luminous power to its interpretation. He had no - knowledge of the technique of music, but now he knew that she was - improvising. The piano was the voice of her own beautiful soul, and it was - pulsing with a tenderness that melted him to tears. - </p> - <p> - Suddenly the music ceased, and she turned her face full on his before he - could brush away a big tear that rolled down. She flushed, closed the - piano, and quietly resumed her place by his side. - </p> - <p> - “And, now, you haven’t told me how well I played. You’re the first young - man so careless.” - </p> - <p> - “I have told you.” - </p> - <p> - “How?” - </p> - <p> - “The way you told me yesterday that you understood me—with a tear.” - </p> - <p> - “I appreciate it more than words.” - </p> - <p> - “So did I,” he slowly said. Again there was a long silence. - </p> - <p> - “But we do love to hear folks say in words what they think sometimes. I - confess I was immensely elated over the fine things the paper said about - me this morning.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s a wonder too. Our editor is a cranky sort of fellow. I was afraid - he’d say a lot of mean things about you. But Papa says you swallowed him - whole.” - </p> - <p> - “Did you wish him to say kind things about me?” - </p> - <p> - “Of course,” she said, and then the look of mischief came back in her eye. - “Were you not our guest? I should have felt like whipping him if he hadn’t - said nice things.” - </p> - <p> - “Then I ’ll tell you what I think about your playing. You gave - those strings a soul for the first time for me, beautiful, living, - throbbing, that spoke a message of its own. The piece you improvised, I - shall never forget. Such music seems to me the grasping of the infinite by - hands that touch the impalpable and bringing it for a moment within the - sphere of matter that a kindred soul may hear and see and feel.” - </p> - <p> - She started to make some reply but her lips quivered and she looked away - across the valley at the river and made no answer. - </p> - <p> - At dinner the General was in his most genial mood, laughing and joking, - and drawing out Gaston on politics and cotton-mill developments, and - trying with all his might to tease his daughter. - </p> - <p> - As he took his departure for the mills, he said, “Young man, I’d ask you - to go with me and look at the machinery, but I see it’s no use. I heard - her twisting you around her fingers with that piano a while ago.” - </p> - <p> - “Papa, don’t be so silly!’ cried Sallie, slipping her arm around him, - putting one hand over his mouth, and kissing him. - </p> - <p> - “Go on to your work. I ’ll entertain Mr. Gaston.” - </p> - <p> - “Indeed you will!” he shouted, throwing her another kiss as he left. - </p> - <p> - “He’s the dearest father any girl ever had in this world. I know you loved - yours, didn’t you, Mr. Gaston?” - </p> - <p> - “Mine was killed in battle, Miss Sallie. I never knew him. But I had the - most beautiful mother that ever lived. I lost her when a mere boy. And the - world has never been the same since. I envy you.” - </p> - <p> - “I forgot. Forgive me,” she softly said, looking up into his face with - tenderness. - </p> - <p> - “If I had only had a sister! How my heart used to ache when I’d see other - boys playing with a sister! My poor little starved soul was so hungry, I - would go off in the woods sometimes and cry for hours.” - </p> - <p> - “I wish I had known you when you were a little boy,—I can’t conceive - of a dignified orator swaying thousands running around as a barefooted - boy. But you must have gone barefooted for I think Papa said so, didn’t - he?” - </p> - <p> - “Indeed I did, and sometimes I am afraid for the very good reason I didn’t - have any shoes.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you wouldn’t have worn them if you had. I always wanted to be a boy - just to go barefooted. I think girls lose so much of a child’s life by - having to wear shoes.” - </p> - <p> - “But you never knew what it meant to want shoes and not be able to have - them,” he said, looking at the shining tips of her slippers peeping from - the edge of her dress. - </p> - <p> - “No, but I never thought these things made a great difference in our lives - after all. I believe it is what we are, not what we have, that gives life - meaning.” - </p> - <p> - He looked at her intently. - </p> - <p> - “I must get ready now for our drive. The horse will be here in ten - minutes. Enjoy the view on the porch until I am ready,” and she bounded up - the stairs to her room. - </p> - <p> - In a few minutes she was by his side again dressed in spotless white as he - had seen her first. She lifted the lines over the sleek horse, and he - dashed swiftly down the drive. - </p> - <p> - Oh! the peace and bliss of that drive along the lonely river road by its - cool green banks! - </p> - <p> - How he poured out to her his inmost thoughts—things he had not dared - to whisper alone with himself and God! And then he wondered why he had - thus laid bare his secret dreams to this girl he had known but twenty-four - hours. Nonsense, down in his soul he knew he had known her forever. Before - the world was made, ages and ages ago in eternity he had known her. He - turned to her now drawn by a resistless force as a plant turns toward the - sunlight for its life. How he could talk that day! All he had ever known - of art and beauty, all he knew of the deep truths of life, were on his - lips leaping forth in simple but impassioned words. For hours he lay at - her feet where she sat on a rock, high up on the cliffs overlooking the - river and poured out his heart like a child. And she listened with a - dreamy look as though to the music of a master. - </p> - <p> - At last she sprang to her feet and looked at her watch. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Mama will be furious. It will be after sundown before we can get - home. We must hurry.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll make it all right with your Mama,” he replied as though he - were skilled in meeting such emergencies. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t you speak to her. It ’ll be all I can do to manage her.” - </p> - <p> - The twilight was gathering when they reached the house, and an angry - anxious mother was waiting high up on the stoop. - </p> - <p> - “Watch me smooth every wrinkle out of her brow now!” she whispered as she - flew up the steps. - </p> - <p> - Before her mother could say a word, a white hand was on her mouth and - pretty lips were whispering something in her ears she had never heard - before. There was the sound of a kiss and he heard Sallie say, “Not a - word!” And the mother greeted him with a smile and a curiously searching - look. She chatted pleasantly until her daughter returned from her room, - and then left her. Again it was nearly twelve o’clock before he reached - the hotel. - </p> - <p> - The next morning Bob St. Clare broke in on him before he was out of bed. - </p> - <p> - “Look here, you sly dog, what are you doing slipping and sliding around - here yet?” - </p> - <p> - “Bob, you’re the man I want to see. Tell me all you know about the - Worths.” - </p> - <p> - “The Worths? Which one?” - </p> - <p> - “There’s only one so far as I can see.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you may find out there’s two if you should happen to collide with - the General.” - </p> - <p> - “Does he cut up at times?” - </p> - <p> - “He’s all right till he turns on you, and then you want to find shelter.” - </p> - <p> - “Did you ever run up against him?” - </p> - <p> - “No, I never got that far. He’s hail-fellow-well-met with every youngster - in town. He will laugh and joke about his daughter until he thinks she is - in earnest about a fellow, and then he swoops down on him like a hawk. I - ’ll bet a hundred dollars he’s playing you now for all you’re worth - against the latest favourite. But Miss Sallie—she’s an angel!” - </p> - <p> - “Look here, Bob, you’re not in love with her?” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I’m convalescing at present my boy. Every boy in the town has been - there, but I don’t believe she cares a snap for a man of us unless it’s - that big redheaded McLeod. I can’t make his position out exactly.” - </p> - <p> - “Did she jolt you hard when you hit the ground?” - </p> - <p> - “Easiest thing you ever saw. She has a supreme genius for painless - cruelty. When the time comes she can pull your eye-tooth out in such a - delicate friendly way you will have to swear she hasn’t hurt you.” - </p> - <p> - “You still go?” - </p> - <p> - “Lord yes, we all do,—sort of a congress of the lost meet down - there. They all hang on. She keeps the friendship of every poor devil she - kills.” - </p> - <p> - “You know you make the cold chills run down my back when you talk like - that.” - </p> - <p> - “Are you in love with her, Gaston?” - </p> - <p> - “To tell you the truth, I don’t know.” - </p> - <p> - “Then what in the thunder have you been doing out there two days and - nights, if you haven’t made love to her?” - </p> - <p> - “Just basking in the sun.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you are a fool. Eleven hours the first day, and fifteen hours - yesterday. Confound you, don’t you know a dozen fellows in town are - cursing you for all they can think of?” - </p> - <p> - “What about?” - </p> - <p> - “Why for trying to hog the whole time, day and night. She won’t let a - mother’s son of them come near till you’re gone.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, that’s immense!” exclaimed Gaston slapping his friend on the back. - </p> - <h3> - 233 - </h3> - <p> - “Don’t be too sure. She’s just sizing you up. She’s done the same thing a - dozen times before.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t believe it.” - </p> - <p> - And he didn’t go home until the end of the week when the last cent of his - money was gone. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VII—DREAMS AND FEARS - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>E was on the train - at last homeward bound. Gazing out of the window of the car he was trying - to find where he stood. He must be in love. He faced the remarkable fact - that he had spent a whole week in Independence at an expensive hotel, and - squandered every cent of the small fee he had received for his address in - what would be otherwise a perfectly senseless manner. - </p> - <p> - Yet he felt rich. He was sure he had never spent money so wisely and - economically in his life. Beyond the shadow of a doubt he was in love,—desperately - and hopelessly committed to this one girl for life. He said it in his - heart with a shout of triumph. Life was not a sterile desert of brute - work. It was true. Love the magician of the ages, lived in this world of - lost faiths and dead religions. - </p> - <p> - Now that he was leaving he felt a tingling impulse to leap off the train, - cut across the fields and run back to her—and he laughed aloud, just - as the train came to a sudden stop, and everybody looked at him and - smiled. - </p> - <p> - A drummer looked up from a novel he was reading and said, “It is a fine - day, partner, isn’t it?” - </p> - <p> - “Never saw a finer,” answered Gaston with another laugh. - </p> - <p> - He dwelt long and greedily on the consciousness of this new vitalising - secret he felt for the first time throbbing in his soul. He bathed his - heart in its warmth until he could feel the red blood rush to the ends of - his fingers with its new fever. He breathed its perfume until every nerve - quivered. “I have never lived before. No matter now if I die, I have - lived!” he said slowly and reverently. - </p> - <p> - He wondered long and wistfully what was in her heart while this wild - tumult was going on in him. He wondered if it were possible she loved him. - It seemed too good to be true. He was afraid to believe it. And yet his - whole soul with every power of his being cried out that she did. He could - not have been mistaken in the message he read in the liquid depths of her - eyes, and the delicate tenderness of her voice. Words may say nothing, but - these signs are the language of the universal. Still, others had been - equally sure, and been deceived. Might not he too make the fatal mistake? - It was possible. And there was the pain. - </p> - <p> - She had not uttered a single word in all the hours they spent together - that might not be interpreted in a conventional meaningless way. - </p> - <p> - Yet he had given to every one of these words a soul meaning that spoke - directly to his inner being and not his ear. - </p> - <p> - He had never spoken a word of shallow love-making to a woman in his life. - To him love was too holy a mystery. It would have been the blasphemy of - the Holy Ghost—a sin that would not be forgiven in this world or the - world to come. His college mates had called him a crank on this subject. - But he shut his lips in a way that always closed the argument, and they - let him alone with his Idol. - </p> - <p> - “I am afraid yet to put it to the test!” he said at last. “I must have - time to reveal my best self to her. I must see her again, live close to - her day by day, and bring to bear on her every power of body and soul I - possess.” Mrs. Durham met him with dancing eyes. “Oh, I’ve heard from you, - sir!” - </p> - <p> - “Kiss me Auntie, and be kind. I’m in the last stages of delirium!” - </p> - <p> - He took her hands both in his and looked at her long. “How good you’ve - been to me, Auntie, in all the past. You never looked so beautiful as - to-day. I want to thank you for every word you’ve said to Miss Sallie for - me. It may have helped just a little anyway.” - </p> - <p> - “Well you are in the last stages!” she exclaimed gleefully. - </p> - <p> - “And you are glad of it?” - </p> - <p> - “Of course, I am, it will make a man of you.” - </p> - <p> - “But suppose I lose?” - </p> - <p> - She was silent a moment and then slipped her arm gently about him, drew - down his ear and whispered, “You shall not lose—I’ve set my heart on - it.” - </p> - <p> - He pressed her hands and said, “How like my sweet mother’s voice was - that!” - </p> - <p> - And then they fell to discussing plans for giving Miss Sallie and her - friend a jolly time at the Springs. - </p> - <p> - “But Auntie, these plans don’t seem to me exactly what I’d like. You see I - want to be the whole thing. It may be hopelessly selfish, but I can’t help - it.” - </p> - <p> - “Well that isn’t best.” - </p> - <p> - “Say Auntie, what do I look like anyway? How would you describe my make - up? Let’s get at the weak spots and splint them up a little. You know, I - never seriously cared a rap before about my looks.” - </p> - <p> - “Well”—she answered, slowly regarding him, “I ’ll be - perfectly frank with you. - </p> - <p> - “You are tall—at least two inches taller than the average man, and - your muscular body gives one the impression of power. You have black hair, - dark-brown eyes that look out from your shaggy straight eye-brows with a - piercing light.” - </p> - <p> - “You think the brows too shaggy?” - </p> - <p> - “No, I like them. They suggest reserve power and brain capacity.” - </p> - <p> - “Good, I never thought of that.” - </p> - <p> - “You have a face that is massive, almost leonine, and a square-cut - determined mouth, that always clean shaven, sometimes looks too grim.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll remember that and look pleasant.” - </p> - <p> - “You have a big hand and sometimes shake hands too strongly. You have a - handsome aristocratic foot when you wear decent shoes. You often walk - humpshouldered, and sit so too.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll brace up.” - </p> - <p> - “You have deep vertical wrinkles between your eyes just where your - straight eyebrows meet.” - </p> - <p> - “Heavens, I didn’t know I had wrinkles!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but they mean habits of thought like your stooping shoulders, I - don’t object to such wrinkles in a man’s face. But the best feature of all - your stock is your eye. Your big brown eyes are about the only perfect - thing about you. There’s infinite tenderness in them. Now and then they - gleam with a hidden fire that tells of enthusiasm, thought, will, - character, and dauntless courage.” - </p> - <p> - She looked and they were misty with tears. - </p> - <p> - He pressed her hand. “Auntie, I didn’t know how much you’ve loved me all - these years. How love opens one’s eyes!” - </p> - <p> - “You have a high temper, plenty of pride, and are given to looking on the - dark side of things too quickly. You lack poise of character and sureness - of touch yet, but with it all, yours is a masterful nature.” - </p> - <p> - “One you think that a perfect woman could love?” - </p> - <p> - “There are no perfect women; but I ’ll match you against any woman - I know. So there, now, take courage.” - </p> - <p> - “I will,” he gravely answered. - </p> - <p> - He hurried to his office and read his mail. There were two letters - retaining his services for jury work in important cases. His heart leaped - at the sign of coming success. What a new meaning love gave to every event - in life. - </p> - <p> - He turned to his books, and began immediately a searching study of every - question involved in these cases. He would carry the court by storm. He - would lead the jury spellbound by his eloquence to a certain verdict. How - clear his brain! He felt he was alive to his finger-tips, and argus-eyed. - </p> - <p> - He worked hour after hour without the slightest fatigue or knowledge of - the flight of time. He looked up at last with surprise to find it was - night, and was startled by the voice of the Preacher calling him from - below. - </p> - <p> - “What’s the matter with you? Mrs. Durham sent me to find you. She was - afraid you had gone up on the roof and walked off.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll be ready in a minute, Doctor,” he called from the window. - </p> - <p> - “I haven’t known you to take to law so violently in four years. What’s up? - Got a capital case?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I believe I have. It’s a matter of life and death to one poor soul - anyhow.” - </p> - <p> - “Now, honour bright haven’t you been working all this afternoon on a - love-letter that you’ve just finished and addressed to Independence?” - </p> - <p> - “‘No sir. To tell you the fact, I didn’t dare to ask her to write to me. I - knew I couldn’t control a pen.” - </p> - <p> - “My boy, I wish you success with all my heart. It makes me young again to - look into your face. I’ve had my supper, when you’ve finished your confab - with your Auntie, come out here in the square to the seat under the old - oak, I want to talk to you on some important business.” - </p> - <p> - “What have you been doing,” asked Mrs. Durham. - </p> - <p> - “Building a home for her!” he cried in a whisper. He went behind the chair - where his foster mother sat pouring his tea, bent low and kissed her high - white forehead. “My own Mother! I ’ll never call you Auntie again!” - </p> - <p> - Tears sprang to her eyes, and she kissed his hand, tenderly holding it to - her lips. - </p> - <p> - “Ah! Love is a wonder worker, isn’t he Charlie?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and I can’t realise the joy that lifts and inspires me when I think - that I am one of the elect. It’s too good to be true. I have been - initiated into the great secret. I have tasted the water of Life. I shall - not see Death.” - </p> - <p> - She looked at him with pride. “I knew you would make a matchless lover. I - envy Sallie her young eyes and ears!” - </p> - <p> - “You need not envy her. You will never grow old.” - </p> - <p> - “So much the worse if we miss the dreams that fill the souls of the - young,” she said with an accent of sorrowful pride. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VIII—THE UNSOLVED RIDDLE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">G</span>ASTON found the - Preacher quietly smoking, seated on the rustic under a giant oak that - stood in the corner of the square. - </p> - <p> - Under this tree the speakers’ stand had always been built for joint - debates in political campaigns. - </p> - <p> - Here, when a boy he had heard the great debate between Zebulon B. Vance - and Judge Thomas Settle in the fierce campaign which followed the - overthrow of Le-gree when the Republican party, under the leadership of - Judge Settle made its desperate effort for life. Settle, who was a man of - masterful personality, eloquent, and in dead earnest in his appeal for a - new South, had made a speech of great power to a crowd that were hostile - to every idea for which he stood; and yet he dazzled or stunned them into - sullen silence. - </p> - <p> - And then he recalled with flashes of memory vivid as lightning, the - miracle that had followed. He could see Vance now as he slowly lifted his - big lion-like head, and calmly looked over the sea of faces with eagle - eyes that could flash with resistless humour or blaze with the fury of - elemental passion. He reviewed the terrible past in which he had played - the tragic role of their war Governor, and tore into tatters with the - facts of history the logic of his opponent. And then he opened his - batteries of wit and ridicule,—wit that cut to the heart’s red - blood, and yet convulsed the hearer with its unexpected turn. Ridicule - that withered and scorched what it touched into ashes. Five thousand - people now in breathless suspense as he swung them into heaven on the - wings of deathless words, now screaming with laughter, and now hushed in - tears! - </p> - <p> - The scene that followed this triumph! Two stalwart mountain men snatched - him from the rostrum and bore him on their shoulders through the shouting, - weeping crowd. Women pressed close and kissed his hands, and old men - reached forward their hands to touch his garments. Ah! if he could inherit - the power of this king among men! To-night as Gaston walked under that - tree with his heart beating with the ecstasy of a new-found source of - life, he felt that he could do, and that he would do, what the master had - done before him! - </p> - <p> - “Charlie, I’ve heard some startling news since you left home, and I can’t - sleep nights thinking about it.” - </p> - <p> - “You’ve heard of McLeod’s scheme.” - </p> - <p> - “Exactly. And it means the ruin of this state and the ruin of the South - unless it can be defeated.” - </p> - <p> - “How are you going to do it?” - </p> - <p> - “It’s a puzzle but it’s got to be done. Half the farmers in the - strongholds of Democracy are crazy over their fool Sub-Treasury and a - hundred other fakir dreams. McLeod has promised them everything—Sub-Treasury, - pumpkin leaves for money,—anything they want if they will join - forces with his niggers and carry the state. You are the man to begin now - a quiet but thorough organisation of the young men, and oust the fools - from control of the party. - </p> - <p> - “When the white race begin to hobnob with the Negro and seek his favour, - they must grant him absolute equality. That means ultimately social as - well as political equality. You can’t ask a man to vote for you and kick - him down your front doorstep and tell him to come around the back way.” - </p> - <p> - “I think you exaggerate the social danger, but I see the political end of - it.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t exaggerate in the least. I am looking into the future. This - racial instinct is the ordinance of our life. Lose it and we have no - future. One drop of Negro blood makes a negro. It kinks the hair, flattens - the nose, thickens the lip, puts out the light of intellect, and lights - the fires of brutal passions. The beginning of Negro equality as a vital - fact is the beginning of the end of this nation’s life. There is enough - negro blood here to make mulatto the whole Republic.” - </p> - <p> - “Such a danger seems too remote for serious alarm to me,” replied the - younger man. - </p> - <p> - “Ah! there’s the tragedy,” passionately cried the Preacher. “You younger - men are growing careless and indifferent to this terrible problem. It’s - the one unsolved and unsolvable riddle of the coming century. <i>Can you - build, in a Democracy, a nation inside a nation of two hostile races?</i> - We must do this or become mulatto, and that is death. Every inch in the - approach of these races across the barriers that separate them is a - movement toward death. You cannot seek the Negro vote without asking him - to your home sooner or later. If you ask him to your house, he will break - bread with you at last. And if you seat him at your table, he has the - right to ask your daughter’s hand in marriage.” - </p> - <p> - “It seems to me a far cry to that. But I see the political crisis. What is - your plan?” - </p> - <p> - “This,—organise the young Democracy in every township in the state, - and put yourself at its head, control the primaries and down the old - crowd. They’ve got to follow you. Fight the campaign with the desperation - of despair. If you are defeated, God have mercy on us, but you will be - ready for the next battle.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll do it,” said Gaston with emphasis. - </p> - <p> - “Then I want you to go on a mission to Col. Duke, the President of the - National Farmer’s Alliance. He’s a good Baptist. He means well, but he’s - crazy. He dreams of the Presidency when he has established the - Sub-Treasury for the farmers. He’s afraid of the Negro, and is nervous - about using him. He knows I am the most influential Baptist preacher in - the state. Tell him I say you will win, and that we will give him the - nomination for Governor, and put him in line for the Presidency.” - </p> - <p> - “When shall I go to see him?” - </p> - <p> - “Immediately. Get ready to-night.” - </p> - <p> - The next week McLeod was seated in his office at Hambright receiving - reports from his political henchmen at Raleigh. - </p> - <p> - “I tell you, McLeod, there’s a hitch. Something’s dropped. Duke’s as coy - as a maid of sixteen. He says no decision can be made now until he submits - a lot of rot to all the lodges of the Alliance and the ‘Referendum’ - decides these points. You’d better get hold of him and comb the kinks out - of him quick.” - </p> - <p> - McLeod’s eyes flashed with anger, as he twisted the points of his red - moustache. - </p> - <p> - “It’s that damned Baptist Preacher,” he said. “I ’ll get even with - him yet if it’s the only thorough job I do on this earth.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER IX—THE RHYTHM OF THE DANCE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">B</span>EFORE boarding the - train he was to take for Raleigh, he lingered with Mrs. Durham talking, - talking, talking about the wonder of his love. As he arose to leave he - said, “Now, Mother dear”—— - </p> - <p> - “Charlie, you just say that so beautifully to make me your slave.” - </p> - <p> - “Of course I do. What I was going to say is, I can’t write to her. I don’t - dare. You can. Tell her all about me won’t you? Everything that you think - will interest and please her, and that will be discreet. Your intuitions - will tell you how far to go. Tell her how hard I’m working and what an - important mission I’ve undertaken, and the tremendous things that hang on - its outcome. And tell her how impatiently I’m waiting for her to come to - the Springs. Be sure to tell her that.” - </p> - <p> - “All right. I ’ll act as your attorney in your absence. But hurry - back, she must not get here first. I want you to be on the spot.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll be here if I have to give up politics and go into business—and - you know how I hate that word ‘business.’” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll telegraph you if she comes.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t let her come till I get back. Tell her the hotel isn’t fit to - receive guests yet—it never is for that matter—but anything to - give me time to get here.” - </p> - <p> - He worked with indomitable courage for two weeks, visiting the principal - towns in the state, and everywhere arousing intense enthusiasm. There was - something contagious in his spirit. The young fellows were charmed by his - eager intense way of looking at things, they caught the infection and he - made hundreds of staunch friends. - </p> - <p> - “You’re just in time!” cried his mother greeting him with radiant face on - his return. “She is coming tomorrow. I’ve a beautiful letter from her. I - think one of the sweetest letters a girl ever wrote.” - </p> - <p> - “Let me see it!” - </p> - <p> - “No.” - </p> - <p> - “Why, Mother, I thought you were all on my side!” - </p> - <p> - “But I’m not. I’m a woman, and you can’t see some things she says.” - </p> - <p> - “Then it’s something awfully nice about me.” - </p> - <p> - “Maybe the opposite.” - </p> - <p> - “Then you’d resent it for me.” - </p> - <p> - “I love her too, sir.” - </p> - <p> - “Let me see the tip end of it where she signs her name!” - </p> - <p> - “You can see that much, there”—— - </p> - <p> - “Doesn’t she write a lovely hand!” He looked long and lovingly. “That - pretty name!—Sallie! So old-fashioned, and so homelike. It’s music, - isn’t it?” - </p> - <p> - “I didn’t know you could be so silly, Charlie.” - </p> - <p> - “It is funny, isn’t it? You know I think after all, we are made out of the - same stuff, saint and sinner, philosopher and fool. The differences are - only skin deep.” - </p> - <p> - “You don’t think she is made out of ordinary clay?” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Lord, no, I meant the men. Every woman is something divine to me. I - think of God as a woman, not a man—a great loving Mother of all - Life. If I ever saw the face of God it was in my mother’s face.” - </p> - <p> - “Hush! you will make me do anything you wish.” - </p> - <p> - “No, no, I don’t want to see that letter unless you think it best.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you will not see any more of it, sir.” - </p> - <p> - When Gaston met them at the depot with a carriage to take Sallie, her - mother, and Helen Lowell, her Boston schoolmate, to the Springs, the first - passenger to alight was Bob St. Clare. - </p> - <p> - “What in the thunder are you doing here! This town is quarantined against - you!” said Gaston. - </p> - <p> - “Hush!” said Bob in a stage whisper. “She’s here. There’s her valise.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s why you can’t land. Two’s company, three’s a crowd. I like you, - Bob. But I won’t stand for this.” - </p> - <p> - The crowd were pouring off the train and had cut off Sallie’s party in the - centre of the car. - </p> - <p> - “Gaston, I just came up for your sake. I’m looking after Miss Lowell. I’m - lost, ruined. Scared to say a word. I thought maybe, you’d help me out. We - ’ll pool chances. I ’ll talk for you and you talk for me.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s a bargain, St. Clare.” - </p> - <p> - “I want a separate carriage,—get me one quick.” - </p> - <p> - In a few moments, the brief introduction over, Gaston was seated in the - carriage facing Sallie and her mother whirling along the road, over the - long hills toward the Campbell Sulphur Springs in the woods, two miles - from the town. - </p> - <p> - How beautiful and fresh she looked to him even in a dusty travelling - dress! He was drinking the nectar from the depths of her eyes. - </p> - <p> - “Now don’t you think Helen the prettiest girl you ever saw, Mr. Gaston?” - she asked. - </p> - <p> - “I hadn’t noticed it.” - </p> - <p> - “Where were your eyes?” - </p> - <p> - “Elsewhere. I’m so glad you are going to spend a month at the Springs, - Miss Sallie. I used to go to school there when a little boy. They had a - girl’s school there in the winter and boys under twelve were admitted. I - know every nook and corner of the big forest back of the hotel. I ’ll - see that you don’t get lost.” - </p> - <p> - “That will be fine. But you must bring every goodlooking boy in the county - and make him bow down and worship Helen. She is not used to it, but she is - tickled to death over these Southern boys, and I’m going to give her the - best time she ever had in her life.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll do everything you command—except bow down myself. - Bob’s agreed to do that.” - </p> - <p> - She smiled in spite of her effort to look serious, and her mother pinched - her arm. She laughed. - </p> - <p> - “So you and Bob St. Clare were out there plotting before we could get out - of the train?” - </p> - <p> - “Nothing unlawful, I assure you.” - </p> - <p> - The first day she allowed Gaston to monopolise, and then began his - torture. She declared there were others with whom she must be friendly. - She determined to give a ball to Helen the next week, and began - preparations. - </p> - <p> - It was a new business for Gaston, but he did his best to please her, in a - pathetic half-hearted sort of way. He ran all sorts of errands, and - executed her orders with tact. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Sallie let the ball go. I don’t care for it. I can do nothing to ever - repay you for the good time I’ve been having,” said Helen as they sat in - her room one night. - </p> - <p> - “We are going to have it, I tell you. I don’t care how much Mr. Gaston - sulks. I’m not taking orders from him.” - </p> - <p> - “No, but you’d like to—you know it.” - </p> - <p> - “What an idea!” - </p> - <p> - “You know you like him better than all the others put together.” - </p> - <p> - “Nonsense. I’m as free as a bird.” - </p> - <p> - “Then what are you blushing for?” - </p> - <p> - “I’m not.” But her face was scarlet. - </p> - <p> - “You Southern girls are so queer. The moment you like a man you’re as sly - as a cat, and deny that you even know him. When I find the man I love I - don’t care who knows it, if he loves me.” - </p> - <p> - “What do you think of Bob St. Clare?” - </p> - <p> - “I like him.” - </p> - <p> - “Hasn’t he made love to you yet?” - </p> - <p> - “No, and the only one of the crowd who hasn’t. I don’t mind confessing - that I never had love made to me before this visit. In Boston it’s a - serious thing for a young man to call once. The second call, means a - family council, and at the third he must make a declaration of his - intentions or face consequences. Down here, the boys don’t seem to have - anything to do except to make their girl friends happy, and feel they are - the queens of the earth, and that their only mission is to minister to - them. And some of your girls are engaged to six boys at the same time.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t you like it?” - </p> - <p> - “It’s glorious. I feel that if I hadn’t come down here to see you I’d have - missed the meaning of life.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t our boys make love beautifully?” - </p> - <p> - “I never dreamed of anything like it. They make it so seriously, so dead - in earnest, you can’t help believing them.” - </p> - <p> - “And Bob hasn’t said a word?” - </p> - <p> - “Hasn’t breathed a hint.” - </p> - <p> - “Then you have him sure. They are hit hard when they are silent like that. - Bob made love to me the second day he ever saw me.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t tease me, dear,” said Helen as she put her pretty rosy cheek - against the dark beauty of the South. “Do you really think he likes me - seriously?” - </p> - <p> - “He’s crazy about you, goose!” - </p> - <p> - There was the sound of a kiss. - </p> - <p> - “I can’t tell stories about it like you, Sallie, I’m afraid I’m in love - with him,” she whispered. - </p> - <p> - “Well, I ’ll make him court you to-morrow or have him thrashed, if - you say so.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t you dare!” - </p> - <p> - “Then do just as I tell you about this ball and get yourself up - regardless.” - </p> - <p> - On the night of the ball, Gaston, sitting out on the porch, felt nervous - and fidgety, like a fish out of water. He knew he had no business there, - and yet he couldn’t go away. They had a quarrel about the ball. Sallie had - insisted that Gaston honour her by coming in evening dress whether he - danced or not. - </p> - <p> - “But, Miss Sallie, I ’ll feel like a fool. Everybody in the country - knows that I never entered a ball-room.” - </p> - <p> - “Do you care so much what everybody thinks about you?” - </p> - <p> - “No, but I care what I think of myself.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, if you don’t come in full dress suit, I won’t speak to you.” - </p> - <p> - He turned pale in spite of his effort at self control. Then a queer - steel-like look came into his eyes. - </p> - <p> - “I shall be more than sorry to fail to please you, but I have no dress - suit. I have never had time for social frivolities. I can’t afford to buy - one for this occasion. I couldn’t be nigger enough to hire one, so that’s - the end of it. I ’ll have to come dressed in my own fashion or stay - at home.” - </p> - <p> - “Then you can stay at home,” she snapped. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll not do it,” he coolly replied. - </p> - <p> - “Well, I like your insolence.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m glad you do. I ’ll come as I come to all such functions, an - outsider. I ’ll sit out here on the porch in the shadows and see it - from afar. If I could only dance, I assure you I’d try to fill every - number of your card. Not being able to do so, I simply decline to make a - fool of myself.” - </p> - <p> - “For that compliment, I ’ll compromise with you. Wear that big - pompous Prince Albert suit you spoke in at Independence, and I ’ll - come out on the porch and chat with you a while.” - </p> - <p> - He sat there now in the shadows waiting for this ball to begin. It was a - clear night the first week in June. The new moon was hanging just over the - tree tops. His heart was full to bursting with the thought that the girl - he loved would, in a few minutes, be whirling over that polished floor to - the strains of a waltz, with another man’s arm around her. He never knew - how deeply he hated dancing before—that rhythmic touch of the human - body, set to the melody of motion, and voiced in the passionate cry of - music. He felt its challenge to his love to mortal combat,—his love - that claimed this one woman as his own, body and soul! - </p> - <p> - The music from the Italian band was in full swing, its plaintive notes - instinct with the passion of sunny Italy, a music all Southern people - love. - </p> - <p> - He felt that he should choke. A sudden thought came to him. Tearing a - sheet of paper from a note book he scrawled this line upon it. - </p> - <p> - “Dear Miss Sallie:—Please let me see you a moment in the parlour - before you enter the ball-room. Gaston.” - </p> - <p> - At least he would see her in her ball costume first. Yes, and if she - should hate him for it, he would beg her not to dance that night. He saw - McLeod, bowing and scraping in the ball-room arrayed in faultless full - dress, and glancing toward the door. He knew lie was waiting for her to - ask her to dance. How he would like to wring his handsome neck! - </p> - <p> - The boy returned immediately and said the lady was waiting in the parlour. - He entered with a sense of fear and confusion. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0278.jpg" alt="0278 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0278.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - She came to him with her bare arm extended, a dazzling vision of beauty. - She was dressed in a creamy white crêpe ball gown, cut modestly decollete - over her full bust and gleaming shoulders, sleeveless, and held with tiny - straps across the curve of the upper arm. - </p> - <p> - He was stunned. She smiled in triumph, conscious of her resistless power. - </p> - <p> - “Forgive me for my selfishness in keeping you here just a moment from the - rest. I wished to see you first.” - </p> - <p> - “What? to inspect like Mama, to see if I look all right?” - </p> - <p> - “No, with a mad desire to keep you as long as possible from the others.” - </p> - <p> - Then she looked up at him and said slowly and softly, “Would it please you - very much if I were not to dance to-night?” - </p> - <p> - “I wouldn’t dare ask so selfish a thing of you. It is with you a simple - habit of polite society, and you enjoy it as a child does play. I - understand that, and yet if you do not dance to-night, I feel as though I - would crawl round this world on my hands and knees for you if you would - ask it. There are men waiting for you in that ball room whom I hate.” - </p> - <p> - She looked at him timidly as though she were afraid he was about to say - too much and replied, “Then I will not dance to-night. I ’ll just - preside over the ball and let Helen be the queen.” - </p> - <p> - “Words have no power to convey my gratitude. I count all my little - triumphs in life nothing to this. You promised to join me on the porch. - Don’t change that part of the programme. I will talk to your mother until - you come.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston went down stairs treading on air. He sought her mother and devoted - himself to her with supreme tact. He discovered her tastes and prejudices - and paid her that knightly deference some young men express easily and - naturally to their elders. He had always been a favourite with old people. - He prided himself on it. This faculty he regarded as a badge of honour. As - he sat there and talked with this frail little woman, his heart went out - to her in a great yearning love. She was the mother of the bride of his - soul. He would love her forever for that. No matter whether she loved him - or hated him. He would love the mother who gave to his thirsty lips the - water of Life. - </p> - <p> - Drawn irresistibly by the magnetism of his mind and manner Mrs. Worth - forgot the flight of time and thought but a moment had past when an hour - after the ball had opened, Sallie came out leaning on McLeod’s arm. - </p> - <p> - “Mama, have you been monopolising Mr. Gaston for a whole hour?” - </p> - <p> - “He hasn’t been here a half hour, Miss!” cried her mother. - </p> - <p> - “He’s been here an hour and ten minutes. I’m going to tell Papa on you - just as soon as I get home.” - </p> - <p> - “Go back to your dancing.” - </p> - <p> - “No, thank you, I have an engagement to take a walk with your beau. Come - Mr. Gaston.” - </p> - <p> - They walked to the spring and along the winding path by the brook at the - foot of the hill, and found a rustic seat. They were both silent for - several moments. - </p> - <p> - “I saw you were charming Mama, or I would have come sooner.” - </p> - <p> - “I hope she likes me.” - </p> - <p> - “She has been praising you ever since your visit to Independence. I never - saw her talk so long to a young man in my life before. You must have - hypnotised her.” - </p> - <p> - “I hope so.” - </p> - <p> - A strange happiness filled her heart. She was afraid to look it in the - face; and yet she dared to play with the thought. - </p> - <p> - “Are you enjoying your triumph to-night? I’ve had war inside.” - </p> - <p> - “I feel like I am the Emperor of the World and that the Evening Star is - smiling on my court!” - </p> - <p> - She smiled, tossed her head, leaned against the tree and said, “I wonder - if you are in the habit of saying things like that to girls?” - </p> - <p> - “Upon my soul and honour, no.” - </p> - <p> - “Then thanks. I ’ll dream about that, maybe.” - </p> - <p> - They returned to the hotel and McLeod claimed her. They went back the same - walk, and by a freak of fate he chose the same seat she had just vacated - with Gaston. - </p> - <p> - “Miss Sallie, you are of age now. You know that I have loved you - passionately since you were a child. I have made my way in life, I am - hungry for a home and your love to glorify it. Why will you keep me - waiting?” - </p> - <p> - “Simply because I know now I do not love you, Allan, and I never will. - Once and forever, here, to-night I give you my last answer, I will not be - your wife.” - </p> - <p> - “Then don’t give the answer to-night. I can wait,” he interrupted. “I am - just on the threshold of a great career. Success is sure. I can offer you - a dazzling position. Don’t give me such an answer. Leave the old answer—to - wait.” - </p> - <p> - “No, I will not. I do not love you. If you were to become the President, - it would not change this fact, and it is everything.” - </p> - <p> - “Then you love another.” - </p> - <p> - “That is none of your business, sir. I have known you since childhood. I - have had ample time to know my own mind.” - </p> - <p> - “All right, we will say good-bye for the present. You have made me a - laughing stock of young fools, but I can stand it. I’ll not give you up, - and if I can’t have you, no other man shall.” - </p> - <p> - “If you leave my will out of the calculation, you will make a fatal - mistake.” - </p> - <p> - “Women have been known to change their wills.” - </p> - <p> - Before leaving her that night Gaston held her hand for an instant as he - bade her good-bye and said, “Miss Sallie, I thank you with inexpressible - gratitude for the honour you have done me.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve just been wondering what you have done to deserve it?” - </p> - <p> - “Absolutely nothing,—that’s why it is so sweet. This has been the - happiest day I ever lived. I cannot see you again before you go. I leave - to-morrow on urgent business. May I come to Independence to see you?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I ’ll be delighted to see you. Good-night.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston was the last to return to Hambright. He walked the two miles - through the silent starlit woods. He took a short cut his bare feet had - travelled as a boy, and with uncovered head walked slowly through the dim - aisles of great trees. It was good, this cool silence and the soft mantle - of the night about his soul! The stars whispered love. The wind sighed it - through the leaves. - </p> - <p> - He had withdrawn from the church in his college days because he had grown - to doubt everything—God, heaven, hell, and immortality. To-night as - he walked slowly home he heard that wonderful sentence of the old Bible - ringing down the ages, wet with tears and winged with hope, “<i>God is - love!</i>” - </p> - <p> - He said it now softly and reverently, and the tears came unbidden from his - soul. He felt close to the heart of things. He knew he was close to the - heart of nature. What if nature was only another name for God? And he - whispered it again, “<i>God is love!</i>” - </p> - <p> - “Ah! If I only knew it I would bow down and worship Him forever!” he - cried. - </p> - <p> - When Sallie reached her mother’s room that night, Mrs. Worth was seated by - her window. - </p> - <p> - “Why didn’t you dance?” - </p> - <p> - “Didn’t care to.” - </p> - <p> - “Sly Miss, you can’t fool me. You didn’t dance because Mr. Gaston - couldn’t. That was a dangerously loud way to talk to him.” - </p> - <p> - “How did you like him, Mama?” - </p> - <p> - “Come here, dear, and sit on the edge of my chair. I wish I knew when you - were in earnest about a man. I like him more than I can tell you. He - talked to me so beautifully about his mother, I wanted to kiss him. He is - charming.” - </p> - <p> - “Why, Mama!” - </p> - <p> - “I’d like him for a son. There’s a wealth of deep tenderness and manly - power in him.” - </p> - <p> - “Mama, you’re getting giddy!” - </p> - <p> - But she kissed her mother twice when she said good night. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0034" id="link2HCH0034"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER X—THE HEART OF A VILLAIN - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>cLEOD had - developed into a man of undoubted power. He was but thirty-two years old, - and the dictator of his party in the state. - </p> - <p> - He had the fighting temperament which Southern people demand in their - leaders. With this temperament he combined the skill of subtle diplomatic - tact. He had no moral scruples of any kind. The problem of expediency - alone interested him in ethics. - </p> - <p> - McLeod’s pet aversion was a preacher, especially a Baptist or a Methodist. - His choicest oaths he reserved for them. He made a study of their - weaknesses, and could tell dozens of stories to their discredit, many of - them true. He had an instinct for finding their weak spots and holding - them up to ridicule. He bought every book of militant infidelity he could - find and memorised the bitterest of it. He took special pride in scoffing - at religion before the young converts of Durham’s church. - </p> - <p> - He was endowed with a personal magnetism that fascinated the young as the - hiss of a snake holds a bird. His serious work was politics and - sensualism. In politics he was at his best. Here he was cunning, - plausible, careful, brilliant and daring. He never lost his head in defeat - or victory. He never forgot a friend, or forgave an enemy. Of his foe he - asked no quarter and gave none. - </p> - <p> - His ambitions were purely selfish. He meant to climb to the top. As to the - means, the end would justify them. He preferred to associate with white - people. But when it was necessary to win a negro, he never hesitated to go - any length. The centre of the universe to his mind was A. McLeod. - </p> - <p> - He was fond of saying to a crowd of youngsters whom he taught to play - poker and drink whiskey, “Boys, I know the world. The great man is the man - who gets there.” - </p> - <p> - He was generous with his money, and the boys called him a jolly good - fellow. He used to say in explanation of this careless habit, “It won’t do - for an ordinary fool to throw away money as I do. I play for big stakes. - I’m not a spendthrift. I’m simply sowing seed. I can wait for the - harvest.” And when they would admire this overmuch he would warn them, As - a rule my advice is, “Get money. Get it fairly and squarely if you can, - but whatever you do,—get it. When you come right down to it, money’s - your first, last, best and only friend. Others promise well but when the - scratch comes, they fail. Money never fails.” - </p> - <p> - A boy of fifteen asked him one day when he was mellow with liquor, - “McLeod, which would you rather be, President of the United States or a - big millionaire?” - </p> - <p> - “Boys,” he replied, smacking his lips, and running his tongue around his - cheeks inside and softly caressing them with one hand, while he half - closed his eyes, “They say old Simon Legree is worth fifty millions of - dollars, and that his actual income is twenty per cent on that. They say - he stole most of it, and that every dollar represents a broken life, and - every cent of it could be painted red with the blood of his victims. Even - so, I would rather be in Legree’s shoes and have those millions a year - than to be Almighty God with hosts of angels singing psalms to me through - all eternity.” - </p> - <p> - And the shallow-pated satellites cheered this blasphemy with open-eyed - wonder. - </p> - <p> - The weakest side of his nature was that turned toward women. He was vain - as a peacock, and the darling wish of his soul was to be a successful - libertine. This was the secret of the cruelty back of his desire of - boundless wealth. - </p> - <p> - He had the intellectual forehead of his Scotch father, large, handsomely - modelled features, nostrils that dilated and contracted widely, and the - thick sensuous lips of his mother. His eyebrows were straight, thick, and - suggested undoubted force of intellect. His hair was a deep red, thick and - coarse, but his moustache was finer and it was his special pride to point - its delicately curved tips. - </p> - <p> - His vanity was being stimulated just now by two opposite forces. He was in - love, as deeply as such a nature could love, with Sallie Worth. Her - continued rejection of his suit had wounded his vanity, but had roused all - the pugnacity of his nature to strengthen this apparent weakness. - </p> - <p> - He had discovered recently that he exercised a potent influence over Mrs. - Durham. The moment he was repulsed, his vanity turned for renewed strength - toward her. He saw instantly the immense power even the slightest - indiscretion on her part would give him over the Preacher’s life. He knew - that while he was not a demonstrative man, he loved his wife with intense - devotion. He knew, too, that here was the Preacher’s weakest spot. In his - tireless devotion to his work, he had starved his wife’s heart. He had - noticed that she always called him “Dr. Durham” now, and that he had - gradually fallen into the habit of calling her “Mrs. Durham.” - </p> - <p> - This had been fixed in their habits, perhaps by the change from - housekeeping to living at the hotel. Since old Aunt Mary’s death, Mrs. - Durham had given up her struggle with the modern negro servants, closed - her house, and they had boarded for several years. - </p> - <p> - He saw that if he could entangle her name with his in the dirty gossip of - village society, he could strike his enemy a mortal blow. He knew that she - had grown more and more jealous of the crowds of silly women that always - dog the heels of a powerful minister with flattery and open admiration. He - determined to make the experiment. - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Durham, while nine years his senior, did not look a day over thirty. - Her face was as smooth and soft and round as a girl’s, her figure as - straight and full, and her every movement instinct with stored vital - powers that had never been drawn upon. - </p> - <p> - She was in a dangerous period of her mental development. She had been - bitterly disappointed in life. Her loss of slaves and the ancestral - prestige of great wealth had sent the steel shaft of a poisoned dagger - into her soul. She was unreconciled to it. While she was passing through - the anarchy of Legree’s régime which followed the war, her unsatisfied - maternal instincts absorbed her in the work of relieving the poor and the - broken. But when the white race rose in its might and shook off this - nightmare and order and a measure of prosperity had come, she had fallen - back into brooding pessimism. - </p> - <p> - She had reached the hour of that soul crisis when she felt life would - almost in a moment slip from her grasp, and she asked herself the - question, “Have I lived?” And she could not answer. - </p> - <p> - She found herself asking the reasons for things long accepted as fixed and - eternal. What was good, right, truth? And what made it good, right, or - true? - </p> - <p> - And she beat the wings of her proud woman’s heart against the bars that - held her, until tired, and bleeding she was exhausted but unconquered. - </p> - <p> - She was furious with McLeod for his open association with negro - politicians. - </p> - <p> - “Allan, in my soul, I am ashamed for you when I see you thus degrade your - manhood.” - </p> - <p> - “Nonsense, Mrs. Durham,” he replied, “the most beautiful flower grows in - dirt, but the flower is not dirt.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I knew you were vain, but that caps the climax!” - </p> - <p> - “Isn’t my figure true, whether you say I’m dog-fennel or a pink?” - </p> - <p> - “No, you are not a flower. Will is the soul of man. The flower is ruled by - laws outside itself. A man’s will is creative. You can make law. You can - walk with your head among the stars, and you choose to crawl in a ditch. I - am out of patience with you.” - </p> - <p> - “But only for a purpose. You must judge by the end in view.” - </p> - <p> - “There’s no need to stoop so low.” - </p> - <p> - “I assure you it is absolutely necessary to my aims in life. And they are - high enough. I appreciate your interest in me, more than I dare to tell - you. You have always been kind to me since I was a wild red-headed brute - of a boy. And you have always been my supreme inspiration in work. While - others have cursed and scoffed you smiled at me and your smile has warmed - my heart in its blackest nights.” - </p> - <p> - She looked at him with a mother-like tenderness. - </p> - <p> - “What ends could be high enough to justify such methods?” - </p> - <p> - “I hate poverty and squalour. It’s been my fate. I’ve sworn to climb out - of it, if I have to fight or buy my way through hell to do it. I dream of - a palatial home, of soft white beds, grand banquet halls, and music and - wine, and the faces of those I love near me. Besides, the work I am doing - is the best for the state and the nation.” - </p> - <p> - “But how can you walk arm in arm with a big black negro, as they say you - do, to get his vote?” - </p> - <p> - “Simply because they represent 120,000 votes I need. You can’t tell their - colour when they get in the box. I use these fools as so many worms. My - political creed is for public consumption only. I never allow anybody to - impose on me. I don’t allow even Allan McLeod to deceive me with a paper - platform, or a lot of articulated wind. I’m not a preacher.” - </p> - <p> - She winced at that shot, blushed and looked at him curiously for a moment. - </p> - <p> - “No, you are not a preacher. I wish you were a better man.” - </p> - <p> - “So do I, when I am with you,” he answered in a low serious voice. - </p> - <p> - “But I can’t get over the sense of personal degradation involved in your - association with negroes as your equal,” she persisted. - </p> - <p> - “The trouble is you’re an unreconstructed rebel. Women never really - forgive a social wrong.” - </p> - <p> - “I am unreconstructed,” she snapped with pride. - </p> - <p> - “And you thank God daily for it, don’t you?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I do. Human nature can’t be reconstructed by the fiat of fools who - tinker with laws,” she cried. - </p> - <p> - “These thousands of black votes are here. They’ve got to be controlled. - I’m doing the job.” - </p> - <p> - “You don’t try to get rid of them.” - </p> - <p> - “Get rid of them? Ye gods, that would be a task! The Negro is the - sentimental pet of the nation. Put him on a continent alone, and he will - sink like an iron wedge to the bottomless pit of barbarism. But he is the - ward of the Republic—our only orphan, chronic, incapable. That - wardship is a grip of steel on the throat of the South. Back of it is an - ocean of maudlin sentimental fools. I am simply making the most of the - situation. I didn’t make it to order. I’m just doing the best I can with - the material in hand.” - </p> - <p> - “Why don’t you come out like a man and defy this horde of fools?” - </p> - <p> - “Martyrdom has become too cheap. The preachers have a hundred thousand - missionaries now we are trying to support.” - </p> - <p> - “Allan, I thought you held below the rough surface of your nature high - ideals,—you don’t mean this.” - </p> - <p> - “What could one man do against these millions?” - </p> - <p> - “Do!” she cried, her face ablaze. “The history of the world is made up of - the individuality of a few men. A little Yankee woman wrote a crude book. - The single act of that woman’s will caused the war, killed a million men, - desolated and ruined the South, and changed the history of the world. The - single dauntless personality of George Washington three times saved the - colonies from surrender and created the Republic. I am surprised to hear a - man of your brain and reading talk like that!” - </p> - <p> - “When I am with you and hear your voice I have heroic impulses. You are - the only human being with whom I would take the time to discuss this - question. But the current is too strong. The other way is easier, and it - serves my ends better. Besides, I am not sure it isn’t better from every - point of view. We’ve got the Negro here, and must educate him.” - </p> - <p> - “Hush! Tell that to somebody that hates you, not to me,” she cried. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t you think we must educate them?” - </p> - <p> - “No, I think it is a crime.” - </p> - <p> - “Would you leave them in ignorance, a threat to society?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, until they can be moved. When I see these young negro men and women - coming out of their schools and colleges well dressed, with their shallow - veneer of an imitation culture, I feel like crying over the farce.” - </p> - <p> - “Surely, Mrs. Durham, you believe they are better fitted for life?” - </p> - <p> - “They are not. They are lifted out of their only possible sphere of menial - service, and denied any career. It is simply inhuman. They are led to - certain slaughter of soul and body at last. It is a horrible tragedy.” - </p> - <p> - Allan looked at her, smiled, and replied, “I knew you were a bitter and - brilliant woman but I didn’t think you would go to such lengths even with - your pet aversions.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s not an aversion, or a prejudice, sir. It’s a simple fact of history. - Education increases the power of the human brain to think and the heart to - suffer. Sooner or later these educated negroes feel the clutch of the iron - hand of the white man’s unwritten laws on their throat. They have their - choice between a suicide’s grave or a prison cell. And the numbers who - dare the grave and the prison cell daily increase. The South is kinder to - the Negro when he is kept in his place.” - </p> - <p> - “You are a quarter of a century behind the times.” - </p> - <p> - “Am I so old?” she laughed. - </p> - <p> - “The sentiment, not the woman. You are the most beautiful woman I ever - saw.” - </p> - <p> - “I like all my boys to feel that way about me.” - </p> - <p> - “You don’t class me quite with the rest, do you?” She blushed the - slightest bit. “No, I’ve always taken a peculiar interest in you. I have - quarrelled with everybody who has hated and spoken evil of you. I have - always believed you were capable of a high and noble life of great - achievement.” - </p> - <p> - “And your faith in me has been my highest incentive to give the lie to my - enemies and succeed. And I will. I will be the master of this state within - two years. And I want you to remember that I lay it all at your feet. The - world need not know it,—you know it.” He spoke with intense - earnestness. - </p> - <p> - “But I don’t want you to make such a success at the price of Negro - equality. I feel a sense of unspeakable degradation for you when I hear - your name hissed. At least I was your teacher once. Come Allan, give up - Negro politics and devote yourself to an honourable career in law!” - </p> - <p> - He shook his head with calm persistence. - </p> - <p> - “No, this is my calling.” - </p> - <p> - “Then take a nobler one.” - </p> - <p> - “To succeed grandly is the only title to nobility here.” - </p> - <p> - “Is the Doctor on speaking terms with you now?” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! yes, I joke him about his hide-bound Bourbonism, and he tells me I am - all sorts of a villain. But we have made an agreement to hate one another - in a polite sort of way as becomes a teacher in Israel and a statesman - with responsibilities. By the way, I saw him driving to the Springs with a - bevy of pretty girls a few hours ago.” - </p> - <p> - “Indeed, I didn’t know it!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, he seemed to be having a royal time and to have renewed his youth.” - </p> - <p> - An angry flush came to her face and she made no reply. McLeod glanced at - her furtively and smiled at this evidence that his shot had gone home. - </p> - <p> - “Would you drive with me to the Springs? We will get there before this - party starts back.” She hesitated, and answered, “yes.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0035" id="link2HCH0035"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XI—THE OLD OLD STORY - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Gaston arrived - in Independence he went direct to St. Clare’s. - </p> - <p> - “Where the Dickens have you been, Gaston?” - </p> - <p> - “Jumping from Murphy to Manteo making love to hayseed statesmen.” - </p> - <p> - “What luck?” - </p> - <p> - “They’re all crazy. They swear they are going to have the United States - establish a Sub-Treasury in Raleigh and issue Government script they can - use as money on their pumpkins, or they are going to tear the nation to - tatters and vote for a nigger for Governor if necessary!” - </p> - <p> - “Can’t you get into their fool heads that an alliance with the Republican - party is the last way on earth for them to go about their Sub-Treasury - schemes?” - </p> - <p> - “Can’t seem to do a thing with them. McLeod’s stuffed them full. I’m sick - of it. I’ve a notion to let them go with the niggers and go to the devil. - It’s growing on me that there must be another way out. I can’t get down in - the dirt and prostitute my intellect and lie to these fools. We’ve got to - get rid of the Negro.” - </p> - <p> - “A large job, old man.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, it is, and thank God I’m done with it for a week. I’m going to - heaven now for a few days. I ’ll see her in an hour. I rise on - tireless wings!” - </p> - <p> - “Look out you don’t come down too suddenly. The earth may feel hard.” - </p> - <p> - “Bob, I’m going to risk it. I’m going to look fate squarely in the face - and get my answer like a little man, for life or death.” - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Worth met Gaston and greeted him with warmest cordiality. - </p> - <p> - “We are charmed to welcome you to Oakwood again, Mr. Gaston.” - </p> - <p> - “I assure you, Mrs. Worth, I never saw a home so beautiful. I feel as - though I am in paradise when I get here.” - </p> - <p> - “I hope to see more of you this time, I feel that I know you so much - better since our talk at the Springs.” - </p> - <p> - “Thank you, Mrs. Worth.” He said this so simply and earnestly she could - but feel his deep appreciation of her attitude of welcome. - </p> - <p> - “Sallie will be down in a minute.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston smiled in spite of himself. - </p> - <p> - “What are you laughing at?” - </p> - <p> - “I was just thinking how sweetly her name sounded on your lips.” - </p> - <p> - “Do you like these old-fashioned Southern names?” - </p> - <p> - “I think they are lovely.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, that’s my name too.” - </p> - <p> - Sallie suddenly stepped from the hall into the doorway. - </p> - <p> - “Now, Mama, there you are again carrying on with one of my beaux! I don’t - know what I will do with you!” - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Worth actually blushed, sprang up and struck Sallie lightly on the - arm with her fan exclaiming, “Oh! you sly thing, to stand out there and - listen to what I said! Mr. Gaston I turn her over to you to punish her for - such conduct.” - </p> - <p> - “Isn’t she a dear?” said Sallie when her mother was gone. - </p> - <p> - “I was charmed with her at the Springs, but the gracious way she made me - feel at home this morning completely won my heart.” - </p> - <p> - “I can do anything with Mama. She’s the dearest mother that ever lived. - She always seems to know intuitively my heart’s wish, and, if it’s best, - give it to me, and if it’s not, she makes me cease to desire it. I wish I - could manage Papa as easily.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m sure he idolises you, Miss Sallie.” - </p> - <p> - “He does, but when he lays the law down, that settles it. I can’t move him - one inch.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s the way with forceful men, who do things in the world.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I confess I like to have my own way sometimes. I wonder if you are - like that?” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll be frank with you. Somehow I never could be anything else if - I tried. I don’t think a man of strong character will yield to every whim - of a woman, whether wife or daughter.” - </p> - <p> - “I heard of a man the other day who whipped his wife,” she said in a far - away tone of voice. “Come, my horse is ready, go with me for another ride - to-day. I am going to take you across the river and show you a pretty - drive over there.” - </p> - <p> - They were soon lost in the deep shadows of the stately pine forest that - lay beyond the Catawba. The road was a cross-country narrow way that wound - in and out around the big trees. - </p> - <p> - They jogged slowly along while he bathed his soul in the joy of her - presence. Oh, to be alone and near her! There seemed to him a magic power - in the touch of her dress as she sat in the little buggy so close by his - side. For hours, again he lay at her feet and drank the wine of her beauty - until his heart was drunk with love. - </p> - <p> - Once he opened his lips to tell her, and a great fear awed him into - silence. He longed to pour out to her his passion, but feared her answer. - He Had studied her every word and tone and look and hand-pressure since he - had known her. He was sure she loved him. And yet he was not sure. She was - so skilled in the science of self defence, so subtle a mistress of all the - arts of polite society in which the soul’s deepest secrets are hid from - the world, he was paralysed now as the moment drew near. He put it off - another day and gave himself up to the pure delight of her face and form - and voice and presence. - </p> - <p> - That evening when she entered the home her mother caught her hand and - softly whispered, “Did he court you to-day, Sallie?” - </p> - <p> - She shook her head smilingly. “No, but I think he will to-morrow.” - </p> - <p> - St. Clare was sitting on his veranda awaiting Gaston’s return. - </p> - <p> - “What luck, old boy?” he eagerly asked. - </p> - <p> - “Couldn’t say a word. I ’ll do it to-morrow or die.” - </p> - <p> - “Shake hands partner. I’ve been there.” - </p> - <p> - “Bob, it’s a serious thing to run up against a little answer ‘yes’ or - ‘no,’ that means life or death.” - </p> - <p> - “Feel like you’d rather live on hope a while, and let things drift, don’t - you?” - </p> - <p> - “Exactly, I think I can understand for the first time in my life that - awful look in a prisoner’s face on trial for his life, when he watches the - lips of the foreman of the jury to catch the first letter of the verdict. - I used to think that an interesting psychological study. By George, I feel - I am his brother now.” - </p> - <p> - The next day was perfect. The warm life-giving sun of June was tempered by - breezes that swept fresh and invigorating over the earth that had been - drenched with showers in the night. The woods were ringing with the chorus - of feathered throats chanting the old oratorio of life and love. Again - Gaston and Sallie were jogging along the shady river road they had - travelled on the first day she had taken him driving. - </p> - <p> - “Do you remember this road?” she asked. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll never forget it. Along this road we hurried in the twilight - to face your angry mother, and just one kiss smoothed her brow into a - welcoming smile for me.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I’m going to risk greater trouble to-day, and take you a mile or - two further up the river to the old mill site at the rapids. It’s the most - beautiful and romantic spot in the country. The river spreads out a - quarter of a mile in width, and goes plunging and dashing down the rapids - through thousands of projecting rocks, a mass of white foam as far as you - can see. It’s full of tiny green islands with feras and rhododendron and - wild grape vines, and their perfume sweetens the air for miles along the - water. These little islands, some ten feet square, some an acre, are full - of mocking-birds nesting there, though since the mills were burned during - the war nobody has lived near. The songs of these birds seem tuned to the - music of the river.” - </p> - <p> - “It must be a glimpse of fairy-land!” he exclaimed. - </p> - <p> - “I know you will be thrilled with its romantic beauty. It’s five miles - from a house in any direction.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston was silent. He made a resolution in his soul that he would never - leave that spot until he knew his fate. His heart began to thump now like - a sledge-hammer. He looked down furtively at her and tried to imagine how - she would look and what she would say when he should startle her first - with some word of tender endearment or the sound of her name he had said - over and over a thousand times in his heart, and aloud when alone, but - never dared to use without its prefix. - </p> - <p> - She saw his abstraction and divined intuitively the current of emotions - with which he was struggling, but pretended not to notice it. He tied the - horse at the old mill, and they walked slowly down the bank of the river. - </p> - <p> - “That is my island,” she cried pointing out into the river. “That third - one in the group running out from the point. We can step from one rock to - another to it.” - </p> - <p> - It was indeed an entrancing spot. The island seemed all alone in the - middle of the river when one was on it. It was not more than fifty feet - wide and a hundred feet long, its length lying with the swift current. At - the lower end of it a fine ash tree spread its dense shade, hanging far - over the still waters that stood in smooth eddy at its roots. On the upper - side of this tree lay a big boulder resting against its trunk and embedded - in a mass of clean white sand the water had filtered and washed and thrown - there on some spring flood. - </p> - <p> - She climbed on this rock, sat down, and leaned her bare head against its - trunk. - </p> - <p> - “This is my throne,” she laughingly cried. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0300.jpg" alt="0300 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0300.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - He leaned against the rock and looked up at her with eyes through which - the yearning, the hunger, the joy, and the fear of all life were - quivering. What a picture she made under the dark cool shadows! Her dress - was again of spotless white that seemed now to have been woven out of the - foam of the river. Her throat was bare, her cheeks flushed, and her wavy - hair the wind had blown loose into a hundred stray ringlets about her face - and neck. Her lips were trembling with a smile at his speechless - admiration. - </p> - <p> - “You seem to have been struck dumb,” she said. “Isn’t this glorious?” - </p> - <p> - “Beyond words, Miss Sallie. I didn’t know there was such a spot on the - earth.” - </p> - <p> - “This is my favourite perch. Art and wealth could never make anything like - this! I could come here and sit and dream all day alone if Mama would let - me.” - </p> - <p> - He tried to begin the story of his love, but every time his tongue refused - to move. He was trembling with nervous hesitation and began to dig a hole - in the sand with his heel. - </p> - <p> - “What is the matter with you to-day? I never saw you so serious and - moody.” - </p> - <p> - Just then a female mocking-bird in her modest dove-coloured dress lit on a - swaying limb whose tips touched the still water of the eddy at their feet, - and her proud mate with head erect, far up on the topmost twig of the ash - struck softly the first note of his immortal love poem, the dropping song. - </p> - <p> - “Listen, he’s going to sing his dropping song!” he cried in a whisper. - </p> - <p> - And they listened. He sang his first stanza in a low dreamy voice, and - then as the sweetness of his love and the glory of his triumph grew on his - bird soul, he lifted his clear notes higher and higher until the woods on - the banks of the river rang with its melody. - </p> - <p> - His mate turned her eyes upward and quietly twittered a sweet little - answer. - </p> - <p> - His response rang like a silver trumpet far up in the sky! He sprang ten - feet into the air and slowly dropped singing, singing his long trilling - notes of melting sweetness. He stopped on the topmost twig, sat a moment, - never ceasing his matchless song, and then began to fall downward from - limb to limb toward his mate, pouring out his soul in mad abandonment of - joy, but growing softer, sweeter, more tender as he drew nearer. They - could see her tremble now with pride and love at his approach, as she - glanced timidly upward, and answered him with maiden modesty. At last when - he reached her side, his song was so low and sweet and dream-like it could - scarcely be heard. He touched the tip of her beak with a bird kiss, they - chirped, and flew away to the woods together. - </p> - <p> - Gaston determined to speak or die. His eyes were wet with unshed tears, - and he was trembling from head to foot. He had meant to pour out his love - for her like that bird in words of passionate beauty, but all he could do - was to say with stammering voice low and tense with emotion, “Miss Sallie, - I love you!” - </p> - <p> - He had meant to say “Sallie,” but at the last gasp of breath, as he spoke, - his courage had failed. He did not look up at first. And when she was - silent, he timidly looked up, fearing to hear the answer or read it in her - face. She smiled at him and broke into a low peal of joyous laughter! And - there was a note of joy in her laughter that was contagious. - </p> - <p> - “Please don’t laugh at me,” he stammered, smiling himself. - </p> - <p> - She buried her face in her hands and laughed again. She looked at him with - her great blue eyes wide open, dancing with fun, and wet with tears. - </p> - <p> - “Do you know, it’s the funniest thing in the world, you are the sixth man - who has made love to me on this rock within a year!” and again she laughed - in his face. - </p> - <p> - “Look here, Miss Sallie, this is cruel!” - </p> - <p> - “Dear old rock. It’s enchanted. It never fails!” and she laughed softly - again, and patted the rock with her hand. - </p> - <p> - “Surely you have tortured me long enough. Have some pity.” - </p> - <p> - “It is a pitiable sight to see a big eloquent man stammer and do silly - things isn’t it?” - </p> - <p> - “Please give me your answer,” he cried still trembling. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! it’s not so serious as all that!” she said with dancing eyes. - </p> - <p> - “I’m in the dust at your feet.” - </p> - <p> - “You mean in the sand. Did you know that you dug a hole in that sand deep - enough to bury me in? I thought once you were meditating murder by the - expression on your face.” - </p> - <p> - “Please give me one earnest look from your eyes,” he pleaded. - </p> - <p> - “You’re a terrible disappointment,” she answered leaning back and putting - her hands behind her head thoughtfully. - </p> - <p> - His heart stood still at this unexpected speech. - </p> - <p> - “How?” he slowly asked, looking down at the sand again. - </p> - <p> - “Because,” she said in her old tantalising tone, “I expected so much of - you.” - </p> - <p> - “Then you don’t class me with the other poor devils at least?” he asked - hopefully. - </p> - <p> - “No, no, they were handsome boys and made me beautiful speeches. But you - are distinguished. You are a man that everybody would look at twice in a - crowd. You are a famous young orator who can hold thousands breathless - with eloquence. I thought you would make me the most beautiful speech. But - you acted like a school boy, stammered, looked foolish, and pawed a hole - in the ground!” Again she laughed. - </p> - <p> - “I confess, Miss Sallie, I was never so overwhelmed with terror and - nervousness by an audience before.” - </p> - <p> - “And just one girl to hear!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but she counts more with me than all the other millions, and one - kind look from her eyes I would hold dearer at this moment than a - conquered world’s applause.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s fine! That’s something like it. Say more!” she cried. - </p> - <p> - His face clouded and he looked earnestly at her. - </p> - <p> - “Come, come, Miss Sallie, this is too cruel. I have torn my heart’s - deepest secrets open to you, and tremblingly laid my life at your feet, - and you are laughing at me. I have paid you the highest homage one human - soul can offer another. Surely I deserve better than this?” - </p> - <p> - “There, you do. Forgive me. I have seen so much shallow love making, I am - never quite sure a boy’s in dead earnest.” She spoke now with seriousness. - </p> - <p> - “You cannot doubt my earnestness. I have spoken to you this morning the - first words of love that ever passed my lips. One chamber of my soul has - always been sacred. It was the throne room of Love, reserved for the One - Woman waiting for me somewhere whom I should find. I would not allow an - angel to enter it, and I hid it from the face of God. I have opened it - this morning. It is yours.” - </p> - <p> - She softly slipped her hand in his, and tremblingly said, while a tear - stole down her cheek, “I do love you!” - </p> - <p> - He bent over her hand and kissed it, and kissed it, while his frame shook - with uncontrollable emotion. Then looking up through his dimmed eyes, he - said, “My darling, that was the sweetest music, that sentence, that I - shall ever hear in this world or in all the worlds beyond it in eternity!” - </p> - <p> - “When did you first begin to love me?” she asked. - </p> - <p> - “I don’t know. But I loved you the first moment you looked into my face - while I was speaking that day. And I recognised you instantly as the Dream - of my Soul. I have loved you for ever, ages before we were born in this - world, somewhere, our souls met and knew and loved. And I’ve been looking - for you ever since. When I saw you there in the crowd that day looking up - at me with those beautiful blue eyes, I felt like shouting ‘I have found - her! I have found her!’ and rushing to your side lest I should not see you - again.” - </p> - <p> - “It is strange—this feeling that we have known each other forever. - The moment you touched my hand that first day, a sense of perfect content - and joy in living came over me. I couldn’t remember the time when I hadn’t - known you. You seemed so much a part of my inmost thoughts and every day - life. I laughed this morning from sheer madness of joy when you told me - your love. I knew you were going to tell me to-day. You tried yesterday, - but I held you back. I wanted you to tell me here at this beautiful spot, - that the music of this water might always sing its chorus with the memory - of your words.” - </p> - <p> - “Let me kiss your lips once!” he pleaded. - </p> - <p> - “No, you shall hold my hand and kiss that. Your touch thrills every nerve - of my being like wine. It is enough. I promised Mama I would never allow a - man to kiss me without asking her. And we are like loving comrades. I - couldn’t violate a promise to her. I will, when she says so.” - </p> - <p> - “Then I ’ll ask her. I know she’s on my side.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I believe she loves you because I do.” - </p> - <p> - “What did you whisper to her that night, when we came late, and you said - she would be angry?” - </p> - <p> - “Told her I loved you.” - </p> - <p> - “If I could only have caught that whisper then! You don’t know how it - delights me to think your mother likes me. I couldn’t help loving her. It - seems to me a divine seal on our lives.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and what specially delights me is, you have completely captured - Papa, and he’s so hard to please.” - </p> - <p> - “You don’t say so!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, he’s been preaching you at me ever since you came the first time. I - pretended to be indifferent to draw him out. He would say, ‘Now Sallie, - there’s a man for you,—no pretty dude, but a man, with a kingly eye - and a big brain. That’s the kind of a man who does things in the world and - makes history for smaller men to read.’ And then I’d say just to aggravate - him, ‘But Papa he’s as poor as Job’s turkey!’” - </p> - <p> - “Then you ought to have heard him, ‘Well, what of it! You can begin in a - cabin like your mother and I did. He’s got a better start than I had, for - he has a better training.’” - </p> - <p> - “I am certainly glad to hear that!” Gaston cried with elation. - </p> - <p> - “You may be. For Papa is a man of such intense likes and dislikes. The - first thing that made my heart flutter with fear was that he might not - like you. He loves me intensely. And I love him devotedly. I could not - marry without his consent. You are so entirely different from any other - beau I ever had, I couldn’t imagine what Papa would think of you. You wear - such a serious face, never go into society, care nothing for fine clothes, - and are so careless that you even hung your feet out of the buggy that - first day I took you to drive. I was glad to have you in the woods and not - in town. The boys would have guyed me to death. In fact you are the - contradiction of the average man I have known, and of all the men I - thought as a girl I’d marry some day. I am so glad Papa likes you.” - </p> - <p> - That evening when they reached the house, she hurried through the hall to - her mother who was standing on the back porch. There was the sudden swish - of a dress, a kiss, another! and another! And then the low murmur of a - mother’s voice like the crooning over a baby. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0036" id="link2HCH0036"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XII—THE MUSIC OF THE MILLS - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Gaston reached - his home that night St. Clare had gone to bed. It was one o’clock. He - could not sleep yet, so he sat in the window and tried to realise his - great happiness, as he looked out on the green lawn with its white - gravelled walk glistening in the full moon. - </p> - <p> - “The world is beautiful, life is sweet, and God is good!” he cried in an - ecstasy of joy. - </p> - <p> - He sat there in the moonlight for an hour dreaming of his love and the - great strenuous life of achievement he would live with her to inspire him. - It seemed too good to be true. And yet it was the largest living fact. - Like throbbing music the words were ringing in his heart keeping time with - the rhythm of its beat, “I do love you!” And then he did something he had - not done for years.—not since his boyhood,—he knelt in the - silence of the moonlit room and prayed. Love the great Revealer had led - him into the presence of God. The impulse was spontaneous and resistless. - “Lord, I have seen Thy face, heard Thy voice, and felt the touch of Thy - hand to-day! I bless and praise Thee! Forgive my doubts and fears and - sins, cleanse and make me worthy of her whom Thou has sent as Thy - messenger!” So he poured out his soul. - </p> - <p> - Next morning he grasped St. Clare’s hand as he entered the room. “Bob, I’m - the happiest man in the world!” - </p> - <p> - “Congratulations! You look it.” - </p> - <p> - “She loves me! I’d like to climb up on the top of this house and shout it - until all earth and heaven could hear and be glad with me!” - </p> - <p> - “Well, don’t do it, my boy. See her father first!” - </p> - <p> - “She says he likes me.” - </p> - <p> - “Then you’re elected.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m going to tackle him before I go home.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t rush him. There’s a superstition prevalent here that the old - gentleman has no idea of ever letting his daughter leave that home, and - that he will never give his consent, when driven to the wall, unless his - son-inlaw that is to be, will agree to settle down there and take his - place in those big mills. He has two great loves, his daughter and his - mills, and he don’t mean to let either one of them go if he can help it.” - </p> - <p> - “Do you believe it’s true?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I do. How do you like the idea?” - </p> - <p> - “It’s not my style. I’ve a pretty clear idea of what I’m going to do in - this world.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you’d better begin to haul in your silk sails, and study cotton - goods, is my advice.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll manage him.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t know about it, but if you’ve got her, you’re the first man that - ever got far enough to measure himself with the General. I wish you luck.” - </p> - <p> - “You the same, old chum. May you conquer Boston and all the Pilgrim - Fathers!” - </p> - <p> - “Thanks. The vision of one of them disturbs my dreams. One will be - enough.” - </p> - <p> - Then followed six golden days on the banks of the Catawba. Every day he - insisted with boyish enthusiasm on returning to that rock and seating her - on her throne. He called her his queen, and worshipped at her feet. - </p> - <p> - He had the friendliest little chat with her mother, and told her how he - loved her daughter and hoped for her approval. She answered with frankness - that she was glad, and would love him as her own son, but that she - disapproved of kissing and extravagant love-making until they were ready - to be married, and their engagement duly announced. - </p> - <p> - So he could only hold Sallie’s hand and kiss the tips of her fingers and - the little dimples where they joined the hand, and sometimes he would hold - it against his own cheek while she smiled at him. - </p> - <p> - But when they rode homeward one evening he dared to put his arm behind - her, high on the phaeton’s leather cushion, as they were going down a - hill, and then lowered it a little as they started up the grade. She - leaned back and found it there. At first she nestled against it very - timidly and then trustingly. She looked into his face and both smiled. - </p> - <p> - “Isn’t that nice, Sallie?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, it is,—I don’t think Mama would mind that, do you?” - </p> - <p> - “Of course not.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I never promised not to lean back in a phaeton, did I?” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly not, and it’s all right.” - </p> - <p> - Toward the end of the week the General began to show him a grave friendly - interest. He invited Gaston to go over the mills with him. The mills were - located back of the wooded cliffs a quarter of a mile up the river. There - were now four magnificent brick buildings stretching out over the river - bottoms at right angles to its current. And there was a big dye house, a - ginning house and a cotton-seed oil mill. The General stood on the hill - top and proudly pointed it out to him. - </p> - <p> - “Isn’t that a grand sight, young man! We employ 2,000 hands down there, - and consume hundreds of bales of cotton a day. We began here after the war - without a cent, except our faith, and this magnificent water power. Now - look!” - </p> - <p> - “You have certainly done a great work,” said Gaston, “I had no idea you - had so many industries in the enclosure.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I sit down here on the hill some nights in the moonlight and look - into this valley, and the hum of that machinery is like ravishing music. - The machinery seems to me to be a living thing, with millions of fingers - of steel and a great throbbing soul. I dream of the day when those swift - fingers will weave their fabrics of gold and clothe the whole South in - splendour!—the South I love, and for which I fought, and have - yearned over through all these years. Ah! young man, I wish you boys of - brain and genius would quit throwing yourselves away in law and dirty - politics, and devote your powers to the South’s development!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but General, the people of the South had to go into politics instead - of business on account of the enfranchisement of the Negro. It was a - matter of life and death.” - </p> - <p> - “I didn’t do it.” - </p> - <p> - “No, sir, but others did for you.” - </p> - <p> - “How?” he asked incredulously, with just a touch of wounded pride. - </p> - <p> - “Well how many negroes do you employ in these mills?” - </p> - <p> - “None. We don’t allow a negro to come inside the enclosure.” - </p> - <p> - “Precisely so. You have prospered because you have got rid of the Negro.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve simply let the Negro alone. Let others do the same.” - </p> - <p> - “But everybody can’t do it. There are now nine millions of them. You’ve - simply shifted the burden on others’ shoulders. You haven’t solved the - problem.” - </p> - <p> - “If we had less politics and more business, we would be better off.” - </p> - <p> - “But the trouble is, General, we can’t have more business until politics - have settled some things.” - </p> - <p> - “Bah! You’re throwing yourself away in politics, young man! There’s - nothing in it but dirt and disappointment.” - </p> - <p> - “To me, sir, politics is a religion.” - </p> - <p> - “Religion! Politics! I didn’t know you could ever mix ’em. I - thought they were about as far apart as heaven is from hell!” exclaimed - the General. - </p> - <p> - “They ought not to be sir, whatever the terrible facts, I believe that the - Government is the organised virtue of the community, and that politics is - religion in action. It may be a poor sort of religion, but it is the best - we are capable of as members of society.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, that’s a new idea.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s coming to be more and more recognised by thoughtful men, General. I - believe that the State is now the only organ through which the whole - people can search for righteousness, and that the progress of the world - depends more than ever on its integrity and purity.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you’ve cut out a big job for yourself, if that’s your ideal. My - idea of politics is a pig pen. The way to clean it is to kill the pigs.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston laughed and shook his head. - </p> - <p> - When they returned from the mills, Mrs. Worth drew the General into her - room. - </p> - <p> - “Did he ask you for Sallie?” - </p> - <p> - “No, the young galoot never mentioned her name. I thought he would. But I - must have scared him.” - </p> - <p> - “You didn’t quarrel over anything?” - </p> - <p> - “No! But I found out he had a mind of his own.” - </p> - <p> - “So have you, sir.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0037" id="link2HCH0037"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XIII—THE FIRST KISS - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HY didn’t you ask - him yesterday?” cried Sallie, as she entered the parlour the next morning. - </p> - <p> - “Darling, I was scared out of my wits. We got crossways on some questions - we were discussing, and he snorted at me once, and every time I tried to - screw up my courage to speak, a lump got in my throat and I gave it up. I - thought I’d wait a day or two until he should be in a better humour.” - </p> - <p> - “He’s gone away to-day,” she said with disappointment. - </p> - <p> - “I’m glad of it, I ’ll write him a letter.” - </p> - <p> - “If you had asked him yesterday it would have been all right. He told me - so when he left this morning, with a very tender tremor in his voice.” - </p> - <p> - “But it will be all right, sweetheart, when I write.” - </p> - <p> - “I wanted my ring,” she whispered. - </p> - <p> - “You shall have it,” he said, as he seized her hand and led her to a seat. - </p> - <p> - “Have you got it with you?” she asked with excitement. “Let me see it - quick.” - </p> - <p> - He drew the little box from his pocket, withdrew the ring, concealing it - in his hand, slipped it on her finger and kissed it. She threw her hand up - into the light to see it. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! it is glorious! It’s the big green diamond Hiddenite I saw at the - Exposition! It is the most beautiful stone I ever saw, and the only one of - its kind in size and colour in the world. Professor Hidden told me so. I - tried to get Papa to buy it for me. But he laughed at me, and said it was - childish extravagance. Charlie dear, how could you get it?” - </p> - <p> - “That’s a little secret. But there are to be no secrets between us any - more. I had a little hoard saved from my mother’s estate for the greatest - need of my life. I confess my extravagance.” - </p> - <p> - “You are a matchless lover. I’m the proudest and happiest girl that - breathes.” - </p> - <p> - “Nothing is too good for you, I wish I could make a greater sacrifice.” - </p> - <p> - “Wait, till I show it to Mama,” and she flew to her mother’s room. She - returned immediately, looking at the ring and kissing it. - </p> - <p> - “Couldn’t show it to her, she had company,” she said. “Allan is talking to - her.” - </p> - <p> - “Let’s get out of the house, dear. I hate that man like a rattlesnake.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t be silly, I never cared a snap for him.” - </p> - <p> - “I know you didn’t, but there is a poison about him that taints the air - for me. Get your horse and let’s go to our place at the old mill.” - </p> - <p> - They soon reached the spot, and with a laugh she sprang upon the rock and - took her seat against the tree. - </p> - <p> - “Now, dear, humour this whim of mine. I’ve grown superstitious since - you’ve made me happy. I have a presentiment of evil because that man was - in the house. I am going to take the ring off and put it on your hand - again out here where only the eyes of our birds will see, and the river we - love will hear.” - </p> - <p> - “That will be nicer. I somehow feel that my life is built on this dear old - rock,” she answered soberly. - </p> - <p> - He took the ring off her finger, dipped it in the white foam of the river, - kissed it, and placed it on her hand. - </p> - <p> - “Now the spell is broken, isn’t it?” she cried, holding it out in the - sunlight a moment to catch the flash of its green diamond depth. - </p> - <p> - “I’ve another token for you. This, you will not even show to your mother - or father.” She bent low over a tiny package he unfolded. - </p> - <p> - “This is the first medal I won at college,” he continued—“the first - victory of my life. It was the force that determined my character. It gave - me an inflexible will. I worked at a tremendous disadvantage. Others were - two years ahead of me in study for the contest. I locked myself up in my - room day and night for ten months, and took just enough food and sleep for - strength to work. I worked seventeen hours a day, except Sundays, for ten - months without an hour of play. I won it brilliantly. Every line cut on - its gold surface stands for a thousand aches of my body. Every little - pearl set in it, grew in a pain of that struggle which set its seal on my - inmost life. I came out of those ten months a man. I have never known the - whims of a boy since.” - </p> - <p> - “And you engraved something on the back to me!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, can’t you read it?” - </p> - <p> - “My eyes are dim,” she whispered. - </p> - <p> - “It is this—<i>In the hand of manhood’s tenderest love I bring to - thee my boyhood’s brightest dream</i>. I was a man when I woke, but I have - never lived till you taught me. Keep this as a pledge of eternal love. - It’s the only little trinket I ever possessed. The world will see our - ring. Don’t let them see this. It is the seal of your sovereignty of my - soul in life, in death, and beyond. Will you make me this eternal pledge?” - </p> - <p> - “Unto the uttermost!” she murmured. - </p> - <p> - “Unto the uttermost!” he solemnly echoed. - </p> - <p> - “And now, what can I say or do for you when you show me in this spirit of - prodigal sacrifice how dear I am in your eyes?” - </p> - <p> - “Those words from your lips are enough,” he declared. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll give you more. I’m going to give you just a little bit of - myself. I haven’t asked Mama, but we are engaged now—come closer.” - </p> - <p> - She placed her beautiful arms around his neck and pressed her lips upon - his in the first rapturous kiss of love. - </p> - <p> - “No,—no more. It is enough,” she protested. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0038" id="link2HCH0038"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XIV—A MYSTERIOUS LETTER - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>E was at home now, - waiting impatiently for the General’s answer to his letter. Two weeks had - passed and he had not received it. But she had explained in her letters - that her father had returned the day he left, had a talk with McLeod, and - left on important business. They were expecting his return at any moment. - </p> - <p> - It was a new revelation of life he found in their first love letters. He - never knew that he could write before. He sat for hours at his desk in his - law office and poured out to her his dreams, hopes and ambitions. All the - poetry of youth, and the passion and beauty of life, he put into those - letters. - </p> - <p> - He wrote to her every day and she answered every other day. She wrote in - half tearful apology that her mother disapproved of a daily letter, and - she added wistfully, “I should like to write to you twice a day. Take the - will for the deed, and as you love me, be sure to continue yours daily.” - </p> - <p> - And on the days the letter came, with eager trembling hands he seized it, - without waiting for the rest of his mail or his papers. With set face, and - quick nervous step, he would mount the stairs to his office, lock his door - and sit down to devour it. He would hold it in his hands sometimes for ten - minutes just to laugh and muse over it and try to guess what new trick of - phrase she had used to express her love. He was surprised at her - brilliance and wit. He had not held her so deep a thinker on the serious - things of life as these letters had showed, nor had he noticed how keen - her sense of humour. He was so busy looking at her beautiful face, and - drinking the love-light from her eyes, he had overlooked these things when - with her. Now they flashed on him as a new treasure, that would enrich his - life. - </p> - <p> - At the end of two weeks when the General had not answered his letter he - began to grow nervous. A vague feeling of fear grew on him. Something had - happened to darken his future. He felt it by a subtle telepathy of - sympathetic thought. He was gloomy and depressed all day after he had - received and feasted on the wittiest letter she had ever written. What - could it mean he asked himself a thousand times—some shadow had - fallen across their lives. He knew it as clearly as if the revelation of - its misery were already unfolded. - </p> - <p> - He went to the post-office on the next day he was to receive a letter, - crushed with a sense of foreboding. He waited until the mail was all - distributed and the general delivery window flung open before he - approached his box. He was afraid to look at her letter. He slowly opened - the box. - </p> - <p> - There was nothing in it! - </p> - <p> - “Sam, you’re not holding out my letter to tease me, old boy?” he asked - pathetically. - </p> - <p> - Sam was about to joke him about the uncertainties of love, when his eye - rested on his drawn face. - </p> - <p> - “Lord no, Charlie,” he protested, “you know I wouldn’t treat you like - that.” - </p> - <p> - “Then look again, you may have dropped it.” - </p> - <p> - Sam turned and looked carefully over the floor, over and under his desks - and tables and returned. - </p> - <p> - “No, but it may have been thrown into the wrong bag by that fool mail - clerk on the train. You may get it to-morrow.” - </p> - <p> - He turned away and walked to his office, forgetting his key in the open - box. The vague sense of calamity that weighed on his heart for the past - two days, now became a reality. - </p> - <p> - He sat in his office all the afternoon in a dull stupor of suspense. He - tried to read her last letter over. But the pages would get blurred and - fade out of sight, and he would wake to find he had been staring at one - sentence for an hour. - </p> - <p> - He knew his foster mother would be all sympathy and tenderness if he told - her, but somehow he hadn’t the heart. She had led him to his love. He had - been so boyishly and frankly happy boasting to her of his success, he - sickened at the thought of telling her. He went out for a walk in the - woods, and lay down alone beside a brook like a wounded animal. - </p> - <p> - The next day he watched his box again with the hope that Sam’s guess might - be right, and the missing letter would come. But, instead of the big - square-cut envelope he had waited for, he received a bulky letter in an - old-fashioned masculine handwriting with the post mark of Independence, - and a mill mark in the upper left hand corner. - </p> - <p> - He did not have to look twice at that letter. It was the sealed verdict of - his jury. He locked his office door. It was long and rambling, full of a - kindly sympathy expressed in a restrained manner. He could not believe at - first that so outspoken a man as the General could have written it. The - substance of its meaning, however, was plain enough. He meant to say that - as he was not in a position to make a suitable home at present for a wife, - and as he disapproved of long engagements, it seemed better that no - engagement should be entered into or announced. - </p> - <p> - He stared at this letter for an hour, trying to grasp the mystery that lay - back of its halting, half-contradictory sentences. He did not know till - long afterwards that the General had written it with two blue eyes - tearfully watching him, and waiting to read it; that now and then there - was the sound of a great sob, and two arms were around his neck, and a - still white face lying on his shoulder, and that tears had washed all the - harshness and emphasis out of what he had meant to write, and all but - blotted out any meaning to what he did write. - </p> - <p> - But withal it was clear enough in its import. It meant that the General - had haltingly but authoritatively denied his suit. He instantly made up - his mind to ask an interview at his home, and know plainly all his reasons - for this change of attitude. He wrote his letter and posted it immediately - by return mail. He knew that the request would precipitate a crisis, and - he trembled at the outcome. Either her father would hesitate and receive - him, or end it with a crash of his imperious will. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0039" id="link2HCH0039"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XV—A BLOW IN THE DARK - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE noon mail - brought Gaston no answer. At night he felt sure it would come. - </p> - <p> - When the wagon dashed up to the post-office that night it was fifteen - minutes late. He was walking up and down the street on the opposite - pavement along the square, keeping under the shadows of the trees. He - turned, quickly crossed the street, and stood inside the office, listening - with a feeling of strange abstraction to the tramp of the postmaster’s - feet back and forth as he distributed the mail. He never knew before what - a tragedy might be concealed in the thrust of a bit of folded paper into a - tiny glass-eyed box. As he waited, fearing to face his fate, he remembered - the pathetic figure of a grey-haired old man who stood there one day - hanging on that desk softly talking to himself. He was a stranger at the - Springs, and they were alone in the office together. Now and then he - brushed a tear from his eyes, glanced timidly at the window of the general - delivery, starting at every quick movement inside as though afraid the - window had opened. Gaston had gone up close to the old man, drawn by the - look of anguish in his dignified face. The stranger intuitively recognised - the sympathy of the movement, and explained tremblingly: “My son, I am - waiting for a message of life or death”—he faltered, seized his - hand, adding, “and I’m afraid to see it!” - </p> - <p> - Just then the window opened and he clutched his arm and gasped, with - dilated staring eyes, “There, there it’s come! You go for me, my son, and - ask while I pray!—I’m afraid.” How well Gaston remembered now with - what trembling eagerness the old man had broken the seal, and then stood - with head bowed low, crying, “I thank and bless thee, oh, Mother of Jesus, - for this hour!” And looking up into his face with tear-streaming eyes he - cried in a rich low voice like tender music, “How beautiful are the feet - of them that bring glad tidings!” - </p> - <p> - He could feel now the warm pressure of his hand as he walked out of the - office with him. - </p> - <p> - How vividly the whole scene came rushing over him! He thought he - sympathised with his old friend that night, but now he entered into the - fellowship of his sorrow. Now he knew. - </p> - <p> - At last he drew himself up, walked to his box and opened it. His heart - leaped. A big square-cut envelope lay in it, addressed to him in her own - beautiful hand. He snatched it out and hurried to his office. The moment - he touched it, his heart sank. It was light and thin. Evidently there was - but a single sheet of paper within. - </p> - <p> - He tore it open and stared at it with parted lips and half-seeing eyes. - The first word struck his soul with a deadly chill. This was what he read: - </p> - <p> - <i>“My Dear Mr. Gaston:</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>“I write in obedience to the wishes of my parents to say our engagement - must end and our correspondence cease. I can not explain to you the - reasons for this. I have acquiesced in their judgment, that it is best.</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>“I return your letters by to-morrow’s mail, and Mama requests that you - return mine to her at Oakwood immediately.</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>“I leave to-night on the Limited for Atlanta where I join a friend. We - go to Savannah, and thence by steamer to Boston where I shall visit Helen - for a month.</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>“Sincerely,</i> - </p> - <p> - <i>“Sallie Worth.”</i> - </p> - <p> - For a long time he looked at the letter in a stupor of amazement. That her - father could coerce her hand into writing such a brutal commonplace note - was a revelation of his power he had never dreamed. And then his anger - began to rise. His fighting blood from soldier ancestors made his nerves - tingle at this challenge. - </p> - <p> - He took up the letter and read it again curiously studying each word. He - opened the folded sheet hoping to find some detached message. There was - nothing inside. But he noticed on the other side of the sheet a lot of - indentures as though made by the end of a needle. He turned it back and - studied these dots under different letters in the words made by the needle - points. He spelled,— - </p> - <p> - “<i>My Darling—Unto the Uttermost!</i>” - </p> - <p> - And then he covered the note with kisses, sprang to his feet and looked at - his watch. - </p> - <p> - It was now ten-thirty. The Limited left Independence at eleven o’clock and - made no stops for the first hundred miles toward Atlanta. But just to the - south where the railroad skirted the foot of King’s Mountain, there was a - water tank on the mountain side where he knew the train stopped for water - about midnight. - </p> - <p> - With a fast horse he could make the eighteen miles and board the Limited - at this water station. The only danger was if the sky should cloud over - and the starlight be lost it would be difficult to keep in the narrow road - that wound over the semi-mountainous hills, densely wooded, that must be - crossed to make it. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll try it!” he exclaimed. “Yes, I will do it!” he added setting - his teeth. “I ’ll make that train.” - </p> - <p> - He got the best horse he could find in the livery stable, saw that his - saddle girths were strong, sprang on and galloped toward the south. It was - a quarter to eleven when he started, and it seemed a doubtful undertaking. - The Limited would make the run from Independence, fifty-two miles, in an - hour at the most. If she were on time it would be a close shave for him to - make the eighteen miles. - </p> - <p> - The sky clouded slightly before he reached the mountain. In spite of his - vigilance he lost his way and had gone a quarter of a mile before a rift - in the cloud showed him the north star suddenly, and he found he had taken - the wrong road at the crossing and was going straight back home. - </p> - <p> - Wheeling his horse, he put spurs to him, and dashed at full speed back - through the dense woods. - </p> - <p> - Just as he got within a mile of the tank he heard the train blow for the - bridge-crossing at the river near by. - </p> - <p> - “Now, my boy,” he cried to his horse, patting him. “Now your level best!” - </p> - <p> - The horse responded with a spurt of desperate speed. He had a way of - handling a horse that the animal responded to with almost human sympathy - and intelligence. He seemed to breathe his own will into the horse’s - spirit. He flew over the ground, and reached the train just as the fireman - cut off the water and the engineer tapped his bell to start. - </p> - <p> - He flung his horse’s rein over a hitching post that stood near the silent - little station-house, rushed to the track, and sprang on the day coach as - it passed. - </p> - <p> - He had intended to ride fifty miles on this train, see his sweetheart face - to face—learn the truth from her own lips—and then return on - the up-train. He hoped to ride back to Hambright before day and keep the - fact of his trip a secret. - </p> - <p> - Now a new difficulty arose—a very simple one—that he had not - thought of for a moment. She was in a Pullman sleeper of course, and - asleep. - </p> - <p> - There were three sleepers, one for Atlanta, one for New Orleans, and one - for Memphis. He hoped she was in the Atlanta sleeper as that was her - destination, though if that were crowded in its lower berths she might be - in either of the others. But how under heaven could he locate her? The - porter probably would not know her. - </p> - <p> - He was puzzled. The conductor approached and he paid his fare to the next - stop, fifty miles. - </p> - <p> - “I’ve an important message for a passenger in one of these sleepers, - Captain,” he exclaimed. “I have ridden across the mountains to catch the - train here.” - </p> - <p> - “All right, sir,” said the genial conductor. “Go right in and deliver it. - You look like you had a tussle to get here.” - </p> - <p> - “It was a close shave,” Gaston replied. - </p> - <p> - He stepped into the Atlanta sleeper and encountered the dusky potentate - who presided over its aisles. - </p> - <p> - The porter looked up from the shoes he was shining at Gaston’s dishevelled - hair and gave him no welcome. - </p> - <p> - Gaston dropped a half dollar into his hand and the porter dropped the - shoes and grinned a royal welcome. “Any ting I kin do fer ye boss?” - </p> - <p> - “Got any ladies on your car?” - </p> - <p> - “Yassir, three un ’em.” - </p> - <p> - “Young, or old?” - </p> - <p> - “One young un, en two ole uns.” - </p> - <p> - “Did the young lady get on at Independence?” - </p> - <p> - “Yassir.” - </p> - <p> - “Going to Atlanta?” - </p> - <p> - “Yassir.” - </p> - <p> - “Is she very beautiful?” - </p> - <p> - “Boss, she’s de purtiess young lady I eber laid my eyes’ on—but look - lak she been cryin’.” - </p> - <p> - “Then I want you to wake her. I must see her.” - </p> - <p> - “Lordy boss, I cain do dat. Hit ergin de rules.” - </p> - <p> - “But, I’m bound to see her. I’ve ridden eighteen miles across the - mountains and scratched my face all to pieces rushing through those woods. - I’ve a message of the utmost importance for her.” - </p> - <p> - “Cain do hit boss, hits ergin de rules. But you can go wake her yoself, ef - you’se er mind ter. I cain keep you fum it. She’s dar in number seben.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston hesitated. “No, you must wake her,” he insisted, dropping another - half dollar in the porter’s hand. - </p> - <p> - The porter got up with a grin. He felt he must rise to a great occasion. - </p> - <p> - “Well, I des fumble roun’ de berth en mebbe she wake herse’f, en den I - tell her.” - </p> - <p> - Just then the electric bell overhead rang and the index pointed to 7. “Dar - now, dat’s her callin’ me, sho!” - </p> - <p> - He approached the berth. “What kin I do fur ye M’am?” he whispered. - </p> - <p> - “Porter, who is that you are talking to? It sounds like some one I know.” - </p> - <p> - “Yassum, hit’s young gent name er Gaston, jump on bode at the water - station—say he got ‘portant message fur you.” - </p> - <p> - “Tell him I will see him in a moment.” - </p> - <p> - The porter returned with the message. - </p> - <p> - “You des wait in dar, in number one—hits not made up—twell she - come,” he added. - </p> - <p> - There was the soft rustle of a dressing gown—he sprang to his feet, - clasped her hand passionately, kissed it, and silently she took her seat - by his side. He still held her hand, and she pressed his gently in - response. He saw that she was crying, and his heart was too full for words - for a moment. - </p> - <p> - He looked long and wistfully in her face. In her dishevelled hair by the - dim light of the car he thought her more beautiful than ever. At last she - brushed the tears from her eyes and turned her face full on his with a sad - smile. - </p> - <p> - “My own dear love!” she sobbed, “I prayed that I might see you somehow - before I left. I was wide awake when I first heard the distant murmur of - your voice. Oh! I am so glad you came!” and she pressed his hand. - </p> - <p> - “I got your letter at ten-thirty”— - </p> - <p> - “Oh! that awful letter! How I cried over it. Papa made me write it, and - read and mailed it himself. But you saw my message between the lines?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and then I covered it with kisses. But what is the cause of this - sudden change of the General toward me? What have I done?” - </p> - <p> - “Please don’t ask me. I can’t tell you,” she sobbed lowering her face a - moment to his hand and kissing it. “Don’t ask me.” - </p> - <p> - “But, my dear, I must know. There can be no secrets between us.” - </p> - <p> - “My lips will never tell you. There have been a thousand slanders breathed - against you. I met them with fury and scorn, and no one has dared repeat - them in my hearing. I would not pollute my lips by repeating one of them.” - </p> - <p> - “But who is their author?” - </p> - <p> - “I can not tell you. I promised Mama I wouldn’t. She loves you, and she is - on our side, but said it was best. Papa has made up his mind to break our - engagement forever. And I defied him. We had a scene. I didn’t know I had - the strength of will that came to me. I said some terrible things to him, - and he said some very cruel things to me. Poor Mama was prostrated. Her - heart is weak, and I only yielded at last as far as I have because of her - tears and suffering. I could not endure her pleadings. So I promised to do - as he wished for the present, leave for Boston, and cease to write to - you.” - </p> - <p> - “My love, I must know my enemy to meet him and face the issues he raises. - I can not be strangled in the dark like this.” - </p> - <p> - “You will find it out soon enough, I can not tell you,” she repeated. “I - only ask you to trust me, in this the darkest hour that has ever come to - my life. You will trust me, will you not, dear?” she pleaded. - </p> - <p> - “I have trusted you with my immortal soul. You know this.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, yes, dear, I do. Then you can love and trust me without a letter or - a word between us until Mama is better and I can get her consent to write - to you? Oh, I never knew how tenderly and desperately I love you until - this shadow came over our lives! No power shall ever separate us when the - final test comes, unless you shall grow weary.” - </p> - <p> - “Do not say that,” he interrupted. “I love you with a love that has - brought me out of the shadows and shown me the face of God. Death shall - not bring weariness. But I dread with a sickening fear the efforts they - will make to plunge you into the whirl of frivolous society. I shall be a - lonely beggar a thousand miles away with not one friendly face near you to - plead my cause.” - </p> - <p> - “Hush!” she broke in upon him. “You are for me the one living presence. - You are always near—oh so near, closer than breathing!” - </p> - <p> - The roar of the train became sonorous with the vibration of a great - bridge. He started and looked at his watch. - </p> - <p> - “We are more than half way to the stop where I must leave you and return.” - </p> - <p> - “How long have you been here?” - </p> - <p> - “Over a half hour. It does not seem two minutes. Only a few minutes more - face to face, and all life crowding for utterance! How can I choose what - to say, when my tongue only desires to say <i>I love you!</i> Bend near - and whisper to me again your love vow,” he cried in trembling accents. - </p> - <p> - Close to his ear she placed her lips, holding fast his hand whispering - again and again, “My own dear love—unto the uttermost. In life, in - death, forever!” - </p> - <p> - He bent again and pressed his lips on her hand and she felt the hot tears. - </p> - <p> - “And now, love, comes the hardest thing of all,” she sobbed, “I must - return to you my ring.” - </p> - <p> - “For God’s sake keep it!” he pleaded. - </p> - <p> - “No, I promised Mama for peace sake I would return it. She is very weak. I - could not dare to hurt her now with a broken promise. She may not live - long. I could never forgive myself. Keep it for me, dear, until I can wear - it.” - </p> - <p> - She placed it in his hand and it burnt like a red hot coal. He placed it - in an inside pocket next to his heart. It felt like a huge millstone - crushing him. A lump rose in his throat and choked him until he gasped for - breath. - </p> - <p> - She looked at him pathetically and saw his anguish. - </p> - <p> - “Come, my love,” she pleaded reproachfully, “you must not make it harder - for me. You are a man. You are stronger than I am. Love is more my whole - life than it can be yours. For this cruel thing I have said and done, you - may press on my lips another kiss. If I am disobedient to my mother’s - wishes God will forgive me.” - </p> - <p> - The train blew the long deep call for its hundred mile stop and they both - rose, he took her hands in his. - </p> - <p> - “You have promised not to write to me, dear, but I have made no promise. I - will write to you as often as I can send you a cheerful message,” he said. - </p> - <p> - “It is so sweet of you!” - </p> - <p> - “You have the little love-token still?” he asked. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, in my bosom. I feel it warm and throbbing with your love, and it - shall not be taken from me in the grave!” - </p> - <p> - “That thought will cheer the darkest hours that can come and now, till we - meet again, we must say goodbye,” he said huskily. - </p> - <p> - She could make no response. He placed his arms around her, pressed her - close to his heart for a moment,—one long wistful kiss, and he was - gone. - </p> - <p> - He rode slowly back to Hambright. The eastern horizon was fringed with the - light of dawn when he reached the town. The more he had thought of his - position and the way the General had treated him in attempting to settle - his fate by a fiat of his own will without a hearing, the more it roused - his wrath, and nerved him for the struggle. They were to measure wills in - a contest’ that on his part had life for its stake. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll give the old warrior the fight of his career!” he muttered - as he snapped his square jaw together with the grip of a vise. “My brains, - and every power with which nature has endowed me against his will and his - money. And for the dastard who has slandered me there will be a - reckoning.” - </p> - <p> - He was fighting in the dark but deep down in him he had a soldier’s love - for a fight. His soul rose to meet the challenge of this hidden foe armed - in the steel of a proud heritage of courage. He went to bed and slept - soundly for six hours. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0040" id="link2HCH0040"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XVI—THE MYSTERY OF PAIN - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">G</span>ASTON awoke next - morning at half past ten o’clock with a dull headache, and a sense of - hopeless depression. His anger had cooled and left him the pitiful - consciousness of his loss. He slowly and mechanically dressed. - </p> - <p> - When he buttoned his coat he felt something hard press against his heart. - It was the ring. He sat down on his bed and drew it from his pocket. To - his surprise he found coiled inside it and tied by a tiny ribbon a ringlet - of her hair. She had taken off the ring in her mother’s presence and - promised her to register and mail it in Atlanta. She had bound this little - piece of herself with it. He kissed it tenderly. - </p> - <p> - “My God, it is hard!” he groaned. And all the unshed tears that his eager - interest in her presence and his kindling anger the night before had kept - back now blinded him. - </p> - <p> - He did not notice his door softly open, nor know his mother was near until - she placed her hand gently on his shoulder. He looked up at her face full - of tender sympathy, and poured out to her his trouble in a torrent of hot - rebellious words. - </p> - <p> - “What have I done to be treated like a dog in this way?” he ended with a - voice trembling with protest. - </p> - <p> - “Perhaps you have offended the General in some way?” - </p> - <p> - “Impossible. I’ve been the soul of deference to him.” - </p> - <p> - “He’s a very proud man when his vanity is touched, are you sure of it?” - </p> - <p> - “As sure as that I live. No, some scoundrel has interfered between us and - in some unaccountable way covered me with infamy in the General’s eyes.” - </p> - <p> - “But who could have done it?” - </p> - <p> - “I used my utmost power of persuasion to get it from her. But she would - not tell me. I have been stabbed in the dark.” - </p> - <p> - “Whom do you suspect? She has a dozen suitors.” - </p> - <p> - “There’s only one man among them who is capable of it, Allan McLeod.” - </p> - <p> - “Nonsense, child. He is not one of her suitors,” she protested warmly. - </p> - <p> - “Then why does he hang around the house with such dogged persistence?” - </p> - <p> - “He has always had the run of the house. His father committed him to the - General when he died on the battle field.” - </p> - <p> - Her face clouded, and then a great pity for his sorrow filled her heart. - She stooped and kissed him. - </p> - <p> - “Come, Charlie, you must cheer up. If she loves you, it’s everything. You - will win her.” - </p> - <p> - “But what rankles in my soul is that I have been treated like a dog. If he - objected to my poverty that was as evident the first day he welcomed me to - his house as the day he dictated to her his brutal message, refusing me a - word. He welcomed me to his house, and gave Miss Sallie his approval of - our love while I was there. There could be no mistake, for she told me - so.” - </p> - <p> - “I can’t understand it,” she interrupted. - </p> - <p> - “Now he suddenly shows me the door and refuses to allow me to even ask an - explanation. If he thinks he can settle my life for me in that simple - manner, I’ll show him that I ’ll at least help in the settlement.” - </p> - <p> - “Good. I like to see your eyes flash that fire. Don’t forget your - resolution. Your enemies are your best friends.” She said this with a ring - of her old aristocratic pride. “Come,” she continued, “I’ve a nice warm - breakfast saved for you. You don’t know how much good you have done me in - my lonely life.” - </p> - <p> - “Dear Mother!” he whispered pressing her hand. After breakfast he went to - his office and read over slowly the letters he had received from Sallie, - kissed them one by one, tied them up and sent them to her mother. He took - the ring out of his pocket and locked it in one of his drawers. - </p> - <p> - “I can’t work to-day. It’s no use trying!” he muttered looking out of his - window. He locked his office and started down town with no purpose except - in the walk to try to fight his pain. Instinctively he found his way to - Tom Camp’s cottage. - </p> - <p> - “Tom, old boy, I’m in deep water. You’ve been there. I just want to feel - your hand.” - </p> - <p> - Tom was clearing up his kitchen with one hand and holding the other tight - over the wound near his spinal column. He had suffered untold agonies - through the night past and was suffering yet, but he never mentioned it. - </p> - <p> - “You’ve just got your blues again!” Tom laughed. - </p> - <p> - “No, a devil has stabbed me in the back in the dark.” And he told Tom of - his love and his inexplicable trouble. - </p> - <p> - “So, so!” Tom mused with dancing eyes, “The General’s gal Miss Sallie! My! - my! but ain’t she a beauty! Next to my own little gal there she’s the - purtiest thing in No’th Caliny. And you’re her sweetheart, and she told - you she loved you?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes.” - </p> - <p> - “Then what ails you? Man, to hear that from such lips as she’s got’s music - enough for a year. You want the whole regimental band to be playin’ all - the time. If she loves you, that’s enough now to give you nerve to fight - all earth and hell combined.” Tom urged this with an enthusiasm that - admitted no reply. - </p> - <p> - Flora had climbed in his lap, and was going through his pockets to find - some candy. - </p> - <p> - “You didn’t bring me a bit this time!” she cried reproachfully. - </p> - <p> - “Honey, I forgot it,” he apologised. - </p> - <p> - “I don’t believe you love me any more, Charlie,” she declared placing her - hands on his cheeks and looking steadily into his eyes. “Am I your - sweetheart yet?” she asked. - </p> - <p> - “Of course, dearie, and about the only one I can depend on!” - </p> - <p> - “La, Charlie, your eyes are red!” she cried in surprise. “Do you cry?” - </p> - <p> - “Sometimes, when my heart gets too full.” - </p> - <p> - “Then, I ’ll kiss the red away!” she said as she softly kissed his - eyes. - </p> - <p> - “That’s good, Flora. It will make them better.’ - </p> - <p> - “Now, Pappy,” she said triumphantly, “you say I’m getting too big to cry, - and I ain’t but eleven years old, and Charlie’s big as you and he cries.” - </p> - <p> - Tom took her in his arms and smoothed his hand over her fair hair with a - tenderness that had in its trembling touch all the mystery of both mother - and father love in which his brooding soul had wrapped her. - </p> - <p> - Gaston returned home with lighter step. He met, as he crossed the square, - the Preacher who was waiting for him. - </p> - <p> - “Come here and sit down a minute. I’ve heard of your trouble. You have my - sympathy. But you ’ll come out all right. The oak that’s bent by - the storm makes a fibre fit for a ship’s rib. You can’t make steel without - white heat. God’s just trying your temper, boy, to see if there’s anything - in you. When he has tried you in the fire, and the pure gold shines, he - will call you to higher things.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston nodded his assent to this saying, “And yet, Doctor, none of us like - the touch of fire or the smell of the smoke of our clothes.” - </p> - <p> - “You are right. But it’s good for the soul. You are learning now that we - must face things that we don’t like in this world. I am older than you. I - will tell you something that you can’t really know until you have lived - through this. Love seems to you at this time the only thing in the world. - But it is not. My deepest sympathy is with Sallie. She’s already pure - gold. To such a woman love is the centre of gravity of all life. This is - not true of a strong normal man. The centre of gravity of a strong man’s - life as a whole is not in love and the emotions, but in justice and - intellect and their expression in the wider social relations.” - </p> - <p> - “And that means that I must brace up for this political fight?” - </p> - <p> - “Exactly so. And it’s the best thing you can do for your love. Become a - power and you can coerce even a man of the General’s character.” - </p> - <p> - “You are right, Doctor. I had my mind about fixed on that course.” - </p> - <p> - “You will find the County Committee in session in the Clerk’s office there - now. They want to see you. I tell you to fight this coalition of McLeod - and the farmers every inch up to the last hour it is formed, and if McLeod - wins them, and the alliance is made, then fight to break it every day and - every hour and every minute till the votes are counted out.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston went at once into the consultation with the Democratic county - committee. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0041" id="link2HCH0041"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XVII—IS GOD OMNIPOTENT? - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>S Gaston left the - Preacher, the Rev. Ephraim Fox approached. He was the pastor of the Negro - Baptist church, and had succeeded old Uncle Josh at his death ten years - before. - </p> - <p> - He bowed deferentially, and, hat in hand, stood close to the seat on which - Durham was still resting. - </p> - <p> - “How dis you doan come down ter our chu’ch en preach fur us no mo Brer’ - Durham? We been er havin’ powerful times down dar lately, en de folks - wants you ter come en preach some mo.” - </p> - <p> - “I can’t do it, Eph.” - </p> - <p> - “What de matter, Preacher? We ain’t hu’t yo feelin’s.” - </p> - <p> - “No, not in a personal way, but you’ve got beyond me.” - </p> - <p> - “How’s dat?” asked Ephraim rolling his eyes. - </p> - <p> - “Well, as long as I preach to your folks about heaven and the glory beyond - this world, they shout and sweat and sing. And when I jump on the old - sinners in the Bible, they are in glee. They like to see the fur fly. But - the minute I pounce on them about stealing, and lying, and drinking, and - lust,—they don’t want to furnish any of the fur.” - </p> - <p> - “De Lawd, Preacher, hit’s des de same wid de white folks!” urged Ephraim - with a wink. - </p> - <p> - “That’s so. But the difference is your people talk back at me after the - meeting.” - </p> - <p> - “How’s dat?” Ephraim repeated. - </p> - <p> - “Why when I preach righteousness and judgment on the thief and accuse them - of stealing, I lose my wood, and my corn, and my chickens.” - </p> - <p> - Ephraim was silent a moment and then he smiled as he said, “Preacher, dey - ain’t er nigger in dis town doan lub you.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I know it. That’s why they steal from me so much.” - </p> - <p> - “Go long wid yo fun!” roared Ephraim. “You know you ain’t gone back on us - des cause some nigger tuck er stick er wood—deys sumfin’ else—you - cain fool me.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you are right, that isn’t the main reason. There are others. You - turned a man out of your church for voting the Democratic ticket.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but Preacher,” interrupted Eph impatiently, “dat wuz er low-down - mean nigger. He didn’t hab no salvation nohow!” - </p> - <p> - “Then you keep a deacon in your church who served two terms in the - penitentiary.” - </p> - <p> - “But dat’s de bes’ deacon I got,” pleaded Eph sadly. - </p> - <p> - “Turn him out I tell you!” - </p> - <p> - “But dey all does little tings.” - </p> - <p> - “Turn ’em all out!” - </p> - <p> - “Den we ain’t got no chu’ch, en de shepherd ain’t got no flock ter tend, - er ter shear. You des splain how de Lawd tempers de win’ ter de shorn - lam’. Den ef I doan shear ’em, de win’ mought blow too hard on ’em. - En ef I doan keep ’em in de pen, how kin I shear ’em? I axes - you dat?” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher smiled and continued, “Then I’ve heard some ugly things about - you, Eph,” suddenly darting a piercing look straight into his face. - </p> - <p> - “Who, me?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, you. And I can’t afford to go into the pulpit with you any more. In - the old slavery days you were taught the religion of Christ. It didn’t - mean crime, and lust, and lying, and drinking, whatever it meant. Your - religion has come to be a stench. You are getting lower and lower. You - will be governed by no one. I can’t use force. I leave you alone. You have - gone beyond me.” - </p> - <p> - “But de Lawd lub a sinner, en his mercy enduref for-eber!” solemnly - grumbled Ephraim. - </p> - <p> - “In the old days,” persisted the Preacher, “I used to preach to your - people. I saw before me many men of character, carpenters, bricklayers, - wheelwrights, farmers, faithful home servants that loved their masters and - were faithful unto death. Now I see a cheap lot of thieves and jailbirds - and trifling women seated in high places. You have shown no power to stand - alone on the solid basis of character.” - </p> - <p> - “Why Brer’ Durham,” urged Eph in an injured voice, “I baptised inter de - kingdom over a hundred precious souls las’ year!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but what they needed was not a baptism of water. You negroes need a - racial baptism into truth, integrity, virtue, self-restraint, industry, - courage, patience, and purity of manhood and womanhood. I used to be - hopeful about you, but I’d just as well be frank with you, I’ve given you - up. I’ve said the grace of God was sufficient for all problems. I don’t - know now. I’m getting older and it grows darker to me. I have come to - believe there are some things God Almighty can not do. Can God make a - stone so big He can’t lift it? In either event, He is not omnipotent. It - looks like He did just that thing when He made the Negro. Leave me out of - your calculation, Ephraim.” - </p> - <p> - “Mus’ gib de nigger time, Preacher!” Eph muttered as he walked slowly - away. - </p> - <p> - When Gaston emerged from the court house, the Preacher joined him and they - walked home to the hotel together. - </p> - <p> - “What did the two farmers on your committee think of the chances of - preventing the Alliance from joining the negroes?” - </p> - <p> - “Not much of them. They say we can’t do anything with them when the test - comes, unless we will endorse their scheme of issuing money on corn and - pumpkins and potatoes stored in a government barn. If it comes to that, I - will not prostitute my intellect by advocating any such measure on the - floor of our convention. We stand for one thing at least, the supremacy of - Anglo-Saxon civilisation. I had rather be beaten by the negroes and their - allies this time on such an issue.” - </p> - <p> - “But, my boy, if McLeod and his negroes get control of this state for four - years, they can so corrupt its laws and its electorate, they may hold it a - quarter of a century. We must fight to the last ditch.” - </p> - <p> - “I draw the line at pumpkin leaves for money,” insisted Gaston. - </p> - <p> - It was but ten days to the meeting of the Democratic state convention, and - they were coming together divided in opinion, and at sea as to their - policy, with a united militant Farmers’ Alliance demanding the uprooting - of the foundations of the economic world, and a hundred thousand negro - voters grinning at this opportunity to strike their white foes, while - McLeod stood in the background smiling over the certainty of his triumph. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0042" id="link2HCH0042"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XVIII—THE WAYS OF BOSTON - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Helen Lowell - reached Boston from her visit with Sallie Worth, she found her father in - the midst of his political campaign. The Hon. Everett Lowell was the - representative of Congress from the Boston Highlands district. His home - was an old fashioned white Colonial house built during the American - Revolution. - </p> - <p> - He was not a man of great wealth, but well-to-do, a successful politician, - enthusiastic student, a graduate of Harvard, and he had always made a - specialty of championing the cause of the “freedmen.” He was a chronic - proposer of a military force bill for the South. - </p> - <p> - His family was one of the proudest in America. He had a family tree five - hundred years old—an unbroken line of unconquerable men who held - liberty dearer than life. He believed in the heritage of good honest blood - as he believed in blooded horses. His home was furnished in perfect taste, - with beautiful old rosewood and mahogany stuff that had both character and - history. On the walls hung the stately portraits of his ancestors - representative of three hundred years of American life. He never confused - his political theories about the abstract rights of the African with his - personal choice of associates or his pride in his Anglo-Saxon blood. With - him politics was one thing, society another. - </p> - <p> - His pet hobby, which combined in one his philanthropic ideals and his - practical politics, was of late a patronage he had extended to young - George Harris, the bright mulatto son of Eliza and George Harris whose - dramatic slave history had made their son famous at Harvard. - </p> - <p> - This young negro was a speaker of fair ability and was accompanying Lowell - on his campaign tours of the district, making speeches for his patron, who - had obtained for him a clerk’s position in the United States Custom House. - Harris was quite a drawing card at these meetings. He had a natural - aptitude for politics; modest, affable, handsome, and almost white, he was - a fine argument in himself to support Lowell’s political theories, who - used him for all he was worth as he had at the previous election. - </p> - <p> - Harris had become a familiar figure at Lowell’s home in the spacious - library, where he had the free use of the books, and frequently he dined - with the family, when there at dinner time hard at work on some political - speech or some study for a piece of music. - </p> - <p> - Lowell had met his daughter at the depot behind his pair of Kentucky - thoroughbreds. This daughter, his only child, was his pride and joy. She - was a blonde beauty, and her resemblance to her father was remarkable. He - was a widower, and this lovely girl, at once the incarnation of his lost - love and so fair a reflection of his being, had ruled him with absolute - sway during the past few years. - </p> - <p> - He was laughing like a boy at her coming. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! my beauty, the sight of your face gives me new life!” he cried - smiling with love and admiration. - </p> - <p> - “You mustn’t try to spoil me!” she laughed. - </p> - <p> - “Did you really have a good time in Dixie?” he whispered. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Papa, such a time!” she exclaimed shutting her eyes as though she - were trying to live it over again. - </p> - <p> - “Really?” - </p> - <p> - “Beaux, morning, noon and night,—dancing, moonlight rides, boats - gliding along the beautiful river and mocking birds singing softly their - love-song under the window all night!” - </p> - <p> - “Well you did have romance,” he declared. - </p> - <p> - “Yes,” she went on “and such people, such hospitality—oh! I feel as - though I never had lived before.” - </p> - <p> - “My dear, you mustn’t desert us all like that,” he protested. - </p> - <p> - “I can’t help it, I’m a rebel now.” - </p> - <p> - “Then keep still till the campaign’s over!” he warned in mock fear. - </p> - <p> - “And the boys down there,” she continued, “they are such boys! Time - doesn’t seem to be an object with them at all. Evidently they have never - heard of our uplifting Yankee motto ‘<i>Time is money.</i>’ And such - knightly deference! such charming old fashioned chivalrous ways!” - </p> - <p> - “But, dear, isn’t that a little out of date?” - </p> - <p> - “How staid and proper and busy Boston seems! I know I am going to be - depressed by it.” - </p> - <p> - “I know what’s the matter with you!” he whistled. - </p> - <p> - “What?” she slyly asked. - </p> - <p> - “One of those boys.” - </p> - <p> - “I confess. Papa, he’s as handsome as a prince.” - </p> - <p> - “What does he look like?” - </p> - <p> - “He is tall, dark, with black hair, black eyes, slender, graceful, all - fire and energy.” - </p> - <p> - “What’s his name?” - </p> - <p> - “St. Clare—Robert St. Clare. His father was away from home. He’s a - politician, I think.” - </p> - <p> - “You don’t say! St. Clare. Well of all the jokes! His father is my - Democratic chum in the House—an old fire-eating Bourbon, but a - capital fellow.” - </p> - <p> - “Did you ever see <i>him?