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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59834 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+MY YOUNG MASTER
+
+
+
+
+OPIE READ'S SELECT WORKS
+
+Old Ebenezer
+The Jucklins
+My Young Master
+A Kentucky Colonel
+On the Suwanee River
+A Tennessee Judge
+
+Works of Strange Power and Fascination
+
+Uniformly bound in extra cloth, gold tops, ornamental covers, uncut
+edges, six volumes in a box,
+
+$6.00
+
+Sold separately, $1.00 each.
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+_OPIE READ'S SELECT WORKS_
+
+
+My Young Master
+
+A NOVEL
+
+
+BY
+
+OPIE READ
+
+
+Author of "The Carpetbagger," "Old Ebenezer," "The
+Jucklins," "On the Suwanee River," "The Colossus,"
+   "A Kentucky Colonel," "A Tennessee Judge,"
+     "Len Gansett," "Emmett Bonlore," "The
+       Tear in the Cup and Other Stories,"
+           "The Wives of the Prophet."
+
+
+ILLUSTRATED
+
+
+CHICAGO
+LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHERS
+
+
+Entered According to Act of Congress, in the year eighteen
+hundred and ninety-six, by
+WILLIAM H. LEE,
+In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
+
+ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+MY YOUNG MASTER.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+This is the story of a master, told by his slave. As I sit now, after
+the flight of so many years, and gaze at the pictures in the fire--the
+hills and the valleys of my boyhood, so bright, so glowing--I am
+oppressed with the fear that my rude hand can but ill execute the work
+that I have undertaken. And yet, I feel the force that truth alone can
+lend, for although my transcript may be crude, I know that in the years
+now far away but which are coming toward us, my history will be read by
+the thoughtful man who seeks to portray the strange social conditions
+that once existed in our country.
+
+I was born in the State of Kentucky, on the blue-grass farm owned by
+Guilford Gradley. Many changes may have taken place, but in my day the
+northern boundary line of the farm and the southern corporate limit
+of the town of Litchford here came together; and I think that one
+of my earliest recollections is of a Sunday morning, when my young
+master and I got on the ground and parted the long grass to search for
+the line. I know it must have been on a Sunday, for the church bells
+were ringing, and Old Master and Old Miss (as we always called his
+wife) passed us on their way to town. Old Master was one of the most
+prominent men in the State (had been a general in the militia), and
+this influence was felt even by the humblest negro on the place, for to
+belong to a great man was of itself a social prominence not enjoyed by
+the bondman of the ordinary individual. Why, I remember seeing a little
+negro boy weep bitterly because a playmate had taunted him with the
+humiliating fact that his master lived in a log house. Ah, those old
+days, by turns a sad and a happy freak in the history of man!
+
+Old Master had three children, Miss Lou, who had married a doctor; Miss
+May, about twelve years old, when my story begins; and Mars. Bob, about
+my age. The doctor that married Miss Lou was a neat man, all the time
+picking at himself and cleaning his fingernails, it seemed to me, and I
+had thought that he must be a great man, being a doctor and wearing so
+white a shirt, until one day I heard Old Master tell Old Miss that he
+wasn't worth the powder and lead to kill him. And after that I noticed
+that he didn't amount to much, and I firmly believed that Toney, the
+yellow blacksmith on our farm, could throw him down. Miss Lou was a
+handsome young woman, with beautiful eyes; and even now her voice
+sometimes comes to me at twilight, singing, 'I have no mother now.' The
+song always made me cry, for I had no mother. Old Balch, the shoemaker,
+used to tell me about my mother. He said that he had often seen her
+standing in the door of the cabin, with me in her arms, singing that
+song; and he said that she was a beautiful creature, with hair almost
+straight. And I recall that the first time he told me this, I slipped
+away, into old Mammy Liza's cabin, where I climbed upon a chair to look
+at myself in an old broken glass, to see how white I was. And it occurs
+to me that this must have been the day when a preacher, evidently from
+the North, made Old Miss boiling mad by patting me on the head and
+saying, "What a handsome little fellow." Mars. Bob was with me on the
+veranda at the time and it was a great scandal that the preacher should
+not have given him his first and most flattering attention. But he did
+not, and his stay in our house was short.
+
+One morning, Old Master called Mars. Bob and me into his library. He
+sat there, smoking his long-stem pipe, with his elbow resting on a
+table. I had often run through the room, but this was the first time
+that I had ever taken a good look at it, with its innumerable books and
+dark busts of long-haired men. And I was staring about when Old Master
+said:
+
+"Dan, look at me."
+
+I turned my eyes upon him, not in fear, but more in awe, for I felt
+his greatness, not so much in his ownership of me, as in the searching
+light in his eye and the rumbling depths of his voice.
+
+"Dan," he said, "your Mars. Bob is six years old to-day--you and he are
+nearly of an age--and I have given you to him for a birthday present."
+I looked at Mars. Bob and he looked at me. Old Master continued: "You
+are to be his, to go with him, to fight with him, and to play with him.
+If the time ever comes when it is necessary for you to die in order to
+save him, do it. Bob."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Mars. Bob.
+
+"Whose boy is this?" (looking at me).
+
+"Mine, sir," Mars. Bob answered proudly.
+
+"What are you going to do with him?"
+
+"Take him with me wherever I go."
+
+"And if anyone tries to whip him, what are you going to do?"
+
+"Kill the feller that tries it;" Mars. Bob answered fiercely; and Old
+Master leaned back and laughed. "You musn't kill anybody if you can
+help it," he said. "Now run on."
+
+We ran out into the yard and tumbled upon the grass under a tree.
+
+"You belong to me, don't you?" said Bob.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Are you glad?"
+
+"I don't know yet."
+
+"But you'd rather belong to me than to your Mars. George, wouldn't
+you?" he asked, meaning the doctor.
+
+"I wouldn't belong to him," I replied. "He ain't worth the powder and
+lead to kill him. I'd fight before I'd belong to him."
+
+"You musn't say that, Dan--but, so would I." And, after a silence, he
+said: "If anybody starts to whip you, don't make any difference who it
+is, come and tell me, won't you?"
+
+"Yes, and we will both fight him, won't we?"
+
+"Yes, but I can whip you when I want to, can't I?"
+
+"Yes, but nobody else shall."
+
+"I know that, but I can, can't I?"
+
+"Sometimes, but not all the time."
+
+"Yes, I can."
+
+"No, you can't."
+
+"I'll whip you now if you say much."
+
+"Much!"
+
+He struck me and I struck him; we clinched and I threw him, and the
+next moment I was snatched into the air by the doctor. "You little
+scoundrel!" he shouted, "I'll wear you out." And he was proceeding to
+do it, with a riding whip, when Bob jumped upon him like a mad cat; and
+there we had it, both of us biting him, when Old Master ran out and
+frightened us all nearly to death. Old Miss came out, too, and declared
+that I ought to be given a hundred lashes, but then came Miss Lou. She
+took me by the hand and said, "No, you must not whip the poor little
+fellow." And at this Old Master turned upon her. "Who the devil's going
+to whip him, I'd like to know? George Bates, don't you touch this boy
+again."
+
+And now Old Miss bristled up. "Guilford, you are always showing
+partiality for that little imp. You let him take the place. I won't
+stand it for one."
+
+"Madam," said Old Master, putting me behind him, "he may be what you
+call him, but justice should be shown even to an imp. Boys that have
+any spirit at all will fight and you can't help it, and by--" here he
+swore a terrible oath that made us all stare. "I say, if Bob can't
+defend himself, he must take the consequences. Boys, run off down
+yonder and play, now. Madam, do as you choose. George Bates, attend to
+your own affairs. My daughter, come with me."
+
+Miss Lou was hurt at the way Master had spoken to her husband, and as
+he took her hand to lead her into the house, she put her face upon his
+bosom and I heard her say, "Please don't talk to him that way, father."
+
+He kissed her. And then he turned to the doctor, who hung about
+abashed. "George, I beg your pardon, sir. I was a little hasty and
+I admit it. There, it's all right. I'll make you a present of that
+clay-bank horse you admire so much. Get him and take a ride, sir."
+
+"Oh, father," Miss Lou cried, "you are the best man in the world."
+
+"No, I'm an old pepper-box. Look out, you're tramping all over my feet.
+You boys go on down the creek and catch some fish or I'll whip both of
+you. Madam," he added, turning to Old Miss and handing her a roll of
+bank notes, "go to town and do your shopping."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+It seemed that on this very day my eyes were opened with a new
+intelligence, and not only my spiritual but my physical surroundings
+became clearer. I saw our great stone house as I had never seen it
+before, the wooded hill-sides, deep with grass, stretching far away;
+the white-washed cabins, quarter-circling the spacious yard, the broad
+garden and the weeping-willow trees whereunder Old Master's father
+and mother were buried; the village street which came abruptly to our
+big gate and there stopped in a fringe of clover. Through our place a
+bright creek ran, as many toned as a pack of hounds; and far to the
+right the turn-pike lay, white and glistening in the sun. Yes, my eyes
+were wider opened on this day, and a half-frightening glimmer of reason
+shot across my mind. I wondered why I should have been created a piece
+of property, while one, nearly of my own color and whom I could fling
+upon the ground, should possess me. This thought stung me, but there
+came a balm in the reflection that if I wore fetters at all, they
+were bright and lined with velvet. Of course, at this age I did not
+thus reason with myself, but I had the feeling, the substance of the
+thought, and the dressing of it must have come long afterward.
+
+Bob and I slept in the same room up-stairs, he in a canopied bed, I
+on a low lounge. Old Master and Old Miss slept in a large room just
+across the hall; and now it seems to me that many a time at midnight,
+a stray fancy, wandering throughout the world of space, looking for
+entertainment in a human mind, would come to me as I lay in that little
+bed--come to me and rob me of sleep--compel me to lie there and listen
+to Old Master's slippered feet, slowly pacing up and down the long
+hall. One night, and it must have followed the day when I had been
+given over as Bob's exclusive property, I awoke to hear the old man's
+distressful shambling up and down the hall. The night was so dark, all
+the household was so still save those restless feet, that a strange
+pity came upon me. I heard Old Miss call him, and I heard him reply,
+"Go to sleep and pay no attention to me." But he seemed so lonely out
+there walking alone, that I found the courage to open the door and peep
+out at him. A dim light hung from the ceiling, not far from my peeping
+place, and as he turned about he saw me.
+
+"What are you doing, Dan?" he asked, halting and turning to me.
+
+"Will you please let me come out and walk with you?" was my bold reply.
+
+"Walk with me? What could have put that into your head?"
+
+"'Cause I thought you must be tired of walking by yourself."
+
+"Well, run along back to bed."
+
+"General," Old Miss called, "who's out there with you?"
+
+"Do you see anybody?" he asked, looking hard toward her door.
+
+"No, but I hear you talking."
+
+"But isn't it possible for a man to talk to himself? Please go to
+sleep." Then he came back to me and said: "Go on to bed, Dan. And, see
+here," he added as I turned about, "don't get up any more when you hear
+me walking."
+
+I hesitated a moment, looking at him, and then I asked: "Master, did
+you kill a man?"
+
+He leaped toward me. "Who told you that? Come back here!" I had started
+to run away. "Come here to me. I'm not going to hurt you." He laid a
+tight hand upon my arm. "Why? Who said anything about my killing a
+man?"
+
+"I don't know, sir," I answered honestly. "I don't know who said it,
+but I thought you did. I believe I dreamed it. Did you kill a man?"
+
+I can see him now as he stood in the dim light, tall, frail, majestic,
+his old eyes bright, his white hair glistening. He cast a swift glance
+toward his bed-room door, and then leading me with him, stepped into my
+room. I heard the window curtain rustle--he was feeling about in the
+dark for a seat--and then he sat down upon the window ledge. I stood
+beside him, pressed close against his knee.
+
+"Don't ever speak of such a thing again," he said, "but I did kill a
+man--in this room. Are you scared?"
+
+"No, sir," I answered. "Tell me about it."
+
+It was some time before he spoke again. I heard Bob's gentle breathing.
+
+"Have you ever noticed deep marks on the stairs out there?" he asked.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"The prints of a horse's shoes?" he said. And then after a silence,
+asked: "Do you think that I have been drinking to-night?"
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"Little liar you, you know I have."
+
+"But tell me about the man and the marks on the stairs?"
+
+"Hush! was that your mistress calling me? Wait a moment." I waited for
+him to continue, scarcely able to keep from trembling against his knee.
+"Would you think that a man could ride up those stairs?" he asked.
+
+"No, sir."
+
+"But a man did. I had said that I was going to horse-whip him, and one
+day when I lay sick in bed, he came, drunk, and rode up the stairs to
+my room--this room--to make me eat my words. I heard a terrible racket,
+and the next thing I knew a horse's head was poked through the door.
+I thought the devil had come. But the next moment I saw my enemy,
+standing in his stirrups, looking down on me. He held a pistol in his
+hand and he snapped it at me. I rolled out of bed, just as he fired,
+and grabbed a gun and killed him. He fell forward, and his horse took
+fright and wheeled about for the door. The man--his name was Solomon
+Putnam--fell to one side as the horse plunged, but his foot caught in
+the stirrup, and he was dragged away--dragged to his own gate. The law
+cleared me, and I know that I was right, but sometimes I see that man,
+hanging to the stirrup, with the blood streaming out of his mouth. I'm
+not afraid--I'd do it over again. But I can't sleep when I see him."
+
+The door creaked. "General!" It was the voice of Old Miss.
+
+"Madam, what do you want?"
+
+"What are you doing in there?"
+
+"Talking to myself. Go on and I will come in a moment."
+
+"I told you not to drink that brandy--I knew how it would be."
+
+"Yes, you knew how it would be and I know how it is, so we are about
+even. Go on, and I will be there in a moment."
+
+The door creaked again, and I heard her footsteps as she went away. Old
+Master got up. "Dan," he whispered, "if you ever say a word, I'll whip
+you. Do you hear?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I have told Bob. But you musn't talk about it even to him. There, now,
+go on to bed."
+
+"And will you go to bed too?" I asked.
+
+"What's that to you, nighthawk? Go to bed, and if I catch you up again
+to-night, I'll whip you."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+Early at morning, Bob and I were summoned by Old Master to go squirrel
+hunting, to walk round the trees, and turn the squirrel into range
+of his long rifle and the deadly squint of his sharp old eye. It was
+spring-time and the squirrels were nipping the hickory buds; it was
+sunrise and the bold cock-partridge, his feathers ruffled, strutted up
+and down the top rail of the fence. We had not proceeded far before we
+came upon a neighbor, 'Squire Boyle, sitting upon a log, picking at
+the lock of his gun. He hailed Old Master and bade him wait a moment.
+And both men, seated upon the log, fell into an argument that lasted
+till the sun was high. We heard the blowing of the breakfast horn, we
+saw the smoke rise in the fields, where the women were burning the
+old corn-stalks; we saw the men breaking up the tobacco land, but
+Old Master and the squire sat there and talked, and sometimes I was
+afraid that they were going to fight, so fierce were their gestures
+and so loud did they lift their voices. Bob and I were impatient, and
+occasionally Bob would say, "Come on, pa." But the old man heeded him
+not, until finally he turned about with anger in his eyes, and cried
+out as if in pain: "If you don't quit nagging at me, I will box your
+jaws. Go on to the house, both of you. 'Zounds, I can't budge but these
+boys are dogging my foot-steps. Go on to the house and if I catch you
+following me again, I'll whip you both."
+
+We fell back a short distance and hid behind a clump of briars and
+sat there watching, fearful that the two men were going to fight. But
+their guns were thrown aside and they were walking up and down the
+length of the log. "I tell you," Old Master cried, "that this step
+will kill him. The people of this State will not put up with it. It
+is well enough to talk about justice and human sympathy, but if Henry
+Clay openly advocates the freeing of the slaves it will kill him. I
+don't understand how he can be so untrue to the principles of his
+community, but, 'Squire--" Here he halted in his walk and shook his
+fist fiercely--"but, 'Squire, I can understand you, sir. You are not
+a Southern man and you have never owned a slave. Ah, but you are an
+American. Yes, I grant you that, but the real defender of this country
+is the Southern man, sir. What's that you say? Would I break up the
+Union rather than lose the slaves? No, sir, I would not; and there
+will never be such an issue." Here he looked about and caught sight of
+us lurking behind the briars.& "Boys!" he cried, taking up his gun and
+pulling out the hickory ram-rod, "if you don't march off home, this
+minute, I'll wear you both out." And as we had tasted that hickory and
+knew its flavor, we scampered away.
+
+"Do you know what they were talking about?" Bob asked, when we had
+reached a safe distance.
+
+"Something about making the black people free," I answered.
+
+"They are free enough already," he replied, looking sharply at me as we
+walked along the path.
+
+"I'm not free," I rejoined. "I belong to you."
+
+Then he looked at me proudly. "Yes," he said, "and we will have lots
+of fun. When we get big, we'll get some great long guns and go out and
+kill Indians, and if anybody tries to shoot you, I'll shoot him. Won't
+I?"
+
+"Yes, and I'll shoot anybody that tries to shoot you."
+
+We had crossed the bars where the cows stood at evening waiting to
+nourish their calves, and were going toward the stone spring-house,
+when we met Old Miss.
+
+"Robert," she said, "run and find your father, quick! Your sister Lou
+is sick."
+
+Bob turned to go back, and so did I, but she called me. "Dan, you are
+not going. Go over to Aunt Mag's cabin and stay there until you are
+sent for."
+
+I sat in the cabin door and watched the old woman spin. She gave me a
+bowl of bread and milk, and she told me that whenever I was mistreated
+to slip into her house and hide under her bed. "I'm treated all right,"
+I remember to have replied. And I recollect also to have declared that
+I fought when they did not treat me well. "You'se er monstus brave
+little man," she said, pausing at the door to pat me on the head. "Fo'
+gracious, whut's de matter up at de house? Look at de folks all runnin'
+er roun'? Go up dar an' see."
+
+I was afraid to go in, believing, and not without cause, that Old Miss
+would tap me on the head with her big store-room key, and I hung about
+the door that opened out upon the long veranda. Everything was quiet
+save the mocking-bird in his cage hung in the hall. But a moment later
+I heard the well-known feet of Old Master, pacing up and down. I peeped
+in and saw Dr. Bates walking toward the door, and I ran away and went
+back to Aunt Mag's cabin. Old Silvy, the cook, took down the long horn,
+with a snake and a deer's head carved upon it, and blew a blast for
+dinner, and then the men and the plow horses came through the big gate,
+with trace-chains jangling. I wondered what could have become of Bob.
+It was rare, indeed, that we were so long separated. Aunt Mag gave
+me another bowl of bread and milk, and I sat there on the doorstep,
+watching the sun-mark slowly moving round the house. The men went back
+to work. I dozed off to sleep and was aroused with a shake. I looked up
+and saw a girl hastening up the path toward the house. Old Aunt Mag was
+standing over me. "Dan'l," she said, looking down upon me, "po' Miss
+Lou is gone--she died jest now."
+
+The goodness and the sweetness of that fair young woman rushed upon me,
+and I could not see for the tears that gushed to my eyes. In a moment
+I recounted her kindness and her winsome smile--she had never spoken a
+cross word to me. I had lost a protecting friend. Under a tree I lay
+with my face buried in the grass, sobbing. An arm stole about my neck.
+I looked up. Bob lay beside me.
+
+This was my first grief. And oh, the awful sadness of the funeral.
+Everywhere the negro's mellow song was hushed, and the trace-chains no
+longer jangled. The sun was bright, the rose was fresh, the stiff-neck
+tulip was proud, but the creek which yesterday went laughing through
+the pasture was mourning now. The horses stood looking over the fence,
+the frisky colts were surprised, and turning from their play, stretched
+themselves out upon the clover. Old Aunt Mag dressed me, with the
+tears shining on her black face. "Her speret is praisin' de Lawd dis
+mornin'," she said. "You kin go ter de house now. All de black folks is
+gwine ter look at her."
+
+I stood at the parlor door, with my knees trembling. Old Master came
+out to walk up and down the veranda. He saw me looking wistfully at
+him, and he halted to speak to me, but his chin shook and he walked on.
+Miss May came to me and told me to come with her. I stepped into the
+room and my heart leaped into my throat at the sight--Miss Lou lying on
+a bed of roses. Slowly our people came in, as silent as the pillow of
+white roses holding that beautiful head, and stood there, awe-struck.
+From a distant room came the broken lamentations of Old Miss. An old
+black man, a giant who preached for the negroes, stood at the head of
+the rose-shroud. He gazed with the tears in his eyes, and turning away
+he said: "De Lawd neber called home er mo' beautiful speret." Old
+Master came in, and the two men put their hands upon each other and
+wept.
+
+There was no hearse, no carriages. Through the garden gate they bore
+their beautiful burden, and slowly the throng of neighbors followed,
+the negroes chanting mournfully. A white man spoke of the resurrection
+and the light, and the old negro giant prayed, with his knees in the
+clay. Old Master led Old Miss home to the dead hush of the great house;
+and at midnight I heard the old man's feet pacing up and down the hall.
+It seemed a crime to let him walk out there alone. Once I thought I
+heard him stop at my door, and I got up and went to him. "Marster," I
+said, "won't you please let me walk with you?"
+
+He said nothing, but he sobbed, and then I knew that he would not drive
+me away. And so I walked with him until daylight was come. "Run along
+now," he said. "Be a good boy and you will go--go where she has gone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+The days grew hotter, the green corn waved on the hill-side, the wheat
+was ripening, but the deep mystery of death was over it all. The boy
+goes about his play, he shouts and has his daily contentions, his
+quarrels and fights, but darkness comes, and as he goes to his bed,
+his mind reverts to a soul that has recently taken its flight. Older
+people have the consoling prop of religion or the forceful brace of
+philosophy, but in the boy's nostrils lives the scent of the roses that
+lay upon the breast of mystic death; a fear possesses him as he peeps
+in at the parlor door. Ah, many days must fall upon a sad memory before
+it is sweetened. They told me that my young mistress was in Heaven.
+I asked Aunt Mag if she would be my mistress there, and she said no,
+that there was no mistresses in Heaven, no slaves, but all white and
+the angels of God. And with the flash of iconoclastic reason that comes
+to youth, I asked her why God made black people belong to white people
+on the earth and afterward made them all equal in Heaven. The old
+woman turned from her spinning wheel and held up her hands in fright.
+"Chile," she said, "you musn't talk like dat. Whut de Lawd do it ain't
+fur us ter question, an' ef you wan't so young you mout git struck wid
+lightenin' fur sayin' dem words. Run off ober yander in de yard an'
+play. I'se er feered de lightenin' mought strike at you anyhow."
+
+That night as Bob and I lay in our room, he in his high canopied bed,
+and I on my low lounge, I asked him if he knew that all the black
+people would be white in Heaven. "Yes, of course," he answered. "It
+would be a funny Heaven with a lot of niggers standing about, grinning."
+
+"But they wouldn't have to grin."
+
+"No, but they would."
+
+"And you won't own me there, will you?" I said, after a moment's
+silence.
+
+"No, you'll belong to God."
+
+"But don't I belong to God now?"
+
+I heard him turn over. "Yes, but you belong to me, too. And when I get
+through with you God may have you. Get over in my bed and I'll bet I
+can throw you out."
+
+"No, Old Miss might hear us. But do you think," I asked after musing
+for a time, "that we'll know each other up there and talk about the
+time when we were down here?"
+
+"Yes; why not?"
+
+"But you'd tell me that I used to belong to you and God wouldn't like
+that."
+
+"Well, then, we won't say anything about it, but we'll think about it
+all the same."
+
+"Yes, we'd keep it to ourselves. But if a nigger angel beats a white
+angel flying, there'll be trouble, won't there?"
+
+"There won't be anything of that. God won't let the nigger angels
+out-fly the white ones."
+
+There came a tap at the door--a house-maid come to tell us that if we
+did not stop talking Old Miss would come in and whip us. We whispered
+and giggled a long time, and then Bob fell asleep, and I lay there
+thinking of the white roses that had scented the parlor. It must have
+been very late for the lights were out everywhere, when I heard voices
+on the walk just below my window. I looked out cautiously and in the
+moonlight I saw Old Master and Dr. George Bates. Master was walking up
+and down, but the doctor stood still.
+
+"I want you to understand this," said the old man. "You are at perfect
+liberty to stay here as long as you choose--and I will feed you and
+clothe you, but you must have nothing whatever to say about the running
+of my affairs. You are constantly meddling with things that don't
+concern you."
+
+"General, it is not my intention to interfere, I assure you."
+
+"But you do," said Old Master, making an emphatic motion. "You seem to
+think that I ought to divide my property with you. Get that out of your
+head as soon as you can."
+
+"It has never been in my head, General. I merely suggested that if you
+would give me Dan I would take him and go South."
+
+"Give you Dan! Confound it, haven't I told you that he belongs to Bob?"
+
+"Yes, but I didn't know but you gave him away just as a man sometimes
+gives a colt to a boy--merely to claim."
+
+"I don't give things that way, sir."
+
+"I know, but your wife--"
+
+"There, that will do."
+
+"She said that she thought that you might be induced--"
+
+"Didn't I say that would do?"
+
+"Yes, sir, but let me finish, if you please. Of course you know that
+my wife's share, whatever it may amount to, will fall to me?"
+
+"Yes, if I so desire it, sir."
+
+"But I know you well enough to feel that you won't refuse me."
+
+"Now you are presuming upon my kindness, sir."
+
+"No, sir; I am paying a tribute to your sense of justice. And now this
+is what I have agreed to do: to take Dan and wait until you are ready--"
+
+"You have agreed with whom, sir?" Old Master broke in.
+
+"Oh, I don't know that it was exactly an agreement. I had a talk with
+your wife, and--"
+
+"Infamous puppy!" Old Master cried, shaking his fist in the doctor's
+face. "Didn't I tell you that you'd gone far enough in that direction?"
+
+"General," said the doctor, stepping back, "you have insulted me."
+
+Old Master snorted. "Oh, I have insulted you, have I? Then I have done
+something that I thought must be impossible. Listen to me. You came
+here a beggar, with a doctor's sheep-skin under your arm; you are of a
+good family--that I will not deny. But I say you came a beggar, and you
+won my child--how, God only knows. You told me that you would practice
+medicine on the plantation after you were married, but did you?"
+
+"Why, yes, sir; I have attended many a case. You know one very well."
+
+"Oh, you have? Did you get out of bed when they sent for you one night
+to see old Aunt Mag? Didn't you complain that you were too sick to get
+up? And that very night, sir, didn't you slip away and play poker over
+the creek?"
+
+"Somebody has lied about me," the doctor declared.
+
+"I admit, sir, that lying has been done, but you did it."
+
+"General, I insist that you must not talk to me this way. I'm no dog."
+
+"If you were, sir, I would be more considerate of you."
+
+"Keep on and you'll say something that you may regret."
+
+Just at that moment Old Master had turned to walk down the path, but he
+wheeled about. "What's that? Say something that I may regret? I don't
+know about that, sir, but I may say something that you'll regret. I may
+tell you to get off this place, and I won't regret it, but you will."
+
+"That would be a scandal, General."
+
+"Yes, a disgrace--to you." The old man walked down the path, tall and
+gaunt in the moon-light. He turned, and coming back, stepping slowly,
+he said: "But it is our duty to avoid anything in the nature of a
+rupture. So now, I'll tell you what I'll agree to do. I will give you
+Sam and money enough to go South, and when the time comes to divide the
+estate, you shall have your share. Now, I ask you if that is not fair?"
+
+"Yes, General, it is perfectly fair, but--"
+
+"But what, sir?" Master snapped impatiently.
+
+"But I don't want Sam. I want Dan--want to make a race rider of him."
+
+"What good will a race rider do you? You've got no horses."
+
+"I can get the horses."
+
+"But you can't get Dan, sir, so let the matter rest. Bates, I don't
+want to get mad, and I should think, sir, that in the light of our
+recent affliction--"
+
+"I understand, General, and we'll let the subject drop, but if Bob
+should agree--"
+
+"Stop, there, sir. Bob is not old enough to entertain a business
+proposition." For a time the old man walked up and down, with his hands
+behind him and then turned upon the doctor. "I believe, sir, that you
+are an evil-minded man. For a long time I thought that your laziness
+was an indication of good nature--the lazy dog is rarely vicious--but
+now I am of the opinion that you have an active quality, that of
+rascality, sir."
+
+"General," said the doctor, "I can't stand everything. You forget, sir,
+that I am a gentleman."
+
+"Oh, do I forget it?" the old man spoke up. "There is a difference
+between forgetting a thing and never having known it. Bates, I have
+endeavored to like you, I have striven to crush what I hoped was merely
+a prejudice, but I can't. I don't think that we have ever held an
+agreeable conversation. There is something about you that antagonizes
+me. When you are away I am determined to like you, but when you come
+back, I find that my resolve is weak. I don't want to drive you off--I
+would stand most anything rather than face a neighborhood scandal, but
+don't you think that it would be a good idea for you to go away and
+stay away for a long time? I say, don't you?"
+
+"You can drive me off, sir."
+
+"Ah, the very thing you want me to do--you want to put my name into the
+mouths of the gossipers."
+
+"General, you have called me a scoundrel and now you are trying
+to prove it. I can stand a great deal, but I can't put up with
+everything--even from you. I have told you that I am a gentleman, and
+while a gentleman respects age, he cannot permit age to humiliate him.
+I know that you've got nerve enough to shoot a man who rides into your
+room--"
+
+"Another word of that, Bates, and I will knock you down."
+
+"You have gone too far," Bates replied in a tone that made me shiver.
+The moon shone upon his half upturned face and I fancied that I saw the
+glitter of his evil eyes. Master, who was now standing some distance
+from him said something which I did not catch and Bates, with his hand
+upraised, made a stride toward him. At my elbow, on a stand near the
+window, was a heavy glass tumbler. Indeed, I had long held it in my
+hand, and when Bates strode forward, I threw the tumbler with all my
+might. I heard it strike, and leaning out, I saw the doctor lying on
+the ground. I heard Old Master shout for a light, and now thoroughly
+frightened. I ran to my lounge and lay there with the cover drawn over
+my head.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Early at morning Old Master came into our room. I was awake but Bob
+was still asleep. "Dan," he said, "I want to ask you something and I
+want you to tell me the truth, and if you don't, I'll whip you within
+an inch of your life, sir." He always said sir when he strove to be
+emphatic. "Were you at the window last night when the doctor and I were
+standing down in the yard? It was you or Bob, I don't know which and as
+you are a night-hawk, sir, I believe it was you."
+
+"Yes, sir," I answered promptly. And then I tremblingly asked: "Is he
+dead?"
+
+The old man turned from me and strode up and down the room. He went to
+the window, looked out, and with his hands behind him, came walking
+slowly toward me. "Dan," he said, "I told you to be a good boy and that
+you would one day--you remember what I said. But now I must ask you to
+tell a lie. You must say that you were trying to put down the window
+and knocked the tumbler off. Do you hear me?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"All right. After breakfast I will send for you and Bob to come into
+the library."
+
+He went out and I thought that he tip-toed as he went down the stairs.
+At breakfast I stood behind my young master's chair, until the meal
+was over, and then I went to the kitchen to eat with the house-maids.
+Presently I was told by a spinning woman that Old Master wanted to see
+me in the library. "An' he's ez mad ez a ho'net," she said. "Mars.
+George wuz badly hurt las' night an' da gwine fin' out who done it,
+too, I tell you."
+
+Old Aunt Mag stood in the door. "But whut da want ter sen' fur dis po',
+muderless chile fur?" she spoke up. "Da's questioned all de rest o' de
+niggers, an' now da gwine put him on de hot griddle. Dat ain't no way
+ter act, snatchin' up er little boy an' cuzin' him o' knockin' er big
+man down. But run er long, Dan, an stan' square up. Ricolleck dat you
+ain't no common nigger--ricolleck dat you doan b'long ter de Smifs ur
+de Bucks nur de Brizzentines. You'ze er Gradley an' b'longs ter folks,
+I tell you."
+
+In the library were assembled Old Master, Old Miss, young Miss May, Bob
+and 'Squire Boyle, who happened in about breakfast time. I looked about
+as I entered the room, and I saw the doctor, lying on a sofa, with his
+head tied up. Old Master's' head began to shake with anger as soon as
+he saw me coming in. "Dan," he said, "last night your Mars. George and
+I were standing in the yard under the window of your Mars. Bob's room,
+and this tumbler, sir--" here he reached back and took a tumbler from
+a desk--"this tumbler, sir, struck him on the head and cut him badly.
+Your Mars. Bob doesn't know anything about it. Do you? Come, no lying,
+or I'll whip you within an inch of your life."
+
+"He ought to be skinned alive," Old Miss declared, giving her head an
+emphatic nod.
+
+"Just wait and I'll take care of him," said Old Master. "What do you
+know about it?" he repeated, looking at me savagely.
+
+"I went to put down the window, sir, and knocked it off," I stammered.
+
+"Do you hear that?" Old Miss exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, I hear it," said Old Master, quivering with rage. "You went to
+put down the window? And why did you want to put down the window, sir?"
+
+"I thought it was going to rain."
+
+"Hump!" Old Miss grunted, "the yellow imp has turned out to be a
+weather prophet."
+
+"Madam," said Old Master, "let me manage him, if you please. You
+thought it was going to rain?" he went on, turning to me. "And what
+made you think so?"
+
+"I thought I heard it thunder."
+
+"Oh, you did? Well, you shall hear it thunder. Madam, give me your
+cow-hide."
+
+I don't know that I ever saw my old mistress spring up with such
+agility. She snatched the cow-hide out of some mysterious hiding place,
+handed it to him and said: "And, for pity's sake, see that you give him
+enough of it."
+
+"You shan't whip him!" Bob cried. "If you whip him you've got to whip
+me, too."
+
+"Robert!" Old Miss shouted, "I'll give it to you in good earnest if you
+don't keep quiet. Your father knows what he's about. Sit down there."
+
+Bob was forced back into his seat and Miss May, beautiful and tender
+creature, began to beg for me.
+
+"Hush, everybody!" Old Master thundered. "Has it come to a pass when I
+am not permitted to manage my own affairs? Come with me, Dan."
+
+He took me by the collar and led me into the store-room. "Take off that
+coat!" he shouted, and as I was obeying him he said in a low and kindly
+tone. "Now you must yell as if I were cutting you in two," and with
+that he fell afoul of a sack of coffee and with the cow-hide laid the
+lash on furiously. I yelled at the top of my lusty voice, and during
+the intervals when my ears were not submerged by the torrent of my
+own outcry, I heard the revengeful step of Old Miss, up and down the
+passage-way.
+
+"Now go!" Old Master roared, "and the next time you hear it thunder,
+let tumblers alone."
+
+I came out buttoning up my jacket and Old Miss gave me a smile of
+welcome. But Bob and Miss May stood in the library door, crying; and to
+this day it is a dear memory that Miss May ran to the dining-room and
+brought me a sugared biscuit. Old Master and 'Squire Boyle strode out
+into the yard, and I saw Old Master lean upon the gate and laugh.
+
+During all that day I was the object of a pitying regard. "Po' little
+feller," was heard about the cabin door-ways and upon the sward, and
+there was many a sullen muttering and the shaking of nappy heads.
+Bob was furious, having come out of his tears into the territory of
+bold and resentful anger, and he blamed his mother with my unjust
+punishment, persisting until the old lady caught him ungently, slipped
+a soft shoe from her foot, and paddled him until the maudlin calves
+in a distant enclosure heeded his cries with bleatings of sympathy.
+And when he found himself free of his mother's avenging clutch, he ran
+to me and blubbering, said: "Come on, Dan. We'll go down to the creek
+and drown ourselves." This suggestion was in harmony with my sorrowful
+view, for now I felt worse than if Master had cut the blood out of me,
+and together we set out for the swimming-hole at the edge of the walnut
+grove. At times we halted to bid farewell to objects that were clear to
+us, the great oak from which the big gate swung, the smooth rock where
+we had so often sat at twilight. The horses nodded a farewell and the
+cows lowed at us.
+
+"It ain't our fault," said Bob, "and when they take us out of the creek
+dead, I want them to know it. But I don't think they'll cry very much.
+How can they, when they have tried to kill us?"
+
+"It won't make any difference to us whether they cry or not," I
+replied. "We won't know anything about it."
+
+We came to the swimming-hole and the water was blue and deep. Upon the
+grass under a tree we sat and gazed in silence into the pool. "We'll
+take off our clothes," said Bob, "and then when they find us they'll
+think that we were drowned accidentally and that will make 'em cry."
+
+The song of a plow-man came floating through the soft air; a blue-jay
+above us shrieked in a fit of merriment; a cat-bird laughed at us and
+we looked at each other.
+
+"Mars. Bob," said I, "he didn't hurt me much."
+
+"But I thought he was killing you by the way you hollered."
+
+"Yes, but he told me to. I'll tell you something if you'll cross your
+heart that you'll never tell anybody."
+
+He crossed his heart and I told him, and he lay back and laughed. "But
+you were whipped in earnest," I said.
+
+"Yes, but it didn't hurt. Ho, think that old shoe could hurt me! Let's
+go in swimming?"
+
+We snatched off our clothes and into the water we plunged, but a damper
+was put upon my enjoyment, for looking up I saw the doctor standing
+near the bank. A bandage was over one eye, and with the other one he
+gave me a hard and evil look.
+
+"You boys get out of there," he commanded. Bob rebelled against his
+order, but I obeyed, and as I was putting on my clothes he came up, cut
+at my bare legs with a switch, doing so, I suppose, to leave no doubt
+as to his presence. "Hurry up," he said. "Go and catch my horse; I want
+to go to town."