</i>” - </p> - <p> - “No, but I’ve had good times with his father. He used to own a hundred - slaves. He’s a royal fellow, and pretty well fixed in life for a Southern - politician. I don’t think though I ever saw his boy. Anything really - serious?” - </p> - <p> - “He hasn’t said a word—but he’s coming to see me next week.” - </p> - <p> - “Well things are moving, I must say!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I pretended I must consult you, before telling him he could come. I - didn’t want to seem too anxious. I’m half afraid to let him wander about - Boston much, there are too many girls here.” - </p> - <p> - Her father laughed proudly and looked at her. “I hope you will find him - all your heart most desires, and my congratulations on your first love!” - </p> - <p> - “It will be my last, too,” she answered seriously. - </p> - <p> - “Ah! you’re too young and pretty to say that!” - </p> - <p> - “I mean it,” she said earnestly with a smile trembling on her lips. - </p> - <p> - Her father was silent and pressed her hand for an answer. As they entered - the gate of the home, they met young Harris coming out with some books - under his arm. He bowed gracefully to them and passed on. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Papa, I had forgotten all about your fad for that young negro!” - </p> - <p> - “Well, what of it, dear?” - </p> - <p> - “You love me very much, don’t you?” she asked tenderly. “I’m going to ask - you to be inconsistent, for my sake.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s easy. I’m often that for nobody’s sake. Consistency is only the - terror of weak minds.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m going to ask you to keep that young negro out of the house when my - Southern friends are here. After my sweetheart comes I expect Sallie and - her mother. I wouldn’t have either of them to meet him here in our library - and especially in our dining-room for anything on earth!” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you have joined the rebels, haven’t you?” - </p> - <p> - “You know I never did like negroes any way,” she continued. “They always - gave me the horrors. Young Harris is a scholarly gentleman, I know. He is - good-looking, talented, and I’ve played his music for him sometimes to - please you, but I can’t get over that little kink in his hair, his big - nostrils and full lips, and when he looks at me, it makes my flesh creep.” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly, my darling, you don’t need to coax me. The Lowells, I suspect, - know by this time what is due to a guest. When your guests come, our home - and our time are theirs. If eating meat offends, we will live on herbs. I - ’ll send Harris down to the other side of the district and keep him - at work there until the end of the campaign. My slightest wish is law for - him.” - </p> - <p> - “You see, Papa,” she went on, “they never could understand that negro’s - easy ways around our house, and I know if he were to sit down at our table - with them they would walk out of the dining-room with an excuse of illness - and go home on the first train.” - </p> - <p> - “And yet,” returned her father lifting her from the carriage, “their homes - were full of negroes were they not?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but they know their place. I’ve seen those beautiful Southern - children kiss their old black ‘Mammy.’ It made me shudder, until I - discovered they did it just as I kiss Fido.” - </p> - <p> - “And this a daughter of Boston, the home of Garrison and Sumner!” he - exclaimed. - </p> - <p> - “I’ve heard that Boston mobbed Garrison once,” she observed. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and I doubt if we have canonised Sumner yet. All right. If you say - so, I ’ll order a steam calliope stationed at the gate and hire a - man to play Dixie for you!” - </p> - <p> - She laughed, and ran up the steps. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - Sallie determined to keep the secret of her sorrow in her own heart. On - the ocean voyage she had cried the whole first day, and then kissed her - lover’s picture, put it down in the bottom of her trunk, brushed the tears - away and determined the world should not look on her suffering. - </p> - <p> - She had written Helen of her lover’s declaration, and of her happiness. - She would find a good excuse for her sorrowful face in their separation. - She knew he would write to her, for he had said so, and she had slipped - the address into his hand as he left the car that night. - </p> - <p> - At first she was puzzled to think what she could do about answering these - letters so Helen would not suspect her trouble. Then she hit on the plan - of writing to him every day, posting the letters herself and placing them - in her own trunk instead of the post-box. - </p> - <p> - “He will read them some day. They will relieve my heart,” she sadly told - herself. - </p> - <p> - Helen met her on the pier with a cry of girlish joy, and the first word - she uttered was, “Oh! Sallie, Bob loves me! He’s been here two weeks, and - he’s just gone home. I have been in heaven. We are engaged!” - </p> - <p> - “Then I ’ll kiss you again, Helen.”—She gave her another - kiss. - </p> - <p> - “And I’ve a big letter at home for you already! It’s post-marked - ‘Hambright.’ It came this morning. I know you will feast on it. If Bob - don’t write me faithfully I ’ll make him come here and live in - Boston.” - </p> - <p> - When Sallie got this letter, she sat down in her room, and read and - re-read its passionate words. There was a tone of bitterness and wounded - pride in it. She struggled bravely to keep the tears back. Then the tone - of the letter changed to tenderness and faith and infinite love that - struggled in vain for utterance. - </p> - <p> - She kissed the name and sighed. “Now I must go down and chat and smile - with Helen. She’s so silly about her own love, if I talk about Bob she - will forget I live.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0043" id="link2HCH0043"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XIX—THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>RS. WORTH had - arrived in Boston a few days after Sallie, coming direct by rail. She was - still very weak from her recent attack, and it cut her to the heart to - watch Sallie write those letters faithfully, and never mail them out of - deference to her wishes. - </p> - <p> - One night she drew her daughter down and kissed her. - </p> - <p> - “Sallie, dear, you don’t know how it hurts me to see you suffer this way, - and write, and write these letters your lover never sees. You may send him - one letter a week, I don’t care what the General says.” - </p> - <p> - There was a sob and another kiss and, Sallie was crying on her breast. - </p> - <p> - In answer to her first letter, Gaston was thrilled with a new inspiration. - He sat down that night and answered it in verse. All the deep longings of - his soul, his hopes and fears, his pain and dreams he set in rhythmic - music. Her mother read all his letters after Sallie. And she cried with - sorrow and pride over this poem. - </p> - <p> - “Sallie, I don’t blame you for being proud of such a lover. Your life is - rich hallowed by the love of such a man. Your father is wrong in his - position. If I were a girl and held the love of such a man, I’d cherish it - as I would my soul’s salvation. Be patient and faithful.” - </p> - <p> - “Sweet mother heart!” she whispered as she smoothed the grey hair - tenderly. - </p> - <p> - Allan McLeod had arrived in Boston the day before and the morning’s papers - were full of an interview with him on his brilliant achievement in - breaking the ranks of the Bourbon Democracy in North Carolina, and the - certainty of the success of his ticket at the approaching election. - </p> - <p> - McLeod sent the paper to Mrs. Worth by a special messenger, lest she might - not see it, and that evening called. He asked Sallie to accompany him to - the theatre, and when she refused spent the evening. - </p> - <p> - When her mother had retired McLeod drew his seat near her and again told - her in burning words his love. - </p> - <p> - “Miss ‘Sallie, I have won the battle of life at its very threshold. I - shall be a United States Senator in a few months. I want to lead you, my - bride, into the gallery of the Senate before I walk down its aisles to - take the oath. I have loved you faithfully for years. I have your father’s - consent to my suit. I asked him before leaving on this trip. Surely you - will not say no?” - </p> - <p> - “Allan McLeod, I do not love you. I do love another. I hate the sight of - you and the sound of your voice.” - </p> - <p> - “If you do not marry Gaston, will you give me a chance?” - </p> - <p> - “If I do not marry the man of my choice, I will never marry. Now go.” - </p> - <p> - McLeod returned to the hotel with the fury of the devil seething in his - soul. He determined to return to Ham-bright, and if possible entrap Gaston - in dissipation and destroy his faith in Sallie’s loyalty. - </p> - <p> - He wrote to the General that he had been rejected by his daughter who - still corresponded with Gaston. When General Worth received this letter he - wrote in wrath to his wife, peremptorily forbidding Sallie to write - another line to Gaston and closed saying, “I had trusted this matter to - you, my dear, now I take it out of your hands. I forbid another line or - word to this man.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston watched and waited in vain for the letter he was to receive next - week. Again his soul sank with doubt and fear. What fiend was striking him - with an unseen hand? He felt he should choke with rage as he thought of - the infamy of such a warfare. - </p> - <p> - His mother said to him shortly after McLeod’s arrival, “Charlie, I have - some bad news for you.” - </p> - <p> - “It can’t be any worse than I have, the misery of an unexplained silence - of two weeks.” - </p> - <p> - “I feel that I ought to tell you. It is the explanation of that silence, I - fear.” - </p> - <p> - “What is it, Mother?” he asked soberly. - </p> - <p> - “I hear that Sallie has plunged into frivolous society, is dancing every - night at the hotel at Narragansett Pier where they are stopping now, and - flirting with a halfdozen young men.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t believe it,” growled Gaston. - </p> - <p> - “I’m afraid it’s true, Charlie, and I’m furious with her for treating you - like this. I thought she had more character.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll love and trust her to the end!” he declared as he went - moodily to his office. But the poison of suspicion rankled in his - thoughts. Why had she ceased to write? Was not this mask of society a - habit with those who had learned to wear it? Was not habit, after all, - life? Could one ever escape it? It seemed to him more than probable that - the old habits should re-assert themselves in such a crisis, a thousand - miles removed from him or his personal influence. He held a very - exaggerated idea of the corruption of modern society. And his heart grew - heavier from day to day with the feeling that she was slipping away from - him. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0044" id="link2HCH0044"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XX—A NEW LESSON IN LOVE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>cLEOD returned - home to find his plans of political success in perfect order. The - programme went through without a hitch. In spite of the most desperate - efforts of the Democrats, he carried the state by a large majority and - made, for the Republican party and its strange allies, the first breach in - the solid phalanx of Democratic supremacy since Le-gree left his legacy of - corruption and terror. - </p> - <p> - The Legislature elected two Senators. To the amazement of the world, the - day before the caucus of the Republicans met, McLeod withdrew. He had no - opposition so far as anybody knew, but a curious thing had happened. The - Rev. John Durham discovered the fact that McLeod kept a still and had - established his mother as an illicit distiller years before. One of his - deputies who had become an inebriate, confessed this to the doctor who had - informed the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher put this important piece of information into the hands of a - daring young Republican who had always been one from principle. He went to - Raleigh and interviewed McLeod. At first McLeod denied, and blustered, and - swore. When he produced the proofs, he gave up, and asked sullenly, “What - do you want?” - </p> - <p> - “Get out of the race.” - </p> - <p> - “All right. Is that all? You’re on top.” - </p> - <p> - “No, give me the nomination.” - </p> - <p> - “Never!” he yelled with an oath. - </p> - <p> - “Then I ’ll expose you in to-morrow morning’s paper, and that’s the - end of you.” - </p> - <p> - McLeod hesitated a moment, and then said, “I ’ll agree. You’ve got - me. But I ’ll make one little condition. You must give me the name - of your informant.” - </p> - <p> - “The Rev. John Durham.” - </p> - <p> - “I thought as much.” - </p> - <p> - To the amazement of everyone McLeod waived the crown aside and placed it - on the head of one of his lieutenants. He returned to Hambright from this - dramatic event with an unruffled front. To his cronies he said, “Bah! I - was joking. Never had any idea of taking the office for myself. I’m - playing for larger stakes. I make these puppets, and pull the strings.” - </p> - <p> - He devoted himself assiduously in the leisure which followed to Mrs. - Durham. He never intimated to Durham that he knew anything about the part - he had taken in his withdrawal from the Senatorship. Nor had the Preacher - told his wife of his discovery. They had quarrelled several times about - McLeod. His wife seemed determined to remain loyal to the boy she had - taught. - </p> - <p> - McLeod in his talk with her intimated that he had withdrawn from a desire - vaguely forming in his mind to get out of the filth of politics - altogether, sooner or later, influenced by her voice alone. - </p> - <p> - With subtle skill he played upon her vanity and jealousy, and at last felt - that he had entangled her so far he could dare a declaration of his - feelings. There was one element only in her mental make-up he feared. She - held tenaciously the old-fashioned romantic ideals of love. To her it - seemed a divine mystery linking the souls that felt it to the infinite. If - he could only destroy this divine mystery idea, he felt sure that her - sense of isolation, and her proud rebellion against the disappointments of - life would make her an easy prey to his blandishments. - </p> - <p> - He searched his library over for a book that could scientifically - demonstrate the purely physical basis of love. He knew that somewhere in - his studies at a medical college in New York he had read it. - </p> - <p> - At last he discovered it among a lot of old magazines. It was a brief - study by a great physician of Paris, entitled “The Natural History of - Love.” He gave it to her, and asked her to read it and give him her candid - opinion of its philosophy. - </p> - <p> - He waited a week and on a Saturday when the Preacher was absent at one of - his county mission stations he called at the hotel for a long afternoon’s - talk. He determined to press his suit. - </p> - <p> - “Do you know, Mrs. Durham, what gives a preacher his boasted power of the - spirit over his audiences?” he inquired with a curious laugh in the midst - of which he changed his tone of voice. - </p> - <p> - “No, you are an expert on the diseases of preachers, what is it?” - </p> - <p> - “Very simple. Religion is founded on love, there never was a magnetic - preacher who was not a resistless magnet for scores of magnetic women. If - you don’t believe it, watch how resistless is the impulse of all these - good-looking women to shake hands with their preacher, and how fondly they - look at him across the pews if the crowd is too dense to reach his hand.” - </p> - <p> - A frown passed over her face, and she winced at the thrust, yet her answer - was a surprising question to him. - </p> - <p> - “Do you really believe in anything, Allan?” - </p> - <p> - “You ask that?” he said leaning closer. “You whose great dark eyes look - through a man’s very soul?” - </p> - <p> - “I begin to think I have never seen yours. I doubt if you have a soul.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, what’s the use of a soul? I can’t satisfy the wants of my body.” - </p> - <p> - “Answer my question. Do you believe in anything?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes,” he replied, his voice sinking to a tense whisper, “I believe in - Woman,—in love.” - </p> - <p> - “In Woman?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, Woman.” - </p> - <p> - “You mean women,” she sneered. - </p> - <p> - He started at her answer, looked intently at her, and said deliberately, - “I mean you, the One Woman, the only woman in the world to me.” - </p> - <p> - “I do not believe one word you have uttered, yet, I confess with shame, - you have always fascinated me.” - </p> - <p> - “Why with shame? You have but one life to live. The years pass. Even - beauty so rare as yours fades at last. The end is the grave and worms. Why - dash from your beautiful lips the cup of life when it is full to the - brim?” - </p> - <p> - “How skillfully you echo the dark thoughts that flit on devil wings - through the soul, when we feel the bitterness of life’s failure, its - contradictions and mysteries!” she exclaimed, closing her eyes for a - moment and leaning back in her chair. - </p> - <p> - “You’ve often talked to me about the necessity of some sort of slavery for - the Negro if he remain in America. I begin to believe that slavery is a - necessity for all women.” - </p> - <p> - “I fail to see it, sir.” - </p> - <p> - “All women are born slaves and choose to remain so through life. It is - curious to see you, a proud imperious woman, born of a race of - unconquerable men, staggering to-day under the chains of four thousand - years of conventional laws made by the brute strength of men. And you, if - you struggle at all, beat your wings against the bars that the - slaveholding male brute has built about your soul, fall back at last and - give up to the will of your master. This too, when you hold in your simple - will the key that would unlock your prison door and make you free. It’s a - pitiful sight.” - </p> - <p> - “How shrewd a tempter!” - </p> - <p> - “There you are again. He who dares to tell you that you are of yourself a - living human being, divinely free, is a tempter from the devil. You are - thinking about eternity. Well, now is eternity. Live, stand erect, take a - deep breath, and dare to be yourself and do what you please. That is what - I do. The future is a myth.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I know the freedom of which you boast,” she quietly observed, “it is - the freedom of lust. The return to nature you dream of is simply the fall - downward into the dirt out of which a rational and spiritual manhood has - grown. I feel and know this in spite of your handsome face and the fine - ring of your voice.” - </p> - <p> - “Dirt. Dirt!” he mused. “Yes, I was in the dirt once, was born in it, the - dirt of poverty and superstition and fears of laws here and hereafter. But - I awoke at last, and shook it off, washed myself in knowledge and stood - erect. I am a man now, with the eye of a king, conscious of my power. I - look a lying hypocritical world in the face. I have made up my mind to - live my own life in spite of fools, and in spite of the laws and - conventions of fools.” - </p> - <p> - “And yet I believe you carry a horse-chestnut in your pocket, and will not - undertake an important work on Friday?” she returned. - </p> - <p> - “But I never strangle a normal impulse of my nature that I can satisfy. I - am not that big a fool, at least.” - </p> - <p> - She was silent, and then said, “I can never thank you enough for the book - you sent me.” - </p> - <p> - McLeod sighed in relief at her change of tone. After all she was just - tantalising him! - </p> - <p> - “Then you liked it?” he cried with glittering eyes. - </p> - <p> - “I devoured every word of it with a greed you can not understand. A great - man wrote it.” - </p> - <p> - “Then we can understand each other better from today,” he interrupted - smilingly. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, far better. You gave me this book hoping that it might influence my - character by destroying my ideal of love, didn’t you, now frankly?” - </p> - <p> - “Honestly, I did hope it would emancipate you from superstitions.” - </p> - <p> - “It has,” she declared, but with a curious curve of her lip that chilled - him. - </p> - <p> - “What are you driving at?” he asked suspiciously. - </p> - <p> - “This book has given me the key that unlocked for me, for the first time, - the riddle of my physical being. It has shown me the physical basis of - love, just as I knew before there was a physical basis of the soul.” - </p> - <p> - “What did you understand the book to teach?” he asked. - </p> - <p> - “Simply that love is based in its material life, on the lobe of the brain - which develops at the base of a child’s head near the age of thirteen. - That this lobe of the brain is the sex centre, and love is impossible - until it develops. That this centre of new powers at the base of the skull - is a physical magnet. That when a man and woman approach each other, who - are by nature mates, these magnetic centres are disturbed by action and - reaction, and that this disturbance develops the second elemental passion - called love. The first elemental passion, hunger, has for its end the - preservation of the individual; while love finds its fulfillment in the - preservation of the species. Love finds its satisfaction in the child, its - ardour cools, and it dies, unless kept alive by the social conventions of - the family, which are not based merely on this violent emotion, but also - on unity of tastes, which produce the sense of comradeship. For these - reasons it is possible to fall violently in love more than once, and there - are dozens of people who possess this magnetic power over us and would - respond to it violently if we only came in social contact with them. That - the romantic bombast about the possibility of but one love in life, and - that of supernatural origin, is twaddle, and leads to false ideals. Have I - given the argument?” - </p> - <p> - “Exactly. But what do you deduce from it?” - </p> - <p> - “Freedom!” - </p> - <p> - “Good!” he cried, licking his lips. - </p> - <p> - “Freedom from superstitions about love,” she answered, “and positive - knowledge of its elemental beauty which Nature reveals. In short, I no - longer wonder and brood over your charm for me. I know exactly what it - means, and how it might occur again and again with another and another. I - have simply throttled it in a moment by an act of my will, based on this - knowledge.” - </p> - <p> - “You amaze me.” - </p> - <p> - “No doubt. One’s character centres in the soul, or the appetites. Mine is - in the soul, yours in the appetites. I see you to-day as you really are, - and I loathe you with an unspeakable loathing. You have opened my eyes - with this beautiful little book of Nature. I thank you. Your scientist has - convinced me that there are possibly a hundred men in the world who would - affect me as you do, were we to meet. And when I looked back into the - sweet face of my dead boy, I learned another truth, that in the union of - my first great love I was bound in marriage, not simply by a social - convention, or a state contract, but for life by Nature’s eternal law. The - period of infancy of one child extends over twenty-one years, covering the - whole maternal life of the woman who marries at the proper age of - twenty-four. This union of one man and one woman never seemed so sacred to - me as now. It is Nature’s law, it is God’s law.” - </p> - <p> - McLeod’s anger was fast rising. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t fool yourself,” he sneered, “You may overwork your maternal - intuitions. You remember the kiss you gave me when a boy just fifteen? - Well, you fooled yourself then about its maternal quality. The magnet of - my red head drew your coal black one down to it with irresistible power.” - </p> - <p> - “Perhaps so, Allan. Your work is done. There is the door. I say a last - good-bye, with pity for your shallow nature, and the bitter revelation you - have given me of your worthlessness.” - </p> - <p> - Without another word he left, but with a dark resolution of slander with - which he would tarnish her name, and wring the Preacher’s heart with - anguish. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0045" id="link2HCH0045"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XXI—WHY THE PREACHER THREW HIS LIFE AWAY - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HILE Mrs. Worth - and Sallie were still in the North, the Rev. John Durham received a - unanimous call to the pastorate of one of the most powerful Baptist - churches in Boston, with a salary of five thousand dollars a year. He was - receiving a salary of nine hundred dollars at Hambright, which could boast - at most a population of two thousand. He declined the call by return mail. - </p> - <p> - The committee were thunderstruck at this quick adverse decision, refused - to consider it final, and wrote him a long urgent letter of protest - against such ill-considered treatment. They urged that he must come to - Boston, and preach one Sunday, at least, in answer to their generous - offer, before rendering a final decision. He consented to do so, and went - to Boston. He sought Sallie the day after his arrival. - </p> - <p> - “Ah, my beautiful daughter of the South, it’s good to see you shining here - in the midst of the splendours of the Hub, the fairest of them all!” he - said shaking her hand feelingly. - </p> - <p> - “You mean pining, not shining,” she protested. - </p> - <p> - “That’s better still. I knew your heart was in the right place!” - </p> - <p> - “How is he, Doctor?” she asked. - </p> - <p> - “He’s trying to pull himself together with his work, and succeeding. The - shock of a great sorrow has steadied his nerves, broadened his sympathies, - and it will make him a man.” - </p> - <p> - A look of longing came over her face. “I don’t want him to be too strong - without me,” she faltered. - </p> - <p> - “Never fear. He’s so despondent at times I have to try to laugh him out of - countenance.” - </p> - <p> - She smiled and pressed his hand for answer as he rose to go. - </p> - <p> - “How do you like these Yankees, Miss Sallie?” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve been surprised and charmed beyond measure with everything I’ve - seen!” - </p> - <p> - “You don’t say so! How?” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I thought they were cold-blooded and inhospitable. I never made a - more foolish mistake. I have never been more at home, or been treated more - graciously in the South. To tell you the truth, they seem like our most - cultured people at home, warm-hearted, cordial, sensible and neighbourly. - Mama is so pleased she’s trying to claim kin with the Puritans, through - her Scotch Covenanter ancestry.” - </p> - <p> - “After all, I believe you are right. I never preached in my life to so - sensitive an audience. There’s an atmosphere of solid comfort, good sense, - and intelligence that holds me in a spell here. This is the place in which - I’ve dreamed I’d like to live and work.” - </p> - <p> - “Then you will accept, Doctor?” - </p> - <p> - “Now listen to you, child! Don’t you think I’ve a heart too? My brain and - body longs for such a home, but my heart’s down South with mine own people - who love and need me.” - </p> - <p> - The committee did their best to bring the Preacher to a favourable - decision at once, but he smiled a firm refusal. They refused to report it - to the church, and sent Deacon Crane, now a venerable man of seventy-six, - the warmest admirer of the Preacher among them all to Hambright. They - authorised him to make an amazing offer of salary, if that would be any - inducement, and they felt sure it would. - </p> - <p> - When the Deacon reached Hambright and saw its poverty and general air of - unimportance he felt encouraged. - </p> - <p> - “A man of such power stay a lifetime in this little hole! Impossible!” he - exclaimed under his breath, when he looked out of the bus along the wide - deserted looking streets with a straggling cottage here and there on - either side. - </p> - <p> - He stopped at the same hotel with the Preacher and became his shadow for a - week. He was seated with him under the oak in the square, threshing over - his argument for the hundredth time, in the most good-natured, but - everlastingly persistent way. - </p> - <p> - “Doctor, it’s perfect nonsense for a man of your magnificent talents, of - your culture and power over an audience, to think of living always in a - little village like this!” - </p> - <p> - “No, deacon, my work is here for the South.” - </p> - <p> - “But, my dear man, in Boston, it would be for the whole nation, North and - South. I ’ll tell you what we will do. Say you will come, and we - will make your salary eight thousand a year. That’s the largest salary - ever offered a Baptist preacher in America. You will pack our church with - people, give us new life, and we can afford it. You will be a power in - Boston, and a power in the world.” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher smiled and was silent. At length he said, “I appreciate your - offer, deacon. You pay me the highest compliment you know how to express. - But you prosperous Yankees can’t get into your heads the idea that there - are many things which money can’t measure.” - </p> - <p> - “But we know a good thing when we see it, and we go for it!” interrupted - the deacon. - </p> - <p> - “Believe me,” continued the Preacher, “I appreciate the sacrifice, the - generosity, and breadth of sympathy this offer shows in your hearts. But - it is not for me. My work is here. I don’t mind confessing to you that you - have vastly pleased me with that offer. I ’ll brag about it to - myself the rest of my life.” - </p> - <p> - “But Doctor, think how much greater power a generous salary will give you - in furnishing your equipment for work, and in ministering to any cause you - may have at heart,” pleaded the deacon. - </p> - <p> - “I don’t know. I have a salary of nine hundred dollars. With five hundred - I buy books,—food, clothes, shelter, the companionship for the soul. - The balance suffices for the body. I haven’t time to bother with money. - The man who receives a big salary must live up to its social obligations, - and he must pay for it with his life.” - </p> - <p> - “Doctor, there must be some tremendous force that holds you to such a - decision in a village. It seems to me you are throwing your life away.” - </p> - <p> - “There is a tremendous force, deacon. It is the overwhelming sense of - obligation I feel to my own people who have suffered so much, and are - still in the grip of poverty, and threatened with greater trials. I can’t - leave my own people while they are struggling yet with this unsolved Negro - problem. Two great questions shadow the future of the American people, the - conflict between Labor and Capital, and the conflict between the African - and the Anglo-Saxon race. The greatest, most dangerous, and most hopeless - of these, is the latter. My place is here.” - </p> - <p> - The deacon laughed. “You’re a crank on that subject. Come to Boston and - you will see with a better perspective that the question is settling - itself. In fact the war absolutely settled it.” - </p> - <p> - “Deacon,” said the Preacher with a quizzical expression about his eyes, - “Do you believe in the doctrine of Election?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I do.” - </p> - <p> - “I thought so. You know, I never saw a man who believed in the doctrine of - Election who didn’t believe he was elected. I never saw a man in my life, - except a lying politician, who declared the Negro problem was settled, - unless he had removed his family to a place of fancied safety where he - would never come in contact with it. And they all believe that the Negro’s - place is in the South.” - </p> - <p> - The deacon laughed good-naturedly. - </p> - <p> - “Come with us, and we will show you greater problems. For one, the life - and death struggle of Christianity itself with modern materialism. I tell - you the Negro problem was settled when slavery was destroyed.” - </p> - <p> - “You never made a sadder mistake. The South did not fight to hold slaves. - Our Confederate government at Richmond offered to guarantee to Europe, the - freedom of every slave for the recognition of our independence. Slavery - was bound of its own weight to fall. Virginia came within one vote in her - assembly of freeing her slaves years before the war. But for the frenzy of - your Abolition fanatics who first sought to destroy the Union by - Secession, and then forced Secession on the South, we would have freed the - slaves before this without a war, from the very necessities of the - progress of the material world, to say nothing of its moral progress. We - fought for the rights we held under the old constitution, made by a - slave-holding aristocracy. But we collided with the resistless movement of - humanity from the idea of local sovereignty toward nationalism, - centralisation, solidarity.” - </p> - <p> - “That’s why I say,” interrupted the deacon, “your Negro question has - already been settled. The nation has become a reality not a name.” - </p> - <p> - “And that is why I know, deacon,” insisted the Preacher, “that we have not - only not settled this question,—we haven’t even faced the issues. - Nationality demands solidarity. And you can never get solidarity in a - nation of equal rights out of two hostile races that do not intermarry. <i>In - a Democracy you can not build a nation inside of a nation of two - antagonistic races, and therefore the future American must be either an - Anglo Saxon or a Mulatto</i>. And if a Mulatto, will the future be worth - discussing?” - </p> - <p> - “I never thought of it in just that way,” answered the deacon. - </p> - <p> - “It is my work to maintain the racial absolutism of the Anglo-Saxon in the - South, politically, socially, economically.” - </p> - <p> - “But can it be done? I see many evidences of a mixture of blood already,” - said the deacon seriously. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, we are doing it. This mixture you observe has no social - significance, for a simple reason. It is all the result of the surviving - polygamous and lawless instincts of the white male. Unless by the gradual - encroachments of time, culture, wealth and political exigencies, the time - comes that a negro shall be allowed freely to choose a white woman for his - wife, the racial integrity remains intact. The right to choose one’s mate - is the foundation of racial life and of civilisation. The South must guard - with flaming sword every avenue of approach to this holy of holies. And - there are many subtle forces at work to obscure these possible - approaches.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, no matter,” broke in the deacon, “come with us, and you will have - more power to touch with your ideas the wealth and virtue of the whole - nation.” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher was silent a moment and seemed to be musing in a sort of half - dream. The deacon looked at him with a growing sense of the hopelessness - of his task, but of surprise at this revelation of the secrets of his - inner life. - </p> - <p> - “The South has been voiceless in these later years,” he went on, “her - voice has been drowned in a din of cat-calls from an army of cheap - scribblers and demagogues. But when these children we are rearing down - here grow, rocked in their cradles of poverty, nurtured in the fierce - struggle to save the life of a mighty race, they will find speech, and - their songs will fill the world with pathos and power. - </p> - <p> - “I’ve studied your great cities. Believe me the South is worth saving. - Against the possible day when a flood of foreign anarchy threatens the - foundations of the Republic and men shall laugh at the faiths of your - fathers, and undigested wealth beyond the dreams of avarice rots your - society, until it mocks at honour, love and God—against that day we - will preserve the South!” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher’s voice was now vibrating with deep feeling, and the deacon - listened with breathless interest. - </p> - <p> - “Believe me, deacon, the ark of the covenant of American ideals rests - to-day on the Appalachian Mountain range of the South. When your - metropolitan mobs shall knock at the doors of your life and demand the - reason of your existence, from these poverty-stricken homes, with their - old-fashioned, perhaps mediaeval ideas, will come forth the fierce - athletic sons and sweet-voiced daughters in whom the nation will find a - new birth!” The Preacher’s eyes had filled with tears and his voice - dropped into a low dream-like prophecy. - </p> - <p> - “You can not understand,” he resumed, in a clear voice, “why I feel so - profoundly depressed just now because the Republican party, which, with - you stands for the virtue, wealth and intelligence of the community, is - now in charge of this state. I will tell you why. A Republican - administration in North Carolina simply means a Negro oligarchy. The state - is now being debauched and degraded by this fact in the innermost depths - of its character and life. My place is here in this fight.” - </p> - <p> - “But, Doctor, will not your industrial training of the Negro gradually - minimise any danger to your society?” - </p> - <p> - “No, it will gradually increase it. Industrial training gives power. If - the Negro ever becomes a serious competitor of the white labourer in the - industries of the South, the white man will kill him, just as your labour - Unions do in the North now where the conditions of life are hard, and men - fight with tooth and nail for bread. If you train the negroes to be - scientific farmers they will become a race of aristocrats, and when five - generations removed from the memory of slavery, a war of races will be - inevitable, unless the Anglo-Saxon grant this trained and wealthy African - equal social rights. The Anglo-Saxon can not do this without suicide. One - drop of Negro blood makes a negro.” - </p> - <p> - “I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Doctor, that I can’t persuade you to - become our pastor. But I can understand since this talk something of the - larger views of your duty.” - </p> - <p> - The deacon sought Mrs. Durham that evening and laid siege to her - resolutely. - </p> - <p> - “Ah! deacon, you’re shrewd—you are going to flatter me, but I can’t - let you. I’m an old fogy and out of date. I’m not orthodox on the Negro - from Boston’s point of view.” - </p> - <p> - “Nonsense!” growled the deacon. “We don’t care what you or the Doctor - either thinks about the Negro, or the Jap, or the Chinaman. We want a - preacher imbued with the power of the Holy Ghost to preach the Gospel of - Christ.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you have quite captured me since you have been here. You are a - revelation to me of what a deacon might be to a pastor and his wife. To be - frank with you, I am on your side. I am tired of the Negro. I don’t want - to solve him. He is an impossible job from my point of view. I should be - delighted to go to Boston now and begin life over again. But I do not - figure in the decision. Dr. Durham settles such questions for himself. And - I respect him more for it.” - </p> - <p> - Encouraged by this decision of his wife the deacon renewed his efforts to - change the Preacher’s mind next day in vain. He stayed over Sunday, heard - him preach two sermons, and sorrowfully bade him good-bye on Monday. He - carried back to Boston his final word declining this call. - </p> - <p> - As the deacon stepped on the train, he warmly pressed his hand and said, - “God bless you, Doctor. If you ever need a friend, you know my name and - address.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0046" id="link2HCH0046"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XXII—THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">G</span>ASTON tried to - wait in patience another week for a word from the woman he loved, and when - the last mail came and brought no letter for him, he found himself face to - face with the deepest soul crisis of his life. - </p> - <p> - After all, thoughts are things. The report of her social frivolities at - first made little impression on him. But the thought had fallen in his - heart, and it was growing a poisoned weed. - </p> - <p> - It is possible to kill the human body with an idea. The fairest day the - spring ever sent can be blackened and turned from sunshine into storm by - the flitting of a little cloud of thought no bigger than a man’s hand. - </p> - <p> - So Gaston found this report of dancing and flirting in a gay society by - the woman whom he had enthroned in the holy of holies of his soul to be - destroying his strength of character, and like a deadly cancer eating his - heart out. - </p> - <p> - He sat down by his window that night, unable to work, and tried to - reconcile such a life with his ideal. - </p> - <p> - “Why should I be so provincial!” he mused. “The thing only shocks me - because I am unused to it. She has grown up in this atmosphere. To her it - is a harmless pastime.” - </p> - <p> - Then he took out of his desk her picture, lit his lamp and looked long and - tenderly at it, until his soul was drunk again with the memory of her - beauty, the warm touch of her hand, and the thrill of her full soft lips - in the only two kisses he had ever received from the heart of a woman. - </p> - <p> - Then, the vision of a ball-room came to torture him. He could see her - dressed in that delicate creation of French genius he had seen her wear - the memorable night at the Springs. The French know so deeply the subtle - art of draping a woman’s body to tempt the souls of men. How he cursed - them to-night! He could see her bare arms, white gleaming shoulders, neck, - and back, and round full bosom softly rising and falling with her - breathing, as she swept through a brilliant ball-room to the strains of - entrancing music. - </p> - <p> - He knew the dance was a social convention, of course. But its deep Nature - significance he knew also. He knew that it was as old as human society, - and full of a thousand subtle suggestions,—that it was the actual - touch of the human body, with rhythmic movement, set to the passionate - music of love. This music spoke in quivering melody what the lips did not - dare to say. This he knew was the deep secret of the fascination of the - dance for the boy and the girl, the man and the woman. How he cursed it - to-night! - </p> - <p> - His imagination leaped the centuries that separate us from the great races - of the past who scorned humbug and hypocrisy, and held their dances in the - deep shadows of great forests, without the draperies of tailors. These men - and women looked Nature in the face and were not afraid, and did not try - to apologise or lie about it. He felt humiliated and betrayed. - </p> - <p> - He thought too of her wealth with a feeling of resentment and isolation. - Taken with this social nightmare it seemed to raise an impossible barrier - between them. He knew that in the terrible quarrel she had with her father - on their first clash, he had sworn if she disobeyed him to disinherit her. - She had answered him in bitter defiance. And yet time often changes these - noble visions of poverty and strenuous faith in high ideals. Wealth and - all its good things becomes with us at last habit. And habit is life. - </p> - <p> - Could it be possible she had weakened in resolution of loyalty when - brought face to face with the actual breaking of the habits of a lifetime? - Might not the three forces combined, the habit of social conventions, the - habit of luxury, and the habit of obedience to a masterful and lovable - father, be sufficient to crush her love at last? It seemed to him - to-night, not only a possibility, but almost an accomplished fact. - </p> - <p> - At one o’clock he went to bed and tried to sleep. He tossed for an hour. - His brain was on fire, and his imagination lit with its glare. He could - sweep the world with his vision in the silence and the darkness. Yes, the - world that is, and that which was, and is to come! - </p> - <p> - He arose and dressed. It was half-past two o’clock. He knew that this was - to be the first night in all his life when he could not sleep. He was - shocked and sobered by the tremendous import of such an event in the - development of his character. He had never been swept off his feet before. - He knew now that before the sun rose he would fight with the powers and - princes of the air for the mastery of life. - </p> - <p> - He left his room and walked out on the road to the Springs over which he - had gone so many times in childhood. The moon was obscured by fleeting - clouds, and the air had the sharp touch of autumn in its breath. He walked - slowly past the darkened silent houses and felt his brain begin to cool in - the sweet air. - </p> - <p> - The last note he had received from her weeks ago was the brief one - announcing the new break in the poor little correspondence she had - promised him. The last paragraph of that note now took on a sinister - meaning. He recalled it word by word: - </p> - <p> - “I feel like I can not trifle with you in this way again. It is - humiliating to me and to you. I can see no light in our future. I release - you from any tie I may have imposed on your life. I feel I have fallen - short of what you deserve, but I am so situated between my mother’s - failing health and my father’s will, and my love for them both, I can not - help it. I will love you always, but you are free.” - </p> - <p> - Was not this a kindly and final breaking of their pledge to one another? - Yet she had not returned the little medal he had given her with that - exchange of eternal love and faith. Could she keep this and really mean to - break with him finally? He could not believe it. - </p> - <p> - His whole life had been dominated by this dream of an ideal love. For it - he had denied himself the indulgences that his college mates and young - associates had taken as a matter of course. He had never touched wine. He - had never smoked. He had never learned the difference between a queen and - jack in cards. He had kept away from women. He had given his body and soul - to the service of his Ideal, and bent every energy to the development of - his mind that he might grasp with more power its sweetness and beauty when - realised. - </p> - <p> - Did it pay? The Flesh was shrieking this question now into the face of the - Spirit? - </p> - <p> - He had met the One Woman his soul had desired above all others. There - could be no mistake about that. And now she was failing him when he had - laid at her feet his life. It made him sick to recall how utter had been - his surrender. - </p> - <p> - Why should he longer deny the flesh, when the soul’s dream failed the test - of pain and struggle? - </p> - <p> - Was it possible that he had been a fool and was missing the full - expression of life, which is both flesh and spirit? - </p> - <p> - The world was full of sweet odours. He had delicate and powerful nostrils. - Why not enjoy them? The world was full of beauty ravishing to the eye. He - had keen eyes trained to see. Why should he not open his eyes and gaze on - it all? The world was full of entrancing music. He had ears trained to - hear. Why should he stuff them with dreams of a doubtful future, and not - hear it all? The world was full of things soft and good to the touch. Why - should he not grasp them? His hands were cunning, and every finger tingled - with sensitive nerve tips. The world was full of good things sweet to the - taste, why should he not eat and drink as others, as old and wise perhaps? - </p> - <p> - Was a man full-grown until he had seen, felt, smelled, tasted, and heard - all life? Was there anything after all, in good or bad? Were these things - not names? If not, how could we know unless we tried them? What was the - good of good things? - </p> - <p> - “Am I not a narrow-minded fool, instead of a wise man, to throttle my - impulses and deny the flesh for an imaginary gain?” he asked himself - aloud. - </p> - <p> - She had written he was free. - </p> - <p> - “Well, by the eternal, I will be free!” he exclaimed, “I will sweep the - whole gamut of human passion and human emotion. I will drink life to the - deepest dregs of its red wine. I will taste, feel, see, touch, hear all! I - will not be cheated. I will know for myself what it is to live.” - </p> - <p> - When he woke to the consciousness of time and place, he found he was - seated at the Sulphur Spring where it gushed from the foot of the hill, - and that the eastern horizon was grey with the dawn. - </p> - <p> - A sense of new-found power welled up in him. He had regained control of - himself. - </p> - <p> - “Good! I will no longer be a moping love-sick fool. I am a man. To will is - to live, to cease to will is to die. I have regained my will,—I - live!” - </p> - <p> - He walked rapidly back to town with vigourous step. His mind was clear. - </p> - <p> - “I will never write her another line until she writes to me. I will not be - a dog and whine at any rich man’s door or any woman’s feet. The world is - large, and I am large. I will be sought as well as seek. Besides, my - country needs me. If I am to give myself it will be for larger ends than - for the smiles of one woman!” - </p> - <p> - And then for two weeks he entered deliberately on a series of - dissipations. He left Hambright and sought convivial friends on the sea - coast. He amazed them by asking to be taught cards. - </p> - <p> - He swept the gamut of all the senses without reserve, day after day, and - night after night. - </p> - <p> - At the end of two weeks he found himself haunting the post-office oftener, - with a vague sense of impending calamity. - </p> - <p> - “The thing’s all over I tell you!” he said to himself again and again. And - then he would hurry to the next mail as eagerly as ever. As the excitement - began to tire him, the sense of longing for her face, and voice, and the - touch of her hand became intolerable. - </p> - <p> - “My God, I’d give all the world holds of sin to see her and hear one word - from her lips!” he exclaimed as he locked himself in his room one night. - </p> - <p> - “Why didn’t she answer my last letter?” he continued. “Ah, that was the - best letter I ever wrote her. I put my soul in every word. I didn’t - believe the woman lived who could read such confessions and such worship - without reply; Surely she has a heart!” - </p> - <p> - When he went to the post-office next day he got a letter forwarded from - Hambright by the Preacher. It was postmarked Narragansett Pier, and - addressed in a bold masculine hand he had never seen before. - </p> - <p> - He tore it open, and inside found his last letter to Sallie Worth, - returned with the seal unbroken. He sprang to his feet with flashing eyes, - trembling from head to foot. - </p> - <p> - “Ah! they did not dare to let her receive another of my letters! So a - clerk returns it unopened,” he cried. - </p> - <p> - And a great lump rose in his throat as he thought of the scenes of the - past two weeks. The old fever and the old longing came rushing over his - prostrate soul now in resistless torrents: “How dare a strange hand touch - a message to her! I could strangle him. We will see now who wins the - fight.” He set his lips with determination, packed his valise, and took - the train for home without a word of farewell to the companions of his - revels. - </p> - <p> - When he reached Hambright he felt sure of a letter from her. A strange joy - filled his heart. - </p> - <p> - “I have either got a letter or she’s writing one to me this minute!” he - exclaimed. - </p> - <p> - He went to the post-office in a state of exhilaration. The letter was not - there. But it did not depress him. - </p> - <p> - “It is on the way,” he quickly said. - </p> - <p> - For two days, he remained in that condition of tense nervous excitement - and expectation, and on the following day he opened his box and found his - letter. - </p> - <p> - “I knew it!” he said with a thrill of joy that was half awe at the - remarkable confirmation he had received of their sympathy. - </p> - <p> - He hurried to his office and read the big precious message. - </p> - <p> - How its words burned into his soul! Every line seemed alive with her - spirit. How beautiful the sight of her handwriting! He kissed it again and - again. He read with bated breath. The address was double expressive, - because it contained the first words of abandoned tenderness with which - she had ever written to him, except in the concealed message dotted in the - note that broke their earlier correspondence. - </p> - <p> - “My Precious Darling:—I have gone through deep waters within the - last three weeks. I became so depressed and hungry to see you, I felt some - awful calamity was hanging over you and over me, and that it was my fault. - I could scarcely eat or sleep. - </p> - <p> - “I felt I should go mad if I did not speak and so I told Mama. She - sympathised tenderly with me but insisted I should not write. She is so - feeble I could not cross her. But Oh! the agony of it! Sometimes I saw you - drowning and stretching out your hands to me for help. - </p> - <p> - “Sometimes in my dreams I saw you fighting against overwhelming odds with - strong brutal men, whose faces were full of hate, and I could not reach - you. - </p> - <p> - “I was nervous and unstrung, but you can never know how real the horror of - it all was upon me. - </p> - <p> - “I made up my mind one night to telegraph you. I heard some one talking - inside Mama’s room. I gently opened the door between our rooms, and she - was praying aloud for me. I stood spellbound. I never knew how she loved - me before. When at last she prayed that in the end I might have the desire - of my heart, and my life be crowned with the joy of a noble man’s love, - and that it might be yours, and that she should be permitted to see and - rejoice with me, I could endure it no longer. - </p> - <p> - “Choking with sobs I ran to her kneeling figure, threw my arms around her - neck and covered her dear face with kisses. - </p> - <p> - “I could not send the message I had written after that scene. - </p> - <p> - “The next day Papa came, and she told him in my presence, ‘Now, General I - have carried out your wishes with Sallie against my judgment. The strain - has been more than you can understand. I give up the task. You can manage - her now to suit yourself.’ - </p> - <p> - “There was a firmness in her voice I had never heard before. He noted it, - and was startled into silence by it. He had a long talk with me and - repeated his orders with increasing emphasis. - </p> - <p> - “The next day I was unusually depressed. I did not get out of bed all day. - At night I went down to supper. The clerk at the desk of the hotel called - me and said, ‘Miss Worth, I have a terrible sin to confess to you. I’m a - lover myself, and I’ve done you a wrong. I returned to a young man - yesterday a letter to you by request of the General. Forgive me for it, - and don’t tell him I told you.’ - </p> - <p> - “That night Papa and I had a fearful scene. I will not attempt to describe - it. But the end was, I said to him with all the courage of despair: I am - twenty-one years old. I am a free woman. I will write to whom I please and - when I please and I will not ask you again. It is your right to turn me - out of your house, but you shall not murder my soul! - </p> - <p> - “Then for the first time in his life Papa broke down and sobbed like a - child. We kissed and made up, and I am to write to you when I like. - </p> - <p> - “Forgive my long silence. Write and tell me you love me. My heart is sick - with the thought that I have been cowardly and failed you. Write me a long - letter, and you can not say things extravagant enough for my hungry heart. - </p> - <p> - “I feel utterly helpless when I think how completely you have come to rule - my life. I wish you to rule it. It is all yours”—— - </p> - <p> - And then she said many little foolish things that only the eyes of the one - lover should ever see, for only to him could they have meaning. - </p> - <p> - When he finished reading this letter, and had devoured with eagerness - these foolish extravagances with which she closed it, he buried his face - in his arms across his desk. - </p> - <p> - A big strong boastful man whose will had defied the world! Now he was - crying like a whipped child. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - BOOK THREE—THE THE TRIAL BY FIRE - </h2> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0047" id="link2HCH0047"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER I—A GROWL BENEATH THE EARTH - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>PPARENTLY McLeod’s - triumph was complete and permanent. The farmers were disappointed in their - wild hopes of a sub-treasury, and other socialistic schemes, but the - passions of the campaign had been violent, and the offices they had won - with their Negro ally had been soothing to their sense of pride. - </p> - <p> - A Republican farmer was Governor for a term of four years, they had - elected two Senators, and three Supreme Court judges, and they had - completely smashed the power of the Democratic party in the county - governments. Everywhere they were triumphant in the local elections, - filling almost every county office with heavy-handed sons of toil from the - country districts, and making the town fops who had been drawing these fat - salaries get out and work for a living. - </p> - <p> - Even McLeod was amazed at the thoroughness with which they cleaned the - state of every vestige of the invincible Democracy that had ruled with a - rod of iron since Legree’s flight. - </p> - <p> - Gaston could see but one weak spot in the alliance. The negroes had - demanded their share of the spoils, and were gradually forcing their - reluctant allies to grant them. He watched the progress of this movement - with thrilling interest. The negroes had demanded the repeal of the county - government plan of the Democracy, under which the credit of the forty - black counties had been rescued from bankruptcy at the expense of local - selfgovernment. - </p> - <p> - When the lawmakers who succeeded Legree had put this scheme of centralised - power in force, these forty counties were immediately lifted from ruin to - prosperity. But no negro ever held another office in them. - </p> - <p> - Now the negroes demanded the return to the principles of pure Democracy - and the right to elect all town, township, and county officers direct. - They got their demands. They took charge in short order of the great rich - counties in the Black Belt, and white men ceased to hold the offices. - </p> - <p> - A negro college-graduate from Miss Walker’s classical institution had - started a newspaper at Independence noted for its open demands for the - recognition of the economic, social and political equality of the races. - Young negro men and women walking the streets now refused to give half the - sidewalk to a white man or woman when they met, and there were an - increasing number of fights from such causes. - </p> - <p> - Gaston noted these signs with a growing sense of their import, and began - his work for the second great campaign. The election for a legislature - alone, he knew was lost already. His party had simply abandoned the fight. - The Allied Party had passed new election laws, and under the tutelage of - the doubtful methods of the past they had taken every partisan advantage - possible within the limits of the Constitution. They could not be - overthrown short of a political earthquake, and he knew it. But he thought - he heard in the depths of the earth the low rumble of its coming, and he - began to prepare for it. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0048" id="link2HCH0048"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER II—FACE TO FACE WITH FATE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HREE weeks before - Christmas Gaston began to dream of the visit he was to make to - Independence to see Sallie Worth. How long it seemed since she had kissed - him in the twilight of that Pullman car and the Limited had rolled away - bearing her further and further from his life! He would sit now for an - hour reading her last letter, looking at her picture on his desk, and - dreaming of what she would say when he sat by her side again in her own - home. - </p> - <p> - And then like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky came a tearful letter - announcing another storm at home. Her father had again forbidden her to - write. She said, at the last, that Gaston’s visit must be postponed - indefinitely for the present. He gazed at the letter with a hardened look. - </p> - <p> - “I <i>will</i> go. I ’ll face General Worth in his own home, and - demand his reasons for such treatment. I am a man I am entitled to the - respect of a man.” He made this declaration with a quiet force that left - no doubt about his doing it. - </p> - <p> - He wrote Sallie that he could not and would not endure such a fight in the - dark with the General, and that he was going to Independence on the day - before Christmas as she had planned at first, to have it out with him face - to face. - </p> - <p> - She wrote in reply and begged him under no circumstances to come until - conditions were more favourable. He got this letter the day before he was - to start. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll go and I ’ll see him if I have to fight my way into - his house, that’s all there is to it!” he exclaimed. - </p> - <p> - When he reached Independence, St. Clare met him at the depot, and gave him - an eager welcome. - </p> - <p> - “I’ve been expecting you, you hard-headed fool!” he said impulsively. - </p> - <p> - “Well, your words are not equal to your handshake. What’s the matter?” - asked Gaston. - </p> - <p> - “You know what’s the matter. Miss Sallie has been to see me this - afternoon, and begged me to chain you at my house if you came to town - to-day.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you ’ll need handcuffs, and help to get them on,” replied - Gaston with quiet decision. - </p> - <p> - “Look here, old boy, you’re not going down to that house to-night with the - old man threatening to kill you on sight, and your girl bordering on - collapse!” - </p> - <p> - “I am. I’ve been bordering on collapse for some time myself. I’m getting - used to it.” - </p> - <p> - “You’re a fool.” - </p> - <p> - “Granted, but I ’ll risk it.” - </p> - <p> - “But, man, I tell you Miss Sallie will be furious with you if you go after - all the messages she has sent you.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll risk her fury too.” - </p> - <p> - “Gaston, let me beg you not to do it.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m going, Bob. It isn’t any use for you to waste your breath.” - </p> - <p> - “You know where my heart is, old chum,” said Bob, yielding reluctantly. “I - couldn’t go down to that house to-night under the conditions you are going - for the world.” - </p> - <p> - “Why not? It’s the manly thing to do.” - </p> - <p> - “It’s a dangerous thing to do. Fathers have killed men under such - conditions.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I ’ll risk it. I’m going as soon as I can brush up a - little.” - </p> - <p> - Bob walked with him to the outskirts of the city, begging in vain that he - should turn back, but he never slacked his pace. - </p> - <p> - When he turned to go home, Bob pressed his hand and said “Good luck. And - may your shadow never grow less.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston walked rapidly on toward Oakwood. As he passed through the shadows - of the forest near the gate, a flood of tender memories rushed over him. - He was back again by her side on that morning he met her, with the first - flush of love thrilling his life. He could see her looking earnestly at - him as though trying to solve a riddle. He could hear her laughter full of - joy and happiness. As he turned into the gateway the house flashed on him - its gleaming windows from the hill top. He felt his heart sink with - bitterness as he realised the contrast of his last entrance into that - house, its welcomed guest, and his present unbidden intrusion. Once those - lights had gleamed only a message of peace and love. Now they seemed - signals of war some enemy had set on the hill to warn of his approach. - </p> - <p> - He paused a moment and wiped the perspiration from his brow. It was - Christmas eve, but the air was balmy and spring-like and his rapid walk - had tired him. He had eaten nothing all day, had slept only a few hours - the night before, and the nerve strain had been more than he knew. - </p> - <p> - He looked up at the great white pillars softly shining in the starlight, - and a sickening fear of a possible tragedy behind those doors crept over - him. - </p> - <p> - “My God!” he exclaimed, “I had rather charge a breastworks in the face of - flashing guns than to go into that house to-night and meet one man!” - </p> - <p> - He recognised the breach of the finer amenities of life involved in - forcing his way into a home under such conditions, and it humiliated him - for a moment. - </p> - <p> - “We will not stickle for forms now,” he said to himself firmly. “This is - war. I am to uncover the batteries of my enemy. I have hesitated long - enough. I will not fight in the dark another day.” - </p> - <p> - As he stepped briskly up to the door, he started at a sudden thought. What - if the General had ordered the servants to slam the door in his face! The - possibility of such an unforeseen insult made the cold sweat break out - over his face as he rang the bell. No matter, he was in for it now, he - would face hell if need be! - </p> - <p> - He waited but an instant, and heard the heavy tread of a man approach the - door. Instinctively he knew that the General himself was on guard, and - would open the door. Evidently he had expected him. - </p> - <p> - The door opened about two feet and the General glared at him livid with - rage. He held one hand on the door and the other on its facing, and his - towering figure filled the space. - </p> - <p> - “Good evening, General!” said Gaston with embarrassment. - </p> - <p> - “What do you want, sir?” he growled. - </p> - <p> - “I wish to see you for a few minutes.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I don’t want to see you.” - </p> - <p> - “Whether you wish to or not, you must do it sooner of later,” answered - Gaston with dignity. - </p> - <p> - “Indeed! Your insolence is sublime, I must say!” - </p> - <p> - “The sooner you and I have a plain talk the better for both of us. It - can’t be put off any longer,” Gaston continued with self control. He was - looking the General straight in the eyes now, with head and broad - shoulders erect and his square-cut jaws were snapping his words with a - clean emphasis that was not lost on the older master of men before him. - </p> - <p> - “Call at my office in the morning at ten o’clock.” he said, at length. - </p> - <p> - “I will not do it. I am going home on the nine o’clock train. To-morrow is - Christmas day. The issue between us is of life import to me, and it may be - of equal importance to you. I will not put it off another hour!” - </p> - <p> - The General glared at him. His hands began to tremble, and raising his - voice, he thundered, “I am not accustomed to take orders from young - upstarts. How dare you attempt to force yourself into my house when you - were told again and again not to attempt it, sir?” - </p> - <p> - “Your former welcome to me on three occasions when the object of my visits - was as well known to you as to me, gives me, at least, the vested rights - of a final interview. I demand it,” retorted Gaston curtly. - </p> - <p> - “And I refuse it!” Still there was a note of indecision in his voice which - Gaston was quick to catch. - </p> - <p> - “General,” he protested, “you are a soldier and a gentleman. You never - fought an enemy with uncivilised warfare. Yet you have allowed some one - under your protection to stab me in the dark for the past year. I am - entitled to know why I fight and against whom. I ask your sense of - fairness as a soldier if I am not right?” - </p> - <p> - The General hesitated, and finally said, as he opened the door, “Walk into - the parlour.” - </p> - <p> - When they were seated, Gaston plunged immediately into the question he had - at heart. - </p> - <p> - “Now, General, I wish to ask you plainly why you have treated me as you - have since I asked you for your daughter’s hand?” - </p> - <p> - “The less said about it, the better. I have good and sufficient reasons, - and that settles it.” - </p> - <p> - “But I have the right to know them.” - </p> - <p> - “What right?” - </p> - <p> - “The right of every man to face his accuser when on trial for his life.” - </p> - <p> - “Bah! men don’t die nowadays for love, or women either,” the General - growled. - </p> - <p> - “Besides,” continued Gaston, “you are under the deepest obligations to - tell me fairly your reasons.” - </p> - <p> - “Obligations?” - </p> - <p> - “The obligations of the commonest justice between man and man. You invited - me to your home. I was your welcome guest. You encouraged my suit for your - daughter’s hand.” - </p> - <p> - “How dare you say such a thing, sir!” - </p> - <p> - “Because she told me you did. I was led to believe that you not only - looked with favour on my suit, but that you were pleased with it. I asked - for your daughter. You insulted my manhood by refusing me permission even - to seek an interview, and know the reasons for your change of views. Since - then you have treated me with plain brutality. Now something caused this - change.” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly something caused it, something of tremendous importance,” said - the General. - </p> - <p> - “I am entitled to know what it is.” - </p> - <p> - “Simply this. I received information concerning you, your habits, your - associates, your character, and your family, that caused me to change my - mind.” - </p> - <p> - “Did you inquire as to their truth?” - </p> - <p> - “It was unnecessary. I love my daughter beyond all other treasures I - possess. With her future I will take no risks.” - </p> - <p> - “I have the right to know the charges, General,” insisted Gaston. “I - demand it.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, sir, if you demand it, you will get it. I learned that you are a - man of the most dissolute habits and character, that you are a hard - drinker, a gambler, a rake and a spendthrift, and that your family’s - history is a deplorable one.” - </p> - <p> - “My family history a deplorable one!” cried Gaston, springing to his feet, - with trembling clinched fists and scarlet face on which the blue veins - suddenly stood out. - </p> - <p> - “I begged you to spare me and yourself the pain of this,” replied the - General in a softer voice. - </p> - <p> - “No, I do not ask to be spared. Give me the particulars. What is the stain - on my family name?” - </p> - <p> - “Not a moral one, but in some respects more hopeless, a physical one. I - have positive information that your people on one side are what is known - in the South as poor white trash—” - </p> - <p> - Gaston smiled. “I thank you, General, for your frankness. The only wrong - of which I complain, is your withholding the name of the liar.” - </p> - <p> - “There is no use of a fight over such things. I do not wish my daughter’s - name to be smirched with it.” - </p> - <p> - “Her name is as dear to me as it can possibly be to you. Never fear. You - are her father, I honour you as such. I thank you for the information. I - scorn to stoop to answer. The humour of it forbids an answer if I could - stoop to make one. Now, General, I make you this proposition. I am not in - a hurry. I will patiently wait any time you see fit to set for any - developments in my life and character about which you have doubts. All I - ask is the privilege of writing to the woman I love. Is not this - reasonable?” - </p> - <p> - “No, sir,” declared the General, “I will not have it. You are not in a - position to make me a proposition of any sort. I have settled this affair. - It is not open for discussion.” - </p> - <p> - “You mean to say that I have no standing whatever in the case?” asked - Gaston with a smile, rubbing his hand over his smooth shaved lips and - chin. - </p> - <p> - “Exactly. I’ve settled it. There’s nothing more to be said.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll never give her up. She is the one woman God made for me, and - you will have to put me under the ground before you have settled my end of - it,” said Gaston still smiling. - </p> - <p> - The old man’s face clouded for a moment, he wrinkled his brow, drew his - bushy eyebrows closer and then turned toward Gaston in a persuasive way. - </p> - <p> - “Look here, Gaston, don’t be a fool. It’s amusing to me to hear a - youngster talk such drivel. Love is not a fatal disease for a man, or a - woman. You will find that out later if you don’t know it now. I loved a - half dozen girls, and when I got ready to marry, I asked the one handiest, - and that seemed most suited to my temper. We married and have lived as - happily as the romancers. The world is full of pretty girls. Go on about - your business, and quit bothering me and mine.” - </p> - <p> - “There’s only one girl for me, General!” - </p> - <p> - “That’s proof positive to my mind that you are a little cracked!” he - answered with a smile. - </p> - <p> - Gaston laughed and shook his head. “I ’ll never give her up in this - world, or the next,” he doggedly added. - </p> - <p> - Again the General frowned. “Look here, young man, did it ever occur to you - that your pursuit might be held the work of a low adventurer? My daughter - is an heiress. You haven’t’ a dollar. Don’t you know that I will - disinherit her if she marries without my consent?” - </p> - <p> - “You can’t frighten me on that tack,” answered Gaston firmly. “No dollar - mark has yet been placed on the doors of Southern society. Manhood, - character and achievement are the keys that unlock it. You know that, and - I now it. I was poorer and more obscure the day you first invited me here - than to-day. And yet you gave me as hearty a welcome as her richest - suitor. All I ask is time to prove to you in my life my manhood and worth,—one - year, two years, five years, ten years, any time you see fit to name.” - </p> - <p> - “No, sir,” firmly snapped the General, “not a day. I don’t like long - engagements. Yours is ended, once and for all time. I have settled that.” - </p> - <p> - “Can even a father decide the destiny of two immortal souls off hand like - that?” - </p> - <p> - “Now, you are assuming too much. I am not speaking for myself alone. I - have laid all the facts carefully before Sallie, and she has agreed to the - wisdom of my decision, and asked me to represent her in what I say this - evening.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston turned pale, his lips quivered, and turning to the General - suddenly, he said, “That is the only important fact you have laid before - me. Just let her come here, stand by your side and say that with her own - lips, and I will never cross your path in life again.” - </p> - <p> - The General hung his head and stammered, “No, it is not necessary. It will - embarrass and humiliate her. I will not permit it.” - </p> - <p> - “Then I deny your credentials!” exclaimed Gaston. - </p> - <p> - The General seemed embarrassed by the failure of this fatherly subterfuge, - and Gaston could not help smiling at the revelation of his weakness. He - decided to press his advantage and try to see her if only for a moment. - </p> - <p> - “General,” protested Gaston persuasively, “I appeal to your sense of - courtesy, even to an enemy. After all that has passed between us in this - house, is it fair or courteous to show me that door without one word of - farewell to the woman to whom I have given my life? Or is it wise from - your point of view?” - </p> - <p> - Again the General hesitated. He was a big-hearted man of generous - impulses, and he felt worsted in this interview somehow, but it was hard - to deny such a request. He fumbled at his watch chain, arose, and said, “I - will see if she desires it.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston’s heart bounded with joy! If she desired it! He could feel her soul - enveloping him with its love as he sat there conscious that she was - somewhere in that house praying for him! - </p> - <p> - He fairly choked with the pain and the joy of the certainty that in a - moment he would be near her, touch her hand, see her glorious beauty and - his ears drink the music of her voice. - </p> - <p> - “Just step this way,” said the General, re-appearing at the door. - </p> - <p> - Gaston walked into the hall and met Sallie as she emerged from the library - door opposite. He tried to say something, but his throat was dry and his - tongue paralysed with the wonder of her presence! Besides, the General - stood grimly by like a guard over a life prisoner. - </p> - <p> - He looked searchingly into her eyes as he held her hand for a moment and - felt its warm impulsive pressure. Oh! the eyes of the woman we love! What - are words to their language of melting tenderness, of faith and longing. - Gaston felt like shouting in the General’s face his triumph. She tried to - speak, but only pressed his hand again. It was enough. - </p> - <p> - He bowed to the General, and left without a word. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0049" id="link2HCH0049"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER III—A WHITE LIE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HAT night as he - walked back through the streets he was thrilled with a sense of strength - and of triumph. He knew his ground now. There was to be war between him - and the General to the bitter end. He had never asked her once to oppose - her father’s or mother’s command. Now he would see who was master in a - test of strength. And he was eager for the struggle. His mind was alert, - and every nerve and muscle tense with energy. - </p> - <p> - “Heavens, how hungry I am!” he exclaimed when he reached the brilliantly - lighted business portion of the city. - </p> - <p> - He went into a restaurant, ordered a steak, and enjoyed a good meal. He - recalled then that he had not eaten for twenty-four hours. The steak was - good, and the faces of the people seemed to him lit with gladness. He was - singing a battle song in his soul, and the eyes of the woman he loved - looked at him with yearning tenderness. - </p> - <p> - “Now, Bob, I count on you,” he cried to his friend next morning. “I am - going to have a merry Christmas and you are to aid in the skirmishing.” - </p> - <p> - “I’m with you to the finish!” Bob responded with enthusiasm. - </p> - <p> - “We must make a feint this morning to deceive the enemy while I turn his - flank. I go home on the nine o’clock train. You understand?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, over the left. It’s dead easy too. There’s to be a big Christmas - party to-night at the Alexanders’. She’s invited. I ’ll see that - she goes to it if I have to drag her.” - </p> - <p> - “Good. Don’t tell her I’m in town. I want to surprise her.” - </p> - <p> - The General had a man at the morning train who reported Gaston’s - departure. He was surprised at Sallie’s good spirits but attributed it to - the magnificent present he had given her that morning of a diamond ring - and an exquisite pearl necklace. - </p> - <p> - He bustled her off to the party that night and congratulated himself on - the certainty of his triumph over an aspiring youngster who dared to set - his will against his own. - </p> - <p> - When the festivities had begun, and the children were busy with their - fireworks, Sallie strolled along the winding walks of the big lawn. She - was chatting with Bob St. Clare about a young man they both knew, and when - they reached the corner furthest from the house, under the shadows of a - great magnolia with low overhanging boughs she saw the figure of a man. - </p> - <p> - She smiled into Bob’s face, pressed his hand and said, “Now, Bob you’ve - done all a good friend could do. Go back. I don’t need you.” - </p> - <p> - And Bob answered with a smile and left her. In a moment Gaston was by her - side with both her hands in his kissing them tenderly. - </p> - <p> - “Didn’t I surprise you, dear?” he softly asked. - </p> - <p> - “No. Bob denied you were here, but I knew it was a story. I was sure you - would never leave without seeing me. You couldn’t, could you?” - </p> - <p> - “Not after what I saw in your eyes last night!” He whispered. - </p> - <p> - “It seems a century since I’ve heard your voice,” she said wistfully. “God - alone knows what I have suffered, and I am growing weary of it.” - </p> - <p> - “Do you think I have been treated fairly?” he asked. - </p> - <p> - “No, I do not” - </p> - <p> - “Then you will write to me?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes. I will not starve my heart any longer.” And she pressed his hand. - </p> - <p> - “You have made the world glorious again! When will you marry me, Sallie?” - he bent his face close to her, and for an answer she tenderly kissed him. - </p> - <p> - They stood in silence a moment with clasped hands, and then she said - slowly, “You didn’t want your freedom did you, dear? That’s the third - kiss, isn’t it? I wonder if kissing will be always as sweet! But you asked - me when we can marry? I can’t tell now. I can do nothing to shock Mama. - She seems to draw closer and closer to me every day. And now that I have - determined no power shall separate us, it seems more and more necessary - that I shall win Papa’s consent. He loves me dearly. I feel that I must - have his blessing on our lives. Give me time. I hope to win him.” - </p> - <p> - “And you will never let another week pass without writing to me?” - </p> - <p> - “Never. Send my letters to Bob. He loves you better than he ever thought - he loved me. He will give them to me on Sundays at church, and when he - calls.” - </p> - <p> - For two hours the kindly mantle of the magnolia sheltered them while they - told the old sweet story over and over again. And somehow that night it - seemed to them sweeter each time it was told. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0050" id="link2HCH0050"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER IV—THE UNSPOKEN TERROR - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Gaston reached - Hambright the following day, and whispered to his mother the good news, he - hastened to tell his friend Tom Camp. The young man’s heart warmed toward - the white-haired old soldier in this hour of his victory. With sparkling - eyes, he told Tom of his stormy scene with the General, of its curious - ending, and the hours he spent in heaven beneath the limbs of an old - magnolia. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0396.jpg" alt="0396 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0396.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - Tom listened with rapture. “Ah, didn’t I tell you, if you hung on you’d - get her by-and-by? So you bearded the General in his den did you? I ’ll - bet his eyes blazed when he seed you! He’s got an awful temper when you - rile him. You ought to a seed him one day when our brigade was ordered - into a charge where three concealed batteries was cross firin’ and men was - failin’ like wheat under the knife. Geeminy but didn’t he cuss! He - wouldn’t take the order fust from the orderly, and sent to know if the - Major-General meant it. I tell you us fellers that was layin’ there in the - grass listenin’ to them bullets singin’ thought he was the finest cusser - that ever ripped an oath. - </p> - <p> - “He reared and he charged, and he cussed, and He damned that man for - tryin’ to butcher his men, and he never moved till the third order came. - That was the night ten thousand wounded men lay on the field, and me in - the middle of ’em with a Minie ball in my shoulder. The Yankees and - our men was all mixed up together, and just after dark the full moon came - up through the trees and you could see as plain as day. I begun to sing - the old hymn, ‘There is a land of pure delight,’ and you ought to have - heard them ten thousand wounded men sing! - </p> - <p> - “While we was singing the General came through lookin’ up his men. He seed - me and said, ‘Is that you, Tom Camp?’ - </p> - <p> - “I looked up at him, and he was crying like a child, and he went on from - man to man cryin’ and cussin the fool that sent us into that hell-hole. - The General’s a rough man, if you rub his fur the wrong way, but his - heart’s all right. He’s all gold I tell you!” - </p> - <p> - “Well, I’m in for a tussle with him, Tom.” - </p> - <p> - “Shucks, man, you can beat him with one hand tied behind you if you’ve got - his gal’s heart. She’s got his fire, and a gal as purty as she is can just - about do what she pleases in this world.” - </p> - <p> - “I hope she can bring him around. I like the General. I’d much rather not - fight him.” - </p> - <p> - “Where’s Flora?” cried Tom looking around in alarm. - </p> - <p> - “I saw her going toward the spring in the edge of the woods there a minute - ago,” replied Gaston. - </p> - <p> - Tom sprang up and began to hop and jump down the path toward the spring - with incredible rapidity. - </p> - <p> - Flora was playing in the branch below the spring and Tom saw the form of a - negro man passing over the opposite hill going along the spring path that - led in that direction. - </p> - <p> - “Was you talkin’ with that nigger, Flora?” asked Tom holding his hand on - his side and trying to recover his breath. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I said howdy, when he stopped to get a drink of water, and he give - me a whistle,” she replied with a pout of her pretty lips and a frown. - </p> - <p> - Tom seized her by the arm and shook her. “Didn’t I tell you to run every - time you seed a nigger unless I was with you!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, but he wasn’t hurtin’ me and you are!” she cried bursting into - tears. - </p> - <p> - “I’ve a notion to whip you good for this!” Tom stormed. - </p> - <p> - “Don’t Tom, she won’t do it any more, will you Flora?” pleaded Gaston - taking her in his arms and starting to the house with her. When they - reached the house, Tom was still pale and trembling with excitement. - </p> - <p> - “Lord, there’s so many triflin’ niggers loafin’ round the county now - stealing and doin’ all sorts of devilment, I’m scared to death about that - child. She don’t seem any more afraid of ’em than she is of a cat.” - </p> - <p> - “I don’t believe anybody would hurt Flora, Tom,—she’s such a little - angel,” said Gaston kissing the tears from the child’s face. - </p> - <p> - “She is cute—ain’t she?” said Tom with pride. “I’ve wished many a - time lately I’d gone out West with them Yankee fellers that took such a - likin’ to me in the war. They told me that a poor white man had a chance - out there, and that there wern’t a nigger in twenty miles of their home. - But then I lost my leg, how could I go?” - </p> - <p> - He sat dreaming with open eyes for a moment and continued, looking - tenderly at Flora, “But, baby, don’t you dare go nigh er nigger, or let - one get nigh you no more’n you would a rattlesnake!” - </p> - <p> - “I won’t Pappy!” she cried with an incredulous smile at his warning of - danger that made Tom’s heart sick. She was all joy and laughter, full of - health and bubbling life. She believed with a child’s simple faith that - all nature was as innocent as her own heart. - </p> - <p> - Tom smoothed her curls and kissed her at last, and she slipped her arm - around his neck and squeezed it tight. - </p> - <p> - “Ain’t she purty and sweet now?” he exclaimed. - </p> - <p> - “Tom, you ’ll spoil her yet,” warned Gaston as he smiled and took - his leave, throwing a kiss to Flora as he passed through the little yard - gate. Tom had built a fence close around his house when Flora was a baby - to shut her in while he was at work. - </p> - <p> - Two days later about five o’clock in the afternoon as Gaston sat in his - office writing a letter, to his sweetheart, his face aglow with love and - the certainty that she was his, as he read and re-read her last glowing - words he was startled by the sudden clang of the court house bell. At - first he did not move, only looking up from his paper. Sometimes - mischievous boys rang the bell and ran down the steps before any one could - catch them. But the bell continued its swift stroke seeming to grow louder - and wilder every moment. He saw a man rush across the square, and then the - bell of the Methodist, and then of the Baptist churches joined their - clamour to the alarm. - </p> - <p> - He snapped the lid of his desk, snatched his hat and ran down the steps. - </p> - <p> - As he reached the street, he heard the long piercing cry of a woman’s - voice, high, strenuous, quivering! - </p> - <p> - “A lost child! A lost child!” - </p> - <p> - What a cry! He was never so thrilled and awed by a human voice. In it was - trembling all the anguish of every mother’s broken heart transmitted - through the centuries! - </p> - <p> - At the court house door an excited group had gathered. A man was standing - on the steps gesticulating wildly and telling the crowd all he knew about - it. Over the din he caught the name, “Tom Camp’s Flora!” - </p> - <p> - He breathed hard, bit his lips, and prayed instinctively. - </p> - <p> - “Lord have mercy on the poor old man! It will kill him!” A great fear - brooded over the hearts of the crowd, and soon the tumult was hushed into - an awed silence. - </p> - <p> - In Gaston’s heart that fear became a horrible certainty from the first. - Within a half hour a thousand white people were in the crowd. Gaston stood - among them, cool and masterful, organising them in searching parties, and - giving to each group the signals to be used. - </p> - <p> - In a moment the white race had fused into a homogeneous mass of love, - sympathy, hate, and revenge. The rich and the poor, the learned and the - ignorant, the banker and the blacksmith, the great and the small, they - were all one now. The sorrow of that old one-legged soldier was the sorrow - of all, every heart beat with his, and his life was their life, and his - child their child. - </p> - <p> - But at the end of an hour there was not a negro among them! By some subtle - instinct they had recognised the secret feelings and fears of the crowd - and had disappeared. Had they been beasts of the field the gulf between - them would not have been deeper. - </p> - <p> - When Gaston reached Tom’s house the crowd was divided into the groups - agreed upon and a signal gun given to each. If the child was not dead when - found two should be fired—if dead, but one. - </p> - <p> - He sought Tom to be sure there was no mistake and that the child had not - fallen asleep about the house. He found the old man shut up in his room - kneeling in the middle of the floor praying. - </p> - <p> - When Gaston laid his hand gently on his shoulder his lips ceased to move, - and he looked at him in a dazed sort of way at first without speaking. - </p> - <p> - “Oh!—it’s you, Charlie!” he sighed. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, Tom, tell me quick. Are you sure she is nowhere in the house?” - </p> - <p> - “Sure!—Sure?” he cried in a helpless stare. “Yes, yes, I found her - bonnet at the spring. I looked everywhere for an hour before I called the - neighbours!” - </p> - <p> - “Then I’m off with the searchers. The signal is two guns if they find her - alive. One gun if she is dead. You will understand.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, Charlie,” answered the old soldier in a faraway tone of voice, “and - don’t forget to help me pray while you look for her.” - </p> - <p> - “I’ve tried already, Tom,” he answered as he pressed his hand and left the - house. All night long the search continued, and no signal gun was heard. - Torches and lanterns gleamed from every field and wood, byway and hedge - for miles in every direction. - </p> - <p> - Through every hour of this awful night Tom Camp was in his room praying—his - face now streaming with tears, now dry and white with the unspoken terror - that could stop the beat of his heart. His white hair and snow-white beard - were dishevelled, as he unconsciously tore them with his trembling hands. - Now he was crying in an agony of intensity, “As thy servant of old - wrestled with the angel of the Lord through the night, so, oh God, will I - lie at Thy feet and wrestle and pray! I will not let Thee go until Thou - bless me! Though I perish, let her live! I have lost all and praised Thee - still. Lord, Thou canst not leave me desolate!” - </p> - <p> - From the pain of his wound and the exhaustion of soul and body he fainted - once with his lips still moving in prayer. For more than an hour he lay as - one dead. When he revived, he looked at his clock and it was but an hour - till dawn. - </p> - <p> - Again he fell on his knees, and again the broken accents of his husky - voice could be heard wrestling with God. Now he would beg and plead like a - child, and then he would rise in the unconscious dignity of an immortal - soul in combat with the powers of the infinite and his language was in the - sublime speech of the old Hebrew seers! - </p> - <p> - Just before the sun rose the signal gun pealed its message of life, ONE! - TWO! in rapid succession. - </p> - <p> - Tom sprang to his feet with blazing eyes. <i>One! Two!</i> echoed the guns - from another hill, and fainter grew its repeated call from group to group - of the searchers. - </p> - <p> - “There! Glory to God!” He screamed at the top of his voice, the last note - of his triumphant shout breaking into sobs. “God be praised! I knew they - would find her—she’s not dead, she’s alive! <i>alive!</i> oh! my - soul, lift up thy head!” - </p> - <p> - The tramp of swift feet was heard at the door and Gaston told him with - husky stammering voice, “She’s alive Tom, but unconscious. I ’ll - have her brought to the house. She was found just where your spring branch - runs into the Flat Rock, not five hundred yards from here in those woods. - Stay where you are. We will bring her in a minute.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston bounded back to the scene. - </p> - <p> - Tom paid no attention to his orders to stay at home, but sprang after him - jumping and falling and scrambling up again as he followed. Before they - knew it he was upon the excited tearful group that stood in a circle - around the child’s body. - </p> - <p> - Gaston, who was standing on the opposite side from Tom’s approach, saw him - and shouted, “My God, men, stop him! Don’t let him see her yet!” But Tom - was too quick for them. He brushed aside, the boy who caught at him, as - though a feather, crying, “Stand back!” - </p> - <p> - The circle of men fell away from the body and in a moment Tom stood over - it transfixed with horror. - </p> - <p> - Flora lay on the ground with her clothes torn to shreds and stained with - blood. Her beautiful yellow curls were matted across her forehead in a - dark red lump beside a wound where her skull had been crushed. The stone - lay at her side, the crimson mark of her life showing on its jagged edges. - </p> - <p> - With that stone the brute had tried to strike the death blow. She was - lying on the edge of the hill with her head up the incline. It was too - plain, the terrible crime that had been committed. - </p> - <p> - The poor father sank beside her body with an inarticulate groan as though - some one had crushed his head with an axe. He seemed dazed for a moment, - and looking around he shouted hoarsely, “The doctor boys! The doctor - quick! For God’s sake, quick! She’s not dead yet—we may save her—help—help!” - he sank again to the ground limp and faint from pain and was soon - insensible. - </p> - <p> - Gaston gathered the child tenderly in his arms and carried her to the - house. The men hastily made a stretcher and carried Tom behind him. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0051" id="link2HCH0051"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER V—A THOUSAND-LEGGED BEAST - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HILE Gaston and - the men were carrying Flora and Tom to the house, another searching party - was formed. There were no women and children among them, only grim-visaged - silent men, and a pair of little mild-eyed sharp-nosed blood-hounds. All - the morning men were coming in from the country and joining this silent - army of searchers. - </p> - <p> - Doctor Graham came, looked long and gravely at Flora and turned a sad face - toward Tom. - </p> - <p> - The ole soldier grasped his arm before he spoke. “‘Now, doctor wait—don’t - say a word yet. I don’t want to know the truth, if it’s the worst. Don’t - kill me in a minute. Let me live as long as there’s breath in her body—after - that! well, that’s the end—there’s nothin’ after that!” - </p> - <p> - The doctor started to speak. - </p> - <p> - “Wait,” pleaded Tom, “let me tell you something. I’ve been praying all - night. I’ve seen God face to face. She can’t die. He told me so—” - </p> - <p> - He paused and his grip on the doctor’s arm relaxed as though he were about - to faint, but he rallied. - </p> - <p> - The kindly old doctor said gently, “Sit down Tom.” - </p> - <p> - He tried to lead Tom away from the bed, but he held on like a bull dog. - </p> - <p> - The child breathed heavily and moaned. - </p> - <p> - Tom’s face brightened. “She’s comin’ to, doctor,—thank God!” - </p> - <p> - The doctor paid no more attention to him and went on with his work as best - he could. - </p> - <p> - Tom laid his tear-stained face close to hers, and murmured soothingly to - her as he used to when she was a wee baby in his arms, “There, there, - honey, it will be all right now! The doctor’s here, and he ’ll do - all he can! And what he can’t do, God will. The doctor ’ll save - you. God will save you! He loves you. He loves me. I prayed all night. He - heard me. I saw the shinin’ glory of His face! He’s only tryin’ His poor - old servant.” - </p> - <p> - The broken artery was found and tied and the bleeding stopped. When the - wound in her head was dressed the doctor turned to Tom, “That wound is - bad, but not necessarily fatal.” - </p> - <p> - “Praise God!” - </p> - <p> - “Keep the house quiet and don’t let her see a strange face when she - regains consciousness,” was his parting injunction. - </p> - <p> - The next morning her breathing was regular, and pulse stronger, but - feverish; and about seven o’clock she came out of her comatose state and - regained consciousness. She spoke but once, and apparently at the sound of - her own voice immediately went into a convulsion, clinching her little - fists, screaming and calling to her father for help! - </p> - <p> - When Tom first heard that awful cry and saw her terrified eyes and drawn - face, he tried to cover his own eyes and stop his ears. Then he gathered - the little convulsed body into his arms and crooned into her ears, “There, - Pappy’s baby, don’t cry! Pappy’s got you now. Nothin’ can hurt you. There, - there, nothin’ shall come nigh you!” - </p> - <p> - He covered her face with tears and kisses while he whispered and soothed - her to sleep. When the noon train came up from Independence, General Worth - arrived. Tom had asked Gaston to telegraph for him in his name. - </p> - <p> - Tom eagerly grasped his hand. “General I knowed you’d come—you’re a - man to tie to. I never knowed you to fail me in your life. You’re one of - the smartest men in the world too. You never got us boys in a hole so deep - you didn’t pull us out”— - </p> - <p> - “What can I do for you?” interrupted the General. - </p> - <p> - “Ah, now’s the worst of all, General. I’m in water too deep for me. My - baby, the last one left on earth, the apple of my eye, all that holds my - old achin’ body to this world—she’s—about—to—die! - I can’t let her. General, you must save her for me. I want more doctors. - They say there’s a great doctor at Independence. I want ’em all. - Tell ’em it’s a poor old one-legged soldier who’s shot all to - pieces and lost his wife and all his children—all but this one baby. - And I can’t lose her! They ’ll come if you ask ’em—” - His voice broke. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll do it, Tom. I ’ll have them here on a special in - three hours or maybe sooner,” returned the General pressing his hand and - hurrying to the telegraph office. - </p> - <p> - The doctors arrived at three o’clock and held a consultation with Doctor - Graham. They decided that the loss of blood had been so great that the - only chance to save her was in the transfusion of blood. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll give her the blood, Tom,” said Gaston quietly removing his - coat and baring his arm. - </p> - <p> - The old soldier looked up through grateful tears. - </p> - <p> - “Next to the General, you’re the best friend God ever give me, boy!” - </p> - <p> - The General turned his face away and looked out of the window. The doctors - immediately performed the operation, transfusing blood from Gaston into - the child. - </p> - <p> - The results did not seem to promise what they had hoped. Her fever rose - steadily. She became conscious again and immediately went into the most - fearful convulsions, breaking the torn artery a second time. - </p> - <p> - Just as the sun sank behind the blue mountains peaks in the west, her - heart fluttered and she was dead. - </p> - <p> - Tom sat by the bed for two hours, looking, looking, looking with wide - staring eyes at her white dead face. There was not the trace of a tear. - His mouth was set in a hard cold way and he never moved or spoke. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher tried to comfort Tom, who stared at him as though he did not - recognise him at first, and then slowly began, “Go away, Preacher, I don’t - want to see or talk to you now. It’s all a swindle and a lie. There is no - God!” - </p> - <p> - “Tom, Tom!” groaned the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - “I tell you I mean it,” he continued. “I don’t want any more of God or His - heaven. I don’t want to see God. For if I should see Him, I’d shake my - fist in His face and ask him where His almighty power was when my poor - little baby was screamin’ for help while that damned black beast was - tearin’ her to pieces! Many and many a time I’ve praised God when I read - the Bible there where it said, not a sparrow falleth to the ground without - His knowledge, and the very hairs of our head are numbered. Well, where - was He when my little bird was flutterin’ her broken bleedin’ wings in the - claws of that stinkin’ baboon,—damn him to everlastin’ hell!—It’s - all a swindle I tell you!” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher was watching him now with silent pity and tenderness. - </p> - <p> - “What a lie it all is!” Tom repeated. “Scratch my name off the church - roll. I ain’t got many more days here, but I won’t lie. I’m not a - hypocrite. I’m going to meet God cursin’ Him to His face!” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher slipped his arm around the old soldier’s neck, and smoothed - the tangled hair back from his forehead as he said brokenly, “Tom, I love - you! My whole soul is melted in sympathy and pity for you!” - </p> - <p> - The stricken man looked up into the face of his friend, saw his tears and - felt the warmth of his love flood his heart, and at last he burst into - tears. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Preacher, Preacher! you’re a good friend I know, but I’m done, I - can’t live any more! Every minute, day and night, I ’ll hear them - awful screams—her a callin’ me for help! I can see her lyin’ out - there in the woods all night alone moanin’ and bleedin’!” - </p> - <p> - His breast heaved and he paused as if in reverie. And then he sprang up, - his face livid and convulsed with volcanic passions, that half strangled - him while he shrieked, “Oh! if I only had him here before me now, and God - Almighty would give me strength with these hands to tear his breast open - and rip his heart out!—I—could—eat—it—like—a—wolf!” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - When they reached the cemetery the next day and the body was about to be - lowered into the grave, Tom suddenly spied old Uncle Reuben Worth leaning - on his spade by the edge of the crowd. Uncle Reuben was the grave digger - of the town and the only negro present. - </p> - <p> - “Wait!” said Tom raising his hand. “Don’t put her in that grave! A nigger - dug it. I can’t stand it.” He turned to a group of old soldier comrades - standing by and said, “Boys, humour an old broken man once more. You ’ll - dig another grave for me, won’t you? It won’t take long. The folks can go - home that don’t want to stay. I ain’t got no home to go to now but this - graveyard.” - </p> - <p> - His comrades filled up the grave that Uncle Reuben had dug, and opened a - new one on the other side of the graves where slept his other loved ones. - </p> - <p> - Gaston took Tom to his home and stayed with him several hours trying to - help him. He seemed to have settled into a stupor from which nothing could - rouse him. When at length the old man fell asleep, Gaston softly closed - the door and returned to his office with a heavy heart. - </p> - <p> - As he neared the centre of the town, he heard a murmur like the distant - moaning of the wind in the hush that comes before a storm. It grew louder - and louder and became articulate with occasional words that seemed far - away and unreal. What could it be? He had never heard such a sound before. - Now it became clearer and the murmur was the tread of a thousand feet and - the clatter of horses’ hoofs. Not a cry, or a shout, or a word. Silence - and hurrying feet! - </p> - <p> - Ah! he knew now. It was the searchers returning, a grim swaying voiceless - mob with one black figure amid them. They were swarming into the court - house square under the big oak where an informal trial was to be held. - </p> - <p> - He rushed forward to protest against a lynching. He could just catch a - glimpse of the negro’s head swaying back and forth, protesting innocence - in a singing monotone as though he were already half dead. - </p> - <p> - He pushed his way roughly through the excited crowd, to the centre where - Hose Norman, the leader, stood with one end of a rope in his hand and the - other around the negro’s neck. - </p> - <p> - The negro turned his head quickly toward the movement made by the crowd as - Gaston pressed forward. - </p> - <p> - It was Dick! - </p> - <p> - Dick recognised him at the same moment, leaped toward him and fell at his - feet crying and pleading as he held his feet and legs. - </p> - <p> - “Save me, Charlie! I nebber done it! I nebber done it! For God’s sake help - me! Keep ’em off! Dey gwine burn me erlive!” - </p> - <p> - Gaston turned to the crowd. “Men, there’s not one among you that loved - that old soldier and his girl as I did. But you must not do this crime. If - this negro is guilty, we can prove it in that court house there, and he - will pay the penalty with his life. Give him a fair trial”— - </p> - <p> - “That’s a lawyer talkin’ now!” said a man in the crowd. “We know that - tune. The lawyers has things their own way in a court house.” A murmur of - assent mingled with oaths ran through the crowd. - </p> - <p> - “Fair trial!” sneered Hose Norman snatching Dick from the ground by the - rope. “Look at the black devil’s clothes splotched all over with her - blood. We found him under a shelvin’ rock where he’d got by wadin’ up the - branch a quarter of a mile to fool the dogs. We found his track in the - sand some places where he missed the water and tracked him clear from - where we found Flora to the cave he was lying in. Fair trial—hell! - We’re just waitin’ for er can o’ oil. You go back and read your law books—we - ’ll tend ter this devil.” - </p> - <p> - The messenger came with the oil and the crowd moved forward. Hose shouted, - “Down by Tom Camp’s by his spring, down the spring branch to the Flat Rock - where he killed her!” - </p> - <p> - On the crowd moved, swaying back and forth with Gaston in their midst by - Dick’s side begging for a fair trial for him. A crowd that hurries and - does not shout is a fearful thing. There is something inhuman in its - uncanny silence. - </p> - <p> - Gaston’s voice sounded strained and discordant. They paid no more - attention to his protest than to the chirp of a cricket. - </p> - <p> - They reached the spot where the child’s body had been found. They tied the - screaming, praying negro to a live pine and piled around his body a great - heap of dead wood and saturated it with oil. And then they poured oil on - his clothes. - </p> - <p> - Gaston looked around him begging first one man then another to help him - fight the crowd and rescue him. Not a hand was lifted, or a voice raised - in protest. There was not a negro among them. Not only was no negro in - that crowd, but there was not a cabin in all that county that would not - have given shelter to the brute, though they knew him guilty of the crime - charged against him. This was the one terrible fact that paralysed - Gaston’s efforts. - </p> - <p> - Hose Norman stepped forward to apply a match and Gaston grasped his arm. - </p> - <p> - “For God’s sake, Hose, wait a minute!” he begged. “Don’t disgrace our - town, our county, our state, and our claims to humanity by this insane - brutality. A beast wouldn’t do this. You wouldn’t kill a mad dog or a - rattlesnake in such a way. If you will kill him, shoot him or knock him in - the head with a rock,—don’t burn him alive!” - </p> - <p> - Hose glared at him and quietly remarked, “Are you done now? If you are, - stand out of the way!” - </p> - <p> - He struck the match and Dick uttered a scream. As Hose leaned forward with - his match Gaston knocked him down, and a dozen stalwart men were upon him - in a moment. - </p> - <p> - “Knock the fool in the head!” one shouted. - </p> - <p> - “Pin his arms behind him!” said another. - </p> - <p> - Some one quickly pinioned his arms with a cord. He stood in helpless rage - and pity, and as he saw the match applied, bowed his head and burst into - tears. - </p> - <p> - He looked up at the silent crowd standing there like voiceless ghosts with - renewed wonder. - </p> - <p> - Under the glare of the light and the tears the crowd seemed to melt into a - great crawling swaying creature, half reptile half beast, half dragon half - man, with a thousand legs, and a thousand eyes, and ten thousand gleaming - teeth, and with no ear to hear and no heart to pity! - </p> - <p> - All they would grant him was the privilege of gathering Dick’s ashes and - charred bones for burial. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - The morning following the lynching, the Preacher hurried to Tom Camp’s to - see how he was bearing the strain. - </p> - <p> - His door was wide open, the bureau drawers pulled out, ransacked, and some - of their contents were lying on the floor. - </p> - <p> - “Poor old fellow, I’m afraid he’s gone crazy!” exclaimed the Preacher. He - hurried to the cemetery. There he found Tom at the newly made grave. He - had worked through the night and dug the grave open with his bare hands - and pulled the coffin up out of the ground. He had broken his finger nails - all off trying to open it and his fingers were bleeding. At last he had - given up the effort to open the coffin, sat down beside it, and was - arranging her toys he had made for her beside the box. He had brought a - lot of her clothes, a pair of little shoes and stockings, and a bonnet, - and he had placed these out carefully on top of the lid. He was talking to - her. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher lifted him gently and led him away, a hopeless madman. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0052" id="link2HCH0052"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VI—THE BLACK PERIL - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE longer Gaston - pondered over the tragic events of that lynching the more sinister and - terrible became its meaning, and the deeper he was plunged in melancholy. - </p> - <p> - Beyond all doubt, within his own memory, since the negroes under Legree’s - lead had drawn the colour line in politics, the races had been drifting - steadily apart. The gulf was now impassable. - </p> - <p> - Such crimes as Dick had committed, and for which he had paid such an awful - penalty, were unknown absolutely under slavery, and were unknown for two - years after the war. Their first appearance was under Legree’s regime. Now - scarcely a day passed in the South without the record of such an atrocity, - swiftly followed by a lynching, and lynching thus had become a habit for - all grave crimes. - </p> - <p> - Since McLeod’s triumph in the state such crimes had increased with - alarming rapidity. The encroachments of negroes upon public offices had - been slow but resistless. Now there were nine hundred and fifty negro - magistrates in the state elected for no reason except the colour of their - skin. Feeling themselves intrenched behind state and Federal power, the - insolence of a class of young negro men was becoming more and more - intolerable. What would happen to these fools when once they roused that - thousand-legged, thousand-eyed beast with its ten thousand teeth and - nails! He had looked into its face, and he shuddered to recall the hour. - </p> - <p> - He knew that this power of racial fury of the Anglo-Saxon when aroused was - resistless, and that it would sweep its victims before its wrath like - chaff before a whirlwind. - </p> - <p> - And then he thought of the day fast coming when culture and wealth would - give the African the courage of conscious strength and he would answer - that soul piercing shriek of his kindred for help, and that other - thousand-legged beast, now crouching in the shadows, would meet - thousand-legged beast around that beacon fire of a Godless revenge! - </p> - <p> - More and more the impossible position of the Negro in America came home to - his mind. He was fast being overwhelmed with the conviction that sooner or - later we must squarely face the fact that two such races, counting - millions in numbers, can not live together under a Democracy. - </p> - <p> - He recalled the fact that there were more negroes in the United States - than inhabitants in Mexico, the third republic of the world. - </p> - <p> - Amalgamation simply meant Africanisation. The big nostrils, fiat nose, - massive jaw, protruding lip and kinky hair will register their animal - marks over the proudest intellect and the rarest beauty of any other race. - The rule that had no exception was that one drop of Negro blood makes a - negro. - </p> - <p> - What could be the outcome of it? What was his duty as a citizen and a - member of civilised society? Since the scenes through which he had passed - with Tom Camp and that mob the question was insistent and personal. It - clouded his soul and weighed on him like the horrors of a nightmare. - </p> - <p> - Again and again the fateful words the Preacher had dinned into his ears - since childhood pressed upon him, “<i>You can not build in a Democracy a - nation inside a nation of two antagonistic races. The future American must - be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto</i>.” - </p> - <p> - His depression and brooding over the fearful events in which he had so - recently taken part had tinged his life and all its hopes with sadness. He - had reflected this in his letters to Sallie Worth without even mentioning - the events. His heart was full of sickening foreboding. How could one love - and be happy in a world haunted by such horrors! He had begged her to - hasten her hour of final decision. He told her of his sense of loneliness - and isolation, and of his inexpressible need of her love and presence in - his daily life. - </p> - <p> - Her answer had only intensified his moody feelings. She had written that - her love grew stronger every day and his love more and more became - necessary to her life, and yet she could not cloud its future with the - anger of her father and the broken heart of her mother by an elopement. - She feared such a shock would be fatal and all her life would be - embittered by it. They must wait. She was using all her skill to win her - father, but as yet without success. But she determined to win him, and it - would be so. - </p> - <p> - All this seemed so far away and shadowy to Gaston’s eager restless soul. - </p> - <p> - The letter had closed by saying she was preparing for another trip to - Boston to visit Helen Lowell and that she should be absent at least a - month. She asked that his next letter be addressed to Boston. - </p> - <p> - Somehow Boston seemed just then out of the world on another planet, it was - so far away and its people and their life so unreal to his imagination. - </p> - <p> - But he sighed and turned resolutely to his work of preparation for an - event in his life which he, meant to make great in the history of the - state. It was the meeting of the Democratic convention, as yet nearly two - years in the future. He held a subordinate position in his party’s - councils, but defeat and ruin had taken the conceit out of the old line - leaders and he knew that his day was drawing near. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll take my place among the leaders and masters of men,” he told - himself with quiet determination, “I will compel the General’s respect; - and if I can not win his consent, I will take her without it.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0053" id="link2HCH0053"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VII—EQUALITY WITH A RESERVATION - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE lynching at - Hambright had stirred the whole nation into unusual indignant interest. It - happened to be the climax of a series of such crimes committed in the - South in rapid succession, and the death of this negro was reported with - more than usual vividness by a young newspaper man of genius. - </p> - <p> - A grand mass meeting was called in Cooper Union, New York, at which were - gathered delegates from different cities and states to give emphasis and - unity to the movement and issue an appeal to the national government. - </p> - <p> - When Sallie Worth reached Boston, she found Helen Lowell at home alone. - The Hon. Everett Lowell had made one of the speeches of his career at the - mass meeting held in Faneuil Hall, and he was in New York where he had - gone to make the principal address in the Cooper Union Convention of Negro - sympathisers. - </p> - <p> - George Harris had accompanied him, supremely fascinated by the eloquent - and masterful appeal for human brotherhood he had heard him make in - Boston. There was something pathetic in the dog-like worship this young - negro gave to his brilliant patron. In his life in New England he had been - shocked more than once by the brutal prejudices of the people against his - race. His soul had been tried to the last of its powers of endurance at - times. He found to his amazement that, when put to the test, the masses of - the North had even deeper repugnance to the person of a Negro than the - Southerners who grew up with him from the cradle. He had found himself cut - off from every honourable way of earning his bread, gentleman and scholar - though he was, and had looked into the river as he walked over the bridge - to Cambridge one night with a well-nigh resistless impulse to end it all. - </p> - <p> - But Lowell had cheered him, laughed his gloomy ideas to scorn, and more - practical still, he had secured him a clerkship in the Custom House which - settled the problem of bread. Others had failed him, but this man of - trained powers had never failed him. He had taught him to lift up his head - and look the world squarely in the face. Lowell was, to his vivid African - imagination, the ideal man made in the image of God, calm in judgment, - free from all superstitions and prejudices, a citizen of the world of - human thought, a prince of that vast ethical aristocracy of the free - thinkers of all ages who knew no racial or conventional barriers between - man and man. - </p> - <p> - Harris had published a volume of poems which he had dedicated to Lowell, - and his most inspiring verse was simply the outpouring of his soul in - worship of this ideal man. - </p> - <p> - He was his devoted worshipper for another and more powerful reason. In his - daily intercourse with him in his library during his campaigns he had - frequently met his beautiful daughter, and had fallen deeply and madly in - love with her. This secret passion he had kept hidden in his sensitive - soul. He had worshipped her from afar as though she had been a white-robed - angel. To see her and be in the same house with her was all he asked. Now - and then he had stood beside the piano and turned the music while she - played and sang one of his new pieces, and he would live on that scene for - months, eating his heart out with voiceless yearnings he dared not - express. - </p> - <p> - In his music he made his greatest success. There was a fiery sweep to his - passion, and a deep oriental rhythm in his cadence that held the - imagination of his hearers in a spell. It is needless to say it was in - this music he breathed his secret love. - </p> - <p> - At first he had not dared to hope for the day when he could declare this - secret or take his place in the list of her admirers and fight for his - chance. But of late, a great hope had filled his soul and illumined the - world. As he had listened to Lowell’s impassioned appeals for human - brotherhood, his scathing ridicule of pride and prejudice, and the poetic - beauty of the language in which he proclaimed his own emancipation from - all the laws of caste, the fiery eloquence with which he trampled upon all - the barriers man had erected against his fellow man, his soul was thrilled - into ecstasy with the conviction that this scholar and scientific thinker, - at least, was a free man. He was sure that he had risen above the - limitations of provincialisms, racial or national prejudices. - </p> - <p> - He had begun to dream of the day he would ask this Godlike man for the - privilege of addressing his daughter. - </p> - <p> - The great meeting at Cooper Union had brought this dream to a sudden - resolution. Lowell had outdone himself that night. With merciless - invective he had denounced the inhuman barbarism of the South in these - lynchings. The sea of eager faces had answered his appeals as water the - breath of a storm. He felt its mighty reflex influence sweep back on his - soul and lift him to greater heights. He demanded equality of man on every - inch of this earth’s soil. - </p> - <p> - “I demand this perfect equality,” he cried, “absolutely without - reservation or subterfuge, both in form and essential reality. It is the - life-blood of Democracy. It is the reason of our existence. Without this - we are a living lie, a stench in the nostrils of God and humanity!” - </p> - <p> - A cheer from a thousand negro throats rent the air as he thus closed. The - crowd surged over the platform and for ten minutes it was impossible to - restore order or continue the programme. Young Harris pressed his patron’s - hand and kissed it while tears of pride and gratitude rained down his - face. - </p> - <p> - This speech made a national sensation. It was printed in full in all the - partisan papers where it was hoped capital might be made of it for the - next political campaign, and the National Campaign Committee of which he - was a member ordered a million copies of it printed for distribution among - the negroes. - </p> - <p> - When Lowell and Harris reached Boston, as they parted at the depot Harris - said, “Will you be at home to-morrow, Mr. Lowell?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, why?” - </p> - <p> - “I would like a talk with you in the morning on a matter of grave - importance. May I call at nine o’clock?” - </p> - <p> - “Certainly. Come right into the library. You ’ll find me there, - George.” - </p> - <p> - That night as Lowell walked through his brilliantly lighted home, he felt - a sense of glowing pride and strength. With his hands behind him he paced - back and forth in his great library and out through the spacious hall with - firm tread and flushed face. He felt he could look these great ancestors - in the face to-night as they gazed down on him from their heavy gold - frames. They had called him to high ambitions and a strenuous life when - his indolence had pleaded for ease and the dilettante-ism of a fruitless - dreaming. His father had cultivated his artistic tastes, dreamed and done - nothing. But these grim-visaged, eagle-eyed ancestors had called him to a - life of realities, and he had heard their voices. - </p> - <p> - Yes, to-night his name was on a million lips. The door of the United - States Senate was opening at his touch and mightier possibilities loomed - in the future. - </p> - <p> - He felt a sense of gratitude for the heritage of that stately old home and - its inspiring memories. Its roots struck down into the soil of a thousand - years, and spread beneath the ocean to that greater old world life. He - felt his heart beat with pride that he was adding new honours to that - family history, and adding to the soul-treasures his daughter’s children - would inherit. - </p> - <p> - Seated in the library next morning Harris was nervous and embarrassed. He - made two or three attempts to begin the subject but turned aside with some - unimportant remark. - </p> - <p> - “Well, George, what is the problem that makes you so grave this morning?” - asked Lowell with kindly patronage. - </p> - <p> - Harris felt that his hour had come, and he must face it. He leaned forward - in his chair and looked steadily down at the rug, while he clasped both - his hands firmly across his lap and spoke with great rapidity. - </p> - <p> - “Mr. Lowell, I wish to say to you that you have taught me the greatest - faith of life, faith in my fellow man without which there can be no faith - in God. What I have suffered as a man as I have come in contact with the - brutality with which my race is almost universally treated, God only can - ever know. - </p> - <p> - “The culture I have received has simply multiplied a thousandfold my - capacity to suffer. But for the inspiration of your manhood I would have - ended my life in the river. In you, I saw a great light. I saw a man - really made in the image of God with mind and soul trained, with head - erect, seeing the weak prejudices of caste, which dare to call the image - of God clean or unclean in passion or pride. - </p> - <p> - “I lifted up my head and said, one such man redeems a world from infamy. - It’s worth while to live in a world honoured by one such man, for he is - the prophecy of more to come.” - </p> - <p> - He paused a moment, fidgeted with a piece of paper he had picked up from - the table and seemed at a loss for a word. - </p> - <p> - It never dawned on Lowell what he was driving at. He supposed, as a matter - of course, he was referring to his great speeches and was going to ask for - some promotion in a governmental department at Washington. - </p> - <p> - “I’m proud to have been such an inspiration to you, George. You know how - much I think of you. What is on your mind?” he asked at length. - </p> - <p> - “I have hidden it from every human eye, sir, I am afraid to breath it - aloud alone. I have only tried to sing it in song in an impersonal way. - Your wonderful words of late have emboldened me to speak. It is this—I - am madly, desperately in love with your daughter.” - </p> - <p> - Lowell sprang to his feet as though a bolt of lightning had suddenly shot - down his backbone. He glared at the negro with wide dilated eyes and - heaving breath as though he had been transformed into a leopard or tiger - and was about to spring at his throat. - </p> - <p> - Before answering, and with a gesture commanding silence, he walked rapidly - to the library door and closed it. - </p> - <p> - “And I have come to ask you,” continued Harris ignoring his gesture, “if I - may pay my addresses to her with your consent.” - </p> - <p> - “Harris, this is crazy nonsense. Such an idea is preposterous. I am amazed - that it should ever have entered your head. Let this be the end of it here - and now, if you have any desire to retain my friendship.” - </p> - <p> - Lowell said this with a scowl, and an emphasis of indignant rising - inflection. The negro seemed stunned by this swift blow in his very teeth, - that seemed to place him outside the pale of a human being. - </p> - <p> - “Why is such a hope unreasonable, sir, to a man of your scientific mind?” - </p> - <p> - “It is a question of taste,” snapped Lowell. - </p> - <p> - “Am I not a graduate of the same university with you? Did I not stand as - high, and age for age, am I not your equal in culture?” - </p> - <p> - “Granted. Nevertheless you are a negro, and I do not desire the infusion - of your blood in my family.” - </p> - <p> - “But I have more of white than Negro blood, sir.” - </p> - <p> - “So much the worse. It is the mark of shame.” - </p> - <p> - “But it is the one drop of Negro blood at which your taste revolts, is it - not?” - </p> - <p> - “To be frank, it is.” - </p> - <p> - “Why is it an unpardonable sin in me that my ancestors were born under - tropic skies where skin and hair were tanned and curled to suit the sun’s - fierce rays?” - </p> - <p> - “All tropic races are not negroes, and your race has characteristics apart - from accidents of climate that make it unique in the annals of man,” - rejoined Lowell. - </p> - <p> - “And yet you demand perfect equality of man with man, absolutely in form - and substance without reservation or subterfuge!” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, political equality.” - </p> - <p> - “Politics is but a secondary phenomenon of society. You said absolute - equality,” protested Harris. - </p> - <p> - “The question you broach is a question of taste, and the deeper social - instincts of racial purity and self preservation. I care not what your - culture, or your genius, or your position, I do not desire, and will not - permit, a mixture of Negro blood in my family. The idea is nauseating, and - to my daughter it would be repulsive beyond the power of words to express - it!” - </p> - <p> - “And yet,” pleaded Harris, “you invited me to your home, introduced me to - your daughter, seated me at your table, and used me in your appeal to your - constituents, and now when I dare ask the privilege of seeking her hand in - honourable marriage, you, the scholar, patriot, statesman and philosopher - of Equality and Democracy, slam the door in my face and tell me that I am - a negro! Is this fair or manly?” - </p> - <p> - “I fail to see its unfairness.” - </p> - <p> - “It is amazing. You are a master of history and sociology. You know as - clearly as I do that social intercourse is the only possible pathway to - love. And you opened it to me with your own hand. Could I control the beat - of my heart? There are some powers within us that are involuntary. You - could have prevented my meeting your daughter as an equal. But all the - will power of earth could not prevent my loving her, when once I had seen - her, and spoken to her. The sound of the human voice, the touch of the - human hand in social equality are the divine sacraments that open the - mystery of love.” - </p> - <p> - “Social rights are one thing, political rights another,” interrupted - Lowell. - </p> - <p> - “I deny it. If you are honest with yourself, you know it is not true. - Politics is but a manifestation of society. Society rests on the family. - The family is the unit of civilisation. The right to love and wed where - one loves is the badge of fellowship in the order of humanity. The man who - is denied this right in any society is not a member of it. He is outside - any manifestation of its essential life. You had as well talk about the - importance of clothes for a dead man, as political rights for such a - pariah. You have classed him with the beasts of the field. As a human unit - he does not exist for you.” - </p> - <p> - “Harris, it is utterly useless to argue a point like this,” Lowell - interrupted coldly. “This must be the end of our acquaintance. You must - not enter my house again.” - </p> - <p> - “My God, sir, you can’t kick me out of your home like this when you - brought me to it, and made it an issue of life or death!” - </p> - <p> - “I tell you again you are crazy. I have brought you here against her - wishes. She left the house with her friend this morning to avoid seeing - you. Your presence has always been repulsive to her, and with me it has - been a political study, not a social pleasure.” - </p> - <p> - “I beg for only a desperate chance to overcome this feeling. Surely a man - of your profound learning and genius can not sympathise with such - prejudices? Let me try—let her decide the issue.” - </p> - <p> - “I decline to discuss the question any further.” - </p> - <p> - “I can’t give up without a struggle!” the negro cried with desperation. - </p> - <p> - Lowell arose with a gesture of impatience. - </p> - <p> - “Now you are getting to be simply a nuisance. To be perfectly plain with - you, I haven’t the slightest desire that my family with its proud record - of a thousand years of history and achievement shall end in this stately - old house in a brood of mulatto brats!” - </p> - <p> - Harris winced and sprang to his feet, trembling with passion. “I see,” he - sneered, “the soul of Simon Le-gree has at last become the soul of the - nation. The South expresses the same luminous truth with a little more - clumsy brutality. But their way is after all more merciful. The human body - becomes unconscious at the touch of an oil-fed flame in sixty seconds. - Your methods are more refined and more hellish in cruelty. You have - trained my ears to hear, eyes to see, hands to touch and heart to feel, - that you might torture with the denial of every cry of body and soul and - roast me in the flames of impossible desires for time and eternity!” - </p> - <p> - “That will do now. There’s the door!” thundered Lowell with a gesture of - stern emphasis. “I happen to know the important fact that a man or woman - of negro ancestry, though a century removed, will suddenly breed back to a - pure negro child, thick lipped, kinky headed, flat nosed, black skinned. - One drop of your blood in my family could push it backward three thousand - years in history. If you were able to win her consent, a thing - unthinkable, I would do what old Virginius did in the Roman Forum, kill - her with my own hand, rather than see her sink in your arms into the black - waters of a Negroid life! Now go!” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0054" id="link2HCH0054"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER VIII—THE NEW SIMON LEGREE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>ARRIS immediately - resigned his office in the custom house which he owed to Lowell and began - a search for employment. - </p> - <p> - “I will not be a pensioner of a government of hypocrites and liars,” he - exclaimed as he sealed his letter of resignation. - </p> - <p> - And then began his weary tramp in search of work. Day after day, week - after week, he got the same answer—an emphatic refusal. The only - thing open to a negro was a position as porter, or bootblack, or waiter in - second-rate hotels and restaurants, or in domestic service as coachman, - butler or footman. He was no more fitted for these places than he was to - live with his head under water. - </p> - <p> - “I will blow my brains out before I will prostitute my intellect, and my - consciousness of free manhood by such degrading associates and such menial - service!” he declared with sullen fury. - </p> - <p> - At last he determined to lay aside his pride and education and learn a - manual trade. Not a labour union would allow him to enter its ranks. - </p> - <p> - He managed to earn a few dollars at odd jobs and went to New York. Here he - was treated with greater brutality than in Boston. At last he got a - position in a big clothing factory. He was so bright in colour that the - manager never suspected that he was a negro, as he was accustomed to - employing swarthy Jews from Poland and Russia. - </p> - <p> - When Harris entered the factory the employees discovered within an hour - his race, laid down their work, and walked out on a strike until he was - removed. - </p> - <p> - He again tried to break into a labour union and get the protection of its - constitution and laws. He managed at last to make the acquaintance of a - labour leader who had been a Quaker preacher, and was elated to discover - that his name was Hugh Halliday, and that he was a son of one of the - Hallidays who had assisted in the rescue of his mother and father from - slavery. He told Halliday his history and begged his intercession with the - labour union. - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll try for you, Harris,” he said, “but it’s a doubtful - experiment. The men fear the Negro as a pestilence.” - </p> - <p> - “Do the best you can for me. I must have bread. I only ask a man’s - chance,” answered Harris. Halliday proposed his name and backed it up with - a strong personal endorsement, gave a brief sketch of his culture and - accomplishments and asked that he be allowed to learn the bricklayer’s - trade. - </p> - <p> - When his name came up before the Brick Layers’ Union, and it was announced - that he was a negro, it precipitated a debate of such fury that it - threatened to develop into a riot. - </p> - <p> - One of the men sprang toward the presiding officer with blazing eyes, - gesticulating wildly until recognised. - </p> - <p> - “I have this to say,” he shouted. “No negro shall ever enter the door of - this Union except over my dead body. The Negro can under live us. We can - not compete with him, and as a race we can not organise him. Let him stay - in the South. We have no room for him here, and we will kill him if he - tries to take our bread from us!” - </p> - <p> - “Have you no sympathy for his age-long sufferings in slavery?” interrupted - Halliday. - </p> - <p> - “Slavery! of all the delusions the idea that slavery was abolished in this - country in 1865 is the silliest, Slavery was never firmly established - until the chattel form was abandoned for the wage system in 1865. Chattel - slavery was too expensive. The wage system is cheaper. Now they never have - to worry about food, or clothes, or houses, or the children, or the aged - and infirm among wage slaves. - </p> - <p> - “Once the master hunted the slave,—now the slave must hunt the - master, beg for the privilege of serving him and trample others to death - trying to fasten the chains on when a brother slave drops dead in his - tracks. - </p> - <p> - “No, I don’t shed any crocodile tears over the Negro slavery of the South. - It was a mild form of servitude, in which the Negro had plenty to eat and - wear, never suffered from cold, slept soundly and reared his children in - droves with never a thought for the morrow. - </p> - <p> - “Then mothers and babes were sometimes, though not often, separated by an - executor’s or sheriff’s sale. Now, we know better than to allow babes to - be born. Then, a babe was a valuable asset and received the utmost care. - Now, we have baby farms which we fertilise with their bones. I know of one - old hag in this city who has killed over two thousand babes. - </p> - <p> - “What chance has your girl or mine to marry and build a home? Not one in a - hundred will ever feel the breath of a babe at her breast. - </p> - <p> - “No!” he closed in thunder tones. “I ’ll fight the encroachment of - the Negro on our life with every power of body and soul!” - </p> - <p> - A hundred men leaped to their feet at once, shouting and gesticulating. - The chairman recognised a tall dark man with a Russian face, but who spoke - perfect English. - </p> - <p> - “I, gentlemen, am an anarchist in principle, and differ slightly in the - process by which I come to the same conclusion as my friend who has taken - his seat. I grieve at the necessity before the workingmen of returning to - slavery. All we can hope now for a century or two centuries, is socialism. - Socialism is simply a system of slavery—that is, enforced labour in - which a Bureaucracy is master. We must enter again a condition of - involuntary servitude for the guarantee by the State of food and clothes, - shelter and children. - </p> - <p> - “It is no time to weep over slavery. The one thing we demand now is the - nationalisation of industries under the control of State Bureaux which - will enforce labour from every citizen according to his capacity, for the - simple guarantee of what the negro slave received, the satisfaction of the - two elemental passions, hunger and love.” - </p> - <p> - Again a clamour broke out that drowned the speaker’s voice. A Socialist - and an Anarchist clinched in a fight, and for five minutes pandemonium - reigned, but at the end of it Harris was tying on the sidewalk with a gash - in his head, and Halliday was bending over him. - </p> - <p> - When Harris had recovered from his wound, Halliday took him on a round of - visits to big mills in a populous manufacturing city across in New Jersey. - </p> - <p> - “These mills are all owned by Simon Legree,” he informed Harris, “and the - unions have been crushed out of them by methods of which he is past - master. I don’t know, but it may be possible to get you in there.” - </p> - <p> - They tried a half dozen mills in vain, and at last they met a foreman who - knew Halliday who consented to hear his plea. - </p> - <p> - “You are fooling away your time and this man’s time, Halliday,” he told - him in a friendly way. “I’d cut my right arm off sooner than take a negro - in these mills and precipitate a strike.” - </p> - <p> - “But would a strike occur with no union organisation?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, in a minute. You know Simon Legree who owns these mills. If a - disturbance occurred here now the old devil wouldn’t hesitate to close - every mill next day and beggar fifty thousand people.” - </p> - <p> - “Why would he do such a stupid thing?” - </p> - <p> - “Just to show the brute power of his fifty millions of dollars over the - human body. The awful power in that brute’s hands, represented in that - money, is something appalling. Before the war he cracked a blacksnake whip - over the backs of a handful of negroes. Now look at him, in his black silk - hat and faultless dress. With his millions he can commit any and every - crime from theft to murder with impunity. His power is greater than a - monarch. He controls fleets of ships, mines and mills, and has under his - employ many thousands of men. Their families and associates make a vast - population. He buys Judges, Juries, Legislatures, and Governors and with - one stroke of his pen to-day can beggar thousands of people. He can equip - an army of hirelings, make peace or war on his own account, or force the - governments to do it for him. He has neither faith in God, nor fear of the - devil. He regards all men as his enemies and all women his game. - </p> - <p> - “They say he used to haunt the New Orleans’ slave market, when he was - young and owned his Red River farm, occasionally spending his last dollar - to buy a handsome negro girl who took his fancy. - </p> - <p> - “Look at him now with his bloated face, beastly jaw, and coarse lips. He - walks the streets with his lecherous eyes twinkling like a snake’s and - saliva trickling from the corners of his mouth practically monarch of all - he surveys. He selects his victims at his own sweet will, and with his - army of hirelings to do his bidding, backed by his millions, he lives a - charmed life in a round of daily crime. - </p> - <p> - “How many lives he has blasted among the population of the multitude of - souls dependent on him for bread, God only knows. It is said he has - murdered the souls of many innocent girls in these mills—” - </p> - <p> - “Surely that is an exaggeration,” broke in Halliday. - </p> - <p> - “On the other hand I believe the picture is far too mild. I tell you no - human mind can conceive the awful brute power over the human body his - millions hold under our present conditions of life.” - </p> - <p> - There was a tinge of deep personal bitterness in the man’s words that held - Halliday in a spell while he continued, “Under our present conditions men - and women must fight one another like beasts for food and shelter. The - wildest dreams of lust and cruelty under the old system of Southern - slavery would be laughed at by this modern master.” - </p> - <p> - He paused a moment in painful reverie. - </p> - <p> - “There lies his big yacht in the harbour now. She is just in from a cruise - in the Orient. She cost half a million dollars, and carries a crew of - fifty men. With them are beautiful girls hired at fancy wages connected - with the stewardess’ department. She ships a new crew every trip. Not one - of those young faces is ever lifted again among their friends.” - </p> - <p> - He paused again and a tear coursed down his face. - </p> - <p> - “I confess I am bitter. I loved one of those girls once when I was - younger. She was a mere child of seventeen.” His voice broke. “Yes, she - came back shattered in health and ruined. I am supporting her now at a - quiet country place. She is dying. - </p> - <p> - “Think of the farce of it all!” he continued passionately. - </p> - <p> - “The picture of that brute with a whip in his hand beating a negro caused - the most terrible war in the history of the world. Three millions of men - flew at each other’s throats and for four years fought like demons. A - million men and six billions of dollars worth of property were destroyed. - </p> - <p> - “He was a poor harmless fool there beating his own faithful slave to - death. Compare that Legree with the one of to-day, and you compare a mere - stupid man with a prince of hell. But does this fiend excite the wrath of - the righteous? Far from it. His very name is whispered in admiring awe by - millions. He boasts that dozens of proud mothers strip their daughters to - the limit the police law will allow at every social function he honours - with his presence, and offer to sell him their own flesh and blood for the - paltry consideration of a life interest in one-third of his estate! And he - laughs at them all. His name is magic! - </p> - <p> - “I know of one weak fool, a petty millionaire, whom Legree lured into a - speculative trap and ruined. On his knees in his Fifth Avenue palace the - whining coward kissed Legree’s feet and begged for mercy. He kicked him - and sneered at his misery. At last when he had tortured him to the verge - of madness he offered to spare him on one condition—that he should - give him his daughter as a ransom. And he did it. - </p> - <p> - “No, the brute power of such a man to-day is beyond the grasp of the human - mind. His chances for debauchery and cruelty are limitless. The brain of - his hirelings is put to the test to invent new crime against nature to - interest his appetites. The only limit to his power of evil is the - capacity of the human mind to think, and his body to act and endure. When - he is exhausted, he can command the knowledge and the skill of ages and - the masters of all Science to restore his strength, while satellites lick - his feet and sing his praises— - </p> - <p> - “Risk the whim of such a man with the lives of these poor people dependent - on me? No, I’d sooner kill that negro you have brought here and take my - chances of detection.” - </p> - <p> - Halliday gave up the task, returned to New York, and sought the aid of the - greatest labour leader in America, who had arrived in the city from the - West the day before. - </p> - <p> - “No, Halliday,” he said emphatically. “Send your negro back down South. We - don’t want any more of them, or to come in contact with them. I have just - come from the West where a desperate strike was in progress in one of - Legree’s mines. Our men were toiling in the depth of the earth in midnight - darkness, never seeing the light of day, for just enough to keep body and - soul together. They tried to wring one little concession from their absent - master, who had never condescended to honour them with his presence. What - did he do? Shut down his mines, and brought up from the South a herd of - negroes who came crowding to the mines to push our men back into hell. We - begged them to go home and let us alone. They grinned, shuffled and looked - at their white driver for the signal to go to work. I ordered the men to - shoot them down like dogs. We made the Governor issue a proclamation - driving them back South and warning their race that if they attempted to - enter the borders of the state he would meet them with Gatling guns. - </p> - <p> - “No, send your friend South. The winters up here are too cold for him and - the summers too hot.” - </p> - <p> - In the meantime Harris walked the streets with a storm of furious passion - raging in his soul. The realisation of the shame and the horror of his - position! He was the son of Eliza Harris who had fled from the kindliest - form of slavery in Kentucky. He had a trained mind, and the brightest - gifts of musical genius. Yet he stood that day at the door of Simon Legree - and begged in vain for the privilege of serving in the meanest capacity as - his slave! What a strange circle of time, those forty years of the past! - </p> - <p> - And then the tempter whispered the right word at the right moment, and his - fate was sealed. - </p> - <p> - “There’s but one thing left. I will do it!” he exclaimed. - </p> - <p> - He entered the employ of a gambling joint and deliberately began a life of - crime. After a month he won five hundred dollars, and went on a strange - journey, visiting the scenes in Colorado, Kansas, Indiana and Ohio where - negroes had recently been burned alive. He would find the ash-heap, and - place on it a wreath of costly flowers. He lingered thoughtfully over the - ash-piles he found in Kansas made from the flesh of living negroes. He - tried to imagine the figure of John Brown marching by his side, but - instead he felt the grip of Simon Legree’s hand on his throat, living, - militant, omnipotent. His soul had conquered the world. Yet even Legree - had never dared to burn a negro to death in the old days of slavery. - </p> - <p> - He found one of these ash-heaps at the foot of the monument in Indiana to - the great Western colleague of Thaddeus Stevens, and with a sigh placed - his wreath on it, and passed on into Ohio. - </p> - <p> - He went to the spot where his mother had climbed up the banks of the Ohio - River into the promised land of liberty, and followed the track of the old - Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves a few miles. He came to a village - which was once a station of this system. Here strangest of all, he found - one of these ash-heaps in the public square. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0055" id="link2HCH0055"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER IX—THE NEW AMERICA - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>NOTHER year of - struggle and suffering, hope and fear, Gaston had passed, and still he was - no nearer the dream of realised love. If anything had changed, the - General’s pride had added new force to his determination that his daughter - should not marry the man who had defied him. - </p> - <p> - His chief reliance for Gaston’s defeat was on time, and the broadening of - Sallie’s mind by extended travel. He had sent her abroad twice, and this - year he sent her to spend another three months in Europe. - </p> - <p> - These absences seemed only to intensify her longing for her lover. On her - return the General would burst into a storm of rage at her persistence. - She had ceased to give him any bitter answers, only smiling quietly and - maintaining an ominous silence. - </p> - <p> - He had a new cause now of dislike for the man of her choice. Gaston had - become a man of acknowledged power in politics and was the leader of a - group of radical young men who demanded the complete reorganisation of the - Democratic party, the shelving of the old timers, among whom he was - numbered, and the announcement of a radical programme upon the Negro - issue. - </p> - <p> - Radicalism of any sort he had always hated. Now, as advanced by this young - upstart, it was doubly odious. The General had never given much time to - his political duties, but his name was a power, and he gave regularly to - the campaign committee the largest cash contribution they received. - </p> - <p> - He tried in a clumsy way to put Gaston off the State Executive Committee, - but failed. He saw Gaston quietly laughing at him. Then he opened his - pocket book and worked up a machine. It was a formidable power, and Gaston - feared its influence in the coming convention. - </p> - <p> - While this fight was in progress, and Sallie was in Europe, the - destruction of the <i>Maine</i> in Havana harbour stilled the world into - silence with the echo of its sullen roar. There was a moment’s pause, and - the nation lifted its great silk battle flags from the Capitol at - Washington, and called for volunteers to wipe the empire of Spain from the - map of the Western world. - </p> - <p> - The war lasted but a hundred days, but in those hundred days was packed - the harvest of centuries. - </p> - <p> - War is always the crisis that flashes the search light into the souls of - men and nations, revealing their unknown strength and weakness, and the - changes that have been silently wrought in the years of peace. - </p> - <p> - In these hundred days, statesmen who were giants suddenly shrivelled into - pigmies and disappeared from the nation’s life. Young men whose names were - unknown became leaders of the republic and won immortal fame. - </p> - <p> - We were afraid that our nation still lacked unity. The world said we were - a mob of money-grubbers, and had lost our grasp of principle. The - President called for 125,000 men to die for their flag, and next morning - 800,000 were struggling for place in the line. - </p> - <p> - We feared that religion might threaten the future with its bitter feud - between the Roman Catholic and Protestant in a great crisis. We saw our - Catholic regiments march forth to that war with screaming fife and - throbbing drum and the flag of our country above them, going forth to - fight an army that had been blessed by the Pope of Rome. The flag had - become the common symbol of eternal justice, and the nation the organ - through which all creeds and cults sought for righteousness. - </p> - <p> - We feared the gulf between the rich and the poor had become impassable, - and we saw the millionaire’s son take his place in the ranks with the - workingman. The first soldier wearing our uniform who fell before Santiago - with a Spanish bullet in his breast, was an only son from a palatial home - in New York, and by his side lay a cowboy from the West and a plowboy from - the South. Once more we showed the world that classes and clothes are but - thin disguises that hide the eternal childhood of the soul. - </p> - <p> - Sectionalism and disunity had been the most terrible realities in our - national history. Our fathers had a poet leader whose soul dreamed a - beautiful dream called <i>E Pluribus Unum.</i>. But it had remained a - dream. New England had threatened secession years before South Carolina in - blind rage led the way. The Union was saved by a sacrifice of blood that - appalled the world. And still millions feared the South might be false to - her plighted honour at Appomattox. The ghost of Secession made and unmade - the men and measures of a generation. - </p> - <p> - Then came the trumpet call that put the South to the test of fire and - blood. The world waked next morning to find for the first time in our - history the dream of union a living fact. There was no North, no South,—but - from the James to the Rio Grande the children of the Confederacy rushed - with eager flushed faces to defend the flag their fathers had once fought. - </p> - <p> - And God reserved in this hour for the South, land of ashes and tombs and - tears, the pain and the glory of the first offering of life on the altar - of the new nation. Our first and only officer who fell dead on the deck of - a warship, with the flag above him, was Worth Bagley, of North Carolina, - the son of a Confederate soldier. The gallant youngster who stood on the - bridge of the <i>Merrimac</i>, and between two towering mountains of - flaming cannon, in the darkness of night blew up his ship and set a new - standard of Anglo-Saxon daring, was the son of a Confederate soldier of - North Carolina. - </p> - <p> - The town of Hambright furnished a whole company of eighty-six men, a - Captain, three Lieutenants, and a Major, who saw service in the war. - </p> - <p> - When they were drawn up in the court house square under the old oak, the - Preacher stood before them and called the roll from four browned - parchments. They were Campbell county Confederate rosters. Every one of - the eighty-six men was a child of the Confederacy. And the immortal - company F, that was wiped out of existence at the battle of Gettysburg - furnished more than half these children. - </p> - <p> - “Ah, boys, blood will tell!” cried the Preacher, shaking hands with each - man as they left. - </p> - <p> - A single round from the guns, and it was over. The yellow flag of Spain, - lit with the sunset splendour of a world empire, faded from the sky of the - West. - </p> - <p> - A new naval power had arisen to disturb the dreams of statesmen. The <i>Oregon</i>, - that fierce leviathan of hammered steel, had made her mark upon the globe. - In a long black trail of smoke and ribbon of foam, she had circled the - earth without a pause for breath. The thunder of her lips of steel over - the shattered hulks of a European navy proclaimed the advent of a giant - democracy that struck terror to the hearts of titled snobs. - </p> - <p> - He who dreamed this monster of steel, felt her heart beat, saw her rush - through foaming seas to victory, before the pick of a miner had struck the - ore for her ribs from a mountain side, was a child of the Confederacy—that - Confederacy whose desperate genius had sent then <i>Alabama</i> spinning - round the globe in a whirlwind of fire. - </p> - <p> - America united at last and invincible, waked to the consciousness of her - resistless power. - </p> - <p> - And, most marvellous of all, this hundred days of war had re-united the - Anglo-Saxon race. This sudden union of the English speaking people in - friendly alliance disturbed the equilibrium of the world, and confirmed - the Anglo-Saxon in his title to the primacy of racial sway. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0056" id="link2HCH0056"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER X—ANOTHER DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>LMOST every - problem of national life had been illumined and made more hopeful by the - searchlight of war save one—the irrepressible conflict between the - African and the Anglo-Saxon in the development of our civilisation. The - glare of war only made the blackness of this question the more apparent. - </p> - <p> - While the well-drilled negro regulars, led by white officers acquitted - themselves with honour at Santiago, the negro volunteers were the source - of riot and disorder wherever they appeared. From the first, it was seen - by thoughtful men that the Negro was an impossibility in the newborn unity - of national life. When the Anglo-Saxon race was united into one - homogeneous mass in the fire of this crisis, the Negro ceased that moment - to be a ward of the nation. - </p> - <p> - A negro regiment had been in camp at Independence during the war and was - still there awaiting orders to be mustered out. Its presence had inflamed - the passions of both races to the danger point of riot again and again. - The negro who was editing their paper at Independence had gone to the - length of the utmost license in seeking to influence race antagonism. - </p> - <p> - When the regiment of which the Hambright company was a member was mustered - out at Independence, Gaston was invited to deliver the address of welcome - home to the soldiers, and a crowd of five thousand people were present, - one-half of whom were negroes. - </p> - <p> - While Gaston was speaking in the square, a negro trooper passing along the - street refused to give an inch of the sidewalk to a young lady and her - escort, who met him. He ran into the girl, jostling her roughly, and the - young white man knocked him down instantly and beat him to death. The - wildest passions of the negro regiment were roused. McLeod was among them - that day seeking to increase his popularity and influence in the coming - election, and he at once denounced Gaston as the cause of the assault, and - urged the leaders in secret to retaliate by putting a bullet through his - heart. - </p> - <p> - The white regiment had been mustered out, and their guns in most cases had - been retained by the men. The negro troops were to be mustered out the - next day. - </p> - <p> - Late in the afternoon Gaston had received information that a plot was on - foot to kill him that night, when a negro mob would batter down his door - on the pretense of searching for the man who had assaulted the trooper. - The Colonel of the regiment just disbanded heard it, and that night his - men bivouacked in the yard of the hotel and slept on their guns. - </p> - <p> - A little after twelve o’clock, a mob of five hundred negroes attempted to - force their way into the hotel. They met a regiment of bayonets, broke, - and fled in wild confusion. - </p> - <p> - This event was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. In the morning - paper a blazing notice in display capitals covered the first page, calling - a mass meeting of white citizens at noon in Independence Hall. - </p> - <p> - The little city of Independence was one of the oldest in the nation. It - boasted the first declaration of independence from Great Britain - antedating a year the Philadelphia document. The people had never rested - tamely under tyranny nor accepted insult. - </p> - <p> - The McLeod Negro-Farmer Legislature had remodelled the ancient charter of - the city, and under the new instrument a combination of negroes and - criminal whites had taken possession of every office. - </p> - <p> - One half of these office holders were incompetent and insolent negroes. - The Chief of Police was an ignoramus in league with criminals, and their - Mayor, a white demagogue elected by pandering to the lowest passions of a - negro constituency. - </p> - <p> - Burglary and highway robbery were almost daily occurrences. The two - largest stores in the city and four residences had been burned within a - month. Appeal to the police became a farce, and it was necessary to hire - and arm a force of private guards to patrol the city at night. When - arrests were made, the servile authorities promptly released the - criminals. Negro insolence reached a height that made it impossible for - ladies to walk the streets without an armed escort, and white children - were waylaid and beaten on their way to the public schools. - </p> - <p> - The incendiary organ of the negroes, a newspaper that had been noted for - its virulent spirit of race hatred, had published an editorial defaming - the virtue of the white women of the community. - </p> - <p> - At eleven o’clock the quaint old hall, built in Revolutionary days to seat - five hundred people, was packed with a crowd of eight hundred - stern-visaged men standing so thick it was impossible to pass through them - and thousands were massed outside around the building. - </p> - <p> - Gaston, whose ancestors had been leaders in the great Revolution, was - called to the chair. The speech-making was brief, fiery, and to the point. - </p> - <p> - Within one hour they unanimously adopted this resolution: - </p> - <p> - “<i>Resolved, that we issue a second Declaration of Independence from the - infamy of corrupt and degraded government. The day of Negro domination - over the Anglo-Saxon race shall close, now, once and forever. The - government of North Carolina was established by a race of pioneer white - freemen for white men and it shall remain in the hands of freemen.</i> - </p> - <p> - “<i>We demand the overthrow of the criminal and semi-barbarian régime - under which we now live, and to this end serve notice on the present Mayor - of this city, its Chief of Police, and the six negro aldermen and their - low white associates that their resignations are expected by nine o’clock - to-morrow morning. We demand that the negro anarchist who edits a paper in - this city shall close his office, remove its fixtures and leave this - county within twenty-four hours.”</i> - </p> - <p> - A committee of twenty-five, with Gaston as its Chairman, was appointed to - enforce these resolutions. - </p> - <p> - By four o’clock an army of two thousand white men was organised, and - placed under the command of the Rev. Duncan McDonald, pastor of the First - Presbyterian Church of the city, who had been a brave young officer in the - Confederate army. Every minister in the county was enrolled in this guard - and carried a musket on picket duty, or in a reserve camp that night. - </p> - <p> - At six o’clock, Gaston summoned thirty-five of the more prominent negroes - of the county including two of the professors in Miss Susan Walker’s - college, to meet the Committee of Twenty-Five and receive its ultimatum. - Stern and hard of face sat the twenty-five chosen representatives of that - world-conquering race of men at one end of the room, while at the other - end sat the thirty-five negroes anxious and fearful, realising that their - day of dominion had ended. - </p> - <p> - Gaston rose and handed them a copy of the resolutions. - </p> - <p> - “We give you till seven-thirty to-morrow morning as the leaders of your - race to carry out these demands,” he said gravely. - </p> - <p> - “But we have no authority, sir,” replied the negro preacher to whom he - handed the paper. - </p> - <p> - “Your authority is equal to ours—the authority of elemental manhood. - If you can not execute them in peace, we will do it by force.” - </p> - <p> - “We must decline such responsibility unless”—the negro started to - argue the question. - </p> - <p> - “The meeting stands adjourned!” quietly announced Gaston, taking up his - hat and leaving the room followed by his Committee. - </p> - <p> - At seven-thirty next morning no answer had been received. Gaston called - for seventy-five volunteers to execute the decrees. - </p> - <p> - Within thirty minutes, five hundred men swung into line at eight o’clock, - and marched four abreast to the office of the negro paper. It was promptly - burned to the ground, its editor paid its cash value, and with a rope - around his neck, escorted to the depot and placed on a north bound train. - </p> - <p> - As Gaston handed him his ticket for Washington he quietly said to him, “I - have saved your life this morning. If you value it, never put your foot on - the soil of this state again.” - </p> - <p> - “Thank you, sir. I ’ll not return.” - </p> - <p> - While this guard, under strict military discipline, was executing this - decree, a mob of a thousand armed negroes concealed themselves in a - hedge-row and fired on them from ambush, killing one man and wounding six. - Gaston formed his men in line, returned the fire with deadly effect, - charged the mob, put them to flight, driving them into the woods outside - the city limits, and placed the town under informal but strict martial - law. By ten o’clock the resignation of every city and county officer was - in his hand, and the Mayor and Chief of Police were at his feet begging - for mercy. - </p> - <p> - He posted a notice over the county warning every negro and white associate - that no further insolence or criminality would be tolerated. - </p> - <p> - The county and municipal election was but three days off and there was but - one ticket on the field. When the white men elected were sworn in, the - guards went to the woods and told the terrified and half starving negroes - they could return to their homes, a competent police force was organised, - and the volunteer organisation disbanded. Negro refugees and their - associates once more filled the ear of the national government with - clamour for the return of the army to the South to uphold Negro power, but - for the first time since 1867, it fell on deaf ears. The Anglo-Saxon race - had been reunited. The Negro was no longer the ward of the Republic. - Henceforth, he must stand or fall on his own worth and pass under the law - of the survival of the fittest. - </p> - <p> - This event made a tremendous impression on the imagination of the people. - It increased the popularity and power of Gaston, its intended victim, The - General was more than ever determined to destroy Gaston’s power in the - convention which was to meet in a few weeks. He had his candidate for - Governor well groomed and he had captured the largest number of pledged - delegates. There were three other candidates, but none of them apparently - were backed by Gaston. The General was puzzled at his methods, and failed - to discover his programme, though he spent money with liberality and - exhausted every resource at his command. - </p> - <p> - A strange thing had occurred that had upset all calculations. Beginning at - Independence a race fire had broken into resistless fury and was sweeping - along the line of all the counties on the South Carolina border and over - the entire state with incredible rapidity. Everywhere, the white men were - arming themselves and parading the streets and public roads in cavalry - order dressed in scarlet shirts. This Red Shirt movement was a spontaneous - combustion of inflammable racial power that had been accumulating for a - generation. - </p> - <p> - The Democratic Executive Committee was called together in haste and made - the most frantic efforts to stop it. But there was no head to it. It had - no organisation except a local one, and it spread by a spark flying from - one county to another. - </p> - <p> - McLeod laughed at the address of the Democratic Committee and swore Gaston - was the organiser of the movement. He determined to nip it in the bud by - putting Gaston under a cloud that would destroy his influence. He did not - dare to attack him for his part in the Revolution at Independence. He - preferred to belittle that affair as a local disturbance. - </p> - <p> - But at an election for Congressman to fill a vacancy, the Democratic - candidate had won by a narrow margin in a campaign of great bitterness - under Gaston’s leadership. - </p> - <p> - Charges of fraud were freely made on both sides. McLeod determined to - utilise these charges, and by producing perjured witnesses before a packed - court, place Gaston in jail without bail until the convention had met. - </p> - <p> - He had every advantage in such a conspiracy. The United States judge whom - he intended to utilise was a creature of his own making, a trickster whose - confirmation had been twice defeated in the Senate by the members of his - own party on his shady record. But he had won the place at last by hook - and crook, and McLeod owned him body and soul. - </p> - <p> - Accordingly Gaston was arrested with a warrant McLeod had obtained from - his judge, arraigned before him and committed without bail. He was charged - with a felony under the election laws, taken to Asheville and placed in - jail. - </p> - <p> - The audacity of this arrest and the vehemence with which McLeod pressed - his charges created a profound sensation in the state. It was rumoured - that the graver charge of murder lay back of the charge of felony and - would be pressed in due time. A murder had been committed in the district - during the exciting campaign and no clue had ever been found to its - perpetrator. McLeod knew he had no evidence connecting Gaston with this - event, but he knew that he had henchmen who would swear to any thing he - told them and stick to it. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0057" id="link2HCH0057"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XI—THE HEART OF A WOMAN - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span> WEEK after - Gaston’s imprisonment Sallie Worth arrived in New York from her last trip - abroad. She had cut her trip short and cabled her father of her return. - </p> - <p> - She was in an agony of suspense and uncertainty about her lover. Gaston’s - letters had failed to reach her for a month by reason of the war which had - demoralised the mail service. Her own letters had failed to reach Gaston - for a similar reason. - </p> - <p> - The General hastened to New York to meet his wife and daughter and - persuade Sallie to remain in the North until December. He was hopeful now - that her long absence and Gaston’s absorption in politics, his bitter - opposition to him personally, and the cloud under which he rested in - prison, would be the final forces that would give him the victory in the - long conflict he had waged for the mastery of his daughter’s heart. - </p> - <p> - Before informing Sallie of the stirring events at Independence and the - part Gaston had taken in them, or allowing her to learn of his - imprisonment, the General sought to find the exact state of her mind. - </p> - <p> - “I trust, Sallie,” he began, “you are recovering from your infatuation for - this man. You know how dearly I love you. I have never taken a step in - life since I looked into your baby face that wasn’t for you and your - happiness.” - </p> - <p> - She only looked at him wistfully and her eyes seemed to be dreaming, “I - want you to have some pride. Gaston has attempted to kick me out of the - councils of the party, and become the dictator of the state. His course is - one of violence and radicalism. I regard him as a dangerous man, and I - want you to have nothing to do with him.” - </p> - <p> - She was gravely silent. - </p> - <p> - “Do you believe he has been faithfully dreaming of you in your absence?” - asked the General. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I do!” - </p> - <p> - “Then let me disabuse your mind. It is not the way of strong men. He is - absolutely absorbed in a desperate political struggle in which his - personal ambition’s are first. I have seen him paying the most devoted - attentions to the daughter of our rival down east, whose influence he - wants, and it is rumoured among his friends that he has proposed to her.” - </p> - <p> - “Who told you that?” she asked impetuously. - </p> - <p> - “I had it first from Allan, but I’ve heard it since from others.” - </p> - <p> - “I do not believe a word of it,” she declared. - </p> - <p> - “That’s because you’re a woman and hold such silly ideals. I tell you, he - wants you only because he knows you are rich, and he wishes to brow-beat - me. Such a man will try to whip you before you have been his wife five - years. I know that kind of man. Why can’t you trust my judgment?” - </p> - <p> - “I had rather trust my heart’s intuitions, Papa, I can not be deceived in - such a question.” - </p> - <p> - “Well, you are being deceived. He is anything but a languishing lover. At - present he is a political tiger at bay. Unless you hold him to you by some - pledge he has given, he will forget you, and marry another in two years. I - am a man and I know men. I thought I was desperately in love twice before - I met your mother. I got over both attacks without a scratch, fell in love - with her, married and have lived happily ever since. You have - overestimated your own importance to him and your influence over him.” - </p> - <p> - A great fear awed her into silence. For the first time in all her struggle - with her father the sense suddenly came into her heart of her dependence - on Gaston’s love for the very desire to live, and for the first time she - realised the possibility of losing him. What if he should press his great - ambitions to successful issue while she stood irresolute and tortured him - with her indecision? If he could win the world’s applause without her, - might he not, when successful, cease to need her? Her breast heaved with - the tumult of uncertainty. What if another woman saw and loved him, and - drew near to him in his hours of soul loneliness and struggle, and he had - learned to see her face with joy! The conviction came crushing upon her - that she had not responded bravely to this powerful man’s singular - devotion into which he had poured without reserve his deepest passion. Had - he weighed her and found her wanting in some dark hour in her absence? Her - heart was in her throat at the thought! - </p> - <p> - The General watched her keenly for several moments, and thought at last he - had broken the spell. He believed he could now tell her of the cloud that - hung over Gaston. - </p> - <p> - “I said, Sallie, that I believed Gaston a dangerous man. I did not speak - lightly. We have had terrible riots in Independence while you were absent - in which Gaston was the leader of an armed revolution which overturned the - city and county government. Two thousand men were under arms for a week - and several were killed and wounded on both sides. The results were good - as a whole, I confess. We have a decent government and we have security of - property and life, but such methods will lead to civil war.” - </p> - <p> - Her face grew tense, and she looked at her father with breathless interest - during this recital. - </p> - <p> - “Was he in danger in those riots?” she slowly asked. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and I expect him to be killed at an early day if he continues his - present methods. A mob of five hundred negroes attempted to kill him. This - was one of the causes that led to the Revolution.” - </p> - <p> - She was on her feet now pale and trembling with excitement. - </p> - <p> - “Where is he?” she gasped. - </p> - <p> - “Now, my dear, it’s useless to get excited. The trouble is all over and a - new Mayor and police force are in charge of the city. But he is resting - under a serious cloud at present. He is held in jail at Asheville on a - charge of felony, and a charge of murder is being pressed.” - </p> - <p> - “In jail! in jail!” she cried incredulously while her eyes filled with - tears. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, and Allan believes these ugly charges will be proved in the United - States court, and he will be convicted.” - </p> - <p> - She did not seem to hear the last sentence. - </p> - <p> - “In jail!” she repeated, “my lover, to whom I have given my life, and you, - my father, while I was three thousand miles away stood by and did not lift - a hand to help him?” - </p> - <p> - “Has he not been my bitterest enemy, seeking to insult me!” thundered the - General. - </p> - <p> - “No, he never insulted you, or spoke one unkind word about you in his - life. Oh! this is shameful! God forgive me that I was not here!” Tears - were streaming down her face. - </p> - <p> - “You hold me responsible for the crazy young scamp’s career?” cried the - General indignantly. - </p> - <p> - “Not another word to me!” she exclaimed. “You shall not abuse him in my - presence.” - </p> - <p> - The General was afraid of her when she used the tone of voice in which she - uttered that sentence. He had heard it but once before, and that was when - she told him she was a free woman twenty-one years old, and he had broken - down. He looked at her now, fearing to speak. At length he said, “I have - engaged a suite of rooms for you here at the Waldorf-Astoria, my dear, for - the winter. I hope you will enjoy the season. Let us change this painful - subject.” - </p> - <p> - “I do not want the rooms,” she firmly replied, “I am going to Asheville on - the first train.” - </p> - <p> - The General stormed and raged for an hour, but she made no reply. Her - mother was suffering from the effects of the voyage and took no part in - this storm. - </p> - <p> - “But your mother will not be able to accompany you. Surely you will not - disgrace me by visiting that man in jail!” - </p> - <p> - “I will. And when he is released I will return. I will visit Stella Holt. - I shall have ample protection.” - </p> - <p> - The General was afraid to oppose her in this dangerous mood, and begged - her mother to try to prevent her going. Sallie sent Gaston a telegram that - she was coming. - </p> - <p> - In obedience to the General’s request her mother called her into her room - that night and they had a long talk and cry in each other’s arms. - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Worth did not try very hard to persuade her not to go. Down in her - own woman’s soul she knew what she would do under similar conditions, and - she was too honest with her child to try to deceive her. She only made - love to her mother-fashion. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Mama,” cried Sallie, burying her face beside her mother as she lay in - bed. “I am at a great soul crisis. I don’t know what to do. I feel lonely, - helpless and heart-sick. You are a woman. Put your dear arms about me and - help me to know the truth and my duty. I want to ask you a question.” - </p> - <p> - “What is it, darling? I ’ll answer it, if I can,” she replied - stroking her dark hair tenderly. - </p> - <p> - “Do you believe these stories about Charlie’s character?” - </p> - <p> - “Not one word of them!” she promptly answered. - </p> - <p> - An impulsive kiss and a sob! - </p> - <p> - “Dear Mother!” she said in a low tearful voice. “And now one more. Papa - has been dinning into my ears his own fickleness in love when young and - the fact that he knows in a long life that love is of little importance in - a man’s existence. He says that I can forget and love again with equal - intensity and bet’ter judgment. Can one treat thus lightly the soul’s - deepest instincts and still find life rich and worthy of effort?” Her - voice broke and she continued slowly and tremblingly, as she held one of - her mother’s hands tightly, “Now, Mama dear, heart to heart, tell me as - you would talk in your inmost soul to God, do you believe this is true? - You have sounded life’s deep meaning Is this all you know of life? You - love me. Tell me truly?” - </p> - <p> - “No, darling, a woman can not deny this deep yearning of her soul and - live. I would tear my tongue out sooner than deceive you in such an hour.” - </p> - <p> - “Sweet Mother!” she softly murmured again as she kissed her good night. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0058" id="link2HCH0058"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XII—THE SPLENDOUR OF SHAMELESS LOVE - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Gaston - received her telegram in jail he was seated by a window looking out - through the bars on Mt. Pisgah’s distant peak looming in grandeur amid a - sea of smaller blue mountain waves. He read the message and his soul was - filled with a great peace. - </p> - <p> - “At last! at last! These prison bars, they are good! I could kiss them. I - can never be grateful enough to my enemies!” - </p> - <p> - He had taken his prison as a joke from the first, sneering at the judge - who had committed him. He knew that every day he stayed in that jail he - was becoming more and more the master of the people. If McLeod had tried - he could not have played into his hands with more fatal certainty. Five - hundred citizens of Independence had wired him their congratulations and - offered him any assistance he desired, from unlimited money for defence to - a delegation to tear the jail down. - </p> - <p> - He declined any assistance. He knew the storm would break over their heads - soon enough, and they would be delighted to get rid of him. In the - meantime he gave himself up to his thoughts about the woman he loved, and - wondered what change had suddenly come over her to send him that message. - He felt sure the great crisis in their life had come. What would it be? A - sorrowful surrender on her part to her father’s iron will and a tearful - good-bye forever, or the full surrender of her woman’s soul and body to - the dominion of his love? - </p> - <p> - He was glad the hour had struck that should decide. He trembled at the - import of her answer but he was ready to receive it. - </p> - <p> - A carriage rolled into the jail enclosure and two young ladies alighted. - One of them stopped in the sitting room for visitors, and he heard the - tramp of a man’s heavy feet on the stairs and after it the tread of a - woman like a soft echo. - </p> - <p> - The key grated in the lock, the door opened. She looked into his eyes for - just an instant of searching soul revelation, saw the yearning and the - grateful tears, and with a glad cry sprang into his arms. - </p> - <p> - “You do love me!” she passionately cried. - </p> - <p> - “Love you? I drew you back across the sea with my love. I knew you would - come. I willed it with a power you couldn’t resist.” - </p> - <p> - “I never got your letters, and I was hungry to see you,” she whispered. - </p> - <p> - “And I never got yours, and drew you back by the power of a great heart - purpose.” - </p> - <p> - “Forgive me, for being away from you when you were in danger.” - </p> - <p> - “I was glad you were safe. Don’t let this jail alarm you. I ’ll be - out too soon for my good I’m afraid.” - </p> - <p> - “No other woman has come into your heart to cheer it even with her - friendship since I’ve been away, has she?” - </p> - <p> - “What a silly question. I’ve never looked at any other woman since the day - I first saw you!” - </p> - <p> - “Tell me you love me again!” - </p> - <p> - “I—love—you, unto the uttermost, in life, in death, forever!” - he whispered tenderly. - </p> - <p> - She sighed and smiled. “The sweetest music the ear of a woman ever heard!” - she half laughed, half cried. - </p> - <p> - “Now, my dear, you are a full-grown woman in the beauty of a perfect - womanhood. For five years and more, I have waited and suffered. My life is - an open book before you. When are you going to end this suspense? You must - decide now whether your father’s will shall rule your life or my love?” - </p> - <p> - “Must I decide to-day?” she asked tremblingly. - </p> - <p> - “Yes,” he answered. “It is not fair to torture me longer.” - </p> - <p> - “Then I give up!” she tearfully exclaimed. “God forgive me if I am doing - wrong! I can not resist you longer. I do not desire to,—I <i>will</i> - not! I am all yours, forever—soul, body, will, honour, life—all! - I can not live without you. I love you. I <i>love you!</i>—Kiss me!—again—ah, - your lips are sweeter than honey! Am I bold to say it? I do not care, I am - yours. Your arms are the bonds of my slavery and they are sweet!” - </p> - <p> - Gaston was trembling with the joy that flooded his being with these the - first words of perfect faith and submissive love that had come from her - lips. And he winced at the memory now of those hours of dissipation when - he had doubted her. He tried to confess it and receive her absolution. - </p> - <p> - “My dear, my joy is too great. It is pain, as well as joy. In the dark - days of our first year of separation I thought once you had forgotten me. - I went away into two weeks of debauchery. Your perfect love crushes me - with its beauty and purity. I must confess this wrong to you. I must not - deceive you in the smallest thing in this hour.” - </p> - <p> - She placed her hand over his lips, “I will not hear it. I ought to have - been braver and fought for my rights and yours. I will not hear one word - of humiliation from you. I love you. You are my king. I love you, good or - bad. I would love you if you were a murderer on the gallows. I can not - help it. I do not wish to help it. I will follow you to the bottomless pit - or to the throne of God and say it without fear to devil or angel. Kiss me - again!—There, do not cry—let me see your beautiful brown eyes. - I ’ll kiss the tears away. Tears are for my eyes not yours!” - </p> - <p> - “Then you will fix the day, dear?” he softly urged. - </p> - <p> - “How soon would you like it?” - </p> - <p> - “The sooner the better.” - </p> - <p> - “Then I fix to-day,” she said impulsively. - </p> - <p> - “What, here, in this jail?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, where you are is heaven to me. I haven’t noticed the jail,” she said - soberly. - </p> - <p> - He looked at her a moment, strained her to his heart and brushed the tears - of joy from his eyes. - </p> - <p> - “My beautiful queen! This hour is worth every pain and every throb of - anguish I have suffered. Its memory will encompass life with a great - light.” - </p> - <p> - “I ’ll go with Stella, see Dr. Durham who is here looking after - your case, have him get the license, and we will be back in half an hour!” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher greeted her with delight. “Ah! Miss Sallie, if I had known a - little thing like this would have brought you back, I would have hired a - jail for him long ago, and put him in it.” - </p> - <p> - “Doctor, I want you to get the license and marry us now, will you do it?” - </p> - <p> - “Will I? Just watch me. I ’ll have the documents and be ready for - the ceremony in fifteen minutes!” cried the preacher as he hurried to the - office of the Register of Deeds. - </p> - <p> - Sallie ran up to Mrs. Durham’s room, told her, and asked her to be one of - the witnesses. - </p> - <p> - “Of course, I will, Sallie. You are the one girl in the world I have - always wanted Charlie to marry.” - </p> - <p> - Sallie slipped her arm around Mrs. Durham. “You don’t think I am doing - wrong to disobey my parents thus, do you?” she faltered. “I feel just for - a moment, now that I have decided, bruised and homesick,—I want my - mother. Let me feel your arms about my neck just once. You are a woman. - You love me as well as Charlie, tell me, am I doing wrong?” - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Durham kissed her. “I do love you child. It is a solemn hour for your - soul. You alone can decide such a question. Any intrusion of advice in - such a trial would be a sacrilege. Under ordinary conditions it would be a - dangerous thing for a girl thus to leave her father’s roof and take this - step that will decide forever her destiny. Marriage is something that - swallows up life, the past, the present, the future. We seem to have never - known anything else. I can only say, if I were in your place, knowing all - I would do as you are doing.” - </p> - <p> - Sallie impulsively kissed her, bit her lips to keep back a tear, and held - her hand. - </p> - <p> - “I know your father well,” she continued. “He is a man I greatly admire. - But he is unreasonable with any one who dares to cross his will. You could - never get his consent now that his pride is aroused except by forcing it. - When it is over, he will forgive you, and when he knows your lover as I - know him, he will be as proud of his son-in-law as a peacock of his - plumage.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh, it is so sweet to hear just the advice one wishes in such an hour,” - cried Sallie. “I shall always love you for these words.” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I congratulate you on the end of your long hesitation. I know you - will be happy. Any woman would be happy with the love of such a man, and - he was made for you.” - </p> - <p> - “Then you don’t believe with Papa,” she said with a smile, “that his mouth - is cruel, and that he will try to whip me in five years, do you?” - </p> - <p> - Mrs. Durham laughed. “Yes, he will whip you, but they will be love licks - and you will cry for more. Your lover is a rare and brilliant man. He is - strong, rugged, resistless in will, fierce in his passions from the blood - of sunny France in his veins, and masterful in life from the iron heritage - of the hardier races. You have seen these traits. Wait until you know him - as I do in his daily life, and you will find a wealth of patience and a - depth of tenderness that will startle. I envy you.” - </p> - <p> - “Thank you,” Sallie interrupted. “You don’t know how glad your words are - to my heart. I’ve not seen much of that trait yet. I’ve been half afraid - of him sometimes. Let me kiss you again.” - </p> - <p> - The keeper of the jail treated Gaston with every consideration and - arranged for the marriage to take place in the little sitting room where - he allowed him to come on parole. - </p> - <p> - The bride wore a plain travelling dress in which she had come from New - York. She had driven from the depot past Stella Holt’s home, and with her - straight to the jail. - </p> - <p> - Gaston thought her the fairest vision that ever greeted the eye of man as - he stood by her side; for he had seen that day the soul of a radiantly - beautiful woman in the splendour of shameless love. His own soul was drunk - with the joy of it all and his eyes now devoured her with their intense - light. - </p> - <p> - Standing there before the Preacher whom he loved as his father, and the - foster mother who had wrapped his little shivering body in the warmth of a - great heart that night the light of life went out in his own mother’s - room, with Stella Holt’s sympathetic face reflecting her friend’s - happiness, the marriage ceremony was performed. He took Sallie’s trembling - hand in his and promised to love, honour and cherish her as long as life - endured. And under his breath he added, “Here and hereafter—forever.” - And then she looked into his smiling face with her blue eyes full of - unspeakable love, and in a voice low and soft as the note of a flute, gave - to him her life. - </p> - <p> - And the Preacher said, “What God hath joined together, let not man put - asunder!” - </p> - <p> - She stayed there with him until the gathering twilight. - </p> - <p> - “Now, I must hurry back to my father and win him. I will not come to you a - beggar. My father shall not disinherit me. I am going to bring you my - fortune, too.” - </p> - <p> - “Oh! curse that fortune, dear! I’ve feared it was that keeping us apart so - long.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t curse it. I like it, and I am going to win it for you. You are a - man of genius. Your success is as sure as if it were already won. I will - not come to you a helpless pauper. I have never been taught to do - anything. I should like to cook for you if I knew how, and I am going to - learn how. I am going to make you the most beautiful home that the heart - of a woman can dream I’d rob the world for treasure for it. I am going to - rob my dear old father. He has sworn to disinherit me if I marry without - his consent. He shall not do it.” - </p> - <p> - “Then, don’t be long about it. You are my treasure. I can build you a snug - little nest at Hambright.” - </p> - <p> - “I will only ask four weeks. Now do what I tell you. Sit down and write - Papa a letter telling him I am your affianced bride and ask his consent to - the celebration of our marriage within three weeks. That will produce an - earthquake, and something will surely happen within four weeks.” - </p> - <p> - He wrote the letter, and she looked over his shoulder. “You see, dear,” - she said as she kissed him good-bye, “I love Papa so tenderly. You can’t - understand how close the tie is between us, perhaps some day in our own - home of which I’m dreaming you may understand as you can not now,” she - added softly. - </p> - <p> - “Then for your sake, dearest, I hope you can win him. But I’m afraid of - this plan of yours.” - </p> - <p> - “Leave it with me for a month, do just as I tell you, and then I ’ll - obey you all the rest of our lives,—if your orders suit me,” she - playfully added. - </p> - <p> - She returned to Stella Holt’s, and Gaston went back to his jail room and - dreamed that night he was sleeping in the Governor’s Palace. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0059" id="link2HCH0059"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XIII—A SPEECH THAT MADE HISTORY - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN General Worth - received Gaston’s brief and startling letter, the wires were hot between - New York and Asheville for hours. His last message was a peremptory - command to his daughter to join him immediately at Independence. - </p> - <p> - When Sallie arrived at Oakwood the General was already there, and the - storm broke in all its fury. At every bitter word she only quietly smiled, - until the General was on the verge of collapse. Day after day he begged, - pleaded, raged and finally took to hard swearing as he looked into her - calm happy face. - </p> - <p> - In the meantime McLeod and his henchman on the judge’s bench had seen a - new light. The excitement over the arrest of Gaston seemed to have fanned - the flames of the Red Shirt movement into a conflagration. He was alarmed - at its meaning. The judge heard a rumour that five thousand Red Shirts - were mobilising at the foot of the Blue Ridge near Hambright, and that - they were going to march across the mountains, into Asheville, demolish - the jail, liberate Gaston, and hang the judge who had committed him - without bail. - </p> - <p> - The rumour was a fake, but he was not taking any chances. He issued an - order releasing Gaston on his own recognisance, and left for a vacation. - </p> - <p> - Gaston returned to Hambright showered with congratulatory telegrams from - every quarter of the state. - </p> - <p> - He received a brief note from Sallie saying the war was on but had not - reached its final climax, as the General was now devoting his best - energies to the Democratic convention which was to meet in ten days, when - he expected to crush any “fool movement of young upstarts!” - </p> - <p> - Gaston knew of his organisation but he was sure the number of delegates - pledged to the General’s machine was not enough to dominate the body, even - if he could hold them in line. - </p> - <p> - When this convention met at Raleigh, no body of representative men were - ever more completely at sea as to the platform or policy upon which they - would appeal to the people for the overthrow of an enemy. The coalition - that conquered the state and held it with the grip of steel for four years - was stronger than ever and was absolutely certain of victory. The enormous - patronage of the Federal Government had been in their hands for four - years, and with the state, county and municipal officers, a host of - powerful leaders had been gathered around McLeod’s daring personality. - Apparently he was about to fasten the rule of the Negro and his allies on - the state for a generation. - </p> - <p> - When Gaston entered the convention hall he received an ovation, heartfelt - and generous, but it did not reach the point of a disturbing element in - the calculations of the three or four prominent candidates for Governor. - General Worth had drilled his cohorts so thoroughly in opposition to him, - that any sort of stampeding was out of the question. - </p> - <p> - The platform committee was composed of seven leaders, among whom was - Gaston. There was a long wrangle over the document, and at length when - they reported, a sensation was created. For the first time since their - triumph over Simon Legree the committee was divided, and, refusing to - agree, submitted majority and minority reports. The committee stood five - for the majority and two for the minority. - </p> - <p> - Gaston and a daring young politician from the heart of the Black Belt - signed the minority report. The majority report as submitted, was merely a - rehash of the old platform on which they had been defeated by McLeod - twice, with slight additional impeachment of the incapacity and corruption - of the State Administration. The delegates from the Black Belt and the - counties where the Red Shirts had been holding their noonday parades - received it with silence. General Worth’s machine cheered it vigourously, - and gave a rousing reception to their chosen champion who made the - presentation speech. - </p> - <p> - When Gaston rose to offer and defend his minority report, a sudden hush - fell on the sea of eager faces. A few men in the convention had heard him - speak. All had heard he was an orator of power, and were anxious to see - him. His leadership in the Revolution of Independence and his subsequent - arrest and imprisonment had made him a famous man. - </p> - <p> - “Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention,” he began with a deliberate - clear voice which spoke of greater reserve power than the words he uttered - conveyed—“I move to substitute for this document of meaningless - platitudes the following resolution on which to make this campaign.” - </p> - <p> - You could have heard a pin fall, as in ringing tones like the call of a - bugle to battle he read, “Whereas, it is impossible to build a state - inside a state of two antagonistic races, And whereas, the future North - Carolinian must therefore be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto, Resolved, that - the hour has now come in our history to eliminate the Negro from our life - and reëstablish for all time the government of our fathers.” - </p> - <p> - The delegates from New Hanover, Craven, and Halifax counties, the great - centres of the Black Belt, sprang on their seats with a roar of applause - that shook the building, and pandemonium broke loose. When one great wave - subsided another followed. It was ten minutes before order was restored - while Gaston stood calmly surveying the storm. - </p> - <p> - Just before him sat General Worth, pale and trembling with excitement. The - audacity of those resolutions had swept him for a moment off his feet and - back into the years of his own daring young manhood. He could not help - admiring this challenge of the modern world to stand at the bar of - elemental manhood and make good its right to existence. He was about to - summon his messengers and rally his lieutenants when Gaston began to - speak, and his first words chained his attention. - </p> - <p> - While the tumult raised by his resolutions was in progress he lifted his - eye toward the gallery and there just above him where it curved toward the - platform sat his beautiful secret bride. His heart leaped. Her face was - aflame with emotion, her eyes flashing with love and pride. She slyly - touched with her lips the tip of her finger and blew a kiss across the - intervening space. He smiled into her soul a look of gratitude, and with - every nerve strung to its highest tension resumed his place by the - speaker’s stand. When the tumult died away he began a speech that fixed - the history of a state for a thousand years. - </p> - <p> - His resolutions had wrought the crowd to the highest pitch of excitement, - and his words, clear, penetrating, and deliberate thrilled his hearers - with electrical power. - </p> - <p> - “Gentlemen,” he said, and the slightest whisper was hushed. “The history - of man is a series of great pulse beats, whose flood overwhelms his future - and fixes its life. Like the dammed torrent on a mountain side, it breaks - the conservatism that holds it stagnant for generations and floods the - world with its sweep. Theories, creeds, and institutions hallowed by age, - are cast as rubbish on the scarred hills that mark its course. The old - world is buried and a new one appears. - </p> - <p> - “The Anglo-Saxon is entering the new century with the imperial crown of - the ages on his brow and the sceptre of the infinite in his hands. - </p> - <p> - “The Old South fought against the stars in their courses—the - resistless tide of the rising consciousness of Nationality and - World-Mission. The young South greets the new era and glories in its - manhood. He joins his voice in the cheers of triumph which are ushering in - this all-conquering Saxon. Our old men dreamed of local supremacy. We - dream of the conquest of the globe. Threads of steel have knit state to - state. Steam and electricity have silently transformed the face of the - earth, annihilated time and space, and swept the ocean barriers from the - path of man. The black steam shuttles of commerce have woven continent to - continent. - </p> - <p> - “We believe that God has raised up our race, as he ordained Israel of old, - in this world-crisis to establish and maintain for weaker races, as a - trust for civilisation, the principles of civil and religious Liberty and - the forms of Constitutional Government. - </p> - <p> - “In this hour of crisis, our flag has been raised over ten millions of - semi-barbaric black men in the foulest slave pen of the Orient. Shall we - repeat the farce of ‘67, reverse the order of nature, and make these black - people our rulers? If not, why should the African here, who is not their - equal, be allowed to imperil our life?” - </p> - <p> - A whirlwind of applause shook the building. - </p> - <p> - “A crisis approaches in the history of the human race. The world is - stirred by its consciousness today. The nation must gird up her loins and - show her right to live,—to master the future or be mastered in the - struggle. New questions press upon us for solution. - </p> - <p> - “Shall this grand old commonwealth lag behind and sink into the filth and - degradation of a Negroid corruption in this solemn hour of the world?” - </p> - <p> - “No! No!” screamed a thousand voices. - </p> - <p> - “What is our condition to-day in the dawn of the twentieth century? If we - attempt to move forward we are literally chained to the body of a - festering Black Death! - </p> - <p> - “Fifty of our great counties are again under the heel of the Negro, and - the state is in his clutches. Our city governments are debauched by his - vote. His insolence threatens our womanhood, and our children are beaten - by negro toughs on the way to school while we pay his taxes. Shall we - longer tolerate negro inspectors of white schools, and negroes in charge - of white institutions? Shall we longer tolerate the arrest of white women - by negro officers and their trial before negro magistrates? - </p> - <p> - “Let the manhood of the Aryan race with its four thousand years of - authentic history answer that question!” - </p> - <p> - With blazing eyes, and voice that rang with the deep peal of defiant - power, Gaston hurled that sentence like a thunder bolt into the souls of - his two thousand hearers. The surging host sprang to their feet and - shouted back an answer that made the earth tremble! - </p> - <p> - Lifting his hand for silence he continued, “It is no longer a question of - bad government. It is a question of impossible government. We lag behind - the age dragging the decaying corpse to which we are chained. - </p> - <p> - “Who shall deliver us from the body of this death? - </p> - <p> - “Hear me, men of my race, Norman and Celt, Angle and Saxon, Dane and - Frank, Huguenot and German martyr blood! - </p> - <p> - “The hour has struck when we must rise in our might, break the chains that - bind us to this corruption, strike down the Negro as a ruling power, and - restore to our children their birthright, which we received, a priceless - legacy, from our fathers. - </p> - <p> - “I believe in God’s call to our race to do His work in history. What other - races failed to do, you wrought in this continental wilderness, fighting - pestilence, hunger, cold, wild beasts, and savage hordes, until out of it - all has grown the mightiest nation of the earth. - </p> - <p> - “Is the Negro worthy to rule over you? - </p> - <p> - “Ask history. The African has held one fourth of this globe for 3000 - years. He has never taken one step in progress or rescued one jungle from - the ape and the adder, except as the slave of a superior race. - </p> - <p> - “In Hayti and San Domingo he rose in servile insurrection and butchered - fifty thousand white men, women and children a hundred years ago. He has - ruled these beautiful islands since. Did he make progress with the example - of Aryan civilisation before him? No. But yesterday we received reports of - the discovery of cannibalism in Hayti. - </p> - <p> - “He has had one hundred years of trial in the Northern states of this - Union with every facility of culture and progress, and he has not produced - one man who has added a feather’s weight to the progress of humanity. In - an hour of madness the dominion of the ten great states of the South was - given him without a struggle. A saturnalia of infamy followed. - </p> - <p> - “Shall we return to this? You must answer. The corruption of his presence - in our body politic is beyond the power of reckoning. We drove the - Carpet-bagger from our midst, but the Scalawag, our native product, is - always with us to fatten on this corruption and breed death to society. - The Carpet-bagger was a wolf, the Scalawag is a hyena. The one was a - highwayman, the other a sneak. - </p> - <p> - “So long as the Negro is a factor in our political life, will violence and - corruption stain our history. We can not afford longer to play with - violence. We must remove the cause. - </p> - <p> - “Suffrage in America has touched the lowest tide-mud of degradation. If - our cities and our Southern civilisation are to be preserved, there must - be a return to the sanity of the founders of this Republic. - </p> - <p> - “A government of the wealth, virtue and intelligence of the community, by - the debased and the criminal, is a relapse to elemental barbarism to which - no race of freemen can submit. - </p> - <p> - “Shall the future North Carolinian be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto? That is - the question before you. - </p> - <p> - “Nations are made by men, not by paper constitutions and paper ballots. We - are not free because we have a Constitution. We have a Constitution - because our pioneer fathers who cleared the wilderness and dared the might - of kings, were freemen. It was in their blood, the tutelage of generation - on generation beyond the seas, the evolution of centuries of struggle and - sacrifice. - </p> - <p> - “If you can make men out of paper, then it is possible with a scratch of a - pen in the hand of a madman to transform by its magic a million slaves - into a million kings. - </p> - <p> - “We grant the Negro the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of - happiness if he can be happy without exercising kingship over the - Anglo-Saxon race, or dragging us down to his level. But if he can not find - happiness except in lording it over a superior race, let him look for - another world in which to rule. There is not room for both of us on this - continent!” - </p> - <p> - Again and again Gaston raised his hand to still the mad tumult of applause - his words evoked. - </p> - <p> - “And we will fight it out on this line, if it takes a hundred years, two - hundred, five hundred, or a thousand. It took Spain eight hundred years to - expel the Moors. When the time comes the Anglo-Saxon can do in one century - what the Spaniard did in eight. - </p> - <p> - “We have been congratulated on our self-restraint under the awful - provocation of the past four years. There is a limit beyond which we dare - not go, for at this point, self-restraint becomes pusillanimous and means - the loss of manhood.” - </p> - <p> - He then reviewed with thrilling power the history of the state and the - proud part played in the development of the Republic. He showed how this - border wilderness of North Carolina became the cradle of American - Democracy and the typical commonwealth of freemen. - </p> - <p> - He played with the heart-strings of his hearers in this close personal - history as a great master touches the strings of a harp. His voice was now - low and quivering with the music of passion, and then soft and caressing. - He would swing them from laughter to tears in a single sentence, and in - the next, the lightning flash of a fierce invective drove into their - hearts its keen blade so suddenly the vast crowd started as one man and - winced at its power. - </p> - <p> - Through it all he was conscious of two blue eyes swimming in tears looking - down on him from the gallery. - </p> - <p> - The crowd now had grown so entranced, and the torrent of his speech so - rapid they forgot to cheer and feared to cheer lest they should lose a - word of the next sentence. They hung breathless on every flash of feeling - from his face or eloquent gesture. - </p> - <p> - “I am not talking of a vague theory of constructive dominion,” he - continued, “when I refer to the Negro supremacy under which our - civilisation is being degraded. I use words in their plain meaning. Negro - supremacy means the rule of a party in which negroes predominate and that - means a Negro oligarchy. - </p> - <p> - “I call your attention to one typical county of over forty thus degraded, - the county of Craven, whose quaint old city was once the Capital of this - commonwealth. What are the facts? The negro office-holders of Craven - county include a Congressman, a member of the Legislature, a Register of - Deeds, the City Attorney, the Coroner, two Deputy Sheriffs, two County - Commissioners, a Member of the School Board, three Road Overseers, four - Constables, twenty-seven Magistrates, three City Aldermen and four - Policemen. There are sixty-two negro officials in this county of 12,000 - inhabitants, and their member of the Legislature is a convicted felon. The - white people represent ninety-five per cent of the wealth and intelligence - of the community, and pay ninety-five per cent of its taxes and are - voiceless in its government. - </p> - <p> - “Would a county in Massachusetts submit to such infamy? No, ten thousand - times, no! There is not a county in the North from Maine to California - that would submit to it twenty-four hours. Will the children of Lexington, - Concord and Bunker Hill demand such submission from the children of - Washington and Jefferson? No. The passions that obscured reason have - subsided. The Anglo-Saxon race is united and has entered upon its world - mission. - </p> - <p> - “We will take from an unprofitable servant the ballot he has abused. To - him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken - away even that which he hath. It is the law of nature. It is the law of - God. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, I confess it,” he continued, “I am in a sense narrow and provincial. - I love mine own people. Their past is mine, their present mine, their - future is a divine trust. I hate the dish water of modern - world-citizenship. A shallow cosmopolitanism is the mask of death for the - individual. It is the froth of civilisation, as crime is its dregs. Race, - and race pride, are the ordinances of life. The true citizen of the world - loves his country. His country is a part of God’s world. - </p> - <p> - “So I confess I love my people. I love the South,—the stolid silent - South, that for a generation has sneered at paper-made policies, and - scorned public opinion. The South, old-fashioned, mediaeval, provincial, - worshipping the dead, and raising men rather than making money, family - loving, home building, tradition ridden. The South, cruel and cunning when - fighting a treacherous foe, with brief volcanic bursts of wrath and - vengeance. The South, eloquent, bombastic, romantic, chivalrous, lustful, - proud, kind and hospitable. The South with her beautiful women and brave - men. The South, generous and reckless, never knowing her own interest, but - living her own life in her own way!—Yes, I love her! In my soul are - all her sins and virtues. And with it all she is worthy to live. - </p> - <p> - “The historian tells us that all things pass in time. Wolves whelp and - stable in the palaces of dead kings and forgotten civilisations. Memphis, - Thebes and Babylon are but names to-day. So New Orleans and New York may - perish. African antiquarians may explore their ruins and speculate upon - their life; but we may safely fix upon a thousand centuries of intervening - time. On your shoulders now rests the burden of civilisation. We must face - its responsibilities. For my part, I believe in your future. - </p> - <p> - “The courage of the Celt, the nobility of the Norman, the vigour of the - Viking, the energy of the Angle, the tenacity of the Saxon, the daring of - the Dane, the gallantry of the Gaul, the freedom of the Frank, the - earth-hunger of the Roman and the stoicism of the Spartan are all yours by - the lineal heritage of blood, from sire and dame through hundreds of - generations and through centuries of culture. - </p> - <p> - “Will you halt now and surrender to a mob of ragged negroes led by white - cowards who at the first clash of conflict will hide in sewers? - </p> - <p> - “I ask you, my people, freemen, North Carolinians, to rise to-day and make - good your right to live! The time for platitudes is past. Let us as men - face the world and say what we mean. - </p> - <p> - “This is a white man’s government, conceived by white men, and maintained - by white men through every year of its history,—and by the God of - our Fathers it shall be ruled by white men until the Arch-angel shall call - the end of time! - </p> - <p> - “If this be treason, let them that hear it make the most of it. - </p> - <p> - “From the eighth day of November we will not submit to Negro dominion - another day, another hour, another moment! Back of every ballot is a - bayonet, and the red blood of the man who holds it. Let cowards hear, and - remember this! Man has never yet voted away his right to a revolution. - </p> - <p> - “Citizen kings, I call you to the consciousness of your kingship!” - </p> - <p> - Gaston closed and turned toward his seat, while the crowd hung breathless - waiting for his next word. When they realised that he had finished, a - rumble like the crash in midheaven of two storms rolled over the surging - sea of men, broke against the girders of the roof like the thunder of the - Hatteras surf lashed by a hurricane. Two thousand men went mad. With one - common impulse they sprang to their feet, screaming, shouting, cheering, - shaking each other’s hands, crying and laughing. With the sullen roar of - crashing thunder another whirlwind of cheers swept the crowd, shook the - earth, and pierced the sky with its challenge. Wave after wave of applause - swept the building and flung their rumbling echoes among the stars. These - patient kindly people, slow to anger, now terrible in wrath, were - trembling with the pent-up passion and fury of years. - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0008.jpg" alt="0008 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0008.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - What power could resist their wrath! - </p> - <p> - Through it all Gaston sat silent behind the group of the majority of the - platform committee, with eyes devouring a beautiful face bending toward - him from the gallery. She was softly weeping with love and pride too deep - for words. - </p> - <p> - While the tumult was still raging, before he was conscious of his - presence, General Worth’s stalwart figure was bending over him, and - grasping his hand. - </p> - <p> - “My boy, I give it up. You have beaten me. I’m proud of you. I forgive - everything for that speech. You can have my girl. The date you’ve fixed - for the marriage suits me. Let us forget the past.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston pressed his hand muttering brokenly his thanks, and his soul sank - within him at the thought of this proud old iron-willed warrior’s anger if - he discovered their secret marriage. - </p> - <p> - The General turned toward the side of the platform; for he had seen the - flash of Sallie’s dress on the stairs of the balcony leading to the stage. - He knew her keen eye had seen his surrender and his heart was hungry for - the kiss of reconciliation that would restore their old perfect love. - </p> - <p> - He met her at the foot of the stairs and she threw her arms impulsively - around his neck. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Papa, dear! I am the happiest girl in the world. The two men of all - men—the only two I love—are mine forever!” - </p> - <p> - While the applause was still echoing and reëchoing over the sea of surging - men, and thousands of excited people were crowding the windows from the - outside and blocking the streets in every direction clamouring for - admittance, a tall man with grey beard and stentorian voice, sprang on the - platform. It was General Worth’s candidate for Governor. He had not - consulted the General but he had an important motion to make. The crowd - was stilled at last and his deep voice rang through the building, - “Gentlemen, I move that the minority report offered by Charles Gaston”—again - a thunder peal of applause—“be adopted as the platform by - acclamation!” - </p> - <p> - A storm of “ayes” burst from the throats of the delegates in a single - breath like the crash of an explosion of dynamite. - </p> - <p> - “And now that our eyes have seen the glory of the Lord, as we heard His - messenger anointed to lead His people, I move that this convention - nominate by acclamation for Governor—<i>Charles Gaston!</i>” - </p> - <p> - Again two thousand men were on their feet shouting, cheering, shaking - hands, hugging one another and weeping and yelling like maniacs. - </p> - <p> - A speech had been made that changed the current of history, and fixed the - status of life for millions of people. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0060" id="link2HCH0060"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XIV—THE RED SHIRTS - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>S soon as Gaston - could leave the throngs of friends who were congratulating him on his - remarkable speech and his certainty of election, he hastened to find - Sallie. - </p> - <p> - “My lover, my king!” she cried impulsively as he clasped her in his arms. - </p> - <p> - “Your eyes kindled the fire in my soul and gave me the power to mould that - crowd to my will!” he softly told her. - </p> - <p> - “It is sweet to hear you say that!” - </p> - <p> - “‘Now, my love, we are in an awful situation. What are we to do with the - General storming around preparing for a grand wedding? What if that jailer - gives out the news? McLeod can get it out of him if he ever suspects - anything.” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t worry, dear. I ’ll manage everything. We’ve fixed the - wedding on the Inauguration day—so you can’t be defeated. We will be - busy day and night getting ready my trousseau, and issuing our - invitations. Papa will never dream that one ceremony has been performed - already. He need never know it until we are ready to tell him.” - </p> - <p> - “If he discovers it, he will swear I have tried to humiliate him, and he - will never forgive it. Telegraph me if anything happens, and I will come - immediately. I can’t see you for weeks in the campaign, but I will write - to you every day.” - </p> - <p> - “His Excellency, the Governor of North Carolina!” she softly exclaimed - with a dreamy look into his face. “My lover!” - </p> - <p> - “Don’t make me vain. I may be the Governor, but I shall always be the - slave of a beautiful woman who came one day to a jail and made it a palace - with the glory of her love!” - </p> - <p> - “I’m glad I didn’t wait for your success.” - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <p> - The campaign which followed was the most remarkable ever conducted in the - history of an American commonwealth. In the dawn of the twentieth century, - a resistless movement was inaugurated to destroy the party in control of a - state, and affiliated with the most powerful National Administration since - Andrew Jackson’s, on the open declaration of their intention to nullify - the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the - Republic. - </p> - <p> - There was no violence except the calm demonstration in open daylight of - omnipotent racial power, and the defiance of any foe to lift a hand in - protest. - </p> - <p> - When Gaston spoke at Independence, five thousand white men dressed in - scarlet shirts rode silently through the streets in solemn parade, and six - thousand negroes watched them with fear. There was no cheering or - demonstration of any kind. The silence of the procession gave it the - import of a religious rite. A thousand picked men were in line from - Hambright and Campbell county and they formed the guard of honour for - their candidate for Governor. - </p> - <p> - Like scenes were enacted everywhere. Again the Anglo-Saxon race was fused - into a solid mass. The result was a foregone conclusion. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0061" id="link2HCH0061"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XV—THE HIGHER LAW - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>cLEOD knew from - the day of that outburst which followed Gaston’s speech in the Democratic - convention that no power on earth could save his ticket. To the world he - put on a bold face and made his fight to the last ditch, predicting - victory. - </p> - <p> - His secret anger against the Preacher and Gaston, his pet, knew no bounds. - Chagrined at his repulse by Mrs. Durham and the attitude of contempt she - had maintained toward him, his tongue began to wag her name in slander to - the crowd of young satellites loafing around his office in Hambright. - </p> - <p> - “Yes, boys,” he said, “the Preacher is a great man, but his wife is - greater. She’s the handsomest woman in the state in spite of a grey thread - or two in her rich chestnut hair. She has the most beautiful mouth that - ever tempted the soul of a man—and boys, my lips know what it means - to touch it.” - </p> - <p> - And when they stared with open eyes at this statement, McLeod shook his - head, laughed and whispered, “Say nothing about it—but facts are - facts!” - </p> - <p> - McLeod chuckled over the certainty of the shame and suffering that would - wring the Preacher’s heart when dirty gossips of a village had magnified - these words into a complete drama of scandal. For all preachers McLeod had - profound contempt, and he felt secure now from personal harm. - </p> - <p> - The day the Preacher first heard of these rumours was the occasion of - Gaston’s campaign address under the old oak in the square. He had looked - forward to this day with boyish pride mingled with a great fatherly love. - It would be his triumph. He had stirred this boy’s imagination and moulded - his character in the pliant hours of his childhood. He had told himself - that day he spent with him in the woods fishing, that he had kindled a - fire in his soul that would not go out till it blazed on the altar of a - redeemed country. And he was living to see that day. - </p> - <p> - The streets and square were thronged with such a multitude as the village - had never seen since it was built. But the Preacher was not among them at - the hour the speaking began. - </p> - <p> - A simple old friend from the country asked him about these rumours. He - turned pale as death, made no answer, and walked rapidly toward his study - in the church where his library was now arranged. He was dazed with - horror. It was the first he had heard of it. One thing in his estimate of - life had always been as securely fixed and sheltered in his thought as his - faith in God, and that was his love for his wife, and his perfect faith in - her honour. - </p> - <p> - He closed his door and locked it and sat down trying to think. - </p> - <p> - Had he not grown careless in the certainty of his wife’s devotion, and his - own quiet but intense love? Had he not forgotten the yearning of a woman’s - heart for the eternal repetition of love’s language of sign and word? - </p> - <p> - The tears were in his eyes now, and he felt that his heart would beat to - death and break within him! - </p> - <p> - He saw that his enemy had struck at his weakest spot, and struck to kill. - </p> - <p> - He lifted his face toward the walls in a vague unseeing look and his eyes - rested on a pair of crossed swords over a bookcase. They had been handed - down to him from a long line of fighting ancestors. He arose, took them - down mechanically, and drew one from its scabbard. How snugly its rough - hilt fitted his nervous hand grip! He felt a curious throbbing in this - hilt like a pulse, it was alive, and its spirit stirred deep waters in his - soul that had never been ruffled before. - </p> - <p> - He recalled vaguely in memory things he knew had never happened to him and - yet were part of his inmost life. - </p> - <p> - “Damn him!” he involuntarily hissed as he gripped the sword hilt with the - instinctive power of the fighting animal that sleeps beneath the skin of - all our culture and religion. - </p> - <p> - And then his eyes rested on a quaint little daguerreotype picture of his - wife in her bridal dress, her sweet girlish face full of innocent pride - and warm with his love. By its side he saw the portrait of their dead boy. - How he recalled now every hour of that wonderful period preceding his - birth—the unspeakable pride and tenderness with which he watched - over his young wife! He recalled the morning of his birth, and the heart - rending, piteous cries of young motherhood that tore his heart until the - nails of his own fingers cut the flesh and drew the blood. How the minutes - seemed long hours, and how at last he bent over her, softly kissed the - drawn white lips, and gazed with tearful wonder and awe on the little red - bundle resting on her breast! He recalled the tremor of weariness in her - voice when she drew his head down close and whispered, “I didn’t mind the - pain, John, though I couldn’t help the cries. He’s yours and mine—I - am as proud as a queen. Now our souls are one in him—I am tired—I - must sleep.” - </p> - <p> - Every movement of his past life seemed to stand out in this crisis with - fiery clearness. He seemed to live in an instant whole years in every - detail of that closeness of personal life that makes marriage a part of - every stroke of the heart. - </p> - <p> - At last he set his lips firmly and said, “Yes, damn him, I will kill him - as I would a snake!” He sat down and wrote his resignation as pastor of - the church, left it on his desk, and strode hurriedly from the study - leaving his door open. He purchased a revolver and a box of cartridges and - walked straight to McLeod’s office. - </p> - <p> - The speaking was over, and McLeod was alone writing letters. He looked up - with scant politeness as the Preacher entered and motioned him to a seat. - </p> - <p> - Instead of seating himself, he closed the door, and standing erect in - front of it, said, “Allan McLeod, you are the author of an infamous - slander reflecting on the honour of my wife!” - </p> - <p> - “Indeed!” McLeod sneered, wheeling in his chair. - </p> - <p> - “I always knew that you were a moral leper”— - </p> - <p> - “Of course, Doctor, of course, but don’t get excited,” laughed McLeod - enjoying the marks of anguish on his face. - </p> - <p> - “But that your lecherous body should dream of invading the sanctity of my - home, and your tongue attempt to smirch its honour, was beyond my wildest - dream of your effrontery. How dare you?”— - </p> - <p> - “Dare? Dare, Preacher?” interrupted McLeod still sneering. “Why, by ‘The - Higher Law,’ of course. You have been teaching all your life that there - are higher laws than paper-made statutes. You have trained this county in - crime under this beautiful ideal. Surely I may follow the teachings of a - master in Israel?” - </p> - <p> - “What do you mean, you red-headed devil?” - </p> - <p> - “Softly, Preacher,” smiled McLeod. “Simply this. You expound ‘The Higher - Law,’ for political consumption. I apply it to all life. - </p> - <p> - “There are but two real laws of man’s nature, hunger and love—all - others change with time and progress. These are the higher laws, in fact - they are the highest laws. The stupid conventions that superstition has - built around them may hold back the weak, but the powerful have always - defied them. Your brilliant exposition of the higher law in politics first - set my mind to work, and led me to a complete emancipation from the - slavery of conventionalism in which fools have held society for centuries. - There are conventional laws and superstitions about the little ceremony - called marriage cherished by the weak-minded. There is a higher law of - nature. The brave live this life of daring freedom, while cowards cling to - forms. Do I make myself clear?” - </p> - <p> - “Perfectly so, you mottled leper. You think that because I am a preacher, - I am a poltroon, and that you can play with me without danger to your - skin. Well, I was a man before I was a preacher. There are some things - deeper than the forms of religion, if you wish to push the higher law to - its last application. You have found that quick in my soul, mine enemy! I - have resigned my church—to kill you. There is not room for you and - me on this earth”— - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010"> </a> - </p> - <div class="fig" style="width:50%;"> - <img src="images/0484.jpg" alt="0484 " width="100%" /><br /> - </div> - <h5> - <a href="images/0484.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a> - </h5> - <p> - McLeod sprang to his feet, his soul chilled by the tone in which the - threat was uttered. He started to call for help, and looked down the - gleaming barrel of a revolver. - </p> - <p> - “Move now or open your mouth, and I kill you instantly. Sit down. I give - you five minutes to write your last message to this world.” - </p> - <p> - McLeod sank into his seat trembling like a leaf, with the perspiration - standing out on his forehead in cold beads. Now and then he glanced - furtively at the stem face of blind fury towering over his crouching form. - </p> - <p> - Unable to endure the terrible strain, he sank to the floor whining, - slobbering, begging in abject cowardice for his life. He crawled toward - the Preacher, reached out his hand and touched his foot. - </p> - <p> - “My God, Doctor, you are mad. You will not commit murder. You are a - minister of Jesus Christ. Have mercy. I am at your feet. Your wife is as - pure as an angel. I only said what I did to torture you”— - </p> - <p> - “Get up you snake!” hissed the Preacher, stamping his body with all his - might until McLeod screamed with pain and scrambled to his feet cowering - and whining like a cur. - </p> - <p> - “Finish your letter. You will never leave this room alive.” - </p> - <p> - A long pitiful sob broke the stillness, and McLeod was looking into the - Preacher’s face in vain for a ray of hope. - </p> - <p> - Suddenly Gaston burst into the room trembling with excitement. “My God, - Doctor, what does this mean?” he cried seizing the revolver. - </p> - <p> - McLeod sprang toward Gaston, groaning and crawling toward his feet. “Save - me Gaston,—the Doctor’s gone mad—he is about to kill me!” - </p> - <p> - “Charlie, I must!” pleaded the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - “No, no, this is madness. I thank God I am in time. I missed you at the - speaking, and hearing a rumour of this slander I hurried to find you. I - saw your study open and read your letter. I knew I’d find you here. I ’ll - manage McLeod.” - </p> - <p> - The Preacher sat down crying. McLeod had crawled back to his desk and was - mopping his face. Gaston walked over to him and said with slow trembling - emphasis, “I give you twelve hours to close this office, wind up your - business, and leave. In the meantime you will write a denial of this - slander satisfactory to me for publication. If you ever open your mouth - again about my foster-mother or put your foot in this county, I will kill - you. I expect your letter ready in two hours.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston took the Preacher by the arm and led him down the stairs and back - to his study. In the reaction, there was a pitiable breakdown. - </p> - <p> - “Oh! Charlie, you’ve saved me from an unspeakable horror. Yes, I was mad. - I was proud and wilful. I thought I knew myself. To-day, I have looked - into the bottom of hell. I have seen the depths of my own heart. Yes, I - have in me the germs of all sin and crime. I am the brother of every - thief, of every murderer, of every scarlet woman of the streets, that ever - stood in the stocks, or climbed the steps of a gallows”— - </p> - <p> - “Hush, I will not listen to such talk. You are a man, that’s all,” - interrupted Gaston. - </p> - <p> - “But God’s mercy is great,” he went on. “I have tried to live for my - people and my country, not for myself. If I have failed to be a faithful - husband, this is my plea to God, I have not thought of myself, or of my - own, but of others.” - </p> - <p> - After an hour he was quiet, and turning to Gaston he said, “Charlie, go - tell your mother to come here, I want to see her.” - </p> - <p> - When she came, and sat down beside him with quiet dignity, she said, “Now - Doctor, say what you wish, Charlie has told me much, but not all. Let us - look into each other’s souls to-day.” - </p> - <p> - “I only want to ask you, dear,” he said tenderly, “just how far your - friendship for this villain may have led you. I know you are innocent of - any crime. I only want to know the measure of my own guilt.” - </p> - <p> - “You know, John,” she said, using his first name, as she had not for - years, “he has always interested me from a boy, and in the darkest hour of - my heart’s life, when I felt your love growing cold and slipping away from - me, and my faith in all things fading, he attempted to make vulgar love to - me. I repulsed him with scorn, and have since treated him with contempt. - You know that I kissed him once when he was a boy. I have told you all. - What do you propose to do?” - </p> - <p> - “What will I do, my darling?” he softly asked, taking her hand. “Begin - anew from this moment to love and cherish, honour and protect you unto - death. You are my wife. I took you a beautiful child, innocent of the - world. If you have failed in the least, I have failed. If you have - stumbled in the dark even in your thought, I will lift you up in my arms - and soothe you as a mother would her babe. If you should fall into the - bottomless pit, into the pit and down to the lowest depths of hell I would - go, and lift you in the arms of my love. To break the tie that binds us is - unthinkable. It has passed into the infinite. Not only are our souls one - in a little boy’s grave, but there is something so absorbing, so - interwoven with the hidden things of nature in our union that I defy all - the fiends in perdition to break it. Love is eternal. And your love for me - was the great fixed thing in my life like my faith in the living God!” - </p> - <p> - “Oh, John, you are breaking my heart now, when I think that I doubted your - love! I could have brooked your anger, but this overwhelms me!” - </p> - <p> - “It has always been my character,” he gravely said. - </p> - <p> - “Then I have never known you until now,”—and in a moment she was - sobbing on his breast, the years had rolled back, and they were in the - sweet springtime of life again. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0062" id="link2HCH0062"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XVI—THE END OF A MODERN VILLAIN - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>WO days after - McLeod’s flight from Hambright the press despatches flashed from New York - a startling two-column account of the attempted assassination of the Hon. - Allan McLeod, the Republican leader of North Carolina, in the terrific - campaign in progress, and that he was compelled to flee from the state to - save his life. - </p> - <p> - Gaston was elected Governor by the largest majority ever given a candidate - for that office in the history of North Carolina. - </p> - <p> - McLeod was promptly rewarded for his long career of villainy by an - appointment as our Ambassador to one of the Republics of South America, - and the Senate at once confirmed him. The salary attached to his office - was $15,000, and his dream of a life of ease and luxury had come at last. - </p> - <p> - For six months he had been quietly going to Boston paying the most ardent - court to Miss Susan Walker, whom he had met at her college at - Independence. She was a matured spinster now appproaching sixty years of - age, and worth $5,000 000 in her own name. - </p> - <p> - He had easy sailing from the first. He joined her church in Boston, after - a brilliant profession of religion that moved Miss Walker to tears, for he - had told her it was her love that had opened his eyes. And it was true. - McLeod timed his last visit to Boston so that he arrived the day the city - was ringing with the sensation of his attempted assassination, and the - desperate fight he was making to uphold law and order in the South. - </p> - <p> - When Miss Walker read that article in her paper she resolved to marry him - immediately. She gave McLeod a wedding present of a half million dollars. - He wept for joy and gratitude, and kissed her with a fervour that - satisfied her hungry heart that he was the one peerless lover of the - world. - </p> - <p> - <br /><br /> - </p> - <hr /> - <p> - <a name="link2HCH0063" id="link2HCH0063"> </a> - </p> - <div style="height: 4em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - <h2> - CHAPTER XVII—WEDDING BELLS IN THE GOVERNOR’S MANSION - </h2> - <p class="pfirst"> - <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>WO days after - McLeod and his bride reached Asheville on their wedding trip, General - Worth received a letter which threw him into a paroxysm of rage. Sallie’s - wedding had been fixed for the day of the inauguration of the Governor. - The invitations were out and society in a flutter of comment and gossip - over the romantic and brilliant career of young Gaston, and his luck in - winning power, love, and fortune in a day. - </p> - <p> - The letter was from McLeod, at Asheville, informing him that his daughter - was already married, and that Gaston was simply seeking his fortune by a - subterfuge, and showing his power over him by humiliating him at the last - moment before the world. He enclosed a transcript of the marriage record, - signed by the Rev. John Durham, and witnessed by Mrs. Durham and Stella - Holt. This record was certified before the Clerk of the Court and bore his - seal. There was no doubt whatever of the facts. - </p> - <p> - When the General handed this letter to Sallie she flushed, looked - wistfully into his face, saw its hard expression of speechless anger, - turned pale and burst into tears. - </p> - <p> - Her father without a word went to his room, and locked himself in for - twenty-four hours, refusing to see her or speak to her. - </p> - <p> - On the following day she forced her way into his presence, and they had - the last great battle of wills. All the iron power of his unconquered - pride, accustomed for a lifetime to command men and receive instant - obedience, was roused to the pitch of madness. - </p> - <p> - “If you marry him I swear to you a thousand times you shall never cross my - doorstep, and you shall never receive one penny of my fortune. He is a - gambler and an adventurer, and seeks to make me a laughing stock for the - world!” - </p> - <p> - “Papa, nothing could be further from his thoughts. He has always loved and - respected you. I assume all the responsibility for our secret marriage.” - </p> - <p> - “Then sharper than a serpent’s tooth is the ingratitude of a disobedient - child!” - </p> - <p> - “But, Papa, I waited five years of patient suffering trying to obey you,” - she protested. - </p> - <p> - “I had rather see you dead than to see you marry that man now, and have - him sneer his triumph in my face.” - </p> - <p> - “We are already married. Why talk like that?” she pleaded tearfully. - </p> - <p> - “I deny it. I am going to annul that marriage. Felony is ground for the - dissolution of the marriage tie. A ceremony performed under such - conditions, when one of the parties is in prison charged with felony - without bail, is illegal, and I ’ll show it. The lawyers will be - here in an hour and I will take action to-morrow.” - </p> - <p> - “Never, with my consent!” she firmly replied. She left the room, consulted - with her mother, and hastily despatched a telegram to Hambright summoning - Gaston to Independence immediately. - </p> - <p> - When this telegram came he was in his office hard at work on his inaugural - address, outlining the policy of his administration. He was in a heated - argument with the Preacher about the article on education, which followed - his recommendation of the disfranchisement of the Negro. - </p> - <p> - He had advised large appropriations for the industrial training of negroes - along the lines of the new movement of their more sober leaders. - </p> - <p> - “It’s a mistake,” argued the Preacher, “if the Negro is made master of the - industries of the South he will become the master of the South. Sooner - than allow him to take the bread from their mouths, the white men will - kill him here, as they do North, when the struggle for bread becomes as - tragic. The Negro must ultimately leave this continent. You might as well - begin to prepare for it.” - </p> - <p> - “But we propose to train him principally in Agriculture. We need millions - of good farmers,” persisted Gaston. - </p> - <p> - “So much the worse, I tell you,” replied the Preacher. “Make the Negro a - scientific and successful farmer, and let him plant his feet deep in your - soil, and it will mean a race war.” - </p> - <p> - “It seems to me impracticable ever to move him.” - </p> - <p> - “Why?” asked the Preacher. “Those over certain ages can be left to end - their days here. The Negro has cost us already the loss of $7,000,000,000, - a war that killed a half million men, the debauchery of our suffrage, the - corruption of our life, and threatens the future with anarchy. Lincoln was - right when he said, ‘There is a physical difference between the white and - the black races, which I believe will forever forbid them living together - on terms of social and political equality.’ - </p> - <p> - “Even you are still labouring under the delusions of ‘Reconstruction.’ The - Ethiopian can not change his skin, or the leopard his spots. Those who - think it possible will always tell you that the place to work this miracle - is in the South. Exactly. If a man really believes in equality, let him - prove it by giving his daughter to a negro in marriage. That is the test. - When she sinks with her mulatto children into the black abyss of a Negroid - life, then ask him! Your scheme of education is humbug. You don’t believe - that any amount of education can fit a negro to rule an Anglo-Saxon, or to - marry his daughter. Then don’t be a hypocrite.” - </p> - <p> - “But can we afford to stop his education?” - </p> - <p> - “The more you educate, the more impossible you make his position in a - democracy. Education! Can you change the colour of his skin, the kink of - his hair, the bulge of his lips, the spread of his nose, or the beat of - his heart, with a spelling book? The Negro is the human donkey. You can - train him, but you can’t make of him a horse. Mate him with a horse, you - lose the horse, and get a larger donkey called a mule, incapable of - preserving his species. What is called our race prejudice is simply God’s - first law of nature—the instinct of selfpreservation.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston was gazing at the ceiling with an absent look in his eyes and a - smile playing around his lips. - </p> - <p> - “You are not listening to me now, you young rascal! You are dreaming about - your bride.” - </p> - <p> - Gaston quickly lowered his eyes, and saw the messenger boy who had been - standing several minutes with his telegram. - </p> - <p> - He read Sallie’s message with amazement. - </p> - <p> - “What can that mean?” He handed the telegram to the Preacher. - </p> - <p> - “It means he has discovered the facts, and there is going to be trouble. - He is a man of terrific passions when his pride is roused.” - </p> - <p> - “I must go immediately.” - </p> - <p> - He closed his office and caught his train after a hard drive. When he - reached Independence he sprang into a carriage and ordered the driver to - take him direct to Oakwood. What had happened he did not know and he did - not care. Of one thing he was now sure—Sallie’s love and the swift - end of their separation. - </p> - <p> - His heart was singing with a great joy as he drove over the familiar - avenue through the deep shadows of the woods, and turning through the gate - saw the light gleaming from her room. - </p> - <p> - “God bless her, she’s mine now—I hope I can take her home to-night!” - he cried. - </p> - <p> - She had walked down the drive to meet him. He leaped from the carriage, - kissed her and asked, “What is it, dear?” - </p> - <p> - “McLeod wrote him about our marriage, and now he swears he will bring a - suit to annul it. Leave your carriage here and come with me. If he don’t - send these lawyers away and receive you, I will be ready to go with you in - an hour.” - </p> - <p> - “Queen of my heart!” he whispered. “You are all mine at last!” - </p> - <p> - She called her father from the library into the parlour and stood on the - very spot where Gaston had writhed in agony on that night of his interview - with the General. - </p> - <p> - He started at the expression on her face and the tense vigour with which - she held herself erect. His suit had not been progressing well with his - lawyers. They had tried to humour him, but had declined to express any - hope of success in such an action. He saw they were halfhearted and it - depressed him. - </p> - <p> - “Now, Papa,” she firmly said, “It will not take us ten minutes to decide - forever the question of our lives. If you take another step with these - lawyers,—if you do not dismiss them at once, I will leave this house - in an hour, go with the man of my choice to his home, and you will never - see me again. You shall not humiliate me or him another hour.” - </p> - <p> - The General looked at her as though stunned, his voice trembled as he - replied, “Would you leave me so in an hour, dear?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes, Charlie is waiting there on the porch for me now, and his carriage - is outside. I will not subject him to another insult, nor allow any one - else to do it.” - </p> - <p> - The General sank heavily into a chair, and stretched out his hands toward - her in a gesture of tender entreaty. - </p> - <p> - “Come child and kiss me,—you know I can’t live without you! Forgive - all the foolish things I’ve said in anger and pride. Your happiness is - more to me than all else.” She was crying now in his arms. - </p> - <p> - “Go, bring Charlie. The youngster has beaten me. I’ve fought a foeman - worthy of my steel. It’s no disgrace to surrender to him.” - </p> - <p> - In a moment she led Gaston into the room, and the General grasped his - hand. - </p> - <p> - “Young man, for the last time I welcome you to this house. Now, it is - yours. You can run this place to suit yourself. I’ve worked all my life - for Sallie. I give up the ship to you.” - </p> - <p> - “General, let me assure you of my warmest love. I have never said an - unkind thing or harboured a harsh thought toward you. I shall be proud of - you as my father. I have loved you and Mrs. Worth since the first day I - looked into Sallie’s face.” - </p> - <p> - The invitations stood. Gaston returned immediately to Hambright, and on - the morning of the inauguration, accompanied by Bob St. Clare, and the - Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he entered the grand old mansion with - its stately pillars and claimed his bride. The Chief Justice performed a - civil ceremony, and the party started on a triumphal procession to the - Capital. The General was bubbling over with pride in the handsome - appearance the bride and groom made, and tried to outdo himself in - kindliness toward Gaston. - </p> - <p> - “Come to think it over, Governor,” he said to him after the inauguration, - “it was a brave thing in my little girl marching into that jail alone and - marrying her lover in a prison, wasn’t it? By George, she’s a chip off the - old block! I don’t care if the world does know it!” - </p> - <p> - “General, that was the bravest thing a woman could do. She is the heroine - of the drama. I play second part.” - </p> - <p> - They did not wait long for the people to know it. At four o’clock in the - afternoon an extra appeared with a startling account of the fact that the - Governor’s beautiful bride had braved the world and secretly married him - when his fortunes were at ebb-tide, and he was a prisoner in the Asheville - jail. - </p> - <p> - That night when Sallie entered the Banquet Hall of the Governor’s Mansion, - leaning proudly on Gaston’s arm, she was greeted with an outburst of - homage and deep feeling she had never dreamed of receiving. When the - Governor acknowledged the applause of his name, he bowed to his bride, not - to the crowd. - </p> - <p> - The Preacher rose to respond to the toast, “The Master and the Mistress of - the Governor’s Mansion,” and seemed to pay no attention to the Governor, - but turning to Sallie, he said, “To the queenly daughter of the South, who - had eyes to see a glorious manhood behind prison bars, the nobility to - stoop from wealth to poverty and transform a jail into a palace with the - beauty of her face and the splendour of her love—to her, the heroine - who inspired Charles Gaston with power to mould a million wills in his, - change the current of history, and become the Governor of the Commonwealth—to - her all honour, and praise, and homage. - </p> - <p> - “My daughter, it is meet that our wealth and beauty should mate with the - genius and chivalry of the South. May it ever be so, and may your - children’s children be as the sands of the sea!” - </p> - <p> - Sallie bowed her head as every eye was turned admiringly upon her. The - General trembled, and, when the crowd rose to their feet and reëchoed, “To - her all honour and praise and homage,” and the Governor bent proudly - kissing her hand, he bowed his head and wept. - </p> - <p> - Her mother sitting by her side with shining eyes pressed her hand and - whispered, “My beautiful daughter, now my work is done.” - </p> - <p> - As Gaston strolled out on the lawn with his bride after the banquet, they - found a seat in a secluded spot amid the shrubbery. - </p> - <p> - “My sweet wife!” he exclaimed. - </p> - <p> - “My husband!” she whispered, as they tenderly clasped hands. - </p> - <p> - “Tell me now who was the author of all those lies about me to your - father?” - </p> - <p> - “Why ask it, dear? You know Allan wrote the last letter.” - </p> - <p> - “The dastard. I was sure of it from the first. Well, he had the facts in - that last letter, didn’t he?” - </p> - <p> - “Yes,” she answered with a smile. - </p> - <p> - They rose to return to the Mansion, roused by the stroke of midnight from - the clock in the tower of the City Hall. - </p> - <p> - “From to-night, my dear,” he said, with enthusiasm, “you will share with - me all the honours and responsibilities of public life.” - </p> - <p> - “No, my love, I do not desire any part in public life except through you. - You are my world. I ask no higher gift of God than your love, whether you - live in a Governor’s Mansion, or the humblest cottage. I desire no career - save that of a wife—your wife”—she hid her face on his breast - as a little sob caught her voice, “and I would not change places with the - proudest queen that ever wore a crown!” She said this looking up into his - face through a mist of tears. - </p> - <p> - With trembling lips and dimmed eyes he stooped and kissed her as he - replied, “And I had rather be the husband of such a woman than to be the - ruler of the world.” - </p> - <h3> - THE END - </h3> - <div style="height: 6em;"> - <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> - </div> - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's The Leopard's Spots, by Thomas Dixon, Jr. - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEOPARD'S SPOTS *** - -***** This file should be named 54765-h.htm or 54765-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/4/7/6/54765/ - -Produced by David Widger from page images generously -provided by the Internet Archive - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. 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- <head>
- <title>THE LEOPARD'S SPOTS, By Thomas Dixon, Jr.</title>
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-
-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Leopard's Spots, by Thomas Dixon, Jr.
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-
-
-Title: The Leopard's Spots
- A Romance Of The White Man's Burden--1865-1900
-
-Author: Thomas Dixon, Jr.
-
-Illustrator: C. D. Williams
-
-Release Date: May 23, 2017 [EBook #54765]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LEOPARD'S SPOTS ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by David Widger from page images generously
-provided by the Internet Archive
-
-
-
-
-
-
-</pre>
-
- <div style="height: 8em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h1>
- THE LEOPARD’S SPOTS
- </h1>
- <h3>
- A Romance Of The White Man’s Burden—1865-1900
- </h3>
- <h2>
- By Thomas Dixon, Jr.
- </h2>
- <h3>
- Illustrated By C. D. Williams
- </h3>
- <h4>
- New York:Doubleday, Page & Co.
- </h4>
- <h3>
- 1902
- </h3>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0001" id="linkimage-0001"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0001.jpg" alt="0001 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0001.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0002" id="linkimage-0002"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0008.jpg" alt="0008 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0008.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0003" id="linkimage-0003"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0009.jpg" alt="0009 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0009.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <h3>
- TO
- </h3>
- <h3>
- HARRIET
- </h3>
- <h3>
- SWEET-VOICED DAUGHTER OF THE OLD FASHIONED SOUTH
- </h3>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- <b>CONTENTS</b>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> HISTORICAL NOTE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2H_4_0002"> LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2book1"> <b>BOOK ONE—LEGREE’S REGIME</b> </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I—A HERO RETURNS </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II—A LIGHT SHINING IN DARKNESS </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III—DEEPENING SHADOWS </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV—MR. LINCOLN’S DREAM </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V—THE OLD AND THE NEW CHURCH </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI—THE PREACHER AND THE WOMAN OF
- BOSTON </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII—THE HEART OF A CHILD </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER VIII—AN EXPERIMENT IN MATRIMONY
- </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER IX—A MASTER OF MEN </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER X—THE MAN OR BRUTE IN EMBRYO </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER XI—SIMON LEGREE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER XII—RED SNOW DROPS </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER XIII—DICK </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER XIV—THE NEGRO UPRISING </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER XV—THE NEW CITIZEN KING </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER XVI—LEGREE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
- </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER XVII—THE SECOND REIGN OF TERROR
- </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER XVIII—THE RED FLAG OF THE
- AUCTIONEER </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER XIX—THE RALLY OF THE CLANSMEN </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER XX—HOW CIVILISATION WAS SAVED </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER XXI—THE OLD AND THE NEW NEGRO </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER XXII—THE DANGER OF PLAYING WITH
- FIRE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER XXIII—THE BIRTH OF A SCALAWAG </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER XXIV—A MODERN MIRACLE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2H_4_0027"> <b>BOOK TWO—LOVE’S DREAM</b> </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER I—BLUE EYES AND BLACK HAIR </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0026"> CHAPTER II—THE VOICE OF THE TEMPTER </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0027"> CHAPTER III—FLORA </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0028"> CHAPTER IV—THE ONE WOMAN </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0029"> CHAPTER V—THE MORNING OF LOVE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0030"> CHAPTER VI—BESIDE BEAUTIFUL WATERS </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0031"> CHAPTER VII—DREAMS AND FEARS </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0032"> CHAPTER VIII—THE UNSOLVED RIDDLE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0033"> CHAPTER IX—THE RHYTHM OF THE DANCE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0034"> CHAPTER X—THE HEART OF A VILLAIN </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0035"> CHAPTER XI—THE OLD OLD STORY </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0036"> CHAPTER XII—THE MUSIC OF THE MILLS </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0037"> CHAPTER XIII—THE FIRST KISS </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0038"> CHAPTER XIV—A MYSTERIOUS LETTER </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0039"> CHAPTER XV—A BLOW IN THE DARK </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0040"> CHAPTER XVI—THE MYSTERY OF PAIN </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0041"> CHAPTER XVII—IS GOD OMNIPOTENT? </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0042"> CHAPTER XVIII—THE WAYS OF BOSTON </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0043"> CHAPTER XIX—THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0044"> CHAPTER XX—A NEW LESSON IN LOVE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0045"> CHAPTER XXI—WHY THE PREACHER THREW HIS LIFE
- AWAY </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0046"> CHAPTER XXII—THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2H_4_0050"> <b>BOOK THREE—THE THE TRIAL BY FIRE</b>
- </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0047"> CHAPTER I—A GROWL BENEATH THE EARTH </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0048"> CHAPTER II—FACE TO FACE WITH FATE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0049"> CHAPTER III—A WHITE LIE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0050"> CHAPTER IV—THE UNSPOKEN TERROR </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0051"> CHAPTER V—A THOUSAND-LEGGED BEAST </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0052"> CHAPTER VI—THE BLACK PERIL </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0053"> CHAPTER VII—EQUALITY WITH A RESERVATION
- </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0054"> CHAPTER VIII—THE NEW SIMON LEGREE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0055"> CHAPTER IX—THE NEW AMERICA </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0056"> CHAPTER X—ANOTHER DECLARATION OF
- INDEPENDENCE </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0057"> CHAPTER XI—THE HEART OF A WOMAN </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0058"> CHAPTER XII—THE SPLENDOUR OF SHAMELESS LOVE
- </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0059"> CHAPTER XIII—A SPEECH THAT MADE HISTORY
- </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0060"> CHAPTER XIV—THE RED SHIRTS </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0061"> CHAPTER XV—THE HIGHER LAW </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0062"> CHAPTER XVI—THE END OF A MODERN VILLAIN
- </a>
- </p>
- <p class="toc">
- <a href="#link2HCH0063"> CHAPTER XVII—WEDDING BELLS IN THE
- GOVERNOR’S MANSION </a>
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- HISTORICAL NOTE
- </h2>
- <p>
- In answer to hundreds of letters, I wish to say that all the incidents
- used in Book I., which is properly the prologue of my story, were selected
- from authentic records, or came within my personal knowledge.
- </p>
- <p>
- The only serious liberty I have taken with history is to tone down the
- facts to make them credible in fiction. The village of “Hambright” is my
- birthplace, and is located near the center of “Military District No. 2,”
- comprising the Carolinas, which were destroyed as States by an Act of
- Congress in 1867. It will be a century yet before people outside the South
- can be made to believe a literal statement of the history of those times.
- </p>
- <p>
- I tried to write this book with the utmost restraint.
- </p>
- <p>
- Thomas Dixon, Jr.
- </p>
- <p>
- May 9, 1902.
- </p>
- <p>
- Elmington Manor, Dixondale, Va.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2H_4_0002" id="link2H_4_0002"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- LEADING CHARACTERS OF THE STORY
- </h2>
- <p>
- Scene: The Foothills of North Carolina-Boston-New York Time: From 1865 to
- 1900
- </p>
- <p>
- Charles Gaston...........Who dreams of a Governor’s Mansion
- </p>
- <p>
- Sallie Worth.............A daughter of the old fashioned South
- </p>
- <p>
- Gen. Daniel Worth..................................Her father
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Worth...........................................Sallie’s mother
- </p>
- <p>
- The Rev. John Durham.........A preacher who threw his life away
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Durham........Of the Southern Army that never surrendered
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom Camp.....................A one-legged Confederate soldier
- </p>
- <p>
- Flora....................................Tom’s little daughter
- </p>
- <p>
- Simon Legree........Ex-slave driver and Reconstruction leader
- </p>
- <p>
- Allan McLeod..............................A Scalawag
- </p>
- <p>
- Hon. Everett Lowell..........Member of Congress from Boston
- </p>
- <p>
- Helen Lowell........................His daughter
- </p>
- <p>
- Miss Susan Walker.................A maiden of Boston
- </p>
- <p>
- Major Stuart Dameron..............Chief of the Ku Klux Klan
- </p>
- <p>
- Hose Norman.......................A dare-devil poor white man
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse........................A black hero of the old régime
- </p>
- <p>
- Aunt Eve.....................His wife-“a respectable woman.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hon. Tim Shelby...................Political boss of the new era
- </p>
- <p>
- Hon. Pete Sawyer.........Sold seven times, got the money once
- </p>
- <p>
- George Harris, Jr............An Educated Negro, son of Eliza
- </p>
- <p>
- Dick.......................................An unsolved riddle
- </p>
- <p>
- <br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br />
- </p>
- <h1>
- THE LEOPARD’S SPOTS
- </h1>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2book1" id="link2book1"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- BOOK ONE—LEGREE’S REGIME
- </h2>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER I—A HERO RETURNS
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N the field of
- Appomattox General Lee was waiting the return of a courier. His handsome
- face was clouded by the deepening shadows of defeat. Rumours of surrender
- had spread like wildfire, and the ranks of his once invincible army were
- breaking into chaos.
- </p>
- <p>
- Suddenly the measured tread of a brigade was heard marching into action,
- every movement quick with the perfect discipline, the fire, and the
- passion of the first days of the triumphant Confederacy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What brigade is that?” he sharply asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cox’s North Carolina,” an aid replied.
- </p>
- <p>
- As the troops swept steadily past the General, his eyes filled with tears,
- he lifted his hat, and exclaimed, “God bless old North Carolina!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The display of matchless discipline perhaps recalled to the great
- commander that awful day of Gettysburg when the Twenty-sixth North
- Carolina infantry had charged with 820 men rank and file and left 704 dead
- and wounded on the ground that night. Company F from Campbell county
- charged with 91 men and lost every man killed and wounded. Fourteen times
- their colours were shot down, and fourteen times raised again. The last
- time they fell from the hands of gallant Colonel Harry Burgwyn, twenty-one
- years old, commander of the regiment, who seized them and was holding them
- aloft when instantly killed.
- </p>
- <p>
- The last act of the tragedy had closed. Johnston surrendered to Sherman at
- Greensboro on April 26th, 1865, and the Civil War ended,—the
- bloodiest, most destructive war the world ever saw. The earth had been
- baptized in the blood of five hundred thousand heroic soldiers, and a new
- map of the world had been made.
- </p>
- <p>
- The ragged troops were straggling home from Greensboro and Appomattox
- along the country roads. There were no mails, telegraph lines or
- railroads. The men were telling the story of the surrender. White-faced
- women dressed in coarse homespun met them at their doors and with
- quivering lips heard the news.
- </p>
- <p>
- Surrender!
- </p>
- <p>
- A new word in the vocabulary of the South—a word so terrible in its
- meaning that the date of its birth was to be the landmark of time.
- Henceforth all events would be reckoned from this; “before the Surrender,”
- or “after the Surrender.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Desolation everywhere marked the end of an era. Not a cow, a sheep, a
- horse, a fowl, or a sign of animal life save here and there a stray dog,
- to be seen. Grim chimneys marked the site of once fair homes. Hedgerows of
- tangled blackberry briar and bushes showed where a fence had stood before
- war breathed upon the land with its breath of fire and harrowed it with
- teeth of steel.
- </p>
- <p>
- These tramping soldiers looked worn and dispirited. Their shoulders
- stooped, they were dirty and hungry. They looked worse than they felt, and
- they felt that the end of the world had come.
- </p>
- <p>
- They had answered those awful commands to charge without a murmur; and
- then, rolled back upon a sea of blood, they charged again over the dead
- bodies of their comrades. When repulsed the second time and the mad cry
- for a third charge from some desperate commander had rung over the field,
- still without a word they pulled their old ragged hats down close over
- their eyes as though to shut out the hail of bullets, and, through level
- sheets of blinding flame, walked straight into the jaws of hell. This had
- been easy. Now their feet seemed to falter as though they were not sure of
- the road.
- </p>
- <p>
- In every one of these soldier’s hearts, and over all the earth hung the
- shadow of the freed Negro, transformed by the exigency of war from a
- Chattel to be bought and sold into a possible Beast to be feared and
- guarded. Around this dusky figure every white man’s soul was keeping its
- grim vigil.
- </p>
- <p>
- North Carolina, the typical American Democracy, had loved peace and sought
- in vain to stand between the mad passions of the Cavalier of the South and
- the Puritan fanatic of the North. She entered the war at last with a
- sorrowful heart but a soul clear in the sense of tragic duty. She sent
- more boys to the front than any other state of the Confederacy—and
- left more dead on the field. She made the last charge and fired the last
- volley for Lee’s army at Appomattox.
- </p>
- <p>
- These were the ragged country boys who were slowly tramping homeward. The
- group whose fortunes we are to follow were marching toward the little
- village of Hambright that nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge under
- the shadows of King’s Mountain. They were the sons of the men who had
- first declared their independence of Great Britain in America and had made
- their country a hornet’s nest for Lord Cornwallis in the darkest days of
- the cause of Liberty. What tongue can tell the tragic story of their
- humble home coming?
- </p>
- <p>
- In rich Northern cities could be heard the boom of guns, the scream of
- steam whistles, the shouts of surging hosts greeting returning regiments
- crowned with victory. From every flag-staff fluttered proudly the flag
- that our fathers had lifted in the sky—the flag that had never met
- defeat.
- </p>
- <p>
- It is little wonder that in this hour of triumph the world should forget
- the defeated soldiers who without a dollar in their pockets were tramping
- to their ruined homes.
- </p>
- <p>
- Yet Nature did not seem to know of sorrow or death. Birds were singing
- their love songs from the hedgerows, the fields were clothed in gorgeous
- robes of wild flowers beneath which forget-me-nots spread their
- contrasting hues of blue, while life was busy in bud and starting leaf
- reclothing the blood-stained earth in radiant beauty.
- </p>
- <p>
- As the sun was setting behind the peaks of the Blue Ridge, a giant negro
- entered the village of Ham-bright. He walked rapidly down one of the
- principal streets, passed the court house square unobserved in the
- gathering twilight, and three blocks further along paused before a
- law-office that stood in the corner of a beautiful lawn filled with
- shrubbery and flowers.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dars de ole home, praise de Lawd! En now I’se erfeard ter see my Missy,
- en tell her Marse Charles’s daid. Hit’ll kill her! Lawd hab mussy on my po
- black soul! How kin I!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He walked softly up the alley that led toward the kitchen past the “big”
- house, which after all was a modest cottage boarded up and down with
- weatherstrips nestling amid a labyrinth of climbing roses, honeysuckles,
- fruit bearing shrubbery and balsam trees. The negro had no difficulty in
- concealing his movements as he passed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lordy, dars Missy watchin’ at de winder! How pale she look! En she wuz de
- purties’ bride in de two counties! God-der-mighty, I mus’ git somebody ter
- he’p me! I nebber tell her! She drap daid right ’fore my eyes, en
- liant me twell I die. I run fetch de Preacher, Marse John Durham, he kin
- tell her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A few moments later he was knocking at the door of the parsonage of the
- Baptist church.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nelse! At last! I knew you’d come!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir, Marse John, I’se home. Hit’s me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And your Master is dead. I was sure of it, but I never dared tell your
- Mistress. You came for me to help you tell her. People said you had gone
- over into the promised land of freedom and forgotten your people; but
- Nelse, I never believed it of you and I’m doubly glad to shake your hand
- to-night because you’ve brought a brave message from heroic lips and
- because you have brought a braver message in your honest black face of
- faith and duty and life and love.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thankee Marse John, I wuz erbleeged ter come home.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher stepped into the hall and called the servant from the
- kitchen.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Aunt Mary, when your Mistress returns tell her I’ve received an urgent
- call and will not be at home for supper.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll be ready in a minute, Nelse,” he said, as he disappeared into the
- study. When he reached his desk, he paused and looked about the room in a
- helpless way as though trying to find some half forgotten volume in the
- rows of books that lined the walls and lay in piles on his desk and
- tables. He knelt beside the desk and prayed. When he rose there was a soft
- light in his eyes that were half filled with tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- Standing in the dim light of his study he was a striking man. He had a
- powerful figure of medium height, deep piercing eyes and a high
- intellectual forehead. His hair was black and thick. He was a man of
- culture, had graduated at the head of his class at Wake Forest College
- before the war, and was a profound student of men and books. He was now
- thirty-five years old and the acknowledged leader of the Baptist
- denomination in the state. He was eloquent, witty, and proverbially good
- natured. His voice in the pulpit was soft and clear, and full of a
- magnetic quality that gave him hypnotic power over an audience. He had the
- prophetic temperament and was more of poet than theologian.
- </p>
- <p>
- The people of this village were proud of the man as a citizen and loved
- him passionately as their preacher. Great churches had called him, but he
- had never accepted. There was in his make-up an element of the missionary
- that gave his personality a peculiar force.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had been the college mate of Colonel Charles Gaston whose faithful
- slave had come to him for help, and they had always been bosom friends. He
- had performed the marriage ceremony for the Colonel ten years before when
- he had led to the altar the beautiful daughter of the richest planter in
- the adjoining county. Durham’s own heart was profoundly moved by his
- friend’s happiness and he threw into the brief preliminary address so much
- of tenderness and earnest passion that the trembling bride and groom
- forgot their fright and were melted to tears. Thus began an association of
- their family life that was closer than their college days.
- </p>
- <p>
- He closed his lips firmly for an instant, softly shut the door and was
- soon on the way with Nelse. On reaching the house, Nelse went directly to
- the kitchen, while the Preacher walking along the circular drive
- approached the front. His foot had scarcely touched the step when Mrs.
- Gaston opened the door.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, Dr. Durham, I am so glad you have come!” she exclaimed. “I’ve been
- depressed to-day, watching the soldiers go by. All day long the poor
- foot-sore fellows have been passing. I stopped some of them to ask about
- Colonel Gaston and I thought one of them knew something and would not tell
- me. I brought him in and gave him dinner, and tried to coax him, but he
- only looked wistfully at me, stammered and said he didn’t know. But some
- how I feel that he did. Come in Doctor, and say something to cheer me. If
- I only had your faith in God!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have need of it all to-night, Madam!” he answered with bowed head.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you have heard bad news?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have heard news,—wonderful news of faith and love, of heroism and
- knightly valour, that will be a priceless heritage to you and yours. Nelse
- has returned—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “God have mercy on me!”—she gasped covering her face and raising her
- arm as though cowering from a mortal blow.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here is Nelse, Madam. Hear his story. He has only told me a word or two.”
- Nelse had slipped quietly in the back door.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassum. Missy, I’se home at las’.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She looked at him strangely for a moment. “Nelse, I’ve dreamed and dreamed
- of your coming, but always with him. And now you come alone to tell me he
- is dead. Lord have pity! there is nothing left!” There was a far-away
- sound in her voice as though half dreaming.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yas, Missy, dey is, I jes seed him—my young Marster—dem
- bright eyes, de ve’y nose, de chin, de mouf! He walks des like Marse
- Charles, he talks like him, he de ve’y spit er him, en how he hez growed!
- He’ll be er man fo you knows it. En I’se got er letter fum his Pa fur him,
- an er letter fur you, Missy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- At this moment Charlie entered the room, slipped past Nelse and climbed
- into his mother’s arms. He was a sturdy little fellow of eight years with
- big brown eyes and sensitive mouth.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir—Ole Grant wuz er pushin’ us dar afo’ Richmond Pear ter me
- lak Marse Robert been er fightin’ him ev’y day for six monts. But he des
- keep on pushin’ en pushin’ us. Marse Charles say ter me one night atter I
- been playin’ de banjer fur de boys, Come ter my tent Nelse fo turnin’ in—I
- wants ter see you.’ He talk so solemn like, I cut de banjer short, en go
- right er long wid him. He been er writin’ en done had two letters writ. He
- say, ‘Nelse, we gwine ter git outen dese trenches ter-morrer. It twell be
- my las’ charge. I feel it. Ef I falls, you take my swode, en watch en dese
- letters back home to your Mist’ess and young Marster, en you promise me,
- boy, to stan’ by em in life ez I stan’ by you.’ He know I lub him bettern
- any body in dis work, en dat I’d rudder be his slave dan be free if he’s
- daid! En I say, ‘Dat I will, Marse Charles.’
- </p>
- <p>
- “De nex day we up en charge ole Grant. Pears ter me I nebber see so many
- dead Yankees on dis yearth ez we see layin’ on de groun’ whar we brake
- froo dem lines! But dey des kep fetchin’ up annudder army back er de one
- we breaks, twell bymeby, dey swing er whole millyon er Yankees right plum
- behin’ us, en five millyon er fresh uns come er swoopin’ down in front.
- Den yer otter see my Marster! He des kinder riz in de air—pear ter
- me like he wuz er foot taller en say to his men—’ ‘Bout face, en
- charge de line in de rear!’ Wall sar, we cut er hole clean froo dem
- Yankees en er minute, end den bout face ergin en begin ter walk backerds
- er fightin’ like wilecats ev’y inch. We git mos back ter de trenches, when
- Marse Charles drap des lak er flash! I runned up to him en dar wuz er big
- hole in his breas’ whar er bullet gone clean froo his heart. He nebber
- groan. I tuk his head up in my arms en cry en take on en call him! I pull
- back his close en listen at his heart. Hit wuz still. I takes de swode an
- de watch en de letters outen de pockets en start on—when bress God,
- yer cum dat whole Yankee army ten hundred millyons, en dey tromple all
- over us!
- </p>
- <p>
- “Den I hear er Yankee say ter me ‘Now, my man, you’se free.’ ‘Yassir,
- sezzi, dats so,’ en den I see a hole ter run whar dey warn’t no Yankees,
- en I run spang into er millyon mo. De Yankees wuz ev’y whar. Pear ter me
- lak dey riz up outer de groun’. All dat day I try ter get away fum ’em.
- En long ’bout night dey ’rested me en fetch me up fo er
- Genr’l, en he say, ‘What you tryin’ ter get froo our lines fur, nigger?
- Doan yer know yer free now, en if you go back you’d be a slave ergin?’”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dats so, sah,” sezzi, “but I’se ’bleeged ter go home.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What fur?” sezze.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Promise Marse Charles ter take dese letters en swode en watch back home
- to my Missus en young Marster, en dey waitin’ fur me—I’se ’bleeged
- ter go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Den he tuk de letters en read er minute, en his eyes gin ter water en he
- choke up en say, ‘Go-long!’
- </p>
- <p>
- “Den I skeedaddled ergin. Dey kep on ketchin’ me twell bimeby er nasty
- stinkin low-life slue-footed Yankee kotched me en say dat I wuz er dang’us
- nigger, en sont me wid er lot er our prisoners way up ter ole Jonson’s
- Islan’ whar I mos froze ter deaf. I stay dar twell one day er fine lady
- what say she from Boston cum er long, en I up en tells her all erbout
- Marse Charles and my Missus, en how dey all waitin’ fur me, en how bad I
- want ter go home, en de nex news I knowed I wuz on er train er whizzin’
- down home wid my way all paid. I get wid our men at Greensboro en come
- right on fas’ ez my legs’d carry me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was silence for a moment and then slowly Mrs. Gaston said, “May God
- reward you, Nelse!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassum, I’se free, Missy, but I gwine ter wuk for you en my young
- Marster.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Gaston had lived daily in a sort of trance through those four years
- of war, dreaming and planning for the great day when her lover would
- return a handsome bronzed and famous man. She had never conceived of the
- possibility of a world without his will and love to lean upon. The
- Preacher was both puzzled and alarmed by the strangely calm manner she now
- assumed. Before leaving the home he cautioned Aunt Eve to watch her
- Mistress closely and send for him if anything happened.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the boy was asleep in the nursery adjoining her room, she quietly
- closed the door, took the sword of her dead lover-husband in her lap and
- looked long and tenderly at it. On the hilt she pressed her lips in a
- lingering kiss.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here his dear hand must have rested last!” she murmured. She sat
- motionless for an hour with eyes fixed without seeing. At last she rose
- and hung the sword beside his picture near her bed and drew from her bosom
- the crumpled, worn letters Nelse had brought. The first was addressed to
- her.
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“In the Trenches Near Richmond, May 4, 1864.</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“Sweet Wifie:—I have a presentiment to-night that I shall not
- live to see you again. I feel the shadows of defeat and ruin closing upon
- us. I am surer day by day that our cause is lost and surrender is a word I
- have never learned to speak. If I could only see you for one hour, that I
- might tell you all I have thought in the lone watches of the night in
- camp, or marching over desolate fields. Many tender things I have never
- said to you I have learned in these days. I write this last message to
- tell you how, more and more beyond the power of words to express, your
- love has grown upon me, until your spirit seems the breath I breathe. My
- heart is so full of love for you and my boy, that I can’t go into battle
- now without thinking how many hearts will ache and break in far away,
- homes because of the work I am about to do. I am sick of it all. I long to
- be at home again and walk with my sweet young bride among the flowers she
- loves so well, and hear the old mocking bird that builds each spring in
- those rose bushes at our window.</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“If I am killed, you must live for our boy and rear him to a glorious
- manhood in the new nation that will be born in this agony. I love you,—I
- love you unto the uttermost, and beyond death I will live, if only to love
- you forever.</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“Always in life or death your own,</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“Charles.</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- For two hours she held this letter open in her hands and seemed unable to
- move it. And then mechanically she opened the one addressed to “Charles
- Gaston, jr.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “<i>My Darling Boy:—I send you by Nelse my watch and sword. It will
- be all I can bequeath to you from the wreck that will follow the war. This
- sword was your great grandfather’s. He held it as he charged up the
- heights of King’s Mountain against Ferguson and helped to carve this
- nation out of a wilderness. It was a sorrowful day for me when I felt it
- my duty to draw that sword against the old flag in defence of my home and
- my people. You will live to see a reunited country. Hang this sword back
- beside the old flag of our fathers when the end has come, and always
- remember that it was never drawn from its scabbard by your father, or your
- grandfather who fought with Jackson at New Orleans, or your great
- grandfather in the Revolution, save in the cause of justice and right. I
- am not fighting to hold slaves in bondage. I am fighting for the
- inalienable rights of my people under the Constitution our fathers
- created. It may be we have outgrown this Constitution. But I calmly leave
- to God and history the question as to who is right in its interpretation.