+
+Bob came out. "He don't have to catch your horse, Brother George. Make
+Sam catch your horse. Dan belongs to me."
+
+"I have heard enough of that and I don't want to hear any more," the
+doctor replied. "Go catch my horse," he added, turning to me.
+
+"I will if Mars. Bob says so," I replied.
+
+"You'll do it if I say so."
+
+"No, I won't."
+
+He rushed at me with his switch, but I dodged, leaped into the water
+and swam to the opposite shore. Bob clapped his hands in glee, and the
+doctor shook his switch at me. "I've had my eye on you for some time,
+you impudent scoundrel," he shouted, "and the first thing you know,
+I'll skin you alive. You can keep out of my way for a while, but not
+always. See this?" he cried, tapping his bandaged head. "I know--and
+I'll make you pay for it."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+I hid about the place during the day, sometimes peeping at the doctor
+from the hay-loft, sometimes dodging behind a cabin to keep out of his
+way, constantly wishing that Old Master might come; and late in the
+afternoon I saw him walking in the garden with his hands behind him.
+The doctor was not far away, and I knew that he would discover me if I
+should dart out from my hiding place, but I did finally and he yelled
+at me, but I ran to Old Master, looking back in fright as I approached
+him.
+
+"Tut, tut, there!" he cried. "What are you running about this way for,
+tramping down everything? First thing you know I'll give you another
+whipping within an inch of your life!"
+
+"Marster!" I cried, clinging to him, "the doctor is after me!"
+
+"Well, he won't get you. Turn me loose. Hang about near me, but don't
+let your mistress see you. The doctor's going away to-morrow to be gone
+some time. Here he comes now. Go on to the house."
+
+I passed the doctor, skirting far into a flower bed to give him plenty
+of room; he glowered at me and said nothing. But I knew that he would
+let slip no opportunity to harm me, and that night Bob and I barricaded
+our door. He had an old horse pistol that wouldn't shoot, and I had
+a broken saber, and we took turn about standing guard behind our
+breast-works. "You've been there long enough. Come on and lie down and
+let me stay there awhile?" he would say; and he never failed to add:
+"And you must pretend like you're asleep."
+
+At morning I awoke in bed and found Bob asleep behind the barricade.
+I aroused him, and he jumped up and declared that he had stood guard
+all night, and hadn't slept a wink. I pretended to believe him, and he
+rewarded me with a crock marble and a biscuit covered with sugar.
+
+Early that morning I had the satisfaction of seeing my enemy, the
+doctor, leave the plantation, and then followed a day of happiness,
+playing up and down the creek. At the house one other enemy was left,
+Old Miss, but I did not hate her, for her dislike of me could be none
+other than a divine right, something which I would not permit myself to
+question. She was cold and proud, and rarely did she give way to the
+affection which she must have felt for her own children. It was said
+that she could trace her origin back to great warriors, and this gave
+a reason for her pride and her coldness; but Old Master's forefathers
+also were great fighters and statesmen, and yet he was warm-hearted and
+sympathetic. Aunt Mag told me that Old Miss had refused to marry Henry
+Clay because he was poor, and had always regretted it, but I could not
+see why, for surely my master was as great as Clay.
+
+The evening after the doctor left us, I was lying on the ground near
+the stone steps leading to the broad hall, when I heard Master and Old
+Miss talking. They were sitting on the portico and did not see me.
+
+"I told him," said Master, "that he might draw on me for what money
+he actually needs, but that I would put up with no extravagance. Of
+course, he has a sort of a claim, but I don't intend that he shall
+embarrass me in any way."
+
+She cleared her throat with a rasp that always made me shudder. "He
+surely has a claim," she replied.
+
+"Well, that's what I said, didn't I?"
+
+"Yes, but you seem to think that it is not much of a claim."
+
+"I don't seem to think anything of the sort. He shall have everything
+that is due him. But, madam, the truth of it is, he is of no account."
+
+"He is a gentleman."
+
+"In what way?" I peeped up and saw him look hard at her. "In what way
+has he shown himself a gentleman?"
+
+"He was born a gentleman," Old Miss replied.
+
+"Born one, yes. His father and mother may have been good stock, but I
+tell you that he's a scrub. Still I will give him what's due him."
+
+"Oh, I know that."
+
+"Then there needn't be any further discussion about it."
+
+"No," she said, "not so far as I am concerned." And after a pause she
+asked: "What's your object in sending Bob over to school at Layfield?"
+
+"To learn something, of course."
+
+"But why can't he go to school at home? Can't he learn something here?"
+
+"We have had a teacher for him here and he has done no good."
+
+"Yes, but can't you send him to school at the Academy in town?"
+
+"I could do it, of course, but I would rather have him go away. It will
+make him more important in his own estimation--will give him more
+confidence in himself."
+
+"Is Dan going with him?"
+
+"Oh, I knew what you were driving at. Yes," he almost shouted, "Dan is
+going with him."
+
+"I don't see why. Why not send Sam with him?'"
+
+"Madam, is it necessary to explain to you that Dan is the
+property--property--"
+
+"I know all about that. But they are too much like companions, and will
+study together."
+
+He looked hard at her. "Study together? And what of that?"
+
+"I don't want a child of mine studying with a negro. He has no business
+to study. He knows enough already! Educate him and he will be of no
+account on the face of the earth. I never knew it to fail. Mason had an
+educated negro, and what became of him? He ran away and went north and
+told a pack of lies about the people in this State, about the cruelties
+he had suffered, and the abolition papers are still harping on it."
+
+"Yes, that's all true enough," said Old Master, "but in Dan's case
+it will be different. He is not likely to pick up much learning, and
+besides he's grateful. He'll never run away."
+
+"I have been thinking," she said, "that we might--"
+
+"Might do what?" Master snapped before she had finished.
+
+"Well, you know how much the doctor desires that boy. Why not let him--"
+
+"Madam!" Master thundered, "don't you know that the boy belongs to Bob?
+How long will it take you to learn that? Must I keep forever dinging it
+into your ears?"
+
+"Well, you needn't get mad about it."
+
+"That's true, and I beg your pardon. But just let me manage it, if you
+please. I believe you said yesterday that our carriage is getting too
+old for you to ride about in?"
+
+"Yesterday? I have talked about it for the past year!"
+
+"Yes, so you have. Well, you may go to Louisville yourself and select
+one to suit you."
+
+That night I told Bob that we were going off to school together, and we
+grabbed each other in our glee.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The next day we were bundled off to school, distant more than thirty
+miles, driven by the family coachman. Old Master and Old Miss walked
+with us as far as the big gate that opened into a street of the town.
+I say, walked with us, but they walked with Bob, I keeping close pace
+behind, constantly afraid that my mistress would turn upon me with her
+stout parasol, yet too discreet to fall farther back, lest I might by
+this show of caution call her wrath upon me. At the gate, when the
+driver got off his seat and stood by the open door of the carriage,
+Old Miss put her arms about Bob, with more of affection than I had
+ever seen her show, and bade him be a good boy and keep his mind on
+his book. She kissed him time and again and then she turned to me, Old
+Master standing there waiting for the end of her part of the ceremony:
+"Dan," she said, "I want you to black his shoes every morning." This,
+with the tears in her eyes, and with sorrow in her voice, touched a
+foolish sense within me and I giggled, dodging wisely as I did so;
+and it was well that I did, for in a fury she struck at me with her
+parasol. "The infamous imp!" she cried, "standing there laughing at
+me. General," she demanded, stamping the ground, "wear your cane out
+on him. I won't be treated in such a manner--I won't put up with
+everything from that ape."
+
+My impulse was to run, but I killed it with a gentle resolve; I dropped
+upon my knees in the dust of the road and humbly begged her pardon.
+This act of grace was most effective. This humility, done, I fancy,
+with some show of gallantry, won her for the moment, and bowing to me
+she said: "I know you didn't mean it, Dan. There, go on and be a good
+boy."
+
+We bade them good-bye and were rolled away, and hour after hour, amid
+the changing scenes of that charming country, a vision of that woman
+stood before me, bowing, and my heart was warmer toward her than it
+had ever been. Strange, and now almost incomprehensible life--absolute
+despotism in free America.
+
+The Layfield school was set among romantic hills. As a seat of
+learning, it was unpretentious. The main house was of brick, with
+dormer windows and green blinds; the other buildings were cottages,
+mostly of logs, scattered along a shaded avenue, leading down to
+the banks of a green river; and I remember that the first sight of
+this great stream (it must have been fifty feet wide, but it was an
+Amazon to me, fresh from the little creek running through the pasture)
+thrilled me with a mysterious delight. Upon a near approach though,
+I was disappointed, not at its size, but at its quietude; for if our
+creek could sing, why did not this river shout? And it gave no sound
+save a low murmur almost as still as silence.
+
+The master of Layfield Academy was an old man with long, white hair. He
+received us most kindly and himself went with us to the cottage we were
+to occupy, together with a number of boys, sons of wealthy men, many
+of them attended by the unmistakable mark of Blue Grass gentility--the
+favored slave. And it was not without a feeling of pride that I heard
+a young fellow say, "Gradley's got the best-looking nigger in the
+crowd." My master and I occupied a small, but comfortable room, that
+is, comfortable for him, but with regard to me, the line was closer
+drawn than it had been at home, for instead of sleeping upon a lounge,
+I was assigned to a rug upon the floor. Bob did not like this, and he
+grumbled to the Master and was told very emphatically that he must
+not seek to interfere with the time-honored regulations of that great
+educational household. I soon found that my life here was not to be
+altogether peaceful, for the spirit of rivalry existing among the young
+masters extended to the slaves. And of a Saturday those blood-loving
+spirits would match their "niggers" against one another like cocks in
+a pit and bet on the result. My master was too young to be a leader,
+but he was forced to take a part in the sport, and it redounded to my
+credit when I bloodied the flat nose of a black fellow who strove to
+knock me out of a ring. This made Bob an important factor, gave him a
+new bearing, and I remember that I lay down upon my rug with a feeling
+of pride.
+
+"Oh, we'll show 'em what's what," Bob declared. "And after I whip
+Saunders, we'll be way up."
+
+"But do you think you can whip him?" I asked.
+
+The moon was shining into our room and I saw him rise up in bed. "Why,
+of course I can. And the fight is set for to-morrow."
+
+"He's bigger'n you," I remarked.
+
+"Yes, but he hasn't got the blood. His people don't amount to anything.
+You just wait."
+
+I had to wait, but it was not with any great confidence, for Saunders
+was a lusty youth. I expressed no further fear, however, and early
+in the morning I rubbed my master down with a coarse towel and with
+him set out for the battle ground. Saunders was already there, with a
+party of boys about him, feeling the muscles in his arms. The affair
+was conducted with great secrecy, and each warrior had to promise that
+in case his teeth were knocked out he would swear that he had fallen
+down. I was nervous. The negro boys looking at me, shook their heads.
+The line was drawn and the combatants stationed. The word was given
+and I looked away. Then followed the sound of quick blows--then came
+a shout, all before I looked toward the ring. And when I did look, I
+saw Saunders on the ground. I threw up my hat and shouted, whereupon a
+yellow fellow who belonged to Saunders struck me. Well, when we went
+back to our quarters my master and I both were heroes. And now, having
+established his standing, Young Master was permitted to enter upon his
+studies. This had all happened within a week.
+
+It was here that a desire to learn first took strong hold of me. Of
+course I did not presume to own a book, or to study one except at
+night, when Bob and I were alone. In a negro any show of intellectual
+ambition was looked upon as a rebellion against the unwritten law of
+society, and thus to steal the mind mysteries that made the white man
+great was doubly sweetened. I kept so good a pace with Bob that in me
+he sometimes found a helper over rough places, and I even now recall
+with pride that one night he looked at me admiringly and said: "Dan,
+it's a shame that you ain't a white boy."
+
+At the end of the fourth week, Old Master and Old Miss drove over
+in the carriage. The president of the school met them with great
+ceremony and would not let them rest until he had shown them through
+his establishment. Bob went with them and I was permitted to hang
+behind, upon the implied condition that I was not to hear anything that
+was said. But I did hear and I remembered. In one corner of the main
+recitation room was a globe and shelves holding numerous books, to me
+the most learned spot in the world; and here the company halted.
+
+"These books," said the president, "are kept here in constant view
+of the student to stimulate his ambition, to force upon his mind the
+power and the importance of thought. He has heard of the earth's great
+minds, and here he finds the fruit of those minds. I do not believe
+in shutting books in a stuffy room, sir; they ought to be where the
+sun-light, the companion of learning, can constantly fall upon them.
+Ah, and I am sure that as time passes your son will draw many a draft
+from this well. Won't you, Robert?"
+
+Bob looked at him, while his parents waited for his answer, and said:
+"I like books with pictures in 'em."
+
+"Ah, quite a shrewd remark," declared the president, putting his
+hand upon Bob's head. "His thought turns upon art, no mean branch
+of learning, I assure you. Of course, he is as yet too young to be
+consulted, General, but have you thought upon any profession for him?"
+
+"The law," Old Master answered.
+
+"The ministry," said Old Miss.
+
+"Maw, what's that?" Bob asked.
+
+"I want you to be a preacher," his mother replied, drawing him toward
+her, buttoning his jacket and then unbuttoning it.
+
+"I don't want to be a preacher. They don't have any fun!"
+
+"Hush, sir," she said. "Your grandfather was a preacher."
+
+"But he didn't have any fun."
+
+"Hush, I tell you."
+
+"I will, but did he have any fun?"
+
+Old Master chuckled and Mistress gave him a sour look. The president
+coughed. "Both the law and the ministry are learned professions," he
+said, "and I have no doubt that our little man would grace either
+calling."
+
+"Bob," said Mistress, "show me your sleeping room. You needn't come
+with us," she added, speaking to the president. "We will not presume to
+take up any more of your time--you've been so very, very kind, I assure
+you."
+
+I think that the president would have urged his attendance, but that he
+was afraid to show how much time he could spare, so he bowed and said:
+"I thank you for the confidence you have reposed in me, placing your
+son in my charge, and I assure you that I shall do my utmost by him.
+Now, make yourselves perfectly at home."
+
+Old Miss turned up her nose when she entered our room. "Whew, it smells
+like a bear's den," she said, and Old Master's spare frame shook with
+laughter. "And for pity sake, what have you got in this cup?" she
+asked, looking at a tin can on a table.
+
+"Fish-worm oil," Bob spoke up rather proudly. "We dug the worms and
+roasted their oil out. Rub it on my legs so I can run fast."
+
+Master snorted and Mistress turned to me. "Dan," she asked,
+clearing her throat with a dry rasp, "isn't this one of your negro
+superstitions? Didn't you put him up to it?"
+
+"Madam," said Old Master before I could reply, "the knowledge of the
+efficacy of angle-worm oil comes down from the ancients and I am
+astonished that you should impute it to negro superstition. Leander,
+before trusting himself to the torrent of the Hellespont, rubbed
+himself with it, and if you read closely, you will find that Byron went
+through the same performance before tempting the same feat. Haven't you
+read of the angle-worm oil bearer at the Olympian games?"
+
+He slyly turned his face away to laugh, and Old Miss, like all
+pretentious persons, afraid of the weapon of wisdom, was willing enough
+to change the subject. "I am glad to see that you are learning," she
+said to Bob, "but I don't want you to learn things that will be of no
+particular use to you. By the way, General, I don't want you to school
+him into the notion of becoming a lawyer or a doctor."
+
+"Surely not a doctor," Master replied. "We have one doctor in the
+family and he is quite sufficient--unto himself. What's that in the
+Bible, 'sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof'? That's it. Well
+it suits him any way."
+
+Old Miss sat down, gathering her skirts that they might touch nothing.
+"General, that's no way to talk," she said. She looked about and cried
+suddenly. "Why, is that a poultice there on the mantle-piece?"
+
+"Boxing glove," said Bob, and Old Master roared again.
+
+"General!" she spoke up in sharp reproof, "I do wish you wouldn't
+stimulate disrespect by your constant tittering and teheeing. One would
+think that you had sent the boy here as a monster joke. To send a child
+away from home is no jest, I assure you."
+
+"Madam," said Master, winking at us, lifting the tails of his long coat
+and seating himself on a corner of the table, "it makes me young again
+to come into a place like this, and being young I must be foolish.
+Well," he added after a pause, "do you want to stay here to-night, or
+shall we stop on the road?"
+
+"We might as well go," she answered, getting up. "There's nothing to
+be done here. Bob, you must write to me every other day. And Dan, I
+want you to see that his shoes are blacked every morning." And here,
+remembering the disrespect that I had shown her in the road, she seized
+her parasol as if to strike me. But with hypocritical gallantry
+(shrewd rascal that I was) I dropped upon one knee, caught her hand
+impulsively and assured her that my young master's comfort and good
+appearance should be the study of my life. And in her eyes there was a
+light of real kindliness. "There, get up," she said. "I am glad to see
+that you are improving. General, we may make a respectable servant of
+him yet."
+
+When the carriage had rolled away, Bob and I ran back to the room,
+locked the door, rubbed our joints with the fish-worm oil and wrestled
+with each other in ecstasy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+How hallowed and sun-glinted that school life now seems to me. Many a
+grave has been opened and closed, the roots of many a greenbriar is
+embedded in the ashes of a heart that was once alive with fire, the
+fierce passion of life. The sun is still shining, and the arch of God's
+many-hued lithograph is still seen in the sky, and hearts have fire
+shut within them, but I wonder if the sun is as bright as it was in the
+long ago, if the rain-bow is as purple, if the fire in the heart is as
+glowing. Ah, and I know that my grand-children, in the far-away years
+to come, will lean feebly upon the gate and wonder if the world is as
+full of light as it was. Every emotion you have felt you may know has
+been felt by other men. It is this that makes nearly all poetry seem
+old; it is this that sends true poetry to the human heart.
+
+I will not linger over those days at school. I have sought thus far to
+picture my early life, not that it held incident, but that it revealed
+a condition. Time has been so sweeping, the hot blast that blew from
+the North was so scorching, and left such dried and brittle stems
+where green memories grew, that the youth of to-day can scarcely bring
+himself to comprehend that strange democratic absolutism which once
+existed in the South. And I wonder now that it could have lasted so
+long, though for years the wonder was that it could so soon have been
+broken up. How odd now it would seem to point out a man and say, "He
+once owned, in this land of freedom, a hundred human beings--owned
+them in body, but Christian-like yielded to God the direction of their
+souls."
+
+During the regular sessions, until he had reached his eighteenth year,
+my young master attended the Layfield Academy, and then he was entered
+at Center College. I had kept well up with him, a dead secret between
+us, for Old Mistress had more than once made him promise that I should
+be kept down upon the servants' proper level. But the secret was
+discovered and once it was held threateningly over me.
+
+Bob and I were home to spend the Christmas holidays. On the plantation
+was an Ethiopian Lothario, named Steve, and one evening in his cabin he
+asked me if I would write for him a letter to a mulatto girl who lived
+on a distant farm. "I want you," said he, "ter fling in jest ez much
+sweet pizen ez you kin, caze I lubs dat lady an' her head is monstus
+high. I yered de white preacher say sumfin dat he 'lowed wuz frum de
+dead language. An' kain't you lash in er little o' dat dead talk? I
+know it'll fetch her caze dat preacher's dead talk fotch me."
+
+"How do you know I can write?" I asked, for I had curbed the pedantic
+instinct of the negro blood within me and except to a few trusted
+friends had dropped no hint that I could even read.
+
+"Oh, I 'lowed dat ez smart er boy ez you gwine off ter school an'
+college wid his young marster oughter larn how ter do dat. Will you
+write de letter fur me?"
+
+I wrote him a screed that made his eyes snap when I read it to him. It
+was a mixture of cold Latin grammar and warm persuasion. "Ah, Lawd,"
+he said as he sat, tallowing his Sunday shoes, "ef dat doan fetch her
+she ain't ter be fotch." He folded the letter, and when he had put it
+into his pocket he turned upon me. "Oh, yas, you goes off ter school
+an' l'arns dead talk an' de rest o' us hatter sweat in de fiel'. An' de
+fust thing we knows you'll be crossin' de Ohio riber ter make speeches
+'mong dem 'litionists. I'm gwine tell Ole Miss."
+
+"What!" I cried, "after I have written a letter for you?"
+
+"Oh, I kain't hep de letter. Dat wuz er--wuz er matter o' fack. But it
+ain't er matter o' fack dat you'se been trying ter put yo-se'f up 'mong
+de white fo'ks, er turnin' up yo' nose at us caze you'se whiter an' got
+mo' dead talk den we has."
+
+"Steve," I pleaded, "please don't tell her. I couldn't help learning
+something, and I pledge you my word that I don't know much. Why, there
+are hundreds of negroes all about here that can read as well as I can
+and their masters think nothing of it."
+
+"Doan you fool yo'se'f 'bout dat, honey. Dar's er heap said erbout it.
+Da reads dem little flat books ter de uder niggers an' da gits whupped
+fur it, too. And de fust thing we knows you'll be readin' trouble on
+dis plan'ation. I'm gwine ter de house in de mornin' an' tell Ole Miss."
+
+"Yes, and if you do, I'll have you whipped. Young Master won't put up
+with such an interference with his affairs. I belong to him and not to
+Old Miss."
+
+"Ah, hah, but whut Ole Miss say comes mighty nigh bein' law sometimes.
+I'se had my eye on you fur er laung time, an' I'd like might'ly ter see
+you out yander in de fiel' er brilin' er laung side o' me."
+
+I argued with him, threatened him, but it was of no use. He shook his
+head and declared that he would tell Old Miss. And the next day he
+proved his mean nature. I kept a close watch on him and saw him start
+toward the house just as Old Miss stepped out upon the veranda. I can
+see him now, wool hat under arm, bowing to her. I knew that he expected
+a reward and I wondered what it would be. She listened and greatly
+to my surprise replied: "Well, I hope he'll learn enough to behave
+himself."
+
+"But goodness me, Ole Miss, ain't you gwine gib me suthin' fur all
+dis?" the rascally tell-tale pleaded.
+
+She took out a small piece of money, tossed it to him and said: "There.
+And now I want you to remember one thing--don't come to me with any
+more stories."
+
+She saw me as I dodged behind a corner of the dairy, and called me to
+her. "Dan," she said as I came up the steps, "I thought you had more
+sense than to create jealousies by exhibiting the crumbs of knowledge
+your master has permitted you to pick from under his table?"
+
+I looked at her in surprise; surely the idea was not her own, but in
+her expression of it there was almost a majestic rebuke. I can see her
+now as she stood, her gray eyes fixed upon me, her silver-streaked hair
+parted flat, a bunch of authoritative keys hanging from her girdle.
+I gave her the all effective knee-bend of submission, and recounted
+briefly the manner in which the black rascal had snared me. This amused
+her and she laughed with a cold cackle, but she did not strike me
+with her keys, as I had feared she would, though the memory of that
+feelingless laugh lived with me longer than the ache of a blow would
+have lasted on my head. Old Master came walking slowly out of the hall,
+with his spectacles on and with a letter in his hand. "Madam," he said,
+"Doctor Bates is coming back. Dan, saddle the sorrel horse and bring
+him round to the front gate."
+
+I hastened to the stable, musing upon the return of that
+trouble-brewing man. He had been home a number of times while Bob and I
+were off at school, but I had not seen him. More than once I had half
+suspected that he sought to marry Miss May, to fasten another grip upon
+the estate, but it did not seem possible that so gentle a woman could
+marry so hard a man. Yet, I was wise enough to know that we can never
+tell. A woman's heart is like a bird, beating upon the window at night,
+dazzled by the promise of a warmth within a glowing room, and seeing
+not an icy cruelty sitting beside the fire, lying in wait for a tender
+victim.
+
+While I was holding the horse, waiting for Master to mount, he paused,
+with his hand on the horn of the saddle and said: "Dan, when your
+Mars. George gets here, I want you to treat him with the greatest
+respect. Do you hear?"
+
+"Master," I replied grandiloquently, "I might fail to hear it thunder,
+but I cannot fail to hear what you say."
+
+He looked at me and remarked: "Look here, you are getting to be a good
+deal of a d--d fool." But I saw him chuckling as he turned his head
+away, and I knew that he was pleased. Masters liked the flattery of
+their slaves, and this is the reason that there is so much cozenage,
+even in the negro of to-day.
+
+"Do you know why he is coming back?" I ventured to ask.
+
+"Coming back because this is his home, sir. And I don't want you to
+presume to ask such questions, sir. Well," he said, noticing that I was
+still holding the bridle, "are you going to let me go, or must I stand
+here until you are ready to release me?"
+
+"I beg your pardon," I replied, stepping back.
+
+"All right," he said as he rode away, and looking back he added:
+"Remember that I want you to treat him with the greatest of respect."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+Doctor Bates came two days later and I saw him at breakfast as I stood
+behind my Young Master's chair. I was surprised to see that the years
+had touched him so lightly. Indeed, he appeared but little older than
+at the time I had thrown the glass tumbler at his head. And this set me
+to a study of all the faces about me. How slowly they had aged while
+Young Master and I had grown so fast! The doctor was dressed beyond
+any former mood of neatness, blue broad-cloth coat and ruffled shirt;
+and Miss May was beautiful in a long, beflowered gown. There had been
+a heavy frost, and a low, cheer-giving roar came from the logs in the
+great fire-place. Outside the negroes were singing and dancing in the
+crisp air. The looms and the spinning wheels were hushed; it was a time
+for music, for feasting, for jollification--a whole week of "colored
+freedom." The talk at the table was full of jest, for in the midst of
+the company was a great bowl of egg-nog. And even the steely eyes of my
+old mistress snapped with pleasant mischief.
+
+"Doctor," she said, "Dan has become quite a student, and he writes
+Latin love-letters for black Steve."
+
+"In Latin to show that Steve is dead in love!" the doctor roared,
+shaking his ruffled shirt with his mirth. "But I should think," he
+added, "that a woman who could love him must be color-blind."
+
+"Or still worse, blind to all sentiment," suggested Young Master.
+
+"Or left alone by all lovers," Miss May declared.
+
+"But," said Old Master, "being so ill-favored he may be faithful."
+
+"The ugly are not truer than the beautiful," Miss May spoke up.
+
+The doctor bowed to her. "I am glad that you assert your own fidelity,"
+he said, and Young Master looked up at me. Miss May blushed, and Old
+Mistress said: "Daughter, that was a charming compliment, quite worthy
+of a Southern gentleman."
+
+"And accepted by a Southern lady--with blushes," spoke my young master,
+and I felt a strong impulse to grasp his hand.
+
+"Ah, Bob," said the doctor, "you are improving. You give real evidences
+of a thoughtful mind, and I have no doubt that you will make a great
+lawyer." Here he looked at Old Mistress.
+
+"Yes, lawyer," she replied, "for I have given up the hope of his
+becoming a minister. He does not take to the church."
+
+"Except to get out of a shower of rain," Bob spoke up, and his mother's
+gray eyes stared at him in reproof: "Why, Robert, I am astonished at
+you." Old Master put by his egg-nog cup, tittering down in his stock
+collar, and Old Miss turned upon him.
+
+"Such encouragement on such a day!" she said.
+
+"Upon days of merriment it is meet that we should laugh," Old Master
+replied.
+
+"And not bread that we should be sad," said Bob.
+
+At this Miss May laughed a stream of music, clear and rippling; but
+Old Miss rebuked both Bob and his sister by declaring that it was easy
+enough to make a wise remark appear foolish. Old Master had begun to
+laugh at everything, for up to the great yellow bowl in the center of
+the table his cup had been passed many times. His face glowed with good
+humor and he joked with the doctor. "Really glad to see you back again,
+George," the old man said, blinking a newly-felt welcome. "We never
+know how much we think of a fellow until he's gone. By the Lord--"
+
+"Why, General," Old Mistress cried in surprise.
+
+He looked at her. "Why, what did I say? Said I was glad to see him,
+didn't I, and I am. You know it, Hanna, as well as I do. Said I was
+glad to see him, and you don't seem to believe it. Dan, see that a
+hogshead of egg-nog is served to the negroes."
+
+"Oh, not that much!" Old Miss protested.
+
+"Hanna, I said a hogshead," he persisted, blinking at her, "and I can't
+forfeit my word. Go out there, Dan, and tell them that they are to have
+a hogshead."
+
+That night, after a day of feast and an evening of good-natured riot,
+Bob and I sat in our room, he listening, and I reading aloud "The Count
+of Monte Cristo." During the day and the evening, amid the gaiety of
+the negro quarter, my young master had laughed with as loud a haw-haw
+as the lustiest buck on the plantation, but I had seen that at times
+his face was sad; had heard a melancholy note sounding under the jig
+tune of his revelry.
+
+The hour was late, the fire was growing gray. I put the book aside and
+raked the chunks together. "We have drunk the warm light and now we'll
+drink the cooling dregs," he said. And looking at him I replied:
+
+"You are a boy but sometimes you talk like an old man."
+
+"And act like a fool," was his quick retort. He got up quickly,
+overturning his chair, and without stopping to right it, strode slowly
+up and down the room. He walked for some time, with his eyes cast
+down, half theatrical, treading the forum, for his reading had a deep
+influence upon him; and then he halted and turned to me.
+
+"Do you see that chair?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Why don't you take it up?"
+
+"Pardon me, sir," I replied (at times we were stiffly formal) and then
+I placed the chair back against the wall. He resumed his walk muttering
+something, and suddenly his stiff forensic bearing became lithely
+natural. "Dan," he said, "do you know what I believe?" and before I
+had time to reply, he continued: "I believe that wolf is trying to
+marry my sister. And I want to say this, to go no farther, that if he
+wins her, I'll cut his throat. Mean it?" he cried, his eyes aflame, "I
+mean it just as sure as there is a God in Heaven. I have always hated
+that man. I never told you my first recollection of him. I was playing
+alone in the yard, sitting under a tree. I was very young, I know, but
+I remember it well. He came along with a bone which he threw to his
+dog, and then he bent over me and wiped his greasy hands on my head. I
+howled in anger, and someone came; my words were so few that I could
+not set forth my resentment." He strode to the door and then hastily
+came back. "He is a snake, and May is a bird, and he perhaps can charm
+her, but if he does, I'll let the blood out of his throat. Father
+always hated him; of late it seems that he is giving way. But I won't
+give way."
+
+"Mars. Bob, you know what I think of him. One night I tried to kill
+him, and--"
+
+"Hush!" he cried, glaring at me fiercely. "You are old enough to hang."
+
+"Flattering growth, looking toward a hopeful majority," I replied.
+
+He shot a keen glance at me. "Dan, sometimes you are inspired with a
+scythe-like wisdom."
+
+"My association with you, Mars. Bob--"
+
+"That will do. You still have the negro's flattery. But it is an
+infamous shame that you are not white."
+
+"I am, nearly."
+
+He stamped his foot hard upon the floor. "Fool, there is no such
+thing under social law as nearly white. One drop of negro blood would
+Africanize humanity."
+
+"Then one drop of unfortunate blood would make the whole world unjust."
+
+"That will do," he said. "If I let you go on you will preach me an
+abolition sermon."
+
+I bowed and he sat down, drawing his chair near to the dying fire and
+placing his slippered feet against the chimney. He mused for a long
+time, and then he said, without looking at me. "I have been reading
+an old man's book, and it impresses upon me the glorious appreciation
+of youth. To be young and to place the proper estimate upon it--how
+magnificent!"
+
+"But isn't there a danger in such early ripeness?" I asked.
+
+"Sir Sage," he said, shifting his feet and crossing them. "Yes, there
+may be, and you give evidences of it."
+
+Another silence fell, and the candle as well as the fire was dying.
+"Dan," he said, "I have done enough scanning and soon now I am going to
+take up the study of the law. You know that it is my ambition to be a
+great orator, and something within me says that I shall be. I talk to
+you as I could talk to no one else; with some degree of literal truth,
+you are a part of myself--I own you." A shadow fell black upon the wall
+and he looked round at the struggling candle. For a moment the light
+revived, and he continued: "I believe that one day I shall stand in the
+Senate, and the storm that rages within my breast will sweep over the
+land."
+
+"The hope of every young Kentuckian," I ventured to say, determined not
+always to be a negro flatterer.
+
+The light was nearly gone, but I saw his anxious face turn toward me.
+
+"A streak of lie and a stripe of truth," he replied. "And why do all
+young Kentuckians have that hope? Because Kentucky has produced so many
+orators? Oh, I know that we don't take account of the failures. The
+failures come largely from the plow, from lack of advantages, but I
+have advantages, and I have fire and ability. Do you believe that?"
+
+"Mars. Bob, I know it."
+
+I wondered what there was in the tone of my voice to impress him so,
+whether it was a sadness on my part or a sudden and moving conviction
+striking deep into his own mind, but I saw his feet fall from the
+chimney, saw him cover his face with his hands--and then the light was
+gone save a dim glow in the gray fire; no sound in the house nor from
+the cabins--the boundless night was dead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+It must have been nearly a week later, for I know that the holidays
+were drawing to a close, when my young master said to me: "Dan, I must
+ask you to do something which may not seem to be very honorable, but
+which must be done. I have told you that if Bates wins my sister I
+will cut his throat; I have reconsidered that threat--I will not cut
+his throat, but I will give him a chance to shoot me, and if he avails
+himself of it like a man, all shall be fair, but if he does not, I will
+shoot him. Do you understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir, but what is it you want me to do?"
+
+We were in the stable at the time this conversation took place. He
+peered about cautiously to see if any one were within hearing, and then
+he said: "As I said, it is not very honorable, but it must be done. I
+want you to sneak--I don't know of a softer word, Dan--I want you to
+sneak about and--and as best you can listen to what he says to her."
+
+"It is not for me to make an objection by asking such a question,
+Mars. Bob; but do you think it is an honorable thing to do?"
+
+He was looking at me over the partition of a stall, and his eyes
+snapped. "Did you say something to me about honor?" he asked quietly,
+but to me his soft tones were louder than a shout.
+
+"Not of honor on your part, but on mine, Mars. Bob."
+
+"A fine shift. Well, I'll attend to your honor and mine, too. I am
+doing this to save my sister and the honor will come in my giving him
+an opportunity to defend himself."
+
+"Don't you think you'd better speak to Old Master?"
+
+"No," he snapped. And then he added: "Will you do as I bid you?"
+
+"I am your property, Mars. Bob?"
+
+"Rascal, you disarm me. Listen to me a moment. Has a father ever taken
+more care of a son's education than I have of yours? Compare your
+condition with that of every other slave in Kentucky, and then form an
+estimate of my treatment of you."
+
+"Mars. Bob, I don't have to compare; I already know, and I appreciate.
+So far as I am concerned, I don't care--I would crawl after the doctor
+and listen to all he says, but I am afraid that after a while you may
+think less of yourself for sending me."
+
+"Very thoughtful, I'm sure; but you need have no such fear. I am making
+a bright justice of a black necessity, and if there should be any
+repentance, I shall be the one to repent. Will you do as I tell you?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+He took my hand, something he rarely did, for although sociable,
+familiarity was by him held in quiet abhorrence. I went straightway to
+the house, leaving him in the stable, and as best I could, entered upon
+the discharge of my distasteful duty. I heard the doctor's voice in the
+library, and I was hanging about the door opening out into the large
+hall, when Old Miss spied me.
+
+"What are you doing here?" she asked, coming forward with one hand
+resting upon her great bunch of keys.
+
+"I am waiting for my Young Master," I replied. "He said that he would
+meet me here."
+
+"But you can be better employed than by standing round here. Take out
+that library rug and beat it."
+
+I ventured to remind her that the Christmas was not quite over and that
+all work was by custom supposed to be suspended. At this impudence,
+she lifted her keys and I know that she would have struck me had I
+not hastened to obey her order. While I was folding the rug, making
+more than necessary work of it that I might listen to the Doctor and
+Miss May, I saw him step back from a window, where the two had been
+standing, and then I heard him say to her: "I am going to town, but
+will be back this evening," and then in a still lower tone, he added:
+"And may I have the promise of a talk in the parlor with you to-night?
+I have something that I wish to tell you."
+
+"With pleasure," I heard her say as I went out with the rug. And
+long before the coming of night my dangerous plan was formed. In the
+parlor, usually some distance from the wall, was a large, old-fashioned
+horse-hair sofa. I decided to get behind this piece of furniture and
+lie flat upon the floor. There was a strong chance of discovery and a
+certainty of punishment should I be discovered, but to my young master
+I had given my word and I was determined to take the risk. Just before
+supper I laid out my plan to him and after a thoughtful moment, he
+said: "It's as dangerous as the deuce, but it is the best thing you can
+do. Wait a moment. I will do it myself."
+
+"You shall not, sir," I was bold enough to declare, and he looked at
+me admiringly. "All right, Dan, but be careful. Just before supper is
+over, slip out, and if anyone should ask for you, I will say that I
+have sent you off."
+
+Old Master had passed through a moody spell since, with so free a hand,
+he had dipped into the egg-nog, and just now his rusted spirits were
+brightening. "What, wine at supper, George?" he said, looking at the
+doctor.
+
+"Our gracious lady's blackberry cordial," the doctor replied, with a
+wave of his hand toward Old Miss. "Won't you have a glass?"
+
+"Not unless I have lost my senses, and I don't think I have," Old
+Master rejoined, shrugging his thin shoulders. "When you want to drink,
+take whisky, for all those side drams are vicious pretenses."