- Whatever you do in life, first, last and always do what you believe to be
- right. Everything else is of little importance. With a heart full of love,
- Your father,</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“Charles Gaston.”</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- This letter she must have held open for hours, for it was two o’clock in
- the morning when a wild peal of laughter rang from her feverish lips and
- brought Aunt Eve and Nelse hurrying into the room.
- </p>
- <p>
- It took but a moment for them to discover that their Mistress was
- suffering from a violent delirium. They soothed her as best they could.
- The noise and confusion had awakened the boy. Running to the door leading
- into his mother’s room he found it bolted, and with his little heart
- fluttering in terror he pressed his ear close to the key-hole and heard
- her wild ravings. How strange her voice seemed! Her voice had always been
- so soft and low and full of soothing music. Now it was sharp and hoarse
- and seemed to rasp his flesh with needles. What could it all mean? Perhaps
- the end of the world, about which he had heard the Preacher talk on
- Sundays At last unable to bear the terrible suspense longer he cried
- through the key-hole, “Aunt Eve, what’s the matter? Open the door quick.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, honey, you mustn’t come in. Yo Ma’s awful sick. You run out ter de
- barn, ketch de mare, en fly for de doctor while me en Nelse stay wid her.
- Run honey, day’s nuttin’ ter hurt yer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- His little bare feet were soon pattering over the long stretch of the back
- porch toward the barn. The night was clear and sky studded with stars.
- There was no moon. He was a brave little fellow, but a fear greater than
- all the terrors of ghosts and the white sheeted dead with which Negro
- superstition had filled his imagination, now nerved his child’s soul. His
- mother was about to die! His very heart ceased to beat at the thought. He
- must bring the doctor and bring him quickly.
- </p>
- <p>
- He flew to the stable not looking to the right or the left. The mare
- whinnied as he opened the door to get the bridle.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s me Bessie. Mama’s sick. We must go for the doctor quick!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The mare thrust her head obediently down to the child’s short arm for the
- bridle. She seemed to know by some instinct his quivering voice had roused
- that the home was in distress and her hour had come to bear a part.
- </p>
- <p>
- In a moment he led her out through the gate, climbed on the fence, and
- sprang on her back.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, Bess, fly for me!” he half whispered, half cried through the tears
- he could no longer keep back. The mare bounded forward in a swift gallop
- as she felt his trembling bare legs clasp her side, and the clatter of her
- hoofs echoed in the boy’s ears through the silent streets like the thunder
- of charging cavalry. How still the night! He saw shadows under the trees,
- shut his eyes and leaning low on the mare’s neck patted her shoulders with
- his hands and cried, “Faster. Bessie! Faster!” And then he tried to pray.
- “Lord don’t let her die! Please, dear God, and I will always be good. I am
- sorry I robbed the bird’s nests last summer—I’ll never do it again.
- Please, Lord I’m such a wee boy and I’m so lonely. I can’t lose my Mama!”—and
- the voice choked and became, a great sob. He looked across the square as
- he passed the court house in a gallop and saw a light in the window of the
- parsonage and felt its rays warm his soul like an answer to his prayer.
- </p>
- <p>
- He reached the doctor’s house on the further side of the town, sprang from
- the mare’s back, bounded up the steps and knocked at the door. No one
- answered. He knocked again. How loud it rang through the hall! May be the
- doctor was gone! He had not thought of such a possibility before. He
- choked at the thought. Springing quickly from the steps to the ground he
- felt for a stone, bounded back and began to pound on the door with all his
- might.
- </p>
- <p>
- The window was raised, and the old doctor thrust his head out calling,
- “What on earth’s the matter? Who is that?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s me, Charlie Gaston—my Mama’s sick—she’s awful sick, I’m
- afraid she’s dying—you must come quick!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, sonny, I’ll be ready in a minute.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The boy waited and waited. It seemed to him hours, days, weeks, years! To
- every impatient call the doctor would answer, “In a minute, sonny, in a
- minute!”
- </p>
- <p>
- At last he emerged with his lantern, to catch his horse. The doctor seemed
- so slow. He fumbled over the harness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Doctor you’re so slow! I tell you my Mama’s sick—!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, well, my boy, we’ll soon be there,” the old man kindly replied.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the boy saw the doctor’s horse jogging quickly toward his home he
- turned the mare’s head aside as he reached the court house square, roused
- the Preacher, and between his sobs told the story of his mother’s illness.
- Mrs. Durham had lost her only boy two years before. Soon Charlie was
- sobbing in her arms.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You poor little darling, out by yourself so late at night, were you not
- scared?” she asked as she kissed the tears from his eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yessum, I was scared, but I had to go for the doctor. I want you and Dr.
- Durham to come as quick as you can. I’m afraid to go home. I’m afraid
- she’s dead, or I’ll hear her laugh that awful way I heard to-night.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course we will come, dear, right away. We will be there almost as soon
- as you can get to the house.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He rode slowly along the silent street looking back now and then for the
- Preacher and his wife. As he was passing a small deserted house he saw to
- his horror a ragged man peering into the open window. Before he had time
- to run, the man stepped quickly up to the mare and said, “Who lived here
- last, little man?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Old Miss Spurlin,” answered the boy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where is she now?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She’s dead.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The man sighed, and the boy saw by his gray uniform that he was a soldier
- just back from the war, and he quickly added, “Folks said they had a hard
- time, but Preacher Durham helped them lots when they had nothing to eat.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So my poor old mother’s dead. I was afraid of it.” He seemed to be
- talking to himself. “And do you know where her gal is that lived with
- her?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She’s in a little house down in the woods below town. They say she’s a
- bad woman, and my Mama would never let me go near her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The man flinched as though struck with a knife, steadied himself for a
- moment with his hands on the mare’s neck and said, “You’re a brave little
- one to be out alone this time o’night,—what’s your name?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Charles Gaston.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you’re my Colonel’s boy—many a time I followed him where men
- were failin’ like leaves—I wish to God I was with him now in the
- ground! Don’t tell anybody you saw me,—them that knowed me will
- think I’m dead, and it’s better so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good-bye, sir,” said the child “I’m sorry for you if you’ve got no home.
- I’m after the doctor for my Mama,—she’s very sick. I’m afraid she’s
- going to die, and if you ever pray I wish you’d pray for her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The soldier came closer. “I wish I knew how to pray, my boy. But it seemed
- to me I forgot everything that was good in the war, and there’s nothin’
- left but death and hell. But I’ll not forget you, good-bye!” When Charlie
- was in bed, he lay an hour with wide staring eyes, holding his breath now
- and then to catch the faintest sound from his mother’s room. All was quiet
- at last and he fell asleep. But he was no longer a child. The shadow of a
- great sorrow had enveloped his soul and clothed him with the dignity and
- fellowship of the mystery of pain.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER II—A LIGHT SHINING IN DARKNESS
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>N the rear of Mrs.
- Gaston’s place, there stood in the midst of an orchard a log house of two
- rooms, with hallway between them. There was a mud-thatched wooden chimney
- at each end, and from the back of the hallway a kitchen extension of the
- same material with another mud chimney. The house stood in the middle of a
- ten acre lot, and a woman was busy in the garden with a little girl,
- planting seed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hurry up Annie, less finish this in time to fix up a fine dinner er
- greens and turnips an’taters an a chicken. Yer Pappy’ll get home
- to-day sure. Colonel Gaston’s Nelse come last night. Yer Pappy was in the
- Colonel’s regiment an’ Nelse said he passed him on the road comin’ with
- two one-legged soldiers. He ain’t got but one leg, he says. But, Lord, if
- there’s a piece of him left we’ll praise God an’ be thankful for what
- we’ve got.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Maw, how did he look? I mos’ forgot—’s been so long sence I
- seed him?” asked the child.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look! Honey! He was the handsomest man in Campbell county! He had a tall
- fine figure, brown curly beard, and the sweetest mouth that was always
- smilin’ at me, an’ his eyes twinklin’ over somethin’ funny he’d seed or
- thought about. When he was young ev’ry gal around here was crazy about
- him. I got him all right, an’ he got me too. Oh me! I can’t help but cry,
- to think he’s been gone so long. But he’s comin’ to-day! I jes feel it in
- my bones.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look a yonder, Maw, what a skeer-crow ridin’ er ole hoss!” cried the
- girl, looking suddenly toward the road.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Glory to God! It’s Tom!” she shouted, snatching her old faded sun-bonnet
- off her head and fairly flying across the field to the gate, her cheeks
- aflame, her blond hair tumbling over her shoulders, her eyes wet with
- tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom was entering the gate of his modest home in as fine style as possible,
- seated proudly on a stack of bones that had once been a horse, an old
- piece of wool on his head that once had been a hat, and a wooden peg
- fitted into a stump where once was a leg. His face was pale and stained
- with the red dust of the hill roads, and his beard, now iron grey, and his
- ragged buttonless uniform were covered with dirt. He was truly a sight to
- scare crows, if not of interest to buzzards. But to the woman whose swift
- feet were hurrying to his side, and whose lips were muttering half
- articulate cries of love, he was the knightliest figure that ever rode in
- the lists before the assembled beauty of the world.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Tom, Tom, Tom, my ole man! You’ve come at last!” she sobbed as she
- threw her arms around his neck, drew him from the horse and fairly
- smothered him with kisses.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look out, ole woman, you’ll break my new leg!” cried Tom when he could
- get breath.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t care,—I’ll get you another one,” she laughed through her
- tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look out there again you’re smashing my game shoulder. Got er Minie ball
- in that one.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well your mouth’s all right I see,” cried the delighted woman, as she
- kissed and kissed him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Say, Annie, don’t be so greedy, give me a chance at my young one.” Tom’s
- eyes were devouring the excited girl who had drawn nearer.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come and kiss your Pappy and tell him how glad you are to see him!” said
- Tom, gathering her in his arms and attempting to carry her to the house.
- </p>
- <p>
- He stumbled and fell. In a moment the strong arms of his wife were about
- him and she was helping him into the house.
- </p>
- <p>
- She laid him tenderly on the bed, petted him and cried over him. “My poor
- old man, he’s all shot and cut to pieces. You’re so weak, Tom—I
- can’t believe it. You were so strong. But we’ll take care of you. Don’t
- you worry. You just sleep a week and then rest all summer and watch us
- work the garden for you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He lay still for a few moments with a smile playing around his lips.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lord, ole woman, you don’t know how nice it is to be petted like that, to
- hear a woman’s voice, feel her breath on your face and the touch of her
- hand, warm and soft after four years sleeping on dirt and living with men
- and mules, and fightin’ and runnin’ and diggin’ trenches like rats and
- moles, killin’ men, buryin’ the dead like carrion, holdin’ men while
- doctors sawed their legs off, till your turn came to be held and sawed!
- You can’t believe it, but this is the first feather bed I’ve touched in
- four years.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, well!—Bless God it’s over now,” she cried. “S’long as I’ve
- got two strong arms to slave for you—as long as there’s a piece of
- you left big enough to hold on to—I’ll work for you,” and again she
- bent low over his pale face, and crooned over him as she had so often done
- over his baby in those four lonely years of war and poverty.
- </p>
- <p>
- Suddenly Tom pushed her aside and sprang up in bed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Geemimy, Annie, I forgot my pardners—there’s two more peg-legs out
- at the gate by this time waiting for us to get through huggin’ and
- carryin’ on before they come in. Run, fetch’em in quick!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom struggled to his feet and met them at the door.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come right into my palace, boys. I’ve seen some fine places in my time,
- but this is the handsomest one I ever set eyes on. Now, Annie, put the big
- pot in the little one and don’t stand back for expenses. Let’s have a
- dinner these fellers’ll never forget.”
- </p>
- <p>
- It was a feast they never forgot. Tom’s wife had raised a brood of early
- chickens, and managed to keep them from being stolen. She killed four of
- them and cooked them as only a Southern woman knows how. She had sweet
- potatoes carefully saved in the mound against the kitchen chimney. There
- were turnips and greens and radishes, young onions and lettuce and hot
- corn dodgers fit for a king; and in the centre of the table she deftly
- fixed a pot of wild flowers little Annie had gathered. She did not tell
- them that it was the last peck of potatoes and the last pound of meal.
- This belonged to the morrow. To-day they would live.
- </p>
- <p>
- They laughed and joked over this splendid banquet, and told stories of
- days and nights of hunger and exhaustion, when they had filled their empty
- stomachs with dreams of home.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Miss Camp, you’ve got the best husband in seven states, did you know
- that?” asked one of the soldiers, a mere boy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course she’ll agree to that, sonny,” laughed Tom.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well it’s so. If it hadn’t been for him, M’am, we’d a been peggin’ along
- somewhere way up in Virginny ‘stead o’ bein’ so close to home. You see he
- let us ride his hoss a mile and then he’d ride a mile. We took it turn
- about, and here we are.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, how in this world did you get that horse?” asked his wife.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Honey, I got him on my good looks,” said he with a wink. “You see I was a
- settin’ out there in the sun the day o’ the surrender. I was sorter cryin’
- and wonderin’ how I’d get home with that stump of wood instead of a foot,
- when along come a chunky heavy set Yankee General, looking as glum as
- though his folks had surrendered instead of Marse Robert. He saw me,
- stopped, looked at me a minute right hard and says, ‘Where do you live?’”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Way down in ole No’th Caliny,” I says, “at Ham-bright, not far from
- King’s Mountain.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How are you going to get home?” says he.
- </p>
- <p>
- “God knows, I don’t, General. I got a wife and baby down there I ain’t
- seed fer nigh four years, and I want to see ’em so bad I can taste
- ’em. I was lookin’ the other way when I said that, fer I was purty
- well played out, and feelin’ weak and watery about the eyes, an’ I didn’t
- want no Yankee General to see water in my eyes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He called a feller to him and sorter snapped out to him, ‘Go bring the
- best horse you can spare for this man and give it to him’.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then he turns to me and seed I was all choked up and couldn’t say nothin’
- and says:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m General Grant. Give my love to your folks when you get home. I’ve
- known what it was to be a poor white man down South myself once for
- awhile.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “God bless you, General. I thanks you from the bottom of my heart,” I says
- as quick as I could find my tongue, “if it had to be surrender I’m glad it
- was to such a man as you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He never said another word, but just walked slow along smoking a big
- cigar. So ole woman, you know the reason I named that hoss, ‘General
- Grant.’ It may be I have seen finer hosses than that one, but I couldn’t
- recollect anything about ’em on the road home.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Dinner over, Tom’s comrades rose and looked wistfully down the dusty road
- leading southward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, Tom, ole man, we gotter be er movin’,” said the older of the two
- soldiers. “We’re powerful obleeged to you fur helpin’ us along this fur.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, boys, you’ll find yer train standin’ on the side o’ the track
- eatin’ grass. Jes climb up, pull the lever and let her go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The men’s faces brightened, their lips twitched. They looked at Tom, and
- then at the old horse. They looked down the long dusty road stretching
- over hill and valley, hundreds of miles south, and then at Tom’s wife and
- child, whispered to one another a moment, and the elder said:
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, pardner, you’ve been awful good to us, but we’ll get along somehow—we
- can’t take yer hoss. It’s all yer got now ter make a livin’ on yer place.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All I got?” shouted Tom, “man alive, ain’t you seed my ole woman, as fat
- and jolly and han’some as when I married her ’leven years ago?
- Didn’t you hear her cryin’ an’ shoutin’ like she’s crazy when I got home?
- Didn’t you see my little gal with eyes jes like her daddy’s? Don’t you see
- my cabin standin’ as purty as a ripe peach in the middle of the orchard
- when hundreds of fine houses are lyin’ in ashes? Ain’t I got ten acres of
- land? Ain’t I got God Almighty above me and all around me, the same God
- that watched over me on the battlefields? All I got? That old stack o’
- bones that looks like er hoss? Well I reckon not!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Pardner, it ain’t right,” grumbled the soldier, with more of cheerful
- thanks than protest in his voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Get off you fools,” said Tom good-naturedly, “ain’t it my hoss? Can’t
- I do what I please with him?” So with hearty hand-shakes they parted, the
- two astride the old horse’s back. One had lost his right leg, the other
- his left, and this gave them a good leg on each side to hold the cargo
- straight.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Take keer yerself, Tom!” they both cried in the same breath as they moved
- away.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Take keer yerselves, boys. I’m all right!” answered Tom, as he stumped
- his way back to the home. “It’s all right, it’s all right,” he muttered to
- himself. “He’d a come in handy, but I’d a never slept thinkin’ o’ them
- peggin’ along them rough roads.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Before reaching the house he sat down on a wooden bench beneath a tree to
- rest. It was the first week in May and the leaves were not yet grown. The
- sun was pouring his hot rays down into the moist earth, and the heat began
- to feel like summer. As he drank in the beauty and glory of the spring his
- soul was melted with joy. The fruit trees were laden with the promise of
- the treasures of the summer and autumn, a cat-bird was singing softly to
- his mate in the tree over his head, and a mocking-bird seated in the
- topmost branch of an elm near his cabin home was leading the oratorio of
- feathered songsters. The wild plum and blackberry briars were in full
- bloom in the fence comers, and the sweet odour filled the air. He heard
- his wife singing in the house.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s a fine old world after all!” he exclaimed leaning back and half
- closing his eyes, while a sense of ineffable peace filled his soul. “Peace
- at last! Thank God! May I never see a gun or a sword, or hear a drum or a
- fife’s scream on this earth again!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A hound came close wagging his tail and whining for a word of love and
- recognition.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well. Bob, old boy, you’re the only one left. You’ll have to chase
- cotton-tails by yourself now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Bob’s eyes watered and he licked his master’s hand apparently
- understanding every word he said.
- </p>
- <p>
- Breaking from his master’s hands the dog ran toward the gate barking, and
- Tom rose in haste as he recognised the sturdy tread of the Preacher, Rev.
- John Durham, walking rapidly toward the house.
- </p>
- <p>
- Grasping him heartily by the hand the Preacher said, “Tom, you don’t know
- how it warms my soul to look into your face again. When you left, I felt
- like a man who had lost one hand. I’ve found it to-day. You’re the same
- stalwart Christian full of joy and love. Some men’s religion didn’t stand
- the wear and tear of war. You’ve come out with your soul like gold tried
- in the fire. Colonel Gaston wrote me you were the finest soldier in the
- regiment, and that you were the only Chaplain he had seen that he could
- consult for his own soul’s cheer. That’s the kind of a deacon to send to
- the front! I’m proud of you, and you’re still at your old tricks. I met
- two one-legged soldiers down the road riding your horse away as though you
- had a stable full at your command. You needn’t apologise or explain, they
- told me all about it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Preacher, it’s good to have the Lord’s messenger speak words like them. I
- can’t tell you how glad I am to be home again and shake your hand. I tell
- you it was a comfort to me when I lay awake at night on them battlefields,
- a wonderin’ what had become of my ole woman and the baby, to recollect
- that you were here, and how often I’d heard you tell us how the Lord
- tempered the wind to the shorn lamb. Annie’s been telling me who watched
- out for her them dark days when there was nothin’ to eat. I reckon you and
- your wife knows the way to this house about as well as you do to the
- church.” Tom had pulled the Preacher down on the seat beside him while he
- said this.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The dark days have only begun, Tom. I’ve come to see you to have you
- cheer me up. Somehow you always seemed to me to be closer to God than any
- man in the church. You will need all your faith now. It seems to me that
- every second woman I know is a widow. Hundreds of families have no seed
- even to plant, no horses to work crops, no men who will work if they had
- horses. What are we to do? I see hungry children in every house.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Preacher, the Lord is looking down here to-day and sees all this as plain
- as you and me. As long as He is in the sky everything will come all right
- on the earth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How’s your pantry?” asked the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t know. ‘Man shall not live by bread alone,’ you know. When I hear
- these birds in the trees an’ see this old dog waggin’ his tail at me, and
- smell the breath of them flowers, and it all comes over me that I’m done
- killin’ men, and I’m at home, with a bed to sleep on, a roof over my head,
- a woman to pet me and tell me I’m great and handsome, I don’t feel like
- I’ll ever need anything more to eat! I believe I could live a whole month
- here without eatin’ a bite.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good. You come to the prayer meeting to-night and say a few things like
- that, and the folks will believe they have been eating three square meals
- every day.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll be there. I ain’t asked Annie what she’s got, but I know she’s got
- greens and turnips, onions and col-lards, and strawberries in the garden.
- Irish taters’ll be big enough to eat in three weeks, and sweets comin’
- right on. We’ve got a few chickens. The blackberries and plums and peaches
- and apples are all on the road. Ah! Preacher, it’s my soul that’s been
- starved away from my wife and child!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You don’t know how much I need help sometimes Tom. I am always giving,
- giving myself in sympathy and help to others, I’m famished now and then. I
- feel faint and worn out. You seem to fill me again with life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m glad to hear you say that, Preacher. I get downhearted sometimes,
- when I recollect I’m nothin’ but a poor white man. I’ll remember your
- words. I’m goin’ to do my part in the church work. You know where to find
- me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, that’s partly what brought me here this morning. I want you to help
- me look after Mrs. Gaston and her little boy. She is prostrated over the
- death of the Colonel and is hanging between life and death. She is in a
- delirious condition all the time and must be watched day and night. I want
- you to watch the first half of the night with Nelse, and Eve and Mary will
- watch the last half.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course, I’ll do anything in the world I can for my Colonel’s widder.
- He was the bravest man that ever led a regiment, and he was a father to us
- boys. I’ll be there. But I won’t set up with that nigger. He can go to
- bed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, it’s a funny thing to me that as good a Christian as you are should
- hate a nigger so. He’s a human being. It’s not right.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He may be human, Preacher, I don’t know. To tell you the truth, I have my
- doubts. Anyhow, I can’t help it. God knows I hate the sight of ’em
- like I do a rattlesnake. That nigger Nelse, they say is a good one. He was
- faithful to the Colonel, I know, but I couldn’t bear him no more than any
- of the rest of ’em. I always hated a nigger since I was knee high.
- My daddy and my mammy hated ’em before me. Somehow, we always felt
- like they was crowdin’ us to death on them big plantations, and the little
- ones too. And then I had to leave my wife and baby and fight four years,
- all on account of their stinkin’ hides, that never done nothin’ for me
- except make it harder to live. Every time I’d go into battle and hear them
- Minie balls begin to sing over us, it seemed to me I could see their black
- ape faces grinnin’ and makin’ fun of poor whites. At night when they’d
- detail me to help the ambulance corps carry off the dead and the wounded,
- there was a strange smell on the field that came from the blood and night
- damp and burnt powder. It always smelled like a nigger to me! It made me
- sick. Yes, Preacher, God forgive me, I hate ’em! I can’t help it
- any more than I can the color of my skin or my hair.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll fix it with Nelse, then. You take the first part of the night ’till
- twelve o’clock. I’ll go down with you from the church to-night,” said the
- Preacher, as he shook Tom’s hand and took his leave.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER III—DEEPENING SHADOWS
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>N the second day
- after Mrs. Gaston was stricken a forlorn little boy sat in the kitchen
- watching Aunt Eve get supper. He saw her nod while she worked the dough
- for the biscuits.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Aunt Eve, I’m going to sit up to-night and every night with my Mama, ’till
- she gets well. I can’t sleep for hours and hours. I lie awake and cry when
- I hear her talking ’till I feel like I’ll die. I must do something
- to help her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Laws, honey, you’se too little. You can’t keep ’wake ’tall.
- You get so lonesome and skeered all by yerself.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t care, I’ve told Tom to wake me to-night if I’m asleep when he
- goes, and I’ll sit up from twelve ’till two o’clock and then call
- you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, Mammy’s darlin’ boy, but you git tired en can’t stan’ it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- So that night at midnight he took his place by the bedside. His mother was
- sleeping, at first. He sat and gazed with aching heart at her still, white
- face. She stirred, opened her eyes, saw him, and imagined he was his
- father.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dearie-, I knew you would come,” she murmured. “They told me you were
- dead; but I knew better. What a long, long time you have been away. How
- brown the sun has tanned your face, but it’s just as handsome. I think
- handsomer than ever. And how like you is little Charlie! I knew you would
- be proud of him!”
- </p>
- <p>
- While she talked, her eyes had a glassy look, that seemed to take no note
- of anything in the room.
- </p>
- <p>
- The child listened for ten minutes, and then the horror of her strange
- voice, and look and words overwhelmed him. He burst into tears and threw
- his arms around his mother’s neck and sobbed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Mama dear, it’s me, Charlie, your little boy, who loves you so much.
- Please, don’t talk that way. Please look at me like you used to. There!
- Let me kiss your eyes ’till they are soft and sweet again!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He covered her eyes with kisses.
- </p>
- <p>
- The mother seemed dazed for a moment, held him off at arm’s length, and
- then burst into laughter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course, you silly, I know you. You must run to bed now. Kiss me good
- night.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But you are sick, Mama, I am sitting up with you.” Again she ignored his
- presence. She was back in the old days with her Love. She was kissing her
- hand to him as he left her for his day’s work. Charlie looked at the
- clock. It was time to give her the soothing drops the doctor left. She
- took it, obedient as a child, and went on and on with interminable dreams
- of the past, now and then uttering strange things for a boy’s ears. But so
- terrible was the anguish with which he watched her, the words made little
- impression on his mind. It seemed to him some one was strangling him to
- death, and a great stone was piled on his little prostrate body.
- </p>
- <p>
- When she grew quiet, at last, and dosed, how still the house seemed! How
- loud the tick of the clock! How slowly the hands moved! He had never
- noticed this before. He watched the hands for five minutes. It seemed each
- minute was an hour, and five minutes were as long as a day. What strange
- noises in the house! Suppose a ghost should walk into the room! Well, he
- wouldn’t run and leave his Mama; he made up his mind to that.
- </p>
- <p>
- Some nights there were other sounds more ominous. The town was crowded
- with strange negroes, who were hanging around the camp of the garrison.
- One night a drunken gang came shouting and screaming up the alley close
- beside the house, firing pistols and muskets. They stopped at the house,
- and one of them yelled, “Burn the rebel’s house down! It’s our turn now!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The terrified boy rushed to the kitchen and called Nelse. In a minute,
- Nelse was on the scene. There was no more trouble that night.
- </p>
- <p>
- “De lazy black debbels,” said Nelse, as he mopped the perspiration from
- his brow, “I’ll teach ’em what freedom is.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The next day when the Rev. John Durham had an interview with the
- Commandant of the troops, he succeeded in getting a consignment of corn
- for seed, and to meet the threat of starvation among some families whose
- condition he reported. This important matter settled, he said to the
- officer:
- </p>
- <p>
- “Captain, we must look to you for protection. The town is swarming with
- vagrant negroes, bent on mischief. There are camp followers with you
- organizing them into some sort of Union League meetings, dealing out arms
- and ammunition to them, and what is worse, inflaming the worst passions
- against their former masters, teaching them insolence and training them
- for crime.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll do the best I can for you Doctor, but I can’t control the camp
- followers who are organising the Union League. They live a charmed life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- That night, as the Preacher walked home from a visit to a destitute family
- he encountered a burly negro on the sidewalk, dressed in an old suit of
- Federal uniform, evidently under the influence of whiskey. He wore a belt
- around his waist, in which he had thrust, conspicuously, an old horse
- pistol.
- </p>
- <p>
- Standing squarely across the pathway, he said to the Preacher, “Git outer
- de road, white man, you’se er rebel, I’se er Loyal Union Leaguer!”
- </p>
- <p>
- It was his first experience with Negro insolence since the emancipation of
- his slaves. Quick as a flash, his right arm was raised. But he took a
- second thought, stepped aside, and allowed the drunken fool to pass. He
- went home wondering in a hazy sort of way through his excited passions
- what the end of it all would be. Gradually in his mind for days this
- towering figure of the freed Negro had been growing more and more ominous,
- until its menace overshadowed the poverty, the hunger, the sorrows and the
- devastation of the South, throwing the blight of its shadow over future
- generations, a veritable Black Death for the land and its people.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER IV—MR. LINCOLN’S DREAM
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">E</span>VERY morning
- before the Preacher could finish his breakfast, callers were knocking at
- the door—the negro, the poor white, the widow, the orphan, the
- wounded, the hungry, an endless procession.
- </p>
- <p>
- The spirit of the returned soldiers was all that he could ask. There was
- nowhere a slumbering spark of war. There was not the slightest effort to
- continue the lawless habits of four years of strife. Everywhere the spirit
- of patience, self-restraint and hope marked the life of the men who had
- made the most terrible soldiery. They were glad to be done with war, and
- have the opportunity to rebuild their broken fortunes. They were glad,
- too, that the everlasting question of a divided Union was settled and
- settled forever. There was now to be one country and one flag, and deep
- down in their souls they were content with it.
- </p>
- <p>
- The spectacle of this terrible army of the Confederacy, the memory of
- whose battle cry yet thrills the world, transformed in a month into
- patient and hopeful workmen, has never been paralleled in history.
- </p>
- <p>
- Who destroyed this scene of peaceful rehabilitation? Hell has no pit dark
- enough, and no damnation deep enough for these conspirators when once
- history has fixed their guilt.
- </p>
- <p>
- The task before the people of the South was one to tax the genius of the
- Anglo-Saxon race as never in its history, even had every friendly aid
- possible been extended by the victorious North. Four million negroes had
- suddenly been freed, and the foundations of economic order destroyed. Five
- billions of dollars worth of property were wiped out of existence, banks
- closed, every dollar of money worthless paper, the country plundered by
- victorious armies, its cities, mills and homes burned, and the flower of
- its manhood buried in nameless trenches, or worse still, flung upon the
- charity of poverty, maimed wrecks. The task of organising this wrecked
- society and marshalling into efficient citizenship this host of ignorant
- negroes, and yet to preserve the civilisation of the Anglo-Saxon race, the
- priceless heritage of two thousand years of struggle, was one to appal the
- wisdom of ages. Honestly and earnestly the white people of the South set
- about this work, and accepted the Thirteenth amendment to the Constitution
- abolishing slavery without a protesting vote.
- </p>
- <p>
- The President issued his proclamation announcing the method of restoring
- the Union as it had been handed to him from the martyred Lincoln, and
- endorsed unanimously by Lincoln’s Cabinet. This plan was simple, broad and
- statesmanlike, and its spirit breathed Fraternity and Union with malice
- toward none and charity toward all. It declared what Lincoln had always
- taught, that the Union was indestructible, that the rebellious states had
- now only to repudiate Secession, abolish slavery, and resume their
- positions in the Union, to preserve which so many lives had been
- sacrificed.
- </p>
- <p>
- The people of North Carolina accepted this plan in good faith. They
- elected a Legislature composed of the noblest men of the state, and chose
- an old Union man, Andrew Macon, Governor. Against Macon was pitted the man
- who was now the President and organiser of a federation of secret
- oath-bound societies, of which the Union League, destined to play so
- tragic a part in the drama about to follow was the type. This man, Amos
- Hogg, was a writer of brilliant and forceful style. Before the war, a
- virulent Secessionist leader, he had justified and upheld slavery, and had
- written a volume of poems dedicated to John C. Calhoun. He had led the
- movement for Secession in the Convention which passed the ordinance. But
- when he saw his ship was sinking, he turned his back upon the “errors” of
- the past, professed the most loyal Union sentiments, wormed himself into
- the confidence of the Federal Government, and actually succeeded in
- securing the position of Provisional Governor of the state! He loudly
- professed his loyalty, and with fury and malice demanded that Vance, the
- great war Governor, his predecessor, who, as a Union man had opposed
- Secession, should now be hanged, and with him his own former associates in
- the Secession Convention, whom he had misled with his brilliant pen.
- </p>
- <p>
- But the people had a long memory. They saw through this hollow pretense,
- grieved for their great leader, who was now locked in a prison cell in
- Washington, and voted for Andrew Macon.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the bitterness of defeat, Amos Hogg sharpened his wits and his pen, and
- began his schemes of revengeful ambition.
- </p>
- <p>
- The fires of passion burned now in the hearts of hosts of cowards, North
- and South, who had not met their foe in battle. Their day had come. The
- times were ripe for the Apostles of Revenge and their breed of statesmen.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher threw the full weight of his character and influence to
- defeat Hogg and he succeeded in carrying the county for Macon by an
- overwhelming majority. At the election only the men who had voted under
- the old regime were allowed to vote. The Preacher had not appeared on the
- hustings as a speaker, but as an organizer and leader of opinion he was
- easily the most powerful man in the county, and one of the most powerful
- in the state.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER V—THE OLD AND THE NEW CHURCH
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>N the village of
- Hambright the church was the centre of gravity of the life of the people.
- There were but two churches, the Baptist and the Methodist. The
- Episcopalians had a building, but it was built by the generosity of one of
- their dead members. There were four Presbyterian families in town, and
- they were working desperately to build a church. The Baptists had really
- taken the county, and the Methodists were their only rivals. The Baptists
- had fifteen flourishing churches in the county, the Methodists six. There
- were no others.
- </p>
- <p>
- The meetings at the Baptist church in the village of Hambright were the
- most important gatherings in the county. On Sunday mornings everybody who
- could walk, young and old, saint and sinner, went to church, and by far
- the larger number to the Baptist church.
- </p>
- <p>
- You could tell by the stroke of the bells that the two were rivals. The
- sextons acquired a peculiar skill in ringing these bells with a snap and a
- jerk that smashed the clapper against the side in a stroke that spoke
- defiance to all rival bells, warning of everlasting fire to all sinners
- that should stay away, and due notice to the saints that even an apostle
- might become a castaway unless he made haste.
- </p>
- <p>
- The men occupied one side of the house, the women the other. Only very
- small boys accompanying their mothers were to be seen on the woman’s side,
- together with a few young men who fearlessly escorted thither their
- sweethearts.
- </p>
- <p>
- Before the services began, between the ringing of the first and second
- bells, the men gathered in groups in the church yard and discussed grave
- questions of politics and weather. The services over the men lingered in
- the yard to shake hands with neighbours, praise or criticise the sermon,
- and once more discuss great events. The boys gathered in quiet, wistful
- groups and watched the girls come slowly out of the other door, and now
- and then a daring youngster summoned courage to ask to see one of them
- home.
- </p>
- <p>
- The services were of the simplest kind. The Singing of the old hymns of
- Zion, the Reading of the Bible, the Prayer, the Collection, the Sermon,
- the Benediction.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher never touched on politics, no matter what the event under
- whose world import his people gathered. War was declared, and fought for
- four terrible years. Lee surrendered, the slaves were freed, and society
- was torn from the foundations of centuries, but you would never have known
- it from the lips of the Rev. John Durham in his pulpit. These things were
- but passing events. When he ascended the pulpit he was the Messenger of
- Eternity. He spoke of God, of Truth, of Righteousness, of Judgment, the
- same yesterday, to-day and forever.
- </p>
- <p>
- Only in his prayers did he come closer to the inner thoughts and
- perplexities of the daily life of the people. He was a man of remarkable
- power in the pulpit. His mastery of the Bible was profound. He could speak
- pages of direct discourse in its very language. To him it was a divine
- alphabet, from whose letters he could compose the most impassioned message
- to the individual hearer before him. Its literature, its poetic fire, the
- epic sweep of the Old Testament record of life, were inwrought into the
- very fibre of his soul. As a preacher he spoke with authority. He was
- narrow and dogmatic in his interpretations of the Bible, but his very
- narrowness and dogmatism were of his flesh and blood, elements of his
- power. He never stooped to controversy. He simply announced the Truth. The
- wise received it. The fools rejected it and were damned. That was all
- there was to it.
- </p>
- <p>
- But it was in his public prayers that he was at his best. Here all the
- wealth of tenderness of a great soul was laid bare. In these prayers he
- had the subtle genius that could find the way direct into the hearts of
- the people before him, realise as his own their sins and sorrows, their
- burdens and hopes and dreams and fears, and then, when he had made them
- his own, he could give them the wings of deathless words and carry them up
- to the heart of God. He prayed in a low soft tone of voice; it was like an
- honest earnest child pleading with his father. What a hush fell on the
- people when these prayers began! With what breathless suspense every
- earnest soul followed him!
- </p>
- <p>
- Before and during the war, the gallery of this church, which was built and
- reserved for the negroes, was always crowded with dusky listeners that
- hung spellbound on his words. Now there were only a few, perhaps a dozen,
- and they were growing fewer. Some new and mysterious power was at work
- among the negroes, sowing the seeds of distrust and suspicion. He wondered
- what it could be. He had always loved to preach to these simple hearted
- children of nature, and watch the flash of resistless emotion sweep their
- dark faces. He had baptised over five hundred of them into the fellowship
- of the churches in the village and the county during the ten years of his
- ministry.
- </p>
- <p>
- He determined to find out the cause of this desertion of his church by the
- negroes to whom he had ministered so many years.
- </p>
- <p>
- At the close of a Sunday morning’s service, Nelse was slowly descending
- the gallery stairs leading Charlie Gaston by the hand, after the church
- had been nearly emptied of the white people. The Preacher stopped him near
- the door.
- </p>
- <p>
- “How’s your Mistress, Nelse?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She’s gettin’ better all de time now praise de Lawd. Eve she stay wid er
- dis mornin’, while I fetch dis boy ter church. He des so sot on goin’.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where are all the other folks who used to fill that gallery, Nelse?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You doan tell me, you aint heard about dem?” he answered with a grin.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I haven’t heard, and I want to hear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “De laws-a-massy, dey done got er church er dey own! Dey has meetin’ now
- in de school house dat Yankee ’oman built. De teachers tell ’em
- ef dey aint good ernuf ter set wid de white folks in dere chu’ch, dey got
- ter hole up dey haids, and not ’low nobody ter push em up in er
- nigger gallery. So dey’s got ole Uncle Josh Miller to preach fur ’em.
- He ’low he got er call, en he stan’ up dar en holler fur ’em
- bout er hour ev’ry Sunday mawnin’ en night. En sech whoopin’, en yellin’,
- en bawlin’! Yer can hear ’em er mile. Dey tries ter git me ter go.
- I tell ’em, Marse John Durham’s preach-in’s good ernuf fur me,
- gall’ry er no gall’ry. I tell ’em dat I spec er gall’ry nigher
- heaven den de lower flo’ enyhow—en fuddermo’, dat when I goes ter
- church, I wants ter hear sumfin’ mo’ dan er ole fool nigger er bawlin’. I
- can holler myself. En dey low I gwine back on my colour. En den I tell ’em
- I spec I aint so proud dat I can’t larn fum white folks. En dey say dey
- gwine ter lay fur me yit.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m sorry to hear this,” said the Preacher thoughtfully.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir, hits des lak I tell yer. I spec dey gone fur good. Niggers aint
- got no sense nohow. I des wish I own ’em erbout er week! Dey gitten
- madder’n madder et me all de time case I stay at de ole place en wuk fer
- my po’ sick Mistus. Dey sen’ er Kermittee ter see me mos’ ev’ry day ter ’splain
- ter me I’se free. De las’ time dey come I lam one on de haid wid er stick
- er wood erfo dey leave me lone.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You must be careful, Nelse.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir, I nebber hurt ’im. Des sorter crack his skull er little
- ter show ’im what I gwine do wid ’im nex’ time dey come
- pesterin’ me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have they been back to see you since?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dat dey aint. But dey sont me word dey gwine git de Freeman’s Buro atter
- me. En I sont ’em back word ter sen Mr. Buro right on en I land ’im
- in de middle er a spell er sickness, des es sho es de Lawd gimme strenk.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You can’t resist the Freedman’s Bureau, Nelse.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What dat Buro got ter do wid me, Marse John?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They’ve got everything to do with you, my boy. They have absolute power
- over all questions between the Negro and the white man. They can prohibit
- you from working for a white person without their consent, and they can
- fix your wages and make your contracts.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, dey better lemme erlone, or dere’ll be trouble in dis town, sho’s
- my name’s Nelse.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t you resist their officer. Come to me if you get into trouble with
- them,” was the Preacher’s parting injunction.
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse made his way out leading Charlie by the hand, and bowing his giant
- form in a quaint deferential way to the white people he knew. He seemed
- proud of his association in the church with the whites, and the position
- of inferiority assigned him in no sense disturbed his pride. He was
- muttering to himself as he walked slowly along looking down at the ground
- thoughtfully. There was infinite scorn and defiance in his voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bu-ro! Bu-ro! Des let ’em fool wid me! I’ll make ’em see de
- seben stars in de middle er de day!”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER VI—THE PREACHER AND THE WOMAN OF BOSTON
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE next day the
- Preacher had a call from Miss Susan Walker of Boston, whose liberality had
- built the new Negro school house and whose life and fortune was devoted to
- the education and elevation of the Negro race. She had been in the village
- often within the year, running up from Independence where she was building
- and endowing a magnificent classical college for negroes. He had often
- heard of her, but as she stopped with negroes when on her visits he had
- never met her. He was especially interested in her after hearing
- incidentally that she was a member of a Baptist church in Boston.
- </p>
- <p>
- On entering the parlour the Preacher greeted his visitor with the
- deference the typical Southern man instinctively pays to woman.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am pleased to meet you, Madam,” he said with a graceful bow and kindly
- smile, as he led her to the most comfortable seat he could find.
- </p>
- <p>
- She looked him squarely in the face for a moment as though surprised and
- smilingly replied, “I believe you Southern men are all alike, woman
- flatterers. You have a way of making every woman believe you think her a
- queen. It pleases me, I can’t help confessing it, though I sometimes
- despise myself for it. But I am not going to give you an opportunity to
- feed my vanity this morning. I’ve come for a plain face to face talk with
- you on the one subject that fills my heart, my work among the Freedmen.
- You are a Baptist minister. I have a right to your friendship and
- co-operation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A cloud overshadowed the Preacher’s face as he seated himself. He said
- nothing for a moment, looking curiously and thoughtfully at his visitor.
- </p>
- <p>
- He seemed to be studying her character and to be puzzled by the problem.
- She was a woman of prepossessing appearance, well past thirty-five, with
- streaks of grey appearing in her smoothly brushed black hair. She was
- dressed plainly in rich brown material cut in tailor fashion, and her
- heavy hair was drawn straight up pompadour style from her forehead with
- apparent carelessness and yet in a way that heightened the impression of
- strength and beauty in her face. Her nose was the one feature that gave
- warning of trouble in an encounter. She was plump in figure, almost stout,
- and her nose seemed too small for the breadth of her face. It was broad
- enough, but too short, and was pug tipped slightly at the end. She fell
- just a little short of being handsome and this nose was responsible for
- the failure. It gave to her face when agitated, in spite of evident
- culture and refinement, the expression of a feminine bull dog.
- </p>
- <p>
- Her eyes were flashing now, and her nostrils opened a little wider and
- began to push the tip of her nose upward. At last she snapped out
- suddenly, “Well, which is it, friend or foe? What do you honestly think of
- my work?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Pardon me, Miss Walker, I am not accustomed to speak rudely to a lady. If
- I am honest, I don’t know where to begin.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bah! Lay aside your Don Quixote Southern chivalry this morning and talk
- to me in plain English. It doesn’t matter whether I am a woman or a man. I
- am an idea, a divine mission this morning. I mean to establish a high
- school in this village for the negroes, and to build a Baptist church for
- them. I learn from them that they have great faith in you. Many of them
- desire your approval and co-operation. Will you help me?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To be perfectly frank, I will not. You ask me for plain English. I will
- give it to you. Your presence in this village as a missionary to the
- heathen is an insult to our intelligence and Christian manhood. You come
- at this late day a missionary among the heathen, the heathen whose heart
- and brain created this Republic with civil and religious liberty for its
- foundations, a missionary among the heathen who gave the world Washington,
- whose giant personality three times saved the cause of American Liberty
- from ruin when his army had melted away. You are a missionary among the
- children of Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Madison, Jackson, Clay and
- Calhoun! Madam, I have baptised into the fellowship of the church of
- Christ in this county more negroes than you ever saw in all your life
- before you left Boston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “At the close of the war there were thousands of negro members of white
- Baptist churches in the state. Your mission is not to proclaim the gospel
- of Jesus Christ. Your mission is to teach crack-brained theories of social
- and political equality to four millions of ignorant negroes, some of whom
- are but fifty years removed from the savagery of African jungles. Your
- work is to separate and alienate the negroes from their former masters who
- can be their only real friends and guardians. Your work is to sow the
- dragon’s teeth of an impossible social order that will bring forth its
- harvest of blood for our children.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He paused a moment, and, suddenly facing her continued, “I should like to
- help the cause you have at heart: and the most effective service I could
- render it now would be to box you up in a glass cage, such as are used for
- rattlesnakes, and ship you back to Boston.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Indeed! I suppose then it is still a crime in the South to teach the
- Negro?” she asked this in little gasps of fury, her eyes flashing defiance
- and her two rows of white teeth uncovering by the rising of her pugnacious
- nose.
- </p>
- <p>
- “For you, yes. It is always a crime to teach a lie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thank you. Your frankness is all one could wish!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Pardon my apparent rudeness. You not only invited, you demanded it. While
- about it, let me make a clean breast of it. I do you personally the honour
- to acknowledge that you are honest and in dead earnest, and that you mean
- well. You are simply a fanatic.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Allow me again to thank you for your candour!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t mention it, Madam. You will be canonised in due time. In the
- meantime let us understand one another. Our lives are now very far apart,
- though we read the same Bible, worship the same God and hold the same
- great faith. In the settlement of this Negro question you are an insolent
- interloper. You’re worse, you are a wilful spoiled child of rich and
- powerful parents playing with matches in a powder mill. I not only will
- not help you, I would, if I had the power seize you, and remove you to a
- place of safety. But I cannot oppose you. You are protected in your play
- by a million bayonets and back of these bayonets are banked the fires of
- passion in the North ready to burst into flame in a moment. The only thing
- I can do is to ignore your existence. You understand my position.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly, Doctor,” she replied good naturedly.
- </p>
- <p>
- She had recovered from the rush of her anger now and was herself again. A
- curious smile played round her lips as she quietly added:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I must really thank you for your candour. You have helped me immensely. I
- understand the situation now perfectly. I shall go forward cheerfully in
- my work and never bother my brain again about you, or your people, or your
- point of view. You have aroused all the fighting blood in me. I feel toned
- up and ready for a life struggle. I assure you I shall cherish no ill
- feeling toward you. I am only sorry to see a man of your powers so blinded
- by prejudice. I will simply ignore you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then, Madam, it is quite clear we agree upon establishing and maintaining
- a great mutual ignorance. Let us hope, paradoxical as it may seem, that it
- may be for the enlightenment of future generations!”
- </p>
- <p>
- She arose to go, smiling at his last speech.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Before we part, perhaps never to meet again, let me ask you one
- question,” said the Preacher still looking thoughtfully at her.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly, as many as you like.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why is it that you good people of the North are spending your millions
- here now to help only the negroes, who feel least of all the sufferings of
- this war? The poor white people of the South are your own flesh and blood.
- These Scotch Covenanters are of the same Puritan stock, these German,
- Huguenot and English people are all your kinsmen, who stood at the stake
- with your fathers in the old world. They are, many of them, homeless,
- without clothes, sick and hungry and broken hearted. But one in ten of
- them ever owned a slave. They had to fight this war because your armies
- invaded their soil. But for their sorrows, sufferings and burdens you have
- no ear to hear and no heart to pity. This is a strange thing to me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The white people of the South can take care of themselves. If they
- suffer, it is God’s just punishment for their sins in owning slaves and
- fighting against the flag. Do I make myself clear?” she snapped.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Perfectly, I haven’t another word to say.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My heart yearns for the poor dear black people who have suffered so many
- years in slavery and have been denied the rights of human beings. I am not
- only going to establish schools and colleges for them here, but I am
- conducting an experiment of thrilling interest to me which will prove that
- their intellectual, moral, and social capacity is equal to any white
- man’s.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is it so?” asked the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I am collecting from every section of the South the most promising
- specimens of negro boys and sending them to our great Northern
- Universities where they will be educated among men who treat them as
- equals, and I expect from the boys reared in this atmosphere, men of
- transcendent genius, whose brilliant achievements in science, art and
- letters will forever silence the tongues of slander against their race.
- The most interesting of these students I have at Harvard now is young
- George Harris. His mother is Eliza Harris, the history of whose escape
- over the ice of the Ohio River fleeing from slavery thrilled the world.
- This boy is a genius, and if he lives he will shake this nation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It may be, Miss Walker. There are more ways than one to shake a nation.
- And while I ignore your work, as a citizen and public man,—privately
- and personally, I shall watch this experiment with profound interest.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know it will succeed. I believe God made us of one blood,” she said
- with enthusiasm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is it true. Madam, that you once endowed a home for homeless cats before
- you became interested in the black people?” With a twinkle in his eye the
- Preacher softly asked this apparently irrelevant question.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, sir, I did,—I am proud of it. I love cats. There are over a
- thousand in the home now, and they are well cared for. Whose business is
- it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I meant no offense by the question. I love cats too. But I wondered if
- you were collecting negroes only now, or, whether you were adding other
- specimens to your menagerie for experimental purposes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She bit her lips, and in spite of her efforts to restrain her anger, tears
- sprang to her eyes as she turned toward the Preacher whose face now looked
- calmly down upon her with ill-concealed pride.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! the insolence of you Southern people toward those who dare to differ
- with you about the Negro!” she cried with rage.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I confess it humbly as a Christian, it is true. My scorn for these
- maudlin ideas is so deep that words have no power to convey it. But come,”
- said the Preacher in the kindliest tone. “Enough of this. I am pained to
- see tears in your eyes. Pardon my thoughtlessness. Let us forget now for a
- little while that you are an idea, and remember only that you are a
- charming Boston woman of the household of our own faith. Let me call Mrs.
- Durham, and have you know her and discuss with her the thousand and one
- things dear to all women’s hearts.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, I thank you! I feel a little sore and bruised, and social amenities
- can have no meaning for those whose souls are on fire with such
- antagonistic ideas as yours and mine. If Mrs. Durham can give me any
- sympathy in my work I’ll be delighted to see her, otherwise I must go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher laughed aloud.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then let me beg of you, never meet Mrs. Durham. If you do, the war will
- break out again. I don’t wish to figure in a case of assault and battery.
- Mrs. Durham was the owner of fifty slaves. She represents the bluest of
- the blue blood of the slave-holding aristocracy of the South. She has
- never surrendered and she never will. Wars, surrenders, constitutional
- amendments and such little things make no impression on her mind whatever.
- If you think I am difficult, you had better not puzzle your brain over
- her. I am a mildly constructive man of progress. She is a Conservative.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then we will say good-bye,” said Miss Walker, extending her small plump
- hand in friendly parting. “I accept your challenge which this interview
- implies. I will succeed if God lives,” and she set her lips with a snap
- that spoke volumes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And I will watch you from afar with sorrow and fear and trembling,”
- responded the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER VII—THE HEART OF A CHILD
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>RS. GASTON’S
- recovery from the brain fever which followed her prostration was slow and
- painful. For days she would be quite herself as she would sit up in bed
- and smile at the wistful face of the boy who sat tenderly gazing into her
- eyes, or with swift feet was running to do her slightest wish.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then days of relapse would follow when the child’s heart would ache and
- ache with a dumb sense of despair as he listened to her incoherent talk,
- and heard her meaningless laughter. When at length he could endure it no
- longer, he would call Aunt Eve, run from the house, as fast as his little
- legs could carry him, and in the woods lie down in the shadows and cry for
- hours.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wonder if God is dead?” he said one day as he lay and gazed at the
- clouds sweeping past the openings in the green foliage above.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I pray every day and every night, but she don’t get well. Why does He
- leave her like that, when she’s so good!” and then his voice choked into
- sobs, and he buried his face in the leaves.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was suddenly roused by the voice of Nelse who stood looking down on his
- forlorn figure with tenderness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What you doin’ out in dese woods, honey, by yo’ se’f?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nothin’, Nelse.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I knows. You’se er crying ’bout yo Ma.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The boy nodded without looking up.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doan do dat way, honey. You’se too little ter cry lak dat. Yer Ma’s
- gittin’ better ev’ry day, de doctor done tole me so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you think so, Nelse?” There was an eagerness and yearning in the
- child’s voice, that would have moved the heart of a stone.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cose I does. She be strong en well in little while when cole wedder
- comes. Fros ’ll soon be here. I see whar er ole rabbit been er
- eatin’ on my turnip tops. Dat’s er sho sign. I gwine make you er rabbit
- box ter-morrer ter ketch dat rabbit.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will you, Nelse?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sho’s you bawn. Now des lemme pick you er chune on dis banjer ’fo
- I goes ter my wuk.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Of all the music he had ever heard, the boy thought Nelse’s banjo was the
- sweetest. He accompanied the music in a deep bass voice which he kept soft
- and soothing. The boy sat entranced. With wide open eyes and half parted
- lips he dreamed his mother was well, and then that he had grown to be a
- man, a great man, rich and powerful. Now he was the Governor of the state,
- living in the Governor’s palace, and his mother was presiding at a banquet
- in his honour. He was bending proudly over her and whispering to her that
- she was the most beautiful mother in the world. And he could hear her say
- with a smile, “You dear boy!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Suddenly the banjo stopped, and Nelse railed with mock severity, “Now look
- at ’im er cryin’ ergin, en me er pickin’ de eens er my fingers off
- fur ’im!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, I aint cryin’. I am just listenin’ to the music. Nelse, you’re the
- greatest banjo player in the world!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Na, honey, hits de banjer. Dats de Jo-bloin’est banjer! En des ter t’ink—er
- Yankee gin’er to me in de wah! Dat wuz the fus’ Yankee I ebber seed hab
- sense enuf ter own er banjer. I kinder hate ter fight dem Yankees atter
- dat.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But Nelse, if you were fighting with our men how did you get close to any
- Yankees?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lawd child, we’s allers slippin’ out twixt de lines atter night er
- carryin’ on wid dem Yankees. We trade ’em terbaccer fur coffee en
- sugar, en play cyards, en talk twell mos’ day sometime. I slip out fust in
- er patch er woods twix’ de lines, en make my banjer talk. En den yere dey
- come! De Yankees fum one way en our boys de yudder. I make out lak I doan
- see ’em tall, des playin’ ter myself. Den I make dat banjer moan en
- cry en talk about de folks way down in Dixie. De boys creep up closer en
- closer twell dey right at my elbow en I see ’em cryin’, some un ’em—den
- I gin’er a juk! en way she go pluckety plunck! en dey gin ter dance and
- laugh! Sometime dey cuss me lak dey mad en lam me on de back. When dey hit
- me hard den I know dey ready ter gimme all dey got.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But how did you get this banjo, Nelse?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yankee gin’er ter me one night ter try’er, en when he hear me des fairly
- pull de insides outen ’er, he ’low dat hit ’ed be er
- sin ter ebber sep’rate us. Say he nebber know what ’uz in er
- banjer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse rose to go.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, honey, doan you cry no mo, en I make you dat rabbit box sho, en
- erlong ’bout Chris’mas I gwine larn you how ter shoot.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will you let me hold the gun?” the boy eagerly asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I des sho you how ter poke yo gun in de crack er de fence en whisper ter
- de trigger. Den look out birds en rabbits!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The boy’s face was one great smile.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was late in September before his mother was strong enough to venture
- out of the house—six terrible months from the day she was stricken.
- What an age it seemed to a sensitive boy’s soul. To him the days were
- weeks, the weeks months, the months, long weary years. It seemed to him he
- had lived a life-time, died, and was born again the day he saw her first
- walking on the soft grass that grew under the big trees at the back of the
- house. He was gently holding her by the hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, Mama dear, sit here on this seat—you mustn’t get in the sun.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, Charlie, I want to see the flowers on the front lawn.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no, Mama, the sun is shinin’ awful on that side of the house!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A great fear caught the boy’s heart. The lawn had grown up a mass of weeds
- and grass during the long hot summer and he was afraid his mother would
- cry when she saw the ruin of those flowers she loved so well.
- </p>
- <p>
- How impossible for his child’s mind to foresee the gathering black
- hurricane of tragedy and ruin soon to burst over that lawn!
- </p>
- <p>
- Skillfully and firmly he kept her on the seat in the rear where she could
- not see the lawn. He said everything he could think of to please her. She
- would smile and kiss him in her old sweet way until his heart was full to
- bursting.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you remember, Mama, how many times when you were so sick I used to
- slip up close and kiss your mouth and eyes?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I often dreamed you were kissing me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I thought you would know. I’ll soon be a man. I’m going to be rich, and
- build a great house and you are going to live in it with me, and I am to
- take care of you as long as you live.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I expect you will marry some pretty girl, and almost forget your old Mama
- who will be getting grey.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But I’ll never love anybody like I love you, Mama dear!”
- </p>
- <p>
- His little arms slipped around her neck, held her close for a moment, and
- then he tenderly kissed her.
- </p>
- <p>
- After supper he sought Nelse.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nelse, we must work out the flowers in the lawn. Mama wants to see them.
- It was all I could do to keep her from going out there to-day.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lawd chile, hit’ll take two niggers er week ter clean out dat lawn. Hits
- gone fur dis year. Yer Ma’ll know dat, honey.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The next morning after breakfast the boy found a hoe, and in the piercing
- sun began manfully to work at those flowers. He had worked perhaps, a half
- hour. His face was red with heat and wet with sweat. He was tired already
- and seemed to make no impression on the wilderness of weeds and grass.
- </p>
- <p>
- Suddenly he looked up and saw his mother smiling at him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come here, Charlie!” she called.
- </p>
- <p>
- He dropped his hoe and hurried to her side. She caught him in her arms and
- kissed the sweat drops from his eyes and mouth.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are the sweetest boy in the world!”
- </p>
- <p>
- What music to his soul these words to the last day of his life!
- </p>
- <p>
- “I was afraid when you saw all these weeds you would cry about your
- flowers, Mama.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It does hurt me, dear, to see them, but it’s worth all their loss to see
- you out there in the broiling sun working so hard to please me. I’ve seen
- the most beautiful flower this morning that ever blossomed on my lawn!—and
- its perfume will make sweet my whole life. I am going to be brave and live
- for you now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- And she kissed him fondly again.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER VIII—AN EXPERIMENT IN MATRIMONY
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">N</span>ELSE was informed
- by the Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau when summoned before that tribunal
- that he must pay a fee of one dollar for a marriage license and be married
- over again.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s dat? Dis yer war bust up me en Eve’s marryin’?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” said the Agent. “You must be legally married.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse chucked on a brilliant scheme that flashed through his mind.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Den I see you ergin ’bout dat,” he said as he hastily took his
- leave.
- </p>
- <p>
- He made his way homeward revolving his brilliant scheme. “But won’t I
- fetch dat nigger Eve down er peg er two! I gwine ter make her t’ink I won’
- marry her nohow. I make’er ax my pardon fur all dem little disergreements.
- She got ter talk mighty putty now sho nuf!” And he smiled over his coming
- triumph.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was four o’clock in the afternoon when he reached his cabin door on the
- lot back of Mrs. Gaston’s home. Eve was busy mending some clothes for
- their little boy now nearly five years old.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good evenin’, Miss Eve!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Eve looked up at him with a sudden flash of her eye. “What de matter wid
- you nigger?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nuttin’ tall. Des drapped in lak ter pass de time er day, en ax how’s you
- en yer son stallin’ dis hot wedder!” Nelse bowed and smiled.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What ail you, you big black baboon?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nuttin’ tall M’am, des callin’ roun’ ter see my frien’s.” Still smiling
- Nelse walked in and sat down.
- </p>
- <p>
- Eve put down her sewing, stood up before him, her arms akimbo, and gazed
- at him steadily till the whites of her eyes began to shine like two moons.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You wants me ter whale you ober de head wid dat poker?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not dis evenin’, M’am.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Den what ail you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “De Buro des inform me, dat es I’se er young han’some man en you’se er
- gittin’ kinder ole en fat, dat we aint married nohow. En dey gimme er
- paper fur er dollar dat allow me ter marry de young lady er my choice. Dat
- sho is er great Buro!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We aint married?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nob-um.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Atter we stan’ up dar befo’ Marse John Durham en say des what all dem
- white folks say?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nob-um.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Eve slowly took her seat and gazed down the road thoughtfully.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I t’ink I drap eroun’ ter see you en gin you er chance wid de odder gals
- fo’ I steps off,” explained Nelse with a grin.
- </p>
- <p>
- No answer.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You ’member dat night I say sumfin’ ’bout er gal I know
- once, en you riz en grab er poun’ er wool outen my head fo’ I kin move?”
- </p>
- <p>
- No answer yet.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Min’ dat time, you bust de biscuit bode ober my head, en lam me wid de
- fire-shovel, en hit me in de burr er de year wid er flatiron es I wuz
- makin’ fur de do’?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yas, I min’s dat sho!” said Eve with evident satisfaction.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doan you wish you nebber done dat?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You black debbil!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dat’s hit! I’se er bad nigger, M’am,—bad nigger fo’ de war. En I’se
- gittin’ wuss en wuss,” Nelse chuckled.
- </p>
- <p>
- She looked at him with gathering rage and contempt.
- </p>
- <p>
- “En den fudder mo, M’am, I doan lak de way you talk ter me sometimes. Yo
- voice des kinder takes de skin off same’s er file. I laks ter hear er ’oman’s
- voice lak my Missy’s, des es sof’ es wool. Sometime one word from her keep
- me warm all winter. De way you talk sometime make me cole in de summer
- time.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse rose while Eve sat motionless.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I des call, M’am, ter drap er little intent inter dem years er yourn,
- dat’ll percerlate froo you min’, en when I calls ergin I hopes ter be
- welcome wid smiles.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse bowed himself out the door in grandiloquent style.
- </p>
- <p>
- All the afternoon he was laughing to himself over his triumph, and
- imagining the welcome when he returned that evening with his marriage
- license and the officer to perform the ceremony. At supper in the kitchen
- he was polite and formal in his manners to Eve. She eyed him in a
- contemptuous sort of way and never spoke unless it was absolutely
- necessary.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was about half past eight when Nelse arrived at home with the license
- duly issued and the officer of the Bureau ready to perform the ceremony.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Des wait er minute here at de corner, sah, twell I kinder breaks de news
- to ’em,” said Nelse to the officer. He approached the cabin door
- and knocked.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was shut and fastened. He got no response.
- </p>
- <p>
- He knocked loudly again.
- </p>
- <p>
- Eve thrust her head out the window.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who’s dat?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hits me, M’am, Mister Nelson Gaston, I’se call ter see you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Den you hump yo’se’f en git away from dat do, you rascal.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “De Lawd, honey, I’se des been er foolin’ you ter day. I’se got dem
- licenses en de Buro man right out dar now ready ter marry us. You know yo
- ole man nebber gwine back on you—I des been er foolin’.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Den you been er foolin’ wid de wrong nigger!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lawd, honey, doan keep de bridegroom er waitin’.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Git er way from dat do!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “G’long chile, en quit yer projeckin’.” Nelse was using his softest and
- most persuasive tones now.
- </p>
- <p>
- “G’way from dat do!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come on, Eve, de man waitin’ out dar fur us!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Git away I tells you er I scald you wid er kittle er hot water!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse drew back slightly from the door.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, honey, whar yo ole man gwine ter sleep?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dey’s straw in de barn, en pine shatters in de dog house!” she shouted
- slamming the window.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Eve, honey!”—
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doan you come honeyin’ me, I’se er spec’able ’oman I is. Ef you
- wants ter marry me you got ter come cotin’ me in de day time fust, en
- bring me candy, en ribbins en flowers and sich, en you got ter talk
- purtier’n you ebber talk in all yo born days. Lots er likely lookin’
- niggers come settin up ter me while you gone in dat wah, en I keep studin’
- ’bout you, you big black rascal. Now you got ter hump yo’se’f ef
- you eber see de inside er dis cabin ergin.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Crestfallen Nelse returned to the officer.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Wall sah, deys er kinder hitch in de perceedins.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s the matter?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She ’low I got ter come cotin’ her fust. En I spec I is.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The officer laughed and returned to his home. She made Nelse sleep in the
- barn for three weeks, court her an hour every day, and bring her five
- cents worth of red stick candy and a bouquet of flowers as a peace
- offering at every visit. Finally she made him write her a note and ask her
- to take a ride with him. Nelse got Charlie to write it for him, and made
- his own boy carry it to his mother. After three weeks of humility and
- attention to her wishes, she gave her consent, and they were duly married
- again.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER IX—A MASTER OF MEN
- </h2>
- <p>
- THE first Monday in October was court day at Hambright, and from every
- nook and corner of Campbell county, the people flocked to town.
- </p>
- <p>
- The court house had not yet been transformed into the farce-tragedy hall
- where jail birds and drunken loafers were soon to sit on judge’s bench and
- in attorney’s chair instead of standing in the prisoner’s dock. The
- merciful stay laws enacted by the Legislature had silenced the cry of the
- auctioneer until the people might have a moment to gird themselves for a
- new life struggle.
- </p>
- <p>
- But the black cloud was already seen on the horizon. The people were
- restless and discouraged by the wild rumours set afloat by the Freedman’s
- Bureau, of coming confiscation, revolution and revenge. A greater crowd
- than usual had come to town on the first day. The streets were black with
- negroes.
- </p>
- <p>
- A shout was heard from the crowd in the square, as the stalwart figure of
- General Daniel Worth, the brigade commander of Colonel Gaston’s regiment
- was seen shaking hands with the men of his old army.
- </p>
- <p>
- The General was a man to command instant attention in any crowd. An expert
- in anthropology would have selected his face from among a thousand as the
- typical man of the Caucasian race. He was above the average height, a
- strong muscular and well-rounded body, crowned by a heavy shock of what
- had once been raven black hair, now iron grey. His face was ruddy with the
- glow of perfect health and his full round lips and the twinkle of his eye
- showed him to be a lover of the good things of life. He wore a heavy
- moustache which seemed a fitting ballast for the lower part of his face
- against the heavy projecting straight eyebrows and bushy hair.
- </p>
- <p>
- As he shook hands with his old soldiers his face was wreathed in smiles,
- his eyes flashed with something like tears and he had a pleasant word for
- all.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom Camp was one of the first to spy the General and hobble to him as fast
- as his peg-leg would carry him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Howdy, General, howdy do! Lordy it’s good for sore eyes ter see ye!” Tom
- held fast to his hand and turning to the crowd said, “Boys, here’s the
- best General that ever led a brigade, and there wasn’t a man in it that
- wouldn’t a died for him. Now three times three cheers!” And they gave it
- with a will.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! Tom you’re still at your old tricks,” said the General. “What are you
- after now?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A speech General!”—“A speech! A speech!” the crowd echoed.
- </p>
- <p>
- The General slapped Tom on the back and said, “What sort of a job is this
- you’re putting up on me—I’m no orator! But I’ll just say to you,
- boys, that this old peg-leg here was the finest soldier that I ever saw
- carry a musket and the men who stood beside him were the most patient, the
- most obedient, the bravest men that ever charged a foe and crowned their
- General with glory while he safely stood in the rear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Again a cheer broke forth. The General was hurrying toward the court
- house, when he was suddenly surrounded by a crowd of negroes. In the front
- ranks were a hundred of his old slaves who had worked on his Campbell
- county plantation. They seized his hands and laughed and cried and pleaded
- for recognition like a crowd of children. Most of them he knew. Some of
- their faces he had forgotten.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hi dar, Marse Dan’l, you knows me! Lordy, I’se your boy Joe dat used ter
- ketch yo hoss down at the plantation!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course, Joe! Of course.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know Marse Dan’l aint forget old Uncle Rube,” said an aged negro
- pushing his way to the front.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That I haven’t Reuben! and how’s Aunt Julie Ann?
- </p>
- <p>
- “She des tollable, Marse Dan’l. We’se bof un us had de plumbago. How is
- you all sence de wah?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! first rate, Reuben. We manage somehow to get enough to eat and if we
- do that nowadays we can’t complain.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dats de God’s truf, Marster sho! En now Marse Dan’l, we all wants you ter
- make us er speech en ’splain erbout dis freedom ter us. Dey’s so
- many dese yere Buroers en Leaguers round here tellin’ us niggers what’s er
- coming’, twell we des doan know nuttin’ fur sho.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir dat’s hit! You tell us er speech Marse Dan’l!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The white men crowded up nearer and joined in the cry. There was no
- escape. In a few moments the court house was filled with a crowd.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he arose a cheer shook the building, and strange as it may seem
- to-day, it came with almost equal enthusiasm from white and black.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I thank you, my friends,” said the General, “for this evidence of your
- confidence. I was a Whig in politics. I reckon I hated a Democrat as God
- hates sin. I was a Union man and fought Secession. My opponents won. My
- state asked me to defend her soil. As an obedient son I gave my life in
- loyal service.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I need not tell you as a Union man that I am glad this war is over. I
- have always felt as a business man, a cotton manufacturer as well as
- farmer, in touch with the free labour of the North as well as the slave
- labour of the South, that free labour was the most economical and
- efficient. I believe that terrible as the loss of four billions of dollars
- in slaves will be to the South, if the South is only let alone by the
- politicians and allowed to develop her resources, she will become what God
- meant her to be, the garden of the world. I say it calmly and
- deliberately, I thank God that slavery is a thing of the past.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A whirlwind of applause arose from the negroes. Uncle Reuben’s voice could
- be heard above the din.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hear dat! You niggers! Dat’s my ole Marster talkin’ now!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let me say to the negroes here to-day, this war was not fought for your
- freedom by the North, and yet in its terrific struggle, God saw fit to
- give you freedom. Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are now yours
- and the birthright of your children.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We need your labour. Be honest, humble, patient, industrious and every
- white man in the South will be your friend. What you need now is to go to
- work with all your might, build a roof over your head, get a few acres of
- land under your feet that is your own, put decent clothes on your back,
- and some money in the bank, and you will become indispensable to the
- people of the South. They will be your best friends and give you every
- right and privilege you are prepared to receive.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The man who tells you that your old Master’s land will be divided among
- you, is a criminal, or a fool, or both. If you ever own land, you will
- earn it in the sweat of your brow like I got mine.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hear dat now, niggers!” cried old Reuben.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The man who tells you that you are going to be given the ballot
- indiscriminately with which you can rule your old masters is a criminal or
- a fool, or both. It is insanity to talk about the enfranchisement of a
- million slaves who can not read their ballots. Mr. Lincoln who set you
- free was opposed to any such measure.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let me read an extract from a letter Mr. Lincoln wrote me just before the
- war.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General drew from his pocket a letter in the handwriting of the
- President and read:—
- </p>
- <p>
- “<i>My Dear Worth:—You must hold the Union men of the South together
- at all hazards. The one passion of my soul is to save the Union. In answer
- to the question you ask me about the equality of the races I enclose you a
- newspaper clipping reporting my reply to Judge Douglas at Charleston,
- Sept. 18, 1858. I could not express myself more plainly. Have this extract
- published in every paper in the South you can get to print it.</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General paused and turning toward the negroes said, “Now listen
- carefully to every word. Says Mr. Lincoln, <i>I am not, nor ever have been
- in favour of bringing about in any way the social and political equality
- of the white and black races! (here is marked applause from a Northern
- audience.) I am not, nor ever have been in favour of making voters or
- jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to
- intermarry with white people. I will say in addition to this that there is
- a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe
- will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and
- political equality: and inasmuch as they can not so live, while they do
- remain together, there must be the position of the inferior and superior,
- and I am, as much as any other man, in favour of having the superior
- position assigned to the white race.</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- “This was Lincoln’s position and is the position of nine-tenths of the
- voters of his party. It is insanity to believe that the Anglo-Saxon race
- at the North can ever be so blinded by passion that they can assume any
- other position.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Slavery is dead for all time. It would have been destroyed whatever the
- end of the war. I know some of the secrets of the diplomatic history of
- the Confederacy. General Lee asked the government at Richmond to enlist
- 200,000 negroes to defend the South, which he declared was their country
- as well as ours, and grant them freedom on enlistment. General Lee’s
- request was ultimately accepted as the policy of the Confederacy though
- too late to save its waning fortunes. Not only this, but the Confederate
- government sent a special ambassador to England and France and offered
- them the pledge of the South to emancipate every slave in return for the
- recognition of the independence of the Confederacy. But when the
- ambassador arrived in Europe, the lines of our army had been so broken,
- the governments were afraid to interfere.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The man who tells you that your old masters are your enemies and may try
- to reinslave you is a wilful and malicious liar.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hear dat, folks!” yelled old Reuben as he waved his arm grandly toward
- the crowd.
- </p>
- <p>
- “To the white people here to-day, I say be of good cheer. Let politics
- alone for awhile and build up your ruined homes. You have boundless wealth
- in your soil. God will not forget to send the rain and the dew and the
- sun. You showed yourselves on a hundred fields ready to die for your
- country. Now I ask you to do something braver and harder. Live for her
- when it is hard to live. Let cowards run, but let the brave stand shoulder
- to shoulder and build up the waste places till our country is once more
- clothed in wealth and beauty.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General bowed in closing to a round of applause. His soldiers were
- delighted with his speech and his old slaves revelled In it with personal
- pride. But the rank and file of the negroes were puzzled. He did not
- preach the kind of doctrine they wished to hear. They had hoped freedom
- meant eternal rest, not work. They had dreamed of a life of ease with
- government rations three times a day, and old army clothes to last till
- they put on the white robes above and struck their golden harps in
- paradise. This message the General brought was painful to their newly
- awakened imaginations.
- </p>
- <p>
- As the General passed through the crowd he met the Ex-Provisional
- Governor, Amos Hogg, busy with the organising work of his Leagues.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Glad to see you General,” said Hogg extending his hand with a smile on
- his leathery face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, how are you, Amos, since Macon pulled your wool?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never felt better in my life, General. I want a few minutes’ talk with
- you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, what is it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “General, you’re a progressive man. Come, you’re flirting with the enemy.
- The truly loyal men must get together to rescue the state from the rebels
- who have it again under their heel.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So Macon’s a rebel because he licked you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know the rebel crowd are running this state,” said Hogg.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why, Hogg you were the biggest fool Secessionist I ever saw, and Macon
- and I were staunch Union men. We had to fight you tooth and nail. You talk
- about the truly loyal!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes but, General, I’ve repented. I’ve got my face turned toward the
- light.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I see,—the light that shines in the Governor’s Mansion.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t deny it. ‘Great men choose greater sins, ambition’s mine.’ Come
- into this Union movement with me, Worth, and I’ll make you the next
- Governor.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll see you in hell first. No, Amos, we don’t belong to the same breed.
- You were a Secessionist as long as it paid. When the people you had misled
- were being overwhelmed with ruin, and it no longer paid, you deserted and
- became ‘loyal’ to get an office. Now you’re organising the negroes,
- deserters, and criminals into your secret oath-bound societies. Union men
- when the war came fought on one side or the other, because a Union man was
- a man, not a coward. If he felt his state claimed his first love, he
- fought for his native soil. The gang of plugs you are getting together now
- as ‘truly loyal’ are simply cowards, deserters, and common criminals who
- claim they were persecuted as Union men. It’s a weak lie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We’ll win,” urged Hogg.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never!” the General snorted, and angrily turned on his heel. Before
- leaving he wheeled suddenly, faced Hogg and said, “Go on with your fool
- societies. You are sowing the wind. There’ll be a lively harvest. I am
- organising too. I’m organising a cotton mill, rebuilding our burned
- factory, borrowing money from the Yankees who licked us to buy machinery
- and give employment to thousands of our poor people. That’s the way to
- save the state. We’ve got water power enough to turn the wheels of the
- world.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’ll need our protection in the fight that’s coming,” replied Hogg,
- with a straight look that meant much.
- </p>
- <p>
- The General was silent a moment. Then he shook his fist in Hogg’s face and
- slowly said, “Let me tell you something. When I need protection I’ll go to
- headquarters. I’ve got Yankee money in my mills and I can get more if I
- need it. You lay your dirty claws on them and I’ll break your neck.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER X—THE MAN OR BRUTE IN EMBRYO
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>WO months later
- General Worth, while busy rebuilding his mills at Independence, had served
- on him a summons to appear before the Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau at
- Hambright and answer the charge of using “abusive language” to a freedman.
- </p>
- <p>
- The particular freedman who desired to have his feelings soothed by law
- was a lazy young negro about sixteen years old whom the General had
- ordered whipped and sent from the stables into the fields on one occasion
- during the war while on a visit to his farm. Evidently the boy had a long
- memory.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now don’t that beat the devil!” exclaimed the General.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is it?” asked his foreman.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve got to leave my work, ride on an old freight train thirty miles,
- pull through twenty more miles of red mud in a buggy to get to Hambright,
- and lose four days, to answer such a charge as that before some little
- wizeneyed skunk of a Bureau Agent. My God, it’s enough to make a Union man
- remember Secession with regrets!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My stars, General, we can’t get along without you now when we are getting
- this machinery in place. Send a lawyer,” growled the foreman.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can’t do it, John—I’m charged with a crime.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I’ll swear!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do the best you can, I’ll be back in four days, if I don’t kill a
- nigger!” said the General with a smile. “I’ve got a settlement to make
- with the farm hands anyhow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was no help for it. When the court convened, and the young negro saw
- the face of his old master red with wrath, his heart failed him. He fled
- the town and there was no accusing witness.
- </p>
- <p>
- The General gazed at the Agent with cold contempt and never opened his
- mouth in answer to expressions of regret at the fiasco.
- </p>
- <p>
- A few moments later he rode up to the gate of his farm house on the river
- hills about a mile out of town. A strapping young fellow of fifteen
- hastened to open the gate.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, Allan, my boy, how are you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “First rate, General. We’re glad to see you! but we didn’t make a half
- crop, sir, the niggers were always in town loafing around that Freedman’s
- Bureau, holding meetings all night and going to sleep in the fields.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, show me the books,” said the General as they entered the house.
- </p>
- <p>
- The General examined the accounts with care and then looked at young Allan
- McLeod for a moment as though he had made a discovery.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Young man, you’ve done this work well.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I tried to, sir. If the niggers dispute anything, I fixed that by making
- the store-keepers charge each item in two books, one on your account, and
- one on an account kept separate for every nigger.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good enough. They’ll get up early to get ahead of you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m afraid they are going to make trouble at the Bureau, sir. That
- Agent’s been here holding Union League meetings two or three nights every
- week, and he’s got every nigger under his thumb.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The dirty whelp!” growled the General.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you can see me out of the trouble, General, I’d like to jump on him
- and beat the life out of him next time he comes out here!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General frowned.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t you touch him,—any more than you would a pole cat. I’ve
- trouble enough just now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I could knock the mud out of him in two minutes, if you say the word,”
- said Allan eagerly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I’ve no doubt of it.” The General looked at him thoughtfully.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was a well knit powerful youth just turned his fifteenth birthday. He
- had red hair, a freckled face, and florid complexion. His features were
- regular and pleasing, and his stalwart muscular figure gave him a handsome
- look that impressed one with indomitable physical energy. His lips were
- full and sensuous, his eyebrows straight, and his high forehead spoke of
- brain power as well as horse power.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had a habit of licking his lips and running his tongue around inside of
- his cheeks when he saw anything or heard anything that pleased him that
- was far from intellectual in its suggestiveness. When he did this one
- could not help feeling that he was looking at a young well fed tiger.
- There was no doubt about his being alive and that he enjoyed it. His
- boisterous voice and ready laughter emphasised this impression.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Allan, my boy,” said the General when he had examined his accounts, “if
- you do everything in life as well as you did these books, you’ll make a
- success.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m going to do my best to succeed, General. I’ll not be a poor white
- man. I’ll promise you that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you go to church anywhere?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No sir, Maw’s not a member of any church, and it’s so far to town I don’t
- go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you must go. You must go to the Sunday School too, and get
- acquainted with all the young folks. I’ll speak to Mrs. Durham and get her
- to look after you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, sir, I’ll start next Sunday.” Allan was feeling just then in a
- good humour with himself and all the world. The compliment of his employer
- had so elated him, he felt fully prepared to enter the ministry if the
- General had only suggested it.
- </p>
- <p>
- The following day was appointed for a settlement of the annual contract
- with the negroes. The Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau was the judge before
- whom the General, his overseer, and clerk of account, and all the negroes
- assembled.
- </p>
- <p>
- If the devil himself had devised an instrument for creating race
- antagonism and strife he could not have improved on this Bureau in its
- actual workings. Had clean handed, competent agents been possible it might
- have accomplished good. These agents were as a rule the riff-raff and
- trash of the North. It was the supreme opportunity of army cooks,
- teamsters, fakirs, and broken down preachers who had turned insurance
- agents. They were lifted from penury to affluence and power. The
- possibility of corruption and downright theft were practically limitless.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Agent at Hambright had been a preacher in Michigan who lost his church
- because of unsavory rumours about his character. He had eked out a living
- as a book agent, and then insurance agent. He was a man of some education
- and had a glib tongue which the negroes readily mistook for inspired
- eloquence. He assumed great dignity and an extraordinary judicial tone of
- voice when adjusting accounts.
- </p>
- <p>
- General Worth submitted his accounts and they showed that all but six of
- the fifty negroes employed had a little overdrawn their wages in
- provisions and clothing.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I think there is a mistake, General, in these accounts,” said the Rev.
- Ezra Perkins the Agent.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What?” thundered the General.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A mistake in your view of the contracts,” answered Ezra in his oiliest
- tone.
- </p>
- <p>
- The negroes began to grin and nudge one another, amid exclamations of “Dar
- now!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hear dat!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What do you mean? The contracts are plain. There can be but one
- interpretation. I agreed to furnish the men their supplies in advance and
- wait until the end of the year for adjustment after the crops were
- gathered. As it is, I will lose over five hundred dollars on the farm.”
- The General paused and looked at the Agent with rising wrath.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s useless to talk. I decide that under this contract you are to
- furnish supplies yourself and pay your people their monthly wages besides.
- I have figured it out that you owe them a little over fifteen hundred
- dollars.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Fifteen hundred dollars! You thief!”——
- </p>
- <p>
- “Softly, softly!—I’ll commit you for contempt of court!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General turned on his heel without a word, sprang on his horse, and in
- a few minutes alighted at the hotel. He encountered the assistant agent of
- the Bureau on the steps.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0004" id="linkimage-0004"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0097.jpg" alt="0097 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0097.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- “Did you wish to see me, General?” he asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No! I’m looking for a man—a Union soldier not a turkey buzzard!” He
- dashed up to the clerk’s desk.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is Major Grant in his room?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tell him I want to see him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What can I do for you, General Worth?” asked the Major as he hastened to
- meet him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Major Grant, I understand you are a lawyer. You are a man of principle,
- or you wouldn’t have fought. When I meet a man that fought us I know I am
- talking to a man, not a skunk. This greasy sanctified Bureau Agent, has
- decided that I owe my hands fifteen hundred dollars. He knows it’s a lie.
- But his power is absolute. I have no appeal to a court. He has all the
- negroes under his thumb and he is simply arranging to steal this money. I
- want to pay you a hundred dollars as a retainer and have you settle with
- the Lord’s anointed, the Rev. Ezra Perkins for me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “With pleasure, General. And it shall not cost you a cent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll be glad to pay you, Major. Such a decision enforced against me now
- would mean absolute ruin. I can’t borrow another cent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Leave Ezra with me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why couldn’t they put soldiers into this Bureau if they had to have it,
- instead of these skunks and wolves?” snorted the General.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, some of them are a little off in the odour of their records at
- home, I’ll admit,” said the Major with a dry smile. “But this is the day
- of the carrion crow, General. You know they always follow the armies. They
- attack the wounded as well as the dead. You have my heartfelt sympathy.
- You have dark days ahead! The death of Mr. Lincoln was the most awful
- calamity that could possibly have befallen the South. I’m sorry. I’ve
- learned to like you Southerners, and to love these beautiful skies, and
- fields of eternal green. It’s my country and yours. I fought you to keep
- it as the heritage of my children.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General’s eyes filled with tears and the two men silently clasped each
- other’s hands.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Send in your accounts by your clerk. I’ll look them over to-night and
- I’ve no doubt the Honourable Reverend Ezra Perkins will see a new light
- with the rising of tomorrow’s sun.”
- </p>
- <p>
- And Ezra did see a new light. As the Major cursed him in all the moods and
- tenses he knew, Ezra thought he smelled brimstone in that light.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I assure you, Major, I’m sorry the thing happened. My assistant did all
- the work on these papers. I hadn’t time to give them personal attention,”
- the Agent apologised in his humblest voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’re a liar. Don’t waste your breath.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Ezra bit his lips and pulled his Mormon whiskers.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Write out your decision now—this minute—confirming these
- accounts in double quick order, unless you are looking for trouble.”
- </p>
- <p>
- And Ezra hastened to do as he was bidden.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next day while the General was seated on the porch of the little hotel
- discussing his campaigns with Major Grant, Tom Camp sent for him.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom took the General round behind his house, with grave ceremony.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What are you up to, Tom?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Show you in a minute! I wish I could make you a handsomer present,
- General, to show you how much I think of you. But I know yer weakness
- anyhow. There’s the finest lot er lightwood you ever seed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom turned back some old bagging and revealed a pile of fat pine chips
- covered with rosin, evidently chipped carefully out of the boxed place of
- live pine trees.
- </p>
- <p>
- The General had two crochets, lightwood and waterpower. When he got hold
- of a fine lot of lightwood suitable for kindling fires, he would fill his
- closet with it, conceal it under his bed, and sometimes under his
- mattress. He would even hide it in his bureau drawers and wardrobe and
- take it out in little bits like a miser.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lord Tom, that beats the world!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ain’t it fine? Just smell?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Rosin on every piece! Tom, you cut every tree on your place and every
- tree in two miles clean to get that. You couldn’t have made me a gift I
- would appreciate more. Old boy, if there’s ever a time in your life that
- you need a friend, you know where to find me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I knowed ye’d like it!” said Tom with a smile.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, you’re a man after my own heart. You’re feeling rich enough to make
- your General a present when we are all about to starve. You’re a man of
- faith. So am I. I say keep a stiff upper lip and peg away. The sun still
- shines, the rains refresh, and water runs down hill yet. That’s one thing
- Uncle Billy Sherman’s army couldn’t do much with when they put us to the
- test of fire. He couldn’t burn up our water power. Tom, you may not know
- it, but I do—we’ve got water power enough to turn every wheel in the
- world. Wait till we get our harness on it and make it spin and weave our
- cotton,—we’ll feed and clothe the human race. Faith’s my motto. I
- can hardly get enough to eat now, but better times are coming. A man’s
- just as big as his faith. I’ve got faith in the South. I’ve got faith in
- the good will of the people of the North. Slavery is dead. They can’t feel
- anything but kindly toward an enemy that fought as bravely and lost all.
- We’ve got one country now and it’s going to be a great one.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’re right, General, faith’s the word.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, you don’t know how this gift from you touches me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General pressed the old soldier’s hand with feeling. He changed his
- orders from a buggy to a two-horse team that could carry all his precious
- lightwood.
- </p>
- <p>
- He filled the vehicle, and what was left he packed carefully in his
- valise.
- </p>
- <p>
- He stopped his team in front of the Baptist parsonage to see Mrs. Durham
- about Allan McLeod.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Delighted to see you, General Worth. It’s refreshing to look into the
- faces of our great leaders, if they are still outlawed as rebels by the
- Washington government.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah, Madam, I need not say it is refreshing to see you, the rarest and
- most beautiful flower of the old South in the days of her wealth and
- pride! And always the same!” The General bowed over her hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I haven’t surrendered yet.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you never will,” he laughed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why should I? They’ve done their worst. They have robbed me of all. I’ve
- only rags and ashes left.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Things might still be worse, Madam.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t see it. There is nothing but suffering and ruin before us. These
- ignorant negroes are now being taught by people who hate or misunderstand
- us. They can only be a scourge to society. I am heart-sick when I try to
- think of the future!”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was a mist about her eyes that betrayed the deep emotion with which
- she uttered the last sentence.
- </p>
- <p>
- She was a queenly woman of the brunette type with full face of striking
- beauty surmounted by a mass of rich chestnut hair. The loss of her slaves
- and estate in the war had burned its message of bitterness into her soul.
- She had the ways of that imperious aristocracy of the South that only
- slavery could nourish. She was still uncompromising upon every issue that
- touched the life of the past.
- </p>
- <p>
- She believed in slavery as the only possible career for a negro in
- America. The war had left her cynical on the future of the new “Mulatto”
- nation as she called it, born in its agony. Her only child had died during
- the war, and this great sorrow had not softened but rather hardened her
- nature.
- </p>
- <p>
- Her husband’s career as a preacher was now a double cross to her because
- it meant the doom of eternal poverty. In spite of her love for her husband
- and her determination with all her opposite tastes to do her duty as his
- wife, she could not get used to poverty. She hated it in her soul with
- quiet intensity.
- </p>
- <p>
- The General was thinking of all this as he tried to frame a cheerful
- answer. Somehow he could not think of anything worth while to say to her.
- So he changed the subject.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mrs. Durham, I’ve called to ask your interest in your Sunday School in a
- boy who is a sort of ward of mine, young Allan McLeod.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That handsome red-headed fellow that looks like a tiger, I’ve seen
- playing in the streets?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I want you to tame him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I will try for your sake, though he’s a little older than any boy
- in my class. He must be over fifteen.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just fifteen. I’m deeply interested in him. I am going to give him a good
- education. His father was a drunken Scotchman in my brigade, whose loyalty
- to me as his chief was so genuine and touching I couldn’t help loving him.
- He was a man of fine intellect and some culture. His trouble was drink. He
- never could get up in life on that account. I have an idea that he married
- his wife while on one of his drunks. She is from down in Robeson county,
- and he told me she was related to the outlaws who have infested that
- section for years. This boy looks like his mother, though he gets that red
- hair and those laughing eyes from his father. I want you to take hold of
- him and civilise him for me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll try, General. You know, I love boys.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You will find him rude and boisterous at first, but I think he’s got
- something in him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll send for him to come to see me Saturday.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thank you, Madam. I must go. My love to Dr. Durham.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The next Saturday when Mrs. Durham walked into her little parlour to see
- Allan, the boy was scared nearly out of his wits. He sprang to his feet,
- stammered and blushed, and looked as though he were going to jump out of
- the window.
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Durham looked at him with a smile that quite disarmed his fears, took
- his outstretched hand, and held it trembling in hers.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know we will be good friends, won’t we?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yessum,” he stammered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you won’t tie any more tin cans to dogs like you did to Charlie
- Gaston’s little terrier, will you? I like boys full of life and spirit,
- just so they don’t do mean and cruel things.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The boy was ready to promise her anything. He was charmed with her beauty
- and gentle ways. He thought her the most beautiful woman he had ever seen
- in the world.
- </p>
- <p>
- As they started toward the door, she gently slipped one arm around him,
- put her hand under his chin and kissed him.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then he was ready to die for her. It was the first kiss he had ever
- received from a woman’s lips. His mother was not a demonstrative woman. He
- never recalled a kiss she had given him. His blood tingled with the
- delicious sense of this one’s sweetness. All the afternoon he sat out
- under a tree and dreamed and watched the house where this wonderful thing
- had happened to him.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XI—SIMON LEGREE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>N the death of Mr.
- Lincoln, a group of radical politicians, hitherto suppressed, saw their
- supreme opportunity to obtain control of the nation in the crisis of an
- approaching Presidential campaign.
- </p>
- <p>
- Now they could fasten their schemes of proscription, confiscation, and
- revenge upon the South.
- </p>
- <p>
- Mr. Lincoln had held these wolves at bay during his life by the power of
- his great personality. But the Lion was dead, and the Wolf, who had
- snarled and snapped at him in life, put on his skin and claimed the
- heritage of his power. The Wolf whispered his message of hate, and in the
- hour of partisan passion became the master of the nation.
- </p>
- <p>
- Busy feet had been hurrying back and forth from the Southern states to
- Washington whispering in the Wolf’s ear the stories of sure success, if
- only the plan of proscription, disfranchisement of whites, and
- enfranchisement of blacks were carried out.
- </p>
- <p>
- This movement was inaugurated two years after the war, with every Southern
- state in profound peace, and in a life and death struggle with nature to
- prevent famine. The new revolution destroyed the Union a second time,
- paralysed every industry in the South, and transformed ten peaceful states
- into roaring hells of anarchy. We have easily outlived the sorrows of the
- war. That was a surgery which healed the body. But the child has not yet
- been born whose children’s children will live to see the healing of the
- wounds from those four years of chaos, when fanatics blinded by passion,
- armed millions of ignorant negroes and thrust them into mortal combat with
- the proud, bleeding, halfstarving Anglo-Saxon race of the South. Such a
- deed once done, can never be undone. It fixes the status of these races
- for a thousand years, if not for eternity.
- </p>
- <p>
- The South was now rapidly gathering into two hostile armies under these
- influences, with race marks as uniforms—the Black against the White.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Negro army was under the command of a triumvirate, the Carpet-bagger
- from the North, the native Scalawag and the Negro Demagogue.
- </p>
- <p>
- Entirely distinct from either of these was the genuine Yankee soldier
- settler in the South after the war, who came because he loved its genial
- skies and kindly people.
- </p>
- <p>
- Ultimately some of these Northern settlers were forced into politics by
- conditions around them, and they constituted the only conscience and
- brains visible in public life during the reign of terror which the
- “Reconstruction” régime inaugurated.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the winter of 1866 the Union League at Hambright held a meeting of
- special importance. The attendance was large and enthusiastic.
- </p>
- <p>
- Amos Hogg, the defeated candidate for Governor in the last election, now
- the President of the Federation of “Loyal Leagues,” had sent a special
- ambassador to this meeting to receive reports and give instructions.
- </p>
- <p>
- This ambassador was none other than the famous Simon Legree of Red River,
- who had migrated to North Carolina attracted by the first proclamation of
- the President, announcing his plan for readmitting the state to the Union.
- The rumours of his death proved a mistake. He had quit drink, and set his
- mind on greater vices.
- </p>
- <p>
- In his face were the features of the distinguished ruffian whose cruelty
- to his slaves had made him unique in infamy in the annals of the South. He
- was now preeminently the type of the “truly loyal”. At the first rumour of
- war he had sold his negroes and migrated nearer the border land, that he
- might the better avoid service in either army. He succeeded in doing this.
- The last two years of the war, however, the enlisting officers pressed him
- hard, until finally he hit on a brilliant scheme.
- </p>
- <p>
- He shaved clean, and dressed as a German emigrant woman. He wore dresses
- for two years, did house work, milked the cows and cut wood for a good
- natured old German. He paid for his board, and passed for a sister, just
- from the old country.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the war closed, he resumed male attire, became a violent Union man,
- and swore that he had been hounded and persecuted without mercy by the
- Secessionist rebels.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was looking more at ease now than ever in his life. He wore a silk hat
- and a new suit of clothes made by a fashionable tailor in Raleigh. He was
- a little older looking than when he killed Uncle Tom on his farm some ten
- years before, but otherwise unchanged. He had the same short muscular
- body, round bullet head, light grey eyes and shaggy eyebrows, but his deep
- chestnut bristly hair had been trimmed by a barber. His coarse thick lips
- drooped at the corners of his mouth and emphasised the crook in his nose.
- His eyes, well set apart, as of old were bold, commanding, and flashed
- with the cold light of glittering steel. His teeth that once were pointed
- like the fangs of a wolf had been filed by a dentist. But it required more
- than the file of a dentist to smooth out of that face the ferocity and
- cruelty that years of dissolute habits had fixed.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was only forty-two years old, but the flabby flesh under his eyes and
- his enormous square-cut jaw made him look fully fifty.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was a spectacle for gods and men, to see him harangue that Union League
- in the platitudes of loyalty to the Union, and to watch the crowd of
- negroes hang breathless on his every word as the inspired Gospel of God.
- The only notable change in him from the old days was in his speech. He had
- hired a man to teach him grammar and pronunciation. He had high ambitions
- for the future.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Be of good cheer, beloved!” he said to the negroes. “A great day is
- coming for you. You are to rule this land. Your old masters are to dig in
- the fields and you are to sit under the shade and be gentlemen. Old Andy
- Johnson will be kicked out of the White House or hung, and the farms
- you’ve worked on so long will be divided among you. You can rent them to
- your old masters and live in ease the balance of your life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Glory to God!” shouted an old negro.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have just been to Washington for our great leader, Amos Hogg. I’ve seen
- Mr. Sumner, Mr. Stevens and Mr. Butler. I have shown them that we can
- carry any state in the South, if they will only give you the ballot and
- take it away from enough rebels. We have promised them the votes in the
- Presidential election, and they are going to give us what we want.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hallelujah! Amen! Yas Lawd!” The fervent exclamations came from every
- part of the room.
- </p>
- <p>
- After the meeting the negroes pressed around Legree and shook his hand
- with eagerness—the same hand that was red with the blood of their
- race.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the crowd had dispersed a meeting of the leaders was held.
- </p>
- <p>
- Dave Haley, the ex-slave trader from Kentucky who had dodged back and
- forth from the mountains of his native state to the mountains of Western
- North Carolina and kept out of the armies, was there. He had settled in
- Hambright and hoped at least to get the postoffice under the new
- dispensation.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the group was the full blooded negro, Tim Shelby. He had belonged to
- the Shelbys of Kentucky, but had escaped through Ohio into Canada before
- the war. He had returned home with great expectations of revolutions to
- follow in the wake of the victorious armies of the North. He had been
- disappointed in the programme of kindliness and mercy that immediately
- followed the fall of the Confederacy; but he had been busy day and night
- since the war in organising the negroes, in secretly furnishing them arms
- and wherever possible he had them grouped in military posts and regularly
- drilled. He was elated at the brilliant prospects which Legree’s report
- from Washington opened.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Glorious news you bring us, brother!” he exclaimed as he slapped Legree
- on the back.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and it’s straight.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did Mr. Stevens tell you so?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s the man that told me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you can tie to him. He’s the master now that rules the country,”
- said Tim with enthusiasm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You bet he’s runnin’ it. He showed me his bill to confiscate the property
- of the rebels and give it to the truly loyal and the niggers. It’s a
- hummer. You ought to have seen the old man’s eyes flash fire when he
- pulled that bill out of his desk and read it to me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When will he pass it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Two years, yet. He told me the fools up North were not quite ready for
- it; and that he had two other bills first, that would run the South crazy
- and so fire the North that he could pass anything he wanted and hang old
- Andy Johnson besides.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Praise God,” shouted Tim, as he threw his arms around Legree and hugged
- him.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tim kept his kinky hair cut close, and when excited he had a way of
- wrinkling his scalp so as to lift his ears up and down like a mule. His
- lips were big and thick, and he combed assiduously a tiny moustache which
- he tried in vain to pull out in straight Napoleonic style.
- </p>
- <p>
- He worked his scalp and ears vigourously as he exclaimed, “Tell us the
- whole plan, brother!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The plan’s simple,” said Legree. “Mr. Stevens is going to give the nigger
- the ballot, and take it from enough white men to give the niggers a
- majority. Then he will kick old Andy Johnson out of the White House, put
- the gag on the Supreme Court so the South can’t appeal, pass his bill to
- confiscate the property of the rebels and give it to loyal men and the
- niggers, and run the rebels out.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And the beauty of the plan is,” said Tim with unction, “that they are
- going to allow the Negro to vote to give himself the ballot and not allow
- the white man to vote against it. That’s what I call a dead sure thing.”
- Tim drew himself up, a sardonic grin revealing his white teeth from ear to
- ear, and burst into an impassioned harangue to the excited group. He was
- endowed with native eloquence, and had graduated from a college in Canada
- under the private tutorship of its professors. He was well versed in
- English History. He could hold an audience of negroes spell bound, and his
- audacity commanded the attention of the boldest white man who heard him.
- </p>
- <p>
- Legree, Perkins and Haley cheered his wild utterances and urged him to
- greater flights.
- </p>
- <p>
- He paused as though about to stop when Legree, evidently surprised and
- delighted at his powers said, “Go on! Go on!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, go on,” shouted Perkins. “We are done with race and colour lines.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A dreamy look came to Tim’s eyes as he continued, “Our proud white
- aristocrats of the South are in a panic it seems. They fear the coming
- power of the Negro. They fear their Desdemonas may be fascinated again by
- an Othello! Well, Othello’s day has come at last. If he has dreamed dreams
- in the past his tongue dared not speak, the day is fast coming when he
- will put these dreams into deeds, not words.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The South has not paid the penalties of her crimes. The work of the
- conqueror has not yet been done in this land. Our work now is to bring the
- proud low and exalt the lowly. This is the first duty of the conqueror.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The French Revolutionists established a tannery where they tanned the
- hides of dead aristocrats into leather with which they shod the common
- people. This was France in the eighteenth century with a thousand years of
- Christian culture.
- </p>
- <p>
- “When the English army conquered Scotland they hunted and killed every
- fugitive to a man, tore from the homes of their fallen foes their wives,
- stripped them naked, and made them follow the army begging bread, the
- laughing stock and sport of every soldier and camp follower! This was
- England in the meridian of Anglo-Saxon intellectual glory, the England of
- Shakespeare who was writing Othello to please the warlike populace.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I say to my people now in the language of the inspired Word, ‘All things
- are yours!’ I have been drilling and teaching them through the Union
- League, the young and the old. I have told the old men that they will be
- just as useful as the young. If they can’t carry a musket they can apply
- the torch when the time comes. And they are ready now to answer the call
- of the Lord!”
- </p>
- <p>
- They crowded around Tim and wrung his hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- Early in 1867, two years after the war, Thaddeus Stevens passed through
- Congress his famous bill destroying the governments of the Southern
- states, and dividing them into military districts, enfranchising the whole
- negro race, and disfranchising one-fourth of the whites. The army was sent
- back to the South to enforce these decrees at the point of the bayonet.
- The authority of the Supreme Court was destroyed by a supplementary act
- and the South denied the right of appeal. Mr. Stevens then introduced his
- bill to confiscate the property of the white people of the South. The
- negroes laid down their hoes and plows and began to gather in excited
- meetings. Crimes of violence increased daily. Not a night passed but that
- a burning barn or home wrote its message of anarchy on the black sky.
- </p>
- <p>
- The negroes refused to sign any contracts to work, to pay rents, or vacate
- their houses on notice even from the Freedman’s Bureau.
- </p>
- <p>
- The negroes on General Worth’s plantation, not only refused to work, or
- move, but organised to prevent any white man from putting his foot on the
- land.
- </p>
- <p>
- General Worth procured a special order from the headquarters of the
- Freedman’s Bureau for the district located at Independence. When the
- officer appeared and attempted to serve this notice, the negroes mobbed
- him.
- </p>
- <p>
- A company of troops were ordered to Hambright, and the notice served again
- by the Bureau official accompanied by the Captain of this company.
- </p>
- <p>
- The negroes asked for time to hold a meeting and discuss the question.
- They held their meeting and gathered fully five hundred men from the
- neighbourhood, all armed with revolvers or muskets. They asked Legree and
- Tim Shelby to tell them what they should do. There was no uncertain sound
- in what Legree said. He looked over the crowd of eager faces with pride
- and conscious power.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gentlemen, your duty is plain. Hold your land. It’s yours. You’ve worked
- it for a lifetime. These officers here tell you that old Andy Johnson has
- pardoned General Worth and that you have no rights on the land without his
- contract. I tell you old Andy Johnson has no right to pardon a rebel, and
- that he will be hung before another year. Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner
- and B. F. Butler are running this country. Mr. Stevens has never failed
- yet on anything he has set his hand. He has promised to give you the land.
- Stick to it. Shake your fist in old Andy Johnson’s face and the face of
- this Bureau and tell them so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dat we will!” shouted a negro woman, as Tim Shelby rose to speak.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have suffered,” said Tim. “Now let the white man suffer. Times have
- changed. In the old days the white man said, ‘John, come black my boots’!
- And the poor negro had to black his boots. I expect to see the day when I
- will say to a white man, ‘Black my boots!’ And the white man will tip his
- hat and hurry to do what I tell him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, Lawd! Glory to God! Hear dat now!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We will drive the white men out of this country. That is the purpose of
- our friends at Washington. If white men want to live in the South they can
- become our servants. If they don’t like their job they can move to a more
- congenial climate. You have Congress on your side, backed by a million
- bayonets. There is no President. The Supreme Court is chained. In San
- Domingo no white man is allowed to vote, hold office, or hold a foot of
- land. We will make this mighty South a more glorious San Domingo.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A frenzied shout rent the air. Tim and Legree were carried on the
- shoulders of stalwart men in triumphant procession with five hundred crazy
- negroes yelling and screaming at their heels.
- </p>
- <p>
- The officers made their escape in the confusion and beat a hasty retreat
- to town. They reported the situation to headquarters, and asked for
- instructions.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XII—RED SNOW DROPS
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE spirit of
- anarchy was in the tainted air. The bonds that held society were loosened.
- Government threatened to become organised crime instead of the organised
- virtue of the community.
- </p>
- <p>
- The report of crimes of unusual horror among the ignorant and the vicious
- began now to startle the world.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Rev. John Durham on his rounds among the poor discovered a little
- negro boy whom the parents had abandoned to starve. His father had become
- a drunken loafer at Independence and the Freedman’s Bureau delivered the
- child to his mother and her sister who lived in a cabin about two miles
- from Hambright, and ordered them to care for the boy.
- </p>
- <p>
- A few days later the child had disappeared. A search was instituted, and
- the charred bones were found in an old ash heap in the woods near this
- cabin. The mother had knocked him in the head and burned the body in a
- drunken orgie with dissolute companions.
- </p>
- <p>
- The sense of impending disaster crushed the hearts of thoughtful and
- serious people. One of the last acts of Governor Macon, whose office was
- now under the control of the military commandant at Charleston, South
- Carolina, was to issue a proclamation, appointing a day of fasting and
- prayer to God for deliverance from the ruin that threatened the state
- under the dominion of Legree and the negroes.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was a memorable day in the history of the people.
- </p>
- <p>
- In many places they met in the churches the night before, and held
- all-night watches and prayer meetings. They felt that a pestilence worse
- than the Black Death of the Middle Ages threatened to extinguish
- civilisation.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Baptist church at Hambright was crowded to the doors with white-faced
- women and sorrowful men.
- </p>
- <p>
- About ten o’clock in the morning, pale and haggard from a sleepless night
- of prayer and thought, the Preacher arose to address the people. The hush
- of death fell as he gazed silently over the audience for a moment. How
- pale his face! They had never seen him so moved with passions that stirred
- his inmost soul. His first words were addressed to God. He did not seem to
- see the people before him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Before the mountains were brought forth or ever Thou hadst formed the
- earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting Thou art God!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The people instinctively bowed their heads, fired by the subtle quality of
- intense emotion the tones of his voice communicated, and many of the
- people were already in tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thou turnest man to destruction: and sayest, return, ye children of men.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who knowest the power of thine anger?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent Thee concerning Thy
- servants.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Beloved,” he continued, “it was permitted unto your fathers and brothers
- and children to die for their country. You must live for her in the black
- hour of despair. There will be no roar of guns, no long lines of gleaming
- bayonets, no flash of pageantry or martial music to stir your souls.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are called to go down, man by man, alone, naked and unarmed in the
- blackness of night and fight with the powers of hell for your
- civilisation.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You must look this question squarely in the face. You are to be put to
- the supreme test. You are to stand at the judgment bar of the ages and
- make good your right to life. The attempt is to be deliberately made to
- blot out Anglo-Saxon society and substitute African barbarism.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A few years ago a Southern Representative in a stupid rage knocked
- Charles Sumner down with a cane and cracked his skull. Now it is this poor
- cracked brain, mad with hate and revenge, that is attempting to blot the
- Southern states from the map of the world and build Negro territories on
- their ruins. In the madness of party passions, for the first time in
- history, an anarchist, Thaddeus Stevens, has obtained the dictatorship of
- a great Constitutional Government, hauled down its flag and nailed the
- Black Flag of Confiscation and Revenge to its masthead.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The excuse given for this, that the lawmakers of the South attempted to
- reinslave the Negro by their enactments against vagrants and provisions
- for apprenticeship, is so weak a lie, it will not deserve the notice of a
- future historian. Every law passed on these subjects since the abolition
- of slavery was simply copied from the codes of the Northern states where
- free labour was the basis of society.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lincoln alone, with his great human heart and broad statesmanship could
- have saved us. But the South had no luck. Again and again in the war,
- victory was within her grasp, and an unseen hand snatched it away. In the
- hour of her defeat the bullet of a madman strikes down the great
- President, her last refuge in ruin!
- </p>
- <p>
- “God alone is our help. Let us hold fast to our faith in Him. We can only
- cry with aching hearts in the language of the Psalmist of old, ‘How long,
- O Lord? how long!’
- </p>
- <p>
- “The voices of three men now fill the world with their bluster—Charles
- Sumner, a crack-brained theorist; Thad-deus Stevens, a clubfooted
- misanthrope, and B. F. Butler, a triumvirate of physical and mental
- deformity. Yet they are but the cracked reeds of a great organ that peals
- forth the discord of a nation’s blind rage. When the storm is past, and
- reason rules passion, they will be flung into oblivion. We must bend to
- the storm. It is God’s will.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The people left the church with heavy hearts. They were hopelessly
- depressed. In the afternoon, as the churches were being slowly emptied,
- groups of negroes stood on the corners talking loudly and discussing the
- meaning of this new Sunday so strangely observed. It began to snow. It was
- late in March and this was an unusual phenomenon in the South.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next morning the earth was covered with four inches of snow, that
- glistened in the sun with a strange reddish hue. On examination it was
- found that every snow drop had in it a tiny red spot that looked like a
- drop of blood! Nothing of the kind had ever been seen before in the
- history of the world, so far as any one knew.
- </p>
- <p>
- This freak of nature seemed a harbinger of sure and terrible calamity.
- Even the most cultured and thoughtful could not shake off the impression
- it made.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher did his best to cheer the people in his daily intercourse
- with them. His Sunday sermons seemed in these darkest days unusually
- tender and hopeful. It was a marvel to those who heard his bitter and
- sorrowful speech on the day of fasting and prayer, that he could preach
- such sermons as those which followed.
- </p>
- <p>
- Occasionally old Uncle Joshua Miller would ask him to preach for the
- negroes in their new church on Sunday afternoons. He always went, hoping
- to keep some sort of helpful influence over them in spite of their new
- leaders and teachers. It was strange to watch this man shake hands with
- these negroes, call them familiarly by their names, ask kindly after their
- families, and yet carry in his heart the presage of a coming
- irreconcilable conflict. For no one knew more clearly than he, that the
- issues were being joined from the deadly grip of that conflict of races
- that would determine whether this Republic would be Mulatto or
- Anglo-Saxon. Yet at heart he had only the kindliest feelings for these
- familiar dusky faces now rising a black storm above the horizon,
- threatening the existence of civilised society, under the leadership of
- Simon Legree, and Mr. Stevens.
- </p>
- <p>
- It seemed a joke sometimes as he thought of it, a huge, preposterous joke,
- this actual attempt to reverse the order of nature, turn society upside
- down, and make a thicklipped, flat-nosed negro but yesterday taken from
- the jungle, the ruler of the proudest and strongest race of men evolved in
- two thousand years of history. Yet when he remembered the fierce passions
- in the hearts of the demagogues who were experimenting with this social
- dynamite, it was a joke that took on a hellish, sinister meaning.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XIII—DICK
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Charlie Gaston
- reached his home after a never-to-be-forgotten day in the woods with the
- Preacher, he found a ragged little dirt-smeared negro boy peeping through
- the fence into the woodyard.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What you want?” cried Charlie.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nuttin!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s your name?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dick.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who’s your father?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Haint got none. My mudder say she was tricked, en I’se de trick!” he
- chuckled and walled his eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- Charlie came close and looked him over. Dick giggled and showed the whites
- of his eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What made that streak on your neck?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nigger done it wid er axe.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What nigger?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Low life nigger name er Amos what stays roun’ our house Sundays.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What made him do it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He low he wuz me daddy, en I sez he wuz er liar, en den he grab de axe en
- try ter chop me head off.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gracious, he ’most killed you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir, but de doctor sewed me head back, en hit grow’d.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Goodness me!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Say!” grinned Dick.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I likes you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir, en I aint gwine home no mo’. I done run away, en I wants ter live
- wid you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will you help me and Nelse work?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dat I will. I can do mos’ anyting. You ax yer Ma fur me, en doan let dat
- nigger Nelse git holt er me.” Charlie’s heart went out to the ragged
- little waif. He took him by the hand, led him into the yard, found his
- mother, and begged her to give him a place to sleep and keep him.
- </p>
- <p>
- His mother tried to persuade him to make Dick go back to his own home.
- Nelse was loud in his objections to the new comer, and Aunt Eve looked at
- him as though she would throw him over the fence.
- </p>
- <p>
- But Dick stuck doggedly to Charlie’s heels.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mama dear, see, they tried to cut his head oft with an axe,” cried the
- boy, and he wheeled Dick around and showed the terrible scar across the
- back of his neck.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I spec hits er pity dey didn’t cut hit clean off,” muttered Nelse.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mama, you can’t send him back to be killed!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, darling, I’ll see about it to-morrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come on Dick, I’ll show you where to sleep!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The next day Dick’s mother was glad to get rid of him by binding him
- legally to Mrs. Gaston, and a lonely boy found a playmate and partner in
- work, he was never to forget.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XIV—THE NEGRO UPRISING
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE summer of 1867!
- Will ever a Southern man or woman who saw it forget its scenes? A group of
- oath-bound secret societies, The Union League, The Heroes of America, and
- The Red Strings dominating society, and marauding bands of negroes armed
- to the teeth terrorising the country, stealing, burning and murdering.
- </p>
- <p>
- Labour was not only demoralised, it had ceased to exist Depression was
- universal, farming paralysed, investments dead, and all property insecure.
- Moral obligations were dropping away from conduct, and a gulf as deep as
- hell and high as heaven opening between the two races.
- </p>
- <p>
- The negro preachers openly instructed their flocks to take what they
- needed from their white neighbours. If any man dared prosecute a thief,
- the answer was a burned barn or a home in ashes.
- </p>
- <p>
- The wildest passions held riot at Washington. The Congress of the United
- States as a deliberative body under constitutional forms of government no
- longer existed. The Speaker of the House shook his fist at the President
- and threatened openly to hang him, and he was arraigned for impeachment
- for daring to exercise the constitutional functions of his office!
- </p>
- <p>
- The division agents of the Freedman’s Bureau in the South sent to
- Washington the most alarming reports, declaring a famine imminent. In
- reply the vindictive leaders levied a tax of fifteen dollars a bale on
- cotton, plunging thousands of Southern farmers into immediate bankruptcy
- and giving to India and Egypt the mastery of the cotton markets of the
- world!
- </p>
- <p>
- Congress became to the desolate South what Attila, the “<i>Scourge of God</i>”
- was to civilised Europe.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Abolitionists of the North, whose conscience was the fire that kindled
- the Civil War, rose in solemn protest against this insanity. Their protest
- was drowned in the roar of multitudes maddened by demagogues who were
- preparing for a political campaign.
- </p>
- <p>
- Late in August Hambright and Campbell county were thrilled with horror at
- the report of a terrible crime. A whole white family had been murdered in
- their home, the father, mother and three children in one night, and no
- clue to the murderers could be found.
- </p>
- <p>
- Two days later the rumour spread over the country that a horde of negroes
- heavily armed were approaching Hambright burning, pillaging and murdering.
- </p>
- <p>
- All day terrified women, some walking with babes in their arms, some
- riding in old wagons and carrying what household goods they could load on
- them, were hurrying with blanched faces into the town.
- </p>
- <p>
- By night five hundred determined white men had answered an alarm bell and
- assembled in the court house. Every negro save a few faithful servants had
- disappeared. A strange stillness fell over the village.
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Gaston sat in her house without a light, looking anxiously out of the
- window, overwhelmed with the sense of helplessness. Charlie, frightened by
- the wild stories he had heard, was trying in spite of his fears to comfort
- her.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t cry, Mama!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m not crying because I’m afraid, darling, I’m only crying because your
- father is not here to-night. I can’t get used to living without him to
- protect us.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll take care of you, Mama—Nelse and me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where is Nelse?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s cleaning up the shot gun.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tell him to come here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When Nelse approached his Mistress asked, “Nelse, do you really think this
- tale is true?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, Missy, I doan believe nary word uf it. Same time I’se gettin’ ready
- fur ’em. Ef er nigger come foolin’ roun’ dis house ter night, he’ll
- t’ink he’s run ergin er whole regiment! I hain’t been ter wah fur
- nuttin’.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nelse, you have always been faithful. I trust you implicitly.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “De Lawd, Missy, dat you kin do! I fight fur you en dat boy till I drap
- dead in my tracks!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I believe you would.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yessum, cose I would. En I wants dat swo’de er Marse Charles to-night,
- Missy, en Charlie ter help me sharpen ’im on de grine stone.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She took the sword from its place and handed it to Nelse. Was there just a
- shade of doubt in her heart as she saw his black hand close over its hilt
- as he drew it from the scabbard and felt its edge! If so she gave no sign.
- </p>
- <p>
- Charlie turned the grindstone while Nelse proceeded to violate the laws of
- nations by putting a keen edge on the blade.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nebber seed no sense in dese dull swodes nohow!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why ain’t they sharp, Nelse?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doan know, honey. Marse Charles tell me de law doan ’low it, but
- dey sho hain’t no law now!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We’ll sharpen it, won’t we, Nelse?” whispered the boy as he turned
- faster.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dat us will, honey. En den you des watch me mow niggers ef dey come er
- prowlin’ round dis house!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you kill many Yankees in the war, Nelse?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doan know, honey, spec I did.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you going to take the gun or the sword?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bofe um ’em chile. I’se gwine ter shoot er pair er niggers fust,
- en den charge de whole gang wid dis swode. Hain’t nuttin’ er nigger’s
- feard uf lak er keen edge. Wish ter God I had a razer long es dis swode!
- I’d des walk clean froo er whole army er niggers wid guns. Man, hit ’ud
- des natchelly be er sight! Day’d slam dem guns down en bust demselves open
- gittin’ outen my way!”
- </p>
- <p>
- When the sun rose next morning the bodies of ten negroes lay dead and
- wounded in the road about a mile outside of town. The pickets thrown out
- in every direction had discovered their approach about eleven o’clock.
- They were allowed to advance within a mile. There were not more than two
- hundred in the gang, dozens of them were drunk, and like the Sepoys of
- India, they were under the command of a white Scalawag. At the first
- volley they broke and fled in wild disorder. Their leader managed to
- escape.
- </p>
- <p>
- This event cleared the atmosphere for a few weeks; and the people breathed
- more freely when another company of army regulars marched into the town
- and camped in the school grounds of the old academy.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XV—THE NEW CITIZEN KING
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">O</span>F all the
- elections ever conducted by the English speaking race the one held under
- the “Reconstruction” act of 1867 in the South was the most unique.
- </p>
- <p>
- Ezra Perkins the agent of the Freedman’s Bureau issued a windy
- proclamation to the new citizens to come forward on a certain day to
- register and receive their ‘elective franchise.’
- </p>
- <p>
- The negroes poured into town from every direction from early dawn. Some
- carried baskets, some carried jugs, and some were pushing wheelbarrows,
- but most of them had an empty bag. They were packed around the Agency in a
- solid black mass.
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse laughed until a crowd gathered around him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lordy, look at dem bags!” he shouted. “En dars ole Ike wid er jug. He’s
- gwine ter take hisen in licker. En bress God dars er fool wid er
- wheel-barer!” Nelse lay down and rolled with laughter.