+
+"The percentage of alcohol--" began the doctor, but Old Master shut
+him up with a loud "Tut, tut. I don't give a snap for the percentage
+of alcohol," said he. "Take the lowest percentage, drink a little too
+much, and then see where you are. So I say that if a man wants to
+drink, it is better to take the shortest route."
+
+"That is, if he wants to get drunk," said the doctor, "but I don't see
+why any man wants to do that. I don't, I'm sure; I never was drunk in
+my life."
+
+"There are better men, sir, who cannot say as much," was Old Master's
+reply, and the doctor pretended to laugh, but I could see that the
+remark so truthfully delivered by Old Master cut him deeply. I was
+waiting for the conversation to become earnest, so that I could slip
+away unobserved, but the talk began to lag, and Mars. Bob must have
+divined my thoughts for he strove to enliven it.
+
+"Father," said he, "I am ready now to take up law at any time you may
+suggest. I think that I have had enough of miscellaneous training--I
+have read nearly every book in your library."
+
+"Take your degree, sir; take your degree," Old Master replied.
+
+"That, sir, is a mere matter of form."
+
+"And a form to be observed, sir--to be observed."
+
+"Yes," said Mars. Bob, "but my reading teaches me that an orator can
+be trained down to a point too fine--it may weaken his passion, dim
+his fire with too much judgment, hem him in with too much criticism
+and compel him to dodge. I think that it was Greek art, sir, that kept
+Ben Johnson from creating great characters. The perfection of Greek
+form rendered it impossible for him to give us anything save talking
+moralities."
+
+"Sophistry!" Old Master shouted, and upon the young man he turned with
+such a storm that I found my opportunity to escape.
+
+In the parlor the light was dim, the flame in the fire-place not
+yet having enveloped logs recently put on, and in my eagerness to
+get into my hiding-place, I overturned a chair. It struck the floor
+with a deafening noise, I thought, and as I put it back into place I
+listened for approaching footsteps, but heard nothing save Old Master's
+loud-toned talk upon the necessity of observing all beneficial forms. I
+could not understand what he said, nor did I halt long enough to try,
+but leaping behind the old sofa, stretched myself out upon the floor.
+Of course every sound about the house was now increased to new volume,
+and of course my heart beat so hard upon the floor that I was afraid
+that someone might hear it. A cat came in and purred against the legs
+of the sofa, a yellow, hateful creature that all previous coaxing had
+failed to induce to come near me; and I scolded at her under my breath,
+but she rubbed against me, and mewed as if to invite discovery of my
+shame. I knew that I must get rid of her, and I think that once I felt
+in my pocket to find my knife to cut her throat, but by a slight noise
+was frightened out of this cruel intention. I did not parley with her,
+though I picked her up, clambered over the sofa, raised the window
+and as she clawed at me, threw her out. And I had just time enough to
+hasten back to my hiding-place when I heard foot-steps in the hall.
+There was no opening through which I could see what was passing, for
+my peeping-place commanded but a view of the hearth and the rug spread
+in front of it. Presently upon the parlor carpet came the doctor's
+footsteps--I knew them well--and the soft rustle of skirts. For a few
+moments the doctor stood on the rug, and the skirts, which I could just
+see, showed me that Miss May had sat down in a rocking chair. I fancied
+that the doctor was lighting a cigar, and about the time I thought he
+must have it going, he sat down not far from Miss May. For a long time
+they talked of neighborhood happenings, parties, marriages, deaths--she
+as artless as a child, frank and cheerful; but he, sly and insinuating.
+He told her of his adventures, with race horses in the East and with
+gamblers on the Mississippi River, and her exclamations from time to
+time told me of the effect the recital had upon her; and I could well
+understand it, for indeed the rascal interested me. Sometimes I thought
+that he had wandered so far from the subject which had on his part
+induced this communion that I did not see how he was to approach it,
+but somehow he found his way back, though not with perfect ease, for I
+saw my young mistress move her chair in her embarrassment. "And May,"
+he said, "during all these years, while you were growing and blooming,
+my mind dwelt upon you--and but for you, I don't think that I should
+have cared to live--"
+
+"Why, Brother George," she broke in, "what are you saying?"
+
+"May, listen to me a moment. Don't call me brother--call me George.
+Wait a moment, please." There was a flouncing of her skirts and I
+thought that she must have been getting out of the rocking chair. "You
+look frightened when, indeed, this should be as quiet as the time when
+you say your prayers. May, I am no longer as poor a man as I was--"
+
+"But, brother, has anyone reproached you with your poverty?" she asked.
+
+"There you go, calling me brother again. Not lately, but in the past,
+yes. I have eaten the bitter bread of the dependent--"
+
+"Don't say that," she protested. "Did you invite me here to tell me
+this? Tell me more of your adventures?"
+
+"May, you are not a child."
+
+"Well, no," she laughed. "I am really getting along in years. I am much
+older than Bob, and you know he is nearly a man now."
+
+"We are all getting along in years," he replied. "Time is cutting the
+pigeon wing. But now let me talk seriously to you. Your memory of my
+devotion to your sister Lou must still be fresh, and God knows I loved
+her, but May, my love for you is greater, passes all understanding, and
+I ask you to be my wife."
+
+He was leaning toward her, for his hands came down within the sweep
+of my vision. It was some time before she replied, and I lay there
+waiting, my heart beating loud. He had so impressed her that she was
+seeking to frame a graceful answer. Could it be that she was thinking
+of accepting him? She got out of the chair and her skirts whisked about
+as if she had turned toward the door.
+
+I lost sight of the doctor's hand and I saw his feet move. "May, please
+don't go!" he pleaded.
+
+"Doctor Bates," she said, "you insult me and the memory of my sister.
+I am going to marry a man that I love and that you hate, although you
+have seen him but once."
+
+"You don't mean John Marston, of New Orleans?" he almost cried.
+
+"Yes, I do. I am going to marry him."
+
+"May, if you do I will shoot him."
+
+She laughed. "Oh, you might kill him if called to attend him, doctor,
+but you will not shoot him."
+
+"I will pass your insults, Miss. One more moment, please? Does your
+mother know about it?"
+
+"I have honored you first, Doctor. See what confidence I have in you?
+I have made my own choice and have consulted no one. Perhaps it might
+have been better if my poor sister had done the same."
+
+"You shall not insult me this way. I'll call your father."
+
+"Do, puppy."
+
+She whisked out of the room, and I felt myself rising from the floor,
+so strong was my impulse to spring upon the scoundrel and choke him,
+but when I straightened up, he was no longer in the room. I hastened to
+my young master, whom I knew was waiting for me up stairs, and I almost
+flung myself into the room. There he sat near a table with two pistols
+lying upon it. He strove to control himself, but he was biting his lip
+as he looked up at me.
+
+"Well," he said.
+
+"It is well," I replied.
+
+"Out with it--tell me. What did she do?"
+
+"She called him a puppy," I replied. And then I told him all that had
+passed, and he listened, motionless, with his hand lying across the two
+pistols.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+Early in the morning I arose and kindled a fire and sat beside it,
+waiting for my master to awake. The day was still and cold, and what
+was unusual with us, a dark fog lay low on the land, like the skeleton
+of night left hanging in the air of dawn. Master turned over and I
+looked round at him. He did not notice me; he lay upon his back with
+one arm under his head, his great brown eyes wide open, a graceful curl
+of hair upon his classic brow. A piece of poplar kindling snapped--and
+he looked at me.
+
+"Dan," he said, rising up, and propping his shoulders against the
+head-board, "what was it you said last night about John Marston?"
+
+"I repeated what Miss May said; that she was going to marry him."
+
+"Why, he hasn't been here very often."
+
+"But that doesn't seem to have made much difference," I replied.
+
+He smiled at me. "Love comes once and is ever present afterward," he
+said, half musingly. And then rousing himself he added: "I am so
+much pleased to know that she is beyond the artifices of that nimble
+wolf that the prospect of her marriage with anyone else seems almost
+a blessing. But I wonder what father will say. I don't know but that
+he may look at it very much as I do, though I don't suppose he had an
+inkling that Bates was striving to win her."
+
+"And how about your mother?" I asked.
+
+I was looking straight at him, and I thought that his face darkened. "I
+could never understand her liking for him," he said.
+
+"Neither can we understand a woman's liking for any man," I ventured
+to suggest, and he laughed as he got out of bed. He pulled off the
+snow-white counterpane and wrapped it about his shoulders, and stood
+before me a Greek poet, ennobled with the pride of a conquered prize.
+
+When we went down to the breakfast table, Dr. Bates was not in his
+accustomed place, but Miss May was there and her face was as bright as
+if nothing had happened. "I wonder why the doctor doesn't come on?"
+said Old Miss. And then she turned to me: "Dan, step up to his room and
+tell him that breakfast is ready."
+
+"I object," Young Master cried, setting himself back from the table,
+and Old Master gave him a sharp look. "Robert, what do you mean, sir?
+Object to what?"
+
+"Pardon me, sir," said Young Master, bowing. "I was thinking of
+something else and didn't really know what I was saying. Yes, Dan, go
+tell the doctor to come to breakfast. But here he comes now."
+
+The doctor came in smiling. "Glad to see everyone looking so well," he
+said, sitting down opposite Miss May and beside Young Master. "General,
+you appear to have enjoyed a good night's rest, and madam, (speaking
+to Old Miss) to look at you always takes me back ten years. I met old
+Tom Marshal not long ago, and he told me that at one time you were the
+most bewitching woman in Kentucky; and with captivating graciousness he
+added that in one hand you might carry the cares of the present, but
+that with the other you held up the glowing lamp of the romantic past.
+And I must be permitted to fancy that Miss May stands as a reproduction
+of your earlier days. Bob, how are you this morning?"
+
+"A great man has said that one can be below as well as above flattery,
+and I am one or the other; I shall not say which," Young Master
+answered. Miss May smiled, Old Master pretended not to hear, but Old
+Miss heard, and I thought that the wrinkles on her brow grew deeper.
+
+The doctor laughed. "Let us say above, Bob."
+
+"All right, sir; if you desire to be very near the truth."
+
+"But," the doctor added, "let us not agree that you are above truth
+itself. General, don't you think that his shrewd sophistry more than
+ever fits him for the law?" And before Old Master could reply, Young
+Master spoke up. "The law has kept abreast with all human advancement,
+but I know of a profession that lags in disputatious ignorance, wagging
+its head at a Harvey and denouncing a Jenner--bleeding the already
+bloodless patient--"
+
+"Robert!" Old Master cried, dropping his fork with a clang upon his
+plate, "if you find it impossible to be agreeable, leave the table,
+sir."
+
+But Young Master was not to be thus driven away. "If I am disagreeable
+I beg your pardon."
+
+The doctor was laughing. "His words may be disagreeable to some ears,
+but not to mine," he said. "There is truth in what he says, and that is
+one of the reasons why I have practically abandoned my profession."
+
+And then Old Mistress spoke. "And I am very sorry you have," she said.
+"To heal the sick is the most noble of all arts--one that our Saviour
+practiced."
+
+"Greatly to the insult of the recognized medicine of His time," Young
+Master declared.
+
+Old Miss cleared her throat and was going to say something but the
+doctor cut in ahead of her. "Yes," said he, "but it was the lawyers who
+condemned Him to death."
+
+I stepped back, expecting to see Young Master spring up in wrath, but
+he didn't; and he was quiet in his answer: "And it was oratory that
+spread the great news of redemption--the native force of Peter and the
+cultivated grace of Paul. Yes, the men of the text book condemned Him
+to death, but borne upon the eloquence that flew from the heart of
+impulsive man, His name was carried to the ends of the earth."
+
+I thought that the doctor gave him a look of admiration, but it might
+have been a trick of his hypocritical nature. But Old Miss looked at
+him proudly, and I saw a warm light glow in Old Master's eye; and this
+show of respect for the young man influenced the doctor to change the
+subject. "I am going to town this morning," said he. "Has anyone a
+commission to give me? Miss May, can I bring you anything?"
+
+"No, I thank you. I am going myself after a while."
+
+"When did you stop calling her May?" Old Mistress inquired.
+
+"I don't know when and I don't know why," the doctor made answer,
+looking at the young woman. "I suppose it was when I discovered that
+she had lost her sisterly regard for me, though I don't know exactly
+when that was."
+
+"Wasn't it last night?" Miss May asked, giving him a straight look.
+But not in the least was he daunted by it. "Last night? Let me see,"
+he went on, pretending to muse. "Oh, I don't know but it was. We had a
+little dispute then," he added, turning to Old Miss. "But it was not
+serious."
+
+"What is it?" Old Miss asked, looking up at a house-maid who had just
+entered.
+
+"Mr. Marston is in the parlor," the maid answered. Miss May jumped up
+and ran to her room to adorn herself for his reception, and the doctor,
+following her with his eyes as she ran up the stairway in the hall,
+could not conceal the dark bitterness in his heart. Old Master looked
+on and was silent until Miss May had quite disappeared upon the upper
+landing and then coming out of his muse with a sudden jerking of his
+hand which lay upon the table, he said: "It appears to me that his
+visits are becoming frequent, Madam."
+
+Old Miss smiled, as I had seen her smile some time before when it was
+incidentally mentioned by someone that the man Marston owned a large
+sugar plantation in Louisiana. "Yes," she replied, "and for one, I must
+say that I am pleased." And thereupon the doctor turned his head slowly
+and gave her a searching look. "I mean it," she said, smiling at him.
+But he did not smile in return; he rattled his fork upon his plate and
+sat in silence. My young master was turned about so that I could see
+his face. The sullen discomfiture of the doctor was pleasing to him,
+and with a sudden motion of his hand, a forensic gesture which was now
+unconscious with him (so surely was oratory taking possession of him)
+said straight at Old Master:
+
+"I don't see why so much import should attach to a few visits. One
+might suppose that my sister had been living apart from social
+influences when the fact is that young men have for years ridden from
+the valleys and the knobs to call upon her. I hope you do not wish to
+get her off your hands?"
+
+Old Master was rolling a bit of bread between his thumb and finger,
+a habit with him. And he looked up, still rolling it, and with a
+mischievous light in his eye, asked if anyone had seen his daughter
+posted for sale.
+
+"I won't put up with such talk as this," Old Miss declared. "Robert,
+you and your father would make me out a heathen. Offered for sale,
+indeed. General, I am ashamed of you."
+
+The old man rolled his bolus of bread and chuckled softly. "I don't
+know," he said, his eyes blinking, "that anyone has tried to make
+you out a heathen. In fact, I think you give strong evidences of an
+advanced state of civilization. The heathen mother would be caught by
+feathers and paint but it takes a sugar plantation to sweeten your
+smile."
+
+Young master roared and was still laughing when Miss May passed the
+door on her way to the parlor. Old Miss was so furious that she would
+not trust herself to say anything; her face changed from one hue to
+another, and her eyes looked young with fire, but she held her peace,
+with her teeth set upon her thin lip. It was now time for the doctor
+to say something, and with the sympathetic smile of the scoundrel he
+turned to her. "Nothing is too sacred to escape a man's joke," said he.
+"Of course, the General meant nothing, but it gives me the opportunity
+to say that of all mothers I have known, I think you are the noblest."
+
+Young Master looked at him. "My mother needs no one to defend her
+against a pleasantry uttered at her own board," said he.
+
+"Tut, tut," Old Master cried, slapping his hand upon the table. "It was
+all nonsense and should have been taken as such. Dan, tell Sam to get
+my leggings and bring my horse round. I'm going to ride."
+
+During the forenoon, though the air was sharp, I saw Mr. Marston and
+Miss May walking about the place, along the banks of the smoking creek,
+in the woods, where the cold birds fluttered; I heard them laugh, and
+I saw him leading her by the hand as they strolled down the lane. Only
+twice during the day did I catch sight of the doctor, once as he stood
+leaning moodily against a tree in the yard, and later as he walked to
+and fro near the stable, lashing his leg with a riding whip. Old Master
+rode abroad and remained long away, and when he returned just before
+the dinner hour, I heard negro Sam tell him that the doctor wished to
+speak to him in the library. I know not what passed at the interview,
+but I remember that as I went through the hall I heard Old Master say,
+"It is a matter, sir, that should concern you very little. You may
+regard yourself as a member of the family, but I am at the head of
+the household, sir." I imagined that the doctor was advising against
+Marston and that Old Master had thus shut him up.
+
+That night Bob and I were in our room, studying an immortal oration,
+when there came a tap at the door. The young man frowned at the
+interruption and putting aside his book, went himself to the door.
+"Come in," he said, stepping back stiffly. And the doctor entered. It
+was the first time for years that I had seen him in that room and all
+three of us felt the embarrassment of the visit. "Sit down," my master
+invited, placing a chair for him. He took the seat, leaned for a moment
+toward the cheerful blaze, then straightening up, remarked upon the
+coldness of the night. Master said something in reply and I knew that
+they were skirmishing; that something must soon follow--through their
+politeness I saw a deadly hatred.
+
+"How long does that man expect to stay?" the doctor asked.
+
+"What man?" master spoke up, with an air of surprise.
+
+"Marston, of course."
+
+"Why of course?"
+
+The doctor turned nervously, looked at me and said: "Will you please
+move a little?" motioning with his hand, "You are too close to me."
+
+"Dan," said master, "sit over there."
+
+I went over to the window, the place where I had stood one night and
+looked down upon a quarrel between Old Master and the doctor.
+
+"Why of course?" master repeated.
+
+"Thought you knew the man I meant."
+
+"He and almost all other men had passed out of my mind, sir," said the
+young man, leaning with his elbow upon the table. "There are times when
+I don't think of man, but of what man has said."
+
+The doctor coughed. "Don't you think there's just a little pretense in
+all that--this learned abstraction?"
+
+"If there's any pretense at all it is just a little. I know men who
+have more than a little pretense."
+
+For a time they were silent, listening to the crackling of the fire.
+"But I didn't come to bicker," said the doctor.
+
+"Didn't you? Have the revivalists brought about a change of heart?"
+
+"I have come to tell you good-bye," said the doctor, graciously
+overlooking my master's remark.
+
+"Oh, to tell me good-bye? When do you expect to go?"
+
+"Possibly to-night--surely in the morning."
+
+"Expect to be gone long?"
+
+"I may never return."
+
+"You expect to be gone then some time?"
+
+They looked at each other. "It would seem so," said the doctor. And
+then he added: "I am going South."
+
+"That's all right," said master. "It really makes no difference which
+way you go."
+
+"You are getting old enough to pass from annoyance to insult," the
+doctor replied.
+
+"Yes," said master, "one is supposed to progress."
+
+"True," replied the doctor, "but premature progress argues premature
+decay. Kentucky is full of the dusty shells of young hopefuls.
+Sometimes at nineteen a boy gives promise of becoming a great orator;
+at twenty-five he is a haggler--at forty, forgotten. I have known it to
+be the case."
+
+"Yes," said master, leaning heavier upon the table, "some men change
+while others are always the same--with low instincts and only the
+sharpness that appears to be the inheritance of the scoundrel."
+
+I stepped forward. Master noticed me and motioned me back to my place.
+The doctor did not even wince. He sat gazing into the fire. "I came to
+make you a proposition," said he.
+
+"All right. Let it be a short one."
+
+"It will not take long to state it."
+
+"Longer to get to it, I presume?"
+
+"It's this," said the doctor. "You are going into the law and I have
+no doubt that you will make your mark. I don't believe that you are
+ambitious to acquire wealth, but I feel that you would like to hold
+intact your father's estate. A part of the estate, you must know, will
+fall to me. I don't suppose there will be money enough to satisfy my
+claim, without a division of the land, so to avoid this, I will agree
+to take a small amount in ready money as part payment, and Dan as the
+remainder."
+
+A cold shiver ran over me, not that I was afraid of the issue, but
+because that man's determination to possess me was freezing my blood.
+
+Master did not change his position, neither did he look up. He made
+this simple answer: "When the time comes, you may take what belongs to
+you, even to the estate itself. I will keep Dan."
+
+"But I have consulted with your mother and I act upon her advice."
+
+"You may take the estate when the time comes, but I will keep Dan."
+
+The doctor got up. "Bob Gradley," said he, "when you were a child,
+you toddled into my way, and now that you are nearly a man, you
+persistently obstruct my path."
+
+Master sprawled flat upon the table and laughed.
+
+"Well, if this isn't gall!" he cried. "I was born on my father's
+plantation to stand in your way." He got off the table and laughed as
+he walked up and down the room. "Toddled into your way? And didn't my
+mother apologize, and didn't my father try to make excuses for me,
+doctor?" he said, facing about. "Doctor, the first light of reason that
+fell upon my mind brought the knowledge that I hated you. Once I cut my
+finger and looking at the blood, wondered if your blood were not black
+instead of red. And I'd like to satisfy myself upon that point now.
+Here, (tossing a pen-knife upon the table) prick yourself and let me
+see if the ooze is not black. I'll bet it is, and what a proclamation
+the devil could write with such ink, and with a pen made of a lizzard's
+claw!" This idea brought back his mirth, and laughing he walked up and
+down the room, the doctor's eyes following him with a sullen gaze.
+After a time master came back to the table and sat down. "I am much
+obliged to you for this entertainment," he said.
+
+"Make the most of it," the doctor replied.
+
+"Oh, I will; I have been known to make much out of poor material."
+
+"And you have been known to make too much out of a negro that ought to
+be in the corn field."
+
+"Yes, more out of him than could have been made out of some white men."
+
+"Look here, sir; do you mean to draw a comparison between me and that
+negro?"
+
+"Oh, no; not at all, and I beg your pardon for inadvertantly producing
+that impression. I wouldn't go so far as that."
+
+"I should hope not," said the doctor.
+
+"Oh, surely not," master replied. "I am sometimes wild but I am never
+frantic. I wouldn't compare you with Dan. I have too high an opinion of
+him."
+
+"I will not stand this!" the doctor cried springing to his feet. "No
+gentleman in the State of Kentucky would put up with it and you'll have
+to take it back or--" He took out his watch and glanced at it. "That
+was the worst insult I have ever known, Bob Gradley, and I will give
+you just five minutes to take it back."
+
+"What time have you?" master asked, taking out his watch.
+
+"Fourteen minutes of ten, sir."
+
+"You are just a little slow. I'm fifteen. Fortunate that my derringers
+are loaded--don't believe I could load them in five minutes." He pulled
+open a drawer and took out two pistols. "And now," said he, "in the
+event that I should drop off to sleep, wake me up when the time is out."
+
+"Braggart," muttered the doctor.
+
+I heard Old Master walking in the hall. Once he halted at our door--I
+heard his hand upon the knob. I hastened to the door and opened it
+and the old man stepped into the room. Young Master gathered up the
+pistols and put them into the drawer, and the doctor snapped his watch
+which he had continued to hold open in his hand. The antipathy that
+lay between Bob and the doctor was felt by every member of the family,
+and I saw the old General stiffen with surprise upon discovering the
+doctor in the room, but he gave no mouth to his astonishment; he sat
+down upon the chair which his son sprang up to give him, looked from
+one to another of us, and rubbing his thin hands said that he had a
+piece of news for us. The doctor, as if he already divined the news and
+did not care to hear it uttered in words, hastily quitted the room;
+and then Old Master, paying no attention to the abrupt departure of
+his son-in-law, told us that he had given his daughter to the man from
+Louisiana.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+I was up and abroad upon the plantation early the next morning, Old
+Master having sent me to look for a colt that had been missing for
+several days. In a wild bit of thicket-land I found the colt in a sink
+hole and was rejoiced to discover that it was not hurt. But it was weak
+and when I had helped it out, it trotted off with its knees knocking
+together. I followed along to drive it to the stable and was putting up
+the bars after seeing the hungry creature stumble into the lot, when
+someone accosted me. I looked up, pausing with a bar in my hand, and
+there stood the doctor muffled to the ears. "I want you to drive me to
+town," he said.
+
+I finished my work of putting up the bars before I answered him, and
+this apparent sullenness smote upon his sense of resentment, for when
+I turned toward him he was gazing hard at me. "Did my Master say
+that I was to drive you?" I asked. I was looking down and I saw the
+frozen ground grinding under his heel; I glanced at his face and his
+countenance was aflame with wrath. With both hands he tore the muffler
+from about his neck; he looked about and appeared to stand harder on
+the ground--all this before he spoke again, and when he did speak his
+voice had a hissing sound. "You yellow dog, I ought to cut your liver
+out."
+
+"But I am sure that my master did not tell you to do that," I was bold
+enough to reply. He leaped toward me. I was strong enough and skillful
+enough to have given him an unmerciful beating, and my blood burned to
+knock his teeth down his throat, but judgment had not deserted me, and
+putting one hand upon the top bar, I leaped lightly over, leaving him
+swearing on the other side. Had he made a motion to pursue me I would
+have run away, but I saw Old Master coming, so I stood my ground. The
+doctor saw him, too, and turned away, muffling his throat as he went.
+Breakfast was over and I hastened straightway to my Master's room. He
+was writing as I entered, but he looked up pleasantly and asked if I
+had eaten, and when I told him no, bade me go at once to the servants'
+hall.
+
+"I had better not go now," I replied. "I met the doctor out in the lot
+and he ordered me to drive him to town, and--"
+
+"That's enough," he broke in, and putting down his pen, went to the
+front window and looked out. "I wonder if he is gone yet," he said,
+speaking more to himself than to me. "I repented of my action of last
+night, but now I wish I had kicked him down stairs. I wonder how long
+God wants me to put up with that fellow."
+
+"If I am allowed an opinion, sir," I replied, "I don't think that God
+takes him into account."
+
+He looked at me with a smile. "You are allowed that opinion and I will
+help you entertain it," he said, and a moment later he added: "Come
+down with me and get something to eat."
+
+The front hall door stood open and as we turned the bend in the stairs
+we saw the doctor driving off from the gate. Old Master came up the
+steps from the hall. "I see he's gone," said the young man.
+
+"Yes, thank God," Old Master replied. "There's only one way that Bates
+has given me pleasure and that is to see him driving away. But I don't
+think he's as bad as he used to be. He used to worry the life out of me
+with trying to buy Dan when he might have known that it was against my
+principles to sell a slave."
+
+"It's not against my principles to sell anything that annoys me," said
+Old Miss, coming out with her keys jangling. "As for you, General, you
+are always willing enough to get rid of white men but you stick close
+enough to your negroes. Dan," she added, "I want you to take up the
+sitting-room carpet and beat it."
+
+"Mother," Young Master interposed, "he has had no breakfast. And
+besides, that is not his work."
+
+"Any work that I tell him to do is his," Old Miss replied, drawing her
+thin lips together. I gave her a bow of most humble obedience, not that
+I felt any reverence for her, but that I would protect Young Master
+against all spiteful upbraiding. "Dan," she said, "tell Tilly to give
+you something to eat, and then I want you to beat that carpet."
+
+I looked at Bob and he nodded assent, gracefully enough, but I could
+see that he was not at all pleased. I was turning away when his voice
+arrested me, though his words were addressed to his mother. "At times I
+have an odd fancy," said he. "When I am making a speech in my mind and
+a coldness chills my words, I imagine that the chill is an inheritance
+from you, mother."
+
+Old Master laughed, and pressed his bony fingers till his knuckles
+cracked. But Old Miss did not make a laughing matter of it; perhaps
+she felt the sting of its truth. "It's a singular thing," she replied,
+"that so cold a mother should bring up so warm a son. General, I wish
+you wouldn't grin at me that way!"
+
+"Which way shall I grin?" he asked. "If you know of any better way,
+just show me, and I'll adopt it. But come, madam, don't be put out. You
+must remember that an old man's humor dries with his advancing years."
+
+"Humor!" she said. "You haven't a vestige of it, and even if you had,
+you--" Her lips trembled and the corners of her mouth went down. "I
+have seen trouble enough--"
+
+"There, now," said the old man, his voice soft with tenderness.
+"Robert, you ought to be ashamed of yourself for speaking that way.
+Your mother is not cold, sir," he almost stormed, "and if ever I hear
+you intimate it again, I'll thrash you, I don't care how old you are.
+You ought to be ashamed of yourself, sir."
+
+"I am," said Bob, and swiftly crossing the floor he kissed his mother.
+She put her arm about his neck and said that she knew he did not mean
+it; and then Old Master turned upon me. "Go on, sir," he cried, "and
+don't stand there gaping like a fool. Confound it, you think you ought
+to hear every word that's spoken on the place."
+
+I hastened away, wondering what she meant by saying that she had seen
+trouble enough. Surely she would permit no conversation to be wholly
+agreeable, certain it was that her manner invited no affection.
+
+The news of Miss May's engagement had spread among the negroes, and
+many a nappy head was thrust forth seeking a look at the man as he
+walked about the grounds. I learned from Bob that the wedding was soon
+to take place. The journey was long, and the man had said that he
+would not return home without his bride. I had passed him many times
+in the hall, in the woods, in the road leading to town, but not until
+one evening when I was summoned to mend the parlor fire did I get an
+estimating look at him. I had put on a log and had turned about to go
+when he asked my name. I told him, and he asked laughingly if I were
+a descendant of the Daniel who was cast into the lion's den? I told
+him that I was a Daniel who had come to many a judgment and been found
+wanting.
+
+"Dan belongs to brother," said Miss May, "and they read the same books.
+Brother thinks a great deal of him."
+
+"Evidently," Mr. Marston replied. He was a trim looking man of medium
+size and with black whiskers. His teeth were very white and his brow
+was broad and smooth. He was easy in manner and was quick to perceive,
+for noticing my almost instantaneous measurement of him, he looked
+at me sharply and said: "Well, I suppose you have no objection to my
+marrying your young mistress?"
+
+"No one could object to her choice," I replied, pleased with myself,
+and Miss May, smiling sweetly, said: "Thank you, Dan. Shut the door as
+you go out."
+
+I took this as a dismissal, whether she meant it or not, and it cut me.
+But my mind was soon made to feel at rest for as I was going up the
+stairs she came out and called me softly: "Dan," she said, "I didn't
+want you to talk very much to Mr. Marston. He is from the far South and
+thinks that a negro that can read is a great danger to the community,
+and after I had indiscreetly told him that you and brother read the
+same books, I thought that it was time for you to go--I didn't want him
+to say anything to hurt your feelings. I want you to like him."
+
+This simple act of kindness brought the tears to my eyes. Ah, through
+the misty years I can see her now, standing in the hall with upturned
+face, sweet and beautiful.
+
+Preparations for the wedding were hastened forward, and one day the
+negroes peeped through the parlor door, as we had peeped, long ago, at
+an array of flowers, Miss Lou lying among them. But now there was no
+black man to lift his faltering voice in grief--he was gone long years
+ago and lay sleeping under a dead apple tree; there were soft words of
+love; and at night there was feasting, the sounds of quick feet, and
+the spirit of the fiddle was borne upon the air.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+One morning at breakfast there came an unexpected interruption, the
+arrival of Old Master's half brother. I knew that he existed, for on
+occasions at least a year apart, I had posted letters addressed to him
+and directed to some town away off in Illinois; but a sense of his
+unreality was so strong with me that I often smiled to think that Old
+Master would send a letter to find a shadow. But in came the man that
+morning at breakfast, strikingly real, brown-bearded, tall, loud of
+voice, and I thought rather roughly dressed for a gentleman. He was
+much younger than Old Master. Some one, I don't know who, had told me
+that years ago he had wandered away in consequence of a disappointment
+in love, though to look at him now I could not believe that he had ever
+given entertainment to so tender a sentiment. No part of the landed
+estate fell to him, so, with a small settlement of ready money, he set
+forth, swearing that never again would he put foot upon that accursed
+blue-grass spot. He had never been a drag upon Old Master; indeed, he
+had been a man of exceeding thrift, had made fortunes but had lost
+them. I well recall his first words upon stepping into the room. Amid
+the surprise and the bustle caused by his sudden appearance, his loud
+voice arose:
+
+"Don't want anybody to get scared. Sit down, Guilford, and you, too,
+Hanna, (nodding at Old Miss). Ah, and this is the one you call Bob? All
+right, got no objections to that, either. Dropped my baggage out there
+on the porch. Have someone take it up. Not now, plenty of time. Don't
+want anybody to get scared; I'm not a pauper. Shall insist upon paying
+my way. Here, girl, bring another plate; I'm as hungry as a prairie
+wolf. Look here! (and now he turned to me). Don't want you to call me
+master. Won't have it; call me Mr. Clem. Long time since I went away,
+but nothing has changed. Hurry up, there, with that plate. Confound it,
+don't be put out so, everybody. How are you getting along, Guilford?"
+
+All this was rattled off before anyone else had a chance to say a word.
+Old Master was glad to see him and the tears ran down his wrinkled
+cheeks. He tried to tell him much but could tell him nothing except
+that he was welcome to make his home there.
+
+"What's board worth?" Mr. Clem asked, and Old Master cried out, "Good
+Lord! Did I ever hear anything like that? Clem, is it possible that
+you--"
+
+"Mean to pay my board as long as I stay here. You'll have to take the
+money, Hanna. If you don't agree, I'll grab my saddle-bags and put out.
+I'm from a place where every man is expected to pay his way. Wish you'd
+all quit your everlasting sniffling. What are you doing, Bob?" Old
+Master was now helping his plate. "Another slab of that meat, Guilford.
+What are you doing, young feller?"
+
+"Preparing myself for the law," Young Master answered proudly.
+
+"All right, no particular harm in it. Good job for a lazy man. Hanna,
+you hold your own pretty well. Not as old as I expected to find you;
+and Guilford is a marvel of youthfulness. Don't know how I happened to
+come back--Just took the notion one night and I was on the road before
+daylight the next morning. That's the way we do things in Illinois.
+Pass me some more of that egg-bread. Hanged, if that ain't Kentucky
+up and down. Old aristocracy still on its mouldering throne, eh? Good
+thing for some people while it lasts, but it will tumble over pretty
+soon."
+
+"Clem, you musn't talk that way," Old Miss interposed.
+
+"All right, I'll shut it off; thousands of things to talk about. What's
+board worth in this neighborhood?"
+
+"Clem," said Old Master, leaning upon the table and looking at him,
+"I don't know that I ever heard of a gentleman paying board in this
+neighborhood."
+
+"Hah! By the hoofs, I never heard of a gentleman refusing to pay board
+in any neighborhood," Mr. Clem replied. "Come, how much am I expected
+to pay? Can't get board here, board somewhere else."
+
+"Oh, that would be a scandal," Old Miss cried.
+
+"Then let us avoid scandal. Find out what is customary and let me know.
+Guilford, devilish glad to see you. Wish I had come before. Bob, got
+a horse you want to trade for a better one? I've got a nag out there
+that's a beauty. Let's go and look at him?" he added, throwing down his
+knife and fork and shoving his chair back.
+
+"Not now, uncle Clem," the young man replied, laughing.
+
+"Uncle! That's good--like to hear it; gives me a sort of anchor. I
+think you and I will get along all right. Guilford told me, I don't
+know how long ago--got the letter somewhere--that it was your ambition
+to become an orator. And I can give you a few points, for I have lived
+for years in a hot bed of free speech, and without free speech, there
+is no real oratory. Round here they think that Marshall and Clay were
+great orators, and they were in a way, but you ought to hear Abe
+Lincoln."
+
+"I never heard of him," Old Master spoke up.
+
+"Oh, no; but you will. He can squeeze mirth and tears out of the heart
+all at once. When he arises to speak, and even before he has uttered a
+word, every man in the audience says to himself, 'there is my brother.'
+Guilford, your polished Kentuckians speak out of the book, by note, and
+they may work themselves into a fine heat, but this man Lincoln cries
+from the fullness of a soul that the Lord has given him."
+
+"Clem," said Old Master, bending a hard look upon his brother and
+rolling his pill of bread, "you tempt me to say that you are a
+blasphemer against the majestic voice of my State, sir. Never was the
+voice of man truer than among these graceful hills, and never did the
+heart of man beat warmer for freedom and justice."
+
+"Ah," Mr. Clem cried, "for freedom, did you say? For slavery, you mean."
+
+"Sir," said Old Master, "Henry Clay has spoken for the bondman."
+
+"But was he honored for it?" Mr. Clem asked. "Do you honor him for it?"
+
+"Clem, if you have come to sow the seeds of abolition, to disgrace my
+household with the mud brought from your free soil--your sink hole of
+iniquity--I must request you to go away."
+
+"It is easier to drop a subject than to ride a long distance," Mr. Clem
+replied with a broad smile. "Got any good horses?"
+
+"Horses native to this land and therefore the best," said Old Master.
+
+"Got one you can't manage? If you have, I'll make him get down on his
+knees and beg for mercy."
+
+Old Master looked at Bob and laughed. "We've got a great black horse we
+call Zeb, and our sick quarter is sometimes filled with his victims.
+Dan here, can break almost any piece of horse-flesh, but he's afraid of
+Zeb. The negroes don't call him Zeb--they call him the Devil, sir."
+
+"And I would advise you not to have anything to do with him, Uncle
+Clem," said Young Master. "He cut a great gash on Andrew's head, broke
+Tony's arm not long ago, and laid Dan up for a week. We keep him merely
+for show, for he is the most graceful thing you ever saw."
+
+"And I will drive him to town this morning," Mr. Clem declared. And
+getting up, he added: "Come, show him to me?"
+
+We could but laugh at the self-confidence shown by this rugged man
+from the West; we felt that he had brought with him the breezy brag
+so characteristic of his boundless territory. But I felt a pinch of
+regret, for I had conceived a liking for the man and did not wish to
+see him humbled.
+
+"Come on," said Old Master, leading the way, but Old Miss interposed.
+"You must not go near that vicious creature," she said to Mr. Clem.
+"Nothing would delight him more than to plant a hoof between your eyes,
+and I declare, General, it's a shame that you encourage such a thing."
+
+"Come out and take a drive with me," Mr. Clem cried, gently putting
+Old Miss out of the way. But she shuddered at the thought and closed
+the door upon us as we passed out. "In one respect I am not a true
+Kentuckian," said my Young Master to Mr. Clem as we walked along toward
+the stable. "I could never find it in my heart to worship a horse."
+
+Mr. Clem stepped in front of the young man, halted and looked at him
+and then at Old Master. "Guilford," said he, "can it be possible that
+this is your son?"
+
+"Wait until you see the Devil, and you will deny that you are my
+brother," Old Master laughed, rubbing his thin hands in a sort of
+mischievous glee. Bob took Mr. Clem by the arm and as they walked along
+I heard him say: "If I had known you, I should have wished for your
+coming. There is something so unexpected about you that I must call
+you the new man--you are the very opposite of the books I have been
+reading."
+
+"Yes, Bub, I am the opposite of all your teaching."
+
+"I don't know that I like the word Bub."
+
+"But you'll have to stand it; I'm going to pay my way, and the world,
+the flesh and the devil are willing to put up with much from that sort
+of a man."
+
+We had now come to the stable. Through a small window we saw the fiery
+horse's black eyes shining. "Bring him out," Mr. Clem commanded.
+
+"That is easy enough," Old Master replied. "It is only when you attempt
+to put leather on him that he shows his mettle."
+
+"Bring him out," said Mr. Clem. "Here, boy, bring me a bridle and a set
+of buggy harness."
+
+There was a great commotion in the barn-yard, and the negroes went
+running to and fro, amid whisperings and the suppressed excitement
+of expected sport. The horse was led out by the halter, a picture of
+devilish majesty, head high in contempt, nostrils broad, eyes afire.
+The harness lay in a heap upon the ground. Mr. Clem took up the bridle.
+In an instant the horse had jerked the halter from the negro's grasp,
+was standing almost erect on his hind feet, and he came toward Mr.
+Clem, cutting the air with his fore hoofs. The rest of us fell back,
+one over the other, but Mr. Clem did not move. Old Master shouted
+at him, but paying no heed he stood, with his eyes fixed upon the
+advancing beast. I was off to one side and could see his face, hard-set
+and with steady eyes. "Ho!" he said, low in his breast, and the horse's
+feet fell to the ground. I don't think I ever saw so complete a picture
+of astonishment. The horse, cowed by that one low word, stood there
+trembling, with the coming sweat glistening upon his flanks. Mr. Clem
+stepped forward and touched his neck and he squatted and trembled. A
+loud murmur arose among the negroes. The Devil had been conquered with
+a word. He took the bit and suffered the harness to be put upon him;
+he was put between the shafts and with but one protest he was driven
+about the grounds. That one protest was a convulsive kick. Mr. Clem got
+out of the buggy, walked round, caught him in the nostrils, and with a
+violent torsion cried, "Ho!"
+
+That was a great day on the plantation, and before nightfall the news
+had spread about the neighborhood, and at evening a number of people
+came to welcome Mr. Clem's return to the home of his youth. The degree
+of fawning shown on that occasion was of great amusement to my Young
+Master, for he knew that had his uncle come back a great scholar, an
+authority upon some scientific discovery, he would have been suffered
+to poke about almost unobserved; but appearing as the conqueror of a
+vicious horse, he laid a strong hold upon the admiration of his fellows.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+The coming of Mr. Clem had a great effect upon our household. It was
+like a new breeze, blowing in from afar off where the woods are fresh.
+With his foot he was ever ready to press upon a tradition, and to
+leave off if the annoyance was too great; he experimented constantly
+with the sentiments and prejudices of anyone who happened to be near
+him. He joked with Old Miss, something ever dangerous to undertake,
+and at times he wrought sorely upon Old Master by arguing abolition
+with him. But no matter how hot might be the discussion, it was always
+pleasantly tempered, in the end, by some joke borrowed from the sturdy
+men who were busy with the building of a new political empire in the
+West. Lincoln was his hero. He had lived in Springfield, and had seen
+the great stump-speaker striding across a pasture land with a naked
+youngster on his back, and with the Galilean's smile upon his face.
+From his saddle-bags he brought forth newspapers with abstracts of
+the backwoodsman's speeches, words that rang like an axe on a frosty
+morning, and he never was weary of declaring that the man was inspired.
+"He is Peter come back to the earth," I remember hearing him say, "and
+upon a rock he is going to build a great church not for caste, but for
+man."
+
+"If you are going to worship a man, let him be a hero," Old Master
+cried. We were in the library and the elder brother was walking up
+and down in the fire-light. I was hunting a book for Young Master and
+purposely made a lag of my errand.
+
+"I don't know what you mean by a hero," said Mr. Clem, looking up from
+his pipe in the corner.
+
+"A man who does something for his country," Old Master retorted, still
+walking with his hands behind him.
+
+Mr. Clem smiled. "Yes, that is a hero," said he. "But what would you
+have a man do? Overcome a band of Mexicans and win a new territory, or
+save his entire country?"
+
+Old Master halted, posing to make an impressive reply, but at that
+moment Mr. Clem sprang to his feet, threw open the window and thrusting
+forth his head shouted: "Hi, there, don't you want to swap that horse
+for a better one?"
+
+He had heard the sounds of hoofs and had seen a man riding past the
+gate. The man reined up and looked round. "I don't know but I might,"
+he answered. "Well, just wait a minute," Mr. Clem shouted and turned
+about to leave the room. Old Master frowned. "You are not going to swap
+horses here on a Sunday morning," he said. "It will bring a scandal
+upon us."
+
+"Now, Guilford, that's nonsense," Mr. Clem protested. And then he
+shouted again from the window: "Ride on down to the end of the lane and
+I'll meet you there."
+
+He hastened away, and just before dinner he came back leading a
+trim horse, so much better than his old nag that his brother racked
+himself with a loud laugh. His shrewdness was indeed remarkable. He
+came to us on a woolly-looking plow horse, and before he was in the
+neighborhood two months, he was the owner of three as fine mares as I
+have ever seen. The negroes looked upon him in the light of a vastly
+superior being, and about the fire at night they told tales of his
+marvelous power. He would permit none of them to call him master, and
+at first this told against him, bespeaking as they thought a very
+humble station; but their prejudice was overturned when they perceived
+that among the high-born he could hold his head with a lofty pride.
+Sometimes he talked in a way almost to chill my blood. I have often
+mused upon his meeting me one evening as I strolled along the shores of
+the little creek, listening to the music bursting with more boldness as
+the twilight settled down. Spring was come and I smelt the smoke of the
+dead grass burning in the fields. I had halted and was standing on a
+rock when he came up to me.
+
+"Fishing?" he asked.
+
+"No, sir; listening to the water."
+
+"And yet they tell us that the negro has no soul," he said.
+
+"No gentleman has ever told me that," I ventured to reply.
+
+"No," he rejoined, stepping upon the rock. "The gentlemen acknowledge
+your soul so that the pulpit may continue to hold you in slavery. I
+know that you and Bob are great friends, know all that, but if I were
+in your place I would leave."
+
+"Mr. Clem!" I cried.
+
+"Yes, I would. Here, you are a young fellow of parts waiting for what?
+Nothing. Why, you could go North and make a man of yourself."
+
+"I am going to make a man of myself as it is," I replied, actually
+trembling.
+
+"Make a man of yourself for someone else. Young man, the world is
+becoming too enlightened to permit of slavery much longer. They tell
+you that God made slaves. That's an insult to the Almighty. I don't
+really advise you to leave your master, for I can see that Bob makes
+your bed as easy as it could well be made; but it is an infamous shame
+that a young man as intelligent as you can have nothing but a life
+of bondage to look forward to. It is true that as compared with the
+others, you walk on rose-buds and sleep on feathered palm, but you are
+a slave for all that."
+
+He moved up closer to me, put his hand on my shoulder and turned me
+about as if in the growing darkness he would study the expression of
+my face, the effect his words had wrought. I trembled under the light
+weight of his hand, for it was as if freedom from afar off had touched
+me; but I could give no ear to this bold man's suggestion. I had read
+many a book conceived by great minds that abhored servility, poets
+that had shaken their fists in the faces of the earth's annointed,
+orators whose last utterances were cried aloud for the freedom of man,
+not the white man alone, but man. All my life I had been tapping upon
+the head the ambitions that arose within me, killing them and seeing
+their skeletons bleach in the desert of my fancy; and with a stout and
+determined heart I could have turned my back upon Old Master, for his
+years were nearly spent; but I could not leave the young man, though
+the incense of freedom filled my nostrils. Not many miles away flowed
+the Ohio River. Beyond that stream were thousands of people who would
+be glad to help me, would regard it a duty which they owed to their
+religion; and farther away was a British domain, where all men were
+free--the way was clear, but in that direction I could not have stirred
+from that rock. My heart was my real master.
+
+"Mr. Clem," said I, and I must have sobbed, for he turned away to
+hide his own face, "I may be a fool, but I cannot be a traitor to
+my affections. I wear a chain, but it is made of gold, and I would
+rather exchange it for one of iron than to know that Bob Gradley had
+lost confidence in me. I know that I could amount to something in the
+world--I feel it; I am convinced that I could go to the North and help
+free the wretched creatures in the far South, but I should have to
+speak against my Young Master and that I could not do." He caught my
+hand with a tight grip, and I continued: "I value your kindness; I know
+that it is genuine, but I must ask you not to tempt me again."
+
+And still harder did he grip my hand as he replied: "There is a salt of
+the earth and it never loses its savor, and you are of that salt. If
+you had come to me and begged me to point out the road to freedom, I
+might have sent you to your Master; your fidelity and strength caused
+me to speak to you in your behalf. But I did not know the full measure
+of that strength and fidelity. I know now and I honor you. But keep to
+your books; the time will come."
+
+Suddenly he broke away and turned on a trot toward the turn-pike, not
+far off. I heard the hoofs of a horse beating on the hard macadam, and
+soon I heard this queer man shout, "Hi, there; who ever you are. Hold
+on a minute. Believe I can give you a better horse for the one you are
+riding." The hoofs fell slower, and a voice replied: "That you, Clem
+Gradley? Don't want to transact that sort of business with you--Came in
+one of having to walk after the last swap. Another whet and I couldn't
+more than crawl."
+
+The hoofs fell faster and Mr. Clem, chuckling mirthfully, returned to
+the rock. It was now quite dark and I could not see his face, but I
+knew that he was in favor with himself, for he had clapped his hat on
+the back part of his head (a good-humored bravado characteristic of
+him) and continued to shake with joviality.
+
+"I think that was Lige Berry," he said. "They told me that he had
+nipped everybody in this county, but I guess I skinned him a little.
+That's the way to do, Dan. When they try to skin you, skin them.
+Suppose we go on toward the house? Yes, sir-ree," he continued as we
+walked along, "skin the skinners in a horse trade. And skin anybody
+else for that matter. Everything is fair in a horse trade--you've got
+to be slick and believe nothing. I remember starting out once on an
+old mule. I had owned a steamboat and it had burnt up without a copper
+of insurance. I thought I'd make my way to St. Louis and there get
+something to do. A captain offered me passage on his boat, but I told
+him no, that I would try the luck of going overland. Well, as I tell
+you, I set out on that old mule, bought on credit for twenty-three
+dollars. I was a long time on the road, months, I might say, but when I
+got to St. Louis I drove in about as fine a lot of horses as you ever
+saw. And three weeks afterward I steamed up the Illinois River on a
+boat of my own. I swapped it for a stock of goods in old Salem--always
+somebody in that town ready to swap off his store, knowing that he
+couldn't get the worst of it--and I staid there until I went broke. I
+don't know why I never could hold on to anything. I am great up to a
+certain point, and then I go to pieces. Why, if I had owned this farm
+I would have made it three times as large and then lost it all. I've
+done most everything except to sponge on people, and I never could do
+that. Set up a drug store in a little place called 'Prophet's Town'
+on Rock River. Didn't know anything about drugs--helped a feller too
+liberally to something his prescription called for and poisoned him. He
+didn't die, but I thought it was time for me to get out of that sort
+of business. Yes, and I practiced law. Didn't know anything about law,
+but I could talk. Defended a feller and they hanged him. Of course
+that might have happened with anybody--with Lincoln himself, for that
+matter--but a prejudice was raised against me. It tickled Lincoln. Of
+course he didn't want to see the man hanged, but he had to laugh at
+me. 'Gradley,' he said to me shortly afterward, 'I want you to do me a
+favor. I have an enemy, a man that has always stood in my path, and I
+want him removed. You can do it. I will have it whispered about that he
+is a thief; you defend him and they'll send him to the penitentiary for
+life!'"
+
+The supper bell was now ringing and I hastened into the house to take
+my place behind Young Master's chair. He had many a time commanded me
+to leave off this useless act of servitude, but such a favoritism would
+have inflamed Old Miss against me, so I insisted upon a continuance of
+the office.
+
+Old Master and Old Miss were Hard-Shell Baptists and at supper there
+was present an old and honored exponent of that faith, Elija Brooks.
+He visited us often, but Bob and I had a stronger cause than this to
+call him to mind. Once we had taken his rubber overshoes and made a
+town-ball of them and had been severely whipped for our enterprise.
+The old gentleman refused to erase this, our act of meanness, from his
+mind, and whenever he looked at me I felt that my soul was surely lost.
+Upon this visit he was in higher spirits. Out in his neighborhood, we
+were soon informed, a man discovered to be an abolitionist had been
+tarred and feathered, an example of God's avenging wrath; and the old
+man's mouth appeared to water with the delicious recollection of the
+sight. "They came to my house," he said as he passed his plate for a
+Shanghai rooster's breast, "and asked my opinion in case the fellow
+was found guilty. I took down the good book and sought instruction,
+and I think that I modified his punishment when I recommended tar and
+feathers. Ah, Brother Guilford, the ways of the devil are many and sly;
+we must keep a constant lookout for him."
+
+"He is never idle a moment," said Old Miss with a sigh.
+
+Old Master didn't say much. He wasn't a very strong believer in the
+devil, and but for his negroes and his blue-grass land, he had surely
+been turned out of the church for saying, in the midst of a God-loving
+assembly upon his own veranda, "the devil be damned!"
+
+"What had the man done?" Mr. Clem asked, and I saw his face harden.
+
+"Why, sir," returned Mr. Brooks, "he had openly set our institutions at
+defiance and proclaimed abolition. He said that no Christian could own
+human flesh and blood."
+
+"Had he been in the community very long?" Mr. Clem asked.
+
+"Several years," the preacher answered. "And there comes in a strange
+part of the affair," he continued. "He had lived among us for that
+length of time and had never been known to steal anything or to commit
+any sort of depredation."
+
+"Marvelous," Mr. Clem cried, setting his cup violently upon the table.
+"Hadn't stolen anything! Why, sir, I expected you to tell me that he
+had murdered women and children."
+
+The unsuspecting preacher was deeply moved by the earnestness of Mr.
+Clem, but Old Master slily shook his head as a warning not to go too
+far, and Old Miss cleared her throat. "It is a thousand wonders," Mr.
+Brooks went on, "that he had not committed murder; and now it comes to
+mind that certain little pilferings throughout our neighborhood may
+justly be laid to him."
+
+"No doubt of it," Mr. Clem cried.
+
+"It is at least a well-founded suspicion," said the preacher.
+
+"He ought to be burned at the stake!" Mr. Clem shouted, and the
+preacher, his suspicions aroused at this outbreak of vehemence, looked
+searchingly at the man from the West. "I would not advise quite so
+stringent a measure," said he, turning his eyes upon Old Master and
+then directly his gaze again at Mr. Clem.
+
+"Oh, yes," Mr. Clem insisted, "I would even go further than that.
+I would burn him at the stake and if he has any children I would
+skin them for the delight of the Sunday school. But I forget. Your
+denomination has no Sunday schools."
+
+"Sir," said the preacher, "I will waive your sarcasm to refute your
+attack upon my church," and he had squared himself to deliver a
+harangue when Old Master struck the table with his fist. "I want an end
+of this right now," he snorted, shaking his head, and with his nose
+looking more than ever like an eagle's beak.
+
+The preacher took no part of this reprimand to himself; indeed, he
+struck in with an approval of Old Master's violence. "You are scarcely
+expected to restrain yourself, Brother Guilford," said he. "The Lord
+has not asked us to put up with everything, and most of all with
+sentiments that seek the destruction of our country."
+
+Is it not singular, I must stop to reflect, that only a few years
+ago a large part of our country believed that liberty and prosperity
+depended upon slavery? This old preacher I knew to be an honest man,
+a God-serving and a generous man. His plantation was large, his soil
+strong, his crops bountiful, and he gave nearly everything to the poor;
+but, viewing him in the broad light of to-day, his heart was narrow
+and his soul was blind. Such was the atmosphere in which we lived,
+beautiful and romantic, but filled with an inflammable gas; and one
+hot word would serve to set it off. I remember that at a store not far
+from our house a man sat on a box, reading the "New York Tribune." A
+deputy sheriff, standing near, discovered the name of the publication,
+tore it from the man's grasp, threw it upon the ground, spurned it with
+his foot and swore that he would shoot the person who attempted to
+take it up. The paper was not taken up, but the question was discussed
+at the polls, and the deputy was elected sheriff. Still the wise men
+in the East were at work quietly with the pen which soon should be
+supported by the sword.
+
+Conversation that evening fell pleasantly enough, after Old Master's
+forceful veto, and out upon the veranda where the air was soft they sat
+until a late hour, Young Master with them, and I, seated on the steps.
+Mr. Clem sang a dolefully-comic song, "The State of Illinois," which
+moved the preacher to gracious laughter, and Old Master told many a
+humorous story. But in the height of this pleasantry Old Miss broke in
+with the trouble that was hers, one daughter dead and the other married
+and gone afar off. This I thought was to tell the preacher that it was
+time to pray and go to bed. And he must have accepted it as a hint,
+for shortly afterward he said: "Brother Guilford, let us pray!" Then
+came a solemn shuffle as they followed the preacher to his knees. I was
+included in the invitation to ask God to help me and I knelt upon the
+stone walk at the bottom of the steps. From a distance came the song
+of the ignorantly-happy negro; I heard the opening notes of a pack of
+hounds on a hill-side far away, and the creek lifted its voice in a
+sweeter prayer than man could utter. The preacher implored the Lord
+to bless Old Master's household, white and black; to hasten the day
+when the holy word of the Savior should be acknowledged throughout the
+earth. He prayed that all evil might be stricken from the sin-inclined
+mind of man; that the benighted politician who strove to prevent the
+admission into the union of more slave territory might be persuaded
+to see the error of interfering with the progress of the South, and
+closed with asking God to bless all mankind. The hanging lamp in the
+hall had been lighted, and as the old preacher passed under it I
+could see from where I now stood on the veranda that he tottered with
+emotion, so fervent had been his supplication; and I thought of the
+prayers in another part of our country; the gray men imploring our
+Father to hasten the time when the chain should drop from the slave.
+Ah, man, self-appointed keeper of the Maker's seal, you pray that your
+brother may be cleansed and then you shoot him. But I will not moralize
+against you, for I am earthly enough to believe that war is sometimes
+a blessing, that the world's greatest progress has been sprinkled with
+blood--blood, the emblem of the soul's salvation.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+I went with my young master immediately to his room. He was beginning
+already to withdraw himself from other studies and to devote all his
+time to the law; so taking up a sheep-bound book, he began to read
+aloud. Suddenly he flung the book down and leaned back in his chair.
+"Law," he said, "is supposed to be common sense, but I have about
+reached the conclusion that there is no common sense in the human
+family."
+
+"So soon?" I asked.
+
+"So late, you mean," he replied. "A boy can sometimes see what an old
+man has failed to discover. Now take that preacher, as good an old
+fellow as you would find in a day's ride, and note how pinched his mind
+is."
+
+"In what way, Bob?" I asked.
+
+He stiffened up and looked hard at me, and standing near, I bowed until
+my head almost touched the table. I had called him Bob, a familiarity
+that I don't think I had ever before ventured upon, and it fell like
+a mallet. When I straightened up, he bowed to me and not a word was
+spoken on the subject of my neglect to put "Mars." before his name.
+
+"You ask in what way is his mind pinched. I might answer by saying in
+every way, but I'll specify one. He believes that he's serving God
+when he puts tar and feathers on a man who has ventured to express his
+opinion."
+
+"But in this respect is he more narrow than others I could mention?" I
+asked, for I could take issue with him, argue and even quarrel with him
+without treading upon ground too oozy with familiarity. "He believes
+that slavery is a God-ordained institution. Don't you?"
+
+I shall never forget the look he gave me. I stood with my arms folded
+looking down upon his handsome face, his Greek head. A lock of hair had
+fallen upon his brow, and he slowly put it back, still looking at me,
+and there was a strange, thrilling music in his voice when he spoke:
+"Did I teach your mind to eat that it might gulp such food?"
+
+"You gave me the bill of fare and were generous enough to invite me to
+help myself," was the answer I made.
+
+"But I didn't tell you to eat filth."
+
+"And filth I did not eat, but I swallowed many a mouthful of reason."
+
+"But did any one of those mouthfuls tell you that I considered slavery
+a God-ordained institution?"
+
+"Not you especially, but you belong to a caste."
+
+"Still I am no fool. Who gave the slaves to Rome? Conquest. What led to
+conquest? Physical superiority. And wasn't there a grandeur in that?
+And is not a grandeur almost a sacred thing?"
+
+Now here was an argument and it might have been prolonged, but at that
+moment there came a tap at the door. Master cried an invitation to come
+in, and Mr. Clem entered.
+
+"What are you boys talking so loud about?" he inquired, taking a chair
+and putting his feet upon the table. "Didn't know but you might be
+trying to swap horses."
+
+"An exchange of night mares," Bob replied, reaching over and moving his
+inkstand.
+
+"That's all right, but do you make him stand up all the time?" Mr. Clem
+asked, nodding at me.
+
+Bob laughed. "He can sit down if he wants to."
+
+"Well, then, please do," Mr. Clem said, looking at a chair and
+motioning toward me. "It makes my legs hurt to see you standing there."
+I sat down and he continued: "I noticed that our old preacher rode
+pretty good stock over here."
+
+"You didn't see him when he rode up," said Bob.
+
+"No, but I took a lantern just now and went out to the stable and had
+one of the boys find his horse for me. Yes, sir, pretty good sorrel
+horse, fine shoulders, but nostrils rather small. Good bottom, though.
+I went to his room after I came back and found him in bed, but I got
+him interested in my nag, and if he ain't walking before three weeks
+pass he'll ride on a straight line out of my circuit. Does he hold
+prayers of a morning? Of course he does, though; wouldn't miss an
+opportunity, you know. Well, I'll join him, and afterwards put in a few
+petitions of my own. It's not right for a preacher to ride such a horse
+any way. Ought to walk; for don't the Bible say something about how
+beautiful are the feet of those that tread the path of righteousness?
+Strikes me that I've heard something of the sort. Tarred and feathered
+him, eh? Bob, do you know what would happen if they should dab any of
+their tar on me?"
+
+"I don't believe you would submit very quietly, Uncle Clem."
+
+"Well, I wot not. Wot's all right there, ain't it? Yes, I guess it is.
+They might put the stuff on me, but do you know what would happen
+after they got all through with their fun? There'd be more fun. I'd
+get one of these old fashioned blunder-busses, load it with nails and
+scraps of iron and scatter flesh all over this community. By the flint
+hoofs of the devil I wish they'd smear tar on me. But I musn't argue
+any more with that preacher. I want his horse."
+
+"You wouldn't cheat him, would you, Uncle Clem?"
+
+There was astonishment in the look Mr. Clem bent upon the young man.
+"Cheat him? I don't exactly understand. Bob, there's no such thing as
+cheating in a horse trade. Man tells me that his horse has good eyes.
+I look at the eyes and see that they are defective. Man is a liar,
+but hasn't deceived me, therefore I am not cheated. I tell a man that
+my horse has good eyes. He looks and fails to see a defect and swaps.
+Afterward finds out horse blind of an eye. Who's fault? His own--error
+in judgment."
+
+"That is a very comfortable way to put it," said the young man. "But
+suppose you buy something and the dealer misrepresents it?"
+
+"I hold him accountable," Mr. Clem replied. "Merchandising is one thing
+and trading horses another. The keeper of a store is a catch-penny
+figurer upon small or large margins of profit, whichever the case may
+be. Some little shrewdness is required, but above all, he must be a
+fawner and a man of dogged patience. He advertises that the world may,
+with perfect safety, take his word. On the other hand, the horse trader
+is a sort of adventurer, a knight with sharp judgment for a lance and
+with strong assertion for a battle-axe. He takes no advantage of man's
+necessity, but challenges him. He needn't enter the combat--he can say,
+'no, thank you,' and ride on."
+
+He took out a large plug of tobacco and with a Barlow knife, cut off a
+wedge-shaped piece, wiped the blade on his trousers, snapped it shut,
+returned both knife and tobacco to his pocket, put the wedge into his
+mouth and turned it about with exceeding satisfaction.
+
+"Yes, sir," he went on, "the horse trader is a man of skill, going
+about sharpening the wits of society. He stirs the blood of cupidity
+and then teaches man a lesson, enforcing the moral that the glittering
+is not always the gold. He is an orator and his subject is horse.
+Through the horse he reads human nature. He is self-confident, never
+tells too long a story, and people like to hear him talk. Ladies
+sometimes sniff at him and say that he is horsey, but when they have
+been sufficiently bored by the empty prattle of the refined dolt, they
+return to the horseman to be entertained. Bob," he added, after going
+to the fire-place to spit, and returning to put his feet upon the
+table, "there is one type of man that I should like to see hanged--the
+negro-trader."
+
+"Nearly always a brute," Young Master replied.
+
+"Always, Bob. And society, even in this State, holds him in contempt,
+yet recognizes the justice, or I should say, fails to recognize the
+injustice of the institution he serves. D-- me if it ain't riling!" he
+cried, striking the table with his heel. Master moved the ink stand
+till further away and leaned back in his chair. Mr. Clem continued:
+"The South is an exotic, living under glass. But one day the glass
+will be smashed and the cold air will blow in. What could be more
+disease-breeding than our present state of affairs, one end of the
+republic heating with degenerate luxury, the other end cool with
+self-reliant industry?"
+
+"Uncle Clem, they have turned you into a Yankee," said the young man.
+
+"By the hoofs, they have opened my eyes and if to see is to be a
+Yankee, then I am one."
+
+"But having seen, do you now come to sow eye-opening seeds, in fact, to
+scatter trouble?"
+
+"I've got as much right in this State as any man that lives in it; I
+carried a gun into Mexico and I wear the scar of a leaden missile."
+
+"No one questions your right, and I, for one, am warm in welcome of
+you. But you turned your back upon Kentucky, shifted your citizenship
+to another State."
+
+Mr. Clem jerked his feet off the table, went to the fire-place, spat
+out his tobacco, and began to walk up and down the room, with his hands
+behind him after the manner of Old Master.
+
+"Bob," he said, pointing as he spoke, "there, at the north corner
+of the lane, where the steps go over the stone fence, I stood in my
+country's uniform and told a girl good-bye. She clung to me like a
+sweet vine, and with trembling fingers I loosened the tendrils of her
+love. Behind a gallant warrior I marched into the City of Mexico,
+thrilled not with the victory, but with the thought that my face should
+soon be homeward set. That night I received a letter telling me of her
+perfidy. She did not write--my brother's hand sent the news. I couldn't
+believe it--in my breast I called him a liar. But I came home with a
+quaking heart, to find that she had married a negro-trader. And then,
+in taking up my small belongings to leave the State, I swore that I
+would never return so long as she was in it alive. Once that fellow
+came to Illinois to catch a run-away slave. He caught the fugitive at
+a town called Princeton. I chanced to be there. A noble-hearted man
+named Bryant, brother of the poet, heard the negro's pitiful story and
+then turned upon the trader. 'Sir,' said he, 'the shadow of a black and
+outrageous law may fall upon your case, but humanity which is above all
+law, cries out for the protection of this poor creature. Be gone from
+here.'
+
+"'Not until I have had my say,' I cried. 'Bring a rope and I will
+hang him.' There was an uneasy stir among the men assembled in the
+little court-room. The trader looked at me sharply. A grim smile
+spread over his dastardly face. I had learned more than I have yet
+told you--He held a mortgage upon the negroes that belonged to the
+father of that girl and she had married him to save the negroes, to
+keep them from being taken South and sold to the heartless drivers.
+This she had written and given to a friend to send to me, but he was
+tardy in sending it. However, I could not have forgiven her, although
+there might have been some truth in what she said and some nobility
+in her act. The fellow leered at me, and turning to the justice of
+the peace, said to him: This man ought not to have a word to say. He
+hates me because I married the girl he loved.' This set the idlers
+to tittering, and I got out of the court-room, frothing at the mouth.
+Under protection of the law, the rascal was permitted to go away in
+peace, but he did not take the negro, not then, but got him afterward.
+Bob, I'm strong enough to confess a weakness, and the man that isn't,
+isn't game. I'm bold enough to defend a prejudice, for prejudices are
+sometimes our dearest inheritance."
+
+He resumed his walk, went to the door, halted and came back to the
+table. "I said that I would never come back to the State so long as
+that woman was in it alive, and I didn't. She died less than a year
+ago, and her husband is now a planter in Mississippi, and about all
+I ask of the Lord is that I may some time meet him--accidentally."
+He looked at his watch. "It's getting late and I guess you boys are
+sleepy. Believe I'll take another look at that horse and go to bed.
+Good night."
+
+I went to bed, leaving master in his chair, settled in a deep
+consideration. The candle-wick fell into the socket, but the fire-light
+showed him still musing, his eyes wide open but dreaming. I fell asleep
+and awoke in the dark, aroused by the sound of the young man's voice.
+He was making a speech, had sat with it running in his mind while the
+words of Mr. Clem had fallen upon me like burning coals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+"Don't make a fire," were the first words I heard at morning. I looked
+up and found the orator in bed, propped upon his elbow. He looked at
+me--his eyes were always fascinating--and I waited to attend upon his
+bidding.
+
+"Do you know that what uncle said last night didn't strike me very
+hard until just a few moments ago?" said he. "A stream of nonsense
+was rippling through my mind at the time and I was too much taken up
+with it to feel what he said, but it hit me hard just now. He has seen
+trouble and I honor him for it. Know what I would have done? Shot that
+fellow. If we are taught to die for love we ought to kill for it." He
+lay back upon his pillow and after a moment's reflection, broke into a
+tittering laugh.
+
+"I wonder," said he, "if Uncle Clem would cheat that preacher. But of
+course he would, since there is no such thing as cheating in a horse
+trade--By a self-soothing turn of argument his conscience legitimizes
+any advantage he may take over the judgment of his adversary. We'll go
+out and see the preacher defend himself."
+
+In the trade that followed, if indeed one did take place, the preacher
+may have lost his eye-teeth for ought I know. I went down stairs that
+morning with full determination to see the contest, but upon reaching
+the hall-way, a loud voice, in the dining room, told that something of
+graver moment had befallen--the return of Dr. Bates. Old Master sat
+looking at him, and the expression on his face was not one to bespeak a
+pleasurable emotion. The doctor glanced up as my Young Master entered,
+and with a broad smile which I could see was pumped up with great
+effort, he got out of his chair to shake hands. Bob took his hand,
+though not with any pretense of welcome, said that he was surprised
+at his quick return, and sat down without another word, the doctor
+evidently waiting for him to say something more. But he waited in vain,
+for the young man sat gazing hard at his plate, with his hands in his
+pockets.
+
+"I am glad to find the weather so delightful," said the doctor. "I have
+just come from a place where icicles were hanging from the eaves."
+
+"I should think that you would be likely to find places too warm," Bob
+spoke up.
+
+The doctor glanced at him out of the corner of his eye. "Well, that
+depends," he replied, casting about for something else to say but not
+finding it upon demand. "Some of us are influenced by one thing and
+some by another," he added, still skirmishing. "But youth is often too
+much lacking in judgment to estimate its surroundings--the dangers that
+lie about, I might say. Talk comes early but sense follows very slowly
+along." He had evidently found something to please him for he smiled at
+Old Master, who, without a word, still sat looking at him. "Yes," said
+Young Master, "sense not being so light of foot has a hard time trying
+to overtake wordiness and there are cases where it does not succeed."
+
+The doctor gave Bob a mere glance and addressed himself to Old Master.
+"Since I have been traveling about," said he, "and particularly when
+I have gone East, I have been compelled to listen to sharp criticisms
+passed upon Southern society. They say our life is most unnatural, our
+society, feverish; and they laugh at our intellectual intercourse--say
+that our conversation is more observant of color than of sense, and
+that our young men are taught to stride on sophomoric stilts. Of
+course I was strong in my defense, but I couldn't hide an inward
+acknowledgement of a part of these strictures. Our young men do
+attempt to stand off the ground when they talk."
+
+"It makes no difference to me what an envious person may find fit to
+say," Old Master replied. "We of the South have our way of thinking and
+talking and are willing to grant that privilege to other men. Why the
+deuce don't these people come on to breakfast?"
+
+From the rear veranda came the voices of Old Miss, Mr. Clem and the
+preacher. "Dan," Old Master commanded, "tell them to come on here."
+
+I hastened away, glancing back to see Young Master boring the doctor
+with a look. Mr. Clem and the preacher were warm in an argument and Old
+Miss was standing near, supporting the views of the preacher, but was,
+I could see, persistent with suggesting that they give over the contest
+and go to breakfast. And when I stepped forward with the announcement
+that Old Master had sent for them, Mr. Clem said, "All right, soon
+as I blow out my tobacco," and ducking his head over the "banister,"
+he snorted out his quid and swore that he was as hungry as either of
+the she-bears that ate up the forty children. The minister would have
+stayed to rebuke him for this irreverence, but being himself pinched by
+appetite, gave him merely a look of reproof and struck a trot for the
+breakfast table.
+
+The doctor had met Old Miss and the two men earlier in the morning. He
+smiled at Old Miss, nodded at the preacher and addressing Mr. Clem,
+said that he had ever wanted to meet him. Mr. Clem made no reply until
+he had spread a napkin upon his knees, and then he said: "Well, sir,
+you see me now, not quite as good a man as I have been, perhaps, but
+pretty spry and ready to whet the edge of my judgment against every
+gritty substance I come across. What do you know about a horse, sir?"
+
+"Not a great deal, although I have owned several racers," the doctor
+answered. Mr. Clem looked at him, moving back a little so that he could
+measure him from head to foot. And when the survey was completed to the
+satisfaction of the surveyor, he blurted forth his estimate: "The case
+of a man who hasn't improved his time very much, I reckon. But you like
+a good horse, pretty well, I take it."
+
+"Well, I can't say that I'm more interested in a horse than in anything
+else."
+
+"You can't? Well, sir, I don't want to throw you off hard enough to
+bruise you, but I don't reckon you and I can trot together. Good-bye."
+
+"Oh, you are not going away, are you?" the doctor asked. Everyone
+looked up, even the preacher, who had been exceedingly busy.
+
+"No;" said Mr. Clem, "that is, I'm not going to leave here just now.
+But as I have decided not to trot with you, I'm gone, so far as you are
+concerned." And with that he turned from the doctor and I am almost
+positive that not within my hearing did he ever give him another word.
+It could not have been that the doctor's indifference toward the
+horse was the real cause of Mr. Clem's contempt; I am of the opinion
+that the old fellow had made up his mind not to like him and to tell
+him so should opportunity offer, and then brought forward the horse
+as a pretext. I have often speculated over what might have been the
+result, had the doctor professed an absorbing fondness for the horse. I
+imagine, though, that Mr. Clem would have tried one thing after another
+until he had found a vital objection to the man, for as I say, he was
+resolved not to like him, and I remember that on this very morning,
+after I had followed my master to his room, Mr. Clem came in with an
+oath directed at the doctor.
+
+"I don't understand how you get along with him at all, Bob," said he.
+
+"I don't," my young master replied, turning slowly the leaves of his
+sheep-bound book. "We have come near having trouble, and, when we do,
+it will be red trouble, I tell you. He's got some sort of a hold on
+father, something other than an interest in the estate. I have no idea
+what it is, but I know it's something. However, I don't believe that
+the old gentleman will put up with him much longer."
+
+"By the flint-hoofs, I wouldn't stand him a minute," Mr. Clem swore.
+And then looking at me he asked my opinion of the man. I looked at
+master.
+
+"Tell him," said he.
+
+"Exactly what I think, Mars. Bob?"
+
+"Yes, say what you please."
+
+This was indeed a rare occasion. I was to have an unfettered say--was
+to talk as a man. The image of the doctor arose before me; I saw his
+hateful grin, his eyes full of evil and deceit--and the insults that
+he had put upon me freshened in my mind. Something in my manner must
+have foretold the temper of my speech, for they looked at me with an
+interest that never before had I beheld in an eye bent upon me. "Speak
+out!" Bob cried, and I found my tongue and found it hot:
+
+"I hate him deeper than any man was ever hated!" I almost shouted, for
+my first free speech rose high. "He has done all he could to make
+my life miserable. It burnt his skin to see that I was not sent to
+the corn-field--bled him to know that I could be fitted for something
+better; and his enmity passes through me and touches my master. If I
+could choke his tongue out and see it covered with the vilest dust--if
+I could see his eyes mashed into the ground--" I hesitated. The flight
+of freedom held a threat to be too wild, and love for the man who sat
+staring at me told me to drive it back to mean and humble earth.