- </p>
- <p>
- They failed to see the joke, and when the Agency was opened they made a
- break for the door, trampling each other down in a mad fear that there
- wouldn’t be enough ‘elective franchise’ to go round!
- </p>
- <p>
- The first negro who emerged from the door came with a crestfallen face and
- an empty bag on his arm.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was surrounded by anxious inquirers. “What wuz hit?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nuffin. Des stan up dar befo’ er man wid big whiskers en he make me swar
- ter export de Constertution er de Nunited States er Nor’f Calliny.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When Nelse appeared Perkins looked at him a moment and asked, “Are you a
- member of the Union League?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dat I hain’t.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then stand aside and let these men register. If you want to vote you had
- better join.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse made no reply, but in a short time he returned with the Rev. John
- Durham by his side. He was allowed to register, but from that day he was a
- marked man among his race.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the registration closed Perkins was in high glee.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We’ve got ’em, Timothy! It’s a dead sure thing!” he cried as he
- slipped his arm around Tim’s shoulder.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will the majority be big?” asked Tim.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If it ain’t big enough we’ll disfranchise more aristocrats and
- enfranchise the dogs.” Tim wondered whether this proposition was
- altogether flattering.
- </p>
- <p>
- During the progress of the campaign, a committee from the organisation of
- the “truly loyal,” Ezra Perkins and Dave Haley, called on Tom Camp.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mr. Camp, we want your help as a leader among the poor white people to
- save the country from these rebel aristocrats who have ruined it,” said
- Ezra.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’re barkin’ up the wrong tree!” answered Tom dryly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The poor men have got to stand together now and get their rights.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well if I’ve got to stand with niggers, have ’em hug me and blow
- their breath in my face, as you fellers are doin’, you can count me out!—and
- if that’s all you want with me, you’ll find the door open.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Haley tried his hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look here, Camp, we ain’t got no hard feelin’s agin you, but there’s
- agoin’ to be trouble for every rebel in this county who don’t git on our
- side and do it quick.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m used to trouble pardner,” replied Tom.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’ve got a nice little cabin home and ten acres of land. Fight us, and
- we will give this house and lot to a nigger.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t believe it,” cried Tom.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come, come,” said Perkins, “you’re not fool enough to fight us when we’ve
- got a dead sure thing, a majority fixed before the voting begins, Congress
- and the whole army back of us?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ain’t er nigger!” said Tom, doggedly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s the use to be a fool Camp,” cried Haley. “We are just using the
- nigger to stick the votes in the box. He thinks he’s goin’ to heaven, but
- we’ll ride him all the way up to the gate and hitch him on the outside.
- Will you come in with us?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t like your complexion!” he answered rising and going toward the
- door.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then we’ll turn you out into the road in less than two years,” said Haley
- as they left.
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right!” laughed the old soldier, “I slept on the ground four years,
- boys.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When he came back into the room he met his wife with tears in her eyes.
- “Oh! Tom, I’m afraid they’ll do what they say.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To tell you the truth, ole woman, I’m afraid so too. But we’re in the
- hands of the Lord. This is His house. If He wants to take it away from me
- now when I’m crippled and helpless, He knows what’s best.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wish you didn’t have to go agin ’em.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ain’t er nigger, ole gal, and I don’t flock with niggers. If God
- Almighty had meant me to be one He’d have made my skin black.”
- </p>
- <p>
- On election day no publication of the polling places had been made. Ezra
- Perkins had in charge the whole county. He consolidated the fifteen voting
- precincts into three and located these in negro districts. He notified
- only the members of the secret Leagues where these three voting places
- were to be found, and other people were allowed to find them on the day of
- the election as best they could.
- </p>
- <p>
- Perkins made himself the poll holder at Hambright though he was a
- candidate for member of the Constitutional Convention, and the poll
- holders were allowed to keep the ballots in their possession for three
- days before forwarding to the General in command at Charleston, South
- Carolina.
- </p>
- <p>
- Scores of negroes, under the instructions of their leaders voted three
- times that day. Every negro boy fairly well grown was allowed to vote and
- no questions asked as to his age.
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse approached the polls attempting to cast a vote against the Rev. Ezra
- Perkins the poll holder. A crowd of infuriated negroes surrounded him in a
- moment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Kill ’im! Knock ’im in the head! De black debbil, votin’
- agin his colour!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse threw his big fists right and left and soon had an open space in the
- edge of which lay a half dozen negroes scrambling to get to their feet.
- </p>
- <p>
- The negroes formed a line in front of him and the foremost one said, “You
- try ter put dat vote in de box we bust yo head open!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse knocked him down before he got the words well out of him mouth.
- “Honey, I’se er bad nigger!” he shouted with a grin as he stepped back and
- started to rush the line.
- </p>
- <p>
- Perkins ordered the guard to arrest him.
- </p>
- <p>
- As the guard carried Nelse away a crowd of angry negroes followed grinning
- and cursing.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We lay fur you yit, ole hoss!” was their parting word as he disappeared
- through the jail door.
- </p>
- <p>
- That night at the supper table in the hotel at Ham-bright an informal
- census of the voters was taken. There were present at the table a
- distinguished ex-judge, two lawyers, a General, two clergymen, a merchant,
- a farmer, and two mechanics. The only man of all allowed to vote that day
- was the negro who waited on the table.
- </p>
- <p>
- Thus began the era of a corrupt and degraded ballot in the South that was
- to bring forth sorrow for generations yet unborn. The intelligence,
- culture, wealth, social prestige, brains, conscience and the historic
- institutions of a great state had been thrust under the hoof of ignorance
- and vice.
- </p>
- <p>
- The votes were sent to the military commandant at Charleston and the
- results announced. The negroes had elected no representatives and the
- whites 10. It was gravely announced from Washington that a “republican
- form of government” had at last been established in North Carolina.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XVI—LEGREE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE new government
- was now in full swing and a saturnalia began. Amos Hogg was Governor,
- Simon Legree Speaker of the House, and the Hon. Tim Shelby leader of the
- majority on the floor of the House.
- </p>
- <p>
- Raleigh, the quaint little City of Oaks, never saw such an assemblage of
- law-makers gather in the grey stone Capitol.
- </p>
- <p>
- Ezra Perkins, who was a member of the Senate, was frugal in his habits and
- found lodgings at an unpretentious boarding house near the Capitol square.
- </p>
- <p>
- The room was furnished with six iron cots on which were placed straw
- mattresses and six honourable members of the new Legislature occupied
- these. They were close enough together to allow a bottle of whiskey to be
- freely passed from member to member at any hour of the night. They thought
- the beds were arranged with this in view and were much pleased.
- </p>
- <p>
- Ezra was the only man of the crowd who arrived in Raleigh with a valise or
- trunk. He had a carpet bag. The others simply had one shirt and a few odds
- and ends tied in red bandana handkerchiefs.
- </p>
- <p>
- Three of them had walked all the way to Raleigh and kept in the woods from
- habit as deserters. The other two rode on the train and handed their
- tickets to the first stranger they saw on the platform of the car they
- boarded.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s this for!” said the stranger.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Them’s our tickets. Ain’t you the door keeper?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, but there ought to be one to every circus. You’ll have one when you
- get to Raleigh.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The landlady, Mrs. Duke, apologised for the poor beds, when she showed
- them to their room. “I’m sorry, gentlemen, I can’t give you softer beds.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s all right M’am! them’s fine. Us fellows been sleeping in the woods
- and in straw stacks so long dodgin’ ole Vance’s officers, them white
- sheets is the finest thing we’ve seed in four years, er more.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They were humble and made no complaints. But at the end of the week they
- gathered around the Rev. Ezra Perkins for a grave consultation.
- </p>
- <p>
- “When are we goin’ ter draw?” said one.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Air we ever goin’ ter draw?” asked another with sorrow and doubt.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What are we here fer ef we cain’t draw?” pleaded another looking sadly at
- Ezra.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gentlemen,” answered Ezra, “it will be all right in a little while. The
- Treasurer is just cranky. We can draw our mileage Monday anyhow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- At daylight they took their places on the bank’s steps, and at ten o’clock
- when the bank opened, the doors were besieged by a mob of members
- painfully anxious to draw before it might be too late.
- </p>
- <p>
- Next morning there was a disturbance at the breakfast table. The morning
- paper had in blazing head lines an account of one James “Mileage,” who was
- a member of the Legislature from an adjoining county thirty-seven miles
- distant. He had sworn to a mileage record of one hundred and seven
- dollars.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s an unfortunate mistake, sir,” said Perkins.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ten’ ter yer own business?” answered James.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I call it er purty sharp trick,” grinned his partner.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I call it stealin’,” sneered an honourable member, evidently envious.
- </p>
- <p>
- And James “Mileage” was his name for all time, but “Mileage” shot a
- malicious look at the member who had called him a thief.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next morning the paper of the Opposition had another biographical
- sketch on the front page.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I see your name in the paper this morning, Mr. Scoggins?” remarked Mrs.
- Duke, looking pleasantly at the member who had spoken so rudely to James
- “Mileage” the day before.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well I reckon I’ll make my mark down here before it’s over,” chuckled
- Scoggins with pride. “What do they say about me, M’am?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They say you stole a lot of hogs!” tittered the landlady.
- </p>
- <p>
- Mr. Scoggins turned red.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oho, is there another thief in this hon’able body?” sneered James
- “Mileage.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s all a lie, M’am, ’bout them hogs. I didn’ steal ’em.
- I just pressed ’em from a Secessiner.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Jes so,” said James ‘Mileage’, “but they say you were a deserter at the
- time, and not exactly in the service of your country.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ye can’t pay no ’tention ter rebel lies ergin Union men!”
- explained Scoggins, eating faster.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, that’s so,” said James ‘Mileage’, “but there’s another funny thing
- in the paper about you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s that?” cried Scoggins with new alarm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That Mr. Scoggins met Sherman’s army with loud talk about lovin’ the
- Union, but that a mean Yankee officer gave him a cussin’ fur not fightin’
- on one side or the other, took all that bacon he had stolen, hung him up
- by the heels, gave him thirty lashes and left him hanging in the air.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s a lie! It’s a lie!” bellowed Scoggins.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gentlemen! Gentlemen! we must not have such behaviour at my table!”
- exclaimed Mrs. Duke.
- </p>
- <p>
- And “Hog” Scoggins was his name from that day.
- </p>
- <p>
- By the end of the week another painful story was printed about one of this
- group of statesmen. The newspaper brutally declared that he had been
- convicted of stealing a rawhide from a neighbour’s tanyard. It could not
- be denied. And then a sad thing happened. The moral sentiment of the
- little community could not endure the strain. It suddenly collapsed. They
- laughed at these incidents of the sad past and agreed that they were
- jokes. They began to call each other James “Mileage,” “Hog” Scoggins, and
- “Rawhide” in the friendliest way, and dared a scornful world to make them
- feel ashamed of anything!
- </p>
- <p>
- But the Rev. Ezra Perkins was pained by this breakdown. He felt that being
- safely removed two thousand miles from his own past, he might hope for a
- future.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mrs. Duke,” he complained to his landlady, “I will have to ask you to
- give me a room to myself. I’ll pay double. I want quiet where I can read
- my Bible and meditate occasionally.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly Mr. Perkins, if you are willing to pay for it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- It was so arranged. But this assumption of moral superiority by Perkins
- grieved “Mileage,” “Hog” and “Rawhide,” and a coolness sprang up between
- them, until they found Ezra one night in his place of meditation dead
- drunk and his room on fire. He had gone to sleep in his chair with his
- empty bottle by his side, and knocked the candle over on the bed. Then
- they agreed that forever after they would all stand together, shoulder to
- shoulder, until they brought the haughty low and exalted the lowly and the
- “loyal.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tim Shelby early distinguished himself in this august assemblage. His wit
- and eloquence from the first commanded the admiration of his party.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he had fairly established himself as leader, he rose in his seat one
- day with unusual gravity. His scalp was working his ears with great
- rapidity showing his excitement.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had in his hands a bill on which he had spent months in secret study.
- He had not even hinted its contents to any of his associates. Under the
- call for bills his voice rang with deep emphasis, “Mr. Speaker!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Legree gave him instant recognition.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I desire to introduce the following: ‘A Bill to be Entitled An Act to
- Relieve Married Women from the Bonds of Matrimony when United to Felons,
- and to Define Felony’.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A page hurried to the Reading Clerk with his bill.
- </p>
- <p>
- The hum of voices ceased. The five or six representatives of the white
- race left their desks and walked quickly toward the Speaker. The Clerk
- read in a loud clear voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I That all citizens of the State who took part in the Rebellion and
- fought against the Union, or held office in the so called Confederate
- States of America, shall be held guilty of felony, and shall be forever
- debarred from voting or holding office.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “II That the married relations of all such felons are hereby dissolved and
- their wives absolutely divorced, and said felons shall be forever barred
- from contracting marriage or living under the same roof with their former
- wives.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Instantly four Carpet-bagger members of some education rushed for Tim’s
- seat. “Withdraw that bill, man, quick! My God, are you mad!” they all
- cried in a breath.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tim was dazed by this unexpected turn, and grinned in an obstinate way.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t see it gentlemen. That bill will kill out the breed of rebels and
- fix the status of every Southern state for five hundred years. It’s just
- what we need to make this state loyal.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You pass that bill and hell will break loose!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How so, brother? Ain’t we on top and the rebels on the bottom? Ain’t the
- army here to protect us?” persisted Tim.
- </p>
- <p>
- There was a brief consultation among the little group in opposition and
- the leader said, “Mr. Speaker, I move that the bill be at once printed and
- laid on the desk of the members for consideration.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tim was astonished at this move of his enemy. Le-gree looked at him and
- waited his pleasure.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mr. Speaker, I withdraw that bill for the present,” he said at length.
- </p>
- <p>
- That night the wires were hot between Washington and Raleigh, and the
- entire power of Congress was hurled upon the unhappy Tim. His bill was not
- only suppressed but the news agencies were threatened and subsidised to
- prevent accounts of its introduction being circulated throughout the
- country.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tim decided to lay this measure over until Congress was off his hands, and
- the state’s autonomy fully recognised. Then he would dare interference. In
- the meantime he turned his great mind to financial matters. His success
- here was overwhelming.
- </p>
- <p>
- His first measure was to increase the per diem of the members from three
- to seven dollars a day. It passed with a whoop.
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncle Pete Sawyer a coal-black fatherly looking old darkey from an Eastern
- county made himself immortal in that debate.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mistah Speakah!” he bawled drawing himself up with great dignity, and
- holding a pen in his left hand as though he had been writing. “What do
- dese white gem’men mean by ezposen dis bill? Ef we doan pay de members
- enuf, dey des be erbleeged ter steal. Hit aint right, sah, ter fo’ce de
- members er dis hon’able body ter prowl atter dark when day otter be here
- ’tendin’ ter de business o’ de country. En I moves you, sah. Mistah
- Speakah, dat dese rema’ks er mine be filed in de arkibes er grabity!”
- </p>
- <p>
- They were filed and embalmed in the archives of gravity where they will
- remain a monument to their author and his times.
- </p>
- <p>
- As Tim’s great financial measures made progress, the members began to wear
- better clothes, assumed white linen shirts, had their shoes blacked, and
- put on the airs of overworked statesmen.
- </p>
- <p>
- When they had used up all the funds of the state in mileage and per diem,
- they sold and divided the school fund, railroad bonds worth a half
- million, for a hundred thousand ready cash. It was soon found that Simon
- Legree, the Speaker of the House, was the master of financial measures and
- Tim Shelby was his mouthpiece.
- </p>
- <p>
- Legree organised three groups of thieves composed of the officials needed
- to perfect the thefts in every branch of the government while he retained
- the leadership of the federated groups. The Treasurer, who was an honest
- man, was stripped of power by a special act.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Capitol Ring merely picked up the odds and ends about the Capitol
- building. They refurnished the Legislative Halls. They spent over two
- hundred thousand dollars for furniture, and when it was appraised, its
- value was found to be seventeen thousand dollars at the prices they
- actually paid for it. The Ring stole one hundred and seventy thousand
- dollars on this item alone.
- </p>
- <p>
- An appropriation of three hundred thousand dollars was made for “supplies,
- sundries and incidentals.” With this they built a booth around the statue
- of Washington at the end of the Capitol and established a bar with fine
- liquors and cigars for the free use of the members and their friends. They
- kept it open every day and night during their reign, and in a suite of
- rooms in the Capitol they established a brothel. From the galleries a
- swarm of courtesans daily smiled on their favourites on the floor.
- </p>
- <p>
- The printing had never cost the state more than eight thousand dollars in
- any one year. This year it cost four hundred and eighty thousand. Legree
- drew thousands of warrants on the state for imaginary persons. There were
- eight pages in the House. He drew pay for one hundred and fifty-six pages.
- In this way he raised an enormous corruption fund for immediate use in
- bribing the lawmakers to carry through his schemes.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Railroad Ring was his most effective group of brigands.
- </p>
- <p>
- They passed bills authorising the issue of twenty-five millions of dollars
- in bonds, and actually issued and stole fourteen millions, and never built
- one foot of railroad.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Legree’s movement was at its high tide, Ezra Perkins sought Uncle
- Pete Sawyer one night in behalf of a pet measure of his pending in the
- House.
- </p>
- <p>
- Peter was seated by his table counting by the light of a candle three big
- piles of gold.
- </p>
- <p>
- His face was wreathed in smiles.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Peter, you seem well pleased with the world tonight?” said Ezra
- gleefully.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, brudder, you see dem piles er yaller money?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, it is a fine sight.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncle Pete smacked his lips and grinned from ear to ear.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, brudder, I tells you. I ben sol’ seben times in my life, but ’fore
- Gawd dat’s de fust time I ebber got de money!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncle Pete dreamed that night that Congress passed a law extending the
- blessings of a “republican form of government” to North Carolina for forty
- years and that the Legislature never adjourned.
- </p>
- <p>
- But the Legislature finally closed, and in a drunken revel which lasted
- all night. They had bankrupted the state, destroyed its school funds, and
- increased its debt from sixteen to forty-two millions of dollars, without
- adding one cent to its wealth or power.
- </p>
- <p>
- Legree then organised a Municipal and County Ring to exploit the towns,
- cities, and counties, having passed a bill vacating all county and city
- offices.
- </p>
- <p>
- This Ring secured the control of Hambright and levied a tax of twenty-five
- per cent for municipal purposes! Tom Camp’s little home was assessed for
- eighty-five dollars in taxes. Mrs. Gaston’s home was assessed for one
- hundred and sixty dollars. They could have raised a million as easily as
- the sum of these assessments.
- </p>
- <p>
- It cost the United States government two hundred millions of dollars that
- year to pay the army required to guard the Legrees and their “loyal” men
- while they were thus establishing and maintaining “a republican form of
- government” in the South.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XVII—THE SECOND REIGN OF TERROR
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">I</span>T was the bluest
- Monday the Rev. John Durham ever remembered in his ministry. A long
- drought had parched the corn into twisted and stunted little stalks that
- looked as though they had been burnt in a prairie fire. The fly had
- destroyed the wheat crop and the cotton was dying in the blistering sun of
- August, and a blight worse than drought, or flood, or pestilence, brooded
- over the stricken land, flinging the shadow of its Black Death over every
- home. The tax gatherer of the new “republican form of government,”
- recently established in North Carolina now demanded his pound of flesh.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Sunday before had been a peculiarly hard one for the Preacher. He had
- tried by the sheer power of personal sympathy to lift the despairing
- people out of their gloom and make strong their faith in God. In his
- morning sermon he had torn his heart open and given them its red blood to
- drink. At the night service he could not rally from the nerve tension of
- the morning. He felt that he had pitiably failed. The whole day seemed a
- failure black and hopeless.
- </p>
- <p>
- All day long the sorrowful stories of ruin and loss of homes were poured
- into his ear.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Sheriff had advertised for sale for taxes two thousand three hundred
- and twenty homes in Campbell county. The land under such conditions had no
- value.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was only a formality for the auctioneer to cry it and knock it down for
- the amount of the tax bill.
- </p>
- <p>
- As he arose from bed with the burden of all this hopeless misery crushing
- his soul, a sense of utter exhaustion and loneliness came over him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My love, I must go back to bed and try to sleep. I lay awake last night
- until two o’clock. I can’t eat anything,” he said to his wife as she
- announced breakfast.
- </p>
- <p>
- “John, dear, don’t give up like that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can’t help it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But you must. Come, here is something that will tone you up. I found this
- note under the front door this morning.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A notice from some of your admirers that you must leave this county in
- forty-eight hours or take the consequences.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He looked at this anonymous letter and smiled.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not such a failure after all, am I?” he mused.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I thought that would help you,” she laughed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I can eat breakfast on the strength of that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He spread this letter out beside his plate, and read and reread it as he
- ate, while his eyes flashed with a strange half humourous light.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Really, that’s fine, isn’t it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You sower of sedition and rebellion, hypocrite and false prophet. The day
- has come to clean this county of treason and traitors. If you dare to urge
- the people to further resistance to authority, there will be one traitor
- less in this county.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That sounds like the voice of a Daniel come to judgment, don’t it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I think Ezra Perkins might know something about it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am sure of it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I’m duly grateful, it’s done for you what your wife couldn’t do,
- cheered you up this morning.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That is so, isn’t it? It takes a violent poison sometimes to stimulate
- the heart’s action.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now if you will work the garden for me, where I’ve been watering it the
- past month, you will be yourself by dinner time.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will. That’s about all we’ve got to eat. I’ve had no salary in two
- months, and I’ve no prospects for the next two months.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was at work in the garden when Charlie Gaston suddenly ran through the
- gate toward him. His face was red, his eyes streaming with tears, and his
- breath coming in gasps.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doctor, they’ve killed Nelse! Mama says please come down to our house as
- quick as you can.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is he dead, Charlie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s most dead. I found him down in the woods lying in a gully, one leg
- is broken, there’s a big gash over his eye, his back is beat to a jelly,
- and one of his arms is broken. We put him in the wagon, and hauled him to
- the house. I’m afraid he’s dead now. Oh me!” The boy broke down and choked
- with sobs.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Run, Charlie, for the doctor, and I’ll be there in a minute.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The boy flew through the gate to the doctor’s house.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the Preacher reached Mrs. Gaston’s, Aunt Eve was wiping the blood
- from Nelse’s mouth.
- </p>
- <p>
- “De Lawd hab mussy! My po’ ole man’s done kilt.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who could have done this, Eve?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dem Union Leaguers. Dey say dey wuz gwine ter kill him fur not jinin’ ’em,
- en fur tryin’ ter vote ergin ’em.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve been afraid of it,” sighed the Preacher as he felt Nelse’s pulse.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir, en now dey’s done hit. My po’ ole man. I wish I’d a been better
- ter ’im. Lawd Jesus, help me now!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Eve knelt by the bed and laid her face against Nelse’s while the tears
- rained down her black face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Aunt Eve, it may not be so bad,” said the Preacher hopefully. “His pulse
- is getting stronger. He has an iron constitution. I believe he will pull
- through, if there are no internal injuries.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Praise God! ef he do git well, I tell yer now, Marse John, I fling er
- spell on dem niggers bout dis!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am afraid you can do nothing with them. The courts are all in the hands
- of these scoundrels, and the Governor of the state is at the head of the
- Leagues.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I doan want no cotes, Marse John, I’se cote ennuf. I kin cunjure dem
- niggers widout any cote.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The doctor pronounced his injuries dangerous but not necessarily fatal.
- Charlie and Dick watched with Eve that night until nearly midnight. Nelse
- opened his eyes, and saw the eager face of the boy, his eyes yet red from
- crying. “I aint dead, honey!” he moaned.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Nelse, I’m so glad!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doan you believe I gwine die! I gwine ter git eben wid dem niggers ’fore
- I leab dis worl’.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Nelse spoke feebly, but there was a way about his saying it that boded no
- good to his enemies, and Eve was silent. As Nelse improved, Eve’s wrath
- steadily rose.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next day she met in the street one of the negroes who had threatened
- Nelse.
- </p>
- <p>
- “How’s Mistah Gaston dis mawnin’ M’am?” he asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- Without a word of warning she sprang on him like a tigress, bore him to
- the ground, grasped him by the throat and pounded his head against a
- stone. She would have choked him to death, had not a man who was passing
- come to the rescue.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lemme lone, man, I’se doin’ de wuk er God!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’re committing murder, woman.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When the negro got up he jumped the fence and tore down through a corn
- field, as though pursued by a hundred devils, now and then glancing over
- his shoulder to see if Eve were after him.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher tried in vain to bring the perpetrators of this outrage on
- Nelse to justice. He identified six of them positively. They were
- arrested, and when put on trial immediately discharged by the judge who
- was himself a member of the League that had ordered Nelse whipped.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom Camp’s daughter was now in her sixteenth year and as plump and winsome
- a lassie, her Scotch mother declared, as the Lord ever made. She was
- engaged to be married to Hose Norman, a gallant poor white from the high
- hill country at the foot of the mountains. Hose came to see her every
- Sunday riding a black mule, gaily trapped out in martingales with red
- rings, double girths to his saddle and a flaming red tassel tied on each
- side of the bridle. Tom was not altogether pleased with his future
- son-in-law. He was too wild, went to too many frolics, danced too much,
- drank too much whiskey and was too handy with a revolver.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Annie, child, you’d better think twice before you step off with that
- young buck,” Tom gravely warned his daughter as he stroked her fair hair
- one Sunday morning while she waited for Hose to escort her to church.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have thought a hundred times, Paw, but what’s the use. I love him. He
- can just twist me ’round his little finger. I’ve got to have him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom Camp, you don’t want to forget you were not a saint when I stood up
- with you one day,” cried his wife with a twinkle in her eye.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s a fact, ole woman,” grinned Tom.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You never give me a day’s trouble after I got hold of you. Sometimes the
- wildest colts make the safest horses.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, that’s so. It’s owing to who has the breaking of ’em,”
- thoughtfully answered Tom.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I like Hose. He’s full of fun, but he’ll settle down and make her a good
- husband.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The girl slipped close to her mother and squeezed her hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you love him much, child?” asked her father.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well enough to live and scrub and work for him and to die for him, I
- reckon.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, that settles it, you’re too many for me, you and Hose and your
- Maw. Get ready for it quick. We’ll have the weddin’ Wednesday night. This
- home is goin’ to be sold Thursday for taxes and it will be our last night
- under our own roof. We’ll make the best of it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- It was so fixed. On Wednesday night Hose came down from the foothills with
- three kindred spirits, and an old fiddler to make the music. He wanted to
- have a dance and plenty of liquor fresh from the mountain-dew district.
- But Tom put his foot down on it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No dancin’ in my house, Hose, and no licker,” said Tom with emphasis.
- “I’m a deacon in the Baptist church. I used to be young and as good
- lookin’ as you, my boy, but I’ve done with them things. You’re goin’ to
- take my little gal now. I want you to quit your foolishness and be a man.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will, Tom, I will. She is the prettiest sweetest little thing in this
- world, and to tell you the truth I’m goin’ to settle right down now to the
- hardest work I ever did in my life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s the way to talk, my boy,” said Tom putting his hand on Hose’s
- shoulder. “You’ll have enough to do these hard times to make a livin’.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They made a handsome picture, in that humble home, as they stood there
- before the Preacher. The young bride was trembling from head to foot with
- fright. Hose was trying to look grave and dignified and grinning in spite
- of himself whenever he looked into the face of his blushing mate. The
- mother was standing near, her face full of pride in her daughter’s beauty
- and happiness, her heart all a quiver with the memories of her own wedding
- day seventeen years before. Tom was thinking of the morrow when he would
- be turned out of his home and his eyes filled with tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Rev. John Durham had pronounced them man and wife and hurried away to
- see some people who were sick. The old fiddler was doing his best. Hose
- and his bride were shaking hands with their friends, and the boys were
- trying to tease the bridegroom with hoary old jokes.
- </p>
- <p>
- Suddenly a black shadow fell across the doorway. The fiddle ceased, and
- every eye was turned to the door. The burly figure of a big negro trooper
- from a company stationed in the town stood before them. His face was in a
- broad grin, and his eyes bloodshot with whiskey. He brought his musket
- down on the floor with a bang.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My frien’s, I’se sorry ter disturb yer but I has orders ter search dis
- house.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Show your orders,” said Tom hobbling before him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, deres one un ’em!” he said still grinning as he cocked his
- gun and presented it toward Tom. “En ef dat aint ennuf dey’s fifteen mo’
- stanin’ ’roun’ dis house. It’s no use ter make er fuss. Come on,
- boys!”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0005" id="linkimage-0005"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0147.jpg" alt="0147 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0147.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- Before Tom could utter another word of protest six more negro troopers
- laughing and nudging one another crowded into the room. Suddenly one of
- them threw a bucket of water in the fire place where a pine knot blazed
- and two others knocked out the candles.
- </p>
- <p>
- There was a scuffle, the quick thud of heavy blows, and Hose Norman fell
- to the floor senseless. A piercing scream rang from his bride as she was
- seized in the arms of the negro who first appeared. He rapidly bore her
- toward the door surrounded by the six scoundrels who had accompanied him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My God, save her! They are draggin’ Annie out of the house,” shrieked her
- mother.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Help! Help! Lord have mercy!” screamed the girl as they bore her away
- toward the woods, still laughing and yelling.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom overtook one of them, snatched his wooden leg off, and knocked him
- down. Hose’s mountain boys were crowding round Tom with their pistols in
- their hands.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What shall we do, Tom? If we shoot we may kill Annie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Shoot, men! My God, shoot! There are things worse than death!”
- </p>
- <p>
- They needed no urging. Like young tigers they sprang across the orchard
- toward the woods whence came the sound of the laughter of the negroes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Stop de screechin’!” cried the leader.
- </p>
- <p>
- “She nebber get dat gag out now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Too smart fur de po’ white trash dis time sho’!” laughed one.
- </p>
- <p>
- Three pistol shots rang out like a single report! Three more! and three
- more! There was a wild scramble. Taken completely by surprise, the negroes
- fled in confusion. Four lay on the ground. Two were dead, one mortally
- wounded and three more had crawled away with bullets in their bodies.
- There in the midst of the heap lay the unconscious girl gagged.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is she hurt?” cried a mountain boy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can’t tell, take her to the house quick.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They laid her across the bed in the room that had been made sweet and tidy
- for the bride and groom. The mother bent over her quickly with a light.
- Just where the blue veins crossed in her delicate temple there was a round
- hole from which a scarlet stream was running down her white throat.
- </p>
- <p>
- Without a word the mother brought Tom, showed it to him, and then fell
- into his arms and burst into a flood of tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t, don’t cry so Annie! It might have been worse. Let us thank God she
- was saved from them brutes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hose’s friends crowded round Tom now with tear-stained faces.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, you don’t know how broke up we all are over this. Poor child, we did
- the best we could.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s all right, boys. You’ve been my friends to-night. You’ve saved my
- little gal. I want to shake hands with you and thank you. If you hadn’t
- been here—My God, I can’t think of what would ’a happened!
- Now it’s all right. She’s safe in God’s hands.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The next morning when Tom Camp called at the parsonage to see the Preacher
- and arrange for the funeral of his daughter he found him in bed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dr. Durham is quite sick, Mr. Camp, but he’ll see you,” said Mrs. Durham.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thank you, M’am.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She took the old soldier by the hand and her voice choked as she said,
- “You have my heart’s deepest sympathy in your awful sorrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’ll be all for the best, M’am. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken
- away. I will still say, Blessed is the name of the Lord!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wish I had such faith.” She led Tom into the room where the Preacher
- lay.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why, what’s this, Preacher? A bandage over your eye, looks like somebody
- knocked you in the head?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, Tom, but it’s nothing. I’ll be all right by tomorrow. You needn’t
- tell me anything that happened at your house. I’ve heard the black
- hell-lit news. It will be all over this county by night and the town will
- be full of grim-visaged men before many hours. Your child has not died in
- vain. A few things like this will be the trumpet of the God of our fathers
- that will call the sleeping manhood of the Anglo-Saxon race to life again.
- I must be up and about this afternoon to keep down the storm. It is not
- time for it to break.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, Preacher, what happened to you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! nothing much, Tom.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll tell you what happened,” cried Mrs. Durham standing erect with her
- great dark eyes flashing with anger.
- </p>
- <p>
- “As he came home last night from a visit to the sick, he was ambushed by a
- gang of negroes led by a white scoundrel, knocked down, bound and gagged
- and placed on a pile of dry fence rails. They set fire to the pile and
- left him to burn to death. It attracted the attention of Doctor Graham who
- was passing. He got to him in time to save him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You don’t say so!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m sorry, Tom, I’m so weak this morning I couldn’t come to see you. I
- know your poor wife is heartbroken.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, sir, she is, and it cuts me to the quick when I think that I gave
- the orders to the boys to shoot. But, Preacher, I’d a killed her with my
- own hand if I couldn’t a saved her no other way. I’d do it over again a
- thousand times if I had to.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t blame you, I’d have done the same thing. I can’t come to see you
- to-day, Tom, I’ll be down to your house to-morrow a few minutes before we
- start for the cemetery. I must get up for dinner and prevent the men from
- attacking these troops. They’ll not dare to try to sell your place to-day.
- The public square is full of men now, and it’s only nine o’clock. You go
- home and cheer up your wife. How is Hose?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s still in bed. The Doctor says his skull is broken in one place, but
- he’ll be over it in a few weeks.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom hobbled back to his house, shaking hands with scores of silent men on
- the way.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher crawled to his desk and wrote this note to the young officer
- in command of the post,
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>My Dear Captain,</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>In the interest of peace and order I would advise you to telegraph to
- Independence for two companies of white regulars to come immediately on a
- special, and that you start your negro troops on double quick marching
- order to meet them. There will be a thousand armed men in Hambright by
- sundown, and no power on earth can prevent the extermination of that negro
- company if they attack them. I will do my best to prevent further
- bloodshed but I can do nothing if these troops remain here to-day.
- Respectfully,</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>John Durham.</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- The Commandant acted on the advice immediately.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was the week following before the sales began. There was no help for
- it. The town and the county were doomed to a ruin more complete and
- terrible than the four years of war had brought. Independence had been
- saved by a skillful movement of General Worth, who sought an interview
- with Legree when his council first issued their levy of thirty per cent
- for municipal purposes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mr. Legree, let’s understand one another,” said the General.
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, I’m a man of reason.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A bird in hand is worth two in the bush!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Every time, General.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, call off your dogs, and rescind your order for a thirty per cent
- tax levy, and I’ll raise $30,000 in cash and pay it to you in two days.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Make it $50,000 and it’s a bargain.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Agreed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General raised twenty thousand in the city, went North and borrowed
- the remaining thirty thousand.
- </p>
- <p>
- Legree and his brigands received this ransom and moved on to the next
- town.
- </p>
- <p>
- Poor Hambright was but a scrawny little village on a red hill with no big
- values to be saved, and no mills to interest the commercial world, and the
- auctioneer lifted his hammer.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XVIII—THE RED FLAG OF THE AUCTIONEER
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE excitement
- through which Tom Camp had passed in the death of his daughter, and the
- stirring events connected with it, had been more than his feeble body
- could endure. He had been stricken with paroxysms of pain and nausea from
- his old wounds. For three days and nights he had suffered unspeakable
- agonies. He had borne his pain with stoical indifference.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, old man, do look at me! You skeer me,” said his wife leaning
- tenderly over him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! I’m all right, Annie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What was you studyin’ about then?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I was just a thinkin’ we didn’t kill babies in the war. Them was awful
- times, but they wuz nothin’ to what we’re goin’ through now. The Lord
- knows best, but I can’t understand it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, don’t talk any more. You’re too weak.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I must git up, Annie. Got to git out anyhow. The Sheriff’s goin’ to sell
- us out to-day, and I want to sorter look ’round once before we go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- So, leaning on his wife’s arm, he hobbled around the place saying good-bye
- to its familiar objects. They stopped before the garden gate.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t go in there, Tom, I can’t stand it,” cried his wife. “When I think
- of leavin’ that garden I’ve worked so hard on all these years, and that’s
- give us so many good things to eat, and never failed us the year round, I
- just feel like it’ll tear my heart out.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you mind the day we set out these trees, Annie, an’ you, my own purty
- gal holdin’ ’em fur me while I packed the dirt around ’em,
- and told you how sweet you wuz?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and I love every twig of ’em. They’ve all helped me in times
- of need. Oh! Lord, it’s hard to give it up!” She couldn’t keep back the
- tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, now, ole woman, you mustn’t break down. You’re strong and well and
- I’m all shot to pieces and crippled and no ’count. But the Lord
- still lives. We’ll get this place back. The Lord’s just trying our faith.
- He thinks mebbe I’ll give up.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You think we can ever get it back?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “General Worth sent me word he couldn’t do anything now, but to let it go
- and keep a stiff upper lip. The General ain’t no fool.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Surely the Lord can’t let us starve.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Starve! I reckon not! The foxes have holes, the birds of the air nests,
- but the Son of Man had not where to lay His head, but He never starved.
- No, God’s in Heaven. I’ll trust Him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A mocking bird whose mate had just built her nest to rear a second brood
- for the season was seated on the topmost branch of a cedar near the house,
- and singing as though he would fill heaven and earth with the glory of his
- love.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just listen at that bird, Tom!” whispered his wife. “He does sing sweet,
- don’t he?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh dear, oh dear, how can I give it all up! I’ve fed that bird and his
- mate for years. He knows my voice. I can call him down out of that tree.
- Many a night when you were away in the war he sat close to my window and
- sang softly to me all night. When I’d wake, I’d hear him singin’ low like
- he was afraid he’d wake somebody. I’d sit down there by the window and cry
- for you and dream of your comin’ home till he’d sing me to sleep in the
- chair. And now we’ve got to leave him. Oh Lord, my heart is broken! I
- can’t see the way!”
- </p>
- <p>
- She buried her face on Tom’s shoulder and shook with sobs.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hush, hush, honey, we must face trouble. We are used to it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But not this, Tom. It’ll tear my heart out when I have to leave.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It can’t be helped, Annie. We’ve got to pay for this nigger government.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Eleven o’clock was the hour fixed for the sale. At half past ten a crowd
- of negroes had gathered. There were only two or three white men present,
- the Agent of the Freedman’s Bureau and some of his henchmen.
- </p>
- <p>
- They began to inspect the place. Tim Shelby was present, dressed in a suit
- of broadcloth and a silk hat placed jauntily on his close-cropped scalp.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s a fine orchard, gentlemen,” Tim exclaimed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, en dats er fine gyarden,” said a negro standing near.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let’s look at the house,” said Tim starting to the door.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom stood up in the doorway with a musket in his hand, “Put your foot on
- that doorstep and I’ll blow your brains out, you flat-nosed baboon!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tim paused and bowed with a smile.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ain’t the premises for sale, Mr. Camp?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but my family ain’t for inspection by niggers.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just wanted to see the condition of the house, sir,” said Tim still
- smiling.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I’m livin’ here yet, and don’t you forget it,” answered Tom with
- quiet emphasis. Tim walked away laughing.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom stepped out of the house, and with his wooden leg marked a dead line
- around the house about ten feet from each corner. To the crowd that stood
- near he said in a clear ringing voice as he stood up in the doorway.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0006" id="linkimage-0006"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0158.jpg" alt="0158 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0158.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- “I’ll kill the first nigger that crosses that line.”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was no attempt to cross it. They did not like the look of Tom’s face
- as he sat there pale and silent. And they could hear the sobs of his wife
- inside.
- </p>
- <p>
- The sale was a brief formality. There was but one bidder, the Honourable
- Tim Shelby. It was knocked down to Tim for the sum of eighty-five dollars,
- the exact amount of the tax levy which Legree and his brigands had fixed.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tim was not buying on his own account. He was the purchasing agent of the
- subsidiary ring which Legree had organised to hold the real estate
- forfeited for taxes until a rise in value would bring them millions of
- profit. They had stolen from the state Treasury the money to capitalise
- this company. Where it was possible to exact a cash ransom, they always
- took it and cancelled the tax order, preferring the certainty of good gold
- in their pockets to the uncertainties of politics.
- </p>
- <p>
- They tried their best to get a cash ransom of ten thousand dollars for the
- town of Hambright. But the ruined people could not raise a thousand. So
- Tim Shelby as the agent of the “Union Land and Improvement Company,”
- became the owner of farm after farm and home after home.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was a vain hope that relief could come from any quarter. The red flag
- of the Sheriff’s auctioneer fluttered from two thousand three hundred and
- twenty doors in the county. This was over two-thirds of the total.
- </p>
- <p>
- Those who were saved, just escaped by the skin of their teeth. They sold
- old jewelry or plate that had been hidden in the war, or they sold their
- corn and provisions, trusting to their ability to live on dried fruit,
- berries, walnuts, hickory nuts, and such winter vegetables as they could
- raise in their gardens.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher secured for Tom a tumbled-down log cabin on the outskirts of
- town, with a half-acre of poor red hill land around it, which his wife at
- once transformed into a garden. She took up the bulbs and flowers that she
- had tended so lovingly about the door of their old home, and planted them
- with tears around this desolate cabin. Now and then she would look down at
- the work and cry. Then she would go bravely back to it. As nobody occupied
- her old home, she went back and forth until she moved all the jonquils and
- sweet pinks from the borders of the garden walk, and reset them in the new
- garden. She moved then her strawberries and rapsberries, and gooseberries,
- and set her fall cabbage plants. In three weeks she had transformed a
- desolate red clay lot into a smiling garden. She had watered every plant
- daily, and Tom had watched her with growing wonder and love.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ole woman, you’re an angel!” he cried, “if God had sent one down from the
- skies she couldn’t have done any more.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- The problem which pressed heaviest of all on the Preacher’s heart in this
- crisis was how to save Mrs. Gaston’s home.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If that place is sold next week, my dear,” he said to his wife, “she will
- never survive.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know it. She is sinking every day. It breaks my heart to look at her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What can we do?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m sure I can’t tell. We’ve given everything we have on earth except the
- clothes on our back. I haven’t another piece of jewelry, or even an old
- dress.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The tax and the costs may amount to a hundred and seventy-five dollars.
- There isn’t a man in this county who has that much money, or I’d borrow it
- if I had to mortgage my body and soul to do it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll tell you what you might do,” his wife suddenly exclaimed. “Telegraph
- your old college mate in Boston that you will accept his invitation to
- supply his pulpit those last two Sundays in August. They will pay you
- handsomely.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It may be possible, but where am I to get the money for a telegram and a
- ticket?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Surely you can borrow some here!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t know a man in the county who has it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then go to the young Commandant of the post here. Tell him the facts.
- Tell him that a widow of a brave Confederate soldier is about to be turned
- out of her home because she can’t pay the taxes levied by this infamous
- negro government. Ask him to loan you the money for the telegram and the
- ticket.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher seized his hat and made his way as fast as possible to the
- camp. The young Captain heard his story with grave courtesy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly, doctor,” he said, “I’ll loan you the forty dollars with
- pleasure. I wish I could do more to relieve the distress of the people.
- Believe me, sir, the people of the North do not dream of the awful
- conditions of the South. They are being fooled by the politicians. I’ll
- thank God when I am relieved of this job and get home. What has amazed me
- is that you hot-headed Southern people have stood it thus far. I don’t
- know a Northern community that would have endured it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah, Captain, the people are heartsick of bloodshed, They surrendered in
- good faith. They couldn’t foresee this. If they had”—
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher paused, his eyes grew misty with tears, and he looked
- thoughtfully out on the blue mountain peaks that loomed range after range
- in the distance until the last bald tops were lost in the clouds.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If General Lee had dreamed of such an infamy being forced on the South
- two years after his surrender, as this attempt to make the old slaves the
- rulers of their masters, and to destroy the Anglo-Saxon civilisation of
- the South—he would have withdrawn his armies into that Appalachian
- mountain wild and fought till every white man in the South was
- exterminated.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Confederacy went to pieces in a day, not because the South could no
- longer fight, but because they were fighting the flag of their fathers,
- and they were tired of it. They went back to the old flag. They expected
- to lose their slaves and repudiate the dogma of Secession forever. But,
- they never dreamed of Negro dominion, or Negro deification, of Negro
- equality and amalgamation, now being rammed down their throats with
- bayonets. They never dreamed of the confiscation of the desolate homes of
- the poor and the weak and the brokenhearted. Over two hundred thousand
- Southern men fought in the Union army in answer to Lincoln’s call—even
- against their own flesh and blood. But if this program had been announced,
- every one of the two hundred thousand Southern soldiers who wore the blue,
- would have rallied around the firesides of the South. This infamy was
- something undreamed save in the souls of a few desperate schemers at
- Washington who waited their opportunity, and found it in the nation’s
- blind agony over the death of a martyred leader.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher pressed the Captain’s hand and hastened to tell Mrs. Gaston
- of his plans. He found her seated pale and wistful at her window looking
- out on the lawn, now being parched and ruined since Nelse was disabled and
- could no longer tend it.
- </p>
- <p>
- Charlie was trying to kiss the tears away from her eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mama dear, you mustn’t cry any more!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t help it, darling.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They can’t take our home away from us. I tore the sign down they nailed
- on the door, and Dick burned it up!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But they will do it, Charlie. The Sheriff will sell it at auction next
- week, and we will never have a home of our own again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Charlie bounded to the door and showed the Preacher in.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have good news for you, Mrs. Gaston! I start to Boston to-night to
- preach two Sundays. I am going to try to borrow the money there to save
- your home. We will not be too sure till it’s done, but you must cheer up!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! doctor, you’re giving me a new lease on life!” she cried, looking up
- at him through tears of gratitude.
- </p>
- <p>
- That night the Preacher hurried on his way to Boston.
- </p>
- <p>
- The days dragged slowly one after another, and still no word came to the
- anxious waiting woman. It was only two days now until the day fixed for
- the sale.
- </p>
- <p>
- She asked the Sheriff to come to see her. He was a brutal illiterate
- henchman of Legree, who had been appointed to the office to do his
- bidding. He was a brother of the immortal “Hog” Scoggins, who had
- represented an adjoining county in the Legislature.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mr. Scoggins, I’ve sent for you to ask you to postpone the sale until Dr.
- Durham returns from Boston. I expect to get the money from him to pay the
- tax bill.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can’t do it, M’um. They’s er lot er folks comin’ ter bid on the place.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But I tell you I’m going to pay the tax bill.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, M’um, hit’ll have ter be paid afore the time sot, er I’ll be
- erbleeged to sell.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m sure Dr. Durham will get the money.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ef he does, hit ’ll be the fust time hit’s happened in this county
- sence the sales begun.”
- </p>
- <p>
- In vain she waited for a letter or a telegram from Boston. Charlie went
- faithfully asking Dave Haley, the postmaster, two or three times on the
- arrival of each mail.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I tell ye there’s nothin’ fur ye!” he yelled as he glared at the boy. “Ef
- ye don’t go way from that winder, I’ll pitch ye out the door!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The scoundrel had recognised the letter in Dr. Durham’s handwriting and
- had hidden it, suspecting its contents.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the day came for the sale Mrs. Gaston tried to face the trial
- bravely. But it was too much for her. When she saw a great herd of negroes
- trampling down her flowers, laughing, cracking vulgar jokes, and swarming
- over the porches, she sank feebly into her chair, buried her face in her
- hands and gave way to a passionate flood of tears. She was roused by the
- thumping of heavy feet in the hall, and the unmistakable odour of
- perspiring negroes. They had begun to ransack the house on tours of
- inspection. The poor woman’s head drooped and she fell to the floor in a
- dead swoon.
- </p>
- <p>
- There was a sudden charge as of an armed host, the sound of blows, a wild
- scramble, and the house was cleared. Aunt Eve with a fire shovel, Charlie
- with a broken hoe handle, and Dick with a big black snake whip had cleared
- the air.
- </p>
- <p>
- Aunt Eve stood on the front door-step shaking the shovel at the crowd.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Des put yo big flat hoofs in dis house ergin! I’ll split yo heads wide
- open! You black cattle!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dat we will!” railed Dick as he cracked the whip at a little negro
- passing.
- </p>
- <p>
- Charlie ran into his mother’s room to see what she was doing, and found
- her lying across the floor on her face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Aunt Eve, come quick, Mama’s dying!” he shouted.
- </p>
- <p>
- They lifted her to the bed, and Dick ran for the doctor.
- </p>
- <p>
- Dr. Graham looked very grave when he had completed his examination.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come here, my boy, I must tell you some sad news.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Charlie’s big brown eyes glanced up with a startled look into the doctor’s
- face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t tell me she’s dying, doctor, I can’t stand it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The doctor took his hand. “You’re getting to be a man now, my son, you
- will soon be thirteen. You must be brave. Your mother will not live
- through the night.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The boy sank on his knees beside the still white figure, tenderly clasped
- her thin hand in his, and began to kiss it slowly. He would kiss it, lay
- his wet cheek against it, and try to warm it with his hot young blood.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was about nine o’clock when she opened her eyes with a smile and looked
- into his face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My sweet boy,” she whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Mama, do try to live! Don’t leave me,” he sobbed in quivering tones
- as he leaned over and kissed her lips. She smiled faintly again.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I must go, dear. I am tired. Your papa is waiting for me. I see him
- smiling and beckoning to me now. I must go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A sob shook the boy with an agony no words could frame.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There, there, dear, don’t,” she soothingly said, “you will grow to be a
- brave strong man. You will fight this battle out, and win back our home
- and bring your own bride here in the far away days of sunshine and success
- I see for you. She will love you, and the flowers will blossom on the lawn
- again. But I am tired. Kiss me—I must go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Her heart fluttered on for a while, but she never spoke again.
- </p>
- <p>
- At ten o’clock Mrs. Durham tenderly lifted the boy from the bedside,
- kissed him, and said as she led him to his room, “She’s done with
- suffering, Charlie. You are going to live with me now, and let me love you
- and be your mother.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher had made a profound impression on his Boston congregation.
- </p>
- <p>
- They were charmed by his simple direct appeal to the heart. His fiery
- emphasis, impassioned dogmatic faith, his tenderness and the strange
- pathos of his voice swept them off their feet. At night the big church was
- crowded to the doors, and throngs were struggling in vain to gain
- admittance. At the close of the services he was overwhelmed with the
- expressions of gratitude and heartfelt sympathy with which they thanked
- him for his messages.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was feasted and dined and taken out into the parks behind spanking
- teams, until his head was dizzy with the unaccustomed whirl.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher went through it all with a heavy heart. Those beautiful homes
- with their rich carpets, handsome furniture, and those long lines of
- beautiful carriages in the parks, made a contrast with the agony of
- universal ruin which he left at home that crushed his soul.
- </p>
- <p>
- He hastened to tell the story of Mrs. Gaston to a genial old merchant who
- had taken a great fancy to him.
- </p>
- <p>
- A tear glistened in the old man’s eye as he quickly rose.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come right down to my store. I’ll get you a money order before the
- post-office closes. I’ve got tickets for you to go to the Coliseum with me
- to-night and hear the music!—the great Peace Jubilee. We are
- celebrating the return of peace and prosperity, and the preservation of
- the Union. It’s the greatest musical festival the world ever saw.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher was dazed with the sense of its sublimity and the pathetic
- tragedy of the South that lay back of its joy.
- </p>
- <p>
- The great Coliseum, constructed for the purpose, seated over forty
- thousand people. Such a crowd he had never seen gathered together within
- one building. The soul of the orator in him leaped with divine power as he
- glanced over the swaying ocean of human faces. There were twelve thousand
- trained voices in the chorus. He had dreamed of such music in Heaven when
- countless hosts of angels should gather around God’s throne. He had never
- expected to hear it on this earth. He was transported with a rapture that
- thrilled and lifted him above the consciousness of time and sense.
- </p>
- <p>
- They rendered the masterpieces of all the ages. The music continued hour
- after hour, day after day, and night after night.
- </p>
- <p>
- The grand chorus within the Coliseum was accompanied by the ringing of
- bells in the city, and the firing of cannon on the common, discharged in
- perfect time with the melody that rolled upward from those twelve thousand
- voices and broke against the gates of Heaven! When every voice was in full
- cry, and every instrument of music that man had ever devised, throbbed in
- harmony, and a hundred anvils were ringing a chorus of steel in perfect
- time, Parepa Rosa stepped forward on the great stage, and in a voice that
- rang its splendid note of triumph over all like the trumpet of the
- archangel, sang the Star Spangled Banner!
- </p>
- <p>
- Men and women fainted, and one woman died, unable to endure the strain.
- The Preacher turned his head away and looked out of the window. A soft
- wind was blowing from the South. On its wings were borne to his heart the
- cry of the widow and orphan, the hungry and the dying still being trampled
- to death by a war more terrible than the first, because it was waged
- against the unarmed, women and children, the wounded, the starving and the
- defenceless! He tried in vain to keep back the tears. Bending low, he put
- his face in his hands and cried like a child.
- </p>
- <p>
- “God forgive them! They know not what they do!” he moaned.
- </p>
- <p>
- The kindly old man by his side said nothing, supposing he was overcome by
- the grandeur of the music.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XIX—THE RALLY OF THE CLANSMEN
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN the Preacher
- took the train in Boston for the South, his friendly merchant, a deacon,
- was by his side.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, you put my name and address down in your note book, William Crane.
- And don’t forget about us.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll never forget you, deacon.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Say, I just as well tell you,” whispered the deacon bending close, “we
- are not going to allow you to stay down South. We’ll be down after you
- before long—just as well be packing up!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher smiled, looked out of the car window, and made no reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, good-bye, Doctor, good-bye. God bless you and your work and your
- people! You’ve brought me a message warm from God’s heart. I’ll never
- forget it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good-bye, deacon.”
- </p>
- <p>
- As the train whirled southward through the rich populous towns and cities
- of the North, again the sharp contrast with the desolation of his own land
- cut him like a knife. He thought of Legree and Haley, Perkins and Tim
- Shelby robbing widows and orphans and sweeping the poverty-stricken
- Southland with riot, pillage, murder and brigandage, and posing as the
- representatives of the conscience of the North. And his heart was heavy
- with sorrow.
- </p>
- <p>
- On reaching Hambright he was thunderstruck at the news of the sale of Mrs.
- Gaston’s place and her tragic death.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why, my dear, I sent the money to her on the first Monday I spent in
- Boston!” he declared to his wife.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It never reached her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then Dave Haley, the dirty slave driver, has held that letter. I’ll see
- to this.” He hurried to the postoffice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mr. Haley,” he exclaimed, “I sent a money order letter to Mrs. Gaston
- from Boston on Monday a week ago.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, sir,” answered Haley in his blandest manner, “it got here the day
- after the sale.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’re an infamous liar!” shouted the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course! Of course! All Union men are liars to hear rebel traitors
- talk.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll report you to Washington for this rascality.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So do, so do. Mor’n likely the President and the Post-Office
- Department’ll be glad to have this information from so great a man.”
- </p>
- <p>
- As the Preacher was leaving the post-office he encountered the Hon. Tim
- Shelby dressed in the height of fashion, his silk hat shining in the sun,
- and his eyes rolling with the joy of living. The Preacher stepped squarely
- in front of Tim.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tim Shelby, I hear you have moved into Mrs. Gaston’s home and are using
- her furniture. By whose authority do you dare such insolence?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “By authority of the law, sir. Mrs. Gaston died intestate. Her effects are
- in the hands of our County Administrator, Mr. Ezra Perkins. I’ll be
- pleased to receive you, sir, any time you would like to call!” said Tim
- with a bow.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll call in due time,” replied the Preacher, looking Tim straight in the
- eye.
- </p>
- <p>
- Haley had been peeping through the window, watching and listening to this
- encounter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “These charmin’ preachers think they own this county, brother Shelby,”
- laughed Haley as he grasped Tim’s outstretched hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, they are the curse of the state. I wish to God they had succeeded in
- burning him alive that night the boys tried it. They’ll get him later on.
- Brother Haley, he’s a dangerous man. He must be put out of the way, or
- we’ll never have smooth sailing in this county.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I believe you’re right, he’s just been in here cussin’ me about that
- letter of the widder’s that didn’t get to her in time. He thinks he can
- run the post-office.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, we’ll show him this county’s in the hands of the loyal!” added Tim.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heard the news from Charleston?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heard it? I guess I have. I talked with the commanding General in
- Charleston two weeks ago. He told me then he was going to set aside that
- decision of the Supreme Court in a ringing order permitting the marriage
- of negroes to white women, and commanding its enforcement on every
- military post. I see he’s done it in no uncertain words.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s a great day, brother, for the world. There’ll be no more colour
- line.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, times have changed,” said Tim with a triumphant smile. “I guess our
- white hot-bloods will sweat and bluster and swear a little when they read
- that order. But we’ve got the bayonets to enforce it. They’d just as well
- cool down.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s the stuff,” said Haley, taking a fresh chew of tobacco.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let ’em squirm. They’re flat on their backs. We are on top, and we
- are going to stay on top. I expect to lead a fair white bride into my
- house before another year and have poor white aristocrats to tend my
- lawn.” Tim worked his ears and looked up at the ceiling in a dreamy sort
- of way.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’ll be a sight won’t it!” exclaimed Haley with delight. “Where’s that
- scoundrel Nelse that lived with Mrs. Gaston?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, we fixed him,” said Tim. “The black rascal wouldn’t join the League,
- and wouldn’t vote with his people, and still showed fight after we beat
- him half to death, so we put a levy of fifty dollars on his cabin, sold
- him out, and every piece of furniture, and every rag of clothes we could
- get hold of. He’ll leave the country now, or we’ll kill him next time.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You ought to a killed him the first time, and then the job would ha’ been
- over.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, we’ll have the country in good shape in a little while, and don’t you
- forget it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The news of the order of the military commandant of “District No. 2,”
- comprising the Carolinas, abrogating the decisions of the North Carolina
- Supreme Court, forbidding the intermarriage of negroes and whites, fell
- like a bombshell on Campbell county. The people had not believed that the
- military authorities would dare go to the length of attempting to force
- social equality.
- </p>
- <p>
- This order from Charleston was not only explicit, its language was
- peculiarly emphatic. It apparently commanded intermarriage, and ordered
- the military to enforce the command at the point of the bayonet.
- </p>
- <p>
- The feelings of the people were wrought to the pitch of fury. It needed
- but a word from a daring leader, and a massacre, of every negro, scalawag
- and carpet-bagger in the county might have followed. The Rev. John Durham
- was busy day and night seeking to allay excitement and prevent an uprising
- of the white population.
- </p>
- <p>
- Along with the announcement of this military order, came the startling
- news that Simon Legree, whose infamy was known from end to end of the
- state, was to be the next Governor, and that the Hon. Tim Shelby was a
- candidate for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
- </p>
- <p>
- Legree was in Washington at the time on a mission to secure a stand of
- twenty thousand rifles from the Secretary of War, with which to arm the
- negro troops he was drilling for the approaching election. The grant was
- made and Legree came back in triumph with his rifles.
- </p>
- <p>
- Relief for the ruined people was now a hopeless dream. Black despair was
- clutching at every white man’s heart. The taxpayers had held a convention
- and sent their representatives to Washington exposing the monstrous thefts
- that were being committed under the authority of the government by the
- organised band of thieves who were looting the state. But the thieves were
- the pets of politicians high in power. The committee of taxpayers were
- insulted and sent home to pay their taxes.
- </p>
- <p>
- And then a thing happened in Hambright that brought matters to a sudden
- crisis.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Hon. Tim Shelby as school commissioner, had printed the notices for an
- examination of school teachers for Campbell county. An enormous tax had
- been levied and collected by the county for this purpose, but no school
- had been opened. Tim announced, however, that the school would be surely
- opened the first Monday in October.
- </p>
- <p>
- Miss Mollie Graham, the pretty niece of the old doctor, was struggling to
- support a blind mother and four younger children. Her father and brother
- had been killed in the war. Their house had been sold for taxes, and they
- were required now to pay Tim Shelby ten dollars a month for rent. When she
- saw that school notice her heart gave a leap. If she could only get the
- place, it would save them from beggary.
- </p>
- <p>
- She fairly ran to the Preacher to get his advice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly, child, try for it. It’s humiliating to ask such a favour of
- that black ape, but if you can save your loved ones, do it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- So with trembling hand she knocked at Tim’s door. He required all
- applicants to apply personally at his house. Tim met her with the bows and
- smirks of a dancing master.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Delighted to see your pretty face this morning, Miss Graham,” he cried
- enthusiastically.
- </p>
- <p>
- The girl blushed and hesitated at the door.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just walk right in the parlour, I’ll join you in a moment.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She bravely set her lips and entered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And now what can I do for you, Miss Graham?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve come to apply for a teacher’s place in the school.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah indeed, I’m glad to know that. There is only one difficulty. You must
- be loyal. Your people were rebels, and the new government has determined
- to have only loyal teachers.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I think I’m loyal enough to the old flag now that our people have
- surrendered,” said the girl.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, yes, I dare say, but do you think you can accept the new régime of
- government and society which we are now establishing in the South? We have
- abolished the colour line. Would you have a mixed school if assigned one?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I think I’d prefer to teach a negro school outright to a mixed one,” she
- said after a moment’s hesitation.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tim continued, “You know we are living in a new world. The supreme law of
- the land has broken down every barrier of race and we are henceforth to be
- one people. The struggle for existence knows no race or colour. It’s a
- struggle now for bread. I’m in a position to be of great help to you and
- your family if you will only let me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The girl suddenly rose impelled by some resistless instinct.
- </p>
- <p>
- “May I have the place then?” she asked approaching the door.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, now you know it depends really altogether on my fancy. I’ll tell
- you what I’ll do. You’re still full of silly prejudices. I can see that.
- But if you will overcome them enough to do one thing for me as a test,
- that will cost you nothing and of which the world will never be the wiser,
- I’ll give you the place and more, I’ll remit the ten dollars a month rent
- you’re now paying. Will you do it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is it?” the girl asked with pale quivering lips.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let me kiss you—once!” he whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- With a scream, she sprang past him out of the door, ran like a deer across
- the lawn, and fell sobbing in her mother’s arms when she reached her home.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next day the town was unusually quiet. Tim had business with the
- Commandant of the company of regulars still quartered at Hambright. He
- spent most of the day with him, and walked about the streets
- ostentatiously showing his familiarity with the corporal who accompanied
- him. A guard of three soldiers was stationed around Tim’s house for two
- nights and then withdrawn.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next night at twelve o’clock two hundred white-robed horses assembled
- around the old home of Mrs. Gaston where Tim was sleeping. The moon was
- full and flooded-the lawn with silver glory. On those horses sat two
- hundred white-robed silent men whose closefitting hood disguises looked
- like the mail helmets of ancient knights.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was the work of a moment to seize Tim, and bind him across a horse’s
- back. Slowly the grim procession moved to the court house square.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the sun rose next morning the lifeless body of Tim Shelby was
- dangling from a rope tied to the iron rail of the balcony of the court
- house. His neck was broken and his body was hanging low—scarcely
- three feet from the ground. His thick lips had been split with a sharp
- knife and from his teeth hung this placard:
- </p>
- <p>
- “<i>The answer of the Anglo-Saxon race to Negro lips that dare pollute
- with words the womanhood of the South. K. K. K.</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- And the Ku Klux Klan was master of Campbell county.
- </p>
- <p>
- The origin of this Law and Order League which sprang up like magic in a
- night and nullified the programme of Congress though backed by an army of
- a million veteran soldiers, is yet a mystery.
- </p>
- <p>
- The simple truth is, it was a spontaneous and resistless racial uprising
- of clansmen of highland origin living along the Appalachian mountains and
- foothills of the South, and it appeared almost simultaneously in every
- Southern state produced by the same terrible conditions.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was the answer to their foes of a proud and indomitable race of men
- driven to the wall. In the hour of their defeat they laid down their arms
- and accepted in good faith the results of the war. And then, when unarmed
- and defenceless, a group of pot-house politicians for political ends,
- renewed the war, and attempted to wipe out the civilisation of the South.
- </p>
- <p>
- This Invisible Empire of White Robed Anglo-Saxon Knights was simply the
- old answer of organised manhood to organised crime. Its purpose was to
- bring order out of chaos, protect the weak and defenceless, the widows and
- orphans of brave men who had died for their country, to drive from power
- the thieves who were robbing the people, redeem the commonwealth from
- infamy, and reëstablish civilisation.
- </p>
- <p>
- Within one week from its appearance, life and property were as safe as in
- any Northern community.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the negroes came home from their League meeting one night they ran
- terror stricken past long rows of white horsemen. Not a word was spoken,
- but that was the last meeting the “Union League of America” ever held in
- Hambright.
- </p>
- <p>
- Every negro found guilty of a misdemeanor was promptly thrashed and warned
- against its recurrence. The sudden appearance of this host of white
- cavalry grasping at their throats with the grip of cold steel struck the
- heart of Legree and his followers with the chill of a deadly fear.
- </p>
- <p>
- It meant inevitable ruin, overthrow, and a prison cell for the “loyal”
- statesmen who were with him in his efforts to maintain the new “republican
- form of government” in North Carolina.
- </p>
- <p>
- At the approaching election, this white terror could intimidate every
- negro in the state unless he could arm them all, suspend the writ of <i>Habeas
- Corpus</i>, and place every county under the strictest martial law.
- </p>
- <p>
- Washington was besieged by a terrified army of the “loyal” who saw their
- occupation threatened. They begged for more troops, more guns for negro
- militia, and for the reestablishment of universal martial law until the
- votes were properly counted.
- </p>
- <p>
- But the great statesmen laughed them to scorn as a set of weak cowards and
- fools frightened by negro stories of ghosts. It was incredible to them
- that the crushed, poverty stricken and unarmed South could dare challenge
- the power of the National Government. They were sent back with scant
- comfort.
- </p>
- <p>
- The night that Ezra Perkins and Haley got back from Washington, where they
- had gone summoned by Legree and Hogg, to testify to the death of Tim
- Shelby, they saw a sight that made their souls quake.
- </p>
- <p>
- At ten o’clock, the Ku Klux Klan held a formal parade through the streets
- of Hambright. How the news was circulated nobody knew, but it seemed
- everybody in the county knew of it. The streets were lined with thousands
- of people who had poured in town that afternoon.
- </p>
- <p>
- At exactly ten o’clock, a bugle call was heard on the hill to the west of
- the town, and the muffled tread of soft shod horses came faintly on their
- ears. Women stood on the sidewalks, holding their babies and smiling, and
- children were laughing and playing in the streets.
- </p>
- <p>
- They rode four abreast in perfect order slowly through the town. It was
- utterly impossibly to recognise a man or a horse, so complete was the
- simple disguise of the white sheet which blanketed the horse fitting
- closely over his head and ears and falling gracefully over his form toward
- the ground.
- </p>
- <p>
- No citizen of Hambright was in the procession. They were all in the
- streets watching it pass. There were fifteen hundred men in line. But the
- reports next day all agreed in fixing the number at over five thousand.
- </p>
- <p>
- Perkins and Haley had watched it from a darkened room.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Brother Haley, that’s the end! Lord I wish I was back in Michigan, jail
- er no jail,” said Perkins mopping the perspiration from his brow.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We’ll have ter dig out purty quick, I reckon,” answered Haley.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And to think them fools at Washington laughed at us!” cried Perkins
- clinching his fists.
- </p>
- <p>
- And that night, mothers and fathers gathered their children to bed with a
- sense of grateful security they had not felt through years of war and
- turmoil.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XX—HOW CIVILISATION WAS SAVED
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE success of the
- Ku Klux Klan was so complete, its organisers were dazed. Its appeal to the
- ignorance and superstition of the Negro at once reduced the race to
- obedience and order. Its threat against the scalawag and carpet-bagger
- struck terror to their craven souls, and the “Union League,” “Red
- Strings,” and “Heroes of America” went to pieces with incredible rapidity.
- </p>
- <p>
- Major Stuart Dameron, the chief of the Klan in Campbell county was holding
- a conference with the Rev. John Durham in his study.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doctor, our work has succeeded beyond our wildest dream.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and I thank God we can breathe freely if only for a moment, Major.
- The danger now lies in our success. We are necessarily playing with fire.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know it, and it requires my time day and night to prevent reckless men
- from disgracing us.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It will not be necessary to enforce the death penalty against any other
- man in this county, Major. The execution of Tim Shelby was absolutely
- necessary at the time and it has been sufficient.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I agree with you. I’ve impressed this on the master of every lodge, but
- some of them are growing reckless.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who are they?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Young Allan McLeod for one. He is a dare devil and only eighteen years
- old.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s a troublesome boy. I don’t seem to have any influence with him. But
- I think Mrs. Durham can manage him. He seems to think a great deal of her,
- and in spite of his wild habits, he comes regularly to her Sunday School
- class.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hope she can bring him to his senses.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Leave him to me then a while. We will see what can be done.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- Hogg’s Legislature promptly declared the Scotch-Irish hill counties in a
- state of insurrection, passed a militia bill, and the Governor issued a
- proclamation suspending the writ of <i>Habeas Corpus</i> in these
- counties.
- </p>
- <p>
- Fearing the effects of negro militia in the hill districts, he surprised
- Hambright by suddenly marching into the court house square a regiment of
- white mountain guerrillas recruited from the outlaws of East Tennessee and
- commanded by a noted desperado, Colonel Henry Berry. The regiment had two
- pieces of field artillery.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was impossible for them to secure evidence against any member of the
- Klan unless by the intimidation of some coward who could be made to
- confess. Not a disguise had ever been penetrated. It was the rule of the
- order for its decrees to be executed in the district issuing the decree by
- the lodge furthest removed in the county from the scene. In this way not a
- man or a horse was ever identified.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Colonel made an easy solution of this difficulty, however. Acting
- under instructions from Governor Hogg, he secured from Haley and Perkins a
- list of every influential man in every precinct in the county, and a list
- of possible turncoats and cowards. He detailed five hundred of his men to
- make arrests, distributed them throughout the county and arrested without
- warrants over two hundred citizens in one day.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next day Berry hand-cuffed together the Rev. John Durham and Major
- Dameron, and led them escorted by a company of cavalry on a grand circuit
- of the county, that the people might be terrified by the sight of their
- chains. An ominous silence greeted them on every hand. Additional arrests
- were made by this troop and twenty-five more prisoners led into Hambright
- the next day.
- </p>
- <p>
- The jail was crowded, and the court house was used as a jail. Over a
- hundred and fifty men were confined in the court room. Rev. John Durham
- was everywhere among the crowd, laughing, joking and cheering the men.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Major Dameron, a jail never held so many honest men before,” he said with
- a smile, as he looked over the crowd of his church members gathered from
- every quarter of the county.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, Doctor, you’ve got a quorum here of your church and you can call
- them to order for business.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s a fact, isn’t it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There’s old Deacon Kline over there who looks like he wished he hadn’t
- come!” The Preacher walked over to the deacon.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s the matter, brother Kline, you look pensive?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The deacon laughed. “Yes, I don’t like my bed. I’m used to feathers.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, they say they are going to give you feathers mixed with tar so you
- won’t lose them so easily.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll have company, I reckon,” said the deacon with a wink.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The funny thing, deacon, is that Major Dameron tells me there isn’t a man
- in all the crowd of two hundred and fifty arrested who ever went on a
- raid. It’s too bad you old fellows have to pay for the follies of youth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is tough. But we can stand it, Preacher.” They clasped hands.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Haven’t smelled a coward anywhere have you, deacon?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve seen one or two a little fidgety, I thought. Cheer ’em up
- with a word, Preacher.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Springing on the platform of the judge’s desk he looked over the crowd for
- a moment, and a cheer shook the building.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Boys, I don’t believe there’s a single coward in our ranks.” Another
- cheer.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just keep cool now and let our enemies do the talking. In ten days every
- man of you will be back at home at his work.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How will we get out with the writ suspended?” asked a man standing near.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s the richest thing of all. A United States judge has just decided
- that the Governor of the state cannot suspend the rights of a citizen of
- the United States under the new Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution
- so recently rammed down our throats. Hogg is hoisted on his own petard.
- Our lawyers are now serving out writs of <i>Habeas Corpus</i> before this
- Federal judge under the Fourteenth Amendment, and you will be discharged
- in less than ten days unless there’s a skunk among you. And I don’t smell
- one anywhere.” Again a cheer shook the building.
- </p>
- <p>
- An orderly walked up to the Preacher and handed him a note.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Read it!” The men crowded around.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Read it, Major Dameron, I’m dumb,” said the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A military order from the dirty rascal. Berry, commanding the mountain
- bummers, forbidding the Rev. John Durham to speak during his
- imprisonment!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A roar of laughter followed this announcement.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s cruel! It’ll kill him!” cried deacon Kline as he jabbed the
- Preacher in the ribs.
- </p>
- <p>
- In a few minutes, the Preacher was back in his place with five of the best
- singers from his church by his side. He began to sing the old hymns of
- Zion and every man in the room joined until the building quivered with
- melody.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now a good old Yankee hymn, that suits this hour, written by an an old
- Baptist preacher I met in Boston the other day!” cried the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br />
- </p>
- <p class="indent20">
- “My country ’tis of thee,
- </p>
- <p class="indent20">
- Sweet land of liberty,
- </p>
- <p class="indent30">
- Of thee I sing!”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br />
- </p>
- <p>
- Heavens, how they sang it, while the Preacher lined it off, stood above
- them beating time, and led in a clear mighty voice! Again the orderly
- appeared with a note.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is it now?” they cried on every side.
- </p>
- <p>
- Again Major Dameron announced “Military order No. 2, forbidding the Rev.
- John Durham to sing or induce anybody to sing while in prison.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Another roar of laughter that broke into a cheer which made the glass
- rattle. When the soldier had disappeared, the Rev. John Durham ascended
- the platform, looked about him with a humourous twinkle in his eye,
- straightened himself to his full height and crowed like a rooster! A cheer
- shook the building to its foundations. Roar after roar of its defiant
- cadence swept across the square and made Haley and Perkins tremble as they
- looked at each other over their conference table with Berry.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What the devil’s the matter now?” cried Haley.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you suppose it’s a rescue?” whispered Perkins.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, it’s some new trick of that damned Preacher. I’ll chain him in a room
- to himself,” growled Berry.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Better not, Colonel. He’s the pet of these white devils. Ye’d better let
- him alone.” Berry accepted the advice.
- </p>
- <p>
- Five days later the prisoners were arraigned before the United States
- judge, Preston Rivers, at Independence. Not a scrap of evidence could be
- produced against them. Governor Hogg was present, with a flaming military
- escort. He held a stormy interview with Judge Rivers.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you discharge these prisoners, you destroy the government of this
- state, sir!” thundered Hogg.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are they not citizens of the United States? Does not the Fourteenth
- Amendment apply to a white man as well as a negro?” quietly asked the
- judge.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but they are conspirators against the Union. They are murderers and
- felons.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then prove it in my court and I’ll hand them back to you. They are
- entitled to a trial, under our Constitution.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll demand your removal by the President,” shouted Hogg.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Get out of this room, or I’ll remove you with the point of my boot!”
- thundered the judge with rising wrath. “You have suspended the writ of <i>Habeas
- Corpus</i> to win a political campaign. The Ku Klux Klan has broken up
- your Leagues. You are fighting for your life. But I’ll tell you now, you
- can’t suspend the Constitution of the United States while I’m a Federal
- judge in this state. I am not a henchman of yours to do your dirty
- campaign work. The election is but ten days off. Your scheme is plain
- enough. But if you want to keep these men in prison it will be done on
- sworn evidence of guilt and a warrant, not on your personal whim.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Governor cursed, raved and threatened in vain. Judge Rivers discharged
- every prisoner and warned Colonel Berry against the repetition of such
- arrests within his jurisdiction.
- </p>
- <p>
- When these prisoners were discharged, a great mass meeting was called to
- give them a reception in the public square of Independence. A platform was
- hastily built in the square and that night five thousand excited people
- crowded past the stand, shook hands with the men and cheered till they
- were hoarse. The Governor watched the demonstration in helpless fury from
- his room in the hotel.
- </p>
- <p>
- The speaking began at nine o’clock. Every discordant element of the old
- South’s furious political passions was now melted into harmonious unity.
- Whig and Democrat who had fought one another with relentless hatred sat
- side by side on that platform. Secessionist and Unionist now clasped
- hands. It was a White Man’s Party, and against it stood in solid array the
- Black Man’s Party, led by Simon Legree.
- </p>
- <p>
- Henceforth there could be but one issue, are you a White Man or a Negro?
- </p>
- <p>
- They declared there was but one question to be settled:—
- </p>
- <p>
- “<i>Shall the future American be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto?</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- These determined impassioned men believed that this question was more
- important than any theory of tariff or finance and that it was larger than
- the South, or even the nation, and held in its solution the brightest
- hopes of the progress of the human race. And they believed that they were
- ordained of God in this crisis to give this question its first
- authoritative answer.
- </p>
- <p>
- The state burst into a flame of excitement that fused in its white heat
- the whole Anglo-Saxon race.
- </p>
- <p>
- In vain Hogg marched and counter-marched his twenty thousand state troops.
- They only added fuel to the fire. If they arrested a man, he became
- forthwith a hero and was given an ovation. They sent bands of music and
- played at the jail doors, and the ladies filled the jail with every
- delicacy that could tempt the appetite or appeal to the senses.
- </p>
- <p>
- Hogg and Legree were in a panic of fear with the certainty of defeat,
- exposure and a felon’s cell yawning before them.
- </p>
- <p>
- Two days before the election, the prayer meeting was held at eight o’clock
- in the Baptist church at Ham-bright. It was the usual mid-week service,
- but the attendance was unusually large.
- </p>
- <p>
- After the meeting, the Preacher, Major Dameron, and eleven men quietly
- walked back to the church and assembled in the pastor’s study. The door
- opened at the rear of the church and could be approached by a side street.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gentlemen,” said Major Dameron, “I’ve asked you here to-night to deliver
- to you the most important order I have ever given, and to have Dr. Durham
- as our chaplain to aid me in impressing on you its great urgency.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We’re ready for orders, Chief,” said young Ambrose Kline, the deacon’s
- son.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are to call out every troop of the Klan in full force the night
- before the election. You are to visit every negro in the county, and warn
- every one as he values his life not to approach the polls at this
- election. Those who come, will be allowed to vote without molestation. All
- cowards will stay at home. Any man, black or white, who can be scared out
- of his ballot is not fit to have one. Back of every ballot is the red
- blood of the man that votes. The ballot is force. This is simply a test of
- manhood. It will be enough to show who is fit to rule the state. As the
- masters of the eleven township lodges of the Klan, you are the sole
- guardians of society to-day. When a civilised government has been
- restored, your work will be done.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We will do it, sir,” cried Kline.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let me say, men,” said the Preacher, “that I heartily endorse the plan of
- your chief. See that the work is done thoroughly and it will be done for
- all time. In a sense this is fraud. But it is the fraud of war. The spy is
- a fraud, but we must use him when we fight. Is war justifiable?
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is too late now for us to discuss that question. We are in a war, the
- most ghastly and hellish ever waged, a war on women and children, the
- starving and the wounded, and that with sharpened swords. The Turk and
- Saracen once waged such a war. We must face it and fight it out. Shall we
- flinch?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No! no!” came the passionate answer from every man.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are asked to violate for the moment a statutory law. There is a
- higher law. You are the sworn officers of that higher law.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The group of leaders left the church with enthusiasm and on the following
- night they carried out their instructions to the letter.
- </p>
- <p>
- The election was remarkably quiet. Thousands of soldiers were used at the
- polls by Hogg’s orders. But they seemed to make no impression on the
- determined men who marched up between their files and put the ballots in
- the box.
- </p>
- <p>
- Legree’s ticket was buried beneath an avalanche. The new “Conservative”
- party carried every county in the state save twelve and elected one
- hundred and six members of the new Legislature out of a total of one
- hundred and twenty.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next day hundreds of carpet-bagger thieves fled to the North, and
- Legree led the procession.
- </p>
- <p>
- Legree had on deposit in New York two millions of dollars, and the total
- amount of his part of the thefts he had engineered reached five millions.
- He opened an office on Wall Street, bought a seat in the Stock Exchange,
- and became one of the most daring and successful of a group of robbers who
- preyed on the industries of the nation.
- </p>
- <p>
- The new Legislature appointed a Fraud Commission which uncovered the
- infamies of the Legree régime, but every thief had escaped. They promptly
- impeached the Governor and removed him from office, and the old
- commonwealth once more lifted up her head and took her place in the ranks
- of civilised communities.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XXI—THE OLD AND THE NEW NEGRO
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">N</span>ELSE was elated
- over the defeat and dissolution of the Leagues that had persecuted him
- with such malignant hatred. When the news of the election came he was
- still in bed suffering from his wounds. He had received an internal injury
- that threatened to prove fatal.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dar now!” he cried, sitting up in bed, “Ain’t I done tole you no
- kinky-headed niggers gwine ter run dis gov’ment!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Keep still dar, ole man, you’ll be faintin’ ergin,” worried Aunt Eve.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Na honey, I’se feelin’ better. Gwine ter git up and meander down town en
- ax dem niggers how’s de Ku Kluxes comin’ on dese days.”
- </p>
- <p>
- In spite of all Eve could say he crawled out of bed, fumbled into his
- clothes and started down town, leaning heavily on his cane. He had gone
- about a block, when he suddenly reeled and fell. Eve was watching him from
- the door, and was quickly by his side. He died that afternoon at three
- o’clock. He regained consciousness before the end, and asked Eve for his
- banjo.
- </p>
- <p>
- He put it lovingly into the hands of Charlie Gaston who stood by the bed
- crying.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You keep ’er, honey. You lub ’er talk better’n any body in
- de work, en ’member Nelse when you hear ’er moan en sigh. En
- when she talk short en sassy en make ’em all gin ter shuffle, dat’s
- me too. Dat’s me got back in ’er.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Charlie Gaston rode with Aunt Eve to the cemetery. He walked back home
- through the fields with Dick.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wouldn’ cry ’bout er ole nigger!” said Dick looking into his
- reddened eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can’t help it. He was my best friend.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Haint I wid you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but you ain’t Nelse.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I stan’ by you des de same.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XXII—THE DANGER OF PLAYING WITH FIRE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE following
- Saturday the Rev. John Durham preached at a cross roads school house in
- the woods about ten miles from Hambright. He preached every Saturday in
- the year at such a mission station. He was fond of taking Charlie with him
- on these trips. There was an unusually large crowd in attendance, and the
- Preacher was much pleased at this evidence of interest. It had been a hard
- community to impress. At the close of the services, while the Preacher was
- shaking hands with the people, Charlie elbowed his way rapidly among the
- throng to his side.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doctor, there’s a nigger man out at the buggy says he wants to see you
- quick,” he whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, Charlie, in a minute.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Says to come right now. It’s a matter of life and death, and he don’t
- want to come into the crowd.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A troubled look flashed over the Preacher’s face and he hastily followed
- the boy, fearing now a sinister meaning to his great crowd.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Preacher,” said the negro looking timidly around, “dc Ku Klux is gwine
- ter kill ole Uncle Rufus Lattimore ter night. I come ter see ef you can’t
- save him. He aint done nuthin’ in God’s work ’cept he would’n’ pull
- his waggin clear outen de road one day fur dat redheaded Allan McLeod ter
- pass, en he cussed ’im black and blue en tole ’im he gwine
- git eben wid ’im.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How do you know this?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wuz huntin’ in de woods en hear a racket en dim’ er tree. En de Ku
- Kluxes had der meetin’ right under de tree. En I hear ev’ry word.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who was leading the crowd?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dat Allan McLeod, en Hose Norman.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where are they going to meet?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Right at de cross-roads here at de school house at mid-night. Dey sont er
- man atter plenty er licker en dey gwine ter git drunk fust. I was erfeered
- ter come ter de meetin’ case I see er lot er de boys in de crowd. Fur de
- Lawd sake, Preacher, do save de ole man. He des es harmless ez er chile.
- En I’m gwine ter marry his gal, en she des plum crazy. We’se got five men
- ter fight fur ’im but I spec dey kill ’em all ef you can’t
- he’p us.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you one of General Worth’s negroes?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir. I run erway up here, ’bout dat Free’mens Bureau trick dey
- put me up ter, but I’se larned better sense now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, Sam, you go to Uncle Rufus and tell him not to be afraid. I’ll stop
- this business before night.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The negro stepped into the woods and disappeared.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Charlie, we must hurry,” said the Preacher springing in his buggy. He was
- driving a beautiful bay mare, a gift from a Kentucky friend. Her sleek
- glistening skin and big round veins showed her fine blood.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, Nancy, it’s your life now or a man’s, or maybe a dozen. You must
- take us to Hambright in fifty minutes over these rough hills!” cried the
- Preacher. And he gave her the reins.
- </p>
- <p>
- The mare bounded forward with a rush that sent four spinning circles of
- sand and dust from each wheel. She had seldom felt the lines slacken
- across her beautiful back except in some great emergency. She swung past
- buggies and wagons without a pause. The people wondered why the Preacher
- was in such a hurry. Over long sand stretches of heavy road the mare flew
- in a cloud of dust. The Preacher’s lips were firmly set, and a scowl on
- his brow. They had made five miles without slackening up.
- </p>
- <p>
- The mare was now a mass of white foam, her big-veined nostrils wide open
- and quivering, and her eyes flashing with the fire of proud ancestry. The
- slackened lines on her back seemed to her an insufferable insult! “Doctor,
- you’ll kill Nancy!” pleaded Charlie.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can’t help it, son, there’s a lot of drunken devils, masquerading as Ku
- Klux, going to kill a man to-night. If we can’t reach Major Dameron’s in
- time for him to get a lot of men and stop them there’ll be a terrible
- tragedy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- On the mare flew lifting her proud sensitive head higher and higher, while
- her heart beat her foaming flanks like a trip hammer. She never slackened
- her speed for the ten miles, but dashed up to Major Dameron’s gate at
- sundown, just forty-nine minutes from the time she started. The Preacher
- patted her dripping neck.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good, Nancy! good! I believe you’ve got a soul!” She stood with her head
- still high, pawing the ground.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Major Dameron, I’ve driven my mare here at a killing speed to tell you
- that young McLeod and Hose Norman have a crowd of desperadoes organised to
- kill old Rufus Lattimore to-night. You must get enough men together, and
- get there in time to stop them. Sam Worth overheard their plot, knows
- every one of them, and there will be a battle if they attempt it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My God!” exclaimed the Major.-“You haven’t a minute to spare. They are
- already loading up on moonshine whiskey.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doctor Durham, this is the end of the Ku Klux Klan in this county. I’ll
- break up every lodge in the next forty-eight hours. It’s too easy for
- vicious men to abuse it. Its power is too great. Besides its work is
- done.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I was just going to ask you to take that step, Major. And now for God’s
- sake get there in time to-night. I’d go with you but my mare can’t stand
- it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll be there on time. Never fear,” replied the Major, springing on his
- horse already saddled at the door.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher drove slowly to his home, the mare pulling steadily on her
- lines. She walked proudly into her stable lot, her head high and fine eyes
- flashing, reeled and fell dead in the shafts! The Preacher couldn’t keep
- back the tears. He called Dick and left him and Charlie the sorrowful task
- of taking off her harness. He hurried into the house and shut himself up
- in his study.
- </p>
- <p>
- That night when the crowd of young toughs assembled at their rendezvous it
- was barely ten o’clock.
- </p>
- <p>
- Suddenly a pistol shot rang from behind the school-house, and before
- McLeod and Lis crowd knew what had happened fifty white horsemen wheeled
- into a circle about them. They were completely surprised and cowed. Major
- Dameron rode up to McLeod.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Young man, you are the prisoner of the Chief of the Ku Klux Klan of
- Campbell county. Lift your hand now and I’ll hang you in five minutes. You
- have forfeited your life by disobedience to my orders. You go back to
- Hambright with me under guard. Whether I execute you depends on the
- outcome of the next two days’ conferences with the chiefs of the township
- lodges.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Major wheeled his horse and rode home. The next day he ordered every
- one of the eleven township chiefs to report in person to him, at different
- hours the same day. To each one his message was the same. He dissolved the
- order and issued a perpetual injunction against any division of the Klan
- ever going on another raid.
- </p>
- <p>
- There were only a few who could see the wisdom of such hasty action. The
- success had been so marvellous, their power so absolute, it seemed a pity
- to throw it all away. Young Kline especially begged the Major to postpone
- his action.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s impossible Kline. The Klan has done its work. The carpet-baggers
- have fled. The state is redeemed from the infamies of a negro government,
- and we have a clean economical administration, and we can keep it so as
- long as the white people are a unit without any secret societies.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, Major, we may be needed again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t assume the responsibility any longer. The thing is getting beyond
- my control. The order is full of wild youngsters and revengeful men. They
- try to bring their grudges against neighbours into the order, and when I
- refuse to authorise a raid, they take their disguises and go without
- authority. An archangel couldn’t command such a force.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Within two weeks from the dissolution of the Klan by its Chief, every
- lodge had been reorganised. Some of the older men had dropped out, but
- more young men were initiated to take their places. Allan McLeod led in
- this work of prompt reorganisation, and was elected Chief of the county by
- the younger element which now had a large majority.
- </p>
- <p>
- He at once served notice on Major Dameron, the former Chief, that if he
- dared to interfere with his work-even by opening his mouth in criticism,
- he would order a raid, and thrash him.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the Major found this note under his door one morning, he read and
- re-read it with increasing wrath. Springing on his horse he went in search
- of McLeod. He saw him leisurely crossing the street going from the hotel
- to the court house.
- </p>
- <p>
- Throwing his horse’s rein to a passing boy, he walked rapidly to him and,
- without a word, boxed his ears as a father would an impudent child. McLeod
- was so astonished, he hesitated for a moment whether to strike or to run.
- He did neither, but blushed red and stammered, “What do you mean, sir?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Read that letter, you young whelp!” The Major thrust the letter into his
- hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know nothing of this.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’re a liar. You are its author. No other fool in this county would
- have conceived it. Now, let me give you a little notice. I am prepared for
- you and your crowd. Call any time. I can whip a hundred puppies of your
- breed any time by myself with one hand tied behind me, and never get a
- scratch. Dare to lift your finger against me, or any of the men who
- refused to go with your new fool’s movement, and I’ll shoot you on sight
- as I would a mad dog.” Before McLeod could reply, the Major turned on his
- heels and left him.
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod made no further attempt to molest the Major, nor did he allow any
- raids bent on murder. The sudden authority placed in his hands in a
- measure sobered him. He inaugurated a series of petty deviltries, whipping
- negroes and poor white men against whom some of his crowd had a grudge,
- and annoying the school teachers of negro schools.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XXIII—THE BIRTH OF A SCALAWAG
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE overwhelming
- defeat of their pets in the South, and the toppling of their houses of
- paper built on Negro supremacy, brought to Congress a sense of guilt and
- shame, that required action. Their own agents in the South were now in the
- penitentiary or in exile for well established felonies, and the future
- looked dark.
- </p>
- <p>
- They found the scapegoat in these fool later day Ku Klux marauders. Once
- more the public square at Ham-bright saw the bivouac of the regular troops
- of the United States Army. The Preacher saw the glint of their bayonets
- with a sense of relief.
- </p>
- <p>
- With this army came a corps of skilled detectives, who set to work. All
- that was necessary, was to arrest and threaten with summary death a
- coward, and they got all the information he could give. The jail was
- choked with prisoners and every day saw a squad depart for the stockade at
- Independence. Sam Worth gave information that led to the immediate arrest
- of Allan McLeod. He was the first man led into the jail.
- </p>
- <p>
- The officers had a long conference with him that lasted four hours.
- </p>
- <p>
- And then the bottom fell out. A wild stampede of young men for the West!
- Somebody who held the names of every man in the order had proved a
- traitor.
- </p>
- <p>
- Every night from hundreds of humble homes might be heard the choking sobs
- of a mother saying good-bye in the darkness to the last boy the war had
- left her old age. When the good-bye was said, and the father, waiting in
- the buggy at the gate, had called for haste, and the boy was hurrying out
- with his grip-sack, there was a moan, the soft rush of a coarse homespun
- dress toward the gate and her arms were around his neck again.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t let you go, child! Lord have mercy! He’s the last!” And the low
- pitiful sobs!
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come, come, now Ma, we must get away from here before the officers are
- after him!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just a minute!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A kiss, and then another long and lingering. A sigh, and then a smothered
- choking cry from a mother’s broken heart and he was gone.
- </p>
- <p>
- Thus Texas grew into the Imperial Commonwealth of the South.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- To save appearance McLeod was removed to Independence with the other
- prisoners, and in a short time released, with a number of others against
- whom insignificant charges were lodged.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he returned to Hambright the people looked at him with suspicion.
- </p>
- <p>
- “How is it, young man,” asked the Preacher, “that you are at home so soon,
- while brave boys are serving terms in Northern prisons?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Had nothing against me,” he replied.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s strange, when Sam Worth swore that you organised the raid to kill
- Rufe Lattimore.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They didn’t believe him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I’ve an idea that you saved your hide by puking. I’m not sure yet,
- but information was given that only the man in command of the whole county
- could have possessed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There were a half-dozen men who knew as much as I did. You mustn’t think
- me capable of such a thing, Dr. Durham!” protested McLeod with heightened
- colour.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s a nasty suspicion. I’d rather sec a child of mine transformed into a
- cur dog, and killed for stealing sheep, than fall to the level of such a
- man. But only time will prove the issue.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve made up my mind to turn over a new leaf,” said McLeod. “I’m sick of
- rowdyism. I’m going to be a law-abiding, loyal citizen.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s just what I’m afraid of!” exclaimed the Preacher with a sneer as
- he turned and left him.
- </p>
- <p>
- And his fears were soon confirmed. Within a month the Independence
- Observer contained a dispatch from Washington announcing the appointment
- of Allan McLeod a Deputy United States Marshal for the District of Western
- North Carolina, together with the information that he had renounced his
- allegiance to his old disloyal associates, and had become an enthusiastic
- Republican; and that henceforth he would labour with might and main to
- establish peace and further the industrial progress of the South.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I knew it. The dirty whelp!” cried the Preacher, as he showed the paper
- to his wife.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now don’t be too hard on the boy, Doctor Durham,” urged his wife. “He may
- be sincere in his change of politics. You never did like him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sincere! yes, as the devil is always sincere. He’s dead in earnest now.
- He’s found his level, and his success is sure. Mark my words the boy’s a
- villain from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. He has
- bartered his soul to save his skin, and the skin is all that’s left.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m sorry to think it. I couldn’t help liking him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And that’s the funniest freak I ever knew your fancy to take, my dear,—I
- never could understand it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When McLeod had established his office in Hambright, he made special
- efforts to allay the suspicions against his name. His indignant denials of
- the report of his treachery convinced many that he had been wronged. Two
- men alone, maintained toward him an attitude of contempt, Major Dameron
- and the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- He called on Mrs. Durham, and with his smooth tongue convinced her that he
- had been foully slandered. She urged him to win the Doctor. Accordingly he
- called to talk the question over with the Preacher and ask him for a fair
- chance to build his character untarnished in the community.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher heard him through patiently, but in silence. Allan was
- perspiring before he reached the end of his plausible explanation. It was
- a tougher task than he thought, this deliberate lying, under the gaze of
- those glowing black eyes that looked out from their shaggy brows and
- pierced through his inmost soul.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’ve got an oily tongue. It will carry you a long way in this world. I
- can’t help admiring the skill with which you are fast learning to use it.
- You’ve fooled Mrs. Durham with it, but you can’t fool me,” said the
- Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doctor, I solemnly swear to you I am not guilty.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s no use to add perjury to plain lying. I know you did it. I know it
- as well as if I were present in that jail and heard you basely betray the
- men, name by name, whom you had lured to their ruin.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doctor, I swear you are mistaken!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bah! Don’t talk about it. You nauseate me!” The Preacher sprang to his
- feet, paced across the floor, sat down on the edge of his table and glared
- at McLeod for a moment. And then with his voice low and quivering with a
- storm of emotion he said, “The curse of God upon you—the God of your
- fathers! Your fathers in far-off Scotland’s hills, who would have suffered
- their tongues torn from their heads and their skin stripped inch by inch
- from their flesh sooner than betray one of their clan in distress. You
- have betrayed a thousand of your own men, and you, their sworn chieftain!
- Hell was made to consume such leper trash!” McLeod was dazed at first by
- this outburst. At length he sprang to his feet livid with rage.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ll not forget this, sir!” he hissed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t forget it!” cried the Preacher trembling with passion as he opened
- the door. “Go on and live your lie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XXIV—A MODERN MIRACLE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>RS. DURHAM, the
- Doctor wants you,” said Charlie when McLeod’s footfall had died away.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Charlie, dear, why don’t you call me ‘Mama’—surely you love me a
- little wee bit, don’t you?” she asked, taking the boy’s hand tenderly in
- hers.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes’m,” he replied hanging his head.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then do say Mama. You don’t know how good it would be in my ears.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I try to but it chokes me,” he half whispered, glancing timidly up at
- her. “Let me call you Aunt Margaret, I always wanted an aunt and I think
- your name Margaret’s so sweet,” he shyly added.
- </p>
- <p>
- She kissed him and said, “All right, if that’s all you will give me.” She
- passed on into the library where the Preacher waited her.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My dear, I’ve just given young McLeod a piece of my mind. I wanted to say
- to you that you are entirely mistaken in his character. He’s a bad egg. I
- know all the facts about his treachery. He’s as smooth a liar as I’ve met
- in years.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “With all his brute nature, there’s some good in him,” she persisted.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, it will stay in him. He will never let it get out.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, have your way about it for the time. We’ll see who is right in
- the long run. Now I’ve a more pressing and tougher problem for your
- solution.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dick.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s he done this time?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He steals everything he can get his hands on.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He is a puzzle.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s the greatest liar I ever saw,” she continued. “He simply will not
- tell the truth if he can think up a lie in time. I’d say run him off the
- place, but for Charlie. He seems to love the little scoundrel. I’m afraid
- his influence over Charlie will be vicious, but it would break the child’s
- heart to drive him away. What shall we do with him?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher laughed. “I give it up, my dear, you’ve got beyond my depth
- now. I don’t know whether he’s got a soul. Certainly the very rudimentary
- foundations of morals seem lacking. I believe you could take a young ape
- and teach him quicker. I leave him with you. At present it’s a domestic
- problem.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thanks, that’s so encouraging.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Dick was a puzzle and no mistake about it. But to Charlie his rolling
- mischievous eyes, his cunning fingers and his wayward imagination were
- unfailing fountains of life. He found every bird’s nest within two miles
- of town. He could track a rabbit almost as swiftly and surely as a hound.
- He could work like fury when he had a mind to, and loaf a half day over
- one row of the garden when he didn’t want to work, which was his chronic
- condition.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the revival season set in for the negroes in the summer, the days of
- sorrow began for householders. Every negro in the community became
- absolutely worthless and remained so until the emotional insanity
- attending their meetings wore off.
- </p>
- <p>
- Aunt Mary, Mrs. Durham’s cook, got salvation over again every summer with
- increasing power and increasing degeneration in her work. Some nights she
- got home at two o’clock and breakfast was not ready until nine. Some
- nights she didn’t get home at all, and Mrs. Durham had to get breakfast
- herself.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was a hard time for Dick who had not yet experienced religion, and on
- whom fell the brunt of the extra work and Mrs. Durham’s fretfulness
- besides.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I tell you what less do, Charlie!” he cried one day. “Less go down ter
- dat nigger chu’ch, en bus’ up de meetin’! I’se gettin’ tired er dis.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How’ll you do it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I show you somefin’?” He reached under his shirt next to his skin, and
- pulled out Dr. Graham’s sun glass.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where’d you get that, Dick?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Foun’ it whar er man lef’ it.” He walled his eyes solemnly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Des watch here when I turns ’im in de sun. I kin set dat pile er
- straw er fire wid it!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You mustn’t set the church afire!” warned Charlie.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Naw, chile, but I git up in de gallery, en when ole Uncle Josh gins ter
- holler en bawl en r’ar en charge, I fling dat blaze er light right on his
- bal’ haid, en I set him afire sho’s you bawn!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dick, I wouldn’t do it,” said Charlie, laughing in spite of himself.
- </p>
- <p>
- Charlie refused to accompany him. But Dick’s mind was set on the necessity
- of this work of reform. So in the afternoon he slipped off without leave
- and quietly made his way into the gallery of the Negro Baptist church.
- </p>
- <p>
- The excitement was running high. Uncle Josh had preached one sermon an
- hour in length, and had called up the mourners. At least fifty had come
- forward. The benches had been cleared for five rows back from the pulpit
- to give plenty of room for the mourners to crawl over the floor, walk back
- and forth and shout when they “came through,” and for their friends to fan
- them.
- </p>
- <p>
- This open place was covered with wheat straw to keep the mourners off the
- bare floor, and afford some sort of comfort for those far advanced in
- mourning, who went into trances and sometimes lay motionless for hours on
- their backs or flat on their faces.
- </p>
- <p>
- The mourners had kicked and shuffled this straw out to the edges and the
- floor was bare. Uncle Josh had sent two deacons out for more straw.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the meantime he was working himself up to another mighty climax of
- exhortation to move sinners to come forward.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come on ter glory you po, po sinners, en flee ter de Lamb er God befo de
- flames er hell swaller you whole! At de last great day de Sperit ’ll
- flash de light er his shinin’ face on dis ole parch up sinful worl’, en
- hit ’ll ketch er fire in er minute, an de yearth ’ll melt
- wid furvient heat! Whar ’ll you be den po tremblin’ sinner? Whar ’ll
- you be when de flame er de Sperit smites de moon and de stars wid fire, en
- dey gin ter drap outen de sky en knock big holes in de burnin’ yearth?
- Whar ’ll you be when de rocks melt wid dat heat, en de sun hide his
- face in de black smoke dat rise fum de pit?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Moans and groans and shrieks, louder and louder filled the air. Uncle Josh
- paused a moment and looked for his deacons with the straw. They were just
- coming up the steps with a great armful over their heads.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s de matter wid you breddern! Fetch on dat wheat straw! Here’s dese
- tremblin’ souls gwine down inter de flames er hell des fur de lak er wheat
- straw!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The brethren hurried forward with the wheat straw, and just as they
- reached Uncle Josh standing perspiring in the midst of his groaning
- mourners, Dick flashed from the gallery a stream of dazzling light on the
- old man’s face and held it steadily on his bald head. Josh was too
- astonished to move at first. He was simply paralysed with fear. It was all
- right to talk about the flame of the Spirit, but he wasn’t exactly ready
- to run into it. Suddenly he clapped his hands on the top of his head and
- sprang straight up in the air yelling in a plain everyday profane voice,
- “God-der-mighty! What’s dat?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The brethren holding the straw saw it and stood dumb with terror. The
- light disappeared from Uncle Josh’s head and lit the straw in splendour on
- one of the deacon’s shoulders. Aunt Mary’s voice was heard above the
- mourners’ din, clear, shrill and soul piercing.
- </p>
- <p>
- “G-l-o-r-y! G-l-o-r-y ter God! De flame er de Sperit! De judgment day! Yas
- Lawd, I’se here! Glory! Halleluyah!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Suddenly the straw on the deacon’s back burst into flames! And pandemonium
- broke loose. A weak-minded sinner screamed, “De flames er Hell!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The mourners smelled the smoke and sprang from the floor with white
- staring eyes. When they saw the fire and got their bearings they made for
- the open,—they jumped on each others’ back and made for the door
- like madmen. Those nearest the windows sprang through, and when the lower
- part of the window was jammed, big buck negroes jumped on the backs of the
- lower crowd and plunged through the two upper sashes with a crash that
- added new terror to the panic.
- </p>
- <p>
- In two minutes the church was empty, and the yard full of crazy, shouting
- negroes.
- </p>
- <p>
- Dick stepped from the gallery into the crowd as the last ones emerged, ran
- up to the pulpit and stamped out the fire in the straw with his bare feet.
- He looked around to see if they had left anything valuable behind in the
- stampede, and sauntered leisurely out of the church.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now dog-gone ’em let ’em yell!” he muttered to himself.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Uncle Josh sufficiently recovered his senses to think, and saw the
- church still standing, with not even a whiff of smoke to be seen, instead
- of the roaring furnace he had expected, he was amazed. He called his
- scattered deacons together and they went cautiously back to investigate.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hit’s no use in talkin’ Bre’r Josh, dey sho wuz er fire!” cried one of
- the deacons.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sho’s de Lawd’s in heaben. I feel it gittin’ on my fingers fo I drap dat
- straw!” said another.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hit smite me fust right on top er my haid!” whispered Uncle Josh in awe.
- </p>
- <p>
- They cautiously approached the pulpit and there in front of it lay the
- charred fragments of the burned straw pile.
- </p>
- <p>
- They gathered around it in awe-struck wonder. One of them touched it with
- his foot.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doan do dat!” cried Uncle Josh, lifting his hand with authority.
- </p>
- <p>
- They drew back, Uncle Josh saw the immense power in that heap of charred
- straw. Some of it was a little damp and it had been only partly burned.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dar’s de mericle er de Sperit!” he solemnly declared.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yas Lawd!” echoed a deacon.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Fetch de hammer, en de saw, en de nails, en de boards en build right dar
- en altar ter de Sperit!” were his prophetic commands.
- </p>
- <p>
- And they did. They got an old show case of glass, put the charred straw in
- it, and built an open box work around it just where it fell in front of
- the pulpit.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then a revival broke out that completely paralysed the industries of
- Campbell county. Every negro stopped work and went to that church. Uncle
- Josh didn’t have to preach or to plead. They came in troops towards the
- magic altar, whose fame and mystery had thrilled every superstitious soul
- with its power. The benches were all moved out and the whole church floor
- given up to mourners. Uncle Josh had an easy time walking around just
- adding a few terrifying hints to trembling sinners, or helping to hold
- some strong sister when she had “come through,” with so much glory in her
- bones that there was danger she would hurt somebody.
- </p>
- <p>
- After a week the matter became so serious that the white people set in
- motion an investigation of the affair. Dick had thrown out a mysterious
- hint that he knew some things that were very funny.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doan you tell nobody!” he would solemnly say to Charlie.
- </p>
- <p>
- And then he would lie down on the grass and roll and laugh. At length by
- dint of perseverance, and a bribe of a quarter, the Preacher induced Dick
- to explain the mystery. He did, and it broke up the meeting.
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncle Josh’s fury knew no bounds. He was heartbroken at the sudden
- collapse of his revival, chagrined at the recollection of his own terror
- at the fire, and fearful of an avalanche of backsliders from the meeting
- among those who had professed even with the greatest glory.
- </p>
- <p>
- He demanded that the Preacher should turn Dick over to him for correction.
- The Preacher took a few hours to consider whether he should whip him
- himself or turn him over to Uncle Josh. Dick heard Uncle Josh’s demand.
- Out behind the stable he and Charlie held a council of war.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You go see Miss Mar’get fur me, en git up close to her, en tell her taint
- right ter ’low no low down black nigger ter whip me!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right Dick, I will,” agreed Charlie.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Case ef ole Josh beats me I gwine ter run away. I nebber git ober dat.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Dick had threatened to run away often before when he wanted to force
- Charlie to do something for him. Once he had gone a mile out of town with
- his clothes tied in a bundle, and Charlie trudging after him begging him
- not to leave.
- </p>
- <p>
- The boy did his best to save Dick the humiliation of a whipping at the
- hands of Uncle Josh, but in vain.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Uncle Josh led him out to the stable lot, his face was not pleasant
- to look upon. There was a dangerous gleam in Dick’s eye that boded no good
- to his enemy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You imp er de debbil!” exclaimed Uncle Josh shaking his switch with
- unction.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I fool you good enough, you ole bal’ headed ape!” answered Dick gritting
- his teeth defiantly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I make you sing enudder chune fo I’se done wid you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “En if you does, nigger, you know what I gwine do fur you?” cried Dick
- rolling his eyes up at his enemy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What kin you do, honey? asked Uncle Josh, humouring his victim now with
- the evident relish of a cat before his meal on a mouse.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ef you hits me hard, I gwine ter burn you house down on you haid some
- night, en run erway des es sho es I kin stick er match to it,” said Dick.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You is, is you?” thundered Josh with wrath.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dat I is. En I burn yo ole chu’ch de same night.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Uncle Josh was silent a moment. Dick’s words had chilled his heart. He was
- afraid of him, but he was afraid to back down from what was now evidently
- his duty. So without further words he whipped him. Yet to save his life he
- could not hit him as hard as he thought he deserved.
- </p>
- <p>
- That night Dick disappeared from Hambright, and for weeks every evening at
- dusk the wistful face of Charlie Gaston could be seen on the big hill to
- the south of town vainly watching for somebody. He would always take
- something to eat in his pockets, and when he gave up his vigil he would
- place the food under a big shelving rock where they had often played
- together. But the birds and ground squirrels ate it. He would slip back
- the next day hoping to see Dick jump out of the cave and surprise him.
- </p>
- <p>
- And then at last he gave it up, sat down under the rock and cried. He knew
- Dick would grow to be a man somewhere out in the big world and never come
- back.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2H_4_0027" id="link2H_4_0027"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- BOOK TWO—LOVE’S DREAM
- </h2>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER I—BLUE EYES AND BLACK HAIR
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">S</span>HE’S coming next
- month, Charlie,” said Mrs. Durham, looking up from a letter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who is it now. Auntie, another divinity with which you are going to
- overwhelm me?” asked Gaston smiling as he laid his book down and leaned
- back in his chair.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Some one I’ve been telling you about for the last month.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Which one?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, you wretch! You don’t think about anything except your books. I’ve
- been dinning that girl’s praises into your ears for fully five weeks, and
- you look at me in that innocent way and ask which one?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Honestly, Aunt Margaret, you’re always telling me about some beautiful
- girl, I get them mixed. And then when I see them, they don’t come up to
- the advance notices you’ve sent out. To tell you the truth, you are such a
- beautiful woman, and I’ve got so used to your standard, the girls can’t
- measure up to it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You flatterer. A woman of forty-two a standard of beauty! Well, it’s
- sweet to hear you say it, you handsome young rascal.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s the honest truth. You are one of the women who never show the
- addition of a year. You have spoiled my eyesight for ordinary girls.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hush, sir, you don’t dare to talk to any girl like you talk to me. They
- all say you’re afraid of them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I am, in a sense. I’ve been disappointed so many times.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! you ’ll find her yet and when you do!”—
- </p>
- <p>
- “What do you think will happen?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m certain you will be the biggest fool in the state.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That will make it nice for the girl, won’t it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and I shall enjoy your antics. You who have dissected love with your
- brutal German philosophy, and found every girl’s faults with such ease,—it
- will be fun to watch you flounder in the meshes at last.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Auntie, seriously, it will be the happiest day of my life. For four years
- my dreams have been growing more and more impossible. Who is this one?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She is the most beautiful girl I know, and the brightest and the best,
- and if she gets hold of you she will clip your wings and bring you down to
- earth. I ’ll watch you with interest,” said Mrs. Durham looking
- over the letter again and laughing.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What are you laughing at?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just a little joke she gets off in this letter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But who is she? You haven’t told me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I did tell you—she’s General Worth’s daughter, Miss Sallie. She
- writes she is coming up to spend a month at the Springs, with her friend
- Helen Lowell, of Boston, and wants me to corral all the young men in the
- community and have them fed and in fine condition for work when they
- arrive.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She evidently intends to have a good time.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and she will.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Fortunately my law practice is not rushing me at this season. My total
- receipts for June last year were two dollars and twenty-five cents. It
- will hardly go over two-fifty this year.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve told her you’re a rising young lawyer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have plenty of room to rise, Auntie. If you will just keep on letting
- me board with you, I hope to work my practice up to ten dollars a month in
- the course of time.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t you want to hear something about Miss Sallie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course, I was just going to ask you if she’s as homely as that last
- one you tried to get off on me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve told you she’s a beauty. She made a sensation at her finishing
- school in Baltimore. It’s funny that she was there the last year you were
- at the Johns Hopkins University. She’s the belle of Independence, rich,
- petted, and the only child of old General Worth, who thinks the sun rises
- and sets in her pretty blue eyes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So she has blue eyes?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, blue eyes and black hair.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What a funny combination! I never saw a girl with blue eyes and black
- hair.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s often seen in the far South. I expect you to be drowned in those
- blue eyes. They are big, round and child-like, and look out of their black
- lashes as though surprised at their dark setting. This contrast accents
- their dreamy beauty, and her eyes seem to swim in a dim blue mist like the
- point where the sea and sky meet on the horizon far out on the ocean. She
- is bright, witty, romantic and full of coquetry. She is determined to live
- her girl’s life to its full limit. She is fond of society and dances
- divinely.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s bad. I never even cut the pigeon’s wing in my life—and I’m
- too old to learn.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She has a full queenly figure, small hands and feet, delicate wrists, a
- dimple in one cheek only, and a mass of brown-black hair that curls when
- it’s going to rain.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s fine, we wouldn’t need a barometer on life’s voyage, would we?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, but you will be looking for a pilot and a harbour before you’ve known
- her a month. Her upper lip is a little fuller and projects slightly over
- the lower, and they are both beautifully fluted and curved like the petals
- of a flower, which makes the most tantalising mouth a standing challenge
- for a kiss.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Auntie, you’re joking! You never saw such a girl. You’re breaking
- into my heart, stealing glances at my ideal.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, sir, wait and see for yourself. She has pretty shell-like
- ears, her laughter is full, contagious, and like music. She plays divinely
- on the piano, can’t sing a note, but dresses to kill. You might as well
- wind up your affairs, and get ready for the first serious work of your
- life. You will have your hands full after you see her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But did I understand you to say she’s rich?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, they say her father is worth half a million.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you think she could be interested in the poor in this county?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, she doesn’t seem to know she’s an heiress. Her father, the General,
- is a deacon in the Baptist church at Independence, and hates dudes and
- fops with all his old-fashioned soul. His idea of a man is one of
- character, and the capacity of achievement, not merely a possessor of
- money. Still, I imagine he is going to give any man trouble who tries to
- take his daughter away from him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m afraid that money lets me out of the race.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nothing of the sort, when you see her you will never allow a little thing
- like that to worry you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s not her dollars that will worry me. It’s the fact that she’s got
- them and I haven’t. But, anyhow, Auntie, from your description you can
- book me for one night at least.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m going to book you for her lackey, her slave, devoted to her every
- whim while she’s here. One night—the idea!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Auntie, you’re too generous to others. I’ve no notion all this rigmarole
- about your Miss Sallie Worth is true. But I ’ll do anything to
- please you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Very well, I ’ll see whom you are trying to please later.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I must go,” said Gaston, hastily rising. “I have an engagement to discuss
- the coming political campaign with the Hon. Allan McLeod, the present
- Republican boss of the state.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I didn’t know you hobnobbed with the enemy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t. But as far as I can understand him, he purposes to take me up on
- an exceeding high mountain and offer me the world and the fulness thereof.
- We all like to be tempted whether we fall or not. The Doctor hates McLeod.
- I think he holds some grudge against him. What do you think of him,
- Auntie? He swears by you. I used to dislike him as a boy, but he seems a
- pretty decent sort of fellow now, and I can’t help liking just a little
- anybody who loves you. I confess he has a fascination for me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why do you ask my opinion of him?” slowly asked Mrs. Durham.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Because I’m not quite sure of his honesty. He talks fairly, but there’s
- something about him that casts a doubt over his fairest words. He says he
- has the most important proposition of my life to place before me to-day,
- and I’m at a loss how to meet him—whether as a well-meaning friend
- or a scheming scoundrel. He’s a puzzle to me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well Charlie, I don’t mind telling you that he is a puzzle to me. I’ve
- always been strangely attracted to him, even when he was a big red-headed
- brute of a boy. The Doctor always disliked him and I thought, misjudged
- him. He has always paid me the supremest deference, and of late years the
- most subtle flattery. No woman, who feels her life a failure, as I do
- mine, can be indifferent to such a compliment from a man of trained mind
- and masterful character. This is a sore subject between the Doctor and
- myself. And when I see him shaking hands a little too lingeringly with
- admiring sisters after his services, I repay him with a chat with my
- devoted McLeod. Don’t ask me. I like him, and I don’t like him. I admire
- him and at the same time I suspect and half fear him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Strange we feel so much alike about him. But your heart has always been
- very close to mine, since you slipped your arm around me that night my
- mother died. I know about what he will say, and I know about what I ’ll
- do.” He stooped and kissed his fostermother tenderly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Charlie, I’m in earnest about my pretty girl that’s coming. Don’t forget
- it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bah! You’ve fooled me before.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0026" id="link2HCH0026"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER II—THE VOICE OF THE TEMPTER
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>cLEOD was waiting
- with some impatience in his room at the hotel.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Walk in Gaston, you’re a little late. However, better late than never.”
- McLeod plunged directly into the purpose of his visit.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gaston you’re a man of brains, and oratorical genius. I heard your speech
- in the last Democratic convention in Raleigh, and I don’t say it to
- flatter you, that was the greatest speech made in any assembly in this
- state since the war.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thanks!” said Gaston with a wave of his arm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I mean it. You know too much to be in sympathy with the old moss-backs
- who are now running this state. For fourteen years, the South has marched
- to the polls and struck blindly at the Republican party, and three times
- it struck to kill. The Southern people have nothing in common with these
- Northern Democrats who make your platforms and nominate your candidate.
- You don’t ask anything about the platform or the man. You would vote for
- the devil if the Democrats nominated him, and ask no questions; and what
- infuriates me is you vote to enforce platforms that mean economic ruin to
- the South.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Man shall not live by bread alone, McLeod.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sure, but he can’t live on dead men’s bones. You vote in solid mass on
- the Negro question, which you settled by the power of Anglo-Saxon
- insolence when you destroyed the Reconstruction governments at a blow. Why
- should you keep on voting against every interest of the South, merely
- because you hate the name Republican?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why? Simply because so long as the Negro is here with a ballot in his
- hands he is a menace to civilisation. The Republican party placed him
- here. The name Republican will stink in the South for a century, not
- because they beat us in war, but because two years after the war, in
- profound peace, they inaugurated a second war on the unarmed people of the
- South, butchering the starving, the wounded, the women and children. God
- in heaven, will I ever forget that day they murdered my mother! Their
- attempt to establish with the bayonet an African barbarism on the ruins of
- Southern society was a conspiracy against human progress. It was the
- blackest crime of the nineteenth century.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are talking in a dead language. We are living in a new world.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But principles are eternal.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Principles? I’m not talking about principles. I’m talking about practical
- politics. The people down here haven’t voted on a principle in years.