+
+"Go ahead," Mr. Clem cried, but master was silent, looking down.
+"Gentlemen, I am a slave and you are American citizens," said I.
+"For me, there are no privileges except those granted by individual
+kindness. The law which I have studied page by page with my Master,
+scarcely touches me, except so far as I am a piece of property. If I
+run away, the law that I have studied will follow me and bring me back
+with handcuffs on my wrists. If my master chooses, he can put me on the
+auctioneer's block and sell me. I--"
+
+"Don't, Dan," Master pleaded, lifting his hand. "Don't draw such a
+picture as that. You are better off than many a white man; you can
+think, you have been taught to reason; and you know that I would rather
+starve than to sell you. I am not responsible for the melancholy fact
+that you are a slave. You--"
+
+"Who is?" I broke in.
+
+"God," he answered.
+
+"Oh, H--!" Mr. Clem shouted, leaping off the floor. "Bob, I think a
+great deal of you, would do anything for you--fight for you--but let me
+beg of you never again to give echo to that sounding rot. The greedcant
+of a pandering pulpit gives us enough of such answers to flatter the
+soul. Bob," he said, stepping forward and laying a hand on Master's
+shoulder, "look at me. You have a heart," he went on, looking into the
+young man's eyes. "The God you say made this boy a slave, made you an
+uncommon man. Even as young as you are, you have the brains almost of
+a philosopher--surely the power and the expression of an orator. You
+are going to make a deep mark on the page of your country's history. I
+believe it, I swear I do. Then, why do you care to own a man? Bob, set
+this boy free."
+
+Master got out of his chair and went to the window before a word of
+reply came from him; he looked out upon the broad spread of green
+sward, flooded with sun-light, he turned back toward his uncle and then
+he said: "I can't. I want him, and he must stay with me. I don't want
+him so much as a servant as I do as a companion. Other men may be
+liars, but he tells me the truth. My thoughts are his and I hope that
+his are mine. At midnight, when the world is still and my mind is in an
+uproar, I do not struggle alone, but awake him and he steps gladly into
+the whirl-wind. Uncle Clem, I have a real affection for him, so strong
+that it is selfish. If I should set him free, he couldn't stay here,
+and besides, not yet being of age, I cannot give him freedom."
+
+"An argument," said a voice at the door, and looking up, we saw the
+doctor stand there. No one spoke a word bidding him to enter, but he
+stepped into the room. "Well," said Mr. Clem, speaking to Master, "I
+must go."
+
+"Won't you stay longer, Uncle?"
+
+"No, I've got to go down the creek and kill a snake."
+
+"I'll go with you," said master. "Come with us, Dan."
+
+"May I have a few moments with this boy?" the doctor asked, looking at
+Master and then leering at me.
+
+Mr. Clem had reached the door but he turned back. Master wanted to know
+of the doctor what business he could have with me, whereupon he said:
+"Oh, just a little private matter."
+
+"But, sir, Dan keeps none of his affairs private from me."
+
+"Indeed! A very close relationship, I must say."
+
+"Must you? I didn't know that you felt an obligation."
+
+"An obligation? What do you mean by that?"
+
+"Oh, you said you must say, and must moves us to discharge an
+obligation."
+
+"If a barber were as much given to the splitting of hairs, we'd never
+be more than half shaved."
+
+"And if the instinct of the wolf prompted bristles to grow
+continuously, and if no barber cut them off, I could pick out a man
+whose beard would soon drag the ground."
+
+Mr. Clem laid his hands upon the door-facing and snorted. "What ails
+you, sir?" the doctor asked, turning toward him, and Mr. Clem, without
+looking round, said: "Bob, they've got a fish over in Illinois they
+call the doctor. Hook one of them and you think you've got something,
+but pull him out and you find he's all bill. Come on and let's go after
+that snake."
+
+We strode away without another word, the doctor tramping hard down the
+stairs just behind me. He followed us to the yard, and seeing Old
+Master standing near the garden gate, sheered off from our course. We
+strolled along the grass-fringed margin of the creek, and when we came
+to the rock whereon I had stood, listening to Mr. Clem's persuasive
+tongue, urging me to run away, the kindness and the life-long
+protection of my Master arose and smote me, for on that rock I had
+almost rebelled against him. I did not want to stop when the others
+halted, but Mr. Clem called me back. "Bob," said he, "I didn't always
+know the feeling you have for Dan, and it was here, not long ago,
+that I told him to run away--offered to furnish him money; but with a
+fidelity that I had forgotten existed among men, he refused."
+
+Bob turned his face from us, but I saw his neck stiffen with
+resentment. There was something noble in his aspect, his head high,
+his hat off; and his hair, lying in waves, looked like the leaves of a
+wreath. But in a moment this was all gone and he looked as if a grief
+had fallen upon him. "Uncle Clem," said he, turning slowly toward
+the old man, "I wish you wouldn't give advice against the interest
+of one who is very near to me. If he were to run away, he would lose
+confidence in himself and his memory of the sunny days along this
+stream would but serve as a reproach to him."
+
+"My dear boy," Mr. Clem replied, "if I had intended to give him further
+advice along the same line, I would not have mentioned it to you--would
+not have hinted that I had said anything. So, now, as far as that is
+concerned, you may rest at ease."
+
+"All right, we'll say nothing more about it. Uncle Clem, do you think
+that I'm stilted in my talk?"
+
+"Why, not any more so than the average boy in this part of the
+country. You know the Kentuckian is taught to talk with a flourish;
+it is in keeping with the pretense of his surroundings; he must be
+gallant with woman and lordly with man. No, you are not particularly
+stilted, but there is one branch of information that you are stubbornly
+overlooking--the horse. You have studied the orator, but I want to tell
+you that the horse has done quite as much to make Kentucky known as the
+orator. After all, oratory is nothing but talk, while there's action in
+a horse. And, by the way, who's that riding along the pike? Too far off
+or I'd yell at him. Good horse; no, little lame in the left hind foot.
+See, he don't move evenly."
+
+"I can't tell from here," said master.
+
+"Ah, hah, and that goes to prove what I say, that you haven't given
+enough study to that important subject. It isn't right for a man to
+cultivate one lobe of his mind and neglect the other. Man's mind, you
+know, has two lobes--one embracing the horse, and the other covering
+the human family and other little things. I wonder how much longer
+things are going to be as dull as they are now. Why, out in Illinois
+we had something every day to interest us, up hill and down, but here
+everything is on a dead level. There's not enough ginger in the air."
+
+"But it's full of poetry, Uncle Clem."
+
+"Full of poetry? Well, maybe it is, but you have to listen too close to
+hear it."
+
+"Ah, but the sweetest communications come in a whisper."
+
+"By the hoofs, the boy's in love. Now, you take a horseman's advice and
+keep out of it. It's a jolt, leaving you for a time to wonder whether
+you're hurt or not, and after a while you find that you are. Yonder
+come the General and that doctor. Let's sheer off this way and go back
+to the house?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+How the coming of one person can change an atmosphere! At one moment
+the breath we draw is a new and invigorating hope, the next instant the
+air is parched and dead--we see an evil eye, a hated face. My education
+was not systematic; I read as a hungry man eats; and, as my learning
+progressed, I began to give myself up to a speculation upon the sadness
+of my lot in life, my eyes becoming wider and wider opened to the fact
+that knowledge could avail me nothing, could but throw a lime-light
+upon my bondage and make it ghastly; but when the doctor returned I
+looked back at my state of happiness during his absence. It was true
+that Old Miss gave over no opportunity to humiliate me, but I had grown
+so accustomed to this that no longer did it sting me--I put it down
+as the soured whim of an old woman. But the sight of the doctor, the
+fact that he and I were under the same roof, was iced water constantly
+dripping upon my head. I was not physically afraid of him; gladly would
+I have fought him; in a fight I could have cut his throat and stood
+looking calmly upon his blood, and thousands of times had I wished that
+I were a white man, that I might challenge him; but morally I stood
+in horror of him. I avoided him, slinking about like a thief; I hid
+myself behind stone walls and in thickets until he had passed, but at
+the table I was compelled to look upon him and to hear his voice. Once
+when he spoke to me my Young Master saw me tremble and when we had gone
+forth together, the young man said to me: "Dan, don't stand behind my
+chair at meal time any more. It's a piece of nonsense anyway, a notion
+covered with mold."
+
+I thanked him and told him that I would not, but at supper that
+evening, Old Mistress flouted so and made such a fuss at my absence
+that Master came to the foot of the stairs and called me. "It won't be
+for long," he said as I came down. "I don't believe that fellow can
+stay here much longer."
+
+But the days wore along and he continued to remain, and though I was
+skillful in my avoidance of him, yet he sometimes confronted me when I
+least expected it. One afternoon, during the wheat harvest, I was sent
+to the distillery to get whisky to be served to the hands. Just as the
+distiller had handed me the full jug, the doctor stepped out and in
+apparent surprise asked me what I wanted there. I told him that Old
+Master had sent me for whisky.
+
+"I believe you are lying," said he, "but take it and go, and don't fool
+along the road, either. Do you hear?"
+
+I told him that I had no intention of fooling along the road. "That
+yellow rascal is petted until his fingers and toes stick out," said he
+to the distiller. "I wanted to take him and make something of him, but
+they wouldn't let me. But I'll get him yet."
+
+"He'd be worth fifteen hundred if he was a little pearter," said the
+distiller, looking at me as I moved off.
+
+"Yes," the doctor agreed, "and an apple tree sprout well laid on would
+add many a dollar to his worth."
+
+I walked as rapidly as I could, but the doctor being on horseback soon
+overtook me. I wondered what new insult was fermenting in his mind.
+I had not long to wait. "Boy," said he, riding up, "are you sure you
+haven't swigged some of that liquor?"
+
+"I have not touched it," I answered without looking up.
+
+"Stop a minute," he commanded and I obeyed. He looked up and down the
+road, and then said: "Take out that corn-cob stopper and drink."
+
+"It is not for me, sir," I replied.
+
+"I don't give a d-- whom it's for; you drink it."
+
+I stood near a fence and with one arm resting upon it as I replied:
+"You want me to get back drunk to bring disgrace upon my Young Master
+and myself."
+
+He kicked his horse and rode almost upon me. His eyes were green with
+hate and had he thrust forth a forked tongue like a serpent, I could
+not have felt surprise. He stood in his stirrups and lifted high his
+riding whip. "You yellow ooze of the devil, I'll make you drink that
+liquor or I'll slit your hide until it won't hold feathers." His lips
+were apart, his teeth were set and his brows were knit with the force
+that he summoned to his arm. Within a second this stinging blow must
+fall, but I commanded him in so sharp a tone to hold that his arm came
+down slowly and his whip hung at his side. "Do you threaten me!" he
+hissed, thrusting his chin forward. Year after year he had eluded the
+notice of age, had escaped, it seemed to me, without enumeration, but
+now the time he had cheated came fall upon him, wrinkling his face,
+yellowing his countenance and making him hideous. He was so close upon
+me, leaning forward with his sharp chin pointed at my heart, that I
+could smell the fumes of brandy on his breath. He gazed hard, trying, I
+could see, to hold my attention, but I noticed that his hands were not
+idle. He changed his whip to his left hand and with his right plucked
+out a keen knife. I was in a corner of the fence and the horse's breast
+was almost against me. And thus he was poised like a fierce animal,
+waiting for my reply, hoping that it would not be one of submission. I
+was not frightened, but reason flew through my mind like a bird caught
+by a strong wind. To defend myself meant the gallows.
+
+"Doctor," said I, "you have no cause to seek my life. You are a white
+man and I am what you are pleased to call a negro. In the court-house
+your mere word would be a law against my oath. You have every moral
+as well as, at present, every physical advantage. You are a man of
+education and are closely connected with one of the best families in
+this proud State, and now what prompts you to tread upon me?"
+
+My coolness drove him mad. He kicked his horse and jammed me into the
+corner of the fence. For a second his knife gleamed like the belly of a
+snake circling in the air. I threw up the jug, caught the knife and the
+broken blade fell to the ground--I seized the horse in the nostrils,
+as I had seen Mr. Clem grasp "the devil," wrenched him until he fell
+upon his knees, caught up the jug which I had let fall at my feet,
+threw it over into the soft clover and with a spring followed it. The
+enraged man's oaths ripped like a saw striking a knot.
+
+"I'll get you yet," he cried, shaking the knife-handle at me.
+
+"You will feel better when you are sober," I said, smiling at him.
+I could have sliced his heart and therefore I smiled--at the happy
+thought. "And I want to tell you one thing. I may be hanged one mile
+from the court-house, but this is the last time I am going to run from
+you." I turned to go, but he called me. "You have threatened me," he
+said, not raging, but with more of quiet than I could have expected,
+"and on my part it would be justice to take a gun and shoot you, but
+if you will agree to say nothing about this affair when you go to the
+house, I will swear never again to molest you. The truth is I've been
+drinking and am not myself."
+
+"I looked at it in another light, sir. I thought that the drink had
+given your true self a bold development."
+
+"God, but you can talk, you yellow--but I say, Dan, I mean what I say.
+Agree not to mention this affair and I'll always treat you civilly.
+I've had enough to spoil the temper of any man alive, but I'll hold it
+down so far as you are concerned. What do you say?"
+
+"I agree, sir."
+
+"All right. Now give me a drink out of that jug and I'll call it
+square."
+
+"No, this liquor is not for you; it is for the harvest hands; it isn't
+up to your grade."
+
+"Consideration or impudence, one of the other--but I'll let it pass.
+All right, now," he added, tightening his bridle-rein to ride away,
+"remember your part of the contract and I'll remember mine."
+
+Old Jason, at the head of the men in the field, censured me for
+passing so much time on the road, and old Steve, humorous rascal, gave
+a broad grin as he looked upon the whisky and swore that he didn't
+think that I had passed anything on the road; that everything had
+passed me. Old Master came walking up to the clump of alder bushes
+under which a number of the hands had gathered to "blow" in the shade,
+and after making a pretense of drinking with them, told me to walk
+to the house with him. With what envy the black men regarded me as I
+strode off beside the man who held their destiny in the hollow of his
+hand! Looking back I could see many a dark frown. Among the blacks
+the "yaller man" was never a favorite. An attempt to be refined and
+especially a smattering of learning invoked contempt from the sturdy
+yeoman of the negro quarter.
+
+"They are not so mighty fond of you," said Old Master as we walked
+along. His old eyes had caught the expression of their disfavor.
+
+"No, sir, and I am sorry, for I would give much for their good opinion."
+
+"I'm glad to hear you say that, my boy. It is a true proof of a
+gentlemanly instinct. The coarse-grained man holds himself above the
+opinion of those far below him, but a gentleman would value the good
+will of a dog. By the way, have you seen the doctor to-day?"
+
+"I think, sir, that I saw him in the road as I was coming from the
+distillery."
+
+It was some time before he spoke again, walking along with his gaze
+bent upon the ground. "Dan"--and he looked up at me, "do you remember
+the time you threw the tumbler on his head?"
+
+"As well as if it were but an hour ago," I answered.
+
+"If you had seen him this morning you would have felt like striking him
+a harder blow," he said. "We had a quarrel and my old blood was so
+stirred that I was almost tempted to cut his throat. He made a demand
+on me for more money than I could really afford to give--the scoundrel,
+I have given him already far more than his share--and was insulting
+when I refused him. Your Mistress has been brought to see him in his
+true light and I have her consent to drive him away and I'll do it. He
+calmed down and apologized, but I told him that he must leave within a
+day or two, and he'll have to. I can't stand him any longer."
+
+"Master, I don't see how you could have stood him so long."
+
+"It was to keep the neighbors from talking," he replied. "Differently
+situated, I would have kicked him into the road long ago. He is the
+strangest man I ever met. He's bright, and at times he appears the
+perfect gentleman and is exceedingly interesting, but in a moment
+his nature seems changed. We were at the barn this morning when his
+insulting mood came on, and I looked up at a scythe hanging there and
+was sorely tempted to mow off his head. But that would never do."
+
+We were walking along a fence bordering the turn-pike. Someone in a
+buggy called the old man and I went onward to the house, with a regret
+that I had been so long away from my law book. We had given to our room
+the name of office, for Young Master had already begun to recite his
+lessons to a retired judge who almost daily dismounted from his horse
+to give us the benefit of his learning. In the office I found Bob and
+Mr. Clem.
+
+"Why don't you go in with some lawyer in town and be done with it?" Mr.
+Clem was saying as I entered the room. "You are not quite old enough
+yet to reach the bar, but you've got about all the law you could get
+at school, and about all that remains now is to pick up the details of
+practice."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Bob, "but when a young man goes into an old
+lawyer's office he is expected to do all the work, take none of the
+glory and receive but little of the pay. We'll hang on here a while
+longer, won't we, Dan?" He looked up at me with a smile.
+
+"Yes, sir; and when we go, we'll go strong."
+
+"Dan is to be my silent partner," he said, nodding at his uncle.
+
+The old fellow jerked his shoulders as he replied: "Yes, sir, and he'd
+better be pretty devilish silent at that, I tell you. The leaves from
+so many abolition pamphlets are fluttering in the air that anything
+with the appearance of granting the negro more of equality with the
+white man will be resented in no uncertain way. But I'm glad to hear
+that Dan is to be your partner and I advise you to keep it strictly to
+yourselves. Heigh ho." He leaned back with a stretch. "This country is
+slower than tar in January. Haven't seen but two horses--horses that
+I'd have, you understand--go over the pike to-day. And that's rather
+discouraging for a man who insists on paying his way. Only two horses,
+and I didn't get but one of them." I thought to ask him concerning the
+outcome of his contest with the preacher, but he continued to talk, and
+I never thought of it again. Billows came to swallow the little waves.
+
+"Yes, sir, only two horses that I would have, and yet this is the State
+of Kentucky, where Clay lived and died. Two horses, mind you, and I
+didn't get but one of them. Fellow didn't want to swap; said he was in
+a hurry. Might as well have said that he didn't want to live because
+he was in a hurry. But I got him to stop, and then I brought out the
+bay mare that I got the other day. She had her Sunday clothes on and I
+could see that she caught his eye. He got down and looked at her feet
+and then gathered up the skin on her shoulders; said he thought it was
+a little too tight. I told him that there wasn't anything loose about
+her; that the contract only called for enough skin to cover her. Well,
+we swapped, and I got twenty-eight dollars to boot, all he had. Would
+have got more, but he didn't have it. He was a sad sort of fellow and I
+didn't want to take advantage of him, without giving him some sort of a
+show, so I told him that he'd better not take my word for anything. But
+he did."
+
+"Wasn't your mare all right?" Bob inquired.
+
+"Oh, yes, in a measure--bad measure, I might say. She had been galloped
+down-hill on the pike until her shoulders were sorter stove up, and
+that's what made the skin too tight, and her wind ain't of the best,
+but she's good enough for him. I took his horse to town--just got
+back--and got a first rate price for him on the public square."
+
+After a time Mr. Clem lay down and fell asleep, and I took up a book
+to keep the silent company of Young Master, and I read page after page
+without being able to grasp a single idea. How hopeless everything was
+determined to appear. Abetted by the kindest of men I had stolen into
+the field of thought, was preparing to become an out-lawed advocate
+of the law, a sneak-thief behind the bar. A silent partner, indeed,
+a mysterious counsellor, a dumb orator. As supper-time drew near, I
+shuddered at the prospect of meeting the doctor's eye. Would he keep
+his contract with me? An easy matter if what Old Master said was true.
+But I feared that the old gentleman would weaken when the time came
+for him to be strong. And should that man be permitted to remain, I
+believed that he would murder me. Ought I to keep my word with a wolf?
+I asked myself time and again; and more than once I was on the point
+of breaking it, but a sense of honor held me back. Why should I feel
+the fetters of honor chaffing me? I looked up to meet Young Master's
+eyes. Ah, they, so full of soul and fire, were an inspiration to my
+struggling manliness. And his affection, though given under cover of
+dark secrecy, was the most blessed reward I could receive on earth.
+
+In the dining room I waited, standing behind Young Master's chair,
+looking across at Mr. Clem--waited for the doctor but he did not come.
+Every sound without gave me a sickening stir, a chicken on the rear
+veranda, a dog trotting through the hall, the wind-stirred fox-horn
+tapping against a post just beyond the door. But the man did not come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+My nerves were so wrought upon by the continuous dread of the doctor's
+coming that by the time the meal was over I was almost in a state of
+collapse. Young Master's eye noticed my indisposition, and as we turned
+about in the hall to mount the stairs, he said to me:
+
+"Slip out, Dan, and take a walk in the fresh air, alone. You don't look
+well." I thanked him and halted, and he passed on without inquiring
+into the cause of what he must have seen was a pitiable dejection. A
+thousand well-sifted words could not have shown the delicacy of his
+nature more fittingly, and my gratitude followed him step by step as he
+went up the stairs; and when he had reached the landing I stole out of
+the house.
+
+The brown veil of dusk lay upon the land, but in a hill-side thicket
+far away a light was shimmering to illumine the early evening festival
+of the gray fox--the moon was coming up. The air was still and soft,
+but heavy with the sappy scent from the damp grass land down the
+creek. On the comb of a cabin, grotesquely outlined in this dun-colored
+close of day, sat a negro blowing a melancholy reed, and high above him
+the bull-bats were screaming. In the shrubbery a hord of negro children
+were playing a counting-out game. I passed the cow-pens; the women were
+there and I heard the stream of milk spurting hard in the "piggin."
+My spirits rose out of their nervous lassitude; I felt a strong and
+almost unnatural sense of exhilaration, and this alarmed me, for we are
+sometimes afraid to feel an unaccountable buoyancy lest it may foretell
+a coming fall. I have known Christians who had prayed for sanctity in
+the sight of the Lord, to tremble at happiness, afraid that it might
+be a trap set by the devil. I skirted the shore of the creek, crossed
+the meadow, passed through the woods, entered the grassy lane and stood
+there with my arms on the fence, looking at the full moon, now high
+above the trees. And I thought that the foxes must have given over
+their dancing to scatter about for a night of mischievous prowling. I
+was on a knoll, and turning about I could see the lights in the cabins
+and the great house, a hen and her chickens squatted upon the ground, I
+fancied. The strongest light came from my Young Master's room, and in
+my mind I could see him sitting at the table with his eyes fastened
+upon his sheep-bound book. And the self-reproach of an ambitious
+thought that I was not keeping up with him started me homeward at a
+bound. But I had not gone far before I was stopped by a voice. A man
+stepped from the corner of the zig-zag fence. "Hold on!" he said, and
+the doctor stood before me. The moon was on his face and in the coarse
+lines that traced his countenance the devil's mockery was legible.
+
+"Where are you going?" he asked, standing with his hands behind him.
+
+"Home," I answered.
+
+"Home!" he repeated, and vitriol was in his voice. "Is there a home for
+everyone but me?" He threw his head back as if motioning toward the
+house. "Can you go back there and sleep on a bed when I am told never
+to cross that threshold again? Can you?"
+
+"I don't know what you mean, doctor?"
+
+"I have been driven away this night. The old man has turned me out."
+
+"But am I to blame? I am the humblest member of that household."
+
+He did not change his attitude, but I thought that I saw his bosom
+swelling. "The humblest because you are the lowest down, but a snake
+is low down," he said, thrusting his chin toward me. "Look here, spawn.
+The first step you took put you in my way. Do you hear me?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and I am much surprised to hear you say it. I didn't think
+you would acknowledge that I had so much force. We have not been
+friends, it is true, but I thought that my position kept us from being
+enemies. To be enemies must argue a certain degree of equality, and I
+have never presumed upon that. You may have stooped. And now let me beg
+you to straighten up and forget that I ever existed."
+
+"I will forget that you have existed, and I will straighten up, but not
+until I have stooped lower. Look here. I hate the fool boy that owns
+you, and if I could kill him this moment, I would. I am getting old and
+there is nothing left for me. But I want revenge and I am going to have
+it, for I am going to be sensible. I never was a fool."
+
+"Doctor, I don't understand your meaning."
+
+"You are duller than usual. If I were to kill your master or that old
+imbecile, this whole county would follow me, but if I kill a yellow
+dog, they--" He leered at me, the moon full on his face. A chill
+seized my legs and ran to the top of my head and the roots of my hair
+felt cold.
+
+"You mean that you will kill me?"
+
+"That's what I mean. They drove me to brandy and brandy has pointed you
+out."
+
+I was perfectly calm; the chill had left me. "Will you please let me
+pass?" I asked; and he stepped back, still with his hands behind him.
+"No," he said.
+
+"Have you forgotten our contract?"
+
+"You are a fool if you put faith in it. You are not negro enough to be
+put by with a kick. You are white man enough to be killed. And when
+they find you in the morning they will think that your little learning
+drove you mad."
+
+This startled me. I believed that they would think so, if they should
+find me dead, but no obedience to a social law and surely no regard for
+the statutes could force me to submit quietly to the bloody purpose of
+this raving man.
+
+"Doctor, I have run from you for the last time. Get out of my way!" I
+stepped aside, but he moved toward me. Now his hands were in front of
+him and I saw a knife. I had nothing. I could have turned and run away;
+I could have leaped over the fence, but hot blood was coursing where
+the chill had crept.
+
+"I am going home," said I, "and I am going down this lane."
+
+He made no reply, but with a leap and a strike he was upon me. I caught
+the wrist of his right arm; I threw my left arm about him. I thought
+that I heard his bones cracking and it gave me a thrill of mad delight.
+I did not strive to get his knife. I bent his head down till his cry
+was but a mutter; his right hand was crushed against his bosom--and I
+threw him upon the ground. He struggled, with one faint cry, for his
+face was in the grass, and I put my foot on his back to hold him down,
+to complete my victory over him. And I am free to confess that my soul
+was full of a joy that almost burnt me, it was so hot. Many a time had
+he stood with his foot upon my trembling heart, and the memory of those
+long years of humiliation swept over me and I lifted my hands and cried
+aloud to the God of vengeance. I looked down at my foe under my foot.
+And now he was so mean and shrunken that my heart flinched with a pity
+that pricked it. I lifted my foot with a quick jerk lest another memory
+might press it down the harder, and stood waiting for him to get up.
+He did not move. "Get up," I said, taking him by the shoulder. But he
+made no effort. Then I turned him upon his back and the moonlight fell
+upon his blood, and horrified, I looked at him, his eyes wide open,
+his teeth hard set with grass between them. His right hand was still
+upon his left breast, clutching the knife, and its blade was buried in
+his heart.
+
+I dropped upon my knees, and gazed at him, now so old and wrinkled. I
+leaped to my feet and the air whistled in my ears as I bounded down the
+lane. I was struggling to run away from the knowledge that I had killed
+him, but it kept up with me--showed me a jail and a gallows. I halted
+when near the house, put my arm about a tree and stood there. The negro
+cabins were dark, but a light burned in Young Master's room. The hour
+was late. The creek was louder than I had ever heard it, a mockery, not
+a music. A wind had sprung up and in the tree-tops there was a cold and
+rasping whisper. I was striving to reach a decision as to what course
+I should pursue. Undoubtedly I had killed the man or had thrown him so
+that he might kill himself, but of this I had entertained no thought
+at the time, my aim being to protect myself and to humiliate him, to
+show him that I could turn and be his master. But I could not explain
+this to the authorities, therefore I held no notion of giving myself
+up. To run away were an acknowledgement of guilt, a brief inquiry and
+the rope. I could make a flat denial, if accused, but was afraid that
+I could not summon the nerve to maintain it. Still something must be
+done. I might go to Mr. Clem, tell him the truth, get letters from him
+to persons in the real land of the free and with his financial aid
+make my escape out of the country. But this was blocked by the love I
+bore my Young Master. I went to the well and washed my hands, although
+I could find no blood on them, and the windlass was so loud with its
+groaning that I fancied the whole world must hear it. A dog came up,
+sniffed at me and trotted off. Life had been stirred until I had found
+the sugar at the bottom. I must save myself, but I could not run away
+without telling my Master, without asking his advice. I would go to
+him. Up the stairway I stole without a noise. I was afraid that I might
+find Old Master pacing the hall, and I listened to hear his slippered
+feet, but all was still. I turned the knob so gently that Young Master
+did not hear me when I entered the room. He sat gazing at his book. I
+spoke and he started.
+
+"Why do you come slipping in this way, Dan? You startled me. What were
+you doing so long? What the devil is the matter with you, boy?"
+
+I caught at the edge of the table, dropped upon my knees and told him
+my story. I do not know what his face might have shown, for my eyes
+were cast down, I don't know what he felt, but I do know that not a
+sound escaped him. I got up at the end and looked at him, and his face
+was pale and hard.
+
+"Lie down," he said, pointing to my lounge.
+
+"To be pulled up by the sheriff?" I cried.
+
+"Lie down and ask no questions, and stay there until I call for you.
+If anyone comes in, you are too ill to get up. Do you hear me? This is
+not a request; it is a command. D-- you, will you do it?" he cried,
+stamping the floor. "You belong to me. Do as I tell you. Take off your
+clothes. If father asks for me, tell him I went away early in the
+evening. Don't say a word."
+
+I took off my clothes, with the tears falling on my trembling hands. He
+watched me until I was in bed and then he put the light out. I heard
+the door close--heard him going down the stairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+Would day-light never come was a speculation that lay upon my mind
+until it seemed to gather mold, like a rag in a damp cellar. But why
+should I long for the sun to rise to pour light upon the blood in the
+lane? And to myself I said that it would be better for me if darkness
+should remain forever upon the earth. But the hours were so tiresome
+and the world was so reproachfully still. I had thought that my reading
+had led me away from the superstitions of my negro ancestors; long ago
+I had thrown away the lucky bone taken from the head of a cat-fish; I
+had ceased to make a cross mark in the road and spit in it whenever I
+found that I had forgotten something and was forced to turn back; I did
+not believe that the hanging of a dead snake across the fence, belly
+up, would make it rain; I had laughed at old Steve when he told me that
+a horse's tooth, ground to powder and carried sewed up in a sack, would
+prevail against the tricks of the conjurer. But now I believed in it
+all and trembled at the awful consequences that a renegade scorn might
+call upon me. With a cold sweat I remembered the words of a black hag
+who lived in a hovel at the edge of the town. On an occasion, not more
+than a month gone-by, she had taken offense at what she termed my
+uppishness; she crossed her crutches in front of me, cut a mysterious
+diagram in the air and swore that before the moon changed twice I
+should fall a victim to a blighting calamity. The moon had not changed
+twice and the calamity had fallen. I got up to look at the moon, to
+search for a confirming mark upon it, but through the windless night,
+dark clouds had floated and the sky was black. At the window I sat
+and gazed into the darkness toward the lane. A wind sprang up and was
+hoarse in the tree-tops. Rain would come and wash the blood away, but
+the body and the crying wound would be there at the coming of day. I
+wondered whither my Young Master could have gone and why he should have
+left me. Was it that he had gone thus early to the authorities to beg
+for my life? That were useless. Law and society must have my blood. On
+my side a ton of justice would be but a thistledown, blown by a baby's
+breath. And I gazed from the window toward the lane. Day-light could
+not be far away; it had already fallen upon the hilltops, I thought.
+Yes, the far-off sky was turning gray; but nearer it was black with
+clouds. Strange that a storm should be gathering just at this time. The
+lighter it grew the nearer the clouds came. They split, one in the form
+of a great bird, sailing away; the other was a horse galloping madly,
+with a ribbon, a bridle-rein of lightning, flashing at its throat.
+The household was stirring. I heard Old Master go down the stairs; I
+heard old Steve calling the hogs. There was not to be a storm. The
+clouds were gone and the air was sultry. The horn was blown to call the
+negroes to breakfast. I heard horses galloping over the turn-pike. But
+the body in the lane had not been found. God, I could see it, lying
+near the fence! I heard someone coming and I crept back to bed and
+covered myself. Mr. Clem entered the room.
+
+"You boys going to sleep all day?" he asked. "But Bob's gone; where is
+he? Why, he hasn't been to bed. Didn't he stay here last night?"
+
+"No, sir; he went away early on business."
+
+"But what's the matter with you this morning? You look sick."
+
+"I am, sir. I don't believe I am able to get up."
+
+"I'd better send for a doctor. Why, you've got a chill."
+
+"Don't send for a doctor," I pleaded. "Don't send for anyone; let me
+lie here alone."
+
+"Well, I'm sorry you're sick," he said, turning about. "Want anything
+to eat?"
+
+"No, sir. I just want to lie here until Young Master comes."
+
+For a time he stood looking hard at me, with his hand on the door.
+"Hear of the row last night?" he asked. I feigned surprise and said
+that I had not, whereupon he continued:
+
+"The Old General finally summoned the requisite nerve and drove the
+doctor off. I wasn't very close, but I heard all that passed. The
+doctor pleaded and started to threaten and then the old man roared.
+'If you are anywhere in this neighborhood by morning,' said he, 'I
+will take a shot gun to you, I don't care what the public says or
+how close its investigation may be.' The doctor moved on off and I
+followed along, to see what he intended to do when the old man's back
+was turned, and once I got close enough to hear his mutterings and to
+understand him to say, 'I'll let the old fool go, but somebody will die
+before morning.' Just then the General called me and I went back. I
+don't know who the doctor intended to kill, didn't know but it might be
+Bob, and I would have come in last night to tell him--saw him going up
+the stairs--but Bill Mason came over and said that he wanted to beat me
+out of a horse or two, and so I went over to his place and haggled with
+him nearly all night. Man of considerable worth, Mason is. Has kept
+his eyes pretty well open while other people have been dreaming, but
+he napped a trifle and I came off some time before day with two better
+horses than I took with me and a pretty fair roll of money. I told
+Bob, you remember, that I never would say anything more to you about
+running away, and I won't. But somehow I think that justice ought to be
+stronger than friendship or even blood relationship. Still, I'll keep
+my word with him and not advise you to run away. I tell you what I'm
+going to do, though. I'm going to throw this roll of money over there
+on the bed, and if it's not there when I come back, and if you are gone
+by to-night--but I promised Bob."
+
+He threw a roll of bank notes on the bed and almost trotted in his
+haste to get down the stairs. I got up and walked about the room, not
+daring to look at the money, but my mind was not so obedient as my
+eyes. The means of possible escape lay there within my reach. Could
+any human being blame me for struggling to save my life? I went to the
+window and looked out and drew back with a shudder. The body had been
+found. Several persons were standing about it, and along the lane there
+walked a number of men, my young master in the midst of them and among
+them I recognized the coroner of the county. They were going to hold
+the inquest. I saw Old Master and Mr. Clem walking hard to overtake
+them. Now was my time. I jumped into my clothes, wondering that no one
+had called me to see the dead man; I clapped my hat upon my head--and
+seized the money. I ran to the door, but to save my life I could not
+cross the threshold. I stood there gasping, with that old woman's
+crutches crossed before me. I threw the money upon the bed and my love
+for my master arose strong and overpowering in my heart, and with the
+tears streaming from my eyes I bounded down the stairs, out into the
+yard, over the fence, and tore down the lane toward the spot where the
+body lay under the stern eye of the law. I caught up with Old Master
+and Mr. Clem just as they reached the place--I ran to Young Master,
+and he turned upon me with a frown. "Don't interrupt me," he cried,
+waving his hand. "I know your devotion to me, but I demand silence.
+Gentlemen," he said, addressing the coroner and the jury, "I don't
+intend to make myself out altogether blameless, but I was forced to
+kill him. I was unarmed and it was his own knife that shed his blood."
+And then, while I stood there gaping, he gave in minutest detail an
+account of the strike, the struggle and the fall. I looked at Old
+Master as he stood there bent forward, staring; at Mr. Clem as he gazed
+upon the young man who had stepped in between me and the hangman, but
+my jaws were locked wide open and I could not speak.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Mr. Clem, "I demand to be sworn." He held up his
+hand, muttered the oath and then proceeded with his testimony.
+
+"Last night I heard the doctor say he would kill him. He said that he
+would let the old man go, meaning my brother, but that someone would
+die before day, and I know that he meant Bob. It has been well known
+among us that bad blood existed between them. I--"
+
+Suddenly I leaped forward, struck upon the head, I fancied, by the
+crutches of the old woman, and with a cry I fell upon my knees. "My
+master did not kill him;" I groaned in agony. "I killed him. Listen to
+me and then you may hang me. I--"
+
+Bob sprang at me and clapped his hand over my mouth. "Gentlemen," he
+said, "this poor, devoted boy would save my life--it's his way of
+repaying a life-long kindness. Pay no attention to him, but let us
+attend to the demands of justice. I killed this man, I have told you
+why and how. And I am ready to take the consequences. Come here, Dan."
+He jerked me to my feet and led me off. "Dispute me another time," he
+said, "and before God I will cut your throat. Now go to the house or
+I'll take a stick and beat you every step of the way."
+
+I was almost bereft of my senses as I walked toward the house. I met
+Old Miss with a troop of negroes behind her. She was wringing her hands
+and the negroes were crooning a low chant. Some one bade me stop, but
+I hastened on, through the yard, up to the room; and the sight of the
+money lying there on the bed, the thought that I had clutched it to run
+away from the noblest man that ever breathed, drove me mad; and I fell
+upon the lounge and the world was black.
+
+When I opened my eyes to the light, I was undressed between the sheets
+and a cloth was bound about my head. Someone was talking. I looked up
+and saw a physician just taking his leave. Bob stood at the window. I
+raised myself up and he hastened to me.
+
+"Don't get up, Dan," he said.
+
+"Yes, I am all right now." But I was not all right. I was so weak that
+I could scarcely sit up in bed.
+
+"What time is it?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, about ten," he answered, smiling. "And I'm devilish glad to see
+that you've come out all right. We thought at one time that you were
+gone. You raved all day yesterday."
+
+"Yesterday! No, we were deep in our books yesterday."
+
+"Dan, you have been in bed a week."
+
+"Is it possible?" I cried, and then I looked at him. He read the
+inquiry that was in my mind. "The coroner's jury discharged me," he
+said. "And not a vestige of blame clings to me. The neighbors all have
+come to give me their hands. Now if you are going to cry like a fool,
+I won't tell you about it. There, I didn't mean to be harsh. It's all
+right. They said that I couldn't have done otherwise, and no regret is
+expressed. Why, it has made quite a hero out of you. Fame whirls her
+cloak in the air and we never know how soon it is going to fall. Don't
+look at me that way. Oh, yes, you may take my hand if you want to.
+There, now, don't blubber. Why, don't you know they would have hanged
+you long before this time? But we won't talk about that. We didn't
+bury him in the garden," he went on after a slight pause, "but in the
+grave-yard on the other side of town. We agreed, mother with the rest
+of us, that he must not lie beside my sister. It may seem strange to
+you, but the household appears happier. Father's mind has thrown off
+a load. And Uncle Clem has been so stimulated that he has filled the
+stable with horses. He's preparing to drive them to market. Don't be
+in a hurry about getting up. Just take your time. And I'll go down and
+have them send you something to eat."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+News came that a minister had preached a sermon upon my devotion to my
+master and exhorted his hearers to be thus faithful unto their Master,
+the Lord. This was brought to me by none other than Old Miss herself.
+I was able to sit with a book upon my lap, and out of respect for her
+prejudice, I put the volume down as she entered the room, but she bade
+me keep it. And when she had told me what the preacher said, she added:
+"You may read all the books you like, for we know now that you cannot
+be poisoned by them. It was noble of you, Dan."
+
+"Please don't talk that way," I pleaded, my heart smiting me.
+
+"Yes, I will. You tried to throw yourself into my son's place to
+save him, and I can't say too much in your favor. And you will reap
+your reward when the time comes. 'Well done, thou good and faithful
+servant,' can be said of you."
+
+Old Master came in while she was sitting there. He appeared to be
+pleased with the attention she showed me, or his pleasure might have
+proceeded from his discovery that her temper was improved. "You'll be
+all right now pretty soon," he said. "I don't believe that I'd read too
+much. It isn't well to strain your mind. Has your young master told
+you that he is preparing himself for examination? He is nearly ready,
+and will be by the time court meets next week. He's afraid that he
+won't get through without a bobble, but I think he'll go through like a
+flash. He has decided to enter old Judge Bruce's office. The old fellow
+doesn't know much but he is a good palaverer and has a pretty fair
+practice. He never was a real judge, you know--was a candidate once and
+came off with the title but missed the office."
+
+As Old Master became warmer toward me, Old Miss grew cooler; her
+countenance while she talked had been kindly, but now it was veiled
+with a frown. The prospect of seeing Young Master established as a
+lawyer lifted my spirits, but the sight of his mother's displeasure
+toward me threw them down. Old Master observed the change in the
+atmosphere. "Madam," said he, "I have been thinking that we need a new
+carpet for the parlor."
+
+"Indeed," she replied, bowing with a mocking grace, "I am delighted to
+credit your eye-sight with a sudden improvement. I have spoken of the
+condition of that carpet until I am tired of it. It's the talk of the
+neighborhood, I'm sure. Mrs. Ramsey turned up her nose at it the other
+day, and I couldn't help thinking that it was a pretty pass indeed to
+be humiliated in my own house by such a thing as she is. And it was no
+longer ago than last fall that her husband had to sell an old negro
+woman that had been in the family all her life."
+
+"Huh," grunted the old man, winking slyly at me. "Did she turn up her
+nose very high?" He grabbed out a red handkerchief, snorted into it and
+sat looking at her with the water of an old mischief standing in his
+eyes.
+
+"General, don't laugh at me. I am the last person in this world that
+you should laugh at. Don't you do it!"
+
+"But, madam, you are the first person I should laugh with."
+
+"I don't see how you can laugh at anybody after what we have gone
+through with lately, blood spattered on our door-sill; but I actually
+believe that you have been gayer since that awful event." With that
+remark she flounced out of the room, and the old man sat there, looking
+out into the blue space of the speckless day, silent and absorbed.
+After a time he turned his old eyes slowly upon me.
+
+"The youth whose promise in life embraces the prospect of a broad
+scope should be taught that at the end of it all--this alluring
+rain-bow--lies disappointment. Sometimes when I have seen my men in the
+field, with no thought of the morrow and with never a worry except some
+trifling physical ill, I have wished that I was one of them. I started
+out wrong," he went on, shaking his head slowly up and down. "Horses
+can be called back from a false spurt in the race, and another start
+taken, but men must go on. Dan, I have stood by and seen you trying
+to educate yourself, and I have said nothing, although I know that
+education is often the sensitizing of a nerve that leads to misery. To
+be a gentleman means to possess a large ability to feel, and to feel is
+to worry, to brood and to suffer. Men of the North and gentlemen of the
+South, the phrase has gone forth. Our old Virginia blood is gentle, in
+society; but alone, it is hot with the lingering fire of the cavalier.
+Do you know what I am saying?" he asked, deepening the wrinkles in his
+brow.
+
+"No, sir; I don't know that I do."
+
+"I suppose not. I have been beating the devil around an oratorical
+stump, sir," he said, his scrawny, red neck stiffening. "I don't know
+that I understand myself. Is that Bob or Clem coming up the stairs?
+It's Bob. Glad to see you doing so well," he added, getting up. And
+standing for a moment, he put his hand on my head. "You are a noble
+fellow, even if you are a slave and a negro."
+
+Going out he met Young Master coming in. The young man saluted; the
+old man gave him a smile and a kindly nod and passed on. Bob spoke to
+me; said he was glad to see me improving so fast; he sat down and took
+up his book. He opened it at random, knowing it so well that any place
+offered an understandable beginning, but he did not read. He turned
+his eyes toward me and said: "You remember that about two months ago a
+gentleman named Potter bought the old Jamison place, over on the pike?
+Mother and I called on the family. And since then I have been over
+there a number of times, though I have said nothing about it to even
+you. All my life I have been gazing about to discover a sweet secret,
+and I think I've found one. Yes--and her name is Jane." At this he
+laughed, threw down his book, shoved his chair back and put his feet
+on the table. "The name is well enough, no doubt, but in this part
+of the country we usually associate it with a black wench, you know;
+and I was impudent enough to ask Mrs. Potter why she didn't call her
+Jenny, but she shut me up with, 'she was named for my mother and it
+is an honorable name, I'm sure.' And it is, too--it takes on bright
+colors as I associate it with her. But I never thought that I could be
+smitten with a girl named Jane. It struck me that they had nick-named
+a rose--said scat to a lily. Do you know what she did? Came over here
+to see you. Said she wanted to see a hero. I brought her up and she
+looked upon you as you lay here unconscious. As a usual thing, a boy is
+born in love--falls in love with his nurse if no one else is handy--but
+I have escaped pretty well. Oh, I did rather love the Webster girl,
+and I confess to breathing hard whenever Miss Flemming, the old maid
+school-teacher, came about; but I'm sure I never was knocked senseless
+with a perfumed slung-shot until I met Jane. Well, the name's all
+right; is like the finest music--takes you some time to discover its
+beauties. I told her that I was going to be a lawyer and she said that
+was charming; declared that she was coming to hear my first speech. I
+wish she would; I could shame Demosthenes."
+
+Not since he was a small boy had I heard him rattle on so, and it was
+a delight to me. Of late his over-manishness and his abstraction had
+told of too deep an absorption in his books, of an impatient ambition
+gnawing him, and this chaffy talk and the idle light of his countenance
+relieved a fear that had crept into my mind.
+
+"There is something more than beauty about her," he went on, taking
+pleasure in the interest I was showing. "She reminds Uncle Clem of a
+blooded horse, he says. I was inclined to take exceptions at this, but
+remembered that it was but an expression of real enthusiasm. She steps
+like a fawn, springs off the turf before she appears to have touched
+it. My first feeling toward her was one of gladness. I was selfish
+enough to believe, or to fancy that I believed, she had been created
+to delight me. And when I removed my eyes from her, I felt sad. Her
+eyes laughed at me and her lips seemed to say, I have found a fool.
+At the gate she had jumped off a horse and was in a riding habit when
+she came running into the room. She was in no wise embarrassed by me.
+After a while she said that she was hungry and I was startled. I could
+not conceive of that creature sitting down to vulgar bread, and I was
+stupid enough to say that I didn't see how she existed in the winter,
+with the roses all gone. I knew she must eat roses. And she smote me
+hard by replying that cabbages came on about the time roses gave
+out. This tickled her mother immensely and she shook her fat sides
+and fanned herself with the wing of a guinea hen. I am getting all my
+visits mixed, perhaps, but I am giving you a collection of impressions.
+The mother is ignorant and the father is coarse. He made money driving
+mules to New Orleans and bought the Jamison farm. Yes, her mother and
+father are plebeian, but the girl is a patrician of the rarest type.
+She told me that she had just come from school. I asked her if she were
+sure she had not just come from a gallery of famous portraits. This
+tickled her and my blood danced in rhythm with her laugh. Every line
+of my prose, law, oratory, turned up crackling like drying leaves and
+was blown away, but all the poetry I had read remained, blooming anew.
+Now you know how bad off I am, and you may congratulate yourself that
+you can't follow me into this new domain. Oh, what is so delicious as
+a fool's love affair! But I wonder if she's going to have fun with me
+and then tell me to go. No, sir, I'm going to win her love if actions,
+words and devotion count for anything. Dan, she has given me new blood.
+Good thing that something has happened, for this quiet, expectant life
+is almost unbearable."
+
+"What's that?" cried Mr. Clem, stepping into the room. "Quiet life, do
+I hear? Well, it won't always be this quiet, my son. Lincoln will be
+nominated for the presidency as sure as you live, and the chances are
+that he'll get in, and then what? War, my boy; red-whiskered war. The
+South is as sore as a stone-bruise and won't accept an abolitionist.
+Our high aristocrats have been hankering a long time for a fight and
+they are going to get it."
+
+"Let it come," replied Young Master, shoving his hands into his
+pockets. "It will be a tournament, music, smiles and flowers. Then
+we'll all eat out of the same bowl."
+
+"Don't you fool yourself!" the old man exclaimed, and I saw that he was
+deeply in earnest. "It won't be a tournament. It will look more like a
+butcher's pen."
+
+"But the blood-letting will be good for our swollen pride. It will give
+us all a chance to strut like a turkey gobbler, and, Uncle Clem, it
+will bring up the price of horses."
+
+"By the hoofs, I hadn't thought of that. I never saw a young fellow
+improve as fast as you do, Bob. In the last week or so you have said
+several pretty good things. You are getting the proper grasp on truth;
+and if a man has truth in one hand it needn't make any difference what
+the other fellow has in both hands. Yes, sir, if a war should break
+out, the horse market would hold up its head and snort. But say, Bob,
+wasn't there a little love mixed up in what you were saying as I came
+in?"
+
+"Not a little, uncle. All."
+
+"The girl you've been prancing around with lately?"
+
+"Yes, if you wish to put it that way."
+
+"High stepper, Bobbie; trot a mile in--I mean she's all right. Good
+nostrils--shapely nose, you understand. Laughs well, teeth all sound,
+and if I were a young fellow, I'd agree to pay her way into every show
+that might come along, and make a fire for her every morning. Why, Dan,
+you appear to be tickled nearly to death. I want to tell you that I
+found that money on the bed where I dropped it. Talk about your heroes
+of old, why--"
+
+I interrupted him with a sign of real distress. "I must beg of you and
+of everyone else, Mr. Clem, not to try to make a hero out of me. But
+there is a hero under this roof--"
+
+"Dan," Young Master broke in, "I have just sharpened my knife and I am
+almost tempted to cut off your ears. Of what use is an ear when you
+turn it from heart-felt praise to catch the unsympathetic tones of
+average life? And now when anyone starts to compliment you upon your
+heroism, I command you to keep your ears open and your mouth shut. You
+did act the part of a hero. Shut up, not a word out of you."
+
+Mr. Clem swore with a horsey oath that I was a hero, and I was
+compelled to sit there and listen to his extravagant praise.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+I saw Young Master admitted to the bar. The court-house was crowded,
+for an exciting trial was on, but a kind-hearted bailiff let me take
+a seat wherein I could hear every question asked by the committee
+of examiners. I knew that he could answer them, and I felt not the
+slightest fear, but my heart stood still as he tripped over a point
+almost absurdly simple. I noticed that he had just cast his eyes toward
+the gallery, and looking that way at the instant of his petty stumble,
+I beheld a tall and graceful girl, standing with her head leaning
+against a post, looking at him, and I knew that his divinity had
+confused him. But he recovered himself, and I saw Old Master swell with
+pride and Old Miss wipe her eyes. I was in hopes that they would give
+him an opportunity to make a speech after the examination, but there
+was no occasion for his oratory, so I walked out to wait for him at the
+door. Old Master and Old Miss came out to wait also, not caring to push
+themselves behind the bar among the lawyers, and indeed too proud to
+let the neighbors presume that there had been any anxiety concerning
+the result. Presently Young Master came out with the girl whom I had
+seen standing in the gallery. The old people shook hands with her when
+they had shaken hands with him, and upon me the young woman turned her
+beautiful eyes. "Oh, this is your faithful boy," she said, speaking to
+Bob, but looking at me. "I am glad to see him out and looking so well."
+
+She had ridden a horse, but Young Master requested the favor of taking
+her home in his buggy. She said that such an arrangement would please
+her greatly, and her eyes danced with the delight of the thought. I
+brought the buggy and was told to sit on the shelf seat behind to
+lead her horse. She bade the old people an affectionate good-bye, and
+out the turn-pike we drove, along the stretches of red clover and
+underneath majestic trees. In the distance to her home, three miles or
+more, there lay a charm, and they did not suffer the spirited horse to
+trot. The day was warm, the leather curtain raised, and I could hear
+distinctly the words that passed between them. I could see that he had
+not more than hinted at his love for her. Her beauty dazzled him and
+made him afraid. He would have talked of books, but she leaped lightly
+from that subject, and from this I inferred that her mind was not well
+stored with the knowledge gathered by the busy men of the past. But she
+was bright and her talk like herself was spirited and pretty, and her
+observation was minute. She had seen everything about the court-room,
+an old lawyer with a spot of ink on the sleeve of his linen coat, a
+tattered book on the floor, a handful of trash swept into a corner.
+
+"The stars shine on all that lies beneath them," said Master, a fine
+tribute to her eyes, I thought; and she must have thought so, too,
+for she gave him a laugh that rippled like our creek of a morning
+when the wind is low. But she protested against his gallantry with a
+sternness that could not have belonged to her light nature, a plea to
+him to repeat it, which he did. To his ardent nature, frivolity was
+a foreign commodity upon which a heavy import tax was laid. He could
+be argumentative, oratorical, gay, serious and bright for hours at a
+time, but the silly though pretty chatter which our social life is
+supposed to dash as spray between the masculine and the feminine mind
+was far beyond him. In nearly all affairs he was too intense for the
+perfectly balanced mind. And on this day he strove repeatedly to fasten
+the young woman down to seriousness, that he might estimate her mental
+strength, I perceived; but she flitted about like a humming bird, no
+sooner attracted by one flower than allured away by another. Still the
+perfect femininity of her wit, or that which might pass for it, was
+captivating. A strained and tiresome novelette, now almost forgotten,
+was then an imported rage, and she had not escaped the infection. She
+spoke of characters that Bob knew nothing of and was surprised at his
+frank acknowledgment of ignorance.
+
+"A young man of your standing can't afford not to know that character,"
+she said. "Society demands it of you, and I believe I would pretend to
+know," she added, laughing.
+
+"We always meet society's demands when we pretend," he replied. "People
+don't ask us to know a thing but to assume that we know it and not get
+caught. I haven't had time to sip negus," he went on after a pause; "I
+have been too busy with drinking a stronger draught. I sit in the glow
+of the great books, but pass by the little twinkling lights, for I know
+that soon they must go out."
+
+"Or, in other words," she spoke up, "you tread upon a snow-drop while
+gazing at a sun-flower."
+
+This remark, and I acknowledge its aptness, was so pleasing to her
+that she laughed the music of self-compliment; and the lambs in the
+grass-land lifted their noses out of the sweet tangle of clover to look
+at her. I was so close that when she leaned back once a wayward wisp
+of her hair swept across my face, more like a breath than a tangible
+touch, it was so silken and soft. I studied the almost imperceptible
+grain of her pink, plush skin, I was so near her, and yet to me she
+was so strangely unreal. To look upon her surely was a delight, but
+turning away and shutting my eyes to recall her features, she seemed a
+memory far off and shadowy. I could have given her a sort of worship,
+the romantic adoration compelled by a naiad reposing on a moss-bank
+at the source of a tinkling stream, but I could not have felt for her
+the surging passion of a human love. There was nothing supernatural
+in her grace; in her movement there was the soft and unconscious
+suppression of a cat's agility; and her bosom bespoke a strong instinct
+of motherhood, and yet to me she was vaguely unnatural. She was wanting
+in heart.
+
+A powerful love looks upon itself as hopeless; upon it must be thrown
+that sort of a light, to complete its deliciousness; and I saw that my
+master's love was powerful, but I could not see that it was hopeless.
+She might never give him a woman's complete devotion, I argued, for I
+did not believe that her nature could comprehend his finer forces, but
+I felt that she would give him her hand and what she supposed to be her
+heart.
+
+"Do you mean to surrender your life wholly to law books?" she asked,
+giving him a glance in which I could see a charming fear.
+
+"Oh, no. To my mind a law book without poetry behind it is a heap of
+helpless dust. At first I must agree to take almost any case that may
+chance to come along, but after a while I will scorn all but the causes
+that admit of an orator's effort."
+
+"Oh, that will be lovely!" she cried. "And to think that you entertain
+yourself and then get pay for it. However, if I were a man, I think I
+would be a preacher. Preachers are nearly always so nice and clean and
+they say such pretty things to women."
+
+"It was my mother's ambition that I should be a preacher, and I'm sorry
+now that I did not gratify it," he said.
+
+"Oh, charming of you to say so, Mr. Gradley. You see I don't let such
+a compliment get away from me. I might have pretended not to see it,
+and--and I believe I would if I had thought a moment. Then I could have
+made you repeat it. But really it is better for you to be a lawyer
+than a preacher. You have so much fire. Everybody says you are going to
+make your mark, and when you got into that trouble lately some one said
+it would ruin you, but father said it wouldn't. He killed a man once.
+Why, people have to kill men who try to kill them, don't they? But we
+won't talk about that. Are you going to the pic-nic over at Fletcher's
+Grove?"
+
+"I hadn't thought about it. Are you going?"
+
+"I don't know, but I'd like to, ever so much."
+
+"Then go with me."
+
+"Oh, that would be delightful, and I will be ready when you call for
+me. Do you dance?"
+
+"I think," said he, "that I might have courage enough to rob a
+stage-coach or to fight a duel in a dark room, but I'm afraid that I
+couldn't summon the nerve to get out before a number of people and try
+to dance."
+
+"Oh, you wouldn't mind it at all. Just as soon as the music strikes up
+you forget all about yourself. But isn't it dull about here? Nothing to
+do but to sit about and wait. Last year I visited an aunt who lives in
+Connecticut, and I had such a nice time. Everyone there is so active.
+But, after all, I was kept angry a good deal over the negro question. I
+never did get so tired of hearing a subject dinged upon. They hate us
+and can't help showing it; and they actually believe that one of these
+days they'll come down here, and, as they express it, turn the negroes
+loose. They believe we keep them chained together all the time; and
+that hateful book, 'Uncle Tom's Cabin,' is their bible. Have you ever
+seen it?"
+
+"My uncle brought a copy with him and I read it," Bob answered.
+"I don't care for its principles, whether they are true or
+false--literature being its own principle--but to me it bears the
+mark of a political pamphlet that has happened to make a hit, strong
+with prejudice but hasty and slip-shod in expression. To me there
+is no art in it, no imagination but all sermon. The characters are
+unreal, standing in the light of a red fire; they are talking-machines,
+grinding out music-box melodies, set homilies; but the subject is
+powerful and the book needs no art to give it force. And many a year
+will pass before we hear the last of it."
+
+"Why, Mr. Gradley, you can take an interest in light books after all.
+I was afraid that you were determined to keep yourself chained to the
+venerable masters of--of--what shall I say?--venerable masters of
+profound thought. That will do, won't it?"
+
+"Very appropriate, I assure you, but 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' can scarcely
+be classed as a light book. It comes in a light garb but its nature is
+most serious."
+
+The horse shied at a piece of paper fluttering in the road, and with
+a little scream she seized the lines. He asked her if she would give
+them back when she should find that no longer was there any danger, and
+laughing rhythmically and with blushes she returned the lines to him.
+
+"No, apology and no embarrassment," said he. "It came of woman's
+instinctive sense of protection, of her responsibility at a time of
+peril."
+
+"Now you are making fun of me, Mr. Gradley. Oh, boy (turning to look
+at me). What's his name? Dan? Oh, yes. How's my horse coming on, Dan?
+Well, for pity's sake, if he hasn't turned him loose."
+
+The horse was grazing some distance down the road, and without waiting
+to beg pardon for my stupid neglect of the charge intrusted to me, I
+jumped down to run after him. Master and the young woman did not wait
+for me, but drove to Miss Potter's home, now but a short distance away.
+As I came up leading the horse toward the gate, where master and Miss
+Potter were standing, old man Potter came walking out. He was effusive
+in his welcome, swearing upon his life that never was he gladder to
+see a man. "Ah," he said, looking at me, "and this here is the boy that
+we all have heard such a good report about. A likely young feller, Mr.
+Gradley, and I don't reckon you'd care to sell him."
+
+"No, sir," said Bob, assuming to be gentle but looking his contempt
+for the coarse old fellow. But Mr. Potter could interpret no looks of
+contempt; he was too busy surveying me from head to foot.
+
+"Yes, reckon you do think a good deal of him, and I wouldn't wonder but
+it would take a right putty piece of money to buy him."
+
+"I could not be induced to part with him, sir," master replied.
+
+"Yes, sir, got a right to think a good deal of him. Goin' to learn him
+any sort of trade? Strong enough to make a good blacksmith. Owned one
+about like him once. Swapped him for a woman and a child."
+
+"Why, father," the daughter spoke up, "Dan is Mr. Gradley's body
+servant."
+
+"Yes, I know," said the old fellow, his cold and speculative eye still
+bent upon me, "but it wouldn't be out of the way to learn him how to do
+something. Comes in mighty handy sometimes and we never can tell what
+mout happen."
+
+The girl winced at the word "mout," unmistakable symbol of the white
+trash, and smiling to cut a blush in two, she said: "You observe, Mr.
+Gradley, that father doesn't care how he talks. He fell into the habit
+of imitating a queer old fellow who lived near us and now he does it
+unintentionally. Let us go into the house?"
+
+"Yes, come on," old Potter joined in. "Jest as cheap inside as out, and
+it ain't as tiresome settin' as standin'. Boy, (giving his eye to me
+again) go round to the kitchen and tell them to give you something to
+eat."
+
+"We haven't time to stop," Bob interposed. "We expect several friends
+at dinner, and--"
+
+"Jest as well eat a snack with us," the old fellow broke in. "Jest
+as cheap and it won't take nigh so long. I reckon I've got as fine a
+piece of mutton as you ever set your teeth on--sheep that I didn't want
+to part with but an infernal dog came along this morning and grabbed
+him and cut his throat as slick as a whistle--and we know how to cook
+mutton at our house. Come on."
+
+He continued to urge his hospitality, and to praise the sheep that had
+been killed by a dog, and the girl pleaded with her eyes; and I thought
+that Bob would waver, he smiled so and bowed so many times, but in the
+end he was firm, and bade me turn the buggy around. Even then, with
+his foot on the step, he lingered to speak another word, though never
+seeming to utter what came into his mind. At last we drove away, and
+the moment my back was turned, the girl was only a shadow lying across
+my memory; and it worried me. I could look at as delicate a thing as a
+flower and in my mind could reproduce its form and its hue, but that
+woman was a blur to her own image.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+"What do you think of her, Dan?" Bob asked as we drove toward home.
+"Tell me exactly what you think."
+
+"She is beautiful, sir," I replied, "but somehow her features refuse to
+remain with me."
+
+"They remain with me--black eyes, black hair, rose-leaf ears. She is
+an oration of the ancients set forth in nineteenth century flesh and
+blood."
+
+"Yes, sir," I assented, with my mind on the old man, "but I don't think
+much of her stock, as Mr. Clem might say."
+
+He snatched the lines from me, lashed the horse to a fierce trot, and
+looked at me as I sat with my hands fallen in idle submission. "Dan,
+what's the matter with you? You are getting to be a d---- cynic. Don't
+like her stock! I suppose you mean her father? He has had to work his
+way, no doubt, and may not have read as many fine books as certain
+fellows who have been pampered, but he is a gentleman. Do you hear
+me?" He lashed the horse. "Do you hear what I say?"
+
+"If you say he is a gentleman, he is, Mars. Bob."
+
+"But why the devil don't you make discoveries of your own?"
+
+"I do, but I have not found the North Pole."
+
+"What do you mean by that? Mean that as a gentleman Mr. Potter is a
+North Pole to you and is therefore beyond your discovery? Is that what
+you mean?"
+
+At this instant my wretchedness must have smitten him. He pulled the
+horse back to a walk; he laid his hand upon mine, limp in my lap, and
+said: "Dan, I was a brute to talk that way when you've been so sick.
+You are right. The old fellow is as ignorant as a boar but love poured
+a basket of flowers over him. Please don't try to apologize--I'd
+rather you'd hit me than to do that. Yes, the old man is ignorant
+and coarse but the girl is intelligent and refined. Look there," he
+added, pointing with his buggy whip, "you see a flower with a weed as
+its parent. The weed has done some good, for it has brought forth the
+flower, and after all it must have held an unconscious refinement.
+Here, you take the lines and drive, just as you were doing back there,
+and don't think of what I said. Now, you see, we are going along just
+as if nothing had happened."
+
+The fire and the tenderness of that boy! A passion almost mad, and
+a gentleness nearly as soft as a young mother's religion, seeking
+to possess him! I felt even then that he was not fitted to grapple
+with stern success. Was intuition preparing me for a trial to come, a
+struggle waiting down the mystic road? Nature may seem to mock her own
+endeavors, but I believe she creates with a purpose, though the purpose
+may remain hidden until the end. Nature is pressed upon our many moods,
+and one mood may strive to pull down the work wrought by another mood.
+One bent of nature must have had a glorious career marked out for Young
+Master, though another bent--but of this I will not speak. It is bad
+enough that it should be told in even the proper place.
+
+That day for dinner there were several guests, among them old 'Squire
+Boyle, now grown quite feeble. I had been permitted to leave off the
+service of standing behind Young Master's chair, but on occasions my
+help was really needed, so I took my old place in the dining-room.
+It was not expected that even this little gathering could be wholly
+at peace with itself. There was a rumble, North and South and
+disputatious vapors floated in the air. And reason, among the party
+leaders, had given way to fierce gesticulation, and a strife to say
+something, not to convince but to cut an adversary. I remember that old
+man Boyle paused with his mouth full of a turkey's white meat to listen
+to a remark made by Old Master.
+
+"Sir," said the 'squire, after swallowing as if his absorption had
+dried his throat, "the institutions of this country are tottering, and
+cool reason alone can prop them."
+
+"And that's exactly what the South won't listen to," Mr. Clem spoke up.
+"The South wants to block the humane progress of the world. She is not
+satisfied with her present unhealthful domain, but wants to shove her
+slave territory into new lands. Reason's voice is but the squeak of a
+mouse, sir. They can hear nothing but the roar of a lion, and by G----,
+sir, they want to be the lion."
+
+"Clem," said Old Miss, "you forget where you are. You are not trading
+horses on the turn-pike, you are seated at my table."
+
+"Hanna, that's a fact, I am at your table; and I reckon that I'm the
+first one that ever paid his way here."
+
+"Oh, speaking of horses," interrupted the 'squire with a squeak,
+"reminds me, Clem, that the one I got of you ain't worth his weight in
+last year's bird-nests."
+
+"What?" Mr. Clem cried, "I am astonished at you."
+
+"Yes, sir, and I was astonished at him; wouldn't pull a settin' turkey
+off her nest; lies down in the traces like he wants to go to sleep."
+
+"Why, of course," Mr. Clem shouted. "You have profaned a fine saddle
+horse. He's not intended to pull; he's intended for a gentleman to
+ride, sir."
+
+"But didn't you tell me that he was a wheel horse and would pull till
+both eyes popped out?"
+
+"Oh, no; I said I would rather have him than any wheel horse that would
+pull that blindly. Saddle horses, you know, are of a higher grade."
+
+"I was in hopes so, sir, and I thought I would try to ride this one,
+but blast me if he didn't try to shake me off him right into the creek!"
+
+"Oh," said Mr. Clem, "I forgot to tell you that he used to travel with
+a circus. Yes, sir, and an actor used to stand on him to jump headlong
+into a tank of water, and he was taught to shake himself to announce
+his readiness for the leap--"
+
+"But he laid down with me, sir."
+
+"Yes, and I was going to say, that a part of his duty was to go into
+the tank after the actor. A fact, Bob," he added, nodding at Young
+Master, who had begun to laugh at him. "Horses, you know, are taught to
+do most anything. Yes, sir, but getting back to the question of unrest
+now so strongly marked throughout the country, I want to say that
+something is going to happen and happen blunt, too. No human government
+can long stand the internal pullings and haulings that this one is
+subjected to."
+
+"But what is going to be done?" Old Master cried.
+
+Mr. Clem shrugged his shoulders. "Something is going to pop pretty soon
+and pop like a whip," said he. "A glass house is going to be broken and
+hoar frost will gather on leaves never intended for the chill air. The
+whole trouble comes from slavery and I, for one, am bold enough to say
+that the end is surely not far off."
+
+"I don't want you to say it at my table, sir," Old Master almost
+fiercely shouted. "I don't want you to talk treason at my board."
+
+Not in the least was Mr. Clem offended, nor was he at all put out by
+Old Master's violence. "Guilford," said he, "the trouble is that the
+South has got the negro mixed up with its religion and with its notion
+of good government. To own a slave no longer stops at the possession
+of a piece of property, but becomes so much of a sentiment that the
+man who does not care to own one is looked upon as an outlaw. And if
+he declares that he would not own one, that his conscience is against
+it, he is put down as a traitor to the South, seeking to overturn the
+American government."
+
+Old Miss threw up her head and sniffed the unsavory air. "Clem," she
+said, "I don't want you to talk that way in the presence of my son.
+Why, it wouldn't astonish me to hear you say that a negro is as good as
+a white man!"
+
+'Squire Boyle listened with his fork raised and his mouth half open.
+He had long been suspected of holding the views of the abolitionists;
+it was known that he had favored Henry Clay's scheme for gradual
+emancipation. He had been studiedly discreet, but being by birth a
+Northern man, suspicion naturally turned an eye upon him. Sometimes
+when he must have felt that his silence was eating him like an internal
+cancer, he had come to Old Master to be bold with healthful utterances,
+but of late, as the country became more deeply stirred, Old Master
+warned him to swallow rapidly whenever he felt a strong disposition to
+talk upon the subject of abolition. And now he swallowed with such
+vigor and rapidity that a stranger to the precaution placed upon his
+speech must surely have thought that he was choking to death.
+
+"'Squire, did you swallow something the wrong way?" Mr. Clem asked,
+leaning over toward him.
+
+"No, something wants to come up the right way," the 'squire piped, the
+red Adam's apple at his thin throat dodging like a wood-pecker. "I want
+to say something, but I won't. But the time will come when I will stand
+on a hill--I've got it picked out--and bawl what I think. Guilford, you
+are fixing to scold me, sir, and I must ask you not to say a word."
+
+Old Master laughed at this, the old 'squire's desperate threat of
+rebellion, and had taken up a bit of bread to roll his customary bolus,
+when yellow Sam, who had been sent to town, came in with a letter. Old
+Miss began at once to speculate as to whom it could be from, and Old
+Master, winking at Bob and looking at her as he wiped his glasses, said
+that he supposed he could put the letter under his plate and wonder a
+long time as to the identity of the writer. "But happily," said he,
+again winking his mischievous eye, "we are provided with means whereby
+we can cut through all speculation and get at once into the heart and
+the truth of the subject. To be brief," he added, "we can open the
+letter."
+
+"Well, for goodness sake, why don't you?" his wife broke in, as she
+always did when she saw him indulging a droll humor. "Give it to me."
+
+"Oh, no," he laughed, putting back her hand. "There may be secrets in
+this epistle that belong alone to the great free-masonry of men."
+
+"And your organization is shameful enough," she said, not without a
+show of ill-temper (for any allusion to an understanding in which she
+was not included always appeared to cut her). "But I must acknowledge
+its rare perfection as an organization," she went on. "Its devotees do
+not have to be sworn, unless nature swears them at birth."
+
+By this time the single leaf of the letter was shaking under Old
+Master's gaze. "Read it," he said huskily, handing it to Bob. And he
+bowed his head over the table. The note was from Miss May. It told us
+that her husband was dead, and that she, with her little child, was
+about to start for home.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+Everything was put in order, the house cleaned and the cabins newly
+whitewashed, to brighten the place for the daughter's return. But the
+day looked dull when she came with the little child crying in the
+nurse's arms. There were tears and embraces and tremulous words of love.
+
+On the steps my Young Mistress turned to the nurse and said, "Give her
+to me, Titine." And at this moment I felt that an arrow from a bow in
+the sky had shot through me. Titine! I did not know that the world had
+presumed to hold a beauty and a charm so exquisite. Her complexion
+was as the richest cream, her hair showed the merest suggestion of
+a waver rather than a negro kink, her eyes were black-blue, and her
+lips--Was it Solomon who said "her lips are as a thread of scarlet"? I
+was a man now, grown to full strength and passion--from the moment I
+saw that French, Spanish, negro, Anglo-Saxon girl. Never before had I
+seen anyone to thrill me; surely not a negress, and certainly I had not
+presumed to acknowledge the charms of a white woman. I did not fall at
+once in love with Titine; I was too excited, too breathless as I gazed
+upon her. I reminded myself of an animal, beholding for the first time
+a female of his own species--and I verily believe that I felt a desire
+to throw my head up and scream like a panther.
+
+"Dan," Old Miss cried, "why don't you bring in the things? What do you
+want to stand there for like a chicken with the gapes?"
+
+In this comparison there was something so appropriate that I could not
+suppress a laugh, though I took care to hide it from Old Miss. Miss May
+turned to the girl and told her to help me bring in the bags, but Old
+Miss objected. "Let her rest, May," she said. "Dan hasn't been doing a
+thing. He's pretty much as you left him--scarcely worth his salt."
+
+This was a fine recommendation to Titine, and I felt the blood mount
+to my face, as I turned toward the carriage at the gate. But I glanced
+back and saw the girl following me with her eyes; and I wondered,
+selfishly enough, why she had not insisted upon helping me, though I
+needed no assistance, for I was strong enough at that moment to seize
+all the bags at once and hurl them over the house.
+
+I saw but little of Titine that afternoon (or evening as we termed
+it), for the child was fretful and put a claim upon nearly all her
+time, but I heard her singing in a room down the hall from our
+"office," and I stepped about, keeping quick time with the tingling
+leap of my blood. At the supper hour she came down to stand behind
+Miss May, and I marched boldly into the dining-room, delighted now to
+resume a menial service. I stood beside her, but alas! with what scorn
+did she look at me. The child began to cry and she was sent above, and
+it was then that I began to hear something of her history. She had
+belonged to Marston's maiden sister, a peculiar creature who had cared
+for nothing but Titine and a white woolly dog. The dog died and the
+mistress, doubling her affection for the girl, sent her to a convent
+to be educated, greatly to the scandal of her associates. At the old
+woman's death, of recent date, the girl had fallen to Marston. She
+complained at this transfer, declaring that her mistress had drawn up
+a paper to set her free, but the paper could not be found, so she was
+compelled to submit, stubbornly at first, but after a while becoming so
+much attached to Miss May that she rejoiced in her good fortune.
+
+"She knows as much and is a far better talker than I am," said Miss
+May.
+
+"Daughter, you must not say that," Old Miss objected. "It cannot be
+true and it surely is not right."
+
+"Very well, mother, I won't say it again, but you will soon find out
+for yourself."
+
+Then they all fell into a family talk, the sudden death of Marston and
+the entanglement in which his affairs were likely to be found. He was
+not a good manager, never knew what his income was, and was always
+in debt. But he was so kind-hearted--and here Miss May wept and the
+subject was changed.
+
+Immediately after supper young master dressed himself to call on Miss
+Potter, and when he was gone I threw aside my senseless book and went
+down into the yard, to dodge behind the trees at the corner of the
+house, hoping to catch sight of Titine on the veranda. At last she
+came out, with a red cap on her head, and stood with her hands resting
+on the balustrade, looking far away at the dying pink in the sky. I
+stepped out boldly and touched my hat. She glanced down at me and
+tossed her head. But I knew that she was not displeased.
+
+"Beautiful evening," I said.
+
+"Indeed!"
+
+"This is but one of many of our charming sun-sets."