- They’ve been voting on old Simon Legree. He left the state nearly a
- quarter of a century ago.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, McLeod, but his soul has gone marching on. The Republican party
- fought the South because such men as Legree lived in it, and abused the
- negroes, and the moment they won, turn and make Legree and his breed their
- pets. Simon Legree is more than a mere man who stole five millions of
- dollars, alienated the races, and covered the South with the desolation of
- anarchy. He is an idea. He represents everything that the soul of the
- South loathes, and that the Republican party has tried to ram down our
- throats, Negro supremacy in politics, and Negro equality in society.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are talking about the dead past, Gaston. I’m surprised at a man of
- your brain living under such a delusion. How can there be Negro supremacy
- when they are in a minority?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Supremacy under a party system is always held by a minority. The dominant
- faction of a party rules the party, and the successful party rules the
- state. If the Negro only numbered one-fifth the population and they all
- belonged to one party, they could dictate the policy of that party.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know that a few white brains really rule that black mob.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but the black mob defines the limits within which you live and have
- your being.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gaston, the time has come to shake off this nightmare, and face the
- issues of our day and generation. We are going to win in this campaign,
- but I want you. I like you. You are the kind of man we need now to take
- the field and lead in this campaign.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How are you going to win?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are going to form a contract with the Farmer’s Alliance and break the
- backbone of the Bourbon Democracy of the South. The farmers have now a
- compact body of 50,000 voters, thoroughly organised, and combined with the
- negro vote we can hold this state until Gabriel blows his trumpet.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s a pretty scheme. Our farmers are crazy now with all sorts of fool
- ideas,” said Gaston thoughtfully.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Exactly, my boy, and we’ve got them by the nose.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you can carry through that programme, you’ve got us in a hole.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In a hole? I should say we’ve got you in the bottomless pit with the lid
- bolted down. You ’ll not even rise at the day of judgment. It won’t
- be necessary!” laughed McLeod, and as he laughed changed his tone in the
- midst of his laughter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And what is the great proposition you have to make to me?” asked Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Join with us in this new coalition, and stump the state for us. Your
- fortune will be made, win or lose. I ’ll see that the National
- Republican Committee pays you a thousand dollars a week for your speeches,
- at least five a week, two hundred dollars apiece. If we lose, you will
- make ten thousand dollars in the canvass, and stand in line for a good
- office under the National Administration. If we win, I ’ll put you
- in the Governor’s Palace for four years. There’s a tide in the affairs of
- men, you know. It’s at the flood at this moment for you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston was silent a moment and looked thoughtfully out of the window. The
- offer was a tremendous temptation. A group of old fogies had dominated the
- Democratic party for ten years, and had kept the younger men down with
- their war cries and old soldier candidates, until he had been more than
- once disgusted. He felt as sure of McLeod’s success as if he already saw
- it. It was precisely the movement he had warned the old pudding-head set
- against in the preceding campaign in which they had deliberately alienated
- the Farmer’s Alliance. They had pooh poohed his warning and blundered on
- to their ruin.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was the dream of his life to have money enough to buy back his mother’s
- old home, beautify it, and live there in comfort with a great library of
- books he would gather. The possibility of a career at the state Capital
- and then at Washington for so young a man was one of dazzling splendour to
- his youthful mind. For the moment it seemed almost impossible to say no.
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod saw his hesitation and already smiled with the certainty of
- triumph. A cloud overspread his face when Gaston at length said, “I ’ll
- give you my answer to-morrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, you’re a gentleman. I can trust you. Our conversation is of
- course only between you and me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly, I understand that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- All that day and night he was alone fighting out the battle in his soul.
- It was an easy solution of life that opened before him. The attainment of
- his proudest ambitions lay within his grasp almost without a struggle.
- Such a campaign, with his name on the lips of surging thousands around
- those speaker’s stands, was an idea that fascinated him with a serpent
- charm.
- </p>
- <p>
- All that he had to do was to give up his prejudices on the Negro question.
- His own party stood for no principle except the supremacy of the
- Anglo-Saxon. On the issue of the party platforms, he was in accord with
- the modern Republican utterances at almost every issue, and so were his
- associates in the Southern Democracy. The Negro was the point. What was
- the use now of persisting in the stupid reiteration of the old slogan of
- white supremacy? The Negro had the ballot. He was still the ward of the
- nation, and likely to be for all time, so far as he could see. The Negro
- was the one pet superstition of the millions who lived where no negro
- dwelt. His person and his ballot were held more peculiarly sacred and
- inviolate in the South than that of any white man elsewhere.
- </p>
- <p>
- The possibility of a reunion in friendly understanding and sympathy
- between the masses of the North and the masses of the South seemed remote
- and impossible in his day and generation.
- </p>
- <p>
- He asked himself the question, could such a revolution toward universal
- suffrage ever go backward, no matter how base the motive which gave it
- birth? Why not give up impracticable dreams, accept things as they are,
- and succeed?
- </p>
- <p>
- He did not confer with the Rev. John Durham on this question, because he
- knew what his answer would be without asking. A thousand times he had said
- to him, with the emphasis he could give to words, “<i>My boy, the future
- American must be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto! We are now deciding which it
- shall be. The future of the world depends on the future of this Republic.
- This Republic can have no future if racial lines are broken, and its proud
- citizenship sinks to the level of a mongrel breed of Mulattoes. The South
- must tight this battle to a finish. Two thousand years look down upon the
- struggle, and Two thousand years of the future bend low to catch the
- message of life or death!</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- He could see now his drawn face with its deep lines and his eyes flashing
- with passion as he said this. These words haunted Gaston now with strange
- power as he walked along the silent streets.
- </p>
- <p>
- He walked down past his old home, stopped and leaned on the gate, and
- looked at it long and lovingly. What a flood of tender and sorrowful
- memories swept his soul! He lived over again the days of despair when his
- mother was an invalid. He recalled their awful poverty, and then the last
- terrible day with that mob of negroes trampling over the lawn and
- overrunning the house. He saw the white face of his mother whose memory he
- loved as he loved life. And now he recalled a sentence from her dying
- lips. He had all but lost its meaning.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You will grow to be a brave strong man. You will fight this battle out,
- and win back our home, and bring your own bride here in the far away days
- of sunshine and success I see for you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>You will fight this battle out</i>—he had almost lost that
- sentence in his hunger for that which followed. It came to his soul now
- ringing like a trumpet call to honour and duty.
- </p>
- <p>
- He turned on his heel and walked rapidly home. He looked at his watch. It
- was two o’clock in the morning.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We will fight it out on the old lines,” he said to McLeod next day.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You will find me a pretty good fighter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Unto death, let it be,” answered Gaston firmly setting his lips.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I admire your pluck, but I’m sorry for your judgment. You know you’re
- beaten before you begin.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Defeat that’s seen has lost its bitterness before it comes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then get ready the flowers for the funeral. I hoped you would have better
- sense. You are one of the men now I ’ll have to crush first,
- thoroughly, and for all time. I’m not afraid of the old fools. I ’ll
- be fair enough to tell you this,” said McLeod.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not since Legree’s day has the Republican party had so dangerous a man at
- its head,” said Gaston thoughtfully to himself as McLeod strode away
- across the square. “He has ten times the brains of his older master, and
- none of his superstitions. He will give me a hard fight.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0027" id="link2HCH0027"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER III—FLORA
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>AMBRIGHT had
- changed but little in the eighteen years of peace that had followed the
- terrors of Legree’s régime. The population had doubled, though but few
- houses had been built. The town had not grown from the development of
- industry, but for a very simple reason—the country people had moved
- into the town, seeking refuge from a new terror that was growing of late
- more and more a menace to a country home, the roving criminal negro.
- </p>
- <p>
- The birth of a girl baby was sure to make a father restless, and when the
- baby looked up into his face one day with the soft light of a maiden, he
- gave up his farm and moved to town.
- </p>
- <p>
- The most important development of these eighteen years was the complete
- alienation of the white and black races as compared with the old familiar
- trust of domestic life.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Legree finished his work as the master artificer of the
- Reconstruction Policy, he had dug a gulf between the races as deep as
- hell. It had never been bridged. The deed was done and it had crystallised
- into the solid rock that lies at the basis of society. It was done at a
- formative period, and it could no more be undone now than you could roll
- the universe back in its course.
- </p>
- <p>
- The younger generation of white men only knew the Negro as an enemy of his
- people in politics and society.
- </p>
- <p>
- He never came in contact with him except in menial service, in which the
- service rendered was becoming more and more trifling, and his habits more
- insolent. He had his separate schools, churches, preachers and teachers,
- and his political leaders were the beneficiaries of Legree’s legacies.
- </p>
- <p>
- With the Anglo-Saxon race guarding the door of marriage with fire and
- sword, the effort was being made to build a nation inside a nation of two
- antagonistic races. No such thing had ever been done in the history of the
- human race, even under the development of the monarchial and aristocratic
- forms of society. How could it be done under the formulas of Democracy
- with Equality as the fundamental basis of law? And yet this was the
- programme of the age.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston was feeling blue from the reaction which followed his temptation by
- McLeod. His duty was clear the night before as he walked firmly homeward,
- recalling the tragedy of the past. Now in the cold light of day, the past
- seemed far away and unreal. The present was near, pressing, vital. He laid
- down a book he was trying to read, locked his office and strolled down
- town to see Tom Camp.
- </p>
- <p>
- This old soldier had come to be a sort of oracle to him. His affection for
- the son of his Colonel was deep and abiding, and his extravagant flattery
- of his talents and future were so evidently sincere they always acted as a
- tonic. And he needed a tonic to-day.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom was seated in a chair in his yard under a big cedar, working on a
- basket, and a little golden-haired girl was playing at his feet. It was
- his old home he had lost in Legree’s day, but had got back through the
- help of General Worth, who came up one day and paid back Tom’s gift of
- lightwood in gleaming yellow metal. His long hair and full beard were
- white now, and his eyes had a soft deep look that told of sorrows borne in
- patience and faith beyond the ken of the younger man. It was this look on
- Tom’s face that held Gaston like a magnet when he was in trouble.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, I’m blue and heartsick. I’ve come down to have you cheer me up a
- little.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’ve got the blues? Well that is a joke!” cried Tom. “You, young and
- handsome, the best educated man in the county, the finest orator in the
- state, life all before you, and God fillin’ the world to-day with sunshine
- and spring flowers, and all for you! You blue! That is a joke.” And Tom’s
- voice rang in hearty laughter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come here, Flora, and kiss me, you won’t laugh at me, will you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The child climbed up into his lap, slipped her little arms around his neck
- and hugged and kissed him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, once more, dearie, long and close and hard—oh! That’s worth a
- pound of candy!” Again she squeezed his neck and kissed him, looking into
- his face with a smile.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I love you, Charlie,” she said with quaint seriousness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you, dear? Well, that makes me glad. If I can win the love of as
- pretty a little girl as you I’m not a failure, am I?” And he smoothed her
- curls.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ain’t she sweet?” cried Tom with pride as he laid aside his basket and
- looked at her with moistened eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, she’s the sweetest child I ever saw.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, she’s God’s last and best gift to me, to show me He still loved me.
- Talk about trouble. Man, you’re a baby. You ain’t cut your teeth yet. Wait
- till you’ve seen some things I’ve seen. Wait till you’ve seen the light of
- the world go out, and staggerin’ in the dark met the devil face to face,
- and looked him in the eye, and smelled the pit. And then feel him knock
- you down in it, and the red waves roll over you and smother you. I’ve been
- there.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom paused and looked at Gaston. “You weren’t here when I come to the end
- of the world, the time when that baby was born, and Annie died with the
- little red bundle sleepin’ on her breast. The oldest girl was murdered by
- Legree’s nigger soldiers. Then Annie give me that little gal. Lord, I was
- the happiest old fool that ever lived that day! And then when I looked
- into Annie’s dead face, I went down, down, down! But I looked up from the
- bottom of the pit and I saw the light of them blue eyes and I heard her
- callin’ me to take her. How I watched her and nursed her, a mother and a
- father to her, day and night, through the long years, and how them little
- fingers of hers got hold of my heart! Now, I bless the Lord for all His
- goodness and mercy to me. She will make it all right. She’s going to be a
- lady and such a beauty! She’s goin’ to school now, and me and the
- General’s goin’ to take her ter college bye and bye, and she’s goin’ to
- marry some big handsome fellow like you, and her crippled grey haired
- daddy ’ll live in her house in his old age. The Lord is my shepherd
- I shall not want.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, you make me ashamed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You ought to be, man, a youngster like you to talk about gettin’ the
- blues. What’s all your education for?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sometimes I think that only men like you have ever been educated.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “G’long with your foolishness, boy. I ain’t never had a show in this
- world. The nigger’s been on my back since I first toddled into the world,
- and I reckon he ’ll ride me into the grave. They are my only rivals
- now making them baskets and they always undersell me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston started as Tom uttered the last sentence.
- </p>
- <p>
- “With you, boy, it’s all plain sailin’. You’re the best looking chap in
- the county. I was a dandy when I was young. It does me good to look at you
- if you don’t care nothin’ about fine clothes. Then you’re as sharp as a
- razor. There ain’t a man in No’th Caliny that can stand up agin you on the
- stump. I’ve heard ’em all. You ’ll be the Governor of this
- state.”
- </p>
- <p>
- That was always the climax of Tom’s prophetic flattery. He could think of
- no grander end of a human life than to crown it in the Governor’s Palace
- of North Carolina. He belonged to the old days when it was a bigger thing
- to be the Governor of a great state than to hold any office short of the
- Presidency,—when men resigned seats in the United States Senate to
- run for Governor, and when the national government was so puny a thing
- that the bankers of Europe refused to loan money on United States bonds
- unless countersigned by the State of Virginia. And that was not so long
- ago. The bankers sent that answer to Buchanan’s Secretary of the Treasury.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, you’ve lifted me out of the dumps. I owe you a doctor’s fee,” cried
- Gaston with enthusiasm as he placed Flora back on the grass and started to
- his office.
- </p>
- <p>
- “All I charge you is to come again. The old man’s proud of his young
- friend. You make me feel like I’m somebody in the old world after all. And
- some day when you’re great and rich and famous and the world’s full of
- your name, I ’ll tell folks I know you like my own boy, and I ’ll
- brag about how many times you used to come to see me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hush, Tom, you make me feel silly,” said Gaston as he warmly pressed the
- old fellow’s hand. He went back toward his office with lighter step and
- more buoyant heart. His mind was as clear as the noonday sun that was now
- flooding the green fresh world with its splendour. He would stand by his
- own people. He would sink or swim with them. If poverty and failure were
- the result, let it be so. If success came, all the better. There were
- things more to be desired than gold.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0028" id="link2HCH0028"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER IV—THE ONE WOMAN
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">G</span>ASTON called at
- the post-office to get his mail.
- </p>
- <p>
- One relief the Cleveland administration had brought Hambright—a
- decent citizen in charge of the post-office. Dave Haley had given place to
- a Democrat and was now scheming and working with McLeod for the
- “salvation” of it the state, which of course meant for the old slave
- trader the restoration of his office under a Republican administration. If
- the South had held no other reason for hating the Republican party, the
- character of the men appointed to Federal office was enough to send every
- honest man hurrying into the opposite party without asking any questions
- as to its principles.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sam Love, the new postmaster was a jovial, honest, lazy, good-natured
- Democrat whose ideal of a luxurious life was attained in his office. He
- handed Gaston his mail with a giggle.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s the matter with you, Sam?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nuthin’ ‘tall. I just thought I’d tell you that I like her handwriting,”
- he laughed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “How dare you study the handwriting on my letters, sir!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s the use of being postmaster? There ain’t no big money in it. I
- just take pride in the office,” said Sam genially. “That’s a new one,
- ain’t it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston looked at the letter incredulously. It was a new one,—a big
- square envelope with a seal on the back of it, addressed to him in the
- most delicate feminine hand, and postmarked “Independence.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Great Scott, this is interesting,” he cried, breaking the seal.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the postmaster saw he was going to open it right there in the office,
- he stepped around in front and looking over his shoulder said, “What is
- it, Charlie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s an invitation from the Ladies’ Memorial Association to deliver the
- Memorial day oration at Independence the 10th of May. That’s great. No
- money in it, but scores of pretty girls, big speech, congratulations, the
- lion of the hour! Don’t you wish you were really a man of brains, Sam?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no, I’m married. It would be a waste now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sam, I ’ll be there. Got the biggest speech of my life all cocked
- and primed, full of pathos and eloquence,—been working on it at odd
- times for four years. They ’ll think it a sudden inspiration.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s the name of it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Message of the New South to the Glorious Old.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That sounds bully, that ought to fetch ’em.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It will, my boy, and when Dave Haley gets this postoffice away from you
- in the dark days coming, I ’ll publish that speech in a pamphlet,
- and you can peddle it at a quarter and make a good living for your
- children.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t talk like that, Gaston, that isn’t funny at all. You don’t think
- the Radicals have got any chance?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Chance! Between you and me they ’ll win.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sam went back to the desk without another word, a great fear suddenly
- darkening the future. McLeod had gotten off the same joke on him the day
- before. It sounded ominous coming from both sides like that. He took up
- his party paper, “The Old Timer’s Gazette” and read over again the sure
- prophecies of victory and felt better.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston accepted the invitation with feverish haste. He had it all ready to
- put in the office for the return mail to Independence. But he was ashamed
- to appear in such a hurry, so he held the letter over until the next day.
- He proudly showed the invitation to Mrs. Durham.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What do you think of that, Auntie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Immense. You will meet Miss Sallie sure. That letter is in her
- handwriting. She’s the Secretary of the Association and signed the
- Committee’s names.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You don’t say that’s the great and only one’s handwriting!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Couldn’t be mistaken. It has a delicate distinction about it. I’d know it
- anywhere.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is beautiful,” acknowledged Gaston looking thoughtfully at the letter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wish you had a new suit, Charlie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wouldn’t mind it myself, if I had the money. But clothes don’t interest
- me much, just so I’m fairly decent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll loan you the money, if you will promise me to devote
- yourself faithfully to Sallie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never. I ’ll not sell my interest in all those acres of pretty
- girls just for one I never saw and a suit of clothes. No thanks. I’m going
- down there with a premonition I may find Her of whom I’ve dreamed. They
- say that town is full of beauties.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’re so conceited. That’s all the more reason you should look your
- best.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t care so much about looks. I’m going to do my best, whatever I
- look.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, you know you’re good looking and you don’t care,” said his foster
- mother with pride.
- </p>
- <p>
- On the 10th of May Independence was in gala robes. The long rows of
- beautiful houses, with dark blue grass lawns on which giant oaks spread
- their cool arms, were gay with bunting, and with flowers, flowers
- everywhere! Every urchin on the street and every man, woman and child wore
- or carried flowers.
- </p>
- <p>
- The reception committee met Gaston at the depot on the arrival of the
- excursion train that ran from Ham-bright. He was placed in an open
- carriage beside a handsome chattering society woman, and drawn by two
- prancing horses, was escorted to the hotel, where he was introduced to the
- distinguished old soldiers of the Confederacy.
- </p>
- <p>
- At ten o’clock the procession was formed. What a sight! It stretched from
- the hotel down the shaded pavements a mile toward the cemetery, two long
- rows of beautiful girls holding great bouquets of flowers. This long
- double line of beauty and sweetness opened, and escorted gravely by the
- oldest General of the Confederacy present, he walked through this mile of
- smiling girls and flowers. Behind him tramped the veterans, some with one
- arm, some with wooden legs.
- </p>
- <p>
- When they passed through, the double line closed, and two and two the
- hundreds of girls carried their flowers in solemn procession. Here was the
- throbbing soul of the South, keeping fresh the love of her heroic dead.
- </p>
- <p>
- They spread out over the great cemetery like a host of ministering angels.
- There was a bugle call. They bent low a moment, and flowers were smiling
- over every grave from the greatest to the lowliest.
- </p>
- <p>
- And then to a stone altar marked “To the Unknown Dead,” they came and
- heaped up roses. Then a group of sad-faced women dressed in black, with
- quaint little bonnets wreathing their brows like nuns, went silently over
- to the National Cemetery across the way and each taking a basket, walked
- past the long lines of the dead their boys had fought and dropped a single
- rose on every soldier’s grave. They were women whose boys were buried in
- strange lands in lonely unmarked trenches. They were doing now what they
- hoped some woman’s hand would do for their lost heroes.
- </p>
- <p>
- The crowd silently gathered around the speakers’ stand and took their
- seats in the benches placed beneath the trees.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston had never seen this ceremony so lavishly and beautifully performed
- before. He was overwhelmed with emotion. His father’s straight soldierly
- figure rose before him in imagination, and with him all the silent hosts
- that now bivouacked with the dead. His soul was melted with the infinite
- pathos and pity of it all.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had intended to say some sharp epigrammatic things that would cut the
- chronic moss-backs that cling to the platforms on such occasions. But
- somehow when he began they were melted out of his speech. He spoke with a
- tenderness and reverence that stilled the crowd in a moment like low
- music.
- </p>
- <p>
- His tribute to the dead was a poem of rhythmic and exalted thoughts. The
- occasion was to him an inspiration and the people hung breathless on his
- words. His voice was never strained but was penetrated and thrilled with
- thought packed until it burst into the flame of speech. He felt with
- conscious power his mastery of his audience. He was surprised at his own
- mood of extraordinary tenderness as he felt his being softened by that
- oldest religion of the ages, the worship of the dead—as old as
- sorrow and as everlasting as death! He was for the moment clay in the
- hands of some mightier spirit above him.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had spoken perhaps fifteen minutes when suddenly, straight in front of
- him, he looked into the face of the One Woman of all his dreams!
- </p>
- <p>
- There she sat as still as death, her beautiful face tense with breathless
- interest, her fluted red lips parted as if half in wonder, half in joy,
- over some strange revelation, and her great blue eyes swimming in a mist
- of tears. He smiled a look of recognition into her soul and she answered
- with a smile that seemed to say “I’ve known you always. Why haven’t you
- seen me sooner?” He recognised her instantly from Mrs. Durham’s
- description and his heart gave a cry of joy. From that moment every word
- that he uttered was spoken to her. Sometimes as he would look straight
- through her eyes into her soul, she would flush red to the roots of her
- brown-black hair, but she never lowered her gaze. He closed his speech in
- a round of applause that was renewed again and again.
- </p>
- <p>
- His old classmate, Bob St. Clare, rushed forward to greet him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Old fellow, you’ve covered yourself with glory. By George, that was
- great! Come, here’s a hundred girls want to meet you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was introduced to a host of beauties who showered him with extravagant
- compliments which he accepted without affectation. He knew he had outdone
- himself that day, and he knew why. The One Woman he had been searching the
- world for was there, and inspired him beyond all he had ever dared before.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was disappointed in not seeing her among the crowd who were shaking his
- hand. He looked anxiously over the heads of those near by to see if she
- had gone. He saw her standing talking to two stylishly dressed young men.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the crowd had melted away from the rostrum, she walked straight
- toward him extending her hand with a gracious smile.
- </p>
- <p>
- He knew he must look like a fool, but to save him he could not help it, he
- was simply bubbling over with delight as he grasped her hand, and before
- she could say a word he said, “You are Miss Sallie Worth, the Secretary of
- the Association. My foster mother has described you so accurately I should
- know you among a thousand.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I have been looking forward with pleasure to our trip to the Springs
- when I knew we should meet you. I am delighted to see you a month
- earlier.” She said this with a simple earnestness that gave it a deeper
- meaning than a mere commonplace.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you know that you nearly knocked me off my feet when I first saw you
- in the crowd?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why? How?” she asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You startled me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hope not unpleasantly,” she said, looking up at him with her blue eyes
- twinkling.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Heavens no! You are such a perfect image of the girl she described
- that I was so astonished I came near shouting at the top of my voice,
- ‘There she is!’ And that would have astonished the audience, wouldn’t it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It would indeed,” she replied blushing just a little.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But I’m forgetting my mission, Mr. Gaston. Papa sent me to apologise for
- his absence to-day. He was called out of the city on some mill business.
- He told me to bring you home to dine with him. I’m the Secretary, you know
- and exercise authority in these matters, so I’ve fixed that programme. You
- have no choice. The carriage is waiting.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0029" id="link2HCH0029"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER V—THE MORNING OF LOVE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>O his dying day
- Gaston will never forget that ride to her home with Sallie Worth by his
- side. It was a perfect May day. The leaves on the trees were just grown
- and flashed in their green satin under the Southern sun, and every flower
- seemed in full bloom.
- </p>
- <p>
- A great joy filled his heart with a sense of divine restfulness. He was
- unusually silent. And then she said something that made him open his eyes
- in new wonder.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t drive so fast Ben, and go around the longest way, I’m enjoying
- this.” She paused and a mischievous look came into her eyes as she saw his
- expression. “I’ve got the lion here by my side. I want to show all the
- girls in town that I’m the only one here to-day. It isn’t often I’ve a
- great man tied down fast like this.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why did you spoil the first part of that pretty speech with the last?” he
- said with a frown.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was only your vanity that made me pause.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Could you read me like that?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course, all men are vain, much vainer than women.” Again there was a
- long silence.
- </p>
- <p>
- They had reached the outskirts of the city now and were driving slowly
- through the deep shadows of a great forest.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What beautiful trees!” he exclaimed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “They are fine. Do you love big trees?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, they always seem to me to have a soul. It used to make me almost cry
- to watch them fall beneath Nelse’s axe. I’d never have the heart to clear
- a piece of woods if I owned it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m so glad to hear you say that. Papa laughed at me when I said
- something of the sort when he wanted to cut these woods. He left them just
- to please me. They belong to our place. They hide the house till you get
- right up to the gate, but I love them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Again he looked into her eyes and was silent.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, I come to think of it, you’re the only girl I’ve met to-day who
- hasn’t mentioned my speech. That’s strange.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How do you know that I’m not saving up something very pretty to say to
- you later about it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tell me now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, you’ve spoiled it by your vanity in asking.” She said this looking
- away carelessly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I ’ll interpret your silence as the highest compliment you
- can pay me. When words fail we are deeply moved.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Vanity of vanity, all is vanity saith the preacher!” she exclaimed
- lifting her pretty hands.
- </p>
- <p>
- They turned through a high arched iron gateway, across which was written
- in gold letters, “Oakwood.”
- </p>
- <p>
- On a gently rising hill on the banks of the Catawba river rose a splendid
- old Southern mansion, its big Greek columns gleaming through the green
- trees like polished ivory. A wide porch ran across the full width of the
- house behind the big pillars, and smaller columns supported the full sweep
- of a great balcony above. The house was built of brick with Portland
- cement finish, and the whole painted in two shades of old ivory, with
- moss-green roof and dark rich Pompeian red brick foundations. With its
- green background of magnolia trees it seemed like a huge block of solid
- ivory flashing in splendour from its throne on the hill. The drive wound
- down a little dale, around a great circle filled with shrubbery and
- flowers and up to the pillared porte-cochere.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! what a beautiful home!” Gaston exclaimed with feeling.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is beautiful, isn’t it?” she said with delight. “I love every brick in
- its walls, every tree and flower and blade of grass.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve always dreamed of a home like that. Those big columns seem to link
- one to the past and add dignity and meaning to life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you can understand how I love it, when I was born here and every
- nook and corner has its love message for me from the past that I have
- lived, as well as its wider meaning which you see.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The old South built beautiful homes, didn’t they? And that was one of the
- finest things about the proud old days,” he said.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and the new South of which you spoke to-day will not forget this
- heritage of the old, when it comes to itself and shakes off its long
- suffering and poverty!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Strange to hear that sort of a speech from a girl who loves society,
- dances divinely and dresses to kill. He thought of the words of his foster
- mother with a pang. He hoped she was joking about those things. But he had
- a strong suspicion from the consciousness of power with which she had
- tried once or twice to tease him that they were going to prove fatally
- true.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mother tells me you were in Baltimore, in that swell girls’ school on
- North Charles Street when I was a student at the University?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and we gave reception after reception to the Hopkins men and you
- never once honoured us with your presence.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But I didn’t know you were there, Miss Sallie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course not. If you had, I wouldn’t speak to you now. They said you
- were a recluse. That you never went into society and didn’t speak to a
- woman for four years.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How did you hear that?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bob St. Clare told me after I came home by way of apology for your bad
- manners in so shamefully neglecting a young woman from your own state.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll make amends, now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! I’m not suffering from loneliness as I did then. You know Bob put us
- up to inviting you to deliver the address. He said you were the only
- orator in North Carolina.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bob’s the best friend I ever had. We entered college together at fifteen,
- and became inseparable friends.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He helped her from the carriage and she ran lightly up the high stoop.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now come here and look at the view of the river before Papa comes and
- begins to talk about the tremendous water power in the falls.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He followed her to the end of the long porch overlooking the river. Behind
- the house the hill abruptly plunged downward to the waters’ edge in a
- mountainous cliff. The river wound around this cliff past the house,
- emerging into a valley where it described a graceful curve almost doubling
- on itself and rolled softly away amid green overhanging willows and
- towering sycamores till lost in the distance toward the blue spurs of
- King’s Mountain.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A glorious view!” said Gaston, looking long and lovingly at the silver
- surface of the river.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you love the water, Mr. Gaston?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Passionately. I was born among the hills, but the first time I saw the
- ocean sweeping over five miles of sand reefs and breaking in white
- thundering spray at my feet, I stood there on a sand dune on our wild
- coast and gazed entranced for an hour without moving. Of all the things
- God ever made on this earth I love the waters of the sea, and all moving
- water suggests it to me. That river says, I must hurry to the sea!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is strange we should have such similar tastes, she said seriously. But
- it did not seem strange to him. Somehow he expected to find her agree with
- every whim and fancy of his nature.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now we will find Mama. She is such an invalid she rarely goes out. Papa
- will be home any minute.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are glad to welcome you Mr. Gaston,” said her mother in a kindly
- manner. “I’m sure you’ve enjoyed the drive this beautiful day if Sallie
- hasn’t been trying to tease you. The boys say she’s very tiresome at
- times.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why Mama, I’m surprised at you. The idea of such a thing! There’s not a
- word of truth in it, is there, Mr. Gaston?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly not, Miss Sallie. I ’ll testify, Mrs. Worth, that your
- daughter has been simply charming.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She ran to meet her father at the door. There was the sound of a hearty
- kiss, a little whispering, and the General stepped briskly into the
- parlour where she had left her guest.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Pleased to welcome you to our home, young man. They say down town that
- you made the greatest speech ever heard in Independence. Sorry I missed
- it. We ’ll have you to dinner anyway. I knew your brave father in
- the army. And now I come, to think of it, I saw you once when you were a
- boy. I was struck with your resemblance to your father then, as now. You
- showed me the way down to Tom Camp’s house. Don’t you remember?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly General, but I didn’t flatter myself that you would recall it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I never forget a face. I hope you have been enjoying yourself?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “More than I can express, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll join you bye and bye,” said the General, taking leave.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now isn’t he a dear old Papa?” she said demurely.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He certainly knows how to make a timid young man feel at home.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you timid?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hadn’t you noticed it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, hardly.” She shook her head and closed her eyes in the most
- tantalising way. “To see the cool insolence of conscious power with which
- you looked that great crowd in the face when you arose on that platform, I
- shouldn’t say I was struck with your timidity.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I was really trembling from head to foot.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wonder how you would look if really cool!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Honestly, Miss Sallie, I never speak to any crowd without the intensest
- nervous excitement. I may put on a brave front, but it’s all on the
- surface.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t believe it,” she said shaking her head.
- </p>
- <p>
- She looked at his serious face a moment and was silent.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s queer how we run out of something to say, isn’t it?” she asked at
- length.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hadn’t thought of it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come up to the observatory and I’ll show you Lord Cornwallis’ look-out
- when he had his headquarters here during the Revolution.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She lifted her soft white skirts and led the way up the winding mahogany
- stairs into the observatory from which the surrounding country could be
- seen for miles.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Here Lord Cornwallis waited in vain for Colonel Ferguson to join him with
- his regiment from King’s Mountain.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where my great-grandfather was drawing around him his cordon of death
- with his fierce mountain men!” interrupted Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Was your great-grandfather in that battle?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, it was fought on his land, and his two-story log house with the
- rifle holes cut in the chimney jambs still stands.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then we will shake hands again,” she cried with enthusiasm, “for we are
- both children of the Revolution!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston took her beautiful hand in his and held it lingeringly. Never in
- all his life had the mere touch of a human hand thrilled him with such
- strange power, How long he held it he could not tell but it was with a
- sort of hurt surprise he felt her gently withdraw it at last.
- </p>
- <p>
- They had reached the parlour again, and he slowly fell into an easy chair.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you dance, Miss Sallie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why yes, don’t you dance?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never tried in my life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t you approve of dancing?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I never had time to think about it. It always seemed silly to me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s great fun.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’d take lessons if you would agree to teach me, and I could dance with
- you all the time, and keep all the other fellows away.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I must say that’s doing fairly well for a timid young man’s first
- day’s acquaintance. What will you say when you once become fully
- self-possessed?” She lifted her high arched eyebrows and looked at him
- with those blue eyes full of tantalising fun until he had to look down at
- the floor to keep from saying more than he dared. When he looked up again
- he changed the subject.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Miss Sallie, I feel like I’ve known you ever since I was born.” She
- blushed and made no reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- Dinner was announced, and Gaston was amazed to see Allan McLeod enter
- chattering familiarly with the General. He seemed on the most intimate
- terms with the family and his eye lingered fondly on Sallie’s face in a
- way that somehow Gaston resented as an impertinence.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I didn’t even know you were acquainted with the Hon. Allan McLeod, Miss
- Sallie,” said Gaston as they entered the parlour alone.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, he was a sort of ward of Papa’s when he was a boy. Papa hates his
- politics, but he has always been in and out almost like one of the family
- since I can remember. I think he’s’ a fascinating man, don’t you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I do, but I don’t like him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, he’s a great friend of mine, you mustn’t quarrel.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston went to the hotel with his brain in a whirl wondering just what she
- meant. It was nearly twelve o’clock before he left the General’s house.
- How he had passed these eleven hours he could not imagine. They seemed
- like eleven minutes in one way. In another he seemed to have lived a
- lifetime that day.
- </p>
- <p>
- “By George, she’s an angel!” he kept saying over and over to himself as he
- climbed to his room forgetting the elevator.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0030" id="link2HCH0030"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER VI—BESIDE BEAUTIFUL WATERS
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Gaston tried
- to sleep, he found it impossible. His brain was on fire, every nerve
- quivering with some new mysterious power and his imagination soaring on
- tireless wings. He rolled and tossed an hour, then got up, and sat by his
- open window looking out over the city sleeping in the still white
- moonlight. He looked into the mirror and grinned.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is the matter with me!” he exclaimed. “I believe I’m going crazy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He sat down and tried to work the thing out by the formulas of cold
- reason. “It’s perfectly absurd to say I’m in love. My wild romancing about
- a passion that will grasp all life in its torrent sweep is only a boy’s
- day dream. The world is too prosy for that now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Yet in spite of this argument the room seemed as bright as day, and the
- moon was only a pale sister light to the radiance from the face of the
- girl he had seen that day. Her face seemed to him smiling close into his
- now. The light of her eyes was tender and soothing like the far away
- memory of his mother’s voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s a passing fancy,” he said at last, after he had sat an hour dreaming
- and dreaming of scenes he dared not frame in words even alone. He stood by
- the window again.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What a beautiful old world this is after all!” he thought as he gazed out
- on the tops of the oaks whose young leaves were softly sighing at the
- touch of the night winds. Turning his eye downward to the street he saw
- the men loading the morning papers into the wagons for the early mail.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wonder what sort of report of my speech they put in?” he exclaimed.
- Unable to sleep he hastily dressed, went down and bought a paper.
- </p>
- <p>
- On the front page was a flattering portrait, two columns in width, with a
- report of his speech filling the entire page, and an editorial review of a
- column and a half. He was hailed as the coming man of the state in this
- editorial, which contained the most extravagant praise. He knew it was the
- best thing he had ever done, and he felt for the minute proud of himself
- and his achievement. This contemplation of his own greatness quieted his
- nerves and he fell asleep. He was awakened by the first rolling of carts
- on the pavements at dawn. He knew he had not slept more than two hours but
- he was as wide awake as though he had slept soundly all night.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I must be threatened with that spell of fever Auntie has been worrying
- about since I was a boy!” he laughed as he slowly dressed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s now six o’clock, and my train don’t leave till nine,” he mused. “But
- am I going on that train, that’s the question?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The fact was, now he came to think of it, there was no need of hurrying
- home. He would stay a while and look this mystery in the face until he was
- disillusioned. Besides he wanted to find out what McLeod’s visit meant. He
- had a vague feeling of uneasiness when he recalled the way McLeod had
- assumed about the General’s house. He had told Sallie he must hurry home
- on the morning’s train for no earthly reason than that he had intended to
- do so when he came.
- </p>
- <p>
- So after breakfast he wrote her a little note.
- </p>
- <p>
- “<i>My Dear Miss Worth,</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- “<i>My train left me. Will you have compassion on a stranger in a strange
- city and let me call to see you again to-day? Charles Gaston.</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- He waited impatiently until he heard his train leave, and then told the
- boy to make tracks for the General’s house.
- </p>
- <p>
- A peal of laughter rang through the hall when Sallie’s dancing eyes read
- that note.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! the storyteller!” she cried.
- </p>
- <p>
- And this was the answer she sent back.
- </p>
- <p>
- “<i>Certainly. Come out at once. I </i>’<i>ll take you buggy driving all
- by myself over a lovely road up the river. I do this in acknowledgment of
- the gracious flattery you pay me in the story you told about the train. Of
- course I know you waited till the train left before you sent the note.
- Sallie Worth.</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now I wonder if that young rascal of a boy told her I wrote that note an
- hour ago? I ’ll wring his neck if he did. Come here boy!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The negro came up grinning in hopes of another quarter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you tell that young lady anything about when I wrote that note?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Na-sah! Nebber tole her nuffin. She des laugh and laugh fit ter kill
- herse’f des quick es she reads de note.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston smiled and threw him another tip.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassah, she’s a knowin’ lady, sho’s you bawn, I been dar lots er times
- fo’ dis!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston was tempted to ask him for whom he carried those former messages.
- He walked with bounding steps, his being tingling to his finger tips with
- the joy of living. The avenue leading the full length of the city toward
- the General’s house was two miles long before it reached the woods at the
- gate. It seemed only a step this morning.
- </p>
- <p>
- As he passed through the cool shade of the woods a squirrel was playing
- hide and seek with his mate on the old crooked fence beside the road. His
- little nimble mistress flew up a great tree to its topmost bough and
- chattered and laughed at her lover as he scrambled swiftly after her. She
- waited until he was just reaching out his arm to grasp her, and then with
- another scream of laughter leaped straight out into the air to another
- tree top, and then another and another until lost in the heart of the
- forest.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wonder if that’s going to be my fate!” he mused as he turned into the
- gateway.
- </p>
- <p>
- Again the majestic beauty of that gleaming mass of ivory on the hill with
- its green background swept his soul with its power. It seemed a different
- shade of colour now that he saw it with the sun at another angle. Its
- surface seemed to have the soft sheen of creamy velvet.
- </p>
- <p>
- He paused and sighed, “Why should I be so poor! If I only had a house like
- that I’d turn that big banquet hall on the left wing into a library, and
- I’d ask no higher heaven.”
- </p>
- <p>
- And he fell to wondering if it would really be worth the having without
- the face and voice of the girl who was there within waiting for him. No,
- he was sure of it this morning for the first time in his life. The
- certainty of this conviction brought to his heart a feeling of loneliness
- and despair. When he thought of his abject poverty and the long years of
- struggle before him, and of that beautiful accomplished young woman rich,
- petted, the belle of the city, the gulf that separated their lives seemed
- impassable.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m playing with fire!” he said to himself as he looked up at the
- graceful pillars with their carved and fluted capitals. “Well, let it be
- so. Let me live life to its deepest depths and its highest reach. It is
- better to love and lose than never to love at all.” And he walked into the
- cool hall with the ease and assurance of its master.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sallie greeted him with the kindliest grace.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m so glad you stayed to-day, Mr. Gaston. I should have been really
- chagrined to think I made so slight an impression on you that you could
- walk deliberately away on a pre-arranged schedule. I am not used to being
- treated so lightly.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He tried to make some answer to this half serious banter, but was so
- absorbed in just looking at her he said nothing.
- </p>
- <p>
- She was dressed in a morning gown of a soft red material, trimmed with old
- cream lace. The material of a woman’s dress had never interested him
- before. He knew calico from silk, but beyond that he never ventured an
- opinion. To colour alone he was responsive. This combination of red and
- creamy white, with the bodice cut low showing the lines of her beautiful
- white shoulders and the great mass of dark hair rising in graceful curves
- from her full round neck heightened her beauty to an extraordinary degree.
- As she walked, the clinging folds of her dress, outlining her queenly
- figure, seemed part of her very being and to be imbued with her soul. He
- was dazzled with the new revelation of her power over him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have you no apology, sir, for pretending that you were going home this
- morning?” she said seating herself by his side.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You didn’t ask me to stay with fervour.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It ought not to have been necessary.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Didn’t you really know I was not going?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m glad.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, you see I’m twenty-one years old, and I’ve seen such things happen
- before!” she purred this slowly and burst into laughter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, Miss Sallie, that’s cruel to throw me down in a heap of dead dogs I
- don’t even know.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t you like dogs?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Four legged ones, yes. But I like my friends alive.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! It didn’t kill any of them. They are all strong and hearty. But if
- you’re so domestic in your tastes why haven’t you settled in life?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Been waiting to find the woman of my dreams.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you haven’t found her?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not up to yesterday.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! I forgot,” she said archly, “you’re so timid.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Honestly, I was.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Up to yesterday!” she murmured. “Well, tell me what your dreams demanded?
- What kind of a creature must she be?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have forgotten.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What! Forgotten the dreams of your ideal woman?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Since when?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yesterday.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thanks. We are getting on beautifully, aren’t we? You will get over your
- timidity in time, I’m sure.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He smiled, looked down at the pattern of the carpet and did not speak for
- some minutes. His soul was thrilled and satisfied in her presence. As he
- lifted his eyes from the floor they rested on the piano.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will you play for me, Miss Sallie? Auntie says you play delightfully.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Auntie? Who is Auntie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mrs. Durham, my foster mother, of course. Excuse my unconscious
- assumption of your familiarity with all my antecedents. I can’t get over
- the impression that I have known you all my life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And that reminds me that I started to say something to you yesterday that
- was perfectly ridiculous, but caught myself in time.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wish you had said it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mrs. Durham is a great flatterer of those she loves. She thinks I can
- play. But I’m the veriest amateur.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let me be the judge.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She was looking over her music, and he had opened the piano.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll play for you with pleasure. Sit there in that big arm chair.
- I’m sorry I tired you so early in the day with my chatter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- And before he could protest her fingers were touching the piano with the
- ease of the born musician.
- </p>
- <p>
- He sat enraptured as he watched the sinuous grace with which her fingers
- touched the ivory keys and heard their answering cry which seemed the
- breath of her own soul in echo.
- </p>
- <p>
- She had an easy apparently careless touch. To old familiar music she gave
- a charm that was new, adding something indefinable to the musician’s
- thought that gave luminous power to its interpretation. He had no
- knowledge of the technique of music, but now he knew that she was
- improvising. The piano was the voice of her own beautiful soul, and it was
- pulsing with a tenderness that melted him to tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- Suddenly the music ceased, and she turned her face full on his before he
- could brush away a big tear that rolled down. She flushed, closed the
- piano, and quietly resumed her place by his side.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And, now, you haven’t told me how well I played. You’re the first young
- man so careless.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have told you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The way you told me yesterday that you understood me—with a tear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I appreciate it more than words.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So did I,” he slowly said. Again there was a long silence.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But we do love to hear folks say in words what they think sometimes. I
- confess I was immensely elated over the fine things the paper said about
- me this morning.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s a wonder too. Our editor is a cranky sort of fellow. I was afraid
- he’d say a lot of mean things about you. But Papa says you swallowed him
- whole.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you wish him to say kind things about me?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course,” she said, and then the look of mischief came back in her eye.
- “Were you not our guest? I should have felt like whipping him if he hadn’t
- said nice things.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I ’ll tell you what I think about your playing. You gave
- those strings a soul for the first time for me, beautiful, living,
- throbbing, that spoke a message of its own. The piece you improvised, I
- shall never forget. Such music seems to me the grasping of the infinite by
- hands that touch the impalpable and bringing it for a moment within the
- sphere of matter that a kindred soul may hear and see and feel.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She started to make some reply but her lips quivered and she looked away
- across the valley at the river and made no answer.
- </p>
- <p>
- At dinner the General was in his most genial mood, laughing and joking,
- and drawing out Gaston on politics and cotton-mill developments, and
- trying with all his might to tease his daughter.
- </p>
- <p>
- As he took his departure for the mills, he said, “Young man, I’d ask you
- to go with me and look at the machinery, but I see it’s no use. I heard
- her twisting you around her fingers with that piano a while ago.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Papa, don’t be so silly!’ cried Sallie, slipping her arm around him,
- putting one hand over his mouth, and kissing him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go on to your work. I ’ll entertain Mr. Gaston.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Indeed you will!” he shouted, throwing her another kiss as he left.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s the dearest father any girl ever had in this world. I know you loved
- yours, didn’t you, Mr. Gaston?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mine was killed in battle, Miss Sallie. I never knew him. But I had the
- most beautiful mother that ever lived. I lost her when a mere boy. And the
- world has never been the same since. I envy you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I forgot. Forgive me,” she softly said, looking up into his face with
- tenderness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If I had only had a sister! How my heart used to ache when I’d see other
- boys playing with a sister! My poor little starved soul was so hungry, I
- would go off in the woods sometimes and cry for hours.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wish I had known you when you were a little boy,—I can’t conceive
- of a dignified orator swaying thousands running around as a barefooted
- boy. But you must have gone barefooted for I think Papa said so, didn’t
- he?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Indeed I did, and sometimes I am afraid for the very good reason I didn’t
- have any shoes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you wouldn’t have worn them if you had. I always wanted to be a boy
- just to go barefooted. I think girls lose so much of a child’s life by
- having to wear shoes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But you never knew what it meant to want shoes and not be able to have
- them,” he said, looking at the shining tips of her slippers peeping from
- the edge of her dress.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, but I never thought these things made a great difference in our lives
- after all. I believe it is what we are, not what we have, that gives life
- meaning.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He looked at her intently.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I must get ready now for our drive. The horse will be here in ten
- minutes. Enjoy the view on the porch until I am ready,” and she bounded up
- the stairs to her room.
- </p>
- <p>
- In a few minutes she was by his side again dressed in spotless white as he
- had seen her first. She lifted the lines over the sleek horse, and he
- dashed swiftly down the drive.
- </p>
- <p>
- Oh! the peace and bliss of that drive along the lonely river road by its
- cool green banks!
- </p>
- <p>
- How he poured out to her his inmost thoughts—things he had not dared
- to whisper alone with himself and God! And then he wondered why he had
- thus laid bare his secret dreams to this girl he had known but twenty-four
- hours. Nonsense, down in his soul he knew he had known her forever. Before
- the world was made, ages and ages ago in eternity he had known her. He
- turned to her now drawn by a resistless force as a plant turns toward the
- sunlight for its life. How he could talk that day! All he had ever known
- of art and beauty, all he knew of the deep truths of life, were on his
- lips leaping forth in simple but impassioned words. For hours he lay at
- her feet where she sat on a rock, high up on the cliffs overlooking the
- river and poured out his heart like a child. And she listened with a
- dreamy look as though to the music of a master.
- </p>
- <p>
- At last she sprang to her feet and looked at her watch.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Mama will be furious. It will be after sundown before we can get
- home. We must hurry.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll make it all right with your Mama,” he replied as though he
- were skilled in meeting such emergencies.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t you speak to her. It ’ll be all I can do to manage her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The twilight was gathering when they reached the house, and an angry
- anxious mother was waiting high up on the stoop.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Watch me smooth every wrinkle out of her brow now!” she whispered as she
- flew up the steps.
- </p>
- <p>
- Before her mother could say a word, a white hand was on her mouth and
- pretty lips were whispering something in her ears she had never heard
- before. There was the sound of a kiss and he heard Sallie say, “Not a
- word!” And the mother greeted him with a smile and a curiously searching
- look. She chatted pleasantly until her daughter returned from her room,
- and then left her. Again it was nearly twelve o’clock before he reached
- the hotel.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next morning Bob St. Clare broke in on him before he was out of bed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look here, you sly dog, what are you doing slipping and sliding around
- here yet?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bob, you’re the man I want to see. Tell me all you know about the
- Worths.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Worths? Which one?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There’s only one so far as I can see.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you may find out there’s two if you should happen to collide with
- the General.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Does he cut up at times?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s all right till he turns on you, and then you want to find shelter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you ever run up against him?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, I never got that far. He’s hail-fellow-well-met with every youngster
- in town. He will laugh and joke about his daughter until he thinks she is
- in earnest about a fellow, and then he swoops down on him like a hawk. I
- ’ll bet a hundred dollars he’s playing you now for all you’re worth
- against the latest favourite. But Miss Sallie—she’s an angel!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look here, Bob, you’re not in love with her?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I’m convalescing at present my boy. Every boy in the town has been
- there, but I don’t believe she cares a snap for a man of us unless it’s
- that big redheaded McLeod. I can’t make his position out exactly.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did she jolt you hard when you hit the ground?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Easiest thing you ever saw. She has a supreme genius for painless
- cruelty. When the time comes she can pull your eye-tooth out in such a
- delicate friendly way you will have to swear she hasn’t hurt you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You still go?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lord yes, we all do,—sort of a congress of the lost meet down
- there. They all hang on. She keeps the friendship of every poor devil she
- kills.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know you make the cold chills run down my back when you talk like
- that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you in love with her, Gaston?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To tell you the truth, I don’t know.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then what in the thunder have you been doing out there two days and
- nights, if you haven’t made love to her?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just basking in the sun.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you are a fool. Eleven hours the first day, and fifteen hours
- yesterday. Confound you, don’t you know a dozen fellows in town are
- cursing you for all they can think of?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What about?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why for trying to hog the whole time, day and night. She won’t let a
- mother’s son of them come near till you’re gone.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, that’s immense!” exclaimed Gaston slapping his friend on the back.
- </p>
- <h3>
- 233
- </h3>
- <p>
- “Don’t be too sure. She’s just sizing you up. She’s done the same thing a
- dozen times before.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t believe it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- And he didn’t go home until the end of the week when the last cent of his
- money was gone.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0031" id="link2HCH0031"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER VII—DREAMS AND FEARS
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>E was on the train
- at last homeward bound. Gazing out of the window of the car he was trying
- to find where he stood. He must be in love. He faced the remarkable fact
- that he had spent a whole week in Independence at an expensive hotel, and
- squandered every cent of the small fee he had received for his address in
- what would be otherwise a perfectly senseless manner.
- </p>
- <p>
- Yet he felt rich. He was sure he had never spent money so wisely and
- economically in his life. Beyond the shadow of a doubt he was in love,—desperately
- and hopelessly committed to this one girl for life. He said it in his
- heart with a shout of triumph. Life was not a sterile desert of brute
- work. It was true. Love the magician of the ages, lived in this world of
- lost faiths and dead religions.
- </p>
- <p>
- Now that he was leaving he felt a tingling impulse to leap off the train,
- cut across the fields and run back to her—and he laughed aloud, just
- as the train came to a sudden stop, and everybody looked at him and
- smiled.
- </p>
- <p>
- A drummer looked up from a novel he was reading and said, “It is a fine
- day, partner, isn’t it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never saw a finer,” answered Gaston with another laugh.
- </p>
- <p>
- He dwelt long and greedily on the consciousness of this new vitalising
- secret he felt for the first time throbbing in his soul. He bathed his
- heart in its warmth until he could feel the red blood rush to the ends of
- his fingers with its new fever. He breathed its perfume until every nerve
- quivered. “I have never lived before. No matter now if I die, I have
- lived!” he said slowly and reverently.
- </p>
- <p>
- He wondered long and wistfully what was in her heart while this wild
- tumult was going on in him. He wondered if it were possible she loved him.
- It seemed too good to be true. He was afraid to believe it. And yet his
- whole soul with every power of his being cried out that she did. He could
- not have been mistaken in the message he read in the liquid depths of her
- eyes, and the delicate tenderness of her voice. Words may say nothing, but
- these signs are the language of the universal. Still, others had been
- equally sure, and been deceived. Might not he too make the fatal mistake?
- It was possible. And there was the pain.
- </p>
- <p>
- She had not uttered a single word in all the hours they spent together
- that might not be interpreted in a conventional meaningless way.
- </p>
- <p>
- Yet he had given to every one of these words a soul meaning that spoke
- directly to his inner being and not his ear.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had never spoken a word of shallow love-making to a woman in his life.
- To him love was too holy a mystery. It would have been the blasphemy of
- the Holy Ghost—a sin that would not be forgiven in this world or the
- world to come. His college mates had called him a crank on this subject.
- But he shut his lips in a way that always closed the argument, and they
- let him alone with his Idol.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am afraid yet to put it to the test!” he said at last. “I must have
- time to reveal my best self to her. I must see her again, live close to
- her day by day, and bring to bear on her every power of body and soul I
- possess.” Mrs. Durham met him with dancing eyes. “Oh, I’ve heard from you,
- sir!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Kiss me Auntie, and be kind. I’m in the last stages of delirium!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He took her hands both in his and looked at her long. “How good you’ve
- been to me, Auntie, in all the past. You never looked so beautiful as
- to-day. I want to thank you for every word you’ve said to Miss Sallie for
- me. It may have helped just a little anyway.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well you are in the last stages!” she exclaimed gleefully.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you are glad of it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course, I am, it will make a man of you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But suppose I lose?”
- </p>
- <p>
- She was silent a moment and then slipped her arm gently about him, drew
- down his ear and whispered, “You shall not lose—I’ve set my heart on
- it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He pressed her hands and said, “How like my sweet mother’s voice was
- that!”
- </p>
- <p>
- And then they fell to discussing plans for giving Miss Sallie and her
- friend a jolly time at the Springs.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But Auntie, these plans don’t seem to me exactly what I’d like. You see I
- want to be the whole thing. It may be hopelessly selfish, but I can’t help
- it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well that isn’t best.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Say Auntie, what do I look like anyway? How would you describe my make
- up? Let’s get at the weak spots and splint them up a little. You know, I
- never seriously cared a rap before about my looks.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well”—she answered, slowly regarding him, “I ’ll be
- perfectly frank with you.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are tall—at least two inches taller than the average man, and
- your muscular body gives one the impression of power. You have black hair,
- dark-brown eyes that look out from your shaggy straight eye-brows with a
- piercing light.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You think the brows too shaggy?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, I like them. They suggest reserve power and brain capacity.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good, I never thought of that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have a face that is massive, almost leonine, and a square-cut
- determined mouth, that always clean shaven, sometimes looks too grim.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll remember that and look pleasant.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have a big hand and sometimes shake hands too strongly. You have a
- handsome aristocratic foot when you wear decent shoes. You often walk
- humpshouldered, and sit so too.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll brace up.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have deep vertical wrinkles between your eyes just where your
- straight eyebrows meet.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heavens, I didn’t know I had wrinkles!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but they mean habits of thought like your stooping shoulders, I
- don’t object to such wrinkles in a man’s face. But the best feature of all
- your stock is your eye. Your big brown eyes are about the only perfect
- thing about you. There’s infinite tenderness in them. Now and then they
- gleam with a hidden fire that tells of enthusiasm, thought, will,
- character, and dauntless courage.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She looked and they were misty with tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- He pressed her hand. “Auntie, I didn’t know how much you’ve loved me all
- these years. How love opens one’s eyes!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have a high temper, plenty of pride, and are given to looking on the
- dark side of things too quickly. You lack poise of character and sureness
- of touch yet, but with it all, yours is a masterful nature.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “One you think that a perfect woman could love?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There are no perfect women; but I ’ll match you against any woman
- I know. So there, now, take courage.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will,” he gravely answered.
- </p>
- <p>
- He hurried to his office and read his mail. There were two letters
- retaining his services for jury work in important cases. His heart leaped
- at the sign of coming success. What a new meaning love gave to every event
- in life.
- </p>
- <p>
- He turned to his books, and began immediately a searching study of every
- question involved in these cases. He would carry the court by storm. He
- would lead the jury spellbound by his eloquence to a certain verdict. How
- clear his brain! He felt he was alive to his finger-tips, and argus-eyed.
- </p>
- <p>
- He worked hour after hour without the slightest fatigue or knowledge of
- the flight of time. He looked up at last with surprise to find it was
- night, and was startled by the voice of the Preacher calling him from
- below.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s the matter with you? Mrs. Durham sent me to find you. She was
- afraid you had gone up on the roof and walked off.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll be ready in a minute, Doctor,” he called from the window.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I haven’t known you to take to law so violently in four years. What’s up?
- Got a capital case?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I believe I have. It’s a matter of life and death to one poor soul
- anyhow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, honour bright haven’t you been working all this afternoon on a
- love-letter that you’ve just finished and addressed to Independence?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “‘No sir. To tell you the fact, I didn’t dare to ask her to write to me. I
- knew I couldn’t control a pen.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My boy, I wish you success with all my heart. It makes me young again to
- look into your face. I’ve had my supper, when you’ve finished your confab
- with your Auntie, come out here in the square to the seat under the old
- oak, I want to talk to you on some important business.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What have you been doing,” asked Mrs. Durham.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Building a home for her!” he cried in a whisper. He went behind the chair
- where his foster mother sat pouring his tea, bent low and kissed her high
- white forehead. “My own Mother! I ’ll never call you Auntie again!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tears sprang to her eyes, and she kissed his hand, tenderly holding it to
- her lips.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! Love is a wonder worker, isn’t he Charlie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and I can’t realise the joy that lifts and inspires me when I think
- that I am one of the elect. It’s too good to be true. I have been
- initiated into the great secret. I have tasted the water of Life. I shall
- not see Death.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She looked at him with pride. “I knew you would make a matchless lover. I
- envy Sallie her young eyes and ears!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You need not envy her. You will never grow old.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So much the worse if we miss the dreams that fill the souls of the
- young,” she said with an accent of sorrowful pride.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0032" id="link2HCH0032"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER VIII—THE UNSOLVED RIDDLE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">G</span>ASTON found the
- Preacher quietly smoking, seated on the rustic under a giant oak that
- stood in the corner of the square.
- </p>
- <p>
- Under this tree the speakers’ stand had always been built for joint
- debates in political campaigns.
- </p>
- <p>
- Here, when a boy he had heard the great debate between Zebulon B. Vance
- and Judge Thomas Settle in the fierce campaign which followed the
- overthrow of Le-gree when the Republican party, under the leadership of
- Judge Settle made its desperate effort for life. Settle, who was a man of
- masterful personality, eloquent, and in dead earnest in his appeal for a
- new South, had made a speech of great power to a crowd that were hostile
- to every idea for which he stood; and yet he dazzled or stunned them into
- sullen silence.
- </p>
- <p>
- And then he recalled with flashes of memory vivid as lightning, the
- miracle that had followed. He could see Vance now as he slowly lifted his
- big lion-like head, and calmly looked over the sea of faces with eagle
- eyes that could flash with resistless humour or blaze with the fury of
- elemental passion. He reviewed the terrible past in which he had played
- the tragic role of their war Governor, and tore into tatters with the
- facts of history the logic of his opponent. And then he opened his
- batteries of wit and ridicule,—wit that cut to the heart’s red
- blood, and yet convulsed the hearer with its unexpected turn. Ridicule
- that withered and scorched what it touched into ashes. Five thousand
- people now in breathless suspense as he swung them into heaven on the
- wings of deathless words, now screaming with laughter, and now hushed in
- tears!
- </p>
- <p>
- The scene that followed this triumph! Two stalwart mountain men snatched
- him from the rostrum and bore him on their shoulders through the shouting,
- weeping crowd. Women pressed close and kissed his hands, and old men
- reached forward their hands to touch his garments. Ah! if he could inherit
- the power of this king among men! To-night as Gaston walked under that
- tree with his heart beating with the ecstasy of a new-found source of
- life, he felt that he could do, and that he would do, what the master had
- done before him!
- </p>
- <p>
- “Charlie, I’ve heard some startling news since you left home, and I can’t
- sleep nights thinking about it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’ve heard of McLeod’s scheme.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Exactly. And it means the ruin of this state and the ruin of the South
- unless it can be defeated.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How are you going to do it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s a puzzle but it’s got to be done. Half the farmers in the
- strongholds of Democracy are crazy over their fool Sub-Treasury and a
- hundred other fakir dreams. McLeod has promised them everything—Sub-Treasury,
- pumpkin leaves for money,—anything they want if they will join
- forces with his niggers and carry the state. You are the man to begin now
- a quiet but thorough organisation of the young men, and oust the fools
- from control of the party.
- </p>
- <p>
- “When the white race begin to hobnob with the Negro and seek his favour,
- they must grant him absolute equality. That means ultimately social as
- well as political equality. You can’t ask a man to vote for you and kick
- him down your front doorstep and tell him to come around the back way.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I think you exaggerate the social danger, but I see the political end of
- it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t exaggerate in the least. I am looking into the future. This
- racial instinct is the ordinance of our life. Lose it and we have no
- future. One drop of Negro blood makes a negro. It kinks the hair, flattens
- the nose, thickens the lip, puts out the light of intellect, and lights
- the fires of brutal passions. The beginning of Negro equality as a vital
- fact is the beginning of the end of this nation’s life. There is enough
- negro blood here to make mulatto the whole Republic.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Such a danger seems too remote for serious alarm to me,” replied the
- younger man.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! there’s the tragedy,” passionately cried the Preacher. “You younger
- men are growing careless and indifferent to this terrible problem. It’s
- the one unsolved and unsolvable riddle of the coming century. <i>Can you
- build, in a Democracy, a nation inside a nation of two hostile races?</i>
- We must do this or become mulatto, and that is death. Every inch in the
- approach of these races across the barriers that separate them is a
- movement toward death. You cannot seek the Negro vote without asking him
- to your home sooner or later. If you ask him to your house, he will break
- bread with you at last. And if you seat him at your table, he has the
- right to ask your daughter’s hand in marriage.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It seems to me a far cry to that. But I see the political crisis. What is
- your plan?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “This,—organise the young Democracy in every township in the state,
- and put yourself at its head, control the primaries and down the old
- crowd. They’ve got to follow you. Fight the campaign with the desperation
- of despair. If you are defeated, God have mercy on us, but you will be
- ready for the next battle.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll do it,” said Gaston with emphasis.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I want you to go on a mission to Col. Duke, the President of the
- National Farmer’s Alliance. He’s a good Baptist. He means well, but he’s
- crazy. He dreams of the Presidency when he has established the
- Sub-Treasury for the farmers. He’s afraid of the Negro, and is nervous
- about using him. He knows I am the most influential Baptist preacher in
- the state. Tell him I say you will win, and that we will give him the
- nomination for Governor, and put him in line for the Presidency.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When shall I go to see him?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Immediately. Get ready to-night.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The next week McLeod was seated in his office at Hambright receiving
- reports from his political henchmen at Raleigh.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I tell you, McLeod, there’s a hitch. Something’s dropped. Duke’s as coy
- as a maid of sixteen. He says no decision can be made now until he submits
- a lot of rot to all the lodges of the Alliance and the ‘Referendum’
- decides these points. You’d better get hold of him and comb the kinks out
- of him quick.”
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod’s eyes flashed with anger, as he twisted the points of his red
- moustache.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s that damned Baptist Preacher,” he said. “I ’ll get even with
- him yet if it’s the only thorough job I do on this earth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0033" id="link2HCH0033"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER IX—THE RHYTHM OF THE DANCE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">B</span>EFORE boarding the
- train he was to take for Raleigh, he lingered with Mrs. Durham talking,
- talking, talking about the wonder of his love. As he arose to leave he
- said, “Now, Mother dear”——
- </p>
- <p>
- “Charlie, you just say that so beautifully to make me your slave.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course I do. What I was going to say is, I can’t write to her. I don’t
- dare. You can. Tell her all about me won’t you? Everything that you think
- will interest and please her, and that will be discreet. Your intuitions
- will tell you how far to go. Tell her how hard I’m working and what an
- important mission I’ve undertaken, and the tremendous things that hang on
- its outcome. And tell her how impatiently I’m waiting for her to come to
- the Springs. Be sure to tell her that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right. I ’ll act as your attorney in your absence. But hurry
- back, she must not get here first. I want you to be on the spot.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll be here if I have to give up politics and go into business—and
- you know how I hate that word ‘business.’”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll telegraph you if she comes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t let her come till I get back. Tell her the hotel isn’t fit to
- receive guests yet—it never is for that matter—but anything to
- give me time to get here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He worked with indomitable courage for two weeks, visiting the principal
- towns in the state, and everywhere arousing intense enthusiasm. There was
- something contagious in his spirit. The young fellows were charmed by his
- eager intense way of looking at things, they caught the infection and he
- made hundreds of staunch friends.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’re just in time!” cried his mother greeting him with radiant face on
- his return. “She is coming tomorrow. I’ve a beautiful letter from her. I
- think one of the sweetest letters a girl ever wrote.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let me see it!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why, Mother, I thought you were all on my side!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But I’m not. I’m a woman, and you can’t see some things she says.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then it’s something awfully nice about me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Maybe the opposite.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you’d resent it for me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I love her too, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let me see the tip end of it where she signs her name!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You can see that much, there”——
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doesn’t she write a lovely hand!” He looked long and lovingly. “That
- pretty name!—Sallie! So old-fashioned, and so homelike. It’s music,
- isn’t it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I didn’t know you could be so silly, Charlie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is funny, isn’t it? You know I think after all, we are made out of the
- same stuff, saint and sinner, philosopher and fool. The differences are
- only skin deep.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You don’t think she is made out of ordinary clay?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Lord, no, I meant the men. Every woman is something divine to me. I
- think of God as a woman, not a man—a great loving Mother of all
- Life. If I ever saw the face of God it was in my mother’s face.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hush! you will make me do anything you wish.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no, I don’t want to see that letter unless you think it best.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you will not see any more of it, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When Gaston met them at the depot with a carriage to take Sallie, her
- mother, and Helen Lowell, her Boston schoolmate, to the Springs, the first
- passenger to alight was Bob St. Clare.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What in the thunder are you doing here! This town is quarantined against
- you!” said Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hush!” said Bob in a stage whisper. “She’s here. There’s her valise.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s why you can’t land. Two’s company, three’s a crowd. I like you,
- Bob. But I won’t stand for this.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The crowd were pouring off the train and had cut off Sallie’s party in the
- centre of the car.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gaston, I just came up for your sake. I’m looking after Miss Lowell. I’m
- lost, ruined. Scared to say a word. I thought maybe, you’d help me out. We
- ’ll pool chances. I ’ll talk for you and you talk for me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s a bargain, St. Clare.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I want a separate carriage,—get me one quick.”
- </p>
- <p>
- In a few moments, the brief introduction over, Gaston was seated in the
- carriage facing Sallie and her mother whirling along the road, over the
- long hills toward the Campbell Sulphur Springs in the woods, two miles
- from the town.
- </p>
- <p>
- How beautiful and fresh she looked to him even in a dusty travelling
- dress! He was drinking the nectar from the depths of her eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now don’t you think Helen the prettiest girl you ever saw, Mr. Gaston?”
- she asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hadn’t noticed it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where were your eyes?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Elsewhere. I’m so glad you are going to spend a month at the Springs,
- Miss Sallie. I used to go to school there when a little boy. They had a
- girl’s school there in the winter and boys under twelve were admitted. I
- know every nook and corner of the big forest back of the hotel. I ’ll
- see that you don’t get lost.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That will be fine. But you must bring every goodlooking boy in the county
- and make him bow down and worship Helen. She is not used to it, but she is
- tickled to death over these Southern boys, and I’m going to give her the
- best time she ever had in her life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll do everything you command—except bow down myself.
- Bob’s agreed to do that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She smiled in spite of her effort to look serious, and her mother pinched
- her arm. She laughed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “So you and Bob St. Clare were out there plotting before we could get out
- of the train?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nothing unlawful, I assure you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The first day she allowed Gaston to monopolise, and then began his
- torture. She declared there were others with whom she must be friendly.
- She determined to give a ball to Helen the next week, and began
- preparations.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was a new business for Gaston, but he did his best to please her, in a
- pathetic half-hearted sort of way. He ran all sorts of errands, and
- executed her orders with tact.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Sallie let the ball go. I don’t care for it. I can do nothing to ever
- repay you for the good time I’ve been having,” said Helen as they sat in
- her room one night.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are going to have it, I tell you. I don’t care how much Mr. Gaston
- sulks. I’m not taking orders from him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, but you’d like to—you know it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What an idea!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know you like him better than all the others put together.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nonsense. I’m as free as a bird.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then what are you blushing for?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m not.” But her face was scarlet.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You Southern girls are so queer. The moment you like a man you’re as sly
- as a cat, and deny that you even know him. When I find the man I love I
- don’t care who knows it, if he loves me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What do you think of Bob St. Clare?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I like him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hasn’t he made love to you yet?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, and the only one of the crowd who hasn’t. I don’t mind confessing
- that I never had love made to me before this visit. In Boston it’s a
- serious thing for a young man to call once. The second call, means a
- family council, and at the third he must make a declaration of his
- intentions or face consequences. Down here, the boys don’t seem to have
- anything to do except to make their girl friends happy, and feel they are
- the queens of the earth, and that their only mission is to minister to
- them. And some of your girls are engaged to six boys at the same time.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t you like it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s glorious. I feel that if I hadn’t come down here to see you I’d have
- missed the meaning of life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t our boys make love beautifully?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I never dreamed of anything like it. They make it so seriously, so dead
- in earnest, you can’t help believing them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And Bob hasn’t said a word?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hasn’t breathed a hint.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you have him sure. They are hit hard when they are silent like that.
- Bob made love to me the second day he ever saw me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t tease me, dear,” said Helen as she put her pretty rosy cheek
- against the dark beauty of the South. “Do you really think he likes me
- seriously?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s crazy about you, goose!”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was the sound of a kiss.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t tell stories about it like you, Sallie, I’m afraid I’m in love
- with him,” she whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I ’ll make him court you to-morrow or have him thrashed, if
- you say so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t you dare!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then do just as I tell you about this ball and get yourself up
- regardless.”
- </p>
- <p>
- On the night of the ball, Gaston, sitting out on the porch, felt nervous
- and fidgety, like a fish out of water. He knew he had no business there,
- and yet he couldn’t go away. They had a quarrel about the ball. Sallie had
- insisted that Gaston honour her by coming in evening dress whether he
- danced or not.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, Miss Sallie, I ’ll feel like a fool. Everybody in the country
- knows that I never entered a ball-room.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you care so much what everybody thinks about you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, but I care what I think of myself.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, if you don’t come in full dress suit, I won’t speak to you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He turned pale in spite of his effort at self control. Then a queer
- steel-like look came into his eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I shall be more than sorry to fail to please you, but I have no dress
- suit. I have never had time for social frivolities. I can’t afford to buy
- one for this occasion. I couldn’t be nigger enough to hire one, so that’s
- the end of it. I ’ll have to come dressed in my own fashion or stay
- at home.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you can stay at home,” she snapped.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll not do it,” he coolly replied.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I like your insolence.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m glad you do. I ’ll come as I come to all such functions, an
- outsider. I ’ll sit out here on the porch in the shadows and see it
- from afar. If I could only dance, I assure you I’d try to fill every
- number of your card. Not being able to do so, I simply decline to make a
- fool of myself.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “For that compliment, I ’ll compromise with you. Wear that big
- pompous Prince Albert suit you spoke in at Independence, and I ’ll
- come out on the porch and chat with you a while.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He sat there now in the shadows waiting for this ball to begin. It was a
- clear night the first week in June. The new moon was hanging just over the
- tree tops. His heart was full to bursting with the thought that the girl
- he loved would, in a few minutes, be whirling over that polished floor to
- the strains of a waltz, with another man’s arm around her. He never knew
- how deeply he hated dancing before—that rhythmic touch of the human
- body, set to the melody of motion, and voiced in the passionate cry of
- music. He felt its challenge to his love to mortal combat,—his love
- that claimed this one woman as his own, body and soul!
- </p>
- <p>
- The music from the Italian band was in full swing, its plaintive notes
- instinct with the passion of sunny Italy, a music all Southern people
- love.
- </p>
- <p>
- He felt that he should choke. A sudden thought came to him. Tearing a
- sheet of paper from a note book he scrawled this line upon it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dear Miss Sallie:—Please let me see you a moment in the parlour
- before you enter the ball-room. Gaston.”
- </p>
- <p>
- At least he would see her in her ball costume first. Yes, and if she
- should hate him for it, he would beg her not to dance that night. He saw
- McLeod, bowing and scraping in the ball-room arrayed in faultless full
- dress, and glancing toward the door. He knew lie was waiting for her to
- ask her to dance. How he would like to wring his handsome neck!
- </p>
- <p>
- The boy returned immediately and said the lady was waiting in the parlour.
- He entered with a sense of fear and confusion.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0007" id="linkimage-0007"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0278.jpg" alt="0278 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0278.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- She came to him with her bare arm extended, a dazzling vision of beauty.
- She was dressed in a creamy white crêpe ball gown, cut modestly decollete
- over her full bust and gleaming shoulders, sleeveless, and held with tiny
- straps across the curve of the upper arm.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was stunned. She smiled in triumph, conscious of her resistless power.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Forgive me for my selfishness in keeping you here just a moment from the
- rest. I wished to see you first.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What? to inspect like Mama, to see if I look all right?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, with a mad desire to keep you as long as possible from the others.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Then she looked up at him and said slowly and softly, “Would it please you
- very much if I were not to dance to-night?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wouldn’t dare ask so selfish a thing of you. It is with you a simple
- habit of polite society, and you enjoy it as a child does play. I
- understand that, and yet if you do not dance to-night, I feel as though I
- would crawl round this world on my hands and knees for you if you would
- ask it. There are men waiting for you in that ball room whom I hate.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She looked at him timidly as though she were afraid he was about to say
- too much and replied, “Then I will not dance to-night. I ’ll just
- preside over the ball and let Helen be the queen.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Words have no power to convey my gratitude. I count all my little
- triumphs in life nothing to this. You promised to join me on the porch.
- Don’t change that part of the programme. I will talk to your mother until
- you come.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston went down stairs treading on air. He sought her mother and devoted
- himself to her with supreme tact. He discovered her tastes and prejudices
- and paid her that knightly deference some young men express easily and
- naturally to their elders. He had always been a favourite with old people.
- He prided himself on it. This faculty he regarded as a badge of honour. As
- he sat there and talked with this frail little woman, his heart went out
- to her in a great yearning love. She was the mother of the bride of his
- soul. He would love her forever for that. No matter whether she loved him
- or hated him. He would love the mother who gave to his thirsty lips the
- water of Life.
- </p>
- <p>
- Drawn irresistibly by the magnetism of his mind and manner Mrs. Worth
- forgot the flight of time and thought but a moment had past when an hour
- after the ball had opened, Sallie came out leaning on McLeod’s arm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mama, have you been monopolising Mr. Gaston for a whole hour?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He hasn’t been here a half hour, Miss!” cried her mother.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s been here an hour and ten minutes. I’m going to tell Papa on you
- just as soon as I get home.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go back to your dancing.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, thank you, I have an engagement to take a walk with your beau. Come
- Mr. Gaston.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They walked to the spring and along the winding path by the brook at the
- foot of the hill, and found a rustic seat. They were both silent for
- several moments.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I saw you were charming Mama, or I would have come sooner.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hope she likes me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She has been praising you ever since your visit to Independence. I never
- saw her talk so long to a young man in my life before. You must have
- hypnotised her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hope so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A strange happiness filled her heart. She was afraid to look it in the
- face; and yet she dared to play with the thought.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Are you enjoying your triumph to-night? I’ve had war inside.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I feel like I am the Emperor of the World and that the Evening Star is
- smiling on my court!”
- </p>
- <p>
- She smiled, tossed her head, leaned against the tree and said, “I wonder
- if you are in the habit of saying things like that to girls?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Upon my soul and honour, no.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then thanks. I ’ll dream about that, maybe.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They returned to the hotel and McLeod claimed her. They went back the same
- walk, and by a freak of fate he chose the same seat she had just vacated
- with Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Miss Sallie, you are of age now. You know that I have loved you
- passionately since you were a child. I have made my way in life, I am
- hungry for a home and your love to glorify it. Why will you keep me
- waiting?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Simply because I know now I do not love you, Allan, and I never will.
- Once and forever, here, to-night I give you my last answer, I will not be
- your wife.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then don’t give the answer to-night. I can wait,” he interrupted. “I am
- just on the threshold of a great career. Success is sure. I can offer you
- a dazzling position. Don’t give me such an answer. Leave the old answer—to
- wait.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, I will not. I do not love you. If you were to become the President,
- it would not change this fact, and it is everything.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you love another.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That is none of your business, sir. I have known you since childhood. I
- have had ample time to know my own mind.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, we will say good-bye for the present. You have made me a
- laughing stock of young fools, but I can stand it. I’ll not give you up,
- and if I can’t have you, no other man shall.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you leave my will out of the calculation, you will make a fatal
- mistake.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Women have been known to change their wills.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Before leaving her that night Gaston held her hand for an instant as he
- bade her good-bye and said, “Miss Sallie, I thank you with inexpressible
- gratitude for the honour you have done me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve just been wondering what you have done to deserve it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Absolutely nothing,—that’s why it is so sweet. This has been the
- happiest day I ever lived. I cannot see you again before you go. I leave
- to-morrow on urgent business. May I come to Independence to see you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I ’ll be delighted to see you. Good-night.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston was the last to return to Hambright. He walked the two miles
- through the silent starlit woods. He took a short cut his bare feet had
- travelled as a boy, and with uncovered head walked slowly through the dim
- aisles of great trees. It was good, this cool silence and the soft mantle
- of the night about his soul! The stars whispered love. The wind sighed it
- through the leaves.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had withdrawn from the church in his college days because he had grown
- to doubt everything—God, heaven, hell, and immortality. To-night as
- he walked slowly home he heard that wonderful sentence of the old Bible
- ringing down the ages, wet with tears and winged with hope, “<i>God is
- love!</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- He said it now softly and reverently, and the tears came unbidden from his
- soul. He felt close to the heart of things. He knew he was close to the
- heart of nature. What if nature was only another name for God? And he
- whispered it again, “<i>God is love!</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! If I only knew it I would bow down and worship Him forever!” he
- cried.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Sallie reached her mother’s room that night, Mrs. Worth was seated by
- her window.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why didn’t you dance?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Didn’t care to.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sly Miss, you can’t fool me. You didn’t dance because Mr. Gaston
- couldn’t. That was a dangerously loud way to talk to him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How did you like him, Mama?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come here, dear, and sit on the edge of my chair. I wish I knew when you
- were in earnest about a man. I like him more than I can tell you. He
- talked to me so beautifully about his mother, I wanted to kiss him. He is
- charming.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why, Mama!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’d like him for a son. There’s a wealth of deep tenderness and manly
- power in him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mama, you’re getting giddy!”
- </p>
- <p>
- But she kissed her mother twice when she said good night.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0034" id="link2HCH0034"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER X—THE HEART OF A VILLAIN
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>cLEOD had
- developed into a man of undoubted power. He was but thirty-two years old,
- and the dictator of his party in the state.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had the fighting temperament which Southern people demand in their
- leaders. With this temperament he combined the skill of subtle diplomatic
- tact. He had no moral scruples of any kind. The problem of expediency
- alone interested him in ethics.
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod’s pet aversion was a preacher, especially a Baptist or a Methodist.
- His choicest oaths he reserved for them. He made a study of their
- weaknesses, and could tell dozens of stories to their discredit, many of
- them true. He had an instinct for finding their weak spots and holding
- them up to ridicule. He bought every book of militant infidelity he could
- find and memorised the bitterest of it. He took special pride in scoffing
- at religion before the young converts of Durham’s church.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was endowed with a personal magnetism that fascinated the young as the
- hiss of a snake holds a bird. His serious work was politics and
- sensualism. In politics he was at his best. Here he was cunning,
- plausible, careful, brilliant and daring. He never lost his head in defeat
- or victory. He never forgot a friend, or forgave an enemy. Of his foe he
- asked no quarter and gave none.
- </p>
- <p>
- His ambitions were purely selfish. He meant to climb to the top. As to the
- means, the end would justify them. He preferred to associate with white
- people. But when it was necessary to win a negro, he never hesitated to go
- any length. The centre of the universe to his mind was A. McLeod.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was fond of saying to a crowd of youngsters whom he taught to play
- poker and drink whiskey, “Boys, I know the world. The great man is the man
- who gets there.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was generous with his money, and the boys called him a jolly good
- fellow. He used to say in explanation of this careless habit, “It won’t do
- for an ordinary fool to throw away money as I do. I play for big stakes.
- I’m not a spendthrift. I’m simply sowing seed. I can wait for the
- harvest.” And when they would admire this overmuch he would warn them, As
- a rule my advice is, “Get money. Get it fairly and squarely if you can,
- but whatever you do,—get it. When you come right down to it, money’s
- your first, last, best and only friend. Others promise well but when the
- scratch comes, they fail. Money never fails.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A boy of fifteen asked him one day when he was mellow with liquor,
- “McLeod, which would you rather be, President of the United States or a
- big millionaire?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Boys,” he replied, smacking his lips, and running his tongue around his
- cheeks inside and softly caressing them with one hand, while he half
- closed his eyes, “They say old Simon Legree is worth fifty millions of
- dollars, and that his actual income is twenty per cent on that. They say
- he stole most of it, and that every dollar represents a broken life, and
- every cent of it could be painted red with the blood of his victims. Even
- so, I would rather be in Legree’s shoes and have those millions a year
- than to be Almighty God with hosts of angels singing psalms to me through
- all eternity.”
- </p>
- <p>
- And the shallow-pated satellites cheered this blasphemy with open-eyed
- wonder.
- </p>
- <p>
- The weakest side of his nature was that turned toward women. He was vain
- as a peacock, and the darling wish of his soul was to be a successful
- libertine. This was the secret of the cruelty back of his desire of
- boundless wealth.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had the intellectual forehead of his Scotch father, large, handsomely
- modelled features, nostrils that dilated and contracted widely, and the
- thick sensuous lips of his mother. His eyebrows were straight, thick, and
- suggested undoubted force of intellect. His hair was a deep red, thick and
- coarse, but his moustache was finer and it was his special pride to point
- its delicately curved tips.
- </p>
- <p>
- His vanity was being stimulated just now by two opposite forces. He was in
- love, as deeply as such a nature could love, with Sallie Worth. Her
- continued rejection of his suit had wounded his vanity, but had roused all
- the pugnacity of his nature to strengthen this apparent weakness.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had discovered recently that he exercised a potent influence over Mrs.
- Durham. The moment he was repulsed, his vanity turned for renewed strength
- toward her. He saw instantly the immense power even the slightest
- indiscretion on her part would give him over the Preacher’s life. He knew
- that while he was not a demonstrative man, he loved his wife with intense
- devotion. He knew, too, that here was the Preacher’s weakest spot. In his
- tireless devotion to his work, he had starved his wife’s heart. He had
- noticed that she always called him “Dr. Durham” now, and that he had
- gradually fallen into the habit of calling her “Mrs. Durham.”
- </p>
- <p>
- This had been fixed in their habits, perhaps by the change from
- housekeeping to living at the hotel. Since old Aunt Mary’s death, Mrs.
- Durham had given up her struggle with the modern negro servants, closed
- her house, and they had boarded for several years.
- </p>
- <p>
- He saw that if he could entangle her name with his in the dirty gossip of
- village society, he could strike his enemy a mortal blow. He knew that she
- had grown more and more jealous of the crowds of silly women that always
- dog the heels of a powerful minister with flattery and open admiration. He
- determined to make the experiment.
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Durham, while nine years his senior, did not look a day over thirty.
- Her face was as smooth and soft and round as a girl’s, her figure as
- straight and full, and her every movement instinct with stored vital
- powers that had never been drawn upon.
- </p>
- <p>
- She was in a dangerous period of her mental development. She had been
- bitterly disappointed in life. Her loss of slaves and the ancestral
- prestige of great wealth had sent the steel shaft of a poisoned dagger
- into her soul. She was unreconciled to it. While she was passing through
- the anarchy of Legree’s régime which followed the war, her unsatisfied
- maternal instincts absorbed her in the work of relieving the poor and the
- broken. But when the white race rose in its might and shook off this
- nightmare and order and a measure of prosperity had come, she had fallen
- back into brooding pessimism.
- </p>
- <p>
- She had reached the hour of that soul crisis when she felt life would
- almost in a moment slip from her grasp, and she asked herself the
- question, “Have I lived?” And she could not answer.
- </p>
- <p>
- She found herself asking the reasons for things long accepted as fixed and
- eternal. What was good, right, truth? And what made it good, right, or
- true?
- </p>
- <p>
- And she beat the wings of her proud woman’s heart against the bars that
- held her, until tired, and bleeding she was exhausted but unconquered.
- </p>
- <p>
- She was furious with McLeod for his open association with negro
- politicians.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Allan, in my soul, I am ashamed for you when I see you thus degrade your
- manhood.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nonsense, Mrs. Durham,” he replied, “the most beautiful flower grows in
- dirt, but the flower is not dirt.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I knew you were vain, but that caps the climax!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Isn’t my figure true, whether you say I’m dog-fennel or a pink?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, you are not a flower. Will is the soul of man. The flower is ruled by
- laws outside itself. A man’s will is creative. You can make law. You can
- walk with your head among the stars, and you choose to crawl in a ditch. I
- am out of patience with you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But only for a purpose. You must judge by the end in view.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There’s no need to stoop so low.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I assure you it is absolutely necessary to my aims in life. And they are
- high enough. I appreciate your interest in me, more than I dare to tell
- you. You have always been kind to me since I was a wild red-headed brute
- of a boy. And you have always been my supreme inspiration in work. While
- others have cursed and scoffed you smiled at me and your smile has warmed
- my heart in its blackest nights.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She looked at him with a mother-like tenderness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What ends could be high enough to justify such methods?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hate poverty and squalour. It’s been my fate. I’ve sworn to climb out
- of it, if I have to fight or buy my way through hell to do it. I dream of
- a palatial home, of soft white beds, grand banquet halls, and music and
- wine, and the faces of those I love near me. Besides, the work I am doing
- is the best for the state and the nation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But how can you walk arm in arm with a big black negro, as they say you
- do, to get his vote?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Simply because they represent 120,000 votes I need. You can’t tell their
- colour when they get in the box. I use these fools as so many worms. My
- political creed is for public consumption only. I never allow anybody to
- impose on me. I don’t allow even Allan McLeod to deceive me with a paper
- platform, or a lot of articulated wind. I’m not a preacher.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She winced at that shot, blushed and looked at him curiously for a moment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, you are not a preacher. I wish you were a better man.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So do I, when I am with you,” he answered in a low serious voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But I can’t get over the sense of personal degradation involved in your
- association with negroes as your equal,” she persisted.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The trouble is you’re an unreconstructed rebel. Women never really
- forgive a social wrong.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am unreconstructed,” she snapped with pride.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you thank God daily for it, don’t you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I do. Human nature can’t be reconstructed by the fiat of fools who
- tinker with laws,” she cried.
- </p>
- <p>
- “These thousands of black votes are here. They’ve got to be controlled.
- I’m doing the job.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You don’t try to get rid of them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Get rid of them? Ye gods, that would be a task! The Negro is the
- sentimental pet of the nation. Put him on a continent alone, and he will
- sink like an iron wedge to the bottomless pit of barbarism. But he is the
- ward of the Republic—our only orphan, chronic, incapable. That
- wardship is a grip of steel on the throat of the South. Back of it is an
- ocean of maudlin sentimental fools. I am simply making the most of the
- situation. I didn’t make it to order. I’m just doing the best I can with
- the material in hand.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why don’t you come out like a man and defy this horde of fools?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Martyrdom has become too cheap. The preachers have a hundred thousand
- missionaries now we are trying to support.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Allan, I thought you held below the rough surface of your nature high
- ideals,—you don’t mean this.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What could one man do against these millions?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do!” she cried, her face ablaze. “The history of the world is made up of
- the individuality of a few men. A little Yankee woman wrote a crude book.
- The single act of that woman’s will caused the war, killed a million men,
- desolated and ruined the South, and changed the history of the world. The
- single dauntless personality of George Washington three times saved the
- colonies from surrender and created the Republic. I am surprised to hear a
- man of your brain and reading talk like that!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When I am with you and hear your voice I have heroic impulses. You are
- the only human being with whom I would take the time to discuss this
- question. But the current is too strong. The other way is easier, and it
- serves my ends better. Besides, I am not sure it isn’t better from every
- point of view. We’ve got the Negro here, and must educate him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hush! Tell that to somebody that hates you, not to me,” she cried.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t you think we must educate them?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, I think it is a crime.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would you leave them in ignorance, a threat to society?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, until they can be moved. When I see these young negro men and women
- coming out of their schools and colleges well dressed, with their shallow
- veneer of an imitation culture, I feel like crying over the farce.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Surely, Mrs. Durham, you believe they are better fitted for life?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They are not. They are lifted out of their only possible sphere of menial
- service, and denied any career. It is simply inhuman. They are led to
- certain slaughter of soul and body at last. It is a horrible tragedy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Allan looked at her, smiled, and replied, “I knew you were a bitter and
- brilliant woman but I didn’t think you would go to such lengths even with
- your pet aversions.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s not an aversion, or a prejudice, sir. It’s a simple fact of history.
- Education increases the power of the human brain to think and the heart to
- suffer. Sooner or later these educated negroes feel the clutch of the iron
- hand of the white man’s unwritten laws on their throat. They have their
- choice between a suicide’s grave or a prison cell. And the numbers who
- dare the grave and the prison cell daily increase. The South is kinder to
- the Negro when he is kept in his place.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are a quarter of a century behind the times.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Am I so old?” she laughed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The sentiment, not the woman. You are the most beautiful woman I ever
- saw.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I like all my boys to feel that way about me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You don’t class me quite with the rest, do you?” She blushed the
- slightest bit. “No, I’ve always taken a peculiar interest in you. I have
- quarrelled with everybody who has hated and spoken evil of you. I have
- always believed you were capable of a high and noble life of great
- achievement.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And your faith in me has been my highest incentive to give the lie to my
- enemies and succeed. And I will. I will be the master of this state within
- two years. And I want you to remember that I lay it all at your feet. The
- world need not know it,—you know it.” He spoke with intense
- earnestness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But I don’t want you to make such a success at the price of Negro
- equality. I feel a sense of unspeakable degradation for you when I hear
- your name hissed. At least I was your teacher once. Come Allan, give up
- Negro politics and devote yourself to an honourable career in law!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He shook his head with calm persistence.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, this is my calling.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then take a nobler one.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To succeed grandly is the only title to nobility here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is the Doctor on speaking terms with you now?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! yes, I joke him about his hide-bound Bourbonism, and he tells me I am
- all sorts of a villain. But we have made an agreement to hate one another
- in a polite sort of way as becomes a teacher in Israel and a statesman
- with responsibilities. By the way, I saw him driving to the Springs with a
- bevy of pretty girls a few hours ago.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Indeed, I didn’t know it!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, he seemed to be having a royal time and to have renewed his youth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- An angry flush came to her face and she made no reply. McLeod glanced at
- her furtively and smiled at this evidence that his shot had gone home.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would you drive with me to the Springs? We will get there before this
- party starts back.” She hesitated, and answered, “yes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0035" id="link2HCH0035"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XI—THE OLD OLD STORY
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Gaston arrived
- in Independence he went direct to St. Clare’s.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where the Dickens have you been, Gaston?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Jumping from Murphy to Manteo making love to hayseed statesmen.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What luck?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “They’re all crazy. They swear they are going to have the United States
- establish a Sub-Treasury in Raleigh and issue Government script they can
- use as money on their pumpkins, or they are going to tear the nation to
- tatters and vote for a nigger for Governor if necessary!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can’t you get into their fool heads that an alliance with the Republican
- party is the last way on earth for them to go about their Sub-Treasury
- schemes?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can’t seem to do a thing with them. McLeod’s stuffed them full. I’m sick
- of it. I’ve a notion to let them go with the niggers and go to the devil.
- It’s growing on me that there must be another way out. I can’t get down in
- the dirt and prostitute my intellect and lie to these fools. We’ve got to
- get rid of the Negro.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “A large job, old man.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, it is, and thank God I’m done with it for a week. I’m going to
- heaven now for a few days. I ’ll see her in an hour. I rise on
- tireless wings!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look out you don’t come down too suddenly. The earth may feel hard.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bob, I’m going to risk it. I’m going to look fate squarely in the face
- and get my answer like a little man, for life or death.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Worth met Gaston and greeted him with warmest cordiality.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are charmed to welcome you to Oakwood again, Mr. Gaston.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I assure you, Mrs. Worth, I never saw a home so beautiful. I feel as
- though I am in paradise when I get here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hope to see more of you this time, I feel that I know you so much
- better since our talk at the Springs.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thank you, Mrs. Worth.” He said this so simply and earnestly she could
- but feel his deep appreciation of her attitude of welcome.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sallie will be down in a minute.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston smiled in spite of himself.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What are you laughing at?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I was just thinking how sweetly her name sounded on your lips.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you like these old-fashioned Southern names?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I think they are lovely.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, that’s my name too.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sallie suddenly stepped from the hall into the doorway.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, Mama, there you are again carrying on with one of my beaux! I don’t
- know what I will do with you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Worth actually blushed, sprang up and struck Sallie lightly on the
- arm with her fan exclaiming, “Oh! you sly thing, to stand out there and
- listen to what I said! Mr. Gaston I turn her over to you to punish her for
- such conduct.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Isn’t she a dear?” said Sallie when her mother was gone.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I was charmed with her at the Springs, but the gracious way she made me
- feel at home this morning completely won my heart.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can do anything with Mama. She’s the dearest mother that ever lived.
- She always seems to know intuitively my heart’s wish, and, if it’s best,
- give it to me, and if it’s not, she makes me cease to desire it. I wish I
- could manage Papa as easily.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m sure he idolises you, Miss Sallie.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He does, but when he lays the law down, that settles it. I can’t move him
- one inch.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s the way with forceful men, who do things in the world.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I confess I like to have my own way sometimes. I wonder if you are
- like that?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll be frank with you. Somehow I never could be anything else if
- I tried. I don’t think a man of strong character will yield to every whim
- of a woman, whether wife or daughter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I heard of a man the other day who whipped his wife,” she said in a far
- away tone of voice. “Come, my horse is ready, go with me for another ride
- to-day. I am going to take you across the river and show you a pretty
- drive over there.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They were soon lost in the deep shadows of the stately pine forest that
- lay beyond the Catawba. The road was a cross-country narrow way that wound
- in and out around the big trees.
- </p>
- <p>
- They jogged slowly along while he bathed his soul in the joy of her
- presence. Oh, to be alone and near her! There seemed to him a magic power
- in the touch of her dress as she sat in the little buggy so close by his
- side. For hours, again he lay at her feet and drank the wine of her beauty
- until his heart was drunk with love.
- </p>
- <p>
- Once he opened his lips to tell her, and a great fear awed him into
- silence. He longed to pour out to her his passion, but feared her answer.
- He Had studied her every word and tone and look and hand-pressure since he
- had known her. He was sure she loved him. And yet he was not sure. She was
- so skilled in the science of self defence, so subtle a mistress of all the
- arts of polite society in which the soul’s deepest secrets are hid from
- the world, he was paralysed now as the moment drew near. He put it off
- another day and gave himself up to the pure delight of her face and form
- and voice and presence.
- </p>
- <p>
- That evening when she entered the home her mother caught her hand and
- softly whispered, “Did he court you to-day, Sallie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- She shook her head smilingly. “No, but I think he will to-morrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- St. Clare was sitting on his veranda awaiting Gaston’s return.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What luck, old boy?” he eagerly asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Couldn’t say a word. I ’ll do it to-morrow or die.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Shake hands partner. I’ve been there.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bob, it’s a serious thing to run up against a little answer ‘yes’ or
- ‘no,’ that means life or death.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Feel like you’d rather live on hope a while, and let things drift, don’t
- you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Exactly, I think I can understand for the first time in my life that
- awful look in a prisoner’s face on trial for his life, when he watches the
- lips of the foreman of the jury to catch the first letter of the verdict.
- I used to think that an interesting psychological study. By George, I feel
- I am his brother now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The next day was perfect. The warm life-giving sun of June was tempered by
- breezes that swept fresh and invigorating over the earth that had been
- drenched with showers in the night. The woods were ringing with the chorus
- of feathered throats chanting the old oratorio of life and love. Again
- Gaston and Sallie were jogging along the shady river road they had
- travelled on the first day she had taken him driving.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you remember this road?” she asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll never forget it. Along this road we hurried in the twilight
- to face your angry mother, and just one kiss smoothed her brow into a
- welcoming smile for me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I’m going to risk greater trouble to-day, and take you a mile or
- two further up the river to the old mill site at the rapids. It’s the most
- beautiful and romantic spot in the country. The river spreads out a
- quarter of a mile in width, and goes plunging and dashing down the rapids
- through thousands of projecting rocks, a mass of white foam as far as you
- can see. It’s full of tiny green islands with feras and rhododendron and
- wild grape vines, and their perfume sweetens the air for miles along the
- water. These little islands, some ten feet square, some an acre, are full
- of mocking-birds nesting there, though since the mills were burned during
- the war nobody has lived near. The songs of these birds seem tuned to the
- music of the river.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It must be a glimpse of fairy-land!” he exclaimed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know you will be thrilled with its romantic beauty. It’s five miles
- from a house in any direction.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston was silent. He made a resolution in his soul that he would never
- leave that spot until he knew his fate. His heart began to thump now like
- a sledge-hammer. He looked down furtively at her and tried to imagine how
- she would look and what she would say when he should startle her first
- with some word of tender endearment or the sound of her name he had said
- over and over a thousand times in his heart, and aloud when alone, but
- never dared to use without its prefix.
- </p>
- <p>
- She saw his abstraction and divined intuitively the current of emotions
- with which he was struggling, but pretended not to notice it. He tied the
- horse at the old mill, and they walked slowly down the bank of the river.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That is my island,” she cried pointing out into the river. “That third
- one in the group running out from the point. We can step from one rock to
- another to it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- It was indeed an entrancing spot. The island seemed all alone in the
- middle of the river when one was on it. It was not more than fifty feet
- wide and a hundred feet long, its length lying with the swift current. At
- the lower end of it a fine ash tree spread its dense shade, hanging far
- over the still waters that stood in smooth eddy at its roots. On the upper
- side of this tree lay a big boulder resting against its trunk and embedded
- in a mass of clean white sand the water had filtered and washed and thrown
- there on some spring flood.
- </p>
- <p>
- She climbed on this rock, sat down, and leaned her bare head against its
- trunk.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This is my throne,” she laughingly cried.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0008" id="linkimage-0008"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0300.jpg" alt="0300 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0300.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- He leaned against the rock and looked up at her with eyes through which
- the yearning, the hunger, the joy, and the fear of all life were
- quivering. What a picture she made under the dark cool shadows! Her dress
- was again of spotless white that seemed now to have been woven out of the
- foam of the river. Her throat was bare, her cheeks flushed, and her wavy
- hair the wind had blown loose into a hundred stray ringlets about her face
- and neck. Her lips were trembling with a smile at his speechless
- admiration.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You seem to have been struck dumb,” she said. “Isn’t this glorious?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Beyond words, Miss Sallie. I didn’t know there was such a spot on the
- earth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “This is my favourite perch. Art and wealth could never make anything like
- this! I could come here and sit and dream all day alone if Mama would let
- me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He tried to begin the story of his love, but every time his tongue refused
- to move. He was trembling with nervous hesitation and began to dig a hole
- in the sand with his heel.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is the matter with you to-day? I never saw you so serious and
- moody.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Just then a female mocking-bird in her modest dove-coloured dress lit on a
- swaying limb whose tips touched the still water of the eddy at their feet,
- and her proud mate with head erect, far up on the topmost twig of the ash
- struck softly the first note of his immortal love poem, the dropping song.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Listen, he’s going to sing his dropping song!” he cried in a whisper.
- </p>
- <p>
- And they listened. He sang his first stanza in a low dreamy voice, and
- then as the sweetness of his love and the glory of his triumph grew on his
- bird soul, he lifted his clear notes higher and higher until the woods on
- the banks of the river rang with its melody.
- </p>
- <p>
- His mate turned her eyes upward and quietly twittered a sweet little
- answer.
- </p>
- <p>
- His response rang like a silver trumpet far up in the sky! He sprang ten
- feet into the air and slowly dropped singing, singing his long trilling
- notes of melting sweetness. He stopped on the topmost twig, sat a moment,
- never ceasing his matchless song, and then began to fall downward from
- limb to limb toward his mate, pouring out his soul in mad abandonment of
- joy, but growing softer, sweeter, more tender as he drew nearer. They
- could see her tremble now with pride and love at his approach, as she
- glanced timidly upward, and answered him with maiden modesty. At last when
- he reached her side, his song was so low and sweet and dream-like it could
- scarcely be heard. He touched the tip of her beak with a bird kiss, they
- chirped, and flew away to the woods together.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston determined to speak or die. His eyes were wet with unshed tears,
- and he was trembling from head to foot. He had meant to pour out his love
- for her like that bird in words of passionate beauty, but all he could do
- was to say with stammering voice low and tense with emotion, “Miss Sallie,
- I love you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He had meant to say “Sallie,” but at the last gasp of breath, as he spoke,
- his courage had failed. He did not look up at first. And when she was
- silent, he timidly looked up, fearing to hear the answer or read it in her
- face. She smiled at him and broke into a low peal of joyous laughter! And
- there was a note of joy in her laughter that was contagious.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Please don’t laugh at me,” he stammered, smiling himself.
- </p>
- <p>
- She buried her face in her hands and laughed again. She looked at him with
- her great blue eyes wide open, dancing with fun, and wet with tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you know, it’s the funniest thing in the world, you are the sixth man
- who has made love to me on this rock within a year!” and again she laughed
- in his face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look here, Miss Sallie, this is cruel!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dear old rock. It’s enchanted. It never fails!” and she laughed softly
- again, and patted the rock with her hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Surely you have tortured me long enough. Have some pity.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is a pitiable sight to see a big eloquent man stammer and do silly
- things isn’t it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Please give me your answer,” he cried still trembling.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! it’s not so serious as all that!” she said with dancing eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m in the dust at your feet.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You mean in the sand. Did you know that you dug a hole in that sand deep
- enough to bury me in? I thought once you were meditating murder by the
- expression on your face.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Please give me one earnest look from your eyes,” he pleaded.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’re a terrible disappointment,” she answered leaning back and putting
- her hands behind her head thoughtfully.
- </p>
- <p>
- His heart stood still at this unexpected speech.
- </p>
- <p>
- “How?” he slowly asked, looking down at the sand again.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Because,” she said in her old tantalising tone, “I expected so much of
- you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you don’t class me with the other poor devils at least?” he asked
- hopefully.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no, they were handsome boys and made me beautiful speeches. But you
- are distinguished. You are a man that everybody would look at twice in a
- crowd. You are a famous young orator who can hold thousands breathless
- with eloquence. I thought you would make me the most beautiful speech. But
- you acted like a school boy, stammered, looked foolish, and pawed a hole
- in the ground!” Again she laughed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I confess, Miss Sallie, I was never so overwhelmed with terror and
- nervousness by an audience before.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And just one girl to hear!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but she counts more with me than all the other millions, and one
- kind look from her eyes I would hold dearer at this moment than a
- conquered world’s applause.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s fine! That’s something like it. Say more!” she cried.
- </p>
- <p>
- His face clouded and he looked earnestly at her.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come, come, Miss Sallie, this is too cruel. I have torn my heart’s
- deepest secrets open to you, and tremblingly laid my life at your feet,
- and you are laughing at me. I have paid you the highest homage one human
- soul can offer another. Surely I deserve better than this?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There, you do. Forgive me. I have seen so much shallow love making, I am
- never quite sure a boy’s in dead earnest.” She spoke now with seriousness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You cannot doubt my earnestness. I have spoken to you this morning the
- first words of love that ever passed my lips. One chamber of my soul has
- always been sacred. It was the throne room of Love, reserved for the One
- Woman waiting for me somewhere whom I should find. I would not allow an
- angel to enter it, and I hid it from the face of God. I have opened it
- this morning. It is yours.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She softly slipped her hand in his, and tremblingly said, while a tear
- stole down her cheek, “I do love you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He bent over her hand and kissed it, and kissed it, while his frame shook
- with uncontrollable emotion. Then looking up through his dimmed eyes, he
- said, “My darling, that was the sweetest music, that sentence, that I
- shall ever hear in this world or in all the worlds beyond it in eternity!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “When did you first begin to love me?” she asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t know. But I loved you the first moment you looked into my face
- while I was speaking that day. And I recognised you instantly as the Dream
- of my Soul. I have loved you for ever, ages before we were born in this
- world, somewhere, our souls met and knew and loved. And I’ve been looking
- for you ever since. When I saw you there in the crowd that day looking up
- at me with those beautiful blue eyes, I felt like shouting ‘I have found
- her! I have found her!’ and rushing to your side lest I should not see you
- again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is strange—this feeling that we have known each other forever.
- The moment you touched my hand that first day, a sense of perfect content
- and joy in living came over me. I couldn’t remember the time when I hadn’t
- known you. You seemed so much a part of my inmost thoughts and every day
- life. I laughed this morning from sheer madness of joy when you told me
- your love. I knew you were going to tell me to-day. You tried yesterday,
- but I held you back. I wanted you to tell me here at this beautiful spot,
- that the music of this water might always sing its chorus with the memory
- of your words.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let me kiss your lips once!” he pleaded.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, you shall hold my hand and kiss that. Your touch thrills every nerve
- of my being like wine. It is enough. I promised Mama I would never allow a
- man to kiss me without asking her. And we are like loving comrades. I
- couldn’t violate a promise to her. I will, when she says so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I ’ll ask her. I know she’s on my side.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I believe she loves you because I do.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What did you whisper to her that night, when we came late, and you said
- she would be angry?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Told her I loved you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If I could only have caught that whisper then! You don’t know how it
- delights me to think your mother likes me. I couldn’t help loving her. It
- seems to me a divine seal on our lives.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and what specially delights me is, you have completely captured
- Papa, and he’s so hard to please.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You don’t say so!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, he’s been preaching you at me ever since you came the first time. I
- pretended to be indifferent to draw him out. He would say, ‘Now Sallie,
- there’s a man for you,—no pretty dude, but a man, with a kingly eye
- and a big brain. That’s the kind of a man who does things in the world and
- makes history for smaller men to read.’ And then I’d say just to aggravate
- him, ‘But Papa he’s as poor as Job’s turkey!’”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you ought to have heard him, ‘Well, what of it! You can begin in a
- cabin like your mother and I did. He’s got a better start than I had, for
- he has a better training.’”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am certainly glad to hear that!” Gaston cried with elation.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You may be. For Papa is a man of such intense likes and dislikes. The
- first thing that made my heart flutter with fear was that he might not
- like you. He loves me intensely. And I love him devotedly. I could not
- marry without his consent. You are so entirely different from any other
- beau I ever had, I couldn’t imagine what Papa would think of you. You wear
- such a serious face, never go into society, care nothing for fine clothes,
- and are so careless that you even hung your feet out of the buggy that
- first day I took you to drive. I was glad to have you in the woods and not
- in town. The boys would have guyed me to death. In fact you are the
- contradiction of the average man I have known, and of all the men I
- thought as a girl I’d marry some day. I am so glad Papa likes you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- That evening when they reached the house, she hurried through the hall to
- her mother who was standing on the back porch. There was the sudden swish
- of a dress, a kiss, another! and another! And then the low murmur of a
- mother’s voice like the crooning over a baby.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0036" id="link2HCH0036"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XII—THE MUSIC OF THE MILLS
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Gaston reached
- his home that night St. Clare had gone to bed. It was one o’clock. He
- could not sleep yet, so he sat in the window and tried to realise his
- great happiness, as he looked out on the green lawn with its white
- gravelled walk glistening in the full moon.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The world is beautiful, life is sweet, and God is good!” he cried in an
- ecstasy of joy.
- </p>
- <p>
- He sat there in the moonlight for an hour dreaming of his love and the
- great strenuous life of achievement he would live with her to inspire him.
- It seemed too good to be true. And yet it was the largest living fact.
- Like throbbing music the words were ringing in his heart keeping time with
- the rhythm of its beat, “I do love you!” And then he did something he had
- not done for years.—not since his boyhood,—he knelt in the
- silence of the moonlit room and prayed. Love the great Revealer had led
- him into the presence of God. The impulse was spontaneous and resistless.
- “Lord, I have seen Thy face, heard Thy voice, and felt the touch of Thy
- hand to-day! I bless and praise Thee! Forgive my doubts and fears and
- sins, cleanse and make me worthy of her whom Thou has sent as Thy
- messenger!” So he poured out his soul.
- </p>
- <p>
- Next morning he grasped St. Clare’s hand as he entered the room. “Bob, I’m
- the happiest man in the world!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Congratulations! You look it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She loves me! I’d like to climb up on the top of this house and shout it
- until all earth and heaven could hear and be glad with me!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, don’t do it, my boy. See her father first!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “She says he likes me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you’re elected.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m going to tackle him before I go home.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t rush him. There’s a superstition prevalent here that the old
- gentleman has no idea of ever letting his daughter leave that home, and
- that he will never give his consent, when driven to the wall, unless his
- son-inlaw that is to be, will agree to settle down there and take his
- place in those big mills. He has two great loves, his daughter and his
- mills, and he don’t mean to let either one of them go if he can help it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you believe it’s true?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I do. How do you like the idea?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s not my style. I’ve a pretty clear idea of what I’m going to do in
- this world.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you’d better begin to haul in your silk sails, and study cotton
- goods, is my advice.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll manage him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t know about it, but if you’ve got her, you’re the first man that
- ever got far enough to measure himself with the General. I wish you luck.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You the same, old chum. May you conquer Boston and all the Pilgrim
- Fathers!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thanks. The vision of one of them disturbs my dreams. One will be
- enough.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Then followed six golden days on the banks of the Catawba. Every day he
- insisted with boyish enthusiasm on returning to that rock and seating her
- on her throne. He called her his queen, and worshipped at her feet.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had the friendliest little chat with her mother, and told her how he
- loved her daughter and hoped for her approval. She answered with frankness
- that she was glad, and would love him as her own son, but that she
- disapproved of kissing and extravagant love-making until they were ready
- to be married, and their engagement duly announced.
- </p>
- <p>
- So he could only hold Sallie’s hand and kiss the tips of her fingers and
- the little dimples where they joined the hand, and sometimes he would hold
- it against his own cheek while she smiled at him.
- </p>
- <p>
- But when they rode homeward one evening he dared to put his arm behind
- her, high on the phaeton’s leather cushion, as they were going down a
- hill, and then lowered it a little as they started up the grade. She
- leaned back and found it there. At first she nestled against it very
- timidly and then trustingly. She looked into his face and both smiled.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Isn’t that nice, Sallie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, it is,—I don’t think Mama would mind that, do you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course not.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I never promised not to lean back in a phaeton, did I?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly not, and it’s all right.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Toward the end of the week the General began to show him a grave friendly
- interest. He invited Gaston to go over the mills with him. The mills were
- located back of the wooded cliffs a quarter of a mile up the river. There
- were now four magnificent brick buildings stretching out over the river
- bottoms at right angles to its current. And there was a big dye house, a
- ginning house and a cotton-seed oil mill. The General stood on the hill
- top and proudly pointed it out to him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Isn’t that a grand sight, young man! We employ 2,000 hands down there,
- and consume hundreds of bales of cotton a day. We began here after the war
- without a cent, except our faith, and this magnificent water power. Now
- look!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have certainly done a great work,” said Gaston, “I had no idea you
- had so many industries in the enclosure.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I sit down here on the hill some nights in the moonlight and look
- into this valley, and the hum of that machinery is like ravishing music.
- The machinery seems to me to be a living thing, with millions of fingers
- of steel and a great throbbing soul. I dream of the day when those swift
- fingers will weave their fabrics of gold and clothe the whole South in
- splendour!—the South I love, and for which I fought, and have
- yearned over through all these years. Ah! young man, I wish you boys of
- brain and genius would quit throwing yourselves away in law and dirty
- politics, and devote your powers to the South’s development!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but General, the people of the South had to go into politics instead
- of business on account of the enfranchisement of the Negro. It was a
- matter of life and death.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I didn’t do it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, sir, but others did for you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How?” he asked incredulously, with just a touch of wounded pride.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well how many negroes do you employ in these mills?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “None. We don’t allow a negro to come inside the enclosure.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Precisely so. You have prospered because you have got rid of the Negro.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve simply let the Negro alone. Let others do the same.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But everybody can’t do it. There are now nine millions of them. You’ve
- simply shifted the burden on others’ shoulders. You haven’t solved the
- problem.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If we had less politics and more business, we would be better off.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But the trouble is, General, we can’t have more business until politics
- have settled some things.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bah! You’re throwing yourself away in politics, young man! There’s
- nothing in it but dirt and disappointment.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To me, sir, politics is a religion.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Religion! Politics! I didn’t know you could ever mix ’em. I
- thought they were about as far apart as heaven is from hell!” exclaimed
- the General.
- </p>
- <p>
- “They ought not to be sir, whatever the terrible facts, I believe that the
- Government is the organised virtue of the community, and that politics is
- religion in action. It may be a poor sort of religion, but it is the best
- we are capable of as members of society.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, that’s a new idea.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s coming to be more and more recognised by thoughtful men, General. I
- believe that the State is now the only organ through which the whole
- people can search for righteousness, and that the progress of the world
- depends more than ever on its integrity and purity.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you’ve cut out a big job for yourself, if that’s your ideal. My
- idea of politics is a pig pen. The way to clean it is to kill the pigs.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston laughed and shook his head.
- </p>
- <p>
- When they returned from the mills, Mrs. Worth drew the General into her
- room.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did he ask you for Sallie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, the young galoot never mentioned her name. I thought he would. But I
- must have scared him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You didn’t quarrel over anything?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No! But I found out he had a mind of his own.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So have you, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0037" id="link2HCH0037"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XIII—THE FIRST KISS
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HY didn’t you ask
- him yesterday?” cried Sallie, as she entered the parlour the next morning.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Darling, I was scared out of my wits. We got crossways on some questions
- we were discussing, and he snorted at me once, and every time I tried to
- screw up my courage to speak, a lump got in my throat and I gave it up. I
- thought I’d wait a day or two until he should be in a better humour.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s gone away to-day,” she said with disappointment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m glad of it, I ’ll write him a letter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you had asked him yesterday it would have been all right. He told me
- so when he left this morning, with a very tender tremor in his voice.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But it will be all right, sweetheart, when I write.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wanted my ring,” she whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You shall have it,” he said, as he seized her hand and led her to a seat.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have you got it with you?” she asked with excitement. “Let me see it
- quick.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He drew the little box from his pocket, withdrew the ring, concealing it
- in his hand, slipped it on her finger and kissed it. She threw her hand up
- into the light to see it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! it is glorious! It’s the big green diamond Hiddenite I saw at the
- Exposition! It is the most beautiful stone I ever saw, and the only one of
- its kind in size and colour in the world. Professor Hidden told me so. I
- tried to get Papa to buy it for me. But he laughed at me, and said it was
- childish extravagance. Charlie dear, how could you get it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s a little secret. But there are to be no secrets between us any
- more. I had a little hoard saved from my mother’s estate for the greatest
- need of my life. I confess my extravagance.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are a matchless lover. I’m the proudest and happiest girl that
- breathes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nothing is too good for you, I wish I could make a greater sacrifice.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Wait, till I show it to Mama,” and she flew to her mother’s room. She
- returned immediately, looking at the ring and kissing it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Couldn’t show it to her, she had company,” she said. “Allan is talking to
- her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let’s get out of the house, dear. I hate that man like a rattlesnake.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t be silly, I never cared a snap for him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know you didn’t, but there is a poison about him that taints the air
- for me. Get your horse and let’s go to our place at the old mill.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They soon reached the spot, and with a laugh she sprang upon the rock and
- took her seat against the tree.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, dear, humour this whim of mine. I’ve grown superstitious since
- you’ve made me happy. I have a presentiment of evil because that man was
- in the house. I am going to take the ring off and put it on your hand
- again out here where only the eyes of our birds will see, and the river we
- love will hear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That will be nicer. I somehow feel that my life is built on this dear old
- rock,” she answered soberly.
- </p>
- <p>
- He took the ring off her finger, dipped it in the white foam of the river,
- kissed it, and placed it on her hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now the spell is broken, isn’t it?” she cried, holding it out in the
- sunlight a moment to catch the flash of its green diamond depth.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve another token for you. This, you will not even show to your mother
- or father.” She bent low over a tiny package he unfolded.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This is the first medal I won at college,” he continued—“the first
- victory of my life. It was the force that determined my character. It gave
- me an inflexible will. I worked at a tremendous disadvantage. Others were
- two years ahead of me in study for the contest. I locked myself up in my
- room day and night for ten months, and took just enough food and sleep for
- strength to work. I worked seventeen hours a day, except Sundays, for ten
- months without an hour of play. I won it brilliantly. Every line cut on
- its gold surface stands for a thousand aches of my body. Every little
- pearl set in it, grew in a pain of that struggle which set its seal on my
- inmost life. I came out of those ten months a man. I have never known the
- whims of a boy since.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you engraved something on the back to me!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, can’t you read it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My eyes are dim,” she whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is this—<i>In the hand of manhood’s tenderest love I bring to
- thee my boyhood’s brightest dream</i>. I was a man when I woke, but I have
- never lived till you taught me. Keep this as a pledge of eternal love.
- It’s the only little trinket I ever possessed. The world will see our
- ring. Don’t let them see this. It is the seal of your sovereignty of my
- soul in life, in death, and beyond. Will you make me this eternal pledge?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Unto the uttermost!” she murmured.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Unto the uttermost!” he solemnly echoed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And now, what can I say or do for you when you show me in this spirit of
- prodigal sacrifice how dear I am in your eyes?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Those words from your lips are enough,” he declared.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll give you more. I’m going to give you just a little bit of
- myself. I haven’t asked Mama, but we are engaged now—come closer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She placed her beautiful arms around his neck and pressed her lips upon
- his in the first rapturous kiss of love.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No,—no more. It is enough,” she protested.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0038" id="link2HCH0038"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XIV—A MYSTERIOUS LETTER
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>E was at home now,
- waiting impatiently for the General’s answer to his letter. Two weeks had
- passed and he had not received it. But she had explained in her letters
- that her father had returned the day he left, had a talk with McLeod, and
- left on important business. They were expecting his return at any moment.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was a new revelation of life he found in their first love letters. He
- never knew that he could write before. He sat for hours at his desk in his
- law office and poured out to her his dreams, hopes and ambitions. All the
- poetry of youth, and the passion and beauty of life, he put into those
- letters.
- </p>
- <p>
- He wrote to her every day and she answered every other day. She wrote in
- half tearful apology that her mother disapproved of a daily letter, and
- she added wistfully, “I should like to write to you twice a day. Take the
- will for the deed, and as you love me, be sure to continue yours daily.”
- </p>
- <p>
- And on the days the letter came, with eager trembling hands he seized it,
- without waiting for the rest of his mail or his papers. With set face, and
- quick nervous step, he would mount the stairs to his office, lock his door
- and sit down to devour it. He would hold it in his hands sometimes for ten
- minutes just to laugh and muse over it and try to guess what new trick of
- phrase she had used to express her love. He was surprised at her
- brilliance and wit. He had not held her so deep a thinker on the serious
- things of life as these letters had showed, nor had he noticed how keen
- her sense of humour. He was so busy looking at her beautiful face, and
- drinking the love-light from her eyes, he had overlooked these things when
- with her. Now they flashed on him as a new treasure, that would enrich his
- life.
- </p>
- <p>
- At the end of two weeks when the General had not answered his letter he
- began to grow nervous. A vague feeling of fear grew on him. Something had
- happened to darken his future. He felt it by a subtle telepathy of
- sympathetic thought. He was gloomy and depressed all day after he had
- received and feasted on the wittiest letter she had ever written. What
- could it mean he asked himself a thousand times—some shadow had
- fallen across their lives. He knew it as clearly as if the revelation of
- its misery were already unfolded.
- </p>
- <p>
- He went to the post-office on the next day he was to receive a letter,
- crushed with a sense of foreboding. He waited until the mail was all
- distributed and the general delivery window flung open before he
- approached his box. He was afraid to look at her letter. He slowly opened
- the box.
- </p>
- <p>
- There was nothing in it!
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sam, you’re not holding out my letter to tease me, old boy?” he asked
- pathetically.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sam was about to joke him about the uncertainties of love, when his eye
- rested on his drawn face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lord no, Charlie,” he protested, “you know I wouldn’t treat you like
- that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then look again, you may have dropped it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sam turned and looked carefully over the floor, over and under his desks
- and tables and returned.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, but it may have been thrown into the wrong bag by that fool mail
- clerk on the train. You may get it to-morrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He turned away and walked to his office, forgetting his key in the open
- box. The vague sense of calamity that weighed on his heart for the past
- two days, now became a reality.
- </p>
- <p>
- He sat in his office all the afternoon in a dull stupor of suspense. He
- tried to read her last letter over. But the pages would get blurred and
- fade out of sight, and he would wake to find he had been staring at one
- sentence for an hour.
- </p>
- <p>
- He knew his foster mother would be all sympathy and tenderness if he told
- her, but somehow he hadn’t the heart. She had led him to his love. He had
- been so boyishly and frankly happy boasting to her of his success, he
- sickened at the thought of telling her. He went out for a walk in the
- woods, and lay down alone beside a brook like a wounded animal.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next day he watched his box again with the hope that Sam’s guess might
- be right, and the missing letter would come. But, instead of the big
- square-cut envelope he had waited for, he received a bulky letter in an
- old-fashioned masculine handwriting with the post mark of Independence,
- and a mill mark in the upper left hand corner.
- </p>
- <p>
- He did not have to look twice at that letter. It was the sealed verdict of
- his jury. He locked his office door. It was long and rambling, full of a
- kindly sympathy expressed in a restrained manner. He could not believe at
- first that so outspoken a man as the General could have written it. The
- substance of its meaning, however, was plain enough. He meant to say that
- as he was not in a position to make a suitable home at present for a wife,
- and as he disapproved of long engagements, it seemed better that no
- engagement should be entered into or announced.
- </p>
- <p>
- He stared at this letter for an hour, trying to grasp the mystery that lay
- back of its halting, half-contradictory sentences. He did not know till
- long afterwards that the General had written it with two blue eyes
- tearfully watching him, and waiting to read it; that now and then there
- was the sound of a great sob, and two arms were around his neck, and a
- still white face lying on his shoulder, and that tears had washed all the
- harshness and emphasis out of what he had meant to write, and all but
- blotted out any meaning to what he did write.
- </p>
- <p>
- But withal it was clear enough in its import. It meant that the General
- had haltingly but authoritatively denied his suit. He instantly made up
- his mind to ask an interview at his home, and know plainly all his reasons
- for this change of attitude. He wrote his letter and posted it immediately
- by return mail. He knew that the request would precipitate a crisis, and
- he trembled at the outcome. Either her father would hesitate and receive
- him, or end it with a crash of his imperious will.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0039" id="link2HCH0039"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XV—A BLOW IN THE DARK
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE noon mail
- brought Gaston no answer. At night he felt sure it would come.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the wagon dashed up to the post-office that night it was fifteen
- minutes late. He was walking up and down the street on the opposite
- pavement along the square, keeping under the shadows of the trees. He
- turned, quickly crossed the street, and stood inside the office, listening
- with a feeling of strange abstraction to the tramp of the postmaster’s
- feet back and forth as he distributed the mail. He never knew before what
- a tragedy might be concealed in the thrust of a bit of folded paper into a
- tiny glass-eyed box. As he waited, fearing to face his fate, he remembered
- the pathetic figure of a grey-haired old man who stood there one day
- hanging on that desk softly talking to himself. He was a stranger at the
- Springs, and they were alone in the office together. Now and then he
- brushed a tear from his eyes, glanced timidly at the window of the general
- delivery, starting at every quick movement inside as though afraid the
- window had opened. Gaston had gone up close to the old man, drawn by the
- look of anguish in his dignified face. The stranger intuitively recognised
- the sympathy of the movement, and explained tremblingly: “My son, I am
- waiting for a message of life or death”—he faltered, seized his
- hand, adding, “and I’m afraid to see it!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Just then the window opened and he clutched his arm and gasped, with
- dilated staring eyes, “There, there it’s come! You go for me, my son, and
- ask while I pray!—I’m afraid.” How well Gaston remembered now with
- what trembling eagerness the old man had broken the seal, and then stood
- with head bowed low, crying, “I thank and bless thee, oh, Mother of Jesus,
- for this hour!” And looking up into his face with tear-streaming eyes he
- cried in a rich low voice like tender music, “How beautiful are the feet
- of them that bring glad tidings!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He could feel now the warm pressure of his hand as he walked out of the
- office with him.
- </p>
- <p>
- How vividly the whole scene came rushing over him! He thought he
- sympathised with his old friend that night, but now he entered into the
- fellowship of his sorrow. Now he knew.
- </p>
- <p>
- At last he drew himself up, walked to his box and opened it. His heart
- leaped. A big square-cut envelope lay in it, addressed to him in her own
- beautiful hand. He snatched it out and hurried to his office. The moment
- he touched it, his heart sank. It was light and thin. Evidently there was
- but a single sheet of paper within.
- </p>
- <p>
- He tore it open and stared at it with parted lips and half-seeing eyes.
- The first word struck his soul with a deadly chill. This was what he read:
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“My Dear Mr. Gaston:</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“I write in obedience to the wishes of my parents to say our engagement
- must end and our correspondence cease. I can not explain to you the
- reasons for this. I have acquiesced in their judgment, that it is best.</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“I return your letters by to-morrow’s mail, and Mama requests that you
- return mine to her at Oakwood immediately.</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“I leave to-night on the Limited for Atlanta where I join a friend. We
- go to Savannah, and thence by steamer to Boston where I shall visit Helen
- for a month.</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“Sincerely,</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- <i>“Sallie Worth.”</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- For a long time he looked at the letter in a stupor of amazement. That her
- father could coerce her hand into writing such a brutal commonplace note
- was a revelation of his power he had never dreamed. And then his anger
- began to rise. His fighting blood from soldier ancestors made his nerves
- tingle at this challenge.
- </p>
- <p>
- He took up the letter and read it again curiously studying each word. He
- opened the folded sheet hoping to find some detached message. There was
- nothing inside. But he noticed on the other side of the sheet a lot of
- indentures as though made by the end of a needle. He turned it back and
- studied these dots under different letters in the words made by the needle
- points. He spelled,—
- </p>
- <p>
- “<i>My Darling—Unto the Uttermost!</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- And then he covered the note with kisses, sprang to his feet and looked at
- his watch.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was now ten-thirty. The Limited left Independence at eleven o’clock and
- made no stops for the first hundred miles toward Atlanta. But just to the
- south where the railroad skirted the foot of King’s Mountain, there was a
- water tank on the mountain side where he knew the train stopped for water
- about midnight.
- </p>
- <p>
- With a fast horse he could make the eighteen miles and board the Limited
- at this water station. The only danger was if the sky should cloud over
- and the starlight be lost it would be difficult to keep in the narrow road
- that wound over the semi-mountainous hills, densely wooded, that must be
- crossed to make it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll try it!” he exclaimed. “Yes, I will do it!” he added setting
- his teeth. “I ’ll make that train.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He got the best horse he could find in the livery stable, saw that his
- saddle girths were strong, sprang on and galloped toward the south. It was
- a quarter to eleven when he started, and it seemed a doubtful undertaking.
- The Limited would make the run from Independence, fifty-two miles, in an
- hour at the most. If she were on time it would be a close shave for him to
- make the eighteen miles.
- </p>
- <p>
- The sky clouded slightly before he reached the mountain. In spite of his
- vigilance he lost his way and had gone a quarter of a mile before a rift
- in the cloud showed him the north star suddenly, and he found he had taken
- the wrong road at the crossing and was going straight back home.
- </p>
- <p>
- Wheeling his horse, he put spurs to him, and dashed at full speed back
- through the dense woods.
- </p>
- <p>
- Just as he got within a mile of the tank he heard the train blow for the
- bridge-crossing at the river near by.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, my boy,” he cried to his horse, patting him. “Now your level best!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The horse responded with a spurt of desperate speed. He had a way of
- handling a horse that the animal responded to with almost human sympathy
- and intelligence. He seemed to breathe his own will into the horse’s
- spirit. He flew over the ground, and reached the train just as the fireman
- cut off the water and the engineer tapped his bell to start.
- </p>
- <p>
- He flung his horse’s rein over a hitching post that stood near the silent
- little station-house, rushed to the track, and sprang on the day coach as
- it passed.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had intended to ride fifty miles on this train, see his sweetheart face
- to face—learn the truth from her own lips—and then return on
- the up-train. He hoped to ride back to Hambright before day and keep the
- fact of his trip a secret.
- </p>
- <p>
- Now a new difficulty arose—a very simple one—that he had not
- thought of for a moment. She was in a Pullman sleeper of course, and
- asleep.
- </p>
- <p>
- There were three sleepers, one for Atlanta, one for New Orleans, and one
- for Memphis. He hoped she was in the Atlanta sleeper as that was her
- destination, though if that were crowded in its lower berths she might be
- in either of the others. But how under heaven could he locate her? The
- porter probably would not know her.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was puzzled. The conductor approached and he paid his fare to the next
- stop, fifty miles.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve an important message for a passenger in one of these sleepers,
- Captain,” he exclaimed. “I have ridden across the mountains to catch the
- train here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right, sir,” said the genial conductor. “Go right in and deliver it.
- You look like you had a tussle to get here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was a close shave,” Gaston replied.
- </p>
- <p>
- He stepped into the Atlanta sleeper and encountered the dusky potentate
- who presided over its aisles.
- </p>
- <p>
- The porter looked up from the shoes he was shining at Gaston’s dishevelled
- hair and gave him no welcome.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston dropped a half dollar into his hand and the porter dropped the
- shoes and grinned a royal welcome. “Any ting I kin do fer ye boss?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Got any ladies on your car?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir, three un ’em.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Young, or old?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “One young un, en two ole uns.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did the young lady get on at Independence?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Going to Atlanta?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is she very beautiful?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Boss, she’s de purtiess young lady I eber laid my eyes’ on—but look
- lak she been cryin’.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I want you to wake her. I must see her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lordy boss, I cain do dat. Hit ergin de rules.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, I’m bound to see her. I’ve ridden eighteen miles across the
- mountains and scratched my face all to pieces rushing through those woods.
- I’ve a message of the utmost importance for her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Cain do hit boss, hits ergin de rules. But you can go wake her yoself, ef
- you’se er mind ter. I cain keep you fum it. She’s dar in number seben.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston hesitated. “No, you must wake her,” he insisted, dropping another
- half dollar in the porter’s hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- The porter got up with a grin. He felt he must rise to a great occasion.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I des fumble roun’ de berth en mebbe she wake herse’f, en den I
- tell her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Just then the electric bell overhead rang and the index pointed to 7. “Dar
- now, dat’s her callin’ me, sho!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He approached the berth. “What kin I do fur ye M’am?” he whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Porter, who is that you are talking to? It sounds like some one I know.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yassum, hit’s young gent name er Gaston, jump on bode at the water
- station—say he got ‘portant message fur you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tell him I will see him in a moment.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The porter returned with the message.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You des wait in dar, in number one—hits not made up—twell she
- come,” he added.
- </p>
- <p>
- There was the soft rustle of a dressing gown—he sprang to his feet,
- clasped her hand passionately, kissed it, and silently she took her seat
- by his side. He still held her hand, and she pressed his gently in
- response. He saw that she was crying, and his heart was too full for words
- for a moment.
- </p>
- <p>
- He looked long and wistfully in her face. In her dishevelled hair by the
- dim light of the car he thought her more beautiful than ever. At last she
- brushed the tears from her eyes and turned her face full on his with a sad
- smile.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My own dear love!” she sobbed, “I prayed that I might see you somehow
- before I left. I was wide awake when I first heard the distant murmur of
- your voice. Oh! I am so glad you came!” and she pressed his hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I got your letter at ten-thirty”—
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! that awful letter! How I cried over it. Papa made me write it, and
- read and mailed it himself. But you saw my message between the lines?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and then I covered it with kisses. But what is the cause of this
- sudden change of the General toward me? What have I done?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Please don’t ask me. I can’t tell you,” she sobbed lowering her face a
- moment to his hand and kissing it. “Don’t ask me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, my dear, I must know. There can be no secrets between us.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My lips will never tell you. There have been a thousand slanders breathed
- against you. I met them with fury and scorn, and no one has dared repeat
- them in my hearing. I would not pollute my lips by repeating one of them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But who is their author?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can not tell you. I promised Mama I wouldn’t. She loves you, and she is
- on our side, but said it was best. Papa has made up his mind to break our
- engagement forever. And I defied him. We had a scene. I didn’t know I had
- the strength of will that came to me. I said some terrible things to him,
- and he said some very cruel things to me. Poor Mama was prostrated. Her
- heart is weak, and I only yielded at last as far as I have because of her
- tears and suffering. I could not endure her pleadings. So I promised to do
- as he wished for the present, leave for Boston, and cease to write to
- you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My love, I must know my enemy to meet him and face the issues he raises.
- I can not be strangled in the dark like this.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You will find it out soon enough, I can not tell you,” she repeated. “I
- only ask you to trust me, in this the darkest hour that has ever come to
- my life. You will trust me, will you not, dear?” she pleaded.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have trusted you with my immortal soul. You know this.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, yes, dear, I do. Then you can love and trust me without a letter or
- a word between us until Mama is better and I can get her consent to write
- to you? Oh, I never knew how tenderly and desperately I love you until
- this shadow came over our lives! No power shall ever separate us when the
- final test comes, unless you shall grow weary.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do not say that,” he interrupted. “I love you with a love that has
- brought me out of the shadows and shown me the face of God. Death shall
- not bring weariness. But I dread with a sickening fear the efforts they
- will make to plunge you into the whirl of frivolous society. I shall be a
- lonely beggar a thousand miles away with not one friendly face near you to
- plead my cause.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hush!” she broke in upon him. “You are for me the one living presence.
- You are always near—oh so near, closer than breathing!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The roar of the train became sonorous with the vibration of a great
- bridge. He started and looked at his watch.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are more than half way to the stop where I must leave you and return.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How long have you been here?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Over a half hour. It does not seem two minutes. Only a few minutes more
- face to face, and all life crowding for utterance! How can I choose what
- to say, when my tongue only desires to say <i>I love you!</i> Bend near
- and whisper to me again your love vow,” he cried in trembling accents.
- </p>
- <p>
- Close to his ear she placed her lips, holding fast his hand whispering
- again and again, “My own dear love—unto the uttermost. In life, in
- death, forever!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He bent again and pressed his lips on her hand and she felt the hot tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And now, love, comes the hardest thing of all,” she sobbed, “I must
- return to you my ring.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “For God’s sake keep it!” he pleaded.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, I promised Mama for peace sake I would return it. She is very weak. I
- could not dare to hurt her now with a broken promise. She may not live
- long. I could never forgive myself. Keep it for me, dear, until I can wear
- it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She placed it in his hand and it burnt like a red hot coal. He placed it
- in an inside pocket next to his heart. It felt like a huge millstone
- crushing him. A lump rose in his throat and choked him until he gasped for
- breath.
- </p>
- <p>
- She looked at him pathetically and saw his anguish.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come, my love,” she pleaded reproachfully, “you must not make it harder
- for me. You are a man. You are stronger than I am. Love is more my whole
- life than it can be yours. For this cruel thing I have said and done, you
- may press on my lips another kiss. If I am disobedient to my mother’s
- wishes God will forgive me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The train blew the long deep call for its hundred mile stop and they both
- rose, he took her hands in his.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have promised not to write to me, dear, but I have made no promise. I
- will write to you as often as I can send you a cheerful message,” he said.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is so sweet of you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have the little love-token still?” he asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, in my bosom. I feel it warm and throbbing with your love, and it
- shall not be taken from me in the grave!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That thought will cheer the darkest hours that can come and now, till we
- meet again, we must say goodbye,” he said huskily.
- </p>
- <p>
- She could make no response. He placed his arms around her, pressed her
- close to his heart for a moment,—one long wistful kiss, and he was
- gone.
- </p>
- <p>
- He rode slowly back to Hambright. The eastern horizon was fringed with the
- light of dawn when he reached the town. The more he had thought of his
- position and the way the General had treated him in attempting to settle
- his fate by a fiat of his own will without a hearing, the more it roused
- his wrath, and nerved him for the struggle. They were to measure wills in
- a contest’ that on his part had life for its stake.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll give the old warrior the fight of his career!” he muttered
- as he snapped his square jaw together with the grip of a vise. “My brains,
- and every power with which nature has endowed me against his will and his
- money. And for the dastard who has slandered me there will be a
- reckoning.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He was fighting in the dark but deep down in him he had a soldier’s love
- for a fight. His soul rose to meet the challenge of this hidden foe armed
- in the steel of a proud heritage of courage. He went to bed and slept
- soundly for six hours.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0040" id="link2HCH0040"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XVI—THE MYSTERY OF PAIN
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">G</span>ASTON awoke next
- morning at half past ten o’clock with a dull headache, and a sense of
- hopeless depression. His anger had cooled and left him the pitiful
- consciousness of his loss. He slowly and mechanically dressed.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he buttoned his coat he felt something hard press against his heart.
- It was the ring. He sat down on his bed and drew it from his pocket. To
- his surprise he found coiled inside it and tied by a tiny ribbon a ringlet
- of her hair. She had taken off the ring in her mother’s presence and
- promised her to register and mail it in Atlanta. She had bound this little
- piece of herself with it. He kissed it tenderly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My God, it is hard!” he groaned. And all the unshed tears that his eager
- interest in her presence and his kindling anger the night before had kept
- back now blinded him.
- </p>
- <p>
- He did not notice his door softly open, nor know his mother was near until
- she placed her hand gently on his shoulder. He looked up at her face full
- of tender sympathy, and poured out to her his trouble in a torrent of hot
- rebellious words.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What have I done to be treated like a dog in this way?” he ended with a
- voice trembling with protest.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Perhaps you have offended the General in some way?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Impossible. I’ve been the soul of deference to him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s a very proud man when his vanity is touched, are you sure of it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “As sure as that I live. No, some scoundrel has interfered between us and
- in some unaccountable way covered me with infamy in the General’s eyes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But who could have done it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I used my utmost power of persuasion to get it from her. But she would
- not tell me. I have been stabbed in the dark.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Whom do you suspect? She has a dozen suitors.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There’s only one man among them who is capable of it, Allan McLeod.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nonsense, child. He is not one of her suitors,” she protested warmly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then why does he hang around the house with such dogged persistence?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He has always had the run of the house. His father committed him to the
- General when he died on the battle field.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Her face clouded, and then a great pity for his sorrow filled her heart.
- She stooped and kissed him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come, Charlie, you must cheer up. If she loves you, it’s everything. You
- will win her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But what rankles in my soul is that I have been treated like a dog. If he
- objected to my poverty that was as evident the first day he welcomed me to
- his house as the day he dictated to her his brutal message, refusing me a
- word. He welcomed me to his house, and gave Miss Sallie his approval of
- our love while I was there. There could be no mistake, for she told me
- so.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t understand it,” she interrupted.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now he suddenly shows me the door and refuses to allow me to even ask an
- explanation. If he thinks he can settle my life for me in that simple
- manner, I’ll show him that I ’ll at least help in the settlement.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good. I like to see your eyes flash that fire. Don’t forget your
- resolution. Your enemies are your best friends.” She said this with a ring
- of her old aristocratic pride. “Come,” she continued, “I’ve a nice warm
- breakfast saved for you. You don’t know how much good you have done me in
- my lonely life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dear Mother!” he whispered pressing her hand. After breakfast he went to
- his office and read over slowly the letters he had received from Sallie,
- kissed them one by one, tied them up and sent them to her mother. He took
- the ring out of his pocket and locked it in one of his drawers.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t work to-day. It’s no use trying!” he muttered looking out of his
- window. He locked his office and started down town with no purpose except
- in the walk to try to fight his pain. Instinctively he found his way to
- Tom Camp’s cottage.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, old boy, I’m in deep water. You’ve been there. I just want to feel
- your hand.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom was clearing up his kitchen with one hand and holding the other tight
- over the wound near his spinal column. He had suffered untold agonies
- through the night past and was suffering yet, but he never mentioned it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’ve just got your blues again!” Tom laughed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, a devil has stabbed me in the back in the dark.” And he told Tom of
- his love and his inexplicable trouble.
- </p>
- <p>
- “So, so!” Tom mused with dancing eyes, “The General’s gal Miss Sallie! My!
- my! but ain’t she a beauty! Next to my own little gal there she’s the
- purtiest thing in No’th Caliny. And you’re her sweetheart, and she told
- you she loved you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then what ails you? Man, to hear that from such lips as she’s got’s music
- enough for a year. You want the whole regimental band to be playin’ all
- the time. If she loves you, that’s enough now to give you nerve to fight
- all earth and hell combined.” Tom urged this with an enthusiasm that
- admitted no reply.
- </p>
- <p>
- Flora had climbed in his lap, and was going through his pockets to find
- some candy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You didn’t bring me a bit this time!” she cried reproachfully.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Honey, I forgot it,” he apologised.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t believe you love me any more, Charlie,” she declared placing her
- hands on his cheeks and looking steadily into his eyes. “Am I your
- sweetheart yet?” she asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course, dearie, and about the only one I can depend on!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “La, Charlie, your eyes are red!” she cried in surprise. “Do you cry?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sometimes, when my heart gets too full.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then, I ’ll kiss the red away!” she said as she softly kissed his
- eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s good, Flora. It will make them better.’
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, Pappy,” she said triumphantly, “you say I’m getting too big to cry,
- and I ain’t but eleven years old, and Charlie’s big as you and he cries.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom took her in his arms and smoothed his hand over her fair hair with a
- tenderness that had in its trembling touch all the mystery of both mother
- and father love in which his brooding soul had wrapped her.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston returned home with lighter step. He met, as he crossed the square,
- the Preacher who was waiting for him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come here and sit down a minute. I’ve heard of your trouble. You have my
- sympathy. But you ’ll come out all right. The oak that’s bent by
- the storm makes a fibre fit for a ship’s rib. You can’t make steel without
- white heat. God’s just trying your temper, boy, to see if there’s anything
- in you. When he has tried you in the fire, and the pure gold shines, he
- will call you to higher things.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston nodded his assent to this saying, “And yet, Doctor, none of us like
- the touch of fire or the smell of the smoke of our clothes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are right. But it’s good for the soul. You are learning now that we
- must face things that we don’t like in this world. I am older than you. I
- will tell you something that you can’t really know until you have lived
- through this. Love seems to you at this time the only thing in the world.
- But it is not. My deepest sympathy is with Sallie. She’s already pure
- gold. To such a woman love is the centre of gravity of all life. This is
- not true of a strong normal man. The centre of gravity of a strong man’s
- life as a whole is not in love and the emotions, but in justice and
- intellect and their expression in the wider social relations.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And that means that I must brace up for this political fight?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Exactly so. And it’s the best thing you can do for your love. Become a
- power and you can coerce even a man of the General’s character.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are right, Doctor. I had my mind about fixed on that course.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You will find the County Committee in session in the Clerk’s office there
- now. They want to see you. I tell you to fight this coalition of McLeod
- and the farmers every inch up to the last hour it is formed, and if McLeod
- wins them, and the alliance is made, then fight to break it every day and
- every hour and every minute till the votes are counted out.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston went at once into the consultation with the Democratic county
- committee.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0041" id="link2HCH0041"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XVII—IS GOD OMNIPOTENT?
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>S Gaston left the
- Preacher, the Rev. Ephraim Fox approached. He was the pastor of the Negro
- Baptist church, and had succeeded old Uncle Josh at his death ten years
- before.
- </p>
- <p>
- He bowed deferentially, and, hat in hand, stood close to the seat on which
- Durham was still resting.
- </p>
- <p>
- “How dis you doan come down ter our chu’ch en preach fur us no mo Brer’
- Durham? We been er havin’ powerful times down dar lately, en de folks
- wants you ter come en preach some mo.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t do it, Eph.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What de matter, Preacher? We ain’t hu’t yo feelin’s.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, not in a personal way, but you’ve got beyond me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How’s dat?” asked Ephraim rolling his eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, as long as I preach to your folks about heaven and the glory beyond
- this world, they shout and sweat and sing. And when I jump on the old
- sinners in the Bible, they are in glee. They like to see the fur fly. But
- the minute I pounce on them about stealing, and lying, and drinking, and
- lust,—they don’t want to furnish any of the fur.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “De Lawd, Preacher, hit’s des de same wid de white folks!” urged Ephraim
- with a wink.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s so. But the difference is your people talk back at me after the
- meeting.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How’s dat?” Ephraim repeated.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why when I preach righteousness and judgment on the thief and accuse them
- of stealing, I lose my wood, and my corn, and my chickens.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Ephraim was silent a moment and then he smiled as he said, “Preacher, dey
- ain’t er nigger in dis town doan lub you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I know it. That’s why they steal from me so much.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go long wid yo fun!” roared Ephraim. “You know you ain’t gone back on us
- des cause some nigger tuck er stick er wood—deys sumfin’ else—you
- cain fool me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you are right, that isn’t the main reason. There are others. You
- turned a man out of your church for voting the Democratic ticket.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but Preacher,” interrupted Eph impatiently, “dat wuz er low-down
- mean nigger. He didn’t hab no salvation nohow!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you keep a deacon in your church who served two terms in the
- penitentiary.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But dat’s de bes’ deacon I got,” pleaded Eph sadly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Turn him out I tell you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But dey all does little tings.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Turn ’em all out!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Den we ain’t got no chu’ch, en de shepherd ain’t got no flock ter tend,
- er ter shear. You des splain how de Lawd tempers de win’ ter de shorn
- lam’. Den ef I doan shear ’em, de win’ mought blow too hard on ’em.
- En ef I doan keep ’em in de pen, how kin I shear ’em? I axes
- you dat?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher smiled and continued, “Then I’ve heard some ugly things about
- you, Eph,” suddenly darting a piercing look straight into his face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who, me?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, you. And I can’t afford to go into the pulpit with you any more. In
- the old slavery days you were taught the religion of Christ. It didn’t
- mean crime, and lust, and lying, and drinking, whatever it meant. Your
- religion has come to be a stench. You are getting lower and lower. You
- will be governed by no one. I can’t use force. I leave you alone. You have
- gone beyond me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But de Lawd lub a sinner, en his mercy enduref for-eber!” solemnly
- grumbled Ephraim.
- </p>
- <p>
- “In the old days,” persisted the Preacher, “I used to preach to your
- people. I saw before me many men of character, carpenters, bricklayers,
- wheelwrights, farmers, faithful home servants that loved their masters and
- were faithful unto death. Now I see a cheap lot of thieves and jailbirds
- and trifling women seated in high places. You have shown no power to stand
- alone on the solid basis of character.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why Brer’ Durham,” urged Eph in an injured voice, “I baptised inter de
- kingdom over a hundred precious souls las’ year!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but what they needed was not a baptism of water. You negroes need a
- racial baptism into truth, integrity, virtue, self-restraint, industry,
- courage, patience, and purity of manhood and womanhood. I used to be
- hopeful about you, but I’d just as well be frank with you, I’ve given you
- up. I’ve said the grace of God was sufficient for all problems. I don’t
- know now. I’m getting older and it grows darker to me. I have come to
- believe there are some things God Almighty can not do. Can God make a
- stone so big He can’t lift it? In either event, He is not omnipotent. It
- looks like He did just that thing when He made the Negro. Leave me out of
- your calculation, Ephraim.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mus’ gib de nigger time, Preacher!” Eph muttered as he walked slowly
- away.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Gaston emerged from the court house, the Preacher joined him and they
- walked home to the hotel together.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What did the two farmers on your committee think of the chances of
- preventing the Alliance from joining the negroes?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not much of them. They say we can’t do anything with them when the test
- comes, unless we will endorse their scheme of issuing money on corn and
- pumpkins and potatoes stored in a government barn. If it comes to that, I
- will not prostitute my intellect by advocating any such measure on the
- floor of our convention. We stand for one thing at least, the supremacy of
- Anglo-Saxon civilisation. I had rather be beaten by the negroes and their
- allies this time on such an issue.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, my boy, if McLeod and his negroes get control of this state for four
- years, they can so corrupt its laws and its electorate, they may hold it a
- quarter of a century. We must fight to the last ditch.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I draw the line at pumpkin leaves for money,” insisted Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was but ten days to the meeting of the Democratic state convention, and
- they were coming together divided in opinion, and at sea as to their
- policy, with a united militant Farmers’ Alliance demanding the uprooting
- of the foundations of the economic world, and a hundred thousand negro
- voters grinning at this opportunity to strike their white foes, while
- McLeod stood in the background smiling over the certainty of his triumph.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0042" id="link2HCH0042"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XVIII—THE WAYS OF BOSTON
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Helen Lowell
- reached Boston from her visit with Sallie Worth, she found her father in
- the midst of his political campaign. The Hon. Everett Lowell was the
- representative of Congress from the Boston Highlands district. His home
- was an old fashioned white Colonial house built during the American
- Revolution.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was not a man of great wealth, but well-to-do, a successful politician,
- enthusiastic student, a graduate of Harvard, and he had always made a
- specialty of championing the cause of the “freedmen.” He was a chronic
- proposer of a military force bill for the South.
- </p>
- <p>
- His family was one of the proudest in America. He had a family tree five
- hundred years old—an unbroken line of unconquerable men who held
- liberty dearer than life. He believed in the heritage of good honest blood
- as he believed in blooded horses. His home was furnished in perfect taste,
- with beautiful old rosewood and mahogany stuff that had both character and
- history. On the walls hung the stately portraits of his ancestors
- representative of three hundred years of American life. He never confused
- his political theories about the abstract rights of the African with his
- personal choice of associates or his pride in his Anglo-Saxon blood. With
- him politics was one thing, society another.
- </p>
- <p>
- His pet hobby, which combined in one his philanthropic ideals and his
- practical politics, was of late a patronage he had extended to young
- George Harris, the bright mulatto son of Eliza and George Harris whose
- dramatic slave history had made their son famous at Harvard.
- </p>
- <p>
- This young negro was a speaker of fair ability and was accompanying Lowell
- on his campaign tours of the district, making speeches for his patron, who
- had obtained for him a clerk’s position in the United States Custom House.
- Harris was quite a drawing card at these meetings. He had a natural
- aptitude for politics; modest, affable, handsome, and almost white, he was
- a fine argument in himself to support Lowell’s political theories, who
- used him for all he was worth as he had at the previous election.
- </p>
- <p>
- Harris had become a familiar figure at Lowell’s home in the spacious
- library, where he had the free use of the books, and frequently he dined
- with the family, when there at dinner time hard at work on some political
- speech or some study for a piece of music.
- </p>
- <p>
- Lowell had met his daughter at the depot behind his pair of Kentucky
- thoroughbreds. This daughter, his only child, was his pride and joy. She
- was a blonde beauty, and her resemblance to her father was remarkable. He
- was a widower, and this lovely girl, at once the incarnation of his lost
- love and so fair a reflection of his being, had ruled him with absolute
- sway during the past few years.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was laughing like a boy at her coming.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! my beauty, the sight of your face gives me new life!” he cried
- smiling with love and admiration.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You mustn’t try to spoil me!” she laughed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you really have a good time in Dixie?” he whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Papa, such a time!” she exclaimed shutting her eyes as though she
- were trying to live it over again.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Really?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Beaux, morning, noon and night,—dancing, moonlight rides, boats
- gliding along the beautiful river and mocking birds singing softly their
- love-song under the window all night!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well you did have romance,” he declared.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” she went on “and such people, such hospitality—oh! I feel as
- though I never had lived before.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My dear, you mustn’t desert us all like that,” he protested.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t help it, I’m a rebel now.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then keep still till the campaign’s over!” he warned in mock fear.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And the boys down there,” she continued, “they are such boys! Time
- doesn’t seem to be an object with them at all. Evidently they have never
- heard of our uplifting Yankee motto ‘<i>Time is money.</i>’ And such
- knightly deference! such charming old fashioned chivalrous ways!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, dear, isn’t that a little out of date?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How staid and proper and busy Boston seems! I know I am going to be
- depressed by it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know what’s the matter with you!” he whistled.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What?” she slyly asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “One of those boys.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I confess. Papa, he’s as handsome as a prince.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What does he look like?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He is tall, dark, with black hair, black eyes, slender, graceful, all
- fire and energy.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What’s his name?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “St. Clare—Robert St. Clare. His father was away from home. He’s a
- politician, I think.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You don’t say! St. Clare. Well of all the jokes! His father is my
- Democratic chum in the House—an old fire-eating Bourbon, but a
- capital fellow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you ever see <i>him?</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, but I’ve had good times with his father. He used to own a hundred
- slaves. He’s a royal fellow, and pretty well fixed in life for a Southern
- politician. I don’t think though I ever saw his boy. Anything really
- serious?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “He hasn’t said a word—but he’s coming to see me next week.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well things are moving, I must say!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I pretended I must consult you, before telling him he could come. I
- didn’t want to seem too anxious. I’m half afraid to let him wander about
- Boston much, there are too many girls here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Her father laughed proudly and looked at her. “I hope you will find him
- all your heart most desires, and my congratulations on your first love!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It will be my last, too,” she answered seriously.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! you’re too young and pretty to say that!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I mean it,” she said earnestly with a smile trembling on her lips.
- </p>
- <p>
- Her father was silent and pressed her hand for an answer. As they entered
- the gate of the home, they met young Harris coming out with some books
- under his arm. He bowed gracefully to them and passed on.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Papa, I had forgotten all about your fad for that young negro!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, what of it, dear?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You love me very much, don’t you?” she asked tenderly. “I’m going to ask
- you to be inconsistent, for my sake.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s easy. I’m often that for nobody’s sake. Consistency is only the
- terror of weak minds.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m going to ask you to keep that young negro out of the house when my
- Southern friends are here. After my sweetheart comes I expect Sallie and
- her mother. I wouldn’t have either of them to meet him here in our library
- and especially in our dining-room for anything on earth!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you have joined the rebels, haven’t you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know I never did like negroes any way,” she continued. “They always
- gave me the horrors. Young Harris is a scholarly gentleman, I know. He is
- good-looking, talented, and I’ve played his music for him sometimes to
- please you, but I can’t get over that little kink in his hair, his big
- nostrils and full lips, and when he looks at me, it makes my flesh creep.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly, my darling, you don’t need to coax me. The Lowells, I suspect,
- know by this time what is due to a guest. When your guests come, our home
- and our time are theirs. If eating meat offends, we will live on herbs. I
- ’ll send Harris down to the other side of the district and keep him
- at work there until the end of the campaign. My slightest wish is law for
- him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You see, Papa,” she went on, “they never could understand that negro’s
- easy ways around our house, and I know if he were to sit down at our table
- with them they would walk out of the dining-room with an excuse of illness
- and go home on the first train.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And yet,” returned her father lifting her from the carriage, “their homes
- were full of negroes were they not?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but they know their place. I’ve seen those beautiful Southern
- children kiss their old black ‘Mammy.’ It made me shudder, until I
- discovered they did it just as I kiss Fido.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And this a daughter of Boston, the home of Garrison and Sumner!” he
- exclaimed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve heard that Boston mobbed Garrison once,” she observed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and I doubt if we have canonised Sumner yet. All right. If you say
- so, I ’ll order a steam calliope stationed at the gate and hire a
- man to play Dixie for you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- She laughed, and ran up the steps.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- Sallie determined to keep the secret of her sorrow in her own heart. On
- the ocean voyage she had cried the whole first day, and then kissed her
- lover’s picture, put it down in the bottom of her trunk, brushed the tears
- away and determined the world should not look on her suffering.
- </p>
- <p>
- She had written Helen of her lover’s declaration, and of her happiness.
- She would find a good excuse for her sorrowful face in their separation.
- She knew he would write to her, for he had said so, and she had slipped
- the address into his hand as he left the car that night.
- </p>
- <p>
- At first she was puzzled to think what she could do about answering these
- letters so Helen would not suspect her trouble. Then she hit on the plan
- of writing to him every day, posting the letters herself and placing them
- in her own trunk instead of the post-box.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He will read them some day. They will relieve my heart,” she sadly told
- herself.
- </p>
- <p>
- Helen met her on the pier with a cry of girlish joy, and the first word
- she uttered was, “Oh! Sallie, Bob loves me! He’s been here two weeks, and
- he’s just gone home. I have been in heaven. We are engaged!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I ’ll kiss you again, Helen.”—She gave her another
- kiss.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And I’ve a big letter at home for you already! It’s post-marked
- ‘Hambright.’ It came this morning. I know you will feast on it. If Bob
- don’t write me faithfully I ’ll make him come here and live in
- Boston.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When Sallie got this letter, she sat down in her room, and read and
- re-read its passionate words. There was a tone of bitterness and wounded
- pride in it. She struggled bravely to keep the tears back. Then the tone
- of the letter changed to tenderness and faith and infinite love that
- struggled in vain for utterance.
- </p>
- <p>
- She kissed the name and sighed. “Now I must go down and chat and smile
- with Helen. She’s so silly about her own love, if I talk about Bob she
- will forget I live.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0043" id="link2HCH0043"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XIX—THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>RS. WORTH had
- arrived in Boston a few days after Sallie, coming direct by rail. She was
- still very weak from her recent attack, and it cut her to the heart to
- watch Sallie write those letters faithfully, and never mail them out of
- deference to her wishes.
- </p>
- <p>
- One night she drew her daughter down and kissed her.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sallie, dear, you don’t know how it hurts me to see you suffer this way,
- and write, and write these letters your lover never sees. You may send him
- one letter a week, I don’t care what the General says.”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was a sob and another kiss and, Sallie was crying on her breast.
- </p>
- <p>
- In answer to her first letter, Gaston was thrilled with a new inspiration.
- He sat down that night and answered it in verse. All the deep longings of
- his soul, his hopes and fears, his pain and dreams he set in rhythmic
- music. Her mother read all his letters after Sallie. And she cried with
- sorrow and pride over this poem.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sallie, I don’t blame you for being proud of such a lover. Your life is
- rich hallowed by the love of such a man. Your father is wrong in his
- position. If I were a girl and held the love of such a man, I’d cherish it
- as I would my soul’s salvation. Be patient and faithful.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sweet mother heart!” she whispered as she smoothed the grey hair
- tenderly.
- </p>
- <p>
- Allan McLeod had arrived in Boston the day before and the morning’s papers
- were full of an interview with him on his brilliant achievement in
- breaking the ranks of the Bourbon Democracy in North Carolina, and the
- certainty of the success of his ticket at the approaching election.
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod sent the paper to Mrs. Worth by a special messenger, lest she might
- not see it, and that evening called. He asked Sallie to accompany him to
- the theatre, and when she refused spent the evening.
- </p>
- <p>
- When her mother had retired McLeod drew his seat near her and again told
- her in burning words his love.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Miss ‘Sallie, I have won the battle of life at its very threshold. I
- shall be a United States Senator in a few months. I want to lead you, my
- bride, into the gallery of the Senate before I walk down its aisles to
- take the oath. I have loved you faithfully for years. I have your father’s
- consent to my suit. I asked him before leaving on this trip. Surely you
- will not say no?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Allan McLeod, I do not love you. I do love another. I hate the sight of
- you and the sound of your voice.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you do not marry Gaston, will you give me a chance?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If I do not marry the man of my choice, I will never marry. Now go.”
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod returned to the hotel with the fury of the devil seething in his
- soul. He determined to return to Ham-bright, and if possible entrap Gaston
- in dissipation and destroy his faith in Sallie’s loyalty.
- </p>
- <p>
- He wrote to the General that he had been rejected by his daughter who
- still corresponded with Gaston. When General Worth received this letter he
- wrote in wrath to his wife, peremptorily forbidding Sallie to write
- another line to Gaston and closed saying, “I had trusted this matter to
- you, my dear, now I take it out of your hands. I forbid another line or
- word to this man.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston watched and waited in vain for the letter he was to receive next
- week. Again his soul sank with doubt and fear. What fiend was striking him
- with an unseen hand? He felt he should choke with rage as he thought of
- the infamy of such a warfare.
- </p>
- <p>
- His mother said to him shortly after McLeod’s arrival, “Charlie, I have
- some bad news for you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It can’t be any worse than I have, the misery of an unexplained silence
- of two weeks.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I feel that I ought to tell you. It is the explanation of that silence, I
- fear.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is it, Mother?” he asked soberly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hear that Sallie has plunged into frivolous society, is dancing every
- night at the hotel at Narragansett Pier where they are stopping now, and
- flirting with a halfdozen young men.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t believe it,” growled Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m afraid it’s true, Charlie, and I’m furious with her for treating you
- like this. I thought she had more character.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll love and trust her to the end!” he declared as he went
- moodily to his office. But the poison of suspicion rankled in his
- thoughts. Why had she ceased to write? Was not this mask of society a
- habit with those who had learned to wear it? Was not habit, after all,
- life? Could one ever escape it? It seemed to him more than probable that
- the old habits should re-assert themselves in such a crisis, a thousand
- miles removed from him or his personal influence. He held a very
- exaggerated idea of the corruption of modern society. And his heart grew
- heavier from day to day with the feeling that she was slipping away from
- him.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0044" id="link2HCH0044"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XX—A NEW LESSON IN LOVE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>cLEOD returned
- home to find his plans of political success in perfect order. The
- programme went through without a hitch. In spite of the most desperate
- efforts of the Democrats, he carried the state by a large majority and
- made, for the Republican party and its strange allies, the first breach in
- the solid phalanx of Democratic supremacy since Le-gree left his legacy of
- corruption and terror.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Legislature elected two Senators. To the amazement of the world, the
- day before the caucus of the Republicans met, McLeod withdrew. He had no
- opposition so far as anybody knew, but a curious thing had happened. The
- Rev. John Durham discovered the fact that McLeod kept a still and had
- established his mother as an illicit distiller years before. One of his
- deputies who had become an inebriate, confessed this to the doctor who had
- informed the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher put this important piece of information into the hands of a
- daring young Republican who had always been one from principle. He went to
- Raleigh and interviewed McLeod. At first McLeod denied, and blustered, and
- swore. When he produced the proofs, he gave up, and asked sullenly, “What
- do you want?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Get out of the race.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All right. Is that all? You’re on top.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, give me the nomination.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never!” he yelled with an oath.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I ’ll expose you in to-morrow morning’s paper, and that’s the
- end of you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod hesitated a moment, and then said, “I ’ll agree. You’ve got
- me. But I ’ll make one little condition. You must give me the name
- of your informant.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Rev. John Durham.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I thought as much.”
- </p>
- <p>
- To the amazement of everyone McLeod waived the crown aside and placed it
- on the head of one of his lieutenants. He returned to Hambright from this
- dramatic event with an unruffled front. To his cronies he said, “Bah! I
- was joking. Never had any idea of taking the office for myself. I’m
- playing for larger stakes. I make these puppets, and pull the strings.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He devoted himself assiduously in the leisure which followed to Mrs.
- Durham. He never intimated to Durham that he knew anything about the part
- he had taken in his withdrawal from the Senatorship. Nor had the Preacher
- told his wife of his discovery. They had quarrelled several times about
- McLeod. His wife seemed determined to remain loyal to the boy she had
- taught.
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod in his talk with her intimated that he had withdrawn from a desire
- vaguely forming in his mind to get out of the filth of politics
- altogether, sooner or later, influenced by her voice alone.
- </p>
- <p>
- With subtle skill he played upon her vanity and jealousy, and at last felt
- that he had entangled her so far he could dare a declaration of his
- feelings. There was one element only in her mental make-up he feared. She
- held tenaciously the old-fashioned romantic ideals of love. To her it
- seemed a divine mystery linking the souls that felt it to the infinite. If
- he could only destroy this divine mystery idea, he felt sure that her
- sense of isolation, and her proud rebellion against the disappointments of
- life would make her an easy prey to his blandishments.
- </p>
- <p>
- He searched his library over for a book that could scientifically
- demonstrate the purely physical basis of love. He knew that somewhere in
- his studies at a medical college in New York he had read it.
- </p>
- <p>
- At last he discovered it among a lot of old magazines. It was a brief
- study by a great physician of Paris, entitled “The Natural History of
- Love.” He gave it to her, and asked her to read it and give him her candid
- opinion of its philosophy.
- </p>
- <p>
- He waited a week and on a Saturday when the Preacher was absent at one of
- his county mission stations he called at the hotel for a long afternoon’s
- talk. He determined to press his suit.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you know, Mrs. Durham, what gives a preacher his boasted power of the
- spirit over his audiences?” he inquired with a curious laugh in the midst
- of which he changed his tone of voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, you are an expert on the diseases of preachers, what is it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Very simple. Religion is founded on love, there never was a magnetic
- preacher who was not a resistless magnet for scores of magnetic women. If
- you don’t believe it, watch how resistless is the impulse of all these
- good-looking women to shake hands with their preacher, and how fondly they
- look at him across the pews if the crowd is too dense to reach his hand.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A frown passed over her face, and she winced at the thrust, yet her answer
- was a surprising question to him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you really believe in anything, Allan?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You ask that?” he said leaning closer. “You whose great dark eyes look
- through a man’s very soul?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I begin to think I have never seen yours. I doubt if you have a soul.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, what’s the use of a soul? I can’t satisfy the wants of my body.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Answer my question. Do you believe in anything?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” he replied, his voice sinking to a tense whisper, “I believe in
- Woman,—in love.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In Woman?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, Woman.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You mean women,” she sneered.
- </p>
- <p>
- He started at her answer, looked intently at her, and said deliberately,
- “I mean you, the One Woman, the only woman in the world to me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I do not believe one word you have uttered, yet, I confess with shame,
- you have always fascinated me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why with shame? You have but one life to live. The years pass. Even
- beauty so rare as yours fades at last. The end is the grave and worms. Why
- dash from your beautiful lips the cup of life when it is full to the
- brim?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How skillfully you echo the dark thoughts that flit on devil wings
- through the soul, when we feel the bitterness of life’s failure, its
- contradictions and mysteries!” she exclaimed, closing her eyes for a
- moment and leaning back in her chair.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’ve often talked to me about the necessity of some sort of slavery for
- the Negro if he remain in America. I begin to believe that slavery is a
- necessity for all women.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I fail to see it, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All women are born slaves and choose to remain so through life. It is
- curious to see you, a proud imperious woman, born of a race of
- unconquerable men, staggering to-day under the chains of four thousand
- years of conventional laws made by the brute strength of men. And you, if
- you struggle at all, beat your wings against the bars that the
- slaveholding male brute has built about your soul, fall back at last and
- give up to the will of your master. This too, when you hold in your simple
- will the key that would unlock your prison door and make you free. It’s a
- pitiful sight.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How shrewd a tempter!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There you are again. He who dares to tell you that you are of yourself a
- living human being, divinely free, is a tempter from the devil. You are
- thinking about eternity. Well, now is eternity. Live, stand erect, take a
- deep breath, and dare to be yourself and do what you please. That is what
- I do. The future is a myth.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I know the freedom of which you boast,” she quietly observed, “it is
- the freedom of lust. The return to nature you dream of is simply the fall
- downward into the dirt out of which a rational and spiritual manhood has
- grown. I feel and know this in spite of your handsome face and the fine
- ring of your voice.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dirt. Dirt!” he mused. “Yes, I was in the dirt once, was born in it, the
- dirt of poverty and superstition and fears of laws here and hereafter. But
- I awoke at last, and shook it off, washed myself in knowledge and stood
- erect. I am a man now, with the eye of a king, conscious of my power. I
- look a lying hypocritical world in the face. I have made up my mind to
- live my own life in spite of fools, and in spite of the laws and
- conventions of fools.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And yet I believe you carry a horse-chestnut in your pocket, and will not
- undertake an important work on Friday?” she returned.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But I never strangle a normal impulse of my nature that I can satisfy. I
- am not that big a fool, at least.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She was silent, and then said, “I can never thank you enough for the book
- you sent me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod sighed in relief at her change of tone. After all she was just
- tantalising him!
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you liked it?” he cried with glittering eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I devoured every word of it with a greed you can not understand. A great
- man wrote it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then we can understand each other better from today,” he interrupted
- smilingly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, far better. You gave me this book hoping that it might influence my
- character by destroying my ideal of love, didn’t you, now frankly?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Honestly, I did hope it would emancipate you from superstitions.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It has,” she declared, but with a curious curve of her lip that chilled
- him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What are you driving at?” he asked suspiciously.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This book has given me the key that unlocked for me, for the first time,
- the riddle of my physical being. It has shown me the physical basis of
- love, just as I knew before there was a physical basis of the soul.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What did you understand the book to teach?” he asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Simply that love is based in its material life, on the lobe of the brain
- which develops at the base of a child’s head near the age of thirteen.
- That this lobe of the brain is the sex centre, and love is impossible
- until it develops. That this centre of new powers at the base of the skull
- is a physical magnet. That when a man and woman approach each other, who
- are by nature mates, these magnetic centres are disturbed by action and
- reaction, and that this disturbance develops the second elemental passion
- called love. The first elemental passion, hunger, has for its end the
- preservation of the individual; while love finds its fulfillment in the
- preservation of the species. Love finds its satisfaction in the child, its
- ardour cools, and it dies, unless kept alive by the social conventions of
- the family, which are not based merely on this violent emotion, but also
- on unity of tastes, which produce the sense of comradeship. For these
- reasons it is possible to fall violently in love more than once, and there
- are dozens of people who possess this magnetic power over us and would
- respond to it violently if we only came in social contact with them. That
- the romantic bombast about the possibility of but one love in life, and
- that of supernatural origin, is twaddle, and leads to false ideals. Have I
- given the argument?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Exactly. But what do you deduce from it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Freedom!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good!” he cried, licking his lips.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Freedom from superstitions about love,” she answered, “and positive
- knowledge of its elemental beauty which Nature reveals. In short, I no
- longer wonder and brood over your charm for me. I know exactly what it
- means, and how it might occur again and again with another and another. I
- have simply throttled it in a moment by an act of my will, based on this
- knowledge.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You amaze me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No doubt. One’s character centres in the soul, or the appetites. Mine is
- in the soul, yours in the appetites. I see you to-day as you really are,
- and I loathe you with an unspeakable loathing. You have opened my eyes
- with this beautiful little book of Nature. I thank you. Your scientist has
- convinced me that there are possibly a hundred men in the world who would
- affect me as you do, were we to meet. And when I looked back into the
- sweet face of my dead boy, I learned another truth, that in the union of
- my first great love I was bound in marriage, not simply by a social
- convention, or a state contract, but for life by Nature’s eternal law. The
- period of infancy of one child extends over twenty-one years, covering the
- whole maternal life of the woman who marries at the proper age of
- twenty-four. This union of one man and one woman never seemed so sacred to
- me as now. It is Nature’s law, it is God’s law.”
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod’s anger was fast rising.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t fool yourself,” he sneered, “You may overwork your maternal
- intuitions. You remember the kiss you gave me when a boy just fifteen?
- Well, you fooled yourself then about its maternal quality. The magnet of
- my red head drew your coal black one down to it with irresistible power.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Perhaps so, Allan. Your work is done. There is the door. I say a last
- good-bye, with pity for your shallow nature, and the bitter revelation you
- have given me of your worthlessness.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Without another word he left, but with a dark resolution of slander with
- which he would tarnish her name, and wring the Preacher’s heart with
- anguish.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0045" id="link2HCH0045"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XXI—WHY THE PREACHER THREW HIS LIFE AWAY
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HILE Mrs. Worth
- and Sallie were still in the North, the Rev. John Durham received a
- unanimous call to the pastorate of one of the most powerful Baptist
- churches in Boston, with a salary of five thousand dollars a year. He was
- receiving a salary of nine hundred dollars at Hambright, which could boast
- at most a population of two thousand. He declined the call by return mail.
- </p>
- <p>
- The committee were thunderstruck at this quick adverse decision, refused
- to consider it final, and wrote him a long urgent letter of protest
- against such ill-considered treatment. They urged that he must come to
- Boston, and preach one Sunday, at least, in answer to their generous
- offer, before rendering a final decision. He consented to do so, and went
- to Boston. He sought Sallie the day after his arrival.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah, my beautiful daughter of the South, it’s good to see you shining here
- in the midst of the splendours of the Hub, the fairest of them all!” he
- said shaking her hand feelingly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You mean pining, not shining,” she protested.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s better still. I knew your heart was in the right place!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How is he, Doctor?” she asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He’s trying to pull himself together with his work, and succeeding. The
- shock of a great sorrow has steadied his nerves, broadened his sympathies,
- and it will make him a man.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A look of longing came over her face. “I don’t want him to be too strong
- without me,” she faltered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never fear. He’s so despondent at times I have to try to laugh him out of
- countenance.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She smiled and pressed his hand for answer as he rose to go.
- </p>
- <p>
- “How do you like these Yankees, Miss Sallie?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve been surprised and charmed beyond measure with everything I’ve
- seen!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You don’t say so! How?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I thought they were cold-blooded and inhospitable. I never made a
- more foolish mistake. I have never been more at home, or been treated more
- graciously in the South. To tell you the truth, they seem like our most
- cultured people at home, warm-hearted, cordial, sensible and neighbourly.
- Mama is so pleased she’s trying to claim kin with the Puritans, through
- her Scotch Covenanter ancestry.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “After all, I believe you are right. I never preached in my life to so
- sensitive an audience. There’s an atmosphere of solid comfort, good sense,
- and intelligence that holds me in a spell here. This is the place in which
- I’ve dreamed I’d like to live and work.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you will accept, Doctor?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now listen to you, child! Don’t you think I’ve a heart too? My brain and
- body longs for such a home, but my heart’s down South with mine own people
- who love and need me.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The committee did their best to bring the Preacher to a favourable
- decision at once, but he smiled a firm refusal. They refused to report it
- to the church, and sent Deacon Crane, now a venerable man of seventy-six,
- the warmest admirer of the Preacher among them all to Hambright. They
- authorised him to make an amazing offer of salary, if that would be any
- inducement, and they felt sure it would.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the Deacon reached Hambright and saw its poverty and general air of
- unimportance he felt encouraged.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A man of such power stay a lifetime in this little hole! Impossible!” he
- exclaimed under his breath, when he looked out of the bus along the wide
- deserted looking streets with a straggling cottage here and there on
- either side.
- </p>
- <p>
- He stopped at the same hotel with the Preacher and became his shadow for a
- week. He was seated with him under the oak in the square, threshing over
- his argument for the hundredth time, in the most good-natured, but
- everlastingly persistent way.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doctor, it’s perfect nonsense for a man of your magnificent talents, of
- your culture and power over an audience, to think of living always in a
- little village like this!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, deacon, my work is here for the South.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, my dear man, in Boston, it would be for the whole nation, North and
- South. I ’ll tell you what we will do. Say you will come, and we
- will make your salary eight thousand a year. That’s the largest salary
- ever offered a Baptist preacher in America. You will pack our church with
- people, give us new life, and we can afford it. You will be a power in
- Boston, and a power in the world.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher smiled and was silent. At length he said, “I appreciate your
- offer, deacon. You pay me the highest compliment you know how to express.
- But you prosperous Yankees can’t get into your heads the idea that there
- are many things which money can’t measure.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But we know a good thing when we see it, and we go for it!” interrupted
- the deacon.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Believe me,” continued the Preacher, “I appreciate the sacrifice, the
- generosity, and breadth of sympathy this offer shows in your hearts. But
- it is not for me. My work is here. I don’t mind confessing to you that you
- have vastly pleased me with that offer. I ’ll brag about it to
- myself the rest of my life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But Doctor, think how much greater power a generous salary will give you
- in furnishing your equipment for work, and in ministering to any cause you
- may have at heart,” pleaded the deacon.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t know. I have a salary of nine hundred dollars. With five hundred
- I buy books,—food, clothes, shelter, the companionship for the soul.
- The balance suffices for the body. I haven’t time to bother with money.
- The man who receives a big salary must live up to its social obligations,
- and he must pay for it with his life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doctor, there must be some tremendous force that holds you to such a
- decision in a village. It seems to me you are throwing your life away.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There is a tremendous force, deacon. It is the overwhelming sense of
- obligation I feel to my own people who have suffered so much, and are
- still in the grip of poverty, and threatened with greater trials. I can’t
- leave my own people while they are struggling yet with this unsolved Negro
- problem. Two great questions shadow the future of the American people, the
- conflict between Labor and Capital, and the conflict between the African
- and the Anglo-Saxon race. The greatest, most dangerous, and most hopeless
- of these, is the latter. My place is here.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The deacon laughed. “You’re a crank on that subject. Come to Boston and
- you will see with a better perspective that the question is settling
- itself. In fact the war absolutely settled it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Deacon,” said the Preacher with a quizzical expression about his eyes,
- “Do you believe in the doctrine of Election?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I do.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I thought so. You know, I never saw a man who believed in the doctrine of
- Election who didn’t believe he was elected. I never saw a man in my life,
- except a lying politician, who declared the Negro problem was settled,
- unless he had removed his family to a place of fancied safety where he
- would never come in contact with it. And they all believe that the Negro’s
- place is in the South.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The deacon laughed good-naturedly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come with us, and we will show you greater problems. For one, the life
- and death struggle of Christianity itself with modern materialism. I tell
- you the Negro problem was settled when slavery was destroyed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You never made a sadder mistake. The South did not fight to hold slaves.
- Our Confederate government at Richmond offered to guarantee to Europe, the
- freedom of every slave for the recognition of our independence. Slavery
- was bound of its own weight to fall. Virginia came within one vote in her
- assembly of freeing her slaves years before the war. But for the frenzy of
- your Abolition fanatics who first sought to destroy the Union by
- Secession, and then forced Secession on the South, we would have freed the
- slaves before this without a war, from the very necessities of the
- progress of the material world, to say nothing of its moral progress. We
- fought for the rights we held under the old constitution, made by a
- slave-holding aristocracy. But we collided with the resistless movement of
- humanity from the idea of local sovereignty toward nationalism,
- centralisation, solidarity.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s why I say,” interrupted the deacon, “your Negro question has
- already been settled. The nation has become a reality not a name.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And that is why I know, deacon,” insisted the Preacher, “that we have not
- only not settled this question,—we haven’t even faced the issues.
- Nationality demands solidarity. And you can never get solidarity in a
- nation of equal rights out of two hostile races that do not intermarry. <i>In
- a Democracy you can not build a nation inside of a nation of two
- antagonistic races, and therefore the future American must be either an
- Anglo Saxon or a Mulatto</i>. And if a Mulatto, will the future be worth
- discussing?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I never thought of it in just that way,” answered the deacon.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is my work to maintain the racial absolutism of the Anglo-Saxon in the
- South, politically, socially, economically.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But can it be done? I see many evidences of a mixture of blood already,”
- said the deacon seriously.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, we are doing it. This mixture you observe has no social
- significance, for a simple reason. It is all the result of the surviving
- polygamous and lawless instincts of the white male. Unless by the gradual
- encroachments of time, culture, wealth and political exigencies, the time
- comes that a negro shall be allowed freely to choose a white woman for his
- wife, the racial integrity remains intact. The right to choose one’s mate
- is the foundation of racial life and of civilisation. The South must guard
- with flaming sword every avenue of approach to this holy of holies. And
- there are many subtle forces at work to obscure these possible
- approaches.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, no matter,” broke in the deacon, “come with us, and you will have
- more power to touch with your ideas the wealth and virtue of the whole
- nation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher was silent a moment and seemed to be musing in a sort of half
- dream. The deacon looked at him with a growing sense of the hopelessness
- of his task, but of surprise at this revelation of the secrets of his
- inner life.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The South has been voiceless in these later years,” he went on, “her
- voice has been drowned in a din of cat-calls from an army of cheap
- scribblers and demagogues. But when these children we are rearing down
- here grow, rocked in their cradles of poverty, nurtured in the fierce
- struggle to save the life of a mighty race, they will find speech, and
- their songs will fill the world with pathos and power.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve studied your great cities. Believe me the South is worth saving.
- Against the possible day when a flood of foreign anarchy threatens the
- foundations of the Republic and men shall laugh at the faiths of your
- fathers, and undigested wealth beyond the dreams of avarice rots your
- society, until it mocks at honour, love and God—against that day we
- will preserve the South!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher’s voice was now vibrating with deep feeling, and the deacon
- listened with breathless interest.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Believe me, deacon, the ark of the covenant of American ideals rests
- to-day on the Appalachian Mountain range of the South. When your
- metropolitan mobs shall knock at the doors of your life and demand the
- reason of your existence, from these poverty-stricken homes, with their
- old-fashioned, perhaps mediaeval ideas, will come forth the fierce
- athletic sons and sweet-voiced daughters in whom the nation will find a
- new birth!” The Preacher’s eyes had filled with tears and his voice
- dropped into a low dream-like prophecy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You can not understand,” he resumed, in a clear voice, “why I feel so
- profoundly depressed just now because the Republican party, which, with
- you stands for the virtue, wealth and intelligence of the community, is
- now in charge of this state. I will tell you why. A Republican
- administration in North Carolina simply means a Negro oligarchy. The state
- is now being debauched and degraded by this fact in the innermost depths
- of its character and life. My place is here in this fight.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, Doctor, will not your industrial training of the Negro gradually
- minimise any danger to your society?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, it will gradually increase it. Industrial training gives power. If
- the Negro ever becomes a serious competitor of the white labourer in the
- industries of the South, the white man will kill him, just as your labour
- Unions do in the North now where the conditions of life are hard, and men
- fight with tooth and nail for bread. If you train the negroes to be
- scientific farmers they will become a race of aristocrats, and when five
- generations removed from the memory of slavery, a war of races will be
- inevitable, unless the Anglo-Saxon grant this trained and wealthy African
- equal social rights. The Anglo-Saxon can not do this without suicide. One
- drop of Negro blood makes a negro.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Doctor, that I can’t persuade you to
- become our pastor. But I can understand since this talk something of the
- larger views of your duty.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The deacon sought Mrs. Durham that evening and laid siege to her
- resolutely.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! deacon, you’re shrewd—you are going to flatter me, but I can’t
- let you. I’m an old fogy and out of date. I’m not orthodox on the Negro
- from Boston’s point of view.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nonsense!” growled the deacon. “We don’t care what you or the Doctor
- either thinks about the Negro, or the Jap, or the Chinaman. We want a
- preacher imbued with the power of the Holy Ghost to preach the Gospel of
- Christ.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you have quite captured me since you have been here. You are a
- revelation to me of what a deacon might be to a pastor and his wife. To be
- frank with you, I am on your side. I am tired of the Negro. I don’t want
- to solve him. He is an impossible job from my point of view. I should be
- delighted to go to Boston now and begin life over again. But I do not
- figure in the decision. Dr. Durham settles such questions for himself. And
- I respect him more for it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Encouraged by this decision of his wife the deacon renewed his efforts to
- change the Preacher’s mind next day in vain. He stayed over Sunday, heard
- him preach two sermons, and sorrowfully bade him good-bye on Monday. He
- carried back to Boston his final word declining this call.
- </p>
- <p>
- As the deacon stepped on the train, he warmly pressed his hand and said,
- “God bless you, Doctor. If you ever need a friend, you know my name and
- address.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0046" id="link2HCH0046"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XXII—THE FLESH AND THE SPIRIT
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">G</span>ASTON tried to
- wait in patience another week for a word from the woman he loved, and when
- the last mail came and brought no letter for him, he found himself face to
- face with the deepest soul crisis of his life.
- </p>
- <p>
- After all, thoughts are things. The report of her social frivolities at
- first made little impression on him. But the thought had fallen in his
- heart, and it was growing a poisoned weed.
- </p>
- <p>
- It is possible to kill the human body with an idea. The fairest day the
- spring ever sent can be blackened and turned from sunshine into storm by
- the flitting of a little cloud of thought no bigger than a man’s hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- So Gaston found this report of dancing and flirting in a gay society by
- the woman whom he had enthroned in the holy of holies of his soul to be
- destroying his strength of character, and like a deadly cancer eating his
- heart out.
- </p>
- <p>
- He sat down by his window that night, unable to work, and tried to
- reconcile such a life with his ideal.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why should I be so provincial!” he mused. “The thing only shocks me
- because I am unused to it. She has grown up in this atmosphere. To her it
- is a harmless pastime.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Then he took out of his desk her picture, lit his lamp and looked long and
- tenderly at it, until his soul was drunk again with the memory of her
- beauty, the warm touch of her hand, and the thrill of her full soft lips
- in the only two kisses he had ever received from the heart of a woman.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then, the vision of a ball-room came to torture him. He could see her
- dressed in that delicate creation of French genius he had seen her wear
- the memorable night at the Springs. The French know so deeply the subtle
- art of draping a woman’s body to tempt the souls of men. How he cursed
- them to-night! He could see her bare arms, white gleaming shoulders, neck,
- and back, and round full bosom softly rising and falling with her
- breathing, as she swept through a brilliant ball-room to the strains of
- entrancing music.
- </p>
- <p>
- He knew the dance was a social convention, of course. But its deep Nature
- significance he knew also. He knew that it was as old as human society,
- and full of a thousand subtle suggestions,—that it was the actual
- touch of the human body, with rhythmic movement, set to the passionate
- music of love. This music spoke in quivering melody what the lips did not
- dare to say. This he knew was the deep secret of the fascination of the
- dance for the boy and the girl, the man and the woman. How he cursed it
- to-night!
- </p>
- <p>
- His imagination leaped the centuries that separate us from the great races
- of the past who scorned humbug and hypocrisy, and held their dances in the
- deep shadows of great forests, without the draperies of tailors. These men
- and women looked Nature in the face and were not afraid, and did not try
- to apologise or lie about it. He felt humiliated and betrayed.
- </p>
- <p>
- He thought too of her wealth with a feeling of resentment and isolation.
- Taken with this social nightmare it seemed to raise an impossible barrier
- between them. He knew that in the terrible quarrel she had with her father
- on their first clash, he had sworn if she disobeyed him to disinherit her.
- She had answered him in bitter defiance. And yet time often changes these
- noble visions of poverty and strenuous faith in high ideals. Wealth and
- all its good things becomes with us at last habit. And habit is life.
- </p>
- <p>
- Could it be possible she had weakened in resolution of loyalty when
- brought face to face with the actual breaking of the habits of a lifetime?
- Might not the three forces combined, the habit of social conventions, the
- habit of luxury, and the habit of obedience to a masterful and lovable
- father, be sufficient to crush her love at last? It seemed to him
- to-night, not only a possibility, but almost an accomplished fact.
- </p>
- <p>
- At one o’clock he went to bed and tried to sleep. He tossed for an hour.
- His brain was on fire, and his imagination lit with its glare. He could
- sweep the world with his vision in the silence and the darkness. Yes, the
- world that is, and that which was, and is to come!
- </p>
- <p>
- He arose and dressed. It was half-past two o’clock. He knew that this was
- to be the first night in all his life when he could not sleep. He was
- shocked and sobered by the tremendous import of such an event in the
- development of his character. He had never been swept off his feet before.
- He knew now that before the sun rose he would fight with the powers and
- princes of the air for the mastery of life.
- </p>
- <p>
- He left his room and walked out on the road to the Springs over which he
- had gone so many times in childhood. The moon was obscured by fleeting
- clouds, and the air had the sharp touch of autumn in its breath. He walked
- slowly past the darkened silent houses and felt his brain begin to cool in
- the sweet air.
- </p>
- <p>
- The last note he had received from her weeks ago was the brief one
- announcing the new break in the poor little correspondence she had
- promised him. The last paragraph of that note now took on a sinister
- meaning. He recalled it word by word:
- </p>
- <p>
- “I feel like I can not trifle with you in this way again. It is
- humiliating to me and to you. I can see no light in our future. I release
- you from any tie I may have imposed on your life. I feel I have fallen
- short of what you deserve, but I am so situated between my mother’s
- failing health and my father’s will, and my love for them both, I can not
- help it. I will love you always, but you are free.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Was not this a kindly and final breaking of their pledge to one another?
- Yet she had not returned the little medal he had given her with that
- exchange of eternal love and faith. Could she keep this and really mean to
- break with him finally? He could not believe it.
- </p>
- <p>
- His whole life had been dominated by this dream of an ideal love. For it
- he had denied himself the indulgences that his college mates and young
- associates had taken as a matter of course. He had never touched wine. He
- had never smoked. He had never learned the difference between a queen and
- jack in cards. He had kept away from women. He had given his body and soul
- to the service of his Ideal, and bent every energy to the development of
- his mind that he might grasp with more power its sweetness and beauty when
- realised.
- </p>
- <p>
- Did it pay? The Flesh was shrieking this question now into the face of the
- Spirit?
- </p>
- <p>
- He had met the One Woman his soul had desired above all others. There
- could be no mistake about that. And now she was failing him when he had
- laid at her feet his life. It made him sick to recall how utter had been
- his surrender.
- </p>
- <p>
- Why should he longer deny the flesh, when the soul’s dream failed the test
- of pain and struggle?
- </p>
- <p>
- Was it possible that he had been a fool and was missing the full
- expression of life, which is both flesh and spirit?
- </p>
- <p>
- The world was full of sweet odours. He had delicate and powerful nostrils.
- Why not enjoy them? The world was full of beauty ravishing to the eye. He
- had keen eyes trained to see. Why should he not open his eyes and gaze on
- it all? The world was full of entrancing music. He had ears trained to
- hear. Why should he stuff them with dreams of a doubtful future, and not
- hear it all? The world was full of things soft and good to the touch. Why
- should he not grasp them? His hands were cunning, and every finger tingled
- with sensitive nerve tips. The world was full of good things sweet to the
- taste, why should he not eat and drink as others, as old and wise perhaps?
- </p>
- <p>
- Was a man full-grown until he had seen, felt, smelled, tasted, and heard
- all life? Was there anything after all, in good or bad? Were these things
- not names? If not, how could we know unless we tried them? What was the
- good of good things?
- </p>
- <p>
- “Am I not a narrow-minded fool, instead of a wise man, to throttle my
- impulses and deny the flesh for an imaginary gain?” he asked himself
- aloud.
- </p>
- <p>
- She had written he was free.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, by the eternal, I will be free!” he exclaimed, “I will sweep the
- whole gamut of human passion and human emotion. I will drink life to the
- deepest dregs of its red wine. I will taste, feel, see, touch, hear all! I
- will not be cheated. I will know for myself what it is to live.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When he woke to the consciousness of time and place, he found he was
- seated at the Sulphur Spring where it gushed from the foot of the hill,
- and that the eastern horizon was grey with the dawn.
- </p>
- <p>
- A sense of new-found power welled up in him. He had regained control of
- himself.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good! I will no longer be a moping love-sick fool. I am a man. To will is
- to live, to cease to will is to die. I have regained my will,—I
- live!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He walked rapidly back to town with vigourous step. His mind was clear.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will never write her another line until she writes to me. I will not be
- a dog and whine at any rich man’s door or any woman’s feet. The world is
- large, and I am large. I will be sought as well as seek. Besides, my
- country needs me. If I am to give myself it will be for larger ends than
- for the smiles of one woman!”
- </p>
- <p>
- And then for two weeks he entered deliberately on a series of
- dissipations. He left Hambright and sought convivial friends on the sea
- coast. He amazed them by asking to be taught cards.
- </p>
- <p>
- He swept the gamut of all the senses without reserve, day after day, and
- night after night.
- </p>
- <p>
- At the end of two weeks he found himself haunting the post-office oftener,
- with a vague sense of impending calamity.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The thing’s all over I tell you!” he said to himself again and again. And
- then he would hurry to the next mail as eagerly as ever. As the excitement
- began to tire him, the sense of longing for her face, and voice, and the
- touch of her hand became intolerable.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My God, I’d give all the world holds of sin to see her and hear one word
- from her lips!” he exclaimed as he locked himself in his room one night.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why didn’t she answer my last letter?” he continued. “Ah, that was the
- best letter I ever wrote her. I put my soul in every word. I didn’t
- believe the woman lived who could read such confessions and such worship
- without reply; Surely she has a heart!”
- </p>
- <p>
- When he went to the post-office next day he got a letter forwarded from
- Hambright by the Preacher. It was postmarked Narragansett Pier, and
- addressed in a bold masculine hand he had never seen before.
- </p>
- <p>
- He tore it open, and inside found his last letter to Sallie Worth,
- returned with the seal unbroken. He sprang to his feet with flashing eyes,
- trembling from head to foot.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah! they did not dare to let her receive another of my letters! So a
- clerk returns it unopened,” he cried.
- </p>
- <p>
- And a great lump rose in his throat as he thought of the scenes of the
- past two weeks. The old fever and the old longing came rushing over his
- prostrate soul now in resistless torrents: “How dare a strange hand touch
- a message to her! I could strangle him. We will see now who wins the
- fight.” He set his lips with determination, packed his valise, and took
- the train for home without a word of farewell to the companions of his
- revels.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he reached Hambright he felt sure of a letter from her. A strange joy
- filled his heart.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have either got a letter or she’s writing one to me this minute!” he
- exclaimed.
- </p>
- <p>
- He went to the post-office in a state of exhilaration. The letter was not
- there. But it did not depress him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is on the way,” he quickly said.
- </p>
- <p>
- For two days, he remained in that condition of tense nervous excitement
- and expectation, and on the following day he opened his box and found his
- letter.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I knew it!” he said with a thrill of joy that was half awe at the
- remarkable confirmation he had received of their sympathy.
- </p>
- <p>
- He hurried to his office and read the big precious message.
- </p>
- <p>
- How its words burned into his soul! Every line seemed alive with her
- spirit. How beautiful the sight of her handwriting! He kissed it again and
- again. He read with bated breath. The address was double expressive,
- because it contained the first words of abandoned tenderness with which
- she had ever written to him, except in the concealed message dotted in the
- note that broke their earlier correspondence.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My Precious Darling:—I have gone through deep waters within the
- last three weeks. I became so depressed and hungry to see you, I felt some
- awful calamity was hanging over you and over me, and that it was my fault.
- I could scarcely eat or sleep.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I felt I should go mad if I did not speak and so I told Mama. She
- sympathised tenderly with me but insisted I should not write. She is so
- feeble I could not cross her. But Oh! the agony of it! Sometimes I saw you
- drowning and stretching out your hands to me for help.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sometimes in my dreams I saw you fighting against overwhelming odds with
- strong brutal men, whose faces were full of hate, and I could not reach
- you.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I was nervous and unstrung, but you can never know how real the horror of
- it all was upon me.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I made up my mind one night to telegraph you. I heard some one talking
- inside Mama’s room. I gently opened the door between our rooms, and she
- was praying aloud for me. I stood spellbound. I never knew how she loved
- me before. When at last she prayed that in the end I might have the desire
- of my heart, and my life be crowned with the joy of a noble man’s love,
- and that it might be yours, and that she should be permitted to see and
- rejoice with me, I could endure it no longer.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Choking with sobs I ran to her kneeling figure, threw my arms around her
- neck and covered her dear face with kisses.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I could not send the message I had written after that scene.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The next day Papa came, and she told him in my presence, ‘Now, General I
- have carried out your wishes with Sallie against my judgment. The strain
- has been more than you can understand. I give up the task. You can manage
- her now to suit yourself.’
- </p>
- <p>
- “There was a firmness in her voice I had never heard before. He noted it,
- and was startled into silence by it. He had a long talk with me and
- repeated his orders with increasing emphasis.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The next day I was unusually depressed. I did not get out of bed all day.
- At night I went down to supper. The clerk at the desk of the hotel called
- me and said, ‘Miss Worth, I have a terrible sin to confess to you. I’m a
- lover myself, and I’ve done you a wrong. I returned to a young man
- yesterday a letter to you by request of the General. Forgive me for it,
- and don’t tell him I told you.’
- </p>
- <p>
- “That night Papa and I had a fearful scene. I will not attempt to describe
- it. But the end was, I said to him with all the courage of despair: I am
- twenty-one years old. I am a free woman. I will write to whom I please and
- when I please and I will not ask you again. It is your right to turn me
- out of your house, but you shall not murder my soul!
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then for the first time in his life Papa broke down and sobbed like a
- child. We kissed and made up, and I am to write to you when I like.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Forgive my long silence. Write and tell me you love me. My heart is sick
- with the thought that I have been cowardly and failed you. Write me a long
- letter, and you can not say things extravagant enough for my hungry heart.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I feel utterly helpless when I think how completely you have come to rule
- my life. I wish you to rule it. It is all yours”——
- </p>
- <p>
- And then she said many little foolish things that only the eyes of the one
- lover should ever see, for only to him could they have meaning.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he finished reading this letter, and had devoured with eagerness
- these foolish extravagances with which she closed it, he buried his face
- in his arms across his desk.
- </p>
- <p>
- A big strong boastful man whose will had defied the world! Now he was
- crying like a whipped child.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2H_4_0050" id="link2H_4_0050"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- BOOK THREE—THE THE TRIAL BY FIRE
- </h2>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0047" id="link2HCH0047"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER I—A GROWL BENEATH THE EARTH
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>PPARENTLY McLeod’s
- triumph was complete and permanent. The farmers were disappointed in their
- wild hopes of a sub-treasury, and other socialistic schemes, but the
- passions of the campaign had been violent, and the offices they had won
- with their Negro ally had been soothing to their sense of pride.
- </p>
- <p>
- A Republican farmer was Governor for a term of four years, they had
- elected two Senators, and three Supreme Court judges, and they had
- completely smashed the power of the Democratic party in the county
- governments. Everywhere they were triumphant in the local elections,
- filling almost every county office with heavy-handed sons of toil from the
- country districts, and making the town fops who had been drawing these fat
- salaries get out and work for a living.
- </p>
- <p>
- Even McLeod was amazed at the thoroughness with which they cleaned the
- state of every vestige of the invincible Democracy that had ruled with a
- rod of iron since Legree’s flight.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston could see but one weak spot in the alliance. The negroes had
- demanded their share of the spoils, and were gradually forcing their
- reluctant allies to grant them. He watched the progress of this movement
- with thrilling interest. The negroes had demanded the repeal of the county
- government plan of the Democracy, under which the credit of the forty
- black counties had been rescued from bankruptcy at the expense of local
- selfgovernment.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the lawmakers who succeeded Legree had put this scheme of centralised
- power in force, these forty counties were immediately lifted from ruin to
- prosperity. But no negro ever held another office in them.
- </p>
- <p>
- Now the negroes demanded the return to the principles of pure Democracy
- and the right to elect all town, township, and county officers direct.
- They got their demands. They took charge in short order of the great rich
- counties in the Black Belt, and white men ceased to hold the offices.
- </p>
- <p>
- A negro college-graduate from Miss Walker’s classical institution had
- started a newspaper at Independence noted for its open demands for the
- recognition of the economic, social and political equality of the races.
- Young negro men and women walking the streets now refused to give half the
- sidewalk to a white man or woman when they met, and there were an
- increasing number of fights from such causes.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston noted these signs with a growing sense of their import, and began
- his work for the second great campaign. The election for a legislature
- alone, he knew was lost already. His party had simply abandoned the fight.
- The Allied Party had passed new election laws, and under the tutelage of
- the doubtful methods of the past they had taken every partisan advantage
- possible within the limits of the Constitution. They could not be
- overthrown short of a political earthquake, and he knew it. But he thought
- he heard in the depths of the earth the low rumble of its coming, and he
- began to prepare for it.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0048" id="link2HCH0048"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER II—FACE TO FACE WITH FATE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HREE weeks before
- Christmas Gaston began to dream of the visit he was to make to
- Independence to see Sallie Worth. How long it seemed since she had kissed
- him in the twilight of that Pullman car and the Limited had rolled away
- bearing her further and further from his life! He would sit now for an
- hour reading her last letter, looking at her picture on his desk, and
- dreaming of what she would say when he sat by her side again in her own
- home.
- </p>
- <p>
- And then like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky came a tearful letter
- announcing another storm at home. Her father had again forbidden her to
- write. She said, at the last, that Gaston’s visit must be postponed
- indefinitely for the present. He gazed at the letter with a hardened look.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I <i>will</i> go. I ’ll face General Worth in his own home, and
- demand his reasons for such treatment. I am a man I am entitled to the
- respect of a man.” He made this declaration with a quiet force that left
- no doubt about his doing it.
- </p>
- <p>
- He wrote Sallie that he could not and would not endure such a fight in the
- dark with the General, and that he was going to Independence on the day
- before Christmas as she had planned at first, to have it out with him face
- to face.
- </p>
- <p>
- She wrote in reply and begged him under no circumstances to come until
- conditions were more favourable. He got this letter the day before he was
- to start.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll go and I ’ll see him if I have to fight my way into
- his house, that’s all there is to it!” he exclaimed.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he reached Independence, St. Clare met him at the depot, and gave him
- an eager welcome.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve been expecting you, you hard-headed fool!” he said impulsively.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, your words are not equal to your handshake. What’s the matter?”
- asked Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know what’s the matter. Miss Sallie has been to see me this
- afternoon, and begged me to chain you at my house if you came to town
- to-day.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you ’ll need handcuffs, and help to get them on,” replied
- Gaston with quiet decision.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look here, old boy, you’re not going down to that house to-night with the
- old man threatening to kill you on sight, and your girl bordering on
- collapse!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am. I’ve been bordering on collapse for some time myself. I’m getting
- used to it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You’re a fool.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Granted, but I ’ll risk it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, man, I tell you Miss Sallie will be furious with you if you go after
- all the messages she has sent you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll risk her fury too.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gaston, let me beg you not to do it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m going, Bob. It isn’t any use for you to waste your breath.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know where my heart is, old chum,” said Bob, yielding reluctantly. “I
- couldn’t go down to that house to-night under the conditions you are going
- for the world.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why not? It’s the manly thing to do.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s a dangerous thing to do. Fathers have killed men under such
- conditions.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I ’ll risk it. I’m going as soon as I can brush up a
- little.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Bob walked with him to the outskirts of the city, begging in vain that he
- should turn back, but he never slacked his pace.
- </p>
- <p>
- When he turned to go home, Bob pressed his hand and said “Good luck. And
- may your shadow never grow less.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston walked rapidly on toward Oakwood. As he passed through the shadows
- of the forest near the gate, a flood of tender memories rushed over him.
- He was back again by her side on that morning he met her, with the first
- flush of love thrilling his life. He could see her looking earnestly at
- him as though trying to solve a riddle. He could hear her laughter full of
- joy and happiness. As he turned into the gateway the house flashed on him
- its gleaming windows from the hill top. He felt his heart sink with
- bitterness as he realised the contrast of his last entrance into that
- house, its welcomed guest, and his present unbidden intrusion. Once those
- lights had gleamed only a message of peace and love. Now they seemed
- signals of war some enemy had set on the hill to warn of his approach.
- </p>
- <p>
- He paused a moment and wiped the perspiration from his brow. It was
- Christmas eve, but the air was balmy and spring-like and his rapid walk
- had tired him. He had eaten nothing all day, had slept only a few hours
- the night before, and the nerve strain had been more than he knew.
- </p>
- <p>
- He looked up at the great white pillars softly shining in the starlight,
- and a sickening fear of a possible tragedy behind those doors crept over
- him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My God!” he exclaimed, “I had rather charge a breastworks in the face of
- flashing guns than to go into that house to-night and meet one man!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He recognised the breach of the finer amenities of life involved in
- forcing his way into a home under such conditions, and it humiliated him
- for a moment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We will not stickle for forms now,” he said to himself firmly. “This is
- war. I am to uncover the batteries of my enemy. I have hesitated long
- enough. I will not fight in the dark another day.”
- </p>
- <p>
- As he stepped briskly up to the door, he started at a sudden thought. What
- if the General had ordered the servants to slam the door in his face! The
- possibility of such an unforeseen insult made the cold sweat break out
- over his face as he rang the bell. No matter, he was in for it now, he
- would face hell if need be!
- </p>
- <p>
- He waited but an instant, and heard the heavy tread of a man approach the
- door. Instinctively he knew that the General himself was on guard, and
- would open the door. Evidently he had expected him.
- </p>
- <p>
- The door opened about two feet and the General glared at him livid with
- rage. He held one hand on the door and the other on its facing, and his
- towering figure filled the space.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good evening, General!” said Gaston with embarrassment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What do you want, sir?” he growled.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I wish to see you for a few minutes.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I don’t want to see you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Whether you wish to or not, you must do it sooner of later,” answered
- Gaston with dignity.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Indeed! Your insolence is sublime, I must say!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The sooner you and I have a plain talk the better for both of us. It
- can’t be put off any longer,” Gaston continued with self control. He was
- looking the General straight in the eyes now, with head and broad
- shoulders erect and his square-cut jaws were snapping his words with a
- clean emphasis that was not lost on the older master of men before him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Call at my office in the morning at ten o’clock.” he said, at length.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will not do it. I am going home on the nine o’clock train. To-morrow is
- Christmas day. The issue between us is of life import to me, and it may be
- of equal importance to you. I will not put it off another hour!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General glared at him. His hands began to tremble, and raising his
- voice, he thundered, “I am not accustomed to take orders from young
- upstarts. How dare you attempt to force yourself into my house when you
- were told again and again not to attempt it, sir?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Your former welcome to me on three occasions when the object of my visits
- was as well known to you as to me, gives me, at least, the vested rights
- of a final interview. I demand it,” retorted Gaston curtly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And I refuse it!” Still there was a note of indecision in his voice which
- Gaston was quick to catch.
- </p>
- <p>
- “General,” he protested, “you are a soldier and a gentleman. You never
- fought an enemy with uncivilised warfare. Yet you have allowed some one
- under your protection to stab me in the dark for the past year. I am
- entitled to know why I fight and against whom. I ask your sense of
- fairness as a soldier if I am not right?”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General hesitated, and finally said, as he opened the door, “Walk into
- the parlour.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When they were seated, Gaston plunged immediately into the question he had
- at heart.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, General, I wish to ask you plainly why you have treated me as you
- have since I asked you for your daughter’s hand?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The less said about it, the better. I have good and sufficient reasons,
- and that settles it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But I have the right to know them.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What right?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The right of every man to face his accuser when on trial for his life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Bah! men don’t die nowadays for love, or women either,” the General
- growled.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Besides,” continued Gaston, “you are under the deepest obligations to
- tell me fairly your reasons.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Obligations?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The obligations of the commonest justice between man and man. You invited
- me to your home. I was your welcome guest. You encouraged my suit for your
- daughter’s hand.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “How dare you say such a thing, sir!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Because she told me you did. I was led to believe that you not only
- looked with favour on my suit, but that you were pleased with it. I asked
- for your daughter. You insulted my manhood by refusing me permission even
- to seek an interview, and know the reasons for your change of views. Since
- then you have treated me with plain brutality. Now something caused this
- change.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly something caused it, something of tremendous importance,” said
- the General.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am entitled to know what it is.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Simply this. I received information concerning you, your habits, your
- associates, your character, and your family, that caused me to change my
- mind.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Did you inquire as to their truth?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It was unnecessary. I love my daughter beyond all other treasures I
- possess. With her future I will take no risks.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have the right to know the charges, General,” insisted Gaston. “I
- demand it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, sir, if you demand it, you will get it. I learned that you are a
- man of the most dissolute habits and character, that you are a hard
- drinker, a gambler, a rake and a spendthrift, and that your family’s
- history is a deplorable one.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My family history a deplorable one!” cried Gaston, springing to his feet,
- with trembling clinched fists and scarlet face on which the blue veins
- suddenly stood out.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I begged you to spare me and yourself the pain of this,” replied the
- General in a softer voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, I do not ask to be spared. Give me the particulars. What is the stain
- on my family name?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not a moral one, but in some respects more hopeless, a physical one. I
- have positive information that your people on one side are what is known
- in the South as poor white trash—”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston smiled. “I thank you, General, for your frankness. The only wrong
- of which I complain, is your withholding the name of the liar.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There is no use of a fight over such things. I do not wish my daughter’s
- name to be smirched with it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Her name is as dear to me as it can possibly be to you. Never fear. You
- are her father, I honour you as such. I thank you for the information. I
- scorn to stoop to answer. The humour of it forbids an answer if I could
- stoop to make one. Now, General, I make you this proposition. I am not in
- a hurry. I will patiently wait any time you see fit to set for any
- developments in my life and character about which you have doubts. All I
- ask is the privilege of writing to the woman I love. Is not this
- reasonable?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, sir,” declared the General, “I will not have it. You are not in a
- position to make me a proposition of any sort. I have settled this affair.
- It is not open for discussion.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You mean to say that I have no standing whatever in the case?” asked
- Gaston with a smile, rubbing his hand over his smooth shaved lips and
- chin.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Exactly. I’ve settled it. There’s nothing more to be said.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll never give her up. She is the one woman God made for me, and
- you will have to put me under the ground before you have settled my end of
- it,” said Gaston still smiling.
- </p>
- <p>
- The old man’s face clouded for a moment, he wrinkled his brow, drew his
- bushy eyebrows closer and then turned toward Gaston in a persuasive way.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look here, Gaston, don’t be a fool. It’s amusing to me to hear a
- youngster talk such drivel. Love is not a fatal disease for a man, or a
- woman. You will find that out later if you don’t know it now. I loved a
- half dozen girls, and when I got ready to marry, I asked the one handiest,
- and that seemed most suited to my temper. We married and have lived as
- happily as the romancers. The world is full of pretty girls. Go on about
- your business, and quit bothering me and mine.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “There’s only one girl for me, General!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s proof positive to my mind that you are a little cracked!” he
- answered with a smile.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston laughed and shook his head. “I ’ll never give her up in this
- world, or the next,” he doggedly added.
- </p>
- <p>
- Again the General frowned. “Look here, young man, did it ever occur to you
- that your pursuit might be held the work of a low adventurer? My daughter
- is an heiress. You haven’t’ a dollar. Don’t you know that I will
- disinherit her if she marries without my consent?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You can’t frighten me on that tack,” answered Gaston firmly. “No dollar
- mark has yet been placed on the doors of Southern society. Manhood,
- character and achievement are the keys that unlock it. You know that, and
- I now it. I was poorer and more obscure the day you first invited me here
- than to-day. And yet you gave me as hearty a welcome as her richest
- suitor. All I ask is time to prove to you in my life my manhood and worth,—one
- year, two years, five years, ten years, any time you see fit to name.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, sir,” firmly snapped the General, “not a day. I don’t like long
- engagements. Yours is ended, once and for all time. I have settled that.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Can even a father decide the destiny of two immortal souls off hand like
- that?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, you are assuming too much. I am not speaking for myself alone. I
- have laid all the facts carefully before Sallie, and she has agreed to the
- wisdom of my decision, and asked me to represent her in what I say this
- evening.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston turned pale, his lips quivered, and turning to the General
- suddenly, he said, “That is the only important fact you have laid before
- me. Just let her come here, stand by your side and say that with her own
- lips, and I will never cross your path in life again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General hung his head and stammered, “No, it is not necessary. It will
- embarrass and humiliate her. I will not permit it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I deny your credentials!” exclaimed Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- The General seemed embarrassed by the failure of this fatherly subterfuge,
- and Gaston could not help smiling at the revelation of his weakness. He
- decided to press his advantage and try to see her if only for a moment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “General,” protested Gaston persuasively, “I appeal to your sense of
- courtesy, even to an enemy. After all that has passed between us in this
- house, is it fair or courteous to show me that door without one word of
- farewell to the woman to whom I have given my life? Or is it wise from
- your point of view?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Again the General hesitated. He was a big-hearted man of generous
- impulses, and he felt worsted in this interview somehow, but it was hard
- to deny such a request. He fumbled at his watch chain, arose, and said, “I
- will see if she desires it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston’s heart bounded with joy! If she desired it! He could feel her soul
- enveloping him with its love as he sat there conscious that she was
- somewhere in that house praying for him!
- </p>
- <p>
- He fairly choked with the pain and the joy of the certainty that in a
- moment he would be near her, touch her hand, see her glorious beauty and
- his ears drink the music of her voice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just step this way,” said the General, re-appearing at the door.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston walked into the hall and met Sallie as she emerged from the library
- door opposite. He tried to say something, but his throat was dry and his
- tongue paralysed with the wonder of her presence! Besides, the General
- stood grimly by like a guard over a life prisoner.
- </p>
- <p>
- He looked searchingly into her eyes as he held her hand for a moment and
- felt its warm impulsive pressure. Oh! the eyes of the woman we love! What
- are words to their language of melting tenderness, of faith and longing.
- Gaston felt like shouting in the General’s face his triumph. She tried to
- speak, but only pressed his hand again. It was enough.
- </p>
- <p>
- He bowed to the General, and left without a word.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0049" id="link2HCH0049"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER III—A WHITE LIE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HAT night as he
- walked back through the streets he was thrilled with a sense of strength
- and of triumph. He knew his ground now. There was to be war between him
- and the General to the bitter end. He had never asked her once to oppose
- her father’s or mother’s command. Now he would see who was master in a
- test of strength. And he was eager for the struggle. His mind was alert,
- and every nerve and muscle tense with energy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Heavens, how hungry I am!” he exclaimed when he reached the brilliantly
- lighted business portion of the city.
- </p>
- <p>
- He went into a restaurant, ordered a steak, and enjoyed a good meal. He
- recalled then that he had not eaten for twenty-four hours. The steak was
- good, and the faces of the people seemed to him lit with gladness. He was
- singing a battle song in his soul, and the eyes of the woman he loved
- looked at him with yearning tenderness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, Bob, I count on you,” he cried to his friend next morning. “I am
- going to have a merry Christmas and you are to aid in the skirmishing.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m with you to the finish!” Bob responded with enthusiasm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We must make a feint this morning to deceive the enemy while I turn his
- flank. I go home on the nine o’clock train. You understand?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, over the left. It’s dead easy too. There’s to be a big Christmas
- party to-night at the Alexanders’. She’s invited. I ’ll see that
- she goes to it if I have to drag her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Good. Don’t tell her I’m in town. I want to surprise her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General had a man at the morning train who reported Gaston’s
- departure. He was surprised at Sallie’s good spirits but attributed it to
- the magnificent present he had given her that morning of a diamond ring
- and an exquisite pearl necklace.
- </p>
- <p>
- He bustled her off to the party that night and congratulated himself on
- the certainty of his triumph over an aspiring youngster who dared to set
- his will against his own.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the festivities had begun, and the children were busy with their
- fireworks, Sallie strolled along the winding walks of the big lawn. She
- was chatting with Bob St. Clare about a young man they both knew, and when
- they reached the corner furthest from the house, under the shadows of a
- great magnolia with low overhanging boughs she saw the figure of a man.
- </p>
- <p>
- She smiled into Bob’s face, pressed his hand and said, “Now, Bob you’ve
- done all a good friend could do. Go back. I don’t need you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- And Bob answered with a smile and left her. In a moment Gaston was by her
- side with both her hands in his kissing them tenderly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Didn’t I surprise you, dear?” he softly asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No. Bob denied you were here, but I knew it was a story. I was sure you
- would never leave without seeing me. You couldn’t, could you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not after what I saw in your eyes last night!” He whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It seems a century since I’ve heard your voice,” she said wistfully. “God
- alone knows what I have suffered, and I am growing weary of it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you think I have been treated fairly?” he asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, I do not”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you will write to me?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes. I will not starve my heart any longer.” And she pressed his hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You have made the world glorious again! When will you marry me, Sallie?”
- he bent his face close to her, and for an answer she tenderly kissed him.
- </p>
- <p>
- They stood in silence a moment with clasped hands, and then she said
- slowly, “You didn’t want your freedom did you, dear? That’s the third
- kiss, isn’t it? I wonder if kissing will be always as sweet! But you asked
- me when we can marry? I can’t tell now. I can do nothing to shock Mama.
- She seems to draw closer and closer to me every day. And now that I have
- determined no power shall separate us, it seems more and more necessary
- that I shall win Papa’s consent. He loves me dearly. I feel that I must
- have his blessing on our lives. Give me time. I hope to win him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And you will never let another week pass without writing to me?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never. Send my letters to Bob. He loves you better than he ever thought
- he loved me. He will give them to me on Sundays at church, and when he
- calls.”
- </p>
- <p>
- For two hours the kindly mantle of the magnolia sheltered them while they
- told the old sweet story over and over again. And somehow that night it
- seemed to them sweeter each time it was told.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0050" id="link2HCH0050"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER IV—THE UNSPOKEN TERROR
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Gaston reached
- Hambright the following day, and whispered to his mother the good news, he
- hastened to tell his friend Tom Camp. The young man’s heart warmed toward
- the white-haired old soldier in this hour of his victory. With sparkling
- eyes, he told Tom of his stormy scene with the General, of its curious
- ending, and the hours he spent in heaven beneath the limbs of an old
- magnolia.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0009" id="linkimage-0009"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0396.jpg" alt="0396 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0396.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- Tom listened with rapture. “Ah, didn’t I tell you, if you hung on you’d
- get her by-and-by? So you bearded the General in his den did you? I ’ll
- bet his eyes blazed when he seed you! He’s got an awful temper when you
- rile him. You ought to a seed him one day when our brigade was ordered
- into a charge where three concealed batteries was cross firin’ and men was
- failin’ like wheat under the knife. Geeminy but didn’t he cuss! He
- wouldn’t take the order fust from the orderly, and sent to know if the
- Major-General meant it. I tell you us fellers that was layin’ there in the
- grass listenin’ to them bullets singin’ thought he was the finest cusser
- that ever ripped an oath.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He reared and he charged, and he cussed, and He damned that man for
- tryin’ to butcher his men, and he never moved till the third order came.
- That was the night ten thousand wounded men lay on the field, and me in
- the middle of ’em with a Minie ball in my shoulder. The Yankees and
- our men was all mixed up together, and just after dark the full moon came
- up through the trees and you could see as plain as day. I begun to sing
- the old hymn, ‘There is a land of pure delight,’ and you ought to have
- heard them ten thousand wounded men sing!
- </p>
- <p>
- “While we was singing the General came through lookin’ up his men. He seed
- me and said, ‘Is that you, Tom Camp?’
- </p>
- <p>
- “I looked up at him, and he was crying like a child, and he went on from
- man to man cryin’ and cussin the fool that sent us into that hell-hole.
- The General’s a rough man, if you rub his fur the wrong way, but his
- heart’s all right. He’s all gold I tell you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, I’m in for a tussle with him, Tom.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Shucks, man, you can beat him with one hand tied behind you if you’ve got
- his gal’s heart. She’s got his fire, and a gal as purty as she is can just
- about do what she pleases in this world.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I hope she can bring him around. I like the General. I’d much rather not
- fight him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where’s Flora?” cried Tom looking around in alarm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I saw her going toward the spring in the edge of the woods there a minute
- ago,” replied Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom sprang up and began to hop and jump down the path toward the spring
- with incredible rapidity.
- </p>
- <p>
- Flora was playing in the branch below the spring and Tom saw the form of a
- negro man passing over the opposite hill going along the spring path that
- led in that direction.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Was you talkin’ with that nigger, Flora?” asked Tom holding his hand on
- his side and trying to recover his breath.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I said howdy, when he stopped to get a drink of water, and he give
- me a whistle,” she replied with a pout of her pretty lips and a frown.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom seized her by the arm and shook her. “Didn’t I tell you to run every
- time you seed a nigger unless I was with you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, but he wasn’t hurtin’ me and you are!” she cried bursting into
- tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve a notion to whip you good for this!” Tom stormed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t Tom, she won’t do it any more, will you Flora?” pleaded Gaston
- taking her in his arms and starting to the house with her. When they
- reached the house, Tom was still pale and trembling with excitement.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lord, there’s so many triflin’ niggers loafin’ round the county now
- stealing and doin’ all sorts of devilment, I’m scared to death about that
- child. She don’t seem any more afraid of ’em than she is of a cat.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I don’t believe anybody would hurt Flora, Tom,—she’s such a little
- angel,” said Gaston kissing the tears from the child’s face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “She is cute—ain’t she?” said Tom with pride. “I’ve wished many a
- time lately I’d gone out West with them Yankee fellers that took such a
- likin’ to me in the war. They told me that a poor white man had a chance
- out there, and that there wern’t a nigger in twenty miles of their home.
- But then I lost my leg, how could I go?”
- </p>
- <p>
- He sat dreaming with open eyes for a moment and continued, looking
- tenderly at Flora, “But, baby, don’t you dare go nigh er nigger, or let
- one get nigh you no more’n you would a rattlesnake!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I won’t Pappy!” she cried with an incredulous smile at his warning of
- danger that made Tom’s heart sick. She was all joy and laughter, full of
- health and bubbling life. She believed with a child’s simple faith that
- all nature was as innocent as her own heart.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom smoothed her curls and kissed her at last, and she slipped her arm
- around his neck and squeezed it tight.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ain’t she purty and sweet now?” he exclaimed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, you ’ll spoil her yet,” warned Gaston as he smiled and took
- his leave, throwing a kiss to Flora as he passed through the little yard
- gate. Tom had built a fence close around his house when Flora was a baby
- to shut her in while he was at work.
- </p>
- <p>
- Two days later about five o’clock in the afternoon as Gaston sat in his
- office writing a letter, to his sweetheart, his face aglow with love and
- the certainty that she was his, as he read and re-read her last glowing
- words he was startled by the sudden clang of the court house bell. At
- first he did not move, only looking up from his paper. Sometimes
- mischievous boys rang the bell and ran down the steps before any one could
- catch them. But the bell continued its swift stroke seeming to grow louder
- and wilder every moment. He saw a man rush across the square, and then the
- bell of the Methodist, and then of the Baptist churches joined their
- clamour to the alarm.
- </p>
- <p>
- He snapped the lid of his desk, snatched his hat and ran down the steps.
- </p>
- <p>
- As he reached the street, he heard the long piercing cry of a woman’s
- voice, high, strenuous, quivering!
- </p>
- <p>
- “A lost child! A lost child!”
- </p>
- <p>
- What a cry! He was never so thrilled and awed by a human voice. In it was
- trembling all the anguish of every mother’s broken heart transmitted
- through the centuries!
- </p>
- <p>
- At the court house door an excited group had gathered. A man was standing
- on the steps gesticulating wildly and telling the crowd all he knew about
- it. Over the din he caught the name, “Tom Camp’s Flora!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He breathed hard, bit his lips, and prayed instinctively.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Lord have mercy on the poor old man! It will kill him!” A great fear
- brooded over the hearts of the crowd, and soon the tumult was hushed into
- an awed silence.
- </p>
- <p>
- In Gaston’s heart that fear became a horrible certainty from the first.
- Within a half hour a thousand white people were in the crowd. Gaston stood
- among them, cool and masterful, organising them in searching parties, and
- giving to each group the signals to be used.
- </p>
- <p>
- In a moment the white race had fused into a homogeneous mass of love,
- sympathy, hate, and revenge. The rich and the poor, the learned and the
- ignorant, the banker and the blacksmith, the great and the small, they
- were all one now. The sorrow of that old one-legged soldier was the sorrow
- of all, every heart beat with his, and his life was their life, and his
- child their child.
- </p>
- <p>
- But at the end of an hour there was not a negro among them! By some subtle
- instinct they had recognised the secret feelings and fears of the crowd
- and had disappeared. Had they been beasts of the field the gulf between
- them would not have been deeper.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Gaston reached Tom’s house the crowd was divided into the groups
- agreed upon and a signal gun given to each. If the child was not dead when
- found two should be fired—if dead, but one.
- </p>
- <p>
- He sought Tom to be sure there was no mistake and that the child had not
- fallen asleep about the house. He found the old man shut up in his room
- kneeling in the middle of the floor praying.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Gaston laid his hand gently on his shoulder his lips ceased to move,
- and he looked at him in a dazed sort of way at first without speaking.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh!—it’s you, Charlie!” he sighed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, Tom, tell me quick. Are you sure she is nowhere in the house?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sure!—Sure?” he cried in a helpless stare. “Yes, yes, I found her
- bonnet at the spring. I looked everywhere for an hour before I called the
- neighbours!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I’m off with the searchers. The signal is two guns if they find her
- alive. One gun if she is dead. You will understand.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, Charlie,” answered the old soldier in a faraway tone of voice, “and
- don’t forget to help me pray while you look for her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’ve tried already, Tom,” he answered as he pressed his hand and left the
- house. All night long the search continued, and no signal gun was heard.
- Torches and lanterns gleamed from every field and wood, byway and hedge
- for miles in every direction.
- </p>
- <p>
- Through every hour of this awful night Tom Camp was in his room praying—his
- face now streaming with tears, now dry and white with the unspoken terror
- that could stop the beat of his heart. His white hair and snow-white beard
- were dishevelled, as he unconsciously tore them with his trembling hands.
- Now he was crying in an agony of intensity, “As thy servant of old
- wrestled with the angel of the Lord through the night, so, oh God, will I
- lie at Thy feet and wrestle and pray! I will not let Thee go until Thou
- bless me! Though I perish, let her live! I have lost all and praised Thee
- still. Lord, Thou canst not leave me desolate!”
- </p>
- <p>
- From the pain of his wound and the exhaustion of soul and body he fainted
- once with his lips still moving in prayer. For more than an hour he lay as
- one dead. When he revived, he looked at his clock and it was but an hour
- till dawn.
- </p>
- <p>
- Again he fell on his knees, and again the broken accents of his husky
- voice could be heard wrestling with God. Now he would beg and plead like a
- child, and then he would rise in the unconscious dignity of an immortal
- soul in combat with the powers of the infinite and his language was in the
- sublime speech of the old Hebrew seers!
- </p>
- <p>
- Just before the sun rose the signal gun pealed its message of life, ONE!
- TWO! in rapid succession.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom sprang to his feet with blazing eyes. <i>One! Two!</i> echoed the guns
- from another hill, and fainter grew its repeated call from group to group
- of the searchers.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There! Glory to God!” He screamed at the top of his voice, the last note
- of his triumphant shout breaking into sobs. “God be praised! I knew they
- would find her—she’s not dead, she’s alive! <i>alive!</i> oh! my
- soul, lift up thy head!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The tramp of swift feet was heard at the door and Gaston told him with
- husky stammering voice, “She’s alive Tom, but unconscious. I ’ll
- have her brought to the house. She was found just where your spring branch
- runs into the Flat Rock, not five hundred yards from here in those woods.
- Stay where you are. We will bring her in a minute.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston bounded back to the scene.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom paid no attention to his orders to stay at home, but sprang after him
- jumping and falling and scrambling up again as he followed. Before they
- knew it he was upon the excited tearful group that stood in a circle
- around the child’s body.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston, who was standing on the opposite side from Tom’s approach, saw him
- and shouted, “My God, men, stop him! Don’t let him see her yet!” But Tom
- was too quick for them. He brushed aside, the boy who caught at him, as
- though a feather, crying, “Stand back!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The circle of men fell away from the body and in a moment Tom stood over
- it transfixed with horror.
- </p>
- <p>
- Flora lay on the ground with her clothes torn to shreds and stained with
- blood. Her beautiful yellow curls were matted across her forehead in a
- dark red lump beside a wound where her skull had been crushed. The stone
- lay at her side, the crimson mark of her life showing on its jagged edges.
- </p>
- <p>
- With that stone the brute had tried to strike the death blow. She was
- lying on the edge of the hill with her head up the incline. It was too
- plain, the terrible crime that had been committed.
- </p>
- <p>
- The poor father sank beside her body with an inarticulate groan as though
- some one had crushed his head with an axe. He seemed dazed for a moment,
- and looking around he shouted hoarsely, “The doctor boys! The doctor
- quick! For God’s sake, quick! She’s not dead yet—we may save her—help—help!”
- he sank again to the ground limp and faint from pain and was soon
- insensible.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston gathered the child tenderly in his arms and carried her to the
- house. The men hastily made a stretcher and carried Tom behind him.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0051" id="link2HCH0051"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER V—A THOUSAND-LEGGED BEAST
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HILE Gaston and
- the men were carrying Flora and Tom to the house, another searching party
- was formed. There were no women and children among them, only grim-visaged
- silent men, and a pair of little mild-eyed sharp-nosed blood-hounds. All
- the morning men were coming in from the country and joining this silent
- army of searchers.
- </p>
- <p>
- Doctor Graham came, looked long and gravely at Flora and turned a sad face
- toward Tom.
- </p>
- <p>
- The ole soldier grasped his arm before he spoke. “‘Now, doctor wait—don’t
- say a word yet. I don’t want to know the truth, if it’s the worst. Don’t
- kill me in a minute. Let me live as long as there’s breath in her body—after
- that! well, that’s the end—there’s nothin’ after that!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The doctor started to speak.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Wait,” pleaded Tom, “let me tell you something. I’ve been praying all
- night. I’ve seen God face to face. She can’t die. He told me so—”
- </p>
- <p>
- He paused and his grip on the doctor’s arm relaxed as though he were about
- to faint, but he rallied.
- </p>
- <p>
- The kindly old doctor said gently, “Sit down Tom.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He tried to lead Tom away from the bed, but he held on like a bull dog.
- </p>
- <p>
- The child breathed heavily and moaned.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom’s face brightened. “She’s comin’ to, doctor,—thank God!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The doctor paid no more attention to him and went on with his work as best
- he could.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom laid his tear-stained face close to hers, and murmured soothingly to
- her as he used to when she was a wee baby in his arms, “There, there,
- honey, it will be all right now! The doctor’s here, and he ’ll do
- all he can! And what he can’t do, God will. The doctor ’ll save
- you. God will save you! He loves you. He loves me. I prayed all night. He
- heard me. I saw the shinin’ glory of His face! He’s only tryin’ His poor
- old servant.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The broken artery was found and tied and the bleeding stopped. When the
- wound in her head was dressed the doctor turned to Tom, “That wound is
- bad, but not necessarily fatal.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Praise God!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Keep the house quiet and don’t let her see a strange face when she
- regains consciousness,” was his parting injunction.
- </p>
- <p>
- The next morning her breathing was regular, and pulse stronger, but
- feverish; and about seven o’clock she came out of her comatose state and
- regained consciousness. She spoke but once, and apparently at the sound of
- her own voice immediately went into a convulsion, clinching her little
- fists, screaming and calling to her father for help!
- </p>
- <p>
- When Tom first heard that awful cry and saw her terrified eyes and drawn
- face, he tried to cover his own eyes and stop his ears. Then he gathered
- the little convulsed body into his arms and crooned into her ears, “There,
- Pappy’s baby, don’t cry! Pappy’s got you now. Nothin’ can hurt you. There,
- there, nothin’ shall come nigh you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He covered her face with tears and kisses while he whispered and soothed
- her to sleep. When the noon train came up from Independence, General Worth
- arrived. Tom had asked Gaston to telegraph for him in his name.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom eagerly grasped his hand. “General I knowed you’d come—you’re a
- man to tie to. I never knowed you to fail me in your life. You’re one of
- the smartest men in the world too. You never got us boys in a hole so deep
- you didn’t pull us out”—
- </p>
- <p>
- “What can I do for you?” interrupted the General.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah, now’s the worst of all, General. I’m in water too deep for me. My
- baby, the last one left on earth, the apple of my eye, all that holds my
- old achin’ body to this world—she’s—about—to—die!
- I can’t let her. General, you must save her for me. I want more doctors.
- They say there’s a great doctor at Independence. I want ’em all.
- Tell ’em it’s a poor old one-legged soldier who’s shot all to
- pieces and lost his wife and all his children—all but this one baby.
- And I can’t lose her! They ’ll come if you ask ’em—”
- His voice broke.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll do it, Tom. I ’ll have them here on a special in
- three hours or maybe sooner,” returned the General pressing his hand and
- hurrying to the telegraph office.
- </p>
- <p>
- The doctors arrived at three o’clock and held a consultation with Doctor
- Graham. They decided that the loss of blood had been so great that the
- only chance to save her was in the transfusion of blood.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll give her the blood, Tom,” said Gaston quietly removing his
- coat and baring his arm.
- </p>
- <p>
- The old soldier looked up through grateful tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Next to the General, you’re the best friend God ever give me, boy!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General turned his face away and looked out of the window. The doctors
- immediately performed the operation, transfusing blood from Gaston into
- the child.
- </p>
- <p>
- The results did not seem to promise what they had hoped. Her fever rose
- steadily. She became conscious again and immediately went into the most
- fearful convulsions, breaking the torn artery a second time.
- </p>
- <p>
- Just as the sun sank behind the blue mountains peaks in the west, her
- heart fluttered and she was dead.
- </p>
- <p>
- Tom sat by the bed for two hours, looking, looking, looking with wide
- staring eyes at her white dead face. There was not the trace of a tear.
- His mouth was set in a hard cold way and he never moved or spoke.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher tried to comfort Tom, who stared at him as though he did not
- recognise him at first, and then slowly began, “Go away, Preacher, I don’t
- want to see or talk to you now. It’s all a swindle and a lie. There is no
- God!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tom, Tom!” groaned the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I tell you I mean it,” he continued. “I don’t want any more of God or His
- heaven. I don’t want to see God. For if I should see Him, I’d shake my
- fist in His face and ask him where His almighty power was when my poor
- little baby was screamin’ for help while that damned black beast was
- tearin’ her to pieces! Many and many a time I’ve praised God when I read
- the Bible there where it said, not a sparrow falleth to the ground without
- His knowledge, and the very hairs of our head are numbered. Well, where
- was He when my little bird was flutterin’ her broken bleedin’ wings in the
- claws of that stinkin’ baboon,—damn him to everlastin’ hell!—It’s
- all a swindle I tell you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher was watching him now with silent pity and tenderness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What a lie it all is!” Tom repeated. “Scratch my name off the church
- roll. I ain’t got many more days here, but I won’t lie. I’m not a
- hypocrite. I’m going to meet God cursin’ Him to His face!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher slipped his arm around the old soldier’s neck, and smoothed
- the tangled hair back from his forehead as he said brokenly, “Tom, I love
- you! My whole soul is melted in sympathy and pity for you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The stricken man looked up into the face of his friend, saw his tears and
- felt the warmth of his love flood his heart, and at last he burst into
- tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Preacher, Preacher! you’re a good friend I know, but I’m done, I
- can’t live any more! Every minute, day and night, I ’ll hear them
- awful screams—her a callin’ me for help! I can see her lyin’ out
- there in the woods all night alone moanin’ and bleedin’!”
- </p>
- <p>
- His breast heaved and he paused as if in reverie. And then he sprang up,
- his face livid and convulsed with volcanic passions, that half strangled
- him while he shrieked, “Oh! if I only had him here before me now, and God
- Almighty would give me strength with these hands to tear his breast open
- and rip his heart out!—I—could—eat—it—like—a—wolf!”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- When they reached the cemetery the next day and the body was about to be
- lowered into the grave, Tom suddenly spied old Uncle Reuben Worth leaning
- on his spade by the edge of the crowd. Uncle Reuben was the grave digger
- of the town and the only negro present.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Wait!” said Tom raising his hand. “Don’t put her in that grave! A nigger
- dug it. I can’t stand it.” He turned to a group of old soldier comrades
- standing by and said, “Boys, humour an old broken man once more. You ’ll
- dig another grave for me, won’t you? It won’t take long. The folks can go
- home that don’t want to stay. I ain’t got no home to go to now but this
- graveyard.”
- </p>
- <p>
- His comrades filled up the grave that Uncle Reuben had dug, and opened a
- new one on the other side of the graves where slept his other loved ones.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston took Tom to his home and stayed with him several hours trying to
- help him. He seemed to have settled into a stupor from which nothing could
- rouse him. When at length the old man fell asleep, Gaston softly closed
- the door and returned to his office with a heavy heart.
- </p>
- <p>
- As he neared the centre of the town, he heard a murmur like the distant
- moaning of the wind in the hush that comes before a storm. It grew louder
- and louder and became articulate with occasional words that seemed far
- away and unreal. What could it be? He had never heard such a sound before.
- Now it became clearer and the murmur was the tread of a thousand feet and
- the clatter of horses’ hoofs. Not a cry, or a shout, or a word. Silence
- and hurrying feet!
- </p>
- <p>
- Ah! he knew now. It was the searchers returning, a grim swaying voiceless
- mob with one black figure amid them. They were swarming into the court
- house square under the big oak where an informal trial was to be held.
- </p>
- <p>
- He rushed forward to protest against a lynching. He could just catch a
- glimpse of the negro’s head swaying back and forth, protesting innocence
- in a singing monotone as though he were already half dead.
- </p>
- <p>
- He pushed his way roughly through the excited crowd, to the centre where
- Hose Norman, the leader, stood with one end of a rope in his hand and the
- other around the negro’s neck.
- </p>
- <p>
- The negro turned his head quickly toward the movement made by the crowd as
- Gaston pressed forward.
- </p>
- <p>
- It was Dick!
- </p>
- <p>
- Dick recognised him at the same moment, leaped toward him and fell at his
- feet crying and pleading as he held his feet and legs.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Save me, Charlie! I nebber done it! I nebber done it! For God’s sake help
- me! Keep ’em off! Dey gwine burn me erlive!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston turned to the crowd. “Men, there’s not one among you that loved
- that old soldier and his girl as I did. But you must not do this crime. If
- this negro is guilty, we can prove it in that court house there, and he
- will pay the penalty with his life. Give him a fair trial”—
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s a lawyer talkin’ now!” said a man in the crowd. “We know that
- tune. The lawyers has things their own way in a court house.” A murmur of
- assent mingled with oaths ran through the crowd.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Fair trial!” sneered Hose Norman snatching Dick from the ground by the
- rope. “Look at the black devil’s clothes splotched all over with her
- blood. We found him under a shelvin’ rock where he’d got by wadin’ up the
- branch a quarter of a mile to fool the dogs. We found his track in the
- sand some places where he missed the water and tracked him clear from
- where we found Flora to the cave he was lying in. Fair trial—hell!
- We’re just waitin’ for er can o’ oil. You go back and read your law books—we
- ’ll tend ter this devil.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The messenger came with the oil and the crowd moved forward. Hose shouted,
- “Down by Tom Camp’s by his spring, down the spring branch to the Flat Rock
- where he killed her!”