+
+"Ah, then the sun goes down every evening?"
+
+"Y-e-s," I stammered, for she was beginning to make me feel foolish.
+
+"In the same place?" she asked, cutting her eye at me.
+
+"Well, not exactly. But in the West, generally."
+
+"Startling."
+
+"Oh, not when we have accustomed ourselves to it."
+
+"Indeed. But tell me, is salt very high here, or do you use a great
+deal of it?"
+
+"I don't quite understand you."
+
+"I heard your old mistress say that you were not worth your salt."
+
+"Yes, she would say anything to humiliate me. I inflicted a mortal
+wound when I began to study with my Young Master."
+
+"Oh, you have studied, have you? That was foolish. I committed the same
+indiscretion."
+
+"If you have studied, then it was glorious to study."
+
+"It is bad enough not to be worth your salt, but please don't be a
+fool."
+
+"I can't help it. You would rob a philosopher of his wisdom."
+
+She laughed, and I believe that had a lancet pricked an artery my
+blood would have spurted a mile high. I heard a sharp cry from the
+child, and it smote my heart, not that the little thing might be
+suffering, but that I was to be robbed. "I must go," she said.
+
+"And shall I stay?"
+
+"Yes, if you sleep standing up, like a horse."
+
+She was gone, and I stood under the trees, gazing at the cabin lights;
+and I waited there until the lights began to go out, but the girl did
+not return. I heard Young Master ride up to the gate, and I went out
+to take his horse. He walked with me to the stable. He said not a word
+until we were returning, and then, clutching my arm, he told me that
+Miss Potter had consented to be his wife. "I am the happiest human
+being on the face of this broad earth," he said, waving his arm so
+as to take in the entire universe. "And she says that she will wait
+till I have made myself famous, for I told her I thought that this
+would be wise, believing with some of the great thinkers, that while
+marriage might improve a man's judgment, it might also put out a part
+of his fire. You know I was born with the idea that I was to become an
+orator, and I have not run against anything to change my opinion. I
+feel something surging within me, and all I need is a subject. I can be
+proud of her, Dan; I am proud of her, and I must make myself worthy of
+her pride. What are you so glum about to-night?"
+
+"You have seen the girl that came with Miss May?"
+
+"Yes, she is a beauty. And she has caught you? I'm glad of it. Oh, it
+seems that old mother Nature is not disposed to let us drift far apart.
+In common we felt many an emotion, and love came along to teach one of
+us what the other did not know. But you don't mean that you have fallen
+in love with her so soon?"
+
+"I don't know anything when I think of her, Mars. Bob. More than half
+my life seems to be compressed into the few hours she has been under
+our roof."
+
+It was getting late, and Bob went to bed soon after we reached the
+room, to dream of a love that had leaped to meet his own; and I lay
+there listening to the faint cries of a child, and the almost silent
+sounds of foot-falls on the floor, down the hall. In the morning I was
+up before the sun, dodging about among the trees at the east end of the
+veranda. At last she came down to freshen her eyes with a glimpse of
+the dawn-couch, purple with the sun's resurrection.
+
+"I am almost persuaded that you are determined to earn your salt, you
+are up so early," she said with a smile brighter than the new day.
+
+"Is it because you are from the sugar lands of Louisiana that salt is
+such a novelty to you?" I asked. She did not reply, but stood looking
+at the hills, far away.
+
+"I never get tired of them," she said; "they are so strange and new.
+We have no hills in our country, you know; nothing but a level stretch
+as far as the eye can see, and we know that beyond this another level
+stretch lies, and beyond that, still another. But here, I don't know
+what's beyond. Blue mystery everywhere."
+
+"Some time I will take the buggy and drive you over to the hills," I
+said, and the light of a new interest flew to her eyes.
+
+"Will you? That will be kind. But will they let you take the buggy?"
+
+"My young master will give me permission, and we can slip off from Old
+Miss. Let us go Sunday, after dinner?"
+
+This was on a Saturday, and the length of time lying dead between
+then and Sunday afternoon was to me a sunless, moonless and starless
+age. But the hour, the minute came, and amidst the half contemptuous
+titterings and envious glances of the negroes, we drove off from the
+gate, down a lane, far across two white turn-pikes that streaked a hill
+and striped a valley, up through a fern cove to a dark, mysterious
+spring; and here we left the buggy to climb a crag. She had seen red
+lumps of sand-stone, but never had she touched a living rock, and at
+the foot of a cliff, moss-grown and vine-strung, she stood with her
+head bowed and with her red cap in her hand--a goddess in meditation,
+a nymph at prayer. I stood apart and in deep reverence looked at her,
+fearful that my nearness might profane her devotions. I had begun to
+ascribe to her a super-human quality, a beauty belonging not to this
+world, and a virtue breathed by the ancient maidens who preferred death
+to a tarnishment of their chastity. Indeed, had there been such an
+institution as the supreme bench of sentimental idiots, I should surely
+have been selected to a seat upon it.
+
+"Is it not divine here, in this air, blown fresh from paradise?" I
+said, lifting my eyes like an ox.
+
+"Yes, and I wish we had brought something to eat," she replied. "This
+rough climbing has made me hungry."
+
+"You hungry!" I cried. "Impossible."
+
+"Why impossible?" And she put on her red cap and looked at me from head
+to foot.
+
+"Because your soul--"
+
+"Bosh!" she said and laughed. "All you Kentucky men are alike, from
+what I have read and from what I now see. You try to make love and
+you declaim like school-boys. They laugh at such love in New Orleans.
+Don't you know that the first step toward making love to a woman is to
+interest her by something you do or say?"
+
+"And haven't I interested you?" I asked.
+
+"Why, I can't say that you have. You have been very kind, and
+attentive, but I haven't seen anything surprising about you. Ever since
+I came I have heard how smart you were, and I suppose you must have
+lorded it over those poor ignorant negroes."
+
+"Miss," said I, "I might be ready to drop at your feet and cover your
+shoes with kisses, but you musn't talk to me that way. What little
+learning I have, has been a source of reproach and trouble to me, and
+never have I attempted to show it off. I don't suppose I could say as
+much if I had been fed upon the hot mush of French romances."
+
+She turned about and sat down, put forth her dainty foot, looked at
+it and said that hot mush was at all times to be preferred to cold
+slop. "Won't you sit down?" she asked, turning her foot over so that
+I might see the exquisite arch of the instep. I sat down, though not
+beside her; and for a time I mused in silence upon the temper, the
+unhealthful fancy of the old maid who had presided over the mind of
+this fair creature. I knew that in her selection of a partner she would
+look high, but I knew also that her actions must ever be subservient
+to the will of an owner, invested with far more authority than that
+granted to a husband by our almost mock ceremony of marriage. But how
+high could she look? Surely no higher than the plane upon which I
+stood. These reflections threw a dash of old earth into the countenance
+of my romance, and in bitterness I laughed at myself and at her.
+
+"What has tickled you so?" she asked.
+
+"Two fools," I replied.
+
+"Two fools, or one fool big enough for two?"
+
+"Two fools," I repeated. "We are owned body and soul, and even
+sentiment, the gift of God, comes to mock us."
+
+In an instant she had planted her feet firmly upon the ground and
+was standing in front of me. "I can begin to detect a glimmering of
+sense in you," she said. "In a negro's courtship there can be nothing
+absurd," she went on, flooding me with the light from her eyes. "An
+hour's acquaintance is as good as a year's close relationship. He is an
+animal looking for a mate and he makes his proposal of marriage. He
+may already have a dozen wives, it makes no difference, for neither law
+nor society takes any account of his relations with women. My mistress
+was a sensible woman, and she taught me to hate a negro marriage and
+I do hate it. I have the instincts of a lady and I refuse to be an
+animal. I saw at once that you were determined to ask me to be your
+wife and I am glad you have given me a chance to head you off."
+
+Strange talk for a maiden, there on a hill, under a cliff overlooking
+broad Kentucky. I might have expected it from a wrinkled hag, a sibyl,
+but from this ripe and creamy maid it came as a blunt blow upon the
+head.
+
+"There is truth in what you say," I was forced to admit, "but ours
+would not be a common negro marriage."
+
+"No, but you are making the courtship characteristically negro. Do you
+reflect upon how short a time we have known each other?"
+
+"Titine, this suddenness is not negro--it is impulse and romance. How
+long did Romeo know Juliet?"
+
+"And what came of their love but death? Dan, we can be good friends,
+brother and sister, but you must not ask me to go through with a mock
+ceremony, the sentimental joke of a plantation, and pretend that I am
+your wife. When we reflect upon our condition we must be miserable.
+Education has made us unhappy, except when we lose our minds in a book;
+and to unite two miseries, two conditions of helplessness--a crime!"
+she cried. "Yes, I have read French romances. Year after year I sat
+beside my mistress and read to her and listened to her remarks upon the
+phases of life that came under our view. She called me precocious--a
+reflex of her own mind. My mind was apt and it stored many images and
+caught many a color from my surroundings, and--but what is the use of
+talking about myself?"
+
+"Titine, listen to me. Something tells me that the world will not
+always be thus, holding the worshippers of nature in a grip of
+bondage--"
+
+"Hush!" she cried, putting her hands to her ears. "When you have
+changed the subject I will listen to you."
+
+"You will listen now!" I cried, springing to my feet, grasping her
+hands, holding them tight, bending her backward, gazing into her eyes.
+"You will listen to me now." Her eyes darted forked tongues at mine,
+and I liberated her. She smiled and sat down. "Yes," she said sweetly,
+her anger vanishing, "I will listen to you now."
+
+"First, let me beg your pardon."
+
+"Oh, another mockery. Let us skip that. Let me hear your speech; you
+are a lawyer."
+
+"I will not make the speech of a lawyer, but of a lover."
+
+"You can't love. You are a negro." She said this with bitterness and
+her laugh was cold.
+
+"Titine, even an animal can love."
+
+"Oh, for a season, yes; but nature does not make a mockery of an
+animal's love. The animal can seize its young and run away, but if
+the negro runs away to protect his young, he is brought back with the
+hounds. Dan, I am going to live as my mistress did, and no man shall
+have a claim on me."
+
+"But Titine, you are a human being, you have passion, the sense of--"
+
+"Sense of justice to myself and to those who might come after me."
+
+"Titine, you are not a girl, you are a beautiful witch. You know too
+much for one of your age--your shrivelled old mistress left you her
+mind; and she is now watching you--"
+
+"Ugh!" she cried, putting out her hands, "don't say that. But if she
+does watch me she will see that I follow her commands."
+
+"But her commands were against your interests. She would shut you out
+from all enjoyment, from sentiment and from love. Thank her for her
+kindness but rebel against her exactions. Be my wife."
+
+"Poor fool," she said, clasping her hands over her knee and gazing at
+me. "You are not a man to have a wife; you are a piece of property, and
+no matter how tightly I might cling to you, you could be torn from me
+and sold, and the howl of the auctioneer, yelling for another animal to
+be brought forward, would drown my cries of distress. Oh, I have stood
+in the slave market, and I have seen a child snatched from the arms of
+its heart-broken mother. Old Mistress used to take me there to show me
+the bitterness of life. And you would be the father of a stock to be
+sold! Poor fool, put your foot on such a thought." She rocked herself
+and laughed, and upon my soul, for a moment I fancied that she was a
+witch, endowed with a frightful wisdom; but a bough moved, the strong
+light fell upon her, and she sat there, warm, rich and human.
+
+"Have you given your strange views to Miss May?"
+
+"There are two children in our family and one of them is Miss May," she
+said.
+
+"But don't you read to her?"
+
+"Yes, the 'Children of the Abbey' and let her cry herself to sleep. She
+is a child."
+
+"Titine, there is strange blood in you; you are Cleopatra come to earth
+again; and the serpent of slavery is at your breast."
+
+She shuddered.
+
+"And it may suck out my life, but mine alone," she said.
+
+"Titine, a week ago I could not have believed it possible to be placed
+in such a position; I could not have believed that a creature like
+you existed in the world. The knowledge of slavery has always been a
+burden; you make it a snake and it bites me. But tell me, what are you
+going to do? Are you going to spend your life in servitude?"
+
+"Who is there to take me away?" she asked, and the look she gave me
+stilled my blood, but it flowed again with a spurt, and leaping to
+my feet I ran to the edge of the cliff and looked far below, at the
+lengthening shadows, the crows sailing round and round, the cattle
+feeding in a distant meadow. I turned back to her. She did not look at
+me. I sat down beside her, sought to take her hand, but she moved and
+motioned me away.
+
+"Titine, once I thought I saw a hangman's rope--the maids have told you
+a part of the story--and money was thrown at me, but I would not run
+away so deeply was I devoted to Bob Gradley. I thought that the devil
+was trying to tempt me, but now I believe that the temptation comes
+from God."
+
+"You have misunderstood me," she said, and her words were freezing. "I
+would not suggest a temptation; I would not run away with you. I will
+be frank--I don't love you, and if I did, I would not run away to be
+brought back in shame. Let us be fellow servants, Dan?"
+
+"But is there no hope left in the world?"
+
+"Do you read the Bible, and do you find hope there?"
+
+"Come, let us go home," I said.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+Now came a political contest to shame the shortsightedness of the wise
+men who framed our constitution. I do not say this in disparagement of
+a broad and liberty-loving principle, the Jeffersonian principle that
+made demagogic men too strong and government too weak, but I do say, as
+all men now must know, that advantage was taken of the theory of states
+rights, beast-headed fallacy; and I do aver that Hamilton was the
+wisest man that saw the birth of our nation. But this is simply seeking
+to make noon-day clear.
+
+Never was there a campaign of such heat and bitterness. Households were
+divided and brothers frowned upon one another, and in the distance
+hovered the vulture-shaped cloud of war. My Young Master supported
+Kentucky's favorite son, as did Old Master, and for months our house
+bore the appearance of a committee room. The time came for Bob to
+display his power as an orator, and never was there a nobler effort.
+It was in the court-house yard. Great men had spoken before the boy
+arose to address the crowd. I was standing near, and I thought that
+I saw his blood leap; I know that his eye shot fire at me. His first
+sentence caught the assembly, the lawyers, the doctors and the sturdy
+yeomen. I cannot recall it; I will not try, but I know that it tingled
+through me. Since then I have listened to many a speech; I have heard
+Wendell Phillips and the great men in Congress, but never have I been
+bound by the spell of such impassioned eloquence. To me his words lost
+their literal meaning--it was an outpour of passion and emotion. The
+crowd went wild, and when the orator stepped from the platform, he was
+borne away on the shoulders of men. Old George D. Prentice, author of
+an immortal poem, was present with genius shining in his eyes, and the
+next day his newspaper declared that another great orator had arisen in
+Kentucky, one to take the place of Henry Clay. It was a glad night at
+our house. The trees were hung with lanterns, so great was the pressure
+of people come to congratulate the blue-grass Demosthenes.
+
+Upon all these proceedings, Mr. Clem looked with a quiet smile.
+
+"You made a great speech," he said to Bob, when we had gone to the
+room, late at night. "Yes, you caught me, but what does it all amount
+to? I told you that Lincoln would be nominated, and now I tell you he
+will be elected."
+
+"Nonsense," Old Master cried. He was walking up and down the room, his
+head high with pride. "This country is not yet ready for a revolution."
+
+"That may be, Guilford," said Mr. Clem, "but it is ready for the
+election of that man."
+
+"Are you going to support him, sir?" Old Master demanded.
+
+"Did you ever know me to turn my back upon a friend? And he is not only
+my friend, but the saviour of this country, the greatest statesman that
+this republic has seen."
+
+"Clem," said Old Master, pausing and resting his hand upon a pile
+of books that lay on Bob's table, "it is well enough to praise your
+friend, for he is no doubt droll and amusing, but when you come to
+call him a great statesman, you do injustice to the memory of Clay and
+Webster, of Jefferson and Benton."
+
+Mr. Clem laughed. "Guilford," said he, "you are misled just as the
+majority of men suffer themselves to be misled. A man brays with the
+solemnity of an ass and you think he is great. Over a vital question he
+utters a senseless stupidity and you think he has said a wise thing.
+You don't know that humor is the cream that rises to the surface of
+life's wisdom. Lincoln tells a story and throws a bright light on a
+truth; he does not invest a subject with a gloom so thick that no
+eye can penetrate it. He makes all things plain, and the province of
+greatness is not to enshroud but to simplify. But that's neither here
+nor there; he's going to be elected."
+
+"But can't you understand that the country will not accept him, sir?"
+
+"Not accept him? The people will accept whom the people elect."
+
+"But the South will not accept an abolitionist."
+
+"Then the South will have to make the most of it. Of what good will be
+her protest? You don't mean that she will secede from the Union?"
+
+"Oh, I hope not," said Old Master. "Surely not," he added. "We cannot
+afford to throw away the traditions of our fathers."
+
+It was a sore subject to me, and I was glad when they dropped it. I
+hardly knew why, but my flesh always began to creep when abolition was
+ventured upon; there was a shudder in it, a threat of trouble, trial
+and blood.
+
+Bob had shown no interest in the talk; he had sat in a deep muse, his
+hands listless in his lap, his eyes turned upward; but how handsome
+was his face, his expression sweetened with success. That day he had
+been lifted high and given a glimpse, yes a full sight of the heaven
+his heart so fondly craved; he was to be great and he knew it as he sat
+there dreaming. Old Master turned to go, and his son came down from the
+purple clouds. They looked at each other for a moment.
+
+"Bob."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You have made me the proudest man in the State; you have done what
+Patrick Henry fired me with an ambition to do. It was denied me, and
+now I am rejoiced to see it fulfilled in you. The blood of old Kentucky
+shook your hand to-night. Now give it to me, sir."
+
+Young master arose and they shook hands with solemn ceremony, Bob
+turning his eyes away. "Your eye, sir," said the old man, and the young
+man looked into his father's eyes; and they read each other sternly,
+and with never a sign of flinching, so completely had each mastered
+himself.
+
+"Father, if I have ability it is indeed the fulfillment of your own
+ambition, for I felt it as a child, so strongly apart from my own
+forces that I knew the current must come from you. I have been told by
+old men that I am a second edition of yourself and--"
+
+"A revised and corrected edition, sir," the old man broke in, still
+gripping firmly the young fellow's hand.
+
+"But a cheaper edition, I fear," the orator said.
+
+"Enough, captivating flatterer. Good-night."
+
+Old Master strode out, walking hard upon the floor, and Mr. Clem,
+who with keen amusement had observed this exchange of fine-tempered
+civility, turned to Bob and said:
+
+"By the flint hoofs, you and that old brother of mine will be snatched
+out of the sixteenth century before very long. Paw me if I didn't
+expect one of you to say, 'I come not here to talk, you know too well
+the story of our thralldom.' Bob, the trouble with the South is the
+fact that it is not really republican in principle. It is a shapeless
+aristocracy writhing about to find a head. Tell me, do you believe in a
+democratic form of government?"
+
+Bob sat down, leaned back and put his feet on the table, leaving
+Mr. Clem standing behind him; and he glanced back over his shoulder
+as he replied: "Do I believe in a democracy? I don't believe in the
+rule of ignorance; I don't believe in a goldocracy, the most insolent
+and oppressive of all tyrants. I don't believe it just to give
+to a plebeian mob the right to snatch a brilliant man from public
+life simply because he refuses to grovel to a vulgar taste; I don't
+believe--"
+
+"But do you believe in a negro-cracy? Do you believe that the ownership
+of a hundred slaves should open all doors to a coarse and ignorant man?"
+
+"No, I don't. I would not let ignorance own a slave."
+
+"Ah, but slaves are bought with money, not with intelligence. Bob, you
+are an orator, but after all you are but a fledgling. Now, I want to
+ask you a question. What has made this country great, the gentility of
+Virginia or the dogged industry of New England? To whom do we owe most,
+the silver buckled gentleman or the steeple-hatted puritan?"
+
+"If you measure greatness by material wealth, Uncle Clem--but there's
+no use of such an argument. You are too practical for me. You are a
+Baconian and I would sit at the feet of Socrates. And progress will say
+that you are right."
+
+"And won't you say so, too?"
+
+"I am not progressive. I worship the utterances of the past; you glory
+in the achievements of the present. You honor the North because it is
+rich, and I love the South because it is poetic. So there we are, and
+it is of no use to argue."
+
+"No, I reckon not. Say, did you notice an old fellow with a white hat,
+riding a chestnut horse? Didn't get down until you were about half
+through with your speech, and then he rolled off, turned his horse
+loose and whooped like an Indian. I kept a weather eye on him, and when
+the bottom dropped out of the proceedings, I looked him up. Yes, sir,
+and his horse is out yonder in the stable now, and a glandered nag of
+mine is missing. The old fellow was so wrought up that he was in no
+condition to defend himself. So much for oratory. Good-night, lad."
+
+Bob laughed at him as he went out, and remarked to me that the speech
+had brought good to one man even if it had worked an injury upon
+another member of the human family. "And," he added, "we can't expect
+to help more than half of mankind at once. Dan," he said, after a
+thoughtful moment, "this has been a great day for me. And she was
+there, sitting in a buggy. And when she took my arm to-night I knew she
+was proud of me."
+
+I said that her soul must have been filled with an intoxicating joy,
+and I lied, for I did not believe that she could entertain an exalted
+pride. I knew that her vanity was flattered, a hard luster in her
+eye told me that, but I saw that her victory was cold and selfish.
+I acknowledged to myself that I had surrounded the young woman with
+a prejudice (and in a prejudice there is always more or less of
+intuition) and I tried hard to pull it apart that I might see her
+clearer; but the prejudice was strong and could not be torn asunder.
+
+Bob was undressing when I left him to go out into the yard, to walk
+among the trees. I loved my master, and his success I felt was my
+advancement, but with all that I was wretched. To hold aloft a light
+that I had found was but to illumine a hopelessness.
+
+As I passed out into the hall, I saw Titine step from the door of Miss
+May's room. She carried a pitcher in her hand and I knew that she was
+going to the well. I walked slowly behind her until she reached the
+hall below and then I called her. She stopped and looked back at me.
+
+"What is it?" she asked.
+
+"Going for water at this time of night?"
+
+"When water is wanted, the time of night makes no difference," she said
+as I joined her to pass out upon the rear veranda. We walked along
+together toward the well.
+
+"Titine, I don't know you any better now than I did when you first
+came."
+
+"And I don't know myself any better, and are you presumed to know me
+better than I know myself?"
+
+"No, I suppose not. But since that day we went to the hills you have
+never consented to go out alone with me."
+
+"Don't you know why?"
+
+"I can't say that I do."
+
+"Then you are duller than I took you to be."
+
+The moon was shining and the light fell full upon her face, upward
+turned; she was smiling and her smile was cold. We had now reached the
+well, and I unwound the chain to let the bucket down. She placed her
+arms on the curbing and hummed a cool tune of idleness, of a total lack
+of interest in what I might be doing.
+
+"Yes, I do know," I said.
+
+"Then you are no duller than I thought you were," she ceased humming
+long enough to say. I drew up the dripping bucket and poured the
+pitcher full. She reached forth her hand to take it.
+
+"Wait a moment," I pleaded, catching at her hand, but it flew away like
+a bird.
+
+"Well," she said, straightening up and looking at me.
+
+"Titine, if you and I were free--"
+
+"If I were free I would be a nun," she broke in. "Give me the pitcher."
+
+"Wait just a moment. Let me kiss you."
+
+She shrieked with laughter. "Oh, how blunt you are. Look out, you'll
+break that pitcher."
+
+"Then I could be classed with Gideon's men. They broke their pitchers
+before they fought."
+
+"But you are not going to break the pitcher and fight."
+
+"Yes, I'm going to break it and fight for a kiss."
+
+"Oh, what a fool you are. What good would breaking the pitcher do? Give
+it to me."
+
+She spoke in a tone of such command that I gave her the vessel, but
+I pleaded with her to stay longer; and now I caught her hand. She
+struggled to free herself but my grasp was vice-like. "Wait until I
+have told you something. Nature intended you for me and I am going to
+have you--"
+
+She spat at me like an angry cat, snatched her hand away, so strong was
+she, and ran up the path toward the house, the water leaping from the
+mouth of the pitcher. I caught up with her.
+
+"Are you offended, Titine?"
+
+"Oh, no, it was too good a joke. Nature intended me for you, indeed.
+Nature doesn't know you, simpleton. If she should meet you in the road
+she would say, 'who's your master, boy? Oh, young Mr. Gradley, eh? Tell
+him with my compliments that he possesses a very fine piece of yellow
+property.' Then what would you do? Tell nature that you wanted to marry
+another piece of yellow property? She would laugh at you and tell you
+to black your master's boots."
+
+She bounded up the stairway, splashing the water, and at the top she
+turned to laugh at me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+Over events of national importance I am compelled to pass swiftly,
+for in no way am I seeking to write the history of a struggle, and
+by giving only a glimpse here and there shall I try to set forth the
+disaffection that led to it. Lincoln was elected and for a time the
+South stood in dumb surprise, and then she shook herself and the
+nation began to go to pieces, crumbling apart with secession. Further
+south it was but natural to expect that all would go one way, but in
+Kentucky there were contending factions in almost every household; and
+the friendships and affections of a life-time were torn to shreds.
+Tennessee, our respected neighbor on the south, went out of the Union
+and beat old drums under a new flag; and it was expected that Kentucky
+would follow, but her grim old leaders set their teeth and swore that
+the commonwealth should not budge from her time-honored allegiance to
+the government of Washington and Monroe. Old Master was firm for the
+Union. Once he heard a drum beating at midnight and he got out of his
+bed and went to town. And when he came back his countenance was sad
+but hard-set. "They are beating up men for the rebel army," he said.
+"I raised my hand and in the name of our fathers commanded them to
+disperse, but they laughed at me. Let them go. The devil is waiting for
+them."
+
+Within a few days it seemed that every accent of the human voice was
+a martial tone. There was no talk but of war. Brothers denounced one
+another in the street, and fathers drove their sons from home. Society
+was mad. Over line-fences irate neighbors gazed at one another, gun
+in hand. Day and night the turn-pikes resounded with the clatter of
+galloping hoofs. Brass cannon were dragged by our house; men camped
+under our trees, without asking permission. Fifes were screaming
+everywhere, and negro drummers strutted about wearing the cast-off and
+faded finery of a former war. From the South came the startling report
+that the conflict was begun. And the drums in Kentucky beat louder.
+
+One evening, just as the family had sat down to supper, Sam came in and
+said that a man outside wanted to see Old Master. "Tell him to come
+in here," the old man spoke up. Presently a man entered, dressed and
+accoutered as a cavalryman. Old Master glanced at him as he crossed
+the threshold, and seeing that his uniform was gray, demanded the cause
+of his visit.
+
+"The government has sent me to buy your crib of corn, sir."
+
+"The government! I don't understand you, sir," Old Master declared,
+frowning at the man's clothes.
+
+"The Confederate government," the man said.
+
+"Indeed! I didn't know that such a government existed. You may return,
+sir, and tell the Confederate government to go back to h--, where it
+belongs."
+
+The man smiled, touched his cap with a military salute and withdrew. He
+had been a neighbor, but now he was a stranger.
+
+"Guilford," said Mr. Clem, "nearly everybody was surprised when the
+news went out that you were for the Union. You are so strongly a
+Southerner and have always tried so hard to justify slavery that--"
+
+"Sir, with me my country is my first consideration," Old Master broke
+in.
+
+"But I can't, for the life of me, understand why you should
+deliberately turn your back on your own interests," said Old Miss. "The
+South is more your country than the North is, and yet you turn against
+the South."
+
+"Madam, the whole country, the traditions of the American people
+are mine. And I don't believe that the government will interfere
+with slavery, but if it should, I say, let it go ahead. The first
+consideration is to save the country."
+
+Bob had said not a word. Many a time when the drums struck up had he
+gone out to walk in the woods alone, and I knew that a struggle was
+raging within his breast, but I asked him no question and he offered
+not a word. Of late he had gone forth at night, sometimes remaining
+away until nearly dawn, and in his sleep he had cried sharp words,
+"right about face," "forward march," "halt!"--
+
+"Bob," said Old Master, "I have waited to hear you express your views;
+I have given you plenty of time, but you have said nothing. I know
+without asking, still I would like to hear your say. Which side do you
+favor? But wait, you needn't answer so foolish a question."
+
+"Father, the question is not foolish. I am raising a company of men for
+the Confederate army."
+
+It seemed that every dish and cup leaped from the table. Old Master was
+on his feet, then on his chair, then leaning against the wall, his face
+hidden. He uttered a cry such as I had never heard, a groan set to the
+tune of despair. He turned from the wall and looked at his son, now
+standing with his hands resting on the back of a chair. The young man
+bowed his head, and I saw the tears trickling down his face. Old Master
+dragged his feet forward, feeling out with his hands as if to keep from
+falling. Old Mistress stood with her arms folded and with cold pride on
+her face. Miss May was pale with an air of fright; and Titine, looking
+across at me, slowly closed her eyes and smiled.
+
+Old Master reached the table and leaned forward with both hands pressed
+flat upon it, in the helpless condition of a man hoping and trying not
+to fall, a man who has received a knock-down blow and who is expecting
+another. His chin shook and his old lips worked and I thought I heard
+them rasp like dry corn-blades as he strove to talk. He looked at Mr.
+Clem as if imploring his help, at his daughter as if to summon strength
+from her gentle and affectionate nature. His body began to sway like
+the snag of an old tree about to fall, then stiffened; and now he stood
+unsupported, straight, head high, in a strength that seemed to turn
+upon his years and defy them. He spoke and his voice was as clear as
+the yelp of the hound that leads the pack. "Robert Gradley, your eye,
+sir."
+
+The young man raised his eyes and they looked at each other, Bob with
+an expression akin to pleading, Old Master hard and cold.
+
+"Do you mean, sir, to tell me that you are raising a company of men to
+fight against your country?"
+
+"No, sir, not against my country, but for a principle that some of my
+countrymen are trying to trample under foot. Instinctively I hate the
+cold exactions of the Puritan. His aim is not so much to preserve the
+Union as to humiliate the men who own slaves. For the slave he has
+no real feeling; to serve his ends he would see the negro drawn and
+quartered. His hatred of the men of the South is older than the creed
+of abolition; it began when old Peter Wentworth stood in the English
+parliament and raised his voice against refinement and gentility. I
+honor the memory of the men who made our flag the symbol of a mighty
+nation; but I love poetry more than I do commerce, and a sentiment is
+stronger with me than a woollen mill. A cold and feelingless duty might
+call me to the other side, but emotion, stronger than any sense of
+duty, impels me toward the South. It grieves me to oppose you; it is
+like boring tender flesh with a red hot iron, and I have wandered up
+and down the woods at night and in the dawn, praying--"
+
+"Theatrical fool!" the old man shouted.
+
+"No!" Old Mistress cried. I have seen resolute turkey hens turn out
+their feathers in warning against a trespasser upon the sward where
+their young ones were squatted. And at this moment Old Mistress
+reminded me of a turkey hen. "No! he is not a theatrical fool. He has
+as much right to his convictions as you have to yours. You have taught
+him to be independent--you sent him from home to school when he was a
+child to teach him self-reliance; and he found it."
+
+Here Mr. Clem walked round the table and laid his hand upon Old
+Master's shoulder. "Guilford," said he, "the young fellow is honest, he
+has evidently suffered over the question, and it is of no use to take
+bitter issue with him."
+
+"By G--! I'll turn him out of the house!" Old Master shouted, shaking
+himself free of his brother's touch. "He shan't--"
+
+"Then you turn me out, too!" Old Miss cried.
+
+Miss May ran to her father, and put her arms about his neck. "Please
+don't say anything that you'll be sorry for," she pleaded.
+
+He took her arms from about his neck, but stood holding her hands;
+and his eyes were not so cold nor did his skin look so dry and harsh.
+Not in the least was Young Master excited, nor did he appear to be
+astonished at the denunciations heaped upon him. Indeed, it was clear
+to me that for months he had been expecting it and was relieved now
+to think that the blow had fallen. The young man spoke and his voice
+was soft and musical. "If I were to leave the house before the time
+comes for me to go, I would but add to an injury which you threaten
+to inflict upon yourself. You would regret your expulsion of me, and
+could never forgive yourself if I should be killed. It seems to me
+now that all my training was to fit me for this step, rather than to
+equip me for an orator--to stimulate my impulse rather than to train
+my judgment. I will not say that your cause is unjust, but I must say
+that I cannot fight with the Puritan. My troop leaves on the day after
+to-morrow, and until then I will be your obedient son."
+
+Old Master lifted his hand as if his words were to fall as a blow, but
+Mr. Clem took his arm and eased it down. "Guilford," said he, "the
+young man has simply gone you one better in his worship of the tinsel
+of the past. You have taught him that the Southerner is the only real
+gentleman in this country and you can't blame him for the course he is
+determined to take."
+
+And now Old Master was surprisingly calm. "But, sir, I never thought to
+teach him to join in rebellion against his country."
+
+"You didn't measure the extent of your teaching. It went a mile further
+than your intention. And as it has gone beyond your control, let us
+make the most of it, or rather the best of it. Let him follow his own
+bent, let him fight for an aristocracy, and let him go with a blessing
+rather than with a curse. That's the sensible view to take. I am going
+to fight for the Union, and I now give him my hand, hoping that one day
+he may see his error and repent of it."
+
+He stretched forth his hand and Young Master clasped it. "I thank you,
+Uncle Clem. You have told me how sharp you can be and now you prove how
+broad and liberal you are."
+
+Old Master reached forth his hand. "It is that you may feel how sore
+my heart is," said he, as the young man gripped his palm. "You have
+wounded me and the wound will never heal, but you are my son and I have
+been proud of you. Not another word," he said, quickly withdrawing his
+hand and lifting it to enjoin silence. "On this subject no more words
+shall pass between us; and when the time comes, you may go your way
+in silence. Daniel," he said, turning to me, "let me see you in the
+library."
+
+I followed him into the library, and when he had closed the door he
+said to me. "You know what his intentions were."
+
+"No, sir, he said not a word to me."
+
+"Don't lie to me, Dan."
+
+"As God is my judge, sir, I knew nothing of his plans until he gave
+them to you."
+
+"And has he said nothing as to what you shall do? Hasn't he told you
+that you must go with him?
+
+"I tell you that he has said nothing to me."
+
+"But he will ask you to go with him."
+
+"And I will go, sir."
+
+"What?" I sprang back or I believe he would have leaped upon me. "Come
+back to me, sir. Don't run away from me. I'll shoot you down like a
+dog. Come here."
+
+"I am not going to run away from you, Master."
+
+He put his hands behind him, leaned forward and bored me with his eyes.
+"Some men don't believe it, but I see the end of slavery," said he.
+"And are you going to assist a cause that is fighting against your own
+freedom, Dan?" His manner changed and he put his hand on my shoulder.
+"Don't go away and leave me. I need you--I am a miserable old man,
+looking about for a prop. Don't leave me."
+
+I dropped upon my knees and bowed my head to the floor, and I heard him
+sob over me. "I must follow him," I supplicated. "I can't stay behind.
+He saved my life. Listen to me a moment. I killed Dr. Bates--killed
+him in the manner my young master described--killed him to save my own
+life. They would have hanged me, but he took the blood upon himself
+to save me. And though for months nothing has been said, no one has
+uttered the doctor's name in his presence, I know that some people
+look upon him as a slaughterer of his brother, and I know that he has
+suffered, and for me. Money was offered me and I could have run away,
+but love, ignorance and superstition held me back, though the rope was
+ready for my neck. Never but once have I been tempted to leave him,
+never but once has my heart found a rebellion against him, and that was
+a woman--"
+
+He put his hands under my arms and bade me arise. I got up and dared
+not look into his eyes, for I knew they were filled with tears. "Speak
+not a word of this to a living soul," he said. "Seal your mouth, for
+they would hang you even now. Go with him."
+
+Old Mistress opened the door, unable longer to bear the thought that
+he might be taking me into a confidence, and as she entered, the old
+man turned wrathfully upon me. "Yau can go to the d----!" he said, his
+voice high and sharp. "You may go with the rebels and be hanged with
+them. Madam, this negro boy is going with his master."
+
+"Why, of course," she said with a brightening countenance, and speaking
+as if I were but to discharge a trivial duty. "He will need someone to
+wait on him and that's Dan's place, I am sure. And besides, it won't
+be for long. Everybody knows that it won't be much of a war. The North
+will soon be compelled to grant every demand made by the South; so for
+gracious sake, let us not take it so to heart. Come on into the parlor.
+May will sing an old song for us."
+
+"Madam, I want no song. The rest of you may sing and make merry over
+the disgrace of my country, but I will not. Good-night."
+
+He strode out, Old Mistress following him, begging him to come back,
+but he went to his room up stairs and shut the door. Surely no one felt
+disposed to hear a song, no one except myself, as I listened to the
+old-time lullaby with which Titine was wont to soothe the little one to
+sleep.
+
+When I went to my Young Master's room I found him sitting there alone.
+His books were put out of sight and a sword lay upon his table. As I
+entered, he looked up at me and pointed to a chair. "I want to talk
+to you," he said, and when I had sat down, he continued: "I will not
+compel you to go with me--"
+
+"I am going Mars. Bob," I broke in. He looked at me with a sad smile.
+
+"Dan, you are a faithful friend."
+
+"I am a grateful slave, sir. And never but once was I ungrateful,
+and then my heart was on fire and my soul smothered with the smoke
+that arose. Titine laughed at me when I asked her to be my wife. She
+said that our marriage would be but a mockery, the multiplication of
+miseries; and I would have run away with her, but she told me that she
+did not love me. Don't credit me with more than my due. I am a weak
+man and under certain conditions might forget a great favor and prove
+treacherous. Don't trust me too far."