- </p>
- <p>
- On the crowd moved, swaying back and forth with Gaston in their midst by
- Dick’s side begging for a fair trial for him. A crowd that hurries and
- does not shout is a fearful thing. There is something inhuman in its
- uncanny silence.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston’s voice sounded strained and discordant. They paid no more
- attention to his protest than to the chirp of a cricket.
- </p>
- <p>
- They reached the spot where the child’s body had been found. They tied the
- screaming, praying negro to a live pine and piled around his body a great
- heap of dead wood and saturated it with oil. And then they poured oil on
- his clothes.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston looked around him begging first one man then another to help him
- fight the crowd and rescue him. Not a hand was lifted, or a voice raised
- in protest. There was not a negro among them. Not only was no negro in
- that crowd, but there was not a cabin in all that county that would not
- have given shelter to the brute, though they knew him guilty of the crime
- charged against him. This was the one terrible fact that paralysed
- Gaston’s efforts.
- </p>
- <p>
- Hose Norman stepped forward to apply a match and Gaston grasped his arm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “For God’s sake, Hose, wait a minute!” he begged. “Don’t disgrace our
- town, our county, our state, and our claims to humanity by this insane
- brutality. A beast wouldn’t do this. You wouldn’t kill a mad dog or a
- rattlesnake in such a way. If you will kill him, shoot him or knock him in
- the head with a rock,—don’t burn him alive!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Hose glared at him and quietly remarked, “Are you done now? If you are,
- stand out of the way!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He struck the match and Dick uttered a scream. As Hose leaned forward with
- his match Gaston knocked him down, and a dozen stalwart men were upon him
- in a moment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Knock the fool in the head!” one shouted.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Pin his arms behind him!” said another.
- </p>
- <p>
- Some one quickly pinioned his arms with a cord. He stood in helpless rage
- and pity, and as he saw the match applied, bowed his head and burst into
- tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- He looked up at the silent crowd standing there like voiceless ghosts with
- renewed wonder.
- </p>
- <p>
- Under the glare of the light and the tears the crowd seemed to melt into a
- great crawling swaying creature, half reptile half beast, half dragon half
- man, with a thousand legs, and a thousand eyes, and ten thousand gleaming
- teeth, and with no ear to hear and no heart to pity!
- </p>
- <p>
- All they would grant him was the privilege of gathering Dick’s ashes and
- charred bones for burial.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- The morning following the lynching, the Preacher hurried to Tom Camp’s to
- see how he was bearing the strain.
- </p>
- <p>
- His door was wide open, the bureau drawers pulled out, ransacked, and some
- of their contents were lying on the floor.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Poor old fellow, I’m afraid he’s gone crazy!” exclaimed the Preacher. He
- hurried to the cemetery. There he found Tom at the newly made grave. He
- had worked through the night and dug the grave open with his bare hands
- and pulled the coffin up out of the ground. He had broken his finger nails
- all off trying to open it and his fingers were bleeding. At last he had
- given up the effort to open the coffin, sat down beside it, and was
- arranging her toys he had made for her beside the box. He had brought a
- lot of her clothes, a pair of little shoes and stockings, and a bonnet,
- and he had placed these out carefully on top of the lid. He was talking to
- her.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher lifted him gently and led him away, a hopeless madman.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0052" id="link2HCH0052"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER VI—THE BLACK PERIL
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE longer Gaston
- pondered over the tragic events of that lynching the more sinister and
- terrible became its meaning, and the deeper he was plunged in melancholy.
- </p>
- <p>
- Beyond all doubt, within his own memory, since the negroes under Legree’s
- lead had drawn the colour line in politics, the races had been drifting
- steadily apart. The gulf was now impassable.
- </p>
- <p>
- Such crimes as Dick had committed, and for which he had paid such an awful
- penalty, were unknown absolutely under slavery, and were unknown for two
- years after the war. Their first appearance was under Legree’s regime. Now
- scarcely a day passed in the South without the record of such an atrocity,
- swiftly followed by a lynching, and lynching thus had become a habit for
- all grave crimes.
- </p>
- <p>
- Since McLeod’s triumph in the state such crimes had increased with
- alarming rapidity. The encroachments of negroes upon public offices had
- been slow but resistless. Now there were nine hundred and fifty negro
- magistrates in the state elected for no reason except the colour of their
- skin. Feeling themselves intrenched behind state and Federal power, the
- insolence of a class of young negro men was becoming more and more
- intolerable. What would happen to these fools when once they roused that
- thousand-legged, thousand-eyed beast with its ten thousand teeth and
- nails! He had looked into its face, and he shuddered to recall the hour.
- </p>
- <p>
- He knew that this power of racial fury of the Anglo-Saxon when aroused was
- resistless, and that it would sweep its victims before its wrath like
- chaff before a whirlwind.
- </p>
- <p>
- And then he thought of the day fast coming when culture and wealth would
- give the African the courage of conscious strength and he would answer
- that soul piercing shriek of his kindred for help, and that other
- thousand-legged beast, now crouching in the shadows, would meet
- thousand-legged beast around that beacon fire of a Godless revenge!
- </p>
- <p>
- More and more the impossible position of the Negro in America came home to
- his mind. He was fast being overwhelmed with the conviction that sooner or
- later we must squarely face the fact that two such races, counting
- millions in numbers, can not live together under a Democracy.
- </p>
- <p>
- He recalled the fact that there were more negroes in the United States
- than inhabitants in Mexico, the third republic of the world.
- </p>
- <p>
- Amalgamation simply meant Africanisation. The big nostrils, fiat nose,
- massive jaw, protruding lip and kinky hair will register their animal
- marks over the proudest intellect and the rarest beauty of any other race.
- The rule that had no exception was that one drop of Negro blood makes a
- negro.
- </p>
- <p>
- What could be the outcome of it? What was his duty as a citizen and a
- member of civilised society? Since the scenes through which he had passed
- with Tom Camp and that mob the question was insistent and personal. It
- clouded his soul and weighed on him like the horrors of a nightmare.
- </p>
- <p>
- Again and again the fateful words the Preacher had dinned into his ears
- since childhood pressed upon him, “<i>You can not build in a Democracy a
- nation inside a nation of two antagonistic races. The future American must
- be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto</i>.”
- </p>
- <p>
- His depression and brooding over the fearful events in which he had so
- recently taken part had tinged his life and all its hopes with sadness. He
- had reflected this in his letters to Sallie Worth without even mentioning
- the events. His heart was full of sickening foreboding. How could one love
- and be happy in a world haunted by such horrors! He had begged her to
- hasten her hour of final decision. He told her of his sense of loneliness
- and isolation, and of his inexpressible need of her love and presence in
- his daily life.
- </p>
- <p>
- Her answer had only intensified his moody feelings. She had written that
- her love grew stronger every day and his love more and more became
- necessary to her life, and yet she could not cloud its future with the
- anger of her father and the broken heart of her mother by an elopement.
- She feared such a shock would be fatal and all her life would be
- embittered by it. They must wait. She was using all her skill to win her
- father, but as yet without success. But she determined to win him, and it
- would be so.
- </p>
- <p>
- All this seemed so far away and shadowy to Gaston’s eager restless soul.
- </p>
- <p>
- The letter had closed by saying she was preparing for another trip to
- Boston to visit Helen Lowell and that she should be absent at least a
- month. She asked that his next letter be addressed to Boston.
- </p>
- <p>
- Somehow Boston seemed just then out of the world on another planet, it was
- so far away and its people and their life so unreal to his imagination.
- </p>
- <p>
- But he sighed and turned resolutely to his work of preparation for an
- event in his life which he, meant to make great in the history of the
- state. It was the meeting of the Democratic convention, as yet nearly two
- years in the future. He held a subordinate position in his party’s
- councils, but defeat and ruin had taken the conceit out of the old line
- leaders and he knew that his day was drawing near.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll take my place among the leaders and masters of men,” he told
- himself with quiet determination, “I will compel the General’s respect;
- and if I can not win his consent, I will take her without it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0053" id="link2HCH0053"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER VII—EQUALITY WITH A RESERVATION
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>HE lynching at
- Hambright had stirred the whole nation into unusual indignant interest. It
- happened to be the climax of a series of such crimes committed in the
- South in rapid succession, and the death of this negro was reported with
- more than usual vividness by a young newspaper man of genius.
- </p>
- <p>
- A grand mass meeting was called in Cooper Union, New York, at which were
- gathered delegates from different cities and states to give emphasis and
- unity to the movement and issue an appeal to the national government.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Sallie Worth reached Boston, she found Helen Lowell at home alone.
- The Hon. Everett Lowell had made one of the speeches of his career at the
- mass meeting held in Faneuil Hall, and he was in New York where he had
- gone to make the principal address in the Cooper Union Convention of Negro
- sympathisers.
- </p>
- <p>
- George Harris had accompanied him, supremely fascinated by the eloquent
- and masterful appeal for human brotherhood he had heard him make in
- Boston. There was something pathetic in the dog-like worship this young
- negro gave to his brilliant patron. In his life in New England he had been
- shocked more than once by the brutal prejudices of the people against his
- race. His soul had been tried to the last of its powers of endurance at
- times. He found to his amazement that, when put to the test, the masses of
- the North had even deeper repugnance to the person of a Negro than the
- Southerners who grew up with him from the cradle. He had found himself cut
- off from every honourable way of earning his bread, gentleman and scholar
- though he was, and had looked into the river as he walked over the bridge
- to Cambridge one night with a well-nigh resistless impulse to end it all.
- </p>
- <p>
- But Lowell had cheered him, laughed his gloomy ideas to scorn, and more
- practical still, he had secured him a clerkship in the Custom House which
- settled the problem of bread. Others had failed him, but this man of
- trained powers had never failed him. He had taught him to lift up his head
- and look the world squarely in the face. Lowell was, to his vivid African
- imagination, the ideal man made in the image of God, calm in judgment,
- free from all superstitions and prejudices, a citizen of the world of
- human thought, a prince of that vast ethical aristocracy of the free
- thinkers of all ages who knew no racial or conventional barriers between
- man and man.
- </p>
- <p>
- Harris had published a volume of poems which he had dedicated to Lowell,
- and his most inspiring verse was simply the outpouring of his soul in
- worship of this ideal man.
- </p>
- <p>
- He was his devoted worshipper for another and more powerful reason. In his
- daily intercourse with him in his library during his campaigns he had
- frequently met his beautiful daughter, and had fallen deeply and madly in
- love with her. This secret passion he had kept hidden in his sensitive
- soul. He had worshipped her from afar as though she had been a white-robed
- angel. To see her and be in the same house with her was all he asked. Now
- and then he had stood beside the piano and turned the music while she
- played and sang one of his new pieces, and he would live on that scene for
- months, eating his heart out with voiceless yearnings he dared not
- express.
- </p>
- <p>
- In his music he made his greatest success. There was a fiery sweep to his
- passion, and a deep oriental rhythm in his cadence that held the
- imagination of his hearers in a spell. It is needless to say it was in
- this music he breathed his secret love.
- </p>
- <p>
- At first he had not dared to hope for the day when he could declare this
- secret or take his place in the list of her admirers and fight for his
- chance. But of late, a great hope had filled his soul and illumined the
- world. As he had listened to Lowell’s impassioned appeals for human
- brotherhood, his scathing ridicule of pride and prejudice, and the poetic
- beauty of the language in which he proclaimed his own emancipation from
- all the laws of caste, the fiery eloquence with which he trampled upon all
- the barriers man had erected against his fellow man, his soul was thrilled
- into ecstasy with the conviction that this scholar and scientific thinker,
- at least, was a free man. He was sure that he had risen above the
- limitations of provincialisms, racial or national prejudices.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had begun to dream of the day he would ask this Godlike man for the
- privilege of addressing his daughter.
- </p>
- <p>
- The great meeting at Cooper Union had brought this dream to a sudden
- resolution. Lowell had outdone himself that night. With merciless
- invective he had denounced the inhuman barbarism of the South in these
- lynchings. The sea of eager faces had answered his appeals as water the
- breath of a storm. He felt its mighty reflex influence sweep back on his
- soul and lift him to greater heights. He demanded equality of man on every
- inch of this earth’s soil.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I demand this perfect equality,” he cried, “absolutely without
- reservation or subterfuge, both in form and essential reality. It is the
- life-blood of Democracy. It is the reason of our existence. Without this
- we are a living lie, a stench in the nostrils of God and humanity!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A cheer from a thousand negro throats rent the air as he thus closed. The
- crowd surged over the platform and for ten minutes it was impossible to
- restore order or continue the programme. Young Harris pressed his patron’s
- hand and kissed it while tears of pride and gratitude rained down his
- face.
- </p>
- <p>
- This speech made a national sensation. It was printed in full in all the
- partisan papers where it was hoped capital might be made of it for the
- next political campaign, and the National Campaign Committee of which he
- was a member ordered a million copies of it printed for distribution among
- the negroes.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Lowell and Harris reached Boston, as they parted at the depot Harris
- said, “Will you be at home to-morrow, Mr. Lowell?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, why?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I would like a talk with you in the morning on a matter of grave
- importance. May I call at nine o’clock?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Certainly. Come right into the library. You ’ll find me there,
- George.”
- </p>
- <p>
- That night as Lowell walked through his brilliantly lighted home, he felt
- a sense of glowing pride and strength. With his hands behind him he paced
- back and forth in his great library and out through the spacious hall with
- firm tread and flushed face. He felt he could look these great ancestors
- in the face to-night as they gazed down on him from their heavy gold
- frames. They had called him to high ambitions and a strenuous life when
- his indolence had pleaded for ease and the dilettante-ism of a fruitless
- dreaming. His father had cultivated his artistic tastes, dreamed and done
- nothing. But these grim-visaged, eagle-eyed ancestors had called him to a
- life of realities, and he had heard their voices.
- </p>
- <p>
- Yes, to-night his name was on a million lips. The door of the United
- States Senate was opening at his touch and mightier possibilities loomed
- in the future.
- </p>
- <p>
- He felt a sense of gratitude for the heritage of that stately old home and
- its inspiring memories. Its roots struck down into the soil of a thousand
- years, and spread beneath the ocean to that greater old world life. He
- felt his heart beat with pride that he was adding new honours to that
- family history, and adding to the soul-treasures his daughter’s children
- would inherit.
- </p>
- <p>
- Seated in the library next morning Harris was nervous and embarrassed. He
- made two or three attempts to begin the subject but turned aside with some
- unimportant remark.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, George, what is the problem that makes you so grave this morning?”
- asked Lowell with kindly patronage.
- </p>
- <p>
- Harris felt that his hour had come, and he must face it. He leaned forward
- in his chair and looked steadily down at the rug, while he clasped both
- his hands firmly across his lap and spoke with great rapidity.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mr. Lowell, I wish to say to you that you have taught me the greatest
- faith of life, faith in my fellow man without which there can be no faith
- in God. What I have suffered as a man as I have come in contact with the
- brutality with which my race is almost universally treated, God only can
- ever know.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The culture I have received has simply multiplied a thousandfold my
- capacity to suffer. But for the inspiration of your manhood I would have
- ended my life in the river. In you, I saw a great light. I saw a man
- really made in the image of God with mind and soul trained, with head
- erect, seeing the weak prejudices of caste, which dare to call the image
- of God clean or unclean in passion or pride.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I lifted up my head and said, one such man redeems a world from infamy.
- It’s worth while to live in a world honoured by one such man, for he is
- the prophecy of more to come.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He paused a moment, fidgeted with a piece of paper he had picked up from
- the table and seemed at a loss for a word.
- </p>
- <p>
- It never dawned on Lowell what he was driving at. He supposed, as a matter
- of course, he was referring to his great speeches and was going to ask for
- some promotion in a governmental department at Washington.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m proud to have been such an inspiration to you, George. You know how
- much I think of you. What is on your mind?” he asked at length.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have hidden it from every human eye, sir, I am afraid to breath it
- aloud alone. I have only tried to sing it in song in an impersonal way.
- Your wonderful words of late have emboldened me to speak. It is this—I
- am madly, desperately in love with your daughter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Lowell sprang to his feet as though a bolt of lightning had suddenly shot
- down his backbone. He glared at the negro with wide dilated eyes and
- heaving breath as though he had been transformed into a leopard or tiger
- and was about to spring at his throat.
- </p>
- <p>
- Before answering, and with a gesture commanding silence, he walked rapidly
- to the library door and closed it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And I have come to ask you,” continued Harris ignoring his gesture, “if I
- may pay my addresses to her with your consent.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Harris, this is crazy nonsense. Such an idea is preposterous. I am amazed
- that it should ever have entered your head. Let this be the end of it here
- and now, if you have any desire to retain my friendship.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Lowell said this with a scowl, and an emphasis of indignant rising
- inflection. The negro seemed stunned by this swift blow in his very teeth,
- that seemed to place him outside the pale of a human being.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why is such a hope unreasonable, sir, to a man of your scientific mind?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is a question of taste,” snapped Lowell.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Am I not a graduate of the same university with you? Did I not stand as
- high, and age for age, am I not your equal in culture?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Granted. Nevertheless you are a negro, and I do not desire the infusion
- of your blood in my family.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But I have more of white than Negro blood, sir.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “So much the worse. It is the mark of shame.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But it is the one drop of Negro blood at which your taste revolts, is it
- not?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “To be frank, it is.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why is it an unpardonable sin in me that my ancestors were born under
- tropic skies where skin and hair were tanned and curled to suit the sun’s
- fierce rays?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “All tropic races are not negroes, and your race has characteristics apart
- from accidents of climate that make it unique in the annals of man,”
- rejoined Lowell.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And yet you demand perfect equality of man with man, absolutely in form
- and substance without reservation or subterfuge!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, political equality.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Politics is but a secondary phenomenon of society. You said absolute
- equality,” protested Harris.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The question you broach is a question of taste, and the deeper social
- instincts of racial purity and self preservation. I care not what your
- culture, or your genius, or your position, I do not desire, and will not
- permit, a mixture of Negro blood in my family. The idea is nauseating, and
- to my daughter it would be repulsive beyond the power of words to express
- it!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “And yet,” pleaded Harris, “you invited me to your home, introduced me to
- your daughter, seated me at your table, and used me in your appeal to your
- constituents, and now when I dare ask the privilege of seeking her hand in
- honourable marriage, you, the scholar, patriot, statesman and philosopher
- of Equality and Democracy, slam the door in my face and tell me that I am
- a negro! Is this fair or manly?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I fail to see its unfairness.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is amazing. You are a master of history and sociology. You know as
- clearly as I do that social intercourse is the only possible pathway to
- love. And you opened it to me with your own hand. Could I control the beat
- of my heart? There are some powers within us that are involuntary. You
- could have prevented my meeting your daughter as an equal. But all the
- will power of earth could not prevent my loving her, when once I had seen
- her, and spoken to her. The sound of the human voice, the touch of the
- human hand in social equality are the divine sacraments that open the
- mystery of love.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Social rights are one thing, political rights another,” interrupted
- Lowell.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I deny it. If you are honest with yourself, you know it is not true.
- Politics is but a manifestation of society. Society rests on the family.
- The family is the unit of civilisation. The right to love and wed where
- one loves is the badge of fellowship in the order of humanity. The man who
- is denied this right in any society is not a member of it. He is outside
- any manifestation of its essential life. You had as well talk about the
- importance of clothes for a dead man, as political rights for such a
- pariah. You have classed him with the beasts of the field. As a human unit
- he does not exist for you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Harris, it is utterly useless to argue a point like this,” Lowell
- interrupted coldly. “This must be the end of our acquaintance. You must
- not enter my house again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “My God, sir, you can’t kick me out of your home like this when you
- brought me to it, and made it an issue of life or death!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I tell you again you are crazy. I have brought you here against her
- wishes. She left the house with her friend this morning to avoid seeing
- you. Your presence has always been repulsive to her, and with me it has
- been a political study, not a social pleasure.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I beg for only a desperate chance to overcome this feeling. Surely a man
- of your profound learning and genius can not sympathise with such
- prejudices? Let me try—let her decide the issue.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I decline to discuss the question any further.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I can’t give up without a struggle!” the negro cried with desperation.
- </p>
- <p>
- Lowell arose with a gesture of impatience.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now you are getting to be simply a nuisance. To be perfectly plain with
- you, I haven’t the slightest desire that my family with its proud record
- of a thousand years of history and achievement shall end in this stately
- old house in a brood of mulatto brats!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Harris winced and sprang to his feet, trembling with passion. “I see,” he
- sneered, “the soul of Simon Le-gree has at last become the soul of the
- nation. The South expresses the same luminous truth with a little more
- clumsy brutality. But their way is after all more merciful. The human body
- becomes unconscious at the touch of an oil-fed flame in sixty seconds.
- Your methods are more refined and more hellish in cruelty. You have
- trained my ears to hear, eyes to see, hands to touch and heart to feel,
- that you might torture with the denial of every cry of body and soul and
- roast me in the flames of impossible desires for time and eternity!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “That will do now. There’s the door!” thundered Lowell with a gesture of
- stern emphasis. “I happen to know the important fact that a man or woman
- of negro ancestry, though a century removed, will suddenly breed back to a
- pure negro child, thick lipped, kinky headed, flat nosed, black skinned.
- One drop of your blood in my family could push it backward three thousand
- years in history. If you were able to win her consent, a thing
- unthinkable, I would do what old Virginius did in the Roman Forum, kill
- her with my own hand, rather than see her sink in your arms into the black
- waters of a Negroid life! Now go!”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0054" id="link2HCH0054"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER VIII—THE NEW SIMON LEGREE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">H</span>ARRIS immediately
- resigned his office in the custom house which he owed to Lowell and began
- a search for employment.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will not be a pensioner of a government of hypocrites and liars,” he
- exclaimed as he sealed his letter of resignation.
- </p>
- <p>
- And then began his weary tramp in search of work. Day after day, week
- after week, he got the same answer—an emphatic refusal. The only
- thing open to a negro was a position as porter, or bootblack, or waiter in
- second-rate hotels and restaurants, or in domestic service as coachman,
- butler or footman. He was no more fitted for these places than he was to
- live with his head under water.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will blow my brains out before I will prostitute my intellect, and my
- consciousness of free manhood by such degrading associates and such menial
- service!” he declared with sullen fury.
- </p>
- <p>
- At last he determined to lay aside his pride and education and learn a
- manual trade. Not a labour union would allow him to enter its ranks.
- </p>
- <p>
- He managed to earn a few dollars at odd jobs and went to New York. Here he
- was treated with greater brutality than in Boston. At last he got a
- position in a big clothing factory. He was so bright in colour that the
- manager never suspected that he was a negro, as he was accustomed to
- employing swarthy Jews from Poland and Russia.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Harris entered the factory the employees discovered within an hour
- his race, laid down their work, and walked out on a strike until he was
- removed.
- </p>
- <p>
- He again tried to break into a labour union and get the protection of its
- constitution and laws. He managed at last to make the acquaintance of a
- labour leader who had been a Quaker preacher, and was elated to discover
- that his name was Hugh Halliday, and that he was a son of one of the
- Hallidays who had assisted in the rescue of his mother and father from
- slavery. He told Halliday his history and begged his intercession with the
- labour union.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll try for you, Harris,” he said, “but it’s a doubtful
- experiment. The men fear the Negro as a pestilence.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do the best you can for me. I must have bread. I only ask a man’s
- chance,” answered Harris. Halliday proposed his name and backed it up with
- a strong personal endorsement, gave a brief sketch of his culture and
- accomplishments and asked that he be allowed to learn the bricklayer’s
- trade.
- </p>
- <p>
- When his name came up before the Brick Layers’ Union, and it was announced
- that he was a negro, it precipitated a debate of such fury that it
- threatened to develop into a riot.
- </p>
- <p>
- One of the men sprang toward the presiding officer with blazing eyes,
- gesticulating wildly until recognised.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I have this to say,” he shouted. “No negro shall ever enter the door of
- this Union except over my dead body. The Negro can under live us. We can
- not compete with him, and as a race we can not organise him. Let him stay
- in the South. We have no room for him here, and we will kill him if he
- tries to take our bread from us!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Have you no sympathy for his age-long sufferings in slavery?” interrupted
- Halliday.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Slavery! of all the delusions the idea that slavery was abolished in this
- country in 1865 is the silliest, Slavery was never firmly established
- until the chattel form was abandoned for the wage system in 1865. Chattel
- slavery was too expensive. The wage system is cheaper. Now they never have
- to worry about food, or clothes, or houses, or the children, or the aged
- and infirm among wage slaves.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Once the master hunted the slave,—now the slave must hunt the
- master, beg for the privilege of serving him and trample others to death
- trying to fasten the chains on when a brother slave drops dead in his
- tracks.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, I don’t shed any crocodile tears over the Negro slavery of the South.
- It was a mild form of servitude, in which the Negro had plenty to eat and
- wear, never suffered from cold, slept soundly and reared his children in
- droves with never a thought for the morrow.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then mothers and babes were sometimes, though not often, separated by an
- executor’s or sheriff’s sale. Now, we know better than to allow babes to
- be born. Then, a babe was a valuable asset and received the utmost care.
- Now, we have baby farms which we fertilise with their bones. I know of one
- old hag in this city who has killed over two thousand babes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What chance has your girl or mine to marry and build a home? Not one in a
- hundred will ever feel the breath of a babe at her breast.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No!” he closed in thunder tones. “I ’ll fight the encroachment of
- the Negro on our life with every power of body and soul!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A hundred men leaped to their feet at once, shouting and gesticulating.
- The chairman recognised a tall dark man with a Russian face, but who spoke
- perfect English.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I, gentlemen, am an anarchist in principle, and differ slightly in the
- process by which I come to the same conclusion as my friend who has taken
- his seat. I grieve at the necessity before the workingmen of returning to
- slavery. All we can hope now for a century or two centuries, is socialism.
- Socialism is simply a system of slavery—that is, enforced labour in
- which a Bureaucracy is master. We must enter again a condition of
- involuntary servitude for the guarantee by the State of food and clothes,
- shelter and children.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is no time to weep over slavery. The one thing we demand now is the
- nationalisation of industries under the control of State Bureaux which
- will enforce labour from every citizen according to his capacity, for the
- simple guarantee of what the negro slave received, the satisfaction of the
- two elemental passions, hunger and love.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Again a clamour broke out that drowned the speaker’s voice. A Socialist
- and an Anarchist clinched in a fight, and for five minutes pandemonium
- reigned, but at the end of it Harris was tying on the sidewalk with a gash
- in his head, and Halliday was bending over him.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Harris had recovered from his wound, Halliday took him on a round of
- visits to big mills in a populous manufacturing city across in New Jersey.
- </p>
- <p>
- “These mills are all owned by Simon Legree,” he informed Harris, “and the
- unions have been crushed out of them by methods of which he is past
- master. I don’t know, but it may be possible to get you in there.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They tried a half dozen mills in vain, and at last they met a foreman who
- knew Halliday who consented to hear his plea.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are fooling away your time and this man’s time, Halliday,” he told
- him in a friendly way. “I’d cut my right arm off sooner than take a negro
- in these mills and precipitate a strike.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But would a strike occur with no union organisation?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, in a minute. You know Simon Legree who owns these mills. If a
- disturbance occurred here now the old devil wouldn’t hesitate to close
- every mill next day and beggar fifty thousand people.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why would he do such a stupid thing?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Just to show the brute power of his fifty millions of dollars over the
- human body. The awful power in that brute’s hands, represented in that
- money, is something appalling. Before the war he cracked a blacksnake whip
- over the backs of a handful of negroes. Now look at him, in his black silk
- hat and faultless dress. With his millions he can commit any and every
- crime from theft to murder with impunity. His power is greater than a
- monarch. He controls fleets of ships, mines and mills, and has under his
- employ many thousands of men. Their families and associates make a vast
- population. He buys Judges, Juries, Legislatures, and Governors and with
- one stroke of his pen to-day can beggar thousands of people. He can equip
- an army of hirelings, make peace or war on his own account, or force the
- governments to do it for him. He has neither faith in God, nor fear of the
- devil. He regards all men as his enemies and all women his game.
- </p>
- <p>
- “They say he used to haunt the New Orleans’ slave market, when he was
- young and owned his Red River farm, occasionally spending his last dollar
- to buy a handsome negro girl who took his fancy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Look at him now with his bloated face, beastly jaw, and coarse lips. He
- walks the streets with his lecherous eyes twinkling like a snake’s and
- saliva trickling from the corners of his mouth practically monarch of all
- he surveys. He selects his victims at his own sweet will, and with his
- army of hirelings to do his bidding, backed by his millions, he lives a
- charmed life in a round of daily crime.
- </p>
- <p>
- “How many lives he has blasted among the population of the multitude of
- souls dependent on him for bread, God only knows. It is said he has
- murdered the souls of many innocent girls in these mills—”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Surely that is an exaggeration,” broke in Halliday.
- </p>
- <p>
- “On the other hand I believe the picture is far too mild. I tell you no
- human mind can conceive the awful brute power over the human body his
- millions hold under our present conditions of life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- There was a tinge of deep personal bitterness in the man’s words that held
- Halliday in a spell while he continued, “Under our present conditions men
- and women must fight one another like beasts for food and shelter. The
- wildest dreams of lust and cruelty under the old system of Southern
- slavery would be laughed at by this modern master.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He paused a moment in painful reverie.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There lies his big yacht in the harbour now. She is just in from a cruise
- in the Orient. She cost half a million dollars, and carries a crew of
- fifty men. With them are beautiful girls hired at fancy wages connected
- with the stewardess’ department. She ships a new crew every trip. Not one
- of those young faces is ever lifted again among their friends.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He paused again and a tear coursed down his face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I confess I am bitter. I loved one of those girls once when I was
- younger. She was a mere child of seventeen.” His voice broke. “Yes, she
- came back shattered in health and ruined. I am supporting her now at a
- quiet country place. She is dying.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Think of the farce of it all!” he continued passionately.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The picture of that brute with a whip in his hand beating a negro caused
- the most terrible war in the history of the world. Three millions of men
- flew at each other’s throats and for four years fought like demons. A
- million men and six billions of dollars worth of property were destroyed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He was a poor harmless fool there beating his own faithful slave to
- death. Compare that Legree with the one of to-day, and you compare a mere
- stupid man with a prince of hell. But does this fiend excite the wrath of
- the righteous? Far from it. His very name is whispered in admiring awe by
- millions. He boasts that dozens of proud mothers strip their daughters to
- the limit the police law will allow at every social function he honours
- with his presence, and offer to sell him their own flesh and blood for the
- paltry consideration of a life interest in one-third of his estate! And he
- laughs at them all. His name is magic!
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know of one weak fool, a petty millionaire, whom Legree lured into a
- speculative trap and ruined. On his knees in his Fifth Avenue palace the
- whining coward kissed Legree’s feet and begged for mercy. He kicked him
- and sneered at his misery. At last when he had tortured him to the verge
- of madness he offered to spare him on one condition—that he should
- give him his daughter as a ransom. And he did it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, the brute power of such a man to-day is beyond the grasp of the human
- mind. His chances for debauchery and cruelty are limitless. The brain of
- his hirelings is put to the test to invent new crime against nature to
- interest his appetites. The only limit to his power of evil is the
- capacity of the human mind to think, and his body to act and endure. When
- he is exhausted, he can command the knowledge and the skill of ages and
- the masters of all Science to restore his strength, while satellites lick
- his feet and sing his praises—
- </p>
- <p>
- “Risk the whim of such a man with the lives of these poor people dependent
- on me? No, I’d sooner kill that negro you have brought here and take my
- chances of detection.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Halliday gave up the task, returned to New York, and sought the aid of the
- greatest labour leader in America, who had arrived in the city from the
- West the day before.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, Halliday,” he said emphatically. “Send your negro back down South. We
- don’t want any more of them, or to come in contact with them. I have just
- come from the West where a desperate strike was in progress in one of
- Legree’s mines. Our men were toiling in the depth of the earth in midnight
- darkness, never seeing the light of day, for just enough to keep body and
- soul together. They tried to wring one little concession from their absent
- master, who had never condescended to honour them with his presence. What
- did he do? Shut down his mines, and brought up from the South a herd of
- negroes who came crowding to the mines to push our men back into hell. We
- begged them to go home and let us alone. They grinned, shuffled and looked
- at their white driver for the signal to go to work. I ordered the men to
- shoot them down like dogs. We made the Governor issue a proclamation
- driving them back South and warning their race that if they attempted to
- enter the borders of the state he would meet them with Gatling guns.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, send your friend South. The winters up here are too cold for him and
- the summers too hot.”
- </p>
- <p>
- In the meantime Harris walked the streets with a storm of furious passion
- raging in his soul. The realisation of the shame and the horror of his
- position! He was the son of Eliza Harris who had fled from the kindliest
- form of slavery in Kentucky. He had a trained mind, and the brightest
- gifts of musical genius. Yet he stood that day at the door of Simon Legree
- and begged in vain for the privilege of serving in the meanest capacity as
- his slave! What a strange circle of time, those forty years of the past!
- </p>
- <p>
- And then the tempter whispered the right word at the right moment, and his
- fate was sealed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There’s but one thing left. I will do it!” he exclaimed.
- </p>
- <p>
- He entered the employ of a gambling joint and deliberately began a life of
- crime. After a month he won five hundred dollars, and went on a strange
- journey, visiting the scenes in Colorado, Kansas, Indiana and Ohio where
- negroes had recently been burned alive. He would find the ash-heap, and
- place on it a wreath of costly flowers. He lingered thoughtfully over the
- ash-piles he found in Kansas made from the flesh of living negroes. He
- tried to imagine the figure of John Brown marching by his side, but
- instead he felt the grip of Simon Legree’s hand on his throat, living,
- militant, omnipotent. His soul had conquered the world. Yet even Legree
- had never dared to burn a negro to death in the old days of slavery.
- </p>
- <p>
- He found one of these ash-heaps at the foot of the monument in Indiana to
- the great Western colleague of Thaddeus Stevens, and with a sigh placed
- his wreath on it, and passed on into Ohio.
- </p>
- <p>
- He went to the spot where his mother had climbed up the banks of the Ohio
- River into the promised land of liberty, and followed the track of the old
- Underground Railroad for fugitive slaves a few miles. He came to a village
- which was once a station of this system. Here strangest of all, he found
- one of these ash-heaps in the public square.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0055" id="link2HCH0055"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER IX—THE NEW AMERICA
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>NOTHER year of
- struggle and suffering, hope and fear, Gaston had passed, and still he was
- no nearer the dream of realised love. If anything had changed, the
- General’s pride had added new force to his determination that his daughter
- should not marry the man who had defied him.
- </p>
- <p>
- His chief reliance for Gaston’s defeat was on time, and the broadening of
- Sallie’s mind by extended travel. He had sent her abroad twice, and this
- year he sent her to spend another three months in Europe.
- </p>
- <p>
- These absences seemed only to intensify her longing for her lover. On her
- return the General would burst into a storm of rage at her persistence.
- She had ceased to give him any bitter answers, only smiling quietly and
- maintaining an ominous silence.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had a new cause now of dislike for the man of her choice. Gaston had
- become a man of acknowledged power in politics and was the leader of a
- group of radical young men who demanded the complete reorganisation of the
- Democratic party, the shelving of the old timers, among whom he was
- numbered, and the announcement of a radical programme upon the Negro
- issue.
- </p>
- <p>
- Radicalism of any sort he had always hated. Now, as advanced by this young
- upstart, it was doubly odious. The General had never given much time to
- his political duties, but his name was a power, and he gave regularly to
- the campaign committee the largest cash contribution they received.
- </p>
- <p>
- He tried in a clumsy way to put Gaston off the State Executive Committee,
- but failed. He saw Gaston quietly laughing at him. Then he opened his
- pocket book and worked up a machine. It was a formidable power, and Gaston
- feared its influence in the coming convention.
- </p>
- <p>
- While this fight was in progress, and Sallie was in Europe, the
- destruction of the <i>Maine</i> in Havana harbour stilled the world into
- silence with the echo of its sullen roar. There was a moment’s pause, and
- the nation lifted its great silk battle flags from the Capitol at
- Washington, and called for volunteers to wipe the empire of Spain from the
- map of the Western world.
- </p>
- <p>
- The war lasted but a hundred days, but in those hundred days was packed
- the harvest of centuries.
- </p>
- <p>
- War is always the crisis that flashes the search light into the souls of
- men and nations, revealing their unknown strength and weakness, and the
- changes that have been silently wrought in the years of peace.
- </p>
- <p>
- In these hundred days, statesmen who were giants suddenly shrivelled into
- pigmies and disappeared from the nation’s life. Young men whose names were
- unknown became leaders of the republic and won immortal fame.
- </p>
- <p>
- We were afraid that our nation still lacked unity. The world said we were
- a mob of money-grubbers, and had lost our grasp of principle. The
- President called for 125,000 men to die for their flag, and next morning
- 800,000 were struggling for place in the line.
- </p>
- <p>
- We feared that religion might threaten the future with its bitter feud
- between the Roman Catholic and Protestant in a great crisis. We saw our
- Catholic regiments march forth to that war with screaming fife and
- throbbing drum and the flag of our country above them, going forth to
- fight an army that had been blessed by the Pope of Rome. The flag had
- become the common symbol of eternal justice, and the nation the organ
- through which all creeds and cults sought for righteousness.
- </p>
- <p>
- We feared the gulf between the rich and the poor had become impassable,
- and we saw the millionaire’s son take his place in the ranks with the
- workingman. The first soldier wearing our uniform who fell before Santiago
- with a Spanish bullet in his breast, was an only son from a palatial home
- in New York, and by his side lay a cowboy from the West and a plowboy from
- the South. Once more we showed the world that classes and clothes are but
- thin disguises that hide the eternal childhood of the soul.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sectionalism and disunity had been the most terrible realities in our
- national history. Our fathers had a poet leader whose soul dreamed a
- beautiful dream called <i>E Pluribus Unum.</i>. But it had remained a
- dream. New England had threatened secession years before South Carolina in
- blind rage led the way. The Union was saved by a sacrifice of blood that
- appalled the world. And still millions feared the South might be false to
- her plighted honour at Appomattox. The ghost of Secession made and unmade
- the men and measures of a generation.
- </p>
- <p>
- Then came the trumpet call that put the South to the test of fire and
- blood. The world waked next morning to find for the first time in our
- history the dream of union a living fact. There was no North, no South,—but
- from the James to the Rio Grande the children of the Confederacy rushed
- with eager flushed faces to defend the flag their fathers had once fought.
- </p>
- <p>
- And God reserved in this hour for the South, land of ashes and tombs and
- tears, the pain and the glory of the first offering of life on the altar
- of the new nation. Our first and only officer who fell dead on the deck of
- a warship, with the flag above him, was Worth Bagley, of North Carolina,
- the son of a Confederate soldier. The gallant youngster who stood on the
- bridge of the <i>Merrimac</i>, and between two towering mountains of
- flaming cannon, in the darkness of night blew up his ship and set a new
- standard of Anglo-Saxon daring, was the son of a Confederate soldier of
- North Carolina.
- </p>
- <p>
- The town of Hambright furnished a whole company of eighty-six men, a
- Captain, three Lieutenants, and a Major, who saw service in the war.
- </p>
- <p>
- When they were drawn up in the court house square under the old oak, the
- Preacher stood before them and called the roll from four browned
- parchments. They were Campbell county Confederate rosters. Every one of
- the eighty-six men was a child of the Confederacy. And the immortal
- company F, that was wiped out of existence at the battle of Gettysburg
- furnished more than half these children.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ah, boys, blood will tell!” cried the Preacher, shaking hands with each
- man as they left.
- </p>
- <p>
- A single round from the guns, and it was over. The yellow flag of Spain,
- lit with the sunset splendour of a world empire, faded from the sky of the
- West.
- </p>
- <p>
- A new naval power had arisen to disturb the dreams of statesmen. The <i>Oregon</i>,
- that fierce leviathan of hammered steel, had made her mark upon the globe.
- In a long black trail of smoke and ribbon of foam, she had circled the
- earth without a pause for breath. The thunder of her lips of steel over
- the shattered hulks of a European navy proclaimed the advent of a giant
- democracy that struck terror to the hearts of titled snobs.
- </p>
- <p>
- He who dreamed this monster of steel, felt her heart beat, saw her rush
- through foaming seas to victory, before the pick of a miner had struck the
- ore for her ribs from a mountain side, was a child of the Confederacy—that
- Confederacy whose desperate genius had sent then <i>Alabama</i> spinning
- round the globe in a whirlwind of fire.
- </p>
- <p>
- America united at last and invincible, waked to the consciousness of her
- resistless power.
- </p>
- <p>
- And, most marvellous of all, this hundred days of war had re-united the
- Anglo-Saxon race. This sudden union of the English speaking people in
- friendly alliance disturbed the equilibrium of the world, and confirmed
- the Anglo-Saxon in his title to the primacy of racial sway.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0056" id="link2HCH0056"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER X—ANOTHER DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>LMOST every
- problem of national life had been illumined and made more hopeful by the
- searchlight of war save one—the irrepressible conflict between the
- African and the Anglo-Saxon in the development of our civilisation. The
- glare of war only made the blackness of this question the more apparent.
- </p>
- <p>
- While the well-drilled negro regulars, led by white officers acquitted
- themselves with honour at Santiago, the negro volunteers were the source
- of riot and disorder wherever they appeared. From the first, it was seen
- by thoughtful men that the Negro was an impossibility in the newborn unity
- of national life. When the Anglo-Saxon race was united into one
- homogeneous mass in the fire of this crisis, the Negro ceased that moment
- to be a ward of the nation.
- </p>
- <p>
- A negro regiment had been in camp at Independence during the war and was
- still there awaiting orders to be mustered out. Its presence had inflamed
- the passions of both races to the danger point of riot again and again.
- The negro who was editing their paper at Independence had gone to the
- length of the utmost license in seeking to influence race antagonism.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the regiment of which the Hambright company was a member was mustered
- out at Independence, Gaston was invited to deliver the address of welcome
- home to the soldiers, and a crowd of five thousand people were present,
- one-half of whom were negroes.
- </p>
- <p>
- While Gaston was speaking in the square, a negro trooper passing along the
- street refused to give an inch of the sidewalk to a young lady and her
- escort, who met him. He ran into the girl, jostling her roughly, and the
- young white man knocked him down instantly and beat him to death. The
- wildest passions of the negro regiment were roused. McLeod was among them
- that day seeking to increase his popularity and influence in the coming
- election, and he at once denounced Gaston as the cause of the assault, and
- urged the leaders in secret to retaliate by putting a bullet through his
- heart.
- </p>
- <p>
- The white regiment had been mustered out, and their guns in most cases had
- been retained by the men. The negro troops were to be mustered out the
- next day.
- </p>
- <p>
- Late in the afternoon Gaston had received information that a plot was on
- foot to kill him that night, when a negro mob would batter down his door
- on the pretense of searching for the man who had assaulted the trooper.
- The Colonel of the regiment just disbanded heard it, and that night his
- men bivouacked in the yard of the hotel and slept on their guns.
- </p>
- <p>
- A little after twelve o’clock, a mob of five hundred negroes attempted to
- force their way into the hotel. They met a regiment of bayonets, broke,
- and fled in wild confusion.
- </p>
- <p>
- This event was the last straw that broke the camel’s back. In the morning
- paper a blazing notice in display capitals covered the first page, calling
- a mass meeting of white citizens at noon in Independence Hall.
- </p>
- <p>
- The little city of Independence was one of the oldest in the nation. It
- boasted the first declaration of independence from Great Britain
- antedating a year the Philadelphia document. The people had never rested
- tamely under tyranny nor accepted insult.
- </p>
- <p>
- The McLeod Negro-Farmer Legislature had remodelled the ancient charter of
- the city, and under the new instrument a combination of negroes and
- criminal whites had taken possession of every office.
- </p>
- <p>
- One half of these office holders were incompetent and insolent negroes.
- The Chief of Police was an ignoramus in league with criminals, and their
- Mayor, a white demagogue elected by pandering to the lowest passions of a
- negro constituency.
- </p>
- <p>
- Burglary and highway robbery were almost daily occurrences. The two
- largest stores in the city and four residences had been burned within a
- month. Appeal to the police became a farce, and it was necessary to hire
- and arm a force of private guards to patrol the city at night. When
- arrests were made, the servile authorities promptly released the
- criminals. Negro insolence reached a height that made it impossible for
- ladies to walk the streets without an armed escort, and white children
- were waylaid and beaten on their way to the public schools.
- </p>
- <p>
- The incendiary organ of the negroes, a newspaper that had been noted for
- its virulent spirit of race hatred, had published an editorial defaming
- the virtue of the white women of the community.
- </p>
- <p>
- At eleven o’clock the quaint old hall, built in Revolutionary days to seat
- five hundred people, was packed with a crowd of eight hundred
- stern-visaged men standing so thick it was impossible to pass through them
- and thousands were massed outside around the building.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston, whose ancestors had been leaders in the great Revolution, was
- called to the chair. The speech-making was brief, fiery, and to the point.
- </p>
- <p>
- Within one hour they unanimously adopted this resolution:
- </p>
- <p>
- “<i>Resolved, that we issue a second Declaration of Independence from the
- infamy of corrupt and degraded government. The day of Negro domination
- over the Anglo-Saxon race shall close, now, once and forever. The
- government of North Carolina was established by a race of pioneer white
- freemen for white men and it shall remain in the hands of freemen.</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- “<i>We demand the overthrow of the criminal and semi-barbarian régime
- under which we now live, and to this end serve notice on the present Mayor
- of this city, its Chief of Police, and the six negro aldermen and their
- low white associates that their resignations are expected by nine o’clock
- to-morrow morning. We demand that the negro anarchist who edits a paper in
- this city shall close his office, remove its fixtures and leave this
- county within twenty-four hours.”</i>
- </p>
- <p>
- A committee of twenty-five, with Gaston as its Chairman, was appointed to
- enforce these resolutions.
- </p>
- <p>
- By four o’clock an army of two thousand white men was organised, and
- placed under the command of the Rev. Duncan McDonald, pastor of the First
- Presbyterian Church of the city, who had been a brave young officer in the
- Confederate army. Every minister in the county was enrolled in this guard
- and carried a musket on picket duty, or in a reserve camp that night.
- </p>
- <p>
- At six o’clock, Gaston summoned thirty-five of the more prominent negroes
- of the county including two of the professors in Miss Susan Walker’s
- college, to meet the Committee of Twenty-Five and receive its ultimatum.
- Stern and hard of face sat the twenty-five chosen representatives of that
- world-conquering race of men at one end of the room, while at the other
- end sat the thirty-five negroes anxious and fearful, realising that their
- day of dominion had ended.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston rose and handed them a copy of the resolutions.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We give you till seven-thirty to-morrow morning as the leaders of your
- race to carry out these demands,” he said gravely.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But we have no authority, sir,” replied the negro preacher to whom he
- handed the paper.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Your authority is equal to ours—the authority of elemental manhood.
- If you can not execute them in peace, we will do it by force.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We must decline such responsibility unless”—the negro started to
- argue the question.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The meeting stands adjourned!” quietly announced Gaston, taking up his
- hat and leaving the room followed by his Committee.
- </p>
- <p>
- At seven-thirty next morning no answer had been received. Gaston called
- for seventy-five volunteers to execute the decrees.
- </p>
- <p>
- Within thirty minutes, five hundred men swung into line at eight o’clock,
- and marched four abreast to the office of the negro paper. It was promptly
- burned to the ground, its editor paid its cash value, and with a rope
- around his neck, escorted to the depot and placed on a north bound train.
- </p>
- <p>
- As Gaston handed him his ticket for Washington he quietly said to him, “I
- have saved your life this morning. If you value it, never put your foot on
- the soil of this state again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thank you, sir. I ’ll not return.”
- </p>
- <p>
- While this guard, under strict military discipline, was executing this
- decree, a mob of a thousand armed negroes concealed themselves in a
- hedge-row and fired on them from ambush, killing one man and wounding six.
- Gaston formed his men in line, returned the fire with deadly effect,
- charged the mob, put them to flight, driving them into the woods outside
- the city limits, and placed the town under informal but strict martial
- law. By ten o’clock the resignation of every city and county officer was
- in his hand, and the Mayor and Chief of Police were at his feet begging
- for mercy.
- </p>
- <p>
- He posted a notice over the county warning every negro and white associate
- that no further insolence or criminality would be tolerated.
- </p>
- <p>
- The county and municipal election was but three days off and there was but
- one ticket on the field. When the white men elected were sworn in, the
- guards went to the woods and told the terrified and half starving negroes
- they could return to their homes, a competent police force was organised,
- and the volunteer organisation disbanded. Negro refugees and their
- associates once more filled the ear of the national government with
- clamour for the return of the army to the South to uphold Negro power, but
- for the first time since 1867, it fell on deaf ears. The Anglo-Saxon race
- had been reunited. The Negro was no longer the ward of the Republic.
- Henceforth, he must stand or fall on his own worth and pass under the law
- of the survival of the fittest.
- </p>
- <p>
- This event made a tremendous impression on the imagination of the people.
- It increased the popularity and power of Gaston, its intended victim, The
- General was more than ever determined to destroy Gaston’s power in the
- convention which was to meet in a few weeks. He had his candidate for
- Governor well groomed and he had captured the largest number of pledged
- delegates. There were three other candidates, but none of them apparently
- were backed by Gaston. The General was puzzled at his methods, and failed
- to discover his programme, though he spent money with liberality and
- exhausted every resource at his command.
- </p>
- <p>
- A strange thing had occurred that had upset all calculations. Beginning at
- Independence a race fire had broken into resistless fury and was sweeping
- along the line of all the counties on the South Carolina border and over
- the entire state with incredible rapidity. Everywhere, the white men were
- arming themselves and parading the streets and public roads in cavalry
- order dressed in scarlet shirts. This Red Shirt movement was a spontaneous
- combustion of inflammable racial power that had been accumulating for a
- generation.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Democratic Executive Committee was called together in haste and made
- the most frantic efforts to stop it. But there was no head to it. It had
- no organisation except a local one, and it spread by a spark flying from
- one county to another.
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod laughed at the address of the Democratic Committee and swore Gaston
- was the organiser of the movement. He determined to nip it in the bud by
- putting Gaston under a cloud that would destroy his influence. He did not
- dare to attack him for his part in the Revolution at Independence. He
- preferred to belittle that affair as a local disturbance.
- </p>
- <p>
- But at an election for Congressman to fill a vacancy, the Democratic
- candidate had won by a narrow margin in a campaign of great bitterness
- under Gaston’s leadership.
- </p>
- <p>
- Charges of fraud were freely made on both sides. McLeod determined to
- utilise these charges, and by producing perjured witnesses before a packed
- court, place Gaston in jail without bail until the convention had met.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had every advantage in such a conspiracy. The United States judge whom
- he intended to utilise was a creature of his own making, a trickster whose
- confirmation had been twice defeated in the Senate by the members of his
- own party on his shady record. But he had won the place at last by hook
- and crook, and McLeod owned him body and soul.
- </p>
- <p>
- Accordingly Gaston was arrested with a warrant McLeod had obtained from
- his judge, arraigned before him and committed without bail. He was charged
- with a felony under the election laws, taken to Asheville and placed in
- jail.
- </p>
- <p>
- The audacity of this arrest and the vehemence with which McLeod pressed
- his charges created a profound sensation in the state. It was rumoured
- that the graver charge of murder lay back of the charge of felony and
- would be pressed in due time. A murder had been committed in the district
- during the exciting campaign and no clue had ever been found to its
- perpetrator. McLeod knew he had no evidence connecting Gaston with this
- event, but he knew that he had henchmen who would swear to any thing he
- told them and stick to it.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0057" id="link2HCH0057"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XI—THE HEART OF A WOMAN
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span> WEEK after
- Gaston’s imprisonment Sallie Worth arrived in New York from her last trip
- abroad. She had cut her trip short and cabled her father of her return.
- </p>
- <p>
- She was in an agony of suspense and uncertainty about her lover. Gaston’s
- letters had failed to reach her for a month by reason of the war which had
- demoralised the mail service. Her own letters had failed to reach Gaston
- for a similar reason.
- </p>
- <p>
- The General hastened to New York to meet his wife and daughter and
- persuade Sallie to remain in the North until December. He was hopeful now
- that her long absence and Gaston’s absorption in politics, his bitter
- opposition to him personally, and the cloud under which he rested in
- prison, would be the final forces that would give him the victory in the
- long conflict he had waged for the mastery of his daughter’s heart.
- </p>
- <p>
- Before informing Sallie of the stirring events at Independence and the
- part Gaston had taken in them, or allowing her to learn of his
- imprisonment, the General sought to find the exact state of her mind.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I trust, Sallie,” he began, “you are recovering from your infatuation for
- this man. You know how dearly I love you. I have never taken a step in
- life since I looked into your baby face that wasn’t for you and your
- happiness.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She only looked at him wistfully and her eyes seemed to be dreaming, “I
- want you to have some pride. Gaston has attempted to kick me out of the
- councils of the party, and become the dictator of the state. His course is
- one of violence and radicalism. I regard him as a dangerous man, and I
- want you to have nothing to do with him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She was gravely silent.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you believe he has been faithfully dreaming of you in your absence?”
- asked the General.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I do!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then let me disabuse your mind. It is not the way of strong men. He is
- absolutely absorbed in a desperate political struggle in which his
- personal ambition’s are first. I have seen him paying the most devoted
- attentions to the daughter of our rival down east, whose influence he
- wants, and it is rumoured among his friends that he has proposed to her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who told you that?” she asked impetuously.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I had it first from Allan, but I’ve heard it since from others.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I do not believe a word of it,” she declared.
- </p>
- <p>
- “That’s because you’re a woman and hold such silly ideals. I tell you, he
- wants you only because he knows you are rich, and he wishes to brow-beat
- me. Such a man will try to whip you before you have been his wife five
- years. I know that kind of man. Why can’t you trust my judgment?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I had rather trust my heart’s intuitions, Papa, I can not be deceived in
- such a question.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Well, you are being deceived. He is anything but a languishing lover. At
- present he is a political tiger at bay. Unless you hold him to you by some
- pledge he has given, he will forget you, and marry another in two years. I
- am a man and I know men. I thought I was desperately in love twice before
- I met your mother. I got over both attacks without a scratch, fell in love
- with her, married and have lived happily ever since. You have
- overestimated your own importance to him and your influence over him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A great fear awed her into silence. For the first time in all her struggle
- with her father the sense suddenly came into her heart of her dependence
- on Gaston’s love for the very desire to live, and for the first time she
- realised the possibility of losing him. What if he should press his great
- ambitions to successful issue while she stood irresolute and tortured him
- with her indecision? If he could win the world’s applause without her,
- might he not, when successful, cease to need her? Her breast heaved with
- the tumult of uncertainty. What if another woman saw and loved him, and
- drew near to him in his hours of soul loneliness and struggle, and he had
- learned to see her face with joy! The conviction came crushing upon her
- that she had not responded bravely to this powerful man’s singular
- devotion into which he had poured without reserve his deepest passion. Had
- he weighed her and found her wanting in some dark hour in her absence? Her
- heart was in her throat at the thought!
- </p>
- <p>
- The General watched her keenly for several moments, and thought at last he
- had broken the spell. He believed he could now tell her of the cloud that
- hung over Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I said, Sallie, that I believed Gaston a dangerous man. I did not speak
- lightly. We have had terrible riots in Independence while you were absent
- in which Gaston was the leader of an armed revolution which overturned the
- city and county government. Two thousand men were under arms for a week
- and several were killed and wounded on both sides. The results were good
- as a whole, I confess. We have a decent government and we have security of
- property and life, but such methods will lead to civil war.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Her face grew tense, and she looked at her father with breathless interest
- during this recital.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Was he in danger in those riots?” she slowly asked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and I expect him to be killed at an early day if he continues his
- present methods. A mob of five hundred negroes attempted to kill him. This
- was one of the causes that led to the Revolution.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She was on her feet now pale and trembling with excitement.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Where is he?” she gasped.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, my dear, it’s useless to get excited. The trouble is all over and a
- new Mayor and police force are in charge of the city. But he is resting
- under a serious cloud at present. He is held in jail at Asheville on a
- charge of felony, and a charge of murder is being pressed.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “In jail! in jail!” she cried incredulously while her eyes filled with
- tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, and Allan believes these ugly charges will be proved in the United
- States court, and he will be convicted.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She did not seem to hear the last sentence.
- </p>
- <p>
- “In jail!” she repeated, “my lover, to whom I have given my life, and you,
- my father, while I was three thousand miles away stood by and did not lift
- a hand to help him?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Has he not been my bitterest enemy, seeking to insult me!” thundered the
- General.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, he never insulted you, or spoke one unkind word about you in his
- life. Oh! this is shameful! God forgive me that I was not here!” Tears
- were streaming down her face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You hold me responsible for the crazy young scamp’s career?” cried the
- General indignantly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not another word to me!” she exclaimed. “You shall not abuse him in my
- presence.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General was afraid of her when she used the tone of voice in which she
- uttered that sentence. He had heard it but once before, and that was when
- she told him she was a free woman twenty-one years old, and he had broken
- down. He looked at her now, fearing to speak. At length he said, “I have
- engaged a suite of rooms for you here at the Waldorf-Astoria, my dear, for
- the winter. I hope you will enjoy the season. Let us change this painful
- subject.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I do not want the rooms,” she firmly replied, “I am going to Asheville on
- the first train.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General stormed and raged for an hour, but she made no reply. Her
- mother was suffering from the effects of the voyage and took no part in
- this storm.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But your mother will not be able to accompany you. Surely you will not
- disgrace me by visiting that man in jail!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will. And when he is released I will return. I will visit Stella Holt.
- I shall have ample protection.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General was afraid to oppose her in this dangerous mood, and begged
- her mother to try to prevent her going. Sallie sent Gaston a telegram that
- she was coming.
- </p>
- <p>
- In obedience to the General’s request her mother called her into her room
- that night and they had a long talk and cry in each other’s arms.
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Worth did not try very hard to persuade her not to go. Down in her
- own woman’s soul she knew what she would do under similar conditions, and
- she was too honest with her child to try to deceive her. She only made
- love to her mother-fashion.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Mama,” cried Sallie, burying her face beside her mother as she lay in
- bed. “I am at a great soul crisis. I don’t know what to do. I feel lonely,
- helpless and heart-sick. You are a woman. Put your dear arms about me and
- help me to know the truth and my duty. I want to ask you a question.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is it, darling? I ’ll answer it, if I can,” she replied
- stroking her dark hair tenderly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Do you believe these stories about Charlie’s character?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Not one word of them!” she promptly answered.
- </p>
- <p>
- An impulsive kiss and a sob!
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dear Mother!” she said in a low tearful voice. “And now one more. Papa
- has been dinning into my ears his own fickleness in love when young and
- the fact that he knows in a long life that love is of little importance in
- a man’s existence. He says that I can forget and love again with equal
- intensity and bet’ter judgment. Can one treat thus lightly the soul’s
- deepest instincts and still find life rich and worthy of effort?” Her
- voice broke and she continued slowly and tremblingly, as she held one of
- her mother’s hands tightly, “Now, Mama dear, heart to heart, tell me as
- you would talk in your inmost soul to God, do you believe this is true?
- You have sounded life’s deep meaning Is this all you know of life? You
- love me. Tell me truly?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, darling, a woman can not deny this deep yearning of her soul and
- live. I would tear my tongue out sooner than deceive you in such an hour.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Sweet Mother!” she softly murmured again as she kissed her good night.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0058" id="link2HCH0058"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XII—THE SPLENDOUR OF SHAMELESS LOVE
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN Gaston
- received her telegram in jail he was seated by a window looking out
- through the bars on Mt. Pisgah’s distant peak looming in grandeur amid a
- sea of smaller blue mountain waves. He read the message and his soul was
- filled with a great peace.
- </p>
- <p>
- “At last! at last! These prison bars, they are good! I could kiss them. I
- can never be grateful enough to my enemies!”
- </p>
- <p>
- He had taken his prison as a joke from the first, sneering at the judge
- who had committed him. He knew that every day he stayed in that jail he
- was becoming more and more the master of the people. If McLeod had tried
- he could not have played into his hands with more fatal certainty. Five
- hundred citizens of Independence had wired him their congratulations and
- offered him any assistance he desired, from unlimited money for defence to
- a delegation to tear the jail down.
- </p>
- <p>
- He declined any assistance. He knew the storm would break over their heads
- soon enough, and they would be delighted to get rid of him. In the
- meantime he gave himself up to his thoughts about the woman he loved, and
- wondered what change had suddenly come over her to send him that message.
- He felt sure the great crisis in their life had come. What would it be? A
- sorrowful surrender on her part to her father’s iron will and a tearful
- good-bye forever, or the full surrender of her woman’s soul and body to
- the dominion of his love?
- </p>
- <p>
- He was glad the hour had struck that should decide. He trembled at the
- import of her answer but he was ready to receive it.
- </p>
- <p>
- A carriage rolled into the jail enclosure and two young ladies alighted.
- One of them stopped in the sitting room for visitors, and he heard the
- tramp of a man’s heavy feet on the stairs and after it the tread of a
- woman like a soft echo.
- </p>
- <p>
- The key grated in the lock, the door opened. She looked into his eyes for
- just an instant of searching soul revelation, saw the yearning and the
- grateful tears, and with a glad cry sprang into his arms.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You do love me!” she passionately cried.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Love you? I drew you back across the sea with my love. I knew you would
- come. I willed it with a power you couldn’t resist.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I never got your letters, and I was hungry to see you,” she whispered.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And I never got yours, and drew you back by the power of a great heart
- purpose.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Forgive me, for being away from you when you were in danger.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I was glad you were safe. Don’t let this jail alarm you. I ’ll be
- out too soon for my good I’m afraid.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No other woman has come into your heart to cheer it even with her
- friendship since I’ve been away, has she?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What a silly question. I’ve never looked at any other woman since the day
- I first saw you!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tell me you love me again!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I—love—you, unto the uttermost, in life, in death, forever!”
- he whispered tenderly.
- </p>
- <p>
- She sighed and smiled. “The sweetest music the ear of a woman ever heard!”
- she half laughed, half cried.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, my dear, you are a full-grown woman in the beauty of a perfect
- womanhood. For five years and more, I have waited and suffered. My life is
- an open book before you. When are you going to end this suspense? You must
- decide now whether your father’s will shall rule your life or my love?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Must I decide to-day?” she asked tremblingly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” he answered. “It is not fair to torture me longer.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I give up!” she tearfully exclaimed. “God forgive me if I am doing
- wrong! I can not resist you longer. I do not desire to,—I <i>will</i>
- not! I am all yours, forever—soul, body, will, honour, life—all!
- I can not live without you. I love you. I <i>love you!</i>—Kiss me!—again—ah,
- your lips are sweeter than honey! Am I bold to say it? I do not care, I am
- yours. Your arms are the bonds of my slavery and they are sweet!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston was trembling with the joy that flooded his being with these the
- first words of perfect faith and submissive love that had come from her
- lips. And he winced at the memory now of those hours of dissipation when
- he had doubted her. He tried to confess it and receive her absolution.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My dear, my joy is too great. It is pain, as well as joy. In the dark
- days of our first year of separation I thought once you had forgotten me.
- I went away into two weeks of debauchery. Your perfect love crushes me
- with its beauty and purity. I must confess this wrong to you. I must not
- deceive you in the smallest thing in this hour.”
- </p>
- <p>
- She placed her hand over his lips, “I will not hear it. I ought to have
- been braver and fought for my rights and yours. I will not hear one word
- of humiliation from you. I love you. You are my king. I love you, good or
- bad. I would love you if you were a murderer on the gallows. I can not
- help it. I do not wish to help it. I will follow you to the bottomless pit
- or to the throne of God and say it without fear to devil or angel. Kiss me
- again!—There, do not cry—let me see your beautiful brown eyes.
- I ’ll kiss the tears away. Tears are for my eyes not yours!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you will fix the day, dear?” he softly urged.
- </p>
- <p>
- “How soon would you like it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The sooner the better.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I fix to-day,” she said impulsively.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What, here, in this jail?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, where you are is heaven to me. I haven’t noticed the jail,” she said
- soberly.
- </p>
- <p>
- He looked at her a moment, strained her to his heart and brushed the tears
- of joy from his eyes.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My beautiful queen! This hour is worth every pain and every throb of
- anguish I have suffered. Its memory will encompass life with a great
- light.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ’ll go with Stella, see Dr. Durham who is here looking after
- your case, have him get the license, and we will be back in half an hour!”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher greeted her with delight. “Ah! Miss Sallie, if I had known a
- little thing like this would have brought you back, I would have hired a
- jail for him long ago, and put him in it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Doctor, I want you to get the license and marry us now, will you do it?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will I? Just watch me. I ’ll have the documents and be ready for
- the ceremony in fifteen minutes!” cried the preacher as he hurried to the
- office of the Register of Deeds.
- </p>
- <p>
- Sallie ran up to Mrs. Durham’s room, told her, and asked her to be one of
- the witnesses.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course, I will, Sallie. You are the one girl in the world I have
- always wanted Charlie to marry.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sallie slipped her arm around Mrs. Durham. “You don’t think I am doing
- wrong to disobey my parents thus, do you?” she faltered. “I feel just for
- a moment, now that I have decided, bruised and homesick,—I want my
- mother. Let me feel your arms about my neck just once. You are a woman.
- You love me as well as Charlie, tell me, am I doing wrong?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Durham kissed her. “I do love you child. It is a solemn hour for your
- soul. You alone can decide such a question. Any intrusion of advice in
- such a trial would be a sacrilege. Under ordinary conditions it would be a
- dangerous thing for a girl thus to leave her father’s roof and take this
- step that will decide forever her destiny. Marriage is something that
- swallows up life, the past, the present, the future. We seem to have never
- known anything else. I can only say, if I were in your place, knowing all
- I would do as you are doing.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sallie impulsively kissed her, bit her lips to keep back a tear, and held
- her hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I know your father well,” she continued. “He is a man I greatly admire.
- But he is unreasonable with any one who dares to cross his will. You could
- never get his consent now that his pride is aroused except by forcing it.
- When it is over, he will forgive you, and when he knows your lover as I
- know him, he will be as proud of his son-in-law as a peacock of his
- plumage.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, it is so sweet to hear just the advice one wishes in such an hour,”
- cried Sallie. “I shall always love you for these words.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I congratulate you on the end of your long hesitation. I know you
- will be happy. Any woman would be happy with the love of such a man, and
- he was made for you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then you don’t believe with Papa,” she said with a smile, “that his mouth
- is cruel, and that he will try to whip me in five years, do you?”
- </p>
- <p>
- Mrs. Durham laughed. “Yes, he will whip you, but they will be love licks
- and you will cry for more. Your lover is a rare and brilliant man. He is
- strong, rugged, resistless in will, fierce in his passions from the blood
- of sunny France in his veins, and masterful in life from the iron heritage
- of the hardier races. You have seen these traits. Wait until you know him
- as I do in his daily life, and you will find a wealth of patience and a
- depth of tenderness that will startle. I envy you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Thank you,” Sallie interrupted. “You don’t know how glad your words are
- to my heart. I’ve not seen much of that trait yet. I’ve been half afraid
- of him sometimes. Let me kiss you again.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The keeper of the jail treated Gaston with every consideration and
- arranged for the marriage to take place in the little sitting room where
- he allowed him to come on parole.
- </p>
- <p>
- The bride wore a plain travelling dress in which she had come from New
- York. She had driven from the depot past Stella Holt’s home, and with her
- straight to the jail.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston thought her the fairest vision that ever greeted the eye of man as
- he stood by her side; for he had seen that day the soul of a radiantly
- beautiful woman in the splendour of shameless love. His own soul was drunk
- with the joy of it all and his eyes now devoured her with their intense
- light.
- </p>
- <p>
- Standing there before the Preacher whom he loved as his father, and the
- foster mother who had wrapped his little shivering body in the warmth of a
- great heart that night the light of life went out in his own mother’s
- room, with Stella Holt’s sympathetic face reflecting her friend’s
- happiness, the marriage ceremony was performed. He took Sallie’s trembling
- hand in his and promised to love, honour and cherish her as long as life
- endured. And under his breath he added, “Here and hereafter—forever.”
- And then she looked into his smiling face with her blue eyes full of
- unspeakable love, and in a voice low and soft as the note of a flute, gave
- to him her life.
- </p>
- <p>
- And the Preacher said, “What God hath joined together, let not man put
- asunder!”
- </p>
- <p>
- She stayed there with him until the gathering twilight.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, I must hurry back to my father and win him. I will not come to you a
- beggar. My father shall not disinherit me. I am going to bring you my
- fortune, too.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! curse that fortune, dear! I’ve feared it was that keeping us apart so
- long.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t curse it. I like it, and I am going to win it for you. You are a
- man of genius. Your success is as sure as if it were already won. I will
- not come to you a helpless pauper. I have never been taught to do
- anything. I should like to cook for you if I knew how, and I am going to
- learn how. I am going to make you the most beautiful home that the heart
- of a woman can dream I’d rob the world for treasure for it. I am going to
- rob my dear old father. He has sworn to disinherit me if I marry without
- his consent. He shall not do it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then, don’t be long about it. You are my treasure. I can build you a snug
- little nest at Hambright.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I will only ask four weeks. Now do what I tell you. Sit down and write
- Papa a letter telling him I am your affianced bride and ask his consent to
- the celebration of our marriage within three weeks. That will produce an
- earthquake, and something will surely happen within four weeks.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He wrote the letter, and she looked over his shoulder. “You see, dear,”
- she said as she kissed him good-bye, “I love Papa so tenderly. You can’t
- understand how close the tie is between us, perhaps some day in our own
- home of which I’m dreaming you may understand as you can not now,” she
- added softly.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then for your sake, dearest, I hope you can win him. But I’m afraid of
- this plan of yours.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Leave it with me for a month, do just as I tell you, and then I ’ll
- obey you all the rest of our lives,—if your orders suit me,” she
- playfully added.
- </p>
- <p>
- She returned to Stella Holt’s, and Gaston went back to his jail room and
- dreamed that night he was sleeping in the Governor’s Palace.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0059" id="link2HCH0059"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XIII—A SPEECH THAT MADE HISTORY
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">W</span>HEN General Worth
- received Gaston’s brief and startling letter, the wires were hot between
- New York and Asheville for hours. His last message was a peremptory
- command to his daughter to join him immediately at Independence.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Sallie arrived at Oakwood the General was already there, and the
- storm broke in all its fury. At every bitter word she only quietly smiled,
- until the General was on the verge of collapse. Day after day he begged,
- pleaded, raged and finally took to hard swearing as he looked into her
- calm happy face.
- </p>
- <p>
- In the meantime McLeod and his henchman on the judge’s bench had seen a
- new light. The excitement over the arrest of Gaston seemed to have fanned
- the flames of the Red Shirt movement into a conflagration. He was alarmed
- at its meaning. The judge heard a rumour that five thousand Red Shirts
- were mobilising at the foot of the Blue Ridge near Hambright, and that
- they were going to march across the mountains, into Asheville, demolish
- the jail, liberate Gaston, and hang the judge who had committed him
- without bail.
- </p>
- <p>
- The rumour was a fake, but he was not taking any chances. He issued an
- order releasing Gaston on his own recognisance, and left for a vacation.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston returned to Hambright showered with congratulatory telegrams from
- every quarter of the state.
- </p>
- <p>
- He received a brief note from Sallie saying the war was on but had not
- reached its final climax, as the General was now devoting his best
- energies to the Democratic convention which was to meet in ten days, when
- he expected to crush any “fool movement of young upstarts!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston knew of his organisation but he was sure the number of delegates
- pledged to the General’s machine was not enough to dominate the body, even
- if he could hold them in line.
- </p>
- <p>
- When this convention met at Raleigh, no body of representative men were
- ever more completely at sea as to the platform or policy upon which they
- would appeal to the people for the overthrow of an enemy. The coalition
- that conquered the state and held it with the grip of steel for four years
- was stronger than ever and was absolutely certain of victory. The enormous
- patronage of the Federal Government had been in their hands for four
- years, and with the state, county and municipal officers, a host of
- powerful leaders had been gathered around McLeod’s daring personality.
- Apparently he was about to fasten the rule of the Negro and his allies on
- the state for a generation.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Gaston entered the convention hall he received an ovation, heartfelt
- and generous, but it did not reach the point of a disturbing element in
- the calculations of the three or four prominent candidates for Governor.
- General Worth had drilled his cohorts so thoroughly in opposition to him,
- that any sort of stampeding was out of the question.
- </p>
- <p>
- The platform committee was composed of seven leaders, among whom was
- Gaston. There was a long wrangle over the document, and at length when
- they reported, a sensation was created. For the first time since their
- triumph over Simon Legree the committee was divided, and, refusing to
- agree, submitted majority and minority reports. The committee stood five
- for the majority and two for the minority.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston and a daring young politician from the heart of the Black Belt
- signed the minority report. The majority report as submitted, was merely a
- rehash of the old platform on which they had been defeated by McLeod
- twice, with slight additional impeachment of the incapacity and corruption
- of the State Administration. The delegates from the Black Belt and the
- counties where the Red Shirts had been holding their noonday parades
- received it with silence. General Worth’s machine cheered it vigourously,
- and gave a rousing reception to their chosen champion who made the
- presentation speech.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Gaston rose to offer and defend his minority report, a sudden hush
- fell on the sea of eager faces. A few men in the convention had heard him
- speak. All had heard he was an orator of power, and were anxious to see
- him. His leadership in the Revolution of Independence and his subsequent
- arrest and imprisonment had made him a famous man.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Convention,” he began with a deliberate
- clear voice which spoke of greater reserve power than the words he uttered
- conveyed—“I move to substitute for this document of meaningless
- platitudes the following resolution on which to make this campaign.”
- </p>
- <p>
- You could have heard a pin fall, as in ringing tones like the call of a
- bugle to battle he read, “Whereas, it is impossible to build a state
- inside a state of two antagonistic races, And whereas, the future North
- Carolinian must therefore be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto, Resolved, that
- the hour has now come in our history to eliminate the Negro from our life
- and reëstablish for all time the government of our fathers.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The delegates from New Hanover, Craven, and Halifax counties, the great
- centres of the Black Belt, sprang on their seats with a roar of applause
- that shook the building, and pandemonium broke loose. When one great wave
- subsided another followed. It was ten minutes before order was restored
- while Gaston stood calmly surveying the storm.
- </p>
- <p>
- Just before him sat General Worth, pale and trembling with excitement. The
- audacity of those resolutions had swept him for a moment off his feet and
- back into the years of his own daring young manhood. He could not help
- admiring this challenge of the modern world to stand at the bar of
- elemental manhood and make good its right to existence. He was about to
- summon his messengers and rally his lieutenants when Gaston began to
- speak, and his first words chained his attention.
- </p>
- <p>
- While the tumult raised by his resolutions was in progress he lifted his
- eye toward the gallery and there just above him where it curved toward the
- platform sat his beautiful secret bride. His heart leaped. Her face was
- aflame with emotion, her eyes flashing with love and pride. She slyly
- touched with her lips the tip of her finger and blew a kiss across the
- intervening space. He smiled into her soul a look of gratitude, and with
- every nerve strung to its highest tension resumed his place by the
- speaker’s stand. When the tumult died away he began a speech that fixed
- the history of a state for a thousand years.
- </p>
- <p>
- His resolutions had wrought the crowd to the highest pitch of excitement,
- and his words, clear, penetrating, and deliberate thrilled his hearers
- with electrical power.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Gentlemen,” he said, and the slightest whisper was hushed. “The history
- of man is a series of great pulse beats, whose flood overwhelms his future
- and fixes its life. Like the dammed torrent on a mountain side, it breaks
- the conservatism that holds it stagnant for generations and floods the
- world with its sweep. Theories, creeds, and institutions hallowed by age,
- are cast as rubbish on the scarred hills that mark its course. The old
- world is buried and a new one appears.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Anglo-Saxon is entering the new century with the imperial crown of
- the ages on his brow and the sceptre of the infinite in his hands.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The Old South fought against the stars in their courses—the
- resistless tide of the rising consciousness of Nationality and
- World-Mission. The young South greets the new era and glories in its
- manhood. He joins his voice in the cheers of triumph which are ushering in
- this all-conquering Saxon. Our old men dreamed of local supremacy. We
- dream of the conquest of the globe. Threads of steel have knit state to
- state. Steam and electricity have silently transformed the face of the
- earth, annihilated time and space, and swept the ocean barriers from the
- path of man. The black steam shuttles of commerce have woven continent to
- continent.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We believe that God has raised up our race, as he ordained Israel of old,
- in this world-crisis to establish and maintain for weaker races, as a
- trust for civilisation, the principles of civil and religious Liberty and
- the forms of Constitutional Government.
- </p>
- <p>
- “In this hour of crisis, our flag has been raised over ten millions of
- semi-barbaric black men in the foulest slave pen of the Orient. Shall we
- repeat the farce of ‘67, reverse the order of nature, and make these black
- people our rulers? If not, why should the African here, who is not their
- equal, be allowed to imperil our life?”
- </p>
- <p>
- A whirlwind of applause shook the building.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A crisis approaches in the history of the human race. The world is
- stirred by its consciousness today. The nation must gird up her loins and
- show her right to live,—to master the future or be mastered in the
- struggle. New questions press upon us for solution.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Shall this grand old commonwealth lag behind and sink into the filth and
- degradation of a Negroid corruption in this solemn hour of the world?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No! No!” screamed a thousand voices.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What is our condition to-day in the dawn of the twentieth century? If we
- attempt to move forward we are literally chained to the body of a
- festering Black Death!
- </p>
- <p>
- “Fifty of our great counties are again under the heel of the Negro, and
- the state is in his clutches. Our city governments are debauched by his
- vote. His insolence threatens our womanhood, and our children are beaten
- by negro toughs on the way to school while we pay his taxes. Shall we
- longer tolerate negro inspectors of white schools, and negroes in charge
- of white institutions? Shall we longer tolerate the arrest of white women
- by negro officers and their trial before negro magistrates?
- </p>
- <p>
- “Let the manhood of the Aryan race with its four thousand years of
- authentic history answer that question!”
- </p>
- <p>
- With blazing eyes, and voice that rang with the deep peal of defiant
- power, Gaston hurled that sentence like a thunder bolt into the souls of
- his two thousand hearers. The surging host sprang to their feet and
- shouted back an answer that made the earth tremble!
- </p>
- <p>
- Lifting his hand for silence he continued, “It is no longer a question of
- bad government. It is a question of impossible government. We lag behind
- the age dragging the decaying corpse to which we are chained.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Who shall deliver us from the body of this death?
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hear me, men of my race, Norman and Celt, Angle and Saxon, Dane and
- Frank, Huguenot and German martyr blood!
- </p>
- <p>
- “The hour has struck when we must rise in our might, break the chains that
- bind us to this corruption, strike down the Negro as a ruling power, and
- restore to our children their birthright, which we received, a priceless
- legacy, from our fathers.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I believe in God’s call to our race to do His work in history. What other
- races failed to do, you wrought in this continental wilderness, fighting
- pestilence, hunger, cold, wild beasts, and savage hordes, until out of it
- all has grown the mightiest nation of the earth.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Is the Negro worthy to rule over you?
- </p>
- <p>
- “Ask history. The African has held one fourth of this globe for 3000
- years. He has never taken one step in progress or rescued one jungle from
- the ape and the adder, except as the slave of a superior race.
- </p>
- <p>
- “In Hayti and San Domingo he rose in servile insurrection and butchered
- fifty thousand white men, women and children a hundred years ago. He has
- ruled these beautiful islands since. Did he make progress with the example
- of Aryan civilisation before him? No. But yesterday we received reports of
- the discovery of cannibalism in Hayti.
- </p>
- <p>
- “He has had one hundred years of trial in the Northern states of this
- Union with every facility of culture and progress, and he has not produced
- one man who has added a feather’s weight to the progress of humanity. In
- an hour of madness the dominion of the ten great states of the South was
- given him without a struggle. A saturnalia of infamy followed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Shall we return to this? You must answer. The corruption of his presence
- in our body politic is beyond the power of reckoning. We drove the
- Carpet-bagger from our midst, but the Scalawag, our native product, is
- always with us to fatten on this corruption and breed death to society.
- The Carpet-bagger was a wolf, the Scalawag is a hyena. The one was a
- highwayman, the other a sneak.
- </p>
- <p>
- “So long as the Negro is a factor in our political life, will violence and
- corruption stain our history. We can not afford longer to play with
- violence. We must remove the cause.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Suffrage in America has touched the lowest tide-mud of degradation. If
- our cities and our Southern civilisation are to be preserved, there must
- be a return to the sanity of the founders of this Republic.
- </p>
- <p>
- “A government of the wealth, virtue and intelligence of the community, by
- the debased and the criminal, is a relapse to elemental barbarism to which
- no race of freemen can submit.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Shall the future North Carolinian be an Anglo-Saxon or a Mulatto? That is
- the question before you.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Nations are made by men, not by paper constitutions and paper ballots. We
- are not free because we have a Constitution. We have a Constitution
- because our pioneer fathers who cleared the wilderness and dared the might
- of kings, were freemen. It was in their blood, the tutelage of generation
- on generation beyond the seas, the evolution of centuries of struggle and
- sacrifice.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you can make men out of paper, then it is possible with a scratch of a
- pen in the hand of a madman to transform by its magic a million slaves
- into a million kings.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We grant the Negro the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of
- happiness if he can be happy without exercising kingship over the
- Anglo-Saxon race, or dragging us down to his level. But if he can not find
- happiness except in lording it over a superior race, let him look for
- another world in which to rule. There is not room for both of us on this
- continent!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Again and again Gaston raised his hand to still the mad tumult of applause
- his words evoked.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And we will fight it out on this line, if it takes a hundred years, two
- hundred, five hundred, or a thousand. It took Spain eight hundred years to
- expel the Moors. When the time comes the Anglo-Saxon can do in one century
- what the Spaniard did in eight.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We have been congratulated on our self-restraint under the awful
- provocation of the past four years. There is a limit beyond which we dare
- not go, for at this point, self-restraint becomes pusillanimous and means
- the loss of manhood.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He then reviewed with thrilling power the history of the state and the
- proud part played in the development of the Republic. He showed how this
- border wilderness of North Carolina became the cradle of American
- Democracy and the typical commonwealth of freemen.
- </p>
- <p>
- He played with the heart-strings of his hearers in this close personal
- history as a great master touches the strings of a harp. His voice was now
- low and quivering with the music of passion, and then soft and caressing.
- He would swing them from laughter to tears in a single sentence, and in
- the next, the lightning flash of a fierce invective drove into their
- hearts its keen blade so suddenly the vast crowd started as one man and
- winced at its power.
- </p>
- <p>
- Through it all he was conscious of two blue eyes swimming in tears looking
- down on him from the gallery.
- </p>
- <p>
- The crowd now had grown so entranced, and the torrent of his speech so
- rapid they forgot to cheer and feared to cheer lest they should lose a
- word of the next sentence. They hung breathless on every flash of feeling
- from his face or eloquent gesture.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I am not talking of a vague theory of constructive dominion,” he
- continued, “when I refer to the Negro supremacy under which our
- civilisation is being degraded. I use words in their plain meaning. Negro
- supremacy means the rule of a party in which negroes predominate and that
- means a Negro oligarchy.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I call your attention to one typical county of over forty thus degraded,
- the county of Craven, whose quaint old city was once the Capital of this
- commonwealth. What are the facts? The negro office-holders of Craven
- county include a Congressman, a member of the Legislature, a Register of
- Deeds, the City Attorney, the Coroner, two Deputy Sheriffs, two County
- Commissioners, a Member of the School Board, three Road Overseers, four
- Constables, twenty-seven Magistrates, three City Aldermen and four
- Policemen. There are sixty-two negro officials in this county of 12,000
- inhabitants, and their member of the Legislature is a convicted felon. The
- white people represent ninety-five per cent of the wealth and intelligence
- of the community, and pay ninety-five per cent of its taxes and are
- voiceless in its government.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Would a county in Massachusetts submit to such infamy? No, ten thousand
- times, no! There is not a county in the North from Maine to California
- that would submit to it twenty-four hours. Will the children of Lexington,
- Concord and Bunker Hill demand such submission from the children of
- Washington and Jefferson? No. The passions that obscured reason have
- subsided. The Anglo-Saxon race is united and has entered upon its world
- mission.
- </p>
- <p>
- “We will take from an unprofitable servant the ballot he has abused. To
- him that hath shall be given, and from him that hath not shall be taken
- away even that which he hath. It is the law of nature. It is the law of
- God.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, I confess it,” he continued, “I am in a sense narrow and provincial.
- I love mine own people. Their past is mine, their present mine, their
- future is a divine trust. I hate the dish water of modern
- world-citizenship. A shallow cosmopolitanism is the mask of death for the
- individual. It is the froth of civilisation, as crime is its dregs. Race,
- and race pride, are the ordinances of life. The true citizen of the world
- loves his country. His country is a part of God’s world.
- </p>
- <p>
- “So I confess I love my people. I love the South,—the stolid silent
- South, that for a generation has sneered at paper-made policies, and
- scorned public opinion. The South, old-fashioned, mediaeval, provincial,
- worshipping the dead, and raising men rather than making money, family
- loving, home building, tradition ridden. The South, cruel and cunning when
- fighting a treacherous foe, with brief volcanic bursts of wrath and
- vengeance. The South, eloquent, bombastic, romantic, chivalrous, lustful,
- proud, kind and hospitable. The South with her beautiful women and brave
- men. The South, generous and reckless, never knowing her own interest, but
- living her own life in her own way!—Yes, I love her! In my soul are
- all her sins and virtues. And with it all she is worthy to live.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The historian tells us that all things pass in time. Wolves whelp and
- stable in the palaces of dead kings and forgotten civilisations. Memphis,
- Thebes and Babylon are but names to-day. So New Orleans and New York may
- perish. African antiquarians may explore their ruins and speculate upon
- their life; but we may safely fix upon a thousand centuries of intervening
- time. On your shoulders now rests the burden of civilisation. We must face
- its responsibilities. For my part, I believe in your future.
- </p>
- <p>
- “The courage of the Celt, the nobility of the Norman, the vigour of the
- Viking, the energy of the Angle, the tenacity of the Saxon, the daring of
- the Dane, the gallantry of the Gaul, the freedom of the Frank, the
- earth-hunger of the Roman and the stoicism of the Spartan are all yours by
- the lineal heritage of blood, from sire and dame through hundreds of
- generations and through centuries of culture.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Will you halt now and surrender to a mob of ragged negroes led by white
- cowards who at the first clash of conflict will hide in sewers?
- </p>
- <p>
- “I ask you, my people, freemen, North Carolinians, to rise to-day and make
- good your right to live! The time for platitudes is past. Let us as men
- face the world and say what we mean.
- </p>
- <p>
- “This is a white man’s government, conceived by white men, and maintained
- by white men through every year of its history,—and by the God of
- our Fathers it shall be ruled by white men until the Arch-angel shall call
- the end of time!
- </p>
- <p>
- “If this be treason, let them that hear it make the most of it.
- </p>
- <p>
- “From the eighth day of November we will not submit to Negro dominion
- another day, another hour, another moment! Back of every ballot is a
- bayonet, and the red blood of the man who holds it. Let cowards hear, and
- remember this! Man has never yet voted away his right to a revolution.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Citizen kings, I call you to the consciousness of your kingship!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston closed and turned toward his seat, while the crowd hung breathless
- waiting for his next word. When they realised that he had finished, a
- rumble like the crash in midheaven of two storms rolled over the surging
- sea of men, broke against the girders of the roof like the thunder of the
- Hatteras surf lashed by a hurricane. Two thousand men went mad. With one
- common impulse they sprang to their feet, screaming, shouting, cheering,
- shaking each other’s hands, crying and laughing. With the sullen roar of
- crashing thunder another whirlwind of cheers swept the crowd, shook the
- earth, and pierced the sky with its challenge. Wave after wave of applause
- swept the building and flung their rumbling echoes among the stars. These
- patient kindly people, slow to anger, now terrible in wrath, were
- trembling with the pent-up passion and fury of years.
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0008.jpg" alt="0008 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0008.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- What power could resist their wrath!
- </p>
- <p>
- Through it all Gaston sat silent behind the group of the majority of the
- platform committee, with eyes devouring a beautiful face bending toward
- him from the gallery. She was softly weeping with love and pride too deep
- for words.
- </p>
- <p>
- While the tumult was still raging, before he was conscious of his
- presence, General Worth’s stalwart figure was bending over him, and
- grasping his hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My boy, I give it up. You have beaten me. I’m proud of you. I forgive
- everything for that speech. You can have my girl. The date you’ve fixed
- for the marriage suits me. Let us forget the past.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston pressed his hand muttering brokenly his thanks, and his soul sank
- within him at the thought of this proud old iron-willed warrior’s anger if
- he discovered their secret marriage.
- </p>
- <p>
- The General turned toward the side of the platform; for he had seen the
- flash of Sallie’s dress on the stairs of the balcony leading to the stage.
- He knew her keen eye had seen his surrender and his heart was hungry for
- the kiss of reconciliation that would restore their old perfect love.
- </p>
- <p>
- He met her at the foot of the stairs and she threw her arms impulsively
- around his neck.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Papa, dear! I am the happiest girl in the world. The two men of all
- men—the only two I love—are mine forever!”
- </p>
- <p>
- While the applause was still echoing and reëchoing over the sea of surging
- men, and thousands of excited people were crowding the windows from the
- outside and blocking the streets in every direction clamouring for
- admittance, a tall man with grey beard and stentorian voice, sprang on the
- platform. It was General Worth’s candidate for Governor. He had not
- consulted the General but he had an important motion to make. The crowd
- was stilled at last and his deep voice rang through the building,
- “Gentlemen, I move that the minority report offered by Charles Gaston”—again
- a thunder peal of applause—“be adopted as the platform by
- acclamation!”
- </p>
- <p>
- A storm of “ayes” burst from the throats of the delegates in a single
- breath like the crash of an explosion of dynamite.
- </p>
- <p>
- “And now that our eyes have seen the glory of the Lord, as we heard His
- messenger anointed to lead His people, I move that this convention
- nominate by acclamation for Governor—<i>Charles Gaston!</i>”
- </p>
- <p>
- Again two thousand men were on their feet shouting, cheering, shaking
- hands, hugging one another and weeping and yelling like maniacs.
- </p>
- <p>
- A speech had been made that changed the current of history, and fixed the
- status of life for millions of people.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0060" id="link2HCH0060"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XIV—THE RED SHIRTS
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">A</span>S soon as Gaston
- could leave the throngs of friends who were congratulating him on his
- remarkable speech and his certainty of election, he hastened to find
- Sallie.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My lover, my king!” she cried impulsively as he clasped her in his arms.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Your eyes kindled the fire in my soul and gave me the power to mould that
- crowd to my will!” he softly told her.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It is sweet to hear you say that!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “‘Now, my love, we are in an awful situation. What are we to do with the
- General storming around preparing for a grand wedding? What if that jailer
- gives out the news? McLeod can get it out of him if he ever suspects
- anything.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t worry, dear. I ’ll manage everything. We’ve fixed the
- wedding on the Inauguration day—so you can’t be defeated. We will be
- busy day and night getting ready my trousseau, and issuing our
- invitations. Papa will never dream that one ceremony has been performed
- already. He need never know it until we are ready to tell him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “If he discovers it, he will swear I have tried to humiliate him, and he
- will never forgive it. Telegraph me if anything happens, and I will come
- immediately. I can’t see you for weeks in the campaign, but I will write
- to you every day.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “His Excellency, the Governor of North Carolina!” she softly exclaimed
- with a dreamy look into his face. “My lover!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Don’t make me vain. I may be the Governor, but I shall always be the
- slave of a beautiful woman who came one day to a jail and made it a palace
- with the glory of her love!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I’m glad I didn’t wait for your success.”
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <p>
- The campaign which followed was the most remarkable ever conducted in the
- history of an American commonwealth. In the dawn of the twentieth century,
- a resistless movement was inaugurated to destroy the party in control of a
- state, and affiliated with the most powerful National Administration since
- Andrew Jackson’s, on the open declaration of their intention to nullify
- the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the
- Republic.
- </p>
- <p>
- There was no violence except the calm demonstration in open daylight of
- omnipotent racial power, and the defiance of any foe to lift a hand in
- protest.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Gaston spoke at Independence, five thousand white men dressed in
- scarlet shirts rode silently through the streets in solemn parade, and six
- thousand negroes watched them with fear. There was no cheering or
- demonstration of any kind. The silence of the procession gave it the
- import of a religious rite. A thousand picked men were in line from
- Hambright and Campbell county and they formed the guard of honour for
- their candidate for Governor.
- </p>
- <p>
- Like scenes were enacted everywhere. Again the Anglo-Saxon race was fused
- into a solid mass. The result was a foregone conclusion.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0061" id="link2HCH0061"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XV—THE HIGHER LAW
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">M</span>cLEOD knew from
- the day of that outburst which followed Gaston’s speech in the Democratic
- convention that no power on earth could save his ticket. To the world he
- put on a bold face and made his fight to the last ditch, predicting
- victory.
- </p>
- <p>
- His secret anger against the Preacher and Gaston, his pet, knew no bounds.
- Chagrined at his repulse by Mrs. Durham and the attitude of contempt she
- had maintained toward him, his tongue began to wag her name in slander to
- the crowd of young satellites loafing around his office in Hambright.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, boys,” he said, “the Preacher is a great man, but his wife is
- greater. She’s the handsomest woman in the state in spite of a grey thread
- or two in her rich chestnut hair. She has the most beautiful mouth that
- ever tempted the soul of a man—and boys, my lips know what it means
- to touch it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- And when they stared with open eyes at this statement, McLeod shook his
- head, laughed and whispered, “Say nothing about it—but facts are
- facts!”
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod chuckled over the certainty of the shame and suffering that would
- wring the Preacher’s heart when dirty gossips of a village had magnified
- these words into a complete drama of scandal. For all preachers McLeod had
- profound contempt, and he felt secure now from personal harm.
- </p>
- <p>
- The day the Preacher first heard of these rumours was the occasion of
- Gaston’s campaign address under the old oak in the square. He had looked
- forward to this day with boyish pride mingled with a great fatherly love.
- It would be his triumph. He had stirred this boy’s imagination and moulded
- his character in the pliant hours of his childhood. He had told himself
- that day he spent with him in the woods fishing, that he had kindled a
- fire in his soul that would not go out till it blazed on the altar of a
- redeemed country. And he was living to see that day.
- </p>
- <p>
- The streets and square were thronged with such a multitude as the village
- had never seen since it was built. But the Preacher was not among them at
- the hour the speaking began.
- </p>
- <p>
- A simple old friend from the country asked him about these rumours. He
- turned pale as death, made no answer, and walked rapidly toward his study
- in the church where his library was now arranged. He was dazed with
- horror. It was the first he had heard of it. One thing in his estimate of
- life had always been as securely fixed and sheltered in his thought as his
- faith in God, and that was his love for his wife, and his perfect faith in
- her honour.
- </p>
- <p>
- He closed his door and locked it and sat down trying to think.
- </p>
- <p>
- Had he not grown careless in the certainty of his wife’s devotion, and his
- own quiet but intense love? Had he not forgotten the yearning of a woman’s
- heart for the eternal repetition of love’s language of sign and word?
- </p>
- <p>
- The tears were in his eyes now, and he felt that his heart would beat to
- death and break within him!
- </p>
- <p>
- He saw that his enemy had struck at his weakest spot, and struck to kill.
- </p>
- <p>
- He lifted his face toward the walls in a vague unseeing look and his eyes
- rested on a pair of crossed swords over a bookcase. They had been handed
- down to him from a long line of fighting ancestors. He arose, took them
- down mechanically, and drew one from its scabbard. How snugly its rough
- hilt fitted his nervous hand grip! He felt a curious throbbing in this
- hilt like a pulse, it was alive, and its spirit stirred deep waters in his
- soul that had never been ruffled before.
- </p>
- <p>
- He recalled vaguely in memory things he knew had never happened to him and
- yet were part of his inmost life.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Damn him!” he involuntarily hissed as he gripped the sword hilt with the
- instinctive power of the fighting animal that sleeps beneath the skin of
- all our culture and religion.
- </p>
- <p>
- And then his eyes rested on a quaint little daguerreotype picture of his
- wife in her bridal dress, her sweet girlish face full of innocent pride
- and warm with his love. By its side he saw the portrait of their dead boy.
- How he recalled now every hour of that wonderful period preceding his
- birth—the unspeakable pride and tenderness with which he watched
- over his young wife! He recalled the morning of his birth, and the heart
- rending, piteous cries of young motherhood that tore his heart until the
- nails of his own fingers cut the flesh and drew the blood. How the minutes
- seemed long hours, and how at last he bent over her, softly kissed the
- drawn white lips, and gazed with tearful wonder and awe on the little red
- bundle resting on her breast! He recalled the tremor of weariness in her
- voice when she drew his head down close and whispered, “I didn’t mind the
- pain, John, though I couldn’t help the cries. He’s yours and mine—I
- am as proud as a queen. Now our souls are one in him—I am tired—I
- must sleep.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Every movement of his past life seemed to stand out in this crisis with
- fiery clearness. He seemed to live in an instant whole years in every
- detail of that closeness of personal life that makes marriage a part of
- every stroke of the heart.
- </p>
- <p>
- At last he set his lips firmly and said, “Yes, damn him, I will kill him
- as I would a snake!” He sat down and wrote his resignation as pastor of
- the church, left it on his desk, and strode hurriedly from the study
- leaving his door open. He purchased a revolver and a box of cartridges and
- walked straight to McLeod’s office.
- </p>
- <p>
- The speaking was over, and McLeod was alone writing letters. He looked up
- with scant politeness as the Preacher entered and motioned him to a seat.
- </p>
- <p>
- Instead of seating himself, he closed the door, and standing erect in
- front of it, said, “Allan McLeod, you are the author of an infamous
- slander reflecting on the honour of my wife!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Indeed!” McLeod sneered, wheeling in his chair.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I always knew that you were a moral leper”—
- </p>
- <p>
- “Of course, Doctor, of course, but don’t get excited,” laughed McLeod
- enjoying the marks of anguish on his face.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But that your lecherous body should dream of invading the sanctity of my
- home, and your tongue attempt to smirch its honour, was beyond my wildest
- dream of your effrontery. How dare you?”—
- </p>
- <p>
- “Dare? Dare, Preacher?” interrupted McLeod still sneering. “Why, by ‘The
- Higher Law,’ of course. You have been teaching all your life that there
- are higher laws than paper-made statutes. You have trained this county in
- crime under this beautiful ideal. Surely I may follow the teachings of a
- master in Israel?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What do you mean, you red-headed devil?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Softly, Preacher,” smiled McLeod. “Simply this. You expound ‘The Higher
- Law,’ for political consumption. I apply it to all life.
- </p>
- <p>
- “There are but two real laws of man’s nature, hunger and love—all
- others change with time and progress. These are the higher laws, in fact
- they are the highest laws. The stupid conventions that superstition has
- built around them may hold back the weak, but the powerful have always
- defied them. Your brilliant exposition of the higher law in politics first
- set my mind to work, and led me to a complete emancipation from the
- slavery of conventionalism in which fools have held society for centuries.
- There are conventional laws and superstitions about the little ceremony
- called marriage cherished by the weak-minded. There is a higher law of
- nature. The brave live this life of daring freedom, while cowards cling to
- forms. Do I make myself clear?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Perfectly so, you mottled leper. You think that because I am a preacher,
- I am a poltroon, and that you can play with me without danger to your
- skin. Well, I was a man before I was a preacher. There are some things
- deeper than the forms of religion, if you wish to push the higher law to
- its last application. You have found that quick in my soul, mine enemy! I
- have resigned my church—to kill you. There is not room for you and
- me on this earth”—
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br /><a name="linkimage-0010" id="linkimage-0010"> </a>
- </p>
- <div class="fig" style="width:50%;">
- <img src="images/0484.jpg" alt="0484 " width="100%" /><br />
- </div>
- <h5>
- <a href="images/0484.jpg"><img src="images/enlarge.jpg" alt="" /> </a>
- </h5>
- <p>
- McLeod sprang to his feet, his soul chilled by the tone in which the
- threat was uttered. He started to call for help, and looked down the
- gleaming barrel of a revolver.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Move now or open your mouth, and I kill you instantly. Sit down. I give
- you five minutes to write your last message to this world.”
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod sank into his seat trembling like a leaf, with the perspiration
- standing out on his forehead in cold beads. Now and then he glanced
- furtively at the stem face of blind fury towering over his crouching form.
- </p>
- <p>
- Unable to endure the terrible strain, he sank to the floor whining,
- slobbering, begging in abject cowardice for his life. He crawled toward
- the Preacher, reached out his hand and touched his foot.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My God, Doctor, you are mad. You will not commit murder. You are a
- minister of Jesus Christ. Have mercy. I am at your feet. Your wife is as
- pure as an angel. I only said what I did to torture you”—
- </p>
- <p>
- “Get up you snake!” hissed the Preacher, stamping his body with all his
- might until McLeod screamed with pain and scrambled to his feet cowering
- and whining like a cur.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Finish your letter. You will never leave this room alive.”
- </p>
- <p>
- A long pitiful sob broke the stillness, and McLeod was looking into the
- Preacher’s face in vain for a ray of hope.
- </p>
- <p>
- Suddenly Gaston burst into the room trembling with excitement. “My God,
- Doctor, what does this mean?” he cried seizing the revolver.
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod sprang toward Gaston, groaning and crawling toward his feet. “Save
- me Gaston,—the Doctor’s gone mad—he is about to kill me!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Charlie, I must!” pleaded the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, no, this is madness. I thank God I am in time. I missed you at the
- speaking, and hearing a rumour of this slander I hurried to find you. I
- saw your study open and read your letter. I knew I’d find you here. I ’ll
- manage McLeod.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher sat down crying. McLeod had crawled back to his desk and was
- mopping his face. Gaston walked over to him and said with slow trembling
- emphasis, “I give you twelve hours to close this office, wind up your
- business, and leave. In the meantime you will write a denial of this
- slander satisfactory to me for publication. If you ever open your mouth
- again about my foster-mother or put your foot in this county, I will kill
- you. I expect your letter ready in two hours.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston took the Preacher by the arm and led him down the stairs and back
- to his study. In the reaction, there was a pitiable breakdown.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh! Charlie, you’ve saved me from an unspeakable horror. Yes, I was mad.
- I was proud and wilful. I thought I knew myself. To-day, I have looked
- into the bottom of hell. I have seen the depths of my own heart. Yes, I
- have in me the germs of all sin and crime. I am the brother of every
- thief, of every murderer, of every scarlet woman of the streets, that ever
- stood in the stocks, or climbed the steps of a gallows”—
- </p>
- <p>
- “Hush, I will not listen to such talk. You are a man, that’s all,”
- interrupted Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “But God’s mercy is great,” he went on. “I have tried to live for my
- people and my country, not for myself. If I have failed to be a faithful
- husband, this is my plea to God, I have not thought of myself, or of my
- own, but of others.”
- </p>
- <p>
- After an hour he was quiet, and turning to Gaston he said, “Charlie, go
- tell your mother to come here, I want to see her.”
- </p>
- <p>
- When she came, and sat down beside him with quiet dignity, she said, “Now
- Doctor, say what you wish, Charlie has told me much, but not all. Let us
- look into each other’s souls to-day.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I only want to ask you, dear,” he said tenderly, “just how far your
- friendship for this villain may have led you. I know you are innocent of
- any crime. I only want to know the measure of my own guilt.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “You know, John,” she said, using his first name, as she had not for
- years, “he has always interested me from a boy, and in the darkest hour of
- my heart’s life, when I felt your love growing cold and slipping away from
- me, and my faith in all things fading, he attempted to make vulgar love to
- me. I repulsed him with scorn, and have since treated him with contempt.
- You know that I kissed him once when he was a boy. I have told you all.
- What do you propose to do?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “What will I do, my darling?” he softly asked, taking her hand. “Begin
- anew from this moment to love and cherish, honour and protect you unto
- death. You are my wife. I took you a beautiful child, innocent of the
- world. If you have failed in the least, I have failed. If you have
- stumbled in the dark even in your thought, I will lift you up in my arms
- and soothe you as a mother would her babe. If you should fall into the
- bottomless pit, into the pit and down to the lowest depths of hell I would
- go, and lift you in the arms of my love. To break the tie that binds us is
- unthinkable. It has passed into the infinite. Not only are our souls one
- in a little boy’s grave, but there is something so absorbing, so
- interwoven with the hidden things of nature in our union that I defy all
- the fiends in perdition to break it. Love is eternal. And your love for me
- was the great fixed thing in my life like my faith in the living God!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Oh, John, you are breaking my heart now, when I think that I doubted your
- love! I could have brooked your anger, but this overwhelms me!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It has always been my character,” he gravely said.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then I have never known you until now,”—and in a moment she was
- sobbing on his breast, the years had rolled back, and they were in the
- sweet springtime of life again.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0062" id="link2HCH0062"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XVI—THE END OF A MODERN VILLAIN
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>WO days after
- McLeod’s flight from Hambright the press despatches flashed from New York
- a startling two-column account of the attempted assassination of the Hon.
- Allan McLeod, the Republican leader of North Carolina, in the terrific
- campaign in progress, and that he was compelled to flee from the state to
- save his life.
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston was elected Governor by the largest majority ever given a candidate
- for that office in the history of North Carolina.
- </p>
- <p>
- McLeod was promptly rewarded for his long career of villainy by an
- appointment as our Ambassador to one of the Republics of South America,
- and the Senate at once confirmed him. The salary attached to his office
- was $15,000, and his dream of a life of ease and luxury had come at last.
- </p>
- <p>
- For six months he had been quietly going to Boston paying the most ardent
- court to Miss Susan Walker, whom he had met at her college at
- Independence. She was a matured spinster now appproaching sixty years of
- age, and worth $5,000 000 in her own name.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had easy sailing from the first. He joined her church in Boston, after
- a brilliant profession of religion that moved Miss Walker to tears, for he
- had told her it was her love that had opened his eyes. And it was true.
- McLeod timed his last visit to Boston so that he arrived the day the city
- was ringing with the sensation of his attempted assassination, and the
- desperate fight he was making to uphold law and order in the South.
- </p>
- <p>
- When Miss Walker read that article in her paper she resolved to marry him
- immediately. She gave McLeod a wedding present of a half million dollars.
- He wept for joy and gratitude, and kissed her with a fervour that
- satisfied her hungry heart that he was the one peerless lover of the
- world.
- </p>
- <p>
- <br /><br />
- </p>
- <hr />
- <p>
- <a name="link2HCH0063" id="link2HCH0063"> </a>
- </p>
- <div style="height: 4em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
- <h2>
- CHAPTER XVII—WEDDING BELLS IN THE GOVERNOR’S MANSION
- </h2>
- <p class="pfirst">
- <span class="dropcap" style="font-size: 4.00em">T</span>WO days after
- McLeod and his bride reached Asheville on their wedding trip, General
- Worth received a letter which threw him into a paroxysm of rage. Sallie’s
- wedding had been fixed for the day of the inauguration of the Governor.
- The invitations were out and society in a flutter of comment and gossip
- over the romantic and brilliant career of young Gaston, and his luck in
- winning power, love, and fortune in a day.
- </p>
- <p>
- The letter was from McLeod, at Asheville, informing him that his daughter
- was already married, and that Gaston was simply seeking his fortune by a
- subterfuge, and showing his power over him by humiliating him at the last
- moment before the world. He enclosed a transcript of the marriage record,
- signed by the Rev. John Durham, and witnessed by Mrs. Durham and Stella
- Holt. This record was certified before the Clerk of the Court and bore his
- seal. There was no doubt whatever of the facts.
- </p>
- <p>
- When the General handed this letter to Sallie she flushed, looked
- wistfully into his face, saw its hard expression of speechless anger,
- turned pale and burst into tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- Her father without a word went to his room, and locked himself in for
- twenty-four hours, refusing to see her or speak to her.
- </p>
- <p>
- On the following day she forced her way into his presence, and they had
- the last great battle of wills. All the iron power of his unconquered
- pride, accustomed for a lifetime to command men and receive instant
- obedience, was roused to the pitch of madness.
- </p>
- <p>
- “If you marry him I swear to you a thousand times you shall never cross my
- doorstep, and you shall never receive one penny of my fortune. He is a
- gambler and an adventurer, and seeks to make me a laughing stock for the
- world!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Papa, nothing could be further from his thoughts. He has always loved and
- respected you. I assume all the responsibility for our secret marriage.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Then sharper than a serpent’s tooth is the ingratitude of a disobedient
- child!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But, Papa, I waited five years of patient suffering trying to obey you,”
- she protested.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I had rather see you dead than to see you marry that man now, and have
- him sneer his triumph in my face.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “We are already married. Why talk like that?” she pleaded tearfully.
- </p>
- <p>
- “I deny it. I am going to annul that marriage. Felony is ground for the
- dissolution of the marriage tie. A ceremony performed under such
- conditions, when one of the parties is in prison charged with felony
- without bail, is illegal, and I ’ll show it. The lawyers will be
- here in an hour and I will take action to-morrow.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Never, with my consent!” she firmly replied. She left the room, consulted
- with her mother, and hastily despatched a telegram to Hambright summoning
- Gaston to Independence immediately.
- </p>
- <p>
- When this telegram came he was in his office hard at work on his inaugural
- address, outlining the policy of his administration. He was in a heated
- argument with the Preacher about the article on education, which followed
- his recommendation of the disfranchisement of the Negro.
- </p>
- <p>
- He had advised large appropriations for the industrial training of negroes
- along the lines of the new movement of their more sober leaders.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It’s a mistake,” argued the Preacher, “if the Negro is made master of the
- industries of the South he will become the master of the South. Sooner
- than allow him to take the bread from their mouths, the white men will
- kill him here, as they do North, when the struggle for bread becomes as
- tragic. The Negro must ultimately leave this continent. You might as well
- begin to prepare for it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But we propose to train him principally in Agriculture. We need millions
- of good farmers,” persisted Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “So much the worse, I tell you,” replied the Preacher. “Make the Negro a
- scientific and successful farmer, and let him plant his feet deep in your
- soil, and it will mean a race war.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “It seems to me impracticable ever to move him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why?” asked the Preacher. “Those over certain ages can be left to end
- their days here. The Negro has cost us already the loss of $7,000,000,000,
- a war that killed a half million men, the debauchery of our suffrage, the
- corruption of our life, and threatens the future with anarchy. Lincoln was
- right when he said, ‘There is a physical difference between the white and
- the black races, which I believe will forever forbid them living together
- on terms of social and political equality.’
- </p>
- <p>
- “Even you are still labouring under the delusions of ‘Reconstruction.’ The
- Ethiopian can not change his skin, or the leopard his spots. Those who
- think it possible will always tell you that the place to work this miracle
- is in the South. Exactly. If a man really believes in equality, let him
- prove it by giving his daughter to a negro in marriage. That is the test.
- When she sinks with her mulatto children into the black abyss of a Negroid
- life, then ask him! Your scheme of education is humbug. You don’t believe
- that any amount of education can fit a negro to rule an Anglo-Saxon, or to
- marry his daughter. Then don’t be a hypocrite.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “But can we afford to stop his education?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The more you educate, the more impossible you make his position in a
- democracy. Education! Can you change the colour of his skin, the kink of
- his hair, the bulge of his lips, the spread of his nose, or the beat of
- his heart, with a spelling book? The Negro is the human donkey. You can
- train him, but you can’t make of him a horse. Mate him with a horse, you
- lose the horse, and get a larger donkey called a mule, incapable of
- preserving his species. What is called our race prejudice is simply God’s
- first law of nature—the instinct of selfpreservation.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston was gazing at the ceiling with an absent look in his eyes and a
- smile playing around his lips.
- </p>
- <p>
- “You are not listening to me now, you young rascal! You are dreaming about
- your bride.”
- </p>
- <p>
- Gaston quickly lowered his eyes, and saw the messenger boy who had been
- standing several minutes with his telegram.
- </p>
- <p>
- He read Sallie’s message with amazement.
- </p>
- <p>
- “What can that mean?” He handed the telegram to the Preacher.
- </p>
- <p>
- “It means he has discovered the facts, and there is going to be trouble.
- He is a man of terrific passions when his pride is roused.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “I must go immediately.”
- </p>
- <p>
- He closed his office and caught his train after a hard drive. When he
- reached Independence he sprang into a carriage and ordered the driver to
- take him direct to Oakwood. What had happened he did not know and he did
- not care. Of one thing he was now sure—Sallie’s love and the swift
- end of their separation.
- </p>
- <p>
- His heart was singing with a great joy as he drove over the familiar
- avenue through the deep shadows of the woods, and turning through the gate
- saw the light gleaming from her room.
- </p>
- <p>
- “God bless her, she’s mine now—I hope I can take her home to-night!”
- he cried.
- </p>
- <p>
- She had walked down the drive to meet him. He leaped from the carriage,
- kissed her and asked, “What is it, dear?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “McLeod wrote him about our marriage, and now he swears he will bring a
- suit to annul it. Leave your carriage here and come with me. If he don’t
- send these lawyers away and receive you, I will be ready to go with you in
- an hour.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Queen of my heart!” he whispered. “You are all mine at last!”
- </p>
- <p>
- She called her father from the library into the parlour and stood on the
- very spot where Gaston had writhed in agony on that night of his interview
- with the General.
- </p>
- <p>
- He started at the expression on her face and the tense vigour with which
- she held herself erect. His suit had not been progressing well with his
- lawyers. They had tried to humour him, but had declined to express any
- hope of success in such an action. He saw they were halfhearted and it
- depressed him.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Now, Papa,” she firmly said, “It will not take us ten minutes to decide
- forever the question of our lives. If you take another step with these
- lawyers,—if you do not dismiss them at once, I will leave this house
- in an hour, go with the man of my choice to his home, and you will never
- see me again. You shall not humiliate me or him another hour.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General looked at her as though stunned, his voice trembled as he
- replied, “Would you leave me so in an hour, dear?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes, Charlie is waiting there on the porch for me now, and his carriage
- is outside. I will not subject him to another insult, nor allow any one
- else to do it.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The General sank heavily into a chair, and stretched out his hands toward
- her in a gesture of tender entreaty.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come child and kiss me,—you know I can’t live without you! Forgive
- all the foolish things I’ve said in anger and pride. Your happiness is
- more to me than all else.” She was crying now in his arms.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Go, bring Charlie. The youngster has beaten me. I’ve fought a foeman
- worthy of my steel. It’s no disgrace to surrender to him.”
- </p>
- <p>
- In a moment she led Gaston into the room, and the General grasped his
- hand.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Young man, for the last time I welcome you to this house. Now, it is
- yours. You can run this place to suit yourself. I’ve worked all my life
- for Sallie. I give up the ship to you.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “General, let me assure you of my warmest love. I have never said an
- unkind thing or harboured a harsh thought toward you. I shall be proud of
- you as my father. I have loved you and Mrs. Worth since the first day I
- looked into Sallie’s face.”
- </p>
- <p>
- The invitations stood. Gaston returned immediately to Hambright, and on
- the morning of the inauguration, accompanied by Bob St. Clare, and the
- Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, he entered the grand old mansion with
- its stately pillars and claimed his bride. The Chief Justice performed a
- civil ceremony, and the party started on a triumphal procession to the
- Capital. The General was bubbling over with pride in the handsome
- appearance the bride and groom made, and tried to outdo himself in
- kindliness toward Gaston.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Come to think it over, Governor,” he said to him after the inauguration,
- “it was a brave thing in my little girl marching into that jail alone and
- marrying her lover in a prison, wasn’t it? By George, she’s a chip off the
- old block! I don’t care if the world does know it!”
- </p>
- <p>
- “General, that was the bravest thing a woman could do. She is the heroine
- of the drama. I play second part.”
- </p>
- <p>
- They did not wait long for the people to know it. At four o’clock in the
- afternoon an extra appeared with a startling account of the fact that the
- Governor’s beautiful bride had braved the world and secretly married him
- when his fortunes were at ebb-tide, and he was a prisoner in the Asheville
- jail.
- </p>
- <p>
- That night when Sallie entered the Banquet Hall of the Governor’s Mansion,
- leaning proudly on Gaston’s arm, she was greeted with an outburst of
- homage and deep feeling she had never dreamed of receiving. When the
- Governor acknowledged the applause of his name, he bowed to his bride, not
- to the crowd.
- </p>
- <p>
- The Preacher rose to respond to the toast, “The Master and the Mistress of
- the Governor’s Mansion,” and seemed to pay no attention to the Governor,
- but turning to Sallie, he said, “To the queenly daughter of the South, who
- had eyes to see a glorious manhood behind prison bars, the nobility to
- stoop from wealth to poverty and transform a jail into a palace with the
- beauty of her face and the splendour of her love—to her, the heroine
- who inspired Charles Gaston with power to mould a million wills in his,
- change the current of history, and become the Governor of the Commonwealth—to
- her all honour, and praise, and homage.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My daughter, it is meet that our wealth and beauty should mate with the
- genius and chivalry of the South. May it ever be so, and may your
- children’s children be as the sands of the sea!”
- </p>
- <p>
- Sallie bowed her head as every eye was turned admiringly upon her. The
- General trembled, and, when the crowd rose to their feet and reëchoed, “To
- her all honour and praise and homage,” and the Governor bent proudly
- kissing her hand, he bowed his head and wept.
- </p>
- <p>
- Her mother sitting by her side with shining eyes pressed her hand and
- whispered, “My beautiful daughter, now my work is done.”
- </p>
- <p>
- As Gaston strolled out on the lawn with his bride after the banquet, they
- found a seat in a secluded spot amid the shrubbery.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My sweet wife!” he exclaimed.
- </p>
- <p>
- “My husband!” she whispered, as they tenderly clasped hands.
- </p>
- <p>
- “Tell me now who was the author of all those lies about me to your
- father?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Why ask it, dear? You know Allan wrote the last letter.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “The dastard. I was sure of it from the first. Well, he had the facts in
- that last letter, didn’t he?”
- </p>
- <p>
- “Yes,” she answered with a smile.
- </p>
- <p>
- They rose to return to the Mansion, roused by the stroke of midnight from
- the clock in the tower of the City Hall.
- </p>
- <p>
- “From to-night, my dear,” he said, with enthusiasm, “you will share with
- me all the honours and responsibilities of public life.”
- </p>
- <p>
- “No, my love, I do not desire any part in public life except through you.
- You are my world. I ask no higher gift of God than your love, whether you
- live in a Governor’s Mansion, or the humblest cottage. I desire no career
- save that of a wife—your wife”—she hid her face on his breast
- as a little sob caught her voice, “and I would not change places with the
- proudest queen that ever wore a crown!” She said this looking up into his
- face through a mist of tears.
- </p>
- <p>
- With trembling lips and dimmed eyes he stooped and kissed her as he
- replied, “And I had rather be the husband of such a woman than to be the
- ruler of the world.”
- </p>
- <h3>
- THE END
- </h3>
- <div style="height: 6em;">
- <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />
- </div>
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-<pre>
-
-
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