+
+"I would trust you to the end of the earth," he said. "You are a negro,
+but you are a gentleman. You say Titine doesn't love you?" he continued
+after pausing to reflect. "What sort of a creature is she? What does
+she expect?"
+
+"I don't know what she expects, but I believe that she hopes one day
+to be a nun. Her old mistress poisoned her."
+
+He reached over, took hold of the sword and drew it part way out of
+the scabbard. "For a long time I have kept it hidden in my closet," he
+said, pulling the blade further out and then shoving it back to the
+hilt. "I was afraid of a sharper and perhaps a juster weapon--my old
+father's tongue." He got up with a shudder, turned his back upon me and
+stood at the window. "The time may come when I shall acknowledge that I
+was bewitched," he said, looking out into the darkness. "But her love
+and her encouragement urge me on. Dan,"--and now he faced about--"Dan,
+the woman I love is a champion of the Southern cause. She said that she
+could not love me if--but it is cruel of me to tell you of love and of
+smiles. Your heart is sore; I have long known it. But--"
+
+"Master, please don't think of me. Do you need me now?" I asked. "If
+not, I will go out."
+
+"Go and stay as long as you choose," he said.
+
+Titine was singing to the little child. The door was partly open and I
+looked into the room. She was bending over the cradle, her long hair
+hanging loose. I heard Miss May talking in Old Master's room.
+
+"Titine."
+
+"What do you want?" she asked, looking at me.
+
+"Is the child asleep?"
+
+"What is that to you?"
+
+"Please don't snap at me that way. I want to talk to you--in the yard
+alone."
+
+"I know what you would say, and you needn't say it."
+
+"No, you don't. I have something to tell you that I never told before.
+I am going away and I want to talk to you."
+
+"Oh, going with your master? Poor fool, to fight against your own
+interest, but you can't help it--You are a piece of yellow property."
+
+"So is gold," I declared.
+
+"Yes, so is gold, a piece of yellow property."
+
+"But will you come down?"
+
+"What is the use? You have already told me."
+
+"And have you said all that you could say?"
+
+"Yes, you are a poor fool."
+
+"Your frankness will become insulting, the first thing you know."
+
+"Indeed! Shut the door, please."
+
+"Are you a human being?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I believe you are but a beautiful witch."
+
+"Thank you. Even witches like a compliment. Shut the door, please."
+
+I shut the door with a slam and I heard the child crying as I strode
+down the stairs.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+My Master's troop was composed for the most part of young men who had
+struggled with principle and with family opposition and who regarded
+it wise to meet in secret to prepare themselves for battle. In many
+families the dividing line ran as in our house, across the dinner
+table. Sometimes a "Confederate" and a "Federal" company would go
+through with their maneuvers in the same wood pasture; and on such
+occasions the strictest dignity and decorum were maintained, with
+never a jeer or idle word passing from one side to the other. The
+quarreling was indulged by older men and irresolute persons who had
+great bitterness, but not enough nerve to impel them into the ranks.
+From the moment when Young Master was forced openly to take his stand,
+his spirits seemed to rise, though my accustomed eye could sometimes
+see a sadness striving to pull his gayety down, as when he heard Old
+Master's voice or met him unexpectedly. Sometimes they saluted each
+other coldly as they passed, but often they appeared almost to forget
+the difference lying like a shrouded corpse between them. One cool
+morning they met in the yard. By a silent agreement they no longer sat
+together at the table.
+
+"A crisp and beautiful day," said the old man, bowing. "By such a day I
+am always reminded of a shaggy dog we used to own--we called him Wolf.
+Do you remember him?"
+
+"Yes," Young Master answered, his countenance illumined with a sudden
+light. "One of his eyes was brown and the other blue. He must have
+died long ago, for he seems now to trot around the outer rim of my
+recollection."
+
+At this figure the old man was so much pleased that he laughed. "You
+were very young," he said, "but little taller than old Wolf's back;"
+and here he fell into a meditation, leaning against a locust tree. The
+dog was still in his mind when he spoke again. "On a frosty day he
+was always frisky. He believed that the chill in the air foretold a
+rabbit hunt; and frequently it did. He used to come to my door early at
+morning and scratch to awake me. And I think he treed the first 'possum
+you ever saw. Old Simon brought the 'possum to the house, and you asked
+him why there was no hair on his tail. This gave him an opportunity to
+tell a story that I heard when I was a boy and which has been told in
+every negro cabin. The Lord made a raccoon and the devil was so taken
+with the work that he was resolved to imitate it. Well, he made a thing
+as near like a coon as he could, but was so disgusted at the appearance
+of the result that he seized the animal by the tail and swung him round
+to dash his brains out against the jamb, but the hair slipped off, the
+animal escaped with his life but with a hairless tail. Yes, sir, and I
+believed the story until I was nearly grown."
+
+"I remember the story," said Bob, "though I don't recall the one
+particular 'possum used by Simon as an illustration. But I remember
+that Simon took me on his back one night, out into the woods where the
+dogs had treed one. It must have been long after Simon told the 'possum
+story, for I don't think that old Wolf went with us. He must have been
+dead."
+
+"Yes, he was," the old man agreed. "I recollect the night. A coon was
+treed in an enormous oak, and the boys were a long time in cutting it
+down. Do you remember, Dan?"
+
+"Yes, sir," I spoke up. "It was the night that Mr. Bill Putney was
+killed in town by Mr. Tom Ellis Gray."
+
+"That's a fact," said the old man. "But how do you happen to associate
+the two events?"
+
+"Why, when we came back to the house, a boy was waiting for you. They
+wanted you to come to town and go on a bond."
+
+"But that couldn't have fastened it on your mind. What else was there?
+Out with it, sir."
+
+"Why, Old Miss got mad at me for coming through the hall and slapped me
+off the front steps."
+
+"Ah, that was it," he said, musing. "And it seems long ago, even to me,
+much longer than happenings thirty years before."
+
+"Dan," said Young Master, "get my horse. But wait a moment. You may
+hitch up the buggy if you want to go over to Potter's with me."
+
+"I don't care to go unless you would much rather have me," I replied.
+
+"All right, then; saddle the horse."
+
+"He has a love affair of his own, I am inclined to think," the old
+gentleman said, talking to Bob, but winking at me. "How about it, Dan?"
+
+I had turned to go, but had halted and faced about. "A very empty love
+affair I am afraid, Master."
+
+"Tut, sir, tut. There is no such thing as an empty love affair if it's
+managed rightly. You are too faint-hearted. Do you remember what the
+poet said?"
+
+This was the first time that he had addressed himself to what I
+conceived to be my learning, and I was flattered.
+
+"You mean Pope's master, sir."
+
+"Hang the scoundrel, to talk about Pope's master. He had no master, or
+if he had, he bought his freedom with his genius."
+
+I was still flattered and I made bold to venture upon a criticism. "Not
+with his genius, but with his pains and his polish."
+
+"Confound you, sir, go on and get that horse, you yellow scoundrel."
+
+When I had led the horse round to the gate, Bob and the old man came
+out talking in easy good-humor.
+
+"Your mother is mightily tickled," said Old Master. "She thinks you
+have drawn a prize. And so do I. She's a charming young woman, sir. But
+you have said nothing as to when the wedding is to take place."
+
+Bob had put his foot in the stirrup to mount, but he took it out and
+stood there irresolute, as if he knew not what to do or say.
+
+"You haven't said a word as to the time set for the marriage," Old
+Master repeated.
+
+"No, sir. She is to wait--wait until I come home."
+
+A dark shadow fell upon the old man's face, and without another word,
+he wheeled about and strode into the yard.
+
+Old Miss came to the door and commanded me to bring a stick of wood to
+mend the parlor fire. When I went in with a log on my shoulder, I found
+Titine sitting by the fire, trying to amuse the little girl.
+
+"Get out of the way, Jessie," she cried. "Dan, let me help you ease it
+down."
+
+I was strong enough to have tossed the log in the air but I told her
+yes, and I caught at her hand as she stood close to lend her aid. She
+laughed and stepping back declared that I might help myself. I put the
+log into the fire-place and stood on the hearth to brush my coat.
+
+"You ought to be proud of your strength," she said.
+
+"That may be, and I ought to deplore my weakness."
+
+"Yes, you ought. Jessie, don't go near the fire."
+
+"And I do."
+
+"Then you are climbing toward firmer ground. Put down the tongs,
+Jessie."
+
+"The ground may be firm and yet slippery."
+
+"If salt were given in exchange for words, you might have enough to
+sell. Jessie, put down the cat; you'll get all covered with fleas."
+
+"Titine, I believe that hateful and unjust remark made by Old Miss has
+set you against me. You cleave to it as if it were a piece of wisdom
+inspired of the Lord."
+
+"But wasn't it the truth? And isn't there wisdom in all truth?"
+
+"No, it was not the truth. It was spite. She hates me and you ought to
+have sense enough to see it. But if truth were a diamond and sparkled
+in my favor, you would shut your eyes to it. I came to you with the
+devotion of a strong man. I showed you my heart. I threw it at your
+feet and let it flutter there, and so far from taking it up out of the
+dirt, you did not even look down upon it. You have no heart. An old
+woman killed it and left a senseless whim to vibrate in your breast.
+You could have made of me--"
+
+"Nothing," she broke in. "How could I make anything of a thing that
+could never belong to me? Jessie, you'll fall out of that rocking chair
+if you don't mind. I once told you that I have the instincts of a lady,
+and I have, and I will not turn upon those instincts and mock them."
+
+"But if you would only acknowledge that you care for me," I pleaded;
+"if you would only light a candle, call it hope and hold it aloft, no
+matter how far down the road, I could keep my eyes fastened upon it and
+live on faith."
+
+She looked at me, whether in pity or in scorn I could not tell. But I
+could gather no comfort from her words. "Flies scorch their wings in
+the candle lighted down the road," she said.
+
+At this moment Old Miss came into the room. "Why, gracious alive, why
+do you let that fire smoke so?" she cried. "Shove that log further
+back. I never saw as worthless a negro as you are. To bring a log in
+and throw it down right in front of the fire where it can do nothing
+but smoke! Go out. It makes me weary to look at you."
+
+She had not the opportunity much longer to look at me, for on the
+morrow, Young Master's troop, now but a play-thing, was to become a
+part of the great machinery of war. It was known that we were going,
+but at the supper table not a word bearing upon that subject was
+uttered by Old Miss, Mr. Clem or Miss May. We heard Old Master walking
+up and down the hall. At night Mr. Clem came to the room.
+
+"Well, you march to-morrow, I suppose," said he.
+
+"Yes," Young Master replied, "we go, rain or shine."
+
+"And I go very soon. I am waiting for my commission. Having once been a
+soldier gives me some little importance."
+
+"Uncle Clem, do you think we can get through within ninety days?"
+
+"Get through what?"
+
+"Do you think that the war will be over within that time?"
+
+"Yes, if the South lays down her arms."
+
+"She won't do that."
+
+"Then the war will last until she does. You people have a peculiar idea
+of this government. Do you think we are going to suffer it to go to
+pieces, that we will submit to disruption as long as there is an arm to
+strike? Why, the women in this community, your mother included, look
+upon it as a pic-nic excursion. Dan?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Are you going to shoot at the men who would free you?"
+
+"I am going with Young Master, sir, to do as he bids me."
+
+"He is not going as a soldier, but as a servant, Uncle Clem."
+
+"Same thing, Bob. The teamster is as much of a soldier, when results
+are estimated, as the man who carries a gun. But it is all right, Dan.
+No one can hold you responsible. Bob, old Potter is a hot rebel, isn't
+he?"
+
+"Rampageous; and his daughter is making a Confederate flag--for me.
+We'll stop there and get it as we pass to-morrow."
+
+Early the next morning our troop was marshalled on the turn-pike about
+a mile from the house. From the rear veranda Old Master could see the
+flashing of their steel. He stood there gazing until Bob came out from
+breakfast.
+
+"One moment," said the old man, stepping into the hall. "You do not go
+with my curse, but with my wounded love. There, sir, not a word from
+you."
+
+They shook hands, but did not look into each other's eyes. Old Miss,
+Miss May and Mr. Clem walked with him to the gate. The parting was not
+sad, for no one of us, except Mr. Clem, attached much importance to the
+war cry, the bugle and the drum. Young Master mounted first, and then,
+turning to me, said: "Dan, I have forgotten something. Run up stairs
+and get my Horace. You can overtake me."
+
+When I came down, Titine was standing alone at the gate. "They are
+about to leave you," she said, laughing.
+
+"It would delight me to be left if I thought you--"
+
+"Too late for nonsense, now, Dan."
+
+"You have made it too late for sense, Titine."
+
+"Of course you blame me with everything."
+
+"No, but I blame you with one thing, which, after all, is nearly
+everything--the death of my heart. But why talk of heart to a heartless
+creature--Titine, let me kiss you."
+
+"Go away!" she cried, waving me off. But I seized her in my arms,
+kissed her and sprang upon my horse. And she threw a stone at me as I
+galloped away.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+How sadly were dashed the hopes of the husband and the lover who had
+expected not a war, but a military demonstration to last but a few
+days. The cheerful party of decorated pleasure seekers soon became a
+sober army, stripped of feathers, bent upon the shedding of blood.
+I may be pardoned this egotism, but it seemed that the South, more
+Anglo-Saxon, more American, fought with brighter fire and bravery
+than the miscellaneous nationalities gathered in the North. I know
+one thing, that the Southern soldier held the foreigner in contempt.
+He had, however, to face too much of his own blood. But I am going
+to follow the fortunes of no campaign; I am going to be as brief as
+possible. My Master was promoted for gallantry, and soon was placed at
+the head of a regiment of cavalry. I rode by his side, and I knew that
+beyond that blue line, away over yonder, my freedom and the freedom of
+my down-trodden race was lying, but I was true to him, and was proud of
+him.
+
+Letters from home were very irregular. Old Master did not write. Old
+Miss wrote; but never came there a word for me. I wrote to Titine, but
+no answer reached me. Sometimes, at night, alone in the tent, master
+would read aloud Miss Potter's letter, and though the words were
+affectionate, they appeared to me to be mechanical and meaningless. But
+to him each sentence was a string of pearls.
+
+For a time the Confederate arms were so successful that it looked as
+if the war might soon close, with victory for the South. But a change
+came. The old Puritan stock, the old blood that humbled a king and
+cut off his head, gathered in solemn and God-serving force. We had
+chaplains and held services; we prayed to God to bless our cause, but
+the Puritan mixed prayer with his powder and brightened his sword with
+a scriptural text.
+
+We went with Bragg's invasion into Kentucky. How joyous it was again
+to turn our faces toward home. We did not think of the blood that was
+to flow at Perryville. One day we halted within fifteen miles of Old
+Master's house. And Young Master received permission to visit his home.
+We set out at night. First we were to go to Potter's. We were cautioned
+to be back by day-light, to overtake the army at a place called Elwood.
+The night was moon-flooded. The turn-pike looked an endless strip of
+light. How delightful to see the first familiar object, an old mill
+where Bob and I had caught many a sun-fish. Now we were but a short
+distance from Potter's. We passed the toll-gate. The bar was up and no
+one came out. We met an old negro and he told us that the people had
+nearly all flocked to town, that they had been ordered in as a battle
+was expected.
+
+"Here we are!" Bob cried, and he jumped from his horse in front of
+Potter's house. A dog barked, but there was no light. He went to the
+front door and the sharp fall of the brass knocker resounded afar off,
+throughout the stillness of the night. He called me and I went to him.
+
+"I believe they are gone, too," he said, his voice choking with
+disappointment. "Let us go around and see if we can find anyone."
+
+We went to the cabins in the rear of the house. All was dark. We
+mounted and rode on toward home, silent, desolate with the realization
+of war's uncompromising demands. I heard the creek and my heart leaped.
+We turned into the lane. The gate was down and heavy artillery had cut
+the road into deep ruts, here where Dr. Bates had lain under the eye of
+the law.
+
+"They are all gone, too," said master, "negroes and all."
+
+"No," I cried, "there's a light in your room."
+
+We put spurs and dashed up to the gate. The front door stood ajar.
+There was no light in the hall. "Easy," said Bob, and we tip-toed up
+the stairs. A light streamed under the door of our "office." We did not
+knock, but Bob shoved the door open. Then he sprang back with pistol in
+hand.
+
+"Why, helloa!" a voice cried. It was Mr. Clem. "Come in, boys."
+
+He stood there in the uniform of a Federal colonel, his sword on the
+table. We shook hands and the greeting was one of unaffected warmth.
+We sat down, though not yet over our surprise. "How on earth did you
+get here?" Colonel Clem asked. "The country is full of our troops. You
+took a big risk. Sorry the folks are not here. Had hard work in driving
+Brother Guilford in. Swore he'd stay here and let them knock the house
+about his ears. But, how well you're looking, my boy. Make a nice
+prisoner for me to take in, eh?"
+
+Bob touched the butt of his revolver and smiled. Colonel Clem nodded
+goodhumoredly. "Bobbie, so far as we are now concerned," said he,
+"there is no war. But haven't we had a time? Told you it wouldn't be a
+picnic. Come, don't be sad."
+
+"When did 'she' go to town?"
+
+"To-day," the colonel answered. "I saw her about noon-time. She is more
+beautiful than ever; said she had a charming letter from you not long
+ago. I have been over in Missouri a good deal of the time lately,"
+he added with a strange smile. "Had a piece of the past thrust into
+my face, while I was there. A fellow had been court-martialed and
+sentenced to be hanged. I met the guards as they were taking him out.
+My old-time negro-trader, the man that robbed me years ago. It was
+hardly the same sort of court that he had escaped from in Illinois.
+What did I do? I ordered them to halt--I ran to the commander and
+begged him to let me have that fellow. I wanted to kill him with my
+sword. But they wouldn't let me, so I had to content myself with seeing
+him hanged. What sort of stock are you boys riding? Now, I've got a
+good mare here that I think would just suit you, Bob. But I don't want
+any Confederate money. Come down and let's see what can be done."
+
+Bob shook his head and laughed. "I am to get back to my command by
+daylight, Uncle Clem," said he, "and I know that if I should trade
+horses with you, I'd have to walk."
+
+"What nonsense. I want to see you on a good horse. Come on."
+
+"No, I thank you."
+
+"Let me show you the mare."
+
+"Don't want to see her."
+
+"She's a beauty--got her from General Buell."
+
+"Take her back to him. I don't want her."
+
+"All right," he said, with a loud laugh, "Got your eye teeth, haven't
+you. Well--what was that? A bugle."
+
+"Come," said Bob, starting toward the door. But he halted. "Uncle Clem,
+give my love to them all. Tell the old man that I love him."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+The days fell dark for the Confederacy. It seemed that the whole world
+had sprung up in arms against the South. Stronghold after stronghold
+was taken, and Richmond itself was threatened. No hope was left to
+illumine the soldier's heart; he had followed a bright phantom, year
+after year, expecting it to lead him out of the wilderness, but he was
+becoming deeper and more darkly involved in the thicket, and now the
+phantom was fading. In his haversack, he carried roasted acorns and
+pieces of sugar-cane, and his enemies, in blood his brothers, shook
+their heads and marveled at his courage, for he was just as ready to
+fight as he had been on the morning after Bull Run. To face death at
+morning, to shed his blood at noon, to lie down supperless upon the wet
+ground at night, was a duty that he was not there to question, but to
+discharge.
+
+One night my master and I occupied a room in a deserted farm-house near
+Richmond. About us lay a broken army and the scattered fragments of a
+civilization.
+
+"A few more days will settle it, I think, Dan," he said. Sitting on a
+box, with one leg drawn up and with his hands clasped over his knee, he
+was gazing at the lightwood sputtering in the fire-place, and upon his
+thoughtful countenance a black shadow and a yellow light alternately
+arose and fell. "Only a few more days and most of us may be shot or
+permitted to go home. Who would have believed that we could have gone
+through such a time since Jane stood on the stile-block waving the silk
+flag she had made for me. And I can't carry even a scrap of it back to
+her. Do you know one thing that I'm going to do if I'm permitted to
+go home?" he asked, his face brightening. "I am going to acknowledge
+to father that I was wrong, not in fighting so hard after I got in,
+but in permitting a glamour to blind me in the first place. The most
+gigantic mistake of the age. I was like you, Dan. I followed my heart
+rather than my judgment. But you are free. I am your master no longer.
+Don't turn away. I don't reproach you; I congratulate you. If any man
+deserves freedom, you do. Better spread the blankets and let's try to
+get a little sleep. We need no alarm clock to wake us up. Brother
+Ulysses with his cannon will see to that."
+
+And with his cannon he did see to it. We were aroused before the break
+of day, and by the time the sun came up we were in the thick of a
+fight. There came a charge--a wild rush, sword, pistol, bayonet--and
+when it had swept past, I was on the ground beside the man whose
+fortunes I had followed. He was desperately wounded. The farm-house was
+turned into a hospital and I took him to the room which we had occupied
+the night before. The weak remnant of our army was crushed. We were
+prisoners.
+
+The hour was late. Precaution no longer was necessary and camp-fires
+were burning everywhere. A surgeon told me that Master could not live
+until morning. And this was to be his end, in an old house, a prisoner,
+the hungry dogs howling on the hill.
+
+"Dan," he called. I was bending over him, my face close to his. "Are
+you here, Dan?"
+
+"Yes, Mars. Bob."
+
+"It's all over, Dan. And I don't see how it could have been otherwise.
+I seem to have been born for this hour. Dan, I want to be buried where
+I fell. And tell them not to disturb me, but to let me sleep there.
+Bury her letters with me. Tell the old man that I love him."
+
+Early in the morning, with the tears falling upon him, I folded his
+arms on his breast; and I heard a glad shout and the cry that the war
+was done. From an officer in command, once a neighbor, I obtained
+permission to bury my poor Master under an apple-tree shading the
+spot where he had fallen; and assisted by an old negro, I laid him to
+rest. My heart was so heavy that I cared not what might become of me.
+Judgment day had come and I was branded a sinner.
+
+I built a fire near the grave and watched beside it a whole night,
+wretched, struggling with myself, feeling that I could not leave him
+lying there alone. In the morning I was ordered to mount a mule and
+drive a wagon into Richmond. As I drove along I scribbled a note to Old
+Master, not knowing how long I might be held, and gave it to a neighbor
+to give to him. Now I was in the service of the North, driving a team
+of mules into the city that I had striven to defend. But I liked it
+not. I was heart-sore to hear the babble of our creek and to look upon
+the colts in the pasture. And after two days of enforced labor I was
+permitted to turn my face homeward. I was now even worse off than the
+regular rebel soldier. I was looked upon with suspicion. I had no
+means of transportation and therefore was compelled to walk. I slept in
+the woods or on the road-side. Once when I went up to a house to buy
+food, an old man set his dog after me. My money gave out (I had started
+with but a few dollars, the amount earned by driving the government
+wagon) and now I was reduced almost to starvation. The country was
+destitute. Everyone looked to the army for food, and supplies were
+delayed. At last, after days of tramping and nights of sleepless
+hunger, I crossed the Kentucky line. Two more days and I should be at
+home.
+
+But how cold and distant had begun to sound the word home. How time
+must have transformed the old place. And all the negroes were free. I
+scarcely could realize it. I wondered what they would do with their
+freedom, if they knew how to act. They could not support themselves
+by standing about and proclaiming themselves free. They must work and
+after all their liberty was to be tinged with slavery. Thus I mused
+as I moved with sore tread along the hard turn-pike, slowly entering
+the domain of my boyhood, growing heavier and sadder with the sight of
+each familiar object. I came to the old mill, gray and green, with roof
+fallen in, with cap-stones pulled down by the wanton hands that reach
+out to destroy when a war-storm has swept over the land. The creek sang
+to me, not as of yore, a sweet and poetic tune, but a sorrowful and
+hollow-sounding dirge.
+
+Onward I strode, limping now, for my shoes were worn through and my
+feet were bleeding. The day was closing. The shadow of the trumpet
+vine, clustered high on the top rail of the fence, fell dark athwart
+the white and ghastly pike. Another rise of ground and Potter's house
+was thrown into view, red in the setting sun. I had to halt to calm the
+tumultuous beating of my heart. I wondered if the news had reached her.
+Surely word must have been sent from Old Master's house. But it was my
+duty to stop and repeat his last words, to tell her that I had buried
+her letters with him. I dreaded the look she would give me, the tone of
+her voice. Now I could see that she had been passionately fond of him.
+I thought of the sentence I had passed upon her nature, the complaint
+that I could not hold her clear in my mental gaze, and I repented of
+this dark injustice. Onward again I limped, my eyes low upon the white
+pebbles; and I did not look up until abreast of the gate. Then I found
+myself among a number of carriages and buggies. A score of horses were
+tied to the fence. An old man stood by the road-side and I addressed a
+question to him.
+
+"What means all this?"
+
+He nodded his head toward the house and thus he answered me: "Miss Jane
+Potter has just married a Yankee general."
+
+I tried to run, when it seemed that I had grabbed myself up from
+falling, and I stumbled away down the pike. In a corner of the fence
+I dropped upon my knees and cried aloud. Merciful God, was the whole
+world false! Long I knelt there in agony, reviewing my pitiable life,
+with my master's image and his blood vivid before me. Merry laughter
+startled me to my feet. A carriage, followed by other vehicles and
+horses, passed briskly along; and fiercely I shook my fist at the
+carriage in front, and bitterly I wished for a gun, a cannon, that I
+might be avenged upon a black and traitorous heart.
+
+Homeward now I turned, chilled to the core, prepared for anything.
+Over a fence I climbed and took a shorter way across the pastureland.
+Darkness had fallen and I heard old Stephen calling the sheep, to be
+housed for the night, safe from the ravages of prowling dogs. I came
+upon the little creek, weaker than far below at the old mill, but
+chanting the same hollow dirge. I stood upon the rock where Mr. Clem
+had found me with his shrewd temptation; and a little further on I came
+to the deep hole wherein Bob and I had sworn to drown ourselves. Here I
+stopped and bathed my face and hands, lingering, dreading to meet Old
+Master's grief-chilled eye. Fire-light came from some of the cabins,
+feeling its way and trembling through the darkness; but for the most
+part the negro quarter appeared deserted.
+
+The door of the "big house" stood open and the hall lamp was burning.
+With dragging feet I climbed the steps and raised the brass knocker,
+the familiar old dragon's head, but did not let it fall; so much was I
+in dread of its startling alarm. I stepped back to go round to the rear
+veranda, when Old Miss came out of the library. She saw me and her cry
+pierced my heart. Oh, how wretched she looked and how feeble! And how
+weak was that cry, a mere whisper; but it rang in my ears night and day
+for many a month. I believe she would have fallen, I thought she was
+falling and I put out my hands and caught her, eased her upon the hall
+settee and fanned her with my hat.
+
+"Go," she said, motioning me away, "go to your Old Master. He is dying
+in his room up stairs. Wait, let me send him word. He was afraid you
+wouldn't get here. May, May!" she called, "go and tell him Dan has
+come."
+
+Miss May, pale and tear-stricken, had stepped out of the parlor. She
+grasped my hand and then hastened up the stairs.
+
+"Elliot brought the news," said Old Miss, leaning back against the
+wall. "And May went over--over to tell 'her.' Infamous creature, she
+was making preparations for her wedding. Oh, this world, this world!
+Oh, my son, if I could only call him back!" She looked at me with her
+head turned to listen for Miss May's footsteps. "I have been the most
+miserable woman in the world, and a thousand times I have prayed for
+death." Her eyes grew brighter. She straightened up with pride. "But he
+died like a hero. Tell me about him."
+
+I told her how he had fallen; and when I mentioned the letters that
+were put into the grave with him, she cleared her throat with the old
+dry rasp.
+
+"How long has Master been sick?" I asked, wishing to change the subject.
+
+"A long time, but the doctors did not give him up until the day before
+yesterday. They might have known at first that there was no hope for
+him. Why should there be any hope for him or for anyone? Why can't we
+all get out of this miserable world and be done with it?"
+
+"Have many of the negroes gone away?" I asked.
+
+"No, not many. We have hired most of them to work the land. I don't see
+much difference in them. They are as near no account as they can be."
+
+"It will take them some time to adjust themselves to their freedom," I
+remarked.
+
+"Freedom!" she repeated with a sneer. "They can never adjust themselves
+to it. They think it means a privilege to take whatever they can lay
+hands on."
+
+Titine was in my mind, but I was afraid to ask about her. She had
+treated me with scorn when I was well dressed, and now I must be far
+below her contempt.
+
+"Do you want me to remain and take charge of things about the place?"
+
+"No," she said, with sharp emphasis, "you must go away and let me die
+in peace, or as near in peace as possible, for I shall never know a
+moment's ease. Looking back, it seems that I was born wretched; and yet
+I know that I was happy until treachery--but I will say nothing. Oh,
+this miserable world!" She swayed herself to and fro, her lips tightly
+drawn, her eyes hard-set. "But an end of it all will come sooner or
+later, and then we can say that it all amounted to nothing--that it was
+all a nightmare. Here comes your Miss May."
+
+"Walk as softly as you can," Miss May said to me, and then looking
+down, she added: "Poor fellow, you couldn't make a noise with those
+tattered feet."
+
+I followed her up the stairs, through the hall where so often I had
+found the old man walking in the dead silence of the night--followed
+her into the room opposite our "office." At a glance I saw my young
+master's canopied bed; and upon it lay the old man, propped high with
+pillows.
+
+"Come here, Dan," he commanded. His voice was weak, but I was surprised
+at its clearness. "May, leave us alone, please."
+
+I knelt beside the bed. I took one of his hands and he gave me the
+other, looking at me with an ashen smile. "Dan, I was determined not to
+die until I had seen you and I have compelled them to leave me alone
+most of the time. I was afraid of company--afraid that it might lead my
+mind off and let death sneak up and master me. I was so determined to
+live, that nothing but my own mind could have killed me."
+
+How changed he was, even aside from the ravages of disease. His hair
+was perfectly white and his teeth were gone. His eyes were sunken, but
+they were still sharp.
+
+"I did not believe he would ever come home, Dan. Something kept on
+telling me that he would not, morning, noon and night. When we knew
+that the war could certainly last but a few days more, I took hope; but
+that something was louder than ever, dinging my boy's death in my ears.
+So I was not greatly surprised when Elliot came with the news. He gave
+me your note and told me how he died--like a Gradley and a man. In your
+note you said--I have it under my pillow--that he told you to say that
+he loved me. God bless him."
+
+"Master, he told me more than the note contained. He said that if he
+lived to get home, he would acknowledge to you that he was wrong."
+
+He broke down at this and I wiped the tears out of his eyes.
+
+"He didn't owe me any apology; he had as much right to his opinion as
+I had to mine. Some of the noblest minds and kindest hearts in the
+country went wrong. Don't tell me anything he said that bordered on an
+apology. He should not have apologized. In my heart I forgave him a
+thousand times; and, night after night, I sat in his room, reading his
+books. When I was taken down I had them bring his bed in here that I
+might die on it. Yes, we were all wrong," he said, pressing my hands.
+"Dan, lean over." My face was almost touching his, and I trembled
+violently. "You know the hoof-marks on the stairs--you know that I
+killed Solomon Putnam. But you never knew why."
+
+"No, sir; no one ever told me."
+
+"No one knew. Dan, your mother was a beautiful woman. Titine reminds me
+of her. Did anyone ever tell you that your mother was handsome?"
+
+"Yes, sir, an old negro man, a long time ago."
+
+"Dan, that scoundrel offered to buy your mother. I scorned his money
+and he poisoned her. And I sent him word that I would kill him on
+sight; and he rode up the stairs, drunk, to kill me in my bed. I raised
+myself up and shot him--Dan, lean over further. My life has been
+miserable and I am--I am the author of all your misery. There, don't
+pull away from me. Put your head on this old breast for a moment. My
+poor boy--I have been a disgrace unto myself and the cause of your
+humiliation. But I have loved you and have shown it whenever I could
+without bringing a cruelty down upon your head. My poor wife--God
+forgive me--always strongly suspected, but she did not know. She hated
+you and who could blame her? That scoundrel Bates kept her mind on
+fire with insinuations--He was afraid to tell her outright. A thousand
+times I have been tempted to tell her and beg her forgiveness, but the
+quality of forgiveness was always a stranger to her heart. She has had
+enough to harden her against the world and I am going to beg her for
+mercy as I would beg at the Judgment seat. Dan, I have no money to
+leave you. The farm is mortgaged. All I can leave is the love and the
+blessing of a wretched old man, a sinner. Is that someone at the door?"
+
+I opened the door. Old Miss and Miss May came in. They drew near to the
+bedside and stood there, seeing that the hour of parting was not far
+off.
+
+"I was afraid of some sudden shock," said the old woman, and she looked
+hard at me. "Shall we go out again?" she asked, smoothing back Old
+Master's white hair.
+
+"No," he said, his voice feebler than when he had spoken last. He
+motioned to her and she sat down beside him. Miss May was at the foot
+of the bed with her face buried in the covers. A few moments passed
+and he strove to talk, but the power of speech was gone. Several of
+the neighbors had come to see him, and they were admitted to the
+death-room, though the old man had passed beyond the border line of
+consciousness. His breathing grew heavier and, toward dawn, he fell
+asleep. I stood and gazed upon him with a new reverence, a strange and
+half frightened affection. The revelation did not come to me as a great
+surprise; it was as plain to me as to the reader who has followed me
+through these memoirs; but I had not permitted myself to muse upon it;
+there was always something so startling in the thought.
+
+I turned to go and Old Miss followed me down the stairs, and in the
+hall she bade me wait a moment. I stood near the door, in the gray
+light, she halting near me; and her eyes were dry.
+
+"What did he tell you?" she asked.
+
+"Madam, for mercy sake don't ask me to repeat it."
+
+"Madam!" she said bitterly. "You are drinking your freedom fast. But
+have you lost your sense of obedience, and at such a time as this?"
+
+"I would rather not tell you."
+
+"But I command you."
+
+"Then you shall know. He told me that he was my father."
+
+It seemed a long time before she spoke again. She stood looking at
+me. "You have been the humiliation and the bitterness of my life,"
+she said. "The first sight of you gave me a shudder, and never since
+then have I known a moment of peace. I brooded in a doubt worse than a
+certainty--I could not find out the truth. And but for my children I
+would have drowned myself. Yes, you have been the humiliation and the
+bitterness of my life. Now go."
+
+"Yes, I will go--But did you ever stop to reflect that while I might
+have been a humiliation and a bitterness, it was not my fault?"
+
+"I thought of nothing but my own shame and my own bitterness. Go, and I
+hope never to see you again."
+
+"Just one moment. There is something that I ought to tell you. I told
+Old Master before I went into the army. Young master did not kill Dr.
+Bates. I killed him to save my own life, and Master, knowing that they
+would hang me, took the blood upon himself."
+
+"Then you shall be tried for murder!" the old woman said. "I will go
+and have you arrested," She turned her back upon me. "Sam," she called.
+"Sam, where are you?"
+
+"Wait a moment before you send for an officer," said I. She faced me
+again, frowning. "You must know," said I, speaking as kindly as I
+could, "that you have no law to take hold of me now. The strong arm of
+the North has freed me, though I opposed it, and now it declares me the
+equal of any man before the law. It says that if I am innocent I shall
+be protected, and I am innocent. You could not have me arrested in the
+first place, and, even if you could, it would not be in good taste at
+this time. You have told me of the bitterness of your life, but I have
+not told you of the misery of mine. You--but I will charge my misery to
+nature. Good-bye, and in all truth I hope that God may bless you."
+
+I stepped out upon the portico; and--and there in the growing light
+stood Titine. My breath came with a gasp as I beheld her. She looked at
+me, looked at my tattered feet and covered her face with her hands.
+
+"Titine, I must now say good-bye forever."
+
+She looked up. There was heaven in her eyes. "No," she said. "No, you
+are not to say good-bye. I am going with you."
+
+"What!" I cried, almost choking with emotion.
+
+"I am going with you. I would rather go to perdition with you than to
+be separated from you again." She caught my hand and held it and I
+stood there trembling. "You told me of your love and now I am going
+to tell you of mine," she said. "My soul has wept over you, and in the
+night my heart has cried aloud. I am going with you."
+
+I put my arms about her, thanking God that I was alive, but almost
+unable to believe my senses. And then my condition smote me. "But I am
+a pauper, Titine. I am a penniless tramp and the dogs bark at me."
+
+"You are not a pauper," she said. "Wait a moment."
+
+She ran up the stairs and soon returned with a pocket-book.
+
+"Take it," she said, handing it to me. "I have saved it for you. And
+now, let us go away from this desolate place--away off somewhere into
+the world of freedom and love."
+
+And with my arm about her, we stepped forth into the light of a new
+day, our faces turned toward the rising sun.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I sit here to-night in my Ohio home, and I look at a portrait on the
+wall, enlarged from a powder-blackened photograph that I brought with
+me, when foot-sore and heart-heavy, I walked from Richmond to my
+desolate birth-place in Kentucky. And here beside the portrait is the
+picture of a monument and an apple-tree. I hear my daughter at the
+piano, and I hear Titine singing a mellow song of the long ago. It has
+been a night of company at my house, and some of the younger guests
+have lingered into this late hour, for the occasion is one of exceeding
+cheer. Early in the evening a committee called to inform me of what I
+knew full well, my re-election to Congress.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of My Young Master, by Opie Percival Read
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 59834 ***